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Stitch [ 8.0 ]
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To be honest I'm not sure what I thought of this movie. I moved back and forth between really liking it and sort of liking it. Some great actors, some good moments, very interesting story. Susan Sarandon, surprisingly, was kind of weak though. Her accent came and went. Usually she is the strong point in a movie but not here. I like more of it than I didn't so that's why it gets an "8". Good effort by director Tim Robbins but could have been better.
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JD [ 0.0 ]
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This was a terribly boring film about the underbelly of the New York theater days of the 30's. This film had many similarities to that other awful movie with Tim Robbins called The Player about the underbelly of Hollywood. Lots of cameos don't help this film one bit.
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Love_Spoon [ 8.0 ]
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Slow to start, but cooler and cooler as it gains steam. It's interesting to see what Orson Welles and John Houseman might have been like back in the 1930s. Great production from Tim Robbins, packed full of talented actors to tell the story of the beginning of the fear of the acting profession that swept the country earlier in the century. Also makes a strong statement against the prostitution of art for sponsorship. It might have made more of an impact on me if Tim Robbins (although I usually love his work) didn't appear in so many high-budget stinkers. (!) Also somewhat of a background behind the Orson Welles/William Randolph Hearst feud-- this film illustrates how they found themselves on two sides of the argument. Really worth a look.
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Dancing_P [ 8.0 ]
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I'm a sucker for ensemble casts. The thought of seeing so many awesome actors in the same movie usually means my ass in the seat, no matter how bad the reviews are. Cradle Will Rock, despite its stellar cast and name director, pretty much fell through the cracks upon release. That's too bad because it's a highly entertaining movie... and for the ensemble-cast whores like me, it has Tenacious D playing homosexual ventriloquists under the tutelage of Bill Murray. And that, my friends, is awesome. There are essentially three interrelated storylines in the film. The first is the story of how millionaire Nelson Rockerfeller (John Cusack) hires painter Diego Rivera (Ruben Blades) to paint a mural in the soon-to-be Rockerfeller Plaza. Needless to say, Rivera's political and artistic aspirations don't quite match with capitalist Rockerfeller's. The second story is that of a young Orson Welles (Angus Macfayden) and John Houseman (Cary Elwes) hired by the Federal Theater Program to put on a musical for the steel workers on strike. The play, written by Marc Blitzstein (Hank Azaria) eventually catches some flak for being pro-union. The third story concerns a whistleblowing secretary (Joan Cusack) and has-been ventriloquist (Bill Murray) getting together to testify against communists in the theater world. Robbins pays homage to the films of the period with a film halfway between Bringing Up Baby and Citizen Kane: a screwball historical drama. It's quite the humongous undertaking, with a massive cast and a wealth of plot to be weaved together. Robbins has taken some liberties with the plot (the title is followed by the title card ''A (mostly) true story'') but the result is a hugely entertaining and interesting film.
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| Weighted Rating | : 6.0 |
| No. Ratings | : 9 | |
| No. Reviews | : 5 | |
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