The Dam Busters

All too often, war movies try to be something bigger, something with a message instead of just focusing on the story at hand. And that's the thing, most of the stories at their most basic are interesting enough without a lot of extra junk added on. A prime example of this? The Dam Busters from 1955, a British movie about a mission undertook by British bomber pilots midway through WWII. The story is interesting, and the movie is content to tell that story.

Doctor B.N. Wallis is a very intelligent if somewhat eccentric aviation engineer living in England in 1942. He's been working for months on a plan that could severely disrupt the German war effort. To create just one ton of raw steel, the Germans must use 100 tons of water. What's the best way to slow the process up? Knock out three dams deep in Germany that supply 2/3 of the needed water. Wallis develops a bomb that when dropped from a bomber at low altitudes skips across water toward the dam much like a rock skipping across a lake.

Of course things don't go smoothy as Wallis perfects the skipping five-ton bombs. That's just part of his problems, ranging from war materiel to dealing with the government. Throw in the issues the British pilots are having, and you've got a highly entertaining story. The pilots will attack the dams at night, flying just 60 feet up, and must drop their bombs with pin-point timing so the payload is delivered at just the right time.

The actual attack on the dams is handled perfectly, including some pre-CGI special effects that look dated, but what do you expect? The movie was made in 1955 so keeping that in mind, the effects aren't that bad. Besides, I was so wrapped up in whether the bombing runs would work I didn't even notice the so-so effects. Throughout the movie, the aerial footage stands out as incredibly well-done, and it's led some people to compare it to the end of Star Wars. See for yourself.

Cast-wise, the list goes on and on but two characters are at the forefront, Michael Redgrave as Wallis, and Richard Todd, a real-life war hero, as Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the leader of the British bombers. They're about as different as two men can be, but they share a common goal and become friends because of their shared experiences. Also, keep an eye out for a young Robert Shaw in just his 2nd movie and first speaking part.

One other thing mentioning that made me rewind a couple times. Gibson's dog is named 'N*gger." Looking the movie up at IMDB, I saw I wasn't the only one surprised by the name. Apparently, the word was a way of describing a black dog in England at the time, and in no way is any sort of racial slur. Still, I had to mention it.

The Day of the Dolphin

When it comes to what people like about movies, answers are across the board. Maybe it's the actors and actresses involved, or a favorite director, or maybe just a genre that appeals to viewers. But sometimes, you read a movie description that's so odd, so crazy, that you can't help but watch the movie. Read below and tell me you're not intrigued.

"After teaching dolphins to speak, a scientist tries to keep them from being used in an assassination plot."

The movie? The Day of the Dolphin starring George C. Scott. Mike Nichols directs and Buck Henry wrote the screenplay so I thought maybe this was a comedy, or at least a dark comedy. Nichols directed The Graduate and Catch-22 while Henry was the creator of Get Smart and was a writer on The Graduate. It's safe to say then that I was caught off guard when I discovered the movie's played straight, no comedy here.

To be fair, the assassination plot from the description isn't even dealt with until the last half hour or so. Much of the rest of the movie's plot is pretty thin. Scott is Dr. Jake Terrell, a man who works with dolphins and has taught his two subjects, Alpha and Beta, to speak English with a limited vocabulary. That's most of the first 75 minutes of the movie, Terrell and his team working with the dolphins. To the film's credit, that storyline works, mostly because the dolphins are so entertaining and cute, like sea otters, you just can't go wrong.

But then comes the assassination plot. There's a turn of events where the watchers of the watchers want to kill the president of the U.S. using Terrell's dolphins. I won't explain how exactly because the plan is creative, but it seems thrown together with villains and quasi-villains all trying to out-do each other. The twist and final line of the assassination plotters was funny though, laugh out loud funny, but whether it was intentional or not I don't know.

An interesting movie to say the least with a combination of nature film and conspiracy theories. I can honestly say I've never written anything like that before. Check it out for the scenes with the dolphins and an oh so crazy 70s conspiracy plot. It'll get a laugh or two out of you.

Netflix Review #6: Joe Kidd

After the huge success of Dirty Harry the year before, Clint Eastwood returned to the genre that made him a star, the western, in 1972's Joe Kidd, the story of a range war in turn of the century New Mexico. It's another Eastwood western I've always avoided some because I enjoyed the Leone spaghettis so much, but I enjoyed it even with all its flaws of which there are many.

