Recommend a movie

[Vultural]

Sherlock Holmes And The Leading Lady - 1991 - 6/10

Christopher Lee as Holmes, Patrick Macnee as Watson play older versions.
Warm, almost emotional.
An assassination plot, and Irene Adler add to the mix.
Location filming in Luxembourg (though one castle exterior sure looked like Bran Castle to me).
Beautiful costumes, musical numbers by J Strauss (male singer - Engelbert Humperdinck).
Not a bad film, but lightweight.
Warmer and fuzzier than the Rathbone versions, and nothing like the Brett portrayal that began a few years previous to this.

[Vultural]

Nobody Else But You - 2011 - 6/10
AKA - Poupoupidou

Crime novelist, suffering writer's block, reads about apparent suicide of Marilyn Monroe lookalike.
Off he drives, to one of the coldest, snowiest regions of France.
Where he chats with locals, reads the dead girl's diaries, and begins to smell a cover-up.
Good little mystery about very minor, local actress (she was the model for a cheese line) who treads out of her depth.
Sharp touches of comedy and irony.

[Vultural]

La Chamade - 1968 - 7/10

Classic French arthouse from the late 60s.

Young “girlfriend” of older, affluent man lives in a glittering strata of parties, concerts and dress dinners.
During a croquet match she meets magazine editor her own age.
Sparks ignite and she leaves her very posh life to embrace in seedier digs.
To soon, she needs to find a job.
And she has to start looking at price tags.
Quiet argument against dazzled souls who declare love conquers all.
Of course, one of the main reasons for watching this is a young Catherine Deneuve who is radiant.

[Vultural]

Something Real And Good - 2013 - 4/10

Two sadsack types "meet cute" in an airport terminal.  Their destination airport, Chicago, is snowed in, and they are diverted to Denver.
The blizzard prone, mile high city had rain soaked streets and flowing fountains.  Mmmm ... SoCal ...
Very much an indie flick, that felt like a small, two act (two actor) play.
Leads are mismatched, and pout and mug throughout.
There were no reviews whatsoever for this one when I saw, so I took a chance.
Avoid unless you are an investor or relative.

[Vultural]

Coffy - 1973 - 7/10

Not necessarily Oscar quality film, but a highly enjoyable one.
Coffy cemented Pam Grier’s rep was one badass broad.
This is a full bore, revenge ride, as nurse by day, vigilante by night, takes on drug pushers and the mob.
Funky soundtrack - not great, not bad.
Most of the story is set in the milieu of pimps and whores.
The king pimps flash exuberant 70s over the top style, the hookers flash breasts.  Lots of them.
Overdoses, beatings, stabbings, shootings, car chases.
All the while, Nurse Coffin kills and kills.
This put Pam Grier on the map and remains hugely entertaining.
Kick-ass introduction to Blaxploitation.

[Vultural]

Catch Us If You Can - 1965 - 6/10

I saw this ... mmm ... 40 years ago.  My memories were flawed.
I recalled this as being a funny comedy featuring the DC5.
Instead, this was a very dry satire. The band played stuntmen for a commercial for Beef For Go!
The movie was 90% dour faced Dave Clark and Barbara Ferris.  The other band members were tokens.
No real plot. Nonsense scenes, chases, paused with dead talk.
I fought sleep watching this.
John Boorman directed.

[Vultural]

While We’re Young - 2014 - 7/10

Middle aged couple meet younger versions of themselves.
They start to hang out together, bounce ideas, share.
Both men are documentary filmmakers.
Middle aged Stiller has been toiling on his film for 10 years,
the younger man is hungry, and driven, and perhaps not all he seems.

There is a palpable undercurrent of the middle age glance in the mirror.
The older couple  want to stay relevant, but they don’t quite grasp the “sharing” mentality of the coming generation.
Marked as a comedy, it is droll and subversive.

