Flashback: Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison

Robert Mitchum is seriously one of my favorite actors of all time. I don’t know why Mitchum doesn’t get the acclaim he so rightly deserves. I often feel like Mitchum gets relegated to the second string behind guys like Jimmy Stewart and others of his generation and it’s always puzzled me. Mitchum played a variety of characters and he always a had a certain cinematic presence that I felt guys like Stewart didn’t have. Not to say Jimmy Stewart didn’t have screen presence, but Robert Mitchum always felt like he could come directly off the screen to kick your ass all while being perfectly pleasant about it.

So, it’s really no surprise that Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is one of my favorite movies of all time.

The basic story is that Cpl. Allison (Robert MItchum) washes ashore on what he believes is a deserted island, but discovers one inhabitant - the good-natured Sister Angela.   Sister Angela is thrilled to have another companion, but Allison is apprehensive at first.   It’s his luck, he claims, that he’d wash up on the one island that has a nun only on it - and a pretty one at that.

Then the Japanese decide to pay a visit to the island and Allison and Angela’s story becomes less about learning to cohabitate and more about survival.

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is a really sweet story.  The two main characters alternately must fight off attractions to one another, mainly centering around the fact that Angela is a nun, and therefore, unlikely to settle down with a guy anytime soon.  But mainly, Mitchum and Deborah Kerr flow through their scenes so effortlessly that it’s a joy to watch.   The entire movie hinges on them. They’re the sole inhabitants of the island (until the Japanese show up) so it’s necessary that they make it through the movie convincingly and they do.   Robert MItchum in particular is stellar as the rough Corporal Allison, and it’s one of his finest movie roles.

The movie’s touching without ever overdoing it and it’s got a strong story behind it with great direction.   What makes it really stand out is just the fact that you never get tired of Allison or Sister Angela when the entire movie rests on them.

This movie is primarily why I feel MItchum always gets screwed on the recognition he so rightly deserves; it’s a movie I’ve suggested to others many, many a time and I’m usually always met with a blank stare - at least until someone watches it and then returns to tell me, “Hey, that was awesome!”

Awesome, indeed.

Open Reader’s Choice

Want to see a movie reviewed here?

Normally, I give you a poll, but this time around, all you have to do is comment with a movie.  Any movie (as long as I can get it through Netflix) and I’ll review it for you, no questions asked.   Well, some questions asked, depending on what the movie is.

Have at it!   Deadline is:   July 21st, because that’s how I roll.

Place Your Bets!

Okay, dearests.

If you have been keeping up with movies lately via this magic thing we call “the Internet”, then surely you know that the Patron Saint of Profanity and Hilariously Inappropriate Music During Sequences That Make You Cry, a/k/a one Mr. Quentin Tarantino, has managed to have his script for Inglorious Bastards leaked to, apparently, everyone everywhere (except for me).

It’s my understanding darling Q is still holding fast to his “Cannes ‘09″ premiere deadline which I think is a bunch of phooey.  And I think a bunch of you out there, steadfastly clicking away on your keyboards, feel much the same.

That’s why I’m doing this:   If Quentin Tarantino actually manages to release Inglorious Bastards sometime in 2009 (I’m not even holding my breath for Cannes, y’all) one of you few who read this blog regularly will win a stack of movies.   What movies?   I’m not sure.   I haven’t managed to pick those up yet.  But you will win something.

To enter?   All you have to do is comment below.   I’m curious to know if any of you think 2009 is an actual, feasible date for QT to have his epic war movie in theaters.

If Q gets it out in ‘09, I’ll select a random name out of a hat.  There’s no exclusion on anything.   It doesn’t matter if you’re a non U.S. resident, of a certain age or anything like that.

Has Tarantino gone completely bonkers?   He might have, considering that this script features American soldiers scalping Germans.   My kind of movie, I guess.

And hey, why did everyone get a copy of this stupid script except for me?

Flashback: Barefoot In The Park

 

Barefoot in the Park tells the story of two people who get married who are vastly different - one is a free spirit while the other is straight-laced as can be - who try and make their marriage work as best they can while still coming to an understanding of what marriage involves as well as a better understanding of the other spouse.  Living in a fifth-floor apartment in Manhattan which has the world’s longest flights of stairs and that’s practically falling down around their ears with some very eccentric neighbors certainly doesn’t help the situation they find themselves in.

It’s by Neil Simon, who I’m not an enormous fan of, but I re-rented this because, well, I liked it the first time I saw it.   By now, I don’t think it should be an enormous surprise to anyone that I’m not an extreme fan of romantic comedies (I think the only “romantic” movie I own is probably Hope Floats, unless you woke up with a concussion this morning and view Predator as being “romantic”).   But I like this movie.

