My Favorite Movies

"Casino Royale" shines first in a very tight and brilliantly adult screenplay. This is by far the most interesting and complex of thrillers in a very long time. All the rather tired old comic strip aspects of previous Bond films have been swept away from outlandish plots to the old fashioned double entendre that used to pop on the screen like cartoon bubbles.
This Bond is witty but with a finer more modern approach. He is truly sophisticated but with some rough edges that catch and tear at the ear with both humor and intelligence.

Fine direction by Martin Campbell pushes the action, the actors and ultimately the audience to new heights of action and romance. He shows us in the most jaw dropping way that to kill someone is not easy; it is a messy hard and dirty job. And you can get bloody in the process. Bravo for putting the grit back into Bond.

Then there is the cast, a stunning array of international talent and indeed some of the finest actors around today shine and sparkle forever like diamonds in this film.
Eva Green as Vesper Lind is by far the best "Bond Girl" to date. She is an actress of great range and talent that brings Vesper to heart stopping life. Her talent combined with great writing and direction has amalgamated in this film to create what may be the only fully rounded and human "Bond Girl" ever seen.

Mads Mikkelsen is astonishingly good as the villain Le Chiffre is a real delight to watch. This is no "Dr. Evil" but a cold desperate criminal who when cornered is liable to go nuts on you.

Here Judi Dench is given her most complex "M" to date and carries if off with her very special gifts as an actress. She as always is a delight. And in this film you learn a few things about "M" that might surprise you.

Then there is Daniel Craig who makes his debut as Bond. And boy's roll out the red carpet and put up the velvet ropes. This performance will bring him to the forefront of movie stars who are also exceptional actors. This is a man who can act, and yet never let you catch him at it. A talent that ranks with the top fine actors today such as Russell Crowe,
He inhabits this very rough and dangerous Bond at the birth of the character and gives us a hot, hard, thug who though the course of the film is transformed by human design and circumstance into "Bond, James Bond". He is simply breathtaking to watch.

The film has a brain and also tips it's hat to great thrillers of the past especially "North By Northwest" as exemplified by the very sexy and delightful train scene where Bond and Vesper meet for the first time. But the most surprising aspect of "Casino Royale" is how human it is and how heartbreakingly romantic it can be amid the very dirty business of international espionage.

this spcial two disc blue-ray edition is stunning to behold with a perfect picture and window shattering sound. The extras are simply grand as well.

This movie at last brings magic back to the movies and heart to the Bond franchise.

Some reviewers and fans of the Bond films have complained that this film is a lesser effort in the series and pales in comparison to "Casino Royale". They have missed something important in their assessment of the film. When Dominic Green says to Bond that he and Camille Montez have something in common, that they are both "Damaged goods" he has clearly put before the audience the crux of the film that is "Quantum of Solace".
The film picks up only minutes after the end of "Casino Royale" and we are presented with a very damaged and changed James Bond. As revealed in the first film by Vesper Lynd's assessment of him upon their first meeting on the train, James Bond is a man who came up from humble beginnings and was given a privileged education but never allowed to forget his low origins. This has made him a very guarded loner with a chip on his shoulder, a perfect candidate for recruitment by MI6. In his words to her later on in the film, Vesper has "stripped me of my armor." But by the end of that film he is a man scarred by the death of his love, the armor is back on never to be penetrated again. He is now becoming the Bond of legend and a man bent on revenge.
So in "Quantum" there is no reason for the old fashioned quips or much humor in this man. Yet if you pay attention the character of James Bond as played by the incomparable Daniel Craig he lets us see that there are cracks in the armor. Something of a human heart still exists in him. This is played out in the scene after the plane crash where Camille asks him about his past. Craig shows it in his eyes in the most marvelous example of his layered and subtle acting style. Craig builds and molds a deeper, darker more complex Bond than we have ever seen before, a character more true to the books than in previous incarnations of Bond.
The action in the film is superlative and stylish. The opening car chase is indeed a nail biter only surpassed by the Sienna chase moments later. This too is then topped by the DC10 aerial battle towards the end of the film. The stunts are breathtaking and propel the film at top notch speed. But perhaps the most stunning and original sequence is the gun fight in the restaurant at the Opera house. This is played without sound effect as the score of "Tosca" commands the ear and heightens the emotion of the scene. This is inspired and brilliant film making taking in account all aspects of editing, cinematography, score, and acting. And since I mentioned music I cannot leave out the incredible delicious score by David Arnold who has infused his Bond scores with the much need taste of John Barry. He captures the glorious Barry sound and builds brilliantly upon it.
All the principle players give superlative performances. Judi Dench command attention as she always has as "M". Giancarlo Giannini redeems himself and is truly touching as Mathis. Mathieu Amalic is appropriately slithery and devious as the villain Green. As Agent Fields, Miss Gemma Arterton brings a light and fun light to the film. Finally in the role of Camille Olga Kurylenko holds her own opposite Daniel Craig. This is no mean feat and she is wonderful, athletic and touching in the film.
In the end Bond does find a quantum of solace and ends the film in a telling way. A small gesture that lets us know he is now moving on but not without a tinge of sadness. This beautiful sad ending is a refreshing and moving way to end a Bond film.
"Quantum of Solace" is a fast paced film that demands attention to the small details and respect for superlative performances by all involved from the director Marc Forster to the entire cast and crew.

