What Classics did you see last Week 27th Sept to Oct 3rd?

Might as well. It’s the centennial (unless somebody found the 1915 version).

Government Agents vs. The Phantom Legion / Fred C. Bannon (1951). Republic Pictures. Republic released the most consistently good cliffhanger serials and this is no exception. Hal (Walter Reed, no kidding) is given the job to work with the heads of the Trucker’s Association in stopping a gang of truck hijackers. It soon becomes clear that one of the Association leaders is The Voice, the mysterious head of the gang. 12 chapters of thrills, chills, and spills and, as always, great stunt work.




Rounders / John Dahl (1998). Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) is a law student who dreams of being a big time Las Vegas poker player getting into and winning the World Series of Poker. But going against the Russian gangster Teddy KGB (John Malkovich) he loses it all – his tuition, rent, everything. After swearing off gambling, his incorrigible friend Les (nicknamed Worm) (Edward Norton) gets out of prison, he lures Mike back into the life. But trouble follows Worm and he racks up big debts which Mike is associated with. They end up having to raise $25,000 in a week meaning that Mike will have to sit across the table from Teddy KGB again. The movie is a little overlong but we get a lot of poker lore and insights (“They wear their Tells like signs around their necks: facial tics, nervous fingers, the hand over the mouth, the way a cigarette is smoked, little unconscious gestures that reveal the cards in their hands. We catch everything. If a fish acts strong he's bluffing, if he acts weak he’s got a hand. It's that simple.”) With Gretchen Mol, John Turturro, Famke Janssen, and Martin Landau, wonderful as McDermott's law school mentor.



Romeo And Juliet (2019). A recorded live streaming event from Shakespeare’s Globe in London, free on YouTube. Like the Macbeth earlier this year, R&J is a reduced version (about an hour's worth cut) produced expressly for school age students at home during the lockdown. There is also a reduced number of actors and characters. Most of the main players are younger actors - Charlotte Beaumont, the Juliet, was 24. Enjoyable, but aimed at school age audience members who have never seen Romeo and Juliet in a stage production.

“On the Basis of Sex”  Distributed by Focus Features, 120 Minutes, Rated PG-13, Released December 25, 2018:

Part of the enjoyment of the 2018 movie “On the Basis of Sex” comes from seeing otherwise intelligent and respectable people interacting during a fairly recent past with social customs unthinkable during modern times--casually, seemingly naturally mouthing sexist platitudes and practicing gender discrimination which would render them pariahs in the PC-conscious post-#MeToo New Millennium.

Bringing these laughably antiquated and inappropriate customs into sharper focus are the interactions of the Ginsburg family. Shown at home already practicing such contemporary courtesies as openness, sharing, and mutual support and encouragement when the story begins in 1958, the Ginsburgs seem conspicuously out of place in the Eisenhower era, as futuristic as the cartoon Jetsons visiting the prehistoric Flintstones in their Bedrock neighborhood.

Knowing the Ginsburgs are soon going to be instrumental in changing America’s tradition of gender inequality brings a smile of anticipation to the expressions of audiences. Indeed, when we see the young Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the movie patiently enduring the slights and insults of the good ol’ boys network that formulated laws and balanced society during that era, viewers very much experience a sense of, “Hey, try getting away with that in twenty-five years, buddy.”

The September 18 death of 87-year-old Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg brings “On the Basis of Sex” into renewed focus. Written by the late justice’s nephew Daniel Stiepleman and directed by Mimi Leder, the picture details the Harvard Law School education and early legal career of the late Ginsburg, examining specifically the progressive young jurist’s involvement with the Moritz v. Commissioner lawsuit.

Moritz v. Commissioner was a landmark 1972 case which challenged a ruling by the US Tax Court that a Denver man, Charles Moritz, was ineligible for tax deductions for the expenses he accumulated as care provider of his invalid mother. The Tax Court had essentially rejected Moritz’ petition for a tax break because he was not a woman and therefore not considered a legitimate care provider, at least according to the social traditions of those bygone days.

Although the case involved tax law and Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s specialty was gender discrimination, the young lawyer accepted the challenge at the urging of her tax lawyer husband because she believed an appellate court composed entirely of male judges would be more sympathetic to a gender discrimination case in which the victim was a man. The case successfully proved “invidious discrimination” against Moritz, and marked the beginning of Ginsburg’s crusade to challenge any and every law that demonstrated inequality on the basis of gender.

