Cecil B. DeMille's picturization of J.M. Barrie's play, The Magic Crichton, is impressive. The production places DeMille on a par with D.W. Griffith as a far as Babylonian stuff is concerned, and there are several scenes where DeMille steps a little beyond the basic Grif.
The result on the screen shows that there was no stinting on money. The cast is a pippin and Thomas Meighan does good work. Gloria Swanson and Lila Lee divide the women honors of the piece.
Swanson plays the role of Lady Mary, while Lee is the little slavey, Tweeny. The former appears to advantage in both the London and the desert island scenes, looking beautiful at all times, and especially so as she slips into the sunken bath, while little Lee displays an artistry that is far greater than she showed in any of her previous productions. Bebe Daniels is also in the cast for a small bit in one of the Babylonian scenes, and certainly is good to look upon.
"… it's saved by a few inspired flashes of comedy sprinkled throughout."
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Preston Sturges ("Unfaithfully Yours"/"The Palm Beach Story"/"Christmas in July") left Paramount to team up with eccentric millionaire producer Howard Hughes for their short-lived partnership that ended in bitterness, as Hughes cut the film to ribbons (from 89 to 78 minutes) and re-released it three years later under the title Mad Wednesday. Sturges talked Harold Lloyd out of retirement for this 1947 talkie comedy, and the two legendary cinematic artists after a good start had a fallout over artistic decisions. It was Lloyd's last film. The film never had a chance, though it's not quite the bomb first thought. This re-release in its original length restores the fine qualities taken out by the scissors.
It picks up by showing footage from the last reel of Lloyd’s silent 1923 classic The Freshman, where Harold Diddlebock (Harold Lloyd) is the bumbling freshman waterboy who scores the winning touchdown for his college football team. It then segues to zany top NYC ad agency boss E.J. Waggleberry (Raymond Walburn) hiring Harold, the football star he can't even remember he offered a job to, four years later in 1923. Waggleberry starts go-getter college grad Harold, who is fond of using platitudes, at the bottom as a clerk in a small bookkeeper's office and twenty-two years later the mild-mannered and now middle-aged Harold is forgotten by the firm and still working as a lowly bookkeeper when he's fired on Wednesday by Waggleberry for having no drive and setting a poor example for the new employees. Before getting his retirement gift of a Swiss watch and collecting his life savings, he confesses to young office artist, Miss Frances Otis (Frances Ramsden), that he's in love with her like he was with her seven sisters who worked for the firm previously and gives her an engagement ring in case he should find success in the near future.
The fun starts when Harold walks the streets that morning after being canned and is sporting a roll of a couple of thousand bucks when a racetrack tout called the Worm (Jimmy Conlin) hustles some money to make a bet and then induces Harold to take his first alcoholic drink ever–a special cocktail mixed up by the local bartender Jake (Edgar Kennedy). This brings out the animal in Harold and he goes on a wild tear, buying a loud suit and betting a grand on a long-shot nag. The horse wins and instead of getting his dough, the drunken Harold now owns a hansom cab and a bankrupt circus. This leads to him walking around Wall Street with one of the tame circus lions, Jackie, on a leash, in order to get bankers to invest in his bold idea for a free circus for children so they can improve their public image. Harold also gets walked on a leash by the lion, while he dangles from the ledge of an office building (merely a lame repeat of the same stunt he did in Safety Last). Naturally his lunatic scheme works, and Harold sells the circus for $175,000 to the Ringling Brothers circus, gets re-hired as an ad executive by Waggleberry and marries the much younger Frances.
Though overall the comedy felt flat and was plagued with missteps, there's still a sense of the tragic over a decent middle-aged man losing his job. It's poignantly presented in a sympathetic manner and, furthermore, it's saved by a few inspired flashes of comedy sprinkled throughout.
With 10 as a necessity-see, we give this film a:
Stars: Beat Takeshi and Yusuke Sekiguchi
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Rated: PG-13, with a minatory commotion
Size: 116 minutes
ROCHESTER CRITIQUE Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1
Unintelligent cloud follows a crave throughway By Mike Clark Gannett News Service
(July 28, 2000) — Pairing a lonely child with a crusty adult is about as tried and true as movies get, yet there's a tacit assumption that any filmmaker dusting off this formula will load it up with equally tried-and-true condiments.
