A few reviews . . (film or TV) — Page 138

The Devil’s Stairway - 1964 - 6/10
AKA - Maeui Gyedan // 마의 계단

The affair between the head surgeon and an attractive nurse has frayed.
His attitude is, “This is all fun, but not permanent.” Her reply is a terse, “I’m pregnant.”
Meanwhile, the director of the small hospital wants to make the surgeon his successor.
Contingent on him marrying his attractive (and younger than the nurse) daughter.
So, nurse Jin-suk has become a major inconvenience, and needs to be sorted.
Solid psychological thriller looks like a Noir, with supernatural overtones.
Since solving the “nurse problem” leaves surgeon Hyeon in a worsening state.

The Believers - 1987 - 6/10

Recently widowed psychologist relocates from the Midwest to Gotham.
Where, he being working with the NYPD as they investigate a voodoo cult, sacrificing children.
Oh, yeah, our psychologist has a child of just about the right age.
The Santerai elements are skirted over, although blood embellishment is heavy.
An undercurrent of Yuppie scum predominates, much as resentment of that group heightened during the 1980’s.
Frightening moments seem at war with the moralizing.

Anatomy Of A Fall - 2023 - 6/10
AKA - Anatomie d’une Chute

Author Sandra is being interviewed at her Alpine home.
Not for long, however, as her husband begins blaring music at ear rending level.
Jealousy, spite, wounded male ego? In any event, the interview ends abruptly.
And, within an hour, the husband falls to his death from an attic opening.
Did he fall by accident? Was it suicide? Was he pushed?
Suspect number one? You got it, the wife, the famous writer.
The police and coroner are inconclusive, leaving the verdict to the French judicial system.
Owing to insufficient evidence, the prosecutor’s strategy is to besmirch.
Courtroom drama compels, but is overlong to the point of tedium.

Stay Tuned - 1992 - 5/10

Lazy salesman spends his home life watching TV.
To the fury of his wife smashes the set – whereupon – a visitor arrives with a satellite dish.
Capable of viewing 666 stations. 666. Does the couple pick up on that? Please.
Soon enough they are sucked into the set, into bizarro, deadly programs.
Parodies of TV shows aren’t vicious enough. Horror elements, silly.
“Stars” John Ritter and Pam Dauber lack oomph, chemistry, charisma.

Payback - 1999 - 7/10

Porter is left for dead by his partner, Val, who pockets the $70,000.
Left for dead ain’t the same as dead, however, and after an ugly recovery, Porter comes after the money.
Val, it turns out, used the funds to join a crime family.
Where Porter starts killing his way through the ranks.
Powerful Mel Gibson film, far darker than his popular persona of this period.
Exceptional male cast includes Kristofferson, James Coburn, William Devane, Bill Duke.
Director’s cut is more hard-nosed, less audience friendly, and superior in numerous ways.

Bend It Like Beckham - 2002 - 6/10

When this came out, I knew there was no escape.
My wife, fan of World Cup, Premiere League, Man U.
Resistance is futile.
Friends Jesminder and Jules want to be professional footballers.
Parents of the girls feel otherwise, for different reasons.
Cultural and social. Obstacles are emotional, physical, schedules.
Nevertheless, this is feel-good so there will be important moments.
Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley would go on to big careers.
Entertaining, even if you know jack diddly-doo about football (soccer).

Slumdog Millionaire - 2008 - 5/10

Low caste Jamal is a contestant on popular quiz show (version “Who Wants Be Millionaire?).
Defying the odds (ha!) he performs well. Really well.
So much so, authorities suspect cheating.
Extensive flashbacks narrate his life and expertise.
Overtly manipulative aims for feel-good, but this is highly calculated.
Every twist, every reveal, felt contrived and obvious, and I began disliking this film intensely.
This was the movie that had me reevaluate director Danny Boyle.
I truly enjoyed this earlier films. From this point on, not so much.

Diva - 1981 - 7/10

Jules, passionate about opera, makes an HQ copy of his favorite singer, one who has refused any live recordings.
Round about this time, a hooker drops an expose cassette into his mail pouch, before she is killed.

Police want Jules, hired killers plan to murder him, music bootleggers want his tape.
Visually arresting film, packed with memorable characters and high energy.
Terrific chase in the subway are one of many highlights.
Dominique Pinon, in his second role, is unforgettable as the lethal “priest”.

