A few reviews . . (film or TV) — Page 123

Black Snake - 1973 - 5/10

Lesser known Russ Meyer outing set in the Caribbean.
Slave owner and plantation boss, Lady Susan, keeps menfolk drained or submissive.
Gun toting, bullwhip snapping antics punctuate a low voltage film.
This is not Blaxploitation, not smutty, not trashy drive-in naughtiness.
Anouska, with excessive eyeliner, tries hard, too hard, to be cruel, sexy, wicked.
Tura Satana, she ain’t.
Not classic Russ Meyer, either.

Babylon Berlin: S04 - 2022 - 7/10

So, after S03 I decided I was done with this series.
Until I misread that S04 would be the final season.
Wrong, fool. Time covers 1931 (supposedly the series ends with 1933).
New characters are introduced, older ones elaborated on.
Fewer and fewer are compelling as individuals, their storylines less so.
Intriguing side adventure, however, follows Abe Gold on a quest through a doomed landscape.
Two major feuds dominate. War between rival crime gangs, and the schism between the SA and SS.
The latter is highly absorbing, especially using the historical figure of Walter Stennes.
Mixed season, superior to S03.

Hidalgo - 2004 - 6/10

Washed up wrangler, now working with Buffalo Bill’s troupe, Frank accepts a challenge.
Long distance horse / rider endurance race in the Arabian desert.
Wily competitors, searing heat, minimal water, sandstorms.
Plot is somewhat a cross between Bite The Bullet and Iron Will.
Predictable, old fashioned oater boasts remarkable photography.
If the cowboy premise (with expected tropes) does not put you off, this is rousing adventure.

I Was A Teenage Frankenstein - 1957 - 4/10

Bob suffers a horrendous crash. Thankfully, there is a handy surgeon who can mend him.
Wait a minute! The doctor’s name is Frankenstein? Who keeps alligators!
Bob’s restored face is one only Forrest Ackerman could adore.
Sorry teenage film, best suited for the makeout crowd at the drive-in, busy in the back.

Bulldog Drummond - 1929 - 6/10

Ex-officer, seeking adventure, aids damsel in distress. Actually, her uncle, imprisoned by criminals.
Very early talkie is a lot of fun!
Terrific, Expressionistic photography that one might later associate with Universal.
Not static like most talkies, the dialogue is clear.
Best however is Ronald Colman as Drummond. Film relies on his charm and grace which are unfailing.
Fans of old dark house whodunits – this one!

Twelfth Night - 1996

The wife and I attempted this one, because she remembered it being good. The source material is good, as is the cast…but we gave up after a half an hour. It was neither funny nor engaging, and suffered from so many bad-Shakespeare-adaptation tropes.

Murders In Albi - 2021 - 6/10
AKA - Meurtres à Albi

New police commissioner Annabelle returns to her hometown of Albi.
Just as a murder has been committed on an isolated farm.
With a phrase of Latin carved on the aged farmer’s chest.
No romance with older cop Marc, as he seems happily married.
As usual with French TV crime mysteries, glorious scenery, cookie-cutter plot.

Through The Darkness - 2022 - 7/10
AKA - Agui Maeumeul Ilgneun Jadeul // 악의 마음을 읽는 자들

Sweeping story of the establishment and grudging acceptance of S. Korea’s Behavioral Analysis Team.
Criminal profilers.
While opening in 1975, the chronology runs from 1998-2007.
This charts the team, especially the head profiler, Song Ha-Young, and their work within Criminal Investigations, Forensics, etc … Also some of the politics, rivalries, and funding problems.
NO romance in this one.
Several serial killers are interviewed, before the arcs of three emerge.
Unlike so much Hollywood fodder, this does not glorify murderers.
Outstanding series. Must for crime fans.

Last Knights - 2015 - 5/10

I noted Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman and I crossed my fingers, hoping they weren’t slumming.
The Lord of the North (snow on ground) is summoned to the capital for extortion.
He refuses to pay the bribe, chastises onlookers in throne room, meets predictable fate.
No - it has a vibe going, but Knights is not a Game Of Thrones clone.
His realm is appropriated, honour disgraced, warriors scattered like winter leaves.
Then, said warriors bide their time - and wait - and wait.
Yes - a remake of Chūshingura, 47 Rpnin, countless other films, Kabuki, ballet …
Once I recognized the story, I prepared for the long, slow middle.
Darkness and shadows disguise shortcomings, and there is too much slow motion in battles.
I could knock this around, but it is not meant to be a classic.
Multi-national action film, aimed for non-demanding young males.
Derivative vengeance popcorn, but OK. Final fifteen minutes might please combat fans.

