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You are viewing the most recent 25 entries.
13th July 2009
5:39pm: The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)
Remake of a 1974 semi-classic film puts Denzel Washington and John Travolta step into the shoes of Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw respectively in this story of a group of men who take over a subway car and demand a ransom be paid or else. Both films were based on a novel by John Godey, a source I have not read. Washington plays a subway dispatcher who ends up in the middle of it all as Travolta and his men take over the titled subway car and give him and the city one hour to come up with the ransom before they start killing a hostage a minute. This is a tense, but not very good action drama that seems to confuses frenetic filmmaking with real action. Director Tony Scott uses a variety of unnecessary tricks to make the film, to a large degree just people talking on a radio to each other, is more than people talking to each other on a radio. It kind of baffles me since the situation is ripe with suspense and doesn’t need to be amped up any more than it is. I’m guessing that Scott did it to hide the fact that the script is weak and instead of dealing with the drama between Washington and Travolta adds in any number of additional slimy characters, from John Tuturro’s detective to James Gandolfini’s mayor, who really has no place in the story. Yes the changes make the film reasonably interesting (though why they removed much of the uncomfortable humor of the first film is beyond me), but for the most part I was bored and wondering what possessed me to be so excited about needing to see this that I went out of my way to do so late on a Sunday night. From the movie milestone department I have to say that the film has a patented psycho performance by John Travolta and marks the point that his ability to play characters like Ryder are now officially cliché. (John please stop taking the paychecks and phoning these sort of roles in) Its not a bad film but it’s only okay and ultimately rather pointless since there is a better version of the story out there. If you must wait for cable.
12th July 2009
6:28pm:
Birth of a Nation Sat down to watch the longest version of the DW Griffith epic I had ever had in my possession, a version running around three hours and ten minutes. Clearly racist, even if it was never intended to be, the film is not really possible to defend on any sort of racial grounds because it was wrong in the day it was made (it really angered many people even then) and it still angers people today.Its a mind trip movie and while its aged badly it still has a great deal of power. Its the power in a the creaky old bones that has people still turning apoplectic when ever the film is screened because you want to cheer when the hero rides to the rescue, even though we really shouldn't. Remember that this is the film that manged to change everything about film, culture and history. yes the Italians were doing grand epics and yes the bits and pieces of what we know as cinema were floating around, but here at last it was all put together. a Huge story told in the most modern way. Certainly Griffith's story telling ability is stilted, it always was and always would be, but the way he put sequences together, especially in the later part of the film, changed the way movies were seen. Essentially this erratic film helped speed us to the present. The film as entertainment is a mixed bag. Some of the sequences are so horribly stilted that they are near unwatchable. The black face make-up is bad, never mind offensive, its just poorly done.(and if you think anyone can justify, even remotely the portrayal of the African Americans you must be mad) The main story of the two families is horribly melodramatic. But at the same time there is something about the film that keeps you watching. The sequences of real life events are mesmerizing, the battle and action sequences (Including the Klan to the rescue) are spectacular and if they seem cliche its only because they have been stolen thousands of times. And as melodramatic as the family story is you do manage to become invested in the romance. The film actually works as an entertainment, even if its uneven (which is what angers many people-they get involved and hate themselves for it). Yes I like the film, though to be perfectly honest I prefer shorter versions of the film since the three plus hour version I saw last evening was just too damn long and I hit the scan button a couple of times. Is the film worth seeing. Yes. Though understand what you're getting into a film from another time and place that is a creaky as they come and really morally questionable, but still manages to be watchable. See it if for no other reason as to understand where movies came from and to understand the mind set of the worst kind of racism, the sort that doesn't realize its racist. Unholy Love Madame Bovary rest set in a New York suburb. As the son of a prominent doctor elopes with a young young girl from the wrong side of the tracks and eyes to getting higher, the stage is set for tragedy as the girl begins a series of affairs. Slow deliberate film is okay, but rather over wrought in emotion and talky in the execution. One need only watch the scene early on when the doctor comes home after being called in for the death of his daughter in laws father and he informs the people at the house about his son and the girl. Its laughably mannered with cigarettes lit in the most ridiculous and over done of ways. I was giggling pretty much the whole way through the film from that point on. Watching the film I kept wondering if any one noticed how silly it all was. Apparently not. Watchable, but not recommended, I'd take a pass if given the choice.
