This film was done as well as can be, I think. Similar followups later in the 1960s like The Greatest Story Ever Told and The Bible were incapable of measuring up.
No flaws in this one. A fine story flow, effective and moving scenes. The baptism of Jesus by John The Baptist, who looks into the gorgeous eyes of Jeffrey Hunter and feels something, while the camera shows doves flying in the air. Another fine crucifixion scene, tho not as heartrending as in The Robe. The sermon on the mount.
Ben Hur is another movie that deals well with this subject.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I've never considered this an excellent movie. 1965 was a different time from 1958. The mood in this film lacks the concentrated intensity. Andrew Keir is much too broad a personality to create a sinister atmosphere.
I didn't think the storyline holds together as well.
But there are strong scenes which will create new fans though. That would involve the castle encounters with Klove and Dracula. Barbara Shelley has some chilling sequences.

There have been several video releases, of varying quality. The Eastmancolor positives went reddish as usual within ten years of distribution. Recent releases had to be remade from the negatives. Some processing was done. The Optimum DVD turned out a little overly bright, overcompensated. The TCM (Turner Classic Movies) release is well regarded.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Superior sixties film, Hywel Bennett's acting may seem over the top to some but I found it excellent (he is undervalued, IMHO).

This is truly a study in terror, completely different to horror, although there is something that will appeal to fans of both genres.

Well worth watching if it pops up on a TV near you... :thumbsup:

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I have to disagree. It was no classic but I found it a very good watch. A stoner PI flick like an ungodly mix of The Big Lebowski and The Long Goodbye - The only problem being that I think those two films are amazing whereas 'Inherent Vice' is merely pretty good.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This is an enjoyable comedy of Australian life in the 1960s seen through the eyes of a hard working Italian immigrant. There are lots of reference to Aussie lingo and the problems he encounters assimilating himself into the culture of his new home. As pointed out by other web reviews the movie can at times seem like a propaganda movie with Australia being shown as the land of opportunity, jobs galore and a place where everyone who is willing to work hard will succeed no matter what their background is. The movie is in some respects a little dated but taken as to what it really is (a well filmed 1960s comedy) it's worth watching.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This was one of the flop underwater movies that led to the very successful The Abyss. I saw this on a VHS rental. Nudity was cut out, which they say raised the rating on it. As I recall it seemed like a movie about nothing. A non-purpose non-event. Boring, with nothing interesting happening underwater either. The supposed menace of a moray eel turned out as nothing too.
Next I recall Leviathan of 1989, which did not satisfy. So when The Abyss came everyone was saying "finally" a good undersea movie.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Could have been a great movie, but it's a long way from that. Richard Dreyfuss delivers his best ever performance (which nabbed him the best actor Oscar), but the film itself uses every cheap Hollywood trick and cookie-cutter convention in order to attempt being the classic it so desperately wants to be. You know you're in trouble when on-screen time passages are illustrated as culture montages, but when they're accompanied by songs from Jackson Browne and John Lennon, it's just a commercial break for stock film libraries. In fact, the messianic Lennon references are cloying at best. (Although Holland singing to his son was kinda sweet.) I realize average audiences probably enjoy pedestrian film-making like this in order to justify something or another; me, I'm just glad I only had to watch it once. It's not terrible but the great parts are mired by too many maudlin clichés. Jay Thomas turns in a great support role as the football coach.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This is surprisingly racy for 1970. i got a bit of a shock when they said 'The F-word' and started skinning up joints. It must have been positively shocking at the time of release (In the UK at least)

Strange to see Robin Askwith playing his usual cheeky chappie in a much darker tone. He's basically a pimp!

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Mostly amusing, but one of those that feels like it's trying too hard to press home the jokes... I smiled, rather than laughed.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Usually I find motorsport boring and tedious, but this story of odd couple Matt DAamon and Christian Bale as Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles building a car (Ford GT40) under the auspices of automotive monolith Ford, in order to unseat the perpetually reigning Le Mans Champions Ferrari was very energetic and thrilling...

...A bit of a "Top Gun" style movie, and even the mechanics and engineering elements were engaging.

The central relationship, between Shelby and Miles is the focus of the story, and what propels the movie along, about hanging it all out there on the line for each other, and trusting each other to come through.

