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A few reviews

TM2YC

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I, Claudius (1976)
I first watched 1976's 'I, Claudius' when I was quite young, with my brother and parents. Despite the sex and violence, this was high culture, it was history, it was educational, so it was okay. I've re-watched the whole 10-hours many times in the years since then, but it's recently been added to BBC iPlayer, so I gave it another go. It's a definite contender for the greatest mini-series (as we'd call it today) ever, although the extremely old-fashioned studio-bound production style and iffy makeup FX could put off modern viewers. However, every other creative element is so strong, that in every other respect, this still holds up. The all-star cast is insane (Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Brian Blessed, Sian Phillips and Patrick Stewart, to name a few). The tumultuous life and times of the Caesars from Augustus to Claudius, across the latter's 63-year life, is ancient history with just the juicy bits, the legends, the madness, the scandals. It's a grand soap opera and a Mafia chronicle. Sian Phillips is the definition of a villain we love to watch, with her dark little jokes, made especially and only, for us the audience, her co-conspirators. John Hurt's flamboyant portrayal of Caligula is as funny as it is scary. Above all what makes this still work is Herbert Wise's direction. To create a fast moving pace, with intricately choreographed camera moves, with those huge old cumbersome studio TV cameras, so it feels like we're watching Steadicam work is amazing. I'd forgotten how inventive and technically impressive the 4th wall break flashback sequence was in the final episode. 'I, Claudius' is the OG 'Game of Thrones'.

This new video analysing the superb direction and character blocking is well worth a watch:

 

TM2YC

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Abigail's Party (1977)
Partly due to strikes and technical difficulties, on Tuesday 1st November 1977, about a third of the UK population sat down on their sofas to watch BBC1's production of Mike Leigh's play 'Abigail's Party' (which features people sitting on a sofa). Consequently if you're of a certain age you'll undoubtedly have heard all the older members of your family declaring it to be one of the greatest TV shows ever. Watching it today, I have to say, yeah, they were right. It's production style is very dated, using a single studio-set, filmed from only one direction (the audience). But thanks to the brilliant layered performances, captured with judicious editing to reaction shots, it still feels fresh and lively. It's 102-minutes of excruciating middle-class awkwardness, bleak drama and laugh-out-loud comedy. I couldn't get enough of the running gag where Tony grunts "Yeah" to questions in a way dripping with bitterness, anger and regret.


I'm glad I discovered this slice of grinding 70s instrumental psychedelic Rock from the soundtrack:

 

TM2YC

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Clerks III (2022)
I thought 'Clerks II' was way better than I expected it to be, the same proves true for the third film. Some of the jokes fall flat and Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes are just plain terrible at playing "Jay and Silent Bob" now. However, the central meta idea about Dante and Randal basically making 'Clerks' the movie is so much fun if you grew up with these characters as outrageous anti-heroes... but if you haven't seen the first two films it will mean precisely nothing. Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson are terrific in their roles, particularly the former in scenes that dealt with grief, I was almost going to cry myself. It's a very well written portrait of these two misfits facing a mid-50s crisis after one has a heart attack. Write and direct what you know Kevin Smith, you're really great at it!

 

TM2YC

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Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
"Rambo" is such a vivid American pop-culture icon that I can't be sure if I've really seen this first sequel before, or if I just feel like I know every scene from countless clips, homages, parodies and wannabe ripoff movies. Jerry Goldsmith's glorious propulsive score reminded me a lot of Basil Poledouris' 'Conan the Barbarian'. It's difficult to say if 'Rambo: First Blood Part II's more ridiculous and/cheesy moments make it worse, or better. Such as the heroine doing a soft-focus romantic "I want to spend the rest of my life with you Rambo" performance, then being shot less than 30-seconds later. Or the misjudged tone of Stallone's closing speech. None of it should be taken seriously but ironically because the film always does, I absolutely did. There's not a moment of cynicism, or a single tongue in cheek gag. It wasn't until the torture scene that I realised that co-writer James Cameron had of course had a part in making the template for this type of 80s action film, 9-years before he was playing around with the firmly established genre conventions in his own 'True Lies' (which features a very similar torture scene). The helicopter battle at the end is one of the best ever filmed. Like all great such sequences, it's done by placing the hero in the pilot seat and shooting over his shoulder down onto the battle field. Your brain might know deep down that it's really a guy off-camera next to Stallone piloting the craft but because of your POV position on board, looking past Stallone's POV and feeling the movement of the aircraft in the camera, it tells your brain it's all real baby!

