Film Reviews by sb

FILM & REVIEW https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338095/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_q_switchblade Second French film of the day and a greater contrast you could not get. Around the turn of the century ( which dear god is getting on for a quarter of a century ago) there were a series of films that got dubbed as New Extreme French Cinema. It was a movement where directors would push just how they could go with audiences and included Bais-Moi , Irreversible and Martyrs and this fits neatly into the genre. Two friends Marie (France ) and Alexia (Maiween) are travelling to the latters parents remote farmhouse. They arrive late so not much in the way of interaction. - then the door bell goes and it’s the trucker from hell who proceeds to stalk and slaughter the entire family He abducts Alexia in his truck and Marie stows away to rescue her as his trawl of violence continues ….but something isn’t quite right… As an exercise in tension and sheer terror it’s very effective with a gore count off the scale…..i guess it’s up to the viewer if they buy into the ending but i found it be one of the more interesting twists in the genre so 4/5

FILM & REVIEW Cracking Jimmy Cagney movie which opens with the classic noir trope of a courtroom with 7 defendants - 2 are charged with murder and 5 with conspiracy. But there should be an eighth - Cagney’s Ralph Cotter who previously has escaped from prison with his ?buddy - the buddy gets wounded and to stop him talking Cotter finishes the job. In this they are assisted by his buddy’s sister Holiday (Payton) who not only doesn’t know what happened but shoots a guard dead. Cotter exploits her vulnerability and soon moves in. With other accomplices he robs a local supermarket but gets betrayed to the cops lead by Weber (Ward Bond) but he doesn’t want the pinch - he is after the money. After Cotter sets him up with a secret voice recording they become uneasy partners in crime and plan an even larger caper. In the meantime Cotter woos the daughter of the towns richest man which Holiday finds out about and this linked with his ever increasing hubris will only have one conclusion. Cagney is superb - all suave charm hiding a vicious propensity to brutal violence with a good solid supporting cast. It’s quite amoral for it’s time and was banned in several states for for that very reason - but it’s a real cracker of a movie - 4/5

FILM & REVIEW Loved the first one - a real hoot with everyone in on the gag - so along comes the inevitable sequel - which is not. Begins quite well then after about 20 mins it lurches into an underwater Die Hard crime thriller where the bad guys are mining the ocean floor for precious metals. The result is a seen it all before crime caper with a singular lack of Megs - they are more or less reduced to a cameo in their own movie. After about an hour Wheatley remembers he is supposed to be making a monster movie but all a bit too late by now. The finale is a carbon copy of the finale of the first one plus some bad guys chucked in and a giant octopus that appears with no explanation. I suppose the final reel where The Stath is finally let loose is ok but it’s a pale imitation of the first one. Plus the annoying kid last time round is now an even more annoying teenager. No idea what Wheathley is doing in all this nonsense - and no doubt there will be more in the franchise as it did a brisk trade at the box office - but 2.5/5 for me.

FILM & REVIEW AKA Targets Bogdanavich’s debut that was made because Roger Corman told him Boris Karloff owed him two days shooting and from that he could anything he wanted. Karloff(in his final role) plays Bryon Orlok a horror movie legend who has had enough and wants to sail back to England. Bogdanaich plays the rising director who has written a script with him in mind but realises it’s no use trying to persuade him. Meanwhile a gun obsessed young man kills his wife, mother and the delivery boy and leaves a note saying the killing has just begun. He starts in a cooling tower overlooking a free way and picks off the cars one by one. As the free way is wide open no one at first is aware of what’s going on so he packs up and make his escape ending up in a drive in movie theatre showing Orlok’s last picture (in fact The Terror that Karloff has made for Corman.) He then resumes the killing spree at which Orloc is booked to make his final apprearence. It’s very well done seamlessly matching the two days footage with Karloff with the rest of the picture. Karloff is just wonderful giving a dignified self deprecating turn and the finale in the drive in where in the darkness with the sound up again at first no one is quite aware of that is happening. It operates as a social commentary as well - at one point Karloff points to an article on a paper about kid who killed 6 people in a store and says the world doesn’t need my kind of horror any more. It’s based on the real life case of Charles Whitman and between filming it and it coming out both MLK and Bobby Kennedy were gunned down so the film got a very limited release. It’s very good indeed - 4/5

FILM & REVIEW Another early Michael Powell film set on a remote lighthouse off the Welsh Coast. A new lighthouse keeper Sam (Harker) arrives as the two previous holders both dissapeared and he discovers that the temporary cover has lost his mind. The locals believe the place is haunted with a mysterious second light appearing luring ships to their doom. Being an old hand he doesn’t belive a word of it then odd things begin to happen. He refuses a bribe from someone who claims to be a reporter and a mysterious blonde joins then keeps changing her story. Meanwhile another ship is heading for the coast…. Hanker is very good as the cor blimey cockney who suspects something else is going in and some fine Welsh character actors add to the mix. Based on a stage play it can be a little creaky at times but Powell handles the action sequences well enough and at 71 minutes never overstays it’s welcome - 3.5/5

