AIP got ambitious for this - they shifted the local to the ski fields and actually went there, added some extra star power for Frankie Avalon by teaming him with Dwayne Hickman, had some quasi names as the girls (Deborah Walley, Yvonne Craig), had James Brown and Lesley Gore as the music acts, and use a plot which borrows heavily from Some Like It Hot.
I wish this was better than it was - I liked the scenery, and the tunes (James Brown in a sweater singing "I Feel Good"!), Avalon and Hickman are a solid duo, the skiing gives it freshness. Aaron Kincaid is fun as the rich guy falling for Hickman.
The script isn't up to this. The motivation to go in drag - "to find out about women" -is weak. There is no urgency no villains. The female characters aren't differentiated. It doesn't have much logic. I wish Funicello had been given a role. The relationship between Walley and Craig and Avalon and Hickman lacks sense.
It's breezy, it's fine, I just wanted it to be sharper.
Saturday, June 08, 2019
Movie review - "Captain Marvel" (2018) **
Disappointing. I wanted to like it - I enjoy Marvel and Brie Laren. I really hope this isn't unconscious sexism on my part. Maybe it is.
Things I did like:
* the running gag about how Nick Fury's eye got destroyed
* the montage about a girl standing up after being knocked down
* the use of 'Celebrity Skin' over the final credits
* the shout out to Stan Lee's cameo in Mallrats.
But I don't feel it was particular well made. It starts off sluggishly with a lot of mumbo jumbo exposition on some planet. Larson starts off a bad arse with a code, and winds up that at the end of the film - she just changes her enemy.
It was hard to get a fix on her character. Some scenes she acted like a robot - this seemed to be intentional. But in the scenes with Samuel L Jackson she was chatty and natural. Why were they friends by the way? I know the script needed them to be but why character wise?
The actor who plays her best friend and her daughter aren't very good. Ben Mendehlson is starting to appear in too many bad comic book movies. Annette Bening is fine.
The action is okay - it's cool how Marvel can blow people away. But there's no action. No cleverness. No character.
I feel a film about the human life of Marvel would have been better - a girl knocked down who gets up, who becomes a fighter pilot, who's brave. That would've have more resonance.
It's a very ordinary movie.
Things I did like:
* the running gag about how Nick Fury's eye got destroyed
* the montage about a girl standing up after being knocked down
* the use of 'Celebrity Skin' over the final credits
* the shout out to Stan Lee's cameo in Mallrats.
But I don't feel it was particular well made. It starts off sluggishly with a lot of mumbo jumbo exposition on some planet. Larson starts off a bad arse with a code, and winds up that at the end of the film - she just changes her enemy.
It was hard to get a fix on her character. Some scenes she acted like a robot - this seemed to be intentional. But in the scenes with Samuel L Jackson she was chatty and natural. Why were they friends by the way? I know the script needed them to be but why character wise?
The actor who plays her best friend and her daughter aren't very good. Ben Mendehlson is starting to appear in too many bad comic book movies. Annette Bening is fine.
The action is okay - it's cool how Marvel can blow people away. But there's no action. No cleverness. No character.
I feel a film about the human life of Marvel would have been better - a girl knocked down who gets up, who becomes a fighter pilot, who's brave. That would've have more resonance.
It's a very ordinary movie.
Monday, June 03, 2019
Movie review - "Crimes of Passion" (1984) ***
Ken Russell's great days were in the 70s but in hindsight he had a pretty good 80s because many of his films found popularity on video. This was one such movie - a drama about sex I guess you could call it with Kathleen Turner going balls to the wall as a designer who works nights as hooker, and Tony Perkins as a reverend who is obsessed with her.
You can tell Russell's heart is with this nutty duo rather than John Laughlin an all American guy who tails Turner. Laughlin has a difficult role to play - an ordinary joe - but doesn't pull it off. He's got all these scenes with Annie Potts as his wife - and she's acting her arse off, but she's hurt because her character is basically someone who doesn't want to have sex with Laughlin.
In its heart of hearts I feel the China Blue character should have been a guy - China talks a lot about cocks - which would make Laughlin's dilemma more solid, a married man attracted to a guy. I know why the writer did what he did.
Turner and Perkins really go for it especially Perkins - they completely commit. And it's a reminder what a powerhouse Turner was. They probably should have cut the Laughlin bit - or maybe he's useful as a straight man they just could have trimmed it down. I would have liked more with Turner as a designer.
There's some delirious stuff - sex involving a night stick, sex with a dying man, video clips. Russell went for it. A flawed film but consistently interesting.
You can tell Russell's heart is with this nutty duo rather than John Laughlin an all American guy who tails Turner. Laughlin has a difficult role to play - an ordinary joe - but doesn't pull it off. He's got all these scenes with Annie Potts as his wife - and she's acting her arse off, but she's hurt because her character is basically someone who doesn't want to have sex with Laughlin.
In its heart of hearts I feel the China Blue character should have been a guy - China talks a lot about cocks - which would make Laughlin's dilemma more solid, a married man attracted to a guy. I know why the writer did what he did.
Turner and Perkins really go for it especially Perkins - they completely commit. And it's a reminder what a powerhouse Turner was. They probably should have cut the Laughlin bit - or maybe he's useful as a straight man they just could have trimmed it down. I would have liked more with Turner as a designer.
There's some delirious stuff - sex involving a night stick, sex with a dying man, video clips. Russell went for it. A flawed film but consistently interesting.
Movie review - "The Railway Children" (1970) ***
The feel good story of Bryan Forbes' regime at EMI Films - Lionel Jeffries had been acting forever, wanted to write, fell in love with the classic book and optioned the rights, took it to EMI and Forbes (an actor who turned to writing and directing) suggested he direct. The result made a profit and became a family classic- in England at least.
Jenny Agutter became famous (among a certain section of viewer anyway) for taking her clothes off in films so it's kind of weird to see her being so wholesome, but she's animated and pretty and a great lead for a film. She's so perfect for this kind of material that you wish she'd had more opportunity to play these kind of roles - cheerful leads in family films. Not that it isn't great she got naked but in most of those parts she was just "the girl" and here she drives the action.
Her sister is played by the blonde off Man About the House and her brother looks like the guy who breast fed at a late age on Game of Thrones.
The plot is episodic. They warn the train when there's a mudslide, spend a lot of time on the tracks, help a crotchety old man. I was hoping they would bust the spy gang to help prove their father's innocence. The reunion with the father is well done. The production values are high.
You'll probably like it more if you've read the book.
Jenny Agutter became famous (among a certain section of viewer anyway) for taking her clothes off in films so it's kind of weird to see her being so wholesome, but she's animated and pretty and a great lead for a film. She's so perfect for this kind of material that you wish she'd had more opportunity to play these kind of roles - cheerful leads in family films. Not that it isn't great she got naked but in most of those parts she was just "the girl" and here she drives the action.
Her sister is played by the blonde off Man About the House and her brother looks like the guy who breast fed at a late age on Game of Thrones.
The plot is episodic. They warn the train when there's a mudslide, spend a lot of time on the tracks, help a crotchety old man. I was hoping they would bust the spy gang to help prove their father's innocence. The reunion with the father is well done. The production values are high.
You'll probably like it more if you've read the book.
Movie review - "Tread Softly Stranger" (1958) **
British B film which combines kitchen sink realism (well, it's set in the north) and film noir. It also has a bit of semi star power - George Baker, a quasi name in the 50s, flees gambling debts in London to join his brother - Terence Morgan - in the north. Morgan has a girlfriend Diana Dors and a tendency to fiddle the books so Dors suggests they rob Morgan's office.
Baker is a decent actor but always felt like a bit of a nerd - this role could have done with an actor who better suggested Baker. Maybe he should've swapped parts with Morgan, a leading man of the time who never quite made it.
Dors is a femme fetale, quite sexy, though she doesn't get the chance to show humour which she was so good at; also she has a two dimensional character (she wants money) whereas the brothers get to play three dimensional characters.
