1978 - THE WIZ, the legendary bad musical

Writing about this film is like swatting a fly with a jackhammer.  Whatever is said about it today was covered in negative reviews of the film when it was released and they were very negative reviews.  A lot of the criticism of the film was focused on Diana Ross who was able to use her status as a superstar performer to get the role of Dorothy Gail the protagonist of The Wizard of Oz. In the original story Dorothy was a 6 year old girl. The role was rewritten for Ross to play a young insecure woman in her 20's.  Diana Ross hadn't seen 6 years old in a while much less 26 years old.  She was 33 when she played this role and she looked it.  However in spite of the disastrous participation of Diana Ross there was plenty of blame to go around.

For a film that wanted to channel the Black American experience there sure were an awful lot of white people behind the scenes calling the shots.  The director was Sidney Lumet who was known for filming tough dramas about New York City in particular.  Lumet's last film had been Network and there wasn't a dance sequence in that one.  Lumet had never directed a musical before and it showed.  Almost every number is shot in boring wide angle shots apparently more to show off the sets than the performers.

More white people behind the scenes.  Joel Schumacher another white guy wrote the screenplay.  Schumacher's claim to fame was as the director who took over for Tim Burton in the Batman series and ran that into the ground.  The cinematographer Oswald Morris was British.  The editor Dede Allen had cut Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico, again not a lot of singing in those films.   The costume designer Tony Walton was another Brit.  Quincy Jones was the music supervisor on the film and he apparently was not very impressed with the songs which probably didn't help matters.

 

The Wiz was a film with an all black cast and it's failure commercially and critically gave Hollywood executives an excuse not to finance any films which featured black performers and stories a fairly lame excuse considering all the under performing films featuring casts of white people that really suck. 

The film's running time is an unending 133 minutes.       

2024 - HERE, today gone tomorrow

Took me all night to think of that title which is probably more time spent on that then on the script for this film.  The most depressing aspect of this film is the ongoing downhill slide of the career of the director Robert Zemeckis.  At one time he was a reliable provider of entertaining films like Used Cars, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

 

But into the 1990's Zemeckis began to embrace cutting edge film technology.  The flaw of this approach was a failure to see the weaknesses in the scripts and stories at the expense of the visual effects he loaded his films up with.  This resulted in some disappointing films like, Forrest Gump, A Christmas Carol, Pinocchio, Welcome to Marwin and the very strange Beowulf.  Here almost seems like a summation of the worst aspects of his film making style.  Interesting and sometimes amazing technical achievements and a complete failure in the storytelling department. 

 

Here isn't the worst film I've seen but for all it's razzle dazzle special effects junk it's bad.  The decision to shoot with only one camera angle robbed Zemeckis of his ability to edit the film, use the tools of the close up, the pan, the moving camera and the long shot.  Having the actors walk towards the camera appeared to be the solution for the close up but that came off like a poor 3-D gimmick.  For all the special effects of traveling through time to different eras using split screens and what not it just became a cheap gimmick.

The de-ageing software used to create younger versions of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright still has a long way to go, they look like cartoon versions of their younger selves.  It sure didn't help their performances. It's like watching an animated versions of themselves, exaggerated and ridiculous.  In fact the whole film has a weird phony look to it.  Zemeckis and his team should have spent more time on the characters and less time in the computer rendering department.

At the time of release this film was understandably clobbered by the critics.  If this is the future of film, the viewer should prepare for a wave of very mediocre AI films.

Written by Eric Roth and Robert Zemeckis, the running time is 104 minutes.

1948 - MR BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE, still amusing post World War 2 comedy

 A film about the post World War II housing explosion that occurred in the United States.  Cary Grant is Jim Blandings an advertising executive living in NYC in a cramped apartment along with his wife and two daughters.  Blandings decides enough is enough and buys a rundown house in Connecticut which as it turns out can't be refurbed but needs to be torn down instead.  The humor comes from his decision to build a new home on his now vacant lot.  There are lots of jokes about dealing with contractors, dealing with commuting into NYC and dealing with the hidden expenses of home building.

Cary Grant gives another expert comedy performance as the put upon Blandings.  Myrna Loy is his wife and Melvyn Douglas is the family friend who is also the narrator of the film, he's kind like a Greek chorus commentating on the action.  These three actors were movie stars in the classic Hollywood sense, good looking and charismatic.  They were also expert comedians and knew how to get the most out of a humorous situation.  

 

The director was H.C. Potter and expert at film comedy.  The writers/producers were a couple of Hollywood pros Melvin Frank and Norman Panama who had started out their careers as joke writers for Bob Hope and worked into the 1970's as writer/directors, an impressive career run.