FILM & REVIEW Coppola has had a real roller coaster of a career from the genius work of the 1970’s but over reached himself and bankrupted his own studio forcing him into the jobbing director for hire status. Occasionally he was allowed to return to something he wanted to do and with the backing of George Lucas revived this idea for a film. It’s the true story of Preston Tucker (Bridges) a maverick engineer who in post war America devises a new kind of car that would revolutionise auto manufacturing. Of course this pits him against the vested interests of the US car manufacturers (the big 3 in Detroit) who set out every obstacle in his way to stop him using politicians, the press and the legal system to bring him down. It’s the classic American tale of the little guy against the system and a real Labour of love for Coppola who obviously sees parallels between Tucker and his more recent difficulties in the movie business. Bridges is just superb in the role, a real force of nature with boundless enthusiasm who bounces back regardless of the setbacks. Terrific support from Allen as his loyal wife, Landau as his long suffering investor and an straight out of high school Slater as his son,. It looks fantastic all primary colours and gleaming chrome shot by Vittorio Storaro and Coppola jokes it’s his only feel good movie. Terrific stuff - 4/5

FILM & REVIEW Neil Jordan’s first film in several years and I really wanted to like it but unfortunately it’s not very good. Neesan plays the titular private eye in late ‘30’s LA. In classic noir fashion he is hired by mysterious blonde (Kruger)to find her errant missing lover but of course she has other ulterior motives and Marlowe finds himself deep into corrupt film studios, high class brothels, narcotics and Mexican hoods. Neesan is way too old for the role ( something the script acknowledges) but the films biggest issue for all the plot twists and reveals in never engages….at no point are you remotely interested in where it’s all going. Things aren’t helped by Neesan who seems not only bored with the plot but with the film itself - something that is conveyed to the audience which really is a fatal flaw. On the plus side there are some nice supporting turns -Jessica Lange as a has been actress who still has her wits about her, Donald Huston as a suave club owner and a very arch Alan Cummins but none of this can save the film - a real letdown - 2/5

FILM & REVIEW First class Western which although isn’t a spaghetti western is obviously influenced by them. It’s got a really interesting premise - Van Cleef plays Travis who has built his own barge which he pulls across the river by hand while a small town has grown up on the one side to cater for the passing trade. Meanwhile further inland a gang of murderous bandits led by Remy (Oates) have attacked a town to steal crates of repeating rifles from the US army for use in the Mexican Civil war. While they are there they massacre the entire town and head off to sequester Travis’ barge to take them over the river. He gets wind of this and evacuates his small town and pulls his barge over to the other side living Remy stranded. A stand off then ensures - Remy has no way of transporting his wagons over while all Travis has to do is sit tight and wait for the US Army to catch up. A real psychological game ensues…… Both leads are excellent with Oates who sees his plans all ruined and begins to fragment- not helped by the copious amount of dope he is smoking while Van Cleef has to keep the nervous towns people on board. Add in a great laconic turn from Forrest Tucker as a trapper and you have a really terrific movie - 4/5

FILM & REVIEW Truly demented Italian demonic possession movie. Gravina plays Ippolita who has been paralysed since the age of 12 after a car crash that killed her Mother. Her Father (Ferrer) is persuaded that her condition may may be psychological and hires a psychiatrist ( Orsini) who uses hypnosis to regress her back to the accident and then further back. This reveals a previous incarnation of Ippolita who joined a medieval Satanic cult and fornicated with the Devil himself. This opens a channel for the Devil to take full possession of the modern version - with the inevitable consequences. On the one hand a blatant cash in on the previous years Exorcist but this is really well done. Gravina is excellent in the dual role and the possession scenes are very effective using every trick shot and special effect available at at the time….some of it even surpasses Friedkins work. The finale has a real intensity to it as all the stops are pulled out with quite a haunting conclusion. Terrific stuff - 4/5

FILM & WATCHED Probably the most Wes Anderson-y films of all the Wes Anderson films - which in this instance is not a good thing… His films are always deliberately artificial and this opens with Cranston introducing a new play for the American Stage. The screen then opens to an annual science convention in the titular town which although filmed in Spain is shot to look like a sound stage. We meet the obligatory endless characters and the rest intercuts with scenes backstage at the theatre. It’s set in the 1950’s with a backdrop of atomic tests and an obsession with Aliens but I found it really really annoying. Compèred to Life Aquatic or Budapest this all felt very forced as if Anderson is trying to hard. Sure it looks great with all the saturated primary colors but the story never goes anywhere so you never engage with any of the characters. It’s not even funny which is usually his saving grace. So a very dissapointed thumbs down from me - 2/5

