vsdennis

If you look at Corey Large's information here on IMDb, apparently there's a movie called "Reload" in production (as of June '08) in which he's playing a character named Sebastian Cole.

First of all, how does such a crappy movie ever earn a sequel ... and second, didn't Sebastian get killed at the end of "Loaded"?

I watched this in the wee hours of the morning when I was battling insomnia, and so I was drifting in and out while it was on. I'm sure I missed some plot points, but overall, it seemed really weak. Large's performance was (for me) one of the stronger parts of the film. I'm also a bit surprised at all the people commenting on the beautiful girls, since I thought the actress playing Brooke was pretty, but not exceptional.

I loved the original "Rocky," and none of the sequels has come close to its warmth and inspirational message ... until now. Rocky had somehow lost his vulnerability as he built bigger and better defined muscle mass in movies 2-5. It's only now, as he reaches the end of his career and realizes that he is pushing his aging body to its limit, that the vulnerable Rocky from the first movie returns. The loss of Adrian compounds this.

I would have to say that the best scene is the confrontation with his son toward the end of the film. I was with a group of friends when I saw this, and the men in the group (not "Rocky" fans, but humoring we females) agreed to a man that it was the kind of talk that more fathers should give their sons, and a talk that they wish their fathers had given at various points in their lives.

Absolutely a return to greatness, and a triumph for Stallone.

I think a number of the comments here are missing the true point that Fitzgerald was trying to convey in Gatsby - he is the quintessential embodiment of the American psyche. He believes that with enough money he can literally recreate the past, changing it to create the present that he desires.

Mia Farrow as Daisy is not a disaster, but perhaps two steps short. Daisy was the most popular débutante in Louisville, at a time when debuts and dress balls were de rigueur for the upper class. Mia Farrow portrays her correctly as shallow and vain, but misses the mark entirely on helping us understand why someone would spend five years of their life trying to recapture her attention.

Bruce Dern does "menacing" quite well as Tom Buchanan, but Buchanan was supposed to be a world-ranked polo player, and Dern doesn't have the physical presence to pull that off. Again - missing the mark on convincing the audience.

Sam Shepard was quite good as Nick Carraway.

The cinematography was gorgeous, and the music is absolutely haunting.

The coup in the casting, in my opinion, was Redford. At once cynical and naive, kind and cruel, and, as Nick declares in exasperation and love for Gatsby at the end, "worth the whole lot of them combined!" Redford pulled it off.

I really loved The Big Valley when I was growing up. I admired Victoria Barkley's spunk and strength, and over the years I had crushes on each of the Barkley brothers, finally settling on Nick (Peter Breck). Some of the plot lines were formulaic and laughable - you always knew that anyone that any of the "kids" fell in love with was either going to die tragically or end up being a con artist.

Probably the best ever episode, in my opinion, was the one where Victoria was declared insane and placed in an asylum - getting her out of the way so that some nefarious plot line could advance. Barbara Stanwyck did an excellent job of playing a frantic, hysterical woman who is sane - but who is so frantic and hysterical that even someone well-intended might wonder about her sanity.

Lee Majors as Heath Barkley really grew in the role - starting out as the bastard son of Victoria's deceased husband, but becoming an accepted member of the Barkley clan.

But Peter Breck was the best of the actors portraying Victoria's younger son, Nick. Linda Evans as Audra was colossally annoying and whiny, and a perennial victim. Although Richard Long was OK as Jarrod, I always felt like someone else with a little more charisma might have done a lot more with that role.

Thursday nights just wouldn't have been the same growing up without Baretta. The show was tough and dirty and gritty and all the things my middle class suburban family upbringing wasn't. It was a view of the outside world, and Tony Baretta was the tour guide to all of the foul things that were waiting out there in "The City." He was the protector. The show was effectively lightened, though, by comedic parts by Rooster, the pimp/informant, and by Baretta himself, who could don some pretty outrageous costumes when he went "undercover." TV in the '70's didn't allow any profanity, of course - but even at age 12, I knew Baretta would have cursed like a sailor. Baretta was real - he lost people he cared about to crime, and he went on drinking binges and lashed out at people he cared about when he got emotional.

The first season on DVD is a must-have if you like crime drama. Along with "Hill Street Blues" and "CSI," Baretta defines the genre and set the stage for the others by giving us substantive supporting characters and an ensemble cast that only got better with successive seasons. Hopefully, with the recent acquittal of Robert Blake, season 2 will be released on DVD soon.

The thing I found most frightening in "It" was when the kids are realizing the history that "It" has - they find the old drawings - almost like woodcut type prints - of Pennywise that were created in 18th century Derry. Then there are old photographs from the 19th century, with the horse-drawn wagons -- Tim Curry was everything an evil clown should be - terrifying and menacing. I didn't mind the adult actors, but I think it's too bad that the kids' careers (for the most part) didn't do much. Emily Perkins and Seth Green have both done very well, but not so much for the others. I particularly liked Brandon Crane, who played Ben as a child, and Adam Faraizl, who played Eddie as a child. Neither of them have done anything recently, at least according to the IMDb database.

So - the ending was lame. But the camaraderie between the friends, particularly by the children, was absolutely palpable and made me feel weepy for my childhood friends who knew me so well, and loved me anyway.

Unfortunately, it looks like ABC has canceled this show without ever properly promoting it or giving it a chance in a better time slot. It was a really well-done show, I thought. I'm a former high school teacher, and I thought the scripts accurately depicted a lot of what my students went through, and a lot of what I went through as a teen - pressure to have sex (or at least to have your friends THINK you'd had sex), pressure to conform, desire for popularity, friction with parents, students' attraction to teachers -- all in all, very well done. The critics have generally been very positive, but ratings have been low, because most people never heard of the show due to poor promotion. I'm hopeful that someone else (MTV?) will pick this show up and continue production.

I've also just finished reading "Doing It," the book this series was based on. It's worth a read - it's available on amazon.com, and probably could be ordered from any bookstore.

I'm not a horror movie fan -- I really like suspenseful stories, with or without a "twist" ending. I thought the plot development of "The Village" was unfortunately predictable. I already knew about the creatures, knew about Noah's role in the activities regarding the creatures ...

I did expect more from the contents of the boxes, and I'm still perplexed as to what Lucius' "color" was, that Ivy perceived. Was it "the bad color," given her insistence on not sharing it with him? At times, though, her reticence seemed a bit playful, in which case his color was likely NOT "the bad color," and I don't know what it might have been.

I was disappointed in the character development given to Lucius and to Sigourney Weaver's role. Overall, I was a little disappointed.

Marjorie Morningstar was one of the most beautiful, poignant, heart-wrenching novels I've ever read. Beautiful Marjorie, coming of age in New York City, surrounded by her old-fashioned, traditional Jewish family but enamored of glamor and Broadway. The novel explores her vulnerability and sweetness, as well as her thoughtlessness and selfishness as her family's spoiled, favorite child.

Noel Airman is the guy we all fell in love with when we were 20 -- a dreamer, without the ability (as he acknowledges himself in a rare moment of honesty) to finish anything he starts, unless it involves alcohol or seduction.

Spoiler alert -- if you haven't read the novel, it ends entirely differently from the movie, and it is the ending that makes it all strike home -- Marjorie has indeed become a "Shirley," a middle-class wife and mother, living a tedious, mundane life in New Rochelle, just as Noel had predicted. The horrible ending of the movie, with Wally Wronken "rescuing" Marjorie and being a total doormat, completely destroys the message and meaning of the novel -- that we all have dreams, and we all (as Marsha said), settle for what we can get and try to figure out how to be happy with it, rather than living with bitterness and regret for "what might have been."

And the casting....Yuck! I absolutely adore Gene Kelly, but was a terrible choice for Noel Airman. Natalie Wood is gorgeous, and was okay as Marjorie - she communicated the love-bordering-on-obsession that we feel at that age. The tragedies of the other characters - Wally, Uncle Samson, Marjorie's parents -- all go comparatively unaddressed in the movie.

It wasn't intended to be a happily-ever-after story, the way the movie ended. It was intended to be a heart-breaking coming of age story. I'll stick with the book -- and if you love Herman Wouk as I do, try "The Caine Mutiny" if you want to see one of his books translated to the screen as it should have been.

And no, that one line wasn't, "No one puts Baby in a corner." (Incidentally, chosen one of AFI's "Ten Cheesiest Movie Lines," and deservedly so.)

The line I thought made the whole movie worthwhile was Baby's tearful statement to her father, "I know I let you down, and I'm sorry. But you let me down, too." This one hit home really hard for me - maybe part emotion and part timing (going through an extremely rough phase with my own dad).

As far as the rest of the movie went, Baby's sister was incredibly annoying (what was the deal with the eyebrows??!! They should have had a credit all to themselves!!). Penny's pose after she has the abortion, when Baby comes in to check on her and Penny's leg is "a'la dancer" with her toe pointed to show her calf to best effect always makes me laugh.

The mother's character was not fleshed out very well. The only real insight you get into her character is right at the end of the movie, when she comments, "I think she gets it from my side of the family." Then you see where Baby's sister gets her self-absorption.

What a gorgeous movie, and a perfect adaptation of Paul Gallico's classic. I haven't seen it for 30 years, and was about 10 years old when I did see it -- but 30 years later, I still remember it and have the occasional "brain flash" of a scene in the movie. This is one that should be offered on video/DVD.