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Awix (3310 KP) rated Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) in Movies
Jul 2, 2020
'Why would someone shoot at a police station?' John Carpenter's exemplary action exploitation movie is set in mid-70s Los Angeles but is basically a mash-up of a western and a zombie movie. Two convicts, a secretary and a highway patrol officer find themselves besieged in a soon-to-be-derelict police precinct by hordes of psychopathic street gang members.
One of those examples of a virtually perfect movie: an incredibly economical script with immaculate storytelling is brought to the screen with immensely charismatic performances by the three leads (you watch it now and it's genuinely baffling that none of them had more substantial movie careers). Also a fascinating mixture of old-style and new Hollywood - scenes pastiching the style of Howard Hawks movies sit alongside genuinely provocative moments like the ice cream scene. Overall, though, just a tremendously enjoyable action film, and exhibit A for the case that John Carpenter did his career backwards.
One of those examples of a virtually perfect movie: an incredibly economical script with immaculate storytelling is brought to the screen with immensely charismatic performances by the three leads (you watch it now and it's genuinely baffling that none of them had more substantial movie careers). Also a fascinating mixture of old-style and new Hollywood - scenes pastiching the style of Howard Hawks movies sit alongside genuinely provocative moments like the ice cream scene. Overall, though, just a tremendously enjoyable action film, and exhibit A for the case that John Carpenter did his career backwards.
BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated Bringing Up Baby (1938) in Movies
Apr 4, 2020
The Perfect Example of a "Screwball Comedy"
It's always a bit of a crap-shoot when one shows an 82 year old, black and white film to a couple of college age students. But, with a film as crazy/zany as the 1938 Howard Hawks screwball comedy BRINGING UP BABY, the odds are in your favor.
The college students loved it.
Starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn - in their screwball comedy best - BRINGING UP BABY tells the story of a paleontologist (Grant) who is looking to land a $1 million donation, but ends up crossing paths with a wealthy heiress (Hepburn) - who marches to the beat of her own drum.
Told at breakneck speed by Hawks - a trademark of screwball comedy - BRINGING UP BABY is smart, witty, wacky and very, very funny. I was surprised at this viewing just how fast-paced this film is - you do not come up for a breath throughout the entire film. It's a bit exhausting - and exhilarating - kind of like hanging onto a wild roller coaster ride.
Remembered more for their dramatic roles, Hepburn and Grant are marvelous as the 2 leads of this film, they banter back and forth - quickly - throughout the film, they have tremendous chemistry with each other and their patter is a hallmark of these types of films and I was amazed at the dexterity and timing of these 2 pros. They make the dialogue work by not commenting on the comedy of it, but just moving onto the next scene, the next line, the next situation.
The supporting cast - featuring such rubber faced character actors as Charles Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, Fritz Feld and Leona Roberts - are just as good and add to the insanity that is seen on the screen. All corralled beautifully by one of the greatest Directors of the Old Hollywood era (the era before 1960), Howard Hawks who would end up directing a few years later the epitome of the screwball comedy - HIS GIRL FRIDAY - but who also Directed such classics as SCARFACE, THE BIG SLEEP, TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT and GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES as well as quite a few John Wayne westerns like RED RIVER, RIO BRAVO and EL DORADO.
Oh...and did I mention...the 3rd leading performer of this film is a Leopard?
If you are looking to introduce someone (or maybe yourself) to a film type of a bygone era - you could do worse than BRINGING UP BABY - a screwball comedy that clips along in 102 fast-paced minutes.
Letter Grade: A-
8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(OfMarquis)
The college students loved it.
Starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn - in their screwball comedy best - BRINGING UP BABY tells the story of a paleontologist (Grant) who is looking to land a $1 million donation, but ends up crossing paths with a wealthy heiress (Hepburn) - who marches to the beat of her own drum.
Told at breakneck speed by Hawks - a trademark of screwball comedy - BRINGING UP BABY is smart, witty, wacky and very, very funny. I was surprised at this viewing just how fast-paced this film is - you do not come up for a breath throughout the entire film. It's a bit exhausting - and exhilarating - kind of like hanging onto a wild roller coaster ride.
Remembered more for their dramatic roles, Hepburn and Grant are marvelous as the 2 leads of this film, they banter back and forth - quickly - throughout the film, they have tremendous chemistry with each other and their patter is a hallmark of these types of films and I was amazed at the dexterity and timing of these 2 pros. They make the dialogue work by not commenting on the comedy of it, but just moving onto the next scene, the next line, the next situation.
The supporting cast - featuring such rubber faced character actors as Charles Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, Fritz Feld and Leona Roberts - are just as good and add to the insanity that is seen on the screen. All corralled beautifully by one of the greatest Directors of the Old Hollywood era (the era before 1960), Howard Hawks who would end up directing a few years later the epitome of the screwball comedy - HIS GIRL FRIDAY - but who also Directed such classics as SCARFACE, THE BIG SLEEP, TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT and GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES as well as quite a few John Wayne westerns like RED RIVER, RIO BRAVO and EL DORADO.
Oh...and did I mention...the 3rd leading performer of this film is a Leopard?
