So what has PPP been viewing for the last week?

Quite a lot considering all the other things going on, but not much to write home about.  I saw a number of seasonal offerings on the Hallmark Channel, all equally forgettable including Steve Guttenberg playing a single Santa looking for Mrs. Claus (how the mighty have fallen!)  The kiddy movies playing in the background whilst I pursued my domestic duties will similarly be ignored, although I did have the dubious pleasure of watching "Garfield"; there are those who will forgive Bill Murray anything for his sour persona and those who don't really give a damn -- like me.  I also viewed the British efforts "Layer Cake" and "Five Children and It" -- and the less said of the latter the better.  As for the former, the whole British take on the criminal underworld leaves me wanting to see something else.

So were there any highlights on the box?  Well I thought "Winged Migration" was a nice restful nature doc, kind of like a screen-saver with some wonderful photography, lots of ooh-ah moments and no story as such -- not that this mattered.  The very best film I have seen in the last week is the Argentinian "Son of the Bride" (2001).  This started off very slowly as our 40-ish hero faced various mid-life crises, but it became more and more involving as one got to know him, his daughter, his ex-wife, his girlfriend, a long-lost childhood friend, his savvy father and his absolutely delightful mother who was coping with dementia.  His father wants to renew his marriage vows and the ceremony that eventually takes place is one of the more memorable wedding services ever.  All in all, a delight.

Finally as a tonic against all this season of good will lark, I did view the DVDs of "Creep" (the London Underground harbouring a psycho-killer) and "Saw" which was as gory and clever as I had been led to believe.  Nothing like some blood and guts to put things to rights.

In case there is another small hiatus over the next day or so, Happy New Year to you all. 

It's that time of the year again

It's not that I haven't seen the odd movie over the last few days, but I'm just too busy to say much about them as I prepare for the annual deluge of family and visitors.  Maybe before the end of the year I will be able to play catch-up.

Meanwhile happy, happy holidays to you all - PPP

House Calls (1978)

Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson made two films together of which this is the first (and probably the better).  He plays a recently widowed doctor and she a recent divorcee.  He's eager to play the field after years of fidelity, but after one night's mutually agreed sex, she challenges him to stop playing around or to give her up.  Her character is an opinionated motormouth, but he loves being with her; hospital politics nearly kill their relationship as he tries to help the senile director fight a lawsuit (and a brilliant turn by Art Carney here).  Their dating is completely charming as two older people prove that not only youngsters know how to romance.  There is one particularly hilarious bit when they attempt to prove whether or not it is possible to make love with one leg on the floor as the former Hollywood censor dictated.  Matthau was always good value in a film and nowadays one can forget what a gifted light comedienne Jackson was.  I think she brought a lot more happiness to a lot more people in movies like this than she ever has as an MP!

Namus - The Honour (1926)

Now here's a new taste thrill for Pretty Pink, an Armenian film made in 1926.  I must confess that I didn't follow all of it since the choice of intertitles was between some cyrillic script and German (in which I'm not exactly fluent).  However as far as I could tell it was about thrawted young love -- the girl having been pledged in childhood to a man she couldn't love (having already lost her heart to another) and her family being too proud to lose face and back down.  I think Namus means chastity or virginal maiden or some such -- I need to check this further.  Anyhow it all ended in tears before bedtime.  For such an old film, the print I viewed was in sparkling black and white and used a sophisticated collection of dissolves and close-ups, and it certainly provided a totally fascinating peek into a culture unknown to me.  In case you are wondering where I saw this, it was on German TV via satellite.  The one thing I'll say about the Germans is that their television offers a much better selection of films than ours, even if they do dub just about everything into their own language -- apart from silents, they appear to hate subtitles.

The Forgotten (2005)

This movie starring Julianne Moore started off like gangbusters with an intriguing premise -- she plays a mother whose son was killed in a plane crash about a year earlier and she continues to grieve.  However, slowly, proof that the son ever existed ceases to be available as his image disappears from family photographs and videos and as even her therapist, best friend and husband deny that there ever was such a person.  Since she is a decent actress, one identified with her plight and wondered where the story was going.  Then about two-thirds the way through came a plot development so far our of left field that my mouth was literally agape.  After that it just became more and more unbelievable as my flabber was ghasted, and by the end I couldn't care less.

Ultranova (2005)

This Belgian film at the ICA sounded much more interesting in the programme than it was in the viewing.  People joke about Belgium not producing much of note, but Magritte and Delvaux are two of my favourite modern painters, the beer and mussels are great, and I have seen a number of really quirky and memorable Belgian movies; unfortunately this was not one of them, despite its occasional oddities.  It was another non-linear close-up of empty lives in a desolate landscape with little hope of escape to the new beyond of the title. We had actually gone to the venue hoping to view the Italian giallo, "The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave", a film which has eluded me for years which was scheduled to be shown after the above.  However they were unable to obtain a print and the showing was cancelled -- what a pity!

Other recent viewing

I have been a busy little bee since my return from New York, but none of my other recent viewing deserves a full paragraph:

Valentin (2002): This Argentinian film is the best of this bunch -- more a slice of life than anything.  The protagonist is a very sweet but very sharp young boy being raised by his grandmother, since his mother has done a runner and his father is too busy to care.  When she dies, he tries to bring together one of his father's exes and a kooky pianist who lives nearby, presumably in the hope that they will marry and adopt him.

White Chicks (2004): Good golly Miss Molly -- this is what passes for mainstream entertainment nowadays.  Two of the Wayans brothers (I sometimes think there are dozens in this talented family) are FBI agents in trouble with their boss who find themselves dragged up as two white heiresses.  The fact that they look exactly like two black men in drag is immaterial to the hardly credible plot.  I must confess that there was the occasional giggle, but not sufficient ones to excuse the idiocy of the concept.

Anacondas - Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004):  With a title like that you can just about guess how stupid this film was.  It's a spin-off from the original giant snake film from a few years back which was equally bad, but with a B-list cast (not a D-list one like here). The first movie sticks in my memory indelibly for the over-the-top, histrionic, leering performance of Jon Voight.  I doubt if I will remember much of this one by next week.

Ring Of Bright Water (1969)

I am sorry to admit that I have never previously seen this film despite it being shown often on the box -- as an animal-lover Rachealcarol probably knows it well and probably loves it.  The DVD came free with one of the newspapers a few weeks back and I thought I should have a look before passing it to one of my grand-daughters.  Well I have, and I think I'll hold on to it for the time being since the story gets a little sad (a la Bambi), despite a supposedly upbeat ending, and they are still a little young for trauma.  As for the film, I thought the otter was very good.  I also thought that the scenery was well-photographed.  As for the leads, Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, taking on wild-life leads after the Elsa films, she was better than he -- but I still preferred the otter to either of them.  Probably a good choice for slightly older kiddies.

De-Lovely (2004)

If all you know about Cole Porter is that he wrote the words and music to some of the greatest popular songs ever and that Cary Grant played him back in 1946 in "Night and Day", you only know part of his history.  An aristocratic type, he was also an avid homosexual -- something the earlier movie could not show.  His marriage was one of convenience and his wife was well aware of his proclivities.  His is actually quite a sad tale as he was crippled after a riding accident and lost his supportive wife to cancer.  The two main characters are played here by Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, both of whom do a fine job with the material.  I was not terribly happy with the framing device which had Jonathan Pryce as a kind of recording angel looking back on Porter's life. The best part was the music with a selection of standards performed by various guest artists -- that some of them were presented in styles incompatible with the period of the film was a little jarring, but it was still great to hear these classics again.

The Dreamers (2003)

Apart from "1900", I have never been much of a fan of Bernardo Bertolucci (although I think "The Conformist" is pretty good).  His last few films come across like a dirty old man's daydream (to use the politer term) and seem to lust after nubile young flesh.  This movie set in Paris during the 1968 riots tells of a young American student who becomes friendly with brother and sister twins (their mother is English, hence their command of the language for the film is in English).  It was their mutual love of movies that brought them together and this part of the proceedings was obviously to my taste, but the story degenerated into a kind of love-in when the American moved in with them while their parents were away.  I actually found all three of them on the unattractive side and taking off their clothes (which was frequent) made them no more attractive to me.  I think the young French actress was chosen primarily for her figure -- an enormous pair of boobs on a skinny frame -- which the camera made love to as well.  It was all too self-indulgent for words.

Movies to watch on TV this Christmas (cont'd)

If you are limited to terrestrial TV and are not enchanted with the feeble selection of premieres, try BBC2 which is showing a whole bunch of classic films.  Of course they have all been on umpteen times, but if you have not seen any of the following (or fancy viewing one again) these are some of the best:

20th, afternoon - A Night at the Opera (the Marx Brothers at their zaniest); 2lst a.m. - The Sea Hawk (Errol Flynn doing his swashbuckling bit);  22nd a.m. - Gunga Din (boys' own adventure with Cary Grant); 22nd afternoon - Bringing up Baby (Grant again with the divine Katharine H); 24th, Noon - Black Narcissus (passions run high amongst the nuns); 24th, late - I Walked with a Zombie (poetic Lewton horror); 25th afternoon - A Star is Born (1954) (The best version with Garland and James Mason); 25th late - The Scarlet Empress (wonderful high camp with Marlene Dietrich); 26th afternoon - That's Entertainment (first of the three MGM compilations) plus The Philadelphia Story (Grant, Hepburn, Stewart = bliss); 29th afternoon - The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger masterpiece).

On other terrestrial channels I would also recommend Major Barbara Saturday afternoon on Channel 5 with a sparkling performance from Wendy Hillier and James Stewart with his six-foot rabbit in Harvey on ITV late on the 26th.  Channel 4 are showing Meet Me in St Louis on the afternoon of the 19th and Singin' in the Rain on Christmas day, but I guess everyone has seen these two several many times.

Have fun viewing -- and e-mail me if you want a capsule review of anything else that is on over the holiday period.

What films are on British TV this Christmas?

