Scribe & Green on the BIG screen

There are far too many people out there writing “reviews of movie-films & articles about them with absolutely no clue what the hell they’re talking about." Here are 2 more of them! (Well, one of us knows what the h___ we're talking about, but we'll leave it up to you to decide who that is...) Ultimately, can two people as opposite as Scribe and Green agree on anything?? That's where the fun begins. Won't you join us? (Every now and then we'll add a guest review, just for kicks.)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Once Upon a Time in America

SCRIBE'S TRIBUTE TO SERGIO REVIEW:

Once Upon a Time in America is one of those films that justify the phrase “They was robbed, I tell ya!” How in God’s name this movie didn’t get nominated for just about every Academy Award known to man is not only baffling, it’s downright infuriating!

Spaghetti Western director Sergio Leone has three definite masterpieces in his resume, and this is the third and final of them. (The other two are The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West) The film, based on a novel called “The Hoods,” offers a unique perspective on the American gangster era as it focuses on four young Jewish boys rather than Italians.

Told from the perspective of “Noodles” (Robert De Niro) we get to see three eras in this film, going back to the early Twentieth Century, the 1930’s and culminating in the 1960’s.

Noodles is a tormented soul, a character with a past that is etched into every line on his face by the sixties and we are slowly shown why through a series of emotionally charged flashbacks. Leone wanted to create an epic, magnum opus of a film that rivaled “The Godfather” in its scope and drama. Dare I say he surpassed it in every measurable way?

So why was the movie ignored by Oscar? Simple: While its original version was seen in Europe, where it was hailed as a masterpiece, American film studios in the Eighties still thought we were all too stupid to follow a lengthy, non-linear drama. So they did what they always did back then: The created an “American version.” In this case, that version shaved off over and hour and removed the flashbacks so everything was in sequence. Not only did this destroy the dramatic impact of the film but it made the conclusion predictable and pointless.

Now that the original version has been restored, its greatness has been reaffirmed, albeit too late for any awards. Leone died devastated by what had been done to his film. I try to honor his memory every time I watch it.


***** out of *****

GREEN’S “DON’T KNOW NUTTIN’ ABOUT NOBODY NO MORE” REVIEW:

David Aaronson, (Robert De Niro) or "Noodles" as he’s better known, comes back to the ‘hood of Brooklyn in 1968 as an old man. The very same ‘hood where he made his mark as a Depression Era gangster and where his career began in the days before and during Prohibition. Now he's been tracked down from a life of anonymity to complete one more job. But who hired him? Who knew him from the old days?

Let’s call this film The Godfather Lite because for a gangster flick, there was surprisingly little violence. There was some, to be sure, but not nearly as much as I’d expected.

I wasn’t allowed to watch many R rated movies in 1984 when this movie was released. Thus, I never even knew that it existed until recently when I was taking some quiz about movie directors over on Facebook, and this movie was one of the answers to one of the questions. Naturally, it looked good, so I signed it out of the library. I also included it on a recent list of choices I gave to the scribester to review for this blog, thinking he wouldn’t pick it. Naturally I wondered what I was getting myself into when I discovered that Once Upon a Time in America had a run time 11 minutes shy of four hours long!

It is always interesting to me to watch a movie with familiar actors in their much younger days. Such is the case with this film, with such a great cast of contemporary heavyweights in the acting biz. How can you go wrong with Robert DeNiro, James Woods, Tuesday Weld, Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci, among others and the feature length film debut of Jennifer Connelly, who must have been twelve when this was filmed in 1982 or 1983. I found it a little disturbing how close in resemblance Connelly was to McGovern, who played younger and older versions of the same character.

As a side note, I wonder how many actors, besides De Niro, have portrayed both Italian and Jewish gangsters on film? And done each very well...

This was longtime Italian director Sergio Leone’s final epic masterpiece, for which he was nominated Best Director (but didn’t win) at the 1985 Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA Awards and (not surprisingly) actually won a silver ribbon for his directorial effort from his native Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists.

The hauntingly beautiful music, by Ennio Morricone, adds depth and texture to the story and is almost like an additional character. The script itself must have been a monster to organize a shooting schedule around. There are a few dead spots in the screenplay and probably an equally good story could have been told in about three hours.

