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Happy holidays you filthy animals, welcome back. The week is time of holly and cheer, christmas time has come folks. The holidays kept the pickings a bit slim, but it was a nice little variety. To an underseen gem, a rare failure from a great, a surprising DTV actioneer, and a true classic. Wide variety in genre and quality, just in time for the new year. Stay tuned, next weeks should be a big one. Thanks and enjoy the holiday reading.
Duck, You Sucker (December 21st, 2014)
Director: Sergio Leone
Director: Sergio Leone
Starring: Rod Steiger and James Coburn
This was the only Sergio movie I hadn't seen, for no other reason than it wasn't as easy to see as his other stuff. But now that I've seen it, I'm upset it took so long because this is an amazing movie. Despite the appearance of a western, this is more of a war movie than anything. It's set in the early 1900's during the Mexican Uprising. It follows two men. One is the amoral bandit Juan (Steiger). The other is fugitive IRA explosive expert John (Coburn). Their paths cross, at first antagonistically than slowly build a friendship out of shared tragedy. John essentially tricks Juan into fighting in the revolution, becoming a hero in the process. It's a really explosive, entertaining movie that uses the real life war as a way to explore these two men. The two performances are great as well. Steiger is like Eli Wallach in GBU, a Jewish white guy playing a mexican. But he does it so well and brings the guy to life, that you don't even notice. He sells the awful, greedy side of the man but manages to make his noble acts seem natural. A lesser actor would have made this seem unnatural. And Coburn brings a lot of soul to John. He's a fighter, taking up any cause he deems noble and going for it. But there's real pain to him, the past haunting him the entire time. This fits into Leones style of taking real men, morally gray characters and throwing them into crazy situations. The craziest thing about this is that he made this after The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Once Upon A Time In The West. That's quite a run, not mention the other movies in the Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon A Time In America. Leone is a master craftsman, so it's a bit redundant to say the movie is gorgeous. That this isn't his best movie goes to show what a talent he was. A great damn picture and well worth watching.
Rating: 9.5/10
Punch-Drunk Love (December 23rd, 2014)
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Luiz Gusman, and Philip Seymour Hoffman
Much like the last entry, this was the only movie in this directors filmography that I didn't see. And after seeing Inherent Vice, I had to finish it up. But unlike the last entry, this movie was not worth any time. Man, this was so disappointing. I had expected something of worth from PTA, but this had almost nothing. Aside from Hoffman's brief screentime, this did nothing for me. Following Barry Egan (Sandler) as he deals with being a weirdo and falling for Watson. It's just a grating movie. Sandler is not good, doing what he is asked but what is asked is not interesting at all. He's just a mumbling goofus who gets mad when its convenient for the movie. He's an empty character, which is what everybody is. They're cyphers that aren't interesting to watch. Hoffman at least appears to be having fun. But the movie is trying to be a dramedy, but nothing is funny or dramatically interesting. The movie is really inert and not as quirky as it thinks it is. Technical merits are fine but just creatively, a dud. The one failure in PTA's filmography. A shame. Stay away.
Rating: 5/10
Universal Soldier: Regeneration (December 26th, 2014)
Director: John Hyams
Starring: Jean Claude Van Damme, Andrei Arlovski, Corey Johnson, and Dolph Lundgren
This is a movie that shouldn't work at all. It's the 4th movie in the Universal Soldier series, a series which had no good entries beforehand. It's direct to video, usually a bad sign. And it brings the return of Van Damme, who disappeared after the mediocre original. But miracles sometimes happen, and this movie is actually pretty good. And that is mainly due to Hyams. He directs the ever loving shit out of this movie. The action scenes are all top notch, wringing every dollar out of its budget. And it also has a relatively simple story. A terrorist group threatens to blow up a reactor in Chernobyl to form a massive radiation cloud unless political prisoners are released. His group has a newer model of a Universal Soldier (Arlovski) and is in a good position to succeed. So the US resurrects some old models and sends them in. One of them is Van Damme, the best of the bunch. Simple enough to be easy to watch, but there is enough twists and sci fi elements to make it not a bland exercise. This isn't a groundbreaking narrative, but it helps to heighten the extremely well done action. Someone needs to get Hyams a big budget job immediately. For anyone who wants to see a good, well shot action movie this is a good bet.
Rating: 8/10
M (December 27th, 2014)
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustav Grundgens, and Ellen Widmann
Sometimes when one thinks of the early days of cinema, you think the movies were very clean cut. No moral ambiguities, no stories that deal in some horrendous darkness. But then there's times you see or remember a movie that stands out in stark contrast to the times. This is one of those times. Lord, this is a bleak as fuck movie. Set in a German town that is being terrorized by a child killer, we see the panic that sets in with the community. The civilians become vigilantes, the cops starts breaking all the rules, and crooks start to look for the man. What we see here is not that crazy, the breakdown of civilized ways. It's deeply cynical and unafraid to show the awful side. It also hints at something that makes the movie darker. Kinda like Nightmare On Elm Street (which is def inspired by this movie), it tells us the villain is a child killer but hints that the killer is also a sex fiend. Makes things even more foul. Now, being almost 83 years old, this movie isn't perfect. And not by any fault of Lang. This is very early in cinema history, so pacing and structure are relatively new ideas to to an industry that just introduced sound into the field. There's alot of talking, procedural scenes of how to find the killer. But then the killer is finally found and the movie becomes a chase scene for a while. That's when it hits it's stride and becomes something classic. The ending too, truly something to be seen. Peter Lorre is fantastic here, becoming an icon for creepy killers. This is really something special, and while it hasn't aged perfectly, it holds a lot of special elements. Highly recommended.
