Movie review - "Shalako" (1968) **1/2

 The press got hysterical about this movie - Sean Connery in a Western. Connery appearing opposite Brigitte Bardot. 

It's a strong story, and looks great (vistas etc). But it's an ensemble piece - sort of like Stagecoach, about Europeans on a hunting trip encountering Apaches. There's various subplots like Jack Hawkins' wife Honor Blackman having it off with Stephen Boyd. Connery is a former cavalry officer who advises them to get out and they odn't.

There's too many characters to service so the strong cast don't have anything to do. Connery and Bardot don't have anything to play. They should have written him as taciturn and explosive but unused to women - or something. He's just a guy. She's just Bardot, and not attractively costumer. Honor Blackman is better because she's got something to play. Connery isn't even that tough - he doesn't do much through the film.

There's also Peter Van Eyck, Eric Sykes, Alexander Knox, Woody Strode. 

Also never makes sense why posh types are hunting in New Mexico which is really rocky and desert-y. The plains would have made more sense. 

Movie review - "Premonition" (1972) **

 Alan Rudolph's first movie as direcotr is hard to get through. Some hippy goes to the desert with a professor and sees something weird, then years later the hippy and his band members go out there and sense weirdness.

It's so padded. I kept waiting for weird stuff to happen. Just felt like lazy dope smoking movie making. There's even a  pretty girl to soothe the hero's furrowed brow. 

No characterisation. Best moments are the bit towards the end where someone gets lot in the desert and dies. I wish this had been a proper horror film. Amateurishly made. 

Movie review - "The Secret Lives of Dentists" (2002) **

Nicely acted and stuff but there's not enough story here for a feature. Campbell Scott is a dentist worried his dentist wife Hope Davis is cheating. He has fantasies, spurred on by visions of his cranky patient Dennis Leary and hot receptionist Robin Tunney.

Scott has a lovely speaking voice and can act but isn't that compelling - it would be fun to watch, I don't know, Woody Allen be racked with jealousy. I didn't care about him, or his marriage. Sorry. The details of modern marriage all felt real - logistica of kids who are often sick etc. I just didnt think it was a feature.

Maybe it would work better as a play - the intimacy, the actors up close... 

Movie review - "Mortal Thoughts" (1991) **

 The basis of a decent thriller - two female friends (Demi Moore and Glenn Headley), one married to an abusive man (Bruce Willis) who winds up murdered. But the relationships are undercooked - most crucially the two female friends. We never get a sense of what makes them tick or anything. Why they're mates. (They probably should've been sisters.) Moore's marriage to John Pankow isn't really interesting. There's a lot of Willis being snarly.

I know Rudolph came on after the director had been fired and the acting is fine if New Jersey accent-y (with terrible hairdos to match). It's just hard to tell.

It's like at heart a thriller but it's been given indie treatment and had all the fun sucked out of it. Needed to give Moore a sexy guy, have a few double crosses. There's lots of Harvey Keitel interrogating. Not a lot of surprises. 

Movie review - "Made in Heaven" (1987) **1/2

 Alan Rudolph tries studio filmmaking and turns it into an independent film. This cost a lot of money but it didn't have to - it would be better if it was cheaper. Tim Hutton falls for Kelly McGillis in Heaven and tries to find her in the real world.

Debra Winger is an angel, Ellen Berkin is a devil. Tom Petty pops up as does Neil Young.

The movie has a compelling dream like state. There's a structural issue in the second half as both characters draft along in Earth waiting to meet. In Sleepless in Seattle Meg Ryan knew about Tom Hanks and tried to meet him, and discuss him; he came into contact with her. Here Kelly McGillis has relationships with Tim Daly and another guy. Hutton drifts. It's frustrating. It's like they don't deserve true love or something.

Best bit is Hutton meeting his own parents. 

Movie review - "Songwriter" (1984) *** (warning: spoilers)

 It starts as a mess with random voice over and choppy editing and feels haphazard but I went with it because everyone seems to be having a good time - Willie Nelson in a lead, Kris Kristofferson as a mate, Lesley Ann Downe as a new singer, Richard Sarafin as a villain.

It ambles along, plenty of songs, better casting than Roadie. It's probably at heart a **1/2 movie but I loved the ending where Nelson sells Sarafin Downe's contract and she becomes a Born Again! I loved that. 

Movie review - "Return Engagement" (1983) ***

 Alan Rudolph's documentary is one of his least personal but most interesting film because it's about two nutters - Timothy Lear, pro drug advocate, and lunatic G Gordon Liddy.

Liddy's wife appears with black eyes.