Chimpanzee

Before I post my review for the 2012 DisneyNature documentary Chimpanzee, an announcement: Now's the time for me to announce that until Saturday, December 13th, I won't be on Letterboxd as frequently. It's vacation time; I'll explain later why I'll be even more preoccupied with other things than the previous times I was on vacation. I still hope to post some reviews, but they won't be daily by any means-the next one won't be for a few days.

The review for Chimpanzee: 
 

Now felt like the time to see another DisneyNature documentary. A few have been viewed; as I always say when diving into that world, the more serious, “adult” sort of nature documentaries (such as the ones narrated by Sir David Attenborough) are more my speed. That said, what DisneyNature does is still good and full of great footage of animals & the worlds they inhabit. The narration from celebrities can be too goofy at times and/or cloying-I can comprehend that it’s for an all-ages audience and to list a specific example, I’d be fine with my four nephews & one niece viewing something like Chimpanzee.

Chimpanzee follows a young member of the species named Oscar. The viewer follows his clan as we see the stunning jungle habitat they reside in (the Tai National Forest in Ivory Coast), feuds w/ other clans, some peril, etc. Along the way, educational facts are presented. As I’ve stated in other reviews, the assumption is that more than one chimpanzee was used as “Oscar.” Other nature documentaries do craft narratives, after all. It is wacky that they decided to have a villain named… SCAR.

Celebrities always provide the narration; in this case, it was… Tim Allen. I know, a controversial figure now but he was fine as a narrator. At one point, he does impersonate Tim “The Toolman” Taylor; perhaps those in power wanted him to do that to placate audiences. My carping, re: certain details of these documentaries don’t mean that I don’t like them as infrequent viewing or that they don’t have anything to educate/entertain me, let alone Joe Q. and Jane Public. While not theatrical releases anymore, DisneyNature still makes these documentaries. It won’t be a future project to view all of them—but that doesn’t mean rare viewings won’t occur.

Carry On Jack

Carry on Jack (1964)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: Gerald Thomas

Starring: Bernard Cribbins, Juliet Mills, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtry, Donald Houston

From:Anglo-Amalagated Film Distributors

It’s actually been years since I’d seen a Carry On movie from the 60’s. Yeah, those aren’t watched that often anymore and many from the 60’s were already witnessed by me. The same, I was happy to see one of the films that I have on DVD as part of a set purchased long ago; furthermore, I’m sure the Dr. Who fans will like that this starred Bernard Cribbins as the lead. Who knows what you guys will think of his name: ALBERT POOP-DECKER.

Yes, this had the randy and bawdy humor you’d expect from the franchise, albeit less frequently than typical. The setting is naval in general and specifically, the time of Horatio Nelson-the opening shows him passing away, establishing the year as 1805. It involves the War of the Third Coalition-the particulars aren’t important but it was Britain and several other countries versus France/Spain and several areas that would later become a part of Germany. Poop-Decker is inept but is forced to become part of the crew of the ship Venus. Juliet Mills cosplays as a guy to find a long-lost love.

An important detail: of course, the setting and plot wouldn’t easily allow for the inclusion of the distaff regulars to the franchise: Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims, etc. However, Jim Dale only appears for a few minutes and only two other regulars appear-at least they were Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey, portraying exactly the sort of archetypes you’d expect. Be that as it may, two familiar character actors make their only appearance in this universe: Donald Houston and Cecil Parker.

While atypical, the film was still silly and still entertained me. Nice ship sets was an asset, as was the inclusion of pirates in the final act. It won’t be all those months later that I finally see another Carry On picture-however, what I’ll select for next time should be more the archetypical movie you’d expect.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Jack Clayton

Starring: Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, Diane Ladd (RIP), Royal Dano, Vidal Peterson, Shawn Carson

From: Disney

A belated RIP to Diane Ladd. In the upcoming month or two, there’s more than one person who’s passed away this year that I need to tip my cap to. As I’m subscribed to Disney+ for December, I’ve only seen some of Ladd’s movies-this was a small yet important role-and until its addition to the platform two months ago, this movie was infamously hard to track down.

I’m fascinated by this era of Disney where they weren’t quite sure what they were doing in the world of cinema and they didn’t have subsidiary companies like Touchstone or Hollywood Pictures to release pictures not meant for a family audience, that’s how we had oddball films (like this, Return to Oz and The Watcher in the Woods, which I hope Disney+ adds one day) that tried to be of a darker tone from the Disney label.

In this tale where a Mr. Dark brings an ominous carnival to a bucolic small Illinois town during an October at least 100 years ago, the talent involved was impressive. An adaptation of a Ray Bradbury novel, the stars included Ladd, Jason Robards (as a really old father; the movie stresses that point), Royal Dano, Pam Grier in a supporting role, and Jonathan Pryce as Mr. Dark. This was in gestation for years-Bryna Productions was the production company, meaning Kirk Douglas was involved. James Horner provided a proper whimsical score-it wasn’t the original soundtrack, but more on that later-and the rural setting was pleasant.

