[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

"The Alpha Caper" (1973 TV movie)


Remember the dramas you could get back in the 1970's? Well, this is one of them.

A parole officer [Henry Fonda] is forced into retirement early. While in his last days of duty there is a shootout at an arms dump. The guy, on parole, is dying from being shot during the standoff. He tells Fonda's character about the caper he and his men were going to do. Fonda's character, Mark finds the men at the guy's funeral and starts talking to them, and finds himself involved in a ballsy caper even by today's standards.

Five armored trucks. Gold bars, police cars around it everywhere, police motorcycles running around. Helicopters flying overhead, officers with rifles walking around. Surely it can't be done, can it?

The movie is well done and the acting always good, sometimes very strong. Of the three men MArk aligns himself with, one is played by Leonard Nimoy, simply named "Mitch"., and Mitch never hints at being Spock; Nemoy had range.

The score is by Oliver Nelson. It's got what you'd want in a 1970's score, so if you enjoy the hell out of scores from that era, here you go. It's got some standard moments though, so if it got released on CD, it would need to be paired with something (Especially since it's not a long score).


It's an ABC movie of the week, so it's probably not been released (I didn't check), so here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H8RQGFexf0


Verdict: Worth your time.

Shaky-cam should be put in the bin along with end-of-movie freeze frames from the 80's.

You know what would be great? An entire film in shaky cam, even the opening credits and end credits, with lens flares everywhere, quick zoom-in's & zoom-out's, a trip-hop synth score, and ... FUCK IT. No one's buying that watermelon.

Wanted to say the same.

I would say that Ridley Scott is very good with hand-held as well (most obviously Black Hawk Down, but not just there). If a director is a *visual* director rather than going with the Zeitgeist, it's going to be great. Hell, yesterday I found out that a lot of The Thin Red Line was done hand-held and the reason behind it was *exactly the same* as in Ryan!

Indeed it did, it was astounding and hard hitting and at the time still fresh. But since then, on the whole it's a distracting annoyance, it was even used in Man of Steel for cripes sake. ( an appalling film anyway )

It's not bad, if you're 13.
It's a bit like Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, but more child-friendly. And rather less excellent or memorable.

Just now airing on German TV:

The Mission 1986 - Roland Joffé

What a story!
What a cast!
What photography!

and

What . A . SCORE !!

Volker

except that I add the score, totally stunning, an amazing score.

I recently got the Blu Ray and am looking forward to seeing it. On previous viewings I think I sat marvelling at the beauty of it and the exceptional music, but still not particularly liking the film.

"Penn & Teller Get Killed" (1989)

The film indeed lives up to the name.


Penn and Teller play themsleves in a film where on stage during an act Penn makes an offhand comment he wishes somebody would try to kill him. So, the film takes off from there.


I'm not sure how to describe this film. It's got it's funny moments, like Penn trying to go through the airport metal detector, while Teller keeps quitly putting metal in his pockets, to the point where Penn is shouting at the airport security officer about her "There is something wrong with your FASCIST MACHINE!", and the cruel pranks the two play on each other. Then it's got it's serious moments -- who knew Teller had such acting range; maybe that comes from decades of not speaking on stage and having to convey to people what he was thinking or trying to say, just with looks and gestures. By the way, Teller speaks in the climax.

Penn, on the other hand, isn't so great at acting. You could almost say his acting was "Bullshit!". ;-)

It's like a more serious version of their serious stage acts, with comedy mixed in, translated to a film medium.

You get the nagging feeling sometimes you think you know what's going on and who that is here and there, you you are often right, but they are trying to misdirect you. So, you're first instincts are likely right.


It's not a particularly deep or complex film, it's pretty basic. The ending drags on & on (it was intentional, but really it should have just ended sooner).


The acting was decent for the most part, with Teller being the stand-out, though one character seems to have been shoe-horned in (the female business handler for Penn & Teller).


The score by Paul Chihara is nothing special, often you forget it's even there, though it was plesant during the night time beach scene (perhaps Teller's best acting moment in the film).


VERDICT: It's okay, if you are bored and want to see something not very involving, but with some laughs, this is it.

I really liked the shaky-can in The Bourne Ultimatum.

There. I said it. Renders your statement untrue.

Also, it MADE Cloverfield.

Battle Los Angeles

A bit late to the party with this one but it only aired on free-to-view TV last night. It's similar to Oblivion in that it had a great look to it but the story was pretty run-of-the-mill. At several points I was about to bail out but the visuals kept me watching.

It passed the time quite well but the gung-ho dialogue and actions were so in-your-face that, at one point, they were laugh-out-loud funny.

And, if I didn't know to the contrary, I would have said that there hadn't been any music for this film at all. Completely forgettable in the film and, when it was there, it seemed to be completely drowned out by all the crash/bang/wallop of the sound effects.

Paul

I am no big fan of either Simon Pegg or Nick Frost but, as the subject matter was of interest I gave this a shot. Quite an entertaining film with a quaint little score from David Arnold. But, aside from a few smiles to nods in the film to other sci-fi films, this was not particularly funny.

Erik, you're not well. You don't know what you're saying!

Get well soon.