Picking up from where the last one left off, here is (a) new movie review thread!
The last one went from 2015-01-22 to 2024-03-09.
To start things off...
I watched
Fail Safe (2000) recently. It's really unique - a movie that was broadcast live on national television. The whole thing opens with Walter Cronkite saying: it's "the first feature-length story to be broadcast live on CBS in 39 years", which is kind of sad/hilarious, since it's now been 24 years since it was broadcast itself. Maybe we'll get another one in 15 years.
The story is a remake of a 1964 movie, which in turn is based on a book. The plot is roughly the same as Dr. Strangelove, though it's not a comedy. So similar to Strangelove, in fact, that there were lawsuits back when both movies were originally being made.
Dramatically, it's effective. It falls more into the category of what you might call filmed plays rather than movies. Some of the characters seem to be there to represent a point of view rather than an individual.
The actors (on screen, and behind the scenes) do an admirably good job. Only a small number of lines are flubbed. More than that, though, many of the performances are as good as you'd see anywhere; subtle facial expressions and intonations aren't rare.
Technically, there are only a few line flubs. Some of the background noise is a bit distracting - I suspect they would have done better if they'd done another live production soon after, and had a chance to fix things like microphone placement.
I'll close with a quote from
the Variety review:
“Fail Safe” was superbly acted, flawlessly produced and had jaded industry insiders and critics drooling over themselves in anticipation.
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