If you like cars, especially those of the period, such as these Ferraris, Fords, AC / Shelby Cobras, or even if you don't, it's a great movie to keep you entertained for an evening watch.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Absolutely brilliant!

Those of us in the UK who were only familiar with Michael Winner being on the telly often, and principally known only (it seemed) for those God-awful Death Wish films, would never suspect he was capable of making anything like this!

This, on first impressions, seems like it's going to be pretty standard western fare... a vehicle for established Hollywood star to be the hero... roll into town, clean up the bad guys, before riding off into the sunset after a job well done...

...Except here, they've turned the whole thing on it's head, the titular "Lawman" is more the bad guy than the supposed baddies. Subsequent research reveals that the inspiration for the script for this was a quy read a quote to the effect that: "The only real hired killers in the west were the Lawmen" (paraphrased / misremembered), and that they often caused more trouble than they solved, if not actually were the source of the trouble in the first place.

It jumps straight in with the incident that causes all the hoo-ha from then on, as a bunch of cowboys get drunk in a town, shooting all over, as is the common trope and an old man gets accidentally killed during this incident.

But then we get to the ranch owner played thoughtfully, meditatively, even philosophically by Lee J. Cobb, who contrary to the usual pure evil overlord type you see in this role, is perfectly willing to make reparations to the townsfolk, for what his ranch-hands have done, as are the, again, counter-to-trope cowboys in his employ - all fully fleshed out characters, and proper humans, as opposed to the ye-ha! types we usually see here, and it even seems the townsfolk are willing to go along with it to.

All very reasonable, so far.

...Except, then Burt Lancaster, who gives an excellent performance as a coldly indifferent "lawman" shows up to see the law has it's pound of flesh. - He is all, and exclusively duty, and by the book, and is deaf to all other considerations, even if it would defuse this whole situation from the outset, and he is constantly advised to do so by all and sundry, but nothing is going to dissuade him.

The whole thing spirals out of control, with the Townsfolk deciding to do something about him administering the law, even at the expense of justice, and even the local Marshal (Played brilliantly by Robert Ryan) tries to talk him out of making a mess by pursuing this course, but Burt ain't having none of it... he's almost like the Anti-Terminator, fighting for what he sees as the good, ruthlessly relentlessly, and without a grain of compromise.

In the end, it's a tragedy, of how being too "by the book", and un-merciful can see justice, in the true sense, fall by the wayside.

A real Winner.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Better than I had been led to believe, if a little odd.

This always seemed to dwell, reputationally, in the long shadow cast by it's near contemporary: Easy Rider, and always seemingly readily dismissed as a bad movie.

But it's not that bad actually; In fact, in many ways, it's really rather good.

The problem it has, I think, is that people don't really know what to make of it, have gone in perhaps, with one set of expectations about what it is, and finding it's mostly something else.

Begin with that title, which leads you to believe this is a biker movie, in the style of what our more recent, and more modern understanding of what Hell's Angels are, and any movie about featuring them would be... And while there certainly are those elements present: Riding around en masse, fights, trouble with the law etc. What it really is, is a typically sixties psychedelic art movie, like an Andy Warhol movie, with zany, amateur-ish spiralling handheld camera views of crazy arty orgies, strange set piece scenes of mucking about on motorcycles and other trippy nonsense, all set, not to any expected hard rock soundtrack you may associate, but all the groovy, psychedelic, far out Hollywood approximations of the music of that specific era.

All of which, gives it a weird vibe: A psychedelic movie featuring Bikers? ... eh?

Like chocolate and cheese. Two things that you may like on their own, but would never consider putting together.

The "plot" consists, at least for the first hour, of a wash, rinse, repeat cycle of psychedelic orgy and love scenes, followed by a fight, followed by some riding, followed by another love / orgy scene, followed by a fight...etc. Once petrol station attendant Jack Nicholson ditches his job and takes up with the Hell's Angels.

And frankly, this first hour seems aimless, and pointless, and going nowhere... which is, as it turns out the point the movie is consciously making... the excellent song in this: Moving Going Nowhere, by a band called The Poor, makes this evident, in case you missed it!

