The Big Country (1958)

Director: William Wyler

Writers: James R. Webb, Sy Bartlett, Robert Wilder, Jessamyn West, Donald Hamilton

Composer: Jerome Moross

Starring: Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, Charles Bickford, Alfonso Bedoya, Chuck Connors, Chuck Hayward, Buff Brady

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  Big they fought! Big they loved! Big their story!

Plot: A New Englander arrives in the Old West, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between two families over a valuable patch of land.

My rating: 8.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

I just watched this for the very first time.  I didn't know anything about it.  It looked like it might have a sugary love story mixed in with some pretty scenery.  The gorgeous location shooting is abundant but the lovey stuff is very minimal, VERY minimal.  It's like the genre grew up a little and took the male/female relationship (within a Western) to the next level.  So often a romance in a film hurts it or at least too much of one can bring a film down.  Not this picture.  The performances are very good (Burl Ives OWNS it in every scene he's in.  His entrance at the big party is top drawer stuff.  In every scene he tells more about himself that reveals a multi-layered character and not some pissed off rancher who wants revenge.  He's fantastic.  Jerome Moross's score is big, lush and a perfect compliment to the great outdoors on display.  Jim (Peck) does some unexpected things that got me to giving up what I think he's going to do next and just roll with it.  Early on you might have a good idea how the rest of the near-3-hour picture is going to play out but you'd only be partially correct.  The ending is outstanding and the absence of dialogue adds to its effectiveness.  Speaking of absence, the fist fight between Jim and Steve (Heston) goes on for a couple of minutes with no music and when the music does come in, it's just a quiet instrument or two.  It was very effective and I was impressed the film makers played it out like that.  Usually you'd get a busy, violent music cue.  As for being two hours and forty-five minutes long, it doesn't feel like it.  Looking back, there isn't a wasted scene in the film.  Everything that's there needs to be there.  Great flick.  The MGM DVD features the film in anamorphic widescreen with only the theatrical trailer (non-anamorphic widescreen) for an extra.  

Bombardier (1943)

Director: Richard Wallace

Writers: John Twist, Martin Rackin

Composer: Roy Webb

Starring: Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley, Eddie Albert, Robert Ryan, Barton MacLane, Leonard Strong, Richard Martin

More info: IMDb

Tagline: See the bombing of Tokyo before your very eyes!

Plot:  Training of bombardiers in semi-documentary style, with personal stories and a battle climax.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I imagine that war propaganda pictures play a lot better during wartime (especially during the current war that's depicted on the screen).  This is one of those 'fire the boys up to take on the Japs and Jerrys' pictures that doesn't hide its patriotism.  I'm all about a gung-ho flick when it's good but they're usually too over the top for my taste.  Despite the thick and cheesy morale boosting, this one goes places I didn't expect.  Tom (played by Eddie Albert) goes through quite the character arc that has a shocking ending (REALLY cool and horrifying).  The ending is actually pretty damn awesome and heroic.  That was neat, too.  The love interests do serve a valuable purpose (for a change) in the film with one of them paying off in spades in the final moment of the picture.   Am I the only one who thinks Pat O'Brien's acting is rather wooden?  He certainly isn't an actor that moves much but he does better in roles like the priest in ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938).  In everything else I've seen him in he's just kind of there, adequate but with low energy and low charisma.  This flick is no different.  He does OK but he's not exactly knocking it out of the park.  A lot of this movie is by the numbers and it does hit the beats needed to get the flags waving and while it's got some neat diversions, it's not going to make you yearn to be a bombardier. 

My Name Is Nobody (1973)

Original title: Il Mio Nome e Nessuno

Director: Tonino Valerii

Writers: Sergio Leone, Fulvio Morsella, Ernesto Gastaldi

Composer: Ennio Morricone

Starring: Terence Hill, Henry Fonda, Jean Martin, R.G. Armstron, Karl Braun, Leo Gordon, Steve Kanaly, Geoffrey Lewis, Mario Brega

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Nobody, but "Nobody," knows the trouble he's in!

