30 Day Film Challenge: Favorite Actor and Actress

I'm catching up and doubling up on the 30-Day Film Challenge because I'm woefully behind - but also because the themes for two days fit together so nicely.

First off is a film starring my favorite actor. The choice of actor is easy - that's Jimmy Stewart. (It has always seemed wrong to call him James, even though he was never once billed as Jimmy).

The choice of a Stewart film, though? Not so easy. I already cited his best performance, from Hitchcock's Vertigo, and my goal is not to repeat titles.

So where did that leave me? It struck me that two styles dominated Stewart's acting. There was the kindly
"aw shucks" persona most people remember him by. But there was also the darker, despairing Jimmy - the Jimmy that came out after he flew bombing missions in World War II. That Jimmy was prominent in Anthony Mann westerns like Winchester 73 - but I wanted to pick something that fused the the two styles.

I finally settled on It's a Wonderful Life - a familiar choice, to be sure. But one of the many brilliant things about that movie is that Stewart takes his "aw shucks" persona and completely turns it on its head. He goes to some dark places in this movie, and people tend to forget that - partly because, I think, they flinch at it. They only want to remember that nice George Bailey. But George Bailey had a dark streak without which he was an incomplete person. Just watch this scene between him and Donna Reed on the phone. It's all at once romantic and tormented.



The choice of my favorite actress is also easy. That's Judy Garland. But for her film, I wanted to go with a not so obvious choice. People remember her as a singer, and rightly so - but they also remember her as a tragic figure. Sadly, there is truth in that also, but that shouldn't dominate her memory when at her best she was so full of life and charm. I wanted to pick a performance that subverts both reputations. One is The Clock, from 1945, made right after Meet Me in St. Louis and also directed by the great Vincente Minnelli, who by this time was her husband.



It's notable in that it's her first film in which she doesn't sing a note - and she still makes you smile while breaking your heart. It proves what a great actress she was, even apart from her peerless singing skills.

PS - It's a real kick in the head to see Robert Walker play such a gentle character - in stark contrast to his villainous turn in Strangers on a Train.

PPS - What a shame that my two favorite actors never appeared together on film, even though both of them were MGM contract players. They were both in Ziegfeld Girl - but alas, shared no scenes.

The 30 Day Film Challenge Day 7

Day 7 of the 30 Day Film Challenge isn't so lucky - not when you consider film content. My choice for the scariest film I've ever seen is The Exorcist. It still chills me to the bone harder than any other film out there.

I've heard too many people claim this film isn't scary or even laugh at it. I can only shake my head and say it sucks to be them not to be affected in some way by such a traumatic story.

It isn't so much the possession that scares me - it's the deterioration of a young girl's soul, whatever you think the cause might be. It's not the bedroom scenes that scares me the most - it's the medical procedures, especially the spinal tap (shudder). That's only a a hint of what's to come. And a hint is often more frightening than the real thing.

Just to make sure this post isn't all gloom and doom, I'll share a lighthearted story about The Exorcist (I'll let the irony of that phrase sink in for a second.)

My dad saw this film in its original release. Like most people, he came out of the theater rattled. So what's the first thing that he hears on the radio once he turns on his car? "Tubular Bells."

AAAAAAAHHHHH!

The 30 Day Film Challenge Day 6

I was going to double up on the challenge like I did yesterday, but I really wanted this entry to stand alone - a film from my childhood.

There are many films from my childhood. Most of those are Disney films. But there is another film above all others that stands out, because it's the first film I can remember seeing in a theater.

What is now called the Victoria Theatre in Dayton used to have the slightly shorter name of Victory Theatre. And back in those days, they would play "cult" films. When I was about 5, they played Yellow Submarine. The experience has never left me, since my two major claims to fame are Beatlemania and movie-mania.



This clip goes up to about where the song starts, so I'll pick it up from here.

In the town, where I was born, lived a man, who sailed to sea ...

You'll now have that song stuck in your head all day. You're welcome.

The 30 Day Film Challenge Day 5: Sniffle

More 30 Day Film Challenge - hey, I posted this one after midnight, I'm playing fair and I'm trying to catch up!

It's all too easy to start my waterworks. There are lots of movies that make me tear up: The Wizard of Oz. E.T. Just about anything by Pixar. Heck, sometimes even Singin' in the Rain makes me well up sometimes because it's so beautifully performed. I'm a sap.

Not many films had the effect that Schindler's List did, though. I saw this devastating film five times in a theater. Many people couldn't manage that. The first time wiped me out. Then I kept going back, trying to analyze the film technique, geek that I am.

