Archive 2005 Archive 2006 Archive 2007 Archive 2008 Archive 2009 Archive 2010 Archive 2011
2012
Updated 5/1/2012
Verson Jetorix watched:
HOUSE OF TOLERANCE (2011)
"Men have secrets but no mystery." Deceptively languid and exquisitely painful tale of a French brothel on the cusp of the 20th century - living high in the belle epoque and then fading under the glare of a changing society. A masterpiece of matter-of-fact eroticism, this is a film of great beauty, and devastating purpose in that beauty.
GAINSBOURG: A HEROIC LIFE (10)
A very trippy biopic about the man and his music. Eric Elmosnino channels Serge in an amazing performance. Another visually stunning movie, the artistic force that was Serge is captured fluently but don't expect a nut-n-bolts biography. Highly recommended for fans of film and music. Serge would approve.
PRINCE VALIANT (54, encore)
Great, old-fashioned adventure torn from the pages of Hal Foster's famous comic strip. Robert Wagner, with page boy haircut, is the upstart son of a exiled king out to expose the traitors and become a knight of the round table. Janet Leigh and Debra Paget look great and Sterling Hayden and James Mason make excellent good and bad guys, respectively. Henry Hathaway pulls the whole shebang off admirably. Bravo!
WORLD ON A WIRE (73)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder's sci-fi mini-series posits the idea of a man-made civilization within a computer that can be visited by "entering" one of the beings in the box. But are we at the top of the chain of universes here? Or is there a greater civilization above us doing the same thing? An obvious inspiration for The Matrix films including the idea of using a phone call to return to one's "real" world. Thoughtful and interesting if maybe a bit too long, this is well worth seeing for fans of the genre and the director.
THE RUM DIARY (11)
Ok, not a great movie - this sort of flounders in the second half - but that doesn't mean it isn't worth a watch. Performances are excellent all around and the dialog is quite funny and perceptive. This is a good looking movie too. Recommended for fans of the Deppster and Hunter Thompson.
MELANCHOLIA (11)
Lars von Trier crosses Woody Allen with Terrence Mallick. A beautiful movie about an unhappy bride (Kirsten Dunst) and a planet on a collision course with Earth. A strong cast and good performances (especially from Charlotte Gainsbourg), gorgeous visuals, and a palatable sense of doom make this fascinating in a macabre sort of way. For those who burned out on Trier give this a shot.
BARQUERO (70)
Not unworthy American western pits bad guys Warren Oates (guts) and Kerwin Mathews (brains) against good guys Lee Van Cleef (brains) and Forrest Tucker (guts) in a stand off over a barge. You heard right. But actually its about the futility and absurdity of stubbornness with some homoerotic subtext thrown in. A western steeped in post-Wild Bunch and post-Once Upon a Time in the West influence, this features dope smoking (by bad guy Oates, of course) and sadism that is obviously not heart-felt. Said Oates has a few moments of true genius and the rest of the time he's merely brilliant. You know who you are who should see this once.
FUNERAL IN BERLIN (66, encore)
Hands down one of the great Cold War thrillers; at once deeply and irrevocably cynical yet steadfast and unaccountably conservative. The perfect example of well-managed insanity at the highest political levels. And it will look and sound great on blue-ray, whenever that happens. Moving into the top 100.
HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS (70)
Spawned by the popular late-sixties vampire soap opera, this is a lively, entertaining rehash of its first year. Lots of old-fashioned gothic horror trappings and a roving camera that never seems to settle down much. Fun even for those (myself included) without much exposure to the TV show.
ROMULUS AND REMUS (61)
Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott are the fabled brothers of different fates. Good looking movie with lots of action. Reeves ends up on top and kicks off the whole Rome thing.
BLANK CITY (10)
Totally worthy doc about the NYC DIY film scene in the late 70's and 80's. Nick Zedd, Richard Kerns, James Chance, Deborah Harry, Steve Buscemi, Ann Magnuson, Jim Jarmusch, etc. If any of those names mean anything to you, then check this out. Highly recommended.
MOLE MEN AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES (61)
Mark Forest is Maciste this time, infiltrating the Mole Men's underground kingdom where they enslave topsiders to work in the diamond mine. Many fights and feats of strength later, he wins. The Mole Men are ruled by an evil queen (Moira Orfei) who is being courted by her elder adviser's son played by Gianni Garko! Good locations, sets, and costumes, and plenty of action and difficult things for Maciste to do but the score is lame and the dubbing leaves everyone flat. In other words almost totally fun.
BRIGHTON ROCK (10)
Curious Brit crime based on Graham Greene’s novel (and a remake of the 1947 Richard Attenborough starrer). Set in the early 60s this time, it tells the tale of a young, vicious, overreaching gangster who eventually gets his just desserts. Violent, twisted, and stylish enough to hold the interest, this somehow doesn’t ring true. Sam Riley, who killed as Joy Division leader Ian Curtis in 2007’s Control, almost pulls off the psychopathic lead. But not quite. Worth a look for crime fans as a near miss.
