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dave_hillman
Reviews
Kinds of Kindness (2024)
Emma elevates this would-be "Mulholland Dr."
Yorgog Lanthimos" latest, "Kinds of Kindness" is aan anthology film about domination (I think). There are three separate stories with a very tenuous connection. Anthology films are difficult beasts to satisfyingly nail, and this 164-minute comedy drama is no exception. It never quite hits the mark, but it's never dull.
Lanthimos is slowly acquiring a stock company. Here we have Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley from "Poor Things", joined by Jesse Plemons and Hong Chau, among others. Plemons has the most screen time and is well utilized. Dafoe are Chau are effective in smaller roles.
But the movie in the end belongs to Emma Stone, the Bette Davis of her generation (she even has the eyes). She's the main reason to see this strange opus, which reminded me of David Lynch's "Mulholland Dr." (2001), in that it is a movie that almost defiantly declares itself to be weird just for the sake of being weird.
However, "Mulhollland Dr." eventually pulls itself together and on a second viewing doesn't seem weird at all, merely an unconventional way to tell a story that makes perfect sense in the end.
I am not having the same reaction to "Kinds of Kindness." It is often disjointed, with deliberately arch dialogue and far-fetched, bizarre situations and imagery.
It benefits from a strange music score and impeccable techs. It is shot in a New Orleans you may not recognize, another plus.
But the stories are never really involving, just odd, and there is no emotional connection to be made here. Searchlight is to be commended for getting this made, but mainstream audiences will little to like here. It sets out to be polarizing, and it is (almost to a fault).
Except for Stone, who is in all three stories but only front and center in the second and especially the third tale. She's just as fearless here as she was in her Oscar-winning "Poor Things" performance.
If there is an underlying theme here, and I'm not sure there really is, the theme would be domination of an extreme kind. And that frankly is a stretch.
I admit I've been thinking about the movie since I saw it, but not to the point I'd see it again in a theatre. Maybe on cable or streaming.
I'm comparing it to "Mulholland" because when I saw "Mulholland" I had a similar initial reaction, to a degree. I found "Mulholland" incoherent until about halfway through, then I began to understand where Lynch was going, and was riveted to the very end of that movie. Not so herre; when this one ended I simply shrugged and left.
Emma's spastic dance near the very end is the only moment where this movie roars to life. Up to that, it goes about its way in a stately, detached manner with suddenly graphic imagery popping up from time to time to keep the audience engaged.
If you're into unconventional movies, I'd recommend it with the reservation that it is not a conventional Hollywood film at any point, and a reminder that it is almost three hours long. Although it wears its running time well due to the three story structure (sd per usual in anthologies, the strongest story is the final, lengthiest one).
This is Margaret Qualley's biggest showcase to date as far I know, and after Stone, it's a draw as to who is the movie's MVP. Plemons has the most screen time, but kind of fades into the background near the end, whereas Qualley gets to very effectively play twins (and she also has the movie's most indelible image near the climax).
Viewers familiar with Lanthimos will be most at home. Kubrick fans won't be bored either. Everybody else, you're on your own.
Queen of Outer Space (1958)
"I hate that queen!"
No, it's not from a John Waters movie. It's uttered by the one-and-only Zsa Zsa Gabor in the 1958 campfest "Queen of Outer Space."
So you know now that Zsa Zsa does not play the queen. She plays a scientist.
I know, it took me awhile and I was watching the movie!
Astronauts crash land on a planet inhabited only by beautiful, hostile women., like if Melania Trump threw a theme party and invited all her coworkers.
The queen's face is disfigured and she blames all men for this. She is played by Laurie Mitchell who is not known for anything else as far as I know. No matter, she is immortal in this, wearing the most ridiculous dime-store Halloween mask that is far scarier that what is underneath it.
This movie is unusual in that, despite being only 82 minutes long, you get no opening credits until about twenty minutes in, as if this is the "Citizen Kane" of bad 50s sci-fi.
