Dir. Martin Campbell. Starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen It’s just a little too talky, isn’t it. Not a lot too talky, but it’s just talky enough that it pulls you away from what’s really exciting about the film itself. Before anyone arrives in Montenegro for the poker game, there’s a ceiling on what… Read More Casino Royale (2006)
Dir. Tom Hooper. Starring Francesca Hayward, Robbie Fairchild, Judi Dench The gamble that any production of Cats makes, whether it’s a stage show or a movie, is that the spectacle of the piece will outweigh the inherent strangeness of the material. The answer is a really hard “No!” for a lot of people for the musical itself,… Read More Cats (2019)
The landing page, with rationale and links to other posts in this series, can be found here. Is The Three Caballeros so superior to Saludos Amigos? Not by so much, really, although it gets a lift from its more smoothly integrated human-animated scenes. But The Three Caballeros does have the largest collection of psycho birds before Hitchcock. Ze Carioca… Read More Disney/Pixar Rankings: 70-66
For a brief introduction and a running list of movies covered in this project, click here. 80) The Last Emperor (1987), directed by Bernardo Bertolucci Nothing says communism like a dull color palette: one hundred and fifty shades of gray, dead blues, dried puke greens, dried snot yellows, orange that’s been out in the sun too long,… Read More Better than BFI’s Top 100: 80-76
The following is from my series of Oscar Best Picture rankings, as well as my strongly worded suggestions for what should have won from among the nominees. For an introduction to the project, click here. For a way to vote on some Oscar-related ideas, click here. If I’ve written a review on any of the… Read More Better than the Oscars: 60-56
Seeing Things Secondhand 