There are some questions to which the answer is always "Yes!"
Such as, "Do you want to go to the petting zoo and pet a bunch of goats?" or "Do you want to walk to the park and feed the ducks?" or "Would you like butter on your toast?" or "On a hot summer night would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?" or "Are you a god, Ray?"
Or, when Lady Slaw turns to you…
Sweet Christ, that's one erotic movie.
In Visions Of Ecstasy, Saint Teresa of Ávila has carnal encounters with Jesus and her own psyche.
Back in college, I read Saint Teresa's The Interior Castle and I sure don't remember anything like that in there. (But then, I'm of an age where the 1980s and 1990s are becoming more like mythical countries from a vaguely remembered dream than they are any real eras once inhabited.)
Is Visions Of Ecstacy blasphemous? That's the…
It had been far too long, a decade or more, since the last time I watched The Princess Bride. It holds up fantastically. I'd forgotten just how much I absolutely love this flick. Great performances, great sets, great story that clicks along at an adventurous pace.
I'll let Grandpa Peter Falk describe the contents of the film: "Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles!"
Who could want for anything more?
With exquisite direction from Rob Reiner and an amazing array of star-power in service of a fantastical fantasy story, The Princess Bride is an absolute winner.
I've been watching the movies in a recently acquired Criterion box set: Eclipse Series 32: Pearls Of The Czech New Wave.
I know very little about Czech history and the Czech New Wave and the Prague Spring. Nonetheless, it is clear that the fascinating A Report On The Party And The Guests is an allegory or fable about authority, control, conformity, toeing the party line, and more. The structure of the film and the story it tells is easily comprehensible…
Robert Alda is visited in his dreams by an alluring, enticing, dancing sexy diaphanous-nightgown witch. She's inserted herself into his night visons via thought-projection. She's seen him and she wants him.
Bianca, the witch, gets Alda's character Rick to join her evil cult, the Grand Executioner of which is doll-shop owner and supreme evil dude Francis Lamont, played excellently with urbanely chilling severity by Neil "Commissioner Gordon '66" Hamilton.
The Devil's Hand contains some really nice performances from Alda, Hamilton,…
Scarface is a near-masterpiece from director Brian DePalma and screenwriter Oliver Stone. This epic tale of one Cuban ex-convict immigrant's vigorous pursuit of the American dream, and his subsequent rise and fall, is a bit overlong, but when its punches land, and most of them do, they hit hard.
Great performances, great story. Pacino is superb, especially when portraying Tony Montana's decline and dissolution. I also particularly like Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Robert Loggia.
The outbursts of violence…
