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jeffreyfrankel
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Le samouraï (1967)
Interesting good thriller but many logical mistakes
In the last scene the hitman, who up till then never let people see he had a gun until he meets his target alone, enters a night club, goes up to the pianist, and takes a gun out. Why do something so stupid? More than a dozen people saw him.
We never find out why he had to kill the manager/owner of the night club at the beginning of the film. After this killing he allows himself to be picked up by the police in his original clothes - he made no effort to change his appearance. For some reason after he steals a car he goes to a back street mechanic to get the number plates changed, yet he only uses the car for one day and one job. In addition after every job he gets rid of the gun, he never kills more than one person with the gun.
Here was a man who earned large sums of money as a hit man, yet he lived in a seedy apartment in Paris.
Definitely worth watching but not a lesson in how to be a hit man.
Max and Helen (1990)
Painful story
The suggestion is that Simon Wiesenthal decided not to prosecute the Camp Commandent, but he did in 1962 even against the wishes of the two witnesses, who were probably the only survivors of this camp. We dont know how it affected them or their son who was the result of rape by the camp commander, and until that time was brought up as Jewish and thought his father had died in the war fighting the Germans. It is possible the book by SW and the film changed the names, but since there was a prosecution in 1962 it is difficult to see how SW could have hidden his actions from the two witnesses and the son.
Bullitt (1968)
The car chase is memorable, but is the story realistic?
I saw this film when it first came out, but since then I have seen numerous detective films and I wonder if this story can be regarded as realistic. A gangster decides to leave the Chicago mob and arranges for somebody else to go to San Francisco in his place to tell his story. The mobster is going to Rome or London with 2m bucks to escape. However instead of going direct from Chicago or even via New York before the replacement talks or gets killed he goes to San Francisco and waits for the replacement to get killed and then gets on a plane to Europe. Really? In addition when somebody squeals today he is questioned by the police/FBI in a police/FBI building immediately he gives himself up and not kept in an unsecure hotel. The hit man was said to be "professional", yet the two people he shot were not immediately killed only injured. Some professional! No explanation why the replacement and his girlfriend were killed, since the mob must have known he was no mobster, had no criminal record and knew nothing about the mob apart from the gangster who paid him to impersonate him.
Casablanca (1942)
The world will always welcome lovers
This is the romantic film that will still be here in 100 years. Bogart and Bergmann are at their peak, and Bergmann is beautiful. It is a movie which is believable and a joy to watch either alone or with company. I have seen it numerous times and I rarely notice it's not in colour. Many scenes are enthralling. The song "As time goes by..." always reminds me of this film and Bogart. Many phrases stick with me after each viewing, "Play it Sam, you played it for her, play it for me.", "it ain't worth a hill of beans", "we'll always have Paris.", "It's still the same old story, a fight for love and glory." It's one of those films that you couldn't see it with other actors in the parts, all of them are perfect.
Blue Ice (1992)
Story line lacks logic
I saw this because of Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins and Ian Holm star in it, although Bob Hoskins has a very small part. In the beginning the Sean Young character is receiving a message on her car phone from somebody who is probably an American spy. It is not clear why she is receiving the message apart ffrom the fact that the spy is her boyfriend. She is not in the spy business. Surely a spy would have a more suitable contact than his girlfriend. It is true her husband is the American ambassador in London but she does not tell him. She keeps it secret until she eventually meets Michael Caine's character. So she has nobody in the spy business to give it to. Later on we meet a man who introduces himself to Michael Caine as somebody who sees music as a form of code and that messages can be coded in music scores. What this has to do with anything is not made clear, although he is killed by the British head of one of the intelligence agencies, and we are not told what he knows, if anything. This head of intelligence lives in an expensive London house, wears expensive clothes, drives an upmarket car, belongs to an expensive private Gentlemans Club in central London and complains "What have they done for us?" as his excuse for cheating the British Government out of a large sum of money and killing whoever gets in his way. Strange journey of Sean Stacy driven by an American Embassy driver and followed by American intelligence operatives, and not clear why the driver and operatives have different objectives or even why they are concerned with her. Michael Caine does a good job of finding his way through a murky logic-less story. Good scenes of London in the 1980's, and many exciting fights etc (nothing really nasty apart from the occasional death). Watch it for Michael Caine and the other top actors, as well as the Jazz and Boby Short and Charlie Watts, but don't expect to learn anything about the spy business. Generally I liked it and the acting was believable.
45 Years (2015)
A must see movie, but discomforting
I saw this film some months ago, and an event in my life has shown me that this film has dealt with a past secret in the best way possible. In my case I discovered from recently disclosed census returns that my mother had a sister who died young, before I was born. My mother never spoke about her, and my cousins never knew about her either. I and one of my cousins were so shocked by the revelation that we could not sleep the night of the discovery. As that generation are all dead there was no-one to talk to about the situation apart from my cousins and friends. Friends weren't particularly interested nor affected, and my wife had died four years ago. That kind of discovery stayed with me for days and affected what I did, felt and thought about. The same for one of my cousins. Neither of the two main actors, Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay jumped up and down and made a big fuss, because that doesn't happen in real life. You go through your days, but it is always there affecting the way you are. I gave this a nine because I know it can be a discomforting movie, but it is definitely worth watching.