What do you think?
Rate this book
Video Movie Guide 2000
Wondering what video to rent tonight? This bestselling, fact-packed guide is the only sourcebook you and your family will ever need. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter steer you toward the winners and warn you about the losers. VIDEO MOVIE GUIDE 2000 covers it all--more films than any other guide, plus your favorite serials, B-Westerns, made-for-TV movies, and old television programs! Each video, conveniently alphabetized for easy access, includes a concise summary, fresh commentary, the director, major cast members, the year of release, the MPAA rating, plus a reliable Martin and Porter rating--from Five Stars to Turkey--so you'll never get caught with a clunker again!
THE BEST IN THE FIELD FOR FIFTEEN YEARS!
- DIRECTOR AND STAR INDEXES
- COMPLETE ACADEMY AWARD LISTING
- WHERE TO BUY THOSE HARD-TO-FIND VIDEOS
THE BEST IN THE FIELD FOR FIFTEEN YEARS!
- DIRECTOR AND STAR INDEXES
- COMPLETE ACADEMY AWARD LISTING
- WHERE TO BUY THOSE HARD-TO-FIND VIDEOS
1600 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
10 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 4, 2018
3rd year doing this, once again my State of Cinema for the first half of 2018, everything I saw January - June. So I received as a gift a membership to Film Independent, which puts out the Independent Spirit Awards, and as a result received a bunch of screeners to aid in voting on said awards. In fact, I was sent more than I had time to watch, but it's a very cool perk. Again, bold = a five-star film or nearly so; (r) = a rewatch, all others seen for the first time.
2017 Prestige Movies That I Only Got Round To In 2018
I, Tonya
If Get Out hadn’t been my movie of the year in 2017 it would have been this. I always suspected Tonya Harding deserved a more sympathetic hearing than she ever got, and this will serve. It balances tone in a way that should be impossible, being really funny and yet not at the expense of the poverty, mom from hell, and domestic violence Tonya endured. (The only movie I could think of even vaguely similar to what this accomplishes is Gus Van Sant’s To Die For.) And Margot Robbie should have won every award going, including the Nobel for Economics.
The Disaster Artist
Really funny, and only more so as you remind yourself this shit really happened.
The Florida Project
Great story about a little girl in a rundown motel complex who is too irrepressibly happy to realize how poor she and her mom are. Really fine work and recommended.
Call Me By Your Name
Coming of age story of an American teenager in Italy. Released at the same time as a bunch of other notable films, but very much worth seeing.
2018 Releases
Molly's Game
Fast paced, dialogue heavy, and fun, nice showcase for Jessica Chastain. But be warned it is the Aaron Sorkin-est of Aaron Sorkin movies. Mostly that's good, but occasionally it tips over into self-indulgence, like when a character, apropos of nothing, starts talking about "the smell of the universe."
Black Panther
Well if they make a superhero movie partly set and partly filmed in Oakland, I have to see it. This was better than most, and much welcome loud approval from the audience at Oakland's Grand Lake Theatre.
Annihilation
I very much approve of the return of smart, cerebral science fiction flicks. This somewhat reminded me of Arrival, though it's not as great as that one. But very good and recommended.
Thoroughbreds
Sociopath cinema, one of my favorites! Two young women, not exactly friends, each damaged in particular ways, pair up and it's a case of guessing who is more disturbed and who is influencing whom. Right up my alley.
The Death of Stalin
A singular thing, both very funny and horrific. Hard to describe what it's like to watch, but highly recommended. Jason Isaacs owns every scene he's in as Zhukov, the one fearless character. Then you have Steve Buscemi playing Khrushchev, as unlikely as that sounds (every actor does his natural accent, which is genius). So he seems the usual Buscemi character, nervous, scheming, easy to underestimate. Then near the end he turns on a dime and snarls at an enemy, "I will bury you in history!" and it's chilling, one of the best cinematic moments of the year.
Isle of Dogs
Animated Wes Anderson flick about dogs set in Japan, I loved it, especially as the dogs (if you ignore that they talk) act like actual dogs would act.
You Were Never Really Here
I've had mixed reactions to Lynn Ramsey's films, mostly loved Morvern Callar, hated hated hated We Need to Talk About Kevin, and mostly really liked this one. It's radically anti-exposition so don't expect to always understand what's going on. Joaquin Phoenix is a fixer going after bad dudes, basically. Kind of like Point Blank except where Lee Marvin in that one was an iceberg of non-emotion, Phoenix if anything feels things too much.
Beast
Reminded me of Lady MacBeth although it's contemporary and not a period piece. Like that film, involves a young woman whom everyone underestimates and maybe they shouldn't. Effectively disturbing.
First Reformed
Paul Schrader often does movies about tortured men (Hardcore, Light Sleeper, Auto Focus) and this is another one, about a priest slowly unraveling. Mostly really good, though what the ending means I'm still not quite sure.
Nancy
Low-key drama about a woman who comes to believe she might have been kidnapped as a child. Recommended for Andrea Riseborough who is astonishing, close-ups of her face carry the entire film.
Screeners of Indie Flicks Sent by Film Independent
Women Who Kill
Nifty lesbian comedy/drama about two exes who do a true crime podcast. Marred a bit by a flat irresolute ending, but worth watching for the very funny sardonic dialogue.
Marjorie Prime
Well observed chamber piece where people can interact with programmed replicas of deceased loved ones, and whether or not this is a good thing. Originally a stage play, and you can tell, but several excellent performances.
