Rodan

1956 flying monster movie

Rating: 11/20

Plot: Coal-miners in a small Japanese village disturb and accidentally unleash killer giant caterpillars. Upon deeper investigation, they discover a new terror--gigantic Pterodactyls capable of knocking over toy cars and destroying vacant toy cities. Can they stop the beasts before everything is blown over?

Quick question: Should I be watching the Japanese or English versions of these movies?

I didn't dig this one as much as Monster Zero although the story is easily more coherent. It just lacks the complete mayhem and entertaining goofiness of Monster Zero. The special effects in this range from really really good and nearly seamless to completely laughable. This has such a conventional storyline, and I was really disappointed in how little Rodan actually did. He flew around a couple few times, blew over some motor vehicles, screeched like an airplane, and made some Japanese women scream. On a good night, I'm capable of at least two of those! The climax was a major disappointment--about 20 minutes of explosions while Rodan and his girlfriend cowered in holes. Although Rodan won't be one of my favorite movie monsters (he's sort of dull actually), this was still pretty enjoyable. I did, by the way, watch the American version, and the really poor dubbing probably delivered the majority of the fun.

A Cory recommendation.

The Model Couple

1977 movie

Rating: 10/20

Plot: An average couple is chosen to take part in some experiments. They're given a home, and their every move is watched by not only scientists but by all of France. It's pretty dull.

Another William Klein movie. The best thing I can say about it is that it anticipates the flood of reality television shows that are currently omnipresent. But it looks so cheap, has such bad music, and is more boring than any movie should be allowed to be. Compared to the visual feasts of those other two Klein movies, this is flat and surprisingly poorly shot. I can't not recommend this one enough.

Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?

1966 fashion satire

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A television crew collects footage on a "Who Are You?" documentary on American-in-Paris fashion model Polly Maggoo. Meanwhile, a prince has fallen in love with her picture and tries to win her hand in marriage.

This is sort of a mixed bag, but it's every bit as audacious as the other William Klein movie I watched recently (Mr. Freedom) albeit in a completely different way. Stylistically, this has a little bit in common with Godard and the avant-gardists. When the satire comes visually, this is really cool. A fashion show unveiling ridiculously impractical metallic costumes and a great scene with Maggoo going through a series of absurd psychological tests were probably my favorite bits. I also liked a speedy model montage and a scene utilizing collage art where cut-outs are used to reassemble Polly's face. There are some really cool set pieces--the "Death of Paris" cemetery shoot, scenes in the prince's room with all his mechanical toys and a crotch rocket). Klein, who actually started as a fashion photographer, has a good eye and there are some fine visuals. Some hand-held camera stuff and use of plundered footage give parts of this a documentary feel, and that also works really well. At times, however, there's a bad case of logorrhea which bogs the film down a bit, and I'm not really sure the attempts to connect all this zaniness with Cinderella really works. Attempts to break the fourth wall add pretension, and weird noise assaults baffle, but a crazy scene in which some chimney sweeps randomly burst into song makes up for it. There's actually not a bad movie with chimney sweeps.

The Lady Vanishes

1938 black comedy/mystery

Rating: 16/20 (Jen: 16/20)

Plot: Following an avalanche, travellers are forced to stay the night in a hotel in a small town constructed from toy train miniatures and toy cars. They enjoy a wild night filled with puppetry, perverse sex acts, and perverse sex acts with puppets. The next day, they hop on board a phallic symbol. Iris, an American broad abroad, befriends a frumpy older woman, but after some clumsy flirting and a nap, the older woman winds up missing. Iris frantically searches the train, but not only does nobody know the passenger's current whereabouts, they all deny that she existed in the first place. It's puzzling. A man with a thin moustache decides to help investigate, but it's only because he didn't get a chance to sleep with Iris the night before and thinks this will increase his chances. It does, and nine months later, Iris becomes the first woman in history to birth a puppet.

