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hannah-twin
Reviews
Empire Falls (2005)
One of the best movies in 40 years.
Some people did some fantastic performances. Pucci's performance was so real, you could say he wasn't acting. You could swear that the actor who played the principal actually had been a principal, and a kind one. Robin Penn Wright didn't have any false notes, which is incredible inasmuch as she had to show what love is like. The fellow who played Zack Minty was near perfect--playing the kid you hated. Helen Hunt was outstanding as the middle-age woman looking for romance. Estelle Parsons played her mother so well you would think she was Helen Hunt's mother. Farina was great. Hoffman had little screen time, and yet was very touching in a way I can't describe. The only problems were with the people who put the movie together. The difference was too great between the old and new Paul Newman. The old Paul Newman was a much deeper character than the portrayal done by a young version of himself. And Joanne Woodward Newman just didn't seem mean enough to be believable. The Newman's knew how to cast everyone but themselves.
The Bad News Bears (1976)
Vic Morrow, Joyce Van Patten gave great performances
Vic Morrow, as Coach Turner, gave some of the greatest lines..
Morrow to his young little league team in the dugout before the championship game, I don't want to talk to you about winning. I want to talk to you about losing....because if you lose you are going to have to live with it for the rest of your lives.
Morrow to his son, the pitcher...Joey, if you don't start pitching better than you are hitting, I'm going to take you right out of the game.
Morrow to semi tough kid Jack Earle Haley..This place is for ball players, and nobody wants you around here.
Morrow to opposing coach Matthau..What are you, one of those sadists or something? Joyce Van Patten to everybody..They win one game. Next they will sue to play at Dodger stadium.
Morrow to his son the pitcher after he strikes his son to the ground, Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. You tried to hit that kid.
Joyce Van Patten tries to kick Haley's motor bike after he throws a lit cigarette at her after she tells him to get off an unused part of the ball field.
The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
One terrifyingly scary movie that is based on fact.
You've seen a dozen movies about Africa, and you could never understand why hunting big game is such a big deal. After all, you've seen movie actors calmly stand their ground with rifles and easily shoot wild animals. Well, this movie shows why hunting game can be terrifying. It can be terrifying because the huge pair of lions in this movie are man-eaters who are smarter than the men who hunt them. The lions can move in daylight, can be very close, and yet, you can't see them. The lions give thunderous roars that so terrifies hunters that they freeze or wildly shoot their rifles but can't hit anything as the animals approach. The lions watch and know when a trap is being set for them. The lions don't see men as at the top of the food chain, but just another meal for them. The lions in this movie make the dinosaurs in the Jurassic movies look dumb. And, this movie is based on fact. A young engineer, Val Kilmer, is sent to Africa by a cruel railroad baron to extend a rail line quickly. He is brave, as is the great white hunter, played by Michael Douglas, but both are outwitted over and over again by the lions.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
This is a love story. It has nothing to do with Communism
The key to this story is the discussion between Dr. Bennell and Becky about love. Dr. Bennel uses the Biblical reference "hardening our hearts" in talking to Becky about what makes life worth living.
Everybody is familiar with a spouse, sister, friend who is no longer loving. Becky and Dr. Bennell, who are in love, both agree that they wouldn't want to live in a world without love. But Dr. Bennell says that the ability to love disappears "a little bit" in all of us when we harden our hearts. (Everybody who is familiar with the New Testament knows this reference.) In other words, love is snatched from them unless they fight against not loving others.
Nobody knows why it happens. In the movie, short story and book, Jack Finney comes up with a reason why love disappears--pods from outer space. That is why Becky is the only one who screams when a dog is almost hit in the town square of Santa Mira (actually Sierra Madre, CA).
Becky (Dana Wynter) is perfect for this part because she is the embodiment of love. Back in the 1950s, many women existed like her, and loving men existed, too. Did the Body Snatchers win? The movie is shocking because we all know the horror of lost love.
Interesting goofs: The doctor takes a sleeping Becky, dressed in bed clothes, from her bed and takes her to his house. When Becky wakes up the next morning at the doctor's house she is wearing tight jeans and a blouse, which are obviously hers.
Another goof: At the doctor's house, Becky says she is going to boil two-minute eggs. She and the doctor are diverted to look at who is in the basement. Then Becky remembers the eggs and says they will be hard boiled. But the eggs have been in the water only about 20 seconds.
Another goof: When filming headlights of a car which are lit, a film is placed over the lights so as not to blind the camera. When the doctor pulls into a used car lot to hide his car, he turns off the car's headlights, but the film covering the lights can be plainly seen.
Thunder Road (1958)
Realistic, touching, movie about delivering moonshine.
This movie has believable action. You can visualize yourself racing high-powered cars down country back roads. It has love--love of a young girl for an older man, and love of a man for a woman unlike anyone he ever knew as a young man. It has hate--hate for people who pretend to care, but don't, and hate for people bereft of any kindness. It has jealousy of someone who is losing the girl he wants to another man. It shows family love of backwoods people, people who are looked down upon by most others but actually have more decency than most people. It has sadness of life when things don't turn out the way they should. Though a relatively short movie, you come away with the feeling that you knew all of these people. Don't miss it. In the movie, Robert Mitchum plays a Korean war vet who has come back home to find he must fight for his way of life. He is a backwoodsman who delivers moonshine in tankers--fast modified automobiles. His people, backwoods people, eke out a living selling it. But the U.S. government wants him stopped because no federal taxes are paid on moonshine. At the same time, organized crime, selling unlicensed liquor themselves, wants his deliveries stopped and will kill to stop him. Mitchum's character sees little difference between the government and organized crime. He must also fight his brother who also wants to become a tanker driver, a profession Mitchum sees as increasingly dangerous, and fight an envious fellow tanker driver. Mitchum had asked Elvis Presley to play his brother in the movie. Presley was interested but followed Col. Parker's advice and Presley turned the role down. Had Presley accepted, he would have been perfect for the role.