jaemskeray
William
tincolor
ThomasFiled under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1970s, boys from brazil, franklin j. schaffner, Gregory Peck, laurence olivier, Spy, Thriller, Watchable
Laurence Olivier stars as an aging Nazi hunter who, after getting a tip from a young man, travels to Paraguay where he hopes to find the infamous Nazi war criminal Gregory Peck, only to discover a plot more sinister than he could have ever imagined! At many points during this movie, I really found myself wishing it was more exciting and atmospheric like The Odessa File. While this film does satisfyingly dangle the details of Peck’s evil plan just out of sight, giving you only glimpses and hints of its true nature for a good chunk of the film, it lacks a sense of adventure like The Odessa File. And like the ending of director Franklin J. Schaffner’s earlier film, Planet of the Apes, the payoff at then end is too silly to accept as anything other than fiction. Gregory Peck’s shadowy scheme is just so implausible that it feels like maybe monkeys from the future were a more realistic threat to world peace than Gregory Peck ever was. Watchable.
P.S. Laurence Olivier did manage to get nominated for an Academy Award for his role in this film.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1970s, Action, charles bronson, crime, death wish, denzel washington, Drama, Jeff Goldblum, Watchable
Charles Bronson has a death wish, but not the “I wish someone would just kill me” kind of death wish, it’s more like the “I wish I could kill other people with impunity” kind of death wish. Anyway, watching this movie gave me of two reasons to be glad I wasn’t alive in the 70s. First, interior decorating was criminally bad. Second, unless the police caught a criminal in the act, they were apparently shit out of luck. Don’t be fooled, this is no action movie, it’s brooding, dark and surprisingly more interested with the mental state of its protagonist that with exciting chase scenes and shootouts. By no means a terrible movie, but considering the wealth of vigilante movies we have today, pretty forgettable. Watchable.
P.S. Look out for both Jeff Goldblum and Denzel Washington in both of their first on-screen performances!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1970s, Barely watchable, ben gazzara, crime, gangster, John cassavetes, the killing of a chinese bookie, Thriller
Ben Gazzara is a nightclub owner who can’t stop losing huge amounts of cash to shady gangsters. The gangsters he owns money to now are willing to forgive the debt, but only if he kills a Chinese bookie. There are apparently two very different cuts of this film and it looks like the only one that is available here in Japan is the terrible one, and man was it terrible! But before I completely condemn it, apparently the “good” cut removes at least some of what I disliked. But no amount of editing could change my major gripe with this film: the main character just isn’t compelling and neither is his predicament. I guess cutting out 27 minutes from the mess I saw might add a little energy to the pacing, but I can’t see myself going any higher than a watchable with this one. Gangsters, nightclub owners, Chinese triads, white people mafia, they’re all there, but presented in the most boring fashion possible. For the 135 minute edit: barely watchable.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1970s, 1974, john voight, Ronald Neame, Spy, the odessa file, Thriller, Worth watching
John Voight is a reporter living in Hamburg who, when he comes across the diary of a recently deceased Jewish man, makes the decision to search for the man’s former torturer, a sadistic SS officer who escaped capture after the war. Despite its many faults, there is so much I really like about this movie. I like the moody European atmosphere, I like how the plot is kept tight and believable even though its about a secret international Nazi organization plotting to take over the world, and I like how John Voight’s adventure across Germany is laid out in painstaking detail. His every move, his every discovery is there on the screen presented in what sometimes feels like realtime. It all comes together to give an impression of realism that I often find lacking in spy/thriller movies. Worth watching! P.S. When John Voight gets old-man makeup in the second half of the movie, it’s amazing how much he looks like himself today; that’s good makeup!
P.P.S Directed by Ronald Neame, who also directed one of my other favorite spy movies, Hopscotch.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1970s, dance, Drama, john travolta, working-class
John Travolta is a working-class fella from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn who feels most alive when he’s out dancing at the club on Saturday night. His character appropriately has a Rocky poster in his bedroom; like that film, Saturday Night Fever is mostly about depicting the mundanity and limitations of a working-class life. There is a big dance competition in Saturday Night Fever, but just like the big boxing match in Rocky, to say the story is not sharply focused on John Travolta’s preparation for the competition is an understatement. A more complicated and more interesting film than you might expect. Worth Checking Out.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1970s, Comedy, Drama, Peter Bogdanovich, randy quaid, Required viewing, ryan o'neal, tatum o'neal
Ryan O’Neal and his daughter Tatum O’Neal star in this road movie about a hustler who gives a ride to a recent, fast talking and too-smart-for-her-own-good orphan who also might be his daughter. Part The Sting, part Curly Sue, Paper Moon definitely ranks high on my list of favorite movies. There’s just so much to like, Tatum O’Neal is an excellent child actress and her dialogue with her dad is great. Their cons are all interesting and fun to watch and the story is appropriately touching and funny with all the right timing. I’m going to go out on a limb here and give this a required viewing.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1970s, Al pacino, crime, Drama, Robert De Niro, sequels, Worth checking out
The Corleone saga continues: Al Pacino, who ascended to the top of the family crime syndicate in the first movie, now broods and expands his power obsessively. At the same time we get some turn of the century flashbacks with Robert DeNiro as a young version of Pacino’s father, if that makes sense. Meh. Instead of just re-playing the first one, this sequel tries to renovate it, filling the “gaps” with further material, much of which is unnecessary. Luckily, it does echo the first one often enough that you still feel like you’re watching a good movie. If you see the first one (which you’re *required* to) and you enjoy it, then hell, you might as well commit another three hours to this one. Worth checking out.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1970s, Al pacino, crime, Drama, mafia, marlon brando, Required viewing
The quintessential mafia movie, an epic story about power and corruption. It’s a slow, realistic drama, punctuated with a few moments of sudden and brutal violence. This makes the audience uneasy, which kind of replicates how it would feel to be around people who could eliminate you at the drop of a fedora. Man, what a movie! Required viewing.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1970s, Comedy, Horror, musical, Tim curry
Tim Curry plays a sexually deviant host to Susan Sarandon and her fiancé. Like Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise, this is a wacky musical homage to classic horror films, particularly Frankenstein in this case. There isn’t so much a plot as there are just a bunch of mostly catchy songs strung together by a handful of spoken word sections. All in all, I enjoyed the film and can see why people dress up and sing along to it at midnight showings. Worth checking out.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1970s, Comedy, hong kong, Jackie Chan, martial arts, Watchable
Jackie Chan is a young roustabout who learns that alcohol is the key to kung fu glory. The fight choreography is great, and some of the “drunken” styles are really hilarious — such as the one where he pretends to be a preening maiden, knocking down attackers with his hips. This early kung fu comedy works well as a parody of itself. Watchable plus! Note: you could always just watch the 1994 sequel which is way better (though it lacks the low-budget charm of the original.)
Pinhole Movie Reviews 