Tag Archives: movies

Classic Film Review: Danny Kaye goes Marxist as “The Inspector General” (1949)

Posted on December 27, 2024 by Roger Moore

How might a moviegoer in 1949 have responded to Danny Kaye in the musical version of Gogol’s “The Inspector General?” Watching it anew, my hot take is “It’s a Marx Bros. musical with Kaye trying to play all four Marx … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Mufasa,” everything we didn’t need to know about “The Lion King”

Posted on December 26, 2024 by Roger Moore

The CGI animated savannahs, rivers and rock formations of Africa are photo-real, and the animals populating it have never been more realistically rendered than they are in “Mufasa: The Lion King.” Disney felt the need to have the lions, warthog … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Ladyboss has a taste for being dominated — “Babygirl”

Posted on December 26, 2024 by Roger Moore

Dutch actress-turned-director Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl” is an icy, clinical inversion of our idea of masochism and “abuse of power” in the workplace. The director of “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies” sets up Nicole Kidman as a “woman on top” at the office, … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Dutch underworld’s less of a treat in “Ferry 2”

Posted on December 24, 2024 by Roger Moore

The Dutch underworld saga of “Ferry” Bouman finishes with something like a flourish in “Ferry 2,” the sequel to a gritty rise-of-a-“Pill King” in the Amsterdam underworld tale. But a lot of what precedes that flash finale is pretty frustrating, … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Jackie Chan, in the silly present, in the fantastical past “A Legend”

Posted on December 22, 2024 by Roger Moore

Let the record reflect that Jackie Chan is more limber, nimble and in better faux fighting trim at 70 than you are at 60, 35 or 20, “Boomer,” “Xer,” Millennial or what have you. Hong Kong’s king of martial arts … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Cleese shows us Classic Comedy can be “Clockwise” (1986)

Posted on December 22, 2024 by Roger Moore

A person hellbent on maintaining his dignity in the face of everything thrown at him to deny it, and failing, is the essence of comedy. So it was with Keaton, and so it is with Cleese. Somebody said that once. … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A French prison break that involves “Hunting with Tigers (Tigres et Hyenes)”

Posted on December 17, 2024 by Roger Moore

“Hunting with Tigers” is a heist picture with two heists — one involving cars and motorcycles, the other a boat. The second heist is a prison break from a heavily-guarded courthouse. The script checks-off the requisite boxes of the genre … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Chaplin’s ode to a Dying Corner of Comedy — “Limelight”

Posted on December 17, 2024 by Roger Moore

Memory is a merciful thing when it comes movies. We remember the grand moments in films, the signature bits, and much of what’s less moving, entertaining or important just drifts away. Charlie Chaplin had become Charles Chaplin long before “Limelight,” … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Megan Fox, robotic in her “Subservience”

Posted on December 16, 2024 by Roger Moore

Saying Megan Fox is well cast as a robotic household “helper” in “Subservience” seems kind of mean. And one really should avoid using the phrase “human sex doll” in describing her role here, or her screen career in general. “Subservience” … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Once more to Middle Earth, before “The Lord of the Rings,” “The War of the Rohirrim”

Posted on December 14, 2024 by Roger Moore

“The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” is a dull placeholder pic rolled out by Warner Animation to keep the company’s intellectual property rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth current in the public’s mind. Streaming series aside, … Continue reading →

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