 

mnkykungfu

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Or the misjudged tone of Stallone's closing speech
"What do I want? I want what every guy who came over here - and gave his blood, and spilled his guts - wants. For our country to love us, as much as we love it."
Years out and nations away, it might be hard to understand why so many Americans still absolutely love this speech. I think it has a lot to do with why this film made absolute bucketfuls of cash and made Rambo an enduring icon, despite none of the later films in the series living up to it.

This wasn't just a big, crazy action film like Commando, it was a movie that spoke to the soul of the U.S. This is a country that still hadn't dealt with the way that really everybody lost due to Vietnam. The soldiers bought the propaganda and came home villains, or not at all. The people back home watched the news and saw them, and Americans in general, as monsters. The government used the soldiers as tools, taking advantage of their blind devotion, but still today soldiers sign up for military service out of this idea that they're making the country, the world, a safer place. And the government continues to use that to full advantage.

Both people on the Left and people on the Right in the U.S. can agree that the government doesn't treat the troops right, regardless of how they feel about where those troops should even be. I'd say Stallone tapped into the perfect midpoint to unify Americans, both then and still now. But we're dealing with generational trauma and a fundamental view of how Americans are brought up to see their relationship to their military. It might be pretty hard to parse unless you've been through it.
 

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@Zagadka kindly shared with me the SAW edits he made with Maniac, focusing on John Kramer's life, rather than the actual traps. Since they are not listed on the IFDB page, I thought that I'd review them here.

Jigsaw: History of Desperation & Jigsaw: Endgame: Two brilliant edits that turn the 7 main films and some elements of the spin-offs into a cohesive Diptych telling the story of a man's descent into hell, his road to salvation, and his willingness to teach the value of life to those who neglected theirs. The flashbacks are skillfully put together in a judicious order, allowing a straightarrow narrative that puts forward John's intentions and legacy. The games are still central to the plot, but are far less gory, most of them are glimpses showing us John's motivation, resources, and skills to achieve his goal. Kudos to Zagadka and Maniac for such a great character study.
 

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@Zagadka kindly shared with me the SAW edits he made with Maniac, focusing on John Kramer's life, rather than the actual traps. Since they are not listed on the IFDB page, I thought that I'd review them here.

Jigsaw: History of Desperation & Jigsaw: Endgame: Two brilliant edits that turn the 7 main films and some elements of the spin-offs into a cohesive Diptych telling the story of a man's descent into hell, his road to salvation, and his willingness to teach the value of life to those who neglected theirs. The flashbacks are skillfully put together in a judicious order, allowing a straightarrow narrative that puts forward John's intentions and legacy. The games are still central to the plot, but are far less gory, most of them are glimpses showing us John's motivation, resources, and skills to achieve his goal. Kudos to Zagadka and Maniac for such a great character study.

Thanks a lot for such nice words and compliments - I always look in horror/thriller films for the story and character and although the Saw franchise tends to be ignored and criticized by people I really love the moral & philosophical questions it asks, the surprising storylines and John Kramer aka The Jigsaw Killer character. He's my favorite and one of the most fascinating movie villains ever - next to Hannibal Lecter.

The edits where created for people who like a good psychological thriller with twisted plot, but hate gore and bloody horror :). Don't be afraid to watch these edits, people ;)

I can hardly wait for Saw X which is being released this Friday - it's also going to be the story of John Kramer and the first reviews are very positive.
 

