Buddy Cop Double Dose

Flashpoint is a 1980's thriller that reeks of it's era with dodgy music, full fat machismo and acting of spurious quality. Two disgruntled border patrolmen uncover a crashed plane, sniper rifle and a big bag of cash in the desert and soon find their good fortune has a price when their tentative investigations provoke the attention of the NSA. The two leads Kris Kristofferson and Treat Williams lazily chew their way through the hamfisted scripted and although the plot has potential it's doused by the shouty posturing, dull witted characterisations and unnecessary subplots. Wouldn't bother unless your fond of the alt-theories surrounding Dallas '63 or shit films.

A few years later and Off Limits sees Gregory Hines and Willem Dafoe offer a better expression of the buddy cop formula by playing a pair of jaded, wisecracking detectives struggling with crime in Saigon during the Vietnam war. When a prostitute turns up dead the duo find themselves hunting a serial killer amidst the chaos of the city, bumping into a sexy nun, psychotic colonel and a camp counterpoint along the way. There's plenty of action stuffed in beside the fairly formulaic thriller plot but it's the commendable performances of Hines and Dafoe which rescue the film from mediocrity and they've strong support from Fred Ward and Scott Glenn. It's not amazing, just a solid, fairly entertaining retro cop drama with a decent soundtrack.

Kidding Mr Hitler

An eye-patched Burt Lancaster leads his weary squad to make a stand in a sumptuous, art stuffed medieval castle in the slightly surreal, almost mythical Castle Keep. With the Germans approaching their position the soldiers try to make the most of the brief hiatus by luxuriating in their new found home and the local town's well stocked brothel while their Captain finds himself in bed with the Count's young wife. There's plenty of comedy in the script but it's subsumed in a pathos, a melancholy not just from the war but a semideranged sorrow for the passage of time so when the inevitable conflict arrives the violence and death seems almost welcomed. A fine looking film with some excellent performances, presumably neglected for it's more ambitious intentions.

The Passage, on the other hand, uses it's WW2 setting & talented cast to unfurl a lurid, action packed chase film with little more ambition than popcorn entertainment. Anthony Quinn stars a grumpy Basque shepherd who agrees to escort a scientist, played by James Mason, and his family over the Pyrenees while being chased by a thoroughly insane SS officer. In fact it's Malcolm McDowell's hyperbolic, super camp portrayal of the Nazi antagonist that makes the film, the other performances are fine but with a mediocre script & formulaic plot without McDowell romping about in a swastika jockstrap or a chef's hat this wouldn't be worth a second glance.

Tinseltown Sauerkraut

Peckinpah's Cross of Iron follows a pack of Nazi soldiers, lead into the bloody mess of WW2's Russian Front, by charismatic James Coburn. The barbarity of the mission and a long running conflict with his idiotic, cowardly, ranking officer gradually dissolve Marvin's fervour for the cause and produce disturbing. There's no shortage of noisy, bloody action drenched in Peckinpah's inimitable style (slow mo's and all) but it was Coburn's surprising effective turn as Sgt Steiner holding his own against an excellent, sweaty, rat like performance by Maximilian Schell and a cool, aristocratic James Mason. An action classic with some brains as well as balls.


Brando, Clift & Dean Martin star as 3 men soldiering for their countries during WW2 whose stories slowly intertwine in The Young Lions. Clift stars as an eager Jewish conscript who is befriended by a reluctant draftee, lounge singer Martin. The latter is on board to provide some lightness from Clift's difficult training/harrowing war experiences and Brando's privileged, pompous Nazi officer who slowly realises he's fighting a war he doesn't believe in. It's not bad, well directed and shot but it's a touch flabby and the characters are weak, half hearted stereotypes with predictable, propagandish journeys and it's only the competence of the acting that gives it any mojo. Clift & Martin do well with what they're given but Schell & Brando's Nazis thankfully colour - Brando in particular put's in a strange, semi-comedic, proto-Kurtz performance that's a good enough reason to watch on it's own.

War Machinery

Micmacs is Jeunet's latest and as usual it's filled with a panoply of oddbod characters and steampunk-y apparatus. Bazil, a video shop clerk, gets a bullet lodged in his brain and winds up on the streets only to be adopted by a gang of quirky rejects who live under a rubbish tip and it's not long before they decide to combine their talents to wreak revenge on the arms companies behind our hero's sorry predicament. What ensues is a charming comedic caper with a fine cast and more than a few barbs for the filthy arms trade. All in all another highly enjoyable half-fantasy from the director of City of Lost Children and Delicatessen.


