1980 - STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

If you can get through the first 30 minutes of this film with all the Millennium Falcon won't fly jokes with Han Solo and Chewbacca hamming it up, this is turns into a pretty decent sequel.

 

George Lucas gave up direction on this film turning it over to a decent director of actors named Irvin Kershner.  But for the most part this was a Lucas production with his hand prints all over it especially in the special effects sequences which are still very goof.

There may be a touch of what Andrew Sarris calls "strained seriousness"  running through this film but it certainly plays better then the mediocre future films in the series

124 minutes, written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan.

1955 - THE MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET, the stripped down version.

The stripped down version of the holiday film from the 1947 film to put it mildly.  This version has a decent director and cast and is not too offensive.  Apparently this version was part of something called the 20th Century Fox which was some sort of anthology series that at times hacked down and remade their old movies for TV.

The direction is by Walt Disney's go to guy Robert Stevenson and has a good cast with Thomas Mitchell, Theresa Wright and MacDonald Carey carrying the load.

60 minutes.

1977 - STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE

Preparing for the new Star Wars film and thought I would sit through the first three films. So called episode 4 still plays pretty well.  This was the enhanced version that George Lucas fooled around with adding more digital stuff to the film and some scenes that were previously cut.  Adding all this junk really didn't do anything for his film but it didn't really hurt it.  

The cast looks incredibly young and the idea to add Peter Cushing and especially Alec Guinness was an inspired casting choice.  These actors brought some gravitas to what could have been a very silly film.  The trend setting computerized special effects were also a big deal at the time.  Before this with the exception of 2001:  A Space Odyssey no science fiction film looked this good special effects wise.

It didn't escape many critics that Lucas "borrowed" from a lot of other films.  It can be a film buff's dream to do a spot the reference to other war movies particularly the final attack on the Death Star which is a mix of The Dam Busters and 633 Squadron.

Like I said the film still plays pretty well.  The film was written by George Lucas with uncredited help from Brian DePalma, Jay Cocks, Willard and Gloria Huyck.

121 minutes.

1955 - BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK - in Cinemascope

The director John Sturges shows Hollywood how to film in CinemaScope in this thriller that doesn't over stay it's welcome.

This is an MGM production a studio not exactly know for open mindedness when it comes to technological innovation or story content.  So it's kind of amazing Sturges was able to shoot on location instead of some Burbank sound stage.

Again, Sturges use of composition in the wide screen format is very impressive.

81 minutes, written by Millard Kaufman and Don McGuire.

2015 - A VERY MURRAY CHRISTMAS, not amused

20 minutes into this smarmy Christmas Special I pretty much had my fill of this supposed "cool" holiday show.  Bill Murray can't sing and to listen to him sing song after song was pure torture.

I get that the makers of this special are trying to have it both ways, deconstruct a typical Christmas Special like something Andy Williams or Perry Como would do, but the joke wore itself out after a while.  This show also attempts to trade on the cool guy persona of Bill Murray as he brings in a bunch of his Hollywood cronies to worship at the feet of cool guy Murray.

You know a musical comedy show is pretty bad when you are actually looking fotward to Miley Cyrus showing up during a dream sequence.  Maya Rudolph supposedly can sing but you would never know it from the piss poor sound recording of her Christmas performance.

Frankly the Bill Murray "coolest guy in the room" persona is getting a little tired and let's face it Murray's looking a little old to doing it.

 56 minutes.

1934 - MAMA'S LITTLE PIRATE, an Our Gang short.

Championed by Leonard Maltin as the inspiration for The Goonies.  Mama's Little Pirate is just another version of Jack and the Beanstock. About the only thing these two films have in common is the search for treasure.  Sorry Leonard I think you might have got it wrong this time. 





18 minutes.

1938 - A YANK AT OXFORD, making them the way MGM likes them.

A Yank AT Oxford holds the distinction of being the first MGM film to be filmed in England instead of some studio set in Hollywood.  This is MGM at it's most typical, a good production and utter blandness in story content.  After all the studio didn't want to upset it's American or British audiences.

