Simon's Movie Reviews

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #357: The long Goodbye

2024-09-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes in a detective story the mystery is not half as fun as the detective stuck in the chaos of the story. Philip Marlow is one of those detectives. His name is synonymous with Hollywood noir and in The Long Goodbye (1973), he dives deep into a mystery involving a murder, then a suicide, then a missing person, and eventually a very violent gangster operating in sunny Los Angeles. One thing I love about this version is that this detective loves his cat enough to go buy him food at three o’clock in the morning. Now that is a dedicated pet lover.

The late great director Robert Altman starts the action at a slow pace to introduce Marlowe (Eliott Gould) as he wakes up to his hungry cat. Here is a man who falls asleep in his clothes, always the same suit and tie, and is either constantly smoking or lighting a new cigarette. He is a friendly person, nice enough to pick up an item for his neighbours while going out to get cat food. It probably helps that said neighbours are five young women who spend most of their time either dancing or doing yoga, usually half naked. When he can’t find the right brand of cat food at the store, Marlowe tries to be smart and pour the contents into the can of the brand he usually serves his cat. The little fur ball doesn’t fall for the trick and runs out the door, much to Marlowe’s chagrin.

Those are good introductory scenes that lead to the inciting incident. Marlowe’s old friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) shows up asking for a lift to the Mexican border to spend time away from his wife after a particularly nasty fight. Marlowe does his old friend this favour, which he soon regrets. Upon his return two detectives are waiting for him with questions about Terry’s whereabouts since his wife was found murdered. Sincerely believing in his friend’s innocence, Marlowe doesn’t feel like cooperating and spends three days in jail. You get the feeling this is not his first time being interrogated or spending time behind bars. When he is finally told he is free to go he responds with irritation, “I was free to begin with.”

Things escalate from there, with a new case involving a missing writer with shades of Ernest Hemingway, a dubious doctor (Henry Gibson) from a mental health clinic, a missing suitcase full of money last seen in Terry’s possession, and the violent gangster Marty Augustine (Mark Rydell) who would very much like to get his hands on that money. As the protagonist from another detective story set in Los Angeles once said, this story has a lot of ins, a lot of outs. Still, Marlowe is determined to find the answers, while also taking time to see if anyone has seen his cat.

One thing I really like about this movie is how grounded it feels. While in jail Marlowe recognizes an African American clerk from his grocery store. “They got you too?” he asks as though this happens frequently. While in his cell Marlowe listens to the musings of cellmate, locked up for marijuana possession, saying one day it’s the police who will be behind bars. Meanwhile Marlowe’s richer client live in a gated community where they a greeted by a security guard who does celebrity impressions. Then there is the crew of Augustine that is as racially diverse of the streets of Los Angeles. Marlowe spots an Irishman, a Mexican, and…isn’t that a young Austrian muscle man by the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger? Well, so it is.

When the mystery eventually unravels not everything makes complete sense, but then again that often happens in noir mysteries. I didn’t care because I enjoyed the ride and Elliott Gould’s performance as Marlowe. Prior to this I only knew him from Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels, and as Trapper in Robert Altman’s M.A.S.H. Many actors have portrayed Marlowe since Raymond Chandler first published his novels and it would have been interesting to see more of Gould’s take on the character. Over the course of this one movie, you get the feeling he has been through other investigations, talked to a lot of cops, and had his fair share of drinks with dubious. He has been there; he has done that. Now, if only he could find that cat and give him the right kind of food.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #107: An American Werewolf in London

2024-06-15T09:47:00.000-07:00

An American Werewolf in London (1981) is quite the strange beast. This is a werewolf movie from John Landis, director of comedy classics such The Blues Brothers and Trading Places, that is full of gore, gratuitous nudity, tension, and quite a few laughs. The movie’s tone is sometimes inconsistent, switching one minute from horror to self-aware comedy. However, it earns its place in the pantheon of horror thanks to one of the best werewolf transformation scenes courtesy of effects legend Rick Baker.

I feel like I watched this movie in the wrong venue and with the wrong frame of mind. This is not a movie to watch by yourself on Tubi for free with commercial breaks. This is a movie to watch on the big screen with a midnight crowd after a few drinks. Some movies require the audience to be quiet, An American Werewolf in London needs an engaged and possibly drunk crowd to laugh at the jokes, the absurdity of the situation, and the bloody kills. Hollywood has a few weekends to fill this year because productions are still reeling from the actors’ and writers’ strikes of 2023, so they are rereleasing some movies to draw audiences to theaters. This one seems tailor-made for late-night horror fans who like their violence on the big screen. Just putting it out there for any studio that wants to organize a horror night screening.

The movie’s beginning reminded me of a setup for a possible Saturday Night Live sketch. David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunn) are two young American students backpacking in England. Their budget is obviously low since instead of travelling by bus or train they hitched a ride in the back of truck carrying sheep. The driver lets them off near a small town where they stop at a pub called The Slaughtered Lamb (!). When David and Jack ask why there is a pentagram drawn on the wall of the pub, the locals give them a look as though they have just incurred Satan’s wrath.

What’s coming is obvious, but what makes this fun is that David and Jack are also aware of how something obviously bad is coming. Once they are outside the pub, walking alone in the moor, surrounded by fog, and hear a deathly howl under the full moon, they agree that is definitely not a coyote. They make a run for it, but wouldn’t you know it, some horrid creature catches up to them. David awakens in a London hospital sort of alive and well only to be told Jack was killed by a lunatic. This “lunatic” has left deep scratches on David’s body who now has disturbing dreams about running butt naked in the woods chasing animals.
Just in case David still doesn’t know what’s going on, the ghost of Jack shows up to spell it out for him. Jack’s ghost is the embodiment of the movie’s tone since he is possibly the gnarliest ghost ever put on screen while still retaining his sense of humour. His body still bears the nasty wounds of the attack, looking like someone took a lawnmower to his face. Yet, he is taking it in stride, chitchatting about the people who showed up at his funeral. Death seems at most like a minor annoyance to him: “Have you ever talked to a corpse? It’s boring!”

Like the ghost of Marley in A Christmas Caroll, Jack delivers a warning to David. He will turn into a werewolf during the next full moon which is a few days from now. The only way to break the curse, and give Jack eternal rest, is for David to die. Given everything that has been happening David is inclined to believe him but part of him of course would rather believe this is all in his head. On the night the full moon is rising David tries to act as though it is just another evening by relaxing in the apartment of his girlfriend Alex (Jenny Agutter). Alex is a nurse and therefore also leans towards a rational explanation for David’s hallucinations. However, the needle drop of CCR’s Bad Moon Rising, one of many inspired albeit obvious musical choices, tells us something very irrational is about to happen.

The movie’s highlight is the slow and seemingly very painful transformation into David’s werewolf form. Industry legend Rick Baker did one hell of a job to show the different stages of the transformation using practical effects. You see his hands seemingly stretch and grow claws, hair sprout all over his body, his legs grow bones where there shouldn’t be, and his face contort into a snout. Throughout you hear David scream in pain, until he howls a different, more animalistic scream. What follows is a series of bloody kills in the streets of London. Then we revert to comedy as David wakes up butt naked in a wolf cage of the London Zoo and in urgent need of clothes.

The constant shift between comedy and horror worked for me as I think these two genres blend very well. One thing did not work for me is the werewolf itself. When the creature is in the dark and chasing its prey the fear factor is there, but once revealed it’s sadly not as effective. It looks like a big furball wearing a wolf mask, not a snarling beast. It’s as though all the effort went into the werewolf transformation and then there was not a lot of budget left for the actual werewolf.

Then there is the ending. Given how self-aware this movie is and how David has seen werewolf movies you would think there would be a rug pull with how things end. Instead, events unfold as most werewolf movies do. Granted not all werewolf movies have a scene where the protagonist interacts with the ghosts of his victims while watching a pornographic movie at Piccadilly Circus, but after that the movie just ends. It doesn’t make it a complete miss, but I do wish the writers had been a bit more creative with the fate of this American werewolf.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #20: Blade Runner

2024-06-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) is one of those movies that gets more relevant with each passing decade. Set in a (now passed) future in which Los Angeles is overrun with people and pollution, the story focuses on artificial lifeforms clashing with their human creators. As the chase for these lifeforms progresses, writers Hampton Francher and David Peoples imply they may not be so different from the humans chasing them. If this sounds topical in 2024, imagine how relevant it will sound ten years from now.

When writing these amateur reviews, I usually try to think back on the first time I watched the movie and what I felt at the time. This is tricky with Blade Runner considering there have been five versions of the film released since the 1980s. I believe the first version I did see on TV was the original theatrical version with the narration to guide the audience since executives thought that was needed. I eventually disagreed and purchased the Final Cut on Blu-Ray to see the story unfold just as Ridley Scott intended. Whichever version you choose, I always thought this is the sort of science-fiction movie that would be enhanced if watched after consuming mind-altering drugs. Not that I ever tried.

Then again, the visuals are so powerful that drugs may not be needed to go on a visual trip. Everything in Blade Runner draws you into its world. Wide shots show a Los Angeles frequently drenched in rain and smog emanating from gargantuan factories. Cars fly around buildings resembling pyramids and advertising billboards the size of houses show that capitalism is doing quite well in this world. Among the crowded masses we are introduced to Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) a former police officer who wishes to just eat his Chinese noodles in peace, but his set of skills have been requested by the higher-ups.

Deckard is a Blade Runner, an officer who specializes in hunting “replicants”, bioengineered lifeforms, and “retire” them. Four replicants have come to Earth illegally, one of them has committed murder, therefore Deckard must do what he does best. This proves to be tricky since replicants are designed, as their name implies, to replicate humans as closely as possible. During a meeting with Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkell), the CEO of the company that builds them, Deckard learns some replicants don’t even know they are replicants. Thanks to implanted memories and seemingly human bodies, a replicant can pass as anybody.

This raises interesting moral questions that no one at Tyrell’s corporation’s seems interested in considering. If replicants don’t know they’re not human, if they feel human, if they have human desires, are they not entitled to human rights? Deckard initially is not interested in these questions either, but after gunning down one unarmed replicant in the streets, he begins to have doubts. Things get even more complicated with the arrival at his doorstep of Rachel (Sean Young) a woman who until recently believed she was one of Tyrell’s employees and not one of his creations.

The movie’s MVP is without a doubt Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty, the charismatic leader of the rogue replicants. Given his ease to dispense violence it would be easy to see him as the villain and Ford’s Deckard as the hero. Yet things are not so black and white. All that Roy wants after is for his maker to grant him more years to live beyond his programmed four-year lifespan. During those four years he has seen incredible things, as explained in Hauer’s iconic “tears in the rain” speech. Would it be so wrong to allow him and his fellow replicants more life?

These are big ideas that are explored in a science-fiction movie not filled with gunfights and explosions every ten minutes. Given its more contemplative theme and the fact Harrison Ford is not playing a straight-up action hero, Blade Runner sadly never achieved the success of more commercial science-fiction franchises such as Star Wars or Terminator. It has slowly endured though, with Denis Villeneuve’s very good sequel, an animated show, and now possibly a live-action show at Amazon. I enjoy revisiting the world of Blade Runner, as well as the sequel, and I am curious to see what’s next. As a citizen of a world in which Artificial Intelligence is frequently in the headlines, I am also curious to see if one day reality will catch up with fiction. If it does, let’s avoid making Roy mad and let’s treat these life forms with dignity.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #22: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

2023-10-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

Star Wars. One movie, with a two-word title that was directed by a young director who wanted to do Flash Gordon but couldn’t get the rights. Decades later and that one movie is now retitled A New Hope, is the first chapter in a trilogy, the fourth episode in a saga, and the seed of what is essentially a genre within cinema. For better or for worse, this movie was the equivalent of an Earth-shattering earthquake in Hollywood history. Before 1977 George Lucas was just an up-and-coming director whose career could have ended had this been a failure. Instead, the movie and its sequels made him one of the most known filmmakers in the world, and a whole generation became familiar with words like “lightsaber”, “X-Wing”, and “Wookie”. For some truly hardcore fans, these movies are the equivalent of a gospel, so much so that they will write “Jedi” as their religion of choice.

