- Awards
- 18
Great idea for a Halloween weekend, i'm gonne watch a few horror movies too tonight, i'm still not sure whice one well at least one of the Halloween movies with Jamie Lee Curtis.
What was the last film you watched?
- Thread starter Mel O'Drama
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Great idea for a Halloween weekend, i'm gonne watch a few horror movies too tonight, i'm still not sure whice one well at least one of the Halloween movies with Jamie Lee Curtis.
- Awards
- 52
The Good Nurse (2022)
I love film posters and this one is really good.
A jaw-dropping true story of a nurse (played by Eddie Redmayne) who killed patients before moving on to other hospitals to kill more and how his crimes were eventually uncovered. The good nurse in the title is played by Jessica Chastain who is suffering from a life-threatening heart condition and risks her job and life to help get him convicted. The story is fascinating but told a bit too superficially for my liking and up to 400 murders, the police investigation, the motivations and development of the main characters and the ultimate conviction of the killer nurse is all wrapped up in 2 hours. I think the story could have been better served as a multi-part TV series which could have explored the characters in more depth. However, it's still an excellent watch.
I love film posters and this one is really good.
A jaw-dropping true story of a nurse (played by Eddie Redmayne) who killed patients before moving on to other hospitals to kill more and how his crimes were eventually uncovered. The good nurse in the title is played by Jessica Chastain who is suffering from a life-threatening heart condition and risks her job and life to help get him convicted. The story is fascinating but told a bit too superficially for my liking and up to 400 murders, the police investigation, the motivations and development of the main characters and the ultimate conviction of the killer nurse is all wrapped up in 2 hours. I think the story could have been better served as a multi-part TV series which could have explored the characters in more depth. However, it's still an excellent watch.
- Awards
- 8
Jurrasic World : Dominion (I think that is the title
Odd amalgam. It was part James Bond, Part Mad Scientist, Part Eco-Terror, part Hitchock's "The Birds"
part original "Jurassic Park"
Colin Treverrow simply had too much to do to shape this into a coherent movie - not his fault
Odd amalgam. It was part James Bond, Part Mad Scientist, Part Eco-Terror, part Hitchock's "The Birds"
part original "Jurassic Park"
Colin Treverrow simply had too much to do to shape this into a coherent movie - not his fault
- Awards
- 44
My Sunday matinee was...
The Selling (2011)
This has been in my Prime watchlist for so long I've forgotten how it ended up there. I must confess I watched it yesterday mainly because I anticipated an interruption and wanted to watch something short that I wouldn't be particularly invested in.
Even from the thumbnail and description, I had a feeling it was going to be a bit cheap and tacky and I wasn't disappointed. The lead actor was pretty much a David-Tennant-alike but with the "aren't I funny?" American sitcom delivery. In fact almost everyone in this film has the same singsong sitcom delivery and rhythm, usually accompanied by quirky music to drive home an intended laugh line. The lack of "names" in the cast was probably more a help than a hindrance. The only person known to me was Barry Bostwick, unrecognisable here since I mostly know him for Brad Majors.
The comedy horror combo is just not my thing usually, as most end up being neither. The same is true here, though there were one or two moments that raised a chortle or two despite my resistance. I wouldn't watch it again, but with low expectations it was harmless enough. And I dare say some would love it.
The Selling (2011)
This has been in my Prime watchlist for so long I've forgotten how it ended up there. I must confess I watched it yesterday mainly because I anticipated an interruption and wanted to watch something short that I wouldn't be particularly invested in.
Even from the thumbnail and description, I had a feeling it was going to be a bit cheap and tacky and I wasn't disappointed. The lead actor was pretty much a David-Tennant-alike but with the "aren't I funny?" American sitcom delivery. In fact almost everyone in this film has the same singsong sitcom delivery and rhythm, usually accompanied by quirky music to drive home an intended laugh line. The lack of "names" in the cast was probably more a help than a hindrance. The only person known to me was Barry Bostwick, unrecognisable here since I mostly know him for Brad Majors.
The comedy horror combo is just not my thing usually, as most end up being neither. The same is true here, though there were one or two moments that raised a chortle or two despite my resistance. I wouldn't watch it again, but with low expectations it was harmless enough. And I dare say some would love it.
- Awards
- 44
Last night I revisited...