...But the last 25 mins / half hour is where it all begins to make sense, and you go: "oh!.. I get it!"

And as such, it turns out to be a commentary on an itinerant, rebellious lifestyle. And given that this point was very much against the prevailing "free" spirit of the time it was made, it's actually quite bold, and ahead of it's time, in re-appraising the late sixties even while living it.

In fact, Jack Nicholson delivers the most salient line once he realizes he's dropped out of societal norms only to adopt, contrary to his expectations, a new set: "I won't wear your uniform!"

(A bit like when everyone and their dog gets a tattoo in order to be "different from everyone else", and express their "individuality" - Life Of Brian, anyone? ((Chuckle))

Not the greatest movie ever, but really rather good, nonetheless.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

What a weird movie.

It seems to be, on the face of it, chumming along with the kind of Breakfast Club / John Hughes, 80s teen angst / melodrama kind of audience, and yet has a more substantial, and even darker heart in the story, aimed at a more adult audience.

In fact the whole teen romance bit between Cusack and Skye seems to fall by the wayside toward the end, focusing more on the relationship between her and her father's "tax troubles", with Cusack eventually receding into the background altogether.

Heavy subject matter for the audience you'd expect this to be aimed at. and the kind of movie who's clothes this superficially appears to wear...

...And other than the general look of the film, the two leads and one highly oversold moment (The boombox moment), which lasts possibly less than ten seconds and has precisely zero impact on story or anything, yet has become a cultural touchstone, not least through the likes of Deadpool and Family Guy etc. referencing it, this lacks all the kind of feel of those other movies, the zing, and the dynamic eighties style editing, and so forth...indeed, I'd go as far as to call it quite...flat, by comparison.

It almost feels, like this was a more seriously intentioned movie with some great, strong dramatic ideas of it's own, that was either co-opted, or re-purposed to try and shoe-horn it into a John Hughes category of movie, and for that audience.

If it had gone either way more completely, it might have been a great movie on it's own: Heavily toward the Dramatic, adult aspects, and it might have been an Oscar worthy movie... treated more lightly, and it it would have been sitting alongside Ferris Bueller in the collective affections, but ends up just befuddling, and underwhelming.

One moment, does not a movie make.

Meh.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Yeah, not bad...

... Usual heartwarming, life affirming / rite of passage fare of the kind Disney usually makes... In fact, if always thought it was a Disney movie!

I have avoided it all these years as I was seventeen or eighteen when it came out, so it wouldn't have been my kind of thing, but it's a pretty well made movie regardless of target audience. Fairly tight, efficient storytelling that doesn't have much flab and is one of the better examples of it's kind.

So a super solid family movie, with nothing to make a parent's teeth set on edge, but adults can enjoy it too.

This particular adult had two specific reasons to enjoy it:

Firstly, a young, point break era Lori Petty... Ahem... Very warm today isn't it... Phew! :)

... And secondly, the total surprise of seeing no less a luminary than Michael Ironside in it! - legend! -

(And if you include Michael Madsen, that makes three)

Although it didn't have me balling my eyes out exactly, there may have been the suggestion if a tear in one or two places.

(I think I'm getting soft on my older age)

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Still a powerful race relations / gangs- cop movie, which I suspected had aged badly, but really hasn't at all... Except the soundtrack is severely dated, which is otherwise the only thing that takes you out of the movie.

But a truly great dramatic story, nevertheless.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

One of those films that's so bad that it's....AMAZING!

Yup, this one really lives up to it's cult status. The film opens with a Zombie member of the SS growling and butchering motorists but this is no straight ahead Slasher or Zombie movie. Instead it throws up a ghost pirate ship, a Mummy, a mysterious Black Cat which miaows A LOT and it repeatedly cuts to scenes of an old French fella in camouflage failing to shooting a Black horse from close range. He's either the worst shot in France or the horse has magick powers but you will never know as like everything else in the film there's NO EXPLANATION whatsoever.

Very little dialogue, very little narrative and yet this film certainly has....something!

It's also pretty damn gory and it's a mercy the low budget means the gore is more comic book than horrific otherwise the Mummy squeezing the guts out of one poor victim could really haunt you.

The repetition and the feeling that absolutely anything could happen at any point makes it a truly surreal watch.

