The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Bond movie #9 has 007 in the crosshairs of the worlds greatest assassin, the conveniently never photographed Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee). The wonderfully 70's plot concerns nefarious efforts to corner the market on a new solar cell technology, one vital to confronting 'the energy crises'. Exotic locations include Beirut (on a sound stage), Macau, Hong Kong, and other islands off the Chinese coast, as well as Thailand, where Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) from Live and Let Die makes an unlikely reappearance in an unlikely car chase by an AMC Hornet of an AMC Matador Coupe (I hope that cross promotion paid well). Britt Ekland, who interestingly appeared on screen with Lee the previous year in the cult horror film The Wicker Man, is a dimmer then average Bond girl. Hervé Villechaize is Lee's assistant Nick Nack. Nick Nack's chief function is to assist a tall man who likes to wear white suits on an exotic island, and thus The Man with the Golden Gun can be viewed as, and I would argue should be viewed as, that one time Mister Roarke let Tattoo go on a Fantasy Island vacation. ***

Ranking the Bonds so far:

On Her Majesty's Secret Service
From Russia with Love
Goldfinger
Dr. No
Thunderball
Diamonds are Forever
You Only Live Twice
Live and Let Die
The Man with the Golden Gun

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

This is the latest film from director Luc Besson, perhaps best known for the 1997 feature The Fifth Element. Based on the French science fiction comic book series Valérian and Laureline, which ran from 1967 to 2010, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Plants shares the crowded visual sense of The Fifth Element, though perhaps the best point of comparison might be the 1968 movie Barbarella. Both films were directed by Frenchmen (Roger Vadim in the case of Barbarella), based on French comic books from the 1960's, depict crowded, trippy, and not always coherent futures centuries hence, and made points of emphasizing the figures of their female leads, who play outer space secret agents, in Barbarella Jane Fonda, in Valerian Cara Delevingne.

Delveingne is Laureline and she is partnered (logically) with Valerian (Dane DeHaan), a notorious ladies man who is constantly trying to convince Laureline he would give it all up if she would marry him. The two spar continuously throughout the film, though the chemistry is not very strong and you'll likely find you don't care much if they end up together or not. For plot the couple become involved in a case that ends up related to the genocide of a peaceful, Polynesian-type alien race, and the subsequent cover up. They do most of their sleuthing on Alpha, a kind of Babylon 5 on steroids whose origin story, depicted at the beginning of the film, is its most interesting part.

I found the movie entertaining enough, I was never really bored, though I have serious doubts about the films re-watchability. Clive Owen and Ethan Hawke are in this, and John Goodman voices a CGI character. Rihanna appears as a shape-shifting alien "performer" and does a pretty suggestive dance so this movie isn't really for kids, though to be honest I'm not sure who it is for. **

Live and Let Die (1973)

Despite having one of the more memorable title songs of the franchise, Live and Let Die is my least favorite of the Bond movies yet. Roger Moore took over the lead in this eight installment and so far I'm not particularly impressed, this Bond feels like a slightly different character then the one played by Connery and Lazenby. We are starting to move more into the realm of self parody here, though the movie still takes its self mostly seriously. A 21 year old Jane Seymour is the main Bond girl and gets a well deserved "Introducing" credit. Yaphet Kotto is the main villain and the "exotic locations" are New York City, New Orleans, and a fictional Caribbean Nation called San Monique. This film could be considered as part of the Blaxploitation sub genera popular at the time, though for awhile late in the film it essentially becomes Smokey and the Bandit on boats. ***

Ranking the Bonds so far:

From Russia with Love
Her Majesty's Secret Service
Goldfinger
Dr. No
Thunderball
Diamonds are Forever
You Only Live Twice
Live and Let Die

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

All the back of the DVD box bothers to say for plot description on this one is that: "The fourth installment of the hugely successful Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: Afterlife is again based on the wildly popular video game series." Not that it matters but there is actually a lot of plot here, Alice and her clones take out Umbrella Corp headquarters in Japan, she loses her powers, goes to Alaska to try and find the group she was with in the last film, then makes her way down LA and hooks up with a group of survivors hold up inside a prison, which they eventually break out of with the help of Wentworth Miller of all people. The film ends in yet another cliff hanger, but you won't care. *1/2

Diamonds are Forever (1971)

