Beren Reviews

60 Minutes (1968– )

The gold standard

[21 November 1999]

With the explosion of news magazine shows on the prime-time airwaves, it is useful to remember the long-running program that producers are trying to emulate: 60 Minutes.

This show combines investigative journalism, celebrity profiles, and features about interesting organizations and events. When it's a serious subject, you feel like they have fairly and objectively reported the story. Even with lighter topics you get the impression 60 Minutes has captured the essence of the story.

Each segment is about 15 minutes long; we get three in every one-hour show. When the subject is something serious, the viewer has the option of following up in detail on other sources.

Sure, it's a formula, but the 60 Minutes people perfected the formula. No one else on commercial television does such good journalism.

Why has this show consistently placed near the top of the ratings for three decades? Because it's damn good. Why do people tune into 60 Minutes every week, despite the fact that during football season it is often delayed due to long-running games? Because they know that 60 Minutes will deliver.

Jack and Shana's debates in the 70s were a little much to take, and I can't stand Andy Rooney's musings, but the core of the show has remained solid.

Code of Silence (1985)

Should have led to bigger things

[20 November 1999]

Code of Silence is a straightforward action film with nothing special. It's just a very good example of its genre. Exciting, involving, and fun to watch Norris blow away the bad guys.

I thought Chuck Norris would become a real movie star after this performance. He never made it big and had to settle for a steady, if unspectacular, television role.

Director Andrew Davis had an even bigger hit with The Fugitive, but other than that has had a lackluster career.

Stop Making Sense (1984)

Best concert movie ever?

[20 November 1999]

Reasonable people can have different candidates for "best concert movie ever", but The Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense is surely a contender. Jonathan Demme wisely forgoes backstage preparation footage or overlong shots of the audience. It's the show on the stage that matters.

The best concerts approach the ecstasy of religious celebration, where primal instinct takes over from rational thought. Is it any wonder that so many people in knowledge-intensive desk jobs were fans of the Heads? They preached about how pointless so much intellectualizing is. Life is a party; you just have to look at it the right way. Dilbert should have seen this film.

Why does David Byrne wear that big suit? Who knows? Who cares? It's all part of the show, which is largely beyond words. Do the Heads' lyrics make sense? No, their songs are more than words, too. The title of one of their songs, and of the movie is, Stop Making Sense! Good advice for everyone, once in a while.

L'Age d'Or (1930)

Influential

[20 November 1999]

Dream-like, funny, and compelling, Luis Buñuel's surrealist masterpiece is required viewing for anyone who claims to have a grasp of the history of cinema.

Too thought-provoking to be called hallucinogenic, L'Age D'Or nevertheless has the disjointed narrative of a dream. It makes sense on its own terms the same way a dream does.

Monty Python fans may see in its brazen non sequitors a similarity to the Python TV skits. Material like this can only come in small chunks; the message would be lost in a conventional narrative.

One memorable scene has a (fully-clothed) couple embracing and kissing while crowd of people arrives and breaks them up. A city is constructed on the very spot of this thwarted love. Message: civilization is built on repression of natural urges. If the man and women ever get together again, the world as we know it will be destroyed. The counterculture movement of the 60s echoed this and other themes that the surrealists explored 35 years previously.

This extremely influential movie should be viewed by anyone interested in Luis Buñuel's career and anyone interested in surrealism in film and anyone looking for a mind-expanding experience.

Dogma (1999)

Reminiscent of Bowfinger

[3/10 · 18 November 1999]

Dogma's attempts at satire fall flat and there is some pointless philosophizing. The movie is funny, though, and keeps moving at a good pace. It's quite entertaining. In this respect, it reminded me of Bowfinger.

I wonder why we don't see Linda Fiorentino in more mainstream films. She projects an adult world-weariness and competency that would play well in many thrillers or dramas. She fits in well in this comedy, too.

Salma Hayek looks cuter than ever in Dogma. I question her choice of films and roles in the recent past. She should take more roles like this where she can show off her beauty and not be too serious.

Kevin Smith falls victim to a temptation that many directors face: he casts himself in his own movies. Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood can get away with this because, within their limited ranges, they're good actors. Smith is not, and should stay in back of the camera, or at least confine himself to very small parts.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Don't apologize; it's a sign of weakness.

[18 November 1999]

This movie is a poetic meditation on duty, camaraderie, loss, and hope.

John Wayne was always a better actor when he played old men. Here, his Nathan Brittles is a consummate professional at the end of his command career. His well-earned wisdom is a gift to the young cavalry officers and invaluable in preventing a conflict from escalating into a major war.

Excellent supporting actors and atmosphere.

A very fine film.

Braveheart (1995)

This movie won the Oscar?

[3/10 · 15 January 1999]

The MPAA has given out some strange awards, but in recent years there's been no Best Picture winner less deserving than Braveheart. Maybe 1995 was just a bad year for movies. It's not that the movie is bad. It's just so....average. Hard to believe it has become a cult movie.

O.C. and Stiggs (1985)

Underrated

[15 January 1999]

Like many of Robert Altman's smaller movies, O.C. and Stiggs is under-appreciated. Most of the teenage movies that clogged up the mid-80's consisted of nothing more than stupid sex jokes and gross-out shots designed to humiliate straw men villains. O.C. and Stiggs is a movie where you feel that all sorts of things are possible. It's humorous in the best sense.

It remains a mystery why some of Altman's films are overrated (e.g. The Player and Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean), while others are immediately forgotten.

SCTV Network (1981–1983)

Funniest TV series of all time

[15 January 1999]

What more can I say? Maybe it just came along at the right time in my life, but SCTV really expanded my mind and my conception of what was possible with comedy. Never as self-consciously hip as Saturday Night Live. Just funny.

Vertigo (1958)

Greatest American movie of all time

[10/10 · 26 September 1998]

Vertigo is the greatest English-language movie of all time. It goes deeper than any other film and its exploration of obsessive love should be required viewing for anyone concerned with the human condition. Unfortunately, it's also a vastly under-appreciated film.

I've seen Vertigo in the theater maybe 9 or 10 times, more than any other movie. The audience is always on the verge of booing at the end. I can sympathize with them. I didn't like it the first time I saw it either. The movie has a major plot twist about three-quarters of the way through and an ending that is anything but traditional Hollywood. Hitchcock's Psycho also has a big plot twist, but it happens much earlier in the story, and Psycho is more superficial and less emotionally involving.

The second time I saw Vertigo, its greatness came through and I was able to appreciate it for the masterpiece - and I don't use that word lightly - that it is. All the things that moviegoers may object to - the slow pace, protagonist's breakdown, non-happy ending - they're all integral to its greatness. See it again and again and you may appreciate it, too. Vertigo is head and shoulders above Hitchcock's other movies.