42nd Street Freak

Re: Track the Films You Watch (2008)

"Eastern Promises"

Put a gun to my head and ask me who directed this and, unless I grab at the Viggo Mortensen link, I don't think I'd be able to answer.
Perhaps the most un-Cronenberg David Cronenberg movie out.

True we have 3 moments of graphic, gory, violence (the initial throat slicing is an Islamist's wet dream) and the infamous, naked fight/ sauna sequence is certainly the kind of in your face, uncompromising moment (Viggo's pretty impressive genital set-up is waved, wobbled, shaken and sloshed around the screen with wild abandon) you would expect Cronenberg to embrace, but that aside this is achingly normal and often pedestrian thriller making.

Viggo is excellent as the tough as a very, very tough thing 'Russian Mafia' driver and makes for a suitably menacing presence with a touch of something more human on the inside.

Naomi Watts (with a great English accent, toning down her Australian one) is good but is given a very limiting role and she's quite frankly part of the least interesting part of the story.

French ham Vincent Cassel has fun as the drunken brute of a Mob boss's son and seeing his misogynistic tough thug crumbling in front of his ruthless father (who spends much time clipping him around the ear!) is great fun...but hardly serious cinema.

As the aforementioned father/boss Armin Mueller-Stahl is suitably charming when he needs to be and sadistic enough when the public face can be packed away and he makes for a good villain.

But the basic plot and how it unfolds is simply an average Mob based story, we have a main twist/revelation that for some reason is signposted very early on thus coming as no big surprise, and a later twist/plot is also given away as soon as it's offered up by some needless dialogue that basically tells us what's going on before the plan is even set in motion. So again we have no surprises or interesting revelations to add a something extra.

Cronenberg delivers a well made, sometimes brutal, sometimes uncompromising, well acted thriller/drama that is perfectly fine and enjoyable...but the only truly outrageous and surprising thing about it is... it's so basically normal and not remotely surprising.

NEW REVIEWS: "Payroll"/"The Night Porter"/"A Day at the Races"

PatW

Re: Track the Films You Watch (2008)

Imaginary Playmate (2006)

Pretty typical horror movie tv schlock that has a couple of good thrills but not much else.

Mrs Miniver (1942)

A classic WW2 pic filmed by William Wyler in the midst of the second World War. This is a good film that exams what it must of been like to live during those terrible times in London during the numerous aerial bombings. Though it's given a Hollywood slant and some of the accents leave much to be desired, it's still a very worthwhile film and must of done alot to boost the war effort. There are some outstanding performances here most notable being Greer Garson in the title role, who is the heart of the story and Dame May Whitty who was outstanding as the crusty old Lady Beldon. The most memorable scene for me other than the scene in the car among all the chaos is the scene where Mrs. Miniver is holding her wounded daughter-in-law in her arms. Great stuff.


2001 A Space Odyssey (1968)

There is not too much that can be said about this film that hasn't been said numerous times. This is Kubrick's masterpiece. Though many people nowadays are put off by its languorous pace, its poetic approach to our very existence is nothing short of awe inspiring. From the opening scenes of early man, through his encounter with the monolith near Jupiter and Bowman's metaphysical journey that leads to man's next evolutionary step this film was a groundbreaker for its time. Viewing this years ago has lead to many conversations with like-minded individuals and it still stands up quite well as the ultimate Sci-fi film. After viewing this beautiful film many years ago, my love of Science Fiction was only further cemented. Awesome movie.


Lord of War (2005)

A tale of an amoral arms dealer played skillfully by Nicolas Cage that is based on true events. The story takes a look a gun running and is basically one man's story. It doesn't try to glamourize him which is unique in and of itself. The movie is unbiased and there is an inevitability in any case. Watch for the opening montage that follows one bullet until it reaches its destination. Good stuff.

Mario Gauci

Re: Track the Films You Watch (2008)

02/26/08: DANGEROUS DAN McFOO (Tex Avery, 1939)

I watched this – it was included among the extras on Warners’ DVD of DODGE CITY (1939) – as part of a 5-cartoon marathon to commemorate the 100th Anniversary from the birth of one of the most important figures in animation history: Tex Avery. It was actually remade – and considerably improved upon – by THE SHOOTING OF DAN McGOO (1945), a Droopy ‘vehicle’; while remarkably similar in many respects to the later classic, one of my favorite Averys, it is a minor (if still highly enjoyable) effort – for one thing, because of an anonymous i.e. less sympathetic protagonist, but also its more primitive quality (Avery’s Fred Quimby-produced MGM efforts being generally superior to his stuff at Warners).


