Reviews

  • Flirtation Walk (1934)

    Flirtation Walk (1934)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2020) At one time, Americans loved their military officers as much as they loved their musical stars, and so Flirtation Walk is a naked attempt to combine both, as it focuses on a soldier who falls for a general’s daughter in Hawaii, and meets her again years later while they’re both at West Point. It’s also, in movie musical history, a film known for first attempting to get away from Broadway-inspired backstage musicals to a more naturalistic setting in which song and dance numbers could be integrated. Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler make for a good romantic pair—helped along by an antagonistic relationship that gradually defrosts and a comic tone that has the heroine pursuing the male lead on his own territory. The idea of getting the musical away from Broadway isn’t fully realized yet—or should we say that it comes with a rescue buoy given how much is made of the male character’s work on a West Point musical theatre play. (You can get the musical away from Broadway, but you can’t get Broadway away from the musical…) It’s not that good of a musical from a song and dance perspective, but it does work relatively well as a romantic comedy, with some very funny sequences midway through as the heroin barges in on the play that he’s writing—and he responds in kind. Blend in the romance, song, military, stars and amiable tone and you get something in Flirtation Walk that was apparently good enough to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy award back in 1934—a year in which the winner was the funnier but non-musical romantic comedy It Happened One Night.

  • The Monster Squad (1987)

    The Monster Squad (1987)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, January 2020) As I dig deeper in the 1980s back catalogue, I’m sometimes amazed at the movies that I have managed to completely miss along the way. Given that I was 12 at the time The Monster Squad came out, I’m not sure how I managed to avoid knowing about the movie while I was growing up (Although I suppose that not having Cable TV and not speaking English might have helped). Now, I’m not going to claim that The Monster Squad is a great movie—at best, it’s a clever, reasonably entertaining homage to the Universal monster movies destined for teenage audiences. The plot barely takes the time to justify itself before sending its monsters (including The Creature from the Black Lagoon, in a hilariously short turn) in a small Midwestern town where they’re discovered and taken on by a group of misfit horror-loving kids. As I said, it’s not meant to be fancy, but to reintroduce the Universal Monsters to a younger crowd and wow them with makeup. It generally works: The young actors aren’t bad and the film has a bit of creative fun along the way (including the inclusion of a creepy old German man who ends up becoming an ally) even when it’s riffing off familiar clichés. Director Fred Dekker keeps things going, and if the mid-1980s sensibilities offer a rougher kind of tonal control than what we’re used to (as the film whips from horror to humour, best aiming for older kids), it does make for a far more interesting viewing experience. Adult horror fans should be particularly tickled by The Monster Squad, not only by the re-use of the Universal menagerie of beasts, but also from spotting Shane Black as co-writer, Tom Noonan in the credits, or makeup by Stan Winston. That’s not a bad set of contributors to an unassuming genre movie for kids, and the result is about as good as anyone could have hoped for.

  • Aladdin (2019)