Not a lot from my point of view since I have seen every single one being shown on terrestrial and have the best ones in my permanent collection.  I will be watching Son of the Bride (Argentinian), Nowhere in Africa (German Oscar winner) and Winged Migration (nature doc) -- all on BBC4 and Confidences Trop Intimes on FilmFour, plus a couple of the premieres on Sky Movies.

If you do have access to satellite or freeview do not miss the Buster Keaton shorts and features on Sky Cinema (afternoons 19th-23rd, or a day later on Cinema 2).  While people divide into Keaton vs. Chaplin (I am in the first camp), if you have not previously seen them do try the Chaplins on Artsworld -- The Great Dictator on the 23rd, Modern Times on the 27th and Limelight (brilliant -- and Keaton is in it) on the 30th.  Other silents worth seeing are Battleship Potemkin on BBC4 on the 17th and Pandora's Box with the luminous Louise Brooks on FilmFour on the 24th late.

As for the terrestrial premieres they are a sorry bunch with a lot of seasonal dreary television movies.  The best of the bunch are The Man who Wasn't There (Channel 4 late on the 24th), Toy Story 2 (BBC1 Christmas Day) and 8 Women (good French fun with a terrific cast) on Channel 4 late on the 30th.  Also late on the 30th is Insomnia on BBC1, but it is not a patch on the Norwegian original.  The other heavy-hitters: Minority Report, The Shipping News and Signs kind of left me cold.

To be continued since I have already been disconnected once while preparing this.

Strip Search (2004)

I have just finished watching this Home Box Office cable movie directed by Sidney Lumet and I feel that I have been repeatedly hit over the head as the same points were hammered home.  In a way it is surprising, given the current political climate, that this picture was ever made since it deals with the loss of civil liberties.  It opens in China where student Maggie Gyllenhaal is arrested and dragged off for questioning by an unfeeling flunkey without any indication of her crime.  At this stage we are meant to think that this is the sort of thing that can happen in undemocratic parts of the world.  However the scene moves to New York where an arab student is similarly grabbed and questioned by Glenn Close.  To reinforce the similarities between the two scenarios, exactly the same dialogue is spoken as the inquisition moves back and forth between the locales.  Both suspects are subjected to badgering, humiliation and a strip search until they realise that they no longer have any rights.  One regime is as inhuman as the next and it is all done in the name of national security.  The film was a heavy-handed way of getting this message across, but it certainly made its point. 

Welcome to Arrow Beach (1974)

Laurence Harvey had a distinguished film career in Britain, died relatively young and had some memorable roles (especially in "Room at the Top").  I therefore doubt that he would wish to be remembered for this his last film which is not only a colossal piece of junk but which he is also responsible for directing!  Set in California he plays a photographer of some means with a home on a private beach.  He is also a Korean War vet who, we are led to believe, has developed a taste for human flesh as a result of his war experiences -- not that these are ever spelled out -- which he satisfies by picking up young girls and slaughtering them.  He lives with his weird sister played by Joanna Pettet who shares his guilty secret and with whom incest is implied.  Into their life comes young hitch-hiker Meg Foster, she of the palest blue eyes in movie history, who messes up the delicate lie of their existence.  There are a few other actors of some repute mixed with some totally inept ones, but the standard of acting throughout is completely amateurish.  What a way to end a career. 

Inflight movies (again)

Well I'm back from New York where I managed to see two super exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum -- Prague 1400 and Fra Angelico (yes, I really do have some other interests) and where I stocked up on a number of Region1 Dvds that are not available here (back to interest number one).  Memo to movie-lovers, given the choice fly with Virgin rather than American.  The former always has a choice of at least eight films at a time at worst and on some of their aircraft there is a choice of over fifty with the ability to start at any point in the flight, pause or fast-foward -- a really cool system.  American with whom I flew this time in comparison have a dismal choice of three or four movies, most of which have been around for a while.  So here's what I viewed, although as mentioned previously a miniature screen hardly provides a decent viewing experience:

Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005);  This was the only newish movie available and if you love the shorts, which I do, you know what to expect in their first full-length feature (well 70-odd minutes): great visuals, good clean fun, and some singularly British humour.  I'm not surprised that business fell sharply Stateside after the first weekend since it is all probably a little too old-fashioned for them, but I'm sure we'll happily be watching here for decades.

Christmas with the Cranks (2004): One of the seasonal choices and reasonably pleasant with Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis deciding to forego their usual Christmas celebrations to their neightbours' extreme displeasure.  A few chuckly bits and the actors did try hard, but it all got a bit saccharine by the end.  Too much peace and good will for my taste!

The Polar Express (2004): I was singularly untaken with this animation although I know it has its fans.  The technique is called motion-capture where the actors play out their roles and are then painted over; to my eye this produces a very flat and boring picture.  The story tells of resurrecting one boy's belief in Santa Claus by taking him to the North Pole on the titular train, but apart from a few small scenes, I felt there was little magical in the story-telling.

A Good Woman (2004): This is the film that I slept through in part -- the main risk of watching films on airplanes.  It was a reworking of Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan" moved for some reason to the 1930's.  The female leads were Helen Hunt and the nowadays ubiquitous Scarlett Johansson who brought some passion to the Merchant-Ivory feel of the movie (it was not incidentally one of theirs); the young male actors were unknown to me, but Tom Wilkinson and John Standing added some class to the older roles.  A comedy of manners with some smart repartee but a strange choice for the modern audience.

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

I have to be careful what I write about this film since I don't want to offend anyone.  I am not a believer which is probably why I have not seen this sooner, but it was such a worldwide phenomenon that I felt it should be viewed.  Since it was not a religious experience for me, I can only discuss its merits as a movie and by and large I think it was very well done, if not easy to take. 

Since it only covered the events leading to the crucifixion and the crucifixion itself (with the brief occasional flashback), it was hard to understand the love and hatred that Jesus inspired.  And we were given ample instances of the hatred not only from the baying crowd led by the priests, but in particular from the sadistic treatment of the Roman soldiers.  I am something of a horror fan and gore doesn't usually bother me, but this depiction was so over the top in terms of seeking the viewer's compassion that it did become too much.  Jim Caviezel in the lead did a fine job, as did most of the European supporting cast, but it's just as well that he is a very religious man (I'm told) as I somehow doubt that his acting was pain-free.  As for the film being mainly in Aramaic, I think this was a good idea, since this provided the necessary distance that American or European accents would not have done.  In conclusion, I'm not sorry I finally saw this film, but I am unlikely to choose to view it again.

See you all when I'm back next week - PPP

Falling behind again

I can't keep up with myself -- I must be watching too many films (big surprise!), so I'll do a multiple review of some recent highlights.  I'm off to New York at the weekend for a few days and hope to do a few more before then, but who knows.  So it could be that my next posting will be on in-flight movies again, either next Wednesday or Thursday:

The Triumph of Love (2002):  This was a very peculiar rendition of an old French farce with Mira Sorvino as a princess disguised as a man trying to gain the affection of a handsome young man who has every reason to hate her family, and simultaneously making his guardians, "Sir" Ben Kingsley and Fiona Shaw fall madly in love with her.  I should add that only the latter was not made aware of the fact that she was really a woman.  With all the period trappings, one was occasionally alienated by shots of a modern audience watching the performance; this device did not work at all.

Downfall (2004): I'd heard some good things about this German film covering Hitler's last days and it was put forward by them for best foreign film at the Oscars earlier this year.  Well, apart from the fact that the Swiss actor Bruno Ganz made a wonderful job of playing Hitler, the rest of the movie was no different than others I have seen on the same subject; the only difference here was that it was made by the Germans examining their own past which no doubt many would prefer to forget.

Fist of Fury (1972): This was arguably Bruce Lee's best performance and is also known as "The Chinese Connection" or "The Iron Hand" and is not to be confused with his "Fists of Fury" which is also known as "The Big Boss" -- yes it IS confusing.  Anyhow his athletic prowess and charisma really shine through here despite the positively, absolutely horrendous dubbing -- it's criminal that this movie is not currently available in a better form.

The Crime of Father Amaro (2002):  Again I was expecting more from this Mexican film which was also Oscar-nominated.  The very attractive (if very small) Gael Garcia Bernal plays a newly ordained priest sent to a small community where he gets involved in local politics and manages to impregnate a 16-year old.  I suppose the film was meant to expose hypocrisy amongst the priesthood since his lust and self-serving in no affected the village's perception of him, while others had their lives ruined.  I did however find the movie something of a disappointment, although I believe it was very successful in its home territory. 

Going in Style (1979)

George Burns had a whole second career after he took over from Jack Benny in "The Sunshine Boys", winning a best supporting Oscar -- and it's a lovely film too.  He then starred in a number of other films, none of which were great art, but all of which benefitted from his presence.  He died shortly after his 100th birthday and I really thought he might live forever -- he did after all play God in three movies.  There was always something impish and fun-loving in his performances.  To get back to the above film, Burns is one of three old codgers sharing a flat; the other two are Art Carney (also an extremely likeable actor) and Lee Strasberg of Actors' Studio fame.  They never have quite enough money to live well or to enjoy themselves, so Burns suggests that they rob a bank -- well, why not?  The balance of  the movie is a mixture of elation and the bittersweet, but even as death beckons, they discover what it is to be truly alive.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1975)

To get my marbles back in place after the "Catwoman" dreck, I decided to re-watch this gem from the German director, Werner Herzog.  He made a whole run of fascinating films when his "best fiend" (this is not a typo) Klaus Kinski was alive, the tastiest of which is "Fitzcarraldo".  The lead in this film was not Kinski but a genuine ex-mental patient called Bruno S. who played out the true story of a man raised in complete isolation and left on a main street in Nuremberg in 1828.  He had virtually no language and not even the most basic social skills, but he was a quick learner.  However there was always something askew about him which kept him apart from society and his mind worked to a different piper.  It is all very well to give an Oscar to Dustin Hoffman for playing an autistic in "Rain Man", but the performance here leaves that one in the shadows.  No one ever established who he really was or why he behaved as he did, despite some dismissable scientific gobbledygook at the end autopsy.  