Get some nice cheese and wine in for a French themed movie night and enjoy your Psychedelic Nightmares!!!!

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Grim, Bleak, overly absurd at times, and largely bland, in comparison to others who have done this kind of movie better.

It's a comically surreal look at the mundane lives of apparently ordinary people, or perhaps a mundane look at the comically surreal mundanity of their lives... Coming form the same sort of place as Magnolia, or American Beauty, in showing lots of broken people, who are outwardly normal or fine, occasionally giving a Woody Allen movie vibe, and is therefore a very "actorly" piece, which probably got actors of the time excited about the script in how daring, shocking, and meaty it was, but it does go too far over the line with one specific element, or character thread of the ensemble story, that of a family man / predatory Paedophile, which is frankly stomach churning, as well as profoundly uncomfortable to watch -

- I frequently grimaced, and even looked away from the screen, even though it's not graphic, just nauseating in it's study of this character, and there's no on screen come-uppance for him, or resolution, which leaves a bad feeling for this movie -

The occasional interesting parts of the story, those following other characters, which even make you chuckle on occasion, are completely overwhelmed by this thread, as you are constantly dreading that part coming back on the screen and having to find out what happens next.

If you are in any way sensitive to this topic, avoid like the plague.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Are you shifting uncomfortably in your seats? Good, then I'll begin...

Wow, what a movie!

...Don't even know how to begin to review it properly at the moment, as there's so much in there, both explicit and implied, that I haven't fully gotten my head around yet, but to find yourself sympathising with, even empathising with, let alone rooting for a serial killer is quite a feat of film-making!

(Must emphasise though that it's not the serial killer, or his activities you root for, but the man, who is as much a victim, not least of himself, as anyone here)

I think this is probably the principal reason this seems to have drawn all the vitriol from the critics I've been hearing about, as, especially in this time when it was made (straight laced fifties - although released in 1960) this was asking questions of an audience we'd be uncomfortable with today! - perhaps the critics didn't like being made to recognise certain things about themselves, as much as anything.

>The old: Damn it to hell, and make it go away, that way, we can keep on pretending all is rosy in our respective gardens, and nothing will disturb this illusion.<

It's beautifully shot, in a kind of technicolour of the time, that looks like a contemporary rom-com, Hollywood might make (made me think of Breakfast at Tiffany's in this regard), but with a normal every day quality - but the visuals exceed even this.

There's lots in it as social commentary about voyeurism, of course, media, art, psychology, and movie-making in general, especially media and what it is to make a film, as well as us, as an audience.

All deftly, and sublimely handled, without whacking you over the head with obvious explanations, so asks you to think, to what extent you want or can, about what it is showing you.

(I think only Taratnino's Inglorious Basterds, recently, has been this profound about turning the camera, and the gaze of the audience on itself, and like that, this is doomed, to a great extent, to be severely misunderstood - seldom doth the subtle wit prevail, when all about you weep and wail!)

You can see the influence of this on everything from horror, to thriller for years after.

Needs a rewatch, and a further ponder or two every now and then, I think.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Weird and brilliant.

I'd convinced myself that I had seen this... even heard of it before, but I think I was lying to myself.

...Anyway, now I have done both, and as anyone who has seen this, could not help but be taken aback by this dazzling monochrome hallucinatory journey onto some kind of western based mystical underworld...

(Not entirely black and white, as there are very light blues, which mess with your head when viewed next to the greys, and make the mind see pinks on occasion)

...And having looked a little online after, seeing Jarmusch himself describe it as a psychedelic western, I'm inclined to agree.

it's shot in this black white blue monochrome in an almost documentary looking style, and is loaded with short cameos and appearances from an incredible array of well known figures, from actors to Iggy Pop!

As Johnny Depp's character: William Blake journeys into a town called Machine to get a job that isn't there, then gets into trouble with the company's boss and flees, setting forth thereafter on this Odyssey into an almost "up-river" journey onto the heart of darkness or light affair, guided for extended sequences by a Native American shaman like character who goes by the name of: Nobody... All the while, pursued by gang of three ruthless, yet hapless bounty hunters / killers.

