They Call Me Mister Tibbs!

Review #2531: They Call Me Mister Tibbs!

Cast: 

Sidney Poitier (Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs), Martin Landau (Logan Sharpe), Barbara McNair (Valerie Tibbs), Anthony Zerbe (Rice Weedon), Ed Asner (Woody Garfield), David Sheiner (Lieutenant Kenner), Jeff Corey (Captain Marden), Ted Gehring (Sergeant Deutsch), Juano Hernandez (Mealie Williamson), Norma Crane (Marge Garfield), and Beverly Todd ("Puff") Directed by Gordon Douglas (#663 - Them!, #686 - In Like Flint, #2320 - Viva Knievel!)

Review: 

Hey, remember In the Heat of the Night? To refresh my memory, because I only remember a few fragments...the movie was based on the 1965 novel by John Ball that involved a small Southern town in Mississippi rocked by a murder in the midst of the 1960s as an outsider detective comes in, deals with bigotry and solves the case. Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger were big on doing the film together, which was filmed in Illinois (as directed by Norman Jewison) that probably had its most interesting scene when Poitier's character slaps someone back (as not originally envisioned). Or, well, the scene where Poitier's character, being asked what he gets called back in Philadelphia, responds, with, well, "They call me Mister Tibbs!". Ball actually did a handful more novels with the character of Tibbs with The Cool Cottontail (1966), Johnny Get Your Gun (1969), Five Pieces of Jade (1972), The Eyes of Buddha (1976), Then Came Violence (1980) and Singapore (1986). But this would be a movie that just went on its own way, with Alan Trustman (writer of The Thomas Crown Affair and co-writer of Bullitt [both 1968], interestingly enough). writing the story and co-writing the screenplay with James R. Webb (the Academy Award winning writer of How the West Was Won eight years prior). At the helm for director was Gordon Douglas, a regular presence in various genres, which included follow-ups to films such as Lady in Cement (1968). While not as big a success as the first film, it made roughly over $2 milllion in rentals in the first six months. Poitier returned as Tibbs for one more movie with The Organization (1971), with Don Medford serving as director.

We now have a film set in San Francisco as our title character is now wrapped up in the investigation of a dead prostitute as some sort of city referendum is coming up about urban renewal with a preacher on one side. This also goes with a few scenes spent in the household of his wife and children (what, a lonely detective in the big city?) that results in a few moments of strife because damned if there is even one bit of tension in the murder case. The 1970s would have a few movies with an interesting presence behind it in terms of crime action thrillers, but Shaft (1971) would be the one people think of as among the first to get the ball rolling rather than this film, that's for sure. Hell, Cotton Comes to Harlem, released a month before Tibbs, is more captivating because it just feels like a movie that yearns to actually do something beyond the mundane routines that come with an investigation that might as well be the equivalent of turning over a rock to see a bunch of ants on the bottom. You might say that there was something lost in the curiosity factor in the character played by Poitier, because now he just seems completely rigid as a board, as if someone wanted to make a Dragnet impersonation but gave up. His family life just sits there in a strange type of "I recognize the dynamic, but I don't care about these people". Landau was a nice actor who people loved in film and TV (such as, say, his Mission: Impossible run*) but he barely has anything to really give in this film, which seems shocking when you consider he is playing a street preacher. You would think that an investigation that you've got a pretty good guess on who the killer is would have some sort of way to drive interest but nope, it basically stays on autopilot for most of it. Zerbe is the more interesting presence, and he's playing for a pimp, for God's sake (to say nothing of putting a wig on Ed Asner and doing a routine car chase). You get little to nothing from folks such as Corey on the police side and you barely get a feel for the city as a whole, managing to resemble Generic Town USA even more than the average sequels that usually pass by on charm. But this one doesn't have enough charm to actually ride the wave for a complete winner for all of its 108 minutes, even with its ridiculous ending (calling it a shaggy dog procedural might be nicer). As a whole, They Call Me Mister Tibbs! is a downgrade from the previous film in most of the aspects that matter and just isn't enough of a film to call a winner, managing to be a disappointment that lies in the shadow of the decade that would give out better films to offer in procedures and thrillers.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*What can I say, I watch old TV from time to time. The Wild Wild West is the other old show I'm on at the moment, I've done a whole bunch of TV watching on DVD such as The Fugitive, The Addams Family, The Munsters, Batman, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Lost in Space, and Get Smart.

My Little Chickadee.

Review #2530: My Little Chickadee.

Cast: 

Mae West (Flower Belle Lee), W. C. Fields (Cuthbert J. Twillie), Joseph Calleia (Jeff Badger/Masked Bandit), Dick Foran (Wayne Carter), Margaret Hamilton (Mrs. Gideon), Donald Meek (Amos Budge), Ruth Donnelly (Aunt Lou), Willard Robertson (Uncle John), Fuzzy Knight (Cousin Zeb), George Moran (Milton), Anne Nagel (Miss Foster), and William B. Davidson (Sheriff) Directed by Edward F. Cline (#877 - Three Ages, #1354 - The Bank Dick, #2483 - You Can't Cheat an Honest Man)

Review: 

What better way to go through another W. C. Fields movie than one with a bit of a twist? Apparently, one impetus for the film was the relative popularity of 1939's Destry Rides Again, otherwise known as the Western comedy with Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart that happened to deal with a new sheriff in town. Obviously why not go to the wheelbarrow and pair Fields, who had been in the moderately interesting You Can't Cheat an Honest Man the previous year...with West, who was looking for a comeback after her association with Paramount Pictures ended (you might remember that her sexually suggestive humor was made harder with growing censorship) with Every Day's a Holiday (1937). West claimed in later times that she wrote the majority of the film, while Fields was behind the bar scene and select parts of the dialogue, as one does when favoring ad-libbing. Used to being the big stars, they did not warm up to each other and West apparently never wanted to talk to or talk about Fields again. Naturally, there were still lines cut from the final release due, to, well, censors (hey, if you think people sound weird about sex or people, consider the dorks of yesteryear). This was the third of five movies that Fields made with Cline, with the others being Million Dollar Legs (1932), the aforementioned Honest Man, The Bank Dick (made and released the same year), and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941). The movie was a fairly decent hit with audiences. As for West, her next film came with The Heat's On (1943) for Columbia Pictures, which went so well that she promptly didn't make a film again until Myra Breckinridge (1970), instead focusing her time with nightclubs, stage shows, and Broadway revivals* for years on end. 

