This is the second western directed by Budd Boetticher I've watched and I think I'll continue. John Wayne was intended to star, but when he heard Ford was making The Searchers he offered the role to Randolph Scott. This movie revived Scott's career and he made a number of westerns with Boetticher. The director seems to do plot, tension and characters well. There are more good plot twists than westerns usually offer. In this movie he also uses the locations very well. Lee Marvin plays a significant character, the morally questionable type with a mocking smile he did so well.
I expect I'll watch my next Scott/Boetticher western soon!
This was a really enjoyable, moody and noirish WWII espionage thriller. Ray Milland plays a man who has just got out of an asylum after he had been accused of murdering his wife. By a somewhat Hitchcockian turn of coincidence he is immediately ensnared in a Nazi spy ring operating on British soil and he spends the rest of the film trying to both uncover the mysterious organisation and also clear his name with the law for another killing which he is believed to have commited. The atmospheric sets and stylish direction and cinematography are standout elements of this film. It is directed by German master Fritz Lang, and while it is not one of the absolute best Lang films that I have seen, I have still never seen a film of his that has been disappointing. Besides Metropolis and M, most of the Lang film that I have seen are from the 1940s - Scarlet Street, The Big Heat and several other noir classics. I've still not delved much into his early work, but I really enjoy his films from this classic era of Hollywood noir.
I know I've seen the film, but remember the book more clearly. It's almost surreal with so much plot revolving round fortune tellers, seances, and insane asylums, very strange circumstances to uncover a spy ring.
Not Coppola's greatest masterpiece, but I've always liked it. The film is highly stylized, most of the time it looks like it was made around 1930. I think that's a good choice. It's both a tribute to the old movies and the style works very well with the story. Keanu Reeves is miscast in a otherwise good cast, often looking stiff and lacking screen presence. Both he and Winona Ryder were critizised for their accents. I can't help thinking the result would have been better without them. Perhaps Jonny Depp (The director's first choice) or Daniel Day-Lewis as Jonathan Harker and Helena Bonham Carter as Mina? Coppola's Dracula is still a very interesting and watchable movie.
Based on a true story, this relates the tale of the escape from prison in South Africa of 2 ANC activists who are joined by a third when plotting their escape. The escape plan is ingenious and there are several tense scenes of possible discovery. Unfortunately, there is not enough background to the characters before they are imprisoned, but Daniel Radcliffe has turned out to be a pretty decent actor to be fair.
A worthwhile but not essential watch.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I've been curious to see this film, but haven't got around to it yet. When the trailer came out this was the butt of many jokes amongst my friends here in South Africa because the accents in the trailer sounded a bit bizarre to South African ears. Our accents seem to be quite difficult for actors from other countries to replicate without slipping into a sort of parody. I'm sure this is true for many other countries and regions though.
FREAKY, a mashup of mad slasher horror movie and body-switching comedy, with Vince Vaughn as a Jason Voorhies-like psycho killer who switches bodies with Kathryn Newton's high school loser. Surprisingly, this weird approach works very well, with Vaughn perfectly embodying (so to speak) teen angst and Newton actually menacing as the killer. FERRIS BUELLER'S Alan Ruck shows up as a nasty teacher who gets a great death scene. It's a lot of fun, but not for the squeamish.
Actually, I didn't see all of this but at the time it was well reviewed as a new slant on the Transformer series, more low key with a teenage protagonist, not so macho this time round. A good 80s soundtrack, as that's when it is set, makes it a nostalgia fest for some of us.
It's okay but seems to run out of steam at some point. It's a one-gag movie really as the teen girl/woman controls the narrative but it's all about her and the Transformer which doubles as a yellow Beetle. Okay, we had Elliot and E.T. but Spielberg did that. It doesn't quite carry the film and the emotional aspects seem a bit obvious, a bit jokey. I mean, I could almost sympathise with the parents almost, giving their mopey kid a book telling her to smile (okay, it's a stepfather) but perhaps that's lockdown for you.
I mean, the school bullies are a bit obvious. That said, when you have Twitter and a bloke called Mike Royle doing his #31DayBondChallenge, that tends to be more entertaining.
I caught this on HBO Max today. The movie is pretty much what you would expect: a big. noisy, often dumb monster mash with a cast of humans who add little to the proceedings.
The plot, such that it is, has the formerly benevolent Godzilla mysteriously attacking locations in Florida and Tokyo where offices for a shady electronics corporation called Apex are located. The CEO of Apex meanwhile hires a disgraced scientist to form an expedition to have Kong lead a group of scientists and his suspicious looking daughter to the center of the Earth where they find a whole ecosystem right out of Journey to the Center of the Earth. There is supposed to be a mysterious radioactive energy source there that can stop Godzilla but of course things are not always as they seem. Better not to focus too much on the plot, you'll just get a headache.
Along the way, Godzilla becomes aware of Kong and, as there can only be one Apex titan, engages him on a couple of occasions to show him who is the number one monster. By the end of the movie Apex's intentions are revealed, a third party enters the fray and Tokyo is once again ground zero for a giant monster beatdown. The battle scenes are all well done and both Kong and Godzilla pull off some cool fighting moves. Sadly, things go downhill from there.
A game I always like to play to see if the characters were effective at all is to try to remember their names after the movie is over. The only characters I could remember were Godzilla and Kong, who show a greater range of emotion than their human co-stars, all of whom were superfluous, and in the case of three characters who are trying to figure out what Apex is up to, downright annoying to the point I was rooting for them to be incinerated (alas, my hopes were sadly dashed).
Overall it killed two hours and it held my attention but if you do watch this at home, keep the remote handy and your finger on the Fast Forward button.
