Movies

Hell Drivers (1957) Excellent British thriller about men who must drive huge trucks full of gravel as rapidly as possible on dangerous winding roads. A lousy enough job to have even if it weren't under demeaning conditions with people messing with you psychologically and physically all the time. Patrick McGoohan as the heavy is amazingly creepy and volatile, David McCallum and Sean Connery in minor roles are as young as I have ever seen them. Turns out quite as satisfactorily and spectacularly as one would wish. 9/10

Movies

It Happened to Jane (1959) It can't be just the nondescript title that kept this Doris Day vehicle languishing in obscurity while her much more painful later films are well-known, even popular. Young widow operating a struggling Fresh Lobster business takes on reprehensible railroad magnate (Ernie Kovacs) to get economic justice, and to do so she ends up on I've Got a Secret and the Dave Garroway show, and becomes owner of a steam train. Jack Lemmon is her leading man and lawyer (who drives a great Studebaker Commander convertible) and they work well together. This is an all-american feelgood David vs. Goliath screwball comedy that really deserves wider viewership. With Mary Wickes and Parker Fennelly, and good location shooting in Olde New England. All-around good fun. 9/10

Movies

The Inhabited Island - Final Battle (2009) The second half of the mammoth Russian fantasy film. Not as enrapturing to me as the first, maybe simply because it was not so fresh and new to me, maybe because there is less diversity of locale and event and more shooting, yelling and chasing. Still loaded with astounding spectacle and intelligent story, and things don't turn out quite like you expect them to. 8/10

Movies

What's Good for the Goose (1969) In a departure from formula, Norman Wisdom is a middle-aged banker who falls headlong into the Generation Gap in what we nowadays would call a mid-life crisis. Directed by Israeli powerhouse Menahem Golan, and featuring The Pretty Things in the hipster disco scenes. These stories tend to be rather painful to watch at times, involving a certain amount of delusion and humiliating realization. Wisdom's schtick is more effective in the slapstick '50s style comedies, and seems a bit forced in a more realistic setting. He has the look of a fellow whose time was past, and this seems to have been the beginning of his transition from film to television. Probably best to avoid it. 5/10

Movies

The Locked Room (1929) Complicated melodrama in which most of the trouble is caused by people trying to protect someone else's honor. Barbara Stanwyck in the leading role and Zasu Pitts as minor comedy relief. Pretty archaic. 6/10

Message From Space (1978) Of all the cheap Star Wars copies three stand above the rest: Battle Beyond the Stars from the U.S., Italy's Star Crash, and this from Japan's second-string studio Toei. Star Wars gave permission to jumble together any crazy sci fi looking stuff with a bunch of mystical magical fantasy and say it was science fiction. This has a strong infusion of the aesthetic of Japanese children's adventure shows in its crazily costumed silver-faced horn-helmeted villains, but there is the usual abundance of ray guns, sword fights, explosions, and model spacecraft zooming nonsensically around. Sonny Chiba and Vic Morrow lend their star power. It seemed a bit more interesting when I saw it in the theatre but if you want to see one of these things it will do fine. 7/10

Veteran (male) character actor Eisei Amamoto as the

Grand Empress in the best electric wheelchair ever.

Movies

Golgo 13: Kowloon Assignment (1977) Japanese/Chinese action film starring Sonny Chiba as Duke Togo, super-assassin. Whereas the manga is pretty cerebral, focusing on the technical details of doing the impossible, this has a lot of chasing and fighting in exotic locales, including a Hong Kong junkyard which you don't get to see too often. Chiba has about fifteen lines as the taciturn Togo, and there is a topless night club scene so it's not a total loss. Otherwise a fairly standard film of its type - absurdly contrived with lots of bright colors and loud gunshots. I like those little '70s Datsun and Toyota sedans, and I think there was even a Hillman Minx in there. 6/10

Movies

The Sky Crawlers (2008) Animated aerial combat fantasy based on a series of popular novels, taking place in that eurostyle neo-retro alternate world the Japanese like so much. The style in these days of digital animation is to do machinery and landscapes in 3D while keeping characters to a conventional anime' 2D look with painted backgrounds, and it blends pretty well. The flight scenes are photorealistic and goose-bump inducing - in fact it has the most thrilling and chilling first two minutes I have ever seen in a movie. At two hours, considering the slow pacing of the land-based story, it is very long and the Big Mystery apparent from the beginning turned out to be exactly what I expected. If you like this sort of thing, maybe look for something a little shorter or more interesting. I suggest Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise. 5/10