Movie Review

  • Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse [The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse] (1960)

    Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse [The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse] (1960)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, August 2020) The only thing more amazing about Dr. Mabuse getting a second sequel nearly forty years after the first film is that the same director, the legendary Fritz Lang, was around to helm it. Updating the Mabuse mythos to the Cold War era (all the while following the previous two films), The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse is a satisfying follow-up: Mabuse seems more credible than in his silent film debut, and the action does end up updating the car chase of the second instalment to then-contemporary standards. I found it surprisingly interesting, and a further link between the original Mabuse and the supervillain archetype that became more popular in films during the 1960s. I don’t completely like it (some of the plotting is just ridiculous) and it can’t hope to touch the original in terms of historical importance, but The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse is probably the easiest one to watch these days. That it happened to be Lang’s final film rather puts a full-circle bow on his career.

  • It Came from Outer Space (1953)

    It Came from Outer Space (1953)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2020) The title of It Came from Outer Space is now the stuff of easy clichés and a cheap summation of most 1950s monster science fiction movies. But imagine my surprise when the actual film ends up significantly more thoughtful and less paranoid than the usual examples of the form. Contrarily to other monster films of the time (and there are quite a few similarities between this film and Invasion of the Body Snatchers), the alien turns out to be largely benign, and more interested in repairing its ship than eating humans. The hero is the one who first figures it out and fights for the humans to leave the aliens alone – the conclusion is surprisingly humanistic by the era’s standards, albeit not surprisingly so when you learn that Ray Bradbury wrote the original treatment at the origin of the movie.  Friendly alien stories are now about as commonplace as killer-alien ones, but this was a real revelation at the time, and it does offer a counterbalance to most other well-known 1950s science fiction films. It’s also fascinating that the title of the film (much like the contemporary Them!, far more intelligent than similar films) has been appropriated to represent films that are almost entirely opposed to the lessons of this one. On a technical level, the cinematography is clever (including the use of fisheye camera lenses to represent the alien’s viewpoint), and both Richard Carlson and Barbara Rush make for credible protagonists. Holding up much better than many of its contemporaries, It Came from Outer Space emerges as close to being an essential 1950s science-fiction film.

  • Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

    Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2020) Some experiences transcend time and space, and so the premise described by Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House carries through the decades all the way to now. While I haven’t had the experience of contracting the building of a new house, I have enough experience with major renovations to sympathize with the lead character as he engineers his family’s move from a cramped Manhattan apartment to a Connecticut country estate… which has to be torn down and built anew. Cary Grant is perfect for the demands of the role: he can go from patrician to bewildered in the same scene, not to mention a climactic scene of righteous indignation at the accumulated costs of his new house. Numerous comic sketches pepper the rather simple narrative – obviously, this is a film meant to put one comic set-piece after another, and gradually crank the pressure on the protagonist until he cracks. Grant does get a few capable actors to play with: Myrna Loy makes for a very reasonable wife (except for her flower sink, whatever that is), while Melvyn Douglas brings the snark into the movie as a sarcastic friend/lawyer trying to keep the protagonist out of trouble, only to fall into the same madness from time to time. The picture of dealing with contractors is still hilariously accurate, although a jealousy subplot seems to fit badly. While the film is a comic success, modern audiences may find less to laugh about in a few scenes: There’s a tone-deaf breakfast table discussion in which the children talk about their progressive ideals, for instance… while a black maid works behind them. Later on, that same black maid provides a creative spark that the lead character desperately needs to keep his new house – and while the film acknowledges her contribution by giving her a whole ten-dollar raise, it does leave a less-than-ideal impression. Oh well – this is a film from the late 1940s, after all. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is about as funny as its titles suggest – it got quite a few honest laughs from me, and not all of the film’s success can be attributed to Grant as the headliner.

  • Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

    Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, August 2020) These have been some very disappointing adaptations of Jules Verne novels in the 1950s-1960s, but Journey to the Centre of the Earth is not one of them… even if it’s often not really faithful at all. A special-effects spectacle, the film spends far too much time on its first act, laboriously setting up plot elements that could have been handled far more snappily. Fortunately, the fun begins once the characters head deep under the Earth, and start encountering a series of special effects showcases, from geodes to gigantic creatures to table-size mushrooms to a volcano about to explode. It’s easy to like a film that features both the distinctive voice of James Mason and the luscious red curls of Arlene Dahl. Deservedly shot in widescreen colour, Journey to the Center of the Earth was meant as a special-effects powerhouse and feels like it: It won the 1959 Visual Effects Academy Award, and lavishly spends time showing off. Those special effects may look a bit ridiculous now, but the still get the message across. As a lighthearted adventure, it ends rather happily with our group of explorers returning to share their tales. Much of what’s in the film is a pumped-up version of the original novel – with added romance, murder and thrills. But the spirit of Verne’s novel, with its cheerful exploration and return to civilization, is completely intact… and that makes all the difference.

  • La cage aux folles (1978)

    La cage aux folles (1978)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Second or third or fourth viewing, On Cable TV, August 2020) I came to La cage aux folles from a very strange vantage point: I distinctly remember watching this film a few times on French-Canadian TV as a kid, but my most recent memories are those of its Americanized remake The Birdcage. Comparing this film to its own remake may be a faux-pas, but it may not be as bad as you’d think given that the original definitely holds up. Perhaps my biggest surprise is how faithful the remake is to the original: Most of the story beats are common to both movies, and almost all of the characters are there in both movies as well. What the French original doesn’t have for viewers such as myself is the weight of the actor’s persona — Michel Serrault is terrific as an over-dramatic drag queen, but his presence doesn’t have the additional context of seeing Nathan Lane in the same role. It does, in many ways, make the La cage aux folles purer: you’re evaluating it on its own merits rather than through its star-power. Fortunately, its merits are considerable. Amazingly enough for a film from the late 1970s, the treatment of its homosexual characters may be comic and caricatural, but it remains remarkably respectful. The comic sequences are funny, and the internal workings of the plot engine are solid. It’s a strong comedy, playing with different characters, some of them flamboyant and others not so much. The actors deliver the material with confidence, and the complications and lies get crazier and crazier until the only way out is the truth. It speaks well to La cage aux folles that its 1996 remake wasn’t substantially different… even though we may wonder if the same film could be made today.

  • CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion (2018)

    CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2020) The first step in activism is awareness, and CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion certainly presents an impressive overview of Hollywood’s attempts at inclusiveness for differently abled characters and actors. It’s a longer history than you’d expect – Hollywood has often featured characters with various disabilities, but as the film points out, their portrayal has often been problematic – either as freaks or people to pity, often in Oscar-winning performances. Throughout its historical overview, CinemAbility tries to untangle the issues revolving around its topic – should able-bodied actors be selected over actors with specific disabilities? At its best, CinemAbility is able to feature contradictory points of view on the same topics. A very generous helping of celebrity and expert interviews pepper the documentary, discussing their own involvement in the topic and related issues. Still, those celebrity interviews often distract: they often are, after all, able-bodied actors talking about conditions that they have, at best, imitated. But then again– starpower is starpower, especially in attracting people to see the film. But even without those celebrity interviews, CinemAbility would stand as the definitive documentary on its topic – entertaining, detailed, erudite when it needs to be and easy to watch the rest of the time. Writer-director Jenni Gold has worked for years to bring the documentary to the finish line and the result was certainly worth it.

  • Larry Crowne (2011)