Robert Taylor is the cocky American student who excels at athletics.  He ends up getting a scholarship to study at Oxford and runs into the usual cultural differences that result when you mix the British and those darn Yanks together.  Honestly you could write this film in your sleep and considering the six writers I believe I counted in the titles they probably did.

The film if it has any interest at all is seeing Vivian Leigh in an early role before her breakout performance in Gone With The Wind.   

An empty film kind of a waste of time.

102 minutes

1995 - GOLDENEYE, on Blu Ray

This Bond film actually played pretty well for me after sitting through SPECTRE.  The miniatures and special effects are very well done.  This was the last production that featured Derek Medding's special effects.  Meddings had started his career working for Gary Anderson's Thunderbirds and Fireball XL5.  The miniatures are blended very well with the live action of the film.

Pierce Brosnan always kind of suffered at the hands of his series of Bond films.  The stories were kind of silly but at least they were a little more in keeping with the light weight style of the previous films before they became so heavy handed.  Brosnan always uncomfortably walked the line between copying Sean Connery and Roger Moore, but I would have to say he wasn't too bad in this film.

The film is as usual with Bond films is just a little longer than it needs to be but considering the direction the series took Goldeneye almost seems like a fast paced ninety minute movie,

This was the Bond that introduced Brosnan as Bond and everyone seemed to try a little bit harder on this one with a different director and more contemporary story instead of the usual madman out to destroy the world plot.  I actually enjoyed watching this Bond film for a change.

130 minutes, written by Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein.

2015 - PITCH PERFECT 2, more of the same

My spouse liked it.

115 minutes

2015 - SPECTRE, more of the same

Daniel Craig, the actor who couldn't crack a joke if his life depended on in is back in his 4th and hopefully last Bond film.  This time the writers tried to give Craig a sense of humor with some Sean Connery or Roger Moore type of wisecracks but it's just not in him to have a light touch with a line of dialog.

The film itself is kind of a mess story wise, with the production team trying to tie together all of Craig's previous films into some kind of story telling epic, that doesn't succeed.  In fact the whole series seems just completely exhausted from a story telling point but what are they going to do but keep making Bond films.  The films still make money.

As with all Bond movies the production values are high.  The films are good to look at and the action stuff is fairly well done.  However there is an uncomfortable call back to previous Bond films particularly the Sean Connery films with many scenes borrowed and reworked for SPECTRE.

 

The film has take some heavy hits from some critics but really this is the same old stuff told in a rather pedestrian way. The last 20 minutes are probably the worst part of the film and it's a long film as well.

148 minutes, written by John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Jez Butterworth.

1976 - THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE, fascinating crime drama

John Cassevettes writes and directs a film noir / crime drama genre film with his usual touches.  I. E. lots of long scenes shot in a semi improvisational style.  Great attention is paid to character and the photography really eschews any kind of standard Hollywood look.

This is a very challenging film Cassevettes has one of leads, Ben Gazzara on screen almost the entire film.  Gazzara is the owner of a stage club who stages nudie shows with actual themes and stories in them.  As we watch Gazzara go through his life messing things up the viewer becomes more immersed in his fascinatingly seedy personality.

The film comes to a climax in an act of violence that has severe consequences for Gazzaras's character, Cosmo Vittelli.  But really the film is a study of a low life and his low life world.  The rest of the cast (including the strippers) are pretty good.

135 minutes.

1953 - FLIGHT NURSE - Korean War love story

Will cute flight nurse Joan Leslie fall for air force pilot stud Forrest Tucker or wimpy helicopter pilot and 3rd string actor Arthur Franz?  Here is the dilemma that has to be resolved in about and hour and a half.  It's all happening during the Korean War so there's bombs and lots of stock war footage.

 

Flight Nurse is full of Korean War propaganda which uncomfortably sounds like World War II war propaganda.  Instead of Japs it's now Commies and the propaganda is constant not very subtle or particularly well written

The picture was made at cheapskate Republic Studios and directed by and old silent film guy Allan Dwan who was probably wrapping up his career.  Dwan had been around so long he had a list of around 400 films he signed off on.

Flight Nurse is supposed based on the life of a real nurse but let's hope the real individual had a more interesting life that this disappointing film.  Kind of a time waster.

90 minutes, written by Alan Le May.

2015 - THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. hasn't anyone seen a James Bond film?

An attempt to film a 60's James Bond type of spy thriller with a 21st century vibe.  This film seems more concerned with dressing it's cast up in cool looking clothing ensembles than actually chasing the bad guys who are (what else) an evil band of leftover Nazis looking to purchase (what else) an atomic bomb.

The cast certainly tries to be super cool in that old Sean Connery kind of way and I guess they sort of pull it off.  Again, everyone is dressed to the "nines" and the lead Henry Cavill looks good in a three piece suit.  The female lead someone called Alicia Vikander has a cool pair of sunglasses and the Russian guy sports snappy looking semi casual clothing.

I'm not sure why this film was called The Man from U.N.C.L.E since the U.N.C.L.E. organization is not even mentioned until the end of the film.  In fact the film could have easily been titled "Son of Bond" or Operation Kid Brother, although that title has already been taken.

The director Guy Ritchie films every scene with as much zippy style as he can muster which is probably more to the detriment of the film.  It seems he isn't content to just tell tell the story he wants to smother it with lots of kinetic editing.  Maybe that's for the best since the film actually doesn't have much story.  It's just three actors walking around in sharp looking 60's outfits.

116 minutes, screenplay by Guy Ritchie and Lionel Wigram.

2015 - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION, number 5 in the series

If you've seen the first four films in this series you've seen this one since it's basically the same film.

 

131 minutes.

1978 - HALLOWEEN, finally got around to watching this one

Another good looking Blu Ray.  I've put off watching this horror film for years since I am not really a horror film kind of guy.  Have to admit John Carpenter did a very good job with this film considering what he had to work with.

Carpenter essentially had to tease the audience for over an hour before he started in with the killings.  Much to my surprise there are only three dead teenagers in the original Halloween.  The acting of the cast is hit or miss.  I never thought I would watch a film where Donald Pleasence was the headliner. 
Jamie Lee Curtis is a pretty tough little cookie with a brain in her head.  The rest of the cast seems to have a rather limited range of emotions and as is expected in this genre the women are the ones who have to show some skin.

There is an unintentionally hilarious moment where Curtis discovers the bodies of her dead friends but overall the film is pretty good with the suspense and terror stuff.

91 minutes, written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill.

1980 - THE SHINING, on Blu Ray

The Shining looks great on my Blu Ray disc.  The cinematography by John Alcott really comes to life.  Say what you want about this film but Stanley Kubrick's meticulous direction and Jack Nicholson's larger than life performance make watching this film an enjoyable experience if you can call watching a horror film an enjoyable experience I guess.

There was a lot of criticism regarding Kubrick letting Nicholson go over the top so early in the film but Nicholson's performance is very impressive.  Shelley Duvall is also very good and the little kid isn't bad either.

Since I first saw The Shining on it's initial release I was somewhat lukewarm to it but I would have to say the film while no masterpiece like 2001: A Space Odyssey is a very good film.  On a technical level the film is a very impressive piece of craftsmanship.

Nicholson and Kubrick on the set

 144 minutes, screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson.

1949 - ON THE TOWN, the famous MGM musical.

This was a ground breaking musical.  Gene Kelly had been pushing MGM to expand the boundaries of the musical and actually got the studio to agree to 2 weeks of filming in New York City.

On The Town was adapted from a Broadway musical featuring a Leonard Bernstein score.  In this film version the score barely survived with only 4 songs remaining.  The Jerome Robbins choreography was replaced by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's work,  well that's Hollywood.

Frankly the film was kind of an ordeal to sit through.  On The Town is about 10 minutes too long and has one dance number too many for my taste.  The on location photography, what there is of it was kind of nice.  But overall the film seems very silly, today's film scene has not been kind to old musicals particularly musicals with a lot of dancing in them.

