I See a Dark Stranger (Frank Launder, 1946, Grade: B+)

This is a really terrific suspense film in the Hitchcock/Michael Powell tradition, with lots of dark, and occasionally daft, humor thrown in. Deborah Kerr plays Bridie Quilty, a young Irish woman, who, inspired by her father's often fanciful tales of the good old days of the IRA, decides to try to fight against the British during WWII. She becomes involved with Nazi spies, an English intelligence officer (Trevor Howard) who falls for her, and something involving secret plans for D-Day.

The whole film is a joy, filmed in beautiful B&W, with great music. Deborah Kerr, one of my favorite actresses, probably never looked any more beautiful, and that's saying a lot. But it's really the confidence and wit of the writing/producing/directing team of Launder and Sidney Gilliat which makes this almost as good as Hitch's and Powell's best from the '40s. Search it out on DVD. They really don't make 'em like they used to!

DOWN TO THE BONE. One of my personal favorites from '05, this one played in one small theater in Manhattan and deservedly received great reviews. I took a second look at it on DVD (which I bought) and it held up very well. Set in Upstate New York, the film has a great degree of verisimilitude as it portrays the bleak, wintry landscape and contrasts it with the empty lives of drug addicts who struggle to overcome their habits. Vera Farmiga, who in '06 had her first meaty role in a big budget film (THE DEPARTED), was terrific as the protagonist, a drug addicted mom who can't shake her drug habit. Rating: A+.

PRINCE VALIANT. This one from the Fox Sausage Factory, circa mid 1950s when this particular studio shot all its films in the wide screen format. This one is a howler. A real cheap production shot on the backlot with lots of cheesy back projection. Robert Wagner, then a Fox contract performer, played the eponymous title character who, believe it or not, was a Viking who becomes a Knight of the Roundtable. You will howl when you see the fright wig that Wagner is forced to don throughout this howler. Victor McGlaglen, the very Scottish Victor McGlaglen, plays a Viking. Sterling Hayden was awful as a Knight of the Roundtable. Janet Leigh, easy on the eyes, was Wagner's love interest. The best thing about the film was the *great* James Mason who also played the bad Knight to Hayden's good Knight. Yet another film with a homoerotic subtext as the callow Wagner arrives in England and wants to become a Knight. King Arthur tells him he has to earn his stripes and he becomes a squire to train. Hayden and Mason, both Knights, vie to become Wagner's "mentor." Wagner ends up with Hayden and ends up killing Mason after Mason nearly kills Hayden. Rating: D (though the film does has camp value).

The Night Listener
Dull and disturbing "The Night Listener" is an overall dissapointment. I just didn't like it! I'm actually quite frustrated with it. There is absolutely no emotion in this film. It's dreary and short but it almost seems like an eternity that you wish would end as quickly as possible. The only complaint I don't have about the movie is that the score goes perfectly with the film even though the score itself isn't anything spectacular.
3/10- Don't bother watching it!

The Illusionist
Twists, Turns, and Magic. Edward Norton plays Eisenheim: The Illusionist a magician who is known for his use of other-worldly ideas and philosophical musings to conjure up extraordinary magic tricks. Jessica Biel plays his love interest (better than I expected but my expectations were low) who is engaged to the Crowned Prince. Paul Giamatti does an excellent job as the Chief of Police (of something like it). Overall the movie wasn't outstanding but it was fun. The acting wasn't top notch because 1/2 the time you can't tell if the characters are trying to speak in an Austrian accent or a British accent.
7/10

Memento (2001, Grade: A+)

Wow. Just Wow.

Defintely one of the best films (if not the best) I've ever seen in my life. I was gripped from start to finish. Extremely well written. And what better innovation than the film's semi-reverse chronological style of presentation? The movie left me in shock. It was that good.

Guy Pearce was very convincing in his performance, and so was Carrie-Ann Moss (Natalie). One of my favorite scenes in the movie, actually, was when both actors were having an intense argument at Moss's house. The dialogue was so good I kept rewinding the scene so many times.