It's been awhile since I've seen it, but I do seem to recall there is a bit of monster stock footage thrown in.
The men are cardboard throughout. This is strictly Zsa Zsa and Laurie's show. The sets are bargain basement and the special effects aren't much better. THe gowns worn by the angry space women are colorful and show plenty of leg.
Not awful, not boring, but it is mid-level camp at best. Good for kids on a Saturday morning with cereal and a beer chaser.
The Fan (1981)
With a bit more fearlessness, this could have been something
Bob Randall's excellent novel "The Fan" is presented as a series of letters between Sally Ross, a celebrated Broadway actress and her associates, admirers and unfortunately, one derranged fan. The book has a downbeat ending which is all to believable.
In bringing this story to the screen, Paramount did a few things right. They cast Lauren Bacall as Sally and Michael Biehn as the fan, along with the stalwarts James Garner and Maureen Stapleton in important supporting roles.
The movie has an escellent opening credits sequence--one of the best of the early 80s--and a great score by thriller whiz PIno Donaggio ("Carrie", "Dressed to Kill"). It was shot on location in NYC, which helps.
Unfortunately it has a script that waters down the material to a degree where the movie just becomes a fairly generic slasher film. THe direction by Edward Bianchi is stylish enough, but this cries out fopr a DePalma or even a DePalma clone.
There's enough gore to satisfy those who require it, but all of the dread and menace and tragedy of the ending is nowhere to be found.
Bacall is game and as I said, well cast, but she is unwisely given overlong musical numbers which stop the movie dead in its tracks and defy any credibility that this woman iw really a celebrated Broadway star, or that anyone who worship her homicidally. It's like if someone say Lucille Ball in "Mame" and decided to become her stalker.
Worth a look if you loke backstage horror flicks, as there are not enough of them, but frankly, I'd advise you to read the book. It's much more chilling.
Hercules (1983)
Hilariously awful
A bar I frequent shows bad movies without sound during the week. This was one of them.
It is "Hercules", an Italian atrocity from 1983 starring Lou Ferrigno and some other people who don't have much to do except stand in front of tacky backdrops and provide exposition.
This movie is terrible. Ferrigno is not an actor, but he does have enormous pecs, and this will fascinate you for about five minutes. The special effects are embarrassing and strange (robotic monsters terrorize Hercules and so on). The sets are a notch above Ed Wood territory, and the disco lighting throughout is bizarre and distracting.
Still, for lovers of camp, this is kind of a must-see. It's not a long movie, and with a couple of belts you will probably enjoy yourself. Ferrigno even without sound obviously has some kind of speech impediment, so this adds to the schlock factor considerably.
High point: the sword fight with disco lighting on the swords ala Star Wars. But that is one of many. The robot creatures look like children's toys, and the costumes look tawdry and cheap.
Amazingly, this got a sequel, which I will never see. One of this Hercules is enough.
OK for kids, but expect them to laugh at it if they can stay awake..
The Fog (1980)
Sstately and genuinely eerie
I'm a sucker for a ghost story, especially if it a seaside setting. So this 1981 thriller from John Carpenter pushed all my buttons and continues to do so to this day.
"The Fog" is Carpenter's follow-up to his smash hit "Halloween." A lot was riding on it. It was well received, although there were a few inexplicable reviewers who proclaimed it a sophomore slump.
Granted, it is light years away from the suburban menace of Michael Myers in the original "Halloween," and this is one reason I embraced it wholeheartedly. I realized that this was a writer-director who was not going to dish out the same thing over and over.
"The Fog" is a sleek, wonderfully creepy ghost story about a haunted seaside town menaced by the vengeful apparations of the crew of a long-ago shipwreck. You need not know much more.
The ghosts thrive in a thick fog which slowly envelops the town, which lends itself to some wonderfully macabre imagery throughout. These ghosts can kill, too, and violently. "The Fog" is light on actual gore (much like "Halloween"), but the kills are effective, and the ghosts are scary enough to land this an R rating. Young kids will have nightmares.
