Brief, tight, fascinating, clever. I wonder if influenced by Flashman. Not good at action. Strong on atmosphere. A lot of raping. The vikings can get rooted really.
Easy to see how to adapt - make more of the characters of the Arab and a few Vikings, use the kingdom political subplot, have some women. These weren't done.
Awful. Two main problems (a) an awful ensemble acting job, led by hey dude Paul Walker, and (b) completely unbelievable depiction of the medieval period.
For (a) - there's all these talented actors running around in medieval gear going "hey hey hey" as if they've improvised. Walker plays it completely surfer dude, not that interested going back in time just looking for his dad.
For (b) the middle ages just look like... a theme park. And we're meant to go for the French? I'm sure the French did.
Michael Sheen camps it up. Frances O'Connor goes down with the ship, as does everyone really except maybe Lambert Wilson. Billy Connolly seems absurd. So does Ethan Embry. Could they have not found a French actor to play Anna Friel's part?
Awful.
The movie that kicked off Barry Levinson's cold streak which he never really got out of. It's a too faithful adaptation of Crichton's decent novel - far too much chat and chapter headings, not enough plain old spookiness and thrills.
Too much computer screen - why not make Jerry a voice?
Everyone is trying to do a professional job. There is money spent. Production design neat. I'm glad the actors got their full fee.
But it's so dull.
Chat, chat, chat, chat.
Michael Crichton's hot streak in the 1990s - which included Jurassic Park, Disclosure, The Lost World, ER, Airframe - came to a halt with this big budget flop. In hindsight they made a mistake throwing too much money at this story which didn't have to be done on a large scale.
I'm not a fan of slow movies but this one moves along too fast - for instance, it would have been ideal to spent a bit of time with Banderas in Persia before setting out on his journey (why not dramatise him shagging the married woman that led to his exile?). Him being enlisted to go on the journey with the vikings is skirted over - why not dramatise it? Why not have some variation in the characters of the vikings? Why not flesh out the character of the slave girl Banderas sleeps with?
Decent action. Gorgeous production design. Banderas ideal.
Based on an Australian novel (by Helen Fowler) which was about a returning POW - this one updates it to the Korean War. It confirms Edmund Purdom was too bland to be a star. He's given a meaty role as a traumatised POW to seeks out the wife and kid of his dead mate. The role is completely beyond Purdom's abilities.
The tension comes from Purdom promising to kill his mate's kids because the mate's wife has been unfaithful. That's terrifyying , but it works if Purdom is a psycho - and he is a psycho and we need to think he's going to kill the kids.
The movie should have been told from Ida Lupino's point of view, so we play the mystery of this guy and have her fall in love with him and investigate what happened. But it's told from Purdom's point of view and we never really feel he's going to kill the kids.
Purdom is embarassingly bad. Jacques Bergerac isn't much better as Lupino's new squeeze. Lupino watches on, no doubt aware she should have played Purdom's role. They could've made the POWs some nurses in Korea.
The theft of the crown jewels by Thomas Blood has the material for a fun swashbuckler. This one shoehorns that episode at the end uneasily to a tale about a highwayman in Charles II era fighting to defend the Crown against villainous noble David Niven.
The movie is mostly notable for George Sanders playing Charles II - if he'd depicted the hero or villain the movie might've been fun. Niven is hilariously miscast as the baddy - I'm not sure he would've suited the hero part either but he would've been better than Edmund Purdom.
The movie has all the excitement and humour sucked out of it. Purdom is dull but he has no character to play other than "brave". His group of men lack any individuality or character - they include Roger Moore, but just try telling them apart.
Dore Schary oversaw so many badly made "commercial" films in the 1950s. This is so bland. Dull script, doesn't dramatise things like the death of Ann Blyth's dad. Blyth does little. Just rips off Robin Hood.
Nice production values - it's an "A" picture. That's about it.
So 90s. Sexual harasment. Michael Douglas. Demi Moore. Hair. Political correctness. Big Clothes. Open plan offices. Tech that has aged badly (CD-roms!)
It's meant to be about sexual harasment but really it's corporate intrigue - the same way Airframe was about the media but really corporate intrigue.
