The 27th General Hall of Fame

Hope to get a Thunder Road review up tonight.

True Romance follows Clarence and Alabama Worley (Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette), a loner and a prostitute that get married after meeting one night. But when Clarence tries to settle things with Alabama's pimp, they find themselves on the run from both the Mafia and the cops.

This is a film I remember seeing and enjoying back in the 90s, but that for some reason, I hadn't revisited in around 20 years. It also features a huge cast that, even though most of them were not big stars yet, it still makes for an interesting and impressive ensemble. From Dennis Hopper, James Gandolfini and Christopher Walken to Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman, and Michael Rapaport, among many others.

The film is written by Quentin Tarantino and is directed by Tony Scott, and it features both their distinctive trademarks of tense yet cleverly written dialogue, as well as excessive hyper-violence and slow motion action scenes. I found myself enjoying the Tarantino-esque bits of it more than the uber-violent excesses of Scott. The scene between Clarence and Drexl (Oldman) is incredibly tense because of the dialogue, and so is the one between Walken and Hopper. It's a pity that Tarantino and Scott had to rely on racism, though. That "punchline" from Hopper is certainly an unfortunate one.

There does seem to be an overload of subplots that seem to be unnecessary or that don't necessarily pay off, like how Clarence and Alabama end up together, or his hallucinations with Elvis, but the parts that hit, hit extremely well. It also requires a good amount of suspension of disbelief not only to believe that a "nerd loner" like Clarence would have the guts to pull off everything he does, but to do it with the bravura that he does.

That mostly falls on the chemistry between Slater and Arquette, both of which make you believe that such different characters could pair up and end up working together so well. Much like Tarantino and Scott, they learn to work around their differences while balancing each other to work around their flaws, resulting in something "so cool".

Grade:

__________________

nice write up, Thief

__________________
What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Inspired by the 50's serials of Speilbergs youth and his inability to do his own James Bond film we get one of the great franchises of our time. Raiders of the Lost ark tells the story on Indiana Jones a college professor in the 1930's who goes on adventures to find treasures for museums.

Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, and Paul Freeman star are Jones, Marion Ravenwood (a bar owner and former lover) and Rene Ballocq a frenchman employed by the Nazis and Indy's main rival. Everytime I watch this film I try and focus on a different character and Freeman is so good in this. He matches a degree of charm and evil that you sort of end up rooting for him...until he combusts in a massive fireball.

But the charm of Raiders is it's 15-20 minute action sequences that are perfectly paced and put together. The film covers so much but has practically no filler or exposition if you have ADD it's the perfect film for you. Visually I love the look of the film, it's expertly shot with practical effects yet each scene is still given proper composition. Every scene has a bit of humor in it and the jokes are earned.




One of my favorite bits. Also it should be said how great the casting was in a film like this. You've got three actors that aren't really stars so they play the roles to perfection (something a certain Crystal Skulls should have learned from). You believe Ernst is a real wormy Gestapo Nazi because he looks like one and you haven't seen that actor in a bunch of other films. Quality casting a lost art.

I've had some pretty intense days on various fronts, but my goal is to watch the two remaining films I have between tonight and tomorrow, and then post reviews the next day.

I also have a couple other pending reviews, which I'll try to get to today.

That's how Mary (Sophie Marceau) describes things as she struggles with her feelings for two different men. This is not like a movie, where everything is clear, expected, organized, with a clear purpose. Ironically, this is a case where the movie is indeed chaos, unexpected, pain, disorder... and yet, much like Mary, one can't help but be drawn to it.

Mad Love follows Mary's boyfriend, Micky (Tchéky Karyo), a bank robber that, along with his gang, stumble upon León (Francis Huster) and take him under his wing, only to have him fall in love with Mary starting a complicated love triangle. But if that's complicated, so is director's Andrzej Żuławski's approach to the film.

Chaos, unexpected, and disorder are definitely ways that can describe the film. There is a frenetic and chaotic energy to it that can certainly be off-putting. I remember thinking "Wow, this scene is crazy!" as I saw the opening heist, thinking it would be a one-scene thing, and then 20 minutes later realizing "Oh, so the whole film is like this". Much like León, who decides to jump in with the gang and follow them, you have to jump in and surrender to it.

