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Reviews
Arizona Dream (1993)
Really Not Worth the Time It Takes to Watch It
The 2 female leads actually give good performances, given they had nothing but disconnected, insubstantial drivel to work with. Jerry Lewis is, well, Jerry Lewis (but not at his silliest) -- I should have realized it was a French co-production when I saw he was in it! I'm in the middle of a personal Johnny Depp festival, and this really isn't very good for him. There's nothing for him to sink his teeth into, and it looks like he knows it and isn't really trying. The only thing I agree with the previous reviewer on is the music; it's very cool. The rest is self-indulgent (and boring) (and long, which makes boring even worse) pseudo-surrealism. There's too many good movies out there to waste time on this one.
Persuasion (1971)
Like a Lead Balloon
Oh, my. Poor Jane must have done the old rolling-over-in-the-grave thing. Even allowing for poor production values for the time (1971) and the format (some kind of mini-series), this is baaaaaad. Whatever else you do with Austen, the dialog should sparkle (even in this, perhaps her most serious work), and melodrama should be strictly out of bounds. Alas, not the case with this production. By the time you get to Anne's "Frederick, Frederick, Frederick," you'll either be laughing or crying. Unless you're just out to visually "collect" all extant films of Austen's work, you can skip this one. If you do watch it, however, there are small consolations: The actresses playing Anne's sisters each do a wonderful job with their roles.
The Pink Panther (2006)
Worth It Just for the Hamburger
The movie as a whole is okay (and I don't mean okay as a negative). Agreed, it isn't the Second Coming, or anything like that, but it's a harmless way to spend the time it takes to watch it, and there are enough amusing scenes and ideas to justify doing so. I agree fully with iKramerica-1, except for his/her numeric rating. So just ratchet your major expectations (and film maven indignation) down to the ordinary range, and stop making such a big issue about the fact that the movie isn't a marvel -- come on, you watch a whole lot of movies that aren't, doncha? That said, this movie contains one of the funniest scenes I have seen recently on film, one that I would like to cut out and include in my personal all-time funniest sequences video, to watch on those days when things really aren't going right. It is the language lesson scene, where Martin manages to come up with so many pseudo-frenchie corruptions in pronunciations -- not just of the word hamburger, but of the entire sentence at issue -- that after I caught my breath and wiped my eyes, I realized I was totally amazed at the creativity behind the scene as well as at its execution -- it's brilliant.
8 femmes (2002)
A Romp, but the Singing -- Oh, My!
As has been made clear in previous reviews, the movie is a farce, a romp, very camp, total fluff, an over-the-top joke on all those stuck-in-isolation, anyone-could-be-the-murderer plays and movies we've all seen, etc. Frankly, I like it more in remembering it than I liked it in watching it. The twists and turns are totally and purposely nonsensical. (If nothing else, however, for some reason it has motivated me to getting a hold of more work by Huppert.) And I have no objection to combining the exaggeration of this oldie-but-goodie genre with the additional disruption of the musical interpolations -- it's so silly anyway, what's a bit more? But wow, is most of the singing ever bad!! All that breathy Frenchie sex kitten stuff (no matter how old your are!) can't cover up for the fact that most of these otherwise delightful women really can't sing a lick. Some of the number are painful to watch -- but why spoil the surprise? I'll let you pick out which ones for yourself!
In This House of Brede (1975)
But If You Haven't Read the Book . . .
I certainly can appreciate the previous review by the person who very capably compares the book to the movie. But I had not read the book when I first saw the movie years ago on the late show, and I still have not read it. What I have done is stop to watch the movie again and again every time I see that it is coming on. Freed from comparison, the movie is lovely. I have never felt the movie gives a good enough sense of the depth of emotion it seems (to me, at least) would be necessary to impel the main character to make the decision she makes to enter the convent; nonetheless, once the viewer accepts the fact of that decision, the rest of the movie is delightful. Rigg plays her role with clarity, thoughtfulness, circumspection, and elegance. The slow resolution of conflict within the cloistered community is gracefully marked. It is a masterful illustration of patience as virtue. The movie always leaves me with a sense of peace and, finally, joy, although I am not a religious person in the least. I recommend it highly.
Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)
Moving
This movie gives the viewer a good idea of the futility and absurdity of the method of warfare employed in WWI (which is not to say that other methods are any less futile or absurd, in their own way). The feature on the DVD entitled "The Making of . . ." somehow makes it even clearer, and the feature is fascinating in its own right and really deserves watching, despite its length. I had read the book before seeing the movie, and, for those who have also read the book and who concern themselves with the how the book has been translated to the screen, Jeunet does a pretty good job of staying true to the text, even with the large number of characters and the complexity of the plot threads; moreover, the movie elicited a more emotional response from me than the book did, which is not always the case for me, perhaps because visually it is so striking, from costumes to effects.