Siege

Siege (1983)

Runtime: 84 minutes

Directed by: Paul Donovan/Maura O'Connell

Starring: A bunch of random Canadians, the actor who played Hollis in My Bloody Valentine being the only one I recognized

From: Salter Street Films International

If you ever wanted to see an incredibly low-budget version of Assault on Precinct 13... truthfully, I first heard of this film years ago yet despite a nice HD print (courtesy of Severin) being available on Shudder for months now, it was just yesterday that I finally took the plunge... a plunge which should have been taken far sooner. That is despite the horrifying realization that hardly anything needed to be changed in a theoretical remake if one were to ever happen.

What I mean is, the villains are... right-wing extremists, complete with a stockpile of weapons, a proclamation of “we say things everyone else is afraid to!” and offensive opinions of homosexuals. During a police strike in Halifax, Nova Scotia (the film uses an actual newscast of an actual strike in the city that happened in '81) that group of A-holes goes into a gay bar to be vile trolls. Things escalate so the group's leader goes lethal, but one person escapes and runs into a random apartment complex. Thus, a group of friends-TWO of whom are blind-protect this stranger from the brutes. They have the sort of weapons you see in militias, but what a stroke of luck that our heroes are able to create hilarious makeshift weapons and at homes execute a lethal version of Home Alone in dispatching these fascist A-holes. 

For a movie of its time, the attitude towards homosexuals was surprisingly sympathetic. No one was a caricature. Of course the acting wasn't always great and there are some absurdities. Be that as it may, I still had a lot of fun with this grimy and gritty picture where the violence had a brutal impact, the barren streets of Halifax were rather haunting and the apartment was as seedy as expected. As silly as it may be at times and as dopey as some character decisions are, overall Siege greatly entertained me due to the characters, the visceral nature of the film, the synth score and the cast including both a random actor who I'll describe as PSYCHOTIC WILLIE AAMES and the guy who played Hollis in My Bloody Valentine-Keith Knight.

Incidentally, this is also known as a few other titles. Self Defense is rather obvious but I can't quite figure out why in West Germany it was... New York 1991. I have no explanation.

The Challenge

The Challenge (1982)

Runtime: 109 minutes

Directed by: John Frankenheimer

Starring: Scott Glenn, Toshiro Mifune, Donna Kei Benz, Atsuo Nakamura, Calvin Jung

From: CBS Theatrical Films

I was hoping for a movie better than just “fine.” Recently, a mutual brought up one John Sayles film (not this one) while commenting on another picture he co-wrote, Battle Beyond the Stars. It reminded me that as I plan on seeing a few films in a row from the early half of the 1980’s in a row, I’ve known of The Challenge for years yet never pressed “play” until last night, & this has quite the convergence & confluence of talent… that is why the picture was selected.

After all, Sayles apparently helped in changing the setting from China to Japan-I’m going off of IMDb’s Trivia page here-among other contributions to the plot, and the other talent involved included Frankenheimer, Mifune, Scott Glenn, Goldsmith and even pre-acting “Steve Seagal” as the “martial arts coordinator.” Thus, this could have been pretty badass along the likes of the previous decade’s The Yakuza but instead this just managed to be good.

Glenn is a boxer who is duped into a plot involving the transport of a special sword to Japan and a pair of brothers are feuding for ownership of said sword. Glenn was a Dumb American at first but soon becomes enamored of the Bushido way of life… there’s romance, a kidnapping, and other bog-standard stuff you’d probably expect. There are also some wacky moments which *probably* aren’t a part of traditional training but perhaps I’m mistaken…

Ultimately, the script was more about the bond that forms between Mifune and Glenn. Instead, by the time filming began this is more a martial arts story. Sure, when we get action it is exciting-especially the climax of the movie-and at times graphic; that and the lovely Jerry Goldsmith score are delights.

However, despite that and some nice character moments throughout, The Challenge does not rise up to be something special. Then again, the fact that I’ve known of The Challenge for many years and it wasn’t something I thought was bad… I can’t be too disappointed. All the footage of early 80’s Japan was also appreciated by me.

Return of the Jedi is Still Awesome

This was confirmed to me by today's theatrical experience: 

A movie I was happy to see theatrically... even if it was the “Special Edition.” A few weeks ago when the announcement was made that this would be playing for a week at cinemas as a 40th anniversary celebration, I jumped at the opportunity to have such an experience. In the past I've reviewed Return of the Jedi along the other two in the original trilogy. Those are films that mean a lot to me as they were watched more than a few times on VHS when I was a kid and loved, all of them were. What happened to Star Wars as a franchise after 1983 (I'm talking about film and the streaming shows) is a shame. That duly noted, while the EU I've hardly experienced, at least some of the videogames were fun and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Walt Disney World is cool-if not as awesome as it could have been-with a pair of awesome attractions.

Unlike typical, this review is being posted a few hours after I saw a film. Time was available for a mid-afternoon screening so this course of action was taken. While I think Episodes IV and V are even better-I don't hate the Ewoks but even I can admit they are a little silly-this does a great job of concluding the trilogy and delivering an incredibly satisfying denouement to an epic story that anyone can enjoy. Admittedly, I've come to better appreciate the general idea of how it is stirring that even a diminutive race of furry fuzzballs can rise up and use their natural weapons to help take down and entire Empire.

The prequel trilogy's story was a germ of a good idea that was just executed in a rather questionable fashion; the SEQUEL trilogy on the other hand... without getting to my controversial opinion of each movie, it will forever boggle my mind that they apparently did not have a firm set of plans, a road map for the plot of that trilogy, resulting in the chaos we received instead. It is simply incredible how massively disappointing Disney Star Wars has been.

Believe it or not this was the first time I've seen this “Special Edition” in full. All the changes were to the film's detriment; thank heavens then that I have the ORIGINAL theatrical versions in HD quality as part of my collection-nevermind how... plus, those moments weren't so awful that they ruined the experience, or prevented me from enjoying the plot, the practical effects, the iconic music, and everything else. No matter all the times that the Star Wars franchise has been part of the dark side these past 4 decades, the OG trilogy is something I will always be fond of.

The Mark of Zorro

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Rouben Mamoulian

Starring: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard, Eugene Pallette

From: 20^th Century Fox

A rousing swashbuckling adventure I was more than happy to view yesterday. Admittedly, while I’ve known of the film for years now, it was an enthusiastic review from a Letterboxd mutual recently which sparked the desire to check out something different from what’s been the norm as of late. Thankfully, it delivered exactly the type of thrills I was hoping for.

Most probably are familiar with the Zorro story by now but in brief: Don Diego Vega is the foppish dandy son of a wealthy rancher; yes, this implies he’s a homosexual which of course is only implied in the early film adaptations such as this. He is called back from Madrid (where he received military education) and discovers that his area of California (then part of Mexico, which then was still a Spanish colony) is ruled by villains, where military man Basil Rathbone is actually the brains of the operation. Vega decides to become a masked avenger to fight against injustice. Why yes, it does sound similar to Batman-in fact, I know the original Bruce Wayne lore was that he and his parents saw this film the night his parents were murdered.

This is a classic adventure story where the heroes (including Vega’s parents and his friar friend Felipe, played by the froggy voiced Eugene Pallette in a role rather reminiscent to his Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood) are easy to root for while it was easy to hiss at the villains. There’s action on horseback, the peasants uprising at the tyranny, sword fights that naturally included former British Military fencing champion Rathbone, a few laughs, and of course romance involving the lovely Linda Darnell… let’s just ignore the fact that the character she portrayed was noted as being just under 18!

This features the expected action on horseback and an incredible sword fight in the final act; Tyrone Power was great as the hero who puts on those foppish airs as a ruse and could also be a badass when needed. The Alfred Newman score is also pretty spectacular. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore; for those that also pine wistfully for motion pictures like this, The Mark of Zorro is well worth at least a streaming rental.

 

The Pope's Exorcist

The Pope’s Exorcist (2023)

51% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 83 reviews)

Runtime: 103 minutes

Directed by: Julius Avery

Starring: Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Laurel Marsden, Franco Nero

From: Screen Gems

Not only was this movie a hoot, it was a hoot and a half.

By the time this film was experienced yesterday on the big screen, I already knew from hearsay without diving too deep into reviews that this was a silly movie you shouldn’t take too seriously, despite it being based on an actual person who claimed to perform an incredible amount of exorcisms… the definition of which could be rather loose. Father Gabriele Amorth wrote several books but presumably the story presented here was solely the invention of the screenwriters. After all, The Pope is a character and is played by Franco Nero, but is never called John Paul II and definitely doesn’t look like John Paul II so I can only surmise that the film takes place in some sort of multiverse. At least in that universe there is also 80’s New Wave and punk, which is heard more often than expected.

You see, 1987 is the film’s setting & Russell Crowe goes to Spain for what proves to be one HELL of an exorcism. Even with the help of a local priest, he has to deal with a case that is also part of a conspiracy with huge implications. That’s as complicated as it gets, really. The scares are exactly as you’d expect; it’s totally unfair to compare this to The Exorcist… even though this lifts moments wholesale from that all-time classic*. The Pope’s Exorcist will never be considered a classic; furthermore, I feel you need to go into this not expecting this to be a stone-cold serious examination of demonic possession.

Rather, going into this with the knowledge that this is a OOT spook ride with hints of camp (even if that may not have been the intention when filming began) might put you in the right mood—at least it did for me. It is not campy winking at you, but the priest (what an awesome role that Crowe just devoured) cracks just a few jokes and that character is a delight: when there are A-hole superiors he has no tolerance for. Thankfully he is serious when it comes to serving The Lord and only answers to The Pope and those who are good people.

The frightening scenes aren’t done badly, the cast is capable, the possessed boy is at least pretty creepy, and I was always entertained even when the plot became increasingly outrageous. Thankfully this was not pretentious or haughty, which is a problem for me personally when it comes to horror in recent years. I’d MUCH rather watch this than a 3 hour long “surrealist black tragicomedy horror film”, as unpopular as that will be for most on Letterboxd. There was a blatant tease of a sequel-which was just announced as being in early development. I am down for that if are as much fun as this was.

* Only after I arrived home and saw a mutual review the 2017 “documentary” The Devil & Father Amorth did I even remember that William Friedkin presented purported legit footage of an actual exorcism done by Amorth. The negative reviews and the statements from many that the film is as phony as those “reality” “ghost hunting” shows that pollute too many cable channels. That’s disappointing for a director responsible for more than one legendary motion picture.

 

Creep 2

Creep 2 (2017)

Runtime: 80 minutes

Directed by: Patrick Brice

Starring: Mark Duplass, Desiree Akhavan, Karan Soni

From: Netflix

In a review posted earlier than usual due to my schedule, I finally saw Creep 2 after experiencing the first film in late 2015; that was a fine found footage film where a videographer answers a Craigslist ad to videotape someone who proves not only to be a stage 5 clinger and very weird, but also extremely dangerous.

The sequel thankfully isn’t a carbon copy although there are obvious similarities. Another Craigslist post brings a possible victim to this psychopath; this time it is a lady YouTuber who covers the outcasts and peculiar people of society that post online ads; this includes someone w/ the disorder clinically classified as “paraphilic infantilism.” This is why she doesn’t believe him when he regales her with his real-life crimes. There is more bizarre behavior-including him going Full Monty to “break the tension” and the rather unique idea that he’s going through a mid-life crises.