“On the Basis of Sex” becomes something like an intellectual “Rocky”--a movie in which the heroes throw words instead of punches, compete in ideas instead of rounds, and work out with books instead of barbells. In its overall feel-good ambiance, it seems no accident that the unmistakable fingerprints of the legendary populist filmmaker Steven Spielberg appear discreetly among the picture’s closing credits.

The picture is anchored by a carefully-shaded characterization by the British actress Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Born in England, educated at Oxford, Jones is probably best known for her performance as Jane Hawking, the wife of physicist Stephen Hawking, in 2014’s Academy Award-nominated biographical film “The Theory of Everything.” The actress also performed the leading role of Jyn Erso in the 2016 Star Wars Anthology picture “Rogue One.”

Jones’ superb and spot-on inhabitation of the late Supreme Court Justice helps to demystify and humanize the legendary jurist. It’s nothing less than inspiring to see the formidable Ginsburg at the beginning of her career, balancing her responsibilities as a young wife and mother with her unflagging devotion to law and equality. The actress’ warmhearted but emphatic performance makes the viewer able to better appreciate the affectionate parodies of Ginsburg performed by comic actress Kate McKinnon on television’s “Saturday Night Live.”

Actor Armie Hammer managed to rebound early in his career from not one but two roles in expensive, high-profile megabombs which for a lesser talent might well have been career-ending fiascoes: Disney’s “The Lone Ranger” in 2013, a $250 million embarrassment which starred Hammer as the masked man and an eccentric Johnny Depp as his faithful sidekick Tonto, and 2015’s “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” a reboot of the beloved television spy classic which teamed Henry Cavill’s Napoleon Solo with Hammer as Soviet sidekick Illya Kuryakin and managed to sabotage little more than the picture’s $100 million budget.

In “On the Basis of Sex,” Hammer might actually have the showier of the picture’s two main roles. With his gently bemused countenance as tax law expert Martin Ginsburg, Hammer’s handed a “Camille”-like near-death scene during the movie’s first half in the late 1950s, but survives intact to become an equal partner in his wife’s crusade for equality in the 1960s...and also to remind their rebellious teenage daughter during the turbulent 1970s that when your mom is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, even Gloria Steinem takes a back seat.

In fact, the only false note in this genuinely compelling film occurs at the very end, when RBG herself unexpectedly makes a brief cameo appearance, giving viewers unfamiliar with the real Ginsberg an opportunity to gape at the remarkable resemblance achieved by Jones and the cosmetics department. The appearance of the Associate Justice herself is plainly meant to be an inspiring moment, a casual stroll into celluloid immortality. Viewed so recently after her death, Ginsberg’s appearance in the picture might be more than a little disquieting to some viewers.

“On the Basis of Sex” isn’t quite as stylish as director Reginald Hudlin’s similarly-themed “Marshall” from 2017, which depicted future Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall as a smooth and smokin’ young Civil Rights lawyer played by the late superstar Chadwick Boseman, although the two pictures are decidedly in the same ballpark. Both the writing by Stiepleman and the direction by Leder are performed with obvious respect and affection for their subject, but not an unnecessary overabundance of deference. Biographical pictures as entertaining as these make history fun.

“On the Basis of Sex” features supporting performances by a sympathetic Justin Theroux as an ACLU attorney and former Harvard classmate of Ms. Ginsburg, Cailee Spaeny as the Ginsburgs’ independence-minded teenage daughter, and Kathy Bates in a small showcase role as civil liberties pioneer Dorothy Kenyon.

The picture performed fairly well with both the nation’s critics and moviegoing audiences. Rotten Tomatoes at the time reported an approval rating of 71% for “On the Basis of Sex,” against an average score of 60% from Metacritic. Exit audiences polled by CinemaScore awarded the picture a grade of A--rare for a non-musical biographical picture.

Opening on Christmas Day 2018 in a limited release to only 33 theaters nationwide, “On the Basis of Sex” expanded into a wide release pattern on January 11 into some 1923 theaters across the United States and Canada, finishing its opening weekend in the sixth place spot on the Box Office Mojo Top Ten behind such formidable holiday competition as “Aquaman,” “A Dog’s Way Home,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

“On the Basis of Sex” is rated PG-13 for thematic elements, language concerns, and some suggestive content.


