rate the last movie you saw

[Paul MacLean]

I have to be honest, I tried watching Cleopatra a number of months ago, and gave-up after about an hour. I don't know if those jettisoned scenes might have helped, but I just found it boring and stilted, and thought Taylor was genuinely embarrassing.

Much better if you ask me was the highly-underrated Antony & Cleopatra (1972), directed by Charlton Heston, which I also watched recently. It may not have anywhere-near the production value of the Taylor vehicle (and yeah, the Battle of Actium sequence draws on repurposed footage from Ben-Hur -- and even the Taylor film), but it was much better-written (it's hard to beat Shakespeare), and better-acted. It didn't have any stars (other than Heston) but it boasted some of Britain's finest Shakespearean performers -- Julian Glover, John Castle, Roger Delgado, Freddie Jones, et al. And for my money John Scott's score smokes Alex North's!

[AndyDursin]

I'd much rather watch the superb documentary materials on CLEOPATRA -- the back story, the gossip, all of that behind the scenes stuff -- than the film itself. It's just really, really stilted IMO.

[Eric Paddon]

To each their own. I'll only say in defense of Taylor, that I go into this movie not expecting Shakespeare or something along those lines. Mankiewicz, who certainly understood the Shakespeare approach to the material having directed "Julius Caesar" understood that too which was why he wasn't even going to allow the slightest homage to the Bard and invite that kind of comparison (hence the reason why the assassination plays out in silence in the incantation, though I do admit to trying to guess if Harrison's lips are forming "Et tu Brutus?"; and also why Antony's eulogy to Caesar is drowned out by the crowd noise). The film IMO has to be seen on those terms. For this kind of a spectacle/drama as it was intended, Taylor was the best possible choice.

This is the website that provides a terrific summary/presentation on what was cut. But it helps to go through this just after seeing the film which was what really made things more clear to me on what the overall intent had been.

http://elizabethtaylorthelegend.com/Eli ... 0Page.html

[esteban miranda]

Picnic (1956) - 6/10

Not for the impatient, first hour anyway, but somewhat enjoyable despite the fact that I didn't find any of the male characters sympathetic. I'm unsure how old William Holden's character is supposed to be since he often acts several years younger then he looks.
Of course Kim Novak looks great and even though her character is repeatedly described as the "pretty one", Susan Strasberg looked perfectly fine to me.
Despite this being released in 1956, I could tell the Production Code was beginning to break down, though the stage play source material may account for some of the script's frankness.

[Eric Paddon]

Well this was this year's Easter viewing for me over the course of a week. Not as much as I've done perhaps in years past and some titles were not in the rotation but admittedly as you get older you find the zeal to be overly aggressive does dim a bit as other pressures in life intrude. Even so, getting five titles or so in plus some other worthy things I think is always a good minimum goal.

"Give Us Barabbas"
=1961 "Hallmark Hall of Fame" television production with James Daly, Kim Hunter and Keir Dullea. I didn't have too much of a good first impression to this a couple years ago but this time out it came off much better.

Barabbas (1962)
=I always make time for this one each year because it is just a compelling cinematic character study with some great character actor moments like Arthur Kennedy (one of the best on-screen Pilates in just two scenes), Harry Andrews as Peter and Jack Palance's evil gladiator champion. The film's ending is more ambiguous than people might think about Barabbas's final state of mind but regardless of what you think about that, the film will have made you think. And Fleischer's filming of a real eclipse during the Crucifixion scene may be the most effective cinematic touch used to depict the "darkness filling the sky" moment described in the Gospels.

"Charlton Heston Presents The Bible"
=Four-part early 1990s A+E documentary that shows Heston in the Holy Land doing redacted readings of important sections of the Old and New Testaments (Genesis, Moses, Jesus, The Passion) with his personal observations. Holds up very well.

Passion Of The Christ (2004)
=Traditional Good Friday evening viewing. Someday I need to revisit the commentary track for this by Gibson and scholars.

Ben Hur (1959)
=Always works best for a Saturday viewing on Easter weekend I've felt since the story ending is uplifting but remember it ends after the Crucifixion and does not address the coming Resurrection.

