Gidget

Release: (1959)

Runtime: 95 Minutes

Directed By: Paul Wendkos

Starring: Sandra Dee, James Darren, Cliff Robertson and a bunch of stunt double actual surfers.

I could barley make it through this.  I don’t even know where to start.  This blatant selling out of the surf image to set a teen romantic comedy took so much without giving back anything.  The surfers are portrayed as cool and edgy to make the setting fun, but in the end, they all go back to being respectable members of society.  This girl gets wrapped up in surfing and demands a board after “riding” one wave.  “Golly, I just have to have a surf board!”  Lets not forget, as soon as she has a shot at the guy, we dont’ hear anything about surfing again.  I’ll let some things slide because of the time when they were made, but you can clearly see the boat wake in the fake surfing scenes, that is just poor quality.  Somehow, through it all though, Gidget is able to keep her makeup on, even when repeatedly drowning, getting sick and surfing.  In the end, I guess that’s what really counts.

Technique- 2

Production Quality- 1

Story- 3

Thought Provoking- 2

Entertainment- 4

A View To A Kill

Release: (1985)

Runtime: 131 Minutes

Directed By: John Glen

Starring: Roger Moore, Christopher Walken and some horses

I mean, it’s a Bond movie, and a cheesy one at that…

Technique- 3

Production Quality- 5

Story- 3

Thought Provoking- 2

Entertainment- 6

Scarface

Release: (1983)

Runtime: 170 Minutes

Directed By: Brian De Palma

Starring: Al Pachino, Steven Bauer and California as Miami

Whenever I have seen parts of MTV’s cribs the filthy rich and slightly educated rapper shows off his Scarface sheets and pillowcases and lets us know how much of an inspiration this movie has been to their career.  This leads me to believe that rappers are in general not very intelligent, or could not finish the final hour of the movie.

There is nothing attractive about this, but it sure as heck is fun to watch.  Having played Vice City before I watched it, I was excited to be taken back to 1980’s Miami and all of its leisure suit extravagance.

In one of the commentaries someone talks about how this is the modern day Sierra Madre and I think that is just it.  When you have nothing you’ll give everything for anything, but as soon as you have something, it just doesn’t seem to be enough.  We hear Tony’s wife tell him that all he talks about is money, which is so true of so many.  How ironic that everyone living on the edge just wants a little more so they don’t have to worry about it, but once they have it, thats all they can think about.  Maybe being poor isn’t so bad, because then you don’t have to worry about money, you know for sure there isn’t enough.

Technique- 8

Production Quality- 6

Story- 6

Thought Provoking- 6

Entertainment- 7

Mad Max

Release: (1979)

Runtime: 93 Minutes

Directed By: George Miller

Starring: Mel Gibson and some other dubbed Ausies

I’ve heard a lot about this movie and so I’m going to have to assume that I didn’t get it, because it did nothing for me in the plot or the action.  It was obviously low budget and they did a lot with that, but I made the mistake of watching the US dubbed version which made things even worse.  Then there is that gang of sexually ambiguous hipsters who do things like run people over and eat ice cream.  I won’t hold this against you Australia.

Technique- 4

Production Quality- 4

Story- 4

Thought Provoking- 3

Entertainment- 6

Quantum Of Solace

Release: (2008)

Runtime: 106 Minutes

Directed By: Marc Forster

Starring: Daniel Craig and some girl that isn’t Bolivian

Its a Bond movie…

Technique- 4

Production Quality- 7

Story- 3

Thought Provoking- 2

Entertainment- 9