Last Movie You Watched? Mark 9

Rogue - a killer croc attacks a party of river-cruising tourists in Australia's Northern Territories. Thought I would get some B-movie horror chuckles, but it took itself irritatingly seriously.

Ah well, at least it being on the iPlayer meant it was a free watch.

SICARIO (2015)

Villenueve clearly has a gift for creating tension, and it's on full-display with this one. There's a plethora of wonderfully gripping sequences, my favorite of which has the main characters escorting a Mexican drug lord though the streets of Juarez and ending with a riveting stand-off on a crowded highway. Roger Deakins once again demonstrates how much of a master he is with visuals, using a lot of superb aerial shots, as well as a beautiful desert capture at twilight, claustrophobic night vision and thermal-imaging shots, mood lighting...what more can be said about the guy? He's instant-greatness with everything he does. Emily Blunt plays the usual idealistic, naive agent in a fish-out-of-water narrative (but with a political slant). She brings an added degree of vulnerability and restraint to a role that is unfortunately somewhat under-written. Brolin and del Toro are pretty great, as well, and together the three have an interesting dynamic that is great to watch. There is however a really odd shift in point-of-view towards the end of the movie that feels strangely out of place in an otherwise excellent thriller.

Chinatown (1974)

An wonderful cinematic experience, oodles of style, great performances, compelling story....but that ending....grrr

two golden oldies

Malta Story
as the title goes, the story of the siege of Malta in 1942 told through the eyes of Alec Guinness' Photo-Recce pilot. Yes, I guess the acting is a bit off all through but it's saved by extensive use of on-location filming which for a 1950s British war movie is quite rare. (Colditz Story was not even filmed in Germany for example). Being black and white, archival footage is seamlessly blended. I visited the film after reading Geoffrey Wellum's First Light and how he recounted seeing the Ohio come in. Dead silence until the church bell rang out.
Jack Hawkins doing his bit, Muriel Pavlow inexplicably as a Maltese girl, Geoffrey Keen again, little Gordon Jackson doing his och aye no stuff and Ralph Truman round off a decent ensemble. I leave out Anthony Steel...for now.
And as with another war movie, Hawkins endures the loss of a pilot at the end. For all the film's mediocrity in acting, the death of Guinness is quietly affecting. No music, the wounded Spitfire planes away from the camera which does not zoom in or out, there is nothing but the sound of the plane descending on a column of black smoke until there is silence.

Military Policemen

Typical Bob Hope movie and perhaps lacking in having no Bing but Mickey Rooney was entertaining enough. First saw this as a kid and somehow it left an impression, certain bits lasted all my life such as when the doctor signs a light in Rooney's right ear and the light comes out the left ear onto Hope's hand.
The unexpected delight in seeing this was picking up George Kennedy in a barfight scene. It's wildly established that Kennedy got his first on screen work with the Phil Silvers Show, some three years after this and yet here he is with some lines and noticable enough presence for the brief time he's on.
Entertaining flick all the same.

Dracula (1931) (English Version) & (Spanish Version)
Recently got the Legacy DVD set and started working my way through it. Both versions are definite classics and have their ups and downs depending on what you are in the mood for. The English version has of course Bela's and Edward Van Sloan's grand performances and a brisk pace running only at 75 minutes while the flaw to me is that's your not really given the amount of time to really get to know who the characters are like in the Spanish version. The Spanish version which was shot alongside the English version with the same sets and script is much longer running at almost two hours, the pace is slower but this does give ample opportunity to soak up the atmosphere more. It's also a bit more lively with less static camera work and has more material that was either not used or cut altogether in the English version. Plus Renfield's death is a bit more disturbing in the Spanish version. The big flaw of the Spanish version is that the actor playing Dracula, Carlos Villarias, while imposing with crazy eyes and a shark grin speaking slowly in his native tongue, is no match for Bela's demonic charm. Overall I think both issues really make each film on par with each other with the Spanish version being better from a technical standpoint and Bela's vampire-defining performance making the English version better from a visceral standpoint.