Risen (2016)
=This has turned into an annual tradition as well because the first half of the film which shows the tribune trying to investigate the story of the missing body shows a very compelling and believable way in which the account of the Resurrection would first have spread, and the scene where the tomb guard breaks down and rambles over seeing what was a miraculous sight that would have been incomprehensible to his way of thinking is also compelling (but oh how I wish the voices weren't so low! I was on the verge of having to switch on the subtitles to make out a few lines). When the film makes it's big turn it actually loses a bit of its dramatic momentum even though what follows is a sincerely well done depiction of Christ's reunion with the Disciples in Galilee.

I also listened to a great radio drama from the "Focus On The Family Radio Theatre" series called "The Luke Reports" which dramatizes Luke's writing of his Gospel by finding the witnesses who knew Jesus and the adventures he undergoes. Focus On The Family Radio Theatre, from 1998 to 2010 produced some truly outstanding radio dramas, adapting a number of classic works and often used a number of top professional actors (Richard Todd from "A Man Called Peter" has a small part in "Luke Reports")

Reluctantly, there wasn't time this week for "Greatest Story Ever Told". I keep hoping that *someday* we will finally see a good Blu-Ray of that ("Barabbas" also needs a Blu-Ray release).

[Paul MacLean]

Ben Hur (1959)
=Always works best for a Saturday viewing on Easter weekend I've felt since the story ending is uplifting but remember it ends after the Crucifixion and does not address the coming Resurrection.

To me it always seemed that the resurrection was at least implicit at the end of the film -- with Miriam and Tirzah's healing, and the shot of the shepherd and his flock (and Rozsa's music crescendoing in ecclesiastical splendor).

Certainly it was more satisfying than the end of The Day Christ Died!

[Eric Paddon]

Thanks for reminding me of one production I'll *never* see a second time! Jim Bishop was so angry over that, he took his name off the credits and tried to sue to get the title changed.

[AndyDursin]

THE SEDUCTION (1982)
4/10



Morgan Fairchild fans have always had an obvious fondness for this 1982 Avco Embassy programmer, but outside of its star, there’s scant reason to check out this plodding “thriller” about a news anchor (Morgan) stalked by a crazed photographer (Andrew Stevens) who just…can’t…let…her…go.

Though the “crazy fan” genre had only been partially exploited by the time of the film’s 1982 release, “The Seduction” is tediously assembled, with writer-director David Schmoeller failing to deliver suspense, shocks or excitement from his completely routine, lifelessly delivered script. Stevens’ villainy is blandly conveyed, supporting roles (from the likes of a wasted Michael Sarrazin, Vince Edwards and Colleen Camp) are perfunctory at best, and there’s no surprise involved in any element of the picture.

To his credit, Schmoeller -- whose subsequent career output was mostly confined to collaborations with Charles Band’s Empire and Full Moon labels – did get the most bang from his buck in what was otherwise a modest production – the Mac Ahlberg widescreen lensing is nice and Lalo Schifrin’s score adds a touch of class, complete with a Dionne Warwick opening ballad. Yet “The Seduction” is one of those pictures that could be viewed on fast-forward without any detriment to the pedestrian storytelling involved –and what’s more, doesn’t even make good on delivering “so bad it’s good” laughs for the B-movie crowd.

Scream Factory brings “The Seduction” to Blu-Ray on May 21st sporting a nice 1080p (2.35) AVC encoded transfer and DTS MA mono sound licensed from Studio Canal, which only recently started licensing out titles to Blu-Ray boutique labels. New interviews with Fairchild, Stevens and producer Bruce Cohn Curtis highlight the special features, which also reprises featurettes from Anchor Bay’s DVD, the still gallery and theatrical trailer.

[Monterey Jack]

X-a-thon…!

-X-Men (2000): 7/10



1.) With today’s cinema landscape so encrusted with increasingly elaborate and expensive superhero fare year-round, it’s a shock to re-visit what was essentially ground zero of the modern-day comic book renaissance. Only a few years removed from the campy, garish excesses of fare like Batman & Robin, Spawn and Blade (a movie where the hero’s big “cool” kiss-off line was the utterly nonsensical “Some m'fers are always tryin’ t’ice skate uphill!”), the first X-Men seemed like such a breath of fresh air at the time, stripping away the overproduced F/X tinsel of the 90s and crafting a moody big-screen adaptation of Marvel’s signature band of mutant heroes that brought an air of respect back to the genre of characters in silly costumes punching other characters in silly costumes. Credit to [DIRECTOR’S NAME REDACTED] for accentuating character and theme over audiovisual flash. Opening the film in 1944 in a Polish concentration camp pretty much sets the appropriate sense of gravity for what follows, and it’s still kind of astounding he was allowed the leeway to do this.

