Roadgames - 1981

 I forgot I watched this until just now when I saw the name Stacy Keach and was like "oh cool another Stacy Keach movie!"  

I miss movies like this.  So much.  This is what I love about 70's movies, when it's done right.  This is a character piece first, everything else second.  We follow truck driver Stacy Keach as Patrick Quid as he drives along, jovial as can be but with a clearly shady past.  He is painted so well in the span of this movie, but it never feels forced or faked.  We learn little in reality, but with nuance in script and acting we are made to infer more.  Which I just love.

We follow Patrick as one day he watches a woman going to a hotel with a man.  He shakes his head and wishes that for himself, goes to sleep, and wakes to witness nothing really extraordinary, black bags left by the trashcan, the man who went into the room watching them... and a dog taking a curious interest in the bags.  

As he drives, a radio broadcast tells of a string of missing women in the area, a serial killer, and pretty soon in mostly dialogue to his dog and a few hitchhikers (Hitch, he calls them) Patrick begins to suspect the man he witnessed is the killer in question.  He picks up Jamie Lee Curtis at the 45 minute mark, and the two of them quickly form an attraction, and when he tells her about his suspect, she joins his strange quest to prove their suspicions.

There are very few characters in the movie, most of the movie takes place in the cab of Patrick's truck cab, and almost everything plot related moves through dialogue.  The minimalism of this film is staggering, and it delivers so well that you'll marvel at the abilities.  I had heard of it for a long time, and I'm glad I finally watched it.  I give it 5 stars.

The Devils - 1971

 Oliver Reed tops a lot of lists for me insofar as crazy, incredible to watch actors who I will watch about anything they are in.  And Vanessa Redgrave is in this and it is directed by Ken Russell!

I'm starting out energetic here for a reason, which is that mainly this movie is very slow, but I'm also going to include the extremity, because it's also extreme.  I don't really know how to encapsulate it really, it's a bit all over the place, and fits in well with Tommy, also directed by Russell, and also a film I didn't exactly love.

What is hard about all of this stuff going on, is that at a certain point I very much wonder:  What exactly is happening?  I know that I may cling too desperately to the concept of "plot" but really....honestly...what the fuck is happening in this movie again?

From the onset we have Oliver Reed as a thoroughly corrupt and repugnant priest who is fucking his nuns and bathing in sin basically.  He is living the very definition of the idea that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  He is brought to a new convent where the nuns all want to fuck him, and he begins to want this too when he meets Madeleine, a nun who wants him all to herself, and he falls in love with her.

This is where I begin to lose track of things basically.  Since he is desired by all the nuns and in love with one, he isn't fucking the others, who get encouraged to express their sexuality in other ways, and slowly fall into depravity and sexuality, getting all hot and bothered in every conceivable way.  But the why of this remains, and in the "real life story" this is based on, I'm going to read more, but basically the priest was accused of witchcraft, and in this he is too, but there is no witchcraft or even suggestions of it...  so... why?

Oliver Reed is his ethereal, otherworldly self, full of enigmatic appeal and energy, completely transfixing in this role.  The other actors are all excellent as well, and the film is certainly different and challenging, I just find it hard to enjoy when it moves so colossally slow.  Once the insanity reaches it's breaking point you still have like 50 minutes left!  

I am maybe nitpicking.  The sexuality in this movie is extreme, and it was censored for like 40 years.  The nun sex is crazy shit, and this borders Salo in terms of boundary pushing.  The whole end is really great actually, and extreme is not a strong enough word.

I'm conflicted on it, but one thing is certain:  the 70s is my favorite era in film, and it's because of movies like this.  This is unlike anything made since, and I wish that this sort of this was still around.  I will give it 4 stars.

The Man with the Golden Gun - 1974

 I mean, it's Bond and I'd likely seen this at least 4 times before, but fuck dude, I still guessed the year and I was still right.  A guy knows when he is good.

This is basically a bump and a recognition that, although it has been said many times, I'm going to be going slower, and the blog may end.  We will see, but I am dating and busy, and I got no time for movies, let alone writing about them.  I always have the want to, but sometimes life takes over, eh?

The Man with the Golden Gun was the introduction of Roger Moore to the role of James Bond, and if you are a Bond guy I will recommend the documentary about George Lazenby on Hulu.  Despite it trying to be funny, it's overall pretty good still and worth seeing.  He seems like he had a pretty damn idyllic life.

Christopher Lee is Scaramanga, a man with a third nipple (!) that is evil and Bond has to get to.  He does this with his usual Bond-isms, that is seducing women, somehow defeating highly trained kung-fu artists, and the like.  This one ranks high on the list of absurd Bond tropes, including a part where he is inches away from Herve Villachez as Micmac killing him.  "Not here" yells the boss.  Guys, just fucking kill him will ya?

