Tsui Hark's directorial debut about a unlikely trio being drawn to a ghostly castle to investigate a series of mysterious deaths by swarms of poisonous butterflies. It starts off as an enticing murder mystery/horror hybrid, but the plot eventually gets out of control resulting in a muddled third act that is heavy on frantic action and rushed exposition to explain all the twists.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Marlon Brando plays a bandit named Rio, who is betrayed and abandoned by his partner (Karl Malden). After five years in prison, Rio escapes, determined to hunt down and kill his old partner. This was the only film that Brando directed and the results are not good. His direction is almost as flat and lifeless as his performance.
Rating: ⭐⭐
Los Angeles private detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is hired by General Sternwood to sort out a case of blackmail involving his youngest daughter, but soon finds himself drawn to Sternwood's oldest daughter, Vivian (Lauren Bacall). Raymond Chandler wrote the original novel by mashing together two short stories, creating a knotted narrative that the screenwriters, including William Faulkner, couldn't untangle. Hell, even Chandler had no idea who actually killed the driver. The film was also heavily reshoot after filming once Bogart and Bacall's relationship became a media sensation, drastically increasing her screentime at the expense of other characters who were more central to the story. This leaves us with a messy adaption of a messy book that gets by mainly on Howard Hawks' direction and the playful chemistry of the two leads.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Oh, Last Action Hero, you poor doomed mess of a movie. On paper this really should've been an easy success. The director of Die Hard, the writer of Lethal Weapon, and the star of Terminator 2 all teaming up to create a knowing send up of 80s action films. What could possibly go wrong? Well, as it turns out, everything. The film itself is loaded with cameos and in-jokes, but doesn't really have anything insightful to say about the genre, and ends up being far too close to the very thing it was meant to be parodying. And then to make matters worse, the studio rushed it through production and thought it would be a good idea to release it right after Jurassic Park, damning it to box office oblivion.
Rating: ⭐⭐
Howard Hawks produced this adaptation of John W. Campbell's novella about the crew of an Arctic research station uncovering a shapeshifting alien frozen in ice. Two things really let this one down. The first is the limited FX capabilities of the time, which meant it couldn't accurately create the Thing so it ends up as nothing more than a lumbering Frankenstein knock-off instead. The second are the characters, who are as flat and featureless as the Arctic scenery, a bland collection of heroic soldiers and foolish scientists (plus the token girl so the hero has a love interest). All in all, I really prefer the tension and paranoia (and gory horror, funnily enough) of the John Carpenter version.
Rating: ⭐⭐
Various characters (including a show stealing Anna Magnani) come together during the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944 to aid a resistance leader in escaping the city before he is caught by the fascists and tortured. Roberto Rossellii's ground-breaking classic is a thoroughly depressing, yet utterly engrossing piece of Italian Neorealism. Don't watch if you have any hope of there being anything close to a happy ending.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bruce Lee plays the imaginatively named Lee, a martial artist recruited by a British Intelligence agent to infiltrate a martial arts tournament being held on the island home of a notorious crime lord. Enter the Dragon is a landmark film for its genre, but really isn't a great example of it. This is very much a case of a US studio trying to capitalize on something that it didn't really understand the appeal of. It's a decent enough showcase for the skill and star power of its leading man, but if you want a proper Bruce Lee experience you're better off watching Fist of Fury or The Way of the Dragon.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
This technicolour grand adventure sees legendary lover Don Juan forced to return to Spain following a scandal in England. Once home, he soon uncovers a sinister plot against his beloved queen by a warmongering count. After a string of flops, this was Errol Flynn's big return swashbuckler, but it failed to reach the same heights (or box office success) as The Adventures of Robin Hood. Flynn effortlessly brings the necessary suave charm to the role, but the action scenes just aren't as thrilling as in his earlier films, despite the best efforts of that rousing Max Steiner score.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
A stimulating and hypnotic experience for your eyes and ears, this is the first film in director Godfrey Reggio's Qatsi Trilogy. Featuring music by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke, Koyaanisqatsi is a visual tone poem about the relationship between between humanity, the natural world, and technology, consisting primarily of slow motion and time-lapse footage of cities and landscapes across the United States. There's no dialogue, story or characters, just stunning images and amazing music.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig
I recently watched The Thing from Another World and it was on my list of possible reviews to cover one of these days, after I finish the Universal Horror boxed set at least that is. I could always do a full one later on of course.
ReplyDeleteI quite enjoy it, although I can't really argue too much with your assessment, I do wish that at least the monster was a bit different, it is indeed very Frankenstein-monster like, even if it is a plant.
I haven't seen the 80s The Thing since the 90s, where we watched it as a group in college and our girlfriends were NOT happy with how gory it was! I know I'm in the minority preferring the 51 classic, but I do have more fun watching it than John Carpenter's version, even if his is more accurate to the original story.
I think I did see Return of the Dragon but am not 100%. I did watch a lot of 'Kung Fu Theater' on Friday nights on Channel 18 back in the early 80s in Milwaukee, but can't recall specific films well, although I do recall enjoying most/all of them and the bad dubbing.
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