Eastwood is Joe Kidd, a small-time rancher who's just received a 10-day jail sentence for a number of offences. He's let out when a rich land owner, Frank Harlan, wants to hire Joe to lead a hunting expedition of sorts, a hunt for a Mexican stirring up trouble when it comes to land rights by the name of Luis Chama. Kidd turns down the offer but changes his mind when he returns home to find that Chama and his gang have stolen his horses and beaten one of his hired hands. Kidd joins up with Harlan and his posse, finding out how brutal their methods can be on the trail.

For one, it's a short movie at 88 minutes. I was disappointed to read the DVD has missing scenes from previous releases or TV showings. I can't verify having never seen it, but a DVD always gets lower points for something like that. With the short running time, you lose a ton of character and plot development. John Saxon plays Chama, appearing for the first five minutes and then disappearing until the last 20 minutes. Robert Duvall has always been a good villain, and lives up to reputation here, but his character is as one-dimensional as they come. Must kill Chama!

Some of these issues most likely were caused by the lack of a finished script. Director John Sturges improvised on the fly, especially in the finale. There's a cool stunt with a train going off the rails, but a few minutes later, the movie just sort of ends. It's not one of those open-ended conclusions where you're left to interpret what happened, the movie is over and credits roll.

In spite of these flaws, it's a western I enjoyed. Eastwood is a more laid back gunslinger, and even if he is underwritten, Duvall provides a good counter to him. Composer Lalo Schifrin does his own version of a spaghetti western score that's memorable, and the California and Old Tucson locations are shot beautifully. Harlan's posse of hired guns, Lamarr Simms (Don Stroud), a hothead who would like nothing more than kill Kidd, Olin Mingo (James Wainwright), a sniper who can hit anything, and Roy Gannon (Paul Koslo), the calm, cool fast draw specialist, are also good villains, if underused. The showdown the movie builds to with Kidd and Simms has no pay-off, too bad, it would have been a goodie.

The DVD, missing scenes and all, is an average disc. Widescreen presentation is noticeably scratchy in certain scenes, but otherwise appears okay. Special features include the always boring production notes with cast and crew info, and a trailer that plays up the action in the movie. A western with flaws, sure, but still check it out.

Joe Kidd (1972): ***/****

Eagle Eye

As far back as Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" in 1968, movies have been warning us not to become too reliant on technology, be it computers, cell phones, automated weapons systems, you get my drift. But as the movies show, we're pretty dumb overall so if technology makes things easier then we're all for it. Last year's Eagle Eye continued this trend in the form of an action thriller that I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would going in.

Shia LaBeouf plays Jerry Shaw, your typical underachiever who has some potential to do things with his life but chooses to do otherwise. He works at the Copy Cabana after dropping out from Stanford, but one day finds $750,000 in his bank account and an apartment full of ammonium nitrate and high-tech military weapons. His cell phone rings and a woman tells him he has 30 seconds to get out of his apartment before the FBI shows up to arrest him. Of course, Jerry is suspicious, I guess I would be too, and doesn't believe her.

Across town, a similar thing is happening to Rachel Holloman, played by the very beautiful Michelle Monaghan, a single mom who has just sent her son to Washington DC with his class to play at the Kennedy Center. The woman on the phone tells Rachel she must do everything she says or else her son's train will derail. So begins a movie that doesn't slow down until the very end. Is the whole movie kinda ridiculous? You bet, but that's part of the fun. In this day and age, most people's lives are so closely tied to their phones, Blackberries, IPODS, and other technological advances, so a movie that plays on the fear that it's the technology ruling us is as timely as it will ever be.

Going into Eagle Eye, I hadn't liked either big LaBeouf movie, he was okay in Indy 4, and all-around bad/annoying in Transformers, so I had low expectations. With the right part here where his character is as much in the dark as the viewer as to what's happening, he was pretty good. However, the pessimist in me says the ending was a bit of a cop-out as to how his character is dealt with. Monaghan joins Shia as the female lead and does a reliable job with a stereotypical character. There isn't much development in either character, the basic outline is explained with their backgrounds, and vamoose, we're off! In the supporting cast, Billy Bob Thornton jumps out as one of the better parts, a wisecracking FBI agent just trying to figure out what exactly is going on.