Regrettably, I only liked rather than loved the film-perhaps if there had been childhood viewings, a different tune would be whistled. Like with Watcher, this had production issues, reshoots, an unhappy Disney, and other drama which undoubtedly did harm to the potential this had. The idea that this carnival grants the told & untold desires of the town’s residents (only of course it’s of the Faustian bargain variety) is a swell one, and I’m sure the book is better. The presumption is that the overblown special effects finale were part of the reshoots. Be that as it may, it was still a movie I liked. The town’s setting is pleasant, as was the carnival-aside from the whole evil aspect thing.

The cinematography was quality; that was due to future De Palma chief cinematographer Stephen H. Burum. Pryce did a nice job; somewhere in the multiverse are versions where either Peter O’Toole or Christopher Lee would have been Mr. Dark. Disney wanted to save money, you see, so they cast a talented actor, but one who was almost always in the world of theater at the time. The film’s from the perspective of two young boys; the actors and the characters were both fine, not intolerable to follow.

A shame that there were those issues, those reshoots, the replacing of the original Georges Delerue score (from a short listen on YouTube, it is more ominous) and other problems. There are still nice practical effects and a few effective scares as well. Plenty do love the movie more than moi-for their sakes, I’m glad the film is on Disney+. The Blu release was a limited exclusive deal back in ’21 as part of a now-defunct program—the prices on eBay are as expensive as you would expect. There are rumors of an upcoming remake; now this is the sort of movie that does need one… if they don’t screw it up with various tropes and movements I’m not a fan of in modern cinema.

Breaking News

Breaking News (Dai Si Gin) (2004)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: Johnnie To

Starring: Richie Jen, Kelly Chen, Nick Cheung, Yong You, Shiu-Hung Hui

From: Several different Hong Kong companies 

Breaking news: I was happy to see this Johnnie To movie. I’ve only scratched the surface of his filmography, despite seeing 2013’s Drug War soon after release and finding it to be great. This will leave the Criterion Channel after today, forcing a watch now. 

I knew we were in good hands in the opening minutes. A police stakeout goes horribly awry. There’s a LONG tracking shot lasting a few minutes-panning along and moving up/down via a crane, capturing both the cops and criminals. The shootout continues after that-law enforcement looked particularly bad as media happened to be nearby, filming and photographing the bungled operation, including a cop holding his hands up in fear to a criminal pointing a gun at him.

How do they handle this embarrassment? Better training, a reprimand for the mistakes made, improved planning? Of course not! Instead, they manipulate the power of the press via engaging in a PR campaign. Let’s be glad such things couldn’t happen now anywhere in the world… both sides are followed.

I dare not reveal much more of the plot-the satire, the quality action scenes well-filmed, the humanizing moments. The score from Ben Cheung Siu-Hung and Chung Chi-Wing was uniquely effective… percussion, flamenco guitar, what sounded like bagpipes, and other interesting sounds. Yeah, a decent amount of the film is in a blue hue that is indicative of the early 2000’s-even then, that amused me. I missed out on not giving Breaking News a shot much sooner.

 

The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye (1973)

Runtime: 112 minutes

Directed by: Robert Altman

Starring: Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, Henry Gibson

From: United Artists

What better way to announce my safe return home to Central Florida after spending a few days in Fort Myers than viewing one of Robert Altman’s most famous movies before it leaves the Criterion Channel after Sunday? Considering the noir and neo-noir I’ve viewed in my life, it seems like a misstep on my part that I’ve never tackled this until earlier in the day. Of course, I’ve viewed some other Philip Marlowe pictures before, but never one set in the 70’s.

Right away, I laughed that the movie opens w/ Marlowe’s forced journey to a 24-hour store to purchase cat food for his constantly-meowing feline. It reminded me of a previous journey to Kansas (this one with my father and late mother) when she helped out sis and fed one of the two cats she had at the time. It wasn’t 3 AM but feeding time was late; the kitty constantly meowed as mom prepared the food, much to my mom’s consternation! No, mom did not smoke constantly like Marlowe did here, nor did she act laconic like Elliott Gould’s portrayal of a man who deliberately felt out of lockstep with his surroundings… a 40’s or 50’s detective who lives right by a bunch of attractive young women who do yoga and love being topless.

Our private eye associates w/ a cad named Terry Lennox; much to his misfortune, Lennox is missing & accused of murdering his wife. The film had some interesting casting; Lennox was played by Jim Bouton… yes, the former baseball player who caused controversy by writing a 1969 book called Ball Four, where people at the time were shocked that pro sports players were human and thus did drugs, drank, and were womanizers. What innocent times back then. Anyhow…

It’s not my favorite movie involving the character nor my personal favorite from Altman-that said, The Long Goodbye was still a very good time. In fact, you might say that it was OK with me… the film was a satirical look at the life of a private eye involved in a convoluted case with various shady characters, some of them real reprobates. Marlowe was a jerk, albeit a funny jerk. It was a nice cast with several other recognizable faces… yes I did know that Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in a scene as a hood, but not that an actor famous at the time had an uncredited part. I wasn’t familiar with Nina van Pallandt but that Danish actress did a swell job.

