tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88932020094403730442024-02-07T02:54:37.728-05:00Rob Kelly Writingrob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.comBlogger193125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-56854449923591473212016-09-21T20:44:00.004-04:002016-09-21T20:44:22.058-04:00Back Issue! #92 On Sale Now!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TwoMorrows' <i>Back Issue! </i>#92 features an article by me on Phantom Stranger team-ups, <a href="http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=1246&zenid=f57ccc7ff911f11dddd36636243717f2" target="_blank">and is on sale now!</a></span></div>
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-1897485294769766622016-05-12T07:24:00.000-04:002016-05-12T07:24:01.460-04:00Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - The Twilight People<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My first film review for Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast blog is now live, where I discuss 1972's <i>The Twilight People</i>! <a href="http://www.gilbertpodcast.com/the-twilight-people/" target="_blank">Go check it out!</a></span></div>
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-39429447405455366622016-05-09T07:34:00.006-04:002016-05-09T07:35:02.535-04:00Film Review - Captain America: Civil War<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My review of <i>Captain America: Civil War</i> is now up on <a href="http://13thdimension.com/how-captain-america-civil-war-made-a-true-believer-out-of-me/" target="_blank">13thDimension.com</a>!</span></div>
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-41570507382400667632016-03-26T12:20:00.001-04:002016-03-26T12:20:07.137-04:00Film Review - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My review of B<i>atman v Superman: Dawn of Justice</i>, "Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?" is now up on <a href="http://13thdimension.com/whatever-happened-to-the-man-of-tomorrow/" target="_blank">13thDimension.com</a>!</span></div>
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-46380984296303155462016-02-15T19:20:00.004-05:002016-02-15T19:20:36.707-05:00Film Review - Deadpool<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was asked by 13thDimension.com to review the new movie <i>Deadpool</i>, and the article--"I Am Curious (Deadpool)"--is now live. <a href="http://13thdimension.com/the-deadpool-review-for-deadpool-virgins/" target="_blank">Check it out!</a></span></div>
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-31874723998658050892016-02-05T19:48:00.003-05:002016-02-05T19:48:57.443-05:00Treasuring The Treasuries<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the announcement of Marvel's first new treasury-sized in comic in over thirty years, <i>Marvel Treasury Edition: Spidey</i> #1, <a href="http://13thdimension.com/">13thDimension.com</a> asked me to write something about this exciting news, and treasury-sized comics in general. <a href="http://13thdimension.com/treasuring-the-treasuries/" target="_blank">You can check it out here!</a></span></div>
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-22711081615122519942015-12-22T00:00:00.000-05:002016-02-05T19:49:06.310-05:00Film Review - Star Wars: The Force Awakens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I step out of my retro shoes over on 13thDimension.com to cover a little film called <i><a href="http://13thdimension.com/this-is-the-star-wars-the-force-awakens-review-youre-looking-for" target="_blank">Star Wars: The Force Awakens</a></i>!</span></div>
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-86391147360589257572015-11-23T00:00:00.000-05:002015-11-23T00:00:01.310-05:00Back Issue! #85 on Sale Now!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The newest issue of TwoMorrows' <i>Back Issue! </i>is on sale now, and features a piece by me entitled "It's A Power Records Christmas." <a href="http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=1221" target="_blank">Pick up a copy now!</a></span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-17324079021255989342015-11-22T13:05:00.001-05:002016-02-05T19:49:13.997-05:00Reel Retro Cinema<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">A few weeks ago was the debut of a new movie column I'm writing for <a href="http://13thdimension.com/">13thDimension.com</a>, entitled Reel Retro Cinema. Every few weeks I'll be talking about an older film with some connection to the world of comic books. So far I've written about <i><a href="http://13thdimension.com/reel-retro-cinema-danger-diabolik/" target="_blank">Danger: Diabolik</a></i>, <i><a href="http://13thdimension.com/reel-retro-cinema-for-your-eyes-only/" target="_blank">For Your Eyes Only</a></i> and, most recently, <i><a href="http://13thdimension.com/reel-retro-cinema-jaws-2/" target="_blank">Jaws 2</a></i>. I'm having a lot of fun and I thank 13D Editor Dan Greenfield for getting me on board. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">There will be a new column every two weeks(ish), <a href="http://13thdimension.com/?s=reel+retro+cinema" target="_blank">so keep checking back</a> to see what film I cover next!</span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-27687975877478339112015-09-16T00:00:00.000-04:002015-09-16T00:00:09.183-04:00Back Issue! #84 On Sale Now!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The newest issue of TwoMorrows' <i>Back Issue! </i>is on sale now, and features my long-form interview with comics/novel/TV writer Alan Brennert. This interview was originally conducted for my show, <i><a href="http://fireandwaterpodcast.blogspot.com/2014/07/episode-95-interview-with-alan-brennert.html" target="_blank">The Fire and Water Podcast</a></i>, but <i>BI</i> editor Michael Eury thought it would be great to run in this Supergirl-themed issue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am a huge fan of Alan's work, have been since I was a kid, and it was a real honor to get to talk to him at length about his comics work. I'm proud that the interview is running in <i>Back Issue!</i>, alongside many other fine articles about The Girl of Steel!</span></div>
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-3633319781214831552015-09-14T00:00:00.000-04:002015-09-15T13:56:28.404-04:00Movie Monday: Some Came Running<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<i style="font-family: verdana;">Some Came Running </i><span style="font-family: verdana;">- Directed by Vincent Minnelli. Starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer, and Arthur Kennedy. Released December 1958 from MGM.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">I had never heard of <i>Some Came Running</i>--despite its pedigree, both in front and behind the camera--until Martin Scorsese used a clip from it in his three hour plus documentary <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112120/" target="_blank">A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies</a></i>, one of my favorites. The sequence Scorsese showed was so compelling and beautiful that I made a mental note to track the film down and watch it. Flash forward ten years(!) or so, and I finally got around to watching it through the magic of iTunes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Some Came Running</i> is based on the book by James Jones, who had a massive hit with his first book, <i>From Here To Eternity</i>, which of course was a huge hit for Hollywood, as well. <i>SCR </i>was not received nearly as well, but MGM still gave the film the deluxe treatment, hiring Vincent Minelli to direct and getting megastar Frank Sinatra to play the main character, WWII vet Dave Hirsh, who returns to his home town after many years away. Dean Martin, fresh off his breakup with Jerry Lewis, was brought in for his first real dramatic role, and Shirley MacLaine was set to play none-too-bright-but-sweet floozie Ginnie Moorehead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The film opens with Hirsh on a bus on the way back to his hometown of Parkman, Indiana, having been put there in a drunken haze by some buddies, along with Ginnie, whom he apparently hooked up with as well. Ginnie likes Dave, but now sober he is surly and mean, and basically tells her to take off. Soon after, Dave takes a room in a hotel, and deposits the small fortune he has on him in a bank--but not the bank owned by his brother Frank (Arthur Kennedy), which causes quite a stir. Aside from his service in WWII, Dave became a semi-famous writer, but he seems unwilling to engage that part of his life now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Things are clearly tense--very tense--between Dave and Frank, and the older Hirsh is not happy that his brother rejects Frank's attempts to have him meet the "right" people, preferring to drink and gamble, alongside new pal Bama Dillert (Dean Martin), a charming rogue who <i>never </i>takes off his cowboy hat. Ginnie flits in and out of Dave's life, even after he meets the daughter of a family friend, a schoolteacher named Gwen (Martha Hyer). Gwen tries to convince Dave that he has a real gift and shouldn't ignore it, causing Dave to fall for her. He still spends time with Ginnie, even getting into a drunken fist fight with a former hoodlum boyfriend of hers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">At this point, the film stays relatively in place, plot wise, as we watch all the characters bounce off around one another and go through their paces (all the supporting characters--Bama, Frank, Frank's wife Agnes, Frank's secretary--get their own subplots). Sinatra is good, if a bit morose, as Dave. As you might expect, his best scenes are with Martin as Bama the gambler, who had such a natural charm on screen it's sort of unbelievable. As much as I enjoyed Some Came Running (and I did), there were times where I wish the movie would ditch all these sad sacks and just follow Bama and his adventures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The thing that kept me the most enthralled while watching <i>Some Came Running</i> was the visuals--shot in Cinemascope (unusual at the time for a non-epic), this movie is simply stunning to look at. Every scene is so beautifully composed and lit, the colors so vivid, that I think it's at least half the reason I enjoyed watching it so much. The final sequence (shown in the aforementioned Scorsese documentary), is so wonderfully staged that it's a complete knockout. It helps that MacLaine, in some ways playing a thankless role, is so good--sure, Ginnie is a sort of cliched Hooker with a Heart of Gold, but her inherent, somewhat dimwitted goodness is so sweet that when she does what she does at film's end, it really hits you. It's not a surprise she was nominated for an Oscar for this role.