It is the type of movie that looks great.... on paper. It merrily moves along for 84 minutes with a few good jokes and some interesting ideas of playing around with the Western with a goofy sheriff stumbling onto the scene. And then you realize, good god, this really did need just one big star and not two. Either focus on the zippy charm of West (remember that she was in her late forties doing this film and be astonished) or go along with the flim-flam world of Fields and his type of lines, because it basically feels like an episodic movie in search of more. You get your moments in the bar and with Fields yammering the huckster line, don't get that twisted. The sequence where West holds her own during a Native American attack* (done right before the "marriage" scene) certainly gives off more of an impression than most of what Fields does here, where he isn't even present during a schooling sequence involving shaping the lads up (that goes to West, as one does). Even the love triangle between West, Calleia, and Foran doesn't have the tinge of fire that you might hope for in generating anything other than a casual laugh in the circumstances that West glides along to (i.e. not caring about what one might think and moving to the beat of her own drum). At least folks like Hamilton feel right at home in busybody silliness. By the time the movie lumbers to its conclusion, you almost wish the movie had actually started right where it ended in seeing what life might be for West in the "maybe I'll choose today or tomorrow" phase with men and a town like this. As a whole, even a movie that probably does not live up to all of the potential that you would think would come from such a neat pair up is still a good enough movie to go along with, regardless of how many films you've circled around with Fields or West.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*And then there was Sextette (1978), the one loosely based on her own play that saw West, now in her eighties, play a sex symbol with an ensemble cast. She died in 1980 at the age of 87.

*The tiniest bit of gripes not exactly related to the movie. I never understood the discourse about how to refer to Native Americans past, say, the year 1980. What the hell is the argument to call them Indians when there are people from India? I know about the "Indigenous" word but, you know, no.

Professor Beware.

Review #2529: Professor Beware.

Cast: 

Harold Lloyd (Professor Dean Lambert), Phyllis Welch MacDonald (Jane Van Buren), Raymond Walburn (Judge James G. Parkhouse Marshall), Lionel Stander (Jerry), William Frawley (Snoop Donlan), Thurston Hall (Mr. Van Buren), Cora Witherspoon (Mrs. Pitts), Sterling Holloway (The Groom), and Mary Lawrence (The Bride) Directed by Elliott Nugent.

Review: 

In the year that Professor Beware was released of 1938, Harold Lloyd turned 45 and had made nearly 200 films (shorts, features) for over two decades, all with the delight of having laughs at seeing a bespectacled glasses character. With that film, incidentally, Lloyd was no long producing his own films (as he had done since 1924, at least until he sold the land of his studio to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1937), as it was a production of Paramount Pictures with Lloyd as only a partial financier. The movie was directed by Elliott Nugent, who actually had done a handful of films as an actor before venturing into directing and being a playwright (most notably co-writing The Male Animal with James Thurber) for roughly two decades that saw him direct films with varying stars that ranged from Henry Fonda to Bob Hope. The screenplay was written by Delmer Daves, who was a few years away from being the director of such films as Destination Tokyo (1943) while Jack Cunningham and Clyde Bruckman were listed as doing an "adaptation" of a story as done by Crampton Harris, Francis M. Cockrell, and Marian B. Cockrell. The movie, made for roughly $800,000, was not a success with audiences at the time of release, and the fact that the film is the lone one not owned by the Lloyd estate meant that the movie lurked in the syndication circuit but hasn't really had much of a home media release (unless one likes, to, well, look for old movies on YouTube). Lloyd would produce a few films and do work in the radio before returning for one more starring role with The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947).

Okay, so what is the odd scenario encountered this time around: a professor is curious about the final missing fragment that tells the fate of an Egyptian from 3,000 years ago that had been buried alive for loving the daughter of the Pharoah...and the professor happens to look a bit like the Egyptian and believes that falling in love might make him go down the same path (in fairness, being buried alive does sound like a bummer). When the professor meets a girl through odd circumstances that result in him meeting public embarrassment, he sure believes he may be going the way of the Egyptian equivalent of the dodo. Lloyd and company wanted to fasten their machine of gags on the road to what they thought would be a good time. It is mildly successful in that regard...but it just seems tired, even with a runtime of 93 minutes, mainly because the gags only really get into gear for its climax, when the lead character corrals people to all follow him onto a boat by picking a fight. Lloyd aimed to get laughs from madcap situations but at a certain point watching him try to pull laughs from getting onto a rope from a moving train, it all seems that time is catching up to him. It may interest you to know this was the one and only movie appearance for Phyllis Welch MacDonald. She had made her debut on Broadway in 1935 with A Slight Case of Murder (coincidentally a play co-written by Runyon) and she moved to Hollywood after two years. Apparently, she signed a contract promising not to marry or be engaged for six months (otherwise pay $5,000) as part being in this film. The year after the film was released, she married and left acting to start a family while also being involved in children's theatre and even doing painted portraits on commission; she died in 2008 at the age of 95. Such a nice way to live life, as opposed to being stuck in further movies that may or may not have had better chances for her to actually do something besides be stuck with listless attempts at chemistry that remind you that movies on the road involving goofy encounters were just done better in It Happened One Night (1934). Stander and Frawley at least seem able to provide a chuckle. You might remember that previous sound efforts from Lloyd involved a would-be sleuth in Chinatown, a shoe salesman pretending to be successful, a movie-crazed wannabee, a mayor by accident that tries to reform a town, and a quick-paced comedy where a milkman goes to boxing contender. Some are better than others, most are at least semi-entertaining, but at least Lloyd had an idea of when it might just be time to go out on his terms.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*For those curious (in link form) about the pursuit of Lloyd's feature films in order up to Professor Beware:

A Sailor-Made Man, Grandma's Boy, Dr. Jack, Safety Last!, Why Worry?, Girl Shy, Hot Water, The Freshman, For Heaven's Sake, The Kid Brother, Speedy for the silent era

Welcome Danger, Feet First, Movie Crazy, The Cat's-Paw, The Milky Way for the sound

We will see The Sin of Harold Diddlebock in 2027.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

Review #2528: Resident Evil: Apocalypse. 

Cast:

Milla Jovovich (Alice), Sienna Guillory (Jill Valentine), Oded Fehr (Carlos Olivera), Thomas Kretschmann (Major Timothy Cain), Sophie Vavasseur (Angela "Angie" Ashford), Razaaq Adoti (Sgt. Peyton Wells), Jared Harris (Dr. Charles Ashford), Mike Epps (Lloyd Jefferson "L.J." Wade), Sandrine Holt (Terri Morales), Matthew G. Taylor (Nemesis), Zack Ward (Nicholai Ginovaef), and Iain Glen (Dr. Alexander Isaacs) Directed by Alexander Witt.

Review: 

Hey, remember Resident Evil (2002)? I...uh, sort of remember it? Well, okay, I'm just going to perform straight plagiarism by reminding myself that I saw the movie was the kind of movie you could probably watch while doing your taxes. No, it did not spur me to try out the games.* But people bought tickets to see it, so I imagine there were plenty of tax forms all brought up for fun amidst a "treasure trove" of violence and effects. Paul W. S. Anderson* enjoyed doing the first movie but had commitments to Alien vs. Predator (2004) that meant he could not direct the sequel, although he served as a screenwriter and co-producer. Various inspirations ranged from the third game to Escape from New York (1981) and The Omega Man (1971). This was the directorial debut for Alexander Witt, who had been working in film since the 1970s in a variety of roles such as camera assistant, commercial director and second unit work on films such as who had done second unit work on films such as Speed (1994); Witt has mostly stayed around in second unit work in the two decades since the release of the film. The series returned with Resident Evil: Extinction (2007).

