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mambo_man
Reviews
Nixon (1995)
I don't get it
Why do so many people who have posted to this list see this film as negative or unsympathetic. I was astounded that Stone made a film as kind and empathic as this about Nixon. Didn't people see this as a film about the dichotomy of man? The two characters - "Dick" the idealistic, fundamentally decent man (hence the interlude with the fictitious oilmen and the hooker in 1963) consumed by the beast "Nixon" (e.g. Hopkins refers to his character in the third person increasingly as the film goes on? or the line to the effect of "I'd like to offer condolences but Nixon can't") - the product of a thousand slights, insults and defeats on the way up - and the hint of the gradual reemergence of "Dick" at the end?. How a man could with such genius and absolute certainty understand the days he lived for but be so hopelessly out of touch with the days that he inherited. "Nixon" WAS a monster, he did things of evil unparallelled to that time by an American President (and I'm talking about the war in Cambodia and Laos, incidentally, not that pee in a pot that was Watergate) - but if we had Dick Nixon in the White House these days, instead of the current monster, our troubles in this world would be far less and much sooner ended.
Nixon was a film about a man who was looking for redemption, but chose the wrong path on which to seek it. It was an attempt not to rehabilitate, but to explain. I think very highly of Stone for having the courage both as a film maker and as a man to have made it.
Oh and the scene at the 1968 convention is brilliant, just wonderful
Hearts of the World (1918)
Full Metal Jacket, 70 Years before
An profound and astonishingly powerful film which, after the vile-spiritedness of "Birth Of A Nation" and the seeming hubris of "Intolerance", affirmed Griffith as a genuine humanist. A genuine anti-war film, unambivalent and unafraid to capture the truest horror.
Unbreakable (2000)
H - F - H
Here we go again - hack director follows up his 2nd rate knock off of "The Shining" with a 3rd rate knock off of "The Shining" - all without any apparent understanding of what made the film he is so obsessed with great. H - F - H sums up my reaction to the film - and if you need a clue, the H and H stand for Ho Hum.
The Man from Hong Kong (1975)
Aussie Action classic......fnerk!
"The Man from Hong Kong" is a lost classic of the "so bad it's good variety" which almost defies neat encapsualtion. Forget the at times seemingly ad-libbed script (the two Aussie coppers appear to be making it up as they go along), forget acting which only very occasionally rises to the modest standard of George Lazenby's gifts, forget even the sight of Aussie icon Rebecca Gilling showing off all her ample charms - the real fascination in this film if how every big budget action film cliche is thrown in here - but done on the lowest possible budget. The exploding Toyota Crown at the highlight of the pre-title sequence is a dead giveaway. So is the scene where the guy falls off the ladder. He just falls off the ladder..... thud! And the way the two guys at the brginning *run* to the top of Uluru and duke it out. Like you can do that....
A great film to watch with some rowdy friends.
The Man from Hong Kong (1975)
Aussie Action classic......fnerk!
"The Man from Hong Kong" is a lost classic of the "so bad it's good variety" which almost defies neat encapsualtion. Forget the at times seemingly ad-libbed script (the two Aussie coppers appear to be making it up as they go along), forget acting which only very occasionally rises to the modest standard of George Lazenby's gifts, forget even the sight of Aussie icon Rebecca Gilling showing off all her ample charms - the real fascination in this film if how every big budget action film cliche is thrown in here - but done on the lowest possible budget. The exploding Toyota Crown at the highlight of the pre-title sequence is a dead giveaway. So is the scene where the guy falls off the ladder. He just falls off the ladder..... thud! And the way the two guys at the brginning *run* to the top of Uluru and duke it out. Like you can do that....
A great film to watch with some rowdy friends.
A View to a Kill (1985)
A Question of Bond as Film or Film as Bond
There are a number of odd things at play in "A View To A Kill". Is there a Bond film where he actually kills so FEW people? Does he fire the famous Walther PPK in more than one scene? Why no gadgets to deploy? Here we see the famous cocksman actually dismissing a sexist comment from a comrade as tasteless and sleeping in a rocking chair rather than with a frightened, half drunk young woman when the opportunity presented itself?
Strange days indeed, Commander Bond.
AVTAK is of course, the last outing for Roger Moore as 007 and usually, along with Moonraker, voted the poorest Bond entry. I myself can't agree - Moonraker may never be rehabilitated, but AVTAK has it's merits as well as it's downsides and those merits are considerable.
On the downside - the pre title sequence is pretty ordinary, and thankfully the goofy John Glen trademark cultural incongruity is gotten out of the way right at the beginning. The girl, Tanya Roberts is utterly lame (*how many times does Bond have to grab her hand and pull her up after she's fallen? And how do her shoes stay on?) And - sacrilege of sacrilege - Christopher Walken is wildly erratic (does all that wiping of his nose he does signify anything?) as the bad guy, although it must be said he appears to actually enjoy his villainous work.
