1939 Page Added

Movie-Viewing Experiences  15/4/18 - 30/4/18     

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

PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID (1973) [2005 SPECIAL EDITION]

A   SECOND VIEWING...FIRST OF THE REMASTERED VERSION
d: Sam Peckinpah
CAST: James Coburn; Kris Kristofferson; Bob Dylan
> despite numerous shootings (in slow-mo, of course), this is a pastoral, melancholic Western about how attached Death is to Life, and what does it really matter; Pat & Billy are the only two characters in it, with everybody else as cameos (even His Royal Bobness is barely there)... Sheriff Pat needs to catch and kill bad boy Billy, the fact that they're friends being irrelevant... 'cos a man's gotta do, y'see; fitted out with an assortment of classic faces (Chill Wills + Slim Pickens + Jack Elam + Jason Robards etc) and the greatest movie soundtrack (the only one I play at home for pleasure), this marvellous film is topped off with my all-time fave piece of dialogue: "You made me have a bowel movement in my trousers. I ain't never gonna forgive you for that."; this rejigged version is definitely the one to go for: a repaired masterpiece



PAID (1930)

A-   FIRST VIEWING
d: Sam Wood
CAST: Joan Crawford; Robert Armstrong; Marie Prevost; Douglass Montgomery
> a rather neglected pre-code movie which deserves rediscovery; Joan is a factory girl who is unjustly convicted of theft...she spends three years in jail and plots revenge... upon release, Joan pals up with a band of nice small-time crooks, weds her ex-boss's son and is yet again falsely accused, this time of murder; this is the film where Joan proved she was more than just a flapper (and lap it up folks, 'cos once she started to believe her own guff, Joan's acting deteriorated considerably), and Marie is a memorable (and funny) old-school moll who is loyal to a fault; startling to witness the "questioning" techniques used by the D.A.; tough stuff
Award-Worthy Performances
Joan Crawford; Marie Prevost



THE DEATH OF STALIN (2017)

B+   FIRST VIEWING   IN-CINEMA
d: Armando Iannucci
CAST: Steve Buscemi; Simon Russell Beale; Michael Palin; Jeffrey Tambor; Jason Isaacs
> ...and now for something completely different: the arm-wrestle for power after Joseph Stalin's death, portrayed as a very dark comedy (how dark? wanna see a guy shot and his corpse doused and burned while his ex-comrades stand around it to warm their hands?); I laughed out loud a number of times at the bleakest of circumstances (funniest was anything to do with the flippancy of murder) and the group of players is spot-on with the Dallas / Dynasty nature of the characters; but I struggled a little with this (it's Stalin's purges, man...I can't see much humour in the Holocaust either); I'm sorry, but Mr Creosote is about as comically out-there as I can get
Award-Worthy Performance
The ensemble cast



TELL NO TALES (1939)

B+   FIRST VIEWING
d: Leslie Fenton
CAST: Melvyn Douglas; Louise Platt; Douglass Dumbrille; Gene Lockhart; Zeffie Tilbury
> a fairly absurd power-of-the-press story which has been well-served by its director and its star...should be used in film studies to show how mediocrity can be transformed into something effective through craftsmanship; ethical newspaper editor loses his job and wants to finish with a bang...a big kidnapping story drops into his lap...he carries out a one-man quest to find the culprits; rather pat A-to-B-to-C plot line is enhanced by little dramatic codas (my fave: old man finds that his young wife has been carrying on...he warned her what he would do to her if there was a next time...wild eyes...end scene); Melvyn was always better at this straight stuff than light comedy (Theodora Goes Wild...ugh) and he gives a glimpse of the great character actor he became in his old age; a gripping second-tier movie that wraps it all up in 69 minutes



THE PARTY (2017)

B+   FIRST VIEWING   IN-CINEMA
d: Sally Potter
CAST: Kristin Scott Thomas; Timothy Spall; Patricia Clarkson; Cillian Murphy; Bruno Ganz
> this is what you would get if you stuck a group of talented actors into a room, handed them a witty script and let them go; described as a dark comedy, it takes a while for it to sink in that that is what it is; friends get together for a dinner party to celebrate Kristen's rise-up-the-political-ranks...whilst there (even before the horderves are served), all hell breaks loose: infidelity + drugs + pregnancy + death + music + healing + politics + a gun; topped off with a punchline ending, this over-in-71-minutes show is the film version of speed-reading: you understand the general gist, but there is no time to savour any nuance; still fun though
Award-Worthy Performance
The ensemble cast