The biggest assets the film had came from a trio of legends: Gould’s performance as the lead, the jazzy score from John Williams, and the cinematography from Vilmos Zsigmond. The film was downbeat, although given the decade and its neo-noir style, this should not have been a surprise. I’m personally happy that in 2025, several famous 70’s pictures were finally partaken in by me.

Time for Me to Catch Up

I'll be making three posts in total tonight. The first is for the 1920 Buster Keaton short Convict 13, posted on Letterboxd this past Friday night: 

While I have been having fun on my Thanksgiving break, I am still glad to have some time to talk about a silent short. I'll be returning home and in about 24 hours, I hope to have a review of something else, short or feature-length. 

I felt like Buster Keaton, as it's been awhile. Keaton starts off unsuccessfully playing golf for the purposes of wooing Sybil Seely-a lady I've mentioned before as the 1920's version of Milana Vayntrub. The titular Convict 13 is a prisoner who escapes and runs into a knocked-out Buster. Unsurprisingly, the prisoner exchanges clothes with Keaton, and of course Keaton literally runs into prison. While behind bars, his main foe is the prison's main foe... a large human portrayed by Joe Roberts.

This was not top-tier Buster; that's not a slight as Keaton still had his creative moments and funny pratfalls. Black comedy is also present-they attempt to hang our hero but the rope is like a bungee chord. There's also an old gag that is used at the conclusion of the short which evidently was used by Buster during his vaudeville days, at least according to a mutual's review. The final 10 or so seconds could have been a groaner even back in 1920-it sure is in 2025... even then, there's more carnage and people being knocked out cold than you'd expect, so I can't carp about Convict 13 too hard.

Marco

Marco (2024)

Runtime: 145 minutes

Directed by: Haneef Adeni

Starring: Unni Mukundan, Siddique, Jagadish, Abhimanyu Shammy Thilakan, Kabir Duhan Singh

From: A few different Indian companies

This went a step too far.

As always, during the week of (American) Thanksgiving, I am like many in the United States in that my movie-watching won’t be as frequent due to the aspect of traveling to other cities to hang out w/ loved ones. Not only do I expect to post at odd times, it won’t be every day and I won’t be able to like as many reviews as usual.

As for Marco… it’s an Indian movie I was finally able to track down. Months ago, someone on a messageboard informed everyone that Marco was even more violent than another Indian release from last year, Kill. Kill I have seen—and that was bloody gruesome. My interest was piqued, yet it was just now the reason why I couldn’t find it streaming anywhere in America w/ English subtitles: it’s an exclusive title for SonyLIV. Thankfully, YouTube has that as a service you can subscribe to… I am doing a free one-week trial, you see.

Concerning the film: the titular Marco is part of a crime family, even though he was adopted in rather than it being by blood. Some A-holes kill the blind Victor (via a dip in acid!), who is the sibling he was the closest to. It might as well be a bromance. Despite this being my first motion picture in the Malayalam language, it has the same characteristics that I’ve viewed in the pictures in the tongues of Tamil, Telugu, or Hindi.

Marco doesn’t appear right away-the plot is established then he receives quite the introduction… children argue over his character then we see him escape kidnapping via the killing of dogs (regrettable, even if Marco explains that he had to and he’s a dog lover) and like the sort of movies from India I end up seeking out, it’s macho OOT moments-typically in slow-motion-as he wrecks multiple dudes… most of the time while smoking a cigarette! He smokes more often than a Chow Yun-Fat character! It’s funny: like the YouTube copy I saw of the 2019 Tamil film Kaithi, there are messages that tobacco and alcohol are bad each time they are seen on screen-believe me, that is seen constantly in Marco the movie.

The first hour has some action but it’s only after this point that most of the grisly moments occur. A memorable scene involves… a chainsaw. Dog dying isn’t the only questionable moment; there seemed to be an implication that a key character was being punished right after they admitted their bisexuality. Be that as it may, I was still entertained by this trash (at least up to a certain point) which did attempt to create a story before the worst of the carnage occurred.

The obvious digital moments weren’t always beloved by me—even then, limbs are broken like prime Seagal, limbs are chopped off, there is more than one trap that Jigsaw probably had in his mind… I was digging that, then they not only blatantly stole a line from Heath Ledger’s Joker, they went the direction of those extreme French horror movies from the early 2000’s-or a few Korean movies of the same era-none of which I liked because in part they were just too gross, too much.

To give a hint as the direction this goes, another message popped up: “Violence against women and children is punishable by law.” Kill was a lot of fun, definitely graphic but they didn’t go overboard in attempting to shock or nauseate the audience. One scene here just turned me off. It’s a shame, as the film at least attempted some stylish moments ripped off from other sources… there’s a short POV fight segment, a simulated long one-take fight, a scene in black and white until the red of blood appears.

