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The Last Outlaw (1993)
"How does a man appear and disappear?"
The movie opens with a scene that might have taken inspiration from 1980's "The Long Riders", as the outlaw gang headed by Mickey Rourke's Graff character barges into a bank on horseback to thwart an awaiting ambush outside by the town's citizens. The gunfight that ensues leaves one of the bad guy bunch severely wounded, but all seven outlaws make their getaway with a hastily gathered posse ready in close pursuit. Second in command to Graff, Eustis (Dermot Mulroney) would have made a good Marine, wanting to leave no man behind as he repeatedly aids the badly wounded Loomis (Daniel Quinn) against the advice of his boss. When it becomes apparent that Graff will eliminate Loomis so he doesn't slow down their escape, Eustis turns the tables on him and shoots him at point blank range, a turning point in the story that has severe repercussions for the rest of the gang.
Though the story is seen as a revenge tale, I see Graff's motivation as equally inspired by a desire not to get arrested for the bank job, as he allies with the town's posse led by Marshal Sharp (Gavan O'Herlihy). Yet there's no love lost between Graff and Sharp, as an ambush by the gang sees Sharp take a bullet with Graff finishing him off by drowning him in a pond. One by one thereafter, Graff picks his spots to eliminate his former compatriots in a show of cunning and deceit, highlighted by his murder of banker McClintock (Richard Fancy), who only cared about retrieving the bank's stolen money.
What intrigued me was the turn in Eustis's character when he left Wills (John C. McGinley) to fend for himself after Wills' horse had to be put down. The situation was similar to that of the injured Loomis, who Eustis refused to leave behind. But now, there was no compassion for a fellow outlaw, perhaps understandable since Wills returned the stolen money in a moment of panic as the posse closed in. With events during the posse chase hardening Eustis as the gang got cut down one by one, a final showdown between Eustis and his former boss was inevitably expected. The overemphasis Graff placed on his men to count their remaining ammunition proved to be his own undoing, as a bank teller's derringer taken by Eustice proved to be a deciding factor in the story's conclusion. The only question that remained at that point was - where the heck was the rest of the posse?
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Captive Pursuit (1993)
"I live to outwit the hunters for another day..."
This was a quite engaging episode that oddly put Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) in the spotlight as he attempted to aid a reptilian resembling fugitive that got waylaid through the wormhole some ninety thousand light years from the Gamma Quadrant. The story did a fine job of 'Oh Brien' gaining the Tosk's (Scott MacDonald) confidence while keeping the alien's mission somewhat circumspect until those hunting for him finally arrived aboard DS9. The originality of the story lay in the fact that Tosk was a species bred to be hunted by an alien race, with a strict code of honor that prepared him to die a noble death rather than be captured to face ignominy on their home planet. Commander Sisko (Avery Brooks) maintained a stoic and formidable countenance in dressing down the Chief for his aiding Tosk to evade the hunters, however the cutaway demonstrated that he was more than complicit in Tosk's escape. With a still short history of a series with this being only the sixth episode of DS9, I thought it was the best so far.
Just a thought - Could 'I am Tosk" have been the inspiration for 'I am Groot'?
Rancho Notorious (1952)
""Every time you see me, you feel a little weak in the head."
"Rancho Notorious" could have been titled "Rancho Curioso" and have made as much sense. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why Vern Haskell (Arthur Kennedy), on a quest for revenge for the murder of his fiancée (Gloria Henry), would involve himself in a romance with the owner of an outlaw hideaway. That's a heck of a way to honor a dearly departed. Or was it just a ruse to gain Altar Keane's (Marlene Dietrich) trust to get information on the outlaw he was looking for who might be hiding at Keane's Chuck-a-Luck hideout? The story keeps it ambiguous, enough so that Vern's partner, Frenchy Fairmont (Mel Ferrer), becomes murderously jealous of Haskell's insinuation into the gang at Keane's place, after it appears that Vern and Keane have a yen for each other. Adding color to the eclectic proceedings in this film you'll find William Frawley as saloon owner Baldy Gunder, George Reeves on a break from his TV Superman gig as a ladies' man who's never seen with a lady, and Western genre mainstay Jack Elam before his out-of-kilter left eye became prominent. Somehow, I just didn't care much for this flick as the story's premise right out of the gate seemed flawed, and the film's theme song with music and lyrics by Ken Darby just a grating interruption to the proceedings. Marlene Dietrich's own singing voice was nearly as irritating as well, and though this was filmed in color, anytime you had a closeup of Dietrich's face, it looked like it was colorized from black and white. The picture's final touches included a myriad of painted backdrops and extensive use of a sound stage, enough so that an effective Western landscape was never in evidence.
'Jûsangô taihisen' yori: Sono gosôsha o nerae (1960)
"You taught me to see a person as a person."
