Vultural

House Of Flying Daggers - 2004 - 7/10
AKA - Shi mian mai fu // 十面埋伏

Government agent Jin helps the beautiful Mei escape prison.
High probability she is a rebel spy, so he does this to infiltrate the Flying Dagger clan.
Except. They have seen this ploy too many times and are rightfully wary.
Visually astounding, this is a demonstration disc. Eye-popping colors.
Action sequences are also amazing, and lushly photographed.
It is long, often confusing, and has a cool emotional tone.
Coming a couple years after the crowd pleasing (and to me, overrated) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this was the fitting, breathtaking homage to countless Shaw Brothers classics.

Popeye - 1980 - 6/10

Popeye the sailor arrives at a tiny port, takes a shine to Olive Oyl, promised by her parents to Bluto.
Plot is as paper thin as the two dimensional sets, and the songs are forgettable.
Yes, songs, this is a musical. A poor one.
OK, I like the sets. I like the whole “look” of this.
Robin Williams is an inspired Popeye, mumbling incessantly, usually unintelligibly.
Shelley Duvall as Olive is priceless.
Amusing misfire for most, though a disaster for director Altman, who would be in cinema purgatory for a decade.

A Picture Of Autumn - 2013 - 7/10

A rescued 1951 gem by Mint Theater.
The elder gentry, once wealthy, following WWII, living in reduced circumstances in the crumbling manor.
One son, doing rather well, pushed them to sell off, and move … somewhere else. Unexplained.
The other son, shiftless after the war, seems to fail every venture, only contacts the family for a touch.
Sadly funny, watching the seniors who are forgetful, absent-minded, dotty, increasingly unable to fend.
There are perils in remaining, there are perils in departing.
This will resonate with older viewers, seriously considering leaving the family home.
Or with their adult children, who may want to solve the problem, but recognize the solution may be a disaster.
One wonders if Alan Bennett was aware of this play when he wrote People (2012).

I don’t get it.
Visit a nursing home.

I was heading towards the checkout lane at Piggly Wiggly today.
Man in front of me dropped his keys so he bent down to retrieve them.
First thing that appeared was the crack, before his drawers dropped revealing a bodacious big butt.
I did not admire the view.
How about you, J_Scarp73? Do you like viewing big male bottoms?

Waxworks - 1924 - 6/10
AKA - Das Wachsfigurenkabinett

WANTED – Writer to provide descriptions for Wax Museum exhibits.
The scribe applies, and the curator points to the Grand Calif, Ivan The Terrible, and Spring Heel Jack.
From there, the fever of inspiration builds imaginative stories.
The Calif (Emil Jannings) is the longest and dullest. A forced comedy, relying on farce and painful situations.
Better is Ivan The Terrible (Conrad Veidt), with his paranoia, cruelty, despotism.
Spring Heel Jack (Werner Krauss) breaks the barrier, entering the writer’s world.
Ivan boasts the best sets, Jack dizzying camerawork.
All three stories are creaky, the first one especially so.

Five Minutes To Live - 1961 - 5/10

Fred and Johnny team up to rob the bank.
Inside man and outside man.
While Fred shakes down the bank manager, Johnny holds the exec’s wife hostage.
Grade D cheapie boasts the reliable Vic Tayback along with Johnny Cash.
Cash gives a sneering, gonzo performance as the kidnapper, but truth to tell, he can’t act worth a flip.
The entire ensemble look like they were working for cookies and carrots.
Direction is akin to, “OK, good enough. Next!”
Did I mention how slow it was? Probably because this is a snoozer.

Ghahwagi, Karim - Civilian

Three children are kidnapped. All trauma victims of shocking violence. Their kidnapper? The children’s counselor, now comatose following a failed suicide.
Speculative yarn plays out as a cross between thriller and horror, with a dose of SciFi babble. One could imagine Hollywood sniffing at this. Or this being pitched to a studio.
A degree of soft core torture porn for gorehounds, a race against time for thrill seekers, and dialogues about pervasive surveillance for the intelligentsia.
Main protagonist Jennifer Marshall deep dives into psyches for answers. Observant government handlers study her methods, learn the ropes, to better serve society later.
Her character, background, and concerns are well drawn, a highlight of the novel.
Helen Murbler, the comatose adversary, is less delineated, which is a shortcoming.
The book could have benefited from an English proofreader. Common mistakes such as loose for lose would have corrected. I might have punctuated a few sentences differently myself, though that is no complaint.
Overall, a strong, thought-provoking novel.

The Man Who Put His Will On Film - 1970 - 6/10
AKA - Tôkyô sensô sengo hiwa // 東京戦争戦後秘話 映画で遺書を残して死んだ男の物語

Motoki has his camera stolen. He pursues, the thief commits suicide, police confiscate the camera and beat him.
Except, when he regains consciousness, the film group tells him he was covering a violent student demonstration, and the police seized the camera as evidence, and beat him.
So what version is true?
A series of hunts or searches include hunting for the footage, searching for identity, or of meaning.
The group are all Marxist students, bent on serving the proletariat, shocking the bourgeois.
An experimental film, I was frequently unsure what was going on.

