Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (2230)

Content

Andy K (10823 KP) rated American Hustle (2013) in Movies

Jun 17, 2018

That comb-over!

Great cast does a great job with this interesting story of two decent con artists recruited by the FBI to take down even bigger corrupt individuals and the mob.

The script and acting are both excellent and really engage you in the story and get quickly invested in their lives. The 70s fashion and music are also two more interesting characters in the film.

When you look at Christian Bale (who gained 40 pounds for this role), it's hard to believe he's the same actor who played Batman and was in The Machinist where he was skin and bones.

Highly recommended.

Kudos

Joe Julians (221 KP) rated Life of the Party (2018) in Movies

Jun 20, 2018

Full review here:

Life of the Party has some good moments sprinkled throughout and is helped by a solid performance by Melissa McCarthy. That being said, it suffers thanks to a script that is so focused on trying to be funny that it misses the opportunity to tell the story it should have told. A mother attending the same college as her daughter should be rife with potential, but it sidesteps that so much that it's almost an afterthought. It's a shame too as there was a great movie here somewhere, it's just hidden among so much mediocrity that its impossible to find.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) in Movies

Aug 10, 2019

For a given value of 'good', anyway: we enjoyed this immensely although probably not as the makers intended. Absurd pulp adventure as Fu Manchu, the most evil racial stereotype in the world, tries to conquer it by blowing up St Paul's Cathedral with his wireless death ray. The actual brides are fairly incidental to the plot.

Good production values, preposterous script, performances which are difficult to describe. It may be a bit racist but really, really doesn't warrant being taken that seriously. If Fu Manchu had a better HR department he could probably have got away with it, too. Hugely entertaining if you're in the right mood.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated La Ley del Deseo (Law of Desire) (1987) in Movies

Apr 2, 2020 (Updated Apr 2, 2020)

Almodovar's sixth movie is the one that brought him properly to international attention, but it's clear that his distinctive style was already well-developed by this point: there is the same skilful combination of suspense-movie tropes with sometimes-outrageous melodrama, and a sense of narrative playfulness.

Very strong performances from Antonio Banderas and Carmen Maura in particular, although the script seems to lack some of the deftness and confidence Almodovar would show in later movies - the shift from relationship drama to thriller isn't quite as well handled as one could hope for, and some elements of the story really do strain credibility. Nevertheless, an accomplished and engaging movie.

Kudos

Rattigan's Nijinsky

Nicholas Wright and Terence Rattigan

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

In a hotel room a once-lauded playwright meets Nijinsky's elderly widow, Romola, to fight over his...

Absolute Batman Year One HC

Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

One of the most important and critically acclaimed graphic novels of all time is now presented in a...

The Muse (1999)

6.3 (3 Ratings) Rate It

Movie Watch

Screenwriter Steven Phillips (Albert Brooks) seemingly has it all, including an Academy Award for...

The Magic Christian (1969)

4.7 (3 Ratings) Rate It

Movie

Knockabout comedy-satire based on the novel by Terry Southern. An immensely wealthy man adopts a...

Richard Hell recommended Naked (1993) in Movies (curated)

Naked (1993)

1993 | Drama

8.7

(3 Ratings)

Movie Favorite

"Another maverick reinventor of film procedure, Leigh arrives at his scripts by hiring actors capable of improvising behavior for the characters Leigh conceives, and then he compiles and hones the script from weeks of their recorded improvisations. The characters as filmed are always convincing and multidimensional in the way of real life, something rare in fiction movies. Usually Leigh’s films are ultimately optimistic or at least life-affirming, but Naked is an exception. It’s a study of a brilliant, manipulative, domineering, womanizing, articulate, suicidally provocative, near-Satanic young man, who is finally sympathetic, with a worldview that can’t be dismissed, and who is doomed. That’s the way I remember it, anyway."

Source

Kudos