None But the Lonely Heart (1944)

Director: Clifford Odets

Writers: Clifford Odets, Richard Llewellyn

Composer: Hanns Eisler

Starring: Cary Grant, Ethel Barrymore, Barry Fitzgerald, June Duprez, Jane Wyatt, George Coulouris, Dan Duryea, Roman Bohnen, Konstantin Shayne

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The screen's No. 1 star in a story that looks life straight in the eye...and blinks at nothing!

Plot: A sickly English woman runs a store by herself, while her irresponsible son travels aimlessly, refusing to contact her. When told that his mother has cancer, the young man comes home, reforms himself, and helps his mom run the shop. Soon however, each becomes involved in illegal activities.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

Good flick.  Grant's accent fluctuates and the picture can get a tad melodramatic but it's got good performances, particularly from Grant, and a nice unexpectedly downbeat ending.  That's the biggest shocker as most movies from this period were all about leaving audiences with a happy finale.  It's especially surprising as this was released in the Fall of '44 when everything was looking just grand for the Allied victory.  Oh, and if you can get past a 40 year old Grant playing a man at least half his age then you'll be just fine.  Suspension of disbelief, baby. Isn't it amazing?

Heckler (2007)

Director: Michael Addis

Writer: ???

Composer: ???

Starring: Jamie Kennedy, Louie Anderson, Dave Attell, Uwe Boll, Andrew Dice Clay, David Cross, Craig Ferguson, Carrie Fisher, Larry Flynt, Gilbert Gottfried, Tom Green, Kathy Griffin, George Lucas, Leonard Maltin, Patton Oswalt, Richard Roeper, Eli Roth, Joel Schumacher, Carrot Top, George Wallace, Rob Zombie and a who's who in modern comedy. 

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Everyone's a critic.

Plot: HECKLER is a comedic feature documentary exploring the increasingly critical world we live in. After starring in a film that was critically bashed, Jamie Kennedy takes on hecklers and critics and ask some interesting questions of people such as George Lucas, Bill Maher, Mike Ditka, Rob Zombie, Howie Mandel and many more. This fast moving, hilarious documentary pulls no punches as you see an uncensored look at just how nasty and mean the fight is between those in the spotlight and those in the dark.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Sure.

What starts off as a documentary about heckling soon turns its eye on critics, bloggers and the internet.  While the latter has little to do with heckling they do share a common idea and that's people do all of these things to be heard.  It's worth seeing this documentary for the many stories the comedians and other personalities have to tell as well as video of hecklers and seeing how the performers handle them. It's not always pretty.  Some of the comebacks are terrific. Jamie Kennedy has a bit of fun confronting critics about his movie SON OF THE MASK (2005), at least I think he's having a lark (he looks so serious, though).  I haven't seen the movie but in his defense (and to others who bring this up in the film) personal attacks have no business being in a review about a movie.  There's no need to rail on Mel Gibson, for example, about his personal drunken behavior when talking about his latest film.  Anyway, there are a lot of good points discussed and an awful lot of funny people doing it.  George Lucas says near the end that there are those who create and those who destroy.  He'd rather be among those that create. 

The Nun (2005)

Director: Luis de la Madrid

Writers: Manu Diez, Jaume Balaguero

Composer: Luc Suarez

Starring: Anita Briem, Belen Blanco, Manu Fullola, Alistair Freeland, Cristina Piaget, Paulina Galvez, Natalia Dicenta, Lola Marceli, Tete Delgado

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  Not all water is holy

Plot: A group of teenage girls are terrorized by Sister Ursula, a nun that believes she must rid the world of all sin. After Sister Ursula mysteriously disappears, the Catholic school is shut down. Many years later, the women, all grown up, are terrorized by a ghostly nun. The daughter of one of the women sets out to find out what happened all those years ago.

My rating: 4/10

Will I watch it again? No, not even with your crucifix.

Part of the Nunsploitation Project (July & August 2013). Click here for more naughty nun insanity! 

Ugh.  This is the last of the  Nunsploitation pictures on my list to watch for the project.  It starts out OK but then it gets ridiculous with the kids (teens/20-somethings) getting involved.  The last twenty minutes gets rid of a lot of characters (there was one neat kill, a pipe through the chest, but it wasn't nearly as effective as it could have been) but by then I'd already given up.

