Category Archives: FilmReview

2002, Could Be Hard To Watch, Detective, Redemption, Revenge, Suspense, Violent

The Salton Sea (2002)

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From NetFlix:

Punk-rocking speed freak Danny Parker (Val Kilmer) freelances as an informant for brutal narcotics cops Al Garcetti (Anthony LaPaglia) and Gus Morgan (Doug Hutchison). But when he’s not assisting the cops on drug busts, Danny gets high and leads a double life as a talented, mild-mannered trumpeter named Tom Van Allen. One personality is in search of his wife’s killer, but reality is evasive in director D.J. Caruso’s neo-noir crime thriller.

Welcome to the first of a two-film festival featuring Vincent D’Onofrio who has been called an “actor’s actor”. In this violentissimo!!!!! film, D’Onofrio steals the show as the incredibly psychotic Pooh-Bear. Tell me, did this character lose his nose due to sniffing entertaining substances ?

In theory this is Val Kilmer’s film and he broods well throughout. But low and behold there are small parts for the young Anthony LaPaglia and even younger B.D. Wong. For me, however, the best and most moving supporting actor was Peter Saarsgard as a slow-witted but faithful friend.

We cannot fail to note that “Law and Order” counts D’Onofrio, B.D. Wong, and Saarsgard among its cast. LaPaglia instead appears in “CSI” and of course “Without a Trace”.

Warning: This is an especially brutal film with some disturbing sequences.

1997, British Mystery Series, Detective, Explicit sex, Gritty, Revenge, Suspense

Painted Lady (1997)

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From NetFlix:

Just when everyone thought she was down for the count, lost to drugs and unable to afford anything, Irish folk singer Maggie Sheridan (Helen Mirren) avenges the death of her landlord, who was killed for her vast art collection. Unable to let the criminals literally get away with murder, Sheridan pretends she’s an art dealer and hunts them down. Along the way, she pulls her wrecked life together and even falls in love with a dashing count.

Masterpiece Theater offered this Helen Mirren drama in two parts. Kathy and I needed at least 3 sittings to get through the more than three hours. But it was worth the effort. All the actors, including Helen Mirren, do a wonderful job. At one critical point you think the story is over, but it continues on in a significant way. There are a few murders but the gore (including blood) is minimal. As usual Kathy hid her eyes in the really suspensful parts. See if you can recognize which actor plays the dashing count.

2008, Acceptable Trash, Comedy, Explicit sex, Vulgar

Choke (2008)

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From NetFlix:

With his mother (Anjelica Huston) suffering from Alzheimer’s, medical school
dropout Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) devises a plan to pay her hospital bills.
At high-class restaurants, he pretends to choke, waits to be rescued and then
later asks his saviors for money. In addition to being a con man, Victor is a
sex addict who works at a colonial theme park. This film is based on the novel
by cult literary phenom Chuck Palahniuk ( Fight Club).

Sex is the subject, pure and simple. The film is so vulgar that after awhile you don’t even notice all the sex talk and acts. In fact that is the point: a sex addict learning to really love someone. Nonetheless, you could easily be offended by this film (especially if you are Christian). Just as some contemporary films use violence to a comic end, the sex is so outrageous that it comes across as comedy.

A challenge to anyone who takes a chance and watches this crazy film: at the sexaholics anonymous meetings there is an old man. Without taking a peek at IMDB, do you recognize this actor ? I nearly dropped dead, he has changed so much!

2002, Could Be Hard To Watch, Horror, Suspense, Violent

28 Days Later (2002)

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From NetFlix:

A killer virus (it turns those it infects into homicidal maniacs) is accidentally released from a British research facility. Carried by animals and humans, the virus is impossible to contain and spreads across the entire planet. Twenty-eight days later, a small group of London survivors are caught in a desperate struggle to protect themselves from the infected.

Thanks to Brian St. Pierre (my personal trainer at Cressey Performance) for suggesting this film directed by Danny Boyle. Since this film got an R rating for violence, nudity, language, and gore , it sounds like a winner.

