Hello folks. Welcome back to the newest addition of the weekly update of films I watched this week. This may have been the most wide ranging week so far, despite having two westerns. Even the westerns were different. The only point running through this week is all movies are over ten years old. The oldest is 83. Wildly different tones and genres, geography and time. This was an interesting week. Give it a look and I hope you enjoy. Spread the word and let's get nuts.
My Name Is Nobody (April 6th, 2014)
Director: Tonino Valerii
Starring: Terence Hill and Henry Fonda
When you think of spaghetti westerns, Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood comes to mind. And not without fault. The Dollars Trilogy, The Good The Bad and The Ugly specifically, are the most famous of the genre. But there were so many other entries into it that it's always interesting to see what they look like without Sergio's masterful eye. And while this is a bit of a stretch, since Sergio had a hand in it and it stars Once Upon A Time In The West's Henry Fonda. But I can say for certain, that Sergios presence is barely felt. This movie finds Fonda as legendary gunslinger Jack Beauregard who is looking to retire to Europe. But his brother is killed, and he runs into the mysterious Nobody (Hill). Nobody idealizes Jack, so he basically sets up a situation where Jack can take down the gang who killed his brother and put him in the history books. This seems like a tense movie, but it really isn't. It's a bit of a goof on spaghetti westerns. Nobody is a clown who takes nothing seriously and outdoes everyone. Fonda isn't the evil gunslinger in his other western nor is he very serious. He's tired and wants to be done with the ways of the West. I won't say that this movie would have benefitted from Sergios touch, since this is more of a comedy and I don't know if he could have done that. But it could have benefitted from a stronger director. It's not the funniest movie in the world and the action in it is ok. It could have been tighter, make it a lighter effort. But it is fun and has a bit of an infectious spirit. It's always a joy to see Fonda in a western. And while he can be a bit irritating, Hill is mostly winning as Nobody. Everything comes together in the end, elevating the movie with a solid action climax and some interesting things to say about the Western. For those looking to see a different side of Fonda, the spaghetti western or another side of Leone (kinda), this movie is a fun affair. Nothing game changing, but a fun time nonetheless.
Rating: 7/10
The Score (April 7th, 2014)
Director: Frank Oz
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton, Angela Basset, and Marlon Brando
Heist movies are completely predictable in their unpredictability. So much so they don't really have any surprises anymore. A heist movie now falls down to how the cast is and if one enjoys them. Look at Oceans Eleven and its sequels. A great cast, game for anything and clearly having a blast. Then look at Now You See Me. Kind of a who gives a shit movie. The Score is a movie that is solidly average in that regard. DeNiro does ok work, an early example of him sleepwalking through a role though he does come to life at the end. Norton is great as usual so he's the highlight. Basset is there in the worst of roles, the disapproving girlfriend. But Brando is just at his most fat fuck Brandoest. Just there as wide as the sky, mumbling through his lines while most likely drunk and working through a sugar high after eating an entire candy factory. It's really quite glorious. Objectively, it is an awful performance as most weight gain Brando performances were. But he's such a weird fucking guy, a character in his own right, it kind of becomes a good role because of it. They work together well to make the movie watchable. Frank Oz does his best to keep the movie engaging, giving us a technically well achieved movie. But some editing or tightening of the pace could have done wonders for the movie. As is it kind of drags in points. But it is for the most part entertaining. So if you wanna watch a nice little heist movie, you can do worse.
Rating: 7.5/10
Two Mules For Sister Sara (April 8th, 2014)
Director: Don Siegel
Starring: Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine
Clint Eastwood may be my favorite actor. I don't think he's the best or that he is very versatile. But he brings a charisma and a certain energy that I love, and I can watch anything he's in. So it was basically like shooting fish in a barrel when I started this movie, a western with Clint. Clint plays Hogan, a Civil War vet who is just a mercenary for the Mexican Revolution. He is riding through the Mexican desert when he comes across bandits attacking a woman, trying to rape her. Hogan dispatches the men fairly easily and helps the woman clean up. This is Sister Sara, something that surprises Hogan. Because she is a nun and that she knows how to reach the Mexican revolutionaries, he decides to help transport her.. And their journey begins, with violence and sexual tension and secrets being revealed. Now despite the assured enjoyment I was gonna get from this, it was also a surprisingly a good movie. Much better than it should be, a movie lumped in between the Dollars Trilogy and the career making Dirty Harry movies. I've seen movies he made in that period. They were fun but not necessary movies, weaker than usual movies. But this was as good as some of his more popular movies and it deserves more appreciation. Clint has a good performance that isn't Blondie and has a bit of a glimmer of Harry Callahan. MacLaine is the runaway star of the movie though, giving a great performance as the hunted nun who has a secret she doesn't want to reveal to Hogan. Future Dirty Harry director Don Siegel does some very good work, giving some very good visuals and action scenes that are much more violent that I expected. But this is a post The Wild Bunch movie so the effect it had started quickly. And while fairly plotless, the movie has a nice little energy as Hogan and Sara deal with all kinds of problems on the way to the revolutionaries. And all this is wrapped up with a nice bow by having a great little Ennio Morricone score. It adds a nice ambience to the movie, a little dark but with some bounce to it like the movie itself. This is a good movie to see Clints evolution to movie star.