Donald Cried
A severe case of IndieFilm-itis. This is one of those comedy-of-discomfort flicks where a guy returns to his hometown and is stuck for a day with a guy he was friends with in high school but now has nothing in common with. Do you like to cringe for 90 minutes straight? Then you’ll love this.
Ingrid Goes West
Not bad, and I always like Aubrey Plaza, but the trouble with films about how shallow people are with their smart phones and social media addiction is that you get the point after ten minutes, and then the movie just repeats that point ad nauseum for the rest of its running time.
Good Time
A low life two-bit criminal has a really bad night, that gets worse and worse. Fast paced and diverting enough in the moment, but not especially memorable.
Oh Lucy!
Mediocre comedy/drama about a middle aged Japanese woman who comes to the U.S. and, um, does some indie film stuff, then goes back to Japan and the movie ends.
Loveless
Nobody does grim and desperate like the Russians. The young son of an unlikable divorcing couple goes missing, and they search for him while continuing to hate each other. This knocked me out, the cinematography of urban Russia is astonishing. Yes it is depressing, but worth it. Highly recommended.
Foreign Films
Faces Places
Endearing documentary about the director Agnes Varda travelling through rural France.
The Battleship Potemkin
I’ve found it’s easier to appreciate silent films on a big screen, which we also did for The Passion of Joan of Arc and Nosferatu in recent years. The long sequence on the Odessa Steps lives up to its hype, though the politics of the film itself remain somewhat obscure.
A Fantastic Woman
The story here is somewhat familiar and plays as expected, but worth seeing for the spectacular star turn of Daniela Vega.
Kapo
A genuine sleeper. Italian holocaust drama directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (famous for The Battle of Algiers) and starring Susan Strasberg, playing a teenage girl in a death camp made a Kapo (a prisoner who supervises other prisoners) and increasingly hardened and calloused by her experience. Made in 1960, this is the earliest depiction of the Holocaust I’ve seen that attempts to really show what a death camp was like. Recommended.
The Wages of Fear (r)
French suspense classic about four men paid to transport nitroglycerin over treacherous terrain. I saw this 20+ years ago, it’s lost nothing.
Things to Come
The mistake I made in 2016 was I saw the wrong Isabelle Huppert flick. I saw Elle, the ridiculous rape drama, instead of this one which I can recommend, about a professor whose marriage ends and her life thereafter.
Dogtooth
Unpleasant film about an unpleasant Greek family you really don’t want to know about.
Viridiana
I saw a lot of Bunuel films in the ‘90s in my video store days, and I probably would have rated this higher then. I’m sure it’s really about satirizing the Catholic Church blah blah, but the way that’s done is to be excessively rapey toward the young pretty nun at the center of it all. Harder to give it a pass now.
List Within List: The Bunuel films I’ve seen in rough order of preference:
The Exterminating Angel
Tristana
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Diary of a Chambermaid
Un Chien Andalou
Viridiana
Belle de Jour
Susana
Summer 1993
Lovely Spanish film about a six-year-old girl who is orphaned and her new life with relatives who take her in. Just a close observation of a child’s point of view, beautifully done.
Horror Films
A Quiet Place
Great monster-horror involving alien creatures who track humans by sound thus silence = staying alive, maybe. A simple concept beautifully executed, with maybe 80% of the film having no dialogue. Highly recommended.
The Invitation
The creepiest dinner party ever. Old friends get together but the hosts’ behavior is just a bit off. A slow burn of increasing dread and tension, expertly done. Another to recommend.
Hereditary
So much to say. Mostly excellent, this was the most emotionally grueling horror flick I’ve seen since The Other from 1972. For a long stretch I thought it would be among my films of the year, but the last five minutes…just don’t work. It doesn’t ruin the film, but it’s perplexing. You’re watching one kind of horror movie then abruptly it becomes a completely different sort of horror movie. So a lot of great stuff here, a shame they couldn’t stick the landing.
Under the Shadow
Only the second Persian horror flick I’ve seen (the other was A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), set during the Iran – Iraq War, a mother and young daughter have to endure not only their apartment building being hit by Iraq bombs, but a djinn that seems to be after the little girl. Scary and tense.
Lesser Known Genre Flicks & Oddities
Triangle
A twisty time-bending psychological thriller. Sometimes a not-too-ambitious genre film that knows what it’s doing, gets in and gets out and hits all its marks is just what I want to see. Recommended.
The Night Visitor
Not especially good but so weird as to be memorable. A sort-of thriller set on a Scandinavian island, and with Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann, but filmed in English. Von Sydow is gaslighted and locked away then escapes to get revenge. He should have escaped to a Bergman film and taken Liv with him.
Caravaggio
Only my second Derek Jarman film (I also saw The Tempest and loved that one), story is minimal but nearly every shot looks like a painting come to life. Visually astonishing.
Centaur
Ultra-low-budget indie revenge drama written, directed, and starring the same guy, he’s fine on the writing and directing but not enough of an actor to carry the film and he’s in every scene. Very experimental and mostly pretty interesting.
