Saturday, 15 February 2025

Movie Review: Starman (1984)


Genre: Sci-Fi Romance  
Director: John Carpenter  
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith  
Running Time: 115 minutes  

Synopsis: In response to greetings carried by 1977's Voyager 2, an alien visits Earth and crash lands near the secluded Wisconsin house of widow Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen). The alien adopts the form of Jenny's deceased husband Scott (Jeff Bridges), and together they embark on a cross-country journey to Arizona for a mother ship rendevouz. Along the way Jenny educates the alien about human habits, and they fall in love while being pursued by a scientist (Charlie Martin Smith) and a less welcoming government agent (Richard Jaeckel).

What Works Well: This adult-oriented variation on E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial benefits from the learning journey of a benevolent but superior alien. Basic language skills, driving, washrooms, and eating all present opportunities for cute lessons in life on Earth, and provide openings for wonder and humour. Karen Allen delivers an affecting performance as Jenny evolves from victim to teacher to lover. The gap between the expressed desire to welcome strangers and the actual treatment they receive provides a potent thematic undercurrent.

What Does Not Work As Well: The fantastical premise is reduced to a mundane road trip with iffy special effects, while loose plotting skips over fundamentals, including the purpose of the alien's visit. Jenny displays a stunning lack of curiosity about the visitor's home planet, and falls in love due to impersonation. Jeff Bridges' bird-like head movements get tiresome, as does the inability of his supposedly quick learning superior being to stop referring to his new love as jennyhayden. The secondary authority characters are unrefined representations of the good (the scientist), the bad (the government agent), and the stupid (a couple of police officers).

Key Quote:
Starman (describing humans): Shall I tell you what I find beautiful about you? You are at your very best when things are worst.


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Movie Review: M (1931)


Genre: Crime Drama  
Director: Fritz Lang  
Starring: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustaf Gründgens  
Running Time: 111 minutes  

Synopsis: A German city is terrorized by an elusive assailant (Peter Lorre) who abducts and murders school-aged girls. After yet another girl is killed, Inspector Karl Lohmann (Otto Wernicke) intensifies a police crackdown on all illegal dens. The heightened enforcement disrupts the business of organized crime syndicates, and their leader Der Schränker (Gustaf Gründgens) orders his members to find and capture the murderer using a network of street beggars for surveillance. Former psychiatric patient Hans Beckert is finally identified as the prime suspect, and he is pursued by both gang members and police officers.

What Works Well: Director and co-writer Fritz Lang creates the template for follow-the-evidence police procedurals, and adds innovations in sound, camerawork, and storytelling maturity. Deploying a less-is-more approach to the new sound technology, Lang prioritizes the mood and details of a city gripped by fear. The thematic strength of pathological urges conflicting with crime as a cold business is propelled by the irony of organized syndicates working in common cause with the police to rid the city of an unwelcome scourge. Several epic scenes leave a deep impression, including a girl's missing ball, a balloon against power lines, the dueling meetings of gangsters and police officers developing strategies for catching a killer, and a roomful of criminals acting as vengeful jurors. Peter Lorre's provocative appeal for mercy is a revelatory look into a killer's tortured psychology. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Several scenes slip into minutiae, unnecessarily extending the running time. 

Key Quote:
Hans Beckert: Who knows what it's like to be me?



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Movie Review: Kalifornia (1993)


Genre: Crime Drama Thriller  
Director: Dominic Sena  
Starring: Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny, Michelle Forbes  
Running Time: 117 minutes  

Synopsis: In Louisville, Kentucky, Brian (David Duchovny) is a writer conducting research on serial killers. His girlfriend Carrie (Michelle Forbes) is a photographer and excited to join him on a cross-country trip to visit infamous crime scenes, with California as a final destination. Brian advertises for traveling companions to share road trip costs, and white trash Early (Brad Pitt) and his girlfriend Adele (Juliette Lewis) join the trip. Carrie is never comfortable with the two travel companions, and gradually Early starts to reveal disturbing behaviour. 