2.) That said, the film looks clunky as HELL today, about as elaborate as the average episode of a CW superhero show these days. And it’s not really an example of, “Well, special effects have evolved since then” [read in a Patrick Stewart voice], because the film looked chintzy even at the time, with subpar visual effects and mediocre fight choreography (arranged by, among others, Jonathan Key Quan, from Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom and The Goonies!). Granted, Fox only allotted [DIRECTOR’S NAME REDACTED] a modest-even-at-the-time $75 million and a schedule that was pushed up to a summer 2000 release date late in the production, shaving almost six months’ worth of post-production work from the schedule), but compared to what superhero movies look like today, it’s a rude shock re-visiting this and wincing at how clumsy and rushed it looks at times.

3.) Thankfully, holding the center of the film is Hugh Jackman’s star-making turn as Logan/”Wolverine”, the hairy-chested, winkingly surly amnesiac mutant with lickety-split healing abilities and an indestructible “Adamantium” skeleton with razor-sharp claws that pop from between his knuckles when [frequently] enraged. Jackman is every bit as good as you remember, tersely charismatic while slyly acting as the perfect audience surrogate, rolling his eyes at the silly code-names and naïve heroism while slowly sure surely getting sucked into his role as Poppa Bear protector of Professor X’s school for gifted youngsters.

4.) Speaking of whom, major brownie points for hiring iconic elder statesman like Patrick Stewart as said Prof. X, Charles Xavier, and Ian McKellen as his polar opposite Erik Lehnsherr (whose WWII childhood experiences in that Polish death camp hardened him into the villain Magneto), who ground their pulp grandiosity with just the right touch of Shakespearian elegance.

5.) Anna Paquin, sadly, is given little to do as Rogue, the teenage girl cursed with the power to absorb the essence of anyone she touches, including the powers of mutants. It’s a terrible burden for any young girl, and yet Paquin basically spends the film screwing her face into a rictus of woe-is-me misery that just makes it look like she’s constantly suppressing a bout of intestinal distress. That said, the scene where Logan tenderly comforts her in a train car as she cries on his shoulder is a sensitively written and wonderfully performed piece of acting on the part of both Paquin and Jackman, and the kind of scene you rarely see superhero movies take the time out for these days.


6.) Michael Kamen’s score for the film is dreadful, thin, themeless and completely lacking in any sort of dramatic effectiveness. Kamen was a talented composer, but he totally whiffed on an assignment most composers would have given anything to tackle at that time (sadly, [DIRECTOR’S NAME REDACTED]’s usual composer and editor, recent Oscar-winner John Ottman, was too busy making his directorial debut on the cinematic classic Urban Legends 2 to make this film’s accelerated schedule). A more effective score would have definitely made the film’s technical deficiencies easier to accept.

7.) Halle Berry’s Storm wig is hilariously bad, like a Comic-Con cosplayer wandered onto the set.

8.) Rebecca Romijn (before she dropped the Stamos) makes for a striking image as the virtually-naked shape-shifting mutant Mystique, but her powers seem weirdly inconsistent. If she can assume Logan’s form during the Ellis Island climax, why can she also form his Adamantium claws (which are NOT part of his original mutation)? When Logan slices them off during their fight, where do they GO?

9.) The line, “You’re a dick” is still funny.

10.) Not as great as you remember, yet the original X-Men holds together as a promising TV pilot of sorts, and Hugh Jackman manages to keep the wonkier aspects of the production at bay by sheer force of will.

[Paul MacLean]

I'm not really a fan of comics, though I like any comic adaptation which is good -- I love Superman: The Movie and enjoyed the Tobey McGuire Spidermans (or should that be Spidermen? anyway...) -- but don't, as a rule, seek them out. The only reason I ever bothered to see the original X-Men was because I wanted to see Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen act together!

But I enjoyed the film quite a bit. I haven't watched in about ten years but reading your review, maybe it is time to revisit it.

