Cause for Alarm (1951) Dir. Tay Garnett During the war, Ellen falls in love with George Jones, a pilot who is friends with her Navy doctor friend Ranney Grahame. Ranney himself carries something of a torch for Ellen, but George is the one she falls in love with. Seven years later, Ellen and George are married but their relationship is plagued by George's health problems: heart issues have kept him bed-ridden and over the course of months his bad mood has turned into something entirely different: a psychosis in which he imagines his dutiful and loyal wife having engaged in an affair with his friend and physician Dr. Grahame. And that they plan to murder him so they can be together. A delusion he is so convinced of he writes a letter to the District Attorney detailing the murder conspiracy that only exists in his head. When George confronts Ellen with his beliefs, he also mentions the letter, meaning that Ellen is reduced to desperate attempts at retrieving the mailed correspondence before it can reach its destination... Nice little suspenseful drama carried almost entirely by Loretta Young, who is great here. Especially in the second half of the film she is essentially acting on her own for a lot of the runtime. The resolution was a bit easy and convenient. Not that it ruined the experience for me.
I watched that movie. On Netflix no less. And you are right, it is actually trying to be a good movie, so I just came away sad after watching it.
The Marvels (2023) Maybe it was coming into it with low expectations, or maybe it was the phase 1 feel to it, but I actually enjoyed this. The first hour was a lot of fun and then from the flerken bit on it wasn't nearly as good. The post credit with Monica and those special guests was fine, even if it leads nowhere. This would have been much better received if it was a phase 1 movie, if you didn't need knowledge of two Disney+ shows, and if the villain was anything other than completely generic. Even so, it's nowhere near the bottom of Marvel movies or shows, it's just not particularly special at a time when people are tired of the Marvel formula and they've had a few genuinely bad movies and shows.
I still believe they gutted much of the second act - for whatever reason - which makes this a very weird film structurally, besides all the other issues.
It definitely felt like they were more concerned with not having a 3 hour runtime than actually keeping the story rolling.
Next of Kin (1989) Dir. John Irvin Truman Gates is a Chicago PD detective who is originally from Harlan County, Kentucky. His move to the big city has estranged him from his large family, most of whom are still living back home. There is one exception, his younger brother Gerald, who is in Chicago to make some quick money but has no intention of staying. When Gerald's truck is held up by a mobster's crew one night, his brazen resistance leads to the leader of the crew killing Gerald execution style. Truman intends to find the man responsible and bring him to justice, but first he has to return his brother to his home and family for the funeral. The rest of the Gates clan has other ideas about justice, with Truman's older brother Briar taking it upon himself to travel to Chicago and kill the man or men responsible for Gerald's death himself. I don't know what it is about these mid to late 1980s/early 1990s action thrillers that I like so much. Neatly plotted, very nice tempo to them. Usually some silliness too, in this case the climax at the cemetery. But by that point I had already been watching nearly 90 minutes of a very enjoyable, otherwise straightforward revenge thriller. And as with many films of this era, the cast is insane. Besides the trio of leads in Patrick Swayze, Helen Hunt and Liam Neeson, you have a murderer's row of a supporting cast: Bill Paxton, Ted Levine, Ben Stiller, ... all in small(er) supporting roles. Adam Baldwin as the henchman and main enforcer to the mob family leader. Babylon Five's Andreas Katsulas as said mob leader. And whilst I might not be the best to judge this as a Belgian, I had the feeling that Irishman Liam Neeson's Kentucky drawl was slightly better than Texas native Patrick Swayze's. Not that I had the idea either accent was great.
Conan the Barbarian (1982) Conan's mom was killed, and now he is out for revenge. Along the way he meets witches, sorcerers, and women with fake boobs. Will his thirst be satisfied? Yes, the movie is that simple. And, God, is it great. Not great in that it should have won an Oscar - any Oscar. But great in that it is cheesy and, well, barbaric. Who cares about the setting, or time time frame, or that, obviously, everybody speak English? Who cares that the fight scenes look like they were choreographic minutes before they were executed on screen? Who cares if Arnold can't act? It was a classic revenge movie, structured well, with the right amount of mysticism to be somewhere between reality and crazy. And boy does it work. As this was part of my slowly re-watching of 1980s movies, I had forgotten that James Earl Jones was in this movie. And didn't realize Max von Sydow was as well. I mean, any movie that The Emperor Ming* in is a must watch for me. * - Puts Flash Gordon on the watch list. In a more serious note, I liked that one of the main characters was a somewhat independent, and inventive, female worrier. That, too, I had forgotten, and probably another reason I have always liked this movie.