[Vultural]

California Solo - 2012 - 6/10

Character study of washed out Scots musician, now working for California farm.
His green card is 20 years old, and he has forgotten about a very old marijuana possession charge.
Until he gets pulled over for DWI (driving while intoxicated).
Low key story shows his attempts to avoid deportation, and interactions with friends and estranged family.
Robert Carlyle plays the burnout guitarist.  He looks too old for the role, as written.
His bygone band, the Cranks, hailed from the Madchester Scene, which was time specific to 1988-1993 or thereabouts. Carlyle would have been 30, though his character says he and his brother were "just kids" in Manchester then.
Otherwise, nice film, quiet.

[Vultural]

Namastey London - 2007 - 6/10

Bollywood film.
Hindu father decides his daughter is becoming too Westernized and takes her home to find suitable Indian husband.
Of course he neglects to inform her until they are in India.
She is, after all, a mere female.
Obligatory musical numbers are catchy, in settings completely removed from the ordinary.
Unfortunately, the British are all portrayed as xenophobic racists.
This unfair caricature was an easy cheat, and lessened my enjoyment of the film.

[Vultural]

Derelict - 1979 / 2013 / 2015 - 6/10

Soon after Prometheus was released, essays appeared noting the similarities with Alien.
Not that the latter film was a reboot or remake, but that there were structural and narrative echoes.
The Derelict fan-edit aligns the parallel stories into one viewing experience.  Black n white, by the way.

There was substantial cutting, and both narratives suffer.  Each is barely more than a glorified pitch.
No character development and the first half drags.
Nevertheless, I liked this quite a bit as it was a clinic on detailing the mirrored elements of both films:  strong females, corporate agendas, soulless androids.
Similar interior designs - harsh exteriors.
By the end, I wondered how much of the similarity was deliberate, how much was subconscious.

[Vultural]

The Secret of Crickley Hall - 2012 - 4/10

Inclined to be harsh with this.
Haunted house film / miniseries based on James Herbert novel.
Dual plots about abducted child of today, and mistreated WWII orphans.
Children being kidnapped - punished - tortured.  Many graves.
Sinister looking house, starkly furnished.
Main villain, an unbalanced religious type, is choice casting.
Modern day parents weak and whiny.
Someone with less qualms than I might rank this higher.

γνῶθι σεαυτόν / temet nosce

[Vultural]

Blonde In A White Car - 1958 - 7/10
AKA - Toi... le venin

Glossy French sleaze.
Man is walking down deserted beach road, late night.
A huge, white Cadillac creampuff slows down and a silhouetted blonde asks if he wants a ride.
“No thanks,” he declines . . . . . “Hop in anyway,” she insists.
He climbs in and she drives to secluded woods.
Kills the engine, opens her robe - revealing no clothes, and she gives him a ride that makes seat springs groan.

When she’s finished she kicks him out at gunpoint, then tries to run him down in the car.
Boy scout that our hero is, he gets the license number and tracks the car to the home of two blonde half sisters.
Both are jealous, manipulative, game players.  And both are lonely.

One of them is a crazy psycho - maybe both of them.
Ever the fool, the man wants to know which one is wacko, so when they offer him the guest room, he stays.
They purr into his stupid male brain and wrap spider silk around him tighter and tighter.
Shallow - slow - unsavory, with a jazz score that wails like a deranged stripper joint.

[Vultural]

Price Check - 2012 - 5/10

Parker Posey slams into office as new manager of half assed marketing team for second rate grocery chain.
A neurotic mess, she is in charge, and baits, berates, bullies, boinks, fires, and drags the team into a blitzkrieg overhaul.
By turns funny, cringing, sleep inducing.
Should have been a biting satire, but was soft centered at its core.   
If you ever toiled an awful job, chances are you worked for someone like this.

