In Dreams (1999) Starring: Annette Bening, Aiden Quinn, Paul Guilfoyle, Stephen Rea, Katie Sagona and Robert Downey, Jr. Director: Neil Jordan Rating: Four of Ten Stars
Claire (Bening) finds herself connected psychically to a madman (Downey) who starts targeting her family for reasons only he understands. Will she able to convince anyone that she isn't crazy before he kills everyone she loves, including Claire herself?
"In Dreams" is an interesting supernatural thriller where the film takes its time revealing whether the main character is psychic, telepathically linked with a serial killer, or just plain crazy. That aspect of the film is very well done. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is dragged down by over-acting and poorly developed story elements.
Take for example the psychiatrist that plays a key role in getting Claire committed to a mental hospital. It's one thing to for him to do so initially, but why does it take him and the orderlies a couple of days to notice the carvings on the wall of Claire's cell, carvings that she could not have made? Well... no reason other than some time needed to pass for plot reasons. And it really is too much of a coincidence that Claire just happened to be placed in the same cell that her "psychic twin" had inhabited a decade or so earlier.
Too much of the movie's story relies on such far-feteched coincidences to be fully effective. If just a little more care and effort had been put into the script and if Annette Bening had dailed back the histronics and melodrama just a tad, this could have been an excellent little chiller. It's still entertaining--Robert Downey, Jr. makes a great madman and his final fate is one that will cause most viewers to chuckle evilly to themselves--but there are too many moments where the attentive viewer will be annoyed by the sloppy story. (Actually, even the ending, which I am fond of, is a bit underdeveloped.)
This flawed film is worth checking out if you notice it showing on TV, but it's not worth going out of your way for. It has some great and creepy moments and it has a neat ending, but those aren't enough to save it.
The International (2009) Starring: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Brian F. O'Byrne, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Allesandro Fabrizi Director: Tom Tykwer Rating: Four of Ten Stars
An Interpol agent on the verge of a breakdown (Owen) and a dedicated New York Asst. District Attorney (Watts) team up to investigate a powerful international bank that will stop at nothing to achieve its business goals.
"The International" is a sluggishly paced thriller with a script that could have done with at least one more revision and an end product that should have gone back to the editor.
The bankers featured in this film must be the same guys who were in charge at Washington Mutual or maybe Freddie Mac in recent years, because they're the sort of idiots who would keep issuing loans to people who would never pay them back. If they didn't seem so incompetent, maybe the conspiracies they are engaged in would seem less far fetched and pointless.
The main plot point around which the film revolves--the bank is going to collapse if they don't make a convoluted arms investment scheme work--would have been solved 20 minutes in, if, as a character says in the third act, "You should have come to me first." Of course, that would have meant this would have been a really short movie without any action scenes... but that would have been preferable to what we end up with here.
As it stands, the bankers here are nefarious for no reason other than to be nefarious, and they are so stupid that it boggles the engaged mind our heroes (or even some bumbling US Senator in search of headlines) can't nail them. Of course, the script is so badly written that many of the setbacks are heroes suffer are just as much due to bad luck as the eeeevil powers of the International.
Almost worse than the bad script is the way the film is padded. It's just a few seconds here and few seconds there, but after a while it becomes annoying and obvious. Time and again, we're given establishing shots to establishing shots. Because the film takes its sweet time getting just about every scene underway--presumably because the director thought this would help build suspense--we're given plenty of time to reflect on the story problems in what we are watching unfold.
Tip to future filmmakers: If you have a bad script for your thriller, speed things up rather than slow them down. The audience won't have time to catch all the stupidity, and, even if they do, they'll be grateful that the film was only 85 minutes long as opposed to 111 minutes.
"The International" is rather like the conspiracy theories it tries to bring to life as it unfolds--you know, the ones about the Gnomes of Zurich running the world through international banks--in that if you apply any thought to them, they collapse under their own illogic.
Don't waste your time and money on this film. It has decent performances from every featured actor and a very cool shoot-out at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, but these aren't enough to make it worth two hours of your life. (The four rating I'm giving it is a low four.)
