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A History of Violence (2005)
My History with Cronenberg
They rarely make movies like this any more. Only eleven years have gone since the premier of this film – and now you have to move over to TV to see anything like this. Seeing it for the third time tonight, I was vaguely reminded of the first season of True Detective and on second thought, the American Friend by the German Wim Wenders. The History of Violence could almost have been made in France or Germany.
I've never been a fan of David Cronenberg. I think he's been showy and too shocking on purpose, not unlike another David – Lynch. I deeply disliked Twin Peaks, for instance – a pretentious, self-mystifying piece of crap. Here DC is on a good track. Even the music is great.
It's fascinating to read the divided comments on this film. I like it because it's really very cinematic and thoughtful. Violence in it is obligatory – like in a Greek drama. I only give it an eight because the ending is prolonged and somehow contrived. Viggo and Wifey are great and the Sheriff very believable. The ending loses something of the spirit of this relative masterpiece.
Frenzy (1972)
Master Released
After seeing this impressive masterpiece for the third time I thought Sir Alfred Hitchcock's active career took place two or three decades too early with reference to his true nature. Here he was free from the constraints of U.S. puritanism of the Forties and Fifties. He was a modern here. He showed how to direct a shockingly macabre story with brilliant flair and impact, but also with a fine balance between slashing and insinuation. Frenzy was Ealing Studio stuff transported into future, as an emancipated variant of Baronets and Good Hearts – so British. Dear John (Carpenter), did you ever see this one? For some strange reason I kept on thinking of Freud all the while I was watching this. 8/10
A Good Man (2014)
Not So Bad
I've seen most of Seagal's films. Director Waxman seems to have found a way to direct him. I won't go into storyline details, just commenting on the production will suffice here.
What I liked the best here was the atmosphere. It's gritty and effective, well backed up by music. I wonder why some commentators complain about the amount of action. I think there is enough gore. Most actors are not too great and a sturdy Seagal isn't exactly your special-ops type physically, but on the whole the story carries on well enough. Romania makes for a great place to shoot grit like this. I'll give it seven.
Spy Game (2001)
How to carry a story
I'd missed the Spy Game until it came on cable tonight.
This is probably Tony Scott at his best, a twisted tale on the meaning of silent understanding of organizations and the complexity of the modern world.
If only Tony had been there to direct Moses.
Redford can carry a movie like few others and I was happy to see Brad Pitt put to good use, too. The scenes in Vietnam, East Germany and Beirut were unexceptionally great, too.
There was remarkably little sentimentality or the all-too-common romantic add-ons in the story. An almost-British cynicism did a favor for the movie. Why I only give eight points is because of the ending. The trump card is a bit too thick, but still quite passable. I was happier with the storyline than the finale, but the latter is good enough.
Luther (2010)
British and American Crime Drama
At 57, I've seen thousands of movies and TV series episodes. As a kid I adored the Saint and Ivanhoe, but also the Untouchables and the Invaders. The Avengers were so cool but matched by the Mission Impossible. Right now, after seeing the latest episode of Luther, I feel the Brits have got it but the Americans not.
Luther should be compared with the (tepid) Ironside or any other one-cop-genre offering. London is to be compared with L.A. or New York. I feel the UK beats the whack out of most US produce. Why?
In UK productions the people and settings are for real. There's psychology. Everyone's not pretty. Endings are not subdued to please the advertiser or an imaginary general public taste. Luther is visceral, whereas CSI and Bones only show off unpleasant sights. As an European I'm happy to see the Old World is going strong TV-wise and no stupid zombies roam the London streets.
Nattvardsgästerna (1963)
Greetings from Scandinavia
I've seen this masterpiece only once, two decades ago. The mood, the theme, the characters and the rest of it are masterfully managed. The film crawled under my skin and has never gone away. I don't know what anyone had to pay me to make me to watch it again, as it's so grim it's bordering on satire. I'm a Scandinavian and I grok it deeply. Anyone thinking of moving over to live here should see it. In my opinion, only Aki Kaurismäki has reached the same level of mercilessness in his satire-or-not films of life up here.
The dark beast inside me surfaced when I saw it's on cable tonight. I'll be sleeping in my cozy Scandinavian bed, hoping not to see a reprise of Vinterljuset in my dreams.