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Is <i>Some Came Running</i> another <i>From Here To Eternity</i>? No. It feels like it thinks it's more profound and deep than it really is, and at times Sinatra's character is such a self-involved dick that you wish everyone would just dump him and move on with their lives. Still, the performances are all quite good, and as I said the movie is just so beautiful to watch unfold that it's well worth your time.</span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-8769903367033147712015-09-07T00:00:00.000-04:002015-09-07T18:39:12.136-04:00Movie Monday: The Vampire Lovers<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<i style="font-family: verdana;">The Vampire Lovers </i><span style="font-family: verdana;">- Directed by Roy Ward Baker, Starring Ingrid Pitt, George Cole, Kate O'Mara, and Peter Cushing. Released October 1970 by Hammer Films.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Ever since I launched the <i><a href="http://fireandwaterpodcast.blogspot.com/search/label/film%20and%20water" target="_blank">Film & Water Podcast</a></i>, I've been wanting to get back to </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">writing the occasional movie review here for this long-dormant writing blog. Then when my pals Chris and Cindy Franklin reviewed Hammer's <i>The Vampire Lovers</i> for a Halloween-themed episode of their show, the <a href="http://supermatescomic.blogspot.com/2015/09/super-mates-episode-38-vampire-lovers.html" target="_blank"><i>Super Mates Podcast</i></a>, it inspired me to watch the movie for the first time. After watching it via Amazon Prime, I decided to jot down a few thoughts on it myself!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The film has a killer (no pun intended) opening, where a vampire hunter named Baron Hartog (Douglas Wilmer) beheads a beautiful, sultry vampire who has killed his sister. We then flash forward to the home of General Von Spielsdorf (Peter Cushing), which includes a niece and a sort of adopted daughter named Marcilla, played by the stunning Ingrid Pitt:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">It's clear right off the, er, bat, that Marcilla is, if not a vampire, certainly a bit different than the rest of the family. She seems to regard every woman in her orbit with lust, and puts the moves on the General's niece, only waiting until after the seduction is over to put the bite on her. In an unusual bit, it would seem that Marcilla does not turn into a bat, but rather a cat. The General's niece has intense nightmares about being smothered by a giant cat (<i>"Its fur was in my mouth!"</i>), but everyone dismisses her until it's too late.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Marcilla (now calling herself Carmilla, doing the whole Count Alucard bit) then takes up with another family, and puts the moves on the young daughter, a saucer-eyed waif named Emma (Madeline Smith). Their relationship is so hilariously inappropriate, with Carmilla barely bothering her sexual interest in Emma, that you wonder what the rest of the household was doing. There's a scene where Pitt chases Smith around while both of them are half nude, ending with a clinch on the bed, which told me why this particular Hammer Production never showed up as part of the weekend "Creature Features" that I watched as a kid:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">After a few more killings (Carmilla does put the bite on some men, but she seems to want to get it over with as soon as possible), the jig is up for Carmilla, and she is chased to her family crypt by the General and Baron Hartog, now much older and weary from having so much experience hunting vampires:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Generally, <i>The Vampire Lovers</i> is delightfully straightforward: Carmilla is a lesbian vampire, and basically humps and bites her way through everyone she meets until the people around her wake up to the situation. There's a not a lot of tension or suspense here, you're basically just waiting for the obvious to be discovered. It's funny, in some ways Carmilla being a vampire is more readily accepted as a reality than her being a lesbian: everyone seems just seems to think Carmilla is a close family friend, despite the fact she's caught several times laying in bed with her quasi-adopted sisters and other family relations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The one element the film has that is unexplained is the occasional shot of this vampire-y dude, sitting on a horse and laughing at...something:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">This character never interacts with the characters or the plot, is he Carmilla's Dad, doing the Proud Papa bit from afar? Who knows! Maybe he's just a perv who really enjoys watching Carmilla get naked and frolic around (who doesn't?). I imagine Hammer was able to get away with all this soft core stuff because of the English accents, period frippery, and the fact that this was adapted from an old book (<i>Carmilla</i> by J. Sheridan Le Fanu), which gave the whole thing a patina of class. In many ways, the most erotic scene is a shot of Ingrid Pitt naked but in silhouette, she had such an outstanding figure that went lit artistically, it's quite classy and really sexy. The bare breasts are nice and all, but not really needed (the 14 year old me is wondering who the hell is writing this).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The big minus for me was Peter Cushing as the General. It's a very dull part and while he breathes as much life into it as he can, there's just not much interesting stuff for him to do. Apparently he was a late addition to the cast, which might explain why he wasn't cast in the Van Helsing-y role of Baron Hartog, which seems like a natural.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">As you might imagine, the poster for <i>The Vampire Lovers </i>features way more exciting stuff than what happens here, it's mostly Ingrid Pitt standing around drooling over nubile women while everyone else phumphers around. Still, there are worse ways to spend ninety one minutes!</span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-48730198636862963312015-01-05T00:00:00.000-05:002015-09-06T09:09:32.696-04:00Movie Monday: Hot Millions<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Hot Millions </i>- Directed by Eric Till, Starring Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, Karl Malden, Bob Newhart</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">I recently showed my girlfriend Michael Curtiz's 1955 film <i>We're No Angels</i>, and she fell in love with it. And the part she loved the most was Peter Ustinov, who delivers a wonderfully strange comedic performance. So I thought we'd try some other Ustinov movies, and when I saw this film's cast, I knew this had to be next.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Ustinov plays Marcus Pendleton, who is just being released from prison for embezzlement. Pendleton is a crook, sure, but he's so smooth and charming that he even does the books for the prison warden! Released into a world heavily dominated by computer, Pendleton meets programmer Caesar Smith (Robert Morley) and convinces him to pursue his lifelong dream of hunting moths. He then assumes Smith's identity and gets a job at a huge corporation run by Carlton J. Klemper (Karl Malden). He buts heads with the company's top computer man Willard C. Gnatpole (Bob Newhart), who distrusts Smith and scoffs at his supposedly superior knowledge of programming.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">It doesn't take long for Pendleton/Smith to start running a scam which involves getting the computer to write and send checks to various false companies, all over the world, owned by him. In the meantime, he meets a nice, if nervous, young woman named Patty (Maggie Smith). After just a date or two, they fall for one another, even though Pendleton isn't honest with her about why he has to travel so much and what he's really up to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The noose starts to tighten around Pendleton, and at the same time Gnatpole makes a play for Patty (at one point they go shopping at one of the Beatles' Apple stores, a failed experiment that only lasted a few months--<i>Hot Millions </i>features some of the only surviving footage of one of the stores). Eventually Pendleton and Patty have to leave England, and are chased by Klemper and Gnatpole. The customs agent they deal with is played by Caesar Romero, defying anyone who wouldn't believe that celebrities as disparate as Karl Malden, Bob Newhart, and Caesar Romero <i>were ever in the same room before</i>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Hot Millions</i> is very silly and light as air, and the final scenes are that, only more so. Patty has more upstairs than people think, and she figures into the story more prominently than just being the love interest. She and Ustinov have a real chemistry, and there's a very sweet, wordless scene where he starts playing the piano and Patty joins him on the flute.