Convoy (1978).

Review #2252: Convoy (1978).

Cast: 

Kris Kristofferson (Martin "Rubber Duck" Penwald), Ali MacGraw (Melissa), Ernest Borgnine (Sheriff Lyle "Cottonmouth" Wallace), Burt Young ("Love Machine" / "Pig Pen"), Madge Sinclair (Widow Woman), Franklyn Ajaye (Spider Mike), Brian Davies (Chuck Arnoldi), Seymour Cassel (Governor Jerry Haskins), Cassie Yates (Violet), Walter Kelley (Federal Agent Hamilton), Billy Hughes (Pack Rat), and Jorge Russek (Texas Sheriff Tiny Alvarez) Directed by Sam Peckinpah (#590 - Ride the High Country, #591 - The Wild Bunch, #944 - Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, #1439 - Straw Dogs, #1685 - The Deadly Companions, #1936 - The Getaway)

Review: 

Sure, one might think of Smokey and the Bandit (1977) first when they wonder about Convoy. But actually, there is a tiny bit of things to think about beforehand. Bill Fries Jr was interested in music but more so in commercial art, which eventually lead to Bozell & Jacobs for art direction. In the 1970s, a character called "C. W. McCall" was created to aid in advertising for...bread, which because of the nature of transporting it through trucks, well, why not making a truck-themed ad and character. The ads (played by Jim Finlayson) were a hit, and Fries used it as a way to come up with a song, which he wrote with Chip Davis (with Donald Sears as producer). Played over the winter of 1975 and early 1976 to interested airwaves, the song (an ode to renegade truckers) was a hit to people in an era where CB radio and trucking were a thing to talk about (McCall wasn't exactly a one-hit wonder, he merely just found other things to do besides singing songs for long, which actually included being mayor of Ouray, Colorado for six years; he died in 2022 at the age of 93). I think you can understand how it might've made sense for United Artists to go out for a film based on the truck stuff. The film was written by B. W. L. Norton, who had wrote/directed Cisco Pike [1972], the somewhat noted cult classic that had starred Kristofferson in his first go at being an actor. Sam Peckinpah had directed these three films before this one: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), The Killer Elite (1975), and Cross of Iron (1977). Suffice to say, he needed a hit, and he went with it while fiddling where he could in the script that found a bit of time to cast someone like Ajaye in an apparent attempt to add some social commentary. Apparently, he used James Coburn not so much just for second unit work but also to direct certain sequences due to his furthering addiction to drugs and alcohol. Evidently, the original cut of the film was over three hours long, but editing resulted in a 114-minute film, complete with a new rendition of McCall's "Convoy". The production of the film resulted in a commercial hit, but he did not direct for a while (doing second unit work on Jinxed! [1981] before his final film with The Osterman Weekend [1983]).

Admittedly, you could probably say the film sure smells like it has a substance in its body with how it actually makes one appreciate the fine art of enjoying a dumb-as-hell movie. You thought Smokey was hokum? You haven't seen anything yet. It is the staging of chaos like you have probably seen before, but it is kinetic enjoyment (complete with stunts you can't quite tell are staged or just part of the "go with it" show) that I can't help but admire even in average enjoyment. Besides, the casual average qualities of his prior 70s work such as Straw Dogs and The Getaway make one appreciate the pedal-to-the-medal ridiculousness that looks like if a Western was deep-fried (what else could one say about a line in which Kristofferson refers to him and Borgnine as being part of the "there ain't many of us left" department). Kristofferson drifts in and out as the inadvertent hero for the people that you probably have seen before, but there is a lean confidence in his charm that you can practically have a beer with. MacGraw may have been fine for Peckinpah's Getaway, but she doesn't really have anything of note to do in this film (cut because of the edits or not, you decide)., particularly when one focuses more on the goofy dynamic between Kristofferson and Borgnine anyway,. There is something delightfully enjoyable about Borgnine in how he cuts through the film in terms of smarmy authority that is the kind of played-out entertainment worth sticking around for as the film gets further absurd with the introduction of a Governor character that really believes a convoy of truckers (comprised of a chunk of folks who probably don't even know why they are going along with it all) can be the key to reaching "the people", which is pretty amusing. Rounding out the interest is Ajaye and Young, who make quality character presences in the salt-of-the-earth nature that comes from people wrapped up in essentially the grind of their lives (the off-screen assault of the former in particular sticks out). The ending is probably easy to see coming when it comes to "man of the people!", but it does ring amusement in the actual reveal and lasting laugh, so that works out. The film is clearly not any better than the fried ridiculousness that arose in low-budget / B-movie enjoyment in its wake, but Peckinpah and company managed to grind out a curious movie filled with chaotic engagement anyways. It wouldn't be the first one to recommend in the work of Peckinpah, but it sure would garner curiosity for those who love to see vintage 1970s entertainment with the staging of real-scale effects and stunts to go with a catchy song.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Review #2251: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Cast: 

