The Professionals (1966)

Rich man Ralph Bellamy hires weapons specialist Lee Marvin to lead Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode to rescue his wife Claudia Cardinale from Mexican revolutionary Jack Palance. A just okay all-star actioner, think of it as a milder version of The Wild Bunch, but with a happier ending and just not as good. Must say I was disappointed, had higher hopes, Marvin's good, Lancaster fine, Ryan and Storde just kind of there. Always nice to see Cardinale however (my favorite Italian beauty of the 1960's, though here playing a Mexican) and Jack Palance surprisingly good in his part, he's actually acting here, not just hamming. Still turns out this movie is lesser known for a reason. Not recommended.

See instead: The Wild Bunch (1969), The Leopard (1963) and The Scalphunters (1968).

The Jazz Singer (1927)

Some of you may be surprised that I had never seen this movie. Billed as the first 'talkie' film, its actually a silent with musical interludes, and based on a play by Samson Raphaelson who later worked on the scripts for such films as The Shop Around the Corner (1939), Heaven Can Wait (1943) and Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941). Film tackles the timeless theme of disappointing your parents religiously with the jazz music. There are a number of racial ect. stereotypes in this film, like the entire Otto Lederer character, Al Jolson in black face, and an odd comment about how 'queering' yourself means you can never work on Broadway again, I think a definition here must have changed over time. A milestone film in cinema history, and okay as a movie despite an overlong denouement, worth seeing once.

See also (or don't) the 1980 re-make with Neil Diamond.

The Science of Sleep (2006)

Pretentious French crap.

Goodfellas (1990)

A friend recommended I see this movie over three years ago, I finally got around to it. In short Goodfellas is a crime epic based on a true story centering around three (arguably four) people and their involvement in organized crime from 1955 to the early 1980's. An epic story of personal corruption and moral destruction, the scenes involving the family life of gangster Henry Hill and its gradual disintegration are simultaneously among the most compelling and most uncomfortable of the film, ultimately there are no heroes here. The film is of the genera for which director Scorsese is perhaps best known, but considering all I've really scene of 'Marty's' work is Taxi Driver and his DiCaprio cycle, for me this was something of a new experience (I'd have to describe it as seaming proto-Tarantino, but more accurately Quintin is post-Scorsese). Anyway quite the film, but I'm still not sure just what I think about it other then that it was well made.

Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains (2007)

Jonathan Demme directs this documentary account of former president Jimmy Carter's 2006-2007 book tour for his controversial work Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. Lets start with a look at this picture as a work of film, I liked it. I liked the way it was constructed as a sort of travel log, complete with semi-lengthy interview extracts from various television and radio programs that help Carter explain his views on the situation in Gaza and The West Bank. You know Jimmy Carter really can be quite good in an interview setting (you know it makes sense he was president). He's quite charming, especially with 'regular folk's' both in his home town of Plains Georgia, and the people that just come up to him in airports, hotels, and bookstores across the nation and the world. The music, pacing, and visual style of the film are all also quite endearing. As a polemic the work is very much sympathetic to Carter, an example of the tremendous amount of historical reinterpretation, and indeed veneration, that has come to this man whose presidency was almost universally viewed as a failure at the time he left office. I think a year and a half into the Obama presidency some of the Rosy glow of again having a 'progressive' in the oval office has faded, parallels between Jimmy Carter and the current chief executive still stand, only now take on more of an ominous, quasi-defeated tone. This being said I still like Jimmy Carter (as well as the current president), he's a very decent, good man whose doubtlessly been a greater force for good then any ex-president in our nations history. As for the book Carter promots throughout the film, I haven't read it and debate on it seems fairly loaded so I'll avoid comment. The film however was surprisingly compelling, and you might be surprised how much you may enjoy spending some time with number 39. Recommended.

Bad Bascomb (1946)

Notorious outlaw Bad Bascomb (Wallace Beery) and some members of his gang take refuge from the law inside of a Mormon wagon train. Similar basic concept was done later in John Ford's Wagon Master (1950), but that wasn't anywhere near as funny or endearing. Teaming of gruff old Beery and sweet young Margaret O'Brien is an inspired one, while Marjorie Main, J. Carol Naish and Marshall Thompson round out a good cast. Pin-up girl/actress Frances Rafferty serves as our Linda Darnell substitute. Seriously this was just a plan old enjoyable film. Recommended.

See also: They Call Me Trinity (1970)

M. Hulot's Holiday (1953)

Jacques Tati comedy introduced his good natured yet clumsy, pipe smoking character Mr. Hulot. Film is a warm, good hearted, genuinely funny farce on french sea-side vacations in the summer. Hulot is a kind of precursor to the later Mr. Bean, but also emblematic of silent comedy's in the style of Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin. Pleasant romp has a leisurely pace, not quite as funny as I'd hoped, but wins you over. Love the lite jazz score. Approved.

The Gospel Road (1973)

Johnny Cash literally talks and sings the stories of Jesus in this vaguely docu-drama adaptation of the life of Christ taken from Cash's double album of the same name. In effect this is one of the more unusual 'concert' films ever made. Songs are by Cash and others like John Denver and Kris Kristofferson, June Carter Cash appears as Mary Magdalene, and Robert Elfstrom is a blondish Jesus. Filmed in Israel and very emblematic of the 1970's in its look and style, I kept thinking of Johnathan Livingston Seagull while I watched it. Odd, but the musics good and the productions pleasant enough, even low key. A Curio. Skim it.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

Harry Potter rip-off about the modern day offspring of Greek gods and how there childhoods tend to be tough. Conventional, often bad, but containing just enough good action sequences to make it watchable (would have been nice if one of those had shown up in the dreadful first half hour). Verdict: Neehhh.

The Invention of Lying (2009)

Rickey Gervais comedy about an alternate reality where everyone has always told the truth, and the fat, pug-noised writer (Gervais) who discovers fibbing. A brilliant idea for a comedy, and while some have written how the film seems to sell out to romantic comedy conventionality at the end, that's still well enough handled and at least the writing seems to be somewhat ambivalent towards said concessions. The blunt humor of the piece is very well received, and especially strong towards the beginning. One of the most inventive parts of the film is when Gervais accidentally invents religion, its got to be one of the best satires of theism I'm familiar with. I love the way people obsess over different aspects of the newly reveled 'Man in the Sky', and the theological questions asked and debated here have a raw honesty and humor about them that I appreciated. In fact that relates to one of the big, ambiguous themes of the film, that religion simultaneously makes all the difference, as well as no difference in the lives of the people of the world. There are some deep, spiritual, human themes here, but there's also some pretty funny and borderline awkward stuff to appreciate. I sure appreciated it. ^