Skip to main content

Reviews Archive - A


FEATURING:

The Adventures of Gerard
All About Eve
The American
The Anderson Tapes
Angels & Demons
Apocalypse Now
Appaloosa
Ask a Policeman
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The Adventures of Gerard
(1970)

Polish director Jerzy Skolomowski seems like a strange fit for adapting Conan Doyle's vain but likeable French Colonel to the screen. It's a very peculiar film, beautifully shot but with a cartoonish eye; like someone's seen Tony Richardson's Tom Jones or a couple of Richard Lester films and then decided to follow suite, but with the style of an art movie. 

 Peter McEnery is magnificent as Gerard, and his exaggerated mannerisms and fourth wall breaking fit perfectly with the visual tone. Also turning up is Jack Hawkins as a mad English renegade and John Neville as Wellington (Eli Wallach is Napoleon). There's a fair bit of bad dubbing, as befits a Napoleonic spaghetti western, and a gorgeous score by Riz Ortolani (I'd love to get hold of it, but the film isn't even available to buy let alone the soundtrack).

*****

All About Eve 
(1950) 

A great script from Joseph L Mankiewicz, although he's a merely competent director. Bette Davis and Anne Baxter are the ostensible leads, but George Sanders owns every scene he’s in.

*****
The American 
(2010)

Sophomore film from Anton Corbijn (Control being his first) sees taciturn George Clooney positioned front and centre and in a kind-of modern western set in an Italian town. 

 Clooney's gun maker is on the run from the Swedes and expected to fashion and deliver a rifle. The opening sequence resonates throughout the film for good reason, and the purposefully slow pace is punctuated by occasional violence. A very European take on the western, there’s a reflective air and beautiful photography.

****

The Anderson Tapes 
(1971) 

This Sidney Lumet effort definitely shows it's age (Connery's opening monologue compares safe cracking to rape, there are some pronounced gay stereotypes) but it's so damn weird (complete with proto-electronic music/sound effects) that the result is never less than watchable. And there’s also an early sighting of an absurdly young Christopher Walken.

***

Angels & Demons 
(2009)

Shit in a hat. The first two thirds are incredibly dull, with Tom Hanks working out his clues in the impenetrable manner of Ted Rogers. The last half hour is quite entertaining, but only because it stinks the place up in how atrocious it is. Hanks is dying on his arse. The only one actually doing a decent job is McGregor, and his role is as dumb as every other part of the movie.
*1/2

Apocalypse Now 
(1979) 

Not the Redux, so this viewing returns the film to uncontested classic status in my estimation. 

 I love the early synths used in late-70s to mid-80s films. They haven't aged at all, only improving with the passing of time. Three decades have possibly made elements of this over-familiar (look to Jarhead for its perverse appropriation by US troops; then, it's a film that indulges a certain majesty in its presentation of the insanity of war so it probably shouldn't be surprising). Sheen's performance and voice-over impress more and more with each viewing, while Vittorio Storaro's photography is quite beautiful.

*****

Appaloosa
(2008)

Solid, slow-burning Ed Harris western, with typically great work from Viggo Mortensen as his (Marshal's) right-hand man, and fine supporting turns from Jeremy Irons and Lance Henrikson (still able to deposit himself on a horse in his late-60s). The only downside is squinty, puffy Rene Zellwegger as a character who is difficult enough to provoke sympathy for anyway, nigh impossible with hamster features playing her.

***1/2

Ask a Policeman 
(1939)

AAP had tremendous childhood resonance with the promise of headless horsemen and smugglers' caves (like The Land that Time Forgot - dinosaurs and Nazis!). Nevertheless, the highlight continues to be Moore Marriott's performance(s). He's a bit of a Clive Dunn, since he was only 53 when this was made. Terry Jones appears to have based an entire career of ladies and old men on Marriott. 

 The scene of scenes is the visit to Marriott's father (also Marriott) in a quest of the final verse of the rhyme the Marriott can't remember (Marriott: "I know some rhymes" Hay:"I'll bet you do").

****
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 
(2007)

Outstanding work from Andrew Dominik that no one bothered to go and see (well, the studio didn't exactly help matters by dumping it). Brad Pitt's dependable but the stars are really Casey Affleck's commendably dislikeable turn as Ford and Roger Deakins wonderful cinematography. 

 Sam Rockwell deserves credit too for his role as Ford's troubled older brother. A magnificent western, awash with depth of character and theme, and unselfconsciously topical in its essaying of celebrity culture.

*****

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

She writes Twilight fan fiction.

Vampire Academy (2014)
My willingness to give writer Daniel Waters some slack on the grounds of early glories sometimes pays off (Sex and Death 101) and sometimes, as with this messy and indistinct Young Adult adaptation, it doesn’t. If Vampire Academy plods along as a less than innovative smart-mouthed Buffy rip-off that might be because, if you added vampires to Heathers, you would probably get something not so far from the world of Joss Whedon. Unfortunately inspiration is a low ebb throughout, not helped any by tepid direction from Daniel’s sometimes-reliable brother Mark and a couple of hopelessly plankish leads who do their best to dampen down any wit that occasionally attempts to surface.

I can only presume there’s a never-ending pile of Young Adult fiction poised for big screen failure, all of it comprising multi-novel storylines just begging for a moment in the Sun. Every time an adaptation crashes and burns (and the odds are that they will) another one rises, hydra-like, hoping…
3 comments
Read more

He mobilised the English language and sent it into battle.

Darkest Hour (2017)
(SPOILERS) Watching Joe Wright’s return to the rarefied plane of prestige – and heritage to boot – filmmaking following the execrable folly of the panned Pan, I was struck by the difference an engaged director, one who cares about his characters, makes to material. Only last week, Ridley Scott’s serviceable All the Money in the World made for a pointed illustration of strong material in the hands of someone with no such investment, unless they’re androids. Wright’s dedication to a relatable Winston Churchill ensures that, for the first hour-plus, Darkest Hour is a first-rate affair, a piece of myth-making that barely puts a foot wrong. It has that much in common with Wright’s earlier Word War II tale, Atonement. But then, like Atonement, it comes unstuck.
2 comments
Read more

What we sell are hidden truths. Our territory is the mind. Our merchandise is fear.

The Avengers 5.1: The Fear Merchants
The colour era doesn't get off to such a great start with The Fear Merchants, an Avengers episode content to provide unstinting averageness. About the most notable opinion you’re likely to come away with is that Patrick Cargill rocks some magnificent shades.
Post a Comment
Read more

Just make love to that wall, pervert!

Seinfeld 2.10: The Statue
The Premise
Jerry employs a cleaner, the boyfriend of an author whose book Elaine is editing. He leaves the apartment spotless, but Jerry is convinced he has made off with a statue.
Post a Comment
Read more

Never compare me to the mayor in Jaws! Never!

Ghostbusters (2016)
(SPOILERS) Paul Feig is a better director than Ivan Reitman, or at very least he’s savvy enough to gather technicians around him who make his films look good, but that hasn’t helped make his Ghostbusters remake (or reboot) a better movie than the original, and that’s even with the original not even being that great a movie in the first place.

Along which lines, I’d lay no claims to the 1984 movie being some kind of auteurist gem, but it does make some capital from the polarising forces of Aykroyd’s ultra-geekiness on the subject of spooks and Murray’s “I’m just here for the asides” irreverence. In contrast, Feig’s picture is all about treating the subject as he does any other genre, be it cop, or spy, or romcom. There’s no great affection, merely a reliably professional approach, one minded to ensure that a generous quota of gags (on-topic not required) can be pumped out via abundant improv sessions.

So there’s nothing terribly wrong with Ghostbusters, but aside from …
Post a Comment
Read more

Do not run a job in a job.

Ocean’s 8 (2018)
(SPOILERS) There’s nothing wrong with the gender-swapped property per se, any more than a reboot, remake or standard sequel exploiting an original’s commercial potential (read: milking it dry). As with those more common instances, however, unless it ekes out its own distinctive territory, gives itself a clear reason to be, it’s only ever going to be greeted with an air of cynicism (whatever the current fashion for proclaiming it valid simply because it's gender swapped may suggest to the contrary).  The Ocean's series was pretty cynical to start with, of course – Soderbergh wanted a sure-fire hit, the rest of the collected stars wanted the kudos of working with Soderbergh on a "classy" crowd pleaser, the whole concept of remaking the '60s movie was fairly lazy, and by the third one there was little reason to be other than smug self-satisfaction – so Ocean's 8 can’t be accused of letting any side down. It also gives itself distinctively – stereo…
Post a Comment
Read more

There’s still one man out here some place.

Sole Survivor (1970)
(SPOILERS) I’m one for whom Sole Survivor remained a half-remembered, muddled dream of ‘70s television viewing. I see (from this site) the BBC showed it both in 1979 and 1981 but, like many it seems, in my veiled memory it was a black and white picture, probably made in the 1950s and probably turning up on a Saturday afternoon on BBC2. Since no other picture readily fits that bill, and my movie apparition shares the salient plot points, I’ve had to conclude Sole Survivor is indeed the hitherto nameless picture; a TV movie first broadcast by the ABC network in 1970 (a more famous ABC Movie of the Week was Spielberg’s Duel). Survivor may turn out to be no more than a classic of the mind, but it’s nevertheless an effective little piece, one that could quite happily function on the stage and which features several strong performances and a signature last scene that accounts for its haunting reputation.

Directed by TV guy Paul Stanley and written by Guerdon Trueblood (The…
Post a Comment
Read more

It’s all Bertie Wooster’s fault!

Jeeves and Wooster 3.4: Right Ho, Jeeves  (aka Bertie Takes Gussie's Place at Deverill Hall)
A classic set-up of crossed identities as Bertie pretends to be Gussie and Gussie pretends to be Bertie. The only failing is that the actor pretending to be Gussie isn’t a patch on the original actor pretending to be Gussie. Although, the actress pretending to be Madeline is significantly superior than her predecessor(s).
Post a Comment
Read more

I take Quaaludes 10-15 times a day for my "back pain", Adderall to stay focused, Xanax to take the edge off, part to mellow me out, cocaine to wake me back up again, and morphine... Well, because it's awesome.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Along with Pain & Gain and The Great Gatsby, The Wolf of Wall Street might be viewed as the completion of a loose 2013 trilogy on the subject of success and excess; the American Dream gone awry. It’s the superior picture to its fellows, by turns enthralling, absurd, outrageous and hilarious. This is the fieriest, most deliriously vibrant picture from the director since the millennium turned. Nevertheless, stood in the company of Goodfellas, the Martin Scorsese film from which The Wolf of Wall Street consciously takes many of its cues, it is found wanting.

I was vaguely familiar with the title, not because I knew much about Jordan Belfort but because the script had been in development for such a long time (Ridley Scott was attached at one time). So part of the pleasure of the film is discovering how widely the story diverges from the Wall Street template. “The Wolf of Wall Street” suggests one who towers over the city like a behemoth, rather than a guy …
Post a Comment
Read more

Do you read Sutter Cane?

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
(SPOILERS) The concluding chapter of John Carpenter’s unofficial Apocalypse Trilogy (preceded by The Thing and Prince of Darkness) is also, sadly, his last great movie. Indeed, it stands apart in the qualitative wilderness that beset him during the ‘90s (not for want of output). Michael De Luca’s screenplay had been doing the rounds since the ‘80s, even turned down by Carpenter at one point, and it proves ideal fodder for the director, bringing out the best in him. Even cinematographer Gary K Kibbe seems inspired enough to rise to the occasion. It could do without the chugging rawk soundtrack, perhaps, but then, that was increasingly where Carpenter’s interests resided (as opposed to making decent movies).
Post a Comment
Read more