Lovers of actions movies should keep the following in mind when it comes to the "Speed" cinematic duology: The first one is a must-see, and the second one you should pass on unless it's the very last rental at the video store.
(Both films can be had in a single package, even if that version is out of print. If yuou can find it, it's the only way I'd get "Speed 2" if I were so inclined, because that way I could at least just consider it a bonus feature.)
Speed (1994) Starring: Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock and Jeff Daniels Director: Jan deBont Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
When SWAT officer Jack Taven (Reeves) foils a mad bomber's (Hopper) extortion plot, it becomes personal. He traps Jack and along with a dozen passengers onboard a bus that is rigged to explode if its speed drops below 50 miles per hour. While the police try to figure out where the bomber is hidden, Jack must attempt to keep the busload of passengers calm while trying to find a way to save both them and himself.
This is one of those pressure-cooker action movies where things go from bad, to worse, to really bad--and the final bit of villainy from the bad guy gives the third act a twist that truly rocks. Aside from some hackneyed dialogue, "Speed is well-paced, well-filmed, and all the actors give excellent performances. Reeves, who usually annoys me, is even good, and Bullock (as Annie, a particularly resourceful bus passenger) also shines as her usual Girl Next Door character, even if she spends virtually all her time on-screen behind the wheel of the doomed bus. Dennis Hopper plays his part with a gleeful evil that is great fun to watch.
Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) Starring: Sandra Bullock, Wilhem DeFoe and Jason Patric Director: Jan deBont Rating: Two of Ten Stars
Annie (Bullock) goes on a cruise with her new boyfriend (Patric) only to find the ship hijacked by a mad-dog murderous terrorist (DeFoe) who is bent on crashing the ship into the harbor going at full speed. Much mayhem and property damage ensue... but very little that's particularly interesting or suspenseful.
Everything that director deBont did right in the original "Speed" he does wrong here. The setting is too open, the villains don't seem sinister enough, and whenever the story starts to build a little tension, it is dispelled by a ludicrous action sequence for the same of action, an unfunny bit of attempted humor, or something inane that defies description. I suspect that the writers and marketeers thought the subtitle "Cruise Control" was really clever ("it's set on a cruise ship, and it's under the control of bad guys, and it's a pun on cruise control in vehicles... get it, huh, get? [giggle-giggle]"), but instead it stands a description of how this exceedingly bad follow-up to an excellent movie was made: The creative and production staff were operating on cruise control, not really paying attention to what they were doing.
Kenau Reeves was smart to pass on this one. I wish Bullock had too, because her talent is completely wasted in this stinker. In fact, all the principles give decent performances, given what they have to work with, so they're all pretty much wasted.
Toe Tags (2003)
Starring: Darla Enlow and Marc Page
Director: Darla Enlow
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
A serial killer is knocking of the residents of Valley Creek Apartments. This knife-wielding maniac targets victims not only because they are a tight-knit group of apartment dwellers, but also because they all have ties to homicide detective Kate Wagner (Enlow). Even stranger, the killer is a trophy taker... he steals the toe tags from his victims out of the very morgue. Can it be that the killer is as close to the investigation as possible, that the killer is detective Wagner herself? Or maybe her new partner and friend, Detective Mark Weiss (Page), who is also found to have prior a prior relationship with some of the victims? Can the killer be stopped before the entire apartment complex is one big crime scene?
"Toe Tags" is a film that should be lauded for its excellent story and sparse filmmaking. These are two elements that too few indie filmmakers seem to be able to successfully manage in their works.
I've seen more detective movies and slasher films than I can count, and the script here kept me guessing throughout. Just when I started to roll my eyes, groan, and assume this would be a Four-tomato or worse movie because of the obvious nature of the killer's identity--and yet the characters couldn't figure it out--a twist was thrown in. It did this twice in its just-over-an-hour running time, something that few movies manage to do with this very jaded writer, and the ending also managed to surprise in a satisfactory way. (I have some issues with the police procedures portrayed in this film, but I doubt the average viewer would notice--I've spent too much time around real-life cops, in addition to having watched way too many movies.)