"Nobody" believes Depp's character is the reincarnation of the English poet and namesake: William Blake, and seeks to help him get to where his spirit truly belongs.

You'll not see nothing like this.

(Neil Young provides big solo grungy guitar soundtrack to this trip too :)

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Absolutely dreadful zero-budget thriller without any thrills.

A loner strip club regular (played by Joseph Peters) becomes obsessed with the erotic dancer Jennie (who oddly stays fully clothed for the entire film despite numerous dance routines) until his incel rage grows and he abducts her. They then proceed to roam about to not much purpose until the shock ending which isn't much of a shock at all.

Even at 85 minuttes this film seems overlong with the only enjoyment coming from the obscure synthpop soundtrack by Field Of One.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

A bit disappointing this one...

...Basically, it falls into that category of films where someone has simply thought, or had a conversation with someone, along the lines of:

"Hey, you know that film where the basic set up is this... well what if some particular detail was the polar opposite... what would that movie be like?"

...And so they make the film.

....And this is that film.

What if the spaceship that crashed into the Kent farm, containing extra-terrestrial super-baby did not have a good, pure soul who would later go on to become the saviour of the human race, but a nasty little insect boy, who's race had sent him here instead, to conquer us, and be evil?

In essence, the anti-superman origin story.

Naturally, with his powers, this is basically a horror movie, with some pretty grim effects on occasion, and has the tone, look, and feel of a modern horror.

The problem is, that while this is... OK, it's that same conversation everybody has had about Superman (What if he was evil) before, and all he same conclusions arising from it are all played out as you'd expect... So it's entirely predictable, lacks surprise, and just walks through that scenario in a paint by numbers kind of way. Feels a bit too flat.

On the plus side, where the story is of interest, in it's focus on the kid's adoptive parents, and the strains on their relationship as they struggle with the dawning realisation that their little cherub is not a good little boy at all.

Could have done with more of that to make the movie worth-while, but didn't, and isn't compensated for with enough action really, to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Oh and there's a pretty good track over the end credits, which turns out is by that there Billie Eilish person the kids are all raving about, and who's ubiquity of image and idol worshipry have been invading my consciousness for some time now from (Damn... I really am getting old!).

(I can now say I have knowingly heard a song by her, and she's not bad!)

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The classic tale of boy meets operating system, and falls in love.

This is therefore a movie about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence... but at a more personal level.

(As opposed to the usual, machines go crazy and "Kill All Humans!" (to quote the estimable Bender from Futurama :)

In the believably not too distant future, Theodore makes a living creating personal letters for the lost and the lonely who populate this fragmented, alienated world who pass each other on the street with blank expressions while all quietly dying inside.

And he, himself, after a messy, bitter, and devastating separation, a prelude to the divorce he so desperately wishes to avoid, seeks solace on the "personal" contact he feels in his work.

Until, one day, a new operating system comes to his attention at a sales booth in a lobby, and he decides to give this new AI OS a go...

...After just a couple of set-up questions (disturbingly few! - (you are being analysed!!!) the OS pops into life, with the husky, sexualised tones of one Miss Scarlett Johansonn (probably a bit of typecasting, but got to give credit for her performance with just a voice here!) who promptly names herself Samantha (obviously, based on Theodore's unconscious profile, that even he is not aware of), and she, the titular "her" begins, to set about fully integrating herself into Theodore's life, as a quasi- personal assistant, who he begins to discover is becoming a little more indispensable than even he would like to admit.

Samantha, being AI rapidly begins to develop, and evolve personally, as does her and Theodore's relationship, until love blossoms.

Basically, this is a romantic comedy / tragedy set against the backdrop of the technological concerns of our age, and the increasing isolation that permeates our human lives that comes of it.

All the expected social stigmas, taboos around machine love are here, but all handled with great humour... although sometimes excruciatingly... but always credibly, and convincingly, and this is a movie with great er... pathos (?), real heart, and great warmth.

I'd say that if you have any interest in AI sci-fi type movies, and want a different angle on it, or if you love romantic movies / rom-coms of the feel and kind like Lost In Translation, or Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind... this will be just your thing.

This was perhaps, still within the realms of specultive when it was made, but as each year passes, and technology progresses, it seems more spookily accurate, and relevant... destined to become a classic, I feel.