Rating: 8/10
Dracula (April 9th, 2014)
Director: Tod Browning
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, Dwight Frye, and Edward Van Sloan
If you like horror movies in any way, this movie is a must see. It is basically a blueprint for horror movies in the future. Not as specifically ripped off like Halloween was, this is just as important. It is an early movie, made in 1931. So it is a very rough around the edges movie. The story is very choppy, kind of going from scene to scene with no real sense of purpose. Dracula moves from Transylvania to England, keeps killing people, draws the attention of Van Helsing and is killed. As funny as it is to say, the plot of the movie is exactly like Dracula: Dead and Loving It. But the plot isn't what makes this so influential. It's the film making on hand, the use of the camera and the use of sound. Using the camera in a way to make things that shouldn't be there appear. Moving the camera back and forth, revealing that Dracula suddenly appeared or turned into a bat. The heavy shadows to make the castle more creepy than it would it light. And the use of sound may be more important. Or I should say lack of sound, as there is no score. So there are scenes that are just completely silent as Dracula stalks his prey. Many movies since have done that, drop out music to heighten tension. And like many influential movies, it only happened on accident. The producers thought people would be confused by music on the screen if it was diagetic (has a source in the scene). So while as a movie it is a bit rough (and very short), the movie is important to cinema and needs to be seen.
Rating: 8/10
Battle Royale (April 10th, 2014)
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto and Takeshi Kitano
I'm gonna say it. The Hunger Games movies are better. And I don't think those are even that great. But they haven't been the monotonous drag of repetitive murder that this was. I didn't hate the movie, but the absolute love this movie has around it confused me. The only thing it has going for it is it kills kids on screen graphically. That's it. And it really doesn't have any power as these kids are not characters. They are cardboard cutouts of typical movie teen personalities. And it gets even more boring seeing kids get shot or stabbed after the 30th kid murder. Now, I don't need Kurosawa levels of character development to watch and enjoy a violent movie. The Raid is literally a movie that is just a fight reel that sets up a larger story for the sequel with no real characters outside of Rama. But here it plays in such a way that we are supposed to feel for these kids, and I don't. I don't know most of them, and the three or four we get to know have typical backstories that are just easy ways to say "AREN"T I SYMPATHETIC!?". And the action is very bland. There isn't even an adrenal reason to watch the movie. But it is a movie about a game that is people killing each other, a genre that includes the previously mentioned Hunger Games and Stephen Kings The Long Walk. I enjoy stories like that, so this did keep me interested to see how they would do it. And despite my problems with the movie, it is entertaining enough and well made enough to keep watching. But it also has a surprisingly easy, cop out ending to the story. And really, the backstory for the reasoning of the game is just beyond retarded. It's just "hey, kids are being bad. Let's make a game where they kill each other. And it's randomly picked, so some of the good ones can be in it too which doesn't really help our cause. yeah, this will show them". And it doesn't, because these damn kids act like they didn't even know what was happening. I don't know man. I know it sounds like I hated the movie, but I didn't. I just really can't see the love that it gets when it is such a flimsy movie. I enjoy it for what it is, but with a caveat. Maybe you will like it more.
