FILM-REVIEWS:
T
FILM-REVIEWS:
T
Taxi driver
Ten
Ten commandments, The
Tender trap, The
Testament
That's entertainment! III
That thing you do!
Thelma & Louise
They drive by night
Third man, The
Thirteenth warrior, The
39 steps, The
Thunderball
Thunderbolt
Time bandits
Titanic
To die for
To have and have not
Tombstone
Tootsie
Top gun
Towering inferno, The
Trading places
Trespass
Twelve monkeys
| Title: | TAXI DRIVER |
| Year: | 1976 |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Director: | Martin Scorsese |
| The players: |  Robert
De Niro
Cybill Shepherd Jodie Foster Harvey Keitel Albert Brooks |
| About the film: | Travis Bickle has no social life and cannot sleep so he starts driving a taxi at nights. Bernard Herrman’s last film-music brings beauty to the taxi-scenes in the night. Bickle meets Betsy, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, and wants to be her friend but he doesn’t know how. Travis is a sick man. When Betsy doesn’t accept his friendship he turns his frustration against the person Betsy likes and works for – Palentine, a candidate for president. Days just go on and on and Travis wants to do something with his life. When he fails to assassinate Palentine he tries to help a young girl who lives with a pimp. The end is not very probable but may very well be the result Travis visioned. In Scorsese’s earlier films Keitel had been first choice for leading role but from this point on De Niro takes his place. Harvey Keitel had to settle for a small part as the pimp. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Deer hunter, The |
| Title: | TEN |
| Year: | 1979 |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Director: | Blake Edwards |
| The players: | Dudley
Moore
Julie Andrews Bo Derek Robert Webber Dee Wallace |
| About the film: | Moore plays an older man who’s going with a mature woman but wants to have fun with younger girls. Reminds me of Woman in red although this film is much worse. Andrews shouldn’t be in this kind of movie, she was probably talked in to it by her husband (Edwards). If you want a good film by Edwards, watch Return of the Pink Panther, if you want to see a good film with Andrews, watch The sound of music, Dudley Moore, though, is often seen in this type of roles. Actually this film was a hit in ’79. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Woman in red |
| Title: | TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE |
| Year: | 1956 |
| Genre: | Epic |
| Director: | Cecil B. DeMille |
| The players: | Charlton
Heston
Yul Brynner Anne Baxter Edward G. Robinson Nina Foch |
| About the film: | More than three hour long story about Moses, from his birth until he leads his jewes out of the desert. I’m very impressed with Heston’s mighty performance as Moses, none could have done it better. This grand picture was DeMille’s last. He had filmed The ten commandments earlier in 1923. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Spartacus |
| Title: | TENDER TRAP, THE |
| Year: | 1955 |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Director: | Charles Walters |
| The players: | Frank
Sinatra
Debbie Reynolds Celeste Holm David Wayne Carolyn Jones |
| About the film: | Light-spirited comedy about the dilemmas of being married and single respectively. Sinatra plays a bachelor who has dozens of beautiful girl friends. Reynolds plays a headstrong girl who has her future all figured out. Dated style. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Divorce American style |
| Title: | TESTAMENT |
| Year: | 1983 |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Director: | Lynne Littman |
| The players: | Jane
Alexander
William Devane Roxana Sal Lukas Haas Ross Harris |
| About the film: | Starts out as a common family drama. We get to know the kids, the daughter plays the piano and the son doesn’t like biking but his father wants him to train hard, they have the problems of a normal family. Just when I felt like "ok, now what?" it hapened. USA is under nuclear attack and the radiation fallout kills the citizens one by one. The fact that the family you feel that you know have to deal with the deaths of family members and neighbours really gets inside your skin. The mother screams in frustration "Who did this to us?!", someone somewhere decided to make a nuclear attack destroying the lives of thousands of innocent people. Probably the film was even more frightening back in ’83 when the situation between the Soviet Union and USA wasn’t entirely stabil. The film makes you think about all war-victims who don’t have anything to do with the conflict. A dark anti-war film. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: |
| Title: | THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT! III |
| Year: | 1994 |
| Genre: | Musical |
| Directors: | Bud
Friedgen
Michael J. Sheridan |
| The players: | Gene
Kelly
Lena Horne Cyd Charisse Mickey Rooney Debbie Reynolds |
