Reviews

  • The Big Store (1941)

    The Big Store (1941)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2020) Nearly every Marx Brothers film is worth a few laughs, but there are still clearly superior Marx films and then the others. While The Big Store is not one of their worst, it doesn’t rank as a particularly good one. Made during their MGM years, it features three of the brothers wreaking havoc in and on a department store, as Groucho plays a detective asked to uncover a plot against the owners. Everyone plays their part, including Margaret Dumont as the rich older lady pursued by a gold-digging Groucho. As usual for Marx films of the period, the plot serves as a way to hang the sketches, and to provide a break from the comedy with easily skippable musical numbers that borrow a lot from operettas and feature the featureless Tony Martin and Virginia Grey.  (Virginia O’Brien, as usual, is more distinctive with a monotone take on a lullaby.) Harpo plays the harp, Chico does his wiseguy and Groucho plays with words. For fans, the two standout sequences of the film are a demonstration of increasingly wilder beds popping out of the walls, and a final chase through the entire store that finely upholds the Marx Brothers’s tradition of visually anarchic movie climaxes. As with all of their movies, it’s worth a look and possibly a box-set purchase. But it’s not one of their best, and the MGM structure clearly differentiates between the fun scenes and the dull ones in between.

  • Camille (1936)

    Camille (1936)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2020) Firmly steeped in the tradition of 1930s romantic period melodramas, Camille never hesitates to go with the big dramatic guns—no subtlety is allowed here, and the ending milks everything out of its depressing nature. The main draw here is Greta Garbo as a 19th century Parisian belle, draped in the best costumes that Hollywood could muster at the time. She is, as is de rigueur for such heroines, both afflicted with a deadly disease and torn between two men. Adapted from Alexandre Dumas’s La Dame aux camélias (itself inspired by Dumas’ own courtship), the rest of the plot plays exactly as you would expect an old-school romantic tragedy to go. Lavishly produced, Camille still has a few things worth crowing about—the great sets, terrific costumes and a completely humourless Garbo in one of her most memorable performances being what anyone will remember from the film. It is, obviously, not for everyone—as an old-fashioned weepie, it almost plays to clichés all the way through. But it’s not exactly a painful film to watch, and it does help round out George Cukor’s early filmography.

  • Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988)

    Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, November 2020) Chuck Norris once again heads over to south-eastern Asia in order to free up American PoWs in Braddock: Missing in Action III. As is often the case for third sequels of 1980s movies, the level of quality takes a nosedive here, although the opening sequence recreating the fall of the American Embassy in Hanoi is executed with decent production values. The big plot element of this third entry is giving a wife and child to the protagonist as a way to motivate him to head back in the country for more mayhem. It ends on a bridge between the two countries, something that would be echoed in many other later movies. Norris is equal to himself here, meaning that the beard goes hand in hand with the stoic attitude and not too much emotion in dealing with a long-lost wife and resentful son. You might as well watch the film if you’ve purchased the box set, if your streaming provider has it or if your TV channel somehow thinks a marathon of all three films is justified—it’s not that bad. But Braddock: Missing in Action III is really not worth tracking down for anyone but the most dedicated of Norris fans.

  • Targets (1968)

    Targets (1968)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2020) Aside from the content of the film itself, there’s a wistful quality in Targets that comes from seeing the beginning of a career and the end of another—this being Peter Bogdanovich’s first film, and Boris Karloff’s last starring role. The production history of the film has its quirks—it came from Roger Corman being owed two days of work by Karloff, and instructing then-young writer-director Bogdanovich to make a low-budget movie around this constraint. Taking advantage of the social turmoil of the time, Bogdanovich ended up building a clever twin-strand plot featuring an aging horror film actor and a young Vietnam veteran going on a murderous rampage. The intention is obviously to confront old horror and new monsters, and the ending does finally bring everything together. Targets can feel surprisingly modern at times—the idea of a random person just shooting people off the highway still unnerves, and the gritty handheld style of the film does echo far newer films. The result is worth a look, although it can feel like a drag at times—by shooting around Karloff’s schedule, Bogdanovich was inspired by creative constraints but wasn’t quite able to tie everything up in a completely seamless way. Still, Targets makes an interesting argument at the dawn of New Hollywood, and benefits from having an old-school star in the lead role.

