Movie Reviews Archives - Chris Carosa

The Necessary Outsider: Why We Need The Searchers’ Ethan Edwards (But Never Thank Him)

By Chris Carosa on June 3, 2025

Kenny and I raced to our raised ranch, the last house before the Thruway’s roar, to sprawl on the green carpet for The Commander Tom Show. The Lone Ranger reruns were the prize—our masked hero galloping in to save the town.

Eyes glued to this stark black-and-white world of morality plays, we definitely knew what was right and what was wrong. Our hearts raced as the masked man burst onto the scene. But when the dust settled, the townsfolk barely nodded, and he rode off alone. At seven and eight years of age, we wondered, “Why didn’t they invite him to stay?”

Life was easy back then. The good guys wore white hats. The bad guys wore black hats. It didn’t matter the show or the leading man. He was undeniably the hero, the good guy, the stalwart star who always Continue Reading “The Necessary Outsider: Why We Need The Searchers’ Ethan Edwards (But Never Thank Him)”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, Movie Reviews, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Alan LeMay, Batman, Ethan Edwards, John Ford, John Wayne, Kenny, Monument Valley, outsider, Shane, Stagecoach, Superman, The Commander Tom Show, The Lone Ranger, The Searchers, Thruway

Film Vs. TV: A MAS*H Revelation

By Chris Carosa on July 30, 2024

M*A*S*H 1970 Film Poster Distributed by 20th Century Fox. Source: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A while back, a friend asked to borrow our copy of the movie M*A*S*H. He was so excited. He watched the TV series diligently and remains a fan of it to this day. He was so excited to see the movie.

Now, normally I don’t lend things from my library. I’ve learned that’s the quickest way to create a permanent hole in my shelf. But I trusted this guy, so I lent him the movie.

He returned the movie with no expression on his face. I asked him what he thought. He answered, “It was… different.”

Yes. Yes, it was.

The movie M*A*S*H feels more like Animal House. The TV series “M*A*S*H” may have started out like the movie, but it ended with a sense of “Little House On The Prairie.” Between the two, we saw our culture shift.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

We’ll start with the TV series. The television viewing world buzzed with anticipation when Continue Reading “Film Vs. TV: A M*A*S*H Revelation”

Posted in Movie Reviews, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 2010 Superbowl, Alan Alda, Alpha Male, Animal House, B.J. Hunnicutt, baseball, Boon, Catch-22, CBS, Colonel Blake, Colonel Potter, Delta House, Donald Sutherland, Drew Brees, Duke Forrest, Elliot Gould, Ernist Borgnine, film, football, Hawkeye, Hogan's Heroes, Indianapolis Colts, Joseph Heller, Korean War, Little House On The Prairie, Love Story, M*A*S*H, MASH 4077, MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, McHale's Navy, movie, New Orleans Saints, Otter, Patton, Peyton Manning, PT-73, Robert Altman, Sgt. Bilko, Sidney Freeman, Suicide is Painless, The Phil Silvers Show, Tom Skerritt, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Trapper John, TV series, Vietnam War, World War II

50 Years Ago—A Reflection On Star Trek: The Animated Series

By Chris Carosa on December 12, 2023

What were you doing in September 1973? Were you listening to Art Garfunkel’s first solo album? Watching Billie Jean King beat loud-mouth Bobby Riggs in straight sets? Or how about cheering as the Oakland Raiders’ Ken Stabler threw the winning touchdown pass to give the hated Miami Dolphins their first loss in 18 games?

Well, if you were me, you excitedly anticipated the realization of what you spent years waiting for: the first airing of a new Star Trek episode.

Of course, this would be an animated episode, but at least it would feature the voices of the original crew (except for Chekhov, that is).

Diligently watching the series also presented one of my first moral dilemmas. There was only one thing I liked better than Star Trek (and astronomy and the space program). It was Continue Reading “50 Years Ago—A Reflection On Star Trek: The Animated Series”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, Movie Reviews, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Art Garfunkel, Beyond the Farthest Star, Bill Breon, Billie Jean King, Billy Breon, Bobby Riggs, Chekhov, Chili Lions, Gene Roddenberry, Ken Stabler, Kenny, Livonia Vikings, Miami Dolphins, Oakland Raiders, Robert April, Rochester Mustangs, Samuel A. Peeples, Sarah April, Saturday Night Massacre, Spiro Agnew, Star Trek, Star Trek Lower Decks, The Animated Series, The Counter-Clock Incident, The Original Series, Trekker, trekkie, Watergate, Where No Man Has Gone Before

What Did You Learn From Oppenheimer?

