The final credits sequence are the best thing. Implausible script, fake backdrops, miniature city scapes and really hilarious dialogue. Continuity is way off
.Noticed hair styles changing in the battle scenes. Etc etc
I.
Reviews
9 Reviews
The Key
(1958)
Excellent film..
17 August 2018
The latter reviews do not mention Sophia Loren's electrifying performance, partnered by the ever-excellent William Holden. The direction is subtle at first, but as the film gains in intensity the camera starts moving in a 3 D manner, it was shot in CinemaScope, and the action takes you into the relationship, adulterous and complex, as the ships begin to list, dive into the waves as they come at them, spewing salt water as in a Tsunami, without let up, and the love between Holden and Sophia Loren dives along with the oceanic activities, creating a kind of bedlam of emotions and expressed feelings. The world has many weapons to use against this couple, and it can strike from all sides and does. The key is perhaps the worst object and yet the best object either of them can possess. A must from Carol Reed who gave us The Third Man.
It
(I) (2017)
Evil presented in absolutely frightening form
19 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
A really terrifying experience, with the continuous comparison between Pennywise with certain adults, the so-called real people. Excellent acting, dynamic photography, like the older CinemaScope films of the 50s. Very good special effects that did not seem like special effects. The screenplay represents the case of Pennywise vs. Derry adequately. The ending has one asking a few questions, namely about the lost children and the parental crises with the children that dominate much of the film's track on the otherwise not Pennywise.
Definitely a very scary experience, with references to Psycho, Don't Look Now, and many other films, without copying or trying to better the previous takes on evil. The Clown is fantastic and monstrous. Be warned!
A must see, and only in digital wide screen!
Definitely a very scary experience, with references to Psycho, Don't Look Now, and many other films, without copying or trying to better the previous takes on evil. The Clown is fantastic and monstrous. Be warned!
A must see, and only in digital wide screen!
Torn Curtain
(1966)
Good, but not vintage Hitch!
31 August 2014
"Torn Curtain" had the promise of being like "Notorious." Spies and counter spies, no one can be trusted, defections to the East German sector, Julie Andrews in a quandary,Paul Newman burdened with secrets etc. It is all intriguing, and the death of the policeman is one of he most graphic death scenes for Hitchcock, although Psycho's offering is one in a billion.
Andrews and Newman..what a couple! But they are so bland, and often act against each other. What's going on? Newman is more experienced and so he washes Julie Andrews off the screen. Yes, he might be doing that. However, her static nature, her talk, her ordering food in restaurants (and there are many sit-down scenes in this) in this film makes for more tension as we move along, and as it turns out. Hitchcock always knows what to do with not-so-hot actors..he turns it all around on you and them, in this case Miss Andrews.
There are notable scenes,in the theater for example, and a lot of strange rear projection shots and whole studio-origin scenes that become more obvious, especially in this lurid color film. What's going on? Hitchcock hated locations, but this had a big budget..he wants, I think, to make a film that is somewhat false, scenic, derivative even..in plot structural terms,an overestimation of Communism and its threat to our materialistic world. Look at Julie Andrew's hair and clothes..very expensive, very much like Marnie. It has an anti McCarthyism mood about it, a comic book flavor to it that justifies many otherwise awkward technical moments. Hitchcock loved playing games, and he loved comic book inventiveness..this film could be a MARVEL piece, and I think it is one. Hitchcock triumphs again. During the making of this, he told people that he was sad about it all, did not like Newman too much or Andrews, hated the color photography etc etc..all of this gossip to throw critics and viewers as well way off the track. And the soundtrack!!! Isn't it lush for this kind of drama?
See this film at 132 minutes, very long, and watch the antic disposition of a master at work. It is a very underrated film.
Andrews and Newman..what a couple! But they are so bland, and often act against each other. What's going on? Newman is more experienced and so he washes Julie Andrews off the screen. Yes, he might be doing that. However, her static nature, her talk, her ordering food in restaurants (and there are many sit-down scenes in this) in this film makes for more tension as we move along, and as it turns out. Hitchcock always knows what to do with not-so-hot actors..he turns it all around on you and them, in this case Miss Andrews.
There are notable scenes,in the theater for example, and a lot of strange rear projection shots and whole studio-origin scenes that become more obvious, especially in this lurid color film. What's going on? Hitchcock hated locations, but this had a big budget..he wants, I think, to make a film that is somewhat false, scenic, derivative even..in plot structural terms,an overestimation of Communism and its threat to our materialistic world. Look at Julie Andrew's hair and clothes..very expensive, very much like Marnie. It has an anti McCarthyism mood about it, a comic book flavor to it that justifies many otherwise awkward technical moments. Hitchcock loved playing games, and he loved comic book inventiveness..this film could be a MARVEL piece, and I think it is one. Hitchcock triumphs again. During the making of this, he told people that he was sad about it all, did not like Newman too much or Andrews, hated the color photography etc etc..all of this gossip to throw critics and viewers as well way off the track. And the soundtrack!!! Isn't it lush for this kind of drama?
See this film at 132 minutes, very long, and watch the antic disposition of a master at work. It is a very underrated film.
Operation Crossbow
(1965)
A WWII film with many thrills!
26 August 2014
This is an unconventional film where you do not know who the good and bad people are. Sophia Loren's character, for example, is that of a counter spy of sorts who gets caught up with people who know she's a fraud. She knows they know and the suspense begins.
There's more than one example of this kind of tension: George Peppard is working to thwart the aims of the Nazis to build bigger and better V-2s that are threatening London. Does he know who has him under surveillance?.Who is Anthony Quale tied up with? he's British, but then we have Tom Courtney, a counter spy, speaking German to Quale and getting into all kinds of trouble for doing so. And it goes on and on.