TWO-WAY STRETCH (1960)

B+   FIRST VIEWING
d: Robert Day
CAST: Peter Sellers; Lionel Jeffries; Wilfred Hyde-White; Bernard Cribbins; David Lodge
> basically a British version of Hogan's Heroes, with a Her Majesty's Prison standing in for Stalag 13 and jewel robbery replacing secret Allied missions; Peter & Bernard & David are prisoners living a very cosy existence in jail who are roped in by criminal mastermind Wilfred to carry out a heist whilst behind bars (the perfect alibi)...Lionel is the hard-nut Sergeant-Major-type guard (and hilarious with it) who knows that something is up; good collection of British comic actors really push this higher than the script warrants, although I would've preferred more Irene Handl (I always do); a typically enjoyable English comedy of the old sort
Award-Worthy Performance
Lionel Jeffries



AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (2018)

B+   FIRST VIEWING   IN-CINEMA
d: Anthony & Joe Russo
CAST: Robert Downey Jr; Chris Evans; Chris Hemsworth; Mark Ruffalo; Josh Brolin; Scarlett Johansson; Benedict Cumberbatch; Tom Holland; Chadwick Boseman; Elizabeth Olsen
> there is absolutely no point in going to see this if you haven't seen the vast majority of the other MCU movies...you'll never play catch-up; impressive action movie with terrific fight choreography and a minimum of shaky camera work (thank you!), this comes across as a cinematic jam session...loaded with characters who take their turn in the spotlight then step back into the group; Josh is the stand-out, primarily because he plays someone we haven't seen before, and his villainous motivation is quite unique (he wants to wipe out 50% of the universe so the other half can have things easier); as with many of the Marvel movies, I had a good time, but still think it's a little empty...watch Logan and you'll understand



ABOVE SUSPICION (1943)

B+   FIRST VIEWING
d: Richard Thorpe
CAST: Joan Crawford; Fred MacMurray; Conrad Veidt; Basil Rathbone; Reginald Owen
> an Anti-Nazi-swine film set in 1939 that tries its hardest to resemble an early Hitchcockian thriller (ref. The Man Who Knew Too Much and Foreign Correspondent) and is a fair homage to the master; Joan & Fred are newlyweds who are recruited by the British Secret Service to carry out an undercover operation whilst on their honeymoon in Germany (really? a honeymoon in 1939 Germany? how romantic...); passwords + codes + disguises + turncoats...yep, nothing particularly original here; Joan & Fred admirably attempt a comic repartee in the style of Nick & Nora, but the events swirling around them are far too grim to allow too much of that; while Hitch would have inserted more jokes and at least two memorably staged sequences (like a windmill spinning backwards etc), this remains an entertaining spy story



BRINGING OUT THE DEAD (1999)

B-   FIRST VIEWING
d: Martin Scorsese
CAST: Nicolas Cage; Patricia Arquette; John Goodman; Ving Rhames; Tom Sizemore
> this is another one of those "Everybody's Crazy in New York" films, where drugs, violence and death are reacted to in equal amounts of horror and mirth; Nic is a burnt-out paramedic, cruising the mean streets, trying to rescue people from what they have done to themselves...Nic is also haunted by the spirits of those victims he couldn't save, and he steps closer and closer to sanity's ledge, leaning increasingly forward; my main gripe is the inconsistency of tone / intent...for example, a recurring song is Van the Man's "TB Sheets", which is a funky dirge: the perfect description of how the movie feels; while there are some very affecting images (mainly when Nic is either stoned or nuts), the narrative does a hellauva lot of meandering to arrive at one inarguable conclusion: "Big City Life Can Be a Bugger if You're Poor"



HOME AT SEVEN aka MURDER ON MONDAY (1952)

B-   FIRST VIEWING
d: Ralph Richardson
CAST: Ralph Richardson; Margaret Leighton; Jack Hawkins; Campbell Singer
> terribly British murder-mystery which kicks off with a good gimmick: a man comes home from work Monday night, only to find that it's really Tuesday night...he has lost 24 hours; the plot scoots along at the start then dawdles, as if losing interest...which is what happened to me a couple of times; Ralph the actor has always seemed to be a rather odd film performer, always better in supporting roles than lead, and his mumbly dithery ways here make his underplaying slightly irritating; still, the story holds on because you can't quite figure out how it's going to wrap up (I was convinced that it was all masterminded by the wife, but I guess that's too much of an American ending); if you can accept everybody being ever-so-polite while they drink tea and discuss gardening (oh, and try to catch a killer), you'll get along with this fine