Michael Keaton (Betelgeuse), Winona Ryder (Lydia Deetz), Catherine O'Hara (Delia Deetz), Jenna Ortega (Astrid Deetz), Justin Theroux (Rory), Monica Bellucci (Delores LaVerge), Willem Dafoe (Wolf Jackson), Arthur Conti (Jeremy Frazier), Burn Gorman (Father Damien), Amy Nuttall (Jane Butterfield Jr.), Santiago Cabrera (Richard), Danny DeVito (Janitor), and Nick Kellington (Bob) Directed by Tim Burton (#040 - Batman [1989], #107 - Beetlejuice, #132 - Alice in Wonderland, #196 - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, #262 - Corpse Bride, #316 - Batman Returns, #969 - Planet of the Apes [2001], #1257 - Pee-wee's Big Adventure, #1295 - Sleepy Hollow, #1615 - Edward Scissorhands, #2160 - Mars Attacks!)

Review: 

"It was only until fairly recently, with all this talk, that I just put all the noise away and I just go, 'Okay, I love the Lydia character.' That was the character that I connected with, like, as a teenager. So I go, 'What happened to this person 35 years later? What weird thing?' You go from cool teenager to some fucked-up adult. What relationships do you have? Do you have kids? What's your relationship with that? It's not something I could have done back then; it's only something you could do once you experience those things yourself. So for me, this became a very personal movie, like a kind of weird family movie about a weird family."

You know, I actually had to go back and look up the most recent Tim Burton film I expressed interest in seeing right then and there. I actually forgot it has been five years since his last feature film, in which I'm sure went completely well in non-soulless remaking in Dumbo [2019] (in fairness, younger me was okay with Alice in Wonderland [2010]). I didn't really think about the chance of Beetlejuice having a sequel, even though I remember having a neat time with it in the couple times I remember seeing it, one originally devised by Michael McDowell and Larry Wilson with helpful re-writing from Warren Skaaren that had plenty of amusement within the bureaucracy of the dead and a free-spirited (read: pervert) bio-exorcist. In some ways, it really is a manic syrupy tribute to the B-movies that Burton grew up with, made in an era where one could just do stop motion and blue screen effects to go with slapstick in a neat 92-minute package. The idea of a sequel has been kicked around long enough that one concept was to have the title character go to Hawaii, but it only gained actual steam in the last couple of years (so just a bit after someone adapted the film into a musical). The screenplay this time around was done by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (best known for developing Smallville and incidentally, Wednesday) while the story was done by Gough, Millar, and Seth Grahame-Smith (probably best known as the writer of the mashup Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). 

Sure, the sequel isn't quite at the same level of "good" than the original, but it is evident that Burton and company at least had a good time making it. I didn't really pick it because "hey, sequel to something I liked", I picked it more because I figured it would be the type of film to experience with a crowd at least once (as opposed to the usual "who cares" or half-empty amusement, because even mothers deserve a visit to the theater for the first time since *Cats*). It complements the original while fulfilling two obvious things: thank goodness this was not a lazy "continuation TV series" (or god forbid, a streaming original) and thank goodness it was a film that wasn't merely a lazy vessel for passing the torch. One moves on from the stylings of Harry Belafonte to stuff such as "Tragedy" and "MacArthur Park" without a bump in the road that will surely mean a Beetlejuice double-header in the coming years would be a delightful idea for the spooky season (104 minutes is resourceful enough when you consider the earlier film was also under two hours). Of course, it helps that Keaton, Ryder and O'Hara are committed to not mailing in their returns to go with a few neat moments from the fresh faces to go alongside a few interesting moments involving effects (read: a movie that generally doesn't look like it got shot on one stage), which is probably most amusing in its handling of killing off a character (ironic that a film about a perverted title character featured an actor later found to be a pervert) or in not over-riding the "Beetlejuice baby" into the ground. Keaton might be in his seventies, but he obviously hasn't lost his enjoyment in terms of mischief that he handles in such carefully crafted time on screen (Keaton didn't want to have that much screentime in the film, which actually reflects the original, when you think about it). One can savor those moments of mischief without thinking back to the original and thinking things have gone soft (sure, he might not turn into a snake, but one late bit is pretty hell-raising). Of course, the dynamic of Ortega and Ryder is playing on a few familiar beats (we have graduated from "strange and unusual" to estrange daughter of "strange and unusual"), but Ortega is snappy and charming enough to go with the material for us to follow along with. Theroux is amusingly wormy to stick out, while Bellucci is basically relying on screen presence and little to really do for a movie that isn't exactly keen on having a "big bad" but instead just relies of, shall we say, casual macabre vibes (this is a movie where someone gets their limbs back while playing an oldie tape). Dafoe playing a stock cop type somehow seems on point for worthwhile commitment. In general, the movie inspired a few neat chuckles in its eventual road to getting a climax that borrows a bit from before while feeling the need to try and do something a bit wilder than already mentioned, which is, well, fine. I was conflicted about rating the film for a few days because sometimes it really does take a while to wonder just how "good" something is. The original was pretty neat, and the sequel is fine, but I'm not sure if giving it the whole "good" rating makes sense when there is a totally serviceable option in calling it "fine" (this is when I debate if putting a ".5" rating would be ideal in the future). It is a solid film in the aspects of slipping it on one night and just admiring that a well-made sequel to a film from decades ago will come and go in spooking the gut without churning one's soul, if you know what I mean.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Destroy All Monsters.

