Man on Fire (Tony Scott, 2004) 6/10
A "Death Wish" retread. Charles Bronson started the fashion of vigilante killing in 1974 - there may have been others before him - but he made it cool to kill scum. And the trend continued - here and beyond. Former CIA officer (Denzel Washington), now a broken alcoholic, is persuaded by his close buddy (Christopher Walken) to take on a job as bodyguard to the daughter (Dakota Fanning) of a rich Mexican automaker (Marc Anthony) and his American wife (Radha Mitchell). The film is a story of a broken man's redemption with the kid his saviour. When she is kidnapped he goes after the gang and one by one relishes each brutal murder on his way to the kidnapper who is known as "The Voice". The best scenes are all between Washington and his interactions with the remarkably astute Fanning - an actress with a scary range considering she was only 9 or 10 during the shoot. Helping him along the way is a journalist (Rachel Ticotin) and the cop (Giancarlo Giannini) on the case. A pre-facial surgery Mickey Rourke plays a lawyer who may know more about the kidnapping than he wishes to divulge. All the action scenes have Tony Scott's trademark razzle dazzle - all flashing lights, distorted images and rapid editing - which gets to be a tad annoying. Once an adman always an adman - Scot spent 15 years making commercials before he entered the world of movies.
Old (M. Night Shyamalan, 2021) 4/10
Nature at its most deadly and threatning which becomes a parable for the Covid pandemic - lock-down causing claustrophobia, fear and uncertainty of whether it will leas to survial or death. Shyamalan also seems to be making some kind of negative connotation about fear of ageing. A group of people - who have some form of an underlyimg medical condition - arrive at a tropical holiday resort. A group of guests is taken on a daytrip and left at a secluded cove on a beach for a day's rest and recreation. To their horror they discover they cannot leave, have started rapidly aging and die gruesome deaths. Interesting premise but with a ghastly twist not unlike Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" with its group of people at a secluded spot and being killed off one by one. Indifferently acted film has a few shocks in store but soon becomes very tiresome. The stunning location and the lovely cinematography get top marks though.
Chaos Walking (Doug Liman, 2021) 2/10
A screen adaptation of a young-adult (wtf is that?) science fiction novel set on New World - an alien planet only recently colonized by humanity. Men rule the roost in one part where the story goes that women all died years ago in battle at the hands of an alien race. Men have an annoying affliction where they can hear each others' (and animals') thoughts, described as "Noise". Women did not have that affliction so could hear everything men thought about. When a spaceship crashes, the lone survivor - a girl (Daisy Ridley) - is discovered by a young man (Todd Holland). The townfolk, led by their leader (Mads Mikkleson), want to capture her but she goes on the run aided by the young man while chased by all the men in town. Eventually certain truths are revealed as they race against time to contact and warn a mother ship which is about to land on this planet. It is all very deja vu conjuring up images of many similar stories with "Planet of the Apes" immediately coming to mind. Same concept with minor changes. Hence not very original of Patrick Ness who came up with this stale concept for "young-adults" who made the books a roaring success. Young-adults....or morons? Both Holland and Ridley give stiff performances looking incredulous that they got stuck in such crap.
Hold Your Man (Sam Wood, 1933) 5/10
An immediate re-teaming of Gable and Harlow (it was their third of six films together) after their hit film from the previous year "Red Dust". Odd mixture of comedy- drama which turns excessively sentimental during a long sequence set in a jail during the second half. Resisting arrest a conman (Clark Gable) runs into the apartment of a brassy dame (Jean Harlow) to hide. She diverts the cop, resists warming upto him and later falls in love with him. While getting involved with more scams he accidently kills a man who is trying to harass her and she ends up pregnant and in jail while he goes into hiding. The jail sequence involves inmates helping the two reach a visiting black preacher in the chapel to do things right in the way of the Lord. The studio shot this sequence also with a white actor as the preacher for prints of the film shown to the bigoted American South. Maudlin film gets by on the great chemistry between the two stars who were great chums off screen.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Golden Horde (George Sherman, 1951) 3/10
Eastern hokum with expected corny dialogue. Samarkand Princess (Ann Blyth) defends her city from the son and vizir of the mighty Genghis Khan with help from a British Crusader (David Farrar). Colorful action-adventure is boring with Farrar a boorish love interest for pretty Blyth who looks marvelous in Technicolor.
Too Many Girls (George Abbott, 1940) 5/10
College flick 1940s style based on a hit Broadway musical also directed by Abbott. A tycoon enlists four Ivy League football players to act as bodyguards for his spoilt reckless daughter (Lucille Ball) who plans on going to a hick College in New Mexico just to be close to her much older British boyfriend. The boys - Eddie Bracken, Hal Le Roy, Desi Arnaz, Richard Carlson - help out the College which is in bad financial straits and take its dismal football team into the winner's circle while getting involved with Lucy's shenanigans. Onscreen she falls for Carlson but offscreen ended up in a tumultuous 20-year marriage with Desi with whom she eloped. Pleasant, if corny, musical with undistinguished songs. Ann Miller tap dances and Van Johnson has a bit as a chorus boy. Lucy's 61st film and Desi's 1st - he was also in the Broadway production.
Tell It To the Judge (Norman Foster, 1949) 7/10
Corny film has a couple of hilarious laugh-out-loud moments with Rosalind Russell. Nobody was funnier on screen playing brash career women with that distinctive voice taking pratfalls while dressed to her teeth in evening wear. Divorcée and potential judge (Rosalind Russell) gets into a tussle with her ex-husband (Robert Cummings) who wants her back. In full-on screwball mode they get remarried but she has to pretend she is married to someone else (Gig Young) while her husband keeps finding himself in a compromising position with a blonde client (Marie McDonald). Roz goes full throttle with the comedy not afraid to get soaked, bumped, knocked around and look completely disheveled. She has great chemistry with Cummings who gives her competition in buffoonery. Silly but great fun.
Two Girls on Broadway (S. Sylvan Simon, 1940) 6/10
Song and dance man (George Murphy) auditions and gets into a show on Broadway. He wrangles a place for his fiancé (Joan Blondell) as his dance partner who shows up with kid sister in tow (Lana Turner). Through a nasty twist of fate the kid sister gets chosen as the dance partner while older sister gets relegated as the cigarette girl. Adding insult to injury the couple fall in love and dump older sister. Remake of the Oscar winning "The Broadway Melody" the role provides just the right boost to Lana Turner's career who was a year away from superstardom. And who knew she was such a great dancer matching Murphy every step of the way. Pity Fred Astaire never took on Turner as his dance partner in a film. The plot, with every cliché intact, takes second place and instead spends all its time (rightfully) showcasing Lana Turner and at the expense of the more seasoned Joan Blondell in her first film for MGM.
Eastern hokum with expected corny dialogue. Samarkand Princess (Ann Blyth) defends her city from the son and vizir of the mighty Genghis Khan with help from a British Crusader (David Farrar). Colorful action-adventure is boring with Farrar a boorish love interest for pretty Blyth who looks marvelous in Technicolor.
Too Many Girls (George Abbott, 1940) 5/10
College flick 1940s style based on a hit Broadway musical also directed by Abbott. A tycoon enlists four Ivy League football players to act as bodyguards for his spoilt reckless daughter (Lucille Ball) who plans on going to a hick College in New Mexico just to be close to her much older British boyfriend. The boys - Eddie Bracken, Hal Le Roy, Desi Arnaz, Richard Carlson - help out the College which is in bad financial straits and take its dismal football team into the winner's circle while getting involved with Lucy's shenanigans. Onscreen she falls for Carlson but offscreen ended up in a tumultuous 20-year marriage with Desi with whom she eloped. Pleasant, if corny, musical with undistinguished songs. Ann Miller tap dances and Van Johnson has a bit as a chorus boy. Lucy's 61st film and Desi's 1st - he was also in the Broadway production.
Tell It To the Judge (Norman Foster, 1949) 7/10
Corny film has a couple of hilarious laugh-out-loud moments with Rosalind Russell. Nobody was funnier on screen playing brash career women with that distinctive voice taking pratfalls while dressed to her teeth in evening wear. Divorcée and potential judge (Rosalind Russell) gets into a tussle with her ex-husband (Robert Cummings) who wants her back. In full-on screwball mode they get remarried but she has to pretend she is married to someone else (Gig Young) while her husband keeps finding himself in a compromising position with a blonde client (Marie McDonald). Roz goes full throttle with the comedy not afraid to get soaked, bumped, knocked around and look completely disheveled. She has great chemistry with Cummings who gives her competition in buffoonery. Silly but great fun.
Two Girls on Broadway (S. Sylvan Simon, 1940) 6/10
Song and dance man (George Murphy) auditions and gets into a show on Broadway. He wrangles a place for his fiancé (Joan Blondell) as his dance partner who shows up with kid sister in tow (Lana Turner). Through a nasty twist of fate the kid sister gets chosen as the dance partner while older sister gets relegated as the cigarette girl. Adding insult to injury the couple fall in love and dump older sister. Remake of the Oscar winning "The Broadway Melody" the role provides just the right boost to Lana Turner's career who was a year away from superstardom. And who knew she was such a great dancer matching Murphy every step of the way. Pity Fred Astaire never took on Turner as his dance partner in a film. The plot, with every cliché intact, takes second place and instead spends all its time (rightfully) showcasing Lana Turner and at the expense of the more seasoned Joan Blondell in her first film for MGM.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Samurai II - Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955) - 7.5/10 - We jump ahead a bit and Musashi has improved in the way of the sword and is challenging the Yoshioka school, though the disciples are a bit underhanded in trying to protect their masters. We also get to meet Kojiro Sasaki. This was good, though I liked the first movie a lot more. It had more humor and was more entertaining.
Samurai III - Duel at Ganryu Island (1956) - 7.5/10 - Musashi decides to travel and take up farming, putting off his duel with Sasaki for a year. I liked this one a bit more than the second film, but it still didn't equal the first film.
Dune (2021) - 7.5/10 - The movie has great visuals and is a pretty solid adaptation as far as it goes. I also like the cast. However, the deliberate pacing left me a bit bored at times.
Samurai III - Duel at Ganryu Island (1956) - 7.5/10 - Musashi decides to travel and take up farming, putting off his duel with Sasaki for a year. I liked this one a bit more than the second film, but it still didn't equal the first film.
