Reviews
Train to Tombstone (1950)
Good example of how not to make a movie
One of the worst movies ever to make to the bottom half of a double bill. Extremely low-budget, and it shows. Lame script (loosely based on Stagecoach), acting varying from firmly stereotypical to "what am I doing here" painful, narrative consisting of a string of set pieces with little attempt to tie them to the story line, in which the train has to "get through", and there's a plot to steal a whack of gold.
Most of the action is shot on a single set, the interior of a passenger coach. Almost all external shots are either rear projection or stock footage, chosen with scant regard for authenticity and still less for continuity. I watched this mess because it has a railroad setting. The train includes a mid 20th century baggage car on a supposedly mid- to late 19th century run to Tombstone. There's a lot of shooting, with dramatic falling off screen when wounded, etc. One of the characters is shot in the left shoulder, and receives a bandage around his middle.
That may stand as the level of writing and editing of this waste of celluloid. Well, maybe not a total waste. It could be used in a film studies course as an example of how not do it. Recommended as just such an example, if you're in the mood for it.
Murder on the Home Front (2013)
Pretty good wartime ambience
Several murders of prostitutes almost lead to major miscarriage of justice, on grounds of National Security. Dr Collins, the new young forensic pathologist at first antagonises the police because he's aware of current methods, unlike his boss, the previous pathologist. He hires Molly Cooper, a reporter eager to participate in order to get ideas for detective stories, to be his assistant because she doesn't flinch when he asks her to help out on the first autopsy.
False leads and three more murders complicate the plot. As a murder puzzle this movie is very good. As a story about the effects of crime on people and their relationships, it's merely average: Collins and Cooper are clearly attracted to each other, but either he's too bashful or too aware of how romance might compromise their professional relationship. As an evocation of wartime London, the movie's better than most. The director wanted a claustrophobic effect, of being hemmed in and navigating through a perilous labyrinth. This not only set the ambience of hidden dangers and treachery, it also made it easier to give us the flavour of wartime grunge. As an exploration of the necessary evils of war the movie fails. It presents the ethical dilemma, but solves it rather too neatly. Maybe it was solved that neatly in real life.
We enjoyed this movie. Above average.
The Great Dictator (1940)
Interesting curio
An overrated film. The satire works very well, especially since Chaplin has sussed that Hynkel-Hitler was the empty puppet of his impulses. But Chaplin can't resist inserting slapstick and farce, which interferes with the developing terror. The Brown Shirts may have been buffoons, but their buffoonery killed people. Chaplin shies away from following the logic of his plot to its dark conclusion. The final scene, obviously meant to be a stirring call to arms against tyranny, turns the plot into sentimental farce. Satire is allied to tragedy, and doesn't need a happy ending to make its point. But perhaps the American audiences of 1940 preferred to laugh at slapdash tyrant instead of considering the moral imperative laid on them by recognising evil.
I watched this movie because of its reputation. It's become a curio, important for its historical significance. It did help mobilise American opinion against Hitler. But it's also an example of the muddled mess that Chaplin was capable of producing when not restrained by a strong director. A mixture of inspired satire, slapstick, and comedy, but that's all, a mixture. The movie doesn't have the structure that I expected. It's a series of set pieces loosely strung on an underdeveloped plot line. Too often, I got the impression that Chaplin was showing off, or relying on his audience recognising a shtick he'd used many, many times before.
Worth watching if you're a Chaplin fan, or if you want to understand how old movies coudl affect public opinion.
Soleil rouge (1971)
Attempt a cross-cultural understanding bareky succeeds
A train robbery threatens to become an international incident when the robbers steal a ceremonial Japanese sword on its way to the White House as a gift from the Emperor to the President. Mifune plays the samurai who must recover the sword, Branson a bandit with a grudge against the master crook played by Delon, and Andress the latter's mistress.
Lots of Spanish scenery trying its best to look like the arid American Southwest, shootouts which the heroes of course win despite overwhelming odds, some reasonably good acting, and some attempts at developing mutual understanding and respect between Mifune and Bronson. The last act is an awkward blend between tragedy and good-ol'-boy comedy. Entertaining enough, but the stars are wasted in this feeble attempt at cross-cultural High Romance. **
Soleil rouge (1971)
Attempt a cross-cultural understanding bareky succeeds
A train robbery threatens to become an international incident when the robbers steal a ceremonial Japanese sword on its way to the White House as a gift from the Emperor to the President. Mifune plays the samurai who must recover the sword, Branson a bandit with a grudge against the master crook played by Delon, and Andress the latter's mistress.