It has two perfectly cast stars - Douglas and Moore - doing specialised things - white man attacked by predatory female and a strong willed woman. Dylan Baker and Donald Sutherland are superb slimebags. Roma Maffia is good as Douglas' lawyer. Caroline Goodall does what she can in a hopeless part as the wife.
But it's talky and daggy. The best bit is when Demi Moore tried to seduce Douglas. There'a reference to their skanky past which sounded fun.
Generally this film sucks though.
Gets a bad wrap but I quite liked it - it's a stripped back B picture version with everyone doing it for a pay cheque. There's fast pace and excellent action movies with a last act in San Diego for Spielberg to do his Godzilla homage.
It's fun in a way to see two excellent actors, Vince Vaughan and Julianne Moore, so awkward in Spielberg world, Goldblum gets to be heroic, Richard Schiff dies gorily. we miss out on a death for Vaughan and Pete Postlethwaite.
He has a type
1) Sugarland Express - Goldie Hawn
2) Jaws - Lorraine Gray
3) Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Teri Garr and Melinda Dillon
4) ET - Dee Wallace
5) Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom - Kate Capshaw
6) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - Alison Doody
7) Hook - Catherine Goodall
8) Jurassic Park - Laura Dern
9) Schindler's List - Catherine Goodall
10) The Fabelmans - Michelle Williams
In his memoirs, Bernard Gordon said this was the worst Phil Yordan production he worked on - claimed it didn't make sense, Yordan didn't care. He's not wrong - it's not very good.
Lee Van Cleef is in colourful cowboy mode as an outlaw who is conned by Gina Lollobrigida and then tries to steal some money.
Confusing. Dull.
This movie was so annoying. Wallace Shawn lying in a hospital bed having scenes while a machine goes beep. Everyone has strong articulation.
Harry Alan Towers kind of sequel to Sumuru with Shirley Eaton again in that role although she has a slightly different name. It's like a lot of Towers/Franco films - it looks good, has a dreamlike state, is confusing, continuity is weird. Lots of nudity.
Eaton makes a splendid villain. Sanders is looking old and only a few years away from suicide but that has its own appeal now the years have gone on.
Someone called Richard Wyler is the hero, I guess, who is kidnapped by Eaton.
Got into this reading a Vanity Fair account of its writing. I'd actually never heard of it but it's renowned as a classic of reporting, made with Kennedy involvement only they backed off.
Exhaustive, feels accurate. Powerful. So believable. I began to get angry reading it at the conspiracy theorists. Maybe that was just trauma dealing. Of course it was. The truth too uncomfortable but we see it so clearly now. Hostile press. Mad city. Anti-commie rhetoric. Incel with a gun. Trained by marines. Wants to kill someone. Hates his wife. Looking for a place in a world. Wife leaves him for another woman (I totally didn't know this.)
Very thotough.
A respectful sequel - picks up immediately after the events in Aliens versus Predator with the ship crashing and the escape of a predator-alien hybrid which isn't bad. It has the guts to kill off a kid in the opening sequence.
The cast is full of really not well know people. Couldn't they afford one more than Robert Joy? I guess John Oritz has been in a few things.
These stories weren't based on scripts.
Only Angels Have Wings type vehicle with Andy Devine and Richard Arlen among various flyers at an isolated outpost in Alaska (cue comic Eskimos). It's got a pilot with a Mysterious Past (Arlen) and some slangy bantering dialogue.
The support cast is strong: William Lundigan, Big Boy Williams, Anne Nagel, Leon Ames.
Weird Aussie film, shot in South Australia, a sort of futuristic-ish sex movie. Some of the visuals are quite impressive. The plot is about a photographer who does various photo shoots.
I watched a TV version so I think the sex and violence were tamed.
Feels like a throwback to live TV - a super faithful adaptation of the classic play with some old gnarly actors only in colour. The boozeheads include Frederick March and Robert Ryan. Lee Marvin is the born again drinker.
It's meaty stuff, a strong play, but it goes for so, so long. Almost three hours.
Ian Jones and Bronwyn Binns had a huge hit with Against the Wind so Channel Seven ponied up for another historical miniseries... the tale of Ned Kelly. It didn't do as well ratings wise -but then Ned Kelly stories are never that popular. The material is too problematic - he's too half-good half-bad I think.
