Laurel and Hardy, the world's most famous comedy duo, attempt to
reignite their film careers as they embark on what becomes their swan
song.
A melancholy, at times even sad rendering of the duo's final tour together projects the Laurel & Hardy antagonism that worked so well for their comedy onto the their true-life relationship; very well made with good period detail, and Coogan and Reilly are nearly perfect personifying Stan and Ollie.
A man who escorts wealthy widows in New York's Upper East Side takes a young aspiring playwright under his wing.
Likable , slightly humorous tale centered on some genuinely eccentric NY characters; the excellent make it all believable.
Maltin***: "A valentine to the oddballs who make N.Y.C. unique, focusing on two men who live out of their time. Kline and Dano are simply perfect as a retrograde roue'..."
In 1850s Oregon, the infamous duo of assassins, Eli and Charlie Sisters, chase a gold prospector and his unexpected ally.
Excellently directed Western drama skillfully balances violent incidents with humorous passages and convinces with grandiose cinematography, period detail and, especially, the performances of the leading men.
In a dystopian near future, single people, according to the laws of The
City, are taken to The Hotel,
where they are obliged to find a romantic
partner in forty-five days or are transformed into beasts and sent off
into The Woods.
Ambitious, absurdist satire has a great cast and some good surreal moments, but lacks any discernible humor, and it's unclear what it tries to convey; one despairs at the thought, what Buñuel would have made with its premise.
During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.
A horrific crime is given an upright, but a bit homespun treatment as a Hollywood melodrama; nevertheless, there are memorable moments and some excellent performances.
Halliwell*: "Simple minded, melodramatic account of a true incident."
Maltin**: "As the Voice of Reason, Fox is well cast, but his clean-cut decency gets to be a bit much; Penn and Thu Le...are more effective. For all its good intentions, film has a jumbled, detached feel to it..."
Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the
increasingly vicious things he says and does as he grows up, but Kevin
is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything
anyone imagined.
Half character study, half Bad Seed horror movie, the tale is slowly revealed through a complex patchwork of flashbacks and offers an intense performance by Tilda Swinton.
Maltin**: "Swinton delivers a deeply felt performance...Miller is chilling as the adolescent boy. Knowing where the story is headed makes watching this flashback-laden film a torturous experience, though it was highly praised by many critics and moviegoers."
A group of intergalactic criminals are forced to work together to stop a fanatical warrior from taking control of the universe.
Basically another sci-fi actioner with a motley crew of superheroes and good effects, but made more likable by adding some humor; however, the raccoon steals the show.
In the Fall of 1991, the "Andrea Gail" left Gloucester, Mass. and headed
for the fishing grounds of the North Atlantic. Two weeks later, an
event took place that had never occurred in recorded history: a giant
storm.
The story is told presenting the crew of the ship as simple fisherman
who become heroes. But the only true hero in this movie is the storm.
On second viewing: it's watchable mostly for the storm scenes.
Halliwell*: "There are some astonishing visual moments here - notably the small boat attemting to climb an impossibly high wave - but the crew members, each equpiied with a personal crisis to fill in the gaps between the waves, are no more than stereotypes so that their elemental struggle remains uninvolving."
Maltin**1/2: "...drenched with special effects and noisy, exciting seagoing action, but its characters and story points are bathed in cliche'."
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