Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Entertainment › Movies (Theatrical) › Track the Films You Watch (2010)
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Track the Films You Watch (2010) - Page 14

post #391 of 1166
3/19/10 at 9:39pm
His Majesty O'keefe - Burt Lancaster throws himself around like he's got a live wire up his ass in this enjoyable South Sea adventure about a sea captain who hopes to make a killing in coconut oil and stumbles upon an island loaded with the stuff only to find the natives are too content with their lives in paradise to harvest it for him. Even though this movie is really about the serious consequences of white interlopers having a disastrous affect on ancient tribal cultures, the story is entirely too light hearted and concerned with getting on to the next big brawl to be weighed down too much by any message. When I see movies like this, all I can think is that being Burt Lancaster in his prime must have been a blast. 

Hercules in the Haunted World - After lensing a fair batch of sword and sandal epics for other directors, Mario Bava finally gets around to making one of his own and it is a typically fast moving hodgepodge of Greek myth and gothic horror. When Hercules returns from his latest adventure to marry his princess girlfriend, he finds her bewitched by her evil uncle, Christopher Lee, who has assumed the throne in her stead.To free her from the spell, Hercules must descend into Hades and recover a magical crystal stone. Along the way, he encounters rock monsters, female sorcerers and an acrobatic army of the dead. Can he return to rescue his beloved before the Dragon swallows the moon?!?! Sumptuously photographed and filmed in a kind of bold, primary color scheme. Ahhhhh, Bava! 

Surveillance - I went into this expecting something completely different. From the reviews and clips, I thought this was going to be a 'Se7en' type thriller with a huge, gasping twist at the end. Well I'm not that clever and it only took me about 5 minutes to figure out where this was going, but once I got beyond that, or perhaps because I knew what was going to happen, that made everything else that transpired all the more enjoyable. This movie is definitely an exercise in style over substance and it's very entertaining, thanks to ace performances all round, especially by Bill Pullman, who absolutely walks away with the picture. I would say this is definitely Jennifer Lynch's most accomplished film to date. It does show the strong influence of her father, but she really ratchets up the absurd dark humor aspect and that is a large part of what makes this so entertaining. Maybe not for everyone but probably a must for Lynch fans. Dad David also gives us another of his hilariously deranged pop classics in 'Speed Roadster'. 
Reply
post #392 of 1166
3/20/10 at 2:04pm
Ride the High Country (1962)

Interesting western with great performances from both Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea in the twilight of their careers. Here McCrea plays an ex-lawman assisted by his friend Scott who is to escort gold from the mining town down to the bank. Along the way they meet up with some excitement in the form of a strict farmer and his daughter who has a beau in the mining camp and wishes to be escorted there to be married. This is a very exciting movie and Peckinpah certainly has a reverence for the old west, on display here in vivid detail. Though not a fan of this genre this certainly was a good movie with a good story and fine acting. 

The Fourth Kind (2009)

Filmed in semi-documentary type style this type of filmmaking was a bit distracting but the story was good enough to hold my attention. Everything on the screen especially the way it was filmed intercutting supposedly real footage with the film is designed to make you believe what you're seeing is real. Of course common sense prevails and it would have been a much better movie if they hadn't tried so hard. Still alien abduction has always been an interest of mine and there is enough here to make this movie interesting but scarey.......No.
Reply
post #393 of 1166
3/20/10 at 3:17pm
03/18/10: BLUE STEEL (Kathryn Bigelow, 1989)
 
Before anyone starts including Kathryn Bigelow among the world’s greatest living film-makers, it would be only fair to take a fresh (and, in my case, mostly preliminary) look at her past work; so far, only STRANGE DAYS (1995) has struck me as being worthy of some note (this was followed by her two successive efforts and I also intend to re-acquaint myself with NEAR DARK [1987], which I recall as having let me down somewhat, while her first two films are not readily available). To get to the title at hand, this easily proves her most by-the-numbers affair – which plays rather like the distaff version of DIRTY HARRY (1971) by way of FATAL ATTRACTION (1987)! Jamie Lee Curtis is quite good in the lead, a rookie cop suspended for her impulsiveness and subsequently adulated by a mysterious but clearly deranged serial killer; when she realizes who it is and, typically, it turns out to be someone too close for comfort, the heroine still cannot produce any physical evidence to nail him…so, in order to exact justice, she has to take the law into her own hands. Apart from the fact that Curtis and Ron Silver (a truly obnoxious baddie) have no chemistry, which kills the tragic potential of their relationship (though her subsequent liaison, inserted almost as an afterthought, with colleague Clancy Brown – unrecognizable from the imposing villain of HIGHLANDER [1986] – works rather better in this regard), the script includes a totally irrelevant subplot in which she has to contend with an awkward familial situation that sees her mother (Louise Fletcher) suffer repeatedly at the hands of a violence-prone husband she, i.e. Curtis, despises! Inevitably, the elaborate crowd-pleaser of an ending assumes the form of a catharsis for the heroine…but, when the level of plausibility within the entire film is about the same as that of a Tex Avery cartoon, one should not be too surprised if it fails to resonate!
 
 
03/19/10: THE WEIGHT OF WATER (Kathryn Bigelow, 2000)
 
This was another essentially unsatisfying effort from director Bigelow, though I guess she has to be commended for trying something different (since her work tended, incongruously for a woman film-maker, towards action-oriented fare) and for doing it with a certain confidence – since this involves two concurrent plotlines in different time-periods, thus intricate (and, at times, even subtle) editing. Still, the individual moods of these parallel narratives never really jell or, for that matter, work to any significant degree: we have a quartet of characters ‘investigating’ a past mass-murder in a remote location – as the story-within-a-story intermittently unfolds and they begin to realize that a miscarriage of justice had occurred all those years ago, their own gradually crumbling interrelations take on similarly tragic proportions. Though undeniably well-cast – particularly the attractive female roles, including the likes of Catherine McCormack and Elizabeth Hurley in the modern tale and Sarah Polley and Vinessa Shaw in the ‘reconstructed’ events – the contemporary section lacks definite purpose (and is ludicrously resolved to boot), while the period sequences come across as unconvincing in most details (in spite of the inherent poignancy). The end result, then, is often ponderous which, in hindsight, is rather fitting given the (otherwise obscure) title. 
 
 
03/20/10: SHUTTER ISLAND (Martin Scorsese, 2010)

Martin Scorsese’s fourth consecutive feature film to have Leonardo Di Caprio in the lead is one that I felt was slightly superior to their Oscar-winning predecessor, THE DEPARTED (2006); undoubtedly, it is a vast improvement over Scorsese’s previous movie with definite horror overtones i.e. the unsatisfactory and unnecessary remake of CAPE FEAR all the way back from 1991! Having said that, the film is ostensibly a mystery thriller set inside a mental institution and, reportedly, Scorsese drew inspiration from several noirs directed by Jacques Tourneur and his earlier horror output for producer Val Lewton (whose own last effort in that genre, BEDLAM [1946], shared a similar setting to this one). Although Robbie Robertson’s brooding assembled score tends to be overemphatic, this has to be one of Scorsese’s most intricately crafted works, replete with suffocatingly gloomy visuals (courtesy of cinematographer Robert Richardson and production designer Dante Ferretti). Leonardo Di Caprio’s performance – as a Federal Agent investigating the ‘impossible’ disappearance of a female inmate – is arguably his most confident yet under Scorsese’s mentoring; however, from the outset, his character clearly belongs to the “nuttier than thou” variety and the much-touted identity twist in the film’s latter half did not inordinately surprise this viewer! Without wishing to reveal anything of the labyrinthine mazes in Dennis (MYSTIC RIVER) Lehane’s source novel, suffice it to say that the film’s plot turns from an imbroglio a` la THE WICKER MAN (1973), by way of elaborate charades akin to THE GAME (1997),  into a personality crisis in the A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2003) mould. Aiding Di Caprio in bringing his character’s inner turmoil to the surface – and, consequently, appearing to hinder his investigation at every turn – are an impressive array of actors all of whom rise impeccably to the occasion: Ben Kingsley (as Shutter Island’s radical head honcho), Max von Sydow (splendidly sinister in the handful of scenes he is featured in), Mark Ruffalo (as Di Caprio’s ‘partner’), Michelle Williams (as Di Caprio’s dead wife!), Emily Mortimer (as the missing patient), Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, John Carroll Lynch, Ted Levine, and Elias Koteas. Apart from Di Caprio’s harrowing flashbacks to his part in the liberation of the Dachau Concentration Camp (which, we are led to believe, were the reasons for his later alcoholism and disturbed state of mind), there are effective nightmare sequences aplenty (perhaps a mite more than required, actually) abounding with bloodied corpses or dissolving ghosts.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Topping everything up, we have a deliciously enigmatic ending that, again, leaves the door open (ironically enough for a movie set on an island prison) for more than one clear interpretation: did Di Caprio fake a relapse and welcomed lobotomy to pay for his grave, alcohol-induced fault of not committing his mad wife at an earlier stage and thus sparing the lives of his three children…or, was he the murderer of his entire family all along? Because, were it otherwise, why else would he have been institutionalized in this most forbidding of mental hospitals in the first place?!

Edited by Mario Gauci - 3/20/10 at 10:55pm
Reply
post #394 of 1166
3/20/10 at 3:27pm
"Paintball"  -

http://www.beardyfreak.com/rvpaint.php


A group of multi-national thrill seekers are blindfolded and dumped in the woods to take part in an extreme paintball campaign against another, unseen, team.
Suddenly one of the team is shot not by a paint pellet, but by a bullet.

Fleeing from the now lethal fire the team, with no idea where they are, must fight for their lives before it’s game over for all of them….


First things first.
“Paintball” (a Spanish production, though filmed in English) blasts off right into the action as soon as it starts.
Initially we're thrown right into the chaotic, frenzied paintball game (which is actually rather fun to watch and here played with some amazingly fancy looking guns) which 10 minutes later slams us into the ‘real threat’ part of the movie and it literally never lets up again until the end credits.

Thankfully the screenplay manages to deliver a distinctive bunch of characters who are all well acted by the cast who all manage to sketch their roles out despite the endless fleeing, fighting and dying.
This is also a well crafted bunch of people.
Most of the team are very driven, they have never met each other before and suddenly they find themselves being hunted by an unseen enemy of unknown origin and number.
As such their is almost no team aesthetic here. They argue, they back-bite, they betray and they do all they can to personally survive.
It's a bleak sketch of humanity, but to me it rings totally true for such a situation.

The killer's POV is the major idea highlight in the film.
The killer wears thermal imaging goggles which give the scenes a bright white/grey look, which in of itself is not unique or that stunning. But the way it’s used here is very clever and visually important to the movies entire aesthetic make-up.

The film is pretty violent in general, but the real nasty, messy, kills are shot POV through the thermal goggles, as such we can still make out the nastiness happening but it now has a unique feel.
The way such scenes now look, the way the bright white blood outrageously shoots and spurts out of people for example, is really memorable.

But the best use of the killer's thermal imagery is when it’s used to reveal things we (or the other characters) can't see.
There are two superb ‘thermal reveal’ scenes, but the best is the first and it's a really effective surprise and such a great visual trick.

The movies only real problems come in the plotting of the main set-up.
The first ‘thermal reveal’ scene also reveals more of what is happening plot wise, and although it’s a different slant on the idea, we have been here before.

The, rather low key, finale is also a bit of a mess even if it still works.
This is where the plot unravels as we now have a couple of holes left unfilled (though you can sort of fill them yourself if you think outside the screenplay).
This confusion is made annoying by the fact there was no need for it, as without the final moments all was fine and the film had reached a perfectly fine conclusion.

So be prepared to feel a bit at a loss and a bit unsatisfied as the credits roll, but thankfully it's not a movie destroying problem by any means and the rest is so fun, tense, well staged, visually clever, and just violent and bloody enough, to ensure a real good time is had.
Reply
post #395 of 1166
3/20/10 at 8:39pm

“Hollywood”: Episode 3: Single Beds And Double Standards (1980) (TV) Dir: Kevin Brownlow and David Gill

Production: Thames Television

 

This episode opens with a clip of Charlie Chaplin and ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle; one “became the best loved figure in the world, the other, for a while, the most despised.” Before that, however, Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle nearly matched Chaplin in popularity.  FATTY AND MABEL ADRIFT (1916) shows us “a warmth and charm not often found in knockabout comedy”, as narrator James Mason puts it.  A scene from the excellent CONEYISLAND (1917) shows Arbuckle’s ability as a female impersonator, which drew as much laughter as outrage.  We see him serving as Hollywood ambassador, appearing in a promotional short for the World’s Fair with the mayor of San Francisco.  His popularity with audiences played a part in keeping Hollywood just beyond the grasp of the ‘purity leagues’ that were active at the time (and satirized in D.W. Griffith’s THE REFORMERS, 1913).  LIFE OF THE PARTY (1920) shows Arbuckle at the top of his game, recently signed to a $1million/year contract by Adolph Zukor.  With Prohibition in swing, he was the real life of the party, well known for never needing an excuse to throw his own private get-together.           

 

In Septmeber of 1921, following the death of Virginia Rappe from events at a Labor Day party he hosted in a San Francisco hotel, Roscoe Arbuckle was accused of her rape and murder.  Hollywood’s first major scandal was born, a combination of corrupt prosecutors, fraudulent witnesses and a rabid press that smelled blood.  Rappe was a small-time actress of some ill repute (we see a scene of hers in THE ISLE OF LOVE (1920) that also, incidentally, shows a refreshingly blasé attitude towards nudity).  For her own health, one thing she should not have been doing is exactly what she was doing at that party--drinking heavily.  The newspapers take her death as a cue to completely fabricate tales of what happened; Arbuckle crushed her to death with his massive girth, or he raped her with a piece of ice, or a champagne or coke bottle.  The rape tale is promoted by Rappe’s friend, Maude Delmont, a woman also known as ‘Madame Black’, a noted procurer of ladies for parties.  Delmont had run a scam before of having a girl cry rape to shake down some Hollywood type for money.  The opportunistic San Francisco prosecutor, who was up for election, pressures Delmont into taking down Arbuckle, who is seen as a good target to further his ambitions.  William Randolph Hearst pounced on the scandal and used his papers to demonize Arbuckle. Why? Hearst was said to have wanted the film industry based near him in Northern California so he could be a mogul and this was his way of irreparably damaging Hollywood.  Although he eventually would be acquitted (after three trials--in the third, the jury deliberated for one minute and even issued a statement over the drastic injustice done to him), this all effectively killed Arbuckle at the box office and Zukor soon cut him loose. 

