writtenbymkm-583-902097 Reviews

Repo Man (1984)

my favorite movie

[10/10 · 29 May 2024]

I get very interesting responses when I tell people Repo Man is my favorite movie. A friend of mine said, "You're sick!" Each to his own. But I loved this movie and continue to love it. I have the DVD, two CD's of the soundtrack with all the punk music, and I watch the movie at least twice a year. Harry Dean Stanton (one of the repo men, not a "detective" as one reviewer called him) is perfect, "I don't allow commies in my car. No Christians, either!" "Gee, Bud, that was intense!" "Repo man is always intense." Tracey Walter is wonderful, showing Otto one of those tree-shaped things found dangling from rearview mirrors, "You'll find one in every car." The plot, in a nutshell, is deceptively simple. A weird scientist has stolen dead aliens from a military base and has them in the trunk of his car, a 1964 Chevy Malibu. If anyone opens the trunk, they are instantly zapped and vanish. Otto (Emilio Estevez) thought his father would give him a thousand dollars if he went back to school, but his pot-smoking parents have instead given all their money to a reverend's telethon and Otto is now on the honor roll of the chariots of fire. As he walks down an L. A. street, Harry Dean Stanton offers him money to "get my wife's car out of this bad area," and Otto accepts for twenty-five bucks, unaware that Harry Dean ("Bud") is a repo man. Afterwards, Otto starts working as a repo man to make money, and the rest of the movie is about his adventures with the other repo men, government agents looking for the Malibu, three punk characters "doing crimes" to make money, and a young girl (Olivia Barash) who becomes Otto's girlfriend. This movie was released in 1984, and after all these years I still absolutely love it. I won't spoil it by telling you the ending, only that the ending is perfect.

Daughter of the Dragon (1931)

painfully depressing

[1/10 · 29 May 2024]

I watched the whole movie and kept hoping it would get better, but it only got worse and worse. It was one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen. Warner Oland appears briefly as Fu Manchu, but most of the movie is about a young Chinese girl obsessed with killing people who have incurred the wrath of Fu Manchu. One of these is a guy she seems to go back and forth with, she loves him, she doesn't love him, she loves him, she wants to kill him. Eventually she decides to kill him. At this point the entire movie becomes insanely confusing, with police running around, people in the house running around, and the girl trying to kill the guy. I won't spoil it by telling you how it ends, but when if finally ended I was hugely relieved that it was over, but so depressed that I had to watch a couple of episodes of The Simpsons in an effort to cheer myself up.

Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)

Absurd

[2/10 · 4 May 2024]

This has to be one of most preposterous movies I've ever seen. I only give it two stars because one star is reserved for movies I stopped watching before the end -- I suffered all the way to the end of this mess. I have two major complaints. First, Woody Allen's wife, Diane Keaton, commits theft by stealing a neighbor's apartment key, then commits burglary by entering the neighbor's apartment, without his knowledge or consent, using the stolen key. She's guilty of theft and burglary, and when Woody tells her this, she calls him a fuddy duddy. Second, the neighbor has murdered his wife and tossed her body into some sort of blast furnace where it will, obviously, be reduced to ashes. When an attempt is made to trick the murderer by claiming that "we have your wife," the murderer actually falls for it -- knowing that his wife has been reduced to ashes! This is just absurd. I'm a former public defender and criminal lawyer and I can tell you I never met a murderer that stupid, ever. Another thing I hated about this movie was Alan Alda. All he does is smirk. Is that supposed to be entertaining, watching Alan Alda smirk? Finally, I didn't believe, for one instant, the character portrayed by Anjelica Huston. You're supposed to believe she's a genius because she arranges a fake audition for an actress, then gets a sound technician to rearrange the actress's words to form a blackmail message. Why? Why not just have the actress read the blackmail message? That made no sense. And you're also supposed to believe Anjelica Huston's character paid for her college education by playing poker. She won thousands of dollars playing poker against college students? In a few days, the entire campus would know never to play poker with her. And where'd she find the time, while studying? Or maybe she never got a degree. One last little annoyance -- at one point Woody Allen and his wife tell an apartment manager they're cops and want the key to an apartment, and prove they're cops by showing the manager a card a cop gave them, one of those "call me at this number" cards. That's cow manure. Those cards are not police I. D. cards. The manager should've asked to see a badge or an official police I. D. I guess now you can tell I really hated this movie. I bought the DVD and I'll probably donate it or trash it.

