metrik7

Episodes III restored my passion for this series.

Like many others, the original trilogy was a watershed moment of my youth; all I can remember of a trip to Martha's Vineyard at age four was begging my parents to take me to see Star Wars again. I was excited when Episode I came out, becoming one of many to make attending the midnight premiere a priority. After seeing it a few more times, I finally realized that I was trying to convince myself that it was good. It wasn't. Ditto Attack of the Clones. When I found myself standing in line for tickets on the morning of the premiere of Episode III, I also found myself asking, "What the hell am I doing here?" The answer is simple: falling in love with Star Wars all over again. The first 20 minutes of this movie are on a par with any twenty minutes in the entire saga, with a space battle that makes the Pelennor Fields in Return of the King look like a back-alley brawl. The action sequences and lightsaber battles are second, visually, to nothing I have ever seen. While the dialogue (though much improved) was still clunky in spots, the actors have adapted to delivering it more believably. The story was fantastic. Lucas has done a great job of bringing the saga back to where it began...and has done an even better job of bringing back the fire within me as a fan.

One final note: Lucas also sent copies of Episode III to every major military base in Iraq, free of charge. This was not a PR move; I heard it from my brother-in-law, who is home on leave.

James Dickey is a wonderfully descriptive author. When one reads "Deliverance", one is instantly transported into the lush backwoods of the Deep South. When one watches John Boorman's film version of the book, one realizes just how accurately he captures the essence of the book. The camera is as descriptive as the narration. The characters are fully realized, and the portrayals are fantastic. I first saw this movie in 1992, after my freshman year of college. I was in a phase where I was watching movies that were all released within a couple of years of my birth in 1973. Among them were "Patton", "Papillon", and "All the President's Men"; fine films, all of them. This one was easily the class of the group. That says a lot.

The Anderson Tapes was made in 1971 and feels like it was made in 1971. Unlike, say, Zardoz (another underrated Connery '70's classic), this doesn't mean that the cast all resemble slightly cleaner hippies. Instead, it is the level of technological innovation that is stuck two years before I was born. That said, this is a good movie. The performances are all fine, and while some situations are laughable, not all are. I will say this against it, though; Christopher Walken, as "The Kid", is supposedly a safecracking and lockpicking expert. What he actually does is blow stuff up. Some expert! My cousin Timmy likes to put firecrackers in tin cans and blow them up. Does that make him a safecracking and demolition expert?

Quincy Jones' score, which often pops up in all of the wrong places, is inadvertently hilarious (and also quite funky!).