Lots of Spanish scenery trying its best to look like the arid American Southwest, shootouts which the heroes of course win despite overwhelming odds, some reasonably good acting, and some attempts at developing mutual understanding and respect between Mifune and Bronson. The last act is an awkward blend between tragedy and good-ol'-boy comedy. Entertaining enough, but the stars are wasted in this feeble attempt at cross-cultural High Romance. **
Conagher (1991)
A Family Western?
Based on the novel by Louis L'Amour. Rustlers, a cattle baron or two, a homesteader who dies in an accident on his way to town, a bashful lonesome cowboy, a lonesome widow and her two lonesome kids, questions of loyalty and integrity, a stage line establishing its route through the district, and of course the laconic dialogue that marks the Western as a man's man type of movie. But this is really High Romance. Elliot plays the knight in tarnished armour, Ross is the Lady in need of rescue, and it all plays out with a minimum of gore and a maximum of historical realism. Good movie. ***
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Wonderful mashup of your favourite 'toons, and more.
We decided to watch this movie for our New Year's Eve treat. A wonderfully crazy mess of a film. Eddie Valiant, who hates 'toons, must clear Roger Rabbit of a murder rap. Judge Doom wants to execute Roger in the most gruesome fashion imaginable. He also wants to destroy Toontown so that a freeway can be built. That also requires scrapping the big red cars of the Pacific Gas and Electric streetcar system. And so on and so forth.
Jessica, Roger's wife, is a slinky and impossibly endowed '40s vamp female, is not what she seems to be. Dolores, who manages the bar at the PGE terminal, is sweet on Eddie. Valiant is of course valiant, and has a (grudging) heart of gold. Pretty well all of Hollywood's 'toon characters appear. The whole thing is a mashup of your favourite film noir, romance, and 'toon tropes. I found our DVD copy at our local food bank's yard sale. Worth far more than the $1 I paid.
Buy or rent this movie, play it on your machine or stream it to your TV. Don't watch it on your phone, it really needs a big screen.
Funny Boy (2020)
Flawed but woirth watching
Arjun is Tamil boy who realises he's gay in a country that criminalises people like him. The movie follows his life from childhood to young manhood, set in Sri Lanka during the ethnic war that resulted in somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 deaths, and one million Tamils migrating to India, Canada, and other countries. The story is one damn thing after another. The messiness, almost incoherence of the script, mimics this, but also distances us from the characters, who become objects moved around by events that they don't and can't control. Arjun's relationship with Shean doesn't free either of them, it's at best a brief time of mutual joy which can't resist the politics surrounding it. The acting is uniformly very good, helping us Westerners understand a culture so different and yet oddly similar to our own. I get the impression that Mehta had a clear vision of what she wanted, and it wasn't a neatly structured plot tied up with a neat bow of a resolution. I think she also wanted to show how avoiding politics is no defence. The movie was engaging despite itself, the kind that tosses up half-recalled scenes when you least expect them. Worth watching, even if only to get a vague notion of what it's like to live in a different society than your own. I read a number of attacks on this movie, all of which focused on two points, and which all betrayed that the critics had political axes to grind. Pity.
Emergency Wedding (1950)
Superficial look at marriage
Emergency Wedding (aka Jealousy) (1951) [D: Edward Buzzell. Larry Parks, Barbara Hale, Willard Parker] Peter Kirk, bored young millionaire, tired of running his inherited business, takes to the road, is caught in a car crash, meets Dr Helen Hunt, woos and marries her, only to fall prey to jealousy when he discovers she treats male patients (one of whom wants the good doctor for himself). A few complications ensue, Dr Hunt leaves him, but all ends happily when he finds a good cause, and the usual Hollywood bromides work on the doc to prevent a divorce.