02/26/08: KING-SIZE CANARY (Tex Avery, 1947)

This has always been a favorite cartoon of mine but it was only several years later that I became aware of its reputation as not only one of Avery’s greatest cartoons, but the fact that it also exemplifies the delirious heights of invention to which the field could aspire during its heyday. A measure of the cartoon’s standing is the fact that it ranked tenth in a 1994 poll compiling the 50 greatest cartoons ever, and was even picked by noted biographer/historian Simon Louvish as being one of the ten best films of all time for the influential "Sight & Sound" poll of 2002!

The plot sees a ravenous cat finding only a sickly canary to feed on; noticing a bottle of “Jumbo Gro” (intended for the artificial growth of flowers), it forces a couple of gulps down the bird’s throat – resulting in the latter towering above the feline itself! At this, the cat drinks from the bottle itself (so that the size of its meal can become, once again, manageable) but carelessly throws away the recipient – which is then picked up by a mouse and, subsequently, a vicious-looking bulldog (with, every time one takes a sip from it, expanding to an outrageous size)! Soon, they’re chasing each other and leaping over the tallest buildings; eventually, the “stuff” runs out – leaving the cat and the mouse at an equivalent dimension…except that they’re so big now the two of them are literally standing on top of the world!


02/26/08: I'M COLD (Tex Avery, 1954)

This Chilly Willy cartoon was included on Universal’s 3-Disc THE WOODY WOODPECKER COLLECTION; I hadn’t yet checked out this set but decided to watch three entries from it regardless, given that they were directed by Tex Avery. The amiable penguin is feeling cold in his igloo and decides to raid a fur warehouse close by – but, with the place guarded by a smart (yet laid-back) bear, it’s not going to be an easy task. This may not be one of Avery’s best efforts, but the constant gag invention in the central battle-of-wills situation ensures a delightful seven minutes or so.


02/26/08: CRAZY MIXED UP PUP (Tex Avery, 1954)

From its title, I wasn’t aware that I had watched this one before – which, despite being a latter-day Avery effort, is every bit a classic cartoon. Again, the premise is simple yet totally insane: a man and his dog are trampled by a car while crossing the road; a cross-eyed male nurse mistakenly applies the wrong kind of plasma to each, with the result that the man takes on the habits of the dog and vice versa. Of course, this sends the wife (and the dog’s own ‘spouse’) up the wall – even if both intermittently revert to their natural states and, obviously, think that it’s their respective mates who are nuts! Predictably, then, the ending sees the wife and her pet getting the exact same affliction after being run over themselves by a car – and subsequently revived by the same eager but clueless medical attendant! And they all lived happily ever after…


02/26/08: SH-H-H-H-H-H (Tex Avery, 1955)

This one’s a variation on the Oscar-winning Tom & Jerry cartoon classic QUIET PLEASE (1945) – with a premise that’s a guarantee of sure-fire gags (in spite of its essential familiarity). A meek middle-aged man suffers a nervous breakdown; his psychiatrist recommends an isolated hotel as the place where he can find the peace-of-mind he covets so much. However, when he gets there, the man is harassed by his next door neighbor – entertaining a female guest and blowing noisily on his trombone! Every attempt by the hapless protagonist to stop the riot they’re making rebounds disastrously on himself; eventually, he decides to confront them face to face – we had never seen their full figure up to this point – and, of all people, these turn out to be the psychiatrist himself and his aide!!

IMDB Reviews

george kaplan

Re: Track the Films You Watch (2008)

When Ladies Meet

Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery and Frank Morgan had all been making films for a number of years, but this is still pre-stardom for them (after all Ann Harding gets top billing in this), and this isn't exactly a star maker for them. Supposedly comic love triangle (or foursome) is really just a light drama, with no laughs, and mild skirting of moral issues (not sure if this is a mild pre-code, or an early code with things toned down). Not horrible, but forgettable.

"Movies should be like amusement parks. People should go to them to have fun." - Billy Wilder

"Subtitles good. Hollywood bad." - Tarzan, Sight & Sound 2012 voter.

"My films are not slices of life, they are pieces of cake." - Alfred Hitchcock

"My great humility is just one of the many reasons that I am vastly superior to everyone else." - Ramrod Clerk

Joe Karlosi

Re: Track the Films You Watch (2008)

Looks like I won't be able to get to THE DEPARTED, which was the big movie that I rented in my most recent batch. Turned out I waited too long to pop it into the player and I had to return all of them or else get hit with late fees. Oh well -- easy come, easy go.

