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Reviews
Shine a Light (2008)
Shine A Light, Darkly
If you haven't seen the Stones, you've got to see the Stones and this film is a good way to do it. But not, as some would have you believe, a great way. It's just a concert film, nothing more nothing less. I don't care who supposedly directed it - exactly what directing is required for a performance on a stage at a theater? Concert films are made by the choices the camera operators make, and then the choices the editor makes in post. This could have been a Billy Jo Jenkins production, for all that we see of the magic Marty's touch. Marty's bit in the opening is amusing, but his faux bit at the end is egotistical and unnecessary (nice special effects, though).
For someone like me who's only a medium Stones fan, it turns out I've seen a lot of Stones films and frankly, they succeed or fail depending on how well the show is that night. For example, I'm holding in my hands an HBO in-concert performance by the Stones at MSG and it's directed by one Marty Callner. I don't know who Marty is, he might have a long and storied career or not, but this show kicks arse and it's not because of who was directing -- The Stones were ON that night. And the earlier IMAX film done back in the early '90s found our boys in much livelier and younger form. Watching Shine A Light, if you've seen much Jagger before, you can tell he's very tense. Not having a good time at all. God bless the guy, he has amazing moves, but he's not in the best voice and he doesn't address the audience at all. Barely acknowledges them, as if he were all caught up in the "importance" of what he is up to. Keith, well he's always Keith and what a hoot. As noted in other comments, you sense that there's a support team behind the main players but you only rarely see them. Chuck Leavell does OK but nothing special, Bobby Keyes God bless him just lives for the moment he can play his Brown Sugar solo, in fact he was so eager he starts to play it in Live with Me. Cristina A. adds nothing to the show but some T&A, she doesn't sing so much as wail and might as well be doing her Lady Marmalade music video over again. Jack White does yeoman service, and of course Buddy Guy is a legend so he can do no wrong.
If you're a fan of the Some Girls era of the Stones, prepare to be disappointed. Shattered is lazy and sloppy, Some Girls is moderately interesting but Jagger took out the line about black girls, and Far Away Eyes is a throwaway. It's interesting to note that for several songs Jagger has a guitar slung over his shoulders, not because he adds anything to the show with it, but because after all these years he's finally realized that the coolest guy on stage is the guitar slinger (i.e., Keith). Poor Charlie is a great drummer and does his usual fine job, but away from the drum kit he seems like a doddering old pensioner. And I swear one of the backup singers is really Lou Reed moonlighting for the night.
So see it and enjoy it, but it won't change your life or the way you already feel about Mick and the gang. about the Stones.
Point Blank (1967)
Some things get better with age
but that doesn't seem to apply to an awful lot of films from the '60s, including this one. At the time it might (might) have seemed like Point Blank was a daring, brash, modern breath of violent new wave. The first few scenes of the film are consciously a mess and leave you quite disoriented. Then as things settle down and you realize where the film is going, you realize that it's not going to be a very interesting trip. Simple can be good, or simple can just be simple. As Ebert points out, you almost start counting the number of times Lee Marvin says "Give me my money" because he doesn't say very much else. He makes Alain Delon in Le Samourai seem like a chatterbox.
I have to agree with other posters who said they didn't care for Angie, she does seem awfully slutty without any kind of justifying or softening backstory. The hordes of guys in tight black suits against the sunwashed brightness of So Cal is amusing, and Marvin's test drive is shocking and funny, but this is mainly a film for completists. Nothing much here when all is (barely) said and done.
Somewhere in the Night (1946)
A laugher
but it's not supposed to be. This one is just a mess, the plot is ... well, where IS the plot? Nancy Guild (rhymes with wild) does a very bad Bacall impression, Hodiak not quite handsome enough to pull off movie leads, Conte and Nolan dependable as always. Fritz and Margo make good impressions in bad parts.
The best part of the 2005 version of the DVD is the commentary by Eddie Muller; as a noir expert, he's not afraid to call a turkey a turkey and he has a lot of fun poking fun at the movie and (surprisingly, since Fox paid him) calling it out for what it is. So watch the movie just to get it over with, then sit back and enjoy Muller's critique. It's like a noir MST3000!
