I second that. It was a very good film. I was most impressed by Sharlto Copley's performance as Wikus van der Merwe. An excellent humourous role, playing with the Afrikaner stereotype (the name van der Merwe is a joke in itself in South Africa) in the context of a sci-fi action film.
Last film I watched was 'A Fistful of Dollars' by Sergio Leone. Having already seen 'For a Few Dollars More', 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' and 'Once Upon A Time in The West', fistful did seem like the weakest but still a really good film.
In a Bogie/Bacall frame of mind lately. In the last two days I've watched The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and Key Largo.
I'm sure everyone's already familiar with them.
Currently watching the original Scarface with Paul Muni and Boris Karloff.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,993Quartermasters
I'm near the end of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep novel, Alex...I'll be watching that flick soon after B-) I love Bogart pictures...got one I've bought but haven't seen yet: Dark Passage
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Believe it or not, Loeffs, I'm also re-reading The Big Sleep--mainly because I start teaching it next week!
Anyway, the last film I saw was Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control. The Limits of Patience may be a better title for this exercise in tedium, which has Isaach de Bankole (he of CR and the last season of 24) as a guy who may or may not be a hit man who travels through Spain and sits at tables where he waits for a collection of oddballs played by some well-known actors (e.g., John Hurt, Gael Garcia Bernal) with whom he exchanges matchboxes that contain information and listens as they expound existentialist philosophy. I've liked many of Jarmusch's films, but this one is just mannered and boring--though I must confess to finding some interest in Paz de la Huerta's character, "Nude," whose sole bit of costume is a pair of glasses.
Believe it or not, Loeffs, I'm also re-reading The Big Sleep--mainly because I start teaching it next week!
Symmetrical coincidence?
I picked the dvd up this afternoon on sale, classic...
I've never read the book, but yeah this is classic noir, dripping atmosphere and rapid machine gun dialogue. It's also got multiple forties femme fatales! (yes, we all have priorities in life), I lost count how many drop-dead leg gals appear in this film. Lauren Bacall, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone, yow ... Bogie was the man!
One of Alfred Hitchcock's early works from 1941 starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine, Grant is a playboy and something of a cad; he meets and marries Fontaine after spending all of about two hours with her. After a romantic honeymoon Fontaine learns Grant has no job and no money, nor does he want a job. As she learns more and more about her husband she begins to believe he will do anything for easy money, including murder. When a close friend of Grant ends up dead she begins to believe she may be next.
I would say this is the weakest Hitchcock film I have seen. Like many movies from this age, the music would swell every time something dramatic would happen, in this case loud violin strings that were overused. The audience is asked to believe Fontaine may end up a spinster, even wearing glasses she is far too attractive not to have had a number of gentleman interested. Although we get some suspense throughout the film, it never really had me on the edge of my seat and the ending is a disappointment.
Finished Scarface. Pivotal early talkie. Made by Howard Hughes and Howard Hawks before the advent of the Hays censorship act.
Paul Muni plays Tony Camonte, who's obviously based on Alphonso Capone. The story of his rise and fall to power is familiar to everyone who's seen the Depalma version with Al Pacino. (only hermits have never seen that), If you know your 20's gangster history you know the men behind the movie character. Osgood Perkins plays Camonte's boss Johnny Kovo, (real life counterpart Jonny Torrio), Boris Karloff is an Irish gangster named Gaffney who narrowly avoids being an unwilling participant in the Valentine's day massacre, (real life, Bugs Moran), there's also a character named O'Hara murdered in his flower shop, (real life, Dion O'Bannion).
George Raft's coin flipping Guino Rinaldo is Tony's right hand man. (parodied 30 years later as "Spats" in Some Like It Hot) and Ann Dvorak plays Cesca, Camonte's hot to trot younger sister.
Every time a murder is commited, (and there's lots of them), an X is showed somewhere in the picture. Examples are X shaped rafters, door signs, and a bowling alley score. (Karloff bowls a strike and exits the picture)
Racy and violent for it's time it's a piece of history. And still carries an impact in this day of mass cynicism. The ending is just as memporable as the remake, with Tony holed up in his iron fortress as the feds surround him. Completely alone, his best friend and sister killed.
Not to be confused with Oliver!, a Lionel Bart musical from the same era.
This is about the English Civil War, with Richard Harris as Cromwell who reluctantly feels forced to take arms against King Charles I, played by Alec Guinness. Both leads are good, but there's something missing. Harris has charisma but he's a bit one-note and mannered throughout, barking his outrage, and Guinness is enjoyable until you realise he's acting exactly like Maggie Smith the whole time.
It's a fine looking period movie, but it seems to alternate between verbal argie bargie and battlefield argie bargie, then going back to negotiating. It's like a poor man's Man for All Seasons, in this instance the King is the peevish, intractable one.
Marilyn Monroe receives top billing in this entertaining 1953 thriller, despite receiving less screen time than Joseph Cotton and Jean Peters. Monroe is the young hot wife married to a middle age man played by Joseph Cotton; they have nothing in common except they both dislike each other. While vacationing at a cabin next to Niagara Falls, Monroe hatches a plan to get rid of her husband. Another vacationing couple played by Peters and Max Showalter meet Monroe and Cotton and gets pulled into the plot. From there we get several plot surprises and the tension builds rather nicely.
I enjoyed this film as the storyline is compelling and the tension is built nicely through the film. Monroe, Peters and Joseph Cotton are all very good, Cotton is menacing, Monroe is hot and convincing as the woman who knows her best asset is her looks and uses them, and Peters as the vulnerable nice girl next door type all deliver nice performances. My only complaint is the direction could have been better; the film sometimes takes on a Niagara Falls commercial as we see a lot of the falls and some of the scenes could have used a little more flair. I kept thinking this would have been better if Hitchcock had directed, because it has all the elements of a Hitchcock thriller.