I never managed it. Once they liquidated the ghetto I was always done for and I would start sobbing. And I don't care how many people complain about the "I could have got more" scene. Yeah, it's a bit much. Yeah, it's a little overwritten. But dammit,  it Gets. Me. Every.Time. And that's before the memorial scene at the end, which pushes me even further. I don't watch this film often, but whenever I do, it stays with me for a long time.

The 30 Day Film Challenge Day 4: Favorite sci-fi film

Catching up on the 30 Day Film Challenge - hey, no one said anything about consecutive days!

A lot of people claim that they don't "get" 2001: A Space Odyssey. And that's actually appropriate considering it contemplates nothing less than the infinite and our place in the universe. Even with the dated trappings (the Pan Am shuttle, the kitschy furniture that looks like it's from 1967 - heck even the title is dated now), the movie still feels futuristic and timeless because it wonders about things like few other movies do. If it were more concrete and explainable, it would be a lesser film.

Other contenders: Aliens, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The 30 Day Film Challenge - Day 3: Funniest film

I thought this would be hard, but it's not. Many comedies make me laugh a lot, but none makes me laugh as much as Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot.

But it isn't just the volume of laughs that counts. Yes, there are many jokes here. Many great ones. But they're so great, that I laugh just as much every time I see them. For instance, the dialogue at 6:56 in this clip never fails to slay me.

Whenever I see  Some Like It Hot, it feels like it's the first time. That is the mark of a truly great comedy - and indeed, any truly great movie.

Other titles considered: Bringing Up Baby, Dr. Strangelove, Blazing Saddles, Airplane!

The 30 Day Film Challenge - Day 2: My least favorite film

The way things are goin, they gonna crucify me

Yesterday I talked about how it was hard to choose my favorite film. Today I have to choose my least favorite film. And that's not hard at all. Bad Boys II doesn't just scrape bottom. It crashes through the bottom and finds a new pit in which to fester.

This requires some context. Most of Michael Bay's movies are merely bad, like say, Armageddon. It was a trial to sit through, but I made it to the end with only a sneer on my face.

Bad Boys II, on the hand, is not merely incompetent but offensive. I trudged out of that theater mad enough to strangle Mickey Mouse. And Disney didn't even release the movie.

At the time, I was having fun writing reviews as what I called "Memos to Jerry Bruckheimer," who sometimes gives us good bang for the buck with movies like Crimson Tide. With Bad Boys II, there was less than no sale. For at least a week afterward I felt like I had been forced to bathe in raw sewage and take a couple of swallows to boot.

I was so furious, I banged out what has to be the most scathing critique I've ever spat out. What follows may not be appropriate for children under 17, which pretty well describes Bay's mental age. But I wrote him and Jerry this anyway.

Bad Boys II

Review by Eric Robinette

Grade: F-

Starring Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Gabrielle Union, Joe Pantoliano, Jordi Molla and Peter Stormare, who should be having interesting discussions with their agents now

Shoddily written (if you can call it that) by Ron Shelton and  Jerry Stahl, from a “story” (term used loosely) by Shelton and Cormac Wibberley & Marianne Wibberley

Offensively Overdirected by Michael Bay

Memo to Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay

From a truly disgusted film critic

Good God, Jerry and Mike. Where do I start in writing about “Bad Boys II?” I’ve always known you guys are the premier purveyors of cinematic wretched excess, but until this movie I didn’t know that you’re also a couple of sick fucks.

I know that’s harsh, guys, but what else am I supposed to think about a movie that wallows in being as repulsive as possible? What am I to make of the chase scene in which dead bodies spill out the back of a van, and a pursuing car beheads one body?

And what the hell was the deal with the shot that shows two rats fucking, Mike? Has it been your secret ambition to be a documenatarian for National Geographic, and this is the best you could come up with? Or is that how you learned about the deed and you wanted to share? Between this and the lovemaking among the parachutes in “Pearl Harbor,” you guys sure must have had some interesting experiences in your youth, I’ll tell you that.

If the audience at my screening is any indication, I guess the point of these two lovely scenes is humor; the lemmings laughed loud and long at both of them. I weep for humanity. I guess this is what becomes of audiences after years of the desensitizing your movies have caused. You really do reap what you sow.

I know I sound like a tightwad, but you know what? I don’t care. I’ve fallen for your brainless action romps before (I actually liked “The Rock”) but until now, you’ve never gone to such lengths to be offensive. It’s like you guys sat together and said, “Let’s take a big chunk of our money and see just how much shit we can get away with.”

But what’s the point of spending all that money if you get nothing from it? Mike, you have a reputation for being one of the more, um…aggressive action directors we have, and I’ll actually admit, you’re not without talent. But you have an uncanny ability to sabotage your own good ideas.

For instance, in one of the highway chases, the villains are driving a car carrier, and they detach the cars one by one, so bingo—instant obstacle course. Good idea, Mike. Too bad you totally fucked up the execution. There are so many edits in the scene---cutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcut---that I couldn’t tell where anyone or anything was.

