Standard plot, emergency room doctor Hillary Swank has just separated from her longtime boyfriend (he cheated on her) and needs to find a new apartment in New York City. She does, its a nice one, the price seems to good to be true, the hunky landlord (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) also seems to be to good to be true, he is.
Swank and Morgan flirt, make out, she thinks better of it and just wants to 'be friends'. Morgan wants to be more then friends, he stocks her, which indeed he'd been doing all along, it was not by accident that Swank found this great apartment. Morgan has passageways behind the walls of the old apartment building, he uses them to spy on Swank, sneak into her apartment and drug her wine, and at night comes to her bed. Morgan also eventually kills the boyfriend (Lee Pace) just as the two are reconciling. The movie ends in a cool protracted hide and seek chase/fight in Morgans apartment catacombs.
Not a remarkable film, Swank must have just been attracted by the prospect of doing a kind of movie she hadn't done before. With stubble bearded Morgan you get the feeling that he may just be there because they couldn't it Javier Bardem. Christopher Lee, in a small role as Morgans grandfather, is just there to pad the cast. Yet it works, no surprises but you can feel that this movie was just done better then most recent films of its type. So, B-
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Jefferson in Paris (1995)
This film tells of the story of how Thomas Jefferson's sexual relationship with his slave Sally Hemmings started. I remember when I first heard about Jeffersons reported relationship with the young slave girl, it was in the mid-1990's right around the time this movie came out. I was upset, having then a very rose colored almost sainted view of the Founding Fathers (still for the most part very great men, but far from perfect). Indeed many people where understandably put off by these allegations, and there's been an unwillingness to believe them simply because its Thomas Jefferson. But now, fifteen years later its generally accepted that Mr. Jefferson had four children by Hemmings, its been proven now by DNA evidence.
The film story is of course set in Paris, appropriate given the title don't you think. In 1784 Thomas Jefferson (here played by Nick Nolte) was dispatched as the fledgling American governments ambassador to France; which had just been the only real allie they had in their war for Independence from Britain. Jefferson would stay in his post for five years, witnessing the early days of the French Revolution (which he predicted would turn out well) before being recalled to America to serve as George Washington's first Secretary of State.
While in France and in accordance to his position Jefferson spent a lot of time among the royal court and the French aristocracy. This being a Merchant/Ivory production it really gets the period feel down. The ruling class had long been decadent, they throw themselves lavish entertainments, sumptuous dinner party's, and indulge in every passing fade such as wand healing and mesmerism. Yet at the same time these Frenchmen could be great patrons of the arts and sciences, and exciting things besides politics where happening there, such as early hot air balloon experiments. Amid the French swells Jefferson meets and falls in love with Maria Cosway (Greta Scacchi) the English/Italian wife of the apparently gay portrait artist Richard Cosway.
Jefferson vacillates between his love for Maria and loyalty to an oath he made to his late wife never to remarry and which his daughter Pattsy (Gwyneth Paltrow) won't let him forgot. Apparently unable to decide what to do Jefferson ends up in a relationship with Sally Hemmings (Thandie Newton) which both Pattsy and Maria find out about and are non too pleased, though partly in keeping with the propriety of the times they refuse to speak about this issue openly (indeed in the film nobody seems to address the issue directly). Nolte in the middle of his 1990's hay day is a good Jefferson, which is almost unimaginable now given the current state of his career and public perception. The rest of the cast is very good too and this inherently slow motion picture does manage to sustain interest over its 2 1/2 hour running time.
Grade: B+
The film story is of course set in Paris, appropriate given the title don't you think. In 1784 Thomas Jefferson (here played by Nick Nolte) was dispatched as the fledgling American governments ambassador to France; which had just been the only real allie they had in their war for Independence from Britain. Jefferson would stay in his post for five years, witnessing the early days of the French Revolution (which he predicted would turn out well) before being recalled to America to serve as George Washington's first Secretary of State.
While in France and in accordance to his position Jefferson spent a lot of time among the royal court and the French aristocracy. This being a Merchant/Ivory production it really gets the period feel down. The ruling class had long been decadent, they throw themselves lavish entertainments, sumptuous dinner party's, and indulge in every passing fade such as wand healing and mesmerism. Yet at the same time these Frenchmen could be great patrons of the arts and sciences, and exciting things besides politics where happening there, such as early hot air balloon experiments. Amid the French swells Jefferson meets and falls in love with Maria Cosway (Greta Scacchi) the English/Italian wife of the apparently gay portrait artist Richard Cosway.
Jefferson vacillates between his love for Maria and loyalty to an oath he made to his late wife never to remarry and which his daughter Pattsy (Gwyneth Paltrow) won't let him forgot. Apparently unable to decide what to do Jefferson ends up in a relationship with Sally Hemmings (Thandie Newton) which both Pattsy and Maria find out about and are non too pleased, though partly in keeping with the propriety of the times they refuse to speak about this issue openly (indeed in the film nobody seems to address the issue directly). Nolte in the middle of his 1990's hay day is a good Jefferson, which is almost unimaginable now given the current state of his career and public perception. The rest of the cast is very good too and this inherently slow motion picture does manage to sustain interest over its 2 1/2 hour running time.
Grade: B+
Skidoo (1968)
In an effort to become more relevant to younger audiences Otto Preminger produced and directed Skidoo, a kind of drug comedy that features both mobsters and hippies. Written by Doran William Cannon (later to achieve success for his script of Brewster McCloud); Skidoo stars Jackie Gleason as a retired mob hit man who has taken up a suburban life as the owner of a car wash so as to raise his daughter Darlene (Alexandra Hay, whose very pretty but never really made it as an actress) in safety. One day 'The Tree' the originzed crime outfit Gleason had worked for comes calling to request his services in murdering a former associate turned government informant (Mickey Ronney). Gleason tries to say no but after they murder his best friend he agrees and is sent to prison in order to kill Ronney; he is to be assisted in this by one Freddy the Professor (Austin Pendelton) a brilliant draft dodging druggie who has also been sent to prison for this sole purpose. Ronney safe in a private prison apartment (from which he operates a successful enterprise as a stock trader) proves difficult to get at and in the end Gleason decides he doesn't want to kill him and so escapes with the Professor and another inmate in an improvised hot air balloon.