I read that Monroe was a contract player with 20th Century Fox at the time and received a rather small salary for the picture. This is more of a dramatic role for her and I thought she was good, displaying some subtleties in her performance.
Highly acclaimed adult animation (no, not that sort!). I overlooked it on its release last year because - and this is shallow but I bet others thought the same - it put me in mind of the shifty interviewer Martin Bashir, who quizzed Princess Diana and Michael Jackson (hey Martin! Why not Dennis Hopper next and go for the hat trick!)
But in fact it refers to a Lebanose Prime Minister Bashir someone or other whose assassination in the early 1980s triggered off a backlash against Palestinians and a horrific massacre.
The animated film follows the efforts of the filmmaker to recall the events of the time, as he realises his memory of his participation in the Israeli army is a blank. It's really a documentary, but the whole thing is animated after the event, making it rather unusual as the interviews are real, it's not fictionalised. The movie moves at a helluva pace, with pop songs of the time and moments of levity, so it's not at all heavygoing. In fact I was going to say that for most of it it's how you wish a Craig Bond film could be; it's a serious flick but not sombre or indulgent at all.
I saw on another thread where Alex said he thought Goldfinger, Casablanca and The Adventures of Robin Hood were three perfect movies, since I had seen GF and Casablanca, and enjoyed them, I thought I would give Robin Hood a try. Good thing I listened to Alex because Robin Hood was a hoot, just an old fashion good time movie.
The film has a great cast Errol Flyn plays Robin Hood, the lovely Olivia de Havilland is Maid Marian and Claude Raines is the evil Prince John. They all are quite good and all seem to enjoy themselves. I am sure most everyone is a familiar with the Robin Hood story, so I will just say the story is told in very entertaining fashion.
Highly recommend.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,993Quartermasters
Never saw that one before, Barry? Alex is right---what a treat.
Well, as today (31st January) is Loeff III's birthday, we went and saw a film yesterday in celebration...
"Sherlock Holmes"
This one really benefitted from my acutely diminished expectations---I'm opposed, on a fundamental level, to Conan Doyle's classic character being made (read: contorted) into an action hero---but I really did thoroughly enjoy it, and was relieved that they managed to transplant the heart of the character into the sort of OTT actioner that is quite far afield from anything in which the master sleuth ought to be engaged. Robert Downey, Jr., whilst IMO grievously miscast in the traditional sense, is a good enough actor to capture the essence of Holmes' quirky genius, Jude Law makes for a fine John Watson, and the absolutely yummy Rachel McAdams makes a most effective bid for a starring Bond girl role.
I was completely won over by Downey's characterization: his Holmes is a young, fit ass-kicker type whose self-choreography during fight scenes is most entertaining. Is he my Holmes? No. I prefer the middle-aged, Jeremy Brett Holmes---or, in a pinch, the Basil Rathbone Holmes---each of whom, to be fair, could convey the sense of passive athleticism Doyle more or less ascribed to his hero: physicality when absolutely necessary. Exhibit A: Holmes' struggle with Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls in "The Final Problem." On the other hand, Downey hints at the literary character's chemical self-abuse, and his state of atrophy between cases...both distinctly Flemingesque/Bondian traits as well...
A grand time. Rather rare for me to be in agreement with the estimable Napoleon Plural---and I'm not comfortable in such a position ...but I do recommend it. 4 out of 5 stars.
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,993Quartermasters
edited February 2010
"Inglourious Basterds"
I bought the DVD, never having seen the film, based purely upon my admiration of what Quentin Tarantino does.
Arguably, Tarantino pictures are a great deal like Bond pictures---at least in the sense that they exist in their own sort of isolated reality---so perhaps they're not completely answerable to all of the rules and demands of the film medium as a whole. I've not seen his "Grindhouse" movie ('Death Proof?'), simply because the premise of aping B-grade drive-in pictures doesn't interest me...but other than that, I've been a fan of everything else he's done. I'll freely acknowledge that (particularly here) he's got as many detractors as he has admirers, and I can well understand that
All the above being said, I'm enough of a traditionalist in my tastes, particularly with regard to WWII pictures, that it took me a second viewing of IB before I felt confident in attempting to articulate an opinion. Tarantino has said that he wrote the first two scenes (or "chapters") ten years ago. As a writer, I can certainly see that, since he's read enough press about himself in the intervening ten years to feel emboldened to take the film he probably intended to write, ten years ago, and feed the material through a wood-chipper. One can only wonder what the film might have looked like nine years ago...but now, it is what it is---and what it is, is demented...fantasical...over the top...and ultimately quite exhilarating. Again, as with the Bonds (since I often lament that there is no real James Bond for this grim 21st Century), one might wish that such a thing as that which is depicted in Act 3 of IG could have actually happened. Think of the lives that might have been saved...
Okay---that's as serious as this review deserves to be. This is a WWII commando flick, by a film geek, for film geeks---with a disregard for actual history that mirrors Warner Bros. cartoon director Chuck Jones' disregard for the laws of physics. I love what Tarantino does with chronological order, flashbacks, the occasional over-long scene, and the lingering shot. His heavy use of title cards reflects some sort of need to send little love letters to his audience, the way kids pass notes in a classroom. Tarantino refuses to grow up...and I dread the inevitable day when he will.
Incredible work from the cast: Melanie Laurent, as Shoshanna, the Jewish survivor of the massacre of her family at the hands of the reptilian Colonel Landa (the riveting Christoph Waltz), is not only lovely but deserving of consideration by Eon for a role in a Bond film. Brad Pitt's Lt. Aldo Raines is one of the most distinctive and great roles of his career ('Bon-JOR-no!'). Mike Myers, Rod Taylor and a host of unknown German and French actors give remarkable performances. Yes, some of the shots are visceral and gratuitous. No, this film isn't for everyone---maybe not even for all Tarantino fans.