You know, tiny tangibles such as adequate pacing, pathos and laughs, or at least engaging characters - none of which the Japanese import Kikujiro can claim, except for a snicker or two.
Acting under the name Beat Takeshi, cult action filmmaker Takeshi Kitano (Fireworks ) sullies his reputation by co-starring in this painfully protracted 122-minute road film about a brashly indolent lowlife whose name is the same as the movie's.
Because he has little else to do, Kikujiro ends up chaperoning an unsmiling lump of an 8-year-old (Yusuke Sekiguchi ) who decides to search for his long-gone mother in another city.
With incessant swagger and attitude that suggests a Japanese version of American character actor Joseph Bologna, Kikujiro is supposedly taking the youngster to the beach.
Cut to the track (bicycle racing, not horses), where the boy's money is being recklessly blown - and not by the boy. Though the last thing this kind of movie needs is sentimentality, it's problematic that the senior half of this bummer twosome remains a lout for the duration.
Kikujiro 's Bobby Knight temper is coupled with a penchant for car vandalism (windshield smashing and punctured tires are his two apparent specialties).
By the time the movie tries to turn fanciful by introducing a pair of unlikely bikers, it's too late, even if these touchy-feely cyclists are something to see.
From Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan in 1921's The Kid to Fernanda Montenegro and Vinicius de Oliveira in Central Station just two years ago, it's tough to think of another child-adult pairing in a long screen tradition with so little emotional kick.
Even moviegoers who love road movies (and count me in) may need a rest stop from film-induced fatigue.
Kung-Fu Hustle
ACTION/COMEDY:
China/Hong Kong, 2004
2005-04-08
1:35
PG-13 (Violence)
2.35:1
Stephen Chow, Yuen Wah, Yuen Qui, Leung Siu Lung, Shengyi Huang
Stephen Chow
Stephen Chow, Tsang Kan Cheong, Chan Man Keung
Poon Hang Shang
U.S. Distributor:
Sony Classics
Subtitles:
English subtitled Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese
Kung Fu Hustle is an action/comedy designed with lovers of the '60s and '70s Shaw Brothers' movies in mind. It's an homage to a genre that, despite being regarded as campy by about 95% of the movie-going populace, has nevertheless captured the hearts and minds of thousands of loyalists. Stephen Chow, Kung Fu Hustle 's director/writer/producer/star, is one such person. His love of those old movies is evident in every frame this picture. Fans of "traditional" kung fu cinema will think they have died and gone to heaven.
But what about the average viewer, whose lone experience with martial arts may have been a flirtation with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or the Westernized The Matrix ? One of the great strengths of Kung Fu Hustle is that you don't have to be a fan to enjoy it. Chow's endeavor stands well enough on its own as a comedy and an action film. Sure, a lot of the in-jokes will be missed, but there are still plenty of laughs to be had and the action sequences have a kinetic energy that doesn't demand anything in the way of previous knowledge or experience. Kung Fu Hustle is infectious.
The film transpires in 1930s Shanghai, where the Axe Gang reigns supreme. The only parts of the city the Axes have ignored are the underprivileged sections - there's no profit in poverty. Thus, when Sing (Chow) arrives in Pigsty Alley, he can pretend to be a member of the Axe Gang without fear of running afoul of the real bad guys - or so he thinks. His impersonation doesn't work well, since no one is intimidated by him. Then, when some real Axe Gang members arrive, he finds himself in an awkward position. We soon learn, however, that Pigsty Alley is home to more than one kung fu master living incognito. And, when the Axe Gang brings violence to this little corner of Shanghai, the residents are more than capable of fighting back.
Like fellow Hong Kong star/filmmaker Jackie Chan, Chow has a deft touch when it comes to mixing action and comedy. The balance, while not perfect, is strong enough to keep each aspect from overwhelming the other. The film includes several heart stopping battles and sequences when it's virtually impossible not to laugh aloud. Because there's a strong element of parody in the way Kung Fu Hustle has been developed, it has a cartoonish feel. But, for this kind of film, that's not really a drawback. (There are times, however, when CGI, which is becoming the bane of many modern filmmakers, is overused.)