The Old Dark House (1963)

ultimately absurd

[1/10 · 22 January 2024]

I reserve one star for movies I could not finish watching. This one is in that category. I can't believe William Castle had anything to do with this movie. I can't believe Robert Morley was in this movie. What I definitely can believe is that, unfortunately, Tom Poston was in this movie -- that should have told me something right away. Frankly, I simply cannot stand him. But all that aside, what I really can't believe is the absurd script. It starts out uninteresting and gradually becomes somewhat unbelievable and then gets stupid and ultimately winds up being totally absurd. When suddenly there is an ark with animals (as in "Noah's ark), I turned it off.

The Cheat (1931)

Utterly depressing

[2/10 · 14 December 2023]

Another reviewer, writing as "HotToastyRag," stated that she felt so uncomfortable and upset after it was finished, she had to pop in a comedy to change her mood. I absolutely agree. The same thing happened to me. As soon as it ended, I popped in one of my favorite Simpsons DVDs to cheer myself up. I reserve one star for movies I can't even finish watching, so I gave this one two stars because I persevered to the bitter end to find out how it ended. SPOILER ALERT RIGHT HERE -- there is what amounts to torture in this movie, a woman branded on her bare skin. If that sounds upsetting to you, then take my advice and forget this movie. Even without that scene (which admittedly only takes about three or four seconds), it's a terribly dark and depressing movie. It redeems itself at the very end, or tries to, and I applaud them for that, but otherwise I'd recommend staying as far away from this as possible. You've been warned.

The Big Heat (1953)

infinitely depressing

[1/10 · 30 November 2023]

From reading some of the other user reviews, I conclude that "film noir" is something most people either love or hate. I'm sure the noir lovers will be angry, distressed, or puzzled by my one-star review. I'll agree that the movie was well-acted. But I'm as much a fan of film noir as I am of rushing to the scene of a horrible traffic accident to relish the mayhem and death. This movie utterly depressed me, to the point that I actually woke up at 2:30 a.m. With it running around in my head and had a terrible time getting back to sleep. As pointed out in Roger Ebert's review, Glenn Ford's character seems to cut a swath of destruction through the story as he recklessly endangers his wife and daughter and other women. Otherwise, it was a standard "half the city officials are criminals" plot, mixed with revenge and brutal violence. Noir lovers seem especially obsessed with the scalding coffee in a woman's face scene -- I could live the rest of my life without being subjected to that in a movie. But I've learned my lesson. From now on I'll be much more careful before I decide to watch a movie, and if it says "noir," I'll pass. By the way, if you like Glenn Ford but prefer comedy, watch "The Gazebo."

Westworld (1973)

depressing

[1/10 · 19 November 2023]

If you've read the other reviews and/or seen the movie, you already know the basics, so I won't bore you with it. I wasn't going to bother with my own review until I didn't see one that said the movie is depressing. I'm surprised. Frankly, I thought it was one of the more depressing movies I've ever seen in the "sci-fi" genre. I get the premise, technology has dangers, machines can malfunction. But this movie is just flat out depressing. It's also boring and predictable, but my main complaint is how I was left feeling at the end. So the almost indestructable android is finally destroyed. And the hero is left completely alone in a pile of dead humans and dead androids. Meanwhile, there's absolutely no explanation of why everything suddenly failed to work. "We can't control the robots!" That's the only explanation we get. By the way, the whole thing about hands was absurd -- they can create human-looking faces, eyes, mouths, ears, noses, but not hands? Unbelievable.

The People Against O'Hara (1951)

I don't get it.

