Private Benjamin (1980) - Brief Review

In 1980 Private Benjamin was one of the biggest box office hits of the year and landed three Academy Award nominations, including one for star Goldie Hawn. Many people regard it as a classic. And to them I ask: have you seen it lately?

Stop the TPP Secrecy

While it is going to be a slow day and perhaps week for reviews here, I do want to give a shout out to an ongoing effort regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a highly secretive free trade deal that it looks like President Obama and other world leaders will try to ram through with almost no public debate or transparency. They've even tried to hide the ball from members of Congress. This is almost certainly because, outside of small cadres of neo-liberal and wealthy elites, such free trade deals tend not to be very popular these days as ultimately many of the promises made regarding past deals turn out to be lies.

Nonetheless, no matter how you feel about free trade deals or even the suspected Trans-Pacific Partnership terms themselves, I encourage you to go to Stop the Secrecy and add your name to a petition to demand that our political leaders recognize this is supposed to be a democratic republic and that the deal must be fully debated in public. The Stop the Secrecy effort is being supported by dozens of public interest organizations. Whichever side you fall on, secrecy over this or any other such deal is indefensible. Fair trade treaties that will affect every American should be transparent and subject to vigorous debate.

Slow Week

Going to be a slow week this week as I take care of other work. Hoping to have some material for tomorrow and Thursday. Also continuing to develop some more pieces that are not strictly reviews. As it stands, I've reviewed 31 films so far in April, so please check some of those out. Thanks.

The Machine (2013) - Review

In the heady days of my early twenties I went to something of a wild club and at a certain point in the evening a performer came to the stage wearing heavy makeup, a garish outfit, and bowling balls strapped to her feet. She was helped to the stage, whereupon the club began blasting a song from the Blade Runner soundtrack and she crooned a made-up song about how much she "loved that movie Blade Runner."

Screening The Machine, a British film written and directed by Caradog James, I couldn't help but remember that moment from long ago. Because, by gosh, Caradog James loves that movie Blade Runner. Which is OK, because so do I (check the title of this blog). And if you're going to stage a science-fiction film with an influence, you could do a lot worse than Blade Runner.

On the other hand, there is a fine line between letting something influence the film and allowing that influence to smother the movie. James doesn't quite cross that line, but he does certainly walk (with bowling balls strapped to his feet?) right up to it.

Au Pair Girls (1972) - Review

Classic sexploitation films generally follow a set of rules that range from the silly to the destructive. In the more silly category, the viewer must accept it as normal that women drop their dresses routinely and without thought, and that people fall into and out of love (or the sack) at the drop of a hat. On the more destructive side in sexploitation is the cavalier treatment of rape - where rape is typically no big deal or even presented as just a normal part of a female's sexual experience.

In 1972's Au Pair Girls, from experienced Hammer Films director Val Guest, we get a lot of the silly and a little of the destructive. The movie tells the story of four very attractive au pairs that arrive in England. Each has a story about their first day's experiences in England, ranging from falling in love to learning about the very worst of humanity. 

Song for the Weekend

Between a pretty country week for my movie selections and the news that corporate profits are at their highest in 85 years while employee compensation is at its lowest in 65 years, this seems like an appropriate choice:

Weekly Review Recap (4/25/14)

After the break a list of my reviews for the week and final verdicts for each of them.

Brief Film Reviews (4/24/14)

After the jump three pans: Cockfighter, Knights of Badassdom, and If You Don't Stop It, You'll Go Blind:

Streaming Pick (4/24/14)

Having a Wild Weekend (aka Catch Us If You Can) - (1965)

For a time, The Dave Clark Five were considered among the chief rivals to The Beatles. They were always a step behind, however - the second British Invasion group to hit the States, the second to land on Ed Sullivan, and the second to put out a promotional film with artistic ambitions in excess of what one would expect from a pop group.

