Amph What was the last movie you saw? (Ver. 2)

Miami Connection. Watched it last night for the first time. The amount of incompetence on screen at any given moment is staggering and very funny.

 

The Sons of Katie Elder. It’s a great setup: after their saintly mother dies, four brothers reunite for her funeral. Gunfighter John Wayne, gambler Dean Martin, shopkeeper Earl Holliman, and college student Michael Anderson, Jr. haven’t been the best sons, but now that they’re back together and looking to atone, they find that their father was murdered a few months ago and their family ranch is in the hands of a local businessman, James Gregory, who has also hired gunman George Kennedy. It’s all very suspicious, and as they start digging into it, they run into trouble from the expected sources, as well as an eager deputy who’s convinced the brothers are all a bunch of crooks.

It makes for a fun Western, full of bravado, intrigue, shootouts, and some of the interpersonal relationships Westerns could be sneakily good at, as the brothers reconnect, Wayne navigates his sullied name, sheriff Paul Fix shows a little more nuanced understanding than his deputy, and Martha Hyer nags the boys about living up to their mother. A thoroughly solid and enjoyable Western.

 

Legend of the Lost. John Wayne and Sophia Loren in a treasure-hunting adventure movie? Of course I couldn’t resist! As a fifties adventure flick, it doesn’t exactly have the dynamism of an Indiana Jones movie, but it’s a fun desert journey nevertheless.

Rossano Brazzi hires Wayne to guide him through the Sahara to a lost city featuring hidden treasure, and petty thief and streetwalker Loren tags along, charmed by Brazzi’s kindness and disregard for her status. Of course Wayne and Loren don’t get along, until they do, and then it increases tension with Brazzi. The film is hardly action-packed, but it has a solid framework on which to hang its treasure quest and desert sojourn, and the group dynamics as they overcome obstacles are good enough to drive the movie. It’s scenic and entertaining, a good old-school adventure, and it’s fun to see Wayne outside his usual wheelhouse.

 

The Terminator What a simple and effective story. In the future robots and machines have developed enough intelligence to start a nuclear war to try and wipe out all of humanity. But pockets of resistance still exist, so a robot Terminator, disguised as a human, is sent back in time to the mid-1980's to kill Sarah Connor, who is the mother of the human resistance leader - John Connor. This will then prevent him being born. Whilst at the same time John sends a soldier, Kyle, back in time to protect her at all costs. Simple.

I can't remember the last time I saw this. In fact some scenes I had forgotten (like the flashforward to the terminator that had infiltrated the base in the future). This is an absolute classic, I'd even say that this film has a John Carpenter feel to it with the score, mostly being at night time and of course the slasher vibes of the indestructible antagonist (but with a sci-fi twist). Arnie was born to play this role, but equally its carried just as much by Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. Arnies changing look throughout the film was very noticeable, his hair becomes different, his face looks swollen with no eye brows at one point when hes in the squad car, then its different again when he gets to the police station. But overall it still holds up now, yes even the stop motion Terminator and the practical effects of the home surgery too. Such an iconic film, but don't think too much about the circular nature of the time travelling story line otherwise it'll hurt your brain. None more so than Kyle has sex with Sarah, so he actually fathers John when hes been sent back in time on this mission by John himself!!

My favourite John Wayne film. Being of a certain age I grew up with these films as my dad always put them on when they were on TV, I guess they were his equivalent of my childhood films which were Star Wars and Raiders. In fact whenever I go round to my mums and dads now there always seems to be a western on.

 

Bob le flambeur (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, 1956) 4k

Very good classic B&W French gangster heist movie.

Bob is a professional gambler. And he's very good at it. He's an ex-con, though he's left the gangster life long behind him. But his luck turns sour and one night he loses a giant amount of money. He learns from another ex-con about a safe at a casino with a fortune in it, and he hatches a plan for a heist.
Bob has met a young streetwalker, Anne, who's about to become homeless, and he lets her stay at his place--not to have sex with her, but because he's just that nice. Bob's young protégé Paolo digs her though, and sleeps with her, bragging about the upcoming heist plans. Not really believing him, she talks about those plans to another guy she sleeps with, the pimp Marc.



Very nice B&W cinematography on this one, with a great image quality on the disk. It's a very suave movie filled with suave characters. Very good, entertaining, and influential movie that is sometimes considered the first of the "French New Wave" (there's even a jumpcut!). I didn't think it was quite as good as the other (later) Melville films I've seen so far, but I'm still going to rate this 4.5 casino chips out of 5.

