Yesterday I posted four reviews for the only four films I’d seen since February. I suggested I’d be binging on films for a while, and got off to a great start in the last 24 hours with five – count ‘em – five films since yesterday morning! Here are the reviews:
Stagecoach (1939) – I feel somewhat bad giving this film the grade below that I did, as the film is a true pioneer and innovator in the Western genre. Still, it seems to me that Ford later perfected the formula he starts to play with here (most notably in
The Searchers). The highlights? Character development and direction – Wayne steals the show, but all of the folks in the stagecoach are all interesting and the roles are well acted. Monument Valley looks great as always and some of the action scenes are really ahead of their time. Visually, even simple stuff like how the caravan arrives into town, how Wayne’s character is introduced, etc. – these are all worth seeing. The plot, unfortunately, is less than compelling and after about half way through seemed lose any sense of suspense it may have had early on. A film worth seeing for fans of the genre or the historical film buff, but the rest of you will probably want to pass.
Grade: 3.5/5
RocknRolla (2008) – I am a big fan of
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and
Snatch, and was hoping this would offer more of the same. It does, to an extent: the dark humor and quick-cut self-aware directing are present, the crime element is strong, etc. However, the story itself is less interesting and outside of Wilkinson and a few of the tertiary characters, the film fails to deliver many great performances from rest of the cast. Overall, it feels like Ritchie is stuck in neutral as a director and while the film is enjoyable, it is ultimately less than the sum of its parts.
Grade: 3/5
Drag Me to Hell (2009) – While many point to
Army of Darkness as their favorite Raimi film, I’ve always preferred the first two
Evil Dead films. Like many, I was anxious to see whether or not his post-
Spider-man return to the horror genre could recapture what made those films great. Any doubts I had that Raimi might lose his touch were erased with the equally hilarious and creepy scene in the car a few minutes into the film. From then on, the film delivers in spades. Like the
Evil Dead films,
Drag Me to Hell offers a campy/goofy send up of the horror genre mixed with some genuine frights/thrills. I was alternately tense and laughing at various points in the film, which is exactly what I had hoped to get from Raimi.
Grade: 4/5
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) - Marvel fans need not apply for this one, it isn’t what you might think. The plot here is interesting enough (if sometimes difficult to discern), but the allure of this film is the disturbing imagery, the innovate and stylized effects (quite incredible for ’89), and the pounding industrial soundtrack. Much of his film felt like an early 90s industrial band music video, but with more of a cyberpunk feel than was often found on the stuff on MTV (which was usually more goth). In any case, it is easy to see how the film influenced subsequent 90s indie cinema: sharp contrast and heavy saturation, quick cuts and time-manipulation, and a focus on style over story (think
Pi, for example). Memorable.
Grade: 3.5/5
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) – I stumbled across this short documentary film when checking out Herzog’s filmography (after reading some of the reviews above
). You can find it on the web easily enough, and is something worth seeing for those with a taste for the bizarre (or for footwear). The philosophizing and so forth is all well and good, but basically functions as a warrant for the main event. It’s an interesting little slice of the director’s sole.
Grade: 2.5/5
My appetite is still not sated, so yet more film reviews will be up soon!
