Change Your Image
strokeguy
Reviews
Top Secret! (1984)
Keep the joke a Top Secret!
Pound for pound, no comedy has made me laugh more than "Top Secret!". It's a satire by the Zucker Brothers (Airplane!) of both WWII flicks ( like the Great Escape) and Elvis Presley musicals. Think about the chronology for a minute.
Satire for the most part isn't done very well these days (see the awful 'Not Another Teen Movie' if you don't believe me). The trap that many satires today fall into is that they simply recreate a scene but they do not let you onto what it as about the scene or movie that it deserves to be zinged.
The Zucker Brothers know this. There's a satire early on of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" which starts with the familiar scene as we know it from Raiders but it soon goes into other areas before revealing itself as one of the more creative jokes in the movies. That's really a theme to this movie. The scene start familiar as we know them, but get stranger as they play on before revealing themselves at the end. This is evident with the fist fight in the truck, or the famous "Swedish book store" scene. The Zucker brothers seem to take scenes that one step further than what everybody else would (something the Farelly brothers have picked up on). They also fill the whole screen with jokes
To comment on the acting is a exercise in futility (nobody goes to see Top Secret! for the acting) but here it goes:
The actors play this perfectly for a satire. Throughout the movie they are deadpan serious (even when a long lost love is 'measuring you up'). The actor can't be in on the jokes (another thing you see in newer satires). The casting is dead on as well. Similar to Airplane!, character actors play the key roles. You have Omar Sharif as a much abused spy ("This isn't the Howard Johnsons"), Michael Gough as a kidnapped scientist ("But what about my tunnel"), and Peter Cushing as the aforementioned Swedish bookstore owner. All of them seem to have fun poking fun at their more serious images
Top Secret is a satire up there with the 50's Warner Brothers, 70's Mel Brooks classics, and recent Farelly Brother romp- and don't let anybody tell you the joke before you watch
Ben-Hur (1959)
A wonderful old fashioned thriller
Ben Hur is still the best of the biblical epics of the 40s and 50s and it still holds up well today. This is one of those movie that you claim "They don't make 'em like this anymore". Large and lavish with 'a cast of thousands', it astounds to this day. If you watch this movie for one reason, make it the chariot race which is still one of the best action sequences put on film ever. There aren't many action sequences that get heart racing like this. The rumbles of the horses, the overhead shots, the dust billowing up from the hoofs are simply exhilarating. The chariot race is all 'old-fashioned' film making. There is no computers. Everything you see is happening. There is some magnificent stuntwork (sadly, one stuntman died filming this sequence). There are some other strong sequences, like the Galley ship scene, in which director William Wyler (who made one of my other favourite movies "The Collector") builds up some wonderful suspense. The acting is strong especially Stephen Boyd as Masella, Ben Hur's sly nemesis. Charlton Heston does a fine job in the title role although I think he could do these biblical roles in his sleep. Makes a perfect double bill with "Spartacus" (if you have 7 hours to kill!)
Memento (2000)
A solid 'gimmick movie'
Memento is a great 'gimmick movie'. A gimmick movie is a movie which depends on a gimmick in the storytelling or character development to hold your interest. Most gimmick movies from "Nick of Time" to "Sliding Doors" don't really hold up but others like "Memento" and "Seven" do. Here are the gimmicks in "Memento" :
1)The main character, played by Guy Pearce has short term memory problems.
2)The story is told backwards.
The reason this works where the others don't is that the two gimmicks work in conjunction. There are scenes when characters appear and talk to Guy Pearce like they've known him for years but he's clueless- and so are you.
The acting is solid. Pearce does a nice job as somebody who no matter how hard he tries doesn't have clue what's going on. Carrie-Ann Moss plays the love interest in a nice follow-up to "The Matrix". Joe Pantiliano is outstanding (of course, he always is).
Having said all that, I felt let down at the ending. I didn't get that sense that the wool had been pulled over my eyes as I did with "The Usual Suspects and especially "The Sixth Sense". I think it needed another 30 minutes of storytelling. Still it is worth watching and will definitely hold your interest.
The Collector (1965)
an 'ahead of its time' classic
Long before Hannibal Lecter's first appearance on celluloid, William Wyler's "The Collector" presented us with the premise of the gentleman killer, although you do not think of him as a killer.
The Collector refers to a lonely butterfly collector played by Terrence Stamp, who lives by himself in rural England. He kidnaps a pretty college student played by Samantha Eggar. He has no plans to hurt her but feels that the more time she spends with him, the more chances she will fall in love with him
That backstory is the major difference between "The Collector" and your other serial killer movies. Today's serial killer movies starts with the mad killer. The Collector starts out fairly innocently and slowly loses that sense of kindness. The movie's end is almost the opening of today's murderer movies.
The two person cast is outstanding. Terence Stamp is wonderfully creepy- and smart! However he does give off a sense of pathos. You really hope that he could hook up with Samantha Eggar. Eggar's performance is brilliant. She is sexy, yet gives off a vulnerability and later on desperation.
Wyler's direction is wonderful when you consider he essentially has two actors in one set (for a comparison rent Hitchcock's "Rope").Even with these limitations, he still creates suspense and compels you to watch even though there's not a lot of 'stuff' going on.
"The Collector" is an underrated gem, perfect to rent when "Hannibal" or "Along came a Spider" is out at the video store
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Bloody and Brilliant
Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" was a true product of the late 60's. It was in the late 1960's the production codes started to dissolve and filmmakers really started to experiment with sexuality, language, and violence. "The Wild Bunch" falls into the latter- and it's one of the best movies ever made (and the last great western).
The violence of "The Wild Bunch" is bloody, brutal, and unrelenting.It is its presentation that is unique. Violence shown in slow motion was first used on "Bonnie & Clyde" but "The Wild Bunch" takes that and multiplies it exponentially. Its influence can be felt today however, in the works of John Woo, "Reservoir Dogs", "The Matrix", and "Saving Private Ryan".
The story take place in the early 20th century with the old west meeting its death. A group of outlaws plan one last score. Through that their loyalty, integrity, and friendships are tested. That's all I'll let you in on.
The casting is Brilliant. Older, grizzled, actors play the Wild Bunch. William Holden looks like he's been through hell and back. There is one scene he rides away from the camera on a horse. The story goes that Peckinpah was heard to say "look at that back- it's a tired back!". Ernest Borgnine shows his skills in one of last great roles. I get the feeling that if "The Wild Bunch" was made today, it would star young, cool, pretty boys (along with obligatory love interests).
There is one other part of "The Wild Bunch" that was inspiring- the opening credits. Opening credits today are well- non existent. Flash the title and jump into the movie. Opening credits can be to a movie what an Overture is to an opera. "The Wild Bunch" knows this. Each credit at the opening paints a picture. Sometimes it's a picture of beauty, sometimes it's a picture of death but it sets up wonderfully the main theme of the movie: a loss of innocence and entrance into a bloody violent world.
One last thing- "The Wild Bunch" proves once again what I call the "Gatling Gun rule" (any movie with a Gatling gun can't be all bad).