Catwoman (2004)

I have absolutely nothing positive to say about this movie other than Halle Berry has a very nice body.  Before Tommy tells me off for wasting my time on rubbish, I do say up front that I feel duty-bound to watch anything not previously seen --but not the same obligation to pay attention throughout or to not fall asleep or even to not switch the bloody thing off.  I did last through this one if only to think how on earth can an Oscar-winner sink to such garbage.  I was also pretty embarrassed for Sharon Stone playing her nemesis as the  murderous head of a beauty company; roles may be scarce for older actresses (although she still looks pretty good), but did she need the money that badly?

Padre Padrone (1977)

This Italian movie directed by the Taviani Brothers was originally intended for television but then theatrically released and a Palme d'or winner at Cannes.  I think there is an unwritten rule that depressing movies shall win awards.  This one concerned a Sardinian boy pulled out of school by his bullying and overpowering father to spend the next god-knows-how-many years in isolation tending the family's sheep.  All attempts at escape or independence were met with violence.  I'll ignore the instances of bestiality!  Eventually he is allowed to join the army, gets the education he was previously denied, and writes a book telling of his early years with which many others identified.   However there was never a final reconciliation with his father who remained bitter and stubborn to the end.  (The title translates as Father, Master).  Not a film to watch when you need cheering up. 

Grand Theft Parsons (2003)

I was more than a little surprised as to just how likeable this movie was.  I previously had only seen the lead, Johnny Knoxville, in "Jackass" which you can bet your bottom dollar is not my cup of tea.   However I must confess he did a very good job here in this tale which was more or less based on a true story.  He plays the road manager of a country and western singer who has died of an overdose.  They had apparently pledged that should one of them die that the other would cremate the body in the middle of the desert where they felt most free.  So Knoxville hijacks the coffin in a psychodelic hearse driven by a spaced-out hippy with his friend's father, a greedy girlfriend, and half the state police in pursuit.  But despite the odds, he keeps his promise and damn the consequences.  It was an amazingly sweet-natured ride.

Sparrows (1926)

Off I went to the National Film Theatre to view this silent starring Mary Pickford, America's sweetheart -- even if she was Canadian.  What a hoot.  We have our Mary aged 34 playing a youngster -- teenaged at best, but she was something of a midget.  The story tells of a "baby farm" in the Southern swamps run by a mean old coot played by the brilliantly-named Gustav von Seyffertitz.  He takes the hard-earned pennies from mothers who can not afford to look after their children and starves them, works them to the bone, and eventually drowns them in the quicksand.  But they have valiant Mary to look after them and to lead them in an escape when they learn that a recently-arrived kidnapee might be killed.   So off they go across the marshes, avoiding the gaping jaws of alligators with all the baddies in pursuit.  It was very nicely filmed -- for some reason there were three cinematographers, and fun to watch, but really a pile of old tosh.  It is hard to fathom just how popular the actress was in her day. 

Love Me if You Dare (2003)

This French movie really needed to make its mind up as to whether it wanted to be a feel-good fantasy or something rather less, as the tone was very inconsistent.  It's the story of a man and a woman, friends from childhood, who have always played a game of "dare" to pass possession of a toy carousel.  She was bullied as being from a poor Polish immigrant family and he had lost his beloved mother to illness.  Between them they engaged in more and more audacious dares as kids and although perceived as trouble-makers, their exploits were filmed in a fantastical way remniscent of "Amelie".  As they got older the spirit of their dares became more bitter and they went their own way for ten years -- the period of her last dare. There was something very mean-spirited about this section of the film.  They end up together -- it is clear that they have always been in love -- and the style reverts again, when as wrinklies they are still daring each other to perform outrageous acts.  An interesting but at times aggravating film.

Springtime in a Small Town (2002)

If I hadn't known upfront that this was a Chinese film, I would have sworn that it was a Japanese one.  The smallness of the action, the stillness of the composition, and even the idealised scenery were more than a little reminiscent of Ozu.  I guess I am used to Chinese pictures which are either lushly historic or modern-day dramas as befits good communist movie-makers.  I would guess that this film was set some time after the end of World War II and concerned a sickly man, his slightly estranged wife, his young sister and an old retainer whose lives brighten when an old friend, now a doctor, comes to visit.  Apparently he and the wife knew each other some ten years earlier and an attraction still burns.  But nothing whatsoever is allowed to transpire.  The husband suspects all is not well and tries to kill himself; the doctor saves him, the wife is glad, and the doctor leaves.  Had this been based on some famous novel I could understand its provenance, but it wasn't -- so the motive for this tale remains unclear.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

There are some movies that are best seen at a cinema and the films in this series fall into that category, as indeed did the Lord of the Rings movies, so off I went to spend an enjoyable afternoon.  There is no denying that this entry is far too long, but it did hold my attention despite its running time.  As you have probably heard, Harry and Co. are now teenagers with raging hormones, but fortunately this is only part of the background to the adventures here.  Harry is mysteriously entered in the Triwizard Tournament and must fight dragons, battle sea monsters, and even face Lord V. in the scarifying form of a no-nose Ralph Fiennes.  There's a terrific new character in Mad-Eye Moody and good old Hagrid is also lovesick for a visiting giantess who makes him look petite.  For fans of the series, how good or bad this film is is almost superfluous, but they will not be disappointed.  And even those viewers who are indifferent to the novels will have a ripping good time here, but it is the darkest of the series so far and definitely not for very young kiddies.

In reply to Tommy, I've read the book too and agree that great chunks of the story have gone by the wayside -- but I don't approve of 2-parters a la Tarantino and it is up to the director to include the most important bits. It's hard for a movie to follow its source material completely and half the pleasure is seeing which parts the makers have managed to include.And we will always have Paris -- sorry, I mean the book!

Spare Parts (2003)

On the same basis that I recently viewed two films from Sri Lanka, I sat through this effort from Slovenia -- and believe me, it was an effort.  I am always amazed that films can get released which have absolutely no justification for existing.  This one was about two loners who were engaged in smuggling refugees across the border into Italy.  If it was meant as an expose of unethical practices, it really didn't work.  One was only aware that they were happy enough to accept the money, but didn't really give a damn if their cargo made it or not, especially since the elder of the two announced that most of them would end up as prostitutes or body parts for transplants.  OK, one knows this sort of thing happens, but making a film about it will not make it stop.  It left a bitter taste which I suppose was the point of the exercise.

Grace Quigley (1984)

About 100 years ago (or some time after 1984) I went to the National Film Theatre to see a move called "The Ultimate Solution of Grace Quigley".  I enjoyed it hugely, but it then disappeared off the radar having done no box office whatsoever.  Some years later it emerged on video under the above title in a truncated form and with a different ending, which seems to be the only way it is now available.  It's a black comedy starring Katharine Hepburn and Nick Nolte.  When she sees the latter dispatching her despicable landlord (Nolte's a professional hitman), she thinks up the wheeze of getting all of her elderly friends who are waiting for death to pay him to speed up their departures.  A mother/son relationship is formed as more and more of the disenchanted aged seek their help.  I know this probably sounds a bit on the sick side, but it is done with great charm, and Hepburn -- even at her most affected -- is an actress I can watch 'til the cows come home.

Il Deserto Rosso/The Red Desert (1964)

The trouble with the Italain director Michaelangelo Antonioni is that my partner likes his films while I wouldn't care if I never viewed another.  This was his first in colour and some people rave about his palette; maybe the print I saw was faded, but it was really nothing special.  I find all of his movies dry and sterile, and if he is considered great for capturing this, so be it.  Here we have a bored housewife played by Monica Vitti, a  favourite of the director, starting a casual affair with Richard Harris (nothing remarkable in this role and dubbed into Italian to boot).  I have no idea what the title means.  Yes, her life was as empty as a desert, but I associate red with passion and there was little of that in evidence here.

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)

With today's dependence on CGI, it is hard to remember how remarkable Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects were in days gone by.  While not as innovative as those in his earlier "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", the ones here are pretty nifty -- figureheads that spring to life, dueling six-handed statues, a cyclops and so on.  What isn't too remarkable is the standard of the acting from the lead (John Philip Law), his leading lady (Carolyn Munro), and downward.  Apart from the big villain, they're all on the wooden side, and since they are reacting to things that weren't there while filming, they stare blankly into outer space or fixate willy-nilly with eyes like those out of "Ivan the Terrible".  Never mind it's still good fun if one can force one's mindset to a simpler time.  

Open Water (2003)

This indie film was inexpensively made with unknown lead actors and took a respectable amount at the box office.  I understand that some people found it really scary, but I found it more on the annoying side.  It concerns a yuppie couple on holiday in the Caribbean who take a scuba diving excursion; through human error, the boat leaves without them and they are left floating in the ocean and being carried by the tides until they are surrounded by a school of sharks.  Their reactions seemed very real -- first hope, then the tendency to blame each other, then reconciliation, and finally despair. All well and good but not entertainment by any means.  To say it is based on a true story is a little ambiguous since if there were no survivors, the film-makers could hardly know how in fact the events played out.  I guess this is a spoiler, but the film has received sufficient publicity for the outcome to be known up front.

Where the Truth Lies (2005)

I wouldn't normally choose to traipse down West first thing on a Sunday morning, but it was worth it for a preview of this film (on release later this week).  Written and directed by Atom Egoyan, it was the most accessible of all his films that I've seen which often have a political agenda.  It's the story of a Martin and Lewis type entertainment act played by Colin Firth (a million miles from his Bridget Jones persona) and Kevin Bacon.  It begins at the peak of their success in the late 50's and then moves to the early 70's as an investigative writer, played by Alison Lohman, tries to discover why the duo broke up and the true facts of the death of a young girl found in the bathtub of their suite.  It was so refreshing to see a picture aimed at an adult audience with no concessions to the mindless.  Both actors deserve Academy Award nominations, especially Bacon who was shamefully overlooked last year for "The Woodsman", but I don't suppose logic rules in these matters.  Recommended!