Complicated. Bizarre. Excellent. Must See.

I WANT YOU. Taped off the Sundance Channel, this was one of the prolific and eclectic Michael Winterbottom's early films that as far as I know did not receive a theatrical release in the U.S. After suffering through it I can understand why. A real Winterbottom misfire. This one is British and stars Rachel Weisz & Alessandro Nivola and is set in a small town on the British coast. Nivola has just been released from prison and Weisz is his ex. It turns out that they were lovers and Nivola took the rap when Weisz offed her father who caught them in bed when they were teens. There is also a striking looking very blonde East European who is periodically photographed singing and she has an affair with Nivola's character and she has a brother, who doesn't speak, who liked to record people. A real mess. Rating F.

PEYTON PLACE. As Saddam Hussein might have said if he ever watched it, the mother of all melodramas. This one is a three or four hankie tearjerker. Based on a best-selling and at one time scandalous novel, this 1957 flick peeks under the surface of a small time Maine community circa 1941. I kept thinking of BLUE VELVET and what David Lynch did with similar material and these two would make for a terrific, if lengthy, double-bill. PP alone clocks in at two hours and thirty-seven minutes. The main protagonists in small town Maine include Lana Turner, playing against type, as an emotionally repressed woman and her daughter, who rebels against her uptight mother and moves to NYC. There is also an interesting subplot involving Arthur Kennedy, who rapes & impregnates his step-daughter; Russ Tamblyn, a "senstive" (i.e., gay) classmate of Hope Lange, who plays Turner's daughter; and various and sundry other characters, including Lloyd Nolan as a doctor and Leon Ames, as a business exec who bullies his son. The movie doesn't date well, but it was shot in Cinemascope so it was fun to see it in its full glory on the big screen. Rating: C.

DEAD GIRL. There is always one or two movies that get lost in the end of year avalanche of high-brow films and, unfortunately, this appears to be one of them. Released the last Friday in '06 (the same day as PAN'S LABYRINTH) this one is playing on one screen in one theatre in one Manhattan art house and is only getting two screeings a day. The story is divided into five segments that focus on "a dead girl" and all the people affected by her death. In the first segment Toni Collette finds the body; in the second a lab technician thinks it might be her long lost sister; in the third segment it focuses on the serial killer who offed the girl; the fourth segment focuses on the mother of the girl; and the final segment focuses on the actual girl. A very good film that unfortunately appears to be overlooked. Rating: B.

THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK. One of the handful of films that Robert Altman directed prior to breaking the bank with M*A*S*H. This is a real strange film that is set in Vancouver. A well-to-do Sandy Dennis sees Michael Burns sitting in a park across the street during a downpour. She invites Burns -- who I had never of -- home and then they enter into this strange relationship. At first you think Burns is the crazy one and why would Dennis do this, but by the end you are 180 degrees the other way. Not without interest, not one of Altman's better efforts. Rating: C.

MAUVAISE GRAINE/BAD SEED. For Billy Wilder completists only. Wilder directed or co-directed this French feature before he left for the U.S. and Hollywood. Basically, the film is about some Paris car thieves. Not all that interesting. Rating: D.

AN-MAGRITTE. A Swedish or Norwegian film that focuses on a plucky Swedish farmer played by Liv Ullman, this one details her harsh life. Her mother was raped and she was born; the mother then was put in the stocks; the mother commits suicide; Magritte struggles to live through the harsh landscape; she gets accepted in church. Nothing essential. Rating: D.

Babel, (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2006, Grade: B-)

I still believe that Amores perros is the director's and the writer's masterpiece, but it seems a fait accompli that this will receive an undeserved Oscar nomination for Best Picture. It's still a solid film, with exemplary acting, photography, editing, and music, but the script is just WAY TOO MUCH. All the cinematic talent is employed in a story which is at least as melodramatic as Peyton Place, but since it's "new, fresh and cinematically-dazzling", you aren't supposed to understand that you're watching one of the most over-the-top, downbeat, humorless films ever. I guess that makes it somehow more real and important.

