st-shot
Joined Nov 2006
Welcome to the new profile
Our updates are still in development. While the previous version of the profile is no longer accessible, we're actively working on improvements, and some of the missing features will be returning soon! Stay tuned for their return. In the meantime, the Ratings Analysis is still available on our iOS and Android apps, found on the profile page. To view your Rating Distribution(s) by Year and Genre, please refer to our new Help guide.
Badges5
To learn how to earn badges, go to the badges help page.
Ratings3.2K
st-shot's rating
Reviews1.2K
st-shot's rating
Immature and awkward Pinky (Sissy Spacek) finds employment as a physical therapist assistant in a California spa where she meets and becomes obsessed with co-worker Millie (Shelley Duval). Inveigling her way into Millie's world Pinky hangs with her at a shooting range, bar run by taciturn Willie (Janice Rule) and an unctuous husband who used to double for Hugh O'Brien. Pinky moves in with Millie and soon begins to undermine her as one strange turn follows another.
This Robert Altman head scratcher about women in odd search of themselves is open to many interpretations, my take, that it is drawn out pretentious claptrap.
Depending heavily on Gerry Busby's deeply foreboding music and mostly mute pregnant Willie's obsession of painting gargoyle like images on the bottom of swimming pools Altman leaves much of it up to his audience to come to their own conclusions.
He gets two excellent offbeat performances from Duval and Spacek but like the geriatrics in the pool his build up moves at a snails pace with parched visuals and a denouement raising questions that underwhelm.
This Robert Altman head scratcher about women in odd search of themselves is open to many interpretations, my take, that it is drawn out pretentious claptrap.
Depending heavily on Gerry Busby's deeply foreboding music and mostly mute pregnant Willie's obsession of painting gargoyle like images on the bottom of swimming pools Altman leaves much of it up to his audience to come to their own conclusions.
He gets two excellent offbeat performances from Duval and Spacek but like the geriatrics in the pool his build up moves at a snails pace with parched visuals and a denouement raising questions that underwhelm.
A quartet of men on the run from criminal activity and different locales, make themselves scarce by hightailing for the ultimate backwater in South America. Desperate to survive and remain out of the hands of the law they enter into a bargain to transport nitro to a site with an out of control oil well on its hands up in the mountains. The plan borders on suicidal.
Based on the fine 1953 French film Wages of Fear directed by Henry George Clouzot, its meandering style from the outset never allows the film to build tension as much as brood.
Director Bill Friedkin riding a winning streak (The French Connection, the Exorcist ) is a given a big budget he promptly wastes on a chaos travelogue as he establishes his characters in long winded fashion, needlessly. Emphasizing squalor and obsession with close-ups of the locals, the surly pasts of the main characters offer little to sympathize with as they squabble, heading up the hill.
In testament to the film's raucous tedium, Freidkin, author of the penultimate car chase in Connection, spends over five minutes getting his cargo across a bridge during a downpour in what is supposed to be the film's most gripping moment. Sorcerer is souless.
Based on the fine 1953 French film Wages of Fear directed by Henry George Clouzot, its meandering style from the outset never allows the film to build tension as much as brood.
Director Bill Friedkin riding a winning streak (The French Connection, the Exorcist ) is a given a big budget he promptly wastes on a chaos travelogue as he establishes his characters in long winded fashion, needlessly. Emphasizing squalor and obsession with close-ups of the locals, the surly pasts of the main characters offer little to sympathize with as they squabble, heading up the hill.
In testament to the film's raucous tedium, Freidkin, author of the penultimate car chase in Connection, spends over five minutes getting his cargo across a bridge during a downpour in what is supposed to be the film's most gripping moment. Sorcerer is souless.
Neither Ava Gardner's beauty or James Mason's mellifluous voice can get Pandora and The Flying Dutchman off the ground in this turgid effort directed by Albert Lewin. A good looking fantasy romance, performances from both leads and supporting characters for the most part come across fatigued.
Pandora Reynolds (Gardner) is pursued by many men willing to make major sacrifices for her hand but they fail to spark her until she meets Hendrick van der Zee (Mason). Zee, it turns out has been condemned centuries earlier to roam the sea until he finds a woman willing to die for him.
Pandora's beautiful locale of Esperanza, Spain is captured wonderfully by the splendid photography of Jack Cardiff as well as cantina and interior scenes that Lewin composes but it seems he spends more time on decor than getting Gardner's character to display passion and energy while Mason never rises above moody for nearly the entire picture. With the chemistry dampened, Pandora is little more than a well mounted bore.
Pandora Reynolds (Gardner) is pursued by many men willing to make major sacrifices for her hand but they fail to spark her until she meets Hendrick van der Zee (Mason). Zee, it turns out has been condemned centuries earlier to roam the sea until he finds a woman willing to die for him.
Pandora's beautiful locale of Esperanza, Spain is captured wonderfully by the splendid photography of Jack Cardiff as well as cantina and interior scenes that Lewin composes but it seems he spends more time on decor than getting Gardner's character to display passion and energy while Mason never rises above moody for nearly the entire picture. With the chemistry dampened, Pandora is little more than a well mounted bore.
