Review of Mad Dog and Glory (1993) by Nick M — 28 Sep 2005

I have quarrelsome pigeons living on the fire escape of my building. One moment, you hear a few "coo"s; then their pitch gradually elevates to a screech, and then feathers start to fly. This happens frequently; perhaps five times a day (actually, it could occur hourly). The pigeons in Boston have a propensity to frighten and galvanize me. Often when I am walking through the park to my morning classes in a semi-unconscious state, a group of pigeons will inexplicably disperse, and at least one will fly right by my head, as I awkwardly dive out of the way. I am not the least clumisest person, but every pidgeon should have at least some control over their tradjectory (and hopefully I am not in it)!

Don't even get me started on the mutant squirrels. They sure have audactiy.

Flicks:

The gloomy resplendence of [b]Corpse Bride[/b] is worth the admission alone, but the songs, narrative and puns needed some work. For a film with such artistic drive, it is not surprisingy that the paradigm-of-a-plot was overlooked and the characters were underdeveloped. The scripts has its moments of wit and charm, but the monotonous puns quickly became grating (and the music numbers could be labeled with this same adjective). However, one theme shines through and saves the film from becoming merely a visual bore. The juxtaposition of the underworld and the land of the living is handled well, and both aesthetically and thematically stresses the motif that the living are not nearly as lively as they should be (they can't even match the vibrancy of the dead!).

[b]Mad Dog and Glory[/b] is one of the most experimental films of the 90's that I have seen. In attempts to challenge the ordinary way we view two particular actors, Robert DeNiro is cast as a sensitive police officer, who has aspirations to become an artist, and Bill Murray is cast as a mafia boss. The experiment is an entirely unconvincing failure. It is not "offbeat" and "eccentrically hilarious"; it is underdeveloped, overedited and not very amusing at all. And yes, I was in quite a rush when I initially wrote this capsule. I may edit with more thoughts later, but seeing what constant editing did to this film, I would rather just leave this capsule alone.

I have rather strong thoughts on the other films (naturally), but after taking a three hour nap, I am a bit groggy and, yes, lackidaisical.

EDIT: For some odd reason, I thought that "pigeons" was spelled with a 'd'. Upon disocvering it wasn't, I edited and corrected my spelling. I think I subconsciously put the 'd' in for effect, symbolizing 'diabolical'.