Blue Velvet (1986)

This movie reminds me of Twin Peaks, because they both show a hidden underside of darkness within small town American life, and they both star Kyle MacLachlan.  This time, Kyle MachLachlan plays Jeffrey, who is home from college to take care of things after his father's stroke.  One day he discovers a severed human ear in a field.  The police are not super helpful, so Jeffrey, along with a police detective's daughter, do some investigating of their own.  This starts a chain reaction that opens up the dark side of town to Jeffrey and endangers his life.

 I feel like the movie is set in the early 1970's, mainly because of the costumes they wore (especially the men's shirts).  The town where it is set has the typical small town atmosphere of a '50s sitcom, yet as time goes on, we see parts of it decaying by drug use and crime.  However, this side is hidden very well under its old fashioned charm.  The main song playing throughout is "Blue Velvet" by Bobby Vinton, which was released in 1963.  Frank plays this on a cassette tape, which became popular after 1968.

 There are some references to Lincoln's assassination in this film.  For example, Dorothy's apartment is on Lincoln St and the bad guy's name is Frank Booth (John Wilkes Booth).  Jeffrey shoots him in the head with a little gun.  I don't know why these references are here though.

I did like seeing how the atmosphere changed from the cheesy happy small town to a more realistic town with dangers.  Jeffrey has no idea what's hes getting into when he mixes with crazy people.  Also, all the crime is centered by the drug trade.  Illegal drugs would never have found their way into such a happy place, would it?  There are subtle warnings about the dark underside of the town, such as the roses changing from yellow to red in the same scene.

Overall, I wasn't impressed by this movie. It was mainly an amateur detective story, like Scooby Doo, with lots of softcore porn.  But it was good for a soap opera-type drama. I will give this film an 8/10.  I enjoyed Dennis Hopper's performance as the perpetually enraged Frank Booth.  My favorite line was:

"Heineken? Fuck that Shit!  Pabst Blue Ribbon!!"

Vertigo (1958)

The movie starts at with two cops doing parkour.  One is really shitty and falls off the roof.  The other one is dangling from the roof because he can't jump worth anything.  This one is played by James Stewart.  He better not fuck up this movie.  James Stewart has his leg propped up and mentions he's getting the cast around his middle taken off.  He then proceeds to stand up without any help from his cane, walk around, and bend down with no effort at all.  He picks up his cane and says that soon he'll be "without this miserable thing".  Haven't seen him use it at all.  Honestly, it's too short for him.  He would be a lot better off with a taller cane.  His real problem is his acrophobia, the fear of heights.  It gives him vertigo and reminds him of the high ledge he almost fell off.

So, Scottie, the cop played by James Stewart decides to retire. Maybe he should go on vacation. No, instead he stays in his town of San Francisco.  Good idea, there are no steep hills there or any tall buildings. He'll totally be safe.  While "relaxing", his ship-building friend asks him a favor.  He wants Scottie to follow his wife, not because she is cheating, but because she exhibits strange behavior.  Scottie gets to see his friend's wife at a restaurant.  She has platinum blonde hair, is wearing a dark blue and green dress. Then, we see Scottie looking at her out of the corner of his eye. As her profile comes into full view, the music swells really loud. That's "he wants to bang her" music.

So, the wife, Madeleine, is supposedly possessed by the spirit of her dead grandmother, who wants to kill her. Years ago, her grandmother killed herself and now I guess wants to kill her too, I don't know.  Anyway, Scottie follows her to an art gallery to look at her portrait, get flowers, drop them off at her own grave, then go out and look at the bay.  Suddenly, she jumps!  If you have ever been out there, then you know that water is freezing!  Scottie rescues her and takes her back to his house.  Eventually they're going to kiss, I know it.  Madeleine is 24 years old while Scottie is 50!  That's the difference in ages between my dad and I.  Girl, why would you want to kiss anyone that old?  This is my reaction when I saw that:

Everything leads up to this old mission.  Madeleine "remembers" everything about it, then runs for the bell tower.  Scottie can't follow because of his fear.  He sees her body fall and flees.  He and her husband go to court.  The lawyer guy totally burns Scottie all about his weakness, letting two people fall off the roof, and running away like a chicken.  The look on his face is so great.  Later he has a tripped out acid dream and wakes up in a panic.  He actually looks scared now.  So he does have another emotion besides self-righteousness.

 Does he feel guilty for Madeleine's death?  Shouldn't he have taken her to a hospital after she jumped in the bay, knowing her family history of mental illness and suicide?  NO, wait, that's Madeleine right there.  She's alive!  Or is he seeing things? No, that's her definitely being alive. What is going on?  I have never seen this film before now and I am like "Whattt".  "Madeleine" is a lookalike named Judy who was hired to fake her suicide.  Madeleine's husband told him about her grandmother, the spirit possessing her, everything.  Judy was just an actor.  She jumped in the bay to affirm her 'suicidal' tendencies.  Madeleine's husband knew he couldn't follow Judy up the bell tower stairs, where he was waiting at the top to throw her lifeless body away.  Scottie doesn't know this yet, but is happy he has Madeleine back.  He begins the extremely creepy process of turning Judy into Madeleine.

All is going great until one fateful day when Judy is getting ready for dinner and puts on Madeleine's ugly necklace!  Scottie recognizes it immediately but stays silent.  Shit is about to go down. How can Judy be so careless and stupid?  She should have thrown the jewelry away a long time ago.

He takes her back to the bell tower and reveals that he knows everything about what she did.  In a panic, she leaps off the bell tower. So she's dead.  But what about him?  He gets to live.  Yes, he gets to live knowing he watched three people fall from a roof one three separate occasions and could never do anything to save them.  But wait, he shouldn't have been mad about Judy staying because she loved him.  Truthfully, he loved her too, he couldn't get the image of Madeleine out of his head.  He never loved Madeleine; he loved Judy-as-Madeleine.  He yelled at Judy that she was great at acting our her mannerisms, how would he know what she acted like?  He never met the woman before.  The only time he ever saw her was at the restaurant the first night and I'm not sure that was the real Madeleine either.  He would have no idea what the real Madeleine was like at all.  That's why he was so content to change Judy's appearance since that's all he noticed.  Dude is shallow.

I would never go so far as to call this a masterpiece, but it was enjoyable in most parts.  I will give it a 7/10.

The Phantom Tollbooth (1970)

One of the best children's books comes to life in this animated feature.  The real world and the world beyond the tollbooth are distinctly separated.  The real world, only shown for a few minutes at the beginning and the end, is live action.  The rest of the movie takes place in the other world and is all animated.

The story:  Milo is a very bored child who randomly receives a gift in his house.  It's a tollbooth.  That is the strangest gift I have ever heard of.  He drives his toy car through the tollbooth and into adventure.
Milo is driving along, hoping to see the Castle in the Air.  He gets stuck in the Doldrums (where thinking is not allowed) and is rescued by the watchdog, Tock.  We encounter the town of Digitopolos (numbers and math) and Dictionopolos (letters and words).  We learn that everything's a mess because the two leaders have banished the princesses Rhyme and Reason.  Milo and Tock set out to rescue the princesses.

There's a lot missing from the book that could have made it into the movie.  I would have preferred a longer movie if it would have added these parts in.  It kind of seemed a little rushed towards the end.  Also, this movie was written and directed by Chuck Jones, so expect a lot of Looney Tunes type stuff.  Most of the Looney Tunes voice actors are at work too, and are easily recognizable.  Tock, the watchdog, looks like a larger version of Max from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

The movie did a really nice job of showing the elements that made the book so enjoyable, which is hard for a book full of word puns.  Even though my daughter can't read the words yet, she really enjoyed watching this movie for the colorful characters and songs.  I will give this movie a 6/10.

Obligatory Adventure Time Picture!

Carmen Jones (1954)

Today's film is Carmen Jones.  It's a musical based on the opera Carmen, and set in modern times.  It takes place at an army camp near the time of the Korean War, where the lovely Carmen works in a factory making parachutes and flirts with anything that moves.  She sets her sights on Joe, who is happily engaged to the nice girl Cindy Lou and decides she must have him.

The actors playing Carmen and Joe had there singing voices dubbed over by actual opera singers, since they didn't have the range to sing opera.  This musical has the mostly the same music as Carmen, but the lyrics have all been changed to English and to fit the more modern situation.  However, this makes a lot of the singing awkward.  It's like it's trying too hard to fit the lyrics to the music perfectly and it doesn't work all the time.  Of course I loved the music, but that's thanks to the real opera.

I enjoyed Dorothy Dandridge's performance as the perpetually selfish Carmen.  She doesn't care that Joe is engaged, and she doesn't care that he'll get in trouble for not turning her in like he's supposed to.  She does wait for him to get out of jail, but after he kills someone for her and goes into hiding in Chicago, she's done.  She doesn't want to be in hiding with him, she wants to go out and party.  She goes shopping with another man's money and plans on leaving Joe, because the thrill of stealing another woman's man is gone now.  She reaches her end when the furious Joe strangles her outside of a boxing ring.  The ending is really important for me to mention because in the original opera, Carmen is killed near a bullfighting ring, while this Carmen is killed near a boxing ring! Another clever way of modernizing the story.  Also, Cindy Lou may be a nice girl, but she travels to Chicago determined to get her man back. I was proud of her.  Overall I enjoyed this musical, but not much of the lyrics themselves.  I will give it a 5/10.

Enter the Dragon (1973)

Today's film is Enter the Dragon.  I was so excited to be able to see Bruce Lee kick Chuck Norris' ass, but this isn't even the right movie.  The movie I was thinking of is The Way of the Dragon.  What is it with all these fighting movies and the name Dragon?  But fear not, Bruce Lee will still fight and still destroy another large white person, by the name of Bob Wall.

In this film, Bruce Lee plays Lee (of course) of the Shaolin Temple.  He was sent by his teacher and some British officer guy to an island owned by a former student of the Temple.  Soon, he is joined by two Americans, and they all enter a fighting tournament held on the island.  The former student's name is Han, and he uses the island to prepare opium for selling.  He is an evil drug lord. oooo.


