Iro's One Movie a Day Thread

#360 - xXx
Rob Cohen, 2002



A thrill-seeking criminal is forcibly recruited to spy on an Eastern European terrorist as he plans to execute a devastating plot.

When xXx first came out, I was about twelve years old and thus likely to be in the target audience for such a film. Unfortunately, I have only just gotten around to seeing this (and also a decade after seeing the 2005 sequel that replaced Vin Diesel with Ice Cube and ended up earning a spot on my "worst 100" list) and thus didn't meet my criteria for a genuinely entertaining action blockbuster. There are a lot of elements that date xXx severely right from the outset, such as the buttrock-heavy soundtrack and the fact that Diesel's protagonist is first depicted stealing the sports car of an elderly white senator who opposes videogames purely for the sake of a subversive Jackass-like stunt. The focus on extreme sports - namely, that Diesel's character loves to perform them and integrates his experience into his spy activities - also guarantees that this film is directed towards individuals of a very particular mindset, which I don't happen to be of. I don't deny that there is talent that goes into performing such stunts, but they shouldn't feel so boring and un-engaging for the most part.

Even though you're not watching a film like xXx for its story, when the action generally doesn't do much to engage you then you have to deal with the story. Diesel's ability as a leading man fluctuates so wildly that it can't be considered legitimately good, while Samuel L. Jackson just generates his usual level of cool as Diesel's detached handler/mentor. Not even Marton Csokas's heavily accented turn as the film's main villain or an extremely ancillary romantic sub-plot involving Diesel and Asia Argento does anything to add to the non-action part of things. xXx isn't egregiously awful, but it's extremely disposable and not even the memorable stunts do much to stand out amidst this half-baked attempt to provide some empty thrills.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Ex Machina is one of this year's best films.

Great idea for a thread Iro, even though there are what, two or three going at same time? I always check in on this one to see what you've been watching lately.

Why do you watch so many obviously sh!tty movies, Iro?

I mean, I can see watching some crap for the unintentionally funny aspect that comes with some of them, but most of these you're giving really low ratings to don't even look like they'd have that to offer.

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Because I don't love myself.

#361 - Soylent Green
Richard Fleischer, 1973



In the distant future of 2022, a detective tries to solve the murder of a wealthy businessman but ends up stumbling upon a conspiracy in the process.

Another day, another Charlton Heston movie that is famous mainly because of its climatic twist. While I'm not going to specify the twist in this case as I didn't with Planet of the Apes, I still feel the need to point out that Soylent Green differs from that film in that it doesn't exactly hold up even in the face of knowing its twist. Soylent Green is a dystopian conspiracy thriller that sees Heston's detective investigating a home invasion and suspecting that there was more to it than just a break-in gone wrong. His search leads him through the crumbling streets of New York as a largely destitute population fights over synthetic foodstuffs because real food is such a rarity that even Heston is willing to appropriate it from a murder victim's apartment.

Of course, the world-building that goes into the world of the film doesn't do all that much to distinguish it from your run-of-the-mill dystopia. Corrupt officials, pronounced class divide, futuristic items, and of course the secret conspiracy that provides the film's big twist - there's not nearly enough personality. The performers aren't much chop - Heston is his usual square-jawed heroic self, while the only other actor that comes across as memorable is Edward G. Robinson as Heston's elderly mentor. There's the occasional spot of action to pad out its lean running time and the occasional astute observation (the greenhouse effect is still a serious concern in 2022) but it's a fundamentally empty example of science-fiction that does provide some decent visuals and an interesting enough plot but little else beyond that.

I really must say that your hard work amazes me, Iro.

You're keeping a consistent rythm with reviews of a solid length, and I really respect how you can keep this going like this.

I've fallen off a little personally, so seeing you still going strong is quite impressive.

Well, if they don't take up multiple paragraphs then they don't count as reviews so I at least try to make them two sufficiently lengthy paragraphs long.

Yeah, I know, but you could just do "unofficial" ones. Personally I just feel like when I actually do take my time with a review, I might as well do it proper. I bet you feel the same.

Yeah, I could, but where's the fun in that? I did make a post on the previous page where I listed a bunch of David Lynch shorts in one post, though.

#362 - An American in Paris
Vincente Minnelli, 1951



In post-WWII Paris, an American ex-GI competes with one of his friends for the attention of a French ballet dancer.

I think that the presence or absence of Gene Kelly is a major deciding factor in how much I'm likely to enjoy a musical from Hollywood's Golden Age, and I was looking forward to An American in Paris because not only did it feature Kelly but it was also apparently good enough to win Best Picture. True to form, there is that sort of quality that keeps the film reasonably entertaining throughout its running time, but it's still prone to a lot of the usual flaws that make Golden Age musicals in general a bit of a tough sell. Much like the other Kelly films I've seen, it uses its loose romantic plot as a launching pad for all sorts of song-and-dance numbers. The last Kelly film I saw was On the Town another similarly lightweight affair and it's not hard to see how Kelly and co. recycle certain concepts and methods of execution - the sequence introducing the dancer in question (Leslie Caron) does so with a documentary-like section full of vibrant-looking sets and ballet moves, which it also did with Vera-Ellen's character in On the Town, as well as Kelly's tendency towards using characters' dreams and imaginations in order to justify some fancy-looking sequences. Hey, if it ain't broke...

Unfortunately, despite the talent on display An American in Paris doesn't quite live up to its award-winning reputation or to the other Kelly films I've seen so far. The songs don't stand out on their own merits, which I guess I can tolerate given how Kelly's always been much more of a dancer than a singer and the dance routines are decent enough to compensate. The visuals are also a major point in the film's favour, especially with the eye-catching set designs and cinematography. The plot's focus on the convoluted romantic lives of its main characters is sporadically interesting but often feels like a means to an end. It's about par for the course as far as classic Hollywood musicals go and is definitely worth appreciating on that particular level, but it doesn't do enough to transcend its ultimately basic focus on spectacle (though it is good spectacle).

#363 - Rejected
Don Hertzfeldt, 2000



A handful of animated shorts created by Don Hertzfeldt tied together by their being rejected by the clients who requested them.

Original review found here.

Obviously you don't know the fun of reviewing bad movies.

She does have a point, it's not really worth it. Those kinds of reviews get barely any rep.

#364 - Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
D.A. Pennebaker, 1973



A concert film featuring David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars.

Concert films are always something of a gamble even if you are a fan of the musicians in question. Bowie is something of a favourite of mine and I've been citing his 1972 rock opera The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars as one of my favourite albums for a while now, which is why I'm probably a little disappointed that the film doesn't just consist of songs from that album. It is a concept album and it tells a story, plus songs like "Five Years" and "Starman" definitely deserve to be heard alongside "Moonage Daydream" and "Suffragette City". Aside from the selections from that particular album, the setlist also incorporates songs from Aladdin Sane, Hunky Dory, The Man Who Sold the World, and Space Oddity. There are also a few covers thrown in for good measure referencing Bowie influences like the Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, and Jacques Brel. Counterculture documentarian D.A. Pennebaker films the whole thing as a straightforward concert film with the occasional cutaway to Bowie backstage between numbers.

Despite the pedigree of both its on-screen and off-screen talent plus the brief running time, Ziggy Stardust... didn't feel all that much fun to watch. As with any artist that I am sufficiently familiar with, I found myself picking apart what songs should have been on the setlist and what should have been left. Why keep the cover of "Let's Spend the Night Together" when you could have had "Lady Grinning Soul"? At least it keeps more good songs than bad ones, but even so the audio quality and the live tweaking don't do the songs any favours. Despite Bowie's tendency towards flashy glam-rock aesthetics, there's not a lot of visual flair to the film beyond the grainy film quality combining with Bowie and co.'s lurid appearances and behaviour. It's not a bad film by any means but I think I'll be fine if I never watch it again and only listen to his studio albums. These songs deserve polish no matter how rough they actually are.

#365 - Across the Wide Missouri
William A. Wellman, 1951



In the mid-19th century, a fur trapper leads an expedition through Native American territory and must contend with a dangerous war chief.

Across the Wide Missouri is a fairly short and ultimately disposable Western rooted in historical accounts of the fur trade. There's no small amount of mythmaking involved as the tale is narrated by the protagonist's son (who also happens to be an infant who is present during these events), as well as playing into a typical "cowboys and Indians" kind of story. Maybe it has to do with the fact that my main experience with Westerns tends to be the modern revisionist type that either subvert or avoid that particular brand of conflict - even so, if a film is good enough it should be able to do well in spite of that. There are hints of depth here and there as Clark Gable's arrogant hunter leads a group through hostile territory despite the warnings of his subordinates, even finding time to buy and marry a Native woman (María Elena Marqués) as a means of insuring himself against attack by the local population. Of course, this just ends up drawing the unwanted attention of a war chief (Ricardo Montalban) anyway.

On the technical side, it's competent without being impressive. The performances are passable, with Gable showcasing his usual roguish charm without significant variation, while Montalban is rather wasted as an antagonist. Despite the short running time, there are long stretches where it's easy to get bored, though there's just enough of interest going on to stop me giving this a sufficiently unfavourable rating (that climax was really well-handled and a huge point in the film's favour). It's nothing special at the end of the day, even with its slightly-more-complicated-than-expected treatise on the relationship between white Americans and Native Americans.

That's because it's hard to give positive rep to a bad review of a movie I love.

Hard, but not impossible.

It depends on the movie.

negative movie reviews are underrated.

Fair point. Myself, I admit that my favourites are far from perfect and I don't mind hearing criticisms about them - provided they make sense, of course. I don't particularly like it when people go in for senseless hatred (even if I am one of those people from time to time).

Yeah, if they're done right then they're just as good as positive reviews.