Catching up

One of my cats is quite ill right now, and so everything else has fallen to the side.  I have a couple more James Bond movies to review, but just haven't been able to find the desire to write them up right now.  So, in the meantime, I thought I'd do a quick catch-up post on everything else I've been unduly ignoring.

Publishing news!  My third Bat Masterson/Wyatt Earp short story, entitled "The Wager," is now out in the Dreamers in Hell anthology, available in Kindle, Nook, or print versions at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.   Always exciting when a book comes out, and I'm sorry the bad timing in my personnel life has prevented me from enjoying and promoting the book release as I normally would.

Over the last couple months, I caught Iron Man 3, The Great Gatsby, Epic, and Monsters University in the theater.

Iron Man 3 - loved it, found it satisfying and quite humorous, loved Ben Kingsley, can't wait to pick it up on DVD when it comes out.  However, I never had that desire/need to see it multiple times, like Avengers, so only saw it twice.  Iron Man 2 remains my favorite film of the three Iron Man movies, followed by this one, then the first Iron Man movie.

The Great Gatsby - went through lots of mixed emotions watching this one, but by the time it completed, it had won me over, and I quite enjoyed it.  I did not like the use of modern music at the party scenes, but at the same time, it actually worked somehow, which is very strange.  Visually, it was amazing, and everything looked exactly as I pictured it from the book.  I loved the actors.  I'd seen the Robert Redford 1970's version, which fell completely flat for me.  This movie actually helped me understand the book, which I greatly appreciated.  I walked away with a much deeper appreciation of the story.

Epic - old-fashioned good vs. evil story.  Quite fun and very pretty.  I liked the characters, and I was fascinated how the story had at least four single parent/child relationships, each one quite different, but each complementary.  Intriguing.  Loved the character of Ronin and really related to him.  This is one I'll buy for my nephew as soon as it comes out on DVD.  He will love it.

Monsters University - the best part about seeing this one was listening to the three twenty-something young men sitting in the same row react to events in the movie with all their hearts.  You'd have thought they were ten-year-olds, not adults, they were sooooooooo into it.  It was pretty awesome.  Alas, for me, this movie did nothing, and when I was ready for it to be over, there was still another twenty minutes and another adventure left.  If I wore a watch (which I don't) this would have been a clock-watcher.  That doesn't mean it wasn't a good movie, particularly for kids, it's just it hit none of my buttons.  I really didn't want to be the characters, I could not relate to anyone in it, and I am really not a fan of most underdog stories or origin stories.  I do adore Monsters Inc., and it is my fourth favorite of the Pixar film, but all the heart and emotion and charm and suspense in Monsters Inc. was missing in this one.  My nephew enjoyed it (but didn't love it), and the audience clapped heartily at the end, so I suspect I am in the minority on this one.

Other than that, we've truly hit summer and the temp is well over 100 degrees.  I'm longing for fall/winter to get here.  But my tomato plants are gigantic and producing tons of tomatoes.  My apple trees, which gave me fabulous apples last year, are giving me much larger, but not as tasty, apples this year, and my apricot tree gave me at least 300 fabulously wonderful apricots.  I love this apricot tree.  I had to hunt and hunt to find the right variety when I bought it, but it paid off.  All apricots are not equal.  It has been a good year in the garden, at least!

Moonraker (1979)

I was wondering how Moonraker would hold up over time.  I haven’t seen this one in a long time, but it was a favorite when I was young.  Turns out, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, for me at least, it held up just fine.  Oh sure, the space stuff is a bit silly, but it wasn’t nearly as cheesy as I feared.  And really, they do a pretty good job with the zero gravity, particularly considering this was made in the late 70’s.

I was pondering why I love this one, and why I don’t love The Spy Who Loved Me, and I think that, once again, it comes down to people.  I don’t like the characters in Spy.  They don’t resonate with me, and I really don’t care about them.  I do like the characters in Moonraker, and I do care about them.  Corrine’s death is one of the few deaths in all of James Bond cinema that gets to me.  I really wish she was the lead actress in this rather than Lois Chiles.  Though I do like the latter’s Dr. Goodhead. I just like Corrine better.  Dr. Goodhead works for the CIA and is a trained astronaut.  Dig it.



I still love Drax as our main bad guy, played by Michael Lonsdale.  He is entertaining, and I rather like his plan.  More sensible than Stromberg’s in the last movie.  While Drax also plans to destroy mankind and repopulate it with his chosen few, at least Drax’s plan only wipes out the people.  He leaves the world, animals, and plants intact and radiation-free.  Much smarter.  I find Drax quite entertaining, and I love his dialogue.  “See that some harm comes to him.”  He does suffer from the usual “why does nobody just shoot Bond when they have the chance and be done with it” syndrome.  Is it so hard?  I know, I know, the creative ways in which bad guys attempt to kill our hero are half the fun, but still.  Why doesn't someone just gun Bond down already when they have the chance?! 