It is a movie where someone makes an entrance by crashing through a stained-glass window on a motorcycle. Honestly, the enjoyment level is a smidge above the first film, mainly because at least it tries to aim for action that isn't confined to a lab. It finds new and exciting ways of being a hack spectacle that doesn't do anything new with its zombie creatures or its new ensemble for Jovovich to blankly encounter. Some movies can coast on characters basically being described as "job description" or "the chick with the neat shorts" or "the funny guy" even with a shelf life above, say, 93 minutes. This is not one of those movies, because even horror movies in small locales such as, say, Chopping Mall (1986) had enthusiasm in its mayhem. Here, it just feels like the equivalent of going to the supermarket without a list in mind only to suffer a stubbed foot in the store has no A/C before realizing that the jug of milk expires today*. Jovovich has done little to nothing to really further a character that is doing the exact same thing as before in teaming up with a ragtag bunch to survive but not really showing leadership besides "don't die". It isn't even worth trying to talk about Kretschmann as a "villain" because the general maneuvering of the film just feels so cookie-cutter and so bland that it doesn't even feel worthy to make fun of the reveal of "Nemesis" (I know it is related to the game, because otherwise I'm surprised they didn't call it something sillier like Vengeance Knight or Deadman). It just feels like a movie you put on to, wait for it, to do your taxes while it is on in the background. Two movies in and I barely feel like I really care much about the "T-virus" or "Raccoon City", but hey, gotta move forward to see slow-moving creatures by mowed down. For whatever reason, I guess the setup of the next film will be that in addition to going around doing action sequences of shooting, our hero now has psionic abilities. Oh, and I guess Umbrella is fine with her escaping as part of their plan (some plan, the next one is called "Extinction"). As a whole, if you were a fan of the first movie, maybe you'll be right at home with this one in terms of spectacle, but it just came off as hollow middle-of-the-road noise.

Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*It's funny, the only horror game I played from start to finish was The House of the Dead: Overkill.

*You might remember that Anderson eventually married Jovovich. Cool, did they ever make a movie together that was actually good?

*I was going to use a bad experience in say, accidentally bumping into someone who likes to gab endlessly in small-talk, but I realize some of you may have friends that actually take the time to do so. Self awareness, pal!

Underworld: Evolution.

Review #2527: Underworld: Evolution.

Cast:

Kate Beckinsale (Selene; Lily Mo Sheen as young Selene), Scott Speedman (Michael Corvin), Tony Curran (Markus Corvinus), Derek Jacobi (Alexander Corvinus / Lorenz Macaro), Steven Mackintosh (Andreas Tanis), Shane Brolly (Kraven), Bill Nighy (Viktor), Zita Görög (Amelia), and Brian Steele (William Corvinus) Directed by Len Wiseman (#320 - Live Free or Die Hard, #1916 - Underworld, #2388 - Ballerina)

Review: 

Admittedly, I was a bit hesitant to actually get back to the sequel to Underworld (2003), mainly because I had a funny feeling it was going to sink below the level of the first movie, which surprised me in being average goofy entertainment that was at least endearing for one watch. You've got leather-clad folks, guns, and some war that tries to make werewolves sound cool by calling them "Lycans", how could one go wrong? You might remember there was a vampire assassin and a vampire/lycan hybrid that had to run off because of the death of an elder vampire and the accidental spilling of blood onto a sleeping vampire elder. For whatever reason, now there is a talisman in the proceedings to go along with tombs and family reunions. Len Wiseman and Danny McBride returned to write the story together while McBride wrote the screenplay. The relative success of the film with audiences obviously led to further films. Wiseman and McBride ended up contributing to the next Underworld film, a prequel directed by Patrick Tatpoulos with Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009). The next sequel came with Underworld: Awakening in 2012.

It really does sting sometimes to say that a movie is just not that good. Sure, it isn't in the bottom of the barrel and it definitely has some appeal for those who got really into the idea of leather-clad slugfests with ideas of "lore"...but it just rings hollow in the final result in trying to pursue the series as a "franchise". Beyond the blue filter that basically pervades one's eyes over and over, the movie crashes and burns at the feet of being so scattershot that it actually almost becomes funny in spite of its overblown seriousness. You get a prologue set in 1202 to look at three vampire elders (with only one of them actually mattering for the movie at large, since one of them died in the first movie), with one being the son of an immortal and, oh, the brother of the first big bad werewolf. This wolf is put in what is supposed to be a forever jail to hide away from the immortal vampire. You get further explanations (read: ramblings by a vampire historian that we first see with Lycan women) that make you realize that this is going to be one of those fetch quest type of movies but with less Gothic wannabee fun, where only Mackintosh or Jacobi seem interested. As it turned out, this was the last of the movies with both Beckinsale and Speedman, as the latter did not reprise his role for any further films. Even with the sex scene they share together (or whatever you want to call a scene with the most select type of skin shown), they have about as much chemistry as lettuce on a sandwich (nuke the plant from orbit). You would think having a ship in the film (immortals have to go around on their boat miles) would be really big, but nay. You don't even get to have the air of a respectable actor such as Jacobi* for so long because hey, gotta focus on the hybrid stuff, because Curran sure isn't going to provide menace in hybrid-infused world domination. Hybrid hybrid hybrid, hmm? The movie may be a bit gorier and maybe may work better for those who like to see a few computer creatures that look decent if you actually watch it at night, but calling it a junk movie might almost be a compliment for those who know what they are getting into. Being a notch below a movie that was average as the day that it was created is a negative thing, but at least you can say they tried.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*Derek Jacobi, otherwise known as the only interesting incarnation of the Master in the 21st century, and yes, I'm still mad his incarnation got killed off that quickly. Sorry, I meant Sir Derek Jacobi, famous Tony Award-winning actor. Hey, I don't do the theater.

The Karate Kid Part III.

Review #2526: The Karate Kid Part III.

