Book review - "The Book of Sheen" by Charlie Sheen (2025)

 Starts off interestingly - the son of Martin Sheen, growing up in Malibu, hanging out with the Penns (Chris more than Sean), being on set in Philippines for Apocalypse Now, discovering paid sex on the streets of Santa Monica (!), a rapid rise to acting work - a part in Grizzly 2 (which meant he had to turn down the lead in Karate Kid), a strong experience on Red Dawn and Ferris Bueller then the casting in Platoon. After that the book wobbles with Sheen whining incessantly about his work on Wall Street then it goes into free fall with tales of drugs, and women, and rants. Sheen comes across as a completely unpleasant person - a narcissist like so many junkies who brags about all the drugs they took and interventions they've had and wagons they've fallen of, who dribbles away about his suffering.  He clearly lives in a world with too many jesters and has little respect for his craft of acting. He's constantly disparaging the films he appears in - ego trips, badly written, etc - though he has some nice words for the writers and co stars of Spin City and Two and a Half Men. He owns some of his mistakes but only some and basically just dribbles.

Despite the people he's worked with some character sketches come through - Johnny Depp trying to seduce him into smoking on Platoon, Oliver Stone's tension trying to make the movies, Chris Penn, his parents. But so many people are vaguely drawn incuding his own brother. The book also assumes the reader knows about many of the incidents - maybe that's true for a typical reader but some context wouldn't go astray. Also the spelling of "dood" and "fukken" gets wearying. Like Sheen and this book.

Movie review - "Patton" (1970) ****

 A movie that managed to unite hawks and doves with its blood and guts hero - isn't he great vs isn't it awful. Some terrific fresh bits like the opening with Patton talking to troops in front of the flag. Others are more conventional such as people going "tell me about Patton" and Germans giving exposition. Karl Malden's Bradley is dull.

There are fresh things, or at least fresh at the time - the more realistic depiction of how battles were fought in World War Two.

Book review - "Ready When You Are, Mr. Coppola, Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Crowe" by Jerry Ziesmer

 Memoir of an assistant director has some decent moments but needed an edit. Too much Apocalypse Now and schedules not enough personalities. Fun sketches of Sly Stallone (nutty but endearing), Cameron Crowe (all positive), Tom Cruise (hyper), Robert Redford (charming but a c*nt), Babs (into everything), Peter Bogdanovich (didn't expect Illegally Yours to be made), Otto Preminger (a bully who was a pussycat).

Most memorable bit is fact Ziesmer's son killed himself. I did like him schmoozing extras on The Way We Were. I guess it's interesting how they did Superbowl in Black Sunday.  

Diller versus Evans

Am reading Barry Diller’s excellent memoirs which discuss his time running Paramount in the 1970s which made me decide to compare his regime with the fabled Robert Evans regime that proceeded it. (These lists below attribute films to various regimes as well as I can... it's entirely possible some started development under other regimes)

So films from the Evans regime which film bros (deservedly) always bang on about...  

Love Story, The Godfather Part 1 and 2, Harold and Maude, A New Leaf, Willy Wonka, Play It Again Sam, Lady Sings the Blues, Paper Moon, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Serpico, The Conversation, Daisy Miller, The Parallax View, Chinatown, Death Wish, The Longest Yard, Three Days of the Condor, Hustle, Italian Job, Medium Cool, True Grit, Goodbye Columbus, Rosemary’s Baby, The Odd Couple, Romeo and Juliet, Barbrella, if..., Oh what a Lovely War, Downhill Racer. 

Great stuff. 

But films from Evans regime which film bros forget he made (or blame on Charlie Bludhorn)...

 The Molly Maguires, The Adventurers, Darling Lili, Friends, Little Fauss and Big Haley, Norwood, a weirdly large number of flop Neil Simon adaptations (Plaza Suite, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Star Spangled Bannered Girl), Murphy’s Law, TR Baskin, Such Good Friends, Bad Company, The N***** Charley Films, Save the Children, Sterile Cuckoo, Hello Down There, My Side of the Mountain, Where’s Jack, Blue, No Way to Treat a Lady, 5 Card Stud, Skidoo, The Brotherhood, A Talent for Loving, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Scalawag, The White Dawn, Paint Your Wagon.

Not so great stuff. You just don't hear Peter Bart go one about these as much. 

