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Reviews
Ashes to Ashes (2008)
It continues the story of Life On Mars but also works on its own
Over three seasons the answers to many of the questions that were left hanging at the end of Life On Mars are slowly revealed. Because Alex Drake has been making a study of the papers Sam Tyler's left for her to find before he committed suicide she is completely convinced that she is hallucinating based on Sam's story and doesn't take things too seriously at first. Where as Liverpool in 1970s Life On Mars is gritty with muted colors, 1980s London is bright and colorful. The set designs for both shows recreated the periods perfectly without feeling contrived or kichi. The musical soundtracks are also excellent. Ashes to Ashes with one more season than Life On Mars is able to explore the spirituality which is really at the center of both shows. Going back and re-watching Life On Mars this is also much more apparent than I remembered. When an officer from internal affairs arrives in season three upon meeting him for the first time Alex asks him the time but he tells her his watch has stopped. The police officers in 1980s world most all decide whether they are going to follow the smooth talking internal affairs officer who flatters the team promissing them advancement at a better unit if they will denounce Gene or stick with Gene who is, well, Gene. The internal affairs officer reveals everyone's past which most of the characters except for Sam, Alex and possibly Gene have long forgotten. The ending is satisfying if bitter sweet and I diffinately think one more season to tie everything together would be fantastic. I hope that it happens.
Almost Famous (2000)
Typical Cameron Crowe
As soon as the movie ends you already miss the characters. They seem so real that you wish they were real and you could meet them again. The set design, costumes and locations were spot on early 70s. The production team seems to really know that moment in time around 72 when the 60s really ended. Crowe was indeed a 15 year old writer for Rolling Stone Magizine. I don't know how much of the material in the movie comes literally from his actual experiences traveling with a rock band. I Do know that his book Fast Times at Ridgemont High was almost a diary of his time with Linda and her friends using a great deal of the actual things they said and did for his book and of course the movie based on it. That would tend to make me think much of Almost Famous also truly happened.
Guilt (2019)
Sometimes a four part series feels like 2 parts too long.
But not this one. It moves quickly with twists and turns. Multiple characters all hiding their own secrets and their varying degrees of Guilt. If anything an extra hour would have been welcome and not felt at all like filler. The acting is top notch of course full of all those familiar faces from the best UK television. I binge watched series one and two over the weekend and am very happy to hear that a series three is to be made. Hopefully the back story of the two brothers rocky relationship will be explored a little more. Max's claim of a childhood trauma that he holds Jake responsible for seemed to be too lacking in details to be much of a satisfying explanation. Jake on the other hand seems to be rather annoying and blames Max for his inability to achieve success in his various endeavors, particularly his dreams of being in a successful rock band, when it is really down to his own lack of ambition. At any rate I hope that the writing is as good on series number three and the wait will not be too long.
Iron Man (1931)
Todd Browning doesn't waste his boxing film with, well, boxing
Iron Man is a boxing movie like Freaks is a circus movie. Todd Browning was a serious pioneering director who had been making films since the teens. After his success with Dracula I doubt he was interested in making a B picture. He took well worn boxing pulp magazine story tropes and added an awful lot of sexual innuendo going on just below the surface. He stripped the R. W. Burnett source material ,which is itself excellent and worth a read, of most of its characters and nearly all of the boxing. In that brief pre-code era he could push the limits of adult material in a way that would be impossible after 1934. Jean Harlow is great as Mason's wife, the beautiful strong confident gold digging ex showgirl Rose who knows what she wants from men and uses sex to gets it. When things go tits up for her she just packs up her loot and blows town without the clunky burden of a production code need to make her face her comeuppance and suffer a bad end. With a running time of just over an hour Browning had to get down to business quickly and use the barest subtext to establish that boxing manager/ trainer Regan doesn't just love his younger protegee Kid Mason, he loves, loves him. Ayers is usually in some state of undress when they are together and twice in the film they wind up sleeping in each other's bed. As the only character that really cares about Mason Regan seems to be the good guy in the story but Browning drops a few crumbs of dialog in to create some unease about even his true motives. Regan who looks to be about five years older than Mason asks him if he remembers the first time they got drunk together. "Yeah, I was about 15 when you took me fishing and you bought me beer and I fell out of the boat". "Then you came up with a story to tell my Grandma that I saved a baby from drowning". When Rose want's to get rid of Regan it's not because she cares if he's banging her husband but that she want's her new lover of convenience Lewis to take over Mason's management. Mason is now the champ so this is presumably a bribe to get Lewis to use his Hollywood connections to get her into the movies. Regan realizing that he is losing Mason sinks into drink and depression. When confronted by Rose about selling Mason's contract he surprises her by readily agreeing to give it to her for free but under the condition that at some point in the future Mason must defend his tittle against a boxer of Regan's choice. Regan pulls himself together and begins training another young man who can defeat Mason. Moments before the fight Mason receives proof that he has been a cuckold and Rose has left him. With this distressing knowledge and a tough opponent Mason does in fact lose the title. If this was Regan's plan it may have worked. The last moments of the film has a broken and sobbing Mason alone with Regan in his dressing room. The last line is Regan's oft repeated gruff but affectionate admonishment to "put on your robe Kid before you catch pneumonia". Mason looks up and smiles credits roll.
The only print I've seen of this film is of so-so quality and a few minutes have been cut which I suspect are some Ayres bare booty shower room shots. This would not be unheard of in a pre-code sports themed film. A- list director, up and coming cast coming off other strong performances, Jean Harlow for God's sake and pre-code material. Any one of those alone would make this film a must see.
Surf School (2006)
No option for zero stars?
Makes "Porky's III" Seem like "Citizen Kane" by comparison. Perhaps it would be ok playing in the background on a TV in a bar..... with the sound turned off. Lots of hard bodies in trunks and bikinis plus inserts of stock footage showing real surfers riding big waves. Ok, for that purpose it might rate one star.