Last Movie You Watched.

Internal Affairs - moody cop thriller with IAD colleagues Andy Garcia and Laurie Metcalf investigating corrupt officer Richard Gere. Gere is great as a manipulative womanizing bastard.

Pet Sematary (2019) - reasonably creepy and unsettling second adaptation of the Stephen King novel. Admittedly I haven't seen the late 80s one.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

As mentioned in another thread, Munich.

Surprise surprise, Craig is the weakest link amongst the cast. Such an over-actor and I still don't know what accent he was attempting. Australian? Afrikaans? Israeli? Sounded mostly English.

Cregg certainly wasn't the strongest cast member. The Seth Efrican accent in movies is always OTT and this was no exception.

The Blue Lamp





I know I've reviewed it before, but I shall again in a similar vein to my recent LTK review.

It's famously noted this side of the world, that when the Sweeney started in 1975 Dixon of Dock Green was winding up and the two were vastly different. Sweeney was hard, tough as nails, violent, broke the rules and Dixon was quaint.

Blue Lamp in 1950 first introduced the world to PC Dixon played by the always great Jack Warner. Except of course, famously, he was (SPOILERS) shot dead here and then reborn for the long running TV series (almost 20 years).

I can't help but feel this film is a seminal moment in British films and Britain. In the real world, Clement Attlee's Labour government is still in charge (for another year), Britain is still rebuilding (much of London is ruin), the King has less than two years to live, the wedding of the century was three years ago (Philip and Elizabeth) and crime, well, crime has always been hard and violent in London but film-wise, rarely depicted as such.

Within the first minute or so, a crim has clambered from his car doing a pursuit and twice shoots a barrow man dead. I can only imagine for 1950 this was fairly shocking.

It should be noted that TEB Clarke wrote the screenplay. Why does it matter? Well, for one Clarke wrote some famous comedies such as Titfield Thunderbolt and Passport to Pimlico (British pluck) but was also a copper back in the day. It's directed by Basil Dearden who went on to to do the likes of League of Gentlemen, Man Who Haunted Himself and a couple of Persuaders episodes.

Back in the day they had a semblance of respect for the old Bill. Even if you had disdain for them, like the blonde who is Dirk Bogarde's bit of skirt, you still end up crumbling. A sign of the times is when the desk sergeant tells Hanley's green PC to take the blonde to the Women Police.

And then here comes Bernard Lee's DI with Robert Flemying as his number one. A full thirteen years before Dr No (Blue Lamp was made in 1949). Lee's copper is the Jack Regan of his day. He's seen it all, he's been spoken to like a piece of shit all his career and he won't take prisoners.

I always initially get jarred by Bogarde playing a villain but then in 1950 he wasn't the superstar he soon became (Doctor in the House was three years away). He's grimy, he's a piece of shit.

The film is immensely helped by on-location filming which in this case is mostly around Paddington where nowadays Paddington Green who deals with terrorists and so on is based.

It looks quaint, the uniforms of the day seem Victorian. The singalongs, the language...it's all old but what remains the same as 1950 in 2021 is that coppers do sometimes get killed. The Met have on the surface lost few since 1829 as say the NYPD has in the same period but when it happens, it hurts. When a copper was killed last year, it was shocking.

The quaintness isn't helped by showing the great Tessie O'Shea singing in a theatre someplace just like it's 1940 or even 1840.

Without the aid of 999 or twitter, Dixon runs to counter Bogarde's bastard and is shot three times. Again this must've been something in 1950. Beyond that the bad guys hare off in a car at knots. If this was the Sweeney they'd be swiftly pursued, chased, stopped and giving a good kicking.

Swiftly, Dixon's shooting starts to spread as only it can in 1950. A teleprinter reveals the info, Bernard Lee's DI picks up the phone...
...you shoot a copper and it's fucking personal.



Events move quickly. We see the old Scotland Yard (HQ until 1982). We see Lee getting his orders. He's gentle and quiet in his appearance but you suspect bubbling beneath the surface is someone who if he got hold of Bogarde, would give him a seeing to.

You want to slap the woman who is pulled over for traffic infringements, when she bitches. Still to this day people bemoan coppers not going after rapists, murderers when they've stopped someone for breaking the law on the road.

The young girl, Queenie, that is questioned by Lee's DI is typical. Clearly, her old man has brought her up to hate coppers but even Lee's DI can breakthrough and get her to reveal where she found the gun that killed Dixon.

