Change Your Image
Guido_TheKillerPimp
Reviews
Incident on a Dark Street (1973)
Mmmm Breathe deep the cheesiness of this TV Movie (or failed pilot you decide)
What does an actor do when his TV show gets cancelled? Well, if you are William Shatner you slap on a ridiculous moustache and lambchop sideburns combo and audition as a heavy in a Pilot about the day-to-day action-packed life of the District Attorney office of Los Angeles County. What does a cast-off of a TV Western do? Well if you are David Canary you follow in the successful footsteps of your former Bonanza co-star Pernell Roberts and star in a Pilot about another public service organization in a major California city (no wait "San Francisco International" (1970) failed as a Pilot) With talent like this where can "An Incident On A Dark Street" round out the cast hey how about second banana "The Godfather" Italian Stereotypes? Please tell me what was up with Richard S. Castellano?? (formerly "That fat Clemenza") As a second-generation Sicilian-American on both sides of my family I am not offended that he portrays a Sicilian as a mobster as much as he portrays a Sicilian as a monosyllabic mush-mouthed idiot who takes pets to bed with him in an apartment furnished in early-rathole. After his incredible emoting during his first meeting with David Canary's character I was wishing it was him who was killed instead of his brother, portrayed by Tony Giorgio (formerly Bruno Tataglia). And Frank, paisan, when you stick your hand down a culvert expecting to touch a leather satchel of incriminating evidence against the Leopold Organized Crime Family (Leopold is Sicilian?!, must be that offshoot of that hell-raising Franco-Sicilian Mob my grandfather told me about on Palermo's lower east side
) and instead feel something metal you don't pull on it MINGIA! With guys like this in the Mob there is not much more work that DA James Olson will have to do before he retires and allows himself to get beamed back to the alien planet that spawned him. I mean c'mon is there anybody weirder looking that James Olson? Bob on Soap comes off less wooden than this guy! But thank god that we can round out the DA staff with the likes of Robert Pine and David Doyle. Robert Pine? Did this guy do anything after his weekly witty repartee at morning Roll Call with Ponch and John on CHiPs? And David Doyle? I don't know what it is about this guy but in this movie he just exudes oiliness. After watching him I get this unsettling feeling he may have rode around with the undercover cops on that pederasty case a LITTLE too long. (What's a pederast Walter? Shut the F*** Up, Donnie) But don't sell Mr. Doyle short; the one star I give this movie is attributed to his performance as the Bad Cop in the Bad Cop-Good Cop interrogation worked on our favorite morbidly obese goombah priceless! I would have given this movie two stars but it lacked enough 70's pilot stalwarts. Give me Max Gail, Clu Gulagher, OK even Stuart Margolin and then maybe two stars. And how about more scenes with Shatner and his blond honey in the babydoll lingerie? The fact this outfit even made it to TV was interesting So if you are looking for that cheesy smell that went out with the '70s, "An Incident on a Dark Street" will allow you to reminisce with plenty of unintentional comedy
Der amerikanische Freund (1977)
Dennis Hopper gives real life to Tom Ripley in Wim Wenders truly atmospheric film
Any reader and fan (of which I am both) of Patricia Highsmith would reject the placement of this film in the "Noir" category. Highsmith was the author of several novels involving Tom Ripley. "The American Friend" is based on "Ripley's Game." Although born in Texas, Highsmith spent most of her adult life in Europe. The Europeon experience is an important feature of her novels. An even more important feature, one which seems to permeate every page, is a feeling much more than "Noir." This is not so much "Noir"; which, unfortunately, has grown to be synonymous with "Crime" in American Noir films of the past twenty years, as is an absence of morality. This amorality, personified in Tom Ripley is wonderfully fleshed out by Wim Wenders' direction of Dennis Hopper in "The American Friend". Ripley is a self-involved narcissist who breaks the monotony of his naval-staring to ruin the life of several people just to see if it can be done. His focus is Jonathan Zimmerman, an Ubermensch with a pre-school age son and an extremely devoted wife scraping out a life as a picture-framer while dealing with a chronic illness. Wenders completely places the viewer in Zimmerman's world as he putters around his shop between the occasional framing job only to come home to a horribly cramped apartment in the worst part of Hamburg. The viewer may be put off at the way the film plods along at times, but this is all part of the palette from which Wenders paints a world of futility for Zimmerman (and shared by residents of the post WWII/pre end of Cold War West Germany) as he begins to believe his illness is closing in around him worse than his life. The patient viewer allows a Wenders film to wash over them and breathes deep the atmosphere Wenders conveys - even if this atmosphere is terribly dreadful and smothering. Through his agent, Reeves, Ripley gives Zimmerman a chance to do right by his family by becoming a hit men of mobsters. The world closes in even more on Zimmerman as Reeves directs Zimmerman to perform the killing on a train. As Wenders moves his characters across Europe he transports the viewer within the dangerous pages of a Highsmith novel where the most everyday people are one step away the most horrible of acts. Who do we most identify with...Zimmerman?...Ripley? How close are we to these personas under the right - or wrong - circumstances. Give "The American Friend" a try and find out for yourself.
