bill-987 Reviews

Shameless (2011–2021)

They're NOT dysfunctional!

[10/10 · 31 December 2011]

Arguably my all time favorite television series. It's the story of Fiona Gallagher and the adversities she's forced to face while holding together the family which invariably looks to her, at twenty years old, to solve the problems of everyday life. The Gallaghers have unfairly been referred to as dysfunctional but their family dynamic does work, albeit just barely, because of Fiona.

Abandoned by her mother at eighteen, her father a raging alcoholic, Fiona was forced to adopt the thankless role of head of the family and performs it with fierce determination and love. An amazing cast which includes Emmy Rossem (Christine Daae) as Fiona, William H. Macy as Frank, and Joan Cusack as the agoraphobic neighbor Sheila delivers this irreverently delightful tap to your solar plexus on a regular basis.

Secretariat (2010)

Embarrassing

[1/10 · 12 February 2011]

I have a tendency to give a film the benefit of the doubt. Only twice in my life have I ever walked out of a theater in the middle of a showing and one of those times I left because I was annoyed at the girl I was seeing at the time. The only film I couldn't bear to see through to the end was an old Betsy Russell B movie I saw in junior high the name of which I hope I never recall.

Had I been in a theater rather than watching a Blu-Ray of 'Secretariat' this probably would have been my third walkout. It is a truly horrible film.

Actually I bought the disc because the film should have had a free pass straight into my short list of all time favorites. Things the film had going for it:

1. The subject matter. Secretariat was arguably the greatest racehorse of all time.

2. Casting: John Malkovich and James Cromwell are among my favorite actors and Dianne Lane has almost attained Katie Hepburn status in my personal opinion (I used to say that if I could fill out a table for five with four media celebrities they'd be Dianne Lane, George Carlin, Tim Burton, and Charles Laughton). Might have been bad chemistry but certainly worth the chance.

3. Storyline. Meadow Stables, awash with red ink in a game for only the deepest of deep pocket players, gets a new management team of Chenery, Lauren, and Turcotte after the illness of her father. This trio goes on to save the farm while accomplishing a feat never before done in racing; the winning of back-to-back Kentucky Derbys with the same owner, trainer,and jockey combo. Riva Ridge won in '72 and Secretariat in '73.

4. Timing: The movie going public was already predisposed to like the film because of the groundbreaking accomplished by the 2003 'Seabiscuit' and a number of less known (but often quite good) efforts with 'Phar Lap' in 1983, 'Ruffian' in '07, and possibly even Coppola's 'Black Stallion' back in 1979.

Disney proved, however that you really can make a sow's ear out of a silk purse. They've produced a formulaic, flat and all too often insipid retelling of what should have been a terrific story. 'Seabiscuit' often pulled at my heartstrings, 'Secretariat' attacked my gag reflex. Things I truly hated:

1. The list of anachronisms and errors (which are legion) is fairly well compiled on IMDb so I won't be redundant but some of them are so deliberate and to anyone interested in horse racing so offensive they certainly belie the movie's tag-line 'The Impossible True Story'. Better it should have been 'The Impossible To Believe This Nonsense Is Anywhere Close To The True Story'. Secretariat didn't save Meadow Stables, Riva Ridge did.

2. Kudos for the most spectacularly inappropriate use of 'Oh Happy Day' in the stretch run. That one really got to me. There was nothing religious or divine about the unusual physical anomaly which allowed a creature to be born with a pump (heart) 2 ½ times the mass typical for his species thus oxygenating his blood far more quickly.

3. I have the utmost respect for Penny Chenery but she should have clued Randall Wallace in on the fact that a camera panning the grandstands on that day in that racetrack would be hard pressed to find a bareheaded woman much less a Derby Entry owner sans hat!

The Babysitters (2007)

A lot more than I expected!

[8/10 · 15 April 2009]

I enjoy films which present the viewer with multiple threads to consider and this is certainly one of those.

1. All Men Are Pigs – Every male character in the film is portrayed in the least flattering light possible. John Leguizamo's character, arguably the most understandable, if not likable, is an indifferent father who floats along in his marriage and his affair choosing paths of least resistance every time. Even Brenda's teen brother Scott, who starts out as a shy and endearing character quickly becomes a judgmental little creep.

