2008 - SON OF RAMBOW, nice kid film misses the mark

The Son of Rambow had so many good things in it Unfortunately it ran out steam by the end and took some lazy shortcuts in its characters to get to a happy ending.

 This is your basic story about two boys who are very different but form an unlikely friendship when they bond over a common purpose.  In this case that purpose is a shared love for the Rambo film First Blood, which they use as an inspiration for a home movie, that gradually escalates until almost their entire school gets involved. 

The film has some some funny stuff and some not so funny stuff.  The elaborate amateur stunts they put each other through are amusing in a slapstick kind of way.  The film gets in trouble with its serious turn towards the end when it focuses on the kids family lives.

The filmmakers seem kind of desperate to bring their story to a happy ending with all of the loose ends tied up and the fractured family relationships fixed and resolved.  This tidiness really hurts the film.

A decent film for half of its running time, The Son Of Rambow finally falls apart when the sentimentality kicks in toward the last half of the film.

1972 - LIZA WITH A Z the classic Bob Fosse, Liza Minnelli concert special is mercifully short

Apparently conceived, rehearsed and shot on 16 mm film in about 8 weeks, this  legendary TV special looked pretty lonely sitting by itself on the DVD shelves at the public library.

This special came out the same year Bob Fosse won an Emmy, a Tony and an Academy award, it features Liza Minnelli at her peak as a 70's camp icon.

It's a TV special about Liza so it's all Liza all the time.  She doesn't sing every song she "kills" them as  performers say.  The special also features a lot of the Bob Fosse shake and grind style dance stuff which he picked up performing in strip clubs around Chicago as a teenager.

The film ends with a 10 minute medley of Liza performing selections from Cabaret which goes down a lot easier  then the 2 hours of Liza Minnelli in the film version of Cabaret.

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2008 - NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD, documentary on Australian exploitation films.

A pretty decent documentary about Australian exploitation films that were simultaneously being made at the same time as the more "quality" product coming out of Australia was making the rounds at film festivals.  Not Quite Hollywood is a quick history of these films that has a sense of humor about this subject. 

The documentary interviews the actors and filmmakers in front and behind the camera and they seem to have a fondness for their time spent working in this genre.  Quentin Tarantino also shows up running his mouth as usual with his list of favorite Ozpoloitation films.  Say what you want about Tarantino but the guy has seen a lot of films.

I have somewhat of a sneaking suspicion that a lot of the films were probably pretty terrible.  The people making this documentary did have the ability to select film clips that are probably the best scenes from the various genre films.

The section on American actors is pretty interesting, Jamie Lee Curtis ended up in a pretty decent film called Road Games, and Dennis Hopper talks about his very out of control behavior on the set of Mad Dog Morgan, with accompanying films clips to support the stories of his wild behavior.  Hopper seems like a pretty scary guy.  

 The documentary isn't going to have me race out to find the Jaws ripoff about giant wild pigs called Razorback, but it's still pretty fun stuff to watch the various and at time outrageous clips from these junky films.

Besides any film that argues that the pretentious Australian film Picnic At Hanging Rock needed more vomit scenes in it can't be all bad.

1959 - THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, Hammer does right by Conan Doyle's famous character

Cheapskate horror studios Hammer, brought out their version of The Hound of the Baskervilles with Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes and did a pretty decent job with this famous story.

Hammer reworked the story and got the film down to a solid 90 minutes.  The screenwriter Peter Bryan and the director Terrance Fisher also solved a major problem of the book.  The lack of involvement of Sherlock Holmes in the actual case.  Doyle's book is essentially a series of letters to Sherlock Holmes from Dr. Watson about what is going on in the Grim Mire home to Baskerville Hall.  Sherlock Holmes doesn't even show up until around the end of the novel.  The filmmakers changed this and have invented some new scenes to get Holmes into the plot early and have him more involved.

Their other bit of cleverness was having Peter Cushing play Sherlock as he was written by Conan Doyle.  Cushing's interpretation of Sherlock Holmes has him  as the insufferable "know it all" that he comes across in the book. 

