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The Black Bird (1975)
Segal perfect in a funny and affectionate tribute
Lee Patrick and Elisha Cook jnr. Reprise their roles from The Maltese Falcon. Old timer Lionel Stander joins them and Segal in a movie which is consistently entertaining. It made me smile. I laughed 3 aloud times, twice at incidents which occur in the background. Not all the humour is good but then the next crack arrives and I don't care.
The Good Liar (2019)
Dreadfully contrived, and the numbers don't even add up
2009 and an 80 year old is supposed to have been in his mid 20s in the mid 40s. The plot is both unbelievably contrived, dull and nasty.
The leads are ok. I hope they were embarassed by this.
Hatari! (1962)
John Wayne's worst movie
You can tell that there was no script till they had shot the movie. No story and dreadful acting in scenes that go on with the lameness of a double amputee. JW zero to minus chemistry with Martinelli. Buttons painful except in 2 scenes. Mancini's score is good and the animal chase sequences, but they should have left the animals alone.
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)
Smart comedy with Brackett and Wilder faults
Well worth seeing for much of the script which however-like the BW scripted Midnight and Ninotchka-becomes a bit congested in the late middle and end stages. Excellent extended first scene well played by all. Other issues: lack of chemistry between Colbert and Cooper who play energetically. Otherwise the 2 are just above adequate. Ed Hnrton very good and Leon Ames briefly (uncredited). Colbert looks just plain bad with bangs and minimally attractive.
1917 (2019)
Perhaps the greatest (anti-) war movie made.
Very realistic. A spectacle, a thriller, a character piece. Top script, direction, acting, cinematography, costume, sets. Should have beem required viewing for Tony Blair and George Bush before the 2nd Gulf war. Pity it wasn't made then.
Watch on the Rhine (1943)
Watch Out The Rhine
In the end, it works. For most of the movie, it would seem the sensible thing to switch it off and go to bed. Awful declamatory acting from much of the cast, including the usually wooden, Donald Woods is compounded by Bette Davis partially hooding her eyes with her lids and turning her head to the sif to convey emotion. In the final scenes the script and Paul Lukas's Oscar winning performance works.
Citizen Kane (1941)
Has one goodish scene only
Poor make up, poor acting, dull story told in a newsreel, with little too add for the rest of the run time. A few interesting camera shots. One goodish scene. Scenes dark unnecessarily. A cold, depressing, pointless movie. An Emperor's New clothes event.
My Favorite Wife (1940)
A well played confection with an enormous central sag
Cary Grant plays his role very well with plenty of the nuance missed in some of his more obvious comic roles. The problem is that the story depends on him behaving in a caddish way to one woman, which flies far in the way of sense and him keeping on doing so. The problem could have been resolved with better writing. There are splendid scenes with a judge both at the beginning and the end -- played by Granville Bates -- and a few excellent recurring scenes with a hotel clerk played by Doanld McBride in the first quarter, and a few out loud laughs. Irene Dunne is good, but has played better opposite Melvyn Douglas in the screwball Theodora Goes Wild. The same year as My Favorite Wife Jean Arthur starred opposite Melvyn Douglas and Fred McMurray in the much better written and -- with the above mentioned exceptions -- better played, "Too Many Husbands." Check it out.
Holiday Inn (1942)
Crosby for the acting and singing, Fred for the dancing.
From an idea by Irving Berlin and featuring lots of great songs from him, Bing Crosby is top billed and rightly so: he is one of the movies great seemingly effortless actors, but the range of his expressions is immense, his singing some of the best you will hear (and I've sung with a lot of great singers - many 'ordinary' have fabulous voices). Fred is immensely good in many of his movies, and his dancing scenes are very enjoyable, though here he plays a slightly less likeable character than usual. I found the support acting of Marjorie Reynolds and even Louise Beavers drags this down; better actresses could have made this much more, though a 7/10 it is. And Walter Abel - who does ok - has the best line, when ordering orchids "loose and looking like they don't care".
Invisible Stripes (1939)
Raft lukewarm as a Mamma lovin' boy; Humphrey Bogart shows the star quality in this one.
The opening scene of Raft and Bogart showering and talking of their imminent release from Jail is among the best. William Holden as Raft's brother does a good job. Paul Kelly and Marc Lawrence play bank robbers well.
Out of the Past (1947)
Above average B movie with excellent main cast: Mitchum, Greer, Douglas.