FILM & REVIEW With Oppenheimer still on for my film of the year a rewatch of Nolan’s debut feature - and what an ingenious piece it is. In the classic Noir tradition we meet Bill (Theobald) explaining to a policeman how things ended up the way they did. He is a scruffy lonely wannabe writer who follows people through the streets of London just to find out what they do. His latest target Cobb (Haw) susses him but involves him in his low level burglaries-its not so much the stuff he steals it’s the insight into people’s lives he is interested in - which neatly ties in with Bills obsession. Bill also meets a mysterious blonde (Russell) who used to be involved with a violent gangster although claims it’s over. Then things get really complicated…. Made on a minimal budget and shot on grainy 16mm over several months it already has Nolan’s trademark non linear narrative -we see Bill scruffy with long greasy hair , then smarter in a suit then with a badly beaten face and the story weaves in and out of the timeline. Things that have no meaning take on greater significance later and it’s only towards the end that you realise what has really been going on. Excellent unknown cast with very sharp writing you can already see how Nolan has become the film maker he is - 4/5

FILM & REVIEW Saw the trailer for this and thought I’ll have some of that…..and (I know this may be a minority view ) but kinda the trailer was the best thing about it.. Set in Finland in 1944 a retired Finnish commando is panning for gold and strikes the motherlode. On his way back to cash in he comes across a retreating Nazi patrol with some female captives that are used for mobile r&r. The Nazi’s discover the gold and attempt to relieve him of it….which is the first mistake they make… Soon they begin to realise they have come across a killing machine called Korpi (Tommila) who stops at nothing. The body count soon mounts up with Nazi’s stabbed, shot, impaled and blown to pieces while Korpi endures enough to kill 100 men. It has a strong Tarantino vibe but but it just came over a little flat to me - Tomilla is solid in the mainly silent role while the rest are out of Nazi central casting - it was quite fun but I kinda expected more - 3/5

FILM & REVIEW Cracking little Cold War espionage/noir hybrid. Someone is stealing atomic secrets from a US lab in LA and passing them to a Communist cell. The stolen formula is hidden in a painting that is then shipped to London and onto Moscow. Only a handful of scientists know the formula but which one is it and how is the transfer done. FBI agent O’Hara (O’Keefe) is assisted by Scotland Yard detective Grayson (Hayward) are on the case but are at first baffled as to how the top security is being evaded. Various suspects are identified but they all end-up dead to cover the real traitors tracks… It’s very cleverly done with great use of San Francisco locations with car chases and shootouts along the way - plus a splendid Raymond Burr as a goatee bearded heavy. It makes great use of available science with hidden camera’s , UV lights , and all manner of lab based forensics The only minor grumble is overuse of the sonorous noir voice over which gets annoying after a while but overall very good…4/5

FILM & REVIEW https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14097206/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520unlikley%2520 Wonderful life affirming film has Broadbent as Harold living in quiet retirement with his wife Maureen (Wilton). One day he receives a letter from an old work colleague Queenie who is now in a hospice and dying of cancer. He writes back and walks to the postbox but it doesn’t feel right. He has a conversation with a girl in a local garage and he decides then and there to walk to the hospice - over 500 miles away convincing himself that as long as he keeps walking Queenie will live. And so he sets off….rings Maureen to tell her but as the marriage has long been over she initially washes her hands of the whole thing. He meets various people along with he way and just by being himself improves their lives and it’s not long before word has spread though social and mainstream media of his adventure. He is joined by first one disciple then a whole crowd all wearing t-shirts named Pilgrim. He is not best pleased with this and sneaks off to continue the journey on his own. Along the way it’s revealed why the marriage failed with a singular tragic event that blights both their lives. It soon becomes apparent that Harold is not so much walking to save Queenie as much as a quest of self redemption to atone for past sins. If this all sounds a bit heavy going it’s not -Broadbent brings a light droll touch to proceedings amply matched by Wilton and this keeps the film on the right side of sentimentality. Occasionally the religious sub text can seem to be overdone but again the film avoids that trap and you end with a really touching moving story…..highly recommended 4/5

FILM & REVIEW Before WWII Jimmy Stewart was seen as a lightweight comic actor but having seen combat and ending as a full Colonel returned looking for meatier parts and this was his breakthrough film. A terrific true life journalistic investigation around the murder of a Chicago cop 11 years ago during prohibition where two Polish men were convicted . As ad is placed in the Chicago Times and is picked up by cynical newspaper man Mcneal (Stewart). The ad is placed by one of the convicted men’s Mother who has scraped together the money and wants McNeals help. He is doubtful at first but as his editor Cobb points out it’s a human interest story and that sells papers. Soon his mail sack is full and his phone never stops ringing with messages of support so agrees to go to the State Penn to interview one of the convicts (Conte) and while still not convinced begins to dig deeper. It’s the classic little guy vs the system movie that Stewart plays so well and it’s really gripping as he too becomes convinced of his innocence. It makes full use of new technology with lie detectors , mini cameras and photographs sent over phone wires all aiding the case. It placed the benchmark for most of Stewart’s career and it’s a cracking film - 4/5