Simon's Movie Reviews

You know a director has done something right when a scene in his movie is parodied and referenced 50 years later. Even more impressive is the fact said scene is a murder scene in which the audience doesn't see any blood except the one it imagines is flowing from the victim. Psycho (1960) is indeed quite an oddity given it is based on a novel that itself was based loosely on the horrid crimes of Ed Gaines. Yet Alfred Hitchcock, who apparently never backed away from a challenge, thought this was just the right material for his next movie. Good thing, because cinema history was never the same again. This is one of those movies that you have seen even if you have never seen it before, mainly because of that shower scene and the titular psycho doing the stabbing. It has been parodied countless times by everyone from Wes Craven to Mel Brooks, and even Bugs Bunny. Bernard Herrman's iconic music, which practically screams in unison with Janet Leigh as the blade strikes, has ...

Marlon Brando has starred in quite a few Greatest Movies. The Godfather is regarded as one the best movies ever made and Apocalypse Now , despite the fact he is one of the reasons why making it was an apocalypse, is one of the standards for great war movies. On the Waterfront (1954) is one of his oldest films and possibly not as re-watched as the two I've mentioned, but its themes of corruption and morality remain relevant to this day. One could also argue the second season of The Wire owes a great deal to screenwriter Budd Schulberg and director Elia Kazan.   Until recently this was not an easy movie to find, but if you are in Canada you can watch it for free online at the CTV app. It's nice to be digging for old movies and then you discover there is a legal way to access a small treasure trove of classics without having to pay anything. I watched this one with no prior context, other than it deals with the grip of organized crime on dock workers in New York. I w...

If Steven Spielberg were a drug, then E.T the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) is a vintage and pure version of that drug. This is a movie that can be appreciated by people of all ages but the way it is shot really puts you in the shoes of a young boy who befriends a creature from another planet. There are no villains in this movie, not even the shadowy government people who are hunting the alien. The only look scary because Spielberg initially shoots them from a kid’s point of view. In today’s cynical world this movie may seem overly optimistic but maybe childish optimism is what we need. I hadn’t seen E.T in at least over a decade and this week seemed like the perfect time to revisit it since I also just finished the third season of Stranger Things , the Netflix phenomenon that proudly wears its Spielberg influence on its sleeve. After all, one could easily argue that the show’s character Eleven has similar powers as E.T even though she was born on our planet. Of course, Spielber...