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madjack71
Reviews
Playing Shakespeare (1982)
When, oh when, will this be available on DVD?
I had the opportunity to see this series when I was in college. I was rehearsing a production of Julius Caesar, and my director hosted a get together at his apartment, where we watched several episodes that he had taped. Since then, I've been waiting in vain for the opportunity to watch the entire series. I have yet to find another book or documentary that equals this series as a guide either to performing Shakespeare or to acting in general. Having such high-caliber Royal Shakespeare Company talent as Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Ben Kingsley, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Dame Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart and David Suchet performing the Bard's work ensures that the series is highly entertaining as well as instructive.
The Falls (1980)
Good G-d, this is DULL!
This movie has my vote for the worst movie ever made. Other candidates, such as "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "Manos: The Hands of Fate," are at least amusing, if unintentionally so. "The Falls," however, doesn't even have this advantage. Instead it is just excruciatingly long, boring and repetitive, telling an absurd number of supposedly linked vignettes about victims of some undefined apocalyptic event. The victims profiled, most of whom have developed some sort of bizarre physical or psychological handicap as a result, have nothing in common other than that the first four letters of their last name are "F-A-L-L," hence the title. There is a theme, but no plot and no particular reason to care about anyone in the film. I sat through this monstrosity while in college. When the theater brought up the lights for an intermission, halfway through the 185 minute film, at least two-thirds of the audience got up and walked out. It was that bad.
Enough (2002)
Decent, if derivative
I rented this film mainly because I had heard it featured the Israel self-defense art Krav Maga. I wanted to see a glimpse of this without renting something as stolid as a training video. What I got was fairly entertaining, although it was rather slow to get off the ground. The film takes a fairly long time establishing the relationship between Slim (Jennifer Lopez)and husband Mitch (Billy Campbell) before revealing Mitch openly for the monster he is. We get all sorts of hints about how controlling and possessive he can be before this. The problem I had with this, and with Slim's run from Mitch, is that I'd seen it before (and done better) in Sleeping with the Enemy, with Julia Roberts in Lopez's role and Patrick Bergin in the Campbell part. J.Lo's character does some phenomenally stupid things for a woman on the run, such as making repeated calls to her estranged husband's mother and even, once, to her husband, so that her daughter can speak to them [END SPOILER ALERT]. But this is something I would tend to blame on the writing. Lopez herself does a fairly creditable job as a wife first betrayed, then terrified. But the real acting triumphs in this film belong to Campbell, who comes across as the textbook example of a sociopath, and to Tessa Allen as Slim and Mitch's daughter, Gracie. Allen was only five when "Enough" was filming, but she clearly has a great career ahead of her.
Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)
PeeYEW!!!
This stinker makes Plan 9 From Outer Space look like Star Wars. For those of you who are familiar with Mystery Science Theater 3000 but haven't seen their send up of Manos, this film is so awful that Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank actually APOLOGIZED to Joel and the bots for subjecting them to it. The English language, brimming as it is with creative insults, simply does not contain invective foul enough to accurately describe how truly awful this film is. It is far and away the WORST film I have ever seen.