Film Reviews by sb

FILM & REVIEW Ridley Scott’s 80’s Cop Thriller which TBH is not one of his better efforts. Douglas is Nick a maverick New York cop (is there ever any other kind) who gets caught up in a Yakuza feud and makes the bust. The Japanese want the bad guy Sato back so Nick and his partner (García) fly him to Tokyo and hand him over the local police. Except they are fake cops working for Sato and Nick who is already under suspicion of corruption in the US is accused of being bought. He decides to stay on and working officially as an observer pursues Sato.Things get personal when Sato has García killed forcing Nick into a one man revenge squad. It looks very good (shot by Jan De Bont) but the script uses every cliche in the book. The arrogant American who rides rough shot over local customs who gets partnered with local cop Takakura who dissaproves of his methods but you just know they will become bosom buddies by the end. They really lay the White Savior on thick where Nick more or less takes on the Yakuza single handed and no outside cop would be given that much leeway. Douglas does his normal obnoxious character who you kinda route for and there are a couple of decent set pieces ( and he and García have an odd relationship where the 2 cops call each other babe) but the sheer weight of all the cliches really undermines it - 3/5

FILM & REVIEW Another Jimmy Stewart/Anthony Mann collaboration but this time not a Western. Stewart plays Steve Martin who is convinced he can find oil off the coast of Louisiana - by a mixture of vision and hucksterism he persuades oilman Macdonald (Flipping) to back him and Martin and his partner Gambi (Duryea) set off in pursuit of glory. At first the local fishermen are supportive as the cash is flashed but when they realise he is using dynamite to take readings which will destroy the shrimp and crab beds they make their living from attitudes harden. To complicate matters the local head fisherman has two betrothed daughters but both Marin and Gambi muscle in so things are set for a confrontation. It’s a cracking story and quite contemporary where big oil is on a collision course with traditional industry. Stewart gives one his finest performances - a man driven to the point of obsession who will ride roughshod over everyone and everything to get what he wants. it’s a measure of just how good he is that you still root for him to succeed.. You also get the feeling that Daniel Day Lewis has seen this as the character has more than a germ of Plainview about him. Add in some terrific set pieces -a fight during a hurricane is especially effective and you have a really top film - 4/5

FILM & WATCHED Just out on disc so just general feelings. A remake of the much loved Kurosawa film (itself based on a Tolstoy story) it’s the story of a repressed button downed man living in repressed buttoned down 50’s Britain who after a diagnosis for terminal cancer initially decides do end it all but can’t go through with it. He works for the planning department at the LCC where nothing ever gets achieved and decides (partly inspired by the vivacious Miss Harris on his staff) to actually do some good while he still has time. It’s one of those films that could so easily tumble into mawkish sentimentality and maudlin self pity but the script by Kazua Ishiguro and the fantastic central performance by Bill Nighy avoid all those traps. Nighy uses all patrician bearing to give us a frustrated man who slowly has drifted into inertia but decides to make one last difference. Wood is equally good as Miss Harris who he sees as the spark in his life that been long been extinguished and the whole emotionally stunted time is very well realised. It’s one of those scripts where what isn’t said is as important as what is and Nighy should have got the Oscar for this. Quite wonderful- 4/5

FILM & REVIEW Zombies! Underwater Zombies! Nazi Underwater Zombies….created by Peter Cushing!- thought that might get your attention. Group of tourists boat gets rammed and sunk by a ghost ship. They make their way to an apparently deserted island where they find a decaying hotel with one inhabitant- Cushing with a clipped German accent surrounded by Nazi flags. It’s revealed at the end of the war having created super soldiers he escaped but as they were out of control he scuttled the ship….but now they are back…. I expected a piece of 70’s exploitation trash but this is really well made considering how cheap it cost. Relying more on brooding atmosphere and a haunting synth score this is lacking all the normal zombie gore but the zombies are really effective all dressed in identical SS uniforms with peroxide hair and sinister wrap around goggles - they way they emerge from the waves in quite sinister. Add in Carradine as the grouchy captain and Sheils in a very fetching bikini and you have something a lot better than I expected - so 3.5/5

FILM & REVIEW Lumet’s superb high tech heist thriller has Connery as Duke a safe cracker just out 10 years in the slammer and straight into the bed of his high class hooker girlfriend (Canon) in her very expensive paid apartment. He decides then and there to rob the entire building - and in the classic heist tradition lays out a plan, assembles the crew and carries out the robbery. These include The Kid (Walken in his debut) , a very camp jeweller (Balsam) and a Mafia thug (Avery) who the mob want whacked and support the heist in return for Duke carrying it out. What Duke doesn’t know but the audience do is that each contact he makes is already under surveillance by various law enforcement and Govt agencies. The irony is that they have no idea who he is and why he is contact with their target so remain blissfully unaware of the bigger picture. The heist itself is brilliantly staged with the events unfolding and intercut with the cops interviewing all the victims afterward so the narrative swings back and forth. The crew think they have the building to themselves but the cops have been tipped off and lie in wait outside…….. Connery is great in the role and it was the one that really launched his post Bond career and although Walken doesn’t get that much dialogue it’s still great to hear that Walken speech cadence even then . Ok by modern standards Balsams fag Jeweller may be questionable ( and he is referred to as that throughout) but as always he is terrific. The film is full of tapes, wire taps, surveillance cameras and bugs so fits into that whole 70’s Govt paranoia genre and Quincey Jones score is full of abrasive electronica - it really is a classic heist movie - 4/5