Below the surface, there's a lot to be frustrated with here. The spy stuff is filled with holes, the special effects are silly, some of the comedy is dated, there isn't enough of some characters and too much of others, and the pacing doesn't always make a great deal of sense. However, some of what seems like flaws when you think about the movie later ultimately work to make the movie more fun. Hitchcock takes his time getting to the actual story, introducing the odd assortment of peripheral characters and setting up what looks to be a straightforward comedy. It sets the rest of the movie (i.e. the real story) up as a charming and whimsical English excursion rather than a tension-filled or action-packed suspense thriller. I like that Hitchcock's tongue is in his cheek here. Not that there isn't some tension and action. Once we get to the woman's vanishing, Iris's dream-like mysterious experience is a treat, and once the mystery is actually solved (sort of), there are some good action scenes including a claustrophobic bit of fisticuffs and, later, a shoot-out. Hitchcock really does pan over a toy city with toy people and toy cars after the credits, seemingly deliberately, but he makes up for it later with some deft camera movements in the closed-in spaces of the train corridors and a nifty effect that looks like a stunt involving passing trains. This is a cool early Hitchcock flick that combines humor and thrills very smoothly.

Coraline

2009 animated feature

Rating: 18/20 (Jen: 17/20; Emma: 13/20; Abbey: 1/20)

Plot: The title character finds a tiny door in her new home, a pink apartment building. After she procures a key to the door, she's eventually able to enter a vaginal tunnel into an alternate universe where everything looks almost exactly the same but with improvements. She enjoys the new idealized world until she discovers that her alternate mother wants to take her eyes, replace them with buttons, and make her stay forever. Oh, snap!

As my faithful four-and-a-half readers have figured out, I'm a sucker for this sort of stop-animated stuff. Keep that in mind as you read below. You'll have to allow some gushing. However, winter rates and anonymous--you both need to grab this one!

First off, this isn't a movie for children. I should have done my research. The nightmare imagery squeezed its way into my dreams, which generally I don't even remember, and I know my daughters went to bed creeped out. This is an emo-folktale with the look of Selick's Nightmare before Christmas and with an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland vibe. Perhaps lumping it with any other work of art is unfair though because Coraline is a completely unique experience. I know I could watch a "making of" feature on the dvd (if there is one) to get my answers, but I'm not sure how portions of this are even animated. It's stop-animated like Nightmare or James and the Giant Peach (or the recent Tom Thumb movie I watched which the memory of, I'm sad to say, now looks like shit in comparison), but there are textures, movements, backgrounds, and shades that almost have to be CGI. Regardless, it's a mind-boggling feast for the eyeballs. There are scenes (a garden in the "other" world, a choreographed mice dance, etc.) where I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There are colors the animators use that don't actually exist anywhere outside of this movie. There are details (slightly wavering chandeliers, movements in snow globes) where you can see the amount of love that went into creating this world and these characters. There's such a complexity to the movements, several characters making a myriad of movements in the foregrounds and backgrounds, that really raise the bar with stop-animation. There's a richness or a depth to the settings that makes you want to rewind certain scenes to watch them again to make sure you've soaked it all in. Accuse me of hyperbolizing all you want, but this is one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. The characters are crafted similarly those in Nightmare Before Christmas except they look more human and there's a lot less of that grotesque exaggeration, the Russian guy's tiny legs and the enormous bosoms of one of the actresses being exceptions. Where the puppetry outshines Nightmare and James and the Giant Peach is in the facial expressions. Although there is some choppiness (especially in the early scenes) when characters rapidly change their expressions, the sheer amount of expressions the characters have is amazing. They must have had thousands of puppet heads to use. The narrative, although at times derivative in one of those can't-quite-put-my-finger-on-it ways, stays fresh and unpredictable, and there's a tidy little life lesson for children even though they'll be too scared to figure out what it is. This is a dark and intelligent movie, a movie that doesn't feel the need to sprinkle in some humor or pop culture references to lighten the load which I think will help give this cult favorite status for a very long time. I didn't have high expectations for this even though I really like Nightmare Before Christmas (partially for reasons that have nothing to do with how good of a movie it is). The mediocre James and the Giant Peach and that Monkeybones movie and Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride had me anticipating something that wasn't going to be any more than OK. But unhinged, imaginative, and exhilarating, this is the most excited I've been while watching an animated movie since The Triplets of Belleville, and I'm looking forward to see it again soon. Hell, I might even buy it.