2. To Cheat or Not To Cheat – Michael and Gail Beltran do a poor job in addressing the problems in their marriage. Michael seems to be the partner who makes the attempt to confront their issues but it's a halfhearted attempt at best and is easily swept aside by Gail running off to an unscheduled NA meeting. No wonder when Michael strays!

3.Women Are Greedy and Backstabbing – Nadine certainly is but she's the primary one with this foible and she already seemed to present as a pampered spoiled bitch anyway! Hardly deserving of elevation to a central theme in the film!

4. If they're Old Enough To Die For their Country – How old is old enough? To me, this is the central theme of the film. Justice vs. the Rule of Law. Our society has established an often arbitrary and almost always capricious series of numerical boundaries to substitute for common sense and fairness under our law-based system. Its okay to enlist and die for one's country at 17 but you can't have a legal drink at 20. Practically every county had its own BAC limit until the federal statute was forced down everyone's throats mandating the .080 limit. It's illegal to photograph the bare buttocks of a 17-year-old but a flesh colored thong is okay on a 10-year-old. We've executed teens at 16, 17, and 18, but whether you were eligible for the death penalty depended on where you committed your crime. You can hire an 18-year-old to shoot a porn movie in your garage but pick up a 17-year-old in a bar drinking on an illegal ID and you go to prison. While I disagree with Shirley about the similarities between paid fellatio and burger flipping, I find I am loathe to condemn her efforts at earning extra college money if I am forced to use as my only basis for condemnation the potential legal consequences for her clients.

5. Don't Do Drugs - Hmmm… Maybe this is an anti-drug movie since they're portrayed as being at the root of the Beltran's marital problems as well as a primary precipitant in Brenda's breakdown and the decline and fall of the babysitters company.

Definitely worth a nod, I give it a solid '8'… almost a '9'! I do know that I'm already looking forward to Ms. Waterston's next effort.

From Here to Eternity (1953)

I Wish the Academy had a category 'worst adaptation form another medium'!

[7/10 · 3 February 2009]

I've always thought that were it not for the accident of the timing of its birth this film might today be spoken of in the same conversations which feature 'Citizen Kane'. There are some amazing performances in this classic. If this isn't the best work Clift has ever done it certainly ranks right up there with his best and I'd have to say the same thing about Donna Reed and Frank Sinatra. Although I'd have to rank "The King and I" and "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" slightly above this performance of Deborah Kerr's, I emphasize the word "Slightly".

I'd probably have to have given this work a solid 10 were it not for the studio's complete mishandling of the property. This was the era of Joe McCarthy so I suppose it's expected that everyone cut Harry Cohn some slack but I have a rough time doing that. James Jones hated this film and while I can't quite share his total contempt, I also didn't have to live through seeing one of my finest works prostituted on the altar of social expediency and misguided right-wing oppression.

This was the film which instructed me about the perfidy which occurred at Pearl Harbor. It taught me the difference between being a soldier and fighting a war. I vividly remember seeing this as a pre-teen and being confused as to what the "New Congress Club" actually was. It wasn't an ordinary night club and it wasn't a brothel. In my ignorance of censorship and general juvenile naiveté I finally concluded it was some sort of takeoff on the 'dime-a-dance' halls in cities of the time. Stupid me! Between sucking up to the Department of the Army and the 1950's censors Jones' work had been reduced to an insipid shadow of the book. At first I thought the studio would have been better off putting the screenplay on a shelf until an atmosphere prevailed which would allow the completion of the work as Jones intended but then we might have missed securing the services of this cast.

With the unwavering clarity of hindsight, perhaps it would have been better had the film been faithful to the novel. It wouldn't have been able to be released at the time so, like 'Kane', it would have sat on a studio shelf until a time when it could be properly appreciated.

West Side Story (1961)

Bernstein is perfect!

[9/10 · 6 December 2008]

Okay, I'm a sports nut. Having said that imagine a minor league pitcher with good stuff throwing a one-hitter in his first plate appearance in the bigs. His career gets a little spotty for a few years, his ERA goes up a bit, and then his team makes the World Series.

He's sent to the mound three games in a seven game series and proceeds to throw three perfect games. I can't even imagine what that must feel like. The entire rest of your career becomes irrelevant because you know that you'll never be able to duplicate what you just did, ever again!