I do not want to give away a thing here. See this and be stunned. There are more deaths in this film than in any WWII film I've ever seen. Sharp direction. Excellent performances.
There's more than one example of this kind of tension: George Peppard is working to thwart the aims of the Nazis to build bigger and better V-2s that are threatening London. Does he know who has him under surveillance?.Who is Anthony Quale tied up with? he's British, but then we have Tom Courtney, a counter spy, speaking German to Quale and getting into all kinds of trouble for doing so. And it goes on and on.
I do not want to give away a thing here. See this and be stunned. There are more deaths in this film than in any WWII film I've ever seen. Sharp direction. Excellent performances.
The World of Suzie Wong
(1960)
Not nearly the great play!
18 March 2014
The World of Suzie Wong is a tragic insight into colonization from the west in any form. The film does not capture this, but wants us to feel relaxed about Asians who talk cool, and dress in the same manner.With this established the union of Suzie and Holden is racially OK. ( See Sayonara with Brando and see how that film shocks the senisbilities of viewers even today.As it should.) William Holden is alright here but he is a great talent and he cannot get over the terrible direction and the watered-down play as screenplay. There's no characterization and he moves on to better things in his career, Paris When It Sizzles, is not one of his good moves, with the same bad director of Suzie Wong. Wong ans Paris are perhaps the nadir for Holden, but he does make it to Network.
Nancy Kwan is light years behind France Nuyen who essayed the part on Broadway. Ms. Kwan has no acting skills that would even begin to unfurl this complicated character for us.
The film could be remade..it should be, with the uncut play as a basis for it.
Nancy Kwan is light years behind France Nuyen who essayed the part on Broadway. Ms. Kwan has no acting skills that would even begin to unfurl this complicated character for us.
The film could be remade..it should be, with the uncut play as a basis for it.
The Endless Summer
(1966)
surfing the world over.
18 April 2012
The Endless Summer has some of the greatest art work posters ever printed in the 1960s. The film is only interesting when the scenery is depicted, minus the narration and the horrible soundtrack.
To surf all over the world strikes one as a waste of time, and it proves to be a waste of time, except for the African episodes, which show the "natives, as they are called, bored with the whole thing after a while.
The racism in this film is so blatant that it looks like the KKK may have produced it.
The South African "observations" on the Zulu are unconscionable, and this is a 1966 film, Viet Nam time, and Martin Luther King was talking about the horrors of apartheid.
Women are treated as pure sex objects,and yet the two stars never date or seem interested in girls. Enough said there.
Not good, but relevant for those who wonder where Coppola got his inspiration for surfing madness in "Apocalypse, Now," where Robert Duvall in combat in Vietnam is having certain military surfing experts try to find the "perfect wave."while drugged to the hilt. Somebody saw what was going on in The Endless Summer...sheer madness with guys who have had lobotomies.
To surf all over the world strikes one as a waste of time, and it proves to be a waste of time, except for the African episodes, which show the "natives, as they are called, bored with the whole thing after a while.
The racism in this film is so blatant that it looks like the KKK may have produced it.
The South African "observations" on the Zulu are unconscionable, and this is a 1966 film, Viet Nam time, and Martin Luther King was talking about the horrors of apartheid.
Women are treated as pure sex objects,and yet the two stars never date or seem interested in girls. Enough said there.
Not good, but relevant for those who wonder where Coppola got his inspiration for surfing madness in "Apocalypse, Now," where Robert Duvall in combat in Vietnam is having certain military surfing experts try to find the "perfect wave."while drugged to the hilt. Somebody saw what was going on in The Endless Summer...sheer madness with guys who have had lobotomies.
Friends with Benefits
(2011)
A film with nothing
29 July 2011
Friends with Benefits seems like it might be a satire of Nora Ehpron's feel good films,or Neil Simon's one dimensional types with just TV cracks as substitutes for any kind of genuine dialogue. Not the case here. This film makes Ephron's screenplays and directed films, along with N. Simon's stuff, look like classics. Friends with Benefits has no acting in it, except for Patricia Clarkson, and she is debased as one of those old women- mothers who swear and screw around with men etc.
There isn't one line that is funny,there is not a scene between Timberlake and Kunis that has any chemistry to it. He is always seen as potentially gay, and Woody Harrelson's gay character keeps us wondering, if anyone would care to wonder.
Timberlake plays it all as sort of gay and sort of straight, but comes up neuter. I think the reason why there are so many nude shots of him is because you never take his gender seriously, like one of the dwarfs in Snow White, you never fear for Snow White's sexual safety; the dwarfs have nothing that would cause fear. So it is with Timberlake. Even when there is sex between Kunis and Timberlake, it looks like wrestling at summer camp.
The Altzheimer scenes are appalling, along with the gay male model scenes that are deeply homophobic.
This film needed a script, director, producer, and stars, not non-actors, who stomp around the set with no sense of mimesis, mimicking at all.
Avoid this, and watch "The Nanny."
There isn't one line that is funny,there is not a scene between Timberlake and Kunis that has any chemistry to it. He is always seen as potentially gay, and Woody Harrelson's gay character keeps us wondering, if anyone would care to wonder.
Timberlake plays it all as sort of gay and sort of straight, but comes up neuter. I think the reason why there are so many nude shots of him is because you never take his gender seriously, like one of the dwarfs in Snow White, you never fear for Snow White's sexual safety; the dwarfs have nothing that would cause fear. So it is with Timberlake. Even when there is sex between Kunis and Timberlake, it looks like wrestling at summer camp.
The Altzheimer scenes are appalling, along with the gay male model scenes that are deeply homophobic.
This film needed a script, director, producer, and stars, not non-actors, who stomp around the set with no sense of mimesis, mimicking at all.
Avoid this, and watch "The Nanny."
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