Anthony_Rauscher Reviews

My Secret Valentine (2018 TV Movie)

Love is What's Important

[10/10 · 26 October 2018]

Like a warm, inviting, familial, comfortable "Christmassy" Valentine's day, with a touch of a new spring crispness, and freshness, in the air.

"Akward" charm - poking fun, jabs etc.. begins after Seth and Chloe first meet in romantic happenstance, and like each other, and then meet again, under slightly different circumstances!

They both have important things going on in their lives, but what they grow to realize, is how important they are to each other, as much as the things they each value.

Their actions are full of sincerity, genuineness, and meaningfulness, and ultimately purpose - in the things that they are doing in their lives, and for each other - and it's the characters valuing of things, that keeps bringing them closer, and closer together.

There's not many characters, but all of them are cute, and carry the pace of the plot very nicely.

If you've never seen Lacey Chabert in Party of Five, you wouldn't need to. This is a perfectly glowing moment for her, and her character guides the whole movie along just amazingly, with her succinct powerfulness, fully defended yet unabashed vulnerabilities, and a good dose of natural sweetheartedness, fun, and cute!

This movie moves at a sweet, charming, natural pace that just WANTS to happen, and you just want this movie to happen, and it does! And that's what makes it so good :)

Taming the Wild (1936)

Adorable!

[10/10 · 18 June 2018]

June Bolton! Wow, right! She's very girly, smart, spot on the money, brushes of the tuff stuff like it's nothin, and she ain't worried about nothin! Shame Maxine Doyle doesn't have the popularity and notoriety as other silver screen actresses of days past, because she's absolutely wonderful.

A great little film that rolls at a great pace. Just one slight little touch madcap, not enough to make things goofy, hilarious, or silly, but just that right sprinkle of it to add to the cuteness, loveableness, and free spirited passion of the story, and all the characters that pull it together that way. The film pulls together so many genres and therein lies a great deal of it's charm - there's sexiness, romance, passion, comedy, friendship, family, mystery, crime, and drama - and nothing is taken too over seriously, nor too under seriously - in essence this film sums up a great deal of the 30s and 40s and can give you a feeling of looking through a window into what were enjoyed as the good times in that era. I definitely get equal feelings of the professionalism, and the enjoyment of all those invovled - and there is a great deal of both!

There is interesting informative narrative "filling" dashed throughout the story, and the film rolls from character to character, keeping a steady pace of motion, but the majority of the film focuses, intently, like I do, on the smart, sporty, seriously cute June Bolton/Maxine Doyle - and that's the good reason why!

The cute, energetic, exuberant, slightly under expected love story between Richard and June make this a fantastic story, and raises the film from the obscurity of bland romances, crime dramas, or slapstick comedies, into a great film that feels great to watch time and time again! And the spanking scene! Wow :)

Can't help but fall in love!

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948)

A little wonder of a film!

[10/10 · 27 May 2018]

Gently bumbling, and ticklingly aloof. Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid is an innocent, fun, light, casual, and leisurely film. A sort of romance film geared perhaps just for men, with a bit of a matured playful Ferris Bueller's Day Off kind of feeling!

Much like the characters in the movie, we are whisked away on a quaintly picturesque cozy little retreat by the film itself. The great characters carry the story along very well, with dashes of charming pleasant comedy thrown about here and there, though there's not much "depth" to characters, or story here. But that's not the point. What we have here is an appreciation of the subtley fantastical things that make life good, nice, and enjoyable! A mermaid, with a beautiful smile, ready to kiss!

Makes for a very nice comfy weekend watch!

5 Centimeters per Second (2007)

This movie just turns me on on so many lvls like crazy..

[10/10 · 5 April 2018]

Everytime..

Absolutely stunningly beautiful, with a perfect music score, and an incredibly well thought narrative/story/tale. It's an unstoppable watch. I personally don't even know how you could find a more beautiful, and beautifully made love story..

