By [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24583384
Avanti! - (1972)
I've often felt myself divided when it comes to Billy Wilder - I absolutely love his serious stuff, but when it comes to his much-heralded comedic films they consistently fail to tickle me in the way they should.
Avanti! isn't as farcical as the likes of
Some Like it Hot or
The Seven Year Itch, and that makes it a little easier for me to handle - but that's not to say it doesn't get a little silly now and then. Overall it's a really pleasant film, and the natural chemistry between the likes of Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills helps a lot. Wendell Armbruster Jr. (Lemmon) has arrived on the Italian island of Ischia to collect the body of his father, and along with all of the red tape comes the daughter of his father's lover, Pamela Piggott (Mills) whom Armbruster knew nothing about - his father died in a car accident with said lover, and both have come for the same reason. In spite of his gruffness and rude manner, the two grow closer the longer their entanglement at the Grand Hotel Excelsior continues - and they find themselves following a similar path to what their parents did. I can't help but enjoy the performances, and the parts that were filmed on Ischia, Sorrento, Capri and the Amalfi Coast - beautiful places that have the added interest of having histories that go back thousands of years. Some jokes fell flat for me, but some were appreciated and overall this is a breezy clash of cultures and love story that's very easy to watch.
7.5/10
By http://www.impawards.com/2001/jeepers_creepers.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2804523
Jeepers Creepers - (2001)
Jeepers. I remembered really liking this horror film going way back, and it held up again for most of it's first two-thirds. Trish (Gina Philips) and Darry Jenner (Justin Long) have a run in with an old, rusty death-car out in the Florida countryside, and notice that when it stops at a property, the "person" operating it is unloading a batch of what looks like fresh corpses. They go investigate, of course - and Darry goes the extra mile (with the audience screaming at him I'd think) and trundles all the way into a monster's lair with preserved bodies decorating a cavern of horror - walls and ceiling included. Best. Lair. Ever. To say a lot more would be giving away what's behind this - but just let me say that I think the movie would have been better if the villain remained more in the shadows, and less revealed. The reveal often makes or breaks a horror film, and with the promising lead up this one had I think our imagination could have filled many blanks better than make-up effects artists.
6/10