 

While Arbuckle was tied up in his second trial, the murdered body of director William Desmond Taylor was found in his home, effectively making Arbuckle old news.  The press knew the script--Taylor’s life was portrayed as an unending string of sex and drugs.  The country began to turn on their screen heroes, angry at the movieland Gomorrah.  The big producers were worried about the film industry surviving this scandal, so they created the Motion Picture Producers Association, an oversight committee, and they hired Postmaster General Will Hays to head it.  Hays’ first move was to ban Roscoe Arbuckle.      

 

Cecil B. DeMille’s THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1923) was seen by many as an allegory for Hollywood’s wayward behavior.  Hays was now Moses (albeit with a $100k/year salary), coming down from the mount with a code to follow.  Hays was actually well liked and he seemed to serve his purpose.  The producers had decided to self-censor as a way to defeat the myriad local censorship boards around the country, all with different standards.  Not that it went off without a hitch or two.  A Hays favorite, one of the clean-cut, healthy, athletic types, was Wallace Reid, a secret, raging morphine addict whose studio was his pusher (first given a dose to overcome an injury and finish shooting a picture, Reid, once hooked, was steadily supplied with the drug by the studio so they could take advantage of his status as a box office draw, rather than sending him on a sabbatical to get a cure).  On the heels of Arbuckle and Taylor, Reid was soon dead of a drug-related illness (Reid’s widow, with Hays’ blessing, produces the anti-drug film, HUMAN WRECKAGE (1923) from which we see a graphic scene of drug use).  Worried that drug use was the new scourge, Hays encourages stars to make promotional shorts showing them in quiet moments at home (we see one of Marion Davies cleaning her apartment at a time when she was living with Hearst in a castle; another shows Alma Rubens at home with her mother--Rubens was a drug addict who would be dead by 33).  Another Hays issue was the large amount of attractive young women pouring into Hollywood looking for work.  The notion of the small-town beauty contest winner off to make it big in pictures only to find it isn’t that easy is the basis for ELLA CINDERS (1926) with Colleen Moore.  The reality was thousands of young women around town, going hungry and willing to do anything.  Or it was the mothers who were not above offering their daughters to the right person in exchange for a break.  Some were reduced to appearing in stag films (of which we see a rather silly and, if you don't think too much about it, innocent example of).  Hays created Central Casting to address this situation, but it was hardly any more successful.  His lasting success was the moral’s code.  Hays’ list of ‘don’ts’ included no kiss to be longer than three seconds; no women to be shown drinking; no excessive violence; no mention of illegitimacy; double beds for married couples to be 21 inches apart, etc.  In an interview, Henry King describes the unintended consequence of this code--it forced talented to people to be even more creative, forcing the art of storytelling, in a way, to take a step forward.  We end with a brilliant example of “arousing the audience without arousing the censor”--Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS (1928).         

 

A great episode in the series, it describes how Hollywood faced its first crisis--the disenchantment from a large part of its audience--and hints at how, through the remarkable talent it employed, it might possibly come through it even better than before.  Interviews include Colleen Moore, King Vidor, Sam Marx, writer Cedric Belfrage, Viola Dana (talking about Arbuckle as catnip to the ladies), Ben Lyon (about Prohibition and the importance of a reliable bootlegger so as not to get sick), Anita Loos (describes the scene of young, attractive people with lots of money and little awareness of what to do), a stuntman named Bob Rose (gives us the scuttlebutt on Virginia Rappe), Karl Brown (on Wallace Reid), Gloria Swanson (talking about her fear, as a relatively innocent girl, of even being near Reid), Henry Hathaway (of seeing Reid breaking down on the set of his last film), director Al Rogell (on the morals code) and Byron Haskin, who tells the story of going to his first party in Hollywood and seeing a big bowl of cocaine in the middle of a table.  Hollywood Babylon!

out of 4

Reply
post #396 of 1166
3/20/10 at 10:11pm
Thread Starter 

The Arbuckle case has always fascinated me for several reasons.

I've never been able to find any "proof" of this but when I was little I remember watching a show on VH1 about various haunted things in Hollywood.  I remember there was an apparent screenplay about an overweight silent star that many people in Hollywood thought about playing but all of them ended up dying.  Belushi and Farley were just two of the people wanting to do the film.  This "haunted screenplay" apparently killed a couple others who tried doing it.  I'm fairly certain this was a screenplay about Arbuckle but I'll be damned if I can't remember this show and I've asked countless others about it and they don't seem to remember it either.

I've gone through quite a few of Arbuckle's films and I've never been totally impressed by them.  There are many gems among them (CONEY ISLAND the best) but I still think he was a few steps behind Chaplin even in the Keystone days.  As for the murder, it's really hard to tell what really happened.  It does seem that he was innocent but William Randolph Hearst and his papers apparently ripped him to pieces (funny considering what Hearst was actually doing at this time and in the future).  The sad thing is that Arbuckle probably would have gotten his career back on track had Hearst done the right thing and admitted that what he printed was false.  Instead, Hearst just fired Fatty to direct movies but under a different name.


With all the NCAA games, I've been sticking to the shorts and just watching these in between everything.  I'm actually trying to get all of these watched so I can move on to countless other sets I've had for ages yet are still unopened.  This time out:

Georges Melies: The First Wizard of Cinema Disc 3:


Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Impossible Voyage, The (1904)
 

aka Voyage à travers l'impossible
 

Melies attempt to pass his landmark A TRIP TO THE MOON doesn't quite come close to that but this here is still an entertaining little film.  Running 20-minutes, this tells the story of a Geographic Society who build a special ship that will take them through the sky, to the sun and then under the sea.  That's pretty much the only type of plot we get here as the master Frenchman really makes for an inter sting film that has more going on for it visually than anything story wise.  I must admit that I found what little story we have here to be quite boring as none of the human characters are all that interesting (not too uncommon for 1904) but the places they visit really aren't that interesting either.  The look of all the locations is what makes this film worth seeing as there's no doubt Melies put a lot of imagination into everything we're seeing.  I really loved the hand-colored stuff as this too had imagination behind it and it wasn't just a scribbled mess.  The underwater sequence is a good one but the highlight would have to be when the ship goes into the mouth of the sun. 
 

Firefall, The (1904)
 

aka Court-Métrage Mes filmsLa Cascade de feu
 

Decent magic film from Melies has him playing a warlock like character who turns flames into a woman and then back into flames again.  This one here will probably be for fans of the director only as there's not that typical magic that comes along with many of the master's best work.  There's a few impressive tricks here but those new to the director would certainly want to watch one of his great works before this one.  I did like the effects of the fire turning into the woman and I'm sure this trick really knocked people for a loop back in 1904.  The films runs just under three-minutes and is a decent time killer but that's about it.
 

Living Playing Cards, The (1905)
 

aka Les Cartes vivantes
 

Extremely entertaining and fun film from the French master has him playing (what else) a magician who puts a plane piece of paper on a stool and magically turns it into cards.  He then takes the trick even further by having the Queen and King walk off the paper.  This here is certainly one of the director's most known films as the tricks are pure magic even though it's obvious to see how they're done.  What makes this film work so well is the fact that Melies, the actor, really is charming and sells everything we're seeing.  He has that certain grace about him that draws you to whatever he's doing and whoever is playing the King is also a real hoot.  The final trick in the film is priceless and makes this one of the more memorable films from the director. 
 

Black Imp, The (1905)
 

aka Le Diable noir
 

Also known as THE BLACK DEVIL, this here is another high point for director Melies.  In the film a man checks into a hotel for some rest not knowing that he's about to be haunted by a demon living in the room.  It starts off simple as the man can't seem to be able to hang his coat up but quickly turns to a chair disappearing below him and eventually the demon pops out for a quick scare.  This is yet another film that Melies is best remembered for and it's funny to see how many times he actually did this story.  There's no question he was a fan of checking in somewhere only to be haunted as it's a subject he'd use many times throughout his long career.  The special effects with all the chairs and furniture are easy to spot but that really doesn't take away anything from the film because it's just so charming.  You can't help but have a smile on your face as one item disappears after another and the man grows crazier and crazier. 
 

Magic Dice, The (1905) Fragment
 

aka Le Phénix ou le coffret de cristal
 

I'm really not sure how long this Melies film was suppose to last but we get about 90-seconds worth of it on the wonderful Flicker Alley set.  The storyline is pretty simple as a magician (played by Melies) turns a dice into a much larger one and then does a few more tricks to it to make it spin around on its own.  That's pretty much the only thing we get here but I found the special effects to hold up quite well with the jump cuts not being nearly as noticeable as in many of his films.
 

Lilliputian Minuet, The (1905) Fragment
 

aka Le Menuet lilliputien
 

Sadly most of this Melies film is now lost and all that remains (a little over 50-seconds) can be found on Flick Alley's wonderful set.  What we do see in the footage has Melies and another person standing on opposite sides of a bench.  On the bench are four small people doing a couple dances.  The special effects of the small people are very obvious but it really doesn't take away anything from the film.  How these small people were used reminded me a lot of a famous sequence in James Whale's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.  There's not much available of this film but I'm glad it was included on the set. 
 

Palace Of The Arabian Nights, The (1905)
 

aka Le Palais des mille et une nuits
 

A 20-minute epic from Melies tells the typical story of a princess who wants to marry the young man she loves but her father refuses.  The boy is visited by some sort of spirit who sends him on a quest and if he can overcome everything that will be thrown at him then the boy will receive riches.  This isn't your typical Melies film from this period as this here runs ten-times longer than the normal films he was producing.  With that said, even though a narration track was added for this film, I still found it rather confusing and in the end it might look good but it's not nearly entertaining enough.  I think everyone knows the story here but there's way too much time spent on scenes that amount to nothing including one with some dancing girls.  There's some minimum action including a nice sequence where the man must battle some skeletons followed by a fire breathing dragon.  This stuff here was quite good and the film needed more stuff like this but we're often left with scenes of the boy just wondering around.  The film was in black and white but many of the scenes were hand-tinted and for the most part it looked excellent.
 

Crazy Composer, A (1905)
 

aka Le Compositeur toqué
 

Lesser film from Melies has a composer trying to come up with his latest piece but he's slowly going crazy from not being able to get anything good.  Soon he falls asleep when a mysterious woman approaches and puts on an "act" that will give him the inspiration for his work.  I was really surprised to see how lame this film was considering dreams are a subject that the director would visit quite often.  This film certainly isn't anything original in terms of the story but Melies does very little with it once the entire dream sequence comes.  There's very little magic on display and instead we're pretty much treated to a girlie show as various women dance around followed by some jokers jumping around everywhere.  Running just over four minutes, this stuff gets pretty boring very quickly. 
 

Enchanted Sedan Chair, The (1905)
 

aka La Chaise à porteurs enchantée
 

Typical trick film from the French master has him once again playing a magician who performs a special trick.  We see a clear glass case with nothing it in but soon a woman appears and this is just the start of the film.  This trick film isn't really anything special especially when you compare it to the other works that Melies did around this time as well as similar themed films from his past.  The trick shot of the woman appearing was pretty good but everything that followed with the cab was pretty bland.  I'm sure Melies die-hards will want to check this one out but there are much, much better films out there from him. 
 

Adventurous Automobile Trip, An (1905)
 

aka Le Raid Paris --Carlo en deux heures
 

Extremely entertaining work from Melies has a man wanting to get from Paris to Monte Carlo but the train is going to take him seventeen-hours so he agrees to go with another man with a special car that will get him there in two.  That's pretty much the story to this 10-minute gem that contains some very good imagination from the French director as well as a couple great jokes re-used from previous movies.  What I enjoyed most about this film is its pacing that's extremely good and certainly a lot better than some of the previous long films from Melies.  The movie has a great flow that really allows the viewer to get caught up in what's going on and this certainly helps with the charm.  One of the highlights of the film are when the men are filling up the car and they go to leave they accidentally have the car in reverse and run a man over.  It smashes him like a pancake but they leave behind on air pump and you know what's going to happen from here.  The special effects still hold up pretty well and the drive through the mountains in priceless.  This here isn't one of the director's best known works but it deserves to be. 
 

Unexpected Fireworks (1905)
 

aka Un Feu d'artifice improvisé
 

The nice thing about going through Flick Alley's terrific Melies set is that they offer up some films you really wouldn't expct to see from the director.  This here is one of them as a man keeps bothering a woman by pinching her so she finally knocks him out.  Then, a bunch of drunks break into a firework store and place them around the man to give him a big shock.  There's really nothing special, magical or too interesting about this film other than it's something different from Melies.  There's really not too much comedy and the only real entertainment comes from seeing all these fireworks going off in front of the actor and wondering how on Earth he didn't get seriously injured.
 

Legend of Rip Van Winkle, The (1905)
 

aka La Légende de Rip Van Winckle
 

French filmmaker Georges Melies does his version of the famous Washington Irving story about a man who runs into the woods to get away only to take a nap that lasts for twenty-years.  Certain key points of the story are left out here so purists might be upset but this is a pretty good take on the story.  This 14-minute film is hand colored and we also get the added narration that Melies added for the majority of his longer movies.  The color is extremely imaginative and really adds a lot to the film but I'm starting to feel that many of the added narration isn't really needed for the movie to be entertaining.  I'm sure back in 1905 it was important to keep the viewers aware of what was going on since they were sitting through a longer movie but I don't think it's really  needed.  The highlight of the film is when Rip must fight off a giant serpent and cut it into three different pieces only to then have more bad things happen.  The ending is handled pretty well and while this isn't the greatest version of the story Melies at least keeps it entertaining from start to finish. 
 