A funny if decent scene is when people are roped in off the street to take part in a line-up. Surely what wouldn't happen today is when Dora Bryan's witness walks down the line inches away. Even then she picks the wrong person. However, it's classic how Bogarde has been questioned, then shoved into the line up and released. We know he's the one but the thrill of the chase is in the hunt.

It accelerates in a film that's only 80mins. Bogarde is pursued by CID who nabs him, Bogie's girlfriend overacts but so be it. After Bogie's escape, the net tightens. Cornered at a horse meet, Bogarde is revealed by the brilliant moment when the bookies do their hand signals to help the cops. Relentlessly, the cops, with Hanley at the fore, close the net and nab Bogarde.

After 1950, things continued to change. The world today is unrecognisable to then.

Thus, the Blue Lamp is worth a watch.

The Being ( 1983 ) on Amazon.
A low budget creature feature, which can't seem to make up its mind whether it's a spoof or a serious horror film. Not great just what you'd expect from a low budget horror but it has a couple of big stars in it like Martin Landau and Jose Ferrer.

Don't Blink ( 2014 ) on Amazon
An intriguing mystery, a group of friends head off to an isolated holiday resort but on arriving find it like the Mary Celeste. Half finished meals, cars left running so they run out of petrol, no animal life etc. Then members of the group start to disappear which leads to arguments and tension spreading across the group.
A good start and mystery but it does fall a little flat, with a disappointing ending,
One great quote from it is .....
"I don't know where they go when they disappear, but I've read enough Stephen King to know that nothing safe comes back from that dark place."

CJB wrote:

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

As mentioned in another thread, Munich.

Surprise surprise, Craig is the weakest link amongst the cast. Such an over-actor and I still don't know what accent he was attempting. Australian? Afrikaans? Israeli? Sounded mostly English.

Cregg certainly wasn't the strongest cast member. The Seth Efrican accent in movies is always OTT and this was no exception.

David Tennant on this very subject, on panel show Room 101 -

It probably is a difficult accent to master... but Craig can't even manage an American one, as evidenced in Road to Perdition and Knives Out.

The Conversation - 'enjoyed' is maybe not the right word for a movie so bleakly paranoid (there's stuff in it that wouldn't shame a horror film), but there's no denying Gene Hackman's excellence as for-hire surveillance expert Harry Caul (a man who lives as impersonal a life as possible) who fears that the audio tapes he has submitted to his client are going to result in murder and attempts to prevent it. Also features a pre-Han Solo Harrison Ford.

[i]It's like watching a striptease. Don't question how it's done, just enjoy what's coming off.[i/]

OPERATION PETTICOAT

A film that likely would cause trouble now, in fact have do gooders tried to have this erased? In light of the passing of Gavin MacLeod, I reached for this. I'll follow with Kelly's Heroes soon. The gimmick of the sub being paint is a small part of the film which depicts Cary Grant's efforts to get his wounded sub away from the coming Japanese to safety. Along the way he picks up Tony Curtis' rather useless officer (useless as far as the USN goes) but who is rather adept at pillaging. Thrown into the mix are a group of female nurses, Pacific islanders (one pregnant) and all sorts of hijinks.

Only two now remain of this cast. The golden age of cinema all but gone.

Being directed by Blake Edwards this is worth a gander. Couple of hours on a rainy day.

Enough with the negative waves this early in the morning

Kelly's Heroes

I'll kick off by saying this was my first ever introduction to Don Rickles, at least 'in the flesh' (having seen the first two Toy Story films before this. Then when I reached a post milestone on old MI6, someone marked it by putting this Rickles Dean Martin Roast clip and the rest is history. Since seeing the film first time, I've seen a few Kelly's references by Rickles and it sometimes colours my viewings of the film ("We watched Tito's dog die is what we did!").

Anyway.

It's a weird film in some respects. The characters are mostly known by nicknames (Crapgame, Big Joe, Little Joe, Oddball etc) yet there's this very adult undercurrent to the film in its way. It has a Lalo Schifrin score that sometimes seems at odds with the film's tone which veers between comedic, seriousness and outright screwball. It's filmed in Yugoslavia which was not always your go-to filming location for a WWII film. Plus it has a definite late sixties feel to things in spite of its 1944 setting.

