The Maltese Falcon

Yay San Francisco! Seems like San Fran is the setting of a lot of Femme Fetale/ detective/ film noir type movies (Vertigo being the other). Anyway Humphrey Bogart is good as Sam Spade (seems that Bogart and Gable were the inspiration for bugs bunny, ironic since the last movie I reviewed was It Happened One Night) as is Mary Astor. I do have to say my favorite character is Peter Lorre as the effeminate Joel Cairo (who until today I did not know was in Casablanca also). I like the movie because Spade is sort of the anti-hero, always fighting for the good but leading the police and criminals to think he is also a crook. While he does in the end prove to be an idealist, turning in Brigid O'Shaughnessy, it is sort of hallow since all the while, the audience (and Sam) knows that he had an affair with his partner's wife.

It Happened One Night

Proof that Clarke Gable can only ever play the same role. Essentially Peter Warne is Rhett Butler in the thirties and instead of a southern belle he has a blue-blood socialite. It's hard to believe this won the "big five"--I know I wasn't too hot on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest but wow, comparing the acting of Gable to Nicholson and Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs being the other film to will all five, and consequently my favorite of the lot) is sort of ridiculous. It may be because Nicholson and Hopkins won for sublime acting while nothing about Clarke Gables is ever subtle. Entertaining to watch, but not in my list of the best films I've ever seen.

Forrest Gump

The reason this only gets two stars is that I don't really like Tom Hanks and his attempt at acting mildy retarded is just pedestrian in comparison to Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Dustin Hoffman in Rainman. Also, if possible, the movie seemed better in the small spurts I saw of it on t.v. then when I sat down to watch it fully. Also I don't quite understand the message of Robin Wright-Penn's (does she still use the Penn?) character. Jenny, while traumatized by sexual harassment as a child continues to wander in and out of Forrest's life in a rather irresponsible manner and ends up using him. Sort of out of sync with the theme of Forrest's significance in major historical events despite his handicap and inability to comprehend what he is experiencing.

Shawshank Redemption

How can you not love Morgan Freeman? Also the music is breathtaking. A good movie, but not great. It didn't really strike me as being anything more special than say The Green Mile which was also directed by Frank Darabont. Does anyone else think that Tim Robbins and Tom Hanks look a lot alike? I think Darabont has a penchant for historical prison dramas with white protagonists with a black sidekick. Freeman and Robbins are standouts, particularly Robbin's ability to remain silently stoic. The movie serves as as sort of good "Christian-style" parable. The ending is fun.

Cabaret

This film got three stars for two reasons: Liza Minnelli's voice, most particularly in the song "Mien Herr", and also because Joel Grey is a genius. The movie is entertaining on the same level as West Side Story in that I can appreciate why it did well back when it was released, but fails to suspend my disbelief. When this first came out it swept the Oscars minus best film, which consequently went to The Godfather; I don't know that Grey deserved the supporting actor Oscar over Pacino, nor Fosse over Coppola, but Minnelli is remarkable. Her voice is a spitting image of her mothers, except her singing voice has more power. Anyway, the Fosse choreography is amusing (especially since I just saw the A Chorus Line revival).