TM2YC

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it might be hard to understand...

It's not really.

I didn't mention anything about the content of the speech, or the obvious post Vietnam cultural context, or what Stallone was trying to say (which I'd subscribe to). I mentioned the "tone". The tone is misjudged coming at the end of that movie. If he'd done that same speech at the end of the first movie it would have worked. You brought up Commando not because they're completely different but because they are very similar but different. If Arnie had done that speech at the end of Commando it would've been absolutely laughable, rather than just a bit "off". As I said "There's not a moment of cynicism" in the film, I'm sure Stallone meant and felt every word. Clipped up in isolation the speech scene is powerful but misjudged after 90-minutes of glorious action nonsense.

Shakespeare wrote the great "to be or not to be" speech for Hamlet but in an action movie the tone can be misjudged:

 

mnkykungfu

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You brought up Commando not because they're completely different but because they are very similar but different
Actually I brought up Commando because Arnold famously insisted on many changes to it as a reaction to this film, to try to top it in terms of the superficials, like body count. If that stuff is all someone can see in this movie, then yeah, the "tone" doesn't fit, as you put it.

However, I disagree with you and so I suppose it comes down to whether it works for an individual or not, subjectively. Perhaps it can be argued that growing up on American action films desensitizes you to violence, and so Rambo does not seem nearly so jarring. I've certainly heard in other contexts before that people find various American action films rather more disturbing than thrilling. However, the sentiment of the troops is what is being expressed in those scenes in Rambo. Ask most American Vietnam vets (I have many in my family) and they'll tell you over and over how one of the most frustrating things was that they had no clear enemy.

Rambo is not simply "90-minutes of glorious action nonsense" as you put it. To many Americans in 1985, it was a relitigation of the war. One line from the film (John's "Do we get to win this time?") was literally in the trailers and paraphrased for the posters and the promos and used as the rallying cry for the film. The soldiers had not been allowed to win by the government, but here Rambo was to go back and right wrongs. He was going to get out the POWs and take out any of the Viet Cong who stood in his way, with the help of not just some nameless heroine, but a good-hearted, hopeful Vietnamese gal. John has clear friends, and clear enemies, and he gets a chance to achieve that American idealism: that one person with determination and skill can overcome any obstacle. American soldiers were never given that chance in Vietnam, and it broke the spirit of the country. Here John is, continuing his personification of that spirit from First Blood.

If you want to just watch this as 'Rambo blows up those dudes real good', it's certainly a problematic film. You would for sure think that amongst the nameless 75 people John kills, that certainly some are not so bad as the evil Vietnamese general. Here is the big tough American coming into Vietnam again and throwing his weight around. But the context of the movie is meant to show it as more than that superficiality. Look past John's anger and pain and vengeance and this is a film that's a catharsis for all the American soldiers who didn't know who to shoot, didn't realize their own government was lying to them. Rambo lets America do the right thing this time, with a clear goal and clear bad guys standing in the way of that, and that ending speech is just sowing up a whole film that was leading to that.

Not that I want to invalidate how someone else sees a film. Just presenting an alternative perspective, and maybe a bit of explanation for why the film has such long legs compared to others. If you can't see it from this pov, then I guess you just can't.
 

TM2YC

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If you can't see it from this pov, then I guess you just can't.

No I can because that perspective is blatantly obvious to any body who knows anything about 20th century history, you don't need to explain it. I promise you, I 100% understand what Stallone was trying to say (with the speech and the film in general) and agree with it. Again, the "tone" was all I mentioned.
 

TM2YC

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Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)
I didn't think was quite as strong as the 'Crystal Lake Memories' documentary. There is a tiny bit too much self congratulation and a tiny bit too little really critiquing the series' problems but it's still excellent stuff. Heather Langenkamp is a great host and respect to Wes Craven for talking generously about the (majority of) films he wasn't involved in.

