I watch so many movies that never make it to these pages -- most of which probably weren't worth my time in the first place, but still I persevere. I have seen several over the last few days which are worth commenting upon, if not in any depth:
Dracula (1979): I hadn't watched this one for a while and wanted to revisit Frank Langella's romantic take on the fangy count fresh from his Broadway triumph. Gosh, he was pretty once upon a time but the movie was utter tosh. Filmed in dismal greys with brilliant reds at the relevant heights of passion, it was a complete mishmash of accents and hammy acting -- and the worst culprit by far was good old Laurence Olivier in the Van Helsing role. Parenthetically I saw Guy Maddin's "Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary" not that long ago which is a far more interesting take on the oft-filmed story.
Comancheros (1961): Not vintage John Wayne by a long chalk but still good violent fun in the West. Oddly enough it was director Michael Curtiz's last film and while he is remembered as a woman's director, he did a fine job with this mainly male cast. Wayne's Texas Ranger is paired with gambler-on-the-run Stuart Whitman and there is a memorable bit part for Lee Marvin as a partially-scalped gunrunner (with one of the worse make-up jobs ever). The stirring Elmer Bernstein score is another asset.
Love and Human Remains (1993): I only knew the films which Canadian director Denys Arcand has made in French (and very accomplished they are too), so this English-language movie was new to me. Like his other films it is an ensemble piece, here dealing with various aspects of love and sexuality -- straight or gay or kinky or mixed -- and it had much to say about how complicated our emotions can be. The background serial killer story wasn't a complete red herring, but the film would have been just as successful without it.
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