Last night I sat down to watch the film 'Highlander'. I dislike all types of science fiction films and only decided to watch it because Sean Connery was in it.
I did not make it to the part where he appears before I turned off. It was I think the worst film I have ever seen!
A bit of a Robert Altman double feature for me today...McCABE & MRS MILLER and NASHVILLE.
Altman is one of those Hollywood greats whose work I've never really delved into much, so both of these were first viewings for me. Both arrived on my screen with great reputations, so inevitably I had high expectations for these two films and neither disappointed at all.
McCabe & Mrs Miller is the film that has been on my radar for the longest time, as I am a big fan of the Western genre and it is film that is perenially included on 'greatest hits' lists of the genre. There was much to admire in this film, notably the much-vaunted cinematography which has a great vintage feel to it, with almost muddy, muted colours and an ever present haze which lends a feel of degraded film prints from years gone by - courtesy of some clever flash-exposure techniques. The film also features several songs from Leonard Cohen's debut album, and as a Cohen fan I enjoyed their inclusion in the film. The actors do a great job giving very believable performances, especially in the supporting roles. Julie Christie is also particularly memorable as the female lead - a London accented brothel madam with a taste for opium. Like most Westerns it climaxes in a gunfight, but little about this showdown feels typical of the genre. A great Western, and one which will comfortably take a place in my 'Top 20 Westerns' list.
Nashville is a film that I knew little about, apart from that it takes place in the world of Country music, and has a large ensemble cast. The description 'large' barely covers it. The only other films that I can think of with so many significant characters are WWII epics like The Longest Day etc. This film is almost as epic in its running time and credits list, but much more small scale in terms of the incidents which take place in the course of the narrative. It's one of those film in which not much seems to happen, yet so many little things occur throughout, giving it a sense of real life despite the seemingly exaggerated antics of many of its characters. This is a film in which quirky characters are given ample opportunity to shine, such as Jeff Goldblum's 'Tricycle Man', a memorable role despite lacking any dialogue. The worlds of music and politics are both on display in the film and play off each other in enjoyable and interesting ways. Unsurprisingly, the film also delivers some enjoyable country music - mostly delivered by Keith Carradine and Ronee Blakley's characters. A few other characters in the film are better off leaving the microphone alone. Such is the diverse tapestry of the film.
I really enjoyed both films - it's a struggle to pick a favourite between the two. Altman is a director that I will always seek out in future. Previously the Altman films that I had seen were: Countdown, M*A*S*H and Gosford Park. The next Altman works in my watch list are California Split and The Player. I also hope to see The Long Goodbye sometime soon if I can get my hands on a copy or a stream.
The Player is a great film, with an opening shot so brilliantly executed it could be the whole film itself. It's actually got a plot, unlike some of Altman's other ensemble pieces. Belongs to a subgenre of Hollywood satirizing itself.
Gosford Park I have heard was the inspiration for Downton Abbey, but as a Agatha Christie style mystery is more interesting than the similar looking soap opera. Stephen Fry is the detective, and just wait til you see how good a job he does of solving the mystery, that's a cutting social satire all on its own. I think Bob Balaban (the NBC executive character from Seinfeld) came up with the basic concept.
MASH has a great cast, and it's a pity it's now a footnote to the better known sitcom. It's much darker, more subversive. If you've never seen it, you may be surprised to find that theme song has lyrics! Catch-22 had the misfortune of coming out shortly after and being compared unfavourably.
The Long Goodbye I thought was a stinker, but that's because I'm a Raymond Chandler fan. There's many other films that more faithfully capture the Chandler experience that aren't even based directly on his books. I say its a crime to waster good Chandler on a film like this! It does include one of the single most shockingly violent acts I've ever seen in a film.
Popeye I haven't seen since it came out, I want to see it again. The very concept is so outrageous, Robin Williams is buried underneath prosthetics to look convincingly like the cartoon character. Shelly Duvall on the other hand is perfectly cast as Olive Oyl and requires no prosthetics. SCTV parodied the idea with Altman making a live action adaptation of the mediocre comic strip Henry.
There's plenty of other directors have tried to make Altman style ensemble pieces. example 1: PT Anderson's Boogie Nights is brilliant, if you can handle the subject matter. I haven't liked his other films half so much. example 2: Linklater's Dazed and Confused is not to my taste, despite my personal nostalgia for the period trappings. That 70s Show did it better.
I didn't want to quote your whole post re: McCabe & Mrs Miller.
This is an astounding western. Its in my Top 10 of the genre. A revisionist piece, of sorts. I agree with all your comments. I'd also add the deep sense of impending doom which inhabits the film almost from the off. You just know nothing will end well for McCabe. His relationship with Mrs Miller is one of dependency, but neither can say I Love You because both recognise the futility. Her retreat into drug hazed oblivion as McCabe walks through the snow to his death is one of the great sequences of the western genre, all hopelessness is in their dual actions of fated destiny. Altman's unfussy direction heightens the discord, you see the agony etched on the actors' faces. The messy, bloody, gunfight is a much more realistic prospect than the old fashioned quick draw. A slow tortured snow dance of death.
I need to rewatch this, it's been a few years. Last time I was lucky enough to catch it at the London BFI on the big screen and it looks, as you say, muddily devine. Wonderful stuff.
@chrisno1 I enjoyed reading your comments on the various Altman films. I remember enjoying Gosford Park, but definitely feel I should go back for a second viewing. Amongst the incredible ensemble cast, I do recall Stephen Fry being a delight as the detective. As for the Downton Abbey connection, both were written by Julian Fellowes (who also appeared in Tomorrow Never Dies of course) so unsurprising that there are some similarities and comparisons drawn between the two.
