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Spellbound ***½
USA: Alfred Hitchcock, 1945 Despite being directed by the master himself, I must confess I wasn't blown away by this film. It's slow to start, overly sappy, and Gregory Peck is as wooden as a forest. The best part by far is the Salvador Dali-designed dream sequence (spoiled by Peck's narration of everything that happens in it). IMDB reference
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[Horror of] Dracula ****
UK: Terence Fisher, 1958 Hammer's first of many Dracula movies, and the only one to conform at all to the storyline of Bram Stoker's original novel. It takes a while to get going, but once it does it's a hell of a lot of campy fun. Peter Cushing is fabulous as Van Helsing, while Christopher Lee sinks his teeth into the role of Dracula (his first portrayal of the vampire) with great gusto, making him both elegant and menacing at the same time. The climactic scene which, unsurprisingly, sees Dracula's demise, is an all-time classic. IMDB reference
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(*) Peter Pan ****
USA: Hamilton Luske/Clyde Geronimi/Wilfred Jackson, 1953 This is Disney as it should be! Time has not been kind to this 1953 effort, which now looks extremely racist and a bit sexist as well, but the story is as good and fun as it ever was, and the character animation is impressive. Peter Pan has always been a bit of a dick-head, and Wendy doesn't stop complaining for a single moment, but who couldn't love Captain Hook, Mr. Smee and, of course, Tinkerbell? Fun for all the family. IMDB reference
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Stitch: The Movie *
South Korea/USA: Tony Craig/Bobs Gannaway, 2003 If anyone tells you Disney's cheapquels aren't all that bad, don't listen to them. Stitch: The Movie is the most embarrassing thing I've sat through in a long time. A Z-grade sequel to Lilo & Stitch, designed to launch a crappy TV series, about the only good thing I can say about this "film" is that it's under an hour long. When they're not parroting lines and situations from the original film in a third-rate manner, they're coming up with their own garbage storyline involving a mad scientist (called Dr. Hamsterveil, because he's a hamster, hahaha) who created 625 different aliens, all of them equally annoying (Stitch was Experiment 626, remember? hahaha). Utter dreck. IMDB reference
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(*) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ****½
USA: Terry Gilliam, 1998 IMDB reference
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(*) Alice in Wonderland ****
USA: Clyde Geronimi/Wilfred Jackson/Hamilton Luske, 1951 IMDB reference
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(*) Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl **
USA: Gore Verbinski, 2003 Pirates of the Caribbean basically has one good thing going for it: Johnny Depp. Had the movie been an hour shorter and focused more on him, it would probably have been pretty good. As it is, though, it's an overly-long, badly-written piece of flim-flam with a terrible score, ropey special effects and Orlando "Can't Act" Bloom. It tries too hard to be camp in a wink-wink sort of way, and overall there just doesn't seem to be any heart and soul in the project - pretty much the usual Jerry Bruckheimer fare, then. Barring a handful of cheap laughs, there really is little to recommend here. IMDB reference
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Morvern Callar ****
UK: Lynne Ramsay, 2002 A magnificent if frustrating piece of work that acts as something of a study into the titular character while not really revealing anything about her character. There are only really two performances that matter - Morvern (Samantha Morton) and Lanna (Kathleen McDermott), as the film spends most of its time with them and anyone else who appears is purely incidental. Morton's portrayal of Morvern is, as was to be expected, excellent, but the real surprise is McDermott, whose performance is outstanding, especially given that she has never acted before. I've no idea how much, if any, of the script was improvised, but either way, the film's most impressive trait is just how real everything seems. There is a sad, melancholy atmosphere throughout, even in the happier moments, and the use of music to accentuate this mood is absolutely outstanding. It's entirely possible to criticize it for the fact that there seems to be no real sense of direction or conclusion, but arguably that it what the character of Morvern is all about. IMDB reference