By Chris Carosa on August 29, 2023

When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you’re a physics and astronomy major swimming in a sea of humanities majors, everything looks like an atom.

Or, quite possibly, a planet.

I guess it depends if you’re talking to someone who just got out of a micro-economics course or a macro-economics course.

Here’s the thing about majoring in physics in astronomy. Back when I did it, it was considered a double major. In reality, given the amount of required math courses, it was really a triple major. Only the folks in New Haven didn’t officially recognize triple majors.

The point, however, is that your schedule doesn’t have a lot of room for much of anything else.

Now, here comes the twist. On top of all those courses required for the physics and Continue Reading “What Did You Learn From Oppenheimer?”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, Movie Reviews, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged A-bomb, astronomy, atomic, Churchill, Liberal Arts, Los Alamos, Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer, Physics, Plato, Potsdam, Pythagoras, quadrivium, Richard Feynman, Scarecrow, Stalin, Truman, White Sands, Wizard of Oz

The Black List Listless Series Finale Disappoints

By Chris Carosa on July 18, 2023

I don’t usually review movies or television series, but when I do…

If an image of a smart looking older man just dripping of Mexican aristocracy blossoms in your head, then you’ve been influenced by the same advertising campaigns as I have. No, in case you’re wondering, this column is not a Dos Equis beer commercial. But it is about the most interesting man in the world.

Or at least the television world.

Before I leave the advertising realm, chances are the image you conjured was that of a well-tanned but weathered gentleman with graying hair and an even grayer beard. He looks like a modern-day Don Quixote. It’s an allure that’s hard to turn away from.

Incidentally, the actor Jonathan Goldsmith portrayed this character from 2006 through 2016. In his final ad, Dos Equis launched “the most interesting man in the world” on a one-way trip to another world—Mars. His final epitaph was the fitting, “His only regret is not Continue Reading “The Black List Listless Series Finale Disappoints”

Posted in Movie Reviews, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged bull, bullfighter, Death in the Afternoon, Don Quixote, Dos Equis, Dr. Richard Kimble, Elisabeth Keen, Ernest Hemingway, Gilligan's Island, Hogan's Heroes, James Spader, Jonathan Goldsmith, M*A*S*H, man in the arena, most interesting man, Reddington, Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Star Trek, The Black List, The Fugitive, The Sun Also Rises, Theodore Roosevelt

Abandon All Bond, Ye Who Enter Here

By Chris Carosa on November 2, 2021

I don’t usually do movie reviews, but I when I do, I drink water. And I also usually write them immediately after seeing the film. I did that in this case. The editorial calendar, has the review coming out a month later. On the bright side, at least everyone who watched the movie will have done so by now, so I don’t have to warn you about spoilers.

For James Bond aficionados, there’s always been an obvious choice for “Worst Bond Film Ever.”

Following Sean Connery’s “retirement” after the box office smash You Only Live Twice, the film series’ producer Albert Broccoli had to look for a new Bond. It’s said he considered over Continue Reading “Abandon All Bond, Ye Who Enter Here”

Posted in Movie Reviews, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Adam West, Albert Broccoli, Batman, Burt Bacharach, Burton K. Wheeler, Captain Kirk, Casino Royale, Charles Feldman, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, City on the Edge of Forever, Daniel Craig, Dante Alighieri, David Niven, Dick Van Dyke, Dr. No, Fry's Chocolate, George Lazenby, Hal David, Ian Fleming, Inferno, James Bond, Jimmy Bond, Marquess of Queensberry, MI6, No Time To Die, Oliver Reed, Peter Sellers, Roald Dahl, Sean Connery, Star Trek, The Look of Love, The Magical Car, Timothy Dalton, Ursula Andress, Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Family, Woody Allen, You Only Live Twice

Are The Russians The New Nazis?

By Chris Carosa on July 20, 2021

Have you noticed this?

It seems like I can’t turn to a movie, TV show, or just about anything else produced by Hollywood without seeing the same thing over and over again.

