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Reviews
Bengal Brigade (1954)
Stnadard Fair but worth a view
Rock Hudson's character goes against orders and orders an attack to save his own men that were fooled into an ambush in the beginning of the film. Saving his company he also wins the battle with the 2nd assault. He is court-martialed and that begins the comeback by Hudson that takes the balance of the short 87 minute flick. A period piece, standard in it's presentation and direction, is mildly entertaining. Rock Hudson's character goes against orders and orders an attack to save his own men that were fooled into an ambush in the beginning of the film. He is court-martialed and that begins the comeback by Hudson that takes the balance of the short 87 minute flick. A period piece, standard in it's presentation and direction, is mildly entertaining. Dahl is stunning as usual and Hudson is too as the British officer turned mercenary for hire.
Hampton's Legion (2021)
The worst film could be the best entertainment.....
Bad movie making is an art. Viewing a bad movie is also an art. This film has some nice things going for it. The color print is mostly in focus and the editor's cuts are so basic that it enhances the terrible acting as they deliver their lines of one of the worst scripts around. Put it all together and in a sick sort of way I was entertained. I hope to hell hell this director reads this review and I would love to start an acting career at my late age of 68. For this director, I will give you what you have never had. A five star review. Viewed on Amazon Prime.
Uppity: The Willy T. Ribbs Story (2020)
Hits all the marks of quality documentary film making
As documentary film makers, Adam Carola and Nate Adams have hit all the marks to allow me to give them five stars out of five for their look at Willy T. Ribbs, the first black man to quality and race in the "greatest spectacle in racing", the Indianapolis 500. This is quality film making that tells the little known story of the Jackie Robinson of auto racing, Willy T. Ribbs. The high production values present some of the best film of car racing to go along with many interviews of the people involved in the sport, "Uppity..." is highly recommended for historians of both sport and car racing. Viewed and playing on Netflix.
Blues Busters (1950)
Horace gets a voice....and what a voice!
A rather good entry in the series and Horace DeBusey Jones gets a singing voice and the Boys get into the nightclub business. The ladies are beautiful as the Boys play out the film.
Steel Tempest (2000)
At least they tried......
Everyone involved in this stinker tried to make it a good film. You can see that even with low production values the movie was not to be a comedy but a serious project. I liked the look of the German uniforms yet they were not true to the history of the war. My review on letterboxed, the only one for this film says: The actual look of the Germans in this honest effort is ok for a film that is not so good. The film is not a joke and you can tell the producers and all involved were serious in making this not for prime time film. I did not like it much. It is in whole a piece of crap just like my review is. Do not have the flick and saw it on Amazon Prime.
Rush (2013)
Outstanding and an equal to Grand Prix
During my teens and early adulthood I followed the Gran Prix Formula One racing scene as the best race car drivers in the world raced on that circuit. I was a Jim Clark fan and I thought he was the best driver during his time. A Formula 1 champion, Clark was also an Indy 500 winner and his death was significant in that the world had lost another great driver of a time much different than today.
In the movie RUSH, set in 1976, Clark had been dead from a crash for over seven years, a stretch of time that I could tell you who won which race, where the races in Formula 1 were staged, and who had the best and fastest cars. As mentioned in Ron Howard's RUSH (2013), at the beginning race of the 1976 season, of the 25 drivers to start that first race, two would be killed by the end of season. That was normal for F 1. Driving a F 1 car was as dangerous a job you could have, ranking up there with being an astronaut. Like riding on a bomb waiting to exploded as referred to in the movie, it took a special man to guide the bomb down the track, turn after turn, all in accordance with a precise skill of hand, eye, and foot coordination. Jim Clark was just one of the great drivers not to live to an old age, and like the others that raced in Formula 1, the thought of death was always present, like being a soldier in a war that was asked to lead the charge.
John Frankenheimer directed Grand Prix (MGM 1966) and it was, at the time, the most exciting movie I had ever viewed. Attending a screening here in OKC, the wide screen production was an event of historical significance worldwide.
In a future viewing forty-five years later from that first look, Grand Prix presents itself as a fully encapsulated microcosmic look of the time and period of 1965 Formula 1 racing spectacle and pageantry. With appearances of many of the F 1 drivers of the era, along with real race footage interwoven with make believe shots, Grand Prix holds the test of time, providing a film still fresh and beautiful as the day it opened in the theaters almost a half a century ago. Not as personal a movie as RUSH, the epic Grand Prix is still the greatest film on auto racing ever made, and also the most visually handsome of any. It puts you in the seat of an F 1 car and never relents in the spine tingling exhilaration of power of the experience mixing with the terror of a sudden catastrophe. RUSH, on the other had, gets into the soul of two men in their pursuit of greatness in F 1 and their drive to better the other. The better acted movie, RUSH gives its' two protagonists enough differences to try to make you pick one over the other, yet allowing both to have good and not go good attributes in the way they live their lives. Ron Howard is as fine a director as Frankenheimer, but RUSH lacks in the racing scenes where Grand Prix excels. Real footage always, well usually, bests make believe, and in this comparison, RUSH comes in second place. One significant difference that gives RUSH a positive advantage over Grand Prix is the finality of the accident. Not that the accidents shown in RUSH are better shot or more exciting, the gory frames that you are required to view are horrific in nature, realistic to the point of nausea. A driver's body, minus his head, sitting in a wrecked F 1 race car; a driver burning in race car while trying to free himself; and another driver being loaded into a meat wagon with injuries that you really don't want to look at. I will give Ron Howard credit that he didn't prolong the savagery, cutting away in enough time to allow the viewer get away from such nastiness, but leaving a lot to ponder in the future.
I liked RUSH very much. A movie I will see again in a couple of years, to enjoy the acting skills of the various "faces" of the beautiful people, including Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt, Daniel Bruhl as Niki Lauda, Olivia Wilde as Suzy Miller and Alexandra Maria Lara as Marlene Lauda. Director Howard tries to get us into the head of the Hunt and Lauda, how they tick, how they as race car drivers, take the sport as individuals who were on different time clocks. Fascinating work by Howard and outstanding performances by Hemsworth and Bruhl. As for Garner and the rest of the cast of Grand Prix, routine and workmanlike performances, yet putting those actors into real race cars and having them in truth, drive the F 1 race tracks, you cannot take away from their bravery.
The race car genre in movies is littered with some good, some not so good, and some really bad. In my book, there is noting worse than a bad race car movie. Both Grand Prix and RUSH are outstanding and very good, respectfully. Two movies on the same track ten years apart, but in reality, not one second apart in taking the checked flag.
The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970)
Very Interesting
I would like to see this movie shot today and see what differences an other director would make of the subject. Excellent production values give notice that the effort to make a unique movie for the late 60's was undertaken. Stamp gives a strong performance and the movie is not boring. Robert Vaughn and Nigel Davenport serve as capable teachers to the brain injured man and give fine supporting roles in this less than successful movie. What holds this movie together is the fine close ups of Stamp as he discovers a world of wonderment and allows the viewer an opportunity to see if the human condition is retarded by 30 years of laying in a bed in a vegetative state. Finding out that question is what makes this movie fun.