Cast: 

Ralph Macchio (Daniel LaRusso), Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi), Thomas Ian Griffith (Terry Silver), Robyn Lively (Jessica Andrews), Sean Kanan (Mike Barnes), William Christopher Ford (Dennis de Guzman), Jonathan Avildsen (Snake), Martin Kove (John Kreese), with Randee Heller (Lucille LaRusso), Pat E. Johnson (Referee), Rick Hurst (Announcer), and Frances Bay (Mrs. Milo) Directed by John G. Avildsen (#003 - Rocky, #895 - Rocky V, #1689 - W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, #1759 - The Karate Kid, #2203 - The Karate Kid Part II)

Review: 

I suppose The Karate Kid could only go so long. You might remember that the second movie was a moderately entertaining movie, albeit one that basically only worked on the thinnest of ideas: exploring Mr. Miyagi and why anybody would want to depart Okinawa Island (okay and Miyagi defended himself against Kreese before giving him a honk on the nose) that was made purely for crowd-pleasing. You might remember Robert Mark Kamen had written the first two films and was totally fine with writing a third film...albeit with a twist. He actually envisioned a film that would be set as a flashback (read: a dream) to "16th century China" that basically would've aimed to be a Hong Kong kung fu movie, complete with wanting a woman cast as the lead. But the producers did not want to do this, and Kamen initially rejected writing the script. However, when the producers couldn't find people to do a proper draft, Kamen was lured into doing it for a boatload of money. The plans to focus on Kove's character went down the tubes because Kove was busy with the TV show Hard Time on Planet Earth, which necessitated the character of Silver. With a middling script but with a mostly intact crew* that included John G. Avildsen directing and serving as co-editor again, the movie was a moderate success with audiences but not nearly as much as the last two films for everyone involved, with Avildsen later calling it a "horrible imitation of the original" (ironic coming from the director of Rocky V, no?). Truly, there were never any more Karate Kid movies again. Until they did a "Next" one in 1994 with just Morita returning. Or a remake in 2010. Or whatever the hell "Cobra Kai" was in 2018*. Or a "Legends" movie in 2025 with Macchio. But hey.

The real disappointment is that the movie is 111 minutes long. The best parts of the movie don't come from its lead actors, the best parts come from laughing at the sheer ridiculousness that is displayed on screen. The dynamic between Lively and Macchio basically was dynamited from the get-go of the fact that Macchio was, well, 27 at the time of filming and that Lively was, well, eleven years younger (incidentally, Macchio is four months older than Griffith, who is meant to be a buddy of Kove's character...from the Vietnam War). You might say, hey, a platonic relationship might be interesting to explore besides the usual fare of action dramas. Unfortunately, neither look like they want to be anywhere near each other, as if one was watching mannequins. Macchio looks like he is ready to be on the beach or anywhere else besides doing karate, but I will say that Morita has the more thankless role of basically getting nothing to grab onto besides the same song-and-dance of defending himself in karate situations. The old man you see at the supermarket probably is more invested in what he is doing than Morita, arguably. Griffith basically gets the chance to ham it up and accelerates it to levels you could only dream to do, which unfortunately doesn't help when you realize that Kanan doesn't really make for a suitable force to face Macchio (all they can think of is to have the character straight up commit crimes like to hold him hostage on a cliff). You've got a lead that basically talks like he attended the Rocky Balboa School of Dialogue to go along with basically nothing for Morita to do besides talking in platitudes and then Griffith shows up to ham up the screen. It's not enough that Griffith is playing the buddy of Kove (sent to Tahiti), he comes up with the most ridiculously complicated scheme to get revenge for his compadre*: He gets Daniel to want to compete at the All-Valley Tournament (remember that this is set one year after the first film) by hiring a dude to go around harassing Daniel into wanting to fight while Miyagi is focused on the bonsai shop (don't ask). Then he ingratiates himself with Daniel in order to train him that basically leads to him torturing Daniel in the regimen. Finally, after revealing his ruse when Daniel wises up...that is when Miyagi decides to help train Daniel at the tournament all along (conveniently, the "defending champion" only has to do one match). Did I mention that Silver's character is also an evil businessman? At least you know what is going to happen in the end, but the karate is just what you saw before, although I will say it is amusing that the movie straight up just ends after the final match, as if they knew that there was nowhere to go up or down from. As a whole, you get a movie that satisfies nobody, does nothing particularly interesting, and satisfies only the most bored of completionist people imaginable. It's a middle of the road movie in the most insulting of ways possible.

Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.

song of the day!

 

*Cinematographer James Crabe, who shot the last two films, had to withdraw due to being severely ill due to AIDS, which he passed away from in 1989.

*I heard that Cobra Kai has Kreese and Silver get into a fight to the death? What?

*Go Padres?

Godzilla vs. Gigan.

Review #2525: Godzilla vs. Gigan.

Cast: 

Hiroshi Ishikawa (Gengo Odaka), Tomoko Umeda (Machiko Shima), Yuriko Hishimi (Tomoko Tomoe), Mnoru Takashima (Shosaku Takasugi), Zan Fujita (Fumio Sudo), Toshiaki Nishizawa (Kubota, Secretary of World Children's Land), Kunio Murai (Takashi Shima), Gen Shimizu (the Commander of Defense Forces), Kuniko Ashihara (Mrs. Fudo), Zeko Nakamura (Priest), Akio Muto (Kadohisa), with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), Kenpachiro Satsuma (Gigan), Koetsu Omiya (Anguirus), and Kanta Ina (King Ghidorah) Directed by Jun Fukuda (#1668 - Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, #2070 - Son of Godzilla) 

Review: 

At this point, the Godzilla movies were appearing to be running on fumes. Sure, Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) was only a moderate success (hey, decent taste comes a bit later for others), but there was still the desire to try and make people all fine with another Godzilla movie by just...bringing back familiar aspects. You get King Ghidorah, a new monster with Gigan (with hooks and a saw) and, for whatever reason, a Godzilla Tower (as one does when trying to appeal to the kids, a park). Shinichi Sekizawa and Kaoru Mabuchi were each approached to do a draft with these requirements in mind, and it was Sekizawa's pitch that won out (apparently, Kimura's pitch involved a large-brain looking alien trying to subjugate the Earth and putting his form into a giant Inca statue). A majority of the soundtrack is recycled cues from previous films that had been composed by Akira Ifukube (even stuff that had been composed for a pavilion at Expo '70 is used). Stock footage from four of the previous films is used for select fight scenes (complete with color tinting), but you get a few new quirks: the monsters shed blood and in one instance, they communicate with each other (the Godzilla-Angurius sequence differs depending on which version you see, as the Japanese version [which translates to "Earth Destruction Directive: Godzilla vs. Gigan"] had speech bubbles like a comic book while the original English-dub [named Godzilla on Monster Island], had distorted growling). For such a familiar movie, it probably wasn't too much of a stretch to say that the movie was enough of a hit to keep the series going while Fukuda returned for one more of these films with Godzilla vs. Megalon in 1973, otherwise known as the one with Jet Jaguar.

