Dragnet (1987).

Review #2427: Dragnet (1987).

Cast: 

Dan Aykroyd (Detective Sergeant Joe Friday), Tom Hanks (Detective Pep Streebek), Christopher Plummer (the Reverend Jonathan Whirley), Harry Morgan (Captain Bill Gannon), Alexandra Paul ("the Virgin" Connie Swail), Jack O'Halloran (Emil Muzz), Elizabeth Ashley (Commissioner Jane Kirkpatrick), and Dabney Coleman (Jerry Caesar) Directed by Tom Mankiewicz.

Review: 

Maybe you know what Dragnet is, but your dad or grandfather probably know it quite well in some way or form. Apparently, Webb was inspired by what he saw when filming his role in He Walked by Night (1948), specifically what he heard from technical consultant Marty Wynn involving the actual procedures and activities of police officers that he got Wynn to cooperate on what became one of the big procedurals of its time. In 1949, Dragnet was born on radio with the NBC radio network, as featuring Jack Webb and a handful of partners. Two years later went by before it went to television (now with Webb and Ben Alexander), running for eight years and also having a film version in 1954. And then of course there was the new thing for its time: a revival years later, with Webb now starring with Harry Morgan that ran from 1967 to 1970. There were plenty of routines to be had in those shows, whether that involved LSD or other types of rackets. Webb would continue to busy with making television shows involving authority such as Adam-12 (1968-75), O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971-72), and Emergency! (1972-77) before he died in 1982 at the age of 62.*  Apparently, Tom Mankiewicz was brought in to work on a re-write of a film script that had been done by Dan Aykroyd and Alan Zweibel (who had worked together on Saturday Night Live) involving Dragnet and was then asked to direct it himself, which was his directing debut, having famously done work as just a writer with Superman and an assortment of James Bond movies; he directed just one other movie with Delirious (1991)

I do remember, very vaguely, seeing my dad watch this movie on a VHS tape once, specifically the part where the name P.A.G.A.N is revealed (People Against Goodness and Normalcy, ha, get it). That was what, nearly 15 years ago, so I suppose it is better late than never to actually watch this movie. You get a buddy cop movie (complete with a tank and jet) that happens to have a very by-the-book person at the helm that is sometimes funny and altogether a bit stuffed at 106 minutes long. As a semi-spoof, it at least looks like it cared about the original material, although it definitely shows a bit too much willingness for the "let's put a pop song in it" idea. You can probably tell that Aykroyd had a fascination with Jack Webb in actually getting the jargon down with the calm and collected feel of someone who rolls with the punches. Of course, Aykroyd actually did work as a reserve officer with multiple police departments (no I'm not joking), so this isn't merely just a case of a long-winded bit, he just thought it would be an honor to do a Jack Webb homage, to a certain type of mixed result. According to Aykroyd, Hanks (who was cast in the film because Albert Brooks said no and Jim Belushi wasn't available) was not big on the final result of the film. Hanks (in the period between Splash [1984] and, well, Big [1989]) does fine here, maneuvering through the proceedings with a good dose of charm and you do eventually get a sense of connection between him and Aykroyd as hard (okay, maybe sometimes hardly) working cops on the beat as a team. Morgan might have been winding down in his seventies (this was his penultimate film appearance), but at least he looks happy to be around for a few scenes in experiencing some jargon said at him again. Plummer is calm enough to work as the wolf in sheep's clothing, for the most part. The rest is here and there, mainly because the movie comes up with a few softball ideas to corral the procedural (so a Playboy knockoff and a totally not evil Reverend to go with uniting them for a common goal) that probably came out of at least one too many re-writes. Sure, you can't make it all a sketch, but the movie does have most of its steam in the first half when trying to play setup rather than the inevitable sequences of action, for better or worse. I enjoyed it just enough to roll with its general pacing. As a whole, Dragnet (1987) is a fine little movie that at least doesn't come off as merely an overextended sketch idea and has a few moments worth watching. It definitely is hit-or-miss, but if you are looking for a bit of fun, you might find it here.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*To tie this to movies a tiny bit, Webb was actually approached about playing Dean Wormer in Animal House (1979). Go figure, he turned it down.

Tomorrow: the horror season begins.

One Battle After Another.

Review #2426: One Battle After Another.

Cast: 

Leonardo DiCaprio (Bob Ferguson / "Ghetto" Pat Calhoun), Sean Penn (Col. Steven J. Lockjaw), Benicio del Toro (Sergio St. Carlos), Regina Hall (Deandra), Teyana Taylor (Perfidia Beverly Hills), Chase Infiniti (Willa Ferguson / Charlene Calhoun), Alana Haim (Mae West), Wood Harris (Laredo), Shayna McHayle (Junglepussy), Paul Grimstad (Howard Sommerville), Dijon Duenas (Talleyrand), Tony Goldwyn (Virgil Throckmorton), Starletta DuPois (Grandma Jennie), John Hoogenakker (Tim Smith), and Eric Schweig (Avanti) Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (#1546 - There Will Be Blood)

Review: 

"I think even before I had kids, I kind of felt a connection to how this father felt about his daughter. And it only grew deeper and stronger as I have had kids to understand what he was writing about in that way. And I’m trying to take from the book what I needed and pursue my own path and let it move in directions that it seemed that it wanted to go.”

