The NYT’s A.O. Scott enthusiastically endorses the movie Little Children, based upon the book that I hated by Tom Perrotta. His review includes such “truisms” as:
For the playground really is a scene of primordial brutality, in which a few agreed-upon rules — play nice, share your toys, no hitting — barely suppress the essential savagery of the human species. and It can be observed that the chorus of viciously competitive moms, who reappear now and then throughout the movie to pass judgment and enforce social norms, amounts to a caricature, tinged with snobbery and misogyny.
Govern yourself accordingly.
Yet, everyone is in agreement that the movie version of All The King’s Men (a book I loved) sucks royally (heh, a pun!). It was rated lower by the local rag than Jackass 2. Ouch. No justice in this world.
What the two movies have in common, and I think is too cool, is that both feature Jackie Earl Haley. You may remember JEH as Kelly in The Bad News Bears. I’ll always remember him as Moocher in the greatest film of all time, Breaking Away (which starred Dennis Quaid and the dad from 16 Candles). Don’t take my word for it, the NYT includes the movie in its list of the top 1000 movies of all time (see the original trailer).
September 29th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Who wants to subject themselves to a movie about competitive, suburban moms when you’re forced to live it every day. And I second the opinion that the book sucked.
The must-see movies of the month are The Queen starring Helen Mirren. If you missed Elizabeth, the HBO mini-series starring Mirren as Elizabeth I, put it on your net-flix list now - it’s that good.
And The Last King of Scotland. Forrest Whitaker playing Idi Amin - how good is that?
September 29th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
I’m totally confused by your message. You mention Jackie Earl Haley as having appeared in The Bad News Bears, and then you go on to say that some other movie he was in was the greatest film of all time. I have trouble squaring that statement with the previous notation. It’s like saying, “You may remember caramel from having appeared in Hundred Thousand Dollar Bars, but it was also in the greatest candy bar of all time, Oh Henry.”
September 29th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Ah, Grasshopper, you’ve hit upon the complex, zen-like, duality that is Jackie Earl Hailey. He was in The Bad News Bears and in Breaking Away. The yin and the yang.
Now he’s back on the big screen out of nowhere after, what, 30 years? One movie is praised critically (if not by me) the other is critically reviled. The yin and the yang.
I’m not a big caramel fan, so I don’t know what to do with your analogy.