Honestly, the bar for a Godzilla for me is a fairly generous one, because what's the point of just judging in comparing them to the 1954 movie over and over if you know that we are in period of Godzilla movies where "light fun" is the goal? Besides, this is a movie that just decides that King Ghidorah is alive when folks saw him killed three movies ago because, well, it's not 1999 like that other movie. I will say though that even if this is basically the equivalent of day-old chili, there are some amusing moments to be had here. I suppose it only makes sense that a group of aliens could come up with a children's park with Godzilla as the centerpiece (I wonder when Godzilla basically became the "defender of the planet" if people who had experienced Godzilla's terror had to just sit there and watch people go ga-ga for Godzilla*), but I probably would be a big sucker for a Godzilla park (it's real, apparently?) at any rate. Where was I? Oh, right, the movie: you've got these totally normal guys trying to get a tape back from a group of oddballs: a manga-drawing artist that stumbles onto a girl trying to get their brother back (who was being held by the park because, um, they needed his input) that had a hippie helping them out. Oh, and there's a woman who does karate in one scene. Did I mention that the aliens actually resemble cockroaches that go around disguising themselves as humans? The acting here (as comprised of by faces that most probably didn't see again in a movie) isn't anything too special aside from chuckles at the seeming randomness of their situation, with the cherry on top is their key part of the climax: they put up explosives onto an elevator, expecting the bad guys to shoot their weapons, because, wait for it: the elevator rings to reveal a large drawing. Aside from Godzilla (as played one last time by Haruo Nakajima) being lasered in the lower section and a few silly shots to introduce Gigan and Ghidorah (which look like toys), it mainly just comes off as an attempt at a highlights reel that has the one saving grace of being just 89 minutes long. As a whole, Fukuda was in a tough spot with cheap production values, and it is easy to send chuckles at the attempts to sell old clips as new, but there is at least some entertainment value to be had with its strange type of charm that shines enough to at least make the experience end up as not being a complete head-scratcher. 

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*This basically leads to a horrible thought - imagine if that Godzilla park was real, and a person invites someone that they didn't realize had seen destruction as a child and it basically gives them PTSD in front of all the children.

For the purposes of having a reference of previous Godzilla movies, inquire here: 

The original 1954 classic and its decent 1955 sequel

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) - Godzilla fights King Kong to a relative draw.

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) - Mothra joins the mash!

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) - A monster so important it made the title

Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) - Nick Adams in: Spaceman's Adventure

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) - Terrorists, lobsters, and more.

Son of Godzilla (1967) - A real family drama

Destroy All Monsters (1968) - Mash like it's 1999 in Monsterland

All Monsters Attack (1969) - Children and Minilla have to fight their own battles instead of Godzilla

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) - Trippy environmentally hip fun for the whole family

Big.

Review #2524: Big. 

Cast: 

Tom Hanks (Adult Josh Baskin; David Moscow as Joshua "Josh" Baskin), Elizabeth Perkins (Susan Lawrence), Robert Loggia (Mr. MacMillan), John Heard (Paul Davenport), Jared Rushton (William "Billy" Francis Kopecki), Jon Lovitz (Scott Brennen), Mercedes Ruehl (Mrs. Baskin), Harvey Miller (David), Debra Jo Rupp (Miss Patterson), and Josh Clark (Mr. Baskin) Directed by Penny Marshall (#1500 - A League of their Own)

Review: 

“I guess I just hide behind things, whether it’s my whining or my sense of humor. Every once in a while I’m decisive--for about a minute. For me, acting was easier, because the gun goes off and you have to go for it. With directing, I know people on movie sets want leadership, but I don’t exude that captain-of-the-ship image. I’d get on the phone with (“Big” producer) Jim Brooks and apologize all the time and say, ‘I’m no good at this. I think if he didn’t know me as well as he did, he would’ve been scared that I was running the movie.”

I had this movie on my shelf for a few years because even with a good reputation, sometimes you just kick something down the road until the time finally comes to actually talk about it, so here is a review about a movie that basically is hard not to like. To start with, Penny Marshall started as a director with the encouragement of her brother Garry while starring on the sitcom Laverne & Shirley, which saw her direct a couple of episodes. She was tapped to make her feature film debut with Peggy Sue Got Married before creative differences* saw her drop out, but she soon got hired to direct Jumpin' Jack Flash [1986] (a movie that was supposed to have Howard Zieff as director) that she basically summarized as the equivalent of "cramming four years of college into one semester." This was the first screenplay for both Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg; he had worked as a fisherman and dabbled in speechwriting she had worked for Amblin Entertainment. Various people were thought of to do the film that ranged from Steven Spielberg with Harrison Ford to eventually finding its way with Marshall, who approached various others and nearly had Robert De Niro tapped to play the title role before it fell through, which opened the door for Hanks. Released in the wake (read: a whole year) of a few films that happened to deal with age-changing with Like Father Like Son (1987), 18 Again! (1988), and Vice Versa (1988), Big was the biggest hit of the bunch, garnering Academy Award nominations for Ross, Spielberg, and Hanks; the success of the film even led to a Broadway musical adaptation. Two versions of the movie exist: the original cut was 104 minutes while you can see on home media an "extended edition" that runs at 130 minutes that basically lends more time to the young and adult characters (for more information, see here).

For a movie that basically is a fairy tale about figuring out the real joys of being a person beyond being "grown up". All childhoods come to an end, but it doesn't mean the joy (whether it involves the company of others or, well, aspirations for bigger things) has to fade away. One of the more important things that Marshall had to focus on was making sure that Hanks "had to be 12, not play at being 12." The movie basically rides on the fact that Hanks has to aim for innocence that isn't just doing a bit for the sake of doing it, particularly since you're spending time first with Moscow and Rushton before getting to the Zoltar machine (without needing too much time spent on what is, well, a wish gone right). Hanks was already pretty well-established a comedy guy (most notably with Bosom Buddies and Splash), but there is something so effective here in how vulnerable he proves himself to be here in the experience of someone who realizes there is more to life than the crushing grind of "things" that also happens to be quite funny. It works just as well for Perkins in the realization that comes in seeing a bit of warmth in the cold place of what people think of adulthood and in business (or in trying to climb up the ladder, if one wants to mechanical about would-be romances). Heard and Loggia each provide a few amusing moments in the contrast between office politics that basically do sound vacant and odd from the perspective of a kid (alternatively, there's a scene where Heard is trying to win really hard at paddleball that basically shows just how childish one can be even in front of people that also is pretty funny). You get a movie with gags about realizing the odds and ends of life through the wide-eyed curiosity of Hanks that also has time to actually have commitment to its charm and light fantasy. Much like a Walking Piano, Big is a worthwhile curiosity that can be played over and over again to find new keys to appreciate from all involved.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*as seen in this article. She was also thought of for Joy of Sex, apparently.

Invasion U.S.A. (1985)

Review #2523: Invasion U.S.A.