| About the film: | Delightful compilation with tons of memorable musical numbers. The first two sequels showed over a hundred of the best M-G-M musical numbers, this sequel also shows famous numbers but also several never shown before. The stars themselves introduce each other and talk about these days, which make it very (too) sugary. A few of many highlights: Kelly dancing on newspapers from Summer stock and in fiddle number from Singin’ in the rain, Garland’s "mr Monotony" (cut from Easter parade) and dance with Rooney to "I like New York in June" from Babes on Broadway, Astaire tap dancing with Eleanor Powell from Broadway melody of 1938, Reynolds’ "A lady loves" from I love Melvin. The film is semi-chronological, starting when the movies learned to talk in the 20’s and ending when the golden days of the M-G-M musical came to an end in 1958 with Gigi. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | That’s entertainment! |
| Title: | THAT THING YOU DO! |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Genre: | Comedy, Musical |
| Director: | Tom Hanks |
| The players: | Tom
Everett Scott
Jonathan Schaech Steve Zahn Ethan Embry Liv Tyler |
| About the film: | Hanks directional debut is a story about four kids in the 60’s who start a band and get an immediate hit with "That thing you do!" which is played over and over and over again. Hanks manages to capture the 60’s atmosphere in this light film. He also includes a standard romantic story. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Girl can’t help it, The |
| Title: | THELMA &LOUISE |
| Year: | 1991 |
| Genre: | Action, Drama |
| Director: | Ridley Scott |
| The players: | Geena
Davis
Susan Sarandon Harvey Keitel Michael Madsen Brad Pitt |
| About the film: | Thelma and Louise are two women working in a restaurant to support their hopeless boyfriends. Louise saves Thelma from a rape by shooting the perpetrator. They soon understand that this may not have been the natural solution, but now there’s no return. They break free from their chains and do everything they always wanted because now they feel like they have nothing to lose. A lot of fun to watch the two of them go crazy. Naturally it’s very important with this kind of story that the chemistry between Davis and Sarandon works, and it does, perfectly. As they escape from the police in their convertible they really feel alive, like they can do anything they want to. Of course sooner or later reality catches up with them, but even then they will end it in their fashion, on their own terms. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Falling down |
| Title: | THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT |
| Year: | 1940 |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Director: | Raoul Walsh |
| The players: | George
Raft
Ann Sheridan Ida Lupino Humphrey Bogart Gale Page |
| About the film: | Starts out as an insightful drama about two truck-drivers who try to earn enough money to start their own company. As the film moves along it becomes more of a melodrama concentrating increasingly on ms Carlsen’s tragic love to Raft. I prefer the first part. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: |
| Title: | THIRD MAN, THE |
| Year: | 1949 |
| Genre: | Mystery |
| Director: | Carol Reed |
| The players: | Joseph
Cotten
Valli Trevor Howard Orson Welles Bernard Lee |
| About the film: | Stylish and absorbing British mystery filmed on location in Vienna. Cotten searches for the third man, Harry Lime, played by Welles who makes one of the most famous movie entrances of all time. The third man theme suites the film well. Tremendous finish at the theme park. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: |
| Title: | THIRTEENTH WARRIOR, THE |
| Year: | 1999 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Director: | John McTiernab |
| The players: | Antonio
Banderas
Diane Venora Dennis Storhöi Omar Sharif Sven Wolter |
| About the film: | Banderas plays an Arab who’s banished from his native country and therefore follows some northmen (they speak Norwegian early in the film) to the north where they live. The northmen are a big, strong, filthy people of few words, while Eben (Banderas) is weak but resourceful. The relationship between him and the northmen is established in a sequence where he’s given a sword. "But I can’t lift it!" complains Eben, "Get stronger." Answers one of the northmen. Eben grinds his sword into a sabre. The Vikings have problems; the Wendoles (some sort of bear-men) are terrorizing them so they got to defend themselves. At this stage the film becomes very tedious because there are too many battles between the Vikings and the Wendoles. I don’t understand what the director was thinking about, there's no progress in the plot for about an hour. The plot and acting are b-ish. Many of the "actors" are from Scandinavia and don’t make a good impression when they speak. Totally pointless. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: |
| Title: | 39 STEPS, THE |
| Year: | 1935 |
| Genre: | Thriller |
| Director: | Alfred Hitchcock |
| The players: | Robert
Donat
Madeleine Carroll Lucie Mannheim Godfrey Tearle Peggy Ashcroft |
| About the film: | Classic chase thriller with Donat playing innocent man who’s suspected for murder. He flees from the police and at the same time has to figure out what the 39 steps are all about. He goes to Scotland because he knows there’s something fishy in a little town there. Fast pace and numerous memorable sequences that has been copied over and over again. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Lady vanishes, The |
| Title: | THUNDERBALL |
| Year: | 1965 |
| Genre: | Action |
| Director: | Terence Young |