Scheming Gamblers’ Paradise, The (1906)
 

aka Le Tripot clandestin
 

I've always found this to be one of the weaker Melies films out there even though it's still got a fair number of fans.  The film takes place inside a gambling house that can quickly be turned into a clothing store whenever the police are about to enter.  Seeing how the set was built in order to change like it does is clever the first time you see it but then it just keeps on happening and to me it's never really funny or fresh.  I doubt this was the first time the trick gambling house was done so I can't even give this film points for that.  The entire technique behind the changing of the room is nice but that's about it.
 

Mix-Up In The Gallery, A (1906)
 

aka Une Chute de cinq étages
 

Quick two-and-a-half minute short has Georges Melies playing a photographer who is trying to get the perfect shot of a couple who enter his shop.  Soon a dimwitted assistant causes a major accident, which causes the camera to go out a window where the real trouble starts.  Once again we're dealt a fairly interesting short from the legendary director.  Newbies won't want to check this one out first as Melies has so much better work out there but fans of his will want to see it at least once.  The entire film really centers on the two jokes and for the most part both of them work well enough to get you to at least smile.  What happens to the camera once it's outside the window is the main highlight here. 
 

Chimney Sweep, The (1906)
 

aka Jack le ramoneur
 

Having seen over one-hundred films from Melies, to date this here is the worst.  A poor chimney sweeper, a young child, dreams that he is rich and sitting on a throne as people dance for him.  This 10-minute short was pretty much a chore to sit through and I can't remember a time when I was so bored with something from Melies filmmography.  I've heard that this was Melies attempt to shine a light on child labor laws and perhaps what this was meant to be but that never really comes across on screen.  Usually these longer Melies films come with a narration track and it's funny that I recently said they weren't needed but it actually was here.  There's never any real idea where the film is trying to go or what it's trying to do.  The fantasy sequence is way too boring to hold up the longer running time and there's not an ounce of that magic that Melies is so well-known for.   
 

Luny Musician, The (1906)
 

aka Le Maestro Do-Mi-Sol-Do
 

In terms of an original storyline, this Melies film doesn't contain that but it's still a lot of fun.  A musician is in his room trying to learn a new song but the maid comes in and interrupts him, which causes him to fly off the handle and kick the tray out of her hands.  Then the room comes to life and the musicians is about to find himself being tortured.  Melies was a master at the trick film and this here shows his talents at the highest level.  Even though we've seen this type of film from him before I still had a blast here as the sheet music kept moving to different levels where the musician couldn't read it and even better is when his violin turns to a tuba and then various other instruments.  The highlight of the film are the last few moments when he's trying to play the piano but it starts dancing across the room and then violently attacks the musician.  This isn't one of Melies best known works but it's a very good one. 
 

Tramp And The Mattress Makers, The (1906)
 

aka La Cardeuse de matelas
 

This four-minute film has some slapstick as a drunken tramp is walking down the street just as some mattress workers are going on their lunch break.  The tramp sees the mattress as a nice place to lay and falls asleep only to be trapped inside when the workers return and sew the mattress up.  When he awakes he gives everyone a good scare.  The actual "scare" really isn't all that funny and that's the main reason this film doesn't work but it does remain pretty interesting in terms of Melies career because there's actually an edit to a different setting, which isn't normal for his work up to this point.  Normally all of Melies films, outside the epic ones, took place in one setting so it's interesting to see him expanding things a little.  The payoff for the tramp on the second setting is a nice little joke and certainly works better than the street scene. 
 

Hilarious Posters, The (1906)
 

aka Les Affiches en goguette
 

This here remains one of Melies best known works due in large part to it being shown on countless compilations as well as various free sites (like Youtube).  The film has a billboard showing off various people and it quickly comes to life before going back to the billboard.  In a twist, the billboard jumps back to life so that those on it can throw things at the man making money off of it.  This type of trick show really isn't anything new from Melies but it still works simply because of the charm.  The movie runs a quick three-minutes and manages to get a few nice laughs but the technology of the trick shot is pretty low-key especially when compared to some of the work the director was doing even earlier than this.
 

Desperate Crime, A (1906) Fragment
 

aka Les Incendiaires
 

This Georges Melies film isn't complete but seven-minutes worth of it are included on the Flicker Alley set and it's a real shame that the entire thing hasn't been found.  The film was apparently one of his longer ones as it features narration and the footage starts off as a thief is burning down a market that he has just robbed.  Later footage has him being captured and then we see him locked up in prison.  Some great footage also includes him dreaming about the guillotine and the real highlight is when his body is put on there and his head cut off.  I was extremely shocked to see how terrific the effect was when it came time for the head to be cut off.  I paid close attention to see the "edit" but it went past me twice.  This entire sequence is wonderfully done and I can't even begin to imagine how people in 1906 must have felt seeing this.  The effect is beautifully done and the follow-up is extremely well done too.  Hopefully the entire film of this will eventually show up.  
 

Punch And Judy (1906) Fragment
 

aka L'anarchie chez Guignol
 

Here's another lost film from Georges Melies that's only available from the Flicker Alley set.  We get a 29-second clip that's pretty hard to tell what's suppose to be going on in the entire film.  We see a group of people, most women, sitting and watching a puppet show.  The puppet show is a man and woman fighting but that's as much as we get.  Again, it's hard to tell exactly what's suppose to be going on from start to finish but perhaps one day the entire thing will turn up. 
 

Roadside Inn, A (1906)
 

aka L'hôtel des voyageurs de commerce ou les suites d'une bonne cuite
 

Strange mixture of horror and slapstick as a man checks into a hotel where some of the other folks staying there decide to scare him by placing a demon like figure in his bed that will jump out once he goes to get it.  This is a somewhat interesting film from Melies as his camera stays still (like always) but it captures half of the man's room and the other half is covering everything that's going on in the hall.  This adds something original to the film and I must admit that I found this to be the most interesting thing here.  What didn't work overly well was the comedy as it never really materialized and the "joke" just wasn't funny. 
 

Soap Bubbles (1906)
 

aka Les Bulles de savon vivantes
 

Decent trick film from Melies has a woman taking form out of a bubble.  Melies plays the magician who continues to blow bubbles that take shape as various parts of this woman, which he then orders to take form.  This here is certainly an entertaining little gem even if it isn't among the best work from the French master.  I think the special effects hold up fairly well considering this film is now over one-hundred years old.  There are a few funny bits and as usual Melies adds a lot of charm. 
 

Merry Frolics Of Satan, The (1906)
 

aka Les Quatre cents farces du diable
 

Entertaining 14-minute film from the French master has two gentlemen being haunted by Satan as they travel from one hotel to the next.  Before long Satan throws them into a special carriage and takes them on a trip to Hell.  The actual story here really doesn't mean too much because the real highlight here are all the special effects and various tricks that pop up.  This here, thanks in large part to the title, remains one of Melies most popular films and it's understandable as there's a lot of fun to be had here.  As with many of his longer movies, this one here features some narration and it's also hand colored, which is a big plus.  The colors look great and they are used with quite a bit of imagination.  Some of the best stuff in the film deals with Satan, painted red of course, popping out of various places and scaring the men.  Another major plus is when we actually get to Hell and various other demons take form. 
 

Mysterious Retort, The (1906)
 

aka L'alchimiste Parafaragaramus ou la cornue infernale
 

A wizard falls asleep in his lab when a serpent comes out from a cabinet and soon takes shape in a variety of forms including a spider, a joker and a mysterious woman.  This here is another one of Melies most popular films and it's easy to see why as we're given all sorts of nice humor, some weird situations and just an overall surreal atmosphere that really makes this stick out among his hundreds of pictures.  I'm not sure what it is but I always love when that serpent shows up as I find it to be one of the most interesting figures from this early part of film.  It's certainly nothing ground breaking and the effect of it is obvious but it makes for a lot of fun.  The spider here and its web is another major plus.  Fans of the director will certainly enjoy the humor here and if you're new to Melies then this is a good place to start.
 

Witch, The (1906) 
 
aka La Fée Carabosse ou le poignard fatal The Impossible Voyage
 

Colorful and engaging film from Melies about a troubadour who goes to see a witch to get his fortune told.  He promises the witch a bag full of gold but it turns out to be sand so the witch seeks vengeance on him with various hauntings.  Hand-coloring these films are always tricky as some of them look great while others look incredibly bad and silly.  I've seen quite a few of these tinted films from this era and I must admit that this here is the best one I've seen.  I really loved all the colors being thrown around and this is easy to see when the troubadour first goes to see the witch.  The color of their outfits are really terrific and the look of the witch is rather breathtaking and will make you think of the 1939 version of THE WIZARD OF OZ.  The story itself is pretty strong as well, although the subplot of the troubadour trying to save a princess being held captive stops the film in its tracks to a point.  With that said, there are plenty of wild special effects and neat tricks to make this a must see from the filmmography of Melies.

 

Reply
post #397 of 1166
3/20/10 at 11:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Elliott View Post

The Arbuckle case has always fascinated me for several reasons.

I've never been able to find any "proof" of this but when I was little I remember watching a show on VH1 about various haunted things in Hollywood.  I remember there was an apparent screenplay about an overweight silent star that many people in Hollywood thought about playing but all of them ended up dying.  Belushi and Farley were just two of the people wanting to do the film.  This "haunted screenplay" apparently killed a couple others who tried doing it.  I'm fairly certain this was a screenplay about Arbuckle but I'll be damned if I can't remember this show and I've asked countless others about it and they don't seem to remember it either.

 


It's funny, I saw this story when I was reading about Arbuckle.  John Candy was the other guy being talked about for the role.  It seems to be true, that at least they were all considered at some point to play Arbuckle in a biopic.  Some would argue there's nothing really 'cursed' about those three dying at a young age, though.  Apparently the movie THE WILD PARTY (1975) is loosely based on the Arbuckle scandal with James Coco playing Arbuckle, but I haven't seen it.

 


Quote:

I've gone through quite a few of Arbuckle's films and I've never been totally impressed by them.  There are many gems among them (CONEY ISLAND the best) but I still think he was a few steps behind Chaplin even in the Keystone days.  As for the murder, it's really hard to tell what really happened.  It does seem that he was innocent but William Randolph Hearst and his papers apparently ripped him to pieces (funny considering what Hearst was actually doing at this time and in the future).  The sad thing is that Arbuckle probably would have gotten his career back on track had Hearst done the right thing and admitted that what he printed was false.  Instead, Hearst just fired Fatty to direct movies but under a different name.


As far as what happened, I don't think they ever figured out what caused the trauma that led to Rappe's death.  They knew at the time she wasn't raped.  But she was heard saying something like "Arbuckle hurt me".  The theory is that he may have been goofing around and accidentally given her a blow to the stomach which, because of a botched abortion she'd had weakening her organs, would have been enough to lead to the bladder rupture.  In fact, in this episode I just watched, Viola Dana tells how Arbuckle used to do a gag with the girls where he'd fall down and they would bounce off his girth, which would be consistent with the horseplay theory.  He may have at some point put ice to her stomach after she complained about pain there, which explains where the sordid story about the ice comes from.  No doubt though that Hearst is one of the all-time dicks, the more I hear about him.

I haven't seen any of them, but I read that the later Vitaphone shorts he did in the 30's were well received and that Warner Bros. had offered him a contract just before he died. 
 

Quote:
With all the NCAA games...

I'm having the same issue. I suppose you're pulling for Kentucky, but then I guess you're supposed to.  At least it's not Duke.
Reply
post #398 of 1166
3/21/10 at 12:34am
Thread Starter 

I'd like to read more books on the Arbuckle case but apparently David Kalat is still working on his book, which he promises will be the best.  I spoke to Kalat many years ago when I reviewing stuff for All Day so I'm holding out until his is released.  It's suppose to cover everything about Fatty and not just the rape case. 

The (somewhat) good thing about those silents being in the public domain is that they're all over the web for free viewings.  Most of the Arbuckle shorts are out there but the stuff with Keaton is best viewed with the Image discs as they have the best quality.  Some of the stuff he directed after the trial show up on TCM ever so often but I'm hoping Vol. 2 of that "Forgotten Films..." eventually comes out.  It might have to be DVD-R only but I'm looking forward to it. 

As far as Hearst goes, there's a great movie to be told there. 

With the NCAA, I'm a Louisville fan but I was smart enough to know they didn't deserve to get in the tourney.  I'll pull for Kentucky now that they're out but I'm still mean enough to somewhat want to see them fail so that I don't have to hear from their fans.  I grew up a KY fan but I started to hate their fans so much that I jumped ship. 

BTW, I can't seem to open that PM right now but I'll reply as soon as I can.



Bowery Bombshell (1946)
 

Phil Karlson
 

Third film in the series has Sach (Huntz Hall) getting his picture taken outside a bank that's being robbed and soon the picture is in the newspaper with the ad that he was the thief.  Slip (Leo Gorcey) and the rest of the gang must try to keep the police away from him while at the same time trying to catch the real crook, which just happens to be gangster Ace Baker (Sheldon Leonard).  Up to this point in the series this entry is without question the funniest and I'd say it's probably the best film I've seen from them no matter what you want to call them.  While this isn't a classic like their drama pics at Warner, it does manage to be their funniest film with one big laugh after another.  The first thirty-minutes is near classic as we get incredibly fast jokes that are flying left and right and the shocking thing is that the majority of them hit their mark.  A lot of the films going back to the East Side Kids featured decent laughs no matter how bad the movie was but this is the first time where I was actually laughing out loud.  The film starts off with the boys trying to sell a junk car and quickly moves to the robbery where Sach gets a $1,000 reward place on his head.  The jokes keep flying with one very memorable one is the "shakes" Slip gets as he discovers a large bill on Sach.  This is followed by even funnier sequence including one where Sach has to hide in a phone booth while Slip tries talking a cop away.  All of this leads up to another very funny sequence with Sach going in drag.  What really helps this film, at least over the previous two, is that the screenplay seems to have been written with care and a lot of details are given to the characters.  Slip has his typical mangled words but they are double layered here as they are funny because of how dumb it is to mangle them but then there's an added laugh because of what he's says and how it goes against what the situation is at the time.  The screenplay is also smart enough to take some of the spotlight off Gorcey and passing it around.  Sach gets more time here and does well with it but Bobby Jordan is still stuck in the background.  Another major plus are the supporting players with Leonard, William 'Wee Willie' Davis and James Burke doing fine work.  The second half of the movie isn't as funny as the first but things finally pick up again when the boys enter Leonard's nightclub acting like they're the gangsters.  In the end, this is a very funny movie that will appeal to more than just fans of the series.

