Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Catching Up...
In the past few days I've rewatched the hilariously bad Elves (that one film from '89 w/ Dan Haggerty) and in the next few hours I'll catch up on reviews.
Saturday, December 8, 2018
The Big Combo
The Big Combo (1955)
Runtime: 84 minutes
Directed by: Joseph H. Lewis
Starring: Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, Brian Donlevy, Lee Van Cleef, Earl Holliman
From: Allied Artists Pictures
I am not quite sure how the title relates to the plot of this noir (unless it was referring to the two homosexual supporting characters who were in a relationship) but that is irrelevant as this is a very good picture:
If only more modern films could have villains like this.
Yesterday all through the day on TCM they played random film noirs, and this was on the tail end of that little marathon. Even though it is in the public domain and easy to track down, not having to do any streaming to check this out seemed like a swell idea and I hope to see at least one of the other films they showed on this day via on-demand.
As for The Big Combo, what an incredible bad guy they created here in Mr. Brown, the crime boss who goes against straight arrow cop Leonard Diamond. Diamond has spent a lot of money trying to nail Brown, but the crime boss is a smart criminal so he is always able to skirt the law, causing Diamond to become obsessed. The cop then goes after Brown's moll, a femme fatale (but of course) known as Susan. And who is this Alicia that keeps on being brought up?
The Big Combo is about as pure a film noir as you can get, as all the hallmarks are there, including great usage of light/shadow and some foggy scenes. A huge asset was the cinematography from John Alton-it was gorgeous and was perfect for a film noir. But the true highlight was Richard Conte as Mr. Brown. The character was an evil bastard, someone who was happy to brag about how he is too smart to get caught, belittles his minions and spouts acres of tremendous dialogue, such as bellowing to Diamond about how small his police officer's salary is. Plus, what a method he created for torturing Diamond in one scene that won't leave any physical evidence. Conte did a fantastic job playing this astounding figure.
The film has some risque moments. Diamond knows a dancer named Rita and it's rather obvious they have a friends with benefits sort of relationship. Plus, there is a moment where oral sex clearly happens. But most daring for the time is the relationship between two of Brown's henchmen, played by Lee Van Cleef and Earl Holliman. They are always together doing Brown's dirty work, including murder. I did not notice it right away but eventually you discover that they are more than just co-workers who eventually became friends... and it is not just the scene where it is shown that those two live in the same apartment!
If you are interested in “queer cinema”, this is definitely one to see. Heck, if you enjoy the genre this is a must watch.
Runtime: 84 minutes
Directed by: Joseph H. Lewis
Starring: Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, Brian Donlevy, Lee Van Cleef, Earl Holliman
From: Allied Artists Pictures
I am not quite sure how the title relates to the plot of this noir (unless it was referring to the two homosexual supporting characters who were in a relationship) but that is irrelevant as this is a very good picture:
If only more modern films could have villains like this.
Yesterday all through the day on TCM they played random film noirs, and this was on the tail end of that little marathon. Even though it is in the public domain and easy to track down, not having to do any streaming to check this out seemed like a swell idea and I hope to see at least one of the other films they showed on this day via on-demand.
As for The Big Combo, what an incredible bad guy they created here in Mr. Brown, the crime boss who goes against straight arrow cop Leonard Diamond. Diamond has spent a lot of money trying to nail Brown, but the crime boss is a smart criminal so he is always able to skirt the law, causing Diamond to become obsessed. The cop then goes after Brown's moll, a femme fatale (but of course) known as Susan. And who is this Alicia that keeps on being brought up?
The Big Combo is about as pure a film noir as you can get, as all the hallmarks are there, including great usage of light/shadow and some foggy scenes. A huge asset was the cinematography from John Alton-it was gorgeous and was perfect for a film noir. But the true highlight was Richard Conte as Mr. Brown. The character was an evil bastard, someone who was happy to brag about how he is too smart to get caught, belittles his minions and spouts acres of tremendous dialogue, such as bellowing to Diamond about how small his police officer's salary is. Plus, what a method he created for torturing Diamond in one scene that won't leave any physical evidence. Conte did a fantastic job playing this astounding figure.
The film has some risque moments. Diamond knows a dancer named Rita and it's rather obvious they have a friends with benefits sort of relationship. Plus, there is a moment where oral sex clearly happens. But most daring for the time is the relationship between two of Brown's henchmen, played by Lee Van Cleef and Earl Holliman. They are always together doing Brown's dirty work, including murder. I did not notice it right away but eventually you discover that they are more than just co-workers who eventually became friends... and it is not just the scene where it is shown that those two live in the same apartment!