    Larry Crowne (2011)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, August 2020) It’s interesting that Larry Crowne came and went with nearly no lasting impact – after all, it’s a Tom Hanks movie: he produced, co-wrote, directed and starred in it, clearly making this film his by any measure. It’s not a large-scale film: it revolves around a middle-aged man struggling to find meaning to his life after becoming unemployed. He can’t find a job, can’t make his house payments, and even his SUV is too expensive to run. The natural solution is to enroll to community college, make better financial choices and start riding a scooter to school. As we know, college is an opportunity to meet new people and change your life, meaning that he gets the attention of a free-spirited student and his burnt-out public speech teacher. Subplots include him using the teaching of his economics course (led by a self-absorbed professor hilariously played by George Takei) to straighten his situation and let go of the past. Larry Crowne’s biggest assets are its considerable charm and a terrific ensemble cast led by Hanks himself (in his everyman persona) and Julia Roberts as a dangerously disillusioned teacher at the end of her rope and her marriage. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is a ray of sunshine as a kind of character that could only exist in a movie, but does brighten up the entire film. Other familiar names, sometimes in very small roles, include Pam Grier, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Bryan Cranston and Rami Malek. The plot definitely has issues, and a credible argument could be made that the last thing we need is another film about a white male mid-life crisis. But Larry Crowne is almost ridiculously easy to watch – it has that immaterial “pleasure to watch” quality that simply keeps us smiling until the end. The romantic plot seems far-fetched (aren’t rebound relationships a bad thing?) and the interest that the younger characters take in the protagonist smacks of fantasy, but everyone is just so likable that it doesn’t matter much. It all amounts to a film that works preposterously well, but may not have the hook required to make a bigger impression. On a purely directorial level, Hanks meets his objectives here – there are clearly similarities with his earlier That Thing You Do! in terms of easy watchability, even though his craft may not be as apparent on a modern piece as opposed to a period one focused on music. Still, I can’t help but feel that its poor box office and general absence in film conversations means that Larry Crowne remains unfairly overlooked by everyone.

  • Scaramouche (1952)

    Scaramouche (1952)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2020) Hey, let’s head back to royal France for some good old-fashioned land-bound swashbuckling! Scaramouche is the kind of expansive epic film that Hollywood was able to execute so well in the early 1950s. Filmed in bright colours, it adapts classic literature into an adventure meant for the big screen. Our hero is a young man ably played by the square-jawed Stewart Granger, who finds himself tempted by two women (the gorgeous red-headed Eleanor Parker, and the no less good-looking Janet Leigh) as he makes an enemy of an aristocratic master swordsman (deliciously played by Mel Ferrer). Realizing that he doesn’t stand a chance in combat, he goes hiding in a theatre troupe, hoping to sharpen his sword-fighting skills until he can confront his nemesis. The emphasis on the theatrical performance of comedia del arte allows Scaramouche to have some intentionally comic interludes in-between the bouts of action and swordplay, but don’t worry: it ends with a magnificent eight-minute sword-fight that goes all around and behind a theatre, blending all of the clichés of Hollywood fencing in a rather delightful package. It’s all quite charming, and an almost pitch-perfect of the kind of Hollywood was churning out on an assembly line at some point. It’s far less leadened than many other historical movies, and Parker is a sight to see while waiting for the climactic sword-fight. The far-fetched plot elements are insane, but completely in keeping with Scaramouche’s slightly feverish pace and attitude.

  • Les misérables (2019)

    Les misérables (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2020) Centuries after Victor Hugo wrote (and partially set) Les misérables in the Paris suburb of Montfermeil, there is still plenty of misery to go around the area. Dominated by low-income immigrant families, it feels like a powder keg about to explode from the very first moments of this contemporary take on Les misérables. As the story focuses on a new policeman aghast at the casual abuse of power from his colleagues, and then the young men often targeted by police action, we viewers start dreading the inevitable violence that is sure to follow. It starts with what could be a comical incident in another context: proprietors of a travelling circus complaining that a baby lion has been stolen by local youth. The cops take on the case, but by this time we’ve been familiarized with how things really run in the area, what with overlapping circles of authority from police, the city, an informal “mayor,” criminals and youth gangs. As a young man plays around with his new drone, the theft of the lion club keeps escalating – and when the apprehension of the young thief goes badly and leaves the teen unconscious with a slashed face, the cops realize that everything they’ve done has been recorded. There is a nice pause in the action at the beginning of the third act that can lull us into thinking that everything is going to be all right, but that’s not when Les misérables is going: by the time the film concludes with a crescendo of urban violence, we know why and how everyone is involved, and the valid grievances of everyone. I don’t particularly like the ending, which seems indecisive rather than provocative – but the ramping up to that point is very well handled. The capable technical execution of writer-director Ladj Ly gives considerable credibility (and menace) to the scenes of urban unrest, and the last few minutes are a complete nightmare of being stuck in the middle of a small riot. Alexis Manenti gets the flashy role as the impulsive, abusive policeman, even though Damien Bonnard is the nominal protagonist and audience stand-in. The story is messy (like the neighbourhood) and not quite satisfyingly resolved, but the result is gripping and surprisingly even-handed in its depiction of all actors involved. It’s a strong representation of contemporary France that does not reflect all that well on how they got there – it’s not by accident if the 2005 Paris riots are explicitly mentioned.

  • Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

    Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, August 2020) Paul Kelso is back once more… to kill and kill again. While the opening (a dream sequence in which Kelso easily guns down a few stereotypical rapists only to see himself killed) does seem promising in exploring the moral consequences of being a vigilante, the rest of Death Wish 4: The Crackdown soon dispenses with the fiction of depth, and goes gunning hard. This time, the excuse is drugs. Tons of drugs, flowing around Los Angeles and killing (because you need a victim) the daughter of Kelso’s current paramour. It doesn’t take much more than that to send Kelso shooting through the Los Angeles underworld once more, mowing down mooks on the trail of the big mob boss. Architect by day and bloodthirsty murderer by night, Kelso has to face corrupt cops and deliver lame quips along the way to fulfill the requirement of this Cannon production. I obviously wasn’t intending to enjoy the film when I sat down to watch it – I was doing more or less out of completionism obsession, having seen four of the five instalments and having number 4 right there on the DVR. I did have a moderate amount of fun questioning the perspective of Kelsey being a complete psychopath within a movie trying to excuse his actions, but that’s not a whole lot. Much of Death Wish 4’s execution is bland and unremarkable, erring on the side of a low budget and simply moving pieces until it’s time for the next shootout. Charles Bronson looks old and tired here, clearly getting a paycheque but not much artistic fulfillment from going through the same motions with even less justification. The ending is mean-spirited enough to justify having the protagonist put a rocket through the villain, providing at least one highlight for the film. In retrospect, Death Wish 4 does make the craziness of the third instalment feel even more enjoyable: this fourth film has nothing more than a few preachy clichés to say about the scourge of drugs as window-dressing to some righteous serial killing for the protagonist.

  • City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold (1994)

    City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold (1994)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, August 2020) Whatever made the success of City Slickers is certainly revisited in its sequel… except mechanically and in diluted fashion. It’s not a real surprise to see Jack Palance come back to join Billy Crystal and Daniel Stern once again as they head out west. While the first film had all the clichés (or rather: familiar elements) of a cattle drive, City Slickers II goes for the clichés (or rather: familiar elements) of a treasure hunt. It works all the way to an upbeat conclusion, but there are quite a few plot cheats along the way, from a final revelation about this being a manufactured reality that is belied by previous events, and then another backflip in order to provide the kind of feel-good conclusion that its earlier twist prevented. Eh, whatever: once again, the real fun is in seeing Crystal and friends match squints with Palance and the indignities of the wild west so far away from the urban canyons of Manhattan. Palance himself has the panache of a veteran movie star, while Crystal is up to his usual standards. City Slickers II is indeed a slickly made film with a big-enough budget to shoot visually interesting scenes out in the far west, but it does mechanically move through its unconvincing plot and doesn’t have much to go in terms of having the characters develop their relationship – the best it can do is welcome a third partner played by Jon Lovitz, who doesn’t turn out to be quite annoying as first feared. That’s not a lot, although if you just want a few chuckles against a western backdrop, City Slickers II is not that painful of an experience.

  • Hardware (1990)

