Battle Beyond The Stars

Battle Beyond the Stars(1980)

Runtime: 104 minutes

Directed by: Jimmy T. Murakami

Starring: Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, John Saxon (RIP), George Peppard, Sybil Danning

From: New World Pictures

It seemed fitting to tip my cap to the late John Saxon by seeing a low budget B-movie he had a big role in. After all, that was the bread and butter of his career; it was always a pleasant sight seeing him in something, no matter the movie's overall quality. Thankfully, most of the movies I've seen him in have been at the very least enjoyable trash. The poliziotteschi and giallo had entertainment value, although they were not something like A Nightmare on Elm Street or Enter the Dragon. Nevertheless, I was saddened to hear of him passing away last weekend.

This movie was also chosen because it “borrowed” the story both from Seven Samurai and its American remake The Magnificent Seven for a space adventure that was in vogue at the time. For a Roger Corman movie it had a big budget... although a lot of that went to hire the likes of Robert Vaughn and George Peppard. The cast has other familiar faces-Sybil Danning, Darlanne Fluegel, Earl Boen, Julia Duffy and even as an “alien extra” the divisive Kathy Griffin. Behind the camera were some names that would soon become pretty big: this was where James Cameron would start his career and as various people quit the production he did more and more. Thus, that was why he did the miniatures, was an additional director of photography, and was an art director. He took the last one without even knowing what it entailed. His hours were so long that he often slept at the studio. But this was where he met quite a few people... Gale Ann Hurd, Boen, and James Horner (this was the first big score he did) were the most notable ones. Cameron already knew Bill Paxton, who he got hired to work on the sets as he did not have a job at the time. To think that all those people would work together on some 80's and 90's classics because they all met together on a random Roger Corman movie.

As for Battle Beyond the Stars, it's a cheesy good time. Saxon played the bad guy, a real A-hole who wants to conquer the peaceful planet of Akir, where its residents are known as Akira... a nice nod there. One guy is charged with finding mercenaries and what a motely crue he found. There is Danning as a “Valkyri” warrior, a clone race in all white (including white makeup) and a third eye painted on their foreheads where the main clone is Boen, an alien wanting revenge, a cowboy known as Space Cowboy, Vaughn as a great gun for hire... I'll give credit to the movie for having all those different species and all possessing different beliefs and having different spaceships. Also, you guys haven't lived until you've seen Boen in that getup eat a hot dog wiener without a bun.

The script is from John Sayles so naturally it is light in tone and there are humorous moments sprinkled throughout. For all the effects being done in-house (and they are plentiful) they mostly look real good. I'll give Cameron and everyone else credit for bringing these alien worlds to life. It is a fun space opera where you have action scenes-both on the ground and in space-a bit of romance, drama, revenge, pathos... it was a good time. The fact that sometimes there were Kurosawa-style screen wipes was appreciated by me. In addition, I dug James Horner's score-although as others have noted, it at times sounded quite a bit like what he would do later for Krull and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable this turned out to be. It also ripped off Star Wars and Alien (the hero's ship has a sassy AI named NELL instead of a serious one named MUTHR) yet it all combined together to form B-movie goodness. During the Halloween season I'll view at least one movie featuring Saxon but for now this did the job.

Twilight Zone: The Movie

Twilight Zone: The Movie(1983)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: John Landis/Steven Spielberg/Joe Dante/George Miller

Starring: A cast full of famous faces

From: Warner Bros.

Where do I even begin with this?

It's a comment that had to be made; a novel worth of words could be written by me about the movie and why it is still infamous today. From the past I know that not everyone is familiar with what I am referring to, but that elephant in the room will be addressed later. Until last night the movie hadn't been seen in many years, and it's also been a long time for the original television series. The subsequent reboots-including the new Jordan Peele one-have not been seen by me at all. In other words, the movie will be judged on its own merits rather than be compared to the Rod Serling classic series... those comparisons are invited as three of the segments are remakes of old episodes.

The prologue and the first segment Time Out are original works from John Landis. The prologue manages to work because it stars Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks & demonstrated how people throughout the years have talked about their favorite Twilight Zone episodes. Also, they sing along to the Creedence version of The Midnight Special, which is great.

Time Out: The segment that is the source of controversy-unfortunately it is still relevant in 2020. Vic Morrow plays a bigot businessman who is pissed he is passed up for a promotion and he says some vile things about Blacks, Asian-Americans and Jewish people, none of which I will repeat here. He also brags about “being an American”... insert your own political comments if you wish. He then is in a nightmare where he is in the bodies of those minorities. This could have been more if not for real life-yet it does have a nice message & demonstrates how horrible life can be for minorities. Apparently this was going to cut more between the different time periods but as is... content-wise not the worst segment. That goes to...

Kick the Can: In more than one horror anthology I have seen before, there has been a segment which is not really horror and instead is mainly in another genre. However, here there is nothing scary at all and is sweet saccharine crap. While old people shouldn't sit around being all miserable waiting to die, this was just lame and does not even have the bitter ending the episode this was inspired by had. Not even Scatman Crothers could save this; the fact that he plays a stereotype is unfortunate. It was like the worst instincts of Spielberg were all present here.

It's a Good Life: This is where business picks up. Joe Dante transforms this into a living cartoon. As it is Joe Dante, he must have had the time of his life creating such a world with such colorful production design and bizarre moments. The tone overall is unsettling-there are also frightening moments. Another director trademark is the appearances of Dick Miller and Kevin McCarthy. Also, what a fate for the Ethel character because she was played by Nancy Cartwright.

Terror at 20,000 Feet: This is one of the most famous episodes of the show; George Miller does an admirable job of amping things up and creating some great-and terrifying-moments from the lead character-petrified of air travel-on an airplane and only he sees a gremlin on the wing. No one is quite like Shatner when it comes to acting performances but John Lithgow delivered arguably the best performance in the entire film... constantly nerve-wracked and sweaty.

For those unaware, what may turn you off from this despite its highlights... late July of 1982, Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le & Renee Shin-Yi Chin were killed on set during a scene set in late 60's Vietnam. The whole story is on sites like Wikipedia but Landis violated numerous laws by filming a dangerous scene involving a helicopter and lots of explosions. All three died in a horrific manner; Landis and four others were tried for manslaughter; while acquitted they lost a civil suit and people can get mad that soon after the trial, he was allowed to direct a big hit in Coming to America. I can still enjoy some Landis movies (like The Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London) but Max is not the only one in the family that people can loathe for his actions. Despite some subsequent bad accidents and deaths that have happened on sets, the fallout from this created more regulations that have allowed for safer sets and lessen situations where directors act tyrannical & put everyone's safety at risk for the sake of “a big moment.”

The rating only reflects what was shown on screen and not the tragedy surrounding the movie. To think that Spielberg and Landis produced this-they were friends, although needless to say that friendship ended in 1982-yet it was Joe Dante and George Miller that delivered the best segments. There is a nice score from Jerry Goldsmith which is fitting for all the different segments. Plus, there are famous faces throughout and it is fitting that Burgess Meredith was the narrator-after all he starred in another legendary episode of Rod Serling's show. That show is overall better than the movie and should be watched by everyone... me included.

I'll close this out by noting: despite recent events that happened to me, I was fine with Kick the Can's premise of old people living in a rest home. At least it was not a hospice... perhaps more prescient for me is Terror at 20,000 Feet as a week from today I will have flown out of state and I haven't been on an airplane since December of 2009. Luckily, flying has never been an issue with me.

The Last Shark

The Last Shark (L'ultimo Squalo) (1981)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Enzo G. Castellari

Starring: James Franciscus, Vic Morrow, and some random Italian actors

From: Several Italian and American companies

Even in the realm of Italian genre films, this was a blatant rip-off.

