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A few reviews . . (film or TV) — Page 61

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Turks & Caicos - 2014 - 6/10

Second part of Johnny Worricker spy chase.
More secrets begin to surface, making a fall guy essential and inevitable.
Worricker slips to the Caribbean isles of Turks & Caicos, encounters characters both shady and sinister.
As in the earlier film, very limited action, the plot comes through dialogue and observation.
Another powerhouse cast with Christopher Walken, Winona Ryder, Helena Bonham Carter, Rupert Graves.

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Salting The Battlefield - 2014 - 6/10

Finale of the Worricker espionage trilogy.
Nighy’s character continues to elude, while releasing “innocent” data to press outlets.
Shifting locations, replacement cellphones, and unlikely allies notwithstanding, the mesh tightens.
Omnipresent cameras and GPS tracking prove double edged. Stakes are career ending.
Great series for adults. Cynical, intelligent, sharp. Not one shooting or explosion through three films.

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Inside Llewyn Davis - 2013 - 5/10

Glorified indie film, overhyped because it hailed from the Coen Brothers.
Early 60’s, third rate folkie specializes in depressing downers.
Career going nowhere, he bums from everyone, antagonizes colleagues.
Worse, he’s getting old.
The Coens made a spectacular error early on.
They put a pet - a family cat - in uncertain jeopardy, and left that plot point dangling.
Throughout of the film, I heard whispers around me:
“What about the cat?” “Where’s the cat?” “That cat better be OK.”
People were so distracted they lost focus, and took everyone around them out of the film.
That, and characters kept referring to Grossman, whom anyone who knows a lick about folkie or 60’s music assumes to be Albert Grossman, legendary manager. Wrong. So that pissed off music know-it-alls.
Misfire for me. Doesn’t happen often with the Coens.

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Destination Wedding - 2018 - 7/10

Something about weddings encourage the cynics to emerge.
Perhaps it is viewing a relative and wondering, ‘Who on God’s earth would marry that one?’
Here, two world weary, soured souls, endure an event neither want to attend, and skew the proceedings.
Banter and observations, endless barbs and family skeletons.
Ryder and Reeves have a warm, if biting, chemistry.
This has the look and feel of an Allen comedy, one of the good ones, except it is not by the Woodster.
Might be improved if the final 20 seconds were trimmed.
For those who have given up on RomComs, given up on love.

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Witching And Bitching - 2013 - 6/10
AKA - Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi

A quick conference between the cross and the soldier during a frenzied robbery.
Afterward, the escape plan goes to hell, and improvising – well, improvising is overrated, yes?
Knowing satire of relationships, custody, inadequacy. Ooh, and witches.
That improvised route takes the holdup team into a coven, holding a sabbat.
Frantic horror / comedy is off the chain! Sexy, funny, and frightening.
Staccato dialogue, outrageous situations. Pay attention and hang tight.

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The Borderlands - 2013 - 5/10

Horror yarn using the found footage template.
Pair of church techs arrive at tiny parish to substantiate claims of paranormal activity.
They set up recording gear, motion capture triggers, etc … Investigating priest soon arrives.
Most claims are scams, trying to lure media, spike attendance in the pews.
First half sluggish, with unsympathetic characters (one being a prime twat).
Accelerates hard at the end.
All handheld. Expect out of focus, jerky pans, dimly lit.
As a “documentary” I never bought that angle for a minute.

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Montparnasse Bienvenüe - 2017 - 6/10
AKA - Jeune Femme

Within moments, one can see why her photographer boyfriend locks Paula out of his apartment.
Paula has anger issues, a persecution complex, delusions.
Nonetheless, she was with him for ten years, and it seems he has replaced her with a younger model.
Yes, model and muse, only now she is 31.
Paula trudges through Paris with her cat, trying to find work, crash with whomever, hock possessions, impersonate.
Charm and likeability are not in her skill sets.
Great looking Parisian streets, although the narrative flits as swiftly as Paula’s moods.

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The Devil’s Mask - 1946 - 5/10

Headless, oh no! Don’t you hate it when that happens?
Another entry in the “I Love A Mystery” franchise finds private eyes Jack and Doc caught between feudin’ females, mother and daughter.
A shrunken head is seized at Customs, shipped to the local museum for analysis.
The head could be related to a missing husband / father.
Characters, plot lines, and clues bounce all over this like a rabbit convention.
Light hearted, if deadly, mystery should be OK for fans of creaky thrillers.

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Hunky Dory - 2011 - 6/10

Minnie Driver as high school drama teacher in 1976 Wales.
Hounding her class to put on the big, end of year, musical show.
Part Glee, part Busby Berkeley “let’s put on a show!”
Scattershot view of pupils, though it does not suffer from the tokenism that plagues other shows.
Interesting mix of tunes, all circa 1976, preponderance of ELO and Bowie (ref title).
Not too schmaltzy, could sit through this without feeling restless.

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In A Foreign Town - 2018 - 7/10

Meds and dream therapy. Tools of the analyst, asking questions.
Why does Mr. Hatcher try to kill himself?
What did he see? Still see?
When his father took him to the carnival, as a child, what happened?

