howlermonkey Reviews

Man on Fire (2004)

Headache-Inducing

[27 April 2004]

a few questions:

1.) how many false climaxes did this film have? I thought it would end with the father committing suicide, then it went on and on..was the structure "interesting" or merely pointless? who cares about 'the voice'? he gets killed in the final credit sequence by poor giancarlo (come back lina wertmuller,all is forgiven!)

2.) how do you describe those constant jump cuts,zooms, etc.--is there a word for this style of editing? Whatever it was, it was damn irritating and left me with a profound headache when the film was over. I have some good thoughts about director Tony Scott because of The Hunger, where Catherine Deneuve was so so so hot, and The Fan, where Robert deNiro gave a great performance in a bad film---but is he always such a bad director? at least, the cinematographer is brilliant.

3.) Is this film absolutely shameless, manipulating every emotion possible in the crudest way--from sympathy for the little girl (boo hoo) to glee at the torture of the bad guys. As Winston Churchill said about the Germans "either at your throat or at your feet." a sick personality has no middle ground between sentimentality and outright viciousness.

Martin (1977)

Great Revisionist Horror Movie

[17 June 2003]

Sometimes it seems to me that the "users" who comment on movies here go out of their way to miss the point. The horror storyline here isn't just "vampire nonsense" nor does Romero succeed in spite of his "lowbrow intentions." The film IS a horror film, as successful in "revising" the typical vampire films as other 1970's classics like McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Point Black were in "revising" the western and gangster genres respectively. The film would hardly be as interesting if it were some kind of slick production with the usual trappings. Instead Martin is a low-key intense underplayed film that reverses the usual expectations without rejecting its genre.

I don't think Romero is somehow upholding the ideals of faith either; the religious zealot, Martin's uncle, is the least sympathetic figure in the movie, though he may be right in thinking that Martin is "nosferatu." Or his fanaticism may have created the delusion in Martin's mind, an attempt to reject the religious dogma by adopting its traditional/mythic opponent. In any case, Romero's take on faith is very complex and is as interesting in this film as his complex take on individuality and consumerism is in Dawn of the Dead.

Romero makes great use of the depressed area of Braddock Pennsylvania, the kind of down on its luck, conservative, fading neighborhood I know from my own experience. The setting is essential to the movie, but Romero doesn't overplay it. The radio talk-show angle isn't as well handled but it is interesting.

I thought this film was very impressive in its deadpan update of the vampire story and Martin is a strangely moving character. Ultimately the movie is a much more convincing dramatization of the "serial killer" figure than we get in most films now, despite the current fascination with that type. (P.S. Romero was so good in the 1970s..how did he fall to the likes of Creepshow?)

The Grissom Gang (1971)

cynical, complex, entertaining....

[17 June 2003]

a better Patty Hearst movie than the ones actually made about Patty Hearst. not quite up there with the likes of Bonnie and Clyde and Thieves Like Us, but definitely worth seeing as an example of the 1970's ambivalence about anti-social characters and crime. the reviews make quite a big deal about the violence but you will hardly notice it--a great deal of shooting, some of that orange glop they used in the 1970s, but hardly emotionally wrenching like, say, The Wild Bunch or Texas Chainsaw Massacre...great performance by Scott Wilson who shows up on TV a lot these days.

The Pink Panther (1963)

A tedious mess saved by a few bits from Peter Sellers....

[17 June 2003]

This movie seems to benefit from the reputation of its star Peter Sellers and from the reputation of its funnier sequels. But somebody's gotta say it---it's boring as hell, as well as about 40 minutes too long. There is far too little of Inspector Clouseau and way too much of the dated performers/sex symbols David Niven, Claudia Cardinale and Capucine. Their stardom is puzzling to me, though I give Niven some credit for carrying off the urbane British thing, but jesus isn't he a little old for that in this movie? and where did he get that mustache--from John Waters? Capucine and Cardinale are just plain dreadful, certainly far from comedic actors. the best thing is the party near the end, where a cop in a zebra outfit drinks straight out of the punch bowl. If the film had loosened up like this from the start we could have been spared the labored plotting and witless flirting between Cardinale, Capucine and Niven. oh, and Robert Wagner is certainly handsome but he shows the complete lack of charisma that carried him through a gem like Hart to Hart.

The Bank Dick (1940)

joyful comedy, asides, and the pleasures of smoking and drinking....

[17 June 2003]

a source of strange joy, even in its quiet and failed moments. great moments mostly mumbled and underplayed so that the film seems so humble and so unaggressive, unlike most comedies now which would wring your neck if they could...Fields' before-its-time irony and self-consciousness about moviemaking is revealed in a throwaway line during the car chase at the end...in the midst of all the obviously speeded-up film and projection effects, Egbert Souse deadpans "you're going to make me have an accident....." I'm almost ready to move into Lompoc, with its Spanish-Americo chili parlor, and, I hope, "rivers of beer flowing over your grandmother's paisley shawl...." and, apparently, absinthe is still available....