 

A quick shout out to the cinematographer James Wong Howe a Chinese-American who shot over 130 films and was a noted black and white stylist, this is a good looking film from another golden age Hollywood legend.  Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House was a box office success and considering the talent in front and behind the camera couldn't miss.

The running time is 93 minutes. 

1958 - DUNKIRK, a good version of a frequently told World War II story

If the famous Dunkirk "miracle" is remembered in the movies today, it's probably for the spectacular Christopher Nolan film that was released in 2017.  This version of the Dunkirk evacuation is also a very good account of this decisive moment for the British during World War II.

The film was a production of Ealing Studios and it's a little different from their famous comedies but it was made with all the care that they brought to all of their productions.  The producer was the legendary Michael Balcon who also was the head of the studio.  Balcon was probably one of the most important individuals in the development of the British cinema.  He was responsible for developing a lot of talent which included individuals like Alfred Hitchcock, Alec Guinness, Alexander Mackendrick, Jack Hawkins, Joan Greenwood and Charles Crichton to name just a very few.

There were no hammy actors in this film.  John Mills, Bernard Lee and Richard Attenborough were character actors first if movie stars at all.  This film was shot in France, and England with very careful attention payed to getting the physical production right. The director was Leslie Norman a competent technician who spent a lot of his career working in British television.

 

Dunkirk was written by David Divine, the running time is 134 minutes. 

1982 - FERAT VAMPIRE, aka UPIR Z FERATU, the vampire car movie

Well here's a plot you don't see everyday.  A race car company has developed a car that runs on human blood.  A doctor suspecting something is not right tries to get to the bottom of this unusual situation.  This leads him into a conspiracy where the automobile company that has developed the car now wants to market and sell it around the world.

The director Juraj Herz really plays up the horror elements of the story but he also seems to be making some sort of statement about the need for human kind to commit suicide by getting into a moving four wheel machine and driving faster and faster until it finally kills him or someone else.

 

Unlike the previous Herz film I viewed Beauty and the Beast, which had a lot of atmospheric gloom and doom, much of Ferat Vampire takes place in the daylight and is set in contemporary Czechoslovakia to emphasize the modern horror of the situation.

 

Does Ferat Vampire succeed as a horror film or a commentary on people's fascination with killing themselves in fast cars?  I have no idea.  However one thing you can be sure of is that this is certainly a journey into weirdo film world. I know there have been other possessed automobile films like The Car and Christine, but Ferat Vampire definitely has a tire up in the evil jalopy story sweepstakes.

The film was written by Jan Fleischer and Juraj Herz, the running time is 90 minutes.

1938 - SUEZ, impressive production with the usual Hollywood distortions about history.

Darryl F. Zanuck's big production about the construction of the Suez Canal gets the usual Hollywood treatment.  Impressive special effects, some good looking leading performers a very contrived romance and a screenplay that has nothing to do with the actual building of the canal.  A lot of thought must have gone into putting this historically inaccurate mess of a film together.

Tryone Power is Ferdinand de Lesseps who is in love with Countess Eugenie de Montijo played by Loretta Young.  The problem is that Napoleon III is also in love with the Countess.  What's a girl to do marry the good looking but poor de Lesseps or settle down with the rich emperor of France?  Well one thing leads to another and the heartbroken de Lesseps moves to Egypt and to get over his broken heart decides what the heck I might as well build the Suez Canal.  One way of dealing with a relationship problem.

 

A lot of the film is spent on the financing of the canal build which I can assure you does not exactly make for stimulating action film making.  Everything leads up to a big and still awesome special effects scene where a sandstorm almost destroys all the work on the canal.  Even in 1938, Hollywood could whip up a spectuacular set piece like this.  

 

Well in spite of this spectular production this film is mighty turgid and was somewhat of a challenge to sit through.  Watching a film about the building of the Suez Canal isn't exactly exciting and sticking a romantic love triangle just make the whole film seem sillier.

The film was written by Phillip Dunne and Julien Josephson, the running time is 104 minutes. 

2025 - WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY, probably the last in the series or maybe not.

A little behind the scenes recap.   Rian Johnson the director/writer released the first film in the series Knives Out in 2019 to theaters.  Johnson committed to two more sequels which went out for bid for the release of the sequels.  The winner of this little bidding war Netflix payed an obscene amount of money to Johnson and his producer along with star Daniel Craig.  After these two sequels I can assure you none of these guys will ever have to work again which includes their wives, children, grandchildren and probably great grandchildren.  Frankly if some company waved millions of dollars at me it would be hard to say no.

