Change Your Image
soccermanz
Reviews
Shoot Out (1971)
William Tell would be turning in his grave
Thirty six year old Westerns seem to be on television every week but few directed by Henry Hathaway with Gregory Peck taking the lead. As usual I was working with just the picture and no sound and it seemed to be so slow to build up until the little girl appeared - no Shirley Temple she and sassy enough to get under anyone's craw. But the superb scenery eventually got to me and on came the sound. There is one scene which eventually backfires on the troublemaker which is worth the entry price alone - I won't spoil it with another hint. I just felt it needed a bit more credit as I enjoyed it enormously - both the silent and the talkies version.
Rhapsody (1954)
Compulsory Viewing for all those taking relationships with talented artists seriously
This film should be compulsory viewing for all of those of either sex who want to be taken seriously by a talented artist whether a musician, stage, film or television actor, professional sports player and so on. Elizabeth Taylor is quite excellent as the rich, indulged young lady who still thinks that she can be the focal point of her chosen man's world in this case a self obsessed violinist who was still infinitely preferable to so many of her other male co-stars. And his fingering and bowing was quite superb - I only wish that I could have heard the sounds that he actually made and who actually made the beautiful music that forms the solid foundation of what was a thoroughly enjoyable film ? I agree that Louis Calhern as her father was superb - it is a pity that she listened to so little of what he said and in her case beauty was not even skin deep.
The Sign of Four (1983)
one fourth of what it could have been
The original story had all the ingredients to make a thoroughly gripping Film. But failed miserably in this version as even Cherie Lunghi was a pale imitation of what she was to become - so much so that I suspected that she must turn out to be an accomplice right to the end. Sherlock Holmes was turned into a warrior quite unlike anything every suggested by Sir Arthur Conn Doyle ? In fact it was Doctor Watson who showed what little common sense that was going. The boot blacked midget from the Andoman islands looked as though he could not fight his way out of a paper bag and what the villain was doing taking tea in Baker Street for a denouement was beyond anything that the old Scotland Yard could ever have dreamed up. So consign this TV Film to their Black Museum please.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
A sensible contribution to the Global Warming Debate
Roland Emmerich's film was and still is a massive visual contribution to the Global Warming Debate as well as its seamless blending of computer graphics and actual action. I am working on a genetically modified Amenity Turf as one small contribution to more efficient carbon fixing as well as providing much more land acreage for us and our children to get enjoyably healthier throughout Europe. So many commercial schemes are now being offered to offset Carbon production but for once this film concentrated on the purification of sea water by the melting of the ice cap putting the high cost of similar desalination in the Arabian Gulf into perspective] and its effects on currents and then ambient temperatures. Having helped develop very cold chambers for human athletes the freezing effects in this field were stupendously accurate as were the predicted timings of death which would happen in under eight minute in our unit which of course goes down to much lower Minus Degree Temperatures than occurred in New York elsewhere in this film. But above all this film hopefully makes everyone who watched all of it think about what they would do under a similar scenario and perhaps that it was not as unlikely to happen as we all previously thought ? Not in my lifetime should become as universal as not in my backyard ? So next time any of you smugly pay Hundred Dollars or so to Carbon Offset a recent journey to a third party allegedly intending replanting any of the 20% of the Brazilian rain forest which has been converted to Cattle Ranching or Maize and Soya cultivation, think again just who your payment will benefit and whether you could and should contribute more directly and practically ? And thank you Roland Emmerich for composing and directing this quite excellent and still timely addition to our fund of available feedback.
Storm Over the Nile (1955)
Two feathers would have been enough
I had the advantage of watching Zoltan Korda's 1939 'The Four Feathers' on one afternoon and this his 'Storm over the Nile' on the next and since there have been at least 5 versions filmed cannot understand why it was not issued as 'The Four Feathers' or more appropriately 'The Two Feathers' as those given to Lieutenants Thomas Willoughby and Peter Burroughs were largely irrelevant to the plot although getting Harry Faversham flogged in the original and just incarcerated in the second ? One could believe John Clements considered himself a Coward but not Anthony Steele. I would cross the street and a few deserts for Mary Ure but not June Duprez- she deserved the far from noble Ralph Richardson but not Laurence Harvey who started off the sequel. Laurence Harvey started off with a reddish brown rat on his forehead which might well have saved him from Retinal damage when his lost his Hat. Indeed it is hard to select a single Actor or Actress who was better in the original and usually considered superior version but that is after we have watched both. As a stand alone Storm over the Nile is both more watchable and allowed Zoltan Korda to clean up several nonsenses from his original. Such as how and why John Durrance became sun blind. Ralph Richardson leading his troops keeping that he was blind a secret. The hovering vultures and other reasons why LH tries more convincingly to shoot himself. How Harry Faversham passed over the so important File and the Mahdi's guards searching them for it. All in all certainly not deserving the criticism - who shouldn't any Director use the same footage twice or shoot an overlong schedule and then divide it into two ? Nobody has to pay to watch any Film or spend the time glued to the telly.