Review #2250: Destroy All Monsters.

Cast: 

Akira Kubo (Captain Katsuo Yamabe), Jun Tazaki (Dr. Yoshido), Yukiko Kobayashi (Kyoko Manabe), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Dr. Otani), Andrew Hughes (Dr. Stevenson), Kyoko Ai (the Queen of the Kilaaks), Kenji Sahara (Nishikawa, Moon Base Commander), Chotaro Togin (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Ogata), Seishiro Kuno (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Tani), Wataru Omae (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Arima), Yasuhiko Saijô (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Fujita), Naoya Kusakawa (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut), Yoshibumi Tajima (General Sugiyama Tada), with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), Hiroshi Sekita (Anguirus), Marchan the Dwarf (Minilla), Teruoshi Nigaki (Rodan), and Susumu Utsumi (King Ghidorah) Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla, #711 - Mothra, #1092 - Gorath, #1223 - Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, #1224 - King Kong vs. Godzilla, #1225 - Mothra vs. Godzilla, #1226 - Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, #1623 - Invasion of Astro-Monster, #1999 - Matango)

Review: 

Admittedly, the Godzilla series might have needed a bit of a rest. Ever since the roaring hit of King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), Toho had managed to cultivate a hodgepodge of features involving the title monster, with this being the seventh of eight Godzilla features of the 1960s (to recap: Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, and Son of Godzilla) with the last few being island-bound. Ishiro Honda had even directed a few of those films, so naturally, Toho had him and Takeshi Kimura (writer of films such as Matango and Rodan) do the screenplay (this was the only Godzilla film of the 1960s to not be written by Shinichi Sekizawa, who returned for a couple more of the films). Of course, the film was thought of at one point to be the closing film of the series because, well, one can be worn out when ticket sales slowly decline from film to film. Incidentally, this was also near the tail-end of Honda's career as a director, with this being the 15th feature film he did in the 1960s. Of course, Honda and Godzilla would re-unite quickly enough with All Monsters Attack, a feature aimed directly for the youth that would be made on the cheap (filmed in less than three months for release in late 1969) to go with a different tide of success in the next decade (more on that in the future). 

So, what better way to throw a curveball in the series by setting oneself in the latter end of the 20th century (let's just say 1999, but with trips to the Moon as opposed to the actual, sort of disappointingly real 1999) with a place called "Monsterland" that is basically one straight plot with no side characters and, well, a dry tone (the idea of monsters being controlled in some way reminds me of Invasion of Astro-Monster, the one where Planet X wanted to borrow monsters to fight one off their planet). The last film had Godzilla confront fatherhood to go along with some sort of weather device plot and spiders. Watching the film with the knowledge that Honda's intent to show what is basically a "monster farm" basically got cut to just the basics is, well, easy to spot. One just goes with jumping from seeing monsters (featuring a few in close shots like Angurius, back for the first time in a decade, and others in shots totally not to hide further inspection) being given plenty of food to consume to alien women (well, slugs, but they show up as women most of the time in the film) mind-controlling people into slaves. In that sense, it is a bit more impressive than the lightweight charm seen in the last two films (for me, I haven't seen a bad one of these features, but of course that doesn't include the insane idea of watching a dub - in this film though, the dub is apparently not that different). This is the kind of movie that sees a guy jump out of a window and a skirmish breaks out not long after that. The cast here is about on par for what you usually see from people mostly near the end of appearing in these films (most also happened to reunite with Honda with 1970's Space Amoeba). It is pretty easy to say the monster mayhem (the climax being the emphasis) outweighs the invasion, but the 88 minute runtime mostly goes without a hitch, at least for those who are fine seeing a few miniatures (which seems more clear than usual) as one sees a straight-to-the point narrative of trying to get the status quo back that happens to dovetail with seeing monsters stomp eventually. I think the earlier 60s films had a better hold of mayhem (Kong is probably the one people remember by default) but if the series really did take a break after this, one would be pretty content with that here, because it is pretty fun to see coordinated mayhem all in the name of heightened engagement in clear-as-day vision. It isn't merely a film you just knock as "kid stuff", unless one happened to live in a house of seclusion with no figures to imagine growing up. As a whole, Honda and company made a serviceable feature that relies on a few familiar tricks to maneuver a usefully solid time that basically serves as a nice bow to the 60s rendition of Godzilla as one knows it.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.