Movie review - "Endangered Species" (1982) **1/2

 Alan Rudolph tries again to go commercial in this conspiracy/government film about cattle mutilations. Robert Urich is amiable but miscast as a burnt out cop with a grown daughter - Rudolph's choice of Bob Mitchum would've been better. Jo Beth Williams is lovely as the local cop in a small town where cattle are being killed. Hoyt Axton is a local rancher. Peter Coyote is military with an absurd moustache.

The film clearly has beats it should hit - paranoia, conspiracy etc. Rudolph who specialises in light hearted mood and sexiness isn't really suitable.  The music sting is dumb. The ending is unsatisfactory.

Like Roadie this doesn't hit the exploitation beats it needs to - scares, violence, thrills.  You never believe Urich and that kid are related. Still the movie has a sort of charm - its laid back nature does help sell the story. It feels like it's in the country. 

It's not bad. It's just underwhelming.

Movie review - "The Stalking Moon" (1969) **

 Made by classy people - Alan Pakula, Robert Mulligan, Gregory Peck, Alvin Sergeant, Eva Marie Saint - but it doesn't work. The music score is silly and the story dragged out too much. It should be simple and terrifying from the get go. Gregory Peck and the soldiers rescue Eva Marie Saint and the others too easily. There's too many people around. The film should have kept going right after all the people at the stage coach post are slaughtered - there's this gap where the stagecoach appears and Peck takes them to his farm. The people making this know acting and that stuff but not how to create suspense.

Robert Forster is in the movie to die, so is Russell Thorson. The little kid is stakes - there's little exploration of the fact he wants to go back to his dad.

Not very good. 

Movie review - "Roadie" (1980) **

 Alan Rudolph was in director gaol after Remember My Name so took a studio gig though it was still New Hollywood - anarchic rock and roll film about mechanic/roadie Travis based on an alter ego of a Texan writer.

It's clear what this should be - a romance between Travis and a groupie. Only he looks old and she's meant to be a sixteen year old virgin so that's yuck, even for 1980. And I get why Meatloaf was cast and he's got energy but he doesn't have warmth and the center to play the lead - maybe John Belushi could have pulled it off. And Kiki Hunter isn't right. Meatloaf's family are haw haw caricatures with OTT acting. There's no heart. The movie needed to be made by Alan Arkush or someone. It also needed more 1980 nudity to be freank.

I was disliking this film intensely but it does get better when Debbie Harry and Alice Cooper appear. They are natural and play themselves. But the two leads have no chemistry and both feel miscast.

Movie review - "Terror Circus" (1974) **

 Alan Rudolph's second feature had him called in to re-shoot a movie that had been started by other fands. It's about three girls traveling in the desert who meet a mystery man (Andrew Prine, a familiar face) who kidnaps them. He's got all these other women captured and he does weird stuff.

Solid basic idea, probably needed some more gore and exploitation. Starts well and ends well with the reveal of a monster scarred by atomic testing.  The middle is a slog - needed a subplot or two. 

Prine gives a strong performance, the girls are pretty. I enjoyed it more than some of Rudolph's other movies.

Movie review - "Ray Meets Helen" (2019) *1/2

 I'm glad Alan Rudolph got the chance to make a movie and that Keith Carradine and Sondra Locke played lead roles and it's about a romance between older people. Also fun to see Samntha Mathis, Keith Davis and Jennifer Tilly have something to do. Carradine has some raffish charm and I enjoyed him playing the piano.  

But it's not very good. It's slow. Locke is clearly unwell and isn't great.  The fantastic elements - Locke continuously seeing a dead Mathis and so on - don't work. The movie feels cheap.

Movie review - "Equinox" (1992) **1/2

 The tale of two identical twins, separated - both played by Matthew Modine. One is a shy type the other is a gangster. Shy guy wants Lara Flynn Boyle, lives next to Marisa Tomei, has M. Emmett Walsh as a dad; gangster lives with Lori Singer (wasted), works for Fred Ward and with Tate Donovan.

The acting is strong across the board - Modine is excellent.  Lovely mood. Erratic middle. Interesting ending. I'm still thinking about it.

Movie review - "Investigating Sex" (2001) **1/2

 A stronger Alan Rudolph movie - it benefits from an interesting idea (a salon of men discuss sex in 1929 with two female stenographers getting involved), a solid cast, some sex.

The chats aren't that interesting and indeed have dated in many ways - Gen Z are a lot more ahead of the group. Salon chat is hard to dramatise. It's stronger in scenes of peeople being affected by what's going on, particularly the women. The movie should have swapped some male characters for female and told it from female point of view. People like Julie Delpy and Tuesday Weld are under utilised.

Robin Tunney and Neve Campbell are stenographers.  

Like a lot of Rudolph movies it feels like a Woody Allen film without as many laughs.  The movie has strong moments then long period of blah. I gave it a half star because it had more energy and the good bits were good. 

Less characters would have helped incidentally.