Gleasons disappearance from home is of course noticed by his daughter and wife Carole Channing (also a former associate of The Tree) who along with a band of hippies and a sort of junior mob bureaucrat in charge of Oregon and Idaho (Frankie Avalon), set out to locate the head of The Tree, a mysterious figure known as "God" (Grocho Marx if you can believe it). "God" is in exile on a yacht in international waters from which he runs The Tree, all the major characters will converge there for the odd musical finally, a lyrically poor but catchy toon called 'Skidoo' sung in a Hello Dolly style by Channing.
The movie is odd and has a reputation as a total disaster, but when approached in the right spirit its quite entertaining and deserving of the 'cult statues' it has achieved. The movie boasts a number of groovy songs (my favorite being the musical number featuring the dancing trashcans) composed by the artist Nilsson who also appears as a 'tower guard'. A strange film that's surprisingly memorable and seems to work by virtue of not quite working. Even the closing credits in this film are enjoyable. Grade: B-
Gleasons disappearance from home is of course noticed by his daughter and wife Carole Channing (also a former associate of The Tree) who along with a band of hippies and a sort of junior mob bureaucrat in charge of Oregon and Idaho (Frankie Avalon), set out to locate the head of The Tree, a mysterious figure known as "God" (Grocho Marx if you can believe it). "God" is in exile on a yacht in international waters from which he runs The Tree, all the major characters will converge there for the odd musical finally, a lyrically poor but catchy toon called 'Skidoo' sung in a Hello Dolly style by Channing.
The movie is odd and has a reputation as a total disaster, but when approached in the right spirit its quite entertaining and deserving of the 'cult statues' it has achieved. The movie boasts a number of groovy songs (my favorite being the musical number featuring the dancing trashcans) composed by the artist Nilsson who also appears as a 'tower guard'. A strange film that's surprisingly memorable and seems to work by virtue of not quite working. Even the closing credits in this film are enjoyable. Grade: B-
Hangover Square (1945)
Set in London in 1899 Hangover Square stars Laird Craiger (a rather husky leading man) as George Harvey Bone an up and coming composer. Bone has a number of problems in addition to his last name, chief among these is that whenever he becomes really stressed and hears a loud sound he goes into a hypnotic state in which he immediately sets out to murder someone. After performing said deed and disposing of the body (his preferred method for this being fire) he comes too with no memory of what he has done, though does suspicious about these missing time experiences.
Bone is also concerned about finishing the concerto he has been working on in time for its debut performance. Bones patron is Sir Henry Chapman whose daughter Barbra has taken quite a shine to him. Now Barbra is a good looking women, though Bone becomes more enamored of nightclub singer Nette Longdon (Linda Darnell, Hollywood's "woman with the perfect face"). Longdon leads Bone on, though she is not attracted to him she has been successful at getting the composer to write popular songs for her. This is unfortunate for Bone as it distracts from work on his concerto causing stress, and there's construction going on outside his town house so loud nosies are common. Things are not to end well for Bone.
Despite its b-movie plot and the mostly just adequate performances, this is a stylish and very well executed film. Stand out among the sequences are two, one a massive bon fire on Guy Fawks Night in which Bone dispossess of Longdons body made up to look like an effigy, the other the fantastic burning of the concert hall as Bone debuts his concerto. Craig is good in the lead role, and unfortunately this would prove to be his last film. A husky man whose weight had proved an asset in earlier films such as Blood and Sand where he plays a pompous critic and The Black Swan where he is a notorious pirate attempting to reform, Craig longed to be a romantic lead and his crash dieting resulting in his death from a heart attack at the age of 31.
The film is one of Darnell's early 'bad girl performances' and she's adequate in it though mostly on screen for her looks. The most disappointing part would have to be George Sanders as a Scotland Yard doctor who attempts to help Craiger discover what he does during his missing time experiences. Sanders simply doesn't have enough to do, the role is too easy for him and he comes across as if on auto pilot. The film however is surprisingly good and what should be a C warrants a B-.
Bone is also concerned about finishing the concerto he has been working on in time for its debut performance. Bones patron is Sir Henry Chapman whose daughter Barbra has taken quite a shine to him. Now Barbra is a good looking women, though Bone becomes more enamored of nightclub singer Nette Longdon (Linda Darnell, Hollywood's "woman with the perfect face"). Longdon leads Bone on, though she is not attracted to him she has been successful at getting the composer to write popular songs for her. This is unfortunate for Bone as it distracts from work on his concerto causing stress, and there's construction going on outside his town house so loud nosies are common. Things are not to end well for Bone.
Despite its b-movie plot and the mostly just adequate performances, this is a stylish and very well executed film. Stand out among the sequences are two, one a massive bon fire on Guy Fawks Night in which Bone dispossess of Longdons body made up to look like an effigy, the other the fantastic burning of the concert hall as Bone debuts his concerto. Craig is good in the lead role, and unfortunately this would prove to be his last film. A husky man whose weight had proved an asset in earlier films such as Blood and Sand where he plays a pompous critic and The Black Swan where he is a notorious pirate attempting to reform, Craig longed to be a romantic lead and his crash dieting resulting in his death from a heart attack at the age of 31.
The film is one of Darnell's early 'bad girl performances' and she's adequate in it though mostly on screen for her looks. The most disappointing part would have to be George Sanders as a Scotland Yard doctor who attempts to help Craiger discover what he does during his missing time experiences. Sanders simply doesn't have enough to do, the role is too easy for him and he comes across as if on auto pilot. The film however is surprisingly good and what should be a C warrants a B-.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Sleuth (2007), In The Loop (2009), The Ghost Writer (2010), The Illusionist (2010)
Sleuth
Like a game of cat and mouse by Samuel Beckett. Kenneth Branagh adapts the play by
Anthony Shaffer , a story of a mystery (Michael Cain) writer and the out of work actor who is sleeping with his estranged wife (Judd Law). The whole thing takes place in a slate gray marble house, they play psychological games with each other. Sometimes they even seem to adopt different persona's in relation to these games, even border line homosexual ones. I enjoyed the first act, when the stylized dialogue was fresh, but after that it got confused and repetitive. Still kudos for being so different from most modern pictures. Grade: B-
In the Loop
Dry British comedy of political satire centers around political bureaucrats on the eve of an ill considered Iraq type war. It's bright in an understated way, but plays it too safe to be really thought provoking. The profanity really got oppressive in this one and brought it down a peg. Grade: B-
The Ghost Writer
An unusually good, unusually smart political mystery. Ewan McGregor is a nameless professional ghost writer who takes on the task of sprucing up the memories of a Tony Blair type former British PM, after the original ghostwriter turns up dead. Of course this means there's 'more then meets the eye' going on and McGregor ends up caught in a semi-complicated plot involving the CIA, weapons companies etc. Most of the action takes place on a Marthas Vineyard type island which provides a suitably creepy setting. This is not an explosion filled action thriller, but rather it is a smart mystery story, very enjoyable in part because we see so few of these kind of movies made anymore. Great cast.