The Marine (2006)
Cheesy Piece of Action
To my mind, this cheesy and funny piece of action is severely underrated. Watching it for the third time, I'm even considering that seven is a low rating.
The one venerable point in Marine is its humor. It truly doesn't take itself too seriously. The action's taut and crisp all the way from the initial heist up to the absurd final.
Cena's similarity to Arnie Schwarzenegger and obvious and it's put to good use. After all, hunks like these have not been to the Actor's Studio, they're action types with a limited register, but a believable one in this case.
The similarities with Arnold's Commando are obvious. Saving a member of the family, blowing up lots of bad guys, fighting against impossible odds, that's classic 80s stuff. Patrick's performance dots the i's. I like this one!
Hän varasti elämän (1962)
He Stole a Life - With Slight Spoilers
"He Stole a Life" is the name of this Finnish film in English. I want to elaborate on the niner I gave it.
After seeing a thousand or so Finnish films I've resigned to the fact that they often seem somehow contrived or unnatural - in dialogue, acting or storywise. Comedies are either overblown and stupid or lacking in bite. The very prolific Aarne Tarkas did his share of "bush farces" as we call them in Finnish. This one is different.
The niner is because for once, the director carried the story in a strong and un-Finnish way. Everything fits together: the excellent cast, the simple story about greed and the sublime sense of black humour all make up a minor masterpiece. The film is politically incorrect in a delightful way, making fun of business people and "important" local figures. Only the police is left relatively unscathed. A small national joke was that the main policeman is played by the recently deceased Åke Lindman, who mostly acted in the roles of villains and brutes.
The onset of the Sixties can be seen in the role of Miss Penttilä. To modern eyes she looks quite innocent but at the time (1962) her body language would have been very provocative. Rose-Marie Precht was never sexier that here.
Risto Mäkelä was the Finnish Karl Malden. He was the sturdy B- or C-star of innumerable Finnish films. He had a resounding and very easily recognizable voice. He gave everything to his starring role, being the manipulative and merciless bastard you'd not believe he could act, if you'd seen him before.
The ending is a stroke of genius. If you've started to pile up bodies to hide that fact that you're a murderer, what could be worse than a large group of people witnessing what you've done - while you're still at it! This film is a true classic of Finnish film, one I could proudly play my foreign friends, provided it could be had with English subtexts.
Heck, now that I think of it, why didn't I give it a genre-specific tenner?
Raja 1918 (2007)
Coup de Grace
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of this movie. Director Törhönen has grown up and "Raja" makes me look forward to his coming work.
A regular pitfall in Finnish films is the dialogue. To the ear of the average Finn, actors either speak like books or spew curse words. Here the dialogue is sounds natural and moves effortlessly from one language to another and from the local dialects to high style. The companionship between the officers of Finland and Soviet Russia reminds one of Renoir's Great Illusion. Fine side characters add to the believability of the story. Here the director echoes the works of John Ford and Sergio Leone.
Another war classic comes to mind, Schöndorff's Der Fangschuss. Even the epoch and the front line are the same - whites against reds in a small, recently independent country - in Schlöndorff's case Latvia.
To add to the emotions, both films feature an ill-fated romance across the divide. In Raja 1918 this slightly strains the historical narrative and drops one point from perfect ten.
Another minor (minus one pt) disappointment comes up with the ending. The narrative turns to shock effects and a prolonged goodbye-scene with a dead love breaks the general, almost-documentary like feel of the movie. There is a Peckinpah-style sequence of stills to underline the brutality of warfare - quite unnecessarily. The film could have ended with the taking of the group photograph.
Still, a commendable effort, maybe the best Finnish war movie ever.
Les années lumière (1981)
Learning to Fly Gets Under Your Skin
This movie is incredible. I'd like to have it on DVD, but still it might take me some decades to watch it again. I've seen it four times in the 80s and 90s when it crept under my skin and stayed there. I remember every scene, yet I wonder what is memory and what was truly shown. Is it really there - or just memory-DVD? Such a simple story, a wayward son meets with a rural guru and gets carried away. I'd like to think that my early access to Gurdieff's writings made this film more accessible and comprehensible to me but even without the guru's ideas I'd get carried away. Awesome work. Two decades after seeing the movie I catch myself thinking about the pig and the birds. Were they properly taken care of? Makes me think why I like Predator and South Park. Why did I originally give it 9 pts? Must reconsider and give it full marks.
