084 - The King of Comedy

Synopsis: Talentless comedian stalks his hero to try and kickstart his career

Director: Martin Scorsese

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Robert de Niro, Sandra Bernhard, Diahnne Abbott

Date: 1982

How viewed: Bought on Amazon

Rating: 3/5

David Meyer says:

By turns it's funny, unsettling, surreal, and unbearable. Consider it an exercise in truth through exaggeration. 

I say:

This feels like quite a disturbing films on a number of levels. Robert de Niro plays Rupert Pupkin a sad, lonely, budding comedian with enormous self-belief and no talent, who stalks and harasses his hero (Jerry Lewis playing a top talk-show host) for a slot on his show - and not taking 'no' for an answer, resorts ultimately to kidnap to achieve his dream (and he believes, his right). It feels like the precursor for all the current reality shows - people with no talent being able to achieve fame and fortune just by being pushy. So, this is one of those films that I'm sure some people find extremely funny, but others (including me) find just a little bit sad, and creepy, and irritating. I'm still not convinced de Niro does comedy (maybe in this film that's the point), but Jerry Lewis is sensational as the successful but world-weary talkshow host (such a contrast to his previous incarnation playing the stupid partner of Dean Martin) and Sandra Bernhard is manically brilliant in one scene. So, what else to report - the musical score is by Robbie Robertson (mainly music by Ray Charles which can't be bad), I liked the way the scenes switched between reality and Pupkin's daydreams, and there's plenty of cameos to look our for (including Martin Scorsese himself). The ending suggests that indeed infamy trumps real talent (but alternatively that may simply have been another of Pupkin's daydreams).  

083 - Big Wednesday

Synopsis: Coming of age of 3 surfing buddies in LA in the 1960's and 1970's

Director: John Milius

Actors: Gary Busey, Jan-Michael Vincent, William Katt, Patti D'Abanville

Date: 1978

How viewed: Lovefilm watch list

Rating: 2/5

David Meyer says:
Sacrificing anything resembling subtext, Milius creates an enduring vision of the surfer-as-samurai and of the surf movie as Western.  

I say:

So, this is a coming of age tale of 3 Californian surfers - looking at their lives and loves around the time of each of 4 big ocean swells, starting in 1962 with The South Swell, then The West Swell 1965. then The North Swell in 1968 and finally the Great Swell of 1974. That must have looked good on the story-board but it's actually all very pedestrian - not much happens - even the diversion of the Vietnam war is not told with any real impact, and indeed a huge amount of time is spent on shots of bare-chested surfers posing with their boards gazing out into the distance. Maybe that echoes surfing - a lot of hanging around waiting for the right wave. Also, off-hand, I don't think I can recall a film where the orchestral theme music has so flattened a movie - it's so ponderous - it should have been Dick Dale!! That said, there's a lot of good music in the first (1962) segment - Green Onions, Lucille, Money, Will you still love me tomorrow, The Locomotion, etc - but then they seem to forget it thereafter. One of thing of note were the station-wagons (with the surf boards on top) they drove - as a big fan of VW vans I was almost won over! But I suppose most noteworthy are the final surfing scene with huge waves - obviously filmed with professional surfers (rather than the actors) which must have looked fantastic in wide-screen cinema.

  

082 - Predator

Synopsis: Arnie flexes his muscles and kills everything in sight

Director: John McTiernan

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura

Date: 1987

How viewed: Lovefilm rental

Rating: 2/5

David Meyer says:
Great trash wallows in the gutter while gazing at the stars. And this is stellar trash.

I say:

I watched this a few months ago and, at the time, just couldn't think of anything positive to say - but I watched it again this afternoon, and sort of relaxed into it. What I can say is that it does do exactly what it says on the tin: a team of Commandos, on a mission 'over the border' in a Central American jungle to ostensibly free hostages taken by a guerrilla group, find themselves hunted by an extra-terrestrial warrior. The film is completely macho (big guns and bigger muscles), makes no logical sense (the clue to fooling the alien is to cover yourself in mud!), is completely predictable (the 'A' team get taken out one by one), contains every cliche going, fails to build up any tension at all, and the extra-terrestrial looks like a man in a lizard suit or a rasta on steroids. Hey ho, some people like it...

081 Robin and Marion

Synopsis: The later life of Robin Hood

Director: Richard Lester

Actors: Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Nicol Williamson, Robert Shaw, Richard Harris

Date: 1976

How viewed: Lovefilm

Rating: 4/5

David Meyer says:
Only the English ... could write the characters with depth and great affection, never settle for a cheap or superficial resolution to any scene, make the costumes, settings, politics, and battles historically accurate, and join it all together with a saga of enduring love.