Wake of the Red Witch (1948)
a plot more convoluted than the octopus
I have just sat through this black and white fable whilst trying to do other work. Why John Wayne owed anyone the Pearls or the Gold was totally beyond me or even why he died if he actually did. Or why Gail Russell became the love of his life after a couple of glances or why she let her father publicly engage her to another but still chose him and then pushed him aside because her father tripped and fell into a bonfire supposedly stoked up by a single octopus eye. or why she died on seeing him the second time. I suspect that a lot of the plot was made up as they went along depending on where they were and how much was in the kitty. To suggest that it was anywhere near to being one of John Wayne's best suggests that his full repertoire had not been seen or viewed with sufficient care. Unless you have something else to do at the same time my advice is don't bother.
The Six Million Dollar Man: Sharks: Part 1 (1977)
the Sharks beat the Jets
Since I also open up the IMDb entry on any Film that I am considering watching and more often than not find the comments useful and say so, I was amazed that nobody had posted one for "The Six Million Dollar Man: Sharks" as it appeared on UK TV yesterday. The Actors, Sets indeed everything seemed straight out of "Thunderbirds" except the Sharks all of whom except the baby one squeezed to death by Steve Austin were the stars so congratulations to the marine cameramen who captured most of their swimming shots including when they appeared to gnaw through steel cables at one pass. The opening sequence "we have the technology, we can rebuild him" was delightfully reminiscent but from then on it was all much as one could have expected except for the get out which was laughable - but still a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours so long as one is doing something else at the same time.
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Could it really have been like this ?
"L.A. Confidential" contains in its cast list one of the most consummate celluloid villain in Captain Dudley Liam Smith - a statement which in itself gives away a key element in this quite superb movie - directed by someone I had never heard of and with two Austrlian actors portraying Los Angeles Detectives so precisely that few would notice or care. Kevin Spacey too gives a performance which warrants his being taken more seriously in the future - his demise is one of the high points containing as it does the clue that leads to the denouement so pay attention as it happens because it is a shocker. And what can one say about Kim Basinger - she even made me forget that she was playing a very sophisticated form of call girl. So send the children to bed - get out the popcorn and prepare for a real blockbuster - beautifully edited with more plot twists and turns than most computer games.
The Great Sioux Massacre (1965)
hardly a prairie turkey
I write this having read two damning criticism of a film which was strong enough for me to watch the whole way through. Living in the age of televised war games where tens of thousands of warriors can be immediately created remember that just 271 members of the Seventh Cavalry died at the Battle of the Big Horn. Presumably equally divided into three bands of ninety for reasons which I have yet to fathom although the politicking glory hunting which drove Custer to get there first was perhaps the driving theme of this film which must have cost its producers a fortune as it was clearly shot mainly in uninhabitable shrub land and certainly not in the gold bearing rocks of Dakota. And was it closer to the truth than so many other attempts ? it suspect so as luck - sorry Gluck - the screenwriter - would have it ? So apart from Sitting Bull speaking perfect English and the redemption of Joseph Cotton from drunken hater of almost everything to a credit to the US Army I have little complaint with what was a slight thought provoking 90 Minutes.
Meet Joe Black (1998)
Meet Joe Black but of course we don't
So much more could have been made out of this script as the denouement is weak in extremis and the ending simply doesn't hold together but if I explained why I might spoil what was still a thoroughly enjoyable film. But then I think that Brad Pitt was totally miscast as Death - a Roger Black but not as tall but with more acting experience. I would have preferred a version of Death closer to that in the Grolsch Advert and certainly black but then he would have had to be Mr White would't he ? And the "speaking in tongues" would have been both more authentic and relevant. Anthony Hopkins gave yet another thoroughly warm and dignified performance and Ms Forlani really did look love struck but the whole saving the family company bit didn't work nearly as well as in "Pretty Woman". All in all a good effort but perhaps a wasted opportunity but well worth seeing to make up your own mind.
Blast from the Past (1999)
like the fall out shelter this comedy love story takes time to build
Having read a review on the IMDb I did not expect to stay interested in this slow burning story line. It really only kicked off when Brendan Frsser reached 35yo and was sent out into down town Los Angeles to buy supplies for another 10 Years for him and his parent in their Bunker. How he came to be born in a Nuclear Fall Out Shelter as big as a warehouse stuffed full of every conceivable product including a trout farm and external heat detectors but not a Geiger Counter constitutes a largely irrelevant prologue but stick with it as the Love Story between Adam and Eve eventually leaves a very warm feeling and probably before Adam. Beautifully acted this totally implausible plot could equally have been staged in a theatre and might have been tried out there first by Bill Kelly who wrote the screenplay. And it was only as I came to write this review that I remembered that Brendan Fraser was the too good Canadian Mountie in "North and South" and just as good in this. Enjoy.