This is still a Hammer film so it's a little lurid at times and the color is pretty garish the way Hammer always like it.  Still this in one of the better Sherlock Holmes films that actually gets it right for a change and this Sherlock Holmes is closer to the spirit of Conan Doyle's legendary character.

1957 -JOHNNY TREMAIN a typical Disney film from the 1950's

The kind of film that gave the Walt Disney company the reputation of making middle of the road  films safe to take the entire family to, clean wholesome entertainment as they used to say.

Johnny Tremain is a young apprentice silversmith in pre revolutionary war Boston, who burns his hand and has to find other employment.  He ends up delivering messages for a who's who of the American Revolutionary War.

Johnny meets up with Paul Revere who always likes to ride his horse fast.  Samuel Adams who talks  a lot and Dr. Joseph Warren who ends up fixing his hand in time for him to show up at Lexington or Concord or somewhere for the "shot heard round the world.

The film was directed by Disney's top contract guy Robert Stevenson probably as responsible for the Disney style as much as Walt himself with films like, That Darn Cat, Mary Poppins, The Absent Minded Professor and so on.

There's nothing particularly good or bad about this film, it's just that everyone is just really polite to everyone.  The British are polite to the revolutionaries, the revolutionaries are polite to the British even to the point of sweeping up after themselves after the Boston Tea Party.  A film about the Revolutionary War in America should really have a passionate point of view.

The actors are all pretty boring and sound like they come from the Midwest rather than Boston. They are all photographed in medium close shots so we can carefully understand each word.

This was the kind of thing that showed up on the Disney television show usually in two parts.  Walt Disney would introduce the film each week to give it some gravitas.  These films always seemed like they had a deliberate two part structure almost like they were intended to end up on the Disney TV series.

Probably the only thing of interest in this film is the art work of Peter Ellenshaw, the British painter who did matte paintings for Disney studios.  Ellenshaw had worked with Powell and Pressburger and he gives Johnny Tremain a good period look with his scenic vistas of 1773 Boston.

Watching Johnny Tremain, you would hardly know that all of this blandness came from a well regarded and award winning children's book.

 80 minutes.

2010 - ROBIN HOOD, next time keep it simple stupid

The very complicated story for Robin Hood  brings the film to a complete halt for what almost seems like half of the film.  Apparently the director Ridley Scott and his writer Brian Helgeland didn't get the message that with Robin Hood films, keep the story simple and the action constant and throw in some occasional humor.

Other problems with this slow moving film is the constant cribbing or is it stealing from other films?
After sitting through lots and lots of exposition, things finally start to pick up towards the end with a battle scene that is way to reminiscent of The Longest Day or the Saving Private Ryan D-Day invasion. Throw in some Lord of the Rings girl dressed up as a knight stuff  and this further shows a large degree of desperation in the lack of originality. 

I can understand the desire for Russell Crowe to have an actress playing his love interest who is closer to his age.  However the very skinny and unhealthy looking Cate Blanchett seems like an odd match for him.  Her tough on the outside sensitive on the inside act has been a movie character cliche for some time. What Blanchett really needs besides a real man is some food.  Its kind of gross watching this ishy thin woman as the object of lust for several of the cast.

Max Von Sydow also shows up in this film playing an old knight which makes a further joke of the whole film. Von Sydow played a knight for Ingmar Bergman in The Seventh Seal when he was in his 20's and certainly with a lot more authority than most of this cast.

Robin Hood is well photographed and edited, it has the luxury of a big budget so each individual scene looks good.  But that's the least I would expect in a film that cost a 100 million or zillion dollars.

Unfortunately no one had the guts to step back and ask the question at script stage.  Does this film do what it's supposed to do, entertain the audience for a couple of hours?

The running time is 140 minutes.

1921 - THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE, influential film on a favorite Scandanavian theme, DEATH

An acknowledged silent film classic.  An importance influence on Ingmar Bergman, with some ground breaking special effects.  The Phantom Carriage is disappointing and cheesy viewed in a more contemporary time. 