Little did I know when I decided to DVR this film that it would turn out to be a Japanese crime drama, and a rather curious one at that. Turner Classics Movie host Eddie Muller described it as one of the sun tribe films from the Nikkatsu Studio, an early one from director Seijun Suzuki whose movies achieved cult like status in the years to come, though this one was received unenthusiastically when it came out in 1960. To say that the story here was somewhat convoluted would be an understatement, events occur rather randomly with no connection to each other, as the movie's protagonist, fresh from his suspension as a prison guard, decides to investigate the murder of two prisoners by a sniper on a transport van he was supervising. That's probably the first inkling one gets as to the questionable nature of the story, since how could Daijirô Tamon (Michitarô Mizushima) be held accountable for an unexpected attack on his watch? The story meanders from a seemingly legitimate talent agency fronting for a prostitution ring, to Tamon's search for a mysterious gangland figure calling the shots on various murders that occur throughout the picture. Most unusual was the one involving a nude prostitute shot with a bow and arrow through her breast, with flashback scenes suggesting the shooter was Yuko Hamajima (Misako Watanabe), the nominal head of the talent firm in the absence of her father. But it appears that Yuko is helping Tamon solve the murders after she falls in love with him!
Look, I'm not going to try to figure this out and neither should you. What will keep you enthralled is the masterful pace of the picture and the crisp cinematography culminating in a near escape from a potentially lethal gasoline delivery truck and finally a desperate shootout at a train station. The mystifying identity of one Akiba is revealed as Yuko's own father, after having been seen earlier in a hospital bed. All of which suggests that Suzuki's directorial method favored extravagant style over logical storytelling.
The Equalizer (2014)
"When you pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too."
One could almost give this picture a top rating of '10' if it wasn't for the outlandish idea that a single guy could take out the entire Russian Mafia operating in Boston, and for an encore, head over to Moscow to take out the boss. Not that I'm complaining, I thought Denzel Washington gave an exciting if low key performance as the vigilante with a mysterious past, erased by a faked death. I liked the way Bob McCall (Washington) kept everything understated in his dialog with people like Ralphie (Johnny Skourtis), hooker Teri/Alina (Chloë Grace Moretz), and even the bad guys starting with Slavi (David Meunier), dirty cop Frank Masters (David Harbour), and especially fixer extraordinaire Teddy (Marton Csokas). As soon as McCall locked the door to Slavi's headquarters office, you knew that this guy would take no prisoners and the rest of the film would be an action movie fan's best idea of fun. Nowhere does Denzel disappoint, though I did like the idea that Ralphie got the first shot in on Teddy before McCall finished him off. If he were still alive, I bet Teddy would have regretted calling McCall 'dedushka'.
Nightfall (1956)
"Things that really happen are always difficult to explain."
Oh man, not only were the two criminals a pair of idiots, but so was the main character, Jim Vanning (Aldo Ray), or whatever his name was. Collectively, they all lost a satchel containing three hundred fifty thousand dollars! I could almost believe John (Brian Keith) and Red (Rudy Bond) making a mistake by picking up the wrong bag, but there was no excuse for Vanning to lose it. Why wouldn't he have held on to it for dear life, no matter what he decided to do with it? That was just a very weak story element, and it kept bothering me the whole movie.
Besides that (a big besides!), the film was pretty good with the intrigue provided by insurance investigator Ben Fraser (James Gregory) and fashion model Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft). That's another thing - during the bar scene that opened the picture, Gardner hits up Vanning for five bucks because she either lost or forgot her wallet. A lot of forgetting going around in this story. After the two outlaws rough up Jim about the three hundred fifty grand, he makes it back to Marie's apartment he remembered from their conversation over dinner, and she lets him in looking like he just got run over by a train! You know, if I keep at this, I might convince myself I didn't care for the movie.
The original tag line for this flick went - 'You could go to the movies every day for five years... before you'd see another picture with so many thrills and so much suspense!" I must say, that's a bit hyperbolic, as I'm sure every day for five years would come up with something a little more thrilling and suspenseful. Within just a couple of years either way of this flick you had "Dial M for Murder", "Kiss Me Deadly", "The Killing", and Number One on virtually everyone's list of favorite noirs - "Rear Window". As for me, my parting shot for the two hapless bank robbers in this picture would have been - wouldn't it be easier to just rob another bank?
Glen or Glenda (1953)
"Where is the animal instinct in modern civilization?"