Yet, I've always liked it if but for the lines or the action. Only in WWII perhaps could a bunch of American GI's bugger off into enemy lines to steal gold and not be missed as such (even when they're heard on the radio, no one is any the wiser).
The film's most serious moment perhaps is after the minefield battle the men look upon their dead comrades to a sombre Schifrin tune. Harry Dean Stanton gives Cowboy this bewildered, innocent look and Cowboy just looks at the ground.

The action is well done and plenty. No wonder, Brian G. Hutton who year before did Where Eagles Dare does this. The climatic fight when the Americans attack the Germans in the town goes on for a little while but is done in such a way that you don't mind. Some of the characters seem to enjoy their shooting a little much but that's the film for you.

Telly Savalas might be the quietly undisputed star of the film from the moment you see him. Big Joe seems to hate everyone and probably spent the time from when he landed in Britain to D-Day just angrily chewing everyone out waiting to kill Germans. His interaction with Stuart Margolin's Little Joe early on is brilliant.

Little to fault the film personally. With Gavin MacLeod's passing (his Moriarty is a delight), it leaves Eastwood and Sutherland of the main characters and one or two of the secondary cast.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

The Conversation - 'enjoyed' is maybe not the right word for a movie so bleakly paranoid (there's stuff in it that wouldn't shame a horror film), but there's no denying Gene Hackman's excellence as for-hire surveillance expert Harry Caul (a man who lives as impersonal a life as possible) who fears that the audio tapes he has submitted to his client are going to result in murder and attempts to prevent it. Also features a pre-Han Solo Harrison Ford.  

It's a slow-burn but undeniably excellent.


Enter The Dragon.

First time watching this. I felt it was some kind of DN/TMWTGG/Fleming's YOLT hybrid. Nice to discover many reviewers also found the Bond allusions. Fun film!

A Quiet Place 2 - solid sequel that adds Cillian Murphy as the main male protagonist and manages a decent amount of suspense and jump-scares; no mean feat when it's competing against wrapper-rustling weak-bladdered idiots ... seriously if you literally can't fucking well 'hold your water' for less than 2 hours (and that's including ads and trailers), seek medical advice.

The Predator ...

Shane Black - I know, this time the military guys will all have PTSD to *hilarious* effect! And there'll be a cute kid with Asperger's! And a beautiful yet feistily kickass female scientist! And the Predators will have badly-CGIed dog things!

A saner world than ours - Oh Shane. We liked The Nice Guys .. why would you do this to us, Shane? WHY?!?

The world we actually live in - biggest hit of the franchise to date.

Runaway ( 1984 )
A standard sci-fi thriller set in a future 1989 ! a Villain has produced a chip that makes Robots evil, killing people and stuff like that. Tom Selleck stars with Gene Simmons as the bad guy. Unfortunately another Robot film came out in 84,
with a Mr Schwarzenegger which was much more successful

The Way of the Dragon (Lee).

Meanders for most part but that final, Rome-set fight between Lee and Norris makes up for it.

Buster - breezy, romanticised and sanitised telling of petty crook/'lovable rogue' 'Buster' Edwards' part in the Great Train Robbery and subsequent attempt to have a new 'dream life' in Acapulco with his wife and daughter. Phil Collins does fine as Buster, as does Julie Walters as wife June.

Fargo - 25th anniversary screening at local 'arthouse' cinema. Still a brilliant blend of a blackly funny comedy of errors and a celebration (albeit a gently mocking one) of the decent good-hearted folks of smalltown America like Marge and her husband.

Nobody - Bob 'Better Call Saul' Odenkirk's contribution to the 'fiftysomething ass-kicker' action sub-genre. Has the sense to not take itself too seriously, and Christopher Lloyd has a ball as Odenkirk's wily old father.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Fargo - 25th anniversary screening at local 'arthouse' cinema. Still a brilliant blend of a blackly funny comedy of errors and a celebration (albeit a gently mocking one) of the decent good-hearted folks of smalltown America like Marge and her husband.

I've got to give this a go again, actually. Been a few years since I saw it.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Lau)

I can see why this is a landmark of martial arts cinema. While the set up felt a little clunky (perhaps the victim of the dubbing; I'd rather have read subtitles), as soon as we hit Shaolin the movie takes off and never lets up. The training sequences are incredibly engaging and beautifully executed. Highly recommend!