Dune (2021) - 7.5/10 - The movie has great visuals and is a pretty solid adaptation as far as it goes. I also like the cast. However, the deliberate pacing left me a bit bored at times.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Shepherd of the Hills (Henry Hathaway, 1941) 8/10
Set amongst a superstitious community of moonshiners in the Ozark mountains of Missouri - although shot in stunning Technicolor in Big Bear Valley California - this melodrama involves a bitter young man (John Wayne) desperate for revenge on his father who abandoned his family years before causing his mother to die young. Into the community arrives a stranger (Harry Carey) who not only buys the young man's land, befriends his girlfriend (Betty Field) but also brings positive changes into the lives of the people. Loosely based on the novel by Harold Bell Wright - this was the first sound version - the story plays like a Christian parable about how kindness can bring love and turn things around for the better. Moving film with a memorable Wayne in his first teaming with Hathaway in a collaboration that would eventually net the actor his first and only Oscar almost 30 years later. The memorable supporting cast of character actors - Beulah Bondi, John Qualen, James Barton, Marjorie Main, Ward Bond - play assorted colorful mountain folk. Good chemistry between Wayne and Field.
The Interpreter (Sydney Pollack, 2005) 6/10
Film fitfully resembles the paranoid political thrillers of the 1970s including Pollack's own, far superior "Three Days of the Condor". A United Nations interpreter (Nicole Kidman) inadvertently overhears a whispered conversation about the assassination of a visiting African dictator who the U.N. is considering indicting for committing genocide against his countrymen. Not believing her is the Secret Service agent (Sean Penn) who has been assigned to protect the visiting dignitary who is soon arriving to address tbe General Assembly. The plot takes a twist when it is revealed that she has close ties to the African country where her parents died at the hands of the dictator. Talky thriller with brief moments of action and the obligatory potholes is held together by earnest performances by the two stars - Kidman's South African accent comes and goes while Penn looks very tired. They look good together but have little chemistry. Apparently he was overworked, wanted to spend time with his family but roped in by Pollack to join the project. Catherine Keener, as Penn's partner, steals the film in a brief part. It was the first time any film had been given access to shoot within the U.N. building and it also proved to be Pollack's last film before his death.
The International (Tom Tykwer, 2009) 7/10
Eric Warren Singer's screenplay is inspired by the BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) banking scandal that took place in the 1980s and early 1990s - here the fictional Luxumbourg-based merchant bank is called IBBC and serves organized crime and corrupt governments as a banker and as an arms broker with its ruthless senior managers (Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Thomsen) willing to assassinate suspected threats, including their own employees. Hot on their trail is an Interpol detective (Clive Owen) and a Manhattan Assistant D.A. (Naomi Watts). The investigation, double dealings, various assassinations and shootouts take place in many exotic locations - Milan, Berlin, Istanbul (the rooftops of the Grand Bazaar and the underground Bascilica cistern) and inside the Guggenheim Museum in New York. They actually re-built a replica of the cavernous interior of the museum inside an abandoned warehouse which becomes the setting for a spectacular shootout between the Interpol agent, who teams up with an assassin (Brían F. O'Byrne), against the bank's assassins who are out to get them both. Convoluted plot is a slowburn with Owen outstanding as the relentless agent hellbent on bringing the bank down. Watts is wasted in an underwritten role although she gets into the thick of action as well.
The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006) 3/10
The first of three Dan Brown books to go Hollywood courtesy of Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks and causing much consternation for the Catholic Church. Brown asserts that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and the union produced a daughter. He also mentions the Priory of Sion, a secret society engaged in a centuries-long benevolent conspiracy to install a secret bloodline of the Jesus bloodline on the thrones of France. Claptrap or truth? French Police Chief (Jean Reno) suspects American symbologist and author Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) of the murder of the Louvre curator (Jean-Pierre Marielle) who is found naked, dead and posed like Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man with a secret message on the floor readable only by blacklight. In fact the old man was shot by an albino monk (Paul Bettany), prone to serious bouts of self flagellation, who demands to know the whereabouts of the Holy Grail. Before the author can be arrested by the cops he is whisked off by a police cryptographer (Audrey Tautou) who also happens to be the dead man's estranged granddaughter. They also decipher the messages leading to clues in Leonardo da Vinci's works and deduce that the dead man was the present grand master of the secret society. All of this may sound very believable on the printed page but it comes off absurd and clumsily put across on the big screen. The police come off as stupid oafs during the sequence at the Louvre and the scenes at the bank and later with the manager (Jurgen Prochnow) make no sense. Hanks' expressions throughout are one of disbelief and dialogue spoken between all the characters are all about explaining Dan Brown's complex theories so the audience can stay abreast with every confusing action taking place on the screen. A very droll Sir Ian McKellen suddenly turns up as a crippled friend of the author, who then in a twist, completely goes off his rocker. Alfred Molina is around as a shady Bishop but has nothing much to do. The film shamed many religious groups - Catholics and Muslims - with the film getting banned or picketed. A nun and a priest stood in silent protest at the Cannes film festival where the film was first unveiled. Instead of the protests being on religious grounds people should have boycotted this film for being utter crap. It was a huge boxoffice hit proving people are fascinated by violence and kink especially if it is served with a mixture of religiosity. Howard's direction is virtually non-existent with many scenes making no sense as continuity flows in a haphazard way. In the midst of all this nonsense Hanks and Tautou try but fail to convince you of all the mumbo jumbo.
Angels & Demons (Ron Howard, 2009) 7/10
Sequel to "The Da Vinci Code", based on Dan Brown's novel, has four favoured Papal candidates kidnapped after the Pope dies mysteriously. A man, claiming to be a member of the secret society, Illuminati, provides clues to the eventual murders of the four kidnapped Cardinals and threatens to blow up the Vatican via a stolen vial of antimatter - a bomb. Harvard University professor, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), teams up with a Nuclear research scientist (pretty Israeli star Ayelet Zurer) and the police in a race against time to save the four Cardinals and retreive the bomb. The plot becomes a travelogue of the Vatican City and prominent churches of Rome - both above the ground and in the underground catacombs - where each Cardinal is to be murdered and the chase starts at the Pantheon and goes onto Santa Maria del Popolo, St. Peter's Square, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Piazza Navona, Castel Sant'Angelo and inside St. Peter's tomb. Probable suspects aiding and abetting the investigation are the head of the Swiss guard (Stellan Skarsgård) - protector of the Pope - the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church (Ewan McGregor) - who was the protegé of the deceased Pope - and the Dean of the College of Cardinals (Armin Mueller-Stahl). Fast paced thriller is a masterpiece compared to the first installment with Hanks fully involved in the investigation without looking bored. It is still all quite absurd but if you buy into the incredible premise it becomes an interesting roller coaster ride. And of course you can never go wrong looking at all the wonderful sights in Rome.
National Treasure (Jon Turteltaub, 2004) 6/10
An Indiana Jones clone but set in modern times with Nicolas Cage as the scion of a family of eccentric and relentless treasure hunters with before him his father (Jon Voight) and grandfather (Christopher Plummer in a cameo) equally eccentric and relentless in their pursuit of hidden treasure. A historian and amateur cryptologist (Nicolas Cage) follows clues left by American Freemasons during the American Revolutionary War of vast treasures accumulated (stolen) by them from all over the world and hidden somewhere on American soil. The first clue, by way of a frozen ship in the Arctic, just happens to be on the back of the Declaration of Independance so stealing it becomes the first step of the plan. Helping him along the way is his buddy and computer expert (Justin Bartha) and an archivist (Diane Kruger) at the National Archives who begrudgingly finds herself along on the quest with the boys while a former friend (Sean Bean), turned foe, gives chase and puts obstacles in the way. Predictable film cashes in on the Spielberg films and is just as improbable but with less thrills. Goofy Cage is a delight though and Kruger makes a feisty leading lady.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Jon Turteltaub, 2007) 4/10
The whole gang is back in this sequel which is not only yet again a clone of the Indiana Jones franchise but also a clone of its own first installment. A black market antique dealer (Ed Harris) accuses the great-great grandfather of treasure hunter, historian and cryptologist, Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) of being the architect of Lincoln's assassination. This does not bode well with him and his dad (Jon Voight) and soon the hunt is on to prove this accusation wrong and to find a treasure his ancestor was searching for. Along for the ride is his Dad, his estranged girlfriend (Diane Kruger), his buddy (Justin Bartha) and his Mom (Helen Mirren). The clues lead them to Paris, London - where they crash the Queen's private quarters at Buckingham Palace while she is away in Windsor - the White House - where they first crash the Oval Office and later crash and "kidnap" the President (Bruce Greenwood) from his private birthday party. The treasure hunt concludes at Mount Rushmore with a series of familiar set pieces lifted from many such films where the protagonists get trapped inside booby-trapped caves. Harvey Keitel also returns as the detective hot on their trail. Both Cage and Voight were nominated for Razzies as the worst actors of the year although the latter is amusing in his running angry banter with Helen Mirren throughout the film.
The Sun Never Sets (Rowland V. Lee, 1939) 4/10
British Colonials on the Gold Coast of Africa - a family of career "diplomats" serving all over the world for a country on which the sun never sets. Elder brother (Basil Rathbone) convinces younger brother (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), who is not in favour of colonial service, to join as well. Finally convinced by his grandfather (Sir C. Aubrey Smith) he too trots off with his brother where they both take on a rogue (Lionel Atwill) who plans on taking over the world. Listless, slow drama with too many stiff upper lips along with melodrama on the homefront as one wife (Barbara O'Neill) gives birth to a dead baby which is followed by an air raid on the rogue's camp. Rathbone is the lead here even if Fairbanks gets top billing.
The Thirteenth Chair (George B. Seitz, 1937) 8/10
A murder takes place during Colonial times in old Calcutta - based on the 1919 stage play by Bayard Veiller which had already been filmed twice before as silents. A group is gathered together for a séance at the behest of the murdered man's best friend (Henry Daniell) who then is found stabbed in the heart during the session conducted by an old biddy (Dame May Whitty) with a lower-class accent. A battle of wits ensues between the old woman and the police Inspector (Lewis Stone) after he accuses the old woman's daughter (Madge Evans) of both murders. Interesting, if rather creaky, whodunnit in the Agatha Christie / Charlie Chan vein with Dame May absolutely delightful as the fake medium who suddenly needs her powers as a medium to work in order to save the life of her daughter. Great fun.
Set amongst a superstitious community of moonshiners in the Ozark mountains of Missouri - although shot in stunning Technicolor in Big Bear Valley California - this melodrama involves a bitter young man (John Wayne) desperate for revenge on his father who abandoned his family years before causing his mother to die young. Into the community arrives a stranger (Harry Carey) who not only buys the young man's land, befriends his girlfriend (Betty Field) but also brings positive changes into the lives of the people. Loosely based on the novel by Harold Bell Wright - this was the first sound version - the story plays like a Christian parable about how kindness can bring love and turn things around for the better. Moving film with a memorable Wayne in his first teaming with Hathaway in a collaboration that would eventually net the actor his first and only Oscar almost 30 years later. The memorable supporting cast of character actors - Beulah Bondi, John Qualen, James Barton, Marjorie Main, Ward Bond - play assorted colorful mountain folk. Good chemistry between Wayne and Field.
