Friday, August 27, 2004

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this already. This movie is one of THE best screwball comedies ever, yet my mom informed me that it bombed horribly in the box office. How?! It keeps me laughing from beginning to end. I suppose this is the closest to an "animal movie" I've ever really liked. Who would have thought that a leopard could be so hysterically funny? 4.5 stars.

Cats (1998)

This was one of my first musicals I ever heard. Since then I've listened to it so many times that it had started to lose its musical beauty to me. Then I rewatched the movie and... wow. Lots of energy. Lots of beautiful tunes. Lots of great dancing. This is one of those shows that just makes you all happy when you're watching it, even if it is disjointed plotwise. And who could resist Mr. Mistoffelees? He's just SO cool-looking. Erm... for a person dressed up as a cat, that is. :-) 4 stars.

Camelot (1967)

I have the Broadway cast recording and love it. I don't know WHAT they thought they were doing when they made this movie. Cast as Arthur: guy who comes across as very effeminate and does this freaky whispering thing. Cast as Guinvere: someone who's quite lovely but can't really sing, and definitely not at the original notes for Guinevere's songs. Lancelot was tolerable, but only that. Gah. Makes me wish I were alive when the Broadway cast was on so I could have that visual in my mind instead of this. 1.5 stars.

Basic (2003)

If you don't work TOO hard to try to make everything fit together and make sense, this is quite an acceptable movie. In fact, it's actually pretty fun, if you can keep all the characters and their names and their REAL names straight... 2.5 stars.

And Then There Were None (1945)

Maybe it was just me, but this movie made me go, "Huh?" I mean, I can accept changing the book so that we do have someone left alive at the end. I mean, Christie herself did that when she wrote it as a play. But... they changed EVERYTHING. None of those characters I came to know and... well, maybe not love, but at least know... survived the transition to movie. Too bad... because this really is a brilliant story. 1.5 stars.