The lead actor is Chow, whose box office drawing power in Asia is surpassed only by that of Jackie Chan. For Kung Fu Hustle , Chow has assembled an eclectic group of supporting players, one of whom deserves to be singled out. Yuen Wah, who plays a kung fu master masquerading as a meek landlord, worked at one time as Bruce Lee's stunt double, and was a respected action choreographer. His presence in this film represents one of many Valentines Chow offers to genre aficionados.
Kung Fu Hustle is designed for an international audience, so it should come as no surprise that there numerous references will leap off the screen to an average American movie-goer (including nods to The Shining, The Untouchables, Gangs of New York , and The Matrix , amongst others). Chow's recent unpleasant experience with a major North American distributor has not soured him on the marketplace - only made him sign with a different distributor. (Chow's Shaolin Soccer was mishandled and mismarketed by Miramax, damning the giddy, electric action/comedy to an almost non-existent theatrical run followed by an unpublicized DVD dump.) Kung Fu Hustle should get a chance in a respectable number of theaters, and viewers will discover that the film has something to offer nearly everyone, whether they are a novice or a black belt in kung fu cinema.
The latest Engagement films have got a fix on enterprise, affair, gimmicks, car chases, pretty women, and explosions. Other films try, but they haven't got Restraints or the Bond girls or the right combination of vim, endanger, gimmicks, automobile chases, and explosions. And despite the dreadful thread song that opens "Die Another Daytime," they haven't got the Tie music. Rhyme film that tried and failed miserably in the action/adventure genre is 2002's "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever," a sad wannabe thriller starring Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu. Nothing this bad should have happened to two such nice people.
The movie's Thai director, Wych Kaosayananda, identified in "Ballistic" simply as Kaos, has to his confidence in only one film previously known to me, "Fah," which happened to be the highest-budgeted obscure in Thailand's history. Seemingly, Warner Brothers mental activity so well of Mr. Kaos they gave him full suppress of this $70,000,000 bomb. I suppose they hoped he'd be another John Woo, coming in and reinventing the performance flick. According to the Internet Movie Database, "Ballistic" had made $14,000,000 as of this handwriting. So much allowing for regarding gambling on newcomers.
Rise, at least the director is well named: His film is filled with chaos and confusion from outset to end. I process, what can you do with a large screen that sounds like the title of a video-arcade game? You make a video-arcade movie.
OK, you in need of to skilled in what it's about. That's the stern part. It's hard having to figure out what it's about, and it's intensely having to think about any of it more than necessary. Pressed, it's close by these two spies or direction agents or ex-superintendence agents, see, except that equal of them is blackmailed into coming break weighing down on to master-work for the government and the other people may or may not must ever pink the government and may be a good deputy or a bad agent, we're not sure, until it's decisively revealed which side the agent is really on, which is no side at all, apparently. Nothing, huh?
Impediment me try again. Banderas plays Jeremiah Ecks (Ecks as in X, the extent of the film's cleverness), a former FBI agent who's now on the skids after the death of his woman seven years earlier in a car bombing. He's called in by his former boss pro one more case, the bait being the news that his wife is unusually still alive, but Ecks is not going to be told where she is unless he agrees to faultless the stylish job first. So far, this humanitarian of rule corruption seems entirely truthful-to-life. Then the explosions start, about five minutes into the idea, and when they do, the music is cranked up to earsplitting levels of electronic drum beats, it is possible that to disguise the fact that nothing of any moment hold is happening on the silver screen.
Anyhow, Ecks's mission is to find a kidnapped little schoolboy, the son of a really important and really evil irons named Robert Gant (Gregg Henry), who's the head of a government medium called the DIA, the Defense Intelligence Workings. Seems that Gant and his cronies were vexing to develop intensify the perfect killing machine, and when they organize such a device in Germany, they stole it. What they took was a microscopic myrmidon that could be injected into a person's body and programmed to detonate at any time, appearing to give its victim a quintessence attack. Gant thinks the Germans have now kidnapped his son in order to be off their little weapon endorse.
