I'll Be Back Here...

in a few days. I was busy with other things and now I'll still be rewatching old movies for the sake of Letterboxd. So, I'll be back hopefully by the end of the week or the weekend at the latest.

Psycho III

Psycho III (1986)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Anthony Perkins

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Diana Scarwald, Jeff Fahey, Roberta Maxwell

From: Universal

If you didn't know, my review for Psycho II is right below this one. I saw this last night and at least I can say it's average. See why in my Letterboxd review below:

Last night I finished my run of watching the theatrical Psycho movies by seeing the third film in the series, the one directed by Anthony Perkins himself, one of only two where he sat in that chair. I had only seen it once before-years ago-and I did not think it was too good. Seeing it again, I can rate it as average, but nothing more than that.

The plot: Norman is back to his old ways. He meets up with a drifter (Jeff Fahey in a wacky performance) who ends up working at the Bates Motel. He also meets up with a former nun who looks a lot like Marion Crane and that naturally causes problems with his mind. Then, a female reporter starts investigating him, as unlike many of the dumb citizens of Fairvale-including law enforcement-when strange things start happening again he isn't the number one suspect.

I can't fault the direction of Perkins, who was also great as always as old Norman. There were some nice arty shots. The macabre humor was usually pretty amusing. The weirdness at least kept my attention. A nude Jeff Fahey moving around two lamps in a fancy manner... strange. The general idea of Norman falling in love and the story told throughout all three movies of him being such a tragic character because of the messed up family he was part of... that was nice.

Unfortunately, I wish this movie would have been longer for the story it was trying to tell, there were some dopey moments, and the 80's slasher stuff of those topless women and graphic gore seemed out of place. I am not quite sure why Katt Shea's character was killed when all she did was sit on the toilet and go to the bathroom. It is interesting how Ms. Shea later became a director and an acting coach and her films were such exploitation movies as the two Stripped to Kill flicks, Poison Ivy... and yeah, The Rage: Carrie 2. Anyhow, they managed to fit in some stereotypical 80's A-holes you commonly saw in slashers of the time, and minor spoiler, more of those doofuses should have been slaughtered. That's the uneven nature of this picture.

Still, at least I can rate it average and that makes it better than many 80's slashers... and too many horror sequels, for that matter.

Psycho II

Psycho II (1983)

Runtime: 113 minutes

Directed by: Richard Franklin

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Robert Loggia, Meg Tilly, Dennis Franz

From: Universal

I was going to put this up yesterday but I was too busy. So, I am doing this now and tonight I'll post my review for Psycho III. The reason why I rate II highly is below in my Letterboxd review:

This is a movie I had seen once before, but it was a long while ago so needless to say I never reviewed it. Viewing it for a second time last night, it turned out that I had only remembered a small bit of it; how I forgot about the hilariously sleazy character that Dennis Franz played, I am not quite sure, but I did. To think that this movie came about because Universal got mad at Robert Bloch (author of the novel upon which Psycho was based on) did a sequel years later which skewered Hollywood filmmaking, so they decided to create their own unrelated Psycho II.

Since the previous night I saw the original on the big screen, it made perfect sense to watch this the night after. It thankfully was better than I had remembered, although it is a little far-fetched, and not just how most of the town is not too up in arms about a crazed killer like Norman Bates being released from a mental hospital, even after 22 years and even after having been said to be “cured”. Marion Crane's sister Lila certainly Anyhow, Norman tries to acclimate to life back in public; who knows what he thought of the Ms. Pac-Man arcade machine at the diner he works at. This is where he meets a young waitress named Mary and they become pals. Strange things then begin happening and Norman starts to wonder if he's losing his mind again.

The movie's updated for the 80's so you have such things as slasher elements, nudity and graphic moments. But it's still a suspenseful tale and while it's not a classic like the original, I did like it a lot. The talent in front and behind the camera is quality: Jerry Goldsmith did the score, Dean Cundey the cinematography, it was written by Tom Holland and the director was a huge Hitchcock fan who got to know the legendary director personally. I have seen a few films from the late Richard Franklin and eventually I'll review both Road Games and Cloak & Dagger for this site, as I like them both. Here, he mirrors his idol pretty well.

