Written by James M. Tate / 6/29/2014 / No comments / bagful , fifties , pj soles , seventies
ANOTHER ECLECTIC BAGFUL OF ARCHIVE REVIEWS
1980 rating: **1/2 |
The boot camp segment, mostly rushed along in montage scenes, aren't that funny. And for a little while, Eileen Breenan owns the screen as the tough drill Sergeant: some of the best humor belongs entirely to her. But when Goldie eventually becomes a Green Beret type, travels to Italy and meets the man of her dreams, any plot or purpose goes completely AWOL.
1978 rating: ** |
A great young side-cast including Joe Penny, Dennis Quaid and PJ Soles cannot save this cliche-filled template of counter-culture youth. And one scene where a car flies through the back of a drive-in movie theater screen is a great, memorable stunt, but seems more fitting to a jovial chase film.
1980 **1/2 |
Led by town Sheriff Ben Johnson, we have a dog race, country music, and good old fashion bar fights, and throw in a few side plots: one involving young Don Johnson having invented a new kind of fan boat, and the other with his girlfriend, cute PJ Soles and a song she sells to a flashy Country singer Ann Wedgeworth who is, along with manager Lane Smith, not very honest, making the down-home heroes that much worthy to root for.
1984 rating: ***1/2 |
Martin keeps meeting the woman of his dreams: always losing her phone number right after. What works best here are the specific examples of being alone in a big city and how to deal with each. Although during the last forty minutes, after our hero becomes famous for writing a book about being lonely, things dwindle considerably; but hat first hour, especially the scenes shared with Grodin, is a real slice of loser life. He should have stayed down for much longer.
1956 *1/2 |
No, not even a young introducing John Cassavetes, as a street savvy teenage gang member at odds with a rival group of boy-thugs and pestered by cop James Whitmore... or the fact it's directed by Don Siegel and co-stars future director Mark Rydell... could save, or even preserve, this corny "urban" dud. Meanwhile, Sal Mineo, naive and vulnerable as ever, plays the youngest member of the gang, which alone dooms him from the start.
1997 ***1/2 |
Like the campy dialogue, trying to be important with an annoying class envy mainline, all seeming lifted from a glorified soap opera, TITANIC, the second most successful movie of all time, is pure melodrama through and through. But what makes this so good is James Cameron. He takes it seriously enough so you're practically forced to be involved. And throughout the fluffy romance, he's got a disaster film just itching to burst at the seams...
For when the ship eventually capsizes, and people fall to their deaths, banging against steel and tumbling violently into the icy sea, you'll know why the iconic director, best known for the ultra-violence of TERMINATOR and ALIENS, made this movie in the first place i.e. a means to an end: and what an end! Although the best stuff, dramatically, works in-between the whispers and screams: as the crew and passengers are just starting to figure things out.
1958 *1/2 |
1977 rating: ** |
The adventurous aspects of the first black man to break into stock car driving in the South could have been a great story, especially that he ran moonshine in his early days. But how he's treated by redneck whites, while important historically, overwhelms the film which is too "heavy" for its own good.
Richard Pryor, who would prove his serious acting talent in BLUE COLLAR a year later, seems stunted by a muddled script that never settles into anything worthwhile.
1953 ***1/2 |
But in Fritz Lang's THE BIG HEAT we have rogue a cop who, investigating a co-called suicide, is bent on revenge for the murder of his wife: and we have the best of both worlds combined... The law is as violent as the gangsters while both elements, rolled into one, make for an excellent, headbutting thriller.
The always-watchable Glenn Ford is calculatingly brilliant, and the scenes pitted against baddie Lee Marvin are fantastic.
1967 ***1/2 |
Here we have an intelligent, subtle suspense yarn centering on a beautiful singer who finds solace at the house of a professor who isn't nice to his wife, or her dog, and might just be mad enough to made bees... deadly. But things are never what they seem, and this is more Hitchcock than exploitation: building suspense and mystery from start to finish. And when the bees do attack (although the effects are rather dated) it's quite a buzz.
1979 * |
Here we center on a family living in the desert being harassed by UFOs, space monsters, and a frolicking pint-sized alien, all superimposed on the screen as the actors, including Jim Davis, Dorothy Malone, Christopher Mitchum (Robert's son) and child starlet Natasha Ryan, are merely reacting as if something's really there... But we know, all the while, there simply isn't anything at all. Especially not a plot or purpose.
Back to the top, Eileen Brennan and Sally Kirkland in PRIVATE BENJAMIN |
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
All Time Popular
-
Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...
-
year: 1978 cast: Allen Garfield, Leif Garrett, Kathleen Lloyd, Tony Alva, Pam Kenneally rating: ***1/2 Although promoted as a Leif Garr...
-
Kari Michaelsen in Saturday the 14th year: 1982 In LOVE AT FIRST BITE, a popular comedy that took the vampire genre by satire, Richard ...
-
Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: **** Starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as determined vice cops BUSTING hookers, makin...
-
Mary-Louise Weller in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE, directed by John Landis and produced by Ivan Reitman, stars John Be...
-
Kerri Green and John Candy in SUMMER RENTAL Year: 1985 John Candy, in his first leading role, plays a burnt-out air traffic controller ...
-
Robyn Hilton on STARSKY AND HUTCH Model/Actress ROBYN HILTON played Mel Brook's secretary in BLAZING SADDLES and turns up in an epis...
-
Robyn Hilton in Video Vixens the same year as Blazing Saddles: 1974 The Anthology of Comedic Parodies, already done in several Woody All...
-
CADDDYSHACK is best known for the iconic leading actors: Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray, but originally the ...
-
Elizabeth James and Tom Laughlin on equal ground YEAR: 1967 THE BORN LOSERS wasn't supposed to happen but thank God it did since BIL...
Featured Post
NAKEDLY INGITING THE ANIMATED CULT CLASSIC 'HEAVY METAL'
Title: HEAVY METAL Year: 1981 Rating: **** The best two stories from HEAVY METAL... producer Ivan Reitman's animated/cartoon anthology w...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.