Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, 2023) 8/10
Riveting but overlong film about the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) - the American theoretical physicist and director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II who has often been credited as the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in organizing the Manhattan Project. Nolan uses sound, music (by Ludwig Göransson) and rapid editing to bring a sense of desperate urgency to the events in his life - first as a student, then as a professor of quantum mechanics and nuclear physics at Berkeley, his sexual relationship with a neurotic student (Florence Pugh) who is a communist, his marriage to an alcoholic (Emily Blunt), his involvement with the Manhattan Project and the development of the atom bomb, the successful test explosion followed by the government deciding to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, his brief celebrity status, his intense guilt afterwards over the loss of lives in Japan and finally his relentless hounding by the Atomic Commission for his one-time communist leanings which takes up a great part of the film. The non-linear screenplay moves backwards and forwards continuously with the story's two major thrusts - the scientist's work on the bomb and his gruelling moments on the stand as he is questioned about being a communist at the urging of Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), a staunch anti-communist who held a grudge against him. As with every Nolan project this has superb production values - wonderful sets, costumes and cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema. Many familiar actors - Kenneth Branagh, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Tom Conti (as Einstein), Rami Malek, Josh Hartnett, Gary Oldman (as Truman), Matthew Modine, Tony Goldwyn, Jason Clarke - make brief but vivid appearances. However, the film rests on the shoulders of Cillian Murphy who gives a deeply-felt introspective performance and there are equally good turns by Emily Blunt as his volatile but extremely loyal wife and Robert Downey Jr. as the jealous member of the Atomic Commission who ensures that the security clearance of Oppenheimer is revoked. Nolan adapted this thought provoking film from the 2005 biography "American Prometheus" written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
Kohrra (Randeep Jha, 2023) 8/10
A Non-Resident Indian bridegroom-to-be is found with his throat slit and head bludgeoned in a field near his village in Punjab and his best man - a British national - goes missing. The intense police procedural reveals layers of dark secrets amongst all the characters and the hard-hitting screenplay touches on toxic patriarchy, drug abuse in rural Punjab, and the urge to marry off girls to NRIs. The story's vivid characters include the cop leading the investigation who has a calm and workmanlike demeanor at work but is abusive at home - his wife has commited suicide and he beats his rebellious married daughter who refuses to live with her husband. His partner has been having a decade long affair with his brother's wife and wants to dump her for a younger woman. The bride-to-be was in the midst of an affair with a musician who had a physical altercation - caught on CCTV - with the groom and his best man in a restaurant. A drug addict has knowledge about the murder. There is a truck driver who may or may not be involved with the crime and his young helper appears to have seen more than he should have. Finally there is the groom's put-upon cousin who may be involved in the foreigner's kidnapping and has an altercation with a blackmailer. A mixture of comedy, suspense, drama, and pathos runs through all the storylines with lacerating dialogue. The need for sex is a major part of the plot with characters unabashadly making out, giving blowjobs, and humping one another, though they become uneasy when the matter is discussed in the open. They are human and carnal desires need to be fulfilled. Riveting 6-part story is a slow burn as it comes to its satisfying and surprising conclusion.
La morte negli occhi del gatto / Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye (Antonio Margheriti, 1973) 4/10
Gothic gialo immediately sets up its grim tone during the opening credits as a man is killed with a razor followed by rats in the dungeon devouring his face under the watchful eyes of a cat. The castle setting of the story is in the highlands of Scotland although the actual location is Castello Massimo outside Rome. Nubile student (Jane Birkin) arrives at the family castle to visit her neurotic mother, angry young cousin and lecherous uncle (Anton Diffring), and finds herself in the midst of a rare curse involving a cat and a gorilla. More murders ensue, the gorilla all but disappears, the cat is more cute than sinister and Birkin does not take off her clothes. Her off-screen husband, Serge Gainsbourg, plays the local cop investingating the murders. Stiffly acted by all.
Jaws 2 (Jeannot Szwarc, 1978) 4/10
This first sequel, although a huge hit at the boxoffice, does not hold a candle to the original - but then none of the sequels did. This one has annoying teenagers in peril as Chief Brodie (Roy Scheider) and his wife (Lorraine Gary) flail about - both their sons are at sea with other kids and under attack by the great white shark. As in the original film the town of Amity refuses to believe the cop when he tries to warn them about the shark. There is no suspense buildup towards the first sighting of the shark like in the classic original - here we get to see the shark in all its (fake) glory right at the start of the story and through the various attack sequences all of which lack suspense. This was a troubled production with star and director at loggerheads throughout the shoot with the predictable end involving the cop facing off to the shark as they battle to the death.
Jaws 3-D (Joe Alves, 1983) 6/10
Despite getting a bum rap - and 6 Razzie/Worst film award nominations - this is actually a far better sequel than the last one. Chief Brodie is not around in this episode but his grown-up son (Dennis Quaid) gets to tackle the shark in this one. He works as an engineer at a Florida marine park with underwater tunnels and lagoons. He is in love with a marine biologist (Bess Armstrong) who works with performing dolphins at the park. A shark gets into the enclosed lagoon and kills a worker but is then captured and dies. Also lurking in the lagoon is its angry and vicious 35-foot mother who causes mayhem with the performing skiers and the general public who have flocked to the park's opening. Thankfully the fake shark is shown either from the back or the side with brief flashes of its gaping teeth-filled mouth. The ending is hilariously doozy with shoddy effects but overall its not bad at all. Louis Gossett camps it up as the park owner while Simon MacCorkindale as a hunter gets to perform the film's highlight - getting eaten up alive with the camera right inside with him in the mouth of the giant shark as he gets crushed to bloody bits. The film's 3-D effects involve assorted objects, an eel, a lobster, sea spray, falling characters and the shark lunging at the audience.
Jaws: The Revenge (Joseph Sargent, 1987) 5/10
Another sequel that does not deserve its putrid reputation. Chief Brodie's widow (Lorraine Gary) is convinced the shark is out to get her family when her younger son falls prey to the giant fish. To get over her grief she visits her older son - a marine biologist (Lance Guest) - in the Bahamas but unbeknownst to her the shark follows her and is soon upto its usual business. The widow finds romance with a craggy pilot (Michael Caine), her son almost falls victim to the seemingly revengeful shark as does her granddaughter. The hurried ending and sloppy effects are laughable but overall the movie does manage to create suspense.
633 Squadron (Walter Grauman, 1964) 6/10
Generic but fairly exciting WWII mission drama. British fighter-bomber squadron, led by a cynical American Wing Commander (Cliff Robertson), is asked to destroy a German V-2 rocket fuel plant located in an impregnable spot. The de Havilland Mosquito planes need to fly into a narrow Norwegian fjord and bomb the cliff under which stand the anti-aircraft guns guarding the fuel plant. The first half of the film involves the pilots training for the attack in Scotland where there are narrow glens similar to the fjord. Also part of the team is a Norwegian resistance fighter (George Chakiris) whose capture by the gestapo creates a tragic dilemma for the Wing Commander. The Tom Cruise blockbuster, "Top Gun: Maverick", is a loose remake of this film. Fun Trivia - The riverbank where Robertson's character romances Maria Perschy was Hurley Lock on the River Thames and was also used in a similar early scene in From Russia with Love (1963) where Sean Connery romances Eunice Gayson.
The Golden Gate Murders (Walter Grauman, 1979) 6/10
Gruff cop (David Janssen) and nun (Susannah York) investigate the death of a Catholic priest. The cops and everyone believe he committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco. However, the nun thinks he was murdered and eventually convinces the cop of the homicide. Typical tv movie from that era - low budget and shot mostly on obvious sets - but scores thanks to the two leads who have great screen chemistry. Janssen died four months after the film came out and looks far from ok but is marvelous as the tired and weary cop who at first is irritated to find himself saddled with a nun. York, with her sexy voice, makes an unusual pairing opposite him but firmly holds her own as his eventual partner in the murder investigation.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Requiem from Java / Opera Jawa (2006) - 5/10 - I think that the film is well made, but I'm not a fan of opera and didn't care for the story here. There were only bits and pieces that I really enjoyed.
Diary (1983) - 7/10 - David Perlov was an Israeli filmmaker ad professor whose ideas for films were getting shot down so he started filming the places and people around him. It eventually started focusing more on his family and on politics as well. This film covers the period from 1973-1983 and is interesting, though perhaps best taken in parts or the narration might get a bit old.
The Big Dig (1969) - 7.5/10 - A lunatic escapes from an asylum and then steals a jackhammer and compressor. He proceeds to dig up a street in Tel Aviv, causing major headaches to nearby residents and those who drive through the area. Everybody assumes that he is on legitimate city business and the police and others even start helping him, turning it into a major project. It's amusing, especially in the big deal it turns into and in the end result.
Applause (1929) - 5/10 - A burlesque dancer has her daughter raised in a convent, hoping that she will have a better life. The daughter grows up and is almost drawn into burlesque as a career, but really wants nothing to do with it. This is a very early talkie and is also very dated. Some of the acting isn't all that good.
True Stories (1986) - 8/10 - David Byrne stars as the narrator who is visiting a small Texas town for its 150th Anniversary celebration. The event is sponsored by a local company that makes microprocessors. What follows is a number of interesting, sometimes odd, but entertaining vignettes. We get a fashion show, a church service, and much more. The music is good and the humor generally worked for me.
Broken Wings (2002) - 8/10 - A midwife and her four children (two older teens, two preteens) are still deeply affected by the death of the father less than a year earlier. All the mother seems to want to do outside of work is sleep. The children show their grief in different ways. I liked this one a lot.
The Band's Visit (2007) - 7.5/10 - A police band from Egypt arrives in a small town in Israel for the opening of a new Arab Cultural Center only to discover that they are in the wrong town with no way to leave until the next day. There is some discomfort at first, but some of the locals make them welcome and give them a place to sleep as they slowly get to know each other. It's a pretty nice film.
Carousel (1956) - 5/10 - Some of the music is decent in this film adaptation of the stage musical, but the story and message that hitting a woman is fine aren't that great. The film itself also in't really all that great either.
Ziegfeld Follies (1945) - 6/10 - This is mostly a collection of skits and song/dance numbers. The skits were mostly kind of dumb while the song and dance numbers were okay. There were a lot of big names in the production.
Come On George (1939) - 7/10 - George Formby stars as an ice cream salesman at a racetrack who is mistaken for a pickpocket. While making his escape, he ends up in a train car with a talented racehorse that also happens to be unmanageable...until it meets George. The film is kind of silly, but fun to watch.
The Pajama Game (1957) - 7/10 - A new superintendent is hired at a pajama factory. Worker aren't happy because management won't give them the 7.5 cent per hour raise that other factory workers have been given. The new superintendent tries to settle things and avert a strike while also becoming close with the head of the worker' grievance committee (Doris Day). It's a decent film and I liked the sets and costumes. I think I liked it better as a stage musical, though.
Homework (1989) - 6.5/10 - A series of young boys from an Iranian school are interviewed and asked about homework, school, being punished, encouraged, and rewarded. Most of their parents seem to be illiterate. They also seem to get far too much homework and most get punished by being hit, often with a belt. Few of them seemed to know what encouragement or rewards were and when questioned whether they preferred homework or cartoons, they chose homework, likely scared of answering otherwise. It is interesting, but also soon become pretty repetitive.
You and Me (1935) - 7.5/10 - Helen (Sylvia Sidney) and Joe (George Raft) are ex-cons who work at a department store owned by a man determined to give people on parole a second chance. Helen and Joe fall for each other and Joe asks her to marry him and she accepts. However, unlike Joe, Helen's parole hasn't ended and she is not allowed to marry. Helen keeps this as a secret from Joe and it eventually causes a rift between them. I enjoyed this one and we even get an economics lesson late in the film.
Ramparts of Clay (1970) - 7/10 - In a small Tunisian village in the desert, the men work in an above ground mine while the women go about their daily chores and lives. One young woman seems to be somewhat of an outcast, not attending school and doing menial tasks such as getting water from the village well on a regular basis. When the colonial administrator of the mine shows up to pay the men their wages, they are unhappy with what is offered and go on strike. The administrator brings in soldiers, but they have little to do since the men just sit down and wait. Their act of rebellion seems to inspire the young woman to go on strike against her own situation. There is little dialogue in the film, but I did like the film, not just for the interesting landscape in and around the village.
Dead Snow (2009) - 7.5/10 - A group of medical students head out to a remote mountain cabin for a winter break. Things start out well with fun and games like tubing behind a snowmobile, snowball fights, and other games. Then the nazi zombies show up and ruin everything. There is a fair amount of humor and gruesome action. It's pretty entertaining overall.
Lovesick on Nana Street (1995) - 5/10 - Victor lives in an apartment with his mother and runs a pirate tv station that seems popular locally. He falls for a young woman that he meets one day and starts stalking her, sending her flowers, trying to see her, etc. When her attempts at discouragement and the police involvement don't work, he is sent to the local insane asylum which is apparently filled with the lovelorn. This is a romantic comedy, I guess, but I didn't find it to be very funny or really all that entertaining.
The Summer of Aviya (1988) - 8/10 - In 1951, Aviya is a little girl who lives with her mother in a village in israel. Aviya is bullied by the other kids, in part because her mother is mentally unstable. Aviya's mother fought as a partisan in Poland during WWII and survived the Nazi concentration camps, but it took a heavy toll on her. Aviya's father died during the war, but Aviya becomes convinced that he did not die after all and is living with his new family in town. The girl who plays Aviya (Kaipu Cohen) was excellent and the woman who stars as Aviya's mother (Gila Almagor) is also very good. The movie is based on a memoir that Almagor wrote about her own life and experiences with Almagor portraying the character based on her own mother.
Life According To Agfa (1992) - 8/10 - The film follows the customers and employees of a bar known as Barbie. We have a group of obnoxious singing soldiers, a suicidal girl, an undercover cop, people working on a drug deal, and more whose lives intersect one night at the bar. It's pretty well done and the use of black and white instead of color seems appropriate in retrospect.
Head (1968) - 6/10 - The Monkees go through a series of mostly unrelated vignettes. This is supposed to be funny, but it doesn't really work. There are a number of interesting bits, but the whole is less than the sum of the pieces. I never watched the Monkees tv show, though I did grow up hearing quite a few of their songs on the radio, none of which was in this film.
Darktown Strutters (1975) - 6.5/10 - Female bikers doing their thing. This movie is both dumb and somewhat entertaining. It is filled with a number of odd things and it did make me laugh at times. The music isn't bad, too.
Forbidden Zone (1980) - 3/10 - This was pretty weird. I also thought it was pretty dumb.
Diary (1983) - 7/10 - David Perlov was an Israeli filmmaker ad professor whose ideas for films were getting shot down so he started filming the places and people around him. It eventually started focusing more on his family and on politics as well. This film covers the period from 1973-1983 and is interesting, though perhaps best taken in parts or the narration might get a bit old.
The Big Dig (1969) - 7.5/10 - A lunatic escapes from an asylum and then steals a jackhammer and compressor. He proceeds to dig up a street in Tel Aviv, causing major headaches to nearby residents and those who drive through the area. Everybody assumes that he is on legitimate city business and the police and others even start helping him, turning it into a major project. It's amusing, especially in the big deal it turns into and in the end result.
Applause (1929) - 5/10 - A burlesque dancer has her daughter raised in a convent, hoping that she will have a better life. The daughter grows up and is almost drawn into burlesque as a career, but really wants nothing to do with it. This is a very early talkie and is also very dated. Some of the acting isn't all that good.
True Stories (1986) - 8/10 - David Byrne stars as the narrator who is visiting a small Texas town for its 150th Anniversary celebration. The event is sponsored by a local company that makes microprocessors. What follows is a number of interesting, sometimes odd, but entertaining vignettes. We get a fashion show, a church service, and much more. The music is good and the humor generally worked for me.
Broken Wings (2002) - 8/10 - A midwife and her four children (two older teens, two preteens) are still deeply affected by the death of the father less than a year earlier. All the mother seems to want to do outside of work is sleep. The children show their grief in different ways. I liked this one a lot.
The Band's Visit (2007) - 7.5/10 - A police band from Egypt arrives in a small town in Israel for the opening of a new Arab Cultural Center only to discover that they are in the wrong town with no way to leave until the next day. There is some discomfort at first, but some of the locals make them welcome and give them a place to sleep as they slowly get to know each other. It's a pretty nice film.
Carousel (1956) - 5/10 - Some of the music is decent in this film adaptation of the stage musical, but the story and message that hitting a woman is fine aren't that great. The film itself also in't really all that great either.
Ziegfeld Follies (1945) - 6/10 - This is mostly a collection of skits and song/dance numbers. The skits were mostly kind of dumb while the song and dance numbers were okay. There were a lot of big names in the production.
Come On George (1939) - 7/10 - George Formby stars as an ice cream salesman at a racetrack who is mistaken for a pickpocket. While making his escape, he ends up in a train car with a talented racehorse that also happens to be unmanageable...until it meets George. The film is kind of silly, but fun to watch.
The Pajama Game (1957) - 7/10 - A new superintendent is hired at a pajama factory. Worker aren't happy because management won't give them the 7.5 cent per hour raise that other factory workers have been given. The new superintendent tries to settle things and avert a strike while also becoming close with the head of the worker' grievance committee (Doris Day). It's a decent film and I liked the sets and costumes. I think I liked it better as a stage musical, though.
Homework (1989) - 6.5/10 - A series of young boys from an Iranian school are interviewed and asked about homework, school, being punished, encouraged, and rewarded. Most of their parents seem to be illiterate. They also seem to get far too much homework and most get punished by being hit, often with a belt. Few of them seemed to know what encouragement or rewards were and when questioned whether they preferred homework or cartoons, they chose homework, likely scared of answering otherwise. It is interesting, but also soon become pretty repetitive.
You and Me (1935) - 7.5/10 - Helen (Sylvia Sidney) and Joe (George Raft) are ex-cons who work at a department store owned by a man determined to give people on parole a second chance. Helen and Joe fall for each other and Joe asks her to marry him and she accepts. However, unlike Joe, Helen's parole hasn't ended and she is not allowed to marry. Helen keeps this as a secret from Joe and it eventually causes a rift between them. I enjoyed this one and we even get an economics lesson late in the film.
Ramparts of Clay (1970) - 7/10 - In a small Tunisian village in the desert, the men work in an above ground mine while the women go about their daily chores and lives. One young woman seems to be somewhat of an outcast, not attending school and doing menial tasks such as getting water from the village well on a regular basis. When the colonial administrator of the mine shows up to pay the men their wages, they are unhappy with what is offered and go on strike. The administrator brings in soldiers, but they have little to do since the men just sit down and wait. Their act of rebellion seems to inspire the young woman to go on strike against her own situation. There is little dialogue in the film, but I did like the film, not just for the interesting landscape in and around the village.
Dead Snow (2009) - 7.5/10 - A group of medical students head out to a remote mountain cabin for a winter break. Things start out well with fun and games like tubing behind a snowmobile, snowball fights, and other games. Then the nazi zombies show up and ruin everything. There is a fair amount of humor and gruesome action. It's pretty entertaining overall.
Lovesick on Nana Street (1995) - 5/10 - Victor lives in an apartment with his mother and runs a pirate tv station that seems popular locally. He falls for a young woman that he meets one day and starts stalking her, sending her flowers, trying to see her, etc. When her attempts at discouragement and the police involvement don't work, he is sent to the local insane asylum which is apparently filled with the lovelorn. This is a romantic comedy, I guess, but I didn't find it to be very funny or really all that entertaining.
The Summer of Aviya (1988) - 8/10 - In 1951, Aviya is a little girl who lives with her mother in a village in israel. Aviya is bullied by the other kids, in part because her mother is mentally unstable. Aviya's mother fought as a partisan in Poland during WWII and survived the Nazi concentration camps, but it took a heavy toll on her. Aviya's father died during the war, but Aviya becomes convinced that he did not die after all and is living with his new family in town. The girl who plays Aviya (Kaipu Cohen) was excellent and the woman who stars as Aviya's mother (Gila Almagor) is also very good. The movie is based on a memoir that Almagor wrote about her own life and experiences with Almagor portraying the character based on her own mother.
Life According To Agfa (1992) - 8/10 - The film follows the customers and employees of a bar known as Barbie. We have a group of obnoxious singing soldiers, a suicidal girl, an undercover cop, people working on a drug deal, and more whose lives intersect one night at the bar. It's pretty well done and the use of black and white instead of color seems appropriate in retrospect.
Head (1968) - 6/10 - The Monkees go through a series of mostly unrelated vignettes. This is supposed to be funny, but it doesn't really work. There are a number of interesting bits, but the whole is less than the sum of the pieces. I never watched the Monkees tv show, though I did grow up hearing quite a few of their songs on the radio, none of which was in this film.
Darktown Strutters (1975) - 6.5/10 - Female bikers doing their thing. This movie is both dumb and somewhat entertaining. It is filled with a number of odd things and it did make me laugh at times. The music isn't bad, too.
Forbidden Zone (1980) - 3/10 - This was pretty weird. I also thought it was pretty dumb.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie, 2023) 9/10
The American spy, Ethan Hunt, is the perfect equivalent to the British spy, James Bond, and star Tom Cruise has really grown into the part over the years. Thankfully Cruise has now lost that boyish charm and smirk, and at age 61 has developed a rugged maturity which also finally shows across his face - a major factor which helped his last film - "Top Gun: Maverick" - become a huge blockbuster at the boxoffice. This is the seventh film in the franchise and they keep getting better and better. As with all the films there is a set pattern to the plot - Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team (Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) are given an assignment which is followed by a series of action sequences - always jaw-dropping - that are performed on exotic locations as the team is pursued by a set of assorted men (from the IMF: Cary Elwes, Henry Czerny - a former ally turned rogue - Esai Morales) and women (tough love interest Rebecca Ferguson, conniving thief Hayley Atwell, femme fatale arms dealer Vanessa Kirby and ruthless assassin Pom Klementieff) who either help them along the way or try to stop them through every deadly way possible. The assignment here is the retrieval of half a key which when joined to the other half holds the power to stop a rogue A.I. Entity. The action in the film moves swiftly from a Russian submarine (that takes on the Entity resulting in an implosion scarily similar to the fate of the recent OceanGate submersible) and moves onto a skirmish in the Arabian desert, then a nerve-racking chase inside and on top of the Abu Dhabi International Airport, to the streets of Rome, through the canals and inside a futuristic disco in Venice, and finally onto the Orient Express hurtling out of control through the Austrian Alps. Cruise performs an incredible death-defying jump off a cliff while riding a motorbike - most of his scenes on the bike bring back fond memories of Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape" while the screenplay takes an inventive way to show a car chase sequence through the streets of Rome (and down the Spanish Steps) involving a yellow Fiat 500 in a way that is laugh-out-loud hilarious. The film's spectacular set piece at the end involves the train recalling the films "The Cassandra Crossing" and "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" where a similar situation occured leaving characters literally dangling for their lives. The film also memorably references other classic films from the past - "Battleship Potemkin", "The Italian Job, and "Don't Look Now". Superb production has spectacular visual effects, the familar Lalo Schifrin score and a plot that whizzes by swiftly despite an almost three-hour running time. All credit for the film's success goes to Tom Cruise who holds it all together with his incredible star charisma. And let's not forget lovely Italy which gets a dazzling look-in along the way. A must-see film - with part 2 of the story coming out next year.
The Frozen Ground (Scott Walker, 2013) 6/10
Nicolas Cage and John Cusack reunite after their previous teaming in Con Air (1997). However, this time round they don't play allies and instead take on the roles of an Alaskan State Trooper and a serial killer in this thriller which is based on fact. When a young woman - a prostitute and drug addict - manages to get away from her abducter she accuses a family man of kidnapping, raping and holding her prisoner. When he comes up with a strong alibi the cops cannot get the D.A. to issue a search warrant without proper proof. When another dead female is found buried in the snow the cops begin to suspect that many missing women could all be victims of a serial killer. By-the-numbers police procedural goes through all the usual tropes of the genre. What makes it unusual is the subtle performance by Cage and the continuing head-scratching one does looking at Cusack and wondering what the fuck went wrong with his career which once upon a time seemed so promising.
Train d'enfer / Operation Double Cross (Gilles Grangier, 1965) 5/10
One of numerous sub-par James Bond imitations that flooded the 1960s and beyond alongside the original. 1950s Swashbuckler Jean Marais is a bit long in the tooth as a secret agent going after a Nazi scientist. The film is buffed up with all the usual suspects - a boat chase, fist fights, a silver Alpha Romeo, a statuesque beauty-vamp (Marisa Mell) and stunning locations in the Balearic islands of Spain. However, it remains a low budget imitation of the original despite the spiffy trappings. And did I mention how old Marais looks here?
Le grand jeu / Flesh and the Woman (Robert Siodmak, 1954) 6/10
A lawyer (Jean-Claude Pascal) goes bankrupt keeping his high
maintenance mistress (Gina Lollobrigida) in fur and jewels. He escapes his creditors and runs away to Algeria but his mistress does not join him as planned. Depressed he joins the Foreign Legion and after four years of the drudgery of warfare comes across a prostitute (also Lollobrigida) provided by the local hotel propreitress (Arletty). The girl resembles his former girlfriend and during a session with tarot cards he is told that he will fall in love with her, kill a friend over her and finally lose her again. The film is a remake of the 1934 Jacques Feyder classic which defined romantic despair in French cinema while allowing many subsequent films to use the French Foreign Legion as a colourful background. The ravishing Gina Lollobrigida is the whole show here although the supporting cast - Raymond Pellegrin, Peter van Eyck (as the two Legionnaire buddies), the always striking Arletty and Lila Kedrova as another tart - are all very good too.
Bheed (Anubhav Sinha, 2023) 6/10
Fictional story about the first COVID-19 lockdown in India which led to the exodus of 10 million migrant workers from cities to their villages and hometowns. The screenplay focuses on a few characters who find themselves stranded on roadsides and in open fields due to government imposed police blockades between the Delhi-UP border without any arrangements for food and shelter. Tense film captures in documentary fashion - shot in black and white - the misery and agony of thousands of men, women and children. A low-caste cop (Rajkummar Rao) is assigned by his upper-caste boss (Ashutosh Rana) at a blockade which proves to be a nightmare when he tries to prevent poor workers from returning to their families in order to curb the spread of the virus. A doctor (Bhumi Pednekar) helps the sick, an obnoxious rich upper-caste woman (Dia Mirza) tries to break the blockade using her position, an elderly Brahmin security guard (Pankaj Kapur) sides with a politician, a maid tries to get her alcoholic father home. Many amongst the people have flu-like symptoms and as time passes the mob becomes impatient leading to explosive caste prejudice with hindus accusing muslims of spreading the virus with the screenplay pinpointing crucial points about the old problems that modern India is still unable to shake off.
Afwaah /Rumour (Sudhir Mishra, 2023) 6/10
A rising politician (Sumeet Vyas) goads his goons to resort to violence during a rally and many people are injured and one man brutally killed. His fiancé (Bhumi Pednekar) is horrified and walks out on him. His goons capture her and while being manhandled her life is saved by a passerby (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) in whose car she escapes from the mob. The two go on the run with the politician, his goons, and crooked cops in pursuit. The screenplay is an hysterical indictment of politics that thrives on building divides amongst communities. It also shows how social media can be used to create negative rumours against people - the politician creates a fake video showing his hindu fiancé eloping with the muslim passerby which goes viral creating mob hysteria wanting blood. Extremely violent film - the death count keeps rising - goes completely over-the-top during the film's climax as the screenplay crams in every possible ill in Indian society. The attack on civilians during the rally with victims begging for their lives is a direct reference to the 2002 Gujrat riots. A lot of the dialogue comes off preachy with characters playing to the gallery as they pinpoint wrongs in society - the dialogue speaks directly to the public in a heavy handed way in order to drive in each point.
The Ambassador (J. Lee Thompson, 1984) 6/10
Idealistic American Ambassador (Robert Mitchum) to Israel hopes to initiate peace in troubled Middle East by getting young jews and muslims to sit down and talk. Meanwhile his bored wife (Ellen Burstyn) is followed as she meets secretly with her Palestinian lover (Fabio Testi). When a film of the two having sex is used to blackmail the Ambassador it falls to the American chief security officer (Rock Hudson) to try and find who is the group that wants peaceful negotiations disrupted. This was a troubled production - Hudson was ill and gaunt with AIDS and Mitchum was drinking heavily and only took on the project after getting accused of being anti-semitic and a holocaust denier. The film was loosely based on Elmore Leonard's novel "52 Pick-up". This is strictly a potboiler made palatable via it's A-list cast, an important political theme as its backdrop and the authentic on location filming in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the Najev Desert.
Tobruk (Arthur Hiller, 1967) 5/10
Fictionalized story set during the North African Campaign of World War II as the combined unit of the British Army and the SIG (German-speaking Jewish volunteers from Mandatory Palestine) attempt to destroy german fuel bunkers at Tobruk. "Operation Agreement" was the code name of the attack - a failure at the time but here depicted as a success. Leading the group is a Canadian Major (Rock Hudson) who is familiar with the desert topography and has to be lifted out of jail where he has been ensconsed by Vichy French forces. His rescuer is leader (George Peppard) of the SIG and the two men along with the Commander of the British Army (Nigel Bruce) join forces for the mission. The screenplay follows the unit's trek across the dangerous desert as they try to avoid airplane attacks, minefields, Berber tribesmen and personal differences while pretending to be POWs being escorted by the SIG. Sporadically exciting film however does not stand up to far superior films in the genre of which one of the best was "The Guns of Navarone". Hudson is dull, Peppard tries an accent while Nigel Bruce as the supercilious British officer runs off with the film.
Un taxi pour Tobrouk / Taxi For Tobruk (Denys de La Patellière, 1961) 7/10
The film is basically very similar to the plot of the classic 1958 British film "Ice Cold in Alex". Instead of British soldiers we have here four french commandos (Lino Ventura, Charles Aznavour, Maurice Biraud, Germán Cobos) who destroy a german oil depot in the North African desert at the Battle of El Alamein during WWII. Escaping in the desert they get lost but happen to come across a group of german soldiers whom they kill. One survivor (Hardy Kruger) is captured and joins them on their long jeep ride through the deadly desert as they face getting stuck in sand dunes, avoiding german truck convoys, minefields and allied bombings. Anti-war elements in the screenplay deal with the dilemma of what to do with the german soldier who has proved to be a helpful comrade during the arduous journey. An unexpected ending raises the film a notch or two above many similar run-of-the-mil war stories.
Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar (Luv Ranjan, 2023) 6/10
Amusing romantic comedy where rich spoiled boy (Ranbir Kapoor) has a side business of helping couples break-up by working on one partner against the other. His best friend (Anubhav Singh Bassi) gets cold feet and hires him to break up his upcoming marriage to his fiancé (Monica Chaudhry). At the bachelor party in Spain - yes they are all very rich and travel at the drop of a hat - rich boy meets cute with fiance's best friend (Shraddha Kapoor). She in return meets him back in full-on sassy mode, on and off the dance floor (the song "Maine Pi Rakhi Hai" is their foreplay). The lead pair, both looking like a million dollars - fit bodies dressed to their teeth in designer wear - have incredible screen chemistry. Ranbir with his boyish, mischievous charm and Shraddha with her witty repartee create romantic sparks even though the screenplay follows the usual Bollywood tropes from time immemorial. The fun begins when the boy's boistrous Punjabi family - Dimple Kapadia plays it at full pitch as the loving mother - prove too suffocating for the girl and she wants out of the relationship. So she puts in a call to the breakup expert to help her dump the boy. In typical movie illogic the boy fails to recognise his own girlfriend's voice and proceeds to help her break up. A fun watch as the couple first move away from each other followed by the corny but hilarious manner in which they predictably reunite. Dimple playing Ranbir's Mom has special significance - her first film back in 1973 - "Bobby" - was opposite Rishi Kapoor (Ranbir's late Dad) and her comeback film after a break of 12 years was the 1985 film - "Saagar" - also opposite Rishi Kapoor. Charming film coasts on a heavy dose of joie de vivre brought to the project by the two leads, a great song score, lovely locations and a supporting cast with great comic timing.
The American spy, Ethan Hunt, is the perfect equivalent to the British spy, James Bond, and star Tom Cruise has really grown into the part over the years. Thankfully Cruise has now lost that boyish charm and smirk, and at age 61 has developed a rugged maturity which also finally shows across his face - a major factor which helped his last film - "Top Gun: Maverick" - become a huge blockbuster at the boxoffice. This is the seventh film in the franchise and they keep getting better and better. As with all the films there is a set pattern to the plot - Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team (Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) are given an assignment which is followed by a series of action sequences - always jaw-dropping - that are performed on exotic locations as the team is pursued by a set of assorted men (from the IMF: Cary Elwes, Henry Czerny - a former ally turned rogue - Esai Morales) and women (tough love interest Rebecca Ferguson, conniving thief Hayley Atwell, femme fatale arms dealer Vanessa Kirby and ruthless assassin Pom Klementieff) who either help them along the way or try to stop them through every deadly way possible. The assignment here is the retrieval of half a key which when joined to the other half holds the power to stop a rogue A.I. Entity. The action in the film moves swiftly from a Russian submarine (that takes on the Entity resulting in an implosion scarily similar to the fate of the recent OceanGate submersible) and moves onto a skirmish in the Arabian desert, then a nerve-racking chase inside and on top of the Abu Dhabi International Airport, to the streets of Rome, through the canals and inside a futuristic disco in Venice, and finally onto the Orient Express hurtling out of control through the Austrian Alps. Cruise performs an incredible death-defying jump off a cliff while riding a motorbike - most of his scenes on the bike bring back fond memories of Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape" while the screenplay takes an inventive way to show a car chase sequence through the streets of Rome (and down the Spanish Steps) involving a yellow Fiat 500 in a way that is laugh-out-loud hilarious. The film's spectacular set piece at the end involves the train recalling the films "The Cassandra Crossing" and "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" where a similar situation occured leaving characters literally dangling for their lives. The film also memorably references other classic films from the past - "Battleship Potemkin", "The Italian Job, and "Don't Look Now". Superb production has spectacular visual effects, the familar Lalo Schifrin score and a plot that whizzes by swiftly despite an almost three-hour running time. All credit for the film's success goes to Tom Cruise who holds it all together with his incredible star charisma. And let's not forget lovely Italy which gets a dazzling look-in along the way. A must-see film - with part 2 of the story coming out next year.
The Frozen Ground (Scott Walker, 2013) 6/10
Nicolas Cage and John Cusack reunite after their previous teaming in Con Air (1997). However, this time round they don't play allies and instead take on the roles of an Alaskan State Trooper and a serial killer in this thriller which is based on fact. When a young woman - a prostitute and drug addict - manages to get away from her abducter she accuses a family man of kidnapping, raping and holding her prisoner. When he comes up with a strong alibi the cops cannot get the D.A. to issue a search warrant without proper proof. When another dead female is found buried in the snow the cops begin to suspect that many missing women could all be victims of a serial killer. By-the-numbers police procedural goes through all the usual tropes of the genre. What makes it unusual is the subtle performance by Cage and the continuing head-scratching one does looking at Cusack and wondering what the fuck went wrong with his career which once upon a time seemed so promising.
Train d'enfer / Operation Double Cross (Gilles Grangier, 1965) 5/10
One of numerous sub-par James Bond imitations that flooded the 1960s and beyond alongside the original. 1950s Swashbuckler Jean Marais is a bit long in the tooth as a secret agent going after a Nazi scientist. The film is buffed up with all the usual suspects - a boat chase, fist fights, a silver Alpha Romeo, a statuesque beauty-vamp (Marisa Mell) and stunning locations in the Balearic islands of Spain. However, it remains a low budget imitation of the original despite the spiffy trappings. And did I mention how old Marais looks here?
Le grand jeu / Flesh and the Woman (Robert Siodmak, 1954) 6/10
A lawyer (Jean-Claude Pascal) goes bankrupt keeping his high
maintenance mistress (Gina Lollobrigida) in fur and jewels. He escapes his creditors and runs away to Algeria but his mistress does not join him as planned. Depressed he joins the Foreign Legion and after four years of the drudgery of warfare comes across a prostitute (also Lollobrigida) provided by the local hotel propreitress (Arletty). The girl resembles his former girlfriend and during a session with tarot cards he is told that he will fall in love with her, kill a friend over her and finally lose her again. The film is a remake of the 1934 Jacques Feyder classic which defined romantic despair in French cinema while allowing many subsequent films to use the French Foreign Legion as a colourful background. The ravishing Gina Lollobrigida is the whole show here although the supporting cast - Raymond Pellegrin, Peter van Eyck (as the two Legionnaire buddies), the always striking Arletty and Lila Kedrova as another tart - are all very good too.
Bheed (Anubhav Sinha, 2023) 6/10
Fictional story about the first COVID-19 lockdown in India which led to the exodus of 10 million migrant workers from cities to their villages and hometowns. The screenplay focuses on a few characters who find themselves stranded on roadsides and in open fields due to government imposed police blockades between the Delhi-UP border without any arrangements for food and shelter. Tense film captures in documentary fashion - shot in black and white - the misery and agony of thousands of men, women and children. A low-caste cop (Rajkummar Rao) is assigned by his upper-caste boss (Ashutosh Rana) at a blockade which proves to be a nightmare when he tries to prevent poor workers from returning to their families in order to curb the spread of the virus. A doctor (Bhumi Pednekar) helps the sick, an obnoxious rich upper-caste woman (Dia Mirza) tries to break the blockade using her position, an elderly Brahmin security guard (Pankaj Kapur) sides with a politician, a maid tries to get her alcoholic father home. Many amongst the people have flu-like symptoms and as time passes the mob becomes impatient leading to explosive caste prejudice with hindus accusing muslims of spreading the virus with the screenplay pinpointing crucial points about the old problems that modern India is still unable to shake off.
Afwaah /Rumour (Sudhir Mishra, 2023) 6/10
A rising politician (Sumeet Vyas) goads his goons to resort to violence during a rally and many people are injured and one man brutally killed. His fiancé (Bhumi Pednekar) is horrified and walks out on him. His goons capture her and while being manhandled her life is saved by a passerby (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) in whose car she escapes from the mob. The two go on the run with the politician, his goons, and crooked cops in pursuit. The screenplay is an hysterical indictment of politics that thrives on building divides amongst communities. It also shows how social media can be used to create negative rumours against people - the politician creates a fake video showing his hindu fiancé eloping with the muslim passerby which goes viral creating mob hysteria wanting blood. Extremely violent film - the death count keeps rising - goes completely over-the-top during the film's climax as the screenplay crams in every possible ill in Indian society. The attack on civilians during the rally with victims begging for their lives is a direct reference to the 2002 Gujrat riots. A lot of the dialogue comes off preachy with characters playing to the gallery as they pinpoint wrongs in society - the dialogue speaks directly to the public in a heavy handed way in order to drive in each point.
The Ambassador (J. Lee Thompson, 1984) 6/10
Idealistic American Ambassador (Robert Mitchum) to Israel hopes to initiate peace in troubled Middle East by getting young jews and muslims to sit down and talk. Meanwhile his bored wife (Ellen Burstyn) is followed as she meets secretly with her Palestinian lover (Fabio Testi). When a film of the two having sex is used to blackmail the Ambassador it falls to the American chief security officer (Rock Hudson) to try and find who is the group that wants peaceful negotiations disrupted. This was a troubled production - Hudson was ill and gaunt with AIDS and Mitchum was drinking heavily and only took on the project after getting accused of being anti-semitic and a holocaust denier. The film was loosely based on Elmore Leonard's novel "52 Pick-up". This is strictly a potboiler made palatable via it's A-list cast, an important political theme as its backdrop and the authentic on location filming in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the Najev Desert.
Tobruk (Arthur Hiller, 1967) 5/10
Fictionalized story set during the North African Campaign of World War II as the combined unit of the British Army and the SIG (German-speaking Jewish volunteers from Mandatory Palestine) attempt to destroy german fuel bunkers at Tobruk. "Operation Agreement" was the code name of the attack - a failure at the time but here depicted as a success. Leading the group is a Canadian Major (Rock Hudson) who is familiar with the desert topography and has to be lifted out of jail where he has been ensconsed by Vichy French forces. His rescuer is leader (George Peppard) of the SIG and the two men along with the Commander of the British Army (Nigel Bruce) join forces for the mission. The screenplay follows the unit's trek across the dangerous desert as they try to avoid airplane attacks, minefields, Berber tribesmen and personal differences while pretending to be POWs being escorted by the SIG. Sporadically exciting film however does not stand up to far superior films in the genre of which one of the best was "The Guns of Navarone". Hudson is dull, Peppard tries an accent while Nigel Bruce as the supercilious British officer runs off with the film.
Un taxi pour Tobrouk / Taxi For Tobruk (Denys de La Patellière, 1961) 7/10
The film is basically very similar to the plot of the classic 1958 British film "Ice Cold in Alex". Instead of British soldiers we have here four french commandos (Lino Ventura, Charles Aznavour, Maurice Biraud, Germán Cobos) who destroy a german oil depot in the North African desert at the Battle of El Alamein during WWII. Escaping in the desert they get lost but happen to come across a group of german soldiers whom they kill. One survivor (Hardy Kruger) is captured and joins them on their long jeep ride through the deadly desert as they face getting stuck in sand dunes, avoiding german truck convoys, minefields and allied bombings. Anti-war elements in the screenplay deal with the dilemma of what to do with the german soldier who has proved to be a helpful comrade during the arduous journey. An unexpected ending raises the film a notch or two above many similar run-of-the-mil war stories.
Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar (Luv Ranjan, 2023) 6/10
Amusing romantic comedy where rich spoiled boy (Ranbir Kapoor) has a side business of helping couples break-up by working on one partner against the other. His best friend (Anubhav Singh Bassi) gets cold feet and hires him to break up his upcoming marriage to his fiancé (Monica Chaudhry). At the bachelor party in Spain - yes they are all very rich and travel at the drop of a hat - rich boy meets cute with fiance's best friend (Shraddha Kapoor). She in return meets him back in full-on sassy mode, on and off the dance floor (the song "Maine Pi Rakhi Hai" is their foreplay). The lead pair, both looking like a million dollars - fit bodies dressed to their teeth in designer wear - have incredible screen chemistry. Ranbir with his boyish, mischievous charm and Shraddha with her witty repartee create romantic sparks even though the screenplay follows the usual Bollywood tropes from time immemorial. The fun begins when the boy's boistrous Punjabi family - Dimple Kapadia plays it at full pitch as the loving mother - prove too suffocating for the girl and she wants out of the relationship. So she puts in a call to the breakup expert to help her dump the boy. In typical movie illogic the boy fails to recognise his own girlfriend's voice and proceeds to help her break up. A fun watch as the couple first move away from each other followed by the corny but hilarious manner in which they predictably reunite. Dimple playing Ranbir's Mom has special significance - her first film back in 1973 - "Bobby" - was opposite Rishi Kapoor (Ranbir's late Dad) and her comeback film after a break of 12 years was the 1985 film - "Saagar" - also opposite Rishi Kapoor. Charming film coasts on a heavy dose of joie de vivre brought to the project by the two leads, a great song score, lovely locations and a supporting cast with great comic timing.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold, 2023) 7/10
We get two Indiana Jones here for the price of one - a younger, slick and robust version of Harrison Ford (courtesy of visual effects) during the film's opening sequence set during the Allied liberation of Europe in 1944. Indy with fellow Oxford professor & archaeologist (Toby Jones) grapple (in a bombed out collapsing building and then on a train) with an evil Nazi (Mads Mikkelsen) over an ancient artifact which they manage to retrieve. Jump to the present - 1960s New York - and we have an old grouchy and decrepit Indy who is suddenly confronted by his goddaughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) who becomes the catalyst for Indy to don his fedora and clasp his whip as she takes him on a wild ride after stealing that same old artifact (which her late dad had sent to Indy) with the Nazi from his past (now with serious delusions of grandeur to be one-up on Hitler) in hot pursuit. Chases galore - one involving a rickshaw in Tangiers - and with countless references to the past films - dark caves hiding creepy crawlies that cover their bodies, giant attacking eels (substitute for snakes) under the ocean, wild sequences on an airplane, discovering the tomb of Archimedes which allows them to travel through a time warp which finds them literally flying into the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. Par for the course is the film's over-the-top plot where we also get to witness their young sidekick (Ethann Isidore) - a teenager - easily fly a plane through the time warp in time for a quick rescue. And for added pleasure we get three cameos - two from Indy's past - Sallah (John Rhys-Davies, his old friend, and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Young), his wife, along with a new friend (Antonio Banderas) who comes to his rescue but ends up paying a heavy price. This fifth and (supposedly) last installment is certainly better than the last episode - the one with a kinky Cate Blanchett - as it does everything familiar by paying homage to the first three films (all directed by Steven Spielberg) and allowing it to be a pretty decent send-off for Harrison Ford who now (at age 81) stands officially retired as Indiana Jones. So until we get a reboot this concludes the series originally conceived by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman.
Satyaprem Ki Katha (Sameer Vidwans, 2023) 7/10
A mostly corny and boistrous first half segues into a thoughtful very moving drama during post-interval. The film's very important social message feels preachy as it literally plays to the gallery but is very necessary considering the tragic seriousness of the topic. Satyaprem (Kartik Aryan), a goofy Gujju layabout, lives with his equally layabout dad (Gajraj Rao), his sister and disapproving mother (Supriya Pathak) who, courtesy of their dance school, are both the breadwinners in the family. A failure in law school he falls in love with Katha (Kiara Advani), a beautiful young woman from a rich home, when he sees her dancing during the Navritri festival. She rejects him and when a year later he hopes to see her again at the festival finds she has attempted suicide and manages to save her life. Soon after her parents offer her hand in marriage to him. No questions asked. Thus begins the couple's married life with the conjugal bed becoming a very distant item in their lives. How both navigate towards it involves a lot of bitter tears which are shed along the way. The template for the screenplay clearly recalls "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" which still remains the forerunner of all modern Bollywood romances with the two leads here bringing forth flashes of Raj and Simran from the classic film. Aryan and Advani both give highly emotional performances as the star-crossed couple bringing a lot of depth to their characters. Aryan has brilliant comic timing in his scenes with the delightful Gujraj Rao and there is a magical moment between him and Supriya Pathak as she comes around to her son after years of disdain - a beautiful moment played out superbly by both actors. Notwithstanding a few holes in the script the film has topnotch production values and a great music score with colorful songs and dances. A paisa vasool movie with a message that hits home.
Lust Stories (Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee & Karan Johar, 2018) 6/10
Second in a series of anthalogy films from Bollywood and the first to explore female sexuality - a concept (three, four or five short films) made famous initially by the Brits and later by the wicked Italians who often explored the comic and serious joys of sex. Kashyap's bit follows a bat-shit crazy woman (Radhika Apte) - a college teacher married to a much older experienced man-of-the-world who encourages her to explore her sexuality. So she has an affair with a much younger student followed by a disastrous affair with a fellow colleague with whom sex is dull. The screenplays suddenly veers off into strange territory as she starts stalking the student who is dating a young classfellow and starts chasing and browbeating him into confessing his affair. None of this rings true despite the funny abrupt payoff at the end. Akhtar's vignette explores the sexual relationship between a bachelor and his nubile maid (Bhumi Pednekar) who feels great disappointment when he decides to get into an arranged marriage with someone else. Banerjee looks at a woman (Manisha Koirala), in a long term aduterous affair with a lover (Jaideep Ahlawat), and the husband (Sanjay Kapoor) who suspects she is involved with someone else. Johar's film is a funny look at the relationship between a woman (Kiara Advani) and her vibrator with the object finding itself providing intense pleasure just as she is being watched by her husband (Vicky Kaushal), his mother and sister. Kudos to the team for presenting sex in a contemporary context which goes against cultural norms but allows the audience to judge if the different forms on view are something to emulate or avoid.
Cairo (Wolf Rilla, 1963) 5/10
British criminal (George Sanders), just out of prison, plans an elaborare heist at the Cairo museum. He rounds up a team (Richard Johnson, John Meillon, Eric Pohlmann) and after making a clean entry inside the museum - a sign of the times as there are no guards inside nor any cameras - an alarm goes off which results in an escape but not before some get shot or die. How to get out of the country is the backbone of the plot with the police in close pursuit. Shot on location but surprisingly lackluster film lacking suspense and the cast just going through the motions. The great Egyptian star Faten Hamama (once married to Omar Sharif) plays a belly dancer and lover to Johnson (who is completely miscast as an Arab). This was the only time she appeared in an english language film. Remake of John Huston's 1950 classic heist film "The Asphalt Jungle".
We get two Indiana Jones here for the price of one - a younger, slick and robust version of Harrison Ford (courtesy of visual effects) during the film's opening sequence set during the Allied liberation of Europe in 1944. Indy with fellow Oxford professor & archaeologist (Toby Jones) grapple (in a bombed out collapsing building and then on a train) with an evil Nazi (Mads Mikkelsen) over an ancient artifact which they manage to retrieve. Jump to the present - 1960s New York - and we have an old grouchy and decrepit Indy who is suddenly confronted by his goddaughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) who becomes the catalyst for Indy to don his fedora and clasp his whip as she takes him on a wild ride after stealing that same old artifact (which her late dad had sent to Indy) with the Nazi from his past (now with serious delusions of grandeur to be one-up on Hitler) in hot pursuit. Chases galore - one involving a rickshaw in Tangiers - and with countless references to the past films - dark caves hiding creepy crawlies that cover their bodies, giant attacking eels (substitute for snakes) under the ocean, wild sequences on an airplane, discovering the tomb of Archimedes which allows them to travel through a time warp which finds them literally flying into the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. Par for the course is the film's over-the-top plot where we also get to witness their young sidekick (Ethann Isidore) - a teenager - easily fly a plane through the time warp in time for a quick rescue. And for added pleasure we get three cameos - two from Indy's past - Sallah (John Rhys-Davies, his old friend, and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Young), his wife, along with a new friend (Antonio Banderas) who comes to his rescue but ends up paying a heavy price. This fifth and (supposedly) last installment is certainly better than the last episode - the one with a kinky Cate Blanchett - as it does everything familiar by paying homage to the first three films (all directed by Steven Spielberg) and allowing it to be a pretty decent send-off for Harrison Ford who now (at age 81) stands officially retired as Indiana Jones. So until we get a reboot this concludes the series originally conceived by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman.
Satyaprem Ki Katha (Sameer Vidwans, 2023) 7/10
A mostly corny and boistrous first half segues into a thoughtful very moving drama during post-interval. The film's very important social message feels preachy as it literally plays to the gallery but is very necessary considering the tragic seriousness of the topic. Satyaprem (Kartik Aryan), a goofy Gujju layabout, lives with his equally layabout dad (Gajraj Rao), his sister and disapproving mother (Supriya Pathak) who, courtesy of their dance school, are both the breadwinners in the family. A failure in law school he falls in love with Katha (Kiara Advani), a beautiful young woman from a rich home, when he sees her dancing during the Navritri festival. She rejects him and when a year later he hopes to see her again at the festival finds she has attempted suicide and manages to save her life. Soon after her parents offer her hand in marriage to him. No questions asked. Thus begins the couple's married life with the conjugal bed becoming a very distant item in their lives. How both navigate towards it involves a lot of bitter tears which are shed along the way. The template for the screenplay clearly recalls "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" which still remains the forerunner of all modern Bollywood romances with the two leads here bringing forth flashes of Raj and Simran from the classic film. Aryan and Advani both give highly emotional performances as the star-crossed couple bringing a lot of depth to their characters. Aryan has brilliant comic timing in his scenes with the delightful Gujraj Rao and there is a magical moment between him and Supriya Pathak as she comes around to her son after years of disdain - a beautiful moment played out superbly by both actors. Notwithstanding a few holes in the script the film has topnotch production values and a great music score with colorful songs and dances. A paisa vasool movie with a message that hits home.
Lust Stories (Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee & Karan Johar, 2018) 6/10
Second in a series of anthalogy films from Bollywood and the first to explore female sexuality - a concept (three, four or five short films) made famous initially by the Brits and later by the wicked Italians who often explored the comic and serious joys of sex. Kashyap's bit follows a bat-shit crazy woman (Radhika Apte) - a college teacher married to a much older experienced man-of-the-world who encourages her to explore her sexuality. So she has an affair with a much younger student followed by a disastrous affair with a fellow colleague with whom sex is dull. The screenplays suddenly veers off into strange territory as she starts stalking the student who is dating a young classfellow and starts chasing and browbeating him into confessing his affair. None of this rings true despite the funny abrupt payoff at the end. Akhtar's vignette explores the sexual relationship between a bachelor and his nubile maid (Bhumi Pednekar) who feels great disappointment when he decides to get into an arranged marriage with someone else. Banerjee looks at a woman (Manisha Koirala), in a long term aduterous affair with a lover (Jaideep Ahlawat), and the husband (Sanjay Kapoor) who suspects she is involved with someone else. Johar's film is a funny look at the relationship between a woman (Kiara Advani) and her vibrator with the object finding itself providing intense pleasure just as she is being watched by her husband (Vicky Kaushal), his mother and sister. Kudos to the team for presenting sex in a contemporary context which goes against cultural norms but allows the audience to judge if the different forms on view are something to emulate or avoid.
Cairo (Wolf Rilla, 1963) 5/10
British criminal (George Sanders), just out of prison, plans an elaborare heist at the Cairo museum. He rounds up a team (Richard Johnson, John Meillon, Eric Pohlmann) and after making a clean entry inside the museum - a sign of the times as there are no guards inside nor any cameras - an alarm goes off which results in an escape but not before some get shot or die. How to get out of the country is the backbone of the plot with the police in close pursuit. Shot on location but surprisingly lackluster film lacking suspense and the cast just going through the motions. The great Egyptian star Faten Hamama (once married to Omar Sharif) plays a belly dancer and lover to Johnson (who is completely miscast as an Arab). This was the only time she appeared in an english language film. Remake of John Huston's 1950 classic heist film "The Asphalt Jungle".
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
When I moved to San Francisco in the early 80s there was a popular repertory theatre on Market Street called The Strand. They played lots of Fellini and John Waters movies, and specialized in campy movies that appealed to gay men, e.g., The Bad Seed, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Sunset Boulevard, and Barbarella. The Women played there frequently. It has been decades since I’ve seen it, but I have fond memories of seeing it with an audience that howled at every catty line.gunnar wrote: ↑Mon Jul 03, 2023 10:05 pm
The Women (1939) - 8/10 - There is a lot of cattiness and fast talking in this satire about a group of society women. All of them seem to be cheating on their husbands or are being cheated upon. It's dated, but very well acted. It seemed odd that Mary would still go by Mrs. Stephen Haines even after the divorce. The fight between Sylvia and Miriam was pretty funny.
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19340
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Tsk...tsk. All this, and no mention of the film's regrettably underrated star, the excellent Dana Wynter?Reza wrote: ↑Mon Jul 03, 2023 10:53 pm Fräulein (Henry Koster, 1958) 4/10
Lifeless drama is set during a very dramatic time in Berlin's history - the end of the War with the destroyed city overrun by the Russian army. American prisoner of war (Mel Ferrer) is provided shelter by an old professor in Cologne at the end of WWII. His daughter is not happy to see him hiding in their house but helps him escape. Soon after the house is destroyed, her father killed and the prisoner seeningly caught or shot. She goes to a destroyed Berlin in search of her Nazi lover (Hemut Dantine), finds shelter with her cousin, and falls prey to Russian soldiers and is forced to become the mistress of a Colonel (Theodore Bikel) before finally escaping to the American zone. Wynter goes through each ordeal in a passive manner with no real struggle as she later meets again the American soldier who helps her find her loce who is now an embittered cripple no longer interested in her. On top of all these troubles she finds she has been registered as a prostitute with the American authorities. The central romance doesn't really work as the two leads are kept apart through most of the film's running time. Glorious colour shots of a derelict Berlin are the only bits that stand out in this episodic drama that fails to truly depict the actual horrors (rape) conducted by the Russian army upon their entry into Berlin.
The film's aloof, uninvolved feel was taken from the novel on which it is based. It is done deliberately as Wynter and Ferrer's characters do not connect in earnest until one hour into a movie that only has another thirty-five minutes to run.
While it is a well-known fact that the Russian occupation of Berlin resulted in the rape of women of all ages, the Hollywood Production Code forbade rape scenes and the use of rape as a central theme in films. It could only be expressed implicitly, not explicitly, until the Code began to crack with Anatomy of a Murder in 1959, which led to the re-emergence of the theme in American films for the first time since before the Code was first enforced in 1934. Had it been made just two years later, it might well have been much more explicit.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
A Room With a View (James Ivory, 1986) 10/10
Merchant-Ivory's exquisite adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel, set during the Edwardian era, is not only a paen to the brittle eccentricity of the British tourist but also a glorious exploration of Florence in all its stunning beauty. A young English lady (Helena Bonham Carter) encounters the thrill of a brief kiss in sunny Florence while accompanied by her prim and fussy spinster cousin and chaperone (Maggie Smith). The young "muddled" man (Julian Sands), who attracts her, is of a lower social standing and is accompanied by his free-thinking very eccentric father (Denholm Elliott). Also part of the tourist brigade are a rector (Simon Callow) and an abrasive ostentatious novelist (Judi Dench) with outspoken views. Back home after her holiday she finds herself engaged to a pretentious upperclass twit (Daniel Day Lewis) of which her warm-hearted mother (Rosemary Leach) approves as a desirable match but her brother (Rupert Graves) disapproves. Meanwhile she encounters her Florentine romance again and is faced with the dilemma of choosing between the two men. Ivory brings a very light touch to the proceedings but accompanied by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa singing Puccini ("O mio babbino caro") and the Beethoven piano sonatas on the soundtrack the mood becomes swooningly romantic. Bonham Carter and Sands, both very early on in their careers, make a lovely central couple surrounded by a group of superb British character actors who all collectively bring Forster's novel to life. The film won three Oscars - for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's witty and emotionally intellectual screenplay, for its costumes and production design, while the film, James Ivory, Denholm Elliott, Maggie Smith, and Tony Pierce-Roberts' gorgeous cinematography were nominated. A must-see.
Lust Stories 2 (R. Balki, Konkona Sen Sharma, Sujoy Ghosh & Amit Ravindernath Sharma, 2023) 7/10
Sex, desire and lust are part and parcel of this anthology of four short stories - Balki's amusing film has an old granny (Neena Gupta) singing the praises and importance of sex before marriage - shocking her family - and referring to the big "O" as Mount Fuji. Konkona presents the pleasures of sex via voyeuristic masturbation as a lonely career woman (Tillotama Shome) secretly watches her maid (Amrutha Subhash) have sex on her bed and gets turned on by the passion she witnesses. How the story comes full circle with both women accepting each other and their kinks is a wonderful twist to this story. The weak link in this pile is the CGI infested Ghosh about horny Vijay Varma who finds himself in "Oz" or "Neverland" (the fake effects-ridden surroundings are jarring) where he encounters a woman from his past - a voluptuous Tamannaah Bhatia - who he tries to seduce for old times' sake but with unexpected results. The chemistry between the two stars is palatable and which resulted in them hooking up as a couple. Sharma's episode touches on casteism and domestic violence as it views a dysfunctional family - seedy drunk (Kumud Mishra), his wife (Kajol) - a former prostitute - their son and nubile maid who come together in a potpouri of lust, envy, hatred and violence as they move within the walls of what was once a magnificent haveli but now a crumbling derelict. Mishra is superb as the vile man while Kajol quietly seethes and helps the story reach its twisted crescendo.
She's Been Away (Peter Hall, 1989) 6/10
Old lady (Dame Peggy Ashcroft), institutionalized by her family for 60 years, is finally released into the custody of her supercilious grand-nephew (James Fox). Her crime was being a wild woman who wanted to do things her way which did not quite fit into the stifling mores of the 1920s. She mostly stays in a trance staring at the walls and not speaking. However, life takes a sudden crazy turn when her nephew's rambunctious pregnant wife (Geraldine James), fed up with her controlling husband, decides to drive off with the old lady on adventures of their own. Booking themselves in a hotel they create a grand ruckus before having to suddenly dovetail it to the hospital when her waters break. By this time both women have bonded with the old lady now coming out of her shell abd goes all out to defend the younger woman. Ashcroft is quietly superb in her last film appearance while the screenplay by Stephen Poliakoff has all the usual traits of characters with impetuous behaviour. Both Dame Peggy and Geraldine James won acting prizes at the Venice Film Festival.
Madame Bovary (Claude Chabrol, 1991) 5/10
Selfish, vain and rather stupid Madame Bovary is played in this french film version by Isabelle Huppert throughout with a dour expression on her place. Gustave Flaubert's famous self destructive heroine with intense romantic notions makes a number of unfortunate choices in life and sadly lives to regret them. Wanting to escape provincial life with her father on a farm she gets married to the local doctor, Bovary (Jean-François Balmer), who moves her to the city but proves to be a staid boring husband. She has a daughter but can't bear to have the child around and soon drifts into an adulterous affair with a landowner (Christophe Malavoy), running up huge debts which leads to her suicide. Chabrol coldly follows the novel with close precision but fails to bring out the passion or tragic irony of the book. Its all too clinical and comes up short compared to the dazzling 1949 MGM version by Vincente Minnelli where Jennifer Jones played the part with the right amount of joie de vivre once the character begins to enjoy life through her affairs. In comparison Huppert plays her as a spoiled pouty brat. The film is lavishly produced and has Oscar nominated costume design but the dank, dark and depressing atmosphere, and an overlong run time, all but kills it.
Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed (Stephen Kijack, 2023) 8/10
The world's most famous "manufactured" star who came to the forefront by the mid-1950s - helped first by Henry Wilson, his gay agent, and in Hollywood by the director Douglas Sirk. Rock Hudson appeared in a number of Sirk melodramas as the romantic lead opposite the likes of Jane Wyman ("Magnificent Obsession", "All That Heaven Allows"), Lauren Bacall ("Written on the Wind"), and Dorothy Malone ("The Tarnished Angels"). These films created his image as a romantic star. However, his on-screen persona clashed with his real life as a gay man so the studio manufactured a marriage to satisfy the fans and in doing so kept safe the Hollywood business machine since his films were raking in dollars at the boxoffice. He was paired on screen with a succession of beauties - Yvonne De Carlo, Piper Laurie, Donna Reed, Terry Moore, Arlene Dahl, Barbara Rush, Anne Baxter, Elizabeth Taylor, Jennifer Jones, Cyd Charisse, Jean Simmons, Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale, and Doris Day in three films. The documentary is also an insightful look into closeted gay Hollywood and how agents and the studios groomed, disguised and publicized gay actors and also how certain not-so-successful stars were sacrificed to save the cash cows at the studios. It all blew up for Hudson during the 1980s when he contracted AIDs which brought him roughly out of the closet exposing his private life. The documentary is interspersed throughout with audio interviews, photographs, TV and news clips, and footage from Hudson’s films which all present him in an accurate way as he navigated his way through a career that involved a lot of subterfuge but which also allowed this All-American man to become a huge and extremely memorable star.
Fräulein (Henry Koster, 1958) 4/10
Lifeless drama is set during a very dramatic time in Berlin's history - the end of the War with the destroyed city overrun by the Russian army. American prisoner of war (Mel Ferrer) is provided shelter by an old professor in Cologne at the end of WWII. His daughter is not happy to see him hiding in their house but helps him escape. Soon after the house is destroyed, her father killed and the prisoner seeningly caught or shot. She goes to a destroyed Berlin in search of her Nazi lover (Hemut Dantine), finds shelter with her cousin, and falls prey to Russian soldiers and is forced to become the mistress of a Colonel (Theodore Bikel) before finally escaping to the American zone. Wynter goes through each ordeal in a passive manner with no real struggle as she later meets again the American soldier who helps her find her loce who is now an embittered cripple no longer interested in her. On top of all these troubles she finds she has been registered as a prostitute with the American authorities. The central romance doesn't really work as the two leads are kept apart through most of the film's running time. Glorious colour shots of a derelict Berlin are the only bits that stand out in this episodic drama that fails to truly depict the actual horrors (rape) conducted by the Russian army upon their entry into Berlin.
Hypnotic (Robert Rodrigues, 2023) 6/10
Detective (Ben Affleck) tries to investigate the mystery of his missing daughter with the help of his partner and a fortune teller as they find themselves pursued by a man who possesses the power to control minds. Convoluted story has two terrific action set pieces - a bank robbery and a chase sequence - and then segues into bat-shit territory involving a deep conspiracy where nothing around is real. Affleck is good as the confused grieving father stuck in a neo-noir world of hidden identities with his life in serious jeopardy.
Merchant-Ivory's exquisite adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel, set during the Edwardian era, is not only a paen to the brittle eccentricity of the British tourist but also a glorious exploration of Florence in all its stunning beauty. A young English lady (Helena Bonham Carter) encounters the thrill of a brief kiss in sunny Florence while accompanied by her prim and fussy spinster cousin and chaperone (Maggie Smith). The young "muddled" man (Julian Sands), who attracts her, is of a lower social standing and is accompanied by his free-thinking very eccentric father (Denholm Elliott). Also part of the tourist brigade are a rector (Simon Callow) and an abrasive ostentatious novelist (Judi Dench) with outspoken views. Back home after her holiday she finds herself engaged to a pretentious upperclass twit (Daniel Day Lewis) of which her warm-hearted mother (Rosemary Leach) approves as a desirable match but her brother (Rupert Graves) disapproves. Meanwhile she encounters her Florentine romance again and is faced with the dilemma of choosing between the two men. Ivory brings a very light touch to the proceedings but accompanied by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa singing Puccini ("O mio babbino caro") and the Beethoven piano sonatas on the soundtrack the mood becomes swooningly romantic. Bonham Carter and Sands, both very early on in their careers, make a lovely central couple surrounded by a group of superb British character actors who all collectively bring Forster's novel to life. The film won three Oscars - for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's witty and emotionally intellectual screenplay, for its costumes and production design, while the film, James Ivory, Denholm Elliott, Maggie Smith, and Tony Pierce-Roberts' gorgeous cinematography were nominated. A must-see.
Lust Stories 2 (R. Balki, Konkona Sen Sharma, Sujoy Ghosh & Amit Ravindernath Sharma, 2023) 7/10
Sex, desire and lust are part and parcel of this anthology of four short stories - Balki's amusing film has an old granny (Neena Gupta) singing the praises and importance of sex before marriage - shocking her family - and referring to the big "O" as Mount Fuji. Konkona presents the pleasures of sex via voyeuristic masturbation as a lonely career woman (Tillotama Shome) secretly watches her maid (Amrutha Subhash) have sex on her bed and gets turned on by the passion she witnesses. How the story comes full circle with both women accepting each other and their kinks is a wonderful twist to this story. The weak link in this pile is the CGI infested Ghosh about horny Vijay Varma who finds himself in "Oz" or "Neverland" (the fake effects-ridden surroundings are jarring) where he encounters a woman from his past - a voluptuous Tamannaah Bhatia - who he tries to seduce for old times' sake but with unexpected results. The chemistry between the two stars is palatable and which resulted in them hooking up as a couple. Sharma's episode touches on casteism and domestic violence as it views a dysfunctional family - seedy drunk (Kumud Mishra), his wife (Kajol) - a former prostitute - their son and nubile maid who come together in a potpouri of lust, envy, hatred and violence as they move within the walls of what was once a magnificent haveli but now a crumbling derelict. Mishra is superb as the vile man while Kajol quietly seethes and helps the story reach its twisted crescendo.
She's Been Away (Peter Hall, 1989) 6/10
Old lady (Dame Peggy Ashcroft), institutionalized by her family for 60 years, is finally released into the custody of her supercilious grand-nephew (James Fox). Her crime was being a wild woman who wanted to do things her way which did not quite fit into the stifling mores of the 1920s. She mostly stays in a trance staring at the walls and not speaking. However, life takes a sudden crazy turn when her nephew's rambunctious pregnant wife (Geraldine James), fed up with her controlling husband, decides to drive off with the old lady on adventures of their own. Booking themselves in a hotel they create a grand ruckus before having to suddenly dovetail it to the hospital when her waters break. By this time both women have bonded with the old lady now coming out of her shell abd goes all out to defend the younger woman. Ashcroft is quietly superb in her last film appearance while the screenplay by Stephen Poliakoff has all the usual traits of characters with impetuous behaviour. Both Dame Peggy and Geraldine James won acting prizes at the Venice Film Festival.
Madame Bovary (Claude Chabrol, 1991) 5/10
Selfish, vain and rather stupid Madame Bovary is played in this french film version by Isabelle Huppert throughout with a dour expression on her place. Gustave Flaubert's famous self destructive heroine with intense romantic notions makes a number of unfortunate choices in life and sadly lives to regret them. Wanting to escape provincial life with her father on a farm she gets married to the local doctor, Bovary (Jean-François Balmer), who moves her to the city but proves to be a staid boring husband. She has a daughter but can't bear to have the child around and soon drifts into an adulterous affair with a landowner (Christophe Malavoy), running up huge debts which leads to her suicide. Chabrol coldly follows the novel with close precision but fails to bring out the passion or tragic irony of the book. Its all too clinical and comes up short compared to the dazzling 1949 MGM version by Vincente Minnelli where Jennifer Jones played the part with the right amount of joie de vivre once the character begins to enjoy life through her affairs. In comparison Huppert plays her as a spoiled pouty brat. The film is lavishly produced and has Oscar nominated costume design but the dank, dark and depressing atmosphere, and an overlong run time, all but kills it.
Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed (Stephen Kijack, 2023) 8/10
The world's most famous "manufactured" star who came to the forefront by the mid-1950s - helped first by Henry Wilson, his gay agent, and in Hollywood by the director Douglas Sirk. Rock Hudson appeared in a number of Sirk melodramas as the romantic lead opposite the likes of Jane Wyman ("Magnificent Obsession", "All That Heaven Allows"), Lauren Bacall ("Written on the Wind"), and Dorothy Malone ("The Tarnished Angels"). These films created his image as a romantic star. However, his on-screen persona clashed with his real life as a gay man so the studio manufactured a marriage to satisfy the fans and in doing so kept safe the Hollywood business machine since his films were raking in dollars at the boxoffice. He was paired on screen with a succession of beauties - Yvonne De Carlo, Piper Laurie, Donna Reed, Terry Moore, Arlene Dahl, Barbara Rush, Anne Baxter, Elizabeth Taylor, Jennifer Jones, Cyd Charisse, Jean Simmons, Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale, and Doris Day in three films. The documentary is also an insightful look into closeted gay Hollywood and how agents and the studios groomed, disguised and publicized gay actors and also how certain not-so-successful stars were sacrificed to save the cash cows at the studios. It all blew up for Hudson during the 1980s when he contracted AIDs which brought him roughly out of the closet exposing his private life. The documentary is interspersed throughout with audio interviews, photographs, TV and news clips, and footage from Hudson’s films which all present him in an accurate way as he navigated his way through a career that involved a lot of subterfuge but which also allowed this All-American man to become a huge and extremely memorable star.
Fräulein (Henry Koster, 1958) 4/10
Lifeless drama is set during a very dramatic time in Berlin's history - the end of the War with the destroyed city overrun by the Russian army. American prisoner of war (Mel Ferrer) is provided shelter by an old professor in Cologne at the end of WWII. His daughter is not happy to see him hiding in their house but helps him escape. Soon after the house is destroyed, her father killed and the prisoner seeningly caught or shot. She goes to a destroyed Berlin in search of her Nazi lover (Hemut Dantine), finds shelter with her cousin, and falls prey to Russian soldiers and is forced to become the mistress of a Colonel (Theodore Bikel) before finally escaping to the American zone. Wynter goes through each ordeal in a passive manner with no real struggle as she later meets again the American soldier who helps her find her loce who is now an embittered cripple no longer interested in her. On top of all these troubles she finds she has been registered as a prostitute with the American authorities. The central romance doesn't really work as the two leads are kept apart through most of the film's running time. Glorious colour shots of a derelict Berlin are the only bits that stand out in this episodic drama that fails to truly depict the actual horrors (rape) conducted by the Russian army upon their entry into Berlin.
Hypnotic (Robert Rodrigues, 2023) 6/10
Detective (Ben Affleck) tries to investigate the mystery of his missing daughter with the help of his partner and a fortune teller as they find themselves pursued by a man who possesses the power to control minds. Convoluted story has two terrific action set pieces - a bank robbery and a chase sequence - and then segues into bat-shit territory involving a deep conspiracy where nothing around is real. Affleck is good as the confused grieving father stuck in a neo-noir world of hidden identities with his life in serious jeopardy.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Stroszek (1977) - 6.5/10 - Bruno is a strange guy who gets released from jail, counseled by the guy in charge to give up alcohol since it was the cause of his troubles. He promptly stops at a bar for a drink and befriends a down on her luck prostitute. The pair eventually move from Germany to Wisconsin to start a new life, but run into financial problems. I didn't like the parts in Germany all that much, but it got better after switching to the U.S. I also liked the ending.
Les Misérables (1934) - 8/10 - A nice French adaptation of the classic novel, clocking in at over 4.5 hours. Some of the acting wasn't all that convincing in the first part, but the man playing Jean Valjean was good as was the film overall.
The Women (1939) - 8/10 - There is a lot of cattiness and fast talking in this satire about a group of society women. All of them seem to be cheating on their husbands or are being cheated upon. It's dated, but very well acted. It seemed odd that Mary would still go by Mrs. Stephen Haines even after the divorce. The fight between Sylvia and Miriam was pretty funny.
Good Bye Lenin! (2003) - 7.5/10 - Alex lives in East Berlin with his mother and sister. His mother has a heart attack and goes into a coma just before the fall of the Berlin Wall and doesn't awake for eight months. Since she was a big supporter of the socialist state, Alex works hard to hide the changes that have taken place in East Germany for fear that it will trigger another heart attack, this one fatal.
A Flood in Baath Country (2005) - 6.5/10 - The filmmaker visits the site from his first film, the Euphrates Dam, and interviews villagers there about how their lives were affected and about the Baath party. The film was interesting at the beginning, but the interviews were much less interesting. I did generally enjoy the scenes of the kids in the school.
Hayat ou maut (1954) - 7.5/10 - A man is out of work and has a heart condition. He sends his young daughter to get medicine, but she is accidentally given poison by a pharmacist. This leads to a citywide search for the girl and the man. Some of the acting was a bit amateurish in places, but I thought the movie was entertaining. The scene with the drunk was funny.
Sing As We Go! (1934) - 5/10 - Gracie Fields stars in this musical about a textile worker who finds different ways to make a living after the mill closes. The music and story weren't that great, though it was kind of interesting to get a glimpse of some of the places of that era.
The Dove's Lost Necklace (1991) - 7/10 - A calligrapher's apprentice in a somewhat idealized medieval muslim city looks for the meaning of love with the aid of young enterprising boy who runs errands. I enjoyed this more for the characters and setting than for the story.
Histoire d'une rencontre (1985) - 7.5/10 - A deaf American girl in Algeria with her father encounters a deaf Algerian boy and the too have a brief friendship. Each has problems with the life they have to lead, but relate to each other. It's a fairly simple story, but I liked it.
Volga - Volga (1938) - 6.5/10 - Two steamboats with competing sets of musicians are heading to Moscow on the Volga River. It's a musical comedy that may lose a bit in translation and has also aged a bit, but still has its moments and is somewhat entertaining. It was supposedly Stalin's favorite.
Golden Eighties (1986) - 8/10 - The story takes place entirely in an enclosed mall with the customers and employees at a hair salon frequently breaking into song. Robert, the son of clothing store owners in the mall has attracted the attention of several of the women at the salon. An American who loved Robert's mother back during WWII shows up in the mall one day and wants to rekindle the relationship. The songs are fun and there is plenty of humor.
Sopyonje (1993) - 7.5/10 - A man searches for the adopted sister that he hasn't seen for many years. The man's adopted father was a pansori drummer and singer who raised the two children to perform - the son as a drummer and the daughter as a singer. During the search, we flashback to the man's childhood and youth with other flashbacks as he learns more of what happened to his sister after he left. I'm not really all that interested in pansori, but this was a good story and fairly well acted.
Amreeka (2009) - 7.5/10 - A Palestinian woman emigrates to the United States with her teenage son to get away from the increasingly difficult challenges in her homeland. They move in with her sister's family in Illinois and she finds that there are plenty of challenges in the United States as well. While it only really touches on some of the challenges in a sort of superficial way, I still enjoyed the movie quite a bit.
Wadjda (2012) - 8/10 - Wadjda is a young girl who wants to buy a green bike so that she can race the neighbor boy, but girls riding bikes is frowned upon. Wadjda is an enterprising and slightly rebellious girl and sets to earning money to buy the bike. She learns that there will be a competition to recite the Quran that comes with prize money for the winner and decides o give it a try. The girl who plays Wadjda is very good and the acting in general is pretty good. The film also puts a spotlight (in a non-confrontational manner) on some of the oppression that females go through in Saudi Arabia.
Little Miss Devil / Afritah Hanem (1949) - 7/10 - A singer is not having much luck lately, neither with money or with love. He finds a magic lamp and the beautiful genie inside (Samia Gamal) helps him find success, though he finds it may not be exactly what he wants. The comedy is a bit hit or miss and there is plenty of singing and a fair amount of dancing. It's fairly entertaining, especially when Gamal is on screen.
So Young, So Bright /Janken musume (1955) - 8/10 - Three 18 year old pop stars are brought together here in this musical. Two of the girls portray high school friends who visit Kyoto on a school trip and become friends with another girl while there. They then proceed to hang out, go to a concert, and have various adventures together. There is one scene that is fun where each girl imagines themselves up on stage performing a number, complete with supporting singers/dancers. The closing number on a rollercoaster is another one that is fun. These girls were very popular in Japan and it is a shame that two of them died relatively young. The subtitles I have are certainly adequate, but hopefully proper subs are issued someday in which case I'd like to revisit the film.
8 Women (2002) - 8/10 - Eight women gather at a big country house at Christmastime in the 1950s. They discover that the man of the house has been murdered during the night and that they are all suspects. Each woman's secrets are gradually revealed through song in this entertaining musical comedy. The songs and acting are all pretty good.
Coming Forth By Day (2012) - 6/10 - A day in the life of a woman and her mother who are caring for the father, an invalid who is unable to talk or do anything on his own. The daughter feels a need to get out of the apartment for a couple of hours and leaves her mother home caring for the father by herself. The film has minimal dialogue and features lots of inaction. This causes the film to move at an extremely slow pace, but it did give me a sense that both mother and daughter are suffering from extreme physical and mental exhaustion from the situation.
Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996) - 7.5/10 - The film consists mainly of various short scenes that often are only barely related to each other, though there is more cohesiveness during the second half of the film. There is no real narrative thread, but the director, Elia Suleiman, returns to the West Bank and Israel after over a decade in New York City. The vignettes give impressions of life in the area during the peace process. There is plenty of humor and I found myself enjoying the film quite a bit by the end, though it does take a while for things to build up to that point.
Les Misérables (1934) - 8/10 - A nice French adaptation of the classic novel, clocking in at over 4.5 hours. Some of the acting wasn't all that convincing in the first part, but the man playing Jean Valjean was good as was the film overall.
The Women (1939) - 8/10 - There is a lot of cattiness and fast talking in this satire about a group of society women. All of them seem to be cheating on their husbands or are being cheated upon. It's dated, but very well acted. It seemed odd that Mary would still go by Mrs. Stephen Haines even after the divorce. The fight between Sylvia and Miriam was pretty funny.
Good Bye Lenin! (2003) - 7.5/10 - Alex lives in East Berlin with his mother and sister. His mother has a heart attack and goes into a coma just before the fall of the Berlin Wall and doesn't awake for eight months. Since she was a big supporter of the socialist state, Alex works hard to hide the changes that have taken place in East Germany for fear that it will trigger another heart attack, this one fatal.
A Flood in Baath Country (2005) - 6.5/10 - The filmmaker visits the site from his first film, the Euphrates Dam, and interviews villagers there about how their lives were affected and about the Baath party. The film was interesting at the beginning, but the interviews were much less interesting. I did generally enjoy the scenes of the kids in the school.
Hayat ou maut (1954) - 7.5/10 - A man is out of work and has a heart condition. He sends his young daughter to get medicine, but she is accidentally given poison by a pharmacist. This leads to a citywide search for the girl and the man. Some of the acting was a bit amateurish in places, but I thought the movie was entertaining. The scene with the drunk was funny.
Sing As We Go! (1934) - 5/10 - Gracie Fields stars in this musical about a textile worker who finds different ways to make a living after the mill closes. The music and story weren't that great, though it was kind of interesting to get a glimpse of some of the places of that era.
The Dove's Lost Necklace (1991) - 7/10 - A calligrapher's apprentice in a somewhat idealized medieval muslim city looks for the meaning of love with the aid of young enterprising boy who runs errands. I enjoyed this more for the characters and setting than for the story.
Histoire d'une rencontre (1985) - 7.5/10 - A deaf American girl in Algeria with her father encounters a deaf Algerian boy and the too have a brief friendship. Each has problems with the life they have to lead, but relate to each other. It's a fairly simple story, but I liked it.
Volga - Volga (1938) - 6.5/10 - Two steamboats with competing sets of musicians are heading to Moscow on the Volga River. It's a musical comedy that may lose a bit in translation and has also aged a bit, but still has its moments and is somewhat entertaining. It was supposedly Stalin's favorite.
Golden Eighties (1986) - 8/10 - The story takes place entirely in an enclosed mall with the customers and employees at a hair salon frequently breaking into song. Robert, the son of clothing store owners in the mall has attracted the attention of several of the women at the salon. An American who loved Robert's mother back during WWII shows up in the mall one day and wants to rekindle the relationship. The songs are fun and there is plenty of humor.
Sopyonje (1993) - 7.5/10 - A man searches for the adopted sister that he hasn't seen for many years. The man's adopted father was a pansori drummer and singer who raised the two children to perform - the son as a drummer and the daughter as a singer. During the search, we flashback to the man's childhood and youth with other flashbacks as he learns more of what happened to his sister after he left. I'm not really all that interested in pansori, but this was a good story and fairly well acted.
Amreeka (2009) - 7.5/10 - A Palestinian woman emigrates to the United States with her teenage son to get away from the increasingly difficult challenges in her homeland. They move in with her sister's family in Illinois and she finds that there are plenty of challenges in the United States as well. While it only really touches on some of the challenges in a sort of superficial way, I still enjoyed the movie quite a bit.
Wadjda (2012) - 8/10 - Wadjda is a young girl who wants to buy a green bike so that she can race the neighbor boy, but girls riding bikes is frowned upon. Wadjda is an enterprising and slightly rebellious girl and sets to earning money to buy the bike. She learns that there will be a competition to recite the Quran that comes with prize money for the winner and decides o give it a try. The girl who plays Wadjda is very good and the acting in general is pretty good. The film also puts a spotlight (in a non-confrontational manner) on some of the oppression that females go through in Saudi Arabia.
Little Miss Devil / Afritah Hanem (1949) - 7/10 - A singer is not having much luck lately, neither with money or with love. He finds a magic lamp and the beautiful genie inside (Samia Gamal) helps him find success, though he finds it may not be exactly what he wants. The comedy is a bit hit or miss and there is plenty of singing and a fair amount of dancing. It's fairly entertaining, especially when Gamal is on screen.
So Young, So Bright /Janken musume (1955) - 8/10 - Three 18 year old pop stars are brought together here in this musical. Two of the girls portray high school friends who visit Kyoto on a school trip and become friends with another girl while there. They then proceed to hang out, go to a concert, and have various adventures together. There is one scene that is fun where each girl imagines themselves up on stage performing a number, complete with supporting singers/dancers. The closing number on a rollercoaster is another one that is fun. These girls were very popular in Japan and it is a shame that two of them died relatively young. The subtitles I have are certainly adequate, but hopefully proper subs are issued someday in which case I'd like to revisit the film.
8 Women (2002) - 8/10 - Eight women gather at a big country house at Christmastime in the 1950s. They discover that the man of the house has been murdered during the night and that they are all suspects. Each woman's secrets are gradually revealed through song in this entertaining musical comedy. The songs and acting are all pretty good.
Coming Forth By Day (2012) - 6/10 - A day in the life of a woman and her mother who are caring for the father, an invalid who is unable to talk or do anything on his own. The daughter feels a need to get out of the apartment for a couple of hours and leaves her mother home caring for the father by herself. The film has minimal dialogue and features lots of inaction. This causes the film to move at an extremely slow pace, but it did give me a sense that both mother and daughter are suffering from extreme physical and mental exhaustion from the situation.
Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996) - 7.5/10 - The film consists mainly of various short scenes that often are only barely related to each other, though there is more cohesiveness during the second half of the film. There is no real narrative thread, but the director, Elia Suleiman, returns to the West Bank and Israel after over a decade in New York City. The vignettes give impressions of life in the area during the peace process. There is plenty of humor and I found myself enjoying the film quite a bit by the end, though it does take a while for things to build up to that point.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Eminent Domain (John Irvin, 1990) 4/10
During the pre-Glasnost era in Poland a top-ranking member (Donald Sutherland) of the Politburo is suddenly put out to pasture without any explanation. His colleagues ignore him, his daughter (Jodhi May) is pulled out of her expensive boarding school, and his distraught wife (Anne Archer) ends up in a hospital after a tragic event in their lives. Trying to investigate the reason behind their life change makes him realize the extent to which the communist party goes in order to test their loyalty. The heavy cost to their personal lives makes them take steps to right the wrong done to them. Lifeless film fails to provide a proper explanation to the mystery and devolves into a tepid thriller at the end which makes little sense. Sutherland and Archer both play to the gallery with their overwrought performances.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981) 10/10
The first and still the best episode with Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) - professor, archaeologist and adventurer. With fedora on head and bullwhip in hand he finds himself one step ahead (and two steps behind) of evil Nazis as he tries to find the Ark of the Covenant. He is helped along the way by a spirited bar owner and former lover (Karen Allen), a museum curator (Denholm Elliott), and an Egyptian excavator (John Rhys-Davies). Trying to foil his plans are a rival archaeologist (Paul Freeman) employed by the Nazis and a sadistic Gestapo agent (Robert Lacey). Superbly directed film with edge of the seat action set pieces is accompanied by the glorious score by John Williams. Stylish, humorous film is a modern classic.
Emily (Frances O'Connor, 2022) 8/10
O'Connor's thoughtful, sensitive and enigmatic screen biography of writer Emily Brontë (Emma Mackay) sees her life - set during the Victorian era - but with a modern twist. The writer, who created the story of "Wuthering Heights", was an introvert, often tortured individual who channelled her thoughts into the equally tortured characters of her classic novel. The screenplay hints at mental illness and depression, which we can now understand why Brontë behaved the way she did. The story covers the years leading upto the publishing of her novel and we catch a glimpse of her relationships with her two sisters, Charlotte and Anne, her wayward brother Branwell, her neglectful pastor father (Adrian Dunbar), and a parish curate (William Weightman) with whom she has an affair. Since not much is known about the life of Emily Brontë - she died at 30 of tuberculosis - the screenplay makes an attempt using characters and sequences from the only novel she wrote to create an amalgam of her life. Mackay is superb whether frolicking with brother Branwell (pre-figuring the intense "Heathcliff" of the novel) on the heath or making wild and passionate love with the pastor. O'Connor in her first film has a great visual eye capturing the vast open spaces of the countryside or zooming into tight closeups of Mackay's lovely face. Brontë died a spinster but its lovely to see her involved here in a sexual relationship that is a happy contradiction to the typical Victorian view of chaste and pinched repression. Hooray for Hollywood!!
Lost and Found (Melvin Frank, 1979) 5/10
Widowed U.S. college professor (George Segal) and British divorcée (Glenda Jackson) meet cute - they crash their cars into each other followed later by ramming into each other on the ski slope with both breaking one leg. Before you can blink an eye they are in love, married and back home on a college campus where cracks in the relationship soon start to appear. Old fashioned story has a script by Melvin Frank which harks back to equally corny material during the 1940s. Corny yes, but also often funny. The two stars, director-writer Frank and co-star Paul Sorvino (playing a taxi driver) return after the success of "A Touch of Class" to a somewhat uneasy affair with jokes that are sadly forced and stale. Segal with his puppy dog charm and Jackson with her clipped diction and brittle persona do have great chemistry on screen and is reason enough to sit through this so-called attempt at a screwball comedy. Also fun is the eccentric presence of Maureen Stapleton as Segal's motor-mouthed hippie mom.
During the pre-Glasnost era in Poland a top-ranking member (Donald Sutherland) of the Politburo is suddenly put out to pasture without any explanation. His colleagues ignore him, his daughter (Jodhi May) is pulled out of her expensive boarding school, and his distraught wife (Anne Archer) ends up in a hospital after a tragic event in their lives. Trying to investigate the reason behind their life change makes him realize the extent to which the communist party goes in order to test their loyalty. The heavy cost to their personal lives makes them take steps to right the wrong done to them. Lifeless film fails to provide a proper explanation to the mystery and devolves into a tepid thriller at the end which makes little sense. Sutherland and Archer both play to the gallery with their overwrought performances.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981) 10/10
The first and still the best episode with Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) - professor, archaeologist and adventurer. With fedora on head and bullwhip in hand he finds himself one step ahead (and two steps behind) of evil Nazis as he tries to find the Ark of the Covenant. He is helped along the way by a spirited bar owner and former lover (Karen Allen), a museum curator (Denholm Elliott), and an Egyptian excavator (John Rhys-Davies). Trying to foil his plans are a rival archaeologist (Paul Freeman) employed by the Nazis and a sadistic Gestapo agent (Robert Lacey). Superbly directed film with edge of the seat action set pieces is accompanied by the glorious score by John Williams. Stylish, humorous film is a modern classic.
Emily (Frances O'Connor, 2022) 8/10
O'Connor's thoughtful, sensitive and enigmatic screen biography of writer Emily Brontë (Emma Mackay) sees her life - set during the Victorian era - but with a modern twist. The writer, who created the story of "Wuthering Heights", was an introvert, often tortured individual who channelled her thoughts into the equally tortured characters of her classic novel. The screenplay hints at mental illness and depression, which we can now understand why Brontë behaved the way she did. The story covers the years leading upto the publishing of her novel and we catch a glimpse of her relationships with her two sisters, Charlotte and Anne, her wayward brother Branwell, her neglectful pastor father (Adrian Dunbar), and a parish curate (William Weightman) with whom she has an affair. Since not much is known about the life of Emily Brontë - she died at 30 of tuberculosis - the screenplay makes an attempt using characters and sequences from the only novel she wrote to create an amalgam of her life. Mackay is superb whether frolicking with brother Branwell (pre-figuring the intense "Heathcliff" of the novel) on the heath or making wild and passionate love with the pastor. O'Connor in her first film has a great visual eye capturing the vast open spaces of the countryside or zooming into tight closeups of Mackay's lovely face. Brontë died a spinster but its lovely to see her involved here in a sexual relationship that is a happy contradiction to the typical Victorian view of chaste and pinched repression. Hooray for Hollywood!!
Lost and Found (Melvin Frank, 1979) 5/10
Widowed U.S. college professor (George Segal) and British divorcée (Glenda Jackson) meet cute - they crash their cars into each other followed later by ramming into each other on the ski slope with both breaking one leg. Before you can blink an eye they are in love, married and back home on a college campus where cracks in the relationship soon start to appear. Old fashioned story has a script by Melvin Frank which harks back to equally corny material during the 1940s. Corny yes, but also often funny. The two stars, director-writer Frank and co-star Paul Sorvino (playing a taxi driver) return after the success of "A Touch of Class" to a somewhat uneasy affair with jokes that are sadly forced and stale. Segal with his puppy dog charm and Jackson with her clipped diction and brittle persona do have great chemistry on screen and is reason enough to sit through this so-called attempt at a screwball comedy. Also fun is the eccentric presence of Maureen Stapleton as Segal's motor-mouthed hippie mom.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Company of Wolves (1984) - 6/10 - This Little Red Riding Hood story has excellent production design and a pretty boring story.
The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972) - 7/10 - A goalie is sent out after an argument during an away match. He wanders around for a while, visits the cinema, hooks up with the theater cashier, and eventually goes to visit an old friend (plus a couple of other things that I left out). It's pretty laid back through most of it, but I liked it.
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) - 8/10 - Bergman does romantic comedy. Fredrik is a lawyer whose second wife Anne is much younger than him. They haven't consummated their marriage yet due to her trepidations. Fredrik's son Henrik is secretly (or not so secretly) in love with Anne and she reciprocates his feelings. Then there is the actress Desiree who was Fredrik's mistress after his first wife's death. It's a fairly lighthearted and entertaining film.
Spirits of the Dead (1968) - 5/10 - An anthology of three tales, each with a different director. None of them were really all that interesting, though I did find things to like in the second and third parts.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994) - 7.5/10 - Sam Neill stars as an insurance investigator sent to look into the disappearance of a popular horror writer. He discovers a number of crazy things that seem to indicate that the author's books are actually based on fact..or is he just descending into madness himself. Neill is pretty good here.
L'Enfant secret (1979) - 3/10 - There are a lot of scenes with minimal or no dialogue. They linger far too long at times. The film is shot well, but I didn't care for the characters or their story or for the film at all. A woman had a child out of wedlock with an actor. There are drugs, a hospital visit, and so on, but none of it really is all that interesting.
The Night Stalker (1972) - 8/10 - Darren McGavin stars as Carl Kolchak, a Las Vegas reporter with an eye for the sensational who has been fired from a number of newspapers over the years. Young women start turning up dead with their throats ripped out and their blood drained. Kolchak thinks that the killer may think that they are a vampire. Kolchak also butts heads with police and other officials. The supporting cast is nice and this is a pretty entertaining film. I started reading the Kolchak comics over a decade ago, but had never seen the movies or tv show.
The Night Strangler (1973) - 7.5/10 - Kolchak has moved on to Seattle. He''s only been there a couple of weeks when a few mysterious murders start showing up and signs point to a pattern that takes place over 18 days every 21 years. The film follows a similar formula to The Night Stalker, but is still very entertaining. It also sets the stage for the tv series that followed.
Felice… Felice… (1998) - 7.5/10 - In 1895, photographer Felice Beato returns to Japan in search of the wife he left behind. Beato was a popular person during his earlier time in Japan, but finds that much has changed in his absence and he no longer fits in. The film is kind of slow and melancholy, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
A Bay of Blood (1971) - 6/10 - I guess this early slasher film was somewhat influential on the genre, but apart from a few creative deaths, it was mostly kind of boring. The film starts with the murder of a countess as part of a plot to steal her land, but there is another plot afoot and it is just the start of many deaths.
Alucarda (1977) - 5/10 - Alucarda is an orphan who is raised in a strange convent. She befriends a new girl and then strange things start happening and the girls appear to be in love with Satan. The whole set up was kind of strange and the weird outfits that the nuns wore was distracting. The default mode also seemed to be set to scream mode throughout the film and that got kind of tiresome.
Pauline & Paulette (2001) - 7/10 - Pauline is 66 years old, but with the mental ability of a young child. She lives with her older sister Martha, but when Martha dies, a choice has to be made whether Pauline will live with one of her two younger sister or be placed in an institution.
Piranha (1978) - 7/10 - Mutated piranha from an old secret Army facility are released into the local waterways by accident and they start killing people along the way. There's a summer camp for kids and a new resort along the path that are threatened. The premise is kind of ridiculous, but it's a fun movie.
The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman (1971) - 5/10 - The film started off pretty well, but was pretty boring through much of it. It was hard to keep my interest in what was going on.
The Duellists (1977) - 8.5/10 - Harvey Keitel is a French officer during the Napoleonic Era who is obsessed with dueling and is an ardent supporter of Napoleon. He takes a dislike to another French officer (Keith Carradine) and forces a number of duels on him over the next 15 years. The acting and cinematography are excellent and I enjoyed the film a lot.
The Resistance Banker (2018) - 6.5/10 - This film tells the story of the men who set up a secret bank to fund the Dutch resistance activities during WWII. The film looks pretty good and is fairly well acted, but would have benefitted from a quicker pace and possibly shaving 15-20 minutes from the runtime.
Abel (1986) - 4/10 - Abel is in his early 30s and still lives at home with his parents. He hasn't left the house in 10 years and spends a fair amount of time trying to cut flies in half with scissors and watching people with his binoculars. His father is exasperated with him and his mother is somewhat overprotective of him. I didn't find the movie to be more annoying than funny.
The Little Blonde Dead (1993) - 4.5/10 - This is a strange movie in some ways and not one that I really liked. We start when Valentijn Boecke is a kid and see a little bit of interaction with his teacher and also some with his family. His father seems a little crazy, damaged by what he went through during WWII. Valentijn grows up and has a brief fling with his former teacher and ends up with a kid as a result. He's not ready to be a father, but is better at it than his former teacher, who turns out to be pretty out there herself. The acting wasn't that great and the story just seemed kind of off.
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) - 6/10 - This was a Hammer Horror/Shaw Brothers crossover with vampires and martial arts. It's interesting for the novelty, but I didn't find the story or action all that compelling for the most part.
The Shout (1978) - 5/10 - A stranger insinuates himself into the home of a couple in England and later mentions that he learned a shout from Aboriginals that can kill people who are close by. This is a strange film that has some nice scenery and a decent soundtrack, but I didn't really care for the rest of it.
Mr. Nobody (2009) - 8/10 - In the year 2092, humanity has achieved a sort of immortality, except for one unknown old man who is about to turn 118 years old. He is interviewed and reflects back on his life at ages 9, 15, and 34. However, his memories are contradictory and show the effects of different choices that he made or could have made. It's an interesting film with nice acting and special effects.
Cooley High (1975) - 8/10 - In the mid-60s, Preach, a aspiring writer, and Cochise, a basketball star, are close friends in high school. They skip class, attend parties, hook up with girls, and so on. Things eventually turn a bit more serious, but a lot of the movie deals with everyday life of black kids in Chicago during that time period. It's a nice film and is still relevant today plus the soundtrack was pretty nice.
Our Struggles / Nos batailles (2018) - 7.5/10 - Olivier is a hard working foreman at an Amazon type warehouse. His world is severely affected when his wife suddenly leaves without telling anyone, leaving him alone to take care of his two young children while also managing a difficult situation at work. He gets support from his sister and mother and tries to track down his wife. The kids are also affected by all the turmoil in their lives.
Steve + Sky (2004) - 5/10 - Steve is a small time crook who spent some time in prison. After he gets out, he starts a relationship with Sky, a drifter who has had a number of jobs, including as a prostitute. The actors weren't bad, but the story didn't do much for me.
Super Fly (1972) - 6/10 - A successful drug dealer in New York City decides to make one last big deal and then retire from the life. However, he finds that getting out of the game isn't that easy. The music is very good, but the acting generally isn't.
Madly in Life / Une vie démente (2020) - 8/10 - Alex and Noémie are thinking about having a child, but Alex's mother starts acting strangely and it turns out that she has early onset dementia that is causing this behavior and this throws their lives and plans into disarray. The performances here are pretty good all around. Sometimes these types of films are all sad and weepy, but this one was not and had plenty of humor as the family and caretaker they hire to help deal with the situation.
Taking Off (1971) - 7.5/10 - A teenage girl runs away from home to attend an audition without telling her parents. Her parents then start searching for her and find themselves exposed to a number of things that help them loosen up and start having more fun. There is plenty of humor and I enjoyed the film, but wasn't really wowed by it. This was Miloš Forman's first film in the U.S.
Car Wash (1976) - 7/10 - A day in the life of the people at a car wash in the Los Angeles area. It has a nice soundtrack and was fairly entertaining.
Frenzy (1972) - 7.5/10 - Richard Blaney has a rough week. He loses his job and then is wanted by the police as a serial killer, even though he is innocent. It's a pretty good thriller, though not among Hitchcock's best.
The American Friend (1977) - 8/10 - Dennis Hopper stars as Tom Ripley, an American involved in art forgery in Europe. Bruno Ganz stars as Jonathan Zimmermann, an art dealer with a blood disease. Ripley recommends Zimmermann to an acquaintance as a likely hit man for a job that the acquaintance wants done and things progress from there. It was pretty entertaining.
Emergency! The Wedsworth-Townsend Act (1972) - 7.5/10 - The pilot movie for the tv show is named after the law in California which allowed for paramedic training. The tv show helped popularize the movement. Prior to this, most ambulances and their crews could only transport patients to hospitals and administer basic first aid. My brother was a big fan of this show (and Adam-12 as well). I watched it on occasion during the later seasons, but it wasn't one of my regular shows. I thought the pilot movie was pretty good and I'll go on and watch the first season.
The Rockford Files (1974) - 8/10 - James Garner stars as private investigator Jim Rockford. Rockford is a Korean veteran who served 5 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit before receiving a pardon. He lives in a trailer by the beach. Lindsay Wagner co-stars as Sara Butler, a young woman who hires Rockford to solve her father's murder. The tv movie pilot is pretty entertaining and shows the formula that is used in the regular tv show. Wagner would reprise her role in one episode of the regular season and the actor who played Rockford's father was replace for the tv series by Noah Beery, Jr., definitely a change for the better.
The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972) - 7/10 - A goalie is sent out after an argument during an away match. He wanders around for a while, visits the cinema, hooks up with the theater cashier, and eventually goes to visit an old friend (plus a couple of other things that I left out). It's pretty laid back through most of it, but I liked it.
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) - 8/10 - Bergman does romantic comedy. Fredrik is a lawyer whose second wife Anne is much younger than him. They haven't consummated their marriage yet due to her trepidations. Fredrik's son Henrik is secretly (or not so secretly) in love with Anne and she reciprocates his feelings. Then there is the actress Desiree who was Fredrik's mistress after his first wife's death. It's a fairly lighthearted and entertaining film.
Spirits of the Dead (1968) - 5/10 - An anthology of three tales, each with a different director. None of them were really all that interesting, though I did find things to like in the second and third parts.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994) - 7.5/10 - Sam Neill stars as an insurance investigator sent to look into the disappearance of a popular horror writer. He discovers a number of crazy things that seem to indicate that the author's books are actually based on fact..or is he just descending into madness himself. Neill is pretty good here.
L'Enfant secret (1979) - 3/10 - There are a lot of scenes with minimal or no dialogue. They linger far too long at times. The film is shot well, but I didn't care for the characters or their story or for the film at all. A woman had a child out of wedlock with an actor. There are drugs, a hospital visit, and so on, but none of it really is all that interesting.
The Night Stalker (1972) - 8/10 - Darren McGavin stars as Carl Kolchak, a Las Vegas reporter with an eye for the sensational who has been fired from a number of newspapers over the years. Young women start turning up dead with their throats ripped out and their blood drained. Kolchak thinks that the killer may think that they are a vampire. Kolchak also butts heads with police and other officials. The supporting cast is nice and this is a pretty entertaining film. I started reading the Kolchak comics over a decade ago, but had never seen the movies or tv show.
The Night Strangler (1973) - 7.5/10 - Kolchak has moved on to Seattle. He''s only been there a couple of weeks when a few mysterious murders start showing up and signs point to a pattern that takes place over 18 days every 21 years. The film follows a similar formula to The Night Stalker, but is still very entertaining. It also sets the stage for the tv series that followed.
Felice… Felice… (1998) - 7.5/10 - In 1895, photographer Felice Beato returns to Japan in search of the wife he left behind. Beato was a popular person during his earlier time in Japan, but finds that much has changed in his absence and he no longer fits in. The film is kind of slow and melancholy, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
A Bay of Blood (1971) - 6/10 - I guess this early slasher film was somewhat influential on the genre, but apart from a few creative deaths, it was mostly kind of boring. The film starts with the murder of a countess as part of a plot to steal her land, but there is another plot afoot and it is just the start of many deaths.
Alucarda (1977) - 5/10 - Alucarda is an orphan who is raised in a strange convent. She befriends a new girl and then strange things start happening and the girls appear to be in love with Satan. The whole set up was kind of strange and the weird outfits that the nuns wore was distracting. The default mode also seemed to be set to scream mode throughout the film and that got kind of tiresome.
Pauline & Paulette (2001) - 7/10 - Pauline is 66 years old, but with the mental ability of a young child. She lives with her older sister Martha, but when Martha dies, a choice has to be made whether Pauline will live with one of her two younger sister or be placed in an institution.
Piranha (1978) - 7/10 - Mutated piranha from an old secret Army facility are released into the local waterways by accident and they start killing people along the way. There's a summer camp for kids and a new resort along the path that are threatened. The premise is kind of ridiculous, but it's a fun movie.
The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman (1971) - 5/10 - The film started off pretty well, but was pretty boring through much of it. It was hard to keep my interest in what was going on.
The Duellists (1977) - 8.5/10 - Harvey Keitel is a French officer during the Napoleonic Era who is obsessed with dueling and is an ardent supporter of Napoleon. He takes a dislike to another French officer (Keith Carradine) and forces a number of duels on him over the next 15 years. The acting and cinematography are excellent and I enjoyed the film a lot.
The Resistance Banker (2018) - 6.5/10 - This film tells the story of the men who set up a secret bank to fund the Dutch resistance activities during WWII. The film looks pretty good and is fairly well acted, but would have benefitted from a quicker pace and possibly shaving 15-20 minutes from the runtime.
Abel (1986) - 4/10 - Abel is in his early 30s and still lives at home with his parents. He hasn't left the house in 10 years and spends a fair amount of time trying to cut flies in half with scissors and watching people with his binoculars. His father is exasperated with him and his mother is somewhat overprotective of him. I didn't find the movie to be more annoying than funny.
The Little Blonde Dead (1993) - 4.5/10 - This is a strange movie in some ways and not one that I really liked. We start when Valentijn Boecke is a kid and see a little bit of interaction with his teacher and also some with his family. His father seems a little crazy, damaged by what he went through during WWII. Valentijn grows up and has a brief fling with his former teacher and ends up with a kid as a result. He's not ready to be a father, but is better at it than his former teacher, who turns out to be pretty out there herself. The acting wasn't that great and the story just seemed kind of off.
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) - 6/10 - This was a Hammer Horror/Shaw Brothers crossover with vampires and martial arts. It's interesting for the novelty, but I didn't find the story or action all that compelling for the most part.
The Shout (1978) - 5/10 - A stranger insinuates himself into the home of a couple in England and later mentions that he learned a shout from Aboriginals that can kill people who are close by. This is a strange film that has some nice scenery and a decent soundtrack, but I didn't really care for the rest of it.
Mr. Nobody (2009) - 8/10 - In the year 2092, humanity has achieved a sort of immortality, except for one unknown old man who is about to turn 118 years old. He is interviewed and reflects back on his life at ages 9, 15, and 34. However, his memories are contradictory and show the effects of different choices that he made or could have made. It's an interesting film with nice acting and special effects.
Cooley High (1975) - 8/10 - In the mid-60s, Preach, a aspiring writer, and Cochise, a basketball star, are close friends in high school. They skip class, attend parties, hook up with girls, and so on. Things eventually turn a bit more serious, but a lot of the movie deals with everyday life of black kids in Chicago during that time period. It's a nice film and is still relevant today plus the soundtrack was pretty nice.
Our Struggles / Nos batailles (2018) - 7.5/10 - Olivier is a hard working foreman at an Amazon type warehouse. His world is severely affected when his wife suddenly leaves without telling anyone, leaving him alone to take care of his two young children while also managing a difficult situation at work. He gets support from his sister and mother and tries to track down his wife. The kids are also affected by all the turmoil in their lives.
Steve + Sky (2004) - 5/10 - Steve is a small time crook who spent some time in prison. After he gets out, he starts a relationship with Sky, a drifter who has had a number of jobs, including as a prostitute. The actors weren't bad, but the story didn't do much for me.
Super Fly (1972) - 6/10 - A successful drug dealer in New York City decides to make one last big deal and then retire from the life. However, he finds that getting out of the game isn't that easy. The music is very good, but the acting generally isn't.
Madly in Life / Une vie démente (2020) - 8/10 - Alex and Noémie are thinking about having a child, but Alex's mother starts acting strangely and it turns out that she has early onset dementia that is causing this behavior and this throws their lives and plans into disarray. The performances here are pretty good all around. Sometimes these types of films are all sad and weepy, but this one was not and had plenty of humor as the family and caretaker they hire to help deal with the situation.
Taking Off (1971) - 7.5/10 - A teenage girl runs away from home to attend an audition without telling her parents. Her parents then start searching for her and find themselves exposed to a number of things that help them loosen up and start having more fun. There is plenty of humor and I enjoyed the film, but wasn't really wowed by it. This was Miloš Forman's first film in the U.S.
Car Wash (1976) - 7/10 - A day in the life of the people at a car wash in the Los Angeles area. It has a nice soundtrack and was fairly entertaining.
Frenzy (1972) - 7.5/10 - Richard Blaney has a rough week. He loses his job and then is wanted by the police as a serial killer, even though he is innocent. It's a pretty good thriller, though not among Hitchcock's best.
The American Friend (1977) - 8/10 - Dennis Hopper stars as Tom Ripley, an American involved in art forgery in Europe. Bruno Ganz stars as Jonathan Zimmermann, an art dealer with a blood disease. Ripley recommends Zimmermann to an acquaintance as a likely hit man for a job that the acquaintance wants done and things progress from there. It was pretty entertaining.
Emergency! The Wedsworth-Townsend Act (1972) - 7.5/10 - The pilot movie for the tv show is named after the law in California which allowed for paramedic training. The tv show helped popularize the movement. Prior to this, most ambulances and their crews could only transport patients to hospitals and administer basic first aid. My brother was a big fan of this show (and Adam-12 as well). I watched it on occasion during the later seasons, but it wasn't one of my regular shows. I thought the pilot movie was pretty good and I'll go on and watch the first season.
The Rockford Files (1974) - 8/10 - James Garner stars as private investigator Jim Rockford. Rockford is a Korean veteran who served 5 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit before receiving a pardon. He lives in a trailer by the beach. Lindsay Wagner co-stars as Sara Butler, a young woman who hires Rockford to solve her father's murder. The tv movie pilot is pretty entertaining and shows the formula that is used in the regular tv show. Wagner would reprise her role in one episode of the regular season and the actor who played Rockford's father was replace for the tv series by Noah Beery, Jr., definitely a change for the better.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Russian Roulette (Lou Lombardo & Anthony Squire, 1975) 3/10
Suspended Canadian cop (George Segal) is tasked with keeping an eye on a dissident who turns up dead at the hands of the KGB. The cop finds himself surrounded by dead bodies and involved in a plot by the KGB to assassinate a renegade Soviet Premier during his state visit. Convoluted, lifeless Cold War thriller moves at a snail's pace with Segal looking bored throughout. Bit parts by Gordon Jackson, Denholm Elliott and Louise Fletcher (wasted as a switchboard operator here but who inexplicably won an Oscar for the same year's "Cuckoo's Nest"). A stiff Cristina Raines plays the love interest.
House Calls (Howard Zieff, 1978) 7/10
Not exactly a screwball but a warm old fashioned romantic comedy. Recently widowed surgeon (Walter Matthau), trying to make up for lost time by playing ladykiller, meets up with acerbic divorcée (Glenda Jackson) creating sparks. Set in and around an inept hospital run by an addled chief (Art Carney) the comedy soars during the interplay between the two stars but is less successful when the plot focuses on comic vignettes around the surgeon's dates or the addled doctor and his shenanigans. Matthau and Jackson, seemingly with zero chemistry, still manage to show remarkable screen presence through sheer star power. The attempted sex scene with one foot on the ground is laugh-out-loud hilarious and the only moment in the film that veers towards screwball. The screenplay has some witty one liners delivered by the two stars as they parry towards the inevitable relationship involving the lip-lock. The film's premise was revived in a fairly successful three-season tv series with Lynn Redgrave and Wayne Rogers.
Hopscotch (Ronald Neame, 1980) 6/10
Amiable little comedy set in the spy genre. Grounded CIA field agent (Walter Matthau) decides to get back at his vindictive boss (Ned Beatty) by deciding to write a tell-all memoir which discredits not only the agency but the KGB as well. Cat-and-mouse chase film hops across Europe and America as he is pursued by the men in plain clothes. Matthau is in fine form and thankfully does not mug as the wily agent who manages to stay one step ahead of his pursuers. Providing excellent support are Sam Waterston as his friend and colleague, Herbert Lom as his KGB counterpart and Glenda Jackson as his witty former lover.
Riff-Raff (Ted Tetzlaf, 1947) 5/10
Not quite a noir but strictly a B-film with a gruff Pat O'Brien as a seedy investigator. A stolen map, pinpointing unregistered oil wells, has everyone searching for it resulting in assorted dead bodies. The plot also has a femme fatale (Anne Jeffreys) and an oily villain (Walter Slezak). Run-of-the-mill murder adventure is redeemed by O'Brien and a very funny Percy Kilbride as a laconic taxi driver spouting hilarious one-liners.
Duel at Diablo (Ralph Nelson, 1966) 6/10
If nothing else this Western would probably get full marks for diversity today - a cast of white actors hand in-hand with a bunch of native Americans (although their head honcho is played by John Hoyt in brown face), a black character who dresses better than all the scruffy men around and the sole leading lady who is Swedish. The plot, as in most films in the genre, is awfully familiar - just the cast is different. An Army cavalry unit of mostly inexperienced soldiers, under the leadership of their ambitious lieutenant (Bill Travers), have to deliver ammunition and supplies to a Fort. Along for the ride that takes them through Apache territory are a motley group - a scout (James Garner) who is looking for the man who scalped and killed his Indian wife, a dandy horse trainer (Sidney Poitier), a businessman (Dennis Weaver) and his wife (Bibi Andersson) who keeps running away to be with her former Apache lover. The Indians attack, the group is whittled down to a few, run out of drinking water and find themselves boxed in a canyon with no way out. The screenplay tackles issues of race - ill treatment of Indians and non-acceptance of a white woman who was in a relationship with an Indian - which gets buried under all the violence on screen. Old fashioned Western has the added attraction of a black actor in a lead role - who else but Poitier fit the bill during that era - although surprisingly his presence has absolutely no bearing on his race. A stoic Garner and excellent Utah locations are a major plus.
The Plainsman (Cecil B. DeMille, 1936) 7/10
The screenplay touches on the white man's inhumanity towards the Native American - stealing their land, killing buffalo and tricking them into submission. It is presented as a DeMille spectacle with events and real life characters - Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper), Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur), Buffalo Bill (a bland James Ellison) - not exactly conforming to historical timeline. Also in the mix is General Custer and a nasty villain played by Charles Bickford. Cooper and lovely Jean Arthur create sparks - as always she is a lovely presence as the feisty frontierswoman - and there are enough action skirmishes of the Indian kind to make this one of the best Westerns - we shall ignore some of the cringy dialogue thrown at the Indians. Anthony Quinn makes a brief appearance as a Cheyenne Indian in one of his first films. A year later he would graduate to become DeMille's son-in-law which was a hell of a jump in life and career.
97 Minutes (Timo Vuorensola, 2023) 2/10
Low budget, shoddy film about a hijacked Boeing 767 that will crash when its fuel runs out. The screenplay regurgitates every cliché from previous disaster films hilariously making the terrorists from Ukraine - talk about a complete misfire on this front considering how the West is fawning all over the Ukranians against nasty Russians. The plane loses pressure and careens wildly, then the pressure suddenly goes up almost crushing the plane and exploding the brains of the passengers, both pilots die and a young woman, a child and a badly wounded NSA undercover agent (Jonathan Rhys Myers) try to fly and land the plane. To make matters worse there is also a nuclear bomb on the plane which seems to have been an add-on to make the situation more dramatic. Meanwhile back on the ground the NSA director (a hammy Alec Baldwin) gives orders for the plane to be shot down over the ocean so that it does not crash into a city. Hysterical situations are presented in a dull manner with no real tension and lousy effects to boot. Nothing is remotely believable including the ending.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, 2023) 4/10
A biracial Spider-Man from another verse is the main character in this overlong and very noisy episode. Apparently he appeared in the last episode although I have zero recollection. We enter into different verses and encounter countless Spider-Men and Women. The relentless editing was an absolute brain-fuck often causing sea sickness while sitting on a static cinema seat. That old Peter Parker is apparently dead - when did that happen? - and Spider-Woman caused it. Convoluted plot also involves The Spot (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) who is the chief villain here who moves across dimensions with everyone following him. I have no idea what was going on although I must be given credit for not falling asleep. Could be the arresting animation or maybe the incessant noise. Not sure. And now there will be yet another episode as this one ended with a cliffhanger. I really enjoyed the last episode but not this one. Colorful nonsense is putting a whole lotta fanboys and critics into quite a lather.
Les Créatures (Agnès Varda, 1966) 6/10
Varda seems to have been greatly influenced by Alain Resnais' "L'Année dernière à Marienbad" for its dreamlike essence which this film has in spades too. This has Nouvelle Vague weirdness galore as the plot weaves a writer (Michel Piccoli) and his pregnant mute wife (Catherine Deneuve) - the opening scene involves a car crash which caused the woman's (psychological?) disability - into very strange directions. The first half hour is a series of vignettes totally unconnected - what's happening?; why's it happening?; who are these island dwellers? - with the writer encountering jeers, taunts and attacks. As the film progresses one becomes slowly aware that it could all be part of the novel he is writing. The screenplay weaves in robots, a scientist who controls the mind of people via discs (turning the screen red), and a chess game with miniature versions of the village residents. One never knows if we are witnessing reality or just a version of the writer's imagination as he jots down in his book. Deneuve is a lovely if silent presence and even her character is somewhat of a mystery - did she die in the car crash and is she now strictly part of the writer's story? The film has a facinating location - Noirmoutier, an island off mainland France, which is connected by way of a causeway that gets submerged in the Atlantic twice a day at high tide. A film that makes you think - Varda is trying to say that a writer's imagination can get triggered by every thing big or small, via encounters with people or by one's environment. Beautifully shot in stark black and white.
Les amants / The Lovers (Louis Malle, 1958) 9/10
Malle's second film won a special prize at the Venice film festival and caused a huge furor in the United States when charges of obscenity were filed in court against the film and the case went hysterically all the way up to the Supreme Court. Based on the posthumously published 1876 short story "Point de Lendemain" ("No Tomorrow") by Dominique Vivant (1747-1825), the story seems to have been inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1875 novel "Anna Karenina". Malle brings the story into present-day France. Bored but sensual provincial housewife and mother (Jeanne Moreau) finds comfort away from her much older and boring husband (Alain Cuny) in the company of a chic friend (Judith Magre) and in the arms of a dashing polo player (José Luis de Vilallonga) in Paris. When her visits to Paris start getting too frequent her husband demands that she invite both her friends for the weekend. Also invited by her husband is a young archaeologist (Jean-Marc Bory) who just happens to give her a lift when her car breaks down. The dinner party is a disaster with the husband keeping his eye on her. Late at night while wandering in the garden she comes upon the young house guest and the plot takes a surprising turn away from the Tolstoy story. Moreau, accompanied by Brahms on the soundtrack and photographed by Henri Decaë, is a ravishing, sensual sight. The role set the tone for her career with the kind of sexually enlightened, wilful women she got to play on film. The obscenity on view are scenes of a nude Moreau in flagrante delicto. The conventional and rather banal plot tries very hard to make a case for love but the final act is clearly based on lust which, with Moreau's incandescent aura, makes the film soar pretty high.
Suspended Canadian cop (George Segal) is tasked with keeping an eye on a dissident who turns up dead at the hands of the KGB. The cop finds himself surrounded by dead bodies and involved in a plot by the KGB to assassinate a renegade Soviet Premier during his state visit. Convoluted, lifeless Cold War thriller moves at a snail's pace with Segal looking bored throughout. Bit parts by Gordon Jackson, Denholm Elliott and Louise Fletcher (wasted as a switchboard operator here but who inexplicably won an Oscar for the same year's "Cuckoo's Nest"). A stiff Cristina Raines plays the love interest.
House Calls (Howard Zieff, 1978) 7/10
Not exactly a screwball but a warm old fashioned romantic comedy. Recently widowed surgeon (Walter Matthau), trying to make up for lost time by playing ladykiller, meets up with acerbic divorcée (Glenda Jackson) creating sparks. Set in and around an inept hospital run by an addled chief (Art Carney) the comedy soars during the interplay between the two stars but is less successful when the plot focuses on comic vignettes around the surgeon's dates or the addled doctor and his shenanigans. Matthau and Jackson, seemingly with zero chemistry, still manage to show remarkable screen presence through sheer star power. The attempted sex scene with one foot on the ground is laugh-out-loud hilarious and the only moment in the film that veers towards screwball. The screenplay has some witty one liners delivered by the two stars as they parry towards the inevitable relationship involving the lip-lock. The film's premise was revived in a fairly successful three-season tv series with Lynn Redgrave and Wayne Rogers.
Hopscotch (Ronald Neame, 1980) 6/10
Amiable little comedy set in the spy genre. Grounded CIA field agent (Walter Matthau) decides to get back at his vindictive boss (Ned Beatty) by deciding to write a tell-all memoir which discredits not only the agency but the KGB as well. Cat-and-mouse chase film hops across Europe and America as he is pursued by the men in plain clothes. Matthau is in fine form and thankfully does not mug as the wily agent who manages to stay one step ahead of his pursuers. Providing excellent support are Sam Waterston as his friend and colleague, Herbert Lom as his KGB counterpart and Glenda Jackson as his witty former lover.
Riff-Raff (Ted Tetzlaf, 1947) 5/10
Not quite a noir but strictly a B-film with a gruff Pat O'Brien as a seedy investigator. A stolen map, pinpointing unregistered oil wells, has everyone searching for it resulting in assorted dead bodies. The plot also has a femme fatale (Anne Jeffreys) and an oily villain (Walter Slezak). Run-of-the-mill murder adventure is redeemed by O'Brien and a very funny Percy Kilbride as a laconic taxi driver spouting hilarious one-liners.
Duel at Diablo (Ralph Nelson, 1966) 6/10
If nothing else this Western would probably get full marks for diversity today - a cast of white actors hand in-hand with a bunch of native Americans (although their head honcho is played by John Hoyt in brown face), a black character who dresses better than all the scruffy men around and the sole leading lady who is Swedish. The plot, as in most films in the genre, is awfully familiar - just the cast is different. An Army cavalry unit of mostly inexperienced soldiers, under the leadership of their ambitious lieutenant (Bill Travers), have to deliver ammunition and supplies to a Fort. Along for the ride that takes them through Apache territory are a motley group - a scout (James Garner) who is looking for the man who scalped and killed his Indian wife, a dandy horse trainer (Sidney Poitier), a businessman (Dennis Weaver) and his wife (Bibi Andersson) who keeps running away to be with her former Apache lover. The Indians attack, the group is whittled down to a few, run out of drinking water and find themselves boxed in a canyon with no way out. The screenplay tackles issues of race - ill treatment of Indians and non-acceptance of a white woman who was in a relationship with an Indian - which gets buried under all the violence on screen. Old fashioned Western has the added attraction of a black actor in a lead role - who else but Poitier fit the bill during that era - although surprisingly his presence has absolutely no bearing on his race. A stoic Garner and excellent Utah locations are a major plus.
The Plainsman (Cecil B. DeMille, 1936) 7/10
The screenplay touches on the white man's inhumanity towards the Native American - stealing their land, killing buffalo and tricking them into submission. It is presented as a DeMille spectacle with events and real life characters - Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper), Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur), Buffalo Bill (a bland James Ellison) - not exactly conforming to historical timeline. Also in the mix is General Custer and a nasty villain played by Charles Bickford. Cooper and lovely Jean Arthur create sparks - as always she is a lovely presence as the feisty frontierswoman - and there are enough action skirmishes of the Indian kind to make this one of the best Westerns - we shall ignore some of the cringy dialogue thrown at the Indians. Anthony Quinn makes a brief appearance as a Cheyenne Indian in one of his first films. A year later he would graduate to become DeMille's son-in-law which was a hell of a jump in life and career.
97 Minutes (Timo Vuorensola, 2023) 2/10
Low budget, shoddy film about a hijacked Boeing 767 that will crash when its fuel runs out. The screenplay regurgitates every cliché from previous disaster films hilariously making the terrorists from Ukraine - talk about a complete misfire on this front considering how the West is fawning all over the Ukranians against nasty Russians. The plane loses pressure and careens wildly, then the pressure suddenly goes up almost crushing the plane and exploding the brains of the passengers, both pilots die and a young woman, a child and a badly wounded NSA undercover agent (Jonathan Rhys Myers) try to fly and land the plane. To make matters worse there is also a nuclear bomb on the plane which seems to have been an add-on to make the situation more dramatic. Meanwhile back on the ground the NSA director (a hammy Alec Baldwin) gives orders for the plane to be shot down over the ocean so that it does not crash into a city. Hysterical situations are presented in a dull manner with no real tension and lousy effects to boot. Nothing is remotely believable including the ending.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, 2023) 4/10
A biracial Spider-Man from another verse is the main character in this overlong and very noisy episode. Apparently he appeared in the last episode although I have zero recollection. We enter into different verses and encounter countless Spider-Men and Women. The relentless editing was an absolute brain-fuck often causing sea sickness while sitting on a static cinema seat. That old Peter Parker is apparently dead - when did that happen? - and Spider-Woman caused it. Convoluted plot also involves The Spot (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) who is the chief villain here who moves across dimensions with everyone following him. I have no idea what was going on although I must be given credit for not falling asleep. Could be the arresting animation or maybe the incessant noise. Not sure. And now there will be yet another episode as this one ended with a cliffhanger. I really enjoyed the last episode but not this one. Colorful nonsense is putting a whole lotta fanboys and critics into quite a lather.
Les Créatures (Agnès Varda, 1966) 6/10
Varda seems to have been greatly influenced by Alain Resnais' "L'Année dernière à Marienbad" for its dreamlike essence which this film has in spades too. This has Nouvelle Vague weirdness galore as the plot weaves a writer (Michel Piccoli) and his pregnant mute wife (Catherine Deneuve) - the opening scene involves a car crash which caused the woman's (psychological?) disability - into very strange directions. The first half hour is a series of vignettes totally unconnected - what's happening?; why's it happening?; who are these island dwellers? - with the writer encountering jeers, taunts and attacks. As the film progresses one becomes slowly aware that it could all be part of the novel he is writing. The screenplay weaves in robots, a scientist who controls the mind of people via discs (turning the screen red), and a chess game with miniature versions of the village residents. One never knows if we are witnessing reality or just a version of the writer's imagination as he jots down in his book. Deneuve is a lovely if silent presence and even her character is somewhat of a mystery - did she die in the car crash and is she now strictly part of the writer's story? The film has a facinating location - Noirmoutier, an island off mainland France, which is connected by way of a causeway that gets submerged in the Atlantic twice a day at high tide. A film that makes you think - Varda is trying to say that a writer's imagination can get triggered by every thing big or small, via encounters with people or by one's environment. Beautifully shot in stark black and white.
Les amants / The Lovers (Louis Malle, 1958) 9/10
Malle's second film won a special prize at the Venice film festival and caused a huge furor in the United States when charges of obscenity were filed in court against the film and the case went hysterically all the way up to the Supreme Court. Based on the posthumously published 1876 short story "Point de Lendemain" ("No Tomorrow") by Dominique Vivant (1747-1825), the story seems to have been inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1875 novel "Anna Karenina". Malle brings the story into present-day France. Bored but sensual provincial housewife and mother (Jeanne Moreau) finds comfort away from her much older and boring husband (Alain Cuny) in the company of a chic friend (Judith Magre) and in the arms of a dashing polo player (José Luis de Vilallonga) in Paris. When her visits to Paris start getting too frequent her husband demands that she invite both her friends for the weekend. Also invited by her husband is a young archaeologist (Jean-Marc Bory) who just happens to give her a lift when her car breaks down. The dinner party is a disaster with the husband keeping his eye on her. Late at night while wandering in the garden she comes upon the young house guest and the plot takes a surprising turn away from the Tolstoy story. Moreau, accompanied by Brahms on the soundtrack and photographed by Henri Decaë, is a ravishing, sensual sight. The role set the tone for her career with the kind of sexually enlightened, wilful women she got to play on film. The obscenity on view are scenes of a nude Moreau in flagrante delicto. The conventional and rather banal plot tries very hard to make a case for love but the final act is clearly based on lust which, with Moreau's incandescent aura, makes the film soar pretty high.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Sinners in the Sun (Alexander Hall, 1932) 4/10
Virtue (Edward Buzzell, 1932) 7/10
Three Sailors and a Girl (Roy Del Ruth, 1953) 4/10
Star Spangled Rhythm (George Marshall & A. Edward Sutherland, 1942) 3/10
Variety Girl (George Marshall, 1947) 4/10
Show People (King Vidor, 1928) 8/10
Ne le dis à personne / Tell No One (Guillaume Canet, 2006) 7/10
Convoluted thriller is overlong but sharply directed and acted by an all-star cast. A doctor (François Cluzet) suddenly receives an email from his wife (Marie-Josée Croze) eight years after she was brutally murdered. He was the chief suspect in her murder but there was not enough evidence to convict him and it was blamed on a serial killer. When two bodies are found at the lakeside spot where his wife's body was discovered and identified by her father (André Dussollier), the old case is reopened by the police. Then a second murder takes place and the doctor again becomes the main suspect when the gun that killed the second victim is found in his house. He goes on the run and tries to prove his innocence with the help of his sister (Marina Hands), her rich lover (Kristin Scott Thomas) and a lawyer (Nathalie Baye). With the cops closing in on him and not knowing who to trust he desperately seeks help from a local gangster, discovers the role played by a local governor (Jean Rochefort) in implicating him and how his wife figures in the mounting mystery. Cluzet, who won a César award, is superb as the hapless man whose life begins to unravel. Awards also went to director Canet, for the editing and the score, while the film, André Dussollier, the screenplay, cinematography and sound design were all nominated.
Can't Help Singing (Frank Ryan, 1944) 6/10
Durbin in her only Western chases after her lover across the West with the help of a card sharp (Robert Paige). She sings, encounters Indians and finds new love along the way. Charming little film was her only film in colour and was nominated for its score (by Jerome Kern) and song ("More and More"). Akim Tamiroff provides the comic interludes.
Christmas Holiday (Robert Siodmak, 1944) 8/10
Extremely bizarre noir with two rather dubious but fascinating casting choices - Deanna Durbin as a singing prostitute - the star wanted a change of pace in her career but refused to play a floozie so she plays what here is termed as a "lounge singer" - and Gene Kelly as a mother fixated (aka homosexual) pathological murderer. The film has a fantastic pedigree - director Siodmak, a European emigrée known for his dark films, a screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz (who won an Oscar for "Citizen Kane") and based on a book by Somerset Maugham with the original setting changed from Britain to New Orleans. The main plot - good girl (Deanna Durbin) meets and marries a seemingly clean-cut guy (Gene Kelly) who lives with his adoring mother (Gale Sondergaarde) and turns out to be a gambling addict who ends up doffing a bookie and ends up in jail - is a long flashback. Bookending the main plot is a lieutenant (Dean Harens) who, by chance, meets the lounge singer at a brothel run by a snappy but good hearted madame (Gladys George) and discovers the girl's sad life who now tortures herself through guilt by living her new life as a prostitute but still in love with her husband. Absurd beyond belief this film gets full marks for atmosphere courtesy of the moody cinematography by Elwood Bredell (who would be the dp on subsequent Durbin films but made his mark on two fantastic noirs, "Phantom Lady" and "The Killers") with his sweeping tracking and crane shots and the over powering baroque sets (scenes set in a massive cathedral during a Christmas mass, at a concert theatre and the expansive lobbies at a hotel and the brothel). Both stars are very good but the film is stolen by the edgy Sondergaard as the doting mother who harbors her son's secrets. Lurid psychological melodrama which despite a slow start ends up with breathtaking set pieces.
Curtain Up (Ralph Smart, 1952) 7/10
A tatty little provincial theater is the backdrop for a group of actors trying to rehearse a play. The director (Robert Morley) is very critical of the play and decides to cut pages of dialogue which he feels is superflous much to the horror of the play's author (Margaret Rutherford) who unexpectedly arrives and tries to take charge. The two memorable leads, who come with their very distinct and familar acting tics, set the tone for the inevitable clash. Meanwhile the actors all have problems of their own which does not endear them to either the sarcastatic director or the indignant author. Morley and Rutherford, both hilarious institutions, lead a great cast of supporting actors - lovely Kay Kendall as the leading lady with an alcoholic womanizing husband, Michael Medwin as a twit trying to get laughs from the dialogue when there's none in the play, Joan Rice as the ingenue who thinks maybe acting is not for her and Stringer Davis as her father the vicar. Whacky threadbare plot is held quite firmly by the shenanigans of both Morley and Rutherford.
We're Not Dressing (Norman Taurog, 1934) 6/10
Spoiled socialite (Carole Lombard) on a yacht cruise with her pals (brassy Ethel Merman and drunken Leon Errol) and pet bear finds herself shipwrecked on a deserted island. She is pursued by a handsome steward (Ray Milland) but she has eyes only for the "poor" sailor (Bing Crosby) who turns the tables on her when he refuses to serve her and insists she and her rich friends do their own work. Also on the island are a zany scientist couple (George Burns and Gracie Allen) who get to do their own well-honed comic routines before joining up with the rest of the group. A loose adaptation of J.M. Barrie's "The Admirable Crichton" has Crosby singing ten songs while Merman sings two. Lombard is stunningly beautiful in a role she basically repeated two years later in "My Man Godfrey".
Born to be Bad (Lowell Sherman, 1934) 6/10
Pre-Code film has Loretta Young playing an amazing character - a lying, cheating, nasty, immoral, bed-hopping mother who is not above using her young son to get what she wants. She was always a clothes horse on and off the screen but she looks amazing in all the skimpy outfits she gets to parade in here. A stiff and very young Cary Grant is the rich married man who takes custody of her bratty son, gets seduced by her and then gets dumped as mother love finally awakens in her cold heart and she leaves for more sexual adventures knowing her son has a better life with Grant and his wife. Lovely Loretta is the whole show in this often very melodramatic film.
Angel Baby (Paul Wendkos, 1961) 5/10
Biting indictment of religion and in particular of evangelical ministers who use their preaching as a flamboyant stage production often with fake attempts at performing miracles. Naive mute woman (Salomé Jens) is "healed" by a young revivalist (George Hamilton) who then discovers God and is guided by an alcoholic couple (Henry Jones and Joan Blondell) to become a faith healer herself. Urged on by a crooked promoter she "heals" a fake blind man and when she is exposed all hell breaks loose. Adding to all the trauma is an extra marital affair between the preacher and the healer. B-film came on the heels of the award winning Elmer Gantry (1960) with an almost similar plot and with the bizzare casting of Hamilton and Mercedes McCambridge as a married couple - the scene where she begs him to have sex with her while flinging open her gown is one of many campy moments in the film. Burt Reynolds has a vivid small part in his screen debut as a sleazy hick rapist who tries to have his way twice with Salomé Jens. Haskell Wexler beautifully shot this over-the-top and often predictable film.
I'll Be Yours (William A. Seiter, 1947) 7/10
Charming film is based on the play A jó tündér / The Good Fairy by Ferenc Molnár. A small-town girl (Deanna Durbin) tells a fib to a wealthy, dirty-old-man (Adolphe Menjou as suave as ever) who is the head of a huge corporation causing many complications. Durbin, dressed by Travis Banton, sings (operatically "Granada" and three other songs), romances a poor uptight lawyer (Tom Drake), befriends a talkative waiter (William Bendix) and charms just about everyone with her natural joie de vivre and superlative singing voice.
Supernatural (Victor Halpern, 1933) 6/10
Serial killer's ghost enters the body of an heiress (Carole Lombard) and tries to seek revenge on a phony spiritualist who betrayed her. Lombard in slinky gowns and with flashing eyes portrays the possessed woman. Beryl Mercer is a hoot as a tipsy blackmailer while Randolph Scott is a staid suitor. Very unusual subject for its time.
Climbing High (Carol Reed, 1938) 4/10
Slapstick screwball from a British studio. Dizzy model (Jessie Matthews) is pursued by rich man (Michael Redgrave) who pretends to be poor while he in turn is pursued by a golddigger. Frantic loud comedy has Matthews singing and dancing and on the edge of a precipice high up on a snowy mountain at the film's conclusion with a lunatic (Francis L. Sullivan) trying to kill her. Conveniently just round the corner is Redgrave who is being pursued by her angry brother (Torin Thatcher). Silly nonsense.
Sinners' Holiday (John G. Adolfi, 1930) 5/10
A barker (Grant Withers) on Coney Island falls in love with the daughter of a feisty old lady who runs a penny arcade. A bootlegger runs his operation below the old woman's house. When he goes to jail the woman's son (James Cagney) takes over the illegal business, pockets the money and later shoots the bootlegger dead. Pre-code crime drama has Cagney in his film debut along with Joan Blondell who plays his sweetheart. Both actors completely outshine the film's actual leads.
Le président (Henri Verneuil, 1961) 6/10
Retired Prime Minister of France, Emile Beaufort (Jean Gabin), is still much sought after as an advisor and under-the-table powerbroker. When Philippe Chalamont (Bernard Blier) appears to be next in line to become Prime Minister, a series of flashbacks reveal the contentious relationship between the old retired statesman and the power hungry new candidate. Will the old man reveal certain secrets he holds against the young candidate or will he let it pass? Gabin and Blier create sparks in this extremely talkative screenplay making this an extremely slow moving film experience. However, Gabin manages to create this enormous personality with his usual understated performance where through mere flickers of facial expression the actor conveys so much depth. Michel Audiard adapted the Georges Simenon novel who created the title character as an amalgamation of Georges Clemenceau, Jean Jaurès and Charles De Gaule.
Virtue (Edward Buzzell, 1932) 7/10
Three Sailors and a Girl (Roy Del Ruth, 1953) 4/10
Star Spangled Rhythm (George Marshall & A. Edward Sutherland, 1942) 3/10
Variety Girl (George Marshall, 1947) 4/10
Show People (King Vidor, 1928) 8/10
Ne le dis à personne / Tell No One (Guillaume Canet, 2006) 7/10
Convoluted thriller is overlong but sharply directed and acted by an all-star cast. A doctor (François Cluzet) suddenly receives an email from his wife (Marie-Josée Croze) eight years after she was brutally murdered. He was the chief suspect in her murder but there was not enough evidence to convict him and it was blamed on a serial killer. When two bodies are found at the lakeside spot where his wife's body was discovered and identified by her father (André Dussollier), the old case is reopened by the police. Then a second murder takes place and the doctor again becomes the main suspect when the gun that killed the second victim is found in his house. He goes on the run and tries to prove his innocence with the help of his sister (Marina Hands), her rich lover (Kristin Scott Thomas) and a lawyer (Nathalie Baye). With the cops closing in on him and not knowing who to trust he desperately seeks help from a local gangster, discovers the role played by a local governor (Jean Rochefort) in implicating him and how his wife figures in the mounting mystery. Cluzet, who won a César award, is superb as the hapless man whose life begins to unravel. Awards also went to director Canet, for the editing and the score, while the film, André Dussollier, the screenplay, cinematography and sound design were all nominated.
Can't Help Singing (Frank Ryan, 1944) 6/10
Durbin in her only Western chases after her lover across the West with the help of a card sharp (Robert Paige). She sings, encounters Indians and finds new love along the way. Charming little film was her only film in colour and was nominated for its score (by Jerome Kern) and song ("More and More"). Akim Tamiroff provides the comic interludes.
Christmas Holiday (Robert Siodmak, 1944) 8/10
Extremely bizarre noir with two rather dubious but fascinating casting choices - Deanna Durbin as a singing prostitute - the star wanted a change of pace in her career but refused to play a floozie so she plays what here is termed as a "lounge singer" - and Gene Kelly as a mother fixated (aka homosexual) pathological murderer. The film has a fantastic pedigree - director Siodmak, a European emigrée known for his dark films, a screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz (who won an Oscar for "Citizen Kane") and based on a book by Somerset Maugham with the original setting changed from Britain to New Orleans. The main plot - good girl (Deanna Durbin) meets and marries a seemingly clean-cut guy (Gene Kelly) who lives with his adoring mother (Gale Sondergaarde) and turns out to be a gambling addict who ends up doffing a bookie and ends up in jail - is a long flashback. Bookending the main plot is a lieutenant (Dean Harens) who, by chance, meets the lounge singer at a brothel run by a snappy but good hearted madame (Gladys George) and discovers the girl's sad life who now tortures herself through guilt by living her new life as a prostitute but still in love with her husband. Absurd beyond belief this film gets full marks for atmosphere courtesy of the moody cinematography by Elwood Bredell (who would be the dp on subsequent Durbin films but made his mark on two fantastic noirs, "Phantom Lady" and "The Killers") with his sweeping tracking and crane shots and the over powering baroque sets (scenes set in a massive cathedral during a Christmas mass, at a concert theatre and the expansive lobbies at a hotel and the brothel). Both stars are very good but the film is stolen by the edgy Sondergaard as the doting mother who harbors her son's secrets. Lurid psychological melodrama which despite a slow start ends up with breathtaking set pieces.
Curtain Up (Ralph Smart, 1952) 7/10
A tatty little provincial theater is the backdrop for a group of actors trying to rehearse a play. The director (Robert Morley) is very critical of the play and decides to cut pages of dialogue which he feels is superflous much to the horror of the play's author (Margaret Rutherford) who unexpectedly arrives and tries to take charge. The two memorable leads, who come with their very distinct and familar acting tics, set the tone for the inevitable clash. Meanwhile the actors all have problems of their own which does not endear them to either the sarcastatic director or the indignant author. Morley and Rutherford, both hilarious institutions, lead a great cast of supporting actors - lovely Kay Kendall as the leading lady with an alcoholic womanizing husband, Michael Medwin as a twit trying to get laughs from the dialogue when there's none in the play, Joan Rice as the ingenue who thinks maybe acting is not for her and Stringer Davis as her father the vicar. Whacky threadbare plot is held quite firmly by the shenanigans of both Morley and Rutherford.
We're Not Dressing (Norman Taurog, 1934) 6/10
Spoiled socialite (Carole Lombard) on a yacht cruise with her pals (brassy Ethel Merman and drunken Leon Errol) and pet bear finds herself shipwrecked on a deserted island. She is pursued by a handsome steward (Ray Milland) but she has eyes only for the "poor" sailor (Bing Crosby) who turns the tables on her when he refuses to serve her and insists she and her rich friends do their own work. Also on the island are a zany scientist couple (George Burns and Gracie Allen) who get to do their own well-honed comic routines before joining up with the rest of the group. A loose adaptation of J.M. Barrie's "The Admirable Crichton" has Crosby singing ten songs while Merman sings two. Lombard is stunningly beautiful in a role she basically repeated two years later in "My Man Godfrey".
Born to be Bad (Lowell Sherman, 1934) 6/10
Pre-Code film has Loretta Young playing an amazing character - a lying, cheating, nasty, immoral, bed-hopping mother who is not above using her young son to get what she wants. She was always a clothes horse on and off the screen but she looks amazing in all the skimpy outfits she gets to parade in here. A stiff and very young Cary Grant is the rich married man who takes custody of her bratty son, gets seduced by her and then gets dumped as mother love finally awakens in her cold heart and she leaves for more sexual adventures knowing her son has a better life with Grant and his wife. Lovely Loretta is the whole show in this often very melodramatic film.
Angel Baby (Paul Wendkos, 1961) 5/10
Biting indictment of religion and in particular of evangelical ministers who use their preaching as a flamboyant stage production often with fake attempts at performing miracles. Naive mute woman (Salomé Jens) is "healed" by a young revivalist (George Hamilton) who then discovers God and is guided by an alcoholic couple (Henry Jones and Joan Blondell) to become a faith healer herself. Urged on by a crooked promoter she "heals" a fake blind man and when she is exposed all hell breaks loose. Adding to all the trauma is an extra marital affair between the preacher and the healer. B-film came on the heels of the award winning Elmer Gantry (1960) with an almost similar plot and with the bizzare casting of Hamilton and Mercedes McCambridge as a married couple - the scene where she begs him to have sex with her while flinging open her gown is one of many campy moments in the film. Burt Reynolds has a vivid small part in his screen debut as a sleazy hick rapist who tries to have his way twice with Salomé Jens. Haskell Wexler beautifully shot this over-the-top and often predictable film.
I'll Be Yours (William A. Seiter, 1947) 7/10
Charming film is based on the play A jó tündér / The Good Fairy by Ferenc Molnár. A small-town girl (Deanna Durbin) tells a fib to a wealthy, dirty-old-man (Adolphe Menjou as suave as ever) who is the head of a huge corporation causing many complications. Durbin, dressed by Travis Banton, sings (operatically "Granada" and three other songs), romances a poor uptight lawyer (Tom Drake), befriends a talkative waiter (William Bendix) and charms just about everyone with her natural joie de vivre and superlative singing voice.
Supernatural (Victor Halpern, 1933) 6/10
Serial killer's ghost enters the body of an heiress (Carole Lombard) and tries to seek revenge on a phony spiritualist who betrayed her. Lombard in slinky gowns and with flashing eyes portrays the possessed woman. Beryl Mercer is a hoot as a tipsy blackmailer while Randolph Scott is a staid suitor. Very unusual subject for its time.
Climbing High (Carol Reed, 1938) 4/10
Slapstick screwball from a British studio. Dizzy model (Jessie Matthews) is pursued by rich man (Michael Redgrave) who pretends to be poor while he in turn is pursued by a golddigger. Frantic loud comedy has Matthews singing and dancing and on the edge of a precipice high up on a snowy mountain at the film's conclusion with a lunatic (Francis L. Sullivan) trying to kill her. Conveniently just round the corner is Redgrave who is being pursued by her angry brother (Torin Thatcher). Silly nonsense.
Sinners' Holiday (John G. Adolfi, 1930) 5/10
A barker (Grant Withers) on Coney Island falls in love with the daughter of a feisty old lady who runs a penny arcade. A bootlegger runs his operation below the old woman's house. When he goes to jail the woman's son (James Cagney) takes over the illegal business, pockets the money and later shoots the bootlegger dead. Pre-code crime drama has Cagney in his film debut along with Joan Blondell who plays his sweetheart. Both actors completely outshine the film's actual leads.
Le président (Henri Verneuil, 1961) 6/10
Retired Prime Minister of France, Emile Beaufort (Jean Gabin), is still much sought after as an advisor and under-the-table powerbroker. When Philippe Chalamont (Bernard Blier) appears to be next in line to become Prime Minister, a series of flashbacks reveal the contentious relationship between the old retired statesman and the power hungry new candidate. Will the old man reveal certain secrets he holds against the young candidate or will he let it pass? Gabin and Blier create sparks in this extremely talkative screenplay making this an extremely slow moving film experience. However, Gabin manages to create this enormous personality with his usual understated performance where through mere flickers of facial expression the actor conveys so much depth. Michel Audiard adapted the Georges Simenon novel who created the title character as an amalgamation of Georges Clemenceau, Jean Jaurès and Charles De Gaule.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Bollywood remake of A Star is Borngunnar wrote: ↑Wed Jun 07, 2023 10:42 amAbhimaan (1973) - 8/10 - A popular singer falls in love after meeting a talented young woman who also sings, though only for herself. They get married and he pushes her to sing with him. However, she becomes more popular than him and he becomes jealous and starts pushing her away. I thought this was very well acted throughout.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Air (2023) - 8/10 - The story of how Nike signed Michael Jordan and created the Air Jordan line which became a huge success. Before that, Nike was known for running shoes, but had no real impact in the basketball market. It was a pretty good story and Matt Damon did a nice job as well as the rest of the cast.
Death Wish (1974) - 7/10 - Charles Bronson stars as an architect who was a conscientious objector during the Korean War, but served as a combat medic. When his wife and daughter are attacked in his apartment, it leads to his transformation into a vigilante who roams the streets looking for muggers. There certainly do seem to be quite a few of them in NYC. I think that I watched this back in the 1980s, but didn't remember much about it. It wasn't too bad and was certainly much less cartoonish than the sequel I watched earlier in the year.
The Railway Children (1970) - 7.5/10 - A somewhat wealthy family's life is disrupted early in the 20th Century when the father is taken into custody the day after Christmas. The wife and three children are eventually forced to move to a home in the country due to their impoverished financial condition. The three children have a series of small adventures centered around the local train station. It's a fairly wholesome and entertaining family film. Jenny Agutter plays the oldest daughter, reprising her role from an earlier BBC adaptation. She played the mother in another adaptation 30 years later. It was a bit funny that the younger daughter was actually three years older than Agutter.
Fanfare (1958) - 8/10 - A rivalry between two men causes the band in a small town to break into two parts. There is a lot of back and forth with stealing instruments and banners as each band wants to be the one to represent the town in an upcoming contest. I thought it was fun.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) - 7/10 - Vincent Price stars as a famous organist who is thought to have died in a car accident that left him disfigured and injured. He was on his way to his wife's side, but she died. Now he seeks revenge against those he holds responsible for her death. It's not bad and there are some interesting parts plus it is kind of stylish.
The Beast (1975) - 4/10 - A weird film about people who obsessed with sex and erotica. One woman can't stop trying to have sex with one of the servants. There is also a beast in the forest that apparently enjoys sex as well.
Moscow-Cassiopeia (1974) - 6/10 - A genius teenager creates a nuclear engine that can propel a spaceship to nearby stars. A mission is set up to send a group of teens on a mission to explore radio signals from Alpha Cassiopeia. The mission is supposed to take 27 years to get there. I thought the film looked interesting and I was expecting to enjoy it, but the humor didn't really work for me and I found much of it to be kind of boring. There were some neat things once they finally got on board the spaceship, but the film was a bit disappointing.
Teens in the Universe (1975) - 7/10 - This film continues the story from where Moscow-Cassiopeia left off. I enjoyed it more than the first film. The teens arrive at their destination and find humanoid robots there. Unfortunately, the goal of the robots is to make people 'happy' by removing a number of emotions.
Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979) - 5.5/10 - Betrayed on his wedding night, a man sees most of his family and friends slaughtered. He recruits fighters to help him get revenge. There are some semi-decent fight sequences, but the story itself is kind of a slog.
Hotel Monterey (1973) - 3/10 - Chantal Akerman treats us to a silent tour of a dingy hotel in New York with plenty of shots of hallways, the elevator, a room or two, etc. It is very tedious. The last 10 minutes are better as the camera moves to the roof and we get a view of the surrounding part of the city.
Humain, trop humain (1974) - 7/10 - The film's opening segment takes place at an automotive factory and looks at various aspects of the assembly without narration. The next segment lasts around 15 minutes and takes place at an auto show. The final segment last 40 minutes and returns to the automotive factory. I enjoyed the film, but think it would have been better to combine the two factory sections and condense it a bit, leaving the auto show segment for the end, though I see what Malle was going for with the end bringing things full circle. I started getting a bit bored with the factory segment toward the end.
Fertile Memory (1980) - 8/10 - This was looks at the lives of two Palestinian women and their struggles. One woman is older and struggled to raise her children in poverty after the Israelis took their farmland over 30 years earlier. The other woman is younger and wants to be independent and free, but faces a number of challenges herself. It's an interesting film and like a poem in some ways.
...ere erera baleibu izik subua aruaren... (1970) - An experimental film that reminded me a bit of Brakhage, but I thought it was more interesting than his works. Still, at over 70 minutes, it was too long.
My Way Home (1978) - 6.5/10 - I didn't think this was as interesting as the first two installments in the Bill Douglas trilogy, but it was okay. Jamie goes to live with his father and paternal grandmother, but finds life difficult there. He later ends up in the army and is sent to Egypt.
Abhimaan (1973) - 8/10 - A popular singer falls in love after meeting a talented young woman who also sings, though only for herself. They get married and he pushes her to sing with him. However, she becomes more popular than him and he becomes jealous and starts pushing her away. I thought this was very well acted throughout.
Duvidha (1973) - 4/10 - A merchant's son is sent away to make his fortune, leaving behind his new bride. A ghost sees an opportunity and takes the young man's form while he is away. When the young man returns, the people in town and even his family think that he is an imposter. It seems like an interesting premise, but it is very slow and kind of lifeless. I didn't really enjoy this at all.
Our Daily Bread / Uski Roti (1970) - 4.5/10 - A woman travels a long distance every day to bring her truck driver husband a meal, but one day she is late and he is not happy with her. This is another movie that is very slow and lifeless. It's slightly better than Duvidha, but is still kind of a waste.
In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni (1978) - 4/10 - This was like attending a 90 minute lecture from somebody who clearly thinks that he is better than you and knows more than you do , complete with accompanying film clips and slides. Some of the images and film clips were pretty interesting, much more than the accompanying narration.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) - 9/10 - I liked Totoro when I watched it 30+ years ago on vhs, but I liked it even more now. The English voice cast did a great job and the movie is very nicely done.
Tokyo Twilight (1957) - 8/10 - A middle aged banker (Chishu Ryu) lives with his two adult daughters. Takako is separated from her husband and has a young daughter herself. Akiko dropped out of college to take English shorthand, is a bit wild, and has a problem with her boyfriend. Things get complicated when the mother who abandoned them 20 years earlier suddenly comes back into their lives. It's a pretty good film.
Late Autumn (1960) - 8.5/10 - Akiko (Setsuko Hara) is a widow who meets with three of her late husband's school friends on the anniversary of his death. Akiko lives at home with her adult daughter, Akiko (Yoko Tsukasa) and the two have a nice relationship. The three men decide to interfere and start trying to play matchmaker and get Ayako married off. However, things don't go as planned since Ayako has no interest in marrying and this eventually leads to a misunderstanding that causes some problems. This is a good film which I enjoyed and my favorite character was Ayako's friend Yuriko (Mariko Okada).
Death Wish (1974) - 7/10 - Charles Bronson stars as an architect who was a conscientious objector during the Korean War, but served as a combat medic. When his wife and daughter are attacked in his apartment, it leads to his transformation into a vigilante who roams the streets looking for muggers. There certainly do seem to be quite a few of them in NYC. I think that I watched this back in the 1980s, but didn't remember much about it. It wasn't too bad and was certainly much less cartoonish than the sequel I watched earlier in the year.
The Railway Children (1970) - 7.5/10 - A somewhat wealthy family's life is disrupted early in the 20th Century when the father is taken into custody the day after Christmas. The wife and three children are eventually forced to move to a home in the country due to their impoverished financial condition. The three children have a series of small adventures centered around the local train station. It's a fairly wholesome and entertaining family film. Jenny Agutter plays the oldest daughter, reprising her role from an earlier BBC adaptation. She played the mother in another adaptation 30 years later. It was a bit funny that the younger daughter was actually three years older than Agutter.
Fanfare (1958) - 8/10 - A rivalry between two men causes the band in a small town to break into two parts. There is a lot of back and forth with stealing instruments and banners as each band wants to be the one to represent the town in an upcoming contest. I thought it was fun.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) - 7/10 - Vincent Price stars as a famous organist who is thought to have died in a car accident that left him disfigured and injured. He was on his way to his wife's side, but she died. Now he seeks revenge against those he holds responsible for her death. It's not bad and there are some interesting parts plus it is kind of stylish.
The Beast (1975) - 4/10 - A weird film about people who obsessed with sex and erotica. One woman can't stop trying to have sex with one of the servants. There is also a beast in the forest that apparently enjoys sex as well.
Moscow-Cassiopeia (1974) - 6/10 - A genius teenager creates a nuclear engine that can propel a spaceship to nearby stars. A mission is set up to send a group of teens on a mission to explore radio signals from Alpha Cassiopeia. The mission is supposed to take 27 years to get there. I thought the film looked interesting and I was expecting to enjoy it, but the humor didn't really work for me and I found much of it to be kind of boring. There were some neat things once they finally got on board the spaceship, but the film was a bit disappointing.
Teens in the Universe (1975) - 7/10 - This film continues the story from where Moscow-Cassiopeia left off. I enjoyed it more than the first film. The teens arrive at their destination and find humanoid robots there. Unfortunately, the goal of the robots is to make people 'happy' by removing a number of emotions.
Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979) - 5.5/10 - Betrayed on his wedding night, a man sees most of his family and friends slaughtered. He recruits fighters to help him get revenge. There are some semi-decent fight sequences, but the story itself is kind of a slog.
Hotel Monterey (1973) - 3/10 - Chantal Akerman treats us to a silent tour of a dingy hotel in New York with plenty of shots of hallways, the elevator, a room or two, etc. It is very tedious. The last 10 minutes are better as the camera moves to the roof and we get a view of the surrounding part of the city.
Humain, trop humain (1974) - 7/10 - The film's opening segment takes place at an automotive factory and looks at various aspects of the assembly without narration. The next segment lasts around 15 minutes and takes place at an auto show. The final segment last 40 minutes and returns to the automotive factory. I enjoyed the film, but think it would have been better to combine the two factory sections and condense it a bit, leaving the auto show segment for the end, though I see what Malle was going for with the end bringing things full circle. I started getting a bit bored with the factory segment toward the end.
Fertile Memory (1980) - 8/10 - This was looks at the lives of two Palestinian women and their struggles. One woman is older and struggled to raise her children in poverty after the Israelis took their farmland over 30 years earlier. The other woman is younger and wants to be independent and free, but faces a number of challenges herself. It's an interesting film and like a poem in some ways.
...ere erera baleibu izik subua aruaren... (1970) - An experimental film that reminded me a bit of Brakhage, but I thought it was more interesting than his works. Still, at over 70 minutes, it was too long.
My Way Home (1978) - 6.5/10 - I didn't think this was as interesting as the first two installments in the Bill Douglas trilogy, but it was okay. Jamie goes to live with his father and paternal grandmother, but finds life difficult there. He later ends up in the army and is sent to Egypt.
Abhimaan (1973) - 8/10 - A popular singer falls in love after meeting a talented young woman who also sings, though only for herself. They get married and he pushes her to sing with him. However, she becomes more popular than him and he becomes jealous and starts pushing her away. I thought this was very well acted throughout.
Duvidha (1973) - 4/10 - A merchant's son is sent away to make his fortune, leaving behind his new bride. A ghost sees an opportunity and takes the young man's form while he is away. When the young man returns, the people in town and even his family think that he is an imposter. It seems like an interesting premise, but it is very slow and kind of lifeless. I didn't really enjoy this at all.
Our Daily Bread / Uski Roti (1970) - 4.5/10 - A woman travels a long distance every day to bring her truck driver husband a meal, but one day she is late and he is not happy with her. This is another movie that is very slow and lifeless. It's slightly better than Duvidha, but is still kind of a waste.
In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni (1978) - 4/10 - This was like attending a 90 minute lecture from somebody who clearly thinks that he is better than you and knows more than you do , complete with accompanying film clips and slides. Some of the images and film clips were pretty interesting, much more than the accompanying narration.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) - 9/10 - I liked Totoro when I watched it 30+ years ago on vhs, but I liked it even more now. The English voice cast did a great job and the movie is very nicely done.
Tokyo Twilight (1957) - 8/10 - A middle aged banker (Chishu Ryu) lives with his two adult daughters. Takako is separated from her husband and has a young daughter herself. Akiko dropped out of college to take English shorthand, is a bit wild, and has a problem with her boyfriend. Things get complicated when the mother who abandoned them 20 years earlier suddenly comes back into their lives. It's a pretty good film.
Late Autumn (1960) - 8.5/10 - Akiko (Setsuko Hara) is a widow who meets with three of her late husband's school friends on the anniversary of his death. Akiko lives at home with her adult daughter, Akiko (Yoko Tsukasa) and the two have a nice relationship. The three men decide to interfere and start trying to play matchmaker and get Ayako married off. However, things don't go as planned since Ayako has no interest in marrying and this eventually leads to a misunderstanding that causes some problems. This is a good film which I enjoyed and my favorite character was Ayako's friend Yuriko (Mariko Okada).
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Fast X (Louis Leterrier, 2023) 6/10
Dom (Vin Diesel) protects his family from someone in his past - the opening set piece set in Rio is a flashback with the late Paul Walker and involves the death of a drug lord whose deranged son (Jason Momoa camping it up) is out for revenge. The whole gang is here once again involved in a convoluted series of action set pieces and as always with the screenplay taking a backseat - in reality nothing would make sense as all the set pieces defy logic, physics, chemistry, biology and every other science known to man. Just sit back and enjoy the car crashes, the cartoonish violence, the cool banter, the exotic locations (Rome, Naples, Rio, Lisbon), the star studded cameos (Dame Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron, Rita Moreno, Jason Statham, Brie Larson, Scott Eastwood, Michael Rooker, Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson), and the unbelievably outrageous stunts. The film ends on a cliffhanger which conveniently heralds the next installment.
Chocolat (Claire Denis, 1988) 7/10
A coming-of-age memory piece with layers of underlying tension between white colonial rulers and the local population who both existed together but with very distinct and strict boundaries as master and servant. A tourist recalls her childhood as the daughter of the Governor (François Cluzet) in French Cameroon in 1957 during the waning years of French rule. The lazy afternoons, time spent with the brooding African houseboy and his sexual tension with her bored mother, while white visitors intrude into the sacred calm space causing disruption in the status quo. Superbly photographed film moves at a slow pace with the camera catching both master and servant in a way that does not hammer in the message of race, religion and the power of the elements, but does so in a very dignified way through subtle changes of facial expression that flicker and express conflict.
Mères et filles / Hidden Diary (Julie Lopes-Curval, 2009) 7/10
The film explores a dysfunctional family linking the festering problem to three generations of women. A doctor (Catherine Deneuve) shows extreme discomfort in the presence of her visiting daughter (Marina Hinds) and refuses to disguise her blunt, prickly and overly critical nature. When the daughter moves into the abandoned beach house of her late grandfather she discovers a hidden diary belonging to her grandmother (Marie-Josee Croze. The vivacious woman wanted more from life during the rigidly conformist 1950s and was constantly judged and her desires supressed by her controlling husband. One day she just walks out leaving behind for good her husband, daughter and son. The daughter grows up with abandonment issues never forgiving the mother who ran out on her. In turn she channels that suppressed hurt and anger onto her own daughter. The flashback sequences showing the grandmother are superbly shot with wonderful production and costume design but the interplay between her and the granddaughter with the past meeting the present does not ring true. What resonates strongly is the combative interplay between the marvelous Deneuve and Hands, with the former invoking disdain and displeasure through subtle flickers of expression which pass across her face. The woman clearly doesn't suffer fools. Or a loving and desperate daughter longing for her mother's love.
The Bedford Incident (James B. Harris, 1965) 6/10
Cold War shenanigans tap into the United States' paranoid obsession with communism which in turn got Hollywood to go into overdrive with production of films on the subject. This film was based on an actual incident although the plot here takes liberties and goes off full throttle. A United States Navy destroyer is sailing in the Greenland, Iceland, and United Kingdom gap. The gung ho Captain (Richard Widmark) has shades of Captain Ahab in Herman Melville's "Moby Dick", and instead of chasing a whale he goes after a Russian submarine playing a cat-and-mouse game much to the concern of the senior crew and passengers - a German Navy NATO naval advisor (Eric Portman), the ship's doctor (Martin Balsam), a civilian photojournalist (Sidney Poitier), and an inexperienced young officer (James Macarthur). The cast is completely overshadowed by Widmark in full-on psychotic mode. Poitier is completely wasted in an underwritten role - shocking considering he had recently won an Oscar - and appears to have taken on the part as a favour to old friend Widmark who was also the film's producer.
Book Club: The Next Chapter (Bill Holderman, 2023) 6/10
Sequel to the flimsy, paper-thin orginal has the four besties - retired judge (Candice Bergen), happy housewife (Mary Steenburgen), former widow (Diane Keaton) now in a relationship (with Andy Garcia), and newly engaged (to Don Johnson) sexpot (Jane Fonda) - decide to go on a long-planned bachelorette trip to Italy. The idea is always good when the plot of a movie involves a trip to Italy. Hollywood periodically delves into that genre - Roman Holiday (1953), 3 Coins in the Fountain (1954), Summertime (1955), Rome Adventure (1962), Light in the Piazza (1962), Gidget Goes to Rome (1963), Eat Pray Love (2010) - films of varying degrees of success but all celebrating the wonders of Italy. This latest travelogue takes the "girls" to Rome, Venice and the Tuscan countryside where they end up hitchhiking and getting into trouble with a local cop (Giancarlo Giannini). The film ends with a destination wedding - but with a twist - as the entire cast assembles for the finalé. Its still paper thin but the cast makes it a delightful ride.
Random Hearts (Sydney Pollack, 1999) 4/10
Pollack goes the romance route once more but unfortunately this time with dismal results. One fails to buy into the eventual relationship between the two main protagonists. A cop (Harrison Ford) loses his wife in a plane crash. Similarly a congresswoman (Kristin Scott Thomas) loses her husband in that same crash. The deceased were having an affair which comes as a terrible shock to their unsuspecting spouses. While he becomes obsessed by trying to find out every detail about the affair she wants to forget and move on with her life. Eventually the two come together while she is in the midst of her political campaign and he is investigating a murder. These two coming together seems highly improbable in reality except the author - the film is based on the novel by William Adler - cooks up an attraction between them that comes off very forced on screen. The moment where the two slap, grapple, grope and kiss each other comes off comical instead of passionate. Also the two actors have zero chemistry which is another problem that makes their love scenes together a total drag. And on top of all this the film just goes on and on but moving at a snail's pace.
Dom (Vin Diesel) protects his family from someone in his past - the opening set piece set in Rio is a flashback with the late Paul Walker and involves the death of a drug lord whose deranged son (Jason Momoa camping it up) is out for revenge. The whole gang is here once again involved in a convoluted series of action set pieces and as always with the screenplay taking a backseat - in reality nothing would make sense as all the set pieces defy logic, physics, chemistry, biology and every other science known to man. Just sit back and enjoy the car crashes, the cartoonish violence, the cool banter, the exotic locations (Rome, Naples, Rio, Lisbon), the star studded cameos (Dame Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron, Rita Moreno, Jason Statham, Brie Larson, Scott Eastwood, Michael Rooker, Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson), and the unbelievably outrageous stunts. The film ends on a cliffhanger which conveniently heralds the next installment.
Chocolat (Claire Denis, 1988) 7/10
A coming-of-age memory piece with layers of underlying tension between white colonial rulers and the local population who both existed together but with very distinct and strict boundaries as master and servant. A tourist recalls her childhood as the daughter of the Governor (François Cluzet) in French Cameroon in 1957 during the waning years of French rule. The lazy afternoons, time spent with the brooding African houseboy and his sexual tension with her bored mother, while white visitors intrude into the sacred calm space causing disruption in the status quo. Superbly photographed film moves at a slow pace with the camera catching both master and servant in a way that does not hammer in the message of race, religion and the power of the elements, but does so in a very dignified way through subtle changes of facial expression that flicker and express conflict.
Mères et filles / Hidden Diary (Julie Lopes-Curval, 2009) 7/10
The film explores a dysfunctional family linking the festering problem to three generations of women. A doctor (Catherine Deneuve) shows extreme discomfort in the presence of her visiting daughter (Marina Hinds) and refuses to disguise her blunt, prickly and overly critical nature. When the daughter moves into the abandoned beach house of her late grandfather she discovers a hidden diary belonging to her grandmother (Marie-Josee Croze. The vivacious woman wanted more from life during the rigidly conformist 1950s and was constantly judged and her desires supressed by her controlling husband. One day she just walks out leaving behind for good her husband, daughter and son. The daughter grows up with abandonment issues never forgiving the mother who ran out on her. In turn she channels that suppressed hurt and anger onto her own daughter. The flashback sequences showing the grandmother are superbly shot with wonderful production and costume design but the interplay between her and the granddaughter with the past meeting the present does not ring true. What resonates strongly is the combative interplay between the marvelous Deneuve and Hands, with the former invoking disdain and displeasure through subtle flickers of expression which pass across her face. The woman clearly doesn't suffer fools. Or a loving and desperate daughter longing for her mother's love.
The Bedford Incident (James B. Harris, 1965) 6/10
Cold War shenanigans tap into the United States' paranoid obsession with communism which in turn got Hollywood to go into overdrive with production of films on the subject. This film was based on an actual incident although the plot here takes liberties and goes off full throttle. A United States Navy destroyer is sailing in the Greenland, Iceland, and United Kingdom gap. The gung ho Captain (Richard Widmark) has shades of Captain Ahab in Herman Melville's "Moby Dick", and instead of chasing a whale he goes after a Russian submarine playing a cat-and-mouse game much to the concern of the senior crew and passengers - a German Navy NATO naval advisor (Eric Portman), the ship's doctor (Martin Balsam), a civilian photojournalist (Sidney Poitier), and an inexperienced young officer (James Macarthur). The cast is completely overshadowed by Widmark in full-on psychotic mode. Poitier is completely wasted in an underwritten role - shocking considering he had recently won an Oscar - and appears to have taken on the part as a favour to old friend Widmark who was also the film's producer.
Book Club: The Next Chapter (Bill Holderman, 2023) 6/10
Sequel to the flimsy, paper-thin orginal has the four besties - retired judge (Candice Bergen), happy housewife (Mary Steenburgen), former widow (Diane Keaton) now in a relationship (with Andy Garcia), and newly engaged (to Don Johnson) sexpot (Jane Fonda) - decide to go on a long-planned bachelorette trip to Italy. The idea is always good when the plot of a movie involves a trip to Italy. Hollywood periodically delves into that genre - Roman Holiday (1953), 3 Coins in the Fountain (1954), Summertime (1955), Rome Adventure (1962), Light in the Piazza (1962), Gidget Goes to Rome (1963), Eat Pray Love (2010) - films of varying degrees of success but all celebrating the wonders of Italy. This latest travelogue takes the "girls" to Rome, Venice and the Tuscan countryside where they end up hitchhiking and getting into trouble with a local cop (Giancarlo Giannini). The film ends with a destination wedding - but with a twist - as the entire cast assembles for the finalé. Its still paper thin but the cast makes it a delightful ride.
Random Hearts (Sydney Pollack, 1999) 4/10
Pollack goes the romance route once more but unfortunately this time with dismal results. One fails to buy into the eventual relationship between the two main protagonists. A cop (Harrison Ford) loses his wife in a plane crash. Similarly a congresswoman (Kristin Scott Thomas) loses her husband in that same crash. The deceased were having an affair which comes as a terrible shock to their unsuspecting spouses. While he becomes obsessed by trying to find out every detail about the affair she wants to forget and move on with her life. Eventually the two come together while she is in the midst of her political campaign and he is investigating a murder. These two coming together seems highly improbable in reality except the author - the film is based on the novel by William Adler - cooks up an attraction between them that comes off very forced on screen. The moment where the two slap, grapple, grope and kiss each other comes off comical instead of passionate. Also the two actors have zero chemistry which is another problem that makes their love scenes together a total drag. And on top of all this the film just goes on and on but moving at a snail's pace.