The Interpreter (Sydney Pollack, 2005) 6/10
Film fitfully resembles the paranoid political thrillers of the 1970s including Pollack's own, far superior "Three Days of the Condor". A United Nations interpreter (Nicole Kidman) inadvertently overhears a whispered conversation about the assassination of a visiting African dictator who the U.N. is considering indicting for committing genocide against his countrymen. Not believing her is the Secret Service agent (Sean Penn) who has been assigned to protect the visiting dignitary who is soon arriving to address tbe General Assembly. The plot takes a twist when it is revealed that she has close ties to the African country where her parents died at the hands of the dictator. Talky thriller with brief moments of action and the obligatory potholes is held together by earnest performances by the two stars - Kidman's South African accent comes and goes while Penn looks very tired. They look good together but have little chemistry. Apparently he was overworked, wanted to spend time with his family but roped in by Pollack to join the project. Catherine Keener, as Penn's partner, steals the film in a brief part. It was the first time any film had been given access to shoot within the U.N. building and it also proved to be Pollack's last film before his death.
The International (Tom Tykwer, 2009) 7/10
Eric Warren Singer's screenplay is inspired by the BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) banking scandal that took place in the 1980s and early 1990s - here the fictional Luxumbourg-based merchant bank is called IBBC and serves organized crime and corrupt governments as a banker and as an arms broker with its ruthless senior managers (Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Thomsen) willing to assassinate suspected threats, including their own employees. Hot on their trail is an Interpol detective (Clive Owen) and a Manhattan Assistant D.A. (Naomi Watts). The investigation, double dealings, various assassinations and shootouts take place in many exotic locations - Milan, Berlin, Istanbul (the rooftops of the Grand Bazaar and the underground Bascilica cistern) and inside the Guggenheim Museum in New York. They actually re-built a replica of the cavernous interior of the museum inside an abandoned warehouse which becomes the setting for a spectacular shootout between the Interpol agent, who teams up with an assassin (Brían F. O'Byrne), against the bank's assassins who are out to get them both. Convoluted plot is a slowburn with Owen outstanding as the relentless agent hellbent on bringing the bank down. Watts is wasted in an underwritten role although she gets into the thick of action as well.
The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006) 3/10
The first of three Dan Brown books to go Hollywood courtesy of Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks and causing much consternation for the Catholic Church. Brown asserts that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and the union produced a daughter. He also mentions the Priory of Sion, a secret society engaged in a centuries-long benevolent conspiracy to install a secret bloodline of the Jesus bloodline on the thrones of France. Claptrap or truth? French Police Chief (Jean Reno) suspects American symbologist and author Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) of the murder of the Louvre curator (Jean-Pierre Marielle) who is found naked, dead and posed like Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man with a secret message on the floor readable only by blacklight. In fact the old man was shot by an albino monk (Paul Bettany), prone to serious bouts of self flagellation, who demands to know the whereabouts of the Holy Grail. Before the author can be arrested by the cops he is whisked off by a police cryptographer (Audrey Tautou) who also happens to be the dead man's estranged granddaughter. They also decipher the messages leading to clues in Leonardo da Vinci's works and deduce that the dead man was the present grand master of the secret society. All of this may sound very believable on the printed page but it comes off absurd and clumsily put across on the big screen. The police come off as stupid oafs during the sequence at the Louvre and the scenes at the bank and later with the manager (Jurgen Prochnow) make no sense. Hanks' expressions throughout are one of disbelief and dialogue spoken between all the characters are all about explaining Dan Brown's complex theories so the audience can stay abreast with every confusing action taking place on the screen. A very droll Sir Ian McKellen suddenly turns up as a crippled friend of the author, who then in a twist, completely goes off his rocker. Alfred Molina is around as a shady Bishop but has nothing much to do. The film shamed many religious groups - Catholics and Muslims - with the film getting banned or picketed. A nun and a priest stood in silent protest at the Cannes film festival where the film was first unveiled. Instead of the protests being on religious grounds people should have boycotted this film for being utter crap. It was a huge boxoffice hit proving people are fascinated by violence and kink especially if it is served with a mixture of religiosity. Howard's direction is virtually non-existent with many scenes making no sense as continuity flows in a haphazard way. In the midst of all this nonsense Hanks and Tautou try but fail to convince you of all the mumbo jumbo.
Angels & Demons (Ron Howard, 2009) 7/10
Sequel to "The Da Vinci Code", based on Dan Brown's novel, has four favoured Papal candidates kidnapped after the Pope dies mysteriously. A man, claiming to be a member of the secret society, Illuminati, provides clues to the eventual murders of the four kidnapped Cardinals and threatens to blow up the Vatican via a stolen vial of antimatter - a bomb. Harvard University professor, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), teams up with a Nuclear research scientist (pretty Israeli star Ayelet Zurer) and the police in a race against time to save the four Cardinals and retreive the bomb. The plot becomes a travelogue of the Vatican City and prominent churches of Rome - both above the ground and in the underground catacombs - where each Cardinal is to be murdered and the chase starts at the Pantheon and goes onto Santa Maria del Popolo, St. Peter's Square, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Piazza Navona, Castel Sant'Angelo and inside St. Peter's tomb. Probable suspects aiding and abetting the investigation are the head of the Swiss guard (Stellan Skarsgård) - protector of the Pope - the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church (Ewan McGregor) - who was the protegé of the deceased Pope - and the Dean of the College of Cardinals (Armin Mueller-Stahl). Fast paced thriller is a masterpiece compared to the first installment with Hanks fully involved in the investigation without looking bored. It is still all quite absurd but if you buy into the incredible premise it becomes an interesting roller coaster ride. And of course you can never go wrong looking at all the wonderful sights in Rome.
National Treasure (Jon Turteltaub, 2004) 6/10
An Indiana Jones clone but set in modern times with Nicolas Cage as the scion of a family of eccentric and relentless treasure hunters with before him his father (Jon Voight) and grandfather (Christopher Plummer in a cameo) equally eccentric and relentless in their pursuit of hidden treasure. A historian and amateur cryptologist (Nicolas Cage) follows clues left by American Freemasons during the American Revolutionary War of vast treasures accumulated (stolen) by them from all over the world and hidden somewhere on American soil. The first clue, by way of a frozen ship in the Arctic, just happens to be on the back of the Declaration of Independance so stealing it becomes the first step of the plan. Helping him along the way is his buddy and computer expert (Justin Bartha) and an archivist (Diane Kruger) at the National Archives who begrudgingly finds herself along on the quest with the boys while a former friend (Sean Bean), turned foe, gives chase and puts obstacles in the way. Predictable film cashes in on the Spielberg films and is just as improbable but with less thrills. Goofy Cage is a delight though and Kruger makes a feisty leading lady.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Jon Turteltaub, 2007) 4/10
The whole gang is back in this sequel which is not only yet again a clone of the Indiana Jones franchise but also a clone of its own first installment. A black market antique dealer (Ed Harris) accuses the great-great grandfather of treasure hunter, historian and cryptologist, Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) of being the architect of Lincoln's assassination. This does not bode well with him and his dad (Jon Voight) and soon the hunt is on to prove this accusation wrong and to find a treasure his ancestor was searching for. Along for the ride is his Dad, his estranged girlfriend (Diane Kruger), his buddy (Justin Bartha) and his Mom (Helen Mirren). The clues lead them to Paris, London - where they crash the Queen's private quarters at Buckingham Palace while she is away in Windsor - the White House - where they first crash the Oval Office and later crash and "kidnap" the President (Bruce Greenwood) from his private birthday party. The treasure hunt concludes at Mount Rushmore with a series of familiar set pieces lifted from many such films where the protagonists get trapped inside booby-trapped caves. Harvey Keitel also returns as the detective hot on their trail. Both Cage and Voight were nominated for Razzies as the worst actors of the year although the latter is amusing in his running angry banter with Helen Mirren throughout the film.
The Sun Never Sets (Rowland V. Lee, 1939) 4/10
British Colonials on the Gold Coast of Africa - a family of career "diplomats" serving all over the world for a country on which the sun never sets. Elder brother (Basil Rathbone) convinces younger brother (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), who is not in favour of colonial service, to join as well. Finally convinced by his grandfather (Sir C. Aubrey Smith) he too trots off with his brother where they both take on a rogue (Lionel Atwill) who plans on taking over the world. Listless, slow drama with too many stiff upper lips along with melodrama on the homefront as one wife (Barbara O'Neill) gives birth to a dead baby which is followed by an air raid on the rogue's camp. Rathbone is the lead here even if Fairbanks gets top billing.
The Thirteenth Chair (George B. Seitz, 1937) 8/10
A murder takes place during Colonial times in old Calcutta - based on the 1919 stage play by Bayard Veiller which had already been filmed twice before as silents. A group is gathered together for a séance at the behest of the murdered man's best friend (Henry Daniell) who then is found stabbed in the heart during the session conducted by an old biddy (Dame May Whitty) with a lower-class accent. A battle of wits ensues between the old woman and the police Inspector (Lewis Stone) after he accuses the old woman's daughter (Madge Evans) of both murders. Interesting, if rather creaky, whodunnit in the Agatha Christie / Charlie Chan vein with Dame May absolutely delightful as the fake medium who suddenly needs her powers as a medium to work in order to save the life of her daughter. Great fun.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Belle Epoque (1992) - 8/10 - In 1931, a young man has left the army and is headed for Madrid. Along the way, he ends up at a country farmhouse and befriends the older man who lives there. He is about to depart when the older man's four lovely daughters arrive by train and he somehow misses his own train. The movie is a lot of fun throughout and is a pleasant watch.
Phantom of the Opera (1943) - 7.5/10 - While not as good as the Lon Chaney silent version, I enjoyed this take on the classic tale. It made good use of the technicolor through much of it (not as much in the sewer scenes) and there was good music and decent performances.
Lone Wolf and Cub 4 - Baby Cart in Peril (1972) - 8.5/10
Lone Wolf and Cub 5 - Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973) - 8/10
Lone Wolf and Cub 6 - White Heaven in Hell (1974) - 7.5/10 - Things get a bit ridiculous in the final episode with enemies who can move underground like swimming in water and a big ski battle going down a mountain against 100 members of the Yagyu, though it was still fun. There also wasn't any real resolution in the end, but unfortunately this was the last in the series. The manga continued for 2 more years after this came out.
Phantom of the Opera (1943) - 7.5/10 - While not as good as the Lon Chaney silent version, I enjoyed this take on the classic tale. It made good use of the technicolor through much of it (not as much in the sewer scenes) and there was good music and decent performances.