No Highway (in the Sky) (1951)

The above are both the British and the US titles for this odd concoction.  It's been a long time since I last saw it, but my theory is that any film with James Stewart in the lead can't be all bad -- and you know what, he makes this story watchable.  He's in his absent-minded professor mode here as an aeronautics engineer convinced that the tail will fall off certain airplanes because of metal fatigue after a specified number of flying hours -- and nobody believes him, until he finds himself aloft with stewardess Glynis Johns and sexy screen siren Marlene Dietrich.  He's surrounded by a slew of British character actors of the period who are irrelevant, as are the female leads to some extent; he's the whole show and you gotta love him in his persistence.

Falling Behind Again!!!

There's just too much afoot at present, so I'm back to doing a multiple entry (sounds painful):

The Big Kahuna (2000): Another film that didn't get much exposure here, probably because it's really a filmed play, despite the attempt to open things out.  Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito play two old hands trying to flog their wares at a convention and teach a youngster (Peter Facinelli) the tricks of the trade as they man their hospitality suite.  They were hoping to entice a Mr. Big, but after deciding that he was a no-show, they discover that the kid had spent most of the evening talking religion with him -- a complete no-no from their point of view, but more important than business to the young one.   It was a talkathon -- well enough acted, but hardly a movie.

From Beyond (1986): No horror director has a better grasp of H. P. Lovecraft than Brian Yuzna who has made some of the gooiest, goriest pictures ever and really gets into Lovecraft's twisted imagination.  This is another tale of experimenting in areas that are better left alone with most of the cast ending up as mutated meat.  Unfortunately I do have the taste for this kind of madness.

Spartan (2004):  Another picture starring Val Kilmer who does not rank among my favourites.  However since the movie was written and directed by David Mamet, I thought it might be pretty good.  Unfortunately I was disappointed as it could just about have been written and directed by anyone with an extremely convoluted plot, a not overly likeable hero, and none of the sharp dialogue that usually is found in a Mamet film.  This one concerned the abduction of the President's daughter, not as a hostage, but into the white slave trade since her abductors did not know who she was.  The powers-that-be did not want the truth to be known, but of course Kilmer acting on his own -- like a Spartan warrior of old -- threw a spanner into their cover-up lies.  Yeah, and pigs will fly!

Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967)

For some reason the critics didn't like Jacques Demy's follow-up to "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" but it is actually a very pleasant diversion.  Granted it doesn't have as sober a story as the earlier film; but when three characters looking for love are played by Catherine Deneuve, her sister Francoise Dorleac (who, had she lived, might have been the greater actor) and Danielle Darrieux, how bad can it be?  Especially when two of their love interests take the forms of Gene Kelly and Michel Piccoli.  It's an all-singing, all-dancing pastel world, and if Michel Legrand's music is a little tinkly at times, so what; one doesn't have to be dead serious all the time.  The only thing that really puzzles me about this movie is that all of the singing voices are dubbed, including those actors that one knows to have perfectly acceptable voices.

The Ring (1927)

It's not often that I get to view a Hitchcock film that I've not seen before, so this was something of a treat.  (I do have another of his silents in my backlog, but I suspect that it will be a more pedestrian effort).  This one was really super-duper.  The basic story was a love triangle between two boxers and "the girl", so nothing unusual there.  But it was told with such verve and experimental camera work (Hitch was very influenced by what was happening in German cinema in the twenties) that the story was incidental to the development of a personal style.  I must confess that I was not previously familiar with the lead actor, one Carl Brisson, who was something of a lummox, but his rival was played by the suave Ian Hunter who had an illustrious career in Hollywood in the 30's and 40's.  The version I saw ran about 110 minutes but I understand that the original video release was only 73 minutes -- it must really have been hacked about, so I'm delighted to have finally caught up with this picture in its entirety.

 

Max Dugan Returns (1983)

Here's a perfect but little-known film for a grey day. Marsha Mason is the widow living very simply with her teenaged son (Matthew Broderick in his first screen role.)  Out of the blue her father whom she has not seen since she was a child appears, on the run from the mob with a suitcase full of bucks and only a few months to live.  He is played by the unflappable Jason Robards Jr. and wants to get to know his grandson and spoil them both.  He procedes to spend like a drunken sailor and Mason has trouble explaining all the new acquisitions to her son, her nosey neighbours, and her cop-boyfriend (Donald Sutherland), especially when Robards turns their humble home into a mini-palace. It's a feel-good movie with an ideal cast, but helped most of all by Robards' cheekiness.

Purgatory (1999)

I've seen a number of pix in the last few days but have been a little too busy with other things (yes, I do have a life) to post reviews of them all.  I thought I would share my opinion of this made-for-cable film which I've seen previously;  you know, sometimes a movie will stick in your mind -- not because it's great or anything but because there is something memorable about it.  This one has a clever concept which grabs the viewer.  A bunch of bank robbers led by a typically mean Eric Roberts (it's amazing how he has become a straight-to-video actor while his little sister earns 20-mil a film) take temporary refuge from a posse in a town which is actually over the gateway to hell.  Old West characters who have passed on bide their time there until it can be decided whether they are going up or down; so we have the likes of the sheriff played by Sam Shepard, who is actually Wild Bill Hickok, plus Doc Holliday, Jesse James and Billy the Kid trying to behave themselves when confronted with Roberts' violent mob, since any lapse into lawlessness could doom them eternally.  The resolution and the fate of the good vs. the bad is satisfying indeed.  It's all presented with a great sense of style which places it well above the average cable movie.

Flying with One Wing (2002)

My second film from Sri Lanka this month and it couldn't have been more different.  This one was an Asian "Boys Don't Cry", except our heroine was older, plumper and had taken a wife (who she honestly believed did not know she was a woman).  There was no real explanation whether her years of living as a man was for economic necessity or a trauma in her past or just a pyschological quirk.  However all of the men in the movie were despicable.  After a minor accident her workmate takes her to the nearest doctor, who happens to be an uncaring abortionist, who immediately discovers her secret; however, this fat, thumb-sucking pig develops a deep lech for her.  Her workmate also fancies her, but he thinks she is a man and he is that way inclined.  She works as a mechanic and her boss is a philandering brute.  When she continues to rebuff the doctor, he gives away her secret with brutal and tragic results. A strangely powerful film, but disturbing as well. 

 

The Missing Movies - Part Three

I'm still a bit paranoid that everything will crash again, but here goes:

Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004):  This is the unnecessary sequel to the first Resident Evil flick -- and quite useless, unless of course you really like films based on video games.  I don't know who decided that Milla Jovovich was cut out to be an action hero (probably a result of her once being married to Luc Besson and starring in his "The Fifth Element"), but she's a pretty feeble one.  I don't suppose that will stop some bright spark from proposing yet another zombie-fighting film for her.  Mr. Romero, look what you have unleashed!

Lulu on the Bridge (1998):  This is yet another example of a movie that has fallen between the cracks and taken years to surface on the box.  Its director, Paul Auster, is much more talented as a novelist and screenwriter, but the film retains its interest, if only because the viewer is curious as to what is going on and how it will develop and/or resolve itself.  Harvey Keitel plays a musician who has been shot and who subsequently finds a mystical blue rock, falls in love with Mira Sorvino, and is kidnapped by an un- known mob which includes a threatening Willem Dafoe.  The real kicker is at the end of the movie when one discovers what actually has been going on for the previous hour and a half.

White of the Eye (1987):  The director Donald Cammell is probably best-known for co-directing "Performance" with Nic Roeg; he didn't make many more movies before topping himself in 1996 when the final edit of his last film was taken away from him.  This movie is brilliantly conceived and shot concealing the fact that it is actually a B-movie with a B-list cast (David Keith and Cathy Moriarty in the leads).  It concerns a messy serial killer -- the police suspect Keith but find it hard to believe that a devoted family man could also be a psycho.  Wrong!  It is, despite itself, consistently interesting.

Should catch up with myself soon, unless I meet myself on the way back.

The Missing Movies - Part Two

I'll try to keep this short just in case there are still problems with this computer; I had it half-written once and AOL decided to disconnect me!

Daughters of Darkness (1971):  The Belgian director Harry Kumel is little-known here apart from this strange art-house horror (and I use the word very loosely) and a glorious oddity called "Malpertuis" (Orson Welles speaking Flemish anyone?)  What we have here is a grand hotel in Ostend out of season inhabited only by a honeymoon couple with problems and the Countess Elisabeth Bathory, played by a very glamourous Delphine Seyrig, and her lesbian companion.  For those who know their horror history, the countess is probably several hundred years old and kept her youth by drinking blood (originally of virgins -- but she's less fussy now.)  A weird yet beautiful bit of nonsense.

The Red House (1947): I've wanted to see this again for a long time, but it wasn't worth the wait as it has aged badly.  Good old Edward G. Robinson plays a crippled farmer who possessedly is raising the daughter of his lost love, together with his sister played by Judith Anderson (the wonderful Mrs. Danvers but pretty ordinary here).  There's something evil lurking in the woods near the ruins of the red house or so Eddie G. would have us believe, but the movie is no more than mouldy melodrama.

I'll try posting this now and see how I get on...

Testing only

Only testing--any joy this time?

The Missing Movies - Part One

You would not believe the problems I have been having not just with AOL (like everyone else) but it managed to muck up my brand new computer as well.  This is being entered with my crummy old computer which now works just fine.  I am not a happy bunny.  Anyhow this is just a brief report of what I've been trying to watch in the meantime:

Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang (2005): I didn't do this on standby at the London Film Festival, so I again dragged myself to a local fleapit to see it. It was pretty good fun if a little too "knowing" and complicated.  Robert Downey Jr. is a delight as usual playing the dim bulb narrator who finds himself over his head; Val Kilmer plays the gay P.I. who helps him out -- less annoying than sometimes, but still too full of himself.

New York Minute (2004): I expected this to be fairly feeble having viewed other Olsen Twins efforts over the years (they have been making TV movies since they were toddlers).  This is probably their first "proper" movie and I really didn't hate it -- it was viewable pap in which they played twins of staggeringly different personalities and their misadventures on a day trip to New York with truant officer (Eugene Levy) in pursuit.

