http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/ Copyright 2005 Mon, 31 Jan 2005 20:32:30 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.11 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss The Man Who Knew Too Much, a film by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenpaly by John Michael Hayes, is another Hitchcock film that excels in so many areas, yet is just lacking or ignorant enough in others to prevent it... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/the_man_who_kne.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/the_man_who_kne.shtml Mon, 31 Jan 2005 20:32:30 -0500 Strangers on a Train, a film by Alfred Hitchock with a screenplay by Raymond Chandler and Whitfield Cook based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, is a very good execution of a suspense yarn in standard Hitchcock fashion. The story... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/strangers_on_a.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/strangers_on_a.shtml Mon, 31 Jan 2005 20:17:09 -0500 The Night of the Hunter, a the only credited film by actor Charles Laughton with a screenplay by James Agee (based on a book by Davis Grubb) is remarkable for primarily one reason: the performance of Robert Mitchum as disturbed... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/the_night_of_th.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/the_night_of_th.shtml Film Review Thu, 27 Jan 2005 23:04:15 -0500 Not much to say about The Amityville Horror, which purports to show the 20-day house haunting. The scares are pretty much a combination of open windows and breezes mixed in with false alarms. Basically, it shows no imagination whatsoever, and... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/the_amityville.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/the_amityville.shtml Film Review Mon, 24 Jan 2005 19:53:29 -0500 Apparently, tonight was James Brolin night, as I noticed after renting this and The Amityville Horror that both contained the firm-jawed Christian Bale look-alike. Westworld was a disappointment, though it's pretty clear how writer/director Michael Crichton eventually picked up the... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/westworld_1973.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/westworld_1973.shtml Film Review Mon, 24 Jan 2005 19:41:49 -0500 Vertigo is frequently referred to as Hitchcock's most complicated and deep film, and having seen a good majority of his corpus, I have to agree. It's a thriller, a mystery, and a love story rolled into one film, which works... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/vertigo.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/vertigo.shtml Film Review Fri, 21 Jan 2005 00:01:59 -0500 The older the film, the more you have to prepare your mind to enjoy it. For example, if I'm about to watch an old German silent film, I have to turn on intellectual mode and make a lot of excuses... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/all_quiet_on_th.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/all_quiet_on_th.shtml Film Review Wed, 19 Jan 2005 02:29:19 -0500 Don't go into Million Dollar Baby with expectations of seeing a Rocky of the 21st century, or you're going to be thrown a curve ball that might knock you over. At least, it knocked me over, and I had to... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/million_dollar.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/million_dollar.shtml Tue, 18 Jan 2005 01:03:23 -0500 Kinsey is exactly the reason why I really dislike biopics, and why I have no desire to see Ray or Beyond the Sea or any other biopics coming along anytime soon. In a nutshell: the problem with biopics is that... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/kinsey.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/kinsey.shtml Film Review Tue, 18 Jan 2005 00:31:40 -0500 I just saw my first Francois Truffaut movie, and like most European character-driven pieces, it's difficult to judge on first viewing. Also, the fact that it's a renowned work, a Tuffaut film, and in a foreign language all serve to... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/jules_et_jim.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/jules_et_jim.shtml Film Review Sun, 16 Jan 2005 04:46:14 -0500 Given that I never saw Predator when I was a kid, I don't have any sort of attachment to it that would cause me to defend it in front of sane movie-goers who claim that it is, more or less,... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/predator.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/predator.shtml Thu, 13 Jan 2005 03:26:53 -0500 I have now seen three of Fellini's masterpieces, and I haven't enjoyed or understood a single one. I think I'll come back when I'm older.... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/la_dolce_vita.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2005/01/la_dolce_vita.shtml Thu, 13 Jan 2005 03:25:51 -0500 I am not a fan of Easy Rider. Having just seen it, I wonder if I needed to have been alive in the 1960's and 1970's to fully appreciate it, but the point seems to me: show a bunch of... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2004/10/easy_rider.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2004/10/easy_rider.shtml Sun, 17 Oct 2004 21:19:03 -0500 I'm quite annoyed because the mailman shoved The Deer Hunter into my box, bending it enough to ruin the disc. So I got about halfway through the film, then had to shut it off and report it broken. Second copy... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2004/10/the_deer_hunter.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2004/10/the_deer_hunter.shtml Film Review Fri, 15 Oct 2004 00:22:02 -0500 I frequently say that the fundamental necessity for any film is first and foremost, ABOVE ALL ELSE (can I stress this anymore?!) a good story. And in this sense, Primer, which opened this past weekend, is a very interesting case.... http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2004/10/primer.shtml http://www.3rdrate.com/blog/archives/2004/10/primer.shtml Film Review Mon, 11 Oct 2004 03:19:32 -0500