The Over The Hill Gang - 1969 - 5/10

The town is lawless, the mayor corrupt, sheriff incompetent.
Pa, visiting his daughter and son-in-law, sizes things up and decides to oust the outlaws.
Mind you, Pa is an ex-Texas Ranger, and he enlists more of his grizzled buddies to help.
This looks like a TV movie, with decent production values.
Main reason to watch this Mild Western is the irresistible cast.
Pat O’Brien, Walter Brennan, Andy Devine, Jack Elam, Chill Wills, Edgar Buchanan, Gypsy Rose Lee.
Hardly a classic, though harmless fun and a treat to see a posse of character actors.
Brazos!

Atomic Rulers - 1965 - 4/10

Ghastly. Shockingly bad. Terrible, in fact, although this exudes an innocent charm.
Starman is dispatched from Planet Emerald to protect Earth from nuclear weapon bullies from Metropol.
Starman, the definition of a 98 lb weakling, has super strength and wallops baddies without a sweat.
Sets appear to be wobbly cardboard, costumes pajamas (what today’s superheroes wear).
This was originally a 50’s children’s serial, which American distributors recut into four movies.
Three films followed. Equal standing all. Ridiculous.
I must confess to seeing this originally in the late 60’s. Then again at stoned movie houses in the 70’s.
Silly as this one is, it is superior to any Prince Of Space outing.

Written On The Wind - 1956 - 7/10

Friends Mitch and Kyle both fall for Lucy. Mitch, poor yet honest, Kyle a rich alcoholic.
Who will she pick? Ha! $$$ beats L-0-V-E, suckers.
But wait! Kyle also has a scheming, sex kitten sister, of easy disposition, who desperately wants Mitch.
Wonderful, trashy melodrama, packed with guilt, toxicity, schemes.
Sumptuous production values, florid cinematography.
For anyone curious about director Douglas Sirk, this is the film to watch.
100% soaper, but heavenly to take in.

Crimes And Misdemeanors - 1989 - 7/10

Eye specialist Judah has a successful practice, community esteem, strong marriage, and a mistress.
A mistress who is a headcase, demanding he get a divorce and marry her.
Who is unafraid to reveal all to his wife, thereby wrecking his life.
Concurrent with this is the story of a small documentary maker, Cliff.
Actually, he is a failure, and forced to work for a rival, a highly successful one.
Both step down the path of transgression. One major, one petty.
I know a lot of Allen fans view this as one of his finest.
For me, this is the precursor to Match Point, which is my favorite Allen.

Sleuth - 1972 - 8/10

Brilliant adaptation of the Shaffer play.
Wife’s lover approaches the successful writer husband, asking if he will divorce her.
The old lion seems agreeable, but he is a game player.
He wants to keep his fortune away from one he views as a fortune hunter.
The young stud, well, all he wants is the trophy wife, right?
Then the games, the traps, the countermoves.
For a play, and this smacks of boards at times, this bristles with electricity.
Olivier is marvelous, yet Caine holds his own in this exceptional thriller.

Fairy Tale: A True Story - 1997 - 7/10

In 1917, two little girls manage to take photographs of actual woodland fairies.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are among the believers, while friend Harry Houdini remains skeptical.
As the fame increases, sightseers flood in droves, followed by reporters.
Lushly photographed, with a keen period eye.
For non-Edwardian fans, there was almost a mania of Fairy sightings during that time.
Perhaps society was longing for a simpler, more innocent past, as the Great War crushed along.
Wistful tale and ideal family fare.

Kinpika - 2016 - 6/10
AKA - きんぴか

What do a yakuza enforcer, recently released from prison, a disgraced political aspirant, and a discharged combat soldier have in common?
Give up? Yeah, well, nothing.
Except a retired police commissioner puts the trio together, gives them swank digs, and lets them right wrongs.
Guts, muscles and brains. Age-old premise of the mismatched unit bonding.
Slick, stylish, empty headed.
At five episodes, this is worth a watch, streaming easily through into eyes and out the back of your skull.

Highlander II - 1991 - 5/10

One of the nuttier sequels I have watched.
In fact, after watching, few would have predicted a subsequent TV series, or the enduring popularity.
Connor MacLeod, now a frail elder, saved the Earth (and billions of ingrates) with some solar magnetic shield.
He’s waiting for the Reaper, until, outta nowhere, other Immortals appear and voilà! The quickening!
Oh yeah, that quickening thing. Shoulda put it in the title, except it is beyond stupid.
Quickening means MacLeod’s youth is restored so he can engage in more swordfights.
Sean Connery – why is he in this – plays a Spanish aristocrat.
The narrative is an insane jumble of concepts and lacks cohesion, as well as sense.
As if the headhunting cakewalk ever made sense.
Very bad film, atrocious. Guilty pleasure.

