The Anderson Tapes (1971)

Director: Sidney Lumet

Writers: Lawrence Sanders, Frank Pierson

Composer: Quincy Jones

Starring: Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker, Alan King, Christopher Walken, Val Avery, Dick Anthony Williams, Garrett Morris, Margaret Hamilton, Conrad Bain, Judith Lowry, Max Showalter

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The Crime of the Century!

Plot: After Duke Anderson is released from prison after ten years for taking the rap for a scion of a Mafia family, he cashes in a debt of honor with the mob to bankroll a caper.

My rating:  6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.  Twice is enough.

It's been a good twenty-five years since I last saw this and I feel the same about it now as I did then - it's an OK heist movie.  The cast is loaded with actors that I really dig.  Balsam hams it up as a flamboyant homosexual but he is fun.  I would've liked more of a violent edge to Connery and some of the others.  The first half of the film is the heist setup with the second half being the execution.  Connery's plan is too ambitious to think that they might get away with it.  And things get ridiculous when there's a computer whiz kid in the joint that throws a monkey wrench into the works.  I liked the technical parts (directing, editing and so on) so I guess my issue is with the story.  The last minute of the picture adds an extra bit of "oh, shit" but it's not all that effective and any power it's supposed to have has been diminished by the lackluster story.  The Columbia DVD is part of the Martini Movies collection so you get two 1.5 minutes clips compilations on how to be a leading man and how to drink.  They're forgettable and annoying.  The movie itself and the theatrical trailer are both anamorphic widescreen. 

Frankenstein (1910)

Director: J. Searle Dawley

Writers: Mary Shelley, J. Searle Dawley

Composer: Donald Sosin

Starring: Marry Fuller, Charles Ogle, Augustus Phillips

More info: IMDb


Plot: Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

This is the first filmed version of Frankenstein and it's pretty darn good.  You'll have to overlook the goofy gesturing of Frankenstein while his monster is forming but that transformation scene is really neat.  They burned a dummy and played it in reverse.  The use of the full length mirror was a great touch, too.  At first it's just a neat visual of having two people in the shot with one being a reflection but the mirror plays nicely as part of the narrative at the end of the picture.  This was reportedly lost for decades until it turned up in the 70s.  The print I watched was dirty and at times difficult to make things out clearly.  I reckon if I searched hard enough I'd find a cleaner copy and enhance my enjoyment of it.  I've seen it twice already so there's not much need to revisit the film but it's only 13 minutes so it's hardly an inconvenience to not give it another go.  The version above on YouTube is jacked because it's presented in widescreen but the addition of the Richard Band cues is a nice touch by modernizing the score. 

Antony and Cleopatra (1972)

Director: Charlton Heston

Writers: William Shakespeare, Charlton Heston

Composer: John Scott

Starring: Charlton Heston, Hildegard Neil, Eric Porter, John Castle, Fernando Rey, Juan Luis Galiardo, Carmen Sevilla, Freddie Jones, Peter Arne, Luis Barboo, Fernando Bilbao, Warren Clarke, Roger Delgado, Julian Glover

More info: IMDb

Tagline: For the first time...Shakespeare's tragic love story is brought to the screen

Plot: After the murder of her lover Caesar, Egypt's queen Cleopatra needs a new ally. She seduces his probable successor Mark Antony. This develops into real love and slowly leads to a war with the other possible successor: Octavius.

My rating: 4/10

Will I watch it again?  No.


In a word, it's dull.  I love Heston but this was a tough slog.  It's admirable that he made this happen and he must have really felt some connection with Marc Antony as this was his third time playing him.  What got to me was the slow pacing, dialogue (which would probably be easier to follow and get into if only the movie had some life to it) and the lead actors acting like they had the world's troubles on their shoulders.  They really oversold the drama.  There's a battle near the end that injected a little interest and potential excitement except that, and I'm sure this was entirely a budgetary problem, it was done on a small scale with medium shots and no long shots to give any type of scale.  I expected more.  The widescreen print I watched (non-anamorphic) was nice but that wasn't enough to mask the drearyness of this production.