Of course, “too much” possibly or probably won’t be the case for you; YMMV. Additionally, checking out Indian movies that aren’t the same archetype (such as, checking out pictures from the past) may be beneficial for me. As derivative as Marco could be, I was happy to finally cross this off the list… not to mention, it wasn’t a movie I thought was bad.

Gorgo

Gorgo (1961)

Runtime: 78 minutes

Directed by: Eugene Lourie

Starring: Bill Travers, William Sylvester, Vincent Winter, Christopher Rhodes, Joseph O’Conor

From: King Brothers Productions

What memorable wanton destruction in the final act; that was my main feeling concerning Gorgo after viewing the restored version on Arrow’s streaming site. The only foreknowledge I had beforehand was that this was Britain’s attempt at a kaiju movie. I was invested in the story so the methodical pacing for the first two acts was not an issue—the effects (at least when they attempted to superimpose images to reflect destruction) haven’t aged well-at least the model work and the guy in a suit stomping over miniature sets still are old-school cool.

The plot isn’t too terribly original: a ship wrecks off the coast of Ireland due to volcanic activity that also released a prehistoric creature, bipedal in nature and looking like a lizard of sorts. It’s captured and because the pair that run the ship are greedy A-holes (one of them Heywood Floyd from 2001, i.e. William Sylvester), they swerve two Irish academics and instead sell the titular Gorgo to a London circus as a sideshow act. Regrettably for them, that creature is just a baby—his mother is on the warpath looking for her offspring.

I can nitpick over how despite the presence of several voices of reason (including a little orphan boy, who lives in an Irish village but stows away on the ship and suddenly is unofficially adopted by our two male leads) and opportunities to prevent the destruction of London, it happens due to sheer stupidity… I am more forgiving of those flaws when the final act delivered on the destruction of London. 

As sociopathic as it may sound, that’s not my intent when describing how some expected landmarks were wrecked, how many innocent deaths occurred, all the carnage, the skies turning orange due to all the fires in the area… those moments were well-realized, awkward superimposed images aside. The radio announcer that often provides OOT commentary to the audience (both fictional and us, the viewers) was tremendous.

The majority that view kaiju movies are predominately interested in seeing the calamity, the annihilation the creature delivers. In this case, Gorgo (the movie and the creature’s mother) was satisfying; the visuals were grand and while cliché in this genre, the message of hubris by humanity and how greed/avarice can have devastating consequences… that was delivered well and henceforth, I was charmed by this movie that wasn’t as campy as I erroneously presumed it would be. 

For clarification’s sake, I’ve never viewed the apparently similar Reptilicus-the draw of seeing Danes attempt to enter the kaiju market strikes me as curious. One day in the future I need to check out that ’62 film. I’ve also never peeped the UK’s other giant monster movies from this era: Konga and The Giant Behemoth. The former starring a young Michael Gough interests due to his presence alone.

Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin

Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021)

Runtime: 99 long minutes

Directed by: William Eubank

Starring: Emily Bader, Roland Buck III, Dan Lippert, Jaye Ayres-Brown, Tom Nowicki

From: Paramount Players/Blumhouse

This isn’t MY Paranormal Activity!

Truth be told, there are lists I’ve created on Letterboxd where I discuss franchises-and those lists will forever be incomplete because it’s been determined by me that viewing those installments would just be infuriate me by (among other things) totally waste my time. As I know I’m the only one who really cares about such things, that’s why it’s not a big deal.

In hindsight, there was no need to see this unrelated sequel which involves no characters from the preceding movies, paranormal or not. A young lady named Margot is followed by a truly unendurable dude named Chris (and a random sound dude whose distinguishing traits are “he’s awkwardly annoying” and “he’s really tall”) who film her finding the family that abandoned her at a hospital as a baby. I don’t categorize this as found footage; many moments break that illusion. Even if it was… this motion picture set at an Amish community-I suppose this community won’t complain too hard if you make a bad movie filled with dumb, irritating characters where their sect is involved w/ demons.

Even if this was called Next of Kin and did not have the Paranormal Activity name attached to it, this movie would be bad. I’m glad it’s not just Next of Kin, if only because there’s two much better films from the 80’s w/ that title… either the slow-burn Aussie thriller from 1982, or the movie from ’89 where Patrick Swayze, Bill Paxton, and Liam Neeson are a trio of hillbilly siblings (!) from Appalachia. There are some moments that aren’t bad and the snowy landscape of rural New York State provides some nice scenery.

Otherwise, this movie was just lame and besides not following the found footage format AND added in unnecessary jump scare noises (no, really), they couldn’t even be arsed to set up a camera to film events at night when everyone’s sleeping. Your feelings on the Paranormal Activity are almost irrelevant, except that you’d likely be even more offended. As is, while I know some out there enjoyed the film, personally I couldn’t recommend it to anyone.

 

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension Revisited

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is a Christmas movie.

Boy, this movie was not as good as the (limited release) theatrical 3D showing from a decade ago. It was a random path I took for me to suddenly realize that the majority who hated the film were likely right & thus a viewing at home in 2D would change my opinion—this was true, and I am someone who enjoyed all of them except the 4th installment.

