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Working links in the
members' page, text-only in the AdultCheck
version Whatcha
gonna do? Not a lot of female nudity in the new
releases this week, but one helluva great
selection of films.
"Flypaper"
(1997) by Johnny Web
Flypaper is a slight
twist on the Tarantino formula. It does have the
intersecting plot lines, sensationalized
violence, and perverse humor, but it twists the
knife in a slightly different direction. It goes
directly for the humorous aspects of the
grotesque violence, rather than for the gory
aspects. As a result, one guy walks around with
his ear off, and another guy spends the last
third of the movie with a knife in his head. Now
that I think about it, I don't know if anyone
ever dies in this movie. They just keep
accumulating more bizarre wounds, and losing more
body parts. Anyway, it is funny in a sick and
twisted way, but the essence of the movie is just
pointless schlock, and a little of that goes a
long way for me. Look for a truly twisted scene
where Lucy Liu and her lover take anti-venom
antidote and make love in a nest of snakes, while
being bitten viciously in graphic detail. I think
this heightens their pleasure - or something.
There is flesh from Liu
and Frost, but not from Talisa Soto (pity).
Sadie Frost (1,
2)
Lucy Liu (1,
2,
3)
Talisa Soto
"The
Talented Mr Ripley", (1999) by Johnny Web
This movie is much
better than I anticipated. The trailers that I
saw were not a good indication of the essence of
the movie. It is actually a Hitchcockian thriller
that equals even the master. The connection with
Hitch is tightened by the source material.
Patricia Highsmith, author of the Ripley novels,
is also the author of the novel Strangers on a
Train, which was adapted by noir king Raymond
Chandler into the script for a famous Hitchcock
film.
Tom Ripley is
exceptional in the realm of literary bad guys in
that he is the focus of a series of books.
Normally the baddie gets his just due at the end
of a book or movie, but Highsmith played the
dirty trick of making us like Ripley and want to
read more and more about him. And she obliged us
by writing sequels for forty years. Yes Ripley is
amoral, even ruthless, but he just seems to pull
it off with such clumsy enthusiasm. The Talented
Mr Ripley is the beginning of the Ripley saga, in
which the con man was just learning how to do his
thing. The movie captures the spirit of the work
perfectly with the casting of Matt Damon, who
pulls off brutual murder with such earnest
wide-eyed naivete that we end up liking him and
rooting for him to succeed, and longing to learn
more about his life. Same damned trick that the
book pulls off. Could any other current actor but
Damon pull this off? Just a masterstroke of
casting. Expect sequels to bounce from the
respectable $80 million domestic gross.
This is the second time
this book has been made into a movie. The first
was way back in 1960, in a Rene Clement
("Forbidden Games") movie called
"Plein soleil", starring a young Alain
Delon as Ripley. It is available in an English
subtitled video version called "Purple
Noon".
In addition to the
interpretations by Delon and Damon, the part of
Ripley has also been played, unlikely though it
seems, by Dennis Hopper in "The American
Friend", a Wim Wenders adaptation of
Highsmith's novel "Ripley's Game".
This is a handsomely
photographed movie of spectacular European
locales, but I'm sorry to say that all the nudity
is supplied by males. (Ripley is, um, omnisexual)
References
"The
Woody Allen Collection" by Johnny Web
Eight of Woody's best in
one set, including Annie Hall, Manhattan,
Bananas, Sleeper, Everything You Always Wanted
..., and my favorite, the erudite Love and Death
(Woody's interpretation of War and Peace,
complete with score by Prokoviev). Who else but
Woody Allen would write a parody of the
Napoleonic Wars?). Eight DVD movies for less than
12 bucks apiece. A must for Woody fans. I'm not a
great fan of Stardust Memories, which is in the
collection, and the tone of "Interiors"
is really not consistent with the rest of the
set. And I really wish the set included Zelig,
Hannah and her Sisters, and Take the Money and
Run, but let's be thankful for the treasures we
are given. It is a powerhouse package. The
picture here is Shelley Duvall in "Annie
Hall"
Shelley Duvall
"Dead
Again" (1991) by Johnny Web
Kenneth Branagh has not
been very successful when he has ventured away
from Shakespeare. Some of his Bardless efforts
have been downright embarrassing exercises in
walking his ego. But not this one. The blatant
theatricality of the script was perfect for his
theatrical style, and I think you'll be
especially impressed by the black and white
scenes of the earlier life (it's about the
transmigration of souls, sort of, with Thompson
and Branagh playing two roles apiece). Branagh
pays tribute to Welles and Hitchcock in his
B&W cinematography, and does an uncanny
impersonation of Olivier as Roman, the maestro
who escaped from the Nazis. The Olivier
impersonation extends beyond the voice and style.
He bears an eerie physical resemblance to Lord
Larry as well, as you can see in the accompanying
picture of Em's cleavage.
In the later life,
Branagh takes his character as far from
Shakespeare as possible, and plays a stuttering
and stumbling dolt of a private eye with a
childlike naivete and a glass jaw. He may have
made this character a bit too wide-eyed, but he
wanted to create a vast distance between the two
characters, and the overall effect is fine.
The film could have
suffered greatly if it had taken itself
completely seriously, but it carries off the
silly multiple-lives plot with a great deal of
pleasant offhanded deprecation, and the film is
just loaded with in-jokes. (If you're an "I,
Claudius" fan, you're going to love Derek
Jacobi's moment of self-parody.) It lies
somewhere comfortably between an homage to
Hitchcock, and a little bit of fun at the
master's expense. (Could there be any more
close-ups of the murder weapon?) This is one of
the last movies made in the grand old style, so
if you like the films of the 30's and 40's, with
their gothic sets, deep shadows, and vertiginious
camera angles, this will be your cup of tea. I
really enjoyed it, in all of its gloriously
excessive faux-majestic splendor, and all of its
bizarre over-the-top plot twists.
Emma Thompson
"Harold
and Maude" (1971) by Johnny Web
Typical of this week's
new DVD material: terrific film with no nudity.
Of course, I doubt if you'd want all that much
nudity in the love story between a 20 year old
boy and a 79 year old woman. This film has been a
cult favorite for a couple of decades now, and
was a labor of love for the participants. There
are so many great scenes that you have to see it
yourself.
The boy's false suicides
and his pretentious mother's offhanded responses
to them are some of the funniest moments ever
captured on film.
You regulars know that I
am always mesmerized by the artifacts of that
counter-cultural revolution in the 1968-74
period, and this is one of the very best samples
of the anti-conventional and anti-authoritarian
attitude of that era, right down to the Cat
Stevens background score. If you want to
experience how we thought and felt in that era,
this movie serves as part of your introductory
course. (I also recommend MASH and Putney Swope
in your Hippie 101 survey course, and some back
issues of National Lampoon and Ramparts.)
Here's a great web site with all
kinds forgotten lore about Harold and Maude, Bud
Cort, Cat Stevens, Ruth Gordon, and others who
participated. I especially recommend a quick look
through the comments in the trivia section. What
was the deal on Harold's Jag-hearse or Maude's
concentration camp tattoo? Pick up some of the
additional details from the book that were
unrealized or inexplicit in the film, or just
read the fans' dissection of their favorite
elements.
"Scream
3" (2000) and some chat by Johnny Web
Akira did a good job on
the Jenny McCarthy material yesterday, so I
skipped over it. This is also a good movie, a
worthy successor to the excessively self-aware
tradition of Scream, with some very offbeat
performances by such performers as Parker Posey
and David Arquette, and a brilliant cameo by Leiv
Schreiber, who continues the Don Cheadle path of
stealing scene after scene and film after film
without really breaking through to the top. By
the way, speaking of Don Cheadle, did you read
that they are remaking Ocean's 11 with George
Clooney in the Sinatra role. The film also stars
Cheadle, Mark Wahlberg (who is now officially
Clooney's wacky little buddy sidekick), Julia
Roberts, Brad Pitt, Bill Murray, and Bruce
Willis. Could be super with a great script.
Steven Soderbergh, director of "Erin
Brockovich" and "Out of Sight",
will helm the film. Soderbergh is equally at home
with conventional big budget flicks and smaller
experimental stuff. I really enjoyed his offbeat
and strangely paced "The Limey", which
plays like an indy with a few extra bucks thrown
at it.
Back to the topic of
Scream 3, here's Kelly Rutherford. I guess she's
naked, but she's behind a translucent shower
screen, so you can't see jack.
Kelly Rutherford
"Cinderella
Liberty" (1973) from GR
I don't believe I have
seen caps of this before. Marsha Mason shows off
some fine assets in this hippie-era Jimmy Caan
flick.
Marsha Mason
"Metroland"
from Tuna
Metroland is a rather
pedestrian film about a man who has been married
for 10 years, and is finding things a bit cold in
bed. When his best friend returns, he can't help
thinking about his first love -- a young French
girls from his journey to Paris to beco0me a
famous photographer and leave middle-class morals
behind. The film takes its name from the
Metroliner which takes the commuters to and from
their middle class suburb. Although the plot
covers no new ground, the film provides great
nudity from three actresses. Emily Watson plays
his wife, who admits to an affair. Elsa
Zylberstein plays the French girlfriend, and is
delightful. Amanda Ryan plays a temptress, who
his best friend talks into trying to seduce him.
It is a watchable film with good exposure, but is
not especially memorable.
Thumbnails Thumbnails Amanda Ryan (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10, 11, 12) Elsa Zylberstein (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15) Emily Watson (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8)
"Re-Animator"
from Tuna
I finally got my hands
on the DVD edition of the 1985 horror classic
Re-Animator. Seems there are titles distributed
in Canada that we can't get from US vendors. A
young medical student develops a somewhat
unreliable serum to bring the dead back to life.
The film contains as much comedy as horror. I one
scene, the beautiful and naked Barbara Crampton
is hit on by a severed head. This is the best
exposure of the lovely Ms. Crampton.
Thumbnails Barbara Crampton (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10, 11, 12)
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