September 16th, 2007
Posted by
Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
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Such a simple idea - H. G. Wells builds a time machine, Jack the Ripper steals it and Wells has to chase him into the future - it’s a wonder no one thought of it before. This isn’t heavy SF, the effects, what few there are, aren’t what you called jaw dropping but the films is more concerned with character than exploring the fantastical elements of the story. There are no time paradoxes here, no fear of changing the past or the future, of destroying the fabric of reality; instead we get a love story.
Malcolm McDowell’s Wells is a stranger in a strange land, everything is alien to him and he brings a whimsical quality to the film. As his nemesis, David Warner gives the film its edge. Even though the Ripper is never really explored, we don’t find out what made his tick, why he does what he does, Warner still manages to make him real, not just a one dimensional bogeyman. The films best scene is their confrontation in a hotel room. It not only shows what great actors the pair are but also the contrast between the characters, with Warner’s Dr Stevenson as at home in the ‘70s as Wells is out of place.
September 15th, 2007
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Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
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This comedy western from writer/producer Luc Besson is light of laughs but easy on the eye thanks to its two stars, Penélope Cruz and Salam Hayek. The pair have a good onscreen chemistry (not really a surprise as they’re good friends in real life) and they’re obviously enjoying themselves, but the weak script and uninspired action scenes ensure the viewer doesn’t share their joy.
Steve Zahn’s amateur detective is the films weak attempt at a love interest. As the villain, Dwight Yoakam wouldn’t be too bad if he hadn’t been saddled with probably the silliest hair piece ever seen in a western. It’s Sam Shepard who comes off best as the retired bank robber who teaches the ladies the tricks of the trade but he only gets about ten minutes of screen time.
In fact the films best performers are on four legs not two with Cruz’s noughts and crosses playing horse taking the acting honours followed by Hayek’s dog. That really says all you need to know about the quality of the film. Luc Besson has produced more than a few fun action flicks over the years but this isn’t so much a misstep as a stumble.
With a little more thought this could have recaptured the spirit of classic comedy westerns of the ‘60s like Cat Ballou. Instead it’s an instantly forgettable first pairing of the two biggest Hispanic actresses in the world, hopefully it won’t be the last as they deserve a better film.
September 14th, 2007
Posted by
Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
one comment
This is a pretty unoriginal ghost story that tries, unsuccessfully, to make sheep scary. Maria Bello and Sean Bean try hard as the parents of a missing child but the film concentrates too much on their rather predictable and dull relationship and not enough on delivering any real scares.
Take the house with a dark past (The Amityville Horror), add a ghostly child (Dead of Night) and a couple of grieving parents (Don’t Look Now) season with some Welsh mythology, stick it in the oven and you get a half-baked movie that’s far less than the sum of its parts. The film even tries half-heartedly to throw in a twist or two at the end but you’ll probably see it coming and if you don’t you’ll be too bored to care anyway.
It’s surprising that this even got a cinema release as it has straight-to-video written all over it. There is almost certainly a decent film to be made from Welsh myths and legends but this sadly isn’t it. And if it’s scary sheep you want, try Black Sheep instead, not only is it scarier than The Dark but you’ll have a few laughs along the way too.
September 12th, 2007
Posted by
Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
one comment
OK, Fletch isn’t really a detective he’s a reporter but this is definitely a detective movie, albeit a funny one. Drug dealing, crooked cops and a fake murder plot are all staples of the genre and all are present here.
Made back in 1985, when not only Chase was still funny but also Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams (actually Williams is still funny, just not in films), this was a great time for comedy movies. Chase is perfect as the smug but likable Irwin “Fletch” Fletcher, never overplaying the comedy but taking the comic opportunities when they present themselves, “Moon River” will never be quite the same again after M. Emmet Walsh’s medical examination. In fact, apart from Chevy Chase, everyone plays it straight and that adds to the comedy and means that Chase gets all the laughs.
The film has a great cast; Joe Don Baker as a crooked police chief, Tim Matheson as the man who brings the films two plot threads together, George Wendt as drug dealer Fat Sam, and a young pre-stardom Geena Davis as Fletch’s girl Friday (the following year she starred in The Fly).
The ‘80s is often looked on as the worst decade for film but it was a golden age for comedies. Chase was never my favourite comedy actor of the era but in the right part he was more than capable of carrying a film and he does just that here.
September 10th, 2007
Posted by
Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
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Three very different tales from the mind of Katsuhiro Otomo make up this film. The first (and best) is an outer space ghost story, “Magnetic Rose” that blends elements of Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Sunset Boulevard to create an exceptional piece of animation. There’s a genuinely creepy atmosphere to the derelict spaceship whose distress call entices a salvage crew into a dangerous area of space. The characters are well developed and you genuinely care what happens to them which makes the story’s climax all the more powerful.
“Stink Bomb” is a farce that highlights military stupidity, as a secret chemical weapon is inadvertently used by a lab worker with disastrous consequences. A little over-long and very over the top this is nevertheless a lot of fun. As the military tries, somewhat ineptly, to eliminate one man, as he gets closer and closer to Tokyo they use every means at these disposal, and I do mean EVERY means. It’s completely different in both tone and animation style from the first story.
Finally “Cannon Fodder” is a blackly humorous tale about the stupidity of war. Directed by Otomo himself and featuring another style change this shows a day in the life of a boy and his parents in a city involved in a perpetual war. This is a “steampunk” world, with huge steam powered guns firing shells at a distant enemy. It also has a bleak Orwellian feel to it, with workers going about the same routine as they are urged to try a little harder in the hope of final victory by public service announcements . It may be a bit heavy handed with its message but it has so much style and inventiveness that it’s easy to forgive its overly simple “war is bad” message.