My first dive into the Star Wars universe was as a child, watching the movies on VHS in the 1990s after my parents had recorded them on TV. This was the original Star Wars, with no episode title, no new digital effects, and years away from the prequels. The original gospel, one might say. From the giant opening titles in space to the triumphant ending, I was hooked. The towering figure of Darth Vader was scary, the music by John Williams put me right in the action, and I was really hoping R2-D2 wouldn’t get hurt as he wandered alone in the desert. My brother and I loved the experience so much we would rewatch that VHS tape frequently, recreate scenes from the movie with our toys, and of course play the Super Nintendo games.

Now a grown man in my thirties, I still very much like the movie but I would not describe myself as a hardcore Star Wars super fan. I believe that way lies madness. Passion is a good thing, but too much of it can lead you to believe George Lucas ruined your children because he wrote Jar Jar Binks in the prequels. Even worse, you could be so passionate that you bully actor Achmed Best just because he played the character. At the end of the day, these are just movies after all. I see the Star Wars universe as a huge buffet table made up of the original movies, the prequels, sequels, TV shows, video games, novels, board games, action figures, etc. Like a buffet table, some things are delicious, and some things are better left on the table. If you don’t like it, just don’t eat it.

Going back to the original movie, it is quite fascinating how this story managed to be the launchpad for an entire universe. The building blocks are laid out quickly, with the iconic lines “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away”, which may as well be “Once upon a time.” In any other story we would start right off with the hero or the princess. Instead, the first characters are supporting characters who are not even human. C3-PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) are two androids who are pretty ordinary except for the fact they always find themselves in the middle of the pivotal moments in the galaxy. Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) gives R2 the plans to the Death Star superweapon to hide them from the evil Darth Vader (iconically voiced by James Earl Jones) and bring them to the rebel alliance. C3-PO would much rather walk away from the laser guns, but R2 has a mission and he will carry it out.

By what now seems like an extraordinary coincidence, they land on the exact right planet, in the exact right stretch of the desert, where they eventually find retired hero Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guiness) and young would-be pilot Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Once Luke is introduced, he takes center stage as a man eager to leave his simple farm life and maybe join the fight against the evil empire that has enslaved the galaxy. His aunt and uncle however fear he might be too much like his father (much more on that in later movies). First however, Luke and Obi-Wan must find a way off the planet, which is where the roguish hero Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is introduced.

People are often split between who is better, Luke or Han. Luke is the hero who immediately wants to go rescue the princess and save the day, whereas Han is initially more of a lone-gunslinger type who would rather shoot first, get paid, and run away from danger. I used to have a Han Solo blaster that doubled as a water pistol, so I guess that tells you where I stand. It is one of the roles that would define Harrison Ford’s career, something that he sometimes seems to regret. Yet it is difficult to imagine anyone else in the role as he brags about doing the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. He might have found the dialogue ridiculous, yet Ford managed to deliver it with confidence.

Between the dialogue, the odd story structure, and the fantasy terms that are heaped upon the audience over the movie, it is quite amazing how Star Wars managed to be the success that it became. There are plenty of things that could have gone wrong, from the performances to the special effects. However, every single piece of the puzzle managed to fit in the right place. John Williams wrote a score that is now about as iconic as the Happy Birthday song, the special effects effectively conjured the image of a planet exploding, and the story convinced viewers to come back to the theaters over and over again. It could have all ended on a cliffhanger, with the heroes triumphant and the villain planning his next move. Instead, we got to see over the decades a cinematic universe continue expanding as though a Big Bang had just occurred. Thankfully, that universe also led Mel Brooks to make Spaceballs.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #23: Back to the Future

2023-07-16T11:46:00.001-07:00

The question “if you had a time machine, what would you do?” has generated a lot of entertaining conversations. The team behind Back to the Future (1985) took that question and added “what if you met your parents when they were young?”. The result is one of the best time travel stories ever made, which catapulted Michael J. Fox to stardom and gave Christopher Lloyd one of his most enduring roles. There were plenty of ways it could have gone wrong, but with this one lightning hit, sending a DeLorean back to the future.

Given the film’s relationship with time, when you see it can impact your relationship with the story. I first saw it in the late 1990s, about 15 years after it came out, and about 15 years before Marty McFly would travel to the future in the second movie. For me the 1980s and the 1950s are foreign eras to which I have no emotional connections, but I was still fascinated by the movie’s story of a young man travelling back in time and meeting his parents. It also helped that the story is very funny, the special effects are still outstanding, and that score by Alan Silvestri pulls you into the action.

Executive-produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Robert Zemeckis, the story is set in 1985 in the fictional California town of Hill Valley and features an unlikely friendship for the ages. By today’s standards it is rather odd that high schooler Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is best friends with middle-aged inventor Doctor Emmet Brown (Christopher Lloyd), but these two have an undeniably wholesome chemistry. Film fans will know that originally Eric Stoltz had the Marty role until the crew realized the chemistry just wasn’t there. In came Michael J. Fox, somehow working two jobs as both Marty and Alex Keaton on hit sitcom Family Ties. The replacement worked as Fox is now forever associated with the role.

Marty is a teenager with a lot of ambition, dreaming of having a big car to drive around his girlfriend Jennifer (Claudia Wells) and hopefully having a lot of success in the future. His parents are definitely not a source of inspiration, as his father George (Crispin Glover) is a meek man constantly belittled by his bully on a boss Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson). As for his mother Lorraine (Lea Thompson), she is being practically steamrolled by middle age and looks down at the idea of teenagers having anything resembling fun. In Marty’s eyes, these two people can’t possibly have ever been anything but lame.

Marty’s perception is forever altered the evening he helps Doc Brown with a mystery scientific experience. The good doctor has cracked the key to time travel, with a device dubbed the flux capacitor (awesome sci-fi name) placed inside a DeLorean car. Following an armed encounter with angry Libyans that supplied the time machine’s much needed plutonium, Marty performs the machine’s first manned test drive, landing in 1955 Hill Valley. This leads to many cultural clashes as Marty navigates his hometown 30 years in the past, with everyone assuming he is a sailor on leave due to his puffy 1980s jacket.

Marty’s biggest shock is encountering his young parents, George harboring creative aspirations as a writer, and Lorraine much wilder than expected. Unfortunately, by being at the wrong place at the wrong time Marty alters their first romantic encounter, putting his very existence in jeopardy. Over the course of a week, he not only needs to work with a 1950s version of Doc Brown to get the time machine working again, but also play cupid for his parents. A major hurdle is that Lorraine is infatuated with him, completely unaware she is lusting after a future version of her own son. That is of course very disturbing, yet the movie somehow gets away with this incest subplot. It helps that Michael J. Fox is very good at making disturbed facial expression every time Lorraine makes a move on him.

Christopher Lloyd meanwhile dominates the screen as Doc Brown. Sporting wild white hair and often displaying manic energy, Lloyd has said he drew inspiration from Albert Einstein and conductor Leopold Stokowski for the character. It is a joy to see him explaining science-fiction concepts as he flings his arms in between expressions of “Great Scot!” and “Marty!” This scientist paired with a high schooler somehow resulted in one of cinema’s greatest duos.

Because of the chemistry between the two leads, the fantastic music, and the rollicking sense of adventure, the Back to the Future trilogy ranks as one of my favourite film series. The first one imagines what it would be like to meet a young version of your parents, the second one sees the protagonists travel to see their future (now our past) and the third goes full Western. It was once futuristic and is now a huge slice of 1980s nostalgia. Every movie in the trilogy warrants repeat viewing, if only to spot various Hill Valley landmarks and characters throughout the decades.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #24: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

2023-03-12T13:20:00.001-07:00

Looking back on the first movie in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings saga, my first thought is that people really need fantasy in their lives. The Fellowship of the Ring came out in 2001, a year when to say the least the news were pretty depressing. An escape to a fantasy land filled with wizards, hobbits, elves, and dwarves engaged in a fight of good versus of evil came at just the right time. You get a certain feeling when you sit in a theater, the lights dim, and you are swept away to the beauty of Middle Earth, via New Zealand. Given the length of Jackson’s movies, it is also a fairly long escape from reality.

Prior to sitting down in that theater in 2001, my knowledge of J.R.R Tolkien’s fantasy work was fair at best. I believe I had read the books at least once before and has seen the animated movie from the 1980s, but I was no Stephen Colbert. Since watching that first movie my appreciation for Tolkien’s world has grown as I own the extended cuts of every one of the movies (even The Hobbit). They’re not Christmas movies, but they are really good movies to dive into during a cold December weekend. The pandemic years were also an especially good time to once again escape from it all.

Peter Jackson was a bit of surprising choice to helm this multi-million-dollar franchise as it would require massive resources all over New Zealand and years of effort. Prior to this he was best know for extremely gory horror movies, and his biggest special effects movie had been The Frighteners with Michael J. Fox. Yet clearly the man knew what he was doing because he managed to please both fans of the books and millions of audience members who were new to this world.

The movie’s prologue does a great job of both introducing the world and setting up what is to come, thanks to the graceful narration of Cate Blanchet, an actress born to play an elf queen. Within ten minutes the audience gets the gist of the story: Sauron is a villain intend on enslaving the world, he has armies at his disposal, he has forged a magic ring that renders him all-powerful, and the armies of Middle Earth have gathered to stop him. They nearly succeed, except when it comes time to destroy the ring one man falters and the ring is lost, ensuring Sauron will rise again one day. Of all people in this world, the ring eventually finds its way to Bilbo (Ian Holm) a member of the peace-loving hobbit race.

Following his 111^th birthday (wow!) Bilbo decides to leave his land and to give his ring to his nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood). Yet Bilbo has a very hard time letting go of the ring, almost as though it has a hold on him. This raises the suspicion of his wizard friend Gandalf the Grey (Ian Mckellen) who after some research realizes Frodo now holds the most powerful item in the world. This kicks off the story’s epic quest in which the hero must travel across dangerous and distant lands in order to save the world by throwing the ring into a roaring volcano.

As the movie’s title indicates, Frodo does not travel alone. Joining him reluctantly at first is his best friend Samwise (Sean Astin), and mischievous trouble-makers Merry and Pippin (Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, whose on-screen chemistry led to a real-life friendship). These are brave and good people, but they are not warriors by any means. Fortunately, along their journey the ranks of their fellowship grows with brave ranger Strider (Viggo Mortensen), proud dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), master archer elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and ambitious warrior Boromir (Sean Bean).

That is the story on paper, but anyone who has watched the behind-the-scenes features of the movies knows it took a gargantuan effort to bring this world to life. Actors were flown to various locations of New Zealand, carpenters build Hobbiton and other locations from the ground up, makeup artists had to bury John Rhys-Davies under layers of prosthetics every day, blacksmiths forged hundreds of swords, and a whole brigade of special effects wizards spent hours staring at screens as they created digital creatures.

Jackson was also wise to mix practical effects with the computer imagery in order to truly immerse the audience in Middle Earth. To create the tower of traitorous wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee) artists built big miniatures (nicknamed “bigatures”) of the building to integrate with digital backgrounds. One of my favourite shots in the entire franchise is of the camera sweeping from the top of the tower all the way down to expanding caverns below, set to the booming score of Howard Shore.

Since the movie’s release there have been many imitators and parodies, as well as memes of Sean Bean uttering his famous line “One does not simply walk into Mordor.” Given the amount of money it generated, and the awards the last movie won, we now also have a prequel show on Amazon and there are talks of even more movies coming to the big screen. No matter how good those movies might be, I think this all could eventually generate some Middle Earth fatigue. Nevertheless, on a cold December afternoon if I feel the need for escapism, I will probably get some popcorn and head off to Middle Earth once again.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #25: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2023-01-20T14:16:00.000-08:00

A “Spaghetti Western” is a strange concept on paper, but if well-executed it makes for one epic movie. Somehow an Italian director managed to get American actors to travel all the way to Italy, shoot in some of the warmest areas in Europe to stage the Old West, and reinvented an American movie genre. Sergio Leone is the director best known for this international collaboration, and Clint Eastwood is the American actor who became an icon for his roles in his movies. Their best collaboration is undoubtedly The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1967) which boasts one of the best duels of all times.

As the title indicates, this is the tale of three characters. The “Good” is Blondie (Eastwood), who is not that good considering he is a bounty hunter scamming the law during the American Civil War. His scheme is to capture the “Ugly”, a vicious criminal named Tuco (Eli Wallach), collect the bounty, release him right before his hanging, then start all over in a different town. “The Ugly” of the three is a colonel in the Union army nicknamed Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) who moonlights as a hired gun. As the United States is busy tearing itself apart during a bloody conflict, these three men clash together and occasionally work together after learning about a hidden loot of cash.

Each character has a part of the puzzle that will lead to the treasure, such as the location of the cemetery where the money is buried and the name of the grave where to start digging. Since none of them have all the details it means they can’t kill each other, at least not until they each know where to bring their shovels. This makes for a pretty standard treasure hunt story, with a few comments on how greed is bad. Where the movie stands out though is in its masterful execution.

If you are just a casual movie goer with no idea of how movies are made, the concept of editing is probably vague to you at best. To see a perfect example of how editing can heighten a story, look no further than the work of Leone and his editors. A duel is an essential scene of the Western genre, however it can be a rather boring action. It is after all just two people staring at each other until they reach for their guns and shoot, a final action that takes just a few seconds. The final duel in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the gold standard of how to edit such a sequence.

You do have your three characters staring at each other until someone draws. That is the action that has been recorded by Leone’s cameras. The way the scenes are cut by the editors though, exponentially increase the tension as they cut from the characters’ thighs with their guns still in their belts, then to their sweat-filled face, and finally to their eyes as they analyze their opponents. The cuts are become faster and tighter as the tension builds, with occasional quit cuts to the character’s hands showing them gradually reaching for the guns.

That sequence, and many others throughout the film, get a lot of help from composer Ennio Morricone. He has composed many great scores for many other great films, but for better or worse thanks to his work with Leone he is most often associated with the Western. The score he composed for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is some of his most iconic work. The minute you hear the score, a mixture of whistling, yodeling, and gunfire, you immediately conjure up images of a Western.

Leone was also wise in the choosing of his actors for the three main characters, each making them their own. As The Good, Eastwood perfects the kind of a character he would play in many other Westerns: a gunslinger with his own moral code. Even though Blondie commits crimes for money he has enough humanity in him to be shocked by the violence of war and to give one last smoke to a dying soldier. Lee Van Cleef on the other hand is truly the movie’s Bad, and not just because he wears a black hat. With his hawk-like features he instills fear into a man just by staring at him while eating soup, and then proceeds to mercilessly kill him and his family.

As the Ugly, Eli Wallach has the juiciest and most developed role. His Tuco, also known as the Rat, is a manipulative and funny schemer with a long list of crimes and a filthy mouth. He is also surprisingly resourceful and not to be underestimated. A contentious meeting with his brother (Luigi Pistilli), a priest, sheds information on his past and the choices that led him to a life of crime. It earns the character some sympathy, but he’s still Ugly inside.

One thing these three characters, and the rest of the supporting cast, have in common is that none of them look like they are on a movie set. Everyone is in need of a shave, covered in dust, sweating from the baking sun, and probably in need of a bath. This was not a film shot on a comfortable Hollywood set, but in the heat of southern Spain. You can practically feel the heat when Clint Eastwood is walking in the desert with no hat.

The European shooting location, as well as the use of many Italian extras, probably does not make The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly the most accurate depiction of the Civil War. For one thing, I’m not sure that war went that far West or had so many battles near deserts. Also for a war that started because of slavery, there is a notable lack of African-American characters in this movie. Still, you don’t watch a Western for a history lesson. You watch a Western to see cool gunfights and tense duels. By that standard Leone’s third entry in his Man with No Name trilogy with Clint Eastwood is the very best of the genre.

It is one of those movies whose influence can be seen in many aspects of pop culture: the music of Metallica, Marty McFly’s choice of pseudonym in Back to the Future III, and many Quentin Tarantino movies. Hollywood never made a direct remake, however South Korea gave it a good go in 2008 with The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, which transposes the action from the American Civil War to the desert of Manchuria right before the Second World War. It is definitely worth checking out, if only to see an alternate take on that iconic final three-men duel.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #27: Some Like It Hot

2022-10-30T08:55:00.001-07:00

Some Like it Hot (1939) features icons of American cinema at the peak of their talent and has one of the funniest line deliveries ever recorded. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon star as a pair of cross-dressing musicians on the run from the mob while screen legend Marilyn Monroe is the love interest caught in their web of lies. The shoot was apparently very difficult for Monroe, but the end result, directed by Billy Wilders, is a comedy classic.

This is a very interesting movie to revisit today. For one thing Marilyn Monroe is having a bit of a moment with that new biopic out on Netflix. Then there’s the fact the two main male characters spend a good part of the movie disguised as women, which was very controversial back at the time and probably still ruffles some feathers today. There is also the question of whether the movie’s jokes still work after over 60 decades. That depends on the audience, but in 2009 I watched it as part of a film studies course in Vancouver and the class laughed all the way to the final line.

A plot point that could draw history buffs to the movie is the use of the infamous Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre that took place in Prohibition-era Chicago. The two protagonists, down on their luck musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon), witness a version of this event and promptly decide to leave the city by any means necessary. Fortunately, their agent has told them of a band in need of musicians that has a show scheduled all the way in Miami. Unfortunately, this is an all-female band. That doesn’t stop Joe and Jerry whose solution is to put on some dresses and join the band as Josephine and Daphne.

It’s a good thing the movie is in black and white because had it been in colour it would have been even more obvious that Joe and Jerry are two men wearing dresses. Even they don’t seem too convinced by their disguises. When Jerry says he thinks everyone is looking at him Joe angrily replies “With those legs? Are you kidding?”

Things get even more complicated when before boarding the train to Florida, the two are thunderstruck by the sight of the band’s vocalist and ukulele player Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe). Joe, the lady’s man of the two, immediately wants to pursue her. That would of course break his cover, so his solution is to assume yet another identity, that of wealthy heir to the Shell Oil corporation. Meanwhile, Jerry, as Daphne, is being romantically pursued by the clueless Osgood Fielding (Joe E. Brown), an actual millionaire who thinks he/she is the most beautiful woman in the world.

The scenes between Joe and Sugar are funny in their way, but a bit disturbing given the level of deception Joe is employing. I remember the audience being a bit disappointed Sugar did not have more of a reaction when she eventually realizes the truth. The relationship between Jerry and Osgood on the other hand is flawlessly funny despite being unbelievable. The millionaire is so smitten with “Daphne” that he proposes to “her”, and the flattered Jerry, much to Joe’s surprise, actually accepts.

Should this movie be remade today I imagine a great many changes would be made to the script. For one thing I would hope Monroe’s character would be less objectified and harder to fool. However, one thing that can’t be changed is the Daphne/Osgood relationship which gives us the great closing line “Nobody’s perfect.” Given the context of the delivery, I challenge anyone not to laugh.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #28: Citizen Kane

2022-06-12T14:50:00.002-07:00

Citizen Kane (1941) is a movie whose story and reputation has overshadowed its creator, Orson Welles, and the movie itself. For many years it was described as the Greatest Movie of All Time, and Welles never managed to make a movie that was as successful. It was not for lack of trying, Welles having directed and starred in plenty of other great movies, but none had the impact of Citizen Kane. You might have heard the expression “this movie is the Citizen Kane of its genre” to describe a movie’s quality. Given it is ranked 28^th on Empire magazine’s Greatest Movies list of 2008 shows there are better movies. There is however no denying it is a cinematic achievement, whose themes of greed and power remain relevant to this day.

It is also a movie so influential that the first time I watched Citizen Kane’s story was as a parody on Tiny Toon Adventures with rich kid Montana Max in the role of Kane, and Hamton J. Pig as the journalist investigating his story. It’s funny how writers of cartoons love to parody movies that their target audience has most likely never seen. Eventually I did see the actual movie when I bought a special edition DVD loaded with documentaries and a Roger Ebert commentary track. Among other things, I was surprised at how faithful the Tiny Toon Adventures writers were to the movie.

One of Citizen Kane’s innovations is its use of fractured storytelling, something that has influenced many filmmakers in the years since its release. The story being pieced together is that of Charles Foster Kane (played remarkably well at various ages by Welles) an American newspaper and industrial magnate. His death, taking place inside his massive Florida estate named Xanadu, is the movie’s inciting incident as the press wants to know the meaning behind his dying word, “Rosebud”. Reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland) sets out to find the meaning of the magnate’s last word, leading him to interview the major people who knew him.

It's a solid plot device, allowing for the mapping of the life of a man who climbed to power, took a huge plunge, and left quite a lot of damage in his wake. Thanks to wise investing on his mother’s part, Kane was rich by 25. With his wealth he decided to go into journalism, buying the best reporters to write to stories he wanted and influence events. His credo is best summed up by his orders to a reporter in Cuba: “You provide the prose poems. I’ll provide the war.” Those words may sound familiar to anyone familiar with either real-life media barons or with a Bond villain from the Pierce Brosnan era.

Kane’s next step in life is of course politics, starting with his marriage to Emily Norton (Ruth Warrick), the niece of the American president. In an iconic scene, Kane addresses a rapturous crowd at Madison Square Garden for his run for governor. A huge sign with his picture stands behind him, with his name in big, bold letters. Here is a man who believes his name is now synonymous with success. However as is often the case in politics, he is also his own worst enemy. The first signs of trouble are the slow disintegration of his marriage, and then his ill-fated affair with aspiring singer Susan (Dorothy Comingore).

As Jerry Thompson interviews Susan and other members of Kane’s past, he tries to piece together not only the meaning of “Rosebud” but also who was Charles Foster Kane. The interviews paint the portrait of a man who was rich but ultimately unhappy, and in desperate need to control everything and everyone around him. There are hints of Kane in other wealthy and unhappy characters in cinema, such as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, or Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network. The old saying “money doesn’t buy happiness” is laughable to anyone who is not rich, but characters like Kane show that money will never fill whatever gaping hole they have in their heart. It’s a lesson a certain ex-president, who coincidently also has a massive estate in Florida, might want to learn one day.

As to whether Citizen Kane is the greatest movie of all time, for my taste I would not say it is my favourite movie. I actually found Welles’ Touch of Evil to be more entertaining. On some days I think the greatest movie of all time can be The Godfather, Fargo, Jaws, or even The Big Lebowski. However, given how relevant the story of Citizen Kane is to modern politics and journalism it is a movie that should remain on everyone's watch list.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #32: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

2022-05-08T10:32:00.001-07:00

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) is that rare Western that goes off the beaten path, at one point quite literally by leaving the American West behind. It is also sometimes cartoonishly funny as outlaws use too much dynamite to blow up a safe, jump off a cliff to evade a posse, and have to learn a new language in the middle of a bank robbery. At its core it is the story of two friends who, despite the occasional argument, stay together until the end.

