Phantom Lady

Phantom Lady (1944)

Runtime: 87 minutes

Directed by: Robert Siodmak

Starring: Alan Curtis, Ella Raines, Franchot Tone, Aurora Miranda, Elisha Cook, Jr.

From: Universal

I returned to the world of film noir due to a messageboard suggestion and it was a good one... both the suggestion and the movie. I talk about it in my Letterboxd review below:

This was another messageboard recommendation; someone stated that this would be on TCM and they rated it highly. I figured it was time I saw another film noir so I went with this, and it was a swell recommendation.

The plot isn't too complex: a man's wife is murdered while he is out on the town. He (Scott Henderson) hangs out with a mysterious lady with a giant hat you'd expect to see a dame wear at the Kentucky Derby. They go to some places but the cops believe that the man murdered his wife and has no one seems to remember the titular phantom lady, he has no alibi so he is sentenced to death. His secretary “Kansas” (who has taken a fancy to him; she was played by the awesome and lovely Ella Raines) is not fine with his injustice so she wishes to exonerate him and she does so by meeting up with those people who claimed they saw Scott on that fateful night but not that woman.

Of course I don't want to reveal too much about the plot, except that it fits the genre like a glove. It has what you expect: tense moments, /light vs. shadows, moments of silence, the authorities not always getting it right, and as I have seen in a few movies already, scenes involving jazz; here, Elisha Cook Jr. is his usual skittish self as a jazz drummer. A big asset is Raines as Kansas. While she gets assistance from a sympathetic police detective, she is still great as she takes charge and goes to all the people responsible and asks why they lied.

While the complaints about the ending not quite fitting the rest of the picture is valid to me, I understand it was the Hays Code which required such a thing and I did not let it bother me too much. It's still a solid example of a film noir and like I said, that recommendation did not lead me astray.

Hardcore Henry

Hardcore Henry (2015)

55% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 76 reviews)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Ilya Naishuller

Starring: Sharlto Copley, Haley Bennett, Danila Kozlovsky, Andrei Dementiev, Tim Roth... in a glorified cameo

From: Bazelevs Production/Versus Pictures

I saw the debut of this film last night at a new movie theatre; it was another Epic Theatres location, but this one is in the Southeastern part of Orlando by the International Airport. It looks nice and all, but I won't be back there anytime soon. The way some of the staff treated me, the not customer friendly layout, a lot of the electronic things aside from the lights and projectors not working right... there are plenty of places I can go instead. The nice electric reclining chairs (no joke) they had there can't make up for those faults.

Anyhow, my opinion of this at times nauseating (and not because of its graphic violence) movie is below via Letterboxd:

NOTE: This is important that I start this review off with a message for everyone who wants to see this but hasn't yet: remember in the past how theatres had to put up notices that The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield could make you feel nauseous due to the camera shaking around? Well, I saw both on the big screen and had no issue with either. This film, as it's all first person the camera usually isn't steady so whenever there's any action... I thought I'd be OK with it but for much of the second act I was not feeling 100% and a few times I had to look away. Thankfully I felt better by the final act but this was something that needed to be said at the beginning of this review and yes, it did ultimately affect my rating of this.

Last night I had free time so I went and saw the debut of a film that I've known of for a long while; the first ever first person movie that's basically a first person shooter on the big screen is something that will stick in my head forever. I saw the trailer with the Queen song Can't Stop Me Now (which did appear in the movie, in a memorable way) and that was awesome so I was hoping I would enjoy this wacky concept of a man who becomes a cyborg and he's on the run as he tries to protect his lady (Haley Bennett, who was made to look as much as Jennifer Lawrence as possible) from a villain that acted and looked like he was straight from something like Dragonball or Bleach... and it all takes place in Russia.

As for the movie itself... from the trailer I had no idea how weird this would be. I mean, comparing this to Crank or Crank 2: High Voltage (at times the movie seems to do direct homages to those films), that over the top duo of motion pictures actually seem normal. The story is just so strange and out there and filled with over the top moments; to paraphrase a general quote I have seen elsewhere, I won't spoil anything because people probably wouldn't believe it and I couldn't try to explain what the plot is anyway, as how do you explain something you do not understand? Honestly, if it wasn't for some moments that could be argued as being rather misogynistic, I could say that this would have been written by me... if I was on bath salts! There is a lot of graphic violence, nudity, foul language, drug use, and other things that make it a hard R rated picture.

The performances are about what you'd expect from something like this. Sharlto Copley, what a role for him. One scene he was in just about left me gobsmacked, and I'll leave it at that. The score was rather, um, interesting. The popular songs you do hear, they were unexpected. To sum it all up, if you love over the top action movies and/or first person shooters-I've only dabbled a little bit in that gaming genre-then you'll probably love this... as long as you don't get motion sickness, that is.

