rate the last movie you saw

[Eric Paddon]

Holiday In Spain (aka Scent Of Mystery) 1961 5 of 10

-I had a discount from Screen Archives so I got the TT release of "Man Called Peter" and decided to take a chance on this since I'd gotten the other Cinerama Blu-Ray releases of note this past year. This movie was the first and last to be done in the "Smellovision" process whereby the audience would get important smells piped into the theater to tie in with important moments in the on-screen action, including in this mystery movie set in Spain, a key plot point. But technical troubles plagued things and contributed to the film being a critical disaster. It was then re-edited for general Cinerama release minus the smell gimmicks to take advantage of the gorgeous Spain location photography (though I have to confess compared to other Cinerama movies the location footage didn't grab me too much as I wasn't familiar with any of the locales).

-The "Smilebox" presentation does justice to the cinematography. The problem is the film is just not a very good mystery film. Top-billed Denholm Elliot, whom most everyone of course knows from "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" is not a very charismatic lead, playing a spy novelist on holiday in Spain when he finds himself sucked into a plot involving a beautiful heiress who is unknowingly being targeted for murder. Cab driver Peter Lorre ends up helping him along the journey to unravel things while Paul Lukas is the lead bad guy behind the murder plot (it's ironic to see the two old friends from "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" now in this adverse relationship!). The film might have benefited more from someone like David Niven in the lead but Elliot is clearly in over his head. It doesn't help having to hear endless internal asides from him along the way which only further highlight his leading role deficiency. The lead female role is Beverly Bentley, who thanks to GSN reruns I knew was a model on the 1950s "Beat The Clock" and "The Price Is Right". I didn't know until I saw this film that she was later married to Norman Mailer and basically confined all her work to the stage after this film. Diana Dors, England's answer to Jayne Mansfield has a brief bikini scene cameo in a red herring part and there is also one famous star cameo in the movie very integral to the plot that I will let others look up for themselves. Suffice to say, once you know the name of the producer you can guess the indirect family connection responsible for the cameo.

-Stylishly produced, but even had the "Smellovision" kinds been ironed out before first screenings, the film still would have failed because it just isn't that good as a mystery and doesn't have a good lead.

[AndyDursin]

WARNING SIGN
5/10



After the screenwriting tandem of Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins spruced up Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” the duo parlayed their (uncredited) success into a number of feature films – the Mark Hamill drama “Corvette Summer,” the Disney/Paramount co-production “Dragonslayer,” and this Fox box-office disappointment that was dumped out, unceremoniously, in the dog days of August ‘85.

Barwood’s one and only feature film directorial credit, “Warning Sign” does boast a superb cast and a compelling premise, wherein an infection at a Utah biotech lab (secretly working on germ warfare) immediately closes down the facility. Barwood and Robbins’ script bounces around from the point of view of the scientists inside, to the security guard (Kathleen Quinlan) trying to hold down the fort and her husband – the town sheriff (Sam Waterston) – who has to contend with the government spook (Yaphet Kotto) sent to handle the situation. Eventually, Waterston convinces one of the lab’s former employees (Jeffrey De Munn) to come back and contain the virus – at the same time the victims become homicidal maniacs!

“Warning Sign” is a weird film that tries to be equal parts sci-fi/horror, domestic drama and ‘80s Cold War thriller all in one. Because of the film’s unfocused nature, though, it’s not very good at any one of those things, seemingly requiring a rewrite or two and suffering from overly broad direction (the leaden synth score by Craig Safan doesn’t help either). Waterston, Quinlan, DeMunn and Kotto are all fun to watch, and the film reeks of quality in its production – counting ace production designer Henry Bumstead and cinematographer Dean Cundey among its crew – but it’s telling that Barwood never directed another film after this.