If you are looking to introduce someone (or maybe yourself) to a film type of a bygone era - you could do worse than BRINGING UP BABY - a screwball comedy that clips along in 102 fast-paced minutes.
Letter Grade: A-
8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(OfMarquis)
Kathryn Bigelow: Interviews
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With her gripping film The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow (b. 1951) made history in 2010 by becoming...
Bringing Up Baby
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?Bringing Up Baby, directed by Howard Hawks in 1938, is one of the greatest screwball comedies and a...
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Targets (1968) in Movies
Jun 18, 2020
Targeting Frankenstein: A Horror Icon
Targets- is a very suspenseful film that stars a old boris Karloff. His performance in this film is different. Usually he is type-cast in a horror movie. Targets is not the cast, its a more serious role for Karloff and I liked it alot. He is dramatic in Targets. It was Karloff's last appearance in a marjor american film, before he passed away in 1968.
The plot: After unhinged Vietnam vet Bobby Thompson (Tim O'Kelly) kills his wife and mother, he goes on a brutal shooting spree. Starting at an oil refinery, he evades the police and continues his murderous outing at a drive-in movie theater, where Byron Orlock (Boris Karloff), a retiring horror film icon, is making a promotional appearance. Before long, Orlock, a symbol of fantastical old-fashioned scares, faces off against Thompson, a remorseless psychopath rooted in a harsh modern reality.
Even Karloff's charcter is a retired horror film actor, so he can never get away from the horror genre/type-casting.
In the film's finale at a drive-in theater, Orlok – the old-fashioned, traditional screen monster who always obeyed the rules – confronts the new, realistic, nihilistic late-1960s "monster" in the shape of a clean-cut, unassuming multiple murderer.
Bogdanovich got the chance to make Targets because Boris Karloff owed studio head Roger Corman two days' work. Corman told Bogdanovich he could make any film he liked provided he used Karloff and stayed under budget. In addition, Bogdanovich had to use clips from Corman's Napoleonic-era thriller The Terror in the movie. The clips from The Terror feature Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff. A brief clip of Howard Hawks' 1931 film The Criminal Code featuring Karloff was also used.
American International Pictures offered to release, but Bogdanovich wanted to try to see if the film could get a deal with a major studio. It was seen by Robert Evans of Paramount who bought it for $150,000, giving Corman an instant profit on the movie before it was even released.
Although the film was written and production photography completed in late 1967, it was released after the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy in early 1968 and thus had some topical relevance to then-current events. Nevertheless, it was not very successful at the box office.
Quentin Tarantino later called it "the most political movie Corman ever made since The Intruder. And forty years later it’s still one of the strongest cries for gun control in American cinema. The film isn’t a thriller with a social commentary buried inside of it (the normal Corman model), it’s a social commentary with a thriller buried inside of it... It was one of the most powerful films of 1968 and one of the greatest directorial debuts of all time. And I believe the best film ever produced by Roger Corman.
Its a excellent mystery suspenseful thrilling starring Boris Karloff, last appearance in a marjor american film, before he passed away in 1968. A great film to end your career on.
The plot: After unhinged Vietnam vet Bobby Thompson (Tim O'Kelly) kills his wife and mother, he goes on a brutal shooting spree. Starting at an oil refinery, he evades the police and continues his murderous outing at a drive-in movie theater, where Byron Orlock (Boris Karloff), a retiring horror film icon, is making a promotional appearance. Before long, Orlock, a symbol of fantastical old-fashioned scares, faces off against Thompson, a remorseless psychopath rooted in a harsh modern reality.
Even Karloff's charcter is a retired horror film actor, so he can never get away from the horror genre/type-casting.
In the film's finale at a drive-in theater, Orlok – the old-fashioned, traditional screen monster who always obeyed the rules – confronts the new, realistic, nihilistic late-1960s "monster" in the shape of a clean-cut, unassuming multiple murderer.
Bogdanovich got the chance to make Targets because Boris Karloff owed studio head Roger Corman two days' work. Corman told Bogdanovich he could make any film he liked provided he used Karloff and stayed under budget. In addition, Bogdanovich had to use clips from Corman's Napoleonic-era thriller The Terror in the movie. The clips from The Terror feature Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff. A brief clip of Howard Hawks' 1931 film The Criminal Code featuring Karloff was also used.
American International Pictures offered to release, but Bogdanovich wanted to try to see if the film could get a deal with a major studio. It was seen by Robert Evans of Paramount who bought it for $150,000, giving Corman an instant profit on the movie before it was even released.
Although the film was written and production photography completed in late 1967, it was released after the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy in early 1968 and thus had some topical relevance to then-current events. Nevertheless, it was not very successful at the box office.
Quentin Tarantino later called it "the most political movie Corman ever made since The Intruder. And forty years later it’s still one of the strongest cries for gun control in American cinema. The film isn’t a thriller with a social commentary buried inside of it (the normal Corman model), it’s a social commentary with a thriller buried inside of it... It was one of the most powerful films of 1968 and one of the greatest directorial debuts of all time. And I believe the best film ever produced by Roger Corman.
Its a excellent mystery suspenseful thrilling starring Boris Karloff, last appearance in a marjor american film, before he passed away in 1968. A great film to end your career on.