Movie review - "Red Sonja" (1985) **1/2

 One of several films Dino de Laurentiis forced Arnie to do after the first Conan - Conan the Destroyer, this, Raw Deal. Brigitte Nielsen looks terrific in the title role - a believable athlete, she can move and fight. Her acting is limited so they should have teamed her with a top class actor for most of the running time - instead they give her Arnie, who comes and goes but who wasn't very good at this stage, and a kid.

The script was (re)written by George MacDonald Fraser and is full of action familiar to those who have read his novels - evil priests, ceremonies, swordfights, comic sidekicks, etc. But it lacks the key aspect of the best Fraser novels - memorable lead characters. They are just stoic. The movie needed a Flashman or a Thomas Blood from The Pyrates.

 Key mistakes are made - either by him or in the cut. The murder of Sonja's family, which sets up the whole film, is skipped over (compare to Conan which gave it the time it deserved), Arnold popping in and out is weird, the film seems reluctant to focus too much on Sonja.

Nicely shot and costumed. It's not very good but impossible to dislike.

Movie review - "The Grey Man" (2022) **

 Tired. A tough agent with a moral code. A female agent with a moral code. A psycho agent. A tough boss. Two tough bosses. A cute kid who is sick. Big titles indicating different locations.  Very familiar action sequences. No one has a character to play everyone is a type. Torture. Dull action scenes.  Unsatisfactory resolution.

Movie review - "Chapter 2" (1979) **

 One of Neil Simon's best plays - funny, honest, true - with Marsha Mason superb in a role inspired by her and played by her on Broadway. Joseph Bologna and Valerie Harper are fine as the BFF's - Harper looks really skinny. The film is let down by James Caan, who I normally really like. He can be funny but here he plays it low energy a man torn up with grief which I guess is legitimate but it drags the film down. Occasionally the dialogue sparks as it should and you get the vision of the film this should have been. Flabby direction.

Book review - "Hondo" by Louis L'Amour (1953)

 Apparently L'Amour's first novel, though the movie was based on a short story and this was a novelisation of the film script. I'm not going to get scholarship-y on it. There's excellent description of action - Hondo tracking and being tracked, the cavalry facing Apaches - though the stuff involving the wife and boy is less strong, more conventional. There's a lot of convenience and repetition in the plotting which feels more like the screenplay though I could be wrong - Vittoro the Apache is quite cuddly, saving Hondo and the woman and the kid and generally looking on a lot as Hondo knocks off people. We are cheated in not reading about Vittoro's death and the final battle feels abrupt. It's like this would be a better novel if the story was slimmed down more and L'Amour made more of big moments. But it was easy and entertaining to read which a lot of terrific stuff.

Movie review - "Spiderman: Far from Home" (2019) ***

 Breezy, entertaining entry at it's best when dealing with teen life as the kids head off to Europe, and also making meta comments about the story (eg a biopic of Tony Stark has been made). Less strong when it comes to action - bloated CGI scenes, not terribly thrilling. Jake Gyllenhaul's villain is fine. Tom Holland is excellent - all the kids are. I love how the joke kid character was given a little touch in that his parents sent a chauffeur to pick him up and he was disappointed. Zedaya has X factor but is basically The Girl here.

Movie review - "The Killer Elite" (1975) **

 No one's favourite Sam Peckinpah film though like all movies from that director it has interest. James Caan and Robert Duvall really seem like mates at the beginning making Duvall's betrayal have real impact. That's the best bit of the film.

The rest consists of Caan's recovering, learning karate, going back into business, teaming up with Burt Young and Bo Hopkins, learning from Mako and a comely Thai girl (who I think married co writer Stirling Silliphant - she has a decent sized part for a Peckinpah film), clashing with Duvall again (who dies too quickly) then taking part in a slow motion, unconvincing, unexciting battle at on some boats in San Francisco Bay. It's not an exciting film. It has two good performances from Caan and Duvall, is odd, a decent story that has any thrills sucked out of it. This film annoyed me after a while. It's even got lazy 70s scenes about how all governments are corrupt - like sitting next to some stoner at a party.

Movie review - "Games" (1967) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Curtis Harrington is a cult-y director - Night Tide and this are responsible for a great deal of that. This is an engaging thriller about some wealthy New Yorkers (Katherine Ross, James Caan) who like to play tricks. In a not terribly convincing plot move they invite Simone Signoret, a random psychic, to stay with them - maybe this would've been more effective had Signoret been younger, or more clearly a sexual threat instead of a mumsy figure, or a male. 

