tonedeaf06

Barney Miller is one of my favorite TV sitcoms and always will be. Acting & writing were top-notch and there always seemed to be a feeling that the cast really enjoyed working together.

There does seem to be one common trait associated with successful sit-coms, from "Andy Griffith," to "All In The Family," to "Barney Miller" to "Cheers." It usually takes a season or two to hash out the delineation of the characters in a show. A period of time is needed to discard what doesn't work or fit until the actors find the characters "niche" or "comfort zone." Barney Miller was a much better series after Fish & Chano left, mainly because those 2 characters seemed to be the main focus in the first couple of seasons. On their departure, the other characters seemed to crystallize and the ensemble became more cohesive. You "knew" how these guys would, or could react in certain situations. I thought the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" was better after Rhoda & Phyllis left. The "Andy Griffith Show" became better when Griffith(to his great credit) began playing it "straighter" when he recognized Don Knotts brilliance. "Cheers" was better after Shelly Long departed, etc.

I guess my ultimate point here is that I wonder how many possibly great shows were axed to early, before reaching that "comfort zone" area of character development? Luckily, "Barney Miller" was not.

Green Acres is my favorite sit-com ever. There are many excellent ones over the years and perhaps some better, the Andy Griffith Show is close for me, but none make me laugh or allow for complete, escapist zaniness as does Green Acres. Top-notch acting & writing, incredibly wacky characters, bizarre situations and story lines, Green Acres has it all. I do not know about any Kafkaesque similarities or other "deep" meanings. I DO know that Green Acres makes me laugh and lets me escape my sometimes grim world to a place where anything can happen and often does. Of course the glue holding this menagerie together was Eddie Albert as Oliver Wendell Douglas. His brilliant "playing-off" of all the lunacy around him is top-notch. I also felt a real chemistry between Oliver & his wife Lisa (Eva Gabor). One thing I felt was left out of some of the other comments was the great use of editing in the show. The quick cuts and capturing of the sometimes hilarious reactions of the actors really added to the show in both pacing & comedic effect. Truly a charming and insane treasure!!!

Decent movie, liked most of the acting, even the annoying Tom Cruise character, who I felt like slapping around. Particularly good were Kiefer Sutherland & Kevin Bacon. It is the usual Hollywood bashing of our military, but it did not fool me one bit. I guess Rob Reiner wanted the audience to feel the triumph of the snotty JAG lawyer over the talented but uncouth Marine Colonel. But I found it in the totally opposite vein. Obviously Col. Jessup is a very highly skilled commander to be considered for a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. So I guess this is what the USA has come to. We lose one of our obviously best active military commanders for disciplining his unit, to a spoiled brat wannabe lawyer who finally "found himself." Pathetic. The same nonsense happened in real life to Gen. Patton for the "slapping" incidents. He was nearly relieved and sent home. When Americans start realizing the huge difference in civilian life and life in the military, perhaps we can quit denigrating our military leaders who are probably more honorable than most ordinary civilians. The "truth" that the left cannot handle is the fact that the military unit (any military) is formed through group cohesion and not individualism. The betterment of the "whole" instead of the kowtowing to "individualism." Perhaps if they read "Sun Tzu" they might accept this basic command tenet. Despite the obvious "leftist" spiel going on in this film, I still liked it. But only because I could separate the "message" and just watch it as entertainment.

"Vertigo" is my favorite movie. Is it the best movie ever made? Perhaps not. It is more of a work of art from Hitchcock and, as been noted by others, a very personal film. This film is about compulsion, obsession and of having , what is to Scotty, the ideal woman in his grasp, only to lose her in tragic circumstances. It is also about guilt, bereavement and murder. Even after Madeleine's death, Scotty cannot let it go. He continues to search for a "dead" woman. He is almost willing to go to any lengths to recapture what was lost. But as the old saying goes..."be careful what you wish for"?

Hitchcock's direction and screen composition is right on. The art direction and color schemes are fantastic. The setting and filming of San Francisco, magnificent. The performances are fantastic all around. However, despite all of the above, the one factor which really sets this film apart as a "classic" is the Hermann score. It is truly great and captures and adds to the mood and tone of this film in all of its facets.

This film should definitely be rated higher on this site. I guess without constant explosions, shootings, car chases and other myriad CGI effects todays audiences could not sit through this movie. To watch this film is to watch a master at his craft during the height of his creative genius. A definite 10!!!

An absolutely horrible movie, definitely in my Top Ten of "worst movies of all time." A typical dumbed-down Hollywood cartoon of a film, designed to appeal to the 18-24 yo demographic.

This "film" consists of so many blatant stereotypes, unbelievable situations, horrible acting, cheesy special-effects and an ending so far-fetched that it would strain credibility to a 4 year old. I will not go into detail on my comments to the above, as they have already been well-described in many other reviews and I will not waste the readers time. However, I will conclude with one other point about this movie which really irks me. It is the blatantly loud, pro-American jingoism that permeates this film. It is so over the top that it is embarrassing, and I say this as a proud American. How I yearn for a return to the old American virtues of humbleness, quiet pride and the "can-do" attitude of the past. The in-your-face flag-waving, posing, posturing, rudeness and general ignorance of other peoples and nations shown in this and many other simplistic films of this nature is quite pathetic. It is no wonder that so much of the rest of the world has such a negative attitude towards my country these days.

"The Wild Bunch" is not only my favorite Western of all time, it is also in my Top Ten favorite American movies of all time. This is Sam Peckinpaughs masterpiece. A band of ruthless outlaws, cunningly cast with aging stars, try for one last score before bowing out of the bandit game.

Before this movie, Westerns were routinely sanitized of bloodshed and mayhem. In "The Wild Bunch", we finally get the feel of the era. This was a hard life and the movie does not flinch in showing its danger and sometime brutality. There are some moments of humor in the film also, so it is not all blood and gore.

There is no doubt this is a movie depicting the end of an era, the death of the Wild West. From the sly introduction of the new technologies encroaching on our outlaws, even they begin to sense their obsolescence. Set during the backdrop of the Mexican Civil War, our "heroes" embark on a robbery of an arms shipment destined for the soldiers of the Amerian Expeditionary Force, then operating in Mexico. Of course, not everything goes as planned and the bunch is faced with new problems, not the least is being pursued by bounty hunters, Pancho Villa's troops and the U.S. Army.

Without giving to much away, the death of the Wild West, at least to the "Wild Bunch, will be with a bang, not a whimper.

Regarding Mr. Nixs' criticism of so called "Mexican stereotypes," I think he is living in a dreamworld. The border town in Mexico where much of the movie takes place, Agua Verde," is not exactly the nest of artists, poets, scholars and philosophers. It is a town with no law and order, run by murderers, bandits, prostitutes and all the unsavoriness that a village of that type would probably contain. Again Peckinpaugh is being brutally honest.

Finally, the movie is acted in first class fashion by all of the aging cast. Particularly Edmund O,Brien. This is the best western of all time.