response 245 of 290:

Sep 4 03:47 UTC 1998

It's a superb example of the brilliance of Robin Williams.  In one movie he's
both hilarious comedic one-liner actor and a dramatic artist at the same time.

response 247 of 290:

Sep 6 02:10 UTC 1998

Some recent rentals:

TITANIC (still a solid A) -- I remember thinking when I saw it in the 
theater what a sumptuously visual movie this is, and that there are 
images in it I'll never forget: the ship upending and breaking in two 
and the stern falling hugely back into the sea; the shelves of 
never-used plates tilting and sending their contents to the hard floor; 
Kate Winslet on her back on a drifting headboard, pale and frozen, 
looking up at the stars and singing a little song at them.  There is one 
image that tops them all, though: seen from below, the dead body of a 
young woman hangs suspended in the submerged ballroom, which is still 
lit from above by the ship's lights, her limbs sprawling gracefully, her 
voluminous and complex nightgown floating around her.  Where have I seen 
that before?  A Victorian Ophelia?  A Renaissance angel?  Anyway, it's a 
movie made by someone with an artist's eye for such things.  To think of 
throwing such an image into the film -- the sheer heedless extravagance. 
Cameron loves details.  [When I was a kid, my favorite cartoonist was a 
man named Wallace Wood, and what I loved most about his drawings was the 
fantastic amount of detail he filled them with, all more or less 
functional.  You could spend fifteen minutes on each frame.  That sort 
of thing.]

SENSELESS (C) -- It starts off with a potentially hilarious premise, and 
it does run with it for a while, but then it kind of falls apart.  The 
tacked-on ending, wherein the main character, who accomplishes all kinds 
of miracles due to a sense-enhancing drug, is required to spend a year 
earning the job of his dreams the hard and normal way, is, 
paradoxically, as phony as can be.

DREAM FOR AN INSOMNIAC (B+) -- So self-consciously aimed at the 20-30 
generation that I almost felt as if I were eavesdropping.  Jennifer 
Aniston is stuck playing a version of Rachel again, as she seems to be 
stuck in all her movies.  (There's even a Central Perk-y coffee shop 
where everyone works or meets.)  The movie does grab your attention, 
though, and eventually you actually start to care about the characters. 
I guess I should admit the ending is "contrived" or "too pat."  Didn't 
bother me.  Plus, Ione Skye is adorable.  (For you above-it-all 
cineastes, Rachel is the character Jennifer Aniston plays on the NBC 
Thursday night sitcom "Friends," and Central Perk is the name of the 
coffee house she used to work at.  It used to be one of my favorite
TV shows, but it's become an institution and lost its edge.  It still
has its moments, though.)

response 249 of 290:

Sep 7 00:02 UTC 1998

SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS (C) -- Cute is places, but it left me with
a "So what?" impression when it was over.  Marisa Tomei was qiute
good.  Maybe there's life after Vinnie after all.

response 251 of 290:

Sep 7 02:23 UTC 1998

[He was amazing.  My favorite Mad 'toonists were Wood, Kurtzman,
Elder and Davis, in that order.  I bet James Cameron's a Wallace
Wood fan, too.]

THE BORROWERS (B-) -- It kinda put me to sleep.  I loved the way
it inhabited its own weird little world.  It reminded me a bit
of Altman's POPEYE (A) in that one respect.  

Re SLUMS again: Whenever I see Alan Arkin in a movie like this,
I think, "What a waste."  But then I start trying to think of
anything he ever did that wasn't a waste and I come up with
WAIT UNTIL DARK (A).  Why do I think he's so good, when he's
obviously so bad?  Are there some choice movies he's done that
I'm forgetting?

response 253 of 290:

Sep 7 04:46 UTC 1998

I liked him in "Popi."  What was the name of the one he was in with Sally
Kellerman?

response 255 of 290:

Sep 7 11:16 UTC 1998

Current rental:

ZERO EFFECT: Quirky mystery comedy with Bill Pullman as a modern-day
eccentric, reclusive private investigator (with traits borrowed from
Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe, etc), Ben Stiller as his
perpetually exasperated front man, Ryan O'Neal as the rich client, and
Kim Dickens as an object first of investigation, then affection.
Cleverly written and directed by Jake Kasdan (son of director Lawrence
Kasdan of "The Big Chill", "Accidental Tourist", "Grand Canyon", etc)
with likeable performances all around. I enjoyed this a lot.
Recommended.

response 257 of 290:

Sep 7 12:33 UTC 1998

Pullman and Stiller seemed miscast to me.  The movie suffered from
the "Ben Stiller Curse," which seems to have lifted recently in
Something About Mary.  For a while there, Stiller was the thinking
man's Corey Feldman.

The Arkin / Kellerman movie was Last of the Red Hot Lovers.  Arkin
was in GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (A), although he might not be the name
that springs to mind when you think of that movie.

response 259 of 290:

Sep 7 16:27 UTC 1998

THE APOSTLE (A) -- Robert Duvall is just amazing in this movie.
Granted, the Oscars are more for entertainment than anything
else, but still, I'll never understand why he didn't win for
this role.  

response 261 of 290:

Sep 7 20:22 UTC 1998

Re #259:  The Oscars go mainly to films that make a LOT of money.  Whether
this is b/c the best performances bring in lots of paying customers, or b/c
the Accademy is honoring "what works", or b/c they "hop on the bandwagon",
I have no idea.

response 263 of 290:

Sep 8 10:58 UTC 1998

This item is from the Zentertainment webzine:

Legendary director Akira Kurosawa died in Tokyo Sunday, 
at age 77, from a stroke. Kurosawa leaves behind such 
classics as THE SEVEN SAMURAI, RASHOMON, RAN, 
IKIRU, YOJIMBO (Sergio Leone's inspiration for FISTFULL 
OF DOLLARS), and THE HIDDEN FORTRESS, (George 
Lucas' inspiration for STAR WARS).

response 265 of 290:

Sep 9 01:25 UTC 1998

RASHOMON is, I believe, considered his masterpiece.  It shows the same events
through multiple points of view, and is considered the quintessential piece
of that style.  Any art that has a vaguely similar MO has the word
"RASHOMON-like" in 100% of its reviews.  Reviewers ignoring this rule are
banished from journalism.  :-)

response 267 of 290:

Sep 15 13:42 UTC 1998

For those of  you who might be interested:

Movie director Peter Bogdanovich premiers the Toledo/Lucas County Public 
Library's 1998-1999 Authors! Authors! season on Tuesday, September 22, 
1998 at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Stranahan Theatre on 
Heatherdowns Boulevard. He is not only the recipient of film critic 
awards and Oscar nominations, but is also the author of "Who the Devil 
Made It," an intimate look at filmmaking through a collection of 
interviews with sixteen legendary film directors. He has also written 
nine other books,including "This is Orson Welles" and "John Ford." His 
own role as a movie director has included "The Last Picture Show," 
"What^Rs Up, Doc," "Paper Moon" and "Mask." His presentation includes 
clips from his own films and those of the directors in his book, as well 
as his dead-on impersonations of everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Cary 
Grant.

Tickets for Authors! Authors! programs cost $8. The doors of the Great 
Hall open at 6:15 p.m. For more information, call the Library at 
(419)259-5207.

response 269 of 290:

Sep 18 05:17 UTC 1998

What's the name of the movie that's coming out about a man searching for his
wife after he himself has died?  I think it stars Robin Williams.  I think
that the background for that movie kicked ass when I saw the preview before
Ever After started.