Rating: 7/10
The Bridge On The River Kwai (April 12th, 2014)
Director: David Lean
Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden and Jack Hawkins
Many times, a movie wins Best Picture that doesn't deserve it. Dances With Wolves, Ordinary People, and The Kings Speech come to mind. Sometimes, a movie wins that deserves it. 12 Years A Slave, Braveheart, and Unforgiven come to mind in that way. But sometimes, there is a race so damn close that it's just a mindfuck to choose one. Hell, there was a year when Forrest Gump beat out The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction. Another year saw One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest go against Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws and Nashville. And so it was in the year of 1957 when River Kwai went up against 12 Angry Men. A week ago I woulda said 12 Angry Men easily. But now? Fuck, I can't decide. River Kwai is an amazing piece of cinema about the folly of war and the price it pays to not question the rules and to stick to a code. Guiness play Colonel Nicholson, the leader of the new group of POWs brought to a camp in Burma to build a railway for the Japs in WWII. He is a man of honor and believes in the rules and honor to a T. So much so that when the Japs say the officers have to help in manual labor, he refuses because it's in the Geneva convention. By the end of the film, the man is completely in the wrong, helping the Japs build a great bridge because the men need to feel pride in their work. He is completely collaborating with the enemy, because of the honor of doing good work and his code. I honestly can't do the movie justice but to say that it is a riveting, timeless look at war and the changes it unleashes upon those suffering. David Lean crafts his first epic here and pretty much solidifies his stature, while also letting the world know he'd be a force to reckon with. And he was. His next movie was the masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia. Which makes it ok that this isn't his best movie.
Rating: 9/10
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton, Angela Basset, and Marlon Brando
Heist movies are completely predictable in their unpredictability. So much so they don't really have any surprises anymore. A heist movie now falls down to how the cast is and if one enjoys them. Look at Oceans Eleven and its sequels. A great cast, game for anything and clearly having a blast. Then look at Now You See Me. Kind of a who gives a shit movie. The Score is a movie that is solidly average in that regard. DeNiro does ok work, an early example of him sleepwalking through a role though he does come to life at the end. Norton is great as usual so he's the highlight. Basset is there in the worst of roles, the disapproving girlfriend. But Brando is just at his most fat fuck Brandoest. Just there as wide as the sky, mumbling through his lines while most likely drunk and working through a sugar high after eating an entire candy factory. It's really quite glorious. Objectively, it is an awful performance as most weight gain Brando performances were. But he's such a weird fucking guy, a character in his own right, it kind of becomes a good role because of it. They work together well to make the movie watchable. Frank Oz does his best to keep the movie engaging, giving us a technically well achieved movie. But some editing or tightening of the pace could have done wonders for the movie. As is it kind of drags in points. But it is for the most part entertaining. So if you wanna watch a nice little heist movie, you can do worse.
Two Mules For Sister Sara (April 8th, 2014)
Director: Don Siegel
Starring: Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine
Clint Eastwood may be my favorite actor. I don't think he's the best or that he is very versatile. But he brings a charisma and a certain energy that I love, and I can watch anything he's in. So it was basically like shooting fish in a barrel when I started this movie, a western with Clint. Clint plays Hogan, a Civil War vet who is just a mercenary for the Mexican Revolution. He is riding through the Mexican desert when he comes across bandits attacking a woman, trying to rape her. Hogan dispatches the men fairly easily and helps the woman clean up. This is Sister Sara, something that surprises Hogan. Because she is a nun and that she knows how to reach the Mexican revolutionaries, he decides to help transport her.. And their journey begins, with violence and sexual tension and secrets being revealed. Now despite the assured enjoyment I was gonna get from this, it was also a surprisingly a good movie. Much better than it should be, a movie lumped in between the Dollars Trilogy and the career making Dirty Harry movies. I've seen movies he made in that period. They were fun but not necessary movies, weaker than usual movies. But this was as good as some of his more popular movies and it deserves more appreciation. Clint has a good performance that isn't Blondie and has a bit of a glimmer of Harry Callahan. MacLaine is the runaway star of the movie though, giving a great performance as the hunted nun who has a secret she doesn't want to reveal to Hogan. Future Dirty Harry director Don Siegel does some very good work, giving some very good visuals and action scenes that are much more violent that I expected. But this is a post The Wild Bunch movie so the effect it had started quickly. And while fairly plotless, the movie has a nice little energy as Hogan and Sara deal with all kinds of problems on the way to the revolutionaries. And all this is wrapped up with a nice bow by having a great little Ennio Morricone score. It adds a nice ambience to the movie, a little dark but with some bounce to it like the movie itself. This is a good movie to see Clints evolution to movie star.