A piece of silly fluff, made as a 75 minute 2nd feature. Competent in all respects, but the only reason to keep watching is to see what will happen next. The theme of Dalton Trumbo's story could have made for a more subtle exploration of the roles of husbands and wives, but this was 1950, and a mere nod at this tricky issue was enough. Not bad of its type, but the type was I think already past its sell-by date in 1950. *½
Unleashing Mr. Darcy (2016)
If you like cute puppies, you'll tolerate this movie
Unleashing Mr Darcy (2016) [D: David Winning. Cindy Busby, Ryan Paevey, Elizabeth McLaughlin]. I recorded this because I'm always interested in attempts to rework Pride and Prejudice. Lizzie Scott is fired from her private school job because she insists that the basketball star (son of a Board member) should earn his marks. This plot thread later gives Mr Darcy an opportunity to help her.
She moves in with her aunt, who's a dog fancier. They show their dogs at a fancy dog show, judged by Mr Darcy, who's somewhat arrogant, very wealthy, etc. And who lives across the street. And whose dog has just delivered the cutest puppies you can imagine. And who needs someone to look after the puppies while he's away on business. And so it goes, in this lame riff on Pride and Prejudice. Biggest problem: Lizzie is supposedly 31 years old and an established professional. Yet she acts like a 15 year-old suffering her first "I don't like him, but those eyes!!!" crush. The dog shows aren't properly staged, either.
Give this one a pass, unless you like snorting at badly done cliches of romance and enjoy sussing parallels between two versions of the same material. Or want to suffer through another example of Awful Movies That You Watch Despite Yourself. *
Little Women (2019)
Well done riff on a well loved novel
Little Women (2019) [D: Greta Gerwig. Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh] I confess I haven't read Little Women. I started it many, many years ago, when I was a callow near-teenager, and got about halfway through. I recall liking Jo, I suppose because she was feisty. And feeling generally irritated because the story, such as it was, didn't seem to get anywhere. So watching this movie version was interesting.
The Wiki entry on the novel shows that the movie keeps to the main outline of the novel. But the movie is framed as a novel written by Jo, based on her family's life. She ends it with a romantic happy-ever-after wedding, because the publisher knows that will sell the book.
Gerwig picked up on all the hints of female strength and emancipation (limited, to be sure, this is the 1860s after all), and used scenes based on Alcott's own life, and fictional scenes from Jo's novel to weave a riff on the love romance that works, despite the goopy happy ending, and the Dickensian sentimentality in the fictional scenes of family festivities. The result is a movie that works. Which is to say, I liked it. Jo ends up unmarried (her occasional suitor marries her sister instead). Pity, she's an Elizabeth Bennet type, and deserves a man who can match her. Of course, such men are much harder to find in real life than in romances.
The movie was nominated for some Oscars, I don't know or care which ones. I liked it. If you haven't already seen it, do so.
Where Have All the People Gone (1974)
Good try at doomsday movie
Low budget TV movie that manages to engage because of good writing and solid acting. A solar flare knocks out all electric power, an earthquake releases something that kills at least 99% of humankind. The movie follows a few survivors who travel back to their home. It takes them a while to realise what's happened. The ending is very Hollywood, as is the psychology, with far too easy healing from the grief and shock, and implausibly minor physical effects on infrastructure. Still, worth watching as an early attempt to imagine a world-transforming catastrophe. **
The Christmas Train (2017)
Charming Christmas Silliness - if You're in the Mood for it
Tom Langdon, tired and cynical journalist, travels by train so as to get story ideas for a book. He meets up with Eleanor Carter, his ex-lover and partner, who left him long ago in another country when they were covering a war. One thing leads to another, and they end up about to get married. What else?
This is a Hallmark movie, the video version of Harlequin Romance. Like any such romance, it focuses almost entirely on the character's feelings, which are sketched in with cliched dialogue, portentous glances, one world-weary sigh after another, and so on. These books and movies are designed to enable the audience to fantasise a life- and love-style. I recorded it last December for later viewing because it was set on a train.
The movie's adapted from a novel by David Baldacci, a shlock writer of considerable skill. He has the formulas down pat, and knows how to plot the story so that it's just over the line of reality, which makes suspension of disbelief easier. Unless, like me, you happen to have technical knowledge that spoils the illusion. There were too many small inconsistencies in the railroad setting, along with a major plot-flaw involving an avalanche and an inability to radio the dispatcher. At that point, the train mysteriously morphed from a streamliner to a short string of BC Rail Budd RDCs.
