NYCDude

What a beautiful old-fashioned Hollywood musical! Sure, it has the background of bigotry, segregation and integration, tolerance and understanding in Baltimore of the 60's, but except for one song, no preaching. The music was fine, the dancing great, the acting delightful. The dancing and music nicely blended into the action. I was delighted that Travolta did a great job, subdued and comedic - a wonderful Edna, mother of the irrepressible Tracy. The plot - well, it does simplify the civil rights movement - but I don't think It's a spoiler to say that it's fun and ends happily. Michelle Pfeiffer plays an over the top meanie, Christopher Walken, as usual, is great, and does a wonderful dance with John Travolta, who plays his wife. Queen Latifah brings a lot of it together. You walk out of the movie knowing that you will be very happy to see it again.

This is clearly a French film. It is about young group of idealist/revolutionary/anarchistic people. It moves very slowly. Long takes. LOng closeups. A minute or more devoted to an attempt to light a pipe full of hash/opium. A long take on how a group overturns a car and burns it. It is a black and white film. The subtitles were white, so about a third of the time they were unreadable. (Why do they do this?) I walked out after about an hour and three quarters when it became clear that this picture was going nowhere, slow. I was not the first to walk out. It was the first time I walked out of a picture in my long lifetime. (Well, maybe the second.)