Dennis D. McDonald’s MOVIE REVIEWS
This section contains links to my occasional movie & DVD reviews. A complete index is here.
Some of the words come to my mind while watching this film include:
Saturday, June 2, 2012 at 07:22AM in Drama, Fantasy, One of a Kind, Quirky Bullet point review:
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 03:06PM in Action, Aircraft, Fantasy, Quirky, Ridiculous, Robots, Science Fiction, War In this 1969 film an ageing and bored successful artist leaves New York for a sun-filled respite on a beautiful but sparsely populated Australian island. There he runs into a teenager who serves as his model. In the process his creative juices start flowing again.
“Imaginarium” is an inventive and fun film that becomes more engrossing as it unfolds.
Once more DVD technology comes through by making available an older film no longer in general theatrical release, this time Peter Jackson’s 1994 HEAVENLY CREATURES.
Monday, April 26, 2010 at 09:18AM in Drama, Fantasy, Intelligent, Quirky, Teens What a subversive little film this is. And sweet. And funny. And unexpected.
Monday, March 22, 2010 at 06:21AM in Comedy, Fantasy, Intelligent, One of a Kind, Quirky, Romantic, Sweet I see elements from The Matrix, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Resident Evil. And vampires, of course.
Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 07:24PM in Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, One of a Kind, Quirky, Science Fiction, Vampires Don’t be misled. This is one scary movie.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 08:28PM in Animated, Fantasy, Horror, One of a Kind, Quirky This is a beautiful, entrancing, enigmatic, and mesmerizing movie about death.
Monday, September 14, 2009 at 02:45PM in Drama, Fantasy, Intelligent, One of a Kind, Quirky, Spouse Approved This is some movie. It’s scary, emotionally draining, funny, exciting, tense, thoughtful, violent, whimsical, cruel, and in a few places, just plain weird.
Monday, August 31, 2009 at 08:28PM in Another Time & Place, History, One of a Kind, Quirky, War Although visually arresting, I thought Tarsem Singh’s THE CELL was inuman, inhumane, and tawdry. THE FALL is also visually gorgeous. It’s also clever, imaginative, and touching.
Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 12:27PM in Action, Another Time & Place, Drama, Fantasy, One of a Kind, Quirky Wonderfully animated, this moody anime adventure combines elements of 1984 (perpetual warfare), Blade Runner (androids with fuzzy memories), Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (alternate history and retro-futuristic aircraft), and Dark City (constant recycling of character experiences and events).
This 1957 black and white science fiction movie is nowhere near classics like This Island Earth or Forbidden Planet in production values, but it holds up surprisingly well, if you give it a chance.
Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 03:16PM in One of a Kind, Quirky, Robots, Science Fiction This is what I wrote in my blog when, once upon a time in Indiana, I found myself working late at night with the TV turned on:
Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 08:06AM in Action, Another Time & Place, Crime, Drama, Fantasy, Intelligent, Mystery, One of a Kind, Proyas, Quirky, Science Fiction This is a sweet comedy that doesn’t, for the most part, descend into mawkishness or treacle.
What a delightfully twisted little film this is! What could have been a run-of-the-mill mystery is pumped up immensely by clever dialog, crisp editing and direction, and most of all, by terrific performances by Kevin Costner and William Hurt.
I admit to being somewhat of an Anglophile, so I was prepared to like A Canterbury Tale as delivered by the crisply produced Criterion DVD.
Saturday, January 6, 2007 at 10:47AM in Classic, Mystery, One of a Kind, Quirky These are the words I would use to describe this gorgeous-to-look-at film:
Things in this town are so weird that we cannot take it seriously, yet they are familiar enough to generate a sense of foreboding.