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clarkx
Reviews
Huckleberry Finn (1974)
OMG, Did Korman STINK!
This movie pretty much ruins Twain's masterpiece, but the worst thing in it, and one of the worst performances I've ever seen, is Harvey Korman's so-called "enactment" of The King.
Couldn't anyone tell him he was overacting? Did he think he was on the stage or television? And that awful voice he used made it hard to understand what he was saying or singing, not that it was necessarily worth understanding, of course.
I thought the 1960 version of HF was disappointing, but this one is pretty sickening.
The Godless Girl (1928)
Silly
This film is well made and held my interest (most silent movies don't) -- but the message! It's simple-minded, childish religion at its silliest.
Besides having no clue what atheism is all about, DeMille and MacPherson (the simple-minded scenarist) seem to be saying that if you believe (in the correct religion, of course), you'll be saved from a fire.
You don't have to do anything, or be a good person -- all you need to do is believe.
Weren't they aware of how many people who "believed" were killed in fires -- and earthquakes and tornadoes and accidents and murders and of hundreds of dread diseases and --------- well, the list is depressingly long for a universe run by a loving god, isn't it?
Meanwhile, I'm sure there were many hardcore atheists who had long, healthy lives. Some might even have been saved from fires!
Of course, what happens after death --- well, I'm sure they thought they knew the answer to that, too, but like all the rest of us, they didn't have a clue. Thinking you know and really knowing are two very different things.
They'd say if you believed in the right thing -- their religion, of course -- you get to go to heaven. Well, if that's the case, why pray to be saved from death? You'd think a true believer couldn't wait to die!
But, it's an old story. They want to have it both ways. If they're saved from death, god did it. If they're not saved, they went home to god. I envy god -- no matter what happens, they love him!
Actually, if god saves you from going to heaven, it might be he doesn't want you there. That should hurt your feelings.
I notice that the fundamentalist MacPherson, who was so devout, died of cancer at the age of 59. Oh my goodness - I guess she had stopped believing!
After the Wizard (2011)
This movie absolutely stinks
I had the misfortune to stumble on this god awful waste of film, electricity and time on cable television.
It's literally unbelievably slow and stupid. There was this scene on a train where a blind man talks to the scarecrow and tin man and tells them simple and obvious stuff about "The Wizard of Oz" that we already know. It might be the single most boring scene ever committed to film.
I sat there with my jaw dropped, wondering how any filmmaker can think anyone would want to watch something like that. And it went on and on and on and on .....................................
It's getting distressing to think that the creators of today are so uncreative that all they can do is rehash old properties that have already been rehashed to death already.
Naked City: Don't Knock It Till You've Tried It (1962)
Terrible
This was so bad it almost literally made me sick. I used to go around thinking that television was superior in 1962, and even the worst show had some redeeming quality. I can't say that anymore! This was supposed to be comedic -- I guess! I say "I guess" because it seemed as if they were striving for something comedic, but it sure wasn't funny.
The story and the characters were totally unreal. It was difficult to relate to or care about any of these cartoonish characters. It was also difficult to understand what the point of the whole thing was.
By the time the final scene rolled around and the showgirl and her sidekick started breaking things and setting a large fire in the middle of a room inside a large apartment house, and the psychiatrist (who needed one himself) just stood there and let them do it, I was thinking, "Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, it did."
And speaking of that sidekick: What the hell was she supposed to be? I guess people didn't think along these lines in 1962, but all I could think was it was some kind of Lesbian relationship, or else why were they so inseparable? Why was the sidekick willing to commit murder for this woman?
There are no answers to these unimportant questions because this episode is typical of what was wrong with television, even more so back then than now, because series produced more episodes each season: Shows were ground out quickly, on a deadline, and little, if any, thought was given to them. It's amazing how many good episodes managed to get produced under those circumstances, but this sure wasn't one of them. This was nothing more than a stupid, depressing waste of time.
When at the end of the show the announcer intoned, as always, "There are 8,000,000 stories in the naked city; this was one of them," I couldn't help but think, "Spare me the other 7,999,999."