But I loved it, and recommend it. See it TWICE. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
The last film I watched was Rollerball (the original) on DVD. I have seen the remake (just out of curiosity) and hated it. They have changed the whole feel of the story and what the director was trying to say. I would recommend the original Rollerball staring James Caan.
The last film I saw at the cinema was New Moon, which I took my daughter to see as a treat.
The original Rollerball had Maude Adams of Golden Gun and OP fame. It was said she and Caan actually had sex on film, which she was miffed about but it did the box office no harm.
Quo Vadis
I'm following Roman history by renting DVDs, for instance HBO's Rome mini-series, which deals with Caeser's seizing of Rome and civil war against Pompey (currently facing relegation if it can't get its money sorted out ), then I, Claudius which ends 50AD ish, now Quo Vadis which picks up with the story of Nero, played here by Peter Ustinov.
Ustinov is great, he chomps up the scenery. Much of it foreshadows I Claudius in that the villain's allies try to steer him on the right track of morality, only to find it can just as easily backfire and blow up in your face.
That said, I had a hard time getting into it as Rod Taylor, who plays a Centaurian general, is such a gee-whizz Mad Men generation American, it's hard to see him as a Roman. Though of course, we don't really know what accent the Romans had. Deborah Kerr is all tremulous and not especially sexy, in a way that foreshadows her role in Black Narcissus I suppose. It's odd how the sexual banter and Taylor's predatory maleness gets a bad rap in contrast to other movies, but accusing Quo Vadis of being Christian propoganda is a bit like the bloke who complains that Christmas would be better without the religious hymns... Still, all the romantic subplots seems a bit sappy and devoid of reason as if to imply that love should be better directed at God himself.
It gets better, esp if you listen to the commentary as some point. It turns out that John Huston was set to be the director but dropped out to do The Asphalt Jungle. He had it in mind to draw parallels with the Second World War, with Taylor as the American returning from three years away, and the Roman Empire being the Nazis, with a few Heil Hitler gestures towards the Emperor.
Ustinov was set to be Nero but bosses were wary because at 28 he was too young. He replied, okay, but don't leave it too long or I'll be too old - Nero died aged 32! There are other good tidbits on the commentary and I have to say the movie got more harrowing towards the end, with the lions entering the arena. This is epic enough, with 30,000 extras for some scenes! The burning of Rome is spectacle indeed.
I'm a huge fan of historical epics fictionized for grand old school hollywood cinemascope. The best of these include The Robe, with Richard Burton and Jean Simmons. It's sequel, Demetrius and The Gladiators. Ten Commandments and Ben Hur, both starring the incomparable Chuck Heston. And certainly the prestigious, Spartacus. However, Quo Vadis was my first and ultimately stands above them all. Even though it was pre cinemascope.
I like Robert Taylor's Marcus. No, he's not a versatile British stage actor, or a scene stealing character actor. He's the classic wooden leading man. 'Wood' has a dexterity and simplicity needed for such a role. Good looking Taylor also starred in Ivanhoe with Liz Taylor. I've always dug his, "Sure babe, I'll believe in your god if it makes you happy", Roman pomp.
Special mention must be made to Patricia Laffan as Nero's Empress. Poppaea with her two pet leopards is an indelible image. One which has remained firmly, (cough), imbedded in my psyche. Also, if Deb Kerr's blazing red braids aren't sexy I'll make a note to never visit Plural's occulist.
"My weeping vase!" (Nero, "mourning" the death of Petronious. Played wonderfully by Leo Genn)
I must admit that with all those Roman set-pieces and the witchy Poppaea, for the first half hour I was grumpily thinking, "Well, this could have been a great porn movie that intead's gone to waste..." arguably not in keeping with the Christian sentiment.
Perhaps wooden Taylor was picked in homage to the son of a carpenter.
It is an interesting backstory. Have you heard the commentary Alex? If not I recommend it. Though the Christian stuff now is a bit heavyhanded, at the time it was thought not to lay it on for fear of offending non-believers, though I guess they don't mean agnostics but Jews, who were prevalent in Hollywood and would be behind a lot of these Christian epics, ironically.
A lot of the actors have a backstory too. Peck was going to play the Taylor part, (Liz) Taylor was going to play the Kerr part (presumably, I think she might have been Petronious' floozy). Petronious was a role model for Gore Vidal thanks to his writings and he'd been
ordered to commit suicide which he did in style, cutting his wrists and binding them together, then dying slowly over a week during which he held a great party and also had a parting dig at Nero.
And Leo Genn had a leading role in WW2 helping the French Resistance, for which he was honoured. In many ways I enjoyed the commentary more than the film.
Best Picture and Best Director nominated film which tells the story of three young men who are responsible for disarming the various explosive devices that insurgents used in Iraq. Director Kathryn Bigelow (James Cameron's ex-wife) does a fine job of creating tension as the movie is essentially one disarming scene after another. I also think she did a very good job of capturing the Iraqi environment as the scenes are very desolate, yet you feel the danger lurking.
The three young actors that make up the bomb squad are all very good, especially Jeremy Renner who plays Sergeant James, a high strung bomb diffuser who loves his job, maybe a little too much.
Despite the fine cinematic qualities of the film, I was little less enthused about the story, which I thought at times was not very accurate. One thing I noticed was the lack of discipline by the solders, which I am sure, would not happen. Going off on their own to look for enemy solders, or taking action they do not have approval for doesn't happen. For the most part it seemed these guys had no commanding officer. We also get very little back story on any of the main players, they all have a different view of the war and their duties, but why, we never really know. In addition, because this is essentially an anti-war film we get the usual scene of any enemy solder being wounded, a medic wanting to treat him and then the Commander in charge saying he isn't going to make it, followed by the sounds of gunshots.