  • Shall We Dance (2004)

    Shall We Dance (2004)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, November 2020) I haven’t seen the Japanese film on which Shall We Dance is based, but the American remake is, in a word, charming. It’s about a married man who starts attending dance classes in an effort to escape his increasingly boring life. The wife soon suspects something, and ends up hiring a private detective who’s amused to find out that the truth is not about adultery. There are additional shenanigans thanks to the other dancers, and a competition that consumes much of the third act, but the film is really about dancing in a way that has grown increasingly rare since the end of the golden era of musical comedies. (Fittingly, there’s a shout-out to The Band Wagon.) Richard Gere is quite likable in the lead, helped along with supporting performances from a motley crew of Susan Sarandon, a superb Jennifer Lopez, Bobby Cannavale and Richard Jenkins, with an unusually good turn from Nick Cannon in a supporting role and a very enjoyable performance from Stanley Tucci. I liked the unusual romantic angle of the film, with the main character interested but not exactly pursuing another romantic interest at the dance studio, providing inspiration for the other woman but ultimately returning even more strongly to his wife. The direction is unobtrusive most of the time, although it does let the actors show off some dance movies (including a surprisingly buff Tucci), and ends with a very nicely stylized epilogue. Shall We Dance is not supposed to be particularly deep or meaningful, but it’s pleasant enough to be watchable without effort, and pleasantly harkens back to an earlier tradition of dance movies.

  • New in Town (2009)

    New in Town (2009)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, November 2020) It doesn’t take more than five minutes for New in Town to establish without ambiguity that it fully intends to follow the most obvious of romantic comedy formulas. As a young ambitious urban executive (Renee Zellweger, at the end of her pouty-squinty period) is transplanted from Miami to Minnesota to take over an underperforming manufacturing plan, she meets-cute the union shop steward and falls under the irresistible spell of the local community. You can write the rest of the script yourself, so little surprise does it contain—at one point, you can scream, “show me the tapioca!” and be richly rewarded by a close-up of said tapioca bowl in a fridge. It’s that kind of film. The same film produced ten years later could have gone political, but this one seems content with spouting off feel-good homilies about small towns, the heartwarming nature of tough winters and the evils of hands-on corporate ownership. Zellweger is not bad in the lead role, although Siobhan Fallon Hogan has a plum role here as the voice of the locals, and Harry Connick Jr. plays the love interest with a decent amount of charm. Don’t get your hopes up in hoping for a militant union film, though — this one scrupulously avoids anything beyond the usual bromides of dubious corporate overlords versus hardworking Midwestern folks… and only the strict minimum at that. New in Town wears its adherence to formula as a badge of honour, so it’s not really clever or insightful to point out how predictable it can be—the real fun of the film is in the set-pieces (such as how to survive being stuck in a snowstorm), the atmosphere of a small snowbound town (it was shot near Winnipeg, Canada) and some of the expected plot points. It’s perhaps best seen as cinematic wallpaper—something to put in the background, fit to be picked up ever few minutes as the film plays on a strictly predictable schedule.

  • Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985)

    Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, November 2020) As its production history goes, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning was filmed at the same time as the first film in the series, and was originally intended to be the first of the two films released in theatres. When the sequel ended up becoming a better film than its planned predecessor, it became the first one to be released, followed by this “prequel” that was not intended as such… but ended up aping Rambo: First Blood even more than just being the rumoured inspiration for the story. Of course, we’re far, far away from James Cameron’s Rambo script here, and the film feels like ninety minutes of misery closely following years of captivity for Chuck Norris’s character. Delighting in showing us the atrocities of interment in a Vietnamese POW camp, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning is far more exploitative than educational or inspirational: it’s about seeing the protagonist stoically endure as much suffering as possible (the screaming is done by the supporting characters) before being able to take revenge on the sadistic camp officer and wreaking complete havoc on the camp along the way. It’s not meant to be subtle, and we can clearly see here the “anger” phase of Hollywood’s dealing with the grief of the Vietnam War. This really isn’t the best film on the topic, but it was meant for quick cash rather than posterity. Norris is equal to himself –who was really surprised by the rat-in a-bag scene? Missing in Action 2: The Beginning plays on obvious emotional chords, and the result is about as formulaic as could be imagined. If nothing else, it’s going to satisfy fans of the first film.

  • Rockabye (1932)

    Rockabye (1932)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2020) There’s something just a bit off about Rockabye that I can’t quite grasp—I suspect it’s a mixture of contrived plotting, unconvincing dialogue, outright melodrama, an intentionally frustrating ending and changing social mores during the Pre-Code era. (Reading about the film’s production, it also looks as if the film was significantly re-shot midway through, adding even more chaos into the mix.) Even from the onset, as an actress is separated from the child she wanted to adopt after testifying at an unsavoury trial, the film goes for big emotional beats that don’t quite resonate. The miseries quickly pile up upon our heroine, as nearly nothing goes to plan and the film delights into taking away all of her successes. As a showbiz drama, it features actresses, writers and impresarios in the main roles, breathing in the Broadway scene of the time with gusto. An early leading role for Joel McCrea has him trying to inject some sympathy into a character with some really unlikable moments. The Pre-Code nature of the film is obvious in its depiction of an affair between the heroine and a married man. Constance Bennet is stuck with a tough role and does what she can with it. But Rockabye really isn’t all that compelling—there are many, many moments where the emotional reactions of the leads defy any understanding, or seem unusually muted. I could still find a few nuggets of interest here and there, but there are many better movies in this mould.