 

Reply
post #399 of 1166
3/21/10 at 4:51am
The Runaways (2010)

I became a huge fan of Joan Jett when she hit it big with her first #1 single, I LOVE ROCK N ROLL, way back in 1982. As the years went on I remained a devoted follower of her albums, saw her in concert up close at smaller venues numerous times, and even got to meet her in person on a few occasions including getting to go backstage after a gig in 1985. It was only once she'd become a popular solo act that I learned her past history and discovered that she was originally in an all-girl rock band called The Runaways in the 1970's. Thus I found myself going back in time and collecting Runaways records too. So for me, this new film chronicling those early days was something to look forward to, as a Joan Jett lover.

As Jett has confirmed in recent interviews, THE RUNAWAYS is mainly true, but there are also some artistic liberties taken. The now-51, black-haired rock veteran stayed on the set so that young Kristen Stewart (who portrays a teenaged Joan) could observe her movements and ticks, and also to make sure the story stayed somewhat in the right ballpark. The movie begins in 1975 and chronicles Joan's early years as a diehard rock and roll chick with a rebellious nature who learns to play guitar and wants to form a hardcore, all-girl rock band ("No guys!" she insists). She stumbles upon sleazy eccentric record producer Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) who likes Jett's cool spunk and determination, but is more struck with the seedy possibilities of exploiting an orgasmic teenage girl band with guitars ("F'ing jailbait!" he exclaims with glee, pumping his fist). Together, Jett and Fowley begin to seek out other band members. They comb the darkly lit nightclubs where loud vintage '70s music by artists like David Bowie plays, for a blonde girl with just the right look to function as the lead singer for their group. It's there that they discover 15-year-old Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), who's not far removed from her first period and who is desperate to become a singer. The Runaways are formed with Cherie up front possessing no strong rock chops, but getting pushed by Fowley and Jett to vocalize and gyrate like a slut having an orgasm. The girls practice enough to eventually get signed by Mercury Records and take off on a trip to Japan by 1977, which was the only place they struck it big, almost becoming as huge as The Beatles there. As many familiar rock and roll stories go, Currie becomes absorbed in the drug world and ultimately tensions mount within the group.

THE RUNAWAYS was partly based on Cherie Currie's autobiography, and in a way she is the focal point of the story. Dakota Fanning does a pretty decent job in handling this type of slimey material, considering she was only 15 herself during filming. It's too bad though that her character is just not that interesting and isn't anything we haven't sat through scores of times before. I'm admittedly more biased toward Joan Jett, but it's her driving persona which is the most compelling of the film. I was concerned Kristen Stewart might think that sporting dyed black hair cut into a shag would be enough to consider herself Joan Jett, but she actually nailed the aggressive nuances of Jett perfectly. Joan is portrayed as the one member in the film who treats the band seriously, loves and breathes the experience, is determined, committed, and tireless. While Currie isn't really comfortable with the life, Jett's dream has come true.   It's a small wonder that she had such a successful and long-running solo career after the group disbanded. And Kristen's singing just blew me away -- both Stewart and Fanning sang for the movie -- and Stewart sounds exactly like Jett as she belts out part of one of Joan's original early songs, "I Love Playin With Fire".  Unfortunately, the movie only gets to see one song rendered in its entirety: "Cherry Bomb" (sung by Dakota), which was considered the band's only "hit", and was co-written by Fowley and Jett on the spot, specifically for Cherie to learn and sing. The rest of the soundtrack is pretty good, with background songs by Bowie, Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols, and even the real Runaways themselves. As a fan familiar with the original Runaways recordings, it was fun for me to pick them out in snippets here and there.     

The problems I had which kept me from giving the film three stars (at least on first viewing; there will be more) were that this isn't really anything we haven't seen before, and it's something of a typical cookie cutter rock screenplay with no soul other than the determined presence of Joan Jett. Some critics have said that Michael Shannon stands out as creepy promoter Kim Fowley, but I just thought he seemed like a guy spoofing a cliche. Really upsetting to me was that the other three female band members were largely ignored. Not so much the case with drummer Sandy West (who died in 2006 from cancer); she gets a few lines and respectful moments. But lead guitarist Lita Ford (who had some fleeting solo success of her own in the '80s) was strategically left out of the action because in real life she and Joan Jett's camp have undergone some personal problems (Ford says Jett's longtime manager Kenny Laguna disgustingly offered to buy Ford's life story for a thousand bucks). Reportedly, Lita has threatened to sue if she is not portrayed accurately in the film, and while she is largely disregarded, there is only one quarreling scene late in the movie in which Ford (played here by Scout Taylor-Compton of Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN) completely comes off as a whining bitch (!). Most outlandish is that real-life bass player Jackie Fox was completely written out of the story and is now replaced by a totally fictious character called "Robin" (Fox is a lawyer today, so one may assume the filmmakers weren't taking any chances).

In the end I had some fun with THE RUNAWAYS, but I couldn't help thinking that was because I was already clued in to so much of the real deal and was interested in seeing how properly everything would come off. I'm guessing this is a film more for fans than casual moviegoers, but it isn't a bad movie.                 
Edited by Joe Karlosi - 3/21/10 at 5:05am
Reply
post #400 of 1166
3/21/10 at 9:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Karlosi View Post

The Runaways (2010)

And Kristen's singing just blew me away -- both Stewart and Fanning sang for the movie -- and Stewart sounds exactly like Jett as she belts out part of one of Joan's original early songs, "I Love Playin With Fire".

 


I said it earlier in the thread but I really hope Kristin Stewart doesn't get typecast by the Twilight movies. Her singing and performance in The Runaways were excellent in my opinion.
Reply
post #401 of 1166
3/21/10 at 2:34pm
03/21/10: PASSEIO COM JOHNNY GUITAR (Joao Cesar Monteiro, 1995)
When I belatedly joined the Facebook generation only last month – after some persistent goading on the part of my female best friend at work, I might add – I soon came across my old Venetian friend (and Jess Franco authority) Francesco Cesari. I still have fond memories of when, in September 2004, my twin brother and I met him on the eve of the 61st Venice Film Festival and, again, at the very end of that unforgettable fortnight when he took us to his house on the mainland. Apart from the inescapable Jess Franco sample, Signor Cesari was kind enough to introduce us to the work of the late Portuguese film-maker Joao Cesar Monteiro, for whom he also expressed great admiration. In the interim, I have managed to acquire two films of the director’s via the precious weekly late-night Italian TV programme “After Hours” – RECOLLECTIONS OF THE YELLOW HOUSE (1989) and SNOW WHITE (2000) – but, actually, I have yet to watch either of them. Even so, when I chanced across a “You Tube” link to the 3-minute short under review (on, appropriately enough, Mr. Cesari’s “Facebook” page) – where it was described as “one of the best shorts in the history of cinema” no less! – I knew the time had finally come for me to check one of my Italian friend’s idols. Of course, apart from the sheer brevity of the thing itself, another significant element that drew me to it now was the titular allusion to Nicholas Ray’s 1954 oddball Western classic. Since I am in an anecdotal frame of mind, I guess I should also mention another hyperbolic recollection of mine that involves JOHNNY GUITAR – when, virtually a decade before I actually watched the film, my English teacher in college had named it “the single greatest Western ever made”! But I am digressing here: Monteiro has his silent protagonist walk the streets at night, register into a hotel, enter his room and open a window that looks over another apartment in which a lonely woman is brushing her hair on the bed as the unmistakable voices of Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden blast out at full volume from her TV set. Against this backdrop, the man paces around his hotel room smoking and, before long, day breaks over the horizon. An utterly simple storyline – almost so slight that I considered awarding the film half-a-star less – but, what disarms any potential criticism regarding lack of substance, is that such a heartfelt tribute to a great but doomed American film-maker has been conveyed this effectively in so little time...to cite the Oscar-nominated song from Nicholas Ray’s last official Hollywood film, 55 DAYS AT PEKING (1963).  

Edited by Mario Gauci - 3/22/10 at 12:57pm
Reply
post #402 of 1166
3/21/10 at 3:32pm
Thread Starter 

Crazy Heart (2009)
 

Scott Cooper
 

Jeff Bridges picked up his Oscar for this portrayal of Bad Blake, a country-music star who is an alcoholic and finds his later days playing bowling alleys and other small venues.  He meets a female reporter (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who he begins an affair with as he slowly tries to pick up the pieces.  This isn't the greatest film ever made but I don't think that was the goal or intent.  It's strange but it seems like this movie was put together simply to build a great role for Bridges and you know going in that this is the type of role that he could do in his sleep.  Everything in the film is clearly built around it and it should come to no shock that we've seen this type of material before, most recently in the previous years THE WRESTLER.  With that said, people should be coming to this film to see a great performance, which they do get.  They should also be expecting to hear some great music, which they do.  The music and performances are top-notch here and I was a little surprised to see my foot jamming along with the music as it played.  Bridges, who does his own singing, as the perfect voice for this material and he really hits a home run in terms of his vocal performance.  His singing sounds exactly like what you'd expect from this character and he is magnificent in terms of the singing.  As for his performance, it's exceptional as well as he hits all the right notes with this character.  The mannerisms, the worn-down body and even the way he simply walks perfectly shows off this beaten character.  This is the type of role that Bridges could do without much effort but you can see all the energy and fire he's putting into it.  He's surrounding by an attractive cast with Gyllenhaal turning in another fine performance as the woman Bad falls for.  She gives a very sensitive performance and the screenplay does her character justice by keeping her very strong in the end.  Colin Farrell doesn't come off as good simply because of a simple miscast.  He's good here but you just have a very hard time believing him in the role of a country music singer.  Producer Robert Duvall has a nice supporting bit as well.  We've seen this type of movie before and the screenplay really doesn't throw us anything original but that's not really that big of a problem since everything is so well-made and performed.  Fans of Bridges and the old-time country music should really eat this film up as its a tribute to a genre of music that isn't around much as well as a tribute to a great actor given a great character.  
 


Edited by Michael Elliott - 3/21/10 at 5:07pm
Reply
post #403 of 1166
3/22/10 at 7:27am
Big (1988): 3.5/5

Thankfully, we only have to see the young Josh Baskin for about 15 minutes. No offense to the actor, but Tom Hanks is the reason that anyone is watching this movie. The FAO Schwarz scene, the dinner party, and Susan's first visit to Josh's kid-friendly apartment are among the best scenes. This may not be intentional, but when he asked for a milkshake at the party, I was reminded of Bette Davis' catty remark in All About Eve. The romance is handled a little bit awkwardly. Besides the creepy age difference factor, I don't believe that a preteen would act in exactly that way. The implied sex should have been left out altogether. Loggia as the grandfatherly boss is a great supporting character.

Swing Time (1936): 2.5/5

This is my first Astaire-Rogers movie. The dancing and singing are excellent as expected. I enjoyed Mabel as comic relief very much. The biggest fault is in the writing and pacing. I had to watch the movie again with the commentary track on to make it all the way to the end. The romantic rival, Ricardo, is just ridiculous. Homage or not, it makes me uncomfortable to see an actor in blackface makeup, even the less extreme version used in this film. After hearing a little more about the rest of the Astaire-Rogers pairups, Top Hat would be my next choice to watch.
Reply
post #404 of 1166
3/22/10 at 7:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarkin The Ewok View Post

Swing Time (1936): 2.5/5

This is my first Astaire-Rogers movie. The dancing and singing are excellent as expected. I enjoyed Mabel as comic relief very much. The biggest fault is in the writing and pacing. I had to watch the movie again with the commentary track on to make it all the way to the end. The romantic rival, Ricardo, is just ridiculous. Homage or not, it makes me uncomfortable to see an actor in blackface makeup, even the less extreme version used in this film. After hearing a little more about the rest of the Astaire-Rogers pairups, Top Hat would be my next choice to watch.

The only two I've seen are Swing Time and Top Hat, and I preferred Swing Time.  ST's story may be predictable, but TH's story is kind of annoying.



