Tarik Saleh directs Fares Fares, Mari Malek and Yasser Ali Maher in this Egyptian cop thriller where a maid witnesses a murder at an upscale hotel and a corrupt policeman is assigned to the case.
On the take … But I don’t want to be THAT corrupt. A loose adaptation of a true story. An all too believable paranoid air. Classy rather than exciting.
6
Perfect Double Bill: Boy From Heaven (2022)
John Carpenter directs Chevy Chase, Sam Neill and Daryl Hannah in this sci-fi misfire where a feckless executive is turned invisible and pursued by a shadowy intel agency.
The big problem with forgotten flop Memoirs Of An Invisible Man is it is accidentally “non-genre”. Chevy is trying to be more serious but his instincts are comedy… and broad comedy to boot. The strain is obvious on both him and the project. Hannah’s character is superfluous and exists for marketable romcom sub genre reasons. Neither star was at the height of their success by 1992 and any on screen heat is the most invisible aspect. The narrative is in the vein of Marathon Man or The Fugitive but has no sense of urgency. The VFX by Bruce Nicholson are technically impressive but lack wonder. How can you tell the man at the hot dog concession that what he cannot see is groundbreaking stuff? Imagine what a nightmare Chevy would have been getting those second exact composite shots every other take? I would have rented this for Chase back in the day. These days I watched to see if any of Carpenter’s signature style was apparent? Not really. He states he had a hellish time with the uncooperative leads. Both of whom had too much Prima Donna power on set. That scans. But Carpenter has never been… diplomatic… when it comes to blaming others for his failures. Here he did “one for them”, took the devil’s dollar and it felt like work. Shocker! At least he met Sam Neill and they formed a relationship that led to In The Mouth Of Madness. His sole top tier movie of the Nineties. Many of his other, later, weaker flicks didn’t have Chase and Hannah’s egos to excuse their iffyness.
4
Perfect Double Bill: The Deal Of The Century (1983)
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Rob Reiner directs Michelle Pfeiffer, Bruce Willis and Rita Wilson in this romantic comedy following a once in love’s couple’s separation.
Handsome, moves at a clip. Only it isn’t particularly romantic. And the stars don’t have any noticeable chemistry. Separately they earn their keep, look lovely. There just isn’t a lot of joy here. The Break-Up covers this ground with more abrasive zing, Forget Paris is the better When Harry Met Sally… rehash. Did Bruce have a running bet with Sam Jackson in the late Nineties that if one had to wear a toupee then it had to be even more ridiculous than the last?
5
Perfect Double Bill: One Fine Day (1996)
Stanley Kramer directs Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster and Richard Widmark in this true courtroom drama investigating Weimar Republic’s judges complicity with the Nazi regime after Hitler took power.
A serious piece of heavy, epic drama. The Holocaust, eugenics, justice, post-war healing. A delivery system for massive names delivering A grade performances. Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift and Marlene Dietrich all wow in smaller showy roles as people whose lives have been irreparably shattered in different ways by the regime. Transcending their stunt casting with emotionally effective star power revivals. It ain’t an easy ride but Judgment At Nuremberg never feels stage bound or merely filmed theatre. Morally complex and even handed. Weighty but undeniably good for you.
8
Perfect Double Bill: Judgment At Nuremberg is enough!
I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin
Brian Yuzna directs Mark Frost, Isabel Brook and Jeffrey Combs in this horror superhero comic adaptation where a man sells his soul to the devil to gain superpowers and avenge his girlfriend’s brutal murder.
So The Crow but on an Eighties VHS rental gonzo kinky gorehound tip. Made during a weird era where the Re-Animator guys headed off to Spain and made a few cheapo movies. This isn’t a million miles away from Spawn or Blade but much more trashy. The positive is eighth billed horny henchwoman Mónica Van Campen steals every scene and knows the assignment. It ain’t an easy ride… there’s a lot wrong more here than right (terrible digital effects when the practical stuff is so much more fun, emo editing, blank lead, distracted storytelling)… but it has insanely extreme moments that you just don’t get in comic book adaptations these days. An 18 certificate miasma of madness.