I also congratulate director Darla Enlow for not padding her movie with useless scenes. Every scene in "Toe Tags" is there to forward the story rather than pad out the running time. We have no overlong establishing shots, no dragged out "mood establishing" scenes that don't go anywhere, and no boring conversations that are being passed off as "character development" but are really just badly executed padding attempts.
Another technical strong point is the way the various murder scenes are shot. They combine quick cuts and well-done sound effects to make up for the films limited budget, and they give the viewer just enough to make the deaths horrific. (In fact, the sound design on "Toe Tags" is better than on many low-budget films where it seems to be an element that's ignored entirely.)
In most aspects, "Toe Tags" a well-done, taut thriller that script-, direction-, and editing-wise measures up against similar big-screen releases with ten or one-hundred times the budgets that this was made on.
Unfortunately, the movie is weak in the acting department. Even by low-budget, indie standards, the performances are universally stiff and the dialogue sounds very unnatural as it is delivered. The weak acting is brought all the more to the forefront by the way everyone politely waits for each actor to finish their lines before starting their own, even in arguments. I've never had a heated discussion where the person I was arguing with waits a beat before giving their response, yet that is what everyone in the world of "Toe Tags" does.
Still, the story is well-told and the filmmaking craft on display so solid that I can forgive the weak acting. It's an enjoyable film, and I think fans of both the thriller and the slasher genres will like it quite a bit.
(Oh... on a minor casting note, permit me to also congratulate Enlow for putting naked bodies on display that are actually pleasant to look at. No bad boob jobs or flabby male guts are waved in the viewers' faces here, and I appreciate that immensely. Too many people who appear in films at this level of production and funding really should keep their clothes on.)
Fighting Mad (aka "Death Force") (1978) Starring: James Inglehart, Leon Isaac Kennedy, Carmen Argenziano, and Jayne Kennedy Director: Cirio H. Santiago Rating: Six of Ten Stars
Doug (Inglehart) and two other American soldiers (Kennedy and Argenziano) are returning home from Vietnam with a cache of gold earned by working with the black market when his partners-in-crime betray him and throw him into the ocean for dead. Rescued and befriended by a pair of soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army who have been living secretly on an isolated South Sea island, Doug is taught the ways of Samurai. Eventually making his way back to the States, he reunites with his wife (Jayne Kennedy) and sets about taking revenge on the men who betrayed him, by first dismantling the criminal empire they've built and then taking their lives.
"Fighting Mad" has all the making of a REALLY bad movie. When Doug was rescued by a pair of Japanese soldiers who didn't know WW2 was over, I was certain I was in for a stupid movie as well as a bad one. However, as ludicrous as the notion of him just happening to wash up on a desert island with a pair of old Japanese soldiers (one of whom just happens to be an honest-to-gosh samurai), it all worked.
Full of 1970s-ism such as pimps in big hats, Italian gangsters loving restaurants, references to Black Muslims, vengeful martial artists, and corrupt, twisted Vietnam veterans, this film turns out to be a rather engaging revenge flick. The Japanese soldiers turn out to be more charming than laughable, and the training period that Doug goes through is one that starts to feel believable. The same is true of the rise to power of the Vietnam vets turned Los Angeles crimelords in an age when gangsters still had a veneer of businessmen about them. The movie overall is a rather engaging, old-fashioned crime/martial arts fantasy with the villains who are such nasty pieces of work that it's a delight to watch our hero--reformed by the tutalage of an honorable warrior and the love he has for his wife and child--take them apart.
If the editing of the film had been just a tiny bit less abrupt--it seemed like there were only two establishing shots in the whole movie--this could have easily have rated a Seven or perhaps even an Eight on the Tomato-scale. The script was well done, tne acting good, and the action well-staged.
"Fighting Mad" is a movie that anyone who enjoyed "Kill Bill" or movies like it. It's also a movie that carries with it a curiously modern message of racial harmony, something that wasn't exactly common in "drive-in" type movies like this one back then. The man villains are a white and a black man working together with hired muscle that's mostly Italian or Hispanic, while the hero is trained by Japanese on the desert island, teams with a Japanese cabbie Stateside, and is helped along in his quest for revenge by one of the few white cops not bought off by the villains.