It was nice to see familiar faces like Franz and Robert Loggia, but it is Perkins in his most famous role and Meg Tilly as Mary that make the movie. Both do a tremendous job. As I said before they become pals; it's not that way at first but eventually she does care about Norman. Besides the obvious age difference, it is nice that it's just a friendship and it isn't a cliché romance sort of thing. Unfortunately the two ended up not getting along in real life after an inadvertent slight on her part but on screen they are a solid and interesting duo.

There are various fun twists & turns through the almost 2 hour runtime that never feels so long as the movie took its time and that was the right decision. It may seem weird to sympathize with a character like Norman Bates but the film does so and it is an approach that works. In short, this is far better than what you'd expect for a 2 decade plus sequel made after a legendary original motion picture. I certainly have no faith that Hollywood could do it correctly today.

I Am Still Rewatching Old Movies...

... and I took a break of a few days so that's why I haven't written anything here for longer than usual. I will continue that trend for the next few days but I hope to pop up here like on Friday or so.

What I am doing tonight is seeing Psycho '98... but only for Letterboxd reasons.

Hatari!

Hatari! (1962)

Runtime: 157 minutes

Directed by: Howard Hawks

Starring: John Wayne, Hardy Kruger, Elsa Martinelli, Red Buttons, Gerald Blain

From: Paramount

I did in fact watch another Wayne movie last night for a reason; tonight I'll see another one by him so I figured it made sense to go with 3 in a row. I have actually seen this long film before; I explain it all in my Letterboxd review below: 

As tonight I'll be watching another John Wayne film, I figured I might as well see a motion picture from him 3 nights in a row and I borrowed a copy of this from someone I know; I actually have watched this movie before but that was way back when in the 1990's, when a grandparent had it on VHS; Paramount actually had it on two cassettes. I know the movie's long at 157 minutes but I was surprised they did not put it on a super-long tape. BTW, what memories I have of watching something so long it required two tapes.

Anyhow, this movie is set and filmed in what is now known as Tanzania; back then the territory of Tanganyika; I laughed when the beginning of the film had a note thanking the country, its citizens “and its animals”, as if the latter had the choice in appearing here. You see, this is about the now long-dated practice of people wrangling animals and shipping them elsewhere to be in zoos. Even back in the 90's I was told by a parent how outdated this was and how it's “not right”. These days in the era of hatred for places like Sea World (and a few even hate zoos altogether, which I think is an ignorant view but this is neither the time nor place to discuss that) it especially looks not good. If you watch this and decide to root for the animals that is OK.

However, I am able to set aside such things and I enjoy this for what it is... which is a tale of some wacky characters (not all of whom have enlightened views of women) and seeing them in an exotic setting and all the romantic entanglements that happen not only with the lady that's been there all the time because she's the daughter of a guy they used to work with, but with another lady that suddenly enters the picture.

I can't rate this as great or a classic (there are definitely Howard Hawks productions out there that those labels can be attached to) but I am still pretty entertained by this piece of work. The tone is light and breezy-even if the title means “danger” in Swahili-so there are many humorous moments throughout-the score from Henry Mancini matches it-especially from the character played by Red Buttons. When the animal wrangling does happen it's pretty exciting. Even back then they were smart enough to realize some people may have reservations about the storyline so they included some cute animals, including more than one baby elephant.

To me it was nice to see the country of Tanzania, as I don't know too much about it, past or present. It's mostly the countryside but a few minutes are set in the city of Arusha. It's a production from this time period so it's no surprise that those who live in the country don't have any major roles and they're background players, but luckily aside from one awkward moment there's no objectionable moments of racism or prejudice. While I don't know the customs of the tribes of the area, I presume that none of them would dress a non-native person in their garb AND dye their skin black... it's just a presumption, though.

Thankfully that's one short moment in a long movie and overall, while it's not a must-see if you're a fan of The Duke (unless you must see him speak phrases in Swahili) it's still an entertaining diversion.

They Were Expendable

They Were Expendable (1945)

Runtime: 135 minutes

Directed by: John Ford

Starring: Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Jack Holt, Ward Bond, Donna Reed

From: MGM

Note that I have another review I posted just minutes before, down below this one.