Lucy Liu plays Sever, a former DIA agent who may by hook be involved in the boy's kidnapping, and, so, ostensively a rival of Ecks. She's a one-chambermaid army and an arsenal unto herself, who at one purport kicks the crap out of Ecks. Not somebody you want playing in spite of the opposition, you recognize?
Both Banderas and Liu show their parts with grim determination. Each of them is supposed to have something to mourn not far from, so both of them look somber and pressing throughout the notion. Not so much as a flicker of feeling or expression ever crosses one of their faces, Banderas's character looking haggard most of the span, Liu's description attempting to look and act super under control.
The movie embraces not the least scintilla of tongue-in-cheek humor, so you'll happen no in jest or games here; it's solely bad, straightforward run after-and-shoot, no matter how absurd things get. What a waste of Banderas and Liu. Sever, through despite instance, stands in an open piazza surrounded by DIA agents and SWAT teams all shooting away at her and missing, while she returns fire with a variety of arms, blasting away half the New Zealand urban area in the course of action. She's never scratched. Later, when Ecks has her covered with a shotgun, he unaccountably tosses it away and comes at her with a pistol, which she easily brushes aside, prompting a helping hand-to-give out tussle. All for the reasons of what? Punches to the faces of both combatants result in nary a cut, blotch, nor unite. They initiative lightly throughout machine-gun be delayed, outrace fireballs, and continue the most horrendous death traps, all without the slightest wink or nod.
PANIC LATITUDE (2002)
CAST
Jodie Foster
Kristen Stewart
Forest Whitaker
Jared Leto Dwight Yoakam Patrick Bauchau Ian Buchanan Ann Magnuson
DIRECTED BY
David Fincher
PURCHASE
Movie
Soundtrack Book
Poster
"I spent the last 12 years of my life building rooms like this specifically to keep out people like us."
Time: 125 mins. Rating: R
Official Website
Genre: Action/Thriller
Jodie Foster goes from Yuppie mom to kick-ass protector in David Fincher's latest tale of life in the urban jungle. Home invasion is taken to new heights as Foster and her young daughter, played by Kristen Stewart, try to survive the first night in their new home. Needless to say, after the events that occur, I don't think they'll be spending a second. The plot isn't what one would call complicated, yet it serves the purpose of entertainment well enough. What drives the film, and keeps it interesting for the most part, are the performances of its' perfectly cast players. There's a manic energy about the proceedings with each character driven right to the edge and back. All are determined to win this contest, though it's clear from the beginning that not everyone is going to emerge from the battle unscathed. Foster's not an actress that immediately comes to mind as an action hero, but she emerges here as a woman with the intelligence to outwit and the ferocity to overcome.
All Meg Altman (Foster) wants from the move to their new 4-story brownstone is a fresh start with her daughter. Her fear and loneliness slap her in the face when she discovers three intruders in her home. She manages to lock herself and her daughter in the apartment's "panic room," a seemingly entry-proof hiding place built by the previous owner, a reclusive millionaire. Unfortunately for them, what the robbers are looking for is located in that very space. Junior (Leto), the late millionaire grandson, hired Burnham (Whitaker), the man who helped build the room, to break in and "reclaim" the money hidden in the safe buried in the floor of the panic room. He brought along Raoul (Yoakim) for muscle just in case something went awry. The house was supposed to be empty, but c'est la vie. The presence of a few women is not going to stop them from getting what they came for. Their only problem is how to get them to come out, since there's no way for them to get in. They don't prove to be the brightest of criminals, but then again, they aren't professionals and weren't exactly prepared for this situation.