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Cat People ***½
USA: Paul Schrader, 1982 This glossy, trippy (and loose) remake of Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (1942) is a frustrating affair, representing a meeting of wonderfully disturbing ideas and images and some rather dull scripting and acting. While Malcolm McDowell and Nastassja Kinski are excellent as the brother and sister who have the unfortunate habit of turning into leopards when they have sex (McDowell in particular is genuinely unsettling), the rest of the cast range from bland to incompetent, and while the cinematography is consistently superb, making great use of matte paintings and Inferno-style lighting effects, Alan Ormsby's script leaves a lot to be desired, cooking up a fairly tedious love story between Kinski and John Heard, as well as a zoo backdrop, against which much of the film is set, which is drab and corny. IMDB reference
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(*) Dracula: Prince of Darkness ****
UK: Terence Fisher, 1966 I first saw Dracula: Prince of Darkness around four years ago late one Halloween night -- coincidentally, a couple of nights before or after I first saw Suspiria, The Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. While this Hammer Horror romp has nothing on these three seminal films, it remains a thoroughly enjoyable piece of claptrap. Time has not been kind to it, admittedly, with some of the sets and performances coming across as decidedly cheap, but this is a real nostalgia trip and is made all the more enjoyable by the fact that it is so clearly a product of a different era. Christopher Lee, who by the way speaks no dialogue at all in this movie, is exquisitely menacing, the photography is wonderful, the score is evocative, and all in all there is much fun to be had despite its shortcomings. IMDB reference
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The Last Temptation of Christ ***½
USA: Martin Scorsese, 1988 Well, it's a sight better than Gibson's SplatterChrist, I'll say that much, but even so it's a bit too drawn-out, and I must confess that the story doesn't really thrill me. Still, at least Scorsese made Jesus a three-dimensional character with flaws, unlike Gibson, who merely portrayed him as the cinematic equivalent of a punch-bag. Scorsese's film is about a guy with real issues who may or may not be the messiah (it is to Scorsese's credit that, despite apparently being a devout Catholic, he doesn't force it one way or the other - Jesus could easily just have been deluded), whereas Gibson's is about a poor guy getting seven shades of shit kicked out of him for two and a half hours. Neither are really my cup of tea, but I know which I prefer. PS. Kudos to those involved for having the balls to alter the Jesus story to make it work better. IMDB reference
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Showgirls **
USA/France: Paul Verhoeven, 1995 "I like having nice tits." Genius, sheer genius. People can claim all they like that Showgirls has no redeeming qualities, but I strongly disagree with them. Quite apart from the unbelievable laugh-out-loud camp nature of the script and performances, the art direction is great, filled with fantastic colourful lighting and gratuitous use of smoke flares. The whole thing makes pretty much zero sense and can't ever hope to be taken seriously, but it's an absolute laugh-riot and had me riveted for its entire duration. That's got to count for something, right? Oh, and that gyrating-in-the-pool scene genuinely deserves its cult classic status. IMDB reference
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(*) What Have They Done to Your Daughters? ****
Original title: La Polizia Chiede Aiuto
Italy: Massimo Dallamano, 1974 IMDB reference
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Sex: The Annabel Chong Story ***
USA: Gough Lewis, 1999 A remarkably candid look at the life of Annabel Chong, the porn star who featured in "the world's largest gang-bang". The documentary's grander pretentions are fairly shallow and not very well thought-out, as is Chong's supposed educational justification for carrying out the gang-bang experiment, but it is definitely interesting viewing and manages to be quite hard-hitting, particularly in the second half of the film, where we see the effect that Chong's "immorality" has on her relationship with her family.
