FORBIDDEN PLANET

title: FORBIDDEN PLANET

year: 1956

cast: Leslie Neilson, Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Earl Holliman, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly, Richard Anderson, Robert Dix, Robby the Robot

rating: ***1/2

Plot centers on American astronauts landing on a planet inhabited by one American scientist, sole survival of a past mission, his gorgeous indigenous-birthed daughter, and some kind of phantom wraith. The mystery builds nicely with the gradual investigation of this new world and its past civilization, and the actors, especially the three leads, keep you lightly interested enough through some cerebral-heavy dialog. The dated but still worthy special effects coincide with some excellent battle scenes. And thankfully the twist ending doesn't have an overly-obvious anti-nuke message, a nice surprise since most fifties sci-fi films lean (and sometimes topple) in that direction.

THE FLIM-FLAM MAN

title: THE FLIM-FLAM MAN

year: 1967

cast: George C. Scott, Michael Sarrazin, Sue Lyon, Harry Morgan

director: Irwin Kershner

rating: ***

Fun, frolicking depression-era adventure about a famous (or infamous) charlatan who travels around conning people along the way. He meets young naive drifter Michael Sarrazin, who learns the ins-and-outs of rambling-trickery and being one step ahead of the law: which includes Harry Morgan and Albert Salmi as frustrated backwoods cops. The dialog can be corny, the jovial music a bit intrusive (giving away the outcome), but because of Irwin Kershner's action-paced direction, the characters, and storyline, are delivered smoothly from one location to the next. Gorgeous "Lolita" Sue Lyon has a small but significant role as one of the victims who turns into a love interest for Sarrazin, as he realizes the fleeting life might not be for him. And George C. Scott, constantly jutting his chin, seems to be doing an old man imitation, but its an endearingly memorable character no less.

AIRPORT 1975

title: AIRPORT 1975

year: see title

cast: Karen Black, Charlton Heston, George Kennedy, Linda Blair, Erik Estrada, Gloria Swanson, Conrad Janis

rating: *1/2

BLAZING SADDLES has not killed my love for Westerns, TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN for heist films, SPACEBALLS for the original STAR WARS, but AIRPLANE has all but destroyed any chance of me taking this, or any plane disaster film, seriously again. A nun serenading a sick girl with an acoustic guitar, a stewardess at the controls after the pilots are taken out... sound familiar? The weak ensemble cast of passengers including three drunk idiots afraid to fly, a know-it-all kid bugging his putupon nanny, and Gloria Swanson as herself, are all uninteresting and eventually forgotten as, during the last half Karen Black flies the 747 as boyfriend Charlton Heston, whilst in a smaller plane with George Kennedy, talks her down. A boring, pointless wreck, and not even that fun to bag on.

VENOM

title: VENOM

year: 1981

cast: Sterling Hayden, Oliver Reed, Susan George, Klaus Kinski, Cornelia Sharpe, Lance Holcomb, Sarah Miles, Michael Gough

rating: **

A sickly rich kid and his grandfather are taken hostage in their two-storey mansion by two servants and a mercenary. Earlier that day, the kid picked up the wrong snake from the pet shop and now a deadly Black Mamba slithers around, mostly inside the vents (providing a snake-eye lens). A clever enough reason for a group of people to be stuck together in a double-danger setting, but it's a kidnapping movie first liken to an episode of a TV cop show... the snake merely serving as peripheral. Way too much time is focused on the police outside the premises, especially Nicol Williamson as the overly confident captain, hindering the intensity lurking within the premises where Oliver Reed, as an edgy, violent chauffeur and Sterling Hayden, as the family patriarch, initially stand out but are ultimately wasted.

VIGILANTE

title: VIGILANTE

year: 1983

cast: Robert Forster, Fred Williamson, Richard Bright, Joseph Carberry, Willie Colin, Joe Spinell, Vincent Beck, Don Blakley, Rutanya Alda

rating: ****

The trio of vigilantes, sort of a neighborhood watch that kicks ass, are Fred Williamson, Richard Bright, and Joseph Carberry (SHORT EYES). The gang of vicious cold-blooded blood-thirsty thugs include shit-talkin' leader Willie Colin and henchman Don Blakley. And everyman machinist father/husband Robert Forster, friends with the (secret) vigilante group, is in denial about how bad society is until his child and wife are attacked by the gang. Everything collides wonderfully in this exploitation-DEATH WISH that delivers on every level, including street fights, prison survival, and an awesome guitar-driven soundtrack. Too classy for grindhouse and too gritty for mainstream, this is the perfect synergy of blood, guts, guns, and best of all, sweet revenge.