Warlock
Ok, so you’re not supposed to apply 2018 sensibilities to older flicks because ‘of their time’ blah blah but sometimes you just have to point at the elephant in the room. This is a 1959 western with a good cast, good director (Edward Dmytryk), and it’s decent enough, say a 7 out of 10. But the enforced obliviousness of the production code + general ‘50s attitudes turn this into something bizarre. I don’t care what IMDb says in its plot summary, this movie is about Anthony Quinn being in love with Henry Fonda as they go town to town as lawmen for hire. He wants nothing more than to be by Fonda’s side forever, and takes desperate measures to ensure this, such that eventually one of them is forced to kill the other and it destroys them both. I’m sure no one making this film knew that that was the film they were making, and would have been indignant at the suggestion, but I’m telling you. I watched this and then picked my jaw up off the floor.
The Lobster
So I’ve seen three films by this Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, hated Dogtooth (see above), liked The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and this one is probably the best of the three. Absurd premise that being part of a couple is the law and if you find yourself single, you have like 45 days to fall in love or they turn you into an animal of your choice. Yep. What he does is write overly literal dialogue which his actors recite like robots in need of a tuneup. Sounds dreadful I know, but here it really works, by leaning into the absurdity. All his movies are very strange, you’re likely to like them a lot or hate them a lot.
Classics (?)
Black Narcissus
I've decided I prefer the more whimsical Powell & Pressburger films, like I Know Where I'm Going and A Matter of Life and Death, over the melodramatic ones. I had trouble with The Red Shoes years ago, and this is another. Much angst and overheated emotions, and my reaction is mostly, Huh??
Days of Wine and Roses (r)
Outstanding alcoholism drama with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. The insidious part of the tragedy is how Lemmon seems so likable and yet he almost systematically drags his wife down to share in his personal hell. Also one of the great final images in film, of Remick walking forlornly down an empty street, a neon sign flashing above her.
The Misfits
I've never figured out what I think of Marilyn Monroe. I haven't seen many of her films besides Some Like It Hot, an obvious classic. I still don't know. Her delivery is so exaggeratedly breathy, and her persona often so childlike, was that her? or her directors? Anyway, this one is really good but a tough watch. John Huston was a macho guy who excelled in deconstructing macho, so here we have three men's men (Clark Gable, Eli Wallach, Montgomery Clift) out to wrangle some wild mustangs, and why? To turn them over to a company who will turn them into dogfood. The horse wrangling, when if finally comes, is awful and will bring a tear to your eye. This was Monroe's last completed film, and Gable died ten days after it finished.
My Ongoing Quest to Watch Every Bette Davis Movie
3 more checked off, to ever-diminishing returns:
Way Back Home
Well, I may have answered the question of what was the worst movie Ms. Davis ever made. Pre-stardom (1931 and she’s fourth-billed), this is a pathetic attempt at cornpone humor whose lead character is a singing preacher. If that sounds dire, you have no idea.
Winter Meeting
Decent but somewhat dreary soap about a poet’s romance with a returning war veteran. Worst romantic chemistry ever, Davis being saddled with an inarticulate lunk who looks like he should be playing linebacker somewhere. Where is George Brent when you need him?
June Bride
Ok comic fluff about a lifestyle magazine covering an Indiana wedding (Indiana is treated like they barely have indoor plumbing). Robert Montgomery is very droll, which helps.
Other Films I Watched
Celebration Day
Led Zeppelin's 2012 Atlantic Records tribute concert, epic and finally exorcises my awful memories of The Song Remains the Same, one of the worst concert films a great band ever made. So glad this exists.
Go For Sisters
I knew I hadn't seen a John Sayles film in awhile, so I looked it up and holy crap, the last one I saw was Limbo from 1999! He was for years such an icon of independent film, and I should probably catch up on others I haven't seen. And happy to say this movie is excellent, one of his best, about two women who travel to Mexico with a retired cop to look for the missing son of one of them.
List Within List: The Sayles films I've seen in rough order of preference:
Lone Star
Matewan
Passion Fish
Go For Sisters
Baby It's You
Eight Men Out
The Brother From Another Planet
Limbo
Return of the Secaucus Seven
Men With Guns
Sing Street
Kind of a younger, less gritty The Commitments. Really enjoyable.
Young Frankenstein (r)
Still one of my favorite comedies ever.
Blue Caprice
This true crime film about the D.C. snipers came and went without much notice in 2013, but I think it's really good. Not at all a procedural, you get nothing of the investigation, instead it's laser focused on the two killers (who have a father-son relationship though they aren't related). Isaiah Washington is terrifying, a guy consumed with rage who stays controlled and never vents.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Finally got round to this, and yes everyone was right it's great, a comedy/adventure set in New Zealand.
And a Few Others I Saw
A Face in the Crowd
Inferno (not the Dan Brown schlock but a 1953 Robert Ryan drama)
Raw Deal (not the Arnie flick but a 1948 crime drama)
The Shining (r)
Alone in the Dark
The Signal
The Four Musketeers (r)
2017 Prestige Movies That I Only Got Round To In 2018
I, Tonya
If Get Out hadn’t been my movie of the year in 2017 it would have been this. I always suspected Tonya Harding deserved a more sympathetic hearing than she ever got, and this will serve. It balances tone in a way that should be impossible, being really funny and yet not at the expense of the poverty, mom from hell, and domestic violence Tonya endured. (The only movie I could think of even vaguely similar to what this accomplishes is Gus Van Sant’s To Die For.) And Margot Robbie should have won every award going, including the Nobel for Economics.
The Disaster Artist
Really funny, and only more so as you remind yourself this shit really happened.
The Florida Project
Great story about a little girl in a rundown motel complex who is too irrepressibly happy to realize how poor she and her mom are. Really fine work and recommended.
