1969 - BATTLE OF BRITAIN , big expensive dud of a war film

This is one misfire of a war film.  Battle of Britain was supposedly a tribute to the English pilots that held off the German air force in the summer of 1940 before the United States entered the war.  The film had about every living British actor who was ambulatory in it.

However this is one snooze inducing mess of a film.  The screenplay can't even begin to explain the battle plans that the German's drew up for the invasion of England.  It seems their strategy was "lets bomb the hell out of them."  On the other hand a lot of time is spent on how the English would by overwhelmed by the German Luftwaffe.  Thankfully a plucky bunch of Limey pilot lads held off the German war machine.

In reality the Northern part of England was able to produce plenty of fighters to supplement the British air force and the British had a substantial number of foreign pilots to fly them.  Instead what we get are lame Polish jokes

What you also get for the time invested in this film are some large scale dogfights. This production was amazingly able to find enough planes to stage and photograph these fights.  However after a while one dogfight starts to look like all the others so a kind of viewer boredom sets in. There isn't even any point discussing the subplots of the personal lives of the pilots, it's just the usual bunch of war cliches.  

Battle of Britain was clearly a very costly film to make.  Acquiring all of those planes and pilots to fly them couldn't have been easy or cheap.  Freddie Young photographed the film, he was usually associated with David Lean so I'm sure he didn't come cheap.  The director Guy Hamilton did an adequate job but he doesn't seem to be able to work up much enthusiasm for the story.  Perhaps the large scale production was a little to much for him. In a film like this the second unit directors and action coordinators really run the show.  

The film was written by James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex.  the running time is 133 minutes.

1954 - PRINCE VALIANT - entertaining comic book movie

 Based on a long running and I do mean long running comic strip ( 1937-1971) the story of a Viking Prince in the court of King Arthur was known for not having any dialog in the comic strip.  Instead the narrative is all in captions.  

MGM had a big hit in Ivanhoe so 20th Century Fox obtained the rights to Prince Valiant.  Daryl F. Zanuck got tough guy director Henry Hathaway to film it.  Legendary screenwriter Dudley Nichols put together a story and the film clearly was an expensive production.  Then the studio went out and completely miscast it.

 Pretty boy 50's actor Robert Wagner with his American accent was cast as the Viking prince complete with ridiculous page boy wig which was true to the comic but came off as really goofy looking.  Equally ridiculous was Sterling Hayden as a knight of the round table.  Hayden didn't even attempt a British accent and he looks extremely uncomfortable in his goofy medieval wig.  Debra Paget almost 20 years Hayden's junior was his love interest.

 

More wig silliness, Janet Leigh squeezed into a dress has to wear practically a floor length wig which she manages not to trip over.  About the only creditable actor in this film is James Mason an actual Britsh actor.

 

Henry Hathaway keeps the film moving with lots of action and fighting.  The photography by Lucien Ballard is good and the composer Franz Waxman wrote a great score.  In spite of the crazy casting decisions this is an entertaining comic book film.

The running time is a not excessive 100 minutes.

1934 - BRITISH AGENT - confused romance/thriller

Leslie Howard is the very British agent working to undermine the Russian Revolution.  He hopes to bring a more sympathetic government into power that will support the British during World War I.  Kay Johnson is a Russian revolutionary who Howard falls in love with.  Unbeknown to Howard, Johnson is a double agent who will betray Howard in order to advance the cause of the Communist Revolution.

This is one confusing mess of a film.  The screenplay is so convoluted it's impossible to tell if this film is pro Russian Revolution or anti Russian Revolution.

Kay Francis the love interest for Leslie Howard playing the Russian agent is an interesting choice.  She might have been a little miscast. Francis was from Oklahoma and she didn't even attempt a European accent.  Future "Joker" villain Caesar Romero from the original Adam West version of Batman is a diplomat working with Howard.  The rest of the cast is made up of  the usual Warner Brothers stock company.

The film was directed by filmmaker pro Michael Curtiz but even he couldn't do much with this confusing mess of story elements and mismatched actors to make it coherent.

The film was written by Laird Houston Doyle and Roland Pertwee, the running time is a short 81 minutes.

1994 - FROM BEIJING WITH LOVE, funny spoof of James Bond films

Although most Westerners know Hong Kong martial arts and comedian Jackie Chan, actor/director Stephen Chow equally deserved to be known just as well Chan.

This film is a funny satire of the James Bond film series,  At the time of release the Pierce Brosnan era in the James Bond series was in full flower.  However this film seems like Chow is spoofing the Roger Moore era of the Bond films.  In any case there is some very funny spy satire stuff throughout the film along with Chow's slap sticky humor.