    Aladdin (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, Video On-Demand, January 2020) Disney is not to be congratulated for raiding their past classics as fuel for their current lineup of movies (which seems to be working, judging by the box-office receipts), but at least they have the decency to fuel their self-rips homages with decent-enough means and filmmakers. For a movie that doesn’t need to exist, the live-action Aladdin does have big stars, starting with Will Smith, a competent director in Guy Richie, very good special effects and some necessary tweaks to make the details of the story slightly less annoying. Perhaps the biggest creative decision is to propose Will Smith in the role that Robin Williams so memorably voiced back in 1992—it proves to be an acceptable replacement because Smith does have a bigger-than-average presence and he doesn’t try to imitate Williams. Smith’s genie uses Smith’s persona to good effect, and frequently feels more approachable than William’s manic energy did. As a result, much of the script plays on a slightly different tonal range even when it goes through the motions of the same plot once more. (There’s, notably, a budding friendship subplot that wouldn’t have fit as gracefully in the original, and much of the credit for this working well does to Smith’s image as a friendly guy.) Casting issues aside, Aladdin is slightly more sensitive to cultural issues, definitely more adept at making good use of its female characters and a bit more controlled (in admittedly a blockbuster-bland fashion) than the swerves that Williams’ ad-libbed verbal pyrotechnics caused along the way. Richie is clearly cashing in a paycheque to justify his next passion project here, because there’s not much of his directorial verve to go around (although the bit there they re-watch the movie to settle whether Aladdin cheated on his first wish is very funny). Still, Richie does have experience managing big-budget special-effects-heavy productions, and this shows in his sure-handed take—although I definitely prefer him in pop-auteur mode. Although aimed at kids, this Aladdin is potent enough for parents with colourful visuals, including a Bollywood-inspired musical number. Considering that Jasmine is one of my favourite Disney Princesses, her portrayal here is quite good—Naomi Scott plays the character with regal dignity and energy, and the decision to give her a confidante (played by Nasim Pedrad) works well at giving more dimension to the character. The overall result is good enough—good enough to make money at the box office, good enough to be judged acceptable by reviewers, good enough to give the kids something to watch and parents a good excuse to watch along with them, at least the first few handfuls of times. Aladdin is straight out of the Disney playbook, and I expect that there will be more than a few more live-action remakes going now that they’re practically a tradition of their own.

  • Quality Street (1937)

    Quality Street (1937)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2020) One may admire Katharine Hepburn for the incredible longevity of her career, or the steely matrons she played in the latter half of her career, but there’s a place for her cute ingenue roles as well, and that’s what Quality Street delivers in spades. Finding some originality in romantic comedy tropes, the film has Hepburn as a 19th-century-England romantic lead pining for her beau to propose… only to be made speechless when he announces that he’s leaving for the Napoleonic Wars. Ten years pass until his return, at which point she ends up creating a charade posing as her own (fictional) niece for reasons that worked better at a time when unmarried 30-year-old were considered old maids. Many misunderstandings occur until they both get tired of the fiction and take action to get rid of the nonexistent niece in order to keep up appearances. There’s not a whole lot more to the film, but there’s a restrained sense of humour to it all that makes it almost credible despite the ludicrousness of the identity plot. As a costume drama, it hits the necessary high notes with great sets and costumes. While it certainly doesn’t qualify as a great Hepburn film (there’s little here of her famous persona), and she’s not exactly credible as an innocent niece, the film is only 82 minutes long, and it does help round off a career that spanned sixty years. There are better examples of young-Hepburn roles, for sure, but it’s not a bad thing to have a few more of those around.

  • Carol for another Christmas (1964)

    Carol for another Christmas (1964)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2020) Calling Carol for another Christmas preachy is not being insulting: it’s being descriptive, and—considering its intentions—even complimentary. It comes to us modern viewers through a fascinating process: Originally produced for television as a Christmastime special, it was the first of a series of TV movies produced by the United Nations to promote the organization’s ideals. As such, it reuses the premise of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol in order to teach its protagonist a lesson. But instead of having Scrooge learn about human kindness in his life, here we have a foreign affairs isolationist learning about the values of dialogue and diplomacy. The ghost of Christmas Past ferries the bodies of dead soldiers and reminds the protagonist to his past visit to Hiroshima. The Ghost of Christmas Present comments on the developed world’s ability to gorge itself while ignoring the hungry and the needy staring at them. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Future takes us to a post-apocalyptic American town where a demented demagogue (played with relish by Peter Sellers) recites the lead character’s philosophy and remonstrates its idiocy ad absurdum. This last segment gets surprisingly dark (in keeping with the rest of the film, really), and the epilogue isn’t much of a comfort. The preachiness extends to characters spouting statistics and indulging in heated logical combat, as per a rather clever script from Rod Serling. With Joseph L. Mankiewicz at the helm, the film is far better-directed than you’d expect from a 1960s TV movie, further adding to its appeal. Reviews at the time of Carol for another Christmas’ broadcast were sharply divided, with even those who agreed with the message being annoyed at its didactic nature. Then the film disappeared from public view for nearly five decades, until TCM dredged it back up in 2012 for its Christmas special and infrequent broadcasts since then. From a modern perspective, the didactic insistence and preachiness have transmuted into something far more interesting—a time capsule from the cold war that still rings true today, bolstering its message to a degree that 1964 audiences couldn’t guess at. It’s also a fascinating repurposing of the Dickens classic for a purpose that can be re-watched any month of the year, and a collection in intriguing performances from some known actors. (Eva Marie Saint shows up as a WAVE in a short but effective role.) I found it particularly fascinating as part of a look at Peter Sellers’ work, especially with Britt Eckland in a small role. It’s also notable that the film is preachy without being sappy, a partial inversion of the usual takes on the Dickens classic. No matter how you size it, Carol for Another Christmas is a fascinating piece from the archives, and it’s worth a look once, even if it probably won’t make your list of Christmas classics.