Call Me By Your Name
Coming of age story of an American teenager in Italy. Released at the same time as a bunch of other notable films, but very much worth seeing.
2018 Releases
Molly's Game
Fast paced, dialogue heavy, and fun, nice showcase for Jessica Chastain. But be warned it is the Aaron Sorkin-est of Aaron Sorkin movies. Mostly that's good, but occasionally it tips over into self-indulgence, like when a character, apropos of nothing, starts talking about "the smell of the universe."
Black Panther
Well if they make a superhero movie partly set and partly filmed in Oakland, I have to see it. This was better than most, and much welcome loud approval from the audience at Oakland's Grand Lake Theatre.
Annihilation
I very much approve of the return of smart, cerebral science fiction flicks. This somewhat reminded me of Arrival, though it's not as great as that one. But very good and recommended.
Thoroughbreds
Sociopath cinema, one of my favorites! Two young women, not exactly friends, each damaged in particular ways, pair up and it's a case of guessing who is more disturbed and who is influencing whom. Right up my alley.
The Death of Stalin
A singular thing, both very funny and horrific. Hard to describe what it's like to watch, but highly recommended. Jason Isaacs owns every scene he's in as Zhukov, the one fearless character. Then you have Steve Buscemi playing Khrushchev, as unlikely as that sounds (every actor does his natural accent, which is genius). So he seems the usual Buscemi character, nervous, scheming, easy to underestimate. Then near the end he turns on a dime and snarls at an enemy, "I will bury you in history!" and it's chilling, one of the best cinematic moments of the year.
Isle of Dogs
Animated Wes Anderson flick about dogs set in Japan, I loved it, especially as the dogs (if you ignore that they talk) act like actual dogs would act.
You Were Never Really Here
I've had mixed reactions to Lynn Ramsey's films, mostly loved Morvern Callar, hated hated hated We Need to Talk About Kevin, and mostly really liked this one. It's radically anti-exposition so don't expect to always understand what's going on. Joaquin Phoenix is a fixer going after bad dudes, basically. Kind of like Point Blank except where Lee Marvin in that one was an iceberg of non-emotion, Phoenix if anything feels things too much.
Beast
Reminded me of Lady MacBeth although it's contemporary and not a period piece. Like that film, involves a young woman whom everyone underestimates and maybe they shouldn't. Effectively disturbing.
First Reformed
Paul Schrader often does movies about tortured men (Hardcore, Light Sleeper, Auto Focus) and this is another one, about a priest slowly unraveling. Mostly really good, though what the ending means I'm still not quite sure.
Nancy
Low-key drama about a woman who comes to believe she might have been kidnapped as a child. Recommended for Andrea Riseborough who is astonishing, close-ups of her face carry the entire film.
Screeners of Indie Flicks Sent by Film Independent
Women Who Kill
Nifty lesbian comedy/drama about two exes who do a true crime podcast. Marred a bit by a flat irresolute ending, but worth watching for the very funny sardonic dialogue.
Marjorie Prime
Well observed chamber piece where people can interact with programmed replicas of deceased loved ones, and whether or not this is a good thing. Originally a stage play, and you can tell, but several excellent performances.
Donald Cried
A severe case of IndieFilm-itis. This is one of those comedy-of-discomfort flicks where a guy returns to his hometown and is stuck for a day with a guy he was friends with in high school but now has nothing in common with. Do you like to cringe for 90 minutes straight? Then you’ll love this.
Ingrid Goes West
Not bad, and I always like Aubrey Plaza, but the trouble with films about how shallow people are with their smart phones and social media addiction is that you get the point after ten minutes, and then the movie just repeats that point ad nauseum for the rest of its running time.
Good Time
A low life two-bit criminal has a really bad night, that gets worse and worse. Fast paced and diverting enough in the moment, but not especially memorable.
Oh Lucy!
Mediocre comedy/drama about a middle aged Japanese woman who comes to the U.S. and, um, does some indie film stuff, then goes back to Japan and the movie ends.
Loveless
Nobody does grim and desperate like the Russians. The young son of an unlikable divorcing couple goes missing, and they search for him while continuing to hate each other. This knocked me out, the cinematography of urban Russia is astonishing. Yes it is depressing, but worth it. Highly recommended.
Foreign Films
Faces Places
Endearing documentary about the director Agnes Varda travelling through rural France.
The Battleship Potemkin
I’ve found it’s easier to appreciate silent films on a big screen, which we also did for The Passion of Joan of Arc and Nosferatu in recent years. The long sequence on the Odessa Steps lives up to its hype, though the politics of the film itself remain somewhat obscure.
A Fantastic Woman
The story here is somewhat familiar and plays as expected, but worth seeing for the spectacular star turn of Daniela Vega.
Kapo
A genuine sleeper. Italian holocaust drama directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (famous for The Battle of Algiers) and starring Susan Strasberg, playing a teenage girl in a death camp made a Kapo (a prisoner who supervises other prisoners) and increasingly hardened and calloused by her experience. Made in 1960, this is the earliest depiction of the Holocaust I’ve seen that attempts to really show what a death camp was like. Recommended.
The Wages of Fear (r)
French suspense classic about four men paid to transport nitroglycerin over treacherous terrain. I saw this 20+ years ago, it’s lost nothing.
Things to Come
The mistake I made in 2016 was I saw the wrong Isabelle Huppert flick. I saw Elle, the ridiculous rape drama, instead of this one which I can recommend, about a professor whose marriage ends and her life thereafter.
