by Dean | Nov 10, 2016 | General
Cover of Madigan
A police tale meant for adults, Don Siegel‘s Madigan (1968) is sort of a superfluous film without being a bad one.
It makes clear what we already know: Cops are only human, notwithstanding Detective Don Madigan (Richard Widmark) is essentially a mensch. Like other cops. Yes, he mistakenly lets a thoroughgoing bad guy (poorly played by Steve Ihnat) get away, but he proves competent enough for the center of the film: retrieving the creep.
Madigan is married to a selfish wife (Inger Stevens), but when the film focuses on the pair, what’s missing is a point of view. In fact, there is somewhat more of a character study of Henry Fonda‘s police commissioner than there is of Madigan. Too bad. But Widmark, Fonda, Harry Guardino and others are absolutely fine, whereas the acting of Stevens, the American Catherine Deneuve, is no better than that of Deneuve.
Another thing: It’s 1968, and New York City is starting to become really heinous.
by Dean | Nov 9, 2016 | General
This week’s Jane the Virgin had a nice flow to it and sensibly dealt with the difficulty of financially getting by. It was also briefly moving in its treatment of sad Luisa (a sapid acting job by Yara Martinez).
But probably nothing on TV this week will be as gripping as last night’s broadcast of the Presidential and Congressional elections. Spittin’ mad, foul-mouthed celebrities like Madonna and Rachel Bloom deserve what they got, but, well, the Republican voters who preferred Trump over Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, et al. did not.
by Dean | Nov 8, 2016 | General
Cover of The Opposite of Sex
The teenaged girl acted by Christina Ricci in the 1998 Don Roos film, The Opposite of Sex, is unsavory and callow and makes a number of politically incorrect remarks about homosexuals (the impetus: her gay half-brother). Despite this, the movie is every bit as pro-gay as it is pro-straight if pro-straight is a necessary designation. What it so tritely and predictably scorns are evangelical Christians. It pretends to understand homosexuality when in fact it is as ignorant as a stone, and about Christianity it is not ignorant so much as culpably blind.
by Dean | Nov 6, 2016 | General
Cover of Duel (Collector’s Edition)
Man-made cars and the interstate highway system are not the modern wonders to make us forget, and not be shocked by, the strange brutality in human behavior. Indeed, it is on the interstate that businessman David Mann (Dennis Weaver)—in Steven Spielberg‘s Duel (1971)—encounters a stranger who tries to off him with a tanker truck, the reason for which is never revealed. It is activity as absurd as it is horrible.
Spielberg’s first notable success, Duel is a made-for-TV action thriller which has been called “Jaws on wheels” except that it’s a better flick than Master Steven’s Jaws. It has a shaky climax, but is consistently fun and nicely economical. The smart script is by Richard Matheson, and Weaver is constantly on screen but never abandoned by skill. As well, Duel is one of those many 1970s films enamored of rural American settings, as though it is only in these pristine outdoor places that insights about life may be had.
by Dean | Nov 3, 2016 | General
![Cover of "The Siege [Blu-ray]"](//ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PcaaYPBdL._SL350_.jpg "Cover of \"The Siege [Blu-ray]\"")
Cover of The Siege [Blu-ray]
Not when the balderdash is this strong.
About the only item to be taken seriously here is that, even in 1998, Arab terrorism in the United States is, to whatever degree, a continual threat. The most preposterous item is that a U.S. army general, during a state of martial law in New York City, becomes so brutish as to torture and even kill an Arab who is an American citizen. Or is the martial law itself the most preposterous item?
The CIA agent Annette Bening plays, by the way, is there when the torture goes on, and why she tolerates it is hard to fathom. Patently the filmmakers were dreadfully sloppy in creating her character: she is a pleasant woman made to look like an utter fool. Little does director Edward Zwick know it, but virtually the same is true of the film’s black hero, the FBI agent played by Denzel Washington. Poor Zwick. He’s making a mockery of his liberal principles without knowing it.
by Dean | Nov 1, 2016 | General
The virginity of Jane The Virgin, now married, is gone. She and Michael had sex, and the show is sophisticated enough to present Jane feeling rather dismayed as though part of her identity has fallen away. But, hey, she’ll get used to it—already is used to it by the episode’s end. Why was an odd animated sequence used to confirm it? (Is this show gimmicky, or what?)
Jane and Michael are true to each other. Not so Luisa and Rose, a.k.a Sin Rostro (Bridget Regan), and no wonder. We are shown a list of Rose’s murder victims, one of whom is Luisa’s father. It’s a deal breaker, you could say, except where the lesbian sex is concerned. (Luisa will still have that. Incidentally, will she ever practice medicine again?) Anyway, Jane the Virgin is always better when sinister doings and thus police actions are taking place, as they do near the conclusion of last night’s episode. Before this, what we saw was ALMOST boring. Not quite, but almost.
![Cover of "The Siege [Blu-ray]"](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PcaaYPBdL._SL350_.jpg "Cover of \"The Siege [Blu-ray]\"")
