A few reviews . . (film or TV) — Page 163

Heroic Trio - 1993 - 6/10
AKA - Dung Fong Saam Hap // 東方三俠

The trio being Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui and Michelle Yeoh.
Newborn babies are kidnapped, police are powerless, who can save them?
Loaded with stunts and action, with a plot that feels improvised.
Maggie and Anita seem to be having fun, while Michelle is stone faced.
The trailer promised more than this delivered for me, especially after I bought it.
Entertaining in a cartoony way, and at this time, everything coming out of Hong Kong was must-see.
The female trio are extraordinarily attractive.

Iron Will - 1994 - 6/10

Think of this as the early version of the Iditarod Trail. Only with real snow.
1917, teenage Will enters the 500 miles dogsled race from Winnipeg to Minnesota.
The competition is an advertising stunt, yet the Great War dominates the press.
Will lacks experience, nor is he physically prepared, but he is plucky.
Plus, he has a great lead dog.
Old-fashioned adventure film from Disney is feel-good all the way.
Excellent family film, and based on a true individual.

High Street Shops We Loved And Lost - 2024 - 6/10

For Stateside dwellers, think Main Street shops.
Aging souls wax ecstatic about shopping back in the day.
The ambiance, the vibe, frantic sales, sniffy counter clerks.
By and large, these are chains.
Time from the Swinging 60’s to the 90’s, grinding to the end of it all.
None are blind to the harsh reality that Internet prices and convenience killed the shops.
An unhappy sigh when another closure was announced, followed by “I have not shopped there in a long time.”

Babette’s Feast - 1987 - 7/10

Broccoli film. Meaning, it’s good for you. You appreciate it, though don’t necessarily enjoy it.
A French refugee is given shelter by an abstemious, devout pair of sisters.
After a decade of repayment service, Babette decides to prepare an elaborate French meal.
For a table gathering who, save one, know nothing of cuisine.
Those who cannot tell the difference between robust peasant fare, and nuanced and subtle dishes.
Akin to giving three-year-olds expensive chocolate truffles, when a Tootsie Roll tastes the same to them.
Yes, this one raked in acclaim and awards. A high-quality film that I disliked exceedingly.

El Norte - 1983 - 7/10

Enrique and Rosa flee Guatemala after the murders of their parents.
The route, though Mexico, then into Los Angeles, has horrifying moments.
Once in the States, working, their luck seems to turn, Enrique’s especially.
Nothing is easy, however, as their dead mother reminds them in visions.
One can take these visions as magic, second-sight or daydreams.
The film does an exceptional job showing the empty plight of the refugee.
Both Enrique and Rosa are young, their journey brief.
Note: I worked in Los Angeles with numerous migrants, many had stories like these.
Even today, I live in the barrio with the older generation, now legit, who carry memories.

I Know Where I’m Going - 1945 - 7/10

So declares 25-year-old Joan, traveling to marry a much older, wealthy industrialist.
(Wendy Hiller slightly miscast as she resembles 40 instead of 25.)
That is before she is stranded on Mull, however, as howling weather means a forbidding sea.
On Mull, time downshifts and Joan falls under the spell of the locals, the slower pace.
She encounters and is drawn to the laird, even hears of the curse of the castle.
An enchanting film, filled with memorable characters and a rollicking ceilidh.
And a roiling deathtrap – Corryvrecken.

A film that haunted me for years. On our 20th anniversary, I booked passage on the QE2, later boarded the Flying Scotsman, then made a dash, a gamble, to the small boat that would take us into Corryvrecken. As with so many of my risks, Fortune did not favor me.

Man’s Favorite Sport? - 1964 - 5/10

Fishing guru Roger knows the best gear, best techniques, best spots and times.
Thing is, he is a fraud. Has never fished, cannot swim, actually dislikes the life aquatic.
His unknowing boss orders him to compete in a tournament.
Forced “screwball” comedy mixes bland romance with farce situations.
Hudson and Prentiss are an appealing couple, but he is such a dunce to be unbelievable.
Curly Howard could carry off these stunts, Rock Hudson lives up to his first name.
As a boy, I found this film sidesplittingly funny.
Watched last night, an eager cast tries too hard, burdened with a stale script.

In Night And Ice - 1912 - 6/10
AKA - In Nacht und Eis

What? Ice, you say? Where?
Aarrr … that’s an iceberg!
Too late do ship officers spy the perilous field of icebergs.
The vessel? RMS Titanic.
Forty minute film recreates events in a documentary fashion.
Inter-titles describe upcoming proceedings, players overact.
The restoration, especially for something this old, is pristine.