Louisiana Hussy - 1959 - 4/10

Laugh out loud trash of hip swaying female in backwater swamp hamlet.
Movie opens as a girl wearing tight slacks skedaddles out of a house, hops on a horse and giddyaps away.
Hollering menfolk, one shooting a pistol, chase after her to no avail.
Next scene, one of a pair of feuding brothers finds her out in the swamp while he’s out harvesting Spanish moss.
Sign outside his shack reads: Fish - Fur - Moss. A job is a job, I suppose.
Sooner than you can say, “Is it warm in here or what?” that female, the above mentioned “hussy” is digging her claws into barebacked men doing the horizontal hokey poke.
Generally to a sludgy blues score.
Late flashbacks reveal more men (surprise) and carnal wickedness.

This gem is like forty-eight ways bad, from acting to dialogue to editing to fisticuffs to overall structure.
Scenes are often inserted during a lull or exposition that have no bearing whatsoever to the story.
Like fifteen seconds of shack tramp grinding the Twist in her white bra and half slip.
Or when she strips naked and goes skinny dippin’.
For trash fans, this is a glorious film! Jaw dropping lunacy abounds.
While I have a soft spot for hard blondes, actress Nan Peterson falls short in the bottled department, though she has an expressive feral-like face that really propels this low-rent love dart.

Shout - 1991 - 5/10

Texas reform school hires new music teacher (please?).
This being the 50’s, in redneck US of A, does he teach ’em gospel.
Nope, rhythm and blues, what, back then, was termed race music.
Proto-Elvis, bizarre romance (dirty dancing on either side of the prison fence).
Heather Graham survived this, as did Linda Fiorentino.
As for John Travolta, his many comebacks stem from signing on to stinkers like this.
Avoid.

Silent Running - 1972 - 6/10

SciFi fantasy in 1972, predicts all green life will be extinct on Earth.
Perhaps less far fetched nowadays.
Vast spaceships, greenhouses, nurture the last fauna maintained by small robots and humans of sundry dedication.
Underlying themes of homesickness and isolation contest with the mission zeal.
Bruce Dern very good in this, although he is already wacko stereotyped which undercuts the story.
State of the art effects by Trumbull have not dated much.

The Children Of France During The War - 1918 - 6/10
AKA - Les Enfants de France et de la Guerre

Worthwhile viewing for historic images.
Nevertheless, this serves as propaganda, showing the youngest citizens doing their bit during the Great War.
Farmwork, cheering, meeting Clemenceau, staging mock battles, donning gas masks.
Saddest part comes near the end.
Orphanages, filling to overflowing.
Not mentioned, French casualties were between 1-2 million.

The Killer Is Still Among Us - 1986 - 6/10
AKA - L’assassino è ancora tra noi

Half-assed Slasher film aspires.
An ugly killing of a “busy” couple in the woods. Then another killing (using the same footage!).
Our young student, planning to be a criminal investigator, starts to suspect everyone around her.
Including her boyfriend – including her professor.
What to do? Why, go to the Black Devil tavern, a hangout of the voyeur crowd.
Yes, blend in with peeping toms.
Deaths more cruel than imaginative.
By the fourth or fifth woodsy murder outside Roma, I wondered, “Don’t twenty year olds have apartments?”

Men - 2022 - 6/10

Harper, recovering from marital problems, breakup, trauma, holidays in the countryside.
Bucolic enough, and locals display rural friendliness, aloof reserve, or veiled contempt.
Do they actually? Or is Harper interpreting? After all, the men eerily resemble each other.
Wonderful film of haunting, is effectively “strange” most of the way.
Rory Kinnear superb in multi-faceted roles.
Jessie Buckley no slouch, either, as widow who observes, “sees” if you like, disturbances in normality.
The conclusion is a collapse, sadly. Typical of this writer who can construct stories, but cannot finish them.

Stray Dog - 1949 - 7/10
AKA - Nora inu // 野良犬

Rookie detective Murakami has his pocket picked.
Not his wallet, either, but his Colt pistol!
Police procedural evolves into a buddy film as Murakami is paired with the more seasoned Sato, who is less emotional, less sympathetic than the younger partner.
Set during a sweltering heatwave, through back alleys and seedy underbelly.
Prostitutes, petty thieves, starving children inhabit a Tokyo still reeling from World War II.