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised to encounter this in the proper place for a new film: a movie theater*. Apparently, Paul Thomas Anderson had wanted to do a movie based on Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland for many years. He loved the book so much that he struggled with how to adapt it and set it aside. He found later that when he wrote a series of separate stories, he found it worked to combine those with certain elements of Vineland (a book set in 1984 dealing with a burnt-out hippie, a traitorous revolutionary and a DEA agent dealing with a secret that also features "like death, but different" Thanatoids, to provide an example of what the book sounds like) for what became this film; previously, he made an adaptation of Pynchon's Inherent Vice in 2014 and had taken slight inspiration from Pynchon's V. for The Master in 2012. You may or may not know that the title of the movie is shared with a statement put out by Weather Underground, the far-left militant organization (and described as "domestic terrorist" by the FBI) that had run for a good deal of the 1970s (with targeted bombing of government buildings and banks, with a good chunk having warnings set out beforehand) before it splintered off into other organizations.

It is an interesting movie, that's for sure. It probably goes without saying that it rises above just being termed an "action thriller", mostly in the strange places that it mines for screwy moments of humor without straining into parody or sanctimonious hokum. It manages to cycle through 162 minutes with such energy and charm that reminds one of the enthusiasm that can be found with letting movies flow on their own terms. The ensemble does work out for captivating interest in seeing where the wind blows in would-be revolutionaries in the eternal battle that comes not just from trying to challenge the system but also the battle of seeing what the world will look like for the next generation. It works out well for DiCaprio, who gets to play the role in all of its burned-out flaws that come with people that may or may not be ready for what lies ahead in real danger, whether that involves a gun or, well, being a person in someone's life. It is bleakly amusing to see how one sees him from the first thirty minutes (where he, alongside Taylor in her own path of self-serving nature, is depicted as in and later out of the French 75 lifestyle) to him for most of the film as the hazy chaser in a strange world around him. Consider how he looks when paired with del Toro (who just glides through the movie like a pro) in certain sequences of what you might as well call revolution with ideas of, well, responsibility. It befuddles me to note I had seen exactly one movie with Sean Penn in it before this one. At any rate, this is a movie with a real standout performance by Penn, who makes for a compelling adversary that actually does inspire the tiniest bit of humor from an aspiring fascist club member. There is plenty of menace to be found even within the growing absurdities that come with a character that really, really wants approval in all of the strange ways possible (as one does when starting out by being forced to get an erection before ending with, well, a pitch-black moment very fitting for him). He isn't too different from Taylor when it comes to self-serving people that love the sound of their own voice when it comes to force - really, he could be anybody who ever managed to make it to a certain position of privilege and still crave affection (notice how we never see if Lockjaw has a spouse or other kids) in such seething contempt because they can't just admit it. Likely the best representation of how Taylor (who does pretty well with a role that is only in the aforementioned first part but basically haunts the entire narrative) is similar is the robbery sequence where you might think the group is going to assert their identity of being able to move along freely (one does that by being on the counter without a mask, for example), loud and proud right up until Taylor's character just shoots a guard because he dared to move.

People come and go with one hell of a tempo behind it, and Infiniti (in her film debut) does a worthy job keeping up with the proceedings with patience and a presence to match the growing insanity. The sequence with her and Penn meeting for the first time to basically size each other up is especially enthralling in the display of two people displaying just how much hatred (and, dark humor) can be found in a test of DNA. As a whole, the movie finds one thing above all in its chase of the frontier (namely with one hell of a car sequence): there are many battles to be had in life, but the ideal one to really, madly, deeply want to win is to raise a good person to walk in your footsteps. You are not your parents, you are the choices that come from what you learn from the people around you, for better or worse. The dueling groups of people that seek to fight for a different future (whether by bomb or incinerating false hopes) will come and go, but the plight of people around us will be clear as day to those who actually take the time to look and listen with their own eyes and ears. Basically, it is a movie that moves with enough of a jolt to remind you what love can be about in the face of bubbling dread for what the world might look like for the next people. In that sense, it is a timely movie to check out and see for yourself what the fuss is about.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

*Is it a bias against Netflix? Meh, who knows I just hate the idea of streaming anything new.

*I do kind of wonder for the record about one little plot thing, so scroll at your risk: how exactly do Bob and Willa get back home with the safety of having a cell phone now? Did the government just say "fuck it, these guys aren't worth the trouble". Does him having a phone mean that he is less paranoid, and how does one get to that point when you basically went through hell? Also I totally wonder if it was picked at random that the person presented to be gender neutral is the one that ends up ratting to the troops that Willa does in fact have a phone to track.

Club Dread.

Review #2425: Club Dread.

Cast: 

Broken Lizard [Kevin Heffernan (Lars Bronkhorst), Erik Stolhanske (Sam), Steve Lemme (Juan Castillo), Jay Chandrasekhar (Putman Livingston), Paul Soter (Dave "DJ Dave/DJ Drugs" Conable)], Brittany Daniel (Jenny), Bill Paxton (Pete "Coconut Pete" Wabash), M. C. Gainey (Hank), Lindsay Price (Yu), Julio Bekhor (Carlos), Dan Montgomery Jr (Rollo), Elena Lyons (Stacy), Tanja Reichert (Kellie), Richard Perello (Cliff), Ryan Falkner (Marcel), Greg Cipes (Trevor), Michael Weaver (Roy), Nat Faxon (Manny), Samm Levine (Dirk), and Jordan Ladd (Penelope) Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar (#1121 - Super Troopers, #1122 - Beerfest)

Review: 

"Yeah, I think the key was to try to keep the tone consistent...Often with comedies you kind of drift off into things that couldn't happen, so we tried to sort of keep a cap on things and make sure they all fit in the same movie."

