Movie review - "Johnny Doesn't Live Here Any more" (1944) **1/2

 Simone Simon's accent limited her job offers but she's a cutie in this sweet screwball comedy - she lives in a flat where keys have been given to servicemen and shenanigans ensue. There's a fantastical element about gremlins introduced but not developed - they may as well have cut it out.

Directed by Joe May. I couldn't tell the men apart aside from Bob Mitchum who appears at the end. I like how everyone liked Simon and she was spending time wondering who she'd be with.

Not a masterpiece or even that funny but high spirited. 

Movie review - "Good Times" (1967) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Sonny and Cher film was financed by Steve Broidy, formerly of Allied Artists, and randomly directed by William Friedkin.

Fun sketches. But they're sketches. It's like an episode of a variety show. Dumb plot where George Sanders offers to fund a movie and then insists on them sticking to a dumb script and threatening to sue Sonny and Cher and the singers stick to their guns and Sanders respects him. That's dumb. Don't sign the contract, dude. Smart arse boomer stuff.

One stand out number - "Good Times" with dancers. Fans of the duo will enjoy it. Should've been made for not much money. Went over budget due to Friedkin. Not dull. 

Movie review - "Shalako" (1968) **1/2

 The press got hysterical about this movie - Sean Connery in a Western. Connery appearing opposite Brigitte Bardot. 

It's a strong story, and looks great (vistas etc). But it's an ensemble piece - sort of like Stagecoach, about Europeans on a hunting trip encountering Apaches. There's various subplots like Jack Hawkins' wife Honor Blackman having it off with Stephen Boyd. Connery is a former cavalry officer who advises them to get out and they odn't.

There's too many characters to service so the strong cast don't have anything to do. Connery and Bardot don't have anything to play. They should have written him as taciturn and explosive but unused to women - or something. He's just a guy. She's just Bardot, and not attractively costumer. Honor Blackman is better because she's got something to play. Connery isn't even that tough - he doesn't do much through the film.

There's also Peter Van Eyck, Eric Sykes, Alexander Knox, Woody Strode. 

Also never makes sense why posh types are hunting in New Mexico which is really rocky and desert-y. The plains would have made more sense. 

Movie review - "Premonition" (1972) **

 Alan Rudolph's first movie as direcotr is hard to get through. Some hippy goes to the desert with a professor and sees something weird, then years later the hippy and his band members go out there and sense weirdness.

It's so padded. I kept waiting for weird stuff to happen. Just felt like lazy dope smoking movie making. There's even a  pretty girl to soothe the hero's furrowed brow. 

No characterisation. Best moments are the bit towards the end where someone gets lot in the desert and dies. I wish this had been a proper horror film. Amateurishly made. 

Movie review - "The Secret Lives of Dentists" (2002) **

Nicely acted and stuff but there's not enough story here for a feature. Campbell Scott is a dentist worried his dentist wife Hope Davis is cheating. He has fantasies, spurred on by visions of his cranky patient Dennis Leary and hot receptionist Robin Tunney.

Scott has a lovely speaking voice and can act but isn't that compelling - it would be fun to watch, I don't know, Woody Allen be racked with jealousy. I didn't care about him, or his marriage. Sorry. The details of modern marriage all felt real - logistica of kids who are often sick etc. I just didnt think it was a feature.

Maybe it would work better as a play - the intimacy, the actors up close... 

Movie review - "Mortal Thoughts" (1991) **

 The basis of a decent thriller - two female friends (Demi Moore and Glenn Headley), one married to an abusive man (Bruce Willis) who winds up murdered. But the relationships are undercooked - most crucially the two female friends. We never get a sense of what makes them tick or anything. Why they're mates. (They probably should've been sisters.) Moore's marriage to John Pankow isn't really interesting. There's a lot of Willis being snarly.

I know Rudolph came on after the director had been fired and the acting is fine if New Jersey accent-y (with terrible hairdos to match). It's just hard to tell.

It's like at heart a thriller but it's been given indie treatment and had all the fun sucked out of it. Needed to give Moore a sexy guy, have a few double crosses. There's lots of Harvey Keitel interrogating. Not a lot of surprises. 

Movie review - "Made in Heaven" (1987) **1/2

 Alan Rudolph tries studio filmmaking and turns it into an independent film. This cost a lot of money but it didn't have to - it would be better if it was cheaper. Tim Hutton falls for Kelly McGillis in Heaven and tries to find her in the real world.

Debra Winger is an angel, Ellen Berkin is a devil. Tom Petty pops up as does Neil Young.

The movie has a compelling dream like state. There's a structural issue in the second half as both characters draft along in Earth waiting to meet. In Sleepless in Seattle Meg Ryan knew about Tom Hanks and tried to meet him, and discuss him; he came into contact with her. Here Kelly McGillis has relationships with Tim Daly and another guy. Hutton drifts. It's frustrating. It's like they don't deserve true love or something.

Best bit is Hutton meeting his own parents.