Night of the Creeps -- Fred Dekker
Pretty much everything I expected from the director of Monster Squad, though it doesn't reach the same highs. Night of the Creeps is fun '80s horror through and through. Jerk-ass frat boys. Nerdy protagonist who desires an unattainable girl. Wacky sidekick. Alien slugs that will enter you through any available orifice and turn you into a braindead zombie. Nearly all of the characters are named after horror directors, not to mention the school is Corman University. Perhaps my favorite realization of all is that Jason Lively plays the main character, Chris Romero. He looked familiar, but I couldn't place him. It's Rusty from National Lampoon's European Vacation! I'm just happy that he has more than one credit even if he is the least of the Rusty's.
Who's Harry Crumb? -- Paul Flaherty
While Night of the Creeps is everything great about '80s horror, Who's Harry Crumb? is pretty much everything you expect out of '80s comedy, which is a mixed blessing. The music is horrible, the movie looks pretty terrible, and many of the gags must have felt tired upon release let alone watching it today. But there's something about John Candy playing a lovable (and occasionally competent) goofball that's totally winning and there's some inspired silliness. The cast is really the best part of Who's Harry Crumb? and while it's not bad, I feel like it could have been a lot better, which is the status quo with most '80s comedy. Incidentally, director Paul Flaherty is Joe Flaherty's brother.
Elmer Gantry -- Richard Brooks
Elmer Gantry kind of blew me away. Whenever I get a movie from Netflix that's over two hours, I get a little nervous, but I was hooked the whole way through the 2.5 hour run time. It's rare that I think about a performance in terms of awards, but it didn't take long for Burt Lancaster to have me thinking, "If he didn't win the Academy Award, there is something terribly wrong with the world." I guess the world is OK since he did win (and the film won a few other awards, too). Shirley Jones' (who also won and Oscar) presence is interesting to me for two reasons: until I saw The Music Man a few weeks ago, I was unaware she had a career outside of The Partridge Family and both films she's in that I've seen are about flim-flam men/salesmen. Great film.
Never Let Me Go -- Mark Romenek
Never have I seen a movie about cloning and organ harvesting that is so boring. It doesn't even matter to me that the film is so deliberate as much as that I don't give a damn about the characters. And maybe I'm remembering Never Let Me Go with hate-tinted sunglasses, but it feels like the film was nothing but exposition. I'm getting impatient even trying to remember specifics about the film. Moving on...
A Man for All Seasons -- Fred Zinneman
I'm not sure why I was interested in seeing A Man for All Seasons except that I'm reading This Is Orson Welles right now and Robert Shaw is awesome. I'm not unhappy I saw it, but it took a while for the film to hook me. Once Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield) started getting pinned in a corner and Thomas Cromwell (Leo McKern, who rules in the role) starts getting angry, the film is a lot of fun. It just takes a while to get to that point. The best thing to say about it is that the acting is pretty amazing. I just wish Robert Shaw's King Henry was more prominent.
The Stranger -- Orson Welles
Speaking of Welles, this is direct result from reading the aforementioned book. I had to watch it before Peter Bogdanovich and he talked about it. There isn't a whole lot of love between those two for The Stranger, but it's an effective thriller about a Nazi hiding out in America. It's notable as being one of, if not the, only film directed by Welles to turn a profit and for being the first film to show actual Holocaust footage. I'm inclined to be easier on the film and say it's definitely worth checking out.
Stray Dog -- Akira Kurosawa
Toshiro Mifune. Takashi Shimura. Kurosawa. C'mon. How can it not be good. A rookie cop has his gun stolen on a bus and someone starts killing people with it. The rookie cop delves into Tokyo's underworld to get it back. Simple, but awesome. I was particularly fascinate by set piece that takes place at a baseball game. Knowing little about Japan's relationship with baseball, I don't know how long they'd been playing, but I certainly didn't know their professional league existed in 1949. Maybe it's because I currently have baseball fever, but I was fascinated by the footage. I think I might have to start considering Kurosawa one of my favorite directors in light of how many of his films I like.
The Grifters -- Stephen Frears
I was totally on board after the opening credits (with amazing music by Elmer Bernstein) and the triple split screen, but The Grifters did not follow a path that a expected or particularly enjoyed. It's a fine movie and all that, but if I'm watching a movie about grifters, well, I want to see more grifting! It did offer the surprise of seeing Annette Bening naked. A lot. And I swear that Jane Leeves is an extra in a scene inside of an office (no confirmation on that, though). But overall, I was disappointed. I'd think a lot higher of the film if they made one minor tweak to the ending, but it's too late for that now (unless you're George Lucas).
Evolution -- Ivan Reitman
I vaguely remember some of the complaints about this film upon it's release, mostly that it was lacking in humor. And they're right. For a comedy, it's not all that funny, but it's never boring, which is an important distinction (I think, at least). It's mildly amusing (although it goes to low-brow humor a bit too frequently) but it's fun to watch the aliens evolve. It's kind of like when Will Smith's character in Men In Black goes into the headquarters for the first time and sees all of the aliens. The script was initially a straight forward sci-fi horror effort until Reitman got a hold of it. I'd say the biggest reason this didn't turn out like Ghostbusters is that the rapport between Duchovny, Jones, and Scott is a pale comparison to that of the Murray, Ramis, and Ackroyd (who makes an appearance). It also helps that the latter three honed their comedic chops in improv and SNL for years.
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