The Comic Critic's Movie Review of "Harry In Your Pocket"

Harry in Your Pocket is an action comedy with an antihero, something new and very popular in the Seventies. While the gathering of this interesting crew is cordial, tension builds between the characters because despite all their smiles and camaraderie, they are all thieves at heart. The tension has us carefully watching to see if it will disrupt their movements. The action in Harry in Your Pocket comes from the audience  actively following the “poke.’’ There are few staged gags to induce laughter. The comedy comes from us chuckling as they get away with it with the finely tuned choreography of a ballet. If both the action and the humor are subdued, we don’t care. The charisma of James Coburn has us smirking every time he flashes his teeth. Coburn built his career playing the stylish rogue in the Sixties. This film is smooth sailing for him and veteran actor Walter Pidgeon. Pidgeon’s role as mentor is great fun to watch. His character reflects an illusion of an older, more elegant era in crime. The timing of his career with this movie is perfect and he very nearly steals the show from Coburn. Harry in Your Pocket is not holding up very well with age. The chaotic fashions and lifestyle of the Seventies are pervasive on the screen and look a bit dated. It’s rather fun for me as I grew up near Seattle, and most of the movie is set in that locale. I recognized buildings and restaurants that have long since have been torn down and replaced with high-rises. Harry in Your Pocket is a movie of the Seventies, when the studios were experimenting with what makes movie relevant. It both hits and misses the mark. But if you’re looking for a movie with some hustle and a dash of time capsule, you will find it a good time.

The Comic Critic Reviews "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad"

When I was growing up, a “Sinbad” movie meant that I was in for a visual treat. Ray Harryhausen, the master of stop-motion model animation, was involved in the creation of three Sinbad movies: The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977). Harryhausen experimented with different films and continually improved his technique to produce the most vivid display of moving creatures ever seen on the big screen. In The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, his magic brings inanimate objects to life as our hero sets out on a noble quest. While he has courageous friends to help him, his adversary is an evil man who will stop at nothing to achieve his own goal. And crossing their paths along this journey is an array of mythical beasts with which they must contend. There’s plenty of swashbuckling and thrills on this grand adventure. While I love all of Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbads, I selected The Golden Voyage of Sinbad to review for a few reasons. It was the first Sinbad movie I got to see in the theater. I was eleven, and it left a very strong impression on me. Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger was released only a few years later and did extremely well at the box office. However, the approach to that story has a bit more camp. By then, a little more camp was fine in my book. But the stronger storytelling in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is why I chose it to immortalize in a cartoon review. My hope is that you will become intrigued with how Ray Harryhausen works his magic in the others. And don’t stop there; there are lots of Sinbad movies that both predate and follow the Harryhausen flicks.

The Comic Critic Reviews "Soylent Green"

The movie Soylent Green was based on Harry Harrison’s book “Make Room! Make Room!” which came off the presses in 1966.  The counter-culture movement is waving its freak flag high, in protest against the war in Vietnam, rampant pollution, and discrimination. It’s not at all surprising that writers wrote alarming forecasts of what the future might hold if mankind didn’t change its ways. And it’s not at all surprising that several save-the-environment-themed movies would also be produced. A few years later, 1973’s Soylent Green provided a glimpse of a filthy, dystopian future where the only thing left is humans sweltering in their juices. The audiences who first saw it were still in a war with Vietnam; Nixon’s Watergate was happening; and peoples’ voices were being heard. The newly created Environmental Protection Agency had begun taking action against polluters. This movie contains the final performance of Edward G. Robinson, one of the truly great actors from a golden age in film. Unknown to the rest of the cast, Robinson was dying of cancer, making his deathbed scene in the film even more poignant. Charleston Heston, who had worked previously with E.G. in The Ten Commandments, was moved to tears in his own performance as acted across from Robinson. Robinson’s performance alone is reason enough to watch Soylent Green. But what remains most striking about this film is that all of its dire social and environmental warnings are still relevant today.

The Comic Critic Reviews: The Last of Sheila. And The Return of Stickman #1093

I remember seeing The Last of Sheila on Showtime a few years after it was released. I recalled a number of scenes, but not the full storyline. Watching it again a few days ago, my faulty memory wasn’t helped by the series of sudden twists the plot takes. Viewers are lulled into a perspective on events that proves to be false. Whether or not you enjoy this film depends on how much you can tie clues together. I’ll give the director credit for not pointing to each clue with a neon sign, so viewers actually have to use their brains.


And another guest strip by Jake Morris. Thanks, Jake.