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InigoDeMontoya
Reviews
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
No chemistry, excruciating songs
After Peter O'Toole's death, I read his obituary wherein it was noted that he received an Oscar nomination for his performance in this film. As he's one of my favorite actors, I felt compelled to acquire the DVD, expecting a treat.
O'Toole's performance is good, though in my book not in the same league as "Lawrence of Arabia," "A Lion in Winter," "The Stuntman," or even "My Favorite Year." But there is absolutely no chemistry between Petula Clark and him and many scenes are played as if they are merely blocking them. Furthermore, what in God's name possessed anyone to make a musical of this? (Fair Disclosure: I've never seen the 1939 original with Greer Garson but it's *got* to be better.) The music is insipid but the lyrics are excruciating...whoever wrote them should spend time in the Lyubianka.
I was stunned to read some of the other reviews on this site. Did we all watch the same film?
Home for the Holidays (1995)
Awful, awful, awful.
Entirely appropriate for Thanksgiving because this has got to be one of the worst turkeys ever made. Characters, dialog, music...it's all a train wreck. Billed as a comedy, it lacks that quality of humor the ancient Greeks called "being funny." Or even remotely so.
I'm not of the school that has to like characters, though it's helpful. But if they're not likable, there should be something interesting, something that provokes thought, incites something beyond a mere "Eeeuw!" reaction.
Not sure where we obtained this DVD, who inflicted it upon us. We made it about half way through.I haven't written a review in quite a while but I logged on just to add a "Beware, turn away while you still have time" notice.
Georgy Girl (1966)
A disappointment
I was in high school when the movie came out but I was forbidden to see "Georgy Girl" as being too risqué in 1966 but I remembered the theme song fondly So when I inherited a VHS copy from my dad's movie collection, I thought I'd make up for a lost opportunity 40+ years later and my wife and I watched it the other night. Bleah.
A comedy? It lacks that quality of humor that the ancient Greeks called "being funny." The characters: Georgy (Lynn Redgrave), a homespun girl-next-door type, a bit frumpy, a bit overweight, a bit dim, and more than a bit self-pitying. She seems to occupy herself teaching some sort of creative movement/dance class for children age 8 and younger and one gathers the impression that that's about her intellectual limit.
Her roommate, Meredith, is a self-centered little tart whose life centers around the next party, the next man.
Her man of the moment, Jos, is a spineless, feckless, immature, serially inappropriate in multiple dimensions, toad with a constant appetite for sex (okay, he *is* male).
Georgy's father works as a chauffeur for James, a wealthy businessman of the staggeringly old (as portrayed in the film) age of 49-almost-50 who wants Georgy to become his mistress.
There are none of these characters that you willingly identify with, sympathize with, or otherwise root for.
With the theme song as a touchstone and Georgy's frumpy looks, I suppose I was waiting for a "Pygmalion" story that never happened. Instead, we were treated to inane people making a squalid bunch of life.
Even the closing credits were a disappointment because the theme song comes back with a verse that either I had never heard or else had never registered before, a verse where Georgy is told, "Hey, even if it's not so great, at least you're now married to a millionaire." Bleah. In short, this movie sucks dead fish with a straw (this is a cinematic critical term).
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
How Disappointing
The last two Star Wars movies sucked dead fish with a straw. (That's a film criticism term.) I had high hopes for this one.
Well, it dutifully linked up all the plot threads, explaining all that would happen later. And if you like fight scenes amid lava flows, you'd love this movie. If you rate movies by the size of the ammunition budget, you'll like this movie.
But there wasn't a bit of wit or character. Aside from the line about "So this is how democracy ends," Padme spends the whole movie whimpering and crying, so much that you just want to slap her out of it. For a plot that has such potential majesty and grandeur, its driving force is Anakin's sustained adolescent sulk; this may make sense for those who are still adolescent. Yoda has a momentary flash of substance when he confronts Palpatine but then that, too, is gone on the wind before it's even there. Poor Ewan McGregor labors manfully as Obi-Wan but doesn't have lines to work with and Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu could have been replaced by a wooden cigar store Indian for greater dramatic effect.
Millions for special effects and they got the script at a 99 cent store. There was a rumor in the press that Lucas brought in Tom Stoppard as an uncredited script doctor on this one. If he had, the patient died. But it's an easy rumor to refute: the only thing in common between this script and Stoppard's work is that both contain vowels. I once saw an interview where Lucas said he doesn't enjoy script writing. I believe it; this one is as if it were squeezed into being through a non-existent birth canal.