Final Destination (2000)
This is one of those films that came out during an era when I was "into" slasher films. This means it's been spoilt by being heavily-viewed at the time and every beat - almost every line - being burnt into my brain. But on the plus side it does mean I view it affectionately. In fact, watching last night felt comfortably familiar despite it being quite a number of years since I last watched.
The predetermined death premise, the unseen force killing people off one-by-one and the creative deaths have always made this film feel to me like an early-Noughties take on The Omen, and on that level it's fine. Naturally, the cast is younger and prettier, and there's an injection of teen speak and terrible pop music which serve to make it feel more lowbrow and popcorn-ish, but since this is intended to be a fun popcorn movie that's all fine.
I think it still holds up as a decent example of the era. Many of the performances are decent enough and the plot is just clever enough to satisfy without (as Randy Meeks would have it) losing the core demographic. There are some memorably suspenseful moments and some decent shocks.
The film's greatest asset for me this time round was Shirley Walker's score which added some real atmosphere and sounded wonderful. It's way overdue an expanded 2 disc release on CD (and since the same year's Hollow Man has just got exactly that, I have some hope it could still happen).
Final Destination (2000)
This is one of those films that came out during an era when I was "into" slasher films. This means it's been spoilt by being heavily-viewed at the time and every beat - almost every line - being burnt into my brain. But on the plus side it does mean I view it affectionately. In fact, watching last night felt comfortably familiar despite it being quite a number of years since I last watched.
The predetermined death premise, the unseen force killing people off one-by-one and the creative deaths have always made this film feel to me like an early-Noughties take on The Omen, and on that level it's fine. Naturally, the cast is younger and prettier, and there's an injection of teen speak and terrible pop music which serve to make it feel more lowbrow and popcorn-ish, but since this is intended to be a fun popcorn movie that's all fine.
I think it still holds up as a decent example of the era. Many of the performances are decent enough and the plot is just clever enough to satisfy without (as Randy Meeks would have it) losing the core demographic. There are some memorably suspenseful moments and some decent shocks.
The film's greatest asset for me this time round was Shirley Walker's score which added some real atmosphere and sounded wonderful. It's way overdue an expanded 2 disc release on CD (and since the same year's Hollow Man has just got exactly that, I have some hope it could still happen).
- Awards
- 7
i love those films i think it was the last i think 2 i want to say i haven't seen or i could have seen part 4 but i know i haven't seen the 5th one yet. and they are last i heard working on a 6th one but i am not sure if that's being films right now or was filmed...
anyways i watched a pretty solid flix called The Killer that stalked New york (1950) it was based off the (1947) pandemic of Small pox that apparently back than they actually took the shit serious and got on it and only 12 were infected after given pretty much the whole city the Vaccine. triva note apparently they didn't use a needle to go into your skin when given one but scraping your arm? i'm not entirely sure on how it was done.
and while there were idiots who were against it they are had one scene after a guy refused to get one where a guy put him in his place by saying how easy he can get it. damn i wish we had an actual leader who wasn't a sick f... and who took the threat serious there would be so many people alive today if that had happened. true it's a different virus but still and only 2 people died the guy who was Originally the reason it did happen and than there's one person he came into contact with the rest survived. IF only it would have happened that way in (2020) and it wasn't made political like it was with Covid.
anyways i watched a pretty solid flix called The Killer that stalked New york (1950) it was based off the (1947) pandemic of Small pox that apparently back than they actually took the shit serious and got on it and only 12 were infected after given pretty much the whole city the Vaccine. triva note apparently they didn't use a needle to go into your skin when given one but scraping your arm? i'm not entirely sure on how it was done.
and while there were idiots who were against it they are had one scene after a guy refused to get one where a guy put him in his place by saying how easy he can get it. damn i wish we had an actual leader who wasn't a sick f... and who took the threat serious there would be so many people alive today if that had happened. true it's a different virus but still and only 2 people died the guy who was Originally the reason it did happen and than there's one person he came into contact with the rest survived. IF only it would have happened that way in (2020) and it wasn't made political like it was with Covid.
- Awards
- 52
Don't Worry Darling (2022)
Don't worry about watching this dreadful film. On the positive side, it looks stylish, the cinematography is great, the production design works well and the film is well acted by all the main cast, including Harry Styles who was surprisingly good. On the negative side is just about everything else.
The film has a Stepford Wives vibe and is about a community in which the men go out to work and the women stay at home and look after the house. However, one of the wives, played by Florence Pugh, begins to have concerns about the work the husbands are doing and starts looking for answers which lead to her uncovering unpleasant secrets.
