Movie #222 Anchorman *2004*

I will admit right off the bat I could review this film in my sleep.  I had just come off of watching Salo and I needed something that I didn't have to think about and something that would lighten the mood.  What better way to lighten the mood than spending 90 minutes with Ron Burgundy and the rest of the crew at Channel 9 News?

If you have been living under a rock or if you don't like to laugh and haven't seen Anchorman let me break it down for you.  Set in the 70's in San Diego (which of course is Spanish for a whale's vagina) Anchorman is the story of an egotistical, charmingly mysogynistic, playboy wanna-be named Ron Burgundy.  Burgundy is portrayed brilliantly by Will Ferrell.  This is far and away his greatest role and I am a big fan of his in Stranger Than Fiction.  He is the anchor at the top rated local news channel.  His associates are made up of a loverboy, sleezebag who does on the spot reporting, a wild card maniac who does sports and a mild mannered although totally moronic (to the point of retardation) weather man.  These roles are played to a tee by Paul Rudd, David Koechner and a still green Steve Carell.  There reign as alpha dogs is about to change as Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) is introduced and given a shot as a co-anchor.  It is a "The Times they are a Changin" story.

This film is endless quotable.  That doesn't necessarily make it a good movie, but it doesn't hurt.  My friends and I can speak to each other for HOURS with only using lines from Anchorman.  What does make this a good movie is its approach to the comedy.  It is silly and it knows it, but it never winks at the camera.  There is a news anchor street fight between all the local new teams in the middle of the movie.  This scene is loaded with cameos.  In a straight comedic story there is no way that it would break for something so ludicrous, but in Anchorman it works.

The real secret to the movies success I think comes from its heart.  Ron is forced to act like "a man" around his buddies, but deep down inside that extremely hairy chest of his is a big ole lonely heart.  The relationship between Burgundy and Corningstone is really the crux that the movie hinges on.  Without that it is nothing more than a bunch of skits strung together.

Directed by long time friend and writing partner of Ferrell, Adam McKay has several other projects with Ferrell, but they have never managed to load down a film with so much honest and well delivered humor.  Everything else that I have seen them work on seems at least a little forced.  Anchorman has the feel of an improvised comedy based on a great script.  Watching it you get the feeling that the crew had a great time making the film.

Cinematicly it is not very ambitious.  A common theme with broad comedy's like this.  But that is not to say that it is poorly shot in any way.  The costumes are great but definitely have the scene that they are trying to get a laugh out of 70's fashion, the sets look like mock 70's sets, the hairstyles and makeup are exaggerated to provide laughs.  But you are not laughing at all of these things, you laugh that someone in that suit, with that hair just said that line.  It is perfectly self aware and playing on its audiences expectations.

I love this movie.  "I love movie".  "I love lamp".  I give Anchorman ★★★★.

Movie #131 Jackie Brown *1997*

Pam Grier - Jackie Brown
Samuel L. Jackson - Ordell Robbie
Robert Forster - Max Cherry
Robert De Niro - Louis Gara
Bridget Fonda - Melanie Ralston
Michael Keaton - Ray Nicolette

Quentin Tarantino (Director)

I remember the first time I saw Jackie Brown like it was yesterday.  I was a cold Midwestern night and I was a cinematic neophyte.  It was QT's prior film Pulp Fiction that turned me on to the art of film making and made me realize that the medium of film could be more than simple entertainment.  This was the most excited I had ever been to see a movie.  After seeing Pulp I began absorbing everything movie through a Tarantino filter.  I went back and watched his first film Reservoir Dogs.  I watched Four Rooms.  I watched True Romance and Natural Born Killers.  All of which he wrote, directed or both.  All of which had movie references littered throughout.  I watched all the movies referenced.  I watched the other films made by these directors.  I studied Tarantino and watched he friends films, I watched his favorite films.  I watched just about everything I could get my hands on that had anything at all to do with QT.

I remember standing in line to see Jackie Brown with a smile on my face so big and so pronounced that I can still remember the mussels in my face hurting.  I finally took my seat and there it started.  An opening that was a direct homage to The Graduate.  Pam Grier on a people mover at the airport. Across 110th Street was blasting through the speakers (a 1970's blaxploitation reference).  I was in film geek heaven. 

Jackie Brown was based on the book Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard, an author who I have actually read some of his books.  It is the story of a down-on-her-luck flight attendant who is smuggling money in the country for a small time arms dealer.  When the DEA busts her, she acquires the help of her bail bondsman and then sets out to fool them all and make out like a bandit.  If you have ever read any Leonard then you would know that my description matches most of his work.  I is kind of like saying the Coen Brother movie where the guy finds some money and get into a situation that he can't get out of.