“Warning Sign” has only made a few appearances on home video, its last coming in an Anchor Bay DVD sporting Barwood’s commentary. That track has been carried over to Shout’s Blu-Ray, which also offers new interviews with Barwood and an even longer conversation with producer Jim Bloom. The Fox-licensed 1080p (1.85) AVC encoded transfer is decent though not spectacular, bearing the hallmarks of an older scan. The stereo sound is fine, but to see how much more effective the picture could have been with an orchestral score, check out the Percy Rodriguez-narrated trailer that’s tracked with Jerry Goldsmith’s “Alien” music and seems like it’s selling an entirely different (and better) film.

[Monterey Jack]

MAN, has the original Pet Sematary aged poorly. Dale Midkiff looks about as bored as if he's doing his taxes, the visuals are bland, it's not scary or atmospheric, and Elliot Goldenthal's score has a main theme that's distractingly similar to Lalo Schifrin's Amityville Horror (speaking of "iconic" horror movies that don't hold up...). Fred Gwynne is the sole bright spot...he pretty much walked right out of the pages of King's book, a really spot-on piece of casting. Other than that, it's tacky, poorly-paced, skitters from one Big Event in the novel to another without any of the connective tissue that would make them mean anything, and is more crassly gross than actually disturbing. The remake can only be an improvement, and I'm looking forward to it even more now. "Sometimes remakes ahh bettah."

[AndyDursin]

I reviewed the 4K of it this week and yeah it is not good at all. Of all the King movies that film's strong box office performance was a head scratcher when there were better films from his material that made far less. The cast and direction are TV level...maybe under it.

I actually felt the sequel wasn't good either but was at least more interesting!

[Monterey Jack]

I reviewed the 4K of it this week and yeah it is not good at all. Of all the King movies that film's strong box office performance was a head scratcher when there were better films from his material that made far less.

It really was weird that Pet Sematary made as much as it did, when it did. The "Kingsploitation" glut of the early 80s was long past (by the mid-late 80s King movies were C-level trash like Children Of The Corn, Silver Bullet and his directorial Magnum Opus Maximum Overdrive ), and the "ABC"-ification of his work with those TV miniseries was a few years away. There was that sudden spike of box office interest in both this and Misery the following year (which was at least a good movie!), and then no King movie made money at the box office until The Green Mile at the tail end of the 90s, which was more attributable to the Shawshank Redemption cult and Tom Hanks' box-office clout at the time than King's name. It's kind of like how 2017's It remake was SUCH a monster success at the box office, and it was a good movie, but it made, what, $120 million in its OPENING WEEKEND?! I was expecting $50, $60 million, tops.

Pet Sematary is a total clunker, though, and I imagine a lot of people who re-visit it in anticipation of the remake will find it every bit as disappointing as I did. Hopefully the remake does justice to King's book (one of his best), and with the talented Starry Eyes team directing (check out my review of that in last year's Halloween marathon thread) and Christopher Young scoring, I'm definitely getting some good vibes.

[AndyDursin]

The "Kingsploitation" glut of the early 80s was long past (by the mid-late 80s King movies were C-level trash like Children Of The Corn, Silver Bullet and his directorial Magnum Opus Maximum Overdrive ), and the "ABC"-ification of his work with those TV miniseries was a few years away.

I never really looked into it before, but it could be the combination of there being no King movie in theaters for a few years, mixed with the book being one of his biggest sellers (at least it's usually pointed to as being one of his best books).

BTW here's the ADJUSTED list of King movies at the US box-office...fairly remarkable how badly so many of them performed (even the "higher class" ones) yet they kept making them!