A comedy horror movie might as well have had a lightning rod attached to it for folks to not exactly gravitate to it. This was the third film from the comedy troupe Broken Lizard, which you might remember had done two previous films: Puddle Cruiser (1996) and, well, Super Troopers (2001), which like this film was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Sure, maybe there was something already familiar with "referential" horror like Scream or with "parody" in Scary Movie [2000] (or Student Bodies [1981], a movie I totally didn't pull out of my-*). But since I didn't care to actually see Scary Movie, Club Dread doesn't exactly have the problem of being pale in comparison to some other comedy horror movie. But I guess some people might wonder if it actually is a horror movie with comedic elements - oh who cares? The important part is having fun with a movie that tries to ride with the hit-or-miss elements that come with its ensemble. Either you go with the schtick in its various characters that come and go (as one does when slashed) or you just don't because, oh no, a movie with thin characters is a hell of a thing to swallow: horror, comedy, or whatever. Made on a budget of just under $10 million, the movie was not a major success at the time of release in February of 2004. There apparently was an unrated cut of the movie released on DVD that made the movie run nearly two hours long (118 minutes) that basically is just there to extend scenes without being a "director's cut". Chandrasekhar was brought in to direct the film adaptation of The Dukes of Hazzard in 2005 for his next film, while Broken Lizard returned together for Beerfest (2006).

Sure, the jokes can be hit or miss, and sure, it does have a bit of a problem in actually getting to where it wants to go for a 103-minute runtime that isn't quite a whodunit. Compared to what the troupe did before and after this film, Dread is firmly in the middle between Troopers and Beerfest, but I would call this one a winner over the latter mainly because it proved a charming enough ride in goofy slasher meandering. This time, the lead presence is mostly in the hands of Heffernan, who makes for an affable presence to try and carry a movie that tries to hold up on a few one-note jokes (hey, everybody gets one accent try) and mostly gets away with it. Stolhanske plays it straight enough that being the one behind the whodunit isn't too far of a stretch to goof it up. Hit-or-miss stuff needs at least one fun presence, and Paxton basically makes it a ride worth being on for as long as he plays the schtick of basically doing a riff off Jimmy Buffett (apparently, at Paxton's request, they showed the movie to Buffett, who got a kick out of it). There is an infectious charm that comes out in playing a washout that you might wish made it to the end. If you dig the routine that it sets out in goofy slasher hokum (a sequence involving costumes comes to mind alongside the climax in splitting ridiculousness), you can roll with the movie just fine, but I totally get that it won't exactly inspire the pants to be scared or laughing at every nook and cranny.  As a whole, it won't be for everyone, but I dug the end result of having a goofy R-rated time with just enough chuckles with at least some enthusiasm for the slasher genre that might make for a worthy recommendation if you're up for a casual time.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*butt. Well, if it make you feel better, October will give me plenty of chances to look for horror movies out of the blue.

Gun Crazy.

Review #2424: Gun Crazy.

Cast: 

Peggy Cummins (Annie Laurie Starr), John Dall (Barton "Bart" Tare; Mickey Little as age 7 Bart, Russ Tamblyn as age 14 Bart), Berry Kroeger (Packett), Morris Carnovsky (Judge Willoughby), Anabel Shaw (Ruby Tare Flagler), Harry Lewis (Deputy Clyde Boston; Paul Frison as age 14 Clyde), Nedrick Young (Dave Allister; David Bair as age 7 Dave), Trevor Bardette (Sheriff Boston), and Stanley Prager (Bluey-Bluey) Directed by Joseph H. Lewis (#934 - The Big Combo)

Review: 

"I told John, "Your cock's never been so hard", and I told Peggy, "You're a female dog in heat, and you want him. But don't let him have it in a hurry. Keep him waiting." That's exactly how I talked to them and I turned them loose. I didn't have to give them more directions."

I suppose a weapon like a gun has always been an object of unimaginable desire in our minds for as long as people can remember. Whether to use it for hunting or other methods, there are just some people that have such a reaction to the sight and feel of a gun that likely made it interesting to show what happens when you get a couple of misfits together with a mutual obsession. The basis for the film is a short story ("Gun Crazy", which you can see some of it here if you focus your eyes) originally published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1940 that was written by MacKinlay Kantor. Kantor wrote the screenplay for the film with Dalton Trumbo (formerly, Millard Kaufman was used as a front for Trumbo due to the blacklist), who crafted it into a doomed romance. For whatever reason, the movie was originally known as "Deadly Is the Female" (yes, United Artists thought that would be a quality title for a quality movie) before it eventually was re-issued with the title you know today. In 1992, a movie inspired by the film came out with Guncrazy, as directed by Tamra Davis. This was the first film directed in the 1950s by Joseph H. Lewis, who had been directing features for over a decade by this point in a variety of genres (Minstrel Man, The Falcon in San Francisco, you get the idea). The New York City native (and son of an optometrist) followed his brother to Hollywood and went up from camera assistant to assistant editor to, well, director of cheap but efficient movies. Apparently, before his death in 2000 at the age of 93, one of his last public appearances was to introduce a screening of none other than Gun Crazy, which he called his favorite film.