FILM & WATCHED Just out on MUBI so only general details - a seriel killer is cleaning the streets of prostitutes claiming he is undertaking Gods work. What gives the film its edge is its based on a real case in the Holy City of Mashhad in Iran and as the film unfolds it’s revealed that public opinion is wholly behind him - it’s only the determined work of journalist Rahimi (Ebrahimi) who forces the authorities to finally take action.. The killer is revealed straight away and we see a devoted family man with 3 children but who is driven to clean the filth off the streets - a kind of Iranian Travis Bickle with a loving family. Both leads (Banestni as the killer ) are very good with Ebramimi picking up best actress at Cannes. With the subject matter is is fairly grim throughout but very good at skewering the misogyny and hypocrisy of a society where woman sell themselves only because men buy them - powerful stuff - 4/5

FILM & REVIEW The 4th in the series of Westerns that Stewart made with Anthony Mann and although it’s fine on it’s own it doesn’t quite scale the heights of the others. This time Stewart plays Jeff arriving with 200 head of beef in Seatle and hooks up with his partner Ben (Brennan). Jeff is accused of murder so high tails it out on a riverboat upstream where he encounters Ronda (Roman). Arriving in Spokane he runs his cattle through town disrupting a hanging and annoys the local judge Gannon (Mcentire) who finds him not guilty of the murders but fines him the entire herd for the disruption. Jeff is hired by Ronda to help take food over the mountains to feed the gold rush in Yukon - he agrees but it’s all a ruse and he doubles back and steals back his own cattle. Together they head into Dawson which is over the Canadian border where Gannon can’t touch him. It’s a much changed town with the gold rush with money and trouble and killing on the rise. Jeff sells his cattle to Ronda and sets up his own gold claim with Ben but it’s not long before Gannon and his killers arrive to take over the town. Jeff has an interesting character arc in that he is a man on his own , minding his own business and won’t get involved as it’s nothing to do with him but as things develop he is forced to question this philosophy as events escalate. As I say it’s fine as it is but does tend to meander a bit in the middle and there is a love triangle and romance that kinda gets in the way although the way the finale is built is very good - so still 4/5

FILM & REVIEW Robert Siodmak is famous for making dark Noirs with a particularly bleak take on the human condition. This then is quite a departure - Chandler plays Vic who was born in Italy but has spend most of his life in New York. He has recently served 5 years for a 100 grand heist and has now been deported back to Italy. The money was never recovered and his partner follows looking for his share…..Vic refuses saying having done the time and never squealed the full amount is his. He travels back to his home town and gets taken in by his kindly Uncle who thinks he’s something big in the US Govt a fiction Vic is only too glad to maintain. He also meets and woos a widowed Countess who provides for the poor and this sparks an idea. He cannot have the cash sent from New York as the cops are watching so he arranges for all the money to spent on food and shipped over. Once it arrives he plans to steal it and sell it on the black market and convert it back into cash…..but by now he has fallen in love with town , the people and in particular the Countess…… FIlmed entirely on location making great use of the Italian landscape with Chandler as the rugged anti- hero and Toren as his romantic foil. As I say its miles from the normal Siodmak stuff but works just fine on its own terms - 4/5

FILM & REVIEW Brooding and not a little disturbing chiller set in the rotting post industrial outback of Oregon. Russell plays Julia a school teacher who has moved back to be with her Sheriff brother Plemins and it’s revealed they both share a dark past. She gets increasingly concerned about Lucas (Thomas) one of her pupils whose younger brother isn’t in school and whose Father is known to the cops as a Meths Cook. She suspects something is very wrong at home…….and that is all I am saying as it works best not knowing which route it will take. Copper builds the atmosphere quite slowly with an increasing sense of dread and the way he ratchets up the tension is very effective. It’s produced by Guillermo Del Toro and fits very will into his oeuvre and can be really quite disturbing at times……very good indeed ??4/5

FILM & REVIEW Early Anthony Mann film and a cracking little noir it as well. O’Keefe plays Joe who is in prison having taken the rap for his boss Rick in return for a payoff of 5O G’s. It’s arranged for him to bust out but Rick (Burr) reckons his chances of survival are slim thus taking care of Joe and the cash. But against all odds he makes it and heads back towards San Francisco with his girl Pat (Trevor). On the way to switch cars they take Ann (Hunt) who has been following Joe’s case and is also in love with him so the scene is set for all 3 to hit the road. So he has the cops after him and Rick as well in the person of Fantail (Ireland) while the two girls bicker over Joe while the net closes in… It’s unusual in that in uses a hard boiled voice over but from Pat’s perspective so we learn a lot from the female point. Both actress’s are very good - Trevor is hard as nails whereas Hunt is much more the innocent abroad and Trevor realises she is in danger of losing Joe. Burr is excellent as the sadistic bad guy and for it’s time it’s quite brutal and lensed by the great John Alton who uses the swirling dock fog in the finale to great effect…a real little cracker - 4/5

