This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series for French Toast Sunday.
An alien (David Bowie) has come to Earth and disguised himself as a human. How did he get here? What does he want? Why is his first act on our planet to apply for patent protections? Is that really Rip Torn? All these questions and more will be answered and immediately replaced with others in this oddball 70s sci-fi brain-botherer from Nicolas Roeg.
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This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series on French Toast Sunday.
When an impromptu drag race ends in tragedy, Mary (Candace Hilligoss) leave home and heads to Utah, where she has been hired as a church organist. However, Mary’s journey and life soon becomes encumbered by the appearance of a creepy pale man, who seems to have something to do with the abandoned carnival just outside of town. Continue reading
This review was originally written for Blueprint: Review.
Almost twenty years after the US intervened in the Serbian/Bosnian conflict, two opposing veterans run into one another in the mountains of Georgia. One of them, American Colonel Benjamin Ford (De Niro) has become a recluse, living out his days away from his son (Ventimiglia) and his family, but bears a constant reminder of the war by way of the shrapnel still lodged in his leg. The other, Serbian soldier Emil Kovac (Travolta), initially seems friendly, but soon shows his true intentions.
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This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series for French Toast Sunday.
If you’re anything like me, before you saw it you knew Brokeback Mountain as just the gay cowboy movie, or that film where Donnie Darko and the Joker get jiggy in a tent. Technically this is true, and it’s the reason the film has such notoriety – it’s not often that such a high profile film centres around a homosexual relationship between two otherwise straight male characters – but there’s a great deal more to this film besides that one aspect. Continue reading
This review was originally written for Blueprint: Review.
In New York’s Jewish Quarter, Murray, a failing bookshop owner (Allen), needs money. When his dermatologist (Stone) mentions she and her friend (Vergara) have always wanted a ménage a trois, Murray sees an opportunity; he recruits his florist and general odd-job-man friend Fioravante (Turturro) to become a gigolo, and soon the money comes pouring in.
This review was originally written for Blueprint: Review.
John Wintergreen (Blake) dreams of being a detective, but for now is stuck on a motorcycle beat, as his short stature is literally looked down upon by his superiors. However, when he makes a breakthrough, pointing out that an apparent suicide is more likely to be something more suspicious, John is given the opportunity to work alongside brilliant detective Harve Poole (Ryan). Continue reading
Everybody breathe a sign of relief, HitchcOctober is over. I’m proud to say I watched and reviewed 30 Hitchcock movies in October, some new, some old, some from the 1001 list, some not, and I’ve collected on the posts I’ve written – including the ones that already existed before last month – in this handy-dandy list, that’s also been ranked from worst to best. I still have a few Hitchcock movies left un-reviewed, but where that number was 38, it’s now just 8 movies (plus a handful of shorts I can’t find at the moment), including two remaining 1001 List movies (Spellbound and Frenzy). Therefore, I may well pick this project up again next October, but at a much more relaxed pace of one film every three days, instead of the deeply regrettable one-a-day.
Also last month I expanded my HitchcOctober celebrations into a couple of other sites.
For Robert over at To The Escape Hatch I took part in his Favorite Scene Friday series (something I try to do every month) by discussing my favourite scene from The Birds.
And over at French Toast Sunday (who also celebrated HitchcOctober with me) I wrote about my 5 Favourite Things about Rear Window, my Top 7 Hitchcock Villains and my Top 5 Hitchcock Cameos, so be sure to check those out too.
Now, onto the movies! Continue reading
Colonel Paradine, a wealthy blind man, has been murdered by a poisoned glass of burgundy. His wife (Alida Valli) is the prime suspect, and is therefore arrested. Via the family solicitor Sir Simon (Charles Coburn), she hires hotshot lawyer Anthony Keane (Gregory Peck) to defend her, but things get tricky when Keane starts to fall for his latest client, despite being happily married to the idyllic Gay (Ann Todd), who is also friends with Sir Simon’s daughter Judy (Joan Tetzel).
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Charlie (Teresa Wright) is in a state of despair. She believes her family are far too boring and ordinary, and prays for a miracle to save them from this rut. This miracle manifests in the form of her mother’s brother, the man she was named after, Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten), who is coming to stay for reasons undisclosed. The family and entire town are quick to embrace Uncle Charlie, with his lavish gifts and big city thinking, but young Charlie begins to suspect that all may not be as it seems, as her uncle seems to be hiding something.
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Ben and Jo McKenna (James Stewart and Doris Day) are holidaying in Morocco with their son Hank (Christopher Olsen) when a ruckus on a bus causes them to meet Frenchman Louis Bernard (Daniel Gélin). They spend some time with the mysterious man, as well as an English couple, the Draytons (Brenda de Banzie and Bernard Miles), but when at a market the next day, Bernard is killed and, with his dying breath, tells Ben a few fragmented details of an assassination attempt in London in the near future. When Hank is kidnapped, the McKennas must attempt to solve the case without assisting the police, or risk their son’s wellbeing.
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Life Vs Film 