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MOVIE GUIDE: S
Sabotage (1936, Alfred Hitchcock)
You must see this movie. In pre-WWII London, a terrorist/spy posing as a movie theater owner is worried he's being watched; matters are complicated by his wife and her young brother, ignorant of his actual trade. It's been argued that Hitchcock's work became darker over time, through to the abyss of MARNIE and FRENZY (and possibly VERTIGO), but I'd argue that he was never bleaker than this. A manipulative, disturbing film, as harsh as any Depression-era movie. Excellent cast and phenomenal screenplay in a movie that scars. (A+)
REVIEW / REVIEW (earlier) / ANALYSIS / weirdness of review / Hitchcock's masterpieces / RELATED: I Confess review / Joseph Conrad's 'The Secret Agent' / remake of / MENTIONED: site commentary / Truffaut notes / War of the Worlds review / Sullivan's Travels review / Match Point review / Lady from Shanghai review / Lady in the Water review / 1000th post
Saboteur (1942, Alfred Hitchcock)
A man goes on the run after getting the blame for a deadly act of sabotage. It's sort of the diluted 39 STEPS, with shades of war propaganda, but big cheers for the sense of journey, the very American populism, and the use of WWII as a background. Great, weird characters, a fine script, and many wonderful eccentricities. (A-)
short review / RELATED: Foreign Correspondent review / Suspicion & Dial M for Murder reviews / Alfred Hitchcock Presents / MENTIONED: Barry Lyndon review / Bride of Frankenstein review / Hitchcock Clue
Sabrina (1954, Billy Wilder)
Humphrey Bogart is what makes this film work, playing a cold, isolated aristocrat who courts Audrey Hepburn strictly for business reasons. A wonderful setup unfortunately cops time and time again to the obvious; the film is much too long but often quite amusing. (B)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / disappointments / MENTIONED: Twilight Zone: The Bard
The Sandlot (1993, David Mickey Evans)
Typical coming-of-age comedy with no respect whatsoever for its young audience, this is what STAND BY ME might have been like with Chris Columbus behind the camera. (C-)
Santa Claus: The Movie (1985, Jeannot Szware)
Gooey story of origins of Santa Claus and how this relates to cynical greedy kid is rather alarming in its shunning of commercialism while pushing itself forward as nothing but a commercial product. L. Frank Baum it ain't. (D+)
The Santa Clause (1994, John Pasquin)
Stupid jokes, stupider sentiment prevail in this weak Disney-sanctioned comedy about a Tim Allen who becomes Santa because that's what it says in Allen's contract. If there is a good story in this idea, and I don't think there is, Allen is not the actor to put it across. (D)
MENTIONED: fall movie preview
Saps at Sea (1940, Gordon Douglas)
Laurel & Hardy features usually add in too much story to be as fun as they should be, but this one is only fifty-seven minutes and is all good stuff. Of course, it is somewhat confined entertainment, but what can you do? (B)
Saturday Night Fever (1977, John Badham)
Though surprisingly intelligent, this study of a teen escaping to a Brooklyn dance club is poorly acted and only competently directed, never getting inside the head of its lead character or really getting across the kind of release he achieves. (C)
Saturn 3 (1980, Stanley Donen)
Miserable sci-fi from Donen, who's overstretching himself here, about a horny robot scaring people. I don't know where to direct my anger, but I am angry. (D+)
Saving Private Ryan (1998, Steven Spielberg)
One of Spielberg's most curiously flat films, lifted up only slightly by a good, sophisticated performance in the lead from Tom Hanks. The relentless "war is hell" message is nice to see in a somewhat patriotic movie, but the film is hardly the reversal of war-show theatrics it was reputed to be at the time. Maybe there is something to admire in the director's aggressive methods here, but the script is treacly, forced, easy, and that kills the whole enterprise. (C)
REVIEW / FCC conflict / LISTED: rated / RELATED: Minority Report review / Amistad review / MENTIONED: children & scary movies / Douglas Adams on the Oscars / new AFI list / movie reviews / top 250 / The Green Mile review
Say Anything... (1989, Cameron Crowe)
Often miraculous teen film about the class brain getting courted by too-perfect lowly kickboxer John Cusack, while her faith in her beloved father begins to shake. More honest and restrained than almost any other comedy of the '80s, this is Crowe's best film to date and a genuinely romantic, admirably open-ended story about adolescent ideologies of any era. (A)
MENTIONED: donovan / summer movie preview / john cusack will
Scanners (1981, David Cronenberg)
Scanners are things that make people's heads explode, but don't worry! Scientists are on the case. Absolutely the stupidest, smarmiest load of self-satisfied bullshit I've ever seen, and just an excuse for lots of gross FX. (D-)
Scarface (1983, Brian De Palma)
One of the worst films ever produced in Hollywood, this utterly insipid remake of the Howard Hawks film written by Oliver Stone is trashy, obnoxious, heavy-handed, and excessive in every way. De Palma's involvement is baffling; the movie is just inexcusable. It is filmmaking free of even a hint of brains, wisdom, or art. (D-)
RELATED: Sisters review / Dressed to Kill DVD review / MENTIONED: Nightmare Before Christmas anecdote / gangster/mob flicks / summer movie preview / Black Dahlia speculation / Wild Bunch review
Scenes from a Marriage (1973, Ingmar Bergman)
Bold and insightful, heavily involved story of the gradual disintegration of a marriage is a tour de force in writing and directing for Bergman, with the performances by Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann beyond criticism. Nevertheless, this is identifiably a story meant to be seen at greater length; it was made as a six-hour miniseries and cut down to just three hours for theatrical release. The strain and loss of development shows; once you have seen the theatrical print, you will just want more. (A-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / best of year / RELATED: Fanny & Alexander debate / Bergman obit / MENTIONED: Straw Dogs review
Schindler's List (1993, Steven Spielberg)
Spielberg returns to form with his best film since the '70s, and it is completely magnificent. An engrossing epic about the man who sheltered thousands of Jews in his phony factory during the Holocaust, the film features stunning, faultless performances by Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes. Spielberg enlivens the story with the same breathless pacing and ruthlessly cutting identification he exhibited in masterworks like JAWS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. The result is a shattering, personal experience that never slows down or is anything less than fascinating. (A+)
RELATED: Minority Report review / War of the Worlds review Amistad review / 1941 DVD review / Saving Private Ryan review / MENTIONED: 2005 movie preview / Sideways review / Time's 100 greatest films / LOTSI: complaining / Nightmare Before Christmas anecdote/ Breaking the Waves review / giggling at sex scene / year in movies / biz / Deer Hunter review / Husbands and Wives review / The Pianist review / Hotel Rwanda review / Gandhi review
Schizopolis (1996, Steven Soderbergh)
Soderbergh crafts a series of surreal skits in three segments dealing with... oh, fuck, I don't know. (C+)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / disappointments
The School of Rock (2004, Richard Linklater)
Mike White wrote this pleasant but lightweight comedy about a gen-X slacker posing as a substitute teacher, instructing children on the act of "rocking." The kids are delightful, but the film is basically free of the insight its high concept might have offered. (B-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated
The Science of Sleep (2006, Michel Gondry)
The first seventy-five minutes are outstanding in terms of writing, performance, and direction, lovelorn comedy on a level with Chaplin, conviction of Orson Welles magnitude, all wrapped up in Richard Lester surrealism. Sadly, the film goes for another half hour after it makes its point, and it grows increasingly tiresome and annoying. The first half is some of the best filmmaking of this century thus far. (A-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / MENTIONED: summer movie preview
Scoop (2006, Woody Allen)
Charming, deadpan, mildly surreal comedy with scattered thriller elements -- about a reporter (Scarlett Johansson) and her magician pal (Woody) on the trail of a murderer -- is rumored to be the director's final comedy. Let's hope not. (A-)
REVIEW / reaction / LISTED: rated / MENTIONED: summer movie preview / Woody interviews
Scrooge (1970, Ronald Neame)
Opulent but overblown musical version of A Christmas Carol; Albert Finney is excellent in the title role, but the songs and production design are grossly mismatched to the story. (B-)
Scrooged (1988, Richard Donner)