For as much as he's now known as the goofy action guy and former governor with the ridiculous accent, Arnie's 80s action and suspense movies were often filled with genuine depth and fairly progressive casting.
Barbie (2023) The parallels to The Lego Movie are pretty obvious. It's not as good as that one, especially with the never ending Kendom stuff, but it was pretty good. The box office success really does emphasize how people want creative takes on new things (or random multi decade later sequels to 80s movies like Top Gun) instead of Marvel movie #5905u7229594jljgjioe8023000, I did really like the Rhea Perlman appearance. Now I really want a GOOD movie in the G.I. Joe world.
No Way Up (2024) Dir. Claudio Fäh Ava and her two friends Kyle and Jed are taking a vacation together, traveling to a resort in Cabo. With Ava being the Governor's daughter, she is accompanied by a bodyguard who isn't exactly thrilled about taking the trip. Also on the plane are Hank and Mardy, grandparents who are taking their grandchild Rosa to their time share on Cabo. Some time into the flight, one of the engines is hit by birds, causing catastrophic engine failure and eventually also the piercing of the cabin. The pilots have to make an emergency landing on the water in the Pacific. With most of the cabin crew dead, as well as many of the passengers, a small group of survivors have to try and make it out of an air pocket in the surviving section of the fuselage, before the wreck can sink any deeper or their air runs out. The arrival of great whites complicates their escape even further. This was marketed more as "Sharks on a Plane" whereas it felt more like a low-budget Poseidon Adventure, only with just a small section of plane instead of an entire capsized ship as the setting for the action. In that the passengers had to solve a series of problems to survive, the sharks being just one of them. Most familiar face among the cast is Colm Meaney in a supporting role. Ultimately not very good or memorable and I say this as someone who has seen most of the shark films in this sudden 2010-2020s revival of the genre.
The Burial (2023) Inspired by true events, a lawyer helps a funeral home owner save his family business from a corporate behemoth, exposing a complex web of race, power, and injustice. I thought Foxx was really good there. It's like the perfect role for him. The movie was fairly enjoyable, yet predictable.
Backlash (1956) Dir. John Sturges Jim Slater travels to Gila Valley, in Arizona. It was the site of what he believes to have been his father's death, though the exact circumstances are unclear. What he does know is that five men died in a lengthy stand-off with an Apache war party, with a sixth man getting away with the 60000 dollars in gold they found. A cavalry unit did find five bodies and buried them some time after the incident. Though the bodies were in a bad enough state that it was hard to figure out who died and thus also who might have been the sole survivor of the incident. At the site of the men's last stand, Jim meets Karyl, a young woman with her own reason to want to figure out what happened. The pair are soon ambushed by a man who turns out to be a deputy Sheriff of Silver City, so Jim and Karyl travel there to find out more. A John Sturges western featuring Richard Widmark in one of his non-villainous roles. A good Donna Reed as his co-lead and love interest. A bit of a noirish undercurrent to the writing and thus also somewhat reminiscent of such westerns as Anthony Mann's excellent Man of the West or the Robert Mitchum western Pursued.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget ~ S. Fell I don't remember the original from 2000 that well, but this felt a little middling for an Aardman production. It's okay. The jokes are fine, but it feels like an unnecessary sequel with a pretty generic story. I like Bella Ramsey's voice work for Hilda quite a bit, so they're good in the role of rambunctious youth, but there's much less here to work with.
