Jaws (1975)

Besides being the film that basically launched Steven Spielberg's career, Jaws is also generally recognized as the film that inaugurated the now ubiquitous tradition of the summer blockbuster. Universal didn't have a ton of confidence in this film and elected to basically dump it in mid June (official resale date was June 20, 1975, exactly forty years ago last Saturday) with summer then considered by the industry the time of year when people were least likely to go to the movies. Well they were wrong, Jaws through a quark of timing and talent, and even technical problems (the mechanical sharks used in the film routinely broke down, forcing young Spielberg to film scenes from the sharks point of view to save both time and money, thus unintentionally resulting in some of the most iconic shots in film history), would quickly become the most money making movie of all time, not to be surpassed until the equally unexpected mega success of Star Wars two years later. For good or for ill  or a little of both 'the summer blockbuster' has been a staple of movie production and release scheduling ever since.

Based on the 1974 novel of the same name by Peter Benchley, Jaws is the story of a Massachusetts island community best by a people hungry great white during the height of the summer vacation season, and efforts of principally three men, the local sheriff (Roy Scheider) an expert shark hunter (Robert Shaw) and a young oceanographer (Richard Dreyfuss) to find and kill the beast. The film can most easily be divided into those two parts, the first part focusing on the gradually increasing incidents of shark attacks near the town of Amity and the reactions of both locals and visitors, and the second half the three leads on a small boat hunting down, and then doing prolonged battle with the deadly great white. There is dryish humor and even a little poignancy throughout, and a goodly number of jump in your seat scares. I had never seen this movie in its entirety so when a good opportunity to see the film in the theater came up I took it, it was well worth it, the big screen with an audience is really the best medium for this movie, so if you ever have a chance I highly recommend that you see it this way.

Jaws is one of those rare films that is also a legitimate turning point in cinema history, Before Jaws and After Jaws would be as good a system as any to provide world cinema with a historic axis. Jaws truly lives up to the hype that's grown around it and is an absolute must see for the self respecting movie lover. ****

Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)

Released in May of 1939, before the Second World War had even begun in Europe, Confessions of a Nazi Spy has the distinction of being the first blatantly anti-Nazi film to be produced by a major Hollywood film studio (Warner Brothers). Based on the true story of a Nazi spy ring uncovered in the U.S. by the FBI, acting on a tip from the British, the film feels more like an expose with dramatic reenactments then it does a typical movie of the period, at least until Edward G. Robinson shows up half way through to lead the Bureaus spy busting. In light of current debates over government domestic surveillance its interesting to note that at the time this Nazi spy ring came to light (1937-1938) the U.S. had essentially no domestic counter intelligence apparatus, with the FBI being brought in because there was no one else equipped to persue the case, and at least as depicted in the film not everyone in that agency felt that this was something they aught to be doing. Dramatically uneven the film benefits from having both historic and curio value, as well as Edward G Robinson whom I always enjoying seeing outsmart people in movies. **1/2

I Married a Woman (1958)

Part of the very brief American film career of "the British Marylyn Monroe" Diana Dors. Filmed in 1956 it was not actually released until 1958 because the studio that made it, RKO, was falling apart at the time and ending up closing entirely, its remaining films to be distributed by others. Nearly as generic as its name I Married a Women plays very much like the situation comedy's of its day, but with just a little added sex appeal. Dors plays the sexy young wife of a New York adman (George Gobels, whose talent impressively transcends the little he's given to work with), she just wants to tell her husband that she's pregnant, but he's preoccupied trying to save an important account at work, so predictably a series comic misunderstanding prevents George from learning he's a father to be until the last few minutes of the picture. John Wayne of all people actually has a cameo in this movie, the lead couple goes to see one of his films which amusingly is shown in color while the rest of the picture is in black and white, this is probably the films creative high point. Likable in spite of its self I Married a Women has some definite value as curio. **1/2

A Deadly Adoption (2015)

A Deadly Adoption is perhaps the driest meta-comedy I have ever seen. Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig simply made 'a Lifetime movie', and that's the joke, with different leads it would be all but indistinguishable from anything else produced by the network. Its that kind of vanity project whose primary purpose was to amuse the people that made it, most people who watch this are going to be a little confused by it. The fact that The Lifetime Network was apparently in on the joke and paid for it makes A Deadly Adoption kind of awesome. ***

Insurgent (2015)

Insurgent is the second entry in the film adaptions of writer Veronica Roth's Divergent series. The story starts something like five days after the end of events in the first movie, so its a very direct continuation of the story, but not at all a repeat of it, its very much its own thing. I enjoyed the first movie and enjoyed this one, but they are both rather straight forward films to the point that they don't have a lot I feel like analyzing. It did leave me excited at the end that in the forth coming films (it looks life the third book of the trilogy will be made into two movies, not an uncommon choice when it comes to wrapping up popular young adult franchises) we will finally get to see what's beyond the wall surrounding the future Chicago that has been the setting of the first two films. Anyway this film not only meet, but I'd say slightly exceeded my expectations for it. Good job. ***

Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974)

This movie is based on a 1963 novel called 'The Chase' so that should give you a pretty good idea of what its about, It's a kind of Bonnie (Susan George) and Clyde (Peter Fonda) and Clyde (Adam Roarke) story, only the last Clyde for some reason don't warrant inclusion in the title. Enjoyable in a Smokey and the Bandit type way, the film is apparently a particular favorite of writer/director Quentin Tarantino who makes direct reference to it in his film Death Proof. Certainly better then average Grind-house fair, to me it was sufficiently entertaining but not exceptional. **1/2

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Gosford Park (2001)

Gosford Park, director Robert Altman's mesh of Upstairs, Downstairs and Agatha Christie sensibilities is a film that I always assumed would be good, but didn't place much of a priority on seeing. Well I finally saw it and don't know why I waited so long. I loved this film, it just really worked. The cast is large and great, the plot and structure may seem to ramble but is actually very finally and subtly crafted. The music is pretty, the sets beautiful, the whole aura of the proceedings comfortably old fashioned yet surprisingly fresh. It was just a great watch I can't praise it highly enough. Maybe this is a sign I need to buckle under and watch Downton Abbey. ****

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Director George Miller's "revisiting" of his Mad Max franchise looks and feels like it should be based on graphic novel but it wasn't, its also way different from the Babe and Happy Feet movies that Miller's been making for the last 20ish years. I admit I haven't seen any of the earlier Mad Max films, in fact I didn't even know that this movie had the same director as those until just now. Fury Road has gotten tremendously good word of mouth among people with whom I am acquainted, and while this is not exactly the kind of thing I'd usually bother to see in a theater I thought I'd give it a chance.

Now I'm not going to lie, for the first 20-30 minutes or so I HATED this movie, much like my initial reaction to the film The Wild Bunch. It was just so crazy, fast and violent it was turning me off, it wasn't until Max joined up with the group of women he would spend the reset of the film helping to defend that I finally had a rooting interest and started to get invested. This film has a crazy energy, it won't slow down, and its over the top stylings, once I got in tune with them, were really rather enjoyable, I'd liken it to my experience seeing Grindhouse in the theater eight years ago, it was just not something I could have prepared myself for, but it was awesome. The film also has a definite feminist subtext that has been much remarked upon and which I think really helped sell the movie for me, it was insanity, but in support of a good cause. Anyway defiantly not for everybody, but an enjoyably crazy experience for those its for. With the success this movie has had, I don't think we will have to wait another 30 years for a sequel. ***

Born Losers (1967)

Tom Laughlin's quasi-iconic character Billy Jack was not initially introduced to audiences in the self titled 1971 cult classic Billy Jack, but rather in the surprisingly racy 1967 action film Born Losers. At the time unable to get the money to make the Billy Jack film that Tom Laughlin wanted to make, the actor/writer/director instead decided to cash in on the then popularity of 'biker gang films' and made this film that takes its title from the name of the fictitious biker gang which constitutes its primary antagonist. The 'Born Losers' invade in mass a small California beach town around spring break time and proceeded to wreck general havoc as well as rape a number of young women. Recently returned half-Indian Vietnam war veteran Billy Jack gets caught up in events trying to stop the biker gang, but he arguably isn't the films main character, rather young college student Vicky Barrington (played by the films writer Elizabeth James) is.

Vicky and several other girls who have been rapped by the gang are to testify against their assailants in a trial, only the Born Losers go about intimidating them one by one  into dropping out. Billy Jack manages to save Vicky from assault after her police protection is lured away in a distraction, he proceeds to try and keep her safe with him until the trail comes and the two start falling in love. But things don't turn out as planed and Billy Jack and Vicky have several confrontations with the Losers and eventually Jack is severely beaten and Vicky surrenders her self to the gang to save his life. Billy Jack then must try to convince a not unjustifiably scared local police force to help him rescue Vickie. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the films ending is that Billy Jack dose not turn into the type of action superhero that Stallone did with Rambo, Billy Jack is reasonably skilled but nothing he does here seems like it would be impossible for a real person to do and hence the climatic solution is satisfying in being effective yet comparatively understated. I found I was routing for Billy Jack more then I might for other movie heroes because his victories felt more like real accomplishments then they typically do.