Cynical, smart-alecky take on Dickens, with Bill Murray scarcely credible and extremely annoying as a modern-day Ebenezer. Action director Donner doesn't know what to do with this. (C)
The Searchers (1956, John Ford)
Most beloved American western has plenty to justify its status: great iconography, gripping story, a powerful sense of menace, and a reluctantly positive message. But there's less to this than some scholars claim. Still, don't discount the power of the final scene, and certainly not Wayne's performance in the last fifteen minutes of the movie. (B+)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / MENTIONED: still need to see / disappointed with / The Professional review
Secret Agent (1936, Alfred Hitchcock)
John Gielgud, sent to assassinate a spy, kills the wrong person. More of a popcorn flick than THE 39 STEPS, but almost as good and a worthy followup. Peter Lorre -- as a girl-crazy Mexican killing machine -- is outstanding, and the film's moral questions and lack of answers lend it an air of storytelling innovation, which would be carried over to the stark discomfort of SABOTAGE. The scenes in which Gielgud painfully questions his new profession encapsulate everything missing from the James Bond series. (A)
RELATED: I Confess review / MENTIONED: War of the Worlds review / Munich review / non-remake of
The Secret Garden (1993, Agnieszka Holland)
Restraint is something typically foreign to anything that today is labeled a family film, but this remarkable Frances Hodgson Burnett adaptation -- opulent and staggering though its production design may be -- settles for a traditional, classical beauty that renders its ideas and messages into some sort of magic. (A-)
The Secret Lives of Dentists (2003, Alan Rudolph)
Campbell Scott is wonderful as a put-upon dentist who begins hallucinating after he discovers that his wife (and work partner) is cheating on him; an irate patient appears in his head, commenting on his every move, as he begins to wonder what step to take next. Hope Davis' character is rather shrill, but this movie's humor, observations, and uncompromising conclusion stick with you. (A-)
REVIEW 1 / REVIEW 2 / LISTED: rated / MENTIONED: LOTSI: romance novels / LOTSI: adult programs
The Secret of NIMH (1982, Don Bluth)
One of Bluth's better films, this is still a one-note adaptation of the rather dull bestseller Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. Has an inexplicable following in the emo set, but for most of us it's just too sugary. It is better than most of Disney's output of the period. (C+)
MENTIONED: scary movies
See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989, Arthur Hiller)
Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, as a blind and deaf man respectively, are as fun as ever, but the movie is just a bunch of screaming and falling down. (C-)
Selena (1997, Gregory Nava)
Alternately interesting and accidentally funny look at the life and death of celebrated Latino singer Selena, killed by a close associate. The performances are quite good, but there's nothing to make this biopic unique or original. (B-)
Sense and Sensibility (1995, Ang Lee)
Ang Lee's first English-language film is an example of everything working swimmingly in a literary adaptation. Not especially familiar with Jane Austen's novel before he began the project, Lee found his own sense of humanity in the story and gave it all of his strength to turn in an engrossing drama and a knowing -- never overreaching -- comedy, wrapped up in a movie as entertaining as any you'll ever see. Emma Thompson's deeply intelligent script is the stuff of dreams, doing so much more than just transferring a novel to the screen. Lee's distinctively jagged but beautiful direction has the prefect touch, ignoring nothing, seeing everything, and doing all the things that period pieces typically neglect. Lee brings us class struggle, quiet misery and unspoken triumph. In every way it defies expectations. (A)
REVIEW / RELATED: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon review / MENTIONED: The River review / Match Point review
September (1987, Woody Allen)
Allen's take on AUTUMN SONATA -- overbearing mother, meek daughter -- is more polished than his earlier straight drama, INTERIORS -- the acting is better, the photography is superior, the mood is sustained with far more precision and assurance. But it also lacks the extra punch of raw emotion that INTERIORS enjoyed. There are beautiful scenes, but it never lunges out and bites you. All the same, vastly underrated. (B+)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / RELATED: Alice review
Serial Mom (1994, John Waters)
Confused, stupid Waters satire ruins a great idea -- a deeply conservative apple-pie mother knocks off those who disagree with her values -- with cheap jokes and excess in place of good writing. Kathleen Turner is... interesting in the lead role. (D)
Session 9 (2001, Brad Anderson)
Exceptionally tense, paranoid horror film about a team of workers removing asbestos from an abandoned mental hospital is scary as all hell; for the kind of payoff it has, it goes on a little longer than it needs to, but don't miss it, and don't try and read anything else about it before you see it. (B+)
REVIEW / RELATED: The Machinist review / MENTIONED: Shattered Glass review
Se7en (1995, David Fincher)
Phenomenal movie about the search for a serial killer with a deeply convicted moral agenda displays a young director at an unprecedented level of ingenuity. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are the detectives on the case and both turn in the performances of their lives, Pitt sprightly and eager, Freeman wise and resigned. Fincher's plotting and visual execution are on a level with the greatest luminaries to work in the medium, and this is one of the finest thrillers ever made, topping even THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. (A+)
REVIEW / RELATED: Zodiac review / MENTIONED: Vertigo restoration / The Ring review / Dawn of the Dead DVD review / DB&P hiatus / my Dane story / Mr. Benton / Klute review / typeface discussion / notes on composition
The Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
Knockout movie about a group of samurai sent to protect a farm that is set to be plundered by sickos is hugely entertaining and visually remarkable, but goes on far too long, a condition that especially hurts during the endless battle sequences. (A-)
Best Buy spat / LISTED: rated / best of year / RELATED: Rashomon review / Ran review / Yojimbo review / MENTIONED: subtext of The Incredibles / Reds review / Duck Soup review / Chicken Run review
The Seventh Seal (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
Dazzling film sends a knight wandering through Black Plague-ravaged lands after being challenged by Death to a game of chess. Wry, humanistic movie has no real story thread but it hardly matters -- SEAL has too many beautiful images to count and guides the viewer through a dramatic range of emotions, especially at the stunning conclusion. (A-)
REVIEW / LISTED: best of year / rated / RELATED: Fanny & Alexander debate / Bergman obit / Woody Allen's Bergman obit
sex, lies, and videotape (1989, Steven Soderbergh)
Few chronicles of marital dysfunction are as lovably enigmatic and outright hilarious as this one, which is blessed with outstanding performances by Peter Gallagher, Andie Macdowell, James Spader, and Laura San Giacomo. Spader is an old friend of Gallagher's and a bit of a weirdo who takes strange videotapes of women making their sexual "confessions"; his attraction to Macdowell begins to complicate matters. This is a textbook example of the way character development ought to be delivered, with full conviction and not a series of pseudo-eccentric shortcuts, all wrapped in a movie that at the end of the day is just a lot of fun to watch. (A)
REVIEW / MENTIONED: Great Expectations review / Your Friends & Neighbors review
Sgt. Bilko (1996, Jonathan Lynn)
Feel for Steve Martin, locked away in a cell where he is doomed to hide his wit, intelligence, and insanity all for a harebrained update of an old sitcom. But remember, he did get paid. (D+)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978, Michael Schultz)
A strange and enormous put-on indeed, this bizarre Bee Gees movie attempts to form the songs of Beatles' fake concept album into a "plot"; result is offensive, monstrous anti-rock & roll propaganda attempting to leech off the image of a great band in the name of the glory of corporate rock. A sickening time is guaranteed for all. (D-)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Alfred Hitchcock)
A girl is suspicious of her shady uncle, played with menace and charm by the great Joseph Cotten, who is actually the Merry Widow Murderer. Stunning deconstruction of Americana small-town peace and family loyality is so perfectly executed it doesn't seem possible that it was made under great stress during the height of WWII, so horrifying it doesn't seem that it could be from so long ago, and so American it's shocking that it comes from a British director. A homey, gothic, subtle masterpiece that haunts you permanently and never takes the easy way out. (A+)
