by Holer on Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:01 pm
My name is Holer and it's encouraging to know that there are so many people who watch way more movies than I do...
January 2007
Last Train from Gun Hill - This is how remakes should be done. Take the basic premise from '3:10 to Yuma' and work it into a different story, pitting Kirk Douglas against Tony Quinn in a showdown over the fate of a whiny, unrepentant Earl Holiman. "But Pa, she was just a Squaw!" Classic stuff.
The Indian Fighter - Great double feature with above. Kirk Douglas leads a wagon train across the prairie and confronts prejudice and greed as he tries to screw a beautiful French girl made up to look like an indian. Ahhh Hollywood!
Brick - Interesting experiment in modern Noir but a bit to High School Drama Department precocious to really work. Lucas Haas steals the show as the Pin though. Worth seeing just for him.
Beerfest - I started drinking five minutes into this and it did get funnier, the drunker I got. If you've got a roomful of people playing quarters, it's probably hilarious. Otherwise, pass.
Ice Station Zebra - This gets pretty silly and melodramatic by the end, but the first two thirds of the movie is a crackerjack submarine thriller for those that like this sort of thing. Anytime you've got someone like Ernest Borgnine doing a crazy accent, it's worth taking a look.
Run Silent, Run Deep - Double Feature with 'Ice Station', a classic submariner pitting Burt Lancaster against Clark Gable in the ultimate mission to sink 'Bungo Pete'. With Tige Andrews, Don Rickles and Jack Warden as Kraut!
Curse of the Golden Flower - I'm still scratching my head over the ending but old Zhang Mi whatever delivers another sumptuous feast for the eyes. This movie positively shimmers and there are lots of nice breast shots too. Yummy!
Marathon Man - I'm going to go out on a limb and say this was the best '70's movie of the bunch. The dental torture scenes are squirm worthy and they don't even show anything. Lesson there. A great film that really holds up. Whatever happened to Marthe Keller anyway?
The Seven-Ups - Part of Roy Schieder double with Marathon Man. This feels like they decided to make another movie with all the guys from The French Connection, except Hackman. Plays like an episode of 'Toma', but without Tony Musante. Could be a chicken/egg thing. Hm.
Crank - Take the classic noir film 'DOA' and give it a shot of pure adrenaline. I thought this movie was absolutely screwy and hugely entertaining. That Transporter guy is the real deal.
Sergeant York - Okay this is really one of my alltime favorites, but I saw the restored release this month, so I can mention it. You just can't beat Gary Cooper going from drunken hellraiser to conscientious objector. He and Walter Brennan made one of the great teams in all of cinema.
The Fountainhead - Coop double pt. 2. Finally got to see this and it was worth the wait. A very quirky film with a very pointed agenda about individual effort but very compelling just the same. Made me want to read the book.
Behold a Pale Horse - A great, grimy little 'international' flick with Gregory Peck as a world weary Spanish freedom fighter and Anthony Quinn as the corrupt police captain trying to lure him into a trap, when he isn't rolling around with some woman. Very low key and satisfying. Would make a good double bill with 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'.
The Proposition - Holer's pick of the month. A brutal, stoic western touched by a kind of magic. Ray Winstone and Guy Pearce both do solid work here. Dreamy, intense, violent and wryly funny. By far the best movie I've seen in a long time.
February 2007
Ring of Fear - Could this be John Wayne's 'Santa Sangre'?!? Plenty of technicolor footage of the Clyde Beatty circus surounds a slim story about an Irish Psychopath who retruns to a traveling circus to get revenge on nearly everyone. He is so obvious in his villainy, it's hard to understand why Mickey Spillane (as himself!) takes so long to piece it all together. With lots of scary clowns lurking in the background, harboring murderous secrets of their own, no doubt.
Jarhead - Hmmm. Second Sam Menses film in a row depicting women as treacherous whores and men as macho adolescents with repressed homosexual urges. Man porn without the penetration, I theenk.
Black Hawk Down - Starring every upcoming Hollywood hunk they could find. What starts as a Hoorah Marine Recruiting poster, replete with requisite classic rock soundtrack quickly degenerates into a grim retelling of one of the great clusterf*cks of all time. And you just know Ridley Scott did it this way on purpose. All I could think about was those poor bastards in Iraq.
Track of the Cat - Wonderfully strange movie version of the frontier classic by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, about a dysfunctional pioneer family and the hardships they face in the harsh Sierra Nevada winter. With Robert Mitchum as the no nonsense hunter of the mythical title creature.
Intolerable Cruelty - I guess I watched this again just to confirm that it was the second worst Coen Brothers movie ever, after 'Ladykillers'. I'm still hoping that they just ran out of gas and needed a recharge. This one is cute, but so obviously someone elses work. I pray for the future.
Deadly Outlaw Rekka - First rate Takashi Miike actioner with Rikki Takeuchi as an old-school Yakuza who insists on avenging his boss's death even though the rival gangs want to sit around and play politics. Nice to see that Miike can make compelling, thoroughly transgressive crime drama without the excessive gore or scatalogical fetishism that makes much of his work so disturbing.
Down Argentine Way - Carmen Miranda gets top billing but only appears in one number and Betty Grable, America's sweetheart, has all the modern appeal of a lumbering ox. Still, I'm a sucker for old Latin musicals, and in that regard this does not disappoint.
Five Minutes to Live - Cheap, lurid melodrama with Johnny Cash as a psycho killer, who's weird dramatic decisions make him all the more convincing. Johnny terrorizes the wife of a banker at the behest of a scheming Vic Tayback. With Merle Travis and little Ronnie Howard as Johnny's Achilles heel. Classic exploitation cinema!
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World - I guess the term 'Social Satire' can make something sound a little stiff or heavy handed but nobody does them like Albert Brooks. This is a sweet, funny film that still manages to get the message across that these are some pretty f*cked up times we are living in these days. The comedy concert is hilarious too.
Last edited by
Holer on Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:59 pm, edited 6 times in total.
But I'd RATHER watch another movie...
