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Reviews
Great Expectations (1946)
Excellently Realised
This is a very enjoyable film which follows the novel pretty well.
I found the recreation of Victorian England very well done, especially the scenes in Pip's London apartments and Jaggers' offices. The outdoor scenes on the marshes are wonderful and show the strength of black and white in those cases.
John Mills grated a little for me, but that's probably just a personal preference and I could never see the attraction in Bernard Miles.
All-in-all well worth a viewing.
State of the Union (1948)
OK, Not Great
Maybe it's me, but I couldn't really like this film.
Tracy and Hepburn are usually very watchable, and Tracy's performance here is good, if limited by the amount of work he has to do. I thought Hepburn was miscast and missed her usual repartee that we have seen in her other films.
A personal dislike of mine is the sort of wise-cracking, cynical guy played by Van Johnson. Again, I normally enjoy his work, but this sort of character often employed in this type of film from the 40s and 50s (see Kip Lurie in "Adam's Rib") I find becomes very wearing very quickly.
Angela Lansbury is and looks good in a role that foreshadows her role in "The Manchurian Candidate". She is a plus.
I felt the plot was also pretty weak, tough it does show that nothing much has changed in US politics it seems.
Dressed to Kill (1980)
Absolute Garbage
Sorry, a blunt title, but that is how I reacted to this.
From beginning to end I was either bored, not engaged with the characters, or irritated by any number of things (soft focus, music). Dickinson was too old for her role and the first part of her faffing around domestically, going to the art museum (Lord save us!) and in flagrante delicto in the taxi almost sent me to sleep.
Maybe this film is just not right for me. I liked "Obsession", so I find De Palma's work OK.
Not worth bothering with, in my opinion.
Still of the Night (1982)
Enjoyable
OK, so it's no Vertigo, but I enjoyed this homage to the Hitchcock genre.
Multiple references to Hitchcock's work. Some are obvious (a blonde, a suspenseful auction) some enjoyably less so (a stuffed bird, and the house that is in Glen Cove). It's fun to pick them out.
An atmospheric and suspenseful story, which holds interest. Streep is beautiful and plays the brittleness of her character very well I thought. Scheider is his usual dependable self.
Overall, I think a tad underrated and well worth a spare ninety minutes.
The Satan Bug (1965)
Enjoyable, But Perhaps...?
I enjoyed The Satan Bug.
The 60s milieu is very attractive, desert locations, the film's premise, Anne Francis looking particularly lovely...
The plot is a little difficult to follow unless one pays close attention to the dialogue, for example the murder of Dr. Ostrer. Also, why are the guard dogs trained not to bark?
But I did wonder could not a lot of this malarkey have been avoided if the flasks were robust enough so that they could not be crushed with just "four and a half pounds of pressure"?
Good film for those who enjoy this type of 60s hokum.
Ripley's Game (2002)
OK - But only one good performance out of four
I enjoyed this film, but only in parts.
John Malkovich makes an excellent psychopath (as always!) and at the same time conveys that sense of suaveness and sophistication that Highsmith gave Ripley in the book. He also manages to get across the ambiguity between coldness and sympathy which is key in this film.
But, the rest of the film is less inspiring. We have three other main characters: Trevanny, Tervanny's wife and Reeves Minot. Dougreay Scott as Trevanny seemed wooden and somewhat out of his depth in the part. Lena Headey's acting was more suited to a soap opera and personally I found her completely unconvincing.
Ray Winstone turned in his standard East-end cockney gangster performance - liberally sprinkled with expletives. I had two problems here: this take on the character seemed out of place in Ripley's milieu (I could not believe he would have been involved with such a "common" person); I think Winstone could have been directed to produce something more inspiring. It seemed to me a more sophisticated villain would have been more appropriate.
On the other hand, the locations are mostly beautiful and the story is of course good, being lifted for the most part from Highsmith's novel. So, an OK film, but one which might have been much better if led by a better director one feels.
The Destructors (1968)
So bad it's...awful!
Should you have an appointment for root canal work, a visit scheduled with your proctologist, or even a meeting with the taxman, they might all be good reasons to watch this film. If you have anything else more enjoyable you should be doing, like say breathing, then don't bother.
Rarely have I so wished I had something better to do than watch a movie! It does have an almost mesmeric quality, like watching the progress of your colonoscopy at the hospital.
If you do watch it, check out Michael Ansara's curiously pale complexion - as if the makeup artist used flour.
Richard Egan as always makes a good advertisement for Brylcreem.