Grade: A
The Illusionist (2010)
Sweet , beautiful looking animated feature from the creator of The Triplets of Belleville Sylvian Chomet. Based on an unproduced script by the beloved french comedian Jacques Tati, this is the Chaplinesque tale of struggling magician past his prime, and the young servant girl who adopts him as a surrogate father figure. Set mostly in Scotland in the year 1959 this film isn't as stylized as Belleville, but Chomet's signature is everywhere present, and did I mention its just beautiful. The story, the scenery the characters, all understated and sentimental in a good way. The occasional slow spot but on the whole a lovely movie that brought me almost to tears.
Grade: A-
Like a game of cat and mouse by Samuel Beckett. Kenneth Branagh adapts the play by
Anthony Shaffer , a story of a mystery (Michael Cain) writer and the out of work actor who is sleeping with his estranged wife (Judd Law). The whole thing takes place in a slate gray marble house, they play psychological games with each other. Sometimes they even seem to adopt different persona's in relation to these games, even border line homosexual ones. I enjoyed the first act, when the stylized dialogue was fresh, but after that it got confused and repetitive. Still kudos for being so different from most modern pictures. Grade: B-
In the Loop
Dry British comedy of political satire centers around political bureaucrats on the eve of an ill considered Iraq type war. It's bright in an understated way, but plays it too safe to be really thought provoking. The profanity really got oppressive in this one and brought it down a peg. Grade: B-
The Ghost Writer
An unusually good, unusually smart political mystery. Ewan McGregor is a nameless professional ghost writer who takes on the task of sprucing up the memories of a Tony Blair type former British PM, after the original ghostwriter turns up dead. Of course this means there's 'more then meets the eye' going on and McGregor ends up caught in a semi-complicated plot involving the CIA, weapons companies etc. Most of the action takes place on a Marthas Vineyard type island which provides a suitably creepy setting. This is not an explosion filled action thriller, but rather it is a smart mystery story, very enjoyable in part because we see so few of these kind of movies made anymore. Great cast.
Grade: A
The Illusionist (2010)
Sweet , beautiful looking animated feature from the creator of The Triplets of Belleville Sylvian Chomet. Based on an unproduced script by the beloved french comedian Jacques Tati, this is the Chaplinesque tale of struggling magician past his prime, and the young servant girl who adopts him as a surrogate father figure. Set mostly in Scotland in the year 1959 this film isn't as stylized as Belleville, but Chomet's signature is everywhere present, and did I mention its just beautiful. The story, the scenery the characters, all understated and sentimental in a good way. The occasional slow spot but on the whole a lovely movie that brought me almost to tears.
Grade: A-
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part I (2010), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 (2011), The Town (2010), Watch on the Rhine (1943)
When the first Harry Potter movie came out ten years ago I didn't think that the film series would be completed. I didn't think peoples interest would hold out, I suspected Potter was a fad, now we know that its firmly rooted in the cultural zeitgeist and it probably will be for some time to come. I'm impressed that they finished the series, and even more impressed with its consistent quality.
There is a lot of story to the Potter tale, a lot of characters and magical things to keep straight. At the beginning of Deathly Hollows, having not watched a Potter movie in about two years I had a hard time keeping things such as the secondary characters straight. But as I watched I began to remember more, and became immensely impressed with how everything tied together. Everything that was introduced before seemed to have a point, and in something of a rarity for a blockbuster series like this, the ending was actually worth waiting for.
The first part of Deathly Hollows had only one really good 'action sequence', the one in the Ministry of Magic. Much of the film is spent with Potter and friends in exile, we thusly get some slower moving sequences and a lot of brooding and teen angst, not my favorite part. Part 2 however was just excellent, even amazing in a way, everything it could have been. Voldemort never became a watered down villain, impressive considering how much he'd been built up; and seeing so many of the characters from the previous films making often unexpected semi-cameo reappearances was really rather enjoyable. Also that last battle at Hogwarts had for me more resonance then the famed battle at Minas Tirinth in The Lord of the Rings, you have more of a history with the place and characters in Potter and I thought it was just better (not the The Lord of the Rings isn't impressive). In the end while part I could have been a little stronger, part II was a total pay off.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part I Grade: B+
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part II Grade: A+
A kind of thematic follow up to his superior 2007 Boston crime drama Gone Baby Gone, director Ben Afflick's The Town is a solid enough action piece, with somewhat interesting characters, but simply lacking in the sense of grit and pathos of the earlier film. Afflick also plays the lead, the head of a group of masked robbers who have had a pretty successful run of bank and armored car heists (successful enough to have attracted the attention of the FBI and disappointingly dull agent Jon Hamm). During once such robbery a bank manager (Rebecca Hall, I like her) may have gained some unanticipated clues to the identity of one of the robbers (Jeremy Renner). Afflick decides to check on this, strikes up a conversation with the women at a laundry mat, and proceeds to fall in love with her. This complicates things.
The movies fine, though not as deep, reveling or even good as I think it wanted to be. Some good action sequences, but with the exception of Hall and Afflick none of the characters come alive in anything approaching a meaningful way, and even they aren't as affecting as they should have been. That's not to say this isn't a good movie, it's just not a great one.
The Town Grade: B
Based on Lillian Hellman's successful Broadway play, Watch on the Rhine is as boring as heck. Only a half ass effort is given to opening this thing up, still the vast majority of the action occurs in just a couple of rooms. This is the story of a German family involved in the anti-fascist movement, who return to the American wives (Bette Davis) childhood home outside of Washington D.C. (her father had been an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court). The family has one kid who thinks he's real smart and likes to talk all fancy, with the other two children being fairly generic. The father is noble but kind of stiff. In short the play (which premiered in 1940) was meant to bring home to American audiences the importance of the moral fight in Europe, three years later as a movie it just seems redundant. The action as it were mostly consists in trying to deal with a visiting Romanian Count who might inform the local German embassy of the freedom fighting family's presence. Lucile Watson was Oscar nominated, mostly for saying 'they woke us up out of the magnolias' or some such supposedly deep summation. Again this was boring as heck.
