*** The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music -- 1965; starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer; directed by Robert Wise.

I have seen this film before -- in fact, it was one of the first films I saw in a walk-in theater (my parents tended to favor drive-ins when the kids were along, but I think my Mom and Grandmother took us to this during the day) -- but I was perhaps five years old, and I remembered nothing other than it had singing and Nazis in it. Of course, I've been exposed to most of the songs over the years.

It's definitely an old-fashioned film in terms of the way the characters are portrayed; but the performances are excellent. The kids are corny by today's standards, but the performances surprisingly fresh and unforced. Julie Andrews does some broader comedy than I remembered. But Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp was the standout performance, I thought. He manages to convey the caraciture of the stern father with the right touch of sardonic humor, and then makes the transition to loving family man very smoothly. Of course, realism is not what the film is aiming for, but the cast manages to make the whole thing more plausible than they might have.

And the visuals are a treat throughout. From the opening vistas over the mountains, to the lovely architecture of Salzburg, to the simple but classic costumes (those wonderful full skirts on Liesel -- yum! I want some!) -- the film should make anyone want to pay Austria a visit in short order.

As to the songs, one thing I did think odd is the repetition. As the DVD broke for intermission, I realized that the first half of the film had covered pretty much all the classic songs I'd heard of (Do Rei Mi, My Favorite Things, Edelweiss, So Long, Farewell, Sixteen Going On Seventeen, Maria, and the title song -- even The Lonely Goatherd) except for Climb Every Mountain. I wondered what songs would fill the second half, but it turned out simple enough; they simply reprised most of them, some more than once.

Certainly a classic musical and old-fashioned family film, which may be its only flaw -- at nearly three hours in length, the amount of plot and suspense is pretty minimal.

** The Bank Dick

The Bank Dick -- 1940; starring W.C. Fields

Though I'm a big fan of the Marx Brothers, I'm less familiar with the works of the other comedians of the classic era -- folks like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplain, Laurel & Hardy, and so on. I've seen a few W.C. Fields films some years back, but none for quite a while, and I'd been having a hankering to. I decided to give this one a try; it's from late in his career -- in fact, his next to last starring role (the last being in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break).

There's certainly no question the man had talent and style, and I got a pretty fair number of chuckles out of the film. But it does seem to be a bit piecemeal, and the big chase at the climax didn't really work for me. Most of the humor comes from one-liners, reaction shots, and Fields' particular style of physical comedy and verbal mangling.

For a bit of a surreal touch, Shemp Howard is featured as the bartender at Field's habitual saloon. At the very end of the film, when Fields walks out of his brand-new mansion, Howard is walking by, whistling "Listen to the Mockingbird," the theme which is played at the end of the 3 Stooges shorts; Fields ends up chasing him down the road.

Main verdict: worth a look for the curious, but probably wouldn't recruit new fans for Fields today.

*** I, Robot

I, Robot -- 2004; stars Will Smith and Bridget Moynahan; directed by Alex Proyas

My feelings about this film are a bit complex, since I'm a long-time fan of Isaac Asimov's "positronic robot" series of stories. The film isn't actually based on any of them, but makes use of elements of the background -- the company US Robots, some of the characters (Susan Calvin, Alfred Lanning), and most importantly, the Three Laws of Robotics. In the film, Will Smith plays homicide detective Del Spooner, who has a personal grudge against robots. But he also has a personal connection to the father of the industry, Dr. Alfred Lanning, and recieves a message from him when he falls to his death from his office. The only one present on the scene was an experimental robot called "Sonny." Everyone, including his cheif, tells Spooner that the robot cannot possibly be responsible, but Spooner knows something is fishy -- and, of course, he turns out to be right, or there wouldn't be much of a film.

I watched this mainly curious to see how they would resolve the apparent contradiction between the First Law of Robotics ("A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm") and the scenes shown in the trailer, which show robots running amok and apparently harming humans wholesale. I would have been very annoyed if they had simply had the robots disobeying the law for no apparent reason.

Fortunately, however, they avoided this, and in fact, while the story is not one Asimov would ever have written (too dependent on action, not enough on deduction) they did manage to stay true to themes he worked with over the course of his career. So my complaints in this regard are minor. True, Bridget Moynahan is much too good looking (and human) to be the Susan Calvin that Asimov imagined, but I thought her acting was decent for the part as it was written.

As an action film -- well, it had some moments. The effects are highly variable, some terrific (the robots themselves are pretty spiffy), some not so great (I thought the car chase scenes were kind of hokey). And the over-all "look and feel" of the future portrayed wasn't anything to particularly impress.

Pretty well fits my three-star definition: worthwhile entertainment, but not a "must-see."

Quick introduction

I've just gotten around to joining Netflix, and so I hope to catch up on several decades of delinquent film viewing. This will include films I never quite got around to going to see in the theater, older and classic films I've been meaning to see "someday," films I haven't seen in some years (and perhaps only in heavily-edited-for-television form), and occasionally favorites that I want to watch again.

Curiously, my very favorite films may make only rare appearances, since I often already own them in some form and have watched them many times -- films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Apollo 13, or most of the films of the Marx Brothers. But if I get them out and watch them, I might stick a note in here for those, too. And when I see stuff in the theatres, I'll probably record that too.

I don't claim any particular qualifications for being a film critic, nor do I necessarily think my taste will be a good guide for most other people. Reading this may tell you more about me than it does about the films involved. But what the heck...writing it might be good for me in itself. Hope someone enjoys reading it.