Ed Wood (1994)
Johnny Depp and Martin Landau shine atop this stellar cast
After fashioning the stylistic achievements of "Batman", and "Edward Scissorhands", Tim Burton is directing a true subtle gem in "Ed Wood," opting for substance over style while plumbing the depths of "the worst director of all time." But what-a-minute? If Wood was such a bad director why do Midnight screenings of double-bills -- "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "Glen or Glenda", sell-out today? Burton seeks the answer by giving the viewer a look behind the man and the rag-tag group of devotees he leads. And who better to play the man than Johnny Depp. Fresh off his work with Burton on "Edward Scissorhands," Depp continues to show through his undercharged brand of acting that he is truly destined for greater things. He plays Wood as the arch-typical gee-whiz nice guy who at any moment could come undone from the unvented personalities floating inside him who demand an audience. Is it any shock that this man should become a director; projecting that need to draw from people something that may be unknown to even them? He is the Sunday-Morning garage sale hunter looking for treasure among junk. The people he collects don't understand his vision but trust him implicitly. Leading this group is Martin Laundau playing Bela Lugosi which such ferocity he seems to be channeling him. I have never met Bela Lugosi, but I am convinced that if I had I would of met a washed-up actor addled by drug abuse and embittered by the Hollywood's throw-away style of handling old actors. Wood cannot help but gush when meeting Lugosi for the first time and continues to treat him as a legend throughout their relationship. Does Lugosi continue to help in Wood's endeavors for the money or the adulation? The talent does not end with Landau and Depp. This talented cast produce standout performances: Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Bill Murray, Mike Starr, and Jeffrey Jones are never unbelievable in their pursuit of Silver Screen immortality. Put all these personalities together in the struggle to make movies and "Ed Wood" never lets the viewer down.
Beat the Devil (1953)
It's Amazing What You Can Get For A Dollar!!
Combine the inexpensive nature of processing DVDs with little or no rights remaining on a film and its amazing what you can find at your local "Cheapo Depot." In this case it's a great John Huston directed film written by Truman Capote with a cast of n'er-do-wells that looked like they just fell out of a panel of a Dick Tracy comic strip! O.K., the film was made in the 50s. OK, it is in Black & White. OK Paris Hilton shows more pathos in her debut "film" then Gina Lollabrigida does in this one. But there is still an interesting story and the dialogue between Bogie and the Bad Guys is first rate! Peter Lorre, Robert Morley and Ivor Barnard lead an excellent supporting ensemble cast. And speaking of Peter Lorre: if you are lucky, you may find the 1934 version of the "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (starring Peter Lorre)at the same Dollar Store.
Birdy (1984)
An Incredible Atmospheric Film -- See it on a big screen if you can
I first saw this movie when it was released in 1984 at an art house strictly for the reason that Peter Gabriel had written the soundtrack. I had never heard of Nicolas Cage and barely heard of Matthew Modine. I was also interested at the prospect that this was an "Alan Parker Film." I had no idea what the movie was about and therefore had no preconceptions; which I believe is the best way to go into a movie -- especially a good one! What I saw was incredible. The fact that Nicolas Cage had virtually his entire face bandaged through the "current" scenes of the film and yet could still evince the feelings of a man suffering with post-war trauma said a great deal about his acting prowess. What really moved me about Birdy was its atmospheric quality. From the Brooklyn mean streets, where the boys grew up, to the asylum, to the first person view of Birdy's pet parakeet, Alan Parker's direction filled these experiences with life and verve. Of course, combine this with a Peter Gabriel soundtrack that was both familiar and alien to the Peter Gabriel fan and you have one excellent film.