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No God, No Master (2013)
Could have been a lot better
OK, I love period pieces and tried to like this one despite the obvious budget constraints of No God, No Master as it moved along, but the no- nuanced presentation of the historical characters made it a task. The simplistic and fiery speech of Galleani (face lit from underneath to emphasize "evil") was a prime example. Flynn in the middle of a melee of activists and cops as his boss (who instigated the fight) looks on passively, is another. Say what you will about baddie Palmer, he seemed to have an awful lot of patience with the uncooperative Flynn.
Just taking it as a movie - a "work of art" as opposed to reportage - it failed to satisfy. The all too many plot lines were hard to follow and hard to buy into. The "romance," in particular, was just too cute and convenient and made some of the final scenes pretty screwy. But maybe my attention drifted and I missed some details. Would that I could convince a smart friend to watch this movie and answer my questions, because I am befuddled and left to wonder...
Why was the boy taken?
What are we supposed to conclude when Flynn finds Louise Berger living in a nice apartment, rather than a tenement hovel?
Is Flynn partially blind? If not, how come such a brilliant couldn't see the car following him during his ride in the country?
How did agent Swanson beat him to the hideout? Who the !#!!^>< is agent Swanson?
Why was the boy in the barn? Are the anarchist bad guys also pedophiles?
If Flynn is such a liberal and is so disgusted by Palmer's actions, why doesn't he want to talk to the press when the boss first makes the offer?
Why in blazes was the boy in the barn?
Butter (2011)
A Butter Hoot
Simply a fun movie, well written, performed and directed. I didn't expect a lot going in, but found laughter in almost every scene. The child is adorable and in the last over-the-top sugary scene, you could almost believe a kid this sainted could exist. A talented young performer.
I consider myself as someone with a good sense of humor, one who can see a joke being set up a minute before it hits you. But there were a lot of fun surprises. Very inventive stuff. Being someone who is not unfamiliar with the oddities of "health food," the joke about seitan was appreciated by me, but probably lost on the majority in the audience. (The IMDb spell checker here isn't laughing either.)
'twould be nice to know if the foster father and the little girl were improvising in the car scene before she goes in to sign up for the competition. It seemed spontaneous. If it was, the kid is a comic genius. If not, it was just fun writing. The images kicked back and forth in that scene were reminiscent of some of the really zany stuff that I loved in the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips a few years back.
Check out Butter and enjoy.
The Party (1968)
Painful "Party"
It is unsettling to read all the rave reviews "The Party" gets here. Throughout the film I kept wondering if Blake Edwards and Sellers actually thought this was a funny film. I found it painful... almost embarrassing, to watch. I couldn't believe how trite were the ideas - including the floor opening over a swimming pool, which was great decades before when done in "Its a Wonderful Life," but just one of many duds in Party. And every cliché is dwelt on for a minimum of 10 minutes. Filling a house with bubbles was good for 5 minutes on I Love Lucy, but it is built to operatic dimensions here - while maintaining a frightening level of boredom. The drunk waiter, for about 15 minutes, took over the movie. I wish I could say it was a relief, but his stumbling around and falling on people added zip to the "fun." Could someone please tell me what was funny about the hostess falling into the pool the first, second and/or third time?
Thank gawd Sellers made Strangelove and the Pink Panther flicks! I'd hate to have his reputation rest on this junior high school video.
The Big Picture (1989)
Life imitates comedy during filming of The Big Picture
The Big Picture is an under-rated, excellent and funny movie with solid performances all around. The comments by Guest and Bacon in the Extra Features section (evidently made years after the movie's release) are entertaining as well, adding another level of behind-the-scenes to this behind-the-scenes flick. Especially interesting was the tidbit about life imitating art regarding a disaster plot point in the movie that almost happened *to* The Big Picture while it was being made - and came near to shutting it down. Also interesting was Guest's insistence that the actual interference of management in the creative process (with bozo ideas thrown out wily-nilly during script "development" meetings) is often more outrageous than that depicted in the film.
Only disappointment was that the deleted Billy Crystal scene mentioned by Guest was not included in the DVD's Extra Features' Deleted Scenes.
Zonad (2009)
Nonad, why pick OUR planet?
My sweet jayzuz! In only 75 minutes this pea-brain adolescent wreck seeks to cut the legs out from under the long-deserved Irish rep as a country of endearing, witty and artful storytellers.
One of the worst movies I have ever seen (and I am an ancient, so I have seen plenty). After watching the entire film because my beloved wife wouldn't give up on it, I could only think: boring, sophomoric, witless, crude, poorly acted, jam packed with the requisite "dirty words" and pissing sequences... Great gawd almighty, wot has become of motion picture culture??? Have ye no shame, ye "Irish" poseurs? But then I read something here or on Netflix indicating that this production should be seen as a parody of American teenage gross-out movies. Oh, OK, now I get it: a witless parody of a witless genre! Right. Seen like this, I guess it is a masterpiece.
Do yourself a favor, forget this empty glass. Go make a friend at the pub around the corner and raise a glass and sing a dirge to the Irish wit of yore.
Apache (1954)
Oh Sedona! Your hills deserved better
I enjoyed cowboy movies when I was young, but after TV and Hollywood together beat the genre to death with over-exposure and triteness (to be supplanted by space operas, car chases/explosions and, now zombie/vampire adventures), I wasn't sorry to see westerns die their slow death... though an occasional decent one pops up now and agin. The silliness of the casting and the seemingly requisite neat, dry-cleaned look of every single soldier and saddle tramp, just gets in the way of anything special this movie might have had when first conceived.
