Snake-eyes (1998)

All of De Palma's flashy directing tricks and Nicholas Cage's acting (correction: over-acting) can't save this incredibly dumb conspiracy 'thriller'.  Justly rated at 5.9 by IMDB, the movie - especially the script - is an  embarrassment.  Starts out OK but quickly becomes an obnoxious, very long, movie.  Rating **

The Long Hot Summer

A candy-covered, technicolor "Tennessee-Williams Lite" movie about a southern con-man/barn burner (Paul Newman) who visits a small southern town and impresses the town patriarch (Orson Welles) and his spinster daughter (Joanne Woodward).  Enjoyable on its on terms, this silly movie has something from everyone.  There's  the Newman-Woodward romance for the ladies,  Lee Remick (who deserved more screen time) for the men, and Welles and Angela Landsbury for those who care about acting.  As for the  story,  its set in the mythical Hollywood Deep South (home of crude cigar chomping patriarchs, Greek column mansions, and hot steamy southern sex) and  bears little relationship to Faulkner or  reality. But if you want to see Paul Newman with his shirt off or Orson Welles playing Burl Ives playing Big Daddy its OK.  Rating **1/2

Other Views:

Manny Farber:  "The fooler in the peepshow is that the jolts are conspicuous waste effects: the beguilement comes from a certain chicanery and crochet like precision.  A counterfeit graphic-ness - that fact that Orson Welles storms a plantation on a jeep, talks fast in clogged-mattress Southernese and carries a lapel-pocket filled with Japanese garden of choice Ever sharps - is obvious in every scene of the likable precious "The Long hot Summer".  The fantastic note is not in the hokey naturalism, but in the exquisite  speed-writing that arranges the spots and collides them with steel writing clarity."

Bosley Crowther:  "There are those who would like to rate this picture, produced by Jerry Wald for Twentieth Century-Fox, alongside that same producer's (and studio's) "Peyton Place." Both of them tell stories of tensions in American towns. There is one noticeable difference. "Peyton Place" started weakly and got strong. "The Long, Hot Summer" starts superbly and ends in a senseless, flabby heap."

Hell's Angels (1930)

Plot:  Two brothers (one good and one bad) leave Oxford and join in the British Royal Flying Corps in World War I.  One brother falls  for Jean Harlow.

Great old fashioned war film with some of the greatest air-to-air combat scenes ever filmed. The plot is standard and the acting often wooden but it held my interest. Most memorable wartime scenes: the beautifully photographed aerial dogfight skirmishes, German zeppelin raids over London, and the red-tinted and two-color Technicolor scenes. Jean Harlow further perks things up as a sexy, but untrustworthy, "good time girl" who utters the immortal words "Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?"  I even enjoyed the "Cornball dialogue" and "Melodramatics" as a nice change of pace from constant 21st century cynicism & sophistication. Rating ***

The Descendants (2011)

Plot: After his wife is injured in an accident, a wealthy Hawaiian Landowner (George Clooney) tries both to reconnect with his daughters and confront his wife's lover.

The Descendants has its heart in the right place along with a wonderful supporting cast, especially Beau Bridges and Robert Forester.  A generally somber film -  its nothing spectacular, just a good, solid story with identifiable characters.  Obviously aimed at the aging boomers,  I  loved the films over-all message about family and preference for community over mere money.  Too bad the script wasn't deeper, less vulgar and more challenging.  Like Woody's "Midnight in Paris" the story seems somewhat "dumbed-down" to ensure greater popularity.  Case-in-point is a jarring opening narration that tells us dummies that people in  paradise (aka Hawaii) have problems too. Duh, really?  But Hawaii still looks beautiful.   Rating ***