Foster on Film

Dick and Jane Harper (Jim Carrey, Téa Leoni) are living the upper-middle class American dream.  When Dick gets promoted to VP, the future looks secure and Jane quits her job.  But Dick’s boss (Alec Baldwin) is a Ken Lay-style crook and the company folds like Enron.  As their lives crumble, Dick and Jane must find

In this parody of disaster movies…  What?  It’s not a parody?  This is serious?  OK.  In this deeply deeply serious disaster film, a plane-full of eccentrics (Jan Sterling, Sidney Blackmer, David Brian, Claire Trevor) make excessively long speeches, sometimes accompanied by flashbacks, detailing far more of their personal lives than other passengers or the audience

During the final voyage of the liner Claridon, a boiler explosion rips a hole in its hull.  While Captain Robert Adams (George Sanders) and Engineer Walsh (Edmond O’Brien) first attempt to keep the ship afloat, and then get the passengers to safety, Cliff Henderson  (Robert Stack) struggles to save his trapped wife (Dorothy Malone). All the

Biopic of Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit. Miss Potter (Renée Zellweger), an upper-class, thirty-two-year-old spinster, bucks social norms by rejecting unappealing suitors, instead working on her stories and watercolor art of anthropomorphized animals. Although London publishers are uninterested in her book, it is accepted by the Warne brothers, who assign it to their younger brother,

Super agent and all around swell guy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has given up field work with the Impossible Mission Force in favor of instructing, and lying to his fiancée, Julia (Michelle Monaghan)—but she doesn’t have enough personality to talk about, so lets forget about her.  When cute-as-a-bug agent Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell) is captured

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), born in the slums of 18th century France, has a super-human ability to detect and distinguish scents. His accidental killing of a maiden leads him on a quest to preserve all smells. After studying with an out-of-vogue perfume maker (Dustin Hoffman), Grenouille attempts to make the perfect perfume from the essences of

When a French soccer coach (played by the very British Jason Statham) is murdered and the Pink Panther diamond is stolen, fame-seeking Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) brings in Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin) to bungle the case.  With Detective Second Class Ponton (Jean Reno) at his side, and following pop star and suspect Xania

On New Year’s Eve, a giant wave capsizes the luxury liner…wait.  It seems to be terrorists with a bomb.  Well, that’s a horrible idea.  Let me check on that.  Yup, it’s terrorists.  OK, scratch the wave.  Stereotypical Middle Eastern terrorists blast a hole in the side of the Poseidon, causing it to tip over in

Pride and Prejudice (A&E – 1995)  Pride & Prejudice (2005) Pride and Prejudice (BBC – 1980) Pride and Prejudice (1940) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)  Pride and Prejudice: A Latter Day Comedy (2003) Bride and Prejudice (2004) Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) A classic novel by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice is the story of

Anyone bothered by the changes from the novel of the versions reviewed above will enter a state of apoplexy with this one.  That doesn’t mean it isn’t charming, just different. The satire has faded away in the face of romance and humor.  This is a frothy, funny take on the material, much in the style

While this is an earlier rendition then the two discussed above, I saw no reason to cover it before the others.  I didn’t see it first, and that should count for something.  Besides, as it is dry and slow, much of the pleasure in watching comes from comparing it to the others. It is another

The 1995 adaptation, considered to be the definitive one by…well, just about everyone, isn’t a film at all, but a miniseries.  Clocking in at just over five hours, it has the time to present the intricacies of the society and relationships, similarly to how it was done in the book.  All main characters are fully