Watch on the Rhine Grade: F
There is a lot of story to the Potter tale, a lot of characters and magical things to keep straight. At the beginning of Deathly Hollows, having not watched a Potter movie in about two years I had a hard time keeping things such as the secondary characters straight. But as I watched I began to remember more, and became immensely impressed with how everything tied together. Everything that was introduced before seemed to have a point, and in something of a rarity for a blockbuster series like this, the ending was actually worth waiting for.
The first part of Deathly Hollows had only one really good 'action sequence', the one in the Ministry of Magic. Much of the film is spent with Potter and friends in exile, we thusly get some slower moving sequences and a lot of brooding and teen angst, not my favorite part. Part 2 however was just excellent, even amazing in a way, everything it could have been. Voldemort never became a watered down villain, impressive considering how much he'd been built up; and seeing so many of the characters from the previous films making often unexpected semi-cameo reappearances was really rather enjoyable. Also that last battle at Hogwarts had for me more resonance then the famed battle at Minas Tirinth in The Lord of the Rings, you have more of a history with the place and characters in Potter and I thought it was just better (not the The Lord of the Rings isn't impressive). In the end while part I could have been a little stronger, part II was a total pay off.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part I Grade: B+
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part II Grade: A+
A kind of thematic follow up to his superior 2007 Boston crime drama Gone Baby Gone, director Ben Afflick's The Town is a solid enough action piece, with somewhat interesting characters, but simply lacking in the sense of grit and pathos of the earlier film. Afflick also plays the lead, the head of a group of masked robbers who have had a pretty successful run of bank and armored car heists (successful enough to have attracted the attention of the FBI and disappointingly dull agent Jon Hamm). During once such robbery a bank manager (Rebecca Hall, I like her) may have gained some unanticipated clues to the identity of one of the robbers (Jeremy Renner). Afflick decides to check on this, strikes up a conversation with the women at a laundry mat, and proceeds to fall in love with her. This complicates things.
The movies fine, though not as deep, reveling or even good as I think it wanted to be. Some good action sequences, but with the exception of Hall and Afflick none of the characters come alive in anything approaching a meaningful way, and even they aren't as affecting as they should have been. That's not to say this isn't a good movie, it's just not a great one.
The Town Grade: B
Based on Lillian Hellman's successful Broadway play, Watch on the Rhine is as boring as heck. Only a half ass effort is given to opening this thing up, still the vast majority of the action occurs in just a couple of rooms. This is the story of a German family involved in the anti-fascist movement, who return to the American wives (Bette Davis) childhood home outside of Washington D.C. (her father had been an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court). The family has one kid who thinks he's real smart and likes to talk all fancy, with the other two children being fairly generic. The father is noble but kind of stiff. In short the play (which premiered in 1940) was meant to bring home to American audiences the importance of the moral fight in Europe, three years later as a movie it just seems redundant. The action as it were mostly consists in trying to deal with a visiting Romanian Count who might inform the local German embassy of the freedom fighting family's presence. Lucile Watson was Oscar nominated, mostly for saying 'they woke us up out of the magnolias' or some such supposedly deep summation. Again this was boring as heck.
Watch on the Rhine Grade: F
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
The Docks of New York (1928), Fantastic Planet (1973), Hobo with a Shotgun (2011), The Unholy Three (1930)
Someone once commented that it was a shame that sound film arrived when it did because the silents were just starting to get good. It is true that most American silent films of real artistic merit (with the exception of the comedies) where not produced until about 1925-28. Artistically The Docks of New York certainly has a handsome look, gritty, it felt as though the entire production was shoot through a lite film of oil. Even though its director Josef von Sternberg was Austrian born the film never quite crosses over into the preferred Germanic surrealist style of the time. While the sets and look are great the plot and characters are thin, which is pretty consistently the case with silent film. At first I thought the movie might have been a commentary on American moral degeneration in the 1920's, hey the stern preacher of few (title card) words even looked a little like Calvin Coolidge. Later I learned that von Sternberg made a point of never making a 'message pictures', so I guess suicidal girl, horny sailors and bitter murders wife are all just there to be taken as they are, judgmentless? Well the film makes a late concession to happy endings, but to be honest I never really cared for the 1D characters in this film, so it might actually have been more satisfying had things all ended with more misery.
Grade: C-
It's Salvador Dali meets The Yellow Submarine meets the Animated Star Trek. It's "Monty Pyhton meets Pink Floyd's The Wall." Its Luis Bunuel meets The Martian Chronicles. It's Fantastic Planet.
A film festival favorite at the time of its release, the Czechoslovakian made Fantastic Planet is really just your standard slave revolt story. Humans, called Oms, have somehow been transplanted to the home world of the Draags, giant blue people obsessed with meditation (wait till you find out why). Some Oms are kept as pets, while others live in the wild as feuding tribes. Ter is the pet Omn of the Draag prime ministers daughter, Draags age a week for each human year so Ter grows up around this adolescent until he escapes at roughly age twenty. Having garnered much Draag knowledge Ter could be real helpful to his fellow Oms, where it not for religious superstition against such knowledge. When the Draags communistic government orders a "de-Omification" and kill 'the Wizard' among others, Ter leads a group of survivors to an abandoned rocket depot were they construct a ship to take them to the Draags sacred moon, otherwise known as Fantastic plant.
What happens at the Fantastic plant is very odd, and deserving of the descriptions given in the first paragraph. But the part of the film on Draag is surprisingly engaging. Again the stories simple, but very engaging perhaps because of its simplicity and quasi-earnestness. The strange flora and fauna on Draag are truly alien and kind of a joy to watch. Though the animations odd, sometimes the people are almost chalk drawing like, I was won over by the shear differentness of this picture.
Grade: A-
(The) 'Hobo With a Shotgun' first made his appearance as a 'fake trailer' attached to the Canadian release of Grindhouse in 2007. The premise is simple, a poor hobo, who just wants to buy a lawnmower, takes up the cause of vigilante justice with the aid of his trusty shotgun.
The nameless hobo (Rutger Hauer) rides the rails into Hope Town, a crime infested burg where seemingly anything goes (think the alternate Hill Valley in Back to the Future II, only worse). This mayhem is primarily organized by one Drake (Brian Downey, who plays him as a kind of variation on Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth character in Blue Velvet). I guess Drake is a sort of crime lord and along with his two sons (the Uday and Qusay to his Sadam) enjoys imprisoning people in altered sewer caps and ripping there heads off with the aid of rope and automobile, along with general rapping and pillaging.