In fact, when this was released in the United States, Universal sued because it was too similar to Jaws (and as I discovered once I saw the movie, Jaws 2 was also lifted); after a few weeks, they found a judge who agreed so it did not have a full theatrical run. If it wasn't for that footnote, many likely would have forgotten about this random cashgrab based on something popular from Hollywood... Italian film loved doing that for decades, and God bless them for that as some of those were tremendously entertaining.

This, it only gets an OK rating from me but there are some hilarious moments, especially in the final act as it gets real stupid. An author named Peter Benchley... er I mean Peter Benton and a sea captain named Ron Hamer (instead of Quint) are after the titular creature. It is said to be 35 feet long, although the critter often changes appearance and size throughout as none of the stock footage matches each other, let alone is matched to the model they created. To be fair it does not look bad for the low budget and if you want to see some gruesome moments, the creature does do that. Still, there are some effects that have aged rather poorly-at least those made me chuckle. A positive is a groovy score from personal favorites of mine, Guido and Maurizio De Angelis; they are great at catchy soundtracks... not to mention tunes that are earworms.

Of course there is the town's mayor (Wells) that does the wrong thing; here, he is running for the governorship of Georgia (one scene makes it clear they filmed part of this in Savannah, even if that was never explicitly said in the film) and instead of the 4th of July, it is... a regatta event highlighted by a windsurfing competition. At least Wells tries to take precautions that include a giant net around the cove which proves to not be enough. Honestly, this could be an even better pandemic parable than Jaws itself.

Anyhow, that event is where the dumb teenagers come in, and of course one of them is the kid of our lead (James Franciscus) and another is the mayor's son. That's why I brought up Jaws 2. This was dopey yet was alright overall and IMO are overall better than Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge. Not that those are high bars to jump over...

Vic Morrow played Ron Hamer; whether it was by accident or by design, he reminded me a lot of Edward G. Robinson's lead turn in 1932's Tiger Shark; there he played a Portuguese sea captain of a tuna fishing vessel who spoke with an accent that like with Hamer can be best described as “vaguely foreign.” As someone else noted here, the movie has the misfortune of featuring helicopters in several scenes... I know not everyone knows that tragic tale; sometime soon Twilight Zone: The Movie will be reviewed so that can be discussed. As for The Last Shark (sometimes referred to as Great White) it is an acceptable slice of B-movie cheese.

Sensation Of The Century

This was an interesting curio I saw last night: 

Even among film fans, how many knew that the organizing committee for the 1964 Summer Olympics were so displeased with Tokyo Olympiad that they commissioned a pair of directors (Hiroshi Maeda, Tatsuji Yamagishi) to use the same pool of footage to create a more matter of fact chronicle of the games... and of course add in a healthy dose of nationalism, as most of the early Olympic films did. The score-when present-is also more traditional-It does seem superfluous, especially considering that some-though not all-of the new footage here also appears as a special feature (over 80 minutes long) that is both on the disc version and is a bonus on the Criterion Channel page for Tokyo Olympiad.

All that said, this is still fine. While the Olympic Torch relay and opening ceremonies are even longer (over 35 minutes) there are more sports covered, more winners are shown and identified, & the highlights are still covered; this is fine and was an easy watch despite being almost as long as Olympiad. It's just that in comparison most film fans won't give a damn about this as they will much prefer the more artistic usage of the footage. For example, the marathon is presented as is and the clips which demonstrate how grueling a marathon is... that was excised. The last sporting event presented was women's volleyball as that was a surprise victory for the host nation.

Judging by Letterboxd and IMDb, not too many have viewed Sensation of the Century; I am thankful Criterion included it in their box set release of the Olympic films. If nothing else, it was a rare opportunity in the movie world to compare and contrast two different versions of the same story or subject.

Aladdin (Don't Worry, Not Last Year's Remake)

Aladdin (1992)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: Ron Clements/John Musker

Starring: The voices of Scott Weinger, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Robin Williams

From: Disney

This was viewed on Friday night but circumstances dictated that I talk about it today. This was only seen once before, and that was probably sometime in '93 on VHS; the only part of the movie that was retained in my memory: the over the top vocals & matching animation from Robin Williams. As an adult, he was even more over the top than I recalled and the movie was sillier than expected, yet it still works for what it is.

While a Disneyfied version of a story from the series of Arabian folktales known as One Thousand and One Nights. It's a traditional tale where a “street rat” and a princess fall in love, only to deal with an evil royal vizier named Jafar. Nice life lessons are taught to the kids, such as “be true to yourself instead of lying to impress someone.” Both the hero and the villain have a comedy pet sidekick.

Big assets are the lovely animation-aside from the appearance of the Sultan; as others have noted, his skin color is not the same throughout-great music and songs that people still remember today, and a story that does not become too silly or overbearing. It takes awhile for the Genie to show up and that's for the best as you don't want too much of such a wild character. Even Gilbert Gottfried as Jafar's parrot buddy was not an aggravation in the worst ways. It was a fun story with nice action beats and a wild finale.

All the same, it was Williams and his manic performance which was the highlight; on the 21st of this month many people talked about him as that would have been his 69th birthday and many do miss him... including me. I even remember being real little and seeing reruns of Mork & Mindy on TV. Of course, his success here gave us the trend of big celebrities voicing cartoons whether they are right for the role or not-heck, even those Walmart bargain bin specials of cheap CG animation-which usually rip off something that just came out theatrically-from Korea or Russia or China that sometimes have surprisingly big names lending their voices.

Also, I am glad this wasn't problematic; at the time they had to change a line in the opening song as people got mad over the stereotype of “violent Arabs” cutting someone's ear off. That was for the best as if they hadn't... some would be real angry about it in 2020. Overall, thank heavens this was not a gigantic hit from the early 90's that has not aged poorly. As I've seen comparisons, one day I'll get to The Thief and the Cobbler; of course that would be The Recobbled Cut easily found on YouTube. As I would have to also see one of the officially released versions for comparison's sake and a LOT can be written over its 29 year production, I would need an entire evening free to tackle that. No matter what my opinion is once that time arrives, it will be a better use of my time than a pointless live-action remake which will never be watched by me.

I Share Horrible News While Briefly Mentioning A 1912 Silent

The silent is Alice Guy-Blache's Falling Leaves, concerning a mother ill with TB and her child's reaction to it. The full explanation is below: 

The most difficult review I'll ever write here.

Not that long ago I went down the rabbit hole and discovered this short from Alice Guy-Blache, generally regarded as the first-ever female director. I will not say much about this short except that it is a touching look at someone who is hoping for a cure for TB and how a young child wants to collect all the leaves due to a conversation she heard where a doctor said that this person would be deceased “as soon as the leaves stop falling.” Right now I figuratively wish I could do the same thing. You see, a few hours my mother passed away at the age of 71.

I know what everyone will think or ask so it will be addressed now: it was NOT because of COVID-19. Rather, she was sick since January due to a medical issue I won't address, at least not now. She was in and out of hospitals because of other issues besides the thing that killed her; hospice was where she had been since May 19 as on that day she was given 2 to 5 days... yet somehow hung on until today. This was why in late May I referenced her in more than one review and said at the time that I would be gone in June for about a week... at the time I thought that's when her services would be. 2020 has been pretty awful for everyone because of the pandemic, the riots and all those other horrible moment; imagine the ordeal me and my family have gone through since January. This is also why occasionally during 2020 I have viewed a comedy for the sake of improving my mood.

I've seen others discuss real life issues-including death-so it seemed like something I could address here. At least I had her until the age of 39. As distractions are needed now, movies will continue to be viewed, hopefully on a daily basis. She is the reason why as a kid I saw such things as the Indiana Jones and Star Wars films, and plenty of other motion pictures that were either seen theatrically or rented from the videostore.