That guy with no name said:

please delte this tread

I looked up delte.
https://www.nationstates.net/nation=delte

This Island Earth - 1955 - 5/10

r

Aliens enlist unknowing Earth scientists to help in their eternal struggle with other aliens.
Talk, talk, talk, amidst spacious sets, and a slow moving giant potato bug.
Saw this as a kid, thought it was lame.
Saw it later in the 70’s, part of a 3D festival. Audience, and me, hopelessly stoned, all laughed.
Now … Why? Why did I watch again? Why do some consider this turkey a classic?
I did think of one thing: In any conflict between two advanced civilizations, DO NOT GET INVOLVED.
Whether on distant Metaluna, or an argument between China and Russia, keep far away.

The Rat Pack - 1998 - 6/10

Retelling of Sinatra and coterie at their final peak, early 60’s, before the British Invasion, before the Boomers began their cultural ascendancy.
This is all very Vegasy, with plenty of behind the scenes shenanigans to pleasure voyeurs.
Tittle tattle, rumors, gossip, stories that have been massaged over the ensuing decades.
Joe Montegna stands out as Dean Martin. (Talk at the time said he would get his own Martin biopic.)
Don Cheadle also memorable as a conflicted Sammy Davis Jr.
I suspect the less you know about this crew, the more you may enjoy.

The Mezzotint - 2021 - 7/10

Annual ghost story is several notches above recent outings.
Eerie, rather creepy, yet faithful adaptation of the M. R. James classic story.
Williams, college art curator cum connoisseur, accepts a peculiar print on approval.
The print, of limited artistic value, shows a manor house at moonlight.
That was initially, until the image started altering.
Colleagues and neighbors are baffled, and it strikes a dissonant chord.
Excellent method of hints, suggestion, the half-glimpsed, to evoke unease.
Leading to worse.

Framed - 1947 - 6/10

Paula spots him as soon as he enters the cafe.
Right height, weight, body size. The perfect double, the future patsy.
Paula, the blonde waitress, contacts her boyfriend, a banker, and they start the setup.

So-so Noir suffers from being underwritten, and half delivered.
Glenn Ford sleepwalks his role. To be fair, his character is nothing more than a once-mining engineer, now penniless drifter.
Barry Sullivan better as the cold and cynical banker.
Best is Janis Carter, who never climbed beyond B-roles.
Her Paula is an angelic faced fatale, her every single decision an opportunistic calculation.

With Beauty And Sorrow - 1965 - 7/10
AKA - Utsukushisa to kanashimi to // 美しさと哀しみと

Ōki had a fling with Otoko. He was married, with a son, she was sixteen.
Pregnancy, she lost the baby, then was institutionized for depression.
Fifteen years on, now a famous writer, he decides to visit.
Otoko is a renowned painter and teacher, with devoted clique of pupils.
One of whom, Keiko, is more than a pupil, but Otoko’s lover.
She also bristles that Ōki was never punished, never suffered, and decides to exact vengeance.

Understated psychological thriller simmers and is a tense study in motives and emotions.
The successful, dismissive male. The quashed soul who leads a quiet life, and her calculating, volcanic mate.
Wintry colors are subdued, matching the outward expressions.
The overt lesbian relationship is striking for 1965.

Jack The Ripper: The Definitive Story - 2011 - 6/10

Another Whitechapel documentary, only this one relies on facts and chronology rather than theories.
This proceeds from the earliest surmised murders to a handful following 1888.
Inspired visuals transform a modern street. Replacing halogen with gaslight, narrowing the streets, restoring the warehouses and tenements and pubs.
Those mix with historians explaining the times, as well as the killings, hour by hour, witnesses and press.
For those who have never been on one of those Ripper Walks, Whitechapel of today is a sterile environment.
Decent doc. I don’t watch many on the Ripper so I have no comparison.

1. What was being an 80s Star Wars fan like?

The great thrill was Empire Strikes Back, exceeding all expectations, and worth the lengthy waits in line. Followed by the disappointment that was Return Of Jedi.

3. Which technological developments excited you? Which didn’t excite you? What did you think was coming soon, but was actually far off?

Compact disc. The sound was wonderful. Or, at least, we all thought it was wonderful. After my first player, I upgraded my speakers.

Zelda and I married in ’78 and bounced around the States throughout the 80’s. Consequently, money was precious and we would be considered poor by today’s standards. There was less stigma, and no peer judging back then for being poor. Everyone our age struggled, it’s the way it was. Early 80’s we bought maybe one record album a month, late 80’s one CD a month. I grew our own reefer. Politically, there was a rising Conservative movement and real consequences if you were perceived as an “outsider”.

Pick and choose, the 80’s was a decent time for music, although MTV would have a corrosive influence. Artists focused more on a video presentation over songcraft. While there were styles (hair metal bands) and specific artists I enjoyed, overall I preferred the 60’s and 70’s era. To be fair, I still prefer the 90’s over the 80’s.

I suspect most of us who recall the 80’s are halfway to the graveyard.