Dogtooth
Unpleasant film about an unpleasant Greek family you really don’t want to know about.
Viridiana
I saw a lot of Bunuel films in the ‘90s in my video store days, and I probably would have rated this higher then. I’m sure it’s really about satirizing the Catholic Church blah blah, but the way that’s done is to be excessively rapey toward the young pretty nun at the center of it all. Harder to give it a pass now.
List Within List: The Bunuel films I’ve seen in rough order of preference:
The Exterminating Angel
Tristana
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Diary of a Chambermaid
Un Chien Andalou
Viridiana
Belle de Jour
Susana
Summer 1993
Lovely Spanish film about a six-year-old girl who is orphaned and her new life with relatives who take her in. Just a close observation of a child’s point of view, beautifully done.
Horror Films
A Quiet Place
Great monster-horror involving alien creatures who track humans by sound thus silence = staying alive, maybe. A simple concept beautifully executed, with maybe 80% of the film having no dialogue. Highly recommended.
The Invitation
The creepiest dinner party ever. Old friends get together but the hosts’ behavior is just a bit off. A slow burn of increasing dread and tension, expertly done. Another to recommend.
Hereditary
So much to say. Mostly excellent, this was the most emotionally grueling horror flick I’ve seen since The Other from 1972. For a long stretch I thought it would be among my films of the year, but the last five minutes…just don’t work. It doesn’t ruin the film, but it’s perplexing. You’re watching one kind of horror movie then abruptly it becomes a completely different sort of horror movie. So a lot of great stuff here, a shame they couldn’t stick the landing.
Under the Shadow
Only the second Persian horror flick I’ve seen (the other was A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), set during the Iran – Iraq War, a mother and young daughter have to endure not only their apartment building being hit by Iraq bombs, but a djinn that seems to be after the little girl. Scary and tense.
Lesser Known Genre Flicks & Oddities
Triangle
A twisty time-bending psychological thriller. Sometimes a not-too-ambitious genre film that knows what it’s doing, gets in and gets out and hits all its marks is just what I want to see. Recommended.
The Night Visitor
Not especially good but so weird as to be memorable. A sort-of thriller set on a Scandinavian island, and with Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann, but filmed in English. Von Sydow is gaslighted and locked away then escapes to get revenge. He should have escaped to a Bergman film and taken Liv with him.
Caravaggio
Only my second Derek Jarman film (I also saw The Tempest and loved that one), story is minimal but nearly every shot looks like a painting come to life. Visually astonishing.
Centaur
Ultra-low-budget indie revenge drama written, directed, and starring the same guy, he’s fine on the writing and directing but not enough of an actor to carry the film and he’s in every scene. Very experimental and mostly pretty interesting.
Warlock
Ok, so you’re not supposed to apply 2018 sensibilities to older flicks because ‘of their time’ blah blah but sometimes you just have to point at the elephant in the room. This is a 1959 western with a good cast, good director (Edward Dmytryk), and it’s decent enough, say a 7 out of 10. But the enforced obliviousness of the production code + general ‘50s attitudes turn this into something bizarre. I don’t care what IMDb says in its plot summary, this movie is about Anthony Quinn being in love with Henry Fonda as they go town to town as lawmen for hire. He wants nothing more than to be by Fonda’s side forever, and takes desperate measures to ensure this, such that eventually one of them is forced to kill the other and it destroys them both. I’m sure no one making this film knew that that was the film they were making, and would have been indignant at the suggestion, but I’m telling you. I watched this and then picked my jaw up off the floor.
The Lobster
So I’ve seen three films by this Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, hated Dogtooth (see above), liked The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and this one is probably the best of the three. Absurd premise that being part of a couple is the law and if you find yourself single, you have like 45 days to fall in love or they turn you into an animal of your choice. Yep. What he does is write overly literal dialogue which his actors recite like robots in need of a tuneup. Sounds dreadful I know, but here it really works, by leaning into the absurdity. All his movies are very strange, you’re likely to like them a lot or hate them a lot.
Classics (?)
Black Narcissus
I've decided I prefer the more whimsical Powell & Pressburger films, like I Know Where I'm Going and A Matter of Life and Death, over the melodramatic ones. I had trouble with The Red Shoes years ago, and this is another. Much angst and overheated emotions, and my reaction is mostly, Huh??
Days of Wine and Roses (r)
Outstanding alcoholism drama with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. The insidious part of the tragedy is how Lemmon seems so likable and yet he almost systematically drags his wife down to share in his personal hell. Also one of the great final images in film, of Remick walking forlornly down an empty street, a neon sign flashing above her.
The Misfits
I've never figured out what I think of Marilyn Monroe. I haven't seen many of her films besides Some Like It Hot, an obvious classic. I still don't know. Her delivery is so exaggeratedly breathy, and her persona often so childlike, was that her? or her directors? Anyway, this one is really good but a tough watch. John Huston was a macho guy who excelled in deconstructing macho, so here we have three men's men (Clark Gable, Eli Wallach, Montgomery Clift) out to wrangle some wild mustangs, and why? To turn them over to a company who will turn them into dogfood. The horse wrangling, when if finally comes, is awful and will bring a tear to your eye. This was Monroe's last completed film, and Gable died ten days after it finished.
My Ongoing Quest to Watch Every Bette Davis Movie
3 more checked off, to ever-diminishing returns:
Way Back Home
Well, I may have answered the question of what was the worst movie Ms. Davis ever made. Pre-stardom (1931 and she’s fourth-billed), this is a pathetic attempt at cornpone humor whose lead character is a singing preacher. If that sounds dire, you have no idea.