If you are interested in “queer cinema”, this is definitely one to see. Heck, if you enjoy the genre this is a must watch.
Schindler's List
Runtime: 195 minutes
Directed by: Steven
Spielberg; among all his classics this is his masterpiece
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben
Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall
From: Universal
About time I saw this movie again and could talk about something so important online:
Boy do I wish this wasn't a more relevant movie now than when it was first released a quarter of a century ago.
At least in the United States, this is currently playing in a little more than 1,000 locations as a special 25th anniversary sort of deal. This was viewed by me before, albeit many, many years ago. I imagine everyone can understand how this is not something that you would want to watch often-I remembered there being atrocities on screen although what they exactly were had faded away. Now after this second viewing, those memories came flooding back in and there are plenty of moments that are tough to stomach and those bits will be sticking with me for a long while.
Even in a film like this, not everything is historically accurate to what actually happened. But a lot of it is correct: Oskar Schindler is a German businessman who in World War II had Jewish workers at his factories. Once he realizes the horrors the Nazis are inflicting on them, he spends all of his wealth and comes up with a scheme to save over 1,000 from concentration camps, including Auschwitz.
Seeing the Jews rounded up from the ghettos then all the nightmarish moments from the concentration camps... to say those are rough moments to watch is the understatement of the year. Yet of course those moments had to be shown in order to show how heinous the Holocaust was and how Schindler's sacrifice was such a big deal. Spielberg is one of the most beloved directors of all time and there are some of his films that I love-this is his masterpiece.
For a topic that demands the utmost of reverence and respect, everyone involved had the right amount of skill and effort to bring such a significant story to the screen. The cast was great all around, especially Liam Neeson as the lead and Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goth, the commandant of Krakow-Plaszow Concentration Camp who commits almost all of the worst acts you see in the film, such as indiscriminately shooting people in the camp. The editing, the music, the cinematography, all were tremendous so I will give my props to Michael Kahn, John Williams, and Janusz Kaminski, respectively.
Unfortunately the movie seems more relevant now than it did back in late '93. A few months ago there was a shooting in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania synagogue where eleven people were murdered, and the past few years there's been the rise of the “Alt-Right”, which to me is another term for “Neo-Nazi”. Antisemitism is such a plague that it should be rooted out and noted and if not stopped then at least squashed as no one should experience any form of discrimination like what was depicted in this must-see motion picture.
At least in the United States, this is currently playing in a little more than 1,000 locations as a special 25th anniversary sort of deal. This was viewed by me before, albeit many, many years ago. I imagine everyone can understand how this is not something that you would want to watch often-I remembered there being atrocities on screen although what they exactly were had faded away. Now after this second viewing, those memories came flooding back in and there are plenty of moments that are tough to stomach and those bits will be sticking with me for a long while.
Even in a film like this, not everything is historically accurate to what actually happened. But a lot of it is correct: Oskar Schindler is a German businessman who in World War II had Jewish workers at his factories. Once he realizes the horrors the Nazis are inflicting on them, he spends all of his wealth and comes up with a scheme to save over 1,000 from concentration camps, including Auschwitz.
Seeing the Jews rounded up from the ghettos then all the nightmarish moments from the concentration camps... to say those are rough moments to watch is the understatement of the year. Yet of course those moments had to be shown in order to show how heinous the Holocaust was and how Schindler's sacrifice was such a big deal. Spielberg is one of the most beloved directors of all time and there are some of his films that I love-this is his masterpiece.
For a topic that demands the utmost of reverence and respect, everyone involved had the right amount of skill and effort to bring such a significant story to the screen. The cast was great all around, especially Liam Neeson as the lead and Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goth, the commandant of Krakow-Plaszow Concentration Camp who commits almost all of the worst acts you see in the film, such as indiscriminately shooting people in the camp. The editing, the music, the cinematography, all were tremendous so I will give my props to Michael Kahn, John Williams, and Janusz Kaminski, respectively.
Unfortunately the movie seems more relevant now than it did back in late '93. A few months ago there was a shooting in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania synagogue where eleven people were murdered, and the past few years there's been the rise of the “Alt-Right”, which to me is another term for “Neo-Nazi”. Antisemitism is such a plague that it should be rooted out and noted and if not stopped then at least squashed as no one should experience any form of discrimination like what was depicted in this must-see motion picture.
