Last night I watched one of my Top100 favorite movies of all time. Brian De Palma's Body Double (1984). Still a beautifully shot and edited piece of work. De Palma manages to capture the essence of Hitchcock and Scorsese and I swear I saw a little bit of Speilberg in there too, but this amazing piece of 80s film-noir is top notch still. Sure , it comes with some 80s cheesiness, but that just helps to emphasize the almost dream-like craziness that our anti-hero and peeper,... Jake (Craig Wasson), experiences. This would be the film that made Melanie Griffith a star (of course she would ruin that fame by turning into a bitch and a pain in the ass to work with by the time 15 years went by), and it garnered her a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Actress. It also featured a then unknown band named Frankie Goes to Hollywood doing their classic song about sex, "Relax". Many twists and turns in a plot full of deception and voyeurism. Wasson does an amazing job of conveying to the audience a character that imbues sympathy and support even though he tends to do things a little bit on the creepy side. I was worried that the sands of time may have made this film dated, but I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn't the case. This is still a blast and a must see for Movie-Buffs. Best line ever,
Jake: (on the phone talking to himself) "Hello Gloria, this is Jake. I'm the guy who almost fucked you yesterday .......... Oh that's not the right thing to say".
Oh, and De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) is one of the best ever. - Phil's Grade: A
Last night, while dealing with a cold, I sat down to watch the third entry in the Universal Pictures Invisible Man series. Of course I have seen the other two, which is good, because you need to be able to reference the older ones to see how well the newer ones do. This one is really interesting because it shows the propaganda machine at work in an American film at the height of WWII. A relative (Jon Hall), of the original Invisible Man (1933 - Claude Rains' Dr. Jack Griffin), who I could have swore they said was Griffin's grandson, is attacked in his shop by a small group of Nazi and Japanese agents led by Cedric Hardwick's Conrad Stauffer, a scientist and one of Hitler's buddies and Peter Lorre doing his best angry Mister Moto impersonation as the Japanese Baron Ikito. Frank Raymond (Hall), as he calls himself now, manages to get away and seeks safety with the British Government. He cuts a deal with the Allies that only he can use the invisibility drug and is handed the task of infiltrating Berlin and finding out what the Nazi's plans are for their attack on the U.S. Raymond feels, just like all the other films, that the invisibility drug is too dangerous and can't be used by anyone, but him. Once he is inside Germany he gains the aid of a beautiful resistance fighter, Maria (Ilona Massey), and the fun begins.
So, with every Universal Pictures Horror series they tend to go through a certain evolution, trying out different things, but forgetting some of the earlier important ones. Claude Rains' Invisible Man (1933) and Vincent Price's The Invisible Man Returns (1940), give the viewer a detailed description of how his powers work and his limitations. One limitation is you can see him in smoke, rain or mist. In this film you can't see him in any, as if the producers hoped people wouldn't remember that important aspect of his character. That did bother me, mostly, because logic would dictate that would happen and if you are already going to the trouble of explaining that in the first two films, why not this one. Hell, this one was even nominated for an Oscar in Special Effects, so do all of them. There also was an issue with the insanity limitation. Both Rains and Price eventually turn into angry monsters Hell-bent on world domination, until their love interests calm them down. Raymond's only side effect is he gets sleepy a lot. However, other than a few other silly things that pop up along the way this film is pretty cool.
Getting back to the effects, the really neat thing they did was, instead of bandages wrapped all over his face, they did something new by inviting the idea of him putting cold-cream on his face and hands. This is where the Oscar nomination comes in, because it is a great effect, along with him bathing in the bathtub as you see soap applied to invisible arms and legs, nicely done. It makes you wonder if they traded away one cool effect so they could add another cool effect. The story and surprisingly the dialogue is really good. With World War Two raging in Europe, it was a smart idea to send the Invisible Agent in to help with the fight. Peter Lorre and Cedric Hardwick, as evil and despicable as their characters are, show us why they are such cool actors. The sarcastic and upstart delivery of Hardwick along with the sniveling evil little Lorre is a great combination. They really throw the rhetoric around too. Great line from our hero Raymond:
Frank Raymond: "You Nazis. I pity the devil when you boys start arriving in bunches".
This was another pleasant surprise from Universal Pictures Horror wing. After seeing The Invisible Woman (1940), I was worried this franchise had run out of gas already, but seeing this film changed my mind. They recovered nicely with a really cool film, loaded with interesting characters and is a history lesson, all rolled into one. Rather enjoyed this. - Phil's Grade: B
The latest in Hollywood musicals doesn't disappoint, but those same arguments as to why it would disappoint, keep popping up. I'm going to come clean here when it comes to musicals. I try to pride myself on the fact that I can watch any kind of movie. Any genre, any era, any plot, but for most of my life, I have always had issues with musicals. For me, no matter what the subject matter is, the film-makers have to do everything they can to make it believable, so you need to give me a good reason why your characters keep breaking into song and dance for no apparent reason. A lot of musicals do that. What makes this one a little bit more reasonable, is the fact that, as soon as we fade up from black, at the very first frame of film, the music and the singing commences. So, the film-makers establish a tone, right off the bat, that this is a magical fantasy-land where people break out into song and dance ....... and it works.
The original musical theater writer and for this the screenwriter, James Lapine, takes us into an exciting concept of multiple fairy tales coming together to form a "What if" kind of plot that delves into exploring some of the more interesting continuations of these fairy tales. For examples we have Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel, just to name a few. To help matters even more is the star power that permeates the film. Names like Streep, Ullman, Blunt, Pine, Kendrick and some dude named, Depp, all contribute their brand of skill to make these characters work. I did have some issues with Mackenzie Mauzy's Rapunzel. She actually managed to make Repunzel even creepier than Streep's Evil Witch, but maybe that was just me. Some of the hair and costuming seemed off a little bit too. Chris Pine's Prince Charming looks every bit like the lead singer from a 1981 British Invasion New Wave band. I kept chuckling every time I saw him, but the character makes up for it by admitting that even though he is good-looking and charming he is after all a womanizing asshole. A great attempt at bringing to light a concept that finally breathes reality into the situation.
As we are reminded of the more popular plot-lines of these treasured traditional fairy-tales by a very helpful narrator, eventually we see where Lapine and Director Rob Marshall are taking us when these fairy tales start to intertwine with each other. This is when the real fun starts and the originality of this script really begins to entertain. You begin to see how things would be different if these worlds collided (ala' an almost Quantum Leap kind of approach to changing the course of history albeit fairy tale history). I will say this, by the time we get to the last 20 minutes of the film my defenses started to wane. After hearing conversations, as told through song, for almost two hours, I was starting to get antsy and needed it to end, so I did feel it went a little too long, but I was glad to see this film and pleasantly surprised by the results. - Phils' Grade: B+
SEE - Phil Meets the Movies: Episode 5: Smell-O-Vision & Over-Crowding
We take a trip to the movies and provide a quick video review on YouTube.
http://youtu.be/amDy2s8Wdio