The new ideas they present here are hit or miss although at least more is learned about the villain as played memorably by Mark Duplass. If you liked the first yet are in the boat I was in until last night, you will probably feel the same about its sequel. I did see somewhere that star Duplass and director Patrick Brice hope to one day make a third movie; hopefully that doesn’t fall under the curse of the 3rd film in many franchises being a creative flop and there are enough interesting ideas to make that worthwhile even if found footage has lost its popularity.

Cries and Whispers

Cries and Whispers (Viskningar Och Rop) (1972)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Ingmar Bergman

Starring: Harriet Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin, Anders Ek

From: Cinematograph AB/Svenska Filminstitutet

This is a movie to experience if you wish to feel depressed the rest of the day. Then again I knew this (undoubtedly the reddest motion picture ever to be seen by my eyes) would be about serious, mature topics which involve death. Via the Criterion Channel I finally got to experience another film from Bergman, a director who’s always been a hit w/ me the few times his work has been experienced. It’s a period piece where a mansion is bathed in red everywhere, some of the clothing is the color of claret, and even the scene fade-outs are that color. That color was literally a part of a recurring dream for Bergman involving a quartet of women where the soul was the color crimson.

To mention this right away, at times the movie did bring back uncomfortable memories. As hundreds have followed me in the past three years, I’ll mention something that only gets brought up by me: Mom was sick for all of 2020 before passing away in late July of that year, NOT because of COVID. Seeing Agnes in Cries & Whispers be bedridden before passing away due to cancer-yeah, that was rather sad for me due to personal experience as Mom hung on while bedridden for far longer than anyone expected then she finally died. 

The plot of the film revolves around the two sisters of Agnes in a posh mansion who have their own issues so it’s poor Anna the maid who puts in more an effort to nurse Agnes as long ago the matriarch of the family passed away so we only see the women members of that family.

The general message of the movie seemed to be “rich people are A-holes”, which is a common refrain I tend to agree with; that duly noted, there is plenty of subtext concerning family, religion, a meditation on grief and other topics that can be further researched on websites like Wikipedia or YouTube videos. The acting, the direction, the sound design-expect plenty of clocks & bells-the color scheme worked in this case when I know it would have flummoxed a lesser director-Bergman and cinematographer Sven Nykvist deserve all the credit in the world for making it work-the Bach and Chopin that serves as the soundtrack…

The film did make me thankful that while the relationship with my sisters could be better, praise the Lord it is not as screwed up as the familial ties here; the kinship between my two sisters is far more normal than the dysfunction you saw in the film. Also, my mother did receive nice hospice care in the dying moments of her life AND me/my father visited her on a daily basis under the very end; I’ll always take comfort in that.

The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects (1995)

Runtime: 106 minutes

Directed by: Bryan Singer

Starring: Kevin Spacey and plenty of famous faces who aren’t as problematic as the director and star

From: Gramercy Pictures

No, my rating has nothing to do with the public sentiment of the director and the actor the movie is centered around. It’s a shame that a talented director and a talented actor are both horrible people in real life for unfortunately similar reasons. Yet my opinion of the movie is one I’ve always had. To expound upon this belief, I never saw this movie in ’95 when it came out; It took until around 2003 when I saw this with a pal in college. The presence of a twist was known by me-what it was exactly was unknown. Afterwards, our opinion of the movie was more "like" than "love"; the specifics as to why were long forgotten.

Now, I remember why my opinion was a hot take then-and perhaps not as much now-and it’s all related to the swerve. The first half of the movie is quite strong as a quintet of people in a police lineup get revenge against the NYPD for hassling them (even though they are criminals convicted for past misdeeds) and while hiding out in California commit more crimes and come across the henchmen of the mysterious Keyser Sose. Kevin Spacey is the one relaying the story to police detective Chazz Palminteri. 

I realize many have seen the film by now yet this is still 28 years old, some reading this may not have been born yet (which makes me feel ancient), they may have sworn it off due to who was involved, or any other reason why someone may not even know what the plot twist is. Thus, a few sentences were said to explain the basics. Even if I would go into spoilers-I won’t-it’d be difficult for me to explain some of the “hey, wait a minute” moments of the story.

I won’t reveal what happens; all which will be revealed is that the second half of the film becomes rather ridiculous then the surprise conclusion happens; personally, I won’t say this is “subverting expectations” as I do in a pejorative manner… however, personal preference would have preferred a more traditional story. Knowing that a surprise is coming sort of ruins the experience unless you want to see the breadcrumbs left—and there was more than one obvious clue once you know what to look for.

All the complaining aside, I can still rate this as a good motion picture. After all, what a great cast: everyone from Giancarlo Esposito and Kevin Pollak to Gabriel Byrne and Benicio del Toro before he became real famous. It is well put together, has at least one line of dialogue still famous in ’23, and the best performance is from Spacey, as uneasy as you may feel garnishing praise upon such unsavory people as him and Bryan Singer. 

If you can tolerate those unsavory people and are interested in 90’s crime/neo-noir films, then this may still be a worthy first-time watch for you; after all, many people still think The Usual Suspects is great so your mileage may vary. The way I saw the movie last night: a YouTube video as some random account uploaded it in 1080p… a few years ago. Why it’s never been taken down is a mystery to me.

The Milky Way

The Milky Way (1936)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Leo McCarey… and some others

Starring: Harold Lloyd, Adolphe Menjou, Verree Teasdale, Helen Mack, William Gargan

From: Paramount

After a pair of heavy documentaries, something much lighter in tone was needed. Visiting the Criterion Channel to see a Harold Lloyd sound picture; yes, he made some of those even if of course his silents are much more renowned. The idea of milkman milquetoast Lloyd-sporting the amazing name “Burleigh Sullivan”-being a victim of circumstance and fighting for the middleweight boxing title intrigued me, along with the idea of the main co-star being Adolphe Menjou and Leo McCarey as the main director.