Sean Connery returns to the role that made him famous in Bond movie number seven, Diamonds are Forever. Feeling more like a coda to the last movie then anything else there is a brief pre title sequence where Bond seemingly dispatches Blofeld (this time sporting hair and played by Charles Gray) presumably in response to his murder of Mrs. Bond at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The main plot concerns the hording of South African diamonds for nefarious purposes, and the chief exotic locals in this are Holland and Las Vegas, where a reclusive Howard Hughes type Billionaire plays a major part. Jill St. John is the main Bond girl, a diamond smuggler named Tiffany Case. There is also a literal 'couple' of gay hitmen in this, and I'm not sure if that's progressive or retrogressive. My chief takeaway from this film is that I want to visit 1971 Circus Circus. ***


Ranking the Bonds so far:

From Russia with Love
Her Majesty's Secret Service
Goldfinger
Dr. No
Thunderball
Diamonds are Forever
You Only Live Twice

Army of Shadows (1969)

A film about the French Resistance in World War II directed by one member of the French Resistance (Jean-Pierre Melville) adapted from a novel by another member of the French Resistance (Joseph Kessel) and based on the true experiences of yet other members of the French Resistance. You can't do much better for authenticity on its subject matter then Army of Shadows, a film that depicts the actions of the Resistance as brave, but far from glamorous.

Episodic in nature the film follows a handful of members of one resistance cell over the course of around six to eight months during the heart of the Nazi occupation, late 1942 and early 1943. Unlike a lot of other films about the Resistance Army of Shadows lacks that one big mission, blowing up a munitions base, or assassinating a General, things like that. Instead the Resistance spends most of its time trying to avoid capture, rescue captured associates, and hunt down traitors in their ranks. While they provide the British with some intelligence and help rescue some of their downed airman, Resistance effectiveness was limited. Effectiveness however was not the central point, the central point was standing up, something which this film makes clear most French people (understandably) did not do.

Army of Shadows is not the comforting story of the Resistance most French people liked to tell themselves, as a result the film was not particularly well received in France at the time it was released. In fact, taking their lead from French critics American distributers did not release the film in this country, that is until after it was 'rediscovered', the movie was released theatrically in the United States only in 2006 and made lots of years best lists, including being named as the Best Film of the Year by Newsweek, The New York Times, The LA Weekly, Saloon.com and others. This is a pretty amazing movie and defiantly worth seeing, despite being rather bleak. ****

It (2017)

A horrifying reimagining of Albert Lamorisse's 1956 French short film The Red Balloon. No actually It is the newest version of the story from Stephan King's 1986 novel of the same name, which was previously made into a television mini-series in 1990, with Tim Curry memorably playing the demon clown Pennywise. Set of course in small town Maine, but updated from the youth of the baby boomers to the 1980's, the film invites obvious comparison not just to its source material but to the Netflix series Stranger Things, as its protagonists are chiefly Jr. High level kids dealing with the paranormal, one of whom (Finn Wolfhard) is also on Stanger Things.

I'll say right up front that Stranger Things is better, but this is still good. I liked the young cast, of whom the vaguely Elle Fanning like Sophia Lillis has the most potential to grow in an Oscar worthy direction. Bill Skarsgård of course has some big shoes (pun intended) to fill as the movies It. He's creepy, does a good job, but Pennywise suffers some from diminishing returns do to his frequent appearances. This film takes it time, and makes sure everyone gets their little story line, but I can certainly understand why it was approached previously as a mini-series rather then a film. There is a good sense of ill ease permeating this movie, though often its most discomforting parts are the human rather then the supernatural.

Is it a spoiler to say there will be sequels? ***1/2

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

Bond number six is the George Lazenby Bond. When star Sean Connery opted to not re-up for this picture, the producers turned to a 29 year old Australian model who had never acted before. The opening credits this time are instrumental, no theme song (because how are you going to a write sexy song with "In her majesty's secret service" in the lyrics), and contains a montage of previous villains and Bond girls in an effort to reinforce continuity with the previous films in the series. I saw this as a bad sign, but I actually really liked Lazenby in this, he really should have made more Bond films, and he admits that in the special features on the DVD. In hind sight one of the reasons that Lazenby works so well is that unlike other actors who have played the part, you likely don't know Lazenby from anything else, he didn't have much of a career after this film and thus works as a kind of 'generic James Bond', the likes of which you might imagine if you'd never seen any of the movies and just read the books.

