The Last Movie You Watched? ver.2.0

The Saloon
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I underwent a rather painful procedure a couple of days ago, so I had to kill some pain and some time. To kill the pain I obviously used pain killers, to kill the time I watched a trio of movies – all of the horror type – that required no intellectual attention:

SCREAM 7 (2026, Kevin Williamson)

Pure horror. Neve Campbell is back (a good thing, of course) and the movie seemed to have all the right ingredients (scares, stabbings, two ghost face killers, etc), still many fans of the franchise called it the weakest entry so far, mainly because of the finale. Anybody could be a killer in a Scream movie, so you could never take offense at the revelation of the perpetrators’ identity, but in this case most viewers did – and for good reasons. I can’t say much more about it, watch the movie and read the comments on Imdb or any other place afterwards .

** out of 5

MONSTER HUNTER (2020, Paul W.S. Anders on)

Fantasy horror. I watch most anything starring Milla Jovovich, even a mindless pulp movie like this one. The story is about a group of soldiers who are transported to an alternate reality. How? No idea, this is fantasy, not SF, so there are no scientific (or pseudo-scientific) explanations. The new world is populated by enormous monsters that seem to be immune to their weaponry. But of course Milla finds a way to destroy them. As said pure action pulp, but the special effects are quite good and Mila is still worth watch ing.

**½ out of 5

JURASSIC PARK: R EBIRTH (2025, Gareth Ed wards)

SF-horror. The seventh entry in the franchise, the first in a new (the third) trilogy. Things are getting complicated. In the first trilogy the dinos were basically a threat, in the second they gained more personality (notably the raptor Blue). Rebirth tries to find a compromise: the dinos are bigger and more threatening than ever, but there’s also Dolores, the cute mini dino. Nothing new under the sun here, and the scientific aspect has become virtually non-existent, but the (over-)familiar ingredients are mixed into a flavourful bite, fast-moving and often exciting, and for a pretty straightforward action-adventure flick, performances are excellent; Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali add a touch of class to the proceedings. Easily the best film of this horror trio, even if the CGI quality isn’t always first class.

***½

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The Enemies. Dutch/Belgian war movie from 68

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4027

Wow. Haven’t seen that one in over four decades, I’m afraid. Director-screenwriter Hugo Claus is Flanders’ most important author of the post-WWII generation and he was very active in the movie business, both as a director and as a screenwriter. As a director he wasn’t very successful: none of his films did very well and most critics thought directing wasn’t his thing. He fared a lot better as a screenwriter: some of the films he scripted, belong to the most popular Flemish/Dutch films of the second half of the 20th Century: Pallieter, Het Gezin van Paemel and especially Mira (recommended).

Claus had a stormy relationship with Dutch sex bomb Sylvia Krystel, better known in most corners of the world as Emmanuelle. They had a son, Arthur (don’t know what became of him).

Hugo Claus en Sylvia Kristel_
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Interesting. The film was so so, but some moments were interesting

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As it’s a distant memory for me. I don’t remember what my exact thoughts on it were, but I do remember it as being rather disjointed, good moments alternating with slower stretches. Saw it with a couple of friends and I also remember that we were discussing the meaning of several scenes, most of us were groping in the dark in relation to some aspects of the narrative.

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it’s on German Netflix for some reason (has been for a long while)

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Also on YouTube under it’s Dutch title ‘De vijanden’.

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I could only find the trailer

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Not available in my country (I’ll watch it when I’m in Holland or France)

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Once Upon a Time in Vietnam (original title: Lửa Phật)

The 2013 Vietnamese action/adventure/fantasy that loosely adapts and pays homage to Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Yojimbo’ and was clearly influenced by the Spaghetti Western aesthetic but with the added bonus of the fantasy elements and a liberal dose of martial arts.

We get the ‘lone stranger’, a village trapped between warring factions and high noon type showdowns.

It was Vietnam’s first action fantasy film and although it wasn’t a total success and received mixed reviews from western (and indeed Western) critics I found it thoroughly entertaining.

2013 ONCE UPON A TIME IN VIETNAM
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A couple of days ago, I revisited De Palma’s Scarface after over a decade or so and I still can’t understand for the life of me why it’s so revered in film circles.