Winter Meeting
Decent but somewhat dreary soap about a poet’s romance with a returning war veteran. Worst romantic chemistry ever, Davis being saddled with an inarticulate lunk who looks like he should be playing linebacker somewhere. Where is George Brent when you need him?
June Bride
Ok comic fluff about a lifestyle magazine covering an Indiana wedding (Indiana is treated like they barely have indoor plumbing). Robert Montgomery is very droll, which helps.
Other Films I Watched
Celebration Day
Led Zeppelin's 2012 Atlantic Records tribute concert, epic and finally exorcises my awful memories of The Song Remains the Same, one of the worst concert films a great band ever made. So glad this exists.
Go For Sisters
I knew I hadn't seen a John Sayles film in awhile, so I looked it up and holy crap, the last one I saw was Limbo from 1999! He was for years such an icon of independent film, and I should probably catch up on others I haven't seen. And happy to say this movie is excellent, one of his best, about two women who travel to Mexico with a retired cop to look for the missing son of one of them.
List Within List: The Sayles films I've seen in rough order of preference:
Lone Star
Matewan
Passion Fish
Go For Sisters
Baby It's You
Eight Men Out
The Brother From Another Planet
Limbo
Return of the Secaucus Seven
Men With Guns
Sing Street
Kind of a younger, less gritty The Commitments. Really enjoyable.
Young Frankenstein (r)
Still one of my favorite comedies ever.
Blue Caprice
This true crime film about the D.C. snipers came and went without much notice in 2013, but I think it's really good. Not at all a procedural, you get nothing of the investigation, instead it's laser focused on the two killers (who have a father-son relationship though they aren't related). Isaiah Washington is terrifying, a guy consumed with rage who stays controlled and never vents.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Finally got round to this, and yes everyone was right it's great, a comedy/adventure set in New Zealand.
And a Few Others I Saw
A Face in the Crowd
Inferno (not the Dan Brown schlock but a 1953 Robert Ryan drama)
Raw Deal (not the Arnie flick but a 1948 crime drama)
The Shining (r)
Alone in the Dark
The Signal
The Four Musketeers (r)
Read
July 16, 2018MOVIES - JANUARY TO JUNE 2018
Directly In response to Kirk’s list here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I don’t expect many other people will be interested.
MOVIES I SAW ON THE BIG SCREEN
Paddington 2
I was glad to find out that to my surprise I don’t have a heart of stone, because only those so afflicted could not be charmed and even tickled pink by the little bear’s antics.
Coco
Here I rediscovered my heart of stone – couldn’t really raise my appreciation of this pinnacle of modern animation much beyond the tepid.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
Enough has been said about this – a modern classic
You Were Never Really Here
Wow – a nearly wordless almost-horror masterpiece from Lynne Ramsay, who only makes extraordinary movies and at a very slow pace (4 in 18 years). Ratcatcher, her first, is my favourite, but You Were Never Really Here is a must see too.
A Quiet Place
Another nifty almost-horror movie which has the immense benefit of shutting up all the loud sweet-rustlers and the popcorn chompers as if you make one tiny sound the Things from Another Planet will getcha. Chomp and ye shall be chomped, as it is written in the Book of Ezekiel.
Jurassic World : Fallen Kingdom
When me & daughter go to the movies if there are a couple of dinosaur fights we are pretty happy. She's not a kid any more but the same rules seem to apply.
DULL STUFF BEST AVOIDED WHICH OTHER PEOPLE INEXPLICABLY LIKE
The American Friend
A Quiet Passion
A Man Called Ove
THE USUAL INDIE STUFF
Jeff Who Lives At Home
The Levelling
Lady Bird
Winter Solstice
The Skeleton Twins
Louder Than Bombs
Krisha
HORROR MOVIES
The Autopsy Of Jane Doe
Broken
It Lives Again (It’s Alive 2)
Raw
Wrong Turn
Creep
The Texas Chain Saw Franchise
I’m working my way through this – amazing to see stars like Renee Zellweger, Michael McConaughey and Aragorn starting off in these movies.
CATCHING UP WITH THE CLASSICS : NOIR
These were all great, from a time when movies were 80 to 90 minutes long and not a minute longer.
Out Of The Past
Detour
The Killing
The big heat
But the best was
Sweet Smell Of Success
With brilliant performances by Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster.
CATCHING UP WITH THE CLASSICS : FOREIGN FILMS
Bonjour Tristesse
From 1958 – David Niven, Deborah Kerr and Jean Seberg – three names which for me may as well be the names of dinosaurs we only know from 400 million year old fossils. But this was fascinating! All about the wages of carefree sex being death in a fast car. Some people would say that’s a fair price to pay.
Stromboli
Ingrid Bergman in a strange but very intense film about being stuck forever living a impoverished life on an island that happens to be a big volcano. Unsurprisingly Ingrid becomes increasingly irked that there is not a reasonably sized supermarket within 200 miles by boat.
And God Created Woman
Hilarious introducing-Brigitte-Bardot-to-the-unsuspecting-world trash. Entertaining dancing on tables!
Bob Le Flambeur
Rocco And His Brothers
Cries And Whispers
I’m increasingly thinking that the time when discerning movie fans were hypnotised by Bergman’s unremitting ice cold miseryfests to the point of thinking they were in some unexplained way terrifically significant has now passed. Great. We can now see a lot of them for what they are : tiresome in the extreme.