Don't misunderstand. I recommend the film, but it's just a flick. All the deaf-girl-without-love, innocent-illegal-immigrant, and ignorant-guncrazy-Arab cliches can't hide the fact that the movie would have been much better if it had balanced things out instead of being 98% one way. It's this year's Crash, but not as good and with no chance (I hope) of winning Best Picture. To see another audacious film, which is completely unpredictable, powerful and moving, watch Children of Men.

The Night Listener (Patrick Stettner, 2006, Grade: C)

This is a low-key, based-on-a-true-story "thriller", which, although not a complete dud, is probably too wispy for its own good. Robin Williams is quite good, and you do feel for his predicament, plus there are some minor suspense touches. Overall though, the film is too short and too ambivalent to turn it into anything that interesting. The reality of the situation seems far more provocative than the film.

Bandidas (2006, Grade: B-)

Okay...I'm actually surprised to say that I liked this film. I mean, for a direct-to-video release, it's pretty watchable. Honestly, when I saw the DVD cover on the wall at the store where I work, I thought...hey, I wanna see two gorgeous latin women shoot some barrels (or rob some banks).

The first 20 minutes or so were somewhat cheeseball. But it picks up. I liked how they did the final action sequence at the climax of the movie...I won't spoil it though...in case some of you admirers of Penélope Cruz and Salma Hayek would want to pick this movie up on your next trip to the video rental.

NOVEMBER. This one is a real curio from '05. It opened and closed in about a New York Minute so I missed its original theatrical run. Thanx to Netflix, I caught up to it last night on DVD and it is kind of a dud. It received real mixed reviews on original release, but enough good ones I wanted to see it. It was supposed to open in a discount art house that tends to get films several weeks after they start out in Manhattan, but it never arrived. It must have tanked so bad at the box office the distributor and/or exhibitor got cold feet. It played briefly in one Manhattan theatre. Shot on digital video, this one focuses on the aftermath of a shooting. Courtney Cox gets the munchies and sends her hubbie -- played by Jame Legros -- into a convenience store where he gets caught in the middle of a robbery and gets shot & killed. The rest of the film focuses on how it impacts Cox and her guilt. She replays what happened many times with different outcomes so one is not sure which version is *real* and which is a *dream.* I didn't find the film all that compelling, just dull and confusing. Rating: D.

STAND BY ME. I took another look at this one on video last night. I hadn't seen it since its original theatrical run back in '86. Based on a Stephen King novella, this is a very well done story about four kids (River Phoenix among them) who set out on a "journey" in rural Maine to find a body they heard was lying beside some railroad tracks. They encounter obstacles along the way, which include a gang of older toughs headed by Keifer Sutherland, who was actually very good as a tough named "Ace." Rob Reiner, who has evolved into a hack, directed. He was actually a very good director back in the eighties/early nineties when he turned out films like this, THIS IS SPINAL TAP, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY & A FEW GOOD MEN. A good film that held up very well. Rating: B.

I recentley watched Friday Night Lights. I have been really loving the television show, so I thought I better check out what inspired it. It is based on a book(which I have not read), and I wonder if in the book the characters are better fleshed out. I did enjoy the realistic aspect of life in a small town, but the only (somewhat) developed character in the movie is Billingsley, the running back who has trouble holding on to the ball and has the alcoholic? father. Every other character is very shallow, which is unfortunate because I think they could have really added to the film. I know it would be difficult to examine every character in a two hour film, but some depth would have helped. This is what makes the television show so great, you really get a look at the characters from every angle to the point where the football games are almost abstract until they play the actual games. C+

Sorry if the writing is kind of clunky. I am used to writing fiction and reviews have always been hard for me.