The filmmaker Victor Sjostrom, tells a conventional story about a man who submits to the evil influences of bad friends and alcohol and becomes a rather unpleasant fellow kind of like the Jack Nicholson character in The Shining.  At one point he even chops down a locked door just like Nicholson did to get at his family.

The only interesting thing about this film is the actual phantom carriage.  The carriage is essentially the Grim Reaper assigned to collect the souls of people who have died.  Sjostrom uses this plot device to rehash his silly drama in flashback which pretty much slides into melodrama with the door chopping madman at the end.

Obviously Ingmar Bergman took this personification of death and used the idea in The Seventh Seal.  Still had Bergman loaded up his films with this type of overwrought plot line, he would hardly be remembered today as one of the foremost artists who worked in film.

This film is an incredible disappointment coming from Victor Sjostrom who made the brilliant film, The Wind for MGM.

No undiscovered classic this time but short at about 75 minutes.

1992 - RAISING CAIN, De Palma makes fun of De Palma films

Frequently criticized for not having much of a sense of humor the director Brian De Palma actually does have a sense of humor although kind of a sick one.

Its hard to know what De Palma had in mind with Raising Cain the convoluted and pretty ridiculous plot has something to to with stealing toddlers for weird mind experiments, a theme that Michael Powell examined in Peeping Tom.

The acting is to put it mildly stilted and also over the top.  John Lithgow gets to play multiple roles as twin brothers and their father.  Lithgow had worked with De Palma in a couple of films and I'm sure it's fun for an  actor to take on a challenge like this, but he seems pretty hammy even resorting to a lame European accent at times.  The rest of the cast isn't much better, the woman playing Lithgow's wife is sickeningly sweet and she seems unreal.  The two cops assigned to the case are so stiff they wouldn't pass muster in an episode of Dragnet. Was all of this intentional?

Then there are the usual quotes from Hitchcock films, particularly Psycho.  De Palma literally recreates the sinking of the car into the quicksand scene but adds his own sick twist on it.  De Palma has always been accused of stealing from Hitchock and in this instant it almost seems like he is giving the finger to his critics with this bit.  De Palma even steals from himself quoting from the train station sequence of The Untouchables complete with the baby carriage rolling around. 

Brian De Palma is famous for his wandering camera, particularly effective in the museum scene in Dressed To Kill.  In Raising Cain he recreates that scene and spoofs it at the same time.  The climax of the film involves one of those famous set pieces he likes so much incorporating elaborate camera movements and slow motion but somehow not his famous split screen technique.  Even this seems played for laughs with ridiculous coincidences happening throughout. 

De Palma appears to have enjoyed himself orchestrating this nonsense.  However I'm not sure a viewer watching this film would know that the film is primarily a joke.

 91 minutes.

1968 - THE IMMORTAL STORY, Orson Welles short film

This Orson Welles film was financed by some French television network and was originally supposed to be part one of a two part film.

Welles has always proclaimed his great admiration for the writer Isak Dinesen so it's not entirely surprising that he would film one of her short stories.

What's so interesting about this film is that its not really a "typical" Orson Welles film.  Welles doesn't use his usual bag of film making tricks.  No Gothic black and white photography, no wild editing and the film has a decided lack of melodrama which Welles always appeared to enjoy.  The Immortal Story is also one of the few things Welles shot in color, which was a medium that he apparently never much cared for. 

What Welles has done for a change, is to focus on the story and the acting.  For a Welles film the performances are very restrained.  No Akim Tamiroff overacting or eye rolling this time.  Even "Orson the Great"  under plays his role as the Machiavellian mastermind of the story.

A good short film which at 55 minutes doesn't wear out it's welcome with unnecessary padding in the storytelling.

 Screenplay by Marie Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin and Orson Welles.

1967 - REFLECTION IN A GOLDEN EYE, Southern gothic weirdness from Huston, Brando and Taylor

Marlon Brando is a repressed gay army colonel in the old south during the 1940's.  He's married to a bitchy southern flower played by Elizabeth Taylor who in spite of her looks would probably drive any man away.  Taylor's having an affair with Brian Keith who is married to Julie Harris who is into self mutilation and classical music.  Harris has a Philippine house boy named Anacleto who is obviously gay although no one seems to notice.