| The players: | Sean
Connery
Claudine Auger Adolfo Celi Luciana Paluzzi Rik van Nutter |
| About the film: | Bond-film that is ticking over most of the time. Sean Connery is good as 007 but he doesn’t seem as dedicated as in earlier 007-films. The long action sequences under water are tiresome. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Goldfinger |
| Title: | THUNDERBOLT |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Genre: | Action |
| Director: | Gordon Chan |
| The players: | Jackie
Chan
Michael Wong Anita Yuen Todd Bryant Michael Ian Lambert |
| About the film: | Jackie plays a guy who works at a gasstation where he helps the police catching some bad guys. The acting is among the silliest I’ve seen in a long time and the plot hits rock bottom. This was expected but what disappointed me was that Jackie doesn’t show his comic sense and there are very few fighting scenes. There is one good, but much of it is zoomed in too much, you can’t see what really happens. We see much of Chan driving racing cars, which isn’t that exciting. The bad guy challenges Chan to race against him for no apparent reason. The race sequence is awful, they have speeded it up which looks quite stupid. And considering all competitors have comparable cars, how can Chan and the bad guy almost fly past the others? Also, there are more accidents than in one season of BMTC. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Rumble in the Bronx |
| Title: | TIME BANDITS |
| Year: | 1981 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Director: | Terry Gilliam |
| The players: | Sean
Connery
Shelley Duvall John Cleese Kenny Baker David Rappaport |
| About the film: | Comic story where a couple of dwarfs steals God’s time map with which they can travel through time as they please. They meet an evil Robin Hood (Cleese) and also see old Greece. Odd and funny. Written by Gilliam and Michael Palin, two former Monty Python members. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Twelve monkeys |
| Title: | TITANIC |
| Year: | 1997 |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Director: | James Cameron |
| The players: | Kate
Winslet
Leonardo DiCaprio Billy Zane Kathy Bates Gloria Stuart |
| About the film: | Huge production about the fate of Titanic. We see the whole story through the eyes of two youngsters, a working class boy and an upper class girl. The film shows how Titanic sank and to make the whole thing more alive it’s spiced up with a love story between Winslet and DiCaprio. Both of them said they would not go through this filming again for all money in the world, it was pretty tough. The first hour or maybe more I was really disappointed, the romantic story between the two leads is abysmal. The film raises to be a stunning experience when it becomes clear that the boat will collide. One side of Titanic was built in 80% of the original size and it makes quite an impression. To see all people we’ve met earlier in the film deal with the fact that an accident is on hand and that they might get killed is magnificent. At this point the film has become extremely powerful, the sinking is described beautifully, knowing that it all really happened adds to the feeling. The orchestra standing on deck playing while the boat sinks is the best moment in the film. It tied the record for most oscars won (11), with Ben Hur. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: |
| Title: | TO DIE FOR |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Genre: | Thriller |
| Director: | Gus van Sant |
| The players: | Nicole
Kidman
Matt Dillon Joaquin Phoenix Illeana Douglas Casey Affleck |
| About the film: | It’s Kidman’s film all the way. She plays a woman, Suzanne Stone, who’s not gonna let anything or anyone get in the way of her TV-career. Did she even kill her husband? The mystery is presented with flashbacks and interviews with family members. One set-back is that Suzanne is so unbelievably dumb. She thinks that getting rid of her husband and then getting some kids framed will draw attention to her video film about the kids. It doesn’t take much to understand that it’s insanity and chances are she’s going down with them. She doesn’t even seems to plan it properly, often just improvising. And why talk dirt about her husband when he’s dead? |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: |
| Title: | TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT |
| Year: | 1944 |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Director: | Howard Hawks |
| The players: | Humphrey
Bogart
Walter Brennan Lauren Bacall Hoagy Carmichael Dan Seymor |
| About the film: | Very enjoyable filmization of a Hemingway novel, set during WWII in the West-Indies. Bogart plays a boat-owner who helps smuggling some men for the resistence. This film resembles CASABLANCA in many ways; the time, the plot, some of the characters and the atmosphere. Bogart plays exactly the same kind of part; a cynical man who tries to mind his own business until his sentamentality takes over. The film contains a dose of war propaganda with lines like "The Germans don’t realise that no matter how many they kill, there will always be someone else". It’s the first time I’ve seen Bogey play opposite a dame who can talk his kind of talk, but then it’s Bacall’s film-debut, only 19 years old. It seems as if Bogart can’t help but smile sometimes when she talks. They married soon after the filming… |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Casablanca |
| Title: | TOMBSTONE |
| Year: | 1993 |
| Genre: | Western |
| Director: | George P. Cosmatos |
| The players: | Kurt
Russell
Val Kilmer Michael Biehn Powers Boothe Dana Delany |
| About the film: | One of many westerns describing the gunfight at the OK Corrall. The film drags on for too long, it could have been cut down by some 30 minutes. Making it worthwhile is Val Kilmer’s portray of TB sick Doc Holliday. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: |
| Title: | TOOTSIE |
| Year: | 1982 |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Director: | Sydney Pollack |
| The players: |  Dustin
Hoffman
Jessica Lange Teri Garr Dabney Coleman Bill Murray |
| About the film: | Hoffman plays an unemployed actor with a terrible reputation. Luckily there’s a simple solution; he dresses up as a woman and gets a job in a soap. Very droll and witty with excellent performances from a starstudded cast. Geena Davis’ film debut. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: |
| Title: | TOP GUN |
| Year: | 1986 |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Director: | Tony Scott |
| The players: | Tom
Cruise
Kelly McGillis Val Kilmer Anthony Edwards Tom Skerritt |
| About the film: | Every year there’s a competition in the US Air Force to choose the best fighter pilots. Cruise flies dangerously and often takes his own decisions. His strongest competitor is Iceman who is one heck of a pilot but thinks safety first. Also a little romance; Cruise has an affair with his female instructor. The film is very unrealistic, but it’s entertaining and cool. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: |
| Title: | TOWERING INFERNO, THE |
| Year: | 1974 |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Directors: | John
Guillermin
Irwin Allen |
| The players: | Paul
Newman
Steve McQueen William Holden Faye Dunaway Fred Astaire |
| About the film: | Huge production with a galaxy of major stars about a skyscraper that catches fire on opening night on the 110th floor. Newman plays the architect whose instructions have not been followed by the constructional engineer (Richard Chamberlain). Newman’s part was originally intended for Steve McQueen but he wanted the part as the captain of the fire brigade and demanded they increased that part to exactly the same size as that of the architect. He got his way, they have the same number of lines and both have first billing. This is one of the most famous disaster movies from the 70’s. McQueen and Newman are two heroes who do everything right and save the lives of hundreds. At the age of 75 Astaire won an Oscar as an old has been who tries to impress the ladies. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Airport
Titanic |
| Title: | TRADING PLACES |
| Year: | 1983 |
| Genre: | Farce |
| Director: | John Landis |
| The players: | Dan
Aykroyd
Eddie Murphy Ralph Bellamy Don Ameche Jamie Lee Curtis |
| About the film: | Thoroughly enjoyable movie with an interesting premise: Two old, ruthless millionaires make a bet about genes contra environment. They have a young rich collegue, so they’ll see if he will take to stealing if he loses his job, his reputation and all his money and friends. At the same time they wanna find out if an outcast of the society can lead their firm succesfully. Interesting question, and many hilarious situations come up as the two of them has to adapt to a new life, and when it’s time for payback... The whole cast is in top form. Eddie Murphy was a bright newcomer in Hollywood at this time. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: |
| Title: | TRESPASS |
| Year: | 1992 |
| Genre: | Action |
| Director: | Walter Hill |
| The players: | Bill
Paxton
Ice T Art Evans William Sadler Ice Cube |
| About the film: | Two guys, played by Paxton and Evans, goes looking for a treasure in what they believe is an abandonned mansion. It proves to be the headquarter of a bunch of drug-dealers. Paxton and Evans want to get out to safety with the gold but the drug-dealers think they’re cops. A solid action-movie. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: |
| Title: | TWELVE MONKEYS |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Genre: | Science fiction |
| Director: | Terry Gilliam |
| The players: | Bruce
Willis
Madeleine Stowe Brad Pitt Christopher Plummer Frank Gorshin |
| About the film: | In 1996 a virus killed 5 billion people. Willis is a prisoner who’s sent back in time to get the virus. Fun to see Willis not playing a cynic macho character, he’s struggling, suffering and is almost beaten at times. In fact he has something in common with Snake Plissken in Escape from New York. The story is a big puzzle; at first it’s impossible to understand what the picture is gonna look like, but pieces fall into their places and the picture grows clearer and clearer. Personally I think the characters are just a little bit too psychopathic and strange. Gilliam is the former Monty Python member who made the animations to their flying circus. Interesting but odd movie. |
| Rating: |
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| Rec.: | Time bandits |