Mostly revisits this weekend:


From the Life of Marionettes (rewatch) - Pretty blah. Bergman's only German film feels more like a parody or perversion of Bergman. The characters are much more "written" than usual, with everyone explicitly stating things that Bergman usually conveys by hinting at or dancing around. One thing that didn't occur to me the first time is that Peter and Katarina are the same people from Scenes from a Marriage, the friends of Johan and Marianne. Unfortunately, this doesn't really make it any more interesting... in fact, I thought that episode from the earlier movie said far more about their relationship than this entire movie. I don't want to say this film is bad (although the music certainly is) because there are some good moments, and some intense confrontations. It just seems kind of easy and obvious, and it doesn't engage my attention very much. Rating: 6


Gaslight (rewatch) - This movie does have its flaws. Ingrid Bergman is too hysterical and pathetic, the beginning and the ending are too drawn out, and the surprises are none too surprising (although it's hard to judge on a third viewing... they might have been more surprising the first time). But I just love how it's plotted, I always get wrapped up in it, so even being aware of its shortcomings it's still a favorite. Charles Boyer is such an evil bastard, and his plan is so fucking devious that you almost wish you could try it out on someone. My wife would never fall for it, of course. It'd be hard to imagine any woman falling for it nowadays. I think a modern version with the genders reversed would be interesting, actually. The 1940 adaptation is also on the DVD, supposedly it doesn't have some of the problems as this version. I'll have to watch it sometime, but not today. Rating: 9


Gilda (rewatch) - After I finish my noir binge, I might have to go on a Rita Hayworth binge. She's definitely the best thing about this movie. Outrageously sexy and forcefully electric, she completely commands your attention. Her performance of "Put the Blame on Mame" (lip-synched, but who cares?) is utterly captivating. The rest of the film isn't bad either... a little long and the whole tungsten subplot is entirely ho-hum, but the dialogue is terrific and there's some interesting surprises. Rating: 8


Angel Face (rewatch) - I've watched 35 noir films in the past month and my enthusiasm for the genre hasn't waned one iota. In fact, I'm more hungry for it than I ever was. What's interesting about this one, besides the spectacular ending (one of the best of all time), is that Jean Simmons is very repentant as the femme fatale. Usually they end up being victims of their own schemes, but in this case she really has a guilty conscience about it. A little slow-moving, but generally satisfying. Rating: 8


Out of the Past (rewatch) - Robert Mitchum double-header today. This isn't the best noir in my opinion, but it is probably the most definitive. It's practically a checklist of noir attributes: a femme fatale and a good girl, a hero (part anti-hero) with a shadowy past, the inability to escape that past, the inevitability of fate, a spiralling down, snappy hard-boiled dialogue, high-contrast lighting, jazz and moody score, voice-over narration, juxtaposition of city and rural life, private dicks, gangsters, suspense, entrapment, twists and double-crosses, dark psychology, and violence. Mitchum is fantastic in one of his most iconic roles, a guy who always thinks he's one step ahead of his enemies but never is. And Jane Greer's evil dame is sublime, playing the innocent victim (and in some ways, she is) right up to the very end. Another common noir staple is a convoluted plot, and here is where the film falters the most for me. The business about Fisher and Eels and the tax papers and the affidavit gets pretty tangled and confusing, and starts to lead the story astray. I find my interest waning during the second half. But the movie is such a pure example of the genre that a few missteps are easy to forgive. Rating: 8


Murder, My Sweet (rewatch) - Speaking of complicated plots, this one's a doozy. As a Raymond Chandler story, it's not quite as hard to follow as The Big Sleep, but it doesn't make much sense until the very end. That doesn't really matter so much... the bigger problem is Dick Powell. He makes a lousy Marlowe, far too smug and goofy. He plays it almost like he's in a romantic comedy or something. Nonetheless, the movie can be a lot of fun, the lighting is excellent, and the dialogue is loaded with goodies. Rating: 7


The Asphalt Jungle (rewatch) - One of the great heist-gone-wrong pictures, maybe the greatest. It's very poetic in its handling of the human condition. Every character has his own cross to bear: greed, cowardice, disability, a family to feed, a weakness for young girls, an unhappy childhood. It's a microcosm of misery and desperation and vice. The casting is perfect, the performances are compelling from the top to the bottom. Tensely plotted and gorgeously filmed. Rating: 9


Dillinger - From the title you can tell this is more a straight gangster movie than a true noir. It's cheap and quick and dirty, and quite a bit of gritty fun. But there's nothing superlative about it at all, it's pretty standard stuff. Lawrence Tierney is the only noteworthy aspect, intimidating and forceful in his screen debut. A few giddily enjoyable touches, such as the amusingly ironic ending... nothing to write home about, though. Rating: 7


Born to Kill (rewatch) - Might as well do back-to-back Lawrence Tierney flicks. He's even more menacing and psychotic here, really a scary mofo. Walter Slezak and Esther Howard are also both very memorable in their small roles. The movie has a lot of trashy, campy charm to it, and with its dark psychological themes of sexual obsession it's much closer to noir than Dillinger. But on the whole it's just too soapy, largely due to the terrible, string-heavy score and the upper-class setting. There's also not much of the style later evident in Wise's The Set-Up. A few of the scenes really sing, but a number of them come off as flat. Rating: 7


The Narrow Margin (rewatch) - My opinion hasn't changed too much on this one. Not especially noir-ish, but a pretty damn good thriller. Marie Windsor is terrific, and I like Charles McGraw a little more than I used to. The plot keeps you really engaged and throws some unexpected twists at you. There are a couple of holes (or at least implausibilities) but nothing devastating. Rating: 8
Reply
post #405 of 1166
3/22/10 at 10:15am
 Always thought the sex part of "Big" was creepy and hypocritical.
No way in hell would that be allowed if the roles were reversed and it was a little girl in a woman's body.



"The Land that Time Forgot" -

This long time fave and ever popular title still holds up today.

The dino FX are cheesy, as are some of the model effects...But some of the model work is okay and the film is packed with great images and spectacle.

I remembered about the end as far as the fate of 2 characters was concerned (something that would lead onto the less successful sequel and make it even bleaker than it already is) but I forgot what happened to everyone else.
Man, this has to be one of the darkest, dour and grim children/family films around.
They don't make family films like this now...especially ones with child pleasing monster action.

All of these 'Amicus but not' Kevin Connor films had a slightly dark edge to them ("At the Earth's Core" was much lighter in tone than "Land" but had some pretty violent moments and multipe deaths for a kids film), but here the entire film is dark.

The first 30 minutes is simply a very cold-blooded, serious, war film with plentiful deaths.
The monster part of the film is equally as serious in how it is played, the dinosaur scenes are often a bit bloody and not done as thrilling spectacle...more like constant death and warfare that matches the existence of the human characters.
Basically a whole hell of a lot of people die (often at the hands of other people, even stone age people) by being shot, beaten, stabbed, hacked and chewed.

It all ends on such a ferociously nihilistic, doom-laden, note that you have to wonder how well kiddies slept in 1975 after seeing it! Generally good stuff, with a good cast all in fine form and packed with incident and spectacle..but amazingly not that much actual fun at the end of the day.
Reply
post #406 of 1166
3/23/10 at 4:39am
 Ninja Assassin - A bit of a disappointment after 'V for Vendetta' and 'Speed Racer' - I guess I expected to be thoroughly immersed in the world of the Ninja and instead, I got a rather hokey plot about an investigative reporter who thinks Ninjas are one of the most serious threats to peace and happiness in the free world. I could easily see something like this having been made in the 80's, starring Vanessa Williams and Don 'The Dragon' Wilson. The fight scenes are spectacular and worth the price of admission for Blu-Ray fanatics, but I don't know if all the CGI blood is really 'Cutting' it (Ho ho ho). In 'Zatoichi', they used the CGI effect to great advantage, to emphasize that they were telling a kind of Japanese folk tale. Here, I think, it's meant to make everything appear more stylish and Manga-like, but it gets to be a bit much. The chain knife weapon is pretty cool though and there are a few scenes where it seems to whip around right in front of your eyes, which almost has a 3-D effect to it. McTeigue and the Wachowski's haven't stopped being visual innovators here but this time out, the story is a little weak and pedestrian.
Reply
post #407 of 1166
3/23/10 at 9:35pm
046 03/20 - The Descent 2 (2009) 2/5 - Cheap-o sequel has some good gore effects and little suspense.  Just watch the original.

047 03/20 - Survival of the Dead (2009) 2.5/5 - Romero fucks about clobbering you with more social commentary instead of concentrating on the horror. Add a dopey family feud plot and a cheap shot in Canada feel, and this is a another Romero mess.  The CGI gore is crap, but the practical effects are decent enough to have me sit through this and not hate it as much as the dreadful DIARY OF THE DEAD. 

048 03/22 - Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut (2009) 3.5/5 -  Adding "The Black Freighter" to the Directors cut is a great idea on paper, and in action it actually works really well.  It just kills the pace of the film though, and makes it crawl.  I'll stick with the DC.

049 03/22 - Age Of Believing: The Disney Live Action Films (2009) 4/5 - Great doc on the often forgotten live action output of the house of mouse.  Lots of clips, some great stories and it's as entertaining as it is informative.  All you want in a doc.
Reply
post #408 of 1166
3/24/10 at 12:16am
 Toy Story/Toy Story 2 - I had to take another break from the slush pile and see how these modern classics spiffed up for Blu-Ray. The results are predictably awesome - what really got me was the texture of everything, especially all the different toys - just shows what a fanatical devotion to quality can produce. The first film is the groundbreaker, almost singlehandedly rescuing animated features from a deep deep bog. The second film I had not seen since it was released and might actually be the funnier of the two, thanks to Tim Allen's tour de force playing old and new Buzz Lightyear at the same time. People much more eloquent than I will be waxing rhapsodic about these films, so I'll keep it short. Suffice to say, I'm thrilled to have these films on Blu. A thing of beauty is a Toy forever. (Man, got to start laying off those puns...)
Reply
post #409 of 1166
3/24/10 at 5:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russell G View Post

048 03/22 - Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut (2009) 3.5/5 -  Adding "The Black Freighter" to the Directors cut is a great idea on paper, and in action it actually works really well.  It just kills the pace of the film though, and makes it crawl.  I'll stick with the DC.
 
Yeah?  I've only seen the 'Ultimate Cut'...and I loved it.  
I was wondering when deciding which version to buy (DC or UC) if the 'Freighter' portions would kill the film.  But I really like it.  
But I have not seen the 'DC' to compare.  

But I loved the 'UC' and the 'Under the Hood' extra was also a fine addition to the film (is it 'UC' exclusive that?) so I'm happy.
Reply
post #410 of 1166
3/24/10 at 8:26pm
Thread Starter 

Alcove, The (1984)
 

Joe D'Amato
 

Interesting tale from D'Amato about a Captain (Al Cliver) returning from a battle in Africa where he was given a slave, Zerbal (Laura Gemser) as a gift for saving a tribal leader.  Back at home his wife (Lilli Carati) is having an affair with her secretary (Annie Belle) but soon Zerbal begins to come between them but it might be more than just your typical lesbian affair.  I was really surprised with this film because it's actually very well-made and features a pretty good story.  One is probably going to walk into this thing expecting nothing but a sex romp and while there is a lot of sex it really never takes center stage over the story being told.  D'Amato made a very long career out of sex movies so this one here is certainly a lot different than many of the items he was releasing around this period.  What really stands out is the actual production.  The film takes place during the 1940s so we've got the older cars, costumes and set design, all of which is extremely good looking.  Another plus is the cinematography from D'Amato, which to me is his greatest aspect (a lot better than his directing).  All of this makes for a pretty interesting atmosphere and most of the sex scenes are quite erotic (though some enter a camp level).  The film also benefits from an fun Euro-cult cast with Gemser leading the way as the obvious sex object to everyone.  If you've seen any of her films with D'Amato then you should know what to expect.  Belle really stands out and delivers a fine performance as does Carati.  Cliver, God bless him, is his usual fun self.  What keeps the movie from being even better is its rather slow pacing and it also goes on a tad bit too long at 93-minutes.  I think a good ten minutes could have been cut out and we really wouldn't have lost anything story-wise.  The film is pretty straight-forward and is well-made but at the end of the day this here is still going to be for D'Amato completest only.
 

Body Disappears, The (1941)
 

D. Ross Lederman
 

Weak Warner comedy was released the same year as the much better THE INVISIBLE WOMAN from Universal.  In this film a professor (Edward Everett Horton) makes a serum that will bring the dead back to life.  He accidentally puts it in a man (Jeffrey Lynn) who he thought was dead but since he wasn't it turns him invisible instead.  I had heard a few good things about this one over the years but having actually seen it now I must admit that I found it to be quite boring from start to finish.  I seems that the cast knew they were working with a bad script and went into overdrive in terms of trying to keep the energy up but it really doesn't work here.  The biggest fault is the actual screenplay that has one lame invisible joke after another.  I don't think THE INVISIBLE WOMAN is a masterpiece or anything close but it at least knew had to write for some good and funny jokes.  The screenplay here seems to have been written in the matter of hours as there's never really any clear focus on what it wants to do or what type of humor it really wants to try for.  Horton is full of energy and isn't too bad in his role but he doesn't get much to work with.  Lynn is wasted and pretty much only lends his voice.  Jane Wyman plays the daughter of the scientist but isn't given much and even Willie Best doesn't get any good lines.  The special effects aren't any better, although they're not as bad as I was expecting.  Whenever anything invisible is on the screen you can see the outline of their body but the center portions of them are pretty clear and hard to see.  The film runs a brief 72-minutes but it feels at least a half-hour longer.  Fans of sci-fi who must see everything in the genre might want to check this out but others should stay clear.

Rocky Horror Picture Show, The (1975)
 

Jim Sharman
 

It's hard to view this film today without taking into account its history of bombing when first released to the fact that it continues to play packed houses each Saturday across the country (and perhaps world).  This musical is pretty simple story wise and love birds Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon) show up at a creepy castle where inside awaits all sorts of strange creatures including the one and only Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry).  I've seen this film around four or five times at the midnight screenings including once on Halloween night, which was a real blast with well over a thousand people in attendance.  I think a live screening is the best way to view this film but even without the crowd there's enough charm here to make it worth seeing at home.  I think what makes this film work so well are the three leads as they each give a wonderful performance.  You can believe both Bostwick and Sarandon are their characters as he makes for the perfect dork and her the perfect virgin.  I love how at times they're so serious in their roles yet at other times, when the film calls for it, they go over the top and are completely charming.  Curry is simply wonderful here as the crazy doctor and it's one of those cases where you really can't see anyone else in the role.  The three of them work extremely well together and they really make this film special.  We also get some great songs with the highlights being "Dammit Janet", "Sweet Transvestite", "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" and the wonderful "The Time Warp" that could get anyone up and dancing.  The cinematography is another major plus as are the wonderful sets and costume design.  Is this a flawless movie?  To me it's not even close as I've always felt that the last half-hour is a bit of a letdown especially coming after the wonderful first hour.  I also think some of the supporting performances are less than stellar but there's no denying the cult appeal of the film and it's certainly worth viewing but anyone who is a fan of the weird.
 

