Haven’t watched a “new” movie since Seoul Station a couple of weeks ago but I’ve re-watched a few since then:
25/3 - The Big Gundown (Sollima, 1966)
Traffic (Soderbergh, 2000) (I wanted to watch some Tomas Milian that day)
28/3 - Prometheus (Scott, 2012) (it was on the telly. It’s not perfect by any means but I like it anyway)
29/3 - Akira (Otomo, 1988) (I bought a new-ish blu-ray release a couple of days previously, wanted to give it a spin)
31/3 - Fargo (Coen, 1996) (we were eight episodes into season two of Fargo when @MazzyStar revealed that she’d never seen the original movie, so we had to correct that quickly)
Today - Godzilla (Edwards, 2014)
Godzilla: Final Wars (Kitamura, 2004) (@MazzyStar has taken our niece to London to see Disney on Ice, so my son and I having a Kaiju afternoon)
A complete rejig of the Kong story set in 1973 rather than the more traditional 1933 sees shady government agent Bill Randa (John Goodman) hire an ex-S.A.S. tracking specialist (Tom Hiddleston, bland as can be) to help him map out the mysterious Skull Island in the Indian Ocean, escorted by a helicopter squadron fresh from Vietnam, led by Lt. Col. Packard (Samuel L. Jackson). Heading out under the cover story of this being an environmental mission, the only person who suspects that Randa might have another agenda is photographer Mason Weaver (Brie Larson), who’s suspicions are confirmed when a 100ft ape-like creature proceeds to swat their copters out of the sky like they were moths, killing half the party and scattering the rest. From there it’s a dash around the island; some of the survivors are looking for a way out, some are looking to avenge the dead and kill that monster monkey. On their travels however they come across an American WWII fighter pilot (John C. Reilly, bringing the comic relief; some of which works, some of which doesn’t) stranded on the island since crash-landing there in 1944 who informs them that “Kong” (as the island natives call him) is far from the only monster on the island; in fact, he may be all that’s holding the other monsters at bay…
So, is it any good? Well, it’s a blockbuster creature feature starring King Kong, and it’s precisely as good (or bad, depending on your taste for monster movies) as one would expect a movie like that to be; no more, no less. It offers no surprise hidden depths. Samuel Jackson chews the scenery, Tom Hiddleston vanishes into it. All of the real stars are computer generated and larger in scale than a block of flats. This is a loud, brash, shallow and light movie, chock-full of corny dialogue both dramatic and comedic, and featuring a veritable bounty of multi-limbed, oversized beasties. As such, you already know if you like this movie or not. Not as po-faced as Godzilla (Edwards, 2014) yet not (quite) as cheesy as Pacific Rim (del Toro, 2013), Kong: Skull Island is not going to set cineasts hither and yon scratching their goatees pondering its deeper narrative; it is what it is, but it’s an enjoyable enough example of its type.
Hotwire… 1980… answers the question if Strother Martin can carry an action-movie… Yes. He’s a master lockpicker and car-repossessor for a sleazy auto-dealer, played by George Kennedy (in a dual-role as his sleazy sheriff-brother). They blackmail a hotwire-specialist to team-up with Martin, to steal back a Rolls Royce from the owner of a popular strip-club.
Of course the specialist falls in-love with a stripper… with side-plots showcasing Martin’s cantankerous hell-raisability:
" That car ain’t worth takin’. “
” They’re ALL worth takin’. "
The film was definitely made for the Burt Reynolds/Clint Eastwood audiences of the 70’s.
Last night: Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994), while @MazzyStar was out watching the new Beauty and the Beast (Condon, 2017). Best film ever made? Very probably (Pulp Fiction, not Beauty and the bloody Beast).
Night before last: Vanilla Sky (Crowe, 2001), the remake - or “cover”, as director Cameron Crowe likes to call it - of Spanish picture Abre los ojos (Amenábar, 1997), in which inherited-wealth billionaire playboy David Aames (Tom Cruise) is introduced to a girl, Sofia (Penelope Cruz, who played the same role in the Spanish movie) by his best friend (Jason Lee) and, having spent a single evening of sweet conversation in her company, has just enough time to decide he’s fallen in love with her before his lovelorn psychotic “f*ckbuddy” Julie (Cameron Diaz) drives him at breakneck speed off of a bridge and into a wall, killing herself and massively disfiguring David in the process. All of this is being relayed to us in flashback however, as David - wearing a prosthetic mask and locked in a prison cell - is telling the story to his court-appointed psychologist (Kurt Russell), who is building a determination of David’s mental state for his upcoming trial for Sofia’s murder. Hang on, what? What’s happened here? The answer is considerably more Red Dwarf than the movie - on the face of it, a romantic drama - would have us guess.