Red - 2018 - 7/10

Painter Mark Rothko takes on an assistant, an employee.
A new commission awaits: a series of murals for the Four Seasons Restaurant inside the Seagram Building.
Rothko recollects gone contemporaries (Jackson Pollock), the functions of Art, the journey of an Artist.
His is Modern art, Abstract, and his resentment toward rising Pop Art is palpable.
Heady theatre, exploring numerous ideas.
Real tour de force by Alfred Molina, Alfred Enoch as earnest assistance is fine.

Infiniti - 2022 - 7/10

Superior SciFi / Mystery / Espionage, though not for the casual EFX seeker.
While a crash occurs at the orbiting ISS (International Space Station), the body of a cosmonaut is found in Kazakhstan.
Missing the head, torso covered in wax. And, as we find out, this is the second body.
International series delves into science, parallel concepts, detective inquiry, cover-ups, Zoroastrianism.
Yes, you read correct, Zarathustra.
Souls needing this or that point, everything explained please, may be frustrated.
Multiple layers, mostly satisfying (I never bought the love angle), should satisfy hardcore SciFi fans.

Note: While this is mostly in English, I strongly advise getting full subs. Characters speak in English, Russian, French, Kazakhstan.
Even when they speak in English, accents are pronounced.

The Other Me - 2016 - 7/10
AKA - Eteros Ego // Έτερος εγώ

College criminology professor is asked to help with an investigation.
As one murder leads to another, a serial killer is revealed.
Except there is no killer, and no motive, save that all victims were corrupt.
Well plotted mystery with some chronological swings from time to time.
No scenes are arbitrary inserts, everything will piece together.
For fans of Pythagoras, the assassin leaves quotes at each scene of the crime.

Confessions Of A Police Captain - 1971 - 7/10
AKA - Confessione di un commissario di polizia al procuratore della repubblica

Our cynical police captain is not crooked, but he is definitely bent.
Not above trying to arrange the murder of an untouchable crime lord.
Enter the newly appointed, idealistic District Attorney.

All he needs is evidence, and the Law will take care of the rest.
Martin Balsam is spot-on as the captain, and both he and Franco Nero work well together.
Very good Euro-Crime thriller, though for fans of this sub-genre this reinforces their worldview.

The Company Of Wolves - 1984 - 6/10

Although listed among Horror, this anthology holds fairy tales revolving around wolves.
Werewolves, Red Riding Hood, transformations.
One even includes the chance encounter with the Devil.

Interior sets predominate, although that seems in keeping with the fantasy element.
Angela Lansbury reliable as Granny, a classic ”wise woman”.
The real gem is 12 year old Sarah Patterson. She is in almost every scene and is bewitching.
Early Neil Jordan work.

Io Island - 1977 - 7/10
AKA - Iodo // 이어도

The steamship is ferrying capitalists and investors to Ieoda Island.
Fabled isle where drowned fisherman, claimed by the Water Demon, live in paradise.
The money-men plan to build a luxury hotel there, until one of the passengers disappears or is murdered.

Events and stories now migrate to nearby Chengu Island.
Fishermen and female divers. The women desire men for children, then try to persuade them to move to the mainland before being killed by the Water Demon.
Chengu is an island of lust, jealousy, superstition.
The narrative is a baffling jumble of flashbacks and backstories.
Despite that, the film is mesmerizing and a rich showcase of early Korean cinema.

The Critic (1700) - 1982 - 7/10

Goodness, hang with this one, folks.
Slow to catch fire Restoration comedy by Sheridan.
Sharp, if dated, satire on playwrights.
First section mocks a turgid craftsman, scribe of overlong, boring plays.
Still, once Mr. Puff arrives, fasten your belts.
He writes the crowd-pleasers. The tentpoles of his day, akin to our absurd superheroes in pajamas.
Puff invites an investor and critic to a performance, and us along with them.
The finale piles numbers, effects, music, to astonishing, over-the-top effect!

Nightwalking - 2019 - 7/10

The office drone, living a hollow life, walks the city by night.
Commenting throughout on the emptiness of existence, with the oasis of color here and there.
He is a natural observer. Faceless. Almost invisible, thus tolerated, or ignored.

Midway, there is door, triggering curiosity and primal anxiety.
As with the dark itself, frightening yet tempting.
This has a good feel for what I often refer to as Past 2:00 AM.
For night owls, for the Cult of Ligotti, find this short.
Film = https://vimeo.com/504934006/ee093bec9d
Subs = https://www.mediafire.com/file/odqo6m4nplee4ez/Nightwalking-2019.srt/file