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Prisoners of the Ghostland, 2021

Hero (Nicholas Cage) is a notorious criminal who is captured by Governor (Bill Moseley), strapped into an explosives-filled jumpsuit, and sent off to rescue Governor's adopted granddaughter, Bernice (Sofia Boutella) who, along with two other women, has made a run for it from Governor's harem. But when he arrives in the Ghostland--a wasteland outside of the city--he discovers two strange communities living there, including an old friend-turned-enemy.

What even was this movie? I don't know.

This is the fourth collaboration between Nicholas Cage and the production company that made Mom and Dad, Mandy, and Color Out of Space, and it is easily the weakest out of the three. There are frustrating flashes of a deeply weird, engaging film, but they get lost under a whole lot of "weird for weird's sake" stuff.

Boutella is good in her starring role, but her performance isn't a good fit for Cage, who is in "not taking this seriously" mode. That's not to say he doesn't deliver a few of his lines really well and with the kind of comic timing and intonation that makes him an iconic figure in so many films. The problem is that there's a serious disconnect between the world of the film, the performances within the film, and the general vibe of the whole thing.

The movie also does this waffling thing where it can't commit to Hero being good or evil. We're given a lot of references to a robbery in which Hero and his partner were responsible for the deaths of multiple innocents, including a child. And yet as the film goes on, flashbacks increasingly lessen Hero's role in the killings. This is all a strange contrast to a very "bad guy" moment in which Hero is turned on while looking at the sick and disoriented Bernice. Is he a redeemed bad guy? A bad guy who was never really a bad guy?

I did enjoy a lot of the visual aspects of the film. The makeup used on the women in the Governor's harem is just . . . off in a really smart way. There's also a scene where Hero discovers a field of people who have been sculpted into scraps from mannequins, and the visual is both delightful and disturbing.

This is the kind of film you almost want to recommend, because it's such a strange little beast. I will at least say that for the most part I was not bored.




Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Caveat (Damian Mc Carthy, 2020)
5.5/10
All Too Well: The Short Film (Taylor Swift, 2021)
6.5/10
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (Henry Levin, 1962)
+ 6/10
tick, tick...Boom! (Lin-Manuel Miranda, 2021)
7/10

Approaching his 30th birthday, waiter Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) has spent eight years wotking on a musical play but worries that he won't succeed or accomplish anything with his life.
Night Raiders (Danis Goulet, 2021)
5.5/10
Tom Thumb (George Pal, 1958)
+ 6/10
Gulliver's Travels (Dave Fleischer, 1939)
- 6.5/10
King Richard (Reinaldo Marcus Green, 2021)
7/10

Richard Williams (Will Smith) and his wife Oracene (Aunjanue Ellis) train their daughters Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton)at tennis long, hard hours and it pays off.
Hard Luck Love Song (Justin Corsbie, 2020)
5.5/10
I Declare War (Jason Lapeyre & Robert Wilson, 2012)
6/10
Silent Hours (Mark Greenstreet, 2021)
5.5/10 156 m
King of Cool (Tom Donahue, 2021)
7/10

Doc about Dean Martin, his beloved family, his days with Jerry Lewis, the Rat Pack, his records, his popular TV show, his innate coolness, etc. shows in reality a loner of a man.
Berlin Alexanderplatz (Burhan Qurbani, 2020)
6/10
Mirage (Bill Crain, 1990)
5/10
Thy Kingdom Come (Eugene Richards, 2018)
6/10
The Phantom Tollbooth (Chuck Jones & Abe Levitow), 1970)
- 7/10

Milo (Butch Patrick) comes home from another boring day at school and he finds a tollbooth in his room which leads him to travel to the enchanted Kingdom of Wisdom in the Lands Beyond and the states of Dictionopolis (Kingdom of Words) and Digitopolis (Kingdom of Mathematics) where he encounters some wise and far-out characters.
Warning Sign (Hal Barwood, 1985)
6/10
The Amy Fisher Story (Andy Tennant, 1993)
6/10
Johnny O'Clock (Robert Rossen, 1947)
6/10
The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966)
+ 7.5/10

Mercenaries (Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan & Woody Strode) are hired to go to Mexico to return Claudia Cardinale to her rich husband, but things aren't what they appear to be in this action-packed homage to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Big Country.
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JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass

This just came out. Available via Prime (free trial) or directly through Showtime.