[1/10 · 26 October 2023]

I absolutely hated this movie. I've seen Spencer Tracy in a couple of movies I more or less enjoyed, but he played "Spencer Tracy" in both of them, and does it again in this horrible excuse for a "noir" movie. If you've read the other reviews, you basically know the story, but briefly it's about a supposedly famous criminal lawyer who's also an alcoholic and takes a murder case. The bulk of the movie is Tracy in and out of court, returning to drink again, and a few interesting scenes in the courtroom with the D. A. and Tracy. However, for reasons I will never understand the movie suddenly devolves into a baffling mix of people following each other, people shooting each other, and ultimately someone shooting Tracy. I have absolutely no idea who those people were or why they were shooting at each other or who shot Tracy and why. And I have no idea why other reviewers thought Tracy's performance was so wonderful. To me, the entire movie can be summed up as alcoholic lawyer defends a murder suspect, alcoholic lawyer loses, alcoholic lawyer gets shot.

It! (1967)

amateurish

[1/10 · 10 October 2023]

According to the credits this abomination was written, produced, and directed by the same person. I've never had a very high opinion of Roddy McDowall, but I assume his presence is the main (or only) reason this mess even found theatrical distribution. The bottom line is, this is an amateurish disaster, especially the script. I don't think even Joel and the Bots could've saved this one or made it watchable. The story is absurd and even borrows (without shame) from Hitchcock's "Psycho" as we see Roddy talking to his mother who turns out to be a corpse. I was never sure why that was even in the movie, unless it was an indication that Roddy was already deranged. The main thing that happens is the discovery of a huge statue that turns out to be not only magical but also indestructable, something referred to as a "golem." Roddy finds out how to control this monster and orders it to kill people. It's a British film and the Scotland Yard police inspectors look like young men trying out as male models. Roddy evades the boy cops and keeps ordering the monster to do increasingly destruction things. Eventually the movie itself becomes unhinged as the authorities decide to try blowing up the monster with a nuclear bomb (really), which of course doesn't work. Everything ends when the monster, for no particular reason, walks out into a lake or the ocean and disappears. Honestly, I've rarely seen such a complete disaster of a movie. It's hugely annoying that we aren't allowed to give negative stars, because I'd rate this one as minus fifty or so. But one star is as low as I can go, so one star it is.

The Ipcress File (1965)

Not believable

[4/10 · 23 September 2023]

This film was released in the mid-sixties during the spy craze. East versus West. Russians, the KGB, the British secret service, the CIA. James Bond books and movies were all the rage. So The Ipcress File fit right in. Anyone who saw the James Bond movies knows how unrealistic they were. As someone said, if he'd been a real spy he would've been dead in five minutes. All the enemy agents knew who he was and what he looked like. He roamed around like a Hollywood celebrity, yet still survived. I'm saying these things because it's just as unrealistic, to me, that Harry Palmer wandered around looking exactly like Harry Palmer, even after knowing that the bad guys were trying to kill him (they'd killed a different agent who was driving Palmer's car). His girlfriend says, "They'll be watching for you," and Palmer replies, "I'll be watching for them." Really? One of the first things real spies learn is how to change their appearance at a moment's notice. Not Harry Palmer. He just walks right out in the open, same clothes, same face, same everything, and gets on a train. I didn't believe that for an instant. And sure enough, he gets grabbed at gunpoint and wakes up in a cell. As a side note, in case anyone's interested, this movie was (loosely) based on the novel by Len Deighton, who was actually a very good cook and had written books on cooking before he wrote Ipcress, so in the scene in which he's whipping up some food and the girl says, "You're very professional," she was right.

Wolf (1994)

unbelievable and depressing

[1/10 · 9 September 2023]

I absolutely hated this movie. It was totally unbelievable in every respect. I didn't believe Jack Nicholson as a werewolf for an instant. I didn't even believe him as a publisher (the head of a publishing house doesn't sit and edit manuscripts). I didn't believe his "love affair" with an actress twenty years younger -- she looked even younger than that, and Jack looked even older, it was creepy. It was the only thing in the movie that was creepy, the entire story was unbelievable and I've never been so depressed by a movie. Jack flying through the air, Jack urinating on a guy's shoes, Jack trying to look like a wolf by growing a few extra whiskers, I didn't buy it at all. And the ending was the worst. Did she shoot the guy with silver bullets? This is one of the few times in my life that I've actually purchased a DVD, watched the whole thing, and immediately tossed it in the trash.

