Starring: Jack Warner, Ronald Lewis, Yolande Donlan, Michael Goodliffe, John Le Mesurier, Moira Redmond, Christine Bocca, Brian Oulton, Ray Barrett, Norman Chappell, John Barron, Joan Newell
Tagline: The most baffling whodunit ever filmed...!
Plot: A woman is found murdered in a house along the coast from Brighton.
Local detectives Fellows and Wilks lead an investigation methodically
following up leads and clues mostly in Brighton and Hove but also
further afield.
My rating: 8/10
Will I watch it again? Yes.
Here's one crime thriller that's very smart and a little different than the usual fare of its time. The two detectives work well together as they uncover a murder and try to solve it with barely a clue. Little by little, through some boring (for them, not me), routine police work tiny clues add up that lead them to a short list of suspects. I like how the detectives work well together and their matter-of-factness. There's very little time wasted on screen and the mystery remains one until almost the end. And even then they don't have the evidence to finish the job...or do they. It's only in the final few seconds that closure is made and it's not in a way you'd think. If it were made these days the filmmakers would've kept going to give you more information, information you don't need. This is a tight little picture that deserves a look.
Writers: Bruce Porter, David McKenna, Nick Cassavetes
Composer: Graeme Revell
Starring: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Franka Potente, Rachel Griffiths, Paul Reubens, Jordi Molla, Cliff Curtis, Miguel Sandoval, Ethan Suplee, Ray Liotta, Bobcat Goldthwait, Emma Roberts
Plot: The story of George Jung, along with the Medellín Cartel, headed by
Pablo Escobar established the American cocaine market in the 1970s in
the United States.
My rating: 6/10
Will I watch it again? No.
I saw this during it's initial release and again recently. My feelings about it haven't changed. It's not compelling enough for me to be engaged in and I think that the film not only wants to be compelling but it needs to be. I think part of that might be Depp's average performance. He didn't sell it. Maybe George Jung (Depp) is like that in real life. If he is then this would've been an acceptable time to use some artistic licensing. Even with all of the films I've seen since that deal with the drug trade with the US and Mexico/Central America, this one still lies flat. There's no denying that the style of this picture is heavily copied from GOODFELLAS (1990) from the opening, to the pacing, narration, songs, structure and so on. Hell, it's even got Ray Liotta in it. After seeing this then and now I couldn't help but think how this would've been so much better had it been directed by Martin Scorsese. I feel like I'm in the minority in my lack of love for this flick. Most everyone I've know who has seen this loves it. I just think this should've and could've been so much better.
Writers: Alan Hackney, Frank Harvey, John Boulting
Composer: Ken Hare
Starring: Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Margaret Rutherford, Irene Handl, Liz Fraser, Miles Malleson, Marne Maitland, John Le Mesurier
Tagline: Three of England's Top Comedians...One Big Laugh Riot!
Plot: A naive aristocrat in search of a career becomes caught up in the
struggles between his profit-minded uncle and an aggressive labour
union.
My rating: 8/10
Will I watch it again? Yes.
Jesus Palomino! NUDITY!
You have to wait until the end of the picture to get to it but it's a fun ride and well worth it. A lot of these 50s British comedies are either too silly (where everyone's an idiot) or it's just cute. I laughed a few times at this one. The cast is fantastic. It's a really good early Sellers role. His dialects were unparalleled. He's the biggest star (now, but not as much then) but they all do a fantastic job and there are a lot of little funny moments that add up to an enjoyable picture. This flick takes the piss out of silly rules whether it's from the union or from management. I'd say this is one of the best of the British comedy output of the 1950s.
Starring: David McCallum, Richard Heffer, Paul Chapman, Jack Hedley, Bernard Hepton, Hans Meyer, Christopher Neame, Robert Wagner, Edward Hardwicke, Anthony Valentine
Plot: This grim and claustrophobic drama chronicles the lives of the prisoners
in Colditz Castle from the arrival of the first British prisoners after
Dunkirk until the liberation of the castle by the Americans in 1945.
Colditz was a "special" camp, designed by the Nazis to hold high-risk
and politically important prisoners. Many of the series' plots are based
on real events.
My rating: 9/10
Will I watch it again? Yes.
Outstanding! The first three or so episodes deal mostly with a few future residents in their escapes that led to their being sent to Colditz castle. Once these introductions are dispensed with the rest of the episodes are nearly all spent at the prison camp. Those first few episodes run rather slow but once most of the time was spent at the castle and hanging around these guys full time I liked it more and more. It gets better as it goes and the second half was much more engaging and it's in some of these episodes you will find the best of the entire run. Some of them had me quite emotional toward the end. I'm fresh off of binging the show (being sick allows you to do nothing all day and feel good about it) and I can't say enough about it. It's a show that takes the subject seriously and doesn't spoon feed the sugar. Actions have consequences and people have to deal with them.
One thing I learned was that the POW camps were under the jurisdiction of the Luftwaffe and not the SS or Gestapo. I'm sure I knew this at one point but had simply forgotten about it. The Kommandant for most of the series (played by Hepton) is an honorable man. Most of the Germans in the show are portrayed this way. They're good men doing their duty, abiding by the law and the rules of the Geneva Convention. The prisoners are treated fairly and with dignity. I like the respect both sides had for each other. It's when Major Mohn (Valentine) shows up as second in command when we have a villain to boo and hiss at. He's a Nazi that couldn't care less about the Geneva Convention and does his best to make it difficult for the prisoners. There is some fantastic storytelling in this show and anyone interested in this sort of thing needs to fast track this to the top of the list. It's on YouTube in full.
Plot: A prehistoric epic that follows a young mammoth hunter's journey through uncharted territory to secure the future of his tribe.
My rating: 5/10
Will I watch it again? No.
I honestly don't know why I watched this. The only movie I've seen made by Emmerich that I liked is THE PATRIOT (2000). Maybe I was curious as to how far from reality he would take something that is set 12,000 years ago. Minutes in it's a reasonable assumption to make that he saw APOCALYPTO (2006) two years earlier and thought he should make one, too, but what if the city were loads bigger and the protagonist stayed there to liberate it or something spectacular and CGI heavy. That's what it felt like. I didn't care about anyone. The CGI is at times dodgy and it's used more of a "look everybody, we brought back the woolly mammoth and the sabre toothed tiger!" just for the sake of doing it because "it would look cool and nobody has these guys in their movies". I was borderline bored for the entire picture. I think I'm done with Emmerich's pictures. He must be making movies for the naive teenage crowd because they're certainly not for cats like me.
Writers: Byron Willinger, Philip de Blasi, Ryan Engle
Composer: Roque Banos
Starring: Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Jonathan Banks, Sam Neill, Elizabeth McGovern, Killian Scott, Shazad Latif, Andy Nyman, Clara Lago, Roladn Moller, Florence Pugh
Plot: A businessman is caught up in a criminal conspiracy during his daily commute home.
My rating: 7.5/10
Will I watch it again? Yes.
If you're on the fence about this like I was, go see it. It's a fun action thriller that doesn't insult the audience.
Ever since I signed back up for Movie Pass (all you can watch movies (sort of) in the theater for $10 a month) I've seen more theatrical movies than usual and that means I get to see a lot of the same trailers over and over and over. This picture looked like it was either going to be lame as fuck or decent. Well blow me down because it's I really liked it. I kept waiting for the story to literally derail into stupid territory loaded with plot holes. I'm sure if I watched it again I might find something to bitch about but for a first time watch I was frankly shocked it's as good as it is. It's well acted, there's some good suspense, the story unfolds in a reasonable fashion so as to avoid the typical dumb Hollywood bullshit. There's a little of the latter but it's handled so well and subtly that I didn't mind it at all. And the tag at the end set a few weeks or months into the future was fucking great. I loved it! Sam Neill isn't in it much and it kind of makes me sad in a way that it's come to the point in his career where he's taking on small roles like this because little of substance is coming his way. But then maybe he's doing this for a buddy or something. One thing I liked is the deft manner in which people are not who they seem. Director Jaume Collet-Serra is very good with action thrillers (I also really enjoyed his UNKNOWN (2011), also with Neeson) so it's natural that his next project is Disney's JUNGLE CRUISE. Seriously, his next movie is JUNGLE CRUISE. No, really. I'm not joking. Look it up. It's JUNGLE CRUISE. I'll see it. It's one of my favorite rides at Disneyworld.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!! YARRRRR!!!!
UPDATE 1/30/18: I suspected there might be a plot hole if you looked at this closer...The entire movie hinges on one stupid thing; the person with the highly sought after information is told by the FBI to take the train where they'll be met by agents at such and such stop. Why wouldn't they just send agents to pick them up? They obviously think this is important enough to make sure there are agents to meet them at the stop so why take a chance and just do it right? Maybe the villain pulling the strings arranged it that way despite probably protocol. I'll go with that. It's still a very good movie.
Writers: James Edward Grang, Kenneth Gamet, Beirne Lay Jr.
Composer: Roy Webb
Starring: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Don Taylor, Janis Carter, Jay C. Flippen, William Harrigan, James Bell, Barry Kelley, Maurice Jara, Adam Williams, James Dobson
Plot: Major Kirby leads The Wildcats squadron into the historic WWII battle of Guadalcanal.
My rating: 6/10
Will I watch it again? No.
You'd think by watching the trailer, some of the poster artwork and the title that this picture would be loaded with WWII action. It's not. In fact, there's very little action and that's a problem. The romance stuff doesn't figure in much, which is good, but in this film any of it is too much. On top of that, it's not all that enjoyable. There's a good bit of by the numbers war drama which I expect in flicks of that kind from this era (and from John Wayne war pictures) but there's so little action that I feel like I was duped into thinking that was one thing when it's clearly another. It's disappointing to say the least. But then it's not a bad movie. The actors do a fine job and no one is phoning it in. Wayne, when he gives more than a rat's ass, does a good job as does Ryan but there's nothing all that exciting going on. The Warner Bros. DVD looks great and the sole extra is the theatrical trailer.
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