Middleweight champ Speed McFarland is knocked out on the street in a clusterfrick of a situation; Sullivan is accused of doing so… incorrectly. Speed’s sleazy promoter Menjou takes advantage and to earn funds for Lloyd’s sick horse, Burleigh “becomes” a boxer. Unbeknownst to him, this is just like boxing in real life—meaning that his opponents are taking dives to lose, only Sullivan is unaware of this. There’s also romance for our lead-his sister also finds a love interest of her own-and no shortage of absurd situations. You see, this is actually a screwball comedy.

Naturally there are physical humor moments with Lloyd. However, note that it is far less focused on that than in his silent days so it’s not as frequent or as bold as what we saw in Safety Last or The Freshman.
That said, he is also able to keep up with the snappy patter you hear throughout; in fact, he was fine at delivering dialogue so it’s a shame that his movie career stalled and then faded away because-as far as I understand it-audiences lost interest in the sort of character he always played.

Menjou was a bundle of nerves as McFarland’s promoter and the viewer is blessed w/ three entertaining dames-Verree Teasdale, Helen Mack & Dorothy Wilson. The trio of whip-smart ladies deliver rapid-fire lines and don’t tolerate any man acting a fool.

It was quite the amusing 88 minutes; thank goodness the movie is incredibly easy to track down for those interested—everywhere from YouTube to the hopefully not going to shut down anytime soon archive.org.

I Discuss Another Netflix Documentary

This time, it was 2020's Challenger: The Final Flight: 

No, this has nothing to do with what happened with Elon Musk’s rocket yesterday… OK, that is inaccurate. I won’t get into that or how Ol’ Elon had a pretty miserable Thursday. Instead, in terms of exploring outer space and bringing man back to the moon, the Starship rocket blowing up is unfortunate. It also was a sad reminder of what happened with the Challenger shuttle on January 28, 1986. When I was a real little kid, outer space was fascinating to me; it was a blessing then that unlike many children on that day, it was not shown in my school that day so that tragedy was not shown live to me as a toddler.

This is a 4 part documentary on Netflix about 3 hours in length total where we the viewer get a history lesson on how NASA started the Space Shuttle program and at the same time the pool of astronauts morphed from “a bunch of white guys” to people far more diverse. Several dozen were selected to be trained at once and deployed through the 80’s. What ultimately caused the Challenger to explode was an issue known for years and that is the key subplot. The O-rings in the rocket boosters were an issue that was warned about many times so a catastrophe was inevitable.

The documentary was not the easiest watch; various family members of the late astronauts were interviewed along with the whistle-blowers whose cries fell on deaf ears. What was most fascinating to me was seeing the aftermath, with the commission hearings that finally revealed the truth to the public. It was put together rather well-one of the executive producers was J.J. Abrams-and was always the right tone as we saw all the interviews mixed in w/ all the stock footage. Early on as we got to know the astronauts there were some needle-drops, usually obvious ones. Then as it got serious, that ceased and the focus was on all the drama.

As sad as the subject matter was, getting to hear/see all those faces and educate the viewer on a preventable incident fascinated me. The fact that NASA was responsible for another appalling incident which should never have happened-the poor Space Shuttle Columbia-and it just makes me shake my head.

Grass is Greener

This is a 2019 Netflix documentary which is being discussed tonight for obvious reasons: 

Yes, I literally watched this on Netflix once 4:20 hit lol. What my history of cannabis use is (or isn’t) won’t be discussed here; for certain, people I know personally and online smoke The Devil’s Lettuce so usually I talk about something appropriate around April 20. 

In this case, it’s a 2019 documentary from legendary visual artist Fab 5 Freddy-who told me that everybody’s fly-which discusses marijuana’s ties to minorities in the United States, especially Black people. Indeed, weed has not only had an obvious connection to hip-hop music & reggae, but also jazz… and that starts like a century ago. After all, I’ve known for ages that an old name for joints is “jazz cigarettes.”

How cannabis became criminalized is explained-a lot of it was known due to other documentaries. From there this is in fact quite political as the disproportionate number of minorities who have been incarcerated due to pot in the War on Drugs is discussed, along with other similar topics. One person in particular was covered as he was jailed for years due to an accumulation of several minor ganja arrests. Even once Mary Jane has become more and more decriminalized, white faces are the predominant shade of skin in that booming business. Various black artists were interviewed, alongside academic types.

Besides the educating scenes there are plenty of moments which should infuriate people due to sheer injustice. That was why the occasional moments of levity-such as Snoop Dogg revealing the first time he had bud. Sure, it’s funny to talk about this on the official holiday for all stoners but this is actually worthy of serious, sober viewing on any day if you want to learn much more about how a plant has been used as a weapon against certain segments of the population.

Cold Sweat

Cold Sweat (De La Part Des Copains) (1970)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Terence Young

Starring: Charles Bronson, Liv Ullmann, James Mason, Jill Ireland, Luigi Pistilli, Jean Topart

From: A few Italian and French companies

A 70’s Bronson I saw more due to me knowing the film for many years rather than critical/viewer opinion. About 1/6 of his films I’ve talked about here on Letterboxd yet I’m always happy for more. Long ago I first heard of this movie and for all this time it was a very easy movie to track down and view; it’s just that the copies were usually of poor quality. Finally, last night I went to YouTube and checked out an upload which was obviously from the Kino Lorber Blu-ray so it did look nice. I know, it’s also available for purchase on the streaming sites…

A Bronson movie directed by Terence Young which also has Liv Ullmann (!), Jill Ireland, Luigi Pistilli & James Mason, a story from Richard Mathison AND has Remy Julienne car chases… sign me the F up! Old Chuck is married to Ullmann, has a 12 year old stepdaughter and his own boat in France so live sounds good for him, right? Well, the chickens have come home to roost as the shady things he was involved with back in the military has those associates looking for payback once they were released from prison. Sounds exciting, right? About that…

The first half was rather enjoyable to me as we get to know all the main players and we see what the scheme is from the villains. The second half, yes it does have some sweet car action courtesy of Julienne as an Opel Commodore zooms all around the city then the rocky French countryside. Regrettably, the film made some narrative decisions which I did not particularly enjoy; of course that’s personal preference but for me the movie lost its way and despite various moments, overall I can “only” say that this was good. I shouldn’t carp too loudly yet with all the talent involved, the pangs of disappointment are still present.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Runtime: 103 minutes

Directed by: John Ford

Starring: John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr.