Though I do I love that, for once, Roger Moore’s unflappable Bond is left a bit flapped after his near-death in the centrifuge.  It’s one of my favorite parts in all of Moore’s Bond films.  Look, he’s human after all!  It takes him a fair bit to recover, and I always love the way he pushes Goodhead’s offer of help away. 

Jaws is back as our main henchman, though he ends up being played more for laughs than scares.  This is probably to make it easier for the storyline to ease the audience into accepting his betrayal of Drax and helping of Bond instead.  And as I was always cool with that switch, I guess it worked.



This one has a fair amount of silliness.  I think the only thing that allows me to just shrug it off is there’s not that much of it, and I saw it when I was so young, so I’m used to it.  I think if I saw this film for the first time today, it would probably not be a favorite.   But my childhood affection for it still carries over.

Also, as we know, the musical score is a big factor for me... and this score by John Barry is great.  One of my favorites of the whole series.  It’s such a relief, actually, after The Spy Who Loved Me’s crap music to get back to real music, with the right Bond feel, and the right seriousness.  I think part of what helps me not treat this movie as silly as it is, is because the music is serious and straight-forward.  I love when that space station theme kicks in for the first time.  Impressive, most impressive.  This was a score we owned on LP growing up, and it got a lot of play time.



Favorite parts:  Bond’s escape from the centrifuge.  Corrine’s character.  The fight on the cable car.  Drax gets spaced!  Which might be my all-time favorite end for a Bond villain.  The fight in the room full of priceless glass objects where every single thing gets broken.  The opening aerial footage with the fight over the parachute.  Hang-gliding over Iguazu Falls.  The music!  This really is a prime example of the score being better than the movie and elevating it as a consequence.



Music:  Love it
Theme song:  Love it - Shirley Bassey is back, and she is awesome as always.
Credit sequence:  okay
Bond girl:  Love them all, from Corrine to Dr. Goodhead, to Manuela, even to Dolly.
Bad guys:  love them too
Overall personal rating:  4 out of 5 stars

What I love about opera

I'm guest posting about my passion for opera over at Rabia Gale's Writer at Play website.  Opera is the single thing I love more than anything else, even over movies, books, writing.  It's the one thing I would not want to live without.  Rabia was kind enough to let me ramble on about why I love it so much.

Rabia is an excellent writer I've known for quite awhile now.  She has published some great fantasy stories.  I particularly enjoy reading her fairy tale re-workings, but have really loved every story I've read by her.

Favorite Star Trek Episodes

The good thing about all this Star Trek stuff, is that it put me in a mood to watch the original series.  Along with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, it was THE formative television show of my early life.  Perhaps more so, because when my family moved away from Los Angeles, we no longer had a station that showed Voyage, but Star Trek was still on pretty much constantly.

My favorite episodes:

1.  Bread and Circuses

2.  Shore Leave

3.  Mirror, Mirror

4.  Errand of Mercy

5.  Journey to Babel

6.  Balance of Terror

7.  The City on the Edge of Forever

8.  The Trouble with Tribbles

9.  The Enterprise Incident

10.  The Day of the Dove

Bread and Circuses has been my all-time favorite ep for thirty plus years.  Not an ep normally mentioned, but it hits everything I love.  I love the 20th Century Roman planet, with its Jupiter 8 cars and gladiatorial games broadcast on television.  I love Flavius.  I love the despicable Proconsul and his genuine respect for Kirk.  I love Spock and McCoy being particularly snarky with each other.  I love that they got to sword fight.  I love their costumes.  I love Kirk and how he handles everything (and the fact that he gets a machine pistol to wield).  I love Scotty (who, as we all know, really runs the Enterprise).  But most of all, I love Merik.  Merik, played  by William Smithers, is very nearly my favorite guest character on ANY television show.  He has a lovely redemption arc.  But the excellent screenwriting and excellent acting really illuminate his character with remarkably little screen time, when you think about it.  It's all the little things Smithers does that make his character particularly real to me. I don't actually know why Merik appealed to me so strongly when I was a kid.  But appeal he did, and he and his episode have never stopped being my favorite.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Oh happy sigh.  I watched Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan late last night, and the world is right again.  I did not realize how badly I needed to rewatch that to ease the taint of the new movie from my mind.  You know, maybe I’m just too old for these reboots.  These reboot movies clearly aren’t made for someone like me, but I’m really starting to feel like I come from a different era.

I’ve never reviewed Wrath of Khan or any of the ST movies here.  Not because I don’t love them, but because they are big screen movies, and I have a strong aversion to watching them on a television screen.  So I haven’t seen them in years.  Particularly my two favorites of all the ST films:  Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country.  Those just have to be watched big screen.  I saw both a fair number of times on the big screen during their initial theatrical runs, enough that I can still pull up what they should look like.