This is a random film I watched late last night on TCM and I am glad I did as it's great. I explain why in the Letterboxd review below:

I realized recently I should be watching Turner Classic Movies more often so that is what I decided on doing last night and as I need to see more films from the John's (Ford and Wayne) I decided to check this out, even though it was on late at night. I am glad I did.

This is a World War II movie made while it was still going on but it came out after the war was done and over with. It is about the Navy in the Philippines and the small yet effective PT boats in particular. It's not a glamorous look at the time; the movie is full of veterans in front or behind the camera (including director Ford, who made sure to remind Wayne that he never served) so I presume that this bleak examination of how things were-while fictionalized-was at least somewhat accurate as to how full of strife things could be, where the crew behind those PT boats were made to be cannon fodder and they were mainly used to assist those higher up in command or those squadrons which were on top of them in the food chain.

If you don't know World War II history that well, the United States in that country did not have a lot of success. There's a brief romance with The Duke and Donna Reed but it's not the typical of what you'd expect of the time (whether it's a war picture or not); it's mainly used as another example of how miserable life in the troops can be.

But don't let me paint an inaccurate description of what this movie is. Sure it is a stark look at things but it doesn't mean it's not an inspiring look at those brave souls that were in an almost hopeless situation. The cast does a swell job, especially other lead Robert Montgomery, who really serve on a PT boat in the war, so you could not cast better than that. Even if there was friction on set and Ford did break his leg in an accident late in production-leading to Montgomery himself doing some directing-you wouldn't be able to tell by what you see on screen.

The movie is a great production all around; the Florida Keys do make for a nice substitution for the real thing. Of course Ford does a masterful job in making this-something that had to have a lot of meaning for him as a veteran-but I wanted to mention the cinematography from Joseph H. August; it is outstanding, greatly shot by him; there are plenty of scenes shot in the dark so it allowed for light to be used in creative ways and it certainly was the case from Ford and August.

While this may not be one of the most famous motion pictures concerning that war, it may be one of the best.

Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Dominique Othenin-Girard

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Wendy Foxworth, Tamra Glynn, Jeffrey Landman

From: Trancas International Films

It made sense to see this so soon after the 4th film. My memories of this being worse than 4 were correct. Read why below in my Letterboxd review:

As I saw the fourth film on Sunday night and they're so closely related, I figured I should give this a spin on Monday night. In the review for the 4th, I mentioned that I once saw that and this on the big screen back in like '07. I remembered 5 being worse than 4 and now I am certain this is true. It is clear in hindsight that they did rush this into production and when you start off a picture without the script fully finished... typically you're asking for trouble.

The film starts up a year after the ending of the last one; little Jamie Lloyd is in a state home due to what happened in the last movie; the creepy ending of that is touched upon, but they don't go that direction, which is something the main actors involved said they disagreed with. Instead, we get the same old same old, for the most part. Sure, Jamie now has some sort of wacky telepathy with her crazy uncle Michael Myers but otherwise it's a standard slasher which happened to not only come out in the twilight of the slasher era.

The movie's not completely worthless. There's some decent acting (especially from Pleasence as the now deranged and obsessed Dr. Loomis and Danielle Harris), a few moments are effective and The Shape is at times creepy like he was in the original film. Yet overall the movie is not good. The plot is more nonsense and while there's such nice unintentional comedy as seeing The Shape unmasked-even if it's always sort of obscured-and realizing he's just an average random dude, the late 80's clothing and music and seeing Myers drive around a bitchin' late 60's Camaro for longer than I had remembered, it's not gleefully stupid like the 4th movie is. And as for those two bumbling cops who have their own circus music-like theme... the less said about them, the better.

The ending, I understand was literally proposed by one of the screenwriters and they went with it even though none of them-including that screenwriter-knew where it would go from there... and we saw what they went with for the 6th movie. While I did not give this movie a high grade, it still has more good than most of the entries in the franchise to follow. I know that with the back half of these films I will experience a world of pain and misery for the most part so I will try to delay in watching those.

Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Dwight H. Little

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, George P. Wilbur, Beau Starr

From: Trancas International Films

While it wasn't the plan a few weeks ago, I decided to continue on the quest of going through the Halloween franchise and this was the next on the list. I once saw this on the big screen after the fact, but I'll explain all that and why this is great unintentional comedy in my Letterboxd review below:

Remember how I said it would be awhile (like October) before I continued watching the Halloween films again?