I say:

This was a surprisingly enjoyable and impressive film about the later life of Robin Hood. The film opens with Robin and Little John fighting the crusades abroad, and becoming increasingly annoyed with King Richard's brutality. On Richard's death, they head back to Nottingham, but after 10 years away, much has changed - Maid Marion has become a nun, and little remains of the Merry Men and the hideout in Sherwood. But the Sherriff is still there and the old animosities soon return when he kidnaps Marion. As David Meyer says, it's a really interesting take on the Robin Hood legend, and everything feels very accurate - it's muddy and dirty and bloody. It's also got a stellar cast - not only those listed above, but also Ronnie Barker as Friar Tuck (perfect!), Denholm Elliot, Kenneth Haigh, Ian Holm, etc. The only distraction was that (bizarrely) Connery kept reminding me of Andy Hamilton!

   

080 - Near Dark

Synopsis: Teenage vampire romance 

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Actors: Jeanette Goldstein, Lance Hendriksen, William Paxton, Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright

Date: 1987

How viewed: Lovefilm

Rating: 3/5

David Meyer says:
This is an astounding, subversive treatment of a classic theme: love between a vampire and a mortal, set for maximum weirdness in the modern rural wasteland of a Western suburbia. 

I say:

I'm not a particular fan of vampire movies (except perhaps the old Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee ones), and Near Dark failed to hold my attention, until 2 set-pieces around the middle of the film (in the bar, and the shoot out at the motel) and then it just flagged again until a scene near the end. Of course the storyline doesn't really hold together (it's about vampires after all!!), so that while I can accept that they only survive by drinking blood, their immortality, and that they can't go out in the sunshine, I don't understand where their superhuman strength comes from, or why no one seems to have noticed that a number of normal folk are being killed each night and drained of blood (oh, and can you reverse vampirism with a blood transfusion??). The film felt strangely un-menacing (the Tangerine Dream soundtrack didn't help) and it's so annoying when the story requires ridiculous coincidences. However, in addition to the aforementioned set-pieces I did like the fact that the vampires actually did burn up when exposed to the sun, shots of various cars and vans speeding across the Kansas/Oklahoma scenery, and there were a few arresting images (like the one shown above) - otherwise nothing much to write home about.  

079 - Lolita

Synopsis: Man's obsession with teenage girl

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Actors: James Mason, Peter Sellers, Shelley Winter, Sue Lyon

Date: 1961

How viewed: Bought on Amazon

Rating: 2/5

David Meyer says:
A serious, cruelly funny, slow British art movie of a Russian novel about the core of the American Experience. 

I say:

For someone who has not read the book or had seen the film (or films) just the word Lolita conjures up visions of old men seducing young girls, or vice versa. So, Kubrick's 1962 film comes as a bit of surprise, as it is not the least bit erotic, leaving everything to the imagination, and is also, in places, surprisingly funny, if you enjoy Peter Sellers hamming it up mercilessly as several characters in a similar vein as in Kubrick's Dr Strangelove, and pick up on the double-entendres (although I'm not sure how many were intended as such!). However, reading the reviews reveal how hampered Kubrick was by the censorship laws of the time. Nevertheless, his version of the story, in which there is no backstory for Humbert Humbert (James Mason as always seems somewhat suave rather than repulsive), Lolita's age is never mentioned, (she's 12 in the novel, is played by Sue Lyon who was 14 but looks at least 16), and extends Quilty's role enormously, rather dilute the story. So, generally pretty disappointing, though I did like his huge station wagon (not a double entendre by the way!). 
   

078 - Vernon, Florida

Synopsis: Documentary about the odd inhabitants of a small town in Florida

Director: Errol Morris

Actors: none

Date: 1981

How viewed: Rented from Lovefilm

Rating: 2/5

David Meyer says:

The director's voice is never heard, no questions are asked, and Morris encourages his subjects to talk on and on. At first it's maddening, then hypnotic, then, as comprehension dawns, inspiring. 

I say:

I think, without the introduction by Nick Broomfield, I would have found this little documentary somewhat strange and extremely boring. However, Nick Broomfield talks about it being groundbreaking in its style, allowing the characters Morris choses to film to ramble on at length, to echo the feelings of emptiness and timelessness of the town, and one needs to understand its place in cinematic history. Nevertheless it is not a barrel of laughs, or hugely engrossing, and I fell asleep several times (but re-watched it in case I missed something exciting - I didn't). The main character is a chap who goes out in the woods shooting turkey, waiting for days listening for their distinctive gobbling call and/or tracking their footprints. He proudly shows his board of turkey trophies - feet and beards!! Elsewhere the local policeman sits in his patrol car waiting to catch speeding drivers, and old men talk about water, and God, how sand grows, and show us their tortoise and possum. Hmmmm. However, I realised how valuable it is to have these non-main-stream films put into context by experts in the field - do you remember Alex Cox's introductions to the films shown on Moviedrome?

