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127 Hours

Directed by Danny Boyle

Starring James France

94 minutes

Ouch!

I just finished watching 127 Hours.

It’s a story about an “outdoors” man that like to roam in the desert and cliffs. One day he happens to fall in a crevice knocking a big rock that gets stuck between his arm. After several days... he cuts it off.

The beginning of the movie is fast paced. There’s too much going to on really describe clearly as the main character get to the crevice. The director uses every trick imaginable in this film.

Most of the film is James Franco stuck. He yells. He thinks a lot about his situation and the past (family, ex-girlfriend, etc). He has hallucinations. He talks a lot to his video camera.

I saw Franco in Oz the Great and Powerful and I didn’t care much for his performance then since I he didn’t seem to “fit” that character. In 127 Hours, he’s a young and wild American loony, which he seems to portray well.

The climax of the film is... him cutting off his arm (I think we all know it’s going to happen). All you can say is... ouch!

3 star of out of 5.

Prime Cut (1972)

Directed by Michael Ritchie

Starring Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, Sissy Spacek

86 minutes

I had seen this movie once a while back...

Prime Cut starts off with a slice of what the inside of a meat factory is like. A man is murdered and turned into sausage while there is some very comforting music in the background.

The sausages are sent to some gangsters in Chicago. To get even, the Chicago boss hires tough guy Nick Devlin (Lee Marvin) to go to Kansas City to take care of business.

In Kansas City, Devlin goes to the farm where he confronts Mary Ann (Gene Hackman), the man responsible for the sausages. At the barn there’s an unusual type of animal for sale. Human females.

These females have been drugged up and are basically sex slaves. Marvin, probably feeling sympathy for one for women, “takes” one. This girl is called Poppy (Sissy Spacek) and we learn that she had grown up in a orphanage and knows very little of the world. Devlin takes good care of her.

By the end of the movie there’s some action at a fair, which leads to a wild chase with a “wheat” machine and a predictable shootout at the end.

This movie is simple in some ways but complex in others ways. What I liked was how well some of it’s put together. The angles of the camera are very imaginative. The perspective that the audience is put into especially in the driving scenes are fun... it’s as if we’re part of the action. The length of time of some shots is tense (especially compared to the hyper edited films that we see so often now).

Marvin may be a very underrated movie star and he deserves more credit. In this movie he’s completely in control from beginning to end.

Sissy Spacek sure shows a lot of tits in this movie...

I’m not so sure what to think about this movie overall. From the beginning of the film, we all know that this is going to have a lot of “black” humor. The structure of the movie is fairly simple and I was satisfied by the length. We don’t learn very much about the background of most characters but perhaps it’s for the best. This movie might be an example of an early action movie... 

Prime Cut is entertaining but it’s not a movie that requires a lot of thinking while watching. 3 star out of 5.

Out of the Past (1957)

Directed by Jacques Tourneur

Starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas

97 minutes

My oh my... this is a true film noir...

In the beginning of this story, a shady looking character drives into a gas station in the middle of no where. He’s looking for the owner of the gas station, Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), and waits after talking to the deaf boy that works there. The shady character and Bailey meet and Bailey is told to go to Lake Taho to meet Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas).

Bailey, who has a swell girlfriend called Ann (Rhonda Fleming) takes her along for the ride to Taho and explains his mysterious past. We then are taken back in time via flashback.

Many years ago Jeff Markham (his name before he changed it) was a detective and he accepted an assignment from Sterling to find and bring back his girlfriend, Kathie (Jane Greer). Kathie had shot Sterling and supposedly stole $40,000 from him.

Markham tracks Kathie down in Acapulco where he falls head over heals in love with her. They run away back to America and hide together but eventually Markham’s old partner spots them and blackmails him. The partner is murdered by Kathie, who runs away from Markham. Markham ends up at the gas station which brings us back to the present situation in the story.

The second half of the movie has Markham taking one more assignment by Sterling and that is to recover some income tax records from a man called Eels, that is blackmailing Sterling. Eels is murder and Markham is sure to take the blame for this... will he be able to prove his innocence and return to a “normal” life?

Out of the Past is a very good movie if you’re into this kind of genre (film noir). I was slightly surprised at the pace that the second half moves at. There’s a lot of stuff to absorb and the ending lingers in your mind.

This film has an exceptional femme fatale (Kathie) and Mitchum’s character falls for her beauty very quickly. We know from Markham’s confessional voice over that he knew he was a sucker. Kathie throughout the whole movie manipulates Markham and Sterling... when she meets Markham again she looks at him so convincingly and says, “Can’t you ever feel sorry for me?” Lady, after what you put this man through, I don’t see any reason why he should feel any sympathy for you...

I enjoyed the language used in this movie. There’s a lot of sexist language as the word “dame” is used frequently. “You’re a real cute package,” was one line that I got a laugh out of.

Another moment in the film that got me laughing was how Mitchum would so casually smoke a cigarette right next to the gas pump at the gas station.

This movie has a lot of strong performances from all of the characters. The only complaint that I have would be Mitchum’s trench coat. I don’t think this specific style of trench coat will ever become popular again...

Besides the trench coat, I’d give this film 4 stars out of 5.

I Wake Up Screaming (1941)

Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone

Starring Victor Mature, Betty Grable and Carole Landis

82 minutes

Right off the bat, we find out there’s been a killing.

After the flashy Broadway-ish main titles finish, we see the city from the point of view of a crane which slowly “zooms” into a young man selling papers. “Extra, extra, read all about it” he shout as the camera show us what’s written... Beautiful Model Found Murdered.