There's plenty of weirdness, more visual style than we commonly saw from films at Universal during this period (I think Ross, Caan and Don Stroud were under contract there). Once you realise at heart this is a good old gaslighting thriller it could have done with an extra twist/dimension. 

But it is entertaining.

Movie review - "Slither" (1973) **

 Seventies Hollywood - MGM in decline, Dan Melnick greenlit, James T Aubrey disliked it, new stars (James Caan, Sally Kellerman), quirky road movie that covers genres (search for a bag of cash, a musical number, comedy), new scribe (WD Richter), new director (Howard Zieff).

Caan is very engaging as a sort of drifter. Peter Boyle feels a little try hard. Kellerman is fun as a nutty hitchhiker who attracts and scares Caan, Louise Lasser is good though feels wasted (it hints at a sort of romantic history between her and Caan that isn't explored; nothing much about her character is explored).

The movie varies in tone and is full of colourful types - a little like an Elmore Leonard novel, with its mixture of comedy and violence. Beautifully shot by Laszlo Kovacs. It wasn't for me but it showed how Caan can charm.

Book review - "Rumpole's Return" by John Mortimer

 A novel rather than a collection of short stories. Rumpole avoided retirement at the end of The Trials of Rumpole but here it's happened. He's in Florida, which is hilarious, then escapes with Phyllida Trant makes a mistake of asking him for advice on bloodstains which he converts into an "invitation" to return.

Entertaining plots - Trant has a crush on the barrister who took over Rumpole's office, a scowling Heathcliff type; Rumpole defends an obscenity trial; Rumpole defends Guthrie's attempts at cheating on Marigold to Marigold (they did this plot already).

Unlike others in the series there's a large number of scenes not from Rumpole's POV. In particular a sequence where Nick investigates a cult.

Very funny. Plot cheats a little but it doesn't matter that much.

Book review - "Flashman and the Great Game" by George MacDonald Fraser

 Another classic. Read it countless times. The most seamless Flashman in a way - Flash for Freedom was like an action serial, Flashman at the Charge, Flashman's Lady and Flashman and the Redskins are  two books together. This is a cohesive whole but with enough epic sweep to make it compelling (which the later ones in the series had). The Indian Mutiny is such a rich field and it gives rise to splendid/harrowing sequences: the initial mutiny at Meerut, the siege of Cawnpore and escape, relieving the siege at Lucknow, the final battle at Gwalior. It has some of the all time best sequences in the book: the endless terror of Cawnpore, the comedy of helping Kavanagh, the final section on the cannon. Great ending with the publication of Tom Brown's School Days. It also has powerful emotional undercurrents because of the extreme violence, the relationship with the Rani of Jhansi, the death of Scud East.

Movie review - "Hide in Plain Sight" (1980) **

 James Caan was up for Kramer vs Kramer but turned it down to star in and direct another divorced dad drama. This one adds gangsters but wasn't as successful - he blamed distribution but another reason surely was how he stacks the deck in favour of his character.  His wife wife has peroxide hair, is trashy and isn't a particularly good mother, her boyfriend is a two bit scumbag, new girlfriend Jill Eikenberry is an idyllic, pet-cuddling kindergarten teacher who just loves him.

The story is interesting but the film feels unsure how much to hype. Because Caan basically has to bash his head against a wall for an hour unable to contact his kids. Maybe they needed to go more into character stuff because that's very simple - we don't get a sense of what sort of dad Caan is apart from being awesome, what his kids are like apart from being cute (the real life story the father didn't find them until they were teens and they'd changed), what his relationship with his ex was like apart from her being dumb. There's allusions to being a working class conservative in the late 60s which are interesting but not explored.

I liked Caan's direction with its master shots and emphasis on acting. But it felt as though the script needed another few drafts.

Movie review - "Lady in a Cage" (1964) **

 I was curious to see this, which presages Wait Until Dark - woman in peril thriller. Olivia de Havilland gets stuck in a lift. Boozy Jeff Corey turns up to rob her. Ann Sothern in cahoots with her. Corey blabs to a trio of hoods - led by sexy young James Caan, sexy and psycho, his overacting blonde girl and a Latino. They hop around, act. Writer Luther Davis has thirty minutes of plot - he throws in various characters (a local gangster who sends in his hoods, de Havilland suicidal son) without getting them to interact or develop relationships. It all feels like padding when it needn't be it just needed some twists and turns.