077 - The Wild Angels

Synopsis: The life, loves, fights and deaths of a gang of Hell's Angels

Director: Roger Corman

Actors: Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, 

Date: 1966

How viewed: Rented from Lovefilm

Rating: 3/5

David Meyer says:
Corman both romanticises the biker life and finds it bereft of worth. Corman understood anti-heroes like nobody's business. 

I say:

My, we've come a long way in the last few decades! So, here we have a film about a gang of Hell's Angels in the 1960's, led by Peter Fonda (in almost an exact copy of his role in Easy Rider 3 years later). The gang 'want to be free' - free to ride their motorbikes and party and not be hassled. But it all seems pretty tame, even for the 60's - yes, there's hints of sex (consentual and non-consentual) and drugs, but no rock n roll (the sound track is completely out of place tinny surf music), and indeed the scenes of the gang riding through the fantastic Californian scenery and canyons at times looks like an impressive travelogue. There's a sense of disillusionment (Fonda feels his best friends death is 'all his fault') and an oblique reference to the ongoing Vietnam war, but generally it just seems to be about partying and fighting (it must have been galling for Bruce Dern to have to play dead during the drinking and orgy scenes!!). Interesting to see Diane Ladd looking exactly like her (and Bruce Dern's) daughter Laura Dern in David Lynch's film 'Wild at Heart', and the guy who plays the preacher (Frank Maxwell) looks awfully familiar as well. From a 21st century viewpoint the most disturbing thing now about the film is probably the widespread use of the swastika, and easily the most impressive is the scene at the end as the gang ride through town with the coffin to the cemetery as the townsfolk look on. 

076 - Le Mepris (Contempt)

Synopsis: Screenwriter's marriage disintegrates during film production

Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Actors: Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Michael Piccoli, Fritz Lang

Date: 1963

How viewed: Rented from Lovefilm

Rating: 3/5

David Meyer says:
Godard understand cinema perhaps too well; his insights into how camera movement and even light itself can provoke emotion led him to abandon narrative early in his career.

I say:

Le Mepris (aka 'Contempt') is a key film in the French 'New Wave' of the 50's/60's - a movement in which directors such as Jean-Luc Godard broke the mould by introducing techniques such as fragmented discontinuous editing, and long takes, using portable equipment to produce a documentary style. As a result it's rather difficult to watch films like this in terms of simple story-telling - you probably need a few viewings to catch the mood and start to sit back and and enjoy it - but on first viewing it's pretty irritating! Le Mepris is a film about the making of a film  of The Odyssey - the real life director Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M) plays himself (is himself, or plays a part?), who clashes with the producer (Jack Palance) who wants something more commercial and asks a writer (Michael Piccoli) to re-write the screen-play, partially, one senses, because he fancies his wife (Brigitte Bardot). There's a long, long, long middle section where the screen-writer and his wife interminably discuss and argue whether he should take the job and/or go to Capri where the next scenes are bring shot. They go, it doesn't turn out well. The film seems riddled with indecision, you just want someone to make their minds up about something so that the the plot can move along - but perhaps thats exactly what the New Wave were revolting against! As straightforward storytelling it didn't do it for me though. Best bit - the house in Capri where they film. Worst bit - the dubbing into English, very strange.

  

075 - Hell is for Heroes

Synopsis: A handful of US soldiers hold the line against 'the Krauts' in WWII

Director: Don Siegel

Actors: Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Bobby Darin, Fess Parker, Harry Guardino, Bob Newhart

Date: 1962

How viewed: Rented from Lovefilm

Rating: 2/5

David Meyer says:
Uneven, enthralling and unique ... a genre treasure, the last of its kind, a thinking war movie.

I say:

A somewhat pointless and predictable war film about a squad of 6 soldiers left behind to face the advancing German army. The story builds via a number of scenes: a slow beginning with the battle-weary soldiers expecting to be going home, the arrival of the weird looking Steve McQueen (staring eyes, silent, and clearly shell-shocked), the move to the front, the  squad being left to hold the line whilst the rest of the company is temporarily moved elsewhere, the schemes to try and fool the enemy into thinking the full company is still present, the mis-guided attempt to attack the Germans ensconced in a pill box, the return of the company, and the final assault. There's a strange sub-plot about a young Polish guy who wants the join the squad and turns up on the front-line, it's annoying when actual footage is inserted, and whilst the likes of Fess Parker (best remembered as Davy Crockett!) and Harry Guardino look the part, the inclusion of Bobby Darin (who was a huge pop star in the 1950's and is surprisingly good in this film) and Bob Newhart (the comedian) are unexpected!  The film ends suddenly, like this blog (they ran out of money, I ran out of ideas!).