 

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Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)
I didn't think was quite as strong as the 'Crystal Lake Memories' documentary.
Yeah, the team cut their teeth on this & then did a better job on CLM.
I love both docs though.
The stop-motion intros to each segment are really great!
 

TM2YC

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Kundun (1997)
Arguably Martin Scorsese’s most controversial film, not because of ultra violence (although it does have a couple of bloody shots), or outrageously offensive subject matter, it just had the temerity to depict the Dalai Lama and Tibet on screen. So it was deliberately buried on it's original release and (as far as I'm aware) has never been released on blu-ray, or to streaming services in the US. Disney CEO Michael Eisner went to the extreme of going to China to apologise, saying "We made a stupid mistake in releasing 'Kundun'... the bad news is that the film was made; the good news is that nobody watched it... in the future we should prevent this sort of thing". Unfortunately 'Kundun' isn't one of Scorsese's most memorable films, so not that much effort really needed to be expended in trying to make people forget it happened. The artistic images are full of vibrant colour and sumptuous detail, and Philip Glass' score is powerful but there isn't much plot, or character development. It's not a bad, or boring film but it's more valuable as a document of a vanished world and culture, that will in all probability never be seen again, actually featuring the Dalai Lama's real family members in the cast for authenticity (sometimes they can really act, sometimes not). If you can find it on DVD or VHS it's worth seeing once.

 

TM2YC

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Cracked Actor (1975)
I hadn't heard of this vintage BBC documentary (which is following David Bowie on an LA tour) until the other day when the director Alan Yentob discussed it on the radio. It's not dissimilar in approach to the recent 'Moonage Daydream' film, approaching the subject through the kaleidoscope of his characters, although this is in more of a lo-fi 70s TV style. Bowie looks exceedingly thin and is often sniffing from what we are left to assume is a mountain of cocaine somewhere off camera. The polished performances and his ability to talk about his art with poetic insight don't seem effected by the mess he appears to physically be in. Or maybe it's just that Bowie with his batteries flat, is still 500% more charged with creative energy than other pop stars on full power. It's fascinating that this was broadcast a year before Bowie's performance in the Sci-Fi film 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' because the fact looks so close to the fiction. Apparently it's director Nicolas Roeg saw this and immediately cast Bowie as a result. 'Cracked Actor' is on youtube but the quality isn't great. Hopefully the BBC remaster it one day.

 

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No One Will Save You
Kaitlyn Dever Brynn is excellent in this nearly dialogue-free sci-fi thriller, streaming on Hulu. Her display of silent emotion were enough to keep me interested in the endless fighting/running sequences, and without her the movie would have been a total bust. The premise was interesting, but with so little actual plot and bizarre ending, it felt to me like a 20-minute short film that was stretched to feature length for no reason.
 

TM2YC

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Piranha II: The Spawning (1982)
I watched a mostly-HD fan reconstruction of the laserdisc/director's cut (titled 'Piranha Part Two: The Spawning'), which seems to be James Cameron's attempt to make this a little less trashy. It does give a couple of scenes an odd feeling, since you can tell there are some random "bikini babe" characters who were clearly only in this movie originally to get naked on camera, except they don't in this more "respectable" cut and so have no obvious reason to be in the film any more. As flying fish B-movies go this is pretty fun and most of the characters are well rounded and amusing. The scene where all the tourists are excitedly gathering on the beach to massacre/eat the spawning local fish, except we know the piranhas are really going to eat them, made me gleefully laugh with anticipation of nature's impending gory revenge. James Cameron's hand can only really be detected during the well handled underwater wreck dive sequences, his use of blues, the focus on a strong female protagonist, plus I assume this is where he first worked with the great Lance Henriksen. I've got to believe the rumours that Cameron was fired from directing at some point because a couple of the scenes were surely not directed by somebody who could speak English. Somebody who could point a camera but didn't necessarily know what lines the actors were saying. e.g the shot where the heroine is saying she doesn't have anything alcoholic in the house, while framed next to five bottles of it, or her love interest saying "it's kind of dark in here" while they are still outside in the street.