Then there’s the shootout in the druggies’ house in which the camera whips around in a circle from one room to another, ducking through bullet holes and the like. Yeah, you ripped it off from “Panic Room” and “Swordfish,” (which, ironically, ripped off you), but it’s still a good idea. SO WHY DO YOU KEEP CUTTING AWAY FROM IT AND INTERRUPTING THE FLOW??

And the word flow reminds me---why in God’s name is this movie two and a half hours long? So you could include the scene in which Will Smith and Martin Lawrence discuss a bullet wound in the butt and a crowd of department store shoppers think they’re gay lovers? The shot of the little kid asking, “Daddy, what’s an erection” was an especially charming (cough) touch.

And what’s with the scene in which a young kid taking Lawrence’s daughter on a date is terrorized by Lawrence and Smith, who waves a gun in his face and asks him, “You ever have sex with a man? Want to?”

If you had to have a cheap joke like that, a writer with half a brain would have at least included a scene of the boy slapping the daughter around or something. But nooooo. You use the scene for a cheap laugh and make your stars and yourselves look like homophobes in the process. It’s especially dispiriting to see Will Smith stoop so low. Did you kick him an extra million to get him to say those lines?

There’s so much more I could talk about, like the scene in which the camera ogles a dead woman’s breast implants, but even you should have the smarts to get my point by now: You went too far this time. It’s enough to make me want to retreat to the relative comfort of “Charlie’s Angles: Full Throttle.” At least McG and his gals aren’t into necrophilia.

I know Mike was the one calling the shots on this, Jerry, but since you’re his boss, you share responsibility for Bay’s misdeeds.  It’s a shame because I had liked most of your movies lately. With “Remember the Titans,” “Black Hawk Down” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” under your belt you actually seemed to have acquired taste, “Bad Company” and “Kangaroo Jack” notwithstanding. But you’ll have to make something as classy as “Vertigo” to get back in my good graces. And, no, making me sick with one of Bay’s chase scenes does NOT count.

Yes, there should be room for dumb action movies where every other shot is an explosion---but for every kind of movie, there is a line of taste to be drawn, and “Bad Boys II” crosses it by a country mile. It’s the worst movie of this year, and of your careers.

Now I’m sure you and the less discriminating members of your audience would respond to me by saying, “Man, it’s only a movie.” Or as somebody on the Rolling Stone message boards so delicately put it, “ya its sick humor but it didnt stop the whole theature from rumbling with laughter.this is what i want some critqes to do for a change. Grow a spine and pair of peanuts. then untighten their azcrack so they can stop breaking wind out of their ears and crapng out of their mouth”

You must be so proud to have such articulate defenders, guys. I’ll tell you and your defenders what, though. I’ll actually take that advice. I’ll grow a “spine and a pair of peanuts” when you grow a brain and a sense of decency. But I don’t think I’ll hold my breath.

The 30 Day Film Challenge - Day 1: My favorite film

Facebook has a fun new game going on called the 30-Day Film Challenge. Being a film buff, I can scarcely resist  a Film Challenge. And since I can't keep my mouth shut when the subject turns to movies, I'm going to expand and expound upon each choice in this blog.

For the first day, you are asked to name your favorite movie. And that's not such an easy thing for a film buff. Presented with that ubiquitous query, we are bound to rattle off title after title. When I get asked this question I always name three movies (more on the other two below).

Forced to name one, however, I always choose one by the greatest director of all time. And that choice is Vertigo. And among Hitch's films, that's actually an easy choice.

Why? Well, consider the fact that I first saw it on the USA Network, via a crummy, faded print that was edited for time, and not very cleanly to boot. Even with all that, the movie still entranced and devastated me.

As Martin Scorsese has pointed out, it was remarkable that directors like Hitchcock could work within the studio system making films that were commercial and simultaneously very personal statements. And yet, at the time, it was perhaps a little too personal for some people. Commercially, it did OK but wasn't one of Hitch's bigger hits. Critics tended to be dismissive, with one cracking that Vertigo was another "Hitchcock and bull story."

Time has been generous to the film, however, which is slightly ironic because of the way the movie plays with time. Vertigo, better than any other movie, captures the timeless state of a dream - how a dream feels at times like you're lost in a fog - and how at other times it amplifies your most intense emotions - especially when the dream turns into a nightmare.

The story revolves around Jimmy Stewart trying to remake a lost love - and since I've been through some heartache recently, Vertigo would probably resonate all the more if I watched it now.

No matter when I see it, though, Vertigo washes over me and envelops me.  And like all the greatest movies do, it feels different every time I see it - not unlike a dream.

Other titles considered: Citizen Kane, A Hard Day's Night