Down by Law (1986)
Awful waste of time
This film had evaded me for two decades. I know people my age (nearing fifty) who swear by it. As it was to be shown on cable tonight, I opened a nice Aussie wine and started to watch. After a while I started to wonder whether it does kick off or not, and halfway thru it I just sat, glassy eyed, realizing it would not. Astonishingly amateurish, pointless and sluggish, with no storyline to mention, it left me wondering why it had been done. Guys paddling around in the swampland, watching the boat sinking sums it up. Looked like it had been made in Finland. Jarmusch must have been both depressed and feeling special when he concocted this soup. What strikes me after the ordeal of watching thru it, is that the film does not reflect its epoch at all. If Down by Law is a masterpiece, it's the autistic sort, not meaning to slander persons suffering from the same malady as the the movie. 2/10.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Salvage (1955)
Film Noir Candy
Caught this one on Late Night TV. As a child of mid-fifties, I'm naturally prone to like ladies and gents from that epoch, as they bring to mind mom and dad. The men's dresses were smart and the ladies looked like a woman should.
This episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents gives the extra bonus of seeing Gene Barry before the classic Bat Masterson times. Man, do I love the epoch! Yes I do, and this Film Noir Candy gets an eight for that. It's a sign of true cinematic art that this part of a TV series has stood the test of time.
As I don't like giving away spoilers, I just point to the Hitchcockean cruelty in the storyline. Sir Alfred didn't seem to believe in Christian values. He'd been immensely popular in Ancient Rome.
Cold and nice as a water melon in a fridge -- stabbed with a fruit knife.
Mystery Monsters (1997)
Back to the Limbo, but with Six Points for Absurdity
Funny thing, I see why this flick hasn't scored too well so far, but it still tickles my funny bone. Sort of schizophrenic, I guess. The acting looks like a school play, the special effects are lousy-ish, but there's a certain absurdity that makes it watchable. Maybe a contact between stylish devilish entities and Hollywood folks could really be like this.
One important thing in watching a movie is to become curious about how it will go on and be finished, and here a positive tension arises, because the storyline blatantly equates the devilish visitors with movie making people. Hollywood is Hellwood.
The dolls are nice and the baddies stylish. Watching Mystery Monsters brought up the inner four-year old me. I childishly give this one six points.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Soulless
An astonishingly soulless movie -- like the Pirates of the Caribbean or Wild Wild West, which all get 3-4/10 from me.
This is a prime example of the modern genre of cgi-overkill c/w historical fantasy.
Like a zombie, it's soulless. It doesn't live, doesn't move the watcher.
Initially, in the production phase, no one has fallen in love with the concept or the script.
No one has taken it under their wing. This one even wastes Sean Connery, which just goes to show again that even the best of actors are not infallible when choosing roles.
This type of movie could do it, but it's still to be seen.
The finest part of the movie was the ship Nautilus. Otherwise, gimme a break..
What Women Want (2000)
Re: Evolutionary Jump & Blunder
What Women Want starts out beautifully. Gibson manages to convey the shock resulting from the change in his intersexual perception.
All goes fine for a while, sprouting out funny glimpses from the war of the sexes. But it's like the makers didn't know where to end up with the goods. A second viewing didn't enlighten me about the ending. Just goes to show how hard it's evolve from a stupid predator to a metaphysically endowed parasitical opportunist. Watch the first 75 mins and then lose consciousness, because that's what the makers did.
House on Haunted Hill (1999)
Re: Some Moments
Even the worst of movies can have perfect scenes. This poor one has one such. THIS IS A SMALL SPOILER. When the hapless woman played by Bridgette Wilson goes out for a walk looking around the house through the camrecorder and sees the torturous Dr Vannacutt and the twisted nurses vivisecting the patient, it's sure an awesome moment when the evildoers turn to look at her. Hitchcock never reached such a level of horror.
It's descriptive of the movie that this scene is immediately exploited and wasted. I watched the flick on cable for five times
and was glued to the screen every time Melissa Margaret Marr goes out for a stroll.