...And if you didn't already, it's one more reason to love Mr Phoenix, and Ms. Johansson.

(I'm really warming up to her lately, having been a little sceptical at first)

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

C-movie, comedy creature feature.

They don't make 'em like this anymore!

Basically a paint by numbers "plot" you've seen a thousand times before, but mercifully, doesn't take itself too seriously at all, doesn't consume an inexplicably large budget the way some do, and at an hour and a half, it's quite short :)

... Toxic goo dumped in pond / lake turns our little furry arachnid friends into massively oversized fiends, who then attack a nearby town, and the locals fight them off.

Well that's the whole plot dealt with.

Obviously, if you don't like spiders, this isn't the movie for you, but the effects are OK, and convincing enough for what it is, and at the time it was made, with some pretty realistic spiders, and the humour is pitched somewhere in the Tremors / Lake Placid / Gremlins area...

... Mildly amusing, and sometimes funny, as the spiders do make little Gremlin like noises and squeaks, which gives them a slightly softer character, and early on, there's even a very "Loony Toons" cartoonish cat / spider battle in an air vent.

Not the greatest movie you will ever see, but probably wasn't trying to be... maybe setting up the possibility for movies like Mega-Piranha, Sharknado and the like to come into being.

...And at the very least, it makes the world go away for an hour or so :)

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Vintage brilliance.

Miles is not OK...

...He's a glum, depressed, high-minded (pretentious) intellectual who's life circumstances don't quite matchup to his expectations...

...A wannabe writer (one of those you feel, wants to be an author the next "Great American Novel") but is struggling to get published, and having had a messy divorce, now lives alone in small, run down apartment block while working as a School-teacher... he hates life, and it shows.

His one passion, even obsession, is with wine, about which, you could justly call him a mega-nerd... and he's excruciatingly exacting and pretentious about that too! (Which makes for great comedy :)

With friends like these...

This weekend is different though, as he's taking his friend Jack on his stag weekend before a marriage rehearsal the following week, which Miles has perfectly planned notions of being a very civilised journey through the wine growing regions of California, some golf, a dinner out, and good conversation... a chance for himself too, to get away from it all too.

...Unfortunately, Jack's a lad! - And has other ideas for the weekend, and wants have a blow out, and get laid.

A flaky, impulsive, vulgar man-child and struggling bit-part actor, he is the absolute antithesis of Miles, and almost immediately starts sabotaging Miles's plans, and getting him into various troubles, with often hilarious and painful to watch consequences.

Maybe this will break Miles, or be the forceful and perhaps necessary breaking of the big dark cloud of gloom and despair that Miles has hanging over him, and carries with him everywhere he goes.

This has a n air of Frasier about it, in that it is very sharp and intelligent (Intellectual) comedy, which is consistently and deliberately undermined by the crass, vulgar humour and scenarios that occur.

It was very much talked about and praised at time of release, but seems to have drifted somewhat off the radar since then, and fully deserves to be watched again, as it has aged very nicely :)

The only criticism I have of it, is that Miles is one of those characters I hate to admit, I see too much of myself in at times (yikes!)... and often some of Jack too!!!

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Teenage brat, Kathy (Scarlett Johansson) finds her brother George (Nick Fuoco) annoying. She plays a prank on him to get him into trouble with their cool babysitter, Matilda (Eva Mendez). He gets turned into a pig after accidentally activating a Mexican voodoo spell. They travel to Mexico to find a way to break the curse while their parents are on a cycling trip in France.

There a host of famous faces here. Judge Reinhold was the big name. He isn't in the film for very long and plays the wise cracking father, a role he's played many times. Scarlett Johansson is particularly annoying and comes across more as a bully than a cool girl going through puberty. Dee Bradley Baker voices the pig, he's best known for providing the voices for many hit Cartoon Network shows; he's only given a few lines, none of them good. Eva Mendez was around 25 at the time of the film's release. She doesn't look significantly older than Scarlett and plays a sort of big sis role, she's decent. Alex D. Linz deserves a mention as he is given the best lines and nails them.