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI

title: THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI

year: 1947

cast: Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders

director: Orson Welles

rating: ***1/2

Another Orson Welles semi-tragedy, this flawed yet fun forties Film Noir, hacked by studio editors post-production and laden with an corny, melodramatic score (which Welles detested), takes about twenty minutes to pick up. When it does we never get too deep into the journey of a freelance Irish rogue hired to captain a yacht and "protect" a beautiful woman from her crippled lawyer husband on a round-the-cape cruise. But depth doesn't matter when you have Rita Hayworth (not so innocent), Everett Sloane (not so evil), and the actor who steals the picture, Glenn Anders as Sloane's instigating lawyer partner who, while in South America (during the best scenes), gives Welles the real challenge. The famous climactic showdown inside a house of mirrors isn't all the film has to offer. Don't expect TOUCH OF EVIL or THE THIRD MAN and you'll be fine.

BADGE 373

title: BADGE 373

year: 1971

cast: Robert Duvall

rating: **

The continuing adventures of Popeye Doyle, the tough narcotics cop played by Gene Hackman in THE FRENCH CONNECTION, now with Robert Duvall as Eddie Ryan - both Doyle and Ryan based on real life detective Eddie Egan who, like in CONNECTION, has a small part here. But unlike that Oscar winning film, gloriously directed by William Freidkin with a spontanous free-rolling gritty documentary style, this feels like the pilot for a TV series that never was. The sluggish pace, vapid dialog and contrived plot (Ryan investigating his partner's death) strips away any realism. Duvall, one of the all-time great actors, is reduced to working hard for very little payoff. Even the action scenes are muddled and boring.

CITIZEN KANE

title: CITIZEN KANE

year: 1941

cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Everette Sloane, Ruth Warrick

director: Orson Welles

rating: *****

If you hear something, anything, is the best ever made enough times you're gonna fight it. Even the most initially uncelebrated, despised, forgotten, and almost-literally-destroyed film can seem, after so many years and so much hype, mainstream and run-of-the-mill. But this controversial early-forties gem has not only stood the test of time but has yet to be equalled, at least not in acting, directing, and storytelling. But let's focus on one aspect, Orson Welles the actor, as the title character Charles Foster Kane, born into wealth and who makes more mistakes than money. That is, he already has the money so the mistakes come easy... and often. In portraying a twenty-five year old (amazingly, his age at the time) and then other stages: from forty to sixty to a dying codger, Welles continuously pulls of the miraculous: and with somewhat realistic looking makeup. In one particular scene, a fifty-something "Kane" is watching his trophy girlfriend (Dorothy Comingore) playing the piano: his eyes both leering (like a dirty old man in lust) and adoring (like a dirty old man in love). I won't say any more since Kane reviews are as abundant as feathers on a duck, but if you haven't seen it, or if you're avoiding it because everyone else has, just remember: some things are considered classic and timeless for a reason.

THESE ARE THE DAMNED

title: THESE ARE THE DAMNED

year: 1963

cast: MacDonald Carey, Oliver Reed, Alexander Knox, Shirley Anne Field, Viveca Lindfors

rating: ***

A cold war science-fiction British import dealing with a gang of black leather clad hoods, in which Oliver Reed is the moody, dangerous leader who, using his own exteremly gorgeous sister, Shirley Anne Field, as bait, coaxes a millionaire, MacDonald Carey, into being mugged. These three characters, after some running around, eventually wind-up inside a mountain compound (underground but not really) where a group of mysterious children live, all cold to the touch. We know they're part of a military/government experient, but why? Who are they are what exactly is their purpose? The mystery builds like a top-notch Twilight Zone but the result is a subpar Outer Limits, dealing with yet another morality lesson on nukes. But the marvelously flowing camerawork, and Reed's terrific intensity, makes the journey better than the destination: thankfully there's more of the first.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

title: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

year: 1971

cast: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee

director: Stanley Kubrick

rating: *****

TAKE ONE (FOR THE HATERS) • This movie caters to the cold-hearted. Shows rape and murder as a fun and frolicking game and, adding insult to injury, the gloriously rapturous music of Beethoven, and the dapper old ditty "Singin' in the Rain," are used to drive nefarious young Alex DeLarge, played by Malcolm McDowell, leader of a blood-thirsty futuristic gang of clown-like thugs, to commit horrendous acts of "ultra-violence" against society. TAKE TWO (TO THE HATERS, FROM THE LOVERS) • This movie shows cold-blooded killers having a great time killing and raping to classical music because that's what they do. It's merely a joke... for them, not director Stanley Kubrick who, in creating a futuristic society of recklessly-determined, guiltless youth, shows it without a buffer or remorse i.e. shit happens 'cause it happens. McDowell brilliantly displays viciousness, childishness, stubbornness, insanity, sympathy, and even humor. Yes, humor: an important aspect haters seem to miss. The parody is the pandemonium and vice versa. "Viddy Well, little brother, Viddy Well!" But remember: that to believe pure evil exists on screen you must visually experience it, and for this to happen it must be genuinely, and shamelessly, represented. And that's just the first half. The rest, concerning the government's experimental "cure" for violence and mayhem, and the ramifications thereafter, is where the true story lies.