 

Cast: 

Chuck Norris (CIA Agent Matt Hunter), Richard Lynch (Mikhail Rostov), Melissa Prophet (Dahlia McGuire), Alexander Zale (Nikko Kador), Alex Colon (Tomas Montoya), Eddie Jones (FBI Agent-In-Charge Marvin Cassidy), Jon DeVries (FBI Agent Frank Johnston), James O'Sullivan (FBI Agent Fred Harper), Billy Drago (Mickey Seidman), Jaime Sánchez (Luis Castillo), and Dehl Berti (John Eagle) Directed by Joseph Zito (#2202 - Missing in Action)

Review: 

Admittedly, Chuck Norris and Cannon Films were a match made for the cheesy action fan in all of us. Oh sure, the Missing in Action movies (which started in 1984) didn't exactly rock the world in originality or general tone consistency, but they made some money so screw it, let's go all the way with a whole line of Norris movies with the company (in fairness, there were a few curious ones I haven't got to up to 1985, such as his work with Andrew Davis on Code of Silence). Apparently, Norris had the original idea for the film because he read an article in Reader's Digest that said hundreds of terrorists were around loose in America. Norris wrote the screenplay with James Bruner while his brother Aaron co-wrote the story with Bruner. According to Norris, he had Whoopi Goldberg (who at the time had a noted one-woman show) in mind to play the journalist role but he was overruled by Zito (Norris proceeded to never work with Zito ever again). With a budget of $12 million (which they used to do such scenes as going to the Everglades and blow-up actual neighborhoods scheduled for demolition), the movie was a solid enough hit for Cannon and company. The film at one point in time was among the highest-selling home video put out by MGM. Avenging Force (1986) was originally envisioned as a sequel before Norris turned it down, which opened the door for Michael Dudikoff to play a different "Matt Hunter". 

Well, if you can roll off the line around the same time as Rambo: First Blood Part II for Missing in Action, screw it, why not roll off the line from a different-but-totally not similar movie with Red Dawn (1984). But hey, I don't really care that much about movies that may or may not crib from adjacent movies as long as one is having fun with the material. Unfortunately, Zito hasn't really improved much, if any, from his attempts to garner drama with the aforementioned Missing film that resulted in hokey cheese, which is astounding when the film at least has the semblance of a worthy adversary this time around. The movie is the type of red meat for both people who love to see movies in the most good-vs-evil way possible and those who like to poke a few holes at the absurdity of action movies that take themselves so seriously. This is the kind of movie that shows neighborhoods in Christmastime getting blasted with rocket-launchers and people getting roughed up when trying to do cocaine only to soon get thrown into a window*. I wonder if people from Florida would regard it as "peak Florida experience" (okay the movie was also filmed in the greater Atlanta area, but still). Norris seems to only make an emotive gesture when there's a full moon, but even calling him a student of the "Clint Eastwood School of Acting" sounds a bit absurd when you consider that there aren't even that many kicks for him to do this time, mainly because he doesn't even bother with trying to have chemistry with anyone else in the film, he just maneuvers around with stunts and guns as if he really was the predecessor to Neil Breen. Lynch is charmingly hammy in a way that benefits the film more than if it was just lazy cardboard or understated, at least for a movie that has the guts to have a dream sequence of the lead characters in the first hour. You just need a bit of chaos, really. The rest of the folks (such as Prophet, who at least isn't written to try to have a romance with our wooden lead but mostly goes around with a camera saying wisecracks) are basically ho-hum for a movie that doesn't exactly present itself well in the whole "the streets are rioting because of the terrorists thing". If you know what you are getting into for 107 minutes in terms of sheer audacity, you might have a curious time with this movie. I can't give it a positive rating (that's the whole point of a 6/10), but I can't exactly hate its entertainment value in terms of what it thinks you want from action and, well, a battle of good vs. evil. What could go wrong?

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*You gotta love the special thanks note in the credits, which lists the ones you might expect, like the Georgia Army National Guard or Nissan Motors (I guess getting blown up is good business for a car company), and, um, Phyillis Diller and Merv Griffin Enterprises.

Honor Among Lovers.

Review #2522: Honor Among Lovers.

Cast:

Claudette Colbert (Julia Traynor), Fredric March (Jerry Stafford), Monroe Owsley (Philip Craig), Charles Ruggles (Monty Dunn), Ginger Rogers (Doris Brown), Avonne Taylor (Maybelle Worthington), Pat J. O'Brien (Conroy), Janet McLeary (Margaret Newton), and Ralph Morgan (Riggs) Directed by Dorothy Arzner (#1648 - Sarah and Son, #1810 - Working Girls, #1992 - The Wild Party, #2187 - Christopher Strong, #2362 - Anybody's Woman)

I suppose the best way to start talking about the film is to let Arzner's words (conducted in the 1970s) about the movie: "I collaborated in the writing of Honor Among Lovers, which I made for Paramount in New York. As audiences were ready for more sophistication, it was considered the smartest high comedy at the time. No, there was no pressure regarding the script, I had very little interference with my pictures. Sometimes there were differences in casting, sets, or costumes, but usually I had my way. You see I was not dependent on the movies for my living, so I was always ready to give the picture over to some other director if I couldn’t make it the way I saw it. Right or wrong, I believe this was why I sustained so long––twenty years." This was the 8th credited feature film for Arzner as a director, right between Anybody's Woman (1930) and Working Girls (1931). There were apparently a few working titles with "Sex in Business", "Strictly Business", and "Another Man's Wife". This was the second pairing of Colbert and March, who first appeared together in Manslaughter (1930) (they appeared again with The Sign of the Cross [1932] and Tonight is Ours [1933]).

Okay, sure, an office triangle movie with a couple of future Academy Award winning actors involved*. It sounds like a pretty casual affair, particularly with a runtime of 75 minutes that basically coasts on just how much you yearn to see how one woman's choices create so many ripples for all involved. It's the type of movie that has its own little quirks for modern audiences, of course, mainly because the boss in the film is, well, a boss trying to strike up a romance with his secretary that decides that the best course of action after she gets married is to fire her. But at least he seems normal when compared to the other man in the triangle in Owsley, who was a stock theater troupe man before he got onto film (in the last days of silent film) that acted all the way until his death...at 36 in 1937 (from a heart attack, of all things). One can enjoy a little bit of ham-handedness (especially when representing the underrated aspect of a love triangle story: a guy who isn't actually that good at wooing). One thing comes to another and boom, suddenly you have folks trying to throw their significant other down the river for their foolishness. At least the movie isn't completely judgmental over the decisions made by its one key feminine presence (because if it was, the movie probably would hit the rails into melodrama to chuckle at). Colbert and March prove fairly dependable and have a bit of chemistry together to where it at least isn't too hard to see where they would actually grow up and want the other. As a whole, it's a decent movie that comes and goes with the relative craftsmanship that Arzner had honed down in less than five years as a director that just rolls with useful sophistication and perspective for human nature.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*March won his first Academy Award with his performance in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) while Colbert won her award with It Happened One Night (1934), and if you pay attention to the supporting roles, you'll see the future winner for Kitty Foyle (1940) in Ginger Rogers

Apologies, I forgot to include a song of the day for the previous review. So enjoy two: 

belated) Song of the day

and this song of the day!

Crossing Delancey.

Review #2521: Crossing Delancey.