The first time I saw the movie was more than a decade ago when if I wanted to watch a classic movie I had to rent it from a store. It was not the best cinematic experience since the disc was scratched and the image kept jumping in the first minutes, but eventually it got better. I recently rewatched it on Disney +, since Disney seems intent on owning everything, and was pleasantly reminded of what a fun movie this is. It is not Blazing Saddles in terms of silliness, but it’s certainly not Unforgiven in terms of violence either.

The titular outlaws Butch and Sundance are played by Hollywood icons Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who have such good on-screen chemistry they reteamed with director George Roy Hill for another classic, The Sting. Clearly this was a case of two actors who loved working together between takes. Even though this is later in their career as criminals, you quickly understand the rapport between Butch, the brains of the operation, and Sundance, the quick shooter. They have a shorthand, almost finishing each other’s sentences. Sundance has a lover, Etta (Katharine Ross), but you get the impression the one relationship that matters the most to him is Butch. Make of that what you will.

Along with the rest of their Hole in the Wall Gang, Butch and Sundance have built quite the reputation. When they rob a train, the engineer wants to see them at work. When they rob that same train a second time, they are on a first name basis with the clerk that is guarding the safe. Unfortunately, they have caused so much financial troubles to the people they are robbing that a special posse has been dispatched to hunt them down. It truly is a hunt as the posse relentlessly chases Butch and Sundance through forests, deserts, and rocky hills. The two outlaws can only speculate who might chasing them as though it was some outlaw boogeyman. Whoever they are, the local newspapers say they will not quit until Butch and Sundance are dead.

This is when the movie takes a turn, with the two outlaws and Etta packing their bags and fleeing to Bolivia. In movies the cliché with American criminals on the run is that they will flee to Mexico. Butch however has heard there are lots of silver and gold mines in Bolivia, hence lots of banks to rob. After a picturesque stop in New York City, the trio makes it to South America where things are not as easy as Butch imagined. For one thing, the outlaws forgot that if you are going to rob a bank in Bolivia, you need to know how to say “Put your hands up” in Spanish. Despite patient Spanish lessons from Etta, and the occasional use of cheat cards, the two quickly catch the attention of the local authorities under the name “Bandidos Yankees”.

It is pretty ironic that nowadays plenty of Americans want to wall up their border to stop criminals coming from South America, but over a century ago two Americans were busy robbing Bolivian banks. This is a true story, albeit with a few dramatic licenses since the movie begins by saying “Most of what follows is true.” For all I know Butch and Sundance might have killed a few innocent bystanders while robbing some banks between the United States and Bolivia. However, as played by Newman and Redford, you can’t help but root for the movie characters that are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. If they were robbing my train, I also would love to see them work.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #138: Cool Hand Luke

2022-04-24T18:39:00.004-07:00

Some movies have their main characters fight against nature, some against armies and others have them fight against institutions, always with the odds against them. Cool Hand Luke (1967) falls into that last category as it follows a character who clashes against the often-troubled institution that is the American prison system. It helps that the people in charge of said prison are borderline sadists and that the convict rebelling against the system is the legendary screen presence that is Paul Newman.

I had a great first impression of this movie even though the first time I saw it was years ago while it had already started playing on TV. The dialogue was dubbed in Spanish since I was living in South America at the time, but once you get into the story it is hard to let go. Watching Paul Newman defy and outsmart prison guards is not on par with all the spectacle you see in cinemas nowadays, but it is certainly engaging. I recently rewatched the movie, from beginning to end, on a classic movie channel to get the full context for his character. It also gave me context as to why some of the movie’s dialogue is used by Guns N’ Roses in their song Civil War. Now there’s a true sign of achieving pop culture stardom.

Directed by Stuart Rosenberg, Cool Hand Luke set in a Florida prison and is based on a novel, which is evidenced by the number of characters. In addition to Newman’s Lucas “Luke” Jackson, there are 15 convicts at the prison. Look closely and you will spot young Harry Dean Stanton and Dennis Hopper among them. For the Netflix generation, this will feel like an all-white male version of Orange is the New Black. Just like that much more progressive and ground-breaking show, the audience learns the ins and outs of the prison through the eyes of first timers in the prison.

There is a hierarchy, first with the guards. The man in charge is The Captain (Strother Martin), who rules over the prison thinking he is stern and fair, but the convicts feel differently. Below him is the Walking Boss Godfrey (Morgan Woodward) nicknamed “the man with no eyes” due to his constant use of mirrored sunglasses. Looking at that man is like looking at a soulless machine programmed to kill if you cross a line. Carr (Clifton James) has more humanity as his job involves walking the floor of the prison barrack to make sure everyone is in place and that there are no fights. He practically lives with the convicts, which reminds him these are human beings after all.

The convicts have their own bit of hierarchy, with new convicts at the bottom while at the very top sits prison leader Dragline (George Kennedy). A tall and muscular man, Dragline is an imposing figure who fears no one. When Luke does not respect his authority they have a fist fight in front of the prisoners, which Dragline easily wins. Yet no matter how many times Luke gets knocked down he keeps getting back up. This fight and other incidents earn him the respect of Dragline, the other prisoners, and even some guards.

It is fair to compare Luke’s life in prison to a religious journey. As he encourages those around him to defy authority he is punished for his actions. He does not spend 40 days in the desert, but after his mother dies, he is locked up in a shed under the blazing sun to prevent him from going to her funeral. When he does eventually try to escape, his punishment includes having to wear chains and dig holes until he nearly passes out from exhaustion. Every time he gets back up, the prisoners rally behind him as though his words and actions are a gospel.

Although Luke is guilty, you cannot help but sympathize with him and root for every escape attempt. For one thing his crime is destroying parking meters while drunk, which some might say does not warrant a prison sentence. True, Luke did break the law and every crime deserves a form of punishment. However, when said punishment involves being locked in tiny shed while your mother’s funeral services are taking place, being chained like an animal, and being forced to perform hard labour for hours on end, you can’t help but think there is something seriously wrong with the prison system.

I don’t know if the movie was an accurate depiction of prison at the time and place where it is set. Regardless, my opinion is that prisons should be a place of rehabilitation and not punishment through hard labour. You see the effect this punishment has on Luke’s body as he sweats from digging for hours and the sun burns his skin. When his fellow convicts sing in his support it is a rousing moment that has you cheering for the underdog. Cool Hand Luke can sometimes be a tough watch, but thanks in large part to Paul Newman giving one of his best performances it is a hopeful movie about resilience in the face of adversity.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #139: Blow Out

2022-03-06T15:28:00.001-08:00

Brian De Palma’s Blow Out (1981) manages to be an outstanding thriller while also educating the audience about the mechanics of making such a movie. Many moviegoers might not understand the concept of editing, sound mixing, or why they have their own categories at the Oscars. Through the eyes (and ears) of a sound technician, we get to see how every sound in any movie is carefully picked in order to elicit the right reaction from the audience. Things take a tragic turn when said technician records an actual murder.

Jack Terry (John Travolta) is a self-described “sound guy” who has quite a few movies under his belt. Unfortunately, those movies are not Oscar-winning dramas shot in Hollywood, but low-budget slasher films that border on sexploitation. Yet Jack works diligently out of his Philadelphia office, always trying to find the right sound to mix into the film. Those sounds can be anything from the sounds of a creaking door to the scream of an actress as a maniac is about to stab her. If the actress doesn’t sound scared, other actresses need to be brought to record a proper scream, which is then mixed in the audio track for the film. This, as they say, is how the sausage is made.

To make sure he has a full bank of various sounds, Jack sometimes goes out at night to record sounds of nature in a park. With a high-powered microphone he can record the wind in the trees, a croaking frog, or a couple out for a stroll. What he did not expect to record is the sound of a car crashing into the river right after one of its tires blows out. Ever the good Samaritan, he jumps in the river and pulls out a young woman (Nancy Allen) while the driver goes down with the car having died on impact.

Things start to get murkier at the hospital where Jack learns the driver was a promising politician that was on his way to becoming the next president. He was also a married man, which is why the politician’s friends ask Jack to keep quiet about the young woman, a makeup artist named Sally, who was in the car. However, after Jack hears what he believes to be a gunshot on his recording he decides to keep digging for the truth and pressures Sally to tell him why she in the car in the first place. His sound, combined with images taken by a conveniently placed photographer (Dennis Franz) at the scene, indicates there might a conspiracy afoot. Having previously worked in law enforcement by putting microphones on undercover cops, Jack feels the need to the right thing and uncover the conspiracy.

The problem with conspiracies is of course proving them. Nowadays everything from 5G network to Bill Gates putting microchips in COVID vaccines is deemed a conspiracy. This means if you do uncover a real conspiracy, odds are you will be first regarded as paranoid instead of a whistleblower. When Jack comes to the police with his footage, an exasperated cop asks, “Why does everything have to be a conspiracy?”

Another problem is the question of what constitutes hard evidence. Even though this movie is set decades before technology like Photoshop and Deep Fake, Jack eventually begins to realize his footage is not worth much. Even if were to release it to the one reporter who is interested in his story, anyone could accuse him of faking every sound. It is what Jack does for a living after all.

Then again, sometimes just because you are being paranoid it doesn’t mean someone is not after you. In Jack and Sally’s case, that someone is Burke (a very menacing John Lithgow), a fixer tying up loose ends by any means necessary. Part of his plan includes brutally murdering women who look like Sally, so that when he does kill her it will look like she was the victim of sex maniac. That seems a pretty overelaborate plan to get rid of one person, so Burke is probably not pretending to be a maniac. It is scenes when that monster is hunting his next victims that De Palma’s skills as a filmmaker really shine. Scenes are shot from Burke’s point and view as he hunts his victims, and there is a terrific sequence in which Jack is desperately trying to find his location based on sounds he is hearing on a microphone hidden on Sally.

I found the very ending of Blow Out to be a tad morbid, albeit darkly poetic, but everything before is superb. Here is a movie that gives you a bit of an education on the filmmaking process, makes you think about big issues, and delivers quite a few thrills.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #33: Alien

2022-02-13T10:18:00.001-08:00

Alien (1979) is a perfectly executed horror movie with a simple premise that works and a slim cast treating the material seriously. The movie’s one-word title perfectly sums up the story and its deadly antagonist: an unknown alien creature is aboard a spacecraft and is killing the crew one by one. This is a B-movie plot that had been done before plenty of times and has been imitated repeatedly. However, in the highly capable hands of Ridley Scott, this haunted house movie set in space slowly build up to be one of the scariest thrillers ever made with only a few jump scares. It helps that the monster is one of the scariest creatures ever designed in the history of horror.

Two things about me and this movie’s monster: first, when I was a kid, seeing it in a 30-second trailer was enough to scare me. Second, Mel Brooks made it a lot less scary. There is an entire generation of movie-goers who were scared and possibly vomited in their popcorn bags when they first saw the scene when the alien bursts out of John Hurt’s chest during the dinner scene. Me, I was stunned and slightly amused when I saw that scene parodied in Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs (1987) when the creature once again bursts out of John Hurt’s chest. Only this time the little monster puts on a hat and starts singing “Hello, My Baby” just like Michigan J. Frog in the Bugs Bunny cartoon. Somehow, that made the monster less scary when I saw the full movie.

One thing makes Alien stand out in the science-fiction and horror genre is how even though the story is set in a spaceship in the future, the crew is made up of ordinary blue-collar workers. These are not super soldiers or even super scientists. The crew of the Nostromo are pilots, officers, and engineers hauling cargo across the emptiness of space for a big corporation. When the ship alters course to respond to a distress call, engineers Brett and Parker (Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto) initially disagree because answering to distress signals is not part of their contract. They only agree to do so because as explained by science officer Ash (Ian Holm) refusing would negate their bonus.