I was also interested by your comments re: The Long Goodbye. I've noticed that on Letterboxd.com, The Long Goodbye has one of the highest average user ratings of all of Altman's films. Sad to say I've never read any Chandler myself (I know I really ought to) so that would be unlikely to colour my opinion of the film much. I do have an audiobook of The Long Goodbye - I wonder if I'd be better off leaving that until after I've seen the film.
yeh your enjoyment of The Long Goodbye is probably a function of a) whether you've read Chandler and b) how faithfully you want your Chandler adapted. Without preconceptions it may be objectively a better film.
I had a big problem with Robert Mitchum's version of The Big Sleep, because it was transposed to late70s Britain (and therefor some of the key plot points (the market for pornography) were anachronistic), but otherwise it was closer in plot and tone to the source material than the Altman/Gould film. Chandler's description of a specific place and time is so specific that's what I want to see brought to life. If you've never read Chandler, start with The Big Sleep, his first novel. The Long Goodbye is I think his sixth and the author was older and (even) more worldweary by that point.
@Barbel is a Chandler fan. What's he think of the Altman/Gould The Long Goodbye?
The Mitchum version doesn't come close to the Bogart version at all. Mitchum is good (though was better in FAREWELL MY LOVELY), and it's closer to the book (strangely enough, since it's set in 70s England) but that's about it. Happy to discuss more once you've seen it.
My memories of it (OMG nearly 50 years ago now) agree with you, Gymkata- maybe someday I'll get round to watching it again, no doubt I've forgotten most of it!
the Mitchum-as-Marlowe experience was much more satisfying in Farewell My Lovely, which was set as it should be in prewar Los Angeles.
Lew Grade produced both films, I have no idea why he thought itd be a good idea to transpose such a time-and-place specific story as The Big Sleep to then-modern-day Britain. The whole plot hinges on the conceit that topless photos of women are only available in seedy backstreet shops masquerading as legitimate bookstores! did Grade never look at page 3 of his daily paper?
also, both Mitchum and the actresses playing the Sternwood sisters are a couple of decades too old for the characters.
but if you dont want to read the book, but do want to finally learn who really killed Rusty Regan, the Mitchum version will finally solve that mystery.
(I reported on both films several pages back, albeit out of order).
btw if you dont want to read seven novels and a half dozen volumes of short stories, but do want to read enough Chandler to bluff your way through conversation at dinner parties, the three to read are The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and The Long Goodbye. The others are much more rarely discussed, though The Little Sister is cool because its Chandler himself satirising his unhappy experiences in Hollywood.
The reason for the "Big Sleep" remake being set in then contemporary London and surroundings was simply money. Much cheaper to shoot in existing streets etc that don't need dressed up to look in-period.
The Big Sleep (1978) was directed by Michael Winner. It’s very fashionable to slate Winners filmography, but he directed many decent movies in his career, and his Sunday Times restaurant reviews were unmissable.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
A classic piece of successful science fiction from bestseller writer Michael Crichton, who also directed.
You’ll all know the story: tourists get to realise their historical fantasies until something goes horribly wrong with the once compliant robots’ programming.
The first half of the film is intriguing. A TV advert tells us what we need to know about Delos and its fabulous vacations. The following credits are so short [title, stars x3, producer, writer & director] they may as well not be there at all. Next we are scooting through the skies on a hover craft and meeting Richard Benjamin’s nervous divorcee Peter and James Brolin’s confident, single John. They both want to visit Westworld to experience life on America’s 1880s frontier. Peter ‘kills’ a gunslinger, played by Yul Brynner, who is duly mocking his role as Chris Adams from The Magnificent Seven. The Gunslinger is merely a robot and Peter relaxes into the resorts all-encompassing events and compliant robo-machines.
Meanwhile the scientists and technicians who run the resort are discovering tiny faults across the spectrum of their robotics. They equate it to a virus, a disease which is infecting the machines’ programming. This is a very forward thinking concept and has real relevance today where viruses really do transfer from machine to machine. The fact the Chief Supervisor, played by a permanently worried looking Alan Oppenheimer, tells us the technicians don’t entirely understand how the robots function because they were mainly constructed by other machines is terrifying in its simplicity and is a theme which now occurs regularly in sci-fi. The authorities realise there is a problem, but refuse to shut down the resort. This too became a sci-fi staple, that corporate greed always trumps rational behaviour.
A tense piece of film making, full of deliberate western clichés. The performances are cliched too and that helps with the familiarity. Occasionally its quite amusing. The main two protagonists play at being baffled or overconfident when required. They seem to be sharing an unspoken underlying bromance, like Butch and Sundance, and help each other into and out of various western formulae with a knowing wink to each other as well as the audience. The scenes set in Medieval World are over the top, a bit like a bad Carry On film. Ooo, no, missus, it’s Up the Chastity Belt – with Dick van Patten replacing Frankie Howard and nowhere near as funny. Yul Brynner, working for a low salary, is superb as the one note, forceful, driven Gunslinger, a redesigned 404 robot, with state of the art audio and visual receptors. This is brilliantly amplified by the pixelated screen for the Gunslinger's vision and the stamping, crunching soundtrack which replicated footsteps, heartbeats and breathing. As the Gunslinger chases down Peter, I was immediately reminded of Arnold Schwarzenegger's remorselessness in The Terminator. You’ll see the similarities.
Crichton’s very clever with his screenplay. It doesn’t expect too much of the audience. The workings of the Delos Amusement Park are revealed slowly and clearly. We understand the resort is breaking down; the manager’s don’t. The tension arises from who will discover the solution first. Ultimately nobody does. Most of the robots run out of battery power, but not before the technicians have suffocated inside their own automatically locked control centre – the virus has even infected their master computers – and almost every tourist has been slaughtered. Only Peter remains, battling an acid-scarred, flame-burnt, single-minded Gunslinger.