What Works Well: The nature of evil receives a thorough examination in this uncompromising road trip through hell. Brian's intent to visit places where human malevolence flourished is sidetracked by here-and-now wickedness, and his willingness to afford the benefit of the doubt results in a sluggish inability to recognize Early's essence, amplifying the ensuing horror. Juliette Lewis is astounding as the girl-woman oblivious to her abuser's cruelty, and a sweaty, spitting, smoking, and swilling Brad Pitt allows his body odour to waft off the screen. Director Dominic Sena saturates America's back roads with stark light and vivid colours to leave no illusions about possibilities of redemption. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The second half starts to drag under the weight of repetitive soulless violence, not helped by Brian's morosely excessive narration.

Key Quote:
Early (to Brian): Tell me, big shot, how you gonna write a book about something you know nothing about?



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: To Die For (1995)


Genre: Satirical Crime Dramedy  
Director: Gus Van Sant  
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck  
Running Time: 106 minutes  

Synopsis: The small town of Little Hope, New Hampshire is scandalized by the arrest of local television weather girl Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman) for plotting her husband's murder. In flashbacks and witness interviews, Suzanne is revealed as ambitious, vain, and obsessed with being on television. She marries Larry (Matt Dillon) but is always more interested in her career. After securing a job at a local cable station, she starts work on a documentary featuring underachieving high schoolers Jimmy, Russell, and Lydia (Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck, and Alison Folland). When Larry attempts to constrain Suzanne's ambitions, she initiates a marriage escape plan through a nefarious seduction of the particularly dim Jimmy.  

What Works Well: Inspired by the Pamela Smart story, writer Buck Henry adapts Joyce Maynard's book into a sly mockumentary packed with astute celebrity culture observations. Director Gus Van Sant wades through the toxic combination of ambition, narcissism, and obsession with fame, and adds femme fatale sex-as-a-weapon noir shadings. Suzanne, Jimmy, Lydia, and Larry's sister Janice (Illeana Douglas) expand on their side of the story straight to the camera, stirring manipulation and victimization into a frothy mix. Nicole Kidman achieves a career highlight conveying the complex contradiction of limited smarts and sexual allure colliding with over-confidence and self-delusion.

What Does Not Work As Well: Given the comprehensive character investments, the resolutions are abrupt, including a barely-there investigation and a frigid mop-up. Suzanne's lack of forethought after she wriggles free of marital shackles is inconsistent with the preceding level of connivance.

Key Quote:
Suzanne: You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV. On TV is where we learn about who we really are. Because what's the point of doing anything worthwhile if nobody's watching? And if people are watching, it makes you a better person.






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Movie Review: Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)


Genre: Action Thriller  
Director: John Woo  
Starring: Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames, Brendan Gleeson, Anthony Hopkins  
Running Time: 124 minutes  

Synopsis: Impossible Missions Force Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is tasked with locating rogue ex-agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), who has stolen a priceless pharmaceutical product. Ethan teams up with professional thief and Sean's ex-girlfriend Nyah (Thandie Newton). They fall in love before locating Sean in Sydney, where he is arranging to profit from villainy.

What Works Well: A series of set-pieces in search of a purpose, the first sequel is an intentional exercise in excessive style subjugating any attempts at substance. Director John Woo prolongs every action scene towards inflated operatic grandeur, with dramatic slow-motion and hair-in-the-wind close-ups used as punctuation marks to add more for the sake of more. Car chases, motorcycle duels, hand-to-hand combat, and fierce firefights are all elevated to feats of death-defying mythology. 

What Does Not Work As Well: When it's not convoluted, the plot is inane. Both the antagonists and the love interest are of the instantly forgettable plastic variety, not helped by an underpowered supporting cast. The self-deprecating wit and careful but faulty planning hallmarks of the series are notably absent in favour of unnecessarily serious James Bond derivations, and the face mask trick achieves tiresome irrelevance through overuse. 

Key Quote:
Ethan Hunt: We just rolled up a snowball and tossed it into hell. Now lets see what chance it has.