SAMSON (61)
Brad Harris teams up with Alan Steel to free the usurped and overthrow the usurpers. Features lizard king Serge Gainsbourg as the evil would-be ruler. All hand-to-hand, no armies. Our hero easily handles the spiked walls of death closing in on him and the tug o'war over a fire pit. Sinister's copy is wide but not enhanced. Plenty entertaining.
OUTRAGE (10)
Beat Takeshi's yakuza crime thriller exposes the pointless loyalties and endless dances of death of the underworld. Great-looking movie. The purposefully labyrinthine plotting rises to the level of absurdity carrying with it any weight the brutal violence would have beyond the shock of it. Not enough Beat for my buck but worth a look for fans.
HERCULES AGAINST THE MONGOLS (63)
Hercules takes on the Mongol hordes. And wins. This time it's Mark Forest fighting to protect a young heir to the throne against Genghis Khan's bad ass son Ken Clark. Lions and horses are among the mistreated but overall this is an entertaining peek at an alternate universe.
DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS (48)
In post-war Ireland, a young girl is sent packing to England because she riles up the local village boys with her unintentional (or so it seems) flirting. Now living on a farm in rural England, the girl's flirtations turn deadly and threaten the family who embraced her. I saw this as a flawed but interesting metaphor for a hidden but undeniable sinister force beneath the facade of a country trying to return to normalcy after the horrors of war. The farm family is matriarchal and it is the women in the film who recognize the interloper for what she is and handle the problem. Excellent photography drapes the film in deep shadow but the leading lady doesn't inspire the needed sultry innocence. Early roles for Barry Morse and Honor Blackman. Worth a look.
THE LION OF ST. MARK (64)
Gordon Scott is the Lion of St. Mark, a Scarlet Pimpernel-type, fighting pirates in Venice, and falling for hottie Gianna Maria Canale. The two leads are attractive and charismatic, the locations are used to good effect, photography and costumes are better than average, and there's plenty of action (some from other movies). Recommended for killing time, adventure style.
MANY RIVERS TO CROSS (55)
Bushrod gets pussy whipped. 18th century trapper Robert Taylor is pursued by obvious soul-mate Eleanor Parker. And guess what. Early west, stage-bound rom-com has a witty script and amiable players but be prepared for a theatrical feel. Earliest pairing of the skipper and the professor. Not to mention Marshal Dillon. Won't hurt you too much.
MAN OF THE WEST (58, encore)
Gary Cooper is terrific as the reformed criminal dragged back into his sordid past when he meets up with his old gang. Anthony Mann's Oedipal tale unfolds in a brutal and uncompromising dance of death and redemption. Highly recommended.
ANOTHER EARTH (11)
A mirror planet to ours appears in the sky. Meanwhile a repentant woman seeks the man whose life she ruined in a car wreck. The metaphorical pairing makes for an intriguing start but I couldn't help feel that more experienced filmmakers would have fulfilled its promise. Worth a look.
POINT BLANK (10)
Fun French crime thriller. Circumstances put an everyman into a situation where he must outwit thugs and cops to rescue his pregnant wife. We've seen this before but it's the telling that makes it special. The breathtaking pace and iconic characters make this more of a crime fantasy. A few surprises and it looks great too.
ATTACK THE BLOCK (11)
Alien invasion in an unfamiliar milieu; the south London projects. Stylish, edgy, and funny, this has plenty going for it for rough and tumble SF fans. Not enough Nick Frost but still recommended.
CIRCLE OF DANGER (51)
Jacques Tournier's post-war mystery is not considered one of his best but much of it is compelling and the denouement shows the hand of a master. Ray Milland is quite good as the ambiguous searcher of truth in his brother's wartime death. Hitchcockian flavor and excellent photography complete the mix.
AMER (09)
An homage to the giallo and the filmmakers who engender the form tells the story of a twisted girl who grows up to kill! The giallo conventions are here stripped down to the barest storytelling elements (very little is spoken) and embellished with stylistic excess. There is much to be enjoyed by giallo aficionados with a glass of absinthe in hand.
THE YESTERDAY MACHINE (63)
No budget wacko sci-fi shot in Texas, somewhere around East Jesus State, I think. It's the great Tim Holt doing a favor for some ambitious yet misguided friend of his to add marquee value to a property that MAYBE played a few southern drive-ins. It's a low-rent high class redneck fever dream about a mad scientist with a time machine trying to snatch Hitler before he dies in order to reignite the Reich. This is one of those universes where talking about something happening is as entertaining as showing it happen. Skip it already.
