Die unendliche Geschichte

 The NeverEnding Story (1984)

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen

Screenplay by Wolfgang Petersen & Herman Weigel 

Based on the novel by Michael Ende 

Stars: Barret Oliver, Noah Hathaway, Thomas Hill, Deep Roy, Tilo Prückner, Moses Gunn, Sydney Bromley, Patricia Hayes, Alan Oppenheimer, and Tami Stronach

I cannot tell you how it has been since I have seen this movie. At least 25 years. This was a part of my childhood growing up. This is not the happiest movie ever. This movie is depressing, but it has heart to it.

There is a bookworm named Bastien (Oliver) who is not well liked in his school or at home. The only place that he could escape to is in the world of books. One day, he goes into a bookshop and picks up "The NeverEnding Story." Bastien reads the story about the people of Fantasia like Atreyu, Falkor and The Nothing.

Seeing the movie this time around I thought that the Child Empress and G'mork had bigger parts in the movie. The movie is bleak in its outlook. Some of the characters gave into sadness, despair and the inevitability of death. These are heavy topics for the children's movie.

I love this journey the movie took me on. I would go back to this wondrous world again.

Rating: 9/10

The Naked Kiss

 The Naked Kiss (1964)

Written and directed by Samuel Fuller

Stars: Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael Dante, Virginia Grey, Betty Bronson, Patsy Kelly, and Marie Devereux

 A YouTube channel that I follow called MovieBitches recommended this movie recently. I saw the name Constance Towers. She looked familiar. I knew her from General Hospital as the fabulous Helena Cassidine. I knew that I was going to have a good time with this movie.

A former prostitute, Kelly (Towers) is trying to start a new life in a small town. She befriends a detective, Griff (Eisley) that tries to help her integrate in the neighborhood. Slowly but surely secrets begin to bubble to the surface. The town shows its true colors.

I am not familiar with Sam Fuller movies. I heard that they were B movies that got away with subjects that would be taboo at the time to be discussed.

I was blown away by this movie. I thought that Towers were phenomenal as Kelly. She chewed up the scenery. The opening sequence of the movie took me by surprise. The ending of the movie was a gag.

I would highly recommend this movie if you love pulpy B movies that have something to say.

 

Rating: 10/10

Top Gun

Top Gun (1986)

Directed by Tony Scott

Screenplay by Jim Cash & Jack Epps Jr & Warren Skaaren 

Based on the article, "Top Guns" by Ehud Yonay 

Stars: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer, Tom Skerritt, Michael Ironside, Tim Robbins and Meg Ryan 

With the sequel coming out in theaters, I knew that I had to see the movie that started it all. This movie is two hour dick measuring contest.

Set in the world of fighter pilots, the story is centered around Maverick (Cruise), a cocky reckless pilot that tries to go aginst the rules to be the best pilot that he could be. You have the sausage fest around with Goose (Edwards), Iceman (Kilmer), Merlin (Robbins) and others at Top Gun, an elite flight school for the top 1% of pilots. There is the token love interest of the story, Charlie (McGinnis) that has to fall for the main guy for some reason.

In my personal opinion, I do not like the archetype of Maverick, a young brash guy that is stubborn, acts like a petulant child when things don go his way. I'm not saying that Maverick is the villain of the movie. I was not rooting for him as a character. This hyper-masculine man that gets the girl, does away with authority and gets away with his antics.

Iceman was portrayed as the "villain" of the movie. I don't think he is. He saw what I saw. Maverick was on the verge of self-destruction if he doesn't get his act together. He was the voice of reason.

Hearing "Take My Breath Away" and "Danger Zone" takes you back to the 80s. I love that aspect of it. I did not get the suddenness of the romance between Maverick and Charlie. Who were the pilots fighting? The Russians? I don't know.

It's a guy movie. Cool. It's not my thing.

Rating: 6.5/10

The Godfather

The Godfather (1972)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola

Based on the novel by Mario Puzo

Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Abe Vigoda, Richard Castellano, Talia Shire, Diane Keaton, Al Lettieri, Sterling Hayden, Gianni Russo, and John Cazale

Please, don't hate me. I have never seen the movie in its entirety. I caught bits and pieces of it throughout the years. My expectations were high. Maybe they were too high.

Taking place after World War II, we follow the Corleone family as they try to take hold of the New York criminal underworld. I'm sure you all know the story by now, except me.

I had some gripes with the movie. I cannot believe that the wedding between Carlo and Connie (Russo, Shire) lasted for almost thirty minutes. Understandable to try to establish the characters. Cool. It felt stagnant to me.

The line delivery with the actors was like they had peanut butter stuck in their mouths. I could not understand what they were saying. The motivations of some characters were strange and jarring. Michael in Sicily, for example.

The time was not clear. I had to look up when the events of the movie took place. I wish Coppola put title cards or something make the audience better understand what was happening.