Perhaps that what Leonard Bernstein felt. "On the Town" was a good start but after he penned "West Side Story" Bernstein could have quit had he wanted to. Einstein had his Theory of Relativity, Hawking had his "Brief History of Time", and Bernstein had:

"Jet Song", "Something's Coming", "Maria", "America", "Tonight", "Gee, Officer Krupke!", "I Feel Pretty", "One Hand, One Heart", "Quintet", "Somewhere", "Cool", "A Boy Like That/I Have a Love", Even the score behind the closing credits made you annoyed at anyone leaving the theater while it was still playing.

I'm in no way denigrating the rest of Mr. Bernstein's body of work or, for that matter, good performances by Wood, Moreno, Neymer, Tamblyn, and Chakiris. I particularly enjoyed Simon Oakland as Lieutenant Schrank.

But they're all Stockton and Malone, Barkley and Ewing, standing in Michael's shadow.

The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)

She's not Michael Jordan

[8/10 · 22 June 2008]

She's not Michael Jordan

Think of all the marvelous NBA players whose career light has been dimmed for no other good reason than the timing of their birth. Their names might trip as easily off the public's lips as Russell, Cousy, Byrd, Magic, McHale, Oscar, Wilt, the list goes on; but the volume gets turned down a little, for Stockton and Malone, Charles, Patrick and all the other great players who always lost the headlines to Michael.

I've seen it written that Gretchen Mol's career flamed out in the wake of the cover article in the 1998 Vanity Fair issue which predicted inevitable superstardom for Ms. Mol. It was later said that she had been over hyped. I disagree.

I still remember that for some time after I saw "The Devil's Advocate" in '97 or '98, I would get confused as to which actress played Mary Ann Lomax. Was it Mol or Theron? Oh yeah! Charlize Theron was the one in "2 Days in the Valley" and "Mighty Joe Young" and Gretchen Mol was in "Donnie Brasco", "Celebrity", and "Rounders".

By the time I had seen "The Thirteenth Floor" (Mol) and "Sweet November" (Theron), I pretty much had them straightened out but I still put them in the same mental file drawer. Both were highly talented, had sweet faces, similar body types, short blonde hair and so on.

Theron, though, was offered more work. I loved her as Sara Deever and as Adele Invergordon her beauty was downright intimidating.

In 2003 "Monster" was released and from that point until the handing of the Oscar itself, all of filmdom knew who the "Best Actress" award was going to. And deservedly so! Theron was Aileen Wuornos. The only way to get a more accurate understanding of what made the real Aileen Wuornos tick would be to somehow replay the digital video trapped in Selby's head. And for a major talent to make herself that physically unattractive! Unheard of!

Then in 2005 "The Notorious Bettie Page" was released. Mol's performance was extraordinary. Maybe she was standing in the shadow of Ms. Theron. It was like the ballroom for the victory celebration for the losing Presidential candidate, nobody came and nobody cared. It was viewed as a continuation of an old tale, once promising actress with a declining career does a nudie part in a "B" movie. Ho hum! No, no, no! Wrong! No matter what you may think of the film (and I enjoy films about the fifties) if you pass on this one you'll be missing one of the better performances of that year. Ms. Moll was every bit as much Bettie as Ms. Theron was Aileen. Unfortunately Aileen, to the film-going public, is the more sympathetic character. For whatever reason, an amoral, sociopathic killer is less embarrassing to us than a naïve, unsophisticated, uninhibited, religious girl whose most capital crime was to live her life totally trusting and completely exposed. Bettie Page was one of the icons of the fifties. Her photos and films never sexual, never pornographic, but she presented as a near caricature of all things kinky. There was no sense of realism, only parody. Ms. Moll captured the very essence of the character. She gained 20 pounds to add some zaftig to her normally slim figure and when she posed for various photographers in the film, her body was Bettie's. Her full frontal lack of any inhibitions accurately fits everything which has been published about Bettie. Cinematic nudity normally depicts eroticism or sexuality. In this film it's all about innocence. Seeing Gretchen/Bettie nude didn't make me want to jump her but instilled a desire to protect her from all the horrors that people can inflict on each other. If you pass on this film you'll be missing out on one of the best performances of recent years. By the way, shame on the MPAA for giving this an R rating.

