A B&W film of a 1964 rock concert. Weird mix of hokey (go-go dancers!) and cool. Unlike the laserdisc I’ve had for years, the DVD is programmed and menued. Some acts are painful, but the last two – James Brown and the Stones – are worth the price of the disk. I hate the word incredible, but it’s the only one that fits Brown’s performance. Plus a baby-faced Keith Richards – amazing.

FF=4 (except for those last 2 acts)

This came highly recommended, but Jackie Chan’s uncharacteristically lifeless performance brought the film down.  And the travails of Chinese immigrants in Japan’s underworld had little resonance.

FF=4

I’ve long been fascinated by Manfred von Richthofen. Matt Costello and I even wrote a screenplay about him.  But I watched The Red Baron with dismay. The inaccuracies and anachronisms start with the opening scene and continue through the film. A complete disregard for the man’s character and The Flying Circus – the fighting unit he commanded. He was a born hunter and here he’s a fop. The planes and the aerial combat scenes are gorgeous, however. See this for the planes. Ignore the story.

FF=4

This could have/should have been a YouTube video. Very little meat. More about the filmmaker than the subject.

FF=4

Heard nothing good about this one, but figured, How bad can it be? Turns out, Pretty bad. But you make excuses for low budgets. Then came the ending. No excuse for that.  Avoid.  You will not get those 90 minutes back.

FF=4

Despite its cast, this did not engage me.  I didn’t believe any of it for a minute.  The characters didn’t ring true, had no chemistry, and the plot was so full of holes… not offensive, not enough of anything to hate, just blah. You have better ways to spend your time and money.

FF=4

I had no idea how raunchy this was, but that’s not what put me off. The beat-down on Gina Gershon was too much. (Granted, if she’d have been male, I would have said she deserved it, but this plus the sexual degradation was over the top.) The film is peopled with the dregs of white-trash America killing or making life miserable for each other.  No hope of redemption here.  You want to get power-washed after it’s over.

FF=4

Horrible movie.

FF=4

“Gladiator” meets Mt. St. Helens. Need I say more? Good disaster porn but otherwise…

FF=4

An example of fine visual storytelling with minimal dialogue. The problem is there’s no story — or if there is, someone forgot to tell it. Scarlett Johanssen appears to have prepared for her scenes by injecting herself with massive doses of thorazine before the cameras rolled. A 100+-minute assemblage of cool images around the theme of the unimportance of superficial beauty vs the beauty under the skin. Seriously? I will say that the scene at the beach and its aftermath was =very= disturbing.

FF=4