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DannyNoonan68
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To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
Everybody Wang Chung Tonight! ...Or not.
A lot of people (the great Roger Ebert included) would have you believe that To Live and Die in L.A. is a stunning, suspenseful thriller beautifully shot and directed by William Friedkin. I know that the eighties were a lean time for quality cinema, but the pumping Wang Chung soundtrack and William Peterson's appalling acting annihilates any tension that may have been attempted in pretty much any given scene.
Oh. And when I say "Wang Chung soundtrack" I don't mean a handful of tastefully or cleverly placed songs, like say, The Graduate, Harold and Maude or Magnolia. I mean SOUNDTRACK. Not just the appalling songs distastefully and carelessly strewn in the background, but weird techno-synth monstrosities attempting to build the tension of action scenes or underscore quiet moments.
When someone says that this film is a "lost treasure"... and a lot of people do... It only makes sense if they are referring to it as one of the great lost comedies of the eighties. I still regularly, randomly will laugh out load thinking about one particularly Wang Chung heavy chase sequence in that movie and a couple of ludicrously overwrought faces that William Peterson makes with his "acting".
Five Stars.......
Out of Ten
Shine a Light (2008)
Brilliant Film-making, Terrible...
It had such great potential. Martin Scorsese and The Rolling Stones. Yet somehow The Rolling Stones appear to have been replaced by embarrassing old men. Meaning that the two hours of this film becomes more a trial than a treat. There are two things genuinely saddening about this film. The first is that it is so brilliantly shot. You can't help think that if it was a show actually worth recording it could have been one of the great concert movies like "The Last Waltz" or "Stop Making Sense". The camera placement and editing is nothing short of perfect. The other is that Scorsese keeps inter cutting fantastic archival footage of The Stones when they were genuinely interesting and able to hold a tune. This footage just underlines how dull the 2008 version of the Rolling Stones actually are. Maybe Scorsese should have made a straight documentary on the subject matter. Indeed the only highlights come from the cameos. Jack White comes on stage and introduces the concept of singing rather than shouting and gesticulating ridiculously to Mick. Buddy Guy drops in for a song and blows the Stones of stage by producing a massively talented performance, mercifully Mick has a harmonica in his mouth for a large chunk of the song and doesn't shout over the top of him. Christina Aguilera's cameo is somewhat less successful... Well, embarrassing and hilarious are the words that best spring to mind. "Shine A Light" is as good a picture as the subject matter would allow. Scorsese gets an 11/10 for his brilliant work on a gig that is a 1/10. So on average the complete package is a 6/10.
Incubus (1966)
If for no other reason....
A very weird, quietly creepy horror film... I think a big chunk of the weirdness and creepiness goes down to the fact that the film is entirely in Esperanto (and also the bit with the goat).
Put together by Outer Limits staffers (who were apparently obsessed with artificial languages), the production values are not dissimilar to 50s/60s TV (the odd camera shadow, out of focus evil beings, etc), but the effects are strangely effective and the use of sound is genuinely creepy in a way that made me think of "Eraserhead".
This film is worth seeing if for no other reason than to see William Shatner overacting in Esperanto. Most of the film he keeps the overacting in check, but about an hour in he clearly can't help himself.
The Accused (1988)
How bad were the other nominees?
After years of never having done so, I recently watched Jodie Foster's "amazing" "performance" in "The Accused". Jodie's normally a darn fine actress, and it was bizarre to see such an absolutely awful performance from her. This was pure and simple bad acting, and one of the least impressive Oscar winning performances I've seen. The only positive about her performance is that she is (slightly) better than the cartoon characters that populated the bar and the cardboard cutout of Kelly McGillis they wheeled from one scene to the next.
This film had a solid story, an important message to tell and what appeared to be a good screenplay, but a large chunk of this got lost somewhere in the mess of meaningful expressions and shouty overacting. The particularly appalling acted ending of the film appears to be a parody of the end of a Rocky movie. I was laughing for about ten seconds before I realized that it wasn't supposed to be funny.
Constantine (2005)
A Pleasant Unpleasant Surprise
I went along to Constantine in the expectation of seeing a car crash. I have been a long time fan of many Vertigo titles and Hellblazer was always one of the best. Therefore when I saw that a movie was being made of this very dark, very English character and it was to be set in LA and starring Keanu, I saw a movie with a potential awfulness approaching Gigli-like proportions.
What surprised me was despite the oddities of casting, budget and location, just how true it was to the spirit of the original. This is a very dark, very unpleasant and, yes, very funny film.
Whilst the 9/10 I have given this film possibly exaggerates its quality, there was so much to like, because there aren't many mainstream movies taking these kind of risks these days. How many films in the past 20 years have dared to have a "hero" character so unpleasant to all around him and with such a dark sense of humor? When the final battle between good and evil hits what does the hero do? He slits his wrists and dies
Sure, it's all part of his plan, but this is the kind of thing that Spiderman is not likely to do.
During the screening I went to two wonderful things happened: Firstly, there was a staggered stream of people leaving because they were confused or offended or angry. This hasn't happened in too long that I can recall. Movies are being market researched into oblivion to stop this kind of phenomena occurring. I was glad to see that some movies can still have that power.
Secondly, of the people that remained about ten laughed heartily throughout the film, the remainder laughed occasionally or not at all. This film is a black, black comedy and unless you realize that you will just be sitting in the dark thinking "what are they on about?".
Any film that has conversation as dry as Archangel Gabriel responding "But you've seen him, that doesn't count" to someone saying that they believe in God is worth the admission. This gives me faith that the proposed "Preacher" movie might possibly work, but I've been disappointed before