I lied.

After a break of almost a week I decided I should continue on the quest of watching horror flicks up to Halloween, so I might as well watch the next Halloween film as I go through the Blu set I got recently; it happened to be this one, something I last saw back in like '07; I believe it was Cinedigm who held screenings across the country one night where this and the 5th one were shown back to back. While appropriate to see them one right after the other, I always thought it was random to screen those movies almost 20 years after the fact as I never thought 4 and 5 had a lot of fans. I remember there was more than a few people there, though.

Viewing it again last night, technically rating this at 2 ½ is being generous. This tale of Michael and Dr. Loomis (them surviving the end of II is rather preposterous) returning and Mr. Myers going after the young daughter of the late Laurie Strode is pretty dopey and makes little sense far too often. The Shape pops up and disappears at totally random moments, and also can teleport all across Haddonfield. The general idea of little Jamie Lloyd having to live with a foster family and having a big sis who is a teenager and acts like a moody teenager is fine; it's just that the overall execution isn't great, despite a chilling ending that of course wasn't really follwed

At first I presumed that because it was the late 80's that's why there was little gore and most of the kills are of the tame and off screen variety... when actually they just filmed it that way and they realized they screwed up so they brought in famed 80's horror special effects maestro John Carl Buechler to add the few moments of bloody carnage.

Yet, this movie I found to be unintentionally hilarious often, and not just for the stupidity of the plot. It was moments such as:

* There being a band of beer-drinking rednecks who decide to form a posse to go after The Shape... I used to live in Illinois and yeah, there actually were people around who were like these characters! I've seen it with my own eyes.

* Characters such as Brady and Wade were hilarious in their 80's-ness and how they acted like such douchey teens. Wade's mullet was pretty spectacular, though.

* Lindsey (who at first they wanted to be the girl that Laurie ended up babysitting in the original) was amazing in her 80's hair and dress.

* That character who said he was a preacher... what a strange dude and what a strange character to have randomly for a 2 minute scene.

* I was personally amused by the young boy who wore a M.A.S.K outfit for Halloween.

But to me the most hilarious thing was something I never noticed before. How that scene at the gas station/restaurant ends is astounding for several reasons. But before that, as you follow around Donald Pleasence (who of course delivers the best performance in the picture) in the restaurant, I guess the filmmakers wanted to remind us that even though it was obviously filmed in California that this is supposed to be set in Illinois, so to accomplish this they decided to fill the wall with pictures of a famous Illinois resident... and the first person that came to mind was ABRAHAM LINCOLN. I never saw any walls in any establishment filled with photos of Honest Abe in all the years I lived in the Land of Lincoln.

So, what a film. It's great for laughs. How I did not realize how dopey it was back when I saw it on the big screen... I am not quite sure. I can tell you that the 5th one isn't as good, so I am not looking too forward to seeing that again.

I Watched Fury Road Again...

last night on an IMAX screen and in 3D and well... my controversial against the grain opinion hasn't changed. The action, score and cinematography are all still rad. The characters with those stupid names, Max being a raging A-hole in the first act, those unexplained dopey flashbacks, the trying way too hard to be "cool" story... I don't like those elements at all, so despite what the rest of the world things, I don't like the movie overall.

I Review Attack Of the Clones

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)

Runtime: 142 minutes

Directed by: You Know Who

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Christopher Lee, Ian McDiarmid

From: 20th Century Fox

Yep, I am finally reviewing a movie I have seen a few times in my life... and hopefully won't be watching again anytime soon. I think it's pretty bad. The Letterboxd review explaining why is below: 

As it's only about 3 months until Episode VII comes out and I was only halfway through rewatching the previous six films, I figured it was about time I saw this one, which I say is the worst one; I am not talking about such things as that one Clone Wars movie based off of the TV series; this is just bad, and I rightfully dreaded seeing this again.