I would watch "The Jim Garrison Tapes" first, which is available thanks to the producer John Barbour (linked below)
...
Wow, I haven't heard of this one. It could be good, based upon the quality of Stone's JFK. Although I must say that narration by Whoopi Goldberg and Donald Sutherland gives me pause...





Axe, 1974

Lisa (Leslie Lee) is a young woman who is a little bit . . . .different. She lives with her blind grandfather (Douglas Powers) on a small farm. Unfortunately for Lisa and her grandfather, three criminals on the run (Jack Canon, Ray Green, and Frederick Friedel who also wrote and directed the film) are looking for a place to hide. Unfortunately for the criminals, Lisa more than knows her way around objects with sharp edges.

This one was a recommendation from Rock (a Rockommendation if you will, thank you, I'll be here all week!). Generally speaking, I enjoyed it. While it is on the list of "video nasties," I thought that for the most part it was not overly violent or upsetting. The most upsetting sequence is probably one toward the beginning of the film where two of the criminals assault and humiliate a random young woman working in a grocery store. But from there forward, you're just waiting for Lisa to get to choppin'.

One really common--and tiresome--dynamic in films like this is that you're just waiting for an attack on the young woman surrounded by amoral creeps. But Lisa is so off in her own world that there's not a lot of vicarious fear to experience. It made me think a bit of the first act of Fascination. The "vulnerable" female should be afraid of the big, bad men. But very early on it's clear that our heroine probably has very little to worry about, and I was able to enjoy the film a lot more with the balance of suspense.

A nice little slasher with some nice subversions of the typical formula.






Hand in Hand, 1989

This documentary covers the events of the 1989 Olympic games, with special emphasis on some of the more hard-fought events.

Now THIS is more like it, for me. Opening with historical footage of the conflicts that have shaped Korea for the last several decades, the film acknowledges the Olympics as a place where the East and the West can meet peacefully in the spirit of sport. From there, the film zooms in to examine the accomplishments of certain athletes or teams.

One thing that I loved about White Rock was the way that it made us feel the sport. This took the form of host James Coburn trying out the luge and other events. While Hand in Hand doesn't quite go to that ground level, it heightens the sensory details of the competition. We hear the loud splash of swimmers entering the water. We hear the grunts and screams of the men and women throwing javelins and shot puts.

The film also doesn't feel the need to go in for propaganda and make everything all "rah rah". The documentary explicitly calls out the doping that took place among certain athletes. If there are unsavory things that were part of the games, it doesn't feel here like they are being swept under the rug.

But really the exceptional part of this documentary is the way that it seems to have been built specifically to withstand the passing of time. There's no assumption that you'll know who the different people are, or even the political context of the time. I really appreciate the explanation that two of the female sprinters were rivals, but that political pressure on South Africa over apartheid meant that one of them was not able to compete at Seoul. We see flashback footage explaining that the two women had an incident in a previous race that meant people were really looking forward to the rematch that just never came to be.

The narration gets you up to speed on what is at steak for different individuals or groups. We learn that before the USA basketball team lost to Russia in an upset, they gave medical assistance to a Russian player. The USA coach made a remark at the time about how helping him was sabotaging themselves, and he was proved right. These little nuggets of background add weight and interest.

This movie really felt like watching a truly expertly crafted highlight reel. We see certain people set records in various sports. Before Greg Louganis dives, we are shown previous footage of a serious head injury he sustained during the preliminary rounds of the competition. As Louganis prepares his competitive dive, the camera lingers on him for a good long while. It's this mix of giving us an overview and then sometimes slowing down to savor a moment--either before or after an event--that makes the film feel dynamic.




a Rockommendation if you will
I'll allow it.

While it is on the list of "video nasties," I thought that for the most part it was not overly violent or upsetting.
Yeah, one of the things I learned as I was diving into that list is how wildly the movies differ in explicitness. Moral hysteria drove the selection more than any remotely objective assessment of the movies' content. Maybe the most egregious example is Dead & Buried, which I remember being almost entirely bloodless. I suspect this ended up on the list based on the name alone, because as you point out, it really isn't that graphic.



Victim of The Night
Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, City Lights (1931) can be playing in the background everywhere I go for the rest of my life.



I forgot the opening line.

