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drwam
Reviews
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Overstuffed
There are some great bits in the film but this is not a good film. They have taken some of the best talent on the MGM lot at its zenith and produced a long, meandering, hugely inconsistent film with no pacing and no plot. The worst offense is....no charm. It is all a huge waste of fabulous production values and many talented contributors. I think a significant part of the lack of charm is the way MGM handled Mr. Sinatra. Frank was not the kind of white bread handsome hunk who gets the girl in an MGM picture. So they have him end up with a more comic or ethnic type better suited to "his kind." They did it in this picture and in several others. Considering Mr. Sinatra's well documented appeal to women, the joke, in the long run, was on Mr. Mayer and his minions.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
People were right at the time.
This film was considered a dud at the time of release. In the years since, I have heard people praise it, including Christopher Nolan. So I rented it and I can only say that folks had it right in 1969. Now, there are good elements to this film. Telly Savalas is a fine villain. Diana Rigg is wonderful in her turn as a Mrs. Bond. The action sequences are a lot of fun. Mr. Lazenby is another matter, however. He is stiff and unconvincing. Every time he is on the screen with Rigg, it is amazing how bad he looks in comparison. The plot and pacing is screwy. We meet Mr. and Mrs Bond to be and then James goes off to Switzerland by himself. He gets involved in a plot which takes far too long to be revealed and involves an annoying collection of Zombie Bimbos with Allergies. Sounds stupid and it is stupid. Once the action and the ski chase gets going, things are better, until Mr. Lazenby has another line to deliver. I can see what those who favor this film are getting at. There is a lot less camp than in many of the other films. But this isn't enough to make up for a leading man who stinks it up.
It Happened One Christmas (1977)
What a waste
At the time, Ms. Thomas stated that she undertook this pointless remake of a classic as a way of showing that women could be as valuable as men. That point had been proved in 1946 by a woman named Frances Goodrich who coauthored the original screenplay with a man named Albert Hackett. That was a wonderful screenplay and it showed how the value of women is proved by original creative output not by pallid hackwork like "It Happened one Christmas." I really wish Ms. Thomas had spent her considerable resources and the considerable talents of her cast on something original. They had nothing to add but to switch the male and female leads. Curiously, Ms. Thomas did not switch genders in casting Mr. Welles in the Lionel Barrymore role as the evil Mr. Potter. Evidently, Ms. Thomas belief in the potential of women does not extend to villainy. Pity.
Ordinary People (1980)
Horrible, Trite
This is one of the worst films to ever win a Best Picture Oscar. And the next time you are wondering how Marty Scorcese failed to win Best Director for Raging Bull, reflect on the fact he lost to Redford for his work on this film. People often point out how Citizen Kane did not get best picture in 1941 as an example of an Oscar injustice. However, the 1941 winner was How Green Was My Valley, which is also a great film by a great director. For my money, for a great director/film like Scorcese/Raging Bull to lose to something that is wholly unwatchable---that represented a new height in injustice. That is a pinnacle of bad judgment I thought would be unsurpassed forever. But then, unaccountably, the Academy decided that Clint Eastwood was a great director.... But that is another rant.
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Pastiche
According to the distinguished "experts" at the American Film Institute, this is one of the top 25 musicals of all time. The film is a showy pastiche of musical snippets from a variety of sources. The performances have little life to them and absolutely no emotional depth. However, it is one of the few musicals produced at all in the past couple of decades. Since the AFI "experts" seem to have only a superficial knowledge of films prior to 1960, this gets the film in the top 25. A similar pattern of temporal bias afflicts most of the other AFI lists. For that substantial number of you who voted this film a "10", please let do not allow my opinion to alter your enjoyment or your reality distortion field.