11th July 2009
7:26pm: Longest Nite - NYAFF bonus round
Stumbled upon a copy of Longest Nite in a box set of Tony Leung movies earlier today. It was unexpected, but a happy accident, more so since the set had a good number of films I don't have and it was cheap since the place I got it is closing out the video portion of their operation. This is what the film festival had to say: http://www.subwaycinema.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=162(The q&a from the FF concerning the film is under Subway Cinema's You Tube Channel) This is a bleak dark nasty ugly film of the sort Hong Kong no longer makes. Tony Leung plays a corrupt cop who is trying to make a peace between two of three powerful crime lords on Macau. Things are going from bad to worse as word hits the street of a contract on one of the crime bosses. A tall bald headed fellow is wandering about and seems intent on collecting the cash reward no one knows who is offering. Worse for Leung is the fact that someone seems intent on making his life miserable beginning with a naked dead man in his apartment. Things only go down hill from there as Leung tries to unravel the plot and stay out of increasing trouble. A fever dream of foul things this was started by one director, Patrick Yau, who shot five scenes before hitting a creative brick wall and then was finished by the producers Wai Ka-fai and Johnnie To who stumbled around trying to stitch it together. The result is a really violent, bloody affair with no hope and no light. Much of the film operates in a seeming dream logic as it becomes clear that a greater power is operating just beyond Leung's view. Its all comes together in the end but until then its like being trapped in blood soaked nightmare with an occasional severed head. I'm kind of at a loss for words, this movie operates on a level somewhere underneath the surface and sends out shock waves. I really like the film but at the same time find it rather disturbing. Its the sort of bleak rough edged crime drama that Hong Kong excelled at in the 1980's and 1990's but which it seems to have stopped making. Recommended if you can find yourself a copy and like rough edged mind warping crime dramas(the film seems to be out of print and only available on the secondary market at a ridiculous price)
4:21pm: Movies
Mine Sweeper Richard Arlen is a hobo looking to join up to fight in the just started WW2. He meets up but Big Boy Guinn who is in the Navy Reserve and who manages to get Arlen into the service. What know one knows is that Arlen was an officer who went AWOL several years before and now is trying to hide his identity. Good, "rah rah" war effort film about the men who seek to defuse mines. A bit soapy at times with the tales of lost loves and noble sacrifice, this the sort of thing they don't make any more for a good reason, it can seem awfully silly. Running just over an hour the film moves along at a good clip and never over stays its welcome. Worth a look if you run across it and are in the mood for a wartime programmer. Missing Corpse Publisher who's family pays him no mind decides to run off on them and his paper on the spur of the moment and go hunting with his Man Friday. What he doesn't know is that a rival publisher, who has been trying to embarrass him, has been killed and his body placed in the trunk of his car. Upon arriving at his his country home Our hero discovers the body about the time the police come to call which then begins a game of hide the body as more and more people try to cover up the crime. Amusing comedy mystery moves along at just the right speed so that things keep moving and we never lose interest. Of course, as a police officer remarks toward the end had the police been called none of this would have had to happen but then there would never have been a movie. High art its not, mildly amusing it is. An amusing time passer thats worth a look if you run across it. Christmas in August Korean "romance" about the owner of a camera store who is diagnosed with a fatal disease. As he goes about his daily routine and prepares for the end he becomes acquainted with a young girl who is a customer. A friendship and romance grows, eve though neither expresses any sort of affection for the other. Good film is unlike anything you are likely to see remade in America simply because the studios would insist that the "couple" act on their feelings. He will not say anything because he doesn't have that long to live, she won't because its not the thing thats done and because he doesn't respond as she thinks he should. Of course its much more complex than I'm making it out to be and in all honesty its the sort of thing that you should discover for yourself. Is it a great film? No, but it is a good one that will move you emotionally. The final lines of the film still haunts me: "I always knew that love would fade like a photograph - but you will remain in my heart as you are in my last moment. Thank you and goodbye". It may seem odd out of context but with in the context of the film it is very moving.