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17817425

Rififi - (1955)

Dipped into the never-disappointing trove of films in the Foreign Language Countdown and watched Rififi last night - one I've been looking forward to since becoming aware of it's existence. What can I say that wouldn't be regarded as a spoiler? Rififi is a film that builds continually, reaching greater heights as events unfold and starting by carefully introducing it's various nefarious characters. The jewelry heist - what the film is all about, is far from the end of this film as consequence piles on consequence in a gritty dark French underworld which really gives an impression of impropriety and dirtiness that more modern crime capers can't or won't convey. Definitely want to watch this one again - a gritty, sexy heist film that has a real edge to it with a lot of style and realism. And all I can say besides that is what an ending.

8/10

Foreign Language Countdown films seen : 53/100


By The poster art can or could be obtained from Sony Pictures Classics., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1036023

House of Flying Daggers - (2004) - China

More style here than substance, but if you're looking for something that looks beautiful with first-rate action, sword fights and stabbing then you'll walk away from House of Flying Daggers happy. It's hard to sum up it's plot in a quick and concise way (though not as hard as my next film) - the House of Flying Daggers is a group of rebels fighting a corrupt government, but soldiers capture Xiao Mei (Ziyi Zhang) and fool her into thinking she's rescued so she'll lead her 'rescuer' back to the group's hideout. But wouldn't you know it - the soldier doing this falls in love with her along the way in the midst of brutal fighting and killing. Nominated for an Oscar for it's breathtaking cinematography, this has to be one of the best films of it's kind because I really like it - and I don't usually like these films.

8/10


By Unknown - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53913811

Once Upon a Time in Mexico - (2003)

And so ends the El Mariachi trilogy, not with a bang, but with confusing chaos. I used to think it was just my inattention that made me lose track of the plot when I first saw this years ago - but recently I've found that many others criticize this film for having far too many plot strands and characters to keep up with. This time I've got everything down pat. We have El Presidente who is about to be overthrown by a general that our hero, El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas), was meant to have killed. Behind the general is a cartel boss played by Willem Dafoe. Well, a CIA operative played by Johnny Depp recruits El Mariachi to take out the general after finding out about his existence from Cheech (of Cheech and Chong) - and Depp also recruits a retired FBI agent to take out Dafoe (excuse me if I just use the names of the actors here.) The FBI agent gets a man on the inside (Mickey Rourke) and El Mariachi has Danny Trejo to contend with, despite Trejo being a part of Depp's efforts. Then you have a policewoman edging her way into the action for her own reasons - which will be important later. It all comes together after Dafoe has plastic surgery and the coup launches with all of our characters involved in chaotic conflict. It's not so bad as long as you keep track of what is going on at any given moment - but El Mariachi only seems to be involved here 30% of the time - which is a let-down for an El Mariachi movie. Loads of big stars and action but not quite as good as El Mariachi and Desperado. I still kind of like it though, despite my gripes.

6.5/10
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Latest Review : Le Circle Rouge (1970)



A huge fan. I wouldn't mind at all if it tops the 2000s Countdown.
Me neither, so I think I'll take this chance to repost my old review of it now:



I have a competition in me... I want no one else to succeed.

WARNING: spoilers below
Oil; the precious liquid bubbles away omniously, lurking underground as far as the eye can see across the desolate, turn-of-the-century California landscape, as people are quite literally baptized and buried in it, so pervasive its presence is, driving men mad with a lustful greed, and planting fantasies in their heads of becoming impossibly rich from what is essentially a raping of the rich, virgin land. One of the men driven by this madness (and many, many more) is Daniel Plainview, whose outward mask of benevolent capitalism and civility is revealed to mask a soul that's even darker than the black gold he lusts for, and whose greed and utter contempt for the rest of humanity is the central driving force behind Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, an absolutely epic, monolithic historical drama that towers over cinema as tall as the derricks looming over the very landscape.

Blood tells the story of Plainview, an avaricious, misanthropic prospector looking to exploit the naive locals caught in the middle of the Southern California oil boom of the early 20th century, using any number of deceiftful machinations he can, along with the friendly facade of running a "family business" with his 10 year-old son H.W. as a prop (who is really the orphan of a worker who died a decade ago on one of Plainview's worksites), all in order to ruthlessly screw people out of their own land. A tip on the location of a fertile new oilfield ripe for the drilling brings Plainview to Little Boston, a small, rural community which is held underneath the sway of Eli Sunday, a fanatical (and scrupleless) local "faith healer", who's looking to, whether in a religious manner, or just an old-fashioned financial sense, profit off of Plainview's presence in his community, just the same as Plainview desires to profit off the community itself. And, as the bitter conflict between the two men and the insitutions they represent grows more and more, and the various personal turmoils he faces keep piling up, Plainview's public mask of a polite, genial local businessman begins to gradually slip, as the true nature of his murderous misanthropy is revealed more and more, resulting in one of the compelling inner journeys I've seen in any film character.

Not that Daniel's arc is great because he fundamentally changes as a human being, as it becomes obvious that he started off as a hateful man and just gets worse as the film unfolds, and there's no real moment here where it seems like he could fully redeem, or even just better himself slightly (sorry, this just isn't that kind of movie). Rather, his personal journey is great to witness here because of the striking, undeniably powerful ways in which it's executed, of course, not least of which comes from Daniel Day-Lewis's iconic, Oscar-winning portrayal of him, with an absolutely commanding performance, to the point where it seems less like acting, and more like Paul Thomas Anderson invented a time machine and brought Plainview straight from 1911 to present day, merely for authenticity's sake. It truly is one of film's all-time greatest feats of acting, an overwhelming tour-de-force of oily, slyly manipulative tones, concealed hatred, and cerebral bore stares that could pierce titanium, and, while I have to admit that Lewis does go just a bit too over-the-top with his unhinged histrionics during the film's epilogue, for the most part he's successful in fully, 100% embodying the role here, and it should come as no surprise that, even as one of most legendary, venerated actors of his generation (if not the most), with so many great, iconic roles to his name, his Plainview has still become one of the most beloved performances of his entire career, if not the most beloved, period.

Of course, the other aspects of Blood are equally important in making it such a good film, especially the overall style of PTA's direction, which fascinates with its emphasis on wide, expansive vistas of the alien California landscapes, which sharply contrast with facial close-ups so intense, you can practically smell the sweat coming off of the performers, along with the subtle, slowly developing tracking shots that manage to impress, while still restraining themselves from being overly showy, with the longer takes allowing Anderson's compelling, richly-written dialogue and the actors sparring with it ample room to breathe. And all of that isn't even mentioning the disconcerting hum of Johnny Greenwood's borderline avant-garde, dissonance-heavy score, which often creates an overall effect here that can only be described as downright hypnotic, and, to this day, it's still one of the great injustices in cinema history that, not only did this score not win the Oscar for Best Score the following year, it wasn't even nominated, which just goes to demonstrate the sort of dull, conservative attitude toward cinema that dominated The Academy at the time (and still does, to a certain extent).

And finally, There Will Be Blood excels through the strong, constant conflict between its central personalities, the clash between the figureheads of Daniel and Eli and the various American institutions they represent, though Anderson often shows the two mortal enemies (and the forces driving them, respectively) to be barely distinguishable, if at all. Plainview is the consumerate American capitalist and then some, increasingly erratic as his personal fortune grows, unabashedly greedy to the point of murder, and only concerned with his own financial success even when his own workers, friends, and even family suffer as a result, while Sunday, instead of spreading the love of the God that he claims to believe in, is only really concerned with personal glory, whether it be using the presence of oil in Little Boston to wring extra money out of Daniel to supposedly use on his church (where he practices his frenzied, hysterical faith healing on the gullible local populace), trying to exploit the opening of the local oil well in order to promote himself first and only, and very readily abandoning his faith and claiming that he is "a false prophet and God is a superstition" when forced to beg for help by Daniel. The entire affair is an epic, sprawling commentary on two iconic institutions of American life, wrapped inside of a ceaselessly fascinating dual-character study that spans decades, and one of the better films of the 2000's at least, if not one of the best, and, since I feel I've written more than enough about this movie by now, I suppose you could say that I'm finished? Yes, I believe I am, so... I'm finished!!!

And go watch TWBB, by the way.

Final Score: 9.25



Mad God -


I hate hype and hyperbole as much as the next guy, but this is the first movie of this young decade that I would call a work of art. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Eraserhead, Tree of Life, etc., it's one of those movies that plant a monolith-like marker in your mind for how it's not like anything you've ever seen before. A 30-year in the making labor of love by Phil Tippett, who designed the visual effects of movies like Return of the Jedi, Willow and Jurassic Park, it's a stop-motion animated tale that has a post-apocalyptic look and feel reminiscent of Tool's videos from the early '90s. So, what's it about? Well, I'd rather not say. I went in cold, only knowing a little about it from seeing it on Kickstarter a few years ago, and I would hate to deprive you of having a similar experience. Besides, I'm not sure I 100% understood it, but I have no shame about considering it excellent. If I had to describe it with one word it would be, well..."everything." Watch a trailer if you must, but like I said, it's one of those movies where it's best to not know much about it first. As such, I'll stop now...but I'll end with mentioning it might gross you out a little.

As far as I know, it's only available to rent via the Hawaii International Film Festival website through the end of this month.





Re-watch. Successful plays don’t always translate to the screen, but this one pulls it off.

Needless to say, a great cast.
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Wow, I haven't heard of this one. It could be good, based upon the quality of Stone's JFK. Although I must say that narration by Whoopi Goldberg and Donald Sutherland gives me pause...

You don't ever see their face, and a few others narrate, such as Oliver Stone. I was real tired when I saw it. I'll have to see it again in the future.



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The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966)
+ 7.5/10

Mercenaries (Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan & Woody Strode) are hired to go to Mexico to return Claudia Cardinale to her rich husband, but things aren't what they appear to be in this action-packed homage to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Big Country.

A great, underrated movie by an underrated director. A philosophical Western with a simple story and a good line about the self-made bastard. Great writing as always. Fine cast.



Victim of The Night

No Time to Die (2021)

This is an unfortunate semi-sluggish whale of a film, with periods of finger-drumming indifference from the viewer, separated by some impressive chase and special effects scenes. The overall tone of the story felt like an inept requiem for Daniel Craig’s Bond. The picture was overly long, with 30 minutes that could have easily been cut out without any loss to the story.

It can be said that most of the production elements were first rate, with excellent cinematography by Linus Sandgren, keen editing by Tom Cross and Elliot Graham, and a competent music score by Hans Zimmer. As usual, most of the settings were exotic and appealing.

The acting was also good, but for the glaring miscasting of Lashana Lynch as 007’s temporary replacement. Rami Malek added star power to the film, yet his Mr. Robot ogling and cheesy vitiligo face make-up were not enough to exude wanton depravity. Previous Bond villains were far more threatening. Lea Seydoux was workmanlike in her performance, but did not show the allure she exhibited in Spectre. In fact the chemistry between she and Craig was semi superficial and inferior to their attraction in the earlier film.

It was the writing that was shockingly mediocre. It’s a toss up whether it was the story or the melodramatic dialogue which was worse. The story itself wasn’t too far off in style from some of the earlier Bond films, and might have been palatable were it not for the hammy dialogue, especially in the love scenes, which bordered on camp. Some reviewers have rhapsodized about Bond’s scenes of tenderness and introspection, but in my view his occasional histrionics --although well acted-- felt phony, artificial, and self-serving to a script that was designed to build emotion for the inevitable ending.

Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Director Cary Fukunaga were credited as story writers, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge added to the screenplay, writing along with the others. Purvis and Wade have been the writers on the past six Bond films, so they ought to be a reliable team. Whether it was the input from the other two that weakened the writing, or whether it was the case of too many opinions and re-writes involved remains to be seen. Reportedly Danny Boyle was originally hired to direct and co-write but left due to creative differences. One wonders if the script and filming would have been tighter with Boyle at the helm. Evidently Fukunaga was hired quickly in order to meet contractual arrangements. He became the first American director in an Eon Productions Bond film. Sam Mendes did not want to direct a third Bond film.

Since shifting the nature of the 007 films to the more serious and determined Bond of Daniel Craig, most of the high jinx, humor and campiness of the earlier pictures were cast aside to favor more dramatic stories rising above all the razzmatazz, chases, and shoot outs. But once the stories enter the realm of drama, there is a much higher bar in terms of acceptance and believability. In the case of the Bond franchise they’re treading perilously close to being pulled away from their decades highly popular stylish format toward overly wrought boy/girl entanglements, political correctness, and melodramatic sensitivity.


Daniel Craig has been a dynamic force as 007. Yet despite his excellent physical conditioning he has gotten a little long in the tooth, so he was smart to bow out on top. There will certainly be more Bond films. We hope that they’ll right the ship and add more classic quality 007 spy action yarns to the series.

Doc’s rating: 5/10
Yeah, I guess I could also go to 5 just because the production elements are all there at the highest level but man, that script. What a dog.



Victim of The Night



Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) - Second Jean Cocteau film I've watched after Orpheus. He does a surprisingly effective job of interpreting the fantastical aspects of the 1757 fairy tale. Surprising because this was shortly after WWII ended (1946) and there were myriad obstacles to overcome including a scarcity of film stock and frequent power outages. Fabric was in such short supply that when the film crew arrived at the film set each morning they'd often find out that someone had stolen the set's sheets and curtains. But Cocteau not only persevered he also improvised to great effect the Beast's enchanted castle with it's disembodied candelabra and living statuary and carvings.

Belle (Josette Day) lives with her father (Marcel André), her two avaricious sisters, Félicie (Mila Parély) and Adélaïde (Nane Germon) and her well meaning but still-a-lunkhead brother Ludovic (Michel Auclair). Ludovic's wastrel friend Avenant (Jean Marais) hangs around and tries to woo Belle to no great effect. The family fortune has disappeared along with her father's ships, which were lost at sea. One day he receives news that one of his ships has been found and has arrived at the port but unbeknowst to him his son Ludovic has signed a contract with a usurer that allows the moneylender to sue his father for damages if he cannot repay the loan. His father travels to the port but additional creditors have already seized his goods. Before he left he had asked his daughters what he could bring them when he returned and Belle had asked for a single rose.

On the way home the father gets lost in the dark woods but stumbles on the Beast's enchanted castle. The gates and doors open of their own accord and the floating candelabras and fully laden dining table welcome the tired man but the host is nowhere to be found. Upon waking in the morning he flees the castle but, remembering his promise to Belle, he stops to pluck a single rose. The Beast (also played by Jean Marais) appears out of nowhere and informs him that, even though he was welcome to anything in his home, the only things he was forbidden to touch were his roses. And that the penalty for this transgression was death. He tells the man he can go if one of his daughters takes his place, then offers him his white horse Magnificent, telling him to use a special phrase and the horse will take him wherever he wants to go.

After arriving home and relating the fantastical tale Rose blames herself and volunteers to take his place. He won't hear of it so she sneaks away in the middle of the night on Magnificent. Thus begins the the peculiar but effective courtship between the hirsute suitor (hirsuitor?) and the unassuming young woman. And that's how hundreds (if not thousands) of erotic fan fictions came to be. But with two greedy and conniving sisters, a dimbulb brother and a jilted suitor still at home there is of course remaining treachery afoot and it's handled with aplomb by Cocteau and cast. I did however find the recognizable ending strangely unsatisfying and borderline farcical which, as it turns out, was part of Cocteau's plan all along. So for once my intrinsic cynicism was in line with a directors intent.

90/100
Pretty good one. I got to see this when I was in middle-school back in the mid-80s and even then I understood how a black and white foreign language film could fairly amaze.



11:14
(2003, Marcks)
A film with the number 11 (Eleven, Eleventh, etc.) in its title



"I can't f*cking do it! It's the worst idea you ever had!"

Like many so-called Pulp Fiction rip-offs and copycats of the late 90s and early-00s, 11:14 follows a wide array of characters through multiple, separate storylines as they all crash and converge in weird, funny, and unexpected ways at the titular time.

Aside from the convenience store employees, the characters include a slightly drunk driver that crashes onto something and the cop that stops him (Henry Thomas and Clark Gregg), a trio of teenage pranksters (Colin Hanks, Ben Foster, and Stark Sands), and a couple worried about their teenage daughter (Patrick Swayze, Barbara Hershey, Rachael Leigh Cook). The common denominator between them all, aside from the time, is that all of them have the worst ideas in mind about how to get around their night.

I rented this film shortly after its release. Like I said above, it has that same vibe of Pulp Fiction, with a big ensemble cast, a broken narrative, and multiple storylines intersecting at one point. At that time, I had such a blast with it, that I bought it as soon as I could. I've been watching it often since and recommend it often as well. However, I hadn't seen it since 2007, so I was afraid of how it would fare now. But alas, I had as much of a blast as I remember having before.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot
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