alan-4 Reviews

The Shack (I) (2017)

warning

[1/10 · 20 December 2021]

I had no idea this movie is religious. As an atheist it made me ill...a guy loses his daughter and then meets God, Jesus, the holy spirit or something and we watch him glow, with syrupy music in the background...lemme outta here.

Northern Lights (1978)

this belongs on DVD - please!!!

[18 April 2010]

My wife and I saw _Northern Lights_ on its release in a movie theater in the ante-VHS/DVD/Web era, and both share the view that this is a great film. It brings to mind Howard Zinn's _People's History of the United States_ in that it immerses us in an authentic American narrative that has generally not appeared in the mainstream, either historical or cinematic. It's over thirty years since I've seen it, so I can only report the memory of my feelings, and I recall being stirred and drawn in, emotionally engaged, feeling that this movie was a real work of art. It came up recently when we were discussing a visiting friend's ancestry. I'm bummed that it's apparently unavailable? On Amazon, the VHS tape is selling for a low of $74 and a high of $132.09. Doesn't this price suggest that there's a market for this film out there, so WOULDN'T IT MAKE BUSINESS SENSE to put it out on DVD? If anyone reading this knows how this works, maybe they could pursue it. Yoo-hoo, Criterion Collection?

Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey (2006)

Bill Lee in Cuba

[9/10 · 13 July 2006]

I love Bill Lee. I love him. And not just because I'm a Red Sox fan and a Yankee hater. In case you're not familiar with him, Bill Lee ("The Spaceman") is a dope-smoking commie who was a Yankee-killer during his 10 years with the Sox as a left-handed junk-ball pitcher. As a baseball-loving leftist toker myself, I can't get enough of old Bill, and this film follows him from his homestead in rural Vermont to the ballfields of Cuba, where he and a senior team from San Diego take on Cuban retirees, with some old footage thrown in. It's a great introduction to one of baseball's most endearing guys, a real free spirit.

!viva Bill Lee!

Felicia's Journey (1999)

awful

[1/10 · 29 November 1999]

Yes, THIS IS A SPOILER but believe me it'd be hard to spoil this film more than its script already has. Much as I like the work of Atom Egoyan and Bob Hoskins, this film is a dog which should be avoided at all costs. It's one of the few movies from which I was ready to walk if I'd been alone. I have zero interest in looking at a serial killer's interior life for two hours, upclose and slow -- and he is a patently unbelievable character, at that. So here we have it: youth lost in big city finds charming older man who turns out to be insane murderer, she gets away, he dies. The End. Who cares???