The Howling

The Howling (1981)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Joe Dante

Starring: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski

From: AVCO Embassy Pictures

Would you believe this was a first time watch for me? It's true. I explain it all in my Letterboxd review below:

Would people believe that I had seen two Howling sequels before I had seen the original film? It's true. They were two of the most infamous movies in the entire genre, The Howling II (which is one star in terms of quality but five stars in terms of entertainment) and The Howling: New Moon Rising, which is a half star movie in terms of quality and probably negative stars in terms of entertainment. When I do those reviews anew later in the year I'll give a better take on how I feel about each one. I'll also see some of the sequels I hadn't seen before.

Anyhow, with this film (based upon a novel by Gary Brander that I have never read) I am sure that most are familiar with the plot of how Dee Wallace is a news reporter and she is traumatized after an incident with a serial killer so she and her husband go to a rural retreat but you know, werewolves... it can be said that there are meandering moments and some uneven bits. However, I can still say this is pretty good. The cast is nice and does well. Besides Wallace there's the likes of Patrick Macnee, John Carradine and in a small role Dick Miller; Carradine's wacky role was the most memorable to me.

There are moments of dark comedy for sure (and nice in-jokes such as props from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre appearing or how there are many character last names that are taken from the surnames of people that had directed werewolf movies before) but once the story is set up and you see the werewolves, it is effective as a horror film. I agree with others that say the aspect of a woman being traumatized by a menacing bad guy is terrifying too... it's just scary in a different way. Both Rob Bottin and Rick Baker did the special effects so it should go without saying that the transformation scenes are effective, and the costumes are nice too. The score from Pino Donaggio is pretty rad, especially the great end credits tune. And what a memorable-not to mention melancholy-ending.

I know from personal experience and hearsay, what a bizarre variety of sequels this one movie produced. At least the one that started it all is a horror movie still worth seeing 35 years after the fact.

Rewind This!

Rewind This! (2013)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Josh Johnson

Starring: This is a documentary

From: Several small companies

This was a documentary that brought back nostalgic feelings for the VHS era; it's not perfect but it's still enjoyable. I explain it all in my Letterboxd review below: 

Pretty much for the entirety of 2016 I have been an Amazon Prime member yet I haven't really taken advantage of the section of Amazon Instant Video where there are free Prime movies. Well, this is one of those and as I have known of this ever since it came out and it'll be gone from Prime in about a week and a half, I figured it was time to check it out. Of the other opinions I have heard about it, most liked it but I know someone on a messageboard who wasn't a fan because “the movie had hipster douchebags.” While there were some hipsters present and they aren't always my favorite people, I was able to tolerate or at least laugh at those goofballs who actually like pan and scan or got tattoos of cassette tapes.

The movie covers a lot in 90 minutes and there were things I wish were covered more or covered less; an odd detour was taken when they talked about how watching movies has become digital and why that's an issue. Yet, I can still say I enjoyed this as everything was covered from when VHS began to how it became popular (Basket Case and Media Home Entertainment was surprisingly a big reason why; Media Home Entertainment is a label I have fond memories of), its impact in Asia, how it allowed for a lot of low-budget nonsense to be released in the 80's-it's still crap that sometimes can be fun to watch-and the important aspect of how there are still plenty of motion pictures that never made it to disc and as not everything is on YouTube or the bowels of the Internet, people should still have a VCR. Oh, and both Betamax and pornography were discussed too, and porn did play a role in Betamax biting the dust despite superior picture quality.

I wouldn't have minded it being longer as like I said a lot was covered and many different people were interviewed... from Cassandra Peterson as herself and Frank Henenlotter (he was a highlight) to critics and some rather odd people; and I don't even know what to make of David “The Rock” Nelson and if he's a gimmick or he actually is that weird.

I am in my mid 30's so when I was a kid and even a young adult I spent plenty of time at videostores, wandering around and at times renting random things-I am glad that there was time devoted to awesome VHS cover art, albeit it was too short-and watching this brought back those golden memories. The digital movement is great and it is awesome how there's plenty of selection from famous and obscure to cult favorites and all-time classics on sites like Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Redbox and Amazon Instant Video; yet, I am sad that videostores are a critically endangered species. I only joined Blockbuster when I had to, which was in the last few years it was a thing. Before that it was the mom and pop shops for me. While the picture quality was crappy and you had to deal with such things as tracking problems, I will always have positive thoughts of both VHS and videostores.

Round-Up Time In Texas

Round-Up Time in Texas (1937)

Runtime: 55 minutes

Directed by: Joseph Kane

Starring: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Maxine Doyle, LeRoy Mason, The Cabin Kids (yes, an actual credit)

From: Republic

I have been wrapped up in other things the past few days so I hadn't the time to watch motion pictures; now, for about the next week or so the floodgates may be opened and I could be posting here a few times per day. I know that I'll be posting at least one new review for Wednesday proper. For now, read about a rather strange little Western via my Letterboxd review below: 

This was not planned but because of various reasons I haven't felt like or just haven't been able to watch any films these past few days. However, things should be back to normal now. What a better way to get back on track than to watch an obscure Gene Autry B-movie Western which was mentioned by a mutual earlier in the year and is most noted for being horrifyingly racist viewing it with 2016 eyes? I have to note that as kids, my parents loved watching all the Westerns that were on television at the time, including the TV shows that starred Autry and Roy Rogers. I don't know how much of the 30's and 40's serials starring those two that they saw, though. At least once in a blue moon I should try to watch one of those as they are not so hard to track down, they at least are around an hour long, they should be easy watches, and there may be some things that tickle me pink.