  • Jezebel (1938)

    Jezebel (1938)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2020) It took me a while to get interested in Jezebel—the film does itself no favour with an extended setup that doesn’t get to the topic at hand. Still, it does have Bette Davis as a manipulative Louisiana belle and Peter Fonda as her fiancé… until he has enough of her antics and storms away back to the northeast. There should everyone remain, except for the Yellow Fever to strike 1852 New Orleans, bringing Fonda’s character back into her life and giving her one last chance at redemption. The recreation of New Orleans is sumptuous enough within the limits of 1930s filmmaking, and the portrait of a time when duels were seen as perfectly acceptable is alien enough. By the end of the film, however, it all clicks together even if it ends on a strikingly inconclusive note. There is at the very least Davis (who’s always at her best when she’s playing morally ambiguous characters) and Fonda, as stalwart as ever. Costumes and sets are fine enough to send us back in time, and that’s about the best that the film could aim for.  I do wish Jezebel’s first half had been more gripping—I had to start the film three times before getting into it. But now that I’ve seen it, I’m happy I did.

  • Wo de wai xing nu you [My Alien Girlfriend] (2017)

    Wo de wai xing nu you [My Alien Girlfriend] (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, January 2020) With a title like My Alien Girlfriend, one shouldn’t expect a finely tuned exploration of love across species as much as a silly romantic comedy, albeit with a shape-shifting love interest. The premise, as bluntly stated as it can be through an animated sequence, has an alien presence visiting Earth and looking for love, but being forced to take over different bodies every three days. In walks our protagonist, a lonely young man working as a veterinarian. Through an unconvincing plot device having to do with a thrown glass of water and no one noticing a piece of jewelry going into the water, our young man is pursued by our shape-changing alien. The comic premise is rich, and by the time our likable alien takes over the bodies of an older woman, a young girl or the protagonist’s best friend, My Alien Girlfriend makes the most out of it. (I was a bit surprised to see the film acknowledge homosexuality, albeit never without a punchline.) Of course, romance isn’t quite enough for the screenwriter—there has to be a mad scientist chasing down the alien with armed goons in order to make it more suspenseful. It concludes on a semi-optimistic note, although I still can’t see how they’re going to make it work. The filmmaking here from director Ding Yajun is unobtrusive and the plot thread is broad enough to be accessible. The standout performance here is from Yuen Qiu (best known to western audiences as the landlady from Kung-Fu Hustle) as the veterinarian clinic’s owner, not shy about her feelings for the protagonist. My Alien Girlfriend all makes for a nice comedy with just enough Science Fiction elements to justify its fantasy. It should be better known in the west—I can’t even find a listing for it on IMDB. [March 2025: One has been added in the past five years, but it’s still barebones]

  • Xanadu (1980)