Make Me a Star (1932)

unbelievable

[6/10 · 10 August 2023]

I rated this movie with six stars mostly because of Joan Blondell, one of my favorite actresses. When I came across the movie on Turner Classics (thanks, Turner!), I immediately recorded and then watched it, expecting a comedy because it sounded like a comedy. Boy was I disappointed. It starts out with a Hollywood wannabe leaving his hick town for tinseltown in hopes of fame and fortune as a "serious actor." But when it quickly becomes painfully obvious that he has zero talent and should've stayed home, Joan Blondell's actress character feels sorry for him for no apparent reason, buys him a meal, and introduces him to a guy who directs movies with the kid's idol, a famous cowboy. As other reviewers have pointed out, the catch is that this innocent and totally inept kid will be made to believe he's starring in a serious Western but it will in fact be made strictly for laughs, at his expense. This seems rather cruel, even by Hollywood standards, but I found it unbelievable for two reasons. One, not for an instant did I believe Joan Blondell would find this kid likable, much less develop strong feelings for him. He was a pathetic untalented idiot. What was the attraction? Two, if she really did have feelings for him, she would have told him to his face that he didn't have a chance in the world of succeeding in movies. She never would have aided and abetted the scheme of letting him believe he'd become an instant success and making him a laughingstock. Originally I rated this with only three stars, but changed it to six because I really do enjoy watching Joan Blondell, but that final pathetic scene, evidently meant to be heartbreaking, was too long and frankly absurd.

Dial M for Murder (1954)

half good, half bad

[5/10 · 17 July 2023]

Spoiler alert, please do not read this if you haven't seen the movie. First, the good. I've watched this movie several times, and it always holds my interest, even though (obviously) I know how it will end. My favorite character is the police inspector who suspects the truth, suspects the wife (Grace Kelly) is innocent in spite of the jury's guilty verdict, and determines to do something about it. It's suspenseful, as far as it goes. Now the bad. First, Ray Milland. I thought he was just plain boring, he seemed to hurry through his lines as though he just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. As a husband intent on having his wife murdered, I didn't believe him for an instant. Then, Grace Kelly. I've never understood all the uproar about her. In this movie, as in Hitchcock's "Rear Window," she basically just plays Grace Kelly. She did manage to look almost devastated near the end, so I'll give her credit for that, but otherwise it was just another Grace Kelly performance. Concerning both characters, Ray Milland was twenty-two years older than Grace Kelly when this movie was made. Never for an instant did I believe they were in love or had ever been in love. To emphasize the point, in 1954 when the movie was made, he was 47 and she was 25. Another bad thing is the plot. I found it absolutely unbelievable that some guy would agree to murder some other guy's wife for a few bucks (or pounds), or for any amount of money, or that some guy would agree to murder a guy's wife to avoid being blackmailed. The would-be murderer wasn't portrayed as a lunatic or a psychopath. I just didn't buy it. Now for the worst. The ending is horrible. You're supposed to believe that a British police inspector absolutely believes in the innocence of a young woman who is about to be executed but leaves her fate, life or death, to whether or not her husband happens to remember the location of a hidden latch key (British for door key). If he remembers, she lives. If he forgets, she dies. Utterly preposterous, and, for me personally, as a retired lawyer, inexcusable.

