Richard Lester

Substance: The long opening sequence of improbable Buster Keaton-esque Rube Goldberg stunts was outstanding. The rest of the show not so much. Richard Pryor was doing a comedy (fair), Christopher Reeve was doing a drama (better), and Robert Vaughn was doing a parody (poor). Wish the writers and directors had just picked ONE and stuck with it. Lana Lang was not at all like the original comics (but what is?)
Style: Excellent effects, of course, but the dialogue was terrible and the reasonably show more OK plot deteriorated continually. The final defeat of the villains made even the worst comix look good. show less

A day in the life of the Beatles.

A Marx Brothers movie, minus the wit (not that there's no wit - just relative to a Marx Brothers movie), crossed with a concert film, shot like an art film. I was only vaguely entertained while watching it, but after some reflection, there really is a lot to appreciate about it. There's a remarkable amount of texture in the photography. Thanks to that and the faux-documentary style, no matter how dumb the movie gets, there's always something interesting to show more look at. It's very easy to overlook the design work, having grown up long after this movie's time. Everything is so damn iconic that I couldn't help taking it all for granted while I was watching it.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: C
Music: A

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 2.7/4

(Oct. 2011) show less

This is a 1960s black-and-white film, apparently a classic. It stars the four Beatles as themselves, over a couple of days in a (fictional) escape from fans, accompanied by an eccentric grandfather and their managers.

It's light-hearted fun, with some innuendoes and some great scenes with Beatles music, played by the four. We liked watching it, and will probably keep the DVD - which comes with a second DVD full of extras - although I doubt if we'll want to see it again.

Longer review: show more target="_top">https://suesdvdreviews.blogspot.com/2026/05/a-hard-days-night-beatles.html show less

A tycoon and a computer genius hatch various schemes.

It's corny and stupid, but it knows it and embraces it. Kind of like Adam West's Batman, but with a budget.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: D

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 1.7/4

(Sep. 2010)