September 8th, 2007
Posted by
Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
no comments
Gregory Peck plays against type (at least at the start) as the leader of a gang of outlaws. After a robbery in a small town they’re chased into the desert and, short of water, they stumble across a ghost town, Yellow Sky, from which the film gets its name. There they find an old man and his granddaughter, and, while the girl (Anne Baxter) sets pulses racing among the men, they decide to rest a few days before moving on. It’s when they discover that the old man has a secret stash of gold that things really get interesting.
The small cast allows even the supporting characters to be fleshed out and the tensions within the group give the film a real psychological edge. None of the gang have real names; Peck is Stretch, Richard Widmark plays his rival for leadership Dude, Robert Arthur is the gangs youngest member Bull Run, Charles Kemper is the hulking drunk Walrus, Harry Morgan is Half Pint and John Russell plays the sleazy Lengthy, who’s as interested in the girl as he is in the gold.
Peck falls in love with Anne Baxter and his character is softened a little too much, going from hardened criminal to besotted lover. Thankfully the sneering Widmark and Russell’s letch make up for it. The final confrontation between the three is a let down; we don’t see the action, just muzzle flashes through a window. Sometimes you don’t need to show the shootout, Ford demonstrated that with Stagecoach but here it feels like an anticlimax. The ending is a little twee, with Stretch undergoing such a character change that he stretches (pardon the pun) believability a little too far.
September 8th, 2007
Posted by
Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
one comment
The blueprint for the Amicus anthology films of the ‘60s and ‘70s; this came from Ealing Studios, more famous for comedies like The Ladykillers and The Lavender Hill Mob. Featuring an excellent cast and some clever writing this manages to still feel creepy even 63 years on.
Most of the stories are effective to some extent, giving us tales of ghosts, premonition and a particularly good one featuring a cursed mirror. It’s only the silly golfing ghost story that alleviates the sense of dread, it’s intentionally funny but it does feel a little at odds with the rest of the film. It lulls you into feeling safe though, before the film hits you with the granddaddy of all ventriloquists’ dummy tales.
“The Ventriloquist’s Dummy” is the film’s most memorable story with Michael Redgrave giving as good a performance as you’re ever likely to see in a horror film. He’s the tortured ventriloquist in the thrall of his dummy, the creepy Mr Hugo Fitch. Is the dummy imbued with some kind of supernatural intelligence or is Redgrave just off his trolley? We never find out and it really doesn’t matter, the story is all the more effective for not spelling things out for the viewer.
The linking narrative may seem a little obvious and clichéd now but that’s only because it’s been ripped off by other, less worthy, films. Even allowing for that it still brings the film to an effective and suitably downbeat conclusion.
September 5th, 2007
Posted by
Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
no comments
This was the first of eight films Peter Lorre made as Mr. Moto, the unflappable Japanese spy/detective. Here he gets to the bottom of a smuggling operation in Shanghai and if the plot doesn’t hold any real surprises at least Lorre is worth watching.
These were low budget ‘B’ pictures but dear old Pete gives an ‘A’ class performance. There are those who might find the idea of the Hungarian born actor playing a Japanese character racially offensive but he plays it straight with a lot of respect for Moto and while the accent certainly isn’t Japanese it’s a great performance.
Moto is by far the coolest character in the film, a Japanese miniature Bond who often gets involved in physical confrontations with his opponents and always comes out on top. It’s the characters sense of control that really makes him special, no matter how dire the situation you always feel that Moto has it covered.
Apart from Lorre there really isn’t much to recommend the film. None of the other performers stand out, the story is far from original and the director gets the job done, which is all you could really expect given the budget and speed with which this kind of thing was made. Lorre makes it worth a look though, particularly if you’re a fan of the actor (as I am).
September 4th, 2007
Posted by
Ian W |
Rants & Raves |
2 comments
This isn’t a review, for that check out The Devil’s Manor, I doubt you’ll find a better review anywhere on the web. This is just me having a little rant about what went wrong in the hopes of getting it out of my system, after all Halloween is one of my favourite horror films and I can’t let someone fuck it up this badly without some comment. You should be aware before you read on that there are a couple of spoilers, so don’t say you haven’t been warned.
Rob Zombie is obviously a fan of the original (there are numerous references to it) and yet he seems to have no understanding of what made Michael Myers work as an iconic horror character. When the original Halloween came out the idea of a suburban kid killing his sister was shocking and, while it wouldn’t seem as horrific today, it would still have more power than a stereotypical trailer trash kid doing the same. Even upping the body count doesn’t change that. By developing the Michael character (at the expense of Laurie and friends) he de-mythologizes him. Loomis may deliver virtually the same line at the end of the film but this isn’t the bogeyman, he’s just a man, albeit a big, nasty, brutal one.
September 3rd, 2007
Posted by
Ian W |
DVD Viewing Journal |
no comments
Set in Japan’s Heian era this tale of love and political intrigue feels way too short at just 45 minutes. We skip over Kintoki learning to be a warrior after the opening scene and pick up the tale years later. Maybe it’s just me, but I got the feeling that the intervening years would have been more interesting than the tale that unfolds.
Coming from the creators of Blood the Last Vampire you’d expect the animation to be good, and it is, just not as good as that (equally short) anime classic. The use of colour is outstanding though, with the bright red blood standing out in harsh contrast to the more muted blue tones of the rest of the film.
Ultimately there isn’t much to recommend this, you’ll find far better and more involving historical anime out there. The animation may be more basic but I’d recommend the Rurouni Kenshin TV series over this any day.