Inspired Ligottian short boasts unsettling photography and baffling sound mix.
Nothing wasted in this venture into the strange.
Those in the cult of Ligotti, check this one.

As of 2021, this is available on video sites, YT and V.
V boasts superior resolution. If you need subs (unlikely) I retimed and uploaded.
https://subscene.com/subtitles/in-a-foreign-town

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The Avengers: S02 - 1962 - 6/10

Interesting season, this, and under-appreciated by the Emma Peel contingent.
Stories range in quality and style, as producers rebooted the series after one season.
This model of Steed is more ruthless than in later years, prone to fistfights, gunplay and manipulation.
Predating Goldfinger, he even drives an Aston Martin DB5 in E09 “The Sell-Out.”
There are infrequent meetings with spy bosses, One-Ten or One-Twelve, and he works with three partners.
Dr Martin King only lasts three episodes.
Singer Venus Smith is in six, and she seems the road not taken.

Miss Smith is a light jazz singer (think Beverly Kenney) engaged by Steed from time to time.
Light duty work. Take photos, eavesdrop. She reminds one of a Doctor Who companion.
Steed casually puts her in dangerous situations, never telling her what is ongoing.
These episodes are more playful, and while I have a fondness for Venus, her character is hardly suitable.
Besides, she pales in comparison with the third character, badass Cathy Gale.

Cathy Gale is an anthropologist, martial arts expert, artistic and culturally astute.
She is fearless, shrewd, capable, even deadly at times. One can see why many intimidated males dislike her.
Gale would have made a great Bond.

Audio miking varies from episode, one was particularly difficult to understand.
Shooting was on videotape so the image was soft.
Camerawork is often clumsy. In E23, “Conspiracy Of Silence,” the camera visibly bumps into furniture, though the players take that in stride, as they do offscreen crashes and noises.

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Horror On Snape Island - 1972 - 5/10
AKA - Tower Of Evil

Two twentyish couples boat to remote island and get frisky.
What? Their flat was being fumigated?
Too late, they realize the isolated isle has another inhabitant.
Dismemberment and carnage.
But wait!! That’s just the intro!
Next, four anthropologists decide they need to explore. Likewise couples, only estranged and canoodling.
They know someone murdered previous visitors.
Rather than carry weapons, they carry supplies and wear 70’s fashions suitable for clubbing.
Hard to be sympathetic for foolish professors in this snoozer.

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Austenland - 2013 - 6/10

Rom com finds crazed Jane Austen Yank buying ticket to Regency theme park in England.
Hoping to meet “a gentleman of quality.”
One’s experience is based on ability to pay. She goes the budget level and gets ill-treated accordingly.
Funny, predictable, often cringe-worthy, satire of obsession and expectation.
Jane Seymour memorable as the merciless and mercenary proprietress.

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Death Walks At Midnight - 1972 - 6/10
AKA - La Morte Accarezza a Mezzanotte

Endure another stale party? Or leave, and pray the man trying to kill you isn’t nearby.
If only Valentina hadn’t taken that experimental drug (HSD).
Then had flashbacks, witnessing a brutal, disfiguring murder.
Whereupon her face and testimony are plastered in a tell-all scandal mag.
Ho hum, publicity is money and a girl has to eat.
Lively, often bewildering Giallo, has six plots and several oddball characters.
Drugs, assassins, looney bin, two-faced liars.
Actually, it all works, with a narrative both twisted and logical.
Bit over the top at times, naturally, this should hold ones interest.

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Daughter - 2014 - 6/10
AKA - Dukhtar

Ten year old Pakistani girl is offered in marriage to aged tribal leader.
Mother and daughter flee, with gunmen from both tribes in pursuit.
At stake - honor, which demands blood for atonement.
Themes of female, and child, rights conflict with entrenched male hierarchy.
When I pointed out arranged marriages involving children had been used in Asia and Europe for centuries, I received several frosty responses.
Himalaya Mountains provide exotic backdrop, and child in peril angle may prove gripping to many.
Nonetheless, this falls into the chase genre.

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Endless Winter: A Very British Surf Movie - 2018 - 7/10

From Cornwall to Scotland. From belly boards of the 20’s to big waves of today.
Britain, cold weather, freezing waters, and ever present rain.
Surfing documentary, yet everything about this differs from the usual.
The look is overcast, mirroring the weather.
The music is a hybrid of 60’s surf instrumentals and English folk and metal.
Good natured, warm hearted film will appeal to surf historians, and viewers who want a break from professionals doing their thing for the circuit paycheck.

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Regency House Party - 2004 - 6/10

Reality based mini-series puts six ladies and four gents into the Regency era.
Great house, attractive clothes (though uncomfortable), bottomless alcohol.
Reflecting the era, the goal is for successful engagements, engineered by chaperones who will be well compensated. Maneuverings, games, and emotional explosions fuel episodes.
There was a rush of these living-in-the-past role-play shows around the beginning of the millennium.
Bathing facilities were limited, chamber pots were the norm, shampoo had not been invented.
Nope, I am fine with my time period.
Enjoyable enough series, particularly for Janeites.

