Change Your Image
magdalene65
One of my first memories of watching with him was The Bad Seed. On Nancy Kelly: "She is a good example of dressing in a classic way can be beautiful." On Rosemary Clooney he lamented on her bill abuse. On Yvonne Mitchell in Woman In A Dressing Gown: she looks much like your mother.
I could go on and on. But the love of film, and those who star in and make them, has grown stronger. I've learned that watching a great film several times lets you see many things you missed the first second time around.
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Reviews
The Trader (2018)
Watch and share with your grandchildren.
I stumbled upon The Trader on Netflix. The trader's highway drive seemed long, so I was ready to click off until The Trader got to his first stop, where he bought goods to take and trade for potatoes. From then on, I was mesmerized. This short film not only is worth watching because it shows you another way of life, it shows you that, despite the completely different lifestyle from that in the U. S., one of hard, endless work and poverty, there is also the whole gamut of emotion from vanity to hope with laughter and love. The children are joyous over the smallest things - like a man blowing bubbles.
This film will make you dance to the warmth of your home, bubble up in happiness while drawing a bath, snuggle into your freshly washed sheets. As for the food in your refrigerator and the leisure time you have, you will almost keel over in appreciation.
Bug (2006)
Ashley Judd shoulda borrowed $ from Naomi instead of taking on this stinker...
Next to the movie "Nothing", this is the WORST movie I've ever seen, and had the WORST scenery. A lesbian bar for 3 minutes, then exterior and interior shots of a cheap hotel suite. The biggest expense was for all that aluminum foil covering the walls in the last portion of this stinker. The only good thing about this movie was Harry Connick, Jr., who never looked better.
Ashley Judd's mother, Naomi Judd, must have seen this home-movie lookalike and given her youngest a quick call, "Honey, next time you need money THAT BADLE, please come to me or Wynonna first." WHAT were they thinking?
Gilda Radner: It's Always Something (2002)
Gilda was about so much more than this movie portrays
Like the rest of America in the 1970s and 80s, I loved Gilda Radner. Every Saturday night, there we were glued to our televisions, sometimes past our bed times, to watch SNL. Gilda was the crown jewel amongst precious gems in this wonderful show.
And, like the rest of America, I also agonized with her during her battle with cancer. But there was so much more to Gilda than just that disease. So, when I read that there was to be a movie on ABC about her life, I was undecided about whether to watch or not. I was afraid that this movie, The Gilda Radner Story: It's Always Something, would focus mainly on the end of her life rather than on the Gilda we all knew and loved. And, sadly, it turns out I was right.
While the movie did go through the natural timeline of her childhood, rise to comedic stardom first in Toronto, and arrival in New York and so on, there was always a foreshadowing present in, it seemed, every scene about the cancer that was to finally appear in her thirty-ninth year of life. We saw Gilda smoking, eating red dye number whatever, using saccharine, being bulimic and/or anorexic, drinking alcohol, etc., etc. And, of course, there were extensive references to her family's history of cancer (her father died of a brain tumor, her mother fought, and survived, breast cancer).
I mention it was her thirty-ninth year because she spent less than ten percent of her life being ill, yet it seems that eighty per cent of this movie is about what was to come at the end. I don't think Gilda would have liked that very much. I read her book and, believe me, it was NOT all about carcinogens and disease! True, she did have a difficult time dealing with her father's death when she was only a young girl. True, she did mention many of the things touched on again and again in the movie. But she also told some wonderful stories that were cut from this script! And, aside from the book, I remember many other wonderful Gilda stories.
When Gilda and Gene Wilder married (weren't we all entranced by such a wonderfully funny and loving couple?), they lived in Connecticutt. Before she became ill, I remember that she appeared on a popular late night show. Crazy person that she was, she took her entire neighborhood with her to New York for that appearance and brought them all on stage! Who has ever done such an outrageous thing? Yet that was not documented in the movie. Nor were so many other things that would have given a much truer, and lighter, picture of who Gilda Radner really was. Certainly, there could have been so many more scenes highlighting her life with Wilder, which must have been really wonderful. That was what I'd hoped the movie would be about. I mourned the absence of such scenes not only for myself, but for the benefit of the generation who does NOT remember who Gilda Radner really was.
Gilda was about living, loving, laughing, giving, and so much more. She died of cancer, but she was not about cancer.
Jamie Gertz did a fine job of portraying Gilda Radner. The actor who portrayed Gene Wilder was on the mark. Brilliantly cast, as well, were those who portrayed Bill Murray, Jane Curtain, Larraine Newman, John Belushi, and all the others who played such significant roles in Gilda's life. But I have a suggestion for all those who saw the movie and think they now know Gilda. Watch old SNL on late night TV, and rent her movies. Read her book upon which the movie is based. You will come away knowing a lot more about who the real Gilda was than if you just watch this movie.