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Despite his funny character name, Bob Newhart sort of plays the heavy here. He seems the only person to doubt Pendleton's veracity, and tries to steal Patty away from him to boot. The film seems to regard corporate bureaucrats like Gnatpole with real disdain, choosing to side with the charming--if admittedly completely crooked--Pendleton, who does what he wants and knows how to get it, silly little laws be damned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Hot Millions</i> is a very slight film, and not worth spending a whole lot of effort to track down. But it is a nicely diverting couple of hours, and I have to say it is fun watching this very unique cast put through its paces. If you're a particular fan of Peter Ustinov--as we have become--you'll enjoy it.</span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-80307787495777074392014-10-04T23:58:00.001-04:002014-10-04T23:58:09.027-04:00Legion of Super-Bloggers: LCE C-49<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">I was asked to be a Guest Blogger over at the <a href="http://www.legionofsuperbloggers.blogspot.com/2014/10/limited-collectors-edition-c49.html" target="_blank">Legion of Super-Bloggers site</a>, discussing the first LSH treasury comic. Go check it out!</span></span></span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-61251404898924531732014-08-11T00:00:00.000-04:002014-10-04T23:56:10.184-04:00Movie Monday: Guardians of the Galaxy<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At this point, does the world need another <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> review? of course not. <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/guardians_of_the_galaxy/" target="_blank">The crowd has spoken</a>, as it were, and GOTG is yet another massive, unbelievable success for the Marvel brand, which seems as invulnerable as Captain America's shield right now.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But I did want to say a few words about the movie, but in a slightly different manner then I normally do when talking about a movie for Movie Monday.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As I type this, I saw <i>GOTG</i> last Saturday. While impressed at the scope of these Marvel Universe movies, I have been consistently underwhelmed at the individual films--I liked <i>Iron Man</i> a lot, both Cap movies, the second <i>Hulk</i>, and the second half of <i>The Avengers</i>, but in many ways I've been bored with the rigid sameness that seems to be imposed on all these films from the get-go. In a lot of ways, that's why I always more of a DC kid than a Marvel one growing up--DC didn't have a house style, and as a consequence I felt had a lot more variety in their line, while Marvel strove for--and achieved--a mostly cohesive feel to all their books, no matter who it was about. So, in many movies, the Marvel movies are the most faithful comic book movie adaptations ever done.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I admit, I went into <i>Guardians</i> skeptical--could Marvel make this work, a film about characters who were "C list" at best? Characters that had none of the emotional, cultural resonance of Captain America or the Hulk? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The answer was revealed to me about ten minutes into the film when, after a quiet, sad but effective opening, director James Gunn cranks up "Hooked on a Feeling" over scenes of Star Lord dancing like an idiot on alien planet. Here, finally, was a Marvel movie daring to be unlike all the others!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That feeling of surprise and joy pretty much continued throughout the film. Chris Pratt filled the space admirably as our hero, the action was well-staged and easy to follow, and there were lots and lots of laughs. Sure, the villain--Ronan the Accuser--was another in a long line of kinda boring, generic bad guys who yell a lot, but I felt that was partly made up for by the appearance of Karen Gillan as Nebula, whose icy stare hinted that there was a lot more than what we were seeing. I think this is what they were trying to go for with Darth Maul in <i>Phantom Menace</i>, but here it worked.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">About halfway through the movie, I realized that not only was I really, really enjoying it, but that it was already my favorite Marvel movie, by a lot. By the time it ended (with a post-credits cameo that was wonderful in its absurdity and ballsiness), I was of the mind that <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> might be my favorite superhero comic book movie ever, save for the original <i>Superman: The Movie</i>. But would that opinion hold up?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Well, I'm about to find out, because I decided to see the film again, something I have only done with one or two other movies in the last decade. So I will resume this review after I have seen <i>GOTG</i> a second time. Be right back...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Okay, so, it's the next day, and now I've seen <i>GOTG</i> twice. And I can honestly say, I pretty much enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time. The shock of the new as gone, of course, but this time I concentrate more on the individual scenes, and how it all hangs together as a whole.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As the movie unfolded the first time, something I found I really enjoyed was how it managed to answer every question I had, and seemed to anticipate those questions: there's a scene involving a sort of intergalactic cock fight which I found upsetting, because it's sort of played for laughs: that is, until we see one of the characters react in horror to what they're seeing, which told me that the movie itself felt like that, too.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">During the final battle scenes, when movies like tend to get numbing with all the noise and CGI spectacle, <i>GOTG</i> has enough faith in its story to slow down, and have a couple of very beautiful moments where we just are spending time with the heroes. Not only are these scenes simply pretty to look at, amid all the destruction and bombast, they feel like a cool drink of water on a hot day.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the criticisms lobbed at this movie, and it's a fair one, is that the plot and villain are so cookie cutter, and how<i> GOTG</i> is so similar to the other Marvel movies. Isn't this film supposed to the beginning of Marvel's "Phase 2", which means it might be time to break from formula and try something truly different?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Having now seen it twice, I feel as though director James Gunn has taken the Marvel movie structure and twisted it for his own ends--adding all the humor, the soundtrack, the overall lightness of tone. So instead of <i>GOTG</i> being the start of Phase 2, it's more that this is the final film of Phase 1: after this, Marvel has to start really playing with the formula, or audiences <i>will</i> get bored and stop showing up to <i>Iron Man 7 </i>or whatever. James Gunn is pointing the way, showing future Marvel directors that you can break the mold and be successful.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> is one of the few films where I am actively, intensely interested in what they do with the sequel: the crawl at the end <i>"The Guardians of the Galaxy will be back"</i> harkens to an older era of movies, one promising fun and adventure and derring-do. Now that the origin story has been told, I really can't wait to see what trouble they get into next. And hear whatever is on Mix Tape Vol. 2!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'm going to take a break from Movie Mondays for a little while. For those of you who have been reading every week, I very much appreciate it, and rest assured Movie Mondays, like the Guardians, will be back!</span></span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-52247706301334760652014-08-04T00:00:00.000-04:002015-01-04T16:13:11.670-05:00Movie Monday: Baron Blood<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I was in the mood for trashy, bloody, gory fun, so a Mario Bava movie that I had never seen before seemed like the perfect fit.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The story concerns an American student named Peter (Antonio Cantafora), who is returning to his ancestral castle home so he can learn about an ancestor, the infamous Baron Otto van Kleist. He is infamous for murdering and torturing his subjects, and even though that was a long time ago, his name still inspires fear in the local townsfolk.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Peter meets the comely Eva (Elke Sommer), the assistant to a real estate developer who is working on turning the historic castle into a hotel. He mentions an ancient document he found back in the States, which is an incantation that would bring the Baron back to life if spoken aloud at the right time. Neither one of them take it very seriously, so they decide to try it, just for kicks:<i><br /></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It becomes clear that the document does, in fact, work! They hear slow footsteps outside the castle door, and it pounds heavily. They recite it again, and the seemingly nefarious presence is gone. The next night, for some reason, they do it <i>again</i>, except this time a stiff breeze carries the fragile paper onto a nearby roaring fire--meaning the Baron lives again!