I enjoyed the film and I can see how Bigelow received a Best Director nomination as the things a director can control, atmosphere, building of tension, cinematography pacing, were all well done. However, because of the minor flaws in the story I don't see it as Best Picture.
District 9. Now, this is 2009's best science fiction film, not the entertaining but vastly overrated Avatar. By setting the film in South Africa, the racial parallel is automatically made more complicated: you see the aliens (who may not be all that innocent) on the receiving end of abuses from human races who themselves have been abused. It simply makes you wonder what everyone's limits really are. The special effects are awesome, and one element came as a complete surprise: this movie is funny. This gets the Hardyboy Seal of Approval.
I am watching The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a musical in three parts by Michel Legrand of NSNA fame or should I say infamy. But his music is nothing like in the Bond flick, thankfully.
Cherbourg is in Normandy, on the north coast of France. It's a 1960ish New Wave French film with saturated colour and the characters sing everything, like in opera. This works in the French language as it's more lyrical sounding even when the words are banal.
However, my flatmate's wife came in and started using the Wii after the first part so I haven't got to see the rest of it yet. Instead I fantasised about torturing her pet cat.
This movie, aimed at the newly christened and still rising Rock & Roll movement, starts off with a bang. Under the title credits a flat bed truck arrives, carrying Jerry Lee Lewis whilst he belts out "High School Hop" to a gathering of admirers. Once the song is over, we're introduced to Tony Baker, (Russ Tamblyn, West Side Story), a newly arrived student who has a serious problem with authority figures. From day one Tony aims his sights on becoming head of the "Wheelers & Dealers" gang. Currently run by John Drew Barrymoore. (father of Drew)
Ok. So what we have here is a teen film that begins as an exploition Rock & Roll drive in programmer , then shifts gears into a response to the rising teen drug problem. It's filled with a mixure of both early and late 50s slang. (Beatnik & R&R)
Jackie Coogan (Uncle Festur from the Adams family), is "Mr. A", who deals in heroin and is a most unscrupulous b@stard. Addicting girls and then cutting their supply. Unless they agree to work in his "escort service" that is.
There's a rather eye raising incestous angle. Tony has an Aunt whose amorous advances he's constantly fending off. I'm not sure why this part was included but since it's 50s pin up girl Mamie Van Doren in a torpedo sweater I'm not complaining.
Michael Landon has a small role as the leader of a nicer gang called the "Rangers". Their stock in trade is automobiles and not "Reefers"
Watch it for the "Daddio" and "Crazy" slang. For the vintage hot rod dragging, and for Mamie Van Doren!
Mario Bavo's The Three Faces of Terror, aka Black Sabbath.
Three-part Italian horror. Nothing too surprising for those who grew up with Tales of the Unexpected, but undeniably creepy and big on atmosphere. A couple of WTF moments that weren't very credible, but also two or three moments that literally made my flesh crawl or gave me a nasty start, so a pretty good return.
This means not the son of the Monster of course, but that of Baron Frankenstein, the scientist - this is a misconception among many truly stupid people.
Loeffs advised me to watch this ahead of Young Frankenstein, the Mel Brooks spoof that duly turned up on my doormat this morning.
Son of... has a reputation as being the worst of them so far, but it's not bad at all. It has eerie Fritz Lang-style sets: all angled walls and dark shadows. Indeed, the director is namechecked in the film as subordinate characters have names Fritz and Lang.
It starts off promisingly but snags appear. Basil Rathbone plays the son and he's always good value, but why is he only now returning to claim his heritage? Maybe he's at that time of life, with a wife and kid, and wants to settle down. But he travels by 1930s-style car from the station to the castle; now if the first two were set in Victorian times, surely the time line is out of whack? Worst of all, his scientist father's actions in bringing a corpse to life are well known; well if that's the case, he would be celebrated and feted and other scientist would have carried on his life's work, as science waits for no man. Such an amazing discovery would not have been just overlooked.
It would have been better to have it so his father was regarded widely as a fraudster, a con man and medical quack who conned the gullible village locals and murdered them himself, making his son's efforts in the medical world impossible. That would explain Rathbone's retreat to his home town in sour defeat, along with he realisation, upon stumbling across his father's notes, that this is a chance to redeem his reputation and go from zero to hero in one fell swoop.
As it is, Rathbone's conviction to take on his father's work seems to come out of nowhere and the first 45 minutes is quite predictable and tedious. It picks up when the Monster arrives, and gets very good, mainly thanks to the social tension between Frankenstein and the suspicious local inspector and also his creepy (in)subordinate Ygor. Ultimately I enjoyed this more than the second one, though it lacks the eerie, bucolic Hansel and Gretyl menace.
Anyway, this features a fine lead performance by Andy Serkis who played Gollum, King Kong and, er Moors Murderer Ian Brady. I suppose what with him playing real people or at least established characters he's a bit the Blair/Frost/Clough actor Martin Sheen. Though Serkis doing Blair would be a stretch. mind you I could see Sheen doing the anaemic po-faced Brady.
The movie is good stuff and I liked the dialogue, though much of it may be bon mots from the man himself rather than from the scriptwriter. It's mainly The Life and Death of Peter Sellers type stuff, in that we have a guy over 30 held back by perceived physical limitations and prejudice who makes it big at the expense of his family life.
That said, the genre is a bit box-ticking in its emotions, it's all emotional shorthand. Everything is deliberately simplified, prettified and made a bit phony. When we see the band practising at home, and Dury sacks the drummer while his wife is giving birth upstairs, well, that's based on a real event, except here it looks phony, comical. And it's a bit like that throughout: here's the girlfriend looking moody, here's the kid petulantly burning his dad's presents, etc. It lacks verisimiltude, or that seedy, downbeat 1970s punk vibe. The audience is spoonfed and every scene is a stepping stone.