 

Revisited Crippled Avengers, the 2nd film the Venoms mob did for Shaw Brothers. Still love it, especially Kuo Chui’s blind, bo staff wielding acrobat*, and Sun Chien’s Taekwondo kicker with actual iron feet. It’s very satisfying to see the big bad (the great Chen Kuan Tai) being taken out by the very people he tried to eliminate.

*Seeing some parallels to Daredevil and -especially DD’s not-protégé- Blindspot from Charles Soule & Ron Garney’s volume 5 run.

 

To add to my 'review' above of Bob le flambeur, I just read that there's a remake called The Good Thief with Nick Nolte. Anyone seen that?

 

Hawaii. Based on only a portion of James Michener’s epic novel, yet still extremely long, Hawaii tells the story of the early missionaries to the islands. Max von Sydow is a young, fervent missionary who marries Julie Andrews and sets out on the long, arduous journey. When he gets there, he’s rigid, high-handed, and totally unable to grasp that he’s dealing with another culture; he seems to think he can simply barge in and demand everyone start acting like white Christians, time now. He’s assisted by Manu Tupou, convert and son of local ruler Jocelyne LaGarde, but unwilling to let him slowly bridge the cultures. Most of the drama surrounds his attempts to convert LaGarde and reform the local society, but there’s also a thread with Andrews’s former flame, whaling captain Richard Harris, and the slide of other missionaries away from ministry and toward business (including an early-career Gene Hackman).

The film takes a few interesting angles on Sydow’s work, but it’s hampered by several factors. One is a taste for melodrama. Nothing happens at a human level: when Harris gets in a battle of wills with Sydow, he storms the village and burns the church. When Sydow is disappointed with Tupou’s backsliding, he screams curses to heaven. Then all of a sudden at the end, he’s the crusader for the natives he’s scorned all film because Andrews gave him a humanist speech. It’s not a film of a lot of subtlety or nuance, which also affects Sydow’s character. The film has no real sympathy for him, so rather than seeing him as a flawed, prejudiced, but earnest man struggling through a demanding assignment he’s not prepared for, he mostly just comes off as an arrogant buffoon and ass. There’s a deeper level of engagement with the character we never get to. It’s a film that favors epic melodrama instead of intimate engagement, and it falls short as a result.

 

What A Carve Up 1961 After mentioning it last week I thought I'd dig it out and give it another watch. Ernest makes a living proof reading horror books and lives with his best friend Syd, a bookmaker (someone who takes bets for horseracing if that’s just a UK term). Ernest is visited one night by Sloane, a solicitor who's acting as executor for Ernest's uncle Gabriel, whos recently passed away, and hes invited to the reading of the will at the remote, fog bound Blackshaw Towers in Yorkshire. Sid and Ernie arrive at the creepy mansion, greeted by the monstrous looking butler and along with Sloane, meet the rest of the family, an odd and eclectic bunch, Guy, Malcolm, Janet, Edward and Uncle Gabriels nurse, Linda. After the will reading the family members are being murdered one by one and the bodies disappear. Finding secret hidden passageways and traps can Syd, Ernest and Linda unmask the murderer and in the absence of any bodies convince the police that people have been murdered?

I'm a huge fan of this film and in particular black and white, fog bound, set bound, old dark house murder mysteries. Its stars Sid James and Kenneth Connor as Syd and Ernie, 2 household names of UK comedy for a good number of years through the Carry On series and much more. Its also features Donald Pleasance as Sloane and the gorgeous Shirley Eaton as Linda, so its got a recognisable cast. I love old dark house mysteries and this adds a very likeable comedy twist to it. But it never gets too bawdy like the Carry On films did, Whilst based on a book, I'd say this really draws its inspiration from the wonderful Bob Hope movie, The Cat and the Canary. Well worth a watch if you’re in to old black and white creep mansion murder mystery films. Its available on youtube to watch, just avoid the crappy colourised version.

 

Yes, bookmaker (or bookie) is a term used in the U.S., as well. I understand the term "turf accountant" is a more British term, but that may have only been used on "Keeping Up Appearances".
I haven't seen this movie, but it also sounds similar to "The Laurel & Hardy Murder Case". You might want to check that one out.

 

I wasn't sure if I used the term bookie that some might think it related to books. Funnily enough Syd refers to himself as a man of the turf in the film too.

I'll definitely check out that Laurel and Hardy recommendation - thanks.