As explained before, the first Paranormal Activity is one I’ll always have a soft spot for. It was a movie championed on a long-defunct podcast a full two years before it came out. The early screening in Orlando will forever be an all-timer: evidently, I was one of the few at the sold-out showing who knew anything beforehand… the first act, people were laughing and scoffing at the film. Once the scares happened—the mood drastically changed, and the crowd was terrified.

Ever since then, I enjoyed seeing most of the sequels on the big screen, even if the crowd experience w/ those was never as incredible as the first movie. Yeah, the story for the franchise was clearly made up on the fly with each movie-no way could Oren Peli have predicated this would receive five sequels. At home, what a goofy movie this is. Yeah, they tried for meta commentary at times and the family we follow feature a goofy pair of brothers that drink Pabst Blue Ribbon, get stoned and have facial hair, including one sporting a pornstache!

Still, this is a motion picture where this family find a souped-up 80’s camcorder custom-built with six lenses and this allows them (alongside the viewer) to “see spirits,” meaning swirly shapes. That is goofy-not to mention how they found VHS tapes of another family at the house. Otherwise, it felt familiar as Tobi the spirit-yes, that’s the official canon spelling, not Toby- targets the little girl of the family-the types of scares also felt old hat by this point when the movie wasn’t utterly preposterous. There is a franchise resolution of sort, although even a decade ago I was like the mainstream in thinking it wasn’t entirely satisfying for a series that involved witches, cults, time travel, and general weirdness.

For all the flaws contained in Ghost Dimension, I still don’t hate the movie-blame my affinity and connection with the franchise. For better or for worse, it popularized the found footage genre, a trend (or plague, depending on your tastes) popular for years. In my original review for Ghost Dimension, the purported claims of this being the finale were met somewhat skeptically by me. Of course, there was a standalone sequel that gave off the stench of “it has hardly anything to do w/ the rest of the series” so that’s why I never gave Next of Kin a chance. Will curiosity ultimately win me over in the future?

Night of the Juggler, Revisited

This is a cult classic from 1980 that I reviewed over a decade ago; finally, I watched the restored 4K version that I bought on disc two months ago: 

Finally, I watched the 4K disc I’ve had of this film for the past two months. Night of the Juggler I first learned about many years ago via a messageboard-in fact, it was seen and reviewed by me almost 11 years ago already. At the time, everyone only had VHS rips or rips off of rare cable TV airings—for reasons still unknown to me, until Kino Lorber this year, Juggler never made it to the disc era. There certainly were rumors-including that the rights were owned by a soap company (?!) and they prevented release. No matter the truth, the UHD quality sure beat the initial viewing.

The movie is as loud and chaotic as its hot summer day New York City setting. James Brolin is a working blue-collar man (truck driver) who is an ex-cop; he has an ex-wife but still loves his daughter Kathy, who is celebrating her 13th birthday that day. Kathy is kidnapped by a psychopath after being mistaken for the daughter of a rich property developer who purportedly ruined his South Bronx childhood neighborhood.

Brolin’s Sean Boyd witnesses the kidnapping-his rage meter runs hot for hours-the movie is one set during a long day and night. A particularly wild scene is early on-Boyd hops in a cab driven by an OOT Puerto Rican. Sure, that character’s portrayed by a young Mandy Patinkin (decidedly not of Puerto Rican heritage) but that part was hysterical and his screentime was brief. There’s car chases, foot chases, carjackings, fights, stabbings, brawls, etc. in a vibrant New York City. Shooting on vacation was a key asset in bringing character to this film. Another colorful character was Dan Hedaya, playing even more of a Hedaya-esque character than typical. Various different ethnicities are shown & the finale takes place during a salsa concert in Central Park.

Sure, the movie has moments and lines definitely of a “politically incorrect” nature 45 years after the fact-including racial slurs-but that’s the vibes of the film. Boyd (who limps for part of the film because Brolin broke his foot during filming) feels he can’t trust the typical NYC law enforcement, instead relying on people like street-smart Julie Carmen. One of my favorite aspects is seeing the bad New York City of old; well, plenty of that is on display, from Bronx locations that look like a warzone to the adult establishments that used to fill Manhattan.

Night of the Juggler is wildly entertaining, often fast-paced and a product of its time in the best ways. The main cast was quite enjoyable, not just Brolin as the loving albeit loose cannon father who delivers a great physical performance. Cliff Gorman was suitably creepy as villain Gus Soltic-in another sign this was from the past, his relationship with Kathy becomes what I’ll deem “increasingly inappropriate.” He does have a somewhat wise scheme to get the ransom money-the film also has a somewhat credible path for Sean to follow to find his daughter in such a populated area. Thankfully there’s Richard S. Castellano as a Lieutenant who is gruff yet is a cop who attempts to do his job right.

The special features haven’t been dived into yet; the presumption is that there will be an explanation as to why the movie was first filmed by Sidney J. Furie but was replaced by Robert Butler. In any event, if the description sounds enticing and tasty for your palette, Night of the Juggler is well worth a viewing.

