Movie #269 The Italian Job *1969*

I have been on a bit of a Michael Caine kick lately.  I saw a clip from a movie called The Trip in where to British Comedians do their Caine impersonations.  I have spent nearly every shower and car ride trying to work on my Mike Caine.  Which I can say is exactly 0% better than when I started.

There is a remake of this film, which I have to admit is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me.  So I figured why not.  I enjoy heist films and this is a very famous one.  I have been getting surprised a lot by my picks a lot recently.  I knew this had comedic elements, but I didn't realize it was a straight of British comedy. 

The traditional British humor is a mix of dry wit and silly and often time racy low brow humor.  The Italian Job stays true to its roots.  This goes along with the time it was made.  '69, the summer of love and the height of sexual exploration in America and abroad (no pun intended).

The Italian Job is silly, and the heist plays second fiddle to the frivolity.  Michael Caine get out of prison and get the lead in a semi-planned armored car robbery.  He then puts together a team of misfit thieves to assist him in this stick up.  The entire plan centers around the ability to cause a traffic jam in an exceptionally busy part of an Italian city.  It is fun to go back and look at the cheap props and how technology has changed between the 60's and now.  So who do they put in charge of what could be considered the most critical element of the heist? Benny Hill playing a character that has a thing for fat women. 

Then there is the famous car chases.  I found them to be hit and miss.  The chase scenes seemed (like most of the movie) to revolve around the ridiculousness and less on the action of a high speed chase.  The mini Coopers are iconic for this film and there are a few exciting moments, but overall it was just silly.

Michael Caine was good in his role as the ladies man / crook.  It is no wonder that this film was such a success and that 42 years later people are still doing bad Michael Caine impersonations.  I give The Italian Job ★★★. 

Movie #179 Mona Lisa *1986*

Bob Hoskins - George
Cathy Tyson - Simone
Michael Caine - Mortwell
Niel Jordan (Director)

I love when a film takes you in a direction you were not expecting.  I read the synopsis about Mona Lisa and it said that George is a small time criminal fresh out of jail that begins working as a driver for a high price call girl.  I was expecting a gangster story mixed with a hooker with a heart of gold subplot.  Wow was I off base.

First off, I love Bob Hoskins.  He is a big discovery for me with the Year of Film experiment.  I love how he can blow his top in one scene and by the end of the scene be calm and polite without apologizing and we love him for it.  He has a very naturalism about him.  Here he is a grunt for Mortwell.  The lovable looser.  A role perfectly fitted for him that he played to the nines!

Michael Caine plays Mortwell, a role like I have never seen him in before.  I always think of him as the good guy or at least a suave ladies man.  Here he is a low life scumbag leading even lower life, even scummier people.

This film was quirky with the addition of Robbie Coltrain as Thomas.  Geroge's best friend and confident.  They share mystery stories and make odd post modern sculptures.  Then the film goes down the rabbit hole and into the gutter.  Simone (the high class call girl) used to work the streets and had a friend that she shared a pimp with.  She got out of that abusive life but the friend never did.  She asks George if he would help her find the friend. 

There are other surprises that I won't dare to spoil, but several time my jaw fell wide open.  This film deals with a few sides of society (if you can call it that) that are not commonly addressed in film and especially not in "popular movies".

I really enjoyed this movie.  The script and acting was top notch, the camera work had moments of brilliance without being showy.  Music was used in a strange and interesting way.  There is a lot of Nat King Cole songs in the film (Mona Lisa being one), but there is a Genesis song that I thought wasn't going to fit in at all, but it worked great and made the scene 10X better. The movie reminded me a lot of Scorsese's Taxi Driver in a lot of ways. I give Mona Lisa ★★★★.  Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.

Movie #33 Children of Men

I had the great pleasure of attending a movie at a small film fest this weekend.  The fest theme was "Bad Futures".  It consisted of 15 films over the course of 3 days.  The common thread between the films was dystopia.  Films that played were Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey and a slew of others including the film I saw Children of Men.

I had seen Children of Men once before on DVD.  I remember liking it, and I remembered some of the details.  Mostly what I remembered was a long single take of a war zone being interrupted by the cries of a baby.  Why would a baby crying cause a battle to cease?  It is the first baby most of the soldiers had ever seen.  The film is set in Britain in the near future.  For some unexplained (most likely unknown) reason mankind had lost it's ability to reproduce.  The "fun" part of the movie is that it really doesn't matter why humans can't make babies, what matters is how would we cope when the youngest person on the planet is slightly over 18 years old.

Children of Men does not exist in a Blade Runner futuristic world, nor does it have the conceptual complexities  that The Matrix presents.  This is a simple story of survival in a world not unlike the one that we live in now.  The largest effect this global neutering seems to have had is a strict nationalism.  Britain has closed it's borders and any immigrants are being caged up and shipped out.

This movie rocked my world.  I was completely engulfed from the first 10 minutes.  The movie is brilliantly directed  and written by Alfonso Cuaron and stars Clive Owen, Michael Caine, Julianne Moore, and Chiwetel Ejiofor (one of my favorite working actors).  Cuaron's camera work is haunting and disturbing.  There are at least 5 scenes with a near 10 minute unbroken take.  There is one scene in particular where the group is in the car and things start to go wrong, it intimacy and shock and realism of this scene left my hands shaking.

Clive Owen gives the performance of his career in movie.  He is perfectly understated while retaining an interest that can't be avoided.  I found I was putting myself in his shoes (or flip flops) very early on in the movie.  Michale Caine pays his hippie father and allows for some great comedic moments to counterbalance the pessimistic outlook.  Owen's character in the movie, Theo, get recruited by a renegade group headed by Julianne Moore.  He is to supply traveling papers for a young black woman with a secret.  His motive is simple.  The renegades are offering money and he needs money.  As part of the arrangement he ends up having to escort this young woman.  This is where all hell breaks loose.  Cuaron allows his protagonist to make bad decisions, and fumble around.  He really is the futuristic "Joe six-pack".  You can't help but think "What would I do in that situation".  He doesn't act out of any "allegiances" or "codes" or "morals".  His actions are generated by his need to survive.  It is not until late into the movie where he really does anything that most people would consider courageous.  And even then he gets the rug pulled out from underneath him. It is the difference between "hero" and "protagonist".  Like a sci-fi Benjamin Braddock. 

I'm not sure if I simply have a better appreciation of cinema now, or if  seeing this film on the big screen made it so much more memorable.  But whatever it was I was hooked.  This will be joining my DVD collection very soon.  I give it a 5/5 stars!  Check out the link below for the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NikEQy1XxDE