1987 - EASTERN CONDORS, non stop action film

Sammo Hung along with his buddy Yuen Biao star in this fast paced and action packed war film.  The inspiration for this film was clearly Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen.  You can't say they exactly ripped off that film but the similarities are shall we say remarkable.

Sammo is a member of an elite United States Army unit which consists of a group of army prisoners promised a pardon if they go on a dangerous mission to destroy a North Vietnamese military base.  Sound familiar?  What this film is really about it Sammo staging lots of amazing actions scenes as only those Hong Kong stunt guys could do even though they look and probably are really dangerous.

As previously stated along for the ride was Sammo's buddy Yuen Bian who along with Jackie Chan had been trained in martial arts and acrobatics at the "Peking Opera School."  The three of them became part of a group called "Seven Little Fortunes," a touring theatrical company.  From there they all eventually ended up in the Hong Kong film world and the rest as they say is Hong Kong action movie history.

 

Eastern Condors has been accused as being an anti American film. But the criticism of the United States is so mild that it's almost impossible to detect.  I've seem more anti American films financed by major American studios in such films as Three Days of the Condor, Enemy of the State, Dances With Wolves, Little Big Man and Wag the Dog that are a lot more critical of the United States than the mild knocks on this country that are in this film.

If you are a big fan of action movies, Eastern Condors should satisfy you.

The film was written by Barry Wong, the running time is 100 minutes.

1990 - THE GODFATHER PART III, dipping into the well one more time.

 Is The Godfather Part III a good film?  The answer is yes.  Did The Godfather Part III need to be made? Probably not.  Paramount once again dipping into their Godfather franchise persuaded Francis Ford Coppola to write and direct another sequel to the original film.  Coppola's last two films, Gardens of Stone (which nobody remembers) and Tucker: The Man and his Dream had been box office flops.  The Godfather Part III was Coppola's run for cover film, something that would be guaranteed to make money.

The film is actually not bad, Michael Corleone who has now turned his family's organized crime business legitimate, has to face down one more challenge as he attempts to figure out who is trying to kill him and take over the Corleone family business.  The film has Al Pacino back as Michael, Diane Keaton as his ex wife Kaye (still a nothing part) and Talia Shire as Michael's sister Connie.

New to the cast were Andy Garcia as Vincent, illegitimate son of his deceased brother Sonny and Coppola's own daughter Sophia as Mary Corleone, Michael's daughter and Vincent's love interest.  There was a lot of criticism of Coppola for hiring his own daughter for a major role in the film.  She was an untrained performer.  But she has an interesting look and she does fairly well in a challenging role for the most part.

 

The Godfather Part III carefully follows the outlines of the first two films.  Some intimate family time, moments of violence, lots of scheming and subterfuge and once again a cathartic mass killing at the end of the film.

 

As in the first two films, Al Pacino, and this can't be emphasized enough, really holds this film together.  He has been essential to the series since the first film.  Coppola's skill in directing large scale crowd scenes and intimate family moments is still superior film making.  If you are a fan of the first two films you will probably enjoy this look into the snake pit that has become Corleone family.

The screenplay is by Coppola and Mario Puzo agian, the running time is 162 minutes.

2002 - BLADE 2, sequel to Blade (what else would it be).

Wesley Snipes is back as Eric Brooks aka Blade a sort of half man, half vampire.  This being a sequel to the 1998 film.  In the first film he joined forces with Rhodes Scholar, and Country Music Hall of Famer Kris Kristofferson to kill a bunch of modern day vampires.  In Blade II Snipes and Kristofferson are back this time teamed with a vampire SWAT squad to kill some sort of super vampire.

There's lots of action and unsurprisingly mucho blood spewing everywhere, after all this is a film about vampires. Frankly the story is kind of dumb but what the film has going for it is the director Guillermo Del Toro who gravitates to all this horror movie stuff since he grew up with it.  It doesn't hurt that Wesley Snipes has in real life a 5th degree black belt in karate, he looks like he actually knows how to karate chop super vampires.

 

I guess if you are looking for a film with a lots of action and blood along with those creepy touches that Guillermo Del Toro brings to his films you've found the right film.  Del Toro is a master of this stuff and really keeps the film zipping along from one well done action piece to another.