As far as Michael Kamen's score, I thought it worked very well in the film -- and prefer it to John Ottman's music for the sequel. I agree Kamen's score is strident and not very thematic for the most part, but I think the cue for Logan and Rogue at the end of the film is one of the most gorgeous things he ever wrote.

[AndyDursin]

It's funny how many (myself included) derided Kamen's score at the time, but in retrospect, it's got more personality than anything we hear today. Undoubtedly that's due to the fact we were coming off Williams' SUPERMAN and Elfman's BATMAN as standard-bearers and, on that level, Kamen's score comes up well short of the mark -- but in 2019? The score would be hailed as a masterpiece.

For all of Jackman's deserved accolades, it's still worth remembering Dougray Scott was cast as Wolverine and would've had a totally different career had that gone through. Jackman can thank John Woo because if MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 hadn't gone so over-schedule and forced Scott to drop out, Jackman's own career likely would've been different also.

As for the movie, it's good, but felt a tad lacking to me when it first opened (shortish running time being a main issue; the rushed production schedule like you said MJ manifesting itself also). But the film was a very big deal for us comic book fans -- I was more into Spider-Man and The Avengers growing up, but who didn't read X-Men back in the 80s if you were into comics? It was surprising to me how many analysts were stunned by the box-office...that whole genre was an untapped fountain of box-office revenue as we see too much often now lol.

Like the score, the passage of time has improved it a bit, and it DOES have personality on the part of the director -- the kind of thing that's missing from a lot of the increasingly generic Marvel output.

[Monterey Jack]

-X2 (2003): 8.5/10



1.) [DIRECTOR'S NAME REDACTED]'s second spin with the mutant Marvel heroes is a marked improvement on his clunky but promising debut feature, sleek, assured, boasting crisper action sequences and a less choppy screenplay with an additional half-hour's screentime to let the story breathe and the character interactions more room to flower and settle.

2.) The presence of [DIRECTOR'S NAME REDACTED]'s usual editor/composer, John Ottman, is probably a big part of the reason why (as well as less studio interference and a larger budget and more time to sculpt the available footage into a pleasing shape). Both his skillsets start the movie off with a bang, as teleporting, mind-controlled mutant Nightcrawler (a grotesque yet oddly cuddly Alan Cumming) stages a thrillingly well-choreographed and cut one-man assault on the White House, scored to Mozart's Requiem Mass (aka "the Cliffhanger trailer music"). You're immediately sucked into the film with this crackerjack action sequence, still a high water mark for the franchise in general.

3.) Hugh Jackman is allowed to fully embrace Logan's "berserker rage" during an invasion of Professor X's school for gifted youngsters, and despite the understandable trims for PG-13, it's still a bracing, vengeful kick seeing him lay waste to numerous cannon-fodder bad-buy soldiers.

4.) One thing I love in superhero movies is when awesome powers are used for mundane, everyday things, like when Bobby "Iceman" Drake (Shawn Ashmore) takes a puff into Logan's room-temperature soda pop, instantly making it nice and frosty. "Thanks."

5.) While no one will ever mistake Rebecca Romijn-Stamos for Meryl Streep, she's clearly having a ball in her role as Mystique (given a delightfully slinky, breathy signature theme by Mr. Ottman), full of subtle smirks that are slyly mimicked by the actors whom she impersonates throughout.

6.) Halle Berry's new wig as Storm is a giant improvement on the first film. Wish I could say that same about Famke's Janssen's unflattering, cherry-colored bob.

7.) Beautiful Kelly Hu, as villain William Stryker's (Brian Cox) mute henchwoman Yuriko, aka "Lady Deathstryke", makes for a striking image, with her icy-blue eyes and a fistful of razor-sharp Adamantium talons that would make Freddy Krueger fall head-over-heels in love. That said, her eventual King Kong vs. Godzilla slugfest with Logan would have had more vengeful kick had she been more developed as a character, as opposed to standing around in the background ominously cracking her knuckles.

8.) Hey, actual Skotek Bros. MINATURE effects in the "collapsing dam" climax! Even in 2003, that was already somewhat retro, but I loved seeing them.

9.) The homosexual subtext of the entire X-Men franchise is put to the fore in the tender "coming out" scene with Bobby Drake revealing his powers to his family, leading to the wonderfully on-the-nose line, "Have you tried...not being a mutant?"

