1994 - TIMECOP, a pretty good science fiction film

A fairly decent film for a Jean Claude Van Damme movie.  The time travel plot is well thought through and Van Damme at times actually allows himself to get beaten up by the bad guys.  The plot has Van Damme as guess what, a cop traveling through time attempting to keep a corrupt politician from becoming President of the United States.  The challenge for time cop Van Damme is to keep from changing the future.  This is all fairly cleverly worked out in the screenplay.

The most tiresome aspect of this film is the gratuitous love scene between Van Damme and the actor Mia Sara who gets to roll around naked with Van Damme, lucky her.  You can be sure that someone insisted on inserting this sex tease stuff to satisfy the drooling teenage nerds watching the film.  Later there is a virtual reality nude scene the viewer has to sit through as well that adds nothing to the story.  These scenes actually hurt the film and drag the film into the "B" status category. 

Jean Claude Van Damme was always the poor man's Bruce Lee or Arnold Schwarzenegger (take your pick).  His specialty was kicking people.  In TimeCop he kicks lots of people.  Bruce McGill who played "D-Day" in National Lampoon's Animal House a long time ago, is Van Damme's boss.  Ron Silver is the hiss able evil Senator villain and it's a cliched character to be sure but he puts it over.

 

The action is decent, the story is interesting. Peter Hyams the director keeps things moving along.  The film is entertaining even with it's tiresome sex scenes and for the most part doesn't outstay it's welcome.

The film was written by Mark Verheiden, the running time is 98 minutes.

1935 - CAPTAIN BLOOD, large scale, dated but entertaining swashbuckler

Warner Brothers pulled together this entertaining swashbuckling pirate film with a large budget.  Michael Curtiz directed and one of Warner's best screenwriters Casey Robinson adapted the book the film was based on.  The photography is excellent, the special effects and model work for 1935 were at a very high standard.  The composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold was a master at writing large scale symphonic scores and he provided a very entertaining one for this film.  The film really couldn't miss.

Warner Brothers took a big chance with the cast. Errol Flynn essentially an unknown actor at the time was chosen as the title character.  Olivia de Havilland hadn't even turned twenty yet and was cast as the female lead and love interest for Flynn.  But both of these performers were soon to become mainstays at the studio and were very popular with the movie going public during the 1930's and 40's.

 

Captain Blood is mostly entertaining with lots of colorful characters and interesting locations.  The action never lets up with sword fights and everyone's favorite pirate movie scene two ships blasting at each other with their cannons.  It's true swashbuckling film making. 

 

Probably the worst thing to say about this film is that it is very dated even for a film set in the 1600's.  A lot of the plot has to do with the character Peter Blood being forced into slavery by the King of England, escaping and becoming a pirate fighting against the English.  By the end of the film the screenwriter has had to spend a lot of time juicing the plot to get Captain Blood back fighting on the side of the English and become a true English patriot again.  All fairly ludicrous stuff but that's Hollywood story telling after all.

The film runs 119 minutes.

1973 - PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, Peckinpah's eulogy for the western film

Sam Peckinpah directed yet another one of those "end of the west films" which puts him in good company with John Ford. Don Siegel, Sergio Leone and George Roy Hill.  Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid is about the friendship of Garrett and the Kid.  As the frontier ends and civilization i.e. corporate greed takes over Garrett chooses to take the side of corporate interests at the expense of getting rid of his outlaw friend

Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid was a difficult production for Peckinpah.  Peckinpah's alcoholism, production overruns and a very hostile relationship with the failing MGM studios resulted in Peckinpah losing control over the final cut of the film.  The history of this film gets even more complicated as the film actually exists in three different versions.  The studio cut, Peckinpah's preview cut and finally a cut that assembled scenes from the studio cut and the preview cut which is called the special edition cut. Confused yet?

