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merryl_gibbs
Reviews
The Box (2009)
Interesting but insufficiently coherent
This movie has some very interesting ideas and some good performances, particularly from Frank Langella and James Marsden, and it did keep me absorbed for its full two-hour running time. I would have liked to give it a much higher rating, if not for the many elements that simply made no sense. Why are people chasing the main characters in the library? Why are there gates made of water, supposedly leading to salivation or eternal damnation, that actually lead to Arthur's bedroom and get the bedroom all wet? Why is there a line of people who are ordered to walk into the light until they are surrounded by liquid but instructed to ignore the sensation of drowning? Why is it such a tragedy that Arthur and Norma's son will have to leave private school and transfer to public school? It seemed as if there was an effort to create extra drama and visual excitement, when in fact the movie's central theme would have been more than dramatic enough if left to stand on its own.
77 Sunset Strip (1958)
Wonderful show with one serious problem
77 Sunset Strip was broadcast when I was a child and young teenager. It was a lighthearted detective show of a type popular at that time. It was well-made and the cast, especially the rotating male leads playing the detectives, was very good. I saw almost every episode and loved it, but to my way of thinking it had one very serious problem that made me angry at the end of every episode. As mentioned, there were a couple of rotating male leads, and each episode had a crime-story plot with one of the rotating make detectives, a male guest star "bad guy," and a female guest star "girl." The plots were mostly good fun but as was common at the time, good fun was usually also quite violent. Each episode normally ended with a shoot-out in which that episode's detective killed the episode's bad guy, while the girl-of-the-week watched. All that was par for the course in detective shows of the late fifties/early sixties, and I didn't find it particularly disturbing. The thing that WAS very disturbing and that made me really angry at the time, was the fact that after the gunfight the detective would completely ignore the dead body of the man he had just killed, walk over to the girl-of-the-week, and kiss her. She always happily accepted the kiss. I recall thinking at the time that if I ever saw a shooting that resulted in death, and the killer "hero" then walked over and tried to kiss me, no matter how bad a person the dead man had been, I would teach that "hero" a lesson about respect for life and death that would also cause him to treat women with more respect.
JFK (1991)
The film is a 10, the history is a -10
As a film, JFK is outstanding - excellent acting, tight direction, exciting to watch. As history, it is the worst piece of arrant nonsense imaginable. I saw this movie on its original release, and I loved it as a movie, but it saddens me for so many reasons. The most important is that there seem to be many people who have accepted the foolish plot as a genuine, serious take on the Kennedy assassination. The fact that the movie is so well made and Costner's acting is so good apparently makes it easier for people to believe that the plot's egregious nonsense is history. It's also saddening that Kevin Costner and the other outstanding film artists who made this movie should have spent their great talent on popularizing the movie's ridiculous contention. There is a key scene in this movie, involving a character played by Donald Sutherland, that is purportedly the lynchpin of the entire plot. When I think of that ridiculous scene, I still don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976)
Hysterically funny
When this was on the air, I was in my early twenties and living with my parents. It came on at 11:30 pm. My mother loved it and always stayed up to watch. The first time I saw it, I watched for about a minute and then said, "This is the silliest thing I ever saw, I'm going to bed." The second time, I watched for 5 minutes and then said, "This is the silliest thing I ever saw, I'm going to bed." The third time, it was after watching for 10 minutes. By the fourth or fifth time, I was watching all the way through, and I was hooked.
Evita (1996)
Love this movie
I love this movie. Not even sure why. When I first saw it, I didn't like it; but when I saw it again, it began to grow on me. I just watched it twice and then went on IMDB and changed my rating from an 8 to a 10. Again, I'm not sure why, or if it even makes sense. I just love this movie. (Note -- I have never seen Evita on stage, so I cannot compare to movie and the play.)
It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
First rewatch since childhood
I know I saw this movie as a child, but I remember absolutely nothing sbout it except the title and the fact that I enjoyed it. Just saw it again on TCM and can now report that I enjoyed it again, although in the first half it is somewhat slow and boring, the acting is almost excruciatingly bad, and the special effects are below-par even for the 1950s. (According to the TCM intro, the special effects master was Ray Harryhausen, but the ENTIRE effects budget was $26,000.) The movie picks up a lot in the second half, both in pace and excitement, and ends up quite enjoyable.
Cyborg 2087 (1966)
Why didn't the producer of this movie sue the producer of The Terminator?
I saw saw this movie only once, as a kid; and while I could see the cheesiness even then, I was still very much struck by it. Still, it was sad to see fine actor Michael Rennie reduced to acting in this movie. Also, much later, I could see how similar the plot of the Terminator is to the plot of Cyborg 2087. Never could understand why the producer of this movie didn't sue the producer of The Terminator.
Babylon 5: Darkness Ascending (1998)
A favorite
I love this episode, it's one of my favorites. NOT boring. Check out that argument between John Sheridan and Delenn. And the lead-in to war between the Centauri and the Alliance is exciting. I don't recall that the episode included prostitution as one reviewer states, not that prostitution would be one of my criteria for a good or bad episode.
Titanic (1997)
Most overrated film ever
The conclusion of this movie focuses on a silly love story, while almost 1500 people are dying. If you want to see a good movie about the Titanic, watch the 1953 movie of the same name, or 1958's A Night to Remember. The 1953 movie Titanic also has a silly love story, but the conclusion focuses on the tragedy. I've seen that movie many times, and I always watch the last few minutes with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat.
Babylon 5: The Wheel of Fire (1998)
The genre of science fiction
In my opinion, Mischief810 who wrote the review "Soap opera in space," completely misunderstands the genre of science fiction. I'm female and a good deal older than 54 (actually 68) so my opinion may be unimportant to Mischief810. However, I have been a fan of science fiction since high school and have read and watched a lot of the genre, perhaps more than Mischief810. Science fiction is not about space battles, it's about ideas. It's about the possible variations in intelligent life, interactions between different types of intelligent life, and different types of societies. It's about "what would happen if..." Babylon 5 is, and I think will always be, my favorite science fiction TV series. As TV series go, it is an outstanding example of the genre of science fiction.
Black Panther (2018)
Brilliant
This movie is so much better than other superhero movies that I hesitate to call it part of the same genre. I loved it.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Parts of this movie are even more wonderful than the book
When I read a book, particularly a favorite such a Lord of the Rings: Fellowship, I form pictures in my mind of the characters, settings, and events. When such a book has been adapted into a movie, I have found that the movie, no matter how good it is, almost never lives up to what is already in my head. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship Is that VERY rare movie that not only measures up to, but in some parts exceeds the beauty and wonder I had pictured while reading the book. The section in the Mines of Moria actually went way beyond anything I had pictured while reading the book. Rivendell also exceeded what I had imagined, though not to the amazing extent of the Mines of Moria.