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Orson-1
Reviews
In a Lonely Place (1950)
Much overpraised
Like many 50's films these days, all Hitchcock for example, this film's reputation, for some reason, has overshot reality.
Sunset Boulevard, released in the same year, is a much better film.
It doesn't go out of its way to be different for difference's sake, as this does. Lonely Place is less than the sum of it's parts and the parts ain't very good.
A slightly better than average film.
I would suggest watching Beat The Devil right afterward to get this film's turgid taste out of your mind.
The Joey+Rory Show (2012)
A warm and wonderful show
I stumbled upon this show after recording the old Jimmy Dean Show and not being much of a country fan I gave it a couple of minutes and simply could not stop watching. They are a great couple, Jason Mathews was on singing For Pete's Sake, a tear inducing song about a dog and the whole show was as satisfying as can be. It is very sad that Joey died not long after. But it's great that she, they, and the show can still be seen. An unashamedly "square" and wonderful show.
Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967)
Laughably bad script - the worst
Apparently mass hysteria is the norm.
Vertigo is now the greatest film and this inane childish episode of Star Trek is thought to be one of the best.
Suffice to say that this is late grade school level writing with a ridiculous plot, absurd dialog and one-dimensional characters plus the absurd casting of the British - accented and five times too glamorous Joan Collins as an American relief worker.
From McCoy inexplicably having 100 times the normal dose in his syringe ( so he can conveniently OD ) to Joan Collins walking zombie - like in front of a car ( to conveniently correct history of which she conveniently is a major player ) this episode is simply ridiculous. Not Star Trek ridiculous, not even Lost in Space ridiculous, but in the entire history of TV ridiculous.
Believe none of the mass clone - like thinking. This is idiot level science fiction from the often over - praised Harlan Ellison.
We have apparently dumbed - down art, entertainment and just about everything so dreck is acceptable, even praised.
Watch it and be prepared to say "Are you kidding" about 100 times.
National Velvet (1944)
One of the two great horse films
ccmovieman-1 must be, as the reviewer in the New York Times who preferred the Janis Joplin Big Brother and the Holding Company album to the just released Beatles'"White" album was called, either evil or insane. National Velvet is a great film. Elizabeth Taylor's performance is fantastic, and I fail to discern even a trace of accent, much less too much of one. Her performance is very natural, authentic and unbelievably charming. The rest of the cast is superb, especially Rooney and Revere.
As far as the dialog being hokey or sentimental, I suggest cc has dined too long on a diet of irony and has lost the ability to discern genuine straight-forward emotion and human interaction. There was a time when people actually did think and talk in such a manner. Not that this film doesn't have a slight hint of the magical permeating through it. That is the reason to tell the story. One might as well criticize the Wizard of Oz, King Kong, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Black Stallion ( the other great horse film ) or a thousand other films for having action and dialog that seem richer than real life. No my friend, National Velvet endures because of its belief firmly in itself, with tongue firmly not in cheek. Something today's jaded filmmakers find nearly impossible to recreate.
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Superlative
With The Magnificent Ambersons Welles's completes the greatest one-two punch in cinema history, the only other contender being The Godfather's I and II. At first, the film can be seen as a fairly straight-forward rendering of unrequited love and the dissipation of an American family. However, the story and execution is so dense the viewer has to see the film numerous times to catch all the subtlety, innuendo and profoundity that exists in this Greek tragedy come-to-America.
Each scene propels the story forward at a volcanic pace while beguiling the senses with complex, often overlapping dialog and images that at times seem to have been created by such masters of photography as Lartigue and Steichen. At once reverential to the elegant beauty of the past while dooming those who live in it, Amberson's creates in the viewer a nostalgia for a time no living person has experienced yet the motivations of the characters apply to life today, tomorrow and always, as long as lust, vanity, greed and selfishness exist in the human condition.
My personal nomination for the villain of the work would be Isabelle Anderson whose concern for propriety and willingness to indulge her son even at the expense of her own happiness dooms her to death and the family to destruction. The road to Hell is indeed paved with good intentions.
Like the Venus de Milo or Da Vinci's Last Supper this masterpiece not only is awe-inspiring in it's present state but benefits from "what might have been". Such discussion is useless and unnecessary. Amberson's stands as a towering achievement in all it's elegant and fractured beauty.
Raging Bull (1980)
Overrated in the extreme
Absolutely the most overrated film of the century, with the possible exception of "Giant" and "Manhattan", but no one mentions those much anymore. Not only NOT the greatest film of the 80's, it's not even close to being the greatest SCORSESE film of the decade. "Last Temptation", "King of Comedy" and "Color of Money" all are vastly superior. A self-indulgent, overlong and inexcusably boring trip through art-town cinema. To make LaMotta's life a snooze took some doing. "Champion", "Somebody Up There Like Me" and even the heavy-handed "Harder They Fall" and "Requiem for a Heavyweight" are better and infinitely more watchable.