I still like it, even watching it ten or so years later.   The direction’s good; Robert Redford is (a) smoking hot and (b) fantastically fantastic in this.   All of the supporting cast are wonderful, especially one of the in-laws.   The film’s good.   It’s got a great ending.   I’d rewatch it…except…

Jane Fonda.

It’s like some sort of switch flipped in my brain somewhere along the way in between viewings and I didn’t notice.   What caused this?  Maybe I got sick of Jane Fonda.   Maybe I had a traumatic head injury.   Maybe I was abducted by aliens.    I’m going to go with the whole “abducted by aliens” thing, because maybe then I could at least get a book deal out of it.   But Jane Fonda makes me grit my teeth all the way through this movie.  As Corie, Redford’s wife, she plays her role in a very perky, overexcited fashion.   Not that the character of Corie’s not written to be flighty and a little neurotic, because she is.   Fonda, however, plays her as so exuberant and excitable that it makes me start developing that twitch in the corner of my eye that I can’t stop.

Really, the movie’s worth it to see just for Robert Redford.   He takes what could’ve been a very bland character and even in his humdrum normalcy gives it a lot of life and a lot more depth than I think somebody else would have.   And it’s good to see this one for the supporting cast.

Just make sure you bring your mouthguard for Fonda.   God.

#1450: Street Fighter

#1449: Wall-E

Wall-E: most excellent.

There are two strikingly distinct aspects of Wall-E: first, it’s as about as close as you can get to a silent film in this day and age, and secondly, it’s got about as much biting social commentary as you can fit into a “children’s movie”.

Wall-E is, in my opinion, unfairly maligned as a politically charged film. It’s less about the struggles of the environment and more, in my opinion, about the direction American society is heading in. The idea that we are all becoming lazy, ineffectual consumers who are grossly obese and more importantly, the fact that we as a society are apathetic to the extreme, is far more the point of the movie with planetary concerns being an offshoot of this.

Wall-E himself is a tiny trash compacting robot who has spent years on Earth dutifully fulfilling his role. He goes out every day and cleans and stacks trash. He collects trinkets; sporks, Rubik’s Cubes, lighters and his most prized possession is a VHS tape of Hello, Dolly! which he records off the television and plays back as he works all day long. His only friend is a cockroach and his life is fairly routine until a robot on a search mission, EVE, lands to scour Earth for signs of new life. He falls in love with EVE at first sight and remains devoted to her, even when she leaves the planet. He leaves everything he knows behind and travels deep into space, merely for the hope of finding a love like what he sees on his tape of Hello, Dolly!

Humans have long ago left Earth (presumably for “five years”, which has in reality turned into 700 years) and are living aboard a cushy lifeboat, merely waiting to return to Earth.   In their mechanized world, they have turned so utterly lazy that it might actually turn your stomach.

The film itself is a pretty blistering look at what American culture is rapidly heading towards; consumerism at it’s most epic state and people who are outrageously slothful. Everyone aboard the savior ship, the Axiom, rides around in plushy hoverchairs with video screens. They haven’t walked in years and their every needs are catered to by machines. And here is where the real juxtaposition lies — the robots are often the most human. Wall-E wants nothing more than someone to ease his loneliness and he equates this with a holding of hands as witnessed in Hello, Dolly! He and EVE care more at times about saving the human race than the humans do.

But there is a moral to this; no matter how far you fall, you can be redeemed. And Wall-E, even at its most scathing, never fails to lose sight of this. There is always hope. There is always a chance to do better. In the words of the captain of the Axiom, “I don’t want to survive! I want to live!“

As usual, Pixar’s animation is top-notch. This is beautiful, amazing stuff they’ve created, quite honestly. It’s a joy to watch and it made a grown man next to me sniffle in the theater. That’s not to say Wall-E doesn’t have its moments of lightheartedness - Wall-E’s reboot chime is the standard Mac chime, which got a big roar from the audience. Buy ‘N’Large corporation, which has taken over every aspect of human existence (in sometimes vastly frightening ways) is remarkable evocative of a super-enormous world-wide discount chain. And the gags are great. The voiceovers are superb and the story moves along rather well. In fact, Wall-E might just be the cutest, most adorable thing Pixar’s ever developed.

Sure, it’s marketed for children, but Wall-E is a movie for everyone, and it’s a damn fine one at that.

This is singlehandedly probably the best movie Pixar’s ever put out, and that is saying something for sure.

Upcoming Movies That Make Caitlin Go, “EEE!” … Even More

• TAKEN (September 19th)

What’s odd is that for a movie hitting in September, I had a difficult time finding a poster (quoi?! I know, right) but I did find this trailer, which makes me much happier, actually. Liam Neeson is a dad that sends his 17 year old daughter off to Paris for a vacation and she and her friend get kidnapped. Liam Neeson has some sort of mad super skills to really hurt the guys that did this, so he sets off to find his daughter and totally beat some dudes up.

Pros: Whoa, Liam Neeson, who is getting on up there but still smokin’; pissed Liam Neeson is hot; Pierre Morel, the director, also directed Banlieue 13, one of my favorite French movie crack films; Liam Neeson kicking butt is going to be rad, y’all.

Cons: The daughter and the wife, just from the trailer, bore me to tears. More Liam, please.

• EAGLE EYE (September 26th)

Two people get set up for something another. Whatever. Guns. Action. I’m there.

Pros: Shia LaBeouf is adorably charming in a geekish sort of way; this is from the guy who directed Disturbia which actually wasn’t a half-bad Rear Window rip off; I’m not expecting greatness here, just mind-numbing action.

Cons: Billy Bob Thornton is still alive?; that lady’s voice on the phone doesn’t creep me out, it just annoys me to no end; I am afraid, eventually, they will find one million and one ways to sequelize this.

Upcoming Movies That Make Caitlin Go, “EEE!”

Here on 1,416 and Counting I normally do old movies. They usually haven’t been in a theater in years. However, this doesn’t mean I don’t keep up on new movies; it’s just that some of them (like Beverly Hills Chihuahua) strike me as not worth my time, suicide-inducing or a movie you couldn’t pay me to see. So this week, while I catch up on reviews and get my business in order with Netflix, I’m going to be running movies I’m absolutely itching to see in the theater by release date.

So here’s the first five movies I’m dying to see…

• WANTED (June 27th)

Boy meets girl. Girl tells him he’s supposed to really be a super-secret assassin. Girl and boy shoot things. Woo!

Pros: Directed by the guy that did Night Watch and Day Watch; features my Russian crack-actor Konstantin Khabensky in a minor role; Angelina Jolie (with guns!); yummy James McAvoy; Morgan Freeman dropping f-bombs (God curses?); Thomas Kretschmann; the whole movie just screams “whee, let’s shoot things!”; cool gun fight scenes; yummy James McAvoy; …shirtless James McAvoy. Mmm.

James McAvoy. Yup.

Cons: Guns defy the laws of physics. Hmm. But there’s still James McAvoy, right?

Movie Crack: Empire Records

I was talking to a good friend of mine (and sometimes 1,416 and Counting commenter) about her thoughts on Empire Records.  Her answer?

“Where do thoughts come from?  They just appear!”

What makes Empire Records so infinitely watchable is the sheer fact that not only is it light-hearted fun, but it’s quotable like very few other movies.

Empire Records isn’t overly complicated.   A group of cool misfits work at the hottest independent record store around.  They’re the kind of artsy types you envied in high school, and their much put-upon manager Joe is privy to one heck of a secret:  The guy that owns Empire Records is planning on selling it to a large corporate chain called Music Town.   When one erstwhile employee discovers this, he takes the nightly deposit to Atlantic City and attempts to make more money in the hopes of saving the Empire, only to lose big and come home empty handed.   All this craziness leads to a chain of events in one major day for the store that affects everyone involved.

One of the great qualities of Empire Records is that while it’s got an awful lot of characters in it, it does two things remarkably well:   it makes you care about every character, and every character’s story ties up nicely at the end of the day.   With a bunch of employees, a stuck up, almost totally washed up pop star coming into the store plus his manager, a thick-skulled shoplifter who introduces himself as “Warren Beatty” and a cavalcade of nutty customers, that’s a lot of ends to tie off.

And then there’s all the various drama:   Rex Manning Day occuring at the store, where the washed up singer comes to sign autographs and two of the female employees are very excited about Rex appearing there; the deposit getting gambled away by Lucas (Rory Cochrane); the battle to save the Empire from corporate interference; the love triangles; one employee’s suicide attempt, and so on and so forth.   You never feel swamped, though - just intrigued and like you’re along for the ride.

Plus, this movie has Renée Zellweger and Liv Tyler before they were all famous and some such.  (Although it does beg the question, what the hell ever happened to Rory Cochrane, who played Lucas?  I thought his career would have fared better than it has.)  Another goofy highlight is Maxwell Caulfield playing Rex Manning, the cheesy, arrogant pop star, which is probably Caulfield’s best known role besides being the straight-laced exchange student in (…gulp) Grease 2.

I really cannot think of one movie that’s quoted more than this one amongst my group of friends.
Seriously, the movie’s like one big cookie jar of one-off jokes and zingers that work well in almost any situation.    Nothing inspires a laugh in my circle of friends more than, “But…it’s Rex Manning Day!“

Said friend mentioned at the top of this post?   She still has Empire Records on tape where she taped it off TV way back in the day (and I’m talking when we were in junior high school together).   Does shrieking at each other, “Shock me, shock me, shock me with that deviant behavior!” ever get old?   Not really.   Empire’s one of those movies that’s best shared amongst a group of friends on a night when you really just need some sugary-sweet fun - and over the years it’s never gotten overly cloying or nasty.   Every time I watch it, it’s just as good as the first time around when I was probably 13.

There’s been 10 years of sustained viewing of this record and I’m still not sick of it, that’s for sure.

#1448: National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets

Oh, good God.

Talk about formulaic.

Seriously, the acts are virtually the same, just with different little puzzles and similar parts. It’s like watching the first movie, but not. I certainly don’t mean that in a good way, quite frankly.

I can imagine the meeting of the minds on this one:

Jerry Bruckheimer: Okay, guys - what did we not cover in the last National Treasure movie?

Nicolas Cage: Ooh, the Civil War!

Crazy Jon Voight: That’s right! We didn’t talk about the Civil War at all!

Jerry Bruckheimer: Hmm, I like where this is going. Throw some buzzwords at me. Give me some ideas, gentlemen.

Nicolas Cage: Abraham Lincoln!

Crazy Jon Voight: John Wilkes Boothe!

Nicolas Cage: Mount Rushmore!

Crazy Jon Voight: Queen VICTORIA!

Nicolas Cage: PARIS!

Jerry Bruckheimer: I like all this, I like it. I think it’s going to be hot, gentlemen. Let’s just work all this into a script and see what we get.

Someone needs to have an intervention with Nic Cage. And by “intervention”, I mean, “stop him for his own good”, because heavens to Betsy, my instinctual reaction to someone’s face should not be to cower under the chair in terror and scream “Dear GOD, what is that THING?!” When I first saw Cage, my first reaction was some pseudo pearl-clutching followed by “…What’s wrong with his hair? No, really…what’s wrong with his hair?” He looks disgusting. I don’t just mean in the stinky, looks like he could use a shower or ten kind of department, although that’s part of it. He looks like he’s about to be slapped on an embalmer’s table somewhere after his liver’s exploded during a rough weekend in Vegas.

So, Ben Gates is back - and this time, he and Riley are in all sorts of trouble. Riley owes a ton of back taxes to the government after a shady accountant does him wrong; Ben has lost Abigail after a rocky relationship. Then a odd character comes forth, stating that he has the missing page of John Wilkes Boothe’s diary, implicating a family member of Ben’s in the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Of course, Ben and his father are determined to clear their family member’s name, but the shady character (Ed Harris) is using Ben to help him find a treasure. (Are you shocked yet? No? Really?!)

The problem is that National Treasure 2 is the exact same movie as the first. Literally you can pretty much track the second from the first, right down to the discoveries timed simultaneously, Riley offering up pertinent information at exactly the right time, hidden compartments, etc. It feels like an odd sense of déjà vu watching this one, because it feels like it’s the same movie, but it’s not.

You kind of have to mentally shake yourself a bit to remember that you didn’t accidentally take too much NyQuil or something when you weren’t looking.

Jon Voight is so remarkably atrocious in this. He’s playing the doddering old fool, but he’s Jon Voight, so he’s a little crazy to begin with. And add in the fact that it looks like someone gave him a strong sedative before sending him to film his parts and you have a slightly stunted, completely slow looking performance.

What in the hell was Helen Mirren doing in this movie? And could Ed Harris have phoned it in even more? Both of them look like they’re slightly dazed all the way through it, as if they’re trying to mentally communicate, “Bruckheimer hypnotized me and forced me to be in this movie; send help. For the love of God, send help”. Ed Harris isn’t very convincing as a bad guy, mainly because he doesn’t do that much bad stuff, and I think it’s practically a contract stipulation with Harris that if you write him in as a villain, he must have a “conscience” or whatever that thing’s called that gives you a moral compass - or at least a damn good reason for doing whatever the character’s doing.

Even at the end, the discovery of the “treasure” is so cheap - because you know from the start exactly how it’s going to happen because you watched the first movie already (probably). The first movie was a fun cheese-tastic kind of thrill ride, and this one falls flat, mainly because you already know what twists and turns are coming for you right around the bend.