Thelma - 2024 - 7/10

Thelma, 93, gets phoned scammed out of $10K.
Family wonders if it’s time she was, you know, placed in a retirement home.
Meantime, Thelma wants her money back!
Crime / comedy is tagged as action, but I’m telling you, ain’t much action with scooters and walkers.
Laugh out loud funny, or terrifying, depending on your outlook toward old age. Not 60, but 90.
Over-coddled family is emblematic of unspoken messages, perhaps.
Great cast, if a little gimpy, including Richard Roundtree (final role) who shows a flair for droll comedy.
Young audience, cannot relate? Fear not, given enough time you turn into your grandparents.

Silk - 2006 - 6/10
AKA - Gui Si // 詭絲

The investigator had been to New Zealand, Zimbabwe, London.
In Taipei, however, he strikes paydirt. Or rather, the ghost strikes him – dead.
Now, the small team tries to understand why the spirit lingers.
Why does it now dissipate? Why does it remain strong? And malevolent?
The team’s research is actually anti-gravity, which leads into death and immortality.
Silk is the thread that connects this life with the afterlife, or the underlife.
Ingenious story, seldom dull, spilling ideas all over.
English subs = https://subsource.net/subtitle/silk-2006/english/10075064

Paid To Kill - 1954 - 5/10
AKA - Five Days

Hotshot boss, Nevill, has driven the company into expansion and increased profits.
By taking risks, huge gambles, and unscrupulous methods.
And now, the whole empire is poised to collapse.
With it, his good name, the wealth, his marriage. His wife will be impoverished.
Except – if he hires someone to murder him, she will collect insurance money!
Stale, tired plot matched by Dane Clark’s listless performance.
Most of the cast looks bored, photography is flat.
How could anyone make London appear so very dull?

Haunted House For Sale - 2024 - 6/10
AKA - Xing fu fang wu shi jian bu // 幸福房屋事件簿

Fast-track, career relator, Lu An-Chi, and her rookie assistant, Yu Ta-chih, are assigned “stigmatized” properties.
Homes or buildings where a suicide or murder has left a lingering spirit.
Ta-chih is socially clumsy and slow, but he comes from a family of shamans.
He can see the dead, who are forever making requests.
Taiwan series filled with stand-alone episodes, funny, sad, dangerous.
Early episodes suffer awkward comic relief, which subsides midway as the overall arc darkens.
I appreciated the old-school special effects. Color filters, visual distortions.
Also learned stigmatized property is a real thing in Asia.

The Blue Max - 1966 - 6/10

During the Great War, pilots are decimated, and replacements are recruited from the trenches.
No longer aristocrats, but common rabble … such as Bruno.
The aerial conflicts seem near conclusion, yet Bruno wants to win a “kill” medal.
Meaning, shoot down 20 enemy planes.
None of that élan or chivalry for him, he is an unrepentant boor, at odds with his titled fellow officers.
Longish movie dwells too much on the class warfare.
Dogfights are exciting, George Peppard and Ursula Andress have torrid chemistry.
Cynical tone, and political manipulations might put many off.

Celebration At Big Sur - 1971 - 6/10

Filmed during the era of mass festival gatherings, this might have been one of the coffin nails.
Although the festival occurred a month after Woodstock, this waited a bit.
The groups are more Folk oriented. Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, CSNY, John Sebastian, Mimi Fariña.
All in all, low key throughout, lacking overall energy.
If curious, by all means watch this 80” film, but don’t expect too much.

The Guns Of Navarone - 1961 - 7/10

2000 British troops are stranded on a Mediterranean isle.
Rescue is thwarted by two massive German guns, capable of blasting any vessel.
The installation is impervious to aerial bombardment.
Solution? Crack experts on a suicide mission.
Rolling boil WWII film, packed with obstacles and tension.
Lacks the action of Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare but seems more realistic.
Plausible? I look the other way.

The Wind - 1928 - 6/10

Southern belle Letty arrives from Virginia into Texas prairie.
The homestead ain’t much and outside breezes are more like gales.
Winds blow and blow and blow. (Being a Silent, one cannot experience how noisy this is.)
Worse for her, love struck menfolk start vying for her hand in marriage.
Prime Melodrama borders on hysterical and ham, seems more like theatre from the previous era.