IMDB reference
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Proof of Life ***
USA: Taylor Hackford, 2000 Decently-made if generic thriller starring Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe. It's mostly predictable and no-one seems to be really stretching themselves, but it's gripping for the most part and the performances are decent. IMDB reference
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La Commare Secca ***½
Italy: Bernardo Bertolucci, 1962 Intriguing if flawed directorial debut for Bertolucci. In his attempt to accurately capture true life on the streets of Rome, he creates a film that, while at times pedestrian, consistently has an air of reality to it. Bertolucci's use of the camera is extremely creative, and the subjective storytelling, which covers the same event from multiple points of view, all with their own little lies and half-truths, is well-handled. IMDB reference
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La Belle Noiseuse ****
France: Jacques Rivette, 1991 A mammoth viewing endeavour and certainly not one for the faint-hearted or easily bored, La Belle Noiseuse is ultimately rewarding, but I must confess that my interest in it came and went at various intervals, and it took me three or four viewings to make it all the way through. Rivette's method of concentrating on the artist's drawings rather than the actual nude figure of Emmanuelle Béart is inspired, and the performances have a genuine believability to them. IMDB reference
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(*) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre *****
USA: Tobe Hooper, 1974 What's interesting about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is that, despite being the subject of vast amounts of media attention and exaggerated controversy, and despite some questionable acting, this remains a damn disturbing piece of work. It doesn't really get going until around half-way through, but looking back I don't think I would have cut anything from the lead-up to the massacre. Although none of her co-stars are really anything to write home about, Marilyn Burns' performance is quite incredible, and seems disturbingly real at times (you can genuinely see the terror in her eyes during the infamous dinner-table scene). The cheap film stock, missing frames and jarring audio cuts just add to the atmosphere, giving the disturbing impression that what we're watching is a piece of documentary footage rather than a piece of fiction. Well worth seeing, although I suspect that its infamous reputation may make it at least partially disappointing for some viewers. IMDB reference
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The Idiots ****
Original title: Idioterne
Denmark: Lars Von Trier, 1998 I thought this was a very impressive piece of work, well worth staying up to 2.15 am for, despite the fact that this resulted in less than six hours' sleep. I was really impressed with the way they managed to capture a faux cinéma verité look and feel. I'm not ultimately convinced that Lars Von Trier had any particularly worthwhile social message to put forward, but it was bitingly funny in places (in an "I shouldn't be laughing at this but I am" way) and surprisingly touching in others. IMDB reference
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(*) The Card Player ***½
Original title: Il Cartaio
Italy: Dario Argento, 2004 IMDB reference
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Gently Before She Dies ***
Original title: Il Tuo Vizio è una Stanza Chiusa e Solo io ne ho la Chiave
Italy: Sergio Martino, 1972 Interesting but often boring giallo from Sergio Martino with vague ties to Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat. It's nice to see Edwige Fenech as a full-blown active protagonist rather than being restricted to the usual victim role, but the script is weak and often merely saunters from scene to scene without any sense of progression. IMDB reference
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The Evil Dead ****
USA: Sam Raimi, 1981 Sam Raimi's masterpiece of low budget terror and gore is an incredible piece of work, not least because of its ability to turn on a dime from being laugh-out-loud funny to being genuinely unsettling. The actors are, for the most part, pretty bad, but the photography and mood of the piece is extraordinary. A must-see. IMDB reference
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(*) Kill Bill Volume 1 ****½
USA: Quentin Tarantino, 2003 IMDB reference
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(*) Spirited Away ****½
Original title: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi
Japan: Hayao Miyazaki, 2001 IMDB reference
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The Boys from Brazil **½
UK/USA: Franklin J. Schaffner, 1978 Meh. I've seen worse films, but this just didn't take my fancy, despite the deceptively interesting premise (based on an Ira Levin novel) of a Nazi hiding out in South America using Hitler's DNA to create an army of killers. Laurence Olivier and Gregory Beck put in decent performances, although both are poorly used, and Steve Guttenberg terrifies us all in the role of an amateur Nazi-hunter. IMDB reference
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Movies
Welcome to the movie checklist!
This section is an archive listing every movie I've seen from January 1 2005 onwards. Films I have already seen are included and will be marked with a (*), but probably won't be reviewed except under special circumstances. I will be including a rating for each film (in stars, out of 5), and hope to be able to include a brief 1-2 paragraph review of each film, although due to time constraints that won't always be possible.
Archives
Films Viewed This Month
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