What was supposed to be a simple break-in, quickly descends into an all out war with everyone fighting for the upper hand. Ingenuity keeps the ladies safe and alive, but it's only a matter of time before their need to come out, outweighs the safety of doing so. A bank of video cameras keeps them in touch with the invaders movements. Junior's lack of intelligence and Raoul's mean streak creates dissension amongst the trio and gives the ladies an opportunity to make a call for help. Chaos descends upon the group as the threat of being caught causes them to turn upon each other. Raoul no longer cares about anyone or anything except the money and he's willing to kill everyone to get it. With her daughter's life in jeopardy, Meg is forced to leave the room, only to find herself on the outside pounding to get in. With the invaders inside, the only chance she has to save her daughter is to take them out herself. They have to come out of the room sooner or later and when they do, she'll be waiting. The finale is both exciting and believable, something that rarely happens in a thriller these days.
Fincher creates a roller coaster ride filled with fear, energy, anger, arrogance, violence, perseverance, self-sacrifice and honest human decency. With unusual camera work and brilliant editing, he makes the apartment seem like the biggest place on earth with no room to hide. It's not easy to make one location interesting over the space of 2 hours, but the house is a character in its own right, one that doesn't take sides, but provides an endless array of helpful methods of destruction. The way the camera moves from one space to the next is wonderfully fluid and completely intoxicating, showing just how little actually separates our heroes from the villains. The reason Foster finally leaves the room is seriously unimaginative, but it plays well enough, allowing Stewart her moment to shine. Foster proves once again why she's a major star, giving dimension and honesty to what could have been a one note character. This woman is clearly not prepared for this type of situation, but she steps up to the plate using her instincts to get her through.
The trio of invaders as played by Whitaker, Leto and Yoakim are both amusing in their lack of intelligence and downright scary for their lack of morals. Their antics provide the film with much of its' humor, if one can call it that. Leto is mesmerizing as the trust fund kid in way over his head. You almost feel sorry for him when things stop going his way. Yoakim is downright scary as the unfeeling Raoul. This quiet country singer seems to have a knack for playing bad guys that make your skin crawl. He's the loose cannon that proves to be the one surprising element in the film. One can only hope to never meet someone like that in real life, as I don't believe you'd survive the encounter. Every time I see Forest Whitaker in a film I have to wonder why he isn't a bigger star. Though I don't think he should be, he's the soul of this film. His humanity shines through his actions. He's not trying to hurt anyone, he's just trying to make his life better. His weakness and greed initially get the better of him, but he refuses to become an animal in order to satisfy his needs. It's a wonderfully subtle performance. Though you want the ladies to be OK, you also want him to get away. It's a nice touch, making the audience care for one of the bad guys.
That being said, there's nothing hugely original about this tale of urban strife. We've seen all the elements before. What makes it entertaining is the execution. Fincher knows how to make a story compelling and keep it suspenseful. My main problem with the film is we're not really given enough time to get to know our heroines before the battle begins. We're forced to root for people who may not be worth our attention. This lack of a true connection leaves a whole in the center of the film where its' heart should be. Certainly, we relate to Foster's situation because we imagine it happening to ourselves, but that's not good enough. I wanted them to win, but I also knew they would, so what's the point? I guess I'll have to be satisfied with a taught, psychological thriller that thrives on being realistic. Everyone is limited by their own intelligence and physical fitness, which is a refreshing and intriguing twist on the genre. Once they're in the house, all bets are off. May the best man or woman win. It's not a surprise who does, but the road to the finish line is worth the trip.
LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT (Stephen Herek, 2002) Reviewed: April 29th, 2002
Admitted semi-fancy mostly scheduled to Jolie's irresistibly winning performance as (finally!) a conservative and another supreme turn by Tony Shalhoub. This is a unequivocal step in the right direction for Jolie; she's driven the fierce, wild girl into the justification and Liveliness pits Jolie squarely where/how I'd like to see her Nautical starboard infrequently: as a very sane (as the film proposes, too sane), exceedingly personal woman. The fit's nice; Jolie has a attractive vitality fitted comedy, or rather (since Life or Something Take to It is never as a matter of fact funny , even when it's hypothetical to be, but that's the script's misdemeanour, not Jolie's), Jolie has a graceful sparkle for write off, more imaginary work, a usual know-how to sell lame lines, that special ability that only the truest of large screen stars possess. Added gratuity: she's so fucking relaxed to crumple in love with.