But with Jackie Brown you have all the QT touches.  You get an awesome soundtrack, titillating banter, camera work like you won't find anywhere else, perfect close-up's, performances that will blow your mind and so on and so on.

Watching Jackie Brown again it was the performances that struck me the most.  I watched this with a friend and I was stunned at how good everyone in it is.  They all know exactly what they are supposed to be doing.  I give a lot of credit to the actors of course, but QT gets a fair amount of props as well.  Pam Grier is perfect.  If you casted this film every 10 years for the next 1,000 years you would never get a better performance.  First off there is her natural beauty, then she brings A TON to this role.  Being a former star then getting left behind as did so many of the black actors of the 70's, she had a bruised ego that you can't "act".  It is either there or it isn't and the only way to get it is to have been on top and then hit rock bottom and stay there for a long while.  QT has a line in Death Proof "There is little more fetching than an angle with a bruised ego."

Then you get to Robert Forster (the bail bondsman).  Once upon a time he had been a big time character actor in quite a few movies that cinephiles geek out on.  Until Jackie Brown he had been doing work on TV shows like Walker Texas Ranger and Murder She wrote.  QT really went out on a limb by hiring actors that Hollywood were past their prime (Grier, Forster, even Keaton).  Forster is amazing as Max Cherry.  He never seems too big nor too small for the role.  I commented to my friend on just how natural he was.

Of course Sam Jackson knocked a role that might as well have been written for him right out of the park.  De Niro seemed a little out of place as the goof ball ex-con, but his scenes with Bridget Fonda were pretty good. There are a few notable other bit roles, but in the consideration of time I will bypass them.

One thing I love about QT's movies is that you don't have to know all the movie references to appreciate his films.  He gets criticized a lot for not being original enough, or being too dirivitive.  His detractors say that anyone can take segments of their favorite films and make a movie.  I say "then do it".  Why aren't people doing it?  The reason is that it is not that easy.  Many have tried.  Once Pulp hit there was a surge of copycat films (2 Days in the Valley) that tried to do what QT does and they couldn't.  The thing about his films is that if you can catch that Sid Haig, who plays the judge in Jackie Brown, was also a bad guy in the movie Foxy Brown with Pam Grier in 1974 then you receive a bonus.  But if not, there is no detriment to the viewer.  He doesn't punish the common viewer for not having a cinematic roladex like he has.

Many people refer to Jackie Brown as QT's "grown-up" film.  I think that this is in response to the change of pace and style (sort of) from Pulp.  Jackie Brown is far more of a character study then any of his other films.  I think people associate that with maturity.  I feel like QT came to maturity with Pulp.  Dogs was his adolescence and everything after has been a grown man making grown film.  I place Jackie Brown in the bottom half of QT's films, but that is not a knock.  He hasn't made a film that I don't absolutely love.  I give Jackie Brown ★★★★1/2.  Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.

Movie #128 American Grindhouse *2010*

Robert Forster - Narrator
John Landis - Himself
Allison Anders - Herself
Elijah Drenner (Director)


I love movies about movies.  American Grindhouse is a documentary about a classification of movies known as Grindhouse or Exploitation films.  When I think of an Exploitation flick I usually harp back to the gritty movies of the 70's.  Movies with titles like "Caged Heat", "Blackula", "Hell is for Children" and "The One Arm Swordsman".  Exploitation movies generally were made with little to no budget.  They were largely directed, produced and written by independent film makers in a time when "indy films" meant something.  It meant you were on your own.  There was no one to market your movie.  There was no Harvey Wienstien or Miramax to distribute your picture.  If you were and independent film maker you went out on the road and played you movie at every screen, theater, picnic and side of a barn that would let you.

An Exploitation movie was a movie that had something to exploit.  Women, African Americans, Teens, etc.  The films were made fast and cheap.  They were made outside of the studio system and shown in smaller, cheaper theaters.  This way they could completely avoid censorship boards like the MPAA.  Therefore they could show nudity, gore, sex, violence, you name it.  They more taboo the better.



The term "Grindhouse" has duel meanings.  The first meaning comes from the theaters that would show exploitation films.  These theaters would run a film for a weekend then put a new movie in the next weekend.  These films (and film makers) would travel from town to town.  Because of the theaters high turnover they really cranked out the movies.  Cranked out....Grinded them out....Grindhouse.  The second meaning comes from the content of the movies.  Like I said, they were not afraid to show nudity or even sex.  Where in a burlesque show you might get a lap dance (grinding) "Grindhouse" referred to a theater where naked women could be seen.  Often time the actresses were active burlesque dancers.