The Big Town (1987)

"You're good, kid, but as long as I'm around you're second best. You might as well learn to live with it." Lansey Howard

[5/10 · 3 June 2007]

I could easily have imagined that this film was a hastily slapped together attempt to capitalize on the success of the "Cincinnati Kid". Grab a bunch of talent the likes of Dianne Lane, Tommy Lee Jones, Matt Dillon, and Bruce Dern, and Tom Skerritt, take away the card table and substitute a crap table and go collect your receipts. The only problems with this scenario are that the films are 22 years apart and that this a poorly slapped together effort. Oh yeah, and they're both remakes of a true classic. I suppose you could say the concept was used one other time between "Kid" and "Big Town" with "The Color of Money", but I categorize that as a sequel.

It's the story of a young gambler (Newman – McQueen – Dillon) whose prodigious talent motivates his departure from small town small time to take on the best members of their calling. He risks losing his loyal true love (Laurie – Weld – Amis) in the pursuit of his dream, falls into the clutches of an evil influence (Scott – Ann-Margret – Lane), and learns a lesson from the older, wiser (Gleason – Robinson – Skerritt) whatever.

Out front I must confess that Dianne Lane is one of my all time favorite actresses although I don't always like all her roles. In this film, however, she is the perfect amoral opportunistic little whore. In "Cincinnati" Edward G. Robinson's Lancey Howard comes very close to equaling Jackie Gleason's performance as Minnesota Fats, but Gleason's is simply perfect.

I'm sure I'll see this film again just to see a 22 year-old Lane naked, and I'm a big Steve McQueen fan, but I'll take "The Hustler" every time.

Sabrina (1995)

"I didn't teach you this."

[10/10 · 1 May 2007]

I can't ever remember opining that a remake of any film ever made improved upon the original. The closest I can recall to this unprecedented phenomenon might apply to a sequel as opposed to a remake. (Many thought that Godfather II improved upon the original.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Billy Wilder fan and if judgment were to be made by simply comparing his directorial product with that of Sydney Pollack, I'd have to give Wilder the nod. Likewise as effective as Greg Kinnear is in the role of David, he's up against Bill Holden being Bill Holden, seducing the camera as effectively as he did Miss Hepburn in real life.

I suppose it's controversial to favorably compare Harrison Ford with Bogie but so be it; Ford wins the Linus Larrabee contest and Lauren Holly gets more out of the small role of Elizabeth Tyson than Martha ever dreamed. She gives more insight into the personality of the bride-to-be with an arched eyebrow than Miss Hyer could have with another 100 words of dialogue.

John Williams wins a close photo finish against John Wood in the Tom Fairchild 'Stakes while on the same card Dana Ivey delivers a ten length rout over Ellen Corby as Linus' assistant Miss McCardle (Mack). As I sit here and type I still can't help but smile over her performance as Linus instructs Mack to acquire tickets for whichever Broadway show no one can tickets for: Mack: For Whom?

Linus: Me.

Linus: I know, I seldom go to the theater.

Mack: Seldom?

Linus: Okay, I'm not a theater buff!

Mack: Buff?

Linus: grunts

Mack: The most difficult tickets will be for a Broadway musical.

Linus: Okay

Mack: That means that the actors periodically will dance about and burst into song.

…and when she refers to rummaging around in Linus' underwear drawer as being "like touching the Shroud of Turin"…

Hepburn's performance in the title role is close to flawless as she has ever delivered, and she's delivered more than a few monster efforts so I have to favor her, but I find myself loathe to deny the heat Julia Ormond generates in every scene with Ford.

But in the final analysis I'm going to cast my vote for the 1995 version because of a script rewrite/casting decision. Walter Hampden's performance as Oliver Larrabee could very well be unimpeachable, so the 1995 production eliminated his part entirely and built up Nella Walker's part as Maude Larrabee and cast Nancy Marchand in the role. She's absolutely wonderful! As much as Holden was playing an all too familiar role, Marchand may have just re-donned the old shoes she wore for 114 episodes as Margaret Pynchon. No matter, she's right on the money as the matriarch of the Larrabee clan. Her ability to portray a woman who comfortably wear the mantle of power has, in my mind, never been in question. Even when Marchand was losing her final battle with cancer, Livia Soprano the puppeteer was still exercising control over the members of her family. We lost a great character actor when she died. Final score? 1954 – 8, 1995 – 10. A wonderful film.