    Xanadu (1980)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, January 2020) There is an infamous place in movie history for Xanadu, often disregarded as one of the worst musicals of all time. That’s an exaggeration, but there’s no denying that Xanadu remains a strikingly weird experience to undergo. Updating a 1940s film plot to the disco era, this is an attempt to make a musical focused on roller-skates, disco and pinball machines. It stars no less an unlikely couple as Olivia Newton-John and legend Gene Kelly in his last feature-film role. (They do share a scene and a few dance moves.) The plot is near-incomprehensible for reasons best explained by a chaotic production process that left dangling a few narrative threads of earlier script drafts. The result is immediately recognizable at being from 1980 (plus or minus two years), far more dated than the earlier musicals that inspired it. The staging isn’t particularly inspired, but the music—wow, the music! Olivia Newton-John and her signature disco sound don’t do much for me, but the other half of the soundtrack is from Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra, and those remain timeless songs. (Indeed, at least three of them made for the movie have gone on to become minor ELO hits.) There is something this close to delirium watching Gene Kelly in circa-1980 montages, trying out clothing and being subject to the blunt optical effects of the era. The film was cutting edge then and is now highly stylized in its use of disco visual references. Up to a certain level, Xanadu escapes mere considerations of being good or bad—it’s an experience, and I can now proudly say that I have seen it.

  • Porky’s Revenge (1985)

    Porky’s Revenge (1985)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2020) After a detour in socially redeemable comedy in the second film, the Porky’s series goes back to its raunchy sex-comedy roots in Porky’s Revenge. Porky himself is back, and so are the generally plotless sex pranks that make up the bulk of the first film. Clearly an attempt to right the course of the series after the somewhat off-brand second volume, Porky’s Revenge is nonetheless dumber for the attempt. Once again, the two most notable actors are Dan Monahan, playing series humiliation target “Peewee,” and Kaki Hunter as the sole female member of the main group. Much of the hijinks are instantly forgettable—there’s nudity, but not that many laughs. This being said, the decapitation of Porky’s casino boat by a bridge at the climax does offer a spectacular bit of physical comedy. It doesn’t quite redeem Porky’s Revenge, although it’s roughly of the same atmosphere and quality than the original, which is what sequels usually aim for.

  • A.I. Rising (2018)

    A.I. Rising (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2020) As A.I. Rising begins and you’re settling down for a generic low-budget Science Fiction movie, the first few minutes suggest quite a different path, as a brooding man is sent on a long starship voyage to Alpha Centauri and is offered a female android companion to take care of his needs along the way. Faster than you can say, “Hey, this feels like the setup for a softcore pornographic movie,” in walks in… ex-adult film star Stoya, ready to shed clothes at the drop of a plot point. Which she does, as the film ruminates at length on notions of sentience, consent and the nature of heterosexual relationships in-between tastefully shot sex sequences. A.I. Rising far too dour and meditative to be arousing, but it’s certainly far more explicit than you’d expect from even a cable TV SF movie playing at 9 PM. Alas, while it would have been more fun as a sex romp, it’s far more interested in what it has to say about sex and relationships. Of course, this takes us in tricky territory. It’s all too easy for the screenwriter to have somewhat unusual ideas on the nature of those relationships, and to be overly glum about it all. If you’re expecting a happy ending, then you haven’t been paying attention to the constant grumblings about control and struggle. It doesn’t help that the film is more interested in pessimistic mumblings than scientific verisimilitude, and that its dialogue doesn’t quite flow. There are plenty of technical details that don’t make sense (including a tomb-like ship with far more space than required for even a lone human and his android/control.), and I suppose that there is a language fluency challenge at play given that the film comes from Serbia. (I also have issues with the supposed intelligence of the protagonist, who doesn’t seem to figure out even the most basic parameters of his situation.) Fortunately, A.I. Rising does become less explicit and more interesting in its latter half, as the protagonist gets the autonomous partner that he wants and every complication that comes with it. The film finally takes the time required to better develop its thesis about relationships and becomes better for it. Stoya’s skills as an actress are also more noticeable during that last half, as she doesn’t have to act as an android any more. It all leads to a surprisingly sweet and romantic ending somewhat at odds with the rest of the film, but welcome nonetheless. There are far too many rough edges and suspicious tangents to A.I. Rising to make it particularly good and the film does itself no favour by going for self-conscious pretentiousness, but it still ends up being a more provocative film than most of the other low-budget four-actor Science Fiction movies floating abound Cable TV channels. I would be careful in recommending it to anyone, but robo-fetishists who enjoyed Ex Machina will find that it develops many similar ideas—more roughly, but still meaningfully.

  • Porky’s II: The Next Day (1983)

    Porky’s II: The Next Day (1983)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2020) Considering that the original Porky’s is one of the best-known sex comedies of the early 1980s (a somewhat amusing Canadian contribution to movie history, and the second of director Bob Clark’s three main claims to fame in-between launching the slasher genre with Black Christmas and directing the very different A Christmas Story), it makes sense that sequel Porky’s II would begin the very next day, with the gang of friends still teasing “Peewee” about his sex life. Much of the first half of the film is in more or less the same vein of sex humiliation comedy, with plenty of nudity and compromising positions. But as the movie advances, the early scenes featuring the characters playing in Shakespeare’s plays (!) lead to the development of a more ambitious plot taking aim at the local preachers and politicians, all revealed to be hypocritical racists with a side order of lusting after underage girls. The amount of nudity also goes down as the film advances, to the point of a third act that is gross and vulgar (with series MVP Kaki Hunter delivering an extended takedown of a sleazy politician in a very public place) but plays nudity for laughs rather than titillation. The mixture between taking aim at racists and hypocrites doesn’t entirely blend very well with the sex farce of the series, but it does make Porky’s II: The Next Day more interesting for any 1980s completists watching the series.

  • Blown Away (1994)

    Blown Away (1994)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Second Viewing, In French, On TV, January 2020) Back in 1994, there were many comparisons made between Speed and Blown Away, most of them to the second film’s disadvantage. The pairing wasn’t arbitrary: here were, after all, a pair of movies talking about a mad bomber targeting protagonists in picturesque American cities. Most reviewers felt that Speed fully indulged in the craziness of its premise, while Blown Away was too dour and, crucially, disarmed its bombs when, in the words of Speed’s script, “A bomb is made to explode. That’s its meaning. Its purpose. Your life is empty because you spend it trying to stop the bomb from becoming.” Having seen both at the time (Blown Away at a drive-in theatre, if I remember correctly), I definitely agreed: Blow Away was too dull, too serious about itself, especially in comparison to Speed, which remains one of the all-time greatest action movies. A second take on Blown Away twenty-five years later is more generous, but not by much: Absent unfair comparisons with Speed, Blown Away is a good-enough thriller—conventional but with a few good moments, although with too many odd missteps along the way to be fully satisfying. Jeff Bridges does well as the protagonist, although the film’s troubles start at the opening scene as it mines the murky fractious nature of the Irish Troubles for backstory and uncomfortable character motivations. (He does get a few scenes playing opposite his father Lloyd Bridges.) Tommy Lee Jones is far more enjoyable hamming it up as a crazy villain, although it’s worth noting that his character’s various eccentricities run dramatically at odds with the more serious tone of the rest of the film. This issue pops up again and again throughout Blown Away: A crazy idea creating tone problems when placed against the darker underpinning of the story. It tries to be both a hard-edged thriller but can’t resist the pull of an overblown action scene or funny moment. Forest Whitaker hangs at the edge of the plot as another bomb specialist with personal animosities with the lead—he’s an unconventional choice for the role, but the adversarial relationship between the two characters works well. Finally, Boston plays the fourth-biggest role in Blown Away, as the script gives up a highlight tour of some of the city’s tourist attractions. As someone who has visited Boston more often than any other American city (perhaps even combined) since the mid-1990s, I really enjoyed seeing big action sequences set in places I’ve seen a few times—with a particular affection for the explosive Trinity Church sequence. Blown Away does exemplify a kind of thriller that we frequently saw in the 1990s and less since then—it’s pretty much the same exact “killer psycho fixates on protagonist, kills his friends and colleagues, etc.” plot although with bombs. Still, it doesn’t quite understand how to have a consistent tone and exploit the elements it has at its disposal. A common critique of 1994 remains just as valid today and tells much: Here is a film with a climax in which an orchestra plays the 1812 overture… and it doesn’t even bother synchronizing the music with the climactic explosion.