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Baron stalks the town, first stopping at a doctor's office. The doctor treats this stranger with kindness, despite his frightening visage:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">For his troubles, the doctor is murdered, and so is a gravedigger. Peter and Eva explain to the developer what they've done, and are met with disbelief. Nevertheless, the murders continue, which, you know, kinda drive real estate prices down a bit. The renovation is cancelled, and the castle is put up for auction. It's bought by wheelchair-bound millionaire Alfred Bekker (Joseph Cotten, back for a <a href="http://robkellywriting.blogspot.com/2014/07/movie-monday-magnificent-ambersons.html" target="_blank">second straight Movie Monday</a>):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">It doesn't take long for our dim-witted heroes to realize Bekker and the Baron are one and the same. Via a magic amulet, a plan is realized how to send Baron back to the grave.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Like I said above, I was looking for a big, fun, pulpy horror film, and usually Mario Bava delivers exactly that in his films (<i>Black Sabbath</i>, <i>Planet of the Vampires</i>), but unfortunately I found <i>Baron Blood</i> to be mostly very, very dull. Peter and Eva are your classic Stupid Protagonists, and a lot of horror movies wouldn't exist at all if the main characters didn't do very stupid things, but these two are so painfully careless that it makes the whole "incantation" scene laughable, as opposed to frightening. Once you've learned that the magic paper works, you wouldn't, oh, I don't know, <i>tear the thing up into a thousand pieces</i>?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The best part of the movie is, by far, the character design of the titular Baron. With his Solomon Kane-esque cloak and Hammer Films-like face, he cuts quite a dashing, scary figure, especially when draped in shadow, which is most of the time. There's a fun scene of a victim getting trapped in an Iron Maiden, which seemed like something Bava <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma44ipA6s61rcod2jo1_1280.jpg" target="_blank">just really enjoyed</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">But that stuff is few and far between, mostly it's Peter and Eva running about, which I found to be tedious in the extreme. It's always nice to see Cotten, although I always found him so charming that having him play a bad guy seems like a waste sometimes. Maybe I should have just watched <i>Planet of the Vampires</i> again.</span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-17743844494733084912014-07-28T00:00:00.000-04:002014-07-28T19:58:47.808-04:00Movie Monday: The Magnificent Ambersons<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">From the man that brought you a little film called<i> Citizen Kane...</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Usually for Movie Monday, I talk about a film I have not seen before. I like "discovering" it almost as I'm writing these reviews, to gauge what my first, gut reactions are to a particular movie.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">I decided to break that rule this week, since not only have I seen this film before, I've seen it many times: as a huge fan of the work of Orson Welles, there's simply no way to ignore this compromised masterpiece. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As the opening title card says, <i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i> is based on the book by Booth Tarkington, about a prominent</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Midwestern family</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> and the changes</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">they and society undergo at the dawn of the Industrial Age.</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A man named Eugene Morgan (Welles' pal and co-conspirator Joseph Cotten</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">) </span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">tries to woo Isabel Amberson (Dolores Costello), but she rejects him and marries Wilbur Minafer, who is from a prominent family<i>, </i>but does not love</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Isabel and Wilbur have a son, George, who is basically a rotten little shit from birth. As a child, he's a terror, and the whole town roots for him to get his "comeuppance." The film flashes forward twenty years, and George is now grown up (played by Tim Holt), and meets his mother's former paramour, whom he dislikes instantly. In the intervening decades, Eugene has become a car magnate, and is fabulously wealthy. He has a daughter, Lucy (Anne Baxter), whom George does like, quite a bit.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">George's father dies, and Eugene, a widower, tries to rekindle his relationship with Isabel. George will have none of it, and does everything he can to stand in his way. Isabel senses this, and goes along with her son's wishes, even though it makes her unhappy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Complicating things even further is Aunt Fanny (Agnes Moorehead), who also had feelings for Eugene, and is descending into psychosis. Events conspire to bring the Ambersons low financially, and George is forced to take up a dangerous line of work to keep their lifestyle going, while Eugene just gets more and more successful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">George has difficulty accepting how much the world has changed around him in such a short time: cars are now everywhere, billowing black smoke. During a dinner party, George is rude to Eugene's face telling him that cars are going to ruin society, and Eugene concedes that he may be right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The film ends on a curious note, with Eugene and Aunt Fanny visiting George after an accident, with the former declaring that he and the young man have made peace at last.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">I understand that not much in my description of the plot makes <i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i> sound very interesting:</span> <span style="font-family: verdana;">it's a family drama based on a (then) renowned novel, the kind of stuffy, high-brow stuff that you'd see on PBS or at your nearest "art house" theater. The stuff about the car industry completely changing society is interesting, but nothing that makes you think <i>"I have to see this movie."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">What makes <i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i> so compelling is the style director Orson Welles brings to it. This was his first film after <i>Kane</i>, and he was eager to show the world that he could make something more mature, less flashy, but just as powerful. And he completely pulls it off, instead focusing on the characters, and allowing his camera to float smoothly around the sumptuous sets, as if it just another member of the family.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">It's not that there aren't great shots/sequences in this film, there are: a long scene during a party was done entirely in one shot, with people moving in and out of the frame, and then back in. The shadows cast in the Ambersons' home loom long and deep, and there's a constant sense of foreboding, as history closes in on this once-prominent family.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the other things that makes this film so remarkable is that it is, as I mentioned above, compromised. The original cut of <i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i> ran almost two hours, and just as editing began Welles was asked to fly to Latin America to make another film as part of the war effort. He had planned to edit <i>Ambersons</i> from there, but wartime flying restrictions kept his editor (the soon-to-be-legendary Robert Wise) from joining him. A disastrous preview caused RKO to panic, and they took the job of editing the film on themselves. They lopped an entire half hour out, and reshot a "happier" ending, removing Welles' original (this being right after Pearl Harbor, the preview audience simply wasn't interested in anything challenging or even a little bit downbeat), as well as cutting other shots and the music, a move that so infuriated composer Bernard Herrmann he had his name removed from the final film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Normally, a movie having its ending removed and replaced with a Smile Button would be fatal, tilting the film's axis to the point where it effectively makes it a bad movie. But the stuff that Welles did up until that last five minutes is so good, the acting so top-notch, the visuals so arresting, that it's strangely easy to just shrug off the tacked-on ending, and luxuriate in the rest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i> is loaded with <i>Kane</i> veterans: Joseph Cotten, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead, Erskine Sanford. And even though the subject matter of both films couldn't be more different, this feels like the second installment of what could have been an amazing series of films by Welles' Mercury Theatre repertoire company (Welles even throws in a gag, when we see a newspaper has a review column by someone named Jed Leland, who was a character in <i>Citizen Kane</i> played by...Joseph Cotten). New to Welles' stock company was Tim Holt, an actor who spent most of his career in B or C westerns, seemingly dabbling in "A" pictures only if they were masterpieces: he did this, <i>My Darling Clementine</i>, and<i> Treasure of the Sierra Madre</i> in the 1940s, and then went right back to the westerns.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The missing half hour of <i>Ambersons</i> is apparently lost forever, the footage has never surfaced (supposedly RKO burned it to ensure Welles could not get his hands on it, a move so retroactively infuriating it defies belief) despite rumors at least one copy was sent to Welles overseas. The destruction of the original version hurt Welles so deeply that he couldn't bear to watch the film on TV, even decades later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">So while all of this backstage stuff is quite interesting, it shouldn't take away from what we do have: a marvelous film, a worthy follow-up to <i>Citizen Kane</i> (if such a thing is even possible), and an unmistakable statement that, as a director, Orson Welles' genius did not stop at the burning of that sled.</span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-24965004797379069942014-07-21T00:00:00.000-04:002014-07-26T22:22:17.481-04:00Movie Monday: Looking For Love<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">We're all <i>Looking For Love</i>!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">I came across this trailer ay work last week, never having heard of the film before. Check out the poster, and you'll see the sole reason I was interested: it features an appearance by Johnny Carson, as himself, on <i>The Tonight Show</i>! What the what?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Looking for Love</i> stars singing star Connie Francis (whom Hollywood assumed was a movie star) and romantic copy staple Jim Hutton. Francis plays Libby Caruso (heh), who dreams of being a singer, but can't get any traction. She decides to give up her dreams and get a regular job and land a husband. She meets Paul (Hutton) in a supermarket, and is interested in him, but he's not interested back. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Later, Libby creates a clothing line for women. It starts to take off, and Paul somehow manages to get Libby booked on <i>The Tonight Show</i>(!) to promote it. Libby mentions to Johnny that she can sing, so he has her perform on the show, which finally launches her singing career.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">I'll be honest, I didn't care one whit about the main thrust of the film--it's just romantic piffle. I was interested solely for the presence of Johnny, who had just started <i>The Tonight Show</i> two years earlier. You can count on one hand the number of times Carson let him or <i>Tonight</i> be used in any way outside the show itself, so I can only imagine he figured it was a good way to promote <i>Tonight</i> in a big way during its early years. Later on, when talking about this movie, Carson would say <i>"Looking For Love was so bad it was transferred to flammable nitrate stock."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">So, how are the Carson scenes? Well, Johnny was no actor (by his own admission), and he does seem a little uncomfortable during the very contrived moment where he invites Libby to sing on the show. But he's still a charming presence, and (IMO) it's a treat seeing this era of <i>The Tonight Show</i> in color!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Unfortunately, this is the only scene Johnny is in. The trailer made it seem like he was practically a co-star (a movie trailer, misrepresenting what the film is actually about? Stop the presses!), but he's gone from the movie after this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Libby's career starts going places, but she's met with a lot of set backs, both on stage and in her love life. During a live performance on <i>The Danny Thomas Show</i> (whose audience looks suspiciously like the one that attended <i>The Tonight Show</i>) everything goes wrong, leaving Libby a sobbing mess which forces Danny to ad-lib, live on air.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Paul starts to change his mind about Libby, right at the time she starts to fall for another guy from the supermarket, played by Joby Baker (who?). The one surprising thing about the movie is that Libby and Paul don't end up together: rather, Paul then moves on to Libby's roommate (played by Susan Oliver, who in real life later went on to become a director and aviator--where's <i>that</i> movie?), and by the end we have two happy couples, plus great character actor Jesse White playing some bells. There are worse ways to end a movie.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of course, <i>Looking For Love</i> is completely forgettable: it's basically a big sitcom episode, stretched out to feature length. The sets are nice to look at, and there's a lot of famous faces (in addition to Johnny and Danny Thomas, there's also George Hamilton, Paula Prentiss, and Yvette Mimieux!) that come and go. But I think the only reason anyone remembers it all is because of that all-too-brief glimpse of the ascendent Johnny Carson, live and in color.</span></span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-63496418129414669392014-07-14T00:00:00.000-04:002014-07-20T22:44:37.110-04:00Movie Monday: Spider-Man<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's The Amazing--well, just <i>Spider-Man</i>!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">A few weeks ago, my friends Chris and Cindy Franklin reviewed this movie-length 1977 <i>Spider-Man</i> TV pilot/movie on their <a href="http://supermatescomic.blogspot.com/2014/07/super-mates-episode-10-spider-man-tv.html" target="_blank">Super Mates Podcast</a>, and for the most part raked it over the coals. I hadn't seen it in years, decades maybe, and I didn't remember it being all that bad. So I felt is was time for a refresher.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">For those who have never seen it (and that's most of you, because Marvel refuses to release this or any of the subsequent episodes on DVD), <i>Spider-Man </i>was commissioned as a TV movie which would serve as a "backdoor pilot" to an ongoing series. The TV movie was a ratings success, and after some post-pilot tinkering (cast changes, mostly) the series launched. For some reason, instead of giving it a regular time slot, CBS used it as a heat-seeking missile, airing episodes in clumps to run against other networks' hit shows, hopefully draining some of their audience away. In an age where you had to actually sit in front of your TV and watch a program lest you miss it forever, this is an insane, maddening strategy, and it couldn't have done <i>Spider-Man</i> any favors.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Anyway, this TV movie tells the story you're all familiar with, but with some major changes: Peter Parker (Nicholas Hammond) works as a photographer for The Daily Bugle, where he is on the receiving end of blustery abuse from Publisher J. Jonah Jameson (David White). He is also a grad student, and one way while working on some experiments involving radiation, he sees an unwanted visitor: </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Peter gets bit, you know the rest. Except here, there is no Uncle Ben, so our hero's decision to become Spider-Man is mostly done on a whim. Not too long after being bit, he notices he can climb walls, crawling all over the outside of the townhouse he shares with his Aunt May (Jeff--yes, <i>Jeff</i>--Donnell). After stopping a mugging by scaring the bejeezus out of the mugger by scampering up an alleyway wall, he attracts the attention of random passersby and then the Daily Bugle! Jameson wants pictures of this "Spider-Man" of course, so Peter goes home and makes himself a snazzy suit:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For the most part, Hammond is fine in the part, if bland. He's not given a lot of character stuff to work with, so the blame can't really fall too heavily on him. My favorite moment of the whole show comes during this "trying the costume on" scene when, after seeing himself in the mirror, he becomes giddy with the sheer weirdness of the path he's setting himself on:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The other plot going on involves a bad guy named Byron who in public is a famous self-help guru, but is actually a crook using his abilities to compel his patients--some of them prominent doctors and lawyers--to commit crimes! Eventually, Byron decides to extort all of New York City, threatening to have a number of its citizens kill themselves unless a huge ransom is paid.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As Spider-Man, Peter meets up with some of Bryon's goons, including three samurai types(!), and the effects are...well, okay, they're pretty dodgy. There's some really bad matte shots where Spider-Man isn't even touching anything (thanks to mismatched footage), and lots of the guy in the suit (often as not the stuntman, not Hammond) walking on what's clearly the floor with the camera turned, ala the <i>Batman</i> TV show. Once in a while though they pull off something cool, like when Spidey kicks a bad guy from his position on the wall--hardly anything anyone would even notice today, but in 1977 this was still pretty sophisticated for TV.