As everyone knows the plot, I won't go over that... except to say that the Red Letter Media reviews of the prequels do a great job of explaining all the faults with them. I'll never comprehend the Mr. Plinkett character, why he's so off-putting, or why seemingly most people think the “humor” surrounding the character being a serial killer and abuser of woman is “funny”, but besides that tremendously stupid stuff (which has turned off more than one person I know) those reviews are worth watching and listening to as they bring up many of the issues with the prequels in general, including things that had never crossed my mind before.

I don't want to parrot those reviews and while I could probably write a dissertation on all the problems that are present, I won't; so I'll try to be brief here. The plot throughout the entire prequels is bad, and that is really the case here. Trying to untie that Gordian Knot is not even worth the effort. It's nonsensical and you really don't care about what happens here, about the mysterious creation of clones, or anything else. You certainly don't like Obi-Wan and Anakin and how they constantly bicker like an old married couple and the future Darth Vader is a whiny emo brat, which is quite the insult to the character.

Then there's the romance between Anakin and Padme... we've all laughed about it and how God-awful it was. What a goofy and strange view George Lucas has of romance and how he thinks a budding couple fall in love and act around each other. Him writing dialogue hasn't been great even in his best movies and here it's appalling, between Skywalker talking about not liking sand because it's coarse and rough and his deranged ranting & raving about slaughtering that tribe of Tusken Raiders. By the way, what a catch that Anakin is between that and his proclaiming of “Oh, a dictatorship sounds like a great form of government!” Why exactly did she fall in love with him?

This movie's quite bad but it's not completely worthless. Some of the images you see in the background are cool but pretty much all of the movie is greenscreened and on Blu in 2015 it doesn't always look great and then there's the issue of how it seems too busy and at times it's a cacophony of sight & sound, to the point it's too much for your brain to process. Both Christopher Lee and Ian McDiarmid do well with what they were given. The John Williams score is pretty much. However, much of this motion picture is still rubbish.

But at least now it will be a very long time before I decide to give this bad movie another spin.

Gold Diggers of 1933

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy

Starring: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell

From: Warner Bros

Yes, I have finally returned. For the foreseeable future I'll post here more often than not. In the Letterboxd review below I explain why I picked this particular motion picture:

Last night I realized I needed a change of pace from what I had been watching the past several weeks, so the remedy being a Busby Berkeley musical sounded like a pretty good tonic to me. I am a nerd so I had heard of the Gold Diggers series of films from way back when, but this is the first one that I had ever seen.

The plot isn't too complex: The Great Depression has hit the theatre industry pretty hard and chorus girls for big Broadway shows are suffering. Suddenly, a well-regarded director comes up with the idea to do a production about the Depression, and one of the gaggle of chorus girls you follow happens to have a boyfriend that keeps his past a secret but he does write and sing quality music, so he's hired. His past comes back to haunt him, but it's not anything serious or is impossible to fix... this is light fluffy escapist entertainment.

In this day and age the story may appear to be full of cliché and antiquated ideas. Yet I was fine with that as I was still entertained by the cast and the characters, from the dames (Ruby Keeler, Ginger Rogers, Joan Blondell, and Aline MacMahon, an entertainer I had never heard of before but she was great as the most sarcastic of the bunch) to the guys (Dick Powell, Warren William, Guy Kibbee, etc.), and there is great dialogue all around. Also, as this was still Pre-Code, there were plenty of risque moments; after all, one of the musical numbers was to a song called Petting in the Park, and it is the “heavy petting” sort of thing.

As I stated already this movie's world (and real life) was The Great Depression and it's a key part of the film, the contrast between the poor and the rich, who aren't portrayed in the highest light, at least at first. It should be no surprise that the first musical number happens right away and it's We're in the Money, a song many have heard but likely only few know is from this motion picture. All four of the numbers done by Berkeley are excellent, whether it's the music or the choreography of those elaborate movements, all done with the bulky cameras of the time. As it entertained those people who desperately wanted to forget about their real life struggles and want to live vicariously through these people, it can entertain people today due to it's humor, music, and fancy stage productions.

Yep...

still either relaxing or watching again older films. I saw Let the Right One In last night and it's still an incredible movie. Again I won't be watching anything new tonight so again, check back here in a few days.

I'm Still Rewatching...

movies I have seen and reviewed here already. I don't know how much longer this will continue so check back here in a few days.