Stagecoach (1939)
 

John Ford
 

John Ford's landmark Western doesn't contain the same punch as I'm sure it did in 1939 but it's still a very impressive achievement.  Of course, the film will always be remembered for making John Wayne a star but it's also a film that took the genre out of the low-budget "B" range and put it high on the studios list of films to make.  The story is fairly simple as a different range of people are trying to make it through Indian territory with the deadly Geronimo liable to attack at any moment.  There's a lot to admire in this film but for me the greatest thing about it is the ensemble cast.  Not only do we have Wayne as the Ringo Kid but we get Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Donald Meeks, Thomas Mitchell, Louise Platt and George Bancroft.  Each cast member really does a wonderful job at making their characters more that one-dimensional stereotypes and they also made the return for characters to be a mixture of good and evil.  In way too many Westerns people were either good or bad without too much in between.  This trend started when sound came into play and studios were making "heroes" but Wayne's character here proves that you could be both good and bad and still be a hero.  It's easy to see why Wayne would become a star with this movie because there's so much energy behind him even when he's talking with that laid back style or walking at a calm pace.  Carradine is another stand out to does a great job and his work with Ford was always quite impressive.  The scenery is another major plus as is the cinematography.  Who will ever forget those beautiful shots of Monument Valley or that incredible first shot of Wayne's character?  The action scenes are filmed with so much detail that you feel as if you're right down in the middle of everything going on.  Ford's direction is at the top of his game and really makes for a fun ride.
 

Black Mama, White Mama (1973)
 

Eddie Romero
 

Silly if mildly entertaining rip-off of THE DEFIANT ONES only with females.  Pam Grier plays the black girl and Margaret Markov is the white one, they hate each other but must come together to escape prison and eventually go on the run trying to do get done what they need to live peaceful.  This film was shot in the Philippines by a director known for creating some low-budget horror films including MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND and BRIDES OF BLOOD.  He brings a nice atmosphere to the film as he obviously knows the land very well and the Philippine settings really add a lot to the movie.  With that said, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that they didn't achieve a tad bit more considering some the camp talent they had involved here.  For starters, both Grier and Markov fit into their roles very nicely.  Both look extremely sexy and they work well off of one another even if neither one gives what one would call a good performance.  We also have Sid Haig playing a bounty hunter and he adds some additional entertaining especially in one scene where he goes up to a father and takes his two daughters into a bedroom.  The film has been labeled as a blaxploiation pic but that's really not true as Grier is the only black member in the entire cast.  The racial elements from the original film have pretty much been taken out and the main reason the two hate one another is that Markov was willing to sleep with a female guard to get off work detail!  Future Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme was credited with co-writing the story that the screenplay was based on and one would have thought a little more imagination would have gone into everything.  We get a few nods to the original film and one to COOL HAND LUKE but the screenplay and story really don't add anything fresh or original.  The movie does feature non-stop nudity and we get the shower scene with all the female prisoners.  I think the film would have done a lot better had it gone for more instead of trying to simply tell a bad story.  The nudity is fine, the cast is fun but in the end there's just not enough here to make this a complete entertainment.  It was a nice touch having Grier in white panties and Markov in white. 
 

Hollywood Ghost Stories (1986)
 

James Forsher

John Carradine hosts and narrates this mildly entertaining documentary about various hauntings around Hollywood. We get various stories being told including William Peter Blatty talking about a couple strange things that happened during the making of THE EXORCIST. We also have Elke Sommer talking about her haunting house that eventually caught fire like a psychic had told her would happen years earlier. WE also get a few other mildly interesting stories as well as countless clips from various horror movies including Dracula, POLTERGEIST, THE EXORCIST, THE TERROR, YOU'LL FIND OUT and others. We also get to hear stories about supposed hunting's of George Reeves, Houdini and Rudolph Valentino. This is a pretty mixed bag because on one hand there are way too many clips from the movies. Sure, some of the movies deal with hauntings but this is a documentary about real hauntings so showing clips from Abbott and Costello and Bowery Boys movies really weren't needed. Another problem is that some of the stories being told are rather boring and this is especially true during the segment on THE EXORCIST. There were some weird things that happened during this film but the story told here by Blatty is pretty flat. Some of the hauntings by the real stars were extremely interesting and it's too bad more of these weren't discussed. We get those who believe and those who are skeptical about such things so at least the documentary tries to show both sides and give them equal time.

Reply
post #411 of 1166
3/25/10 at 5:42am
"Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror" -

http://www.beardyfreak.com/rvgay.php


On the eve of a large Gay and Lesbian party weekend five groups of guests arrive at the ‘Sahara Salvation Bed and Breakfast Inn’ as it’s renowned for being Homosexual friendly.

But the B&B is run by a fanatic Christian fundamentalist named Helen  and her daughter Luella, who Helen wants to find a husband for , by converting a ‘confused’ Homosexual man back to the spiritual path of Heterosexuality, to move Luelle away from her sinful Lesbian desires.

And if all that wasn’t enough it turns out Luelle has a mysterious brother named Manfred who is meant to be kept locked up....


Opening with a groovy title sequence that sees a blonde go-go dancer belt out a fine tune called 'Watch Out For The Straights’ "Gay B&B of Terror" starts out okay.
The Gay/Lesbian characters are all walking cliches of course and with such a title and such a set-up it will come as no surprise that director/star Jaymes Thompson’s film is camped up to the max and he keeps things moving at a steady lick (ho ho).

The film is far too long though and should have been tightened up in the editing phase.
And although the multiple flashbacks, that reveal various twists in the tale, are mostly entertaining enough (indeed the Mother‘s flashback, about the conception of Manfred, is a glorious work of warped genius and also a great anti-Republican take on the origins of Freddy Krueger no less), they are generally too long and appear too late in the narrative and thus slow down the escalating chaos as we move towards the climax (ho ho).

Dialogue is not anywhere near the greatness of a John Waters film or is the deliver of it but there are still a few gems to be dug up and admired here:
Highlight has to be the deranged Helen’s utterly mad rant to a tied up Alex;
“You will no longer yearn for the engorged penis of a well-muscled man in uniform! From this point on you will embrace the light of God and dream of the sugar sweet holy vaginal walls of your soon to be wife, and my lovely daughter, forever”!

Indeed Helen, in the most flashy and Watersesque role, has all the best speeches.
Enjoy such gems as "I must pray very hard…There’s too many fvcking assholes around”

What’s really surprising here though is the relative lack of strong sex or (really surprising) full-on nudity.
As a low-fi, SOV, Gay themed horror film it was surely not aimed at, or was ever going to catch, a mainstream audience or market, so why be so tame with the sexuality?
Plenty of opportunities for full frontal nudity are here, but instead we have underwear left on and towels wrapped around waists.
Indeed the only penis on display (can you believe, in a film called “Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror”, have to write that!?) is attached to a blood covered dead body.

And talking of blood covered bodies…Where the film pretty much fails to deliver on the sex/nudity front it at least delivers on the horror front.
The murders are very bloody and pretty violent and whether it’s Helen or Luelle and their crucifix-handled dagger or Manfred and his foul fangs much blood is shed with lots of passionate shrieking to back it up.

The finale is wildly OTT and utterly chaotic and if it all seems a trifle forced and over-plotted at least the twist at the end is pretty amusing in concept, if strangely serious in much of its execution.
All of which results in a film that is sadly not as good as it should have been with such a set-up and a film that lacks much of the sex and nudity it should surely have had by default.

But despite all this  “The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror” still manages to be fun, camp, passionate and ultimately entertaining thanks to the plentiful blood, some fun dialogue, the performances (especially Mari Marks as Helen and Georgia Jean as Luelle) and the general energy it gives off.

Next time though Mr Jaymes ‘assless leather chaps’ Thompson, pile in more damn sex and nudity please!
Reply
post #412 of 1166
3/26/10 at 8:47am
Thread Starter 

Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)
 

Mark L. Lester
 

Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee play two completely different types of cops who try to crack down on a drug dealer (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) stalking the streets of Little Tokyo.  Lundgren is seeking the dealer for personal reasons as he was the one who slaughtered his parents years earlier in Japan.  I must admit that I laughed harder during this thing than in the majority of the comedies I watch.  I really couldn't believe have many guts this film had simply to go over the top no matter how silly a scene, some dialogue or the action was.  This is certainly the type of movie that will require you to turn your brain off because if you tried to link an ounce of logic to this thing then you're going to be disappointed.  What I enjoyed most was the absolute craziness and the camp that was in each scene.  It really didn't matter what the scene was going for because it would turn out so outrageous that you couldn't help but to laugh.  One of the best scenes, for laughs, is when the dealer brings L.A.'s gang members together for a meeting.  The different type of ethnic groups in this thing was hysterical as was what happens to one of the biker members who dared to speak up.  Some other funny sequences includes a scene towards the end where Lundgren is running around in a small pair of shorts for no reason other than I'm sure the actor wanted to show off his body to all the women who might have been dragged into this thing by their boyfriends.  Speaking of Lundgren, his performance here certainly isn't good but it's bad enough to be rather charming and fun.  His line delivery certainly leaves a lot to be desired but it made me laugh quite a few times so this is a plus.  Lee doesn't fair too much better but he at least gives some type of performance, although the screenplay turning him into comic relief didn't really work.  I did enjoy Tagawa as the bad guy and Tia Carrere isn't too bad as the love interest.  The movie tries to go for everything and this is a good thing as we get constant nudity, non-stop violence, body parts being chopped off, people being smashed to death and even a couple of weird suicide scenes.  This is the type of action movie that really goes for broke as it runs a brief 78-minutes and there's really not a dry moment to be found.  Fans of high art might not get any redeeming values from a film like this but fans of action can sit back and enjoy the craziness that follows.
 

Hitman, The (1991)
 

Aaron Norris
 

Chuck Norris plays an cop who seeks vengeance for being double crossed by his former partner (Michael Parks) by going undercover in the mob and killing as many Mafia members as possible.  He also strikes up a friendship with a young black boy but in the end it's all about revenge against Parks.  I really didn't go into this movie expecting too much and I walked away from it getting very little outside of some rather funny moments.  This is a poorly executed movie that makes very little sense but fans of "B" action movies might find enough entertainment here for a viewing.  Being from Cannon you can expect the low budget to be made up for with cheap explosion and dumb action scenes, which is exactly what we get.  I guess the producers didn't want Norris playing 100% bad so they wrote in the silly subplot dealing with the little black kid but this does lead to one of the funniest scenes in the film.  The black boy is getting picked on by some racist kids so naturally Norris teaches him to fight.  I don't find child abuse funny and any attempt to make it funny is just wrong in my opinion but after the black kid gets revenge, the redneck father takes it out on his son and the sight of this had tears running down my face.  The entire sequence was so pathetic that I couldn't help but laugh and that includes what Norris does after the beating.  As expected, the performances aren't anything overly special but Norris fits into his role nicely and manages to show off his smile quite a bit.  In fact, the smile gets more showtime than some of his fighting skills.  Parks makes for a fun villain but it's a shame the movie didn't us him more.  The action scenes are all done on a small budget but this adds some campy charm as does the violent ending and the countless bad one-liners.  In the end, I doubt too many will get any entertainment out of this thing but if you don't mind Cannon movies then you'll know what to expect.

Enter the Dragon (1973)
 

Robert Clouse
 

Highly energized and all around exciting martial arts flick has Bruce Lee playing a top-notch fighter who travels to an island where he enters a competition with some of the best fighters from around the world.  He's also working undercover for the British government trying to bring down the man behind the fight who is also selling heroin.  It's no secret that this film has very little plot, questionable acting, lousy dialogue and no character development but what it lacks in those departments it makes up double that in terms of execution and pure action.  This is one of the most memorable looking films from the decade as the visuals in the film are excellent as is the cinematography.  I was really caught off guard by how beautiful this film was to look out.  All of the fight sequences look incredibly well but so do the scenes where there isn't any fighting.  The opening party sequence when everyone is on the island comes to mind as it's filmed perfectly but also because the colors are so vivid that you can't help but get caught up in it.  The music score is another major plus as it perfectly fits the mood of the film and makes one really start to dig all the action going on.  As for Lee, there's a reason he's a legend and it's easy to see why with this movie.  The fighting sequences are all rather breath taking especially considering how much imagination went into them.  Just when you thought nothing could top some of the single matches we get an incredible sequence where dozens of fights break out.  When Lee finally meets the top guy, the fight in the mirrors is excellent and really packs an incredible punch.  John Saxon turns in a good supporting performance and Jim Kelly is fun to watch as well.  Fans of the genre are certainly going to eat this film up but those who normally wouldn't watch this type of film will probably be drawn into it as well.  Lee was a mighty figure that you can't take your eyes off no matter if he's fighting or just standing still waiting to attack.  How the camera is drawn to him is very memorable as is this film that has one great moment after another.


Bolero (1984)
 

John Derek
 

After years of being stuck at a strict boarding school, virgin Lida (Bo Derek) breaks free and plans on meeting a shriek who will take her sexual gift.  After that doesn't happen she heads off to Spain to try and bed a bullfighter.  This notorious disaster is a complete mess of a movie that is so painful to watch that I'm sure many would be willing to jam knives into their eyes.  The only reason no one would actually go this far is because of Derek and her beautiful, often naked body.  There's no question she's a beautiful women and her husband, director John, loves showing her off.  I've always been curious if he was just wanting to make money or if he had some sexual thing about seeing her with other men.  The one thing this film has going for it is that a couple of the sex scenes are highly erotic.  Outside of that the movie is pretty dreadful from start to finish.  The 105-minute running time is very hard to sit through and there's no doubt that the fast-forward button was invented for movies like this.  One of the biggest problems is that the film, much like the Derek's previous film TARZAN THE APE MAN, just keeps going and going and going without any real reason.  I'm still not sure why on Earth either film had to run as long as they did and this one here is just one boring situation after another.  We see Bo and her friend (Andrea Occhipinti) constantly talking about what they'd "like" to do yet we rarely see it.  We have George Kennedy cashing a paycheck and looking incredibly lost as the chauffeur.  The supporting cast also includes 15-year-old Olivia d'Abo playing a gypsy pretty well but I doubt many will be prepared for her full nude scenes where it's obviously here and no double being used.  The biggest fault of this film is just how poorly made it is and the spotlight has to be shined on John Derek.  He certainly had the money to create good movies but why he chose the scripts he did and why he decided to direct them is beyond me, there's no doubt that his wife was hot but sitting through the movies are a pretty rough job to matter how beautiful she is.  How much pain one can put up with for the sake of beauty is certainly on full display here. 