 

Peckinpah hired a cast of performers that he had worked with in the past. It's almost a curtain call of western actors,  James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Slim Pickens, Richard Jaeckel, Chill Wills, Barry Sullivan, Katie Jurado, Jack Elam, R. G. Armstrong and in some really offbeat casting Bob Dylan. Dylan wrote the score for the film which really displeased Peckinpah.  Peckinpah himself shows up as what else, an undertaker towards the end of the film.

Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid's reedited versions are now considered something of a masterpiece.  No question Peckinpah has a great feeling for western landscape.  He's also good with his actors and no one can photograph gunfights like him.  However I though  this film was very choppy and disjointed as the story moved from scene to scene.  I think you can blame this on Peckinpah's tampering with Rudy Wurlitzer's original script.  

In general Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid is a good film but it is probably of greater interest to fans of the director.  

The film was written by Rudy Wurlitizer with uncredited rewriting from Sam Peckinpah, the running time is 115 minutes.

2011 - COLOMBIANA, is a girl watching film with the girl being Zoe Saldana

This is one of the action revenge films where the protagonist reeks havoc on the gang that killed her family.  But what the film is really about is the actor Zoe Saldana in really short outfits or in really tight  outfits or is some cases really short tight outfits shooting people for  about 100 minutes of screen time.

There is absolutely no question that Saldana is very fit after watching only a few minutes of this film.  She's also good at holding big heavy guns and bending and twisting her body around as she crawls through the main villains lair.  Saldana is such a dominating presence in this film that it's impossible to recall the names of any other actor. 

 

The producer of Colombiana Luc Besson has filmed a lot of these hot chicks with guns films.  La Femme Nikita, Anna, Lucy, and The Family to mention a few.  If Besson isn't producing these weird hyper violent/erotic action films he is directing them.  Besson does know how to film action so if he wants to include a beautiful woman in his action scenes why not.

 

To give Zoe Saldana her due she is actually a talented performer.  She was the best thing in Emilia Perez and she should really get all the credit for holding that very wobbly mess of a film together.  I guess if you are in the mood for a very doopy but good looking action film Colombiana is one to watch.

The film was written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen.  The running time is 108 minutes.

1957 - OMAR KHAYYAM aka THE LIFE, LOVES AND ADVENTURES OF OMAR KHAYYAM

This Paramount film about the life of poet, philosopher, astronomer and mathematician Omar Khayyam hardly mentions any of these achievements.  Instead this film should be called "Omar Khayyam Love Sick School Boy," since the film is basically about Khayyam carrying on over a Persian princess for almost the entire run of the film.

The actors in this piece of junk are all white Europeans with some brown makeup smeared on their faces to give the illusion that they are descended from anywhere but Southern California.  Pretty boy Cornel Wilde is Omar Khayyam and he looks and acts like he would rather be anywhere else than in this film.  Wilde started his career playing romantic leads but eventually moved into producing and directing probably because of appearing in films like this.

 

The film also features Debra Paget, Raymond Massey, Michael Rennie and "Mr French," himself, Sebastian Cabet all actors pretending to be of middle eastern descent.  The director was William Dieterie who had seen a lot better days in the 1930's and 40's with films like A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Devil and Daniel Webster and Portrait of Jennie.  Dietrie's career ran into trouble during the blacklist era in Hollywood where he was associated with left wing causes although apparently he was not a communist.

 

Omar Khayyam was shot primarily on the back lot with lots of sets and costumes that look like something you would see in a community theater production of the musical Kismet.  I suppose it would have been unrealistic to stick to the actual facts of Khayyam's life.  No moviegoer in the 1950's would want to watch a film about a mathematician discovering algebraic proofs and inventing the 365 day calendar.  Still that stuff would have been more interesting than watching Cornel Wilde constantly quote poetry throughout the film.  Clearly the goal of this film was to be an exotic romance however the actual execution of this film was really poor.  The film isn't even campy fun.