After The Beatles hit a home run, financially and critically, with A Hard Day's Night, the Dave Clark Five followed with Catch Us If You Can, subsequently retitled in America as Having a Wild Weekend. I presume the film was re-titled because their album was similarly re-titled - likely because the record company wanted to sell the album as a party theme album, and perhaps because they failed to recognize that Catch Us If You Can is probably the group's best song.

It's easy to see that Having a Wild Weekend (I'll use the American title) is inspired by and intended as something of a challenger to A Hard Day's Night. At its worst, the movie comes off as imitation. Where it is most interesting, however, is in its artistic ambitions (or pretensions, depending on how you see it). The film marked the feature debut of one John Boorman - who would go on to direct such films as Point Blank, Deliverance, Excalibur, The General, and on and on (some misses on the resume, but also some classics).

Joe (2013) - Brief Review

David Gordon Green’s new film Joe stars Tye Sheridan and Nicolas Cage.

Green returns to the rural South with Cage starring as an ex-con trying to keep his nose clean while running a small business. Sheridan shows up in town as part of a family of drifters. Sheridan's father is an angry drunkard, and so the teenage boy has assumed the family leadership even as his father cruelly beats him. Cage gives the boy a job and takes him under his wing. That inexorably leads to confrontation with the boy's father and the return of violent demons that haunt Cage’s character.

Six Pack Annie (1975) - Brief Review

Six Pack Annie is a dreary drive-in comedy starring Lindsay Bloom. Basically a bluer, less amusing, less musical, extended episode of Hee Haw. You might call it "hicksploitation" (a term that I don’t always love in part because people make frustrating lists like this of films that don’t merit the appellation).

Under the Skin (2013) - Brief Review

What makes a human a human? Appearance? Body parts? Or something much deeper? This is one of the questions pondered by Jonathan Glazer’s interesting, if not quite exceptional Under the Skin.

Hickey & Boggs (1972) - Review

It is by now an old story that with the collapse of the Hays Code and the struggles of the movie studios, a whole new class of American filmmaking emerged and even many old-time Hollywood stars and directors embraced the more realistic, more adult approach to the cinema.

A great example of the Hollywood establishment meeting the New Hollywood is Hickey & Boggs, a 1972 neo-noir starring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, directed by Culp, and written by Walter Hill in Hill's first screenplay to reach the screen.

Jodorowsky's Dune (2013) - Review

After creating several artsy, cult sensations in the early 1970s, Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky decided he wanted to make a feature adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel Dune.

After completing a script. Jodorowsky commenced by hiring some top artists. Moebius (Jean Giraud), a rising French comic artist, was hired to storyboard the film and to work with the director to create the overarching visual style. Chris Foss, a British artist renowned for the covers he had created for science-fiction novels, was recruited to design sets and spaceships. H.R. Giger a surrealist Swiss painter and sculptor, was hired to design alien creatures and further sets. Dan O'Bannon, who had co-written and done effects for Dark Star, was recruited for visual effects work.

Jodorowsky next recruited musicians to score the film. His idea was to have each world represented by a different band. One of the bands he recruited was Pink Floyd. Jodorowsky tells the story of meeting with an indifferent Floyd crew that only signed on with the film once the director screamed at them to put down their Big Macs and pay attention to his project.

For actors, Jodorowsky recruited Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, and Orson Welles for lead roles. To play the hero, Jodorowsky recruited his son and forced the teenager to endure two years of constant martial arts training for the role.

With quite a stunning package put together, it was time for Jodorowsky to go to Hollywood. And once he did that all we're left with 30 years later is this documentary on what could have been. Those damn Hollywood types will get you every time.

On Transcendence: Is it Calling For Complete Control By Our Tech Overlords?

Warning: Plot Spoilers Below

Transcendence is a bad movie for a lot of reasons related to story, as I put in my initial review. I noted in that review that there is an obvious influence from Christopher Nolan, who is an executive producer on the project and has worked extensively with Wally Pfister.

In thinking further about the film, that influence from Nolan may extend to Transcendence's political message (muddled as it may be on first reflection). By now, you've probably at least heard some reference to the ugly politics of Nolan's Batman films. The Dark Knight was an anti-democratic paean to George W. Bush and colonialism. The Dark Knight Rises was as much a reactionary counter-attack on people that disliked the first film's politics as anything else. It has also been called monarchist, which is relevant here.

So what are the politics of Transcendence? In short: bow down to your tech overlords and stop questioning their greatness.

Song for the Weekend

Weekly Review Recap (4/18/14)

Check out after the break for a list of this week's reviews and final verdicts for each of them.

Transcendence (2014) - Review

The mad supercomputer is not a new development in movies (I recently reviewed the dreadful Demon Seed). Nor is the mad scientist. So the trick is what you do with them - do they make sense, first, and can you do something different with them, second. Johnny Depp's new movie Transcendence fails on both points.

If you've seen the trailer you've seen the entire movie. To summarize: a genius computer designer is killed by an anti-technology terrorist group, but before he dies his mind is downloaded to a computer, and then he tries to take over everything and chaos ensues.

DVD Bargain Bin (4/17/14)

For you collectors out there, a few DVD bargains on some movies and TV I like (all prices, of course, subject to change without notice):


- I've spoken before about my affection for 1970s sitcom Barney Miller, and as I write this Amazon is selling Shout! Factory's DVD set of Barney Miller: The Complete Series for $65.99 - a healthy 59% markdown. That's just over 39 cents per episode and about $2.64 per disc. A good deal; I'd expect that price to change very quickly.

- Another outstanding sitcom from the 1970s is Taxi, and a seller on Amazon right now is offering Taxi: The Complete Series on DVD for $68.14. Not quite as bargain basement here for 17 discs, but at $4 per disc, it still is a pretty darn good price, and you'd probably struggle to find a used set at that price.

- Some independent sellers on Amazon have posted the outstanding The Tillman Story at excellent prices, with fulfillment via Amazon Prime. As I write this you can get the Blu-Ray at $8.03 here and the DVD at $6.35 here. Great documentary - see it one way or another.




- Amazon is also holding a sale on the Mad Max Trilogy on Blu-ray for $24.99. Buying them individually on Blu-ray would run you about $40, so it's not a bad deal if you don't already have any of them (but there doesn't appear to be anything new here if you have one or two already and are just looking to complete the set). I'd rank order them (1) Mad Max 2 (aka The Road Warrior), (2) Mad Max, and (3) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. I highly recommend all three and all three have different feels while building around the same lead character (the role that made Mel Gibson an international star). Wildly influential in the last few decades.


- Both Wal-Mart and Amazon have the cheesy, but fun Highlander (Director's Cut) Blu-Ray for $5. Once you figure out which seller you can most live with morally and politically, you can buy it from Amazon here or at Wal-Mart here.

- Amazon has also price-matched Wal-Mart for Winter's Bone [Blu-ray] ($5.39), King Of New York [Blu-ray] ($5.39), and Reservoir Dogs [Blu-ray] ($5.00).

Enjoy.

Brief Film Reviews (4/17/14)

Check out after the jump for some brief thoughts on films recently watched or re-watched, including Jesus' Son, Killer Party, and The Show.

Streaming Pick (4/16/14)

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Sydney Pollack's Three Days of the Condor is one of the all-time great paranoid thrillers. It tells the story of a CIA agent code-named Condor, played by Robert Redford. He works a mundane analyst's job in a mundane New York City office, in which a group of bored agents pore through books, newspapers, and magazines searching for hidden codes and meanings. It's a job built on paranoia - the notion that there are threats hidden everywhere, in everything. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't really after you.

Some Links (4/16/14)

- Karina Longworth has posted a roughly 30 minute podcast about Kim Novak that is a solid listen. There are some audio clips from and brief discussion of The Legend of Lylah Clare, which I reviewed earlier this week.

- Clueless writer, part I: A Wolf of Wall Street writer thinks the subject of his movie is genuinely repentant. Even though a significant takeaway from the end of the morally suspect movie is that he isn't sorry at all (and brags about his lack of true punishment).

- Clueless writer, part II: One of Noah's screenwriters was asked why there are no people of color in the film and he gave an utterly oblivious, idiotic answer.

- Amy Nicholson asks whether Pussy Riot can conquer Hollywood.

- The NY Times ran a story by Neal Gabler on Carl Laemmle's efforts to relocate Jews from Germany to the United States in the years before World War II.  Two interesting notes: (1) other Jewish studio leaders did not join Laemmle's efforts because they feared a backlash from religious conservatives in the  United States; and (2) some American consular officials in Germany actively worked against Laemmle's efforts.

- Given the importance of the internet to movie-watching these days, you may want to catch up on the latest evil-doing from the country's big telecom companies.  Short version: after collecting massive fees in return for promising to bring broadband to all Americans, the telecoms are now trying to rig the game so they can renege on their promise and keep all the dough anyway.

- In non-film news, the Center for Public Integrity won a well-deserved Pulitzer for their series on miners sick with black lung that are denied benefits by a corrupted system. Read it.

Homefront (2013) - Review

Let's start with this: Arnold, Sly, and the rest of the guys really didn't make movies any better than the action stuff done today.

I know, I know, that's heresy. 

Let me take a step back to say that nothing I see today is as fun to me as the stuff I grew up watching when Arnold and Sly ruled Hollywood. Just because I love Commando, however, doesn't make that movie high art - or even well edited. I'm able to love Commando for its cheesiness, its fun, its charismatic lead actor, and, most of all, the fact that when I watch it I can pretend to be a kid watching bad guys versus good guys all over again. It isn't so much that Hollywood makes worse mid/high-budget action star bonanzas than they did way back when; it's that they seem to make less of them and so, just by volume, there are fewer fun ones to bank on.

I clear my throat with all of that for an obvious reason: I'm reviewing a Jason Statham film. One written by Sylvester Stallone! 

Alan Partridge (2013) - Brief Review

Steve Coogan’s venerable Alan Partridge character gets the feature film treatment in a film creatively titled Alan Partridge. It is not difficult to see why the character has lasted so long: he’s a fascinating idiot. Five writers, including Coogan, get credit here, but Coogan gets extra credit for delivering a spot on performance as the obliviously egotistical Partridge.

The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) - Brief Review.

Robert Aldrich's film The Legend of Lylah Clare is occasionally funny, but never intentionally so, and often quite dumb, even though meant to be arty.  It is a mess. Messy enough to be worth two hours of your life to chuckle at? No.

Some old Hollywood types that once ruled the business have been in exile ever since their meal ticket, actress Lylah Clare, fell to her death 20 years earlier. The group discovers a woman that is the spitting image of Lylah. They decide to cast her in a movie about the actress' life. Both are played by Kim Novak. In her effort to become Lylah in the movie, the new girl morphs into Lylah in real life, leading to a repeat of history and a race to discover how Lylah really died.

The movie is melodramatic in the extreme, but there’s no genuine drama. Kim Novak can’t pull off the charismatic performance needed to sell the character – problematic given that every other character is supposedly enraptured by her. Novak looks more confused than anything. There are some funny moments – unintentionally. The flashbacks I think were intended to be boldly artistic but are actually quite silly. I really suspect Aldrich thought he was making Vertigo meets Sunset Boulevard. Nope. The camp value is only intermittent. The rest of it a bad stage play you can’t wait to end. With some friends this might be worth some chortles and sarcastic commentary, but not much here otherwise.

Screened on Warner Archive Instant.