This obviously not to say it isn’t kind of entertaining, but so is your average Glickenhaus pic which is what this sometimes feels like. Somewhat better shot than some nameless grindhouse fare, but still incredibly trashy, especially the finale left a bad taste in my mouth.

And I find that Pacino hams it up quite regularly in addition to that over-the-top climax; I realize he plays a Hispanic, so he’s supposed to braggadocious, rambunctious, loud and all that, yet his performance here strikes me as overstated.

All in all, I don’t really loathe the movie, but I can’t say I’m a fan of it either. I don’t think I’m going to see this again, no reason to really.

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Yeah I’ve never understood the obsession people have with that one. I’ve always enjoyed the Hawks version though

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Always preferred Calito’s Way

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Scarface is probably my favourite De Palma (next to the fantastic Phantom of the Paradise), although that is a bit from nostalgia for me as it was one of the first proper ‘grown up’ movies I watched as a kid. I do agree with Seb that Carlitos Way is a better movie, but Scarface is just too fucking cool :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

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Pacino’s first movie I ever saw was Dog Day Afternoon and I thought he was great, but later I discovered that he always tried to make the impression of being a great actor by hamming things up. The only thing I like about Scarface, is actually that over-the-top ending, it’s so far over the top that it’s fun. Otherwise it’s a so so affair, occasionally entertaining yes, but often a bit laughable.

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I believe he was able to turn in more subdued performances here and there, but by and large, he was certainly more of a thespian aggrandizer, that’s true.

I think the issue with Scarface lies with that it simultaneously pretends to epicality and exploitation, turning out convincing in neither regard.

On the one hand, the project includes more reflective facets, ranging from the motif of protagonist’s mother representing the honest Cubans getting caught in the crosshairs for the felonies perpetrated by Cuban hoodlums through the intercontinental nature of drug smuggling to the plotline about politicians and coppers being in cahoots with drug dealers.

On the other hand, all of these narrative doodads appear largely trivial and arrantly platitudinous, merely constituting a fig leaf to the broader exploitative extravaganza, which is arguably where the movie shines, but which is also where the movie suffers from the bloated running time effected by the aforesaid epic pretensions, so it lacks the immediacy of a straightforward Glickenhaus romp either.

I believe De Palma is more of a shlockmeister than a director capable of delivering a convincing epic in the truest sense of the word, which is why narration’s expansive scope hardly accords with his filmmaking style here. It’s not to say that it’s badly narrated because it’s not, but I can’t state I was truly riveted throughout and I did start to zone out towards the end, it just gets repetitive and banal after its admittedly pleasing kickoff.

Disclaimer: IMHO, YMMV and all that.

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Last 10:

  1. Hanssen: The Curse of Morgan Kane (doc) 5/10
  2. Glazer: Zone of Interest 6/10
  3. Douglas: Saps at the Sea 7/10
  4. Kim Ki-duk: 3-Iron 6/10
  5. Peckinpah: The Wild Bunch 9/10
  6. Lang: Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge 6/10
  7. Vanzi: A Stranger in Town 8/10
  8. Elfman: Forbidden Zone 8/10
  9. Laine: Ruma Elsa 4/10
  10. Fuller: Pickup on South Street 6/10
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Pacino was a great actor in the 70s, but in the 80s he began to “cultivate” a certain kind of overacting which began to become very painful to watch for me. Actually as great as he was e.g. in the 2 Godfather films, as unwatchable he was in so many of his later films.
And Scarface belongs to those where he is quite bad. But the film is also one I don’t care for, it is one of De Palma’s weakest efforts. And Carlito’s Way is the far better one, with an here acceptable Pacino in the lead.
De Niro is a similar case, not as worse as Pacino, but also only repeating the expressions which once made him great.
Both ended becoming self parodies.
In Heat (another overrated film for me) De Niro is ok and Pacino is terrible.

But at least QT managed to get a discreet performance from Pacino, maybe his best acting since an eternity.

One problem is that expressive actors are losing their fascination if they repeat themselves too often, while I have no problem watching a reduced actor like Eastwood the xth time in a similar role.

On the other hand Gene Hackman or Robert Duvall were great and fascinating in their whole long acting career. But they were never overdoing it.

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