I love Wrath of Khan.  I can still remember the anticipation when that movie was about to be released.  We’d had the failure of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but this new one was directed by Nicolas Meyer, who my family already loved for Time After Time.  We were all excited for the new film.  I remember all the news about Leonard Nimoy wanting out of Star Trek, and the suspicions that Spock was going to be killed off.  I remember the theater was sold out,, and my family couldn’t even sit together.  I was in the back on the left.  I remember loud the audience was, cheering and laughing and clapping.  I remember crying during Spock’s funeral.  I remember how awesome the genesis cave looked on the big screen.  Today, it would be all CGI, but it was a gorgeous matte painting that I still adore.  On repeat viewings I couldn’t wait for that moment.  That, and the very end shots tracking through the vegetation of genesis planet to the torpedo.  (Yes, I have this thing for landscapes.  LOL!)

This was the ST movie my family had been waiting for.  It was a return to everything we loved about Star Trek in the first place, but with natural growth and aging, and with a great character arc for Kirk. And Ricardo Montalban was back as Khan, and even better than he was in the series.  I absolutely love how in the confrontation within the nebula, there are no final words spoken between Khan and Kirk.  Khan activates the device, Enterprise figures it out and turns to flee, and Khan just watches them go, grinning, knowing they won't make it.  No dialogue could ever make that better than how it plays out.  This film was also my introduction to composer James Horner, and this score remains my favorite Horner score to this day, despite how many other awesome scores he has written.  This one just hit it out of the park.  And for me, how much I love a movie is often tied to how good the music is.

The only things I didn't like about this film were Carol and David Marcus.  And I like the characters, I simply didn't like the actors portraying them.  They didn't work for me then, and they still don't today.  The actors don't seem to fit in that world. 

And then, after I finished watching Wrath of Khan, I just happened to check Ain't it Cool News (a favorite site), and found this review of Into Darkness that I just love.  This neatly sums up so much of my feelings and what bothered me so much about the new film and why it doesn't work for me.

And after watching Wrath of Khan again, having my love of Star Trek renewed, I can only echo Kirk's last lines... I feel young.

Favorite parts of Wrath of Khan:

“Where’s the override?”

“We will!”

The genesis cave

Kirk taunting Khan to get him to follow the Enterprise into the Mutara Nebula.

“Yours is the superior...”

Whole Mutara Nebula and Genesis Countdown finale.

Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)

So, I’m still pondering exactly why I wanted to go see the second installment of the Star Trek reboot, considering how much I disliked the first film.  Curiosity, of course, and eternal optimism that they’d actually give me something worthy this time.  I really shouldn’t be surprised, then, that I don't get this one either. It actually makes me think I liked the first movie better.  I also appear to be in the distinct minority on that, as the rest of my family and friends quite liked all or most of the movie.  I'm okay with that.  And I'm okay with being one of the sole people who seems to be missing the appeal of the reboots.

Huge Spoilers follow!!!  You have been warned.

As I’ve figured out, my personal deal with the movies I love is that I have to want to be one of the lead characters.  Now, I grew up on the original Star Trek series.  I love it.  I’ve wanted to be Captain Kirk since I was in single-digits.  I like the rest of the original crew and could relate to them.  I would happily have served on the original Enterprise.

But I don’t want to be this Kirk.  At. All.  I actually like Chris Pine as an actor, but I can’t see anything of what I loved about the character of Kirk in this Kirk.  I don’t want to be any of the other characters either, nor do I relate to any of them, but at least I can recognize them as ST characters.  But I can't find a glimmer of Kirk in there.  They really are in an alternate universe, I guess.  Or I am.

When the characters fail to grab me, all I’m hoping for is an entertaining story.  But, as with the first movie, this one’s plot hinges on plot holes and coincidences and, dude, I can forgive an awful lot of crap in a movie when I like the characters.  But when I don’t like the characters, and there's nothing but story left...

I see this alternate universe is still messing with the physics of the universe.  At least they are consistent in their BS.  The Enterprise can now submerge beneath the ocean.  Never mind the fact that the indigenous race on this planet has barely invented the wheel, so clearly has no telescopes.  Never mind that the Enterprise is there to survey the planet.  They can’t do that from orbit?  Particularly when later in the film they can use their sensors from earth (!) to detect that Khan is alone in a deserted portion of the Klingon home world who knows how many solar systems away?  Nothing makes any sense in this universe. 

And then there’s this whole bizarre thing with the volcano.  It’s going to blow and wipe out the locals, so the Enterprise decides to stop that by killing the volcano.  Spock seems to have no problem with this, even though that would be messing with the prime directive too.  Besides, volcanoes usually provide fertile soil and geothermal pools and various other things that the natives were probably using in their daily life.  Turning off the volcano seems like it would be pretty traumatic for the natives.  I mean, it’s spewing lava one moment, it’s dead the next?  That’s not something that would change the course of their civilization?  (Also, no invention of the wheel, but the natives have a complicated written language?)

But that whole ridiculous opener is just to 1) show off the starship Enterprise rising from the (very deep) coastal waters, 2) get Kirk and Spock arguing so that there is a moral of the story, and 3) get Kirk demoted so we can promptly promote him again, and 4) let me know that if the first ten minutes of the movie make no sense, it wasn't going uphill from there.

Once again, Starfleet appears to have no qualified personnel and no other ships or crews.  And the Enterprise appears to have no other qualified engineers besides Scotty.  And speaking of Scotty, not only is he a genius who invented transwarp transporter technology (which no one but Khan can use), he can just take a shuttle (maybe they have rent-a-shuttle agencies?).. and pilot it all the way to Jupiter to a super-secret space station... that has no radar or detection gear whatsoever and no security protocols... and Scotty can just... fly right in without being challenged, and just waltz onboard this secret ship and stowaway because somehow he knows he'll be needed to sabotage said ship half an hour later?

You know, I hope the Klingons come and wipe earth out in the next movie, cuz Starfleet in this alternate universe remains the biggest bunch of idiots.  Not that the Klingons are much better.  In this alternate universe, the Klingon home world is well less than a day away from earth.  (The Enterprise gets there and back complete with damaged ship and an adventure planetside in under 24 hours.)  I guess they're not patrolling the Neutral Zone yet, but at least, the Klingons are monitoring what lands on their own planet.  That’s something.  Better than Admiral Marcus’s secret unguarded space station.

And then there’s Khan.  He’s at least somewhat interesting, but I found him unbelievably bland.  We’re told to fear him, but other than the fact that he has immortal blood which allows him (and any other being who gets a transfusion, including tribbles, cuz you know tribbles and humans have compatible blood) to heal and not take much physical damage in a fight, and the fact that he moves very fast... what’s to fear?  He was deliciously cold, but hardly intimidating.  Maybe that’s just because this movie gallops along at breakneck speed and never gives us a chance to know him a little better?  I think I liked him best when he was temporarily working with Kirk, just because the way they set him up, he made a far more interesting ambiguous ally than an enemy, and those were some of the better scenes in the movie.  I could almost like some of those parts.

I still like Pike.  And I did like Admiral Marcus.  I sort of liked Carol Marcus, but again with Starfleet being a bunch of morons.  She can change her name and just walk on the Enterprise?  No orders?  No security?  And then turn out to be the only weapons specialist they have?  She wasn’t supposed to be there, so who would Kirk have turned to if she wasn’t there?  (I feel like being Happy in IM3 – “Where’s your badge??”)

And then, there’s the whole “let’s take the climax of Wrath of Khan and reverse characters!” portion.  My sister and I lost it during that scene, we were laughing so hard.  We can’t tell if the filmmakers meant it to be funny, or if that was a completely unintentional side effect. Was it actually supposed to be some kind of loving tribute to the original movie and not a parody?  Because it sure felt like we had slipped into a bad Saturday Night Live skit.

I do find it very amusing that Kirk handles Spock’s death in Wrath of Khan far better than Spock handles Kirk’s death in this one.  This Spock falls apart like a cheap suit. 

Also, the entire end is a WTF moment.  When Khan kills 42 people in the beginning, it’s enough to get a no-holds-barred “go get ‘em” order (granted there’s more to that order, but Admiral Marcus is not the only Admiral in Starfleet still left alive).  When Khan kills possibly thousands at the end of the movie as he deliberately plows his huge ship into San Francisco, demolishing several high rises at least, no one says a blooming thing.  No death toll.  No injuries.  Zero consequences for Khan.  He’s not put on trial, not even for his previous terrorist act, he’s merely put back to sleep.  I simply do not understand how this alternate universe works. 

But, of course, I’m going to be foolishly optimistic about the next film.  They at least appeared to be setting up a war with the Klingons.  I like that.  I can go with that.  Until I find out in a couple years how badly they plot that out too.

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Wow, huge delay between Bond movie reviews.  Sorry about that. It was mostly due to bad disks from Netflix.  I've been having a string of bad disks.  (Moonraker arrived, and it is cracked... sigh).  Anyway.  The Spy Who Loved Me. 



This movie has hands-down, my favorite pre-title sequence.  First we open with a submarine.  You know I’m all over that!  Then we get introduced to Russian Agent XXX, in a scene which plays to the audience’s expectations that it must be a man, when in fact it is Barbara Bach as Major Amasova.  Then we get Bond and an amazing ski chase that ends with him skiing right off a cliff, free falling, and then opening his parachute, which displays the British flag.  Cue title song...

I wish I could say I liked the rest as much as I love the opening.  And I do like a lot of this movie.  It’s one of the stronger Roger Moore films.  And it was my first theatrical Bond film, so it gets bonus points for that.  And I know it's quite popular.  But I still have mixed feelings on this one.  It's another one that I enjoy more in memory than sitting through.  

