This 1953 classic by Yasujiro Ozu (Floating Weeds) is a masterpiece of elegant, artistic, and human filmmaking.
Yasujiro Ozu's EARLY SUMMER
In this Japanese film from 1951, 28-year-old Noriko (played by Setsuko Hara, who also appeared in Ozu’s Tokyo Story) lives with her three-generation family. She helps support them with the wages she earns in her downtown Tokyo clerical office job. Her family decides that she is getting along in years and needs to get married. The wheels of an arranged marriage start turning. This leads to complications.
Expo: Magic of the White City
This documentary about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago is the perfect companion to the book The Devil in the White City. While the latter's serial murderer is never mentioned in the documentary, the visual splendor of the Fair is portrayed in a detailed and awesome manner on the screen.
George Pal's “WAR OF THE WORLDS”
George Pal’s 1953 WAR OF THE WORLDS is now available on a special edition DVD. How does this 50 year old movie hold up? Let’s get the obvious out of the way:
HEAVEN is an almost leisurely emotional odyssey of two seemingly dissimilar people — one a murderer, the other a young police officer — that evolves into a meditation on the relationship between morality and … gorgeous aerial photography?
Lain
I originally published this review in 2002. I thought about it again aftre seeing The Last Exile, a more recent Japanese animated science fiction TV series.
Yasujiro Ozu's GOOD MORNING
It’s the late 1950’s in a new cookie-cutter Tokyo suburb. Two young brothers are eager to get a television. A young couple nearby has one which they let the kids watch (they love sumo wrestling) but the kids’ parents are concerned that the young couple’s laid-back attitude will rub off on the kids.
Richard Curtis' LOVE ACTUALLY
Back in the Day, the phrase “English ensemble actor film” brought to mind names like John Gielgud, John Mills, Alec Guiness, and Trevor Howard. Love Actually shows how far we’ve come when we can watch a blank-faced actor like Martin Freeman ( Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) nonchalantly chatting away while feigning naked sex with his soon-to-be-girlfriend.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra's “MISSION KASHMIR”
I rented this film because I was reading a book (Maximum City) by one of the screenwriters (Suketu Mehta) and because, let’s face it, I crave a Bollywood fix from time to time. I was not disappointed. This is now one of my favorites.
Robert Schwentke's FLIGHTPLAN
This tightly plotted thriller pits Jodie Foster against the disappearance of her character’s little daughter on a giant super-jumbo airliner in midair. Playing a jet aircraft engineer who helped design the aircraft where most of this midair plot takes place, Foster pits her innate intelligence and cunning against both the disappearance and her natural instinct to panic.
The Upside of Anger
My wife is always pestering me to rent movies SHE will like, so I used the Netflix "recommendation" feature and found "Upside of Anger." A wise choice.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I can take 5 or ten minutes of tongue-in-cheek, but a whole movie, plus annoying characters?
Foyle's War (Discs 1 and 2)
The stories center on Detective Foyle, a senior police detective in southern 1940 wartime England. While the war is progressing (this is before the U.S. came in on the Allies' side) life must go on -- and laws must be enforced.
What a refreshing film this is! It's unlike any kids' movie I've ever seen.
This is a good, but not great, popcorn movie.
Florent Siri's “HOSTAGE”
This surprisingly intelligent and well made hostage drama is another high quality vehicle for Bruce Willis (Tears of the Sun, Hart's War, Sin City) in which he demonstrates again his ability to put behind his earlier "Anybody else want to negotiate?" persona.
Park Chan Wook's “OLDBOY”
While watching this Korean film the word that popped into my head was “Kafka-esque.” Bad stuff happens to an innocent man for no apparent reason and he has to deal with it without knowing why he is being tormented.
Oliver Stone's “ALEXANDER” (Director's Cut)
Contrary to popular opinion, it IS possible to find positive reviews of this movie onlne.
Joel Schumacher's “THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA”
I’ve never been a fan of this musical. The songs are repetitive and dull, the story is silly, and the overriding themes remind me of the covers of those paperback romance novels you see on sale in supermarkets. But I loved the movie, even though the three points I made above are painfully obvious. So why did I like it?
William Wellman's “ISLAND IN THE SKY” and “THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY”
These two long-out-of-circulation movies present a version of John Wayne to the public that we have all but forgotten: the strong silent type who doesn’t go around smashing people with fists or blasting them with a gun. Instead he exerts his authority through quiet determination and professionalism.