Head on over to Amazon and pick up your copy!
The ebook has been out for a year, and what a year it's been! I've gotten so much positive feedback; it's good to know I made the right call in making it available.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Best Picture #26: From Here to Eternity (1953)
OK, this one was not my taste at all. I can't stand stories that are just about unlikeable people making bad/stupid decisions. And that's pretty much what this is. It follows a company of men stationed in Hawaii in the year leading up to Pearl Harbor, and 90% of the drama centers around...whether or not one of them enters some inter-Army boxing tournament. Yes, really. There's also relationship drama because he falls in love with a prostitute but neither of them really wants anything permanent but they have that niggling early 20th century "we should get married if we want to keep having sex" urge, and the company's sergeant is secretly sleeping with the captain's neglected wife, blah blah blah. Also we kill off Frank Sinatra without him singing once. Several other characters get to sing, but not him. That in itself should be listed among the movie's biggest sins. How do you have Frank Sinatra in a rather lengthy supporting role and not have him sing?
All of this hot mess gets interrupted, and you (the audience) knew it was coming given the year and location, by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It's like waiting for the Titanic to hit the iceberg (but that's a different and much more interesting Best Picture). Then it's all "oh shit we're being invaded" and everyone gets trigger happy. The End.
Thank goodness.
While this one wasn't a bad movie, per se, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I honest to goodness started laughing when the boxer asks his prostitute girlfriend to marry him and her line literally is, "Now why would you go and say a thing like that and spoil everything?" It wasn't supposed to be funny, but that's how hilariously fucked up these people are.
Watched: August 9, 2018
All of this hot mess gets interrupted, and you (the audience) knew it was coming given the year and location, by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It's like waiting for the Titanic to hit the iceberg (but that's a different and much more interesting Best Picture). Then it's all "oh shit we're being invaded" and everyone gets trigger happy. The End.
Thank goodness.
While this one wasn't a bad movie, per se, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I honest to goodness started laughing when the boxer asks his prostitute girlfriend to marry him and her line literally is, "Now why would you go and say a thing like that and spoil everything?" It wasn't supposed to be funny, but that's how hilariously fucked up these people are.
Watched: August 9, 2018
Sunday, June 9, 2019
Best Picture #25: The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
I am really glad The Greatest Show on Earth turned out to not be the direct predecessor of The Greatest Showman. Other than being about the circus, they are completely different. The circus in The Greatest Show on Earth is well-established and huge. A large portion of the movie is just footage of the acts. I can see the appeal, since it brought the excitement and atmosphere of the circus to the moviehouses. We were entertained almost in spite of ourselves (and in spite of its ridiculous length, this being a film directed by the guy who also did the epic Ten Commandments and also starred bombastic Charlton Heston).
The plot, if it can be called that, is pretty basic. Behind-the-scenes interpersonal drama in a very large circus; love and rivalries blossom and fade between the acts and the individual performers. The draw for the most part is watching the acts perform (done for the most part by actual Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey acts). That in itself might have been enough to put it in Oscar contention since it brought the magic of the circus much closer to everyday life and in bright, flashy colors. There is also a very dramatic train wreck towards the end that even though it's obviously done in miniatures is still very impressive and looks less fake than some CGI.
This is supposed to be one of the least deserving Best Picture winners. There is some merit to this, since it beat out High Noon and Singin' in the Rain, both of which have endured longer in the public consciousness, and director Cecil B. DeMille's best-known work now is of course The Ten Commandments, which itself did not win Best Picture. But Best Picture awards don't measure what stands the test of time, they are in many ways a litmus test for the atmosphere of the day, and this movie was the highest grossing film of 1952. For us at least, this is definitely not one of the worst Best Pictures we've seen yet; some, like Broadway Melody, The Great Ziegfeld, Cimarron, and All the King's Men, have been downright painful to sit through. This was big, bold, and entertaining.
Watched: June 12, 2018
The plot, if it can be called that, is pretty basic. Behind-the-scenes interpersonal drama in a very large circus; love and rivalries blossom and fade between the acts and the individual performers. The draw for the most part is watching the acts perform (done for the most part by actual Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey acts). That in itself might have been enough to put it in Oscar contention since it brought the magic of the circus much closer to everyday life and in bright, flashy colors. There is also a very dramatic train wreck towards the end that even though it's obviously done in miniatures is still very impressive and looks less fake than some CGI.
This is supposed to be one of the least deserving Best Picture winners. There is some merit to this, since it beat out High Noon and Singin' in the Rain, both of which have endured longer in the public consciousness, and director Cecil B. DeMille's best-known work now is of course The Ten Commandments, which itself did not win Best Picture. But Best Picture awards don't measure what stands the test of time, they are in many ways a litmus test for the atmosphere of the day, and this movie was the highest grossing film of 1952. For us at least, this is definitely not one of the worst Best Pictures we've seen yet; some, like Broadway Melody, The Great Ziegfeld, Cimarron, and All the King's Men, have been downright painful to sit through. This was big, bold, and entertaining.
Watched: June 12, 2018
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