EXPLORERS (1985)

C   FIRST VIEWING
d: Joe Dante
CAST: Ethan Hawke; River Phoenix; Jason Presson; Amanda Peterson
> a far, far-fetched and ultimately banal kids sci-fi flick; this screams out "The Eighties"! (E.T. / Goonies / Neverending Story...like that) and contains the expected ingredients but it never entirely coheres...a kids' fantasy story that lacks wonder; 3 x 12 year old boys, through computer geekery and shared dreaming, build a spacecraft and use it to make a housecall on some nearby aliens; while Director Joe's love of 50's trash / pop culture is woven all through this, some of it will never be the same again (do you really wanna hear the titanic voice of Little Richard coming out of a creature that looks like a reject from HR Pufnstuf?..it's a life-changer, I can tell you); the kids are an instantly likeable bunch, with a special nod to Ethan, but they really aren't called on to do much; the parent/child punchline at the end is the script's highpoint



IT'S A WONDERFUL WORLD (1939)

C   SECOND VIEWING
d: W.S. Van Dyke
CAST: James Stewart; Claudette Colbert; Guy Kibbee; Nat Pendleton; Edgar Kennedy
> the potential of this film must have looked really good on paper as it was passed around to the MGM execs: screwball comedy with a murder-mystery twist + a script written by masters Ben Hecht & Herman Mankiewicz + directed by surefire WS VD II + starring fan faves Jimmy & Claudette + with fun character actors Guy & Nat & Edgar...how could it miss?; with whole scenes cribbed from classics like It Happened One Night, The Thin Man, The 39 Steps and Nothing Sacred, this turned out to be an uninspired dud, with an absolute zero amount of star-chemistry between its two leads (did they even like each other?)...Claudette is all air with no head and Jimmy switches between bullying and sappiness with no neutral; worst of all, the film thinks that dumb is the same as funny; a production line malfunction



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2000 Page Added

Movie-Viewing Experiences  27/3/18 - 14/4/18     

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

CHAPPAQUIDDICK (2017)

A-   FIRST VIEWING   IN-CINEMA
d: John Curran
CAST: Jason Clarke; Ed Helms; Kate Mara; Bruce Dern; Jim Gaffigan
> it's obvious why this wasn't made while Teddy Kennedy was still alive...I have no idea how accurate this character assassination is, but the film's aim is true; having watched Jason in a half-dozen movies now, I can say the actor seems to lack screen impact...which, for this role, is an asset, because he plays a guy who is a moral blank; President-to-be-cos-he's-a-Kennedy Ted drives a car over a bridge, drowning his female passenger...9 hours pass before he reports it; to me, this film doesn't shy away from the tough stuff: a mixture of painkillers & alcohol? + an extramarital dalliance? + mental illness? + turning friends into accomplices? + power as vice? + ambition trumping ethics?; a story of a weak, arrogant, haunted, overburdened man who is built entirely of flaws...and branded with a surname 



A QUIET PLACE (2018)

A-   FIRST VIEWING   IN-CINEMA
d: John Krasinski
CAST: Emily Blunt; John Krasinski; Millicent Simmonds; Noah Jupe
> a classy and clever horror movie; sharing a similar set-up to 2017's It Comes at Night (family hides out in a rural location, trying to avoid being killed by what's out there), this film adds a unique twist: the monsters (in this case, aliens, I think) are blind and seek out their prey by sound...thus, much of the film is in lean-forward silence; refreshingly, this has a minimum of jump-scares to achieve horror-impact...instead, it works on your nerves, with a couple of carefully placed "that's-gotta-mean-something" scenes to keep you involved with the plot; the small cast packs a punch, especially the kids; I would've preferred the monsters be kept more in the shadows (too many full-frontals...the ones I had in my head were more terrifying), but this is the best horror (as opposed to slasher/gore) film since...2017's It Comes at Night



GEORDIE aka WEE GEORDIE (1955)