It is amazing what you can do with a relatively fast production (shot over roughly 30 days for $400,000), isn't it? There is an electricity here for such a sordid little tale of obsession and desire that is shot and executed with commitment to the material that makes one appreciate the qualities that come with such strange people fit for a confident noir. You've got one person who can stroke the gun but can't quite shoot to go along with someone who can't really control their inner self when shooting a weapon. Dall appeared in a total of eight movies in his career (with a handful of stage and TV work before his death at age 50 in 1971); Gun Crazy was his fifth film, which followed his turn as one of the killers in Rope (1948). Lewis apparently picked him because he knew that Dall would show the "inner weakness" of the character*. Lewis clearly had the right idea in mind because Dall does a tremendous job in showing the vulnerability that comes not really knowing who one is beyond choices thrust upon them (reform school, robbing people, for example). He makes for a quality tragic character to see in all of flaws that come with a lack of general direction beyond being good with a gun. This was actually the last of the movies Cummins made in Hollywood, where she had travelled to from England in 1945, having started acting in films at the age of 15 in 1940. She settled back in England for good in 1950 and did a bit of television to go with stuff that probably is best highlighted with Night of the Demon (1957). She was cast over original rumblings of getting Veronica Lake, and it would seem that Cummins was a solid choice, mainly because her troubling desires and shaky hold on reality is also fascinating to see paired with Dall. Their chemistry is interesting because it really is a clash of energy bursting to come out, one with people that are begging to just be one entity that, well, probably fits exactly with what the director told both of them to do for direction. For such a strong duo, the movie also happens to move with damn-good efficiency in showing the descent into crime (which goes from kid troublemakers to back home again) with such charming execution. The robbery sequence in particular, where it decides to just never enter the bank by just shooting from in the car (which naturally is cheaper to do than building a bank set) is probably one of the most interesting sequences you could shoot for a robbery in terms of fascination with how one could pull it off so smoothly (evidently it took a bit of lighting, fiddling with the back of the car and guys on the actual roof of the car for boom mics). I particularly like the ending in showing the culmination of one's choices not so much in what to shoot but in what to shoot for (obviously crime doesn't pay with the time the film was made in but consider how the movie gets to where it is). As a whole, this is an efficient movie that just exudes energy and curiosity over what could've just easily been a Bonnie and Clyde pastiche and makes it into a fascinating and intriguing feature worth anyone's time in the noir stands.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

*Dall was apparently gay, as referenced several times over such as this: https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/77083/gun-crazy#articles-reviews?articleId=581435

Death Hunt.

Review #2423: Death Hunt.

Cast: 

Charles Bronson (Albert Johnson), Lee Marvin (Sergeant Edgar Millen), Andrew Stevens (Constable Alvin Adams), Carl Weathers (George Washington Lincoln "Sundog" Brown), Ed Lauter (Hazel), Scott Hylands (Captain Hank Tucker), Angie Dickinson (Vanessa McBride), Henry Beckman (Bill Luce), William Sanderson (Ned Warren), Jon Cedar (Constable Hawkins), and James O'Connell (Hurley) Directed by Peter R. Hunt (#279 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service)

Review: 

In 1931, there was quite a ruckus with a man of unknown origin that had arrived in the northern parts of Canda. He wasn't a licensed trapper, but people thought he was a fishy type. A visit from constables eventually resulted in one being shot and a posse being formed that came with dynamite for his cabin. In January of 1932, the posse surrounded him, and Johnson killed a constable (actually named Edgar Millen). The posse grew and grew as Johnson, not being able to just leave for the Yukon without being blocked, simply climbed a 7,000 ft peak. The Mounties responded by hiring Wilfrid "Wop" May to scout the area with a monoplane that tracked him pretty well and on February 17, 1932 at the Eagle River, the constables confronted and shot Johnson dead. It may interest you to know that several photos of Johnson's corpse were taken because of the curiosity in trying to figure out who Johnson really was, but nobody truly knows when he was even born. There had been movies based on the tale of Johnson, such as The Map Trapper (1972, TV) and Challenge to Be Free (1975), but here we have a movie made with the efforts of Hong Kong-based company Golden Harvest that was sold to 20th Century Fox (it was once to be called "Arctic Rampage"). This was the fifth feature film by Hunt as director (as Robert Aldrich was ditched by the filmmakers) who you might remember as the guy who directed On Her Majesty's Secret Service, probably the best Bond movie of, well, the period of 1969-1987*; he previously directed Marvin in Shout at the Devil (1976). This was written by Michael Grais and Mark Victor, who had one hell of a rebound with their next writing assignment: they co-wrote 1982's Poltergeist. Even was the film was being released, the producers and Marvin were already going with the "it's not a documentary" thing. Even with a budget reported to being around $10 million, the movie was not a major success at the time of release.

Eh, it's a decent little adventure when your expectations of its 97-minute runtime is a good ol' time with familiar people and a relatively casual approach to respect for one's counterpart. Sure, it isn't anybody's idea of a history lesson (there are other stories that have been treated worse). Sure, it is incredibly familiar if you think about any character that has their actions get misconstrued (so yes, it would make an interesting double feature with First Blood [1982]). And yet it is the kind of movie you either are all the way in for a nice time with familiar enjoyment in seeing Marvin and Bronson face off in a neat battle of steel-willed people in a changing time. The landscapes may be nice to view but things can change in the blink of an eye for even the most determined lone wolf, I suppose. There is beauty to be found in the wilderness but there also can be plenty of desolate isolation. In that regard, Bronson makes the obvious choice to play the lead focus for a movie that decides to find curiosity in a lone wolf that you can only gleam the surface of someone forced to action rather than just a straight killer. Marvin merely is a burnt-out guy thrust into an unenviable situation: wise-ass constables and wise-ass tag-alongs on, well, a "death hunt". All he knows in his landscape is that keeping headquarters happy is the goal more than combating every single crime possible and Marvin plays it with the usual wiry charm that I can appreciate. Weathers is his usual charming self even in a cursory supporting role while Stevens makes a fine match in seeing that young Mountie idealism meet the real world and Lauter makes a solid adversarial presence. Others come and go, whether that is Beckman and his odd nature or a not-exactly important Dickinson, but the movie balances its action with a worthwhile look at two people who would rather be anywhere else in the wilderness than being forced to take the other down. Rugged, violent and altogether a movie fit for a bored night looking for familiar faces, my kind of average movie. As a whole, it probably won't rank highly among the people that starred in it or its director, but it is an enjoyable feature for those who like familiar adventures that are committed to having a good Western time.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*Seriously, go watch On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I have watched it annually on December 18 for the past few years.

20 Million Miles to Earth.

Review #2422: 20 Million Miles to Earth.

Cast: 

William Hopper (Robert Calder), Joan Taylor (Marisa Leonardo), Frank Puglia (Dr. Leonardo), John Zaremba (Dr. Judson Uhl), Thomas Browne Henry (Maj. Gen. A. D. McIntosh), Tito Vuolo (Police Commissioner Unte), Jan Arvan (Contino), Arthur Space (Sharman), and Bart Braverman (Pepe) Directed by Nathan Juran (#613 - Attack of the 50 Foot Woman)

Review: 

Sure, here's a monster movie in Italy. This was the fifth film (not including work for the documentary The Animal World) that had effects provided by Ray Harryhausen, coming in between Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). This was the first of four movies Harryhausen helped write the story for (strangely, the other ones he did were all Sinbad movies). He didn't get credit for the story in the film itself, but it was his initial idea that made it all come together eventually with the initial working title "The Giant Ymir" (the funny thing is: the resulting movie never names the creature because of fears people would confuse it with the title "Emir", as opposed to the real "Ymir" that refers to Norse mythology*). He worked with Charlott Knight (a regular in appearing on television) in what became a working script, with Harryhausen being the one who set it in Italy because he wanted to have a vacation there (yes, he did get a few days in Rome for the production of this film). Robert Creighton Williams and Christopher Knopf then wrote the screenplay for the movie. Harryhausen made the film with producer Charles H. Schneer (who went on to produce all but one of Harryhausen's ventures starting with It Came from Beneath the Sea [1955]): it was the first of three features with Harryhausen-Schneer-Juran (the Academy Award winning art director-turned-director, starting with The Black Castle [1952]) together, as they did the aforementioned 1958 Sinbad movie together and First Men in the Moon (1964). In the late 2000s, a colorized version was released on home media with the help of Harryhausen, who had originally wanted the film to be shot in color.

It never hurts to watch a creature feature to remind yourself of the fun you can have with the craftsmanship at hand. And it goes double for a movie that reminds you that some creatures aren't even straight up monsters but merely animals reacting to the environment around them (interestingly, the sound effects for the creature here are actually elephant sounds played at a higher speed), with sulfur being the big one in particular. It's the kind of Space Age movie that could have a rocket resemble a V2 rocket because hey, it wasn't quite time to know what a ship for travel would really look like (the Sputnik launch occurred just a few months after this film was released). In a sense, if you're the kind of person who likes seeing a take on King Kong (1933), you'll have a fun time here with another "Dynamation" effort that works out pretty well regardless of if the effect is seen in the dark or not. This was actually one of Hopper's last film appearances (having come back a few years prior due to William A. Wellman), as 1957 saw him do The Deadly Mantis, this film and Slim Carter...and a television show called Perry Mason that resulted in him appearing regularly on the show for nine years. He makes a solid lead in staid calmness, one who has the look of a guy who actually does try to corral the creature rather than straight up killing it. The rest of the cast is relatively satisfactory to what you expect from ones ranging from nurses to authority figures and so on. Sure, the setup for how a container creature comes up from a crashed spaceship (spoiler: beware children bearing things to sell) is a bit on the flimsy side, but you get what you want with an 83-minute feature that is spry on setting up mayhem with a few sights (such as an elephant fight!) that are welcome. As a whole, if you like creature features with a neat look and lean execution to boot, you will find plenty to adore here in a movie fit for a creature of the night.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*Interestingly, the movements of the Ymir influenced musician Gene Simmons for his persona for Kiss.

War Hunt.

Review #2421: War Hunt.

