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Reviews
Casino Royale (2006)
Tedious, predictable and boring
Okay, I'm in the minority here, but I genuinely disliked this film. It lost me after an opening overwrought overdone overlong chase scene and IMHO the film went downhill after that. There's no real plot other than Bond gambles against some bad guys and wins (the conflict there was done much better in the book 50 years ago) and I don't buy Daniel Craig as Bond. He'd be better as a villain. He lacks the charm of Brosnan-Moore-Connery & because of that the wry humor of traditional Bond films is missing. Missing also are the babes. The current batch in this film just didn't do it for me (almost by their complete absence) and could we please have a memorable villain again, like Dr. No, or Goldfinger or Oddjob. Okay, okay, those are dated references, but you know what? I went to see Blood Diamond at a WGA Screening in Beverly Hills the day before Casino Royale and THAT was a better Bond film than this is and frankly Leo D'Cap would be a better Bond. I'll make anyone an early bet that while this film will do okay it will ultimate disappoint the studio. Something's seriously amiss here. Well, as WC Fields famously once said, "Just one man's opinion."
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Boring and pretentious
Quite frankly, I was bored out of my mind. When is someone going to identify this as a pretentious and noisy piece of claptrap? Granted, the original was fresh and interesting in concept, but the joke --- or hoax --- is over. I thought the freeway sequence was insufferable. At no time during the movie was I enlightened, intrigued, amused or ---dare I say --- entertained. Nor did I find any passion or humanity in the film. It's not completely empty, just about 90%. Will it be successful? Sure. But look for the grosses to go down on Matrix #3. There will be many viewers like myself who, in the words of Sam Goldwyn, will want to be "included out."
The General (1926)
One of the gems of its era. A fascinating film.
A couple of interesting footnotes. The wrecked train in the film is still visible today in the river where it sank in the film, somewhere in Tennesseee, I believe. Also, check out the civil war general played by Mike Donlin. Donlin was a star player for the New York (baseball) Giants, who parlayed his ballplayer's love of night life and glamor into a film career.
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991)
Garbage
This is one of the worst films I've ever seen, an idiotic plot with two absolutely loathsome actors strutting their lack of talent. I watched it in endless fascination. How could ANYTHING be so bad? Name any important element in a movie --- motivation, credible plot, solid story line --- and this one fails miserably.
Rocky (1976)
Ars gratia ars
Curiously enough, seen 25 years after it was originally made, this looks like an art film. If this were shot today in northern Italy with an Italian cast, the story would ring just as credibly, but have an art house look. By anyone's standards, this was a fine piece of film making. The quality of Stallone's performance is underestimated.
Rube Marquard Wins (1912)
An early baseball classic.
Rube Marquard, the great New York Giants pitcher of the early John McGraw era, made this film in an attempt to sit out the baseball season. Marquard was heavily into entertainment and frequently squired the leading actresses in New York around town. Very few copies of this film exist.