Carpenter also contributes another effective musical score. "The Fog" oozes atmosphere and is ideal for Halloween or a rainy night (especially if you're att the beach).
It has a sublime cast: Adrienne Barbeau (suprisingly stury in the lead), Jamie Lee Curtis and her mom Janet Leigh, Tom Atkins, Hal Holbrook, and in a nifty prologue, the grand John Houseman.
Put this on your list if you haven't seen it. It's a brisk 90 minutes, and you definitely will get the chills. Avoid at all costs the abysmal remake.
A Matter of Time (1976)
I admit my 3 may be generous, but.....
....out of respect for the intentions of this director and its two stars, I cannot go lower.
What we have here is one of the tragic examples of studio interence post-production.
The film is "A Matter of Time," the director is the brilliant Vincente Minnelli ("Gigi," "An American in Paris," "The Bad and the Beautiful," many other classics or semi-classics, the majority of them made for M-G-M during Hollywood's Golden Age). The stars are Ingrid Bergman and Mr. Minnelli's daughter, the legnndary Liza Minnelli ("Cabaret," "New York, New York").
This was a passion project for both director and daughter who longed to make a film together. They selected a rather obscure novel, "Film of Memory," by Maurice Druon, I believe.
On paper, this would seem to be an ideal project for the two. Opportunities for the father to direct a period drama in Rome with his patented, masterly visual style of gorgeous elegance, and for the daughter to sing a bit, dress up in dazzling clothes and in general enjoy playing a movie star (albeit a newly discovered one). Bergman would play Liza's mentor, an aged, slightly insane contessa living on borrowed time at an enormous, old Roman hotel. The younger woman is her chambermaid, and the two form a friendship built mostly on the older, worldly woman's memories and observations.
The studio is the last you'd think would approach a project like this one. It was American-International, known mostly for low budget drive-in horror, biker flicks, and tons of grade Z double bills. AIP, as I'll call the studio from here on, wanted to do a prestige picture and the Minnellis needed a studio, and so, a deal was made. The budget was large for AIP ($5 million) and small for the Minnellis, but they put aside those concerns and hoped for the best.
They shouldn't have. The best case scenario would have been for the Minnellis to shop around their project to a more seasoned studio, but they were having little luck doing that. Even though Liza had just won an Oscar, she didn't really have box office clout, and her father had not directed a picture in almost five years (his last being the tepidly received Barbra Streisand musical "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever", a film with many similar characteristics of this one).
Filming commenced. From the beginning there were warning signs. Mr. Minnelli was in the very early stages of Alzheimer's and had trouble communicating with the largely Italian crew. FIlming went behind budget early on, and AIP began to get nervous. THey were able to finish it, though, and Mr. Minnelli provided with a first cut of almost three hours--unheard of for a studio like AIP, whose films hardly ever stretched even near the two hour mark.
Samuel Arkoff, the producer, took Minnelli's cut, and flat out butchered it. Scene after scene was cut, dreadful stock footage of modern day Rome was inserted, awful post-dubbing added, and what emerged was a truncated version of 96 minutes. And the opening credits are a tip-off of what's to come: they are alarmingly amateurish without one iota of beauty, which is a major theme of this story.
Bergman emerged relatively unscathed, but Liza Minnelli did not. Admittedly miscast, 30 years olf playing 16, she is not directed with any restraint, and the resulting performance is grating and undisciplined to the point where she often comes off as ridiculous. She does get one great musical number, but it is not enough to salvage her performance. This film was fatal to her burgeoning film career and resulted in her getting the dreaded moniker from exhibitors as "box office poison.' She regained standing in her next film, to a degree, which was Martin Scorsese's wonderfully idiosyncratic 1977 musical drama, "New York, New York", with Robert De Niro, a movie that opened softly but has gradually been generously reassessed, particularly after a 1981 reissue restoring deleted scenes. Liza did not return to the screen until the same year with the smash hit comedy "Arthur."