The sound as well is astonding and puts you right in the middle of the action. As for the extras there are plenty. The best being a featurette entitled "Bond On Location". Also presented dubbed in French, Spanish and Portuguese, and subtitled thus and in sever Asian languages including Chinese. This is a must have for any Bond fan.

A wonderful ensemble cast shines in this film headed by Daniel Craig. Wow! Is there nothing this actor can not do? Consistently brilliant in every thing he does on screen I am convinced now that he is by far the best actor of his generation. A great story wonderfully filmed. A must see for all ages. The ending is so moving and powerful it will stay with you for days.
Some fans of the film may have bones to pick with this production but for those like me who have not read it the film plays beautifuly.
The locations are stunning and the film has immense sweep and drama. Comedy also plays a major role in this film so in the end it is bitter sweet and oh so satisfying. Epic in scope and yet intimate and touching a wonderful film that kept me glued to the tube.

Haunting in more ways than one "Copenhagen" is framed by the meeting of the ghosts of three friends who try to come to grips with why sixty years earlier their friendship was destroyed by a visit. This film is fascinating in structure and brilliantly realized as drama.
Francesca Annis is simply wonderful as the wife of Danish Physicist Niels Bohr. She is as brittle and supportive of her husband as she is distrustful and yet tender to their old friend, German physicist Werner Heisenberg. Stephen Rea towers in his portrayal of Bohr and commands the screen in velvet gloved over steel performance. His role is one of such extreme depth and subtlety that I was truly impressed with what he delivered. As Heisenberg, Daniel Craig is a towering presence. Not that the personality of the man he plays is towering, but in his grasp of the complexities and conundrums is. What he does with the slight turn of the head, the shifting of the eyes and the turn of the mouth or the pout of his lips is a lesion in the art of screen acting. It is all about thinking and Craig lets us see what he is thinking. He has the ability to inhabit the moment and let the deepest and sometimes the guarded emotions play across his face.
So here you have three great actors in a challenging work that is worthy of your time you might give to it. This film raises an important question, that of moral responsibility to humanity and when it is split like an atom by the three characters it multiplies the question into even deeper ones of loyalty, friendship, and love. A wonderful experience is waiting your arrival in "Copenhagen".

I was shocked to discover the gothic psychosexual romance, "Love and Rage" is a based on true events. Beautifully filmed in the rugged splendors of rural Ireland this film begins like a true romance novel, independent willful woman ahead of her time falls in love with wild rogue of a lower social level. It seems very Thomas Hardy full of repressed longing and sudden volcanic passions set amidst a storm tortured sea coast, mossy crags and a gloriously foreboding manor house. Buy the end the film turns from this formula melodrama into something truly evil and disturbing.
Greta Scacchi is perfectly cast in her roll of English landlord Agnes MacDonnell. With her careworn beauty she carries a grace and command throughout the film. At first regal and above those Irish that surround her the fall she takes upon meeting James Lynchehaun is spectacular in its bravery as and actress and harrowing in her portail of the ultimate price she pays for her passions.
Daniel Craig is mesmerizing in creating the madness and seductive sensuality of Lynchehaun. His dark twist on a classic romantic ideal is riveting to watch as he slithers from classic romantic bad boy hero into truly insane stalker. "Love And Rage" strange and hypnotic as it is becomes another feather in the cap for this fine actor's repertoire. As the story unfolded I found myself hoping against hope that the early eerie flashes of his instability were only genre quirks in the Heathcliff vein. Alas they were Hell's preternatural lightning of the madness to come. Brilliantly Craig grabbed my imagination and drug me willingly along the delusionary ride to the films final superbly bizarre and satisfying end.