    Hardware (1990)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, August 2020) We all have our own list of movies to see, gathered over the years and passing interests along the way. I must have had Hardware on my own notional backlog since the early-1990s, as it was (at the time) one of the movies that most exemplified the nascent early-Internet cyberpunk style. (If this is incomprehensible to you, well, you weren’t reading the message boards at the time.) It took twenty-five years of not-so-assiduous searching, but I finally saw it. I can’t say that Hardware was worth the wait, but no matter – at least I’ve seen it now. Part of the problem is that there have been better movies on similar topics since then – whatever imaginative quality that the film may have had in the early 1990s has been outstripped several times over. What we’re left with is a woman-stalked-by-a-killer-robot story that’s strongly reminiscent of an entire subgenre. Writer-director Richard Stanley relies a bit too much on dated music video aesthetics, but it does help hide the relatively low budget of the production. At least Hardware does have the saving grace, underneath the CRT computer graphics and trash mechanical aesthetics, of competent execution. There are a few twists and turns in the story and while much of the film is bathed in darkness, the climax is set in a brightly lit shower that allows the robot design to shine. While the result isn’t particularly good by today’s standards, I can see what captured the imagination of my fellow cyber-geeks back then – it’s about as early-1990s cyberpunk dystopia as it gets, and that wasn’t quite the norm at the time, even if it has become somewhat of a cliché since then.

  • Patterns (1956)

    Patterns (1956)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, August 2020) I really wasn’t expecting, as I sat down to watch Patterns, to have such a shining illustration of how things have not changed in business between the mid-1950s and now. Redress the sets, change a few technical details with Internet mumbo-jumbo, and this tale of corporate office intrigue would fit right in 2020. Van Heflin stars as a young executive brought to headquarters after performing brilliantly in a satellite office. His mentor is a high-level executive whose hard-nosed attitudes run against his second-in-command’s desire to reconcile business with humanity. Torn between two influential superiors, the protagonist illustrates the constant tug-of-war between those two contrasting attitudes, with the prize being membership in the Manhattan business community. As I said – Timeless themes, bolstered by a no-nonsense execution by director Fielder Cook, working from a screenplay by the legendary Rod Serling. There’s some interesting examination and cross-examination of business ethics here, somewhat undermined by the eventual epiphany that the only people out of the rat race are the dead. Nonetheless, the script does have a compelling moment-by-moment rhythm to it, and it climaxes in a fantastic (if not entirely realistic) confrontation between the protagonist and his former mentor. We think that the world has changed, especially in offices, but the surprising timelessness of Patterns belies the claim.

  • The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

    The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2020) There’s a bizarre mixture of elements in The Midnight Meat Train that entertains as much as it frustrates. At first, we may or may not be in psychological thriller territory as a Manhattan photographer (Bradley Cooper, in a pre-stardom role) takes pictures of people who then die or disappear in the subway. Is he to blame? The police seem to think he’s a person of interest, even as we’re shown the violent actions of a butcher (Vinnie Jones, suitably menacing) who seems to be using a subway car as his own abattoir. Fantasy or delusion? The excessively gory nature of the story is in-keeping with the origins of the script in a splatterpunk Clive Barker story, even if it certainly should have been toned down. The mystery as to whether this is happening or not is resolved in the last fifteen minutes of the film with a plot development so extreme that you’re allowed a few minutes (in the form of a meaningless fight) to digest it. It’s certainly… out there. Whether it works is to be debated, as the film takes a hard-supernatural turn that the beginning of the film may not have properly foreshadowed. Still, it does transform The Midnight Meat Train from a routine psychological thriller(ish) to something far more interesting to discuss.

  • Fubar II (2010)

    Fubar II (2010)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2020) From 2003 to 2013, the Canadian Dream was quite specifically located in Fort MacMurray, Alberta. That’s where the oil patch boom led to the creation of tens of thousands of well-paid jobs with few educational requirements. People moved across the country to sign up for oil crews, and quickly made more money than they knew what to do with (well, except to buy a big pickup truck). The bust followed the boom, but it’s amusing to see Fubar II make good of the craziness that was going on at the time. As we rejoin our likable metalhead loser protagonists from the first Fubar, it’s clear that they could use a bit of money. So, when a friend talks to them about the Eldorado up north, they pick up everything (which isn’t much) and leave, quickly finding good jobs. But they’re clearly not as good as the jobs, and before long one of them is actively looking at workers’ compensation through self-injury while the other hooks up with a woman who has apparently slept with half of the cast. No, the Fubar protagonists aren’t going to cover themselves in glory in this new adventure, and that’s more or less the point of it. Fortunately, even the handheld camera work puts us in Fort MacMurray during the big boom, and if you like the characters, then you’ll enjoy the slightly bigger budget and slightly stronger plot that goes along with this new instalment.