This movie can be a little hard to watch in places, it pretty frank about its subject matter, but its such an a-typical and I hesitate to say almost realist action film that I just found it kind of fascinating. Billy Jack the movie would later take things even further in a unique direction but Born Losers is a worthy introduction for Laughlin's classic character. ***

San Andreas (2015)

My late father just loved disaster movies and as a result I've developed quite a fondness for the genera as well. In his tribute my mother and I went and saw this movie and we both quite enjoyed it, it does what it set out to do and does it pretty well, an old fashioned disaster outing. That being said one of the reasons I like disaster films are their cliches, and San Andreas is a beautiful monument of cliches, I will now list as many as I can think of at this moment:

The main character Chief Raymond "Ray" Gaines (played suitably by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) works in a field that could have relevance to the disaster (helicopter based rescue for the L.A. Fire Department) and he's really good at it (they have him conduct a teaser rescue at the beginning of the film to show just how good his character is at his job before the real action starts).  Ray has lost a family member (his daughter) and blames himself for not being able to save her (she drowned on a river rafting trip with him).  Ray doesn't like to talk about his pain, this puts stress on his marriage, so his wife Emma (Carla Gugino, who I honestly think looks even better now then she did in her twenty's) is divorcing him. 

Emma has hooked up with a rich developer dick played by Ioan Gruffudd. Ioan takes Ray's other and requisite hot daughter (Alexandra Daddario) with him to San Francisco, though he'd never 'want to replace what you and your father have'. When the (first) earthquake hits Ioan quickly proves himself useless and abandons Alexandra. Luckily Alexandra had just meet cute with aspiring young British architect Hugo Johnstone-Burt and his adorable younger brother Ollie (Art Parkinson), they manage to save her and eventually get her in contact with her dad who basically steals a helicopter and heads up to San Fran to save his surviving daughter, after first saving his estranged wife from off an office tower that is in danger of collapsing.

So there is couple A's journey to and subsequent search of San Fran for there daughter, who forms couple B with Hugo because of course they fall for each other. Ollie has a handy guide book to help in getting around the city as his brother was planing to show him the town, good thing Ollie didn't just download an App for that purpose like most every kid would do now days. Ray and Emma save a few people along the way but mostly this is about saving daughter and (as a consequence) daughters new friends, and surprise couple A's marriage. Daughter of course must end up very close to death at a point at which her father can save her, from drowning no less, in obvious reference to dead sister.

All this is not to mention the B plot of scientist (Paul Giamatti, Yea) who is obsessed with predicting earthquakes and manages to perfect his method just in time for the big one (though of course a close associate of his dies in the process, saving a little girl no less). In a slight departure its not so much that no on will listen to Dr. Giamatti as that he is cut off from being able to get the word out that Big Quake #2 is coming and will be even worse then Big Quake #1 because said Big Quake #1  has disabled most available communications. Good thing Dr. G. just happened to have a visiting reporter on hand at his lab (Archie Panjabi) when disaster struck.

So San Andreas is predictable fair holding few if any surprises, but it hits the high points of its paint by numbers structure well enough for me to enjoy it. One thing that I particularly liked about it is that it wasn't the whole world that was in danger, mostly just California, there has been a lot of disaster movie scope inflation over the years so a few mere 9. something earthquakes seem almost calm in compassion to the world wide disasters of Roland Emmerich and company. Maybe I shouldn't but I liked San Andreas for being what it is. ***

See Also: The Great Los Angles Earthquake, Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, San Francisco, Volcano, Independence Day, The Poseidon Adventure, 2012, the complete works of Irwin Allen and Roland Emmerich ect. all.

Mr. Arkadin aka Confidential Report (1955)

Mr. Arkadin is on of those unwieldy Orson Wells character study mysteries, which now that I think about aren't all of his films on some level character study mysteries? Like so many of Wells films its origin and process of production is also unwieldy and fascinating. Originally conceived as a sort of prequel/sequel for the Harry Lime character that Wells had essayed in the film The Third Man and also in a radio series titled The Lives of Harry Lime , Wells apparently became so fascinated by the Arkadin character (which  was reportedly based in part on the real life arms dealer Basil Zaharoff) that rather then resume the role of Lime, he simply removed Lime from the story, replaced him with a similar character and decided to play the role of Arkadin himself.

A complicated French-Spanish-Swiss co production it was shot in multiple countries throughout Europe, particularly in Spain, and missed sufficient deadlines that Wells eventually had creative control taken from him and the film was edited and released in multiple versions throughout the world not getting an American release until 1962 (The version I watched was kind of a composite done after Wells death). The film concerns Arkadin hiring small time ex patriot American smuggler Guy Van Stratten (this part was originally to have been the Harry Lime character) to dig into his own background for mysterious reasons after said smuggler (played by relative unknown Robert Arden) stumbles upon some potentially valuable information on Mr. Arkadin as well as attracts the romantic interest of his daughter Raina (played by the woman who would become Wells third and final wife, they were married for thirty years, Paola Mori). There is much intrigue, death and suspense as well as interesting characters encountered by Guy as he crisscrosses the global in search of the origin of Arkadian and the source of his fortune. It's enjoyably weird, often feels rambely and improvised, but has a surprisingly taut odd logic to it that comes through at the end. Wells is a director whose innovations are so atypical that they still feel remarkably fresh even sixty years later. A more then worthwhile viewing. ***1/2