Badland Hunters (2024) Dir. Heo Myeong Haeng Nam San and Ji-wan are two hunters who live in the badlands of what once was Seoul. A cataclysmic event destroyed the Korean capital (and likely much of the rest of the world though this is never fully acknowledged in-story). Small pockets of survivors live in make-shift communities which are always struggling for fresh water and food. One day, a small group of well-fed individuals show up and inform the residents of Nam San's community they are from a community that is thriving and is living in one of the few surviving apartment buildings. They have their own supply of water and plentiful food and are offering to take in any families with children up to the teenaged age group. Su-na, for whom Nam San has been a surrogate father figure and for whom Ji-wan carries a not so secret torch is offered the opportunity to live at said haven, alongside her grandmother. After Su-na leaves with her grandma to take the strangers up on the offer, Nam San and Ji-wan are informed by Eun-ho, a former soldier with knowledge about the group that fetched Su-na, that the apartment complex in question is in fact controlled by a mad scientist and Su-na will be in grave danger there. Thus Nam San and Ji-wan set out to save their friend, with the help of new ally Eun-ho. Korean action thriller starring Don Lee. Does he get to beat up, shoot, slash, stab and otherwise maim lots of fools in this movie? Yes. So it does what it says on the tin. Also enjoyed Ahn Ji-hye's action work in this one.
Chicago Deadline (1949) Dir. Lewis Allen Ed Adams is a newspaper reporter working out of Chicago. Working a missing girl story, he tracks the young woman down to a flop house near the station. Just as he is ready to escort the young lady back home, the body of another young woman is found on a room on the same floor. Ed satisfies his curiosity by quickly searching the deceased tenant's room before the cops arrive, finding a little book with names, addresses and phone numbers in it. When he starts calling some of the folks in it to track down the dead girl's next of kin he is surprised to find out that most of them either claim not to know the girl or react very aggressively to his inquiries. His reporter instincts tell him that there is a story there, so he investigates who the dead woman was and why her death has so many of her acquaintances seemingly spooked. An Alan Ladd noir that is vaguely reminiscent of Laura in that the story device is a reporter investigating a dead woman, the woman's story told through a series of flashbacks. Thus the Gene Tierney role - to extend the comparison - is played here by Donna Reed (of It's a Wonderful Life fame). Not quite as good as Laura, though enjoyable in its own right.
The Diplomat (2023) I thoroughly enjoyed the first season. I love the writing, the dialogues, the setting, the acting. It reminded me a bit of Billions (in terms of cleverness of writing).
Spaceman (2024) Based on the 2017 novel, Spaceman of Bohemia, that is classified as both sci-fi and absurdist fiction, we get the story of a man who has spent over 100 days in space as he explores a strange anomaly on a solo mission. During this time he deals with the potential failure of his marriage, his own role in abandoning his wife during pregnancy, and the appearance of a strange creature that seems capable of understanding human emotions without experiencing them. During the late stages of the trip the ship experiences problems, the leaders of the trip (the Czech Republic) begin to panic, and the mental well-being of the lead character comes into question from all sides. I really like Sandler in dramatic, serious roles. Reign Over Me is still my favorite film of his. This isn't on that level, but he's quite good in this one as well. Carey Mulligan is her usual, brilliant self. Kunal Nayyar, Isabella Rossellini, and Lena Olin are all very good in their supporting roles. The real treat, though, is Paul Dano doing the voice of the creature that he is somehow perfectly suited for. I can understand why the reviews of this are mixed, with critics not liking it as much as the audience, but it was right in my wheelhouse. Despite some truly absurd elements, at this core it's an exploration of relationships with far more dramatic heart than it really should have.
Dark City (1998) Dir. Alex Proyas A man wakes up in a bathtub in an unfamiliar apartment. A stranger calls to warn him that men are on their way to get him. He is shocked to find the body of a murdered woman in the place he awakened in. Confused and with seemingly no memories of his past life, he flees, piecing together bits and pieces of his identity: he is John Murdoch, married to night club chanteuse Emma, and somehow the prime suspect in half a dozen murders on streetwalkers. But not just the police is looking for him, he is also pursued by dark figures in trench coats and fedoras who do not seem entirely human... Always liked this film - long before it earned cult status - but I realized I hadn't seen it in probably fifteen years, if not more. So a revisiting was overdue. I don't think it's necessarily the writing that drew me in, either upon first viewing or in this re-acquainting with the work. It's more the fully realized world, contained with the wonderful art design and cinematographer Darius Wolzski's dark neo-noir style, some of it reminiscent of similar shots we would see just a year later in The Matrix. It still holds up well on that front, not counting a few now slightly dated CGI shots towards the end of the film. I would say that it's this climax that was also the least convincing part of the film for me. Something other than an almost straight-forward action climax would have fitted this movie better. Not that it ever nullified all the good that came before it. Rufus Sewell is good in the lead role, as is Jennifer Connelly. I thought the quality of William Hurt's performance wavered slightly more and I'm not entirely sure he was very keen on this project.