For all of the financial wheeling and dealing that went on to get this movie made Wake Up Dead Man turned out fairly well.  Rian Johnson wasn't asleep at the wheel for this film, he wrote a clever script which had some not uninteresting things to say about religion and the existence of god, a plot point you don't usually see in a murder mystery.

 

As usual Johnson went for the off beat casting, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner and Kerry Washington to name a few all show up in rather offbeat roles.  Daniel Craig is back with his shaky southern accent, as crime solving detective Benoit Blanc.  He's almost a supporting character in this film.  The focus in on a priest accused of murder played by Josh O'Connor who had previously played Prince Charles in the unending Netflix series The Crown.

 

Since this is a murder mystery there will not be spoilers here, this is an enjoyable film with some amusing dialog and so very clever scenes

The running time is a bit long at 144 minutes.  

1993 - SHADOWLANDS, a love story

This film is a love story between celebrated Christian author C.S Lewis and an American poet Joy Davidman a Jewish woman who had converted to Christianity,  She had been corresponding by mail with Lewis for some time and finally traveled to England to meet him.  Much to his surprise he found himself falling into a relationship with her.

The leads were played by Debra Winger and Anthony Hopkins and they were played very well.  In fact the entire cast performed at a very high level.  Even the young boy playing Winger's son from a first marriage doesn't have any of those annoying overacting tendencies that a lot of these child performers seem to pick up.

 

This film was produced and directed by Richard Attenborough and it's probably the best film he made as a director.  Attenborough had a long career acting with some of the best British directors.  But as a director himself a lot of his pictures were very stodgy and ponderous.  It seemed that Attenborough was only interested in making "important" pictures," so audiences sat throught long dull films like Gandhi, Cry Freedom and Chaplin.  They may have been intended to be of great cinematic significance but they sure were boring. 

 

In Shadowlands he had a good script, good actors and an excellent cinematographer in Roger Pratt.  The end result is a very touching love story which was filmed in the classic film style and worked very well.

The film was well written by William Nicholson, the running time is 131 minutes. 

1984 - RAZORBACK, yes it's Jaws with a really big pig

A giant wild boar is running around the Australian Outback killing and eating people.  Yes it's Jaws in the desert except instead of being set in the ocean we are in the middle of a lot of dirt.

A fair number of people get killed which includes the wildlife photographer wife of an American who is now out for revenge.  It all comes to a climax at an illegal pet food factory where it's the American vs the really big "Sus scrofa" aka wild boar.

 

This foolishness is directed by a man named Russell Mulcahy who along with Razorback is also responsible for Highlander and it's completely ridiculous sequel Highlander II: The Quickening.  Mulcahy was one of those flashy music video directors who liked lots of weird camera angels, frenzied editing and a spastic moving camera racing all over the place.

 

Is this film worth watching?  Well it's pretty dumb.

The film was written by Everett De Roche who cranked out a lot of garbage for Australian film and television.  The running time is 91 minutes. 

1978 - BEAUTY AND THE BEAST aka THE VIRGIN AND THE MONSTER

There have been many versions of Beauty and the Beast with Jean Cocteau's film and the Disney animated feature probably the best known adaptations of this story.  From Czechoslovakia comes this fascinating version.

The emphasis is on horror and is it ever on horror with the love story almost relegated to a next to nothing subplot.  The story is still basically the same with the daughter of a merchant substituting for her father after he violates the home of a mysterious creature living in a creepy rundown castle.   If you are looking for a Beauty and the Beast film with singing dishware you better skip over this one.  An atmosphere of decay and ruin runs through the film.  In fact the Beast is haunted by voices in his head telling him to kill Beauty a nice creepy touch.

 

The film opens with the slaughter of the Merchant's wagon train by some bandits and the killing of a woman by the Beast.  The story then moves to a not very merry medieval village where we get to watch animals being slaughtered for a wedding in a town that is one big muddy disgusting mess.  The cinematography compliments the setting with lots of gloomy and foggy night photography.

 

This version of Beauty and the Beast was directed by Juraj Herz who was associated with the "Czech New Wave." A horror film version of this old narrative war horse was an interesting approach to a frequently adapted story and definitely worth a look.

The film was written by Pavla Marková, the running time is a spooky 91 minutes.  

1958 - APPALACHIAN SPRING, a record of choreographer Martha Graham's ballet.

Martha Graham, a choreographer and dancer and a woman who literally worked until she died was persuaded to allow one of her most famous ballets Appalachian Spring to be filmed.  Graham had apparently been very resistant to photographing her choreography but this performance turned out very well.

Graham had conceived the ballet in the 1940's and composer Aaron  Copland in collaboration with Graham wrote the music.  It was one of her most successful productions.  Graham was considered to old for the main lead the young bride at the time of the filming but she was insistent that she dance the part.