Add to this mix an army private in charge of taking care of the riding horses for the officers and their wives.  At night the private likes to sneak into Taylor's bedroom and watch her while she's sleeping.  During the day the private rides around buck naked in the woods for Brando to watch.  I think I got it.

The incredible strangeness of all of this must have appealed to Huston who in spite of being a director from the old Hollywood studio system never blinked when it came to working with oddball story material.

The level of acting is very high in this film.  John Huston believed that seventy percent of the work in directing movies was casting the right actor for the right role.  Brando gives a pretty daring performance as the colonel and Elizabeth Taylor who always seemed like a vacuous personality to me gives an equally good performance as a vacuous army wife. 

Huston photographed the whole thing with a sepia filter just to add some further strangeness to the film as if it didn't have enough strangeness in it with it's plot alone.  Warner Brothers made him release it in a standard color palette but thanks to the miracle of studio achieves and DVD releases, the current DVD  has his original color scheme. 

If you're in the mood for a very odd but well made film this is the one for you.  This film is a companion piece to Huston's other weirdo film, The Night of the Iguana which featured Elizabeth Taylor's then husband, Richard Burton.

Double feature time anyone?

108 minutes, screenplay by Gladys Hill and Chapman Mortimer.

1969 - THE MONITORS, odd science fiction out of Chicago from Second City

Whenever PBS pledge drives roll around, one of their standard specials is a history of the Second City comedy troupe from Chicago.  The special usually goes on at great lengths about how influential Second City has been and the number of famous comedians that have come out of the troupe like John Belushi, Alan Arkin, Bill Murray etc.  What the PBS special usually manages to avoid is the one film that came out of Second City, The Monitors.

The idea behind The Monitors is that a group of aliens dressed in black and wearing bowlers has arrived on earth to bring peace and prosperity.  Instead of peace, a resistance group on Earth has formed to get rid of The Monitors and return things to the way they were.  This should have been a starting point for some funny comedy stuff.

The production is a real cheap one filmed around Chicago with a rather odd cast of actors headed by Guy Stockwell and Susan Oliver.  And who are Guy Stockwell and Susan Oliver?  Primarily television actors from the 1960's and individuals not known as comedians even on television.  Among the odd things in this film is the decision not to use Second City comedians in major roles.  Instead peppered throughout the film in extremely short appearances are members of the comedy troupe in brief unfunny vignettes.

The whole film is a misfired attempt at social satire, with poor writing and very broad and uneven performances throughout the film.  This is the kind of smug stuff that results from funny people who don't want to let the audience in on the joke.

 92 minutes

1963 - THESE ARE THE DAMNED, British science fiction with social commentary

Hammer Studios made fairly interesting films at times.  These Are The Damned filmed in the early 1960's is a strong as any film they produced. This film has a very good cast, an interesting premise and strong direction from blacklisted 1950's director Joseph Losey. 

The plot involves a middle aged American on vacation in England who gets himself involved with the sister of the leader of a "teddy boys" gang, sort of a British version of the Hell's angles.  The film takes a hard 90 degree pivot and turns into a science fiction story about the fear of nuclear war.  The plot then involves the British government selectively breeding radioactive children for survival after nuclear annihilation.

The 1960's was an era of paranoia about nuclear war but the depressing nature of the subject usually made for pretty downbeat films like, Fail Safe or On The Beach.  These Are The Damned has more of a focus on ordinary people and is more of a small scale film as is typical for a modestly budgeted Hammer film.

The acting by the entire cast is at a very high level.  American MacDonald Carey who will probably be remembered for playing Dr. Horton on the long running soap opera Days Of Our Lives, gives a strong performance as a middle aged insurance executive disillusioned with his life.  Carey  gets involved with a barely out of her teenage years  Shirley Anne Field who was usually cast as a British teenage sexpot and is also pretty good.  Oliver Reed is  in the film and does his usual creepy misanthrope performing thing, but he does it well. 

This intelligently made film about the paranoia of nuclear war is worthy of a lot of respect.

96 minutes, screenplay by Evan Jones