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Bye Bye Birdie (1995)
As close to the original as it will ever get
When I was 17 my high school staged Bye Bye Birdie - which is no great surprise, since it is perfect high school material and reputed to be the most-staged musical in the world.
I was a music student and retained strong memories of the production and its songs, as well as a lingering disregard for the Dick Van Dyke movie version which had (deliberately) obscured the Elvis references and camped it up for a swinging 60s audience.
So, when the 1995 version starring Jason Alexander hit my cable TV screen, I was delighted with what I saw. Alexander turns in an exceptional performance as Albert, a performance in strong contrast to his better-known persona from a certain TV series. The remainder of the cast are entertaining and convincing in their roles (Chynna Phillips is perhaps the only one who does not look her part, supposedly a naive and innocent schoolgirl).
But best of all, the musical numbers familiar from the stage show are all preserved in this movie and performed as stage musical songs should be (allowing for the absence of a stage).
So, if you know the musical (and few do not), then check out this telemovie. It does the stage show justice in a way which can probably not be bettered, which is good enough for me. What is better than rendering a writer's work faithfully and with colour and style?
Marooned (1969)
A Solid Space Drama
I can't understand the low rating I see here - most users have given this only 5 out of 10? This puts it down into the same ranks of mediocrity as Red Planet or Stowaway to the Moon - and more than a point worse than You Only Live Twice. Please.
It is short on special effects, and that is its biggest failing - but this is a judgement using the standards of Star Wars or Apollo 13 as a benchmark. Marooned was made in 1969, and 2001: A Space Odyssey is the proper comparison; but the difference is that the effects in Marooned are only a backdrop for the astronauts - that is, the astronauts are the story - and in 2001 the effects are (at times) the entire story.
The story of Marooned is solid, and the lead performances - particularly Gregory Peck and David Janssen - add quality. The movie opens with genuine footage of a Saturn V rocket launch, which is a good reason in itself to watch. And it was made before the real-life crisis of Apollo 13 and threw a strong light on the possibility of an in-flight problem for which no contingencies were planned. It is food for thought that this piece of art was in the public arena some months before Apollo 13 and that even 25 years later NASA still has difficulty - apparently - in covering all the bases for space flight problems.
If you have already voted on this, then take another look and you will see that there is way more good than bad movie-making here, and that 5/10 is not justified.
The Big Country (1958)
One of the Greatest Westerns
Alongside "The Magnificent Seven", I regard this movie as the greatest of the Western genre. It is a definitive Western, but it is much more than just a Western.
A "definitive" Western: All the elements are here. Gunfights, fistfights, horseriding, a posse, cattle herding, wide plains and narrow canyons, the frontier town and the wealthy ranch. None of the set-pieces descend into cliché, however, as the rhythm and flow of the narrative carry us from scene to scene without a suggestion of contrivance.
Not "just a Western": The outback feud over water rights is not a story than can be moved to another setting; nevertheless, in this movie it sets up strong characters played by strong actors. Indeed, "The Big Country" is an ironic title, because the movie is about its characters and not the big country itself. Time after time, the story and the Director's touch show us the smallness of the characters in relation to the country - not just the physical size, but the fact that the country controls the people and not vice-versa. Then, in close-set scenes between two or more characters, the story draws out the depth and feeling of the people, and the big country around them is merely incidental to their personality-driven conflict. Naturally, this is the essence of great drama and storytelling, so it is no surprise that the movie earns such admiration.
A wonderful element of this film is the musical score, by Jerome Moross, who developed a musical tapestry which perfectly backed up the scene, the characters and the action.
For those two or three of you who have not seen this movie, I cannot recommend it highly enough and give you this advice: It will surprise you before the end.
Mexican Cat Dance (1963)
Pretty ordinary
Take some stock footage - the opening bullfight scene is from "Bully for Bugs" from 10 years earlier and throw in Speedy, Sylvester (with no dialogue) and some sombrero-topped mice. There is little originality on display here, with the usual bull-fighting japes being rehashed over the top of the backgrounds from the Bugs Bunny cartoon mentioned above.
One annoying continuity error - at one stage, the mice who are in the bleachers cheering the contest are shown to be fast enough to get away from Sylvester. This is at odds with all other Speedy Gonzalez plots where only Speedy is fast enough to avoid being caught by the cat.
Don't fret if you miss this one. You haven't missed much.
Die Another Day (2002)
A clipshow
Die Another Day consists of a reworking of plot elements and ideas from most, if not all, of the previous 19 Bond films. Where something appears which is new to Bond, it is certainly not new to the action genre of the last 10 years. In short, the producers and writers were out of ideas and the best they could do is string together a number of climaxes with a Bond-shaped piece of string.
It is also a movie of two halves, and halftime is the point where Bond returns to England. Up until that point, the narrative and the action are reasonable enough (for a join-the-dots adventure story). Then we move into the theatre of the absurd, commencing with the parachute arrival of our main villain. It is a measure of how convincing this character was that I was instantly calling him "Lord Flashheart" when he appeared. Most of the story is downhill from there, from the "invisible" car to the absurd way Miranda Frost jumps into bed with Pierce Brosnan to protect their cover to the shenanigans aboard the plane at the movie's (eventual) climax of climaxes.
I give it 6 out of 10 because of the first half. The back half is worth 3 or 4 only.
The James Bond Story (1999)
I can watch this over and over again.
I've seen all the Bond films and enjoyed most of them - some are first class and others are more like ballast for the series. This documentary is a unique and satisfying overview of the first 18 Bond films.
It is well structured and flows, although it is not completely seamless. The actors who played Bond give good, if brief, insights and there is background material which has not been overused before. The delectable Miranda Richardson narrates, and as nice as it would have been to see her it is GOOD for the show that no time is wasted on her talking face-to-camera. No, the available time is all substance rather than style.
Whether for the million-and-one clips from the movies, or for the doco content itself, this tape never gathers dust in my house.