Greed, it turns out, is not good. The distress call leads the crew to a planet where they find a derelict ship. As you watch crew members Dallas (Tom Skerrit), Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), and Kane (John Hurt) explore the ship there are plenty of moments when as a viewer you want to tell them get out of there. One major sign of danger is finding the skeletal remains of a pilot whose insides seem to have exploded. At this point I would say forget the bonus; I’m gone. Instead, Kane explores the ship’s basement where he finds thousands of leathery eggs laying in an eerie mist. Did he really think nothing bad would happen as got close to one of them after it opened?

Another classic trope of horror movies is when no one listens to the smart person. When the three explorers return with Kane, who now has a parasite covering his entire face, warrant officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) refuses to let them aboard. Safety policies clearly state that when a crew member is infected with an unknown disease or organism, they need to be quarantined. That is a wise policy that resonates even more today. Instead of listening to the smart person, Ash opens the door to study the parasite up close. Bad move.

The creature, who late in the franchise is dubbed a Xenomorph, is the stuff of nightmares. Once it is “birthed” out from Kane, it grows to be tall, with a retractable mouth, an elongated head, sharp claws, and a long tail that acts as a spear. As if that was not enough of a threat, the damn thing bleeds acid, which is a big problem inside a spaceship floating in the vacuum of space. Even though it was literally born yesterday, the creature is very good at hiding inside the ship’s air ducts and corridors, taking out the crew one by one.

The ship itself is quite the scary place. The production design gives you the impression this is a massive hauler, filled with giant rooms with dangling chains, empty corridors with heavy metal doors, and tight air vents dark enough for monsters to hide. A lot of the movie’s design can be credited to Swiss artist H.R Giger, who was known for a style that blended machines with human physiques. It makes you wonder what this guy dreamed of at night.

Alien spawned three sequels, crossover movies with the Predator universe, two prequels, comic books, video games, and an upcoming TV show. So far, out of all that content my favourite is the action-packed first sequel directed by James Cameron and of course the original. At one point in my life this movie scared me so much I wouldn’t watch it, but now I own the director’s cut and consider it a classic. I assume Mel Brooks is a fan as well since as they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #161: The Year of Living Dangerously

2022-01-29T09:47:00.001-08:00

Peter Weir’s The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) is a very well made look at how reporters, back when they still had stable careers, operate in unstable countries. It looks at ethical questions, from the point of view of both the journalists covering the conflicts, and the people who actually live in the country and have to live with the impact of their coverage. One of these people is a photographer played by an award-winning Linda Hunt. Unfortunately, the other major role is played by Mel Gibson, a name now synonymous with controversy, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from seeing the movie.

Between Christmas and the start of 2022 like many people I was stuck indoors with a lot of time to kill so I caught up on a few shows and movies. I can’t say I was itching to complete my viewing of Mel Gibson’s filmography, but I was pleasantly surprised to see Linda Hunt have such a prominent role. Certain TV viewers might know her as the boss on NCIS LA, but here we see her early in her career in a much more dramatic role. It’s an impressive performance, especially given that she is convincingly playing a man.

The movie is set in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1965 when there was high tension between communist and religious factions. Caught between those factions is a population living way below the poverty line and hoping for positive change. The situation draws international journalists such as Australian Guy Hamilton (Gibson) who is young with dreams of making a difference. His one contact in the city, local cameraman Billi Kwan (Hunt), proves to be a wealth of information on both the country’s culture and its politicians.

Kwan is also the story’s narrator, which makes narrative sense given how he seems to know everyone important in the city. Guy wonders if Billy is a spy, but maybe Billy is just a very good people person. It also helps people constantly underestimate him because of his short stature. Many of the other international journalists look down on him, both figuratively and literally, until he helps Guy score a major interview with a high-ranking member of the communist party. They make quite the team, covering riots while Guy comments on the situation in his microphone and Billy shoots with his camera at their own peril.

The rest of the international journalists and other diplomats/spies are an interesting lot. While the country is on the brink of conflict, many of these foreigners treat the situation almost like a vacation. Guy meets a British colonel (Bill Kerr) who is enjoying a sunny day by the pool but complains to a waiter that his drink doesn’t have enough ice. One reporter throws a party when he can finally afford a bungalow in the country. Another is happy to spend his leisure time chasing prostitutes who hang around a cemetery after dark, as long as he has access to penicillin.

Billy hopes Guy is different and is in a way grooming him to be a journalist that could help bring the country’s much needed change. The problem is the more success Guy gets, the more of a blind side he develops when it comes to ethics. Thanks to his romantic relationship with British embassy assistant Jill Bryant (Sigourney Weaver) he learns information that could shift the country’s political stability. Jill told him about the news in confidence so he could take precautions. Guy’s first instinct is to find proof of this information and tell the world, regardless of the impact on his relationship with Jill or on the local populace.

It is an interesting ethical dilemma. If this information is big news, is it Guy’s first priority to publish it, consequences be damned? However, if the news was told to him in confidence should he not mind his own business and wait for events to unfold? These are complicated questions, and if Guy was less self-centered, he would be asking them to Billy since he is in the best position to know what impact any information will have on his country.

Telling the story from Guy’s point of view makes sense given that like most of the audience he is a fish out of the water in this setting and historical context. However, the story could have been better if there had been less focus on Guy and his melodramatic romance, and more on the ordinary people of Jakarta. I never quite got the whole grasp of the conflict; despite the fact it is Guy’s job to tell me. The Year of Living Dangerously is worth watching, especially for Linda Hunt, but there is a better movie to be made about that historical period.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #35: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2021-12-29T12:36:00.000-08:00

Despite all the fantasy elements and the many battles, it would be reasonable to consider Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy a holiday tradition. All three movies all came out during the holiday season, feature family and friends joining together, and it is wonderful escapism to enjoy on a cold winter day. The Return of the King (2003) is especially joyous since it is the culmination of all the adventures the characters have gone through, even though there are about five different culminations as the movie winds down.

Whether you are a fan of the fantasy genre or if you have read the books, seeing The Return of the King on the big screen is quite the experience. It is not with every movie that you get to see thousands of riders charge against an army of orcs on a battlefield only to get attacked by a battalion of elephant-like creatures. That is one of the most spectacular scenes in a movie filled with plenty of spectacular scenes over a two and a half running time. Despite that length, I enjoyed the movie enough to ask for the extended version on DVD, which I have revisited often over the years during the holidays. After spending two years living in confinement and having a very reduced version of Christmas, it was very especially comforting to revisit those movies this month. Escaping reality was sorely needed.

Whereas the first movie is a quest movie, the next two movies in The Lord of the Rings could be considered full-scale war movies. The third is the one where the final battles take place, winner takes all. As wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) puts it, “the board is set, the pieces are moving”. While the armies of man slowly assemble to fight the multitudes of orcs and other creatures serving the dark lord Sauron, Hobbits Frodo and Sam (Elijah Wood and Sean Astin) make their way to Mount Doom. Like soldiers in enemy land, they have the mission to destroy the One Ring, essentially a Weapon of Mass Destruction that can guarantee the Enemy’s victory. J.R.R Tolkien was a soldier in his youth, and it shows.

Kevin Smith has said his biggest problem with these movies is that there is a whole lot of walking. There is indeed a lot of walking as these people don’t have cars, but in the final film everyone finally gets where they are supposed to be, and it is hugely satisfying. As Frodo and Sam are ending their trek, led by the sick creature Gollum/Smeagol (Andy Serkis, in a career-defining role), everyone else is gearing up for war. Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) is the titular king returning to claim his destiny and unite the kingdoms of man, but it is not an easy journey. Fortunately, he is still accompanied by faithful friends Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) who keep things funny by competing in the battlefield. People are dying all around, but that doesn’t mean an elf and a dwarf can’t wager on who can kill the most orcs.

On the front line of the war, you have Gandalf and Pippin (Billy Boyd) who have travelled to the city of Osgilliath, the first target of Sauron’s army. That city is one of the most beautiful set designs in the film. Built at the base of a mountain, with different levels rising with the mountain, it is a beauty to see on the big screen. Unfortunately, its leader is not a noble king but a vain steward (John Noble) too wrecked by grief to properly prepare his city for war. Seeing he has to take matters into his own hands, Gandalf has Pippin clandestinely light up a beacon to call for help.

This leads to a series of magnificent wide shots as we see beacons be lit across snow-covered mountains, once again highlighting to beauty of New Zealand. It did make me feel bad for the poor people who have to light these beacons. Do they seriously spend their entire days up in those icy mountains waiting for the day when someone might call for help? Now that’s dedication.

A good thing those beacons were lit, as it leads to the literal cavalry being called. King Théoden (Bernard Hill) of Rohan chooses to answer the call and assembles every rider he can find, even though the odds are not his favour. Among the riders are Hobbit Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and the king’s niece Éowyn (Miranda Otto), hiding from her warrior brother Éomer (Karl Urban) who believes women don’t belong in the battlefield. Boy, does she prove him wrong, uttering the line “I am no man” right before plunging her sword into a seemingly unkillable enemy.

This is why people keep coming back to those movies. Despite the extended cut being so long it occupies your whole evening, most of the time there is something extraordinary going on to keep you riveted. You go on a journey with these characters and cheer as they march into battle even though they will most likely die. As Gimli puts it: “Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?”

Some people, like super fan Stephen Colbert, say The Lord of the Rings is the greatest trilogy of all time. That is something that could be debated for hours by hardcore movie fans, with the possibility of a few shouting matches. As for me, I do believe The Return of the King is one of the best conclusions to a trilogy, despite the about four different endings.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #33: Terminator 2: Judgement Day

2021-12-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) should be what all action movie sequels aim to be. Some people say less is more; James Cameron says more is more. With this sequel he pitted two terminators against each other, turned Linda Hamilton into a heroine for the ages, and just as he did with Aliens, he increased the scale of the action sequences by 10. On paper the concept for the Terminator films sounds like a low-grade B movie: a robot from the future, played by an Austrian actor with the world’s thickest accent, is sent to the past to kill the leader of the human resistance. What ended up on screen is a ground-breaking special effects bonanza that takes viewers on an epic adventure.

This was a seminal 90s movie, so of course my brother and I ended up owning a copy on VHS, which had repeated viewings. Some of the action scenes were probably too graphic for my age at the time, but I’m not complaining. Whenever I feel today’s action movies have too many G-rated gunfights with superheroes, I go to T2 to see Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. Plus, it introduced us to George Thorogood’s Bad to the Bone as the Terminator walks out of a biker bar clad in a leather jacket, sporting sunglasses and armed with a shotgun. Ironic, since this time he’s the good guy.

The plot is in a way the same as with every other Terminator movies: in the future an artificial intelligence takes over the world, humans fight back, and the machines send a killer robot back in time to kill their leader. If you think about that for just one minute none of it makes sense. If the robots change the past then they create a future where there is no need for them to send a robot to the past, meaning they never sent a robot, meaning…that I’m glad there is no such thing as time travel because this mess is complicated. Time logic aside, this is the story of a boy with a huge destiny ahead of him who is being hunted and protected by two different killer robots.

In The Terminator, Schwarzenegger portrayed a monosyllabic killing machine masquerading as a human being while hunting Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of the future resistance leader. At times he was like Michael Myers from the Halloween franchise: seemingly indestructible and always calmly walking towards his victims. For the sequel Schwarzenegger has a lot more acting to do since this time he plays a terminator that has been reprogrammed to protect, not kill. Young John Connor (Edward Furlong) also tries to teach him the importance of preserving life, of having fun, and how to blend in with humanity by saying cool things such as “hasta la vista, baby.” That was a cool phrase in the 90s, especially after Arnold said it.