10.) I'm surprised this film has been getting kind of dismissed in recent years, people pulling back on their initial glowing praise to punch holes in it sixteen years later, as I still think it's one of the best entries in the series, with the most adroit blend of drama, action, humor and thoughtful metaphorical subtext.

-X-Men: The Last Stand (2006): 6.5/10



1.) Brett Ratner steps into the directorial chair in place of [DIRECTOR'S NAME REDACTED]. who was off making the same summer's maligned Superman Returns instead. Like all of his films The Last Stand is best described as "proficient", pushing plot points and characters around like chess pieces without the necessary skill with the actors or the running time (it's a half-hour SHORTER than X2) to support the storyline's grand asperations.

2.) Holy CRAP, have the "de-aging" F/X on the "20 years ago" prologue aged poorly. Released two years prior to The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (and years before the MCU would make this kind of stuff effortless), poor Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen look like their faces are mummified in Saran Wrap.

3.) This film has one of the most fascinating plot hooks of the series -- the concept of a "cure" for the mutant gene, and how the mutie community reacts to this earth-shattering news -- and yet doesn't have the courage to really dig into the moral and ethical implications of it.

4.) Ellen Page (just before she became a hipster punchline with Juno) is cast as Kitty Pryde, following the character being played by two different actresses in the previous movies and used for nothing else than Easter Egg sight gags. She's sweet and appealing, but given too little to do, and a forced love triangle between her, Bobby Drake and Rogue (Anna Paquin) never really gels, again, because there's a paucity of screentime to properly develop it. It also makes Rogue into kind of a possessive shrew, with her line, "You're a guy, Bobby, you're only thinking of one thing!" seeming particularly cruel and unmotivated.

5.) Kelsey Grammer is marvelous as furry mutant diplomat Hank "Beast" McCoy, all erudite elegance with a glimmer of feral attitude underneath his natty suits. Perfect casting, really.

6.) I liked the bit during the Alcatraz Island invasion climax with McKellen's Magneto lifting several wrecked cars into the air, so that henchmen Pyro (Aaron Stanford) can set them ablaze to be hurled at the X-Men as giant, flaming grenades.

7.) Seems like Ratner was taking a page from Brian De Palma's The Fury for Stewart's memorable exit from the film...and, in fact, that film was kind of like an R-rated X-Men movie 22 years ahead of the curve (replete with Amy Irving doing her best Dark Phoenix impersonation at that film's explosively bloody conclusion).

8.) John Powell gets his crack at the franchise with one of the better scores the series has boasted. His passionate theme for Jean Grey is particularly good.

9.) Despite the film's immense budget, it can't help seem hopelessly low-rent when McKellen is delivering one of his trademark florid speeches to his mutant brothers...and it's set in the same anonymous Canadian patch of woods you'd see in every other episode of The X-Files in the 90s.

10.) Not as franchise-ruiningly bad as many have claimed, The Last Stand is nevertheless a weak, scattershot finale to this initial "trilogy", with some baffling creative decisions (like not delving deeper into Logan's backstory at ALL), questionable performances. It's certainly watchable, and has many good elements, and yet is a notable downturn from the second film. Still, it's magnificent compared to the NEXT X-Men film...

[Monterey Jack]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009): 4/10



1.) You remember, as a kid, that feeling of seeing your birthday or Christmas presents all wrapped up, going mad with anticipation of what those enticingly colorful boxes contained, and then opening them up to find an ugly sweater from your grandma? That's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a movie that "answers" all of the lingering questions as to Logan's mysterious past in a manner so perfunctory and disappointing he may as well have been depicted as a tow-headed eight-year-old squealing "Yippie...!"

2.) Hugh Jackman can't really be faulted for what a mess the film turned out to be...he's fine as always, trying to inject character into a bland, thinly-scripted film rife with clichés (yes, this is the kind of film where a character, cradling a dead loved one, throws his head back to bellow his rage and sorrow at the camera placed directly above him, a hackneyed bit of visual shorthand that should only be reserved for spoof movies these days) and yet being sabotaged the whole way.

3.) Liev Schreiber is actually very good as Logan's older brother, Victor aka "Sabretooth". He cuts a striking figure with his werewolf fangs, grotty, hooked fingernail claws and hulking physique, and he fights hard to deliver a credible performance even when tasked with delivering a terrible line like "No one kills you but me!"