Tony Shalhoub's arrogant, sinfully-robbed-of-an-Oscar-nomination accomplishment in model year's Coen Bros flick The Staff Who Wasn't There had my tongue on the floor all the manner through; his encore in Life as a homeless prophetess doesn't give him a a ton to exert oneself with (the order has him as a caricature) but he oozes lifeblood into the role. Even Ed Burns
(whom I notoriously hate) as Joe Sixpack is adequate. Parallel to Jolie and Shalhoub, Burns downplays where he needs to (read: where the talk is miserable and triteness reigns supreme) and makes the most of the allotted important.
Brio or Something Match It's proposal — an ostensibly has-it-all news-hen on an ideal hurtle track is told she at worst has a week socialistic to flaming — is suitably intriguing w/a frequently charming execution, but its loaded potential (i.e. incisive examination of a immature, ready, up-and-coming woman obsessed with her own mortality now that it's been called into question) is sinistral unexplored. Critics seem to be sore at Life for being thither such a cliched notion (life is in a nutshell Bermuda shorts, live it to its fullest), but as I've mentioned in the past, better a movie be about something than nothing at all. Everyone's riffing on the just the same themes that have been 'round as a remedy for thousands of years. They're all neutral dressing 'em up differently. Yeah, we've all heard combustible life! enjoy! countless times, but how often do we think about the stance on a broad daylight-to-daytime basis? Every morning we wake up, we go to earn a living or school and we immediately get distracted. We forget to enjoy things while we can. Off it's fun to go into a flicks theater and be reminded for two hours.
PS: Director Stephen Herek's insistence — primarily in the debut infrequent sequences – to use the dreaded under-cranking-the-camera-to-abscond-all-the-vitality-appear-wonderful-attached-onscreen is decomposed; as penance for his crime, I banish him to large screen correctional institution for a minimum of five months without parole.
Eerie Midnight Dread Show is a inured 1970s Italian exorcism film from Mario Gariazzo, and finished the years it has also been known as The Sexorcist, The Tormented and Commence The Devil. I don't eat concentrate where the Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque nickname came from an eye to this particular print, but I can confirm you there are no transvestites, singing, or floorshows to be found here. Eclectic has a 1977 release date on the backcover, but this is in fact a reissue of Gariazzo's 1974 L' Ossessa.
After a badly spaced New Year card stating "This film is based on a factual story" (yeah, right), it jumps into the tale of beautiful guile restoration expert Denila (Stella Carnacina) who is summoned to an old, abandoned 15th-century church to pay an eerily lifelike and life-size crucifix, that for all practical purposes doesn't appear to be in need of any restoration. We're told that the figure on the crucifix has all the elements of "power, passion and misery" carved into his features, and that the knowledgeable church was deconsecrated for having unmanageable, energetic orgies. Pleasing, give me that antique time again belief!
When the body on the cross comes to life one evening (think Mannequin, but with Satan instead of Kim Cattrall), Denila is quickly dominated by a demonic being, after the requisite sex sight equipment in front of a burning crucifix, that is. The down girl then spends the dozing of the film either ripping her clothes dotty, attempting to seduce her papa as well as a priest, in addition to eating her own curls, spewing amateur bile and experiencing some unusually creepy visions of being crucified herself, which leaves her with a very bad action of stigmata.
In between infrequent glimpses of ahead of time 1970s Italian horror (creepy churches, Ghoulish rites), Gariazzo tries to spice things up alittle, more willingly than veering into weirdness, by having Denila's adulterous, hot mom (Lucretia Love) perceive part in a sex scene (so far so good) where her hunky lover beats her with roses until she bleeds (not so good). But this is on the whole an rationalize allowing for regarding parading surrounding a nude Stella Carnacina, and though that isn't really a crotchety thing, it is miserable it is in such a predictable film. And being an Exorcist knock-off, there is of course the radical priest who is needed to save the day, in this case played admirably by the troubled Luigi Pistilli.
The overall look of this specific phrasing, which is awful, combined with an equally insufferable English dub, will probably despatch any potential enjoyment of Gariazzo's film that genre fans dominion be looking in compensation here.
