The Comic Critic Reviews "Kelly's Heroes"

Kelly’s Heroes was a successful movie despite the studio’s meddling. It was meant to be a vehicle for Clint Eastwood to increase his growing stardom. Indeed, his star would continue to rise with a series of successful films that would leave a trail of iconic characters and oft-quoted lines. But Kelly’s Heroes didn’t spotlight Eastwood as well as it could have. For one thing, a fair portion of the script was either thrown out or ended on the cutting room floor. For another, all of the other actors did a terrific job with their characters and kept stealing scenes. Eastwood ends up playing straight man Abbott to every other actor’s Costello. The magic of Kelly’s Heroes is that this level field amongst the actors created a sense of camaraderie that radiated off the screen. You end up empathizing with this band of shysters, thieves, and hooligans. Even after editing, enough war commentary was still left in the story to make it relevant to an audience still in the throes of dealing with the impact of the Vietnam War. Kelly’s Heroes was warmly received by an audience enjoying a wave of WWII films. War movies seldom have an enduring charm, but this one does. You’ve got some great acting portraying unique characters, very good writing, non-CGI battle scenes, and a soundtrack that you will be humming for a few days. It’s well worth a viewing.

The Comic Critic Reviews "Harold and Maude"

For others, Harold and Maude is a dark comedy, but for me it’s a perfect romance movie. A truly great romance movie is more than two people falling in love. Romance is more than sweet gestures and kind words. Romance is about delving into the world, exploring it, and then sharing that exploration with the one you love. In Harold and Maude, Harold is delving into the only world he knows of, full of isolation and loneliness. Many find these states of being comparable to death because both isolation and loneliness are defined by an absence, and death is the ultimate absence. The sadness and grief that follows in death’s wake are overwhelming tortuous emotions. The juxtaposition of absence occurring with death to the overwhelming emotions of grief is a source of confusion for Harold, and in his travels to clear this confusion he meets Maude. Maude is a great explorer of the world. We glean that she’s seen her share of horrors. Her outlook on life makes no time for sadness, loneliness, or grief. She doesn’t conquer them so much as disregard them as meaningless to following the spirit of life. She finds joy in every moment. She is a force of nature. Harold and Maude is the perfect romance because it’s two people sharing with each other their discoveries of the world with love and understanding. The humor is wonderfully dark. It’s extremely easy to see the writer’s commenting on America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and drawing parallels to the story. Keep that in mind and the already rich minefield of wonderful surprises Harold and Maude has in store for you will become even more entertaining.

The Comic Critic Reviews Little Big Man - 1970

I wrote two different scripts for this strip and had a hard time deciding which one to use. I had a hard time writing a review to begin with. When asked to come up with my top-ten films of all time, Little Big Man is one of my first choices. How much do I love this film? Well, if I learned it was playing again on the big screen, I’d drop whatever I was doing, twitter all my friends that I was heading out the door and they should all meet me at the theater. So, if you haven’t seen this film, move it to the top of your must-see list. It is my obvious love for this movie that directed me to write this comic script to give as little away about the story as possible—while showing how deeply it affected young little me.