rate the last movie you saw

[Eric Paddon]

By Dawn's Early Light (1990) 4 of 10

-My revisiting of "Dr. Strangelove" and "Fail Safe" made me dig up this 1990 HBO movie which was the last of the US-USSR nuclear doomsday films ever made. I had hoped to find the novel on which it was based "Trinity's Child" and do this for the read a book, watch the film project, but there's no kindle of the book and it's long out of print and I have no desire to order a used copy.

-"Fail Safe" at least is a quality production. This isn't despite some good names in the cast. It starts from a shaky and convoluted premise. Renegades against the Soviet government launch a missile from Turkey aimed at a USSR target which gets the Soviets to launch several missiles at key American military targets. The Soviet Premier frantically tries to tell President Martin Landau that this was a mistake and would accept a proportionate response but as Landau dithers, one missile lands outside Washington. Landau orders a proportionate response from the White House bunker, and then when more Soviet missiles are launched and not sure that this is at them or the Chinese, Landau orders another strike, but then it turns out it's against the Chinese, but before Landau can cancel the wider response of bombers and the pending nuclear sub launches, his helicopter crashes. WIth the rest of the Cabinet dead because they conveniently lived in the blast zone (this is absurd on its face), that just leaves the incompetent Secretary of the Interior (Darren McGavin) to pick up the reins of leadership as he's loaded into a command observation plane to decide what to do next and immediately he comes under the sway of the Strangelovian Colonel Fargo (Rip Torn) who is an unbelievably shallow one-dimensional character whose power of persuasion is just hard to fathom. He wants this to be an all out full-scale "win the war effort" to escalate things and McGavin then caves in and follows everything he says, putting the rest of the world at risk.

Meanwhile we've also been following the story of a B-52 from Spokane commanded by Powers Boothe and co-piloted by his lover, Rebecca DeMornay (totally absurd). If the crew of the plane in "Fail Safe" was overly rigid in their sense of professionalism to the end, this crew is a bunch of screw-ups on all levels, with various flip-outs and fights and denial of reality as Boothe tries to keep an even keel but soon he is swayed by lover Rebecca to not proceed with their bombing etc. and turns away thus giving the Soviets the impetus to turn some of *their* bombers back which gives the still living real President Landau hope that he can avert the rest of hostilities but he has to thwart McGavin and Torn from blowing the whole thing......

If you're confused by all this, I don't blame you. There is nothing that makes any rational sense in this film. I can *believe* the scenario of a "Fail Safe" from a storytelling standpoint. I can't buy this one in a million years. It was as if they knew time was running out to do this kind of film, that they came up with something that tossed all rational linear storytelling out the window. Poor production values and F/X don't help either.

[mkaroly]

MOTHRA (1961) - 3/10. I may have to watch this one again (and I should watch the dubbed version), but boy was this a tough film for me to sit through. I found none of the characters to be all that compelling, and even Mothra is not given a whole lot to do in this human drama-heavy story. There are moments of humor here and there, but all in all it does not have the charm that the Godzilla films have (or those Godzilla films in which Mothra plays a role). Maybe I just don't "get" the Mothra character. The ending also kind of annoyed me with the church bells and the all-of-a-sudden realizations. I will give it another chance later abd reserve the right to change my grade!

[Eric Paddon]

There is unfortunately an anti-American subtext since the fictional country "Rolisca" is supposed to be a stand-in for greedy, exploitative America. But kaiju films in general, even the best ones, seem to have this underlying strain in their zeal to be so "anti-nuclear". I personally think overall "Mothra" is more in the 6 to 6.5 category, not the best, but still critical for introducing a signature character we would see in better films later on.

[mkaroly]

There is unfortunately an anti-American subtext since the fictional country "Rolisca" is supposed to be a stand-in for greedy, exploitative America. But kaiju films in general, even the best ones, seem to have this underlying strain in their zeal to be so "anti-nuclear". I personally think overall "Mothra" is more in the 6 to 6.5 category, not the best, but still critical for introducing a signature character we would see in better films later on.