3:42pm: Blood: The Last Vampire (Live action)
As a sort of chaser to the NYAFF I decided to wander into Manhattan and see the American release of the live action version of the original animated film of the same name. This is a Hong Kong,Japanese, French, Argentine co-production with a Korean lead, a French director and apparently shot in English. For my money it's as scattershot as its world wide origins. The plot is reasonably close to the source, expanding it here and there in order to fill out the 95 minute running time. For those who haven't seen it, it concern Saya the last of the vampires, who works for a shadowy American agency hunting demons that stalk mankind. Saya is looking to find the big demon Oregin who killed her father centuries ago and take revenge. The film is set primarily in Japan in 1970 on a military base where the demon is thought to be hiding. Saya is put into a high school class in order to track down the monster and his minions. Some blood is spilled. As exciting as the 45 minute short film is this adaptation is dull and boring. I was looking at my watch almost from the start as the legendary subway attack from the animation is redone pretty much as dully as you can imagine. The performances from much of the cast is stilted, even the usually good Gianna Jun (My Sassy Girl, Il Mare) seems at sea with a part that essentially has her brooding. I'm curious if some of the cast was dubbed since their delivery of the English lines seems off. The action sequences are dull and badly filmed and I was incredulous when I saw that they were staged by Corey Yuen, one of the best action directors and fight choreographers working today (He did Lethal Weapon 4, X-Men and The Transporter films). Did he phone it in or did they disregard what he did? The effects are part of the annoying trend to use CGI for the gore which gives the decapitations and slicing and dicing an unreal effect that breaks any spell the story creates. This is a huge disappointment for me, since I really had high hopes for the film based on the trailer. I'd wait for home video or do what I did, catch a really early bargain matinee which was about the price of a rental.
10th July 2009
5:42pm: Four that are fair
Curtain at 8 This is going to stick in my head as the movie with the chimp and a gun. As for the rest of it I’m not too sure. The plot of the film has a cad of an actor going around romancing all the ladies. Several fall for his charms, including the chimp, unfortunately someone puts an end to his romancing when he’s shot during a party in the theater for his birthday. Two detectives, an really annoying young one who jumps to conclusions and an older one who is slow and plodding get onto the case and try to figure out who shot the cad. Okay mystery takes a long while to get going, indeed it’s almost half over before the murder occurs and then the film kind of runs around from pillar to post trying to unravel what happened. Actually the younger detective goes running around and shifts the tone from one of slowly unfolding drama/mystery to silly comedic mystery. While the soapy set up to the murder kind of threw me since I expected a different sort of film, I did fall into it and was rather enjoying myself until the nimrod detective showed up. Personally I much preferred the older gentleman who managed to fit in to the pace of the proceedings and who’s quiet demeanor hid a man who knows more than he says. I wish we had more time with him. Over all an okay film, worth a look see if you run across it, though I’d try to pair it with something else. Mercy Plane James Dunn plays a hot shot flier who makes his money from air races and test piloting. He is having his pride hurt because of late he’s losing his races to a hot shot female pilot. Dunn takes a job as a test pilot in order to help test a new “Mercy” plane, designed to aide in rescues in difficult places. Unfortunately the plane is stolen and Dunn is framed by a gang of thieves specializing in plane theft, and headed by the owner of rival plane manufacturer. The head of the bad guys is also the brother of the female ace, who is unaware of her brother’s evil ways. Will Dunn clear his good name? Will the fliers fall in love? Will the female flier’s hair ever look bad? (The answer is yes to two of the proceeding questions.) Okay but rambling tale of fliers, robbers and romance. The film seems to he heading in several directions all at the same time and occasionally seems not to be too sure where its going. Certainly the film has little connection to reality since everyone always looks spectacular, especially our heroine who’s hair looks beauty parlor perfect after taking off her flying cap or not the slight bit wrinkled after being in a crashed plane. Dunn, a solid supporting actor, is in the lead and as is his norm, he seems to feel a bit out of sorts carrying the whole film. The over all effect of the uneasy elements is for a curiously muted film. Its not bad, but you get the sense that had a little bit of thought been put into it this might have been a great little film instead of an okay one. Worth a try if you run across it but not worth searching out. Bold Caballero Robert Livingston stars in what is probably the first color Zorro film and a film that predates the release of the classic Tyrone Powers film. The film begins with Zorro captured but still masked being lead into the village square when word reached the evil commandante of the garrison that Spain has sent a new governor. In the confusion Zorro escapes and the military is once more on the prowl for the masked avenger. One of the lesser Zorro films, its clear this was made to show off the Magnacolor process and be a spectacle of some sort (There are a couple of songs, but no big numbers). There’s lost of romance and flashy costumes but the action adventure seems to be skimped on. Its good but not great and certainly not what one thinks of as a Zorro film , especially from