gdp's Comments

Big Hollywood : 'Rebecca' (1940) Blu-ray Review: Hitchcock's Classic American Debut Arrives on Blu-ray

Sat, 4 Feb 2012 18:09:00 +0000

I watched this for the third time a few weeks ago (catch the special feature too--watching several actresses screen test for the part makes Fontaine look like a slam dunk!) and was struck by the heroine's metamorphosis from floppy, unsure innocent to serene, dignified womanhood. And you could see that it was there all the time and that Maxim saw it as well. (Which is funny because on other watchings, I'd thought of Maxim as a bit of a prat--not so, this time.) I also love how the wardrobe choices magnificently underline all this!

Big Hollywood : What Shoulda Won? 2000 Best Picture Academy Award

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:12:51 +0000

I can't bear Chocolat. It's as insufferably priggish, self-righteous and judgmental as the villain is supposed to be. And they totally ruined that girl from Ponette!

Big Hollywood : ‘Happy Feet Two’ Review: Not Nearly as Giddy as the Original

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:05:07 +0000

Happy Feet 1 was one of the few (very few) movies that I have chucked in the trash. It's not that it's a heavy (HEAVY)-handed gay-fabulous Lady Gaga song of a film that bugged me so much as the portrayal of the religious elements (did the film-makers expect me not to notice that the lead penguin was a crabbed-looking dour Scot of the Presbyterian mold?) was so mean-spirited. Gah. I want to take that DVD out of the trash so I can run over it with my car. Also, when the filmmakers take the time to make an allegorical movie, I don't want to be lectured about how 'it's just a kids movie'. No. It has a broader message. They put it there. And that's what I'm responding to--not the adorably drawn characters.

Big Hollywood : Brigitte Bardot's Terrible, Horrible, Humiliating First Date

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:28:24 +0000

I love it when we get a Robert Avrech post! He has so many tales about vintage Hollywood that remind me of that Paul Harvey sign-off, "And now you know...the REST of the story".

Big Hollywood : Trailer Talk: 'The Hunger Games'

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:56:30 +0000

Per your point #3: I think it helps if you think of Katniss as a kind of Spartacus and the Hunger Games as a sort of gladiator-esque diversion.

Big Hollywood : Trailer Talk: 'The Hunger Games'

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:39:05 +0000

SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES NOT JUST THE FIRST BOOK Okay, can we talk? I totally agree with you. I loved the pacing and action scenes and all that but the end felt like a let down. I wrote a blog post (http://thearmyyouhave.blogspot.com/2010/09/mockingjay-wherein-i-reveal-spoilers.html) of which this is an excerpt: "It took him 15 years to talk her into having children. Though she is a clearly heroic figure, this holding on to her fear and hate and insecurity seems high-maintenance to me. Yes, yes, she lets it go in the end (sort of) but I would have liked her character to arc more towards trust and a willingness to live life on Peeta's terms too--particularly as he seems to have a knack for it." and "For me, the 15 years thing was way too unacceptable. I felt it was a bit of a modern cop-out ('Children aren't allowed to have children!' or 'Quick! Nobody procreate before 32!') to get her to a more 'normal' age for having kids." (Nevermind making her have a 'normal' number of kids.) If Katniss had been truly awesome, she'd have taken Peeta behind the woodpile and started making babies as fast as she could--a prego and life-giving Katniss would have been an unconventional and awesome repudiation of all that death.

Big Hollywood : ABC Whitewashes History: No Cigs, No 'Whites Only' in New Early 60s-Based 'Pan Am' TV Series

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:00:58 +0000

That's just what I was thinking!

Big Hollywood : A Brief History of Disneyland, An American Classic

Tue, 5 Jul 2011 22:10:03 +0000

I just came back from there (vowing to never, ever take a 2-year-old again) and loved it but had to twice call into the lost-and-found/customer service area. Boy. What a rotten job. Those people were nothing short of wonderful to me and I had to listen to the terrible entitled abuse they got from the other patrons. That's the worst job in the Happiest Place on Earth.

Big Hollywood : Pixar Releases Poster for Next Feature: 'Brave'

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 21:09:12 +0000

Women have been doing awesome things since the dawn of time--crossing plains, burying babies, forging civilization...So a movie about awesome chicks is okay with me. But why can't it feature women doing things that women did? Why does she have to go out and do a guy thing? (P.S. And because bows actually do require quite a bit of strength to pull back (think of that classic end to The Odyssey), the more lethal ones (the only reason you'd operate a bow in Celtic Scotland) would possibly be more suited to a man--or at least a full grown woman.)