Woman of Desire (1993)
 

Robert Ginty
 

After the success of BASIC INSTINCT erotic-thrillers were turning up every few weeks.  They ranged from some good knock-offs to downright horrid pieces of trash.  This one here is a pretty bad movie but there are enough campy moments and the cast is attractive enough to make it hard to turn off.  Captain Jack Lynch (Jeff Fahey) washes on shore saying that his boss (Steven Bauer) fell overboard during a storm.  The boss has a wife (Bo Derek) who claims that Jack shot her husband and then raped her but Jack claims he's innocent and had been carrying on an affair with the wife.  If you're looking for an actual plot your not going to find much of one here as there are enough plot holes here that one will question if a few first-graders didn't right this thing.  As is to be expected, Derek plays the beautiful blonde who might not be a very good person as she is constantly sleeping with various men and she might have a few reasons as to why she'd want to see her husband dead.  It will come as no shock that Derek doesn't give that much of a performance but she certainly looks extremely good here at the age of 37.  She's clearly not here for her acting but for her sex appeal and she has quite a bit of that.  She has quite a few nude scenes and there's no denying that she looks wonderful and this is the main reason people are going to be checking this out and have been checking it out since it's constant plays on Cinemax throughout the late-night hours.  Fahey has always been a favorite of mine and his presence here gave the film some added value even though he's not overly good either.  The big shock is that Robert Mitchum plays his lawyer here and actually gets a lot of screentime.  This here certainly isn't a classic performance but it was fun seeing him in this type of role and he clearly gives the best performance of the bunch.  It's pretty hard to take the film serious because there are just so many bad things.  The direction is pretty poor, the music is horrid and even the editing looks very cheap.  The dialogue is extremely bad and the courtroom scenes are rather embarrassing.  With that said, with Derek looking as great as she does and the other campy values, if you're a fan of bad movies then this one here is worth watching.
 

Reply
post #413 of 1166
3/27/10 at 12:49am
 Inspired by a few of my fellow posters here, I recently indulged myself with Three Nights of Noir...

Act of Violence – Van Heflin plays a regular Joe building contractor who seems to have it all – a beautiful, YOUNG wife (Janet Leigh, looking more like his daughter), a baby and a successful business. But then one day, a limping Robert Ryan comes to town and everything starts going straight to hell. This is a classic Noir scenario of a man who’s past comes back to haunt him, and in Van’s case, it’s a doozy. Ryan isn’t given much to do here except look grimly determined – the unstoppable force – but Heflin gives a terrific performance, slowly unraveling, as though he can’t live another minute with his terrible secret. Mary Astor pops up late in the film as a world weary hooker who takes pity on Van and inadvertently sets in motion the fateful conclusion. This is pure unadulterated Noir from start to finish.


Mystery Street – When a skeleton is found on the beach, detective Ricardo Montalban must piece together the clues to determine who the bones belonged to and whether there was foul play. Fortunately, he is able to take advantage of a new technology called ‘Forensic Science’ being developed in a laboratory at Harvard. This is a police procedural with strong Noir overtones and a definite CSI bent. Montalban is great as a doggedly determined detective who just happens to be Latin American, a fact that is refreshingly underplayed instead of being emphasized. The cinematography is amazing in this film – inky shadows seem to cling to everything, adding to the mystery at hand. There is also a very arch sense of humor in much of the dialog, particularly by Elsa Lanchester as a boozy old busybody of a landlady who gets in way over her head. An early effort by John Sturges, and his taut, pulpy story telling abilities are already very apparent.

 

Crime Wave – Kind of a quirky film, in that it presents itself as a stark, documentary-style procedural, but beneath the surface is pure Film Noir all the way. A gang of escaped cons (including a young Charles Bronson, looking menacing as hell) knocks over a gas station and, when one of them is shot, they seek refuge with a Parolee, who lives with his young wife and is trying to go straight. Soon, this man is caught between the violent gang who want him to pull one more job and the cops, led by a toothpick chewing Sterling Hayden, who are convinced he is a bad egg, and are just waiting for him to screw up. Hayden steals the show here, as the relentless, ornery, swinging dick of a cop, and proves once again why he is one of my absolute favorite Noir actors. Look also for an insane cameo by Timothy Carey as a grimy hood. Carey has to be one of the most eccentric actors who ever lived. In one scene he is simply supposed to be way back in the shot, leaning against a door and yet he is doing everything he possibly can to draw attention to himself. When, oh when will ‘The World’s Greatest Sinner’ be released on DVD?

 

Decoy – When Sheldon Leonard is the name star in a movie, you know you’re in poverty row territory. This one is a cut above though, in that it features perhaps the most relentlessly treacherous dame in all of Film Noir history. All this movie is about is the extremes this woman will go to just to get her hands on a $400,000 treasure, including reviving her dead lover, fresh out of the gas chamber! They definitely flaunt all logic and convention with this one and shroud everything in a thick layer of mist and fog, such that it reminded me a lot of Edgar G. Ulmer’s early efforts. Still, it works, thanks largely to the performance of Jean Gillie as the ultimate Femme Fatale. It has a great F**k You ending too.

 

Impact – Brian Donlevy makes for kind of an odd leading man, but it is that very quirkiness that helps to make this such an entertaining picture. He plays a rich, successful industrialist who dotes on his beautiful young wife and seems to think he pretty much has it all. Unfortunately, his pretty young wife wants him dead, dead, dead and when a botched murder attempt leaves him stranded in Idaho, the crushing blow to his ego also leaves him at wit’s end. As his wife stands trial for his apparent murder, he meets a small town lady mechanic and appears to begin a new life, but, as is always the case in these movies, his conscience won’t leave him alone. The acting is uniformly excellent here and there is a nice twist near the end, when Donlevy’s character tries to do the right thing. Not always a good idea in films like this…

 

They Live By Night – Even in his first film, Nicholas Ray approaches the hard boiled Noir melodrama from a unique angle. Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell are two kids caught up with a gang of hillbilly bank robbers who fall in love and decide to make some semblance of a normal life despite the darkness and disorder that surrounds them. On the one hand, it’s kind of a sweet story about two innocent kids who learn about love together, but the other implication is that Granger’s character is not so innocent and that what we’re seeing is just from their perspective. He’s also a somewhat reckless and violent bank robber too. I haven’t seen a lot of Ray films but these mental and emotional mix-ups seem to be his stock and trade. The two leads have a load of chemistry and really make things work here. O’Donnell in particular is a revelation. I had never seen her before this picture and her character, Keechie, goes through quite an arc. A very peculiar but ultimately effective and rewarding take on the Noir genre.  

 

Side Street – Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell are reunited in this much more conventional Noir thriller about a young married couple struggling to make ends meet in old New York as they are about to have their first baby. Granger is a generally straight arrow, but when he sees an opportunity to steal a few bucks, he jumps at it, only to find that he got a lot more than he bargained for, and even when he tries to make things right, he finds himself up to his neck in crooked lawyers, mean gorilla gangsters and crazy two-timing dames. This is another early Anthony Mann film and he keeps things moving swift and brutal, with time out, as usual, for a few nice moments featuring some very eccentric characters. It’s especially cool that this was shot almost entirely on location in New York City and the cinematography really helps to make the city itself a character in the film. I do love me some Anthony Mann…

Reply
post #414 of 1166
3/27/10 at 12:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Holer View Post

 Inspired by a few of my fellow posters here, I recently indulged myself with Three Nights of Noir...


 

Looks like you picked up WB's "Film Noir Classic Collection Volume 4".  I've got that one sitting here too, looking forward to it because most of them I haven't seen yet.  Gotta work my way through #3 first, though... i just now finished up volume 2. 

I'll post some new reviews later tonight.
Reply
post #415 of 1166
3/27/10 at 2:52pm
 "The Mummy" (Hammer) - .5

http://www.beardyfreak.com/rvmummy.php


A huge improvement over the original Universal snooze-fest (remove the first - and only- Mummy scene and Karloff in general and you have empty air) 'Hammers' version of the tale actually owes more to Universal's sequels in the fact that you actually have a Mummy rampaging around, that he's called Kharis (not Im-ho-tep) and we have the inclusion of Princess Ananka.

But as the 3rd in the big 'classic monster' trilogy that got 'Hammer' truly off and running as Horror film makers, it's been doomed to stand in the shadows of the other two films.  
"Curse of Frankenstein" got the spotlight for being the first, "Dracula" got to be the most iconic and so "The Mummy" was fated to  be the one bringing up the rear, while the ball was now already rolling anyway.

Christopher Lee makes for perhaps the best looking and physically effective Mummy ever put on screen ('Hammers' underrated "The Mummy's Shroud" is a better film, but the Mummy is pretty goofy and tubby looking, and a lot of the 'Universal' sequel Mummy's were too bulky/short and had silly looking slicked down hair) and he is given a lot of rampaging to do...the way Lee's Karis smashes through doors and windows is groovy in the extreme.

Cushing has a bland role but adds his own charm to it as the lame son of the archeologist that caused the trouble in the first place by opening the tomb (a nice, initially wonderfully arrogant, turn by Felix Alymer) and he has a couple of impressive action/stunt scenes while fighting Lee, resulting in one of 'Hammers' most famous stills, that of Cushing ramming a metal arrow through the Mummy.

Talking of action in fact it was nice to actually see more (unlike Universal's films) than just a blank firing gun when people shot at the Mummy, as here we also had the bullet hits as big, dusty,  holes were blown in Kharis as he powered on regardless towards his prey.

But the film is padded out with a too long flashback (nice vocal work though by pre-banged Lee) that films almost every step taken by every extra as they plod along to the tomb and that, when added to Cushing's overly dray narration, seems like a university lecture than anything else.
The ancient Egyptian props look pretty awful as well, in fact the entire flashback looks like a ridiculously well-funded school play.

The whole 'my wife just happens to look like the Princess' sub-plot was badly handled too.  
It's an old Mummy plot device, but here it was shoe-horned into the plot purely to stop Kharis throttling Cushing's character (which is tediously repeated, as the exact same thing, in the exact same circumstances, in the exact same room happens twice) and the sheer, farcical, coincidence that the completely random person involved in opening the tomb just so happens to have randomly married a woman who looks like the Princess of whose tomb they found beggars belief.

Luckily we have some choice support characters though (a nice drunken poacher performance by good old Michael Ripper and a fun turn by Eddie 'Island of Terror" Byrne as a Police Inspector for example) and the effective looking Mummy, the good solid action plus the nice cinematography and visuals (Kharis rising from the swamp is superb...the only reason he was dropped in the swamp in fact was so they could do this scene) help to compensate for the less than interesting (and sometimes sloppy) screenplay and the padding.  
So overall we have a rather good Mummy film, but only an average Hammer film overall.
Edited by 42nd Street Freak - 3/27/10 at 6:08pm
Reply
post #416 of 1166
3/27/10 at 10:44pm
Thread Starter 

Gothic (1986)
 

Ken Russell
 

Interesting take on how Frankenstein came to be from cult director Russell.  The bizarre Byron (Gabriel Byrne) invites friends Shelley (Julian Sands) and his wife Mary (Natasha Richardson) over for what will turn out to be a strange night with one nightmare after another.  This British production draws people in as it promises to show how Mary Shelley created her famous story but this here pretty much never happens.  I knew enough about the film going in to know not to expect any type of biography or true-story take on the actual events.  With that said, this movie is a pretty confusing mess from start to finish and I'm still not quite sure what it was trying to do.  Heck, I'm really not sure if Russell knew exactly what they were doing except for trying to create something very bizarre.  If the entire plan was to do that then they've pretty much succeeded as this is certainly a very strange movie.  The final thirty-minutes goes off-the-wall in terms of weirdness.  This is when all the characters really go overboard with one strange fantasy after another, which includes a strange creature living in the castle's basement, dead babies, weird orgies and this here isn't even half of it.  We even get a very memorable scene where a woman's nipples are actually her eyes.  It's these strange moments that make this film worth viewing but I think most people are going to hit the eject button during the first hour.  The first hour is pretty hard to sit through as we basically get our characters going into one long speech after another and when they're not talking they're just screaming at the top of their lungs.  The film pretty much left me bored for the first hour and when I wasn't bored I was trying to backtrack to try and make sense of what was going on.  There's no doubt Russell has a certain style that he brings to the film and it's atmosphere is right on the mark but you still have to have some sort of plot.  Byrne, Sands and Richardson are all fine in their roles.
 

Lair of the White Worm, The (1988)
 

Ken Russell
 

Roger Ebert's review of this film perfectly summed everything up when he said that this is the type of film you'd expect to see someone like Roger Corman making back in the 50s or 60s.  When someone sees the name Ken Russell they expect a lot more than what's actually on display here.  The film tells the story of an archaeologist who finds a odd skull buried in his backyard.  With the help of three friends (one played by Hugh Grant) they try to find out the mystery behind it and soon they run into Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe), a vampire-like creature.  There's a lot to admire about this film but at the same time you have to wonder why someone like Russell would be doing a picture like this and especially in 1988 when it was mainly slasher movies being made.  Movies like this here dead twenty-years earlier so how this got the green light is beyond me.  With that said, the director certainly brings his style to the production and on this level it works.  We get the typical strange images, bizarre dream sequences and some great cinematography as well as a good atmosphere.  All of this keeps things moving very well and the cast is also a plus.  Grant gets to show off a few good jokes and Peter Capaldi and Catherine Oxenberg are fun to watch as well.  The real standout is Donohoe who is magnificent as the female creature with a lust for blood.  She's incredibly sexy in the role but she also gets to show off some acting talent as she perfectly brings to life the evilness of the creature as well as showing the thing to be smart as well.  The biggest problem with the movie is that we've seen this type of thing countless times before.  This movie is in a pretty hard spot as horror fans are going to be turned off by the art-house like filmmaking and I'm sure art fans are going to be disappointed in what's basically just a "B" horror film.  The genre and Russell would seem like a strange mix and they are.
 

