07/16/08:
FUNNY GAMES (Michael Haneke, 2007) 
I had watched Haneke’s own original Austrian version of this made ten years earlier; since it’s been some time from that sole viewing, I don’t recall exactly what my opinion of the film had been – but it was certainly more favorable than that of its totally unnecessary Americanization! With this in mind, I can’t really tell whether the new version has made changes to the earlier film’s narrative; I’m not sure, for instance, whether the gimmicks found here (Michael Pitt’s asides to the audience or his ‘rewrite’ of the plot towards the end) were also a part of the 1997 original.
Anyway, Haneke is hardly the first director to have remade his own work – but the result, in this case, is easily among the most superfluous I’ve come across. While the entire cast performs as if convinced it’s involved in the creation of something special, this feeling isn’t shared by the audience (at least, not this viewer); the fault lies with the inherent artificiality of Haneke’s concept and the resultant stiff acting by talented actors (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) who are well capable of much better things. One doesn’t question the possibility that such acts of senseless violence can happen – but, judging strictly by what is depicted here, it’s hard to swallow the fact that the couple (whom we’re given the impression are fairly intelligent) would allow two obnoxious baby-faced brats to terrorize them for the length of time they do without giving them a fair fight (
even if the husband is as wimpy as they come and gets immobilized with just one golf club smack to boot, and the action is confined for a considerable stretch of the duration to a single room).
In the long run, anyone not familiar with the original or the director’s work in general – to say nothing of some conservative viewer drawn merely by the star presences and expecting a mainstream thriller – might well be shocked by Haneke’s casual attitude to violence and especially death; however, neither will they be spared the boredom of his pointless extended takes from a fixed camera position!
07/17/08:
MUSCLE BEACH PARTY (William Asher, 1964)
This proved to be the first “Beach Party” entry I watched, actually the second of the 7-movie series: I guess it has all the required elements – teenage boys and girls, their interaction/clashing with other members of society (in this case, aristocracy and muscle-men!), surf, songs, and even a touch of the bizarre (in the mysterious but erratic figure of Mr. Strangdour and his monstrous henchman).
The tone is that of a light romantic comedy with the expected evocative beach setting (though much of the surfing that’s seen is actually stock footage!). What little plot there is concerns an Italian princess (a fresh-faced and appealing Luciana Paluzzi) looking for a prospective groom – first, she settles on a muscle-bound winner of the “Mr. Galaxy” title, but then draws her attentions over to idle teen (as opposed to teen idol!) Frankie Avalon who happens to be able to carry a tune. This, however, doesn’t sit well with his wholesome girlfriend Annette Funicello – which leads to the two kids splitting, and the three factions at constant loggerheads (sometimes within the same camp). While the muscle-men are managed by Don Rickles and Paluzzi has Buddy Hackett for an advisor, the teens’ resistible comic relief is provided by the goofy “Deadhead” – played by Jody McCrea (Joel’s son!); even worse, they number among them a blonde whose specialty is a literally overwhelming hip-shaking routine (the producers seemed to be particularly fond of this character since she’s all over this film, and the one that followed at least!).
The songs are nothing special (though we are introduced to ‘Little’ Stevie Wonder!) and the climax involves a free-for-all at a club run by the eccentric Morey Amsterdam; however, there’s a delightful surprise at the end involving a cameo by none other than Peter Lorre (a device which was retained for future “Beach” installments as well): incidentally, the end credits inform us that Lorre would return for BIKINI BEACH (1964) – but, unfortunately, he was dead by this time…and another great horror star turned up in his place (read my review for that film to find out his identity).
07/18/08:
BIKINI BEACH (William Asher, 1964) 
This sequel to MUSCLE BEACH PARTY (1964) is only slightly better: much of the teen cast returns, as well as Don Rickles (but, having now forsaken muscle-men for drag-strip racing) and even Stevie Wonder. We do get a number of new faces – eminent publisher Keenan Wynn (with a practiced simian in tow, he’s intent on demonstrating that the youth of today have regressed to pretty much its primitive state!) and schoolteacher Martha Hyer constituting more or less the normal people (they start out as opponents but gradually come to understand and love one another), Harvey Lembeck as the overage leader of a motorcycle gang called Eric Von Zipper (actually, this character had already featured in BEACH PARTY [1963]: here, he’s prone to falling victim, by his own hand, of Peter Lorre’s paralysis-by-touch technique seen at the end of the previous film) and Timothy Carey (appearing very briefly as a pool-playing eccentric who has a werewolf, fitted with a leather jacket, for a sidekick!).
There’s even a second role for Frankie Avalon – doubling as a legendary mop-top and gap-toothed (essentially a cross between The Beatles and Terry-Thomas!) British singer/racer…and, then, there’s that great final gag involving Boris Karloff (seen a couple of times from behind throughout but only revealed at the very end as an art dealer interested in Rickles’ abstract collection, quipping that he ought to tell his pal Vincent Price – noted for his taste in fine art and at the time also contracted to AIP – about it!). It’s these quasi-surreal elements – including the monkey driving Wynn’s car (to the recurring consternation of two traffic cops) as well as a dragster, and even doing a bit of surf…but extending to the final credits as blonde-with-powerful-hips Candy Johnson is joined in her wild dance by an aged member of Wynn’s old folks’ home! – which render the film that much more enjoyable than its predecessor. Otherwise, we get a lot of the same shtick as before – though the beach scenes themselves are thankfully downplayed here; the climax, then, involves a Keystone Kops-type chase which culminates in yet another gratuitous bit of brawling slapstick (this time occurring at Rickles’ pseudo-beatnik joint).