Un flic (1972)
No shattering insights here, just confirming
Just confirming what others have posted, this is not Melville's best effort. Minimalism is one thing, you don't have to connect every dot for us. But you DO have to give us enough dots to work with to come up with a worthwhile film, and that's the problem here. There is so little dialogue in the film, it nearly qualifies as a silent movie. We know and learn almost nothing about the three leads from film start to end; why is American Crenna a Paris gangster, why is he friends with Delon, and exactly how does Ms. Deneuve fit into the triad? Just a little backstory would have made everyone more interesting and worthy of our attention.
I knew going in the helicopter/train set piece would be underwhelming, but a couple of times I laughed out loud at just how lame it was. I kept looking for the strings to indicate that it was an outtake from the old Thunderbirds series. And the whole sequence really does take an awfully long time, it almost feels like padding.
The Awful Truth (1937)
Not quite awful, but ...
Guess I'll have to ring in with a different take than most posters. I expected grand things from a combo of Grant, Dunne and McCarey. The movie starts off promisingly enough, Irene keeps up well with Cary and his physical comedy is amusing. But about halfway through the movie just runs out of gas - the scene where Dunne impersonates Grant's sister was dull and tedious beyond belief, and then the endless scene at the end with the chattering door ... yawn. I read that much of the film was improvised on the set, and I'm afraid it shows. I just sat on my couch waiting for the film to end, and that's never a good sign.
But because there are some good bits loaded at the top, and because Cary is, well, Cary, it's not a total disaster, just a frustration. Ralph Bellamy provides one of his reliable second banana hick roles, but his presence just kept reminding me of the superior pace and wit of "His Girl Friday."
Across the Pacific (1942)
Entertaining romp for Bogie
I'm mostly going to echo previous sentiments, such as - this has nothing to do with the Pacific; the last third of the movie is quite different from what precedes it; you keep flashing back to the Maltese Falcon as you watch it, which isn't necessarily bad (I wish Bogie or Huston could have come up with an endearment other than Angel). Think of this film as the love child of Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, with a little rah-rah go America at the end.
Two things struck me about the film. First, the tone between Bogart and Astor right from the start is very light and playful, almost like a rom-com. Even when things supposedly get sinister, it's all played almost for laughs. The other thing is the respect given to Japanese characters and their culture. We were at war, don't forget, and they were the enemy and generally portrayed very poorly. The on-board judo demonstration gets an informative and reverent explanation from Greenstreet, and the silent movie showing in the theater is just a little silly and not racist at all. Odd that the innkeeper in Panama is Chinese, but perhaps that is historically accurate. This is a good one.
My Dinner with Andre (1981)
Treat it like a fancy, expensive dinner
I loved looking through the comments, it's amazing how much reaction this simple little film can provoke.
I think of this film as going out to a fancy restaurant and trying some exotic, new dish. It may turn out you don't like it, so it's OK to spit it out (the disk, literally). You may need to get up and take a leak, just like in a restaurant; just hit pause, and give the film some time to steep while you're gone. It's a tough slog if you try to get through this in one long chunk, take your time (like Andre says the Buddhists made him eat lunch).
I doubt if I'll want to try this particular dish again, but I'm glad I did. And I'm glad Andre did 90% of the talking, Shawn didn't have much worthwhile to say and it's tough listening to him talk. Sorry Wally.
The Stranger (1946)
Thriller, drama? Yes. Noir? No
Did Orson ever do anything in moderation? Like Touch of Evil, this one has overheated writing, acting and direction, all due no doubt to the larger-than-life aspirations of Mr. Welles.
The story here is painfully simple - find the Nazi and bring him to justice. Thanks to IMDb, I now know that there was more of a prologue before Welles is discovered, because the way it is now, one minute the guy's south of the border somewhere, the next he's getting off the bus in Connecticut. With Edward G. not even trying to hide, he's right next to the guy the whole time, puffing smoke in his face! OK, so they found Nazi Welles. Everyone knows it's him, there's no need for the trapping and plotting, why not just arrest and try him, if it's the wrong man he will go free? Oh well, that wouldn't be much of a movie would it? Better to keep putting poor loving wife Loretta in constant peril. And give Orson a chance to over-emote all over town. At least they didn't try to poison her, I guess they felt that was too cliché even for them. Edward G. is awfully blasé about Loretta's situation too, he seems to think that if she needs to die, well that's a small price to pay.
Disappointing film on all counts. It does feel like low-rent Hitch.
Dark Passage (1947)
Don't go out of your way for this Dark Passage
I found this one a disappointment on just about every level. The Bacall-Bogart relationship in the film is just too odd to ever get comfortable with ... oh yeah, she's always secretly thought he was innocent and oh yeah, she just happens to be driving in the area that day, and on and on and on. The look of absolute love she has on her face in every closeup just comes from nowhere. And as others have noted, the coincidences in this film are too many to list, it's almost the only thing the story is based on. Every character seems to have Moorehead's number, but no one does anything about it ... and the way she meets her maker is just too crazy to believe.
Helpful tip for people driving near prisons ... don't ever pick up hitchers, especially when sirens are wailing! I really like noir, and I really like Bogart, but this film did zippo for me. My wife (who cares not much for either)was thoroughly unimpressed. Gimme the Big Sleep with all its inconsistencies anyday.
The Chase (1946)
Yes it's confusing, but that's OK
It's fun to stretch the old brain muscle once in a while and get thrown a curvy film like this one. It doesn't just march along in a linear fashion, it stops and starts and twists and makes you question what you think is happening. Kinda like "Eternal Sunshine" in that regard, although it doesn't quite hop around nearly as much as that one.
But don't worry noir fans, it does follow many of the usual conventions. Beautiful woman in dangerous marriage, laconic good guy comes out of the blue and instantly decides to save her, sadistic bad guys, lots of dark and shadowy scenes. There's not a lot of chatter in this film, just enough. I really liked the Peter Lorre character, he's a man of few words but, to paraphrase Spencer Tracy, what there are, are cherse. And what's with that accelerator? Where did THAT idea come from? This film seems to have gone PD so it's available from several sources quite cheaply, often as a two-fer. It's worth your while.
Crack-Up (1946)
Noir lite
A noir that came from the B unit, a good story passably told. Pat O'Brien plays his part very calmly and with great restraint - or is it that he's not much of an actor? Hard to tell. The women are also hard to figure, either by directorial choice or because they're not up to snuff either.
It really starts to drag towards the end, there's a bit with truth serum that adds nothing to the story except padding. There are also a couple of unintentionally funny bits where the luggish O'Brien suddenly springs to action and (his double) does stunts that are totally out of character.
A mildly entertaining 90 minutes of noir-ish style, has some very nice lighting effects and the train crash is well executed.
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
A delightful Hitch romp
Now this is the kind of Hitchcock film I enjoy. OK call me shallow, but when he's in a more playful mood like he was with many of the Cary Grant films, that's when I'm enjoying Alfred. Little carnage, not much danger to speak of, fast-paced dialogue and action and set pieces. At the beginning there's almost a silent-film sensibility to shot selection, sound effects and composition.
Does Clarinet Man fall for Miss Why's This Napkin Around My Neck all the Time too quickly? Sure. Does he buy into her admittedly far-fetched story right away? Yup. Is this an awful lot of trouble just to catch a spy? Oh my, yes. Just roll with it and enjoy this train ride. Have some herbal tea and trust all those Mexicans :)
Family Plot (1976)
How have the mighty fallen
Hard to believe that two masters like Hitch and Lehman could have come up with this dreadful little piffle. It would have sunk without a trace immediately upon release if those two names weren't associated with it.
To go from Bergman, Grant, Kelly to Harris, Devane and Dern - wow. And the movie has a sad, mid-70s feel to it as the studio system is crashing down. The cinematography (to be generous) is lackluster and pale, as others have noticed the car out of control scene is absurd, like an outtake from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and it's obvious that someone told Lehman that he had to throw some sex and a little cursing into this film since it's the '70s baby, so the first time we are introduced to both couples all they can talk about is oh boy, wait until we get in the sack, hot patooty boy we're going to have sex now, yes sirree. Please.
I had to IMDb Barbara Harris just to see what her credentials were, and surprisingly she has some. Her "performance" here consisted of little more than an attempt at a third-hand Madeline Kahn impersonation. Dern and Devane are creeps, one just dresses nicer, neither is of any interest or concern. Karen Black gets to wear fancy disguises, yeah so what. Kidnapping the priest in the church - an odd idea to begin with, and executed with no wit or charm. Frankly, the only scene that seems to be even a bit like prime Hitch is the opener. It features actual acting, scoring, art direction and writing, all qualities sadly lacking from the rest of the film.
Topkapi (1964)
I should have read some reviews first
Since I love Rififi, I had to see this film. Wow is it different! Unlike Rififi, which I would call a heist film, Topkapi is a brightly colored, loud, busy caper film. Poor Melina, she may have been a world-class sexpot at the time, but now she's like a caricature. I kept thinking of Joan Crawford in her older, wild-eyed, bouffant dotage. It's hard enough to decipher her accent, but the poor woman had a set of terrible store-bought upper teeth that made it worse.
(SPOILERS) Some backstory on these people would have been nice. We know she's a thief because ... well, because she tells us. Is she any good, well-known, rich, washed-up? And why is she obsessed with this dagger? Just where do you pawn something like that? I just couldn't care about the macguffin in this film.
Mr. Schell, they attempt to introduce him with the foggy scene in Paris, but what exactly is he doing to that guyand the gun business? Who knows? Using only amateurs is a great idea, but Melina and Schell seem to be world-class thieves so they would immediately be suspects.
And why do they think that they can sneak that Lincoln into Turkey with only a cursory glance at customs? Perhaps a beat-up old Fiat, but not a car that screams wealth like that. It takes the border guards what, 10 seconds to find the stuff?
It's almost worth waiting for the scene in the museum, except every time I got involved in it I would think, They're doing all this for a stupid dagger that she just feels like having?
One nice Dassin touch is how things keep going wrong, and they have to come up with plans B and C. But this movie is a relic, almost more like It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World and certainly not the French noir policier I was expecting/hoping for.
Saboteur (1942)
Not one of the master's best
***MEDIUM SPOILERS***
It's definitely a B effort, mostly because of the casting. As many others have mentioned, Cummings is wrong, wrong, wrong. If you've already seen North by Northwest (and if not, what's wrong with ya?), you'll immediately notice the hole that's left without a strong, charismatic, attractive male lead (i.e., Mr. Leach) in a very similar story.
It was also odd that so many people, after hearing bits of Cummings' story, would immediately side with him. Frankly, the blind guy's daughter is right, why automatically assume this guy isn't guilty just because you think he's kind of nice? It would have helped if there was one cop or detective who was determined to bring this guy to justice and was always just a step or two behind, frankly there's not much suspense or sense that apprehension lurks around every corner. Also as noted, that speech about the long blonde curls is kinda creepy and borderline homophobic. Are Hitch and the gang trying to say that gays can't be trusted to be real Americans?
The patriotic speeches were obviously pasted in and can only be forgiven being overblown because of the situation at the time. But Kreuger's long speech about why he's doing what he's doing almost struck me as being pro-Communist, all about how swell the average working Joe is and how evil the tuxedoed capitalist is and how bad power is.
I'm trying to work my way through the body of Hitch's work so now I can add this notch to my belt, but it wasn't 2 hours well spent.
Along Came Polly (2004)
Along came an Aniston rom-com
Add me to the list of folks who saw this film under duress, since some friends were going and I decided to tag along just to see them. I was pleasantly surprised at this film, since I'm no big Stiller fan and can take or leave Aniston (having just seen one of her previous rom-coms Picture Perfect).