As for "A Matter of Time" it came and went fairly quickly. It did receive a national release to almost universal dismissal. I saw it in a multiplex in Tennesse and was mortified by what I was looking at. The color usually associated with Vincente Minnelli is nowhere to be seen; the movie looks not exactly cheap, but quite drab, although the costumes do have some flair. The editing and post-dubbing are hopeless, as is the grating musical score by Nino Rota. Bergman salvages it to a degree, but this is a movie not of its age with no compensating factors to overlook that.
As a fan of Liza Minnelli, it was a depressing experience, She will barely discuss the film, which was her only opportunity to work her father, and so that must be painful. The villain here was Arkoff, who flat out ruined any chance the film could have been received with a degree of appreciation (although some critics went out of their way to be kind, considering).
I can recommend this only as a curio. I've seen it a few times since, and it does not improve. What emerges on subsequent viewings is what a missed opportunity this was, and a sense of regret that it harmed Liza Minnelli's film career to such a significant degree. She maintained a smashing success on the stage, but Hollywood missed out, I must say. She exuded charisma even in this dreck.
It took forever to come out on DVD, but I believe it is still available. THe ABC affiliate in New York, channel 7, often showed it as a late movie, which is probably the largest audience it ever got.
I wish I could tell you it was good, believe me. But it is exactly as I've described. It ruined my opinion of AIP. They really butchered it and probably should have never released it as is, or gone back to the drawing board and brought in some type of film doctor to salvage what could be saved. As Pauline Kael, a renowned film critic at tthe time, "Minnelli's film is the movie I wanted to see, not this hacked up shambles." That about says it all.
Strait-Jacket (1964)
Peps-Cola's only horror movie
Strait-Jacket is an early example of gratuitous product placement in a feature film.
Here the film is a hagsploitation Joan Crawford semi-classic, and her prominent co-star is Pepsi-Cola, since Crawford at one point was married to the president of the company and remained on board for a bit after he had a heart attack and died.
The film itself is pure camp and lively enough. It has axe murders (unconvincingly exhibited on screen). It has ugly housedresses. It has Joan playing a character half her age in the opening scenes. It has a plot twist you can see coming a mile away. It has fake severed heads and scary moments for the kiddies.
But most importantly it has Joan, who gives a committed performance to be sure, hurling the howlingly bad dialogue across the screen like she's doing Ibsen. Joan wears an awful wig in most of her scenes; ithis wig's only cinematic rival is the black mop Better Davis wore in the 1949 trash epic "Beyond the Forest."
Joan does wield an axe nicely, it must be said. You can see where Christina probably got her training.
It goes without saying that this movie must be seen (and eventually quoted) by all lovers of camp. Try to witness it with a bunch of drunken gays and a case of Smirnoff.
And of courrse, Pepsi-Cola!
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Tarantino's unquestionable masterwork
Quentin Tarantino controls all his excesses while modulating them as expected in this beautifully realized Hollywood fable of two showbiz misfits who find themselves mixed up with murderous hippies in late 1960s Tinseltown.
The cast is toplined by a never better Brad Pitt (Oscar winner) and a grandly comic Leonard DiCaprio in one of his best ever performances.
There's also a radiant Margot Robbie, perfectly cast as Sharon Tate.
That's where I'll stop. Tarantino toys with your expectations right up to the very end, but just know the very end is some of the best filmmaking he's ever done--and the most violent, but it works here nicely (it's almost required, to be honest).
The production design also won a well-deserved Oscar. You really feel like you are watching late 60s Hollywood. Gorgeous.
The last scene is unforgettable for multiple reasons.
A true masterpiece. It's three hours long, but it flies by and you'll want to see it again.
Munster, Go Home! (1966)
Boring; it's easy to see why it bombed.
