Front

Our Front Pages: 21 Years of Greatness, Virtue, and Moral Rectitude from America's Finest News Source (Onion Presents)
$28.00
From The Birth Of A Nation To The Death Of JournalismSince its founding by a bloodthirsty tyrant in 1756, The Onion has not merely changed the way we think about the news -- it has changed whether we think about the news at all. As the first decade of this new millennium draws to a close, Our Front Pages shows us the first thing that presidents, kings, prime ministers, and popes saw when they opened their eyes each morning for the last 21 years. Now you, the common reader and citizen, can see what they saw and be as informed as they were with this important retrospective of the past two decades. You, too, will realize what generations before have realized and generations yet unborn will some day realize in turn: The Onion is not merely the chronicle of America. The Onion is America.

The Front
$14.94
The Bottom Line:

I'm sure there's quite a movie out there waiting to be made about blacklisting, and I hope that when this movie is made it does more honor to the victims of the blacklist than this film, which relies on Woody Allen's schtick and Zero Mostel's mugging to little dramatic effect; The Front has good intentions but little success.

The Front Page
$12.98
Critics had mixed feelings about this 1974 newspaper comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. I too have them. The fact is that `The Front Page' works, at times very well, but in the end the truth remains that it never exceeds its limitations. It never becomes something great, rather sufficing to stay merely good.

Hey, that's better than being content with mediocre.

So, in the film Hildy Johnson is Walter Burns best reporter, but when Hildy wants to quit so he can move and get married, Walter loses it. He needs Hildy to stay, at least for a little while, since the biggest story they'd ever get is just about to break; but Hildy is determined. So Walter maneuvers things so that Hildy is basically forced to stay and cover the story; and when actions within their own building force the action inside, well then there is no way that Hildy is going to let just any other reporter steal his thunder.

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau are an undeniably impenetrable team. They work very, very well off one another and it shows in every scene they share. Sadly, Matthau isn't in a lot of the movie. He's absent through a lot of the middle, surfacing on a few telephone conversations really, and then he makes a larger appearance at the end of the film. This is one of the rare times where I feel Matthau upstages Lemmon, so I was saddened to see so little of him. Lemmon is great here, but Matthau is slightly better. The cast is rather diverse, so much so that I was really expecting great things. What I got was a lot of good things, but nothing really jumped out at me as spectacular. Susan Sarandon is sorely underused, but she had yet to really prove herself as an actress (and what an actress!); and Carol Burnett is far below her own standards (even she has reportedly panned her own performance). I was really looking forward to Vincent Gardenia and Charles Durning, but neither of them wowed me like I was hoping. Gardenia has his moments, and is probably the most entertaining of the supporting players, but he never really capitalizes on his character. Durning is nothing but background noise, which is sad because he's probably my favorite supporting actor of the 70's. He could have really done so much more, but they gave his so little.

I know that last paragraph sounds like one long complaint, but seriously it is a minor one when you look at the overall picture. It is a good film. It is funny and entertaining; the point I was trying to make is that it never becomes more than that. It's just simple fun entertainment.

There's nothing wrong with that; right?

All Quiet on the Western Front (Universal Cinema Classics)
$14.98
I just watched this for the first time, and it really is a film that ages well. Sure the quality of the film and sound is somewhat hard to watch due to the extreme age, but the story still impresses today.

I know this story is famous as an anti-war message, but I don't necessarily see that when watching the movie. If it is strictly viewed as anti-war, then I would not really agree with it politically. (I sure don't think war is good, but it is necessary at times.) And when I see this film, I see a story that points out the evil and ugliness of war. I think it's good to be reminded of that to keep our priorities straight.

All told, this film is well-made, and it perfectly illustrates the ugly side of war. I would recommend this to anyone.