I wondered if Delos was deliberately, ironically, named after the Minoan island, supposedly a place of sanctuary for Greeks. There’s a brilliant shot of a fallen statue straddling a riverbed, the water splashing across the marble, trickling down the goddess’ face like tears. I also enjoyed the traditional western horseback pursuit, which was made all the more deadly by Brynner’s impassive Gunslinger, who rides past corpses without a glance, twists his whole neck to hear and see and walks with a scary, mechanical grace. The fact he’s an indestructible robot makes his inexpression all the more haunting and realistic. All the robots share a non-personality trait, yet as the virus spreads they begin to display aspects of genuine human emotion: revenge, fear, avarice and pain. Are the robot’s becoming human? The film doesn’t have many flashes of insight. Is Crichton deftly warning us about wish fulfilment? He’s certainly warning us about corporate greed, but the message is rather lost among the standard shootouts, fights and chases. The movie uses the MGM backlot for the sets and has up-to-scratch production values without ever being startlingly brilliant. The music score is a mixture of repetitive sounds and banjo fused country and western, which isn’t as odd as it might be given the bizarre setting.
I enjoyed the movie, although I can’t say it’s aged well. The sudden ending, with the advert replaying in Peter’s exhausted mind (“Boy, have we got a vacation for you!”) is a strong, very seventies finish. It feels open ended.
Unfortunately, I kept wondering, as does Peter, how a tourist was supposed to recognise a robot and although it is explained in terms of the Colt 45s [sensors prevent the guns being fired at a human] it doesn’t explain the fisticuffs or sword fights where clearly one human can main another. I tried not to let it bother me, but I did keep thinking about this flaw through the whole runtime.
A nostalgia tinged ninety minutes of unfussy seventies sci-fi.
An open letter to Melissa McCarthy, after seeing her latest film, THUNDER FORCE, on Netflix:
Dear Ms. McCarthy:
You are an incredibly talented performer. You are hilarious and you have great comic timing, and you've shown in a couple of films that you have substantial dramatic chops. And I must say that in this film your scenes with Jason Bateman are fantastic--if the whole film had been about your character and his, it might have been a comedy masterpiece. But, please, for the love of God, STOP making films that are written and directed by your husband. You may love him, but he does not have your best interests at heart. He seems to think that you can carry a film despite a meandering plot, no funny jokes, and an inert supporting cast. And you've made a LOT of films with him. Please, for your own good, walk away.
Two Rode Together is a John Ford western released in 1961, starring James Stewart in the lead role, supported by Patrick Wymark. The plot revolves around white people taken captive by the Comanche, and Stewart's character, marshall Guthrie McCabe being enlisted to join a mission to recover these captives.
The film has a curious mix of rather corny, slapstick humour (especially involving a tubby cavalry sergeant played by Andy Devine) and some of the darker themes and moments that I have seen in Ford's work. Whereas a film like The Searchers does have some lighter moments, the balance of light and dark is far, far better in that film than it is in Two Rode Together.
The film was apparently not one that Ford was enthusiastic about making, and was doing it purely as a director-for-hire and for a percentage of the box-office takings. The result is unsurprisingly not one of his stronger works but I think I approached it in a mood that I wanted to have a good time watching a western, and a good time I had (I was also enjoying a bottle of good wine that may also have played into the film's favour). If I were to go back and reassess the film more critically maybe I wouldn't be so kind to it, but in the moment that I watched it I found it pretty enjoyable. However, if I was to divide the Ford movies that I have seen into 3 tiers, Two Rode Together would probably be in the bottom tier. This was the first time James Stewart and John Ford worked together and the following year they made the excellent The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
For fun I have gone and divided the 11 John Ford movies I have seen into those 3 tiers.
I've not seen Two Rode Together. It sounds a little disappointing. Ford isn't one of my favourite directors. For me he lacks panache. He'll work well with a good script, but as he lacks intuitive style, he can't do much if the foundation stones are rocky.
Take a look at How Green Was My Valley for an example of his lesser work. Island in the Sky is an unusual, documentary style effort. Avoid Cheyenne Autumn if you disliked the slapstick. It has a horrid mid-section. The Lost Patrol still holds up well today.
Liberty Valance is a fantastic western, more subversive than The Searchers, although Wayne's parts are similar, I feel.
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is an exceptional movie. Rod Steiger is excellent, Poitier is IMO even better. A very worthy Oscar winner. Incidently the Quincy Jones soundtrack is ace.
Not sure about A PASSSGE TO INDIA. Lean made some great movies - the list is too long to type - but this feels a bit like a greatest hits and bits. Alec Guinness is poorly cast and knows it. IMO it's too long. I think Ismael Merchant said he could have made it for a fraction of the cost and told it in 100 minutes. His partner James Ivory rather backed that up with HEAT AND DUST in 1982, which is IMO better.
Comments
7 men from now (1956)
This is the second western directed by Budd Boetticher I've watched and I think I'll continue. John Wayne was intended to star, but when he heard Ford was making The Searchers he offered the role to Randolph Scott. This movie revived Scott's career and he made a number of westerns with Boetticher. The director seems to do plot, tension and characters well. There are more good plot twists than westerns usually offer. In this movie he also uses the locations very well. Lee Marvin plays a significant character, the morally questionable type with a mocking smile he did so well.
I expect I'll watch my next Scott/Boetticher western soon!