The good stuff, though, is the well paced plot (a bit of recycling from Goldfinger here)which sees Bond actually have to do some spy work and make some emotional connections. The scene where Bond learns of Tibbets murder throws Moore's usually "lighter" Bond into sharp and vicious relief. Grace Jones character is interesting and suprisingly noble (although her motivation is a mystery) The mine flooding scene is one of the most exciting and graphic in the Bond series. There is a terrific soundtrack, Patrick Macnee is as always great fun, Alison Doody has about two scenes and steals them totally - what a lovely looking girl she is/was and the stunts in Paris are excellent. And one cannot help but notice how much of the "tone" of Moore's performance was picked up by Dalton in "The Living Daylights".
Really, there's a lot of overblown claptrap in the Bond series - the non actor/non personality of Pierce Brosnan ensures that will continue for the (sigh) foreseeable future - but AVTAK is a different, but not unworthy entry in the series that should not be overlooked.
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
He always did like that mausoleum - put him in it! (maybe teeny tiny spoilers)
Seems that everyone wants to dump on this film. Call me crazy, but I think it's one of the two classically overlooked Bond films ("Licence to Kill" is the other) and I really can't see the reason that it gets the reputation it seems to have inherited.
Let's look at it coldly, shall we? Bond films are basically templates for the manipulation of fixed elements which generally don't change from outing to outing. In no particular order, there's the pre-title sequence (in TMWTGG, pretty tame - but then it's just a re-do of "From Russia With Love isn't it?) the title song (awful - along with "Tomorrow Never dies" the worst ever - I'm not really making much of a case so far, am I?) the Villain (Christopher Lee - outstanding, one of the best ever), the girls (Maud Adams - total hottie, Britt Ekland, damn fine too and who really seems to be enjoying her work in the film), the car (AMC Hornet - cool), the gadgets (Lee's Car-O-Plane rocks!), the one-liners (some great, some meatheaded and offensive)and Bonds suits (oh goddawful!).
The usual backroom team all make cameos - M seems to have some sort of grudge against the world and Moneypenny appears far too little. The franchise can change Bonds as often as it likes, but it has never recovered, in my opinion, from the loss of Lois Maxwell's Moneypenny. the unctuous redneck from "Live and Let Die" reappears, although we are comforted somewhat by the fact that he is dragged off to a Thai prison at the end, hopefully to be locked up for life.
So there's very good in this film - Lee is stupendous, Moore seems game for most of it and Ekland has fun - and there's the wrongheaded and dumb (redneck, slide whistle). But on the whole that good far outweighs the bad, I think, and we are left with a film which strings along a good story line, reveals more about Bond's psyche than any of the pretentious twaddle dished out in the Brosnan films (and it's not a pleasant message we get about Bond, either) and gives us lasting pillars to the legacy of the series. It's not "Dr. No", it's not even "The World Is Not Enough" but it is by no means the worst Bond film and it's certainly one which deserves to be revisited by the cognoscenti and valued for what it is - a period piece which saw the series at a crossroad, which they successfully negotiated.
So, maybe all you flinty hearted Bond fans, it's time for a thawing of the freeze that surrounds TMWTGG, and we welcomed the little runt back into the fold. Come on - you know you wanna.....
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
From Stanley, with love
"Eyes Wide Shut" isn't Stanley Kubrick's greatest film but then Kubrick's genius was such that he set the bar of his own standards so ridiculously high that even his lesser works are fascinating, compelling and essential.
Such is "Eyes Wide Shut". Despite the tremendous handicap of featuring Nicole Kidman (an actor so impossibly bad that the only positive contributions she makes to the film is when she is naked or silent), Kubrick has crafted a beautiful, complex, almost mystical film that works on layers and levels unimagined by most all of the film makers filling today's cinemas.
In short, Kubrick has created a fascinating character study, based on the flawed and dichotomous Bill Harford as he attempts to reconcile modern modes of sexual conduct with his highly traditional modes of moral conduct. Sexual desire and insecurity is portrayed as an underwold, while everyman Cruise has to navigate through it like a modern Ulyesses searching for his Penelope (now there's a modern irony....)
Perhaps mostly importantly, though, Kubrick weaves through "Eyes Wide Shut" a number of touching and occasionally humourous homages to his own work - almost as if sensing his own time was short. The shot of Leelee Sobieki backing away from Cruise is burned in my memory as sheer Kubrick genius. A wonderful, evocative soundtrack, sumptuous shots, inventive lighting and the remote decadence that only Kubrick can conjure all contribute to the feeling that this film is washing over you, inviting you to delve into it and lose yourself deeper into it's mystery and dark recesses.
In short, a film that survives Kidman (how does this woman get work? have people lost Laura Dern or Julianne Moore's phone number?)and in no way diminished the non pariel reputation of Stanley Kubrick, the master film maker and one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.