Flashy direction from Walter Graumann, stylish black and white photography, jazz music, a dog getting run over. I think he was making a statement about Violence Today with people looking on.

De Havilland is good as is Caan - he was strong from the beginning.

Movie review - "Minions: Rise of Gru" (2022) ***

 Big, loud, colorful. I enjoyed the 70s jokes - disco and what not. The plot involves a chase for a Thing. I zoned out in the last third - some were on their way to San Fransisco, others went somewhere else. It was enjoyable.  The vocal work from Jean Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren and Danny Trejo felt wasted, ditto Alan Arkin's Wild Knuckles character. Julie Andrews does a voice! Still, it was fine.

Movie review - "The Gambler" (1974) ***1/2

 One of two gambling films that came out that year in Hollywood the other being California Split. This has James Caan who is excellent playing a James Toback surrogate: Jewish prince (to use an expression from Pauline Kael), educated professor of literature, playing hoops with blacks. impossibly glamorous girlfriend (Lauren Hutton), hanging with the mob, ripping off his rich parents.

It's watching someone sabotage their life over 90 minutes which isn't always easy, to put it lightly, and a better actor than Hutton might've added some more edge to her part, but it does feel real, Caan is superb (his wound up energy works well), the editing and music are interesting, ditto Karel Reisz's direction, there's a lively support cast including Paul Sorvino and James Woods.

Movie review - "Sabrina" (1954) ***1/2

 As in Love in the Afternoon Audrey Hepburn romances an older man in a Billy Wilder film who looks like he's dying of cancer, which in fact he was. Here he's Humphrey Bogart - who's actually quite good, Bogart can play these roles, but years of drinking and smoking have told on his face and he's got one foot in the grave - where he'd place it in early 1957.

Hepburn is far more alive in her scenes with Bill Holden, who she had an affair with in real life, but her transfer of affection on screen to Bogart is well done. The film takes its time but I think it needed to to sell it.

I wish Cary Grant had played Bogart's role instead of Bogart, or just an older star who was less, well, dying - but the thing is they were all dying: Errol Flynn, Clarke Gable, Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper. Maybe Greg Peck again?

Side note: this has a gag where Hepburn's chauffeur dad John Williams insists on a class divide and Bogart calls him a snob and Williams says yes and they all laugh... I encounter that joke a bit (George MacDonald Fraser used it in Mr American and it's in The Admirable Crichton) - I think conservative writers enjoyed it because it reinforces the class structure showing how cool the lower orders are with it.

Still, a charming Cinderella story with three very big stars, nice music and some funny lines.

Movie review - "The Lost Weekend" (1945) **** (warning: spoilers)

 Wonderful how it dramatises the subject matter - alcoholism becomes about the search for a drink, the search for cash: object, intent, obstacle. Support characters have lovely flavour: the seen it all bartender, the mean nurse, the lonely female boozer with a crush on Milland.

The character of the girlfriend (Jane Wyman) is all too believable - a woman who puts up with too much crap. She should leave him. The relationship is doomed. But it's a miracle they got the film made let alone made it successful who can begrudge them stopping where it is. Wyman is good - Philip Terry is bad in an admittedly thankless role as Milland's enabling brother. Milland is excellent in the role of a lifetime.

Book review - "Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge" by Joseph McBride

 Excellently researched account of the famous writer, which seems to draw upon a lot of other people's work but is so well analysed and written it doesn't matter. Gloriously written. I disagreed with a lot of the judgements (McBride loves Avanti for instance) but it was a joy to read nonetheless.

Book review - Rumpole#2 - "The Trials of Rumpole" (1979) by John Mortimer

 Rumpole and the Man of God - Rumpole defends a clergyman accused of shoplifting. I'm surprised they didn't use more the fact Rumpole's dad was a clegyman but there's very funny stuff including a great subplot where George Frobisher gets engaged to a flash lady.

Rumpole and the Case of Identity - Rumpole gets involved in Guthrie Featherstone's mid life crisis. Very fun.

Rumpole and the Fascist Beast - he defends an incompetent fascist, Mortimer lets his politics shine through. 

Rumpole and the Showfolk - some gentle satire of actors when he gets involved with a theatre set up in the North. Lovely.

Rumpole and the Course of True Love -  Rumpole defends a case where a teacher has slept with a student. A hot topic now. Rumpole states the case against very strongly but he does depict the girl as initiating it. Dicey.