Ong-Bak (2003): I had heard such good things about this film that maybe I was expecting far too much.  The star, Tony Jaa, does indeed do some remarkable kick-boxing feats without wires or CGI, but apart from the fights (which fortunately were pretty frequent after the first bits of broing exposition), there was not much else to keep me entertained in this tale of trying to retrieve a stolen Buddha's head, and some of the supporting characters were hyper-annoying to say the least.

More to follow soon...

Azumi (2003)

Having tried twice to write this on site, I will try posting my review of this exhilarating Japanese fantasy as an instant message and hope for the best.

Azumi is the only female among ten youngsters raised in seclusion by a martial arts master who has vowed to rid Japan of evil warlords.  When he decides that they should go out into the world to fulfill their "Mission" (not that this is ever spelled out), he tells them to pair up with their best friend and try to kill him. This is meant to make them more ruthless assassins, but struck me as stupid, since he was then left with five killers rather than ten.
Anyhow they go and slay dozens of baddies with amazing swordwork and lashings of blood, until only she is left to face the biggest killer of them all (a wonderfully camp performance by a giant dressed in white and carrying a rose). It did tend to go on a bit and I thought the film had ended three times before it did. However the set-up for a sequel is apparent and I would watch one if it were as stylish as this.

Frustration City (not a film title)

Does this produce an entry into my journal? Somehow I doubt it.
How long will it be before the technical problems are fixed and I am able to edit this on site and add new entries?

Killing me Softly (2002)

When a mainland Chinese director (Chen Kaige) known for his arthouse hits like "Farewell My Concubine" has the opportunity to direct his first English-language film, what does he choose?  Well, if he had any sense, it wouldn't be a farrago like this one -- I'm still trying to fathom why he involved himself with this movie.  Heather Graham, not much of an actress at the best of times, plays an American working in London and living with a good, but unexciting, bloke who loves her.  After a chance meeting with Joseph Fiennes she leaves her boyfriend -- because the sex with Fiennes is so great -- and on the wave of her passion marries the latter.  She then starts to have doubts since she knows little of his past and what she discovers is on the scary side.  Fiennes, like his brother, is a pretty good actor, but he comes across as so shifty and feral here that it was a little hard to suppress the occasional giggle.  Better luck next time Mr. Chen.

The Intruder (1962)

When Roger Corman wrote his autobiography which was entitled "How I made hundreds of films in Hollywood and never lost a penny" (or something like that), he wasn't telling a truth since the above movie which he produced and directed lost a packet.  It is his only "message" film and has the young William Shatner ex StarTrek (before he became a fat bloated ham) playing a racist agitator moving from town to town in the South trying to stir up hatred during the early years of integration.  A black preacher is killed and a high school student is accused of rape and nearly lynched before the locals see him for what he is.  Corman obviously felt strongly about the subject matter, but he never again made a proselytising movie; however it still packs a wallop. 

The Stepford Wives (2004)

Why do they bother?  Remaking films that is.  Back in 1974 when the original movie was released, one didn't necessarily have a classic, but the viewer was presented with an unusual and suspenseful tale.  The trouble is that the story is now too familiar to have any shock value and the premise is clear from square one, so the actors are reduced to playing it as high camp.  Which doesn't work!  A strong cast which includes Nicole Kidman (not very good and looking like a stick insect), Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Glenn Close, and Christopher Walken try their best with what is basically an uphill battle; even changing the ending from the original adds absolutely nothing to this pot-boiler. 

Scarface (1932)

No, not the Al Pacino cursefest set in Florida, but the original Howard Hawks version presented as if it were a public service (the movie was subtitled The Shame of the Nation) urging the authorities to deal with crime.  This film has much to recommend it; in particular there is Paul Muni's powerful, bestial and grotesque performance.  For an actor from the Yiddish theatre, he portrayed some of the most memorable characters in American films of the '30's.  There is also George Raft doing his toss-the-coin gimmick for the first time and one Boris Karloff before he became Frankenstein's monster.  There's the suggestion of lust between Muni's character and his young sister played by Ann Dvorak.  And there's some pretty realistic gunplay for an early movie.  Finally one notices the not too subtle symbolism of the cross -- from the scar on Muni's face to the repetitive cross motif  in the sets and shadows.

August Sun (2003)

I was obliged to watch this film on principle since I don't think I've previously seen any pictures from Sri Lanka--and anything once!  Actually it was pretty good and was really a three-parter telling of how different people have been affected by the long running civil war -- a woman whose pilot husband was possibly being held by the rebels being helped by a London-based journalist, a war hero searching for his sister in the brothels, and a whole Muslim community forced to leave their homes.  Rather than tell each story in turn in a linear fashion, the director cleverly interwove the action focusing on first one and then the next with no loss of continuity.  By the end all three strands arrive in the same location but are totally unaware of the other characters.  My only criticism is that none of the tales were resolved -- but perhaps that's what life is really like.

The Card (1952)

Perhaps not as well-known as his Ealing comedies of the period, this Alec Guinness charmer (known as "The Promoter" Stateside) is based on an Arnold Bennett story with a script written by Eric Ambler.  With three terrific leading ladies -- Valerie Hobson, Glynis Johns, and the very young Petula Clark, this film hits all the right buttons.  It's a period story set in the Potteries of a poor, but ambitious, young man and how he uses his wits to achieve both wealth and position.  His mobility is nearly undermined by Johns' gold-digger, but it is never in doubt that Guinness' basic cunning and goodness will not prevail.  I think he's a chameleon of an actor who has never given a bad performance, and there are not many of whom one can say this.  The movie is good, clean fun for all.

 

Here Come the Waves (1944)

Just to prove that not all old films are worth remembering comes this flag-waver from the World War II years, although bits of it are cherishable.  Betty Hutton plays twins -- one sensible one and one flighty one -- who enlist in the Waves; she's an actress that one can only take in small doses since she is so frenetic -- and there's a little too much of her here.  The film's saving grace is Bing Crosby playing a Sinatra-like crooner who has joined the Navy.  His rendition of "That Old Black Magic" is still miraculous and his duet with Sonny Tufts (in blackface would you believe -- no way that would fly nowadays) of "Accentuate the Positive" is such fun that it makes the movie more than bearable.  I have over the years extracted the good bits from bad films onto my "movie clips" tapes and the latter is one of them.

The Blob (1958)

In his first leading role, the 28-year old Steve McQueen plays a 17-year old out for a drive with his girl when they hear a meteor or something crash.  This unearths the nominal growing mass that absorbs all life forms before Steve-baby works out how to vanquish it.  I thought it might be fun to view this idiocy again, but it was hardly worth the time.  There was a re-make some years back with rather more gory effects, but no more wonderful.  For McQueen completists only.

Nosferatu in Venice (1988)

Back in 1979, Klaus Kinski made a memorable and grotesque Nosferatu for Werner Herzog; he reprises the role here in this Italian-made riff on the old theme.  However he is a funny sort of vampire raised after 200 years -- he goes about in daylight, no crucifix can faze him, and he even casts a mirror reflection.  His antagonists are Christopher Plummer's vampire hunter and ineffectual priest, Donald Pleasance, and neither of them can cope.  If anything, Kinski plays this version as a unstoppable romantic lead -- and for an ugly man, he nearly looks attractive.  The Venetian atmosphere is thick enough to cut and there's a dreamy quality throughout; however if truth be told , it's all a bit muddled and adds little to the genre -- a curiosity at best.

The Grass is Greener (1960)

I ask you -- a film with only four main characters: Cary Grant, Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons -- what could be bad?  And where nowadays would you find a film with four equally charming and watchable actors carrying the action?  If I think of recent attempts with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, I just give up thinking.  While this movie could be dismissed as a stagy bit of fluff, it remains fresh because of the actors' presence.  The slightly naughty story of impoverished aristocrats being tempted morally by a brash American visitor to their struggling stately home is less important than the verve which these four bring to the table.  Will we ever see their likes again?

Thieves Like Us (1974)

A strange film to come from director Robert Altman who is best known for ensemble pieces (and briefly in the '80's for filmed plays), as this is a remake of the 1949 "They Live by Night" and a fairly linear storyline.  The original film was based on a novel with the above title, and tells of three jail-breakers -- two hard cases played by John Schuck and Bert Remsen -- and a young naive criminal played here by Keith Carradine (Farley Granger in the original).  It is the '30's and they rob banks (like Bonnie and Clyde) and the two older ones rope in Carradine as their getaway driver.  While on the run he meets Shelley Duval (a strange, strange actress, but an Altman favourite of this period) who is equally gormless.  Their love story is the centre of this movie and is gently told, but is undermined by the basic nastiness of the other characters; Schuck in particular, whom I always associate with comedy goofiness, is a right mean piece of work.  Altman evokes the feel of the period through soft-focus photography and a clever use of recreated radio soundtracks, and some critics think the film poetic -- I wouldn't go quite that far, but it certainly is an anomaly amongst his movies.

The Punisher (2004)

Based on a Marvel comic, a version was made as recently as 1989 starring the uncharismatic Dolph Lundgren, so I wonder whose idea it was to remake it with the equally unstarry Thomas Jane.  He plays a FBI-man who wants to retire, but on his last "sting" the son of Mr. Big Gangster, played by John Travolta, was killed; Travolta and his wife decide that the only suitable revenge is to kill Jane and his whole family -- not just wife and child, but parents, nieces, nephews, and just about anyone else at the family reunion.  Well of course in the first half hour they manage to kill everyone except Jane, and we then have a ninety-minute bloodbath to follow.  As mindless violence goes there wasn't too much to differentiate the movie from similar ones, but it was watchable enough; I did like one bit where "The Russian" was sent to deal with Jane (he was probably twice his size) and managed to duff him up good and proper before he too was vanquished.  The biggest worry is that the last scene sets this up a franchise to spawn innumerable sequels; one can but hope for the best and that good sense will prevail.