 

Blade actually started out as part of a comic book series from Marvel and Marvel has  been trying to figure out an approach to remaking the film.  With all the violence in this film the remake has been in "developmental hell" for some time.  Marvel superhero films are extremely family friendly and you can be sure that Mom and Dad aren't about to take little Bobby and Suzie to a film that features super vampires chewing the necks off of their victims.

The film was written by David S. Goyer, the running time is 117 minutes.

1974 - THE GODFATHER PART II - second film in the trilogy

Paramount had a big commercial and critical hit with The Godfather, so movie studios being what they are decided a sequel was called for.  Francis Ford Coppola was lured back with the promise of creative control.  More importantly Al Pacino returned as Michael Corleone now the head of the family and an extensive power player in the Las Vegas gambling scene.

The Godfather Part II is about Michael Corleone's plan to become the major player in the organized crime world.  The film's plot follows Michael as he travels from Nevada to Cuba to New York in an effort to consolidate his power.  With a bigger budget, Coppola has a much wider canvas to stage some epic scenes.

A lot of the original cast is back, Diane Keaton is Michael's wife (she still doesn't have much of a part.)  John Cazale is Michael's clueless brother Fredo, Talia Shire is Michael's sister Connie  and Robert Duvall is the family lawyer Tom Hagen.  But as in the first film Al Pacino is the whole show, he completely dominates this story.

 

The film jumps between the present day gangster stuff and the 1920's which tells the story of the early days of Vito Corleone and his rise to power as a Mafia Don.  Marlon Brando obviously to old for these scenes is replaced by a young Robert De Niro as Vito.  De Niro apparently couldn't speak a word of Italian but you would never know it, his performance is that good.

The Godfather Part II is based on a lot of real life characters in Mafia history during the 1950s. Understandably the names of these characters were changed for the film. No sense looking for trouble.

This is quality film making on an epic scale.

The running time is 202 minutes, the film was written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola

1986 - THE MAGIC CRYSTAL, dumb rip off of Spielberg films

Painful to sit through, hard to believe anyone covered themselves in glory with this martial arts/fantasy/comedy.  This film is an outrageous rip off of a lot of better films.

Andy Lau is a bounty hunter who works with the police to bring criminals to justice of course.  He has a moronic sidekick named Snooker who is in the film to provide unfunny comic relief.   Andy Lau also has a cute kid nephew named Ban-ban who is around to constantly get in some sort of dangerous situation.  Also in the cast is Cynthia Rothrock as a martial arts Interpol agent.  Enough about the cast.

The story involves Ban-ban finding a Magic Crystal which talks to him and gives him special powers. The crystal is supposedly a piece of jade but looks like lime jello that sat out on the kitchen counter  for a week. Some evil henchmen led by Australian marital arts champion Richard Norton want the crystal for its magic powers.  Cue the fight scenes, and there are a lot of them, although for the most part they are well done.

 

The Magic Crystal talks to the kid (E.T. ripoff), Snooker falls out of windows, Cynthia Rothrock hits a lot of people and the whole thing ends up in an underground cave where there is an alien spaceship that has been stuck on earth forever (Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull ripoff).  The movie is just a forgettable mess which I unfortunately sat through after shutting it off 2 or 3 times.

 The running time is 95 minutes, the film was written by the director Wong Jing.  

1972 - THE GODFATHER - the classic modern day gangster epic

A few thoughts on Coppola's legendary film.  The Godfather is about a loving supportive Italian American family in the 1940's who also happen to be a group of organized crime killers.  Marlon Brando who was on the outs with Hollywood mostly because of his behavior on previous film sets had to audition for the part of Vito Corleone.  Interestingly enough Brando's comeback role plays like a supporting role in the film.  He's barely a presence in the middle part of the the story.

The other actors in the film were future stars to watch.  James Caan as Sonny Corleone, Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, and John Cazale as Fredo Corleone.  Diane Keaton played the wife of Michael Corleone but her part is  the usual "please dear don't go out and be a murderous gangster tonight dear."  Some film cliches are hard to change.  The Godfather succeeds because the film rests on the shoulders of Al Pacino who basically moves the story along with his very impressive performance.

