silbar Reviews

The Green Mile (1999)

Lacks subtlety, needs ambiguity

[5/10 · 15 November 2002]

This movie would have appealed to me more if the miracles were not so blatently miraculous. It needed some ambiguity so it didn't require SO much suspension of belief. Why should anyone accept that a mouse can live 64 years (which might be 640 years or more for a human)?

Harvest of Fire (1996 TV Movie)

The ending soured me on the film

[31 October 2002]

I considered the first two-thirds of the film fairly interesting, as I didn't know much about Amish customs. However, the resolution of who did the barn burnings (which I won't reveal here) struck me as very false, contrived, and unbelievable.

The Mexican (2001)

Holey Malarkey!

[8 March 2002]

Yes, so full of holes that it's malarkey. We especially liked the one where Julia was handcuffed to the bedstead wearing a pantsuit, and woke up the next morning wearing a nightgown. Or a slip, who cares?

Roxanne (1987)

on "moo-ons" and top quarks

[12 December 2001]

It is indeed a funny movie. One of the unintentional funny bits is when Roxanne shows off her erudition by challenging C.D. about his knowledge of "moo-ons". And then goes on to explain that, of the six quarks, "top and bottom are the most common". The pronunciation of "muon" is "mew-on", as in the Greek letter "mu", from which the name derives. "Top" and "bottom" are actually the most rare varieties of quark, with "top" only having been discovered (experimentally) long after this movie was made.

Maybe the "moo-ons" were a premonition of the cow that came into the story later on. Of course, there were also two cats in this film, so maybe "mew-on" would have also worked.

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

way over-rated

[9 December 2001]

I agree with the person who compared this with the Emperor's New Clothes. Can't for the life of me see why my video guide gave this 4.5 stars (out of 5). Dullsville. Thankfully, not 2 hours long. Best part of the evening is that my wife quit watching after 20 minutes and returned to reading her book. I wasn't so smart.

Men... (1985)

not good dubbed into English

[11 July 2001]

The version we tried to watch was "Men", dubbed into English. We couldn't stay the course, as the speech was so stilted and unnatural. I suspect that the German language version is much better, but we may not be able to find one here in northern New Mexico.