Universal released two "family" spookfests in the mid-sixties; this, and the infinitely superior"Ghott and Mr. Chicken" with Don Knotts. "Chicken" was a hit and holds up nicely today, proving you can make a good family horror comedy; this movie was a flop and is almost unwatchable now.
Based on the much funnier and frankly spookier TV series, this color version of a wacky horror family (no, not the Brady Bunch) loses everything in its transition to the big screen. It looks incredibly cheap, and although the cast tries, particularly Fred Gwynne and the still beautiful Yvonne De Carlo, everything is off and the entire enterprise flatlines almost instantly.
Kids will probably fall back asleep unless you give them coffee with their cereal. I don't know what the audience for this would be today, probably the only most nostalgic buffs of the TV show. As a movie, it is something to clog up a drive-in on the lower half of a double bill with "Ghost and Mr. Chicken", which it probably did.
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Terrific, the actresses are superb
There is an undercurrent of sadness in this initially rollicking comedy drama that is even more apparent on subsequent viewings.
Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are bored gals, best friends, who embark on a seemingly innocuous weekend of fun that goes spectacularly awry after they frequent the wrong roadhouse bar.
They're great, as is an appealingly subdued Harvey Keitel who is a man sympathetic to the mess the women find themselves again.
That's the bare bones; you need not know more. It's a well-made movie, directed by Ridley Scott in a quiet, escalatingly suspenseful manner.
Featured to great effect is a young Brad Pitt, who electrifies from his very first scene.
A deserved Oscar winner for original screenplay, by Callie Khouri.
The Changeling (1980)
Best seance scene in horror movie history
For maximum effect, watch this one with the lights out, alone.
George C. Scott tries his hand at horror with smashing success, grounding what could have a routine ghost story with a strong characterization as a grieving man living in a haunted mansion to recover from a terrible trauma.
I'll leave it at that. The less you know about this film going in, the better. Just know it has more than a few chilling moments, it's light on gore, and it has hands down the creepiest, most realistic seance scene I've ever seen in any movie.
Perfect for Halloween, but not as background. The script is worth listening to, not to mention ace techs and spooky sounds galore.
Trish Van Devere has one of her few good roles here. Well directed by Peter Medak. This is a true sleeper from Canada.
The Sterile Cuckoo (1969)
Unforgettablle
This somber yet funny film is one of the best romantic dramas of the late sixties, with two pitch perfect performances by its leads, Wendell Burton and Liza Minnelli (in her first lleading role).
A nuanced, understated script by the great Alvin Sargent and incredibly assured direction by Alan J. Pakula (his debut, amazingly) effortlessly conveys the painful experience of first love in quiet, increasingly heartbreaking ways.
Sterile Cuckoo is a movie that will get under your skin and remain there. Minnelli's character is meant to be an eccentric, and while Liza gets this across, she also conveys the girl's desperate attempts to cconect with society at any cost. Burton matches her scene for scene as a decent boy who genuinely loves her but finds himself outgrowing her neediness while at the same time forging his own way as he grows up. It's a pity he didn't make more films.
Liza of course ujsed this star vehiccle as a launching pad for a few other things. But this has some of her best work.
Recommended without reservation. But it is a sad little movie and the ending is uncompromising.
Elf (2003)
Unbearable and shrill; Bring back the Grinch
Will Ferrell screams and flounces like a moron in this inexplicably popular "holiday classic" what will require you to buy out the liquor store to endure.
A deleted sequence (surely they filmed one) where this fat loud elf is hit by a NYC bus would have been welcome.
Oh well.
"Santaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" squeals the porcine Ferrell, repeatedly, and this wears off very quickly.
The bloated elf also discovers elevators in a stupid scene which will want you want to kill him even more.
The bloated man-child eelf also has fun with revolving doors and stuff. Oh, the hilarity.
Why is this awful movie so popular? I just wanted the elf to be murdered--violently.
A terrlble waste of Mary Steenburgen. Her other Christmas movie "One Magic Christmas" is much better than this puerile piece of crap.
