Change Your Image
lancekoz55-1
Reviews
Un homme amoureux (1987)
Take it for what it is...
People seem to have odd reactions to this.... maybe because it is very European in mood and style, maybe because it is somewhat sexy, it draws strong reactions about what it is and isn't.
I like it because of the scenery, it's international Jet Set flavor, and it indulges a fantasy of a lifestyle where an actor gets to be in beautiful places and have affairs with beautiful women. When I saw it as a younger man, it was appealing. It doesn't work out well and gets sad for the parties involved, and that's a real possibility too. That's a lesson many of us learn for ourselves in life.
We have to mention a big part of the appeal here is the romantic draw of beautiful Greta... this movie supplies some scenes that are tastefully done and she is at her lovely peak at this time. No big news... many movie viewers follow a given star who has an appeal that seems to suit us in a particular way... and love to linger in a daydream there. Greta, in her sophisticated and sleepy-eyed beauty does this for me. But even besides that, it's an interesting enough film to deserve a seven.
Love and Death on Long Island (1997)
A slow-burn character study....
I recently re-saw this some years after my first viewing, and in spite of its humble mission and budget, it's still arresting and touching. A mere plot summary does not do justice to the excellent acting, the thoughtful details and dry British wit that bubbles throughout. I highly recommend it to anyone who cares about stories based on clever scripts, great acting and real characters... and especially if you value the stories of the closeted gays who lived among us.
I would give it a 9 or 10 if it did not provide some strange side trip details that don't add much except minutes to the consistency of the whole. Small complaint for a strong movie. Impress your friends/lovers with this one, almost no one has seen it in the States, I bet.
Spanglish (2004)
As many comic films do....
This movie starts out fresh with all sorts of charm and clever writing... but turns into something else altogether after mid-point. The dreary situation of Sandler's marriage and attraction to Vega causes him to mostly... sit there and mumble. The drinking scene in the restaurant is just slow and thinly written. The interactions of the two families involved is fun and touching... and that part alone is good enough for me to rate it well. After awhile, though, the writer just seemed to run low on plot. I've seen this happen in a lot of comedies... writers seem to always want to make material DEEP or be sure they've punched the 'cry' button. If it stayed light and was shorter... it would have been tighter and more entertaining all around.
Pillow Talk (1959)
One of the best of its type..
I am not usually charmed by Classic Hollywood rom-coms, but this one has enough fun elements, pleasing sets, costumes and characters to keep me returning as a nice guilty pleasure for a rainy afternoon. Sexist and with some definite pointless plot motivations, still the charm of the clueless Hudson and the determined but gullible Day make it through. Also, there's enough of a fun feel of NY City and fashion in the Sixties that there's plenty of eye-candy for a fan of retro-design like myself. The addition of Tony Randall and his quips are quite funny too. Like I said, I find many of the other Hollywood 'romances' of this era get tedious and have dreary scripts where long scenes are acted out in one room (more like a radio play). This is a cinematic step above that.
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Seems to be made for a whole different audience...maybe
This sequel is absolutely no more than a tenth as amusing as the original. The lighthearted charm of spoofing the early Bond movies is not nearly as evident here. Instead, it is full of disgusting body 'humor', made up of showing and implying the ugliness of obesity and all matters concerning what goes in or may come out of the anus. Short visuals that might generate a laugh are on screen way too long. Even the 'mini-Me', a cute concept, just becomes a dreary, hyperactive ass joke at one point. All of which makes me wonder, who is the audience for this? The humor is slanted toward maybe 12 yr old boys, who would be way too young to care about the concept of a Bond James spoof in the first place. And imho, it's way too filthy and sexually oriented for them.
The Pentagon Wars (1998)
Arresting, but strangely carried out....
This film starts with clues that it is to be a comedy....a light piano score that seems to indicate irony, closeups of Grammar's dryly funny testimony done with rosy light and all the settings a bit overly prettified. But yet, nothing particularly funny is happening. When Burton first reports to Partridge, his new high-level boss, there is a quick-moving monologue about the state of the recent projects from Grammar, and the whole thing seems to teeter on a joke about to happen, i.e. a contrasting quip from Burton, or a blow up by Grammar's character, but it never does.
A little farther in, the film slows based on rather pedantic details, and everything discussed is deadly serious, including the plight of whistle-blowers in the military industrial complex. It was all interesting and viable enough to keep me watching, but I found myself wishing I was watching a documentary if this is a true story, OR a more serious docu-drama like the recent telling of the tobacco industry (The Insider), OR a quicker moving, slightly more absurd comedy with satiric bite (which is how the film looks, art-direction wise). That's a wide range of tone that would make it more enjoyable, but somehow the writing and look of this tip-toes between all of that and never commits to any of it.
This is not to say it isn't interesting, but it does mean that a potential for a more important or entertaining movie was missed. The material is smart enough and thorough enough, it hurts to see this pootential wasted by a near-miss.