You'll Hear About All of These Today
Born Yesterday (1950)
directed by George Cukor
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
"Born Yesterday" is that all too typical sort of Hollywood stage adaptation, the preachy bore. It's like a jerk telling you how high-minded and wonderful Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is, but not showing you the clips of Jean Arthur smiling, or that city restaurant where newspapermen eat sandwiches. A condescending sermon, with the right philosophy, maybe, but no good reason to buy it. But lord does Judy Holliday show off the art of stretching a line.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
directed by Steven Spielberg
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD at JL's
The slap-sticky "Temple of Doom" isn't ever very good (unless it's Harrison's last great acting gasp in the ingratiating sneer he shows his Shanghai masters), but its sloppy nonchalance runs circles around the arrogance ofLast Crusade Schindler's List.
Night of the Comet (1984)
directed by Thom Eberhardt
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
An eighties movie about aliens and zombies that becomes, both in its final Anglo-Latino pairing and in the class-conscious conservatism the new couple immediately assumes, an endearing rejection of not just social norms but people, too. Young sis thinks of big sis as role model and competitor - when big sis wins out, young sis gets a guy with a convertible and hits the road. It isn't much but it's fun.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
directed by David Yates
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
seen on the screen at the Alamo Quarry
Clunky as the wrong pair of shoes (even worse as adaptation).
Alamo: The Price of Freedom (1988)
directed by Kieth Merrill
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
seen on the screen at IMAX San Antonio
I can't think of an equivalent cultural phenomenon to this 45-minute made-for-Imax curiosity. Filmed in Brackettville, Texas - where John Wayne built a new, still-standing Bexar County for his own 1960 surrender to John Ford - it distills the most conventional telling of the Alamo legend to a sixty foot exercise in iconography. The movie's cast and crew are all unknowns, and sufficiently so, but that isn't the story. "The Price of Freedom" is about to begin its twentieth year in heavy daily rotation at the Rivercenter mall in downtown San Antonio. More than a clever promotional tie-in for packaged Alamo tours, the movie's longevity is best explained, I think, by being the better Alamo experience, which says a lot about many things in Santone, but lightheartedly.
directed by George Cukor
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
"Born Yesterday" is that all too typical sort of Hollywood stage adaptation, the preachy bore. It's like a jerk telling you how high-minded and wonderful Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is, but not showing you the clips of Jean Arthur smiling, or that city restaurant where newspapermen eat sandwiches. A condescending sermon, with the right philosophy, maybe, but no good reason to buy it. But lord does Judy Holliday show off the art of stretching a line.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
directed by Steven Spielberg
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD at JL's
The slap-sticky "Temple of Doom" isn't ever very good (unless it's Harrison's last great acting gasp in the ingratiating sneer he shows his Shanghai masters), but its sloppy nonchalance runs circles around the arrogance of
Night of the Comet (1984)
directed by Thom Eberhardt
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
An eighties movie about aliens and zombies that becomes, both in its final Anglo-Latino pairing and in the class-conscious conservatism the new couple immediately assumes, an endearing rejection of not just social norms but people, too. Young sis thinks of big sis as role model and competitor - when big sis wins out, young sis gets a guy with a convertible and hits the road. It isn't much but it's fun.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
directed by David Yates
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
seen on the screen at the Alamo Quarry
Clunky as the wrong pair of shoes (even worse as adaptation).
Alamo: The Price of Freedom (1988)
directed by Kieth Merrill
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
seen on the screen at IMAX San Antonio
I can't think of an equivalent cultural phenomenon to this 45-minute made-for-Imax curiosity. Filmed in Brackettville, Texas - where John Wayne built a new, still-standing Bexar County for his own 1960 surrender to John Ford - it distills the most conventional telling of the Alamo legend to a sixty foot exercise in iconography. The movie's cast and crew are all unknowns, and sufficiently so, but that isn't the story. "The Price of Freedom" is about to begin its twentieth year in heavy daily rotation at the Rivercenter mall in downtown San Antonio. More than a clever promotional tie-in for packaged Alamo tours, the movie's longevity is best explained, I think, by being the better Alamo experience, which says a lot about many things in Santone, but lightheartedly.
posted by NPK at 1:55 PM
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