More than anything my grade reflects how slow of a pace the human story was. And at times I felt the story was more about the fairies from Infant Island than Mothra. Good point about being the introduction to an integral character in the series. I will have to watch it again (and definitely watch the English dubbed version) some time down the road.

[AndyDursin]

CLUB PARADISE (1986)
6/10



An agreeably flawed time-waster for these virus-ridden shut-in times, CLUB PARADISE marked Harold Ramis' third directorial feature after box-office triumphs "Caddyshack" and "National Lampoon's Vacation." Of course, there's an obvious reason viewers may not remember (or even be aware of) this ensemble comedy, which offers sunny locales, a fun cast but a slender amount of narrative material.

In a role intended for Bill Murray (written by his brother, Brian Doyle-Murray, with Ramis), Robin Williams uncomfortably slides into his role of a Chicago fireman who -- after landing an insurance settlement from his on-the-job injury -- heads down to a tropical island where he opts to help local club owner/singer/political activist Jimmy Cliff turn his ramshackle facility into a tourist-laden, Club Med-like destination.

No sooner does Williams -- with Cliff and new girlfriend Twiggy -- start taking pictures of their would-be hotspot do the vacationers come flying in from the U.S. These include a stable of SCTV (Rick Moranis, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty) and SNL (Mary Gross, Robin Duke) vets, all of whom quickly find out they've been sold a bill of goods. Meanwhile, the prospects of a military coup loom large, with the seeds planted by the isle's Prime Minister (Adolph Caesar), much to the consternation of its drunken governor (a desperate looking Peter O'Toole, in a role John Cleese was reportedly supposed to play).

There's also a NY Times travel critic (Joanna Cassidy) who romances O'Toole and a couple of gorgeous models Moranis and Levy chase after -- one of them essayed by future Bond girl Carey Lowell. However, like most subplots in this slender 95-minute film, they're mostly quickly forgotten as Ramis moves the focus from Williams -- in what's essentially a thankless, veritable straight-man role -- to its comedic supporting players for the duration. This results in some mild laughs here and there -- mostly from Martin as a frustrated wife trying to spice up her marriage to buttoned-down "Newhart" vet Steven Kampmann -- in a very choppy picture that was apparently cut down from something much longer (though not necessarily better).

"Club Paradise" was one of two similarly-themed 1986 comedies -- the long-forgotten Michael Caine vehicle "Water" was the other -- dealing with Caribbean hyjinks. The cast is a fascinating cross-section of TV players with Williams struggling to find a comfortable rhythm in a feature that embodies the type of uneven fare he appeared in prior to "Good Morning Vietnam." There's also Caesar, coming off his Oscar nomination on "A Soldier's Story," in his final performance (he died before the film was released), and a bouncy soundtrack of Cliff tunes punctuated with a score credited to the odd pairing of David Mansfield and Van Dyke Parks (tellingly, the end credits list no information whatsoever about the score).

The cumulative effect feels like the kind of good-natured, mildly amusing '80s comedy that a studio would toss out in the middle of January or February, and what's curious is that Warner Bros. intended for "Club Paradise" to be that type of film -- yet pulled it from a winter-time debut at the last minute. When Variety reviewed the film shortly after Christmas 1985, the film reportedly ran (according to their review) 104 minutes, yet was apparently cut down by the time the studio released it six months later -- in July 1986 -- to tepid box-office. The movie shows clear signs of editorial tinkering as it's oddly structured, its weakest portions coming in Williams' early sequences that set-up the premise before the comedy finally kicks in.

It probably says something that its leading man is its weakest component, yet there's enough energy in "Club Paradise" to make it palatable, like a watered-down cocktail that's just functional enough to get by.

[Eric Paddon]

Butterfield 8 (1960) 6.5 of 10

=As a story the film is pure trash. What makes it watchable is Elizabeth Taylor who throws herself into the part despite hating what she was doing and ends up proving IMO that her Oscar was no mere sympathy vote. Shirley MacLaine's performance in "The Apartment" was good but it's not a focal point of the movie the way Elizabeth is here. Her whole opening scene with nary a word of dialogue shows a great actress and larger than life presence all at once. With any other actress, this film would have been an unwatchable mess. Laurence Harvey as her married lover is embarrassing and Dina Merrill as his too-understanding wife is even worse.

