Anne Fletcher directs Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds and Betty White in this romantic comedy where a tough editor needs to pose as her assistant’s fiancée for… reasons.
Bright but uneven. The comedy is undercooked but dominates, the romance half of the equation is an afterthought. Bullock gets a lot more scenes than Reynolds and nearly all the comedy skits. She looks great but her “bitch boss” character softens way too quickly and with minimal catalyst.
Fritz Lang directs Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin in this classic film noir where a police detective is taken to the edge trying to bring down corruption.
Absolutely savage. The level of violence and the hard narrative choices this casually makes would feel shocking even if it were made 30 years later. Glenn Ford’s obsessed straight arrow destroys the lives of every woman he touches, even more so than the crime ring he wants to break. Obviously the callous extremeness of this rubs against the slightly staid normality of the mainstream form of its day. Maybe that’s the point. Lang seems to be pushing himself here. There are showy shots to rival Citizen Kane (the opening feels like a direct homage) and even in talkier scenes his camera swoops gently in and out from the players. Gloria Grahame’s ditzy but combative moll absorbs all the focus in her scenes, of which there should be even more. If you’ve got dynamite, why not blow up as much as you can?
Márta Mészáros directs Isabelle Huppert, Lili Monori and Jan Nowicki in this 1930s set Hungarian drama where a Jewish shopgirl is paid by a society couple to have their baby.
The period detail and hazy looks are fine… the jealousy, desire and eventual intrusion of history are all handled with a delicate touch. Huppert is superb as always and looks particularly delectable here. Mészáros is one of the great unsung storytellers – she has a rare gift for sexually frank yet psychologically ambiguous characters.
Gilbert Cates directs Karen Allen, Jeff Fahey and Keith Carradine in this erotic thriller where an unfaithful wife and her PTSD suffering husband find themselves caught in a neo-noir trap.
Bonkers plotting scrapes against staid TV production values, nightmarish gore pops up more often than the much promised nudity. As wobbly and creaky as it all is, I kinda liked it. Only Carradine puts in an above average performance but Fahey and Allen at least look hot.
Takashi Miike directs Kôji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada and Yûsuke Iseya in this historical samurai adventure movie where a small group of Japanese warriors take on an army in an attempt to kill a psychotic future Shogun.
Proof that the usually grainy and untethered Miike can do lush, classy prestige filmmaking to rival even Ridley or Kurosawa. That’s not to say his trademark shock tactics are in any way muted. We witness not one but three examples of the antagonist’s exceptional cruelty in the first act… any single one of these disturbing flashbacks would feel uncomfortable in the hands of a respectable auteur. The finale is 40 minutes of non-stop carnage; blood, booby traps and blades. This extended sequence can feel a little deadening at points. It is probably also fair to say at least 6 out 13 of the titular assassins don’t really take shape as fully fledged characters. Quibbles aside, this is the real deal.
Daryl Duke directs Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer and Susannah York in this crime caper where a bank teller realises he is about to be robbed… and so swindles both his employer and the criminal.
What if The Apartment was a heist movie? What if Elliot Gould was seemingly the most irresistible guy in the world but also a lowly bank clerk with minimal morals? What if Christopher Plummer was a sadist who really liked dressing up? What if he were the only character whose motivations you were ever truly certain of? What if every other scene was utterly, viciously unpredictable? What if the screenplay was an early apprentice job for the future director of Bad Influence and LA Confidential’s Curtis Hanson? What if you realised this is exactly the sort of movie you wanted to watch any night of the week?
Paul Verhoeven directs Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbé and Susan Penhaligon in this WWII drama following the fortunes of a group of college friends who become Dutch resistance fighters when the Nazis occupy Amsterdam.
Another one off my bucket list. Feels like a miniseries that has been condensed into feature length, a bit rough in the edit. Then you add in Verehoeven’s love of kink, filth and sympathy for the devil. It often feels simultaneously both simplistic yet sophisticated. If you approach Soldier Of Orange just as a rousing boy’s own adventure (with bonus nudity) it satisfies. Hauer’s character is a strange protagonist in that even though everyone treats him as the hero of the piece you’d struggle to put your finger on any single thing, positive or proactive, he attempts in the first two hours. He is just kinda swept along by history, ironically offering little resistance to the greater forces that drag him from one intrigue to the next. Once there is a clearly laid out mission for him to execute though the final 40 minutes takes stronger shape. Verhoeven is a fascinating storyteller in that he rarely judges any of the young people… even the Dutch friend who becomes a Nazi officer or the Jewish girl who survives by any means necessary. Except in the final shot where one forgotten cohort is revisited, his camera holds on two very different faces, and we are silently asked whether anyone should have sat out the effort to free oneself and one’s country from tyranny?
Tim Burton directs Paul Reubens, EG Daily and Diane Salinger in this road movie where single minded man boy Pee-wee Herman crosses America searching for his stolen bicycle.
A sweet, naive treat. A children’s film for adults – this has bags of confidence. The comedy comes from the lack of blinking or winking no matter how strange or goofy it gets. Reubens is fully committed to the bit, Burton keeps things visually exciting even as a gun-for-hire. Stop motion, carnival colour schemes and Corman-esque horror jut into the subject and the director’s shared love of Eisenhower-era kitsch. Will happily watch the sequels at some point.
Ruben Fleischer directs Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg and Tati Gabrielle in this adventure blockbuster based on the treasure hunting video games.
A pleasant approximation of the superior gaming series. The casting works, although the banter between this Nathan Drake and Sully merely only reaches “Alright” on the buddy chemistry meter. The set pieces are OK by default too, by the end of the first hour you’ll be hankering for something a bit extra than a scrap in a Papa Johns though. Then a extended finale really delivers… an all out battle between two rotting galleons suspended in flight by helicopters. The wham bam spills over in remedying spades, almost reaching Indiana Jones levels of absurdity and excitement. Roll on number 2!
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 