Blogs about: Hollywood Film Reviews
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THE BODY SNATCHER (Robert Wise, 1945)
Robert Wise made bad movies (The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951, Somebody Up There Likes Me, 1956, The Sound of Music, 1965) and good ones (Executive Suite, 1954, I Want to Live!, 1958, The Sand Pebb… more →
Dennis Grunes
THE BODY SNATCHER (Robert Wise, 1945)
grunes wrote 1 month ago: Robert Wise made bad movies (The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951, Somebody Up There Likes Me, 1956, … more →
ADAPTATION (Spike Jonze, 2002)
grunes wrote 3 months ago: Now it’s clear—clearer than even Being John Malkovich (1999) left the matter: Charlie Kaufman is a b … more →
NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART (Clifford Odets, 1944)
grunes wrote 3 months ago: The Oscars, including one for best picture, that went to John Ford’s mediocre How Green Was My Valle … more →
THE CIDER HOUSE RULES (Lasse Hallström, 1999)
grunes wrote 5 months ago: Every time I see a film by Lasse Hallström, my ultimate response is exactly the same: Is that all th … more →
TO EACH HIS OWN (Mitchell Leisen, 1946)
grunes wrote 10 months ago: Hollywood films can be silly in the extreme, and one of the clearest examples of this is To Each His … more →
AMERICAN BEAUTY (Sam Mendes, 1999)
grunes wrote 11 months ago: As the empty, overwrought camera style in Summer of Sam (1999) reminds, Spike Lee isn’t much of an a … more →
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)
grunes wrote 1 year ago: Nearly all of Georgia, Russian-born Rouben Mamoulian’s films creak today, like old doors or (myself … more →
BILLY BUDD (Peter Ustinov, 1962)
grunes wrote 1 year ago: “We do not deal with justice here, but with the law.” “Was not the one conceived to serve the other? … more →
ERIN BROCKOVICH (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)
grunes wrote 1 year ago: Erin Brockovich is a melodrama depicting an actual person who investigated and exposed a long-runnin … more →
DEATH OF A SALESMAN (Laslo Benedek, 1951)
grunes wrote 1 year ago: A tawdry, sentimental play, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman nevertheless provides a persuasive c … more →
THE COLOR OF MONEY (Martin Scorsese, 1986)
grunes wrote 1 year ago: Paul Newman, handsome as a god, could also act. He may have been one of a slew of onscreen Brando-im … more →
THE HARD WAY (Vincent Sherman, 1942)
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grunes wrote 1 year ago: Hollywood has always found Hollywood a fascinating subject, but the possibility of scandal, even law … more →
STOP-LOSS (Kimberly Peirce, 2008)
grunes wrote 1 year ago: The Bush-Cheney War in Iraq was given the congressional green light only because an illegal administ … more →
ROXIE HART (William A. Wellman, 1942)
grunes wrote 1 year ago: Please see my “Hollywood film review” of CHICAGO (Rob Marshall, 2002), which in comparin … more →
FRANKENSTEIN (James Whale, 1931)
grunes wrote 1 year ago: It is a great pity that Peggy Webling’s stilted, stupid 1927 play midwived James Whale’s Frankenstei … more →
THE SNAKE PIT (Anatole Litvak, 1948)
grunes wrote 1 year ago: Mary Jane Ward’s fictionalized account of her mental illness and treatment in a state asylum, The Sn … more →
BEN-HUR (William Wyler, 1959)
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grunes wrote 1 year ago: William Wyler made some excellent films (These Three, Jezebel, The Letter, The Best Years of Our Liv … more →
OF HUMAN HEARTS (Clarence Brown, 1938)
grunes wrote 1 year ago: One might refer to the basis of Clarence Brown’s deeply moving Of Human Hearts as anecdotal national … more →
THE DEEP END (Scott McGehee, David Siegel, 2001)
grunes wrote 1 year ago: Remakes rarely approach the quality of the original films, least of all American remakes, for a vari … more →
