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32Ford
Reviews
The Contender (2000)
Plot is "Republicans bad and Democrats good"
First off,the acting is first rate. So good that the rest of the cast almost performs at the Gary Oldman level. That's high praise,indeed.
With that out of the way,it seems like the real purpose of this movie was to take a cheap shot at Republicans in general,and conservatives in particular. The Dims are saints,and the Republicans are evil.
This message couldn't be clearer than when Joan Allen gave her little speech about "I'm for a woman's choice,I'm for the government taking the guns out every house in the country",etc,etc,etc.,and the speech she made about leaving the Republican Party because it had shifted away from the values that formed this country. That had nothing to do with movie making,and everything to do with political propaganda. Stalin couldn't have came up with a more left-wing rant.
After all,how can you take a movie seriously when it shows a vice- presidential candidate giving a speech to a committee that states she wants to see every gun in the country confiscated by the government? We are supposed to believe the voters would take a direct assault on the Bill of Rights so casually they would elect someone who said that?
It's a damn shame the director and writers of this movie decided it was more important to make a propaganda film than a movie for entertainment.
Not that the Republicans aren't guilty of sleaze. They most certainly are. They are mere amateurs compared to the Dims,though. As the writing,editing,and directing in this movie proves.
Barton Fink (1991)
Sucked all the air right out of the room
This movie sucks beyond all belief. Not quite as bad as Borak,but close. I downloaded it from amazon.com for $1.99,and want my money back. Other than the guy that played Fink,everybody in the movie overacts to the point of being hammy.
I have no idea why so many of the actors used such horrible southern accents for a movie about life in LA in 1941,but they did.
I see where somebody said it was humorous,but I found it about as funny as tumor day at the children;s hospital.
I have seen several other movies directed by these two brothers,and enjoyed every one of them. Not this stinker,though.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
To call it juvenile is giving it credit it doesn't deserve.
This is probably the worse movie I have ever seen. The best actor in the movie is a bear,and the funniest line is "I want to go to New York where there are no Jews". What little humor there there is in the movie is bathroom humor that the average 8th grader is too sophisticated to laugh at.
The main focus of the movie seems to be denigrating people from eastern Europe and the southern United States. Unless they are black,of course. If they are black,Borat enjoys his time with them and learns things.
I thought I would never see a movie worse than Showgirls. I was wrong. The people that produced this horror and inflicted it on the public should be sued.
Exit Wounds (2001)
So bad it's almost good
OK,right off the bat you need to know that I make it a point to never rent of buy a Steven Segall movie,or a movie with the guy that plays "Walker,Texas Ranger". I got this movie because somebody gave it to me.
Having said that,this movie is almost bad enough to be good. I got the feeling early in the movie that it was a spoof/comedy cop movie,but nobody told Segal. Everybody was in on the joke but him. Then again,he has all the expression of a corpse,so it's hard to tell.
The luscious Jill Hennesy was in it,and I held out hopes the whole movie that she was going to get naked. Didn't happen. Not even topless. How could a movie with every cop action flick stereotype known to mankind have a babe like her in it,and not have her be his love interest after first hating him,and have her get topless at one point? I guess it is OK for a 2 dollar rental flick if you have nothing else to do on a slow Saturday afternoon.
More American Graffiti (1979)
Better than the original
Don't let all the negative comments from people who are disappointed that everything didn't turn out peachy-keen for the original characters spoil this movie for you. I was a kid growing up in the 50's and 60's,and they weren't as innocent and carefree as a lot of people try to make them out to be. In fact,despite the complaints by a lot of people,I think the late 60's time line in the sequel is a more accurate reflection of the time than the first movie was of the early 60's.
Yeah,there were big demonstrations in 67. There was even a anti-war movement afoot in the SF area when I was traveling through there in uniform in 1965. Passed through there again wearing my uniform again in 67,and partied with the same bunch of hippies who welcomed me there in 65,and was warned by them to stay away from the big demonstrations going on around the selective service center downtown. They even lent me civilian clothes to wear so people wouldn't stare at me for wearing a beret.
I didn't like the constant fighting by Howard and Williams. I know the director/writers did this to show the conflict caused by changing times and the women's movement,but this was on message too many for a short movie.
I also didn't like the lame idea of Toad just putting on a Hawiaan shirt and walking out of the jungle. What did they think,that he could swim the Pacific and come home? Or that he could catch a flight from Thailand without a passport? There should have just had him cook up some bogus orders transferring him out of VN for hardship or other reasons. Or even had him go AWOL while in Saigon or some other place while on R&R. The people who wrote this obviously had no idea of how terrified of the jungle the average American was. The last thing 99% of them would do is go there alone and unarmed.
Candy Clark's role was a good one because it did show how naive girls were taken advantage of back then to become strippers or dancers to support whole herds of lazy stoners.
The one thing I didn't really get was the whole "beat the factory team" stuff. I was around drag and circle track racing from the time I was about 8-10 years old because my older brother did it,and all the factory teams I heard of then ran in Super Stock classes,not dragsters. What factory makes dragsters? They should have have made it "the little guy against the pro team with sponsors" to have made it more realistic.
Ahhh,and Anna Bjorn! Beautiful beyond belief. Why didn't she make more movies? What ever happened to her?
The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery (1997)
Enjoyable movie,great acting
While this clearly isn't the greatest movie ever made,it sure is a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. Brooke Shields doesn't get the credit she deserves for her talent,and even Rip Torn does a good job here. One big reason for most people to rent or buy it in the blow-out bin (I paid $1.25) at a discount store is that there is no violence in the movie,no sex scenes,and no foul language. I don't have any kids,but I suspect the people who do and who want to pick a movie the whole family can watch and enjoy will appreciate the harmless fun in this movie. Their choices have to be pretty slim,so this one would be a good one to recommend to your friends who do have young children.
Amadeus (1984)
Good,but not great
I just watched the directors cut version last night. I have never seen the original version. The acting is great by all concerned,and I'm really surprised to see that none of them went on to "big" film starring roles after this movie.
I won't get into the historical accuracy discussion,but it looks like in the end he was buried in a mass grave,and I have a hard time believing that. How could a man as famous as Mozart have been buried in a mass grave? Does anybody know if this is true?
To me,the movie was enjoyable even when it wasn't all that interesting because of the quality of the acting from all involved (not just the stars),and because of the scenery. I am not very knowledgeable about classic music,and think most of what I hear on classical radio stations is about as exciting as watching grass grow. Yeah,I like certain Mozart,Beethoven,Bach,and especially violin pieces out of eastern Europe that I have heard played,but most of what they wrote is like Scotch whiskey or rap "music",a acquired taste.
This is related to the only parts of the movie I hated,and that was the opera scenes. If your idea of good music is some woman singer shrieking at a pitch that makes dogs ears bleed,you may love it. If you don't like opera,this will definitely take away from your movie enjoyment. In fact,I suspect the reason this average movie got such high ratings is because of all the opera fans taking it as their own. The rest of the music is tolerable,and my biggest complaint about it is the rare times something popular is being played they only play a few notes of it. It is this high-pitched shrieking in the opera scenes that causes me to give this movie a 5.