I was a little disappointed in the library DVD I borrowed, which froze near the end of disc two, even though I cleaned the disc, and made watching the extras about Sergio Leone impossible.

I’d buy a copy of this film if I could find it for around $10.


****½ out of *****

Once Upon a Time in America (1984, R, 229 minutes), starring Robert De Niro, James Woods, Tuesday Weld, Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci, Burt Young and Treat Williams. Based on the novel by Harry Grey. Screenplay by Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini, Sergio Leone, Stuart Kaminsky and Ernesto Gastaldi (uncredited). Directed by Sergio Leone.

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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The Lost Boys

GREEN'S "DEATH... BY STEREO" REVIEW:

Recently divorced Lucy (Dianne Wiest) and her boys Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) have just moved from Phoenix to the quaint little town of Santa Clara, California - which just happens to be the murder capital of the world, to live with Lucy's eccentric old father (Barnard Hughes). While getting to know their new hometown, Lucy meets Max (Edward Hermann), owner of the local video store and gets a job there. Michael sees a very attractive woman called Star (Jami Gertz), who introduces him to David (Kiefer Sutherland) and his gang of hoodlums. Sam, a comic book lover, runs into the Frog brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) in a comic book store, where they recommend a few vampire comics as required reading necessary for survival.

Wow, it has been a long time since I last watched this movie, probably at least ten years or more I'd say. I wanted to review it due to the recent death of Corey Haim. I was going to do it on my regular blog but first thought I'd see if the Scribester wanted to review it here knowing his general disdain for vampire films.

I think that this fun movie was one of the two best vampire films made in the 1980's, Fright Night being the other. It's always interesting to see actors back in their younger days, when they were still relatively unknown and trying to make their mark in the biz. Balancing out the youngsters are the grizzled veterans of the cast, such as Edward Hermann and Diane Wiest. Both young and old, excellent performances all around, especially by the far out taxidermist Grandpa (Barnard Hughes) who steals most of his scenes.

The Lost Boys was director Joel Schumacher's fourth feature film, in what has become a rather solid career. I think he does a decent, workmanlike job of keeping the story moving. The screenplay is good overall but I would have liked to see more scenes with the Frog brothers, the film's comic relief duo. Notable that Richard Donner served as Executive Producer for this project.

The Lost Boys has an upbeat, rock and roll music soundtrack which adds to the enjoyment of the movie. To this day, every time I hear People Are Strange by The Doors on the radio, I think of this movie - even though the song was covered by Echo and the Bunnymen for the movie.

I watched the single disc version containing both full and wide screen formats where the only extras were text screens that give some of the behind the scenes info about the development of the story. Now that I've watched the film again I'm interested in possibly buying the two disc edition and seeing what extra goodies have been included.

I wouldn't classify this as a strict blood and guts horror movie, more horror/suspense with a twinge of comedy, if there is such a genre. Anyway, I like this movie. Always have. I think you will too, especially if you haven't seen it in a while.


**** out of *****

SCRIBE'S "YOU BETTER BUY YOURSELF A GARLIC T-SHIRT" REVIEW:

Remember when there were still interesting stories to be told about vampires? How about when teenage angst in a vampire film was something startlingly original?

The Lost Boys could be seen as the first and last of the truly great vampire films that dealt with the themes of hormones and the need to belong. Before Twilight embraced female insecurity in the form of stalker/rape fantasies, this film gave us teens who had formed their own clique in a world that didn't necessarily embrace them.

This is also the film that introduced us to the acting duo of the Two Coreys, a pairing that works really well here but never really did again. The adults in the film, like most Eighties films, are seen through the eyes of the children as odd, quirky characters that come in and out of their lives at inconvenient times. But unlike those other films, it is the adults, both alive and undead, who ultimately determine the fate of what happens in the final moments.

As part of what I consider the unofficial trilogy of groundbreaking Eighties vampire films including Fright Night and Near Dark, this one isn't anywhere near as dark and disturbing but it is a whole lot of fun wrapped around a really scary concept, namely what an undead creature would do to recreate the feeling of family.

A great film that holds up.