This has Crawfords factor all over it - the same old actors (Gerard Kennedy, David Bradhsaw), the bad Irish accents and beers, the on the nose dialogue... but quite skilled story telling.
Ep 1 - a slow ep, with Ned (John Jarratt) going to work for Harry Power (Gerard Kennedy). A lot of women with Irish accents putting their hands on hips. Cornelia Frances in Man from Snowy River 2 -- that sort of vibe. Elaine Kussak is Kate Kelly. It's clear Kelly had a knack of getting into trouble - being apprenticed by bushrangers, getting involved in passing messages and scuffling with cops. Hall, the cop who arrests Kelly, was played by Steve Millichamp, who was the tubby cop at the beginning of Mad Max. Paul Mason has charisma as George King. It's also clear the authorities like giving him a hard time. It ends after the famous Kelly fist fight.
Ep 2 - Kelly meeets his gang. There's lots of greeting people. This builds up to the massacre at Stringybark Creek. The Kellys suffer and also bring a lot of it on themselves. Steve Bisley always looks as though he's going to do something interesting as Joe Byrne but never does. He's stuck with the same accent acting as the rest. Kaarin Fairfax has X factor. Sigrid Thornton has the beauty but is more conventional.
(I recognise this article is very English language focused)
1) Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
2) Dr Zhivago (1965)
3) Genghis Khan (1965) - no kidding! Surprisingly good.
4) Top Secret! (1984) - small role but he's very funny.
5) The Tamarind Seed (1974) - decent thriller.
6) The Burglars (1971) - excellent as a villain in this Belmondo movie.
7) Funny Girl (1968) - his third hit.
8) The Last Valley (1971)
9) Mackenna's Gold (1969) - not a good film but he's strong.
10) Oh! Heavenly Dog (1980) - look, I remember this fondly.
I've never been a huge fan of this. I recognise it's loved. Just seems to be Spielberg going through the motions - stock angles, John Williams. Laura Dern shows her legs, Sam Neill wears a hat, Jeff Goldblum adds some life.
It picks up once the TRex goes on the rampage - a genuinely strong sequence. The ending with the raptors is a little underwhelming. Pulls punches for Richard Attenborough who is too cuddly.
Fine effects. Bob Peck a little campy. Jeff Goldblum doesn't do that much he gets knocked out quite quick. The kids offer stakes.
Entirely decent mystery-thriller investigating an airplane accident - only a few people died which feels relatively tame so the stakes are raised by having the airline wanting to sell to China and a woman must investigate what's going on. Plenty of authentic seeming research into airlines - wings and stuff and what goes wrong. Crichton seems more alive in bagging the media who are doing a hit piece on it - they're doing their job, mate, but he's obsessed with the old days when the media supposedly reported what happened and didn't rush to judgement or something. Well, things weren't going to get better, Mike! And the plane company does have dodgy people in it.
The baddie is a female producer - who like the female hero has a fuck buddy. I guess this is Mike being progressive?
It moves at a fast pace, the corporate intrigue is clever, it's a solid yarn.
Unsurprisingly faithful to the book although there are a few changes - things that were worked out on the page have to be brought into dialogue, there's a bigger part for the mistress of the hero, less reference to sex with twelve year olds and Victorian slang, the final capture is accelerated, there's less analysis of the society.
Because Crichton's characters were so weak his films depended on casting more than others - he was lucky to have Sean Connery here as the arch thief. Lesley Anne Downe is sexy as his girlfriend though her role is pretty much just "sexy". Donald Sutherland does his best as the second lead.
There is pleasing period detail, decent production value and that's really Connery at the end on the train, ducking his head under. The cleverness of the story worked better on the page - this has some of the life drained (could not Crichton have done more with Connery's minion, Barlow? I wish George Lazenby had played this part)
Still, totally fine.
Michael Crichton hoped to direct this adaptation of his novel but Warners decided not to, giving the job to the more experienced Mike Hodges. Hodges is clearly a better director than Crichton - his work is full of style and confidence.
I had read Crichton's original adaptation was not faithful enough so they changed it - this isn't that faithful. It completely downplays the character of the handsome male doctor who tries to chase the killer at a hanger and gets wounded (a memorable sequence). Also the ending bit in the book, a terrific sequence in the hospital, becomes one where George Segal falls in a grave and the lead lady is never in danger.
