Guy Hamilton directs Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor and Edward Fox in this Agatha Christie mystery where Miss Marple helps her nephew solve a country house murder involving a visiting Hollywood film production.
Not the most ambitious production ever staged but the ensemble is genuinely mind boggling. Rock Hudson! Kim Novak! Geraldine Chaplin! Tony Curtis! No lines / baby faced Pierce Brosnan! Matinee stodgy has never been so dazzling. Or catty…
William Peter Blatty directs George C Scott, Brad Dourif and Ed Flanders in this serial killer thriller set in the aftermath of The Exorcist.
Did we watch The Exorcist III? No, I wagered that the recently re-edited “Legion” cut would be the best option on Arrow’s double disc release. This draft can be a tad incoherent. A lot of the resurrected footage is grainy poorly lit VHS copy. Which is fine when watching lengthy scenes of Brad Dourif in his cell spouting devilry but there are times when it is a singular two second shot! The distraction of switching formats means it takes you right out of the growing dread. The best stuff is untainted. There are four or so DePalma worthy dreamlike tension sequences, all ending in huge jump scares. A gruff Scott gives it his all. When it goes hard into horror it goes really hard. Legion might never be an easy ride, and I’m guessing the tonal confusion might still exist whatever version you watch, but I’m pumped to give the studio cut of Exorcist III a revisit sooner rather than later. A bastard movie but a very effective one in spits and spots.
7
Perfect Double Bill: Dominion: A Prequel To The Exorcist (2005)
Jûzô Itami directs Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto and Ken Watanabe in this Japanese comedy where a truck driver helps a struggling noodle shop owner turn her business around.
Just a wonderful treat. The delicate central romance has echoes of Howard Hawks or John Ford. A group of mismatched men surround a lone woman and protect her. Here from foodie mediocrity. That gentle affair has bundles of charm. But what makes Tampopo a timeless cult classic is its offshoots and comedic vignettes. We often freewheel away from the core plot to lose our selves in other appetite based skits. A gangster seduces his lover with whatever kinky room service he can order. The hierarchies at a business lunch are turned on their head when it comes to ordering from a menu. Just what is the polite society way to slurp spaghetti? The whole banquet is meta and pointless and self aware and quirk. Hard not to love, easy to devour.
Pablo Larraín directs Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino and Alba Rohrwacher in this biopic of opera singer Maria Callas anchored around the last week of her life.
Handsome but dull. Not my stick of butter in too many ways. I only have a rudimentary understanding of opera and Callas’ backstory but this is fantastical and incoherent in equal measures. Everyone talks in stilted sound bites, for example. Meh.
Jesse Eisenberg directs himself, Kieran Culkin and Jennifer Grey in this comedy-drama where mismatched Jewish American cousins travel to Poland to honour their late grandmother and unpack some baggage.
The type of movie I wished they made more of, blessed with a sterling performance from Kieran Culkin. Having said that… this often feels like a Holocaust-centric Sideways. And like Sideways I’m not entirely sure I loved it as much as “the Awards Buzz TM” compels me to. I think Eisenberg’s witty script certainly explores the idea of modern psychological pressures in the context of unfathomable historical tragedies with a deft understanding. And the ending, where one character has a destination while the other is still on a journey, has true wallop.
David Dobkin directs Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Rachel McAdams in this raunchy comedy where two friends turn up to weddings uninvited to party for free and pull ladies… but then true love gets in the way.
For the first act, this is Vince Vaughn’s movie. His motormouth loveable arsehole shtick really rollicks. And he is given a neat foil / love interest / nemesis in insane hottie Isla Fisher. Easily her best role and she nails every laugh. The focus shifts off harmless cons, colourful weddings and bad behaviour pretty quickly. We have Owen Wilson falling for Rachel McAdams high society good girl (the catch is she’s already spoken for) and this eventually leads to breakdowns and extended ennui. Fun, right!? The good time is over way too quickly. The crash takes up far too much of the movie. People were recently getting shot in the butt for comic effect and now… suicide watch? The finale is reinvigorated by an extended cameo from Will Ferrell (always better in small doses). This is one of those big hits from the first decade that isn’t actually hobbled by its now dated laddish attitudes but it’s incorrect hypothesis that we care about plot more than jokes. Still the lighter sections are admirably packed.
Ralph Nelson directs Cary Grant, Leslie Caron and Trevor Howard in this WWII romantic comedy where a drunk boat hobo finds himself responsible for a gaggle of school girls, their chaperone and the fate of the entire Pacific campaign.
Light and pleasant. How suave can a whisky soaked Robinson Crusoe be? Very.
Lumet’s last film is a slight return to form. Seeing him re-explore his old safe stomping ground of New York crime. It is a bit cheap, so strange to see an old master reduced to making a calling card indie debut during a period when Scorsese was making your Hugos and Spielberg his War Horses. There is a fractured time hopping structure that holds few surprises. Maybe the inevitability of the downfalls is the overall take home. This is more Shakespearean than Tarantino rip-off. The stacked cast of gold standard talents tower over the material. Hoffman and Marisa Tomei being especially on form.
Ken Hughes directs Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes and Lionel Jeffries in this children’s musical fantasy about an Edwardian flying car from James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
I’ve caught chunks of this often over the years, and yet, this might just be the first time I have sat down and watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang teeth to tits. It is overlong and shapeless. There are some catchy tunes and I have nothing but love for Dick Van Dyke but this is shamelessly a poor man’s Mary Poppins in every respect.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 