While I wish I could have stopped the leaves from falling, eventually the grieving process will end, although she will always be missed. Sometime in August, there won't be any reviews for about a week as her services will be out of state. Otherwise, expect reviews practically every day.

Tokyo Olympiad

Tokyo Olympiad (Tokyo Orinpikku) (1965)

Runtime: 170 minutes

Directed by: Kon Ichikawa

From: The people that organized the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo... and Toho

As the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo would have just started now if not for the world going to hell and The Black Plague ruining everyone's lives, there was no better movie to view last night and discuss today. To clarify, several different cuts of this exists; the movie is on the official YouTube channel of the Olympics... only it's not under its official title and despite saying it is “complete”, the length is 125 minutes. I saw this on the Criterion Channel website and thus it was the official 170 minute cut.

The end product wasn't quite what the Tokyo Olympic Committee was expecting. They wanted something more traditional which in a staid manner showed the events and noted who won. Instead, this presented the events in a cinematic manner and while not every winner was noted, there's always Wikipedia to get the full results. The documentary was influential in presenting so many close-ups, no shortage of crowd shots, a quality musical score (from Toshiro Mayazumi) and acknowledgment given people that worked the games... from the guy that fired the starter's pistol at the track & field events to the cooks, coaches, and all the rest.

Each discipline was covered in a different manner and most seemed fitting: the power of someone tossing a shot put, the grace of gymnastics & fencing, the struggle of amateur wrestling, etc. It does poke fun at those in the 50 kilometres walk but that is understandable. Due to the rules they have to stroll in a certain manner and aside from it appearing kind of daffy, their anguished faces said a lot also. Also important is that they showed the competitors before and after in intimate settings... whether it be the runners hammering in the starting blocks themselves or Smokin' Joe Frazier walking backstage after one of his fights.

Aside from the visuals, the sound was much more than the score. Certain things were obviously sweetened... to great effect. The way sound was used-very important. The cheers, silence, isolated voices... all implemented at the right moments. Two athletes were spotlighted in particular: Ahmad Issa from Chad (the 800 meters) and Abebe Bikala of Ethiopia, a great marathon runner trying to win a gold medal for the second games in a row. The former is intriguing because Chad had become a country just a few years prior and the latter helps make the marathon interesting; that event has always been the last of the games before the closing ceremonies and to be honest, for me and plenty others a marathon is not always an captivating watch. As a sidenote, in a corner of the Internet there were plenty that dunked on some random dude on Reddit for just discovering and being flabbergasted there was a country named Chad. Chad is a funny word in 2020 but the country being one of the poorest and most corrupt in the world isn't a laughing manner.

Anyway, it's a shame the producers did not like this and wished for something more nationalistic; some of their successes were highlighted, the 20 year journey from the end of World War II to its transformation as a rising global power was noted, and there were lovely shots such as the Olympic flame passing by Mt. Fuji. Kon Ichikawa did a great job here and while I wonder how Kurosawa would have done-he was the first choice but as he also wanted to direct the entire opening and closing ceremonies, they balked-there's no guarantee he would have been a master at covering sports. To think that directors now are in charge of opening ceremonies... that's why there was the amazing moment of 007 and Queen Elizabeth II doing a bit back in '12. Imagine Mifune and Emperor Hirohito acting together in a sketch!

Who knows if there will be an Olympics in Tokyo next summer-that has recently been questioned. At least this was the perfect way for me to have a good time last night.

I Discuss Cinestate, VFW & Fred Williamson

This was something different I did on Letterboxd yesterday. It was discussion of news that was only discovered by me on Wednesday night: 

Not a review, but me saying my piece about a few things.

Early last month I reviewed this film-that can be read here. It wasn't until someone casually mentioned it last night on a messageboard that I discovered there is controversy surrounding VFW. Less than 48 hours after it was viewed by myself, The Daily Beast published a piece concerning the right-wing indy studio Cinestate and one of its producers, Adam Dongahey. He is accused of sexually assaulting a 16 year old girl; even more tragic, he was a Harvey Weinstein on a lower level... harassing multiple women and otherwise being abusive-people knew of his behavior but no one stopped him for years. Until yesterday evening I never read the article in full-shame on me. Dongahey was one of the producers on VFW and multiple people charged him with forcing everyone to work 18 hour days with no overtime pay.

If that wasn't bad enough, one of the stars of VFW-Fred Williamson-was accused by multiple women of unacceptable behavior. He tried to play grab-ass with an assistant costume designer and made vulgar comments towards several women on the crew. The Hammer should realize that how he acted on set decades ago is not OK any longer. Now I feel like a dope for having seen Three the Hard Way less than a week later and never bringing up the accusations made against Williamson; I had no idea at the time. Now, this knowledge dissuading someone from seeing the movie in the future or retroactively downgrading their opinion of it... it is up to you.

Me, it is a case by case basis. Unfortunately, I will assume this sort of behavior still happens on film sets far too often... it's usually just kept secret. Now I won't have as many positive memories of VFW-and in hindsight it is the sort of motion picture to be released by a right-wing studio-but it still is silly goofy fun if you are able to divorce yourself from the troubled production. The Hammer... like I am with some directors/actors, there will be hesitation to check out more of their work. There's a reason I haven't seen much of Woody Allen, to list one example. Typically it will be referenced in the review if someone or something problematic is present.

Hopefully one day such abhorrent behavior revolving around the movie industry will be far less common. Personally, the past few days haven't been great for personal reasons I won't get into now... it wasn't news that needed to be heard at this time. Instead of viewing something last night, getting this off my chest now was the direction to go today. Unless more bad news is received today, tomorrow things should be back to normal-in fact, an uplifting film will be discussed.

A Triple Shot Of Seijun Suzuki

Smashing the 0-Line (Mikko Zero Rain) (1960)

Runtime: 83 minutes

Directed by: Seijun Suzuki

Starring: Hiroyuki Nagato, Yuji Kodaka, Mayumi Shimizu, Sanae Nakahara, Shoichi Ozawa

From: Nikkatsu

Everything Goes Wrong (Subete Ga Kurutteru) (1960)

Runtime: 71 minutes

Directed by: Seijun Suzuki

Starring: Tamio Kawaji, Yoshiko Nezu, Sayuri Yoshinaga, Shihago Nakagawa, Shinsuke Ashida

From: Nikkatsu

Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! (Kutabare Akuto-Domo-Tantei Jimusho 23) (1962)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Seijun Suzuki

Starring: Jo Shisado, Tamio Kawaji, Reiko Sassamori, Nobuo Kaneko, Kinzo Shin

From: Nikkatsu

Neither of these three movies are the most famous one Suzuki have done, yet are all interesting for their own reasons. All three will be posted below, in different fonts: 

No, not a movie about American football.

That is a zero instead of an O, so it is not about a defensive player trying to penetrate the offensive line during a game of football. Rather, this early work from Seijun Suzuki (back when he was a stock director at the Nikkatsu studio) concerns a drug trafficking ring between Tokyo and Hong Kong. A pair of reporters from competing newspapers not only cover it but directly get involved in trying to crack the case. It was nice to see Japanese newspaper reporters NOT be involved with Gamera or Godzilla.

Anyhow, of course the reporters are polar opposites despite knowing each other for years. Nishina is a by the book person who has strong morals; Katori, on the other hand, is incredibly amoral, to the point that he sets people up in order to create stories he can cover, not to mention sleep with a female drug dealer for the point of advancing his investigation. He is not quite as bad as Lou Bloom... yet his sister gets involved and even then doesn't seem to care all that much. Along the way, you hear a quality jazz score as they explore interesting locations across Tokyo-including an amusement park-and the story isn't as simple as it first appears; the locations in the final act were somewhat surprising to me.

This does not have too much flair yet was still shot nicely and for what sounds like a standard programmer, the filmmaking, the characters, some action beats and a story which is a little convoluted but never becomes impenetrable... this meant that a movie I had no knowledge of until last night was an entertaining yarn. Eventually I'll get to Suzuki's most famous works but both this and Take Aim at the Police Van (seen a few months ago) were pretty enjoyable so another stop or two will be made before I get to those.

Once I get back to the director it'll be his more famous work but there are other things I want/need to check out before then; it could be some time. As it's on the Criterion Channel and the plot intrigued me, I gave this a whirl. Teenage angst, indeed.

A group of teenagers are followed during a few days in the summer. Several subplots are shown, although two eventually are focused on in this 71 minute picture. A young lady just discovered she unexpectedly became pregnant and wishes “to have it dealt with”... and the crux of this is Jiro, a young man who seems to have a decent lot in life (he does fine in school, for example) yet loses his mind over his widowed mom's relationship with a man who financially supports them. Jiro is a stereotypical teenager... overly cocky, rash, impudent, irrational, and emotional. He's not unstoppable-he gets knocked down to the ground (sometimes literally) and this only fuels his fire and causes his decision-making to become even worse.

Most of this teenagers are not the type you will like, even if they go to clubs where the 1960 version of J-Pop is played by bands that sing in Japanese and English, or they like the African-American jazz saxophonist Coleman Hawkins. Them acting like punks is one thing... some also do some pretty vile things. Jiro himself turns out to be a pretty rotten person-much worse than a typical teen-with how he even treats his own mother, to list one of many examples. The women members of this clan are not exempt from deplorable behavior-for example, a girl becomes infatuated w/ Jiro and follows him around like a puppy dog; he allows it. Of course many of the adults look at them derisively although some are sympathetic.

Of course this has a groovy jazz score and of course it was shot well, even if not over the top with style and flamboyance. The downfall of Jiro was told with a fast pace that slowed down at the right moments to let things breathe. World War II and its impact on creating a divide between the generations is a key point... the war was how Jiro lost his father, after all. Both English titles attached to this (The Madness of Youth and Everything Goes Wrong) are apropos to the plot. Once I get to Suzuki at his more experimental, with any luck those movies will be as enjoyable as those created when he had to work within the boundaries of the Nikkatsu studio.

Yes, this movie's title was one of the reasons it was viewed.

My first Suzuki movie in color, this was a film I was hoping to enjoy more than for its bold title. Thankfully, this light in tone picture was a good time. First things first, though... the star is Joe Shisido, who Suzuki fans will of course know for Youth of the Beast and Branded to Kill. Before watching this, I was aware of one bizarre detail: for some reason he had cheek implants; no, not the type that those horrible Kardashian/Jenner women have had! I mean cheeks as in his face. Why he thought that was a good idea is a mystery to me; no disrespect to someone who just passed away this past January. It was hard not to think about that as I viewed his performance.

Anyhow, the plot is that Jo plays a detective who assists the police in their attempt to stop a feud involving warring Yakuza clans and their interest in munitions from American army bases that were-and still are-in the country. Naturally, that is part of the satirical message that the director was able to sneak into the movie. Capitalistic interests are also a factor... there was a message in a Pepsi truck being used as part of a big shootout in the opening scene, and as it was open-air in the bag, various soda bottles were shot up.

Plenty of action scenes are mixed into the plot as Jo goes undercover into one of the Yakuza gangs. It is shot rather boldly; this includes one gun battle that is shot from far away, just because. Singing also plays a role... but I don't want to spoil too many of the left turns this takes throughout. As I expected, plenty of jazz music is heard, which is just groovy to me. Some of it being Dixieland jazz was a pleasant surprise. I know "Dixie" is a bad word now but that's really the best descriptor for it.

Anyhow, as people seem to prefer when I am not as long-winded, the only other things I'll say is that much of the movie is chromatically either in gray or brown; presumably this was done to make the colorful moments stand out all the more. Also, apparently Suzuki is a fan of MG sports cars.

Cats!

Cats (2019)

20% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 311 reviews)

It goes on for too long, is directed by a guy who was clueless, featured a cast of embarrassed big faces or talented stage performers that deserved better, and is from the studio that gave us Xanadu

What a weekend I had, movie-wise. Saturday night I revisited The Dark, only because I could finally see that 1979 movie in widescreen. It's still a crappy movie with a disaster of a production. Even worse was this... I should have watched Hamilton instead.

Actually, Broadway productions and musicals aren't usually my thing; some I have enjoyed, like the various Busby Berkeley musicals I've viewed in the past... yet it's a genre I usually don't seek out. However, the legendary disaster that this movie already is was too much a draw for me to avoid it forever. It is tremendous that there is a modern version of such infamous pictures as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Xanadu, Can't Stop the Music and The Apple. The first three I've viewed, albeit years before I've joined Letterboxd. Those at least have such merit, such as some interesting sequences and the music.

This, what overwhelms everything else is the way the title creatures are brought to life. They chose the worst and most expensive way to do it; besides the horrifying appearance, the technology is not quite there so it doesn't look right for that reason either. The trailer (which came out around this time last year, actually) only inspired astonishment and a sense of horror at how they appeared. They amazingly issued a patch for the movie to download right after its theatrical run started (as if it was a patch for your copy of The Last of Us Part 2 on the PS4) to fix effects that weren't finished... obviously nothing else was corrected since then as some of what I streamed last night looks appallingly bad.

This hardly has any plot... then again apparently there's more of it than in the stage production. An audience surrogate cat named Victoria joins the world of the “Jellicles” (that term is never explained... it'd be nice if they did if it was going to be said dozens of times throughout; don't do a drinking game based on that word) and see that once a year, there is a competition to go to Cat Heaven as in the afterworld there is never-ending happiness, to paraphrase a musical I definitely prefer to this. A villain cat named Macavity wishes to be chosen so in a plot point created just for the, he... uses magic to transport candidates to a boat on the River Thames? The original musical is from the era of disco and cocaine... it's pretty bizarre as is. Note that throughout is the feeling of horniness, as all these felines should be spayed and neutered, they are so sex-charged. Macavity's new actions just make it all the stranger.

Months ago I heard the “highlights” from those dumbfounded by what they viewed last December. The appearance of the creatures wasn't the only thing... tiny mice and cockroaches are also present, the songs seem pretentious as many use big fancy words and are just constructed oddly, is presented in a way that will make many feel tired by the end-including me-and the movie is mostly filled with introduction songs of characters you usually get to know nothing else about, and finally a little bit of conflict happens in the final act. Those that know nothing of the stage production were mostly flabbergasted and those that love the 80's musical hated the changes... some songs are presented differently, Macavity was neutered-figuratively, not literally-and a few minor characters are completely different.

A score that has some synth and scenes that have neon light due to signs in the background... that should be appealing to me. However, much of this is just ghastly and it's a shame as some of the performers (mainly the stage performers, whether it be ballet or theatrical actors) really do try their best and among the more established actors, Judi Dench, Ian McKellan and Jennifer Hudson fare best. The other big names, though... apparently they were wrong for the part and some woefully missed the mark. If this had come out at a different time of year, perhaps I could have seen it on the big screen... I know some were lucky to see it w/ a crowd where all were present to mock and dismiss what they were witnessing. That must have been a great communal experience to hoot and holler at this disaster.

