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Reviews
Dear Frankie (2004)
From the son of a widow
Dear Frankie has got to be one of the most clever, well directed, and subtly complicated movies to be released in the past ten years. I will always have a place in my heart for father/son movies, no matter how cheesy or unrealistic. But the poignancy of this movie in particular has really struck a chord with me that I will never forget.
My father died of pancreatic cancer on my fourth birthday and I didn't talk about it until I was 22 years old. I actually remember the day quite well and the funeral a few days afterward. I had only two memories of my father himself and neither were pleasant. The first one was when he whipped me with a belt for telling him to "shut up" and the other was of a skeletal man in a wheelchair who wanted to look at my sister and I one last time before he died.
It wasn't until I was a teenager that I learned of my father's alcoholism, drug abuse, and tendency to hurt people in our family. My mother tried to protect me from the truth as did Frankie's mother. I completely understand the situation of Lizzie and her attempts at raising her son to be different than his father by painting a rosier light of who he was.
This is a movie that is meant to make people feel something. The actors, the musical score, carefully scripted dialogue is meant to evoke an emotional response and it is done so quite well. As the son of a widow, I highly recommend this movie for any man who grew up without a father. It is right up there with 'Frequency', 'Road to Perdition', 'Field of Dreams', and 'October Sky' as a father/son movie.
10/10 stars.
The First Great Train Robbery (1978)
One of the better Crichton works...
There are several elements of this movie which contribute to its grandeur. The fine cast headed by Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland played their roles splendidly and realistically. The elaborate setting places the audience in the movie. With such authentic train terminals, Victorian homes with furnishings to boot, and historically accurate costumes, "The Great Train Robbery" is an excellent Victorian Era piece.
I was extremely impressed with the stuntwork involved in this movie. I do not wish to reveal the ending, but look for Connery's VERY dangerous and VERY real stuntwork. It's something to remember when you see the pseudo-dangerous special effects movies of this decade, where all the danger is eliminated by computer animation. Connery REALLY does this sequence and he could have been killed at any moment.
One final word, be sure to read Crichton's novel by the same name as the movie, otherwise you could be easily lost in the Victorian dialect and the thieves' jargon.
Westworld (1973)
Crichton's first try at Jurassic Park?
If this movie seems awfully similar to Jurassic Park, that is because both movies were created by the same man, Michael Crichton. Apparently, Crichton hit the spot early in his career with this Disneyworld-gone-bad movie.
There are several things that Crichton does right with this movie. First, he makes the amusment park, Delos, a desirable place to visit. With three fantasy worlds of Medieval World, Roman World, and Western World, he offers different choices of battle,role-playing, sex, and fun to all visitors.
Secondly, he makes the plot realistic. Although he feeds off it in his second amusement park movie, he shows the audience how easy it is to switch from pleasure to terror.
And lastly, see if you can find any resemblance of Yul Brynner's gunslinging persona to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator. I think that it is more than a coincidence. This all gives Crichton and "Westworld" the upper hand considering this movie predates Cameron's "Terminator" by 10 years.
This movie is definitely fun and interesting to watch.
Pepper Thompson
Shiloh (1996)
Cute movie for most children...
I think that this is just the cutest little movie! It is about the special relationship between a boy and a stray puppy that he finds, the little floppy ears are the most irresistible thing in the world.
This movie was well done, especially with the casting. Michael Moriarty (Bang the Drum Slowly and Law & Order) plays a believable discipline-oriented father. He turns out to be the character that you both love and hate.
I saw this with my two nieces (4 and 6 years old) and we all cheered. I might warn though that there are some scenes which imply abuse of animals, so be sure to watch this movie with your children.
Personal Best (1982)
Flawed at best
Considering the risk of showing same-sex relationships before the late 1980's, Personal Best could have done better to play the same-sex relationship between Hemingway (Chris Cahill) and Donnelly (Tory Skinner) as a more than experimental phase of Cahill's life.
It seems to me that the creators of this movie threw in the same-sex relationship between two fairly attractive women in order to attract viewers. Also consider the 90 seconds of exposing the crotches of several women jumping backwards over a high jump pole. This random scene had VERY LITTLE relevance to the movie and it appeared as though this was done merely to keep the audience interested in this bland movie. I suppose the producers were trying to counteract the boring plot and the even more boring setting of the movie (the 1980 Oregon Track and Field Competition).
This review may seem harsh, but it is the truth. The exploitation of young Muriel Hemingway's body and the same-sex relationship ruined any credit that I would have given to this film.
Pepper Thompson
The Jazz Singer (1927)
The historical importance of "The Jazz Singer"
The reason why the Jazz Singer has such historical importance is that it was the first motion picture that set sound in film. But it is also an indicator of the racial stance of the United States at the end of the Roaring Twenties. The fact that a movie made about a black-faced minstrel was the first movie that America could hear as well as see says much about the lack of appreciation of black culture by America.