Reviews Archive

Reviews Archive - D

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Daywatch

Death Proof

Despicable Me

Doctor Zhivago

Dogma

Dougal and the Blue Cat

Dr. No

Dr. Strangelove

Duplicity

Daywatch

(2006)

Director Timur Bekmambetov is tremendously talented but, while the script has imagination in spades, it is also frequently narratively incoherent (and gets bogged down in stuff that's just not that interesting; the whole scene at the party).

***

Death Proof

(2007)

Tarantino at his self-indulgent worst. The man who rediscovered Travolta now introduces us to Zoe Bell, a stuntwoman who cannot act for toffee.

The first half is aimless, meandering and worst of all boring. It seems to be there so Quentin can “prove” to us he can write for women. Rather than, y’know constructing a solid story. Even the car chases aren't all that. The more time goes by, the more I think Roger Avary should be getting a lot more credit for Pulp Fiction than he does.

Despicable Me

(2010)

Occasionally impressive set pieces, but mostly this is a rather laborious riff on Dr Evil. Except, instead of having a child he adopts three of them. The premise reeks of potential for milking mawkishness and cutsey kids, and true to form it's not shy in that department.

**1/2

Doctor Zhivago

(1965)

As engrossing and beautifully made as you expect from David Lean, but it falls short of his very best work.

The documentaries on the blu-ray comments on how it was the intention for Zhivago to be a passive character, but it has the counter-mechanism of puncturing some of the film's energy. It's the '60s darlings that really make a mark; Tom Courtney and Julie Christie. Alec Guinness looks like he's auditioning for Grand Moff Tarkin in the framing scenes.

****

Dogma

(1999)

A sloppy mess, like the faecal creature. Fertile subject matter from which to mine laughs, but ham-fisted and (surprise!) puerile in execution. The Weinsteins got cold feet because it was controversial? They should have got cold feet because it was shit.

Dougal and the Blue Cat

(1970)

The feature length Magic Roundabout that isn't a misbegotten CGI remake, this showcases Eric Thompson's wit and imagination wonderfully.

Dougal is up against evil Buxton and must endure his friends' rapture with the titular moggy, resist a room full of sugar and take a trip to the Moon. Fenella Fielding's Blue Queen occupies the disused treacle factory at the top of the hill and all manner of strangeness ensues.

*****

Dr No

(1962)

Fairly undercharged first Bond outing, and considerably more entertaining before the titular character makes his entrance. The cold-blooded Connery moments are especially enjoyable (killing Dent). Quarrel's demise is particularly unfair (but so was MacNee's in A View to a Kill) since he's a winning sidekick.

***

Dr Strangelove

(1964)

It’s difficult to find anything new to say about Kubrick’s apocalyptic satire, except that the Russian ambassador is clearly corpsing when Strangelove is struggling with his uncontrollable arm.

The best scene is probably Muffley's call to the Russian premier, all played on Sellers' reactions. But I love Keenan Wynn's utterly thick Colonel Bat Guano.

*****

Duplicity

(2009)

Nice to see a caper for movie for adults, but for all of the tricksiness with the plotting it's not as clever as it would like to be.

The twists are fairly transparent, but Gilroy's direction, as with the superior Michael Clayton, is refreshingly crisp and clear in style. The leads are dependable but don’t have the chemistry of the classic couples that Gilroy is hearkening back to.

***1/2

Comments

They'll think I've lost control again and put it all down to evolution.

Time Bandits (1981) (SPOILERS) Terry Gilliam had co-directed previously, and his solo debut had visual flourish on its side, but it was with Time Bandits that Gilliam the auteur was born. The first part of his Trilogy of Imagination, it remains a dazzling work – as well as being one of his most successful – rich in theme and overflowing with ideas while resolutely aimed at a wide (family, if you like) audience. Indeed, most impressive about Time Bandits is that there’s no evidence of self-censoring here, of attempting to make it fit a certain formula, format or palatable template.

I never strangled a chicken in my life!

Rope (1948) (SPOILERS) Rope doesn’t initially appear to have been one of the most venerated of Hitchcocks, but it has gone through something of a rehabilitation over the years, certainly since it came back into circulation during the 80s. I’ve always rated it highly; yes, the seams of it being, essentially, a formal experiment on the director’s part, are evident, but it’s also an expert piece of writing that uses our immediate knowledge of the crime to create tension throughout; what we/the killers know is juxtaposed with the polite dinner party they’ve thrown in order to wallow in their superiority.

Oh, you got me right in the pantaloons, partner.