Hitchcock's masterpieces / RELATED: The Wrong Man review / Teresa Wright obit / Lifeboat DVD review / Sabotage analysis / Hitchcock remakes / MENTIONED: The River review / Match Point review / Match Point DVD review / The Stranger review
Shadows and Fog (1992, Woody Allen)
Few titles in movie history are more apt, as shadows and fog are exactly what you get during the atmospheric, beautifully-photographed story of a European city terrorized by a psychopath on the loose. Like no one else, Allen succeeds in enhancing rather than deflating his serious themes with high comedy; most inspired of all is the fact that our hero is the part of a vigilante scheme about which he is never informed and to which is never even really introduced, but which he is expected to initiate. This movie dares to reveal its thesis in the last few seconds, but offers plenty of fun along the way. (A-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / best of year / RELATED: Alice review / Scoop review / MENTIONED: Misery review
The Shaggy Dog (1959, Charles Barton)
Early live action Disney farce is extremely disappointing, the jokes flat and the story uninvolving. (C)
Shakespeare in Love (1998, John Madden)
Good-natured and extremely well-performed story of the Bard doing it with Gwyneth Paltrow, getting inspired to write "Romeo & Juliet" as a result of the subsequent romantic frustrations. Lightweight film overwhelms with cutesy humor and klutzy sensuality, lacks the range and intellect to be a really strong movie. Worst of all is Joseph Fiennes' pretty-boy performance as Shakespeare. A bust, too readily embraced by an overexcited media. (C+)
MENTIONED: fucking wonderful Douglas Adams essay about the oscars / Elizabeth review
Shane (1953, George Stevens)
Extremely well-directed western is a visual marvel; the script is a bit muddier, though it does toy with the same ambiguous ideas as THE SEARCHERS, only in more direct and less subtle ways, which may or may not be a negative. It's easy to be caught up in this, so long as you can ignore that irritating kid. (B+)
REVIEW / initial reaction / LISTED: rated / RELATED: Giant review / A Place in the Sun review
Shattered Glass (2003, Billy Ray)
Haunting story of modern journalism ethics, with dishonest reporter Stephen Glass wowing his peers with fabricated stories; Glass is brilliantly and sympathetically played by Hayden Christensen (!), who manages to involve the viewer in his overgrown-child character's ultimately claustrophobic plight. Supporting cast member Peter Sarsgaard is also extraordinary in this impeccably told tale that never strolls toward the obvious and subjective. (A)
REVIEW / DVD review / reaction / LISTED: rated / RELATED: Breach review / MENTIONED: Quiz Show review
Shaun of the Dead (2004, Edgar Wright)
British semi-parody of zombie films begins (very slowly) as a boisterous comedy, turns unexpectedly serious when it decides to get the story moving. A bit unprofessional in tone and direction, but not wholly without charm. (B-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated
The Shawshank Redemption (1994, Frank Darabont)
Anemic but well-plotted Stephen King short story becomes a wonderful modern epic film; Darabont doesn't do anything with the absorbing, inspiring plot that isn't obvious, but this is one situation in which that's a good thing. The extremely well-acted story flows forward uninterrupted and unadorned, and goes for thrills and deep satisfaction rather than wounding impressions. Too many narrative detours to be the greatest movie of all time, but damn near flawless anyway. (A)
RELATED: The Green Mile review / MENTIONED: Stand by Me review / The Professional review
She's Gotta Have It (1986, Spike Lee)
Charming, low-key comedy about an amorous girl and her many inadequate lovers is apparently quite uncharacteristic of director Lee, but it is in any case very funny and lovably unpretentious. (A-)
RELATED: Do the Right Thing review
She's the One (1996, Edward Burns)
Tepid pseudo-sentimental junk with actor/writer/director Burns wasting a fairly good cast on touchy-feely male confessional. (D+)
The Shining (1980, Stanley Kubrick)
It may not be particularly scary, but this wildly unnerving Stephen King adaptation is still a thrill to watch, with dynamic Jack Nicholson performance and many scenes of explosive excitement. Its length may cause it to lose favor with some, but Kubrick asks in the first few minutes of the film for the audience to invest itself, and either you do or you don't. If you do, you'll find the feeling of isolation quite beautifully realized. (A)
RELATED: Lolita review / Barry Lyndon review / Eyes Wide Shut review / new Kubrick box / MENTIONED: The Ring review / The Exorcist review / Close Encounters review / Targets review / Misery review
Shoot the Piano Player (1960, Francois Truffaut)
A million wonderful ideas jam-packed into 84 majestic minutes, Truffaut's wild comic/tragic second film -- about a formerly professional, now poor pianist finding himself suddenly targeted by gangsters -- riffs articulately with the many steadfast cliches of American B-pictures, and turns every one of them upside down, injecting real life into the movies, and vice versa, to create juxtapositions that are fascinating, scary, hilarious, and distressing. (A+)
REVIEW / DVD review / LISTED: rated / 10 best of year / best DVDs of year / RELATED: Truffaut / Day for Night review / MENTIONED: Best Buy problem / review coming / Breathless review & movie summaries / Fanny & Alexander debate / 1000th post / The Science of Sleep review
Shopgirl (2005, Anand Tucker)
This comedy written by (and based on a novella by) Steve Martin provides a surprising contrast to his L.A. STORY; the Los Angeles of SHOPGIRL is far more looming, cancerous. Tucker's intriguing film is an oddly moving mixture of slick showboating and raw emotion, Martin's time-tested ideas filtered very much through 2005 lenses. Claire Danes, in the title role of a sales clerk torn between two men, holds the whole thing together. A strange movie, but a very good one. (A-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / MENTIONED: upcoming movies / wanting to see
Short Circuit (1986, John Badham)
Ally Sheedy befriends a robot. I'm sure it's not the first time. (D)
Short Circuit 2 (1988, Kenneth Johnson)
This is a big improvement over the original. Hey, the robot sounds like Big Bird. (D+)
Short Time (1990, Gregg Champion)
Sloppy REGARDING HENRY-type story starring Dabney Coleman interjected with weird stunt sequences is nearly unwatchable when it bothers to make sense. (D+)
A Shot in the Dark (1964, Blake Edwards)
Wonderful sequel to THE PINK PANTHER brings back Inspector Clouseau, this time investigating a murder in a big house, getting stuck in a nudist colony, and tormenting his boss, among many other gross misdeeds. Masterfully done and completely winning; as good as slapstick comes. (A)
REVIEW / RELATED: The Party review / MENTIONED: Mancini
Showgirls (1995, Paul Verhoeven)
Amusing sexploitation garbage is short on eye candy, long on trashy laughter. An infamous flop, of course, but the filmmakers undeniably achieved everything they set out to do. Except it's not quite hot enough to be porn, though it does achieve the proper quotient of poor acting. (C-)
Shrek (2001, Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jensen)
Unfunny, monotonous CGI feature about an ogre attempting to get peace and quiet and stumbling as a result on a kidnapped princess and lots of other recycled ideas wrapped in the illusion of smartass parody. Obnoxious, artificial, and stupid. (C-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / RELATED: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe review / MENTIONED: Stephen King's top movies / James and the Giant Peach review / sequels
Sid and Nancy (1986, Alex Cox)
Who wants to watch a movie about jerkass Sid Vicious? Not me, but Cox does invest this project with appropriate detachment and stylish photography. It will mostly make you feel dirty. (C+)
Sideways (2004, Alexander Payne)
Stunningly inane, unfunny comedy about a couple of thirtysomething yuppie losers who go around drinking a lot and getting laid, then go home. Whatever great truth is supposed to be gleaned from this film is nonexistent; it's a total waste of energy to even bother watching it, and its disgusting clichés are ample and infuriating. Complete trash, and a very disheartening followup to ABOUT SCHMIDT. (D+)
REVIEW / at golden globes / LISTED: rated / 10 worst of year + movies seen theatrically / RELATED: oscar buzz / post-oscar buzz / MENTIONED: hoping to see / 1941 reaction / I Vitelloni review / Reds review / Midnight Cowboy review / Door in the Floor & School of Rock reviews + movie summaries / year in movies / Arsenic & Old Lace DVD / I now pronounce you Alex & Jim
Signs (2002, M. Night Shyamalan)