V for Vendetta (2005)

I assume (with all the attendant baggage that word implies)

[10/10 · 9 March 2007]

I assume… (with all the attendant baggage that word implies), that Natalie Portman's shaved head was the inspiration for Britney's romp with Kevin and shears. Alas, dear Britney but Natalie arising from a sewer with shaved head and a tank top is lovelier than you have ever been with your finest make-up, coif, and designer togs. You just can't get there from where you're starting. Miss Portman also has profound talent; a possession Miss Spears can only dream about. (I'll bet you didn't think it possible to use talent, Portman, and Spears in the same sentence!) "V" vaults past veritably every previous offering and cinematoonically vests itself as the video version of "1984". If they had any sense the executive board of the NRA would adopt this film as their own. The greatest reason for an armed citizenry is to protect itself from it's own government. The only difference between Guy Fawkes on the one hand and Nathan Hale and Patrick Henry on the other is that their side won (you've of course noticed how interchangeable the terms "freedom fighter" and "terrorist" are in virtually every situation).

A rating? A vehemently vocalized "10"!

Match Point (2005)

8/10 Great film, 100% SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!!!!!

[8/10 · 30 December 2006]

I really enjoyed this film but the first time I watched it I found myself turning it off in the middle (an almost unheard of act) and completing my evening re watching 'The Duel' (the first tale in the Hornblower miniseries). The following day I reflected on my actions and with much introspection came to the conclusion that the reason I had turned it off at the point I realized the inevitability of the murder was because I was inwardly revolted by what was about to happen.

I watched the film through to it's end at 4 AM the next morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was not upset that Chris Wilton had gotten away with a double murder. I was not upset that the totally innocent neighbor was killed as 'collateral damage'. I wasn't even upset over the concept of a man using murder to solve a domestic problem (I can think of a number of people whose spouses should be held justified and therefore blameless for their murders).

What I discovered was that I had so objectified either Scarlett Johansson or Nola Rice (I'm not sure which) that my mind had rebelled at what it saw as an act of ultimate evil; the wasting of an absolute babe. The act had apparently so horrified me that I ran to one of my icons of purity and goodness; the character of the 17-year-old midshipman Horatio Hornblower.

Go figure!

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Robbery, pure and simple!

[10/10 · 3 October 2006]

Let's get this one downer out of the way first. That Ellen Burstyn lost the Best Actress Award was a horrible travesty. That she lost it to an above average actress in a marginally average film about an incident of below average interest actually takes a little of the sting out because it demonstrates the political b-s- which is the Academy's voting process. Burstyn delivers the performance of her career as Sara Goldfarb, an older woman whose loneliness drives her to a dependence on diet pills. Had Burstyn won the award I'd probably be complaining about the inadequacy of the honor.

I don't believe in the concept of any artwork being 'definitive' of its style or subject matter…but this one comes pretty close. I can't think of any other film about drug addiction which deserves to be in the same conversation with "Requiem". It's depressing, horrible, tragic, powerful, and intensely compelling.

I really want to avoid including anything which smacks of a 'spoiler' and might lessen the power of the rabbit punch a new viewer will inevitably receive but I can't help returning to Miss Burstyn's performance. My first reaction was to feel for the tragic young lovers Harry and Marion but their plight was really of their own making. Sara just wanted to be popular. She wanted to be on TV and be envied by her friends. She wanted to turn back the clock and fit into her best red dress. I know, I know, the doctor's prescription for amphetamines flies in the face of common sense and gives us a convenient heavy, but it in no way diminishes what Miss Burstyn did with the character.

There should be lots of other kudos attached to this film; Jennifer Connelly's delivered her best ever, as has Wayans, Leto, and Darren Aronofsky and Hubert Selby, Jr. put a lot of love into this screenplay. Selby's hands on to the point of living on the set and acting in a minor role.

Films are supposed to entertain us. For many of us the surest way to entertain is to evoke strong emotion. If this film can't make you feel, you've 'accidentally discorporated' (Heinlein) and haven't noticed yet. Ten stars!