I have a copy of Baldacci's book. It begins, "Tom Langdon was a journalist, a globe-trotting one, because it was in his blood to roam widely." That vapid sentence captures the tone of the movie perfectly. I enjoyed the silliness of it, and was, I confess, hard put to resist the mawkish sentimentality of its Christmas spirit. Nevertheless, I rate it only *½ (6/10)
Yesterday (2019)
Betles Nostlagia and more
A sweet movie about love, "the poisoned chalice of fame and money", reality (in several senses) and honesty with self and others. And the Beatles' music.
During a balckout (never fully explained, but who cares), Jack Malik (3rd rate struggling musician) is transported to an alternative timeline in which the Beatles never formed a band. He's the only one who knows their music, and he builds a career by presenting their songs as his own. The story ends happily, with a couple of nicely done reveals that (almost) explain what actually happened. Along the way, there are some pretty good covers of Beatles songs (none of them complete, unfortunately), some neat riffs on the evils of fame and fortune, and a love story holding the whole thing together.
Acting: first rate, including the roles of the (inevitable) stereotypes. Cinematography: competent, with no pretensions. Story line: plausible. Writing: very good, its main strength being dialogue that doesn't aspire to Great Thoughts.
Some reviewers think the movie falls over the edge into sentimentality, but I disagree. Go see this movie. If you know and love the Beatles music, it's a nice nostalgia trip. If you're too young to remember the Beatles, you'll realise what you missed. ****
First Man (2018)
Welldone bipic
All the main events of the Gemini and Apollo programs are (or should be) well know. We know how the story unfolded. What we don't know is how it was ived by the people who made it happen. This movie shows us that.
Armstrong was apparently one of those close-mouthed types unable to show grief or other "weak" emotions. But it's OK to show elation at winning, in his case by succeeding at difficult and very dangerous tasks. Armstrong's daughter died of a brain tumour. Anyone who's lost a child can identify with his grief, and anyone who's lost someone close knows that grief strikes repeatedly and without warning. The movie is based on a bio by James Hansen. I don't know how true to life Hansen' book is, but the movie convinced me. It's an odd thing, that although the moon program happened in the 1960s, the NASA world was firmly stuck in the 1950s.
So the movie's a good psycho-sociological study of NASA and the men who had the right stuff. It's also a hymn to work. The core of the story is the work of getting to the moon, and the personal and community sacrifices that this task entailed. I recall watching the landing on a large TV screen in the dorm in which I was staying while taking a summer course. But I didn't recall much of that while watching this movie. It was all about Armstrong, the NASA team, the moon shot, and the families. The music was occasionally intrusive, and some scenes teetered on the edge of sentimentality. The launches were impressively noisy and jittery: the astronauts are flying on top of a slowly exploding bomb. A movie worth watching.
Un tè con Mussolini (1999)
Tearjerker and comedy, sanitised war.
A determinedly and stupidly snobbish Englishwoman causes a lot of grief among her English expats in Florence during the 1930s and 40s. She believes that her special relationship with Mussolini will protect her during their internment as enemy aliens. Etc. Several subplots held together by the story of Luca, the illegitimate child of an Italian businessman, who's taken in a raised by one of the English ladies.
A tearjerker combined with comedy and a very sanitised nod towards the realities of war. Packaged as a Modern Classic by MGM, it delivers a very Hollywood couple of hours of entertainment. Zeffirelli knows how to make movies. Enjoyable, if you don't think too much about the war.
Red Sundown (1956)
Competently made genre fare
Gunslinger decides he wants to go straight and join civilisation. Happens upon a range war between a cattleman and some dirt farmers. Local sheriff deputises him, and the standard Western unfolds. 88 minutes keep the action moving along briskly with minimal pauses for stone-faced reflection on the past, etc. Competently made genre fare to provide the B-movie on a double bill. Western fans will like it, if you're not a fan, you should probably skip this one.
Black Panther (2018)
An old story well told as a Sci-F- Fantasy.