Dogfight (1991)

Sometimes after viewing some newly-released rubbish, I need to re-charge my batteries by revisiting a small masterpiece.  Set in 1963, on the eve of being sent to Vietnam, four young marine buddies on leave decide to hold one of their regular dogfights -- this involves each of them turning up with the ugliest date they can find in order to win a prize.  The one whose fortunes concern us is played by the much-missed River Phoenix; he hones in on the socially inexperienced Lili Taylor who was a fine actress even then (of course she may be on the plain side, but one could never call her ugly as her personality always shines through).  Anyhow when she discovers why he has asked her out, she is not only hurt but lets him know it.  He can't quite get her out of his mind and tries to find her; his apologies are genuine and they end up spending the evening and night together -- just two sweet youngsters.  He doesn't write as promised when sent overseas, but after he is wounded in battle and released, he makes his way back to San Francisco -- the scene of that poignant date.

EuroTrip (2004)

I do say on the sidebar to the right that I will attempt to view any movie I've not seen previously, which can be the only excuse for sitting through the above garbage.  Perhaps I am too old to even consider this sort of rubbish a guilty pleasure, and if I were the powers behind Dreamworks, I would have been ashamed to put my name to it, but apparently a lot of people thought it was very, very funny; how this can be true of a movie which even includes vomiting in the cartoon front credits is beyond me.  Anyhow, what we have are some high school graduates who have gone to Europe to try to find an e-mail penpal, having eventually decided that Mieke wasn't a fellow, but a hot babe,  We thereafter have to put up with every European cliche the authors can throw at us -- as long as it has a sexual punchline.  Some of the "antics" are right off the radar, including one of our heroes being accidentally declared the new Pope!  We are also lumbered with one Vinnie Jones (how that man ever developed a movie career is one of life's great mysteries) as the leader of a bunch of football hooligans.  I don't really want to be young and foolish again. 

Things Change (1988)

This film was co-written and directed by David Mamet which immediately guarantees that one will find a literate script.  It stars Don Ameche as a fallguy for the mob (he's a poor shoeshineman who's told he will get a wad of money if he confesses to a murder) and Mamet-regular Joe Mantegna (on probation with the mob) as his weekend baby-sitter.  Mantegna decides to waft off to Lake Tahoe where by insinuation he passes Ameche off as a big-time hood.  The complications follow from there.  Ameche's old-world dignity plays off well with Mantegna's modern craftiness and the affection that develops between the two is palpable and by the end heart-warming .  There are also some early roles for J.T. Walsh and William H. Macy, both way down the cast list.

The Emperor's New Clothes (2001)

A nice conceit here, but rather leisurely pursued.  When Napoleon is in exile, his attending couriers locate a "ringer" to take his place while he escapes in an attempt to regain his empire.  The doltish sailor and the imperious leader are both played by Ian Holm who appears to be enjoying himself hugely.  However things do not go to plan: the returned Napoleon can not locate any one to help him, while his replacement grows to enjoy his new-found luxury.  When the latter dies, everyone assumes that Napoleon is gone, but the real one is not having this.  However his attempts to persuade them just lead others, including the wife he has taken, to assume that he is mad (like all the other Napoleons crowding the mental hospitals).  The doctor who knows the truth was a love rival, so he won't help out of spite. Napoleon accepts his fate and lives to a ripe old age in domestic bliss.  I don't feel that I have spoiled this movie by outlining the plot, since it is clear from early on that it can only go one way.  But all in all, pleasant viewing. 

Hollywood Hong Kong (2001)

For those who think that Hong Kong movies are all about gangsters, lightning-fast kung-fu, or hopping vampires, think again.  The director here, the oddly-named Fruit Chan, makes art-house films that appear at festivals.  This one is, I suppose, meant as a black comedy, although it is more black than comedic.  We have a family of three obese males -- father, teenaged son and young son -- who are pig butchers; the mother has run away, but they do have a huge sow called Mama.  Next we have an internet junkie who lusts after a female he has seen on a porn site; when he meets her, he thinks she is the real thing, but turns out that she is in cahoots with a shady lawyer to extort money from him and others on the grounds that she is under-age.  She also seduces the older brother, but befriends the younger one.  We then meet a female mainland doctor who wants Mama to carry a human infant in the name of science and who has a side-line of sewing back chopped-off hands, even if they are not the correct ones.  All very strange.

The Hollywood of the title refers to some huge apartment towers which overlook the shantytown where the main characters dwell (and which will soon be torn down).  Hollywood taking over the world?

 

Citizen Dog (2004)

Anyone who has seen the Thai film "Tears of the Black Tiger" (2000) will sort of know what to expect from the director's second film: brilliantly-bright pastel colours, clever use of local pop music, and a sweet and naive storyline.  You would be right but still fall short of anticipating the strange visuals and weird magic realism of the tale.  A gormless country boy goes to the big city where he takes a variety of jobs and tries to woo an obsessed cleaning lady; but he loses her when she becomes an eco-warrior amassing a mountain of plastic bottles.  It ends happily because he hasn't grown a tail -- see the film and you'll know what I mean.  And those are only two of the strange characters we meet.  It all leaves the viewer with a big fat smile and you don't get many of those to the pound.

Elling (2001)

For reasons that I would not care to explain, this Norwegian movie was apparently its home country's biggest box-office hit.  It is a sweet and gentle film, but nothing to sock you between the eyes.  It tells of a mama's boy who is institutionalised when his mother dies (he is by now in his forties).  There he rooms with a Neanderthal who is even more lacking in social skills.  Eventually they are released to a council flat under the beady eye of  a social worker and gradually learn to cope with society, albeit in very limited ways.  Elling develops an alternate persona as the "sauerkraut poet", attaching his output to packets which he places in supermarkets, and his roommate finds his first girlfriend, even if she is heavily pregnant with someone else's child.  I'm probably making it sound droller than it really was.

The Brothers Grimm (2005)

I am always prepared to cut Terry Gilliam a bit of slack since he perseveres in trying to get his singular visions onto the big screen, often against formidable obstacles.  However, this picture (on general release tomorrow) is more of a parson's egg than an outright success.  His take on the fabled brothers presents them as conmen tricking the locals out of their shekels by ridding them of non-existant spooks; Heath Ledger whom I have never much taken to previously does a good job of the more studious sibling who writes down the tales, while Matt Damon is the carefree amoral one.  So far, one doesn't mind Gilliam playing with the facts.  However when he introduces the villains played by Jonathan Pryce (doing a Peter Sellers Clouseau accent) and his idiotic Italian sidekick played by Peter Stormare, one quickly loses patience.  The story continues with our heroes being forced to solve the mystery of a wicked forest that has swallowed up a number of children as fodder for the 500-year-old Monica Bellucci to retain her youth.  It is here that Gilliam's rampant imagination is given full swing but at times to an over-the-top effect -- and if anything is guaranteed to put me off, it is close-ups of hundreds of creepy-crawlies to evoke fear.  An obvious fortune was spent on the special effects and I can't help but compare this to what "MirrorMask" accomplished at a fraction of the budget.

MirrorMask (2005)

At last a British movie to rave about and there are no cheeky Cockney gangsters, no inpenetrable Northern accents, and no heritage corsets.  Instead we have a miraculous and imaginative rites-of-passage film, produced by the Henson Company, directed by comic-book artist Dave McKean, and co-written with the well known graphic novelist, Neil Gaiman.  The teenaged heroine played by an amazing Stephanie Leonidas (who bares the weight of the film on her slender shoulders) enters a dreamworld not unlike Alice's, but far more fantastical and  frightening.  The visuals, which I understand were created on a remarkably small budget, are beautiful and at times mind-boggling, as she searches for the mask of the title which will restore balance in both worlds.  I am sure it will be released soon, if only in a limited way, so do make a point of trying to see it in a cinema; a DVD would be great and I would certainly add one to my collection, but one would miss the majesty of the big screen.

The Grudge (2004)

Having seen the original Japanese film (Ju-on) which in fact was a condensation of four video films, I expected to hate this U.S. remake starring the somewhat bland Sarah Michelle Geller.  However since it was put together by the director of the original films, it wasn't at all bad -- although the first half was very much a scene for scene remake of the Japanese release.  The premise is that a house can harbour the unhappy spirits of those who died there and that this unquiet atmosphere will infect anyone who so much as sets foot in the house. While not 100% logical and ensuring that the Hollywood heroine would survive (sort of), it did have a good number of "boo" shots and managed to retain the singular creepiness of Japanese horror movies.  So not a total loss at all.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)

The rest of my weekend viewing either left me cold (The Day After Tomorrow) -- literally, since it was about America freezing over -- or put me to sleep (The Notebook), although I usually like watching James Garner, so we'll give those a miss.  Instead let me tell you about the above movie which is the third in the Korean director's (Park Chan-Wook) revenge trilogy which started with "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and continued with "Oldboy" -- both immensely interesting films.  This one was a little more subdued, although it had its share of violence, but was beautifully filmed, exquisitely scored and forcefully acted.  The heroine has just been released from jail after serving 13 years (from the age of nineteen) for a child murder which she did not commit.  She appears to have an angelic nature but nurtures revenge against the man who put her there and made her lose her young daughter.  The movie focuses both on her years in prison together with the backstories of some of her cellmates and her plan for vengeance in the days after her release. How she tracts him down, unearths his other crimes and gets others to partake in the bloody finale is the gist of the tale, but it is also full of many other nice touches which don't necessarily further the action but which add to the richness of the scene.