If a nearly indestructible robot is the protector, then the antagonist needs to be an even more formidable force. The filmmakers certainly achieved that with the T-1000, a robot made of liquid metal, that can take the shape of anyone or anything. Played by Robert Patrick, who is much less physically imposing than Schwarzenegger, this new terminator is the stuff of nightmares. Shotgun shells only leave momentary craters in its chest, it can run as fast as a car, and can turn its hands into ten-inch blades. This monster was a huge step forward in the world of computer-generated images, such as in scenes when it changes skins, emergences from an explosion, or is temporarily blown to bits after being frozen by nitrogen.

The computer effects were groundbreaking back then, but the practical effects are just as memorable today. This movie has some of the most impressive action sequences ever shot, from a motorcycle chase in the Los Angeles water reservoir to a standoff between the Terminator and an entire police department at a computer factory. In most of these sequences we are seeing real cars exploding, stunt performers driving the vehicles, and when people get shot it feels raw because we are seeing actual liquid ooze out of the wounds.

Despite all the testosterone, one of the movie’s biggest accomplishments is the creation of the best action heroine since Ellen Ripley in Aliens. In the first movie Linda Hamilton was playing a waitress caught in an extraordinary situation, constantly reacting in fear, or running for her life. Here she is a mother with a mission to protect both her son and the future of humanity. Consequently, she has transformed her body to be able to face whatever danger the machines throw at her, has become adept at using weapons, and has the courage to run towards danger. Yet she is still human, suffering from graphic nightmares of a possible nuclear apocalypse, and rightfully hesitates to pull the trigger when she is aiming her gun at an unarmed man.

Over 30 years later and this movie still holds up thanks to Hamilton's performance, Schwarzenegger's imposing presence, and the right balance between stunt work and computer effects. It also remains the best installment in a franchise that spawned five movies and a TV spin-off. It turns out the terminator only needed to say “I’ll be back” twice and that would have been enough.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #37: A Clockwork Orange

2021-11-10T14:10:00.002-08:00

If there is a university course that explores the possible correlation between movies and real-life crimes, Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971) is probably on the curriculum. Despite the fact the movie never endorses the horrible crimes perpetrated by the protagonist, it inspired copycat crimes to the point Kubrick supported the decision to pull the movie from theaters. The question of if this should be done every time a criminal is inspired by a movie could be debated for hours. As for the movie itself, I think it has a lot of artistic merit, great performances, and poses very thought-provoking questions. I just wish those questions had been better explored by the time the movie ends.

I first became aware of A Clockwork Orange in the early 2000s when Stanley Kubrick movies were airing on a movie channel. Given the explicit content of most of Kubrick’s movies, they were airing slightly after most bedtime hours. However, some kids at my school clearly did not care because on at least one occasion I heard people talking about “that sequence” in Eyes Wide Shut. I usually tried to go to bed early so I missed on that, but in recent years I did buy a three-pack Blu-Ray set that includes The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange. One obvious thought after seeing it for the first time: this is not a movie you want to watch surrounded by family.

The story is set in a dystopian version of England where things are not going too well. There is lots of poverty, crime, and a government willing to bend quite a few ethical rules in order curb the crime. That might unfortunately sound familiar to some people, but the criminals in this version of England are quite unfamiliar and eccentric. The young gang led by Alex (Malcolm McDowell, in a career-defining role) roam the streets dressed in all-white suits, black boots, bowler hats, and suspenders. They hang around in a milk bar, and speak in their own language, referring to each other as “droogs”. They would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact their nightly activities include beating up the homeless, running over pedestrians, murder, and rape.

Alex is quite the vicious character, singing and dancing as he inflects pain on others (perhaps an inspiration for Heath Ledger’s Joker). He is even sadistic to his own gang members, hitting one in the groin with his cane and pushing the rest into a river during a beautifully choreographed scene. It is therefore not surprising that they eventually betray him to the police. Once behind bars Alex tries to be a model prisoner, claiming he was falsely accused, but is not fooling anyone. In fact, a sadist is just what the government is looking for to test a new procedure to eradicate bad behaviour. Since the success of the procedure means a get-out-of-jail-free-card, Alex is more than happy to sign up.

It’s a decision he soon regrets since the procedure is invasive to say the least. One of cinema’s most iconic image is that of Alex strapped to a chair, his eyelids pulled open by metal hooks, as he stares at a movie screen. The doctors are playing images of violence and rape, which normally would make Alex smile. Unfortunately the doctors have pumped his system full of drugs so that he feels extremely nauseous during the screening. It is an obvious Pavlovian response: because he has been conditioned to feel sick when watching images of violence, he will feel sick every time he tries to commit violence.

The scientist working on the project are all happy they have seemingly “cured” Alex, and the politicians are just as happy they will lower crime by implementing this procedure. The problem is, as one lone doctor points out, they have not removed Alex’s taste for violence. All they have done is removed his physical ability to do so. This is the equivalent of finding a rabid dog and removing its teeth.

With no way of defending himself, Alex now for the first time finds himself at the mercy of the world after he is released from prison. Thrown in the streets by his parents, his former victims find him and exact revenge. What he has done to them, they now do to him. It is painful to watch, but as viewers are we to feel pity for this rapist and murderer? Would society be better if all criminals were to go through the same treatment? Who gets to decide what criminals need this treatment, and how far could it go?

My biggest disappointment with the movie is that we never see Alex or anyone else ponder these big questions. He gets pleasure from inflecting violence and violence is inflected upon him. Has that caused to rethink his life choices? Given the chance, would he try to be a good person and see what happens? I wish the movie would have gone further in examining the meaning of all these events and had a punchier ending.

Aesthetically speaking, A Clockwork Orange is a beautiful even when the actions onscreen are absolutely despicable. Malcolm McDowell portrays one of cinema’s greatest villains, a well-kept young man who loves both the music of Beethoven and the act of murder. The result is a movie that is very memorable, if not always enjoyable.

A Clockwork Orange | Masterpiece Trailer | Warner Bros. Entertainment - YouTube

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #38: Heat

2021-11-01T15:43:00.001-07:00

Heat (1995) is a crime movie in which screen legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro shared the screen for the first time. That alone should be good enough to guarantee near perfection. Fortunately, this is also a Michael Mann movie featuring some crackling dialogue and action choreography that makes the audience feel like they are right in the streets amid the gunfight. The result is a movie so good it influenced a slew of other crime movies in its wake, including Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

My first viewing of Heat was sometime in the mid-2000s when I watched it the old-fashioned way by renting it from the video store. I did not know much about it other than it was a crime movie starring Pacino and DeNiro, and upon first viewing I thought there were a few lengthy moments in between the action scenes. Having recently viewed it again, I have more appreciation for the scenes when the bullets aren’t flying because those quieter scenes do a good job of establishing the characters.

The plot is pretty basic, having been recycled from Mann’s earlier film L.A Takedown. However, with Heat he is working with an all-star cast, a sharp script, impeccable action choreography, and a much larger budget. On paper this may seems like a basic story of the cops vs. criminals. In its execution, it is a drama about two groups of professionals whose work lives make it nearly impossible for them to have personal lives. It just so happens these two groups are cops and criminals.

The criminal gang is led by Neal McCauley (DeNiro), a man who has spent years in prison and years executing elaborate heists. Along with his crew (Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Danny Trejo) he does careful research about the place they will rob, the time it will take for the police to respond, the chemicals they will need to blow up locks, and the best way to get away from the crime scene. Their robbery of an armored car works like clockwork, except for when a newcomer to the crew (Kevin Gage) gets the guards killed.

This now deadly robbery gets the attention of Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Pacino) who quickly realizes he is not dealing with amateurs. Hanna also has his own crew (Ted Levine, Mykelti Williamson, Wes Studi) and is no amateur either. In a matter of days, through hard work and dedication, he has identified McCauley’s crew and begins following them hoping to catch them committing a major crime.

The thing is, McCauley is good at surveillance too. Once he knows the cops are following him, he pretends to plan a robbery at a harbour, just so that he can take pictures of the cops when they also visit the harbour. This gives him Hanna’s name and personal information: a veteran of the marines, a star in the major crimes unit, and on his way to his third divorce. McCauley understands this is the portrait of a workaholic who will not be taking a break from the hunt any time soon.

McCauley’s personal life is not that impressive either. He begins a relationship with a graphic designer (Amy Brenneman), but it is a relationship built on a lie since he can’t say what he really does for a living. Even if he does, McCauley lives by a code to allow nothing in his life he cannot walk away from in 30 seconds flat if he spots the heat around the corner. Obviously, this is not a man planning to set any roots.

There is an overused line in movies when a villain faces a hero and says: “We’re not so different you and I Mr. (insert name)”. In Heat, that cliché is deeply discussed by the criminal and hero, not during a standoff, but during a relaxed conversation at a restaurant. While enjoying cups of coffee McCauley and Hannah agree they are not so different to the point they could have been friends. They both have trouble maintaining personal relationships because of their chosen professions, they are very good at what they do, and they agree a normal life sounds too boring. They also agree that despite their similarities, they will not hesitate to kill each other if one gets in the other’s way. It is what it is.

Heat might be taxing for viewers with short attention spans expecting explosions and shootouts every ten minutes. However, it is worth the wait because this movie has one of the best shootout sequences in movie history when Hanna and McCauley’s men face off during a bank robbery that goes very wrong. Los Angeles turn into a war zone with both sides armed with automatic weapons, loud gunshots relentlessly echoing through the streets, and civilians running everywhere in panic. As much as the audience may have grown to like McCauley, this is a serious reminder that his lifestyle has deadly consequences.

Whether you are in it for the quieter scenes of dialogue or for the shootout, Heat is worth seeing for the sight of two cinema icons going toe-to-toe for the first time. Pacino and DeNiro are both in top form here doing what they do best. Personally, as impressive as the gunfight sequence is, I could watch that coffee shop scene three or four times in a row.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #40: The Matrix

2021-09-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

The Matrix (1999) was the equivalent of a small earthquake in for Hollywood movies. Nobody saw it coming and yet despite a mind-bending plot it became a massive hit that influenced pop culture for years to come. Following its release it became the standard for special effects, with every new action movie boasting “it has the best special effects since The Matrix”. Culturally it became a sort of expression to be used whenever something so bizarre has happened that it must mean we are living inside a computer simulation. In the early 2000s that was the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the governor of California, because surely that is too weird to be true. We were all pretty naïve back then.

Since the movie came out in a pre-Twitter world, I first became aware of its existence in the summer of 1999 when its posters were plastered everywhere. Given that all it shows are the main characters wearing leather trench coats and sunglasses, it looked like just any other action movie. Then things became serious when my 8^th grade science teacher in Peru gave a PowerPoint presentation titles “Are we in The Matrix?” to discuss sensory perception and other deep themes. Finally, my brother and I got the VHS tape for Christmas and embarked on our trip down the rabbit hole so to speak.

In retrospect the Wachowskis sibling made a movie that is pretty derivative from various sources such as the first Tron movie, Japanese cyber-punk manga, and plenty of martial arts films. However, for anyone not familiar with any of those inspirations, The Matrix felt extremely ground-breaking. Here was a movie set in a world where the laws of physics cease to apply, everything we think we know to be true is a lie, and a messianic figure will set us free against our oppressors. No wonder this movie has been co-opted by plenty of conspiracy theory groups.

Keanu Reeves was a wise casting choice as the protagonist to lead the audience into this crazy world. Despite being able to play action movie characters in his sleep, he also has the physique to play an ordinary-looking person. His Thomas Anderson is initially an office drone who lives alone, has few friends, pays his taxes, and even helps his landlady take out her garbage. Unbeknownst to the world, by night he is also a criminal hacker who goes by the name Neo. For plenty of other movies that would be the plot. For The Matrix that is just scratching the surface.