As always in a Chow movie he has cast the female lead with a gorgeous performer. In this film Anita Yuen is his chosen love interest who is also a double agent sent to kill him.  She communicates with her evil boss through a toilet that has a two way television link in it.

If you are a Bond fan there are lots of in jokes.  The gadgets don't work very well and the henchmen are even more over the top than "Jaws" in the Roger Moore Bond films. Chow plays the James Bond spoofed character with the correct mix of Bondian arrogance and incompetence with a cigarette literally glued to his lips.  

 

The film was written by Stephen Chow, Roman Cheung/Vincent Kok and Lee Lik-Chi.  The running time is 83 minutes.

1973 - CHARLEY VARRICK. a well made crime caper

Walter Matthau is Charley Varrick a crop duster in New Mexico who has taken up bank robbing when his business fails.  After robbing a bank in a small town.  Varrick realizes that the money from the robbery is being laundered by the Mafia. Now with the police after him he has to contend with a Mafia hitman also on his trail.

The film has an interesting cast.  Walter Matthau is generally remembered for playing comedy. Actually he was in a number of serious roles particularly at the beginning of his career.  Joe Don Baker is the "good old boy" hit man on his trail.  One time 20th Century Fox Studios starlet Sheree North is a forger who Varrick hires to create a new passport in order to get out of the country. Perennial bad guy John Vernon is a member of the Mafia.

 

The film was very well directed by Don Siegel.  Siegel was one of those Hollywood directors who essentially shot medium to low budget films and was elevated to auteur status over the years by the critics.  However  for every Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dirty Harry and Riot in Cell Block 11 there was crap like Duel at Silver Creek and The Black Windmill.  Siegel also directed John Wayne's last film The Shootist and had to deal with a very cantankerous Duke Wayne throughout the filming.

 Charley Varrick was a story that played to Siegel's skills as a good director of action films.  This film zips along at a good pace without losing sight of the characters at the expense of the action aspects of the film something current filmmakers could learn.

As good a job as Siegel did as the director, this film is blessed with a very good script from Dean Reisner and Howard Rodman.  In fact a major asset to this film's success is their contribution.

The running time on this film is 111 minutes.

2025 - THE MATERIALISTS - attempt at a realistic rom-com

The Materialists should get brownie points for attempting a new spin on the romantic comedy.  The film has three very good looking and charismatic leads, the New York locations have been carefully chosen and the performances are very good.  However as realistic as the situations are this is kind of a depressing film.

SPOILERS

Dakota Johnson plays a matchmaker working with high end clients who are looking for a significant other to partner up with.  While attending a wedding of one of her clients, she meets a rich handsome businessman played by the current actor flavor of the month actor Pedro Pascal.  Also at the wedding is Johnson's former boyfriend played by Chris "Captain America" Evans who is  just a poor starving caterer.

Will Dakota chose the rich guy or the former boyfriend who she was once in love with and ended the relationship because he was poor?  Since this is still a rom-com even with a more serious spin than usual for this genre, it's fairly easy to guess where this plot is going to go. 

The problem I have with this film is that the lead character played by Dakota Johnson is such a materialistic cold fish of a human being it's hard to believe anyone would want to be involved with her.  Throughout most of the film she is supposedly attracted to the rich guy because of his money but during the last 15-20 minutes of the film she sees the light and comes down on the side of true love with Captain America.

 

I fully recognize that if Dakota Johnson had picked the rich guy who she isn't in love with over the poor guy who she is in love with the film would not be very appealing for an audience.  However since this is such a cynical film maybe picking the rich guy would have been a more realistic ending.  Instead we have a gooey mess of the "love conquerors all" ending the film finally sinks into. 

The film was written by the director Celine Song, the running time is 117 minutes,

1952 - THE BEAST MUST DIE - excellent crime thriller

From Argentina comes this excellent crime thriller.  The Beast Must Die concerns the fate of a writer who after his son is killed in a hit and run, attempts to find out who the responsible driver was.  Going undercover, his investigation causes a series of major complications.

The film was directed by Román Viñoly Barreto who worked during what is now considered the classical era of Argentina's film industry which ran from the 1930's to the 1950's.  The Argentina cinema at one point was releasing approximately 40 films a year in spite of political pressures from the Peron government and the Church.  In fact one of the performers Libertad Lamarque managed to earn the enmity of Evita Peron probably not a real healthy situation for her.