It is quite the feat in current Hollywood with how corporate, micro-managed and focus group everything is, we can still get a big release from a major studio featuring a cast full of big names based on a popular property from the past... and it's such a bomb, the only people that like it are bad movie fans... the type that will compare this to Battlefield Earth and it's not an invalid comparison. For years people have wanted this to be a movie, including Spielberg-that is why Amblin was one of the producers. It's a musical which was at least popular in the past and from what I understand, it changed Broadway forever, for better and for worse. Judging by this, that is among the properties which is best suited for its medium and should not have become a motion picture.

The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Runtime: 129 minutes

Directed by: John Ford

Starring: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Dorris Bowdon, Russell Simpson

From: 20th Century Fox

This played last night as part of TCM's month-long deal of showing John Ford films on Friday; as Ford won the Oscar for Best Director because of this movie-along with it being based on a classic novel even if I understand the back half has major changes from what appeared on page-it seemed like a wise choice. Indeed, it was.

For those who know nothing of the source material, during the Great Depression of the 1930's, Tom Joad and his family leave an Oklahoma devastated by droughts for the promised land of California. Unfortunately, this American Dream is more like a nightmare and they experience plenty of hardship & heartache. This includes death and the perils of capitalism. No surprise that in 2020, some people really resonate with the themes presented here with how chaotic everything has been in the United States. Ford and producer Daryl F. Zanuck being involved with a pro-union movie is surprising considering their political beliefs, but as this deals with such topics as the squalor at migrant camps (apparently, as bad as they were portrayed here, apparently it was downplayed to what actually happened at those locations) I am sure they were happy to do an important movie based on real life tragedies. Steinbeck himself was happy with how this turned out and thought Fonda was perfect as the lead.

As expected, this was a quality production both in front and behind the camera. It was directed so well and the cast performed quite well, especially Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell as Tom and Ma Joad, along with John Carradine's role. It is always nice seeing him deliver great performances when I unfortunately remember him best from all the schlock he appeared in late in life. The role made Fonda a star while I will presume she was the best she ever was. Regrettably, I realize from research that Ford was rather tyrannical on set and treated people like crap to get the “right” performance for various scenes. For some reason, he did not care for Dorris Bowdon, who had a supporting role. Yet she apparently decades later she said she was glad to work w/ him. Lord knows he's not the only great director to act questionable by the standards plenty have today.

In any case, this was not conventional Hollywood entertainment yet it delivered important messages and with such devices as religion (Tom Joad is rather similar to Job, after all), it became easy to root for this family. The movie opens with Tom hitchhiking back home from prison... due to a homicide conviction-but most will say it was justifiable. The character has inspired everyone from Woody Guthrie to Bruce Springsteen.

In addition, the movie was lit very well throughout-some scenes are rather dark, only illuminated by such devices as a candle-and it had a nice score from Alfred E. Neuman... er, I mean Alfred Newman. From description the movie may seem like an agonizing miserable journey; thank heavens that The Grapes of Wrath-at least in celluloid form-is actually quite inspiring.

Le Samourai

Le Samourai (1967)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Melville

Starring: Alain Delon, Francois Perier, Nathalie Delon, Cathy Rosier, Jacques Leroy

From: Several different French and Italian companies

As sometimes happens, a messageboard conversation inspired the viewing of a movie. In this case, earlier in the month someone mentioned how Woo's The Killer was obviously influenced by Le Samourai; that piqued my interest so when this played on TCM late one night earlier in the week... I did not watch it then. However, it was on their website and as my cable provider allows for streaming of movies on their site, last night was when this was seen; apparently this is the favorite movie of another popular Pacific Rim Asian director, Johnnie To.

Alain Delon was a great choice as the generically named Jef Costello. He lives by his own code of ethics obviously inspired by the samurai of old. The chief example is that he lives in a rather spartan apartment that has little more than a bed and a bird in a cage. He is a hitman who does a hit in a nightclub; his schemes involve creating alibis that allow him to evade being charged for all his crimes. Always dapperly dressed, he is usually impossibly cool and is great at his job. However, this time the police are onto him and he has to really use his brain to avoid capture while always doing things his way.

The story is not the most complex; it is simply the ramifications of a hit the police suspect he committed. The main draw is the movie's style, which this has in spades. Costello drives a stolen Citroen DS-still a vehicle that is revolutionary and looks like nothing else, let alone what it must have seemed like when it first debuted in 1955-visits jazz clubs and a breaking & entering, all while emotionless and in a film with minimal dialogue and maximum interest as it envelops you in this slick world. There are chases and other events I dare not spoil in this influential movie which manages to blend several different genres... samurai movies, French New Wave and the American gangster pictures of old.

This does inspire me to watch more Melville; both this and Le Cercle Rouge are quality motion pictures so I should dig the rest of his filmography.

The Black Cauldron

The Black Cauldron (1985)

Runtime: 80 minutes

Directed by: Ted Berman and the hilariously named Richard Rich... or as I like to call him, Richie Rich

Starring: A decent voice cast

From: Disney

Are oracular pigs a Welsh tradition?

The Black Cauldron is arguably the first cult Walt Disney animated feature film; it was darker than the rest. After Uncle Walt passed away in the mid 60's, they tried all sorts of things and seemed like a rudderless ship at times, whether animation or live action. As I recently mentioned, some of their live action work from the time was a mystery to me until I saw it in the listing of Disney + movies. Good thing Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg came in and enacted some changes, even if it wasn't always done with tact or grace. While it has fallen off in the past 25 years, at least there was a great run from The Little Mermaid to The Lion King.

The production of this was a LONG process and almost sank the entire animated division when it flopped. It caused both Don Bluth and Tim Burton to leave, to entirely different careers. The fact that 12 minutes were suddenly excised after a disaster of a test screening and they tried to patch the holes (which were noticeable to the point that more than once, the soundtrack skips) did not help matters. That being declared, while some character moments were for some reason cut out also when it wasn't the “too scary” moments that frightened Disney, I don't know if that would have helped make the protagonists seem like an effective team instead of a group of people & creatures that did not do too much of note without having such things as a literal magic sword save their asses.

Presumably those issues weren't in Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain, the series of books this movie was based on; those were five books that incorporated various Welsh mythologies. I was glad to see different legends being used instead of ones that seem overtly familiar due to how many times they were used in the past. A pig that is an oracle and can form images from looking in a pool of liquid... weird yet I can roll with it. The story is at its most basic a typical dark adventure: the title object holds the power to raise the undead so the villain The Horned King would of course love to find it. A wacky group of characters-led by the teenaged boy that raises the ocular pig-have to find it first and destroy the container.

As I mentioned, the heroes would have been better off if they would have done more on their own and looked formidable against a villain that looked badass... sure, King was in essence a version of Skeletor but he was voiced by John Hurt; if only King did more than order his minions around. The animation often looked gorgeous-there was also some CG used, which was a first-and I really enjoyed the Elmer Bernstein score; that was a huge asset in establishing the fantasy mood. That along with some supporting characters helped make this fine for me. Note that this does NOT include the bipedal dog creature known as Gurgi. Instead, that was The Horned King's lackey Creeper, the trio of witches and the grumpy old sprite known as Doli. Scrolling through the reviews here, most view Gurgi as an equal to Jar Jar in terms of character love. At first it was incredibly irksome; after awhile Gurgi became more tolerable and honestly, such things as a climax which was more like “what climax?” are a bigger issue.

All the carping I did here, the rating is still satisfactory due to its positives. Not to always bemoan how they don't make movies like they used to in corporate Hollywood, but look at Disney now. They are a giant conglomerate which in recent times either create live-action versions of cartoon classics that have massive issues yet make beaucoup bucks, MCU pictures that usually are incredibly safe, or Star Wars movies that either fail due to the “too many cooks” philosophy or when they try to be different, they create The Last Jedi. Many film fans love it (for some reason)... I certainly don't and most importantly, many Star Wars fans didn't like it or the character assassination that occurred. Point is, even if I wish Disney did not interfere with The Black Cauldron, at least they tried a more mature cartoon AND stuck with such Welsh names as Eilonwy, Eidlleg and Ffewddur Fflam... not always easy to say and certainly hard to spell. Some Welsh town names I have no idea how to pronounce, to be honest. No offense to anyone from Wales. I mean, apparently microwaves are known as popty ping and that isn't the only language which has incredibly long place names like Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch.

Even though the lead Taran is a whiny millennial (to paraphrase someone here), at least it looked and sounded real good, some sloppy animated moments aside. Perhaps this should actually receive some sort of remake, no matter its medium. As is, an interesting failure I am glad was finally viewed.

Peter Pan

Peter Pan (1953)

Runtime: 77 minutes

Directed by: Four different guys

Starring: A decent voice cast, even if one of them was American

From: Disney

“This may contain outdated cultural depictions”, indeed.

As soon as I joined Disney + I realized that some of their programming contains a warning in their description informing everyone it may contain material which could offend in 2020. This has been viewed when I was real little; barely anything stuck with me all this time... the prejudiced depiction of the Native Americans I had no memory of.

After this was screened, no wonder there was discourse seen bemoaning how they were portrayed.; those minor characters were whooping “red men” dancing around a teepee. Others will find offense at how most of the women characters were jealous harpies-that was especially true of Tinkerbell. Sure, she was modeled after Marilyn Monroe and thus was thicc (as the kids of today like to say) but what an annoying character. That said, to paraphrase a mutual here, the titular character was a huge A-hole. Come to think of it, all of the protagonists can be nitpicked to death. The source material has never been read by me; hopefully they weren't as irritating there.

Thank goodness then that Captain Hook, his toady Smee and the crocodile that ate the Captain's hand and wishes to complete the job... all of them were fun. The pirates were buffoons yet ones that were entertaining. In addition, the father of the family was amusingly a curmudgeon. The animation looked real good and the score was fine, with some catchy tunes. All that and the action beats-especially the final confrontation-meant that I can rate this as fine. What benefits it is that this was at least not Hook (which I remember as not being so good from all those years ago, even if it had RU-FI-O!) nor the cast singing Nirvana and The Ramones as in the bizarre-sounding disaster known as Pan.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Runtime: 83 minutes

Directed by: David Hand

Starring: A nice voice cast

From: Disney

Just this week I finally signed up with Disney + and I do not regret the decision. It has a nice library-some of their 70's and 80's titles are new even to myself, a gigantic movie nerd-and there will be a mix of what will be viewed on the service. It will either be titles not viewed yet (some will be embarrassing as most people would have seen them already) or movies from my childhood not seen in at least a quarter-century. This falls into the latter.

I am sure everyone knows the story (based on the Grimm's Fairy Tale, although of course sanitized to be family-friendly, as Disney has done ad nauseum) of how the titular Snow White has to hide in the forest because her wicked stepmother The Evil Queen wants to kill her for being “the fairest one of all”, according to a magic mirror. She gets to hang out with seven dwarfs-and clean their filthy house-while Queenie uses black magic to concoct a devious scheme; of course there's also a handsome prince... it is a classic fairy tale and the movie is still enjoyable to watch all these years later. That is despite how some moments have been used in memes, sometimes because a clip looks kind of silly in 2020. One of those is so vulgar it can't even be described in polite society... I'll just say it is a .gif which shows what Snow White is thinking while in the midst of The Sleeping Death. Sure, none are He-Man and the other characters of the 80's cartoon singing a dance cover of HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA but then again what is?

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is simply a pleasant watch. It is effortlessly charming as there are plenty of furry woodland creatures which interact w/ the title characters... along with the lovely animation that-among other things-had German Expressionist influences-a nice score and a soundtrack which has a few legendary songs but all of them are very nice. Much of it is pretty light with all the funny antics involving all the dwarfs-of course Grumpy and Dopey are the highlights-yet there are still some dark moments. After all, the Queen may be frightening to little children each time she appears, a plot point is that she wants Snow White's heart in a jeweled box, and the villain death is rather brutal. This was the first cell-animated feature length film and beforehand, it was seen as a boondoggle as it cost so much to make. As it is the 10th highest-grossing movie in history if adjusted for inflation... this is why we have had animated feature films since then.

Disney +, there have been no issues w/ it so far. It is easy to navigate & figure out how to use, and there's been no buffering either. Tomorrow (at times different from when I normally post reviews) will be two more takes on Disney cartoons of old.

The House Of The Dead

The House of the Dead (1978)

Runtime: 80 minutes

Directed by: Sharron Miller

Starring: John Ericson, Ivor Francis, Burr DeBenning, Charles Aidman, Bernard Fox, Richard Gates

From: Myriad Cinema International

The saddest melody is indeed the sound of goodbye.

In the past I have heard of this oddity, a regional horror movie from Oklahoma; please never confuse this w/ Uwe Boll's astoundingly bad movie that almost has the exact same title. After all, not too many horror movies are from The Sooner State; I've never lived there yet it's been driven through plenty of times in my life. That made me interested enough to give this a shot... it was put on Blu by Vinegar Syndrome so I purchased it directly from them during their last Memorial Day sale.

I knew that it was a horror anthology; they are known best to me from all the British ones that the likes of Amicus put out back in the day. Turns out, the filmmakers were obviously inspired by them also as this follows that model slavishly. The wraparound story is that a philandering husband is accidentally dropped off on the wrong street by a taxi... he is a salesman so a few times a year, trysts are able to occur with this lady. He meets up with a mortician, who is as creepy and full of gallows humor as you'd expect. His mortuary is in an abandoned hotel, but... that could be explained away. He tells a quartet of stories concerning the deceased that he has in caskets at the moment.

The tales are... a teacher who ironically hates kids, a creepy guy who films all his deaths with a movie camera (the late 70's version of found footage), two great detectives feuding with each other and a smug uncaring jerk who gets his just desserts. Admittedly, not all of the acting is the best (one performance is best described as “meme-worthy”) although many of the main performances are from experienced actors who you might recognize as “that guy.” Perhaps all the segments could have used more polish... you know, another draft of the script so it could be stronger or end properly. The detective bit wasn't really horror at all yet was at least amusing due to the two leads and their war of wit. None of the stories are bad and like in all genre anthologies I've seen, there is a variety among all the short tales.

In its favor was that it was competently directed by Sharron Miller; this was her only feature film as she otherwise only did television work. It looks nice, has sets were are acceptable and a good musical score which had stinging violin notes (among other things) and also some jazz, including a ditty concerning “the saddest melody is the sound of goodbye”... which is true. As long as your expectations are in check, you may be charmed if you like the old subgenre of horror rather than the ones we get in the 21st century... none of which I liked overall.

Once Upon A Time In The West

Once Upon a Time in the West (C'era Una Volta Il West) (1968)

Runtime: 166 minutes

Directed by: Sergio Leone

Starring: Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda, Gabriele Ferzetti

From: Paramount

A.K.A. My 2000th movie logged on Letterboxd.

It was only a few days ago that I noticed this milestone was coming up; since February of 2013 I have done 2,000 reviews of movies and shorts, whether live action or animated. Even more hard to believe is that almost 900 people follow me at of this moment despite me rarely deciding to follow someone first. I'll thank everyone for all the follows and likes... even if to an embarrassing degree, when I look back at what was written in the past, mistakes, poor syntax and lackluster grammar are noticed. Anyhow, my 1,500 movie logged here was The Good, the Bad and the Ugly-besides this being another Leone joint, it is a legendary film last seen by me many years ago and I can finally tip my cap to the late Ennio Morricone by hearing what many say is among his best scores he ever created during his prolific career.

This is a film that seems deceptively simple if you just hear the basic plot synopsis. Several characters are followed: a young lady moving from New Orleans to the middle of nowhere... a bandit who has a gang of ruffians, a mysterious gunman who is always introduced to a scene if it doesn't begin with him by helpfully playing his harmonica (in fact he is only referred to as Harmonica) and a hired gun who you discover in his first scene is a ruthless villain via a shocking act. What a shock it must have been in '68 for viewers to discover that the almost always heroic Henry Fonda is the bad guy. Turns out, he must have relished the change of pace as it was a great performance-although the movie is full of those. Getting to work with Fonda was the main reason why Leone did the film... at the time he did not want to direct another Western.

The chief takeaway is that the movie takes its time and yet is never boring; it is a 180 from the pace in the Dollars trilogy. I have no idea if the average American who isn't a movie buff and is part of the ADD generation (which I say as it's a popular description, not an insult against anyone who actually has ADD) will have the patience for it but it is something which shouldn't be a concern of mine. The first 10 minutes are done with no music and it's just three bad guys sitting and waiting at a train depot in the middle of nowhere, waiting for someone to show up. Yet it is not dull as there is background noise and such moments as Jack Elam trying to get rid of a fly on his face without swatting it away. The first third of this is not full of exposition... instead you sit back for the ride as you see how the characters interact with each other and your opinion of them is formed before the story unfurls and you realize that-among many other things-all the leads are full of ambition & big dreams; of course all those goals will be incredibly difficult to reach.

Many people here and elsewhere have written a cornucopia of tremendous reviews which go into detail concerning the film's greatness and why for plenty of people the near three hour runtime will just fly on by. It was a tribute to the Westerns of old (many were watched by the incredible trio of Leone, Argento and Bertolucci before they created the script) which sometimes inverts or does its own thing. It has great vistas-filmed in Europe and the American Southwest-a score by Morricone that is incredible and sets the mood & a main cast that is all great... props go to Charles Bronson, Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale for their performances. I do not want to spoil anything else as I realize that even here, there are those who at least like the Western genre yet haven't set the time to give this a shot. The 166 minute runtime, I do get why you need to set aside a night to see it all at once (as this most assuredly deserves) but for most, this should be an incredibly rewarding journey. A wise choice for my 2,000th entry here and one of the several ways I hope to tip my cap to Ennio Morricone, in other words.

The Informer

The Informer (1935)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: John Ford

Starring: Victor McLagen, Heather Angel, Preston Foster, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford

From: RKO

This month on TCM, each Friday is devoted to the films of John Ford. At least one of his movies will be checked out by myself as he is a legendary director and I've only scratched the surface w/ his work. Plenty of praise for this has passed across my eyes, making it an easy selection for me.

The basic plot description sounds uncomplicated: in 1922 Dublin, an Irish man rats out his friend for 20 pounds; it is more complicated than that. As it is 1922, Ireland is about to become independent but the changeover has not occurred quite yet. There is a long sordid history between the countries which I won't get into here... in some ways the Irish have good reason to forever have an issue with Great Britain. The lead-the amazingly named GYPO NOLAN-is a brute who is pugilistic and would rather argue with his fist rather than words. Gypo needs money, his pal is wanted by the black & tans for murder, the money will go to himself and his streetwalker girlfriend to escape a bad life on the Emerald Isle-the population as a whole is terrified by the black and tans paramilitary forces still present-by emigrating to America, and he is terribly conflicted by his decision. He turns to whiskey to drown out his sorrows & this results in him shoving, punching, and otherwise fighting with quite a few people. Of course, the IRA begins to suspect who the stool pigeon was... 

Even if the movie literally spells it out in the beginning and says that Gypo is a Judas, and it was never a dull moment as one long night in Dublin was seen; it was constantly foggy and naturally Ford filmed this very well. There is also innovative camerawork-the director was influenced by such things as the silent classic Sunrise.Victor McLagen was the highlight as he was great in his role; in fact, he won an Oscar. It does need to be noted that Ford was less than ethical in how he treated McLagen for him to deliver the “right” performance. That includes being verbally abusive, lying to him, and having him perform scenes while incredibly hungover. That is unfortunate by today's standards although that personally did not affect my enjoyment of the movie.

It is a thoughtful film where Gypo has to wrestle with a range of emotions and such topics as the complicated relationship between Ireland and Great Britain are addressed adeptly. It won four Oscars (McLagen, Ford, the quality score from Max Steiner, and for the screenplay by Dudley Nichols) yet even among film fans this may be unjustly forgotten or at the very least, overlooked. It is well worth tracking down, especially if you are Irish yourself and/or are interested in that country's history.

The Virgin Spring

The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukallen) (1960)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Ingmar Bergman

Starring: Max Von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindbolm, Birgitta Pettersson, Axel Duberg

From: Svensk Filmindustri

Last evening I noticed it would be on Turner Classic Movies as part of their night where they tipped their cap to Max von Sydow. As I should see more movies involving him and/or Bergman, it seemed like a prudent decision... although the fact that this was unofficially remade as The Last House on the Left also intrigued me.

No surprise that this tale (based on an old Swedish folk tale that was turned into a novel) had its basic premise used for a trashy exploitation movie-sexual assaults done by scumbags result in death... they happen to soon then meet the parents of the deceased... they realize what happened and brutal revenge then occurs. While Last House was a rather sloppy and amateur effort from a director who thankfully improved by leaps and bounds, Virgin Spring is a 180 in terms of how serious and mature the story was presented.

Serious themes are addressed skillfully, and not just revenge. There's religion on several fronts, ancient traditions, sexuality, anguish, and thankfully this isn't incredibly obtuse or pretentious. It was a heavy story yet not totally inaccessible for most. Of course the production was of high quality and von Sydow delivered the most memorable performance, although I can't complain about the rest of the cast... none of which I was too familiar with. There is plenty of subtlety and metaphors; that's why I say this is the polar opposite of what Wes Craven made; you can like both if you wish but the movie is much more complex than you may even expect. Those that like Bergman but have only seen a fraction of his work, this should be in your queue.

I Experienced Things

That is Things as in the infamous 1989 no-budget "horror" movie from Canada that has earned a sour reputation the past several years. I finally saw it earlier in the week and... Holy Cow:

Never a good thing when you are reminded of The Room, Birdemic, AND Manos: The Hands of Fate.

So far in July, I have been all out of sorts due to a variety of factors. A few days ago I mentioned how the air conditioning went out on the 4th of July; well, eventually I'll list some of the other things that have gotten me down as of late. The fact that it will get worse before it gets better... there is a reason why in my attempt to get back in the swing of things (pun intended) something serious was not selected. Instead, it was a motion picture that has earned a bit of infamy since it became known in the online film fan community several years ago. Some of the buzz I knew yet a lot of it was in the dark for me.

To be honest, after seeing the movie... its story is still something I cannot logically explain! Ostensibly it concerns several men in a rural house who have to deal with unholy creatures-in execution, it was seemingly made by people who have never SEEN a motion picture before. It's like it came from an alternate dimension (“From the third, fourth, or fifth dimension!) or was made by aliens that created pod people out of everyone in the production. Almost everyone is done wrong... storytelling, acting, logic, scene to scene transition, editing, even the credits, etc. The creatures and the few moments of gore aren't atrocious considering the zero dollars this had for a budget, the odd electronic music wasn't unlistenable and there was a line or two that actually elicited some chuckles.

Otherwise, the movie is so surreal due to how alien everything is... how it is unnatural because things are done so piss-poorly. I understand why this has legit fans-there can be much hilarity derived from how terrible the audio is... as with Manos, all of it was recorded after the fact, and like with Manos it wasn't done all that well. To list a cliché, it's better seen and heard rather than described. All the atrocious line readings, the lines themselves, the attempt to insert a dream logic storytelling trope in the plot that falls flat on its face, and all the rest... those that have Prime and love awesome bad films, it must really seen to be believed how much of a botch job this was; at least I hope the script wasn't so confounding, although as it came from the producers/director...

One last thing: one of the panoply of perplexing decisions was having a few random news segments where an anchor was adult film actress Ginger Lynn; they don't contribute much aside from a plot point or two. I'd normally assume that the segment after the film (as it appears on Prime) where Lynn discusses w/ crew her time on the 52 Pick-Up wasn't officially part of the movie and instead was an extra from Intervision, who put this out on disc; here, who the heck knows for certain.

Body Heat

Body Heat (1981)

Runtime: 113 minutes

Directed by: Lawrence Kasden

Starring: William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J.A. Preston

From: Warner Bros.

I actually saw this on Sunday night; the review is just being posted here now as the week so far has been rather chaotic... and not great in general, to be frank: 

The perfect thing to watch on a summer night w/ no air conditioning.

The night of the 4th of July, I was going to view something patriotic; however, that afternoon the A/C where I live gave up the ghost and stopped working. This is not the first time it's happened to me... heck, it's not the first time it's happened during a holiday weekend. “Incredibly peeved” was my mood so watching a movie was not in the cards. Last night it was only appropriate to check out something I heard was a picture w/ plenty of hot and sweaty moments. I was not led astray: the setting is southern Florida during a heatwave and that envelops the movie, whether or not it is commented on by the characters. It has to be one of the sweatiest motion pictures you'll ever see glisten.

William Hurt (w/ great mustache) is a mediocre at best defense attorney who meets a femme fatale in Kathleen Turner; they have a torrid affair, despite her marriage to Richard Crenna. As expected in a neo-noir, they want to bump off rich husband so they can have a happy ending. Of course, things go awry. Now, it is a sleazy movie where the two leads are rather randy; this resulted in me guffawing at some of the horniest moments & dialogue. For example, one night they got it on so often that Hurt states a certain part of his body is red & liable to fall off! How could I not laugh?

All that said, this was steamy and a very good movie. It was an interesting story even if it is reminiscent of some classic noir in particular, none of which I'll list for spoiler reasons. What misfortune that Hurt's character has good friends who are a police detective and a prosecutor... although at times it is good fortune as they unwittingly give him a heads-up. The movie was well-directed by Lawrence Kasden and the cast did a swell job, which is commendable as some of them had little in the way of movie experience... chiefly, this was Kathleen Turner's feature film debut and she knocked it out of the park here. As others have noted, she is the sultry type that is perfect for the classic noir of old; imagine if she had been born 4 decades earlier-she would have been a big star in that genre.

William Hurt works as an understated lead... plenty of those were in old noir too. Mickey Rourke briefly appears and I wouldn't have minded more of him. To my surprise, the character that entertained me the most was Ted Danson as a prosecutor. In a sea of colorful characters, he stood out for his snappy dialogue, tremendous head of hair, cocksure attitude and such odd touches as him randomly dancing like he's Fred Astaire for no reason to open a scene. There's a quality score from John Barry that at times is appropriately jazzy, cinematography that sets the dark mood, & a south Florida setting that is perfect for a sun-baked tale like this... admittedly on the trashy side, it is a high-quality production with hot performances and various twists & turns. Those that like these erotic 80's pictures, this ranks rather highly.

The Return Of The Living Dead

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Dan O'Bannon

Starring: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, Beverly Randolph

From: Hemdale

I saw this on Friday night; because my A/C went out yesterday, other things were on my mind so I am just now posting this: 

The perfect movie to watch on July 3-after all, that is the day and night the film takes place in. Various people on Twitter noted this fact yesterday so there was no other choice for me when it came to entertainment for last night.

Made by some of the people involved w/ Night of the Living Dead after they split from George Romero, that movie is in Return's universe and is said to be a fictionalized version of a real life event. Due to government incompetence, a medical supply warehouse receives a shipment of the living dead sealed in barrels. An accident causes one to be released, and soon many of the undead rise... not to devour every part of the human body but rather only BRAINS! It's a rather unique interpretation of the zombie mythos. Also not so common is the inclusion of punks (as in, devotees of punk rock music) who join our heroes. The subtle hints that another hero MAY have been a former Nazi from WWII... I dunno what to make of that.

Despite the whole Nazi thing, the movie is a lot of fun to watch-especially if you enjoy the genre. It is more comedy than horror, although there are still some gory moments-brought to life via great practical effects-and the ending is rather potent. That does not diminish the laughs that arise from all the absurd situations that happen here. There is some rather blatant over the top acting... later you realize what the movie was going for. As expected, Clu Gulager was the highlight, although Linnea Quigley was unforgettable mainly because most of her role consisted of the character being in various stages of being undressed. Additionally, there's a score that is indicative of the 1980's (Lord, some of the 80's clothing the characters wear!) and a soundtrack that has old California punk tracks-I know some will think of that as a big asset.

What a mess the relationship is between Romero, John Russo and Russell Streiner after NotLD; that's why there's been so many remakes of the classic film. Amazingly, this unearthed 4 sequels of its own. It was a nice decision that the original script (which was quite similar to Night) was changed by director Dan O'Bannon to be more comedic and thus not a ripoff; instead it is a more lighthearted zombie film that still has some dark moments and has been a cult favorite for the past 35 years.

A Holiday Weekend Update

Wednesday night I saw nothing as I was too exhausted to; last night was revisiting Raising Arizona... like the original viewing back years ago, it can only be rated fine due to such things as the set, music, and a great scene (the heist) rather than the humor or characters; I know, a hot take, but it's true.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Carl Reiner (RIP)

Starring: Steve Martin, Rachel Ward, Reiner, plus many screen stars of old in archival footage that was edited into this movie

From: Universal

For a long while now I have been thinking of revisiting this movie; the only time before last night had to be almost 15 years ago, so it was long overdue. Unfortunately, it took Carl Reiner passing away at the age of 98 for me to finally see it then log it on Letterboxd. In 2020 this is better appreciated by me after all the noir that has been viewed between then and now. It is a great love letter to film noir that was directed and co-written by Reiner along with a small yet important role for him as an actor.
It has a great gimmick of a convoluted plot involving detective Steve Martin being asked by femme fatale Rachel Ward to investigate the death of her father... and archival footage from many different genre examples is seamlessly edited together to make it appear as if Martin is interacting w/ everyone from Cary Grant, Cagney & Lana Turner to Bogie, Bette Davis and Vincent Price. Of course there was plenty of manipulation and hoop-jumping to try and make it all fit into a tale that is satirically silly yet isn't illogical and still feels like a genre example set in the 1940's.
Plaid is a pretty amusing movie which has plenty of chuckles and thankfully only a few moments haven't aged so well. CLEANING WOMAN and its context is great. Martin and Ward's performances help sell this idea but I do also have to give plenty of credit to those in the production that not only successfully re-created this era, the old footage matches what was filmed new. The score, set design, costuming (from Edith Head; this was her last movie), editing, etc. was all done pretty well so all credit to Reiner and everyone else. Carl is a comedy legend so I was happy to pay tribute to him but the entire crew gets kudos from me for connecting together something that does feel like a period piece and uses disparate footage from 19 random movies dating from 1941 to 1950.
Those that love film noir and/or some to many of the stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood that appear here, this will probably be a treat for you.