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Believer
Runtime: 123 minutes
Directed by: Hae-Young Lee
Starring: Jin-Woong Jo,
Seung-Won Cha, Jun-Yeol Ryu, Sung-Ryung Kim, Ju-Hyuk Kim
From: Several South Korean
companies
Yes, there was a remake of the 2012 Johnnie To film Drug War, which I have reviewed before and revisited on Monday night. That is still great... this, not as much:
Please don't confuse this with some documentary from this year w/ the same name that involves the lead singer of the ATROCIOUS band Imagine Dragons. Rather, this is the South Korean remake of the 2012 Johnnie To movie Drug War. I became pretty excited when I heard about this film earlier in the year; somewhat middling reviews did give me pause but a few days ago I decided to take the plunge, and while this is good there is the unfortunate issue of (at least for me) Drug War being great.
The general idea is the same, some scenes are mirrored and like in DW there is a pair of mute brothers who manufacture meth. But otherwise this movie does its own thing as a person low on the totem pole in a drug ring gets busted and due to his friendships he can assist the police in trying to nab the big cogs in the machine, but can you trust a criminal like that? If you haven't seen DW and only watch this, you'll likely thing it was a good motion picture. Even being familiar with Drug War, I can say that this is good; the problem is that Drug War is better all around.
The To film I rate higher at such aspects as storytelling, plot, characters, music, the action... yeah, especially the action. What is shown here is entertaining and all but it doesn't compare to DW; the same goes for the scenes filled with tension/suspense & the ending here just doesn't compare to the spectacular way Drug War concludes. Between the two you know which one I prefer.
I may sound overly harsh as there are many remakes of great films you could never classify as being “good”. But hearing that a wild scene like South Korean cinema would be making their own version of a great film meant that my expectations were sky high and I wish this could have been incredible as I imagine it could have been. Alas... I was not a believer in Believer, at least compared to the OG film from To.
Please don't confuse this with some documentary from this year w/ the same name that involves the lead singer of the ATROCIOUS band Imagine Dragons. Rather, this is the South Korean remake of the 2012 Johnnie To movie Drug War. I became pretty excited when I heard about this film earlier in the year; somewhat middling reviews did give me pause but a few days ago I decided to take the plunge, and while this is good there is the unfortunate issue of (at least for me) Drug War being great.
The general idea is the same, some scenes are mirrored and like in DW there is a pair of mute brothers who manufacture meth. But otherwise this movie does its own thing as a person low on the totem pole in a drug ring gets busted and due to his friendships he can assist the police in trying to nab the big cogs in the machine, but can you trust a criminal like that? If you haven't seen DW and only watch this, you'll likely thing it was a good motion picture. Even being familiar with Drug War, I can say that this is good; the problem is that Drug War is better all around.
The To film I rate higher at such aspects as storytelling, plot, characters, music, the action... yeah, especially the action. What is shown here is entertaining and all but it doesn't compare to DW; the same goes for the scenes filled with tension/suspense & the ending here just doesn't compare to the spectacular way Drug War concludes. Between the two you know which one I prefer.
I may sound overly harsh as there are many remakes of great films you could never classify as being “good”. But hearing that a wild scene like South Korean cinema would be making their own version of a great film meant that my expectations were sky high and I wish this could have been incredible as I imagine it could have been. Alas... I was not a believer in Believer, at least compared to the OG film from To.
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Pandora's Box
Pandora's Box (Die Buchse Der Pandora) (1929)
Runtime: 133 minutes
Directed by: G.W. Pabst
Starring: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz, Krafft-Raschig
From: Nero-Film AG
Even in 1929, legendary silent motion pictures were made:
Yep, I get why people would fall under the spell of Louise Brooks.
This was the movie that played late Sunday night at midnight on TCM, which is the time where the channel always plays a silent movie each week. As this is highly regarded yet unseen by me to this point, I might as well see what the hub-bub is about... bub.
The lead in this German melodrama is Lulu (Brooks), an amoral lady who openly flirts-and more-with multiple men. She is a seductive young woman who is more than happy to let her raw sexuality run wild, which is how she has all those suitors... including a woman. The movie definitely punishes her for her ways, including a stunner of an ending that threw me for a loop; beforehand I never could have predicted such a twist, and a hell of a punishment for a lady who often engaged in moral turpitude.