NINA'S HOME. A French film playing in the NY Jewish Film Festival, I took a shot at this one yesterday because an actress/director I admire, Agnes Jaoui, played the lead. I wasn't disappointed. I thought the film might be a bit too maudlin, but it was very well done. Set in the closing days of WWII/first days of the aftermath, Jaoui in rural France runs an orphanage for Jewish children. As the death camps are liberated, the orphanage receives some more orphans who were in the camps. The film focuses on the tensions between the psychologically damaged newcomers and the existing kids. It also focuses on the tensions between the religious Jews and those who aren't religious (or aren't so religious). Just some great characterizations, particularly one of a guy who the "leader" at the death camps, who is a real psycho and who gives a chilling performance. Rating: B.

FOOL FOR LOVE. I took a look at this 1985 Robert Altman film that I caught on original release and haven't seen since (until today). It is based on a Sam Shepard stage play and stars Shepard, Kim Basinger, Harry Dean Stanton & Randy Quaid. I didn't care for the film because while I didn't see the play I found the underlying story pretentious and as much as Altman tried, the film couldn't quite escape its stage roots. Basically, set in the desert in a run down motel, Shepard & Basinger are lovers who lives are intertwined. The eighties were Altman's wilderness years as the political capital he accumulated in Hollywood for M*A*S*H finally ran out after he had several box office and critical flops. He was reduced to directing plays turned into films (FOOL FOR LOVE, SECRET HONOR, COME BACK TO THE FIVE & DIME JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN, STREAMERS), cable tv flicks (THE CAINE MUTINY) and films barely released (O.C. & STIGGS). It wasn't until THE PLAYER in '92 that Altman rejuvinated his career. Rating: D.

Just so you know that I don't fight you on reflex, I also give this Altman film a D, but Secret Honor is at least a B! I give The Player a B+, if anybody cares.

quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
Just so you know that I don't fight you on reflex, I also give this Altman film a D, but Secret Honor is at least a B! I give The Player a B+, if anybody cares.

I wish there was more give and take, but I agree SECRET HONOR is a terrific film, which basically is Philip Baker Hall's one person show where he portrays a drunken Richard Nixon. Hall has since gone on to a good career as a character actor and is part of P.T. Anderson's stock company. And I'm higher on THE PLAYER than you are. I think that film is a masterpiece -- possibly Altman's best film -- and I'd give it an A+.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ChrisFromAstoria,

has anyone seen the day after tomorrow (not james bond!) I just want to know. I've been reading reviews but can't get anywhere. So has anyone seen this brill film?

quote:

Originally posted by faye:
has anyone seen the day after tomorrow (not james bond!) I just want to know. I've been reading reviews but can't get anywhere. So has anyone seen this brill film?

Was THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW the one where everything freezes and Dennis Quaid walks from Washington, D.C. to New York City to find his son? If so, I didn't see it but it has the reputation as being a real stinker.

COUNTDOWN. Another one of the literally handful of films Robert Altman directed prior to M*A*S*H this one is a real turkey. Made in the late 1960s I assume before we actually landed on the moon, in this film there is a race between the Yankees and the Russkies, Commies then, to get to the moon first. What is interesting is that Altman was clearly a director for hire and shot the script as it was written. A real studio hack job. A few Altman-esque flourishes -- some overlapping dialogue and one great scene on a plane where Michael Murphy tries to pick up a stewardess that is done as an aside -- but this film is really conventional and not very good. It has some interesting actors in it, including James Caan & Robert Duval both before they broke the bank with THE GODFATHER. And Murphy, part of Altman's stock company, is also in it, but in a nothing role. Rating: D.

I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN. I just learned about this late 1970s film recently because it was written by Gavin Lambert. I was surprised to see it was released by Roger Corman's New World Pictures, a company known for its schlocky drive-in fare. This is a not-half bad film about mental illness. Kathleen Quinlan tries to off herself and ends up in the mental institution and Bibi Anderson -- yes the same Bibi Anderson who was one of Ingmar Bergman's muses -- plays the psychiatrist who tries to help Quinlan. Some harrowing scenes in the mental institution the film isn't great by any stretch of the imagination, but fairly interesting. Rating: C+.