Having heard about "Glen or Glenda" after so many years, I finally decided to take a look. This was nowhere near what I was expecting from the director of "Bride of the Monster" and "Plan Nine from Outer Space". Aside from the cheesy acting and cheap sets, this comes across as an almost thoughtful exploration of transvestism and the compulsion to changes one's sexual identity. I was not aware of Ed Wood's own predilection for wearing women's clothes, so seeing him here in a principal role is rather revealing in his earnestness to handle a sensitive topic. And for 1953, this was surely a sensitive topic, as noted by an opening narrative card that promised "... no punches have been pulled, no easy way out has been taken". What was truly bizarre however, was the inclusion of Bela Lugosi in the role of, what else, a mad scientist masquerading as a serious one, but uttering dialog that didn't relate to anything that was going on in the main story. More than once did he expound on talking to a green dragon eating little boys, along with puppy dog tails and big fat snails. In fact, Lugosi's presence can't be explained at all except perhaps to lend the horror icon's name to this production, because he wouldn't have been missed at all if he wasn't in the film. As regards that main story, things suddenly veer off into a bizarre sequence of female bondage scenes and one of a simulated rape, with Lugosi's leering presence just adding to the surreal nature of the project. The situations involving Glen's penchant for wearing his future wife's (Dolores Fuller) clothes and that of pseudo-hermaphrodite Allen (Tommy' Haynes) undergoing an operation to become a woman are both handled satisfactorily within the context of the picture, so that in his own tortured way, Ed Wood could posit that "maybe society should try to understand them as human beings".
For anyone interested, "Glen or Glenda" is currently playing on the Amazon Prime platform as I write this.
Thunder Force (2021)
"Let's go lick some Miscreant butt!"
Should I really consider this a super-hero movie? I'm going to include it in my IMDb list of 'Comic Book Super-Hero Based Movies', even though it wasn't based on a comic book. Even so, fans of this flick won't like the result. My current list as I write this has one hundred twenty-seven titles ranked in IMDb order, and this one comes in at number one hundred twenty-three. That doesn't say much for the quality of the film, but I think most viewers know that by the time the movie is over. So, in a sense, I don't have to bash it like a lot of haters do, the viewer rating is the rating. What makes an Oscar winner like Octavia Spencer and a twice nominated Melissa McCarthy get involved in a project like this? Maybe it's their long running friendship that led to the idea that this flick might be a fun thing to do. And it probably was and I'm sure their fans found it entertaining but this became a bit of a chore to sit through. Even Jason Bateman's low-key portrayal of the villain Crab was somewhat cringeworthy. At least Pom Klementieff has some street cred as super-hero Mantis from the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' franchise, but she looked a little out of place without the antennas. For those who are wondering what the lowest rated super-hero movie is that I've seen, you can check my list, or I can save you the trouble - it's 2004's "Catwoman".
Bride of the Monster (1955)
"Everything points to an inhuman violence!"
You remember the 'Peanuts' comic strip with Snoopy lying on top of his doghouse pondering the start of a new novel thinking to himself - 'It was a dark and stormy night'? I always think of that when a horror flick starts out that way, which was the case here with "Bride of the Monster". A couple of inept bozos are caught in a thunderstorm looking for shelter, and one of them falls victim to the pet octopus of Dr. Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi). As you watch the film, the octopus's garden (Thanks, Ringo!) transitions from a small rectangular aquarium in Vornoff's lab, to the swamp where it claims its victims, and finally to the ocean environment in which you would expect to find one. This kind of nonsense is never explained and makes for the exquisitely quirky picture you're apt to enjoy should you manage to tune in.
Director Ed Wood resurrects Bela Lugosi's hypnotic stare from the 1932 thriller "White Zombie", as the mad scientist adds a distinctive flourish with his clawlike hand to put victims to sleep. That's the case with his latest target, newspaper reporter Janet Lawton (Loretta King), on the trail for a clue to the twelve missing victims reported in the vicinity of Lake Marsh and the old Willow House. Vornoff has been perfecting a technique to turn ordinary mortals into super-human giants using atomic elements in order to conquer the world. While the film was made a few years after the end of World War II, it's still chilling to hear Lugosi's character speak of creating a master race.
With all the nonsense going on, it's easy to forget what the title of the flick was about until Miss Lawton appears in Vornoff's lab wearing a white wedding dress, about to be turned into one of those super-humans the good doctor was droning on about. It never gets that far though, as Vornoff's assistant, the hulking Tor Johnson turns on his master to protect the woman and sets her free long enough to join her fiancé, police lieutenant Dick Craig (Tony McCoy), who puts an end to Vornoff's rampage by rolling a huge boulder over the guy, who then falls into the clutches of his octopus!
With three dozen Bela Lugosi films to my credit (see my list on IMDb), I was surprised I never ran across this one until this morning on one of the streaming platforms. While nowhere near a masterpiece, this one is still better than director Ed Wood's team up of Lugosi and Tor Johnson a couple years later in "Plan Nine from Outer Space". However, if you want an even goofier programmer featuring the noted horror icon, try looking up 1952's "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla".
