Bloody Friday - 1972 - Germany

Bloody Friday - 1972 - 6/10
AKA - Blutiger Freitag

 
The duo spring Heinz just before his sentencing.
Do they run?  Hide out?  No, they start planning another caper.
First they need guns, however.  Machine guns.
The bank heist is just the pretext for a high stakes ransom siege.
Euro-Crime has a mind-bending sequence intercutting the slaughter house with sopping carnality.
Foul language galore, sex scenes, blood and bullets.

Dark Harbor - 1998 - USA

Dark Harbor - 1998 - 6/10

Bickering couple, late for the ferry, heavy downpour.
Yet somehow they see something in a ditch.  A body!
Rather than keep driving and notify authorities later, they stop and investigate.
And before you can say, “I don’t think this is a smart idea” they bring the young male to their country home on their private island.

 
Slow thriller mixes ménage à trois with role-playing and gamesmanship.
Not exactly a mystery, this feels like a chamber play.

Burning Ambition - 1989 - Hong Kong

Burning Ambition - 1989 - 6/10
AKA - Lung Ji Zheng Ba  //  龙之争霸

The family boss is moving to Canada.  He announces Number Two son will take over.
The skirt chasing oldest son feels slighted and the boss is soon assassinated.  War erupts.
Throw in the dead chief’s brother, and ex-wife.
Mercenaries from Manhattan, as well as the family branch from Holland.

 
One watches this Frankie Chan actioner for imaginative fights.
Brawlings and shootouts must comprise 50% of the run time.
Memorable one-on-ones in an amusement park.
Storywise … mmm … yeah.
Another small gem from Hong Kong’s heyday.

Cocaine - 1922 - UK

Cocaine - 1922 - 5/10

As ever was, if one climbs high enough into the cocaine distribution web, one finds Number One to be a man of wealth and prominence.
With an increasingly reckless daughter, who requires a steady hand to tame her.
Oh!  Number Two, an oily sort, wants her.  Good enough.

 
Preachy melodrama with Jazz dancing and the temptations of moral turpitude.
The image I saw was pretty fair, the intertitles battered and too brief.
Most versions, you will have to provide your own musical score.

Copenhagen Cowboy - 2022 - Denmark

Copenhagen Cowboy - 2022 - 6/10

 
Three unconnected stories of Miu drifting through the Danish underworld.
At one point, Miu is referred to as a “lucky coin”.
Like the coin, she shows two sides.  Good luck or misfortune.
Fans of Nicolas Winding Refn (I’m grudgingly one) will declare this awash in style.
Detractors (on the fence here) will argue Refn is mired in stall.
Lengthy takes serve to permit viewers to feast on visuals, as well as act as padding the time.
Refn’s eye, which to me most resembles Cattet & Forzani, is his strength.
His storytelling, or lack of, is his prime weakness,
Stunning scenes aside, this offers neither substance nor emotional involvement.
The conclusion of the sixth episode seems to point toward Fantasy Island territory, which holds no interest for me.
Not that it matters.  Refn has unwisely aligned with NetFlix.
In patience and foresight, the cable behemoth rivals King Joffrey, who would axe this series.

Navalny - 2022 - USA

Navalny - 2022 - 7/10

 
Alexei Navalny, political rival and thorn in Vladimir Putin’s side.
Until he suffered an assassination attempt in Siberia.
Fortunately, his wife arranged emergency transport to Germany where Novichok poison was treated.
Unfortunately, once well, he returned to Russia, was seized, is currently in solitary confinement in Melekhovo.
Petitions, marches, polite discontent = big, fat fail.
Watching this reinforced my suspicion that the vast majority of humanity will revert to its historic rank within a generation.  Two at most.  The servant, subject, worker, prole, serf, slave.
Again and again and again, nations and citizens empower the “strongman”: who promises to solve their problems.
More often than not, the solution becomes king, chairman, emperor, czar, generalissimo, dictator, tyrant.
Once in place, they gerrymander the rules, making removal impossible.
The sharpest way to topple the corrupt regime is the spilling of blood.
Afterward, we swear “Never again” over the graves of millions.  Until we forget.
“Whatever has happened, will happen again; whatever has been done, will be done again.”  Ecclesiastes.

Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind - 2002 - USA

Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind - 2002 - 6/10

 
Shaggy biopic based on the memoirs of Chuck Barris.
Who?  Therein lies a wee problem.  One should be a certain age to remember Barris.
Host of TV’s “Gong Show”, creator of “The Dating Game”, producer of “The Newlywed Game.”
Also … according to his autobiography … during this time, he worked as a CIA assassin.
This film plays those claims kinda straight, kinda tongue-in-cheek.
Nevertheless, this ridiculous film has a smart performance by Sam Rockwell, and boasts an incredible supporting cast (George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Rutger Hauer, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon!).
View as a goofy spoof (not as someone who believes everything they see).

Kama Sutra: A Tale Of Love - 1996 - India

Kama Sutra: A Tale Of Love - 1996 - 6/10

Fabulous looking, if empty-headed melodrama of childhood friends, Tara and Maya.
Adults, Tara marries the prince, who, bored with her boudoir limitations, begins an affair with Maya.

 
Also lusting after Maya is the prince’s hunchbacked, dwarf brother.
Meanwhile, Maya initiates her own affair with a handsome, muscular sculptor.
Ravishing scenery is a joy for armchair travelers.
Otherwise, steamy story of jealousy, revenge, comeuppance.

The Clue - 2016 - USA

The Clue - 2016 - 6/10

 
For Noa, dull days flow listlessly by.
Until one morning, scrawled on her mirror is “Come on an adventure.”
I don’t know about you, but I’d freak over an intruder.
Instead, she follows a pattern of clues.  Her adventure.
Contrived mystery short defies logic and requires immense suspension of disbelief.

Living - 2022 - UK

Living - 2022 - 6/10

 
Mr. Williams heads a faceless bureaucratic nook, Public Works.
Paper shufflers.  Where public projects linger a dusty death.
Given a terminal diagnosis, Williams has a small, very small, awakening.
Too little, too late.  Life, indeed living, experiencing, has atrophied.
Low powered film is mannered almost to the point of being stilted.
Williams, an empty soul, merits pity more than sympathy.
As far as the overall message, take it to heart, younglings.  It is later than you think.

Die Screaming Marianne - 1971 - UK

Die Screaming Marianne - 1971 - 6/10

 
Sisters, not always the warmest relationship.
Half-sisters?  And where money is involved?  A lot of money?
Marianne has been pursued across Spain and France, and into London.
A quickie marriage is attempted, except she registers the best man as her mate.
Curious mystery filled with liars, sociopaths, shadowy types, and innocents.
Sun washed Portugal acts to blind viewers to the dark, murderous undercurrents.

The Assailant - 2022 - UK

The Assailant - 2022 - 6/10

 
“Here.  You dropped your wallet, I wanted to return it.”
“Thanks, we thought you were going to kill us.”
“Oh, no.  Eventually yes, though.”
Michael (a harrowing Casper van Dien) has a thing about impolite behavior.
He does give bad souls three chances to apologize.
But how few people actually apologize in this world?
Completely, utterly unbelievable married couple mar this Most Dangerous Game remake.
Watch for Dien, period.

Japanese Summer Double Suicide - 1967 - Japan

Japanese Summer Double Suicide - 1967 - 6/10
AKA - Muri shinjû: Nihon no natsu  //  無理心中　日本の夏

 

During Japan’s violent summer, a sex hungry girl latches onto a suicidal man.
They accidentally wind up at a Yakuza meeting place and are forced to remain.
The men wait for weapons, as a conflict with rival gangs is imminent.
Add a young male, obsessed with guns and bent on killing as many people as possible.
Symbolic of the “youth crisis” in Japan.
And, a Westerner, a sniper, eluding police and shooting at random.
A slow film, saturated in various death wishes.
Also of a specific time, which is passed, largely forgotten, so outside events seem incomprehensible.