I just watched Ken Loach's film Sweet Sixteen and thought it was amazing. It's shot like some sort of low budget BBC project near Glasgow. If you're not completely paying attention, you miss a lot of the dialogue due to the dialect, but it couldn't matter less. The story and performances are completely believable and the the film plays as reality -- which has to be the goal of most anyone involved in filmmaking.

quote:

Originally posted by NButler11:
I just watched Ken Loach's film Sweet Sixteen and thought it was amazing. It's shot like some sort of low budget BBC project near Glasgow. If you're not completely paying attention, you miss a lot of the dialogue due to the dialect, but it couldn't matter less. The story and performances are completely believable and the the film plays as reality -- which has to be the goal of most anyone involved in filmmaking.

I'm a huge Ken Loach fan and am glad you liked and gave SWEET SIXTEEN some props. His movie after SS, A FOND KISS, is also flat out terrific and his new film, which I believe won the top award at the most recent Cannes Film Festival, THE WIND & THE BARLEY with Cillian Murphy opens in March and I am chomping at the bit to see it. It is about the Irish Troubles.

THE GOOD GERMAN. A critical and box office bomb, this is the latest collaboration between director Steven Soderbergh & actor George Clooney. I went in with low expectations and the film is the stinker I expected it to be. More an exercise in style than anything else, TGG is filmed in black & white and Soderbergh used lenses that were used back in the "Golden Age of Hollywood." The film is set in Berlin at the end of WWII and it reminded me quite a bit of a much better film, A FOREIGN AFFAIR, Billy Wilder's masterpiece that starred John Lund, Marlene Dietrich & Jean Arthur. In this film journalist George Clooney uncovers various nefarious activities going on between the Commie/Russkie army and the American Army. Tobey Maguire plays Clooney's driver and Cate Blanchett plays the love interest of both. Rating: D.

POINT BREAK. I hadn't seen this one since its original theatrical run back in '91, but it didn't hold up at all when I caught it on DVD. Keanu Reeves, the new Robert Taylor in terms of horrible acting, plays an FBI agent and ex-football stud Johnny Utah who squares off against Patrick Swayze, an existentialist surfer/bank robber named Bodhi. Reeves goes undercover and infiltrates the gang of surfer/bank robbers. He's assisted by Gary Busey as the hippest FBI agent ever; John C. McGinley, normally part of Ollie Stone's stock company, way over-the-top in a chiched/stereotypical role as Reeves' & Busey's boss; Lori Petty first as Bodhi's chick & then Reeves' love interest to set up the psycho-sexual love interest; James Legros pops up as one of Bodhi's sidekicks and Tom Sizemore is an undercover DEA agent. Other than some well directed and choreographed action scenes from distaff action director Kathryn Bigelow, this one is ridiculous. Rating: D.

MAFIOSO: Finally a good movie, though I don't know if it deserves the 88 score it scored on metacritics.com. This is an obscure Italian film from the early-to-mid 1960s that was all but forgotten, but has been resuscitated by Rialto Pictures and is getting a full blown theatrical re-release. The *great* Alberto Sordi plays a native of Sicily who has lived in North Italy for years and decided to vacation back home so he family can meet his wife and two daughters. He gets caught up in some Mafia activity. The film subtly contrasts North & South Italy and the stultifying Sicilian society. Rating: B.

TEARS OF A BLACK TIGER. This Thai "cowboy western" is finally getting a theatrical release after sitting on the shelf for six years. It reportedly created quite a stir when it unspooled at the '01 Cannes Film Fest. Way too silly for me, it is a love triangle between two gunman and a gorgeous Thai women with goodies fighting baddies. The film's gimmick is that the director uses these bright, vibrant primary colors so the film reminds one of those gaudy technical color films from the 1950s. Rating: D.