Seven Psychopaths

2012 black comedy

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A screenwriter wrestling with a story is dragged into gangster shenanigans after a dog is stolen.

Wow. I watched this a long, long time ago. It's a mess of storytelling, but the characters are a lot of fun, and just like director Martin McDonagh's In Bruges, this feels really fresh. The thing just sparkles, mostly because the characters, though not especially well written, are unique and played perfectly by a who's who of cool, including a so-brief-you-might-miss-'em random appearance by Crispin Glover. Ferrell's the likable straight man stumbling around in the comedic darkness, and it's almost like his character is forced into the situation he's in by giggling gods. The ubiquitous Sam Rockwell shines, his comic timing and mannerisms nearly perfect. He's hilarious. Tom Waits gets to hold a rabbit and shoot people, and it looks like he's having a blast. Woody Harrelson's as funny as he gets, and he can get funny. Love his line "Peace is for queers, and now you're gonna die" in this. Harry Dean Stanton can steal a scene when he's doing nothing but standing around, and he does a great job of standing around in his limited scenes. And then there's the always-fascinating Christopher Walken who is maybe the best I've ever seen him. You just hang on his every word in this. And I love when he shoots somebody and makes the sound effect. Almost enough cool to make the entire movie explode. There's even a Townes Van Zandt song. The ultra-violence will turn off some, and the twisty plot that kind of changes tone about midway through might be a little too much for others. Rockwell's character says, "You're the one who thought psychopaths were so interesting. They get kind of tiresome after a while, don't you think?" at one point, and if somebody told me that they got tired of these psychopaths after a while, I could understand it. I thought the thing was a blast though and would definitely watch it again.

Pepe le Moko

1937 French movie

Rating: 17/20

Plot: The titular gangsta hides out in the labyrinthine Casbah screwing various women while a guy in a funny hat tries to catch him.

I don't remember why I watched this movie. Did one of you recommend it to me? I'm really glad I watched it though because I loved it. First, it taught me a few things. The Casbah. Am I culturally illiterate for not really knowing that this place exists outside of a Clash song? What a great setting for a sort-of noirish tale about a guy everybody knows is doomed right from the start. He's doing his best to avoid prison while ironically trapped in a prison that he made for himself. And the angles of this setting really reminded me of a German silent movie or something. So cool. I also liked that there was a street called Inadequacy Street, a place I've visited more than a few times in my life. Another thing I learned: the French have funny-looking noses. There are some interesting characters here. I got a kick out of Pepe's thugs--a dude in a seersucker suit and another guy with a perpetual smile that makes him look like he's likely mentally challenged. And there's Pierrot who plays with a yo-yo constantly. My favorite scene is the death of Regis with his hysterics, an insane piano player, seersucker suit guy playing with the yo-yo, a cool shot of that toy swinging after the death, and a shot of Smiley standing next to an angel on the wall. Jean Gabin is good as the titular gangster as he has the looks and good rapport with the ladies in his life but also this consistent look of dejection under the surface. One shot clearly shows that Pepe's shirt is monogrammed with JG, by the way. I really enjoyed the dialogue in this, maybe more because it's a 1930's movie that, at least in French, didn't sound like all the characters were screaming at me. The rapport between Pepe and funny-hatted Slimane was great. "You don't arrest God." What a line! There are other terrific lines, too:

"Don't make me turn you into a stiff. You've got nice curls."

"I've got a face men love to clout."

"Some clocks read two o'clock and chime four when it's 11:45."

"Pity I don't know you better so I could smack you a bit."

"I don't like people laughing without me knowing why."

"What mascara do you use? You naughty thing!"

"You're only a half weasel."

"I told you the truth." The response: "Find another truth."

There are some great camera shots, too, some made more interesting by the M.C. Escher landscapes of the Casbah. Lingering smiles after hands are grabbed, a risque shot of jiggling mammary glands during a scene where Pepe sings, Ma's face as she plays the record from her youth, a cool looking blue-screen-enhanced (I think) walk to the harbor, Casbah architecture turning into waves, cheese, a poignant last shot of a boat seen through bars. It's just such a cool film, and I'm really glad that I had some reason to watch it though I've now forgotten what that was.