(Oh.. if someone out there reading this knows Brian De Palma, point this movie out to him. It's got those corrupt, murderous United States soldiers he's so fond of telling the world about. Maybe "Fighting Mad" will become a favorite and he'll be inspired to make a movie that's entertaining.)
"Fighting Mad" is included in several different low-priced DVD multipacks. It can also occasionally be found under its original title "Death Force."
The Woman in Green (1945) Starring: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke, Henry Daniell and Matthew Boulton Director: Roy William Neill Rating: Six of Ten Stars
Inspector Gregson (Boulton) turns to Sherlock Holmes (Rathbone) for help in solving a series of grisly mutilation murders. Holmes soon discovers the murders are only part of a much larger criminal enterprise... and that his old foe Professor Moriarty (Daniell) may have returned to London.
"The Woman in Green" is not one of the best of the Universal Pictures' Holmes movies, but even so it's obvious why so many fans believe the Basil Rathbone Holmes is THE Holmes. Pains were taken to make Rathbone and the set of 221B Baker Street like living manifestations of the famous Sidney Paget illos from Strand Magazine and those efforts go along way to making this film fun to watch. Rathbone's Holmes is also very no-nonsense and task focused, always straight to the point; with the exception of his occasional ribbing of Watson, there is none of the humor present in so many other portrayals of Holmes.
But speaking of Watson, he is the weak point in this film, as he is in just about every one of the Holmes films from Universal. Nigel Bruce does a fine job as being comic relief as the bumbling, dimwitted Watson, but one continues to wonder why Holmes would keep him around, because he causes more problems than he solves. Is it just so Watson can pick up the tab for dinner now and then? Perhaps Watson is going senile, and Holmes keeps him around out of love and respect for the way he used to be? As excellent and accurate as the portrayal of Holmes in these films is when compared to the Doyle stories, Watson is completely off target.
The plot of the film is original, although there's an assassination attempt on Holmes that's taken from "The Empty House," and there's some dialogue that I think was lifted from "The Final Solution." Like the majority of the other Universal Holmes films, the characters were transported to modern times (which means the 1940s), but this doesn't seem to harm them in any way. If anything, it enhances the characterization of Holmes, because it forced the costumers to ditch the ludicrously out-of-place tweed coat and deerstalker hat that so many filmmakers insist on making the character wear even while in the city.
"The Woman in Green" is one of several Holmes movies that slipped into public domain when the copyright wasn't properly renewed during the 1970s. It's available in a number of value packs (taken from copies of varying quality), but if you want to have the best image quality possible, you want to get "The Sherlock Holmes Collection, Vol. 3," which includes an excellent restoration. The other collection linked to is recommended due to its low price and the fact that you get three Rathbone films and three films starring Arthur Wontner as Holmes.
This is the second of two posts covering the eight Bulldog Drummond films produced by Paramount in the late 1930s. Click here to read some background on the series and its cast.
Bulldog Drummond in Africa (1938) Starring: John Howard, E.E Clive, J. Carroll Naish, Heather Angel, Reginald Denny, and H.B. Warner Director: Louis King Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
Despite some extreme measures that adventurer Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond (Howard) and his friends take to stop him from being drawn into yet another adventure that will ruin the plans for his wedding, Fate once again intervenes. When his fiance, Phyllis Clavering (Angel), witnesses the kidnapping of Scotland Yard's Colonel Nielsen (Warner) by notorious freelance spy Richard Lane (Naish), Drummond and the gang persue the bad guys all the way to Morocco to rescue him.
"Bulldog Drummond in Africa" is one of the very best in the series released by Paramount Pictures. It's got some of the best gags (Drummond and Tenny, trapped in Rockingham Lodge without pants and money to keep Drummond from being lured into trouble, doing Scottish dances in improvised kilts to entertain themselves gives even more entertaiment for the viewers), it's got the most suspenseful storyline so far (with everyone being placed in extreme mortal danger during the unfolding story, and Drummond and the entire gang having one of their most narrow escapes ever). From its opening scene to the final fade-out, the film moves along at lightning pace, never letting off on the banter, action, or antics.
On the acting front, Howard, Clive, and Denny return as the characters they've played in previous films, and they do their usual excellent jobs. Denny's character of Algy Longworth (the undisputed champion in the Upperclass Twit Olympics) has a little more to do in this film, and viewers who might have started to wonder why Drummond tolerates him, can start to understand why.
Also, Heather Angel and J. Carroll Naish return to the series with this episode, Angel resumes the role of Phyllis Clavering (which she played in "Bulldog Drummond's Escape"), while Naish appears as a different bad guy than he played previously. Both are excellent in their parts, with Angel delivering a more energetic Clavering than Louise Campbell did in the intervening three films. (Campbell did a good job, but I prefer Angel's Phyllis.) Naish, meanwhile, is playing a far more interesting, competent, and evil villian than the one he portrayed in "Bulldog Drummond Comes Back". He has some nice lines, and the always jovial demeanor of Richard Lane, who is a murderous sociopath, makes for a bad guy who is fun to watch, particularly in interplay with new series regular H.B. Warner, who takes over the role of Colonel Nielsen from John Barrymore.
With Warner joining the cast, Nielsen returns to the sort of character he was in the first couple of films. It's hard to say whether Nielsen was badly written in "Bulldog Drummond's Peril", but here the character is back in form, and the calm, upper-lip-so-stiff-it-must-be-made-of-bone fashion he deals with Lang and his spy collegues makes it clear why Nielsen and Drummond are good friends. Nielsen is far more than just a former Army officer and high-level government official--he's every bit the hardcase adventurer as Drummond, and we get to see that in this film, even if he is basically the "damsel in distress."
I recommend this film to fans of 1930s and 1940s pulp fiction tales, adventure films, and even those who enjoy the "Indiana Jones" movies. While this isn't a good point at which to start the series, those who have seen one or more of the earlier films should note that as of the fifth entry, this series is still on an upward quality climb. There are few other movie series that can be said about.
Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police (1939) Rating: Six of Ten Stars Starring: John Howard, Heather Angel, E.E. Clive, Reginald Denny, H.B. Warner, Loe Carroll, Forester Harvey, and Elizabeth Patterson Dirrector: James Hogan
Just as it appears Hugh Drummond (Howard) and Phyllis Clalvering (Angel) are finally going to make it to their own wedding, a cooky historian (Harvey) shows up on the doorstep and says he comes to search for a massive treasure hidden in the catacombs below the Drummond family's ancestral home. A treasure hunt isn't enough to disrupt the wedding plans--Drummond thinks that can wait until the day after he and Clavering married--but the murder of the historian is. Drummond, his friend Algy (Denny), his faithful servant Tenny (Clive), house-guest Colonel Nielsen of Scotland Yard (Warner), and even Miss Clavering are soon searching the long-abandoned tunnels in search of a treasure and a deadly killer. But it's a deadly hunt, because the killer is one step ahead of them.
"Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police" is another strong entry in the series. The physical humor is strong in this one, and the action is fast-moving, entertaining, and downright suspenseful at times. In fact, there's a scene where several of our heroes are in ancient death trap and it actually feels like they might not escape.
The regular cast is excellent as usual, and they have Reginald Denny is funnier in this installment than he as ever been before, and Clive gets some excellent zingers off as well, with Tenny's signature "I rather like it" line being used to great effect on multiple occassions. Howard and Angel once again display excellent on-screen chemistry, and the viewer can easily understand why the two characters keep trying over and over again to get married, despite Fate continuially getting in their way. (In fact, Angel is perhaps the best I've ever seen her in this film--she lights up the screen in every scene she appears in, and she ends up as one of the feistiest "damels in distress" to ever make the bad guy regret taking prisoners.)
To add to the quality, this film can even serve as a jumping-on point for those who don't want to watch from the beginning. As it unfolds, the film manages to give a quick introduction of the characters and the ongoing "Road to the Wedding" subplot that's been running through the series since "Bulldog Drummond Comes Back" without boring those of us who have watched all the previous installments.
As good as it is, this episode is not exactly perfect. First, there is a very annoying, very stupid comic relief character that makes Algy look like a genius. Second, there's a problem with the villain of this episode. He's written in a very sinister fashion, he's got some good lines, and he proves to be a real threat to Our Heroes... but he's played by an actor who's nearly a non-entity compared to the high-energy performers he's surrounded by. Leo Carroll isn't exactly bad, but he's out of his league with the "Bulldog Drummond" ensamble.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: This series of "Bulldog Drummond" films reminds me more of the "Indiana Jones" series than any other films from the 1930s I've seen. Heck, there's even a death-trap scene in this one that brings part of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" to mind... and in this installment Drummond and the gang are hunting for a lost treasure in an ancient castle!
Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1939) Starring: John Howard, Reginald Denny, E.E. Clive, Heather Angel, H.B. Warner, and George Zucco Director: James Hogan Rating: Six of Ten Stars
Hugh Drummond (Howard) ends up a murder suspect when an international freelance spy (Zucco) kills an inventor and steals an experimental beam-weapon that remotely detonates gunpowder and explosives. With his wedding plans yet again disrupted, Drummond, his best friend Algy (Denny), his ever-resourceful gentleman's gentleman Tenny (Clive), and his fiance Phyllis (Angel) travel to a tropical island to capture the spy and return the deadly weapon to British hands.
"Arrest Bulldog Drummond" starts sluggishly, has a darker tone than the other entries in the Paramount-produced "Bulldog Drummond" series, and what gags that are present are rather tepid. The film is saved by a strong third act, the usual excellent performances by Howard, Denny, Clive, and Angel (with Denny and Angel getting quite a bit of screen-time, and their characters of Algy and Phyllis taking more active roles in the plot than usual), and a nifty turn by George Zucco as the sinister spy Rolf Alferson. Unfortunately, Colonel Nielsen (Warner) is once again reduced to a blithering idiot by the writers (something which seems to be a hallmark of the worst installments in the series.)
With a near equal amount of good parts and bad parts, "Arrest Bulldog Drummond" is one of the weakest entries in the series, with the strong finish and good performances by Zucco and the regular cast members barely managing to elevate the film to the upper-end of average. It's okay, but you won't miss much if you skip it.
Bulldog Drummond's Bride (1939) Starring: John Howard, Heather Angel, Reginald Denny, Eduardo Ciannelli, H.B. Warner, E.E. Clive John Sutton, Gerald Hamer, Louise Mercier, and Louise Patterson Director: James Hogan Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
Phyllis (Angel) gives adventurer Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond (Howard) one final chance to marry her, forcing the matter to the point where she has promised to marry another suitor on the day immediately following their scheduled wedding should the date be missed again. But, despite the efforts of their friends and families (regular returning cast-members Clive, Denny, Patterson, and Warner), a small-town French mayor with a deeply romantic soul (Mercier), this wedding plan may be foiled by the deadliest obsticle yet: A murderous, bomb-happy bank robber (Cianelli) in search of revenge and the 10,000 pounds of loot that he hid inside Phyllis' portable radio and which Hugh shipped to France.
Whether or not Hugh Drummond and his fiancee Phyllis actually manage to complete their nuptuials, "Bulldog Drummond's Bride" ends the Paramount-produced series with a bang! It features one of the series' most sinister villains--second only to the opponent that almost fed Colonel Nielsen and Hugh to a lion in "Bulldog Drummond in Africa"--and a weddding ceremony that's exactlyl the sort of pay-off that's called for, given how long it's been in coming.
It's a little dissapointing that the characters of Tenny (Clive) and Colonel Nielsen (Warner) are reduced to playing very small parts, but the trade-off of John Sutton's character (Colonel Nielsen's assistant in four of the films, referred to mostly as "Inspector Tredennis", but called "Jennings" in "Bulldog Drummond's Revenge") getting to play a larger role, and to even manage to be the one to make sure Drummond stays put long enough to give his final hope of marriage even the slightest chance of happening; and the hilarious, pompous small-town mayor/chief of police character portrayed by Louis Mercier more than make up for it.
Although this final step of Bulldog Drummond's Road to the Wedding is a little short of hi-jinx (the only truly funny bit is bank-robber Henri Armides tormenting of a confused Algy (Denny)--the wild energy of the film's final minutes brings this series to a close at a very high point of quality.