The film was written by Barré Lyndon, who had a few decent films on his resume, the running time is 101 minutes.

2006 - PARIS, JE T'AMIE, aka PARIS I LOVE YOU

If you like love stories set in Paris this is the film for you. The catch is that they are only about five minutes long which brings the number of love stories featured in this film to eighteen.  It's safe to say that if you don't care for one short love story another one will come along in a bit.  This film was shot all over Paris by a number of very good directors so it's also a nice tour of the districts of Paris.  My understanding from the special feature included on the DVD is that the directors only had about two days to film their segments but were allowed creative control.

 

This film is well cast and why wouldn't it be.  No actor was stuck on location for months at a time and hey they were in Paris.  It's a mixed cast of British, American and French actors, some I recognized and some I didn't.  The directors were also a mixed bunch as well but they clearly were careful to not let the Parisian landmarks overwhelm their stories.

As far as these love stories go, generally they are pretty good.  Joel and Ethan Coen contribute a short film set in the Paris metro which is one of their typical sourpuss plots with Steve Buscemi as their star/victim.  German director Tom Tyker has a very stylized love story which involves a young Natalie Portman as an actress in love with a blind Parisian student.  Wes Craven of all people does a decent job telling the story of a young woman in the Père Lachaise Cemetery who is infatuated with the writer Oscar Wilde much to her fiancee's irritation.  You get the picture.

 

There is a vampire love story from the underrated but very talented Vincenzo Natali .  Probably the only short film I didn't enjoy was the one about mime artists but I believe it is an accepted fact that nobody can stand mimes.  Towards the end of the film Ben Gazarra and Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes's wife and close friend have a nice bit in a restaurant where they are waited on by Gérard Depardieu. Alexander Payne summons the film up at the end with a touching story.  Actor Margo Martindale plays a middle aged woman visiting Paris for the first time as she narrates a voice over about her love for the city.

A entertaining if unconventional way to tell a series of love stories but considering the production challenges, very well done.  The producers turned this concept into a series of  films set in New York, Berlin and Rio using the same short story approach with apparently diminishing results.

This film has written by Emmanuel Benbihy with input from the various directors.  The running time is 120 minutes.

1962 - TARZAN GOES TO INDIA, very entertaining adventure film

Jock Mahoney is Tarzan No. 12 if someone is keeping count.  Tarzan Goes to India was now being produced by Sy Weintraub who had the novel idea of actually filming a Tarzan film in jungle locations.  The director was Englishman John Guillermin who was apparently a real tough guy on a film set.  Guillermin had a long career in England and America.  His strength was filming adventure and action films.  Guillerman had previously shot Tarzan's Greatest Adventure on location in Africa.  For Tarzan Goes to India, Guillerman filmed in India, a big change from the usual studio back lot phoniness.

In this adventure (no. 24 in the Tarzan series if for some reason you are keeping count), Tarzan flies into India jumps out of the plane into a lake swims to a palace where he meets the daughter of of an old Indian friend who is trying to save a herd of elephants.  It seems the elephants are in a portion of a hydroelectric dam flood zone which some evil Westerners are building.  When the water is turned on it will flood out the valley and kill all the elephants.  You know these Westerners are evil since one of them is played by perennial bad guy Leo Gordon at his bad guy snarling best.

 

This film is essentially non stop action with Tarzan fighting off Leo Gordon, poison snakes, rouge elephants and man eating tigers, all while running around barefoot.  The film is an excellent "boy's own" adventure film with no silly romantic plot to distract the story.  Overall a very fast moving film with nice on location photography and lots of elephants stepping on stuff

The film was written by Robin Hardy Andrews and John Guillermin, the running time a brisk 88 minutes.

1977 - HIGHWAY RACER, exciting Italian Poliziotteschi film.

In this Italian action film cars go flying through the air, crash into each other and generally create complete mayhem on the streets of Rome.