Neo has quite a lot to digest. His reality is in fact a simulation designed by machines to imprison humanity and determined FBI agent Smith (Hugo Weaving, in one of his best roles) is not a human being but a computer program designed to police this fake reality. Neo learns all this from fellow hacker Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and her leader Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne), a resistance fighter who believes Neo will be the one to set humanity free. In fact, he believes he is “The One”. Not the most original title for a messiah, but it gets the message across.

Between this whopper of a plot, dialogue that sounds as confusing as Chinese algebra, and some truly gruesome scenes of violence, it is a wonder this movie ever got made. A key to its success is that it did not take itself too seriously. Is there any reason why Morpheus and his allies all dress in leather outfits and wear dark sunglasses when they are in the matrix? The only reason I can think of is that it looks cool. Is it enormously cheesy when Neo comes back from the dead after Trinity gives him the kiss of life and saying she loves him? Absolutely. It is also incredibly badass when Neo then proceeds to easily defeat Agent Smith and his fellow agents then flee in fear.

Sadly, the Wachowskis did not achieve the same commercial and critical success with the movie’s two sequels, or with any of their subsequent projects in the ensuing years. It is certainly not for lack of trying. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions have actions sequences that sometimes surpass ones from the original. However, the novelty of the “bullet time” shooting style was starting to wear off and after a while the plot just went all over the place. As for the Wachowskis’ other projects, Jupiter Ascending is a cheesy sci-fi soap opera I enjoyed, but it did not light up the box-office. Their Netflix show Sense8 is spectacular and enormously entertaining, but ultimately it was too expensive to last more than two seasons.

This year half of the Wachowskis are going back to the source with The Matrix: Resurrections along with Reeves and Moss back for another trip. As with most franchises coming back after laying dormant for decades, the world will look brand new for anyone who wasn’t born when the original movie came out. It remains to be seen if they will be able to win back fans of the original or if they have anything new to add to the story. I’m cautiously optimistic, but if it is even half as good as the original I know it will be worth seeing on the biggest screen available.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #40: Vertigo

2021-09-05T10:28:00.002-07:00

Vertigo (1958) checks off all the boxes for an Alfred Hitchcock movie: there is an elaborate murder scheme, a man in way over his head, and a blonde woman who is more than what she seems. The film also highlights Hitchcock’s ability to utilize the tools of his trade as it was the first movie to use a dolly zoom, which helped give audiences a glimpse of what it must feel like to experience the titular feeling of vertigo. Not being too keen on heights myself, I have to say the zoom has the desired effect.

I crossed this movie off the list after my mom gave me an Alfred Hitchcock DVD box set filled with five of his greatest hits. From Rear Window to Psycho, these are the movies that if you have not seen them, you have seen other movies that either reference them or parody them. Vertigo is a bit less ingrained in pop culture, so I watched it not quite knowing what to expect. That is the best way to go in, as this is one of Hitchcock’s most cerebral thrillers with quite a few twists and uncomfortable turns.

As with most of his projects, the British-born director drew some of the biggest American stars of the era for Vertigo. James Stewart is given a lot to work with as John “Scottie” Ferguson, a San Francisco detective who retired after the death of a fellow officer. The death occurred during a rooftop chase when Scottie experienced a severe case of fear of heights, leaving him paralyzed with fear. This is conveyed by the expert camerawork that give viewers the impression the ground is sinking away.

Scottie might have a chance to never experience such a traumatic experience if he lived in a flat area, unfortunately San Francisco has its fair share of hills and tall buildings. Just standing on a chair is enough to bring back his feeling of vertigo, meaning unless Scottie truly faces his fear it will always be just a few inches away. The healthy thing would be to take a nice long vacation. Instead, Scottie takes on a classic private detective case when his college friend Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) asks him to follow his wife who has been behaving strangely.

When a private detective follows a wife, the cliché is that an affair will be uncovered thanks to a few indiscreet photos taken from afar. What Scottie discovers is something far more sinister that someone in his mental state should avoid. Gavin’s wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) has seemingly become obsessed with a woman who years ago was committed suicide after being cast aside by her wealthy husband. After Gavin reveals Madeleine is a relative of the deceased woman, Scottie becomes obsessed with the idea that history might be about to repeat itself.

Without giving too much away on a movie that came out over half a century ago, things do repeat themselves but no in the way Scottie believes. In fact, the story goes in a few unexpected directions that film noir fans might anticipate. At times Madeleine seems like a woman in need of rescue, only to later take on a more femme fatale role. Scottie’s role is also flipped on his head, as he goes from wanting to help, to becoming a danger to the person he is trying to help. His view from high places is not the only thing that becomes distorted as the story progresses.

Novak is especially great in her role, playing a character who is caught between two men’s manipulations and obsessions. This is not an easy role as her characters hides many secrets and a lot of guilt over time. In addition, she is either manipulating a character or is the object of that character’s obsession. It’s a lot of heavy lifting, and she pulls it off like a pro.

Despite its high ranking on critics’ lists and its many qualities, Vertigo is not my favourite of the Hitchcock movies I have seen so far. I tend to gravitate more towards North by Northwest for the action and Psycho for the thrillers. However, there is no denying this is a great San Francisco movie with Hitchcock using various locations in the city for key moments.

The Golden Gate Bridge is of course used as a backdrop, but there are also various churches, buildings, houses, streets, and a state park that might not be familiar to anyone who has never been to California. Given how difficult it is to travel anywhere at the moment, watching Vertigo is a great movie for anyone wishing to be a tourist without having to leave their home. However, if like Scottie you panic after climbing so much as step ladder, prepare to be scared.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #130: The Man Who Would Be King

2021-07-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

By Allied Artists - IMPAwards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35144391

I had mixed feeling while watching The Man Who Would Be King (1975). On the one hand you could see it as a story about colonialism, cultural appropriation, and immoral men. On the other hand, said immoral men are played by Sires Sean Connery and Michael Caine, two actors who could read a dictionary and still come off as charismatic. Factor in that they are directed by John Huston, the man behind at least three other cinema classics, and you end up with one of their best films of their careers.

This is another classic on found on Turner Classic Movies and is not available on most streaming channels. I had heard of it many times and was curious to see the pairing of two legends of cinema, especially Sean Connery in one of his post James Bond roles, where he played a more morally dubious character. Apart from that I was not too familiar with the story and was surprised by where it went.

Connery and Caine are on magnetic form as Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnehan, two British soldiers seeking their fortunes in India in the late 1800s. Having helped the British empire colonize India, they now work as con men hoping to find glory in the region of Kafiristan. This they announce to journalist Rudyard Kipling (Christopher Plummer), better known as the author of The Jungle Book, who here is the story’s narrator. A fellow Freemason who was almost conned by Dravot and Carnehan, Kipling is both amused by their mannerisms and curious about their ambitious plan. This is after all two small-time crooks planning to become kings of a land that has not been explored since the days of Alexander the Great.

Equipped with a cache of rifles and a few horses, the two best friends head off into adventure. They travel scorching deserts, fight off bandits, and brave sub-zero temperatures across vast mountain ranges. Given how hard they work for their goals, you almost root for these two scoundrels if it wasn’t for the fact their goal is to fleece an entire nation. This they do with surprising ease, by saving villagers, making deals with local leaders, and using their military knowledge and weapons to win strategic battles. Their crowning achievement is convincing the locals that Dravot is a god after he survives a seemingly deadly wound, hence the movie’s title. In fact, when the locals first ask if Dravot and Carnehan are gods, their answer is that they are Englishmen: “The next best thing.”

On paper, what these two characters do is quite despicable. With their superior weapons they kill people they have never met before just so they can eventually lay their hands on a pile of gold. Thanks to coincidences and the local religion, they con an entire populace into crowning Dravot their king. Even worse, Dravot begins to believe his own legend and decides to rule as king of Karifistan instead of taking the gold with Carnehan. This is like when a cult leader decides to not only take your money but take your life too.

One could easily argue that Dravot and Carnehan are villains, but their saving grace is that they know what kind of men they are. While trying to survive the deadly cold in the mountains, the two friends discuss their position in life and admit that if they were to die today no one would miss them. Yet, they have no regrets, given all the marvels they have seen in their many travels and adventures. It is also entertaining from beginning to end to see these two best friends chase their fortunes, while simultaneously shouting expressions like: “God’s holy trousers!” These two scoundrels are so attached to each other, it is almost as if Connery and Caine are playing the same character.

If it played on the big screen, I might watch The Man Who Would Be King again for its sweeping shots of deserts and magnificent mountains, and for the performances of two acting legends. However given how badly they treat the people of Karifistan or the people of India for that matter, I can’t say these are characters I would like to revisit often. Perhaps I should try the characters in The Kid Who Would Be King instead.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #71: The Night of the Hunter

2021-06-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

Cinema has given the world some very memorable villains, many of whom usually show up around Halloween armed with sharp instruments and scary masks. The villain in The Night of the Hunter (1955) has no scary mask but should still stand alongside Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger. This particular monster is a misogynist, a killer of women, and a manipulator. Depending on the filmmakers this sort of material could be just a cheap slasher movie. Instead, this is one of the most visually striking and powerful thrillers ever made.

Despite its quality, The Night of the Hunter is difficult to find. As far as I know it is not on any streaming service and it is not often shown on TV. Recently it did play on the Turner Classic Movies channel, which sadly I watched on my IPad. I say sadly because even though this movie is in black and white and has zero explosions, it should be seen on the big screen. Many scenes are so artistic they could be paintings, and the use of shadows and lightings is some of the best ever done. I have said this often lately: I really want to go back to seeing movies in cinemas. (Please get vaccinated.)

The story begins with a warning about wolves in sheep’s’ clothing. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) is one such wolf and his disguise is that of a righteous preacher. During the Great Depression in the southern United States, he is sent to jail for car theft. His cell mate Ben Harper (Peter Graves) talks in his sleep, which lets the reverend know this is a bank robber who gave $10,000 to his children before being arrested and sentenced to death. Ben knows evil when he sees it and stops himself from sharing any more details, but that is not enough to stop the wily Powell.

After his release from prison Powell ingratiates himself in the Ben’s community, conning them into believing he worked at the prison instead of being one of its residents. Mitchum is very charismatic as Powell, especially when he does a routine of explaining why he has the words Love and Hate tattooed on his fingers. He makes it sound like a biblical allegory, but it is obvious to the audience which hand he favours. Through more lies and manipulations, Howell marries Ben’s widow Willa (Shelley Winters) and murders her with a switchblade when she uncovers the truth.

This is when the movie becomes a dark fairy tale. With both parents gone, Powell sets his eyes on the children John (Billy Chapin) and much younger sister Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) who know where the money is hidden. Hunting them through the house, Howell sounds like a mix between the Big Bad Wolf and the witch from Hansel and Gretel: “Chilll…dren?” The chase between Powell and the children has many masterful moments of tension, such as when the children flee by canoe and Powell is seconds away from catching them. While hiding in a barn they think they are finally safe, only to hear their hunter singing a religious hymn in the distance. John wonders, does this man ever sleep?

I was not surprised to learn Harry Powell is loosely based on a real killer, Harry Powers, who murdered women for their money. This is a very human monster who remains relevant to this day. Before murdering Willa, you could say he was gaslighting her by telling her lies about her husband and turning her against her children. Because of his status as a reverend, Powell also made her ashamed of her sexuality by convincing her women should only have sex for procreation and serve their husbands.

It is therefore extremely satisfying that Powell meets his match in a woman. Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish) is a formidable woman who takes in stray children without the help of any man. She is religious, but for her the Bible is a book to inspire others to be better. Also, she has a loaded shotgun in her house. When Powell comes looking for John and Pearl, Rachel is patient enough to spend the night in her rocking chair with her weapon in her lap, like a live-action version of the granny from Looney Tunes.