 

Marathon Man

Marathon Man (1976)

Runtime: 125 minutes

Directed by: John Schlesinger

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller

From: Paramount

This seemed like the sort of paranoid 70’s thriller that should have been viewed long ago by me… it was. Turner Classic Movies played the film last night-it seemed the right time to finally pull the trigger-or perhaps I should say, “Start the dentist’s drill.” Through cultural osmosis and being a movie fan, I did know the movie’s most (in)famous scene-it involves a horrifying version of dentistry. Well, it was two scenes but Marathon Man should be remembered for more than those moments.

Dustin Hoffman is a marathon runner who is on the immature side, especially compared to his older “He has a secret job with the federal government” brother Roy Scheider. I won’t reveal how an old Jewish man having a road rage incident in New York City resulting in a fiery crash relates to the brothers or why Nazi war criminal Laurence Olivier (hiding in Uruguay for decades) left the country for America. I will say that it’s after Watergate-you probably shouldn’t be surprised at the movie’s characterization of the government or who works for them.

What enticed me was my affinity for such films and the cast-there’s also William Devane, Fritz Weaver for a few scenes, Richard Bright, & this movie included, the rare occasions I’ve seen Marthe Keller, she’s done a fine job.

What won me over is the thought-provoking plot where the brothers deal with the grief of losing their father young due to McCarthyism and false accusations of Communism, the explanation of why Hoffman’s “Babe” became a long-distance runner (which naturally is useful for him in a scene), the period cinematography & score, the intensity throughout-whether an undercurrent or boiling over-the views of New York City & Paris in the 70’s, the maturation of Babe throughout the picture. There are also some grand moments I was impressed by which I dare not spoil.

Hoffman’s performance is quality-but so is Olivier, and Sir Laurence had to deal with serious health problems at the time—you couldn’t tell on screen. Famously, there are rumors that the two leads argued with each other over acting techniques, Dustin famous for method acting. Hoffman allegedly stayed up for a few days because his character did so… Olivier allegedly retorted, “Why don’t you try acting?” Evidently, Laurence was just ribbing because Ol’ Dustin had a hard night of partying.

In any case, if you dig the thrillers from this decade and are intrigued by the Jewish angle, Marathon Man is well worth checking out.

Ernest Saves Christmas

Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: John R. Cherry III

Starring: Jim Varney, Douglas Seale, Oliver Clark, Noelle Parker, Billie Bird

From: Touchstone Pictures

I’m glad this film featured an actor named NOELLE and the score was from Mark SNOW.

Yes, this was a movie I saw as a child-although not as often as Ernest Goes to Camp-although this was the first time as an adult. One reason for me to view this movie as someone who’s lived near Orlando for the past 21 ½ years: the movie was set & filmed in O-Town.

What I didn’t recall: this movie was even more juvenile and silly than Camp. Two adult men don’t know the difference between “M” and “V,” for example. Yet, I shouldn’t get too critical about a good-hearted lead character in a family film where Santa Claus (he is happy to admit his identity) goes to Orlando to hire his replacement: a now-unemployed children’s TV show host named Joe. The original Orlando Science Center (used as a children’s museum) closed down before I moved here but I recognized various locations… Orlando International Airport, Church Street Station, downtown, etc. None of those businesses downtown are still around, unsurprisingly.

As an adult, yes some moments play differently than with a kid. Ernest is so goofy and asexual, perhaps I shouldn’t question him hanging out 24/7 with a teenage runaway girl who looked about the age of 16… what I did not remember was the number of the taxicab Ernest drove-yes, that was his blue-collar job. That number was… 69!!! No lie-I suppose that was a joke for the adults!

Like I said, the movie is incredibly silly-yet Ernest Save Christmas is still good-hearted (featuring more than one nice message) and for me, it was nice to see a classically-trained actor like Jim Varney don various disguises along the way to assist Jolly Old St. Nick. Plus, there were laughs along the way. Unlike in Camp, there’s a scene where the title character speaks to Vern. That’s a reference to the commercials Ernest originally appeared in-he always spoke to the camera as if it was the unseen character speaks to a neighbor named Vern.

I fear the charm of this movie will be lost on those who are younger than middle-aged me (such as those who weren’t even alive when Jim Varney was-he passed away in February, 2000). However, if you’re around my age and saw those Ernest films during your youth, with any luck an adult viewing won’t ruin any childhood memories. As for the Mark Snow score… it was fine but he (who passed away just a few months ago) is best known for creating The X-Files theme, something I’ll always give him credit for.

Black Widow (Not That One... Not Even the 80's Film)

Black Widow (1954)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Nunnally Johnson

Starring: Van Heflin, Ginger Rogers, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Peggy Ann Garner

From: 20th Century Fox 

Where’s Scarlett Johansson?

Due to my schedule the rest of the month, there may be other days other than yesterday where nothing is reviewed by me-thus, while I had the time/inclination to, I wanted to watch at least one more film noir during Noirvember… despite the usage of 2.55:1 Cinemascope and color film, me and others still consider this film noir.