Rank Title (click to view) Studio Adjusted Gross Unadjusted Gross Release

1 It WB (NL) $329,672,600 $327,481,748 9/8/17
2 The Green Mile WB $235,822,400 $136,801,374 12/10/99
3 The Shining WB $147,760,900 $44,017,374 5/23/80
4 Carrie UA $143,293,000 $33,800,000 11/3/76
5 Misery Col. $131,089,100 $61,276,872 11/30/90
6 Pet Sematary Par. $130,717,700 $57,469,467 4/21/89
7 Stand by Me Col. $127,265,600 $52,287,414 8/8/86
8 1408 MGM/W $94,481,100 $71,985,628 6/22/07
9 The Running Man TriS $87,677,100 $38,122,105 11/13/87
10 The Lawnmower Man NL $69,848,300 $32,100,816 3/6/92

11 Secret Window Sony $69,830,400 $48,022,900 3/12/04
12 Sleepwalkers Col. $66,418,900 $30,524,763 4/10/92
13 Creepshow WB $64,588,300 $21,028,755 11/12/82
14 Cujo WB $60,647,600 $21,156,152 8/12/83
15 The Shawshank Redemption Col. $60,140,900 $28,341,469 9/23/94
16 The Dead Zone Par. $59,531,000 $20,766,616 10/21/83
17 Christine Col. $58,420,900 $21,017,849 12/9/83
18 The Dark Tower Sony $51,261,600 $50,701,325 8/4/17
19 Dolores Claiborne Sony $50,571,900 $24,361,867 3/24/95
20 Dreamcatcher WB $50,489,300 $33,715,436 3/21/03

21 Firestarter Uni. $45,902,900 $17,080,167 5/11/84
22 Children of the Corn NW $39,154,200 $14,568,989 3/9/84
23 Hearts in Atlantis WB $38,586,200 $24,185,781 9/28/01
24 Carrie (2013) SGem $38,138,600 $35,266,619 10/18/13
25 Pet Sematary II Par. $37,191,500 $17,092,453 8/28/92
26 Tales From the Darkside: The Movie Par. $34,848,900 $16,324,573 5/4/90
27 The Mist MGM/W $33,575,600 $25,594,957 11/21/07
28 Cat's Eye MGM $33,287,100 $13,086,298 4/12/85
29 Needful Things Col. $33,122,400 $15,185,672 8/27/93
30 The Rage: Carrie 2 MGM $31,574,200 $17,762,705 3/12/99

31 Silver Bullet Par. $31,444,400 $12,361,866 10/11/85
32 Stephen King's Thinner Par. $31,289,300 $15,315,484 10/25/96
33 Graveyard Shift Par. $24,726,600 $11,582,891 10/26/90
34 The Dark Half Orion $23,144,600 $10,611,160 4/23/93
35 Maximum Overdrive DEG $18,093,300 $7,433,663 7/25/86
36 Apt Pupil Sony $17,065,000 $8,863,193 10/23/98
37 Children of the Corn II Mira. $15,226,600 $6,980,986 1/29/93
38 Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace NL $4,922,000 $2,409,225 1/12/96
39 The Mangler NL $3,697,900 $1,781,383 3/3/95

[jkholm]

I would never have guessed LAWNMOWER MAN would be in the Top 10 of King's highest grossing movies.

[AndyDursin]

Outside of the first 10 or so, it's interesting how most of the films all grossed a very similar range of dollars. Big drop off after that first group (of course many of them didn't cost much; there are only so many DREAMCATCHERs in that roster!). People forget even though there were a slew of these films in the early/mid 80s, many of them did not make a lot of money (like the films DeLaurentiis produced, or even CHRISTINE).

[Paul MacLean]

Us (4/10)

The latest entry in the "Oh no! They're everywhere!" genre, Us is a generally unremarkable movie, which concerns a family menaced by "doppelgangers" or "shadow people" who are an evil mirror image of them. It's hard to get into detail regarding what is wrong with this picture without leaking a lot of spoilers -- suffice to say, despite the fact that Jordan Peele has been lauded for the film's "clever" homages to thriller / horror classics, from my perspective he brings nothing new to the genre. Us is basically a pastiche of repurposed ideas, cherry-picked from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later, the Star Trek episode "The Alternative Factor", etc. Moreover it is an often a slow-moving film, with few moments of any actual suspense, and more than its share dead stretches. Implausibilities abound, as when Lupita Nyong'o tells her family "We've got to take the coast road to Mexico!" Really? They are going to drive from Santa Cruz (where the film is set) through Santa Barbara, LA and San Diego -- population centers which are overrun with these doppelgangers?

