I think he’s wildly erratic. And even some of his films that people really like, such as The Producers or Spaceballs, really don’t land with me. I love Blazing Saddles.
Director: Ang Lee Writers: James Schamus, Hui-Ling Wang, based on a story by Eileen Chang Stars: Tang Wei, Tony Leung, Joan Chen, Leehom Wang, Chung-Hua Tou, Zhi-Ying Zhu, Ying-Hsuan Kao, Lawrence Ko, Johnson Yuen, Lar Lok Chin A young woman living in China during the Japanese occupation (Tang Wei) becomes entangled with a collaborator (Tony Leung), whom she has been assigned to seduce and set up for execution. The assignment eventually becomes the context for her entire life, until her very sense of self is wrapped up in layers of deceit and betrayal. Ang Lee's masterful film introduces us to our characters when they are young college students swept up in idealistic fervor and then rejoins them years later when they are older and wearier, fighting the same battle more out of necessity than idealism. This is a long film because Lee takes his time fleshing out these characters, but it is time well spent. I was thoroughly engrossed and shattered by the ...
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) Director: John S. Robertson Writers: Clara Beranger, from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson Stars: John Barrymore, Brandon Hurst, Martha Mansfield, Charles Lane, Cecil Clovelly, Nita Naldi, Louis Wolheim An early silent film version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale about the duality of man, as an idealistic young doctor (John Barrymore) attempts to give free rein to his baser nature without tarnishing his soul by developing a serum that will embody his id in a separate being. Barrymore gives an extraordinary performance. His transformation into Mr. Hyde is accomplished largely without any special effects, and the result is a truly loathsome character. This is not the powerful brute that Edward Hyde is portrayed as in so many other adaptations, but a slimy character that inspires disgust in all who see him. As such, he is truer to the film’s subtext as a metaphor for drug and alcohol addiction. The stor...
by Louie L'Amour Gaylord Riley has built a cattle ranch with money staked to him by his former outlaw gang, and when those men come back needing help, he has to decide whether he can honor an old debt without losing the life he worked to make. At the same time, he is pressured by a rival rancher and a saloon keeper, both of whom threaten the fragile respectability he has built for himself. Louis L’Amour keeps the plot moving, and he gives the American Southwest enough presence that the setting feels like more than just a backdrop. Louis L'Amour Riley’s struggle to escape his past gives the story some real emotional weight, but the novel follows a very predictable template, and Riley himself never becomes very interesting. L’Amour gives him a traumatic backstory, but not much psychological depth, and parts of his backstory do not fully hold together. The supporting cast does not help much, since the villain and the love interest are both thinly drawn, and th...
Do you really think Mel Brooks is overrated? I think he has a kind of genius about him.
ReplyDeleteI think he’s wildly erratic. And even some of his films that people really like, such as The Producers or Spaceballs, really don’t land with me. I love Blazing Saddles.
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