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Tiffany's may have gotten top billing, but The City won my heart

[10/10 · 30 September 2006]

I originally saw this film as a teenager in Massachusetts and mistakenly thought that I'd fallen in love with Audrey Hepburn as a direct result of having seen it. Miss Hepburn does an excellent job portraying Holly Golightly, a flighty emotionally distant New York party girl looking for one of the 'fifty richest' men in the country. George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Ebsen, and Martin Balsam also turn in creditable performances but the real star of this 1961 production, the star I really fell in love with way back then, is the City of New York.

Blake Edwards, Truman Capote, George Axelrod, and especially Henry Mancini's score have combined to give us a tribute honoring the universally agreed upon greatest city on the face of the earth (except by those poor misguided parochials who jealously defend the honor of other places).

New York is where I'd live if I could afford it. I'd keep a helicopter handy on the west side to whisk me periodically to my country horse farm, but The City would always beckon me back. I once saw a real estate broker interviewed during the early 80's real estate recession. He described himself as being a seller of single family homes in Manhattan only. He commented that his clients were 'wealthy people, not your typical guy who walks in off the street earning five or six hundred thousand, I mean wealthy people!' Oh sure, the film's producers gave the old girl a few coats of make-up. The alley in which Holly finds Cat looks as clean as my kitchen (looking out there as I type I can attest to that statement's truth…messy but clean). They also made the camera angle show some of her best features. The section of Fifth Avenue in front of Tiffany's scans a little better than the DVD shops on Eighth. But it's still The City, The Garden, The Park, The Battery, The Village, East side, West side, all around the town…The City.

Tell someone in Atlanta that you're going to see the Who play the Garden and he'll probably know where you're going. Tell someone from Omaha that you're going to visit a friend who was just made Vice President of a prestigious Advertising House and you'll be staying at her apartment in The Village…she'll probably know.

I give the film a ten. Tiffany's may have gotten top billing, but The City won my heart.

Immoral Tales (1973)

I'd rather watch Debbie...or Miss Elizabeth Bennet for that matter!

[5/10 · 30 September 2006]

Four erotic tales, three set as period pieces, the fourth (actually the first episode in the film) is set in the present day. A young man researches and puts into action a plot to trap his 16-year-old female cousin into giving him head by isolating her on a stretch of beach cut off by the ocean at high tide. The problems are several. The girl obviously doesn't need to be trapped and is more than willing to explore her own sexuality so the cousin's plot is completely unnecessary. She also demonstrates that she's a good swimmer, so she isn't really trapped. He also seems to be kind of short sighted since Borowczyk's cuts from close ups of the girl's face to her vagina demonstrate her curiosity at his limited objectives. Silly really.

'Therese Philosophe' concerns a pious girl punished for something by being locked in her bedroom "for three days", she seems intent on biding her time putting a cucumber to a non-digestive use while reading. This was the most disappointing episode for me because the only reason I tracked down and bought the DVD was because I saw the wonderful erotic potential of Charlotte Alexandra in "Une vraie jeune fille". She's wasted here.

'Erzsebet Bathory' is a sixteenth-century countess who travels to various villages setting up job fairs to recruit young girls into service in her household. Her pitch is that she pays more than the king. That her recruiters have to drag the young girls from their homes kicking and screaming might bear testament to the fact that none of her previous 'employees' were ever seen again. She also seems to have bizarre bathing habits.

'Lucrezia Borgia' chronicles Pope Alexander VI's pursuit of family values by swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool with his daughter Lucrezia and her brother Cesare. Everyone lives happily ever after (except that heretic Savonarola). This was actually the most erotic of the four, but I'd rather watch Debbie do anybody...or Miss Elizabeth Bennet for that matter!

The only thing noteworthy about this film is that supposedly it was the first porn flic to rise above the miasma onto the radar screens of the mainstream media. Actually I would have guessed that that distinction would have fallen to a Radly Metzger film, but my love of baseball statistics and trivia doesn't extend to porn films so I won't bother to look it up.

Horatio Hornblower: The Duel (1998 TV Movie)

An Officer and a Gentleman

[10/10 · 10 January 2006]

I'm quite sure Forester would have approved.