Lone Wolf and Cub 4 - Baby Cart in Peril (1972) - 8.5/10
Lone Wolf and Cub 5 - Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973) - 8/10
Lone Wolf and Cub 6 - White Heaven in Hell (1974) - 7.5/10 - Things get a bit ridiculous in the final episode with enemies who can move underground like swimming in water and a big ski battle going down a mountain against 100 members of the Yagyu, though it was still fun. There also wasn't any real resolution in the end, but unfortunately this was the last in the series. The manga continued for 2 more years after this came out.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Long Goodbye (1973) - 7/10 - Philip Marlowe gets involved in a case where a friend is accused of murdering his wife. He's also looking for his cat. Marlowe's neighbors were certainly interesting. The movie was good, but I did get tired of the overuse of the song, stylistic choice or not.
Cría cuervos… (1976) - 8.5/10 - The film is shown from the viewpoint of 8 year old Ana (Ana Torrent) who listens to her father die of a probably heart attack and then watches his mistress leave late one night. Her mother died earlier so Ana's aunt and grandmother come to live with Ana and her two sisters. Ana is a sad child who is keenly aware of death. I thought this was an excellent film and one that I liked a lot more than the other films that I've seen from Carlos Saura. The use of the song Porque te vas was also very good here.
Ivan's Childhood (1962) - 8/10 - Ivan is a young boy who has lost his parents and sister to the Germans during WWII. He is small and able to sneak across enemy lines and gather intelligence which he passes on to his friends in the Russian army. There are three soldiers who look after Ivan and try to protect them as much as they can. They want to send him away from the front lines, but he threatens to run away and return on his own if they do. It's a pretty bleak childhood, but Ivan has memories of better times. I thought it was a very good movie and I liked it more than Tarkovsky's later Solaris.
The Rules of the Game (1939) - 8/10 - This comedy of manners from Jean Renoir involves a group of upper class individuals and their servants spending a weekend at a country estate, hunting, socializing, and enjoying entertainment. There is a fair amount of flirting, cheating, and jealousy going on as well. Fortunately the film was restored almost to its original length after being shortened due to an initial poor response. It's a very good film.
Alice in Wonderland (2010) - 6/10 - I didn't think that Tim Burton's version of the Alice story was quite as bad as some reviews that I've read. I liked the opening part up through the mad tea party and then after that it was just okay.
Open Doors (1990) - 7.5/10 - In 1937, an Italian man who was recently fired kills his former employer, a former coworker, and his wife. At trial, he seems eager to get the death penalty, but one of the judges is opposed to killing people and seeks a way to keep it from happening. A well acted and entertaining film.
Cría cuervos… (1976) - 8.5/10 - The film is shown from the viewpoint of 8 year old Ana (Ana Torrent) who listens to her father die of a probably heart attack and then watches his mistress leave late one night. Her mother died earlier so Ana's aunt and grandmother come to live with Ana and her two sisters. Ana is a sad child who is keenly aware of death. I thought this was an excellent film and one that I liked a lot more than the other films that I've seen from Carlos Saura. The use of the song Porque te vas was also very good here.
Ivan's Childhood (1962) - 8/10 - Ivan is a young boy who has lost his parents and sister to the Germans during WWII. He is small and able to sneak across enemy lines and gather intelligence which he passes on to his friends in the Russian army. There are three soldiers who look after Ivan and try to protect them as much as they can. They want to send him away from the front lines, but he threatens to run away and return on his own if they do. It's a pretty bleak childhood, but Ivan has memories of better times. I thought it was a very good movie and I liked it more than Tarkovsky's later Solaris.
The Rules of the Game (1939) - 8/10 - This comedy of manners from Jean Renoir involves a group of upper class individuals and their servants spending a weekend at a country estate, hunting, socializing, and enjoying entertainment. There is a fair amount of flirting, cheating, and jealousy going on as well. Fortunately the film was restored almost to its original length after being shortened due to an initial poor response. It's a very good film.
Alice in Wonderland (2010) - 6/10 - I didn't think that Tim Burton's version of the Alice story was quite as bad as some reviews that I've read. I liked the opening part up through the mad tea party and then after that it was just okay.
Open Doors (1990) - 7.5/10 - In 1937, an Italian man who was recently fired kills his former employer, a former coworker, and his wife. At trial, he seems eager to get the death penalty, but one of the judges is opposed to killing people and seeks a way to keep it from happening. A well acted and entertaining film.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
All That Heaven Allows (1955) - 8/10 - Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is a suburban widow who lives in a nice house, has two college age kids who visit on weekends, and spends quite a bit of time with her country club friends. When she falls in love with a younger man (Rock Hudson) who tends her trees, her friends and children turn on her in disapproval. This is a nice film that looks beautiful. The colors seem very rich.
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) - 7.5/10 - A serial killer calling himself The Avenger has been targeting blond women on Tuesday evenings. Suspicion falls on a mysterious man who rents a room in a lodging house, but Daisy, the daughter of the house, is attracted to him and believes that he is innocent. This early Hitchcock silent film is pretty good.
Band of Outsiders (1964) - 8/10 - Franz and Arthur are friends and small time criminals who plan a heist using information they got from a young woman named Odile that Franz met in English class. A man in the home where Odile lives keeps a large amount of money in an unlocked room in the home. There is a nice dance scene in a cafe and a brief visit to the Louvre mixed in to the three hanging out and planning the theft.
Bob le flambeur (1956) - 9/10 - Bob is a well known and liked gambler who once did time for a bank job, but has been straight for 20 years. He has a run of bad luck and decides to assemble a crew and rob a casino. Unfortunately, word leaks out. This was very well done.
Out of the Past (1947) - 8/10 - Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) runs a gas station in California, but has a secret past that catches up to him one day. He was a private detective working for a powerful gambling boss (Kirk Douglas) when he ended up having to hide out after a job went wrong. He relates the story to his girlfriend (Jane Greer) and then finds himself back in with the same crowd looking for a way out. It's a classic example of film noir.
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) - 7.5/10 - A serial killer calling himself The Avenger has been targeting blond women on Tuesday evenings. Suspicion falls on a mysterious man who rents a room in a lodging house, but Daisy, the daughter of the house, is attracted to him and believes that he is innocent. This early Hitchcock silent film is pretty good.
Band of Outsiders (1964) - 8/10 - Franz and Arthur are friends and small time criminals who plan a heist using information they got from a young woman named Odile that Franz met in English class. A man in the home where Odile lives keeps a large amount of money in an unlocked room in the home. There is a nice dance scene in a cafe and a brief visit to the Louvre mixed in to the three hanging out and planning the theft.
Bob le flambeur (1956) - 9/10 - Bob is a well known and liked gambler who once did time for a bank job, but has been straight for 20 years. He has a run of bad luck and decides to assemble a crew and rob a casino. Unfortunately, word leaks out. This was very well done.
Out of the Past (1947) - 8/10 - Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) runs a gas station in California, but has a secret past that catches up to him one day. He was a private detective working for a powerful gambling boss (Kirk Douglas) when he ended up having to hide out after a job went wrong. He relates the story to his girlfriend (Jane Greer) and then finds himself back in with the same crowd looking for a way out. It's a classic example of film noir.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Le combat dans l'île (Alain Cavalier, 1962) 8/10
A love triangle between a rich industrialist's son (Jean-Louis Trintingnant) who moonlights as an assassin for a right-wing group, his flirty wife (Romy Schneider) who was an actress and his close friend (Henri Serre) who runs a printing business. When he is betrayed and the assassination of a left-wing political figure goes wrong he is forced to take his wife to hide her with his friend in the countryside. When he leaves to settle the score with the traitor his wife falls in love with his friend during his absence. Louis Malle, who produced the film, made this as a rebuke to Godard for his right-wing views and support of the Algerian War. With Serre in the cast it almost seems like a preview of François Truffaut's "Jules et Jim" which came out later in the year. Pierre Lhomme's stark black and white photography takes this into neo-noir territory. Trintignant plays it nasty, Serre is romantic and Schneider is as enigmatic as ever while caught between the two and the cause of a deadly duel.
Qui? / The Sensuous Assassin (Léonard Keigel, 1970) 8/10
A Chabrol-like mystery with gialo overtones but minus the blood and gore. Although there is a stabbing with blood. A woman (Romy Schneider) and her boyfriend (Gabriele Tinti) have a violent argument, a pistol is fired, he roughs her up and both get into a car and go on a wild car ride through the Brittany countryside ending up high over cliffs as the car overshoots and falls down into the ocean. The woman manages to jump off and she sees the car go down into the waves. The man's body is not found. This entire suspenseful sequence is part of the film's opening credirs. His brother (Maurice Ronet) comes to her rescue as she is distraught and they start a relationship although he also accuses her of murdering his brother while she claims she is being watched by some unknown presence. Then a body is recovered from the ocean while she is confronted by a man who chases her. Is the dead body her ex-boyfriend? And who is the man chasing her? An ironic twist of fate concludes the mystery which appears to have been inspired by the climax of "Plein Soleil". The enigmatic Schneider and Ronet create sparks together even if the plot has far too many potholes.
The Knack...and How to Get It (Richard Lester, 1966) 4/10
Hilariously dated film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Lester's anachronistic direction has such a frenzy about it that it almost seems contemporary. It's an interesting if rather boring look at the Swinging Sixties - the John Barry score, Rita Tushingham - an actress who should never have made it as a star during that era but managed to do just that thank you very much and knocked around in a number of seminal films from that decade. And a pre-Phantom Michael Crawford, who for years was an acquired taste as a dimwit comic, yet was also very successful like his female co-star. Innocent times when it was perfectly ok to oogle a woman's arse and tits. Men did it and everyone laughed. Now those same women are taking those men to court for their behaviour 40 years ago. Also an important change. The world has changed. Here we have a plot involving a large wrought iron bed on wheels which becomes a transport vehicle and a pickup for Tushingham en-route to the YWCA. Crawford wants to gain the "knack" and bed the birds like his randy housemate (Ray Brooks) who tries to have his way with the naive out-of-towner who screams rape, makes a nuisance of herself, strips and ends up with a man. Interesting turn of events which would never pass muster in these more complicated and sadly non permisive times today. The camera oogles various London birds and if you look quick enough you will catch the movie debuts of Charlotte Rampling, Jacqueline Bisset and Jane Birkin in tiny bit parts. The latter bagged John Barry as her first husband fresh off an encounter on this movie. Inexpicably the film was also nominated for many Bafta awards. Let's just say the film hasn't aged well at all.
Spirits of the Dead / Histoires Extraordinaires (Roger Vadim, Louis Malle & Federico Fellini, 1968) 6/10
Three twisted tales by Edgar Allan Poe get a twirl by three European directors in this anthology of horror. Fresh off "Barbarella" Roger Vadim again presents his wife Jane Fonda in a debauched frenzy in the medeival set "Metzengerstein". A promiscuous Countess (Jane Fonda), who enjoys participating in forced orgies, is rescued from a trap in the forest by her estranged cousin and neighbor (Peter Fonda). She is instantly attracted to him but he rejects her. In anger she burns down his stables and he dies trying to save his horses. A wild black stallion escapes and comes to her castle. She tames the animal and obsessively rides it. Is the animal a reincarnation of the dead man and is it planning to take revenge? Stiffly acted segment is gorgeously photographed by Claude Renoir on location in Brittany. Peter Fonda conceived the idea of making "Easy Rider" during the shoot of this film. Alain Delon plays a murderer and his doppelgänger in the segment "William Wilson" directed by Louis Malle. Confessing in church he relates his debauched life to a priest relating incidents of torture from his childhood to the present (scenes of a live woman being dissected) which his dopplelgänger always interrupts. When he finds his match in a woman (Brigitte Bardot in a severe black wig) on the card table his humiliation of her - whipping her naked back in front of a room full of men - suddenly turns to a frenzy of violence when his doppelganger reappears and humiliates him in retaliation. Delon's good looks and cold features are used to excellent effect in this portrait of a a psychopath and Bardot is striking in a brief part as the catalyst in black that proves to be the man's downfall. This is all stunningly filmed with superb production values. Fellini's segment was the most critically acclaimed and a restored version of this was declared a ''masterpiece'' at the Tribeca film festival. Frankly I fail to understand why. Terence Stamp stars as "Toby Dammit", a British film star, who arrives in Italy to make a film, is interviewed by the press, appears on a tv talk show, acts obnoxiously (is he on drugs?) and attends an award ceremony. The usual Fellini grotesque characters parade up and down with the devil in attendance in the form of a little girl which is followed by a decapitation. None of this is even amusing let alone interesting despite obvious similarities to "La Dolce Vita", "8 1/2" and "Juliet of the Spirits". Although none of the episodes quite capture Poe's macabre flavor the three segments are exquistely produced with an eclectic cast, superb sets, costumes, music and cinematography.
The Eve of St. Mark (John M. Stahl, 1944) 5/10
Sentimental WWII propaganda film about young American soldiers getting drafted and shipped out to the Pacific where they find themselves trapped and fighting the Japanese on a remote island. During a tense moment when the boys are coming down with malaria and losing all hope a farm boy (William Eythe) communicates with his mother (Ruth Nelson) and girlfriend (Anne Baxter) through dreams asking them what to do - fight and die or escape from the island and live. Story about faith and hope. Vincent Price is a standout as a southern soldier who likes to spout poetry by Keats. Based on a play by Maxwell Anderson.
Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine / Tribulations of a Chinaman in China / Up to His Ears (Philippe de Broca, 1965) 4/10
Loosely based on the Jules Verne novel this extremely silly film with pratfalls and outrageous stunts is de Broca and star Belmondo's follow-up to their boxoffice hit "L'Homme de Rio" from the previous year. Like a travelogue the film is shot mostly on exotic locations in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal, India with outstanding footage of the Himalayan mountain range. The plot, whatever little there is, involves a millionaire (Jean-Paul Belmondo), bored with life, who keeps attempting suicide but fails each time. His old chinese tutor gets him life insurance and puts a hit on him but when he meets up with a striptease dancer (Ursula Andress) he no longer wants to die. So he, along with his faithful manservant (Jean Rochefort), goes on the run trying to escape the assassins. Climbing up and down the Himalayas (the snow sequences were shot in Switzerland), falling off and hanging precariously off a suspension bridge, getting almost burnt alive in Nepal, escaping in the nick of time in a balloon, walking on and hanging off a high-rise construction scaffolding and sitting on an elephant during a stampede are just some of the highlights. Andress is merely around as voluptuous decoration which offscreen led to a 7-year relationship between the two stars. Silly nonsense is just an excuse for Belmondo to perform outrageous stunts. The film was another huge boxoffice hit.
The Searching Wind (William Dietetle, 1946) 5/10
Misery begets misery in Lillian Hellman's second stage adaptation (after "Watch on the Rhine") about the rise and evils of fascism. Set around a love triangle between three childhood friends who grow up to become an American diplomat (Robert Young) in Europe, a socialite (Ann Richards) and an idealistic journalist (Sylvia Sidney). The man represents the United States - ambivalent about the growing horrors in Europe and quite willing to remain confused and hope it is just a passing phase. This ruins his relationship with the journalist - both are madly in love with each other - as she can't be with such an indecisive blind man. So he gets married to the superficial socialite who is indifferent to the political situation around them and who is quite content to hobnob in society. All three are miserable as the two lovers keep bumping into each other in all the European cities and carry on their affair. The story is related in flashback - going back to the early 1930s just when Hitler's political party was coming into power - after the couple's wounded son returns home after fighting in WWII. Young, as the film's hero, is such a weak drip failing to take a positive stance on the perils brought about by Hitler, Mussolini and Franco that it tips the movie in favour of Sidney's anguished journalist and even that is presented in a wishy washy manner in the screenplay. Young plays his part totally deadpan which becomes annoying and compares unfavorably to both his leading ladies. A handsome production but a terribly static film despite a number of dramatic moments throughout. Dudley Digges gets the film's best lines as a retired newspaper publisher who is a self-confessed coward and appeaser.
A love triangle between a rich industrialist's son (Jean-Louis Trintingnant) who moonlights as an assassin for a right-wing group, his flirty wife (Romy Schneider) who was an actress and his close friend (Henri Serre) who runs a printing business. When he is betrayed and the assassination of a left-wing political figure goes wrong he is forced to take his wife to hide her with his friend in the countryside. When he leaves to settle the score with the traitor his wife falls in love with his friend during his absence. Louis Malle, who produced the film, made this as a rebuke to Godard for his right-wing views and support of the Algerian War. With Serre in the cast it almost seems like a preview of François Truffaut's "Jules et Jim" which came out later in the year. Pierre Lhomme's stark black and white photography takes this into neo-noir territory. Trintignant plays it nasty, Serre is romantic and Schneider is as enigmatic as ever while caught between the two and the cause of a deadly duel.
Qui? / The Sensuous Assassin (Léonard Keigel, 1970) 8/10
A Chabrol-like mystery with gialo overtones but minus the blood and gore. Although there is a stabbing with blood. A woman (Romy Schneider) and her boyfriend (Gabriele Tinti) have a violent argument, a pistol is fired, he roughs her up and both get into a car and go on a wild car ride through the Brittany countryside ending up high over cliffs as the car overshoots and falls down into the ocean. The woman manages to jump off and she sees the car go down into the waves. The man's body is not found. This entire suspenseful sequence is part of the film's opening credirs. His brother (Maurice Ronet) comes to her rescue as she is distraught and they start a relationship although he also accuses her of murdering his brother while she claims she is being watched by some unknown presence. Then a body is recovered from the ocean while she is confronted by a man who chases her. Is the dead body her ex-boyfriend? And who is the man chasing her? An ironic twist of fate concludes the mystery which appears to have been inspired by the climax of "Plein Soleil". The enigmatic Schneider and Ronet create sparks together even if the plot has far too many potholes.
The Knack...and How to Get It (Richard Lester, 1966) 4/10
Hilariously dated film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Lester's anachronistic direction has such a frenzy about it that it almost seems contemporary. It's an interesting if rather boring look at the Swinging Sixties - the John Barry score, Rita Tushingham - an actress who should never have made it as a star during that era but managed to do just that thank you very much and knocked around in a number of seminal films from that decade. And a pre-Phantom Michael Crawford, who for years was an acquired taste as a dimwit comic, yet was also very successful like his female co-star. Innocent times when it was perfectly ok to oogle a woman's arse and tits. Men did it and everyone laughed. Now those same women are taking those men to court for their behaviour 40 years ago. Also an important change. The world has changed. Here we have a plot involving a large wrought iron bed on wheels which becomes a transport vehicle and a pickup for Tushingham en-route to the YWCA. Crawford wants to gain the "knack" and bed the birds like his randy housemate (Ray Brooks) who tries to have his way with the naive out-of-towner who screams rape, makes a nuisance of herself, strips and ends up with a man. Interesting turn of events which would never pass muster in these more complicated and sadly non permisive times today. The camera oogles various London birds and if you look quick enough you will catch the movie debuts of Charlotte Rampling, Jacqueline Bisset and Jane Birkin in tiny bit parts. The latter bagged John Barry as her first husband fresh off an encounter on this movie. Inexpicably the film was also nominated for many Bafta awards. Let's just say the film hasn't aged well at all.
Spirits of the Dead / Histoires Extraordinaires (Roger Vadim, Louis Malle & Federico Fellini, 1968) 6/10
Three twisted tales by Edgar Allan Poe get a twirl by three European directors in this anthology of horror. Fresh off "Barbarella" Roger Vadim again presents his wife Jane Fonda in a debauched frenzy in the medeival set "Metzengerstein". A promiscuous Countess (Jane Fonda), who enjoys participating in forced orgies, is rescued from a trap in the forest by her estranged cousin and neighbor (Peter Fonda). She is instantly attracted to him but he rejects her. In anger she burns down his stables and he dies trying to save his horses. A wild black stallion escapes and comes to her castle. She tames the animal and obsessively rides it. Is the animal a reincarnation of the dead man and is it planning to take revenge? Stiffly acted segment is gorgeously photographed by Claude Renoir on location in Brittany. Peter Fonda conceived the idea of making "Easy Rider" during the shoot of this film. Alain Delon plays a murderer and his doppelgänger in the segment "William Wilson" directed by Louis Malle. Confessing in church he relates his debauched life to a priest relating incidents of torture from his childhood to the present (scenes of a live woman being dissected) which his dopplelgänger always interrupts. When he finds his match in a woman (Brigitte Bardot in a severe black wig) on the card table his humiliation of her - whipping her naked back in front of a room full of men - suddenly turns to a frenzy of violence when his doppelganger reappears and humiliates him in retaliation. Delon's good looks and cold features are used to excellent effect in this portrait of a a psychopath and Bardot is striking in a brief part as the catalyst in black that proves to be the man's downfall. This is all stunningly filmed with superb production values. Fellini's segment was the most critically acclaimed and a restored version of this was declared a ''masterpiece'' at the Tribeca film festival. Frankly I fail to understand why. Terence Stamp stars as "Toby Dammit", a British film star, who arrives in Italy to make a film, is interviewed by the press, appears on a tv talk show, acts obnoxiously (is he on drugs?) and attends an award ceremony. The usual Fellini grotesque characters parade up and down with the devil in attendance in the form of a little girl which is followed by a decapitation. None of this is even amusing let alone interesting despite obvious similarities to "La Dolce Vita", "8 1/2" and "Juliet of the Spirits". Although none of the episodes quite capture Poe's macabre flavor the three segments are exquistely produced with an eclectic cast, superb sets, costumes, music and cinematography.
The Eve of St. Mark (John M. Stahl, 1944) 5/10
Sentimental WWII propaganda film about young American soldiers getting drafted and shipped out to the Pacific where they find themselves trapped and fighting the Japanese on a remote island. During a tense moment when the boys are coming down with malaria and losing all hope a farm boy (William Eythe) communicates with his mother (Ruth Nelson) and girlfriend (Anne Baxter) through dreams asking them what to do - fight and die or escape from the island and live. Story about faith and hope. Vincent Price is a standout as a southern soldier who likes to spout poetry by Keats. Based on a play by Maxwell Anderson.
Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine / Tribulations of a Chinaman in China / Up to His Ears (Philippe de Broca, 1965) 4/10
Loosely based on the Jules Verne novel this extremely silly film with pratfalls and outrageous stunts is de Broca and star Belmondo's follow-up to their boxoffice hit "L'Homme de Rio" from the previous year. Like a travelogue the film is shot mostly on exotic locations in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal, India with outstanding footage of the Himalayan mountain range. The plot, whatever little there is, involves a millionaire (Jean-Paul Belmondo), bored with life, who keeps attempting suicide but fails each time. His old chinese tutor gets him life insurance and puts a hit on him but when he meets up with a striptease dancer (Ursula Andress) he no longer wants to die. So he, along with his faithful manservant (Jean Rochefort), goes on the run trying to escape the assassins. Climbing up and down the Himalayas (the snow sequences were shot in Switzerland), falling off and hanging precariously off a suspension bridge, getting almost burnt alive in Nepal, escaping in the nick of time in a balloon, walking on and hanging off a high-rise construction scaffolding and sitting on an elephant during a stampede are just some of the highlights. Andress is merely around as voluptuous decoration which offscreen led to a 7-year relationship between the two stars. Silly nonsense is just an excuse for Belmondo to perform outrageous stunts. The film was another huge boxoffice hit.
The Searching Wind (William Dietetle, 1946) 5/10
Misery begets misery in Lillian Hellman's second stage adaptation (after "Watch on the Rhine") about the rise and evils of fascism. Set around a love triangle between three childhood friends who grow up to become an American diplomat (Robert Young) in Europe, a socialite (Ann Richards) and an idealistic journalist (Sylvia Sidney). The man represents the United States - ambivalent about the growing horrors in Europe and quite willing to remain confused and hope it is just a passing phase. This ruins his relationship with the journalist - both are madly in love with each other - as she can't be with such an indecisive blind man. So he gets married to the superficial socialite who is indifferent to the political situation around them and who is quite content to hobnob in society. All three are miserable as the two lovers keep bumping into each other in all the European cities and carry on their affair. The story is related in flashback - going back to the early 1930s just when Hitler's political party was coming into power - after the couple's wounded son returns home after fighting in WWII. Young, as the film's hero, is such a weak drip failing to take a positive stance on the perils brought about by Hitler, Mussolini and Franco that it tips the movie in favour of Sidney's anguished journalist and even that is presented in a wishy washy manner in the screenplay. Young plays his part totally deadpan which becomes annoying and compares unfavorably to both his leading ladies. A handsome production but a terribly static film despite a number of dramatic moments throughout. Dudley Digges gets the film's best lines as a retired newspaper publisher who is a self-confessed coward and appeaser.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Killing (1956) - 7/10 - Johnny is about to get married, but wants to pull off one big job first. He recruits a number of people and they create a meticulously timed plan to rob the racetrack of millions of dollars. It's a pretty good noir film from Stanley Kubrick.
Adalen 31 (1969) - 5/10 - This film is about a strike in Sweden back in 1931 where the army had to be brought in to protect strikebreakers from strikers and a few people died when the strikers marched on the barracks and would not turn back. The story is told with a focus on one family and there are things to like in the film, but so many of the threads seem incomplete with things left out or left kind of unclear.
Harry and the Butler (1961) - 7.5/10 - Harry Adams is an older man who lives in an automobile scrapyard and serves as a watchman, though he lets kids do pretty much what they want there. He also works for a grocer. He inherits some money unexpectedly and decides to hire a butler so that he can be pampered while the money lasts. This is a charming film and was fun to watch.
The Earrings of Madame de… (1953) - 8/10 - Louise is the wife of a wealthy French general, but she needs money to pay off debts. She secretly sells a pair of valuable earrings given to her by her husband as a wedding present. She pretends to lose them at the opera, but this sets off a chain of events as the earrings change hands a number of times and leads to trouble. Very well shot and acted and a pretty good film.
She's Gotta Have It (1986) - 6/10 - Nola Darling is a young graphic artist who lives in Brooklyn. She's seeing three men with different qualities and doesn't see any reason to stop. She's honest with them, but the men aren't really happy with the situation. Spike Lee filmed this on a very low budget. It's not as good as many of his later works, but it wasn't bad.
Adalen 31 (1969) - 5/10 - This film is about a strike in Sweden back in 1931 where the army had to be brought in to protect strikebreakers from strikers and a few people died when the strikers marched on the barracks and would not turn back. The story is told with a focus on one family and there are things to like in the film, but so many of the threads seem incomplete with things left out or left kind of unclear.
Harry and the Butler (1961) - 7.5/10 - Harry Adams is an older man who lives in an automobile scrapyard and serves as a watchman, though he lets kids do pretty much what they want there. He also works for a grocer. He inherits some money unexpectedly and decides to hire a butler so that he can be pampered while the money lasts. This is a charming film and was fun to watch.
The Earrings of Madame de… (1953) - 8/10 - Louise is the wife of a wealthy French general, but she needs money to pay off debts. She secretly sells a pair of valuable earrings given to her by her husband as a wedding present. She pretends to lose them at the opera, but this sets off a chain of events as the earrings change hands a number of times and leads to trouble. Very well shot and acted and a pretty good film.
She's Gotta Have It (1986) - 6/10 - Nola Darling is a young graphic artist who lives in Brooklyn. She's seeing three men with different qualities and doesn't see any reason to stop. She's honest with them, but the men aren't really happy with the situation. Spike Lee filmed this on a very low budget. It's not as good as many of his later works, but it wasn't bad.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Sabotage (1936) - 7/10 - A saboteur is loose in London and Scotland Yard is on the case. The main suspect is the owner of a local cinema in this Hitchcock thriller. It isn't Hitchcock's best, but I thought it was a pretty solid and entertaining film.
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) - 6/10 - A drifter (John Garfield) ends up getting a job at a diner after hitching a ride with the local district attorney. He ends up in a relationship with the wife (Lana Turner) of the diner's owner who talks him into a plot to kill her husband. Complications ensue. The movie wasn't bad, but It didn't really work for me that well, especially with the 30+ year age difference between the married couple. There were some bright spots, including Hume Cronyn in his brief role.
People on Sunday (1930) - 7.5/10 - Two men take two young women out on Sunday for a picnic and to spend time swimming, boating, and listening to records. We also get to see scenes of everyday life for other people in Berlin around town and at the beach. Then Monday it is back to work. It was pretty interesting seeing Berlin a decade before WWII. The movie had little dialogue and had non-professional actors portraying themselves. Billy Wilder wrote the screenplay and Curt Siodmak and Robert Siodmak were involved as well.
Harlan County U.S.A. (1976) - 8.5/10 - A film crew documented the coal miner's strike at the Brookside Mine in Kentucky which started in 1973 and lasted for over a year. They wanted a union contract, but the power company wouldn't agree to it. The strike became violent at times with people hired by the company occasionally shooting at strikers or their homes. The film also looks some at the national picture to broaden the perspective. It has a very effective use of music and was put together pretty well.
Dead of Night (1945) - 8.5/10 - An architect arrives at a home out in the country and finds a gathering of people inside. He then remembers a recurring nightmare that he has been having which perfectly fits this situation, though each night he forgets the nightmare soon after he wakes. He even recognizes the people and is able to predict events before they happen. Each person there then relates a story of the supernatural from their past. I thought the individual stories were each pretty entertaining...not necessarily scary, but good. The framing story was also nice.
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) - 6/10 - A drifter (John Garfield) ends up getting a job at a diner after hitching a ride with the local district attorney. He ends up in a relationship with the wife (Lana Turner) of the diner's owner who talks him into a plot to kill her husband. Complications ensue. The movie wasn't bad, but It didn't really work for me that well, especially with the 30+ year age difference between the married couple. There were some bright spots, including Hume Cronyn in his brief role.
People on Sunday (1930) - 7.5/10 - Two men take two young women out on Sunday for a picnic and to spend time swimming, boating, and listening to records. We also get to see scenes of everyday life for other people in Berlin around town and at the beach. Then Monday it is back to work. It was pretty interesting seeing Berlin a decade before WWII. The movie had little dialogue and had non-professional actors portraying themselves. Billy Wilder wrote the screenplay and Curt Siodmak and Robert Siodmak were involved as well.
Harlan County U.S.A. (1976) - 8.5/10 - A film crew documented the coal miner's strike at the Brookside Mine in Kentucky which started in 1973 and lasted for over a year. They wanted a union contract, but the power company wouldn't agree to it. The strike became violent at times with people hired by the company occasionally shooting at strikers or their homes. The film also looks some at the national picture to broaden the perspective. It has a very effective use of music and was put together pretty well.
Dead of Night (1945) - 8.5/10 - An architect arrives at a home out in the country and finds a gathering of people inside. He then remembers a recurring nightmare that he has been having which perfectly fits this situation, though each night he forgets the nightmare soon after he wakes. He even recognizes the people and is able to predict events before they happen. Each person there then relates a story of the supernatural from their past. I thought the individual stories were each pretty entertaining...not necessarily scary, but good. The framing story was also nice.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Toto the Hero (1991) - 8/10 - Thomas is an elderly man who lives in a care facility. He has been convinced his entire life that he was switched as a baby during a hospital fire with a boy named Alfred who grew up next door. He therefore resents Alfred for 'stealing' his life. The film features Thomas in the present plus flashbacks to his childhood and adult years with quite a bit of fantasy mixed in from his imagination. Thomas still has an active imagination as an old man and the movie is funny and entertaining.
Beauty and the Beast (1946) - 8/10 - This is a good adaptation of the classic fairytale and was directed by Jean Cocteau.
The Lady from Shanghai (1948) - 5/10 - Michael (Orson Welles) saves a wealthy woman (Rita Hayworth) from an attack and later gets hired by her husband to work aboard his yacht during (a very strange) excursion in the Pacific. Michael later gets involved in a plot to fake a murder. I didn't really enjoy this movie much and loathed the character of Grimsby (perhaps by design). I wasn't overly impressed with the acting of Welles or Hayworth either. The end of the film was pretty good as were a couple of parts in the courtroom scene, but the rest wasn't that great. Maybe I'm just not a fan of Welles as a director since I didn't like Citizen Kane or The Magnificent Ambersons either.
Days of Heaven (1978) - 6/10 - In 1910, a steel mill worker (Richard Gere) flees Chicago after accidentally killing another man. He takes along his girlfriend and younger sister and they find work on a farm in Texas. He comes up with a plan for his girlfriend to marry the farmer who is sick with supposedly not long to live. The film is beautifully shot, but is pretty dull, especially earlier in the picture. It did get a bit better in the second half and I liked the narration from Linda Manz.
Police Story 2 (1988) - 8/10 - Chan and May are being harassed by some of the bad guys from the first movie. Chan also has to deal with a group of people who bombed a mall and are trying to extort money from the company that owns the mall, threatening to bomb other properties. I liked this movie a lot more than the first one. The fight scene at the end was pretty cool and even had a bit that seemed straight out of Donkey Kong.
In the Mood for Love (2000) - 7.5/10 - The Chans and the Chows move in to apartments next door to each other on the same day in 1962 Hong Kong. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are cordial when they see each other, but eventually start spending more time with each other when they realize that their spouses are sleeping with each other. The two develop feelings for each other over time as they try to figure out how the situation came about. The look of the film and the use of music are each very good. I thought that the story was lacking a bit, but it was still good.
Beauty and the Beast (1946) - 8/10 - This is a good adaptation of the classic fairytale and was directed by Jean Cocteau.
The Lady from Shanghai (1948) - 5/10 - Michael (Orson Welles) saves a wealthy woman (Rita Hayworth) from an attack and later gets hired by her husband to work aboard his yacht during (a very strange) excursion in the Pacific. Michael later gets involved in a plot to fake a murder. I didn't really enjoy this movie much and loathed the character of Grimsby (perhaps by design). I wasn't overly impressed with the acting of Welles or Hayworth either. The end of the film was pretty good as were a couple of parts in the courtroom scene, but the rest wasn't that great. Maybe I'm just not a fan of Welles as a director since I didn't like Citizen Kane or The Magnificent Ambersons either.
Days of Heaven (1978) - 6/10 - In 1910, a steel mill worker (Richard Gere) flees Chicago after accidentally killing another man. He takes along his girlfriend and younger sister and they find work on a farm in Texas. He comes up with a plan for his girlfriend to marry the farmer who is sick with supposedly not long to live. The film is beautifully shot, but is pretty dull, especially earlier in the picture. It did get a bit better in the second half and I liked the narration from Linda Manz.
Police Story 2 (1988) - 8/10 - Chan and May are being harassed by some of the bad guys from the first movie. Chan also has to deal with a group of people who bombed a mall and are trying to extort money from the company that owns the mall, threatening to bomb other properties. I liked this movie a lot more than the first one. The fight scene at the end was pretty cool and even had a bit that seemed straight out of Donkey Kong.
In the Mood for Love (2000) - 7.5/10 - The Chans and the Chows move in to apartments next door to each other on the same day in 1962 Hong Kong. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are cordial when they see each other, but eventually start spending more time with each other when they realize that their spouses are sleeping with each other. The two develop feelings for each other over time as they try to figure out how the situation came about. The look of the film and the use of music are each very good. I thought that the story was lacking a bit, but it was still good.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The film had been planned as a reunion reunion for Capra and his two It Happened One Night stars. Tracy was brought in when Gable proved unavailable. Capra fired Colbert over the stipulation she put in her contract that she wouldn't work past 5 pm. Hepburn, who knew the part from having helped Tracy rehearse his lines, was an obvious choice to replace her.Reza wrote: State of the Union (Frank Capra, 1948) 9/10
Tracy was Capra's first choice for the part while Claudette Colbert left the project over differences with the director (she had won her Oscar under his tutelage 14 years before).
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Bullet Head (Paul Solet, 2017) 7/10
Strictly for aficionados of B-grade Tarantino rip-offs and dog lovers. A vicious Presa Canario is the star of this film and the mastiff is shown in full saliva dripping ferocious mode as it is made to illegally fight other dogs in an abandoned warehouse for money by its equally vicious owner, a crime boss (Antonio Banderas), who has abused the animal since it was a pup. Meanwhile dropping into this location are three crooks - a slick career criminal (Adrien Brody), an elderly man (John Malkovich) and a drugged out kid (Rory Culkin) - after a botched up heist waiting to be picked up by a getaway driver sometime later. It is but inevitable that the three men will encounter the dog and his handler just when they discover a stash of cash in a bag which results in a bloodbath. The gruesome violence against the dog is upsetting although one doesn't bat an eyelid when humans are being chased, bitten, shot and stabbed.
Acts of Vengeance (Isaac Florentine, 2017) 6/10
Slick lawyer (Antonio Banderas) decides to take a vow of silence until he can find the person who murdered his wife and daughter. The same vengeance genre of film that has made Liam Neeson's career flourish in B-movie heaven also allows other actors the same route once A-list films dry up in Hollywood. Banderas walks through the film with a pained expression on his face and was probably relieved the film allowed him not to mouth long pages of English dialogue since the plot allowed the character a vow of silence. Paz Vega co-stars as a nurse who helps provides certain answers which leads him to the elusive murderer. At least this fast paced film is never boring and one is relieved to know that Banderas does have his Spanish movie career â la Almodóvar still alive and kicking on the side. So all is not lost for him.
Security (Alan Desrochers, 2017) 5/10
Down and out ex-special services veteran (Antonio Banderas) working as a security guard at a shopping mall comes to the rescue of a little girl who has the mob after her. With the mall under total seige the guard and his four colleagues try to stay one step ahead of the professional killers out to get them all. Old fashioned actioner has no surprises, merely goes through the motions yet manages to maintain nail-biting suspense throughout as the body count keeps increasing. Sir Ben Kingsley is the Brit-accented psychopath who unleashes all the violence little knowing that characters like him in this genre of film always end up badly. Cheesy fun.
State of the Union (Frank Capra, 1948) 9/10
Witty adaptation of the 1945 Russel Crouse, Howard Lindsay Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Ruthless newspaper magnate (Angela Lansbury) wants her lover (Spencer Tracy), an aircraft tycoon, to run as the Republican candidate for President of the United States. While he is himself amused and sceptical about the idea a shrewd Republican strategist (Adolphe Menjou) and a campaign manager (Van Johnson) urge him on. The situation takes on a delicious twist when the candidate's estranged wife (Katharine Hepburn) is roped in to go with him on the campaign trail causing hilarious sparks to fly. Tracy was Capra's first choice for the part while Claudette Colbert left the project over differences with the director (she had won her Oscar under his tutelage 14 years before). Hepburn was roped in days before production began and she seamlessly fits right in whether sarcastically handling Tracy, knowing about his affair with Lansbury, but also playing with gritted teeth across Menjou with whom, off screen, she was daggers drawn over their personal political affiliations - he blew the whistle on many people during the McCarthy witchhunt trials. Slick political satire is not only great fun but extremely relevant, even today, in the points it makes about dirty politicians and how they reach the top. The delightful cast cannot be bettered - with a svelte and sexy Lansbury making an exciting "villain".
The Sea of Grass (Elia Kazan, 1947) 6/10
Stiff MGM horse opera on the range which Kazan disowned and discouraged people from watching. He also hated Hepburn's costumes (courtesy of Walter Plunkett) in the film. Well he was right about the elaborate hats and costumes which look totally out of place on the plains. Sophisticated city gal (Katharine Hepburn) gets married to a cattle baron (Spencer Tracy) who prefers his grass fields more than his wife. They still manage to have a daughter before he begins to totally ignore her so she briefly hooks up with a judge (Melvyn Douglas) by whom she has an illegitimate son causing the shit to hit the fan and her marriage to collapse. Morose, rambling Western saga with the miserable couple living apart as the daughter (Phyllis Thaxter) pines for her father while he dotes on his wife's illegitimate son (Robert Walker). It all wounds up in a positive way but not before there are more heartaches for the family. Tracy looks bored throughout while Hepburn is badly miscast. Not one of the pair's well known films but it was their most successful at the boxoffice.
Judgement at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer, 1961) 8/10
This film, based on the Nuremberg Trials of 1948 and presided over by an American judge (Spencer Tracy), discusses as part of the cases Nazi laws pertaining to forced sterilization and anti-miscegenation. The irony was that both these laws openly flourished in the United States at the time - the eugenics boards that performed forced sterilizations were finally struck down in 1979 while the Supreme Court struck down the anti-miscegenation laws in 1967. Kramer's ambitious 3-hour plus court room drama was based on Abby Mann's brief television play and he cast major stars in the parts to ensure maximum impact. The trial involves the prosecution of four judges and the role of the German people as silent witnesses to the atrocities by the Nazis. Tracy is the voice of reason who is incredulous that civilians were unaware of the death camps, Marlene Dietrich (with stretched imobile face) is the proud German widow of an executed General, Richard Widmark is the prosecuting attorney (who shows newsreels of victims of the Holocaust) and (a miscast) Burt Lancaster is one of the cold and clinical judges on trial who decides to turn the tables on his defence attorney and become a witness for the prosecution. Tracy was nominated for an Oscar while newcomer Maximillian Schell won the Oscar as the forceful defence attorney who questions Americans (about Hiroshima), the Vatican, the Soviet Union and even Winston Churchill (who as late as 1937 was full of praise for Hitler) as being outright hypocrites. The highlight of the film is the appearance by two iconic Hollywood stars both almost at the end of their illustrious careers. Montgomery Clift add-libs most of his dialogue (he could not remember his lines) as a jewish victim of sterilization and Judy Garland, playing an Aryan hausfrau, breaks down on the stand as she tries to defend her girlhood friendship with an older jewish man who was executed and for which she was imprisoned according to law. The two actors, appearing very briefly, give harrowing performances probably unleashing their own inner demons. Despite the camera's constant circling and often jarring zooms on characters (showing a tendency towards hysterics) the film remains true to the subject matter at hand and is an important document of an event, a time and a place. Unfortunately humanity never learned from the Holocaust and has been relentlessly involved with many similar genocides the world over since then. And sadly the nation which presided over the trials back then has since been the most guilty of continuing to perpetuate genocide in so many parts of the world.
Strictly for aficionados of B-grade Tarantino rip-offs and dog lovers. A vicious Presa Canario is the star of this film and the mastiff is shown in full saliva dripping ferocious mode as it is made to illegally fight other dogs in an abandoned warehouse for money by its equally vicious owner, a crime boss (Antonio Banderas), who has abused the animal since it was a pup. Meanwhile dropping into this location are three crooks - a slick career criminal (Adrien Brody), an elderly man (John Malkovich) and a drugged out kid (Rory Culkin) - after a botched up heist waiting to be picked up by a getaway driver sometime later. It is but inevitable that the three men will encounter the dog and his handler just when they discover a stash of cash in a bag which results in a bloodbath. The gruesome violence against the dog is upsetting although one doesn't bat an eyelid when humans are being chased, bitten, shot and stabbed.
