B&W Reviews - Sobriety Test Movie Reviews

The 2013 Movie Bucket List and Wasted Movies List are up! Check them out to see the best and worst of the year!

REVIEW: The Case of The Maltese Falcon

Posted by Zach Davis on Saturday, January 25, 2014 In : 0.06% Beer or Wine

The Maltese Falcon
Zach Davis

Directed by: John Huston

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, and Lee Patrick

John Huston's The Maltese Falcon took us to a place that many films, cartoons, and television shows would parody for years to come. The cheesy dialogue wouldn’t have worked today. For its time, however, The Maltese Falcon offered a fresh vision of a back alley world. As a film noir, Huston’s first motion picture captures a dark, shado...
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REVIEW: Some Like It Hot, But Most Just Like Marilyn

Posted by Zach Davis on Friday, January 24, 2014 In : 0.00% Water

Some Like It Hot
Zach Davis

Directed by: Billy Wilder

Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, Joe E. Brown, and Pat O'Brien

Some Like It Hot really shows the cultural leaps and open-mindedness towards which America was heading by the end of the late fifties. A movie about two men in drag hiding out from the mob all while Marilyn Monroe shows off, well, Marilyn. The humor, the sexuality, and the writing were all phenomenal leaps toward what I would consider a modern movi...
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REVIEW: Jeff and Lisa, Two of the Most Frightening Ghouls, Do Anything But Love Thy Neighbor in Rear Window

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, September 22, 2013 In : 0.00% Water

Rear Window

Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, and Raymond Burr

"Why would a man leave his apartment three times on a rainy night with a suitcase and come back three times?"
-L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart)

Alfred Hitchcock was a director known for his inquisitive use of the camera. There was a certain curiosity about anything and everything he ever depicted on screen, perhaps none more so than his 1954 suspense thriller Rear Window. ...
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REVIEW: If Wishes Were Horses...A Look Back at One of the Best Horseracing Movies of All Time

Posted by Guest on Monday, July 1, 2013 In : 0.00% Water

National Velvet

Directed By: Clarence Brown

Starring: Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, Elizabeth Taylor, Anne Revere, Angela Lansbury, Reginald Owen, and Terry Kilburn

When you hear the word "racing" these days, you're more likely to think of the thrilling car chases in the enormous Fast and Furious franchise rather than the thoroughbred racing films which dominated the genre for the first half of the twentieth century. Some of those films focused on the politics behind racing, such as the 1939 Lon...
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REVIEW: The Truth About Rashomon

Posted by Zach Davis on Sunday, May 26, 2013 In : 0.00% Water

Rashomon
Zach Davis

Directed By: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Kichijirô Ueda, and Noriko Honma

Rashomon achieves the ultimate standard for cinema and art in general. The movie is certainly entertaining. At the same time, however, it's one truly thought-provoking film. Director Akira Kurosawa's cinematic work marks a major step in bridging the silent film era and the modern age of filmmaking (I.e. talkies). His minimalist...
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REVIEW: Double Indemnity Casts a Shadow Over Fraud and Murder

Posted by Zach Davis on Sunday, May 5, 2013 In : 0.03% Wine Coolers

Double Indemnity
Zach Davis

Directed By: Billy Wilder

Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Jean Heather, and Byron Barr

Double Indemnity is a true noir film. It is told through a narrative form and relies heavily on light and shadow. When the noir genre was first booming, Billy Wilder was regarded as the prime inventor of this technique of using light and shadow, which ultimately became key to any noir film. Scenes cast in extreme shadow advance the mystery and dar...
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REVIEW: Rebecca, a More Dramatic Feel From the Master of Suspense

Posted by Zach Davis on Sunday, April 7, 2013 In : 0.03% Wine Coolers

Rebecca
Zach Davis

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Florence Bates

Rebecca is not your typical suspense film, but that doesn't mean director Alfred Hitchcock fails to deliver a dark, mysterious ride. What sets this apart is that Hitchcock is charged with the daunting task of building the film’s plot and thrills around a woman who is long dead before the movie even takes place. With moving track shots of Manderley, a larg...
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REVIEW: In Vertigo, Carlotta Valdes Wandering About is Dangerous Business for Scottie Ferguson and Madeleine Elster

Posted by James Brown on Tuesday, February 12, 2013 In : 0.00% Water

Vertigo

Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Raymond Bailey, Ellen Corby, Henry Jones, and Lee Patrick

"Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere."
-Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak)

I hate it when film experts try to list the greatest films of all time. Filmmaking is too diverse an art form for such subjective labelling, and it reflects the tastes of just a few. Often, experts put too much emphasis on older mov...

REVIEW: Follow the Yellow Brick Road & You'll Find the Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Posted by James Brown on Thursday, January 17, 2013 In : 0.00% Water

The Wizard of Oz

Directed By: Victor Fleming

Starring: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Charlie Grapewin, Clara Blandick, Pat Walshe, and Terry as Toto

"I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too."
-The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton)

This might just be the most famous line in all of movie history. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you've got a serious problem. For the last 74 years, the Wicked Witch o...

REVIEW: Mother's "Illness" Is a Boy's Best Friend in Psycho

Posted by James Brown on Thursday, November 22, 2012 In : 0.00% Water

Psycho

Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, and Janet Leigh

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most influential and pioneering directors in all of cinematic history. In countless films, he brought terror and suspense to life in a way that no one had before him and arguably no one has since. Among his many works, no movie may be more famous or beloved than the great Psycho. The 1960 film is considered one of the greates...