Jimi Hendrix

This is a 1973 documentary (or rockumentary, if you will) focused on the legendary musician: 

About time I cleared this documentary off of the DVR. You see, TCM played it way back in late April; despite enjoying the music of Hendrix for many, many years, it was just last night that I felt like putting the needle on the record.

The film was about what I expected: after some searing concert footage, his life story is told through interviews w/ a wide variety of people in his life… his fellow musicians who if they didn’t work with him, admired him as a guitar God, women he was involved with, and even Jimi’s father Al. There is also some archival clips from Hendrix himself. The songs the viewer hears aren’t all of his most famous tunes by any means, yet there’s plenty that is familiar: Hey Joe, Purple Haze, Red House, his covers of Wild Thing, Like a Rolling Stone, & Johnny B. Goode.

Technically, I could carp about how not all the interview footage shot by this team was in focus, and in 2023, not everyone will enjoy seeing either Pete Townshend or Eric Clapton on screen… let’s not discuss the reasons why! I will give this credit for honesty: drug use is discussed-and even shown at one point-even though that was how he died (probably… circumstances of how he passed away are still controversial now), and he also “had plenty of women” as his fame skyrocketed. My opinion is slanted due to my high opinion of his music but this was a documentary I’m glad to have witnessed; sure, learning more about the man himself would have been nice, but there’s Wikipedia for that and the performances were sublime.

Little Richard was the most colorful character review, because of course he was. When I finally subscribe to MAX again, the new documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything will have to be viewed; unquestionably it will greatly entertain me.

The Big Heat

The Big Heat (1953)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: Fritz Lang

Starring: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Lee Marvin, Alexander Scourby, Jocelyn Brando

From: Columbia

I happened to pick a great noir to be my last one for November, 2023. Of course, in hindsight this was one that should have been seen MUCH sooner. After all, it's a gritty genre example from Fritz Lang where Glenn Ford is an honest cop who is on the warpath against corrupt SOB's which only escalates after a tragedy occurs. Heck, it feels like something you'd get right out of a 70's revenge movie, so of course I loved it.

A cop's suicide sparks an investigation. Ford is straightforward Sergeant Dave Bannion who starts asking too many questions; see, that case involves a mob boss who runs the city and unfortunately, part of the department is on his payroll. Bannion has a nice wife and young daughter; like I said, tragedy happens and that's when the movie becomes real dark as Ford starts to exhibit behavior not too different from the louts that the mob boss has as goons... goons like Lee Marvin, who even back then played a heel excellently, and Gloria Grahame as Marvin's moll.

Not surprising that with all the genres Lang could handle quite well, film noir was another where he shined while telling such a dark tale. I haven't watched all his genre examples by any means but this has to be his best—there is great filmmaking craft throughout, for example. Of course, how ruthless the story became is due to the script and the excellent performances from Ford, Marvin and Grahame playing such fascinating characters made for a gripping hour and a half. I dare not spoil the all-timer scene which revealed what a vile character Marvin's Vince Stone was, or the other moments that made me think this was just like a 70's revenge tale and a plot perfect for a neo-noir. It is in fact pretty despicable (at least in this universe) to look the other way and live a comfortable life because you don't want to rock the boat and instead it is key to live it up no matter who else is devastated by that corruption.

Don't be a kitten who lost its mitten like me: if you enjoy the genre yet haven't felt the singe of The Big Heat yet, it's a mistake you should rectify ASAP.

Cutter's Way

Cutter’s Way (1981)

Runtime: 105 minutes

Directed by: Ivan Passar

Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Heard, Lisa Eichhorn, Ann Dusenberry, Stephen Elliott

From: United Artists

A very good neo-noir… that I only need to see once. Personally, movies focused on tragic, tremendously flawed characters can be more than worthwhile if done correctly-that doesn’t mean I want to take such a journey often. The movie is centered on Jeff Bridges living with John Heard and Lisa Eichhorn; the trio are alcoholics and what a bombastic character Heard plays. His Alex Cutter is an acidly bitter Vietnam War vet who became physically handicapped; lest you have too much sympathy for Cutter, his first scene involves him casually using the N-word to describe a Black man… who is within earshot. He then doesn’t apologize for the incident; at best you can feel sorry for Cutter but you are not meant to like him.