1974 spoof of the Boris Karloff flicks from 40 years earlier. It does indeed lean heavily on Son of Frankenstein, in particular the suspicions of the locals and the German police inspector with the metal arm. Marty Feldman is great in it, a better Ygor than the official ones imo. The lead is Gene Wilder, but for some reason I didn't find him or the film quite as funny as I ought bearing in mind you can put Laurel and Hardy in a haunted house and I'm all yours. Wilder is better as a rueful, sidelong, nervous observor than the main driving force of a movie as he is here, just my opinion mind. Brooks has the look of the movie down to a t but the scene I liked best overall may be the spoof from Bride of... when the Monster meets the blind hermit and comes a cropper.
That said, the Monster didn't look like Karloff's Monster really, was that for copywrite reasons I wonder?
Comments
Absolutely brilliant!
I second that. It was a very good film. I was most impressed by Sharlto Copley's performance as Wikus van der Merwe. An excellent humourous role, playing with the Afrikaner stereotype (the name van der Merwe is a joke in itself in South Africa) in the context of a sci-fi action film.
Last film I watched was 'A Fistful of Dollars' by Sergio Leone. Having already seen 'For a Few Dollars More', 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' and 'Once Upon A Time in The West', fistful did seem like the weakest but still a really good film.
I'm sure everyone's already familiar with them.
Currently watching the original Scarface with Paul Muni and Boris Karloff.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Anyway, the last film I saw was Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control. The Limits of Patience may be a better title for this exercise in tedium, which has Isaach de Bankole (he of CR and the last season of 24) as a guy who may or may not be a hit man who travels through Spain and sits at tables where he waits for a collection of oddballs played by some well-known actors (e.g., John Hurt, Gael Garcia Bernal) with whom he exchanges matchboxes that contain information and listens as they expound existentialist philosophy. I've liked many of Jarmusch's films, but this one is just mannered and boring--though I must confess to finding some interest in Paz de la Huerta's character, "Nude," whose sole bit of costume is a pair of glasses.
I've been on a bit of a Henson kick lately. Muppets, Labyrinth, Dark Crystal...
good stuff. :x
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
I picked the dvd up this afternoon on sale, classic...
I've never read the book, but yeah this is classic noir, dripping atmosphere and rapid machine gun dialogue. It's also got multiple forties femme fatales! (yes, we all have priorities in life), I lost count how many drop-dead leg gals appear in this film. Lauren Bacall, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone, yow ... Bogie was the man!
One of Alfred Hitchcock's early works from 1941 starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine, Grant is a playboy and something of a cad; he meets and marries Fontaine after spending all of about two hours with her. After a romantic honeymoon Fontaine learns Grant has no job and no money, nor does he want a job. As she learns more and more about her husband she begins to believe he will do anything for easy money, including murder. When a close friend of Grant ends up dead she begins to believe she may be next.
I would say this is the weakest Hitchcock film I have seen. Like many movies from this age, the music would swell every time something dramatic would happen, in this case loud violin strings that were overused. The audience is asked to believe Fontaine may end up a spinster, even wearing glasses she is far too attractive not to have had a number of gentleman interested. Although we get some suspense throughout the film, it never really had me on the edge of my seat and the ending is a disappointment.
I love Hitchcock, but I can't recommend this one.
Paul Muni plays Tony Camonte, who's obviously based on Alphonso Capone. The story of his rise and fall to power is familiar to everyone who's seen the Depalma version with Al Pacino. (only hermits have never seen that), If you know your 20's gangster history you know the men behind the movie character. Osgood Perkins plays Camonte's boss Johnny Kovo, (real life counterpart Jonny Torrio), Boris Karloff is an Irish gangster named Gaffney who narrowly avoids being an unwilling participant in the Valentine's day massacre, (real life, Bugs Moran), there's also a character named O'Hara murdered in his flower shop, (real life, Dion O'Bannion).
George Raft's coin flipping Guino Rinaldo is Tony's right hand man. (parodied 30 years later as "Spats" in Some Like It Hot) and Ann Dvorak plays Cesca, Camonte's hot to trot younger sister.
Every time a murder is commited, (and there's lots of them), an X is showed somewhere in the picture. Examples are X shaped rafters, door signs, and a bowling alley score. (Karloff bowls a strike and exits the picture)
Racy and violent for it's time it's a piece of history. And still carries an impact in this day of mass cynicism. The ending is just as memporable as the remake, with Tony holed up in his iron fortress as the feds surround him. Completely alone, his best friend and sister killed.
Not to be confused with Oliver!, a Lionel Bart musical from the same era.
This is about the English Civil War, with Richard Harris as Cromwell who reluctantly feels forced to take arms against King Charles I, played by Alec Guinness. Both leads are good, but there's something missing. Harris has charisma but he's a bit one-note and mannered throughout, barking his outrage, and Guinness is enjoyable until you realise he's acting exactly like Maggie Smith the whole time.
It's a fine looking period movie, but it seems to alternate between verbal argie bargie and battlefield argie bargie, then going back to negotiating. It's like a poor man's Man for All Seasons, in this instance the King is the peevish, intractable one.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Marilyn Monroe receives top billing in this entertaining 1953 thriller, despite receiving less screen time than Joseph Cotton and Jean Peters. Monroe is the young hot wife married to a middle age man played by Joseph Cotton; they have nothing in common except they both dislike each other. While vacationing at a cabin next to Niagara Falls, Monroe hatches a plan to get rid of her husband. Another vacationing couple played by Peters and Max Showalter meet Monroe and Cotton and gets pulled into the plot. From there we get several plot surprises and the tension builds rather nicely.