Francis Ford Coppola co-wrote the screenplay with the original author Mario Puzo and the film cleverly jumps between the domestic lives of the Corleone family and some impressively staged scenes of violence. Coppola was aware he was playing to a 1970's audience so he includes some sex scene stuff when he as too.  Puzo's novel is in many ways kind of a trashy story classed up by Coppola.

The Godfather made the career of Francis Ford Coppola.  He was more than  happy taking the credit for being a film making genius.  However this film benefited greatly from the contribution of cinematographer Gordon Willis.  Willis's skill in lighting and composing images for this narrative was a major and extremely important contribution to the success of this film.

 

The Godfather has a lot and I do mean a lot in common with Paramount's previous attempt at a gangster epic, The Brotherhood which was released in 1968.  That film is forgotten today but I think people viewing The Brotherhood would be surprised to see how many of the plot points are similar between the two films.  The Godfather was a big success for everyone involved but Paramount's desire for a sequel (more money to be made after all) led them to surrender most of their control over to Coppola for The Godfather Part II, a more impressive film than this one.

The film was written by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, the running time is 175 minutes

1966 - GAMBIT, a heist comedy

Gambit is a comedic variation on the famous Jules Dassin film Rififi.  In that film we meet a group of professional criminals who plan and execute a jewelry store heist with almost military precision.  In fact the heist runs about 30 minutes.  Rififi is considered a classic in the crime thriller genre, while not a classic on the level of Rififi, Gambiit is a clever and at times very funny spin on the Rififi heist idea.

The film stars Michael Caine in one of his early roles as the would be master criminal.  Shirley MacClaine is his chattering accomplice who just won't stop talking.  Herbert Lom is the rich guy they intend to steal a priceless statue from.  Even though this film is almost 60 years old it's best not to reveal to many of the entertaining plot details or spoilers.

 

The director was Ronald Neame who was a solid professional behind the camera.  He had originally worked with the mercurial David Lean as a cinematographer .  From there he worked himself up in the British film industry as a producer, screenwriter and finally director.  He was a no nonsense kind of a guy, always very well organized and prepared when on a film set.

 

 Neame had a long career in the film industry and is chiefly remembered as the guy who got a film out of what was apparently a disorganized mess of a production called The Poseidon Adventure.  Neame also directed Judy Garland in her final film, Garland was at this time in her career, difficult to work with.  Neame was a battle scared veteran of the film business.  Gambit must have seemed like a vacation.

The film has an excellent screenplay by Alvin Sargant and Jack Davis,  the running time is 109 minutes.

2000 - THE GIFT, southern gothic story from Sam Raimi

Sam Raimi who's film making style can at times can be considered over the top and frantic actually restrains himself for this film set in Georgia.  The film stars Cate Blanchett as a woman who is apparently endowed with a psychic ability to see into the future.  She gets involved in the murder investigation of a rich woman where her visions eventually lead her to understand what happened to the dead woman.

For a modestly budgeted film Raimi put together a seriously good cast.  Keenau Reeves is a very dangerous redneck, Hillary Swank is his white trash wife.  Greg Kinnear is the nice guy school principal with a tramp of a fiancee played by Katie Holmes.  Gary Cole and J. K. Simmons are the law enforcement officials trying to understand if Blanchett's visions are real or imaginary.

 

But this film is really all about Cate Blanchett who gives another flawless performance as a clairvoyant. Blanchett has the accent and more importantly the character down.  It's even more impressive when you remember she was raised in Australia not exactly a country loaded with American southerners.  Raimi must have realized he was dealing with an impressive performer because he focuses the entire film around her.

 

Raimi is still Raimi so when he needs to put in a scary scene he reverts to some of the tricks he has learned form directing his over the top horror films, however he is good at getting a lot of southern atmosphere into the film.  This is a very good southern gothic genre film.

Written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, the running time is 112 minutes.

1995- DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, updated 40's Private Eye genre film

This film is based on a series of books by the author Walter Mosley.  Mosley worked in the ever reliable private eye genre set in the 1940's.  The character he created was a black private investigator named Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins in a series of mystery books.

 

In the film version of Mosley's novel  Devil in a Blue Dress this black investigator is played by Denzel Washington who is on the trail of an enigmatic woman who happens to be the mistress of a rich white guy running for mayor of Los Angeles.  Denzel Washington is very good as "Easy" Rollins a man who not only has to endure corrupt policemen, gangsters and politicians but also has to deal with all the racism they subject him to.   Denzel Washington narrates the film in the true 40's private eye tradition.