Even for an exploitation picture I found this movie ultra violent. It's gory, and can be cruel and gross to excess. The hobo befriends a young prostitute (Molly Dunsworth) who he seems to think is a teacher, and in the end they face off in a final battle with Drake, surviving son, the crooked police department and a couple of bounty hunters known as The Plague. You want to like it, you want it to be tongue-in-check, and it is, buts its also disgusting. I couldn't make up my mind about this one.
Grade: C
The 1925 silent version of The Unholy Three had been a success for 'man of a thousand faces' Lon Chaney, so why not make a sound version with the same star five years later. In his final role before his death (released seven weeks prior to his dying of a throat hemorrhage), Chaney is a crime minded ventriloquist. He teams up with the strong man and midget when there carnival is closed down, and with the help of his girl friend (the really attractive Lila Lee) they set up shop with a bird shop.
Of course the bird shop is a cover, it allows them to meet wealthy bird patrons who they might want to rob. To hide there identities they take on the roles of a grandmother (Chaney in drag), her son in law (strong man Ivan Linow in a suite) and a little baby (Harry Earl, two years before his signature role in Freaks), Lee posses as Chaney granddaughter. Lee falls in love with the rather clueless Hector McDonald (Elliott Nugent), who is working as a clerk in the bird store while he goes to night school. A burglary goes wrong, a rich guy dies, Hector is implicated, and Lee begs Chaney to do the right thing.... He does. This was okay, not great but enjoyable, benefits from the a-typical cast.
Grade: C
Grade: C-
It's Salvador Dali meets The Yellow Submarine meets the Animated Star Trek. It's "Monty Pyhton meets Pink Floyd's The Wall." Its Luis Bunuel meets The Martian Chronicles. It's Fantastic Planet.
A film festival favorite at the time of its release, the Czechoslovakian made Fantastic Planet is really just your standard slave revolt story. Humans, called Oms, have somehow been transplanted to the home world of the Draags, giant blue people obsessed with meditation (wait till you find out why). Some Oms are kept as pets, while others live in the wild as feuding tribes. Ter is the pet Omn of the Draag prime ministers daughter, Draags age a week for each human year so Ter grows up around this adolescent until he escapes at roughly age twenty. Having garnered much Draag knowledge Ter could be real helpful to his fellow Oms, where it not for religious superstition against such knowledge. When the Draags communistic government orders a "de-Omification" and kill 'the Wizard' among others, Ter leads a group of survivors to an abandoned rocket depot were they construct a ship to take them to the Draags sacred moon, otherwise known as Fantastic plant.
What happens at the Fantastic plant is very odd, and deserving of the descriptions given in the first paragraph. But the part of the film on Draag is surprisingly engaging. Again the stories simple, but very engaging perhaps because of its simplicity and quasi-earnestness. The strange flora and fauna on Draag are truly alien and kind of a joy to watch. Though the animations odd, sometimes the people are almost chalk drawing like, I was won over by the shear differentness of this picture.
Grade: A-
(The) 'Hobo With a Shotgun' first made his appearance as a 'fake trailer' attached to the Canadian release of Grindhouse in 2007. The premise is simple, a poor hobo, who just wants to buy a lawnmower, takes up the cause of vigilante justice with the aid of his trusty shotgun.
The nameless hobo (Rutger Hauer) rides the rails into Hope Town, a crime infested burg where seemingly anything goes (think the alternate Hill Valley in Back to the Future II, only worse). This mayhem is primarily organized by one Drake (Brian Downey, who plays him as a kind of variation on Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth character in Blue Velvet). I guess Drake is a sort of crime lord and along with his two sons (the Uday and Qusay to his Sadam) enjoys imprisoning people in altered sewer caps and ripping there heads off with the aid of rope and automobile, along with general rapping and pillaging.
Even for an exploitation picture I found this movie ultra violent. It's gory, and can be cruel and gross to excess. The hobo befriends a young prostitute (Molly Dunsworth) who he seems to think is a teacher, and in the end they face off in a final battle with Drake, surviving son, the crooked police department and a couple of bounty hunters known as The Plague. You want to like it, you want it to be tongue-in-check, and it is, buts its also disgusting. I couldn't make up my mind about this one.
Grade: C
The 1925 silent version of The Unholy Three had been a success for 'man of a thousand faces' Lon Chaney, so why not make a sound version with the same star five years later. In his final role before his death (released seven weeks prior to his dying of a throat hemorrhage), Chaney is a crime minded ventriloquist. He teams up with the strong man and midget when there carnival is closed down, and with the help of his girl friend (the really attractive Lila Lee) they set up shop with a bird shop.
Of course the bird shop is a cover, it allows them to meet wealthy bird patrons who they might want to rob. To hide there identities they take on the roles of a grandmother (Chaney in drag), her son in law (strong man Ivan Linow in a suite) and a little baby (Harry Earl, two years before his signature role in Freaks), Lee posses as Chaney granddaughter. Lee falls in love with the rather clueless Hector McDonald (Elliott Nugent), who is working as a clerk in the bird store while he goes to night school. A burglary goes wrong, a rich guy dies, Hector is implicated, and Lee begs Chaney to do the right thing.... He does. This was okay, not great but enjoyable, benefits from the a-typical cast.
Grade: C
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Whirlpool (1949), Angel Face (1952), River of No Return (1954)
It was the movie Laura that established Otto Preminger as a film director to be reckoned with. Originally slated to be a B picture it became a huge hit and an important proto-noir; while set among the upper classes of New York it still helped to establish certain thematic and stylistic elements, and to a lesser extent the suspense that would come to characterize the emerging genera. Though Preminger cast a wide net in terms of his directorial projects, he would return to noir film making a number of times. Perhaps the best of these is Fallen Angel, staring Laura's male lead Dana Andrews. Perhaps the worst of these is Whirlpool.
Reuniting the director with actress Gene Tierney, who had been elevated to A-list stardom with her title role in Laura, here the actress seems flat where she had previously been vivid. While many have commented that over time Tierney improved in her acting, even if just in her limited range, Whirlpool seems like a definite back track. She's largely going through the motions, and some of her performance is bad, especially when she gets into hysterics. Part of this is the sub par script, in which Tierney's character is not fully consistent, and goes through a few rather jarring emotive and motivational turns, and this is not including the times she's suppose to be hypnotized.