Rent anything else yuletide but this screechfest. I hate it.
Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988)
A movie that should not have been made. but Liza is gorgeous
This misbegotten sequel to the 1981 classic "Arthur" is a colossal disappointment.
For starters, "Arthur" did not need a sequel. This film is devoid of any charm except for its leading lady, Liza Minnelli. She looks terrific and socks over the lame dialogue with effortless panache.
As for the rest: Moore looks haggard and his performance is very strained. There is a cameo with John Gielgud that goes nowhere. The reliable Barney Martin (as Liza's father) is amusing, Cynthia Sikes is no Jill Eikenberry, and Stephen Elliott hellows effectively. Jack Gilford is lively as a lazy landlord and here you can see a very appealing Kathy Bates in one of her first big roles as a social worker.
The script shamelessly recylces dialogue from Steve Gordon's brilliant original script. Bud Yorkin's direction cannot not pump life into it. You wonder why any of the players did not say "can we improve this screenplay"?
Still, there's always Liza, who brightens her every scene despite all these considerable odds.
Overaall, this is an unfortunate misfire that is nowhere near its predecessor.
Worth a look if you liked the first one, but that's about it.
Hereditary (2018)
Forgive me if I've reviewed this title--I just watched it again
As a horror buff, I cannot praise this movie enough.
I saw it late in the run; no one was discussing it at the time. I'm so glad I went to see it at a second-run theatre in NYC.
Toni Collette. Enough said. Should have won the Oscar, and she was not even nominated. SHAME.
This flick fascinated me. It blends intense family drama and supernatural elements with dazzling flair. There's a shocking scene midway through that stunned everyone in the audience. I love stuff like that.
The entire cast is aces. Collette is amazing, Alex Wolff delivers the goods, Milly Shapiro is very well-cast, and the unheralded Gabriel Byrne is an anchor that keeps this real. The great Ann Dowd nails her every line as usual.
The score is eerie, the set design is fab, and all the other tech is impeccable.
See this on Halloween. It is not only a great horror movie, it is a great movie, period.
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)
See this drunk or don't bother
Plan 9 is not the worst movie I've eve seen. Bobby Deerfield is.
What Plan is:
Camp. Cheap. Incoherent. Kind of fun if you are relaxed.
I cannot describe the plot since there isn't one.
But you do have grainy fotage of an elderly Bela Lugosi, a LOT of gay subtext, hilariously bad "special effects" and a musical score played by high school students.
This is a traainwreck project that is hard to not watch once you put it on.
To its credit: it is short and it exudes 50s weirdness.
Don't expect scares of any kind. I recommend watching this with a crowded room of drunk friends. I booked it on a lark when I ran a film series in college. It waa such a hit I had to hold it over. Fortunately, it wasn't an expensive rental then. But its reputation has grown so much that might be the case today.
And there is the unforgettable Dudley Manlove. And Vampira!
The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957)
viking women, tucker carlson and a boar
This legendary (Not in a particularly good way) mini AIP drive-in stars tucker carlson as a prisssy prince who is afraid of women and everything else.
Also featured: abby dalton (working hard), susan cabot (ditto) and non-exisenent special effects.
Tht movie's sea serperent is that black sock you cat played with last decade.
Roger Corman and friends probably got drunk as hell making this, and that is the only way to watch it today.
Mercifully, it is only an hour long, and if you pass out, it won't really matter.
There is a cute blonde hunk running around shirtless, but he is probably a corpse by now.
For stoned bad movie lovers of all stripes.
Vampire's Kiss (1988)
Cage's finest hour
Wild actor Nicolas Cage gives a VERY wild performance in this undeservedly forgotten late 80s psychodrama.
Cage imagines he has been transformed into a vampire by a one-night stand. I mean, haven't we all?