Plot: A young, easygoing gunman (Hill) worships and competes with an old gunfighter (Fonda) who only wants to retire.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Great flick.  I haven't seen it in probably twenty years.  The 70s saw the decline in the Western genre and the Spaghetti Western went along with it, puttering out by the end of the decade.  This is one of the better films of the Euro Westerns of that period.  It's funny (the slap scene in the bar is classic), genuine and smart.  The ending is just great.  The cast is fun and you couldn't ask for a better pairing of the jovial Hill and the 'ready to retire' Fonda.  Nobody (Hill) knows every move to make and Jack (Fonda) stands back and lets him with wonderment.  The location shooting is great, with most of the film shot in the USA, which was unusual for an Italian Western (they usually filmed in and around Almeria, Spain).  Ennio Morricone's score is fantastic but I cringe with his hokey orchestration when the Wagner theme plays.  It's just a super fun film all the way around.  With some familiar faces like R.G. Armstrong and Geoffrey Lewis in it, it's a shame they didn't dub their own voices.  Fonda is the only actor to do so in English.  The RLJ Blu-ray looks good but it shows enough wear to think that hopefully there'll be a restoration somewhere down the road.  It still looks great but you can tell the print isn't what it could be.  Unfortunately there isn't a single extra on the disc.  You'd think a Blu touting the "40th Anniversary Edition" would have some bonus features.  You can get it for ten bucks.  Extras or not, it's worth it.

Shoot, Gringo... Shoot! (1968)

Original title: Spara, Gringo, Spara

Director: Bruno Corbucci

Writers: Mario Amendola, Bruno Corbucci

Composer: Sante Maria Romitelli

Starring: Brian Kelly, Fabrizio Moroni, Keenan Wynn, Erika Blanc, Folco Lulli, Linda Sini, Rik Battaglia

More info: IMDb


Plot:  Mexican land-owner Gutierrez offers to save Chad Stark from hanging if Stark will agree to find and return Gutierrez' runaway son, Fidel.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

This Spaghetti Western's not too bad.   At times it feels like a weaker re-telling of the excellent THE BIG GUNDOWN (1966)...too much so.   There's plenty of action and there's lots of role-reversals between Chad (Kelly) and his target, Fidel (Moroni).  I was really excited to watch this because of Keenan Wynn but his voice was dubbed by a familiar dubbing actor.  The guy's voice works but if you know what Wynn sounds like then you can't help but be disappointed.  The story is pretty good with lots of different situation encountered by our two leads.  The ending was probably the best part.  Much of the movie has a light-hearted tone brought on by Fidel but the last 15 or so minutes get deadly serious and film plays out nicely.  I wouldn't have minded an even darker ending but I'm satisfied as it is.  The Timeless DVD presents this film in anamorphic widescreen with a dirty, but good looking print.  It probably would've looked a little better if it weren't for this film sharing a single-sided disc with three other Spaghetti Westerns.  It's better than nothing and I am grateful for having more Spags on my shelf.  You can pick up the DVD pretty cheap, making it worth the while for fans of the genre.

Jackie Chan's First Strike (1996)

Original title: Ging Chaat Goo si 4: Ji Gaan Daan Yam Mo

Director: Stanley Tong

Writers: Greg Mellott, Elliot Tong, Stnaley Tong, Nick Tramontane

Composers: J. Peter Robinson (US version), Nathan Wang

Starring:  Jackie Chan, Jackson Liu, Annie Wu, Bill Tung, Yuriy Petrov, Nonna Grishaeva, John Eaves, Terry Woo, Krostopher Kazmarek

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Jackie Chan fights for America in his biggest action film ever.

Plot: Jackie, a cop, participates in a sting operation on an international spy-ring. But when one of them (Tsui) gets away, Jackie is ordered to apprehend him. This leads Jackie all over the globe starting with Tsui's sister in Australia. The story follows him as he tries to stay alive and capture the villain.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Nah.

How could you say 'no' to that face on the poster?  You can't.  Well, at least I can't.  I love this guy and no matter how goofy one of his movies might be, I cut him some slack because his movies are generally lots of fun.  The showpiece in this one is the ladder fight.  I'm always amazed at how creative Jackie is.  With a physical talent like that the story doesn't matter that much.  This flick, like a lot of his bigger budget action spectaculars has him all over the place from a big snowboard chase, to jumping around the edge of a high-rise building to an underwater fight that ultimately gets a shark involved to jumping a car onto a moving boat.  And how about those end credits bloopers?  I love that shit.  The only extra on the New Line snapcase DVD  is the theatrical trailer.  That and the print are anamorphic widescreen.

