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Columbo: The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case (1977) Directed by Sam Wanamaker

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 11:51 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , , , ,



(Review originally written at 31 January 2009)

"Columbo: The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case", how great sounding is that? If it weren't for its title though this would be a pretty forgettable Columbo movie entry. It just isn't the most interesting or best written Columbo entry around.

It's a slightly odd Columbo movie, that features a bunch of people with a brilliantly high I.Q. Those kind of people often are a bit eccentric and off, as gets portrayed in this movie. It makes the movie overall entertaining to watch. This however goes a bit at the expense of the movie its story.

It's just not the best written story to ever be featured in a Columbo movie. Its murder plot is far from tight, which is odd, since it's being committed by a man with one of the highest I.Q. in the world. It's also not a story that is being made interesting by it's main plot, that is pretty average and follows the usual familiar Columbo-formula. Columbo doesn't have to do much detective work in this movie to unravel the murder-plot and capture the killer. This is a bit disappointing and doesn't give the Columbo character enough room to be his usual self.

For a '70's Columbo movie it also surprisingly is lacking in stars, playing opposite Peter Falk. Not that Theodore Bikel is bad in this movie but having a big name playing opposite Peter Falk often gives the movie something extra and also makes the movie more interesting and entertaining to watch. Sure, the movie features Kenneth Mars and Jamie Lee Curtis but their roles are very small and insignificant. It actually was one of Jamie Lee Curtis her first acting jobs, before she reached fame one year later by playing the lead in John Carpenter's "Halloween".

It's a quite slow Columbo movie and even though the movie is barely over an hour long, the movie feels much longer. It doesn't help to raise this movie above the level of average. It has a nice ending on the other hand though, which quite honestly is among one of the best to be ever featured in a Columbo movie.

Watchable but not quite as good and interesting as most other Columbo-entries.

6/10

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The Astronaut's Wife (1999) Directed by Rand Ravich

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 4:05 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , , ,




(Review originally written at 27 March 2007)

 The movie had the right atmosphere and certainly the right actors to make this a good genre movie, only problem is, nothing ever happens in this movie! The movie is clearly a thriller but the movie does never gets tense and lacks in good thriller moments.

 The movie has a good and tense mysterious atmosphere at first but the movie does nothing further to exploit this after its opening. For too long nothing really happens in the movie, also because the husband in fact really isn't acting that weird and suspicious as before the accident in space. Certainly not enough to become afraid of him and not even the ending of the movie can really change this.

 The reason that this movie also doesn't work is because the motivations aren't clear. It makes the entire story and movie feel rather pointless and makes it unclear. Also when the wife learns that her husband is possibly an alien, she doesn't investigate but she is in constant denial. Is it tense and interesting to watch a character who is in constant denial? Of course it's not. Not even for a paranoid kind of atmosphere also because we as the viewer already know that something happened and went wrong with the husband. It all makes the movie quite ridicules to watch, though it's definitely a professionally made movie with some good acting in it.

 We get to see Johnny Depp in a role and movie we normally wouldn't see him play. It seemed like Johnny wanted to play a villain for a change. He does this will and his acting deserved a better script to go with it. Charlize Theron also shows her skills, in a movie before her real years of fame and awards. There also are some good supporting actors in some much smaller roles, such as Clea DuVall, Gary Grubbs, Joe Morton and actor turned director Nick Cassavetes.

 The movie is a typical genre movie and I was happy and satisfied enough to give this movie an 6 out of 10 rating but then came the ending. What an horrible and totally weak ending it was! It downgraded the movie and even made it more ridicules than it already was.

 No wonder Rand Ravich never directed or wrote a theatrical movie ever since.

 5/10

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