Films from the Diller regime which film bros go on about:  

Saturday Night Fever, Bad News Bears, Marthon Man, King Kong, Mikey and Nicky (in its own way), Looking for Mr Goodbar, Saturday Night Fever, Pretty Baby, Grease 1 and 2, Heaven Can Wait, Foul Play, Days of Heaven, Up in Smoke, The Warriors, Escape from Alcatraz, Meatballs, North Dallas Forty, Star Trek 1 and 2, American Gigolo, Friday the 13th series, Urban Cowboy, Flying High 1 and 2, Ordinary People, Popeye, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom, Mommie Dearest, An Officer and.a Gentleman, 48 Hours, White Dog, Flashdance, Trading Places, Terms of Endearment, Uncommon Valor, The Keep, Footloose,  Top Secret, Beverly Hills Cop, Witness.

Again, a great line up of films. 

But there are films from the Diller regime which seem to be forgotten: 

Won Ton Ton the Dog That Saved Hollywood, Lifeguard, Handle with Care, First Love, The One and Only, Going South, Oliver's Story, An Almost Perfect Affair, Prophecy, Bloodline, Sunburn, French Postcards, Nijinsky, Rough Cut, The Hunter, Coast to Coast, Going Ape, Dragonslayer, First Monday in October, Paternity, Ragtime, I’m Dancing as Far as I Can, Some Kind of Hero, Partners, Jekyll and Hyde Together Again, It Came from Hollywood, Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Racing with the Moon, Best Defence, River Rat, Thief of Hearts, Falling in Love, King David, Rustlers Rhapsody, Compromising Positions. 

Don't forget the flops, that's all I'm saying. 

Movie review - "Dementia 13" (1963) **1/2 (rewatching)

 I wanted to see this on the big screen. Thoughts:

- wanted to like it more than I do but as a quickie it's impressive

- Luanda Anders is wonderful and the film never recovers from her death, the best bit

- Bobby Campbell a little odd, the other female lead a little erratic, Patrick Magee terrific

- needs a Vincent Price

- spooky atmosphere

- lots of chat, I got confused. 

Movie review - "Megalopolis" (2024) **

 Too many thoughts to put down in a coherent form so I'll do dot points:

- this didn't have to cost $120 million, at heart it's people in rooms talking

- props to a boomer blowing his fortune on an indulgent movie

- it feels like a third year drama school play - a verse drama, cobbled off Roman history, lots of "wisdom" and pretension, lousy female roles

- occasionally some genuine emotion comes through like Talia Shire giving son Adam Driver a serve

- the cast all commit - Nathalie Emmanuel does as well as she can, Driver goes for it, Aubrey Plaza really goes for it, Jon Voight excellent and Shia LeBouf absolutely nails it - whatever the film is, Shia is it

- the adaptation of Rome doesn't work - there's lots of newspapers, and people smoking - also rich families tend not to run for elected office these days it's easier to buy politicians - so there was a level of non reality about it (I know it was expressionistic but things clunked - it was set in our world but also had a 1980s vibe) - I wish he'd just set this in Ancient Rome or gone fully sci fi and set it in the future

- I couldn't follow what was happening (Driver builds things I think and there's elections and... something) and at two horus 15 minutes it was hard

- Coppola can still do violence well as shown with the assassination attempt on Driver

- DB Sweeney and James Remar have small roles! Bless

- obviously very personal about Coppola with his love for a princess daughter and Driver thanking Emmanuel "for making him work" (gotta love those behind the scenes women), and blonde female sex objects

- why was Dustin Hoffman in this film?

Look, he had a go. He really did.

Movie review - "Reflections in a Golden Eye" (1967) ***1/2

 When I grew up Ray Stark was this figure of terror, especially in accounts of the David Begelman case and David Puttnam at Columbia, but he had classy taste. This was not obviously commercial material - although I guess it had sexy Southerners and included Elizabeth Taylor stripping off. Maybe that and horny Marlon Brando would've meant more a decade earlier.

Anyway the story - Brando is married to Elizabeth Taylor who is sleeping with Brian Keith who is married to Julie Harris, and Brando is hot for nude horse riding Robert Forster who is obsessed with Taylor. Zorro David is one of cinema's first gay besties - Harris' camp Filipino houseboy.

Brando's performance is interesting - he has a weird Southern accent and does a lot of emoting. I didn't buy it. 

The ending is directed in a slightly silly way IMHO but it seems to have influenced American Beauty - closeted military man kills object of desire.

Movie review - "This Property is Condemned" (1966) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 A tour de force for Natalie Wood who is gorgeous and very good as a wildcat living in a small town panted over by a lot of men, including Charles Bronson (a rail worker) and some old dude John Harding. Then Robert Redford comes into town and he pants over her too.