In its favor, US is well-acted -- Nyong'o is in particular outstanding. On the other hand it is yet another movie in which the woman is the clever, proactive character and the husband is a bumbling dolt. Peele also seems to be attempting some kind of socio-political "statement" -- in one scene Nyong'o asks her double "Who are you?" to which the double replies "We're Americans." But neither that line, nor the -- slight spoiler -- doppelgangers recreating the old 1980s "Hands Across America" human chain amounts to anything specific enough to make sense.

I admit I liked Peele's Get Out when I first saw it, but as I thought more about it, the goofiness of that movie's contrived premise became obvious (plus, Get Out drew heavily on the obscure 2005 horror flick The Skeleton Key for inspiration). But even Get Out was infinitely more imaginative (and effectively satirical) than this totally prosaic time-passer.

[AndyDursin]

THE MULE
5/10

It’s entirely possible “The Mule” could prove to be Clint Eastwood’s cinematic swan song, in which case it would be a dopey and disappointing exit for the legendary actor/director.

Despite reuniting with “Gran Torino” writer Nick Schenk, “The Mule” proves to be one of Eastwood’s weakest outings – a thinly-drawn and mostly pointless picture with the elderly star looking quite frail as a prize-winning horticulturist who’s lost his wife (Dianne Weist) and family due to his strict dedication to his work. Once that goes south, Eastwood stumbles into gaining work as an unassuming driver for a cartel smuggling drugs, something that earns him big money at the same time the DEA – in the form of agents Bradley Cooper and Michael Pena – closes in.

It’s never good when, after Eastwood first appears on-screen looking notably older than his last on-screen performance, the movie cuts to a “12 Years Later” caption – making you wonder if his character is now well into his 90s! “The Mule,” as a whole, is as unconvincing in its overall narrative, with Schenk’s script following Clint driving contraband around at the same time Cooper muses about the whereabouts of the cartel’s driver. There’s really no meat to the picture at all – a few scenes where Eastwood worries about the family he lost barely register while Cooper’s role is mostly thankless and the entire element of the cartel itself goes nowhere. In particular, Eastwood is paired for a time with one of the cartel’s handlers (Ignacio Serricchio), who then completely disappears from the film in its concluding third!

There’s always been a predictable, almost comforting, “laid back” approach to Eastwood’s filmmaking but “The Mule” proves to be so inconsequential that it basically evaporates right before your eyes – there’s no suspense, no momentum, and really not much of anything to recommend in a film that’s going to be notable for being Eastwood’s last (possibly) and nothing more.

[Paul MacLean]

The Deep (8/10)

Another one I'd only ever seen bits of on TV, so I finally decided to sit down and take in the whole thing.

I don't know if audiences and critics in 1977 were expecting "Jaws 2" (figuratively speaking!), given this was another oceanic Peter Benchley yarn featuring Robert Shaw. The Deep is certainly nothing like Jaws. It is however, an effective and quite likable thriller with an abundance of suspense, an appealing touch of romance, attractive locales, spot-on casting and impressively-handled underwater sequences. Nick Nolte and Jaqueline Bisset may not have been "A list" stars, but they are comely and convincingly robust, and probably better-suited to their parts than any major stars of the era (I couldn't see Goldie Hawn or Jane Fonda in the Bisset role, nor Robert Redford or Burt Reynolds in Nolte's!).

Admittedly, casting Robert Shaw as treasure hunter Romer Treece inevitably evokes Jaws, but Shaw pulls-off a distinctive interpretation of the character; whereas Quint was a flamboyant, arrogant "old salt", Treece is a more sober, reasoned and, lets say "middle aged salt"! Louis Gossett is frighteningly menacing as gangster Cloche' Bondurant, while supporting players like Eli Wallach and Robert Tessler are likewise first-rate.

