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cmontyburns99
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Eye of the Devil (1966)
Great cast, Sharon Tate, but slow moving.
Any movie with Sharon Tate becomes interesting in and of itself due to her horrific, tragic death. Without her this one is probably relegated to the trash heap. Really interesting that David Niven and Deborah Kerr were in this as well. Hard to believe they would have been in something like this as it is far from the usual for both of them.
Photography is great in addition to the great cast. However this just never goes anywhere. It is slow. The audience figures out something sinister is going on long before Deborah Kerr's character does. Subsequently we get to watch her puttering around and taking up screen time, but not really building any tension.
Too bad it wasn't better. Sharon Tate, the 60's, cool photography, Haloweeney vibe and great actors......should have been so much better.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Man Who Found the Money (1960)
Unsatisfying episode
Not sure why this episode is highly rated vs others from the same season. The title of the episode tells you what happened and very little else happens over the course of the story. It's slow moving and the ending leaves the viewer wIth more questions than answers. Skip this one.
Dance of the Vampires (1967)
Wow what a BOORING movie!
If not for Sharon Tate, no one would ever watch this movie. It's not funny, very slow, has bizarre dialogue, and a meandering plot.
There is stuff I wanted to like here. The movie looks great, it's a vampire movie, is a bit different, and yes Sharon Tate. But it just does not work.
Roger Ebert's contemporary 1967 review states that when he saw it, no one in the theatre laughed once. Ebert sarcastically mentioned that one guy coughed at 45 minutes in. He probably was not exaggerating.
Skip it.
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: To Catch a Butterfly (1963)
Great, unsettling episode
Ever wonder what it was like when Lou Grant got home after he finished up at the TV station? This episode may have the answer because a young Ed Asner plays the neighbor here, and his kid has some problems.
This one has so much packed into 50 minutes, first and foremost a strange and apparently mean little boy next door (the aforementioned child of Asner's character). A young married couple moves to a great new house, while trying to figure out where they fit in the world. The husband specifically has trouble deciding what it is means to be a man. What is most important, job, husband, dad.....
Each of the characters here is wrestling with demons that are hidden, sometimes not so well, beneath the surface of a quaint, suburban baby boom household. The Hitchcockian thriller of a story blends all the elements together for a very entertaining entry to this series. Highly recommended even casual fans of this show.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Sylvia (1958)
Who is Sylvia?
Sylvia is too old to be playing the part of a young, beautiful heiress. This is one of the weakest episodes of the series. Other reviews have noted the age of the actors playing father and daughter are way off, barely two years apart in real life. Maybe in 1958 it did not seem as weird since women of today often do a better job of retaining their youth. Looking at "Sylvia" today though, her age is distracting as it is just hard to buy them as father and daughter.
The bigger problem with this episode though is that it moves slowly and really never does go anywhere. The story borrow elements from other Hitchcock and non-Hitchcock related tales (rich family, sad heiress, no good son-in-law etc.) but does not bring anything new to the equation. The ending is out of place. Perhaps a more interesting story is out there if one uses this ending as the beginning of another story. There are better episodes out there and I recommend taking a pass on this one.
The Wrong Girl (1999)
Semi-Engaging Trash, cute girlfriend
A Lifetime "television for women" TV movie with all you'd expect from a cheesy movie aimed at women/moms with teenage or 20-something sons. The movie does have a train-wreck aspect to it in that once you start looking at it, you may have difficulty looking away.
The movie's strong characters are all female of course (remember this is television For Women), the mom (Barbara Mandrell) and the girlfriend. The girlfriend is played by a cute actress from the TV show JAG. The dad is a wooden character who may as well be a picture on the wall for the few dumb lines he's given. Much the same can be said for the older brother. Nothing terribly original, but if you want to kill some time and can TiVo through the commercials so you don't waste a full two hours, you may get hooked.
The Score (2001)
All fans of slow moving formula action pictures line up here!
It appears that many liked this film so I must be in the minority in my feelings. I really expected much more. The movie begins slowly and never really hooked me. The major characters could be copied from a "How to Write a Heist Movie" book. DeNiro plays the reluctantly coming from retirement thief. Norton is the talented but young hotshot with a few things to learn. Brando is the older, wiser friend with more trouble than he lets on. Basset is the woman. The filmmakers took these characters, a plot concerning a heist and just added water as prescribed in the textbook. The end result would indicate that they forgot to stir.