Ex-lawman takes up the badge again to go after the men who tried to lynch him for a crime he didn't commit. Good Western despite script that refuses to stay on point, partly because Clint Eastwood plays this character so convincingly and partly because the story's digressions are interesting in themselves. It's a pleasure, for instance, to see both sides of the issue of capital punishment treated with respect. Excellent supporting cast includes Pat Hingle as a hanging judge and Bruce Dern as one of the lynch mob.
***
Ex-lawman takes up the badge again to go after the men who tried to lynch him for a crime he didn't commit. Good Western despite script that refuses to stay on point, partly because Clint Eastwood plays this character so convincingly and partly because the story's digressions are interesting in themselves. It's a pleasure, for instance, to see both sides of the issue of capital punishment treated with respect. Excellent supporting cast includes Pat Hingle as a hanging judge and Bruce Dern as one of the lynch mob.
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** Sinbad the Sailor (Kerwin Mathews) forges an uneasy alliance with a crafty magician (Torin Thatcher) to sail to a dangerous island where Sinbad can reverse the spell that has left his fiancée (Kathryn Grant) only a few inches tall and the magician, not-so-coincidentally, can recover the magic lamp he covets. No doubt a delight for single-minded stop-motion animation fans (Ray Harryhausen shows us a giant cyclops, a snake woman, a dragon, and more), the clunky acting and dialogue are likely to turn away everyone else -- along with a weak story that is ultimately built around a lamp that seems hardly worth the effort, in spite of the boy genie it contains. ** Koontz shoots his wad with the ominous first half of this science fiction novel about a beautiful young woman who finds herself trapped in her own home, held prisoner by a sentient computer, the "enviromod" that runs the entire house. Degenerates rapidly thereafter as Koontz gives increasingly more time to the computer itself and its adolescent desire for sex and procreation. Made into a film in 1977 starring Julie Christie, and rewritten by the author in 1997 as entirely from the computer's point of view. ***** Outstanding thriller starring Gregory Peck as a lawyer whose testimony sent a violent man to prison eight years ago. Now the man (Robert Mitchum) is out and seeking revenge on Peck through his wife and daughter. Excellent if not entirely faithful adaptation makes several changes to John D. MacDonald's novel The Executioners, but unlike Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake, which muddied the waters of the plot with infidelity and discord in the hero's family, the alterations here streamline the story and allow the tension and suspense to build to a very satisfying climax. Not as explicit as the later film, either, but just as rough in its evocative innuendo. Peck and Mitchum make weighty (rather than flashy) adversaries. Top-notch. *** Tongue in cheek spy thriller has professor (Gregory Peck) turning spy to translate a hieroglyphic cipher for one Arab group so that he can turn it over to another, but he can't decide whether the mistress (Sophia Loren) of one of the Arabs is helping him or setting him up. Mix of humor and action doesn't add up to much, yet is superficially entertaining. And when it isn't, you can make a game of spotting all the times director Donen shoots the action in reflections -- off mirrors, a chandelier, fish tanks, and so on. Based on Gordon Cotler's novel The Cypher. **** Fine character study, even if the author himself doesn't appear to understand him. Meursault is a young Algerian man who never quite does anything the way society expects him to, including murder. He drifts through life entirely in the present, without regrets, without deep attachments, without empathy, and without a conscience. He is, in a word, pathological. The character is both beautifully consistent and remarkably true to life, and because Camus himself introduced murder into the equation, it might be said that this book provides excellent insight into a type of real life murderer, showing us that they aren't Jekyll and Hydes at all but how instead, for them, horror and normality spring from the same source and are connected by indifference. Nothing really frightening happens in this book, yet it is one of the scariest books you will ever read. Yet Camus later wrote of Meursault that he is a man "condemned because he does not play the game," which makes the poor guy sound like a victim himself. In fact, he is, just not for the reason Camus offers. At one point in the story, Meursault muses that he could have done things differently had he chosen to, and Camus seems to believe this. Yet the portrait he draws proves just the opposite: that Meursault is a man who is what he is, a victim of the genetic lottery, even less likely to act against his nature than the rest of us, being somewhat simpler than everyone else for the lack of certain basic human characteristics. This lack makes him fascinating, but we might all be better off if we reserved the bulk of our sympathy for his victim. ** Set 10 years after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn opens with men and apes coexisting by staying out of each other’s way. But with his fuel stockpile running out and in desperate need of power for his city, human Malcolm (Jason Clarke) leads a small team into ape Caesar’s (Andy Serkis) forest home to ask permission to repair a hydroelectric dam. Nuts in each camp — led by Koba (Toby Kebbell) in the ape enclave and Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) in Zone 2, the human city — would rather wipe out the other side and be done with it. Frankly amazing ape effects that are so real they rarely amaze lay bare an all-too-conventional story of enemies learning to respect and care for each other. A movie with no surprises and little to delight the audience (other than a cute scene with a baby ape). And, in spite of the bad guys of both species understanding “human” nature better than their peace-loving leaders, no irony or satire either. Less a science fiction film than a slow-starting action movie, but well made. ***** Adroit adaptation of Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac's novel The Living and the Dead sees acrophobic James Stewart hired to keep an eye on suicidal Kim Novak and falling in love with her. A mystery-thriller with supernatural overtones: Novak believes she is the reincarnation of her great-grandmother, who killed herself years before. An adult thriller on every level, this fascinating and unpredictable movie gets better with each new twist. By no means universally acclaimed on its initial release (with Variety's "Stef." going so far as to give away the last minute of the film, before tossing the whole thing off as "only a psychological murder mystery"), it was widely praised on its 1983 reissue and is now seen as one of the best movies ever made. With terrific performances all around, unflinching dialogue, and several standout scenes, including a haunting (and humbling) sequence among California's aged redwoods. ** Young spiritualist teams with old Indian medicine man to battle an evil spirit growing like a tumor on the body of an attractive young woman. Turns out the spirit belongs to a seventeenth century Native American who isn't too pleased with the white man. Masterton's first novel is sort of the kiddie (and possibly kidding) version of The Exorcist, mixed with superficial Indian lore, modern technology, and H. P. Lovecraft. Told in an irreverent tone to match the spiritualist's narration (he's a happy charlatan), but with buckets of blood and gore. Not amusing enough to be funny and not believable enough to be scary. Made into a movie in 1978, and followed by several sequels. ***** Tense, exciting, and ultimately moving legal drama that takes place almost entirely in a jury room, where twelve men must decide the fate of a young man from the slums accused of killing his father; at first, only one man (Henry Fonda) believes the kid may not be guilty, but can he convince the others? Excellent script, superbly acted, full of animosity, prejudice, and reason as the jurors kick around the evidence and each other. Fabulous cast includes Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Martin Balsam, and others. Powerful ending. |
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