Republic Studios who turned out over half a dozen Zorro and Zorro related serials. Worth a look as a rental and if you run across it on cable, but unless you need to see every Zorro movie ever made you don’t need to go out of your way to see it. Here's Flash Casey Casey is a hot shot photographer in college but finds that now that he’s left school breaking into the newspaper biz is much harder. Managing to get a foot in the door because the editor finds he has a photograph he wants buried, Casey finds himself working as an assistant with someone else getting credit for all his work. Casey’s one bright spot seems to be a budding romance with the society editor and advice columnist. Things take a turn when he befriends the editor of a pictorial magazine and his photos end up being used for blackmail purposes by racketeers. Program film in the truest sense of the word, this is film that seems to be constructed from parts from the script writers hand book, take collegiate student, add romance, mix in newspaper setting add in racketeers and stir. It seems artificial and constructed in exactly the sort of way that real life, or even normal reel life isn’t. Its not a bad movie, its certainly something that you can watch, but its not something that you’ll care about. I got about 15 or 20 minutes in and found that while I was interested in what was happening, I hung around to the end, I ended up doing other things in front of the TV (and while I frequently multitask in front of the tube I was more interested in what I was doing rather than what I was watching). If you run a cross the film you can give it a shot but I wouldn’t go out of my way to track it down.
9th July 2009
7:48pm: 4 to waste your evening
Curly(and his gang) This is the first of two attempts to restart the Our Gang comedies after the Second World War. The film concerns Curly and his friends as they deal with a new teacher and other childhood nonsense. The least screened of the two “curly” films, the single feature version (It was later edited together with its sequel as one film) ran into problems in some parts of the US because blacks and whites were seen living and playing together in harmony. In more modern times the film isn’t really screened for another very good reason it’s a tough film to sit through. Poorly written with kids who are more annoying than cute its easy to see why the film never did more than inspire a single sequel (Who Killed Doc Robbin). Actually the real problem is that the films 51 minute length presents a real problem in that its two to three times the length of the old Our Gang comedies but the writing seems unable to handle it (Hal Roach loved the idea of Streamlined features, those running between 30 minutes and an hour, but he rarely managed to ever get them to work with in the time frame with many feeling too rushed). The result is a story that spins out in fits and starts and leaves the inexperienced and not very good kids to cover the holes. It’s a mess, actually its really dull. I’d avoid it. Who Killed Doc Robbin This is the second film with Curly and his gang, and the moment that Hal Roach hung up the idea of restarting the Our Gang films in the post WW2 years. The plot concerns the death of Doc Robbin and the trial of his nurse for his demise. Curly and his gang try to help, but only make matters worse but implicating the nurse’s boyfriend. Eventually everyone ends up in a haunted house complete with a gorilla and secret passages. Better than the first film in the aborted series, this film is full of really stupid humor and bad performances. Its amusing for a couple of minutes but it grows tiresome really fast since the film is geared for kids by writers who didn’t understand what entertains kids. Mostly the film takes the stereotypical haunted house conventions and makes them dumber. Its easy to see why the series never went beyond this film. If you see one of the two Curly films see this one since as bad as it is it is kind of watchable, but even then that should not be taken to be a recommendation. Girl from Chicago Girl is helped by a federal agent in her troubles with a gang boss. Creaky and tough to watch for technical reasons film by Oscar Micheaux the first of the African American filmmakers. Micheaux’s early sound films are a real mixed bag that were mostly of the point and shoot variety. Its due of course to the technical limitations of early sound equipment so People huddle close together at tables and talk, musical numbers seem to be filmed from the doorway in a night club, there is no camera movement. Its like watching a movie filmed in a closet. If you can get past the limits of the craft of the film, the movie is still a tough haul. The plot is pure potboiler, complicated by the limitations of the filmmaking which make this very talky film with very little motion. Its not very good and not really worth bothering with. Actually the sole reason to see the film is the musical sequences which are interesting from a historical perspective since they document what entertainment was like in nightclubs of the day. Unless you’re interested in historical or musical curios I’d take a pass. Big Cat Set in Utah during 1933’s draught and depression, this is the story of a city slicker going to the wilderness and looking up a friend of his mothers. He ends up getting involved with the daughter of one of the ranchers and hunting for a big mountain lion that has been attacking live stock and people. Dully made by rote this is a pot boiler tale set in the modern west that is a good cure for insomnia. To be certain the film has some stunning photography of the wilds of Utah, but the plot is so over blown and the acting, outside of Preston Forrest and Forrest Tucker is merely adequate, making for a film that’s best used as a sleep aide. To be honest I struggled to get through this film and found that toward the end I had reached for the remote of the dvd player. I’d take a pass.
