Archive | tyler’s reviews RSS feed for this section

Private Eyes, by Tyler Smith

18 Feb

REAR WINDOW (1954)
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Written by: John Michael Hayes
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter

What can I say about this movie that hasn’t already been said? And by much more knowledgeable people, no less.Well, I guess the first thing to say is that I haven’t seen this film in quite a while. Considering the relative frequency with which I watch the other movies on my list, one may wonder how this film, which I’ve seen only once, managed to find its way onto my list.

Well, the answer is very simple: it’s a remarkable film.

[…]

A Nice Sleepy Town, by Tyler Smith

17 Feb

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971)

Directed by: Peter Bogdanovich
Written by: Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich
Starring: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman

I love a nice, long highway drive. Eight hours is always a nice number for me. It means that you’re probably going to have to stop for food or gas at least once. And, when you do, it’s a pretty good bet that you’ll be stopping in a small highway town; one of those towns where the entire economy is built around people stopping on their way to somewhere else.
[…]

Home For The Holidays, by Tyler Smith

16 Feb

PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES (1987)

Written and Directed by: John Hughes
Starring: Steve Martin, John Candy, Michael McKean, Kevin Bacon

Among the smaller tragedies for modern film audiences is the fact that younger generations will not really remember just how great John Candy was. By all accounts, he was a big man with an even bigger heart. This translated to the screen as well. Candy played some of the nicest, most endearing characters I can remember. That may not sound very interesting, but he often managed to take these characters and make them hilarious. And, no character better exemplifies the treasure that was John Candy than Del Griffith from Planes, Trains & Automobiles.
[…]

A Family Matter, by Tyler Smith

15 Feb

SECRETS & LIES (1996)
Written and Directed by: Mike Leigh
Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Timothy Spall, Marianne Jean-Baptiste

I love Seinfeld. It is easily one of my five favorite shows of all time. It is absolutely hilarious. Invariably, the comedy comes from the main characters trying to maneuver their way through a constantly-changing social standard. As the characters dealt with this frustration, we, the audience, would have a hearty laugh, often as a function of their discomfort.

However, there were episodes of Seinfeld that I used to find a refreshing break from the unrelenting awkwardness. These were the episodes where the characters would deal with their respective families. Somehow, no matter how difficult these situations would get, it never really bothered me. Because, hey, it’s family. No matter what happens, they’ll still love you, right? They have to; it’s a rule. So, truly, how bad could it be?

[…]

Accept No Substitutes, by Tyler Smith

14 Feb

JACKIE BROWN (1997)

Written and Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Robert DeNiro

There’s no question that Quentin Tarantino is a talented writer and director. However, as his half of Grindhouse shows us, when accountable only to oneself, sometimes a director can put out a grating, self-indulgent work. I think that what Tarantino needs right now is to bring his directorial flair to someone else’s work.

[…]

We Will Not Walk In Fear, by Tyler Smith

13 Feb

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK (2005)
Directed by: George Clooney
Written by: George Clooney and Grant Heslov
Starring: David Strathairn, Frank Langella, George Clooney

Today, I bought a copy of Good Night, and Good Luck. It’s a wonderful movie, currently occupying the number 5 spot on my list of favorite films of 2005. Some of you may have seen it. If so, I hope you liked it.

It’s not an easy movie to like, I’ll grant. There are no swells of emotion, telling you the viewer what the feel and when. Instead, the film challenges us to process the vast amounts of information handed to us, and react based on said information. There is no threatening music when Joe McCarthy is on-screen, indicating that he is the villain of the film. Instead, it just shows us what he is saying, shows us the other characters’ subdued reactions to him. If we haven’t been paying attention, we wouldn’t really know what’s going on.

[…]

A Story About A Hick, by Tyler Smith

12 Feb

ALL THE KING’S MEN (1949)
Written and Directed by: Robert Rossen
Starring: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge

“Power corrupts.”

A pretty simple statement, and one that I think pretty much everybody agrees on. In fact, this little bit of cynical wisdom is so widely accepted, that I think we have failed to recognize the inherent tragedy of it.

Think about it. A well-meaning person all of a sudden gains power and starts to become more consumed with their own welfare. Soon, they are almost unrecognizable. They are certainly a far cry from where they started.

There are many films that employ this theme. None more effectively, I think, than Robert Rossen’s 1949 film All the King’s Men.

[…]

I’d Trade It All For A Little More, by Tyler Smith

11 Feb

HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986)
Written and Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Diane Weist

Settling. Compromise. Contentment. This is, in theory, the goal of every American. They just want to establish a comfortable life, sit back, and enjoy it.

The problem is that a person may never actually know at what point they have enough. They may not be able to allow themselves to be content. Perhaps they’re worried that their contentment will become complacency. So, they go searching for something else. Sure, they’re happy. But maybe- just maybe- they could be a little happier.

It’s like that Mr. Burns quote. “I’d trade it all for a little more.”

[…]

I Have A Love In My Life, by Tyler Smith

10 Feb

PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002)
Written and Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Luis Guzman, Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Movies about romance are a dime a dozen. The ratio of good romances to bad is about one to fifty. You can usually tell the good ones, because you yourself can relate to what’s being shown, whether it be positive or negative. These are films that truly understand the wonderful, yet unusual, nature of love. The bad romances will have swells of music in awkward places and characters who make huge pronouncements in the midst of large crowds. These films, rather than try to comprehend what love is, they’d rather dictate what love should be. I’m of the opinion that this can be very destructive. If you enter into a relationship with stupid expectations of “movie romance,” you’ll be sorely disappointed when you see what it actually is.

[…]

A Hard Target Search, by Tyler Smith

9 Feb

THE FUGITIVE (1993)
Directed by: Andrew Davis
Written by: Jeb Stuart and David Twohy
Starring: Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Joe Pantoliano

It’s no secret to anybody that knows me that I have a serious aversion to action films. Perhaps more so than any other genre, “Action-Adventure” has the highest potential to make me roll my eyes and grit my teeth. There’s just something about it.

I think it may be that many action films seem to come up with the action first, then the story. I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard that, when Robert Towne was halfway through the script for Mission: Impossible II, John Woo approached him and informed him that he had already thought up two complete action setpieces, and was working on a third, and that Towne would have to work them into the script. Towne observed that these action sequences made no sense by themselves, let alone as part of a larger story. Woo just shrugged. As I said, this story may not be completely true, but the end product sure does bear it out.

[…]

← Previous Entries
Next Entries →