All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Saturday, 8 February 2025

Movie Review: Under Siege (1992)


Genre: Action Thriller  
Director: Andrew Davis  
Starring: Steven Seagal, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey  
Running Time: 103 minutes  

Synopsis: The USS Missouri battleship is commandeered by terrorists led by rogue CIA Agent Strannix (Tommy Lee Jones) and the ship's Executive Officer Krill (Gary Busey), using a surprise party for the captain as a ruse. The ship's cook is ex-Navy SEAL Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal), and he teams up with ex-Playboy playmate Jordan Tate (Erika Eleniak) to disrupt the terrorists' plot to transfer the battleship's nuclear missiles onto a North Korean submarine for sale to the highest bidder.

What Works Well: This is a straightforward Die Hard On A Battleship thriller, infused with enough attitude to establish a separate identity. The bad-guy duo of Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey luxuriate in bewildering unpredictability as they dance on the edge of madness, Busey dressing up as a woman for the fake captain's party, Jones channeling his inner has-been or never-was rock star. Steven Seagal provides the rational stoic counterweight with few words but plenty of one-liners and impressive kills, and Erika Eleniak contributes quirky presence as the centerfold caught way outside her comfort zone.

What Does Not Work As Well: The B-grade script serves up oversized logic holes, and the nefarious plot gets more muddled and less impressive with every passing scene. The terrorists are resourceful enough to take over a battleship but possess no coherent follow-up plan, while back at Navy headquarters, the impotent crisis mis-management team of military commanders gather around a table and flirt with an awful unintended satire of Dr. Strangelove.

Key Quote:
Jordan Tate: You're not a cook.
Casey Ryback: Yeah, well... I also cook.


All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Hang'Em High (1968)


Genre: Western  
Director: Ted Post  
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Inger Stevens, Pat Hingle, Ed Begley, Ben Johnson, Bruce Dern  
Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: In Oklahoma Territory of 1889, ex-lawman Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) is wrongfully accused of cattle rustling and summarily lynched by a posse led by Captain Wilson (Ed Begley). He survives thanks to the intervention of Marshal Bliss (Ben Johnson). In Fort Grant, Cooper is set free by Judge Fenton (Pat Hingle), who also convinces him to become a Marshal and to avoid extrajudicial killings. In addition to tracking down bad guys throughout the territory, Cooper gets involved with the widow Rachel Warren (Inger Stevens), who is keen to take a close look at every captured outlaw. 

What Works Well: Eastwood's first US-based Western after achieving stardom through the Dollars trilogy effectively combines toned-down spaghetti stylings with robust genre traditions. The plot is inspired by the real-life "Hanging Judge" Isaac C. Parker, and the scene of multiple hangings as carnival-like entertainment for the whole community is impressive commentary about the guise of violence. Reflections on the nature of justice and governance basics required to achieve statehood also emerge from the debates between Eastwood's Cooper and Hingle's Judge Fenton. With the help of an impressive supporting cast and a Dominic Frontiere music score saluting Morricone, director Ted Post still allocates plenty of time for revenge, survival, romance, and a few action set-pieces. 

What Does Not Work As Well:
Inger Stevens is unable to do much with Rachel Warren's side-story, which appears tacked-on to justify a leading female role.

Key Quote:
Jed Cooper (to Reno, a member of the lynch mob): When you hang a man, you better look at him.



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Movie Review: Gidget (1959)


Genre: Coming Of Age Beach Dramedy  
Director: Paul Wendkos  
Starring: Sandra Dee, James Darren, Cliff Robertson  
Running Time: 95 minutes  

Synopsis: In the Malibu area of Los Angeles, Francine (Sandra Dee) is about to turn 17, but worried that she is physically underdeveloped compared to her girlfriends and still not romantically interested in boys. But all that changes when she discovers a passion for surfing and develops a crush on "Moondoggie" (James Darren), who is part of a surfer group led by aging beach bum "The Big Kahuna" (Cliff Robertson). The surfers assign her the nickname Gidget, and she tries to use jealousy to win Moondoggie's heart, resulting in complications with Kahuna.

