By John H. Foote (**) Jack London wrote the great adventure novel “The Call of the Wild” in 1903 to great acclaim and it has been filmed many times since, both for the big screen and television. The best-known version is still the 1935 film starring Clark Gable as Jack Thornton, though that might change…
By John H. Foote Crazy to be even talking about next year’s Oscars, right? Not really. I promise you the studios are already in full swing setting up release dates, marketing campaigns, festival screenings and for your consideration campaigns for when the films are screened. Next year’s Oscar race is already in motion, the wheels…
By John H. Foote (BOMB) If I see a worse film this year than Fantasy Island, which is even worse than Dolittle somehow, I will be amazed. Beyond stupid, it is insipid, empty of imagination of any kind and vile, a complete about face from the silly TV series from which it has been adapted.…
By John H. Foote (*) Hollywood remakes of foreign language films almost never pan out, there is always something missing. This applies to this film, which played at Sundance, a remake of the Swedish picture Force Majeure (2014), it just never gets off the ground despite game performances from the two leads, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and…
By John H. Foote (**) Margot Robbie was the finest thing in the awful Warner Brothers film Suicide Squad (2016) as the kooky, violent, positively insane Harley Quinn, moll to Joker. Robbie absolutely blew everyone off the screen in the film with her wisecracking nutbar out to conquer everyone in her way. Each scene she…
By John H. Foote (BOMB!) In 1967, 20th Century Fox produced a lavish big budget film musical entitled Dr. Dolittle based on the children’s books by Hugh Lofting. How bad this film was, is, I am not sure has ever fully been recognized. Director Richard Fleischer wrote about it in his autobiography, exploring in detail,…
By John H. Foote (****) Is it generational that Little Women seems to pop up as a new film version with such frequency? Whatever the reason, the topical issues explored in the fine book by Louisa May Alcott remain as timely today as they were back in the 1860s and in this film are given…
By John H. Foote (****) Academy Award winner Sam Mendes returns to greatness with his stunning World War One epic, 1917, a breathtaking work that ironically comes to us the same year as the superb Peter Jackson documentary They Shall Never Grow Old. More on that later. Mendes film, deceptively simplistic, yet undeniably compelling, is…
By John H. Foote (****) As a man, I will never know what it is to be sexually harassed. I suppose there is a slim chance of being so harassed by a woman or a man, but so far it has not happened and I doubt it will. My wife knew what it was to…
By John H. Foote (*) What the hell is a Jellicle cat? I have no clue. I am sure not even the director of this film knows., Tom Hooper directed the superb HBO miniseries John Adams (2008) which led to his being handpicked to direct The King’s Speech (2010) which won him an Academy Award…