The foreign locations in this film are the Mediterranean and Switzerland, this is the Bond film with Blofeld's Alpine layer. I liked Telly Savala's seemingly younger, more charming and Lex Luther like Blofeld. Diana Rigg is the chief Bond girl in this, she comes with spy experience from three years on TV's The Avengers. **Spoilers** Bond actually marries her at the end of this film, though she is of course ill fated. I thought this plot crinkle worked however, and added a new dimension from what I'd seen before. This is already one of my favorite James Bond movies. ****

Ranking the Bond movies in order thus far:

From Russia with Love
Her Majesty's Secret Service
Goldfinger
Dr. No
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice

Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)

I was not expecting much from the this film but it really surprised and impressed me. From the previews I knew the story concerned the 1939 state visit of Britain's royal couple King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to FDR's family home in New York, a visit that played some part in paving the way for lend lease support of the UK against Germany, and later direct American involvement on the Allied side in the War. While that is a major part of the film it is not its central focus, rather that focus is on the, lets say unusual, relationship between sitting president Franklin Roosevelt, and his fourth cousin Margaret "Daisy" Suckely, here played by Laura Linny who really sells this whole film.

In fact I think a case can be made that this is the most rounded portrait of FDR in film. Which is made more surprising by the fact that Franklin Roosevelt is here portrayed by Billy Murray, who plays the part straight and does a much better job then I would have anticipated. We here see demonstrated the very admirable qualities of president Roosevelt, his perseverance in the face of adversity, such as his polio. His tremendous foresight about the coming war in Europe, and his subtle calculated manipulation of events to slowly nudge an isolationist United States in the interventionist direction he knew it needed to go. Yet the film does not shy away from the less reputable parts of FDR's persona, like his carrying on an extramarital affair with his cousin, and his secretary, and a DC socialite, all at the same. It also appears that these women were aware of, and even on good terms with, each other. Which caused me to realize midway through the film that Franklin Roosevelt, was for all intents and purposes, a practicing polygamist. Yet he was still a great man, and this film does a remarkable job of conveying that.

A deceptively low key film, large portions play like an unusually dry screwball comedy. While Franklin and his cousin Daisy are the primary focus of the film, plenty of screen time is given to the royal couple played by Samuel West and Olivia Colman, who are really just as interesting, and it was nice to see these "characters" again after the Kings Speech. I thought this movie was a real underappreciated find. ***1/2

You Only Live Twice (1967)

How to sum up the plot on this on this one? How about James Bond and a bunch of ninja's battle space piracy in Japan. Yes that sounds odd, but I'd say its an accurate description for this 5th James Bond picture. You Only Live Twice is also the Bond movie with the volcano base, has James don yellow face, and Donald Pleasence serve as the model for the look later appropriated by Dr. Evil. The screenplay here was written by Roald Dahl, which perhaps explains much of the strangeness. **1/2

Brigsby Bear (2017)

Brigsby Bear is far from the easiest movie to think of other films to compare it to. The best I can come up with is the 1999 comedy Blast From the Past, which really seems quite quaint now. Like that Brendan Fraser vehicle the central character in Brigsby Bear was raised alone by his parents in an underground bunker, believing the air above him to be poison, and with little real conception of the outside world. Only James (Saturday Night Live's Kyle Mooney, who also co-wrote the screenplay) parents aren't really his parents, they are a math professor (Jane Adams) and a successful toy designer (Mark Hamill, who is obviously having a blast with his part) who for largely unexplained reasons kidnaped James as an infant to raise in utter isolation. James only real connection with a world beyond his bunker is a campy, retro style children's program titled The Adventures of Brigsby Bear, which father figure Hamill has been secretly producing exclusively for him for the last 25 or so years.

James monotonous life is forever changed when a criminal investigation lead by a Detective Vogel (Greg Kinnear) manages to finally locate him and unite the confused young man with the biological family he had never known, consisting of father Greg (Matt Walsh), mother Louise (Michaela Watkins) and younger sister Aubrey (Ryan Simpkins). Do to the unique conditions of his upbringing James is a very weird guy, though to be honest I think someone really raised in a scenario like the one in this movie would be even odder. A social worker played by Claire Danes tries to help James family integrate their son with the wider world, and wean him off his obsession with Brigsby Bear, but to little success.

Having only recently become aware of the concept of movies, James wishes to use the recovered props and equipment from the criminal investigation into his faux parents to make a Brigsby Bear feature film. Though he is in essence celebrating the vehicle of his childhood manipulation, James efforts are ultimately therapeutic for him, and the aid he gets from his sisters friends, principally Jorge Lendeborg Jr. and Alexa Demie, helps him learn to socialize and relate with other people, as does leaked clips from Brigsby Bear going viral on the internet and furthering public fascination with James unique case.