MASH

well, Tuesday I went to the British Film Institute to see this which is part of a larger Robert Altman season. Says a lot perhaps that there's Nashville, the Long Goodbye and what have you which I've never seen and I chose MASH. I can't explain it but there's something about this film that just works for me.

What helps with the BFI is that you are watching it with people who appreciate a film. No one is looking at their phone, there is no nattering instead you appreciate the film anew by the joint laughter and so on. It was like watching it again for the first time right down to Sally Kellerman's shower scene.

It's still being shown and if I had the money I'd go again.

now...

Meteor

off YouTube

this is one of the first non-Bond Connery's I remember watching and well...Now I'm 30-odd I can see Connery has this look of "why am I here? Oh right, money". I've never read the BTS as far as Connery goes but I wonder if the draw of working with Henry Fonda, Malden, Natalie Wood and Brian Keith was a pull.
Indeed it's a contrast. Fonda is towards the end of his career (the heyday certainly well astern), Malden and Keith are perhaps in a similar boat. Connery is only nine years out of DAF and still has twenty odd years ahead of him.

Cast wise it's good but sadly let down by poor SFX. The joke is that this was held up release wise for re-shoots of the effects. Had it better effects and a bit extra, it might have been better. However, it's therefore guilty pleasurable.

Keith for me achieves greatness with his Theodore Roosevelt in Wind and the Lion but really seals the deal that he spoke fluent Russian (as did Natalie Wood). Made me wonder last night that he could've made a great Ramius in Red October. Able to carry off the fluent Russian but also speaking English (he was only about 5yrs older than Connery so it could've worked).

An honourable mention aside from Landau is Bibi Besch. Three years prior to Star Trek II she has a very brief scene as Connery's estranged wife. Beyond The Day After and TWOK, this is as good as it got for her. She did Tremors but again it was brief.

There we go.

I've got Meteor in my to watch Connery titles but I haven't seen it in ages. Your description seems pretty spot on. Keith is incredible with Connery in Wind and the Lion-and of course that's exactly why Sean said to get John Milius to come in and write Ramius's speeches in Red October....who of course also wrote Quint's Indianapolis speech in Jaws.

My other favorite Brian Keith role is in the masterpiece THE YAKUZA which is a towering achievement across the board and another time Robert Mitchum should have won an Oscar.

I'venot seen the Yakuza. Admittedly a guilty pleasure film is Hooper and Keith seems to have a blast in it. I recall seeing a docu-film, Milius and was just blown away. Wind and the Lion is a great film, think he had a hand in Magnum Force too (might even have lent his own 44 to production I think).

Meteor comes at the end of the decade when of course the disaster movie craze that Airport started, that Towering Inferno/Poseidon Adventure and to a point Earthquake peaked is fading. Off the top of my head you had Airport 79 and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure around this time and all three aren't exactly well liked.

I think Meteor is watchable nowadays just for the cast. It's also a film that I first copied Connery's accent as a kid. The blanket of shit line used to get me scolded.

Milius is the odd man out of the film school brat generation. Blustery and with the right winger persona that hides an extremely sensitive and poetic soul beneath it all. It was such an absolute shame that his health took a turn as evidenced in the documentary. I haven't heard any news of him since really but hope he is doing better.

When I finally started seeing films of his that light bulb clicked in my head and I went OH! I don't agree with the persona he adopted at all but it's a waste he didn't get to do the other Conan films. He wrote on Magnum Force with Michael Cimino and is why that's the only worthwhile sequel.

The Producers (1968) - had never seen this before, believe it or not. A hoot, of course ... one can only imagine the cries of 'This is in very poor taste!' back in the day.

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (Collector's Edition) - I was admittedly a little tired when I put this on, and consequently the scenes reinstated by Spielberg did have the effect of making it feel like it was 'dragging' just a bit. But there's no denying that back-in-the-day Spielberg 'magic' and sense of wonder, the brilliance of Richard Dreyfus and Francois Truffaut and Doug Trumbull's pre-CGI (and still breathtaking) UFO effects, particularly the Mothership.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

The Producers (1968) - had never seen this before, believe it or not. A hoot, of course ... one can only imagine the cries of 'This is in very poor taste!' back in the day.
 

Haven't seen it but I remember absolutely hating the look of the remake. Ever seen that version?