You’ve seen this theme before in several guises: Charlton Heston in “The Omega Man” and Will Smith in “I Am Legend”. The prototypical plot is that most of the world population has disappeared or is fatally inflicted with some dread malady except for one or several protagonists who must reach some safe refuge where there is still hope. And so far this describes “28 Days Later”. But wait … there’s more! Usually reaching that safe refuge is the end of movie. But in this case that safe refuge is only the half-way point. Plot is important and I will say no more.

On the down side there is an awful lot of running and fighting in dark passages with enraged mutants. These scuffles are part of the plot but could be tiresome.

So tell me, if your loved one suddenly becomes infected with this rage and will therefore bite you so that you too beome infected, would you immediately kill that loved one ? Now are you interested ?

1988, Horror, Imperfect, Suspense, Unusual, Violent

Apartment 0 (1988)

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From NetFlix:

Adrian LeDuc (Colin Firth) is a cash-strapped loner eking out a living running
a revival cinema in modern-day Buenos Aires. With interest in classic films waning,
he’s forced to rent out his insane mother’s room to a seemingly harmless stranger,
Jack Carney (Hart Bochner). They quickly become friends, but as Adrian displays
the same problems that plagued his mother, he also begins to suspect his roommate
is a killer. Is he right, or is he just plain mad?

NetFlix suggested “Apartment 0” to me. Since Colin Firth has been good in every one of his movies that I have seen, I gave it a try. Once again Colin Firth comes through well as a very disturbed person. I had not seen Hart Bochner before (or at least never noticed). He has an impressive resume in IMDB. However, I could not decide if his acting was acceptable. The setting is Argentina. Colin Firth speaks an impeccable British. But the American accent of Hart Bochner really grated on me and sounded cheap. Do we really sound that way ? Colin lives in an apartment building inhabited by a strange assortment: transvestites, etc. (If any one of you is a transvestite, my apology). This is one strange, possible flawed film. But its strangeness and the plot forced me to sit through to the really unexpected ending.

1000NYTimes, 100Unknown, 1987, Suspense, Unusual

House of Games (1987)

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From NetFlix:

Psychologist Margaret Ford (Lindsay Crouse) decides to help one of her patients out of a gambling debt. Margaret finds the person to whom the money is owed: slick-talking Mike (Joe Mantegna). Mike, who runs poker games, persuades Margaret to help him look for “tells,” or telltale body language, in a game. She falls for the con and for Mike, becoming deeply involved in his world. David Mamet wrote and directed this psychological thriller.

I was reading an Italian lawyer novel in which the lawyer protagonist mentions that “House of Games” is one of his favorite films. So I gave it a try.

Lindsay Crouse was married to David Mamet. She is a good stage actress. As soon as the film starts you realize that all the actors speak as though they are on a stage, not at all what you expect to hear in a film.

The plot is everything. At the very least you get to learn a few good “cons” just in case you were thinking of going into the business. Eventually it comes down to who is conning whom.

I enjoyed the film, but you are warned that it is very different.

1989, Detective, Not Feel Good, Redemption, Revenge, Violent

Johnny Handsome (1989)

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From NetFlix:

When a heist goes wrong, gangster John Sedley’s (Mickey Rourke) best friend is killed, leaving him alone to take the blame for the crime. But the disfigured crook gets a second chance at life after receiving a brand-new face from a prison surgeon. Ellen Barkin, Elizabeth McGovern, Forest Whitaker and Morgan Freeman co-star in this gritty action drama about one man’s hunger for revenge against those who wronged him.

“The Wrestler” has generated so much noise that I wanted to see a film with Mickey Rourke. First I tried “Rumble Fish (1983)” but did not even want to finish watching it. Rourke seemed to be one of those actors who act by not acting (i.e. he keeps his face still and you credit him, rightly or wrongly, with feeling certain emotions). But I tried again with “Johnny Handsome (1989)” and this 20-year old movie shows the actor in a better light. It’s one of those movies that you want to end in a certain way but you just have to ride it out to see what really happens. No more hints. So far for me Rourke is not a great actor.

Violent, not for children.