“Public Enemies”   Distributed by Universal Pictures, 140 Minutes, Rated R, Released July 01, 2009:

Released by Universal Pictures during the summer of 2009, Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” is a picture that should’ve found a wider audience than it did.

With box office receipts totalling over $214 million around the world, the picture was hardly a failure. But with a timely and compelling story, intelligent and stylish direction by Michael Mann, and a cast of megawatt Hollywood superstars, the picture wasn’t the worldwide blockbuster its ingredients might have suggested.

Based on writer Bryan Burroughs’ 2004 book “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI 1933-34,” Michael Mann’s 2009 picture depicts the final months of the fabled Depression Era bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), and the pursuit of the outlaw and his gang by the steely-eyed, by-the-book G-Man Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), assigned by the then-fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation to track Dillinger down.

Woven together in a sort of tapestry of 1930s crime and punishment, Burroughs’ comprehensive book followed four separate storylines: The hapless, self-pitying Charles A. Floyd, known the the world as Pretty Boy; the vicious and calculating Ma Barker and her backwoods brood of kidnappers; the untamed and murderous Barrow Gang, Bonnie and Clyde, who somehow managed to be both shiftless and feral; and the legendary John Dillinger, a personable farm boy who became a sort of Robin Hood to Depression Era America. Familiar names such Machine Gun Kelly, J. Edgar Hoover, and Baby Face Nelson weave in and out of the narrative as necessary.

Author Burroughs’ original intention was to create and develop an extended miniseries for broadcast television, cable, or an online streaming service. But when the writer began to understand the depth and relevance of his subject he decided to write a book instead, a nonfiction novel in the vein of Truman Capote’s 1965 narrative “In Cold Blood” detailing the exploits of the real-life desperadoes who populated newspapers and the imaginations of a generation of Americans during another troubled and turbulent time.

When filmmaker Michael Mann became interested in adapting a motion picture from Burroughs’ book, he decided to focus on only one of its stories--Dillinger and the man who pursued him and ran him to ground. The director also had a hand in adapting the book into the picture’s screenplay, along with collaborators Ann Biderman, an Emmy Award-winning writer known for television’s “Southland” and “Ray Donovan” and the 1996 film “Primal Fear,” and the Irish novelist Ronan Bennett.

As a media-savvy John Dillinger in “Public Enemies,” actor Johnny Depp uses none of the flamboyant flourishes which mark his most popular roles, including his Jack Sparrow characterization from the blockbuster “Pirates of the Caribbean” pictures which bookend “Public Enemies” in the actor's filmography. Once considered a sort of modern day Paul Muni, Depp's characterization as John Dillinger might be one of the performer's last great movie roles before his life and career imploded into a series of lurid headlines in supermarket tabloids the world over.

Rather than attempt an approximation of the famous bank robber’s physical appearance, voice and mannerisms, Depp seems to simply transfer his own natural charisma and magnetism into the role of Dillinger. While Dillinger ultimately robbed some 24 banks, escaped from jail twice, and killed one man (in self-defense), many of those who interacted with him--on both sides of the law--remember him for his charm, and his genial demeanor. Depicted in “Public Enemies” as loose and good-natured and often sporting an easy smile, Dillinger might be the closest role Depp’s ever played to his actual persona.

Born and raised not far from each others’ hometowns in America’s rural heartland, both Dillinger and Depp were, and are, notoriously private men whose professions place them under intense scrutiny from the media. When asked in “Public Enemies” by a member of his gang why he cares so much about the public’s favorable opinion of him, Depp’s Dillinger shrugs and says simply, “I hide out among them.” You almost get a feeling the actor might be speaking for himself.

Although more quiet and intense, actor Christian Bale as the untouchable and incorruptible FBI special agent Melvin Purvis matches Depp’s Dillinger volt-for-volt in his role. Bale’s performance as the embattled G-Man is characteristically studied--as always, the actor disappears into his film persona. Reportedly Bale researched and studied the real-life Purvis’ life and career, and even contacted and spent time with the lawman’s surviving descendants as a means of capturing his speaking cadences correctly.

A professional actor since starring at the age of twelve in Steven Spielberg’s 1987 World War II epic “Empire of the Sun,” Christian Bale despite his worldwide fame as Batman in director Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy of blockbusters has evolved over the years into a sort of master actor, Generation X’s equivalent to the retiring Daniel Day-Lewis. The master thespian delivers in “Public Enemies” another graduate course in the profession of acting. But despite his exacting performance, the audience never quite manages to forget Bale’s an actor playing a role.

