RHM-2

Sam Elliott was made for the lead in this film, playing William Tilghman in his final weeks as a lawman in an Oklahoma "Oil Patch" town in the mid-1920s. He's simply over-powering in demeanor and gait and attitude. Pay special attention at the end when he bids farewell to his family. Oh, my!... Other mostly unknown actors are mostly okay, but Arliss Howard's drug-addled primary bad guy seems a tad much over the top (I reckon I cotton to heavies who are bad _and_ smart).... Best all is the production which features a roughneck oil town and mud and iron/steel workers and noise and mobs and blacksmiths and misery and saloons and cathouses and ... well, you get the idea.... As a bonus, movie buffs get to see reproductions of Tilghman's own silent movies about his exploits as a young lawman.... Thus, a many-dimensional treat for us hero-worshipers who grew up with the movies.

Sometimes serendipity, dumb luck, and channel-surfing really pays off. That's how we found this terrific treat. Look -- in your cable listings or in your video store -- for this Australian-made movie feature. Total delight -- and you can watch it with your mom, your grandmom, your mom-in-law, even your kids in the same room -- or all by yourself if your macho attitudes requires. [Remember "Paulie"? That's right in this category.] But there's none of the "Old Yeller" boo-hoo stuff, so you-and-they'll be okay and sinus-dry when it's over. It's about a city-bred puppy who just knows he has to connect with his wild cousins, the dingoes. So off he goes -- in a balloon-powered basket (okay, we'll admit we worried about the pup up there in midair, especially when the basket was snared by a pointy-nosed commuter train -- but why give away the good stuff?). The photography is gorgeous, but the animal shots (birds, lizards, turtles, dingoes, etc.) are nothing short of incredible!! "Stunning!!" works, too. No people at all to get in the way, either. Try it. If you don't like it, then you'll just have to wait until the movie version of "Hannibal (the Lecter)" arrives.

Sorry, folks, but "Knife" just doesn't cut it for this kid. The plot -- what there is of it -- is too well known to harp on here.... I saw it for the first time last night on Turner Classic Movies (sans commercials). After decades of accolades, I was eager -- and wound up with 94 minutes of stupification. Even for Polanski, whose "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" I applaud wildly, "Knife" is pretentious -- and boring, too.... But then I'm also the guy who couldn't find a laugh in Kramer's "Mad, Mad, Mad World." Maybe it is just me. H'mmmm.... Try "Dead Calm" to see what the old three-people-and-a-boat setup can really do to grip and excite you.