I enjoyed this film as the storyline is compelling and the tension is built nicely through the film. Monroe, Peters and Joseph Cotton are all very good, Cotton is menacing, Monroe is hot and convincing as the woman who knows her best asset is her looks and uses them, and Peters as the vulnerable nice girl next door type all deliver nice performances. My only complaint is the direction could have been better; the film sometimes takes on a Niagara Falls commercial as we see a lot of the falls and some of the scenes could have used a little more flair. I kept thinking this would have been better if Hitchcock had directed, because it has all the elements of a Hitchcock thriller.
I read that Monroe was a contract player with 20th Century Fox at the time and received a rather small salary for the picture. This is more of a dramatic role for her and I thought she was good, displaying some subtleties in her performance.
Recommend.
Highly acclaimed adult animation (no, not that sort!). I overlooked it on its release last year because - and this is shallow but I bet others thought the same - it put me in mind of the shifty interviewer Martin Bashir, who quizzed Princess Diana and Michael Jackson (hey Martin! Why not Dennis Hopper next and go for the hat trick!)
But in fact it refers to a Lebanose Prime Minister Bashir someone or other whose assassination in the early 1980s triggered off a backlash against Palestinians and a horrific massacre.
The animated film follows the efforts of the filmmaker to recall the events of the time, as he realises his memory of his participation in the Israeli army is a blank. It's really a documentary, but the whole thing is animated after the event, making it rather unusual as the interviews are real, it's not fictionalised. The movie moves at a helluva pace, with pop songs of the time and moments of levity, so it's not at all heavygoing. In fact I was going to say that for most of it it's how you wish a Craig Bond film could be; it's a serious flick but not sombre or indulgent at all.
One of the best war films I've ever seen.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I saw on another thread where Alex said he thought Goldfinger, Casablanca and The Adventures of Robin Hood were three perfect movies, since I had seen GF and Casablanca, and enjoyed them, I thought I would give Robin Hood a try. Good thing I listened to Alex because Robin Hood was a hoot, just an old fashion good time movie.
The film has a great cast Errol Flyn plays Robin Hood, the lovely Olivia de Havilland is Maid Marian and Claude Raines is the evil Prince John. They all are quite good and all seem to enjoy themselves. I am sure most everyone is a familiar with the Robin Hood story, so I will just say the story is told in very entertaining fashion.
Highly recommend.
Never saw that one before, Barry? Alex is right---what a treat.
Well, as today (31st January) is Loeff III's birthday, we went and saw a film yesterday in celebration...
"Sherlock Holmes"
This one really benefitted from my acutely diminished expectations---I'm opposed, on a fundamental level, to Conan Doyle's classic character being made (read: contorted) into an action hero---but I really did thoroughly enjoy it, and was relieved that they managed to transplant the heart of the character into the sort of OTT actioner that is quite far afield from anything in which the master sleuth ought to be engaged. Robert Downey, Jr., whilst IMO grievously miscast in the traditional sense, is a good enough actor to capture the essence of Holmes' quirky genius, Jude Law makes for a fine John Watson, and the absolutely yummy Rachel McAdams makes a most effective bid for a starring Bond girl role.
I was completely won over by Downey's characterization: his Holmes is a young, fit ass-kicker type whose self-choreography during fight scenes is most entertaining. Is he my Holmes? No. I prefer the middle-aged, Jeremy Brett Holmes---or, in a pinch, the Basil Rathbone Holmes---each of whom, to be fair, could convey the sense of passive athleticism Doyle more or less ascribed to his hero: physicality when absolutely necessary. Exhibit A: Holmes' struggle with Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls in "The Final Problem." On the other hand, Downey hints at the literary character's chemical self-abuse, and his state of atrophy between cases...both distinctly Flemingesque/Bondian traits as well...
A grand time. Rather rare for me to be in agreement with the estimable Napoleon Plural---and I'm not comfortable in such a position
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I bought the DVD, never having seen the film, based purely upon my admiration of what Quentin Tarantino does.
Arguably, Tarantino pictures are a great deal like Bond pictures---at least in the sense that they exist in their own sort of isolated reality---so perhaps they're not completely answerable to all of the rules and demands of the film medium as a whole. I've not seen his "Grindhouse" movie ('Death Proof?'), simply because the premise of aping B-grade drive-in pictures doesn't interest me...but other than that, I've been a fan of everything else he's done. I'll freely acknowledge that (particularly here) he's got as many detractors as he has admirers, and I can well understand that
All the above being said, I'm enough of a traditionalist in my tastes, particularly with regard to WWII pictures, that it took me a second viewing of IB before I felt confident in attempting to articulate an opinion. Tarantino has said that he wrote the first two scenes (or "chapters") ten years ago. As a writer, I can certainly see that, since he's read enough press about himself in the intervening ten years to feel emboldened to take the film he probably intended to write, ten years ago, and feed the material through a wood-chipper. One can only wonder what the film might have looked like nine years ago...but now, it is what it is---and what it is, is demented...fantasical...over the top...and ultimately quite exhilarating. Again, as with the Bonds (since I often lament that there is no real James Bond for this grim 21st Century), one might wish that such a thing as that which is depicted in Act 3 of IG could have actually happened. Think of the lives that might have been saved...
Okay---that's as serious as this review deserves to be. This is a WWII commando flick, by a film geek, for film geeks---with a disregard for actual history that mirrors Warner Bros. cartoon director Chuck Jones' disregard for the laws of physics. I love what Tarantino does with chronological order, flashbacks, the occasional over-long scene, and the lingering shot. His heavy use of title cards reflects some sort of need to send little love letters to his audience, the way kids pass notes in a classroom. Tarantino refuses to grow up...and I dread the inevitable day when he will.
