Watched a fistful of Jean-Luc Godard movies over the weekend.
On a somewhat different tack, I watched another couple of MCU pictures: The Incredible Hulk (Leterrier, 2008), Iron Man 2 (Favreau, 2010) and Thor (Branagh, 2011). Iron Man 2 was as good as I remembered it (I know I’m in something of a minority in liking that movie) and Thor was as weak. I didn’t think quite as much of The Incredible Hulk this time around though, alas. Perhaps the plodding disappointment of Ang Lee’s Hulk (2003) made The Incredible Hulk look better than it was by comparison at the time.
Unlike many other fans of the director, I’ve never been a great fan of this movie and my opinion still stands after all those years. Mia Farrow is a waitress who spends most of her time in cinema, watching the same movies over and over again; one day her fantasies become reality when her favorite actor steps forward, off the screen, into her life.
Sounds like an intellectual challenge for a director like Woody Allen, but surprisingly little is done with the interesting premise. Instead of a witty study of identity and the essence of fantasy and reality, the film rather plays like a romantic comedy. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but the problem is that the movie is a) not too funny and b) the comedy eventually turns out to be a tragedy. It’s also (like for instance Zelig) too much a one-trick poney, a great idea but not great enough to sustain a feature length movie. It would have worked much better on a shorter format.
Well-made, well-acted (Jeff Daniels - not really my favorite actor - is perfectly cast here) and easy to enjoy, but I expected more of it then, and still can’t shake the feeling that it could have (should have) been better.
I’m a big fan of Allen (I’ve seen around 35 out of his 45 films) and if not counting What’s up Tiger Lily? which isn’t really a movie at all, Purple Rose has been my least favorite. But I’ve noticed few times when talking about Allen that it’s usually the favorite of those who don’t like Allen that much.
Watched Captain America: The First Avenger (Johnston, 2011), The Avengers (Whedon, 2012), Iron Man 3 (Black, 2013) and Thor: The Dark World (Taylor, 2013) over the last few days. IM3 has its moments but it’s overlong, really. I found CA:TFA to be a surprisingly good picture when I first saw it and it’s only improved over time. The Avengers was a movie I thought was overrated at the time and I’ve liked it less as time’s gone on but on this occasion, I rather enjoyed it. I don’t know if it’s because I was finally able to let go of the multitudinous and cavernous plotholes and take each set-piece at face value, or because it’s a movie which works better in close context with its MCU relatives, or because mrs.caress curled up with me and took a genuine interest in the movie (no doubt helped along by her vague crush on Mark Ruffalo); perhaps it was a little of each, but it fared better with me this time around than it ever had.
Thor: The Dark World was actually worse than I remembered it, and is definitely the weak link in the Marvel Cinematic Universe IMHO.
I’ve watched a few things lately, this one in particular caught my attention, I always liked the easygoing style of Peppard, and the original A-Team series now stands at guilty pleasure level, was once a long time ago by now, a favorite of mine.
The executioner is not your typical glamorous seventies spy film, which in the end is not a bad thing. Peppard plays a British spy that was raised in the US (pretty clever), that gets enveloped in a complex double cross spy story.
The plot has no real surprises, with some twists among the film, that made the narrative hard to follow, even with some long action scenes, but I did enjoyed the end and the start, with the story being told in a long flashback.
Filmed in location in London Athens, istambul and in Corfu, the typical spy affairs are all there, among some familiar faces with the rest of the cast like usual character actor Oscar Homolka, Joan Collins and Judy Geeson.
I liked the film because it’s actually pretty heavy and unglamorous stuff, something that at the beginning I was not expecting, with the cast and premise, undoubtedly I was supposing more Bond than Palmer. In the end the reason I liked this one, might be the main problem with the Executioner so many plot twists (I lost the count of the double crossing spies), that you almost forget the action scenes and what is happening.
Not a classic but still one to watch for old time sake
Judy Geeson, Joan Collins and 1970 London are more than enough reasons for me to watch this one. I’ll have to seek it out. (If I don’t already have it. Must check the pile again)
Family night at Scherpschutter land with this rom com in the line of Love, Actually or Blue Valentine. Kris Marshall is a thirty something guy who accidently runs into former flame Hesme, who’s about to leave Britain forever to return to her home country, France, with her knew fiancee. Five years ago Hesme was responsible for Marshall getting the sack at a record company (she was the external consultant hired to streamline the company), but the two got stuck in the elevator together for a few hours and fell in love. It was a doomed love affair, but Marshall still has the hots for her, so he’ll do anything to get her back …
A decade or so ago, both Marshall and Hesme were considered very promising young actors, but somehow neither of the two managed to realize the breakthrough (he has become a TV regular in series like Murder in Paradise, she is probably best known for a Renault Clio advert 'Britain versus France’). This not so funny comedy won’t make the difference. The script flashes back and forth between the day they met and the night she’ll take the train back to France, so what we get is a man and a woman trapped in an elevator and the same man and woman walking around on London touristic South Bank. Marshall and Hesme are alright and they both seem well-cast (he the sharp-witted fortune hunter, she the uptight career woman) but the script isn’t incisive and dialogue not sharp enough. The ending is by the way quite nice.
James Woods is a cynical, quasi-amoral LAPD officer on the trail of a serial killer; he shares his experiences with his 8-year-old daughter (wife not happy!) and blames society for destroying people’s dreams. But he remains determined to catch the killer, even when he’s suspended (don’t miss his final line!).
I haven’t read the novel by James Ellroy the movie is based on, but the story material seems genuine Ellroy stuff with society being described as a mine field and the police detective as a bomb that may explode at any minute. Filmed before Robert Harris and his Silence of the Lambs (book and movie) turned the serial killer into a hype, so luckily we don’t get this pseudo-intellectual mumbo jumbo the subgenre would become identified with in the years to come.
Woods is excellent - as always - and the movie’s not bad at all (it’s actually quite good), but it’s not easy to bring Ellroy’s subversive, reflexive writings - often several hundreds of pages long - to the screen; some story elements (especially those related to Lesley Ann Warren’s character) get too much attention while others feel rushed.
I rewatched Hannie Caulder last night. But even more interesting, the evening before I saw Footprints on the Moon by Luigi Bazzoni, and Z by Costa-Gavras. Not a bad first part of the week, I intend to follow up with more good shit for the rest of the week
It’s been mislabeled as a giallo often which might cause wrong expectations. At least if you’re thinking of traditional giallo about serial killer and stuff.
