Archive for January 18th, 2006

Wrong is Right (1982)

Wednesday, January 18th, 2006

K-I-Double-L him, by God.

Wrong is Right bills itself as comedy, but it works better as a mediocre spy thriller with occasional bursts of humor. It largely fails as a comedy because, for the most part, it’s often hard to tell at what they were aiming their humor. As political satire, it’s too broad and too tame to be effective.

As a spy thriller, the plot is a mish-mash that falls apart in a second if stop to think that long. Sean Connery plays a globetrotting TV journalist whose exploits are bigger news than the events he reports. George Grizzard is an embattled American President and Leslie Nielsen is his political rival. We also have a black female Vice-President (Rosalind Cash), a hawkish (and slightly unhinged) general (Robert Conrad), a Qaddafi-like terrorist leader (Henry Silva) and a Saudi king (Ron Moody) who may or may not be losing his mind. Add a variety of spys, spooks and arms dealers (John Saxon, Katherine Ross, G.D. Spradlin and Hardy Kruger) and you have a big, talented cast with not much to do.

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Schindler’s List (1993)

Wednesday, January 18th, 2006

This list… is an absolute good. The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf.

I first saw Schindler’s List in the theater a few months into its initial run and just days before its sweep at the Oscars. When it was over, I witnessed something I’d not seen much in years of movie going. As the credits rolled and the lights came up, the audience filed out in an almost reverent silence, like mourners leaving a state funeral. Clearly, the film had the same impact on everyone else in the theater that it had on me.

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Grizzly Man (2005)

Wednesday, January 18th, 2006

He got what he deserved, in my opinion. The tragedy of it was taking the girl with him.

There is a certain type of mental illness, the primary symptom being a tendency, almost childlike in its innocence of the harsh realities of nature, to identify animals with human values and emotions. At its most benign stage, the victim might find himself living among a flock of parrots in San Francisco. However, as the affliction grows more acute and starts to attack the reasoning centers of the brain, the unfortunate person joins groups like PETA. When all higher brain functions are destroyed, the victim will gravitate to terrorist groups like the Animal Liberation Front. When this disease reaches its terminal stage, the afflicted gets eaten by a bear.

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