Saturday, April 25, 2015
Flying Leathernecks (1951)
A Major leads The Wildcats squadron into the historic WWII battle of Guadalcanal.
Mediocre, violent and quite chauvinist flag waver which savours the air battle scenes.
Halliwell (no star): "Empty, violent war actioner full of phoney heroics."
Maltin***: "Solid, if not especially otiginal, WW2 actioner, with good aerial scenes and nice turnby Flippen as crafty sergeant."
R.I.P. Daevid Allen
So sad, one of my very first heroes.
Eulogy:
http://pitchfork.com/news/58386-daevid-allen-founder-of-gong-and-soft-machine-dead-at-77
Friday, April 24, 2015
Dirty (2005)
Two gangbangers-turned-cops try and cover up a scandal within the LAPD.
A great cast and feverish atmosphere, but a slightly unclear plot make this an above-average thriller about corruption among cops.
Maltin*1/2: "Aggressively foulmouthed and foul-minded, this visually convulsive TRAING DAY wannabe has ambitions, but offers neither its characters nor its audience any salvation."
Drive (2011)
A mysterious Hollywood stuntman, mechanic and getaway driver lands himself in trouble when he helps out his neighbor.
What would have been another (violent) action flic is successfully given an artsy treatment and the feel of an existentialist drama with a tight-lipped, hard-boiled anti-hero.
Maltin**: "What some see as a prime example of postmodern cool strikes us as a pretentious hogwash from the word go. The bursts of gruesome violence are equally hard to swallow. By the way, Gosling seems fully articulate when he sets up his first gig, but spends the rest of the film nearly silent (and striking poses). Only bright spot is a juicy supporting role for Brooks as a savvy gangster."
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Hadaka no shima (1960)
A family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island, where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops.
Poetic masterpiece without any dialogue that depicts the bleak, but mutual relationship between landscape and human sustenance in rhythmic daily and seasonal rituals.
Halliwell*: "Slow, controlled, beautiful film in which not a single word of dialogue is spoken. The artificiality of this concept eventually diminishes its stature."
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
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