This movie, though, the whole racism thing is like a giant stain on the carpet that you can't get out. The plot is pretty absurd: Gene and his friend named FROG MILLHOUSE deliver a herd of horses to South Africa! Yes, they went from Texas to South Africa, and they immediately were able to round up the horses then be willing and able to go on a ship taking who knows how many weeks to get there. This is done because Gene's brother is there and he's diamond mining, which is one of the rare things they got right about that particular country. It's not all “deepest darkest Africa” or sets that look like leftovers from a ripoff of a Tarzan picture, but that's a good amount of what the filmmakers think the environment of South Africa is. People are after Gene's brother, but does anyone really care about the specifics of the plot? Note that you hear a few songs, and they are fine but they were time-killers-although the song making fun of Polish people was rather unexpected-there's a potential love interest, etc.

The real issue comes up halfway through with “the natives” (i.e. black people); many of the black people you see carry spears and shields, they speak in gibberish that is supposed to be their native tongue, they have their body painted, they engage in “human sacrifice”, there's chanting, they think that Frog is a “white God” because they are entertained by his harmonica playing... it's not just absurd, it's offensive. Oh, and there is also a BLACKFACE moment where Frog disguises himself in order to try and escape the natives and he swings on vines as if he's Tarzan, then there's a gorilla... Then again, women aren't treated much better; Gene tells the lead girl to “shut up” then drags her along on an adventure against her consent.

While I can be amused that grain alcohol manages to sneak its way into the plot and it actually became a plot point, this is still basically an average story that tries to add a few different elements to the genre but it's brought down by the gross stereotypes.

March Around The World, 2016

A few weeks ago I promised that I'd post here my list of the foreign movies I watched in March. You can look at that by clicking here.

You can look at all the lists I have made on Letterboxd by clicking here.

Pixote

Pixote (Pixote: A Lei Do Mais Fraco) (1981)

Runtime: 128 minutes

Directed by: Hector Babenco

Starring: Fernando Ramos da Silva, Jorge Juliao, Gilberto Moura, Edilson Lino, Zenildo Oliveria Santos

From: Embrafilme/HB Filmes

This is a movie I had watched once a long time ago; I finally saw it again last night and it is a picture I can give my highest recommendations to. This is the last foreign film I watch... for the month devoted to that, that is. I'll keep on seeing them at a decent frequency the other 11 months. I explain why in my Letterboxd review below:

This is the final movie I am doing in my March Around the World deal and not everything I watched was expected and I wish I could have gotten to more than 14 motion pictures, but things happened and I am still glad I saw what I did, even if some of the films weren't good. I picked this one as a mutual mentioned it on a list he created of movies that he thought deserved more attention, and this was one of them. I actually had seen this before, although it was more than a decade ago so I only remembered a few faint things about what happened; I just recalled it was great, and it is. I know that in the past I looked to see if I could stream it online as I wanted to see it again; not that long ago Amazon Instant Video added it, so I almost instantly watched the film again after all of those years.

While this is not the easiest thing to watch, I still say that this is excellent. The plot revolves around the dark, dark world of runaway children on the street of Brazil (Sao Paulo, to be specific) and we follow a few of them-including the title character-end up in a juvenile reformatory, which is a corrupt place. Even after they leave that hellhole, life is still pretty brutal for them. The gang includes the lead-who was only about 12 years old, and he does some shocking things-and a character who happened to be transgender; while I am not trans myself, the role seemed nuanced and mature instead of gross and exploitative. Unlike too many people today, her friends refer to her by the correct pronouns.

As this is an unfiltered look at that sort of lifestyle, that is why I say this is a rough watch. It's a tale with few heroes, that is for sure. Yet it is endlessly captivating as we follow these youths locked up and on the street, and both those places are not fit for those characters, even if they do things like lie, cheat, rob, stab... and worse. All of the youths are not trained actors but instead taken from the slums that this movie is set in, adding to authenticity, along with the documentary neo-realism style that it was filmed in. Besides the characters and the unforgettable story, it was filmed expertly by director Hector Babenco.

Real life makes the film even more heartbreaking. Lead Fernando Ramos da Silva is magnificent as Pixote and that's not an easy role in the least. He wasn't quite the criminal that he was here in real life but he was still from the streets and being famous wasn't easy for him. Well, at the age of 19 he was killed in an incident with police; regrettably it sounds like what happens too often in the United States, where the cops claim that they were being attacked but others claim that what they did was more akin to murder. I don't know what the case was here, but what happened to him was still pretty sad, and also what you might imagine have happened to the Pixote character.

I do agree that it is a movie which needs more attention as it likely is one of the best ever to come out of Brazil, and is just a great motion picture, even if it's the sort of thing you don't want to watch frequently. It certainly tells you how life can be down there, and amongst all the chaos going on down there I presume that the poor youths of the slums still have to lead such sad, sad lives. And that is no April Fools Day joke.