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Babel (1993)
"Let birds go further loose maybe."
This was an interesting episode to view for the first time today since it calls to mind the diagnosis of aphasia for actor Bruce Willis about five years ago (as I write this). It curtailed his acting career until 2023 when his family announced he would do no more films. It's a sad thing to see in a popular actor like Willis, especially given his stature in action films like the 'Die Hard' franchise.
Symptoms of aphasia first appear in Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) in the story, and one would think that given the stress he was under running around to fix all the things wrong on Deep Space Nine, that that might have been the cause of his nonsensical speech. But then it affects Lieutenant Dax (Terry Farrell), and the virus causing it discovered by Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) begins to make its way around the entire station until more than half the population is affected. Major Kira's (Nana Visitor) investigation into the history of DS9 around the time the Cardassians took it over from the Bajorans sixteen years prior leads her to the work of a deceased renegade scientist who created the virus but never got a chance to release it against the enemy. However, his assistant, still alive, was familiar with the research but refused to help Kira until she decided to kidnap him with the threat that now he was infected with the virus as well.
Parallel to this story, Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) and Ferengi Quark (Armin Shimerman) verbally spar over how to rescue a cargo captain who defied Commander Sisko's (Avery Brooks) quarantine order and commandeered his ship away from DS9, only to find himself in danger of the ship blowing apart. With Quark's knowledge of running a transporter, he managed to beam Odo out to the vessel and retrieve Captain Jaheel (Jack Kehler) in the Star Trek standard nick of time with not a moment to spare.
By themselves the parallel stories seemed to be handled rather easily, and as another reviewer mentioned, it might have been more appropriate to delve into how Dr. Surmak Ren (Matthew Faison) was able to come up with the aphasia antidote. That was entirely glossed over and gave the episode's ending a rather abrupt feeling.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
"Come on. Have some breakfast, then you can run away."
I've come to enjoy director Taika Waititi's quirky sense of humor in pictures like "Thor: Ragnarok" and especially the humorous vampire flick, "What We Do in the Shadows". That humor is somewhat understated in this picture, but it's still there in the relationship between troubled teen Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) and his adoptive 'Uncle' Hector (Sam Neill). Following the death of Hec's wife Bella (Rima Te Wiata), the mismatched pair find unexpected adventure in the New Zealand bush after Ricky unsuccessfully attempts to run away as the knowledgeable Hec easily tracks him down, only to wind up breaking an ankle during an attack by an angry boar. That's where the story takes a little too much for granted, as the duo suddenly have enough supplies and equipment on hand to survive a six-week stint in the wild while Hec's ankle heals. While they've gone missing, news coverage of their disappearance takes on all sorts of rumor and innuendo in what looks like what might have been a kidnapping. The story is fueled by the exaggerated account of three misfits that were bested by Hec and Ricky during a chance encounter.
The film breaks itself into ten chapters, though there doesn't seem to be any need for it as the story flows well enough without the distinctions. Repeated mentions of the 'skux life' made me curious enough to look it up, and what it boils down to is a cool, stylish attitude and outlook on life, often used to describe someone who is confident, fashionable, and daring in the way they dress and present themselves. I'm not convinced that Ricky or Hec resembled any of those descriptions, but it sounded cool enough while they were making their way through the bush and later on, trying to outrun an outsized posse of helicopters, military vehicles and police cars. The overkill made the chase seem even more surreal than it already was.
My only reservation with the story was the early passing of 'Aunt' Bella, who provided a real grounding presence for the unruly Ricky. I'm not sure that it was all that necessary for the story to proceed the way it did, as she could have been left behind at home to await the rescue and return of the wastrel pair. While on screen, Bella was the embodiment of patience and warmth for a kid that no one else wanted and who wanted no one else. It would have been nice to see the reuniting of all three.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: A Man Alone (1993)
"I'll take care of my own best interests."
This episode of 'Deep Space Nine' is interesting if unexceptional. An opening scene reveals that Chief O'Brien's (Colm Meaney) wife Keiko (Rosalind Chao) is aboard with their young daughter, although she expresses discouragement with her situation since she has found no usefulness there as a biologist. When the Chief offhandedly suggests she might become a teacher, she takes the idea and runs with it, after observing how Commander Sisko's (Avery Brooks) son Jake (Cirroc Lofton) got in trouble with Nog (Aron Eisenberg), the son of Cardassian Rom (Max Grodénchik). The episode's main story involves the murder of a former black marketer aboard the station whose own crimes in the past included murder. When Ibudan's (Stephen James Carver) corpse is located, it appears that the only one who could have possibly entered his sealed quarters was the shapeshifter, Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois). While under suspicion, Odo is relieved of duty as security chief by Commander Sisko, as Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) undertakes an extensive forensic examination to determine who the killer might be. With tension rising on the space station, significantly heightened by a Bajoran named Zayra (Edward Albert), a mob mentality gives way to thoughts of an old-fashioned style lynching until Sisko calms the belligerents down long enough for Dr. Bashir to complete his work. What he discovers is that Ibudan himself, with a knowledge of molecular cloning, created a clone of himself which he murdered in order to frame the Constable. Thus exposed, Ibudan was placed under arrest and handed over to authorities. Meanwhile, Keiko got her limited classroom under way, with Jake and Rom among her first students, with an opening review of Bajoran culture.
Believe It or Not (Second Series) #11 (1932)
You can believe it or not...
For the third time now, Leo Donnelly narrates a 'Believe It or Not' episode, but this time without benefit of introduction from Robert Ripley himself. I'm not sure who I'd rather hear, both had rather droning voices to introduce their subjects. This one has a couple of chicken stories, probably the closest we've come to see related subjects in the same program. In one instance, four hundred chickens are taught to swim by luring them into a pond with food and stranding them on floating boards until they decide to take the plunge to get back to land. They proved to be capable swimmers, so I had to wonder why most chickens don't do it on their own. Probably because barnyards don't have available ponds. In another segment, a chicken becomes a surrogate mother for four pups who lost their mother to a traffic accident. The pups didn't seem to mind. A couple of novel blacksmith shops turned up as well, a traveling one on the back of a 1920's vehicle, and another at the base of the Chrysler building in New York City. With horse mounted cops present day, there's probably one still around. A guy who made ice sculptor dinosaurs also made an appearance, along with a sand sculptor using sand collected from all over the world. Maybe the weirdest was a man who organized his long hair into a pony tail in order to pull a car with a half dozen men standing on the sideboards. Whenever I see something like this, I always wonder how someone with that kind of gimmick ever figured out he could do it.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
"That's right. I'm the King of freaking Atlantis!"
I have to be honest here, having watched the original "Aquaman" when it came out six years ago, I couldn't remember a thing about it, so whatever continuity there was with Arthur's (Jason Momoa) brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) was simply lost on me. I couldn't remember anything about their relationship. As the film proceeded, I began wondering why there were so many nods to other movies and franchises. The sound of 'Spirit in the Sky', even though brief, had me recalling the "Guardians of the Galaxy", while an underwater scene held a couple of references to the Star Wars franchise with the character of Kingfish (Jabba the Fish?) and the Atlantean band resembling the Mos Eisley cantina scene on Tatooine. There was also that blatant reference to the Tom Hanks movie when Aquaman wanted his brother to hurry up, stating "Come on Cast Away. Grab Wilson, let's go". What's the odds of Aquaman watching "Cast Away" over twenty years ago? That was just odd.
Visually, the picture was as appealing as virtually all the super-hero movies are today, with the underwater scenes particularly effective. It's just that the story line seems a repeatedly rehashed version of so many that we've seen before that it's causing me to lose interest. I've seen all the DC and Marvel based flicks and it doesn't seem like there's anything new left to explore since the world has been saved from galactic villains and cosmic disasters innumerable times. I did kick out of the cockroach joke Arthur played on Orm, but was surprised to see it again the after the main credits rolled. Maybe they've run out of ideas to tease future movies, which I guess is alright by me because I'm getting a little tired of them. I guess that'll happen after seeing over a hundred twenty-five super-hero films since the original "Superman" came out in 1978. That's forty-six years ago!
Dream Scenario (2023)
"I feel like I want to apologize for barging into your head like that."
This film had a strangely original concept with various people experiencing dreams with college professor Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage) right in the middle of them as an uninterested bystander. His young daughter Hannah (Jessica Clement) even had one in which she was about to be harmed and her father simply stood by as she awoke before anything happened to her. The story plays out with an entire community, and eventually an entire country dreaming about Paul until those dreams become nightmares with Paul doing horrible things and causing a sort of mass hysteria attributed to a collective subconscious ignited by Paul as his notoriety began to spread. Therein lies what might be the movie's message about groupthink creating victims of uncontrollable forces dominating their lives, as illustrated by the cognitive behavioral class that fearfully walked out as soon as Paul approached too near. To his credit, Paul refused to become a merchandising commodity by turning down a commercial endorsement, but the experience led to a new development in dream science that resulted in a product called Norio that would allow a person to enter the dreams of another on purpose via a dream travel technique. That might have been a nod to the Artificial Intelligence phenomenon that appears to be uppermost in the minds of science and academia today. Paul's professional aspiration of writing a book finally happens when he's published in France with the unsavory title of 'I Am Your Nightmare', so named to capitalize on the hysteria his effect on people who dreamed about him had been. The entire experience leaves Paul virtually living his own nightmare as the life he once had becomes unglued with the dissolution of his marriage and loss of tenure at Osler University. The picture ends on a surreal note with Paul daydreaming a return to normalcy as he imagines reuniting with his wife and stating, "I wish this was real".
Portnoy's Complaint (1972)
"So, where's the banana?"
It's probably safe to say that a nice hot shower would be appropriate after watching this flick. Believe it or not, I actually read the Philip Roth novel upon which this is based, many, many years ago, but my only recollection of the story is the main character's obsession with self-gratification. Recalling chapters of his life to psychiatrist Dr. Spielvogel (D. P. Barnes), the principal character, Alexander Portnoy, details virtually every sexual escapade he participated in during his non-maturation into adulthood, along with a spirited portrayal of his Jewish parents' insinuation into his personal life, complete with bowel movements and emphasis on French fries and eating hamburger out. That term, 'eating hamburger out' must have been stated three or four times and just confused the heck out of me. Is that a New York City Jewish thing or what?
Richard Benjamin had the unfortunate role of Alex Portnoy in this easily trashed film, which by the looks of it, is getting a fairly good workout here on this board. For her part, Karen Black looked absolutely stunning in early scenes as Portnoy's first legitimate girlfriend, but then fell victim to his callous disregard during a European vacation and threatened to commit suicide if he didn't marry her. Are we supposed to believe she actually did with all those visions of Mary Jane Reed, aka Monkey, hurtling to her death from an upper story hotel window? I can't decide either way.
If you'll notice, Portnoy's shrink didn't utter a single word throughout all of their exhaustive sessions together. At least I think they were exhaustive; I would have been worn out listening to his single-minded droning on about a miserable sex life. The woman he nearly raped after the falling out with Monkey in Europe probably said it best when she stated - "As a man, you are a failure at everything". With that, there's virtually no redeeming quality to be associated with this film, and it's no wonder that it was Ernest Lehman's single directorial effort. It makes me wonder what Woody Allen could have done with the same material.
Dead Man's Hand (2023)
"Next time, you leave those bodies to rot."
As with a lot of these low rated, recent Westerns, I go in with the idea that I'll probably find something to like about it and figure the other reviewers might have treated it just a bit too harshly. This one started out that way, but then the reality of the filming kicked in. The town in which the action took place looked like it was just built, not a single building looked like it was there for more than a few weeks. It was just too clean and antiseptic looking. In a scene in which we get a bird's eye view of an Indian village, all the teepees are exceptionally white and clean with no apparent consideration that they were in a dusty environment and prone to sun bleaching. The biggest miss for me was the casting of the story's principal character, Jean Jaques Renau, also known as Reno, who was portrayed by actor Jack Kilmer who looked like a teenager, though his age at the time of the picture's release was twenty-eight. I get what the filmmakers were probably trying to do here by casting a guy who didn't look even remotely like a gunfighter and have him rise to the occasion to take on a band of outlaws running an unnamed town. A good idea, but it just didn't work for this viewer. But the most ridiculous thing was when an Apache woman (Delilah Andre) sewed both of Reno's trigger fingers back on after gang boss and mayor Clarence Bishop (Stephen Dorff) had them chopped off for killing the mayor's brother during a stagecoach holdup. Didn't anyone take into account that that might have hurt? Reno gets back into the fray like nothing happened with guns blazing, even though he had to be nursed back to health a second time at the Apache village after taking a bullet during a shootout in town. Presumably on loan from the "Yellowstone" series, Cole Houser and Native American actor Mo Brings Plenty weren't enough to elevate the movie's favorability with their limited presence, and all I can say about Reno's wife Vegas (Camille Collard) is that she looked every bit the teenager that Reno did.
One more observation - keep an eye on the guy that Marshal Roy McCutchen (Hauser) shoots out of a two-story window during the street fight in the latter part of the story. The outlaw hits an overhang above the dirt street, and in order to fall all the way down to ground level, he gives a little push off to help complete the stunt. Bravo, second unit!
Where Danger Lives (1950)
"You've lied to me once. Maybe you lied a hundred times!"
I thought there was something curious about Frederic Lannington (Claude Rains) dying after that brief scuffle with Doctor Jeff Cameron (Robert Mitchum). So it came as no surprise when the cops stated that he died from suffocation, a result of Lannington's wife using the old sofa cushion technique. Cameron probably should have pegged his future wife as a nutcase right from the get-go, but when you come right down to it, Margo Lannington (Faith Domergue) didn't offer a whole lot of clues to her mental state during the early going, although his instincts should have kept him going right out the door of the Lannington home once he found out the truth of their marriage. I have to agree with a handful of other reviewers who question Mitchum's casting here as the poor schmuck who got taken in by Margo's scheme. Maybe it was getting whacked by that fireplace iron that finally did the trick, although he did get real cozy with the femme fatale from their very first clandestine date. Having Mitchum's character make his way through the story with a concussion was probably a good idea, or else how would you explain his lack of judgment. For a lovers-on-the-lam story, this one is somewhat decent, but you have to overlook the inconsistencies in Jeff Cameron's character. However, Mitchum did a good enough job in this flick to recommend him for 1952's "Angel Face", another noir thriller in which, quite coincidentally, his character married another lunatic, only this time, before she even got out of her hospital bed! If that sounds weird, you'll just have to see it for yourself.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Past Prologue (1993)
"Go over my head again, and I'll have yours on a platter!"
Fortunately, this follow-up episode to Deep Space Nine's opening story 'Emissary' was what was needed to get the series on track from the somewhat convoluted premiere. This one has a Bajoran member of the Kohn-ma terrorist group fleeing from a Cardassian vessel and requesting asylum aboard the space station. Tahna Los (Jeffrey Nordling) had a prior association with Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), which proved to be a point of contention between her and Commander Sisko (Avery Brooks), leading to a harsh dressing down after Kira goes over his head to have Admiral Rollman (Susan Bay Nimoy) intervene in her request on behalf of Tahna. Nevertheless, the Major eventually comes around to see how duplicitous Tahna was when he conspired to collapse the entrance to a stable wormhole, a major trade conduit for the Bajorans. Klingon sisters Lursa (Barbara March) and B'Etor (Gwynyth Walsh) make an appearance here in a tenuous financial transaction with Tahna Los, as does a Cardassian by the name of Garak (Andrew Robinson), who remained behind on Deep Space Nine while the rest of his fellow Cardassians departed Bajor after pillaging it of most of its resources. This episode felt like more of a jumping on point for new viewers like myself, coming to the series three decades after it originally aired. With Chief O'Brien (Colm Meaney) on hand along with the Duras Family sisters from Next Generation, I felt a little more at ease with the transition to this program.
Let It Be (1970)
"Whisper words of wisdom..."
If you've seen the three-part Peter Jackson documentary series "Get Back" from 2021, then you've seen all there is to see in "Let It Be". Indeed, Jackson himself opens the remastered version conversing with director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who gave us this first but largely unseen documentary from 1970 at a time when the Beatles were just about to break up. Much of the angst in the later series isn't very much in evidence here, except for a hint of the friction between Paul McCartney and George Harrison when the two quibble over the way something should be played. Yoko Ono is seen, though not as a disruptive influence, as is Linda Eastman with daughter Heather, who amusingly 'scares' Ringo when she surprises him with her presence. Billy Preston is aboard too, lending a hand on keyboard and visibly happy to be part of the mix. Overall though, my impression of this film is much like I had with the 'Get Back' series; unless you're a music historian or diehard Beatles fan, there's just not much substance to the effort. You've got four musicians at work coming up with lines of dialog and music to complete their next album, with Lindsay-Hogg admitting that he didn't know how the whole project was going to end. Paul's and John's voices aren't polished with the early run throughs of some songs, while Ringo looks bored most of the time. Fortunately, the Apple Studio rooftop concert that concludes the flick is a piece of music history you'll want to experience, although it's a condensed version of the complete presentation seen in "Get Back". Surprisingly, although much of the street crowd shows appreciation for the impromptu concert, no one seems astonished that the legendary Beatles are giving a free show. Which makes it seem incongruous when an elderly business type gentleman is heard to remark - "I think the Beatles are crackin'..."
Believe It or Not (Second Series) #10 (1932)
You can believe it or not...
As I write this review, some of these 'Believe It or Not' episodes are making the rounds on Turner Classic Movies. Robert Ripley bows out of the narration for the second time in a row after introducing the off-screen Leo Donnely who comments on the oddities presented. As usual, we're treated to a host of totally unrelated subjects starting off with a golf course in Georgia on the site of a Civil War battlefield with military trenches intruding on the landscape. A Sioux Indian who paints landscapes upside down was featured right after a clip of cigar store wooden Indians guarding their owners' shops. An elevator that carried vehicles to the top of an eighteen-story building to get washed reminded me of a recent trip into New York City where I had to find a place to park my car, while a violin made from ten thousand matchsticks was quite curious. Of interest to pet lovers was a story of a Boston Terrier with a set of wheels for back legs fashioned by its owner, and a dog cemetery in Scarsdale, New York. Perhaps the most interesting subject was a home in New Jersey near the Atlantic Ocean which had as its address - #1 Atlantic Ocean. I wonder if it's still there?
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Emissary (1993)
"It is the unknown that defines our existence."
So here it is three decades after the fact and I've begun watching 'Deep Space Nine'. I was a fan of the original series, and only recently completed 'Next Generation', which now leads me to take up this one. Quite honestly, if I had not seen 'Next Generation' to completion, I might not have made it through this first episode. It was Captain Picard's (Patrick Stewart) appearance and the inclusion of Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) that kept me engaged long enough to see this lengthy introduction to the series through. That's mainly because the entire second chapter of this two-part story got very surreal with the wormhole business, as Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) encountered aliens within its boundaries that took on the guises of events and people from his past, most notably his wife (Felecia M. Bell), who was killed during a Borg attack led by Locutus of Borg on his vessel three years prior. Seeing as how Picard's alter-ego was responsible for Jennifer Sisko's death, one can understand the Commander's reluctance to take on his new assignment as the commanding officer of Space Station Deep Space Nine. Some might characterize the wormhole experience as a cerebral one and exemplary science fiction storytelling, but I found it to be a bit confusing for an introductory episode to hook in new viewers. I also cared less for the supporting officers on Deep Space Nine, though that might change with the viewing of additional episodes. I'll keep an open mind on that, with some expectation of additional crossovers from Next Generation as this series progresses.
One More Shot (2024)
"What's the going rate now for betraying your country?"
I almost turned this off after about fifteen minutes because it seemed like all gunfight and no story. I don't know what it is, but I've seen Scott Adkins in ten movies, and I still wouldn't be able to identify who he is in the next one. When some of the dust settled it became clear that this was about a rogue Homeland Security officer (Alexis Knapp) working in concert with a mercenary (Michael Jai White) to plant a dirty bomb at the President's State of the Union address. That was only a preliminary however, in order to extract high level access security codes from all the top government officials who would be whisked away to the same secure location when the plot was detected. Well guess what, the story ended with CIA agent Jake Harris (Adkins) taking out virtually all the bad guys, but by averting a dirty bomb from going off, the mercenaries from a private military organization named Farbridge still had a team in place to get the more important aspect of their conspiracy done. While the relentless pace of the film most likely will appeal to action fans, I don't see how an incomplete one does justice to anyone expecting a verifiable conclusion. Maybe that'll happen in 'One More, One More Shot', but by that tine, my attention span will have worn out.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: All Good Things... (1994)
"It is time to put an end to your trek through the stars."
One's favorite episodes of a series don't necessarily have to coincide with the best, but in this case, I thought the writers did a commendable job of providing both for this viewer. The only other Next Generation story I've given a rating of '10' to was the third season's "Yesterday's Enterprise", which also happened to be a time travel episode, and for me, it's unusual to pick time travel stories because they usually make my head hurt trying to figure them out. The writers managed to keep this one from being too confusing with Captain Picard's (Patrick Stewart) forays into the past and future as a spatial anomaly directed by Q. (John de Lancie) caused time shifts in the Captain's perception. It was cool to venture with Picard to his first day aboard the Enterprise with Lieutenant Trisha Yar (Denise Crosby) as the security chief, while in the future we learn that the Captain had married and divorced Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden), now in command of a Federation medical supply ship. As events in all three timelines began to converge to one point in space as a result of tachyon pulses engineered by the crew in each one, Picard finally achieved success in saving humanity which was put on trial in a manner of speaking, by the indomitable Q, who always held the Captain in high, if often contentious regard. Feeling more like a Star Trek movie because of its extended run time, I felt this actually could have been released as a standalone picture with little reworking. With enough hints that this would be Next Generation's last hurrah (see my summary line above), the series found a way to go out in style with a cast and crew that pretty much remained stable throughout the years. For this viewer, I appreciated that they made it so.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Preemptive Strike (1994)
"I could use a hand at the controls, and a witness."
At the end of this episode, I couldn't tell who was more disappointed - Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) or myself. I can understand how viewers would sympathize with Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes) for taking what was in her mind a principled stand, but in a final analysis, what she did was a betrayal to Picard and the Federation that put her through Starfleet training and on to a career after enduring a troubled past. What one has to consider here is the aftermath. Just because the Maquis withdrew their ships from attacking a Cardassian convoy for the present, it didn't mean that the rogue faction would discontinue their guerilla operations as soon as they were able to resume again. Where would that put the belligerent faction, and by extension, Ro Laren, if it came time to put them down for good? And that doesn't even take into account what the Maquis high command would consider since they had a Federation treaty to abide by. The rogue Maquis would be considered a pariah, and all those involved would face discipline by a Maquis standard. I had to admire the Captain's stance when he advised the recently promoted Lieutenant Laren that she was flirting with a board of inquiry and court martial if she didn't adhere to her mission. It seems that Picard always had the right answer when push came to shove. This time he demonstrated leadership that wouldn't be compromised, even for an officer who felt they were doing the right thing.