The movie has its flaws, but it isn't enough to distract from the overall product. The story moves along too fast for you to even think about the flaws. It's an exciting movie, and a timely one, that's worth a watch if nothing else. And always remember that someone is listening, in this case, your cell phone. I always knew those things were evil.

One thing I'll never complain about, the original teaser trailer that was shown in theaters. It's one of the better teasers I've seen in quite awhile.

Netflix Review #5: Bite the Bullet

By the mid 1970s, the western genre had changed significantly and not for the better. Most were cynical, dark, and ultra-violent, and those that weren't poked fun at the stereotypes. I liked Blazing Saddles but you know what I mean. Richard Brooks' "Bite the Bullet" is a more old-fashioned western that relies on a good story and a great cast. It deals with nine contestants in a 700-mile horse race across some of the most hellish terrain in the west in 1906.

What jumped out at me when looking through lists was the cast here including Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen, James Coburn, Ian Bannen, Ben Johnson, and Jean-Michael Vincent. None dissappoint with some really stepping into their roles. Hackman and Coburn are old friends who served together in Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. There's is a friendship that goes back years, and it shows, the two are very believable and likable as a pair of cowboys a few years past their prime as the times change in the wild, wild west.

While that duo provides strong leads, it's Ben Johnson's supporting role as one of the riders that is most memorable. The real-life cowboy plays Mister, an old cowboy who's done it all. But now in his later years, he's been questioning if he's actually ever accomplished anything. He decides that winning the race is bigger than the prize money, instead it would be something to be remembered for. His scene in which he explains it all to Hackman is one of the best scenes in the movie, explaining the changing west like few movies can or have done. SPOILERS though if you haven't seen the movie.

Very little action here, but I didn't find myself drifting at all. There's little character development after the leads, but the characters come across as real people, not just the stereotypes they could have been in a lesser movie.

The DVD is a dissappointment for a couple reasons. First, no widescreen presentation, and this is a movie that would greatly benefit from widescreen. Location shootings from the arid deserts to the tree-filled forests are beautiful. Worst of all, the credits are in widescreen but the movie immediately returns to pan-n-scan. Second, no special features, not even a trailer.

I feel safe saying if you're a fan of westerns, this won't dissappoint even if the DVD does exactly that. You might try and wait for a widescreen DVD, but I wouldn't count on it. Great ensemble cast, good old-fashioned story, and an ending that works perfectly for the movie.

Bite the Bullet (1975): ***/****

Netflix review #4: The Man With The Golden Gun

I've seen all the Connery Bond movies, the last two obviously with Daniel Craig, and bits and pieces of the Roger Moore entries, but I never really sat down and watched one straight through. I was never a huge fan of Moore, but thought as a fan of the series I should watch all of the movies. I watched Moore's first movie, Live and Let Die, a few weeks back and got The Man With The Golden Gun in the mail yesterday.

Reading reviews, TMWTGG seems to take a lot of heat for being pretty cheesy so I was surprised by how much I liked it. Moore seems to have figured out how to play 007 more so as compared to LaLD. His one-liners are there, but they're not overdone. We get it, you're clever, stop with the cheesiness. The action scenes are well-handled, and he's more believable as it looks like he did most of his own stunts. When it comes to the ladies, Moore was never in question. Just two movies in and with the snap of a finger, he's got the Bond women waiting.

Horror movie master Christopher Lee is the villain here, the man with the golden gun, Francisco Scaramanga, the world's deadliest assassin who charges a $1 million per kill. The hit man supposedly sends a golden bullet to MI6 with "007" imprinted on it. So Bond has a master assassin on his tail, but there's a glitch, no one knows what he looks like. In an odd twist, even for this series, the only way to identify Scaramanga is that he has an extra nipple. There's a subplot here too about capturing solar energy, but it isn't as good as the two men going head to head.

In the Bond girls department, this one gets high points with Britt Ekland and Maud Adams starring. Ekland plays Mary Goodnight, a fellow agent working as Bond's liasion of sorts who plays hard to get with him. In a memorable ending, Ekland runs around the last 30 minutes or so in a bikini. In her first Bond movie, she would return as a different character in Octopussy, Adams is Andrea Anders, Scaramanga's mistress who sees a way to safety through 007. Both women are up there as two of the more beautifuly Bond women.