Cast: 

Amy Irving (Isabelle Grossman), Peter Riegert (Sam Posner), Reizl Bozyk (Bubbe "Ida" Kantor), Jeroen Krabbé (Anton Maes), Sylvia Miles (Hannah Mandelbaum), George Martin (Lionel), John Bedford Lloyd (Nick), Claudia Silver (Cecelia Monk), David Hyde Pierce (Mark), Rosemary Harris (Pauline Swift), Suzzy Roche (Marilyn Cohen), Amy Wright (Ricki), and Faye Grant (Candyce) Directed by Joan Micklin Silver (#1818 - Hester Street, #1988 - Between the Lines, #2193 - Chilly Scenes of Winter)

Review: 

“The more I’m left alone, the better I do. It isn’t that I think I’m smarter than anyone or anything like that. It’s just what whatever my instincts are, it’s better for me to be able to put those into play in my own work.”

You might call this a slam-dunk type of movie to go with, if you like the previous efforts of Joan Micklin Silver. Sure, Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979) was butchered by the studio to where it didn't even have the title it wanted until a 1982 re-edit, but she had kept busy in the meantime, doing a handful of TV movies (How to Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days and Finnegan Begin Again) along with Off-Broadway productions. Silver first heard of the Crossing Delancey play from Susan Sandler, as it started out as a five-person play that Sandler wanted Silver to see and it soon raised her interest to do a film, although there was little interest in making the film due to it apparently being "too ethnic". Steven Spielberg, who was married to Irving at the time, helped get the film to the attention of Warner Bros. and an executive willing to do the movie with Silver. Made on a budget of roughly $4 million, the movie (one where she had final cut privilege, a thing she stated was her favorite part of the experience of making the film) was a light hit with audiences. Silver made three further theatrical films, with the next being Loverboy (1989)

Whether one has heard or experienced the qualms of someone trying to play matchmaker or not, we've all had that experience of trying to figure of what we really want. Basically, it is a movie about someone who has to figure out what they really want from their life, one that is wrapped within the city life of New York and a proud Jewish rom-com identity that unwinds its 97 minute runtime to justify its love story with such charm and the knowledge to just let the story breathe in the feminine perspective. It helps that the movie has plenty of good timing with humor in the variety of characters that come through the Lower East Side (single or otherwise), honestly. There is a tension of trying to figure things out as a "modern girl" that Irving handles with such entertaining grace, mainly because she lays out what she thinks she wants with the right type of timing for a wavering mood. She sees the life (possibly non-Jewish, if you read into that) inhabited by folks such as Krabbe and thinks that is the one she wants to orbit around no matter how much you could see through him quickly (that's not to criticize Krabbe, because he is quite funny here). Incidentally, the one thing that Sandler requested for the film was that it include Peter Riegert (you might remember was in Silver's previous film with Chilly Scenes of Winter). It's easy to see why Riegert* being here is a pretty good choice when you consider the fact that he makes such a warm presence to contribute to such a curious chemistry with Irving, mainly because he plays blue-collar elegance with the type of confidence of who they are and what they like. This was the only film appearance of Reizl Bozyk, the Polish-born actress who had been involved with Yiddish stage from her youth (right up to her death in 1993 at the age of 79, she was set to tour again for Crossing Delancey on stage), and she practically comes off as a pro with how amusing and delightful she proves to those who, well, know about well-meaning old folks. The others are also pretty fascinating, mainly with the amusingly pushy Miles or the one-scene charmer with Harris. Basically, this is a movie for people who need a film to pair with Marty (1955) in terms of exploring what really matters in trying to be happy with another person and actually crossing the path to get there. Is it predictable and schmaltzy? Perhaps, but that's the whole fun of it all, because it is a movie that sees the clash of "modern" sensibilities and ones of tradition and finds hope that they can in fact co-exist hand-in-hand for a winner.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

(belated) Song of the day

*Riegert was in Animal House and The Mask, hell yeah

Point Break.

Review #2520: Point Break.

Cast: 

Keanu Reeves (FBI Agent Johnny Utah), Patrick Swayze (Bodhi), Gary Busey (FBI Agent Angelo Pappas), Lori Petty (Tyler Ann Endicott), John C. McGinley (FBI Director Ben Harp), James LeGros (Roach), John Philbin (Nathaniel), Bojesse Christopher (Grommet), Lee Tergesen (Rosie), Vincent Klyn (Lupton 'Warchild' Pittman), Chris Pedersen ('Bunker' Weiss), Dave Olson (Archbold), Anthony Kiedis (Tone), and Galyn Gorg (Margarita) Directed by Kathryn Bigelow (#1258 - K-19: The Widowmaker, #1548 - The Hurt Locker, #1820 - The Loveless, #2188 - Near Dark, #2361 - Blue Steel, #2494 - Strange Days)

Review: 

“Thrill-seeking adrenaline addicts have always fascinated me. The idea seems to be that it’s not until you risk your humanness that you feel most human. Not until you risk all awareness do you gain awareness.”

Sure, it feels right. The original idea of the film came from Rick King, who wondered about surfers who robbed banks. King had directed Prayer of the Rollerboys (1990), which was written by W. Peter Iliff, who once was waiting tables in his late twenties before becoming a screenwriter. Iliff's original screenplay (under the working title Johnny Utah) actually had bounced around for much of the late 1980s (Ridley Scott was at one point tapped before pre-production didn't go anywhere) before eventually falling into the hands of Lawrence Gordon and his company that went with Kathryn Bigelow to direct. Bigelow, alongside her then-husband James Cameron did re-writes for a production draft (one particular moment that Cameron came up with was the main character jumping out of a plane without a parachute); in short, it wasn't a movie crafted by one person but through a variety of influences (Cameron, for whatever reason, recently expressed a bit of bitterness over not getting a writer's credit). Made on a budget of $24 million, the movie was a decent enough with audiences at the time of release and it attracted enough of a following that someone made a "reality-play" parody (which premiered in Seattle in 2003) of the film that has a new unrehearsed actor play the lead role and read lines from cue-cards (various people have attended performances such as Busey, Petty, and even Bigelow). A remake was released in 2015, which was shot/directed by Ericson Core with Édgar Ramírez and Luke Bracey playing the lead roles, and a TV adaptation has been floating around for a few months.