Cory, was this on the list?

Goodfellas

1990 gangsta movie

Rating: 19/20

Plot: Henry Hill rises up the gangster ranks and marries his sweetheart.

I don't think gangsters are very good influences. Just look at all the curse words in this movie! I do like the influence that I think this had on movies that followed it. Sure it's got some impersonators that pale in comparison, attempts at carbon copies that lack the distinctive voice that Goodfellas has. But for the most part, I think this did more good than harm in Hollywood. Minor quibble though: Shouldn't it be Good Fellows? This movie is electric from start to finish--from the in medias res buffoonery dealing with the contents of car's trunk to a conclusion where Henry's selfishness is more depressing to me than surprising. Electric. Most electric is Joe Pesci's off-kilter performance. That guy's best when he's completely losing control, and he gets plenty of chances to show off here and help create these iconic moments that become those movie moments that everybody remembers. Everybody else--and I mean everybody else--is also great. DeNiro's performance is as flawless in this as in those Fockers movies, but it's that kind of performance where he doesn't even look like he's doing anything special, deceptively so. The other guy on the cover, wide-eyed Liotta with his aw-shucks face makes a likable enough protagonist but he really works more like a straight man to a lot of wackily-inflated caricatures. And then there's the periphery characters, each adding a little shading or color to this consistently entertaining look at the [under]world of gangsters. I never realized how funny gangsters were. Technically, Scorsese's a master. The guy knows how to tell a story visually without getting in the way of things, but there are some standout scenes where his camera maneuvers in ways that shouldn't be logistically possible, like during Henry's first date when the camera follows them from their car to the table or a scene from Henry's point of view where he walks through a restaurant and we're introduced to all these colorful figures, including the guy who says everything twice. I also really like how this is all humanized a bit, or maybe softened, by focusing a little on the female characters including Pesci's mother (the one with an awesome painting that I'd love to hang in my house) and Mrs. Hill. The duo-narrators really give this story another dimension about 1/3 of the way into the film. This is one of those movies that seems about half as long as it actually is.

Note: "Beyond the Sea" is in this. For those of you who care about the numbers, that's the 27th movie I've watched this year with that song in it somewhere. This movie has a big soundtrack, by the way.

Another note: When I am beaten to death by a guy with crazy eyes, I don't want it to happen a while a Donovan song plays in the background, especially a wussy lame one like "Atlantis". Well, wait a second. That song does kind of rule. I'd prefer being beaten to death during a playing of "Atlantis" than "Mellow Yellow," I guess.

If I got to pick a song to be beaten to death to, I think I'd go with Sammy Davis Jr.'s version of "MacArthur Park" or something by Sonny Terry. How about you?

Urine Couch AM Movie Club: Public Enemies

2009 gangsta movie

Rating: 12/20

Plot: The John Dillinger story.

Did you know that John Dillinger's penis is in a jar in an Indiana museum? I remember going on a field trip with my fourth grade class (Indiana history was year) and my teacher pointed it out to us. "Look at the size of that penis!" she said. And it was impressive!

I didn't like this movie very much. Any movie that makes John Dillinger's penis seem dull is a poorly-made movie in my book. Or my blog.

To be completely fair, I had trouble staying awake during this one, and Gene Siskel's ghost kept nudging me awake and saying, "Psst! Penis!" to wake me up. Nothing I saw makes me want to stay awake if I ever get a chance to see this again though.

Alibi

1929 gangster melodrama

Rating: 12/20

Plot: Chick the gangster's released from prison and joins up with his old pals. He also starts dating the daughter of a police officer, a woman who will eventually be the titular alibi after a policeman is murdered.

Bad sound on this release didn't help matters, but it's a dated and boring gangster movie anyway. But I was definitely irritated by having to turn up the television to hear the dialogue submerged in all this scratchiness only to be startled by these jarring loud sound effects. This one goes through all the 1930's melodramatic gangster motions and has a lot of shots that are secretly becoming my favorites in old movies--the forced personal space invasion where the camera demands that characters awkwardly stand about two inches from each other during conversations. There are some nice moody sets, downright expressionistic, and a neat car-driving scene with bad special effects that somehow makes it look really cool. Policemen with percussive nightsticks though? What the hell was that all about? And boy, Regis Toomey sure is bad in this. He plays drunk very poorly, almost like he got his inspiration from watching a cartoon where a bear gets drunk or something, and he's so bad that there are scene where he's getting looks from other actors. They were clearly what-the-hell?-you're-ruining-the-whole-movie looks. Either that or I imagined those looks.

Last Man Standing

1996 gangsta flick

Rating: 12/20

Plot: Yojimbo but with guns and fedoras and Bruce Willis instead of swords and kimonos and Toshiro Mifune.

This gangster film, apparently shot on a used but abandoned B-Western set, is a convoluted rehash of the "Man with No Name" idea, most recently rehashed in Sukiyaki Western Django and Lucky Number Slevin with none other than Bruce Willis, stolen thirty years ago with Clint and Leone for A Fistful of Dollars, and first used in Kurosawa's excellent Yojimbo even though he borrowed imagery from the American Wild West and a central character from Dashiell Hammett. So as the kids are saying today: It's all good. This nearly works but I kind of got lost in the plot, probably because there are far too many gangsters and none that I really cared all that much about. By the time Christopher Walken rolled in, I had already gotten to the point where I was checking my watch, the same point where I realized I didn't even have a watch on. It was probably shot off my wrist by one of the characters in this movie during one of the gangster's dozen (same amount as a baker's dozen for you squares out there) scenes where there's nothing but a flurry of gun fire mayhem and thick dust. There are a few times when characters are shot and fly backward fifty feet, some of them disappearing onto the set of Yojimbo where Kuwabatake Sanjuro looks at him in confusion before trying on his shoes. I know even less about physics and guns, especially firearms from the Prohibition Era, than I do about movies, but it seemed a bit ridiculous. Good thing they didn't have their backs to me because I'm not sure my trash guys will take dead bodies. They won't take old furniture! I like movies with beat-up, dusty towns like this and Bruce Willis, although he looked a little fatigued, was just the right guy for this, but this doesn't have nearly the character and voice that Kurosawa and Leone had. And unfortunately, it's just begging to be compared to those films.

I bought this for fifty cents early in the "man" movie challenge. It was probably worth that much.

Trouble Man

1972 blaxploitation flick

Rating: 11/20

Plot: There's trouble for Mr. T when he's hired by Chalky and Pete to stop the masked men who keep showing up with guns and robbing the participants of their craps game. There's a lot more than meets the eye for this suave, ultra-cool private detective as he finds himself in the middle of a gang war. Oh, snap!

This is a much better movie than the Dolemite movies and probably Cleopatra Jones. Mr. T, this one sans mohawk and extraneous jewelry and "I pity the fool" catch-phrase, isn't nearly as much fun though. T's as smart as he is cool, and although the plot was convoluted and gummy, I enjoyed the ride when the character was strutting around trying to put pieces together with the help of his gigantic polyester ties. However, other than the titular detective, you don't get a single other engaging character, and no real bad guys to latch onto. The majority of this is low-grade shoot-'em-up stuff, and Trouble Man's just too straight to make it worth the trouble.

Creature from the Haunted Sea

1961 monster and gangster comedy (I guess)

Rating: 5/20

Plot: "The most astounding adventure ever afflicted upon man." At least that's what the narrator told me. American gangster Renzo, for reasons that I never completely understood, finds himself on a boat with his posse and a handful of Cubans and the Cuban National Treasury. He decides to unload the Cubans one-by-one and blame it on a sea creature that, according to legend, roams the waters. He doesn't realize that a very real muppet is roaming the waters and helping him in his task.