Joan Hackett is okay as the physiciatrist - a better part in the book. Segal is excellent - his manic quality works well. Other characters from the book who were vivid - the scientis behind the whole thing who had various ailments, the whiz kid computer nerds - are not here.
It's like an interesting cover version of the novel rather than a faithful adaptation. not as good as the book.
Started as a sequel to Jagged Edge though not written by Joe Eszterhaus. Instead of Glenn Close and Robert Loggia there's Theresa Russell and Burt Reynolds - who aren't quite the same. Reynolds is very good, though this was one of the series of flops that killed his career. Russell tries and is okay - she's beautiful, poised, all that, but doesn't have Close's warmth. Maybe if Sally Field had played it...
The film has little sex in it. Russell lives with bond salesman Ted McGinley who we meet stripping down to take a nude jacuzzi.
The movie is directed by Crichton without inspiration - there's no style, flash, power. The blocking is ordinary.
But the most crucial problem is the story. Jagged Edge had two core relationships - Close was in love with her client Jeff Bridges, and had a father-son relationship with Robert Loggia. There's no core relationship here. Some flirtation. That's it.
I got confused who was a suspect.
I didn't care. No sex. Dull violence. No atmosphere. No wonder Crichton gave up directing.
Saw this because it was written by Michael Crichton. Insight was a TV anthology series - one set, three actors, shot on video. The plot has an injured two year old brought in, doctor James Olson (who was in The Andromeda Strain) becomes suspicious the parents (Bill Bixby, Elizbeth Ashley) did it. He cross examines them as a psychiatrist - I assume Crichton took this from a real case. Turns out mum did it - highly strung with a highly strung dad. Bixby is uptight. Very good actors. Not bad. No twists. A lot of chat. Entirely decent low budget effort though a little dodgy the woman did it. Lamont Johnson directed.
Hugely fun thriller. Crichton wasn't great at creating characters but here he's got an ace cast - Genevieve Bujold as the investigating doctor, Michael Douglas as her boyfriend, Richard Widmark and Rip Torn as possible villains. There's appearances by Ed Haris, Lois Chiles and Tom Selleck. The hospitals are creepy the director's experience with them helps sell it. He's better at suspense than action.
Some camp - the love interlde, Bujold attending dance class and hopping in the shower.
Second tier Crichton. Very easy to red, smart. More esoteric. Not that scary despite a decent death toll. There's a black man and a woman among the scientists and they are always referring to it while the day is saved by the straight white man. Cleverness in its depiction of aliens. I spent a lot of time wondering how to adapt it. I'd add a fourth character for the main scientist to explain thigns to.
Crichton's take on Ffrankestein - a computer programmer has turned violent after an accident so they trt to plug a computer into his brain. Lots of research and detail to sell the concept - starts slow then builds up, with a memorable antagonist because he was paranoid anyway. Three memorable set pieces - doctor in shower met by the man, another doctor tracks the man to a deserted hanger, and the final confrontation in the hospital.
Crichton having fun. Really loves slang from the era. Maybe too much. Still can't create characters - Pierce is just a part for a movie star, his girlfriend is paper thin, etc. But the detail is wonderful, the research entertaining, the twists clever - sourcing keys, dressing as a dad man to get on the train, etc.
Also while Crichton makes a point that sometimes people just want money it's very clear that a lot of the crime committed by people in this are driven by society.
The best Michael Crichton works have a clear concept backed by clever pacing and hugely clever research. This one has a muddy concept. Models are dying because... something to do with subliminal advertising. The hero is a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, un-interestingly played by Albert Finney. He's invested because some of his patients were the models. So? Why not have him framed for the deaths? Or just have a cop do it.
James Coburn is the big baddy. Susan Dey is winning as the model whose life is in danger I'm not sure why.
Crichton's direction of action-thriller scenes is at times laughably bad - the opening bit where a model dies. A dull car chase. Finney and Dey poking around a facility. Finney in a cop's uniform.
There's some style and clearly some brains - it's just confusing. Would've been better as a book.
Some nudity including Dey is the highlight. Finney feels miscast.
Some pleasures. Photography. Noir atmosphere. Clifton Webb. Too close to Laura. Mark Stevens trying to be Dana Andrews. Lucille Ball full of life though miscast. William Bendix fun.