One more bit of interesting casting, a pre-Fantasy Island Herve Villechaise as Nick-Nack, Scaramanga's deadly little assistant who we're never quite sure what his motives are. Clifton James also returns as Sheriff JW Pepper from Live and Let Die in an unnecessary return. Convenient that a Louisiana sheriff is visiting Thailand the same time as Bond, isn't it?

When it comes to action, I thought "Golden Gun" was top-notch including an exciting boat chase and a chase through Hong Kong with a good pay-off as a car does a corkscrew over a river. The scene's marred by a cartoonish slide noise, but the stunt's impressive no matter how you look at it.

Other things worth mentioning, or maybe not mentioning, the theme by Lulu is forgettable and painfully unsubtle, even for a Bond song, and the movie at 125 minutes can be a little talky. But otherwise, it's worthwile. Not a classic Bond movie, but better than the clunkers. This was director Guy Hamilton's fourth and final 007 movie, a good end for the director of the classic Goldfinger.

The DVD has the movie in its widescreen presentation, the Hong Kong and Thailand locations look great, and two different commentary tracks.

The Man With The Golden Gun (1974): ***/****

The China Syndrome

Within the disaster movie genre, I've noticed a enjoyable sub-genre where there's not only a disaster but it is being caused by the powers that be. I watched "The China Syndrome" the last couple of days and can include that movie in the list. It could also be included in any list of paranoid thrillers from the 1970s.

Released around the time of the Three Mile Island accident in Harrisburg, The China Syndrome begins with a news crew filming a feature at the Ventana Nuclear Power Plant in California. Of course, something goes wrong and the nuclear core is almost uncovered. The cameraman, played by a bearded Michael Douglas, turns his camera on without anyone realizing it, filming the whole accident from the control room's perspective. The problem is solved though without too much damage and soon enough the plant is back on-line.

Typically starring in comedies, Jack Lemmon steps up in a big way in this thriller as a shift supervisor in the control room. He thinks there's something more going on with the pump, and that if too much pressure is placed on the pump everything goes kaboom and nuclear clouds are released all over the state. Lemmon was nominated for his performance, and rightfully so, as a man who has worked for many years at this plant and doesn't want to see something horrific happen because the powers that be are worried about losing money and are willing to sacrifice possibly hundreds of thousands people.

Also earning a nomination is Jane Fonda as Kimberly Miller, a field reporter for a TV station who is given fluff assignments which brings in lots of viewers. Miller aspires to be an investigative reporter but is being held back because she's so successful with her light, happy stories. So when a problem arises with Lemmon's Jack Godell and the power plant, she has two reasons to seek out the story, career-wise and the obvious one of, well, you know, survival.

Labeling The China Syndrome as a disaster movie isn't really fair I guess. It's more so what could happen, the threat of what would happen if a nuclear power plant went through a meltdown. But the tension is there because I wasn't quite sure how far the movie was going to take the storyline. The ending is surprising, but it leaves the big picture to your interpretation. Highly enjoyed this 70s thriller!

Here's the first scene from the movie, sets the stage for what's to come.

Rear Window

I've always been aware of director Alfred Hitchcock with his movies and TV show. I've always known he's respected as one of the best directors of Hollywood's Golden Age and beyond. But even knowing that, I never really sought his movies out even though I've really enjoyed the ones I've seen, North By Northwest and Vertigo especially. So when Rear Window was on TCM this past weekend I thought I'd give it a try.

Through the first half hour or so, I thought maybe I was missing something. Jimmy Stewart is L.B. Jefferies, an out of work photographer who's been hobbled for weeks with a heavy cast on his left leg. In his small two-room apartment, Jefferies gazes out the window and keeps tabs on his neighbors because he's got nothing else to do. One night, unable to sleep but dozing off here and there, he sees a neighbor in the apartment across the courtyard, Lars Thorwald, leave and return three times with a large metal suitcase. After that, Jefferies doesn't see Thorwald's wife anymore.

