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Reviews
Miracle Mile (1988)
Disturbingly Haunting
This movie is not new or even new to video, but you most likely did not see it at a theater nor have you rented it. You should. This is a great little sleeper of a movie. My wife and I saw it at the theater when it opened in 1989, and what we saw we found very disturbing (this is the universal sign of a good film, if it freaks you out, it is well written and directed). Miracle Mile stars Anthony Edwards (before ER and after Revenge of the Nerds) as Harry, a young man who meets and falls in love with Julie, Mare Winningham, at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles (this area of LA is known as the Miracle Mile). They make a date to meet later that night at a coffee shop, but Harry oversleeps. He rushes to the coffee shop anyway, but Julie is long gone. While waiting around out side the coffee shop the pay phone rings and Harry answers it. The frantic party of the other end, who thinks he is talking to his father but has dialed the wrong number, tells Harry that the US has just launched its nuclear missiles at the Soviet Union and that the Soviet nukes are already inbound. He has an hour to get out of LA. Harry then hears a gun shot on the other end of the phone and a different voice comes on and tells him to ignore the call. But can he? Is Harry the victim of a brutal practical joke, or does he really know the world is about to end?
Harry doesn't know what the truth is, but as he tells those around him what may be happening, all hell slowly starts to break loose in the early morning hours along the Miracle Mile. If it is true, Harry knows he can not leave LA without Julie. He has an hour to find the woman he loves, and get out of Los Angeles, or does he? Miracle Mile leaves you guessing to the end. This film is full of startling images of a world quickly going mad, and I give full credit to director Steve De Jarnatt. Unfortunately, in the bottom line town of Hollywood, you have to make money to make movies. Miracle Mile was a box office bomb, taking in a little over 1/3 of the 3 million it cost to make, and except for some work on the X-Files, we have not seen much from Steve since. That is a down-right shame, but don't let that deter you from seeing this wonderfully quirky little film. You may not come away liking Miracle Mile, but like all good films, you won't be able to stop thinking about it or the images it presented.
ADDENDUM 2002: New Years day I caught a showing of Miracle Mile on cable and the film still holds up wonderfully. With the end of the Soviet Union the fear is not quite as present as in 1989 (but with Bush in office, ya can't be too sure), but the film is gripping in its depiction of how diverse people handle what they think is the end of the world. This film is really, really worth the effort to seek out and view.
Meet Joe Black (1998)
Your Thanksgiving Turkey Has Arrived!
I was not at all surprised to see four writers on the credits for this film, as it is such an inconstant mish-mash of one ill-defined character after another. There was no way only one thinking person wrote this film. The film moves ponderously from one glacially paced scene after another. I saw this movie at 8:00 in the evening and by 9:00 my son had to shake me because I was snoring in the theater. I don't recall ever falling asleep during a movie before, but "Meet Joe Black" did it to me. It is hard to say how long I was "out" for. The same scene I was watching when I lost consciousness was still on when I was awakened. In this film that could mean I was out for a second or two or for 10 minutes. The scenes just go on and on and on with not much of anything being said.
My wife was crying through the whole picture and was deeply moved by the whole affair. When I asked her why she said the truths of the movie touched her. To save you from three hours of trite tediousness I present those truths to you now: 1). Families should love one another, 2) don't marry unless you are in love, and 3) good people don't have to fear death. I would add to this list: 1) You can fall in love with someone if he looks like Brad Pitt even though his personality changes repeatedly and you have no idea who he is, 2) death does not know what peanut butter is, but can slip in and out of a Jamaican riff at the drop of a hat, and 3) overly contrived plotting is not the dead art we all hoped it would be by now.
