Girl with a Pearl Earring

A very interesting period movie inspired by a famous painting. I liked the way the story & characters were well balanced, and not cliche… what I mean is that every possible plot line is not brought to it’s most dramatic conclusion, and the characters are able to control their emotional (i.e. sexual) impulses. But, we’re still left with an engaging & passionate movie.

Giant

Boy do they have problems. How could a man’s son want to go to harvard and be a doctor? the bastard, I’d disown him! Then there’s the question… should I sell the plane? am I really getting enough use out of it? It’s a little hard to feel sorry for any of the characters in this movie. Society sure has changed. I did find the movie to be quite entertaining as a comedy. James Dean does a great falling-down-drunk scene near the end (that was pretty funny). And the score? “I’ve been workin’ on the railroad”? What could be funnier than that?

Gattaca

As time passes, this movie becomes more and more relevant and prescient. Is this really where we’re headed? I liked how the movie focused on the story, and avoided other peripheral items about how the future might work. Not many movies make you think and keep you entertained. This one did.

Game of Death

Bruce Lee’s death was tragic. He had so much more living to do. I’d love to see what Bruce would be doing these days if he was still around. He was just starting to work on this movie when he died. He’d only filmed a few “test scenes”, and those are shown in all their glory at the end. The rest of this “movie” is utterly awful. The story is completely different than what Bruce had intended. If you rent this, do yourself a favor and forward to the end, don’t even bother with the rest of it.

Freejack

A sterotypical manical gazillionaire tries to achieve immortality by stealing soon-to-be dead bodies from the past. Scrawny Mick Jagger plays the part of the bad guy’s “muscle”… Emilo Estevez is the targeted victim. I saw this quite a long time ago, and don’t remember how it ends, but I’m guessing there are explosions and that the bad guy dies in some grusome way.

1492: Conquest of Paradise

Columbus the man. I liked the way that this movie shows the reason so many subsequent explorers were ruthless, evil warmongers. They had little choice, things were simply anarchy back then and they required a “big stick”. In this movie (I have no idea if it’s historically accurate), Columbus tries to be a “good guy” and is a total failure.