Rating: 9/10
Top Movies
1. Duck, You Sucker
2. M
3. Universal Soldier: Regeneration
4. Punch Drunk Love
Top Performances
Rod Steiger - Duck, You Sucker
James Coburn - Duck, You Sucker
Peter Lorre - M
Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Punch Drunk Love
Jean Claude Van Damme - Universal Soldier: Regeneration
Top Moments
1. John Meets Juan - Duck, You Sucker
2. The Ending - M
3. Juan Meets The Governor - Duck, You Sucker
4. Luc Dispatches Andrew - Universal Soldier: Regeneration
5. Hoffman Yells At Sandler - Punch Drunk Love
Punch-Drunk Love (December 23rd, 2014)
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Luiz Gusman, and Philip Seymour Hoffman
Much like the last entry, this was the only movie in this directors filmography that I didn't see. And after seeing Inherent Vice, I had to finish it up. But unlike the last entry, this movie was not worth any time. Man, this was so disappointing. I had expected something of worth from PTA, but this had almost nothing. Aside from Hoffman's brief screentime, this did nothing for me. Following Barry Egan (Sandler) as he deals with being a weirdo and falling for Watson. It's just a grating movie. Sandler is not good, doing what he is asked but what is asked is not interesting at all. He's just a mumbling goofus who gets mad when its convenient for the movie. He's an empty character, which is what everybody is. They're cyphers that aren't interesting to watch. Hoffman at least appears to be having fun. But the movie is trying to be a dramedy, but nothing is funny or dramatically interesting. The movie is really inert and not as quirky as it thinks it is. Technical merits are fine but just creatively, a dud. The one failure in PTA's filmography. A shame. Stay away.
Universal Soldier: Regeneration (December 26th, 2014)
Director: John Hyams
Starring: Jean Claude Van Damme, Andrei Arlovski, Corey Johnson, and Dolph Lundgren
This is a movie that shouldn't work at all. It's the 4th movie in the Universal Soldier series, a series which had no good entries beforehand. It's direct to video, usually a bad sign. And it brings the return of Van Damme, who disappeared after the mediocre original. But miracles sometimes happen, and this movie is actually pretty good. And that is mainly due to Hyams. He directs the ever loving shit out of this movie. The action scenes are all top notch, wringing every dollar out of its budget. And it also has a relatively simple story. A terrorist group threatens to blow up a reactor in Chernobyl to form a massive radiation cloud unless political prisoners are released. His group has a newer model of a Universal Soldier (Arlovski) and is in a good position to succeed. So the US resurrects some old models and sends them in. One of them is Van Damme, the best of the bunch. Simple enough to be easy to watch, but there is enough twists and sci fi elements to make it not a bland exercise. This isn't a groundbreaking narrative, but it helps to heighten the extremely well done action. Someone needs to get Hyams a big budget job immediately. For anyone who wants to see a good, well shot action movie this is a good bet.
M (December 27th, 2014)
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustav Grundgens, and Ellen Widmann
Sometimes when one thinks of the early days of cinema, you think the movies were very clean cut. No moral ambiguities, no stories that deal in some horrendous darkness. But then there's times you see or remember a movie that stands out in stark contrast to the times. This is one of those times. Lord, this is a bleak as fuck movie. Set in a German town that is being terrorized by a child killer, we see the panic that sets in with the community. The civilians become vigilantes, the cops starts breaking all the rules, and crooks start to look for the man. What we see here is not that crazy, the breakdown of civilized ways. It's deeply cynical and unafraid to show the awful side. It also hints at something that makes the movie darker. Kinda like Nightmare On Elm Street (which is def inspired by this movie), it tells us the villain is a child killer but hints that the killer is also a sex fiend. Makes things even more foul. Now, being almost 83 years old, this movie isn't perfect. And not by any fault of Lang. This is very early in cinema history, so pacing and structure are relatively new ideas to to an industry that just introduced sound into the field. There's alot of talking, procedural scenes of how to find the killer. But then the killer is finally found and the movie becomes a chase scene for a while. That's when it hits it's stride and becomes something classic. The ending too, truly something to be seen. Peter Lorre is fantastic here, becoming an icon for creepy killers. This is really something special, and while it hasn't aged perfectly, it holds a lot of special elements. Highly recommended.
Top Movies
1. Duck, You Sucker
2. M
3. Universal Soldier: Regeneration
4. Punch Drunk Love
Top Performances
Rod Steiger - Duck, You Sucker
James Coburn - Duck, You Sucker
Peter Lorre - M
Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Punch Drunk Love
Jean Claude Van Damme - Universal Soldier: Regeneration
Top Moments
1. John Meets Juan - Duck, You Sucker
2. The Ending - M
3. Juan Meets The Governor - Duck, You Sucker
4. Luc Dispatches Andrew - Universal Soldier: Regeneration
5. Hoffman Yells At Sandler - Punch Drunk Love
- Tom Lorenzo
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