**** out of *****

The Lost Boys (1987, R, 96 minutes), staring Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Dianne Wiest, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Edward Hermann, Barnard Hughes and Jamison Newlander. Story by Janice Fischer and James Jeremias. Screenplay by Janice Fischer, James Jeremias and Jeffrey Boam. Directed by Joel Schumacher.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Blood Simple

SCRIBE'S YOU GUYS MADE MILLER'S CROSSING??? REVIEW:

Every so often, I am truly baffled by a film's critical reception and this was one of those times. It is hard to believe that this is the film debut of one of the finest fim making teams in movie history.

Simply put, it's a barely watchable student film project filled with loathsome characters whose only virtue seems to be advancing the skeletal plot along to its limping climax.

Contrary to Green, I didn't find the acting horrible. In fact, M. Emmet Walsh was suitably creepy in his role as the hired killer whose experience is questionable. But the film drags and drags, lacking all the trademark witty and philosophy of later Coen Bros. films like Fargo and The Man Who Wasn't There.

The only reason this film was so awe-inspiring at the time is because the Eighties was a dumping ground for safe, sanitized movies that made people feel good...Reagan era, anyone? Anything that appeared gritty and anti-establishment was embraced with welcome arms back then.

Thank God this film didn't stop the Coen Brothers from being among my favorite film makers but I really, really wish I'd never watched this one.


* out of *****

GREEN'S "I'M GONNA WANT THAT PICTURE BACK" REVIEW:

Marty (Dan Hedaya) doesn’t like that his wife Abby (Frances McDormand) is sleeping with Ray (John Getz) who was working for him at his bar. So what’s a man to do? Hire Loren Visser (M. Emmett Walsh), a sleazy hit man, to kill his wife and her lover. But when blood is involved, nothing is ever simple, especially when the unexpected happens.

This not so subtle film debut from some dudes named Coen really put their names on the Hollywood map, and they’ve built nice little careers on this foundation. The movie is watchable, but I still have some issues with it, even after seeing it twice.

The acting is flat out horrible. The characters' dialogue sounds wooden and hollow. Are we given a reason to care about these people? I couldn't find one.

Are there intelligent people living in Texas or are they all hicks? From this movie you wouldn’t think so, except for Meurice (Samm-Art Williams) and he has only four or five lines of dialogue in the whole movie!! Seriously, if you come across a man who has obviously been shot and has been bleeding all over the place for gawd knows how long, do you try and clean it up and move the body into the back seat of your car so you can have incriminating blood stains all over it? I don‘t think so. No, if you’re smart, you either turn around and walk away, call the police or both. Instead you decide to put your fingerprints all over the room snooping around.

How exactly does Ray know where to find the gun that shot Marty? Why weren’t there any flies or maggots around the dead fish sitting on the table after a few days? If you’ve been shot in the chest, have lost a lot of blood and have been tossed into the back seat of a car like a sack of moldy potatoes, are you really going to have the strength to get out of the car and start crawling away? Are you even going to be alive after all of that? *shakes head*

I have no issues with the premise of the story, which is not new or unique. The screenplay is seriously lacking in character development and drags in several places. The most entertaining sequence of the whole movie is at the very end (last 15 minutes or so) and I won’t spoil it for you.

I did find it interesting to see a young Frances McDormand, the most well known of the cast, who doesn’t look much older than 22 or 23 in this film - but was actually 26 at the time of release, a mere quarter century ago. M. Emmett Walsh (who I agree is very creepy here) and Dan Hedaya have built solid if unspectacular careers. John Getz has spent the majority of his career in bits and pieces of television roles rather than focusing on the big screen, so it’s not surprising that I did not recognize him.

For a first writing and directing effort this film is okay. I'm not a huge fan of the Coen brothers but I do respect their later work. Fortunately, they have gotten much better as film makers with age and experience, which is a good thing.

Finally, the DVD version I watched was labeled as the Director’s Cut and was released in 2008, yet the run time of this version was shorter by three minutes (99 minutes down to 96 minutes) - according to IMDb. What about extras? Well, there weren’t any!! Not a one. Isn’t the intention of a director’s cut to include loads of special features, extended and deleted scenes, cast and crew interviews, etc? This was disappointing to say the least.


** out of *****

Blood Simple (1985, R, 99 minutes), starring Dan Hedaya, John Getz, Frances McDormand, M. Emmett Walsh and Samm-Art Williams. Written and Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.

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