It has been a couple of days since I watched it and, like Takoma said, I'm still not entirely sure that I understood *everything* that happened. Still, there's a mesmerizing quality to the film; a combination of that manic "disorder" and a dance-like harmony to the direction and the actors movements. The performances, especially Marceau, also help you hold your attention.

But being honest, despite some qualities I appreciated, it was a challenge and a bit of a chore to get through. It's the kind of film that I just couldn't vibe with, and I pushed through only to get it done for this. However, I can see myself going back to it again sometime, with a different mindset, and see if everything is clear... expected, organized, with a clear purpose, or if what I get again is chaos, unexpected, pain, disorder.

Grade:

Out of curiosity, was the awkward phrasing here intentional to match the vibes of the film?

__________________
IMDb
Letterboxd

There's a typo there that I just fixed, but other than that, it was meant to be a play on the quote I put at the start of the review.

When I was thinking of what to write for that film, I actually did consider writing my entire review in a vaguely nonsensical manner, but I didn't want anyone to think I'd had a stoke or something haha.

Also, it would probably get irritating to read after the first few sentences.

__________________

Have already started writing reviews for the three films which I didn't "rewatch"; Raiders, Apocalypse, and Jaws. Will try to post them tomorrow. Tonight is either Demons or Magical Girl.

Balancing comedy with drama is hard and Thunder Road does this with the punctuation of the awkward. The film is based on a short, which is primarily a one-shot take of his mother's eulogy. Jim Cummings wears many hats, including writer, director, actor, editor, and music. So with all that in mind, this is pretty impressive for a debut film.

I watched The Wolf of Snow Hollow last year and was impressed enough with it that I wanted to see what this film had going on. So I was glad to see it nominated because that would be the kick in the butt I needed to watch it. You know what? I vibe with this style of filmmaking. I know it rubs some people the wrong way and others just don't find it funny, but I found that Cummings balances everything rather tightly. You are sitting there feeling bad for him for one second, then the film does a 180 and you don't know how to feel about him anymore. He had my sympathy for the most part.

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Am I crazy in thinking I would have loved this if it weren't a crazy comedy? It's hard to say since the absurdity is so ingrained in this film. There are a lot of aspects to like here, I definitely appreciated the craziness of the opening, but once it kept that pace it kind of lost me a bit. Did I understand it all? Not really.

After a successful robbery, a man hopes to win back his girlfriend. On his way, he meets up with Leon aka The Idiot and despite not understanding what his intentions are, Leon follows him around and eventually falls for the man's girlfriend.

It looks great, Sophie Marceau is really striking in this but the dialogue really took me out of it.

I'm glad you liked it. I knew some people would think it was terrible and unfunny, but I was hopeful that at least a few people would click with it.

I have yet to see his latest, The Beta Test. From what I gather, it's unlike his other two in that his character is not meant to be at all sympathetic.

I've been done for such a long time that I can hardly remember the noms now I do remember rewatching a large part of Mad Love in .85 speed which to me made the film so much better. At the breakneck speed it plays at, it's like watching the Keystone Cops at 50 frames a minute. Still I liked a lot about the movie, but it's so hyper.

I liked Thunder Road too but I feel like the film makes fun of mentally challenged people as the lead character is IMO clearly emotionally or mentally challenged and yet we're suppose to laugh at him. Seems unethical for the film to do that.

I don't know. I didn't feel like we were supposed to laugh at him at all. I mean, there are some situations that are funny or funny-adjacent, but I found him a very sympathetic and tragic character, amidst all his awkwardness.

I found him to be a sympathetic and tragic character too, but it seemed to me that his personality disorder was suppose to be entertaining to us, I mean it is a comedy and not a straight drama. It's a fine line having comedy coming from someone's PD in a movie.

Hand on the Bible: For sure finishing this up and writing everything up tonight when I get off of work.

The humor is not targeting his emotional breakdown in some kind of vacuum, to be viewed as some completely alien thing we have only derision for. While his behaviour is obviously exaggerated and pushed towards the grotesque at times, we never lose sight of empathy for his breakdown. Laughter is most often about some kind of recognition, some kind of light being shone on the human condition. And while we might not all behave as outrageously as Cummings does when our own lives are thrown into chaos, we innately understand what is running underneath his increasingly volatile state. His character is articulating the madness that happens inside of us when we experience trauma. It's not mocking to laugh at what is happening to him, it is more an acknowledgement of the a human experience most of us have likely shared to some degree, and which we can emotionally relate to, even if we don't all end up doing impromptu dance recitals at our mothers funeral.

That's how a soldier describes part of the journey that Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is undertaking. Bombs exploding left and right, shots fired all above them, dead people below them. That's the reality of war, and Willard embraces it like a drug.

Apocalypse Now follows Willard's mission, brought up "like room service", to find and "terminate... with extreme prejudice" Colonel Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a highly decorated officer that has gone rogue and is secluded deep into the Cambodian jungle. To get to him, Willard takes a boat crew of young soldiers which he will lead into this, well, a-sshole of the world.

Based on Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, the film makes similar points about the contrast between the "civilized" and the "uncivilized". Willard's journey is framed as a gradual descent into hell, but a hell that's either caused, embraced, or at the very least supported by the so-called "civilized" side, which we can see in the gusto with which some of the characters he encounter treat the conflict.

On the other hand, his final encounter with the Colonel is marked by a seemingly peaceful atmosphere with a Kurtz that seems to be more interested in philosophizing than he is in "terrorizing". The widely known, but still interesting fact, is that Coppola had to readjust and rewrite most of the ending because of Brando being overweight and not knowing his lines. But I would argue that this "problems" made for a better ending.

But the problems with Brando were not the only ones faced by Coppola. He and co-star Dennis Hopper didn't get along, a typhoon wrecked most of the sets during filming, Sheen was dealing with alcoholism and even suffered a heart attack, among many other issues that put the film over budget, and drove Coppola to illness and multiple suicide attempts. These issues are documented by his own wife in the excellent documentary, Heats of Darkness.

I think the film is great in and of itself, but knowing of those issues and how Coppola managed to make something coherent, let alone as great as it is, out of it just makes it more impressive to me. It takes real skill to be so close to hell, in the "a-sshole of the world", and still turn up one of the best war films ever.

Grade:

That's how war veteran turned shark fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) describes the creature after his deadly encounter with them during the war. "Eleven hundred men went into the water, three hundred sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest", he says. That encounter has haunted him to the point that he's hellbent on capturing or killing a shark, any shark, perhaps as a way to exorcize his own demons. But he's not the only one.

Jaws mainly follows Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), the police chief in the beach town of Amity Island who happens to "hate water". "I guess it's a childhood thing", says his wife, even though it is never fully explained. But the threat and subsequent attacks from a great white shark on the beaches forces him to face his fears, whatever they are, in order to protect his family and the townspeople, but perhaps, much like Quint, to exorcize his own demons as well.

Joining them on the adventure is Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), a young oceanographer that quickly finds out that what he learned in books doesn't necessarily equate to the reality in the water. The three form an unlikely alliance to try to stop this shark. But can they overcome their own fears, agendas, and obsessions to do it?

This is a film I've been watching ever since I was a kid. I must have seen it dozens of times and my appreciation for it has only grown more and more as I grow older. Not only is it well acted, but it's exceptionally well directed, which is more impressive when you consider it was only Spielberg's third feature film. Much like Coppola in Apocalypse Now, one can say that the production issues made him a better filmmaker and made the film more effective than it would've been.

Jaws and Spielberg went on to define the blockbuster trend of "big budget" summer films, but it did so with a lot of craft and skill, a lot of care, and yes, maybe a bit of luck. And unlike many other big blockbusters of past and recent years, lifeless ones, when this one "bites" you, you're eyes are gonna roll over from how thrilling, scary, and fun it is.

Grade: