Friday 31 January 2020
The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2017)
A merciless cowboy sets out on a dangerous journey across the frontier, determined to do whatever it takes to avenge his longtime partner's brutal murder.
Good, old-fashioned Western about friendship, loyalty and corruption, competently made with excellent cinematography and overall good performances.
Thursday 30 January 2020
Crime, Inc. (1945)
A crusading reporter uses his friendship with a mobster to expose the machinations of organized crime in his city.
Run-of-the-mill noir crime drama is competently made, but not particularly memorable.
The Bride and the Beast (1958)
When Laura and Dan get married, she's more interested in Dan's gorilla. It's revealed through hypnosis that she was Queen of the Gorillas in a previous incarnation.
Low-budget dram co-written by Ed Wood - and it shows; very silly, and at times amusingly so.
Maltin BOMB
Hannah Arendt (2012)
A look at the life of philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt, who reported for The New Yorker on the war crimes trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann.
Compelling portrayal is mostly to Barbara Sukowa's credit, who delivers a remarkable performance, but otherwise direction is messy and inconsequential.
Maltin**1/2: "Impassioned but flawed biopic...Yet another one of von Trotta's thought-provoking portayals of strong, complex women, but too much is left unexplained. You have to read the end credits to know that Arendt's American pal and supporter (McTeer) is none other than novelist-activist Mary McCarthy."
Sunday 26 January 2020
The Unforgiven (1960)
The neighbors of a frontier family turn on them when it is suspected that their adopted daughter was stolen from the local Kiowa tribe.
Large-scale, star-cast, epic Western with a blatant anti-racist message is ambitious but somehow misses the point it wants to make.
Halliwell*: "Good-looking, expensive but muddled racist Western, hard to enjoy."
Maltin***: "Gish and Bickford are outstanding in stellar-cast story, with rousing Indian attack climax."
Saturday 25 January 2020
The Trigger Effect (1996)
A blackout leaves those affected to consider what is necessary, what is legal, and what is questionable, in order to survive in a predatory environment.
Moralizing doomsday tale has a good premise exploring the effects of a catastrophe on human society, but, despite serviceable performances, it is unsatisfactorily uneven and inconsequential.
Maltin**1/2: "Maddeningly uneven apocalyptic thriller...Intended as an examination of contemporary insensitivity and alienation, and how society might unravel in the wake of such a catastrophe, but falls apart after a solid start.The finale is especially incongruous."
Miss Sloane (2016)
In the high-stakes world of political power-brokers, Elizabeth Sloane is the most sought after and formidable lobbyist in D.C. But when taking on the most powerful opponent of her career, she finds winning may come at too high a price.
It's mainly Jessia Chastain's outstanding performance that carries this well-made, tense political thriller with a much too implausible twist ending.
Thursday 23 January 2020
Hell's House (1932)
Jimmy idolizes bootlegger Matt, and when he refuses to implicate his friend, he is sent to reform school. He befriends Shorty, a boy with a heart condition, and escapes to let the world know about the brutal conditions.
Low-budget crime drama with a simple, moralizing plot; not much challenge for Bette Davis in one of her first roles.
Halliwell (no star): "Primitive cheapie notable only for the early appearance of Bette Davis."
Maltin**: "Low-budget quickie...Interesting mainly for early appearances of O'Brien and Davis."
Tomb Raider (2018)
Lara Croft, the fiercely independent daughter of a missing adventurer, must push herself beyond her limits when she discovers the island where her father disappeared.
Although the plot is not very inspired and barely credible, the movie itself is straight-forward and unpretentious, full of well-choreographed action sequences, and Alicia Vikander holds all our attention as a more down-to-earth, vulnerable, but always persevering heroine.
Sunday 19 January 2020
Les frères Sisters (2018)
In 1850s Oregon, the infamous duo of assassins, Eli and Charlie Sisters, chase a gold prospector and his unexpected ally.
Excellently directed Western drama skillfully balances violent incidents with humorous passages and convinces with grandiose cinematography, period detail and, especially, the performances of the leading men.
Saturday 18 January 2020
The Legend of Tarzan (2016)
Tarzan, having acclimated to life in London, is called back to his former home in the jungle to investigate the activities at a mining encampment.
Mildly entertaining Tarzan variation has good effects, lively action and humor; performances, however, are adequate at best.
Thursday 16 January 2020
Suite Française (2014)
During the early years of Nazi occupation of France in World War II, romance blooms between Lucile Angellier, a French villager, and Bruno von Falk, a German soldier.
Well-made period melodrama with a good cast is more successful depicting a French community under Nazi occupation than with its romance, but does so with some suspense.
Lady in the Death House (1944)
A young woman is on death row for the murder of a man who was blackmailing her family, although she claims she was framed.
Likable, but highly unconvincing low-budget drama is gloomy and well-played, but otherwise unremarkable.
Saturday 11 January 2020
Anon (2018)
In a world without anonymity or crime, a detective meets a woman who threatens their security.
Although transporting an in-the-face message warning of the increasing grip of cyberspace onto everyday life, this sci-fi tale has great style and atmosphere, and Owen and Seyfried are convincing in the lead roles.
Just Imagine (1930)
Some of the props created for this film in this scene were later reused for James Whale’s Frankenstein
The Diabolical (2015)
A single mother, and her children, are awoken nightly by an intense presence, and she asks her scientist boyfriend to destroy the violent spirit, that paranormal experts are too frightened to take on.
A conventional haunted house tale with a time travel twist is too ambitious for its own good and so loses most of its plausibility along the way, despite some cheap scares in between.
Thursday 9 January 2020
Sniper 2 (2002)
A former Marine sniper is lured back in on a top-secret mission to take out a rogue general who is committing atrocities on the Muslim population.
Above-average actioner is professionally staged with a suspense and a fairly well-considered script.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
When seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade a small town, replicating the residents one body at a time.
Strangely, I keep reading that this quite efficient horror thriller is a remake of the old classic, but it actually is a straight continuation which even includes the ending of that movie re-staged with the same actor.
On rewatching: excellent sci-fi horror, one of the best of the 1970s.
Halliwell: "Flashy updating of the 1956 classic, mistakenly set in a big city and confusingly unravelled, with nobody for the audience to empathize with. Its nicest effect is to have Kevin McCarthy appear in a cameo."
Maltin***: "Chilling remake of 1956 classic with many new twists and turns; unfortunately, it runs out of steam and offers one climax too many."
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