You see that's what this movie is about, hypnotism, and its use in perpetrating and scapegoating a murder. The hypnotism is performed by Jose Ferrer, who portrays a George Sanders type character who decides to use Tierney as a fall gal for the murder of his former lover and swindle partner Barbara O'Neil. Ferrer chooses to use Tierney in his murder scheme as she has a bit of a shop lifting problem and is willing to submit to 'therapeutic hypnosis', and her husband is O'Neil's psychologist, and hence posses recordings of therapy sessions that incriminate Ferrer, and which a brain washed Tierney can easily steal. Speaking of the psychologist husband he is played by Richard Conte, a largely tough guy actor who feels very miscast in this role. I just don't buy him as the sensitive type, so how could be such a successful psychologist, (yet one who somehow misses his wife's father complex induced shoplifting).
Conte first thinks he's been betrayed by his wife, who he's been lead to believe is having an affair with Ferrer. He soon figures it out however, but now he must somehow find those missing recordings. But How? Well take his wife back to the scene of the crime and see if she recovers some of her memories, how else. The resolution includes a contorted, yea downright stupid plot contrivance where Feerer hypnotizes himself so as to arise from his hospital bed (he scheduled surgery as cover for the murder) and once again (as he did for the murder itself) 'secretly' (how could you do this secretly?) make his way to Barbara O'Neils house to retrieve the incriminating recordings hidden there in. He ends up dying. Charles Bickford plays the police detective assigned to the case who in a nice middle ground portrayal is neither stupid nor brilliant at his job.
A more successful noir outing for Preminger was Angel Face. The plot is fairly standard noir, the relationship between Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmions has some parallels to both the Bogart/Bacell relationship in The Big Sleep, as well (to a lesser extent) as the Stanwyk/McMurry relationship in Double Indemnity. It does what it dose well, but like the critics of the time I felt that I had 'been there and done that', and do not afford the film the same forgotten gem statues as many film buffs. The things I liked most about this are Jean Simmons (love that hair) and Leon Ames as the unscrupulous defense attorney (Jim Backus plays a refreshingly laid back district attorney).
Speaking of Simmons the reason Preminger was brought in to make this movie has to do with her. Having been given a contract by RKO but spurning the romantic advances of the studio's owner (and notorious womanizer) Howard Hughs, Simmons had become a persona non grata. Simmons had one film left in her contract which had to be made before a fast approaching deadline, Preminger was known as an efficient director capable of making a film that would come in on time and on budget, so Hughs recruited him to come in and film this noir in less then a month (I believe there were only about 18 spent shooting). Hughs didn't care how well it turned out, he just wanted it done and Simmons off the payroll. It did turn out fairly well, and boasts a rather quick and somewhat surprising ending, though through most of the film you just know where its going.
Speaking of knowing where a films going how about River of No Return. Robert Mitchum again, this time a western, kind of a weird property for the very European Otto Preminger to be helming. At the request of his long time friend and patron Daryl F. Zanuck, and even though by this time Preminger was no longer under contract at Fox, he agreed to take the job as a favour. Preminger was just then begining what would prove to be a long and successful stint as an independent producer/director and he certainly didn't need the job. He also quickly determined that he didn't need the stress of working with the famously difficult Marlyn Monroe, who plays the sultry saloon singer who is destined to end up with Mitchum (Mitchums kind of rough with her, one scene comes close to being a near rap).
For most of the movie Mitchum, Monroe and Tommy Rettig (the child actor who plays Mitchcum's son and who Monroe apparently became quite attached to on the set), are rafting down 'The River of No Return' (presumably the Salmon River of Idaho which is also known by that name). They are in pursuit of Monroe's lover Rory Calhoun, who cost Mitchum his farm and horse, and are simultaneously being pursued by Indians (I like how the Indians have no apparent motivation for this, they just seem to want to kill these people). Much if not all of the rafting scenes are done in the studio pool, and the back screen projection process employed doesn't work and makes the whole thing look very fake. What isn't fake is Monroe's wet clothes sticking tightly to her figure.
The River of No Return is most certainly not a great movie, but it doesn't try to be and is likable. While Henry Hathaway would have been a more obvious choice to direct this, Otto Preminger does a sufficiently good job, and gets to play in the wide screen format that he would later do so much memorable work in.
These three are most certainly among Preminger's lesser works, but they mostly constitute a sort of middle ground between his great triumphs (like Laura, and Anatomy of Murder) and his almost unwatchable mistakes (The Man With the Golden Arm, Bunny Lake is Missing).
Whirlpool: D+
Angel Face: C+
River of No Return: B-
Reuniting the director with actress Gene Tierney, who had been elevated to A-list stardom with her title role in Laura, here the actress seems flat where she had previously been vivid. While many have commented that over time Tierney improved in her acting, even if just in her limited range, Whirlpool seems like a definite back track. She's largely going through the motions, and some of her performance is bad, especially when she gets into hysterics. Part of this is the sub par script, in which Tierney's character is not fully consistent, and goes through a few rather jarring emotive and motivational turns, and this is not including the times she's suppose to be hypnotized.
You see that's what this movie is about, hypnotism, and its use in perpetrating and scapegoating a murder. The hypnotism is performed by Jose Ferrer, who portrays a George Sanders type character who decides to use Tierney as a fall gal for the murder of his former lover and swindle partner Barbara O'Neil. Ferrer chooses to use Tierney in his murder scheme as she has a bit of a shop lifting problem and is willing to submit to 'therapeutic hypnosis', and her husband is O'Neil's psychologist, and hence posses recordings of therapy sessions that incriminate Ferrer, and which a brain washed Tierney can easily steal. Speaking of the psychologist husband he is played by Richard Conte, a largely tough guy actor who feels very miscast in this role. I just don't buy him as the sensitive type, so how could be such a successful psychologist, (yet one who somehow misses his wife's father complex induced shoplifting).
Conte first thinks he's been betrayed by his wife, who he's been lead to believe is having an affair with Ferrer. He soon figures it out however, but now he must somehow find those missing recordings. But How? Well take his wife back to the scene of the crime and see if she recovers some of her memories, how else. The resolution includes a contorted, yea downright stupid plot contrivance where Feerer hypnotizes himself so as to arise from his hospital bed (he scheduled surgery as cover for the murder) and once again (as he did for the murder itself) 'secretly' (how could you do this secretly?) make his way to Barbara O'Neils house to retrieve the incriminating recordings hidden there in. He ends up dying. Charles Bickford plays the police detective assigned to the case who in a nice middle ground portrayal is neither stupid nor brilliant at his job.
