Overlong but exciting Cold War thriller that gets off to a terrific start when a young tourist calls the U.S. Embassy in Moscow with a startling revelation. This leads Sam Hollis (military intelligence), Lisa Rhodes (press attache), and Seth Alevy (CIA bureau chief) on a mission to discover the secret behind a mysterious Soviet facility known as the Charm School. DeMille preserves the mystery as long as possible, then substitutes a certain moral ambiguity to keep things interesting. Peppered with the author's usual invigorating dialogue. And it's all set against a finely detailed and realistic portrait of the USSR.
****
Overlong but exciting Cold War thriller that gets off to a terrific start when a young tourist calls the U.S. Embassy in Moscow with a startling revelation. This leads Sam Hollis (military intelligence), Lisa Rhodes (press attache), and Seth Alevy (CIA bureau chief) on a mission to discover the secret behind a mysterious Soviet facility known as the Charm School. DeMille preserves the mystery as long as possible, then substitutes a certain moral ambiguity to keep things interesting. Peppered with the author's usual invigorating dialogue. And it's all set against a finely detailed and realistic portrait of the USSR.
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**** Basically Dudley Moore doing a drunk act for 97 minutes, but it's an awfully funny act. He plays a super-rich playboy (emphasis on the "boy") whose family has decided to cut him off from his $750 million inheritance unless he marries the woman of their choice. Then he meets a penniless waitress (Liza Minnelli) and falls in love. The excellent supporting cast, especially Minnelli and Geraldine Fitzgerald as Arthur's ruthless grandmother, is topped by John Gielgud, whose sarcastic yet infinitely mature Hobson, Arthur's old English gentleman valet, grounds Arthur and the entire film. Gielgud snagged an Oscar for his performance, as did the theme song, "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can do)," performed by Christopher Cross. Director/writer Gordon died the next year, at 44. ** Decent low-budget affair set in the African jungle. Sultry Allison Hayes plays Tonda, a “voodoo queen” who would rather have the young and handsome leader of a passing expedition than her much older doctor husband. The voodoo rites aren’t as compelling as those in I Walked With a Zombie, but, like the entire film, they aren’t that bad, either. One poor native woman loses her husband twice. Definitely worth a look for fans of classic, low-budget horror. * Four children are locked away in an attic so that their greedy mother can get her hands on their grandfather's fortune. Escapist nonsense that is as prurient as it is badly written (the Fifty Shades of Grey of the 1970s and, for its time, just as popular). Stuffed with some of the worst, most laughable dialogue ever published. Devoid of any artistic merit whatsoever. In short, pure genius. Followed by a career. ** Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan (Laura Prepon) tries to protect a 10-year-old girl (Jamie Bloch) targeted by a serial killer who wants Eve to relive the murder of her own daughter, years before. A Lifetime Original Movie. With cookie-cutter characters, unbelievable situations, and a ludicrous payoff. Borrows the decibel meter from shows like Law & Order to ensure the monotonous delivery of dialogue. Based on the second book in Iris Johansen's Eve Duncan series of novels. *** When a little girl is kidnapped by spirits, her distressed family hires paranormal investigators to help get her back. Unusual haunted house yarn opens in a comic vein then turns scary as the ghosts become increasingly violent. Unfortunately, the calamitous third act is nothing more than a tangential excuse to showcase a non-stop barrage of special effects. Otherwise, this is a funny, suspenseful film, with a few good PG scares, and a unique sense of wonder. Starring Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, and Heather O'Rourke as the little girl. Remade in 2015. **** A man becomes obsessed with the strange, suicidal woman he is asked by her husband to keep an eye on, a woman who may be the reincarnation of an ancestor who herself committed suicide years before. Clever and atmospheric French mystery, with obvious supernatural overtones, heavily weighted toward the psychological aspect of the case: the man -- lonely, insecure, and desperate -- latches onto the woman as his one shot at happiness. The authors effectively capture the man's contradictory and often self-defeating state of mind while providing some startling twists along the way. The basis for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and also published under that title, though the original title is more apt. ***** Fascinating crime drama about two kids -- a 25-year-old misfit and the impressionable 15-year-old girl who falls for him, neither of whom have anything remotely resembling a conscience -- forced to go on the lam after the boy kills the girl's disapproving father. Features outstanding performances by both its young leads, Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, with the latter shining even in her narration. Always believable, even as the body count mounts, and cleverly entertaining: Sheen's bad-boy charm and Spacek's naïveté alleviate much of the horror without diluting the underlying and terrifying truth of what it means to be without empathy. Loosely based on the crimes of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. ** Arnold Schwarzenegger is about the only reason to see this unconvincing time-jumble in which just about anything can happen, and does. As much a pastiche of the first two films as a story in its own right, this one features an alternate reality in which Sarah was taken in hand by Schwarzenegger's Terminator at the age of seven so by the time Reese arrives in 1984 it is she (and Arnold) who help him rather than the other way around. He needs help because Skynet has been replaced by the super-program Genisys (amusingly described as an "app" at one point) and Genisys is about to take over the world. With the help, of course, of another brand new Terminator. But when anything goes, nothing matters, and with its overlapping timelines and alternate reality premise the whole thing comes off as ennervatingly pointless. The special effects are all right, though, even if the characters interacting with them are much less engaging here than in Terminator I and II. |
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