[Vultural]

Taxi - 1998 - 6/10

French action comedy (“Taxi” pulls multiple hits in IMDB).
The speediest (“stop sign? what stop sign?”) pizza delivery guy in Marseilles ditches his motorcycle after he gets his taxi license.  Naturally, he becomes the speediest in the taxi world as well.
Marseilles police are aware of him, since he blows down speed meters while clocking 130 MPH, but they have other worries.  A bank heist team, known as the Mercedes Gang, has throttled into town.
Daylight robberies, screeching rubber, brilliant escapes from the frustrated, if imbecilic, police.
Who can catch the gang?
Yes, predictable as a child’s sing song.
The two male leads are given the most character development, the baddies are more sneering than deadly.
Broad based comedy with several car chases, slalom style.
Empty headed fun, recommended to anyone who ever asked a cabbie to hurry.

[Vultural]

Gambit - 2012 - 6/10

Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz, Alan Rickman in fluffy caper film.
Script by Coen brothers, remake of '66 version (Caine, MacLaine).
Firth plays lowly "art adviser" for tycoon Rickman.
He devises a swindle and enlists over-the-top Texas cowgal Diaz.
Plans backfire continuously, which was part of the fun.
Humor ranges from wordplay to situation cascade to Benny Hill farce.
In the room where I watched this most laughed throughout.
Lightweight fare, nevertheless.

[Vultural]

Take This Waltz - 2012 - 7/10

Meandering film about happily married woman who is attracted to another man.
She does not have a job, he is a rickshaw driver.
Gradually she yields to temptation. No real great shakes in the narrative.
This is a movie for buffs, more for the look of the film.
Film was set in Canada, in a fairyland, perpetual summer.
Colors in this, Technicolor by the way, were gorgeous.
Flowers, buildings, clothes.  Terrific design.
Most of the photography seemed to have been done during "golden hours," which is so hard to pull off.
I liked the film for technical reasons.
Seth Rogen and Sarah Silversman play against type and excel in supporting roles.

[Vultural]

Crimson Rivers - 2000 - 7/10
AKA - Les Rivières Pourpres

Major - major - major disappointment this.  True, I scored this a 7, yet I would have notched it higher as would have other viewers.
Paris commissioner (Jean Reno) sent to remote site in Alps after a nude body is found.
The victim had suffered ritual torture, hands and eyes removed, then killed slowly.
The trail leads to a posh, extremely exclusive university.
Meanwhile, another cop (Vincent Cassel) investigates a tomb desecration hundreds of kilometers distant.
The trail likewise leads to the university.
The look is Neo-Noir, the plot is creepy and suspenseful, punctuated with intense action.
Location filming is breathtaking.  This is a fabulous looking film.
Unfortunately . . . there is no “why.”
A truly enjoyable movie, marred by a rushed, inexplicable conclusion.
According to an interview with Mr Cassel, he did not understand the end either ( the director chose to cut all the explanatory sequences because they were boring ).
This could have been a great film.
Recommended - with that warning.

[Apocalypse25]

A truly enjoyable movie, marred by a rushed, inexplicable conclusion.
According to an interview with Mr Cassel, he did not understand the end either ( the director chose to cut all the explanatory sequences because they were boring ).
This could have been a great film.
Recommended - with that warning.

​The fact is that due to weather change, a major explanatory scene in the book and the original script has to be reschedule and finaly abandonned...

[Vultural]

A truly lame excuse, not by you but whoever the studio mouthpiece was.

The explanatory scene could have restaged during the car ride near the end, or in the funicular, or at the very end instead of the dog business.

I was not alone.  I went to IMDB trying to figure out what went wrong and thoroughly read The Damn Ending!! thread.  My favorite post was - "Damn, did the writer of the screenplay die before he could finish it? And must his little 7-y/o daughter find it and write the ending?"

Glad the director is back where he belongs;  in front of the camera acting, instead of behind it, directing.

[Vultural]

Ginger And Rosa - 2012 - 6/10

Arthouse buffs, a new Sally Potter film!
Story of two teenage girls in early 60s England.
Almost the same time as An Education, only G&R was specifically 1962.  Pre Swinging London, British Invasion. The look, music (jazz from Cool School), themes, all slightly darker from the flowering future.
The ads are trumpeting the conflicts the friends suffer because of the threat of nuclear annihilation, but that is inaccurate.  This is actually a coming of age drama.
Excellent acting all around, and it went pretty quick.