 

98 minutes,  screenplay by Adolph Green and Betty Comden.

1983 - SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE

Well the approach or plan was to make a science fiction film that had a B-movie sensibility sort of like Star Wars, but this film is no Star Wars and really not much of a B movie.

The actors with the exception of an extremely miscast Molly Ringwald seem like they want to give it the old college try but the screenplay is so pedestrian and more importantly unfunny that they just go through the motions from one scene to the next

The director is Lamont Johnson a rather distinguished television director who never really made the transition to theatrical films.  Johnson who directed many outstanding television films seems like a really poor choice for a science fiction film a genre he never worked in.

  

This film was shown in 3-D and as I recall brought nothing to the viewing experience.

90 minutes,  a lot of writers on this one never a good sign, David Preston, Edith Rey, Daniel Goldberg and Len Blum.

1932 - SCARFACE: The Shame of the Nation

This is a very violent 30's gangster film to put it mildly.  The film is based on the life of Al Capone and was written by the legendary screenwriter Ben Hecht, produced by Howard Hughes and directed by Howard Hawks.

Scarface is considered a classic in the gangster genre and it probably is a classic but be forewarned this is a very 1930's film with a definite 1930's vibe to it particularly in the acting and the overall pacing

I don't recall Howard Hawks directing a film like this one with lots of artsy photography and symbolism. It's very different from the style he developed later in his career.

Still, the film isn't dull, there is plenty of machine gun action and Paul Muni's performance as the sort of stupid but very violent gangster is interesting to see.

95 minutes.

2015 - SAN ANDREAS. the disaster film is alive and well

Not too much to say about this one.   The Rock must save his family from a couple of earthquakes as the big one finally hits California.  In the good old days of movies our here was always a special ops guy who had been stationed in Vietnam.  Nowadays he's a former soldier who was stationed in Iraq.  The more things change the more they stay the same.

Well anyway after numerous warnings from earthquake specialist Paul Giamatti who's big time slumming for a paycheck, the computer effects kick in and they are very superior computer effects I will grant that.

Will The Rock save his big breasted daughter and big breasted wife?  The bigger question does anyone remember Earthquake in Sensurround of which this movie is essentially a remake.

San Andreas is another film in that strange genre known as "disaster porn."

114 minutes.

1965 - THE SATAN BUG, on Blu Ray

On Blu Ray this superior thriller looks very good with ace cinematographer Robert Surtees and director John Sturges location scenes looking fantastic.

The commentary by DVD review pro Glenn Erickson has some amusing insights.  Apparently Sturges was preparing The Hallelujah Trail during the film and The Satan Bug did not have his full attention much to the annoyance of the cast.

Still, you would never know Sturges was preoccupied during the filming the film turned out to be a superior thriller.

114 minutes, written by James Clavell.

1968 - BANDOLERO, a mighty lame western

Mediocrity reigns supreme in this stupid western.  First, lets consider the cast.  Dean Martin and James Stewart are outlaws brothers.  That throws most of your credibility out the window to begin with.  Since this film was made at 20th Century Fox, the studios contract sex symbol who never could act Raquel Welch is cast as the female lead.  Finish off the fun with everyone's favorite character actor George Kennedy who at least is trying to give a credible performance.

The script is by one of John Wayne's favorite hack writers, James Lee Barrett who had credits on The Green Berets, Something Big and the Cheyenne Social Club.  The director is the poor man's John Ford, Andrew McLaglen.  For a guy who was an assistant director to John Ford and William Wellman he sure didn't absorb much in the way of directing films competently from those gentlemen.

Raquel Welch is used about the way you would expect she would be used, as a tease.  Her love story with Dean Martin is completely ridiculous and never even remotely believable.  Martin and Stewart fallback on their charm and movie star charisma but even that is in short supply.

McLaglen directs the shootouts and action scenes in such a pedestrian manner, he manages to squeeze all of the excitement out of them.  The whole movie is forgettable.

106 minutes.