Movie Review: The Salamander (1981)

Genre: Political Thriller  
Director: Peter Zinner  
Starring: Franco Nero, Anthony Quinn, Martin Balsam, Eli Wallach, Christopher Lee, Sybil Danning, Claudia Cardinale  
Running Time: 96 minutes  

Synopsis: In Italy, a military general is murdered, triggering concerns about a potential Fascist takeover plot. Colonel Dante Matucci (Franco Nero) of the internal security services investigates with the help of his mentor Captain Steffanelli (Martin Balsam). The murdered general's mistress Lili Anders (Sybil Danning) is revealed to be a spy for leftist sympathizers, and Dante's further sleuthing leads him to industrialist Bruno Manzini (Anthony Quinn), the scheming General Leporello (Eli Wallach), Director of Counterintelligence Prince Baldasar (Christopher Lee), and a torture specialist known as The Surgeon. Eventually, Dante's life is threatened as he gets close to uncovering a dangerous conspiracy. 

What Works Well: This Lew Grade production adapts the Morris West book with no shortage of ambition and an admirable deep dive into political machinations, Italian style. The entirely-on-location cinematography captures sun-drenched landmarks and lavish interiors without succumbing to travelogue stereotypes. Jerry Goldsmith's music score adds further gloss, but the main attraction is a dream international cast, none of them stretching but all of them competent. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Despite the efficient running time, the pace is plodding, most scenes consisting of stiff individual interactions between Matucci and a lineup of shady suspects. A few bursts of action attempt to punctuate proceedings, but these are more clumsy than effective. Few of the plot details make any sense, with the antagonists suspiciously passive as the investigation unfolds. In a world populated by the villains on display here, Captain Matucci would have disappeared in short order.

Key Quote:

Matucci: Do something Italian, Lili. Change sides.

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Movie Review: Die Hard 2 (1990)

A hyper-kinetic sequel, Die Hard 2 repeatedly pushes the bounds of reason, but delivers an immensely satisfying experience of non-stop high quality action.

It is Christmas time, two years after detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) battled terrorists in a Los Angeles high-rise. McClane's wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) is on a plane about to land at Dulles International Airport in Washington DC, and he is waiting to pick her up.

McClane's plans for a romantic night with Holly are about to be comprehensively disrupted: the renegade Colonel Stuart (William Sadler) is leading a group of die-hard mercenary terrorists on a mission to take control of the airport. Stuart deactivates the airport's control and communication systems, turns off the runway lights and sets up a parallel rogue traffic control centre, effectively commandeering the skies above Dulles airport and placing about 15 flights, including Holly's, in jeopardy. Stuart's mission is to free General Esperanza (Franco Nero), an extreme anti-communist foreign dictator, who is being extradited to the US and is about to land at Dulles.

McClane is quick to spot the unfolding plot, but gets no help from the airport's buffoonish police chief Captain Lorenzo (Dennis Franz) and has to single handedly try to disrupt the nefarious plan of Stuart and his heavily armed men. More helpful is Leslie Barnes (Art Evans), the airport communications director who tries to re-establish contact with the stranded planes. When the bullets start flying and the planes start crashing as predicted by McClane, Trudeau (Fred Thompson in his pre-politics days), the head of the airport, starts to listen, and eventually calls in an army anti-terrorism unit that proves to be suspiciously inept. With Holly's plane running out of fuel and about to attempt a blind landing, McClane forces a final confrontation with the terrorists to put an end to the siege.

Director Renny Harlin effectively uses the first 30 minutes to establish the context of Die Hard 2, but once he jams down on the accelerator, there is no brake pedal. The movie explodes into non-stop shoot-outs, killings, stunts, chases, destruction, crashes, and hand-to-hand combat, with any semblance of credibility lost in the airport parking lot. The breaks between action scenes are just enough to humanize McClane and allow him to lick his wounds before he goes out again in search of another way to win a battle in which he is out-numbered and out-gunned.

Not much of the plot stands up to any scrutiny, not least the question as to why the stranded flights did not immediately divert to other destinations on the airport-rich eastern seaboard. Die Hard 2 does not try to explain itself, it just barrel-rolls in a frenzy, delivering with professional efficiency too many thrills to care about incidentals like realism.

Bruce Willis plays along, a shadow of a smile dancing just behind eyes throughout, the "here we go again" subtext not really hidden: McCane makes several references to the Nakatomi Tower adventure, and is as bemused as the rest of us that such a grand and bloody misadventure can happen to the same cop twice. The large supporting cast is suitably animated. Franz, Evans and Thompson run around ineffectively on the ground, while Bedelia has to contend with a low-life journalist (William Atherton) on her flight. The bad guys are impressively humourless as they unleash their deadly mission with a minimum of justification for their devotion to Esperanza.

Die Hard 2 is wild fun, missing the originality and grittiness of the original, but compensating by inventing new definitions for over-the-top.

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Movie Review: Letters To Juliet (2010)

The attractive young American in a foreign land, having doubts about her fiancée. The handsome young Englishman. The romance that starts off on the wrong foot. The wise old woman who nudges the burgeoning attraction between the awkward couple. The eternal search for true love, lost 50 years ago and now about to be regained. And gorgeous, sun-drenched Italian scenery.

Letters To Juliet is a sweet, old-fashioned romance that ticks all the right boxes, achieving exactly what is sets out to do. It mercifully avoids the more modern tendencies for unnecessary vulgarity and cattiness. It also, most thankfully, steers clear of the excruciating self-help, looking-for-myself-because-I-deserve-it nonsense that dominated the intolerable Eat Pray Love (2010).

New York couple Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) and her fiancee Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal) set off on a trip to Verona, the setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, presumably to enjoy a pre-wedding honeymoon. But Victor is too easily distracted networking with local food suppliers for his soon-to-open restaurant, and is quick to ignore his future bride. Left on her own, Sophie, an aspiring writer, sets out to discover the city, and stumbles upon a group of local women who collect and answer letters written by desperate lovers and left in the cracks in the wall below "Juliet's" balcony.

Sophie finds a 50 year old letter embedded in the wall, written by Claire, an Englishwoman who abandoned her Italian lover Lorenzo when they were both young and confused. Thanks to the response written by Sophie, the now elderly but sprightly Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) shows up in Verona with her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan), determined to find and reunite with her Lorenzo after all these years. Sophie joins them on a road trip to find the right Lorenzo (Franco Nero), setting the stage for a romance to blossom between Sophie and Charlie as they drive across the Italian countryside.

That Letters To Juliet heads with unwavering commitment towards a happy ending is part of its charm, with the three leads playing their part towards romantic bliss. Seyfried and Egan need to do little except look radiant in the Italian sun, while Redgrave effortlessly pulls off the dual responsibility of seeking her true love while sagely guiding the young lovers-to-be towards their destiny.

Director Gary Winick, who tragically died in 2011 before his 50th birthday, keeps the mood lighthearted without veering into comedy, and allows the breeze of romance to seep into every frame. Letters To Juliet has no surprises, no disappointments, and enough pleasant moments to reinforce the positive energy of the well-intentioned pursuit of love.

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