The who really cares plot involves a police officer out for revenge after his partner is killed in a car chase with some fast driving bad guys. Our cop hero Marco Palma soups up a Ferrari and the film is essentially one crazed car chase after another.

The film is particularly noted for a chase down of all places one of Rome's most famous landmarks "The Spanish Steps." One can only wonder how they got permission for this chase and where in the hell did they put all the tourists, since this Roman attraction is usually loaded with people.

The film lists in its credits Remi Julienne as the stunt coordinator,  Julienne had a long career staging car chases and some amazing stunts.  He was the go to guy when it came to car chase scenes for many years. Incredibly he worked until 2017 and ended up dying of Covid of all things after risking his life behind the wheel for years.

The film was written by Gino Capone, the running time is 105 minutes.

1986 - CASTLE IN THE SKY aka LAPUTA: CASTLE IN THE SKY

Hayao Miyazaki temporarily abandons his themes of mankind's interaction with nature and children adapting to life in a complicated world in favor of this action packed fantasy adventure.

 Our hero Pazu,  is a young boy working in a coal mine.  One night he finds a strange girl named Sheta literally drifting through the sky while wearing a magic crystal.  The two young people team up to learn more about Steta's past life and the magic crystal.  This story features a series of amazing action set pieces that rival and at times surpass about anything that can be found in American action films.  The staging and animation are incredibly exciting throughout the film.

This is sort of a change of pace film for Miyazaki who would write and direct more contemplative films later in his career like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Ponyo on the Cliff.  Castle In The Sky is actually kind of a throwback to an earlier fllm of his, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro which I believe was his first major feature film and also featured a number of exciting action scenes.  In many ways Castle In The Sky has much in common with The Castle of Cagliostro.

 

Disney had cut a deal with Miazaki's home studio Gibli and reworked the  soundtrack replacing the original Japanese voice talent with American actors.  Anna Paquin is now Sheta, James Van Der Beek is Pazu.  Cloris Leachman is the leader of a group of flying pirates and Mark Hamill is the chief villain named Muska.  Disney was fairly careful creating the re-dubbed soundtrack even though at times it's a little jarring to hear American voices come out of Japanese characters.  Still for the most part it works fairly well.

 

Along with the stunning action scenes one has to point out the animation background design with it's  airships, floating islands and giant robots.  Visually this film is also a real treat to look at.  A stunning film.

The film was written by Hayao Miyazaki,  the running time is 124 minutes.

1975 - RANCHO DELUXE, western comedy about cattle rustling

This modern day (at least as modern for 1975) comedy is about a couple of cattle rustlers in rural Montana.  They have mostly been rustling from a rich cattle rancher named John Brown, one cow at a time.  The film involves Brown's attempts to catch the rustlers.

Rancho Deluxe is a comedy or to put it another way a very laid back comedy at times almost to laid back.  The film has been well cast with Jeff Bridges as a slacker cowboy, Sam Waterston as his Native American companion the typical white guy actor playing a role he shouldn't.  New York actor Clifton James is the Montana rancher John Brown and Elizabeth Ashley is his wife.  The actor who seems more like a western character than most of the cast in this film is Slim Pickens as a livestock detective.  Pickens is his usual amusing self.

 

There is funny stuff in this film but the humor is very low key.  The film has nice photography from William Fraker who was a top Hollywood cinematographer who excelled at filming in western settings.  The director Frank Perry was not a guy known for his comedic touch.  He had filmed David and Lisa, Doc, and The Swimmer.  Perry was also a director with a couple of camp classics in his filmography, Mommie Dearest and the insane Catholic priest drama, Monsignor two films that are certainly a lot funnier than Rancho Deluxe. 

 

Rancho Deluxe was written by the very quirky screenwriter Thomas McGuane the author of that weird Marlon Brando/Jack Nickelson film The Missouri Breaks. In the end for all of it's strangeness this film just doesn't quite hang together.

The running time is 93 minutes.