Black Butterflies - 2022 - 6/10
AKA - Les Papillons Noirs

Trendy author “Mody” suffers writer’s block.
That is the only reason he accepts a commission to ghost write some aging nobody’s life story
Except, as the plot unfolds, the old man is an uncaught serial killer.
He and his female partner had slashed a trail of blood and sex across Europe.
Hearing the history, the callousness and violence begin to seep into the writer.
Troubling mini-series loaded with graphic violence and sexual configurations.
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

I Love Trouble - 1948 - 6/10

Early on, the mark wises up to the tail job by PI Bailey.
Her husband had hired the sleuth after she received threatening blackmail notes.
“Impossible! My young wife is such an innocent lamb.”
Bailey starts digging into the sweet girl’s past, and discovers a murky history.
Middling Noir never fully commits to darkness and fatalism.
Bailey is a tougher Boston Blackie, but he ain’t hard boiled.
Supporting cast will be amazing for Noir fans.
Columbia loaded this with numerous young females from their stable.

If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? - 1971 - 4/10

Should America abandon God, so too shall God abandon America.
Alcohol, dancing, drug use, sex, ways of the flesh, even cartoons!
Bibles unread, teachings forsaken for lascivious behavior, lewd attire.
Until, without warning, Communists have overcome the nation.
Vast swathes of the populace are machine-gunned down, children indoctrinated, females raped.
Dire warnings! Potentially camp film flawed by constant proselytizing by Rev. Estus Pirkle.
That, and ignoring the reality of gun-happy America where millions of citizen own firearms.

Heretic - 2024 - 7/10

Two young missionaries from LDS visit the home of Mr. Reed.
Whom, soon enough, they refer to as Mister Well-Read.
Indeed, he is extremely well educated about the Latter Day Saints, as well as Catholicism and Judaism.
And older religions, very old. Iterations, he suggests, leading the conversation deeper.
Provocative thriller, not necessarily Horror, but filled with the allure and repulsion of uncomfortable questions.
Hugh Grant is exceptional, shading his character with charm, erudition, menace and madness.
Viewers, like Sisters Barnes and Paxton, grow increasingly ensnared in the sinister.

About Dry Grasses - 2023 - 7/10
AKA - Kuru Otlar Üstüne

Samet is a popular grade school teacher. Pupils like him. Villagers admire and respect him.
He is, however, a brooding nest of unhappiness and resentment.

Samet loathes the isolated, backward countryside; he longs to return to Istanbul.
Following a complaint, he begins to quietly vent his malice.
Against select children, also friends.
This is a “measured” character study, carried by lengthy conversations.
This is packed with ideas, albeit the chords will likely strike Turkish viewers.
References are made to ongoing and previous battles. Kurds, PKK.
Marked by some as a comedy – no. This is rewarding, but requires patience and allotting 3 hours time.

The Mystery Of Room 327 - 2012 - 6/10
AKA - Chambre 327

Eve of his wedding, the young groom is found murdered in room 327 with a hooker.
Security cameras show the bride outside, and her handgun is found nearby.
Mom runs the hotel, erases the footage, hides the gun, lies to the police or evades answering.
French mystery is low on characterization (in fact, I disliked most of them).
That said, the writers have packed this with enough plotting and narrative for three films!
Rivals are trying to acquire the hotel, witnesses keep perishing, families argue.
Tight mystery that keeps one guessing until it plays a loose hand late in the proceedings.

The Knowing - 2023 - 6/10

Following a miscarriage, Lea isolates herself in the cabin.
Where she is plagued by a noisy, growling entity.
Opaque, psychological short mixes guilt, fear and regret.
Never really frightening, although many couples, trying for children, will relate with her despair and choices.
English subtitles = https://subsource.net/subtitle/the-knowing-2023/english/10078126

Hilde Warren und der Tod - 1917 - 5/10

Actress Hilde has trouble relating to her role, which involves a suicidal character.
“I’m young, beautiful, with a world awaiting!”
Death appears, and foretells, soon enough she will beg for his embrace.

Hilde has a steadfast admirer, who offers marriage.
Yet, there are so many handsome men. With one in particular.
Honey-tongued, also a robber, liar, murderer.
Film explores the joys and griefs of living. And the planted seed.
Early script by Fritz Lang is a morality tale.

The Inner Circle - 1946 - 5/10

Private investigator Johnny Strange advertises for a secretary.
In a heartbeat, Ginny Smith arrives and takes charge of the office, the caseload, and our thick-headed detective.
He’s soon up to his neck in the murder of a despised expose reporter.
The story bounces more than a pinball. Strange is framed, bailed out, beaten, rescued, ever three steps behind.
Marked as Noir, this is not. As a comedy, hardly.
B-Mystery, with a good supporting cast, while the “stars” stumble along.
Possibly the studio (Republic) was trying to emulate Boston Blackie.
English subtitles = https://subsource.net/subtitle/the-inner-circle-1946/english/10078127