The Bond series is a strange one, and as I was explaining to my new gf, the thing I love the most about it is the time stamp that they all have on them, showing something about the time they were made.  This one is borrowing heavily from the popularization of kung fu, it has excellent set pieces in Thailand and such, and even uses a partially sunken boat as a set.  Super, super cool.

I didn't pay the strictest attention, but it's Bond, and it's always a fun time.  3.5 stars.

Bad Lieutenant - 1992

 When Harvey Keitel appeared naked in this movie I remembered, way back in the corner of my mind somewhere, that this movie was on my ongoing list of "disturbing movies" I wanted to watch somewhere about age 11-23.

I dunno man. I was disturbed and enraged and I wanted movies that supported my bleak view and showed our immoral world. I never saw Bad Lieutenant, and forgot about it after I got married and was arguably "happy".

I actually just watched Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, and it inspired me to watch this. Port of Call is thematically similar in that it's about a corrupt cop who does drugs, and this is too. I guess that's why the same name?  Bad call in my opinion, and how was there not a lawsuit?  Yes, they are different enough especially at the end of the movie, but these really are basically for all intents and purposes the same film.

This movie starts with Keitel snorting coke after dropping a kid off, and it goes from there. He's thoroughly corrupt, he doesn't appear to give a shit when a nun is raped with a crucifix, he makes two pretty teen girls get him off when they have a busted taillight. 

This movie is all sorts of "off the rocker" and it epitomizes the pretty small genre of "bad cop" movies. They didn't really make too many of these did they? And the genre is kinda gone. I wonder why?

In the end, Bad Lieutenant makes no statements about anything that happens. It's not out to make a point, though Keitel does solve the nun rape and prove himself half decent. The movie ends as it began: bleak, and we're left to meditate on the meaning.

I didn't love this, but I didn't hate it. It's well acted, it's dark, and it's different. Thoroughly unlikable heroes are not seen enough. It was an interacting foray. I'll give it 3.5 stars.

The Decameron - 1971

 I will admit to you that I had only seen Salo the 150 Days of Sodom before this as my sole knowledge of Pier Paolo Pasolini.  Now I've seen two!

The Decameron is a erotic early 70's Italian film based on some ancient writings, in this case by Giovanni Boccaccio.  The original Decameron is a collection of 100 stories which people are telling each other, spanning subjects from love and lust to life and death.  The Decameron film collects 10 of these and puts them here, loosely ensembled by theme.

I'm not going to go into plots too much, but basically some are comic and some are sexual, some are plot stories, some are pointless little exploits.  The stories seem to have no real connection besides a lot of them, maybe most, being sexual in nature.  The film is graphic, with male and female nudity, and showing all manner of inappropriate coupling.  It does not do this in a overtly sexual manner though, usually playing the sex as comedic or lighthearted, and having no ill effect usually.

Perhaps this attitude of the film is what would make one call it uniquely European, and moreso uniquely 70's European.  The film faced much censorship and clashed immediately with the sensibility of most, but given that, it made great waves and remains a cult film, especially given the other thematic tones and filmmaking flourishes present.

There is a dreamy quality, one I like in film a lot, to this.  It drifts listlessly, lazily from one story to another, and clumsily cuts things short, overextends others.  It doesn't feel at all scripted, or even like a movie.  It feels like a slice of life, warm and cozy.  It feels like a memory.  The characters are all us, they're all us when we were young, in our late teens, having sex and falling in love, spending lazy summer days drinking wine and frolicking about the rolling green countryside.

Nothing in this film has true consequences, and they're all shown without moral lessons.  These are snapshots, told to us by the person who lived them, likely with a wry smile and a warm wink.  They are told to us when we are kids, wanting to understand what exactly "life" is.  

You may have to be in the right mood to fully appreciate it, and it's a little long because of the looseness, but it truly is beautiful in many ways.  I give it 4 stars.

Arcade - 1993

 I'm sorta kinda watching Arcade in the background while I work. Someone's got to. 

This is a dumb ol' piece o' crap evil video game. Alex and her friends are into games, and evil John DeLancie introduces them to "the next level" of gaming. Fully cgi, artificial intelligence games are next you see, and they're killing kids...

This movie is so much a product of its time. It's got a big shit eating grin and it wallows in its own filth. 

The movie stars Seth Green (my phone defaulted to Serf Green, which is funny) and Peter Billingsley. It's a fun dumb romp of campy fun from D grade auteur Charles Band's production company. 

I kinda liked it, I give it a 3.