After getting beaten up numerous times by white cops and gangsters "Easy"sends for his friend "Mouse" played by Don Cheadle for help.  "Mouse" turns out to be one scary guy who carries a minimum of three guns and doesn't mind using them at the slightest provocation. Cheadle gives a great performance as a "friend" who is walking a line between sanity and very crazy.

 

Devil in a Blue Dress has an interesting mystery story, good photography and art direction. There's a real 1040's flavor to the film.  The director Carl Franklin does a good job moving the story along and with Denzel Washington had planned to film more stories about the "Easy" Rollins character but it was not to be.  The film didn't attract the audience it really deserved.  It's always a little depressing when a film of this quality can't seem to connect with an audience.  An excellent film.

Written by Carl Franklin, the running time is 102 minutes.

1967 - MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR, The Beatles make a home movie

Clearly a tie in for the record that was released around the same time, Magical Mystery Tour is sort of a free form collection of skits and ideas The Beatles supposedly put together.  The Beatles were certainly going for the auteur title in this film because along with a writing credit they also take a director's credit.  The result is a real amateur's mess of a home movie.  Probably the person who should get top credit on this film is the editor Roy Benson who had to take 10 hours of rushes and cut them into a 50 minute film.

Paul McCartney was apparently the driving force behind this film with a few contributing ideas from the other band members.  John Lennon was supposedly responsible for the silly spaghetti shoveling scene.  McCartney is in the dumb military scene but real actor Victor Spinetti kind of steals that scene as an insane drill sergeant.

I suppose it should be mentioned that the so called plot involves The Beatles and some other people riding on a bus called unsurprisingly the Magical Mystery Tour.  Ringo sits next to woman who is playing his Aunt and they do some lame comedy shtick.  John Lennon looks completely bored and I can't even remember if George Harrison actually does anything on the bus although I think he's seated next to Lennon.   Now that I think about it Harrison looks like he would like to be somewhere else and who can blame him.

The Beatles perform a couple of decent songs including "I Am the Walrus", "Magical Mystery Tour" and "The Fool on the Hill." The film is known for being broadcast on the BBC in black and white although it was filmed in color since hardly anyone in England at the time had color television sets.  Needless to say this mess was not beloved by the critics or the public. 

The running time is a "thank god it's not any longer" 52 minutes.

1971 - DON'T TURN THE OTHER CHEEK aka LONG LIVE YOUR DEATH

This Spaghetti Western wants to be a light hearted action comedy.  It's got three reasonably entertaining leads.  Lynn Redgrave is an Irish revolutionary in Mexico trying to help the revolution.  Mainstay Italian actor Franco Nero ( really hamming it up) is a con man named Orlowsky who may be a deposed Russian prince.  Eli Wallach is also in the film basically recreating his "Tuco" character from The Good The Bad and The Ugly, although this time his name is Max Lozoya.

This is strictly very undemanding action film making.  The actors do what they can with an uninspired script, but the film just plods along until the viewer finally gets to the big battle scene at the end which is kind of entertaining.  The film clearly had a decent budget, the photography isn't bad but the reality is that this has been done before and probably with a lot more inspiration than this director could muster.  Only an okay time killer at best.

The film was written by Masimo De Rita,Gunter Ebert, Dino Maluri and Joan de Orduna.  That's a lot of writers for such an inconsequential film. 

 The running time is 103 minutes. 

1856 - TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON, very popular 1950's comedy

This comedy about the US Army's occupation of Okinawa after World War II was very popular.  The play which the film was based on won the Tony, Pulitzer, and New York Drama Critics awards.  The play's main theme is basically a sort of "burying of the hatchet" between the Japanese and American nations.Viewed now, the play which the film  followed very closely is just hopelessly dated and in many ways very racist in it's depiction of the Asian people and culture.

Marlon Brando the premier actor of Hollywood and Broadway got it into his head that he wanted to play the character Sakini the interpreter to American officer Glenn Ford.  Ford is supposed to help rebuild a town in Okinawa by constructing a school and starting some local businesses.  The sneaky Sakini persuades Ford to build a tea house instead and start supplying home made liquor to the American Army, a direct violation of his commander's orders.  