The underwater photography, though, looked fantastic and it gave the film a nice, eerie vibe but the story and direction couldn't make it work effectively. One of the characters says, "If she kills in water then maybe the only way she can die is in water." Really?  Since the nun was murdered by being drowned in a bathtub 18 years ago, she somehow can only kill those responsible by being surrounded by water which means the sink or tub overflows and there's a shroud of water around her as she walks or floats around the house chasing her victim.  I guess if you can buy that then you can buy that the only way she can be killed is to be underwater with the ghost nun and stab her to death or something.

The thing that ultimately bothered me about this picture is that there are an awful lot of leaps of logic that don't have any explanation behind them.  How is the nun able to come back at all?  Why wait 18 years to exact revenge? Why? Why? Why?  I don't need my hand held but there are so many aspects that aren't explained it feels like the film makers had no explanation and thought it would just be cool if this and if that.  That's fine but at least try with the story before making a picture.  There are also continuity shot issues and such.  There's also very little in the exploitation of nuns. No nudity, no nun hanky panky, just a few kills that hardly begin to make up for a lack of everything else. So, does this constitute being classified as a Nunsploitation movie?  It does have a nun but the killing ( the only non-nun-like behavior she exhibits) is done when she's a ghost.  If you want to be technical about it, then yes, it probably belongs on the fringes of the sub genre but I wouldn't discuss it alongside most any of the Nunsploitation pictures of the 1970s.  Those were a different breed altogether.  If you must see it, it's on Netflix streaming right now, which explains why I wasn't able to take any screenshots.  You're not missing anything all that great anyway.

David Cross: Let America Laugh (2003)

Directors: Lance Bangs, David Cross

Writer: David Cross

Composer: Eban Schletter

Starring: David Cross, Bob Kaliban, Michelle Maryk, Meredith Lipson, Aviva Yael, Shonali Bhowmik, Juli Cross, Gordon Downs, Scott Aukerman, Jay Johnston, Bob Odenkirk, BJ Porter, Brian Posehn, Jill Talley, Paul F. Tompkins

More info: IMDb

Plot: Here's a fly-on-the-wall DVD sidebar to David Cross's live comedy CD from Sub Pop, Shut Up, You F**king Baby! Shot on a low-tech, digital camcorder, Let America Laugh captures the ups and downs (mostly downs) of Cross's 2002 tour of North American clubs. Notable sequences find the Mr. Show star jerking around a rude and uncooperative Nashville club owner, attending a wee-hours party at a Memphis video store (it looks exactly as one might imagine), surviving a double booking in Vancouver, and shooting fireworks from a Minneapolis playground. Much of this looks like concert-tour hell, but there are highlights, too: A stop at Experience Music Project in Seattle, a funny encounter with Cross's comic partner, Bob Odenkirk, in a Los Angeles store, and a relaxed, hometown show in Atlanta.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Cross is a very funny guy, so while I was disappointed that this wasn't a standup comedy film with an hour of uninterrupted funny and it was a mix of on and off stage material (more off than on), I was still entertained.  We get to see an awful lot of heckling from the audience and it's funny to see all the ways Cross handles himself.  It's also neat how he interjects into his routine shit that happened recently on the tour in his interactions with club owners, fans, etc.  One of the funniest bits was the closer with the restaurant bagel poster.  Fucking hilarious.  Now I just need to find one of his standup DVDs to satisfy the hole left by the tease.

Way of a Gaucho (1952)

Director: Jacques Tourneur

Writers: Herbert Childs, Philip Dunne

Composer: Sol Kaplan

Starring: Rory Calhoun, Gene Tierney, Richard Boone, Hugh Marlowe, Evertt Sloane, Enrique Chaico, Jorge Villoldo, Ronald Dumas, Hugo Mancini, Nestor Yoan

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Surging with the fury and romance of the Argentine Pampas!

Plot: Set in the Argentina of about 1875 in which a customary punishment for killing was a sentence to army service. A young gaucho deserts his army sentence and becomes a bandit leader and also gets his sweetheart pregnant. Seeing the futility of his ways, he takes her to a church to be married prior to surrendering himself back to the army.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Drinking game: Take a drink every time anyone mentions the words 'Gaucho' or 'Pampas'.  Sloshed in 20 minutes.