In New York City, Van Heflin is a famed Broadway producer who attends a fancy soiree-hosted by Ginger Rogers-filled w/ people he doesn’t know. On the balcony (w/ an awesome backdrop) he meets a 20-year-old struggling writer. Despite being married to Gene Tierney, others think that the relationship between the two is more than just “she uses his apartment during the day to write.” Things become more complicated once a death occurs, including the revelation of various secrets.

The cast had some other familiar faces, such as George Raft and Otto Kruger. As the struggling writer, Peggy Ann Garner (a former child star who at least in this film, strongly resembled 80's-era Diane Franklin) was memorable in her part. The cast was an asset in presenting this entertaining yarn. There are further points to its credit: the sets look quality, as does the backdrops of the NYC skyline that are seen via looking out at balconies or out the floor to ceiling windows.

Furthermore, for an aspect ratio that was brand-new to the world of cinema, Black Widow was framed rather well. It also allowed for multiple characters to appear in a scene at the same time-that device was also used well. This is why Black Widow-while not top-tier by any means-might be worthwhile for the noir fans.

General Thoughts on The Three Stooges

Besides posting the completed list here of all 190 shorts, here is what I ultimately wrote in the description accompanying the list: 

Now that I’ve seen all 190 of their shorts at Columbia within the same calendar year, I’ll offer some thoughts in the description. Of course, their slapstick humor isn’t for all tastes; if you view two of their four public domain shorts (Curly’s Disorder in the Court & Shemp’s Brideless Groom) and don’t like either, then the Stooges just aren’t for your tastes.

There were many talented performers who worked on these short movies, whether in front or behind the camera. Moe, Larry, and Shemp worked in vaudeville for years; Shemp left the act due to the alleged abuse from their leader, Ted Healy. Moe and Shemp’s brother Curly replaced him and was a natural talent without any formal training. They then broke away from Ted and stayed at Columbia for almost a quarter-century.

The Curly era has the highest batting average for sure-everyone was younger, there’s almost 100 shorts and many that are at least very good. Sadly, Columbia didn’t give Curly enough time to recover once he started having health issues. That impacted Curly for at least the last two years of shorts released during his time as the third man. The Shemp era was hampered by Columbia pinching pennies and the proliferation of remakes with typically too much stock footage… even so, there are a few classics and plenty of worthwhile entries involving him. The whole Fake Shemp thing-what an insult to the Stooges, especially the late Shemp.

Joe Besser wasn’t the first choice as a replacement to close out the era before the entire shorts department shut down at the studio. Arguably, Joe not being the best fit wasn’t as bad as the studio becoming even cheaper and creating goofier stories, along with Moe and Larry having to deal with becoming old men.

As a kid, I naturally dug the Stooges being themselves and others up. As an adult, I also appreciate the large variety of different settings they were in, how they were often in blue-collar jobs and always portrayed the dopey versions of the common man, happy to skewer such targets as the rich and those positions of authority. No wonder they were popular in the past. They also had many hilarious routines and bits-plenty were brought back but modified so they did not feel hackneyed. There were peaks and valleys during this long odyssey-many I was happy to visit or revisit. C3 Entertainment (who owned the intellectual property) have a presence on social media & YouTube; the Stooges still have some popularity and at least in America, all 190 shorts are easy to track down.

After Columbia, of course they added Curly Joe because Joe left to care for his ailing wife. She survived and both lived until the late 1980’s. They did live-action segments for The New Three Stooges cartoon show and some live-action movies they starred in (both I also saw as a little kid) along with live appearances everywhere. Old age/strokes suffered by Moe and Larry derailed the act in 1970 after almost 50 years. I’ll talk about that more sometime in the future but that likely won’t be anytime soon.

 

The Sword of Doom

The Sword of Doom (Dai-Bosatsu Toge) (1966)

Runtime: 120 minutes

Directed by: Kihachi Okamoto

Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai (RIP), Michiyo Aratama, Yuzo Kayama, Yoko Naito, Toshiro Mifune

From: Toho

RIP Tatsuya Nakadai. That name wasn’t as familiar to Western audiences (or even film fans) as Toshiro Mifune despite starring in multiple Kurosawa classics-including High and Low, Ran, Kagemusha, and Yojimbo-along with leading the all-timer Harakiri. I briefly gave him some props in a review but despite not appearing in movies outside of Japan like Mifune, experts say he was his equal, if not superior in talent. He deserves more credit from me; thus, one of his more famous movies today that hadn’t been viewed before was reviewed. In addition, it features Mifune in a supporting role-a small one, but naturally it’s always great seeing him.

Nakadai portrayed Ryunosuke, a samurai in the 1860’s (the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, meaning the end of the samurai era) who is a master with his blade but it was uncommon to follow a samurai in a movie who was obviously amoral and even worse, killed indiscriminately. The opening featured him slicing an old man praying at a Buddhist shrine for no logical reason. The viewer follows him for several years as he engages in increasingly evil acts. Eventually, he is haunted by his actions.