Murder in the Private Car (1934)

no comedy and no suspense

[3/10 · 25 June 2023]

No comedy and no suspense make Jack a dull boy. Or, in this case, make this a dull movie. Charlie Ruggles is flat-out embarrassing as a would-be detective who calls himself a deflective. I usually like Una Merkel but in this movie she mostly just screams. Other reviewers appear to think the runaway train at the end was exciting, but for me it was just something tossed in to make the movie longer, or possibly to make up for the fact that the mystery itself was so uninteresting. I can just hear the producers saying, "Hey, let's add the old runaway train bit, so the audience will feel like they got their money's worth." Well, I just found it annoying. I expected a fun and humorous mystery, not some slapstick mess with a circus gorilla.

Band of Outsiders (1964)

boring and pretentious

[2/10 · 25 June 2023]

I'm not going to try writing an artsy literary review, just a plain down to earth impression. Right up front I'll say I have zero respect for Quentin Tarantino so I really don't care what he thought about this movie. And if this is an example of Jean-Luc Godard's "new wave" movies, I'm not impressed. I've watched, and enjoyed, a number of French, Italian, Swedish, and Norwegian films that I liked, but to me this movie, Band of Outsiders, was just boring and pretentious. All three main characters were intensely unlikable and often unbelievable. The movie seemed filmed in darkness, and in some scenes it was almost impossible to see what was happening. I got the impression that the movie was made in order to insult its audience, to prove what a wonderful and superior person the author was. If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be "yuck!"

Duel (1971 TV Movie)

worst movie ever made?

[1/10 · 30 January 2023]

I will disclose, in the interest of fairness, that Jaws is the only Spielberg movie I ever liked at all, and even that one wasn't great. Duel is so utterly ridiculous and boring that it should never have been made at all. It was supposedly based on a short story, and the entire movie shows why -- this was simply the same thing over and over and over and over again. Guy drives. Semi drives. Guy drives. Semi drives. Plus, as other have pointed out, there should have been no contest -- the car should easily have left the semi in the dirt. And I also agree about the ending. Constantly showing us FLAMMABLE and then having the semi crash off the road and not blow up was absurd and unforgivable. I've seen movies with a car going over a cliff and it was on fire before it hit the ground. This was bait and switch. I would vote for this movie in any "worst movie ever made" survey.

Larceny, Inc (1942)

Not very funny and ultimately depressing.

[2/10 · 29 January 2023]

This movie has multiple problems. First, it spends way too much time leading up to anything important. An overly long sequence about baseball in a prison that just goes on and on. After Edward G. Robinson is released and decides to "go straight," more time is wasted as he tries to borrow money from a bank. Finally, he winds up owning a luggage store, which just happens to share a basement wall with the bank, and now we're finally into the actual plot, such as it is. He and two pals will dig a tunnel under the wall and into the bank's basement vault, despite his promise to "go legit." Even then, the very few laughs are predictable and lame. Finally, the entire movie falls apart and ceases, in an instant, to be a comedy, becoming a dark depressing (to me) crime story, with a dangerous murderous convict appearing with a gun and demanding that Edward G. Blow a hole in the basement wall even if it kills people, and ultimately trying to kill anyone who stands in his way. This is not comedy and I hated it. I'm giving this thing two stars based on the very few jokes that work, but I wouldn't recommend this "comedy" to anyone.

The French Connection (1971)

Unbelievably awful

[2/10 · 13 January 2023]

When I can't make myself watch a whole movie, I rate it one star. If I watch all the way through and still hate it, it gets two stars. This movie is a complete unbelievable mess from start to finish. Cops charge into a bar and beat up black guys without a warrant or probable cause. Cops chase people suspected (supposedly) of dealing drugs and in the process drive recklessly, endanger innocent lives, and seem not to care at all. The worst, to me, is the awful sequence in which a cop commandeers someone's car and extremely recklessly crashes it into other people's cars, then chases a suspected drug dealer through a train, resulting in the shooting deaths of innocent people, all because the suspect may have been dealing in drugs. Also unbelievable (as another reviewer pointed out) was the complete stripping of a car to search it for drugs (I don't recall any mention of a search warrant), then shortly afterwards the very same car appears to have been miraculously restored to its original pristine condition! And, also mentioned by another reviewer, in the end (SPOILER ALERT), the same blundering cop manages to kill another cop and appears not to care one whit -- and the drug dealer disappears from a warehouse that was surrounded by cops. Bottom line, I found this movie unbelievable and awful.