8th July 2009
6:21pm: Meaningless statistics
The over use of meaningless statistics in professional sports and especially baseball seems to be tied to two things, first the need for the ever growing number of announcers to have something to talk about. Its also due to the fact that as we get progressively dumber and more enamored of the caveman mentality (fire good) we have become fascinated, by numbers. What are these things, we don’t know, but damn they seem to mean something. The truth is that thanks to the ease of computers we are now finding patterns in random events, patterns that while they may be there really don’t mean anything.
5:47pm: Movies from a storm shorterned night of sleep
Some where around 1130 last night the weather report changed for the North Shore of Long Island from "probably no rain, but if it comes it will be light" to "Jesus Christ a tornado is going to rip the living snot out of your home town so get ready because you're going to OZ to meet the tin man. Oh- and you're going to get a boat load of rain and wind and other nasty stuff---in the next 15 minutes". With loud claps of thunder and enough lightning to make navigating in the pitch dark possible with out a flash light the storm came and went in under an hour and had me go from a sound sleep to wide awake. With nothing better to do I started to watch movies. (Hey I still had power, my brother had the storm snap the telephone pole in front of his house and pull down a couple of trees) Story of Corriganville 25 minute promotional film about the Ray Crash Corrigan ranch which is used as locations for films and became a tourist trap… er… destination. Essentially a promotional film for the ranch this is an okay (just okay) look at the history of the ranch , of Corrigan and what the tourist attractions are like. Its watchable for a short period but in all honesty the film really is a tough hall to get through. I’d take a pass. (I’m not sure why Alpha video put this out on DVD, since even with the 42 minutes of western trailers the dvd is not really worth the money, or the time) Narcotic Story Better than many films of this sort, this is a semi-documentary look at narcotics and how pill popping turns to marijuana which turns inevitably to heroine and harder drugs dragging down the user into a spiral from which they may never recover. To be certain the narration is of the clipped Dragnet variety making things a bit silly, especially in retrospect, but the scenes it depicts are not so completely out in left field as to be unconnected with reality. If there is any real flaw its that everything is too neat and clean as if in many cases people were afraid of getting the costumes dirty. I’m not sure who the film is actually aimed at since the film deals with the police and the difficulty of law enforcement in stamping out drug use. It’s not clear if this was made as an exploitation film in the “Sinister Urge” variety of if they film makers had a higher purpose. Its not a bad film, but at the same time I this is the sort of film that is best viewed by people who like this sort of well intentioned documentary that looks silly introspect. That said if you’ve never seen one of these films this is possibly the best I’ve run across. Silent Enemy Docudrama about a tribe of Indians in the Canadian wilderness over the course of a year. The print I saw opened with chief of the tribe addressing the audience before the film itself started. The film proper is full of truly spectacular footage of the native North American’s going through their paces from fishing to hunting to traveling in the snow or going down the river in a canoe. Almost 80 years on one still goes “Oh Wow” with much of the footage. Even while its clear that the footage was staged, its more stages in the way of “this is the way we do things”. The only real problem is that some of the stuff that helps move the “story” seems creaky. Actually bits of the movie seem creaky. Most of the film is silent with music and narration which seems to slow the pace down and make much of what happens seem quaint. This doesn’t mean its bad, it just makes the film okay and not as great as what’s in the footage. Worth a look, as a rental if nothing else, more so if you want to see a life that’s pretty much all gone now. Louisiana Hussy Racy tale on the bayou as a rich hussy escapes from her husband and ends up coming between a newly married fisherman and his partner. Its lots of exposed flesh as the woman tries to play every side against each other for her own amusement and profit. Things get even more complicated as the husband shows up. Okay tale of love and lust in the swamp is an amusing example of the sort of film that undoubtedly played in the drive in across the south in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. I liked it for what it was, but I don’t think I need see it again. Ticket to Paradise Super little romantic comedy has a man in a hurry getting into a car accident and losing his memory. Armed with 10 grand in his pocket he jumps on a train hoping to figure out who he really is. Once in New York he ends up hooked up with an heiress who tries to help him find himself and the pair ends up falling in love. Charming off kilter film with great characters and an unending sense of fun. I put this on last night expecting nothing and instead found myself utterly charmed as “John Doe” and his lady love cook up scheme after scheme to help him find his memory. Its not always laugh out loud funny but I don’t think the smile left my face at all during its 65 minute running time. Its one of those movies I plan to hand off to friends and revisit myself. Definitely worth a look. Where is my Man To-Nite Second World War era film about the grandson of a decorated soldier who wants no part of the military. Despite the war raging in the rest of the world, he refuses to join the army and do his part. Things change when he gets a draft notice and finds himself in boot camp. Going AWOL he has to be rescued by his grandfather who hopes to set him on the straight and narrow. Creaky Spencer Williams film is one of his most poverty stricken efforts (Williams, an actor in his own right was one of the very few African American directors working in America during the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. His films tend to be a mixed bag thanks to the wildly uneven scripts, actors and budgets he had to work with.) To be certain the army material looks good and was probably shot with the help of the military, but the rest of the film is pretty poor, with really poor performances and not so good technical aspects. More a curio then anything, I find the attitude of main character Rodney toward joining the military interesting, especially in light of the typical “rah rah” attitude almost every other film I’ve seen from the period (one was always pro joining the army unless one was a spy). Other than the different view of signing up this film is rather poor. To be completely honest this is a really tough film to get through and I don’t recommend it unless you want to see the war effort from an atypical perspective. Mystery in Swing Musician and heel Prince Ellis has returned to town and taken up with sweet Linda. Linda’s father doesn’t like the fact that his daughter is seeing his daughter and tries to put a stop to it. When Ellis ends up dead, Linda’s father becomes the main suspect, but it isn’t long before suspects and people with an ax to grind are coming out of the woodwork. Wading in to the mystery is a reporter and a secretary from his paper and they are determined to get to the bottom of the murder. Okay murder mystery is the sort thing that with a bigger budget and more experienced hands would have been a cracking little murder tale. Here it’s a not quite as good because the cast is a bit uneven and the direction seems to be off by a beat or two. It doesn’t ruin the film but it made me slightly annoyed because I had the feeling that this could have been a great little film if it had a little bit more…. Short comings aside this is worth a look if you like the mysteries of the 40’s.
3:16pm: Now that MJ is gone....
...will we now be flooded with Michael Jackson impersonators like we are with Elvis ones? ...will we get a Church of St Michael the Dancing Machine? ...will we finally get a moment where his music isn't heard and people no longer say how wonderful he was- really?
1:14pm:
so where exactly is "Not in Service"?