From: Argosy Pictures

I won’t apologize for really liking this movie; it’s a sign of weakness… 

As a means of clearing off more space from the DVR even though I am in no danger of running out of space, I checked out this recording of a TCM showing last month. The movie’s reputation and the presence of John Squared (Ford and Wayne) were the big draws for me.

Wayne played Captain Brittles, part of the United States Cavalry who is stationed at a post out West; this was filmed at Monument Valley, a gorgeous scenic location that’s been used often in film history. We see his last days before retirement-you see, Wayne is playing a character 20 years older than he was in real life. Unlike what has become cliché now, this is not automatically a harbinger of impending doom then death. He is ordered by his superior to escort the superior’s wife and niece to a stagecoach-an unenviable task due to increasing Native American hostilities in the area. That niece-naturally a pretty lady who has no trouble finding suitors-wears the title item in her hair as a sign of love, but for whom she won’t say.

Perhaps I have a predisposition to enjoy such films; however, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon hit the spot. Brittles was an interesting character and so were the others we get to know. Even the subplot where John Agar and Harry Carey, Jr. fight for the affections of Joanne Dru was better than expected. Sure, I understand why some wouldn’t care for this glorification of the United States Calvary or how this showed sympathy for General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn (a major event in Western history, one where now most people realize Custer was a glory hound who was a real fool for engaging in a battle with far superior Native American forces led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse) but it’s John Ford-his love of the military was crystal clear through his career-and attitudes were far different back then. The presentation of “Injuns” here wasn’t always offensive…

The performances from the cast-especially Wayne-were impressive although the real standout was the Winton C. Hoch cinematography, which won the Oscar that year. He and Ford set out to create a special look and this task was completed successfully. As someone did a great job restoring the movie, my breath was taken away & my reaction would have been the same if I had purchased the Blu-ray for viewing.

It was a film of serious emotion at times along with the short bursts of action that were exciting and other times, featured such moments as the character played by Victor McLaglen acting like Bud Spencer during a scene in a bar and wrecking multiple dudes in a comedic way. All in all, this makes me excited to check out the Ford Westerns unseen by me yet that are rated even higher by Letterboxd users; that will happen sometime in the upcoming years.

Dream Lover

Dream Lover (1993)

Runtime: 103 minutes

Directed by: Nicholas Kazan

Starring: James Spader, Madchen Amick, Fredric Lehne, Bess Armstrong, Larry Miller

From: Gramercy Pictures

I’d call Madchen Amick beautiful… but her character here would be aghast at that comment. For awhile now I have known that she is an attractive woman, both now and then. Yet I’ve never experienced Twin Peaks before so this was the first time for me to have seen her in anything. It is currently on the Criterion Channel in their new Erotic Thrillers collection. It has many of the expected 80’s and 90’s films (such as Poison Ivy, Dressed to Kill and Body Double) along with a film or two like this that I knew nothing about beforehand. The fact that someone I know is a big fan yet the reasons as to why were not elaborated upon… I was intrigued.

James Spader plays a recently divorced architect who is looking for love; how lucky for him then that he literally bumps into Amick. They quickly fall in love & start a family. He starts noticing odd things, then… you can probably guess where this sleazy & trashy story goes. Just why and how it happens is the intrigue; inherent in this genre is some stereotypes, which will be objectionable to some. I can accept that and be amused by this entertainment that served as erotica before the Internet became popular. After all, when we get full frontal nudity you don’t need more than one guess to know that it was from Amick… that alone may be a draw for some!

The performances from Spader and Amick stand out which help kept my interest intact through all the tawdry then shocking moments. I don’t just mean their acting during the “sexy time”, either. There were some other faces I recognized in the cast, from Bess Armstrong to Larry Miller playing the exact sort of slimeball character that is second nature for him. Complaints could be made about this film, admittedly—there are some odd dream sequences which were a different way of presenting the thoughts of Old James; however, brownie points were given for the conclusion. It got quite the reaction out of me-the specificity of this reaction won’t be elaborated upon.

If you get a kick out of such trash which we rarely get anymore-one day I’ll subscribe to Hulu so last year’s Deep Water will be viewed as that IS just like the erotic thrillers of old-then you just might get your jollies from Dream Lover. By the way, one recommendation from that Criterion Channel collection after the two De Palma pictures: Crimes of Passion. Now there is a wild movie from Ken Russell—no relation.

Debt Collectors

Debt Collectors (2020)

Runtime: 97 minutes

Directed by: Jesse V. Johnson

Starring: Scott Adkins, Louis Mandylor, Vladimir Kulich, Marina Sirtis, Ski Carr

From: Several companies but again this was watched on Netflix

This is literally a movie where they alternate between using a Hyundai Accent hatchback and Hyundai Accent sedan... and it's supposed to be the same vehicle.

I've seen a decent amount of director Jesse V. Johnson's work, including 2018's The Debt Collector. He creates exciting low-budget action pictures, usually starring Scott Adkins. Both deserve better careers but me carping again about modern Hollywood will have to be done on another occasion. While The Debt Collector had too many F-bombs and made the strange decision to include several pretentious shots involving COWS as a clumsy metaphor, otherwise it was a fun time as there was more comedy than expected as Adkins and Louis Mandylor hung out as the latter introduced to the eponymous line of work. Thankfully it did deliver on the action beats.

There being a sequel is a little surprising-don't ask why if you haven't seen the original-and it was watched on Netflix, where because it's Netflix they use the title The Debt Collector 2. It's more of the same, although the whole experience is at least one step down. The exclusion of the pretentious moments is the only benefit; otherwise the story treads familiar ground, just not as well. The camaraderie between the lead duo, the heels they have to try and collect from, the banter, all the F-bombs... it's all worse than before. Even the action is inferior in this case, including the climax. The biggest sin, though, is plot momentum—or rather the lack of plot momentum. Until the third act starts winding down this just plods along.

The two leads still possess their charm and none of this I'd call “bad”; however, the whole exercise is just mediocre. Even a scene that blatantly rips off a moment from a Carpenter classic seems misplaced. Alas, I can't carp too loudly when this is the sixth Johnson picture I've witnessed and it's the first one that wasn't at least fine to me. The film is still more worthwhile than a lot of the Hollywood action films we've been “blessed” with in recent years... or I'm sure a good amount of the Netflix Original action movies too.

American Psycho

American Psycho (2000)

Runtime: 102 minutes

Directed by: Mary Harron

Starring: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Reese Witherspoon

From: Lionsgate

Until last night, you could have put on my business card “I have never seen American Psycho.” Looking at Letterboxd and noting that over 1 million (!) have given the movie a vote—it was about time to weigh in myself. Additionally, due to a request from a Letterboxd mutual yesterday evening I finally saw this motion picture that served as my Friday night entertainment. As to WHY it took 23 years for it to happen... I knew the Bret Easton Ellis book was controversial and it was very well possible that the film would be quite the turn-off. After all, following a narcissistic 80's yuppie who is also a serial killer spiraling out of control... that could have gone quite bad. Today, that belief makes me look like a buffoon who would obsess over my and my friend's business cards...

What I almost always do is see a movie then write part to all of the review the next day. Sleeping on it is one reason why this arrangement works well for me. The time spent ruminating about a film sometimes is to everyone's benefit; the realization hit that this does deserve quite high marks. As we follow Patrick Bateman, a successful investment banker in 1980's New York City, the viewer eventually realizes that he is a rather pathetic person. Sure, he has material wealth and multiple women, but is part of a pitiful rat race where dining at frou-frou restaurants is of paramount importance , he obsesses over 80's pop like a dork to the point he blathers on about it, and his obsession over his appearance masks plenty of self-doubt. That's even before the whole “killing people and at one point, a dog” thing... the targets of his wrath is social commentary in of itself, one of many points that should be dissected by the viewer.

To think that a woman (Mary Harron) directed the film and she & Guinevere Turner adapted the novel which so successfully skewers such topics as 80's excesses and incredibly shallow men-Bateman's buddies are also tools-along with examining mental illness... both women deserve credit for the job they did here. Yet, Harron never got the chance again to direct such a high-profile picture. It has a KILLER cast both male (Internet “favorite” Jared Leto, Willem Dafoe) and female (Chloe Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon) along with a great period soundtrack. Yet of course it was Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman which made the movie. What a complex character he was who experienced plenty of emotions throughout... Bale nailed the role perfectly in appearance, tone, mannerisms, narration, and all the rest. I couldn't imagine Leonardo DiCaprio in that role, which almost happened.

Seeing Jared Leto's name in the credits did earn a hearty laugh-the film has a whole has plenty of those, although most are incredibly dark-solely due to the Internet theory of “People forget or don't even know most of Jared Leto's film roles” and that was the case for me here. I'm not sure how the film spawned various memes-some of which I've known of for a few years now-but finally this got crossed off the list. Right after viewing last night, I was not sure if I would ever see this again due to its overall tone. Now, that likely won't ever get mentioned here in the future but after contemplation, one day many moons from now I should do such a thing. It's the type of movie to be watched more than once; at least there won't be any physical rentals involved and thus there are no worries about returning videotapes...

One last thing: what Letterboxd reviews I like before posting this was done at random. There are so many that it'd take too long to go through. Many did write admittedly better and more probing examinations of why American Psycho was moving to them.

Sentinelle

Sentinelle (2021)

Runtime: 80 minutes

Directed by: Julien Leclercq

Starring: Olga Kurylenko, Marilyn Lima, Michel Nabokoff, Martin Swabey, Carole Weyers

From: Several studios, although I watched this on Netflix

The low overall rating this has, I understand; an explanation will be given as to why I feel the movie is fine. Of course, there's personal taste and all, and how this has a retro sort of vibe in terms of having a hero who is far from infallible; the T&A and lesbian sex scene done to titillate... your mileage will vary on how positive or negative that is for you.

Olga Kurylenko-the one name I knew in the cast-played a French Sentinel named Klara; the movie shows title cards after the first scene to explain, but I'll clarify that they are members of the military who are an anti-terrorist unit. Klara was top of the class in training so she's unhappy with being a Sentinel. Unfortunately for her, she also deals with PTSD and an addiction to pills. At least she's transferred to her hometown so time can be spent with mom and sister and suddenly things are great... right? Wrong.

Something pretty bad happens to the sister and because of circumstances, it is Klara who has to get some sweet, sweet revenge. Now, it's not a deep dive into Klara's trauma yet I was never bored, and even if I did not always love how the action was presented, overall it entertained me and there was a presence of realism. Again, a heroine who isn't someone without fault or is totally unstoppable seems rare in modern times. Thank heavens that Olga Kurylenko was able to deliver with her performance, whether it was the action beats or the dramatic ones. Others have noted that she deserved a better career than the one she got; from what little I've seen, no argument from me.