Once again I'm wishing Dors had more to do - it's not so much screen time I just wish she was more active in the heist. She wears a lot of slinky outfits. I wish she'd done the robbery.
This is alright. There's a smug character who I think is meant to be a goody - he's just annoying. Director Gordon Parry isn't a particularly gifted visual stylist.
Baker is a decent actor but always felt like a bit of a nerd - this role could have done with an actor who better suggested Baker. Maybe he should've swapped parts with Morgan, a leading man of the time who never quite made it.
Dors is a femme fetale, quite sexy, though she doesn't get the chance to show humour which she was so good at; also she has a two dimensional character (she wants money) whereas the brothers get to play three dimensional characters.
Once again I'm wishing Dors had more to do - it's not so much screen time I just wish she was more active in the heist. She wears a lot of slinky outfits. I wish she'd done the robbery.
This is alright. There's a smug character who I think is meant to be a goody - he's just annoying. Director Gordon Parry isn't a particularly gifted visual stylist.
Aussie films worth remaking
The Sundowners
The Overlanders
The Siege of Pinchgut
They're a Weird Mob
Skippy
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
The man from Snowy River
Adventures of Prisclla (the stage version)
Muriel's Wedding (the stage version)
The Overlanders
The Siege of Pinchgut
They're a Weird Mob
Skippy
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
The man from Snowy River
Adventures of Prisclla (the stage version)
Muriel's Wedding (the stage version)
Saturday, June 01, 2019
Movie review - "Savage Messiah" (1972) **1/2
Ken Russell made a lot of film about artists for TV and this feels like a TV movie - it's mostly a two hander between a young sculptor and the elder crazy woman who became his muse although they never slept together. I'd never heard of the sculptor before - some bloke called Gaudier who was one of many artists killed in World War One.
The central relationship is an interesting dynamic.. but the film really doesn't have anywhere else to go after that. He sculpts, they talk, they monologue, she's a bit mad, he ends up dying. It needed more of a plot - well for me anyway. During the first hour that is - it's two people talking and being bohemian-y. In the last half hour Helen Mirren comes in as a model/rich girl and the film perks up - in part admittedly because Mirren does most of her role nude. But also because she provides another character for the leads to interact with, and because she's a fantastic actor.
Tutin's a fantastic actor too - it's a grand part for a "big" actor, and she goes there, acting all over the shop, Scott Antony, a relative unknown, plays Gaudier. Now he's a nice looking guy and he tries, and he's not terrible... he's just competent. Like say the best actor of the year at a run of the mill drama school. On a soap or cop show he'd be fine. But the role needs more - someone with a dash of madness, someone like say Alan Bates or Oliver Reed. I know they were probably too expensive, but someone like, I don't know, Jon Finch would have been better. He doesn't match Tutin which is bad because it's a two hander without a lot of plot.
It is interesting especially that last half hour, but it does feel more like the movies Russell made for TV. I was wishing for more flamboyance - he's really restrained in this one.
The central relationship is an interesting dynamic.. but the film really doesn't have anywhere else to go after that. He sculpts, they talk, they monologue, she's a bit mad, he ends up dying. It needed more of a plot - well for me anyway. During the first hour that is - it's two people talking and being bohemian-y. In the last half hour Helen Mirren comes in as a model/rich girl and the film perks up - in part admittedly because Mirren does most of her role nude. But also because she provides another character for the leads to interact with, and because she's a fantastic actor.
Tutin's a fantastic actor too - it's a grand part for a "big" actor, and she goes there, acting all over the shop, Scott Antony, a relative unknown, plays Gaudier. Now he's a nice looking guy and he tries, and he's not terrible... he's just competent. Like say the best actor of the year at a run of the mill drama school. On a soap or cop show he'd be fine. But the role needs more - someone with a dash of madness, someone like say Alan Bates or Oliver Reed. I know they were probably too expensive, but someone like, I don't know, Jon Finch would have been better. He doesn't match Tutin which is bad because it's a two hander without a lot of plot.
It is interesting especially that last half hour, but it does feel more like the movies Russell made for TV. I was wishing for more flamboyance - he's really restrained in this one.
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