4.) That said, this was an early example of the wonky continuity of the X-Men series...when we re-visit Logan and Sabretooth's rivalry in the first film (where Sabretooth was played colorlessly by Tyler Mane) set over two decades later, they never even have Logan recognize him, let alone acknowledge they're brothers.

5.) Jesus Christ, are the special effects for Logan's freshly-minted Adamantium claws (replacing the gnarly bone claws he sported up until volunteering for the "Weapon X" program) HORRIBLE. They honestly look right out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit's Toontown. Where did this film's budget go?!

6.) Yes, this was the first time Ryan Reynolds played "Deadpool", and watching it again makes you totally understand why he emptied a clip into himself in one of the best meta-gags in Deadpool 2.

7.) Considering the cameo by Professor X late in the film...why didn't he recognize Logan when he appeared as an amnesiac in his school about 20 years later? It's not that difficult to piece together.

8.) Probably the most generic score of any of the X-Men movies, courtesy of the predictably underwhelming Harry Gregson-Williams (replete with random, squealing electric guitar solos that aren't cued up to anything in particular).

9.) Yes, this is the kind of movie where a character walks away nonchalantly from an explosion going off behind them. As Futurama's Bender would say, "...and he's not lookin' back at that cool explosion! He's a hero...!"

10.) Bland, bland, bland. Mediocre F/X, action choreography, plotting and a Cuisinart of continuity makes this by far the lamest entry in the entire series. Thankfully, the next prequel would set things right...

[mkaroly]

I haven't watched the X-MEN films in years...MJ, I gotta admit your X-a-thon is making me tempted to watch them all again! From what I remember...

I agree that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not a very good film, which is a shame because Wolverine is such a compelling character. I am glad they rectified that in the next Wolverine film which stands as one of the best of the series as a whole...

X-Men was good, but I felt as if it went by too fast. I felt like there were "holes" in the film where edits took place in order to make the movie more compact. It was entertaining but felt "incomplete."

I enjoyed X-2 a great deal; have to watch that one again. Last Stand had an outstanding climax that was very moving to me...I totally bought the emotional climax between Wolverine and Phoenix.

[Eric Paddon]

Nutcracker (1987) 7 of 10

-I recently started writing a fanfic story where for a key character I chose to "cast" in my mind's eye Lee Remick in the role. Consequently I've been going through a number of lesser-known TV movies she did in the 1980s (she died much too soon in 1991 at age 56) and came across this star-Emmy nominated turn of hers that was a three part miniseries originally. It's hard to believe network television was once filled with these kind of projects that ultimately "War And Remembrance" would kill for good the following year.

-The film was actually one of two competing miniseries that came out that year based on the real-life murder trial of New York socialite Frances Schreuder (The other, "At Mother's Request" starred Stefanie Powers), an unhinged dominating woman whose manipulative control of her teenaged son got him to murder Frances's billionaire father who had cut off the subsidizing of her lifestyle (her father was a wealthy auto parts tycoon in Salt Lake City who despite his wealth lived frugally) and whom she was afraid was going to cut her out of his will. The trial is presented as a framing device while the story of Frances's troubled life over a span of twenty years and two failed marriages leading up to the murder unfolds before us. Remick's performance is spellbinding and that's the reason why the production held my attention despite its massive length. It's unfortunate her film career basically stalled in the late 60s and that she never had the level of success she'd known in that first decade. A pre-Smallville John Glover plays her long-time platonic friend who eventually learns the hard way the danger of falling under her influence and gets enmeshed in the murder scheme as well (he too got an Emmy nomination).

-The film presents us a tale of a disturbed, greedy, manipulative woman who committed patricide for her own self-indulgence and used her son to do it. Incredibly in real life, Frances Schreuder only served 13 years in jail and not only got paroled but because her aged mother always stayed in her corner, she got to inherit after she got out some of her father's estate that she'd murdered for. (Another comment on how "life sentences" are often not a true worthy alternative to the death penalty as her story and that of a Charles Manson would reveal. Indeed Remick's performance has a Manson like quality in the way she gets her son to do this heinous task for her and the way she maintains control over him all the way through his own conviction until he finally turned on her at her trial to get a sentence reduction).