As for director Julien Leclercq, others have praised the other films he has done; one day I should find out for myself if that's an opinion to agree with. I do know that just days ago he was announced as doing another film for Netflix; it's a remake of... The Wages of Fear! As rare of an opinion as it is, The Wages of Fear AND Sorcerer are movies I like more than love; henceforth, the idea of a remake is not automatically blasphemous to me. It's the general mediocre nature (“mid” is a term you'll never see me use) of Netflix Original productions that is more cause for concern for me.

Robot Monster

Robot Monster (1953)

Runtime: 62 minutes… which is still not short enough

Directed by: Phil Tucker

“Starring”: George Nader, Gregory Moffett, Claudia Barrett, Selena Royle, John Mylong

From: Three Dimension Pictures

Ooof, never watch this without the aid of MST3K. In short, my schedule in the past 24 hours necessitated something short; also, this is one of the more infamous of the “cheesy 50’s/60’s sci-fi pictures” out there so away we go… or rather, saunter slowly through the desert ad nauseum while wearing a gorilla suit and diving helmet because this was as “exotic” as this zero budget picture could get in terms of creature outfits. Space gorilla actually speaks English, and does so quite frequently.

Aliens have decimated the Earth, except for a small cadre of people who just so happen to live right by the lair of the “Ro-man” creature who eradicated everyone else. It falls in love with the young lady that’s still alive and… that’s really it for the plot. That is unless you need me to tell you that this is full of gaffes, has more than its fair share of puzzling moments, contains a bubble machine as another “special” effect, an unsubtle Elmer Bernstein score, or that it is deathly, interminably dull. Honestly, the boredom contained in just a hair over an hour is a big reason why this receives such a lowly rating when there is no shortage of camp value throughout, such as-to list an example-the annoying boy calling Ro-man A POOPED-OUT PINWHEEL.

Perhaps I shouldn’t totally eviscerate Robot Monster when they were able to film the production in 3D, in terms of box office it was a success and director Phil Tucker tried to take his own life due to allegedly not getting paid for his work and couldn’t find subsequent work. At the same time though, the movie is still rather putrid. The only moments that look good are the obvious stock footage scenes taken from better work, getting through Robot Monster was a LONG hour and the plot is suspiciously similar to another 1953 sci-fi picture-which is superior-right down to the ending. To be fair, plenty are familiar with this movie even 70 years later, which is more than what can be said of many sci-fi contemporaries.

There can be value in experiencing God-awful films, whether it be to laugh at their pathetic attempts at entertainment or to make you appreciate even the mediocre motion pictures in comparison. Ultimately, this is best experienced as the episode during the early days of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or a Rifftrax episode released last year that I haven’t viewed.

The Witch Who Came from the Sea

The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Matt Cimber

Starring: Millie Perkins, Lonny Chapman, Vanessa Brown, Peggy Feury, Jean Pierre Camps

From: MCI; yes, that was the company named in the opening credits

Well, this was quite the grim experience… that’s not necessarily a negative. Originally I was going to watch something on Netflix but for reasons I’ll explain at the end for those that care, instead I went to Shudder and selected something I’ve known of for a long while now-chiefly, how bizarre it was-but without knowing much as to WHY it garnered such a reception.

From the opening scene I knew that this would be a markedly different film than typical; Molly is on what looks like Venice Beach w/ her young nephews. For some reason they are named TADD and TRIPOLI. She looks at some weightlifters in a sexual manner… then fantasizes their graphic deaths. This happens after she opines over her late father, a sea captain who disappeared long ago. The film maintains such an unsettling vibe throughout. Her sister Cathy does not share such a rosy opinion; the film shortly proves through flashbacks that the sister’s comments were correct. That’s only mentioned as the relationship between Molly and her father is of the gross variety so I hope that’s not triggering to anyone reading this—but I am cognizant it’s always possible.

From there we get more weirdness as there are deaths shown and one extended scene which was presented in a surreal way as if it could have been a dream-that query is later answered so this is not one of those inscrutable, obtuse films that aren’t always my bag. The entire journey had a dream-like vibe and despite the occasional laugh from me (usually in disbelief or nervous confusion) the movie is a real downer, especially in the final act. Molly doesn’t quite realize just how bonkers she is although her sister then her friends do eventually realize this-what a sad, depressing picture which never becomes so much that it was a struggle to finish.

A nice score and direction are big assets; personally it was nice seeing Buck Flower in a supporting role, especially when I did not realize until the opening credits he was present. In this low-budget production he was also the casting director, which is why his daughter played the younger version of Molly in flashbacks. How it was presented, it wasn’t a scenario where the child would be traumatized on set. Traumatized is not a word I’ll use to describe my opinion of Witch but its title is eventually explained and I’ll never be able to forget various elements of the movie: the general tone, the oddball performances, the razors, the importance of television/commercials in this world, someone’s politically incorrect opinion of American football players…

As for me and Netflix, besides their lineup not being as appealing to me as what other streaming services offer, the smart TV app and even sometimes the web version more often than not runs incredibly slow so it makes me not even want to bother with the aggravation. It’s been that way for a few years now so that is one of several reasons why I usually don’t subscribe to the service.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

57% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 219 reviews)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Aaron Horvath/Michael Jelenic/Pierre Leduc

Starring: Various famous voices, including the controversial inclusion of Chris Pratt

From: Universal/Illumination/Nintendo

Yes, this gets brownie points for having a lead henchman sound exactly like Peter Lorre.