Next we are taken into an interrogation room where we are introduced to the main actor in the film. Franky Christopher (Victor Mature) is a promoter of many kinds of people... but mostly beautiful women. He is put under the light and is questioned about the murder of Vicky Lynn (Betty Grable). He denies it all and is released. Everything is explained in flashbacks and we learn how Christopher and Vicky meet (she was a waitress at the restaurant and Christopher scouted her).

During Christopher’s interrogation we are also introduced to Vicky Lynn’s sister, Jill (Carole Landis), who is also in the police station. She tells the cops how Vicky was enthralled by the possibilities of becoming a celebrity. “They’re going to glamorize me,” she says but the sister knows there aren’t any shortcut with these kind of careers.

After this, Vicky Lynn takes an offer to depart to Hollywood and gets killed shortly before leaving.

Most of the cops believe that Franky Christopher is innocent except for Inspector Ed Cornell (Laird Cregar), a big and intimidating cop. We find out that he had been stalking Vickie Lynn but wants to arrest (frame?) Christopher.

Halfway through the story Christopher and Jill get involved. She trusts him but the rumors start flying quickly.

There are a few more characters in this film such as Christopher’s two friends, the actor and the columnist. There’s also the mysterious front desk worker at Vicky Lynn’s apartment...

So, who killed Vicky Lynn and why? You’ll just have to watch the movie to find out.

I enjoyed this movie just from how it was made. The pace of it is fast. I paused my DVD at the thirty minute mark and it felt like an hour had passed.

I’ve seen a few movies that Victor Mature had starred in but those were epics. He does a reasonably good job in I Wake Up Screaming as he’s not too stiff with his lines. He seems like a nice guy so we assume that he’s not the killer... 

Betty Grable definitely is a babe and the director made sure to give her many close ups for the big screen. They don’t make movies like this anymore.

The sets are very well done. I enjoyed seeing all the women dressed in swell looking gowns and the men in tuxedos. There are lots of gritty and dark scenes with lots of shadows in this movie.

I enjoyed the dialogue. You probably won’t hear any of these line being said now a days which I think is a shame. I probably wouldn’t walk up to many ladies in a dance hall by saying, “May I have the next mazurka,” or end a date by saying, “Thanks, you’ve been swell.” And then Christopher and the inspector exchange a lot of talk. One memorable quote from the inspector is, “I’ll have you tied up like a pig in a slaughterhouse.”

A lot of scenes in I Wake Up Screaming seem implausible. Would Christopher give a lift to the inspector? Would Christopher and Jill really date each other? Would the cop break into and sit in the suspect’s room and greet him that casually? I’d have to say no to all of these questions.

Overall, I didn’t mind viewing this movie as it moves along at a good pace. The ending was a bit of a letdown. I’m sure the inspector could’ve acted in a loonier way towards the end... but it’s all toned down. The movie tends to be both cheerful and corny/scary. There’s a lot of cup mute playing with the trumpet and trombones which keeps the mood light. Also, we can hear the music to Over the Rainbow quite frequently.

I’d give this movie 3 stars out of 5.

For more information about this movie please click here.

Black Mama White Mama

Directed by Eddie Romero

Starring Pam Grier and Margaret Markov

86 minutes

Black Mama, White Mama is such a terrible movie, I found myself daydreaming around the middle so I really don’t know some specific details about the movie. I’m not going to bother wasting any more of my life by viewing specific scenes again... sorry.

Basically, the movie is about a black woman and a white woman. They both enter prison together. The black woman, Lee Daniels (Pam Grier), is a prostitute and the white woman, Karen (Margaret Markov), is in for political crimes as she’s a revolutionary. These two manage to escape but there’s one catch... their wrists are chained together with shackles. For the next hour they run through the jungle, fight each other and various people. We find out that Lee Daniels is after some loot. There’s an oily politician, a cop, Filipino gangsters and more gangsters. Some people are after the black woman and some people are after the white woman.

I actually bought this movie about eleven years ago and it had been sitting on the shelf for eleven years. I guess there was a reason for that. Does anyone want to buy this from me? I’ll sell it to you for a reasonable price...

I must’ve bought this movie expecting to see something in the vein of Coffy or Foxy Brown. As far the film making goes the script’s structure seems to be all over the place (perhaps, this is why I found myself falling asleep in the movie).

The two main actresses really don’t have that much chemistry. They have a few “cat” fights in the film but they never really seem to “hate” each other enough to actually make it entertaining.

Pam Grier says a lot of funny stuff. “I’ll kill that bitch,” or “Listen bitch, you can stick that up you ass,” or “I spent the last two years with a prick I hated,” are some things that says. 

The scenes in the prison are exploitative. There’s the mandatory lesbian prison guard. There’s the mandatory female shower scene. And then there’s the “oven” that woman have to go into if they do something really bad...

The prison part goes on for about twenty minutes... after that, we have to watch the great escape and revolutionary cause, which lead to lots of cheap gun fight scenes. By the end, I really had no idea what this revolution was about and, frankly speaking, I didn’t really care.

The soundtrack in this movie is pretty unmemorable... I can’t think of one melody that stuck in my head from this movie.

If you’re going to watch this movie because you’re thinking it’s going to be a cool blaxploitation flick, do yourself a favor and avoid watching this at all cost. Watch the other ones (Coffy, Foxy Brown, Truck Turner, Slaughter).

This movie really is so bad I’m not even going to bother rating it.

For more info about this movie, please go here.