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Later, Peter visits Byron and gets slapped with one of his mind control bugs. In a great scene--the most tense of the show--Peter walks like a zombie to the top of the Empire State Building, preparing to kill himself by jumping. This scene is shot in an almost hand-held, POV-style, and it's quite effective. Peter here reminds me of some sort of mass murderer who looks totally calm, but is about to go off in some horrific way. Luckily for us, and himself, Peter accidentally crushes Byron's pin on the pointed guard railing, waking him up just in time:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">He dons the Spidey costume, pulls down Byron's equipment that is sending the nefarious signals, which causes the computer to blow up, turning Byron into a partially immobile zombie. Spider-Man cheerfully suggests Byron turn himself into the police, which he does. And with that, Spider-Man is ready for another adventure!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The main flaw that <i>Spider-Man</i> suffers from--and it's the same flaw we saw in 1978's <a href="http://robkellywriting.blogspot.com/2012/06/movie-monday-dr-strange.html" target="_blank"><i>Dr. Strange</i></a>, and even in 1997's <a href="http://robkellywriting.blogspot.com/2014/05/movie-monday-justice-league-of-america.html" target="_blank"><i>Justice League of America</i></a>--it's that there's not enough of the stuff you came for: namely, superheroics! The <i>Spider-Man</i> TV movie gives a lot of screen time to Peter, which makes sense since you're trying to establish the character. But then there's Michael Pataki as a police captain, and he's straight out of a thousand other cop shows airing at the time. All the stuff at The Daily Bugle is okay, but after only a minute or two of Spidey action, did there need to be what felt like a dozen scenes there? If I want newspaper drama, I'll watch <i>Lou Grant</i>!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">TV networks were still very unsure people would watch a "serious" superhero show, so they tended to lard them up with familiar TV tropes--<i>The Incredible Hulk</i> was just <i>The Fugitive</i> after all, but the talent behind that show made that work for them. With <i>Spider-Man</i>, I half expected to see Starsky & Hutch's red Grand Torino vrooom by at some point.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Still, there is some fun stuff here. There's a point where an under-the-weather Spidey tries to get a lift via an off-duty cab, but can't, so he bums a ride inside a garbage truck. If that's not a scene from a Ditko Spider-Man comic, it sure feels like it. But those moments are few and very far between.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Maybe it's my childhood nostalgia talking--I distinctly remember watching <i>Spider-Man</i> as it aired, and being thrilled that I was just getting to see a live-action Spidey--and I'm just viewing this more warmly than it deserves. But, for all its flaws, I'd say this series definitely deserves a DVD release. I mean, they put out <i>Spider-Man 3</i>, after all...</span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-91628883987649712072014-07-07T00:00:00.000-04:002014-07-07T00:00:10.789-04:00Movie Monday: City of the Living Dead<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">From the bowels of the earth they came...to collect the living!</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>City of the Living Dead</i> is the first of director and madman Lucio Fulci's unofficial "Gates of Hell" trilogy, which later went on to include <i>The Beyond</i> and <i>The House By The Cemetery</i>. It features dead priests, zombies, ancient curses, plus one guy getting a drill to the head.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">The plot could not be more basic: after a priest (Fabrizio Jovine) hangs himself, the gates of hell are opened. Zombies start to show up (seriously, Fulci shows us our first zombie at the 4:09 mark), and then all Hell literally starts breaking loose.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">All of this fooferaw is sensed by psychic Mary Woodhouse (Fulci favorite Catriona MacColl), who dies of fright during a seance. She is buried, only to come back live while being buried. In a bravura sequence, absent of gore but full of menace, a newspaper reporter investigating the case hears a weird sound and digs her up:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Reporter and and the Psychic (which would have made a great TV series) team-up, and discover that all of this is part of a prophecy spelled out in the Book of Enoch. The only way to stop the dead from taking over the Earth is to head to Dunwich, New England and close the gates of Hell before All Saint's Day, after which it will be too late.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Great premise, right? For some reason, Fulci then deals with several sub-plots featuring other characters, and our main characters take a very relaxed approach to their mission: at one point they even talk about getting a bite to eat and taking in some of the local scenery! Um, excuse, me, aren't you guys on a deadline to, you know, prevent the end of the world?</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That aside, some of the fun's most fun (read: gory) moments come from the side characters, like when another member of the undead puts a Lugosi-esque whammy on a young girl, causing her to regurgitate tons of organs right out of her mouth. Her boyfriend watches in horror, only to be rewarded by having his brain ripped out. There's also a sub-plot about a town pervert who gets murdered by an angry father of a young victimized girl. I mean, a <i>really</i> angry father:</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The film ends in a giant crypt where zombies come out of the woodwork and attack our heroes, and it is quite scary and nightmare-inducing, with its claustrophobic framing and feeling of utter dread. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>City of the Living Dead</i> ends on a happy note, as happy as anything ever is in a Fulci film. Then there's a final shot that is fairly baffling and unexplained, I've looked it up on the web and no one seems sure exactly what it means.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Overall, <i>COTLD</i> is a fun, gory time, if that's your sort of thing. I'm not expert on the man's work, but there are other films of his that I've enjoyed more, and didn't have such long drawn out dull parts. The gore is right there on the screen and imaginatively conceived, as it usually is when Fulci's involved. The way other directors liked to scare audiences, or take them to other, far off worlds, Lucio Fulci liked reducing the human body to so much pulp.</span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-55475333727099311102014-06-30T00:00:00.000-04:002014-07-11T18:40:20.465-04:00Movie Monday: Viva Knievel!<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">What better movie to celebrate July 4th with than the all-american <i>Viva Knievel!</i>?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">For those of you who don't know (you poor souls, you), <i>Viva Knievel!</i> is the sole movie-starring role for motorcycling stunt hero and Great American Evel Knievel, who parlayed a career of crashing into things to fame and fortune. As is typical with movies trying to "cash in" on a particular pop culture craze, <i>Viva Knievel!</i> gets there a little late, arriving in theaters a couple of years after Evel had peaked. But that shouldn't dull your enjoyment of this cinematic epic, because in many ways Evel is Forever.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">After an opening credits sequence straight out of a <i>Wonder Woman</i> episode, the film proper opens with Evel sneaking into an orphanage late at night (a middle-aged man skulking around a kids' bedroom in the dark, no problem there) to deliver toys for the kids. Not just any toys, though: Evel Knievel toys!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One kid, inspired by Evel, throws his crutches aside and says if Evel can walk away from all those horrible crashes (which he really shouldn't have had if he was any good at jumping over stuff), then he can do! One of the nuns who runs the place chastises Evel for stirring up the kids, but even an agent of The Lord is no match for Evel Knievel! So suck it, God!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Evel then starts to prepare for his next big jump. We meet his mechanic, the once-great-but-now-boozed-up Will Atkins (Gene Kelly, on the road to demolishing a great career), and a reporter named Morgan (Lauren Hutton), who is there to cover Evel's next jump. Because if he crashes (likely) and dies, it'll make a make a great story!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The filmmakers assumed they could give Knievel and Hutton some Tracy/Hepburn sparkling repartee, because they start squabbling from the first scene. But Hutton is no Hepburn, and Evel Knievel is not exactly Spencer Tracy, so all their scenes just seem pissy and weird: Hutton's photographer seems less than professional, and Evel just looks like a big jerk.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Before Evel performs the big jump (which looks like it's taking place at a high school, in front of about a hundred people), he takes a moment out to tell kids: hey, don't do drugs!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">With that weirdness out of the way, Evel does the jump--or, more accurately, doesn't: he crashes and is immediately taken to the hospital, leaving all those spectators to wonder why they paid full ticket price for something that would have been a five minute show, at best.