Big Hollywood : Pixar Releases Poster for Next Feature: 'Brave'

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:57:23 +0000

The 105 pound female lead beating a group of 250 pound thugs with her bare hands is a major pet peeve for me. I get that films are fantasy and things happen in them that don't happen in real life but when they do that I think, "Why didn't they just hire Russell Crowe and strap some boobs on him?"...and then I remember his moobs...

Big Hollywood : New Book Addresses Leftist Obsession with 60s/70s Films, Sheds Light on Overlooked Conservative Movi

Fri, 20 May 2011 00:13:28 +0000

Well, thanks for the reply, My ears will perk up in a much more interested manner the next time I hear about a Kael review entirely because of your viewpoint.

Big Hollywood : Today's Open Thread: #21 Greer Garson

Thu, 19 May 2011 15:47:32 +0000

I love Miniver (yes it has flaws) but the very best scene is when she's spinning her web of lies (thinking she's getting away with all sorts of things) and her husband gives her such an earthy smack on the bottom. I watched my husband watch that scene once and I could see on his face that old black and white movies had suddenly become alive.

Big Hollywood : New Book Addresses Leftist Obsession with 60s/70s Films, Sheds Light on Overlooked Conservative Movi

Thu, 19 May 2011 15:42:34 +0000

I don't know a lot about Kael (I imagine that she is a fascinating character.) but she showed up on my radar sometime ago as a heartfelt Sound of Music hater: She "blasted the film by calling it "the sugar-coated lie people seem to want to eat," and "we have been turned into emotional and aesthetic imbeciles when we hear ourselves humming the sickly, goody-goody songs."[12] This review allegedly led to Kael's dismissal from McCall's magazine". I am by no means a film critic but this is an unhinged review. I love TSOM and haven't turned into an imbecile yet. And the lines of this review are very sour indeed. ('How dare people have the bad taste to like this crap.!') P.S.I'll allow that maybe I take issue with her because I am an unapologetic goody-goody.

Big Hollywood : Like Rapper Common, White House Guest Jill Scott 'Winces' at Interracial Relationships

Wed, 11 May 2011 16:25:44 +0000

It's 'it's'.

Big Hollywood : Today's Open Thread: #10 Jack Lemmon

Sun, 3 Apr 2011 15:25:00 +0000

I run a fan site for a dead author and we're finishing up after a year and a half of solid reviewing. I've built up a little (fewer than 100), but intensely loyal, community of readers but I have to move on. I feel rotten about it when I think about what losing Dirty Harry's Place meant to me...I will follow John Nolte wherever he wants to go and read whatever he wants to put out. He's a stinkin' genius, he is.

Big Hollywood : Bullying 'Glee' Creator Caricatures Blacks & Christians, Publicly Trashes Artists Who Don't Want The

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:24:04 +0000

Yes. Yes. Yes. My SIL and BIL both love the show (Gleeks to the core) and don't get why I don't share their enthusiasm (and I love musicals). They have yet to see that the mean-spiritedness (self-righteousness, contempt for half their potential audience, etc., etc...) of the episodes is a feature not a bug...

Big Hollywood : Review: Uplifting 'The Way Back' a Journey Worth Taking

Mon, 7 Mar 2011 19:03:24 +0000

I have that book! I keep it in my car for when I have a few minutes to spare. Wonderful reading and it was genius of my parents to leave stuff like this lying around my house growing up. Some of it rubbed off!

Big Hollywood : 83rd Annual Academy Award Winners

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:44:23 +0000

I think you mean 'collaborating with Nazis'...opposition to Nazis is passe, no? *cough*TheReader*cough*

Big Hollywood : Today's Open Thread: #50 Glenn Ford

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:14:38 +0000

Heaven's above, that man is my kind of eye candy.

Big Hollywood : The 10 Worst Winners In Oscar History

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:37:02 +0000

JUNO--I ugly cried through the end, into the restroom, through the lobby and across the parking lot. No, it wasn't a perfect movie (and maybe the hormones were talking) but it was enormously life affirming.