Again, the songs are far from classics but, all in all, the film retains some interest (not least in the contribution of cinematographer Floyd Crosby, production designer Daniel Haller and composer Les Baxter – all of them synonymous with Roger Corman’s contemporaneous horror films based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe!) in particular for characterizing the transition between two trends in youth-oriented pictures i.e. the Juvenile Delinquent films of the 1950s and the Counter-Culture efforts (advocating drug use and Free Love) that would prevail soon after…
07/19/08:
BEACH BLANKET BINGO (William Asher, 1965)
The fifth entry in the “Beach Party” series is universally acknowledged as the best of the lot. Having watched three such films in quick succession, I have to agree: it’s not that those concerned made a concentrated effort at creating something more accomplished than before, but just that all the various elements (while others were dropped or altered) seemed to be more evenly balanced here to produce a generally more satisfying result. Incidentally, not only is the script wittier than usual – but even the songs are kinda pleasant this time around…
Plotwise, we still get Frankie (Avalon) and Annette (Funicello) bickering – but, rather than because one of them is being ‘preyed’ upon by an interloper, both of them are in this case (and, coming via members of a skydiving troupe who’re supposed to instruct the “Beach” gang in just that type of sport, creates a few welcome sparks of high-flying tension). As always, the manager of the exciting but potentially dangerous ‘entertainment’ is played by Don Rickles – whose character name, or moniker, has gone from Jack Fanny in MUSCLE BEACH PARTY to “Big Drag” in BIKINI BEACH (both 1964) to “Big Drop” in this one! Annette’s fling, then, is John Ashley (usually seen as a surfer!) while Frankie’s is spunky Deborah Walley (whom I recently watched in the Elvis Presley vehicle SPINOUT [1966]) – since Ashley and Walley were married to one another at the time, I guess this is why they made the former a rival to Frankie instead of a pal for this particular entry!
Another important change in the nonsensically-titled BEACH BLANKET BINGO (by the way, exuberant dancing blonde Candy Johnson – easily the most resistible element in the two earlier films from the series that I watched, is nowhere to be seen in this one!) concerns the character played by Jody McCrea: while his nickname has unaccountably gone from “Deadhead” to “Bonehead”, he’s now given
two separate romances (which means that his former grating comic relief persona has been considerably diluted). The first involves singing starlet Linda Evans (miles removed from her signature role in the 1980s TV series DYNASTY!), ostensibly engaged in a skydiving stunt to promote her current record but actually doubled by Walley, and the other with real mermaid Marta Kristen, who’s really the one that saved McCrea from drowning but the feat is once again attributed to the naïve but spoilt Evans by her conniving and sardonic manager Paul Lynde! While we do get an appearance from another screen giant here – comic genius Buster Keaton, then going through a much-deserved renaissance – this is rightly credited at the very start instead of relegated to the end credits, since it’s a relatively bigger role than either of Peter Lorre’s or Boris Karloff’s cameos (one in each of the previous “Beach Party” films I’d checked out). Even so, his character could have been better integrated into the plot – since, playing Rickles’ girl-chasing assistant, he’s not given anything particularly inspired to do: it’s fitting, for instance, that Keaton be involved in the speeded-up chase towards the end (by now a typical component of the series intended to mimic the style of Silent comedies)…but the same can’t be said of his cavorting with a trio of anonymous-looking girls during the final credit roll!
Two welcome presences (actually both returns from previous entries in the series, though allowed greater stature than before) are those of Harvey Lembeck as Eric von Zipper – self-pitying leader of the motorcycle gang “The Rat Pack”(!), who idolizes Evans to the point of kidnapping her – and Timothy Carey as the nasty “South Dakota Slim” (though, regrettably, without his werewolf companion from BIKINI BEACH: it’s strange how this actor brings such intensity to his portrayals that he seems to be permanently on acid or something…and this goes for mainstream fare as well, such as CRIME-WAVE [1954], which I watched just a few days prior to this one). By the way, both these actors are involved in the film’s two biggest belly-laughs: engaged in a billiards game at a pool-hall – already featured in BIKINI BEACH, its walls are adorned by portraits of notorious dictators! – and, with Lembeck taking forever to make his next move, Carey acidly quips that he’s shaved twice since von Zipper’s last shot!; the latter, then, enters a trendy nightclub by smashing through the front door on his motorcycle (as is Lembeck’s fashion) – only to land, in this particular case, head first in an aquarium! Besides, the element of surrealism which surprisingly entered the series with BIKINI BEACH is also present here in the form of the fanciful mermaid subplot as well as von Zipper’s ghastly yet amusing fate during the climax at a sawmill (which, again, evokes the cliff-hanging serials from the Silent era).
07/21/08:
FORBIDDEN JUNGLE (Robert Emmett Tansey, 1950)
I’d never heard of this one when I came upon it at my local DVD rental outlet via the cheap Alpha edition; since I wasn’t even familiar with any of the personnel involved, I didn’t have much confidence in the film being any good – but still told myself I’d get to watch the thing someday based solely on its intriguing title and lurid poster (a gorilla carrying a scantily-clad woman)!
However, I was
I also had The Crowd, Viridiana, Paisa, and many other interesting movies I hadn't got to (though I made an effort to try to watch the Crowd I wasn't able to finish it before moving).