8:00am: Gatchaman Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqxIS-oyXwQFor those interested and not reading cartoon brew-here's the trailer filmed off a screen at anime expo
6th July 2009
6:40pm: NYAFF Jury Awards - my two cents
I just have to put my two cents for what its worth, which is less than nothing. (and its nit picks here, not to be taken too seriously...) The Jury gave the Best Actress Award to Tae Kimura for ALL AROUND US, and then gave the Best Ensemble award to the cast of the film as well. I find rather an odd thing to do since the cast is pretty much Tae Kimura and Lily Franky as her husband. Yes there was a great and excellent cast around them but for the most part its just the pair. I'm not really complaining mind you, except that its kind of like duplication of effort. (Another nit pick here is as good as Tae Kimura is, and I LOVE All Around Us, to me Xun Zhou gave a career defining performance in Equation of Love and Death. Its one of the best performances ever, but thats just me and I wasn't voting) Best Pop Culture Rush went to Fish Story. I'm still trying to work out what that means other than perhaps its full of pop culture references that the audience connects to...personally I thought the pop culture references in 20th Century Boys provoked a bigger reaction but what do I know.(The Ultraman and Godzilla cheers rocked the house) A Special Award went to Crush and Blush for Audacity. Why is it audacious? Because the humor is uncomfortable at times and very wrong yet very funny? I think there were more audacious films in the festival, some of the more bloody ones for example. But then again I found the films write up misleading and the film not quite as unpleasant, shall we say, then the write up inferred. (Oh the joys of marketing) The other awards are: Best Actor Award: Ge You for IF YOU ARE THE ONE (I've seen part of this and its a really good performance but I probably liked Lily Franky better) Best Debut Feature Award to director Yang Ik-June for BREATHLESS Best Visual Achievement went to THE CLONE RETURNS HOME (a side note this was a highly touted film going in but its also one of the few films I heard no one who was attending talking about at any point during any screening I went to, which was weird since people generally talked about that they saw and wanted to see but this one was noticeable by its absence. 2009 Grand Jury Prize goes to Sion Sono’s LOVE EXPOSURE (Now from what I've heard about this film this is an audacious film) I'm curious what the audience award will be.
5:56pm: Last Nights movies
Face of Marble John Carradine gets the chance to be the lead mad scientist in this good but not really remarkable tale about reviving the dead. Carradine’s experiments result in a temporary return to life but give the subject the title face. An experiment on his wife’s dog results in its ability to walk through walls. Add to the mix a love triangle between Carradine’s “younger” assistant (played by an actor a half a decade older) and Carradine’s wife. Oh yea the house keeper knows voodoo. It’s a busy mix that still ends up being a bit too leisurely paced. Creepy at times the film the film never truly generates a great deal of thrills and by the time the end rolls around you’ll be happy to have seen Carradine in a lead, and wish he had had a better vehicle to drive. Worth a shot for Carradine fans. Private Detective 62 I have no idea where the number in the title comes from, but it doesn’t really matter, this is a rip roaring mystery drama comedy about government agent William Powell who, after being arrested and deported by the French government ends up as a private detective working for another detective of lesser moral standing. Complications arise when Powell ‘s used to get the goods on a socialite who is owed a great deal of money by a gambler. Powell falls for the girl, but continues to see her until he’s found out. As things become even more morally questionable murder occurs and Powell must wade into the matter. Excellent story of intrigue and adventure that has a wickedly funny edge to it. Its easy to imagine Powell’s Donald Free as Nick Charles in his heyday since he seems to operate in a similar manner. Everything clicks here from the mystery to the comedy to the romance into a seamless whole. I can’t understand why this film isn’t better known because its so perfectly put together. I love it, even more so in retrospect. Murder in Greenwich Village Fay Wray is an heiress who foolishly poses for a drunken artist. When he falls asleep after trying to take advantage of her she escapes through a sky light. She’s seen by a Photographer who brings her into his studio in the same building and they begin a love hate (mostly hate) relationship. When the artist turns up dead, and turns out to be the brother of a notorious gangster, all eyes are focused on Wray who tries to cover herself by saying she’s engaged to the photographer. Comedy and murder ensue as everyone tries to figure out who did what to whom. Okay comedy/mystery is heavy on the comedy and less so on the mystery. Its often loud and shrill as the leads do the will they or won’t they dance around each other to the extent that the mystery seems to get lost at times. I liked it I didn’t love it. To me the problem is that the leads are poorly written coming off more shrill then charming. Not bad, but not something I really need visit again. Worth a shot, if only to see the under appreciated Wray in a “romantic comedy” I also went through two Rpbert Youngson slapstick compilations When Comedy was King Which is a very good look at most of the major silent clowns and probably the second best film he turned out. The Other was the Golden Age of Laughter which deals with the lesser comedians and has a brilliant shortened version of Laurel and Hardy's Two Tars which takes place during a traffic jam during which a fight ensues between everyone. The upshot is that everyone's car ends up wrecked in the hands of someone else on the road. Its a classic.
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