caribiner23 Reviews

The Compleat Beatles (1982 Video)

Excellent capsule-view of the greatest pop band ever.

[9/10 · 11 February 2000]

I agree that this is the best of the Beatles documentaries that came before "Anthology." The story is told in an even-handed manner with every detail, including myths and legends, explained fully.

My only problem with this film is the fact that key footage, e.g., the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, is missing. One can only assume there was a rights issue here.

An interesting note is that this is a perfect companion to The Rutles' "All You Need Is Cash" which follows an identical format. And the Rutles film was done four years prior to "Compleat."

Bernard and the Genie (1991 TV Movie)

Wonderful!

[9/10 · 18 January 2000]

Every year since it was first shown on A&E in the USA, watching this movie has been a holiday tradition in my house. It's a wonderful retelling of the Aladdin story, and for my money I will take a "live" Lenny Henry over an animated Robin Williams as a genie any day.

"Would you care to join us for a shake of milk, or would you prefer something more formal where your parents are involved?"

The King and I (1999)

Not Bad!

[6/10 · 12 April 1999]

My kids (preschool and first grade) wanted to see this movie ever since the promos started running. I read all the comments here, and in spite of them, we went to see it.

The kids loved it. They were glued to the screen every second and talked about it for the rest of the day. In that regard, the movie reached its target.

I was a bit disappointed, but certainly not to the passionate degree I've seen here. I certainly was not expecting a line-for-line remake of the Brynner-Kerr film, nor a remake of any of the dozen or so live productions of the play that I've seen. This clearly was an attempt to reach a new audience, a late-1990s audience that's seen years of _Aladdin_, _The Little Mermaid_, _Pocahontas_ (oddly enough, all long-lived stories that were messed with at some level in the interest of making a movie about them) and I think they connected on that level.

The animation was average at best, and Quicktime-Movie-running-on-a-386-bad at worst. Perhaps I've been spoiled by Disney features or the wonderful Fleischer material of the 1930s.

The musical numbers were buried under visuals that didn't match-- I agree with the other posters who complained about the scene in which "Whistle a Happy Tune" was sung-- and some of the 1990s devices such as the cute animals and the martial arts demonstrations simply left me longing to see the original film again.

But that's me.

I'm renting the original movie for my kids to see which they prefer; this is more an experiment in learning what reaches them as opposed to the appalled father saying "Good Lord, what an abomination! Watch this instead!" After all, they prefer Froot Loops to cantaloupe, and we all know what's better for them. :-) What we can do is introduce them to quality and see if it takes.

If you are reading this before seeing the movie, take all the comments in these postings in the proper spirit; don't expect a remake of something that's too wonderful to be remade properly (so why would a studio even consider bothering with a line-by-line/scene-by-scene animated "mirror" version?) but don't expect something lower than horrible. It's actually quite entertaining.

My rating: 6