 

The story of the ballet is supposedly a tribute to the pioneering spirit of America as a young couple dance on their wedding day. Copland's music intermixed with variations  the old song Shaker song " Simple Gifts" into the ballet.

The minimalist set design was by another frequent Graham collaborator Isamu Noguchi.  Appalachian Spring was very well photographed in black and white.  It would probably be of interest to people interested in ballet and dance, this presentation this is very well done.

The running time is 30 minutes. 

1976 - THE SHOOTIST, John Wayne's final film

The Shootist's reputation as John Wayne's final film is a decent enough final film for this legendary performer.   It's now well known that Wayne who was suffering from cancer and in poor health had quite a few challenges getting through the filming.  Probably because he wasn't feeling well Wayne apparently had a lot of conflict with the director Don Siegel who was a fairly feisty guy as well.

 

This story is extremely downbeat.  Wayne plays an aging gunfighter dying of cancer who has decided to spend his remaining days living in a boarding house run by Lauren Becall.  However Wayne's reputation has made him a magnet for a lot of people looking to exploit him for a buck.  This all inevitably draws Wayne into one last gunfight.

 

This is a real old timer's film loaded with lots veteran actors.  Besides Becall, there's Harry Morgan, Scatman Crothers, Hugh O' Brian, Richard Boone, John Carradine, and Sheree North.  There's also a somewhat miscast Ron Howard as the young kid Wayne befriends.  Howard does a decent job with his role but at this point in his career he was so identified with his "Richie Cunningham" role from Happy Days it was difficult to see him in anything else.  James Stewart is also in the film and he gives a very good performance in a relatively small part.

 

John Wayne brought all of his skill and authority as an actor to his final film but The Shootist is an extremely depressing film and some what of a downer to watch.  Don Siegel another old timer Hollywood guy was known as a director of action films but he did a good job on The Shootist which is primarily a character study.

The film was written by Miles Hood Swarthout and Scott Hale, the running time is 100 minutes. 

1988 - I LOVE MARIA, aka Roboforce

Filmmaker Tsui Hark is the producer and stars in this pretty wild film which mixes about every conceivable genre possible for one film.  The obvious inspiration for this film was Robocop but instead of just doing a rehash of that film I Love Maria is jammed with lots of crazy action and comedy scenes.

In brief, a criminal gang known as The Hero Gang has built an impregnable robot called Pioneer 1 who can tear through the police like a piece of paper.  The stated goal of The Hero Gang is to eliminate the police and create chaos.  In addition they have developed another more humanoid looking robot called Maria played by Sally Yeh.  Yeh was the actor who was the blind women in John Woo's The Killer but I digress.  Anyway a scientist from the police force, a former member of The Hero Gang and a goofy reporter manage to get control of Maria and take on The Hero Gang along with help from the robot girl.  

 

As with a lot of these Hong Kong action films from the 1980's the fighting and shootouts are very well done. However you have to sit through a lot and I mean a lot of some really dumb comedy.  But that's the price you pay when you watch some of these Hong Kong action films.

 

I Love Maria is an entertaining film and a very fun ride of a film for the most part. 

The film was written (if that's the word) by Yuen Kai Chi, the running time is a frantic and never dull 96 minutes.

1958 - MAIGRET SETS A TRAP, character study disguised as a crime story

Inspector Maigret the famous French detective had been around since the 1930's.  The character has also been in many films almost from the start of his literary career.  Charles Laughton portrayed him in a 1950 film Man On The Eiffel Tower directed by Burgess Meredith.  In 1958, Maigret Sets a Trap showed up in America in a slick film production.

The Maigret character was played by Jean Gabin.  Gabin in his younger years was a romantic lead in films like Pépé le Moko, Port of Shadows and The Human Beast.  As Gabin grew older he took on more character driven parts as he assumed the role of "elder statesman" in the French cinema.  Gabin's take on the Maigret character is sort of a French version of Lt. Columbo, a detective who uses his brains instead of his gun etc.

In Maigret Sets a Trap the detective is after a serial killer of women.  Maigret has to match wits with the killer in the same sort of "as shucks" manner that Peter Falk did on Columbo.  Frankly the mystery and crime elements of the film are a little obvious but the entertainment value is in watching a great French actor do his acting thing.

 

This is a very good looking film with excellent black and white photography and overall an impressive studio production.  Jean Gabin went on to play the Maigret character in two more films.

The film was written by Jean Delannoy, Rodolphe-Maurice Arlaud and Michel Audiard.  the running time is 119 minutes.