I could have told you all this before seeing American Grindhouse.  I am in no way an expert on these films, but I have seen quite a few of them and the history of American Cinema has been an interest of mine for some time.  Along with all its ugly spots.  The documentary is basically a collection of talking heads that were either directed related to the Grindhouse movement, or film historians in some sense.  I particularly enjoyed listening to John Landis talk about Grindhouse films.  He is knowledgeable on the subject and he has razor sharp wit.  Robert Forster was a good narrator.  He of course stared opposite of Pam Grier in QT's Jackie Brown.  A film that owes a lot to Grindhouse cinema.

In the 90's and 00's there was a small Grindhouse revival.  Quentin Tarintino and Robert Rodriguez teamed up for a double feature called Grindhouse.  RR directed the campy yet redux of grindhouse cinema called Planet Terror.  QT however I feel created a true Grindhouse picture with Death Proof.  An homage to slasher flicks and mussel car pictures.  I think that Death Proof could have played right next to any of that era's movies without notice.

All in all the documentary was serviceable.  I was able to add a few movies to my Netflix queue that the movie talked about.  I was surprised at how many of the films I had seen.  The doc also went deeper into the history of indy film than I knew about.  If any of these topics hold any interest to you, then I would recommend American Grindhouse.  I give the flick ★★★.  I watched this movie that is in select theaters now on Netflix Watch Instant.  Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.

Movie #90 The Mechanic *1972*

A good one is hard to find.

I saw a trailer for a "new" film the other day called The Mechanic.  This is a remake of a 70's film staring Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent.  Bronson plays a hitman working for a secret organization.  He kills a friend of his fathers as part of a contract.  He then befriends this mans loud mouth arrogant son and mentors him in the ways of being a professional killer.

The first 15 minutes of this films were great.  Bronson without a word spoken sneaks into a mans house and sets a trap that will allow him to "eliminate" the man from across the street.  This is great 70's cinema.  It all goes down hill from there.  The plot meanders around while we bask in the glory that was the 70's and all its excess.  Or at least what the establishment wanted America to see in it's films. 

We have The Charles Bronson dressed up in red silk pajamas (cause he is classy), in gray sweats when playing handball (to show off his youthful side while he was 50), SCUBA gear (no reason) and a karate uniform in a heavy handed lesson in right vs wrong and young vs old.

This movie had a ton of unintentional laughs.  Even outside of the costumes.  There was a dirt bike chase that ended *SPOILER ALERT* with Bronson intentionally crashing his bike so he didn't go over a 30 foot cliff.  The bad guy must not have seen it and he took a slight fall and the motorcycle blew up like an A-Bomb.  There there is the car chase scene at the end where *ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT* Bronson is so far ahead in his car that when he runs out of ammo, he gets out and hot wires a bulldozer and slams it into his pursuer.  He then pushes the car off a cliff and it falls for like 40 seconds.  It was the longest car plunge I have ever seen.

The acting is God awful throughout.  There are a ton of "yes..." and "ok..." and "what?".  Then there is line reading after line reading.  It is comical.  If I can find a particular scene I will post it in the Trailer Park.  Then there is the inevitable plot twist and the even more inevitable revenge double twist. 

The remake stars Jason Statham and Ben Foster, an actor I like a lot.  I hope they are able to bring a little more to the story than the original, but it looks like a run of the mill action flick.  Who knows, maybe Statham will rock a velvet robe and a pipe (to show he is classy).

I give The Mechanic a 2/5 stars.  Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.

Movie #51 Shampoo

The more things change...

After watching Shampoo the other night I read up a little about it.  The AFI (American Film Institute) has it ranked as one of the 50 funniest movies of all time.  I found myself laughing at it a fair amount, but not nearly enough to make it one of the funniest movies ever.  The humor reminded me a lot of another 70's movie Harold and Maude.  The comedy comes for places of discomfort.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  Both Harold and Maude and Shampoo were directed by Hal Ashby.  At least in title anyway.  According to the book Raging Bulls and Easy Riders Ashby is credited as the director but everyone knows that Warren Beatty was really the man putting the show together.  The book goes on to discuss how this was a passion project for Beatty.  Not only did he basically direct, he also basically wrote it although Robert Towne was giving top writing credit.  It is known that the premise was Beatty's idea entirely.

Shampoo is a time capsule of a movie.  It is about a male hairdresser who is sleeping with every woman he makes contact with.  The film opens with him having sex with a married woman.  He has to leave her post coitus to visit his "girlfriend"(Goldie Hawn).  Beatty wants to start his own salon so the married woman suggests he talks to her banker husband.  At this time we find out that the husband has a mistress (the beautiful Julie Christie {who Beatty was dating in real life at the time of filming}).  We also find out that Beatty is screwing her too.  In one scene Beatty goes to the married woman's home to wait for her.  While he is waiting he has sex with her late teenage daughter.  This is a late sixties movie for sure.

