1996 - JINGLE ALL THE WAY, mediocre Christmas comedy at best

Jingle All The Way is a very good example of a very mediocre comedy being pulled across the finish line by the actors since the director and scriptwriter couldn't get the job done.  Arnold Schwarzenegger is a too busy dad who forgets to buy his son a popular toy action figure before Christmas.  The movie is basically about Arnold racing all over town trying to get his hands on one.  Cue one fairly lame comedic situation after another.

The film is loaded with actors who are trying their best to get some laughs out of this thin premise.  Jim Belushi is a crooked Santa Claus, Phil Hartman is Arnold's lech of a neighbor who is hitting on Arnold's wife played by Rita Wilson. Robert Conrad is a motorcycle cop who Arnold continually runs into and the comedian Sinbad is a deranged postal worker who is also trying to get the action figure for his son.

 

Jingle All The Way is part of inevitable downward slide of Arnold's film career which probably peaked with True Lies, You can't stay on the top of the heap forever.  Arnold had made a few comedies but in this film he was either directed or decided to play it very broad and slap sticky.  You could probably also say that about the rest of the cast,  just not a whole lot of clever comedic acting going on.  The exception is Phil Hartman as the sleazy neighbor, he steals the show from just about everybody.

 

If the movie has any interest at all it's that it was filmed in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St Paul), my old hometown.  The geography of the film has the actors starting one scene in Minneapolis and ending it in St. Paul, the film hops all over the place without any sense of location.  However the final Christmas parade set piece was obviously shot in Hollywood.   This location stuff is funny to me but probably won't mean much to any other viewer outside of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The film was written by Randy Kornfield, the running time is 89 minutes. 

1996 - THE GOD OF COOKERY - a funny Stephen Chow film.

Stephen Chow should have been a bigger deal in the West.  Already a big star in Asia he never really received the recognition that Jackie Chan was finally able to achieve.  Chow made a bunch of popular and highly profitable films in Hong Kong.  The God of Cookery was one of Chow's biggest hits.

In this film Chow spoofs celebrity chefs and those celebrity chef cooking shows.  Chow plays a character named "Stephen Chow."  After humiliating just about everyone who he perceives to be standing in his way.  He gets his comeuppance by losing his show and all of his sponsorships.  This leads to Chow ending up in an area of Hong Kong where they cook and sell street food. There he befriends a facially scarred woman played by the performer Karen Mok who makes something called "pissing beef balls" It's a dumpling that ultimately squirts fluid all over your face as you eat it.  Chow knows a potentially popular food when he sees it so he sets out to market it with a line of canned pissing beef ball delicacies.

 

The humor is an incredible mix of martial arts, Chinese word play (which I suspect will go over the heads of most Western viewers) and lots of jokes about a Shaolin Monastery where he is trained to be a humble master chef.

 

Chow mixes so many comedic styles and genres that at times it's jarring to see him go from pathos to outright goofy "Jerry Lewis" comedy.  The actor Karen Mok is a good sport wearing disfiguring facial makeup and the climatic cook off even drags in some heavenly intervention in the form of some Asian gods.  Overall mighty funny stuff. 

The film was written by  Stephen Chow Edmond Lo and Tsang Kan-cheong, the running time is 92 minutes.

1986 - WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE, a violent entertaining action film.

Wanted Dead Or Alive is supposedly a continuation of the series that starred Steve McQueen as a bounty hunter.  It was essentially another Western TV show that plagued the television watching public in the late 1950's to early 1960's.  McQueen played a character named Josh Randall.  This updated film which uses the title of the series and not much else features Josh Randall's descendant Nick Randall who is also a modern bounty hunter.  But who's kidding who here.  Nick Randall is played by Dutch actor Rutger Hauer and he is supposed to be a descendant of Indiana born Steve McQueen!

This is a violent 1980's action film.  It's also almost a nostalgia piece with all that supposedly high tech 1980's hardware such as land line phones and evil Arab terrorists which our hero has to contend with.  Nick Randall lives on a boat and romances a flight attendant named Terry working on her PHD of course.  Nick's also got a cop friend who is pretty much around to give Nick information on the Arab terrorists and eventually get shot which prompts Nick into a fury of violent revenge.  Since this was an era of not trusting the United States Government, one of the agencies of the United States is cooperating with the Arabs for their own secret reasons.  Needless to say Nick will sort all of this out by killing just about everybody in sight.

 

Beside Rutger Hauer, the film has a not uninteresting cast.  Gene Simmons from "Kiss" plays the head of the evil Arabs.  Mel Harris the future star of Thirtysomething where she played the tiresome Hope Steadmen, is Hauer's girlfriend.  Robert Guillaume from Benson is a government agent helping Nick Travis out.

 

Wanted Dead Or Alive is a violent 1980's action film but I have to admit this is a very well made violent action film.  The director Gary Sherman does a good job staging all the shootings and car chases. Rutger Hauer certainly looks ruthless enough to play a bounty hunter and the whole 1980's setting makes me warm and fuzzy for the good old  movie days when the action scenes weren't created by a computer.

The film was written by Michael Patrick Goodman, Brian Taggert and Gary Sherman, the running time is 104 minutes.

1958 - THE TRAPP FAMILY IN AMERICA, a sort of sequel.

 I doubt fans of The Sound of Music are aware that it is actually a remake of a German film called The Trapp Family (1956)  that version of the singing Von Trapp Family also made a lot of money.  The German studio Gloria Films just like their Hollywood counterparts knew a money making machine when they saw it and went ahead and released the further adventures of the Von Trapp Family as The Trapp Family In America.

The story is basically about the Von Trapp Family traveling around America by bus performing their dreary religious song repertory.  Not unlike Julie Andrews, Maria Von Trapp is a goody two shoes who realizes that the paying American public wants to hear music they can relate to in this case a chorale version of "Oh Suzanna" apparently. The Von Trapps eventually end up in Vermont where they buy a farm which I believe is still owned and managed by some of their descendants.  That's about all this film is, a bunch of people riding around on a bus, a bunch of kids singing and Maria Von Trapp as her smiling happy self.

 

I suppose a couple of things to note.  Maria Von Trapp was played by an actor named Ruth Leuwerik who was a big star in Germany in the 1950's.  The real Maria Von Trapp wrote a book about her experiences and eventually sold it to Gloria Films while signing away her rights to any profit participation in the film.  This sequel apparently made quite a bit of money.  Much like American audiences, there is sometimes no accounting for taste when it comes to the German movie goer.

Overall this film is mighty dreary.  There really is no conflict and there is a whole lot of singing the viewer has to sit through.  As with any "based on a true story" film the “facts” are mighty wobbly compared to the real story of these singing songbirds.  This is not much of a film, The Trapp Family In America is more of a curiosity than an interesting story.

The film was written by what else an ex Nazi named Herbert Reinecker, the running time is 103 minutes.

1984 - THE MAKING OF FANNY AND ALEXANDER, a documentary

Sensing this would probably be his last film, Ingmar Bergman had a cameraman named Arne Carlsson follow him around while he filmed Fanny and Alexander.  The resulting documentary with the less than clever title The Making of Fanny and Alexander was the result. The film is sort of fascinating and probably of more interest for film scholars especially those who are admirers of Ingmar Bergman.

The film starts out with Bergman and his cast at a meet and greet where Bergman announces he is just a director this time and doesn't remember any of the script they are about to film. This is a rather dubious claim since he wrote the film.

We get a lengthy scene of Bergman staging a scene on the Ekdahl family set and we see Bergman working with the young actors playing Fanny and Alexander.  We also see cinematographer Sven Nykvist behind the camera setting up the lights and the camera angles.  Sven Nykvist was clearly an important collaborator for Bergman and at times he almost seems like a co-director.

Probably the most poignant and interesting part of this film is Bergman directing one of his old colleagues the actor Gunnar Björnstrand.  Björnstrand  is clearly suffering from memory loss.  Bergman is extremely patient with him as Björnstrand blows take after take.

 

Again, an interesting film but it's probably best to keep in mind since Bergman took a director's credit on this we are only going to see what Bergman wants us to see.  Considering the big cast and the logistics of filming such a long film I doubt things went as smoothly as he seems to indicate.

The running time is 110 minutes.

1982 - FANNY AND ALEXANDER, the extended version

Hang in there we're getting to the end of this Ingmar Bergman mini film fest.  With Fanny and Alexander, Bergman announced this would be his final film.  Hyperbole being what it is from film directors,  he went on to make a few more films although they were primarily for Swedish Television.  It's probably more accurate to say this was Bergman's final theatrical film.

In recent years Bergman had been challenged to find financing for his films.  In order to get this film made he agreed to make two versions, a television mini series that runs over five hours and a theatrical version that runs almost three hours.  Apparently Bergman preferred the television version of this film.

 

The film tells the story of the Ekdahls an upper class family living in Uppsala,  Sweden.  The Ekdahls own a theater which is managed by one of the sons of Helena Ekdahl (the matriarch of the family) named Oscar.  Oscar and his wife Emilie in addition to running the theater are also performers. They have two children, Fanny and Alexander.  Alexander is a boy with a very vivid imagination which will bring him a lot of trouble. 

The film starts with an extended scene of a Christmas party at the Ekdahl home where all is happiness and joy.  But this is an Ingmar Bergman film and in the second act of the film Oscar suffers a heart attack and passes away.  Cue the entrance of the chief villain of this film the Lutheran Bishop Edvard Vergérus a character so frightening he could be in a Wes Craven film.  For reasons that would take to long to explain and are actually kind of unbelievable the grieving widow Helena ends up marrying the bishop and moves into his very austere residence along with her two children.