A more successful noir outing for Preminger was Angel Face. The plot is fairly standard noir, the relationship between Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmions has some parallels to both the Bogart/Bacell relationship in The Big Sleep, as well (to a lesser extent) as the Stanwyk/McMurry relationship in Double Indemnity. It does what it dose well, but like the critics of the time I felt that I had 'been there and done that', and do not afford the film the same forgotten gem statues as many film buffs. The things I liked most about this are Jean Simmons (love that hair) and Leon Ames as the unscrupulous defense attorney (Jim Backus plays a refreshingly laid back district attorney).
Speaking of Simmons the reason Preminger was brought in to make this movie has to do with her. Having been given a contract by RKO but spurning the romantic advances of the studio's owner (and notorious womanizer) Howard Hughs, Simmons had become a persona non grata. Simmons had one film left in her contract which had to be made before a fast approaching deadline, Preminger was known as an efficient director capable of making a film that would come in on time and on budget, so Hughs recruited him to come in and film this noir in less then a month (I believe there were only about 18 spent shooting). Hughs didn't care how well it turned out, he just wanted it done and Simmons off the payroll. It did turn out fairly well, and boasts a rather quick and somewhat surprising ending, though through most of the film you just know where its going.
Speaking of knowing where a films going how about River of No Return. Robert Mitchum again, this time a western, kind of a weird property for the very European Otto Preminger to be helming. At the request of his long time friend and patron Daryl F. Zanuck, and even though by this time Preminger was no longer under contract at Fox, he agreed to take the job as a favour. Preminger was just then begining what would prove to be a long and successful stint as an independent producer/director and he certainly didn't need the job. He also quickly determined that he didn't need the stress of working with the famously difficult Marlyn Monroe, who plays the sultry saloon singer who is destined to end up with Mitchum (Mitchums kind of rough with her, one scene comes close to being a near rap).
For most of the movie Mitchum, Monroe and Tommy Rettig (the child actor who plays Mitchcum's son and who Monroe apparently became quite attached to on the set), are rafting down 'The River of No Return' (presumably the Salmon River of Idaho which is also known by that name). They are in pursuit of Monroe's lover Rory Calhoun, who cost Mitchum his farm and horse, and are simultaneously being pursued by Indians (I like how the Indians have no apparent motivation for this, they just seem to want to kill these people). Much if not all of the rafting scenes are done in the studio pool, and the back screen projection process employed doesn't work and makes the whole thing look very fake. What isn't fake is Monroe's wet clothes sticking tightly to her figure.
The River of No Return is most certainly not a great movie, but it doesn't try to be and is likable. While Henry Hathaway would have been a more obvious choice to direct this, Otto Preminger does a sufficiently good job, and gets to play in the wide screen format that he would later do so much memorable work in.
These three are most certainly among Preminger's lesser works, but they mostly constitute a sort of middle ground between his great triumphs (like Laura, and Anatomy of Murder) and his almost unwatchable mistakes (The Man With the Golden Arm, Bunny Lake is Missing).
Whirlpool: D+
Angel Face: C+
River of No Return: B-
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Strangers in 7A (1972), The Great Buck Howard (2008), Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Strangers in 7A
Television movie staring Andy Griffith as a downsized industrial worker turned building superintendent and Ida Lupino as his wife. They are a middle aged couple, no children, just barley making it by financially and in a vaguely strained relationship. When Ida takes a trip to go visit her sister Griffith stops in at the local bar where he is quickly seduced by a young women. The women claims to have no place to stay and that she is unable to afford a hotel room, after some near pouty faced pleading Griffith agrees to let her stay in an apartment at his building whose tenets are travailing for the 4th of July holiday. Griffith becomes convinced that the women wants to sleep with him and isn't exactly against this idea, but alas its all a rouse.
Shortly after getting to the aforementioned apartment the young women's companions barge in. They are a group of disgruntled Vietnam veterans who insist they just need a place to stay for a few days. They threaten to reveal to Griffiths wife his attempted affair if he doesn't keep quite. Lupino returns from her trip early, and some tenets are starting to report noises from the supposedly vacant apartment. Griffith eventually goes to check this out and discovers that the vets are planing to rob the bank next door. They capture Griffith, and eventually his wife and hold them captive pending there caper. But the robbery goes wrong, one of the men is killed by the police, and the leader Brandon kill his other partner in spit, while the young lady declares 'she can't live like this anymore' and abandons Brandon as well.
Brandon decides to hold the building hostage with a bomb, but of course he is incapacitated by Griffith who then successfully defuses the bomb. The action is followed by a coda in which Griffith and Lupinos relationship is shown to have been set aright. Even given that Griffiths heroism makes Lupino forgive his attempted affair (she figures it out), why is Griffith allowed to keep his job as superintended? I mean he's kind of at fault, he let the bad guys in and didn't inform the authorities out of fear of his wife. The apartment the bad guys hid in is damaged, and big wholes blown in the neighbouring bank, not to mention that everyone in the building was almost blown up, yet somehow all is forgiven.
Though given his heroism I suppose a case can be made for Griffith's job retention, but why was he involved in the first place? The bad guys knew about the empty apartment before hand and had no trouble entering the building, so why did they need to involve Griffith? Presumably they could have snuck in on there own, they had no problem opening the apartment door without a key, why bring Griffith in as a potential informant? Was it just in case tenets reported sounds in that vacant apartment? Considering the clandestine nature of there enterprise you'd think they could have kept things quite? Lastly even though the Vietnam vet angel reeked of an attempt to keep this fairly conventional caper film 'current', the dichotomy between how the poor Vietnam vets and Griffiths poor World War II vet handle there respective economic woes is kind of interesting.
Grade: C-
The Great Buck Howard
Largely directionless law school drop out Colin Hanks takes a job as the personal assistant to fading illusionist Buck Howard (John Malkovich). Writer director Sean McGinly based Howard loosely on famed illusionist The Amazing Kreskin, for whom he once worked. While Howard's tricks and on stage personality are taken largely from Kreskin, his off stage personality and personal story are given a much darker hugh. Howard easily flys off the handle, is a megalomaniac and possibly a closet homosexual (weird strained relationship with Star Treks George Taki).
The film never opens up like I thought it would, the trailers presented the film as being about the magicans largely unexpected late in life comeback, but this is only a small part of the film, maybe 10-15 minutes of screen time before he's back performing at small dive venues. Colin Hanks is likable enough, but not that interesting, and other then as an excuse for Malkovich hamming there doesn't seem to be much of a point to this film. Tom Hanks was brought in to play his son Colin's father; I think largely this was done in an effort to lend the film some more (and needed) gravities. Howard is just too broad to make for a good character study, and the central plot (as it were) would have worked better as a short story. Not so great.