Ministry of Fear (1944)
This was a really enjoyable, moody and noirish WWII espionage thriller. Ray Milland plays a man who has just got out of an asylum after he had been accused of murdering his wife. By a somewhat Hitchcockian turn of coincidence he is immediately ensnared in a Nazi spy ring operating on British soil and he spends the rest of the film trying to both uncover the mysterious organisation and also clear his name with the law for another killing which he is believed to have commited. The atmospheric sets and stylish direction and cinematography are standout elements of this film. It is directed by German master Fritz Lang, and while it is not one of the absolute best Lang films that I have seen, I have still never seen a film of his that has been disappointing. Besides Metropolis and M, most of the Lang film that I have seen are from the 1940s - Scarlet Street, The Big Heat and several other noir classics. I've still not delved much into his early work, but I really enjoy his films from this classic era of Hollywood noir.
Golrush007 said: Ministry of Fear (1944)
...based on a novel by Graham Greene!
I know I've seen the film, but remember the book more clearly. It's almost surreal with so much plot revolving round fortune tellers, seances, and insane asylums, very strange circumstances to uncover a spy ring.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Not Coppola's greatest masterpiece, but I've always liked it. The film is highly stylized, most of the time it looks like it was made around 1930. I think that's a good choice. It's both a tribute to the old movies and the style works very well with the story. Keanu Reeves is miscast in a otherwise good cast, often looking stiff and lacking screen presence. Both he and Winona Ryder were critizised for their accents. I can't help thinking the result would have been better without them. Perhaps Jonny Depp (The director's first choice) or Daniel Day-Lewis as Jonathan Harker and Helena Bonham Carter as Mina? Coppola's Dracula is still a very interesting and watchable movie.
Halloween (1978).
One of the most famous slasher movies of all time, but like with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, strangely, very restrained in showing much gore.
Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis are both very good and John Carpenter is on good early form following the brilliant Assault On Precinct 13.
Great soundtrack too.
I am probably in the minority, but I prefer Friday The 13th in the slasher stakes.
Escape From Pretoria (2020)
Based on a true story, this relates the tale of the escape from prison in South Africa of 2 ANC activists who are joined by a third when plotting their escape. The escape plan is ingenious and there are several tense scenes of possible discovery. Unfortunately, there is not enough background to the characters before they are imprisoned, but Daniel Radcliffe has turned out to be a pretty decent actor to be fair.
A worthwhile but not essential watch.
I've been curious to see this film, but haven't got around to it yet. When the trailer came out this was the butt of many jokes amongst my friends here in South Africa because the accents in the trailer sounded a bit bizarre to South African ears. Our accents seem to be quite difficult for actors from other countries to replicate without slipping into a sort of parody. I'm sure this is true for many other countries and regions though.
FREAKY, a mashup of mad slasher horror movie and body-switching comedy, with Vince Vaughn as a Jason Voorhies-like psycho killer who switches bodies with Kathryn Newton's high school loser. Surprisingly, this weird approach works very well, with Vaughn perfectly embodying (so to speak) teen angst and Newton actually menacing as the killer. FERRIS BUELLER'S Alan Ruck shows up as a nasty teacher who gets a great death scene. It's a lot of fun, but not for the squeamish.
Bumblebee
Actually, I didn't see all of this but at the time it was well reviewed as a new slant on the Transformer series, more low key with a teenage protagonist, not so macho this time round. A good 80s soundtrack, as that's when it is set, makes it a nostalgia fest for some of us.
It's okay but seems to run out of steam at some point. It's a one-gag movie really as the teen girl/woman controls the narrative but it's all about her and the Transformer which doubles as a yellow Beetle. Okay, we had Elliot and E.T. but Spielberg did that. It doesn't quite carry the film and the emotional aspects seem a bit obvious, a bit jokey. I mean, I could almost sympathise with the parents almost, giving their mopey kid a book telling her to smile (okay, it's a stepfather) but perhaps that's lockdown for you.
I mean, the school bullies are a bit obvious. That said, when you have Twitter and a bloke called Mike Royle doing his #31DayBondChallenge, that tends to be more entertaining.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Godzilla vs. Kong
I caught this on HBO Max today. The movie is pretty much what you would expect: a big. noisy, often dumb monster mash with a cast of humans who add little to the proceedings.
The plot, such that it is, has the formerly benevolent Godzilla mysteriously attacking locations in Florida and Tokyo where offices for a shady electronics corporation called Apex are located. The CEO of Apex meanwhile hires a disgraced scientist to form an expedition to have Kong lead a group of scientists and his suspicious looking daughter to the center of the Earth where they find a whole ecosystem right out of Journey to the Center of the Earth. There is supposed to be a mysterious radioactive energy source there that can stop Godzilla but of course things are not always as they seem. Better not to focus too much on the plot, you'll just get a headache.
Along the way, Godzilla becomes aware of Kong and, as there can only be one Apex titan, engages him on a couple of occasions to show him who is the number one monster. By the end of the movie Apex's intentions are revealed, a third party enters the fray and Tokyo is once again ground zero for a giant monster beatdown. The battle scenes are all well done and both Kong and Godzilla pull off some cool fighting moves. Sadly, things go downhill from there.
A game I always like to play to see if the characters were effective at all is to try to remember their names after the movie is over. The only characters I could remember were Godzilla and Kong, who show a greater range of emotion than their human co-stars, all of whom were superfluous, and in the case of three characters who are trying to figure out what Apex is up to, downright annoying to the point I was rooting for them to be incinerated (alas, my hopes were sadly dashed).
Overall it killed two hours and it held my attention but if you do watch this at home, keep the remote handy and your finger on the Fast Forward button.