The leads do a great job with a woefully and basically unbelievable plot. It is like there are 2 movies going on a great one and one in which the plotting is stretched past breaking point but the characters carry on and pretend that it isn't, so one is never centred in the plot. Compared with great film noir like Murder My Sweet and This Gun for Hire, the lighting is not up to snuff. Could have been a great movie with a few more weeks of a re-write. But it isn't. Good ol' Mitchum,: pity, could have been a classic. Kirk Douglas does wonders with ease with his debut role,, and Jane Greer doesn't put a foot wrong; and there are some good lines. Direction is adequate. Watch it, but don't expect too much (based on other reviews.
The Equalizer 2 (2018)
Violence without meaning but with a culturally significant b(l)ackstory
I liked Equalizer 1. Though it was violent, it seemed that the violence was deserved. That is certainly not always so clear here. A lot of the violence was unnecessary to the story, and some of it, as in some Tarantino films seemed to take too much pleasure in itself. There was also a good deal implausible -- and cliched about it. On the other hand the story regarding Denzel's character and the younger guy showed to me that the makers had been reading or come to the same conclusions as Thomas Sowell, the GREAT intellectual. Denzel has become one of the great stars of the past 20 years, having been a decent actor before that. This is not one of his best otherwise.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Overrated, overacted (Wayne and perhaps Stewart excepted), nothing special.
I'd heard a lot about this and seen bits of it and found it unimpressive. I finally decided to watch the whole thing, beginning to end. The story is ordinary, full of overacting and some seemingly interminable scenes; John Carradine , late on is exceedingly annoying; the cinematography is ordinary and drab. Jimmy Stewart is QUITE evidentially FAR TOO OLD for his part, though he otherwise does well. The only thing worth seeing in this is John Wayne with his straight no nonsense acting and his presence. 2 stars go just for him. Otherwise forget it.
Happy Go Lovely (1951)
Saved by the musical sequences (near the end).
I was 2/3 to3/4 way through watching this, debating on whether to give it 4 or 3 out of ten and with an urge not to watch to the end when a long musical sequence began which captivated me (there had been earlier sequences which hadn't); after that what was supposed to be a comedy got a little bit amusing, so it ends up with a 5/10 score. In addition at the beginning there are brief travelogue shots of 1950 Edinburgh worth seeing. For the rest, there is a good idea for a script but it is only half to a third written; some of the dialogue sequences are actually painful to watch they are so underwritten. Niven is at the worst and also least charming I've seen him for most of it, but I blame that on the script. Vera-Ellen is an adequate actor and very good dancer, and Cesar Romero is better here than in anything else I've seen him in, in that he is not actually playing the exact same character as he usually does; still he is not funny.
The Glass Key (1942)
Plot HEAVY.
I recently watched This Gun For Hire, also featuring Alan Ladd (great performance in that) and Veronica Lake. The Glass Key has little of the fabulous lighting of Gun for Hire, a more convoluted and in some of its essences unbelievable plot, and the performance of Ladd is overall fair, with little variation, though we do get from him an overall sense of a particular character. Take into account that Ladd's character is one who is essentially acting a part most of the time, and I'll let him away with it. The plot unbelievability element, like that of the movie Laura, hinges for me on the fact that people close to an apparent murder victim don't believably express grief.
The Killers (1946)
Overrated noir
This opens atmospherically, then leads into a plot overcooked by several hours. Well filmed in black and white of course, it has a beautiful look for much of its running time. Edmond O'Brien who should be named as the lead as he has the most screen time and carries us along the plot is good, no better, Burt Lancaster in his first screen role is wooden or overacting, Ava Gardner is similarly poor and the rest of the cast just pass muster. Very overrated. If you want great noir try Murder My Sweet, This Gun For Hire or The Maltese Falcon, but this'll pass the time for you while looking good; no better than that.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
Great entertainment.
MI1 was quite bad; MI2 was great entertainment; MI3 I didn't see; MI4 had a good first half and then descended for me into unbelievability; MI5 was excellent; MI6, this one is great entertainment. When the three main stars, Cruise, Rames and Pegg are together for the first time, you expect one of them to say, "I'm too old for this sh*&%." while you privately agree with them, but from then on you are carried away by the show, some excellent scenes, some relatively interesting (but not too deep) moral choices. I laughed frequently, but with it not at it I think, because it carries you with it through ridiculousness; with fabulous action scenes, beautiful relevant shots of various cities (Paris, London) and Kashmir also, lots of plot surprises, not spoiled by my having predicted one of them early on; good cameos from Alec Baldwin and decent playing from Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavill and the rest of the cast. 7 out of 10. Very enjoyable night out.