The Party (1968) (SPOILERS) Blake Edwards’ semi-improvisational reunion with Peter Sellers is now probably best known for – I was going to use an elephant-in-the-room gag, but at least one person already went there – Sellers’ “brown face”. And it isn’t a decision one can really defend, even by citing The Party ’s influence on Bollywood. Satyajit Ray had also reportedly been considering working with Sellers… and then he saw the film. One can only assume he’d missed similar performances in The Millionairess and The Road to Hong Kong ; in the latter case, entirely understandable, if not advisable. Nevertheless, for all the flagrant stereotyping, Sellers’ bungling Hrundi V Bakshi is a very likeable character, and indeed, it’s the piece’s good-natured, soft centre – his fledgling romance with Claudine Longet’s Michele – that sees The Party through in spite of its patchy, hit-and-miss quality.

Never lose any sleep over accusations. Unless they can be proved, of course.

Strangers on a Train (1951) (SPOILERS) Watching a run of lesser Hitchcock films is apt to mislead one into thinking he was merely a highly competent, supremely professional stylist. It takes a picture where, to use a not inappropriate gourmand analogy, his juices were really flowing to remind oneself just how peerless he was when inspired. Strangers on a Train is one of his very, very best works, one he may have a few issues with but really deserves nary a word said against it, even in “compromised” form.

You must have hopes, wishes, dreams.

Brazil (1985) (SPOILERS) Terry Gilliam didn’t consider Brazil the embodiment of a totalitarian nightmare it is often labelled as. His 1984½ (one of the film’s Fellini-riffing working titles) was “ the Nineteen Eighty-Four for 1984 ”, in contrast to Michael Anderson’s Nineteen Eighty-Four from 1948. This despite Gilliam famously boasting never to have read the Orwell’s novel: “ The thing that intrigues me about certain books is that you know them even though you’ve never read them. I guess the images are archetypal ”. Or as Pauline Kael observed, Brazil is to Nineteen Eighty-Four as “ if you’d just heard about it over the years and it had seeped into your visual imagination ”. Gilliam’s suffocating system isn’t unflinchingly cruel and malevolently intolerant of individuality; it is, in his vision of a nightmare “future”, one of evils spawned by the mechanisms of an out-of-control behemoth: a self-perpetuating bureaucracy. And yet, that is not really, despite how indulgently and glee

Miss Livingstone, I presume.

Stage Fright (1950) (SPOILERS) This one has traditionally taken a bit of a bruising, for committing a cardinal crime – lying to the audience. More specifically, lying via a flashback, through which it is implicitly assumed the truth is always relayed. As Richard Schickel commented, though, the egregiousness of the action depends largely on whether you see it as a flaw or a brilliant act of daring: an innovation. I don’t think it’s quite that – not in Stage Fright ’s case anyway; the plot is too ordinary – but I do think it’s a picture that rewards revisiting knowing the twist, since there’s much else to enjoy it for besides.

A herbal enema should fix you up.

Never Say Never Again (1983) (SPOILERS) There are plenty of sub-par Bond s in the official (Eon) franchise, several of them even weaker than this opportunistic remake of Thunderball , but they do still feel like Bond movies. Never Say Never Again , despite – or possibly because he’s part of it – featuring the much-vaunted, title-referencing return of the Sean Connery to the lead role, only ever feels like a cheap imitation. And yet, reputedly, it cost more than the same year’s Rog outing Octopussy .

I'm an old ruin, but she certainly brings my pulse up a beat or two.

The Paradine Case (1947) (SPOILERS) Hitchcock wasn’t very positive about The Paradine Case , his second collaboration with Gregory Peck, but I think he’s a little harsh on a picture that, if it doesn’t quite come together dramatically, nevertheless maintains interest on the basis of its skewed take on the courtroom drama. Peck’s defence counsel falls for his client, Alida Valli’s accused (of murder), while wife Ann Todd wilts dependably and masochistically on the side-lines.

You’re easily the best policeman in Moscow.

Gorky Park (1983) (SPOILERS) Michael Apted and workmanlike go hand in hand when it comes to thriller fare (his Bond outing barely registered a pulse). This adaptation of Martin Cruz Smith’s 1981 novel – by Dennis Potter, no less – is duly serviceable but resolutely unremarkable. William Hurt’s militsiya officer Renko investigates three faceless bodies found in the titular park. It was that grisly element that gave Gorky Park a certain cachet when I first saw it as an impressionable youngster. Which was actually not unfair, as it’s by far its most memorable aspect.

I don’t like fighting at all. I try not to do too much of it.

Cuba (1979) (SPOILERS) Cuba -based movies don’t have a great track record at the box office, unless Bad Boys II counts. I guess The Godfather Part II does qualify. Steven Soderbergh , who could later speak to box office bombs revolving around Castro’s revolution, called Richard Lester’s Cuba fascinating but flawed. Which is generous of him.

Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

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