Furious on Film 04.05.06: Issue 37
Posted by Arnold Furious on 04.05.2006
In a row?
In a row?
The aim of this ongoing column was simple. I've been watching films for a long, long time but along the way I've somehow found myself watching some absolute crap on a regular basis. I've seen every episode of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Halloween. Is there any real need for that? Should I have seen Catwoman? Broken Lizard's Club Dread? Independence Day? I'm appalled at my own decisions. So I'm now on a crusade to try and be more adult about my film watching. It's time to spread my wings and watch a wider range of films. The biggest problem I've encountered when taking on this challenge is my choices of viewing material aren't always at the level I'd hope for. There are times when I abandon my high and mighty campaign and instead watch whatever my brain decides I need. This can happen at any time but I'll still try to keep up a turnover of films that are challenging in some way.
Isn't today's day really weird? 04/05/06. Oh and for expecting a Kevin Smith reference for issue 37, give it up. What I do have is a different 37 reference. Benny the cab from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? He claimed to have been a cab for 37 years. Also in Mission Impossible 2, Thandie Newton's character claimed to be worth $37 million. ALSO in Men in Black centaurian time was based on a 37 hour day. 37, ladies and gentlemen. And I've just remembered I quoted Clerks as the teaser line. Ah well, at least you can see there was more in the Furious locker.
Warning could well contain minor spoilers throughout. Films are rated on a ***** scale. This week we have
Tenebrae, Born in East LA, Patton, Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams, Dirty Pretty Things
Tenebrae (1982)
EXPECTATIONS Director here is Dario Argento. It's a name that keeps coming up whenever I'm writing about film. He had a part in writing Once Upon a Time in the West for example. That was very early in his career when he worked as a screenwriter. During the 70's he became well known, at least in Italy, as a director normally in the genre of the giallo (an Italian title for violent thrillers usually involving a mystery. Literal translation is "yellow" due to cheap horror/thriller paperbacks in Italy all being that colour). Seeing as I don't think I've ever seen a giallo I figured Furious on Film is all about new stuff and broadening my horizons so here's another part of the horizon coming into view. He's been criticised for overusing violence and his films are often regarded as cheap. Tenebrae was so violent that is was banned in the UK during the spate of "video nasties". Unlike most other banned films Tenabrae actually received at least some critical acclaim.
PLOT Peter Neal, an American writer, is in Rome to promote his newest book "Tenebrae". As he arrives a girl shoplifter is killed in particularly violent manner and pages of Tenebrae are stuffed into her mouth. Detective Germani contacts Neal in the hopes that he can help them bring the killer to justice but soon the killer turns his attentions to Neal and the body count starts to mount. The killer could be practically anyone in the cast from Neal's secretary Anne (Daria Nicolodi Asia Argento's mother), to his assistant Johnny to his agent Bullmer (John motherfuckin' Saxon) to his former lover Jane McKerrow who's mysteriously turned up in Rome.
OPINION Initially Tenebrae seems very cut and dry. There's a killer. He knows Neal's work well and wants to preserve the works of fiction by turning them into real murders. It should be obvious that the fan in question should be easy to spot amongst the cast and then Argento starts leaving clues as to who it is. And it's actually quite easy to guess. Then the murders carry on and everyone that you thought might be the killer starts getting picked off. I'm a sucker for detective mysteries like this and Peter Neal quoting Arthur Conan-Doyle as he's trying to solve the mystery in question had me thinking along the same lines. "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" sayeth both Neal and Conan-Doyle. So I set about trying to solve the mystery myself while Neal and Germani were having a bash. And I got it wrong. Then I got it right but by the time I did Argento had already skilfully steered me off in several wrong directions before leading me down the alleyway of truth where he was standing at the end chuckling to himself. The bastard. The film contains a great deal of violence specifically male on female violence, which explains why it was banned in England. It's particularly unpleasant at times, like the axe in the head, and leaves you thinking that perhaps Argento didn't need to be quite so violent to prove his point and make a stylish thriller. Where the plot succeeds the gore and the camerawork are less effective. The gore almost takes away from the plot behind it while the camerawork at times leaves a lot to be desired. It's not really on a par with Hitchcock's camera positioning to create tension but seems to mimic it. There's an interesting tracking shot over a roof but it spends too long working at the process of trying to create a sense of tension. The vulnerability of those within the house is supposed to be highlighted by the long tracking shot revealing several easy entrance points to the building and the lack of security. Plus creating an atmosphere where we feel like voyeurs sneaking around in the grounds of a house belonging to two lesbians. This would work fine if Argento hadn't spent so very long on the shot. We don't need to see every square inch of the house to stress the points he's making. A complaint several reviewers on IMDB.com talk about plot holes and how the killer can't have been the same throughout the film. Of course the killer changes, that's the fucking point. That's the whole point of the film. Quite how anyone can miss that is beyond me. Tenebrae is actually far better than most of them realise. It's shot in daylight mostly for a cold motiveless, anti-emotive look. It gives it a sense of realism. In that Argento doesn't feel the need to make people jump by having an obvious dark corner or similar copycat methods. It's brutal and clear cut and in your face. Blood everywhere.