It tends to polarise viewers but Vanilla Sky has long been a favourite of mine.
This is really just a little bit of film trivia…to accompany the new ‘Kong’ film.
Despite the fact that I’ve watched the original (and best) ‘King Kong’ (1933), many, many times, it hadn’t sunk in - until today - that the original concept for ‘Kong’, was conceived by the renowned writer, Edgar Wallace, of ‘The Edgar Wallace Mysteries’ fame… and I know that there are one or two fans of that particular series, on the ‘SWDB’.
Wow!..what a steaming bowl of rhinoceros diarrhea this was. Bad cast, bad acting and the worst dialogue that i’ve herd in quite awhile. Easily, one of the worst movies I have seen in a long time.
Yeah … apart from John C Reilly it feels like all the actors are reading their dialogue and everyone is so serious, it was no fun at all to me. Tom Hiddleston trying to look badass was the most annoying thing throughout.
I liked the new Kong. Some terrific directed action scenes, but indeed the they could have tried to give the characters more substance to intensify the fun. Still Hiddleston And Larson let their roles look more interesting than they actually are.
And of course as always in films without substance, the end has nothing to offer, and its directing is now also banal. But overall it was entertaining. 6/10
‘A FORCE OF ONE’ (1979)
When the police officers of an undercover police unit are being mysteriously killed by a martial artist, a professional kickboxer (Chuck), is hired to train the officers in the not-so-gentle art…
Things become personal, when Chuck’s adopted son, meets an untimely end.
There are some fantastic action scenes, in this flick…well worth watching.
‘THE OCTAGON’ (1980).
A renowned martial arts expert, Chuck Norris, must come to terms with his own personal demons about his past, and his half-brother - who has graduated from being a young spiteful brat, to become an older lethal weapon, with a huge chip on his shoulder.
At the same time, Chuck must defeat a dastardly Ninja plan to create a worldwide training camp for terrorists. The feet and hands start flying…
Fantastic action, from start to finish, with a magnetic appearance from the late, great, Lee Van Cleef.
Recommended.
La Battaglia dell’Ultimo Panzer (1969, J.L. Merino)
An Italian-Spanish war movie (‘Macaroni Combat’) by the director of Requiem for a Gringo/Duel in the eclipse. The story is set in France, shortly after D-Day: A German tank regiment is ambushed and the only survivors, a tank commander and his crew, must now try to rejoin their own lines. They’re joined by a survivor from another crew, an old an wise sergeant who knows the war is lost and therefore immediately clashes with the tank commander, a young an ambitious officer who wants to continue the war until the bitter end.
Most macaroni combat efforts tend to hide their lack of means with a surplus of combat action, but this one tries to sell an anti-war message with a more psychological approach, with mixed results. Guy Madison is the American officer who’s setting a trap for the Germans; his scenes feel completely detached from the rest of the movie (where they by any chance shot for another production that was never finished?). The story culminates in a tank battle involving one American and one German tank (it was actually filmed with one single tank, that was painted on one side to make it look German, and on the other side to make it look American).
Low-key and slow-moving, but the actors aren’t bad and Erna Schurer (who plays a local beauty who falls for the German officer) is worth the price of an entrance ticket alone. It’s by the way available (free of charge) on You Tube
Motherlode… 1982… Directed by, and starring Charleton Heston… but this has aged-into an absolute Kim Bassinger vehicle. -Made just as she was becoming a huge star. Easy to see why. She overwhelms every scene she’s in. But the film fails in one key aspect… studio cave-shots and mine-shafts that are way too confusingly edited. I lost all comprehension of who was doing what, where…
Heston’s a psychotic hermit, searching for the source of all the gold found in the river-valley. Beautiful British Columbia locations add impact to the elements of mystery that plot successfully presents.