  • Thunderheart (1992)

    Thunderheart (1992)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2020) On the one hand, there’s something admirable in seeing Thunderheart tackle the deplorable state of native reserves in the United States by setting a murder mystery within its borders. Our way into this setting is done through the dispatch of an FBI agent of mixed ethnicity (Val Kilmer, who is also of mixed ethnicity) but no cultural affiliation to native causes. As he gradually investigates the murder, he also gains an appreciation for his own origins. Standard Hollywood character development, but handled well, especially within the context of an unvarnished depiction of reserve living in the early 1990s—not that things have changed very much since then. Director Michael Apted makes effective use of helicopter-mounted cameras to give a good sense of space, action and the neighbouring landscapes—an essential when setting a film in the Badlands. While Kilmer ably headlines, the highlight here is once again Graham Greene as a local agent. Still, this could have been a better film: Thunderheart remains very much the story of a non-native protagonist exploring “the other,” and not a story told from within the native community. As revelatory as it could be in the early 1990s, it does feel limited today at a time when movies increasingly reflect diverse voices from their own perspectives. I liked it, but I can see how we’ve gone a bit beyond that.

  • She Done Him Wrong (1933)

    She Done Him Wrong (1933)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2020) There are many things that are simply wrong about She Done Him Wrong if you take a look at it from a conventional perspective. The script’s pacing is lopsided, with nearly nothing happening for a while, only for the movie to rush through murders and revelations in its last third. In many ways, this 69-minute-long film feels like the first two acts of a longer movie, as it spends so much time setting up a situation that is quickly defused without going further in plotting. Even worse is how the lead character has all the spotlights (narrative and literal) aimed at her—prior to her entrance, characters keep talking about how wonderful she is, her entrance practically comes with a fanfare, and she spends the rest of the film cutting down other characters with withering bon mots followed by a repetitive moue. In other hands, this would have been a laughably bad movie, forgotten in the fog of time. But here’s the thing: This isn’t just any lead actress—this is Mae West, and she wrote much of the script, adapting her own theatrical showpiece. She Done Him Wrong was deliberately planned to be a celebration of her sex appeal, and sold as such: everyone involved in this film in 1933, filmmakers and audience alike, knew what they were there for. As legend has it, they may have gone too far: She Done Him Wrong was a key justification for the enforcement of the Hays Code that would emotionally stunt American cinema for decades and clamp down hard on the kind of sexually liberated character that was Mae West’s stock-in-trade. West herself is an interesting case study in sex appeal: While her appearance is nothing special, things are different when considering her attitude and quips, several of whom would still have HR departments apoplectic if used in a corporate setting. The film is built around her (yes, Cary Grant plays the hero here—but let’s not pretend that the film is about him) and still acts effectively as a primer for contemporary audiences as to what Mae West was all about. She Done Him Wrong is far more interesting as a monument than a movie… even though you may have to power through much of the film’s weaker moments to get to its finest ones.

  • The Fan (1996)

    The Fan (1996)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2020) I’ve written elsewhere about the spate of good mid-1990s thrillers, but there were a lot of not-so-good ones too, and The Fan definitely qualifies as one of those, although not necessarily a bad one. Considering that the film features Robert de Niro, Wesley Snipes, a young Benicio del Toro and a non-annoying early turn from John Leguizamo, this may be more a case of inflated expectations than anything else. Still, the troubles start at the script level, which chooses to follow a deranged San Francisco sports fan as he begins stalking a baseball star, then violently murdering perceived opponents. While mid-1990s audiences may have found this implausible (well, maybe not), the age of social media has uncovered plenty of deranged fans with weapon fetishes and difficult personal relationships who turn to violence for affirmation—it’s a pathetic choice for a viewpoint character, and the execution does nothing to make it any more interesting. To see de Niro in the lead role is a waste of talent when his usual screen persona by the mid-1990s was closer to mob boss than crazy cuckoo à la Taxi Driver. Coming from director Tony Scott, it’s no surprise if The Fan’s execution is bombastic, filled with dated music video stylistic tics and an aggressive rock soundtrack. The ending doesn’t manage to elevate the material, and leaves viewers with an undiluted sour and unpleasant feeling.