The award-winning filmmaker known for projects from television’s iconic “Miami Vice” series during the 1980s and feature films as varied as “Thief” in 1981 to “Collateral” in 2004, “Heat” in 1995 to “The Insider” in 1999 and “Ali” in 2001, Michael Mann with “Public Enemies” contributes another example of solid and compelling filmmaking. If the picture has a fault, it might be in attempting to cover too many bases...and too many genres.

Often Mann’s pictures tend to be triumphs of either style or substance, but rarely both. In approaching his subject as plain and indisputable historical fact with little editorial commentary, Mann’s “Public Enemies” presents neither Dillinger nor Purvis as the story’s hero. There’s nobody for the audience to root for. In many ways, “Public Enemies” aims for both substance and style, and as a result achieves neither. The film despite its occasional dramatic license might actually be more successful as a docudrama rather than a dramatic narrative. And considering the talent involved here, that’s a real disappointment.

Filmed in many of the real story’s authentic locations, “Public Enemies” seems to strive to make many of the film’s details as accurate as possible to the true events...which makes all the more perplexing the narrative’s occasional departures from the facts. The ambush of Dillinger outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater, for example, is rendered in painstaking detail, right down to the exit wounds (and filmed at the actual location on Chicago’s Lincoln Avenue, which during the film’s 2008 production still appeared more or less as it did in 1934). The notion of Dillinger murmuring his dying words into the ear of a G-Man, however, is pure Hollywood fiction.

Also featuring supporting performances by Marion Cotillard as Dillinger’s girlfriend Billie Frechette, Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover, Stephen Dorff and Jason Clarke as Dillinger accomplices, and a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance by Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd, “Public Enemies” is rated R by the MPAA for scenes of violence and bloodshed and some language concerns.


“The Last Shift”  Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, 90 Minutes, Rated R, Released September 25, 2020:

Versatile and prolific character actor Richard Jenkins gets a rare opportunity to step into the spotlight in “The Last Shift,” a new picture from Sony Pictures Releasing that emphasizes character over spectacle, and places drama above action or adventure.

One of those faces you’ve seen a zillion times in movies and TV shows but have trouble attaching a name to, Jenkins’ superb character work has over the years embraced movies big and small and genres from horror to drama to comedy to western--from “Silverado” to “Hannah and Her Sisters,” and “Jack Reacher,” “Spotlight,” and “Kong: Skull Island,” among many others. The actor was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 film “The Shape of Water.”

In “The Last Shift,” Jenkins appears as Stanley, one of those invisible people you see every day but don’t really notice--the guy who flips burgers at the neighborhood diner. With no education, no prospects, no family, and no ambition, Stanley’s worked the graveyard shift at Oscar’s Chicken and Fish in Albion, Michigan for 38 years, and looks forward to nothing more complicated than springing his elderly mother from a Sarasota nursing home and retiring with her to Florida.

As his last shift at Oscar’s approaches, Stanley’s charged with training his replacement--a young ex-con named Jevon, on parole after an act of sophomoric vandalism, in need of a steady job to stay out of jail and support his wife and toddler son. Jevon once had enormous promise as a writer, and still actually has talent and dreams of writing as a profession. But as he becomes accustomed to his new job at Oscar’s, Jevon begins to wonder if his future contains no more promise than Stanley’s.

Written and directed in his dramatic film debut by Ann Arbor-born documentary filmmaker Andrew Cohn, “The Last Shift” is rich in nuance and atmosphere, and beautifully acted by both Jenkins as Stanley and newcomer Shane Paul McGhie as Jevon. But even the slight narrative of the picture and its plot seems underwritten. The actors bring more to the table than Cohn the screenwriter provides for them.

As a result, Cohn the director occasionally allows the film to wander a little too far in the direction of pathos, and to become maudlin when it should be reaching for revelation, or even relevance. Funny in places and heartbreaking in others, “The Last Shift” is a pleasant enough way to pass the time for 90 or so minutes, but not really something you’ll remember into next month, or even into next week. The fine performances by McGhie and particularly Jenkins are certainly worth your while. But overall, file “The Last Shift” under D for Disappointment.