Typing the description in the previous paragraph made me think this film could have been really interesting but it had so many plot holes and was a bit of a confused mess.
Don't worry about watching this dreadful film. On the positive side, it looks stylish, the cinematography is great, the production design works well and the film is well acted by all the main cast, including Harry Styles who was surprisingly good. On the negative side is just about everything else.
The film has a Stepford Wives vibe and is about a community in which the men go out to work and the women stay at home and look after the house. However, one of the wives, played by Florence Pugh, begins to have concerns about the work the husbands are doing and starts looking for answers which lead to her uncovering unpleasant secrets.
Typing the description in the previous paragraph made me think this film could have been really interesting but it had so many plot holes and was a bit of a confused mess.
- Awards
- 44
Yesterday I had a double-bill of slasher sequel tat with...
Final Destination 2 (2003) & Final Destination 3 (2006)
The standard rule of diminishing returns applies here. Both are significantly poorer than the first film, though both sequels have different strengths and mileage may vary depending what one may want from an undemanding film of this kind.
I've watched the second film perhaps three or four times over the years, and the third twice at the most, so I'm less familiar with them.
From the el cheapo opening titles to the vehicle being submerged in what was clearly a swimming pool rather than a murky lake, the first sequel felt inferior to the original, with less attention to detail. There were some very impressive stunt setups, particularly with the huge RTA from the obligatory premonition at the start, but the key absence was the original film's sense of foreboding and subjectivity. I found myself watching with a strange sense of detachment, which made it feel more tacky.
Something I'd forgotten about the first sequel is the great effort made to tie it in with the original story. There was much talk of it being the first anniversary of the Flight 180 thingy (and oh, how I wanted to fling the remote at the screen every time the misnomer "one year anniversary" was used), and then it turned out that every single new character had been present at or somehow affected by one of the deaths from the first film, which in turn had meant their own deaths hadn't happened.
It's a nice attempt, but for me it fails. Firstly, there's the ridiculous degree of contrivance involved to make it work. And the fact that most of this tie-in exposition takes place within a single scene where everyone suddenly remembers something significant. The logic was also arguably flawed since Death was the one killing off the Flight 180 misses, which would surely be done on its own terms. These people's own deaths shouldn't be affected by Death's intervention. And even if you can buy it, it means that Death missed these people TWICE (once the previous year, and the second time with the car pile up).
Long story short, an allusion or two to the first film is great (and necessary), but the ripple effect just felt too convoluted, and the way it was revealed too clunky.
I had remembered that Clear returned to meet her silly, computer generated fate. Alex would have been the obvious choice to return and, no matter what had gone on during negotiations with actors or whatever, killing the lead character off twixt films feels like a slap in the audience's face in the same vein as Laurie Strode's death in Halloween 4. Even with this being a gore-fest, I also felt the "after" photos of the bodies of original characters post mortem were particularly tacky. Less is more.
Final Destination 3 benefited from me not remembering anything at all apart from a vague recollection of a silly sunbed death scene. It's fair to say expectations were low.
There are a lot of reasons for this being the weaker of these two sequels. 3 has the least-interesting ensemble of the three films to this point, with increased attempts at humour or wacky characters that mostly remain cardboard cutouts. Then there's the fan service with the prolonged T&A shots during the sunbed death scene (which wasn't quite as silly as I remembered). It's probably telling that the morning after watching I can barely remember any of the deaths.
I was pleasantly surprised that the mandatory lengthy opening premonition scene did a nice job of creating a feeling of unease and dread and capturing how it feels to be boarding a ride, the same as the first film had done with boarding a plane. Shirley Walker's score was back on form as well.
Final Destination 2 (2003) & Final Destination 3 (2006)
The standard rule of diminishing returns applies here. Both are significantly poorer than the first film, though both sequels have different strengths and mileage may vary depending what one may want from an undemanding film of this kind.
I've watched the second film perhaps three or four times over the years, and the third twice at the most, so I'm less familiar with them.
From the el cheapo opening titles to the vehicle being submerged in what was clearly a swimming pool rather than a murky lake, the first sequel felt inferior to the original, with less attention to detail. There were some very impressive stunt setups, particularly with the huge RTA from the obligatory premonition at the start, but the key absence was the original film's sense of foreboding and subjectivity. I found myself watching with a strange sense of detachment, which made it feel more tacky.