There is a sad story about the making of The Night of the Hunter. It was directed by Charles Laughton, who started out as an actor, moved on to direct plays, and then got his big-screen directorial debut with this movie. Unfortunately, his debut was not well-received by either audiences or critics and he never directed a movie again. Laughton died in 1962, never knowing his movie would be appreciated by new generations of film lovers. Let this be a lesson to any artists out there. Do not judge your art by first reactions. Let time be the judge.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #410: A Hard Day's Night

2021-05-16T09:50:00.001-07:00

When Richard Lester directed A Hard Day’s Night (1964) he pulled off some sort of miracle. Here is a movie that is simultaneously a great musical, a funny comedy, and all the cast members have effortless chemistry. It helps that the main cast members are John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr playing themselves at the height of Beatlemania. At that point in their career these four had such good rapport that they practically finish each other’s sentences, oftentimes to make fun of Ringo. When they are not busy causing trouble for their managers or ribbing each other, they are playing their songs, giving the movie one of the best soundtracks in cinema history.

As I watched this movie vaccines were becoming more and more available, meaning the light is finally getting brighter at the end of the horrible tunnel that is the global pandemic. Eventually all cinemas will reopen and watching movies will once again be a community event. Until then, anyone still stuck indoors and looking for a good time should seek out a A Hard Day’s Night on whatever channel or streaming service they can find. Even if they have no clue who The Beatles are (is such a thing possible?), they will either laugh or hum along to the music.

Plot-wise, the movie is pretty thin as it simply depicts an ordinary day in the life of the main characters. However, from the opening scene we see any day for The Beatles was anything but ordinary. As they run to catch a train to London, John, Paul and Ringo are being chased by a frenzied mob of girls who look so genuinely excited they were probably acting for free. Paul meanwhile is quietly sitting on a bench reading a newspaper in disguise next to his grandfather John, who is accompanying the lads on their current tour.

John McCartney is a fictional character played by Wilfrid Brambell, which raises a few questions. First, is he based on one of Paul McCartney’s real grandfathers, and if so, was this person as much of a troublemaker as he is portrayed in the film? Despite being repeatedly described as a very clean person, this grandfather spends most of the movie chasing younger women, going to gambling clubs, and forging the boys’ signatures on photographs so he can sell them to fans. Perhaps both of McCartney’s grandfathers were very calm individuals and this was a bit of a in-joke to his family. In any case grandpa almost steals the show, which is saying something given his co-stars.

Two other co-stars who also provide good laughs are Norm (Norman Rossington) and Shake (John Junkin) whose job is to manage The Beatles as they make their way to a London hotel, attend a press conference, and prepare for a live television studio performance. This is no easy task since The Beatles often act like restless schoolboys with John Lennon as their ringleader, whom Norm repeatedly refers to as a swine. When he’s not busy trying to keep the boys in line, Norm is angry at Shake for daring to be taller than him. It’s like they’re all part of a dysfunctional family and it’s so cute.

As for The Beatles themselves it is a joy to see the four of them in their prime, not just as musicians but as four friends. Given the movie’s beautiful black and white cinematography, it almost feels as though this could be a documentary and that instead of pages of dialogue the Fab Four were simply told to act as themselves once the cameras started rolling. We not only get to see them perform for entranced fans, but do ordinary things like shave in the morning, read a book at a cafeteria, and make fun of each other while relaxing in their hotel room. Ringo in particular is often mocked by the other three, for the size of his nose or for the possibility that he may have sent his own fan mail.

Whether it was written or improvised, the dialogue is hilarious and demands repeat viewing to make sure you understand all the gags. A press conference is especially full of sarcastic gems. After being interviewed hundreds of times by probably the same reporters about the same subjects The Beatles probably gave up and started saying any damn thing that popped in their heads. When one reporter asks John Lennon “how did you find America,” on the spot his answer is: “Turned left at Greenland.” Well, you can’t deny he’s right.

Finally, you have the songs. Played in front of screaming fans or as part of scenes where The Beatles are running in the streets, you have classics such A Hard Day’s Night, Can’t Buy Me Love, She Loves You, and All My Loving. In terms of talent, The Beatles were lightning in a bottle and this movie is a snapshot of that talent, both on stage performing and off-stage having fun.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #351: Zulu

2021-02-28T13:51:00.002-08:00

Zulu (1964) is a war movie that is surprisingly good in spite of its subject matter. Based on the true story of 150 British soldiers who had to hold off a force of 4000 Zulu warriors, it sometimes feels like a Monty Python sketch given how many of the soldiers keep their upper lip so stiff you would think they just graduated from gentlemen’s school. However, this is also an old-school epic shot on a grand scale with thousands of extras, it has great performances, and a surprising amount of nuance. Equally noteworthy, this is the first major role of Sir Michael Caine, demonstrating in almost every frame he has the makings of a movie star.

With a 139-minute running time, this is yet another perfect movie for anyone confined to their home and with limited outdoor activities available. If you are also limited on your budget, it is streaming for free on Tubi minus a few 30-second commercial breaks. Plus, if you are tired of staring at the same walls of your apartment and winter weather is getting to you, most of the movie is set during the daytime in the gorgeous plains of South Africa. If cinemas are closed in your area, this is a great escapism option.

Directed by Cy Enfield, Zulu is set in 1879 after British forces were overwhelmed by native Zulu warriors. This is not their story, but the story of a small contingent that is using a missionary station as a hospital and supply depot. These are not the best of the best of the British army. Many are inexperienced, some are cynical about being in Africa in the first place, and some are sick in the hospital. Their leader Lieutenant John Chard (Stanley Baker, who at times reminded me of a young John Cleese) is an army engineer who is only in the area to build a bridge. Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead (Michael Caine) on the other hand has the army in his blood given that members of his family tree have fought at Trafalgar and even in Quebec with Wolf. However, Chard has a few months seniority over Bromhead so the engineer is in charge of defending the station against an army that has 3850 more soldiers.

Setting aside for a minute the problematic setting of colonialism and the fact the British had no business being in Africa in the first place, this is quite the war story. This is an outnumbered group trying to defend a small location against a large army with limited resources. The concept is so ripe for drama and action set pieces that decades later it influenced Peter Jackson’s The Two Towers for the Battle of Helm’s Deep. Frank Miller’s 300, which as the title says depicts 300 Spartan soldiers facing off against an immense Persian army, also owes quite a lot to Zulu.

Everyone loves to root for the underdog, so most audience would feel inclined to feel sympathy for the British despite the fact the Zulus are not wrong to want them out of their native land. What surprised me is the amount of respect the filmmakers showed in their portrayal of the Zulus. Before the fighting begins some of the British refer to them simply as savages, but others point out these are strong and smart warriors that should not be underestimated. Their leader King Cetshwayo (Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a real-life tribal leader and politician) is a tactical adversary who begins the battle by testing the British defences with a small number of warriors instead of sending everything he has all at once. This is also a merciful man, since when two civilians leave the station the Zulu warriors are told to stand down because they pose no threat.

One thing that disappointed me is the violence, or rather the lack of the effect of violence. During this battle that runs for almost an entire day, a night and early morning, soldiers are shot, stabbed, and skewered. You would think blood would cover the ground and limbs would be flying in the air, but instead there are barely any bullet holes in the bodies and when people get stabbed the actors look like they just fall to the ground for a nap. I know it would take decades for war violence to be more accurately portrayed in movies like Saving Private Ryan, but the sterility of the battle scenes often reminded me this is just a movie with extras pretending to be wounded.

In this respect Zulu is clearly dated and I don’t expect anyone nowadays is itching to make a movie glorifying British soldiers at the height of colonialism. However, you have to give the film credit for its ambition in shooting such a large-scale battle and for portraying the Zulus as worthy opponents. This is also a must-see for any Michael Caine fan, who begins as cocky and confident but is eventually sickened and exhausted by his experience. A great beginning to a great career.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #92: Once upon a Time in America

2021-02-14T11:58:00.003-08:00

The lives of gangsters are often filled with drama, loss, betrayal, and the occasional shootout, which explains why Hollywood has made so many movies about their chosen professions. Once Upon a Time in America (1984) is a very interesting entry in the genre since it was directed by an Italian director, is based on a book by a Russian-American and takes place over three different eras in New York City. Also noteworthy is the fact the gangsters here are all Jewish, something rarely seen in a genre generally populated by Italian American characters. At 229 minutes, it is a massive epic that is worth the time but might leave some viewers shocked by one character’s particular crime.

Given the movie’s length it is best viewed on an afternoon when one has nothing to do and nowhere to go, which over the past year has been the case for me and billions of others. This was yet another discovery on Amazon, which brought me one step closer to checking off every movie directed by the Italian maestro, Sergio Leone. Despite not being American he redefined that most American of movie genre, the Western, with a trilogy of movies staring Clint Eastwood. It seems only natural that he would then gravitate towards a gangster movie since many gangsters became the modern outlaws. There is even a scene in Once Upon a Time in America where the gangsters perform a robbery while wearing bandanas over their faces, just like outlaws on horses would in the old west.

These particular gangsters are childhood friends who grew up in a Jewish neighbourhood of 1918 Manhattan. This neighbourhood feels meticulously recreated, from the rooftops of tenement buildings to streets filled with hundreds of extras dressed in period, and in many cases religious, clothing. The fact that these gangsters are Jewish is not integral to the plot, but it is a clear part of their identity and seems to have been handled with care.

What is integral to the story are the themes of friendship and betrayal. The first character we meet is Noodles (Robert De Niro) who in the 1930s is on the run after having seemingly betrayed his associates. What has happened forces him to leave New York and not come back until the 1960s. When he does come back, he visits his last remaining friend in the neighbourhood, triggering many memories. The film then alternates between the 1910s when the gang members were just children with the ambition of becoming rich criminals, the 1930s when they have reached success as bootleggers, and the 1960s as Noodles tries to reconcile with his past actions.

It takes a while to finally piece together what happened to force Noodles out of town, but the journey is thoroughly engrossing. As children the gang members behave as ordinary children would, thinking of girls and sweets, sometimes at the same time. Yet they have enough criminal ambition and wit to blackmail a cop, make a business proposition to a gangster, and stash their ill-gotten gains in a train station locker. As adults (played by James Woods, William Forsythe, and James Hayden) they own a club that is open all day and have connections with the Italian mafia. You could say it’s an American success story, but every success comes with a price.

That price weighs a lot on Noodles who is greying in the 1960s and full of regrets. As he visits places from his past, the film shows how one small thing can trigger emotions from decades ago. It’s a great performance by De Niro, which made me feel sympathetic for Noodles until I discovered one of his regrets included raping his childhood crush. After that I felt uncomfortable watching any scene with his character and was hoping he would suffer for his actions.

In fact, the biggest flaw this movie has is how every female character is portrayed. They are either prostitutes, girlfriends who are told to shut up, or victims. Depending on what gangsters do in movies I can be morally agreeable to their actions up to a point. I can keep rooting for them if they steal from the rich, manage a casino, rig a horse race, or import alcohol, but violence against women is an obvious red flag. The criminals on Peaky Blinders have a lot of blood on their hands, but at least women help run their business and every one of them would sooner shoot a rapist than have one on their crew.

Looking back at Leone’s filmography, as far as I can tell none of his movies have any female characters who are not either victims or prostitutes. Once Upon a Time in America was his last film, negating any chance of him ever rectifying that, assuming he would have ever been interested in doing so. It’s a shame because he went out on a high note, directing one of the most expansive and beautiful crime dramas ever made, but for me that beauty is tainted by the treatment of every women on screen.