What was the last movie you saw?

[HanaBi]

The Music Box (1932 B&W) - Laurel & Hardy.

Okay, at only 30 minutes this is not strictly speaking a full-length film. But this L&H short stands out for all sorts of reasons, not least because of the brilliantly constructed pratfalls by a simple construct - delivering a musical piano to a customer's home!

The first problem our two lovable guys are tasked with is how to carry a big boxed piano up a huge flight of stairs to the customer's home! Again, there are some hugely funny scenes here that occupy roughly half of the film. And probably the best scene of all is when they do finally reach the top of the stoop with the piano, only to be told by a passing postman that they didn't have to carry it up the steps because there is a driveway at the rear of the house.

So what do our nice-but-dim guys do? They carry the piano all the way back down the steps, load it on their their horse-drawn wagon, and use the drive way instead. A piece of simplistic genius!

Hard to believe this classic short is getting on for being 90 years old, and yet the comic timing is still fresh and hugely funny today.

5/5

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Young Savages (1961)

Crime drama directed by John Frankenheimer. Three Italian-American teenage gang members kill a blind Puerto Rican boy. The District Attorney is running for governor of the state, and a conviction for First Degree Murder (carrying the death penalty) would boost his chances for election. Burt Lancaster stars as an assistant District Attorney who is eager to convict the young hoodlums. He came from the streets himself, changing his Italian name to one sounding WASP. Complicating matters is the fact that his WASP wife strongly disagrees with putting the teenagers to death. Besides that, Lancaster used to be romantically involved with the mother of one of the kids. Because there's conflicting evidence -- did the blind boy pull a knife first? -- he investigates things on his own. It all leads up to a courtroom drama where the truth comes out. A good film, if melodramatic at times, with some visual innovation from the director. Location shooting in New York City adds a sense of realism.

 

[biodroid]

Captain Marvel, it was pretty good, but Aquaman was better

 

[Triceratops]

Bohemian Rhapsody, which just Totally blew my ever-lovin' mind. What a cast and what a lead who portrayed Freddie Mercury. Unbelievable performance!

 

[Overread]

What we do in the Shadows - an amusing "mockumentary" I think is what they are called. This is a great fun film about vampires in modern day New Zealand. It takes the form of a camera crew following vampires around their daily lives, though the effects and production are very high class. They also don't slave themselves to the idea of a handheld camera too much so you get the feel for it, but not the limitations. It's a bit like how District 9 approached it.
It's a really neat take on the theme and idea of modern day vampires and the undead as well as on the style of filming. Good fun and a good laugh!

 

[Randy M.]

You guys beat me to it, but there's really more to say about this movie.

Life Force (1985) has a naked female wearing nothing but strategically placed shadows, sucking the [drum roll, please] life force out of her victims. I am unfamiliar with the cast, so, nothing more to say-- oops, there are some interesting things that happen to the apparently dead victims.

Lifeforce is, of course, most notable for the naked Space Vampire. Other than that, I found it to be a flashy Quatermass-type story, with a confusing flashback structure that wrecked the narrative flow.

Matilda May. I recall hearing a number of years ago she was nominated for an acting award and had to look around to see if I'd remembered the name correctly; surprisingly, Lifeforce didn't scuttle her career and she's had success in European productions. In this movie she's described at least twice as "perfect," her main function was to look "perfect" and make portentous statements. She was adequate at the latter and more than adequate at the former, but there was no way to gauge if she could act since it wasn't required.

Other observations:
1) Frank Finlay, in spite of the material, could manage to keep his dignity as Van Helsing ... er ... Dr. Hans Fallada.
2) Peter Firth deserved better material, walking through this one as though he's waiting for that better material to materialize.
3) Patrick Stewart deserved better material, but is still fun to watch, and obviously a trooper, taking one for the team by kissing ...
4) ... Steve Railsbeck, who apparently lacks a sense of humor, and looks as though he's fine-tuning his abilities at hysteria in preparation for a much better role as Duane Barry on The X-Files. It's a shame he was wasted on this considering his work on The Stuntman and Helter Skelter: Several actors have played Charles Manson since, but I haven't seen one who captured the sociopathic snake-charmer sleezy menace as well. Given a grounding in reality, he's truly effective.
5) Henry Mancini could channel John Williams, but not well.

If you spread out the basic plot of Dracula, drizzle with some She, ladle on some I am Legend with a special mix of Quatermass and the Pit and a soupcon of Night of the Living Dead, add some Black Hole-like space effects (which is to say, not terribly convincing), some Poltergeist-like light effects (which is to say, really effective in a better movie), and present as a quasi-Hammer picture, you too can create a train wreck that seems to be about nothing so much as male fear of unrestrained but sillily presented female sexuality. This is based on Colin Wilson's The Space Vampires, which I think I read before the movie was released, but no longer recall. I wouldn't be surprised if Wilson -- who I remember as both a fan of Lovecraft and A. E. Van Vogt -- created the main plot but then globbed on chunks of pretentious exposition that the scriptwriter and director probably eliminated as well as possible while creating one of the goofier sf/f/h movies during a decade that specialized in goofy sf/f/h.