The least interesting of Shyamalan's box office juggernauts to date, this is still a solid suspense/sci-fi film, working off the premise that Spielberg initially envisioned for E.T.: a family is terrorized by the aliens outside. The religious subtext is unnecessary but well-rounded; the only real problems with the film are the feeling of routine and the lousy special effects; even Mel Gibson comes off rather well. Still, compared to UNBREAKABLE and THE VILLAGE, this is nothing much. (B)
RELATED: The Village review / Wide Awake review / MENTIONED: The Ring review / summer movie preview
The Silence of the Lambs (1991, Jonathan Demme)
In the age of the Erotic Thriller, the most erotic one of all is the super-clinical one with no actual sex and just a whole lot of mind games between Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. In the same way that Alfred Hitchcock filmed sex scenes like murder and murder scenes like sex, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS is all about the fascinating perversity in the beauty of death. It dares to throw out a conventional moral code in allowing us to fall in love with Hannibal Lechter, as a result indulging us in pure, unguarded cinematic storytelling. All this dubious manipulation makes SILENCE one of the most surprising Best Picture winners in Oscar history... and one of the most deserving. (A+)
REVIEW / DVD / RELATED: Melvin & Howard review / MENTIONED: animation rant / scary movies / 1000th post / Breach review
Silent Movie (1976, Mel Brooks)
Hilarious, richly entertaining but, in the end, disappointing Brooks comedy concerns a scheme by a Hollywood director to make a silent film in the '70s. The various scenes here are consistently delightful, the unquestionable highlight being a dance scene that is basically a valentine to Brooks' wife Anne Bancroft. (Imagine having something like that dedicated to you!) But there is no closure; the wonderful movie that is supposedly being worked on at the end is never seen, which makes this movie suffer to an extreme. It's a long joke with no punchline. (B+)
Mel Brooks Collection DVD review / RELATED: High Anxiety review / MENTIONED: For Your Consideration review / The Elephant Man review
Sin City (2005, Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller)
A live action film that feels like an extremely static cartoon, this slick experiment by Rodriguez from Miller's graphic novels is essentially an update of HEAVY METAL -- adolescent male fantasies with fancy mythological trimmings, the mythology in this case being film noir by way of comic books. It is what it is, for better or worse. (B-)
REVIEW / clarification of review / LISTED: rated / IMDB review of
Singin' in the Rain (1952, Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly)
This lovely, celebrated musical is everything you don't expect: darkly funny, moving, as visually dazzling as anything Hollywood has crafted, and even erotic at times. It never once is cutesy or lightweight. The story of a pair of stars' dealings with the transition to talkies in the late '20s will delight you to no end, I don't care who you are. (A)
REVIEW / DVD review / LISTED: rated / 10 best of year / best DVDs of year / MENTIONED: 1000th post / Red Shoes review / short notes on An American in Paris / An American in Paris review / AFI wrapup / new AFI list / Sunrise review / Swing Time review
Singles (1992, Cameron Crowe)
Sweet-natured generation X comedy is almost the exact opposite of REALITY BITES, made two years later -- no better or worse, but a lot more honest, which at times is rather frightening. The title more or less says it all, with various people drifting in and out of relationships in early '90s Seattle. Terminally likable, but also a bit of an odd use of talent, particularly that of Campbell Scott. (B)
The Sinister Urge (1960, Edward D. Wood Jr.)
Hilarious premise -- 1960s porn rings EXPOSED! by hypocrite Wood, later to become a trashy pornographer -- unfortunately is the best thing about this dull film from everyone's favorite bad director, a big disappointment that fails to deliver the perverse fun of his more popular efforts. (C)
Sisters (1973, Brian De Palma)
Overexcited PSYCHO ripoff hesitates to attach itself to that film's considerable psychological undercurrent, instead just makes a movie about a bunch of random, disconnected characters that revolves vaguely around a pair of twin sisters, one of them psychotic. Bloody and amusing occasionally, but mostly just a weird attempt at Hitchcockian theatrics. (B-)
REVIEW / MENTIONED: Dawn of the Dead DVD review / Rosemary's Baby review / The Exorcist review
The Sixth Sense (1999, M. Night Shyamalan)
Immediately legendary ghost movie about a boy (brilliantly played by Haley Joel Osment) haunted by bizarre images -- and the child psychologist (Bruce Willis, doing some of his best work since Moonlighting) who comes to his aid -- is built on inventive visuals and an ingenious script that scores on surprises and emotional power, even on the second time around. Shyamalan uses the full resources of cinema with remarkable ease. (A)
RELATED: Unbreakable review / Lady in the Water review / Wide Awake review / MENTIONED: The Ring review / Land of the Dead review / year in movies / new AFI list
The Skin Game (1931, Alfred Hitchcock)
Cranky British people bitch about land, their neighbors. While it's one of the director's least distinctive films, this does have some interest for buffs. It follows in the footsteps of JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK, a play that Hitchcock filmed with a minimum of cinematic contrivance, resulting in a well-acted but bland early talkie. Fortunately, SKIN GAME -- while the story is less subtle and intriguing -- reflects more care on the director's part and is more entertaining. A big part of what makes it worth seeing is the delightful performance of Edmund Gwenn as a money-grubbing bastard. For those who are not fans of Gwenn or Hitchcock, there's probably no reason to see this. (C+)
REVIEW / RELATED: Waltzes from Vienna speculation / Paradine Case review / Champagne DVD review / MENTIONED: All Quiet on the Western Front DVD review
The Skydivers (1963, Coleman Francis)
Francis' films are among the worst ever made, but the other two have strangely alluring eccentricities that make them great curiosity items. This one is just dull and disturbingly inept without the MST3K commentary. (D)
MENTIONED: watching MST3K
Sleeper (1973, Woody Allen)
Not just a great slapstick comedy but a great science fiction film, this treasure -- Woody's most narratively sophisticated effort up to this point, and his first movie to craft believable characters -- concerns a future (witnessed by cryogenically frozen Woody) in which mankind is oppressed and at the mercy of a great leader's nose. Great jokes and some visual gags on a par with Chaplin's MODERN TIMES. Best of all, this is one of the first teamings of Woody and Diane Keaton, and Woody and writer Marshall Brickman. (A)
RELATED: off to watch / Hannah and Her Sisters review / Take the Money and Run review / MENTIONED: LOTSI: space ice cream / Modern Times review
Sleeping Beauty (1959, Clyde Geronimi)
For once, a Disney feature that's almost entirely a slave to a linear story, which offers this a sense of gravity that has led it to age incredibly well. The music is beautiful, the production design truly grand, and the film impossibly gorgeous, made in Cinemascope. The effects animation is tremendous; this approaches the greatness of the studio's earliest features. (A+)
REVIEW / RELATED: WDT: On the Front Lines / Complete Goofy / Beauty & the Beast review / collecting Disney / Cinderella DVD review / MENTIONED: tracking down Disney DVDs
Sleeping with the Enemy (1991, Joseph Ruben)
Fake suspense film about cringe-worthy Julia Roberts escaping her abusive husband just pummels the viewer senseless, with no justification or payoff of any kind. (D)
Sleepless in Seattle (1994, Nora Ephron)
Mawkish romantic comedy is the result of years of product testing to bring you the most efficient Nora Ephron tearjerker imaginable. It has exactly what the people wanted: Tom Hanks looking cute, Meg Ryan trying to look cute, and lots of scenes ripping off other movies. If you don't like it, you are unamerican. Ephron's visions of what women like to see when they go to the movies are as stereotypical as those of any studio head. (D+)
Sleepy Hollow (1999, Tim Burton)
It won't win any awards for restraint, but this goofy rendition of Washington Irving has a certain trashy appeal. Burton's visuals are flawless; there's very little storytelling power backing up the fine individual scenes, but the movie is undeniably enjoyable and very well-acted. (B)
DVD review / MENTIONED: Brothers Grimm review
Sleuth (1972, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine torment each other with mind games while putting you to sleep. (C+)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / disappointments / MENTIONED: movie summaries / Hero review
Sliding Doors (1998, Peter Howitt)