 

Cast: 

John Saxon (Private Raymond Endore), Robert Redford (Private Roy Loomis), Charles Aidman (Captain Wallace Pratt), Sydney Pollack (Master Sergeant Owen Van Horn), Tommy Matsuda (Charlie), Gavin MacLeod (Private Crotty), Anthony Ray (Private Joshua Fresno), Tom Skerritt (Sergeant Stan Showalter), and William Challee (Lieutenant Colonel) Directed by Denis Sanders.

Review: 

Yes, there are plenty of starts to highlight when talking about a film. This was a breakthrough of sorts for three people: this was the first credited role for Robert Redford, and it was also the film debuts for Sydney Pollack and Tom Skerritt. Now, who directed it? Well, this was the second feature film directed by Denis Sanders, who had done a handful of short films, which included A Time Out of War (1955), which not only served as his master's degree thesis at UCLA but also won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject. That movie got the attention of Charles Laughton, who hired them to work on The Night of the Hunter [1955] (Terry as a second unit director, Denis as a dialogue director). The brothers worked on further films such as Crime and Punishment U.S.A. With War Hunt, it was made as part of a deal between United Artists and the Sanders brothers. The two did a handful of documentaries over the next few decades, with Denis winning an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject with Czechoslovakia 1968 (1969) while Terry co-produced the Academy Award winning Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994). The writer of the film was Stanford Whitmire, a regular writer on television shows and TV movies for many years. I suppose it might be interesting to note that Francis Ford Coppola drove a truck in the film.

Sure, a war movie can be pretty dour, and it probably isn't up to the level of say, The Steel Helmet (1951), but War Hunt is a curious movie to engage with, one that wonders aloud just what the hell is one going to do after it isn't so easy to go around killing the enemy in war. Well, as one does when set near the armistice of the Korea War. Sure, it is evident to see where it is more "low budget" than just being a "carefully composed drama" that happens to be a bit light on the action side. But it is a solid film of the soul, crafting itself well with an offbeat sense of patience and a worthy ensemble that you could at least call a solid find to maybe check out in long odds, complete with having a resourceful look from (prior Academy Award nominee) Ted McCord. At this point, Saxon had been a "teen idol" with films such as Rock, Pretty Baby (1956) and The Happy Feeling (1958) before doing other sorts of roles with The Unforgiven (1960). Here he gets to play an offbeat soldier that manages to give off an unnerving vibe without having to say many words that is weirdly fascinating, even when considering the stilted nature of what really drives his dynamic with Matsuda (an orphan reminds him of old times?). Redford had attended (and was expelled from) the University of Colorado in Boulder and soon traveled a bit before taking up work in the stage in the late 1950s. He did a handful of television appearances, but this is the first film he did in what was a long career before his death just this month. The toils of idealism in the face of actual combat are probably a bit obvious for anyone to portray, but Redford at least shows some promise that obviously would get meatier material to really sink in. In general, it is a movie that comes and goes for 83 minutes with familiar routines that look upon the people fated to kill or be killed and finds that some really will just wander into their own world even when the target is soon to be washed away. In a sea of movies dwelling in the action of war, sometimes you might find something in the low-key type of movie pile here.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*I couldnt make the whole review about the actor debuts, so here is a note. Sydney Pollack actually started as an actor in the 1950s with theater work while dabbling in truck driving before he became influenced to direct when working as a dialogue coach on The Young Savages (1961) but dabbled in acting for films here. Then you've got Skerritt being noticed for a production of The Rainmaker (when at UCLA) by Sanders. But I suppose the reason this movie was picked was for Redford. RIP.

The Amazing Mr. X.

Review #2420: The Amazing Mr. X.

Cast: 

Turhan Bey (Alexis), Lynn Bari (Christine Faber), Cathy O'Donnell (Janet Burke), Richard Carlson (Martin Abbott), Donald Curtis (Paul Faber), Virginia Gregg (Emily), and Harry Mendoza (Detective Hoffman) Directed by Bernard Vorhaus.

Review: 

Sure, let's do one of these movies. This is one of those films that you find in the bargain bin, the kind that could be seen at any time on the Internet because it slipped into the public domain and therefore is readily available to varying quality. Apparently, the movie actually had a different title: It was known as "The Spiritualist" but somehow the movie was re-issued and put on television as the title you see today in...The Amazing Mr. X. Debate for yourself over which title fits the movie better. Crane Wilbur (the former actor-turned-writer of works such as The Monster) wrote the story that became this movie, which went from being a possible production for him to oversee with Producers Releasing Corporation to being a production led by Bernard Vorhaus at Eagle-Lion Films that had Muriel Bolton turn the story into a script. Vorhaus, not liking the script, asked for a re-write and got the services of Ian McLellan Hunter*. The movie apparently was shot in three weeks that went from January filming to being released in July. Vorhaus was an experienced director for several years, having gone from screenwriting to making quota quickies (i.e. fast and cheap) in England that resulted in movies such as The Last Journey (1936). Apparently, he was a young mentor to David Lean. He returned to the States with Republic Pictures, directing a handful of B-movies and later stuff for the war effort. It was among his last films as an American, as the House Un-American Activities Committee investigation on alleged Communists led to him being blacklisted. He didn't participate in the HUAC hearing and retired to England, where he operated a firm converting houses to offices and shops. He lived there for the remainder of his life, where he died in 2000 at the age of 95.