Please not that this is my original review that I posted on Amazon entitled. AN AMAZING FEAT, April 7, 2001. I found that a member here by the name of stopitgoaway has posted my review as her own.
Michael C. Smith November 10, 2009

That a film as good as CLEOPATRA is was created at all under the madness and panic of it's legendary production is indeed an amazing feat. That CLEOPATRA has been given such loving care in it's restoration in this DVD of the "Road show" print and the attendant bonus materials is a wondrous gift to those who love this film.
The documentary, "Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood" is in on it's own an engrossing and informative two hour movie. For anyone who knows little of the history of CLEOPATRA, or who was not around at the time, this documentary will give them the feeling of what those last days of old Hollywood were like. And therein one can find the reasons why this intimate epic is indeed the wonder that it is. Much thanks must be given to the Mankiewicz family and the producers of the documentary.
The print and the sound of CLEOPATRA seems now to surpass what I recall it to be in its first presentation nearly forty years ago. The depth of the colors and the richness of the shadows are indeed splendid. In it's present form it is hard to believe this film is as old as it is. The commentary track is like finding the lost treasures of the long dead monarch. For there are wonderful recollections by Martin Landau, Tom and Chris Mankiewicz, and even Jack Brodsky gets to read sections from his book "The Cleopatra Papers". But I must give special mention to Landau's part. With his keen eye for the art direction of John DeCur one sees things in the background and along the edges of the scene that one never noticed before. Such lovingly detailed sets and interiors will never be seen again. The costs today are just too prohibitive. Also his insights into what was cut from the film, particularly his and Richard Burton's contributions in the second act give one the idea of what Mankiewicz was intending. Poor Richard suffered the unkindest cut of all. The presentation of the DVD menus are so clever and exotic and are to be commended in their art direction. At last we now know what is behind the massive 20th Century Fox logo!
The film itself remains what it has always been, a good film that might have been great if only Zanuck had but trusted Joe Mankiewicz' original vision. In the documentary it is stated that Fox is looking for the missing film, one can only hope that they succeed.
The performances range from excellent to good. Particular praise must go to Rex Harrison, Richard Burton, Martin Landau, Robert Stephens, Andrew Keir, and Roddy McDowall. Lastly in this department there remains Elizabeth Taylor's performance as Cleopatra. At the films release she got the brickbats and for reasons that had nothing to do with her performance. It is always hard to separate the history of the lady from her film roles. But here in this film is where she became the ELIZABETH TAYLOR she has remained in the mind of the world to this day. In this fact alone she is perfect in the role. She is at once regal and commanding, strong and tender, soft and hard. The contradictions that have always been at the heart of Cleopatra herself, the public enigma wrapped within a mystery. In her performance as written by Mankiewicz she is probably not too far off from the historical Cleopatra.
Ever since Judith Crist gave CLEOPATRA the needle in 1963 and in the act made her name, the public, for the most part, has viewed this film a failure. But today, stripped of the scandal, hype and hysteria of its release in June of '63 it is now possible to view CLEOPARTA as the wonderful film that it is. Historically this is an important DVD and I recommend it highly. CLEOPATRA remains as seductive, beautiful, and intelligent as it was in Walter Wanger's original conception.