The performances are all top notch.  This film has all of these actors at the top of their games.  Beatty is one of the most honest male actors I can think of.  I made a comment on my Stagecoach review that John Wayne never told a lie on screen.  Beatty is right up there with him.  The script is close to perfect as well.  Again I shouldn't be surprised.  Towne had writing credits on many of the most influential films of the 60' and 70's.

Another thing of note about the film is the soundtrack.  Hal Ashby was a hippie and there is no other way to say it.  This film has 2 Beatles songs, The Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Carrol King and The Monkees.  Today the rights for that soundtrack would be in the 10 of millions of dollars.  If there is one complaint I have it is that the films backdrop is LA during the Nixon presidential race of '68 against Herbert Humphrey.  I think this was meant to help symbolize a shift in the political contentiousness that was happening at the time.  It seamed a little tacked on to me.  Beatty is well know for his political opinions. 

The movie is playful and touching.  It never talks down to it's viewers and it knows what it is doing.  This is a very well though out and well constructed film.  No surprise.  Beatty has a reputation for being a perfectionist.  I enjoyed this film and I give it a 3.5/5 stars.  Check out The Trailer Park and see for yourself.

Movie #46 Day of the Jackal

One of my favorite parts about being a cinephile is catching references or homages to films that other people might not.  Have you ever seen an episode of The Simpsons where there is a line of dialogue or a particular frame that is totally lifted off a different film?  You know the rush you get of explaining that to you buddy of significant other?  That brief moment where you get gloat that you know something that they don't that fleeting thought that you are smarter than they are.  I love that feeling.

I had that feeling about 1,000 times during my viewing of The Day of the Jackal.  Released in 1973 and directed by Fred Zinnerman (who also directed From Here to Eternity, High Noon and A Man for All Seasons) "Jackal" is the story of a French group of terrorist or self proclaimed patroits who disprove of giving Algeria their independence.  There plan is to assisinate the French president.  Better yet have a foreigner do it since all of their attempts have been foiled so far.  The man they hire has the code name "Jackal". 

At this point we are taken on a two hour long procedural of the up's and downs of the life of a professional assassin.  This film takes it time, but in a beautiful way.  There are long stretches of  time where there is no speaking on screen.  It develops characters through action and reaction.  It spends time on segments that today's Hollywood films would either skip over or try to summarize in a montage.  This is the type of film that the Hayes Code would have never allowed because you kind of get an idea of how to kill the president.  Or at least you think you do.

Another reason this film works is because the law chasing the Jackal is just as sufficient and intelligent as the Jackal himself.  I have long said that the reason so many comic book movies don't work is because the villians are just characterizations.  There is no way that "The Sandman" is going to beat Spiderman.  The penguin didn't stand a chance against batman.  Now contrast that to The Joker in The Dark Knight.  I really thought that the Joker could defeat Batman in that movie.  In The Day of the Jackal that assassin has a several day lead on the law.  They have to play catch up and they do.  They then start putting the heat on him.  He then becomes a rat in a trap.  He is no longer thriving.  At this point he is less James Bond and more Jason Borune. 

The Jackal is played by Edward Fox.  A talent that I was unaware of before this film.  If this had been set in America I can easily see this role being offered to Steve McQueen.  I want to point out the detective who has been tracking the Jackal.  Michael Lonsdale is the actor.  I was really amazed with his performance.  Most of the other character have smaller parts and are only there to move the plot forward.  There are a few female roles in this film and they are all filled with beautiful actresses.

This is a 70's movie in every since, and I mean that as a compliment.  This year I saw a film called The American.  It did it's damnest to emulate this film as best it could.  However it couldn't generate the mood and feeling Jackal does.   There were a surge of these films in the early 70's.  A product of Watergate and other government conspiracies I guess.  While there is a lot of company for films like this, I think this one stands above all the others.  I instantly added this to my DVD to Purchase list.

I could go on singing the praises of this film, but as usual I am way behind on my reviews.  I usually tell you what I though of a film and leave it to my readers to see if they want to check it out.  This is the rare exception where I am urging you to see this if you haven't and if you have see it again.  And a third option is buy it for me for christmas on DVD and come over and I'll have a Day of the Jackal party.  We can have some pop corn and a couple of cold ones and try to figure out how we would kill the president.  Just kidding internet police.  I give Day of the Jackal a 5/5 star rating and place it high up amoung the films of the 70's.  Check out the link below for the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6xMnTPEzPo