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A Matter of Life and Death, a review by Antares

A Matter of Life and Death (1946) 3.5/5 - I was going to start out this review by telling verbALs to stop scratching his head, because I finally watched the film, but I think that after he reads the score I rated this film, he may just keep on scratching away. I liked the film, but when Raymond Massey's character comes forward, I thought it threw a money wrench into the flow of the screenplay. Bringing an anti-British rant from an American just seemed to me, a little disengenous. This was only one year removed from the end of the Second World War and it just came across as a rather condescending way to take a swipe at the Americans who were still over in England awaiting their return to the States. I saw it as a brave move by Pressburger to do it, but also it appeared as he was left-handedly saying... These Americans, what petulant little children. I could be reading it wrong, but that's how it came across to me.

It reminded me of something I read in a New York Times archived newspaper one day when I was perusing the microfilm collection at a library. I had been reading war reports from France from the D-Day invasion until the Battle of the Bulge. I was surprised to read a small piece about French citizens complaining about the American soldiers in the aftermath of the liberation of Paris. They were actually complaining about the soldiers who had just liberated them from over 4 years of Nazi occupational tyranny.

(From Antares' Short Summations on March 11th, 2014)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, a review by Antares

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 95/100 - This is probably my tenth time watching this film and for some strange reason, it really had me in stitches this time. I've always loved this film, but can't understand why I never wrote a review or felt the same way about it in the past. I would give it a perfect score of 100, if it weren't for what I consider Kubrick's sophomoric attempt at humor when he came up with the names of some of the characters. I picture him and whomever he wrote the screenplay with, sitting around a table, drinking heavily and in a moment of stupor bleating out Jack T. Ripper, Burpelson Air Force Base and Bat Guano, thinking how clever he was being. It's kind of the same feeling I get when I watch a Wes Anderson written film. I know it's nitpicking, but for some reason, it has bothered me each time I've watched this movie. But that being said, it's a film I'll always sink my teeth into if it's on TCM, and definitely one of Kubrick's greatest achievements.

What the color coding means...

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on March 14th, 2013)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

The Outer Limits: The Original Series: Season One (1963/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia MGM Home Entertainment (United Kingdom) Length: 1577 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: Dutch, English

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Plot:
You hold in your hands an artefact from a time now vanished forever; a compendium of portals into worlds unknown. An eight-disc set that controls over 26 hours of transmission from the 1963-64 series, this vessel has sought you out for one specific purpose: to expand your mind to "The Outer Limits"!


Outer Limits
1.01 The Galaxy Being

This is the first time I have ever seen an episode of the original Outer Limits series. The episode was a little slow, but I really liked the look of the alien being. I can imagine that of its time it was rather eerie.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 21st, 2012)