Excellent, at times ingenious comedy about alternate realities for Gwyneth Paltrow (outstanding); the movie tracks parallel events that would occur if she catches or misses a crucial bus at the beginning. Howitt, surprisingly, makes this work seamlessly, and you don't worry too much about the one-dimensional supporting characters until after the movie's over. Really solid, even insightful entertainment. (B+)
Sliver (1993, Philip Noyce)
Ira Levin gets diluted through the early '90s tits & cash sheen, following in the footsteps of Lyne, Pakula, and Verhoeven; Sharon Stone is fun but she's done in by the weak story and dull performances of fellow cast members. Disappointing, half-assed "noir." (C-)
Small Change (1976, Francois Truffaut)
Truffaut offers a grand and lively -- and startlingly real -- document of childhood in one of his greatest films. Following various children's activities in a Paris neighborhood, it's possibly the essential depiction of life on film. Everyone wishes they could create something as poignant, appallingly funny, sumptuous, and detailed as this, particularly while maintaining extreme, untainted realism. A sentimental sap by nature, Truffaut can't resist the weak speechifying near the end, but this is the only serious flaw in a truly magical film. (A)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / 10 best of year / RELATED: Day for Night review / MENTIONED: Straw Dogs review & movie summaries / top ten of the week / Cinema Paradiso review
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955, Ingmar Bergman)
Bergman wrote this in a period of grave depression and credited it with saving his life. Never one to apply such vast platitudes to any kind of creative work, I believe his romantic anecdote in this case. It's one of the liveliest films ever made. The story of several couples mingling and intertwining during a vacation in the Swedish countryside leaves no stone unturned and confirms all of your suspicions but outdoes them. It's simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking and could make you thrill at being alive, even (especially?) at the sad parts. (A+)
REVIEW / DVD review / LISTED: rated / 12 best of year / RELATED: Seventh Seal review / Wild Strawberries review / Fanny & Alexander debate / Bergman obit / MENTIONED: La Strada review / Rules of the Game review / Purple Rose of Cairo review / 1000th post
Smokey and the Bandit (1977, Hal Needham)
Stupid but fun chase movie is harmless, mysteriously popular, and a technical marvel. (B-)
The Snapper (1993, Stephen Frears)
Stephen Frears' stunningly touching comedy about the effects of a pregnancy on a blue-collar Irish family is packed with wry observation and quietly poignant moments, most of them involving the father played with almost stressful accuracy by Colm Meaney. Simply wonderful. (A)
short review / DVD review
Sneakers (1992, Phil Alden Robinson)
You think a movie about hackers stopping a world takeover sounds boring? Fortunately, this is Hollywood, which means the hackers don't look like hackers, they look like Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, River Phoenix, etc. Which makes this a totally badass film, even though it stretches plenty of credibility toward the end. A delicious and worthy successor to WARGAMES (from the same writers). (B+)
MENTIONED: Gandhi review
Snoopy, Come Home (1972, Bill Melendez)
The story isn't as poignant as that of A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN and the animation is generally less impressive, but Snoopy and Woodstock rivet on their long, eventful journey, and the songs are explosive, especially Peppermint Patty's show-stopper. (A-)
RELATED: A Boy Named Charlie Brown DVD review
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, David Hand)
Bruising and delicate cinematic masterpiece, told through song and color; this is no kiddie film. It's an exotic, brooding innovator with unforgettable characters, all of them exceptionally believable, many genuinely horrifying scenes (the sequence of Snow White running from the woodsman would not be allowed in a so-called "family movie" today), and a haunting degree of ambiguous sympathy. You know the Queen is evil, and yet you do undeniably love her, and the filmmakers know it and fully intend to exploit it. The animation, of course, remains some of the best ever seen in a feature film, and the songs are all classic for good reason. Today, as stunning as ever. (A+)
REVIEW / RELATED: collecting Disney / Joe Grant obit / Dumbo & Sleeping Beauty reviews / Complete Goofy / Beauty & the Beast review / year in movies: collecting / Cinderella review / realistic animation / Pinocchio thoughts + Hollywood Cartoons (Michael Barrier) / MENTIONED: H2G2 review / Nightmare Before Christmas anecdote / Straw Dogs DVD / Watership Down review / Shrek review
Soapdish (1991, Michael Hoffman)
Kevin Kline and a few amusing gags about the soap opera business can't help this sinking ship of a comedy about heartaches and harmonies amid the cast of a trashy soap called "Search for the Sun." Pretty dated. (C-)
S.O.B. (1981, Blake Edwards)
One of the angriest films a major director has ever put out; Edwards is so pissed off at Hollywood he even shows his wife's tits in the movie! Acidic satire of the biz is cynical on a level with Billy Wilder, but gets more personal (and therefore draws more blood) than Wilder could've. Quite an interesting film, but your tolerance for vitriol may result in a variance of enjoyment. (A-)
RELATED: Shelley Winters obit
So Dear to My Heart (1949, Harold Schuster)
A boy and his sheep. The live action is dull, the songs are okay, the animation is great as usual but what the hell is it doing here? Surprising miss from Disney before they began putting out full-on live action pictures. (C)
Some Like it Hot (1959, Billy Wilder)
Desperate for employment, a pair of musicians dress as women in order to get a job as part of an all-female band. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are both amazing, in drag and out of it, and the actors' (and the movie's) prescient fearlessness is deserving of highest admiration. From the androgynous innuendo to the playfully multilayered dialogue (the screenplay is almost Shakespearean), the movie rolls around in its own perversion yet stands as an intelligent and brutally grounded comedy. It finds time for everything from class status to romanticism to gender roles to mobsters. There are even a few brilliantly constructed action sequences. It's the kind of movie that packs it all and satisfies at every turn. Marilyn Monroe is ideal in the role of the hopeless, naive dreamer... yet the best feminine role in the film is filled by Jack Lemmon, all too convincing as a homely woman, so much so that even he starts to get confused. (A+)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / RELATED: Double Indemnity review / Sunset Blvd. review / complaints about Billy Wilder DVDs / The Apartment review / Stalag 17 review / MENTIONED: finally saw / endings / Time's 100 greatest films / birthday presents / Victor/Victoria DVD review / Arsenic & Old Lace DVD / 1000th post / Ninotchka review / Talk to Her review
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983, Jack Clayton)
Jason Robards is wonderful -- and Jonathan Pryce a great villain -- is this slow but rich adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel about a sinister carnival that comes to town. Creepy atmosphere comes off well, and even if the narration is terrible and the climax is staged a bit too obviously, the film lingers. (A-)
MENTIONED: Nightmare Before Christmas anecdote
Son of the Pink Panther (1993, Blake Edwards)
Roberto Benigni does himself no favors by trying to fill the shoes of Peter Sellers'. It is a crime that this is Edwards' last film to date. (D+)
MENTIONED: Life Is Beautiful review
Sophie's Choice (1982, Alan J. Pakula)
One of the few films of Pakula's that coasts on emotion instead of technique. It's a soap opera, of course, and I don't care much for Meryl Streep, but the movie is really kind of wonderful all the same. Kevin Kline is brilliant in his screen debut, and the fusion of Holocaust drama with nostalgic coming-of-age haze is more seamless than it has any right to be. It could be a lot shorter, but it's damned engrossing all the same. (B+)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / MENTIONED: new AFI list
Sounder (1972, Martin Ritt)
Haunting film about Depression-era black family's plight is brimming with subtleties resulting from Ritt's incredible attention to detail. The performances are powerful, the story ideally paced and absorbing. (A)
The Sound of Music (1965, Robert Wise)
Formulatic three-hour tearjerker of family's musical war waged against the Nazis. There's no more substance to this than there is to The Partridge Family, but I suppose the music is a bit better. Hot air, mostly, with a smattering of sugar. (C)
RELATED: Robert Wise obit / MENTIONED: Victor/Victoria DVD review
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (1999, Trey Parker)
Parker and Stone may have been correct in their comment at the time this was released that BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO AMERICA didn't do enough to distinguish itself from the TV show because the things they said and did were no worse than what would have gotten onto MTV. What they seem to have missed is that mere bad words and outlandish ideas don't make a great movie, especially when the show it's going to be compared to is as wild as South Park. This film is fun, but one does feel that half an hour of this per week is quite enough. (B-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / disappointments
Soylent Green (1973, Richard Fleischer)
Spoiler: It's made from people in this silly sci-fi film worthy of MST3K. (C-)
Spaceballs (1987, Mel Brooks)
Brooks' mostly on-target spoof of STAR WARS and sci-fi in general is a bit too nice to its subject but does score big laughs all the way through. It's spottier than any of his movies since THE TWELVE CHAIRS, but when it hits the ball, it's usually a home run. (B+)
RELATED: Mel Brooks Collection DVD review / MENTIONED: new bare Graduate DVD
Spanglish (2004, James L. Brooks)
Adam Sandler plays a too-perfect husband, Tea Leoni his too-evil wife in this enjoyable, semi-serious comedy about a restauranteur's marriage and daughter problems as well as his hiring of a Spanish-speaking housemaid. Weird, a bit unfinished (like Brooks' I'LL DO ANYTHING), but charming, with its share of excellent moments. (B)
LISTED: rated / MENTIONED: definitely seeing / Sideways review / 1941 reaction
Spartacus (1960, Stanley Kubrick)
Kubrick took this job to get the independence he wanted in order to make whatever projects he wished, and it worked; his very next film, LOLITA, would not have been made if SPARTACUS hadn't been the #1 box office draw of 1960. Some are thus fond of saying that this lacks Kubrick's personal touch, and he did say many times that he felt distant from the material. There is undeniably a degree of moralizing in the script that Kubrick would not welcome were he in control, but this is still one of the greatest epic movies ever to come out of Hollywood, with rare literacy and restraint for the genre, and excitement maintained from beginning to end, especially during the Roman sequences. Supporting cast is simply perfect, but Kirk Douglas does deliver in the title role. Truly thrilling, and often brilliant. (A)
very short review / RELATED: Barry Lyndon review / The Killing & Dr. Strangelove DVDs / MENTIONED: The Front review / All About Eve DVD review / Jamaica Inn review / Operation Petticoat review / Nightmare Before Christmas anecdote / Witness for the Prosecution review / Amistad review / The Godfather review / Bridge on the River Kwai review / Deer Hunter review / Color Me Kubrick review / new AFI list / Braveheart review / Hero review / Gladiator review
Speed (1994, Jan De Bont)
De Bont's staging can hardly be faulted; this is as professional as action films get. But it is exactly like dozens of other movies, and if there is a certain intensity to the idea of a film in which a bus cannot stop, it's also an idea that makes far too little sense to sustain a movie of this length. (C+)
MENTIONED: summer movie preview
Spellbound (1945, Alfred Hitchcock)
Gregory Peck is the new head of the psychological ward, but he's actually not. Only Ingrid can help. This is the one with the Salvador Dali dream sequence, and that's only part of what makes it one of Hitchcock's most ambitious films. It has aged quite well but has its share of problems. Peck is wrong for the role; Bergman is perfect (decked out in hot spectacles) but her character is exaggerated and poorly written until the story gets going, and it takes its time. About half an hour in, though, this flick really gets rolling, and except for a few pointless setpieces that stop the action, it's a satisfying film. The Dali bit is wickedly fun, but it -- and the rest of the movie -- is marred by the stupefyingly awful Oscar-winning music score, easily the worst in any of the director's films. Quite a curious hybrid of Hitchcock and Selznick sensibilities, not nearly as seamless as REBECCA. (A-)
REVIEW (short) / poster / Hitchcock and Dali / 78rpm soundtrack / RELATED: Suspicion review / Paradine Case DVD review / MENTIONED: Minority Report review / Lost Weekend review / Big Lebowski review / Singin' in the Rain review / Spellbound (2004) review / Chocolate War DVD announcement / Intermezzo review
Spellbound (2004, Jeffrey Blitz)
T-H-E-E-S N-U-R-D-Z A-R K-N-O-T E-N-N-T-U-R-T-A-N-I-N-G A-N T-H-E-Y-R-E P-A-R-R-E-N-T-S A-R S-H-A-L-L-O. (C+)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated
Spies Like Us (1985, John Landis)
A fun globetrotting espionage comedy with several great nonsequitur gags. Mindless but good. (B)
Spirited Away (2002, Hayao Miyazaki)
Well-designed, endlessly intriguing animated feature from Japan's Studio Ghibli unfortunately doesn't have anywhere to go at its conclusion, and besides that, the animation is rather poor, par-for-the-course Japanese stuff. Worthwhile to a point but ultimately disappointing. (C+)
LISTED: rated / MENTIONED: Lilo & Stitch review
Splash (1984, Ron Howard)
Howard shows considerable promise in what remains one of his very best movies, all about Tom Hanks' courtship of a mermaid. Delightfully bizarre debut from Disney's then-brand new Touchstone arm delivers great work from all concerned, though of course it's not anything with great depth. (B+)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977, Lewis Gilbert)
Interesting Bond film includes Barbara Bach. Probably the best of the series just because it contains Mrs. Ringo, but the action sequences are also pretty good. (B-)
Sssssss (1973, Bernard L. Kowalski)
Hyped-up B-movie about a snake-obsessed doctor tormenting his summer intern, who's fucking his daughter. Dumb but harmless, although the concluding images are a rather disgusting ripoff of FREAKS. (C+)
Stagecoach (1939, John Ford)
Exciting black and white western is credited as a primary inspiration for CITIZEN KANE. Cinematically it's a marvel, with exquisite photography and editing. The story is... well, it's a western, and for some viewers the genre simply has its inescapable limitations. As little as this might mean to you, its power is undeniable. (B)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated
Stage Fright (1950, Alfred Hitchcock)
A drama student runs around investigating a murder in Hitchcock's first movie made in London since 1939. Bad acting, bad dialogue, a bad plot. The charm of the production can't save it. This is Hitchcock's worst U.S. film; he seems completely distracted for the first time since the pre-1934 period. There is a rather lovely musical sequence, however. (C-)
very very short review / DVD announcement / RELATED: All About Eve DVD review / Topaz review / MENTIONED: Sunset Blvd. review / Witness for the Prosecution review
Stalag 17 (1953, Billy Wilder)
Masterful comedy/drama follows the moral toll gradually taken on a group of POWs in a German camp in WWII -- William Holden brilliantly plays the suspected leak causing all escape attempts to falter. A hard-nosed cynic, Holden sets out to prove his own innocence in a story masterfully built and expanded, the suspense sustained perfectly, all while goofball comedy and intense character-driven emotion rage on in the background. As so often with Wilder's films, you get far, far more than you paid for. (A-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / MENTIONED: still need to see
Stand and Deliver (1987, Ramon Menendez)
A movie about inner-city kids learning calculus doesn't sound like the most thrilling proposition, but this film's low budget and remarkable sincerity keep it grounded and believable, with refreshingly little melodrama. Apparently, you can make a great story from just about anything. (A-)
MENTIONED: movies at library / top ten of the week
Stand by Me (1986, Rob Reiner)
Stephen King's short story (from Different Seasons) about eleven year-olds going off to look for a dead body is brought to the screen in witty, bittersweet fashion by Reiner, who is helped a great deal by his four hugely impressive young actors, especially River Phoenix and Wil Wheaton. A bit of a romanticized view of adolescene -- I don't care when you grew up -- but at least they do get the amount of coarse language right. (Many reviewers complained about the vulgarities; they apparently didn't know many eleven year-olds.) (A-)
REVIEW
Stardust Memories (1980, Woody Allen)
Surreal movie about filmmaker confronting and conversing with his fans and former lovers is both confusing and delightful. Non-Woody fans will just be disgusted, but those who don't mind the indulgence will find plenty to love, with one sequence in particular a divine showcase of naked emotion. One of the most narratively sophisticated of all American movies. (A-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / best of year / RELATED: Deconstructing Harry review / MENTIONED: Sullivan's Travels review / Lady in the Water review
Starting Over (1979, Alan J. Pakula)
