Critics? Bah! Humbug!

I think everybody has seen a movie they loved but the critics hated. Three of my favorite movies get lack luster if not bad reviews and two of them are virtually unknown. In my opinion Leap of Faith and Cannery Row are fantastic movies but Cannery Row, for example, isn't even in print any longer. I think part of the problem is that with Leap of Faith and Moby Dick the critics didn't like stars getting away from type casting. Gregory Peck was the handsome leading man type but in Moby Dick he played the peg legged, scarred, and vengeful Captain Ahab, but he gives such a powerful performance that several scenes still give me chills even though I've seen them several times. In Leap of Faith I think Steve Martin gives his best performance as an an actor. He plays an Elmer Gantry type hustler and its a performance that is equally as good as the part he played in Parenthood but since he wasn't playing the clown critics didn't like it.

Cannery Row is just hilarious. Of course it is based on John Steinbeck with a fabulous cast of character actors. Its the only movie Nick Nolte made that I can stand but then he and Debra Winger play straight men to Steinbecks lunatics inhabiting Cannery Row. I'm currently in mourning because I cannot find Cannery Row or another of my favorites, Lonely are the Brave on DVD. Lonely Are the Brave is more a work of art than a movie. The Library doesn't own it, which kills me, because its about of the end of the old west and I think it easily ranks up there with other great western like Hud and High Noon, but... Oh well (sigh).