Saving Silverman (2001)
Better the second time around...rent it.
I saw this in the movies last year when it was first released. It was OK. But I must admit that, because my husband and I are HUGE Neil Diamond fans, we only went to see Neil. Which leads me to why it lacked luster the first time we saw it....there simply wasn't as much Neil as we'd hoped. True, the main characters are Neil fans and portray a trio of Neil impersonators, and their house is a shrine to Neil. But Neil doesn't actually make an appearance until near the end of the movie. (Conversely, there is still a LOT more Neil Diamond in the movie than the video box design implies...he's not pictured nor is he mentioned on the front of the box or on the box summary on the back...only in the tiny credits on the bottom). Anyway, my seventeen year old son brought the movie home last night from our local rental place and I sat down to watch it again. I was thoroughly and pleasantly surprised that Saving Silverman was not only funnier the second time, but that both finicky teenagers who watched thought it was a real hoot. Not many movies are better heated up than fresh, but this one definitely is. And the fact that Neil Diamond is up there on the screen helps!! The closing song, written especially by Neil for this movie, is very pretty, as well.
A Walk to Remember (2002)
Leave your cynicism home and enjoy this movie.
This movie received a poor review in a popular New York tabloid. I'm glad I didn't let that sway me from going to see it and, if you've read the same review, I hope it won't keep you away, either. The two hours flew by and, miraculously, even my seven year old sat through it with nary a trip to the candy stand. Two high school seniors, Jamie Sullivan (a very brunette Mandy Moore) and Landon Carter (Shane West) begin this movie with absolutely nothing in common. Jamie is the Reverend Sullivan's daughter. She's sweet, studious, religious, innocent, keeps to herself, and not only is NOT in the "in group" but seems to have no friends whatsoever in the small town where she and Landon have both lived their whole lives. Landon is street smart, a poor student by design, has doubts about God, dates a fast girl, has a lot of friends. Landon also has a chip on his shoulder because his father, a cardiologist, walked out on Landon and his mother some time before.
The movie begins with Landon and his friends pulling a dirty trick on another classmate involving a jump off a tower. The classmate gets injured. Landon gets caught and is "sentenced" to, amongst other things, joining the cast of a play in which Jamie is also involved. After initially resisting his involvement in the play, he enlists the help of Jamie to learn his part but keeps their relationship, however tenuous, a secret from the rest of his friends. However, his limited exposure to such a sincere, truly good and spiritual person (Jamie's yearbook ambition is to "witness a miracle") does impress him and, indeed, even haunts him. He slowly loses his cynicism about life and people and tries to better himself... all because of her influence, of which she in unaware. In the meantime, he has broken off with his popular girlfriend and she, sensing the growing feelings Landon has for Jamie, sets Jamie up as the butt of a horrendously cruel and very public "joke". Landon comes to her rescue and the romantic relationship between Jamie and Landon begins. And it is truly a beautiful, albeit innocent, one. But Jamie has a secret which clears up, to the viewer, many of the questions they may have about the level of maturity she exhibits which is well beyond her years.
I loved this movie because I would like to believe that it could happen. The depth of love between these two young adults is as perfect a love as could be experienced on this earth. Only a very deep cynic, one who has lost all faith in the possibilities of unconditional love, could write this movie off as "sweet" or "predictable". Don't let that be you.
All in the Family (1971)
This is the ONLY television show where, the morning after, everyone in my class (of '72) was talking about it!
Even though it was thirty years ago, I can still remember going to school the morning after seeing the debut of "All In The Family" . Everyone in my class, and indeed the whole school, was talking about this show! It was new, it was fresh, it was daring, it was TRUTHFUL! "All In The Family" was the first show - EVER - to portray people in Middle America the way they really are...warts, prejudices, old furniture and all. Good-bye Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver, white gloves, and Mayberry. Hello to everybody's father, Archie Bunker. We were hungry for real people, and Norman Lear gave them to us. We should be forever grateful.
Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957)
Even as a pre-teen I was touched by the wife's desperation.
I remember watching this film as a young girl. It was a bit over my head as far as the complexity of emotions but the situation was quite clear. The story of a middle aged couple: the husband, still attractive and a bit worldly, has become attracted to a young woman...the wife, a bit shop-worn and, having been a housewife and entirely devoted only to her family for nearly two decades, appears dull in the eyes of her husband. However, so moving was the performance of Ms. Mitchell as the wife, so clear the pain and desperation she displayed in attempting to keep her husband when it becomes clear she is losing him, that I remembered nearly every bit of the movie and retained it until years later when I could feel full empathy for her. I see this movie as a sad, sweet study of a universal type of woman: the house-bound, devoted and totally self-sacrificing wife who has, perhaps, given too much of herself to her family and kept too little for herself.