James L. Brooks' script does contain some scattered kernels of truth, and Burt Reynolds' performance is honestly wonderful, too good for one to recommend skipping the movie. But this story of a divorced man dealing with two women in his life is half-baked and shrill much of the time, and far too long. (C)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / disappointments / RELATED: Klute review
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979, Robert Wise)
A gargantuan bore, this attempt by the Trek people to try and capitalize on the bewildering success of STAR WARS made money but is even more tepid than the staid TV show on which it's based. It does, however, inherit the show's poor acting and annoying scientific rambling. Self-aware camp just never works. (D+)
RELATED: Robert Wise obit / MENTIONED: driven by tastes / Stagecoach review
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982, Nicholas Meyer)
While the fans would never admit it, this is more of the same, it just moves a little faster. (C)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989, William Shatner)
Extremely annoying film with all the usual tricks and gags and by-now-routine attempts at Wonder. Sadly, it was not the Final anything. (D)
Star Wars (1977, George Lucas)
Fresh off the urban mythmaking of AMERICAN GRAFFITI, Lucas moves to space with an attempt to take shortcuts to wonder and resonance. It's technology-centric dreamweaving with no humanity, entirely cold and calculated by a director who would do anything to avoid having to write about people. For many, it works, but it's all glitter, and it's laughable for Lucas to have suddenly decided -- when his cornball Boomer fantasy, complete with a princess and a dark knight, became an unexpected hit -- to try and convince people to take his Saturdary morning cardboard cutouts seriously by branding this "Episode IV." Rarely has anything so empty, so nakedly and self-consciously dumb managed to gather up so much pretension. Well, there was Star Trek, but this time, it made someone rich. (C)
not silly / RELATED: wuzzon #4 / MENTIONED: D. Trumbull obit / Charlie & the Chocolate Factory prerelease rant #1 / Citizen Kane reaction / more on MGM lawsuit / H2G2 review / Time's 100 greatest films / Gunga Din review / Roger Ebert / puffy & pras / King Kong [33] review / year in movies / The Godfather review / Cars review / Apocalypse Now review / Children of Men review / Stagecoach review / The Searchers review / LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring review / LOTR: Two Towers review
State & Main (2000, David Mamet)
Mamet slams Hollywood uniformity and calls this satire? There are good, funny performances here, but the writing is anything but incisive. (B-)
MENTIONED: For Your Consideration review
Stay Tuned (1992, Peter Hyams)
Over the top, ham-fisted comedy sucks John Ritter and Pam Dawber into their new TV set and forces them to participate in the shows on the air, caught in their own personal hell. Critically drubbed but quite adventurous and often funny, Hyams comes up with something pretty okay here, and it even has a message (turn off the damn TV!) that isn't exactly irrelevant. (B+)
St. Elmo's Fire (1985, Joel Schumacher)
"You're tearing me apart," James Dean whines in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. It was the worst moment in that film, the only one that really stretched dramatic credibility, but it's not entirely unrealistic. Schumacher basically spends two hours complaining about post-college existence and you know that every irritating, immature character is just him venting his petty frustrations and taking far more time to do it. (D+)
The Stepford Wives (1975, Bryan Forbes)
Solid adaptation of Ira Levin's quick, rather silly novel has ample energy, some menace, and a good sense of humor. (B+)
MENTIONED: Rosemary's Baby review
The Sting (1973, George Roy Hill)
Feel-good Oscar-winning gobbledygook is one big put-on about Depression-era crooks Butch Sundance and the Cassidy Kid running a scam on rich tightwad Robert Shaw. Better than you expect -- with a number of great setpieces and solid moments of reflection, comedy, and suspense -- but not nearly as good as it's supposed to be, and the ending is just annoying. (B)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated
Stir Crazy (1980, Sidney Poitier)
Wilder and Pryor get shoved through the grinder in an unassuming comedy that is entirely successful on its own terms, irresistible for fans of the performers. (B+)
Stolen Kisses (1968, Francois Truffaut)
Lively but somewhat slight sequel to THE 400 BLOWS eschews that film's heady drama in favor of laughs and some shreds of scattered poignance, most memorably in a seduction scene involving the wife of Antoine's boss. Doinel takes a job as a detective, courts Claude Jade, bumbles through life post-Army. Truffaut's comments about the hazy nature of love are a bit understated and broad, but the movie is entertaining all the same. (B+)
REVIEW [of entire doinel series] / initial reaction / LISTED: rated / RELATED: Bed and Board reaction / Day for Night review / MENTIONED: Belle de Jour review / top ten of the week / Bee Gees
A Stolen Life (1946, Curtis Bernhardt)
Riveting but unoriginal film about twin sisters played by Bette Davis, one stealing the other's identity. Ideally lightweight fun. (B)
Stop Making Sense (1984, Jonathan Demme)
Powerhouse of cinematic and musical genius combined documents the final concerts played by Talking Heads, in head-spinning nine-piece form, in December 1983. The songs are brilliant, the physical and aural performances unforgettable, Demme's direction astounding. Not only is it very nearly the best rock & roll movie ever made, it's one of the best movies ever made, period, with the paranoia and often enrapturing dimension of the Heads' music providing narrative threads and strength. One of the all-time great experiences in any medium; you'll dance your ass off, and it could save your fucking life. (A+)
MENTIONED: Fantasia review / R.E.M. Perfect Square DVD
The Story of Adele H (1975, Francois Truffaut)
Isabelle Adjani gives the performance of a lifetime as Victor Hugo's daughter, embroiled in unrequited love, but Truffaut is strangely aloof here, completely detached from the proceedings for once in his life. The movie is interesting but full of weaknesses. (C)
short review
Storytelling (2002, Todd Solondz)
Two shorts dealing with the nature of storytelling are threaded together. "Fiction" explores how a real event portrayed in a short story by a naive college student leads to her being branded a racist. "Non-Fiction" goes so far as to question the motivations of filmmaking, with Paul Giamatti as a smarmy documentary filmmaker recording the life of an unmotivated teenaged boy, forming it into an unbalanced portrayal not of a human being but of a stereotype. Both sequences end with maddeningly wonderful kissoffs. A treasure of a film, but the connections between the two segments aren't strong enough for the whole product to hold together as well as one might hope. Still brilliant. (A-)
REVIEW / DVD review / second viewing / LISTED: best of year / rated / RELATED: Happiness review / Palindromes review / MENTIONED: Amistad review / Real Life review / Lady in the Water review / digipack rant
Strange Invaders (1983, Michael Laughlin)
Good, not great movie about aliens invading middle America has style to spare, is quite fascinating in the middle third, but begins slowly and ends pathetically. (B)
The Stranger (1946, Orson Welles)
Welles' biggest commercial hit is flawless entertainment, a gripping thriller about a detective on the trail of a Nazi hiding out in a small town, where he's been embraced as a great teacher and top citizen. Edward G. Robinson and Welles both deliver bold performances in this exquisitely detailed, suspenseful adventure that maintains breakneck pace up to its conclusion. It may be conventional by Welles' standards, but it's still masterful. (A)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / best of year / RELATED: F for Fake review
Strangers on a Train (1951, Alfred Hitchcock)
A nutcase meets a tennis player on a train, tries to get him involved in "exchange murder" scheme. Incredibly layered film with unforgettable performances all around, more character driven than usual and twice as disturbing as PSYCHO. Robert Walker, stuck previously in typecast "best-pal" roles, gives one of the best performances ever seen from any actor. The stage is here set for Hitchcock's peak period; this film contains his best action sequence, the stunning merry-go-round climax, and what might be the best scene he ever shot, the horrifying and unabashedly erotic amusement park murder toward the beginning. All around, one of the greatest and most chilling movies made by Hitchcock or anyone else. (A+)
DVD review (old) / new DVD announcement / Hitchcock's masterpieces / RELATED: Foreign Correspondent review / Dial M for Murder & The Wrong Man reviews / MENTIONED: buying movies twice / Sunset Blvd. review / Cape Fear review / Targets review / L.A. Story new DVD review / Misery review / L'Age d'Or review
Straw Dogs (1971, Sam Peckinpah)