Ostensibly the film is about Bridges (his character is named RICHARD BONE for some reason) seeing a body dumped into a garbage bin on a rainy night when his Austin-Healy broke down-not a surprise for an old British sports car-and Cutter wants to investigate with the murdered woman’s sister Ann Dusenberry. However, the crux of the focus is the characters and their interaction w/ each other; Bone starts to tire of his increasingly erratic and brash buddy Cutter. As others have duly noted, you probably will be reminded of a certain 90’s movie starring Jeff Bridges…

It's a dark journey straight out of a 70’s film which I was happy to see once; it is incredibly downbeat yet IMO it was not so miserable that it was an unpleasant trip. Bridges and especially Eichhorn deserve their flowers too for their characters that you’ll also be frustrated with due to their occasional narcissistic qualities. However, the pompous, searing, and rage-filled performance from Heard is what Mix in a Jack Nitzsche score, stylized cinematography Jordan Cronenweth which achives a certain aesthetic and the solid direction of Ivan Passar & while it is possible you’ll be turned off by the leads (which isn’t an invalid response, IMO), I was happy to have finally seen the film.

 

$10,000 Blood Money

$10,000 Blood Money (10,000 Dolari Per Un Massacro) (1967)

Runtime: 97 minutes

Directed by: Romolo Guerrieri

Starring: Gianni Garko, Claudio Camaso, Loredana Nusciak, Pinuccio Ardia, Adriana Ambesi

From: Zenith Cinematografica/Flora Film

This is one of those films where you don’t want to read the plot description beforehand; OK, the one on Arrow’s streaming site (where I saw the flick last night) is ambiguous enough but the ones on IMDb and even Letterboxd itself give too much away. While there was 1966’s Django and 1987’s Django Strikes Again-yes, there was one official Django sequel which starred Franco Nero; I don’t blame most for not knowing this as it probably wasn’t until a year ago that I discovered this fact-the film sometimes known as 10,000 Dollars for a Massacre is one of many that had a character w/ this name. It happened to be played by Gianni Garko here, best known for his takes on Sartana and I’d never seen him look more like Franco Nero; there was an obvious stylistic choice.

The plot sounds simple enough: a heel named Manuel kidnaps someone’s daughter as a bit of revenge—thus, this person hires Django to get her back. That said, this is more complicated than you’d first be led to believe. Django is someone who only agrees to the bounty after he’s offered… $10,000. There is a relationship with a woman; it’s also a relationship where feelings pivot on a dime more than once, but I can accuse a great Western or two of similar behavior. Unlike those plot descriptions, I won’t spoil the surprises.

There were some colorful characters; this includes Manuel’s father (the old “constantly laughing old outlaw” stereotype I’ve seen in other Spaghetti Westerns) and Django’s photographer friend. There are badass moments and some creative deaths, sure… personally, the biggest highlight was a score that at first sounded like just a riff on Morricone-which it was-before it pivoted into different directions. I really do rate it highly; it happened to be from a woman, Nora Orlandi, of The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh fame. There’s never been many female composers, whether classically or in the film world-that is unfortunate.

The movie makes its influences blatant; Loredana Nusciak plays a role not that dissimilar to her appearance in Django; Manuel is played by Claudio Camaso, the younger brother of Gian Maria Volante. Much to my relief, this has enough differences from a archetypical Spaghetti Western (such as being surprisingly subdued) to earn bonus points and thus make me feel that this was pretty good.

Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas!

Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas (2014)

Runtime: 79 agonizing minutes

"Directed" by: Darren Doane

"Starring": Cameron, Doane, and people best not to mention here to save their reputation

From: Samuel Goldwyn Films, who should have known better

I never thought I’d see myself in this position, but here we go… as typical, discussion on a messageboard gave me the idea to finally see this infamous motion picture. It has to be clarified right away that for those reading this of who are of faith and are proud to call themselves Christians, please not that my review will NOT be an attack on anyone who thinks that “they should put Christ back into Christmas” or should be insulting to those devoted people. Rather, I will discuss why a guy who comes off as a weirdo w/ a lack of self-awareness failed spectacularly in his justification to love the commercialized aspects of the holiday while being a Christian at the same time in a poorly made, totally amateur motion picture.

Cameron manages to bash both atheists who have “taken over” Christmas and the fundamentalist Christians who think that the holiday is too materialized; what is the saying about having your cake and eating it too? Much of the movie is Cameron’s character trying to convince his brother-in-law (Christian; yes, his name was Christian) that the commercial aspects of Christmas aren’t “pagan” in nature and thus he should enjoy Christmas trees, nutcrackers, and the other items that have become iconography for the holiday. The brother-in-law Christian is portrayed as a sanctimonious buffoon & presents flimsy strawman arguments which Cameron tries to refute—“tries” the key word here. His validation is just weak and flimsy for each talking point; some were obviously bunk those that know more than me say the other validations were at best misleading and at worst, total poppycock.

