Kanyak Reviews

Rugrats Go Wild (2003)

Worth watching; if you're a fan

[6/10 · 20 February 2005]

Let me first confess that I'm a Rugrats and Thornberries fan so a vehicle that brings them together has got to attract my attention.

The preview for this film (in Turkey) begins with a disembodied Bruce Willis voice complaining how he's never been able to express himself before. We move into a wood-panelled study and Spike and then Lisa.

That bought me. (Sold me? Whatever.) The movie has many flaws: a complete absence of any sense of logical development being chief among them. But what the hey, this is a Rugrats movie and the babies can make up any adventure they want.

The animation particularly intrigued me. The digital animation of the Combi (in particular, but also the Bathysphere as well) is straight out of Futurama.

Duel (1971 TV Movie)

After many years

[10/10 · 27 December 2002]

First I have to admit that I've loved "Duel" since the first time I watched it way back when. Some time ago I had a chance to view it again along with my stepfather (at the time a retired long-haul trucker, who, if truth be told, I never really got along with as a kid). His comment after the movie?

"Yeah. I've had days like that."

Bob

Hamlet (II) (2000 TV Movie)

Hamlet goes Post-Modern

[8/10 · 16 April 2001]

Hamlet set in the pre-Civil War American South (more or less). Claudius, looks vaguely like a recent US president and talks with an Arkansas drawl. Polonius and Ophelia are Black; Polonius is the mansion's major-domo. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern dress, look, and talk like a couple of Mafiosi. The Ghost is a hoot. Hamlet, who speaks with a Midwestern accent, tends to mumble a bit

The text is straight Shakespeare--not a scene or even a line seems to be missing.

The strange thing about this pastiche is that it's engaging and actually works.

My Cousin Vinny (1992)

Lt Colombo turns lawyer?

[8/10 · 8 March 2001]

I came upon this film by accident this evening on TV. It's very, very funny. After a half an hour or so into the movie a question popped into my mind: Does anyone else see a resemblance between Pesci's characterization of Vincent La Guardia and Peter Falk's "Lt Colombo"? The body language, the mannerisms, the feigned stupidity concealing intelligence...

Just a thought

BTW I give the movie an 8/10. It really is one of the jewels of the 90s.

Bob



http://welcome.to/columbo

Forbidden Planet (1956)

A truly amazing achievement

[9/10 · 31 October 2000]

By adapting a Shakespeare plot to the science-fiction format, the makers of this film accomplished a truly amazing feat: they produced the first science-fiction movie that fans of the genre could point to without wincing.

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

Amiable and enjoyable

[9/10 · 23 December 1998]

Siskel and Ebert called this film "Dog of the week" when it was first released. S&E should have taken their heads out of their butts and sniffed the air around them once in a while.

This has to be one of the most *humane* SF films ever made.

PS: The (she's gotta be Jewish) mother ship is a stroke of genius.

Duel (1971 TV Movie)

Quintessential Spielberg

[10/10 · 23 December 1998]

Spielberg's cinematic vision, summed up in a nutshell.

The Perils of Pauline (1947)

Raucous and frenetic

[5/10 · 23 December 1998]

An excessively raucous and frenetic movie--especially considering that it was made in 1947.