I wanted to like this film more. Sadly it feels like a TV Movie at best and an overly long episode of a Saturday morning sitcom at worst. The characters are never really developed and feel a bit unrealistic. I didn't really feel Kathy had an annoying younger brother; I felt more sorry for him. His big crime is making a giant bowl of ice cream and trashing a kitchen. There's supposed to be some sort of comment on the brother and sister age gap; one is growing up, the other is still a kid. This theme is often explored in PG rated comedies, but it's not done as well as in say, Fudge (Fudgeamania).

The fantasy theme, not fantastical enough and the voodoo style curse never really explained. The special effects are bad even for 1999. The climax was a letdown as well given the film had been building for over an hour by that point.

I think it is a good film, but far from a great one. I didn't find the acting to be bad, just the characters underwritten. Compared to high marks of family films like Home Alone and Mrs Doubtfire, My Brother The Pig falls way short. That said there is something enjoyable about seeing a pig shaped mountain and there's a few funny lines. This film can't shake off dated Mexican stereotypes, but it did try to blend the two cultures before Dora the Explorer got it right.

Availability: The film is available on DVD in the UK rated PG uncut. It's quite rare. The DVD has nice picture quality and sound I'm fairly sure the film has been broadcast on terrestrial TV albeit 20 years ago. It's an ok 90 minutes timewaster, but even children will want a more meaty film.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Unexpected item in the modern comedy classic area!

I caught this on BBC Three the other night, and was completely blown away by it.

I was expecting just another movie about those sinless millenials I've been hearing so much about recently, but this belong on any list of seminal Graduation / End of term / coming of age / growing up and moving on movies that define the subject for their generation...

...In fact, you can strike a line straight through, from (off the top of my head) American Graffiti, Dazed and Confused, Ghost World, to Superbad and the like. And you detect a strong whiff of all of those movies in this, especially the last one, as two overly-studious girls who feel they have wasted their school years studying too hard and not having any fun, decide to have a bit of a blow out the night before graduation to make up for it.

This follows these girls as they try with desperation to find a party, and a kind of odyssey ensues (a lot like Superbad) to get there.

What elevates this, is firstly the dialogue is Blackadder sharp, with a note of Withnail and I, but very naturally, and easily done (it doesn't feel forced), and the story cracks along in a very watchable way; And then, crucially it's very funny, with some moments of genuine comic genius - The Stop motion segment where, having taken some undefined illicit substance, they turn into barbie dolls is pure brilliance.

This sharpness does give way at the right time to more feeling, and drama without feeling clunky, and the whole film is just excellent.

Special mention must go to director Olivia Wilde...balancing all these elements perfectly, without losing the thread, and has great feeling for, and sensitivity to these characters and the cinematography makes this feel like a Michael Mann movie!

(Michael Mann does The Inbetweeners!!!)

A surprising and unexpected nugget of a movie, that adds another fine chapter to a great tradition.

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There was huge trend starting in 00s to remake old slasher films and bring them to an emo audiences of teenagers who liked Slipknot and Marilyn Manson. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Ghost Ship (Death Ship) and even House of Wax. A Nightmare On Elm Street is either a reboot or remake depending on which way you look at it. It was universally panned by critics and slasher fans alike, but it's not that bad.

Coming out in 2010 it has a clinical, cold, dark look to it which seems to still be a popular aesthetic choice seen in films like Us (2019) , maybe it became popular with films like The Cell (2000) and In Dreams (1999). I personally preferred the neon dayglo of 80s slashers and the "blue light" effect of 90s horrors like Necronomicon (1993) and Two Evil Eyes (1990).

The deaths in A Nightmare On Elm Street are gory enough, but lack the humour and outrageousness of even the first A Nightmare On Elm Street. The acting is decent enough, with the teens not being annoying or boring and Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger is a fine choice; but he is nowhere near as imposing as Robert Englund or as funny. In a nutshell it's just a bit "meh" like a lot of 00s slashers "Cherry Falls", "Jason X" and "The Pool (2001)" . Had it not carried the Freddy brand I believe it would have had a fairer roasting by critics. It's not a must see, but it's perfectly acceptable as a popcorn horror.

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This is great fun!

It's one of those superhero movies that is how a superhero movie ought to be: A good, light heart, FUN, family movie.