Enter Arsene Lupin (1944) Dir. Ford Beebe On the Orient Express headed for Paris, young heiress Stacie Kanares has a precious gemstone stolen from her necklace. The thief, Arsene Lupin, returns the stolen gem, mostly due to his attraction to the young woman. Both Stacie and Arsene travel to England next, where Lupin becomes the suspect in a string of high profile art thefts. Scotland Yard get the assistance of French police detective Ganimard, who has been tracking the illustrious career criminal Lupin for years. By chance, Lupin and Stacie run into each other again. His re-acquiantance with the young woman also reveals what he believes to be a murder plot against her. An Arsene Lupin adaptation starring Charles Korvin as the titular gentleman thief. Mostly watched this for the presence of Ella Raines, who I like. Her role here is more limited than I thought it would be. Korvin is a good Lupin, George Dolendz excellent as Lupin's associate Dubose.
Dumb Money (2023) I was following this story when it was playing out, so was curious about the movie. It really wasn't half bad, especially since I was on the plane.
Balle Perdue 2 (2022) Dir. Guillaume Pierret The plot starting shortly after the end of the first film, we find Lino in hospital. His name has been cleared, but Areski and his partner Marco, the men responsible for Lino being framed, as well for the murders of his mentor and his brother are in the wind. A frustrated Lino starts an off the books investigation to find the men, including surveillance on the wife and child that Areski left behind when he fled. When after six months this investigation has not yielded any results, his former partner Julia lures him back to his old unit. Another year later, Lino is now an integral part of the narcotics unit. Through a shady operation run by another police unit, he gets what turns out to be a 'tip' about Marco's whereabouts. It sends Lino on a path where he will have to deal with corrupt cops, his former colleagues, a Spanish narcotics unit and the murderer of his brother. An equally fast-paced and entertaining sequel to the original Balle Perdue, with most of the surviving characters returning for this second go-around. I think I preferred the writing slightly more for the first one, but you watch this primarily for the car stunts and those are once again great and completely over the top. As a complete side-note to this, lead Alban Noir is going to be in a Salaire de la Peur remake directed by Lukas director Julien Leclercq and I cannot wait. And occasionally I stumble upon a review that sums things up better than I ever could. Case in point:
My wife and I just watched this, mainly because I thought Powell was pretty entertaining in another rom-com (Set It Up, also starring the similarly good Zooey Deutch) and we tend to look for rom-coms to watch together, because she doesn't like watching violent stuff. I also thought Powell was sorta sparkly as John Glenn, in Hidden Figures and, to be honest, it was hard not to have Google TV show me Sweeney's, um, glutes as many times as it did via mini-trailers every time I turned on my electronic marketing device and not want to see more. The movie showed us a lot of both actors, but unfortunately that didn't make up for all the teeth-grinding we did while cringing our way to the end. Like so many entries in this genre, it depended on people acting like complete idiots in order to prevent their obvious attraction for each other from following something like a natural course. And once that becomes the plot driver, nobody else in the film gets to be smarter than the eejit principles, so it was non-stop stupid all the way through the film. Not to mention the fact that not one person complained about a destination wedding that dragged dozens of people to Sydney, Australia. I loved this.
The Trap (1959) Dir. Norman Panama Ralph Anderson is a mob lawyer who returns to his home town of Tula for the first time in a decade. His return is not by choice, as he is being forced into it by mob boss Victor Massonetti. Massonetti is a wanted man who needs to flee the country, but with his face known all over the country, his only option is to depart from a small airfield. Ralph's rotten luck is that Tula has such an airstrip and that his father and younger brother are the small town's Sheriff and Deputy respectively. Ralph is forced by Massonetti and his men to convince his father and brother to let the gangster through unopposed. Ralph's lack of enthusiasm for his return home isn't helped by the fact that he will also see his former sweetheart Linda, who is now married to his younger brother Tippy. In the end the emotional impact of Ralph's return ruins Victor's well-made plans beyond what either of them could have predicted. Decent crime drama with a good Richard Widmark in the lead role and with an excellent Lee J. Cobb as the slimy Massonetti. Also features a pre-Gilligan's Island Tina Louise as a woman caught in between two brothers.