Something I'd forgotten about the first sequel is the great effort made to tie it in with the original story. There was much talk of it being the first anniversary of the Flight 180 thingy (and oh, how I wanted to fling the remote at the screen every time the misnomer "one year anniversary" was used), and then it turned out that every single new character had been present at or somehow affected by one of the deaths from the first film, which in turn had meant their own deaths hadn't happened.
It's a nice attempt, but for me it fails. Firstly, there's the ridiculous degree of contrivance involved to make it work. And the fact that most of this tie-in exposition takes place within a single scene where everyone suddenly remembers something significant. The logic was also arguably flawed since Death was the one killing off the Flight 180 misses, which would surely be done on its own terms. These people's own deaths shouldn't be affected by Death's intervention. And even if you can buy it, it means that Death missed these people TWICE (once the previous year, and the second time with the car pile up).
Long story short, an allusion or two to the first film is great (and necessary), but the ripple effect just felt too convoluted, and the way it was revealed too clunky.
I had remembered that Clear returned to meet her silly, computer generated fate. Alex would have been the obvious choice to return and, no matter what had gone on during negotiations with actors or whatever, killing the lead character off twixt films feels like a slap in the audience's face in the same vein as Laurie Strode's death in Halloween 4. Even with this being a gore-fest, I also felt the "after" photos of the bodies of original characters post mortem were particularly tacky. Less is more.
Final Destination 3 benefited from me not remembering anything at all apart from a vague recollection of a silly sunbed death scene. It's fair to say expectations were low.
There are a lot of reasons for this being the weaker of these two sequels. 3 has the least-interesting ensemble of the three films to this point, with increased attempts at humour or wacky characters that mostly remain cardboard cutouts. Then there's the fan service with the prolonged T&A shots during the sunbed death scene (which wasn't quite as silly as I remembered). It's probably telling that the morning after watching I can barely remember any of the deaths.
I was pleasantly surprised that the mandatory lengthy opening premonition scene did a nice job of creating a feeling of unease and dread and capturing how it feels to be boarding a ride, the same as the first film had done with boarding a plane. Shirley Walker's score was back on form as well.
- Awards
- 44
And I rounded things off with a Hallowe'en screening of...
Final Destination 5 (2011)
I'd previously seen neither the fourth nor fifth films in the series, but skipped 4 since it wasn't free on Prime and I'd read that 5 was a prequel anyway so thought it wouldn't matter too much at which point I watched it.
As expected, it's simply more of the same. Anything that felt clever or innovative in the original is long gone by this time. There is no nuance, symbolised best by Brian Tyler's pounding score. Even the name of the company - Presage - is as unsubtle as it gets.
As is the norm by now, the ensemble is patchy, and the performances aren't great (the friend who was supposed to lose the plot and go dark was particularly poor).
All of which sounds like I hated the film, but actually I found it very watchable. The suspension bridge setting for the opening premonition/accident sequence worked well, and I'm a little sad that I already knew about the little twist at the end since it was a really nice touch and could have been a real "wow" moment for me.
Final Destination 5 (2011)
I'd previously seen neither the fourth nor fifth films in the series, but skipped 4 since it wasn't free on Prime and I'd read that 5 was a prequel anyway so thought it wouldn't matter too much at which point I watched it.
As expected, it's simply more of the same. Anything that felt clever or innovative in the original is long gone by this time. There is no nuance, symbolised best by Brian Tyler's pounding score. Even the name of the company - Presage - is as unsubtle as it gets.
As is the norm by now, the ensemble is patchy, and the performances aren't great (the friend who was supposed to lose the plot and go dark was particularly poor).
All of which sounds like I hated the film, but actually I found it very watchable. The suspension bridge setting for the opening premonition/accident sequence worked well, and I'm a little sad that I already knew about the little twist at the end since it was a really nice touch and could have been a real "wow" moment for me.
- Awards
- 52
The School For Good and Evil (2022)
I didn't have high expectations for this film as I thought it might be too heavily skewed towards children, however it's not really a children's film at all.
Two friends, Sophie and Agatha are outsiders in their home village causing Sophie to want to leave. After hearing about the School for Good and Evil, where fairytale heroes and villains are trained, Sophie makes a wish to go there and Agatha follows her there to get her to come back. At the school they get put into opposite sides. . Will their friendship survive the rivalry between their groups they are put in?
The film looks beautiful and it has elements of a thriller and horror and a light sprinkling for swear words so not really for children. It's not a film I would be in a hurry to watch a second time but I enjoyed my first viewing of it.
