The six movie formulas that must be stopped:
6. Ultra-masculine action star gets stuck with small child or children.
5. Psychotic little kid terrorizes adults.
4. Young, hip (read: black) guy invades typically white world.
3. Brilliant musician rises, falls and finds redemption.
2. Father is wronged by gang, kills entire planet.
Early in the first Bush administration, I said to Nancy Nall, "Is it just me, or is Laura kinda hot?" She replied, letting me gently know I was having one of those dangerous and inexplicable moments, "Leo, you need to get out more."
I was channel-surfing the other day and caught "Goodbye Mr. Chips," the 1939 movie (lord, what a year for film!) starring Robert Donat as a teacher looking back over his life. It gets a little treacly at times, but it's still a very watchable treatise on what people thought about education nearly 70 years ago. It's also a movie without a villain, unless you count time, which eventually takes everything away from all of us.
Oh, it's going to be a long, loooong summer. I'd hate to even think about the 10 movies they can wait to see.
What's the best movie ever made from a book? The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. convened a panel of experts and came up with 50, in no particular order.
Finally, someone recognizes that Woody Allen makes mediocre, miserable films: Woody Allen. He left out "pretentious." He actually displayed some hints of comic genius in early movies such as "Bananas" and "Take the Money and Run" before he got so serious.
One of the nice things about old friends is that you don't feel the need to fill all the conversational voids with mindless chatter. You can just enjoy each other's presence in companionable silence. Favorite movies can be like old friends. You don't have to pay attention to the action -- you've seen it a dozen times or more. Having the movie on in the background while you read the newspaper or fold the laundry makes you feel like you're in the neighborhood you grew up in or with old high school buddies you hadn't thought of in awhile.
Forget H.G. Wells and all the hype about the special-effects extravaganza that is the latest retelling of "War of the Worlds." If Mary Shelley was the mother of science fiction (and she surely was), Jules Verne was the father.
