Sam’s Place

The Efficiency Expert (AKA Spotswood) (1992)

Sam: ***

• I have to admit that there were a lot of distractions while I was watching this Aussie people-before-profits DVD, but I thought it was just OK. Also, the technical quality of the DVD was poor.

Emma: ****

• Not very original, but good anyway. I liked Anthony Hopkins‘ uncharacteristically understated portrayal of the efficiency expert.

The Perfect Score (2004) 

Sam: ***

• As the box said, it’s a combination of The Breakfast Club & a heist film. So it gets an extra star cuz you can’t expect a movie like this to be very good. Scarlett Johansson was as sexy… I mean her acting was as bad as usual.

Emma: **

• Bad but I liked Leonardo Nam as the stoner.

Pickup on South Street (1953)

Sam: ***

• Cold War noir with Richard Widmark as a pickpocket. From the wonderful Criterion Collection – click here for a good Criterion essay on PoSS. Remember to adjust your tv to get the high-contrast black-&-white. These movies just don’t work in fuzzy gray.

Emma: ***

• Good cinematography.

Cool It Carol (1968)

Sam: **

• Billed as “sex comedy, part dramatic social commentary” but actually a dated sexploitation flick.

Emma: **

• It seemed like they started to build up a story then — poof! — they just ended it. Weird. Didn’t give you a feeling of Swinging London, either. The male lead looked like Mick Jagger.

Bleak House (2005)

Sam: ****

Emma: ****

• Good acting. Fun to see Gillian Anderson in a role other than Scully on X-Files.

Marie Antoinette (2006)

Sam: **

• Wow, that was bad. I’m stunned. Decades-late re-heated Malcolm McLaren.

Emma: ***

• I liked the photography & costumes. But most of the acting was bad & Kirsten Dunst was miscast.

Borat (2006)

Sam: ***

• There were some laughs but alot of it seemed unfunny and mean. I didn’t like Sacha Baron Cohen being rude to people, and I was surprised how polite most Americans were to him.

Emma: **

• SB Cohen is obviously intelligent but this movie is mostly crude potty “humor.”

Play Misty for Me (1971)

Sam: ****

• Clint Eastwood’s role-reversed NorCal Psycho.

Emma: ****

• Nice to see Carmel in the early ’70s.

Keeping Mum (2005)

Sam: ****

• Kristin Scott Thomas is excellent. Rowan Atkinson, as a mild-mannered vicar, is also excellent, & that surprised me, after the abysmal Johnny English. And Maggie Smith is funny as the murderess.

Emma: ****

• It was relief to see Rowan Atkinson not playing Mr Bean.

Masterpiece Theatre: Dracula (2007)

Sam: **

• Faithful to Bram Stoker’s story, but not very good.

Emma: *

• It started off seeming like the filmmakers had some interesting ideas; then it all went wrong; then it suddenly ended.

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Lost in La Mancha (2002)

Sam: ***

• A documentary about Terry Gilliam’s failure to make a movie based on Don Quixote.

Emma: ***

• Interesting. Gives you a sense of what goes on behind the scenes making a movie. You see what a small role actors actually play in the process.