B+   SECOND VIEWING
d: Frank Launder
CAST: Bill Travers; Alastair Sim; Norah Gorsen; Paul Young; Molly Urquhart
> appealing little movie containing all the nice cliches of Scotland you could list: the simple rural life is the best + childhood sweetheart with heather in her hair + tatties & porridge & kilts & bagpipes & whisky galore + money is meant to be kept + the mountains and the lochs are where God lives; local lad Geordie beefs himself up with a bodybuilding program, becoming a hammer-throwing champion in the process...the 1956 Melbourne Olympics come calling...but will it cost him his true love(s)?; soul-stirring scenery is backdrop to yet another scene-stealing performance by Alastair (with Bill being quite serviceable as the big man); the story rambles along amiably, with absolutely no roughage whatsoever...the cuddly outcome is assured from the get-go; watch it with a mug of hot barley soup under an eiderdown



BOY (2010)

B+   SECOND VIEWING
d: Taika Waititi
CAST: James Rolleston; Taika Waititi; Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu
> interesting to watch this again after the comedic popularity of Thor: Ragnarok (which was only a laughfest if you can accept a silly Thor); this is inevitably described as a coming-of-age movie, but that often means child-learns-that-adults-sometimes-aren't-what-you-hope... and this is one of those times; NZ North Island kid is enjoying his 1984 pop culture childhood and then his father returns from jail...and hero worship kicks in; many touches of self-deprecating humour (drinking / crime / assault / drugs / poverty are all used at some point for laughs) raise the enjoyment factor while the inevitable conflict between father & son broods away; the comedy is more effective than the serious stuff, but the serious stuff is what sets the comedy up to work, so...; PS check out Taika's MCU audition short to see how he won the big one



THE SIEGE OF PINCHGUT aka FOUR DESPERATE MEN (1959)

B+   FIRST VIEWING
d: Harry Watts
CAST: Aldo Ray; Neil McCallum; Victor Maddern; Heather Sears; Gerry Duggan
> a British Made-In-Australia thriller which is actually thrilling; a convicted felon is freed by three accomplices and they make their escape via ambulance through the streets of postwar Sydney...fleeing across the harbour, they end up at Pinchgut (Ford Denison)...they hold the lighthouse keeper & his family hostage, trying to bargain their way out with the police; tautly made, with a no-flab script (very little time is wasted on romantic interludes or soft-spoken confessions), the real thrill of this is glorious Sydney circa the late 50's...still looking like a shithole in parts (love the backlane two-up game!) but trying to reinvent itself as a postcard-worthy city; unavoidable flaw is that you are aware that the threatened cataclysmic explosion isn't going to happen...the film obviously doesn't have the budget



CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY (1939)

B   FIRST VIEWING
d: Anatole Litvak
CAST: Edward G. Robinson; Paul Lukas; George Sanders: Francis Lederer
> difficult to see this as anything more than a record of its time, but in its time, it was a big (and courageous) deal: the first major studio (Warner Brothers, of course) to make a blatantly anti-Nazi film; the USA was still pro-isolation, wanting to keep out of Europe's war (this film was a commercial flop, so strongly was the public against involvement), but the Brothers Warner (a family of Jews...and real scrappers) weren't having any of it...they knew what was going on in their old homeland; the movie is structured around a Walter Winchellish voiceover, with Eddie G as a G-Man tracking down, questioning (nicely of course...he's American) and breaking the dirty Nazi rats (and they break just like a little girl); only intermittently entertaining, this is graded leniently for its forever message: no matter the ideology, tyranny sucks



COME TO THE STABLE (1949)

B   FIRST VIEWING
d: Henry Koster
CAST: Loretta Young; Celeste Holm; Hugh Marlowe; Elsa Lanchester; Thomas Gomez
> oh, I give up...schmaltz like this should be banned...I try my darnedest to point 'n' scoff, but I end up sort-of liking it anyway, and feeling guilty; it's got nuns in it fer chrissakes... not evil or mean ones (y'know...real) but those icky soft-spoken, lightly smiling, looking-up-at-the-sky types; two nuns from France come to USA to build a hospital, relying on the ol' "God Will Provide" economic plan...no mere mortal stands a chance; while Loretta is a noble pain and Celeste struggles with a French accent, light comedy touches (tennis match + jeep speeding) help considerably, and both Hugh and Thomas deliver nice dramatic performances above and beyond the call of duty...good for them; it all works out the way the nuns want of course, with heavenly choirs and hard hearts softened...now, leave me be...I have given



INNOCENCE (2000)

