Tennis and Menace

HARD FAST AND BEAUTIFUL-1951-An unscrupulous mother (Claire Trevor) goes to all lengths to promote her daughter (Sally Forrest) in the sport of Tennis. She hooks up with a sleazy promoter (Carlton Young Jr.) and tries to break up a romance between her daughter and the man she loves (Robert Clarke, soon to be THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON). This is a great over looked low budget gem directed by actress Ida Lupino. She made six other films between 1949 and 1953 including OUTRAGE (also with Clarke) and doesn't get the credit she deserves. Later she directed many diverse TV shows including episodes of THRILLER, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL and THE DONNA REED SHOW.



WAR OF THE WORLDS-2005-This plays more like some disaster film than an adaptation of a classic HG Wells novel even though they get The Tripods and their mission correct. Tom Cruise is very miscast as an estranged father trying to save his two kids from the Martian invaders. (He and his son look more like brothers!) As his daughter Dakota Fanning screams a lot. Tim Robbins shows up inexplicitly as a loony living underground with a shotgun. There’s lots of SFX and humans are either vaporized or eaten. If you sit through it look for the cameo at the end by Gene Barry & Ann Robinson, stars of the 1953 version. Morgan Freeman does some narration. Steven Spielberg doesn’t do it again.

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Max Twice

Sweden's Max Von Sydow is great actor but having him in your movie doesn't mena your movie is going to be great!



THE KREMLIN LETTER-1970-This all-star cold war spy drama directed by John Huston isn’t very good. There’s a lot of talk and it’s overly complicated. Old spies get together for some dirty work. Patrick O’Neal is the ex-navy man recruited to impersonate a Russian male prostitute. He has an affair with Bibi Andersson who’s husband is a sadistic Russian officer (played by her THE SEVENTH SEAL co-star Max Von Sydow) but the underrated Richard Boone steals the show as O’Neal’s “uncle” despite his bad blond dye job.

The always-interesting George Sanders plays a gay agent called Warlock. Nigel Greene is The Whore, Dean Jagger is Highwayman and Michael MacLiammoir is Sweet Alice. Huston tries hard to make this brutal tale work but it really doesn’t. Orson Welles, Barbara Parkins, Raf Vallone and Huston himself round out the cast.





MINORITY REPORT-20th Century-2002-Steven Spielberg blows it again with this sci-fi tale based on a short story by the late Phillip K. Dick.

In a futuristic society authorities use a Pre-Crime Unit to prevent murder. Three “pre-cognitive freaks” help predict when violent crimes will happen. Tom Cruise heads a squad that then must arrest the pre- guilty party before they commit the crime. He takes drugs and watches hologram images of his dead son. Turns out he’s about to become the next pre-killer…. Sounds fascinating, right?

Yeah, right. There’s too much talk, too much over acting, the SFX are pretty bad considering the budget and you’d think SS would have learned from his mistakes after the boring depression of AI but Mr. Hollywood is so hung up on his massive “genius” he could put a bag of shit on film and it would get released. Fortunately Colin Farrell is on hand to chew the scenery actually making Cruise’s performance a little easier to take than usual. Max Von Sydow plays the Pre Crime director.

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