Richard Boone brought me to this and, aside the beautiful scenery, he's the best part about it.  His performance as Major Salinas is smooth, calm and intelligent.  For example, after bringing in Martin (Calhoun) who had deserted, an offense punishable by death without question:

Don Miguel Aleondo: It can't be your duty to torture him.
Salinas: It's my duty to shoot him.
Don Miguel Aleondo: What do you hope to gain by this?
Salinas: A disciplined solder, one who would obey my orders as he would the word of God.

Watch him in that scene and you'll know what I mean about smooth. Calhoun doesn't seem to bring much to the picture.  I didn't really care about his character at all which is a shame since, you know, he's the main character.  I've known his name for years but I can't recall anything else I might have seen him in. 

Except for Boone and the scenery there's not much reason to see this.  It's OK.  And by the way, It's nice to see that Major Salinas wasn't portrayed as a bad man as you usually would find in Hollywood pictures when you've got someone going after the hero.  He's just a guy who is trying to do his job. He also gave Martin a lot of chances to do the right thing. When Martin decided he was going to fight for the wrong side, Major Salinas had no choice but to go after him.  I liked that.

Jerry and Tom (1998)

Director: Saul Rubinek

Writer: Rick Cleveland

Composer: David Buchbinder

Starring: Joe Mantegna, Sam Rockwell, Maury Chaykin, Charles Durning, Ted Danson, William H. Macy, Peter Riegert, Sarah Polley, Shelley Cook, Saul Rubinek

More info: IMDb

Tagline: JFK, Marilyn, Elvis, the Parking Permit Guy...Have one thing in common, two words, two huge little words...Jerry & Tom.

Plot: Jerry (Rockwell) is a fumbling car-lot gopher in the wrong place at the wrong time. He watches paternal, easygoing coworker Tom (Mantegna) blithely strangle a man to death. He's a used-car salesman by day and a blue-collar hit man by night, and he gets his assignments right from the lot owner (Chaykin). Before long Tom is mentoring Jerry, a real cool customer who gets downright chilling in his sadistic delight in murdering strangers for cash.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yeah.

It should be required viewing for everyone anything with either Joe Mantegna or Sam Rockwell (or William H. Macy, while we're at it).  They're all some of the best actors we've got right now.  Watching them together in this picture is delightful.  Yeah, it's pretty damn funny but this is an actor's film.  Everyone gets their moments to shine and they do (Ted Danson is hilarious).  The scene transitions were nice.  I got the feeling this might have been a play.  It's not until the end credits that becomes clear.  And what the fuck?  Saul Rubinek directed it?  I fucking love this guy.  I'm very impressed.  He shows up near the end as a victim but you barely see him and he doesn't have any lines.  I was bummed out because you can never have too much of this guy.  It's on Netflix instant so anyone with that service has no excuse.  Great flick.

From Hand to Mouth (1919)

Directors: Alfred J. Goulding, Hal Roach

Writers: Harold Lloyd, H. M. Walker

Composer: Robert Israel

Starring: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, 'Snub' Plllard, Peggy Cartwright, Sammy Brooks, William Gillespie, Helen Gilmore, Wallace Howe

More info: IMDb

Plot: As a penniless man worries about how he will manage to eat, he is joined by a young waif and her dog, who are in the same predicament. Meanwhile, across town a dishonest lawyer is working with a gang of criminals, trying to swindle an innocent young heiress out of her inheritance. As the heiress is on her way home from the lawyer's office, she notices the young man and the waif in the midst of their latest problem with the authorities, and she rescues them. Later on, the young man will have an unexpected opportunity to repay her for her kindness.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Sure.

Having watched a few of Harold Lloyd's shorts in the past week or so I'm beginning to see a pattern.  Play sweet and nice, deliver a few 'cute' laughs and then finish the final reel with a wild chase loaded with funny.  That's how this one plays out.  When The Boy (Lloyd) can't get a cop to listen to him, one by one he throws thing, trips, hits, taunts them into following him to the bad guys' hideout where The Waif (Cartwright) is being held against her will.  By the time he gets there he must have every cop in town chasing his ass and it's friggin' hilarious.