 

Teahouse of the August Moon is about the humorous clash of cultures between east and west.  However the citizens of Okinawa come off as brain dead children with their foolish shenanigans.  Almost every interaction between the Americans ends with some excitable behavior which becomes more offensive throughout the film. Clearly the scenes with the Okinawan people are supposed to come off as funny but they are just stupid.  And exactly what Brando, usually an intelligent actor thought he was up to with his pigeon English and silly gestures in his performance is a complete mystery he's an embarrassment.

 The film also has another performer Machiko Kyō as the geisha girl who is living with Ford.  Kyō was an important performer in Japan, she had appeared in Rashomon, Gate of Hell, Ugetsu and Floating Weeds.  Here she plays a subservient geisha named what else "Lotus Blossom."  There is the slight hint of a romance between her and Ford but being that this is the 1950's none of that interracial stuff was going to be allowed. Machiko Kyō must have been an intelligent performer, she smart enough to never appear in another American film again.

 

Well needless to say the film got great reviews and was a big hit with the general public which just goes to prove nothing as far as I'm concerned.  The film now comes off as a piece of 1950's bad taste.

The screenplay which slavishly followed the play was by John Patrick, the running time is 123 minutes.

1993 - THE PELICAN BRIEF, an okay political thriller

Take a couple of charismatic actors at the height of their attractiveness, in this case Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington, Stick them in a film based on a best selling book by then hot thriller writer John Grisham.  Add the director, Alan J. Pakula who was kind of an old style filmmaker in the best sense of the term. You end up with a watchable film that's not exactly exciting.

The plot has Julia Roberts as a second year law student who writes a legal brief which attempts to make sense of the murders of two Supreme Court justices.  Improbably Julia's brief manages to figure out the motive for the killings and she has to go on the run from the killers.  The only help she gets is from investigative reporter Denzel who is also trying to solve the murders of the Supreme Court justices.  

The director Alan J. Pakula also wrote the screenplay and for the most part manages to keep the plot clear enough so we figure out who is doing what to whom.  The Pelican Brief is a political thriller, it's set in Washington and involves members of the government covering up the crime.  Pakula directs the film with a few Hitchcock like attempts at suspense but there are a lot of awfully contrived scenes and coincidences, the holes in the plot really show through after a while.

If you like watching good looking people for a couple of hours this is the film for you.  Otherwise you're better off viewing something like Seven Days In May or The Manchurian Candidate.  Or you can watch Pakula's better and real life thriller, All The President's Men. 

The screenplay was by Alan Pakula, the running time is 141 minutes.

1956 - INVITATION TO THE DANCE, Gene Kelly's ambitious dance film.

This film was released in 1956 but had been kicking around the studio since 1952 when it was filmed, MGM simply did not know what to do with it.  Gene Kelly was nothing if not ambitious when he persuaded MGM to let him make a dance film with essentially no conventional story and no dialog, only dancing.  Kelly had been influenced by Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes and probably their production of Tales Of Hoffman which was essentially a dance film with no dialog as well.  Kelly had been inserting extended dance sequences into Singing in the Rain and An American in Paris however he was taking on a lot with Invitation to the Dance. He was the director, choreographer and one of the lead dancers.

Filmed in England, Kelly attracted performers Tamara Toumanova, Igor Youskevitch, Diana Adams and Claire Sombert all ballet dancers who let's face it weren't going to draw a mainstream movie audience into the theater.  Also these dancers had to adapt to Kelly's athletic dance style which wasn't ballet.  Probably Darryl F. Zanuck at rival 20th Century Fox Studios said it best, "10 minutes of dance in a film is a hell of a long time for an audience to sit through." This film was 90 minutes long.

 

The film failed at the box office and with the critics who felt Kelly had overreached.  However I believe that a major reason for it's lack of success was that the musical genre Kelly had been a part of during the peak years at MGM had finally come to an end.  Audiences were just no longer interested in seeing film musicals.

 

The film is made up of three distinct set pieces, however the only one that is entertaining is Kelly's dance with animated cartoons courtesy of Hanna Barbara.  Even this sequence goes on to long.  There is a copy of the film complete on YouTube if you are interested, but probably 10 or 20 minutes of viewing this thing is enough.

The running time is  93 minutes.