Incredible work from the cast: Melanie Laurent, as Shoshanna, the Jewish survivor of the massacre of her family at the hands of the reptilian Colonel Landa (the riveting Christoph Waltz), is not only lovely but deserving of consideration by Eon for a role in a Bond film. Brad Pitt's Lt. Aldo Raines is one of the most distinctive and great roles of his career ('Bon-JOR-no!'). Mike Myers, Rod Taylor and a host of unknown German and French actors give remarkable performances. Yes, some of the shots are visceral and gratuitous. No, this film isn't for everyone---maybe not even for all Tarantino fans.
But I loved it, and recommend it. See it TWICE. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Big blue shiny bollocks in space.
(trivia time), Maid Marian's steed was later adopted by some fellow named Roy Rogers.
New name, "Trigger!"
The last film I saw at the cinema was New Moon, which I took my daughter to see as a treat.
Quo Vadis
I'm following Roman history by renting DVDs, for instance HBO's Rome mini-series, which deals with Caeser's seizing of Rome and civil war against Pompey (currently facing relegation if it can't get its money sorted out
Ustinov is great, he chomps up the scenery. Much of it foreshadows I Claudius in that the villain's allies try to steer him on the right track of morality, only to find it can just as easily backfire and blow up in your face.
That said, I had a hard time getting into it as Rod Taylor, who plays a Centaurian general, is such a gee-whizz Mad Men generation American, it's hard to see him as a Roman. Though of course, we don't really know what accent the Romans had. Deborah Kerr is all tremulous and not especially sexy, in a way that foreshadows her role in Black Narcissus I suppose. It's odd how the sexual banter and Taylor's predatory maleness gets a bad rap in contrast to other movies, but accusing Quo Vadis of being Christian propoganda is a bit like the bloke who complains that Christmas would be better without the religious hymns... Still, all the romantic subplots seems a bit sappy and devoid of reason as if to imply that love should be better directed at God himself.
It gets better, esp if you listen to the commentary as some point. It turns out that John Huston was set to be the director but dropped out to do The Asphalt Jungle. He had it in mind to draw parallels with the Second World War, with Taylor as the American returning from three years away, and the Roman Empire being the Nazis, with a few Heil Hitler gestures towards the Emperor.
Ustinov was set to be Nero but bosses were wary because at 28 he was too young. He replied, okay, but don't leave it too long or I'll be too old - Nero died aged 32! There are other good tidbits on the commentary and I have to say the movie got more harrowing towards the end, with the lions entering the arena. This is epic enough, with 30,000 extras for some scenes! The burning of Rome is spectacle indeed.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I like Robert Taylor's Marcus. No, he's not a versatile British stage actor, or a scene stealing character actor. He's the classic wooden leading man. 'Wood' has a dexterity and simplicity needed for such a role. Good looking Taylor also starred in Ivanhoe with Liz Taylor. I've always dug his, "Sure babe, I'll believe in your god if it makes you happy", Roman pomp.
Special mention must be made to Patricia Laffan as Nero's Empress. Poppaea with her two pet leopards is an indelible image. One which has remained firmly, (cough), imbedded in my psyche. Also, if Deb Kerr's blazing red braids aren't sexy I'll make a note to never visit Plural's occulist.
"My weeping vase!" (Nero, "mourning" the death of Petronious. Played wonderfully by Leo Genn)
Perhaps wooden Taylor was picked in homage to the son of a carpenter.
It is an interesting backstory. Have you heard the commentary Alex? If not I recommend it. Though the Christian stuff now is a bit heavyhanded, at the time it was thought not to lay it on for fear of offending non-believers, though I guess they don't mean agnostics but Jews, who were prevalent in Hollywood and would be behind a lot of these Christian epics, ironically.
A lot of the actors have a backstory too. Peck was going to play the Taylor part, (Liz) Taylor was going to play the Kerr part (presumably, I think she might have been Petronious' floozy). Petronious was a role model for Gore Vidal thanks to his writings and he'd been
And Leo Genn had a leading role in WW2 helping the French Resistance, for which he was honoured. In many ways I enjoyed the commentary more than the film.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Best Picture and Best Director nominated film which tells the story of three young men who are responsible for disarming the various explosive devices that insurgents used in Iraq. Director Kathryn Bigelow (James Cameron's ex-wife) does a fine job of creating tension as the movie is essentially one disarming scene after another. I also think she did a very good job of capturing the Iraqi environment as the scenes are very desolate, yet you feel the danger lurking.
The three young actors that make up the bomb squad are all very good, especially Jeremy Renner who plays Sergeant James, a high strung bomb diffuser who loves his job, maybe a little too much.
Despite the fine cinematic qualities of the film, I was little less enthused about the story, which I thought at times was not very accurate. One thing I noticed was the lack of discipline by the solders, which I am sure, would not happen. Going off on their own to look for enemy solders, or taking action they do not have approval for doesn't happen. For the most part it seemed these guys had no commanding officer. We also get very little back story on any of the main players, they all have a different view of the war and their duties, but why, we never really know. In addition, because this is essentially an anti-war film we get the usual scene of any enemy solder being wounded, a medic wanting to treat him and then the Commander in charge saying he isn't going to make it, followed by the sounds of gunshots.
I enjoyed the film and I can see how Bigelow received a Best Director nomination as the things a director can control, atmosphere, building of tension, cinematography pacing, were all well done. However, because of the minor flaws in the story I don't see it as Best Picture.
Recommend
Cherbourg is in Normandy, on the north coast of France. It's a 1960ish New Wave French film with saturated colour and the characters sing everything, like in opera. This works in the French language as it's more lyrical sounding even when the words are banal.