Last night I sat down to watch the film 'Highlander'. I dislike all types of science fiction films and only decided to watch it because Sean Connery was in it.
I did not make it to the part where he appears before I turned off. It was I think the worst film I have ever seen!
Then you should avoid the sequels like a pandemic!
A bit of a Robert Altman double feature for me today...McCABE & MRS MILLER and NASHVILLE.
Altman is one of those Hollywood greats whose work I've never really delved into much, so both of these were first viewings for me. Both arrived on my screen with great reputations, so inevitably I had high expectations for these two films and neither disappointed at all.
McCabe & Mrs Miller is the film that has been on my radar for the longest time, as I am a big fan of the Western genre and it is film that is perenially included on 'greatest hits' lists of the genre. There was much to admire in this film, notably the much-vaunted cinematography which has a great vintage feel to it, with almost muddy, muted colours and an ever present haze which lends a feel of degraded film prints from years gone by - courtesy of some clever flash-exposure techniques. The film also features several songs from Leonard Cohen's debut album, and as a Cohen fan I enjoyed their inclusion in the film. The actors do a great job giving very believable performances, especially in the supporting roles. Julie Christie is also particularly memorable as the female lead - a London accented brothel madam with a taste for opium. Like most Westerns it climaxes in a gunfight, but little about this showdown feels typical of the genre. A great Western, and one which will comfortably take a place in my 'Top 20 Westerns' list.
Nashville is a film that I knew little about, apart from that it takes place in the world of Country music, and has a large ensemble cast. The description 'large' barely covers it. The only other films that I can think of with so many significant characters are WWII epics like The Longest Day etc. This film is almost as epic in its running time and credits list, but much more small scale in terms of the incidents which take place in the course of the narrative. It's one of those film in which not much seems to happen, yet so many little things occur throughout, giving it a sense of real life despite the seemingly exaggerated antics of many of its characters. This is a film in which quirky characters are given ample opportunity to shine, such as Jeff Goldblum's 'Tricycle Man', a memorable role despite lacking any dialogue. The worlds of music and politics are both on display in the film and play off each other in enjoyable and interesting ways. Unsurprisingly, the film also delivers some enjoyable country music - mostly delivered by Keith Carradine and Ronee Blakley's characters. A few other characters in the film are better off leaving the microphone alone. Such is the diverse tapestry of the film.
I really enjoyed both films - it's a struggle to pick a favourite between the two. Altman is a director that I will always seek out in future. Previously the Altman films that I had seen were: Countdown, M*A*S*H and Gosford Park. The next Altman works in my watch list are California Split and The Player. I also hope to see The Long Goodbye sometime soon if I can get my hands on a copy or a stream.
The Player is a great film, with an opening shot so brilliantly executed it could be the whole film itself. It's actually got a plot, unlike some of Altman's other ensemble pieces. Belongs to a subgenre of Hollywood satirizing itself.
Gosford Park I have heard was the inspiration for Downton Abbey, but as a Agatha Christie style mystery is more interesting than the similar looking soap opera. Stephen Fry is the detective, and just wait til you see how good a job he does of solving the mystery, that's a cutting social satire all on its own. I think Bob Balaban (the NBC executive character from Seinfeld) came up with the basic concept.
MASH has a great cast, and it's a pity it's now a footnote to the better known sitcom. It's much darker, more subversive. If you've never seen it, you may be surprised to find that theme song has lyrics! Catch-22 had the misfortune of coming out shortly after and being compared unfavourably.
The Long Goodbye I thought was a stinker, but that's because I'm a Raymond Chandler fan. There's many other films that more faithfully capture the Chandler experience that aren't even based directly on his books. I say its a crime to waster good Chandler on a film like this! It does include one of the single most shockingly violent acts I've ever seen in a film.
Popeye I haven't seen since it came out, I want to see it again. The very concept is so outrageous, Robin Williams is buried underneath prosthetics to look convincingly like the cartoon character. Shelly Duvall on the other hand is perfectly cast as Olive Oyl and requires no prosthetics. SCTV parodied the idea with Altman making a live action adaptation of the mediocre comic strip Henry.
There's plenty of other directors have tried to make Altman style ensemble pieces. example 1: PT Anderson's Boogie Nights is brilliant, if you can handle the subject matter. I haven't liked his other films half so much. example 2: Linklater's Dazed and Confused is not to my taste, despite my personal nostalgia for the period trappings. That 70s Show did it better.
Golrush007
I didn't want to quote your whole post re: McCabe & Mrs Miller.
This is an astounding western. Its in my Top 10 of the genre. A revisionist piece, of sorts. I agree with all your comments. I'd also add the deep sense of impending doom which inhabits the film almost from the off. You just know nothing will end well for McCabe. His relationship with Mrs Miller is one of dependency, but neither can say I Love You because both recognise the futility. Her retreat into drug hazed oblivion as McCabe walks through the snow to his death is one of the great sequences of the western genre, all hopelessness is in their dual actions of fated destiny. Altman's unfussy direction heightens the discord, you see the agony etched on the actors' faces. The messy, bloody, gunfight is a much more realistic prospect than the old fashioned quick draw. A slow tortured snow dance of death.
I need to rewatch this, it's been a few years. Last time I was lucky enough to catch it at the London BFI on the big screen and it looks, as you say, muddily devine. Wonderful stuff.
@chrisno1 I enjoyed reading your comments on the various Altman films. I remember enjoying Gosford Park, but definitely feel I should go back for a second viewing. Amongst the incredible ensemble cast, I do recall Stephen Fry being a delight as the detective. As for the Downton Abbey connection, both were written by Julian Fellowes (who also appeared in Tomorrow Never Dies of course) so unsurprising that there are some similarities and comparisons drawn between the two.