  • Land of Doom (1985)

    Land of Doom (1985)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2020) Looking at the way 2020 is unfolding, with people making the worst possible decisions based on crackpot theories and self-harming ideology, there’s an argument to be made that terrible post-apocalyptic movies may be one of the few things dissuading us from willingly triggering said apocalypse. I mean, if life after the big catastrophe is going to be so bland and awful as Land of Doom, we should keep modern civilization going as long as we can. A big dump of familiar clichés, it’s a film with very few ideas and no visible scruples at stealing from other movies. Set in the generic desert, it features a man fighting for honour, justice and the predictable secret oasis of survivors. While, at first, Land of Doom seems to be leaning toward a female protagonist (Deborah Rennard), that idea is eventually abandoned in favour of supporting the male intruder (Garrick Dowhen), who quickly becomes the real main character of the film. Generic battles and plot points quickly follow, never made any more compelling through any kind of originality: It’s all punk gangs throughout. Dialogue is dull, acting is bad, directing is unimpressive, production values trend toward the low-budget end, and everything that the film does brings to mind the much superior Mad Max movies or, for that matter, any random half-dozen post-apocalyptic movies of the time. Hey everyone, let’s take lessons from terrible movies: Let’s make it through the current bad patch and avoid the apocalypse, because I’d hate to live in a full-blown cliché.

  • I guerrieri dell’anno 2072 [The New Gladiators aka Warriors of the Year 2072] (1984)

    I guerrieri dell’anno 2072 [The New Gladiators aka Warriors of the Year 2072] (1984)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2020) While it’s terrible and derivative in almost all aspects of its production, there’s an occasional ambition to parts of The New Gladiators that almost make it worth a look. An Italian film from celebrated shlockmaster Lucio Fulci, it seems happy to regurgitate Rollerball, Deathsport and Death Race 2000 with added dollops of very light cyberpunk elements. The story features a futuristic fatal reality TV show manipulated by its producers to bring in a likable main character (stop me if you’ve heard this before). Clearly written by people without any experience or interest in science fiction, the script blends together conspiracies with super-powerful AIs, and echoes other movies before and after it. (I found unusually strong echoes with 1987’s The Running Man, for instance.) The production values are shoddy, and there isn’t a whole lot of fun to be found anywhere. Occasionally, though, you do get a few rough unpolished ideas—they act as beacons of interest and dissatisfaction, since the film does nothing with them. There are some surprisingly ambitious special effects (the Blade Runner-inspired miniature portraying a futuristic Rome is more interesting than expected, for instance), a few intriguing plot points and an imposing performance from Fred Williamson. But even the most interesting elements aren’t handled with any interest, and the result is almost instantly forgettable.

  • Houseboat (1958)

    Houseboat (1958)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, November 2020) Cary Grant and Sofia Loren. That’s it—that’s the reason to see Houseboat, and I don’t have to add anything more. But for the form: Houseboat is a romantic comedy featuring a newly-widowed government officer (Grant), who ends up with three unfamiliar kids in his small Washington apartment. Looking for relief, he ends up hiring what he thinks is an Italian nanny in need of a job (Loren), without quite understanding that she’s the daughter of a famous musical figure wanting to escape a difficult situation. The remaining key to Houseboat’s plot comes when they decide to get out of Washington for the summer and go live on a houseboat that ends up being far less luxurious than expected. Silver-haired Grant is in fully charming form here as the slightly befuddled dad and romantic interest to two women. The romance is messier than expected—despite the inevitability of the final pairing, I can’t help that the film made the wrong choice along the way. Still, it’s a rather fun film, with the expected doofus-daddy antics, the romantic charm and the often-interesting period depiction of late-1950s Washington, DC. Behind-the-scenes, Houseboat is famous for having been written by and for Grant’s second wife Besty Drake, with a role quickly recast and rewritten for Loren after she started an affair with Grant on the set of another film… an affair that ended before shooting wrapped on Houseboat—the perils of Hollywood dating! It doesn’t make the film any better or worse, although you can detect some remnants of other plans in the sometimes-zig-zagging script. I still liked Houseboat, but it isn’t a first-tier Grant.