 

Sinners was basically everything I wanted it to be and more, maybe a little too much more, if you know what I mean. The first two-thirds of the movie are better than the final third; the performances, character work and the music just really shine in those sections. I respect the tonal shift to pure camp during that final third, but even a brawl of blues musicians vs. vampires isn't as compelling as the human drama that's come before. The movie does recover some of its mojo, however, with the climactic scene which wasn't at all what I expected.

Spoiler

Having the main character facing off against Klan members instead of vampires for the final action scene was a compelling, interesting and surprising decision. And, I think, correct. I found it incredibly satisfying and much more cathartic than the fight with the main vampire that came right before it.

This isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the final third; it's fun, campy and gore-soaked vampire mayhem. It's just, again, I loved the first two-thirds so much that the final third somewhat paled in comparison. But it's a compelling film and Coogler takes some big, big creative swings. The musical sequences are just incredible; there are three musical sequences here that are better than sequences you see in actual musicals. Michael B. Jordan in particular gives a predictably awesome performance and I loved Jack O'Connell, a great actor that I feel like I don't see often enough, in the villainous role.

 

Hell’s Angels. The perfectionist Howard Hughes pulled off a technical triumph with this war epic, filling it with scenes of aerial daring and excitement, and in general making an impressive film. But it deserves attention for its story as well, following two brothers in World War I. Straight-arrow brother James Hall loves Jean Harlow, not knowing she’s a high-living tramp. Temperamentally she’s more like brother Ben Lyon, a womanizing hedonist. But both brothers join the RAF during the first World War, and their temperaments show up in their different approach to duty, culminating in a gut-wrenching finale. There’s also a subplot with their pre-war German friend, who doesn’t believe in the war but is pulled in anyway, to his doom. It’s a dark film that’s willing to give its audience an ending where heroism is a little more challenging, and our heroes don’t just learn their lesson and save the day. Hughes gets some real drama and complexity out of the film, and it’s ultimately much more impressive than most early talkies.

 

The mass dogfight scene from Hell's Angels is legendary. The same footage got reused in many other movies. And that head-on mid-air collision is horrifyingly real; I've been watching it for years and still don't understand how they filmed it.

 

Wife vs. Secretary. You would have to be insane to cheat on Myrna Loy, and thankfully Clark Gable isn’t insane. There’s something nice about a romantic comedy where everybody’s faithful and the relationships are all great, but human nature allows a little doubt to creep in, and that’s as far as it needs to go for the drama.

Gable is a high-powered magazine publisher happily married to Loy. Jean Harlow is Gable’s high-speed, capable secretary, and they have a close, friendly, loving, but entirely platonic relationship, one that Loy understands and is fine with. But everybody keeps telling Loy she should be suspicious of her husband having a secretary who looks like Harlow, and when Gable and Harlow are hard at work on a secret acquisition deal, coincidence start piling up that make them look guilty. Loy finally gets jealous, as does Harlow’s boyfriend, Jimmy Stewart.

The film is full of snappy comedy and warmth, spending much of its time setting up the situation, and the strength of all the relationships, so that the third-act jealousy lands with sufficient weight, but doesn’t derail the movie with prolonged unpleasantness. It’s a well-constructed, delightful film — and what a cast!

 

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (dir. Jake Kasdan, 2007) streaming

I'm not a huge fan of the musical biopic. The only really good ones I can think of are La Vie en rose, Love & Mercy, Bird, Control, and obviously Amadeus, if that one counts. Most of the time we're saddled with instantly forgettable mediocrity like Rocketman or Bohemian Rhapsody, or worse.

There are also some really good parody movies (Airplane!, Galaxy Quest), but based on the trailers of most parody movies, I'mma guess those are the exceptions.

This movie is a parody of rock biopics, especially Walk the Line. I have to say had high hopes, based on its cult status. And yes, there were funny bits. But overall I don't think it deserves its cult status. I understand the tropes they were poking fun of, but most of the time things went on for too long or were otherwise overplayed. I think the whole thing would've worked better is it had been 50 minutes, instead of more than twice that. That said, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story has a similar conceit but is more recent. I thought that one was OK, but, in retrospect, it clearly took some cues from Walk Hard, so that one has fallen in my estimation a bit. Well, whatever. 2.5 scenes where Mr Cox is so enraged that he destroys a sink out of 5.

 

@Count Yubnub , what, no mention of Spinal Tap? Crank it up to 11, man.

 

I think that one’s kind of its own category.

 

Let's not forget the Rutles mockumentary, "All You Need is Cash".

 

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