The Gilbreths, whose sole claim to fame is that they have never heard of birth control, stage an unwelcome return in this, the sequel to the insipid Cheaper By the Dozen and the results are more of the same: meandering stories that don’t hold your interest, moments designed to evoke laughs that succeed only in provoking yawns, and the complete downplaying of all but about two or three of the daughters. Continue reading “Belles on Their Toes (1952)”
Category: Drama
Kings Row (1942)
Kings Row successfully navigates around the edges of the movie-style soap opera to bring us a memorable look at how that most hallowed slice of Americana, the clean, pretty, small town, was just as susceptible to madness, corruption and pointless violence as any big city. At least until the last 20 seconds of the movie when the lame and unconvincing happy ending rears its ugly head. Continue reading “Kings Row (1942)”
From Here to Eternity (1953)
From Here To Eternity won eight Academy Awards back in 1953, but not Best Actor. I assume that Montgomery Clift and Burt Lancaster split the votes in that category though it’s hard to argue with winner William Holden’s performance as the crabby lone wolf in Stalag 17 either.
Clift was the heart of the picture, batting his doe-like eyes to and fro, refusing to break under all the pressure heaped on him by a boxing-obsessed captain, while Lancaster was the libido of the film, testosterone practically oozing from every pore as he eyed the Captain’s wife in a way that only someone like Lancaster could get away with. Continue reading “From Here to Eternity (1953)”
Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
Right out of the gate this movie suffers from a major handicap: the suspension of disbelief that it requires as it relates to its casting is bigger than the size of the brood that is apparently supposed to be the major selling point of the film. Continue reading “Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)”
Night Corridor (2003)
Written and directed by Chi-Chiu Lee and based on his novel (no matter how this one turns out, Chi-Chiu has only himself to blame), Night Corridor poses the age old question of what happens when your twin brother is murdered by monkeys after having assumed the identity of the surviving twin who was off in London working on his career as a photographer. Continue reading “Night Corridor (2003)”
The Wild Angels (1966)
If you take away nothing else from this less-than-rousing biker flick, you would do well to remember that in the motorcycle gang, the woman that belongs to you is your “old lady” and the woman that belongs to the whole gang is a “mama.” Continue reading “The Wild Angels (1966)”
King of Kings (1961)
As soon as King of Kings began, I felt my heart race and my left arm go numb when the narrator (Orson Welles) intoned that the year is 63 B.C. Maybe I don’t know a whole lot about this religious stuff, but I was smart enough to notice that we were starting things way before Jesus was ever immaculately conceived, let alone bugging Romans. I wondered just how much pre-game hype I was going to have to sit through. After all, I was paying to see a film about Christ and his times, not about how crappy everyone had it until he showed up. Continue reading “King of Kings (1961)”