It helps to have John Alton as a cinematographer, doesn't it? He was the cameraman behind a number of noirs such as He Walked by Night (1948), Raw Deal (1948) and The Big Combo (1955), and he helps the effort here with a movie that at times seems eerie with its angles that make the film interesting to view beyond just a shabby little noir/thriller (well it isn't really any one genre, but whatever).* The 78-minute runtime is fairly satisfying for a movie that doesn't hesitate to just let its audience have a fair shot at following its attempts at showing the troubles of those who may very well believe what they see. You get an odd little caper that mostly is held up with Bey at hand. Bey had been playing a handful of roles on film ever since he had come to the States from Austria but the only reason he was with Eagle-Lion is because his contract had been sold due to struggles with Universal. This was the third of four movies he did for the studio before his career dwindled down, but he at least seems game to be a charming snake in the grass here, selling the audacity required in being involved with trying to play with things that aren't easy to quantify or understand. Bari makes for a quality type to get into the whirlwind of seeing and hearing things that may not be all the way there, mainly because it still seems pretty real now to see people fooled by things they want to hear, particularly since Carlson is probably too ordinary to really contrast the interest obviously generated by Bey, and O'Donnell is merely just fine. In general, it may be an average movie on a first impression, but it eventually finds its footing with stark imagery, sly charm by Bey and a general respect for wanting to keep the audience interested in its arrangement of emotional cons that at least shows you could find a good time with "old movies" if you know where to go.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*Coincidentally, Vorhaus did uncredited work as an assistant director on Roman Holiday (1953), the movie that notably saw Hunter's name listed on the credits as a writer as a front for the actual work of Dalton Trumbo, which resulted in an Academy Award.

*Interestingly, Alton also wrote a book on the subject of cinematography with Painting with Light in 1949.

The Long Walk (2025).

Review #2419: The Long Walk.

Cast: 

Cooper Hoffman (Raymond Garraty [#47]), David Jonsson (Peter McVries [#23]), Garrett Wareing (Billy Stebbins [#38]), Tut Nyuot (Arthur Baker [#6]), Charlie Plummer (Gary Barkovitch [#5]), Ben Wang (Hank Olson [#46]), Jordan Gonzalez (Richard Harkness [#49]), Joshua Odjick (Collie Parker [#48]), Mark Hamill (The Major), Roman Griffin Davis (Thomas Curley [#7]), Judy Greer (Ginnie Garraty), and Josh Hamilton (William Garraty) Directed by Francis Lawrence.

Review: 

“To me, that’s what the whole thing is about. The whole thing is about the two of them bonding, and kind of falling in love in a weird way. The conflict of what they’re there for and what they’ve been through in the past only brings them closer together. The sacrifices they make for one another, to me, is the whole movie.”

There are many Stephen King stories that have been turned into a film or adapted for television, but, yes, The Long Walk finally gets its due for the first time ever. Apparently, the book was the first that Stephen King wrote, as he started writing it in high school (which he has stated was not done "consciously" about the ongoing carnage of the Vietnam War) and finished it by the time he started attending the University of Maine in 1967. Years later, having become an established writer, The Long Walk was published in 1979 (under his pen name Richard Bachman, because authors weren't expected to release books so quickly). A cursory glance at a summary of the book reveals a few distinct details that the film is different from: 100 participants are walking on a road that must average a pace of four miles per hour (no I am not correcting that to kilometers) that gets warnings if they miss the threshold for 30 seconds. And yes, you can't stop for anything (in real life, you could last a few days without walking, albeit with growing levels of severe damage to one's insides). Apparently, there had been quite a few filmmakers that wanted to do a film adaptation that ranged from George A. Romero to Frank Darabont before it came together in 2023 under the direction of Francis Lawrence, who you might remember as the director of The Hunger Games follow-up films; the movie was written by JT Mollner.

We live in a nation that seems to love watching suffering, don't we? The age of the Internet accelerated our curiosity to overdrive for watching people do damn near anything out of desperation (this of course extends to watching "political streamers", because hey, if you are going to hear about the news, you might as well be angry too). Debate all you want where it all may go in the future in terms of bloodlust when it comes to how we treat the deaths of others, it probably correlates with people complaining that their country has sucked for several decades now. So, in a movie with a dystopian setting that wants to fight against a malaise of laziness with the ultimate expression of fitness, it only makes sense for me to treat it as basically a horror movie* where the greatest enemy is inevitability. Everyone dies, but some will suffer far more than others in that last moment spent on the great rock. With that in mind, this is a pretty good movie in the execution of tension and brotherhood that comes out even with all the inevitable qualities that come with its 108-minute runtime. Most of its time is spent on that one road with only cursory glances at the countryside (one member of the landscape seen is a cat with no eyes) to go along with the sights and sounds of people being shot. In that sense, the ensemble is exceptionally talented to hold up the task of a movie that could've easily had a chance to go off the rails with less confidence to hold things together (really I'm more surprised someone had not made a low-budget cheapie of this before). Hoffman and Jonsson each carry the film with a bond that is fascinating to see build and build as the film goes on, selling the curdling fear that comes with seeing people die and die that might as well make the possible winner the biggest victim of them all. Sure, you might find moments of levity within the road of gloom, but you have a group that sells the tension that comes with knowing and losing people who it might hurt more to remember their name (as opposed to the numbered tag they wear, which seems to fit the times more if you think about it). You get to see the personalities of these people wither down to the logical conclusion, be it a bully who sees death right in front of them, wisecrackers or a self-realization about one's perceived value. Calling it a cross between Stand by Me and a war movie is probably not as far off as it may seem, and there isn't a weak note among the cast. Hamill pops in from time to time with one specific type of presence (namely never taking off those sunglasses), which is fairly effective in authoritative menace. To say nothing of the ending, it provides its own distinct take on the meaning of having a wish versus actually realizing it in the wake of the road getting there that is pretty solid when you see it play out.* As a whole, it is a tense burner of a movie, having a worthy execution of suspense within the horror of inevitability within death in brotherhood that may very well become a curiosity to view in the coming years.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