Lebanon is a searing antiwar movie set predominantly in the claustrophobic confines of a tank during Israel's 1982 incursion into Lebanon. The strains of urban conflict soon take their toll on the mostly inexperienced squad in their sweaty vehicle and they find themselves marooned in a Syrian enclave. The film has an almost mythic feel to it as it switches between the inside of the tank and the carnage/mayhem outside as observed through the tanks gun sights but the excellent cast bring a desperate humanity to proceedings as it slowly builds to a frenzy of panic and confusion. A brilliant, nuanced, quite devastating anti-war movie, that's the perfect companion piece to Waltz With Bashir.

Black & White Gold

Peter Cushing stars as a stuffy manager of a small town bank in Cash on Demand another early pre-horror Hammer production. His life falls apart when a twinkly eyed Colonel arrives under the ruse of checking the bank's security procedures but is actually a bank robber who has kidnapped Cushing's wife and daughter. The cast is pretty strong but Cushing's performance as the pompous pedant under pressure lifts this tense little thriller into something special. A neglected gem.

Billy Wilder's able direction and witty script for the brilliant Five Graves to Cairo makes me wonder why it's never had a DVD release here. A British corporal stumbles from the desert into an Egyptian town the Allies have abandoned only to find Rommel and his chums right behind him. Disguising himself as a waiter in the ramshackle hotel our hero tries to stay alive and uncover the secret of Rommel's success and the mysterious five graves. A brilliant, funny thriller that romps along with some excellent performances throughout.

Wars Real & Imagined

The Second Civil War is a star studded satire directed by Joe Dante back in 1997 for the HBO channel. A populist Idaho Governor sparks a immigration crisis when he refuses to shelter some Pakistani orphans and with a weak, muddled President being cajoled by a insipid, sensationalist news channel things soon escalate into a armed confrontation between the National Guard and the regular Army. With Beau Bridges, James Earl Jones, James Coburn and a bevy of other famous faces this should have been great but a dearth of gags and a lack of bite meant this satire falls into mediocrity fast. A shame because Texas' recent threats to secede shows it was at least somewhat prescient.

Adolf Hitler - My Part In His Downfall is a film adaptation of Milligan's classic WW2 autobiography. Jim Dale stars as a young Milligan playing as a pre-war Jazz trumpeter through his reluctant enlistment, basic training and closes as he heads off to battle the dastardly Nazis. With a large cast of familiar faces including Spike himself (playing his own father) this is a mildly enjoyable farce as Dale and co lark about on manoeuvres with a few moments of poignancy as they slowly realise what's in store. Given the talents involved this really should have been much funnier but by stripping out the filth and bad language from Milligan's book it's left as something not terribly far from Dad's Army.

ForeverWar spings a Leak

Assange has enlisted the New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel in exposing 92,000 documents pertaining to our little jaunt back in to Afghanistan oh how I chuckle. Someone called VioletVerq posting on Gawker was kind enough to gather the links. I wonder what else Manning coughed up?

From Zero to Nineteen Forty Two

Zero Effect is a desperately quirky 90's detective thriller starring Bill Pullman as a Holmes-inspired sleuth and Ben Stiller as his long suffering Watson type. It isn't nearly as funny or as clever as it thinks it is so most of the antics of Zero came across as just plain annoying and the blackmail case he's working on is little more than a device to stitch the romantic plot together ~ though apparently it's based on a story by Conan Doyle ~ anyways I'm not surprised that they tried in 2002 to make a TV series out of it as it reeked of the Tellybox.



Went the Day Well? was mentioned in the Guardian the other day so thought I'd give it a go and it's pretty good, certainly more than just a bit of wartime propaganda. A small town falls to a platoon of dastardly Nazis and the locals, notably the women, decide to fight back with some gusto. Based on a story by Graham Greene the script sparkles with wit and British understatement and it's bolstered by some excellent performances throughout. Had it focused on the men folk uprising I don't think it would have had the same impact - the sight of Thora Hird hacking up a Jerry with an axe was really quite shocking.

Giving the games a rest

Across The Hall, is some sort of neo-noir wannabe movie about a cuckolded husband and the drastic steps he takes for revenge. It's moderately successful I guess in generating some tension from it's claustraphobic set up and the acting is passable but it's let down by a terrible clunking and cliched script.

Inglourious Basterds, mmm I wasn't so keen on Tarantino's latest, I dunno maybe I heard too many positive reviews but it felt patchy to me, underwritten in parts and overworked in others, I liked the Jew Hunter actor he was pretty good but the whole film felt distant from the Basterds, they didn't really get the screen time as a group as coherent whole, and I kept thinking it was some homage to an 80's film or something, felt 80's. Anyways the ending though stupid was really nicely done. Unless there's a much better cut to this film I'd say Tarantino's talent is unravelling.



I kinda liked this strange little black comedy satire Visioneers, and Galifianakis is quite good though he plays pretty much the same character as he did in Bored To Death & Hangover, none the less this is a nicely dark film about a future where most people work for the same monolithic company and start to explode, literally, due to the tedious trampled lives they lead and a man who yearns for something different.

Up is fantastic, probably the best Pixar film yet and that's saying something. A touching modern fable about a bereaved old man who floats his home away to fulfil his marital promise and reach Paradise Falls. Animation, design, script and voice acting are near flawless and it's a surprisingly mature animated feature dealing with the comedy and tragedy with equal skill.

Couch + TVersity = Lazy Sunday

Not Forgotten - a twisty psychological thriller about a child kidnapping was ok, certainly better than it's made-for-TV productions values would suggest. There's some kind of vodou-esque cult shenanigans which was somewhat interesting but I can't say I'd go out my way to watch it as the script is patchy and some of the acting a bit ropey - The Mentalist aka Simon Baker was not terrible though he should be worried about the caliber of work coming his way.

A Midnight Clear was much better - a WW2 drama about a gaggle of soldiers sent to man an outpost near some equally disaffected German troops. Beautifully shot and with some strong performances from the roundly excellent cast. It's not a particularly original film but it's "war is stupid" message is hammered home effectively.

And finally The Terminal Man a nice little scifi from the 70's thats quite prescient. Based on a Michael Crichton novel it's about a computer genius who gets experimental brain surgery for his blackouts which seem to cause uncontrollable acts of violence. George Segal is surprisingly good as the guy who gets his noggin opened - even in that funny wig.

Goggleboxing

Killing Room is a nice little psychological horror film. It's all about a weird murderous experiment run by a shadowy government organisation blah blah. There's some good acting and it's got plenty of tension though it's a loopy plot so I'd recommend disconnecting the old noggin. It does have this guy Stormare in it who gives good creepy.

Bigelow has a new Iraq war film out and it's not bad. The Hurt Locker follows a bomb disposal unit doing it's daily grind on the dusty streets of Baghdad. The action is well handled and it's all very realistic in a Gen Kill style and there's some terrific moments of tension. The acting is ok and there's a couple of decent cameos from Pearce and Fiennes but the whole thing kinda sputters out in the second half descending into cliches and the same old war film territory.

Virus, despite a decent cast this was a fairly tedious bit of post-apocalyptic cinema. Man-made virus wipes out the majority of the planet and the only survivors are scientists huddling in Antarctica. I watched the butchered version but to be honest I don't think it really mattered, it was just too 80's, too Cold War for me. Dunno maybe the long version does make a difference.

Another Corman and another little gem. The Secret Invasion is a little bit Great Escape and a fair amount of Dirty Dozen but is nonetheless is a great WW2 romp. A gang of professional criminals are recruited for a insane mission into Yugoslavia to rescue some Italian general. It's got a sweet cast and despite a limited budget Corman packs in plenty of action and suspense.

Batman Vs Dracula, a feature length special from the one of the more recent Batman cartoon adaptations. I've only caught a couple of eps from The Batman toon but this was a enjoyable 90 mins. The artwork is really quite nice and story managed to cram Penguin and Joker in alongside the Count. Not so keen on the look of the Joker though - what's with the teeth ?

Tversity treats

What Doesn't Kill You, was pretty good, an understated tale of a couple low life hoods in Boston, apparently based on a true story, it's got two strong performances from Ruffalo and Hawke that lift it above the well trod path.

Escape from Huang Shi, another true story, sadly wasn't as well acted, Rhys-Meyers & Mitchell both ropey, which was a bit of a shame as it's a great story. Nonetheless it was fairly enjoyable, with some stunning landscapes and of course Chow Yun Fat.

Prophecy, the first of this week's Frankenheimer pics, wasn't a great film but provided me with quite a few unintentional laughs. Essentially a monster movie with some enviromental stuff stitched in, it had a decent cast but was poorly scripted and directed. I loved the bit with the kid in the sleeping bag trying to escape Monster-X however.


The other film from F. this week is The Train - this was a fantastic WW2 thriller about a greedy Nazi trying to steal art from Paris before the Allies arrive. Burt Lancaster stars as a resistance hero trying to thwart their plans - great stunts, well paced and some great performances. Gonna have to get this for the shop.

And finally we have another Roger Corman pic - The Man With X-Ray Eyes - short and to the point this scifi drama played out a little like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Basically an ambitious scientist experiments on himself and ends up with extraordinary sight allowing him to see not just under peoples clothes but eventually into the depths of space, cool.