Michael Elliott

Re: Track the Films You Watch (2008)

Ah, it was a remake anyways.

Off topic but that BUG review is up at IMDb now. I've got all of this year and last year posted but I'm already reminded of why I didn't want to post the reviews there anyways. I got jumped by some HALLOWEEN remake fan boys with my PM thing full of "f u" messages.

IMDB Reviews

Joe Karlosi

Re: Track the Films You Watch (2008)

I checked it out. You presently have over 1,000 reviews added there and that's good work. Makes your stuff easier to locate, and you can always go back and edit or fine tune, or change a rating later, or whatever.

Meh - don't let those Halloween guys get you down. I'll have to go and check your review of this and see what their problem is.

Mario Gauci

Re: Track the Films You Watch (2008)

Ouch! I recorded a handful of Lamberto Bava movies off of late-night Italian TV and this is one of them! I have yet to watch any of them – or THE TORTURER (2005) which is available to rent locally on DVD – but the fact that you call DEMONS (1985) "a masterpiece" (a film I rate a BOMB myself!) makes your BOMB rating of this one all the more ominous!!




Unlike Michael, it seems that Greek mythology – and Hercules in particular – has always been a part of my life! Apart from the fact that we were taught about ancient Greece and its legends at school and were shown a couple of movies on the subject, needless to say (given that they were a national product), peplums – as they are officially called by film historians – were the order of the day when it came to afternoon Italian TV fare as I was growing up and they are still highly popular today.

Some of the titles I recall watching at the time are ULYSSES (1954; with Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn), HERCULES (1958; with Steve Reeves and the one which truly launched the genre), HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959; with Reeves again), HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (1961; with Reg Park), MOLE MEN VS. THE SON OF HERCULES (1961; with Mark Forest), FURY OF ACHILLES (1962; with Gordon Mitchell), MY SON, THE HERO (1962; with Giuliano Gemma) and GOLIATH AND THE SINS OF BABYLON (1963; with Mark Forest and Giuliano Gemma). Then there were the two Lou Ferrigno-Luigi Cozzi futuristic versions – HERCULES (1983) and THE ADVENTURES OF HERCULES (1985) – which I reacquainted myself with around Christmas-time. Besides, another part of my TV diet at that time was the animated series, THE MIGHTY HERCULES (1963) which has literally vanished into thin air since then!

While the passage of time has reduced most of the above films to just hazy recollections, I’ve watched ULYSSES and HERCULES a couple of times over the years; suffice it to say that the best-regarded of the lot is Vittorio Cottafavi’s HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMAN in which Reg Park is a lazy muscleman who prefers sleeping to fighting but, eventually, he takes on a women-only Atlantis and their homogeneous army of same-faced men! Unfortunately, Image’s recent DVD edition of this one is the shortened U.S. version but I guess it’s still worth renting if one is so inclined.

For the upcoming Easter season, I look forward to renting Trimark’s 5-Disc Set of THE ADVENTURES OF HERCULES which contains 7 movies 4 of which will be first viewings for me. This Box Set also includes Giorgio Ferroni’s THE TROJAN HORSE (1961; with Steve Reeves and John Drew Barrymore) which is, in my opinion, the finest film to deal with the famous 10-year conflict and one of the touchstones of the genre. While the genre as a whole is generally reviled and looked down upon as the poor man’s epic, it is often lots of fun to watch and among the directors calling the shots on these movies were talented people like Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda, Sergio Leone and Antonio Margheriti. For the record, the peplum’s heyday was bookended by arguably its two greatest examples which transcended the genre into virtually arthouse territory – Alessandro Blasetti’s FABIOLA (1947; with Michele Morgan and Michel Simon) and Vittorio Cottafavi’s THE HUNDRED HORSEMEN (1964; with Mark Damon and Wolfgang Preiss) – but, alas, these two are all but unknown in the U.S.!



A friend of mine gave me this one out of the blue just as internet discussions began to crop up on the film some years back; it served as my introduction to Jean Rollin – a director who, like Jess Franco, I was aware of but looked down on sight unseen. As it happened, I was very impressed with this first encounter which, as you rightly say, is more arthouse than horror and, even if my favorite of his films is perhaps THE LIVING DEAD GIRL (1982) – mainly because of the luscious Marina Pierro – I’d still say that THE IRON ROSE (1973) is the best I’ve seen of his work so far (6 in total).



Careful, Mike – this doesn’t read like a review to me…

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