It's a by-the-numbers, perfectly acceptable opposites-attract rom-com, with an unfortunate overlay of gross-out humor that seems to have been added by someone along the way to change the tone of the film. But this gross-out stuff is loaded towards the start, so once it's out of the way the two stars can get back to business - which is pushing and pulling each other until Stiller can "see the light." Interesting how there's no attempt to show that Aniston's character has to or is interested in changing, it all comes from Stiller's character, who frankly is in a fine position in his life and really doesn't need the "wildness" that Aniston is supposed to represent.
I was impressed by how they handle the wandering-wife-comes-back storyline, she presents herself quite humbly and asks for forgiveness and frankly he would have been better off going to counseling with her and getting on with his life in suburbia. But hey, everyone knows (in movies, anyway) that you're supposed to spend your life with the person who's least like you. Har de har har, good luck to that!
Picture Perfect (1997)
Homage or dated?
***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
What struck me about this film is the whole premise. Have things really changed so much from 1997 that in 2004 I can't believe that one's employers really give a darn about their employee's marital and financial status? Forget about the ethics, there are laws about this stuff!
The only way a woman can get a promotion in an ad agency is to get engaged? Coworkers and bosses actually care about this? Maybe if the film had been made in 1937 I could buy this.
The Good Thief (2002)
The ingredients were there
There's a pretty well established formula for heist pictures, and the bits and ingredients are almost always the same, so it's the execution that counts. Emeril and I could buy the same stuff at the same store and stand side by side in the kitchen, and I guarantee his meal would be much, much better than mine. That's why you need a director.
Neil has a classic film to base his work on so you would think half the work is done. Update it, cast it properly, establish the tone, and push start. Unfortunately, he can't make the parts equal the whole. Similar problem with the remake of "The Italian Job."
***Spoilers*** Am I the only one who is upset that the femme fatale is a mess-up who induces her "lover" to murder and rats out the heist and pays no price, except she gets to cavort in a slinky gown in Monaco with Nolte. Uh, OK. And the humorous bits (Phillipe/Phillipa, the twins) are thrown in so casually as to be almost non-existent.
If you rent the DVD, you should seriously consider turning on subtitles to figure out what Nolte is slurring. A disappointing film, although the soundtrack is intriguing.
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Misses the mark
Firstly, as a resident of LA for 25 years I've got to say, there were more Italians living in LA in this film than I've ever seen in all that time! Not many Greeks here either for that matter. Odd ethnic choices.
Now for the questions. I guess it's done on purpose, but why can't we ever find out who's behind the McGuffin and what they plan to do with it? Yes it's timely and apropo to the times, but come on, it's OK to fill in some more detail. And it's not packaged very well, is it?
How does Hammer know about the customizing to his car, and the exact extent? Why doesn't he take advantage of his slutty assistant/comrade in arms? Why does Cloris have to pant so annoyingly loud, and for so long? Who exactly was Cloris' roommate, and why?
In his intro to the film on TCM, Robert Osbourne mentions that this film was considered nothing special at its release, just another drive-in level B-movie detective noir film. I'd have to agree. Tape it, view it, dump it.
Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Was life ever like this?
Rich American womanizers wandering the globe, nubile wives eager to cheat, supposedly naive young girls falling in love with someone based on a blurry photograph? My wife fell asleep for the middle hour of this film and I told her she didn't miss a thing!
(Possible spoilers from here on) I guess it's supposed to be ironic that a detective doesn't even know what shenanigans his own daughter is up to, but really now - Audrey suddenly decides to try and beat this guy at his own game, but why? If there was some explanation, it didn't make the final cut. Is she desperate? Competitive? Mentally unstable? And while Cooper might have been a babe magnet in real life, there's no evidence of it in the movie. We just know from humourous newspaper clippings that he's a cad and a bounder, but it sure doesn't show when he's on screen. I kept thinking that this was a perfect role for William Holden, who did such a good job of womanizing in Sabrina. Gary was too old ("Funny Face" all over again) and too, well, bland. Nice enough guy, but not someone that women would obsess and thrill over.
And this is a happy ending? A women tricks a cad into marrying her? Oh yes, there's a marriage bound to last. I really felt disappointed that such A-level talent could only write about one-third of a movie. Yes, there are funny bits like the gypsies and the drink tray, but they do not a two-hour-plus movie make.
Time not well spent.