1000NYTimes, 1001BeforeDie, 100Unknown, Classic, Could Be Hard To Watch, German, Unusual, Violent

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

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From NetFlix:

In the mid-16th century, after annihilating the Incan empire, Gonzalo Pizarro
leads his army of conquistadors over the Andes in search of the fabled City of
Gold, El Dorado. As Pizarro’s soldiers battle starvation, Indians, the forces of
nature and each other, Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), ‘The Wrath of God,’
is consumed with visions of conquering all South America and leads his own army
on a doomed quest into oblivion.

All three film catalogs rave about this film. In fact it is one of a kind, slow, and mesmerizing.

First some history: Pizarro sends a “small” task force to continue down th Amazon to find the City of Gold. The commander Pedro de Ursua and his aide, Lope de Aguirre, take soldiers (always in metal battle gear), one priest, Inca slaves, cannon, horses, and two noble women carried in a covered transport box down the mountain and eventually on rafts in the Amazon. Aguirre murders Ursua in an act of mutiny and forces the others, by force of his homocidal mania, to continue on to find the City of Gold. Much of this we know from the priest’s diary. The end is conjecture.

The marvel is that these poor actors had to live and suffer just as the historical figures did. Werner Herzog, the megalomaniacal director, was a fanatic that insisted on realism. Aquirre, played by Klaus Kinski, is obviously “nuts” from the get-go. At one point Kinski tried to flee the jungle and Herzog brandished a pistol and promised to kill Kinski if he escaped.

Just sit and watch this “happening”. It is slow, beautiful, and unforgettable. Hearing Spaniards speaking in German is admittedly a bit unusual, but there are English subtitles.

Violent, not for children. But a genuine screen classic.

1000NYTimes, 1001BeforeDie, 100Unknown, 1947, Classic, Old-Fashioned

Black Narcissus (1947)

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From NetFlix:

Secular matters consume five missionary nuns who head to the Himalayas to establish an Anglican school. In the meantime, the quintet’s leader, Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), must grapple with the envy of one nun (Kathleen Byron), the bitterness of a man (David Farrar) and the cruelty of the elements. The film received Oscars for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography, in part for its Technicolor innovations.

When I was a young boy I saw the coming attractions for “Black Narcissus”. The scene in which the crazed nun tries to push another nun (Deborah Kerr) over a cliff while the latter is ringing a large hanging bell stayed in my mind for a long time. Needless to say, I was not allowed to see this movie. So here I am years later leafing through the three film catalogs discussed in the page entitled “Unusual Categores” and all three suggest that “Black Narcissus” is an historically important film. So I watched it. I can see why it was an important film way back in 1947, but the movie seems a bit dated. Over the years film acting has changed, in fact I would say it has improved in some ways. Note, however, that I usually have to rely on subtitles due to my poor hearing. But CDs containing old films often do not offer subtitles. Acting may have improved, but diction has suffered. In this older film the actors project their speech much as you would do on stage with the result that I could understand every word. Today’s speech patterns everywhere (workplace, telephone, films) are quicker and somewhat mumbled.

Watch this movie as if visiting another planet. Historically it may be worth the visit.

2008, Could Be Hard To Watch, Suspense, Underdogs win, Violent

Changeling (2008)

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From NetFlix:

Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie, in an Oscar-nominated role) is overjoyed when her young kidnapped son Walter is brought back home. But when Christine suspects that the Walter who was returned to her isn’t her actual child, the police captain (Jeffrey Donovan) has her committed to an asylum. John Malkovich co-stars as the crusading reverend who comes to Christine’s rescue in this gripping, 1920s-set drama helmed by ace director Clint Eastwood.

As soon as the movie began I stayed on the edge of my seat. It’s one of those films where the injustices are almost too much to believe. In fact only the script kept me glued because I was quickly disappointed in Angelina Jolie’s acting. Could it be that her forte is slithering almost naked out of the water with a long tail as she did in Beowulf ? Even John Malkovitch seemed to be reading his lines.

Read in Wikipedia about the true Wineville Chicken Coop Murders which the film follows carefully. At the end of the film there are follow-up lines saying what happened to the various characters in real life. Unfortunately, I was unable to read them. If any of you can read those lines, I would appreciate knowing what they said.

Not for children because of scenes of serial murdering and forced electric shocks used as torture by the psychiatrist in the pay of the LAPD. Tell me, has the LAPD ever cleaned up its act ?