=I have no idea why this film is still MIA on Blu-Ray. The Warner DVD I have is one of the few remaining snapper case DVDs I still own and the early 2000s transfer now looks very fuzzy. Seeing La Liz at the peak of her young sensuality remastered in HD would be well worth seeing.

[Edmund Kattak]

CLUB PARADISE (1986)
6/10



An agreeably flawed time-waster for these virus-ridden shut-in times, CLUB PARADISE marked Harold Ramis' third directorial feature after box-office triumphs "Caddyshack" and "National Lampoon's Vacation." Of course, there's an obvious reason viewers may not remember (or even be aware of) this ensemble comedy, which offers sunny locales, a fun cast but a slender amount of narrative material.

In a role intended for Bill Murray (written by his brother, Brian Doyle-Murray, with Ramis), Robin Williams uncomfortably slides into his role of a Chicago fireman who -- after landing an insurance settlement from his on-the-job injury -- heads down to a tropical island where he opts to help local club owner/singer/political activist Jimmy Cliff turn his ramshackle facility into a tourist-laden, Club Med-like destination.

No sooner does Williams -- with Cliff and new girlfriend Twiggy -- start taking pictures of their would-be hotspot do the vacationers come flying in from the U.S. These include a stable of SCTV (Rick Moranis, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty) and SNL (Mary Gross, Robin Duke) vets, all of whom quickly find out they've been sold a bill of goods. Meanwhile, the prospects of a military coup loom large, with the seeds planted by the isle's Prime Minister (Adolph Caesar), much to the consternation of its drunken governor (a desperate looking Peter O'Toole, in a role John Cleese was reportedly supposed to play).

There's also a NY Times travel critic (Joanna Cassidy) who romances O'Toole and a couple of gorgeous models Moranis and Levy chase after -- one of them essayed by future Bond girl Carey Lowell. However, like most subplots in this slender 95-minute film, they're mostly quickly forgotten as Ramis moves the focus from Williams -- in what's essentially a thankless, veritable straight-man role -- to its comedic supporting players for the duration. This results in some mild laughs here and there -- mostly from Martin as a frustrated wife trying to spice up her marriage to buttoned-down "Newhart" vet Steven Kampmann -- in a very choppy picture that was apparently cut down from something much longer (though not necessarily better).

I saw this in a theater! Oooof. Peter O'Toole riding on a horse.

"Club Paradise" was one of two similarly-themed 1986 comedies -- the long-forgotten Michael Caine vehicle "Water" was the other -- dealing with Caribbean hyjinks. The cast is a fascinating cross-section of TV players with Williams struggling to find a comfortable rhythm in a feature that embodies the type of uneven fare he appeared in prior to "Good Morning Vietnam." There's also Caesar, coming off his Oscar nomination on "A Soldier's Story," in his final performance (he died before the film was released), and a bouncy soundtrack of Cliff tunes punctuated with a score credited to the odd pairing of David Mansfield and Van Dyke Parks (tellingly, the end credits list no information whatsoever about the score).

The cumulative effect feels like the kind of good-natured, mildly amusing '80s comedy that a studio would toss out in the middle of January or February, and what's curious is that Warner Bros. intended for "Club Paradise" to be that type of film -- yet pulled it from a winter-time debut at the last minute. When Variety reviewed the film shortly after Christmas 1985, the film reportedly ran (according to their review) 104 minutes, yet was apparently cut down by the time the studio released it six months later -- in July 1986 -- to tepid box-office. The movie shows clear signs of editorial tinkering as it's oddly structured, its weakest portions coming in Williams' early sequences that set-up the premise before the comedy finally kicks in.

It probably says something that its leading man is its weakest component, yet there's enough energy in "Club Paradise" to make it palatable, like a watered-down cocktail that's just functional enough to get by.

I saw this in a theater!!! Didn't think much of it then. Peter O'Toole riding in on a horse on a Caribbean beach to save the day.

