Recommend a movie

[Vultural]

The Invisible Man - 2020 - 5/10

A wife escapes her ultra rich, abusive husband in the middle of the night.
(Cliché of the dominating male has been used umpteen times.)
She hides in terror, he is a tech guru and … well … can anyone really hide nowadays?
15 minutes in, the crisis is over, threat vanished.  Cecilia can relax her guard.
Then, as she stares at empty spaces, one wonders if she is losing her mind.

Slick looking tech effects, used late and sparingly, that would have been WOW!! 20 years ago.
The first hour is excruciatingly slow, and aside from the tech angle, this is a rehash.
Panders to victim mentality.  Cynical me wonders if the writer/director calculated this for a Me-Too audience.

[Vultural]

Un Témoin Dans la Ville - 1959 - 6/10
AKA - Witness In the City

The train screams through the French countryside.
Masking the frantic shrieks she makes as she …
Well, the affair was over, she was clingy, and she already had a husband.
She committed suicide.  Yeah!  That was it!
There is a loose end, however.  In fact, from one frayed end another unravels.
The path darkens to murder.  Tracking, hunting, elimination.
Film has a marvelous sense of place.  Midnight Paris.
Neon, strip clubs, coffee shops, cheap hotels, bars.
Shadowy couples, fugitives, night owls.
All relying on ferrymen for hire.  City taxi drivers.
Whose jaded eyes know all the doors of disgrace and desire.
Moody jazz score enhances classic Noir of best laid plans and loose ends.

[Vultural]

Jour J - 2017 - 6/10
AKA - Wedding Unplanned

Juliette and Mathias meet at the costume party.
She takes a fancy to him and soon works him out of his Superman outfit and into her Wonder Woman.
Later … “Call me?”  –  “Uh, what, sure.”  –  “Here’s my card,” which she tucks into his clothes.
Next day, back in the flat he shares with blonde Alexia.  “What’s this card?  And who is Juliette?”
“What?  Oh, that, oh, emm –”
“Juliette, wedding planner.  Omigod!  Yes!  I mean, I do!  What a surprise!!!”
Preparations begin.  And who is hired to plan the nuptials?
Why, Mathias’ one night stand, Juliette, who, it transpires, Alexia knew and bullied when J was an ugly duckling.
Broad French comedy borrows from many films, but it moves briskly and the audience laughed frequently.
Chances are this is a good date film - unless - your date misinterprets this as a proposal hint.

[Vultural]

The Blackout - 2019 - 5/10
AKA - Avanpost (Last Outpost) // Аванпост

Buckle up.  The menace is unknown and powerful, and coming hard.
First, electricity and communications went out, planetwide.  No intel.
A limited area staggered on, Finland, Ukraine, eastern Russia.  Beyond lies a wasteland of death.
At the edge of the mystery, Kirov.  Where the battalion sets up an outpost.
OK SciFi thriller goes on much too long, and suffers way too much shooting, resembling a game.
The “mystery” gets explained in talky exposition, the resolution is wtf.
Character chemistry is juvenile, akin to dozens of films with male-female squads.
The dubbed version has inferior voice actors.
Even though I’m kicking this, there is a lot to enjoy and I believe others will like more than I did.
To its credit, locations remain Russian, characters names are Russian, and when outages first unfold, neither the authorities nor news blame other nations.

[Vultural]

Knives Out - 2019 - 7/10  

The family sire is found in his attic study.  Dead.  Throat slit.
Sure looks like a suicide, decide law enforcement types.
Strangely enough, person(s) unknown hired a renowned private detective.
And he, assuming there is more than meets the eye, zeroes in on the elder man’s personal nurse.

The story is one of lies, more lies, differing points of view, and backstabbing agendas.
Droll, with bitter humor, interviews peel away at potential heirs, guarding secrets.
Too clever for its own good, and with one too many twists that strain plausibility.
Thus noted, the tone mirrors the sour zeitgeist we have found ourselves in, and makes for a gallows watch.

[Vultural]

Don’t Drink The Water - 1994 - 6/10

Fairly obscure Woody Allen film, based on his Broadway hit of 1966.
The first film version, in 1969, starred Jackie Gleason and was a commercial and critical flop.
Allen remade this after ABC approached him to make a TV movie.
So …
American tourists accidentally take photo of official / secret Eastern bloc building.
Declaring them spies, police and officials pursue the family who take refuge in the US embassy.
What ensues is almost nonstop, forced comedy.  Situations, one-liners, farce.
90% of the film seems to take place on one or two sets, very stagebound.
The Cold War premise is mummified, rendered moot following Glasnost in 1986.
Only recommended to hardcore Allen fans.

[Vultural]

Four Flies on Grey Velvet - 1971 - 6/10 
AKA - 4 Mosche Di Velluto Grigio

Studio drummer is stalked by unknown man in sunglasses.
Eventually, he tracks the man down, confronts him, and - oops - accidentally kills him.
Unfortunately, the percussionist is photographed by a disguised stranger.
Our hero seeks advice, doesn’t listen.  His cute blonde wife wants to help him sleep, he turns a cold shoulder.
Aside from pounding his drum kit, they guys is just weak.
Killings, meanwhile, slowly swirl around the passive drummer.  Friends, hired help, and closer.
Director Argento offers gorgeous visuals, and deaths are delivered with creeping tension.
Score is an imaginative mix of prog rock and Morricone, and plenty of drumming!

[Vultural]

Giallo - 1934 - 6/10

Wow!  Early reference of the Giallo genre.
This, however, is an Italian comedy based on Edgar Wallace, better known to Krimi buffs.
Reaction above is of wife and lover discovering her husband had changed his name before she knew him.
Because he was suspected of murdering his mother-in-law and his wife back in the States.
Frantically, the couple wonder, how much does the husband know?
Then her lover, the Count, is invited to a hunting party.
As the storm rolls in.
Sets and costumes rival US productions of the early 1930’s.  Audio is better.
More amusing, rather than laugh out loud funny.

[Jakers]

Hey,

How long should I expect to wait until my account is validated?

[Vultural]

Airplane II:  The Sequel - 1982 - 6/10

Reused jokes, gags, and characters from 1980’s Airplane, itself a spoof of Airport (1970).
Maiden flight of the space shuttle Mayflower goes awry.
Passengers are doomed!
I had not seen the 1980 original since it played theatrically, so the jokes struck me as fine.
Many of the gags, and especially cameos, are dated.  Only older viewers will “get them.”
The Zuckers are not involved with this, and it shows.
Woke warning:  some jokes are sexist, homophobic, or have cultural stereotypes.
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Edited June 9, 2020 by Vultural

[Vultural]

A Life At Stake - 1955 - 5/10

Edward’s designer homes are hot sellers … until his partner gambles away the business.
Now Edward finds himself in a cheap boarding house, broke, a one man pity party.
Then comes the offer, from a moist piece of cheesecake.

She’s a realtor  “We buy property.  You build, I sell.  We’ll be rich.”
Only problem, Ed has no capital.
“That’s OK,”  purrs Doris,  “I’ll pay your share, or rather my husband will.”
“Husband?”
“He’s always away on business,”  she leans forward.  “I’m alone.
“Still, my husband will want to insure you, because if anything happens to you, he’ll lose his investment.”
”Insure me?”  Ed starts to wake up.  “For how much?”
“Ooh, $300,000.”
That’s the scam.  He’ll be worth more dead than alive.  But Ed is desperate, so he accepts.
Cheap Noir is Grade-C hash.
Quality supporting cast, offsets the chronically wooden Keith Andes.
Editing is crappy, but there is a cool Les Baxter score.

[Vultural]

Les Misérables - 2019 - 7/10

New detective from the countryside is assigned to a squad working an impoverished block.
His two senior police are heavy handed, bullying, in-your-face authorities.
Immigrants, children, females, the men provoke and intimidate.
Neighborhood order is maintained by senior enforcers and the Muslim Brotherhood.
A peculiar theft from a nearby group brings tensions to a boil.
And the cops bear down on the community.
One is tempts to say,  “How prophetic,”  except events like this occur globally, frequently.
A bumpy ride, with very few smooth patches.

[Vultural]

Una farfalla Con le Ali Insanguinate - 1971 - 6/10
AKA - Bloodstained Butterfly

While two children play hide n seek, the young woman, stabbed repeatedly, tumbles down the hill.
Police arrive and begin gathering clues about her murder.
A suspect was observed, recognized.  There is evidence.
In court, the case is all but open and shut.
Except, the man has a well prepared, calculating attorney.
Though under the Giallo umbrella, this lacks the garish colors, high style, and general overload.
The first half is police procedural and courthouse drama.
Moreover, the narrative makes sense.
Excellent thriller / mystery with, to me, a dash of Giallo.

[Vultural]

Dolemite - 1975 - 5/10

The warden agrees to spring Dolemite because he believes he may be innocent.
That, and bad things are happening back in the neighborhood.
Once outside prison walls, Dolemite changes clothes and gets down to business.
Settling scores, taking back his club, making love, and recruiting an all-girl kung-fu army.
Film is bad in numerous ways, but is amazingly funny and has its heart in the right place.
Action – comedy – nudity.  Key ingredients that Rudy Ray Moore loaded in his first film.
Film is uproarious, gratuitous, hilarious, wild.  Crude and rude.
Must see comedy if you have not already.

[Vultural]

Dolemite Is My Name - 2019 - 7/10

Well done, unrestrained retelling of Rudy Ray Moore’s budding film career.
Eddie Murphy is perfect in what must have been a labor of love for him.
Failed R n B singer works at a record store and emcees a nightclub.
He develops a raunchy persona, sells adult records by the trunkload, sets his sights on cinema.
Notwithstanding a few soul-searching lulls, this film roars at 100 mph.
Despite the fact that comedy is criminally ignored, Murphy should have been nominated.
I have watched Dolemite (and the sequel, Human Tornado) countless times, yet I had no idea how it was filmed, where it was filmed (except outside Ralph’s), and who worked on it.  Von Sternberg?
As soon as I caught the trailer, I knew I had to watch it, and this is not disappoint.
If all you caught was Black Dynamite, get this and the 1975 classic into your queue!

Edited June 17, 2020 by Vultural

[Vultural]

City Of The Living Dead - 1980 - 5/10
AKA - Paura Nella Città dei Morti Viventi

During a séance, a medium sees a priest commit suicide thereby cracking the seal that keep the dead – dead.
Hooking up with a cavalier journalist, she heads to Dunwich, hurrying, because there is an All Saint’s deadline.

Lucio Fulci horror film suffers meandering plot (he does try to enliven by periodically killing a blonde), cheap sets, and exteriors that resemble the Dust Bowl by day, foggy moors by night.
For most of the film, there is little tension or urgency.  The “hurrying” couple from New York take the scenic route.
When omens or portents appear, the typical response is akin to,  “Look at that crack, better call a plasterer.”
How about the payoff?
The final twenty minutes is standout.  Red wrigglers, maggots, fat rats.

Who knew mostly deserted Dunwich (née Salem) would boast such an impressive cemetery?
This section is gross, sickening and side splitting - depending on your warped sense of humor.

[Vultural]

This House - 2013 - 7/10

Theatre junkies, take heart!
During the Covid lockdown, the National Theatre began limited airing of stage classics.
In 1974, Labour returns to power, ousting the Heath Administration.
Theirs is a slim majority, however, so they must form coalitions and make deals to retain power.
Play follows whips from Conservatives and Labour as they maneuver, coerce, promise, swear.
By turns profane, funny, poignant, and scathing.
The workings of government is often equated to the making of sausage.
Outstanding theatre, brilliantly delivered.

[Vultural]

Beats - 2019 - 7/10

Mom’s new boyfriend is a copper, and he wants to move her family to a nicer borough.
Away from “scum” elements, meaning Johnno’s mate, Spanner.
Scotland, 1994, the government has banned gatherings around music consisting of repetitive beats.
Techno, industrial, dubstep.  "The only good system is a sound system.”
Illegal raves are shuttered by police with brute force.  "Know your role, shut your hole."

Johnno and Spanner catch wind of an upcoming event, and they are mad to attend.
“Don't be a slave, come to the rave!”
This view of Scotland consists of deserted backstreets and empty wastes.
Use of black n white heightens the emptiness of their daily world.
Adults repressing teens must be ingrained in all mammals.  This story is old, but it is edgy and manages to shake off the ancient dust.  (Quotes above are from the film, which is peppered with gems.)

[Vultural]

Macabro - 1980 - 6/10
AKA - Macabre

Jane is supposed to take her children to a movie.
Instead, she leaves them so she can kick the sheets with rough ‘n ready Fred.

Fred, who rhymes with dead!  Which, 13’ in, is what he is, along with one of Jane’s children.
Drama, set in New Orleans, oozes sleaze and obsession.
Interiors are faded antebellum.  Wrought iron, lace, armoires, amid cheap mod-cons.
Throughout, characters spy on each other, even one who is blind.
Storywise, there is a lock and a secret behind (which I suspect most will guess).
Word of advice, try not to imagine what Jane is doing with “the secret.”
Twisted Lanberto Bava film is not Horror, not Giallo, but seedy trash and perfect for those who have a taste for such.
The girl who played daughter Lisa (Veronica Zinny) had an expressive face.  This was her only film.

[Vultural]

Frankie Boyle:  Hurt Like You’ve Never Been Loved - 2016 - 6/10

Comedian Frankie Boyle in hometown Glasgow, before an adoring crowd.
An hour of humor, while not specifically offensive, will manage to offend many.
Rich and powerful are OK targets.  Those Mr. Boyle calls “Elites.”
Polio victims, though?  Well, so long as they are examples and not punchlines.
Pedophiles?  Depends on who gives, who receives.
I had watched Boyle for years on “Mock The Week.”
A lot of his material is laugh out loud funny, a lot is deliberately insensitive.  Like this stand-up outing.
Mr. Boyle reminds me of Donald Trump and an infinite number of obnoxious souls.  The rancor, the contemptuous belittling of anyone and everyone, the entitled self justification.
Neither men are unique.  They simply represent the prevailing attitude (echoed in the real world and in the virtual world) of  “I’m right, I’m right, I’m always right, and you better know it!”