What Works Well: One of the earliest movies to move away from portraying teenagers as dangerous outcasts, here both the girls and the guys are more interested in having wholesome fun, flirting, and grappling with hormones. Summer is all about frolicking on the beach, surfing is cool, and Sandra Dee is a winning presence navigating the seemingly impossible path from girlhood to adulthood. Gabrielle Upton's script (based on Frederick Kohner's book) surprisingly also explores some dark manhood issues through Kahuna, who is hiding from himself as a professional beach bum.

What Does Not Work As Well: This roughly edited low-budget production is confined to a few filming locations, with plenty of screen time consumed by distant silhouetted surfers filmed from the beach. Although the romance does find a clever resolution, the third act is particularly clumsy, and a late-in-the-day fistfight injects traditional macho posturing in direct contradiction of hang loose surfer ethos.

Key Quote:
Gidget: What'll happen to your future? I mean, doesn't everybody have to have a goal or something?
Kahuna: Who said? There's your answer, little one. Who said?



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Cisco Pike (1972)


Genre: Drama  
Director: Bill L. Norton  
Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Karen Black, Gene Hackman  
Running Time: 95 minutes  

Synopsis: In Los Angeles, former musician Cisco Pike (Kris Kristofferson) is trying to leave drug dealing behind him to rebuild his music career, with the support of his girlfriend Sue (Karen Black). But corrupt cop Holland (Gene Hackman) pressures Cisco into selling $10,000 worth of weed in less than three days. Cisco has to tap into his underworld network to move the product, leaving Sue disappointed as he interacts with dealers, users, musicians, and assorted hangers-on.

What Works Well: In his directorial debut, Bill L. Norton delves into the seedy Venice Beach area and finds desperate characters chasing unlikely dreams. In this deglamorized and downbeat quest to seek a better future, a has-been like Cisco looks for someone - anyone - to listen to his latest music tape, a crooked cop builds a massive stash of marijuana as an auxiliary income source, and Cisco's pathetic ex-bandmate Jesse (a tragic Harry Dean Stanton) confronts the horrors of aging. Kristofferson (in a solid movie debut) provides a few excellent soundtrack songs.

What Does Not Work As Well: Most of the film consists of Cisco desperately crisscrossing town looking for buyers, as energy runs low, padding creeps in (particularly in episodes featuring actresses Viva and Joy Bang), and the premise runs out of ideas. Gene Hackman's antagonist disappears for long stretches, robbing the drama of a counterpoint.

Key Quote:
Cisco Pike (to Jesse): It ain't your goddamned body they're after, man, it's your soul!



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Last Man Standing (1996)


Genre: Action  
Director: Walter Hill  
Starring: Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, Bruce Dern  
Running Time: 101 minutes  

Synopsis: West Texas in the 1930s, during the prohibition era. Mercenary drifter John Smith (Bruce Willis) arrives at the small and mostly abandoned town of Jericho. He finds the Doyle (Irish) and Strozzi (Italian) gangs locked in a battle for control of the illegal booze trade from Mexico. A dual-handgun expert, Smith decides to profit by selling his services to both sides. The ineffective Sheriff Ed Galt (Bruce Dern) does little to stop him, but Doyle's Tommy gun wielding assassin Hickey (Christopher Walken) does not appreciate Smith's interventions.

What Works Well: This credited remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (which was also unofficially remade as A Fistful Of Dollars) enjoys a lost-in-time setting of a middle-of-nowhere near-ghost town predominantly occupied by gang members. Majestic cinematography (by Lloyd Ahern), soulful music (by Ry Cooder), and natty outfits add texture to the aesthetics and the quest-for-a-cause theme. Director Walter Hill stages the short and sharp action scenes with balletic guns a-blazing ferocity.

What Does Not Work As Well: The characters appear to lack belief and soullessly go through the pre-ordained motions, not helped by excessive narration over-reaching for noir cynicism. Christopher Walken and Bruce Dern are given relatively little to do, leaving other, less interesting cast members to spar against Bruce Willis' stranger-in-a-strange-land. The narrative flow is occasionally choppy, suggesting some important material was abandoned on the editing room floor.

Key Quote:
Hickey (to Smith): I don't want to die in Texas. Chicago, maybe... but not Texas. You can meet me there if you like.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.