Word: machinas
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Coming Home--Hollywood finds Vietnam, about ten years too late. Still, give Jane Fonda some credit for this anti-war, sensitive film. As the wife of a bonkers Army Man (brilliantly played, save for the cop-out deus ex machina, by Bruce Dern), Fonda gives one of the best performances of her rather spotty acting career. She is frustrated, repressed and lonely until she meets a crippled vet in an army hospital. That vet--played by Jon Voigt --turns her life around and brings himself to peace in the process. Voigt steals the film with a brilliant performance. Its philosophy...
...lovers are saved by the deus ex machina arrival of Beralde (Eric Luftman), Argan's Jock La Lane brother, who forces him to see that his doctors are charlatans, that his wife is a floozy, and that his daughter must marry for love, not his interests. All this is done with the help of a few tricks by Toinette...
This bridge ex machina is unsatisfying, and the audience leaves with the feeling that maybe Tony's life won't turn out as rosily as the film suggests. The movie is simply not as tightly crafted as it should be, and the on-again, off-again directing and acting detracts greatly from its effect. Still, Travolta is surprisingly good, the photography is often interesting, and the dancing and music are excellent. If you think you've got the fever, head...
...dingy diners, pinball today is played openly and avidly by scholars, doctors, scientists, showfolks, pols, brokers, journalists -members of the nervous trades. Manufacturers cannot supply enough of the new solid-state pins to meet the demands of upper-and middle-class families who want the erstwhile diabolus ex machina in their homes...
...family or things or even destination. Rooted to the little town of Clarion, where she was born, Charlotte sees her life "rolling out in front of her like an endless, mildewed rug." What she needs, she declares, is a "wilderness course." It is provided by a deus ex machina, played by a prison escapee, Jake Simms Jr., a self-described "victim of impulse." When Simms holds up a bank, Charlotte becomes a victim of irony-a hostage without the walking shoes she has hoarded for her trip. The flight to Florida does not produce the expected liberation. Instead, Charlotte...