Fraulein Else (1928)

I'm taking a break from the Film Festival this weekend to play a little "catch-up" with the rest of my life -- which of course does include watching the odd film or two.  It was my first viewing of the above which again was recently restored, but despite a slim story based on a Arthur Schnitzler tale it was so much livelier than the other German silent that I viewed yesterday evening (and reviewed below).  Part of this was due to an engaging orchestral score but most of it was down to the playing of the lead role by Elisabeth Bergner who was a big stage star in Germany at the time.  She and her husband (the director here) moved to Britain in the thirties, presumably to escape from Hitler, and she had a brief starry career.  In this movie she has gone to St Moritz with her friends, but receives a wire from her mother that papa is in deep financial trouble; she is asked to approach a "friend" of the family who is some kind of dirty old man.  He makes it clear that he might help in exchange for her revealing her body (or more).  She can't bring herself to this and evolves a plan which ends in her death and completely mortifies the potential financial saviour; how this would help dear papa is a very moot point.

The Chronicles of the Grey House (1925)

I was dead keen to see this German silent, not only because it had never been shown before in Britain, but also since this was the world premiere of the restored copy.  Yes, I admit, I am a completist when it comes to movies.  However it was something of a lumpen affair, despite the occasional nice architectural framing.  It was the story of two brothers fighting over an inheritance which the natural heir had jeopardized by marrying the daughter of a servant.  Big shame!  She was played by Lil Dagover -- a well-known name from silent days, but a fairly stolid presence.  It was only in the last reel where her spirit appeared to protect the son she had died giving birth to that there was much in the way of excitement.  Otherwise the completely static camera work added to the pedestrian plod.

The King (2005)

The blurb in the Festival programme made this film sound a whole lot better than it was.  It is a collaboration between the British documentarian who made the very weird "Wisconsin Death Trip" and an established Hollywood screenwriter, and stars Gael Garcia Bernal in his first English-language role -- but all, I thought, to little avail.  William Hurt is a born-again pastor in Texas who is faced with Garcia Bernal claiming to be the son of a long-past relationship.  It is not 100% definite that the latter is telling the whole truth since he swiftly impregnates the young lass who may be his stepsister and also murders her brother who may or may not be his stepbrother.  When the hypocritical Hurt acknowledges the young man as his son, things take a turn for the worse (and yes, they can get worse).  Unfortunately the ending was left wide open which was less a case of "viewer, make up your own mind" than unsatisfactory storytelling.

Lemming (2005)

I wasn't expecting too much from this French film, but found it interesting and not a little bit disturbing.  Like the previous movie of its German-born director, Dominik Moll, "Harry, He's Here to Help", unexpected events conspire to bring unforseen threats to the most placid existences.  Charlotte Gainsbourg and her husband have a loving relationship until they meet up with his boss and the latter's bitter wife, played by Charlotte Rampling. Concurrent with this, they have discovered the titular lemming in the S-bend of their kitchen sink.  What takes place thereafter is the stuff of nightmares and possession.  One can't look for logic as the film plays itself out, but one can be terrified by the characters' apparent loss of control over their actions.  My only criticism is that it was all a little too leisurely and would have benefitted by a tighter running time. 

The Girl from Monday (2004)

Hal Hartley hasn't done much of interest since 1998's "Henry Fool", so I was rather looking forward to seeing his latest effort.  While my companion thought it was good, I must confess that I was disappointed, perhaps because I am not over-keen on sci-fi as a genre.  More likely the reason is that it was shot on digital video which produced a hand-held shaky feel which I find hard to watch.  More important I thought that the storyline was fairly threadbare; the concept of a near future controlled by a huge corporation that gives consumer credits for sexual promiscuity and self-interest may be of some potential interest, but the way this played out was slack. Incidentally, Monday (where the girl was from) was an extraterrestrial planet.

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

This film has been considered a noir classic for the nearly sixty years since its release and garnered an Oscar nomination for its screenwriter, the great Raymond Chandler.  However if truth be told it has not held up all that well and is more competent than exciting.  Alan Ladd plays a war hero who returns with his two buddies to find that his wife has been unfaithful and has been responsible for the death of their son.  When she is found dead, he is the natural suspect although one knows he is innocent.  There are also two characters who might have been the guilty party, but one doesn't really believe this.  Therefore when the real killer is revealed, it is something of an anticlimax.  To some extent my main problem here is with Ladd.  He is an able and attractive actor elevated into a reasonable career by a pushy casting agent wife.  However he is so tiny that one must really suspend belief to see him beating up all the heavies (and don't remind me of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan).  He was continuously paired with wee Veronica Lake, as he is here, to make him look taller.

Takeshis' (2005)

As I wrote yesterday I am a Takeshi Kitano fan and therefore probably better placed to enjoy his new film than a viewer who might be less familiar with his work.  I am hard-pressed to describe this simply, since it mixes fantasy with bits from previous films to form a kind of "Takeshi's Greatest Hits".  He plays himself in his Beat Takeshi persona as a Japanese icon of both violence and humour; he also plays (in his bleached Zatoichi hairdo) a convenience store clerk who dreams of success as an actor because of his resemblance. This all gets intertwined with characters from his other movies and presumably from his popular TV shows in Japan and includes traditional transvestite dancers, energetic tap-dancers and characters that  die but won't stay dead.  The would-be Kitano finds that increasing violence and bloody gun-play bring him nearer to the world of his hero, but the actor-director seems to be saying that all is illusion -- that none of this is real.  An amusing, fascinating and perplexing film. 

Beyond the Rocks (1922)

It would certainly not do to be rude about a recently discovered "lost" film; however I must confess that the above movie is more of a curiosity than a masterpiece.  Pieced together by the Netherlands Film Museum over the last few years, it was the only pairing of Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino, so its restoration was greeted with approving cheers.  Miss Swanson was 23 at the time, but playing younger (and looking about 40); she has married an older, wealthy man to support her beloved father and spinster step-sisters.  She keeps being saved from disaster by the handsome lordling eschewed by Valentino and they fall in love.  Valentino was never really much of an actor, more just a smouldering presence, but he and Swanson have precious little chemistry. 

So, yes I am delighted that this film has been found, and I hope many other lost films will surface.  I just hope some of them will be better than this potboiler.

Blood and Bones (2004)

I am a big Takeshi Kitano fan but think I prefer the films in which he directs himself to those films where he acts for another director (a possible exception to this is "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence".)  Not that he isn't excellent in everything that he undertakes, but in this very very long Japanese saga, the length of the movie (it does cover a period of about sixty years) detracts from a remarkable performance.  Mind you it is pretty hard to enthuse about a character who is totally hateful -- misogynistic, misanthropic, selfish, and just downright mean -- yet you just can't take your eyes off his bullying.  The story follows his life from his arrival in Osaka from Korea as a hopeful young man through to his death in North Korea as a bitter old man.  Despite Koreans being outcasts to many Japanese, he prospered, but at the expense of all about him.  A great performance but anything but likeable.

On a slightly different tack raised by this film, the Japanese are very prudish about showing full frontal nudity in their movies and tend to block out anything remotely pubic by either pixelating the image or having bouncing white balls over the offending bits.  In a bath-house scene in this film the blocking was done with huge shifting black shadows which was more than a little distracting.  This attitude being the case, I wonder why the action could not just as well have taken place elsewhere or whether the actors could have sported discretely placed towels.

Mean Girls (2004)

A bit of fluff that pushed Lindsay Lohan even further towards her current teen queen status.  She plays a 16-year old that was home-schooled by her folks when they lived in Africa but who goes to regular school for the first time when they return to the States.  She is an innocent in a lion's den but soon learns to differentiate between the nerds, the jocks, the weirdos and the "plastics" (the female in-crowd led by the self-serving Rachel McAdams).  When she takes up with the latter group she finds herself changing for the worse and tries to undermine the McAdams character and to steal her boyfriend.  While possibly marginally more sharply written than your average teen comedy, it was all still fairly formulaic stuff and naturally they are all far far better people by the end of the movie.

Imagining Argentina (2003)

I understand that this film was roundly booed when it was shown at Cannes and I certainly don't understand why.  Grant you it was a depressing subject, but one based on reality and it was reasonably well put together.  The setting is Buenos Aires in1976: Emma Thompson is a journalist and her husband, Antonio Banderas, runs a children's theatre group.  One afternoon the police come for her and she joins the "disappeared".  Banderas tries to find her through official channels, but no joy.  As he begins to involve himself with other relatives of the missing, he discovers he has psychic powers which enable him not just to visualise the tortures his wife is enduring but also to tell the others about their loved ones.  His theatre group becomes more political but he himself is not taken away -- his theatre associate and his teenaged daughter are (and neither survive the ordeal).  As a manifestation of sheer evil one must accept that the film paints an accurate picture of what was happening in Argentina at that time and what continues to occur even today in many other countries.  It was hardly a comfortable film to watch, but not one that should have been mocked even if one was pushed to believe Banderas' second sight.

Election (2005)

I expected this Hong Kong film to match other gangster films set there in action and excitement but it turned out to match a regular election in many ways - bribery, lying and the occasional honourable act.   A struggle for the chairmanship of a Society between Simon Yam and Tony Leung gives the latter the showier role to the extent that Yam's character is more defined by others' remarks than by his own actions.   An attempt to obtain the Baton of Leadership provides the only real action scenes in the film with much of it taken up with rather boring bargaining between different factions in the Society.   Once Yam has the undisputed leadership with Leung as a faithful lieutenant (in some ways the Blair/Brown situation), the mood darkens for what is a rather unexpected finale.   However, the few highlights did not offset the rest of a disappointing film which is only for fans of the two leads.                    

Michaelg

quo vadis, baby? (2005)

I went alone, alas, to see the first Italian film in this year's London Film Festival which was also a double first for the director - the first film of his with a female protagonist and the first made by him with HD digital recording rather than on film.   The lead is a private eye working for her father taking pictures of errant husbands and wives who receives a carton of videos from her sister's old boy friend who has had them for the 16 years since her suicide.   Reluctantly, our heroine starts watching them, the early ones of childhood together before the tapes are used as a diary of the sister's life as an aspiring actress in Rome.There is a definite noir (or giallo, rather) feel to what is really a family puzzle with strong performances from both sisters and the supporting male cast.   The use of video to tell the back story is well done as is the use of film extracts relevant to the story (the film's title is a quote from the Italian dubbingof 'Last Tango In Paris').   A worthy successor to the golden age of giallos.

