Category: Watching

I can’t believe anybody in this age could still be superstitious about black cats.  As somebody who has lived with four of them so far in the course of my life, I have experienced first-hand how loving and beautiful they can be.  Also, regarding my convoluted writing in that previous sentence: you can’t own a […]

Is something messing with you in your sleep?  Are there weird noises around your house at night?  Are there sudden, unexplained foul odors at times? My first question would be, “Are you sure you don’t have a cat?”  But of course, such phenomena could only mean something EEEEVIL! in a movie like 2013’s The Conjuring. […]

I suspect some people believe I am too hard on most of the movies I write about here.  From my perspective, I think I am more lenient on some pictures than the majority of critics.  At least, I try to find something, anything I can say I liked in each film I see. 1955’s The […]

The “pre-code” era of cinema began roughly with the advent of talkies.  It is more certain when it ended, as that was the introduction of the Hayes Code in 1934 (read the excellent and concise background of that era here).  I have not seen many of the key films of that period, but I occasionally […]

How is it I became a teenager in the middle of the 80’s, yet I have never seen so many movies of the era?  These are movies that were fairly popular at the time, at least as rentals.  One such example is 1989’s Weekend at Bernie’s.  Unfortunately, I recently decided to rectify this. All I […]

My brother-in-law and I like so many of the same movie genres that I’m often surprised by how often our opinions differ on most films.  To use his terminology, he’s a fan of movies heavy on “cheese”, where many “random” things happen, and there’s “fun gore”.  Not being a fan of gore, period, I don’t […]

At the time of this writing, the last movie Martin Brest has directed is Gigli, a movie justifiably reviled as one of the worst features ever released by a major studio.  When I saw that movie (in a theatre, no less), I was especially appalled by moments that, if they weren’t wholly improvised, had to […]

I wonder how Audrey Hepburn would fare as a star today.  In addition to being beautiful and having considerable talent, she has a certain goofy charm.  And there’s something about a gorgeous woman who can break out into a huge, silly grin.  The closest modern-day equivalent I can think of is Zooey Deschanel, even if […]

I’m not sure how 2002’s Treasure Planet started creeping onto my radar over the past year or so.  I was only vaguely aware of it during its theatrical run, and that was only because of how much money it lost.  And though I am a fan of animation, I don’t usually seek out Disney’s works, […]

So many British movie producers in the 60’s and 70’s tried to emulate the output of Hammer Studios and that’s not a bad goal to have in mind.  Unfortunately, too many of such movies failed to capture that undefinable magic that elevated the best work of the legendary studio above that of their peers. Such […]

Most people don’t make it a goal in their lives, but I knew from an early age that, if there was one thing I was going to make sure didn’t happen to me, it was to have children.  I won’t go into all of my reasons here, but one of them is so I wouldn’t […]

We all have thoughts that terrify us, things that make us go, “Why did I think that?” and then we try to move on.  Some artists embrace such horrific thoughts and this inspires art which makes most of us uncomfortable.  H.R. Giger specialized in gazing into the abyss and putting onto canvas what he saw […]

Since its inception, Hollywood has always loved making movies about itself.  That these pictures usually take pot-shots at the industry doesn’t discount the arrogance behind the endeavors.  Still, there have been many memorable movies in this mold, and I can now count 1937’s Stand-In among them.  At a time when most studio fare was light-hearted […]

1946’s The Razor’s Edge has a central conceit which I was dumbfounded to encounter in a major studio film of that vintage.  Tyrone Power plays a man disillusioned by war, who sets out to wander the world looking for answers.  He doesn’t even have questions, exactly.  “Since the war, I’ve been searching—searching for something I […]

I think there should be a genre of movies where the leading actress is some sort of professional, yet feels she has to bury her feelings in order to succeed.  You know, the whole “why can’t I be a [insert profession here] and a woman, too?” thing. In the case of 1963’s The Wheelers Dealers, […]