I was also interested by your comments re: The Long Goodbye. I've noticed that on Letterboxd.com, The Long Goodbye has one of the highest average user ratings of all of Altman's films. Sad to say I've never read any Chandler myself (I know I really ought to) so that would be unlikely to colour my opinion of the film much. I do have an audiobook of The Long Goodbye - I wonder if I'd be better off leaving that until after I've seen the film.
yeh your enjoyment of The Long Goodbye is probably a function of a) whether you've read Chandler and b) how faithfully you want your Chandler adapted. Without preconceptions it may be objectively a better film.
I had a big problem with Robert Mitchum's version of The Big Sleep, because it was transposed to late70s Britain (and therefor some of the key plot points (the market for pornography) were anachronistic), but otherwise it was closer in plot and tone to the source material than the Altman/Gould film. Chandler's description of a specific place and time is so specific that's what I want to see brought to life. If you've never read Chandler, start with The Big Sleep, his first novel. The Long Goodbye is I think his sixth and the author was older and (even) more worldweary by that point.
@Barbel is a Chandler fan. What's he think of the Altman/Gould The Long Goodbye?
Short version- used to hate it, have grown to like it (but not love it, except for John Williams' one-melody score).
The Mitchum version doesn't come close to the Bogart version at all. Mitchum is good (though was better in FAREWELL MY LOVELY), and it's closer to the book (strangely enough, since it's set in 70s England) but that's about it. Happy to discuss more once you've seen it.
My memories of it (OMG nearly 50 years ago now) agree with you, Gymkata- maybe someday I'll get round to watching it again, no doubt I've forgotten most of it!
the Mitchum-as-Marlowe experience was much more satisfying in Farewell My Lovely, which was set as it should be in prewar Los Angeles.
Lew Grade produced both films, I have no idea why he thought itd be a good idea to transpose such a time-and-place specific story as The Big Sleep to then-modern-day Britain. The whole plot hinges on the conceit that topless photos of women are only available in seedy backstreet shops masquerading as legitimate bookstores! did Grade never look at page 3 of his daily paper?
also, both Mitchum and the actresses playing the Sternwood sisters are a couple of decades too old for the characters.
but if you dont want to read the book, but do want to finally learn who really killed Rusty Regan, the Mitchum version will finally solve that mystery.
(I reported on both films several pages back, albeit out of order).
btw if you dont want to read seven novels and a half dozen volumes of short stories, but do want to read enough Chandler to bluff your way through conversation at dinner parties, the three to read are The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and The Long Goodbye. The others are much more rarely discussed, though The Little Sister is cool because its Chandler himself satirising his unhappy experiences in Hollywood.
Well said, totally agree.
The reason for the "Big Sleep" remake being set in then contemporary London and surroundings was simply money. Much cheaper to shoot in existing streets etc that don't need dressed up to look in-period.
The Big Sleep (1978) was directed by Michael Winner. It’s very fashionable to slate Winners filmography, but he directed many decent movies in his career, and his Sunday Times restaurant reviews were unmissable.
WESTWORLD (1973)
Spoilers likely...
A classic piece of successful science fiction from bestseller writer Michael Crichton, who also directed.
You’ll all know the story: tourists get to realise their historical fantasies until something goes horribly wrong with the once compliant robots’ programming.
The first half of the film is intriguing. A TV advert tells us what we need to know about Delos and its fabulous vacations. The following credits are so short [title, stars x3, producer, writer & director] they may as well not be there at all. Next we are scooting through the skies on a hover craft and meeting Richard Benjamin’s nervous divorcee Peter and James Brolin’s confident, single John. They both want to visit Westworld to experience life on America’s 1880s frontier. Peter ‘kills’ a gunslinger, played by Yul Brynner, who is duly mocking his role as Chris Adams from The Magnificent Seven. The Gunslinger is merely a robot and Peter relaxes into the resorts all-encompassing events and compliant robo-machines.
Meanwhile the scientists and technicians who run the resort are discovering tiny faults across the spectrum of their robotics. They equate it to a virus, a disease which is infecting the machines’ programming. This is a very forward thinking concept and has real relevance today where viruses really do transfer from machine to machine. The fact the Chief Supervisor, played by a permanently worried looking Alan Oppenheimer, tells us the technicians don’t entirely understand how the robots function because they were mainly constructed by other machines is terrifying in its simplicity and is a theme which now occurs regularly in sci-fi. The authorities realise there is a problem, but refuse to shut down the resort. This too became a sci-fi staple, that corporate greed always trumps rational behaviour.
A tense piece of film making, full of deliberate western clichés. The performances are cliched too and that helps with the familiarity. Occasionally its quite amusing. The main two protagonists play at being baffled or overconfident when required. They seem to be sharing an unspoken underlying bromance, like Butch and Sundance, and help each other into and out of various western formulae with a knowing wink to each other as well as the audience. The scenes set in Medieval World are over the top, a bit like a bad Carry On film. Ooo, no, missus, it’s Up the Chastity Belt – with Dick van Patten replacing Frankie Howard and nowhere near as funny. Yul Brynner, working for a low salary, is superb as the one note, forceful, driven Gunslinger, a redesigned 404 robot, with state of the art audio and visual receptors. This is brilliantly amplified by the pixelated screen for the Gunslinger's vision and the stamping, crunching soundtrack which replicated footsteps, heartbeats and breathing. As the Gunslinger chases down Peter, I was immediately reminded of Arnold Schwarzenegger's remorselessness in The Terminator. You’ll see the similarities.