Warlock (1959)
Dreadful
One of the worst movies I have watched. The script is awful. It features the worst performances I have seen from Anthony Quinn (particularly unbelievable), Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark on top of scenery chewing cheese from De Forrest Kelley and Frank Gorshin. i haven't watched Dorothy malone much but she is pretty bad here too. The direction of the actors (and Quinn and Fonda are two of the greats) is appalling and the movie is otherwise dully photographed. An embarasssment to all involved. Give it a miss.
Laura (1944)
Above average mystery movie. But not great.
The musical theme is memorable, the script above average but it seems obvious from the start through their lack of any significant upset that the first 3 introduced characters (detective apart) know more than they are telling. What makes this movie above average too is the Waldo Lydecker character, beautifully scripted, acted by Clifton Webb with the aforementioned caveat. It surprises me that "classic" 1940s movies such as this and the 1950s Vertigo have opening scenes (or second scenes) which drop the believability factor crashing to the ground so early. Dana Andrews is very effective also, Gene Tierney is only adequate.
The Major and the Minor (1942)
Wilder's comedy debut as director.
I cannot claim this as among the great comedy films which would come later for Wilder (I'm thinking Some Like It Hot Kiss Me Stupid and The Front Page) this is certainly very good. Ginger Rogers looks glossy and glamorous in the opening shot and is in the last shot too, giving an excellent performance in a part which could easily have fallen flat on its face. In this she is helped along by Ray Milland who gets every little thing right in another performance which could easily have fallen on its nose. There are plenty of plot twists and turns. The plot ground covered is unusual. A nice touch is that Ginger Rogers' mother is played and very well by her real-life mother.
Notorious (1946)
Overrated Hitchcock
While the leads are excellent and there is sufficient suspense, this one of Hitchcock's lacks both a sense of humour which marks much of his best work and feeling.
Rhythm on the Range (1936)
There's a reason why Bing Crosby was one of the biggest box office stars of his era!
Never mind the story (it rips along anyway), it's the playing (fun and lively from Bob Burns and Martha Raye) apt from Crosby and adequate from Francis Farmer) and the backgrounds, plus at least three good songs beautifully performed by Crosby and others including, briefly, Louis Prima and Roy Rogers! Well worth a visit.
The Big Sleep (1946)
A movie worth watching for its parts rather than its whole. ;)
The Big Sleep starts in very sprightly fashion, with Bogart as private detective Philip Marlowe, the youngest daughter of the rich house he is visiting for the current case (Martha Vickers) and then the girl's invalid father, all terrific. After this his initial meeting with Bacall is an anticlimax. Later some real heat develops between them but only in one memorable scene. He has a great scene with Dorothy Malone and some sparkling dialogue, more really good scenes with Martha Vicker, but unfortunately there is too much talk (and plot) in the movie and the other actors, though good (Elisha Cook Jnr. aside who is better) are not great enough for it. So well worth a watch but not for the story but for scenes, dialogue and about 5 performances. Set decoration is also very good and the recurrent use of various guns hidden in prepared holders in Marlowe/Bogart's glove compartment is amusing. I will watch it again though.
Darkest Hour (2017)
Depth and light and shade in one of the great films with a great performance.
This wonderful film manages to give a 360 view of Churchill's ascent to power at perhaps the most difficult time in British (and soon world) history. The script therefore is perfect; it's delivery by the actors is nigh perfect; by 1/3 in, I later realised that although I knew it was Gary Oldman, I believed it was Churchill. This movie is funny at times, deeply moving at times. Special mention also go to the performances of Ben Mendelsohn as King George and Ronald Pickup (who once played Churchill's father) as Chamberlain. Lily James is luminous and very good and Kirstin Scott Thomas too.
V for Vendetta (2005)
Dystopian future bs
Welcome to the future. It's always miserable, and usually in these movies e.g. Children of Men there is a bleak ending. This is not quite the case here where the best thing on screen are the old clips from The Count of Monte Cristo with the wonderful Robert Donat .
The right -on credentials of the movie conflate suppressed homosexuality and suppressed islam and the koran:all equivalent, virtual signalling like crazy. The fact that the two ideas are incompatible does not get a look in. So you know you are .watching a pointless cartoon of a movie (I used to love my cartoons as a kid, but i've grown up.)