Director: Tod Browning
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, Dwight Frye, and Edward Van Sloan
If you like horror movies in any way, this movie is a must see. It is basically a blueprint for horror movies in the future. Not as specifically ripped off like Halloween was, this is just as important. It is an early movie, made in 1931. So it is a very rough around the edges movie. The story is very choppy, kind of going from scene to scene with no real sense of purpose. Dracula moves from Transylvania to England, keeps killing people, draws the attention of Van Helsing and is killed. As funny as it is to say, the plot of the movie is exactly like Dracula: Dead and Loving It. But the plot isn't what makes this so influential. It's the film making on hand, the use of the camera and the use of sound. Using the camera in a way to make things that shouldn't be there appear. Moving the camera back and forth, revealing that Dracula suddenly appeared or turned into a bat. The heavy shadows to make the castle more creepy than it would it light. And the use of sound may be more important. Or I should say lack of sound, as there is no score. So there are scenes that are just completely silent as Dracula stalks his prey. Many movies since have done that, drop out music to heighten tension. And like many influential movies, it only happened on accident. The producers thought people would be confused by music on the screen if it was diagetic (has a source in the scene). So while as a movie it is a bit rough (and very short), the movie is important to cinema and needs to be seen.
Battle Royale (April 10th, 2014)
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto and Takeshi Kitano
I'm gonna say it. The Hunger Games movies are better. And I don't think those are even that great. But they haven't been the monotonous drag of repetitive murder that this was. I didn't hate the movie, but the absolute love this movie has around it confused me. The only thing it has going for it is it kills kids on screen graphically. That's it. And it really doesn't have any power as these kids are not characters. They are cardboard cutouts of typical movie teen personalities. And it gets even more boring seeing kids get shot or stabbed after the 30th kid murder. Now, I don't need Kurosawa levels of character development to watch and enjoy a violent movie. The Raid is literally a movie that is just a fight reel that sets up a larger story for the sequel with no real characters outside of Rama. But here it plays in such a way that we are supposed to feel for these kids, and I don't. I don't know most of them, and the three or four we get to know have typical backstories that are just easy ways to say "AREN"T I SYMPATHETIC!?". And the action is very bland. There isn't even an adrenal reason to watch the movie. But it is a movie about a game that is people killing each other, a genre that includes the previously mentioned Hunger Games and Stephen Kings The Long Walk. I enjoy stories like that, so this did keep me interested to see how they would do it. And despite my problems with the movie, it is entertaining enough and well made enough to keep watching. But it also has a surprisingly easy, cop out ending to the story. And really, the backstory for the reasoning of the game is just beyond retarded. It's just "hey, kids are being bad. Let's make a game where they kill each other. And it's randomly picked, so some of the good ones can be in it too which doesn't really help our cause. yeah, this will show them". And it doesn't, because these damn kids act like they didn't even know what was happening. I don't know man. I know it sounds like I hated the movie, but I didn't. I just really can't see the love that it gets when it is such a flimsy movie. I enjoy it for what it is, but with a caveat. Maybe you will like it more.
The Bridge On The River Kwai (April 12th, 2014)
Director: David Lean
Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden and Jack Hawkins
Many times, a movie wins Best Picture that doesn't deserve it. Dances With Wolves, Ordinary People, and The Kings Speech come to mind. Sometimes, a movie wins that deserves it. 12 Years A Slave, Braveheart, and Unforgiven come to mind in that way. But sometimes, there is a race so damn close that it's just a mindfuck to choose one. Hell, there was a year when Forrest Gump beat out The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction. Another year saw One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest go against Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws and Nashville. And so it was in the year of 1957 when River Kwai went up against 12 Angry Men. A week ago I woulda said 12 Angry Men easily. But now? Fuck, I can't decide. River Kwai is an amazing piece of cinema about the folly of war and the price it pays to not question the rules and to stick to a code. Guiness play Colonel Nicholson, the leader of the new group of POWs brought to a camp in Burma to build a railway for the Japs in WWII. He is a man of honor and believes in the rules and honor to a T. So much so that when the Japs say the officers have to help in manual labor, he refuses because it's in the Geneva convention. By the end of the film, the man is completely in the wrong, helping the Japs build a great bridge because the men need to feel pride in their work. He is completely collaborating with the enemy, because of the honor of doing good work and his code. I honestly can't do the movie justice but to say that it is a riveting, timeless look at war and the changes it unleashes upon those suffering. David Lean crafts his first epic here and pretty much solidifies his stature, while also letting the world know he'd be a force to reckon with. And he was. His next movie was the masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia. Which makes it ok that this isn't his best movie.
-Tom Lorenzo
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