[AndyDursin]

THE STALKING MOON (1969)
6/10




Reuniting Gregory Peck with his “To Kill a Mockingbird” filmmaking tandem of director Robert Mulligan and producer Alan J. Pakula, THE STALKING MOON (109 mins., 1969) is a minor western featuring Peck as a scout trying to transport a damaged, former Indian captive (Eva Marie Saint) and her half-breed son across the Southwest while dodging the boy's father, a renegade Apache looking for vengeance – and his son.

Mulligan and cinematographer Charles Lang have fashioned an impressive looking film with fine location work and convincing performances from Peck and Saint. Alvin Sargent's script, adapted from a novel by Theodore V. Olsen, may have also worked fine in the hands of another director, yet it's pretty clear Mulligan is more at home with the movie's low-key character dramatics as opposed to its western conventions and action scenes – sequences which move extremely slowly and feel far too subdued for their own good. The entire tone of the film feels a little heavy-handed as well: by the late '60s the western genre was undergoing a shift towards “enlightened” stories and the genial nature of Peck and most of the American soldiers portrayed in the film seem like a result of cliches of a different sort – those related to Hollywood revisionism – as opposed to being any more realistic than the usual Saturday Matinee fare that preceded it.

The net result just kind of sits there and drags – there's not a lot of emotional attachment one ever feels towards the characters, and this perfunctory – if technically adept – feel emanating from “The Stalking Moon” carries over to Fred Karlin's scoring, an area where you wish Mulligan and Pakula had retained the services of Elmer Bernstein instead.

Warner Archive's Blu-Ray (2.35) includes a stellar 1080p transfer that's clearly been struck from a newish master. Details are crystal clear, colors are satisfying and the film basically looks as if it could've been made yesterday. The DTS MA mono is similarly flawless.

[AndyDursin]

SILVER STREAK
7/10



Breezy and quite entertaining 20th Century Fox concoction from '76 offers Gene Wilder in one of his most engaging vehicles as an everyman who, while traveling to Chicago on the Silver Streak, gets wrapped up in a Hitchcockian plot involving a professor, an imposter, art forgery, the man's unknowing secretary (Jill Clayburgh), a conniving villain (Patrick McGoohan) and his henchmen (Ray Walston and Richard Kiel). Wilder gets tossed off the train a few times -- and most entertainingly gets hooked up with petty thief Richard Pryor more than halfway through, resulting in an infusion of comic energy that would fuel several subsequent teamings between them.

Arthur Hiller's direction keeps things light and Henry Mancini's score is one of his best -- it features the requisite pretty love theme we'd expect from the composer, but also a terrific chase cue and some nice dramatic writing as well. The film manages to be just thrilling enough to function as a mystery and Wilder keeps it grounded with a light touch -- even though the ending could've been further juiced up to serve as a disaster genre exercise if the producers wanted. Thankfully it doesn't go there, and just provides a satisfying climax to a very agreeable two hours all told.

[mkaroly]

Been forever since I saw SILVER STREAK...when I was younger I watched it every time it came on TV (that and STIR CRAZY)...I like both films a lot.

[AndyDursin]

I didn't buy the first Intrada release of SILVER STREAK and saw high secondary prices...then investigated more and saw it was reissued (all of it in stereo this time) and is still safely available for $20. As they say, Ordered!

[Paul MacLean]

El Cid (7.5/10)

Hadn't watched this film in nearly a decade, so I sat down to revisit it on Blu-ray.

I have to say I was a little less impressed this time. In my initial viewing I was knocked over by Charlton Heston's performance, the production value and in particular Miklos Rozsa's score. El Cid remains an impressive film, but one I find now to be a little rough around the edges, its aforesaid virtues somewhat offset by uneven performances, and its impressive spectacle compromised by sometimes "stagey" direction.

The overall (and mostly true) story is very compelling, the way Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar rallied his fellow countrymen -- Christian and Muslim alike -- to join forces and repel North African warlord Ibn Yusuf (an idea which is actually more timely today than when the film was made). Heston is magnificent, and brings his reliably stalwart heroism and Shakespearean gravitas to the part. Unfortunately, Heston's leading lady is not up to his standard. I don't think Sofia Loren was ever a particularly good actress -- her stardom had less to do with her skills as a thespian than her looks (which honestly don't do that much for me to begin with). There are moments where Loren's performance borders on that of a hammy silent film star, and the viewer half-expects her to put her wrist to her forehead and faint. The two little twins cast as Don Rodrigo's daughters can't act at all. Ok, they play a small part, but their total non-immersion in their roles does take the viewer out of the film a bit. On the other hand, the supporting cast, including Douglas Wilmer, Jon Fraser and Frank Thring (once again as a corrupt -- and corpulent -- overlord) are first rate.