I admit the story gets a bit confusing in the third act, as Nolte, Shaw and Bisset pore over obscure historic documents and arcane laws that determine the worth of sunken treasure (some of these conversations lost me, I have to say), but there's no question The Deep is a first-rate thriller, high on nail-biting suspense, and whose undersea sequences are impressively well-staged and keep momentum -- despite the slowness of movement imposed by the environment. John Barry's score is of course excellent, expressing the romance, terror and "travelog" elements of the film. His score is also fairly subdued, frequently avoiding the obvious. (Oddly though, the Donna Summer disco title song is not used in the film.)

Though maybe not a "classic", The Deep has a lot going for it, and holds-up well by today's standards -- it doesn't feel like a 42-year-old film at all.

[AndyDursin]

Great review Paul, I concur! I wonder if the TV version (with the hour of excised scenes) made more sense....half of the additional material from it made into the Blu-Ray supplement, but the rest is only in the 2 night ABC version from 1980.

The Blu-Ray, which I reviewed 10 years ago (OMG), also has a great CBS "Making Of' special hosted by Shaw too!

http://www.andyfilm.com/7-7-09.html

[Monterey Jack]

In his book Movie Freak, critic Owen Gleiberman tells an amusing story about seeing The Deep as a teenager, and being bored to tears, then suddenly realizing he was technically old enough to see actual porn, so he left in search of an porn theater.

[Paul MacLean]

In his book Movie Freak, critic Owen Gleiberman tells an amusing story about seeing The Deep as a teenager, and being bored to tears, then suddenly realizing he was technically old enough to see actual porn, so he left in search of an porn theater.

Anyone who would rather look at close-ups of ugly porn actors' genitalia in lieu of an above-average thriller -- especially one starring Jacqueline Bisset -- belongs in a padded cell.

[AndyDursin]

THE BIG FIX
7/10



After his triumphs with Steven Spielberg and Best Actor Oscar win for “The Goodbye Girl,” Richard Dreyfuss produced and starred in this adaptation of Roger L. Simon’s book – a contemporary “light noir” about a divorced private investigator, Moses Wine, who’s hired by a former girlfriend (Susan Anspach) to help the political campaign she’s working for. Both are former campus radicals soon plunged into a mystery not only involving the whereabouts of a prominent figure who’s gone underground – thereby threatening the politician’s candidacy -- but eventually a murder connected with Wine’s investigation.

If you’re a Dreyfuss fan as I am, “The Big Fix” is well worth seeing – the actor is laid back and at his best in director Jeremy Paul Kagan’s film, a Universal release that met with mixed reviews in the wake of the actor’s string of recent hits. The movie mixes comedy, drama and mystery in equal measure, but it has a fundamental problem in that the story is convoluted and often hard to follow. The disillusionment of former ‘60s radicals is a primary element in the film, but Kagan throws in so much other stuff – the candidate’s campaign manager (John Lithgow), Wine’s ex-wife (Bonnie Bedelia) and her boyfriend, an elderly aunt who assists him – that the plot line doesn’t even entirely make sense at the end.

Still, between Dreyfuss and the appealing cast – F. Murray Abraham and a young Mandy Patinkin (as a pool boy!) appear at the end – and a colorful, occasionally muscular Bill Conti score, “The Big Fix” is highly entertaining. It’s also worth noting that the varied tone establishes the feeling that you’re watching three-dimensional characters who behave like real people, with the scenes of Dreyfuss’ kids tagging along on his adventures – something that’s underplayed and charming without being cloying – being evidence of that.

Twilight Time’s Blu-Ray includes a respectable 1080p (1.85) Universal-licensed transfer with DTS MA mono sound, an isolated score track (Conti’s score is deserving of a standalone release), and an early trailer trying to sell the film on the basis of Dreyfuss’ “Goodbye Girl” turn.