However, my flatmate's wife came in and started using the Wii after the first part so I haven't got to see the rest of it yet.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
This movie, aimed at the newly christened and still rising Rock & Roll movement, starts off with a bang. Under the title credits a flat bed truck arrives, carrying Jerry Lee Lewis whilst he belts out "High School Hop" to a gathering of admirers. Once the song is over, we're introduced to Tony Baker, (Russ Tamblyn, West Side Story), a newly arrived student who has a serious problem with authority figures. From day one Tony aims his sights on becoming head of the "Wheelers & Dealers" gang. Currently run by John Drew Barrymoore. (father of Drew)
Ok. So what we have here is a teen film that begins as an exploition Rock & Roll drive in programmer , then shifts gears into a response to the rising teen drug problem. It's filled with a mixure of both early and late 50s slang. (Beatnik & R&R)
Jackie Coogan (Uncle Festur from the Adams family), is "Mr. A", who deals in heroin and is a most unscrupulous b@stard. Addicting girls and then cutting their supply. Unless they agree to work in his "escort service" that is.
There's a rather eye raising incestous angle. Tony has an Aunt whose amorous advances he's constantly fending off. I'm not sure why this part was included but since it's 50s pin up girl Mamie Van Doren in a torpedo sweater I'm not complaining.
Michael Landon has a small role as the leader of a nicer gang called the "Rangers". Their stock in trade is automobiles and not "Reefers"
Watch it for the "Daddio" and "Crazy" slang. For the vintage hot rod dragging, and for Mamie Van Doren!
Mario Bavo's The Three Faces of Terror, aka Black Sabbath.
Three-part Italian horror. Nothing too surprising for those who grew up with Tales of the Unexpected, but undeniably creepy and big on atmosphere. A couple of WTF moments that weren't very credible, but also two or three moments that literally made my flesh crawl or gave me a nasty start, so a pretty good return.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
This means not the son of the Monster of course, but that of Baron Frankenstein, the scientist - this is a misconception among many truly stupid people.
Loeffs advised me to watch this ahead of Young Frankenstein, the Mel Brooks spoof that duly turned up on my doormat this morning.
Son of... has a reputation as being the worst of them so far, but it's not bad at all. It has eerie Fritz Lang-style sets: all angled walls and dark shadows. Indeed, the director is namechecked in the film as subordinate characters have names Fritz and Lang.
It starts off promisingly but snags appear. Basil Rathbone plays the son and he's always good value, but why is he only now returning to claim his heritage? Maybe he's at that time of life, with a wife and kid, and wants to settle down. But he travels by 1930s-style car from the station to the castle; now if the first two were set in Victorian times, surely the time line is out of whack? Worst of all, his scientist father's actions in bringing a corpse to life are well known; well if that's the case, he would be celebrated and feted and other scientist would have carried on his life's work, as science waits for no man. Such an amazing discovery would not have been just overlooked.
It would have been better to have it so his father was regarded widely as a fraudster, a con man and medical quack who conned the gullible village locals and murdered them himself, making his son's efforts in the medical world impossible. That would explain Rathbone's retreat to his home town in sour defeat, along with he realisation, upon stumbling across his father's notes, that this is a chance to redeem his reputation and go from zero to hero in one fell swoop.
As it is, Rathbone's conviction to take on his father's work seems to come out of nowhere and the first 45 minutes is quite predictable and tedious. It picks up when the Monster arrives, and gets very good, mainly thanks to the social tension between Frankenstein and the suspicious local inspector and also his creepy (in)subordinate Ygor. Ultimately I enjoyed this more than the second one, though it lacks the eerie, bucolic Hansel and Gretyl menace.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
New biopic of Ian Dury, the lead singer of the Blockheads who made it big in 1978 in the wake of punk.
Do you Yanks know him?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A61i0Xscj-k
Anyway, this features a fine lead performance by Andy Serkis who played Gollum, King Kong and, er Moors Murderer Ian Brady. I suppose what with him playing real people or at least established characters he's a bit the Blair/Frost/Clough actor Martin Sheen. Though Serkis doing Blair would be a stretch. mind you I could see Sheen doing the anaemic po-faced Brady.
The movie is good stuff and I liked the dialogue, though much of it may be bon mots from the man himself rather than from the scriptwriter. It's mainly The Life and Death of Peter Sellers type stuff, in that we have a guy over 30 held back by perceived physical limitations and prejudice who makes it big at the expense of his family life.
That said, the genre is a bit box-ticking in its emotions, it's all emotional shorthand. Everything is deliberately simplified, prettified and made a bit phony. When we see the band practising at home, and Dury sacks the drummer while his wife is giving birth upstairs, well, that's based on a real event, except here it looks phony, comical. And it's a bit like that throughout: here's the girlfriend looking moody, here's the kid petulantly burning his dad's presents, etc. It lacks verisimiltude, or that seedy, downbeat 1970s punk vibe. The audience is spoonfed and every scene is a stepping stone.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein.
1974 spoof of the Boris Karloff flicks from 40 years earlier. It does indeed lean heavily on Son of Frankenstein, in particular the suspicions of the locals and the German police inspector with the metal arm. Marty Feldman is great in it, a better Ygor than the official ones imo. The lead is Gene Wilder, but for some reason I didn't find him or the film quite as funny as I ought bearing in mind you can put Laurel and Hardy in a haunted house and I'm all yours. Wilder is better as a rueful, sidelong, nervous observor than the main driving force of a movie as he is here, just my opinion mind. Brooks has the look of the movie down to a t but the scene I liked best overall may be the spoof from Bride of... when the Monster meets the blind hermit and comes a cropper.
That said, the Monster didn't look like Karloff's Monster really, was that for copywrite reasons I wonder?
Roger Moore 1927-2017