Rob Roy (1995)

Director: Michael Caton-Jones

Writer: Alan Sharp

Composer: Carter Burwell

Starring: Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, John Hurt, Tim Roth, Eric Stoltz, Andrew Keir, Brian Cox, Brian McCardie, Gilbert Martin, Vicki Masson, Gilly Gilchrist, Jason Flemyng

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Honor made him a man. Courage made him a hero. History made him a Legend

Plot: In 1713 Scotland, Rob Roy MacGregor is wronged by a nobleman and his nephew, becomes an outlaw in search of revenge while fleeing the Redcoats, and faces charges of being a Jacobite.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Sure.

Those teeth!  They must've had a team of tooth-fucker-upers working on this film.  I dug  Cunningham's (Roth) entrance.  Hell, Rob Roy's (Neeson), too, for that matter.  Everything you need to know about them is made very clear by their first moments on screen.  Rob is good and noble and Cunningham is a deceptively sinister and cruel bastard in fop's clothing.  It's a well made costume adventure picture with lovely Scottish scenery, set/costume design, acting and a great cast.  It's pictures like these that bring old well-established English actors out of the woodwork, a who's who of faces you know.  The final 5 minute sword fight is good and I'm especially impressed that there's an absence of music except for the final blow and I would've preferred that to be silent, too.  You can't have everything.  I'd need a bigger house.  In two hours and sixteen minutes you'd think they could've at least given us the recipe for the drink named after the man.  Geez.  Stupid Hollywood.  Maybe there's a documentary out there that covers that in detail.  The MGM DVD has a good anamorphic widescreen print with one extra, the theatrical trailer (non-anamorphic). 

Verboten! (1959)

Director: Samuel Fuller

Writer: Samuel Fuller

Composer: Harry Sukman

Starring: James Best, Susan Cummings, Tom Pitman, Paul Dubov, Harold Daye, Dick Kallman, Stuart Randall, Steven Geray, Anna Hope, Robert Boon, Sasha Harden, Paul Busch, Neyle Morrow, Joe Turkel

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A MAD GENERATION... Spawned In Lust... Consumed By Hate!

Plot: A young American serviceman, stationed in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, jeopardizes his position with the Marshall Plan relief effort by breaking the non-fraternization rule and falling in love with a young German woman. He uses his position to obtain food and luxuries for her that are in short supply, and all seems to be going well for the couple. What he doesn't realize is that the Werewolves, the Nazi guerrilla movement, have plans in which he features heavily.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

I'm on a Samuel Fuller kick as of late and I'm loving it.  James Best gives another powerful performance and is the standout in this picture.  If this wasn't filmed in some bombed out city in Europe then kudos to the set designers.  The opening scenes look fantastic, especially on what I presume to be a small budget.  I like the way Fuller's cameras move along with the action.  Were there many films that dealt with the U.S. occupation of Germany after the second World War?  I've seen very few, which is by no means an accurate measure, but it's probably not a subject audiences were clamouring for.  I suspect that once the war was over Americans were ready to get back to being normal, although they were dealing with a new normal.  They probably didn't care or weren't concerned with post-war Germany until the Rooskies started stirring shit up.  I'm really impressed with Fuller's pictures and I'm going to keep going to that well to discover more of his pictures.  I think I'm ready for one of his Westerns now.  Paul Anka sings the theme tune for this one.  The kids of today won't be tappin' their toes to it.
 

Primer (2004)

Director: Shane Carruth

Writer: Shane Carruth

Composer: Shane Carruth

Starring: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya, Carrie Crawford, Jay Butler, John Carruth, Juan Tapia, Ashley Warren, Samantha Thomson, Chip Carruth

More info: IMDb

Tagline: If you always want what you can't have, what do you want when you can have anything?

