Letterboxd — Your life in film

Films about dysfunctional families are rarely my favourites although there are exceptions to the rule. American Beauty surely can be included in this category? The Royal Tenenbaums?

This one, however, was a bit too strained for my taste, it tried a bit too hard to show some weirdness in each and every member of the two families. Furthermore, Kevin Kline's character pissed me off by being extremely dull and boring. And I usually like him. In fact he's so boring…

Numerous stories have been told about the outlaw Jesse James and his gang, right up to our time. In the first one, Jesse James Under the Black Flag (1921) he was even played by his own true son - Jesse Edward. A common denominator for the first takes were the heroic light being shed over the man and his deeds, as in maybe the most famous one - Jesse James (1939), starring Tyrone Powers as Jesse and Henry Fonda as…

Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming.

Michael Crichton's first stab at malfunctioning amusement parks, which he honed to perfection with the script for Jurassic Park. It's a bit of a mess this, because although the film is called Westworld we also frequently throughout the film visit two other theme parks, namely «Roman World» and especially «Medieval World». The moral of it all shouldn't be too hard to understand though - don't fiddle around…

I choose to say that I hadn't seen this one until now, although quite a few scenes looked familiar. But I guess that's to expect from such a well-known film. But it could also have been that I saw it back then, but as a kid it didn't appeal much to me and quickly was forgotten. Anyway, I can appreciate it a bit more now, the acting for instance is quite good. And Justin Henry as Billy certainly is cute.…

This had held up pretty well since I last saw it, although I suspect that the new wave electronica soundtrack seemed a bit less dominant back then. It's an impressive debut by Brad Davis who rose to stardom over night through the role of Billy Hayes.

Hayes, an American, is imprisoned in Turkey after getting arrested for illegal possession of hashish. At first he is sentenced to four years, a victory - according to his corrupt and incompetent Turkish lawyer.…

Two major films have been produced about the Battle of Balaclava, the disastrous Allied action in the Crimean War of 1854 which led to the famous «Charge of the Light Brigade», immortalized by Alfred Lord Tennyson's rousing poem.

I suspect that for a more realistic depiction of what took place one should turn to Tony Richardson's 1968 version. Because, The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) is an escapist imperial adventure story without a shred of historical accuracy, simplifying the…

Amazing. I had never heard of this film or its director Ulu Grosbard before. Or Grosbard - so I thought, but as it turned out I have seen Falling in Love with De Niro and Streep without paying much attention to who directed it.

Anyway. This film was a great, positive surprise. Max (Hoffman) is a small-time thief who is released from prison after doing a six year accumulated sentence for several burglaries. He is released into the hands of…

Although I haven't seen Ice Cold in Alex, I guess most people would regard Cape Fear as J. Lee Thompson's best film? But The Guns of Navarone are one of his more famous ones, and certainly look to be the most expensive. It's impressive in the way it was made, some scenes surely must have hundreds of extras, I guess the Greek were just so happy to be part of the film that they lined up in queues to be…

It would be a bold statement to call this a perfect film, but it certainly isn't bad. I'm pretty sure I won't count myself as one of Rob Reiner's biggest fans, but he has made a few more than watchable flicks. Stand by Me stands out among them, but When Harry met Sally and this one doesn't follow far behind. I know many hail This is Spinal Tap to be his greatest, perhaps even one of the greatest films ever…

Those who didn't understand will never understand: disco was much more, and much better, than all that. Disco was too great, and too much fun, to be gone forever! It's got to come back someday.

Sometimes recording films on tv more or less on a hunch can prove just right, because I really liked this one. I haven't seen any of Whit Stillman's films before, but this one at least reminded me of Noah Baumbach. It was a bit like…