The villain’s plan is rather similar to Blofeld’s in You Only Live Twice: start a war between the Russians and Americans.  Only Stromberg intends to wipe out everyone on the surface and start a new better life beneath the ocean.  Because all that nuclear fallout won’t affect the seas, of course.  He has a pretty awesome sea station.  He also has a giant tanker that he uses expressly for capturing submarines.  It, also, reminds me of You Only Live Twice, in that the set is gigantic in scale, and the bad guys hole up behind “impenetrable” screens that the good guys must breach, with the countdown to Armageddon leaving them only a very short time to accomplish this in both movies.  But where Blofeld lacked any worthy henchman, Stromberg has Jaws, the steel-toothed giant played perfectly by Richard Kiel.  Jaws is one of the most iconic Bond henchman next to Oddjob.  Deadly, of course, but I particularly love how he is always straightening his tie and suit after any mishap.

I also don’t particularly like Major Amasova, though I can’t really put my finger on why.  Part of it might be because she’s supposed to be the best of the Russian spies, and yet, she never really displays any of that talent.  Exact opposite, really.  No way would she get that close to Jaws when she goes to pick up the microfilm.  Are you kidding me??  Script’s fault.  Makes her stupid, when she shouldn't be.  However, she still gets points for being one of the stronger female leads.

I wish I had more to say about this one, but I really don't.  I like it.  Everything works, but it just never quite jumps into the great category for me.

Favorite parts:  That opening ski chase.  The pyramid light show – kind of cheesy, but also spectacular, cuz, hello! Pyramids!  The Lotus Esprit.  I want one of those.  The helicopter portion of the car chase, particularly when it’s waiting for them around a corner (also that the pilot is a woman.).  Submarines!  And I should say, I love the British sub captain (of course), and he gets killed (of course).  Grrr.  Jaws.

Music:  Good.  Not a score I would ever listen to by itself, but it works well in this movie.  I particularly like the theme that goes with arriving at Stromberg’s Atlantis.

Theme song:  I know this is a popular song, but it does nothing for me personally. 

Credit sequence:  Okay

Bond girl:  Alas, I wish I liked her better.  I do like Caroline Munro as Naomi.  Much cooler lady.

Bad guys:  Stromberg is kind of cool. Jaws is better.

Overall personal rating:  3 out of 5 stars

Lawrence of Arabia... again

I saw Lawrence again yesterday, on the big screen.  This film is rapidly moving up my favorites list.  This viewing was amazing.  I had a better theater experience than I had at the TCM viewing, where sounds from other theaters intruded and took me out of Arabia.  This time, I could fully immerse in the majesty of this movie, and I had tears in my eyes at more than one moment.  I swear the whole thing -- including intermission -- was not longer than two hours.  The movie just flew by.   It if it had been playing a second time, I would have stayed in my seat for the next showing, it was that good, and I wanted more so badly.

The good thing is this film is played fairly regularly on the big screen.  This is one I definitely have no desire to see any other way except on the big screen.

Speaking of movie theaters, I saw this at a Phoenix Big Theater.  You might want to google them and see if they have a theater near you.  Lawrence was part of a classic film program where they show different classic movies every weekend.  Not only that, but it is only $4.00 admission, and they gave a voucher for the concession stand (if you're the type who like popcorn/food at the movies).  They also show operas (which is how I found them).  It's a bit of a drive for me to this theater, but worth it for the programming. 

"The war is over!"

Murphy’s War (1971) is a film I first saw back in the late '80s.  I was home alone and caught it on television.  You know how there are some movies you can see and then forget the plot just a couple months later?  And there’re some you just don’t forget.  Murphy’s War was the latter for me.  I have not seen it in twenty plus years, but I pretty much remembered all of it. I’ve wanted to see it again for years now and just never could find it.  When I found it on DVD, I bought it solely on those memories.

This is a WWII film, but a rather unusual one.  It’s set in Venezuela, on the Orinoco River, in the last days of WWII.  Peter O’Toole plays Murphy, whose ship is sunk and all the crew members gunned down by the crew of a U-Boat.  Murphy is the only survivor.  He’s rescued by Louis (Philippe Noiret), a Frenchman working for an oil company and taken to a woman doctor in the local village, played by Sian Phillips.  Those three characters are basically the only speaking parts in the movie besides the German U-Boat captain (Horst Janson) and some of his crew.  Murphy recovers from his wounds and goes on a one-man crusade to sink the submarine that destroyed his ship, any way he can.  Is there anyone who can play righteously obsessed quite the way Peter O’Toole can?




Seeing the movie again, I was surprised by how brutal the opening of the film is, when the ship is sunk during the opening credits.  It has to be, to get audience sympathy behind Murphy’s plan.  I was also surprised how fast-paced and absorbing this film is, for having little dialogue -- until I saw that the screenwriting credit belonged to Stirling Silliphant.  Then I wasn’t surprised anymore.  I’ve come to greatly respect his writing abilities from the Route 66 episodes he wrote, particularly his ability to write characters and their moral dilemmas.  And let Peter O’Toole bring a character like Murphy to life, and I don’t know why this movie isn’t more well known.  O’Toole is mesmerizing, and I love the little things he does throughout the film that just bring his character to life, such as always throwing out the pills the doctor keeps giving him, or the look he gives Louis when Louis replays the same record over and over.  He is by turns charming, unforgiving, unstoppable, obsessed, angry, pitiable, and always human.



One of the great scenes of this film is when Murphy has repaired a seaplane, and he gets in, determined to learn how to fly it.  Watching the plane bouncing hard on the waves as he tries to get it up to speed and get it airborne is tense and exhilarating.  And when he finally gets the plane airborne, I felt the same the excitement he did.  The on location footage, on that gigantic river and swooping over the jungle is awesome.  This is a film I’d really like to see on the big screen.



Another of my favorite scenes involves the German Captain trying to explain in broken English to a badly wounded English officer why he has to kill him.  He doesn't have to do that, but he can't quite shoot him down without his own humanity prompting him to explain why.  He doesn’t like any of this, but it is war, and he has his orders.  And I love how at the same time, the wounded officer secretly hides his flight jacket so the Germans won’t find out about the plane.  It is a near perfect war movie scene, harsh as it is.

Of course, when news comes over the radio that Germany has surrendered, Murphy doesn’t stop his one-man war.  He’s gone too far by that point to stop.  He will destroy the submarine or die trying.  This is a war movie and a revenge movie, and a cost of war movie and a cost of revenge movie.  All rolled together.  It’s rather brilliantly done.



The cast makes the film.  Philippe Noiret is wonderful as Louis, the laid-back, genial Frenchman who spends his days fishing while he watches over company property.  Murphy sucks him into his plot, using his skills and time and company equipment to further his own ends.  Sian Phillips is also perfect as the doctor.  Both characters are the perfect foils to Murphy’s one-track mind.  As is Horst Janson as the captain of the submarine, following his orders and doing his job.  I love the scene where he and his crew are celebrating Germany’s surrender and the end of the war.  (He and his men speak German with subtitles throughout the film).  The submarine is obviously not a WWII U-Boat (I’m not sure there were any left in 1971!) but that didn’t bother me.  It is a gorgeous boat, and the fact that they used a real submarine to cruise up and down the river just makes this movie all the better.



I’m really not sure why this movie isn’t better known.  It’s not one I ever hear mentioned when WWII movies are talked about, and that’s a shame, as it’s quite impressive.  There was a reason the movie has stuck with me for over twenty years, and it felt even more powerful when I watched it today.  It’s a combo of a great script that shows an intimate arena of the war, with solid pacing, top notch actors, and fabulous location filming.

Jack and Oz (2013)

I saw Jack the Giant Slayer last weekend, Oz, the Great and Powerful this weekend, so it seemed only appropriate to review them together.  Oz had the better trailer, but boy, was it a disappointing film.  Not to say it didn’t have some good parts to it, but as a whole it lacked.  Jack on the other hand, didn’t have a particularly engaging trailer, but boy, was it a fun movie.  I loved just about every minute of it.



Oz looks spectacular, but it goes wrong at the most fundamental level – character development.  Nobody in this film grabbed me, particularly our trio of witches.  I was never given more than the slightest indication of who they were and what motivated them.  Not even any generic and cliché motivations, which would have been better than nothing.  One of them killed their father (why?), is apparently guarding the throne but not actually ruling (so, does she not want power then?), another seems to have some weird self-dangerous personal issues whenever she gets her feelings hurt (is this a witch thing, or just with this witch?), and the third is good and opposed to evil, but why so different from her sisters?  Was the murdered father father of all three?  Was there a mother?  Mothers?  What do these witches want anyway?  What are their powers?  There’s a prophecy about the wizard of Oz.  I’m rather fond of prophecies, especially when they’re slightly subverted, and so that part worked for me.  But overall... I simply didn’t care enough.  This movie started out so promisingly, but by midway through, I was done.  At that point, it kept dragging on and on to the inevitable conclusion.

Now, it is a beautiful movie, with great scenery and I’m glad I saw it on the big screen.  And I do love James Franco.  He had the con man wizard part down, and I really liked those moments when he realized what was going on around him, that it wasn’t all a game.  I actually liked all three witches.  The actresses themselves were great with what they had to work with.  I like a lot of disparate parts of this film.  I loved that it is the wizard who suggests the broomstick idea.  Lovely little moment when it plays out.  There was some pretty funny stuff, mostly involving a good flying monkey named Finley.  Although I’m not quite sure whether I liked him or whether I was creeped out by him.  CGI talking animals are always a bit on the creepy side.  It’s something with how their lips move or something.  He did get the funniest moments in the movie, though.  One of his lines (alas, I can’t remember which one) had us laughing for a good couple minutes at least.  I also really liked the yellow brick road, the poppy field, and all those bits and bobs that tied in with The Wizard of Oz.  I also have to add that I loved Bruce Campbell in his small role.  Bruce Campbell is always a bonus!



Jack the Giant Slayer, on the other hand, I went to see mostly because Ewan McGregor was in it.  I had no expectations.  Where Oz seemed to take itself too seriously, this movie doesn’t take itself seriously at all.  Where Oz tries too hard to be something, Jack succeeds by simply being.  It’s just a retelling of a fairy tale, and it knows it.  And consequently, it is nothing but a fun romp of a movie.  I spent most of this movie grinning in delight.  And it may be just a fairy tale, but at the same time, it had characters I cared quite a great deal about.  There's also a whole passel of giants, who turned out to be quite interesting.  Other than the cook, who belongs with those gross trolls in Hobbit, (fortunately short screen time – they couldn't have a fastidious cook for once??)  But the giants have a lot of internal strife, so there were some great dynamics going on among them, little power plays, and stuff.  They weren't just a mindless horde.  I quite loved it.  With a few broad strokes the movie painted a deeper picture of what has been going on in their realm.  And as opposed to Oz... which got boring, I was never bored in Jack. 

The opening, which introduces Jack and the princess, Isabelle, as children hearing the legend of Jack and the Beanstalk, is nicely done, cutting seamlessly back and forth, showing how entranced both are with the tale.  It had me hooked immediately.  And as opposed to Oz, which was predictable straight through, Jack continued to surprise me throughout.  Supporting characters died when I didn’t think they would, which made me start genuinely worrying about some of the characters.  The king (Ian McShane) makes a hard decision I thoroughly loved him for, one that gave this movie more depth that I hadn't expected it to go into. 

And then there’s Ewan McGregor, who did not remotely disappoint.  He is awesome, and his character of Elmont, captain of the guard, was thoroughly amusing.  I can't actually figure out how to describe his character.  He is a bit pompous and silly (with a haircut that just makes me laugh, in a good way), and yet so utterly self-assured and confident and also heroic and upstanding, all at the same time, and it is the funniest and coolest combo.  I think only Ewan could play such a character.  He made me very very happy in this role for all kinds of reasons.  Stanley Tucci plays the bad guy, and he is perfectly despicable and nasty and cowardly and confident... and he also plays the role, like Ewan, with such light-hearted abandon that it’s just... well... FUN!

I will probably watch Oz again when it comes on television, but I can’t wait to own Jack on DVD.  It's a shame the latter hasn't gotten the attention it deserves.  I found it to be the far superior film, with one exception.  Danny Elfman's score for Oz was amazing and wonderful.  John Ottman's score for Jack is merely serviceable.  It doesn't detract, but neither does it give us any memorable themes.  I'd sorely like to have had the composers reversed.


(yeah, I would so put this poster on my wall!)

The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)

This is not a film I’ve watched very many times.  It was always low on the totem pole, but I found I rather liked the first half this go-round.  It wasn’t nearly as corny or dated, and the score by John Barry, of course, helps step it up a notch.  Unfortunately this movie suffers from confusion over what it’s going to be about.  It starts out with a highly paid assassin (Scaramanga, our lead villain, played by Christopher lee), supposedly after Bond.  There’s a brief early mention of the energy crisis, solar power, but Bond is pulled off that to pursue his pursuer.  I think if this movie had stayed a cat and mouse between Bond and Scaramanga, it would have been quite magnificent.  But the solar thingy (solex agitator) comes back into play, almost like an after-thought.  And so Scaramanga has this crazy big solar energy playset on his island... that really has nothing to do with anything other than to give us a big set-piece and something we can blow up later.  It’s mostly a MacGuffin.  Scaramanga intends to sell it to the highest bidder, but because the solex isn’t really worked into the story very well... who cares?  The far more interesting story here is Christopher Lee and Roger Moore as adversaries.  Alas, Bond movies weren’t yet ready to break the mold and go a bit more intimate and personal with their storylines.



There’s a lot to like here, but the elements just aren’t pulled together very well.  And we’re hampered with Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland), who seems to just keep messing things up.  I mean, she’s an agent... really?  I rather like her too, or I like Britt Ekland, but this script gives her nothing but a habit of innocently lousing things up.  Even when she finally gets to act and takes out a guard at the end, her actions end up blowing up the island.  Really??  Typical of this film, though.  A lot of promise, not much follow through.





Christopher Lee is much more interesting as Scaramanga than I used to think when I was a kid.  He’s rather charming, cold, vain, and a bit bored with life until Bond comes along.  He lives on a lovely private island, gets paid a million dollars per assassination, and, of course, he carries the titular golden gun – complete with golden bullet.  The gun is a nifty little piece that he can build very quickly from ordinary-seeming objects he carries with him.  It only holds one bullet, but that’s all he needs.  The scenes with him and Bond, verbally sparring (and yet remaining gentlemen), and then finally squaring off in a duel are the best scenes in the movie.  The two actors have good chemistry.



And unfortunately, our most annoying loud-mouth sheriff from Live and Let Die is back.  Sigh.  I guess he apparently was popular enough at the time for a return appearance. 

Also back is Marc Lawrence, as a gangster hired to try to kill Scaramanga in the pre-credit sequence.  I’m not sure if he’s supposed to be the same character he played in Diamonds are Forever, but I like to think he is.  Both characters dress just about the same, talk the same... why not?



This movie has one of the most amazing, real car stunts I’ve ever seen in a film.  A crazy mid-air roll right over a river, from one curving ramp to another.  It’s flawless and apparently was done in one take.  It’s quite spectacular.



Favorite parts:  Scaramanga’s funhouse.  The end duel, particularly the start, with Bond and Scaramanga back to back.  The two nieces trained in martial arts.  The car stunt.  M telling Q to shut up twice in one conversation.

Music:  good, not great
Theme song:  I quite like the melody but not the sung rendition.
Credit sequence:  Okay
Bond girl:  Goodnight is unfortunately too inept at her job, Maud Adams as Scaramanga’s mistress who helps Bond, is much more interesting, walking a fine line between two dangerous men.
Bad guys:  Well, when can you ever go wrong with Christopher Lee??  He’s great. Herve Villechaize as Scaramanga’s servant, Nick Nack, is a perfect match for him, and together they are a great pair.
Overall personal rating:  2 out of 5 stars

Live and Let Die (1973)

Woo.  The 70’s have well and truly arrived.  Roger Moore has arrived.  I always think I like this movie better than I do.  The sum of my memories is better than the movie itself.  In general, I’m only okay with the Moore Bond films.  They’re a little too silly and cutesy for me.  You can ask how I can rank Diamonds are Forever a 5/5, but not find that a silly movie.  I find it a funny movie.  There’s a difference.  I think it’s mostly that they start doing things specifically for humor in Moore’s Bond, which usually fails on me, whereas Diamonds is played straight, the humor more natural.  But humor is one of those tricky things that works differently for each person. 

Live and Let Die... even having just watched this movie, I can't say I really know what this one’s really about.  Drugs, sure, but I never really get much past that.  I do love Kananga, mostly because I love Yaphet Kotto.  He must have the largest network of people working for him of any Bond villain.  Just about everybody seems to be working for him!  And boy, do they get around.  Kananga would make me very paranoid because of how easily he controls so many.



I really do like Roger Moore as Bond, despite the fact that I’m not overly fond of his films.  He’s a very different Bond from Connery, and that works in his favor.  He is also my first theatrical Bond, so he gets sentimental points for that.  He also actually succeeds with the silly/cuteness factor.  I don't think any of the other Bond actors could pull off the lines that Moore makes seem natural, so more points for being able to pull off the silliness.  He’s good-looking, and also has that right physical and arrogant component that I like in my Bonds.

I might like this movie better if it had a good score, but it does not.  No John Barry this outing, and the music in this one makes me cringe.  It’s not the worst of the scores, but it’s very very low on the totem pole.  I like various parts of this movie quite a bit, but there's a lot of dead weight in this film.  And I have to admit, I love a good chase scene... but the boat chase in this one?  Goes on forever with no real purpose... and introduces one of the absolute most annoying characters not just in a Bond film but in any film anywhere -- Sheriff Pepper.  He makes me want to bang my head against a wall.  Though his final line after he finds out who Bond is, "Secret agent? On whose side?!" does make me laugh.

But I do love Jane Seymour as Solitaire, Kanaga's psychic tarot card reader.  Could she be any prettier?  I always get a bit frowny at Bond for his easy manipulation of her, just to get info on Kanaga.  (Moore's Bond always seems colder and less emotional than Connery's Bond, which I find interesting.)  But then he does come back to rescue her in the end.



I also really like Kanaga's henchmen:  Tee Hee and Whisper.  And my favorite character in the whole film has to be Baron Samedi, played by Geoffrey Holder, who used to be in the 7-Up commercials.  He has a great voice and a fabulous laugh.  He very nearly makes the whole movie in his small amount of screen time.  And I love that the movie ends on him.



Oddly, despite the fact that I love David Hedison, I am not fond of his Felix in this film.  I like him much better in his second outing as Felix.  I can't actually put my finger on why, but his acting seems really bad in this film.  Now, that's ironic coming from me, who loves Rik Nutter's Felix, and he can't act for beans.  It might be because I know Hedison from all sorts of other things, so I expect better from him?  Whereas I've never seen Mr. Nutter in anything but Thunderball.  Might be because the script gives Felix lousy dialogue here?  I don't know, but sadly, I just can't appreciate this Felix.



Favorite parts:  "Whose funeral is it?" "Yours." -- Not once, but twice.  Moneypenny covering for Bond in the beginning.  Alligators and crocodiles!  Everything from Bond rescuing Solitaire to the end credits, which is the strongest section of the movie.  Roger Moore should wear black more often.  The way Bond clenches his fists right before Kanaga cuts his arm.  End fight on train!  "Just being disarming."  Baron Samedi laughing as the train pulls away.




Music:  Lousy
Theme song:  Okay.  I've gotten used to this song over the years, and I like the middle section, but I am not particularly a fan of Paul McCartney's later work.
Credit sequence:  Meh
Bond girl:  I love Solitaire, love the way she's caught between the bad guys and good guys.
Bad guys: I like them... worthy adversaries, but I still have no idea what Kanaga's trying to do.
Overall personal rating:  3 out of 5 stars