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">While in the hospital, Evel resists all efforts to return to the game (remember, he's the hero of this movie), despite the urging of his former protegee Jessie (Marjoe Gortner, whose screen presence was as awkward and ungainly as his name). Turns out that there's more to Jesse than meets the perm: he is being backed by some drug runners (one played by Leslie Nielsen!) who want to use Evel's convoy to sneak drugs from Mexico (this was the 70s, was that even illegal then?).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There's a whole subplot involving Will and his estranged son (who is way too young to be the sire of Gene Kelly, who was in his 60s here). Will is a big jerk to the young boy, so he is looked after by fraidy-cat Evel Knievel. Will learns of the plot to have Evel die during his Mexico stunt and the drug smuggling, so some goons knock him out and put him in a mental institution under the care of a corrupt doctor (Dabney Coleman). Evel sneaks into the hospital and rescues Will: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Well, sort of rescues: in a move that Spielberg and Lucas would steal for <i>Raiders of the Lost Ark</i>, Evel leaves Will in the place so the drug runners don't realize Evel is onto them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Having decided to resume his stunts, he's about to do the big jump in Mexico when Jesse--high on drugs (say no, kids!) confronts him and says he is the best jumper. He knocks Evel out with one punch, climbs on his bike, and does the jump. But because the bike has been tampered with, it crashes, killing Jesse.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Evel finally learns of the whole plot and, and hour in, the film finally delivers something like an action sequence: Evel, astride his motorcycle, busts into the hospital and grabs Will, and off they go to find the caravan (which also features a kidnapped Morgan and Will's son; don't ask).</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Evel and Will split up, and our hero stops the drug runners, ending with a nice car crash. Will and his son are reunited, and Morgan realizes she has the hots for Evel. He performs the original stunt scheduled for Mexico, and in the final shot the film freezes on Evel, with the opening theme making a return. The End!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">As you might have guessed, <i>Viva Knievel!</i> is a terrible film. Evel, through no fault of his own, is a terrible actor, and has no business being the lead of a major movie. When they made a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067069/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">bio-pic about Evel's life in 1971</a>, they cast George Hamilton in the role. I've never seen that film, but odds are it's better than this, which feels like an extra-long episode of pretty much any cop show from the time. The stunts are okay of course, but almost all the other characters are extremely unlikeable. And for a movie about a motorcycle daredevil, having him try to make jump, fail, and then lay in a hospital bed whining for the middle section doesn't really make you root for the guy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">But I will say this: <i>Viva Knievel!</i> is never boring: I watched it with some friends a few months ago and we had a great time yelling at the screen. And right at the point where you start to get a little bored, it wraps up with some nic explosions. How <i>Mystery Science Theater 3000</i> never got around to this movie is beyond me.</span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-30148468956199299482014-06-23T00:00:00.000-04:002014-06-23T00:00:08.014-04:00Movie Monday: Cannery Row<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">This week's movie is the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's classic <i>Cannery Row</i>!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A few weeks ago I took out <i>Cannery Row</i> from the library (<i>The Grapes of Wrath </i>was checked out) and found that, despite its brevity (less than 180 pages) I found the book difficult to comprehend. There isn't much plot really, just a series of vignettes about the various denizens of Cannery Row, and I kept saying to myself, what is Steinbeck saying here?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I was interested enough to keep reading, and I eventually finished it. I still felt confused as to what the deeper themes were, so I did some research online and came away with a greater appreciation for the book. I did genuinely like <i>Cannery Row</i>, so it made me think maybe the movie version was worth checking out as well?<i><br /></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The films stars Nick Nolte as the main character, Doc, a marine biologist. After a quick tour of the other locales in Cannery Row, it's clear that while Doc is admired and respected in the town, he doesn't really fit in: highly educated, he has a purpose of intent that a lot of the others do not (including a comical gang of underemployed fisherman, led by Mack, played by M. Emmet Walsh). Doc collects octopi for research, much to the general confusion of the others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">New in town is Suzy (Debra Winger), who comes looking for work but finds there isn't much. She's forced to look for room, board, and work at the local bordello, run by Fauna (Audra Linley).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The film tries to recreate the book, in presenting a series of short sequences about the citizens of the town. The one story thread from the book adapted here is when the motley gang of fisherman, all of whom like Doc very much, decide to throw him a party. But the festivities get out of hand and a brawl breaks out, which ends up breaking Doc's octopus tank.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The other story thread is lifted from Steinbeck's <i>Cannery Row </i>sequel, 1954's <i>Sweet Thursday</i> (which I have not read). That's where all the stuff with Suzy comes from, for she is not a character in the original book. Here, Suzy thinks she recognizes Doc, and wonders why such an accomplished man would choose to live in such a depressed (in more ways than one) little burg like Cannery Row. That sets up the movie's main plot, and gives the chance for Doc and Suzy to fall in love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">I had a difficult time with <i>Cannery Row</i> the movie as I did with <i>Cannery Row</i> the book, but for different reasons. From the Steinbeck I have read (which is, admittedly, not all that much), one of the virtues of the man's work was a directness and lack of sentimentality, even when he's talking about eccentric bums like the ones here, or his faithful dog Charley in <i>Travels with Charley</i>. But the movie--directed by first-timer David S. Ward (<i>Major League</i> and, er, <i>Major League 2</i>) is so cutesy presenting these lovable losers that the whole thing feels quite twee, an experience I've never had while reading Steinbeck.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Nolte is good as Doc, and Winger is okay as Suzy, but everyone else in the movie just doesn't feel real. There's narration from John Huston(!) which feels like the voice of Steinbeck himself. It works some of the time, but other times it feels like you're just having someone read the book to you. Visually, everything is shot through a gauzy haze, which again romanticizes all the goings-on, when living in Cannery Row was actually probably pretty depressing at times. I'm not saying the film should have been some gritty drama, but I can't help but feel that Ward just couldn't quite pull this tricky tone off. As I was watching, I wondered what Robert Altman might have done with this material.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Even with all my misgivings, I found <i>Cannery Row </i>tough to actively dislike, because it seems like the cast and crew is in their pitching (no pun intended, for those of you who have seen it). But overall the movie just doesn't really work, so I think you can call <i>Cannery Row</i> a noble failure.</span></div>
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-36548820337017696412014-06-19T22:33:00.000-04:002014-06-19T22:33:02.611-04:00"4 Reasons Why Aquaman Deserves More Respect: A Fan Speaks Out"<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Upon news of Jason Momoa's casting as Aquaman in <i>Batman v. Superman</i>, Yahoo Movies was nice enough to ask me to write an article about why Aquaman is no joke. The piece, <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/movies/4-reasons-aquaman-deserves-more-respect-a-fan-speaks-89094703987.html" target="_blank">"4 Reasons Why Aquaman Deserves More Respect" can be found here!</a></span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-64679507560598201392014-06-16T00:00:00.000-04:002014-06-16T00:00:09.662-04:00Movie Monday: Mansion of the Living Dead<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I was watching some trailers at work the other day (actually part of my job!), and there was a series of films that were the work of infamous sacred cow-poker Jesus "Jess" Franco. I had heard of the man before but, like <a href="http://robkellywriting.blogspot.com/2014/02/movie-monday-beast-of-yellow-night.html" target="_blank">Eddie Romero</a>, I had never seen a single example of the work, despite the fact that Franco has over 200 films to his credit! So I thought why not give one a shot?