Grade: C-
Drag Me to Hell
Before he was best known for the Spider Man trilogy, Sami Raimi was perhaps best known for the cult classic Evil Dead trilogy. Raimi returns to his roots in this slightly camp horror film about a young banker (Alison Lohman) who refuses to grant an old gypsy women a third extension on her mortgage, and to ill effect. The gypsy places a cure on Lohman who becomes in grave danger of being dragged to Hell. Strange things start to happen, most of which only Alison can see. Her boyfriend Justin Long is not a believer but tries to stay supportive, so Ms. Lohman gets most of her help in dealing with the Lamia demon who is after her soul from fortune teller Dileep Rao. Out matched Dileep recommends another psychic (Adriana Barraza) who has dealt with the Lamia before (this is depicted in the films brief prologue). Lohman has three days to defeat the Lamia before she's to be drug down to hell, and a lot of the movie explores how much this good at heart character is willing to do keep out of Hades (she even has an opportunity at one point to send a slimy co-worker to hell in her sted, but will she do it?)
Unfortunately most of this movie is a little to slow and at times downright boring. Never really scary or really tongue-in-cheek it therefore fails on both counts. Lohman is cute, and the many closes up of her face (sometimes happy but generally ranging for slightly distressed to horror stricken) are a plus, but not quite enough. This movie reminded me about Alison Lohman, who I'd really like to see in more things, but not necessarily tormented by demons.
Grade: C-
Television movie staring Andy Griffith as a downsized industrial worker turned building superintendent and Ida Lupino as his wife. They are a middle aged couple, no children, just barley making it by financially and in a vaguely strained relationship. When Ida takes a trip to go visit her sister Griffith stops in at the local bar where he is quickly seduced by a young women. The women claims to have no place to stay and that she is unable to afford a hotel room, after some near pouty faced pleading Griffith agrees to let her stay in an apartment at his building whose tenets are travailing for the 4th of July holiday. Griffith becomes convinced that the women wants to sleep with him and isn't exactly against this idea, but alas its all a rouse.
Shortly after getting to the aforementioned apartment the young women's companions barge in. They are a group of disgruntled Vietnam veterans who insist they just need a place to stay for a few days. They threaten to reveal to Griffiths wife his attempted affair if he doesn't keep quite. Lupino returns from her trip early, and some tenets are starting to report noises from the supposedly vacant apartment. Griffith eventually goes to check this out and discovers that the vets are planing to rob the bank next door. They capture Griffith, and eventually his wife and hold them captive pending there caper. But the robbery goes wrong, one of the men is killed by the police, and the leader Brandon kill his other partner in spit, while the young lady declares 'she can't live like this anymore' and abandons Brandon as well.
Brandon decides to hold the building hostage with a bomb, but of course he is incapacitated by Griffith who then successfully defuses the bomb. The action is followed by a coda in which Griffith and Lupinos relationship is shown to have been set aright. Even given that Griffiths heroism makes Lupino forgive his attempted affair (she figures it out), why is Griffith allowed to keep his job as superintended? I mean he's kind of at fault, he let the bad guys in and didn't inform the authorities out of fear of his wife. The apartment the bad guys hid in is damaged, and big wholes blown in the neighbouring bank, not to mention that everyone in the building was almost blown up, yet somehow all is forgiven.
Though given his heroism I suppose a case can be made for Griffith's job retention, but why was he involved in the first place? The bad guys knew about the empty apartment before hand and had no trouble entering the building, so why did they need to involve Griffith? Presumably they could have snuck in on there own, they had no problem opening the apartment door without a key, why bring Griffith in as a potential informant? Was it just in case tenets reported sounds in that vacant apartment? Considering the clandestine nature of there enterprise you'd think they could have kept things quite? Lastly even though the Vietnam vet angel reeked of an attempt to keep this fairly conventional caper film 'current', the dichotomy between how the poor Vietnam vets and Griffiths poor World War II vet handle there respective economic woes is kind of interesting.
Grade: C-
The Great Buck Howard
Largely directionless law school drop out Colin Hanks takes a job as the personal assistant to fading illusionist Buck Howard (John Malkovich). Writer director Sean McGinly based Howard loosely on famed illusionist The Amazing Kreskin, for whom he once worked. While Howard's tricks and on stage personality are taken largely from Kreskin, his off stage personality and personal story are given a much darker hugh. Howard easily flys off the handle, is a megalomaniac and possibly a closet homosexual (weird strained relationship with Star Treks George Taki).
The film never opens up like I thought it would, the trailers presented the film as being about the magicans largely unexpected late in life comeback, but this is only a small part of the film, maybe 10-15 minutes of screen time before he's back performing at small dive venues. Colin Hanks is likable enough, but not that interesting, and other then as an excuse for Malkovich hamming there doesn't seem to be much of a point to this film. Tom Hanks was brought in to play his son Colin's father; I think largely this was done in an effort to lend the film some more (and needed) gravities. Howard is just too broad to make for a good character study, and the central plot (as it were) would have worked better as a short story. Not so great.
Grade: C-
Drag Me to Hell
Before he was best known for the Spider Man trilogy, Sami Raimi was perhaps best known for the cult classic Evil Dead trilogy. Raimi returns to his roots in this slightly camp horror film about a young banker (Alison Lohman) who refuses to grant an old gypsy women a third extension on her mortgage, and to ill effect. The gypsy places a cure on Lohman who becomes in grave danger of being dragged to Hell. Strange things start to happen, most of which only Alison can see. Her boyfriend Justin Long is not a believer but tries to stay supportive, so Ms. Lohman gets most of her help in dealing with the Lamia demon who is after her soul from fortune teller Dileep Rao. Out matched Dileep recommends another psychic (Adriana Barraza) who has dealt with the Lamia before (this is depicted in the films brief prologue). Lohman has three days to defeat the Lamia before she's to be drug down to hell, and a lot of the movie explores how much this good at heart character is willing to do keep out of Hades (she even has an opportunity at one point to send a slimy co-worker to hell in her sted, but will she do it?)
Unfortunately most of this movie is a little to slow and at times downright boring. Never really scary or really tongue-in-cheek it therefore fails on both counts. Lohman is cute, and the many closes up of her face (sometimes happy but generally ranging for slightly distressed to horror stricken) are a plus, but not quite enough. This movie reminded me about Alison Lohman, who I'd really like to see in more things, but not necessarily tormented by demons.
Grade: C-
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