The story is the Lost Heir Who Comes to Claim His Kingdom, one of the most used plots in all genres. Here it's a well done fantasy-scifi, with better than average writing for the genre, and only mildly overdone fight scenes. For once, the CGI is justified by the story, which would be impossible to present convincingly without it. The movie uses all the tropes and clichés we've come to expect from the Marvel comic book universe, and takes them seriously but not solemnly. Striking visuals, beautiful design, pretty good acting, and generally unintrusive music help to make this an entertaining movie. ***
The Princess Bride (1987)
Meditation Fairty Tales
Based on William Goldman's riff on fairy tales, this is a charming and witty tale about True Love. The boy disappears when he leaves to seek his fortune, and rumour has it he's dead. So the girl doesn't object when the Prince decides to take her for his bride. The complications involve a giant, a swordsman looking for the man who killed his father, treachery and betrayal, and stuff like that. Of course the boy survived, and rescues the Princess from the evil Prince. Cameo appearances by Bill Crystal, Peter Falk, etc add to the pleasure.
So you might think this is just another light-weight entertainment. If that's what you expect, that's what you will see. I saw and heard an excellent script, above average acting, unobtrusive photography and music, and a meditation on the meaning and value of fairy-tale romance. Because True Love does win the end, though we may too often realise that too late. ***
Aces 'N' Eights (2008)
Good Western
The railroad must go through! A reformed outlaw sides with the dirt farmers in a fight with a crooked railroad promoter who uses outlaws to murder the farmers who oppose him. Good script, good acting, portentous music, along with good photography, stunt work and editing make this an above average Western. Uses all the cliches, of course. Lots of fighting towards the end, brutal murders along the way, but surprisingly little gore, which makes the violence all the more effective.
A Star Is Born (2018)
Great Music, but not enough to rescue the movie from mediocrity
This is the third remake. I've seen the other two, and they are much better than this one. Lady Gaga (Ally) is a great performer, her rendition of La vie en rose is worth the price of admission. There were other great moments and scenes (I liked the "I just wanted another look at you" moments), but overall the movie doesn't hang together. Should it show character through the work of being in show business (and it is work, hard work, with its constant demand to be up for the audience, to present to them the fantasy they've paid for and insist on seeing). Or should it show the work through the character's viewpoint (and so let us see what kind of character needs to be in the business of displaying a persona in order to feel validated as a person).
Jack (Bradley Cooper) kills himself so that Ally will be free of the effects of his drink and downers. A tragedy? A noble sacrifice? Or a typically sentimental Hollywood gesture? Ally may have some self-esteem issues, but underneath it all she's a steely-souled striver for fame. Jack thrives on stage, but has deep doubts about the value of his music. We get glimpses of what's underneath the surface, but it's not enough.
Cooper (who co-wrote the script) tries his best to show us the pain, he's given to long silent closeups of Jack's face as he tries to understand himself. But he shies away from the dark side. We get glimpses of what drives these people: Is show business the only way they have of facing the central questions of existence? In the end, Ally and Jack end up as cardboard cutouts, pop-psychology figures instead of fully rounded characters. A pity, since the story is about character. Show business is merely the means of displaying the flawed glory of being human.
I found the movie boring in places, pretentiously portentous in others, with a handful of great moments. The music ranges from pretty good to awesome. The acting is generally good, and Lady Gaga is excellent. Sam Elliot is as always a treat to watch. The script overuses the F-bomb, it's become a mere schtick. The photography is very good, never calling attention to itself, generating ambience and character, and carrying the story smoothly from one scene to the next.
Go see the movie, if only to get some idea of what makes a movie popular despite itself.
The Lady Confesses (1945)
Double-bill B movie
A straightforward noir B movie, nothing special, no attempt to do more than tell the story. Music cues the dangerous bits, so the audience can briefly pause from necking to watch the heroine escape from danger once more. That kind of thing. Dark interiors, night-time setting, etc. Barely an hour long. Perfunctory acting, competent editing. It was probably written, shot, edited, and printed in a week. The title has nothing to do with the story. *½
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
Disappointed
We went to see this movie because we had fond memories of the stage version of Mama Mia! (2003). This movie disappointed. Its narrative line is that Sophie has refurbished the hotel her mother Donna founded. After many not really insuperable obstacles, the grand reopening succeeds.
We also get the full backstory on how Donna managed to hook up with three guys in succession quickly enough that she couldn't (honestly!) figure out who was Sophie's father.
All in all, a mildly amusing mess, with ABBA's songs not fitting into the story as well as in the first version. I note that the first film version, with Meryl Streep playing Donna, has lower ratings than this one. I think you should see the stage version, and skip these movies.