diannecf
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
18 years
Reviews
Two Weeks with Love (1950)
Has no one seen the update?
A beautiful, innocent show -- well sort of. The turn-of-the-century generation was not naive about sex, they just had a better way of making it subtle.
Has nobody guessed? This is the movie which was updated to become, I kid you not, Dirty Dancing. The father-daughter tenderness, the girl who loves to dance and who takes over at the Catskill resort entertainment when the jealous leading lady has a problem, the coming of age of a woman on vacation with the cooperation of an entertainer -- "Mr. Robinson, your child is no longer a child." The parents' yielding to the breakdown of social barriers. It's all there.
Has nobody guessed? This is the movie which was updated to become, I kid you not, Dirty Dancing. The father-daughter tenderness, the girl who loves to dance and who takes over at the Catskill resort entertainment when the jealous leading lady has a problem, the coming of age of a woman on vacation with the cooperation of an entertainer -- "Mr. Robinson, your child is no longer a child." The parents' yielding to the breakdown of social barriers. It's all there.
The Legend of Zorro (2005)
When bad plots happen to good characters
I think the chemistry with the main characters was great. Elena and Alejandro (Zorro) continued with their struggles, just as you see in the first film. Again there are miscommunications verging on the tragic. This time, however, the little boy Joaquin is caught up in them.
I found this so very Latin. The child is disrespectful to the priest, but still somehow a good little Catholic (a paradox which only those deeply dyed in the religion can understand). He's a scamp, but so full of romantic intensity (frequently embraced by his overwhelmingly sexy mother), that you know this is just a little Zorro in embryo, fully his father's son. And there is a lot of affection there. It is the Italian churches which have all the Saint Anthony's and St. Joseph's, holding a child. This is some deep pagan thing. The Roman father publicly came forward to acknowledge his own son.
Zorro has many scenes in which this intense relationship of father and son is played out. I think there is even one where Zorro is holding his son while fending off others with his sword or whip.
Sometimes the father appears weak and defeated. He gets drunk. But then he pulls himself together and prevails. He and his horse are a great comic pair, which makes me think of Don Quixote somehow.
The family must come to terms with what is the family business, and that father may be summoned with the peal of a churchbell at any time. Like the priest himself, he is dedicated to a higher calling than his own arrangements. Nevertheless, mother can fight when she has to.
The great weakness of the film is the villains, who are fairly ridiculous. In fact both Zorro pictures had cartoonish villains, with really flimsy schemes to do wrong. I'm not sure why this bothers me.
Maybe it is because I agree with Ayn Rand's idea about James Bond - that he shouldn't be a figure of fun in the end. Zorro does stand for great things, and he should at least have more worthy adversaries than the equivalent of Dr. Evil types. There is something discordant in the films where these rather weird and laughable villains actually meet horrible ends as their comeuppance. Buffoonery veers into Blood Meridien.
Just as you can laugh at Bond's British type of humor, but on some level take his missions seriously - you can laugh at Zorro's domestic tiffs and miserable hangovers, but in the end you have to realize that the small ranchers really need an advocate, a champion.
I guess I disagree with Rand here: Robin Hood or Zorro is a perfectly worthy hero in my book, because the people they are up against for the little guy are out to rob them of all dignity, in the course of seizing their property or even their children, and such a hero is there to restore it.
Zorro has virtue. Perhaps in the end that is what many critics could not forgive. I am distressed that Roger Ebert hated it so much. He did not say why. That's the problem with a really severe pan. They don't break it down into its parts. Perhaps it's the easier path.
I found this so very Latin. The child is disrespectful to the priest, but still somehow a good little Catholic (a paradox which only those deeply dyed in the religion can understand). He's a scamp, but so full of romantic intensity (frequently embraced by his overwhelmingly sexy mother), that you know this is just a little Zorro in embryo, fully his father's son. And there is a lot of affection there. It is the Italian churches which have all the Saint Anthony's and St. Joseph's, holding a child. This is some deep pagan thing. The Roman father publicly came forward to acknowledge his own son.
Zorro has many scenes in which this intense relationship of father and son is played out. I think there is even one where Zorro is holding his son while fending off others with his sword or whip.
Sometimes the father appears weak and defeated. He gets drunk. But then he pulls himself together and prevails. He and his horse are a great comic pair, which makes me think of Don Quixote somehow.
The family must come to terms with what is the family business, and that father may be summoned with the peal of a churchbell at any time. Like the priest himself, he is dedicated to a higher calling than his own arrangements. Nevertheless, mother can fight when she has to.
The great weakness of the film is the villains, who are fairly ridiculous. In fact both Zorro pictures had cartoonish villains, with really flimsy schemes to do wrong. I'm not sure why this bothers me.
Maybe it is because I agree with Ayn Rand's idea about James Bond - that he shouldn't be a figure of fun in the end. Zorro does stand for great things, and he should at least have more worthy adversaries than the equivalent of Dr. Evil types. There is something discordant in the films where these rather weird and laughable villains actually meet horrible ends as their comeuppance. Buffoonery veers into Blood Meridien.
Just as you can laugh at Bond's British type of humor, but on some level take his missions seriously - you can laugh at Zorro's domestic tiffs and miserable hangovers, but in the end you have to realize that the small ranchers really need an advocate, a champion.
I guess I disagree with Rand here: Robin Hood or Zorro is a perfectly worthy hero in my book, because the people they are up against for the little guy are out to rob them of all dignity, in the course of seizing their property or even their children, and such a hero is there to restore it.
Zorro has virtue. Perhaps in the end that is what many critics could not forgive. I am distressed that Roger Ebert hated it so much. He did not say why. That's the problem with a really severe pan. They don't break it down into its parts. Perhaps it's the easier path.