2006 - SEARCHING FOR ORSON, another Orson Welles documentary

Another trip down the never ending road of the film career Orson Welles.  This documentary looks at his later years when one project after another was left unfinished for various reasons.

This film focuses on the relationship of Orson Welles and his "companion" Oja Kodar.  The film has the usual talking head bunch of Hollywood personalities such as Spielberg, Bogdanovich, Merv Griffin etc.

There really isn't a whole lot here.  I think most filmmakers would acknowledge that Welles was a master of the cinema.  I don't think anyone needs Spielberg to tell them that.  A few hours watching DVD's of his completed films would more than get the point across.

As always these documentaries seem to find tantalizing scenes of unfinished Welles films.  Pieces of The Dreamers, Don Quoxite, The Deep, The Merchant of Venice and The Other Side of the Wind show up throughout this film.  These unfinished films look fascinating and it's unfortunate they were never completed.

80 minutes

2016 - BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE, the extended version

Did somebody actually read the script for this film prior to shooting it?  The story is a muddled mess combining Lex Luthor, Russian terrorists, and Batman deciding the Superman is evil or something like that.  Honestly they could have taken a couple of issues of some DC comic featuring Superman and Batman and made a better and more coherent film.  

I chose to watch the extended cut of this film which I had read was a lot better than the theatrical cut.  I am starting to wonder where I read that because at 3 hours this film is still a mess and even more unforgivably a boring mess.  For a film with a couple of super heroes it's amazing how little action there is until around the last hour of the film.  To compensate for this lack of excitement during the first two hours of the film.  Several dream sequences involving Batman were added which make no sense and only make a long film seem even longer. 

The film is a setup for a Justice League of America film with appearances by Wonder Woman and Aquaman.  Good luck with that film.

181 minutes, written by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer.

1935 - CHARLIE CHAN IN EGYPT, enjoyable throwback to a different time

No one would mistake this film for a piece of cinematic art but it does have it's pleasures.  Chinese detective Charlie Chan is on the trail of some Egyptian artifacts stolen from a tomb that is being excavated.  He gets involved in a couple of murders and wraps the whole thing up in under 90 minutes.

Usually these Chan films had the participation of  his "#1 or #2" sons but Chan is on his own with help from the black actor Stepin Fetchit !  Seen today the Stepin Fetchit character is pretty intense as he promotes some of the worse stereotypes of black Americans.  However Charlie Chan does not treat him in a condescending manner which is apparently left to the white people in the cast to take up the patronizing slack on the one black character in the film.

The mystery is a convoluted mess to put it mildly.  However I have to give the writers credit for devising weird ways to kill some of the characters off.  Nobody gets the best of mild mannered Charlie Chan who is always two steps ahead of the local police in solving the crime.  

The film is poorly directed and has to rely on Warner Oland ( a Swedish American actor) to pull the picture through.  The film is also notable for an early appearance of 40's sex symbol Rita Hayworth.

73 minutes written by Robert Ellis and Helen Logan.