That’s not even taking into account the generally poor filmmaking craft that’s constantly on display, how cheap the movie appears, the off-putting attempts at “humor”, the generally weird points that Cameron sometimes attempts to make (I don’t even know what his stance was on conspiracy theorists; yes, there was a scene devoted to that); even if you aren’t put off by Kirk & his over-inflated ego smugly preaching to the audience, the “acting” and the “storytelling” alone is off-putting to the extreme. Darren Doane deserves plenty of condemnation also—he not only directed, produced, and wrote the movie, he portrayed Christian… rather poorly, to be frank. Heck, the film effectively ends at around the 55 minute mark and the credits roll 70 minutes in; there is plenty of padding, which I’ll explain in a moment.

This at times made me wonder if Cameron had all his marbles. The movie made me cringe often at how pathetic it was; the nadir was an extended dance sequence; yes, Kirk, Doane and other weird dorky white people do their vanilla version of “busting a move” to a terrible “electronic” version of Angels We Have Heard on High! That sequence is never-ending, to boot; you’ll never cringe harder at lame middle-aged Doane “breakdancing” or lame middle-aged Cameron doing the worm! By comparison, the “outtakes” that pad the ending credits are great.

As I’ve seen Christians on Letterboxd note that they hated the movie, that’s why I feel more free to note that this seemed like a shallow justification for Kirk Cameron to justify his wealth. Please don’t ever watch Saving Christmas during the holidays… or at any time.

Thanksgiving (The Movie)

So, my plans changed; I was able to write a review for the film after arriving home from a 12:10 PM screening of it today. I posted that on Letterboxd before I left that town I was staying in to come back home. Now that I am back home now, onto posting the review here: 

Thanksgiving (2023)

82% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 114 reviews)

Runtime: 106 minutes

Directed by: Eli Roth

Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Nell Verlaque, Gabriel Davenport, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Addison Rae

From: TriStar/Spyglass Media Group

Well, you can't say I did not see this in an appropriate setting. Wednesday afternoon, I made a 3 hour drive to a different part of Florida for Thanksgiving; as people from literally all over the world follow me (a fact which will never not blow my mind) on Letterboxd, in the United States that is always the fourth Thursday each November. Those festivities went well. As I had free time in the early afternoon today, why not use my AMC A-List pass to visit the city's cineplex for the first time? Much to my chagrin, the place was straight out of the early 90's; I mean, the days even before stadium seating, those old uncomfortable chairs, etc. The sound bled over from the next auditorium, which was most regrettable. Except for that, it WAS a fitting place to see a new film based on a 2007 trailer for a film which aped the grindhouse experience & the implied setting in that trailer was the 80's.

Only a small part of that trailer carried over into this film, which was set in modern times. I was crestfallen no one stated, “It's blood...”, then a police officer responded, “Son of a...” I'd love to have seen Michael Biehn say it again, but it could have been anyone else. Regardless, what helped the most at my screening was a small but raucous crowd. Thank heavens they didn't flap their gums during the screening but did laugh uproariously at the humor far more than I did and most importantly, had the pitch-perfect reactions to all the graphic gore, not to mention the killer's reveal. If not for them, perhaps all the F-bombs would have been more grating, or the story holes would have been more obvious, or the lack of subtlety would have stuck out more. Then again, I shouldn't complain too hard in any case; at least this isn't drab, somber, dreary “elevated horror” which is not only pretentious, but a lack of color saturation seems to be a prerequisite.

As for the story, a tragic event happens Thanksgiving night, so the next year the killer looks for revenge on those that they deem responsible. A John Carver mask is worn; unless you're a history buff, you won't know that John Carver was one of the original pilgrims that came over on the Mayflower & landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620.

For all its faults, at least this tried to be a fun slasher with practical gore that certainly entertained my crowd... along w/ me. The young cast that I didn't really know for the most part were fine; yes, this includes Addison Rae, who at least isn't being eviscerated like she was in reviews for He's All That. The fact that her role was supporting probably helped. For someone that age-wise is old enough to be the father of those high school kids, they were stereotypically dumb to me... in the beginning. It was nice seeing Patrick Dempsey and Gina Gershon; would you believe she's 61 years old right now? Doesn't look it... I mention that for no particular reason. There WAS a minor character best described as “Steve Buscemi as an 18 year old”, more in voice & attitude than appearance; I wouldn't have minded more of him.

Otherwise, there's the standard red herrings and a plot which perhaps wouldn't pass scrutiny upon second viewing. But, there still were solid laughs (I wouldn't dare spoil the best gag), there is a cat which did NOT die, and I am thankful... this was not a TURKEY. OK, one of the production companies (Spyglass Media Group) apparently were the ones that fired Melissa Barrera from the seventh Scream movie, but that has no effect on the rating and how about I quickly end this review NOW before asking for a gigantic s---storm in the comments...

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone

Tuesday night, I revisited a pair of films via the DVR. The first was the Charles Bronson 10 to Midnight & the second, Whoopi Goldberg's Fatal Beauty. Both work as preposterous and trashy yet fun pieces of 80's entertainment. Saturday will be the return of proper reviews.