Plot: Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Now I'd heard for years that this is often considered one of the best, thinking man's time travel movies out there.  I finally saw it.  I gave it my full attention and even that wasn't enough.  For the most part I was with it the entire way.  It's pretty easy to follow at first until the time traveling begins and then there's a lot of non-linear stuff going on that almost has you putting a puzzle together where a lot of the pieces look similar but only fit in a specific way.  I had questions at the end and two choices - either watch the movie again, right then and there (or I'd easily forget something if I waited a few days, weeks or months) or see what the Internet says.  I'm lazy and impatient so the Internet won.  Once I read enough of what others had figured out it made more sense.  I've already forgotten (yay, shitty memory) so I'll just have to re-read the explanation just before I watch it again to gain a further appreciation.  It's a good film despite its simple complexity.  The performances are strong as is the music and writing.  PRIMER is heady stuff and I can see how someone would be easily turned off by it.  It's not sexy and it's dry, but it's very good nonetheless.  The New Line DVD looks great and the only extras are two commentary tracks, one from Carruth and another from the cast and crew.  Someday I'll have to hit those

The Passage (1979)

Director: J. Lee Thompson

Writer: Bruce Nicolaysen

Composer: Michael J. Lewis

Starring: Anthony Quinn, James Mason, Malcolm McDowell, Patricia Neal, Kay Lenz, Christopher Lee, Paul Clemens, Robert Rhys, Marcel Bozzuffi, Michael Lonsdale, Peter Arne, Neville Jason, Robert Brown, Rose Alba, Jim Broadbent, Frederick Jaeger, Terence Maidment, Terry Yorke

More info: IMDb

Tagline: An ice-swept escape route in front of them. A cold-blooded killer behind them. The only way out is up.

Plot: During WW 2, a Basque shepherd is approached by the underground, who wants him to lead a scientist and his family across the Pyrenees. While being pursued by a sadistic German.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

At times this movie feels like it was made for TV and even though there were some high quality TV movies in the 70s, this isn't meant as a compliment.  Sometimes the direction and editing feel weaker than they should be and sometimes it's Micheal J. Lewis' score that feels thin.  The music could be the fault of the mixing but there's an airy quality (heavy on the high strings with little to bring any mid range or bottom).  It could also be in the recording of the score or the budget wasn't there to have a larger, fuller orchestra.  The point is, there are a few little things that add up enough to weaken the overall look and sound of the movie.  The likeliest culprit could be the budget.  Now that I've beaten that damn horse, let's move on.  The dialogue has moments of either cliche or typical Hollywood-ness to it but the actors are good enough to help move it along.  For the most part this is an OK WWII thriller with some big time stars and except for one particular thing, it's largely forgettable.  Malcolm McDowell delivers a delightfully bonkers performance as Capt. Von Berkow, the mustache (if he had one, that is) twirling evil Nazi.  He reminded me a little of Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) from INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009).  He's evil, sadistic and playful.  Berkow (as well as McDowell) in his role as one of Hitler's elite force, the SS.  At first McDowell's choice to play Berkow this way is a little odd because it doesn't fit with the rest of the film, like he's working on a different picture.  But somewhere along the way I just went along with it and embraced it.  That's when I saw the comedy and laughed out loud.

That scene is the apex of the picture's humor.  When he tortures a man (I'm not going to spoil it with who the victim is) in the kitchen, it's absurd and horrific.  The victim sells the shit out of it while McDowell gleefully serves it up.  Then there's the scene where he's wearing a swastika-ed jockstrap.  Once you get past the shock of his out of place performance, he's fun to watch.  The ending is wild as shit, too.  The rumor is they filmed three scenarios for the finale and used all three.  No spoilers again but you need to see this to believe it.  It's fucking glorious.  I absolutely LOVED the ending.  This is an unusual film, for sure, but it's also enjoyable in a peculiar way.  Lower your expectations and have some fun.