Redford is handsome and gives what David Shipman once described as his "usual hesitant, nice performance". Director Sydney Pollack once said they never cracked the love story - I think the issue is more Redford struggles to portray lust for Wood. He's always been better as a lust object  - Wood's keen for him but you don't get the sense that she's keen for her. Also the reason he dumps her is so stupid - because his mother says she's a liar. He just believes the mother, walks out on Natalie Wood, who is naked in the shower. I'm sorry he doesn't care about her - why should we care about them?

The film feels vey studio bound although there was some New Orleans filming. Some weird decisions - Wood runs off after Redford discovers she's married and stole money off Bronson (so?).. she dies off screen... we don't know what happened to Redford.

Why not have Bronson appear and kill Redford? Or why not make Redford a complete cad? Why cheat Wood of a death scene? It's so stupid. Wood's excellent performance deserved better. Bronson is good too. The mother is fine. Redford isn't up to it.

Mary Badham is Wood's younger sister. Mary Reid is a stock monstrous Williams mother, and Robert Blake is in it too.

Movie review - "Is Paris Burning" (1966) **1/2

 I think Paramount were hoping for their own version of The Longest Day, with this all star account of the liberation of Paris. Thing is, most of the stars were French, so the film was a hit in France but not America. Also, don't mean to be rude, but the battle wasn't that important militarility, more politically (hugely so) - and the film doesn't really go into that, the fact that France might've wound up in civil war. To be fair the film does allude to some of this  - there's no colonial troops though. Or British.

Still there are powerful scenes - the last train of prisoners being sent off to the camps, the massacre of young resistance workers, Orson Welles as the Swedish diplomat persuading Gert Forbe not to blow up the city. And many of the cast lived through the events so it has an authenticity that you just can't get now.

Kirk Douglas is Patton, Glenn Ford is Bradley, Anthony Perkins and George Chakiris are soldiers, Robert Stack is a general - but most of the stars are French: Leslie Caron, Jean Paul Belmondo, Simone Signoret, Bruno Cremer (a large role), Alain Delon, Charles Boyer, Michael Piccolo, etc.

Gore Vidal and Francis Coppola worked on the script. Vidal whined about it a lot.

Movie review - "Dementia 13" (1962) **1/2

 Coppola's Psycho knock off has a great murder sequence with an axe to show how tremendous he is with genre. There's a memorable opening, with another guy dying, a superb Luana Anders performance. Once Anders dies half way the film never quite gets its groove back though Patrick Magee does all he can.

I got confused in the second half to be honest. Mary Mitchell is a rather bland blonde - Coppola loved his blondes. Bill Campbell is alright.

Clearly made by someone with talent. Some great moments. I do find it patchy.

Claudia Jennings in "Lenny"

 Claudia Jennings was amibitious enough to try theatre - bc it was the seventies the part she could get was playing the stripper wife in the play Lenny. (Valerie Perinne played it in the film).

Because it was the seventies she did it in San Francisco at a theatre restaurant called Bimbo's and Francis Ford Coppola came to see it. Here's a photo.

Movie review - "Blood Bath" (1966) (re-watching) **

 I previously reviewed the Track of the Vampire version of this - this one is Blood Bath, shorter at 60 minutes. You need Tim Lucas to talk through the versions.

There's an opening, stylishly shot vampire murder. That's Stephanie Rothman. Beatniks in a bar - that's Jack Hill. There's two girls chatting. One girl goes and dances on the beach, Sandra Knight (this is Rothman). Then the other girl, Marissa Mathes, meets artist William Campbell. He kills her. I think that's Hill. But also he turns into a vampire. Which is Rothman.

Basically vampire = Rothman and artist Campbell = Hill. I'm not sure how much Yugoslavian stuff remains. 

It's confusing. The two stories don't mesh (if Campbell didn't return they should have had a Campbell plus a vampire... or had a second psycho). I know why Hill is frustrated Rothman made the changes but also I think his stuff involved a little too much comedy at the beatnik store - I'm assuming that's all mostly Hill.

Still, the sheer novelty of this film is fascinating. The directors, Corman, the cast - which includes Sandra Knight (Mrs Jack Nicholson) and Jonathan Haze, who were both in The Terror (a more satisfactory patchwork quilt). You've got Sid Haig. The photography is genueinly beautiful. The ending genuinely dumb. Movies!

Book review - "The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story" by Sam Wasson

 Wasson comes up with a fresh take on Coppola, focusing on the American Zoetrope story, with two main areas - the early 70s period before The Godfather and the early 80s which saw One from the Heart . Most emphasis is on the latter, which its dazzling ambition, waste of money, idealism, randomness - Gene Kelly mixing it with Michael Powell, Paul Schrader, Michael Lehman and so on.