What has me really puzzled about this movie is why Burt Lancaster would put himself in such a thing. It was, after all, a "Hecht-Lancaster Presentation," so, presumably, he would have had control over its creation. I guess Burt, an actor I have long admired, saw this as a step forward by adding some shades of gray to Hollywood's usual depiction of the Indian "savages." It is a bad movie, chock full of poorly-acted stereotypes, clichéd situations and unbelievable events. A few of my *favorites* - Burt, single-handed, turns over a wagon with two full-size bad guys in it. The almost virgin birth of his child: After doing almost everything allowable in a movie of this type (including clubbing the would-be girl friend), they finally get to romance and in the blink of an eye, she is pregnant, goes full term without a hint of a bulge and delivers her first child unassisted after about a 5 minute labor (while she is, seemingly, bed-ridden from having been tending the crops which are growing nicely in some of the driest soil ever photographed).
Speaking of the soil: I re-watched this warhorse of a flick (Why do folks here consider this a great Altman movie?) after many years because it is on a long list of films shot in or around Sedona, Arizona. I have visited Sedona twice. It's redrock towers are a sight to behold and it is clear why it was a favored location. Even now, with most of the beautiful hills adorned by dense necklaces of cute SW modern homes and condos, occupied by the upscale folk who can afford to live there, it still has much to beguile. If you visit, check out the local funky museum and, while taking in the old photos and wrangler gear, ponder what we have wrought. If you are like me, you may wonder why such transitions seem so tragically inevitable.
Drones (2010)
Unexpectedly witty,enjoyable flick
Drones is a small film well worth watching if you enjoy quirky, well-written, well-acted comedies. Going in, I didn't understand that the sci-fi angle would be so central, but it was nice to see a low budget production that features (more or less convincingly) "aliens" without the need for tons of makeup. And Drones almost as funny as 'What Planet Are You From?' (which also needed little in the way of FX). Angela Bettis, not the typical cute/perky "young thing" one might expect in a role like this, is quite arresting, with a lovely smile and expressive face. I found all the performances to be solid, with a cast of actors who are unfamiliar to me. Good comic performances all around. I also enjoyed the songs playing over the closing credits, including one that listed many aspects of earth life that might befuddle extraterrestrials. The quirky birthday song was also a hoot.
Gigi (1958)
At least I got 15 min sleep near the end
I had seen this before years ago, but only could remember that it didn't impress me much. My wife selected the DVD via Netflix and 20 minutes into the film, all I could say to her was, "When is this movie going to start?" Slow moving hardly describes it. And Gaston repeating endlessly how boring things were for him hardly seems a way to entertain. I have never been much of a Maurice Chevalier fan and seeing him, as others have noted, oogling young girls in this flick is definitely weird now. Reading through reviews here, I was reminded how many Academy Awards it won - yikes! The Academy BS I can almost understand, but why IMDb reviewers found this leaden clunker so terrific is beyond me. Thank gawd I did get some shuteye toward the end.
One Night at McCool's (2001)
American Roshomon
A very funny movie. Michael Douglas' "do" is worth watching this flick for if for no other reason. I'd like to see him do more of these low life roles. He was terrific, as were all the performers.
The film struck me right off as an American Roshomon, only funnier and easier to watch because it was in American and didn't need no stinkin subtitles!
In a funny movie with a laugh every minute or so, two of the best were with John Goodman (not someone I am crazy about) - 1. He is telling the priest about Jewel doing something he liked and says "I had to wipe the smile off my face." The visual shows he is not smiling and clearly is a guy who never smiles, but probably doesn't know it. 2. The scene at the end between Goodman, all suited up for Jewel in his cop uniform, and grappling with the be-leathered Reiser hunched over a table... and the two of them then protesting that they are not gay to another character who happens on the scene - this alone deserved a special Comedy Academy Award.
House (1985)
Purty dreadful
Really nice looking Victorian house. Everything else sucks ('cept maybe the neighbor in the bathing suit when she is walking away from the camera).
It was one of these movies where after a half hour you know you should tune away for something more uplifting, like maybe to CNN to see the world coming apart, but you've already invested that half hour... and you have this perverse need to see how the main plot hook (the guy's son disappeared some time ago, causing his marriage to fail, etc.) gets resolved, so you hang in there. Don't do it. The ending is a total joke and the in between ain't any better.
Maybe the movie wouldn't have been so bad if George Wendt had been given the lead. He was terrific in Cheers, but doesn't have any range at all. That would not have been a problem if he had starred here (instead of playing the buttinsky neighbor). Evidently, solid acting was not a requirement for House's casting director. More likely, the problem (aside from the director) was $ and re-shooting scenes probably not an option. Then again, maybe they thought they were doin' pretty good.
OTOH, this flick might have been better if made by a bunch of teenagers in Podunk, Minnesota using their parent's video equipment. The "effects" could hardly have been worse (rubber monster masks and tattered garments). The attack by the closeted rod puppet monster was too much to bear.
I realize this is a spoof, but it simply wasn't worth the time. During the breaks, I was amazed to see the station promoting the running of House 2. Blew me away to think of them making a sequel. Later, I find out there were 3 or 4 made! Holy rubber monster!