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The Phantom - 1943 - 6/10

Classic Columbia serial, perhaps their best. Tom Tyler stars as the Ghost Who Walks.
Here, the Phantom helps a jungle expedition search for the lost city of Zolos.
Opposition includes evil saboteurs, zealous tribal leader, treasure hunters.
Fairly decent cliffs include lion, alligator, tiger, gorilla. Luckily the Phantom has a great dog, Devil.
Tyler excellent in title role. Athletic and muscular. Perhaps the template Bionic Bob had in mind for Strikes!
Credits only list two, but also starring Frank Shannon (Dr Zarkov from Flash Gordon) and the ever wily, Kenneth MacDonald who was a stellar villain.

Hard to tell where this was set. Expedition members all wear pith helmets, porters seem to be South American, natives appear South Pacific, then there’s a Mongol ruler.
Wholesome matinee fare, though many more killings than anticipated.

Note: Though helmed by SPCA poster child B Reeves Eason, animals seemed to fare OK in this series.

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Hollywood Boulevard - 1976 - 5/10

Midwest girl journeys to Los Angeles to become a movie star.
Predictably, she winds up at an exploitation outfit, beginning as a stunt driver, then getting lines.
Broad comedy pokes fun at dozens of B-movie clichés.
Rubber suited monsters, machine gun slaughters, car chases, topless girls, pretentious directors …
More laughs than yawns, though chase sequences extend too long.

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The Big Heat - 1988 - 6/10
AKA - Seng Fat Dak Ging // 城巿特警

From the opening drill through the hand to the final fireball, this film is balls to the wall.
Two cops initiate the rookie into unrestrained gunfights, foot chases through hectic freeway lanes, and squaring off against the high powered, well heeled, businessman / mobster.
The narrative is tucked into the furious proceedings. The death of an ex-partner and suspected smuggling.
Violent mayhem includes decapitation, dismemberment, shootings, stabbings, carvings.
There is also the criminal undercurrent, frequently alluded to, that the 1997 Takeover is coming, and time to profit is now, right now!
A lesser known Hong Kong film starring Waise Lee and Philip Kwok, and an early directing hit by Johnnie To.

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Forever And A Day - 1943 - 6/10

American businessman is tasked with selling long held London property.
He meets the prospective buyer during a nightly Luftwaffe bomb run.
While waiting, the potential buyer tells him the history of the home, as well as bygone inhabitants.
From the old crust who founded it in 1804 during the Napoleonic Wars to the present Blitz occupants.
Defenders of the realm, scoundrels, lovers, souls trapped by Fate.

Almost the entire “British colony” of 1940’s Hollywood participated in this forgotten chestnut.
Meant as a morale booster for the home front, as well as a vehicle to stir the Yanks.
This might have been a good film to watch with my father who was also a film buff.
I recognized 20 of the 80 stars involved, I imagine he would have caught far more.

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The Pact - 2012 - 6/10

After ma dies, wild child daughter returns to her sister’s home and the funeral.
Straight away, she realizes something inside the house is skewed.
Odd creaks, blacker than black dark regions, silent blurs.
Plot steps up, however, as the younger sister (Caity Lotz) starts investigating mom’s secret past.
Along the way, she get some help from the local sheriff (Casper Van Dien).
Movie notched poor ratings, fair reviews, which I tallied to gorehounds mad at low gore, and no T n A.
Probably a good “date” horror or thriller film. Chick horror, is that a subcategory?

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Love At The Top - 1974 - 7/10
AKA - Le Mouton Enragé

During his lunch break, an insignificant bank clerk initiates a conversation with a girl watching trains.
She is enticing, in a sexy way, and later the clerk tells a friend about the encounter.
Mind you, nothing came of that, but the friend, a writer, starts suggesting and advising the clerk what he should do.
At this point, I became of two minds regarding this film, which is one of love affairs and adult games.
One – the writer is a Mephistophelian sort, tempting and maneuvering souls per dark design.
Two – none of the characters actually exist, but are constructs of the writer.
Of course, I could have been wrong, and should have accepted the film as a sadly funny satire.
Top cast includes Jean-Louis Trintignant, Romy Schneider, and a fetching Jane Birkin.

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Spies - 2017 - 6/10

Four part “reality” series put fifteen contestants (candidates) though training paces.
Surveillance, how to elude surveillance, acquiring information, betrayal.
Disappointingly similar to “and then there were none” type contests.
At four episodes, none of the competitors stand out, and tips and tactics lightweight.
OK for the curious, yet as entertainment - disposable.

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Devil - 2010 - 6/10

Promising horror yarn slides into butterfly kill jar concept.
Five persons get trapped inside elevator on 29th floor.
One is the devil in disguise.
Amidst flickering lights, claustrophobia, mounting accusations, and helpless surveillance, bloody killings begin.
Watchable pizza movie, definitely creepy at points, with many almost recognizable faces.
Perhaps better if you suffer fear of tight places, asthmatic concerns of air running out, or anxieties when lights snap out, wondering whose hands crawl your body.