Everything about this movie is right on point, and wistfully beautiful - the colors in the distant clouds, and the breeze in the grasses and sugar canes, the sounds of the birds and insects, the glittering reflections of lights in the rain and waters, and the pastel scenery.

A great tale of love, friendship, companionship, and happiness - who's great strength, is held together and bonded by delicateness, and fragility - and by it's importance, meaningfulness, thoughtfulness, and sweetness.

It can be a touch difficult to follow - specifically because it's narrative based, as opposed to character story based - you're listening to the characters read you a book basically, so you have to pay attention.

It doesn't get any better than this - it's like the entirety of FF7 smushed into a beautiful tiny love story..

If you need a beautiful place to go, and be, but can't find one - put this movie on, and that's where you'll be :)

A reminder that love is more eternal than life, and with eternal love, life continues on in love..

That ending though, after the song. You know that's not the end..

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986)

Abara Cadabara!

[10/10 · 21 January 2018]

James Earl Jones as a Zulu type warrior!! It's amazing! Henry Silva's bad guy, could whoop Skeletor's a$$ right outta town.. Sharon Stone is sexy, AND cute as all heck. Mistress of the dark Elvira, as one of the two, equally VERY beautiful queens - wow! Richard Chamberlain is awesome, and comes across with a charming, glowing faced, well skilled, well groomed TV star quality that yet, unlike other TV "heartthrobs" has a genuine interest, and adventurous fearlessness that makes the whole film seem so - natural! Classy, well rehearsed/scripted action scenes, lots of VERY cool, absolutely beautiful, well filmed locations, and tons of really cool extras in the film. A very interesting, captivating, and adventurous story that's not at all pompous, and it has a fair dose of charm, heart, and some pretty funny moments in a unique, and quirky way, with great characters that are almost a modern videogame style mashup, and are extremely loveable, discernible from each other, and notable.

If you like movies like - Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and say things like, Brendan Frasier, or Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson style adventure movies and the like - You WILL definitely enjoy this, and moreover, this is probably a film that most people have not seen, or heard of. It's great to find something new, that is old - and considering the genre's limited profile of movies, this film is far more than worth watching, if you really do enjoy them.

Is this a Michael Bay, or J.J. Abrams film? NO. Shine a flashlight into a prism at your eyes while you watch this, and it would be the best one ever. It's a far more epic film, than first glance might give it credit for.

It's a great family film too.

I think this movie, is amazing :)

The Stone Flower (1946)

A brilliant and warmly glowing gemstone of a film

[10/10 · 16 January 2018]

The Stone Flower as a piece of cinematic art, seems to surpass Disney, or The Wizard of Oz, in a similar visual vein, and always clearly presents it's own unique impeccable, and intricate attention to delicate detail, not found in many other films.

There is a pleasing sense of welcoming and invitingness to the film, and with kindness and gladness it opens itself up to you to come along and enjoy.

Great care, classiness, and refinement abound in the production of The Stone Flower, and it makes for a beautiful experience to watch. And whether you can understand Russian, or not, visually the story will keep it's pace, and lead the way for you quite clearly.

The Stone Flower is a tale of folk, and a tale of beautifulness and happiness, and it is sprinkled in the icing sugar of magicalness, and fantasy!

A very lovely film! :)

Dreams Come True (1984)

Dream until your dream comes true..

[10/10 · 15 January 2018]

Plenty of 80s loved up and loveable determination, perseverance, and personal will power, freedom, and dash of 80s signature toughness, and attitude - coupled with dreams, dreaminess, passion, and fantasy.

Comes across with more than a touch of - real, and regular life in a fantasy, and fantasy in real, and regular life.

The characters are cute, casual, natural, genuine, relatable, charming, fun, interesting, attractive, and un-pretentious.

An America behind what Springsteen, and Mellencamp fantasized, and celebritized - but this is the REAL life and dreams and fantasies behind the real deal - Sweet, fun, beautiful, dreamy, determined, perserving, and believing. That special sense and awareness of a greater dream, and reality, in the midst of one that is sort of already pretty great as it is - but normal.