Acts of Vengeance (Isaac Florentine, 2017) 6/10
Slick lawyer (Antonio Banderas) decides to take a vow of silence until he can find the person who murdered his wife and daughter. The same vengeance genre of film that has made Liam Neeson's career flourish in B-movie heaven also allows other actors the same route once A-list films dry up in Hollywood. Banderas walks through the film with a pained expression on his face and was probably relieved the film allowed him not to mouth long pages of English dialogue since the plot allowed the character a vow of silence. Paz Vega co-stars as a nurse who helps provides certain answers which leads him to the elusive murderer. At least this fast paced film is never boring and one is relieved to know that Banderas does have his Spanish movie career â la Almodóvar still alive and kicking on the side. So all is not lost for him.
Security (Alan Desrochers, 2017) 5/10
Down and out ex-special services veteran (Antonio Banderas) working as a security guard at a shopping mall comes to the rescue of a little girl who has the mob after her. With the mall under total seige the guard and his four colleagues try to stay one step ahead of the professional killers out to get them all. Old fashioned actioner has no surprises, merely goes through the motions yet manages to maintain nail-biting suspense throughout as the body count keeps increasing. Sir Ben Kingsley is the Brit-accented psychopath who unleashes all the violence little knowing that characters like him in this genre of film always end up badly. Cheesy fun.
State of the Union (Frank Capra, 1948) 9/10
Witty adaptation of the 1945 Russel Crouse, Howard Lindsay Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Ruthless newspaper magnate (Angela Lansbury) wants her lover (Spencer Tracy), an aircraft tycoon, to run as the Republican candidate for President of the United States. While he is himself amused and sceptical about the idea a shrewd Republican strategist (Adolphe Menjou) and a campaign manager (Van Johnson) urge him on. The situation takes on a delicious twist when the candidate's estranged wife (Katharine Hepburn) is roped in to go with him on the campaign trail causing hilarious sparks to fly. Tracy was Capra's first choice for the part while Claudette Colbert left the project over differences with the director (she had won her Oscar under his tutelage 14 years before). Hepburn was roped in days before production began and she seamlessly fits right in whether sarcastically handling Tracy, knowing about his affair with Lansbury, but also playing with gritted teeth across Menjou with whom, off screen, she was daggers drawn over their personal political affiliations - he blew the whistle on many people during the McCarthy witchhunt trials. Slick political satire is not only great fun but extremely relevant, even today, in the points it makes about dirty politicians and how they reach the top. The delightful cast cannot be bettered - with a svelte and sexy Lansbury making an exciting "villain".
The Sea of Grass (Elia Kazan, 1947) 6/10
Stiff MGM horse opera on the range which Kazan disowned and discouraged people from watching. He also hated Hepburn's costumes (courtesy of Walter Plunkett) in the film. Well he was right about the elaborate hats and costumes which look totally out of place on the plains. Sophisticated city gal (Katharine Hepburn) gets married to a cattle baron (Spencer Tracy) who prefers his grass fields more than his wife. They still manage to have a daughter before he begins to totally ignore her so she briefly hooks up with a judge (Melvyn Douglas) by whom she has an illegitimate son causing the shit to hit the fan and her marriage to collapse. Morose, rambling Western saga with the miserable couple living apart as the daughter (Phyllis Thaxter) pines for her father while he dotes on his wife's illegitimate son (Robert Walker). It all wounds up in a positive way but not before there are more heartaches for the family. Tracy looks bored throughout while Hepburn is badly miscast. Not one of the pair's well known films but it was their most successful at the boxoffice.
Judgement at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer, 1961) 8/10
This film, based on the Nuremberg Trials of 1948 and presided over by an American judge (Spencer Tracy), discusses as part of the cases Nazi laws pertaining to forced sterilization and anti-miscegenation. The irony was that both these laws openly flourished in the United States at the time - the eugenics boards that performed forced sterilizations were finally struck down in 1979 while the Supreme Court struck down the anti-miscegenation laws in 1967. Kramer's ambitious 3-hour plus court room drama was based on Abby Mann's brief television play and he cast major stars in the parts to ensure maximum impact. The trial involves the prosecution of four judges and the role of the German people as silent witnesses to the atrocities by the Nazis. Tracy is the voice of reason who is incredulous that civilians were unaware of the death camps, Marlene Dietrich (with stretched imobile face) is the proud German widow of an executed General, Richard Widmark is the prosecuting attorney (who shows newsreels of victims of the Holocaust) and (a miscast) Burt Lancaster is one of the cold and clinical judges on trial who decides to turn the tables on his defence attorney and become a witness for the prosecution. Tracy was nominated for an Oscar while newcomer Maximillian Schell won the Oscar as the forceful defence attorney who questions Americans (about Hiroshima), the Vatican, the Soviet Union and even Winston Churchill (who as late as 1937 was full of praise for Hitler) as being outright hypocrites. The highlight of the film is the appearance by two iconic Hollywood stars both almost at the end of their illustrious careers. Montgomery Clift add-libs most of his dialogue (he could not remember his lines) as a jewish victim of sterilization and Judy Garland, playing an Aryan hausfrau, breaks down on the stand as she tries to defend her girlhood friendship with an older jewish man who was executed and for which she was imprisoned according to law. The two actors, appearing very briefly, give harrowing performances probably unleashing their own inner demons. Despite the camera's constant circling and often jarring zooms on characters (showing a tendency towards hysterics) the film remains true to the subject matter at hand and is an important document of an event, a time and a place. Unfortunately humanity never learned from the Holocaust and has been relentlessly involved with many similar genocides the world over since then. And sadly the nation which presided over the trials back then has since been the most guilty of continuing to perpetuate genocide in so many parts of the world.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Nanook of the North (1922) - 7/10 - A look at an Inuit man and his family over the course of a year. It may have been more docudrama than documentary, but there were still a number of interesting scenes.
The Tin Drum (1979) - 6/10 - Oskar is born in Germany in 1924 with his full intellect. At the age of three, he is given a tin drum to play and he carries it around everywhere. He also decides that he won't age any further and so from then on his appearance doesn't change. The movie follows his life all the way through WWII with all the personal losses along the way. The movie is very well done in many respects and reminded me of Jojo Rabbit in some ways, but I didn't really like most of it, unfortunately.
The Lives of Others (2006) - 9/10 - A playwright in East Germany comes under investigation at the urging of a party official who is having an affair with his girlfriend. The Stasi officer who leads the investigation starts to have doubts about the system he's a part of as he gets to know the playwright and has acquaintances through wiretaps and other surveillance. It is very well acted and an entertaining drama.
Dawn of the Dead (1978) - 7/10 - The zombie epidemic continues to escalate and four survivors take a helicopter out of the city before taking refuge in a suburban shopping mall. They set up shop there and things go well for a while. This was a decent movie, but I thought that it was much less interesting than Night of the Living Dead.
Days of Glory (2006) - 7.5/10 - The movie follows North African soldiers who have been recruited to fight for France against the Nazis during WWII. They serve well, but face discrimination and are not able to gain promotions or leave as easily as French natives. We see the ups and downs of four soldiers and their comrades during the course of the war in Africa, Italy, and France itself. It's a pretty good film.
The Tin Drum (1979) - 6/10 - Oskar is born in Germany in 1924 with his full intellect. At the age of three, he is given a tin drum to play and he carries it around everywhere. He also decides that he won't age any further and so from then on his appearance doesn't change. The movie follows his life all the way through WWII with all the personal losses along the way. The movie is very well done in many respects and reminded me of Jojo Rabbit in some ways, but I didn't really like most of it, unfortunately.
The Lives of Others (2006) - 9/10 - A playwright in East Germany comes under investigation at the urging of a party official who is having an affair with his girlfriend. The Stasi officer who leads the investigation starts to have doubts about the system he's a part of as he gets to know the playwright and has acquaintances through wiretaps and other surveillance. It is very well acted and an entertaining drama.
Dawn of the Dead (1978) - 7/10 - The zombie epidemic continues to escalate and four survivors take a helicopter out of the city before taking refuge in a suburban shopping mall. They set up shop there and things go well for a while. This was a decent movie, but I thought that it was much less interesting than Night of the Living Dead.
Days of Glory (2006) - 7.5/10 - The movie follows North African soldiers who have been recruited to fight for France against the Nazis during WWII. They serve well, but face discrimination and are not able to gain promotions or leave as easily as French natives. We see the ups and downs of four soldiers and their comrades during the course of the war in Africa, Italy, and France itself. It's a pretty good film.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) - 8.5/10 - I was a bit worried after seeing Django that I wouldn't like this all that much, but this movie was a lot more entertaining. It has great scenery and camera work plus a decent story. Fonda was good as the villain, though I thought that he had much better performances. Jason Robards was the best of the three male leads in his role as Cheyenne. I enjoyed this one quite a bit and may revisit the Dollars trilogy in the near future.
Army of Shadows (1969) - 8/10 - A group of French resistance fighters try to stay free of the Nazis, watch out for informers, and change safe houses often. The film has a relentless serious tone and the consequences of failure could mean torture and death, not just for the resistance members, but for their families if discovered. The movie is very well done and it is a shame that it was not widely released for nearly 40 years.
The Commitments (1991) - 7.5/10 - Jimmy Rabbitte gets the idea of putting together a soul band in the Dublin area. He recruits a few friends and auditions others and the group comes together. However, success is not quite as easy as he might have thought. There was a lot of good music and the movie was entertaining enough, though not quite as good as I expected.
Police Story (1985) - 6.5/10 - Jackie Chan stars as a Hong Kong police officer tasked with protecting a witness. There were a few good stunts here and the opening scene was probably the best one in the film, but I thought the rest of the film was a bit underwhelming.
Army of Shadows (1969) - 8/10 - A group of French resistance fighters try to stay free of the Nazis, watch out for informers, and change safe houses often. The film has a relentless serious tone and the consequences of failure could mean torture and death, not just for the resistance members, but for their families if discovered. The movie is very well done and it is a shame that it was not widely released for nearly 40 years.
The Commitments (1991) - 7.5/10 - Jimmy Rabbitte gets the idea of putting together a soul band in the Dublin area. He recruits a few friends and auditions others and the group comes together. However, success is not quite as easy as he might have thought. There was a lot of good music and the movie was entertaining enough, though not quite as good as I expected.
Police Story (1985) - 6.5/10 - Jackie Chan stars as a Hong Kong police officer tasked with protecting a witness. There were a few good stunts here and the opening scene was probably the best one in the film, but I thought the rest of the film was a bit underwhelming.