Director G.W. Pabst wanted Brooks BAD for this film; he had to screentest some German actresses for this otherwise all German production (including a then-unfamous Marlene Dietrich) but Pabst stuck to his guns, and we should be all glad he did. She was magnificent in this role, and not just the vivacious temptress who without hardly even trying enchanted both men and women. When the melodrama starts and she is put in some rough spots and made to suffer, Louise's performance does not suffer. Naturally, with Pabst as director this is very well put together and you get to see plenty of the classic German Expressionistic style.
In short, this is a classic film that takes you on quite the journey and is far more bold than you probably expect for a motion picture of this vintage.
Runtime: 133 minutes
Directed by: G.W. Pabst
Starring: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz, Krafft-Raschig
From: Nero-Film AG
Even in 1929, legendary silent motion pictures were made:
Yep, I get why people would fall under the spell of Louise Brooks.
This was the movie that played late Sunday night at midnight on TCM, which is the time where the channel always plays a silent movie each week. As this is highly regarded yet unseen by me to this point, I might as well see what the hub-bub is about... bub.
The lead in this German melodrama is Lulu (Brooks), an amoral lady who openly flirts-and more-with multiple men. She is a seductive young woman who is more than happy to let her raw sexuality run wild, which is how she has all those suitors... including a woman. The movie definitely punishes her for her ways, including a stunner of an ending that threw me for a loop; beforehand I never could have predicted such a twist, and a hell of a punishment for a lady who often engaged in moral turpitude.
Director G.W. Pabst wanted Brooks BAD for this film; he had to screentest some German actresses for this otherwise all German production (including a then-unfamous Marlene Dietrich) but Pabst stuck to his guns, and we should be all glad he did. She was magnificent in this role, and not just the vivacious temptress who without hardly even trying enchanted both men and women. When the melodrama starts and she is put in some rough spots and made to suffer, Louise's performance does not suffer. Naturally, with Pabst as director this is very well put together and you get to see plenty of the classic German Expressionistic style.
In short, this is a classic film that takes you on quite the journey and is far more bold than you probably expect for a motion picture of this vintage.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
The Possession Of Hannah Grace
Runtime: 85 minutes
Directed by: Diederik Van
Rooijen
Starring: Shay Mitchell,
Grey Damon, Kirby Johnson, Nick Thune, Louis Herthum
From: Screen Gems
Are there many hospital buildings designed in the Brutalist architecture style?
As I had free time on Saturday night, I probably won't use my AMC A-List app too often the rest of the year and this movie was the only one which fit my schedule and that of the location I saw Hannah Grace at... oh, and the plot did sound similar to The Autopsy of Jane Doe, a film which came out a few years ago. I did see Jane Doe and that is certainly better than this movie, although Possession wasn't as bad to me as many people believe it is.
The two films only share the general idea of weird events happening with a corpse at a morgue. Here, the movie starts out with an exorcism that goes wrong... I might as well share that info as the movie's title tells you that a girl is possessed, and it's the opening scene. Eventually, the body makes it way to the morgue that is connected to a surprisingly not busy Boston hospital. I mean, the only person working there at the job is Shay Mitchell, and she just started that line of employment. She used to be a cop, but a tragedy happened and she did not handle it well, leading to such things as depression, anxiety, and addiction... those things are definitely key in this film.
This is pretty preposterous, is not all that scary and is only barely a rated R. Yet this was not horrid to me. Considering this same studio (Screen Gems) released Slender Man this past summer and that apparently was a travesty, this had to be better than the doomed flick about the creepypasta character. The angle they pursued concerning demonic possession was interesting and unfortunately, is pretty relevant these days. As Shay Mitchell spent a lot of time being the only one on screen, thankfully then her performance was good. There were a few subtle moments and while not scary, at least there were some creepy moments.
Of course this is yet another example of modern big studio horror not being comparable to what the independent studios are doing, but at least this was not horrid... OK, the editing in one scene was pretty bad as it suddenly rushed to a key scene out of nowhere and that scene itself also had some jarring moments... but overall this wasn't a tragedy like The Bye Bye Man.
However, horror fans should see The Autopsy of Jane Doe.
One last thing: it was pretty laughable how this used the trope of “a hospital where no one is around”... I know people who are nurses... hospitals are never not full of people. The same has to go for a morgue, especially in a metropolis like Boston. I don't know what building they used to portray the hospital/morgue but the architecture was Brutalist, which is wacky enough as it's a distinctive style, although you never see it used for such a business. Then there is something which will only be relevant to a few random people here, and that is how the main setting looked a lot like the main library building located in downtown Orlando, Florida. It was an unintentional source of comedy.