*What? People try to label movies clearly in the horror genre as musicals or "psychological thrillers", change my mind.

*I wouldn't call this a "both sides" thing, there are people who just brush aside school shootings, so you know where they can shove the "decency card".

*Spoiler (in lighter text): The book has McVries die (sitting at peace) before Stebbins, who then dies so Garraty wins. The book ends with Garraty wandering to catch a figure he sees in the distance, ignoring the victory. The movie ends with McVries being the winner after Garraty stops moving before the prize is awarded. You might debate whether anything after the victory is really real, but I'll go with the literal ending just for the hell of it: shooting the Major dead and McVries wandering into the distance...

Caught Stealing.

Review #2418: Caught Stealing.

Cast: 

Austin Butler (Henry "Hank" Thompson), Regina King (Det. Elise Roman), Zoë Kravitz (Yvonne), Matt Smith (Russ), Liev Schreiber (Lipa Drucker), Vincent D'Onofrio (Shmully Drucker), Benito A Martínez Ocasio (Colorado), Griffin Dunne (Paul), Carol Kane (Bubbe), Yuri Kolokolnikov (Aleksei), and Nikita Kukushkin (Pavel) Directed by Darren Aronofsky (#1112 - Pi, #1580 - mother!)

Review: 

Sure, this is the new film from director Darren Aronofsky, but I'll be honest, the reason I picked the movie is that it seemed like the kind of movie that would slip through the cracks if I didn't act quickly. Honestly, I think I saw exactly one trailer for the movie, but I'm sure this was going to be something fitting of the guy who did Pi (1998) rather than say, the guy who did mother! (2017). So, what is the movie? Well, it is based on the 2004 novel of the same name (the first of three books involving the character, as followed by Six Bad Things and A Dangerous Man) by Charlie Huston, who wrote the screenplay for this film, which is the ninth feature film by Aronofsky. You might think is a caper with a few bits of humor. Well...it is technically a funny movie, but you sure will get some whiplash by the stuff that happens with this movie (as set in 1998, specifically late September in New York) which features a handful of characters that get killed for 107 minutes (horror movies wish they had that kind of body count). Omen or not, I saw the movie on a Thursday night to about three other people (my kind of audience, at least when it comes to ill-timed laughs). 

I did enjoy the movie, albeit one that sure takes its time to really get going in a tightly wound thriller about one man who is having an increasingly bad week, as one does when engulfed in trying to think quick for a myriad of tough decisions beyond "oh, I have a cat to take care of". But really, it is a funny movie even with such squeamish moments, mostly because I did get a kick out of the ways one is wriggled in and out of chaos: some may call it whiplash, but I lied, it really is just mayhem and I think some people prefer to shudder at it rather than admit that there was some sort of perverse enjoyment to be had (sure, there is some violence that might be too much, but, well, too bad). It does help to have a pretty neat lead behind it all with Butler, who maneuvers vulnerability (past and current) and a general sense of charm that we get behind pretty quickly in the expanding-and-shrinking scenario that comes with people and surprises at every corner. He has a certain natural attitude that just clicks to what we are seeing without seeming like just being an impersonation of say, Steve McQueen. His demons are ones that we understand when it goes from a path of realization in, well, not turning away from their problems. The cast around him is fairly quirky in their machinations of mayhem (with a cat involved, naturally), whether that involves the coarse King or the delightful rat in the coming-and-going Smith or the late favorite in friendly neighborhood killer pair in Schreiber and D'Onofrio. There are plenty of little sequences to highlight within the ever-growing pulse of terror of someone who isn't exactly gripped in calm/normal reality to begin with, and I think the ending is a pretty apt one in laying out that being on the beach may not be all it looks to be in "peace". It basically is a movie close to the sights and sounds you might have found in old fashioned chase movies, one that might be better with multiple rewatches down the road, suffice to say. I just wish I liked it more, mostly because there is a fewling this could have gone even murkier, but I guess people would have gotten up in arms more (to say nothing of its one big shock). As a whole, if you want a slap-bang film that is reasonably engaged with its late 1990s setting, you might find something worth getting into here. It has enough of a rumble in its execution to make it probably worth a watch, squeamish or not.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night is taking a few days off, just for the record.

Foolishly, I forgot to detail my shortlist of stuff I forgot to review for August, so here it was: Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Gamera vs. Gyaos, 1941, Don Q, Son of Zorro / Mask of Zorro / Zorro, The Gay Blade, But I'm a Cheerleader, City Heat, The Black Swan.