Now before I start hearing the obvious `This guy just hates Brad Pitt' remarks, you should know that I am the Brad Pitt fan in my house. I think Brad is a wonderful actor, but he is so wasted in this drivel. Likewise, Anthony Hopkins has nowhere to go with this script. Is he the hard-driven businessman with a lust for life so great that he attracts the attention of death itself, or is he the guy wasting away his few remaining hours on this planet playing solitaire? Is he the shrewd businessman who is in constant control of every situation, fast thinking and powerful, or is he a guy who stands there with a dumb, dull look on his face when questioned about the mysterious Joe Black, letting his company slip through his fingers? One minute he is calm and collected in his dealings with death, the next he explodes, saying he's fed up, the next he's calm again, and back and forth. Hopkins is a wonderful actor; unfortunately this script asked him to play three or four different roles as the same character.
My son is a good boy and a wonderful son. however, if he were a great son he would have let me sleep through the rest of this film. I can tell it's getting close to Thanksgiving, the turkey just arrived.
The Manitou (1978)
You'll laugh so hard, your sides will ache!
Dreadful! I remember seeing this film like it was yesterday, not 20 years ago. It was 1978, John Carpenter's "Halloween" had just come out and my friends and I were feeling that horror films were entering a new, fresh beginning, a renaissance. We were awaiting each new horror film with giddy anticipation. Then "The Manitou" came out!
This has got to be Tony Curtis's worst performance ever. I remember the whole audience laughing at certain scenes. Not that it is all Tony's fault, the writing induces most of the laughs all on its own. There is a scene late in the movie where Curtis talks about the "Manitou" or Indian spirit in a typewriter(!!!) that sent the theater into hysterics.
If you want to know just how bad a horror film can be, rent "The Manitou" and you'll find out!
In Search of the Obelisk (1993)
Luxor's Showscan Ride
This film is part of a three part ride in the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas Nevada. It is shot in Trumbull's Showscan format which projects 70mm film at 60 frames per second, which is the same rate the human brain processes visual information. The end result is something that looks real rather than like a projected movie.
The film itself is rather insipid, a silly search for an obelisk that is hard to follow, but the technique is amazing to view. At one point you are watching what appears to be a live TV talk show being filmed on a stage in front of you. In actuality, you are watching a movie, but he illusion is so real that actors come out an stand in front of the screen and you can't tell them apart from the filmed actors. It is amazing.
Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
De Palma Shows His Stuff!
This was the movie where Brian De Palma proved himself to Hollywood. A little bit Faust, a little bit The Picture of Dorian Gray, and a lot of the Phantom of the Opera, De Palma mixes the horror classics of old with the drugged out Rock and Roll subculture and the business that runs it. Early De Palma complete with multiple split-screen shots (one of the few directors who could ever pull this off effectivly) and long tracking shots (a staple of De Palma's). De Palma plays with the art of film the way the character Swan plays with everyone else in the world.
Paul Williams is amazing as Swan, part Billy Graham, part Phil Spector, a ruthless businessman who is all showman. Williams also provides a number of great songs. Particularly interesting is the use of a single song three times in the film, with different lyrics, played as a Beach Boys surfer -type pop hit, a heavy metal screaming glam-rock piece, and a traditional woman's pop love song.
The move contains the first big roles for Gerrit Graham and the wonderful Jessica Harper (who should of has a singing carreer after this). Both are just great as is George Memmoli as the slimey, sweaty Philbin.
William Finley is Winslow Leach, the Phantom of the Paradise, a struggling rock composer whose music falls into the hands of the evil Swan while his heart falls for the lovely Phoenix. Finley plays the character just right, so that as his life is slowly destroyed by Swan we can't help but pull for the hapless Winslow.
But this movie is about fun and De Palma and his entire cast are having a ball. Archie Hahn, Jeffery Commanor, and Harold Oblong are the Three Stooges of pop, doing sight-gags in the background of scenes and playing most of the musicians in most of the bands. And nothing it too outrageous for De Palma. From exquisitely produced concert scenes to the Phantom getting his face deformed in a record press, The Phantom of the Paradise is a wonder to behold.