There's the occasional joke / wink to the older audience, like the reference to the Tom Hanks movie: "Big" and the odd innuendo, but nothing that will set your teeth on edge.

Doesn't take itself too seriously.

The best coupple of hours of superhero movie you can have since Spiderman - Into the Spider-versy- thing.

Shazam!... I am entertained!

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One of those: "You've got to see it at least once in your life" kind of films.

Of course, the big thing about this movie, is the big gimmick employed of making an entire movie from Vincent Van Gogh paintings, making them move and tell a story, which is the story of Vincent himself...

...And as such, the many thousands of hand painted frames (actual paintings!) that go to make up this work stand as an astonishing technical, and artistic achievement. That said, this gimmick does threaten to overwhelm the movie, as it is quite a jarring experience which takes some getting used to after the initial: "Wow!" of the concept has passed...

...It looks, and feels, not unlike an LSD trip (so I'm told - ahem), which very much presses in on the brain somewhat.

Fortunately, even if you take this big gimmick / artistic concept out of the equation, there's still a great story, well told underneath, and the movie could stand on this alone.

The premise is that a postmaster's son, returning a letter to the family of Vincent Van Gogh in the town where he spent his final days begins to unpick the story of those final days through conversations, or even interviews with those that knew him, and so unravel the mystery of the man, both in how and why he died, and who he was as a person:

...Did he kill himself?

.............Was he Killed?

....................Was he mad or simply misunderstood?

Ultimately, this is an "impressionist" portrait of Vincent Van Gogh in one crucial period of his life: The end... as told through the collective testimony of others, and I think it does the man justice, for all his faults and foibles, there's a love, warmth and sympathy for him that helps look at those well established ideas we have of his life in a new light.

In fact, I did come away form this feeling that perhaps I'd like to see a straight up, live action version of this story, without the gimmick, as it would certainly still be a great movie, but as it is, as a whole, it's a great experience to have at least once.

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Another journey into a heart of darkness and light.

Alex Garland does it again!

...Cook your noodle, that is.

For my money, he deserves his place among the modern masters of intelligent cinema, alongside Villeneuve and Nolan.

This time he takes a lot of fairly stock ideas that are usually employed by lazy writers to cobble together straight to streaming cheapo, knock-off Sci-Fi, and instead, uses them as a cinematic language to carry through some more profound thoughts and story.

In this case, he begins with the tried and trusted alien object / meteor crashing to earth and messing with the fabric of our reality (Color Out Of Space - Lovecraft) via an inscrutable alien phenomena: The "Shimmer", which is a huge curtain of expanding protoplasmic radiation stuff, that's gradually swallowing the world, and from which, any attempt to investigate it yields no clues as to it's nature, as those sent never return...

...Until, that is, one of the soldiers sent (Oscar Isaac)- thought lost - arrives mysteriously back at his home to his grieving wife (Doctor and former soldier - Natalie Portman), but he is odd, and quickly falls ill, and is taken into military quarantine... his only hope, that Portman and a small group of soldiers can go in tot he Shimmer, and unlock it's mysteries.

This sets up a kind of Heart of Darkness / Apocalypse Now, journey into the phenomenon ,and "Down river", where things start going very strange indeed, and increasingly horrific.

And there are some truly horrifying concepts in this movie, as well as some quite beautiful ones - sometimes at the same time!

And while there's a very definite H. R. Geiger / Alien debt owed at the end, which anyone will pick up on, all this only serves to carry through a deeper story, which is to do with psychological self destruction, identity, definition of reality, and what that might be, and even this, strongly conveys a profound Buddhist like, spiritual idea of self Annihilation (Oceanic consciousness etc.).

So it's essentially a hard spiritual pilgrimage into very disturbing territory, that is very unsettling at times, obscure, difficult to wrap your head around what's happening, but quite rewarding if you do stay with it.

This would sit comfortably on notional DVD shelf next to movies like Arrival, Interstellar (anything by those two directors- Villeneuve and Nolan), in being a slow burning, thoughtful mind-bender, punctuated by small moments of action.

And, as I say, Garland uses those "tropes" deliberately, as a "mash-up" language not incompatible with the central theme of the phenomenon itself.

Excellent, and should be better known.

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