Still, if you're in the right mood, it's fun to watch, maybe especially if others are around you to laugh and mock it with you.

 

[Toby Frost]

There's an article by Wilson called "Fantasy and Faculty X" in a compilation called How To Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction (ed. J.N. Williamson), where Wilson talks about the turning of The Space Vampires into Lifeforce. He didn't like the adaptation, mainly because (he says) the tension of the opening part of the novel was taken out, and the film got to the action too quickly.

 

[Randy M.]

I know I read one of Wilson's novels, maybe The Mind Parasites. I was much younger then and maybe not as patient with an author delving into the philosophy and ideas behind his writing, but my lasting impression is that he went on and on and the story, as a story, suffered, as the book became more and more boring.

Randy M.

 

[Cathbad]

Twisted (2004)

Ashley Judd's best performance to date. Samuel Jackson's in it too, but from what I saw, he was included just to give the movie some Star Power.

Ashley plays a new, heavy-drinking police detevtive who's first case is as much about her as it is the vixtims - all of whom whom she's slept with.

A predictable movie, yes, but it was well done and worth the watch.

 

[Parson]

vixtims --- I love the typo! It makes me think of a bunch of vixens who are also victims. --- There's got to be a story in that somewhere.

 

[Cathbad]

ugh

 

[Cathbad]

Twisted (2004)

Ashley Judd's best performance to date. Samuel Jackson's in it too, but from what I saw, he was included just to give the movie some Star Power.

Ashley plays a new, heavy-drinking police detevtive who's first case is as much about her as it is the vixtims - all of whom whom she's slept with.

A predictable movie, yes, but it was well done and worth the watch.

P.S.: If you watch this movie, you might end up wondering about my Samuel Jackson comment:

What I meant was, the part could have - and probably should have - been played by a relative nobody.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Weird Witchcraft Double Feature

The Witches Mountain (1972)

Spanish movie that grabs the viewer with an amazing opening sequence, then slows down to a crawl, but remains interesting. A woman arrives home to find a wig with a knife in it outside the house. She goes inside and discovers other odd things, the most disturbing of which is the bloody dead body of her cat. A little girl in old-fashioned clothing shows up, bossing the woman around, saying they have to go so she can be punished, proudly admitting she killed the cat because it bothered her own pet, which turns out to be a big snake. The two go into the garage, and the screen explodes into fire.

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I got the titles. Then we see the woman from the opening sequences inside the home of her ex-boyfriend, a photographer. He's baffled how she got there, as not even he knew he was going to be there at that time. She ignores the question, says she still loves him, and has two airplane tickets for a trip to Brazil, now that he has some time off. Obviously eager to be rid of her, he calls his boss and demands that he not get a vacation. He gets assigned to take pictures somewhere way up in the mountains. Along the way he meets with a pretty young writer, who agrees to go with him. Odd stuff starts to happen as they make their way from a mountain inn, then to a village inhabited by only one old woman. The climax brings the woman from the opening sequence back, but nothing about the weird little girl is ever explained.

There's some gorgeous mountain scenery, and an quietly eerie mood. Not an exciting film, but one which holds the attention, despite a glacial pace and really poor dubbing into English.

Simon, King of the Witches (1971)

Simon is a semi-hippie guy who lives in a storm drain. He is also a practitioner of ritual magic. Arrested for vagrancy, he gets thrown into the same cell as a younger guy who's in for loitering. Young guy takes Simon to a rich guy's house. Simon sells some amulets and Tarot readings to the folks at a party there. One gives him a bum check. The rich guy challenges him to curse the cheater. Simon accepts, saying the man will die in two days, but half the burden of the curse will be on the rich guy, and half on Simon himself. Of course, the curse works.

From there, the plot goes in all different directions, with Simon's attempt to "charge" a magical device so can travel into the realm of the gods and attain their power, Simon performing a spell which brings an immense amount of rain and also changes reality in a particular way, and a lot of other stuff. There's a fair amount of intentional comedy along with the melodramatics. Although Simon does some very bad things indeed, mostly because of his overwhelming ambition, he is also genuinely fond of the younger guy, and can be quite charming. The ending, if I understood it correctly, shows Simon sacrificing himself to resolve some of the changes he's made in reality.

The movie shoots itself in the foot with a really bad special effect, consisting of an animated spinning red circle, which represents the power Simon conjures up with his curse. There's a goofy psychedelic light show sequence involving the magic mirror. Andy Warhol "superstar" Ultra Violet shows up as the leader of a group of self-styled witches, whose ceremony is interrupted by Simon, who mocks their pretensions. It's a really odd film, written by a fellow said to be a magician himself.

 

[HanaBi]

"The Witchfinder General" (1968) - Vincent Price

I reviewed this film here a couple of years ago, and it still gets the odd repeat viewing in my household, and has done for many years! But this is not because the film is particularly outstanding, but Price shines brightly here with perhaps one of his most accomplished performances as the sadistic & ruthless Matthew Hopkins - the witchfinder general himself.