Rumpole and the Age for Retirement - Rumpole's family and colleagues try to get him retire, and fail.

Book review - "Flash for Freedom" by George MacDonald Fraser (1971)

 Plenty of upsetting language but the first classic Flashman. It's full of superb sequences: the card game (Fraser was always good at sports competitions), the visit to the Dahomey kingdom and the terrifying fleeing from the Amazons, the hell of a slave ship, his various adventures in the US (brothel, underground railroad agent, plantation manager, slave), the final escape (ripping off Uncle Tom's Cabin but better than the use of Prince of Zenda because it doesn't take up the whole novel). For all Flashman's bad attitudes on race, to put in mildly (and to be frank Fraser wasn't that crash hot) the novel does convey the horror of slavery: the ships, the auctions, the plantations, the treatment.

Stuffed full of memorable characters: John Charity Spring and his wife, Loony the nutty sailor, kinky Mrs Mandeville, Abe Lincoln, George Randolph the escaped slave, Cassie the traumatised slave girl. The plot is full of twists and turns - Flashman is constantly on the up then in trouble then on the up and then in trouble. It's perhaps the most exciting/inventive in the series.

Book review - "Flashman at the Charge" by George MacDonald Fraser

 Splendid entry, the second classic. It's a two part story - the Crimea and then Central Asia - but it works brilliantly, in part because it's all Flashman vs Russia so there is tonal consistency. Full of superb set pieces: the card game, the Crimean battles, the charge (throwing in Flashman farting which works excellently), the escape across the ice, the final battle. Many memorable characters, most real-life figures: Cardigan, Yakub Beg, Ignatieff (great villain), Raglan, Lew Nolan, Scarlett. There are terrific ideas like having Flashman look after a German prince, the return of Scud East, and having Flashman be brave through the use of hash. This is the sexiest Flashman too - interrupting a nude Elspeth and Cardigan (skillfully drafted so she might be innocent), the seduction by Aunt Sara, the hot blooded Valla who he has on a sled (and then throws out which is very Flashman, and also funny because you know she's going to be alright), the seduction by the Silk One's Daughter with a cat nearby.

Movie review - "The Gorgon" (1964) *** (re-watching)

 Solid Hammer entry - Chris Lee in a silly moustache, Peter Cushing looking intent, a lot of screen time to Richard Pasco (one of those actors whose face you'll know without recalling their name, at least that's how it was for me), a flashy part for Barbara Shelley. Satisfying ending with people dying, the use of Greek mythology is fresh for Hammer and makes one wonder why they didn't do it more.

TV series - "Surfside 6 - Ep 1 Country Gentleman" (1960) **

 One of Warners' detective shows that featured three hunks and gals who hang around in some exotic location - there was 77 Sunset Strip, Bourbon Street Beat, Hawaiian Eye, this. The first ep is powered by Van Williams, hired to prove ex gangster Ray Danton killed some old stuff type. Troy Donahue appears a bit and looks hiliariously uncomfortable. Williams can act.

Movie review - "Five Graves to Cairo" (1943) **** (warning: spoilers)

 Often overlooked in discussions of Wilder - it's a war propaganda film, has second tier stars, quite simple (mostly taking place in one location, a hotel), but is full of clever twists and plenty of story. It's a film of plot rather than character - I don't mind Franchot Tone but who is he playing? A rogue? Stock guy? He doesn't have the star persona to carry off playing himself (cf someone like Cary Grant).  Akim Tamiroff underplays, von Stroheim offers some star pizzaz, it's a clever story, I like it how Anne Baxter died it gave the piece some emotional weight. Visual flourishes too like opening with Tone passed out in a driving tank.

Book review - "Royal Flash" by George MacDonald Fraser (1970)

 The second Flashman, it's never been one of my favourites, though it's a quality entry, full of pace, and humour. A few reasons. Flashman is too dumb, foolishly going to Europe on the basis of a dodgy letter and at the end foolishly throwing in with Lola Montez. It's set in a fictitious place, a duchy, which is inconsistent with the rest of the series. And it borrows the plot wholesale from Prisoner of Zenda, though that is amusing covered - it still feels like cheating.

Still, Lola and Bismarck are vivid characters, Irma and life in the duchy is entertaining, the plot really kicks into high gear half way through when Flashman realises he's been conned, there's plenty of fun made up characters even if pilfered from Zenda like Rudi von Sternberg, I enjoyed the Karl Marx cameo.