This flick is not exactly a one-man show. Cage has a superlative supporting cast for his truly unique performance: Jennifer Beals (rarely used this well in films), the magnificent Elizabeth Ashley (as a psychiatrist, to boot) and the movie's MVP aside from Cage, Maria Conchita Alonso (who deserved Oscar recognition for this gem of a performance).
Vampire's Kiss benefits from location shooting in NYC, and its total commitment to its unique premise.
And of course, Mr. Cage, who delivers the goods and then comes back and delivers more.
Nicolas will always be remembered for this movie, in a good way. He's just great.
Not recommended if you have cockroaches in your apaartment.
Eunice (1982)
Wow
Like another poster here, I caught up with this on YouTube and I am very glad I did.
I loved these characters on the Carol Burnett Show. Here they are presented warts and all from the very beginning to the haunting end, and it may be too much for some viewers.
Eunice is the quintessential perfect teleplay.
Not enough can be said about this brilliant cast. Burnett is heart-breaking, Lawrence at times rivals the most fearsome of movie monsters, Korman and Berry have never been better, and the peerless Betty White will chill you to the bone. If you thought Sue Ann Nivens was acidic, wait till you see Betty devour her last scene with vampiric relish.
True, some of the one liners in this you may recall from the classic Family sketches, but this is not a distraction and actually benefits the project, filling in blanks a 20-minute sketch could never achieve.
All of the cast deserved Emmy recognition, but only Lawrence got one (and it is well deserved). It's kind of amazing to me that Burnett was overlooked for this. It is a career-best performance.
Eunice is unique. It definitely is funny, but tha last half hour is often chilling.
Recommended, highly.
Something Evil (1972)
Way above average TV movie horror from Spielberg
I have not seen Something Evil in a long time, but I remember it very fondly. I first saw it as a pre-teen and it scared me.
The glowing eyes in the window. Subtle, intelligent, and very effective.
Steven Spielberg directed this; it is one of his earliest works. I watched a LOT of 70s TV movie horror in my youth, and I remember thinking immediately that it was obvious Something Evil was not run-of-the-mill.
And it isn't. It has loads of that rural creepy dread so fitting to a story like this. It also has a very good cast. Sandy Dennis is an acquired taste for many, but she is very good here. Darren McGaving is always a welcome presence, as is veteran Ralph Bellamy.
Even the usually insufferable Johnny Whitaker rises to the occasion here.
Something Evil is a little macabre delight, and it is fun to see Spielberg honing his already considerable craft pre-Jaws.
Highly recommended if you can find it. I can't believe this is not on DVD. It's Spielberg!
Perfect for a rainy afternoon or night.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Muxt be viewed with popcorn, beer, friends and weed
At a drive-in, or an old house where everyone is sleeping over.
Halloween 4 is not that bad. It is also not that good.
The cast here screams on cue, the shocks are often solid, but the plot is very flimsy, and there is rarely anything more creepy than the score and the pretty good production design.
This was the first post Halloween flick after Season of the Witch.
It was a cash-grab then, and it has not aged well past that.
Sorely missing is any Carpenter nuance. The movie is flat. It rips off all John C's ideas and adds nothing to them.
Still, for a lite nite bong movie, you could do worse, I guess.
Frogs (1972)
Fond memories for these wicked southern frogs
Frogs is a 1972 horror film relesed by the highly regarded American International Pictures (AIP).
I grew up in a small southern town with two movie theatres and a drive-in theatre (we considered these different entities).
AIP dumped a lot of crap down south, and I saw most all of it; my parents indulged me with the horror movie obsession, and when AIP flirted with moving back and forth between PG and R ratings, no one changed my routine.
Frogs was one of AIP's better early 70s efforts. It is one of those nature runs amok flicks. It's set in the south (I forget the state), and it is professionally made.
One of the biggest impressions made on me when I saw Frogs was its stunningly charismatic leading man. He is Sam Elliott. Yes, THAT Sam Elliott. This I think is one of his earliest roles. No surprise to me that Sam moved on to much better things than Frogs.