Lawman - 1971 - 6/10

Predating Robocop by decades, Burt Lancaster plays a zealously by-the-book marshal.
After a shoot ‘em up leaves an old man dead, a lawman arrives to arrest the whole ranch gang and bring to trial.
The usual “bargaining” is applied to no effect. Lancaster’s sheriff is righteous to the point of being insufferable.
Some exchanges are akin to negotiating with a computer.
Revisionist Western filled with hotheads, weaklings, cowards, grafters.
Robert Ryan as aging sheriff, glory days well behind him, makes a compassionate conscience.
Slow boil throughout with violent finale, without heroism.

Night Shift - 2019 - 6/10 UK

Luv looks forward to the Halloween party with his girlfriend.
Until his boss hands him a stack of work he needs completed by morning.
His lone colleague is the weird new guy, going on about the messenger of death.
Tight horror short builds atmosphere, although overly bright interiors work against it.

Hoosiers - 1986 - 7/10

One of the great basketball films out there.
Small town team has the same ambitions of thousands of high school programs.
Make their way to the annual state tournament.
Their new coach, soon in trouble, receives strategic advice from the town’s alcoholic.
The focus is on the boys, however.
Well paced film is an underdog fable, set in a world that is now a ghost.
Sports before steroids, before endorsements.
Evoking a lost Americana that may never have existed.

The Whistler - 1944 - 6/10

Tycoon Earl, bumming after the death of his wife, hires a killer to snuff him out.
Only condition, he doesn’t want to know when or where.
Then he finds out his wife ain’t dead.
When he tries to cancel – oh, hell.
Fast paced B-film makes decent Noir, although undermined by absurd plot twists.
Richard Dix, the businessman, looks disheveled most of the time, with ill-fitting suits.
The OTR on which this is based is a terrific series, worth listening to.

Still Mine - 2012 - 7/10

Both are old, elderly, but Craig notices his wife has slight dementia.
Their two-story Canadian house is too much for her, especially the stairs.
Consequently, he decides to build a smaller home for them.
Build, as in DIY, using his own trees, his own blueprints, just as he had done decades earlier.
Of course, there were no building codes back then. And no “rules is rules” inspectors.
Enthralling film of the fiercely independent soul clashing with the bureaucratic machine.
James Cromwell’s character will linger with you for weeks, and all scenes with Geneviève Bujold are the definition of “growing old together”.

Spitting Image Christmas Special - 2021 - 6/10

Not quite the old series, which irks the faithful, yet this has its moments.
Elton John, mixing two chestnuts, is visited by ghosts and learns what life was like for his closest if he had never existed.
Three magi, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg sing how important their empires are to Yule.
This is short, swift and rushes, which is good. Parts feel out of touch, though.
Hits vs. misses = 50-50.

Lone Wolf Spy Hunt - 1939 - 6/10

Retired safecracker, Michael Lanyard (the Lone Wolf) is set up.
War Department plans are stolen and dropped clues incriminate Lanyard.
While police are skeptical, and he provides alibis, he remains suspect #1.
Meanwhile, a bright-eyed young heiress (Ida Lupino) wants to marry the reluctant bachelor.
Plot zig zags between mystery, cheeky innuendo, and farcical comedy.
More silly than sinister.
William Warren effortless as the Lone Wolf, Rita Hayworth makes an alluring femme fatale.

How The West Was Won - 1962 - 7/10

Overlong “Western” is as good or bad as any given chapter.
The West sweeps from the Alleghenies to Arizona in a rough fifty year span.
Generations of one family are profiled, but they are stand-ins for everyone.
Yarns about river pirates and the Civil War seem the weakest, with poorly drawn characters.
The wagon train is too Hollywood for my taste, but this has one of the few roles I’ve enjoyed Gregory Peck in.
Final two chapters are rousing excitement.
Railroad going though Indian territory, unflinching is observing (broken) agreements with tribes.
An outlaw gang trying for a train robbery as civilization begins to the “wild” West.
Recent BluRay addresses / fixes the Cinerama bars.
I originally saw this old-fashioned Hollywood spectacle with my grandfather, and a recent rewatch reminds me of how completely immersive it had been – and how it is less now.

Shaun The Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas - 2021 - 7/10

Shaun realizes his stocking is smallish and decides to appropriate the Farmer’s.
Along with a very young confederate, they enter the home for a quick burgle.
Whereupon the plans misfire, the youngling disappears, and Shaun is in big trouble.
What to do? Head to the village, High Street merry with people.
Brisk outing is chocked with jokes, visual and musical gags, and a stream of mistakes.
Thirty minutes of pure confection.

