I’d heard of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, of course. I’d probably even meant to see it at one point, probably around the time of Branagh’s Hamlet, which is when I first got big into Shakespeare. But it was only available on VHS and I was already addicted to widescreen. Oddly, this viewing–at the wife’s […]
Entries Tagged as 'Richard Dreyfuss'
& Guildenstern Are Dead (1990, Tom Stoppard)">Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990, Tom Stoppard)
July 25th, 2009 · No Comments
Tagged: Cinecom Pictures· Gary Oldman· Richard Dreyfuss· Tom Stoppard· William Shakespeare· ★★★★
American Graffiti (1973, George Lucas)
July 4th, 2008 · 3 Comments
I don’t know where to start. The most flippant place to start–the most colloquial–is with George Lucas… specifically, what happened to the George Lucas who made American Graffiti. But it’s not just Lucas. Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck didn’t go on to write anything close to Graffiti–the conversations in the film, the dialogue, is exceptional, […]
Tagged: Charles Martin Smith· George Lucas· Gloria Katz· Harrison Ford· Richard Dreyfuss· Ron Howard· Universal Pictures· Willard Huyck· ★★★★
What About Bob? (1991, Frank Oz)
May 2nd, 2008 · No Comments
What About Bob? is a special movie. It’s absolute dreck. Coming from screenwriter Tom Schulman, I suppose its lack of quality shouldn’t have been a surprise, but I think I was operating under the assumption producer Laura Ziskin wouldn’t let it get too bad. I mean, production wise, it’s got good people–Anne V. Coates is […]
Tagged: Alvin Sargent· Bill Murray· Frank Oz· Laura Ziskin· Richard Dreyfuss· Tom Schulman· Touchstone Pictures· ⓏⒺⓇⓄ
The Big Fix (1978, Jeremy Kagan)
April 18th, 2008 · 2 Comments
The Big Fix is a fundamentally different detective movie. While there are some elements updating it to time period, a lot of it is still a detective investigating in LA, meeting all sorts of people all around town and so on. It’s still Raymond Chandler to some degree–with Dreyfuss playing his (marginally) goofy, but caring […]
Tagged: Jeremy Kagan· Richard Dreyfuss· Roger L. Simon· Universal Pictures· ★★★½
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the director’s cut
January 17th, 2008 · No Comments
This version–now called ‘The Director’s Cut’–originally came out as ‘The Collector’s Edition’ maybe ten years ago (maybe less). The most striking thing about this cut is Dreyfuss’s insanity. In this version, he’s totally nuts… Spielberg edits back in (from the original, excised from the Special Edition) a couple significant scenes. First, showing off Roberts Blossom–one […]
Tagged: Columbia Pictures· François Truffaut· Richard Dreyfuss· Steven Spielberg· ★★★★
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the special edition
December 3rd, 2007 · No Comments
I don’t know where to start with Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The jokey open would be something about listing the defects and not having any, but then flipping it and not being able to list everything Spielberg does right because his successes are so difficult to work out, particularly in to an easy-to-read, […]
Tagged: Columbia Pictures· François Truffaut· Richard Dreyfuss· Steven Spielberg· ★★★★
Stakeout (1987, John Badham)
November 20th, 2007 · No Comments
I think home video–tape and disc–has done a great disservice to John Badham and his legacy… as in, with this digital (or analog) evidence, one has easy access. Instead of coming across Stakeout at 11:30 P.M. on a Thursday night, pan and scanned, cut for content, and full of commercials, I can sit and watch […]
Tagged: Aidan Quinn· Emilio Estevez· Forest Whitaker· Jim Kouf· John Badham· Madeleine Stowe· Richard Dreyfuss· Touchstone Pictures· ★★½