Here in The Last Time I Saw Paris an interesting thing happens. Elizabeth Taylor becomes a woman. Before this picture there were really only two other outstanding performances by Miss Taylor. Or I should say where she was allowed to rise above the material. The first being of course the rhapsodic National Velvet and the second the astonishing A Place In The Sun. The films in between those and The Last Time I Saw Paris were mostly along the "Isn't she beautiful?" line of movie making, and, why not? That was the main engine of most Hollywood star vehicles of the day. A Star didn't have to be a talent. But it was essential to possess a presence that reached out from the screen and touched the audience in a primal way. Miss Taylor had that in spades but she had much more that was often eclipsed in the dazzling explosion of her extraordinary almost alien beauty.
But here in the hands of director Richard Brooks (who would later lead her to her triumph in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof) Miss Taylor finds a new level in her abilities as an actress. Her Helen is a woman of many layers and dark corners, of mercurial flights and deep sadness. Elizabeth at the tender age of 22 grasps all the aspects of this tragic woman and illuminates not only the screen with them but the whole enterprise as well. She shows us where she, as an actress is going in the future. And who she will become in her later films, one of the best screen actresses of the twentieth century. This is the real beginning of the Elizabeth Taylor of legend. She fills the role as no one of her generation could. Never again after this film would she sleepwalk through a film, a beautiful shadow to dream over.
She is aided in what is perhaps one of Van Johnson's best performances. Donna Reed scores high in the role of Helen's bitter sister and Walter Pidgon is a delight as her roguish father. A standout cameo is presented by Eva Gabor, (not Zsa Zsa) the only one of the famous sisters who had any real talent. The only false performance in the film comes from child actress Sandy Descher. When you compare her forced and overly cute performance to that of the child Elizabeth Taylor in "Jane Eyre" then you see what a treasure Miss Taylor has always been.
There is something so essentially wonderful in this gem from MGM and it is this. The Last Time I Saw Pairs is the perfect example of the last flowering in the 50's of the "woman's picture". Films where women could be multi faceted and complex and drive the story on under their own steam as whole human beings. This is a window to the 50's and a style of filmmaking that seems gone forever, great stories of strong women who fill the screen with power and grace. But with "Far From Heaven" and "The Hours" I may be wrong about forever.
I recommend this admittedly dated but charming film for anyone who wants to see what screen acting is all about. It is about thinking and Miss Taylor is a master at the craft.

"It takes one day to dye, another to be born..." Elizabeth Taylor reportedly said those words to her director Griffi when she came on the set the day after she left Burton for their first divorce. So with that mindset she went to work on one of her most unusual, daring and controversial films. From the moment "The Diver's Seat" begins you know you are in a strange place. In Europe the movie was called "Idendikit" so, with two names tagged to it thus making it schizophrenic from the first it easily falls into the realm of the ambiguous art film genre of the late 60's and early 70's.
It's star, Elizabeth Taylor, appears here in one of her most remote and dangerous roles. She plays Lise a woman who is consumed by insanity and the desire to find the ultimate lover, the be all and end all of boyfriends you might say.
As the film opens you are presented with a shattered view of a woman on the edge of something terrible. The camera moves past bald mannequins in a disjointed way. Is this Lise's view of others or is it a reflection of her ultimate fate? Upon being told to take a holiday from work after causing a scene in the office the film opens with her preparations to take flight to Rome. The film jump cuts from past to present as the police in Rome try to reconstruct her final fatal holiday in terrorist gripped Rome. Even Rome comes off as off kilter. This is not the Rome of Audrey Hepburn or Marcello Mastroianni but a city one hardly recognizes from the lack of typical filming locations one associates with "Made In Rome!" movies.
Director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi succeeds in presenting a uniquely Italian cinema verite film of the Muriel Spark novel. This is a unique film and very much of it's day. Its non-linear, experimental, almost documentary style will be hard to get into for any one not used to movies of this sort. But it is well worth the effort. So strange and challenging a film it is that it left the opening night audience at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival in stunned silence.
The cast is well chosen and gives some oddly memorable performances. Ian Bannan as the macrobiotic sex-nut who tires to pick up Lise on the plane to Rome seems almost as mad as she is. It is a wickedly off kilter wild-eyed performance. The charming and always wonderful Mona Washbourne is sweetly touching as the woman who befriends the mad Lise and in doing so leads her to meet the man of her dreams.
But the glue that holds it all together is provided by Miss Taylor who tops off her short list of insane characters from Susanna Drake to Catherine Holly with this daring and shocking portrait of Lise. She opens up as an actress that at the time would have been unthinkable to most of her contemporaries from the old M.G.M. days. That's one of the wonderful things about her film career. She came from an era in old Hollywood where she was trained and groomed to be glossy and perfect. But as times changed so did she and in doing so became much more than an MGM glamour girl, she became an actress with guts. In "The Driver's Seat" she shows her chops as an actress and her willingness to accept challenges in her roles and in Lise she found a great one. One stunning image of her is when in her loud madwoman dress and raccoon painted eyes she challenges the airport security to frisk her. In that scene she seems totally there, totally gone, and totally in control as an actress.