The X-Files (1993–2018)

awful

[1/10 · 27 December 2022]

I don't understand why there are no reviews of the original show. The "user reviews" site specifically says "1993 - 2018," but all the reviews seem to be about the so-called new seasons. I'll admit I'm only looking at the one-star reviews, but it's strange nevertheless. Regarding my own opinion of the first four episodes in 1993, which I just recently watched (actually bought the DVD), I was extremely disappointed. The whole concept of the FBI actually hiring a superstitious weirdo like Fox Mulder and having him investigate "paranormal" cases is ludicrous. Several times in those first episodes, agent Dana Scully tries to talk some sense into his head, but why is she even assigned to him at all? As I told my wife last night after we watched the fourth episode, "That's it for me, I'm through with The X-Files!" P. S. Just tried one more and it was even worse.

Love Happy (1949)

My favorite movie

[10/10 · 17 August 2022]

This is my favorite movie. People always think I'm kidding, or crazy, but I'm neither. I was never a Marx Brothers fan, most of their movies are way too frantic and nonsensical for me. I grew up in small towns and fell in love with the idea of New York City. I also fell in love with the idea of detectives, especially private detectives, and started reading every mystery I could find. I read the New Yorker magazine when it was still a real magazine with wonderful cartoons and satirical fiction, and loved reading about all the nightclubs and jazz clubs and theaters. I idolized my uncle who actually lived in Manhattan. At night, after all the local radio stations went off the air, I lay in bed with my transistor radio and could pick up CBS radio from New York. What's all this got to do with "Love Happy?" I saw the movie years ago, when it came out, and it epitomized all that I loved about New York City. It was about a group of young actors struggling to put on a show in New York. It was about Sam Grunion, private eye, who even wore a deerstalker hat like Sherlock Holmes and had a magnifying glass. It was about a chase across the rooftops of Manhattan. For years after seeing it, I had this image of Groucho Marx as Sam Grunion, up on one of the rooftops, peering through one of those huge ventilators. And I loved the music, which even included one of my all-time favorite classical piano pieces by Chopin (played by Chico). None of that probably makes the slightest bit of sense to most of you, but I still love this movie, I now own it on DVD, and I even kept my old VHS copy, even though I can't play it anymore. Most viewers seem to like this movie because of Harpo, and he was wonderful, but for me it will always be a Groucho Marx movie, and my personal favorite.

Noises Off... (1992)

Irritating and confusing

[2/10 · 17 August 2022]

I love plays. I acted in a couple of plays in high school and really enjoyed it. Years ago I saw my first professional play, "Blithe Spirit," and loved it. I saw "Deathtrap" at the Music Box theater in New York City and liked it. I'm saying all this because I absolutely hated "Noises Off" even though it was about a play. Some people say the actual stage play was much better -- I hope so! "Noises Off" (which is actually a stage direction to tell the sound people to make certain noises off stage) was one of the most irritating and confusing movies I've ever seen. The acting was terrible and way over the top. I've never liked Christopher Reeve and his constant whining questions about why he had to do or say this or that were awful (and absurd -- in a real play you do or say what's in the author's play). Carol Burnett was unbelievable. John Ritter was embarrassingly bad. But more than that, the whole thing was confusing. Often, as I watched, I had no idea what was going on or who was doing what to whom or which characters were romantically involved with which other characters, and it just seemed to get worse and worse. The whole thing ends abruptly with a performance that is supposedly absolutely perfect and wonderful, with the audience cheering and applauding, leaving me baffled as to how such a mess had so suddenly become perfect. The one huge positive, for me personally, is the wonderful song, "There's No Business Like Show Business," performed over the closing credits -- it always gives me chills when I hear it, and it gave me chills at the end of this movie. I love that song. I really hated this movie. I may have given away a few plot points in this review, so I'll check that it contains spoilers.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Painfully boring, no idea what it was about