Could he have murdered her and disposed of the body by cutting it up and hiding the body parts all over New York? The clues seem to point to that, and soon Jefferies has his girlfriend/fiance, Lisa, and nurse Stella, believing his wild theories too. The movie's pace picks up by the 30-minute mark and doesn't really slow down at any point. The pace hits breakneck speed in the last half hour as the trio decide to "go on the offensive" and find out what really happened.

Just like 12 Angry Men, Rear Window uses just one set for the whole movie, specifically Jefferies' little apartment and then the whole apartment complex around him. As a viewer, the whole movie is told from the perspective of the apartment with a hobbled Jefferies, sometimes from his exact POV whether it be a long-lens camera or a pair of binoculars.

So many Hitchcock thrillers are known and respected for their twist endings, but Rear Window goes down the opposite road. Are we supposed to believe Jefferies as the amateur detective? Did Thorwald actually kill his wife? The ending is good regardless, you should get butterflies during the Thorwald apartment showdown, and the same when Thorwald realizes he's being watched.

Besides Jimmy Stewart, the cast is strong all around, especially Raymond Burr in a pre-Perry Mason part as Thorwald. He's one of cinema's creepiest villains, and he doesn't even have a close-up until the last 10 or 15 minutes of the movie. I've never understood Grace Kelly's appeal when it comes to the acting department, her looks were never in question, but the future Princess of Monaco is excellent here. She starts off as the basic upper-class girlfriend, perfect in every way, but rises above the stereotypical part when she sides with Jefferies in his detective work. Character actor Thelma Ritter is great, providing some of the movie's funnier lines, as Stella, Jefferies' nurse.

So as I try to watch more Hitchcock movies, I'll admit Rear Window isn't quite what I thought it'd be, but it is an excellent movie, especially the finale. I will definitely be looking for more of Hitchcock's movies in the past. And just in case anyone was wondering, I didn't spot the director's cameo this time around.

Netflix review #3: Lost Command

Last year I was able to catch "Battle of Algiers" on TCM after hearing so many rave reviews about the almost-documentary film detailing a part of the Algerian War in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was one of the best movies I saw last year so when I saw there was a more Hollywood take on the war, I had to at least give it a try.

Lost Command tells the story of the Algerian fight for independence mostly from the French perspective, including Lt. Colonel Pierre Raspeguy's 10th Parachute Regiment as they tangle with a rebel group in the hills and then dealing with terrorists in Algiers. Anthony Quinn plays Raspeguy, a veteran soldier worn down by all the fighting but who still feels the need to accomplish his mission. The movie begins at the disastrous battle at Dien Bien Phu as the Vietminh capture the last of Raspeguy and his men.

After spending several months in a prison camp, Raspeguy and his men are released, but the colonel finds out his regiment has been disbanded. It isn't long before the French command offers him a new regiment, albeit with men that were rejects from other units. Raspeguy agrees, and with some men from his previous unit, including Alain Delon's Capt. Esclavier, begins to train his men.

The story is good, and by the end the characters are more than just cardboard cutouts. Delon is a good counter to Quinn, his Esclavier is an idealist who needs a reason to fight, not just for the thrill of it all. In an odd choice for casting, George Segal plays Mahidi, an Arab leading a group of rebels and an ex-paratrooper who served with Raspeguy. Michele Morgan and Claudia Cardinale are the love interests, with Cardinale getting a chance to play a more villainous role. Raspeguy's men include Maurice Ronet as Boisfeuras, Maurice Sarfati as Merle, Jean-Claude Bercq as Orsini, Syl Lamont as Verte, and Gordon Heath as Dia. Spaghetti western fans should look for small parts for Al Muloch and Aldo Sambrell. Also look for Gregoire Aslan.

The high points of the movie, besides the strong cast, are the action scenes. Three major set pieces are featured, the opening attack at Dien Bien Phu including a parachute drop gone horribly wrong, an ambush of the 10th Regiment by Algerian rebels, and a firefight on a mountain side as Raspeguy and his men attempt to stop Mahidi from acquiring an arms shipment. All three battles have an epic feel to them, especially the finale.

The DVD has a widescreen presentation of the movie that's never looked better and is a significant improvement from the pan-n-scan VHS tape. The Spanish locations benefit the most with the widescreen. Special features are two trailers, one for Lost Command and one for The Guns of Navarone. An action picture more than anything, I highly recommend this one.

Lost Command (1966): ***/****