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Rocky V
Rocky V (1990)
Runtime: 104 minutes
Directed by: John G. Avildsen
Starring: Oh, you know who is in this by now
From: United Artists
You know, Tommy Morrison's real life story was FAR more interesting than this film.
Thank goodness for Rocky Balboa then later the Creed movies-no one would want this to be the last appearance of an iconic character as V just isn't too good and even Sly has later regretted making this film. The idea of Balboa having a fall from grace and/or him becoming a manager like Mickey is not automatically a bad one, but the way it was done here just did not work. There have been a plethora of cases where athletes have become rich but they either squandered their cash or someone ripped them off so this idea is a valid one... how it's done here isn't all that believable and personally, I thought that robot alone would be enough to get them out of debt...
The fact that this starts right after Rocky IV not only hurts the story when it comes to logic, the timeline is also screwed up as Rocky Jr. is suddenly years older than he was in the last film. As for Rocky Jr.'s storyline, all it did was make Rocky Sr. look like a jerk and a goofus for ignoring Jr. and instead focusing on the bland character that was Tommy Gunn. As already alluded to, the time that real life boxer Tommy Morrison (who portrayed Gunn) spent on Earth ended up being far more intriguing and actually more cinematic than the role he played here... Morrison's career wasn't what it could have been as he spent too much time skirt chasing and partying and well, he got AIDS... which he later denied having but of course that is what he died of. Gunn is just a dork who was seduced by Don King... er I mean “George Washington Duke”, a promoter that made King look subtle in comparison. And the ending of V is different, but that is about the only compliment I can give it.
Sly getting to act with his real life son Sage (who passed away in 2012) was I suppose a nice thing but this is a film which also did not fully realize another interesting idea-that being Balboa is brain damaged from all the brutal fights he has had. In this modern era of CTE and everyone being concerned about concussions, the idea is ahead of its time-and them bringing back Burgess Meredith in a dream sequence was another fumble because the Mickey here did not act like the character we saw in the first three movies. This isn't unwatchably bad but it is a weird misfire which introduces rap to the franchise and yet they also somehow got ELTON JOHN to sing the end credits song and it wasn't one of the best things he ever recorded, that is for damn sure.
Who knows when I'll get around to seeing the other films w/ Rocky, but that will eventually happen.
Runtime: 104 minutes
Directed by: John G. Avildsen
Starring: Oh, you know who is in this by now
From: United Artists
You know, Tommy Morrison's real life story was FAR more interesting than this film.
Thank goodness for Rocky Balboa then later the Creed movies-no one would want this to be the last appearance of an iconic character as V just isn't too good and even Sly has later regretted making this film. The idea of Balboa having a fall from grace and/or him becoming a manager like Mickey is not automatically a bad one, but the way it was done here just did not work. There have been a plethora of cases where athletes have become rich but they either squandered their cash or someone ripped them off so this idea is a valid one... how it's done here isn't all that believable and personally, I thought that robot alone would be enough to get them out of debt...
The fact that this starts right after Rocky IV not only hurts the story when it comes to logic, the timeline is also screwed up as Rocky Jr. is suddenly years older than he was in the last film. As for Rocky Jr.'s storyline, all it did was make Rocky Sr. look like a jerk and a goofus for ignoring Jr. and instead focusing on the bland character that was Tommy Gunn. As already alluded to, the time that real life boxer Tommy Morrison (who portrayed Gunn) spent on Earth ended up being far more intriguing and actually more cinematic than the role he played here... Morrison's career wasn't what it could have been as he spent too much time skirt chasing and partying and well, he got AIDS... which he later denied having but of course that is what he died of. Gunn is just a dork who was seduced by Don King... er I mean “George Washington Duke”, a promoter that made King look subtle in comparison. And the ending of V is different, but that is about the only compliment I can give it.
Sly getting to act with his real life son Sage (who passed away in 2012) was I suppose a nice thing but this is a film which also did not fully realize another interesting idea-that being Balboa is brain damaged from all the brutal fights he has had. In this modern era of CTE and everyone being concerned about concussions, the idea is ahead of its time-and them bringing back Burgess Meredith in a dream sequence was another fumble because the Mickey here did not act like the character we saw in the first three movies. This isn't unwatchably bad but it is a weird misfire which introduces rap to the franchise and yet they also somehow got ELTON JOHN to sing the end credits song and it wasn't one of the best things he ever recorded, that is for damn sure.
Who knows when I'll get around to seeing the other films w/ Rocky, but that will eventually happen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)