My favorite character was Williams.  He had a great fighting style, or maybe lack of style, but it was effective.  Plus he had a very relaxed attitude and sported quite the fro.  I knew that he could win, but Han has dirty tricks and defeated him.  Sadly, the actor playing Williams, Jim Kelly, recently passed away on June 29th of cancer.

So, this movie is more of a crime caper with our heroes defeating the evil drug lords (because drugs are bad, mmmkay) with some kung fu fighting thrown in there.  However, there are a lot of opportunities to kung fu fight!  I love all the fighting sequences, especially when Lee in down in the drug-making basement fighting the guards.  Lee moved so fast they had to film him at 32 fps (frames per second) and then slow the film down to the usual 24 fps so we can actually see his moves.

What I really didn't understand was Han's fake hand. Is it his left or right hand?  When he's fighting Lee, the fake hand switches several times.  When he takes the hot white guy (I was too distracted by his chest hair to learn his name) on a tour, he shows off all of the hand weapons, which are all left.  But when they reach the skeleton hand, that's a right hand! When he slashes at Lee with his knife hand, that's his right hand, but he kills Williams with his left hand! If only one of his hands is supposed to be fake, why is it so hard to keep using the same hand in every take? Why?

Overall, I liked this movie because it's full of action, and will later be alluded to in many other films.  I mean a lot.  I will give this film a 6/10.

Spellbound (1945)

Are you looking for a mystery filled with suspense? Or, are you looking for a sappy romance?  Why not both? This movie is suitable for the whole family!

Dr. Constance Peterson is a gifted psychiatrist who works at a mental hospital.  All the doctors are eagerly awaiting their new director to arrive.  He does, and it turns out to be Dr. Edwardes, played by Gregory Peck.  He is so handsome.  Upon seeing him, Constance drastically changes from a doctor into a drooling high school girl encountering her first crush.  For the most part, I don't blame her, but come on, try to stay a little professional.  It is rather funny to how she changes so much once she sees a hot guy.

Although blinded by love at first, Constance, played by Ingrid Bergman, realizes that something is not quite right with Dr. Edwardes.  I noticed this too, albeit way before she did.  What nails it is she compares her signed copy of his book with a note he had written earlier.  The handwriting doesn't match at all!  Who is this man?

Unfortunately, the other doctors suspect something is wrong as well.  They bring in the police to investigate the disappearance of the real Dr. Edwardes. The imposter flees for his life, and Constance soon follows out of love and a strong determination to cure him.  What ensues is an exciting chase as Constance and her reluctant patient deftly flee police.

Despite not knowing who he really is, Constance vows to protect him at all costs.  It turns out he has amnesia and doesn't actually know who he is; he simply assumed the role of his therapist.  Constance is determined to use her skills to unlock his mind and let him discover who he really is.  But is that dangerous to do when they are no longer in the safety of the hospital?  What if he's a serial killer who murdered Dr. Edwardes and assumed his identity?  Remember this exact thing will happen in Hitchcock's later film, Psycho.

I really enjoyed this movie despite some of the over-acting.  For the most part I like Gregory Peck's performance, much more so than the last two films I reviewed with him in them.  I will give this film a 6/10.

I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

Today's film is I Walked With a Zombie.  No, it's not the zombies I normally think of - mindless beings with an overwhelming urge to eat people.  It's more like the legendary zombies of Haiti where the dead are awakened as mindless slaves.

Betsy is a nurse in Canada who is sent to the fictional isle of San Sebastian to care for a sugar-planter's wife. His wife, Jessica, appears okay but is in some sort of stupor following a high fever.  Soon we learn about the voodoo beliefs of the locals, but don't worry, this isn't The Skeleton Key.  It's more or less a sweet love story with terrible acting.

I wish I had gotten a chance to see Jessica as she was before her illness.  I know that she enjoyed breakfast in bed while lying on a lace pillow, and I know she liked brioche, but what about her personality?  She fell in love with her husband's half-brother, does that make her a terrible person?  I don't see her as an overall materialistic person, especially with no stores on the island.  I feel for her, being trapped between a controlling mother in law and an abusive husband, wanting to be with someone who loved her but never can.  Her husband told Betsy about his wife trying to leave, and that he told her "he would keep her by force if necessary" and that she made him do things.  If someone hurts you and then says that you "made" them do it, that's an abuser.  Sure, he regrets it now because she's all but dead to him.

Is Jessica a zombie?  No.

How do I know this?  She drowns.  A zombie cannot die by drowning because they are already dead.  But what about her walking towards the houmfort?  Earlier in the film she frightened Betsy as she walked up the stairs at night.  Now she's walking towards the gate.  She's sleepwalking, like she does many nights.  But now she's dead, and this gives a chance for the beautiful nurse to be with the handsome widower, just like they wanted.

Overall, this is a meh film with great lighting and cinematography. I will give it a 6/10.