I didn't have high expectations for this film as I thought it might be too heavily skewed towards children, however it's not really a children's film at all.
Two friends, Sophie and Agatha are outsiders in their home village causing Sophie to want to leave. After hearing about the School for Good and Evil, where fairytale heroes and villains are trained, Sophie makes a wish to go there and Agatha follows her there to get her to come back. At the school they get put into opposite sides. . Will their friendship survive the rivalry between their groups they are put in?
The film looks beautiful and it has elements of a thriller and horror and a light sprinkling for swear words so not really for children. It's not a film I would be in a hurry to watch a second time but I enjoyed my first viewing of it.
- Awards
- 20
Isn't that an oxymoron?
- Awards
- 44
Oh yes - well spotted.
I can't believe that hadn't occurred to me in all these years.
- Awards
- 7
i watched an old one with Doris Day called Tea For Two (1950) i'm a fan of hers i first saw her in "The Man who knew to Much' (1956) which is outside the norm of the things she usually did and i love that film as it's far better than the Original (1934) Hitch film. this one though was f... terrible it had a nice plot a young girl promises her rich uncle not to say yes for anything, today it would include sex but back than in (1950)... in the film Doris Day comes from Money who got hit with the crash of (1929)
and she needs $25,000 for a musical show that really makes me think of the Mickey Rooney did in the pictures he did back in the late 30's and early 40's. it was based off a play and they chanted some of it apparently. the film was really bad so far it's the worst of hers that i've seen thus far.
my favorite of hers is Please don't eat the Daises (1960)
and she needs $25,000 for a musical show that really makes me think of the Mickey Rooney did in the pictures he did back in the late 30's and early 40's. it was based off a play and they chanted some of it apparently. the film was really bad so far it's the worst of hers that i've seen thus far.
my favorite of hers is Please don't eat the Daises (1960)
- Awards
- 8
Jurrasic Worldominio.
Not the best of the six, but curious in its writing. The first half looked like a James Bond movie.
The locusts - Biblical plague? The Birds? Them? Genetic Engineering gone berserk (Kind of the whole basis of the series)
Mad Scientist tropes, References to the first movie with casting, the Dilophosaurs, etc.
Colin Treverrow is a talented director. I think there were too many subplots.
ominio.Not the best of the six, but curious in its writing. The first half looked like a James Bond movie.
The locusts - Biblical plague? The Birds? Them? Genetic Engineering gone berserk (Kind of the whole basis of the series)
Mad Scientist tropes, References to the first movie with casting, the Dilophosaurs, etc.
Colin Treverrow is a talented director. I think there were too many subplots.
- Awards
- 7
i haven't seen the last 2 so i can't show how good or bad they were to be fair. i watched a really damn good one called Young man with a Horn (1950) with a young Kirk Douglass and again Doris Day her part isn't that big she pops up here and there but she's not the star Douglass is. she gets 3rd Billing actually. it's well worth a watch my friends.
- Awards
- 44
The Frighteners (1996)
I have fond memories of watching this with a friend some 25 years ago and thinking it was great fun, and I watched it a number of times in the few years that followed. As time's gone on, I've found myself not particularly wanting to rewatch it. Probably for the same reason I've no desire to rewatch Ghostbusters. There's something about the comedy-horror genre I can find a little off-putting. I also feared it might have dated horribly.
Recently I revisited Danny Elfman's film score and enjoyed it, but also realised I'd forgotten enough details of the film that I couldn't correlate a lot of the tracks with a specific scene. This must have planted the seed for my spontaneous rewatch last night which, as it turns out, really hit the spot.
It's good fun, genuinely funny at times (especially Jeffrey Combs's eccentric, obsessive-compulsive F.B.I. agent who is triggered by angry women), and the effects mostly still looked pretty good and with a nice cast blend of character actors, marginally familiar faces and likeable, refreshing leads (Michael J. Fox in between his Back To The Future prime and Spin City and Trini Alvarado - who I remember best as Bette Midler's daughter in the remake of Stella Dallas).
The creative team is very impressive: Executive Produced by Robert Zemeckis and written, produced and directed by the Lord Of The Rings team of Fran Walsh, Jamie Selkirk and Peter Jackson.
I have fond memories of watching this with a friend some 25 years ago and thinking it was great fun, and I watched it a number of times in the few years that followed. As time's gone on, I've found myself not particularly wanting to rewatch it. Probably for the same reason I've no desire to rewatch Ghostbusters. There's something about the comedy-horror genre I can find a little off-putting. I also feared it might have dated horribly.
Recently I revisited Danny Elfman's film score and enjoyed it, but also realised I'd forgotten enough details of the film that I couldn't correlate a lot of the tracks with a specific scene. This must have planted the seed for my spontaneous rewatch last night which, as it turns out, really hit the spot.
It's good fun, genuinely funny at times (especially Jeffrey Combs's eccentric, obsessive-compulsive F.B.I. agent who is triggered by angry women), and the effects mostly still looked pretty good and with a nice cast blend of character actors, marginally familiar faces and likeable, refreshing leads (Michael J. Fox in between his Back To The Future prime and Spin City and Trini Alvarado - who I remember best as Bette Midler's daughter in the remake of Stella Dallas).
The creative team is very impressive: Executive Produced by Robert Zemeckis and written, produced and directed by the Lord Of The Rings team of Fran Walsh, Jamie Selkirk and Peter Jackson.
- Awards
- 52
My Policeman (2022)
Harry Styles must have a pretty good agent because this is the second film I've seen him star in recently. This is about wasted time. A policeman falls into a relationship with a male museum curator. He marries a schoolteacher to maintain the secrecy of the relationship which has life changing ramifications for all 3 of them. It's a mature, humane and compelling piece of film-making that is brilliantly played by all the main leads.
Harry Styles must have a pretty good agent because this is the second film I've seen him star in recently. This is about wasted time. A policeman falls into a relationship with a male museum curator. He marries a schoolteacher to maintain the secrecy of the relationship which has life changing ramifications for all 3 of them. It's a mature, humane and compelling piece of film-making that is brilliantly played by all the main leads.
- Awards
- 20
Tea For Two was based on No, No, Nanette. It's fairly typical of a certain type of light-weight musical.
Have you seen On Moonlight Bay and its sequel By the Light of the Silvery Moon, also co-starring Gordon McRae?
- Awards
- 18
Private Property (1960)
My new favourite film. It's a bit of shock to realise they made movies as sleazy as this in 1960, but at the same time, it feels like it could only have been made in 1960. I guess you could call it a low-budget suburban noir. It put me in mind of everything from Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf to Psycho, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Straw Dogs.
There are only a handful characters. The main three are a quick-witted young conman played by Corey Allen (looking like the middle brother of Mark Ruffalo and Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), his slower partner-in-crime (Warren Oates, the spit of a young John Huston) and their object of desire, a respectable young housewife played by the unknown (at least to me) Kate Manx. She's almost an archetypal Hitchcock blonde but not quite. She lacks the ice-cool unattainablity of a Grace Kelly or an Eva Marie Saint. There's a moment where she's by the pool, not realising she's been spied on by the two men, and she puts a sort of lounge suit on over her bikini, but does it in such a clumsily inelegant un-Hollywood way that it feels almost pornographic, yet at the same time makes her seem vulnerable and real. The whole film's a bit like that.
If you're in the UK and you've 79 minutes to spare, it's available to watch for free on the supercool Talking Pictures website (only be sure to skip Caroline Munro's intro as it contains a dirty big spoiler).
My new favourite film. It's a bit of shock to realise they made movies as sleazy as this in 1960, but at the same time, it feels like it could only have been made in 1960. I guess you could call it a low-budget suburban noir. It put me in mind of everything from Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf to Psycho, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Straw Dogs.
There are only a handful characters. The main three are a quick-witted young conman played by Corey Allen (looking like the middle brother of Mark Ruffalo and Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), his slower partner-in-crime (Warren Oates, the spit of a young John Huston) and their object of desire, a respectable young housewife played by the unknown (at least to me) Kate Manx. She's almost an archetypal Hitchcock blonde but not quite. She lacks the ice-cool unattainablity of a Grace Kelly or an Eva Marie Saint. There's a moment where she's by the pool, not realising she's been spied on by the two men, and she puts a sort of lounge suit on over her bikini, but does it in such a clumsily inelegant un-Hollywood way that it feels almost pornographic, yet at the same time makes her seem vulnerable and real. The whole film's a bit like that.
If you're in the UK and you've 79 minutes to spare, it's available to watch for free on the supercool Talking Pictures website (only be sure to skip Caroline Munro's intro as it contains a dirty big spoiler).
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- Awards
- 5
8/10