Produced by filmmaker and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter Alexander Payne (“Sideways,” “The Dependents”) and also containing a nice big screen supporting role for television stalwart Ed O’Neill, “The Last Shift” is (unfairly) rated R for strong language, adult themes, and a brief scene of urban violence.


“Infidel”  Distributed by Cloudburst Entertainment, 107 Minutes, Rated R, Released September 18, 2020:

In “Infidel,” an American journalist critical of the Iranian political leadership is kidnapped in Egypt during a speaking tour and transported to Iran, where he’s placed on trial on a trumped up charge of spying and sentenced to death. His wife, an official for the US State Department, attempts to leverage the government into petitioning for her husband’s release...but fails. With no other choice, she travels to the Middle East herself to search for her spouse and bring him home.

Produced by author, filmmaker, conservative political commentator and conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza, audiences expecting a radical right wing diatribe along the lines of D’Souza’s previous documentary efforts “Obama’s America” in 2012 and “Hillary’s America” in 2016 might be either relieved or disappointed: “Infidel” turns out to be a fairly even-handed and surprisingly engaging political action thriller combined with elements of evangelism, a sort of “God’s Not Dead 3” set in the Middle East.

Written and directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, the filmmaker behind the controversial 2006 television miniseries “The Path to 9/11” and the 2016 biblical drama “The Young Messiah,” “Infidel” is competently filmed and edited, and presses all the right buttons. The only real trouble is that in structure the movie tries to be a number of separate pictures rolled into one. The first hour is a faith-based inspirational drama while the second hour turns into more of a political thriller before finally morphing into an action adventure during the grand finale.

The performances, though, are uniformly impressive. As the imprisoned journalist, Jim Caviezel runs a gamut of emotions from stoic to cowardly to heroic. Often seeming stiff, solemn, and humorless in his film characterizations (the actor’s signature role was as Jesus in director Mel Gibson’s reverent but brutally graphic 2004 blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ), Caviezel in “Infidel” finally kicks back and demonstrates his range as an actor. As his dedicated wife, Australian actress Claudia Karvan is nothing short of sensational, while the Turkish Cypriot-born actor Has Oznan is a standout as a fellow prisoner of Caviezel.

Originally scheduled for release on September 11, “Infidel” was moved instead to September 18 to take advantage of a Covid-related vacancy in the theatrical release schedule after the big budget disaster picture "Greenland" was diverted at the last minute. Released to 1724 theaters across the United States, the picture attracted some $1.5 million in ticket sales during its opening weekend, earning a third place spot on the Covid-dampened Box Office Mojo Top Ten behind the returning movies “Tenet” and “The New Mutants.”

“Infidel” is rated R for language and scenes of violence.

teleadm

look after yourself and get well, we need you.
And you had a nice mix of movies this week!

claudius Sorry for your loss.

teleadm Take care, my friend. And get some flat stones for your home.

I saw some regular movies, and then October started and so did my annual month long deep-dive into horror movies, which I'm sure no one wants to hear about, but here they are anyway.

Richard Jewell (2019)







The Little Rascals (1994)







You Get Me (2017)







Frank & Cindy (2015)







Frank & Cindy (2007) The documentary the above movie was based on.







Aladdin (2019)







Gemini (2017)







Enola Holmes (2020)








Viva Zapata! (1952)







Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)








Chappaquiddick (2017)







Werewolves on Wheels (1971)







Scared (2002) a.k.a. Cut Throat







Nightmare in Wax (1969)







Nightmare Castle (1965)







Slaughterhouse (1987)







Unfriended: Dark Web (2018)







After Dark (2015)







The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)







Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)







Deep Blue Sea 3 (2020)







Rawhead Rex (1986)







The Wretched (2019)







The Blob (1988)







The Stuff (1985)







Malevolent (2018)

Maybe HEAVEN'S GATE fanboys???   it only took back half what it cost $45m according to wiki so obvs not a flop of that order for the record it took half a decade to reach the screen although had been a "passion" for Scorsese for quarter of a century  although the quote ued to illustrate this passion I found completely incoherent....and DDL, Del Toro & Bernal were originally attached although not sure which roles- I think the biggest delay was Daniel bailing,  83% on Rotten

Yes - it has a 7.2 on imdb so suspect your theory applies to the audience as well as critics.... at least those who chose to watch it (and vote on imdb) seem to be making the right choice.