: Grand Hotel :
Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and Lionel Barrymore play characters in this very boring movie that takes place over the course of a single day in a Berlin hotel. The reviews literally call it a hotel where nothing happens. And let me tell you, the plot is slow and despite everyone telling me that Garbo’s performance is magnificent I just don’t see it. Yawner.
: Scarface: The Shame of a Nation :
Scarface was THE original gangster movie, based in large part on Al Capone. The movie is both very violent and very carefully edited by the sensors including a heavy-handed opening statement asking the viewer what they were personally going to do about organized crime (me? who, me? yeah, me, I’m going to do nothing about organized crime) and the fact that despite the egregious number of on-screen murders there is no blood. The acting is superb and the movie was re-made with Al Pacino in 1983. If you are a crime movie buff this is definitely one to check out. But it wouldn’t make my list of movies to re-watch. It doesn’t have the emotional depth of other gangster films like The Godfather or the slick showmanship of flicks like Casino, two of my favs.
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