TROPIC OF CANCER

title: TROPIC OF CANCER

year: 1970

cast: Rip Torn, Ellen Burstyn, James T. Callahan, David Bauer

writings: Henry Miller

rating: **

Henry Miller's rousing poetic pornography is brought to the screen in the form of Rip Torn as the controversial author wandering Paris from one situation to the next, either narrating Miller's words over various shots of the famous city, or dealing with, and suffering through, random confrontations with crazy women and even crazier men. Reminiscent of how Charles Bukowski's life would be attempted years later in BARFLY and FACTOTUM... stream-of-conscious odysseys never settling into one particular melodrama for too long... this film's progressively-racy dialog seems awkward and forced. Some of the side-actors don't fit the (for 1970) groundbreaking template, at times feeling like an X-rated episode of MARY TYLER MOORE. Torn, although not entirely believable as Miller, is intriguing to watch, and along with a few quick sexy scenes with Ellen Burstyn, solely owns this obscure curio that seems borrowed otherwise.

THE MONKEY HU$TLE

title: THE MONKEY HU$TLE

year: 1976

cast: Yaphet Kotto, Randy Brooks, Thomas Carter, Donn C. Harper

rating: ***

Yaphet Kotto is the first billed star, a credit rarely bestowed upon the African American icon given he's usually an important supporting role, a title deserving the icon. Yet he's not really the main character, allowing other young actors like Randy Brooks, who years later played Tim Roth's partner in "Reservoir Dogs", Donn C. Harper and Thomas Carter, "Hayward" in "The White Shadow", to strut their stuff as young men trying to keep ahead of the constant hustle in downtown Chicago. This allows Kotto to do what he does best: provide an essential base whenever need-be, like in "Blue Collar", "Alien", and just about any film in which he appears. Although here he's the bottom line, and his presence alone makes everyone else shine.

DEVIL'S ANGELS

year: 1967 cast: John Cassavetes, Leo Gordon rating: ***1/2

Sixties biker flicks are usually the same: Noisy hog-riders roll into a small quiet town making a mess of things. One of the bikers takes things too far and a "freak verses pig" battle ensues. That's it in a nutshell here. The adventure doesn't venture far from the single peaceful town where, after crashing an afternoon carnival, The Skulls are (falsely) accused of raping a local girl stupid enough to party with them. Leo Gordon, as the understanding Sheriff, adds essential realism and John Cassavetes, as the thinking-man's gang leader, while embodying his usual askew charm, seems more like an acting teacher than a ruffian; more attributes of "Franco", his scruffy, scene-stealing character in "The Dirty Dozen", were needed. But no matter, this Roger Corman-produced biker-outing delivers the goods just-good enough, and is exactly as entertaining as it should be. It's a biker flick, after all.

MILLER'S CROSSING

title: MILLER'S CROSSING

year: 1990

cast: Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Jon Polito, J.E. Freeman, John Turterro, Marcia Gay Harden

created by: Joel/Ethan Coen

rating: *****

You can't trust a soul in this classy yet just as gritty 1990 gangster opus written and directed by the Coen Brothers during one of their several artistic peaks. The film plays out like something the duo probably always wanted to see: a cutthroat gangster film with more dialog than action, more brains than brawn, more bickering than bullet holes, more gossip than guns; but when the guns happen, do they ever. Albert Finney breaks the aging chief mobster template; not only does he lead with an iron fist behind a desk, but he takes out a gang of hoods like he were a lean, hungry youth. John Tuttero plays the rat-fink-jerk with annoying perfection, and Jon Polito as the villainous counter-don all but steals the show, not forgetting J.E. Freeman as his giant thug henchman and Marcia Gay Harden as the tough-as-nails gun moll. But the film belongs to star Gabriel Byrne as a working-man's debt-burdened con-artist smoothly wheeling and dealing all the characters to get what he wants, which eventually turns out to be his own life and keeping it. Not only one of the greatest directed films ever made, but the script is without comparison.