Doesn't spend a lot of time on Godfather, thank goodness, but a bit on Apocalypse Now. Puts Megalopolis in more context - I get it more now and am even looking forward to it (with some apprehension).

Coppola's record at supporting talent and trying new things is quite remarkable even if he did go a little insane I think. Fascinating book.

Movie review - "The Terror" (1963) *** (re-watching)

 I've seen this so many times but did it again in light of rewatching the Corman Poes. It's a jagged mess, full of charm, and familiar faces - even support like Jonathan Haze. It's better than Comedy of Terrors because it's serious and Corman goes for mood. The plot is erratic but at least stuff does happen. Sandra Knight is genuinely evocative and otherwordly. Jack Nicholson is charming. Poor Karloff in that flooding water!

George Hamilton Top Ten

 1. Light in the Piazza (1962)

2. Love at First Bite (1979)

3. Godfather Part 3 (1990)

4. Doc Hollywood (1993)

4. Your Cheatin' Heart (1965)

5. Evil Knievel (1971)

6. Death Car on the Freeway (1979)

7. Rough Riders (1997)

8. Where the Boys Are (1960)

9 Home from the Hill (1959)

10.The Victors (1963)

Book review - "Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather " by Mark Seal

 I knew all the stories but it was fun to read anyway because the making of this film is a classic story, full of colorful characters (Bob Evans, Coppola, Charlie Bludhorn, Puzo, Brando, Caan, various mafiosos - Al Ruddy is among the least colourful) and genuine conflict (mafia opposition, Evans vs Coppola). The sections on dealing with cinematographers and designers are particularly strong.

Book review - "Notes on a Life" by Eleanor Coppola (2008)

 Can't help but be interesting and there's some great stuff in here. Eleanor's feelings about being so overshone in her own family (by Francis and then Sofia), the death of Gino and her on going grief. Life can be pretty good when you're married to a superstar director - holidays with George Lucas in the West Indies, being invited to Brazil to help their country with their film industry, dinner with Gary Oldman and Tony Hopkins while making Dracula where they mimicked other actors, the tale of Godfather Three. Francis is always whining about being an artist versus commerce.

There are glimpses of sections where I was dying to know more - her jealousy when Francis flirted with another woman, references to their old financial troubles. So while the book has fantastic stuff I was always wanting more - it's like a meal that's not satisfactory.

Movie review - "The Bellboy and the Playgirls" (1962) **

 Technically Francis Coppola's first movie. He was given a West German comedy and told to add nudity. It's easy to spot his stuff because it's not dubbed... and most of it is in colour. It's not that much.

Jack hill helped Coppola shoot the extra sequences. I liked this more than Coppola's second nudie - production values are higher.

Movie review - "Jack" (1996) **

 The Rainmaker was one Coppola example of 90s Hollywood studio cinema - Grisham, stars, languid pace, lawyers, etc. So too was Jack - high concept, Robin Williams, schmaltz.

It's hard going. Coppola cares about the material and it's made with care but the whole film feels... off. Too slow. Miscast (eg Diane Lane as Jack's mum... I like Lane she just feels wrong. Ditto Brian Kerwin as dad). Maybe Robin Williams is too old and sad for the piece to be funny. I actually think Coppola was just the wrong director.

Or not. I dunno. This film evokes strange feelings. I didn't enjoy it. Williams plays a 40 year old ten year old.  He's not even handsome and fit at his peak - he's already in decline. Tom Hanks in Big was in his prime.

Bill Cosby is fine but his presence kills fun. Actually all the acting is good - the kids and so on. Jennifer Lopez is good. Williams is solid.

It's just a bit sad and depressing. The kids are mean but then like Jack because he's good at bastkeball. But hanging with ten year old boys is rarely fun on screen - farts, vomit, burps, porn mags, etc. It's all true it's just not a very engaging age (while being a teenager is more interesting). 

The one fun bit was when Fran Drescher hits on him. That's fun. And Michael McKean at a bar. The rest is so serious. Maybe, I don't know, if there had been some subplot where Williams helped his parents find love, make his mother a single mum and help her life. or help Lopez get a promotion. Improve people's lives. I know these are very Hollywood notes but it needed something.

Movie review - "Tonight for Sure" (1962) *

 Before Coppola worked for Roger Corman he did some nudie cuties. This is about two men who meet and travel through Sunset Strip. There's lots of gryating women. Jack Hill worked on this as did Coppola's dad Carmine. It's dull. The photography isn't as good as say Russ Meyers. There's some quirky bits. You'd be hard pressed to know it was Coppola. Not really a porno more a "nudie".