Tag Archives: drama

#265-MASH

Quick recap: Hijinks at a hospital during the Korean War? YOU BETCHA!

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Fun (?) fact: Robert Altman’s 14 year old son wrote the lyrics to the opening theme song.

My thoughts: Four movies in, and I think I can finally say with confidence that I don’t really care for Robert Altman. I loved The Long Goodbye, but that was largely because of Elliot Gould,and I just didn’t get the appeal of Nashville or The Player. And now there is MASH to add to the list,which just might be my least favorite of all of his films thus far.

I have this image in my head of Donald Sutherland (Hawkeye) and Elliot Gould (Trapper John) standing behind me as I type this review, yelling things to me like, ‘buzzkill!’, ‘where’s your sense of humor?’ and ‘why are we here? What happened?’. Their imagined disappointment in me comes from the fact that I just didn’t think this movie was funny. Most of the jokes were about how hot the nurses were and how they wanted to have sex with the nurses, which, if you’re not an Animaniac, it’s just creepy to watch.

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I can’t speak for the show, having never watched it ( I KNOW), but I was hoping for something along the same lines of being funny but also touching and dark at times. This movie was none of that. There was that one scene where Hawkeye and Trapper John saved a baby but they acted like such jackasses towards everyone that it ruined the moment.

Final review: 2/5

Up next: Full Metal Jacket

 

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#263- Trainspotting

Quick recap: Don’t do drugs, kids. Unless you don’t mind swimming through the dirtiest toilets in Scotland and watching dead babies crawl on your ceiling. If that’s your thing though, you do you.

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Fun (?) fact: The title Trainspotting comes from the fact that it is an unusual hobby and only people who do it truly understand what it is, much like heroin.

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Even playing a character addicted to heroin, I still love Ewan.

My thoughts: I’ve loved Trainspotting for a long time, having first watched it in high school many years ago. Back then I was drawn to it solely because Ewan Mcgregor was the star and that he had a nude scene. Now,however, I appreciate this movie on different levels, one of them still being Ewan Mcgregor.

Watching Trainspotting this time around, it was the soundtrack that got to me most. The songs are perfectly chosen and create an emotional depth I hadn’t noticed in previous viewings.My favorite scene is when Renton (Ewan’s character) overdoses and ‘falls’ through the carpet. It’s very difficult to describe if you haven’t seen it, but the perspective on the screen is what he would see if he were laying in a grave. As the audience watches the trip to the emergency room and injection that brings him back to life, Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ is playing and it is so haunting to watch.

As I looked up trivia for the film, I saw that there are people who think the movie glorifies drug use and director Danny Boyle should’ve done more to show the consequences of what happens when you get addicted to heroin. It’s kind of a stupid argument because I think the film was realistic to what really goes on. Spud was sent to prison, Sick Boy’s child died, Tommy contracted AIDS and Renton pretty much got off without too much lasting damage. That’s life. Drugs are a gamble. Many people waste their life but that would be a life to say that it ruins EVERYONE. Plus, it’s not Danny Boyle’s job, unless he worked for DARE or something. All the same, it certainly didn’t make me want to go out and score a hit, mainly because I don’t like the sight of blood. Whatever works, you know?

Final review: 5/5.

Up next: Beverly Hills Cop

 

 

 

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#262-Touch of evil

Quick recap: Charlton Heston plays a Mexican officer who gets caught up in a whole bunch of stuff: kidnapping, murder, theft, corruption and lots of jaywalking.

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Also starring Orson Welles, who has a little more than a ‘touch’ of evil going on

Fun (?) fact: Oscar winner Mercedes McCambridge is only in the film because she was having dinner with Welles. He gave her a leather jacket, cut her hair himself and gave her the line, ‘I wanna watch’.

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My thoughts: I think I might be suffering from Film-Noir Fatigue. Not that I’ve seen a bunch yet (there’s a LONG list), but in my mind most of them have formed a gelatinous blob of murder, mayhem and sexy dames. I really wanted to like this film, mainly because of Orson Welles, but at the end of the day, it just seemed like one more movie that fits the theme- no more, no less.

I’m going to back up a bit because it seems like I hated the movie and I really didn’t. Orson Welles in a fat suit doing an impression of Trump? Charlton Heston playing a Mexican official despite not looking hispanic at all? Marijuana benders? There’s actually a lot of camp in this movie, now that I think about it. But also some seriously good scenes, like the beginning where the camera tracks a car as it heads through the US Mexico border and then blows up. That was neat. And I also enjoyed all of the scenes with Janet Leigh because even I can’t resist a sexy dame in trouble.

But there was a lot that just didn’t work for me. The weird, creepy night manager was such an odd choice to add to the film. I guess the point was the he was scared of his drug lord boss but his odd mannerisms overshadowed everything. And the Grandi boys on a weed bender also struck me as more funny than tragic. The real beef I had with the film, however, was the plot. It was hard to follow and I’m still not sure how everything adds up. I got that Hank Quinlan was a super horrible guy who put a lot of innocent people in prison, but that seems like the sort of thing people would find out about soon enough. Add in the drug lord stuff and the car exploding and it just seems more like a cautionary tale for Charlton Heston’s character about too much on his plate.

Final review: 3/5

Up next: Trainspotting

 

 

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#260- Rashomon

Quick recap: Three men discuss a recent murder and realize no one’s story can be trusted.

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He played unhinged perfectly, especially when he hissed

Fun (?) fact: Director Akira Kurosawa had trouble capturing the rain in the background so he added black ink to the rain machine.

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My thoughts: If you look at most modern trials, especially the high profile ones, it’s always extremely hard to prove what really happened. Even with a ton of evidence and a signed confession, that doesn’t always mean the defendant is guilty, or if he is guilty, has a really good lawyer that convinces the jury otherwise. This refusal for anyone to own up to anything makes for good entertainment, although it doesn’t necessarily make for good justice. Rashomon presents a unique case where everyone owns up to a murder, but no one tells the truth about who really did it, proving that things don’t really change.

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It’s German for ‘The bart, The’

Rashomon is a complicated film, even by today’s standards. The camera work, the frequent flashbacks, the conflicting stories all come together to make something fascinating and beautiful. The main theme (I think) is that human beings naturally suck and shouldn’t be believed or trusted. There’s a murdered man and everyone has his own interests at heart: The bandit, the wife, the murdered man himself, and the Woodcutter who saw it all. All stories are believable until questioned and then the process begins again with a new version. For me, the most complicated issue was the wife who claims she was raped. My initial reaction was that even if she enjoyed it, of course it’s still rape. Not even a question. But the bandit and husband disagreed and were quick to label her a whore, someone who will forever be damaged. It was very frustrating to watch, especially considering the recent conversations about assault that have come up because of the Stanford case. In the end, the Woodcutter settles the discrepancy by saying that yes the woman was raped but she also wanted out of her marriage and this was her escape, no matter how horrible the end result. For a movie made in 1950, it made me consider viewpoints I hadn’t entertained before.

Though I’m still not sure I trust the Woodcutter’s version of events, I appreciate that for all his hypocrisy, he is still a redeemable character. It showed me that although there is plenty of evil in this world, many bad things that happen occur because of selfishness and misguided acts. It’s important to remember that there is good, even when it feels like no one is being honest.

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Final review: 5/5

Up next: Pink Flamingos

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