Suicide Squad (2016)

Director: David Ayer

Writer: David Ayer

Composer: Steven Price

Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney, Ezra Miller, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cara Delevingne, Joel Kinnaman, Karen Fukuhara, Ben Affleck

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Justice has a bad side.

Plot: A secret government agency recruits a group of imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions in exchange for clemency, which inevitably leads to chaos.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably.

Up until now the newly created, re-vamped cinematic DC universe has been weak and polluted with problems, mostly stemming from folks not knowing who these characters are so that they can create movies that respect them and make them fun.  They gave Supes and Bats their shot and now it's the bad guys' turn and it's definitely an improvement but not a home run.  There's a lot to like in this picture.  Robbie is great as Harley Quinn and should've been in it more.  It's Will Smith's Deadshot that gets the bulk of the spotlight and I liked him more than usual because he was more reserved and grounded.  Robbie's all over the picture but she shines the brightest.  The rest of the cast does fine.  Leto's Joker is pretty darn good.  He's not in it much so you get little moments here and there.  I think that worked fine for what he was bringing to the iconic role.  You'd have to have a REALLY GOOD story to support a Joker-centric film with Leto.  I'm not convinced that the current talent behind the camera (mostly the studio and suits that are helping to ruin these films) could make it work.  I'd still love to see a Joker/Harely/Batman movie.  There are some nice moments between Joker and Harley.  Really nice.

The biggest problem the film has is the rushed pacing of introducing all of the characters AND giving most of them their back stories.  For the most part we don't need to know their origins.  The result is an almost clunky presentation of introductions.  Sometimes it works.  THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) is a primo example of how you introduce a lot of characters in a short enough amount of time that you get a real good sense of who they are.  Their traits are stripped down to the bone so that you know who they are without necessarily knowing why they are.  The pacing in SS is a mixed bag.  It's quick and there's a point where the action is almost non-stop and that's a problem.  The only real moment we as an audience get to breathe is when the squad takes a break and hangs out alone in a bar.  It's a great scene and it goes a long way in humanizing these villains.  Then it's back tot he action until the credits roll.  I know this is comic book movie and Ayer had one hell of a task of introducing all of these characters and then throwing them into combat (a-hem, THE DIRTY DOZEN) but there's something missing.  Expecting these villains (all strangers to one another) to not only fight for the good guys' cause but to do it efficiently and effectively as a team (which they surprisingly do on their own) is a tall order.  If you saw any of the trailers you probably thought that this was going to be one fun as hell movie that would hopefully make up for the poor Supes and Bats movies that came before it.  You'd be wrong.  It sort of does.  The trailers made promises that this finished film couldn't deliver.  It's entertaining but it's not nearly as fun as it could have been, should have been and what the trailers promised.  You should still see it.  There's a lot to like and you'll find it in between all of the jumbled scenes that are thrown at the wall in the first half.

Control (2004)

Director: Tim Hunter

Writers: Todd Slavkin, Darren Swimmer

Composer: Louis Febre

Starring: Ray Liotta, Willem Dafoe, Michelle Rodriguez, Stephen Rea, Polly Walker, Kathleen Robertson, Tim DeKay, Mark Pickard, Stewart Alexander, Glenn Wrage

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Old habits die hard...

Plot: A sociopath on death row is given a chance to live if he agrees to take part in a chemical behavioral modification program.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Good flick.  I digs me some Liotta and Defoe and they both put in some good performances. The story is somewhat predictable but the ending is satisfying as is the neat little piece of business you find out near the end.  I really dug that.  It's a well-told story with likable characters that matter.  Liotta is particularly on top of it bringing his horrible character around to where you like the guy and you're rooting for him.  This is definitely worth checking out if it sounds remotely interesting.  The Sony DVD has a nice anamorphic widescreen print with a 16-minute making of featurette and 7 trailers (including one for this picture).  A commentary would be nice but I'll take what I can get.