The astral dreams kick in, it skirts the broad precipice between sci-fi and fantasy, never fully crossing the line into one or the other - again in the 80s believable, fun, innovative, and loved up spirit.

"Dream, dream, dream. That is all I want to do!"

The music score is great too!

In this day and age, Dreams Come True is an equally enjoyable escapism from both the mundane, and the overly contrived that can make you laugh, and feel good and interested about things - Just as it was intended to be when it was created in '84!

Great movie, and the neon and the sparkles make it even greater! :)

Unhinged (1982)

Legendary, Iconic, Very Creepy..

[10/10 · 24 September 2017]

Contender for best horror film ending. ever. period. Quite possibly the winner. Quite possibly one of the best film endings. ever. period. Regardless of the budget, and Hollywood snobbery aside etc..

Full of real "Oh f*#k.." moments, in key places. The acting isn't Hollywood character development, but it's explanatory, and tonal - This and the films set and atmosphere set a fantastic pace to the story, which I believe is intentional, to establish the ultimate finality in the film clearly - Marion Penrose is a psychopath unlike no other, and no well developed character could possibly compare or stand against her! Hardcore in depth focus and development in characters, would have produced the opposite effect. The cute, sweet, natural, genuine, leisurely, carefree girls (both as actresses, and the characters they portray) just seem to carry along on their own, and then.... get brutally slaughtered and slashed. That would seem to be the ultimate horrifying terrifying point! And that's what helps make this film so nightmarishly impactful overall. Everything seems only somewhat odd, at first - the characters, the location - but ramps up successively, becoming creepier, and creepier, and very, very creepier..

Nothing is contrived in this film, it's not trying to be anything at all, and it firmly stakes it's own, untouched, ground - It's 100% unique. If elements of influence are felt, it's particularly from Psycho - In a really good, and innovative way! Few films have what Unhinged has in droves, and none have it the way Unhinged does - true creep factor.

The murders are well timed, and have an extremely realistic, and quite very disturbing feel. They're conducted swiftly, and succinctly, with great precision and skill, and with surprising and LEGENDARY daft! Marion Penrose simply establishes "herself" as a seemingly absolutely intelligent successful crazed murderer that tingles inside with nothing but thoughts of killing. The reveal in the shed when Terry tries to escape Carl is grotesque as heck, and disturbingly trippy - One can almost sympathetically feel at this point, that sadly the films protagonist will NOT make it out. These are all victims you feel for, and WANT to survive. But they don't, and it hurts.

The strong and righteous female lead is a subtle and sweet presence that could stand side by side with the likes of Sigourney Weaver as Lt. Ripley, Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, or Milla Jovovich as Alice, in it's own right. Terry Morgan (Laura Munson) always did her best, against all odds, and never gave up. Laura Munson's sidekick Sara Ansley is no slouch either, and they both sport out many fun different looks over the course of the movie, and spew out some great one liners. The girl power in this movie is ahead of it's time, and superseding of it's genre - these girls are intelligent, determined, unflinching, strong, and persevering - Considering the circumstances. The girls are also strikingly very beautiful, and cute as friggin beans! You also sense that, meh, they don't care about much - they're having fun doing this! When you love what you do - it shows!😊

The storyline is quite airtight, signifying that even though a great deal of money wasn't behind this project, a great deal of intelligence was. As a "low budget" film - It has a whole LOT more to give, and get out of it, than went into the budget - and that's a fantastic thing to see. We're watching what effort, purpose, and labor of love & interest do in Unhinged. We're not watching what the love of a swimming pool filled with money does. Gronquist was extraordinarily intentional, commanding, particular, intelligent, careful, and selective of what he did with what resources he had. Subtly, everything about this film is iconic and legendary - It's something like diamonds in the dark (a film in a low budget), and when glints of light make them sparkle, you know exactly what you've got, and how beautiful and valuable it is.

I hope you love the film as much as I do!