Nothing cinematic to report for now, except a few links:
- Barbara2001 pointed me to this great profile of Peter O'Toole from a few years ago.
- Impossibly long (and appropriately hilarious) reviews of two of the worst movies of all time, The Trial of Billy Jack and Billy Jack Goes to Washington - films so bad that I may, myself, desire to write a screed on my hatred of them.
Lots of playing Sonic the Hedgehog games this weekend - now there's a good time. I still maintain Sonic and Knuckles is by far the best. And Sid Meier's Gettysburg!, of which I have a buggy copy which causes the game to freeze at inopportune moments...
Anyway: As of right now, I am enlisting potential collaborators from around the 'Net to join our enterprise, so within the next week or two we may become larger or more diverse (since I know there's only so much of me you can take). It's merely a possibility though, not a promise.
In the mean-time, so you have something to read: Originally posted on IMDB, here is a brief overview of the films. It was, for me, a rather disappointing week.
Leprechaun 2 - 0/10 - Ugh. It was slightly "better" (in terms of enjoyability) than the first one, but it was still nowhere near the brilliantly camptastic Leprechaun in the Hood. It did have some really funny scenes, though, including the Leprechaun's drinking contest (with a bar full of midgets cheering him on) and the Leprechaun's custom Go-Kart.
The Eagle Has Landed - 7/10 - Based on a novel by Jack Higgins, unread by me, it's a pretty typical WWII commando movie centering around a Nazi plot to kidnap Churchill with a platoon of elite paratroops. It's an intriguing premise with a great cast - Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasance, Jenny Agutter, Anthony Quayle, Treat Williams - but it doesn't quite live up to its potential. After some interesting scene-setting/character establishment, the movie sets itself up as a suspenseful thriller, but about eighty minutes in turns into a dumb, predictable shoot-'em-up action flick, albeit a well-made one. The cast is adequate: Michael Caine has some nice early scenes, but most of his performance seems tossed off; Donald Sutherland has fun in spite of a laughable Irish accent; Jenny Agutter is bland and unmemorable; Robert Duvall is excellent as the increasingly obsessed intelligence officer in charge of the plan; Donald Pleasance and Anthony Quayle are good in small roles as real-life Nazi big-wigs; Larry Hagman's scenes as the obnoxious, over-the-top American Colonel are ridiculously bad, and not even funny in the least. A great ending helps, but it could have been a great film instead of a modestly diverting one.
Syriana - 5/10 - Utter *beep* This movie is pretentious in every possible meaning of the word: long, convoluted, dull, and full of hackneyed political statements presenting themselves as "thoughtful" and "profound". It presents nothing new, or even very interesting or insightful, about the oil business, the CIA, or terrorism, taking feverishly paranoid, far-left viewpoints all of the above, and does a poor job of tying its various plot lines together (I still have no idea what the hell was going on with the Jeremy Wright-centered plot about corporate corruption). Its worst sin, however, is that it's confusing, convoluted, and boring. I'm more than happy to sit through a film with differing political viewpoints than mine, if it's good. When there's little of entertainment value to compensate, such childish ranting masquerading as profundity tends to piss me off. Direction was competent and the excellent cast is pretty good (I really liked Alexander Siddig and Christopher Plummer in particular), but that's not enough in and of itself to make a good movie.
Gosford Park - 6/10 - This one was a much bigger disappointment than any of the above. I looked at the director, the cast list and the premise and I thought I was in for a rollicking good time. Boy, was I wrong. As a murder mystery, it isn't bad, although it seems Mr. Altman was trying to make some sort of social satire of the British caste system (rather unoriginal, I dare say). If so, I'd say he failed, because there was virtually no humor in the film - I could probably count on both hands the number of times I laughed or smiled. I'd argue that there were simply too many cast members, played by too many "name" actors, and the effect ends up like many of the old war/Biblical epics with casts of thousands being put to waste. Getting x-number of big name actors engaging in lengthy, aimless conversations and letting the camera role does not make good cinema, in and of itself. There were some great performances - a handsome and suave Jeremy Northam, Tom Hollander getting lots of rather mean (but funny) height jokes, the always-lovely Kristin Scott Thomas, Michael Gambon as the cranky, randy patriarch, and Stephen Fry, whose brief cameo provides the film with most of its laughs and energy - but most of the fine cast is wasted in roles that could have been played by any number of actors equally well. And God help me if I don't find Bob Balaban excrutiatingly annoying. This was the one film I watched this week that I was genuinely disappointed by.
The Train - 9/10 - Finally! This movie lived up to its reputation and then some; one of the most stylish, effective and gritty war films. Although the plot is a mite ludicrous (albeit, much stranger things have happened during wartime in real life), the movie remaisn rooted in reality throughout; pretty much everyone who helps Burt Lancaster and Co. in their mission gets shot for their trouble, and Lancaster's heroics are on a decidedly modest and believable scale. It has interesting things to say about the cost and meaning of war (why sacrifice lives for art?) and ties its trainload of paintings into the abstract cause of patriotism wonderfully. Great set pieces, including the air raid, the train wreck and the final confrontation. Lancaster is brilliant, with an unusually understatement (and admirably athletic) performance, and Paul Scofield gives a wonderful turn as the evil, obsessed Colonel Von Waldheim; his final speech in his showdown with Lancaster is striking, and even moving in its own way. A brilliant film, and pretty close to a masterpiece. If nothing else, it's the one good film I watched this week...
In the works is an article on The Train, although I'm not entirely sure what form it will take.
I plan to watch A Clockwork Orange this week, as well as a marathon on the Pirates of the Caribbean films, which may or may not result in an article on said topic.
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