  • Jamaica Inn (1939)

    Jamaica Inn (1939)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2020) I like Alfred Hitchcock and I like Charles Laughton, but if my understanding of Jamaica Inn’s troubled production history is correct, the on-screen result is what remains after a spectacular clash of egos. As the story goes, Hitchcock took Daphne Du Maurier’s novel (the first of three adaptations of her stories, followed by Rebecca and The Birds), but had trouble with Laughton-the-producer-and-actor, who wanted to transform a dreary gothic novel into something funnier, more eccentric and not quite some faithful to the original. The result is, for lack of a better word, often weird. The still-unnerving premise (an innocent woman discovering that she’s in the middle of a village of marauders, attracting ships to a treacherous coast where the ships run aground, then, killing the survivors and selling the cargo) runs into a semi-comic performance by Laughton and bizarre touches of humour. The film can’t quite make up its mind about whether it has revelations to tell us, and the ending just gets more and more ludicrous, as the heroine is kidnapped by a lusty villain because… well, there’s no real good explanation, since his plan is untenable from the get-go. This is really not top-tier Hitchcock, and probably not second-tier either—while the film was a commercial success and stands as the last of Hitchcock’s British period before going to Hollywood with Rebecca, it’s weaker than many of Hitchcock’s other 1930s films. Aside from the always-interesting Laughton, special mention should be made of the heroine being played by Maureen O’Hara in one of her early leading roles. The 2014 Cohen Media Group restoration of the film is nothing short of terrific—great image quality and clear sound make this a joy to watch — if it wasn’t for the content!

  • I Married a Witch (1942)

    I Married a Witch (1942)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2020) There are a few wonderful surprises buried in Hollywood film history, and I Married a Witch certainly feels like it. A fun blend of comedy and witchcraft, it features a father-and-daughter pair of sorcerers burnt at the stake in early New England and imprisoned in a tree until the 1940s, when they are freed by a lightning strike and eager to wreak vengeance on the descendants of the man responsible for their immolation. That doesn’t quite sound so much fun (and some of the dialogue from the historical antagonist is downright psychopathic), but I Married a Witch is very much presented as a comedy, and everything is in the execution. The daughter is played by Veronica Lake, and while Lake is extraordinarily beautiful to begin with, she also gets to play her characters with impish humour that adds much to her sex-appeal. Meanwhile, Fredrick March is the straight man of the story, bewildered at all the right moments and indignant at the others—he’s meant to be outshined by Cecil Kellaway as the warlock who’s not held back by anything like romantic love. The modern witchcraft angle is rare in classic Hollywood (feel free to pair it with Bell, Book and Candle fifteen years later), and the special effects are still decently effective. Still, it’s the great mixture of humour, romance and political satire that works much better than anything you may imagine from reading I Married a Witch’s plot summary. Don’t miss it!

  • Torpedo Run (1958)

    Torpedo Run (1958)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2020) As far as submarine movies go, Torpedo Run is slightly more melodramatic than most, harping on revenge through a WW2 submarine captain (Glenn Ford) explicitly gunning for the ship responsible for the death of his wife and children. The audience stand-in is his lieutenant, played by Ernest Borgnine, as he voices the doubts that the audience may be having as to his suitability for a task of such personal gravity. While this element drives Torpedo Run’s plot, much of the film itself is a fairly standard submarine film—executed with the cooperation of the US Navy and executed through then state-of-the-art special effects (nominated for an Academy Award). The mechanics of WW2 submarine life take a bit of a backseat to the drama, but this is otherwise an average war film, competently executed but overly familiar at times. Thematically, it still feels like a WW2 propaganda film even a decade and a half later—the personal vengeance is atypical (and would not have flown as a movie premise during WW2) but dovetails into the government’s war agenda, and the crimes of the enemies include shielding a warship with a transport filled by non-combatant prisoners of war. Ford and Borgnine do bring a bit of character work to the proceedings, and fans of the actors should be pleased by their performances. Otherwise, Torpedo Run ends up being a decent but unspectacular WW2 submarine movie—better than bad, more dramatic than most, but not as striking as others.

  • Les mémés cannibales [Rabid Grannies] (1988)

    Les mémés cannibales [Rabid Grannies] (1988)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, November 2020) With a title like Les mémés cannibales / Rabid Grannies, it’s no surprise if the film has become a minor cult classic reference. One notes, however, that the title lies twice (no grannies, no cannibalism/rabies), considering that the story features two aunts acting as possessed conduits of violent revenge over a greedy, ungrateful brood from an outcast family member. The production pedigree of the film is a multi-national mess that barely makes more sense than the plot, but so is the nature of low-budget schlock horror more concerned about gory effects and over-the-top marketing hooks. The image quality is poor even by the lax standards of the grainy TV channel I watched it on, and the soundtrack is just as terrible. If you’ve seen other similar movies, you know what to expect: perfunctory exposition, and then a steadily whittled-down cast as they all perish in over-the-top violent fashion. Rabid Grannies is not a good movie, and it falls short of even its own standards. But it’s not quite as boring, disgusting or pointless as I expected: There are a few good lines here and there, some worthwhile characters and the pacing is not that bad. That’s low praise indeed, but considering that the film is now best known as a Troma fan favourite, that’s probably quite enough.