The film gets very harrowing at this point as the Bishop turns out to be a tyrannical figure who takes out most of his anger on Alexander.  In some very brutal scenes, the bishop physically punishes Alexander to the point of drawing blood from the ten year old child.  The remainder of the film involves the Ekdahl's  attempts to rescue Fanny, Alexander and Helena from the Bishop's household.

At this point in Bergman's career a lot was known about his early life growing up with a father who was a strict Lutheran minister.  The character of the Bishop is clearly based on Bergman's father and Alexander is obviously a stand in for a young Ingmar Bergman.

Fanny and Alexander is one of Bergman's best looking films.  The photography by Sven Nyquist is excellent and the sets and costumes are a real treat to look at.  The film is a mixture of new and old actors who Bergman had worked with in the past.  Jari Kulle, Gunnar Björnstrand,  Erland Josephson, and Harriett Andersson were part of his famous stock company.  Incredibly Liv Ullmann and Max Von Sydow turned down roles in this film.

Fanny and Alexander is in many ways a rehash of Bergman's favorite themes but it's a well made and involving film even in the extended television version.

The film was written by Ingmar Bergman.  The running time for the theatrical version is 188 minutes, the television version runs 312 minutes.

1958 - BRINK OF LIFE, aka SO CLOSE TO LIFE

Three pregnant women about to give birth meet and bond in a hospital ward.  That's about it for the plot of this soap operish film.  If you are looking for a film celebrating childbirth you have certainly come to the wrong film, this is an Ingmar Bergman film.

This film is unbelievably depressing even for a Bergman film.  All the relationships between the women and their husbands are shall we say kind of lacking.  The plot line moves from one angst ridden pregnant woman to another and needless to say the film does not resolve itself with a happy ending.

If the film has anything going for it, it's the cast of performers Bergman assembled for this film.  Ingrid Thulin, Eva Dahlbeck, Bibi Andersson, Max Von Sydow and Erland Josephson are all members of Ingmar Bergman's famous "stock company."

 

It's difficult to see what Bergman saw in this pointless story.  This is one of his rare films where he doesn't take a writing credit.  Unaccountably the film won several awards at the Cannes Film festival for Bergman, Thulin, Dahlbeck and Andersson.  I won't argue that the film is well acted and well made, but it is an awfully depressing slog to sit through.  However all the women are very good at crying on cue.

The film was written by Ulla Isaksson, the running time is 84 minutes.

1955 - DREAMS, an Ingmar Bergman drama about two women

Ingmar Bergman writes and directs a film about the love lives of two women.  Eva Dahlbeck is the head of a modeling agency and Harriet Andersson is one of her top models.  They both have unresolved issues revolving around their love lives.

  

Dahlbeck is involved with a married man and she apparently wants him to leave his wife for her,  Harriet Andersson is in a relationship with a man she finds unexciting.  On a trip to another city for a photo spread both women come to realizations that resolve their relationships.

 

Ingmar Bergman was always considered one of the best writer/directors when it came to roles for women in his pictures.  However in this instance the situations seem a little low key and in some ways unimportant.  The film is directed with his usual skill, at this point in his career Bergman was an accomplished filmmaker.

However it didn't hurt to have two very good performers appear in this film.  Harriett Andersson always brought a sensual quality to the Bergman films that she appeared in.  Eva Dahlbeck worked with Bergman frequently and she was always a strong presence in his films.  She's kind of forgotten today in the world of Ingmar Bergman film admirers, but she was just as important to his films as Liv Ullmann or Bibi Andersson.

For the most part Dreams is a minor but well made Bergman film and is probably more a film for Ingmar Bergman film fanatics who need to see everything he made

The running time is 87 minutes.

2017 - AMERICAN MADE, a very entertaining Tom Cruise film

From Tom Cruise and the always erratic but interesting director Doug Lyman is one of those based on a true story films.  Cruise isn't playing his tiresome Ethan Hunter character this time. Instead he is a gun and drug smuggler named Barry Seal who appears to be working for the CIA.  He's running guns for the Contras in Nicaragua as part of a plot to destabilize the government under the Reagan Administration.  

 

At the same time Barry Seal was also smuggling drugs for the Medellín Cartel into the United States. This is almost a classic comedy farce as Seal has to juggle all these very dangerous South American bad guys while making boat loads of money.  But the reality is his activities affect a number of people's lives.  

 

Tom Cruise was always good at comedy and his character of a too smart for his own good criminal who finally runs out of cleverness is fun to watch.  The film has a good supporting cast with Domhnall Gleeson as his very sleazy CIA contact, Sarah Wright as his wife, smart enough to see what's going on but enjoying the money that Barry Seal is bringing in.  Also in an amusing role is Caleb Jones as the white trash brother in law whose stupidity starts to bring this whole house of cards down.

 

The director Doug Lyman was honest enough to admit that the film was only "based on" incidents in Barry Seals life  but you just have to spend a little time on the internet to see that a lot of the film wasn't that far from the actual truth.  A well made and very good film from Tom Cruise who can rise to occasion when he wants to instead of just playing it safe,

The film was written by Gary Spinelli, the running time is 115 minutes