Summer With Monika
That does not apply to every Bergman of course. This one is beautiful. I was glad to see that the two young lovers are in no way cute – quite annoying in fact. Otherwise the film would have drowned.
Goto, Island Of Love
A must see (if you can find it) for fans of European weirdness – companion piece to Herzog’s Even Dwarfs Started Small – an enclosed community run on its own quasi-military rules is upturned by revolution. The director Borowczyk then made the even better and even more difficult to find Blanche (1972) but alas made a left turn into soft porn (Immoral Tales, The Beast) and even ended up directing Emmanuelle 5 – what a waste of a career.
Ossessione
Jules And Jim
Pickpocket
Lift To The Scaffold
These four were fascinating, and Lift to the Scaffold was GREAT – perfect caper-goes-‘orribly-wrong movie. Must see.
CATCHING UP WITH SO-CALLED CLASSICS WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE COMPLETE CRAP
I know where I’m going!
Having been mentally scarred by A Matter of Life and Death, which everyone thinks is a great classic but which I found absolutely unbearable, I thought I should give the famous Powell/Pressburger team another go. So, I Know Where I’m Going! Turned out to be very slightly less unbearable, but by not much. The fake fakery of everything they ladle onto the screen must appeal to a lot of otherwise reasonable people. I have no real explanation. These movies are awful.
The girl can’t help it!
The Beatles’ favourite rock and roll movie – what could possibly go wrong? Well, two things – ha ha, nudge nudge wink wink. This horrible movie is all about making jokes about the size of Jayne Mansfield’s breasts. Example : she shimmies up the stairs from the street to the door of her apartment in the tightest possible dress. A milkman is delivering the milk at this particular moment. He sees Jayne and stands rivetted (sort of like in cartoons when their eyes bug three feet outside their heads). Then – honestly! – the milk in the bottles he’s carrying suddenly gushes out all over the place. So this is Benny Hill territory. But is it not rescued by a fantastic cast of early rockers? Little Richard, the Platters, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent – wow! Yeah, it would have been totally rescued except their performances are all around 70 seconds long. Total frustration, like the milkman.
SOME RANDOM ODDITIES
Mother!
Colossal
Lucy
Annihilation
Faster, pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Quiet Days In Clichy
These are all well worth watching – their aesthetic is from somewhere east of Neptune, so normal standards don’t apply. I think they might be complete rubbish, but I can’t tell. But they are fun.
Directly In response to Kirk’s list here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I don’t expect many other people will be interested.
MOVIES I SAW ON THE BIG SCREEN
Paddington 2
I was glad to find out that to my surprise I don’t have a heart of stone, because only those so afflicted could not be charmed and even tickled pink by the little bear’s antics.
Coco
Here I rediscovered my heart of stone – couldn’t really raise my appreciation of this pinnacle of modern animation much beyond the tepid.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
Enough has been said about this – a modern classic
You Were Never Really Here
Wow – a nearly wordless almost-horror masterpiece from Lynne Ramsay, who only makes extraordinary movies and at a very slow pace (4 in 18 years). Ratcatcher, her first, is my favourite, but You Were Never Really Here is a must see too.
A Quiet Place
Another nifty almost-horror movie which has the immense benefit of shutting up all the loud sweet-rustlers and the popcorn chompers as if you make one tiny sound the Things from Another Planet will getcha. Chomp and ye shall be chomped, as it is written in the Book of Ezekiel.
Jurassic World : Fallen Kingdom
When me & daughter go to the movies if there are a couple of dinosaur fights we are pretty happy. She's not a kid any more but the same rules seem to apply.
DULL STUFF BEST AVOIDED WHICH OTHER PEOPLE INEXPLICABLY LIKE
The American Friend
A Quiet Passion
A Man Called Ove
THE USUAL INDIE STUFF
Jeff Who Lives At Home
The Levelling
Lady Bird
Winter Solstice
The Skeleton Twins
Louder Than Bombs
Krisha
HORROR MOVIES
The Autopsy Of Jane Doe
Broken
It Lives Again (It’s Alive 2)
Raw
Wrong Turn
Creep
The Texas Chain Saw Franchise
I’m working my way through this – amazing to see stars like Renee Zellweger, Michael McConaughey and Aragorn starting off in these movies.
CATCHING UP WITH THE CLASSICS : NOIR
These were all great, from a time when movies were 80 to 90 minutes long and not a minute longer.
Out Of The Past
Detour
The Killing
The big heat
But the best was
Sweet Smell Of Success
With brilliant performances by Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster.
CATCHING UP WITH THE CLASSICS : FOREIGN FILMS
Bonjour Tristesse
From 1958 – David Niven, Deborah Kerr and Jean Seberg – three names which for me may as well be the names of dinosaurs we only know from 400 million year old fossils. But this was fascinating! All about the wages of carefree sex being death in a fast car. Some people would say that’s a fair price to pay.
Stromboli
Ingrid Bergman in a strange but very intense film about being stuck forever living a impoverished life on an island that happens to be a big volcano. Unsurprisingly Ingrid becomes increasingly irked that there is not a reasonably sized supermarket within 200 miles by boat.
And God Created Woman
Hilarious introducing-Brigitte-Bardot-to-the-unsuspecting-world trash. Entertaining dancing on tables!