Another Corman picture, one in which Roger really takes the piss. There was no way they worked on this for more than a week, probably while they were still writing the script. I knew I was in for something goofy while watching the animated credits during which a ridiculously harmlesss sea thing runs comically across the screen. But I still didn't realize this was even a comedy until it just got to the point where it was too ludicrous not to be one. The gangsters meet the Cubans in a rainforest after they drive to the destination in a convertible, a limo, and a Volkswagon bus. For about five minutes, I couldn't figure out what was going on because I couldn't understand what anybody was saying thanks to bad sound and thick accents. I did catch a character say, "Do you understand?" which made me answer back "No, not at all." I really need to stop talking to the movies I watch. Then some things happen and a Volkswagon bug comes along and there's a chase scene through the jungle that makes that chase scene in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull look like high art. I was still clueless, but then they ended up on the boat and everything calmed down a little bit. I had to pause the movie to take a breath. Dopiness abounds in this one. Nothing about the plot really makes that much sense. You have a CIA agent (also the narrator) working undercover with the gangsters, but he never seems to be invited to their meetings. He listens at the door, narrates that he can't understand anything that they're saying, and then is seen listening at the door anyway for several subsequent scenes anyway. He also says, "But my real name is XK150," at one point which is interesting because I almost named one of my children that. Another enlightening bit of narration: "It was dusk; I could tell because the sun was going down." None of the other characters make sense either. Renzo is pretty much a low-budget Bogart, something like a Humphrey clone that went horribly wrong and was discarded in a dumpster outside the laboratory but Corman came along and decided to use him anyway. Speaking of Bogie, there's a gang member called Happy Jack Manahan who is supposed to perpetually smile because of muscle spasms from too many Bogart pictures. I don't even know what that means, but I do know the character doesn't even smile that much in the movie. The most nonsensical character, and the character who represented the moment when Corman's tongue actually penetrated his cheek and wiggled freely in the air, was a guy whose dialogue was mostly animal imitations including "the mating call of the Himalayan Yak." The characters forget each other's names, run into each other, and butcher their lines, all things that would make an ordinary director yell "Cut!" But Corman is no ordinary director! The excellent Fred Katz (Little Shop of Horrors) provides some interesting music that at times clashes with what you see on the screen. And I haven't even talked about the frightening monster yet!



Hell yeah! I would have expected this thing to steal my cookies rather than feel in danger because of it, and I don't know how the actors kept from laughing. Maybe that's why most of the creature's appearances involved it sneaking up on the characters so that they wouldn't see him and start laughing. There were some great underwater scenes with this thing, a lot of them blocked by large fish that would swim in front of the camera. 5/20 might be a little high for this film; however, it is a comedy that made me laugh. Maybe my grade is even a little harsh. Regardless, this deepens my appreciation for the great Roger Corman.

The Long Good Friday

1980 English gangsta flick

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Things is going good for Harold, top London gangster, as he tries to put the finishing touches on a deal with some tall Americans that promises to bring him billions. He's also sleeping with Helen Mirren. It's Good Friday and Harold wakes up ready to celebrate. But oh, snap! Somebody starts blowing up or stabbing his friends or ruining his dinner plans, and he has to put a stop to it before the Americans lose interest in working with him.

This is really all about watching Hoskins' character gradually unravel and lose his cool, and this is the kind of movie that is worth the time just to watch a great actor create a great character. There's a wonderful, almost hidden intensity that builds in his character until the final (great) scene in which he can finally take a breath and rest, albeit submerged in the shadows of irony. The story's a little hard to follow, especially early on, and it's got that stuffy Englishy flavo(u)r that I hate, but the in medias res storytelling and a suspense that is so quiet you barely know it's there work very well. There are a few really cool scenes, and the interrogation scene could be regarded as a classic. The music, however, is probably some of the worst that I've heard this year and really dates the thing.

Recommended by Cory. Did you know, by the way, that they're apparently doing a remake of this?

Scarface, the Shame of a Nation

1932 Howard Hawks production

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Tony Camonte is a little gangsta with a big heart and even bigger dreams. After gang leader Louis Costello is knocked off, police suspect that Camonte is their man, but since there's not a body, they can do nothing about it. Habeas Corpus, Latin for "there ain't no body nowhere so's there's nothin' nobody can do about nothin'." Camonte continues to work his way up the gangster ladder but begins ticking off his peers and create some conflicts within the gangster community when he starts to extend his responsibilities with some freelance work. Another conflict develops when his sister, with whom he is overly protective, starts wanting a little more freedom.

I'd give this the slight edge over the too-long 80's Scarface. It's very good for an early talkie even though it does suffer from the staginess and over-acting and occasional stuffiness of those early 30's productions. This version of Scarface is packed with some great character actors who give the somewhat pedestrian script some flavor. It's also got action scenes that are way ahead of their time. Car chases, shoot 'em ups, etc. all in crisp black 'n' white and drenched in shadows. The introductory scene, one of those long shots I'm a sucker for, is really nice, the camera smoothly moving from the street to inside a club and then lingering just long enough for a gangster's whistling shadow to stroll in and take care of business. It's a great scene that sets the stage. I also like some of the (admittedly heavy-handed) symbolism in this. Paul Muni is a good Scarface although I don't always like his accent and the horrible bow tie/collar combination he sports. Another thing that annoyed me was the preachiness. The movie starts out by proclaiming itself as an "indictment of gang rule and the callous indifference of the government." That's fine, I guess, but the story really grinds to a halt with a sententious speech in the middle of the movie and some other didactic moments. It's just too much, and it seems odd as somebody could easily accuse the filmmakers of glorifying the gangster lifestyle as much as they are criticizing it.

Ali G Indahouse

2002 comedy

Rating: 9/20

Plot: All really dumb gangsta Ali G wants is to save the rec center, but he gets caught in the Chancellor's ploy to embarrass and oust the Prime Minister. Britain ends up loving his Keepin'-It-Real attitude, and the Prime Minister ends up even more popular.

I didn't know this movie even existed or I would have not enjoyed it a long time ago. On the one hand, there are actually a lot of funny bits and Cohen's really good with physical comedy. On the other hand, there are more than a lot of fart jokes and penis jokes (there might even be a joke about a farting penis in there somewhere) and Cohen's really bad with knowing when enough's enough. I would have loved to see the Ali G character in a Borat-esque faux documentary because the stuff with the character on the HBO show is hilarious. Also, even though there is a bit of satire in this, it seems a lot dumber than the Borat movie, an excuse to make those aforementioned penis fart jokes and nothing more. This is more miss than hit, the silly narrative is flimsy, and the sketch comedy too sketchy.

Some Like It Hot

1959 wacky romantic comedy

Rating: 17/20 (Jen: 14/20)

Plot: Two musician pals (Joe and Jerry, played by real-life gay lovers Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) struggle to make ends meet in late 1920's Chicago. After accidentally witnessing the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, they have to figure out a way to escape the mob. They decide to become Josephine and Daphne and join an all-girl band on their way to Florida. They fight for the affection of Sugar Kane Kowalcyzk (played by one of JFK's girlfriends) while trying to keep their true identities and genders hidden.

Lots of clever and very funny moments. It doesn't surprise me that the screenplay is clever and funny--some good running jokes and lots of more subtle moments that you'll miss if you're not paying attention. The action sequences with the gangsters, especially at the beginning, are also well done. The musical numbers sprinkled within the narrative are also fun and, in some cases, arousing. There were multiple times when Jen caught me with my hand down the front of my pants while Monroe was on-screen, but what's a guy supposed to do? Boop-boop-a-doop! She's good in this, just devious enough, just innocent enough, and just tempting enough to create a core for this story when it's about ready to lose control completely. There's an energy boiling under the surface of this one, a fervency, that makes it snap, crackle, and pop and raises it above your typical romantic comedy. My only real complain is that Jack Lemmon is a little too hammy, but his overly wacky performance does contribute to the movie's overall energy. How daring would this movie have seemed in the late-50's?

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

1999 afro-samurai gangster flick

Rating: 17/20

Plot: Ghost Dog, a black contract killer who adheres to the philosophies and codes of the samurai, finds himself a target of a clumsily inept mob. He and his pigeons have to take care of business.

I noticed the other day that I had no Jarmusch movies on this blog and felt the need to remedy that. I'd actually always avoided this movie despite a recommendation from a buddy, and I'm not exactly sure why. Jim Jarmusch? Good. Samurai? Good. Comical mobsters? Good. I'm not sure why I'm surprised to like this rather special movie so much. It has a lot to say about personal codes, fading traditions, communication, friendship, stereotypes, and loyalty. And it's really fucking entertaining. There's action, there's laughs, and there's a great performance by Forest Whitaker in the title role. A hammier performance would have easily destroyed the character and the film, but Whitaker plays it suave and delivers exactly what the role calls for. Ghost Dog's interesting because it's more the characters, their motivations, and the philosophies that push the plot forward rather than just a story. With typical Jarmusch nuances, those characters that meander just outside the fringes of normalcy, and thematic depth, this is the type of uniquely entertaining movie that will be rewarding again and again. I'm going to have to watch Dead Man again soon to see if there are some thematic connections.

Shoot the Piano Player!

1960 French American gangster movie

Rating: 17/2o

Plot: Charlie's plays piano nightly in a jazz club before going home to sleep with his neighbor, a prostitute, and take care of his much younger brother. He's got a past, part of which includes playing concert piano and being in love, but in his present, he just wants to blend in, be shy, exist subtly. His older brother busts in one night looking for help as two guys he and the other older brother cheated out of money are after him. One of them wears a hat; the other wears a cap. Charlie and the waitress who loves him get involved in the mess.

Truffaut's follow-up to The 400 Blows is a neat blend of whimsy and drama. My favorite parts of this are the unnecessary parts, the bits that don't really seem to belong and may even distract from the main narrative but add a color or a texture that make this memorable. I know nothing about French actors, but I really like the guy who plays the title pianist. I also like the interior monologue that pops up every once in a while, mostly when he's with the waitress character. Great flick!

Ball of Fire

1941 comedy

Rating: 13/20

Plot: Bertram Potts is one of eight professors working on an encyclopedia. Potts, who specializes in language, is working on an article about slang, but he doesn't know anything about it. He ventures out to find experts and comes across a nightclub singer who has ties to the mob. She initially refuses his request to help him with his slang article, but once she finds out the police are after her, she decides to hide out with Potts and his colleagues. She disrupts things.

Cute enough but too old-fashioned. There were times I almost wanted to laugh, but I would have had to laugh so politely that my wife would have suspected that I had become a homosexual. The writing isn't bad at all, but it's more clever than funny. Gary Cooper wasn't believable as the studious nerdy type, and none of the gangsters were very believable either. I did like Stanwyck's character, but during the second half of the movie, she either became a prop or just wasn't around much. This also suffers from having that 30s/40s tendency to tidy everything up, and mostly unrealistically make everything turn out happily. My biggest gripe, however is that if you're going to make an updated version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, you've got to include midgets. There's not a midget to be seen in this one.

This was another Cory recommendation.

Youth of the Beast

1963 yakuza movie

Rating: 17/20

Plot: Tough guy Jo joins two rival gangs Yojimbo-esquely in order to solve the mystery of the death of a pal and maybe avenge that death. Violence ensues.

This is the first of Suzuki's incomprehensible yakuza films, and it's cool that he came out swinging. It's more comprehensible than Branded or Drifter, but there's still enough flamboyance and visual flare here to make it completely obvious that it came from the mad mind of this one-of-a-kind director. Very 60's and very stylish (almost Bondish), Suzuki's got an eye for color and physical geometry. A final gunfight in a tortured setting, one in which our hero finds himself at an early disadvantage, and a much earlier scene involving a one-way glass and complete silence are so ingeniously shot that it gave me wood. Literally! Shapes within the sets are also used to frame characters or physically display the conflicts. Tricky? Sure. But it makes for a fun and fancy free violent romp that I'm sure Tarantino loves. Oh, and like the main guy in Branded to Kill, it looks as if this one might also have cheek implants. What the hell? I'm adding a cheek implant label in case I see Branded to Kill or Eraserhead or Alvin and the Chipmunks or U-Turn any time soon.

Tokyo Drifter

1966 yakuza b-movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Powder-blue suited Tetsu follows his boss into the straight life but meets obstacles everywhere he steps, namely an old rival gang. Oh, snap! He decides to drift, leaving his girlfriend and his father figure of a boss behind. Then things get complicated.

Suzuki was fired by his studio for making "incomprehensible" movies. This incomprehensible movie's got lots of stylized action and a genius eye for color, stuff that could make Tarantino stick his hand down the front of his pants never to be seen again. The soundtrack, which apparently consists of a single song, is oppressive, but with a wry humor and unique vision, this thing's really fun to watch. Loved the loads of goofiness in that climactic dance club scene. I do prefer Branded to Kill though.

Pale Flower

1964 Japanese noir

Rating: 14/20

Plot: After a yakuza is released from a prison sentence received following a night of stabbing, he decides to catch up with the old gang. He finds out that things have changed. Oh, snap! He struts into an illegal gambling house and becomes intrigued with a risky gambling woman. He forms an ambiguous relationship with her and watches as things get all mysterious.

Very solid noir but a little boring. There are lots of extended scenes of gambling here, and since I have no idea what game they're even playing, that failed to interest me. The characters all seemed a little flat, too. There's a stylish lack of style to this that gives the movie a little something extra though, and I really liked the avant-garde music used.

Pierrot Goes Wild

1965 cinematic anarchy

Rating: 17/20

Plot: Completely bored with his own life and appalled by the superficialities of modern society, literature-lover and failed poet Ferninand (not Pierrot) flees town with his children's babysitter Marienne. Marienne, it turns out, is mixed up with a motley crew of gun-runners, and following a murder, the lovers find themselves on the lam. Then, succumbing to peer pressure and the teasing cameras, "Pierrot" repeatedly exposes his wild wild nipples.

This equivalent of cinematic pop art is more than likely the inspiration for all those "Girls Gone Wild" videos. Hockney-esque, Warholish, and Lichtensteinian, Godard borrows from comic books, American film genres (humorously, the crime movie, the road movie, musicals, romantic drama), advertising (dialogue at a party early in the morning is plundered from ads), poetry, and painting and slaps it all together into a freeform stew of cinematic anarchy. The result is wildly chaotic, original and fun, funny and poignant, and frequently beautiful. My favorite scenes: the midget gangster and his eventual demise, the gun-runners' dance scene on a beach, an extended long-shot in Marienne's apartment before they leave town, the numerous non-sequiturs peppering the script (the best being Pierrot's final conversation he has with a stranger about a song), the surreal car accident, the explosive denouement. What at times seems like a guy just dicking around, Godard actually has a lot to say about romantic relationships, language futility, emotions, and the role and possibilities of cinema. I gave this movie a bonus point just because of how good Anna Karina looks. Samuel Fuller, who isn't nearly as cute, has a cameo in this one. At times very similar to Godard's Week-end, but it also reminded me a lot of Jeunet's Amelie. Maybe it's the Frenchness.

Get this head a beret!

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

1984 action adventure

Rating: 12/20 (Dylan: 12/20)

Plot: Indiana Jones flees from Shanghai with his little bodyguard Short Round and a blond cabaret singer who spend the rest of the movie battling to become the most annoying character of the trilogy. They flip, flop, fly, fall, and end up somewhere in an Indian village where the villagers' magical testicle and children have been stolen. Indiana Jones and his peers travel via elephant to find fame and fortune and meet misadventure every step of the way.

Just not even nearly as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark. In fact, it's nowhere close, and my rating above is probably too nice for this mess. There are some good action sequences. The mine car chase, the collapsing room, and rope bridge scenes are very exciting, but don't come close to the traps, the chases, the fights, or the suspense of the first one. Whereas the pacing in the first movie is almost perfect, this one clunks. And whoever had the idea to start this one with a musical number really missed the boat. Harrison Ford gets some good one-liners and the title character stays a perfect heroic icon, but almost all of the comic relief courtesy of the stereotypical Asian kid and the damsel in distress doesn't work. The exception is when Short Round says to Indy, "You my best friend!" about an hour and thirteen minutes after he told an elephant, "You my best friend!" I can't stop quoting that one, generally to strangers in line with me at the grocery store. Such dark detours in this one, and although this was like candy for me as a kid, it really spoils the trilogy now.

Dylan refuses to be in these pictures. Rest assured, he does in fact exist.