5
Perfect Double Bill: The Guyver (1993)
Damien Leone directs Katie Maguire, Catherine A. Callahan and Marie Maser in this anthology movie that spawned the Terrifier series,
Damien Leone strings together two Art The Clown shorts. Art is way more misogynistic here and played by someone other than the wonderful David Howard Thornton. He might have the look but he ain’t got that kook. So let’s call this a preliminary sketch. To make it all feature length there is an awful middle story involving fake ass aliens that really lets the side down. But the framing tale about a babysitter trying to protect her kids from a found VHS of Art’s exploits is strong. Paranoia party. The fact that the babysitter looks like a Black Mirror Amy Adams doesn’t hurt the watchability. Love or hate Leone, he has excellent taste in casting unknown female leads with magnetic star power.
6
Perfect Double Bill: V/H/S (2013)
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Gillies MacKinnon directs Iain Robertson, Joe McFadden and Laura Fraser in this British period coming-of-age movie where Glaswegian teenager Lex is torn between the artistic life of middle brother Alan and the thuggish world of elder brother Bobby.
The forgotten man of Scottish cinema. It wasn’t quite Trainspotting. What is? But it was marketed as such. This is a more mediative cinematic memoir. Anti-nostalgic despite a thumping Sixties soundtrack and some sharp fashions. All the characters are given complexity… they are more rounded than their obvious stereotypes and have moments that question even these definitions. For a low budget production it hits some deep feelings. The thrill of the chase, the danger of a gang brawl and the melancholy of fractured families. And Small Faces introduced the world to Laura Fraser who competes with Kevin McKidd to be the best thing in this.
7
Perfect Double Bill: Beats (2020)
Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie direct Arielle Holmes, Caleb Landry Jones and Buddy Duress in this true tale of a heroin addict living on the streets of New York City; her day-to-day grind, her abusive men and her intense shifts in emotion.
… And she essentially plays herself. This is based on Arielle Holmes’ unpublished memoirs. I watched it to be a Safdie completist. There are sequences that have the overbearing quicksand threat and chaos of their later modern classics. But it is unrelentingly grim. How do you survive when you have nothing but bad choices left to make? The Safdies are wizards at taking outsider talent and blending them all together into these visceral emotional rollercoasters. But they work best when explicitly tooling around in the crime genre. Is it this continually bleak as that is the truth of the matter or because they know it makes the most palpable impact on a straight, safe audience?
6
Perfect Double Bill: Gridlock’d (1997)
I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin
Kelly Reichardt directs Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim and John Magaro in this low key crime movie about a struggling family man who plots to steal art from a suburban museum.
Muted, realist take on The Passenger and The Thomas Crown Affair. The lackadaisical free wheelin’ pace is unlike any heist movie you’ve ever seen. Really this is a character study of a blank, albeit a blank trying to be a somebody. In that respect Chaplin’s dishevelled Little Tramp feels like an undertone. There are pregnant moments as our cypher abandons the standard life. O’Connor does a lot with a little. By close of play we are clinging onto, almost aggressively, a frippery. With Reichardt all out challenging you to care about a nobody embracing quiet oblivion while the world around him turns violently.
6
Perfect Double Bill: American Animals (2018)
John Michael McDonagh directs Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle and Liam Cunningham in this buddy cop comedy about a misanthropic small town Irish cop who gets involved in an FBI drug smuggling stakeout.
A riot. Endlessly quotable and gruffly whimsical. Never has cynicism been so cosy. McDonagh and Gleeson’s follow up Calvary is probably the better flick and best performance but this is a sheer blast. Both films work in tandem with each other as explicit investigations of humanism and corruption through dark and stark humour.
10
Perfect Double Bill: Calvary (2014)
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Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 