cresswell Reviews

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

Awful!

[1/10 · 14 April 2007]

I really like Will Ferrell movies and was looking forward to this one.

It was so bad that my wife and I agreed to turn it off after twenty-five minutes. Since I didn't watch the whole thing maybe I shouldn't rate it, but there was no way we could have made it much longer, and there was no way this movie was going to improve as it wore on, either.

The following people or groups may find the movie offensive (but the main problem is just that the movie was moronic): Parents, children, Nascar fans, Nascar drivers, southerners, Christians, rednecks, the elderly, and women. C'mon, Hollywood, you can do better than this lame feature.

Get Yourself a College Girl (1964)

Great Music

[8/10 · 21 January 2006]

The acting and production values of this movie are about on a par with something like Don Knotts' The Reluctant Astronaut or one of those sixties Disney movies starring Haley Mills. Or one of the Ronald Reagan Bonzo movies. Not awful, but definitely in the "B" movie category.

The music is what makes this movie worth watching. Stan Getz's performance of the Girl from Ipanema, with a very deadpan vocal by Astrud Gilberto, is one high point.

The Dave Clark Five is also deadpan, wooden even, and it is easy to see why they didn't surpass the Beatles as some in the sixties thought they might. Classic performances by the Standells and the Animals are here too.

Along with Stan Getz, the Jimmy Smith Trio provides some great jazz.

A fun look into what middle-aged Hollywood screenwriters thought the younger generation was up to. Well worth watching. The studio is missing an opportunity by not releasing this film on DVD. I had to buy mine bootleg on an on-line auction.

In Search of America (1971 TV Movie)

One of a Kind

[6/10 · 21 January 2006]

They don't write dialog like this any more. Here's a sample:

Man: I hope we're not in your way.

Hippie Girl: No, not at all. 'Cause you don't really exist. You, me, all of us. We're just dream particles in a great cosmic jellyfish.

Odd movie with disembodied voices in the background singing, and occasionally chanting, lyrics that vaguely have something to do with the plot.

I bought this film for $1 and my wife and I enjoyed watching it. It's not high art but a kind of funny window into the sixties, and what middle-aged screen writers thought of the younger generation.

Super Troopers (2001)

Unbelieveable that viewers ranked this one so high!

[1/10 · 2 March 2002]

It is mind-boggling that viewers gave this film an average rating of better than 6 points out of 10. I went in expecting some zany fun along the lines of Airplane or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Instead the movie offered a few lame sight gags and a cast of characters that you just didn't grow to care about. Were I still a 16-year-old male (instead of a 45-year-old male) I might not have viewed this film as such a big waste of time. But my tastes have changed since I was sixteen.