Review of Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) by Diana S — 19 Sep 2007

I don't really feel like writing reviews today. But I'm getting so far behind that I have to do it. They're going to be short though.

When I heard that Russell Crowe ("A Good Year") and Christian Bale ("Rescue Dawn") were going to be in the same movie, I almost passed out. It's just too much goodness for one screen to hold. But [b]3:10 to Yuma[/b] offered much more than just eye candy. Keep in mind that I have not seen the original film. The story was tight. We feel Bale's despair in being a disappointment to his son. We see why people become infatuated with Crowe's villain even though he is terribly evil. The score was awesome. And I don't usually notice a score. There's some good action. Plus, the other big bad guy rocked. I do love a good bad guy. And Ben Foster ("X-Men: The Last Stand") is one of my favorite younger actors. I can't wait for him to bust out.

[b]Smiles of a Summer night[/b] is my first Ingmar Bergman ("Saraband") experience. And I think it was a good place to start. The story follows four couples as the cheat and deceive their way to happiness. Much of it is funny. Some of it is weird. And the dinner scene is fairly disturbing. I don't really know what else to say about it except that I'm sorry I put off Bergman for so long. And I'm eager to see more of his work.

I'm not the biggest fan of the Bourne franchise. The second film, The [b]Bourne Supremacy[/b], has some good action and suspense. But I just don't care about it. Sorry. At least Matt Damon ("The Bourne Ultimatum") is a better action star than Ben Affleck ("Smokin' Aces").

[b]Friends with Money[/b] is basically a study of four friends, three of whom have money and husbands and one who has neither, and how these things either do or do not make them happy. The acting is very solid. Especially Jennifer Aniston ("The Break Up"). But I've seen better movies about the same subjects. This isn't an awful film. Just very average.