Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)
Alex Garland's Civil War (2024)

6/30/2014

Papillon (1973) or, Devil's Island Indeed



The intense, beautifully painted poster for Franklin J. Schaffner's Papillon

Papillon is quite a movie.
At 151 minutes, it is an epic length prison escape movie based on the bestselling autobiography by Henri Charrière. It takes place in exotic, cruel settings and stars two of the biggest stars of its day, Steve McQueen (The Great Escape (1963)) and Dustin Hoffman (Straw Dogs (1971)). Furthermore, it's a great picture!
It is the story of 'Papillon' [French for butterfly], an - according to himself - innocent man accused of murder, who is to be punished by his motherland, France, in its penal colony on Devil's Island in French Guiana, off the North Atlantic coast of South America. Already on the strenuous boat journey there, the entrepreneurial Papillon fixes his mind on escape and makes a good ally in Louis Dega, a man very much his opposite, who is guilty of counterfeiting and has money with him.
The story then proceeds with its ups and downs for our two heroes. More intimate knowledge of their lives before their sentences isn't really necessary for the tale, which is one of survival and struggle for freedom. Also absent in Papillon: Women. Almost completely. Whether it makes the film a 'man's movie', I can't say, but I didn't miss them. - Another great epic, David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) also nearly doesn't have any women in it, (only those few lookers that the studio forced into it, as I recall.)

Steve McQueen in perhaps his career's finest performance, as Franklin J. Schaffner's Papillon

Steve McQueen is awesome in the title role, which might be his best performance period. He goes all-in in an incredibly demanding and exhausting part that includes scenes depicting the man's two years (!!!) in solitary confinement (including 6 months in total darkness), which McQueen does brilliantly. And Hoffman is perfect in the more cerebral, cautious part as Dega.
Adding to the intense inherent interest that the film has going for it is the fact that it was shot on locations in Spain, Jamaica and Hawaii. Tropical beasts, elaborate, nail-biting escapes, lunacy, executions, extreme exertion, leprosy and so much more all make the film a very rich experience.
It ends in SPOILER a legendary cliff-jumping scene, shot off the cliffs of Maui, which McQueen insisted on performing himself and later called "one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life", - the man was indeed a wildcat and a daredevil.

The details:

Papillon was - undeservedly - only nominated for one Oscar: For Jerry Goldsmith's (Gremlins (1984)) score, which is truly great; restrained, suspense-heightening, classy stuff.
He had worked twice before with Papillon's great director, Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet of the Apes (1968)), - on Apes and Patton (1970), - and that relationship would continue in Islands in the Stream (1977), The Boys From Brazil (1978) and Lionheart (1987). Schaffner also deserved a nomination, in my opinion, for Papillon is an extremely well-held suspense movie with one strong sequence followed by another followed by another. There are also a few dream/hallucination scenes, and at least one of them is very evocative and arresting visually. Only a truly great director could pull all of this off, and Schaffner was that man. 
Another really great and exciting aspect of Papillon is its gay character, played by Robert Deman (Savage Soldier (1971)), whom Papillon utilizes for an escape and brings along. It is a textured and touching role that Deman inhabits with grace and nerve.
Papillon stands as one of the greatest prison escape movies of all time, just below Escape From Alcatraz (1979).

Related review:

Franklin J. SchaffnerThe Boys From Brazil (1978), The Last Nazi Command




Watch this long original trailer that includes behind-the-scenes footage

Budget: 13.5 mil. $
Box office: 53.2 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of Papillon?
Do you agree that this is Steve McQueen's best performance?

6/29/2014

Batman/Batman: The Movie (1966) or, Batman and Robin: Kapow!!!



KAPOW! The poster for Leslie H. Martinson's Batman seems to scream it

QUICK REVIEW:

Batman and 'the boy wonder', Robin, are up against a terrifying enemy: A collective of Gotham City's four worst criminals, who among other things dehydrate world leaders! 

