Saturday, July 11, 2020
Friday, July 10, 2020
Timeline (2003)
A group of archaeologists become trapped in the past when they go there to retrieve a friend. The group must survive in fourteenth century France before they can escape back to the twenty-first century.
Quite mindless entertainment, not tethered by any plot coherence let alone the paradoxes of time travel; lots of talent wasted for the fun.
Halliwell (no star): "Risible adventure, so daft to be almost, but not quite, endearing; the performances are beyond redemption."
Maltin**: "Lively, noisy, convoluted story becomes so confusing it's difficult to know who's who, let alone what's what."
La figlia di Frankenstein (1971)
When Dr. Frankenstein is killed by a monster he created, his daughter and his lab assistant continue his experiments.
Sleazy and lurid variation on the Frankenstein tale is a typical example for 70s Italian horror, so it offers a lot to see and some Gothic atmosphere, but is plain silly most of the time.
Maltin BOMB: "Poor horror entry..."
Thursday, July 9, 2020
Mélodie en sous-sol (1963)
A sixtyish career criminal fresh out of jail, rejects his wife's plan for a quiet life of bourgeois respectability and enlists a former cellmate to assist him in pulling off one final score, a carefully planned assault on the vault of a Cannes casino.
Highly entertaining heist thriller is both suspenseful and full of dry humour; Jean Gabin is, as always, a joy to watch.
Maltin**1/2: "Some tense climactic moments."
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
McLintock! (1963)
Cattle baron George Washington McLintock fights his wife, his daughter, and political land-grabbers.
Another wildly entertaining John Wayne - Maureen O'Hara variation on The Taming of the Shrew. Not suitable for feminists.
On rewatching: Male-bonding festivity looks like they intended to have as much of fun as possible on set and imagined it would reflect onscreen - unfortunately it does.
Halliwell*: "Sub-Ford Western farce borrowed from The Taming of the Shrew, with much fist-fighting and mud-splattering, and rather too much chat in between."
Maltin***: "Rowdy slapstick seldom stops - a giant mud pit free-for-all and a public spanking for O'Hara are just a few of the stops along the way in this Western version of The Taming of the Shrew. Not recommended for feminists."
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Monday, July 6, 2020
Sunday, July 5, 2020
Level 16 (2018)
In a highly regimented boarding school, a pair of students discover that things are not as they seem.
Very good dystopian tale, a bit reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale in its bleak vision of female oppression, successfully conveys an atmosphere of mystery, suppression and dread.
Chappaquiddick (2017)
Depicting Ted Kennedy's involvement in the fatal 1969 car accident that claims the life of a young campaign strategist, Mary Jo Kopechne.
This movie's slickly made with excellent performances, but such a sober, unexcited depiction of the events, it doesn't reveal more than the facts already known.