BEST BIT Maria, a 17 year old who works at Neal's hotel, gets chased by a dog in an almost amusing long chase scene, which drives her into the grounds of the killers house.
RATING - ***3/4. A surprisingly strong and violent flick from Argento. The plot was nicely interweaved and gave plenty of hints towards it's conclusion as well as providing some detailed distractions meant to cause the viewer to come to a different conclusion. The acting isn't brilliant but you can tell it was directed by a man who began his career as a scriptwriter. It's plot and little things first and then the actors are just there to provide a bit of shading.
Born in East LA (1987)
EXPECTATIONS I remember seeing trailers for it when I was younger, about 11, and thinking it'd be fun to watch. It's taken me nearly 20 years to get around to it. When I decide to fill in those gaps in my life I sure go out of my way to do it. This was Cheech Marin's attempt to break away from the Cheech & Chong mould and transform himself into a movie star on his own terms. He began his partnership with Tommy Chong in the mid 70's. They first hit the big screen with the excellent Up In Smoke in 1978 and worked together after that on six further Cheech & Chong movies before Marin decided to try a solo career. Despite the relative success of Born in East LA, it took $17 million at the US box office; he never had a starring vehicle after this. Well, unless you include 1990's box office disaster The Shrimp on the Barbie. If you haven't heard of it, there's a reason. Since then he's made a reasonable living in supporting roles like Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Lion King and assorted others.
PLOT Rudy (Marin) is looking to pick up his illegal immigrant cousin from a factory in LA when he's caught in a raid by immigration agents. Failing to name the American president at the time, "John Wayne?" he's deported with the other illegals and has to find his way back to the States.
OPINION Given an entire film to his own devices without murmuring stoner Tommy Chong to hold him back, as was the case for example in the Corsican Brothers, Marin does a very credible job of holding up an entire movie on his own. His only real support comes from Daniel Stern as Jimmy who hires Rudy for various odd jobs in Tijuana because he speaks English. As Rudy tries to find his way back into the United States there's a twofold approach 1. Look at Cheech Marin be funny, sing funny songs, and try to scam everyone. Then there's 2. Where Cheech Marin is a kind hearted guy who gives oranges to street kids and doesn't act like a jerk at all. Although the latter is probably necessary to make Rudy a likeable character it seems to stall the plot of the film somewhat. It just feels irritating. Like I'm being forced to like the guy. Rudy could have made it through the movie without being nice to anyone and just become increasingly frustrated, like Steve Martin in Planes, Trains and Automobiles and then all he has to do is come through in the last act. Oddly enough he does exactly that here but then it turns into a big laugh rather than a big "awww", which is why Planes, Trains and Automobiles worked and this doesn't. It feels like Marin went out of his way to ensure there was sentimentality and romance in his solo picture to differentiate it from the Cheech & Chong stuff whereas what should have differentiated it from the off was the lack of Tommy Chong. That probably would have worked fine because Marin didn't need all the schmaltzy aspects of Born in East LA for the film to work. Essentially I can see why the film did ok but I can also see why he didn't get anywhere after that. Born in East LA put Marin in the shop window but evidently most film companies didn't really like what they saw. Marin's appeal is pretty limited though. Take the drug culture away and he's marginalised to comedies about Mexico, which don't have a global audience. Sadly that's Marin's biggest problem. He doesn't appeal to a global audience. If it's any consolation to him, I like him. Just not as a writer, director and star.
BEST BIT Jimmy's constant scamming of Rudy. Like this example after buying him some food and lending him money for the phone; "That quarter's coming out of your tab and the tacos are 2.50. They're usually 3, but I like you".
RATING - **1/2. Sometimes funny and sometimes successful film from Cheech Marin. If you happen to catch it when you're channel surfing it's well worth hanging around for. Otherwise it's nothing I'd go out of my way for.
Patton (1970)
EXPECTATIONS Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner who also handled the frankly awesome Planet of the Apes, the original not the god-awful Tim Burton re-make. He also directed Boys from Brazil and Papillon. Starring George C. Scott who was most famous for his war mongering turn in Dr Strangelove. Then this, which he was academy awarded for. Neither Scott nor Schnaffner showed at the Oscars when they both won, which is a little odd. Scott claimed he wasn't in competition with other actors and didn't want the recognition. His producer accepted on his behalf but Scott returned the statuette the following day.
PLOT The film covers a chunk of Patton's career during World War II from the "blood and guts" speech to the end of the war and his disagreements with the Russians.
OPINION Patton is possibly the best biopic I've ever seen and it's pushing for the best war movie I've ever seen too. Let that sink in. Patton is one of the most extraordinary performances from one man, George C. Scott, that I've seen in a film. He becomes Patton. It's like a transformation of sorts (possibly even superior to Jamie Foxx in Ray). The only real comparison would be Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia. But the actual film around Scott is far superior to the arty Lawrence. Patton is a gritty and realistic war film and also a tremendous character study. The best part of Scott's performance is that he gets it just right. Patton was a man that was larger than life and almost had no fear. He portrays that without ever going into caricature, which was always going to be a fine line for a man like Patton who believed he had the divine right to fight in the greatest battles in history. He was a military historian and a poet with a foul and loud mouth. He was loved by those closest to him and yet at times despised by his own troops. The media were never kind to Patton either despite his great achievements after he slapped an enlisted man for what he termed cowardice after the man told Patton he no longer had the nerve to fight. Patton believed he was in the right but even his silver tongue couldn't stop the press hounding him into a minor role as a decoy during the Normandy landings. The greatest achievement of the film Patton is to not make it a one dimensional film based on Patton's own blood and guts speech but rather show all the aspects that drove him as a man and as a general. His aim of going down in history, his patriotism, his understanding of the past and of armies. Patton was above all a man of war. He was born too late. He should have been alive in the time of Napoleon. When Berlin fell Patton seeked out new challenges and tried to instigate conflict with the Russians as he perceived them as the next enemy and "they already had the army in place". His understanding of the phrase "glory is fleeting" is the concept that finishes the film out in rather melancholy fashion but that's probably better than Patton's actual end as he died in a car crash shortly after the end of WW2. Above all Patton is a great film. It's great to watch and Patton is such an entertaining character that the 3 hour run time just whizzes by. Especially compared to Lawrence of Arabia where the first 90 minutes are overlong and drawn out. Patton spends a lot of time covering history but instead of having filler like sweeping shots of the desert we have character development to link up the bits of action. Now THAT is how to you do a good biopic.
BEST BIT The "Blood and Guts" speech that opens the film. I could have happily watched George C. Scott stand in front of Old Glory for 3 hours talking it's that enthralling. My other favoured scene would be where Patton refuses to drink with a Russian general calling him a "son of a bitch" through a translator. The Russian returns the insult and Patton is happy to drink with him then. Two sons of bitches.
RATING - *****. Damn near flawless film making. A character study using the huge backdrop of World War II as its wallpaper. Epic in every sense of the word and yet remaining a contained film with Scott in almost every scene driving the character onwards and making him more interesting at every turn. I'd have liked to have had a drink with George Patton. I probably couldn't say the same for TH Lawrence.
Nice Dreams (1981)
EXPECTATIONS The third of the Cheech & Chong films following the brilliant Up In Smoke and Cheech & Chong's Next Movie. It was followed by inferior follow up's Things Are Tough All Over, Still Smokin', Get Out of My Room and the Corsican Brothers. Tommy Chong continues his directorial role here after twice directing himself and Cheech Marin in UIS and CCNM.
PLOT Cheech & Chong have developed a lucrative pot selling service where they drive around in a modified ice cream truck, hence the title. In fact business is so good they've clocked up $17M in cash and when the heat comes from local police, lead by Stacey Keach, they flee and set about starting a new life. Unfortunately they bump into Paul Ruebens (the guy who played Pee Wee Herman) and buy some cocaine off him. What follows is an absolute panic and they fall from one problem into another in search of their money and their freedom.
OPINION Nice Dreams would be a fine comedy almost in the Charlie Chaplin vein of slapstick with added in drug references were it not for some truly ludicrous subplots. The most obvious one being Stacey Keach's character slowly morphing into a lizard during the course of the film. Maybe if he thought he was morphing into a lizard it would have been funnier but he starts turning green, grows a tail and climbs walls Spiderman style. This is going beyond a trip and into some wacky reality that just doesn't exist. The whole problem with the drugs is never explained and why it only effects a pigeon and Stacy Keach whilst everyone else is fine. It just seems like a running gag for the sake of it. You'd probably be concerned as to the copious amounts of the drugs the writers, Cheech & Chong, were on at the time to come up with it let alone put it into a film. I imagine most of the film was pitched over an evening around a bong and creatively that's not a bad thing until you realise the script was written around a bong and then filmed around a bong as well. Creativity is a good thing to come from marijuana but expressing that creativity tends to make you look like a hippy more often than not if you don't alter what you've come up with in the hard light of day. One thing that this benefits from over Born in East LA is the more adult nature of the storyline. Born in East LA was toned down and mainlined for cinematic consumption. Nice Dreams remains out there on the edge where nudity, drugs and sex are all perfectly acceptable things to get a laugh from. The lack of boundaries both helps and hinders Nice Dreams. The fact that it's all from two decent comedy minds means that it's very creative but at the same time the lack of editorial control means that it often meanders off in a meaningless direction without giving any kind of thought to its coherence. There are a lot of amusing little cameo's though including Timothy Leary, which gives the film a great off-shoot into LSD experience. Unfortunately that's somewhat under explored and looks tacked on. Sandra Bernhard is also in there playing "girl nut #1". While Nice Dreams is a pretty entertaining stoner movie it doesn't add much to the two existing Cheech & Chong movies. Having said that with the exception of Up In Smoke, it's my favourite from the duo. The cheque of $17M always makes me chuckle, Paul Ruebens is hilarious and the best bit
BEST BIT Jones from the Police Academy movies doing a bang on impression of Jimi Hendrix with what appears to be a plastic lightsabre subbed in for the trademark guitar. Jones, naturally, does the whole Purple Haze thing only with sound effects from the mouth rather than actual guitar parts. The additional lyric of "why is this nigger on the stage?" made me chuckle.
RATING - ***. A solid entry in the Cheech & Chong library. If you're going to watch just one of their films it still has to be Up In Smoke but this isn't bad either. There are enough little comedic asides to make the film reasonably funny and Tommy Chong isn't too much of a mess by this point.
Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
EXPECTATIONS Dirty Pretty Things got an Oscar nomination for best screenplay written directly for the screen (Stephen Knight, who wrote mostly for TV for people like Jasper Carrott and Jo Brand). Director here is Stephen Frears who has one of the most eclectic film histories of any director. He started out small in the UK with stuff like My Beautiful Laundrette, Sammy & Rosey Get Laid and the excellent Prick Up Your Ears. In 1988 he got a big budget to make Dangerous Liaisons, which remains one of his most popular films. Great performance from John Malkovich in that btw. He then went back to making smaller pictures like The Grifters, The Van and the Snapper before Hollywood came calling again with big money for Mary Reilly. I really had no interest in that so I skipped it. In 2000 he chipped in with his most famous, and probably best, film in High Fidelity. Apart from Catherine Zeta-Jones the whole film is brilliant. I absolutely love it. Dirty Pretty Things is the film between that and his latest film Mrs Henderson Presents. The cast features Audrey Tatou in her first English language role. The star here is Chiwetel Ejiofor. He's been knocking around since Amistad slowly building a reputation for himself. Recently seen in both Inside Man and Kinky Boots.
PLOT Hotel worker Okwe (Ejiofor) also works as a cab driver in order to keep earning money whilst staying off the immigration radar. He's working in London after leaving Nigeria in murky circumstances. There he shares a living space with fellow immigrant Senay (Tatou, playing Turkish in a minor stretch). One night at the hotel he finds a human heart blocking a lavatory and discovers a somewhat unpleasant underbelly of London that he didn't expect. But who is behind the trade in organs and what does hooker Juliet (Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda) have to do with it?
OPINION The somewhat PC approach to Dirty Pretty Things is evident from the get go. How many minorities can we cram into this film? We'll get Muslims, Africans, African-English and oh, a bad guy played by a Spaniard. No one will expect that! Once I got past the Liberal and right on' approach to the screenplay and the casting I actually quite enjoyed it. The sense I got from the write up of Dirty Pretty Things is that it leaned towards horror but that really isn't the case. Dirty Pretty Things is a thriller and a whodunit with Okwe and Senay avoiding the evil authorities, despite breaking the law merely to provide cheap illegal labour, whilst trying to get to the bottom of the heart in the toilet. That's a line I never thought I'd type. Okwe was trained as a doctor in his native Nigeria so he's able to help out other immigrants with medical problems. This makes the plot more believable as various immigrants come to him with problems when they can't go to a hospital. Juan (Sergi Lopez) is the guy who, more often than not, sends people Okwe's way knowing that Okwe can help them and can't complain to the authorities himself because he's an illegal. The city is London but it could be any major city in the world. The only real evidence of the London location is Sophie Okonedo's good London accent (as in it's far better than Don Cheadle's grating accent in Oceans Eleven), which makes her the local. Everyone around her is from elsewhere anyway. Tatou being Turkish isn't probably the best choice but she is really good as the woman so desperate that she'll do anything to get to New York including abandoning her principles. But they nag at her and you can see the internal strife she suffers. If she looks weary from her work and her decisions then Okwe at times looks exhausted from the pressure he's under. Working two jobs in order to get enough money to keep under the authorities' radar he's suddenly faced with a crisis presented to him by Juan. Should he help the organ selling and ensure that no one gets hurt by making the process safer or should he turn to the authorities he's seeking to avoid in order to put a stop to the barbaric trade. Meanwhile Juan believes he's doing no wrong, which turns him from a clear cut villain to something far more ambiguous and disturbing. He believes he's right to do what he does as everyone gets what they want from the dealings. He's justified in his evil and exploitation. That makes him even harder to battle against. Dirty Pretty Things comes up a little short of what it's aiming for, which would be an unconventional love story. The various petty and violent acts that the main characters go for in the dying minutes of the film lead to an overly sentimental ending making you question the actions of everyone involved. Also the ending makes little to no sense in terms of reality. The whole passports deal doesn't add up and the end of this film did completely ruin it for me. Having said that Frears did a terrific job with the direction, I just don't understand how the screenplay can be so highly regarded. But then Closer had a screenplay that was held in high regard and that was fucking awful.
BEST BIT Okwe lectures one of the underworld after being asked "who are you people?" with a great line about "we drive your cabs, clean your rooms and suck your cock", which causes Sophie Okonedo to raise her hand. Made me laugh anyway although the line is stolen happily from Fight Club.
RATING - ***1/4. Hit and miss. Most of the plot is great but the outcome and the goal of one of the main characters doesn't add up. I want to live in New York so I'll get a British passport. Um. No, that won't do shit. It's also very amoral towards the end, which takes away from Okwe's stance throughout the movie that he just wants to do the right thing. Worth a look but by no means a classic. Had the film makers stuck to their liberal issues and bleeding heart approach to immigration then it probably would have been ok but the plot twist ruins all of that.
ELSEWHERE
My FuriousRage.com archive. It's got all the old stuff there before I was writing at 411, which has now housed my work for almost one calendar year. In fact next week marks my one year anniversary of writing at 411.
Wrestler of the Week ends, see who came out top of the 411 writers weekly voting schedule. You may be surprised. Well, unless you've been following it.