To be frank, going to see a movie like this theatrically is incredibly rare. There are a few reasons why I made this decision yesterday. Yes, I am old so my Super Mario fandom is only reserved for the games made in the 80’s and 90’s, although at least that includes the ones they had for the Game Boy. Yes, I’ve seen the 1993 live action film more than once in my lifetime; it is at least a fascinating and funny disaster. I hadn’t used my AMC A-List pass in more than a month so I shouldn’t let that monthly fee go to waste. And, for a few months now one of the AMC’s in the area has had a new laser projector for their IMAX screen yet this was just my first visit checking it out.

Most Illumination works I’ve managed to avoid. Due to general reputation and my viewing of The Grinch a few months ago, I’m happy to have avoided almost all of that noise, especially the F’ing Minions. Thank heavens then that this managed to be fine overall. The story is incredibly safe and not all of the humor worked for me; be that as it may, it was not an agonizing sit full of awkward, painful attempts at “humor” or “intrigue” that caused me to run out of the room as if my hair was on fire.

It was a standard tale where Mario & Luigi are down on their luck plumber brothers who go through a pipe and end up in another dimension where all those familiar characters are present and Bowser is the villain looking to take over Princess Peach’s Mushroom Kingdom. Yes, plenty of familiar moments are present for fans of the game… even those like me who didn’t pay much attention to the property in the 21st century. Already I don’t remember all the details of the plot-the fact that it wasn’t a film I hated was a win.

This did have too many needle drops (to be fair, this has been an industry-wide problem for many years by this point) including a tune I understand was in another recent theatrical release and another I know appeared in another Chris Pratt picture; other than that, the only pop culture moments revolve around the franchise itself and thank heavens there was no scatological humor. The score had various leitmotifs from the games, some of which were instantly recognizable to me.

Definitely, the movie was a gigantic hit with my audience yesterday. It was a crowd-pleasing picture where one character’s motivations were a bit surprising but otherwise this didn’t try to “subvert expectations” or push any political messages. This is appropriate for all kids; as an adult, I appreciated the bright, colorful animation, not to mention how breathtaking it was on a laser projector. The Super Mario Bros. Movie proving to be a massive success already-let’s not even bring up the white-hot controversy concerning the critical consensus-is not a shocking revelation after my theatrical experience yesterday.

The Hitch-Hiker

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Runtime: 71 minutes

Directed by: Ida Lupino

Starring: Edmond O’Brien, Frank Lovejoy, William Tallman, Jose Torvay, Sam Hayes

From: RKO

About time I saw this movie after having all the opportunities to for years now. Besides it being a public domain title, it is in relatively regular rotation on Turner Classic Movies. I ended up seeing it on the Criterion Channel, although that wasn’t my first choice.

First it was a YouTube video which not only was colorized with AI, but was 4K and 50 frames per second. Most movies converted to a higher frame rate just don’t look quite right to my eyes then there’s the aspect of AI colorized films not always getting it right either… whether it be sometimes causing people to have blue skin as if they had been ingesting colloidal silver or how this in particular didn’t handle the darker lighting all that well… after a few minutes I tapped out and the traditional black & white presentation on the Criterion Channel was much better.

Much of this is just a trio of characters: buddies Edmond O’Brien and Frank Lovejoy on a road trip until they had the grave misfortune of picking up dead-eyed serial killer hitchhiker William Tallman. It goes largely as expected-this is predictable-yet director Ida Lupino (it is awesome that a woman directed such a tense noir) wring a lot of intensity out of a scenario which believe it or not was based on a real life A-hole who went on a murdering spree and held two pals hostage, an SOB named Billy Cook who went to the gas chamber at San Quentin for his crimes.

71 minutes seemed like the right length for the story told here, considering much of the focus is on the trio either out in the desert or in the car, featuring both close-ups of faces and scenic views of the California desert standing in for Baja Mexico. All the driving footage manages to look rather convincing given the low budget & while our two heroes are fine, Tallman managed to stand out not just because he had the showiest role, but also because his character was the strongest given his constant badgering & taunts towards his captives. Said captives WERE too frightened most of the time, admittedly.

I did blow it by not checking out some of Lupino’s work back when it was on the Criterion Channel yet I’ll use other sources to try at least one of them. As those are more centered around women, that is one reason why I am intrigued after seeing the good job she did here. This is an incredibly easy movie to legally track down as it’s in the public domain; just avoid the colorized versions…

An Update

Last night I revisited Season of the Witch; not the Romero movie-which has never been experienced by me-but rather the totally forgettable 2011 film starring Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman. That is still a movie which isn’t 1 star bad but rather 2 star lousy. At least this time it wasn’t a bad theatrical experience like the first time. Now, the rest of this is a review I wrote on Letterboxd a few days ago but neglected to port over here. That is the 1919 13 minute short Billy Blazes, Esq., starring Harold Lloyd: 

A fine short as long as you can wait 5 minutes to see Harold Lloyd… and accept there being a minor yellowface character. It wasn’t the plan to see another silent short already but something less than 15 minutes in length fit my schedule the best. This ended up being not my favorite Lloyd by any means and this set up a story for the first 5 minutes before the star first shows up. There also is a Chinese waiter at the town’s saloon who is a yellowface character that walks and acts funny-that is unfortunate, although at least the Criterion Channel had a warning in their description that this stereotype was present.

There isn’t too much else to say about this—this is a Western where Lloyd doesn’t do too many pratfalls although at least there’s some nice physical dexterity, perhaps the most impressive of which was seeing how he rolled his own cigarettes. There’s a heel, a damsel in distress, and a fraidy-cat sheriff; that was as complicated as it got. Believe it or not, Harold played a badass cowboy instead of the sheriff. There are better shorts in the collection of Lloyd that’s currently on the Criterion Channel although this wasn’t lousy. From skimming around I know that some of the material there has been restored while others like this haven’t been.