His Majesty O'Keefe (1954)
a very enjoyable swashbuckler lasting over 50 years
Burt Lancster was 41 when filming in Fiji - two years older than in "the Crimson Pirate" and four years after "The Flame and the Arrow" but I still expected Nic Cravat to turn up as his half Chinese mate or an island Chief. So one wonders what Steven Spielberg would have made out of the script - introducing some real sex instead of Haskin's suggestions that Lancster was not that bothered and far more athleticism into the fights where pulled punches were not even covered by the soundtrack ? But the Technicolor has more than stood the time making me wonder just how fr away Yap was from "Celebrity island" and why climbing for Copra was not one of their selected activities. Any film re-shown on Television has to stand up against the available alternatives so perhaps that I preferred to stop work, watch this film in its entirety rather than watch Tim Henman lose his first Two sets played at Wimbledon should be recommendation enough ?
Day of the Outlaw (1959)
don't tell the RSPCA
Don't tell anyone interested in preventing suffering to horses about the closing sequences as sure as eggs is eggs the equine stars of this movie really did have to struggle through real snowdrifts and not the type made by a machine. Robert Ryan was magnificent but I could not help feeling that he should have gone the same way as the rest of the baddies. Burl Ives too was superbly cast but why was he appearing in such a rugged black and white if he was already by then a Folk Singing Star ? And was the Nelson Baddie an early reincarnation or just a relative of Willie Nelson ? The rest of them would not have had that long to wait for Sergio Leone and the Spaghetti Westerns. I met a couple of the latter some time back and they were both absolute charmers. The making could not have been much fun for the four women either but they all were just as stoical as one would have expected such frontiers women to have been. All in all a thoroughly good watch.
Guilty as Sin (1993)
one of the most evil operators
Don Johnson was magnificent. One got the impression that he could have done these things in real life he was that convincing. How can Rebecca Mornay have been miscast unless there was a clear example of what her character should have been like ? Clearly she was not as sharp as she thought she was so who could have been cast in her place - Angelina Jolie etc ? Her sexuality was largely lost in the role - the compulsory bedroom, or was it an office, scene largely wasted her naked charms but no doubt there is an special cut somewhere ? And certainly her boyfriend could have looked a bit more of a high flier and up to the job of satisfying her. I never quite worked out why Don Johnson kicked the c##p out of him. But then regrettably I missed the denouement as my LP recording as I went to be well after midnight failed to track leaving me with only a usable soundtrack. But I presume that the gigolo had to die as there really wasn't anyway else for him to leave the stage.
I thoroughly enjoyed "Guilty as Sin" but had to scroll up twice to remember the title so perhaps it wasn't representative ? "Gigolo without a Soul" might have given too much away ? "Pack em, rack em and dispatch em" might have been too crude ? "So Don Johnson can really act" might have been too Patronising ? "Too seductive for his own good" is off a critic' note pad ? Watch it the next time it is on TV and it is well worth your time to do so.
Driven (2001)
It was worth the three year wait
I enjoyed this film so much that I actually stopped work to watch it properly. Forget that Formula One was mixed up with god know's what and that SS was the only name I had heard of before. That the hero was a short sighted nerd unlikely to have ever been let loose and couldn't get or hold onto any of the thousands of women seemingly dying for him. It helped that I had seen a film on how they made the crash scene from the German Grand Prix as that was almost worth watching on its own. They announced that SS wrote the script but this did not appear on the IMDb and his character really wasn't that critical to the enjoyment. I remember seeing him filming at the Monaco GP but the only relevant footage seemed to be going through its tunnel whilst supposedly racing through downtown Chicago to get off with a $25,000 fine ? So MR fans just enjoy it for what it was 90 minutes of va va voom.
Antitrust (2001)
Microsoft were warned about the EU-CC
What kind of computer expert can I be that I had forgotten that I submitted a comment the first tiem that I watched "Antitrust" - yet I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. A great deal of trouble was taken to ensure that the Computer Programming was authentic and the planned Synapse system would ultimately be feasible - wonder if Ronald Reagan ever watched it ? i take back what I said about the Male Lead, he wasn't as wet as I first thought even though it only occurred to him almost too late that both the Females seemingly attracted to him were too hot to be true. And he hardly looked to be out of short pants. The script made it quite clear that the Villain was not Bill Gates but a potential competitor for him and Microsoft but the plot fell down over the idea of being able to spy on LCD monitors from a relevant angle and extract useful information off the screen (before having the owner murdered in appropriate style). I'll let new viewers work out the relevance of the Sesame seeds for themselves and the light pictures which seemed to reflect the wrong moods for the characters nearest to them - but a great idea for a potential LCD guard dog. But then have the Israelis been working on this ? All in all a far more enjoyable film than the previous reviewer suggested.