Lake of the Virgins (1987)
 

Jess Franco
 

Rare sleaze from Franco is actually an adaptation of a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson!  In the film a drunken fisherman and his stud partner wash up on an island, which just happens to be the location of the Virgins Lake.  The old man is interested in all the gold pieces laying around but the young stud wants the woman including the leader of the female gang played by Katja Bienert.  This is yet another Franco film that's never been given a decent release.  The print running around is the uncut Spanish version but it features no subs and even worse is the print itself, which is in pretty bad shape with it being a tad bit too dark and grainy plus there are several video dropouts.  When you try tracking down all these rarer Franco films this is to be expected but it didn't take away from the film too much.  As is to be expected, there's a lot of nudity and softcore sex scenes and of course those lovely zoom shots that the director is so well-known for.  The story itself is somewhat hard to follow without any subs but doing a basic search on the original story to the novel will lead you in the right direction.  There's seems to have been plenty of liberties taken with the source but that's to be expected.  Bienert made several films with the Spanish director and she's always a pleasure to watch as she can act quite natural and she's certainly the best thing Franco had during this period.  This movie was filmed in 1981 but not released until 1987 and that puts Bienert at the age of 15 so this here will undoubtedly bother many due to her nude and sex scenes.  The rest of the cast includes Antonio de Cabo, Eduardo Fajardo and Lola Gaos.  The film does benefit from some nice locations and some of the cinematography is pretty good.  The music score by Franco (under the name Pablo Villa) is another winner.  In the end, this really isn't anything too special but then again there are much worse out there from Franco.  If you must see everything the man's done then check this out but others should certainly start with some of his better films.
 

Las chicas del tanga (1987)
 

Jess Franco

The title of this translates to THE GIRLS IN THONG but unfortunately the lack of English subtitles is going to be a real deal breaker on this one.  The film appears to be a comedy for the most part as we get countless men trying to impress various women.  Most of the time we get the guys chasing the woman around and making a fool of themselves.  At other times we have them playing with each other, fighting or various other things.  I wish this release had English subtitles because 99% of the movie was dialogue and it's was impossible to follow everything that was going on with each relationship in the film.  Most of these Franco films are easy to view without the subs but that's not the case here, so those, like myself, who track down these movies, this one here comes with a warning.  I'd be shocked if any American company released this one because it's for Franco fans only.  There's actually very little nudity on display here and the sex scenes never even reach a softcore level.  It appears that the entire cast is having a good time and I must admit that the movie kept me interested even when I was completely lost.  The film moved at a nice pace and it appeared everything was paying off quite well.  The cast includes Lina Romay in a small role, Flavia Hervas, Antonio Mayans, Jose Llamas, Evan Leon and Analia Ivars.  The cinematography was better than your typical 80s Franco flick and the music score wasn't too bad either.  This one here is really hard to judge because of how much dialogue there was.  The final third of the picture pretty much takes place on the beach where various women are discussing things and showing off their bodies, which I'm guessing is where the title comes from.  Quite often I find myself watching a Franco film once and then moving on to the next one but this one here did interest me enough to where I'd get in line for a second viewing if anyone ever releases this with an English subtitle track.

Spook Busters (1946)
 

William Beaudine
 

Fourth film in The Bowery Boys series has the gang graduating exterminating school and soon they're offered their first job.  The boys must travel to a creepy old house, which is rumored to be haunted and sure enough strange things begin to happen once they enter.  This entry in the series will have fans feeling flashbacks to the East Side Kids days with movies like SPOOKS RUN WILD and GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE.  I'm really not sure what it is but the horror spoof is one genre that these kids should stay away from no matter what name they're going under.  As with the previous two films, this one here is a very weak spoof of the horror genre and the worst thing is that the screenplay never really knows what it wants to be.  There's some voice-over narration at the start of the movie that is clearly meant to be spoofing the various film noirs out at the time yet this eventually goes away and then shows up out of no where at the very end of the movie.  The confusion doesn't stop there as the movie starts off as a spoof of the horror genre and quickly jumps away from it.  After what happens in SPOOKS RUN WILD and GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE it would seem like the screenwriters would want to try something different and have the group really fighting some ghosts.  Leo Gorcey actually doesn't take up too much here as his character is pretty underwritten for the most part.  He really doesn't get anything fun to do and outside of the mangled dialogue he has pretty much nothing to do.  Huntz Hall gets the majority of the "jokes" here and he takes them and goes way over the top trying to get any laugh.  The supporting boys are all wasted and that includes Bobby Jordan who is pretty much just standing around the entire time.  The final ten-minutes is when the film finally starts to pick up with a couple good comedy sequences.  The first involves Hall trying to escape the bad guys by pretending that a ghost is forcing him to do things.  This is followed up with a pretty funny ending where Hall and Gorcey must fight to get out of their trouble.  Director Beaudine must have been really bored here because there's not an ounce of energy to be had in the first sixty-minutes and in the end this is yet another disappointment.
 

Reply
post #417 of 1166
3/28/10 at 1:30am
99 River Street - A year after Kansas City Confidential, Phil Karlson again directs John Payne as a regular Joe getting framed, with a lot of punching along the way. Otherwise, the two films don't have all that much in common, but they're both equal in quality. This one might be a little tighter in construction, actually. I'm not quite sure how I feel about Evelyn Keyes. Sometimes she pulls off some good work, but there were also moments where she didn't seem that hot. Speaking of "hot", the movie gets pretty damn sexy. Nothing like you'd see today, of course, but quite suggestive for 1953. A really solid film that rolls along beautifully. Rating: 8


Crossfire (rewatch) - Liked it a little bit more this time. It didn't seem as heavy-handed as I thought before, although the scene where the message is clearly spelled out does strike me as rather awkward. There are a few really killer scenes, especially the ones with or related to Gloria Grahame. But the movie still seems to have a lot of downtime and I wouldn't rank it among the best noir. Rating: 7


The Hitch-Hiker - Billed on the DVD case as "the only film noir ever directed by a woman". As far as I can tell, that's true. The definition of noir can be pretty broad, but there weren't a hell of a lot of female directors at the time. And Ida Lupino does a fantastic job. A lean and mean thriller about a murderous hitch-hiker (venemously played by William Talman) who makes a couple of regular guys drive him across the deserts of Mexico. The technical aspects are impressive, great lighting and editing and staging. The mood and the story are tense, and Talman's vicious streak cuts like a knife. The one weak point is that it's one of those movies where you keep thinking "well, what *I* would do is...." But it's fine if you just go along with it and don't worry too much about things like that. Rating: 9


Fanny and Alexander (rewatch) - A few weeks ago I said that if I was forced to pick one favorite Bergman, it would be Scenes from a Marriage but now I don't know. Thankfully I don't have to make such a choice. Although he did several excellent films after it, this is really Bergman's crowning achievement. It's so damn close to perfection. I only have two miniscule nitpicks. First, the fart jokes. They're done about as charmingly and tastefully as possible, but they're still fart jokes, and even Bergman can't rescue that. Fortunately, it's only about 2 or 3 minutes out of 312. The other thing is Ewa Fröling's performance as Emilie, the mother. I'm not saying it's a bad performance... in fact, it's pretty good. But in a film where every other actor is so amazing (including the children), she stands out as a little weaker than the rest. Honestly, those are the only things I would consider changing, and they're very insignificant. Otherwise, I have nothing but the highest of praise. What a rich, vast, beautiful film. Like The Seventh Seal, it touches on so much more than a simple plot synopsis would imply. Religion, hypocrisy, rebellion, imagination, loyalty, family, power. The movie plays like a fairy tale, not only in the magic realism but also the child's eye view of the world. The Ekdahl household is an idealized world of warmth and creativity and joy (with the exception of Carl, who gives Bergman a chance to showcase his impotent male character), the Vergerus household is a nightmarish world of brutality and oppression, and the Jacobi household is a mystical world of wonder and magic. Bergman rarely used children in his work, and it's rather a surprise that when he puts them front and center he handles it so beautifully. It's also a highly autobiographical film, drawing on his own childhood experiences (especially with his father) as well as his love for theater. And the icing on the cake is Sven Nykvist's glorious, glorious cinematography, the high point of his career (not to mention the gorgeous set and costume design). I really must remember to watch this film more often. It's divine. Rating: 10


Clash By Night (rewatch) - This movie is a lot better than I initially gave it credit for. Terrific dialogue, good performances, and a boiling love triangle in a melodramatic style reminiscent of Sirk. But it's not noir, at least not in my book (more and more I'm learning that noir has a different meaning for everyone). The noir I like requires high stakes: someone's going to get killed, or going to jail for a long, long time. Some might argue that love is the highest stake of all, and some of the best noirs use love as a lynchpin, but for me there has to be more than just romance on the line. So it's not film noir, but it's still pretty good. Except for the ending, which comes far, far too easily. It'd earn another point if there was more of an air of doom or doubt to it. Rating: 7


Witness - Here's a movie I never had the slightest interest in, but I am still trying to tackle everything on the TSPDT 1000 list, and anyway it's good to step outside your comfort zone once in a while. It's pretty much what I expected to be. Like all of Weir's post-70's output, he has the skill to do everything right but lacks the heart to do anything great. He even says in the interview on the DVD that he just wanted an "assignment". Everything about movie is crafted well (except the horribly dated Maurice Jarre score) but nothing stands out. It gets the jobs done and that's about it. Since I've got noir on the brain lately, it actually occurred to me that in the right hands, this might have made a good noir film, combining certain elements from On Dangerous Ground and Kiss of Death. But as it is, it's just purely functional and formulaic. Kudos for not treating the Amish like a freak show, I guess, although I still think they're silly. Rating: 7


Black Snake Moan - Although marketed as a trashy exploitation throwback, director Craig Brewer actually backs off from that fairly early in the movie. What develops instead is tricky to classify, and yet nothing terribly new. An offbeat redemption story with some folksy wisdom and troubled characters... I guess the best word I can come up is "Sundance-y". Kind of interesting and kind of not, simultaneously trying to embrace its characters and have ironic detachment from them. After a while I wanted Brewer to just commit to being trashy instead of pussyfooting around it. The weakest link is Christina Ricci. Ricci can play this type of role (see Monster) but something about her performance here is unconvincing and a bit condescending. However, the Samuel L. Jackson character is quite intriguing and he's easily the best thing about the film. Not a bad movie, I enjoyed it. I just wish it had a little more edge, a little more insight, just a little more... something. Rating: 7


Yojimbo (rewatch, Blu-Ray) - I've been re-evaluating my stance on Kurosawa lately. While I still love a lot of his work, he also did a number of films that aren't all they're cracked up to be, and I've been selling off some of the ones I'm not too crazy about. But this will always have a proud spot in my collection. It's one of the most entertaining movies around, and moves like fucking gangbusters. It's got to be one of the best-paced there is, and makes 110 minutes feel like about half an hour. It's just so much goddamn fun, and Mifune is an absolute joy to watch. Like most of the great action heroes, he relies on his skill as a warrior when necessary, but prefers to use his wits. The technical aspects are impeccable, with perfect compositions (there's too many instances of genius framing to list) and a really enjoyable score. There are only a couple of things that bug me. The eccentric manner in which Tatsuya Nakadai waggles his pistol around from inside his shirt is... weird and wrong. It's definitely an unusual idiosyncrasy, but it just ends up looking silly. Also silly: Daisuke Kato's puffy-cheeked, buck-tooth expressions. These are obviously miniscule complaints. It's still one of Kurosawa's finest works. Rating: 10


Sanjuro (rewatch, Blu-Ray) - This really isn't as weak as I'd remembered. It's not quite as well-paced as its predecessor, but the immaculate framing and clever bits of business (camellias!) are still there. Really where it falls short is the dearth of memorable supporting characters. It might as well as be called Sanjuro and the Nine Deadweight Morons in regards to the young samurai that Sanjuro is trying to help. Kurosawa even goes out of his way to keep them all in frame at the same time, as if they're not worth considering as individuals. And they aren't, they're boring. And government corruption is a much less intriguing scenario than the one in Yojimbo as well. Still, Mifune manages to carry the show well enough on his own. And the captured guard is one of Kurosawa's finest, funniest comic relief characters. Rating: 8
Reply
post #418 of 1166
3/28/10 at 2:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Teller View Post

Looks like you picked up WB's "Film Noir Classic Collection Volume 4".  I've got that one sitting here too, looking forward to it because most of them I haven't seen yet.  Gotta work my way through #3 first, though... i just now finished up volume 2. 
 Sadly, I've had those videos sitting around for some time and didn't really know what I had. I made a list of movies from that 250 film noir list I'd like to see and then realized I had them. What I liked about this series is there is a little 10 minute documentary about each movie where people like Alain Silvestri talk about why it's significant. It's too bad Warner didn't continue with that series, as they were definitely starting to release some obscure and offbeat titles.   
Reply
post #419 of 1166
3/28/10 at 2:45am
 I think what makes 'Clash By Night' really special is the performance by Robert Ryan, as Earl the projectionist. The only thing he hates more than himself is everybody else. His fits of utter contempt for everything and everyone and his inevitable breakdown are just amazing to watch. Ryan fearlessly creates one of the all time most unsympathetic characters I've ever seen. I agree it's a little pat, but what elevates it are the performances all around. Even Marilyn Monroe is good (and super sexy) in this film. 
Reply
post #420 of 1166
3/28/10 at 4:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Elliott View Post


Spook Busters (1946)
 


 I'm really not sure what it is but the horror spoof is one genre that these kids should stay away from no matter what name they're going under. 


I think you'll feel differently when you get to MASTERMINDS (1949), which may be one of the best in the series.

Quote:
The confusion doesn't stop there as the movie starts off as a spoof of the horror genre and quickly jumps away from it.   

I had the opposite feeling. I thought it began as a film about pest exterminators at first, and then turned into more of a horror comedy when the gang gets to the "spooky house of nuts". By the way, this film was said to be the influence for GHOSTBUSTERS (1984).

Quote:
 Huntz Hall gets the majority of the "jokes" here and he takes them and goes way over the top trying to get any laugh.  The supporting boys are all wasted and that includes Bobby Jordan who is pretty much just standing around the entire time. 

This will be par for the course for many of the remaining Bowery Boys films; Huntz Hall usually overdoes it trying to get laughs and mainly comes up empty (IMO), and the other guys aside from Hall and Gorcey are largely just standing around as window dressing.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Movies (Theatrical)
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Entertainment › Movies (Theatrical) › Track the Films You Watch (2010)