From the left, Burgess Meredith, Cesar Romero and Frank Gorshin as the film's three male villains

They are The Riddler, The Joker, The Penguin and Catwoman, and they are all played with zeal and a speedy kind of mania by Frank Gorshin, Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith and Lee Meriwether.
I found myself intensely wishing that Robin's (played by Burt Ward) mushy lips would do other things in Batman besides merely uttering idiocies. But alas. The very first Batman movie is a fatiguing, peppy, sexless, straight 60's-fantasy, which is completely relocated from reality and therefore lacks any kind of suspense. Still, it is worth a watch as a timely, stylish, psychedelic and über-enthusiastic entertainment production full of gags and yelling and noise of all kinds. It has a sensational amount of silliness and both the obligatory Batmobile, but also a Batcycle, a Batboat and a Batcopter ...!
And in case you're wondering, this is how Batman and Robin run through Gotham City in the film:



And this is how they climb tall buildings:



The film was released in the summer between the first and second season of ABC's Batman TV-series that feature almost all of the same actors, (Catwoman, however, was played by another actress.)
Batman is directed by Leslie H. Martinson (The Brady Bunch (1970-73)), a very productive mostly TV director.
Whether you'll enjoy the film depends mostly on your ability to experience the campy/innocent/silly dialog and production design as charming and funny. Ideally, Batman is experienced either with some kids, or under the influence of a joint.
Enjoy!




Watch the trailer here and at the same time enjoy Link Wray's classic theme here

Budget: 1.5 mil. $
Box office: Est. 1.7 mil. $ (US and Canada rentals)
= Uncertainty

What do you think of this the very first Batman movie?

6/28/2014

Black Sheep (1996) - Maybe Chris Farley's funniest movie



+ Best Crazy-Comedy of the Year 


Chris Farley and David Spade on the hilarity-promising poster for Penelope Spheeris' Black Sheep

QUICK REVIEW:

Here we have an ambitious gubernatorial candidate, whose fat, lead-footed brother so wants to help him out. So he pegs out a campaign worker to ensure that things stay under control as his brother 'helps out'. But pretty soon, damage control is the only kind of control that they can pursue.

Chris Farley is physically astonishing, in Penelope Spheeris' Black Sheep


Chris Farley (Beverly Hills Ninja (1997)) shows himself as a minor comical genius in the discipline of physical comedy here. Unfortunately, David Spade (Grown Ups (2010)) is totally inadequate as his weirdly wimpy 'buddy'.
Black Sheep is an over-the-top, overly happy, silly 90's comedy. Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon (1987)) and Tim Matheson (Animal House (1978)) are both in it as well and are both alright.
This laugh-fest contains many funny and crazy scenes.
There is much disagreement over the movie, though: Some consider it much worse than the buddy couple's previous, similar comedy, Tommy Boy (1995), but I think Black Sheep is far superior. It's far crazier, faster and has far more laughs.
The production of Black Sheep was troubled to say the least: A Paramount hired gig that no-one were very enthusiastic about, apparently, - which seems incredible when you see the film, - was made with a director, Penelope Spheeris (Wayne's World (1992)), who had a very bad relationship with one of the leads, diva Spade, who even claims to have gotten a permanent eye hyper-sensitivity to light-condition during the filming. Spheeris also had big problems with the film's writer Fred Wolf (Grown Ups 2 (2013)) whom she fired three times and eventually banned from the set.
All these facts almost only make the film even more legendary and incredible. - I should also mention that both Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert hated, - really HATED, - Black Sheep.
It all just goes to say ... if you haven't already, - WATCH Black Sheep!

 

Related post:

 

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess


If this trailer doesn't make you laugh, don't watch Black Sheep ... And go to a mirror and look long and hard in it, because what kind of a person are you?!?

Budget: Unknown
Box office: 32.4 mil. $ (US only)

= A hit

What do you think of Black Sheep?
And of Chris Farley, David Spade and Farley's other movies?

Bagdad Café/Out of Rosenheim (1987) - Magic and human brotherhood succeed in Percy Adlon's quaint America-vision



Wonderful, graphic poster for Percy Adlon's Bagdad Café

QUICK REVIEW:

We are in the California dessert Route 66 gas station small town Bagdad, where a German lady lodges at the motel after losing her husband. At first, the African-American woman who is the manager is very opposed to the new guest, but later everyone falls for Jasmine.

Marianne Sägebrecht and Jack Palance in Percy Adlon's quaint Bagdad Café

Bavarian actress Marianne Sägebrecht (Rosalie Goes Shopping (1989)) is the jewel of the film; very real and very charming. CCH Pounder (Avatar (2009)) is also good, but her character's development isn't fully convincing. And then there's Jack Palance (Le Mépris (1963)) ... - who's also just dandy!
A gay, free, dwelling movie with lovely painting and magic scenes and an unbelievable amount of boomerang-shots.
Bagdad Café is a slow, but rewarding film, very unique and fine. It is directed by Percy Adlon (Rosalie Goes Shopping (1989)), who, despite his English-sounding name, comes from Munich.
The film was shot in the Sidewinder Café in Newberry Springs, CA, where they since renamed their café to Bagdad Café and have received many visitors that are fans of the film since.

Watch the happy trailer here

Budget: Unknown
Box office: 3.5 mil. $ (US only)
= Reportedly a hit

What do you think of Bagdad Café?
Have you seen other Percy Adlon movies, and if so, how were they?

6/27/2014

Boardwalk Empire - season 1 (2010) - Luxurious 1920's ensemble gangster treats



1 Film Excess win:

Best Production Design

2 Film Excess nominations:

Best Production Design (won)
Best TV-series (lost to Treme S1)

+ Best Gangster Movie/TV-series of the Year
+ Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Michael Pitt

Protagonist Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson played by Steve Buscemi heads inland in Terence Winter's Boardwalk Empire

The 12 episode 1st season of the HBO series starts at the beginning of Prohibition, which seems to mostly evade Atlantic City, where the show takes place, in a sense, (namely that they keep on drinking, now just illegally distilled and distributed liquor.) The city's gangster treasurer, Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson arranges the booze smuggling and profits from it, as well as from other illegal and legal enterprises in the tourist-heavy, coastal spa city. 
The following will contain SPOILERS.


Wonderful, heightened reality HD character poster for Terence Winter's Boardwalk Empire

The series starts with strength in the 73 minute long first episode directed by Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)), which became the costliest pilot ever produced at 18 mil. $: Thompson underling Jimmy Darmody (the brilliant Michael Pitt (Rob the Mob (2014))) is tempted by the FBI, while the violent husband of Irish immigrant Margaret Schroeder is killed as a scapegoat for a smuggling operation gone haywire. The pilot is almost over-filled with introductory stuff, stuff happening, - just LOTS of stuff to keep track of. It had to establish the whole series for other directors to follow, so they could emulate Scorsese's style. It succeeds in catching you, and just might confuse you a bit, too. In the following episodes, the pace luckily slows down a bit, as we get to know the characters better and better.

Michael Pitt and Steve Buscemi in Terence Winter's Boardwalk Empire

Nucky's brother is the sheriff of AC, and is bitterly subordinated to his triumphant brother. Darmody, after some stupidities, goes into exile in Chicago, where he joins a bloody partnership with the young Al Capone and sees his lover get her face slashed open as retribution. After getting even with the help of a new acquaintance with a war disability, Darmody returns home to AC, while FBI agent Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon) whips himself and tries to (metaphorically) force a boulder up a mountain with his professional and personal goal: To enforce Prohibition in the city. Thompson's top-distiller, the black Chalky White is also his entrance to the city's big, African-American population, whom he needs at election-time.
The very high quality level of the series is held, as women attain the right to vote, and Darmody unwittingly scares his girlfriend's bisexual friend-couple away at his homecoming, where he also succeeds in ending the slow poisoning of his father, the city's retired 'Commodore'.
Agent Nelson's insanity culminates in his drowning of his subordinate at a Baptist church mass baptism, and he then receives a sign that he has to stay and continue his impossible job in AC, opposing his wife's begging. (The 'sign' being that he has impregnated a whore there, the former lover of Enoch, Lucy Danziger (Paz de la Huerta)).
Shroeder appears to want to stay with Nucky, thus compromising her own ethics and moral.
In the end we get what we are hoping for: A little romance. After all the stiff whiskys; dark, hard and prone to tragedy, as the series is.
Boardwalk Empire is a lavish, tragically swinging 1920's Sopranos (1999-2007) in its best moments. Incredibly well-produced, succulent and brilliantly casted. Michael Stuhlbarg (Men in Black 3 (2012)) and Kelly Macdonald (In the Electric Mist (2009)) as Schroeder are also excellent, and they all have their places well behind the show's seasoned, great lead, played by Steve Buscemi (The Sopranos (2004-06)) in the biggest role of his career.
This is a grand and crazy-good series. - Get it!
It is created by Terence Winter, who also produced many Sopranos episodes, and directed one, Walk Like a Man (2007), and has written a lot; Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005), 25 (!) Sopranos episodes (2000-07) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) to name some of it. He has now written and will produce an untitled HBO rock 'n roll TV movie that Scorsese is set to direct. The film is cast.

Best episodes:

Episode 5: Nights in Ballygran
The series shows its dark face again around St. Patrick's Day, wherein Schroeder and her Women's Temperance League confront the reality of the city, and an unexpected romance between her and Enoch starts.

Episode 8: Hold Me in Paradise

The highpoint in the series to this point: The sheriff gets shot in the fight against the incoming Italian hoodlums, and the election is determined.

Related posts:

Martin ScorseseThe Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - A helluva movie! (Written by Terence Winter)
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
The Aviator (2004) - The grand American biopic 
The Age of Innocence (1993) or, Stayin' IN the Pants 

What do you think of Boardwalk Empire?

6/26/2014

2012 in films - according to Film Excess

The 10 Best Films of 2012:


1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky


 2. Flight - Robert Zemeckis


3. Love Is All You Need/Den Skaldede Frisør - Susanne Bier + Best Danish Film of the Year


4. Hope Springs - David Frankel


5. The Sessions - Ben Lewin


6. The Impossible/Lo Imposible - J. A. Bayona


7. Mud - Jeff Nichols


8. The Place Beyond the Pines - Derek Cianfrance


9. Frances Ha - Noah Baumbach + Best New York Film of the Year


10. Amour - Michael Haneke

Other great movies of 2012: (in random order)


A Royal Affair/En Kongelig Affære - Nikolaj Arcel


Zero Dark Thirty - Kathryn Bigelow


Men in Black 3 - Barry Sonnenfeld


Looper - Rian Johnson


A Hijacking/Kapringen - Tobias Lindholm


Argo - Ben Affleck


 Beasts of the Southern Wild - Benh Zeitlin


Wadjda - Haifaa Al-Mansour + First Saudi-Arabian Film in History


A World Not Ours - Mahdi Fleifel + Best Documentary of the Year


Hyde Park on Hudson - Roger Michell

Recommendable, good movies of 2012: (in random order)


Prometheus - Ridley Scott


The Paperboy - Lee Daniels + Strangest Film of the Year


Jack Reacher - Christopher McQuarrie


Iron Sky - Timo Vuorensola


Here Comes the Boom - Frank Coraci


Dark Shadows - Tim Burton


Get the Gringo/How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Adrian Grünberg 



The Devil Inside - William Brent Bell + Best Horror Film of the Year


The Avengers/Avengers Assemble - Joss Whedon

The 10 Worst Films of 2012:



1. John Carter - Andrew Stanton + Most Expensive Flop of the Year


2. Aftershock - Nicholás Lopez + Most Tasteless Film of the Year


3. To Rome With Love - Woody Allen


4. Cosmopolis - David Cronenberg


5. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Timur Bekmambetov


6. Battleship - Peter Berg


7. Painless/Insensibles - Juan Carlos Medina


8. Chernobyl Diaries - Bradley Parker


9. Piranha 3DD - John Gulager


10. The Expendables 2 - Simon West

Not favorites of Film Excess/undistinguished/poor/ mediocre movies of 2012: (reviewed 2012 movies that aren't good or bad enough to fit anywhere else)

The Woman in Black
Skyfall 
Silver Linings Playbook
Promised Land
My Brother the Devil
The Possession
The Dark Knight Rises
American Reunion/American Pie: Reunion
Big Miracle
The Amazing Spiderman

Notes:

2012 was a great year in movies. The top 10 includes 5 masterpieces, - good for any year. And the best film of the year, Stephen Chobosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a youth romance dramedy keeper that'll live for decades to come.
Robert Zemeckis' Flight is the resounding character study of the year; Susanne Bier's Love Is All You Need a charming, funny, moving romcom, - her (as with Zemeckis) best film to date. Dave Frankel's Hope Springs brought us some favorite actors in an extremely delicate marriage counseling dramedy, and Ben Lewin's The Sessions was a surprise sex dramedy smash. Dramedies of different kinds have been favorites of the year. 
J. A. Bayona's The Impossible is technically stunning, as well as stunning due to actors' performances; the 2004 tsunami couldn't have gotten a 'better' film. Jeff Nichols' Mud is an unusual coming-of-age drama revolving around the Mississippi River. Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines is a magnetic, hard crime epic. Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha is the witty, melancholic portrayal of a young woman's struggles in New York and elsewhere. And finally, Amour is Michael Haneke's uncompromising, unrelenting film of an old, loving couple's disintegration through sickness and death. Whoa, what a year!
In the 'worst of 2012' section, some really expensive, stupid, huge movies made their mark; Andrew Stanton's John Carter above all, a desert walk to get through despite its lavish production, but also Peter Berg's Battleship and Simon West's The Expendables 2 fell through. Filmmaker masters David Cronenberg and Woody Allen both had terrible releases in 2012 with Cosmopolis and To Rome With Love respectively.
In other news, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy came to a disappointing end, Daniel Craig continued his Bond-travesty with the slightly better Skyfall; Spiderman got an unnecessary reboot, and America went nuts over Silver Linings Playbook and their new best actress friend Jennifer Lawrence, who won an Oscar for her work in the film before four other, way more deserving actresses.
At the 2013 Oscars, the Academy threw most of their love over Ben Affleck's Argo and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, but also admired Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, his biggest hit yet. Both Lincoln and Django haven't been officially reviewed at Film Excess yet, but have been seen, and are both very good films indeed. As are Oscar favorites The Master and Life of Pi, the latter, however, a little less so.
Many big 2012 releases remains to be seen and reviewed by Film Excess, among them such titles as:
21 Jump Street, Pitch Perfect, The Hunger Games, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, Magic Mike, Spring Breakers, The Lucky One, Think Like a Man (seen - good), Stuck in Love, Ted, Les Misérables, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Girl Most Likely, Cloud Atlas, The Vow, Moonrise Kingdom, Wreck-It-Ralph, The Cabin in the Woods (seen - bad), This Is 40 (seen - very good), The Hunt, Lawless, Brave and many others.
As always, lots of movies left to see, - yeah!

Do you agree with Film Excess' 2012 lists?
What films would top and bottom your lists of 2012 movies?
What movies are missed here?

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (4-24)

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (4-24)
Niclas Bendixen's Rom (2024)