B-   FIRST VIEWING
d: Paul Cox
CAST: Julia Blake; Charles Tingwell; Terry Norris; Marta Dusseldorp; Robert Menzies
> a much-praised film by many critics, I was disappointed by this...I expected a heartwarming look at Love in the Twilight Years, but found a rejig of Love Story for the geriatric crowd; don't get me wrong...I was moved (twice) and I agree that Love and Beauty are the closest to God that we'll ever know on Earth, but the dialogue in this is just too self-consciously Dramatic-Arts to make the story recognisably universal (for example: "I don't want sacrifice; I want love" and "Too much love is as bad as no love at all"...how is that much different to "Love means never having to say you're sorry"?); while Julia is graceful and natural, Charles and Terry seem a little stiff in the joints and in some of their line-readings; very romantic of course, but the film doesn't say as much as it means to about fulfillment via soul mate



LBJ (2016)

B-   FIRST VIEWING   IN-CINEMA
d: Rob Reiner
CAST: Woody Harrelson; Richard Jenkins; Jennifer Jason Leigh; Michael Stahl-David
> while I'm an admirer of American myth-making, I can only tolerate a small amount of self-love before it starts to get to me...this film is right on the edge; the first appearance of Woody as Lyndon is quite a shock: I thought he was wearing one of those oversized Mardi Gras heads...a papier mache pinata with windsocks for ears; Woody never entirely convinces as LBJ (whose transition from redneck to social reformer just allofasudden happens), but gives it a good try, as does the rest of the cast as they portray other US political icons (JFK + Bobby K + Jackie O etc.); too much of The West Wing-style music throbs in the background at crucial/ethical moments, inviting cynical wincing; the historical sweep is given the Reader's Digest treatment, so you are left with the simplest of impressions: LBJ was a flawed but decent man...wow



LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (2004)

B-   SECOND VIEWING
d: Brad Silberling
CAST: Jim Carrey; Liam Aiken; Emily Browning; Timothy Spall; Meryl Streep
> absolutely stunning to stare at (the visuals are rich with design cleverness and grandeur), this lite-dark kids' adventure fantasy has one major flaw which nobbles it: Jim Carrey just cannot be reined in...he overwhelms every scene he is in, swamping the other actors, the scenery, the special effects and even the story itself...he just doesn't have a dimmer switch and the numerous asides & improvs soon become irritating noise...he's more the hiss than the villain; the trio of kids is nice enough and the collection of support turns & cameos serves the given roles without resorting (too much) to let's-ham-it-up-'cos-it's-a-kids-movie; the Roald Dahl-style grotesquery is a blessing but the rather anticlimactic ending is a letdown; just sit in a comfy chair and look at it go gorgeously by...and be ready to hit Print Screen



THE MAGNIFICENT DOPE aka THE MAGNIFICENT JERK (1942)

C   FIRST VIEWING
d: Walter Lang
CAST: Henry Fonda; Lynn Bari; Don Ameche; Edward Everett Horton
> very much a poor man's Frank Capra movie...think Meet John Doe or Mr Smith Goes to Washington, but think about a bellyflop at the same time; conman Don (as uninteresting as always) runs a motivational company which hits upon the idea of turning an unmotivated man (Henry, the only reason to watch this) into a business success...love intervenes and the ways of the simple common people prove to be *yawn* the best; while Henry is a fine substitute for Gary Cooper / James Stewart, Lynn is certainly no Jean Arthur / Barbara Stanwyck; even the character actor stylings of Edward can't help this blandfest; apparently Henry had to agree to make fluffy crud like this in order to score leading roles in masterworks such as The Grapes of Wrath and The Ox-Bow Incident...he shoulda complained to his union 



PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING (2018)

C   FIRST VIEWING   IN-CINEMA
d: Steven S. DeKnight
CAST: John Boyega; Cailee Spaeny; Scott Eastwood; Charlie Day; Burn Gorman
> when I was a kid, my Saturday Morning TV Passion was Thunderbirds...sliced in between the Supermarionation heroics of Scott & Company were hysterical ads for the tie-in merchandise...all of the Thunderbird vehicles + a replica of Tracy Island where they launched from + the action figures of the 5 brothers plus Brains and Lady Penelope...every Friday night family trip to the Clovercrest Shopping Centre, my eyes and my heart would settle on these treasures, their exorbitant prices totally exhausting my 20 cents a week pocket money budget...they remained coveted but unpurchased; this film is a 111 minute version of those TV commercials, blasting out to the 9 year old boy in every bloke; me, I'll just admire the Thunderbird 1 model I bought when I turned 50 and soon forget I ever saw this frantic, high-carb movie



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GO RIGHT AHEAD:  masted59@gmail.com