I know that there were some controversies with this movie with the score by Nino Rota was stolen from another composer. Al Pacino skipping the Oscars because of category fraud. I agree. Pacino had more screen time than Brando. Weird. There is also the endless slurs against almost every ethnic group. Oh, boy. I cringed.

I wanted to shout endlessly praises to the movie, but I felt that the hype of the movie made it slightly overrated to me.

Rating: 7/10 

To Have and Have Not

To Have and Have Not (1944)

Directed by Howard Hawkes

Screenplay by Jules Furthman and William Faulkner & Cleve F. Adams and Whitman Chambers

Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway

Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan, Marcel Dalio, Hoagy Carmichael, Walter Szurovy, Dolores Moran and Dan Seymour

Everyone knows the iconic that Bacall delivers about whistling. I thought I would have loved this as it was Bacall's big screen debut, but it left me adrift.

Martinique is the setting of the story during the early years of World War II. A fisherman, Harry Morgan (Bogart) is trying to make a living but with the war brewing times get hard. He is recruited by his buddy, Frenchy (Dalio) to help transport two French resistance fighters.

I did not know what to expect with this movie. The beginning of the movie is strange. Was it a comedy? No. You have Eddie (Brennan) as the drunk guy being the levity in the movie? I don't know. The movie is not that deep or depressing. It feels shallow. It's an intrigue movie that have a strange relationship between 22-year-old and a guy in his mid 40s. 

Rating: 5/10

 

B.A.D. Movie of the Week - Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

Directed by Russ Meyer

Story by Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert

Screenplay by Roger Ebert

Stars: Dolly Read, Cynthia Meyers, Marcia McBroom, David Gurian, John Lazar, Michael Blodgett, Harrison Page, Erica Gavin, Phyllis Davis, Edy Williams, and Duncan McLeod

When I was preparing to do this month of watching classic movies, I saw that the noted film critic, Roger Ebert's lone screenplay credit was this movie. Holy shit! Was he on acid or something when he wrote this?

Director Russ Meyer wanted to make it clear that this movie is not a sequel to Valley of the Dolls. I don't know whose idea was to slap together this movie and give it it's title. This movie makes VotD as fucking masterpiece.

Displaying the free love movement after Woodstock, this movie tries to tell the tale of a band trying to make a name for themselves in Los Angeles. There is the lead singer, Kelly (Read) who has an on/off relationship with the band's manager, Harris (Gurian), but booze and sex get them pulled into different directions. The drummer, Petronella-- that name is terrible by the way-- (McBroom), who tried to do wright by her beau, Emerson (Page), but temptations get the better of her. Lastly there is the bassist, Casey (Myers) who is the shy one of the group that has a secret that she has not disclosed to the girls.

I did not know what to expect with this movie. I thought it was gonna be tits and ass and nothing else. It was that, but so much more. 

Women objectified. The women having their tits out for no good reason just for the director to do it. 

The "plot" was nonsensical. I did not know what the hell was happening from one minute to the next. The choppy editing did not help matters. The drastic tonal shifts were nauseating. It was musical then a drama than a comedy than a melodrama then a horror movie all of a sudden.

I know all of the celluloid closet. I knew that when their were homosexual characters in this movie that they would be of three things: a blatant fey lisping stereotype, a sexual deviant predator or a villain that dies at the end.

This movie was nonsense in every sense of the word. Just awful. I think Ebert made the right call in not writing another script.

Rating: 2/10

 

Valley of the Dolls

Valley of the Dolls (1967)

Directed by Mark Robson

Screenplay by Helen Deutsch & Dorothy Kingsley 

Based on the novel by Jacqueline Susann

Stars: Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke, Sharon Tate, Tony Scotti, Alexander Davio, Lee Grant and Susan Hayward

I have never read a Jacqueline Susann novel, but I have heard of this movie for the longest time. This movie left me hollow like an empty pill bottle.

The story is about three women tries to navigate show business in different ways. There is Anne (Parkins) that leaves her small town for the Big Apple. She falls for the playboy agent, Lyon (Burke). There is Jennifer (Tate), a chorus girl that falls for a teen idol, Tony (Scotti) who has a secret. Lastly, there is the extremely talented, Neely (Duke) who squander her talents with a daily dose of booze and pills.

The movie is not for the faint of heat. I was surprised that this movie had a PG-13 rating. You can see Sharon Tate's tits, full nipple shown. Okay, sure. I was taken back by the homophobic slurs here directed toward the character of Ted Casablanca (Davio).

The thing I did not get was, What was the timeline from when Anne left home to the end of the movie in that alley? I had sense of what was happening. I felt that the screenwriters butchered chunks of book. There were weird jumps in the story that left me confused.

The movie is campy, but it is not a good movie.

Rating: 6/10