Well, you either live for the ride, or the waves will just splash you away. The whole "initiation into a group by a cop" thing wasn't completely mined out by this point (as evidenced by say, The Fast and the Furious [2001] a decade later), but the best thing about the movie is that it just coasts on the amount of casual energy it has with its cast and action. The folks here play the whole thing as straight as you can play it even with folks being named "Johnny Utah" going from former football players to FBI agents (in fairness, Charles Tillman actually did go from former NFL player to federal agent, so there's that) to go along with people who are all in their own varying levels of inner balance*. Reeves was the one that Bigelow defended despite studio doubts, and, yeah, he makes for a good pairing with Swayze in that type of bond that basically goes past the usual cat-and-mouse game that comes with these types of movies. You've got vulnerability and the yearning to actually do something on one side with Reeves and the eclectic confidence that comes from someone who aims to be the master of their own domain (spiritually, literally, whatever). All will drift onto the other side, so why not try to aim for the ultimate thrill when doing so? The rest of the cast* are fairly charming in their aims for a film that takes things casually, whether that means a few chuckles at the strait-laced McGinley or the odd duck straight man nature of Busey (see, he doesn't always play louts or the heavy). Call it whatever you want (one label that has been floated around is "wet Western"), call it a movie about finding a soul within riding the waves of the frontier that is the sea, the important part is that it is a pretty neat thriller at the end of the day. It packs enough heat within its 122-minute runtime that coasts in the air with skydiving, on the ground with one particular chase scene and in the water for, well, various moments to try and capture the feeling of surfing (I myself can't say stuff about water besides trips to the waterpark). It even has an ending like a Western with the culmination of one perhaps finding a soul within the waves. For a movie as stimulating in its curiosity for high-octane interest as this one is, you will probably have a good time with a film that has managed to get to 35 years with relative ease.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*There are apparently people who find a homoerotic subtext to the film in the same sense that people try to do that for Top Gun. Truth be told, I wish people had half as much time to use on Strange Days, which is the far more interesting Bigelow movie of the 1990s. Seriously, go see it.

*My balance is trying to hide my desire to be wrapped up on an island with a lady just like Lori Petty's character. What a character, especially with that hair.

I Shot Andy Warhol.

Review #2519: I Shot Andy Warhol.

Cast: 

Lili Taylor (Valerie Solanas), Jared Harris (Andy Warhol), Stephen Dorff (Candy Darling), Martha Plimpton (Stevie), Lothaire Bluteau (Maurice Girodias), Anna Levine (Iris), Peter Friedman (Alan Burke), Tahnee Welch (Viva), Jamie Harrold (Jackie Curtis), Donovan Leitch (Gerard Malanga), Jim Lyons (Billy Name), Michael Imperioli (Ondine), and Reg Rogers (Paul Morrissey) Directed by Mary Harron (#1984 - American Psycho)

Review: 

"I was amazed, because, apart from saying that she shot him and she was crazy, nobody had ever talked about Valerie Solanas. So I had this idea for an anti-documentary. It was never going to be conventional. My thinking was, what if you took the most obscure person in this glamorous circle, and that most obscure, most despised pariah turned out to be the most interesting person of them all? What if you did a kind of reverse hagiography, where you take this person in the shadows and put them in the center? Now, how I was going to do that, I didn’t know. I just had this burning desire to make a film about her."

I suppose this is the best way to dip the toes into the world of Andy Warhol. Once upon a time, Mary Harron was in the punk scene and into The Velvet Underground, the rock band with a distinct influence within the underground scene that mixed right in with Warhol being their manager from 1966 to 1967. In college, Harron had written a piece about Warhol and his work for a university magazine and even spent time looking upon his movies. When she became a music writer, she was fortunate enough to have a brief interview with Warhol around his studio of The Factory (he subsequently died in 1987). A couple of years later, when working in television, she did research for a Warhol documentary and happened to come across the SCUM Manifesto (self-published in 1967 before becoming commercially published in 1968 through Maurice Girodias and his Olympia Press) in a store that interested her because for all the footage and interviews one knew of Warhol and the Factory, one name never really came up with Valerie Solanas. Her interest in doing a documentary happened to crisscross with Tom Kalin and Christine Vachon in doing something...as a film. Harron co-wrote the film with Daniel Minahan (with research by Diane Tucker along with having certain dialogue come from Jeremiah Newton's edited compilation The Letters and Diaries of Candy Darling) and the movie had funding from a variety of companies such as Killer Films and Goldwyn Films International. John Cale of the Underground wrote the music score for the film despite disagreements with Lou Reed. The movie made a bit of money and was enough of a hit with its screening at Sundance that the offer to do the script for American Psycho came right afterwards. The years that followed the release of the movie is fairly interesting. The movie was released by a company that soon went bankrupt and the rights were in murky limbo for a time to where it was barely available on DVD and it apparently was once only available online through a rip on YouTube. Solanas had crafted a play called Up Your Ass that she had given a copy to Warhol that was accidentally misplaced - in 1999, it was rediscovered and produced in 2000 in San Francisco by George Coates Performance Works*. Further information about Solanas came around with the 2014 biography Valerie Solanas: The Defiant Life of the Woman Who Wrote SCUM (and Shot Andy Warhol)*.

You might wonder what Solanas (a graduate of University of Maryland, College Park) has to offer in terms of a manifesto. Well, its opening declaration [with one word difference depending on the edition] states that women should "overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate [destroy] the men" (incidentally, there are a few moments in black-and-white that depict stuff from the manifesto being read). She sold copies in bookstores and on the streets of Greenwich Village for $1 (unless you were a guy, then it was $2) and even appeared in one Warhol film with I, a Man (1967). One person associated with Warhol once stated that life around the sphere of Warhol ended up making them "all captives of Andy's magnetism and his outlaw culture". Amidst all of that, Solanas might as well be an imp to these self-obsessed people that can't quite get the recognition they believe they deserve,and Taylor carries the film to fascinating levels of curiosity. It isn't a lament of a "tortured genius" or just a "craven nut" but instead something that teeters in the irony that comes in so many contradictions that can be tragic along with being fascinating. There is a burning, acerbic spirit to her that you can't exactly shoo away as an irrational being because damn it, there are plenty of irrational people to go around anyway, even if most don't go around shooting people and getting their own spin of a bio-drama.  Harris pulls in well with shades of vulnerability and elusiveness (without being a caricature to poke with) that you can't easily grab upon beyond the obvious that might as well reflect how one views Warhol and his art, for better or worse.  The real Solanas spent time in a prison ward and periods of evaluation over her mental state (mainly the paranoid schizophrenia) before she essentially faded into obscurity by the late 1970s and died in San Francisco in 1988 at just the age of 52. Regardless of how one might view Solanas and her view of men (as represented by, say, this exchange here or this one), there is something quite fascinating about what Herron has captured here about someone who lived by their contradictions. As such, this is a worthwhile debut in its capture of a misfit that doesn't judge or defend but instead lets the images and words speak for themselves in entertaining fashion that is a strange little gem.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day

*Apparently, Warhol was quoted in a book in the 1980s that he apparently glanced at the play and was more concerned with wondering if she was actually an undercover cop. By the way, that gunshot was brutal: he got shot in a way that had damage to his lungs, esophagus, liver, spleen, and stomach.

*For one thing, Solanas actually had children at a young age but had to give them away. 

*honestly, the fact that there was an anarchic group named "Up Against the Wall Motherfucker" in the 1960s shouldn't surprise me.