No, I’m not talking about the plot. (That’s not a Hollywood thing, there are only three basic conflicts in all dramatic literature and that means a lot of repeated plots going all the way back to ancient Greece.)

And I’m not talking about the protagonists. (Yes, this superhero thing has gotten out of hand, but, hey, can you blame Hollywood? The more it sells the more they’ll make, at least until it stops selling.)

What I’m talking about is fast becoming a stereotypical prototype for the antagonist, the enemy of the protagonist, otherwise known as “the bad guy.” It’s not that they aren’t Continue Reading “Are The Russians The New Nazis?”

Posted in Movie Reviews, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged bad guy, Batman, Hogan's Heroes, Hollywood, James Bond, John Wayne, Michael Keaton, Nazi, Russian, SMERSH, Soviet, SPECTRE, Stagecoach, The Blues Brothers, The Ringo Kid, Vladimir Putin

A Hero Has Fallen

By Chris Carosa on November 3, 2020

Say what you will about cinematographers, but they’re literally responsible for what we see in movies. Ultimately, save for a few choice lines, it is these images we remember most from the classic films we cherish.

It was the cinematographer’s use of a soft lens in critical close-ups that told more of Ilsa Lund’s backstory in Casablanca than any flashback could. We see a hint of it when she first enters Rick’s Café Américain, a popular casino. There, she’s introduced to Captain Renault.

But it is the extended close-up when Ilsa asks Sam to “play it for me.” There, the lens embraces the wholesome beauty of Ingrid Bergman and the sweet alluring yet Continue Reading “A Hero Has Fallen”

Posted in Movie Reviews, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Alan Shepard, Bay of Pigs, Berlin Crisis, Cafe Americain, Captain Renault, Casablanca, cinematography, Cuban Missile Crisis, Dr. No, Duke Mantee, Fred Astaire, Gary Francis Powers, George Hally, Humphrey Bogart, Ilsa Lund, Ingrid Bergman, James Bond, Kassarine Pass, On The Beach, Patton, Pearl Harbor, Rick Blaine, Rommel, Russia, Sam Spade, Sean Connery, soft lens, Soviet, Sputnik, The Maltese Falcon, The Petrified Forest, The Roaring Twenties, U-2, Yuri Gagarin

Childhood’s End: A Review of Ford vs. Ferrari

By Chris Carosa on February 18, 2020

Does this make sense to you?

There was a time when you met your best friend forever in Kindergarten. You went to school together. You graduated together. You were part of each other’s wedding parties. You raised your families together. You went on vacations together. Ultimately, you retired to the same communities together.

At least that’s what we were raised to believe.

My best friend was Angelo. From that day we met as five-year-olds to board that first school bus, we were best friends. Although the only class we ever shared was Kindergarten, from that point on we did everything together. Each day we would walk up Abbott Parkway to the school bus stop together. Every summer day we’d play together.

We talked of our past, present, and future.

We talked about our families, especially my uncle who wanted to design sports cars and his cousin, who frequently laid rubber in the middle of our street with his red hot 1968 Mustang.

We talked about school friends and who liked Ford and who liked Chevy.

We talked about our future wives, how we’d be each other’s best man. Oddly, Angelo Continue Reading “Childhood’s End: A Review of Ford vs. Ferrari”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, Movie Reviews, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Abbott Parkway, Angelo, Camaro, Carroll Shelby, Chevy, Fio, Ford, Ken Miles, Magnum, muscle car, Mustang, P.I., T-Top, The Blue Max, The Godfather II, The Right Stuff, Uncle Pauley, Wild World of Sports, Z-28

Contrition, Forgiveness, and Redemption: An Alternative (and Better) Ending to The Man in the High Castle

By Chris Carosa on December 10, 2019

If you watched the fourth and final season of Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle and you found yourself saying “Huh?!” at the end of the last episode, you’ll enjoy this.

WARNING: If you haven’t watched the entire fourth season, this article contains spoilers.

Let’s recap a couple of important plot points in the fourth season. These will come into play as we twist to a more satisfying conclusion.

The season opened with Juliana in the “real” timeline. (By “real,” we mean the timeline where Continue Reading “Contrition, Forgiveness, and Redemption: An Alternative (and Better) Ending to The Man in the High Castle”

Posted in Movie Reviews, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries