Movie-Viewing Experiences 8/3/18 - 26/3/18
A+ = Adored Masterwork A = Excellent A- = Very Good B+ = Good B = Nice Try B- = Tolerable
C = Significantly Flawed D = Pretty Bad E = Truly Dreadful: Looking Into the Void F = Vile & Repugnant: The Void
MARKED WOMAN (1937)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Lloyd Bacon
CAST: Bette Davis; Humphrey Bogart; Eduardo Ciannelli; Lola Lane; Isabel Jewell
> a Warner Brothers "Ripped from the Headlines" production-liner, fully loaded with a strong cast, a good script and punchy direction; based on the indictment of NY gangster Lucky Luciano, this tells how 5 women and one ambitious police prosecutor finally bring the bad guy to justice...along the way, there are numerous bodies bobbing up in the river, bashings & raids, crooked lawyers who smoke cigars and torch singers who only drink champagne; Bette cooks as the prostitute, whoops...nightclub hostess, who won't be pushed around anymore (lots of practice with Jack Warner I guess); not enough is made of perennial fave Allen Jenkins + Humphrey is a bit stiff as the go-get'em lawyer + the courtroom scenes aren't all they could have been; best feature is the courageous sisterhood of the 5 women...quite stirring
BABY IT'S YOU (1983)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: John Sayles
CAST: Rosanna Arquette; Vincent Spano
> this starts off as a John Hughes-ish teenage mismatch love story, but goes off in a direction which is unexpected and interesting...if not entirely satisfying; beginning in 1966 New Jersey, High School near-graduate Rosanna meets Frank Sinatra worshipper / goodfella-wannabe Vincent and have a romance...he gets expelled from school, tries robbery and moves to Florida & she moves to a NY college and becomes groovy...neither are particularly happy...so the relationship is rekindled...sort of; Rosanna is particularly effective in the self-discovery role and Vincent plays a young man who wants more than he'll ever get; you'll recognise them both
Award-Worthy Performance
Rosanna Arquette
SLEEPING CAR TO TRIESTE (1948)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: John Paddy Carstairs
CAST: Albert Lieven; Jean Kent; Derrick De Marney; Paul Dupuis; David Tomlinson; Finlay Currie
> train across Europe + espionage shenanigans + light touches of humour + British down to the bootstraps...how can you not think of The Lady Vanishes?; apparently a remake of a 1932 film called Rome Express (which I haven't seen, but Halliwell rates it very highly), this is an effective and enjoyable film which could use some real starpower to give it a bit of a boost (although the cast does well, particularly Albert and Finlay and David); amusingly, the three side-stories which are woven through the main plot obtain their humour via three longwinded and boring Englishmen... their listening-victims don't stand a chance!; slow start with a bit of confusion as to who the baddies are (and of what ilk...the war is over after all...obstinate Nazis?); the sudden climax gives quite the jolt; fairly slick Made-in-Britain entertainment
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (2002)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Douglas McGrath
CAST: Charlie Hunnam; Christopher Plummer; Jamie Bell; Jim Broadbent; Anne Hathaway; Timothy Spall; Tom Courtenay; Nathan Lane; Barry Humphries; Edward Fox
> although a story of child abuse as confronting as Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby is just not as good; this plush film is admirable, but just not as good as the somewhat neglected 1947 version...the reasons: a story this bleak needs matching surroundings (this is brightly lit and even the gloom seems fussed at) + no performance here erases the original impact of Cedric Hardwicke, Stanley Holloway, Alfred Drayton or Sybil Thorndike (although Jamie is an affecting Smike) + Charlie is a little too prim as Nicholas; having said all that, I enjoyed it considerably
Award-Worthy Performance
Jamie Bell
THE HOT ROCK (1972)
B FIRST VIEWING
d: Peter Yates
CAST: Robert Redford; George Segal; Ron Leibman; Paul Sand; Moses Gunn; Zero Mostel
> a convivial-enough heist movie with comedic trimmings, this is closer to Topkapi than to Heat; while Robert comes across as a little awkward (he's the straight man...always a thankless role), George is in his element (amiable slight-neurotic who has the air of "loser" about him), and they combine with Ron and Paul to make a fun criminal team (mastermind + locksmith + hotshot driver + explosives expert); the story turns on the initial theft of a jewel, but the comedy is in the team's inability to hang on to it...they are forced to continually re-swipe it; the usual long silences in dark corridors, double-crosses and tricky schemes pop up throughout; poignant flyby NY's Twin Towers in their infancy; Question: if Robert keeps ending up in jail, why would anyone hire him for a robbery?; an entertaining caper flick which won't stay with you long
CREED (2015)
B FIRST VIEWING
d: Ryan Coogan
CAST: Michael B. Jordan; Sylvester Stallone; Tessa Thompson; Phylicia Rashad
> I've never been a boxing fan (two people beating the shit out of each other until one falls down...aka Friday Night at the Smithfield Plains Hotel), so a movie of the "sport" needs to have something else going on to rope me in (Million Dollar Baby / Cinderella Man / The Set-Up)...this has a strong performance by Michael and some nifty circling camerawork in the ring...but it's not enough; the connection to the Rocky franchise is its weakest feature (Michael is charismatic enough to not need the diversion) and Sly's much-applauded #7 turn as Rocky Balboa is still just a slowed-down Brando impersonation; I predicted and groaned at the romance which adds nothing but sensitivity (and Tessa plays an upgrade of the nightclub singer cliche from the 1930's); a movie for men who teared up when Jim Brown died in The Dirty Dozen
INVISIBLE INVADERS (1959)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: Edward L. Cahn
CAST: John Agar; Philip Tonge; Jean Byron; Robert Hutton; John Carradine
> how's this for a ripper premise: now that Man has invented nuclear energy and rocket travel, the invisible aliens who live on The Moon decide it's time to invade us...they do this by inhabiting the bodies of our recently-deceased...becoming the walking dead...causing mayhem and madness where ever they roam; better than it has a right to be, this sci-fi/horror hybrid has CULT written all over it; lotsa laughs...my fave is the zombies (who are all three-piece-suited white men...the mortality rate among accountants must be staggering) walking like they've used a crowbar as a suppository, all the while making the semaphore sign for 'N'; Philip actually does a creditable job as the leading scientist out to thwart them, and the whole story is blessedly over in 66 minutes; if only the aliens could learn to pick up their feet...
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (1983)
B- SECOND VIEWING
d: Jack Clayton
CAST: Vidal Peterson; Jason Robards; Jonathan Pryce; Shawn Carson; Royal Dano
> curious but muddled hybrid of Americana and fantasy/horror which has some striking (and creepy) scenes mixed in with some pretty leaden schmaltz; Smalltown USA is visited by a travelling carnival show secretly run by demons / witches / freaks...its purpose is to drain the townsfolk of desire and capture their souls...but two boys foul up these evil intentions; really just a father/son story gussied up with scary stuff, this film makes the mistake of launching into the horror far too abruptly, long before we get to know enough about the good citizens (hadn't the filmmakers ever seen It's a Wonderful Life?), so you don't really care what happens to them; the two boys are appropriately Norman Rockwell-ish and push things along but, again, all you really know about them are their faces; surprisingly dark and sexy for a Disney pic
PACIFIC RIM (2013)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Guillermo del Toro
CAST: Charlie Hunnam; Rinko Kikuchi; Idris Elba; Charlie Day; Ron Perlman; Burn Gorman
> had to watch this to prep myself for the just-out sequel; looks good...man, this looks real good...but throughout this sci-fi action epic, my mind drifted and I just kept thinking about other movies: Starship Troopers + Godzilla + Pokemon + Independence Day + Transformers + Marvel's Avengers + hell, even Thunderbirds; the premise is way too convoluted to get into here ("it's the end of the world as we know it...but we are fighting back" is all you need to know), but the CGI SFX carnage soon becomes wearying, all the lead & side characters remain paper-thin (which is a plus, because the fleeting attempts at emotional depth thud and vanish) and the ending is predictable within twenty minutes of the run-time; all the truly great science fiction sagas are much more than just flash...this isn't; sorry Greg...I call 'em as I see 'em
COBRA WOMAN (1944)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Robert Siodmak
CAST: Maria Montez; Jon Hall; Sabu; Edgar Barrier; Mary Nash; Lon Chaney Jr.
> this is classed as a camp & kitsch classic and looked upon with some affection by older critics, but I just think it's supremely silly and corny to the point of pain; tropical island has a volcano, a religion based on cobra worship, an evil queen, a kidnapped twin, human sacrifice and a happy ending, with much derring-do from the men; nobody bothers to act (except the chimp), and even the volcano seems to burp more than rumble; Sabu is supposedly comic relief but is actually grating interjection; the orgiastic Cobra Dance is more like the Chicken Dance after you've had a few; I'm surprised this hasn't been made into a stage musical...I mean, if Reefer Madness can be turned into a Broadway show...; I'm going to generously label this a throwback to the old matinee serials and suggest you watch Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom instead
EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES (1964)
D FIRST VIEWING
d: Peter Tewksbury
CAST: Bryan Russell; Peter Mobley; Walter Slezak; Heinz Schubert
> this was one of those books I had to read at school (y'know...30 students with a copy each...teacher called out your name...you stood up and read out a page) and I HATED it; this Disneyfied movie is no more stimulating: lousy child acting + irritatingly jaunty music + buffoonish crooks outsmarted by children who are not children as we know them + police who don't have the time to listen to pesky kids...now, run along; set in post-war Berlin, the Third Man camera tiltings are a poor joke; the wrecked building is the only nod to WWII which comes across as a "don't mention the war" blindfold and disrespectful; the ordeals of author Erich Kastner (an anti-Nazi who remained in Germany by choice during the war) would make a far more exciting film; read a Famous Five book instead
CLIVE OF INDIA (1935)
D FIRST VIEWING
d: Richard Boleslawski
CAST: Ronald Colman; Loretta Young; Francis Lister; Colin Clive; C. Aubrey Smith
> better a history of the curry powder than this lie about a colonial conquering bastard who, in the real world, plundered India of cultural treasures and engineered famines to bolster British investments; the film rushes through the "biography" to get to the feel-sorry-for-the-guy stuff (there are many battles going on, but we only get to witness one...after an hour...out of a 95 minute movie...where the film's only highlight is featured...The Charge of the Battle Elephants!!); Loretta is merely pretty (it's enough though) and Ronald was always at his best when cocky, but neither are called upon to do much more than chat and wear wigs; while I don't demand a 1930's Hollywood movie be a history lesson, I do expect a well-told story and this is dull, dull, dull; less bullshit and more elephants wrapped in alfoil required
Go something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
MARKED WOMAN (1937)
d: Lloyd Bacon
CAST: Bette Davis; Humphrey Bogart; Eduardo Ciannelli; Lola Lane; Isabel Jewell
> a Warner Brothers "Ripped from the Headlines" production-liner, fully loaded with a strong cast, a good script and punchy direction; based on the indictment of NY gangster Lucky Luciano, this tells how 5 women and one ambitious police prosecutor finally bring the bad guy to justice...along the way, there are numerous bodies bobbing up in the river, bashings & raids, crooked lawyers who smoke cigars and torch singers who only drink champagne; Bette cooks as the prostitute, whoops...nightclub hostess, who won't be pushed around anymore (lots of practice with Jack Warner I guess); not enough is made of perennial fave Allen Jenkins + Humphrey is a bit stiff as the go-get'em lawyer + the courtroom scenes aren't all they could have been; best feature is the courageous sisterhood of the 5 women...quite stirring
BABY IT'S YOU (1983)
d: John Sayles
CAST: Rosanna Arquette; Vincent Spano
> this starts off as a John Hughes-ish teenage mismatch love story, but goes off in a direction which is unexpected and interesting...if not entirely satisfying; beginning in 1966 New Jersey, High School near-graduate Rosanna meets Frank Sinatra worshipper / goodfella-wannabe Vincent and have a romance...he gets expelled from school, tries robbery and moves to Florida & she moves to a NY college and becomes groovy...neither are particularly happy...so the relationship is rekindled...sort of; Rosanna is particularly effective in the self-discovery role and Vincent plays a young man who wants more than he'll ever get; you'll recognise them both
Award-Worthy Performance
Rosanna Arquette
SLEEPING CAR TO TRIESTE (1948)
d: John Paddy Carstairs
CAST: Albert Lieven; Jean Kent; Derrick De Marney; Paul Dupuis; David Tomlinson; Finlay Currie
> train across Europe + espionage shenanigans + light touches of humour + British down to the bootstraps...how can you not think of The Lady Vanishes?; apparently a remake of a 1932 film called Rome Express (which I haven't seen, but Halliwell rates it very highly), this is an effective and enjoyable film which could use some real starpower to give it a bit of a boost (although the cast does well, particularly Albert and Finlay and David); amusingly, the three side-stories which are woven through the main plot obtain their humour via three longwinded and boring Englishmen... their listening-victims don't stand a chance!; slow start with a bit of confusion as to who the baddies are (and of what ilk...the war is over after all...obstinate Nazis?); the sudden climax gives quite the jolt; fairly slick Made-in-Britain entertainment
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (2002)
d: Douglas McGrath
CAST: Charlie Hunnam; Christopher Plummer; Jamie Bell; Jim Broadbent; Anne Hathaway; Timothy Spall; Tom Courtenay; Nathan Lane; Barry Humphries; Edward Fox
> although a story of child abuse as confronting as Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby is just not as good; this plush film is admirable, but just not as good as the somewhat neglected 1947 version...the reasons: a story this bleak needs matching surroundings (this is brightly lit and even the gloom seems fussed at) + no performance here erases the original impact of Cedric Hardwicke, Stanley Holloway, Alfred Drayton or Sybil Thorndike (although Jamie is an affecting Smike) + Charlie is a little too prim as Nicholas; having said all that, I enjoyed it considerably
Award-Worthy Performance
Jamie Bell
THE HOT ROCK (1972)
d: Peter Yates
CAST: Robert Redford; George Segal; Ron Leibman; Paul Sand; Moses Gunn; Zero Mostel
> a convivial-enough heist movie with comedic trimmings, this is closer to Topkapi than to Heat; while Robert comes across as a little awkward (he's the straight man...always a thankless role), George is in his element (amiable slight-neurotic who has the air of "loser" about him), and they combine with Ron and Paul to make a fun criminal team (mastermind + locksmith + hotshot driver + explosives expert); the story turns on the initial theft of a jewel, but the comedy is in the team's inability to hang on to it...they are forced to continually re-swipe it; the usual long silences in dark corridors, double-crosses and tricky schemes pop up throughout; poignant flyby NY's Twin Towers in their infancy; Question: if Robert keeps ending up in jail, why would anyone hire him for a robbery?; an entertaining caper flick which won't stay with you long
CREED (2015)
d: Ryan Coogan
CAST: Michael B. Jordan; Sylvester Stallone; Tessa Thompson; Phylicia Rashad
> I've never been a boxing fan (two people beating the shit out of each other until one falls down...aka Friday Night at the Smithfield Plains Hotel), so a movie of the "sport" needs to have something else going on to rope me in (Million Dollar Baby / Cinderella Man / The Set-Up)...this has a strong performance by Michael and some nifty circling camerawork in the ring...but it's not enough; the connection to the Rocky franchise is its weakest feature (Michael is charismatic enough to not need the diversion) and Sly's much-applauded #7 turn as Rocky Balboa is still just a slowed-down Brando impersonation; I predicted and groaned at the romance which adds nothing but sensitivity (and Tessa plays an upgrade of the nightclub singer cliche from the 1930's); a movie for men who teared up when Jim Brown died in The Dirty Dozen
INVISIBLE INVADERS (1959)
d: Edward L. Cahn
CAST: John Agar; Philip Tonge; Jean Byron; Robert Hutton; John Carradine
> how's this for a ripper premise: now that Man has invented nuclear energy and rocket travel, the invisible aliens who live on The Moon decide it's time to invade us...they do this by inhabiting the bodies of our recently-deceased...becoming the walking dead...causing mayhem and madness where ever they roam; better than it has a right to be, this sci-fi/horror hybrid has CULT written all over it; lotsa laughs...my fave is the zombies (who are all three-piece-suited white men...the mortality rate among accountants must be staggering) walking like they've used a crowbar as a suppository, all the while making the semaphore sign for 'N'; Philip actually does a creditable job as the leading scientist out to thwart them, and the whole story is blessedly over in 66 minutes; if only the aliens could learn to pick up their feet...
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (1983)
d: Jack Clayton
CAST: Vidal Peterson; Jason Robards; Jonathan Pryce; Shawn Carson; Royal Dano
> curious but muddled hybrid of Americana and fantasy/horror which has some striking (and creepy) scenes mixed in with some pretty leaden schmaltz; Smalltown USA is visited by a travelling carnival show secretly run by demons / witches / freaks...its purpose is to drain the townsfolk of desire and capture their souls...but two boys foul up these evil intentions; really just a father/son story gussied up with scary stuff, this film makes the mistake of launching into the horror far too abruptly, long before we get to know enough about the good citizens (hadn't the filmmakers ever seen It's a Wonderful Life?), so you don't really care what happens to them; the two boys are appropriately Norman Rockwell-ish and push things along but, again, all you really know about them are their faces; surprisingly dark and sexy for a Disney pic
PACIFIC RIM (2013)
d: Guillermo del Toro
CAST: Charlie Hunnam; Rinko Kikuchi; Idris Elba; Charlie Day; Ron Perlman; Burn Gorman
> had to watch this to prep myself for the just-out sequel; looks good...man, this looks real good...but throughout this sci-fi action epic, my mind drifted and I just kept thinking about other movies: Starship Troopers + Godzilla + Pokemon + Independence Day + Transformers + Marvel's Avengers + hell, even Thunderbirds; the premise is way too convoluted to get into here ("it's the end of the world as we know it...but we are fighting back" is all you need to know), but the CGI SFX carnage soon becomes wearying, all the lead & side characters remain paper-thin (which is a plus, because the fleeting attempts at emotional depth thud and vanish) and the ending is predictable within twenty minutes of the run-time; all the truly great science fiction sagas are much more than just flash...this isn't; sorry Greg...I call 'em as I see 'em
COBRA WOMAN (1944)
d: Robert Siodmak
CAST: Maria Montez; Jon Hall; Sabu; Edgar Barrier; Mary Nash; Lon Chaney Jr.
> this is classed as a camp & kitsch classic and looked upon with some affection by older critics, but I just think it's supremely silly and corny to the point of pain; tropical island has a volcano, a religion based on cobra worship, an evil queen, a kidnapped twin, human sacrifice and a happy ending, with much derring-do from the men; nobody bothers to act (except the chimp), and even the volcano seems to burp more than rumble; Sabu is supposedly comic relief but is actually grating interjection; the orgiastic Cobra Dance is more like the Chicken Dance after you've had a few; I'm surprised this hasn't been made into a stage musical...I mean, if Reefer Madness can be turned into a Broadway show...; I'm going to generously label this a throwback to the old matinee serials and suggest you watch Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom instead
EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES (1964)
d: Peter Tewksbury
CAST: Bryan Russell; Peter Mobley; Walter Slezak; Heinz Schubert
> this was one of those books I had to read at school (y'know...30 students with a copy each...teacher called out your name...you stood up and read out a page) and I HATED it; this Disneyfied movie is no more stimulating: lousy child acting + irritatingly jaunty music + buffoonish crooks outsmarted by children who are not children as we know them + police who don't have the time to listen to pesky kids...now, run along; set in post-war Berlin, the Third Man camera tiltings are a poor joke; the wrecked building is the only nod to WWII which comes across as a "don't mention the war" blindfold and disrespectful; the ordeals of author Erich Kastner (an anti-Nazi who remained in Germany by choice during the war) would make a far more exciting film; read a Famous Five book instead
CLIVE OF INDIA (1935)
d: Richard Boleslawski
CAST: Ronald Colman; Loretta Young; Francis Lister; Colin Clive; C. Aubrey Smith
> better a history of the curry powder than this lie about a colonial conquering bastard who, in the real world, plundered India of cultural treasures and engineered famines to bolster British investments; the film rushes through the "biography" to get to the feel-sorry-for-the-guy stuff (there are many battles going on, but we only get to witness one...after an hour...out of a 95 minute movie...where the film's only highlight is featured...The Charge of the Battle Elephants!!); Loretta is merely pretty (it's enough though) and Ronald was always at his best when cocky, but neither are called upon to do much more than chat and wear wigs; while I don't demand a 1930's Hollywood movie be a history lesson, I do expect a well-told story and this is dull, dull, dull; less bullshit and more elephants wrapped in alfoil required
Go something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