A Place in the Sun

1951 drama

Rating: 14/20

Plot: George Eastman, a kid renting-to-own his leather jacket, has become annoyed when others, in his presence, refer to him as What's-His-Face or, when talking directly to him, What's-Your-Face. He decides it must have something to do with his bad posture and walks the alleys where he knows unlicensed chiropractors cluster in the shadows with semi-legal instruments. When something called The Vertibrayer Machine (actually a donkey with a flashlight taped to its head) rips a hole in his shirt, What's-His-Face storms off. He meets a pair of women trying to buy the same watermelon. One of them, the one on the right, has one hand, the one on the left, that is abnormally larger than the other hand, so What's-His-Face becomes perturbed. As we all would. The other woman looks a lot like Elizabeth Taylor and gives What's-His-Face what he will later, under oath, refer to as one "mighty wood." To him, there's no alternative, so he kills the big-handed girl by accidentally submerging her head in a lobster tank. He attempts to hide in the middle of the road following the crime (an accidental one) but is caught, tried, and sentenced to death, appropriately by being squeezed to death by a large rubber hand.

OK, somebody is going to have to explain to me what is so special about this movie. I know somebody will (keeping my fingers cross that it's burymore). I really felt that the entire first half of this movie was a complete waste of my time. Montgomery Clift's performance is just fine, but I never care for his character and there's almost no versatility with the role. The second half of the movie nudges up against greatness a few times, but it's not enough to make me forget that the first half of the movie is about as exciting as the above poster makes you think it will be. I like the tension in the climactic boat scene although it went on long enough for me to start yelling, "C'mon! Just kill her!" at my television screen. There are two scenes involving radios that I really like, and the photography throughout the movie is terrific. Color might have ruined the movie. But other than Clift, the acting isn't great. Elizabeth Taylor does nothing special; Shelley Winters gives a performance that gets more grating as the movie goes on, almost to the point where I wanted to kill her; Raymond Burr is ludicrous in a completely ludicrous courtroom scene; and the peripheral stock characters are mostly cardboard. I didn't really buy the romance either, no matter how many exhausting minutes were spent with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor talking about how their romance was real or kissing. Nope, not even when a final image of Eastman's walk to the electric chair is overlayed with an earlier image of the two kissing. This ain't a bad movie, but I don't think it's all that close to being a great one.

The Night of the Iguana

1964 drama

Rating: 16/20

Plot: In a movie that obviously inspired Speeds 1 and 2, a horny minister loses his God license and scrambles to put some sort of life back together giving bus tours to spinsters in Mexico. A pretty teenager's sexual advances threaten that job, and the Reverend Shannon decides to hijack the party and try to win the ladies over at the beachside hotel owned by a flirtatious widow. Later, a prudish artist and her poet grandfather stop by to stay a few nights at the hotel. Fragile lives collide.

I really like what this has to say about man's frailty (expressed elegantly at the end with the wonderful poem), man's continual grasp for meaning in life, man's need for earthly relationships as well as Godly ones, and especially "man's inhumanity to God." It also tackles one of my favorite conflicts--the internal battles caused because people have both earthly bodies and spiritual souls. Unfortunately, the ideas were a bit convoluted, gummy, like the writer was trying to put too much in one cup, and I'm curious to find out whether some of the philosophical themes would be clearer during a second viewing. It's frustrating in a way because I felt like it teased an itch instead of scratched it. I really liked Burton and Gardner in this. Kerr was just kind of there, and Lyon, I thought, was really pretty bad. Her "C'mon, Hank! Give it to him!" during one of the silliest fight scenes I've ever seen, one that probably should have only been seen on the cutting room floor, was grating. She looked good though. I really like the texture of the dialogue. I'm surprised at how much I like the line "Nothing human disgusts me" considering that I'm disgusted by almost everything human. Burton's lines have the right blend of pissed-off bitterness, tired desperation, and this accepted brokenness, all of it ineffectively hidden beneath a confident exterior. Credit's got to be given to both the writing and Burton's performance there. The dialogue's peppered with plenty of quiet humor, too. The black and white, on-location photography (a shadow of the Garden of Eden, in a way) perfectly complimented the fim's story and themes. I may have enjoyed this on more of an intellectual than aesthetic level, but I did like it and will see it again some time. The guys with the maracas, by the way, nearly stole the movie. I'd like to have a shirtless guy with maracas following me around all the time. That sounds a lot gayer than intended.

Time Bandits

1981 little people extravaganza

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Kevin, an imaginative youngster living in a house where imagination doesn't seem to be allowed, makes a giant mess with his toys. Then, in a stunning twist ending, he kills his parents.

If Terry Gilliam made this now, it would likely be one of the greatest children movies of all time. You get the sense he's still learning the craft, hinting at the greatness to come in Munchausen and Brazil, both movies which I like better than this one. At times, there's an 80's kid fantasy flick vibe (see: The Neverending Story), but there's the playfulness, the imagination, the terrific character acting (with a few big names), and the grabass jamboree of historical and folkloric references make this more timeless and, well, fun. Some moments threaten to cross into kid-unfriendly territories, but I probably should have forced the children to watch this one with me. It's definitely the type of movie that will swoop right over the heads of a lot of children (and adults probably), but there's enough zaniness and action sequences to keep them interested. The humor and allusions are directed toward the adults. The rambling plot, always threatening to become incoherent at any second, and a climactic goofy fight scene that goes on far too long could be a turn off for a lot of people, but I really think it'd be mostly people who don't like to enjoy themselves who would really hate Time Bandits. Of course, for me, it's the stampede of little people who are nearly on screen the entire time that makes this a near-masterpiece. I suppose I'm a lot like the Napoleon character in this when he says, "Little things hitting each other. That's what I like!" You're not going to find a movie this side of Even Dwarfs Started Small or Big Terror in Tiny Town with more little-people-per-square-foot-of-screen. That should be a statistic.

Big Time

1988 concert video

Rating: 18/20

Plot: Rock 'n' roll superstar Tom Waits makes various audiences simultaneously guffaw and whimper by sharing alley cat anecdotes, malodorous circus tangos, wounded ballads, left-field historical tangents, and bastardized didactics. The groundlings shrug and scratch their balls. The previously initiated have their lobes stroked.

This isn't just a performance video. This is a religious experience. This is too fantastic for 95% of the world's population. It'd be like staring at the sun intentionally after cutting off your eyelids, the devil poking you in the backside with a foul-smelling pitchfork. That's likely why this has (absurdly) never been released on dvd. It's not enough that Tom Waits is one of the greatest songwriters in the history of recorded music. There's the presentation, too. Props (burning umbrellas, showers with floating bulbous bubbles, a swinging light, feathers) add drunken carnivalesque color, color that extends well outside the lines and obliterates boxes. The band, only occasionally emerging from the shadows, bleat and honk and bang and shuffle tightly and expertly, holding everything together like a rickety dilapidated train. They've done it all before, many times. The focus, of course, is on Waits. He's a chameleon; he's a box office ticket seller, a barker, a guy wanting to sell a watch, a demented preacher, a filthy old man, a stand-up comedian, a dreamer, a guy flipping playing cards into a hat, a janitor, a light operator, a wolf in another wolf's clothing, a lounge singer, and a bum. And he's a guy who can't stand chihuahuas. All of the demons inhabiting Tom's skull get their chance to rock the microphone, his twitching and contorting body their vessel, his pained face squeezing out the poetry. Absolutely stunning. And somebody needs to release it on dvd!

An anecdote: After Big Time came out, Waits said that he was really disappointed, heartbroken while watching it because he always expected he'd look like James Bond on the big screen. He doesn't. He's got more tricks than James Bond though. And a lot more watches.

The Blue Angel

1930 uplifting German melodrama

Rating: 17/20

Plot: Professor Garbage, respectable while not necessarily respected, confiscates some suggestive postcards depicting leggy Lola currently performing at a burlesque show at a dive called The Blue Angel. With his students distracted and corrupted,the good professor decides to do something about it. So he makes a trip to The Blue Angel to lust after the lovely Lola himself. Quick ruination ensues.

Boy, that Marlene Dietrich had legs, and she knew how to use them. Her legs' performance is very very good, especially good for 1930, and Emil Jannings gives a quiet, realistic (especially for 1930) performance as the tragic protagonist. Jannings is a very good actor, and there seemed to be no problems transitioning from silent to sound movies. Really, though, it's the scenes where he remains silent where he is the best. Right from the beginning, in his apartment and in his classroom, you get the feel that he's living an incomplete life. The tone is somber throughout although it's not all gloom. There are some humorous touches (the way the professor blows his nose, his teaching of the correct pronunciation of the word "the") that I like. Symbolic imagery (dead birds, clowns and clown collars--admittedly obvious in that early form sort of way) doesn't get in the way. I really liked a scene in Lola's room when the professor studies two side-by-side reflections of himself (hinting that there's another professor about to emerge) and another with a singing bird and cage-life shadows on the wall that echoes the very first scene of the movie. The scenes in The Blue Angel, filled with magic and bawdiness and clowns, are well done, the screen cluttered with all kinds of posters and props and other things to see. There's also some expressionistic scenery, mostly in the street scenes, that give a visual for the emotional claustrophobia the professor is about to experience. There are some slower moments and some parts of the plot that might have benefited from being stretched. As an almost-fable starring Emil Jannings, this does have a lot in common with The Last Laugh. I think I might prefer The Last Laugh despite that weird ending it had.

Give it another go, winter rates.

The Company of Wolves

1984 werewolf funk

Rating: 13/20

Plot: Angela Lansbury helps a teenage girl lose her innocence by telling her inappropriate stories about werewolf sex.

The goth kids might like this one. Neil Jordan's werewolf movie is a very English fractured fairy tale, dirty in a prim and proper way. It's got its share of frolicking. Bits of this gag you with its pretensions. From the start, it's very stylish, but it almost looks like it's an extraordinarily stylish televised movie instead of a theatrical release. The music is really awful, and the symbolism (animals in nearly every scene and more phallic symbols than necessary) is a little goofy. But there's still stuff to like in this. The dialogue is peppered with some subtle dark humor. It didn't make me howl or anything, but it did help this seem not-so-serious. Some of the setting imagery is really good, foggy swamps and gnarled things that look like they came straight outta Tim Burton's wet dreams. I never did decide whether I liked the special effects or not. I'll give credit for the interesting werewolf transformations. Lots of creativity there. The effects to make that happen don't look real at all, but they're still pretty cool.

Question: When did close-ups of doll heads become a horror movie cliche?

Escape from Alcatraz

1979 prison escape movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Only three people escaped from the notorious Alcatraz prison. It was all at the same time, and apparently one of them was Clint Eastwood. This is their story.

Good flick. Clint is Clint, with that familiar mysterious aura and squinting. His presence is almost distracting in this movie, and as much as I like Clint Eastwood, this could have possibly been a better movie with an unknown. I did think the casting of Patrick McGoohan (ironically, the Prisoner) was perfect. There are few moments in this that are cliches or that will become cliches during the next decade (as well as some Shawshankian touches), but there are more moments that are off and keep things irregular and interesting. The first scene in the cafeteria could almost be classified as Lynchian. Noodle-slurping thugs, match stunts, a guy called Litmus because his face turns red/blue when he's hot/cold, a dude talking to his pet mouse. It manages to remain thickly suspenseful even though you know from the beginning whether or not they make it. And it's also just slow enough to appeal to the thinking man, those who want the escape plot to unfold gradually and not miss a single meticulous detail. Good music, too. As always, more shower scenes would have been great. I'm not sure I saw enough ass.

Anybody know any good female prison escape movies?

Mr. Freedom

1969 satirical farce

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Freedom-fighting superhero Mr. Freedom is summoned to France to fight off the French Anti-Freedom movement and communists from Switzerland. The French don't want him, so with the aid of Marie Madeleine and other freedom-lovers (Dick Sensass, M. Drugstore, Freddie Fric), he starts his own organization to battle against the evil Moujik Man and Giant Red China Man. And Jesus.

There's a nerve near my left elbow (only my left elbow) and very close to the ulnar nerve. And like that nerve (the funny bone), this place near my left elbow (only my left elbow) tingles on occasion, generally when stroked. I call it the absurd bone, and it tingled like a mo-fo the duration of this combination of deranged agitprop and pop art diarrhea. This work by documentary filmmaker William Klein was just crazy, utilizing comic book effects (gun shots you'd expect to see in the old Batman t.v. show), insane humorous touches (pink KKK guys, Yves Montaud's cameo as the deceased Captain Formidable), the goofiest costumes you'll ever see, inflatable villains, and excessive and almost sickening colors. The stoopid clobbers you over the head with this one, but at the same time, it's impossible not to catch the genius and the message behind the madness, no matter how heavy-handed the latter might be. I'm sure that anti-American message wasn't appreciated in the center of the Vietnam conflict, and the scary thing is that the message is just as relevant today and still wouldn't be appreciated. I couldn't believe it when Mr. Freedom said, "You with me or against me?" in a way that made it seem like this was made during Bush's administration. There are some terrifically comical scenes throughout this. Freedom's appearance in his red white and blue costume made from sports equipment, his guns a-blazin'. The freedom pep rally with songs and speeches and a video montage of what makes America great that I had to watch twice. The trip to the U.S. Embassy that resembled a colorful supermarket. The wild training of the freedom fighters, absurd in an almost Heironymus Boschian way. There are some great lines in this. Every conversation between Dr. Freedom and Mr. Freedom is hilarious, and Mr. Freedom's rambling speeches, which he delivers in this quick cadence, are great. The first question at the American Embassy--"Welcome, Mr. Freedom. How's Batman and John Wayne?"--made me laugh. I won't spoil more. This easily has both rubbery boots in the "not for everybody" camp, but if you're in need of having your absurd bone stroked, this might be the film for you. And if you're a communist? Well, I'm not sure there is a more anti-American movie. I look forward to more William Klein flicks.

Science if Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painleve

Short nature documentaries from 1928-1982

Rating: n/r

I dealt with some ridicule for watching these over several days, but I'm not sure why because it's the sort of thing that's usually parked in my alley. Painleve came from an avant-garde background (apparently the surrealists and other avant-garde filmmakers would borrow his footage for their own projects), and these movies were shown in avant-garde theaters and cine clubs in Paris. Painleve uses close-ups, magnification, microscopic views, slow speed, fast speed, and a variety of other tricks to show things that you either don't know exist or wouldn't ever expect to witness. And it's all with a background of weird experimental electronic music, people banging on pots and pans (literally), or jazzy scores. Most of the footage is of underwater creatures--alien beings--and the black and white shots reminded me a lot of the Harry Smith Heaven and Earth Magic I watched last year. Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd could have performed in front of the short about liquid crystals, a kaleidoscopic series of images that also reminded me of some of Stan Brakhage's work. Undulating sea urchins, anguished male seahorses birthing twitching seahorse babies with bulging eyes, close-ups of yolk sacs, more yolk sacs than you can shake a stick at even, an orgy of slithering octopii with a breathless old pervert narrating, jerking agitated shrimp running from Groucho Marx, the perversely beautiful acera ballet and another hermaphroditic orgy, vampire bats lurching grotesquely around to hot jazz and sucking at a guinea pig, serial mollusk killers, tumbling brittle stars and feather stars with stalks and suckers waving constantly, single-cell worms heavily magnified, burrowing sea urchins, an octopus molesting a human skull. It's mesmerizing and educational, but you really won't want to take your focus off the visuals and read the subtitles much. Painleve gets clever at times, juxtaposing footage of seahorses with scenes of race horses and doing the same with the vampire bats and clips from Nosferatu or frequently ending the shorts with animated creatures spelling FIN, and I really liked that more playful quality. Not all of this stuff was golden. The "math" movies weren't worth watching (except for the one on the 4th dimension which taught me that 4th dimensional beings can see all our organs at once and extract our bones without breaking the skin), and the 1920's silent shorts were repetitive and dull compared to the later films about the same animals. The "research films," one about eggs and one called "Experimental Treatment of a Hemorrhage in a Dog," were also really dull, and a stop-animated cartoon called "Bluebeard" was ugly and didn't really fit in. My advice, if you like this sort of thing, would be to watch the 8 or so films scored by Yo La Tengo, ignore the narrator, and enjoy the otherworldly visuals.

Cleopatra Jones

1973 blaxploitation flick

Rating: 11/20

Plot: Cleopatra Jones is a U.S. special agent sent to Turkey to deal with a drug situation, the result of which ticks off drug lord Shelly Winters. Shelly Winters makes a call and has some crooked cops mess with her friends. She returns to get to the bottom of things.

Much better production values than the more comical Dolemite movies. Cleopatra is a cool strong African American female character. She's stylish, she can kick white guys in the head, and she's got a little James Bond in her. The poster above says she's 6'2", but she looks 7 feet tall at times. Maybe it's the hair, but it's more likely her attitude and presence. The fight scenes in this are less than stellar and a lot of the plot just involves Cleopatra asking where people are, but there is one fairly impressive car chase and Shelly Winters' goons (Doodlebug Simkins, Pickle, etc.) are interesting characters. Winters herself is a wacky villain, in a good way, the kind of outrageous, off-kilter bad gal whose hair color changes for no apparent reason and who kills off her own henchmen just because she's pissed off. It's a good role for her, one that I imagine did a lot for her career. I don't quite understand why Cleopatra has no difficulty beating up lots of white guys, sometimes simultaneously, but then seems to have problems in a one-on-one fight with Shelly Winters. A fairly entertaining product of the 1970s.