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Reviews
They're a Weird Mob (1966)
Another annoying late-Powell film..but does have good visuals..
This film and Age of Consent seem to be competing for annoying characters..and scenes that go on and on.
The fat man at the bar. Endless closeups of his sweating face. You can see every pore. Nino doesn't understand a word. Then it gets explained to him. Then we move on to the next word. Which he doesn't understand either. And on and on. ...
...to the newstand scene. He doesn't understand the money. So he hangs around so we can get lots of stunning visuals of the newstand troll.
Then it's on to the drunk guy on the transit ferry - he stumbles around and around and around, cursing the Italians around him. Fine. We get the point. But it doesn't stop. Plus, drunk people don't stumble around so obviously like that. He seems to be imitating Foster Brooks. And people don't just sit there while some drunk screams at them. Then the drunk gets thrown in the water. Then they fish him back and he screams some more. Why didn't they just let him drown?
And then there's the ditch-digging scene. Endless closeups of ditchdigger. They dig and dig and dig.Then they smoke a cigarette. Then they dig and dig and dig. Then they have some coffee. Then they dig and dig. Then Nino falls backwards and collapses. Then he lies there and sweats and heaves. Then he lies there some more. Then there's the endless trip back to town.
I hope you've enjoyed this, because this whole scene at the construction site took about 45 minutes.
The lead character is naive and stupid. You want to smack him over the head. Sorry, people in real life are not this dumb. In one scene he goes swimming. He goes too far out in the forbidden section. The lifeguards wave at him. He thinks they're waving to be friendly, so he waves back. They wave more, he waves more. We are supposed to believe that anyone can be this stupid.
Then 20 lifeguards go to save him. They drag him back and throw him in the lifeguard box. Then he gets, and we get, an exciting lecture about riptides. Beware! Riptides are DANGEROUS! Don't swim where you're not supposed to! Only positives of this scene are lots of nice shots of lifeguards chests, and lumpy-where-it-counts swimsuits.
Main interesting thing about this film are all the great backgrounds of 1966 Australia - when you could still actually migrate there without a 15 year waiting period to become a citizen...and before everything "Australian" became chic.
I fled this one early, too...and commiserated with people in the lobby.
Age of Consent (1969)
Yeesh....very grating movie
EEEeeek! Helen Mirren should be called "Hairy" Mirren...In one scene she disrobes and the camera pans down to her legs...Except you're not sure whether the legs are hers or James Mason's. And those armpits. Yeesh! Her mother or hag or whatever that beast was is unbelievably grating. Hideously ugly and loud...Plus a ghastly "secondary" couple, both ugly with repulsive "romantic" scenes...Annoying to the max. Colors were off, too, in many scenes...sort of garish like in those old 3D Viewmasters.
James Mason, however, comes through looking great - the real definition of class...nice body and tan (he's nearly 60 years old!). His dog is cute, also.
I, like many other audience members, did not make it to the end. People fleeing gathered in the lobby to commiserate.
Tadpole (2002)
Strange undeveloped movie..It lives up to its title..
"Tadpole" is an apt name for this movie. With a stellar cast, but unknown lead, puny running time...and shortsighted plot devices - this digital film feels underdeveloped.
The step-mother/step-son affair thing between Weaver and Stanford is just strange..It would have worked better if she was just Ritter's girlfriend playing around..The Neuworth/Stanford affair is just..illegal. And what's that strange scene with Stanford drinking in a bar? This kid is no kid (he's actually 25). Enough already with overgrown teenagers - don't we have enough of them in real life?
Not the worst evening I've spent at the movies, but not the best either. But Neuwirth looks great and sexy in digital, and the night street scenes really pull you in, very eerie, almost like you're falling into the screen...
Jag är nyfiken - En film i gult (1967)
Awful, horrid, ghastly...the WORST!!
Oh, brother...after hearing about this ridiculous film for umpteen years all I can think of is that old Peggy Lee song..
"Is that all there is??" ...I was just an early teen when this smoked fish hit the U.S. I was too young to get in the theater (although I did manage to sneak into "Goodbye Columbus"). Then a screening at a local film museum beckoned - Finally I could see this film, except now I was as old as my parents were when they schlepped to see it!!
The ONLY reason this film was not condemned to the anonymous sands of time was because of the obscenity case sparked by its U.S. release. MILLIONS of people flocked to this stinker, thinking they were going to see a sex film...Instead, they got lots of closeups of gnarly, repulsive Swedes, on-street interviews in bland shopping malls, asinie political pretension...and feeble who-cares simulated sex scenes with saggy, pale actors.
Cultural icon, holy grail, historic artifact..whatever this thing was, shred it, burn it, then stuff the ashes in a lead box!
Elite esthetes still scrape to find value in its boring pseudo revolutionary political spewings..But if it weren't for the censorship scandal, it would have been ignored, then forgotten.
Instead, the "I Am Blank, Blank" rhythymed title was repeated endlessly for years as a titilation for porno films (I am Curious, Lavender - for gay films, I Am Curious, Black - for blaxploitation films, etc..) and every ten years or so the thing rises from the dead, to be viewed by a new generation of suckers who want to see that "naughty sex film" that "revolutionized the film industry"...
Yeesh, avoid like the plague..Or if you MUST see it - rent the video and fast forward to the "dirty" parts, just to get it over with.