The movie slowly unfurls its plot over the two-hour runtime. The collection of interesting characters and the number of subplots kept me captivated. One sin is that the conclusion left more than one of those unresolved… but evidently there were to be sequels, only those were canceled after some objected to how violent the film was, especially its conclusion. I can't punish the movie too hard for that. The setting (occasionally a snowy landscape), the score, and the direction from Kihachi Okamoto was top-notch.

However, it was Nakadai as the lead which anchored the film. The cold, emotionless demeanor, the steely glare that implied he lacked a soul, his great performance as such an amoral character… the classics he did w/ Kurosawa should be tackled first if you want to discover for yourself why he’s regarded as one of the best Japanese actors of all time. However, if you’re thirsting for more after that-especially if the samurai genre is groovy to you-The Sword of Doom is a wise choice. I’m happy that some films of his were seen by me before he passed away days ago at the age of 92.

Sappy Bull Fighters

I'll say more about the Stooges tomorrow night but for now... the last short they ever did at Columbia. That long reign ended w/ a whimper instead of a bang: 

(Short # 190, and the final short, in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

After nearly an entire year, this long product of viewing all 190 shorts The Three Stooges did at Columbia for a quarter-century is finally complete. I’ve known for years that The Joe Besser era was a downgrade from what came before and that Sappy Bull Fighters (the last one released, although not the last one they filmed) was bad… it’s not the worst they ever did but I’ll give overarching thoughts after I explain why Bull Fighters was lousy.

It was a remake of a Curly effort (What’s the Matador?) where the boys are stuck in Mexico as performers due to an unscrupulous promoter… they meet a pretty entertainer but due to them being victims of soicomestances, they run afoul of that entertainer’s possessive husband. Greta Thyssen was a pretty. young Danish blonde so that will be appealing to some-the Stooges did worse than this and at least a few chuckles were had.

However, as explained before this was made when Columbia was closing their shorts department, the last major studio to do so. The Besser era increasingly felt cheap & slapdash. Most of the second half is the trio at a bullfighting ring, doing a routine where Joe is dressed as a matador and the other two are in a bull costume… only for the jealous husband to bring out a real bull for Joe. I don’t love the Curly version of this short and this was a downgrade. The most flagrant example of this was when Joe “rode the bull”… besides them using stock footage where they didn’t even bother to edit out Curly’s “whoo whoos,” the effect they used to show Joe on the bull looked REALLY phony, and I’m sure its phoniness wasn’t supposed to be a gag.

For all of Matador’s faults, at least it was more energetic and Curly was funnier/more full of pep in his role than Joe was. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so harsh-by the time of filming Sappy, Moe had just turned 60-Larry and Joe weren’t far behind him. If you want to view them all or at least are morbidly curious, those are reasons to check this out. Otherwise… I’ll mention two actors. Mexican-born bilingual actor George J. Lewis portrayed the husband-he was also in Malice in the Palace. My late mother would know him for playing a key role in the Disney Zorro show that was on when she was a kid. As for a female background extra, there are conflicting reports on the validity of the tale that it was a young MARY TYLER MOORE. There’s no way for me to definitely answer that-instead, that is just noted as a rumor.

As for final thoughts after the completion of this voyage-well, I said more in the caption that starting tomorrow will accompany the list I have of all 190 reviews on Letterboxd. To try and not write War & Peace here, I saw some of those shorts as a kid-my dad introduced me to them because he saw the trio on TV as a kid. In fact, he spent some time in a hospital as a teen due to a bad auto wreck-one source of comfort was watching them on the television each afternoon.

As stated more than a few times by me in the past, comedy is the most subjective of genres-some not understanding or enjoying their slapstick humor is not difficult to rationalize. As an adult, no only do I enjoy their routines and their satire of such figures as the wealthy when in the roles of exaggerated buffoons who are still regular folk… their puns and wordplay are more appreciated by me as an adult.

Moe, Larry, Shemp and Joe were all veterans of the vaudeville circuit-while I haven’t seen Besser outside of the Stooge world, I’ll presume he’s just as talented a performer as the rest of the Stooges. Curly managed to become the favorite Stooge of many-he was naturally talented and had no formal comedic training. For all the faults of Columbia-not allowing Curly enough time to recover from his health problems, the decline of money during the Shemp/Joe eras, necessitating too many remakes with stock footage-they still provided talented supporting casts and production to create a majority shorts that range from “fine” to “classic.” My opinions are typically in line with the typical Stooge fan-at least in the United States, all their shorts are easy to track down, whether you use YouTube or Amazon Prime. The Curly era does have the best batting average although Shemp had his share of entries that were at least very good and even Joe had more than one that was fine.

As stated before, I’ve thought of starting this journey for years now-it should have been done much sooner. Alas… it likely won’t be anytime soon but eventually I need to view all the movies in the late 50’s through the mid 60’s that Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe starred in—I saw those as a kid, along with The New Three Stooges cartoon show where they did live-action wraparound segments. Doing this at least brought back nice memories of my youth and has helped make 2025 not so bad despite all the IRL chaos.