Michaelg

London Film Festival - NOT Part One

Well I should have attended my first screenings yesterday but I was too ill to inflict myself on the world (or vice versa), so did the sensible thing and stayed in.  I will however be bringing you a guest reviewer to comment on what I missed.  Hopefully I'll be in shape to take up my heavy programme from Monday.  I used this enforced time at home to clear some of the backlog from my hard disk and some capsules follow:

Tupac - Resurrection (2003):  This documentary was culled from old footage and told, in his own words, of the violent life of the rapper who was shot dead in 1996. I must admit that it was well put together, even if the subject matter was not really to my taste.  The man had talent, but he courted controversy.

One for the Road (2003):  A Channel Four production which I guess few people have seen (and this does not surprise me).  It followed four men who had lost their driving licenses for being over the limit who had agreed to attend group therapy to minimise their penalties.  None of them were overly likeable and all of them continued to drink as if there was no tomorrow.  However it was nice to see Hywel Bennett back in a showy role as the rich one of the group.

Code 11-14 (2003):  This made for television movie with a no-name cast was watchable, but extrememly stupid.  Our hero, an FBI man, was on the trail of a serial killer in Los Angeles; a man with the same M.O. is arrested in Australia and he goes to investigate.  However he insists on taking his wife and young son with him (I'm sure this is definitely FBI procedure!)  It is not the right perp and on the return flight a woman is killed and his family is terrorized -- talk about a phony set-up for the action.  Apart from anything else, it is clear as a bell who the real killer is despite the red herrings which only an idiotic viewer would grab. 

Red Lights (2004)

This French film while well-photographed and well-directed by Cedric Kahn, struck me as something of a cheat.  The story just didn't ring true, and after the event I wonder whether the viewer was really meant to accept the tale as presented; there were just too many loose ends that didn't mesh.  We have a rather plain and not too confident man with an attractive, high-flying lawyer wife.  One Friday afternoon they set off from Paris to collect their children from a summer camp near Bordeaux.  He has fortified himself with several drinks before starting and stops at two further bars for a top-up.  When he returns to his car he finds a note from his wife saying that she will take the train.  There follows a nightmarish journey as he tries to find his wife, during which he picks up an escaped criminal who tests his mettle as a man.  He eventually finds his wife in a hospital -- she has been attacked by his passenger earlier in the evening.  If in fact he has killed the escapee as we are led to believe,why do the local police not find supporting evidence? And why does it all end up as "happy families" when it is pretty clear that his wife can't really stand him? 

15 (2003)

Expanded from a 20-minute short, the Singapore director Royston Tan follows five l5-year old youths who are generally alienated from the society in which they live.  For want of a better word, they are hooligans and are apparently playing themselves.  While there is little for an adult Western viewer to empathize with, one must admire the bravura filmic style which mixes brilliant colour, animation, freeze frames and striking graphics.  The final credits confirm that we are being presented with dead-end lives but they are shown to us as a minor work of art.

Tightrope (1984)

A Clift Eastwood starrer that I've not seen for a while and I am now wondering what I ever saw in it in the first place.  He's a cop searching for a sexual serial killer but his own involvement in the underbelly of New Orleans is similarly unsavoury. He's also a single dad and his obsession with the case places his two daughters (one of whom is played by his real daughter -- a better actress as a child than she became as an adult) and his new love interest (Genevieve Bujold) in jeopardy.  The major problem with this film, sleaziness apart, is the blackness of the camera work; this, as mentioned previously is one of my bete noirs (no pun intended).  I just hate it when one is trying to discern the action on a virtually blank screen.  At least in Eastwood's favour it was not one of the movies he directed himself.

4 aka Chetyre (2004)

So I was taken to the ICA to see this well-reviewed Russian film and sat there for the full two hours plus (which felt a lot longer), and guess what folks, I have not the slightest idea what it was about or what I was meant to take from the experience.  It started well enough with the deserted streets of Moscow occupied only by wild dogs, soon to be disturbed by earth-moving machines.  It then moved to three strangers in an empty bar telling wild lies about their work and lives.  The rest of the movie followed them into their real worlds, concentrating particularly on the sole female.  We accompany her on an interminable train journey and a trek across some muddy fields as she goes to the funeral of an ex-girlfriend who lived among a community of crones who chewed bread from which she fashioned dolls' heads.  Yeah! The balance of the film focuses on the old ladies gorging on a dead pig and exposing their withered dugs.  By the time the film ended on a close-up of one of the crones crooning a folk song I was consumed by uncontrollable giggles.  I guess I'll never hack it as a serious film critic.

Remo Williams... (1985)

Subtitled "The Adventure Begins" in the States and "Unarmed and Dangerous" in the UK, this film is something of a curate's egg.  Fred Ward plays a policeman who is thought to have died; he is recruited reluctantly by a crime-fighting team, given a new face and a new identity.  He is also given extensive martial arts training by Joel Grey who is cast as an ancient Korean Sinanju master.  When Grey is on screen, you can't take your eyes off his performance which is amusing and smart.  However he's not continuously on view and one is faced with long stretches of Ward doing his action bit.  Not that he doesn't try hard and nearly succeed, but one keeps wondering when Grey will next appear with his stinging put-downs to lift this movie to something memorable.

Twisted (2004)

Ashley Judd plays a cop with issues.  She's just been promoted to Detective Inspector which doesn't sit too well with the chauvinists in her department.  She also drinks too much and likes picking up men for rough sex.  And now the latter are turning up dead.  She just can't forget that her cop father killed himself and her mother some years before.  What we are meant to guess is whether she's the nutcase committing these crimes or whether it is her new partner, Andy Garcia, or whether her dad's ex-partner who raised her, Samuel L. Jackson has a hand in the dirty deeds.  The film is so poorly put together that you really won't care.

Alice (1988)

If you are unfamiliar with the films of the Czech director Jan Svankmajer, you are missing the work of one of the most original talents of our times.  To call him an animator is to minimise what he does since he mixes live action, stop-motion, and puppets to produce some of the most mind-blowing images around.  Apart from his short films (all miraculous), he has made a number of full-length movies of which this is one of the earliest.  His take on "Alice in Wonderland" bears little resemblance to any other version you may have seen; the elements are all there but presented in such a skewed fashion that it all seems new.  Alice doesn't go down a rabbit hole but is sucked through a desk drawer and her adventures continue apace.  Svankmajer is able to imbue everyday objects with a touch of menace and so captures a child's view of a parallel world.  It must be nice to be a genius!

Parents (1989)

The director of this oddity is Bob Balaban who is far better known as an actor ("Gosford Park", "A Mighty Wind") and his screen persona is totally out of whack with this little horror.  All is not well in our all-American family comprising Dad (Randy Quaid), Mom (Mary Beth Hurt), and a 10-year old boy in his debut role.  It seems that they move around a lot and eat large quantities of very rare meat of strange shapes and sizes which you wouldn't find at your local butcher shop.  For some reason this upsets Junior!  While an interesting concept to impose cannibalism on a pastel '50's environment (with a super songtrack of the period), it's not all that well-made.  The child actor is no Lukas Haas and his mumblings were hard to catch, even if his terror was clear enough.

Walking Tall (2004)

It is a well-accepted fact that Hollywood's lack of innovation can be measured by the number of re-makes and sequels produced.  Yes, there are some good films out there, but there is an awful lot of dross too.  It defeats me to explain why anyone would bother to re-make a movie that was nothing special in the first place (even if it did spawn its own sequels), but that is the case here.  The 1973 Joe Don Baker starrer of the same name has been moved from the deep South to the Pacific Northwest as a vehicle for The Rock.  He plays the returning vet determined to run for sheriff and to clean up the old home town -- which he does by smashing a lot of heads.  It's not that he is unwatchable as he does have a certain virile charm, but he is certainly not much of an actor; nor is Johnny Nashville who plays his sidekick.  The latter may have gathered some notoriety through his outlandish pranks, but that in no way qualifies him for acting kudos.  Frankly it's all something of an insult to any serious viewer.

The missing movies - Part Four

Hopefully this will be the end of the capsule reviews:

Toto the Hero (1991):  A Belgian film this one telling of a man who is convinced that he has been raised by the wrong set of parents and that this caused him to miss out on all of the good things in life, including his love for his sister who wasn't really his sister as far as he was concerned.  If this makes it sound like some sordid sex drama, it's definitely not.  Rather the film amusingly traces his resentment and his fantasies at various stages in his life -- as a boy, as a young man and as an old one; the irony comes at the end when he is mistaken for the man he always thought he was.

Chasing Liberty (2004):  Watchable but utterly forgettable story of the President's daughter looking for freedom and "lurve" on a European escape.  Mandy Moore, one of the more acceptable singers turned actress of the younger set, falls for an English photographer without knowing that he is really a secret service agent who is meant to be guarding her. 

Lady in White (1988):  An intriguing ghost story as a well-known writer looks back on the events of his childhood which changed him forever.  Lukas Haas (the Amish lad from "Witness") gives a terrific performance as a 10-year old locked in a school cloakroom after hours and how his experience leads to solving a series of child murders going back over ten years.  It mixes scares with warmer moments, especially in his relationship with his close-knit Italian-American family.  Seek it out if you can.

Trust (1991): Another Hal Hartley film (his second) which stars Martin Donovan, his archetypal leading man, as an awkward and anti-social type who befriends a teenaged pregnant girl, whose father keeled over dead when he heard the news and whose mother reckons that she is therefore beholden to do her bidding forever.  There's not a great deal more to the story, but one keeps watching absorbed.

The Passion of Darkly Noon (1996): With a really super cast of Brendan Fraser, Ashley Judd, and Viggo Mortensen, it is surprising that this film is not better known.  Perhaps the fact that it is extremely weird in its details and violent in its development explains its anonymity.  The writer-director, Philip Ridley, also made the very strange "Reflecting Skin" (which again few people have seen).  Both of these have been shown on UK television, so there is hope that they will pop up again.

Back to normal soon says Pretty Pink Patty.