The Butterfly Room (2012) - Brief Review

Barbara Steele stars as a lonely old lady in The Butterfly Room, an unfortunately too marginal horror film directed by Jonathan Zarantonello. The title refers to Steele's hobby of collecting and pinning butterflies, and her secret room housing her collection (and maybe something more sinister). Steele befriends two young girls, one hustling Steele for cash and the other just a lonely neighbor girl. When the first girl's hustle is revealed, Steele spirals into a murderous rage, meaning very bad things for everyone involved.

There are some interesting kernels of ideas here, but it is missed opportunity after missed opportunity. The non-linear storytelling is an interesting choice, but not executed well enough to add much (we also perhaps end up knowing too much, too early). Heather Langencamp appears near the end in a crucial role, but her character is not well enough developed. Steele does her part to play the character as suitably creepy, but time and again Zarontonello seems to miss the campy, fun boat. The movie instead mostly bores. A few fun moments arrive late, but it's too little, too late. No real fun camera angles, no real fun lighting - just a director not having nearly enough fun for a movie that cries out for it. The seeds were there for a fun b-movie horror, or at least some camp, but the result is instead a waste.

Screened at the Noho 7 via projection from a very poorly transferred Blu-Ray. The trailer's better than the movie, so enjoy.

Song for the Weekend

Weekly Review Recap (4/11/14)

Check out after the break for a summary of this week's reviews and final verdicts.

I Bastardi (aka The Cats; aka Sons of Satan; aka The Bastards) (1968) - Review.

Rita Hayworth in I Bastardi

The family that kills together simply can't stay together. It's a familiar refrain, and one that is at the core of the flawed but interesting 1968 Italian-French film I Bastardi.

Giuliano Gemma plays Jason, a young, naive assassin (an odd mix) who starts the film on a killing spree taking out his partners in a jewelry heist. It turns out that Jason is on the payroll of his brother Adam, played by Klaus Kinski. The killing is designed to take out Adam's criminal rivals. Jason keeps the jewels as payment for the killings, but Adam double-crosses Jason, takes the jewels, and cuts the younger brother's tendons to end Jason's career as a shooter.

Streaming Pick - 4/10/14

A Certain Kind of Death (2003)

What happens when we die?

What happens when we die alone?

The 2003 documentary A Certain Kind of Death attempts to address the second question by following the handling of several bodies of recently deceased people in Los Angeles that have no next of kin. This haunting documentary allows everything to unfold without hyperbole or over-dramatization. It's purely procedural. And yet it breaks your heart as well as any tragedy and scares you as well as any horror.

Brief Film Reviews (4/9/14)

          

Check out after the jump for some thoughts on movies recently watched or re-watched...

Bad Words (2014) - Review.

He's mean! Har, har, har. He's racist! Har, har, har. He's so politically incorrect! Har, har, har.

There's a new breed of comedy, the bad boy comedy - or is it bad bro comedy? - and Jason Bateman has chosen one, Bad Words, as his directorial debut. The point of these things I think is to have characters saying and doing things that are outrageous and that press upon social convention. The angle is that these anti-social jerks are actually the protagonists that we're supposed to root for. We're supposed to find the underlying humanity in these cads; to see their behavior as the product of their wounds, not the product of their sociopathy. And often these anti-heroes are white men, raging most frequently against the women and the people of color around them (or the other white men that simply aren't masculine enough for their tastes).

The above is a synopsis of the plot of Bad Words as much as it is a critique of this recent sub-genre. More specifically, Bateman plays Guy Trilby, a 40 year old asshole and bully (but we're assured he's just a neglected super-genius!) that finds a loophole in spelling bee rules that allows him to compete with 10 year olds. For reasons Bateman and writer Andrew Dodge repeatedly assure us will be revealed, Guy is out to put a torch to this national spelling bee. He's trailed by a reporter and his sex object, played by Kathryn Hahn.

Brief Film Reviews (4/7/14)

Gina Carano in In the Blood - Anchor Bay Films

After the jump, brief thoughts on some movies recently watched or re-watched, including In the Blood, Sitting Target, and The Super Cops.