The Beast Must Die actually originates as a detective novel from a British author, Cecil Day-Lewis.  The director Claude Chabrol was so impressed with the story he also made a French version.

In spite of my digression on this post, I would emphasize again that this is an excellent thriller. 

This film was written by Narciso Ibáñez Menta and Román Viñoly Barreto, the running time is 95 minutes.

1993 - ROBOCOP 3, the "B" movie alive and well.

The third in the Robocop film series and also the last one until the remake in 2014. This movie was completely clobbered by the critics and the public stayed away when it was released.  But it seemed the critics completely missed the point.  This was a "B" science fiction/action film in the great tradition of Death Race 2000, Robot Jox and Ninja III: The Domination to point out a few of the many. 

Robocop 3 the movie has it all.  Scary street gangs, robot samurai warriors, a jet pack, a flamethrower arm, lots of explosions and much over the top violence.  Robocop 3 was directed by an expert in the genre, Fred Dekker.  Dekker was responsible for Night Of The Creeps, and The Monster Squad so he certainly knew how to mix violent nonsense with some goofy humor.  

 

I can't say it's a good film, but it is certainly an entertaining one.  Any movie that has a tech savvy orphan, a beautiful scientist and a monotone robot man can't be all bad.

 

The film was written by Fred Dekker and comic book writer Frank Miller, the running time is 104 minutes.

1965 - NONE BUT THE BRAVE, an anti-war film from Frank Sinatra!

This film has the you asked for it team of singer turned director Frank Sinatra and Japanese special effects master Eiji Tsuburaya one of the creators of Godzilla.

During World War II, an airplane loaded with marines crashes on a Pacific island which just happens to have a camp full of Japanese soldiers.  At first the two sides shoot it out with each other.  Gradually they arrive at a truce and learn to trust each other in order to survive on the island.  It all ends tragically in yet another blow for international brotherhood.

Obviously a personal project for Frank Sinatra since his company produced the film and he directed for the only time in his career.  The film is really a victim of the screenplay which has some simple minded ideas about war, peace and coexistence.  The film was shot in Hawaii so it does have some nice scenery. Tsuburaya obviously created the special effects for the big hurricane scene.

   

The cast has Sinatra top billed as an alcoholic medic although in reality he has a supporting role.  Big Clint Walker is the captain in charge of the marines. Walker is so tall he hovers over the Japanese actors and frankly the American actors like the giant in Jack and the Bean Stock.  Singer Tommy Sands was Sinatra's son in law so he got the part of a hardnosed Marine Lieutenant.  Apparently someone maybe director Sinatra told Sands to scream his dialog out every time he opens his mouth.  His performance is ludicrous.  I recognized some of the Japanese actors from Tora Tora Tora, The Seven Samurai and that Toho film classic Rodan. They really don't make much of an impression.

 None But The Brave is what I would call your typical anti-war film.  Everyone blabs on and on about the futility of war until they pull out their guns and start shooting at each other.  To quote a film critic, "peace is peachy but fighting is more exciting."  Needless to say this film was clobbered by the critics at the time of release.

Written by John Twist and Katuya Susaki, the running time is 105 minutes.

2025 - SUPERMAN, latest version on the big screen

Yes it's entertaining, it has action and humor.  It's a little on the long side but not excessively so.  Superman turns out to be a good summer movie event.

The film was carefully cast.  David Corenswet is very good as Superman, he manages to instill the modesty in the character and is not some saccharine goody two shoes.  Rachel Brosnahan is a feisty Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult is the hiss able villain Lex Luthor.  This version of Superman adds Krypto the Superdog a character I had remembered from the conics.  Fortunately they didn't push their luck on this super pet stuff so we weren't inflicted with Streaky the Supercat.

The writer/director James Gunn is obviously an aficionado of this superhero stuff as he has proved with his Guardians of the Galaxy series for Marvel.  But Gunn is smart enough to know that you can't take this material very seriously he loads the film up with plenty of humor. 

If I had any issue with the film it would be that the plot is a very busy one with civil wars, a kaiju monster, an inter dimensional prison and the addition of lots of other superheros that probably most people have never heard of.  In this film we are expected to know who Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Metamorpho and Mister Terrific are.  It sometimes seems like you can't tell the players without a program.

There has been some criticism that this film has some kind of left wing agenda.  Maybe yes, maybe no.  I suppose it's what you read into it based on what your politics are.  But if you want to waste your time worrying about the politics of a film that has a guy flying around in his underwear, be my guest.

Written by James Gunn, the running time is 129 minutes.