 

TM2YC

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Nuts in May (1976)
Excentric and opinionated middle-class city couple Candice-Marie and Keith Pratt try to spend a few days camping in Dorset but interactions with other people don't go well. Keith likes to hold forth on any subject in tedious detail and is visibly irritated when somebody knows it already, or worse still, knows more than him. His comeuppance comes at the end of the film when an officious "jobsworth" policeman (who would normally be a bad guy) picks apart Keith's Morris for minor vehicular code infractions. I was laughing so hard at 'Nuts in May', it might help if you've been on camping holidays, and/or have met people who were like the Pratts. It's difficult to know exactly how the Pratt's strict adherence to vegetarian, unpasteurised and organic food was intended to be viewed in 1976, as those things are pretty common now.

 

TM2YC

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Boxcar Bertha (1972)
'Boxcar Bertha'
is obviously a low-budget Roger Corman effort to pickup some of that 'Bonnie and Clyde' Great-Depression-crime-spree money but Martin Scorsese (on his 2nd movie), a good script and the fantastic cast elevate it. The sex and violence might've made some 1972 critics feel this was trashy but today it looks gritty and powerful. The bad guys are shown to be so outrageously cruel and racist that you are really cheering on Bertha's gang to keep robbing and running. You could argue this had some Blaxploitation elements ('Boxcar Bertha' was released the year after 'Shaft' and 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song'), the scene where Bernie Casey walks into frame with a pump-action shotgun is a heroic crowd pleaser. This probably doesn't get as much acclaim as it should because it's derivative of other things in conception and is an early foot-note in the illustrious career of a soon-to-be peerless Director but on it's own merits, it's a fine movie.

 

TM2YC

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Life Is Sweet (1990)
I was expecting to totally love this, first because it's Mike Leigh and secondly I was looking forward to a nostalgic trip back to the UK circa 1989/1990, where the very worst of 1980s and 1990s colourful fashions were at their apex. When it's good, you can feel yourself being sucked into the room with the actors by the power of their performances, no more so than the scene where mother and daughter (Alison Steadman and Jane Horrocks) let fly with their most painful feelings. But some of the performances, character writing and comedy voices get so whacky that I occasionally found it difficult to accept them as real people. The great Timothy Spall as Aubrey is so ridiculous on every level, no real chef could honestly believe "Saveloy on a Bed of Lychees" and "Tripe Soufflé" were going to make his restaurant a success. He's very funny but not credible Claire Skinner as plumber Natalie was my pick out of the cast because she's the most real character in this. Rachel Portman's music is really lovely and wistful. I didn't mind that it doesn't have much plot or structure, it was enough to just hang out with the characters as they totter through a few days in their lives.


 

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The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
When Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's Tintin is working, it really works but unfortunately that's not the majority of the time. [...] The script/plot by comedy/Sci-Fi writers Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish is the best element, rolling three Tintin stories into one seamless adventure mystery. Despite some problems I would still have been up for the long promised sequels but 12-years later, I'm not holding my breath.

The trouble with crafting a Tintin movie is that the hero is, by design, an unchanging, near-blank of a character. I think the first two-thirds of the Spielberg flick pretty great, right through the absolutely astonishing "one-shot" chase sequence through the town. After that exhilarating scene, however, the climactic sequence of dueling cranes at night is a bit of a letdown, both for being less inspired, and also because I think the viewer is just plain exhausted from all the whooshing camera moves and action by that point.

Maybe the ideal Tintin film would be a double feature of two distinct stories - one sourced from a single book, and one from a two-parter, as even the two-parters may not provide enough story to power 100 minutes or so. (Though I guess if we're talking ideals, why not simply adapt each book as an episode of streaming series, letting the books alone determine the length!) Anyhow, it is a shame that Peter Jackson doesn't seem to intend to finally make his entry...
 
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