In the original film version of "Sweet Bird of Youth" Geraldine Page made the role famous opposite the stunningly cast Paul Newman. It was a great film of a great Broadway hit. Why make it again many may wonder? How could you top that gem in the MGM lexicon of late 50's Tennessee Williams filmed versions of his master works.

Cut to the 1980's and Elizabeth Taylor who in many ways at the time was not so big a movie star as she had been but was much in demand on television. Slimmed down and revitalized after the 1970's age of fat she was in her final bloom of beauty and at the top of her talent. A woman playing a star who really understood more than anyone alive what being a star of mega wattage meant. She had lived it, survived it and was triumphing over it. She was the anti Alexandra Delago who nearly had become Alexandra Delago but somehow managed to swerve and avoid that porcupine in the road of fame and live to tell about it. She was perfect casting for this T.V. movie of the play. And she had an understanding of Williams' poetry having done, "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof", "Suddenly Last Summer" and "Boom".

The supporting cast turns in some fine performances. In particular, Rip Torn, and Valerie Perrine shine in their roles. Mark Harman is just the right age to play Chance Wayne a gigolo on the edge of losing his looks and too obsessed with the past to take the one last opportunity Alexandra offers him to become what he thinks he wants to be, a star.

But it is Taylor's movie all the way. From her incredible early close-ups at the beach cabana to her final scene she commands the role as no other actress of her generation could. She inhabits the roll with a worldly understanding that under the monster that Alexandra has become there is still a human being who can reach out to help another even if it is too little too late. She also brings to the film a reality from her real life that no other actress, even the best method actresses around could muster. This adds a glittering and chilling edge to the performance. It is brilliant work in a lesser medium by a star and actress who was the master of blending fact and fiction as no one else quite can.

John Huston's "Reflections In A Golden Eye" is one of his lesser-known works. This overlooked film is a riveting piece of Cinema. He brought together the unlikely combination of Carson McCuller's southern gothic novel along with the talents of Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, and Julie Harris to create a fascinating study of deceit, lies, and murder.
Julie Harris brings to the project her unique blend of neurosis and pathos. She inhabits the role as Allison the mentally fragile wife of Brian Keith fully, coloring her role with the nuance of madness.
Keith gives his best performance as the philandering husband of Harris and the bumbling lover of Taylor. It is his finest hour on the screen. His pathetic recollection of his lost wife is acted with subtlety and feeling and proves his metal as an actor.
Marlon Brando as Major Penderton rises to his role as a closeted homosexual. This is one of his masterworks as an actor and quite possibly one of his best in the 1960's. He is puffy, middle aged and completely without vanity. To watch him struggle to lift a barbell with one arm is delightfully disturbing.
As Leonora Penderton Elizabeth Taylor is at the top of her game, dumb, sexy and funny. It is one of her most deeply complex performances from a career full of great work. There is so much humor mixed into her character and she goes all the way to reveal the each nuance and layer of Leonora.
The music by Toshiro Mayuzumi is hauntingly beautiful and atmospheric. The opening theme carries a muted smoky jazz sound that sets the scene perfectly. The only false note in the film are Taylor's costumes by Dorothy Jenkins. Set in the late 1940's Miss Taylor is dressed in the current fashions of the late 1960's and she looks beautiful but out of time with the era along with her hair by Alexandre of Pairs.
Huston directs with calm assuredness, as he leads is excellent cast to the tragic inevitable end to the film.