The Racket - 1928 - 7/10

Silent mobster film, packed with bullets, steeped in cynicism.
Mob boss Scarsi (think Capone) is muscling in on a rival’s territory.
Despite a police presence, the downtown shootout is violent with a surprising amount of deaths.
Copper McQuigg, trying to arrest the criminals, is reassigned to an outlaying precinct.
By the mayor – per request by mob boss, Scarsi.
Louis Wolheim as Scarsi steals the film from star Thomas Meighan.
The notion that crime controls politicians would be whitewashed by the Production Code.

Marie Prevost fetching as a gold digging hussy.
On par with The Underworld (1927) this provided a template for hundreds of gangster flicks.

Road Games - 2015 - 7/10
AKA - Fausse Route

Jack, English, doesn’t understand French.
Otherwise, he would not be hitchhiking in rural France, in front of a sign that warns against picking up hikers.
And he might be aware that a serial killer is extremely active on this lonely stretch.
Fortunately, he meets a stray French girl, also on walkabout.
Then a car stops and the driver, a talkative soul, offers them a ride.
The lies are small initially, as lies so often are.
Convoluted thriller excels in offering numerous shady characters, including Jack.
Similar to Only The Animals (2019) with a tangle of threads that stitch together.

Hapkido - 1972 - 6/10
AKA - Lady Kung Fu // 合氣道

After five years of learning, three students say farewell to their Korean teacher.
They return to China, now threatened by militaristic Japan, and open their own Hapkido school.
(Hapkido is a martial arts style focusing on joint holds, throws, kicks.)
The Black Bear school, Japanese, bullies townfolk and intimidates the other schools.
Headstrong and impulsive Fan Wei (Sammo Hung) attacks and thereby provokes a war.
This is Angela Mao’s vehicle, however, and she is a master of the slow boil.
Also, a hapkido artist. For the knowledgeable (I am not) this is a great film to analyze different styles and techniques.
Melodrama and overblown villains scream chopsocky, but the choreography dominates.

The Vote - 2015 - 7/10

Adventures of precinct workers at the local polling station.
The election is a close one, and every vote counts.
One volunteer recalled a previous contest, where the winner won by four votes.
And the constituents stroll in.
Confused, inebriated, argumentative, foreign language speakers, lonely.
A veritable cross section, more or less.
This is a comedy and grows progressively rambunctious.
Mark Gatiss as the local head is a study of bottled emotions, about to explode.
For British film and theatre buffs, this is studded with cameos.
Subtitles = https://subscene.com/subtitles/the-vote/english/3222685

Christmas Eve On Sesame Street - 1978 - 8/10

Oscar the Grouch rattles Big Bird to the core when he asks how dump truck sized Santa gets down tiny chimneys.
Bert & Ernie become the “Gift Of The Magi”. Skating mishaps. Self destructive appetites.
Along with songs. Standards, as well as three new numbers.
This features early cast members, which is probably why PBS ceased airing this instead of allowing this to become a holiday classic.
Funny, tuneful, with an enormous heart. At an hour, it never outstays its welcome.

The Great Race - 1965 - 5/10

Excessive film still shows up on whatever marathon channels there are.
Circa 1908, the motorcar race goes from New York to Paris, the long way round.
Main contenders are the Great Leslie and Professor Fate, along with other teams, including one with a feisty suffragette.
Everything in this harks back to Silent melodrama, perhaps vaudeville or music hall.
Broad comedy attempts Keystone Kops slapstick, but always feels forced and phony.
I saw this when it came out, I was bored. Rewatched now and then on TV, yawn.
So, when relatives loaded this dud, I started drinking more Cabernet. Not enough.

A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story - 2022 - 7/10

Outstanding theatrical performance of Dickens.
As always, light predominates the mid-section, waning as Christmas lasts but a day.
Mark Gatiss has sprinkled a few embellishments here and there that enhance the proceedings (check the bookend twists).
Ebullient dances, brief singing, some sharp repartee.
This play also contains humorous moments, relieving the grim sets and grimy apparel.
Nonetheless, this is faithful to the story and makes one long to have been in the audience for this one.

A Christmas Carol - 1941 - 6/10

A radio perennial that aired regularly for decades before fading away.
Ronald Colman makes a crisp Ebenezer Scrooge, bolstered with assorted supporting actors and musical accompaniment.
What is surprising is how much of the Dickens tale is distilled into a half hour.
My ancient vinyl is paired with the Christmas section of “The Pickwick Papers” read by Charles Laughton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RmnelkRvfk