Bob Le Flambeur
Rocco And His Brothers
Cries And Whispers
I’m increasingly thinking that the time when discerning movie fans were hypnotised by Bergman’s unremitting ice cold miseryfests to the point of thinking they were in some unexplained way terrifically significant has now passed. Great. We can now see a lot of them for what they are : tiresome in the extreme.
Summer With Monika
That does not apply to every Bergman of course. This one is beautiful. I was glad to see that the two young lovers are in no way cute – quite annoying in fact. Otherwise the film would have drowned.
Goto, Island Of Love
A must see (if you can find it) for fans of European weirdness – companion piece to Herzog’s Even Dwarfs Started Small – an enclosed community run on its own quasi-military rules is upturned by revolution. The director Borowczyk then made the even better and even more difficult to find Blanche (1972) but alas made a left turn into soft porn (Immoral Tales, The Beast) and even ended up directing Emmanuelle 5 – what a waste of a career.
Ossessione
Jules And Jim
Pickpocket
Lift To The Scaffold
These four were fascinating, and Lift to the Scaffold was GREAT – perfect caper-goes-‘orribly-wrong movie. Must see.
CATCHING UP WITH SO-CALLED CLASSICS WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE COMPLETE CRAP
I know where I’m going!
Having been mentally scarred by A Matter of Life and Death, which everyone thinks is a great classic but which I found absolutely unbearable, I thought I should give the famous Powell/Pressburger team another go. So, I Know Where I’m Going! Turned out to be very slightly less unbearable, but by not much. The fake fakery of everything they ladle onto the screen must appeal to a lot of otherwise reasonable people. I have no real explanation. These movies are awful.
The girl can’t help it!
The Beatles’ favourite rock and roll movie – what could possibly go wrong? Well, two things – ha ha, nudge nudge wink wink. This horrible movie is all about making jokes about the size of Jayne Mansfield’s breasts. Example : she shimmies up the stairs from the street to the door of her apartment in the tightest possible dress. A milkman is delivering the milk at this particular moment. He sees Jayne and stands rivetted (sort of like in cartoons when their eyes bug three feet outside their heads). Then – honestly! – the milk in the bottles he’s carrying suddenly gushes out all over the place. So this is Benny Hill territory. But is it not rescued by a fantastic cast of early rockers? Little Richard, the Platters, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent – wow! Yeah, it would have been totally rescued except their performances are all around 70 seconds long. Total frustration, like the milkman.
SOME RANDOM ODDITIES
Mother!
Colossal
Lucy
Annihilation
Faster, pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Quiet Days In Clichy
These are all well worth watching – their aesthetic is from somewhere east of Neptune, so normal standards don’t apply. I think they might be complete rubbish, but I can’t tell. But they are fun.
August 17, 2019
I look at lots of review books on films. This one, this particular year, is my favorite and my main reference source besides IMDB. It includes the best of older films with enough more recent films to make it a good general resource. The reviews are pithy and are mostly in accord with my own taste in films, except for a very few total disagreements. I trust that if this book rates a film 4 stars, it's probably worth my time to check it out....
October 21, 2012
I've covered the ups and downs of this series in my review of DVD & Video Guide 2005. It's a good review guide for mainstream releases, and there are listings for more obscure releases as well, although these are far less informative than a fan would want them to be. For that sort of thing, try The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, or the imdb.
Comparing this edition to the later one, the main difference is that the print is bigger, making it much more useful. They didn't seem to have cut that many reviews for the later book, although I found some that were longer and more detailed in 2000 than 2005. Obviously, this book is now twelve years out of date, so it will only work for older movies.
Comparing this edition to the later one, the main difference is that the print is bigger, making it much more useful. They didn't seem to have cut that many reviews for the later book, although I found some that were longer and more detailed in 2000 than 2005. Obviously, this book is now twelve years out of date, so it will only work for older movies.
September 7, 2012
Every year near the end of the year I would get rid of my current edition of this video movie guide and get the newest one. Until one year (2005*, I believe)....they stopped writing them! I was devastated, and I will tell you why: this is the best movie guide I have ever read.
The reviews were on mark with my own likes and dislikes. Unlike Leonard Maltin's guide and others out there, it never steered me wrong. I knew whenever a movie was on tv or I wanted to rent one, I could look it up and see if it was worth my time or not. I have been so lost without this guide, until I found the 2002 edition at a used bookstore today. At least I can look up older movies now.
*edit: correction - 2007
The reviews were on mark with my own likes and dislikes. Unlike Leonard Maltin's guide and others out there, it never steered me wrong. I knew whenever a movie was on tv or I wanted to rent one, I could look it up and see if it was worth my time or not. I have been so lost without this guide, until I found the 2002 edition at a used bookstore today. At least I can look up older movies now.
*edit: correction - 2007
November 27, 2019
The reviews are punchy and funny, especially when the authors eviscerate the "turkies".
Here is Martin's and Porter's review of the 1980 slasher film, Maniac, which they gave a "turkey":
"For maniacs only. A plethora of shootings, stabbings, decapitations, and scalping sadistically depicted in graphic detail will send even those with strong stomachs rushing for airsick bags. Rated R for every excess imaginable."
Here is Martin's and Porter's review of the 1980 slasher film, Maniac, which they gave a "turkey":
"For maniacs only. A plethora of shootings, stabbings, decapitations, and scalping sadistically depicted in graphic detail will send even those with strong stomachs rushing for airsick bags. Rated R for every excess imaginable."
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews