Change Your Image
QBSNIDERLOES
Reviews
Neighbors (1981)
Hits too close to home...
I think why this movie fails with most is that it hits too close too home...I listened to an Eel's song today (the other shoe)and immediately flashed back to this movie... Belushi and Aykroyd switched their original roles...with a purpose. Belushi is me...middle-aged, overweight, dull, and boring: the American dream: and he is faithful to that portrayal. Aykroyd is both the man without any moral restraints we long to be, and he is the man we hate, who laughs at the American dream and how it has gotten so twisted. It is a comment on American society and morality and the two actors play it well. Moriarty plays the American woman who can justify anything on whim, be it right or wrong, and Walker is the suffering American wife who is discontented with how her life has turned out. Of course, it is her husband's fault, not her own. Elaine, the child, is our offspring who disdainfully disregards our twisted way of life. It hits too close to home...listen to Eel's song (the other shoe)and you might hear what I am trying to say...
Une corde un Colt... (1969)
Excellent film that begs to be viewed and discussed...
Cemetery Without Crosses: a film that I have been chasing for a number of years for my DVD collection...never saw it previously. Well worth the wait...a film that stands up extremely well against the better non-Leone spaghetti westerns (Great Silence, Big Gundown, Bullet for the General, Day of Anger,Face to Face, etc) and at least as well against a Fistful of Dollars. Beginning: sepia toned, without any dialogue, three men on horseback are being chased by about 10-15 men...from the beginning, it is obvious one of the three being chased will not make it...then titles, credits, and color to the movie... A third into the movie, we come to a ghost town where our protagonist dwells...he plays roulette against himself...a former flame comes to the town and asks for his help in obtaining a measure of revenge...don't do it, he cautions... In the middle of the movie, our protagonist sits and eats with the family and employees of the men doing the chasing in the beginning of the movies...silence...knowing glances...something is about to happen... Two thirds into the movie: a woman is kidnapped and raped...tries to escape...the remaining two men who were chased in the movie are kidnapped themselves, beaten... End of Movie: the final, obligatory shoot-out... Questions abound...symbolism heavy...stayed with me a few days...well worth the journey...oh, the photography is excellent, as is the music, and there is a cameo performance by Sergio Leone himself... Very underrated film...
Mr. Brooks (2007)
Loved the movie but let's consider another avenue of thought:
Loved the movie...rooting for a nice(?)serial killer like Kevin Costner was a deliciously dark pleasure...thought the idea of William Hurt playing Earl's darker side could be somewhat too cutesy but it worked well...anyhow, to the movie: Actually, I think it'a a metaphor for the Iraq war...Earl is really Congress, the daughter the new incoming freshman House of Representatives, Wm Hurt is really Cheney, the photographer really the American Public, and Demi Moore is really our conscience chasing Bin Laden (other serial killer)...played that way, the movie is brilliant in conception but then, that's my twisted mind working overtime...see it and make up your own mind!
Lo straniero di silenzio (1968)
best of the trio...
of the three movies (a stranger in town (dollar between the teeth), the stranger returns (shoot first, laugh last), and the stranger in japan, the stranger in japan has, perhaps, the best production values and, quite possibly, the best acting. from the beginning, i have enjoyed the stranger-a parody of the man with no name-and admired the simplicity of the basic premise of the story: the stranger gets beat up in the beginning, loses his six-gun, and then, revenge bent, kills all the bad guys with a close range weapon. simple, effective, and enjoyable...so much so, that if anyone can tell me where i can buy any or all of the stranger trilogy, i would be grateful... update 11/8/2008: still need to find the stranger in japan DVD (US compatible)...
Un dollaro tra i denti (1967)
FOR WHAT IT IS...
Personally, I enjoyed all three of the Anthony (Stranger) movies...I I took them as satire of the Eastwood trilogy...Eastwood smokes cheroots, Anthony rolls cigarettes that unravel in his mouth...Eastwood wears a poncho, Anthony a ratty serape...Eastwoods kills with his six gun, bad guys take Anthony's six gun so he kills with a shotgun...Eastwood is direct, Anthony is sneaky...the list could go on and on...the Anthony trilogy is to the Eastwood trilogy as the James Coborn (Our Man Flint) were to the Sean Connery (James Bond) movies...high quality the Stranger movies were not, campy fun they were...how can you not like a ratty little scoundrel like the stranger, who's always losing his pistol and getting beat up, who looks like a skid row derelict, but somehow, manages to kill all the bad guys in the most inventive of ways...what's not to like...