I think that almost any novel (or series of novels) which achieves 'favorite' status is at a competitive disadvantage when turned into a film. The most notable exceptions are works written, either consciously or not, with a screenplay in mind (I'm convinced Michael Crichton ONLY writes screenplays).

I think it safe to assume that C. S. Forester was not writing with the screen, either large or small, in mind so I have to say that this series is hands down the best series of films (they're not really a miniseries because they're not really interdependent) ever produced from another media.

The series is well paced, the characters well developed and wonderfully cast, the action scenes excellently shot, but to my way of thinking the series best feature is the development and maturation of the character of Hornblower himself..

I've always been a fan of 'coming of age' films (my all time favorite – A Bronx Tale), but to watch the growing relationships which Hornblower develops with Mathews, Styles, Captain Foster, Taping, and particularly with Captain/Admiral Sir Edward Pellew is truly a joy.

Ioan Gruffudd's portrayal produces an honorable man, a character which every guy should secretly want to be and which every woman should want to hook up with. This series is a 'must have' for every film library. Ten stars!

Mulholland Falls (1996)

Justice and Jennifer

[8/10 · 9 January 2006]

In a society built on the rule of law such as ours, we are constantly shown examples of evildoers who beat the system and continue to prey on the rest of us. They use the law to their advantage and dishearten most of those who go through life playing by the rules. A convicted rapist who breaks into a woman's house can sue her if he sustains an injury slipping on an errant throw-rug on his way to her bedroom.

Mulholland Falls is about four Los Angeles cops who constitute a special task force whose mission is the dispensation of justice regardless of whether that dispensation runs counter to the law. Mob types, pedophiles, and murderers beware, this L. A. isn't your kinda town! The excellent cast extends far beyond the principal actors down to a wonderful uncredited minor role played by Academy Award winning Louise Fletcher as a sardonic staff member at LAPD headquarters. Chaz Palminteri is simply superb as Nick Nolte's loyal and devoted side kick on the force. John Malkovich delivers his usual strong performance as the terminally ill Chairman of the AEC. Treat Williams is the perfect zealot in charge of base security for the Army,

and Jennifer be here!

Jennifer Connelly consistently belies the oft-held misconception that extraordinary beauty and profound talent must be mutually exclusive. Her portrayal as the party girl victim combines gut wrenching eye candy with a typically powerful and sensitive performance which ranks up there with 'Requiem for a Dream' and 'Beautiful Mind'.

Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)

The Opposite of Pleasantville

[9/10 · 25 October 2005]

Did you ever notice that if you were to show a film to after dinner friends, all too often what you bring out is a work that might not make a list of your personal top ten favorite movies? This is one of those films. Very postwar early 50's, but a 1950's Donna Reed would have been lost in. It truly is the opposite of Pleasantville.

Hubert Selby's dark vision of the common man is woven around several characters in a Brooklyn neighborhood. A factory worker called Big Joe is played by Burt Young. Instinctively brutal yet pathetically naive, he wanders through his Brooklyn neighborhood functioning at the most elemental level reinforced only by an inherited value system to which he is single-mindedly loyal. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a whore whose timeline for thoughts of her future stretches out only several hours. She gets by in life rolling drunks whose tolerance for liquor is less than hers, or giving sex to those who outlast her. A soldier soon to be shipped out takes her to Manhattan for his last few stateside days and falls in love with her. Tralala (Leigh's character) recognizes the attendant lust but has no clue about the implications of his love. As she sees him off, the Lieutenant hands her an envelope. Tra's face lights up as her vision of the order in life (she gives him sex, he has a good time, he gives her money) seems to have been reaffirmed. When the envelope turns out to contain a lengthy love letter she doesn't become angry or disappointed, just confused.

In addition to Leigh and Young, powerful performances are turned in by Jerry Orbach (the corrupt union boss), Stephen Lang (the closet homosexual strike-line foreman), Stephen Baldwin (a street punk), Ricki Lake (Big Joe's very pregnant daughter), and Alexis Arquette (the teen-age transvestite).

The soundtrack is excellent and unobtrusive and Uli Edel's direction insightful. You need a strong stomach to watch it and quite a bit of dedication to find it, but it's well worth the effort.