Set in the turbulent era of Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War, the film is quite bleak throughout, not helped by the some quite grotesque torture scenes (in the hard-to-find uncut version) and a not particularly happy ending either.

If you are a Vincent Price fan you will probably ignore the many short comings of this film and just take pleasure in the master at work!

3/5

 

[REBerg]

The Meg
Now, that's a shark! We're going to need a bigger aircraft carrier.

 

[Jeffbert]

"The Witchfinder General" (1968) - Vincent Price

I reviewed this film here a couple of years ago, and it still gets the odd repeat viewing in my household, and has done for many years! But this is not because the film is particularly outstanding, but Price shines brightly here with perhaps one of his most accomplished performances as the sadistic & ruthless Matthew Hopkins - the witchfinder general himself.

Set in the turbulent era of Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War, the film is quite bleak throughout, not helped by the some quite grotesque torture scenes (in the hard-to-find uncut version) and a not particularly happy ending either.

If you are a Vincent Price fan you will probably ignore the many short comings of this film and just take pleasure in the master at work!

3/5

AKA The Conqueror Worm. I first saw it as the latter title, cannot recall if anything was different. One might also look up Herbert Lom's filmography, best known as Chief Inspector Dreyfus, of the Pink Panther series. He was in a similar role. This was a true horror film, unlike most of Price's others. Nasty! Lom's is just as nasty. Absolute power, etc. I think I saw one other film of this topic, but cannot recall actor or title.

Lifeforce is, of course, most notable for the naked Space Vampire. Other than that, I found it to be a flashy Quatermass-type story, with a confusing flashback structure that wrecked the narrative flow.

Queen of Blood is surprisingly enjoyable for a film frankensteined from a Soviet movie, with added American footage. The title character is quite striking.

There was another "film Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women (1968) from a Soviet movie" also starring Basil Rathbone, also sci-fi, and featuring my favorite robot of all time: John.

The film Planeta Burg, was Americanized & the Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet (1962) followed by Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women (1968) Both the work of Roger Corman. I know I have seen a third frankensteined version of this Soviet film, with footage from an old Army VD film added . Needless to say, it was re-dubbed as a sex film.

 

[HanaBi]

"A Shot in the Dark" (1964)- Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom

Summary (Credit to Rotten Tomatoes) "In this film, a murdered corpse is found at the chateau of millionaire Benjamin Ballon. Inspector Clouseau is sent to investigate, but chief inspector Charles Dreyfus is loathe to allow the bumbling Sellers near the case. While Dreyfus barely tolerates Clouseau's idiotic antics, Clouseau tends to the case at hand."

I always consider this to be the most complete and funniest of the Panther franchise. And it also director Blake Edwards' best work (imho), as well as working on the script with William "The Exorcist" Blatty.

Both Sellers and his nemesis Lom, are in fine form; especially Sellers who revels in his role as the incompetent inspector.

4/5

 

[Vince W]

The Highwaymen. A Netflix film about the hunt and killing of Bonnie and Clyde. This is the first film from Netflix I can honestly say I loved. Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson play the ageing Texas Rangers brought back to track them down with the understanding that Bonnie and Clyde were to be brought in, dead.

There are numerous wonderful moments between Costner and Harrelson and also how they interact with the younger, more technologically savvy police forces.

A top film.

 

[HanaBi]

"The French Connection" (1971) - Gene Hackman

Summary (Credit to Rotten Tomatoes) -

This gritty, fast-paced, and innovative police drama earned five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (written by Ernest Tidyman), and Best Actor (Gene Hackman). Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) and his partner, Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider), are New York City police detectives on narcotics detail, trying to track down the source of heroin from Europe into the United States. Suave Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) is the French drug kingpin who provides a large percentage of New York City's dope, and Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi) is a hired killer and Charnier's right-hand man. Acting on a hunch, Popeye and Buddy start tailing Sal Boca (Tony Lo Bianco) and his wife, Angie (Arlene Faber), who live pretty high for a couple whose corner store brings in about 7,000 dollars a year. It turns out Popeye's suspicions are right -- Sal and Angie are the New York agents for Charnier, who will be smuggling 32 million dollars' worth of heroin into the city in a car shipped over from France.

Always a firm favourite of mine, not least because it shows the streets of New York at its most unglamorous - which was so typical of many 70s thrillers of the time. But this was probably the granddaddy of them all, and still serves a good punch even by today's more polished and stylized standards.

And what better way to open a film than seeing Santa Clause chasing a drug runner down the side streets, and once captured asks him if he ever picked his feet in Poughkeepsie!

Smart performance from Hackman as the hard-bitten, booze-addled cop, along with a good performance from Roy Schieder as his partner.

I recently watched another tough crime thriller from 1971, Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry", and when compared side by side, Eastwood's Harry Callaghan is nothing more than a glamourized caricature compared to the gritty and far more realistic performance from Hackman.

4/5

 

[Jeffbert]

Sadly, soon after these films, the 'action' genre became so obsessed with out - doing the previous films' chase, gunfight, fist fight, etc., sequences, that they became downright silly. I would not classify either of these as 'action' films.