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?