This is a very unique movie that manages to walk a very tight tonal line for black comedy meets belated coming of age tale. The film is set in and filmed around Utah and I recognized a number of locations, including two local movie theaters. Brigsby Bear is currently flying mostly under the radar with a very limited theatrical release and a current box office total of less then half a million dollars, yet it seems destined for cult status. An oddball film which while sporting a rather original premise, still feels very much in sync with the nostalgia drenched pop culture of our time. If nothing else I recommend spending a little time looking up Brigsby Bear on YouTube.

Wind River (2017)

Though its two main stars are box office bonafide, Wind River can not be mistaken for Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch solve a murder. This somber crime drama is the third straight critical darling (after Sicario and Hell or High Water) from writer/director Taylor Sheridan, who prior to becoming the seeming "in" auteur of the moment, had been an actor with recurring roles on the TV series Veronica Mars and Sons of Anarchy. Sheridan's cinematic sensibility seems to be a blend of both film noir and western, with Wind River the story of  the investigation into the mysterious death of an 18 year old Indian girl on a Wyoming reservation. The girl Natalie Hanson (Kelsey Chow) is found dead in the snow by U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) while looking for some mountain lions who have been praying on local livestock. Lambert is particularly effected by the young girls death as she had been a good friend of his own daughter, who had passed away under similar circumstances three years prior. Lambert aggress to aid the relatively inexperienced FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) who is dispatched from the Bureaus Las Vegas office to conduct a preliminary investigation into the death, they are assisted by the tribal police chief Ben, played to good effect by the great (but to often underused) actor Graham Greene.

The film is largely of a slow pace, a meditative character study that at times is difficult to watch, with the particulars of Natalie's death best left to experience on screen. This is a very strong, understated film, that feels deservedly destined for a best picture Oscar nomination. The movie also serves to raise public consciousness of the very real problem of missing and murdered women on America's Indian reservations. Worth seeing for those who can stomach a really tragic story. ****

Carol (2015)

Director Todd Haynes lesbian counter part to his tale of repression and male homosexual love in the 1950's Far From Heaven. Carol is based on the 1952 romance novel The Price of  Salt, published under the pseudonym of Claire Morgan by the author Patricia Highsmith, best known for her Tom Ripley novels and Strangers on a Train. The story concerns a middle aged woman named Carol (Cate Blanchett) who is going through a divorce and child custody fight, and the relationship she strikes up with a poor, sincere but ambitious shop girl played by Rooney Mara. The two leads give strong performances, both doing a fine job of keeping up the balance of implied and overt images and conveying the interact subtlety which was no doubt so central to the establishing of this kind of relationship in that time and place, the film being principally set in the Manhattan and New Jersey of December 1952. The supporting cast is strong as well and includes Sarah Paulson as Carol's long time friend Abby, and Kyle Chandler as her husband Harge. The production does an impressive job of conveying the period setting on a fairly limited budget. Obviously this film is not to all tastes, but I thought it was an empathetic and for the most part tasteful exploration of forbidden love. ***1/2

Logan Lucky (2017)

Logan Lucky marks director Steven Soderbergh's return to feature film making after a four year "retirement" which saw him direct 20 episodes of the Cinemax early 1900's medical drama The Knick, and serve as cinematographer on the sequel to his own 2012 film Magic Mike. Soderbergh, who is perhaps most famous for his highly successful Oceans film franchise, again tackles the heist comedy genera in what is essentially a redneck version of Oceans 11, and pretty much that same observational joke is made over the course of the film. Channing Tatum and Adam Driver play brothers who embark on a scheme to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway, and bring into the plot a cast of oddball characters including a explosive expert played by Daniel Craig, and their "hot sister" Mellie, played by Elvis's granddaughter Riley Keough. The films Name loaded cast also includes Katie Holmes, Katherine Waterston, Seth MacFarlane, Sebastin Stan and Hillary Swank. Country star Dwight Yoakam cameos as an incompetent prison warden. This movie is full of references to the blue collar south to add local color to a heist plot that is so complicated, that its doubtful these kind of knuckleheads could ever come up with it, let alone pull it off. Still the film is an enjoyable ride and I will be curious to see how well its plot intricacies hold up on repeat viewing. But for one viewing at least its worth your time. ***1/2