<i><br /></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Mansion of the Living Dead</i>'s plot, such as it is, is both childlike in its simplicity and also bizarrely confusing. Four girls go on vacation, ending up at hotel resort. They are quite obviously looking to party hard, so much they barely notice that there doesn't seem to be a single soul anywhere around:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Director Franco wastes no time--literally--in getting the girls naked. They pair off into two rooms, and each set starts going to town on each other, convinced that the other pair are frigid prudes. They are all willing to sleep with the first guy they see but, for now, bedding each other will suffice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">They decide to bathe topless when someone from a few floors up throws a meat cleaver at them. It misses but, instead of, you know, leaving, they stick around and have more sex, some of it so explicit I wondered just how far Franco was going to go. Soon after, one of the girls wanders off to take photos, never to be seen again. The other three run into the hotel's gardener, who is only interested in peeping on them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Another one ends up getting grabbed and dragged off to a nearby courtyard (has anyone seen a mansion yet?), where she is deemed to be a sacrifice but a cult of hooded bad guys wearing skull masks:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">They talk a bunch of gibberish about their god and stuff, which all leads to the woman being gang raped then murdered. Meanwhile, not all that far away, Meryl Streep was making <i>Out of Africa</i>. Anyway, Girl #3 stumbles her way into another room where she finds the wife of the hotel's manager, who is kept chained to the wall in perpetuity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">As this woman explains what's going on here, she shovels food in her mouth, explaining that she's only fed once a week. I have to admit, watching her smear food all over her face was, for me, the most difficult scene to watch in the whole enterprise:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Basically, this whole place is built on sacred ground, blah blah blah, and they lure innocent people to this place (damn Travelocity!) and kill them as holy sacrifices. The hotel manager is in on it of course, and he plays a large role in the final scene, where Girl #3 is about to be sacrificed (having, in a stupor, killed Girl #4 earlier):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">There's more, but what's the point? If you're the kind of person who wants to see this kind of movie, it doesn't matter how it ends!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">I wasn't sure what I was hoping for, trying out some of Franco's work. I've seen enough horrendously gory Italian horror to last me a lifetime, so I wasn't looking for extreme violence. The sex is not very tittilating, either: the girls are shot in such unflattering ways and in such dismal settings that the whole thing just felt dirty, which may of course been part of the point.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Sure, there are some nice moody scenes: Franco shoots this empty hotel in ways that make the place seem terribly threatening, even though there's nothing inherently scary about these bland halls and florescent lighting. A few minutes in, when it becomes clear these four dingbats have exactly zero sense of self-preservation, you have to accept that this world is not like ours, and thereby plays by its own rules: while you or I would put the car in reverse once we saw how big and creepy the hotel is, these girls' natural reaction is to get as naked as possible as quickly as possible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">With literally another 200 films to choose from, I can't say this will the first and last Franco movie I will choose to hunt down, but I'm not exactly in a hurry, either.</span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893202009440373044.post-27639210804040771092014-06-09T00:00:00.000-04:002014-06-10T21:32:33.266-04:00Movie Monday: Wonder Woman (1974)<div face="verdana" style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>You're sort of a wonder, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072419/?ref_=fn_al_tt_7" target="_blank">Wonder Woman</a>!</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Pretty much every comic book fan is aware (if not having actually seen) Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, from the 1975-1979 TV series of the same name. Fewer people, however, know that this was not the first live-action Amazing Amazon to appear on television! No, a year earlier, then-tennis star Cathy Lee Crosby, trying to break her way into acting, nabbed the title role in a TV movie that was intended as a pilot for a series.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">After an intro that shows us various MPs seemingly stealing volumes of top secret information from various locales (Paris, Istanbul, etc.) and delivering them to the very 1970sish George Calvin (Andrew Pine), who summarily has his field agents executed by a brother and sister assassin team!<i><br /></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Our first shot of Diana Prince (the very blond Crosby) is on Paradise Island, as she prepares to leave this paradise and enter Man's World. She bids a melancholy goodbye to her mother Hippolyte and some of her Amazonian sisters, one of whom who all but begs to go with Diana.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The whole Paradise Island sequence must be a flashback, because after a jump cut we find Diana comfortably ensconced with some sort of government agency, with her boss being one Steve Trevor (Kaz Garas):</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Trevor calls a meeting of the top brass to tell them about how the code books (seen at the beginning of the movie) have been stolen. Diana seems to be Trevor's secretary and, after fending off the advances of some other guy, overhears her boss's meeting. Trevor seems to know that Diana is Wonder Woman, or something, because she heads out to find the person who stole the books, with Trevor's winking approval.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">This George Calvin guy is working for another guy, named Abner Smith, played in a series of scenes by Ricardo Montalban where you never see his face. I'm not sure what the makers of this movie thought they were doing here, since Montalban is credited at the top of the show, and his voice is so unmistakeable that there's zero suspense trying to guess who it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Diana starts tracking down Smith, starting with a trip to a posh hotel. Calvin meets her there, and he asks her out, going so far as to saying how much he'd like to make love to her(!). Diana takes all this sexual harassment in stride, never wavering from her mission (more on that in a second). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">For the first 2/3rds of the movie, Crosby never wears any sort of costume, preferring to beat guys up in red slacks. When she finally does put on a superhero suit, it's a sort of Adidas-style running outfit, though it's not without its charms:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">This scene--where they lure Wonder Woman into some sort of weird-ass mud room--is the only prototypical comic book moment in the whole movie. Otherwise, it's pretty much all talk talk talk, even when WW escapes and finally meets up with Abner:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Even the final scene, with Wonder Woman apprehending Smith (spoiler alert!), is done in such a low-key, almost comical way that I was scratching my head, wondering (no pun intended) just who this movie was supposed to appeal to: probably way too silly for adults, but too bizarre and idiosyncratic for kids. Ratings were medicore, but apparently ABC had enough faith in the Wonder Woman concept that they recommissioned a new pilot, starring Lynda Carter, and the rest was history.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">The one worthwhile element to <i>Wonder Woman</i> is not so much Crosby's portrayal (which is dull, if not bad), but how Diana is written: she is never anything but completely confident in herself and her ability to finish her mission. You get the sense she's pretty much just toying with all the men in her way, willing to lead them on in one way or the other to get what she needs. I found that quite refreshing, especially when you compare it to the starry-eyed schoolgirl version found in the failed <a href="http://robkellywriting.blogspot.com/2012/01/movie-monday-wonder-woman.html" target="_blank">2011 Wonder Woman pilot</a>. This is progress?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Other than that, this is pretty much a disaster: the effects are nil (Wonder Woman mentions, but we never get to see, her Invisible Plane--what a tease!), the dialogue ranges from weak to bizarre, and the whole thing just feels like a <i>Bionic Woman</i> episode. I guess this was simply a reflection of when it was produced--clearly, filmmakers didn't think a "straight" superhero show would work, so they had to dress the comic book parts in standard TV fare--<i>Wonder Woman</i> feels like a spy show, <a href="http://robkellywriting.blogspot.com/2012/06/movie-monday-dr-strange.html" target="_blank"><i>Dr. Strange</i></a> was in parts a medical drama, etc etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;">Like <a href="http://robkellywriting.blogspot.com/2014/05/movie-monday-justice-league-of-america.html" target="_blank"><i>Justice League of America</i></a> a few weeks ago, this is only worth tracking down as a curio. It will be interesting to see if Warner Bros. has learned any lessons between 1974 and 2016, when the first silver screen Wonder Woman makes her debut!</span><br />
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rob!http://www.blogger.com/profile/17556471244882205031noreply@blogger.com0