Crichton’s very clever with his screenplay. It doesn’t expect too much of the audience. The workings of the Delos Amusement Park are revealed slowly and clearly. We understand the resort is breaking down; the manager’s don’t. The tension arises from who will discover the solution first. Ultimately nobody does. Most of the robots run out of battery power, but not before the technicians have suffocated inside their own automatically locked control centre – the virus has even infected their master computers – and almost every tourist has been slaughtered. Only Peter remains, battling an acid-scarred, flame-burnt, single-minded Gunslinger.
I wondered if Delos was deliberately, ironically, named after the Minoan island, supposedly a place of sanctuary for Greeks. There’s a brilliant shot of a fallen statue straddling a riverbed, the water splashing across the marble, trickling down the goddess’ face like tears. I also enjoyed the traditional western horseback pursuit, which was made all the more deadly by Brynner’s impassive Gunslinger, who rides past corpses without a glance, twists his whole neck to hear and see and walks with a scary, mechanical grace. The fact he’s an indestructible robot makes his inexpression all the more haunting and realistic. All the robots share a non-personality trait, yet as the virus spreads they begin to display aspects of genuine human emotion: revenge, fear, avarice and pain. Are the robot’s becoming human? The film doesn’t have many flashes of insight. Is Crichton deftly warning us about wish fulfilment? He’s certainly warning us about corporate greed, but the message is rather lost among the standard shootouts, fights and chases. The movie uses the MGM backlot for the sets and has up-to-scratch production values without ever being startlingly brilliant. The music score is a mixture of repetitive sounds and banjo fused country and western, which isn’t as odd as it might be given the bizarre setting.
I enjoyed the movie, although I can’t say it’s aged well. The sudden ending, with the advert replaying in Peter’s exhausted mind (“Boy, have we got a vacation for you!”) is a strong, very seventies finish. It feels open ended.
Unfortunately, I kept wondering, as does Peter, how a tourist was supposed to recognise a robot and although it is explained in terms of the Colt 45s [sensors prevent the guns being fired at a human] it doesn’t explain the fisticuffs or sword fights where clearly one human can main another. I tried not to let it bother me, but I did keep thinking about this flaw through the whole runtime.
A nostalgia tinged ninety minutes of unfussy seventies sci-fi.
An open letter to Melissa McCarthy, after seeing her latest film, THUNDER FORCE, on Netflix:
Dear Ms. McCarthy:
You are an incredibly talented performer. You are hilarious and you have great comic timing, and you've shown in a couple of films that you have substantial dramatic chops. And I must say that in this film your scenes with Jason Bateman are fantastic--if the whole film had been about your character and his, it might have been a comedy masterpiece. But, please, for the love of God, STOP making films that are written and directed by your husband. You may love him, but he does not have your best interests at heart. He seems to think that you can carry a film despite a meandering plot, no funny jokes, and an inert supporting cast. And you've made a LOT of films with him. Please, for your own good, walk away.
Sincerely,
Hardyboy
TWO RODE TOGETHER
Two Rode Together is a John Ford western released in 1961, starring James Stewart in the lead role, supported by Patrick Wymark. The plot revolves around white people taken captive by the Comanche, and Stewart's character, marshall Guthrie McCabe being enlisted to join a mission to recover these captives.
The film has a curious mix of rather corny, slapstick humour (especially involving a tubby cavalry sergeant played by Andy Devine) and some of the darker themes and moments that I have seen in Ford's work. Whereas a film like The Searchers does have some lighter moments, the balance of light and dark is far, far better in that film than it is in Two Rode Together.
The film was apparently not one that Ford was enthusiastic about making, and was doing it purely as a director-for-hire and for a percentage of the box-office takings. The result is unsurprisingly not one of his stronger works but I think I approached it in a mood that I wanted to have a good time watching a western, and a good time I had (I was also enjoying a bottle of good wine that may also have played into the film's favour). If I were to go back and reassess the film more critically maybe I wouldn't be so kind to it, but in the moment that I watched it I found it pretty enjoyable. However, if I was to divide the Ford movies that I have seen into 3 tiers, Two Rode Together would probably be in the bottom tier. This was the first time James Stewart and John Ford worked together and the following year they made the excellent The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
For fun I have gone and divided the 11 John Ford movies I have seen into those 3 tiers.
Tier 1:
The Searchers
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Fort Apache
Stagecoach
Tier 2:
My Darling Clementine
Sergeant Rutledge
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Rio Grande
Tier 3:
Two Rode Together
The Horse Soldiers
Donovan's Reef
I'll look for the tier 1 + 2 movies I haven't watched already. Thanks!
Golrush007
I've not seen Two Rode Together. It sounds a little disappointing. Ford isn't one of my favourite directors. For me he lacks panache. He'll work well with a good script, but as he lacks intuitive style, he can't do much if the foundation stones are rocky.
Take a look at How Green Was My Valley for an example of his lesser work. Island in the Sky is an unusual, documentary style effort. Avoid Cheyenne Autumn if you disliked the slapstick. It has a horrid mid-section. The Lost Patrol still holds up well today.
Liberty Valance is a fantastic western, more subversive than The Searchers, although Wayne's parts are similar, I feel.
Thanks for the post
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is an exceptional movie. Rod Steiger is excellent, Poitier is IMO even better. A very worthy Oscar winner. Incidently the Quincy Jones soundtrack is ace.
Not sure about A PASSSGE TO INDIA. Lean made some great movies - the list is too long to type - but this feels a bit like a greatest hits and bits. Alec Guinness is poorly cast and knows it. IMO it's too long. I think Ismael Merchant said he could have made it for a fraction of the cost and told it in 100 minutes. His partner James Ivory rather backed that up with HEAT AND DUST in 1982, which is IMO better.