A pacifist mathematician allergic to confrontation has grown terrified of life in America and relocates to the UK with his British wife, not counting on the horrifying brutes they are to encounter there. Stunning, almost oppressive thriller remains controversial but leaves the viewer to decide on the moral issue and simply presents its fascinating, often shocking story in visceral, involved fashion. Dustin Hoffman gives his best performance ever, and the atmosphere of threat is nearly as potent as in DELIVERANCE. Peckinpah titilates and dismays at every turn in this completely arresting film. (A+)
REVIEW / DVD reviews / top ten of the week / top ten of the week / LISTED: rated / 10 best of year / RELATED: The Wild Bunch review / MENTIONED: Godfather Part II review / High Noon review / 1000th post / Unforgiven review
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951, Elia Kazan)
See it tonight! Brando mumbles! Vivien fawns! Tennessee expounds! And Kazan delivers an interesting movie, to say the least, with at least one top-caliber sequence. On the whole, the transition from play to movie is never justified, particularly given the stagebound hamminess of the two leads. (B+)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated
Stripes (1981, Ivan Reitman)
Incomprehensibly overrated comedy with more tired Bill Murray wisecracking. When most comedians Get Serious in film roles later in life, it's common to lament their loss of individuality. In Murray's case, I can't say I miss material like this at all. (C-)
Striptease (1996, Andrew Bergman)
SHOWGIRLS had personality, was fun to watch, and the tits didn't look like basketballs. This miserable film is just a showcase of vile decadence and crude class commentary. It's a pathetic movie that chooses not to hide its exploitative tendencies. That can be good, but in this case it's just scary because the film is so technically inept and entirely unamusing. (D)
The Sugarland Express (1974, Steven Spielberg)
A beautiful, provocative film based on an actual story of a Texan couple escaping jail and going on the run to take their child back from his adoptive parents. Spielberg's first theatrical feature is breathlessly exciting and almost unbearably moving as he documents overgrown kids a long way from home, living out a cartoon, and the nation's sensationalistic reaction. Absolutely first-rate filmmaking, up to the wounding final shot. That someone as young as Spielberg could craft such a truthful evocation of the fake wisdom and infinite folly of youth is a testament to his genius. (A)
RELATED: Minority Report review / 1941 DVD review / Saving Private Ryan review / MENTIONED: plea for I Wanna Hold Your Hand DVD / cheap DVD / Badlands review / possible remake? / Bonnie & Clyde review
Sullivan's Travels (1941, Preston Sturges)
A complete, hilarious delight, ambitiously mocking Hollywood and America's perceptions of it. A film director expresses a dire need to address the human condition instead of churning out more of his benign comedies. Told that he knows nothing about poverty and thus is in no position to make a movie about it, he decides to go out and live like a bum. This is a comedy that is not afraid to go to extremes, with chases and hysterically anticlimactic plot turns, always leading somehow back to Hollywood. It's smart, convicted, and layered. And it gets even more interesting. Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake are both exceptional in this stunning film. (A)
REVIEW / DVD review / LISTED: rated / best of year / best DVDs of year / RELATED: Unfaithfully Yours review / The Lady Eve review / MENTIONED: gaffe while taping / comparison to Blazing Saddles / Shoot the Piano Player DVD / Singin' in the Rain review / new AFI list / The Green Mile review
Summer Rental (1985, Carl Reiner)
Some great laughs ("I'm watchin' the Smurfs") in the first half of this John Candy comedy, but all virtue is forsaken in favor of a weird detour involving a sailing competition, of all things. What happened!? (C)
Sunrise (1927, F.W. Murnau)
A man plots to kill his wife and has a sudden revelation seconds before he begins to strangle her. German expressionist maverick Murnau came to Hollywood with this restrained, stunningly beautiful silent masterpiece, sometimes named as the peak of the form. I prefer THE CROWD myself, but THE CROWD is real life; SUNRISE -- disregarding its turgid midsection -- is cinema, and cinema of such high and assured caliber it calls many of the time-tested transitions and techniques of the ensuing eighty years into question. Quite a movie. (A-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / MENTIONED: new AFI list
Sunset Blvd. (1950, Billy Wilder)
Peerless, intoxicating story of beached-whale silent film star Norma Desmond attempting to relive her glories by hiring a down-on-luck screenwriter to help make Her Next Picture. Melodramatic and overbearing (especially the voiceover) at times, this remains a disturbing and cynical Hollywood masterpiece. (A-)
REVIEW / DVD review / LISTED: rated / best of year / RELATED: Witness for the Prosecution review / complaints about Billy Wilder on DVD / The Apartment review / MENTIONED: xmas presents / Twilight Zone CG / The Wild Bunch review / The Professional review
Superman (1978, Richard Donner)
Spectacular and well-cast but empty superhero flick is worth seeing once, hasn't enough depth in the writing to warrant a second trip. (C+)
Superman III (1983, Richard Lester)
Lester throws Pryor in, tries to let the formula work itself out. It does, basically, but who honestly cares? (D+)
Superman and the Mole Men (1951, Lee Sholem)
Extended pilot film for the George Reeves TV series is silly and very low-budget but entertaining. (B-)
Super Mario Bros. (1993, Rocky Morton)
Look, they've made movies from worse ideas. I can't think of any at the moment, but I know they have. And this does have Bob Hoskins. But it's disgusting in every sense of the word and really could put even the biggest Mario fan (there are such people) to sleep. (D-)
Super Size Me (2004, Morgan Spurlock)
Think you can eat whatever you want? Wrong! Spurlock is here to tell how wrong you are about making your own choices and how McDonald's is to blame for that. Don't let McDonald's kill you! Act now! (F)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / worst of year / MENTIONED: rant about animation / School of Rock review / fall movie preview / 1000th post
Suspicion (1941, Alfred Hitchcock)
Joan Fontaine begins to suspect that her husband, Cary Grant, is a killer. A suffocating psychological thriller, nearly as unforgiving and oppressive as SABOTAGE and REBECCA. Fontaine, as usual, is brilliant, and Grant is solid as a rock. The current imposed ending is interesting in its own way (on repeated viewings, at least), but the closure Hitchcock had in mind would have been even better. A surprisingly slick early U.S. Hitchcock, considering it's not a Selznick production. (A-)
REVIEW / DVD review / RELATED: The Wrong Man review / MENTIONED: cover art / the number 23 /Scoop review / Ninotchka review
Swamp Thing (1982, Wes Craven)
Innocuous silliness about title Thing's unrequited love is ridiculous but it's not going to hurt anybody. (C-)
Swimming with Sharks (1994, George Huang)
Very bitter ex-Hollywood assistant Huang sends poor Frank Whaley, a green stud with Tinseltown glamour in his eyes, to work for ferocious big-time producer Kevin Spacey, incredible and seemingly bordering on insanity in what remains possibly his greatest performance. Funny and harrowing, this the blackest of black comedy, and will please those so inclined right up to the unrepentant ending. (A)
DVD review
Swing Time (1936, George Stevens)
Years after its method of pop communication -- the Hollywood musical -- went out of style, this outstanding film still rings loud and true in its expressions of unrequited love, lust, and even alienation. From the moment Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers first dance together, the film is cathartic and beautiful, and even the comedy bits and the incredibly thin story aren't all that bad. The "Mr. Bojangles" routine is extraordinary and one of the biggest reasons this belongs in everyone's canon, but what really lingers is the moment after the two leads first kiss and are accidentally discovered doing so: They gaze into one another's eyes in exhilirated, curious, breathless wonder, completely unsure what's just happened and what will happen next. If only we all could live such a scene. (A-)
REVIEW / LISTED: rated / MENTIONED: new AFI list
Switch (1991, Blake Edwards)
One of Edwards' last bids for box office success changes a man to a woman to little effect; it's still nothing unusual that might warrant getting out of bed to seek out. (D+)
The Sword in the Stone (1963, Wolfgang Reitherman)
Underwhelming at best, this somewhat forgotten Disney feature has more of an audience today but retains its rough-hewn appearance and lack of a full-fledged storyline. Certainly Disney buffs shouldn't think of missing it, however, and there are ardent defenders. (B)
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