[1/10 · 12 August 2022]

I sat through this entire movie last night, and I have absolutely no idea what it was supposed to be, or what it was supposed to be about. I had seen or heard somewhere or other that it was about a "mole," but other than that, I may as well have been watching grass grow for two hours. It was the most painful, depressing, and awful two hours I've experienced in my life. Years ago, I was working in an office when "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" was published, and I and several others in the office read that book and thought it was really good. Eventually I saw the movie, with Richard Burton, and thought it was good, too. And much later I read somewhere that the later novels by this author weren't nearly as good. I've never read the book this movie was made from, and I never will. Does anyone remember MST3000 with Joel and his bots? Sometimes in an especially slow scene in one of their "cheesy movies," one of them would ask, "Is this a Bergman film?" I've seen Bergman films and, yes, many of them were painfully slow and boring, but "Tinker Tailor" is orders of magnitude worse. Most of the movie consists of men sitting or standing around with wooden expressions on their faces (the George Smiley character is the worst), staring at each other and occasionally muttering. So, to conclude, I literally have no freaking idea what this movie was supposed to be about and I will never again watch any movie with any of these "actors." I'm forced to give one star but if I could I'd give it minus stars.

Boston Blackie (1951–1953)

best detective show I never watched

[10/10 · 11 August 2022]

That's not a typo. I was about 10 years old when Boston Blackie appeared on TV. I loved all things detective. I think I'd already started reading Sherlock Holmes. And my parents would not allow me to watch Boston Blackie. I was the kind of kid who just did what my parents said, but I always figured there must be something really horrible and awful about that show, since it was the only one they wouldn't let me watch. Sex? Gore? I had no idea. Then, decades later, after I'd gone to college and been in the Army and graduated from law school and gotten married, I found a DVD of old TV cop and detective shows that included an episode of Boston Blackie, and immediately ordered it. Finally, I'd be able to see what it was that my parents had objected to! As you can probably imagine, I was flabbergasted. It was a wonderful show, entertaining, well done, well acted, and there wasn't a single thing wrong with it or objectionable in any way. My parents are no longer alive, so to this day it remains unsolved -- why on earth did they refuse to let me watch Boston Blackie? As Mickey Spillane used to say in the old Miller Lite commercials, it's a mystery to me!

Le Dîner de Cons (1998)

extremely annoying

[2/10 · 4 July 2022]

This is the only Francis Veber movie I've seen that I really didn't like. Somehow, it all came across to me as extremely annoying. The acting was very good. A few things made me laugh. But ultimately, it grated on me, and as it progressed, it got worse and worse. SPOILER ALERT, a man and his friends think it's funny to find total idiots, invite them to a dinner, and make fun of them. This makes his wife so angry that she walks out. He then meets a real idiot, and invites him to dinner. As the movie progresses, the idiot gets worse and worse -- he really does seem to be a complete idiot. But what's the point? Are we supposed to laugh at the idiot? Are we supposed to enjoy the man's sadistic glee at finding such a perfect idiot to laugh at? Ultimately, I could not enjoy the idiot, who really was incredibly and ridiculously annoying, and neither could I enjoy the sadism of the man (I was glad his wife walked out).

Polyester (1981)

what was it?

[1/10 · 29 June 2022]

I honestly have no idea what this was supposed to be. I've enjoyed a wide range of movies (though not many recently) -- everything from foreign (Mon Oncle, Troll Hunter, Too Many Crooks, The Tenth Victim) to early black & white American comedies, mysteries, satire, and sci-fi. But this! Fortunately I only rented the DVD and didn't buy it. It seemed to go on and on forever, one outrageous and absurd situation after another, totally unbelievable characters behaving in totally unbelievable ways, for no apparent reason other than to be "shocking." I don't understand why Waters made it, or what it was supposed to be about, or,ultimately, why I even watched it. I guess I kept hoping there would be some point, some reason, some conclusion, but I watched to the bitter end and found... nothing. It left a horrible taste in my mouth. I hated it!