Again the spectacle is impressive, but El Cid has not aged as well as some of the other epics of its day. In terms of style its most obvious influence is Ben-Hur -- i.e. the casting of Heston, Rozsa's music and the overall scope of the picture. Anthony Mann was a good director, but he was not on the level of William Wyler. Even though Ben-Hur didn't "reinvent the wheel" as far as the epic genre was concerned, it did purvey the genre's stylistic trappings better than any other epic up to that point. El Cid also compares unfavorably to the more innovative vision which David Lean brought to Lawrence of Arabia, and Stanley Kubrick to Spartacus (from which Mann, incidentally, was fired after two weeks of shooting).

The script also gets a little bogged-down in subplots involving intrigues, assassination attempts and conniving royals -- all germane to the plot, but labored in their depiction. The big climactic battle is impressively assembled, but there isn't much variety in terms of action or camerawork -- many shots look similar (leading to redundancy), and it is painfully obvious when the stunt riders jerk the reins to make their horses fall down (two riders even do this simultaneously in one shot, and it looks completely choreographed).

All said done though, El Cid does boast some fine moments, in particular the jousting sequence, while the final scene -- which could have come off as unintentionally funny if not handled just right -- proves gloriously inspiring. Miklos Rozsa's score is not only one of his greatest musically-speaking, but dramatically as well, as it accentuates the film's virtues while smoothing-over its problems. In fact I think this score is neck and neck with Ben-Hur, the two of them being the pinnacle of Rozsa's achievements. (Ben-Hur is arguably the more impressive score, but I have a slight preference for El Cid.)

El Cid may not be among the finest epics, but it is still worth a look (and its score, more especially, is well-worth a listen).

[Paul MacLean]

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (4/10)

Terry Gilliam's "passion project" which he struggled for over 20 years to realize, was not, in my estimation, worth the wait. The narrative is very scatterbrained and stuffed with tangents, and despite the sincere efforts of a fine cast, the film is not at all compelling (and honestly rather boring).

Clearly, the original concept was heavily "re-thought" between its original inception and what finally made to the screen. What was originally a kind of "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" type of story (with Johnny Depp as an ad exec thrust back in time to Medieval Spain) now takes place entirely in the present day. The set-up would take too long to describe, but in short, Adam Driver plays an arrogant film director working in Spain, who re-connects with the cast of his student film (also shot in Spain years earlier) whose subject was Don Quixote. What ensues is a kind of amalgam of Cervantes' story and a re-hash of The Fisher King, in which Driver learns that the amateur actor (Jonathan Pryce) who played the lead in his film has lost his mind and now believes he is Don Quixote, and (like Robin WIlliams in The Fisher King) lives in a world of unreality. Driver also meets up with his "Dulcinea" -- once an innocent teenage girl but now an ex-prostitute and girlfriend to a Russian mobster (who beats her). Driver finds himself increasingly drawn into Pryce's fantasy world, and also starts to lose sense of what it real and what is not.

In fact the trailer actually gives away much of the gist (and story)...



It's an interesting idea, but ultimately just too frivolous and lacking in any emotional resonance (and also one of Terry Gilliam's less visually-arresting films). My four points go entirely to the cast (who are all wonderful, in particular Pryce, and Driver -- who is probably better than Depp would have been), the art directors, costumers, and in particular composer Roque Baños (whose score is gorgeous). However, despite their efforts, a tedious script sinks this movie, in which there is little to recommend, however "long-awaited" it may have been.

[Monterey Jack]

Gilliam hasn't made a good movie since 1995.

[AndyDursin]

His batting average is so poor now it's almost as if he stumbled his way into Time Bandits and the few successes he had.

The junk far outweighs anything else.