Also in Frogs is a true Hollywood legend, the Oscar-winning Ray Milland, playing a nasty old man who terrorizes his family. Out of respect for Milland, AIP gives him top billing even though Elliott arguably is the leading role.
Milland at this point is in his late career horror phase, but it is a genre that usually suited him, and he is top-notch here.
But I do wonder about Milland's phone calls to his old Hollywood Cronies asking him about what picture he is working on.
Milland: "I am shooting Frogs."
I'm glad he did. Frogs is good stuff. It's a perfect introductory horror flick for kids. They're no gore, but there's several genuine shocks.
As I recall, it made some money back then. I know it was held over at my theatre for at least three weeks, which was unusual.
King Kong (1976)
It stunk in 1976, now it is just camp, and it somehow won an Oscar
This bloated, shoddy big-budget remake of the 1933 classic won an Academy Award for its visual effect. As I recall, there were protests by members of the Academy at this award. It's easy to see why they were upset. Most of the Kong appearances are amateurish and unconvincing; it's obvious Kong is a man in a not very threatening ape suit.
The cast tries, to varying degrees of success. Bridges is incapable of phoning it in, and he's quite easy on the eyes to boot. Grodin is here for villainous comic relief, and he also deliver the required goods. Jessica Lange (in her movie debut) clearly shows early talent, and she emerges unscathed. She, too, is gorgeous, which helps.
The movie is lushly filmed for the most part, with a good monster movie score by John Barry, but any one frame of Peter Jackson's King Kong (made years later for Universal) wipes the floor with this clunky donkey kong.
The NYC location shooting for this bomb is all for naught. The promised dynamic "effects" of Kong's final showdown near the end of the picture had me rolling my eyes in disgust at the age of 16, now, it is hard to believe AMPAS even nominated this film for anything.
The 1933 Kong at least had charm (and frankly, more menace). This bomb just has contempt for its audience.
Kids might like it, if they can stay awake.
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Truly a must-see movie
So many superlatives have been showered on this true MGM masterpiece musical, I feel bereft to add anything less eloquent.
The movie is barely two hours, but it zips by you wish you had more potato chips or chocolates.
The script is WAY ahead of its time. Funny, zingy, perfectly incorporating every fabulous musical number (and trust me, ALL OF THEM are fabulous).
The cast is peerless. Kelly is in his sexy apex mode, Reynolds almost walks off with her every scene, and OConnor gives the performance of his life (he deserved Oscar nom).
Then we have the hilarious Jean Hagen. Who plays a delusional actress to a degree that wasn't even equaled by Bette Davis.
I'd like to give a big shout-out also to Millard MItchell, who doesn't have a particularly showy role, but who is fantastically on point in his every scene as a studio exec trying to juggle the egos of everyone else.
The music is sublime from start to finish and the big number at the end is staggeringly beautiful.
Cyd Charisse.
If you have not seen this film, do it immediately. It will put you in a very merry frame of mind.
Midnight Lace (1960)
Doris is gorgeous in this lush studio suspenser
Doris Day didn't like making thrillers, but she made at least one classic (HItchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much"), one outright howler ("Julie") and then this, a glossy Universal project produced by Ross Hunter, surrounding the leading lady with a great supporting cast (Rex Harrison, Myrna Loy, Roddy McDowall, and yes, the easy-on-the-eyes John Gavin).
This film's costume design was Oscar-nominated and it is easy to see why. Day was always beautiful, but here she is decked out in one knockout ensemble after another.
The plot? You will be one step ahead of it, but it's still a lot of fun. Harrison underplays masterfully, and Loy is a hoot throughout.
Also good is the ever-reliable British character actor John Williams as, yes, a police inspector.
Midnight lace has plenty of London fog menace, and it's a perfect family film if the gang is looking for chills and thrills. There's no gore, and very little outright violence. The main goal here was suspense, and it is achieved.
A must for those who have only seen Doris in frothy musicals.