FILM & REWATCH A welcome rewatch for Eastwoods masterpiece which is just one of the best Westerns ever made. Sure we all the know the story so just going to pick on some observational points. Love the pacing - although you know the finale will be one of bloody violence Eastwood takes his time in building the characters, narrative and astmosphere. The way he keeps maintaining he isn’t the same man any more you know someone like him can never escape their past. I love how it’s undermines the mythology of the Western - at the end of Liberty Vallance we are told if you have the facts and the legend - print the legend - but this reverses this using the naive author to highlight that there nothing noble about gunning down another man and the mud and the rain and the gloomy interiors all enhance this. You can see it as a feminist western where women are there to be used and no one cares if things get ugly so they take matters into their own hands to seek retribution. Eastwoods regular cinematographer Jack Green underlights the interior shots with a counterpoint to the glorious landscape and won an Oscar for it. The performances are superb - Eastwood underplays until the finale with fine support from Freeman and Harris with Hackman giving one of his best roles as the brutal lawman. David People’s script is equally excellent managing to see a final moral undercurrent to all the brutality……it really is a superb film - 5/5

FILM & WATCHED Just out on Netflix so no real detail -a really interesting if unremittingly grim post apocalyptic ecological tale. It’s a film where ideas and concepts are to the fore which makes a refreshing change where CGI is used to support rather that dominate the narrative. It’s got a remarkably mature central performance by Raffiella Chapman who is still only 15 with Marsden at his menacing best. Visually it takes some cues from Stalker and is very effective at world building with some very thoughtful points. But dear god it’s bleak……reckon you have to the right frame of mind to appreciate it - 4/5

FILM & REVIEW https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084335/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_9 Costa-Gravas’ superb political drama set during the 1973 military coup in Chile that brought Pinochet to power. Spacek plays Beth married to Charlie whose a very naive young man who writes children’s books. In the early days of the coup he dissapears and Beth is joined by his Father Ed (Lemmon). Ed is a very conservatism devout Christian who dissaproves of Beth and the leftist liberal views she holds and at first blames her for Charlie’s dissapearence The two set out to discover his sons fate but as the horrors around them become more apparent and the fact that Charlie without realising it at first has been privy to the deep American involvement in events draws them closer. The US Embassy seems to be helping but it soon becomes clear they are doing this to stop Ed digging deeper. Both leads are superb with Lemmon giving the performance of his career (winning best actor at Cannes) . It’s a wonderfully complex performance as Ed begins to realise that the thing he holds most dear - the American Way of Life - is the one thing that has led to his sons murder……. The recreation of the coup (filmed in Mexico) is very well achieved and it’s a key film of the genre - 5/5

FILM & REVIEW Don Siegel’s cracking spy thriller has Caine as Tarrant a serving MI6 officer whose son David is kidnapped by Drabble (Vernon). He demands very specific ransom in diamonds which is the exact amount that Tarrant’s boss Harper (Pleasence) has only just purchased for operations so someone is working on the inside. Harper explains that they can’t pay up forcing Tarrant to take control and pretending on the phone to be Harper gets the bank to hand over the diamonds to him. To complicate things Drabble has set Tarrant up to it look like he is the one who set the whole thing up so he has to not only rescue his son but evade the authorities whilst exposing the real traitor. Caine is terrific as always with Suzman as his long suffering estranged wife with Pleasence as his fastidious boss and Vernon as his most velvety menacing. Some great action set pieces and great use of the central London locations with the human cost acting as a counterpoint to the murky machinations of the spy genre. One of my favorites - 4/5

FILM & REVIEW Aka The Dark Mirror. Siodmak’s excellent psychological Noir - a respected doctor is found with a knife in his back and a young woman is seen leaving the apartment. She is identified as Terry Collins and two witnesses swear that they saw her that night - but she maintains she was in a park and has several other witnesses to confirm this . How could she be in two places at once ? The answer is revealed when the bedroom door opens and her identical twin sister Ruth comes out - both played by De Haviland. They stick to the alibi but although the detective Stevenson (Mitchell) is convinced one is the killer he can’t prove which one…..so the case collapses. He engages psychologist Scott [Ayers) to run Rorchard tests and begins to suspect that Terry is far more unstable than she first appears and deliberately falls in love with Ruth to see how Terry will react……. DeHaviland is superb in the dual lead - in public they appear identical but in private Terry is the dominant one and way she plays mind games on her weaker sister is quite chilling - so much so that you begin to be able to tell who is who just by a small gesture. Siodmak made several noir’s in the period and this is one of his best….4/5