Nosferatu (1922)
I also went back and checked out this one. My copy is a public domain print in a 100 movie horror set I got last year's Halloween so it appears to be missing about fifteen minutes of footage from the original runtime plus the text was referring to characters by the names in Stoker's novel while according to IMDb they were supposed to be listed as different names. It's hard to judge it really because a lot of the flaws can be chalked up to just that period of filmmaking plus it doesn't help that my copy was cut by fifteen minutes. On the upside Max Schreck's Count Orlock is still imposing, rat-faced and long nails bringing an apparent plague with him. Overall it's an interesting watch but not one I'll probably return to anytime soon.

Strangways&Quarrel wrote:

Dracula (1931) (English Version) & (Spanish Version)

Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies are showing these on the big screen next month. I'm going to check them out. I haven't seen the Spanish version.

I'm sure you won't be disappointed.  

Dracula's Daughter (1936)
Edward Van Sloan returns to the role of Van Helsing who contacts a psychiatrist friend in an effort to prove that vampires exist after Van Helsing has been arrested for murder after the cops find him near Dracula's body. There was some rather odd attempts to inject humor at the beginning with bumbling cops which I felt was out of place given this film starts just minutes after the original ends. Gloria Holden as Dracula's daughter is not so bad herself and it's quite surprising the lesbian undertones they gave her with her primarily interested in female victims. One scene she outright asks one of her victims to take some of her clothes off (as much as the could given the time period this film was made in). It's not perfect but a good follow-up nonetheless.

Son of Dracula (1943)
This on the other hand was fairly disappointing. Lon Chaney Jr. attempts to play the Count's son who has wooed a rich Louisiana plantation owner's daughter and plans to move into the estate. The location idea is interesting and the bayous made an interesting hiding place for Dracula's coffin but still the film felt half-baked. Lon just doesn't cut it in this role, he's not in it enough to make a huge lasting impression except one scene where he stands still looking halfway menacing and his rage near the end of it. He also lacks any charm that his sister and dad had in their films. The atmosphere is there for a great follow-up but Lon just seemed to be a weak pick for the son.

House of Frankenstein (1944)
I've seen House of Dracula, this film's sequel before so I already was a fan of John Carradine as Dracula. I'd say he meets somewhere in between Bela and Christopher Lee because like Bela he has charm and smooth talk but he's also tall and has an imposing stare like Lee has in his films. Sadly like House of Dracula he's only in it for a short period with him out by the first thirty or so minutes and like House of Dracula his scenes prior to his departure from the film are great especially here where he charms his way into a married couple's house to get the father-in-law drunk for the kill and to make off with the wife. This makes the film incredibly uneven with the rest of it being left to Boris Karloff as a mad scientist traveling to Frankenstein's castle to revive the monster and The Wolf Man (who whines a lot as usual) and continue the experiments. But again the Dracula stuff with a bit more work and more Carradine of course would have made for a damn fine film in itself. Overall a mixed bag.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Rogue - a killer croc attacks a party of river-cruising tourists in Australia's Northern Territories. Thought I would get some B-movie horror chuckles, but it took itself irritatingly seriously.

Bloody 'ell, I remember watching that at the cinema the better part of a decade ago. Such is the endless march of time.

2006, it was.

Youth In Revolt - fitfully amusing comedy with Michael Cena.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

2006, it was.

Youth In Revolt - fiffully amusing comedy with Michael Cena.

As I recall, this movie revolved largely around the desire of a socially awkward kid to become a Pierrot le Fou like figure to impress a girl?

That and the fact that Rooney Mara had a cameo in it.

The Martian

Matt Damon plays with his shit on Mars.

Needless to say, currently the number one film in Germany.

Yeah, that's the one. Distinctly average.

EDIT : Youth In Revolt, that is.

Concussion

A lesbo gets hit on the head and starts turning tricks.

Not as good as it sounds.

The Dark Knight Rises - still think Nolan's 'Bat-trilogy' represents some sort of high-water mark for comic-book movies. Fabulous stuff.

dr. strangelove wrote:

SICARIO (2015)

There is however a really odd shift in point-of-view towards the end of the movie that feels strangely out of place in an otherwise excellent thriller.

I liked that POV shift and what (I think) its implications are. Although I wish that Villeneuve had gone one step further i.e.

spoiler:

The Martian - yes, it's probably Ridley Scott's best for a while; it's often amusing, the Mars vistas are often stunning and the effects are impeccable. But you're never really in any doubt that Damon will be rescued, so the attempts at 'jeopardy' feel a little hollow.

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