Movie-Viewing Experiences 22/9/17 - 28/9/17
A+ = Adored Masterwork A = Excellent A- = Very Good B+ = Good B = Nice Try B- = Tolerable
C = Seriously Flawed D = Pretty Awful E = Truly Dreadful: Looking Into the Void F = Vile & Repugnant: The Void
ZERO DARK THIRTY (2012)
A SECOND VIEWING
d: Kathryn Bigelow
CAST: Jessica Chastain; Jason Clarke; Jennifer Ehle; Mark Strong; Kyle Chandler; Chris Evans
> a docudrama about the hunt for, and killing of, Bin Laden; this film achieves the unachievable...it remains suspenseful for 157 minutes (I had to pause it halfway, not only due to a bladder call, but also because I needed a breather); basically a police procedural on a huge scale, this never sags down into flag-waving, Rambo-theatrics or mere action-movie excitement...these people have difficult jobs to do with impossible choices to make (and doubtful morality: torture is used and is appropriately hideous & vile); the temptation to use handheld camera has been largely kept in check (and when it is used, it is steadier than usual), so you observe the goings-on in visual comfort rather than being jostled about (exception: the raid on Bin Laden's stronghold); a perfectly constructed movie about a neverending war
RAW DEAL (1948)
A- FIRST VIEWING
d: Anthony Mann
CAST: Dennis O'Keefe; Claire Trevor; Marsha Hunt; Raymond Burr; John Ireland
> ultra-gritty film noir that for once deserves the label of "Overlooked Gem"; Dennis is the escaped convict who is torn between two lovers: one who loves him for the man he is, and the other who loves him for the man he could've been; as all three try to get free of the law (and pay back an old partner), the dynamic between them alters constantly, with conscience and loyalty interfering with "the smart thing to do"; the commendable acting by all and the atmospheric cinematography (some of the best I've seen in noir...more than just moody shadows & venetian blinds) overpower the film's low-budget taint; Director Anthony shows why he became a big name in the 50's...and makes you wish he hadn't spent so much time diddling around with Westerns (which admittedly were pretty good...but not like this)
BLOOD ON THE MOON (1948)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Robert Wise
CAST: Robert Mitchum; Barbara Bel Geddes; Robert Preston; Walter Brennan; Phyllis Thaxter
> critics have made claims that this is a "psychological Western with noirish elements" but I musta missed all that...I just thought it was a pretty good cowboy movie; gunman is hired to help homesteaders keep a cattleman's cows off their farming land...but things aren't quite as they seem...; most interesting feature of the film is how four characters change allegiance during the story, but only one of them is spurred to do so by conscience (the others do it for greed, revenge & lust); some striking Ansel Adams style landscape shots in handsome B&W add class; highlights are the two fights: #1 is no-mercy fisticuffs in a bar + #2 is a forest shoot-out in full moonlight (hence the title, I guess)...both battles are brutal and shrouded in shadow to add tension; solid acting by all (esp. Bob Mitchum) and Walter keeps his teeth in
TUMBLEWEEDS (1999)
B+ SECOND VIEWING
d: Gavin O'Connor
CAST: Janet McTeer; Kimberly J. Brown; Jay O. Sanders; Gavin O'Connor
> enjoyable little story about mother & daughter who would like to settle down into a stable, regular family life, but Mum keeps meeting the wrong fella; nothing at all startling in this film (you can easily tell where it's heading and how it's going to end) but the impressive partnership chemistry between the two lead actresses raises it above humdrum predictability...while they look nothing alike, they do come across as parent & child; the supporting players do a uniformly good job, adding little character quirks for colour (and it's great to see Michael J. Pollard and Lois Smith again); Movie Quote for the Ages: "This is way better than a coffee enema!"
Award-Worthy Performances
Janet McTeer & Kimberly J. Brown
MR & MRS SMITH (1941)
B SECOND VIEWING
d: Alfred Hitchcock
CAST: Carole Lombard; Robert Montgomery; Gene Raymond; Jack Carson
> Alfred the Great tries his hand at a screwball comedy and comes up with something light, pleasant and fairly forgettable; it's the old "married-couple-find-out-they're-not-really-married" plot line, jazzed up with a "now-I-don't-want-you-but-I-really-do" routine; Carole & Robert were the essence of old Hollywood starpower and are a delight together (they make it all look very sophisticated & plausible and add oomph to a borderline bland script)...with Robert displaying a knack for physical comedy (his attempt to give himself a blood nose is a riot!) which I don't recall him using before; I bet Hitch didn't approve of the all-too-jolly music, and his direction is competent (with a couple of camera flourishes) but hardly inspirational; not as funny as The Lady Vanishes or North By Northwest but it'll do
BACK STREET (1932)
B FIRST VIEWING
d: John M. Stahl
CAST: Irene Dunne; John Boles; George Meeker; Zasu Pitts; Jane Darwell
> surprisingly unsavoury (for its time) but still fairly effective melodrama about a nice girl who agrees to become a rich guy's secret mistress...because she really really loves him and he really really loves her; impossible to take this completely seriously from a 2017 perspective, but wearing 1932 goggles, I guess it is quite moving in a the-heart-wants-what-the-heart-wants kinda way (although I still found the woman irritatingly pathetic); beautifully acted by Irene... you can pick up aspects of her character which she later used in The Awful Truth and Penny Serenade; the deathbed / open phone scene gave me an unexpected lump in my throat
Award-Worthy Performance
Irene Dunne
DIE ANOTHER DAY (2002)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: Lee Tamahori
CAST: Pierce Brosnan; Halle Berry; Toby Stephens; Rosamund Pike; Judi Dench; John Cleese
> James Bond #20 and Pierce's last (I always considered him to be a compromise between Sean and Roger...I liked him...machismo + humour); while the Bond girls are up to snuff (Halle doing an Ursula Undress ocean appearance is dreamy), the Bond song is nifty (Madonna techno), the Bond villain is acceptable (although North Koreans just aren't as much fun as Ruskies or Nazis) and the Bond fights are effective (loved the Douglas Fairbanks style duel!), something doesn't quite gel; the CGI FX are OTT and push Bond far too close to superhero than secret agent...a mistake that must have been recognised by all and was amended with Casino Royale & Daniel Craig; apparently, there are references to all previous 19 Bond films scattered throughout...a "Where's Wally" for sad lonely over-55 men (I found 8)
CLOUDBURST (1951)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: Francis Searle
CAST: Robert Preston; Elizabeth Sellars; Colin Tapley
> efficiently told story which isn't overly exciting: ex WWII codebreaker seeks revenge on the criminal couple who ran down his wife; this is one of the few British films which probably would've been improved had it been made with American sensibilities (faster & more brazen & Action!)... instead, the movie plods along with everybody being emotionally self-controlled (the widower has the shortest & least demonstrative grieving period ever filmed), stretching the British Stiff Upper Lip far too far; Robert Preston was a member of the Burt Lancaster / Kirk Douglas Yell-to-the-Back-Row Club and he is somewhat uncomfortably straightjacketed in this performance; while I am normally not in favour of glee being expressed when committing murder, it would have helped here...sure beats doing it politely
I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS (1968)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Hy Averback
CAST: Peter Sellers; Leigh Taylor-Young; Jo Van Fleet; Joyce Van Patten
> it is one of the more striking ironies of filmdom that the greatest romantic-comedies were made during the 1930's & 40's (the build-up to, and duration of, the bloodiest worldwide conflict in history) while during the Love & Peace era of the Sixties, they could only manage watery rom-coms like this; Peter is the 35 year old attorney who drops out and becomes a hippie, seeking beauty and enlightenment (mostly through sex); this film starts off promisingly (and there are a few laughs in it), but the ridiculing of the counterculture is sniffy & laboured; the hash brownies scene is a square's idea of being stoned (that much ingestion of dope in one frenzied sitting would have you wide-eyed & zombied rather than hysterically amused & sexually rampant); obviously made by people who only really liked The Beatles' early stuff
THE EMERALD FOREST (1985)
C SECOND VIEWING
d: John Boorman
CAST: Powers Boothe; Charley Boorman; Meg Foster
> beautiful but boring; essentially a Bomba the Jungle Boy rejig: white kid gets taken by an Amazonian tribe and raised as their own...his birth father, in between raping the land and damming the river, never stops searching for his son; we are expected to believe that after 10 years, father & son just happen to stumble across each other in the Amazon rainforest; while an ecological message is always welcome, it is so thickly laid on here (I expected Sting to pop up), that the story becomes secondary and remains thin; all the usual mystic rituals, hunting, dancing and bathing turn up here, but nothing new is added...natives good / white man bad...which is historically accurate but hardly a plot twist; blowing up the billion dollar dam is paternal love taken to gimme-a-break extremes; nice jaguars, toucans and anteaters help pass the time
THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Bert I. Gordon
CAST: Glenn Langan; other people who there's no point in knowing
> an obvious companion piece to the same year's The Incredible Shrinking Man, this is unfortunately no match for that sci-fi gem; soldier gets blasted with plutonium rays and grows toweringly big; when the Shrinking Man shrank, he was instantly vulnerable and afraid...when this Colossal Man becomes huge, he is frightening rather than frightened, and that just isn't as involving; the SFX are pretty crummy (the giant looks quite milky wandering through the desert) and the movie lacks anything as riveting as TISM's scene in the basement with the psycho cat (although TACM's rampage through Las Vegas and stroll atop Boulder Dam had potential); while the film piddles around with jargonish explanations, the main flaw is the muffed climax...too sudden, derivative of King Kong and poorly staged; YES! At last! Small is better than big!
CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER aka SOULS FOR SALE aka EVILS OF CHINATOWN (1962)
E FIRST VIEWING
d: Albert Zugsmith
CAST: Vincent Price; Richard Loo; Philip Ahn
> wow...you don't often get a chance to see a movie as bad as this; Vincent is a sailor who wanders into Chinatown for a night of poppy dreams but gets involved in the sex slave trade instead...he tries vainly to be an action hero whilst delivering a Poe-ish monologue; halfway through, Vince stops rescuing a damsel and finally imbibes in a naughty pipe, which somehow makes him go slo-mo...geez...strong stuff; the stuntwork is laughable (the fights are obviously 1-2-thrust dances with no touching) and sawdust dummies are used when a bad guy needs to fall off something; the depictions of the Chinese characters are all of the dragons / gongs / chop-chop brand (exception: a dwarf); the music pummels you to feel thrilled (I just felt bruised) and it's difficult to work out exactly what the hell is going on; pass the pipe over here...
Go something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
ZERO DARK THIRTY (2012)
d: Kathryn Bigelow
CAST: Jessica Chastain; Jason Clarke; Jennifer Ehle; Mark Strong; Kyle Chandler; Chris Evans
> a docudrama about the hunt for, and killing of, Bin Laden; this film achieves the unachievable...it remains suspenseful for 157 minutes (I had to pause it halfway, not only due to a bladder call, but also because I needed a breather); basically a police procedural on a huge scale, this never sags down into flag-waving, Rambo-theatrics or mere action-movie excitement...these people have difficult jobs to do with impossible choices to make (and doubtful morality: torture is used and is appropriately hideous & vile); the temptation to use handheld camera has been largely kept in check (and when it is used, it is steadier than usual), so you observe the goings-on in visual comfort rather than being jostled about (exception: the raid on Bin Laden's stronghold); a perfectly constructed movie about a neverending war
RAW DEAL (1948)
d: Anthony Mann
CAST: Dennis O'Keefe; Claire Trevor; Marsha Hunt; Raymond Burr; John Ireland
> ultra-gritty film noir that for once deserves the label of "Overlooked Gem"; Dennis is the escaped convict who is torn between two lovers: one who loves him for the man he is, and the other who loves him for the man he could've been; as all three try to get free of the law (and pay back an old partner), the dynamic between them alters constantly, with conscience and loyalty interfering with "the smart thing to do"; the commendable acting by all and the atmospheric cinematography (some of the best I've seen in noir...more than just moody shadows & venetian blinds) overpower the film's low-budget taint; Director Anthony shows why he became a big name in the 50's...and makes you wish he hadn't spent so much time diddling around with Westerns (which admittedly were pretty good...but not like this)
BLOOD ON THE MOON (1948)
d: Robert Wise
CAST: Robert Mitchum; Barbara Bel Geddes; Robert Preston; Walter Brennan; Phyllis Thaxter
> critics have made claims that this is a "psychological Western with noirish elements" but I musta missed all that...I just thought it was a pretty good cowboy movie; gunman is hired to help homesteaders keep a cattleman's cows off their farming land...but things aren't quite as they seem...; most interesting feature of the film is how four characters change allegiance during the story, but only one of them is spurred to do so by conscience (the others do it for greed, revenge & lust); some striking Ansel Adams style landscape shots in handsome B&W add class; highlights are the two fights: #1 is no-mercy fisticuffs in a bar + #2 is a forest shoot-out in full moonlight (hence the title, I guess)...both battles are brutal and shrouded in shadow to add tension; solid acting by all (esp. Bob Mitchum) and Walter keeps his teeth in
TUMBLEWEEDS (1999)
d: Gavin O'Connor
CAST: Janet McTeer; Kimberly J. Brown; Jay O. Sanders; Gavin O'Connor
> enjoyable little story about mother & daughter who would like to settle down into a stable, regular family life, but Mum keeps meeting the wrong fella; nothing at all startling in this film (you can easily tell where it's heading and how it's going to end) but the impressive partnership chemistry between the two lead actresses raises it above humdrum predictability...while they look nothing alike, they do come across as parent & child; the supporting players do a uniformly good job, adding little character quirks for colour (and it's great to see Michael J. Pollard and Lois Smith again); Movie Quote for the Ages: "This is way better than a coffee enema!"
Award-Worthy Performances
Janet McTeer & Kimberly J. Brown
MR & MRS SMITH (1941)
d: Alfred Hitchcock
CAST: Carole Lombard; Robert Montgomery; Gene Raymond; Jack Carson
> Alfred the Great tries his hand at a screwball comedy and comes up with something light, pleasant and fairly forgettable; it's the old "married-couple-find-out-they're-not-really-married" plot line, jazzed up with a "now-I-don't-want-you-but-I-really-do" routine; Carole & Robert were the essence of old Hollywood starpower and are a delight together (they make it all look very sophisticated & plausible and add oomph to a borderline bland script)...with Robert displaying a knack for physical comedy (his attempt to give himself a blood nose is a riot!) which I don't recall him using before; I bet Hitch didn't approve of the all-too-jolly music, and his direction is competent (with a couple of camera flourishes) but hardly inspirational; not as funny as The Lady Vanishes or North By Northwest but it'll do
BACK STREET (1932)
d: John M. Stahl
CAST: Irene Dunne; John Boles; George Meeker; Zasu Pitts; Jane Darwell
> surprisingly unsavoury (for its time) but still fairly effective melodrama about a nice girl who agrees to become a rich guy's secret mistress...because she really really loves him and he really really loves her; impossible to take this completely seriously from a 2017 perspective, but wearing 1932 goggles, I guess it is quite moving in a the-heart-wants-what-the-heart-wants kinda way (although I still found the woman irritatingly pathetic); beautifully acted by Irene... you can pick up aspects of her character which she later used in The Awful Truth and Penny Serenade; the deathbed / open phone scene gave me an unexpected lump in my throat
Award-Worthy Performance
Irene Dunne
DIE ANOTHER DAY (2002)
d: Lee Tamahori
CAST: Pierce Brosnan; Halle Berry; Toby Stephens; Rosamund Pike; Judi Dench; John Cleese
> James Bond #20 and Pierce's last (I always considered him to be a compromise between Sean and Roger...I liked him...machismo + humour); while the Bond girls are up to snuff (Halle doing an Ursula Undress ocean appearance is dreamy), the Bond song is nifty (Madonna techno), the Bond villain is acceptable (although North Koreans just aren't as much fun as Ruskies or Nazis) and the Bond fights are effective (loved the Douglas Fairbanks style duel!), something doesn't quite gel; the CGI FX are OTT and push Bond far too close to superhero than secret agent...a mistake that must have been recognised by all and was amended with Casino Royale & Daniel Craig; apparently, there are references to all previous 19 Bond films scattered throughout...a "Where's Wally" for sad lonely over-55 men (I found 8)
CLOUDBURST (1951)
d: Francis Searle
CAST: Robert Preston; Elizabeth Sellars; Colin Tapley
> efficiently told story which isn't overly exciting: ex WWII codebreaker seeks revenge on the criminal couple who ran down his wife; this is one of the few British films which probably would've been improved had it been made with American sensibilities (faster & more brazen & Action!)... instead, the movie plods along with everybody being emotionally self-controlled (the widower has the shortest & least demonstrative grieving period ever filmed), stretching the British Stiff Upper Lip far too far; Robert Preston was a member of the Burt Lancaster / Kirk Douglas Yell-to-the-Back-Row Club and he is somewhat uncomfortably straightjacketed in this performance; while I am normally not in favour of glee being expressed when committing murder, it would have helped here...sure beats doing it politely
I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS (1968)
d: Hy Averback
CAST: Peter Sellers; Leigh Taylor-Young; Jo Van Fleet; Joyce Van Patten
> it is one of the more striking ironies of filmdom that the greatest romantic-comedies were made during the 1930's & 40's (the build-up to, and duration of, the bloodiest worldwide conflict in history) while during the Love & Peace era of the Sixties, they could only manage watery rom-coms like this; Peter is the 35 year old attorney who drops out and becomes a hippie, seeking beauty and enlightenment (mostly through sex); this film starts off promisingly (and there are a few laughs in it), but the ridiculing of the counterculture is sniffy & laboured; the hash brownies scene is a square's idea of being stoned (that much ingestion of dope in one frenzied sitting would have you wide-eyed & zombied rather than hysterically amused & sexually rampant); obviously made by people who only really liked The Beatles' early stuff
THE EMERALD FOREST (1985)
d: John Boorman
CAST: Powers Boothe; Charley Boorman; Meg Foster
> beautiful but boring; essentially a Bomba the Jungle Boy rejig: white kid gets taken by an Amazonian tribe and raised as their own...his birth father, in between raping the land and damming the river, never stops searching for his son; we are expected to believe that after 10 years, father & son just happen to stumble across each other in the Amazon rainforest; while an ecological message is always welcome, it is so thickly laid on here (I expected Sting to pop up), that the story becomes secondary and remains thin; all the usual mystic rituals, hunting, dancing and bathing turn up here, but nothing new is added...natives good / white man bad...which is historically accurate but hardly a plot twist; blowing up the billion dollar dam is paternal love taken to gimme-a-break extremes; nice jaguars, toucans and anteaters help pass the time
THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957)
d: Bert I. Gordon
CAST: Glenn Langan; other people who there's no point in knowing
> an obvious companion piece to the same year's The Incredible Shrinking Man, this is unfortunately no match for that sci-fi gem; soldier gets blasted with plutonium rays and grows toweringly big; when the Shrinking Man shrank, he was instantly vulnerable and afraid...when this Colossal Man becomes huge, he is frightening rather than frightened, and that just isn't as involving; the SFX are pretty crummy (the giant looks quite milky wandering through the desert) and the movie lacks anything as riveting as TISM's scene in the basement with the psycho cat (although TACM's rampage through Las Vegas and stroll atop Boulder Dam had potential); while the film piddles around with jargonish explanations, the main flaw is the muffed climax...too sudden, derivative of King Kong and poorly staged; YES! At last! Small is better than big!
CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER aka SOULS FOR SALE aka EVILS OF CHINATOWN (1962)
d: Albert Zugsmith
CAST: Vincent Price; Richard Loo; Philip Ahn
> wow...you don't often get a chance to see a movie as bad as this; Vincent is a sailor who wanders into Chinatown for a night of poppy dreams but gets involved in the sex slave trade instead...he tries vainly to be an action hero whilst delivering a Poe-ish monologue; halfway through, Vince stops rescuing a damsel and finally imbibes in a naughty pipe, which somehow makes him go slo-mo...geez...strong stuff; the stuntwork is laughable (the fights are obviously 1-2-thrust dances with no touching) and sawdust dummies are used when a bad guy needs to fall off something; the depictions of the Chinese characters are all of the dragons / gongs / chop-chop brand (exception: a dwarf); the music pummels you to feel thrilled (I just felt bruised) and it's difficult to work out exactly what the hell is going on; pass the pipe over here...
Go something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
