Risselada Blog

Under discussion:

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three  (1974)

The Warriors  (1979)

This blog entry is part of my “movie year countdown”.  To read more about that check out my first Spout filmblog entry.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

This movie is just fucking awesome!

Everything about it makes it the perfect action/thriller movie.  Well it's not strictly an action movie, but the pacing definitely feels like one.  It's very tight and exciting from the very moment it begins to the end.  It's hard to make a movie like that where the excitement feels real and not manufactured.  The film achieves this by keeping a lot of mystery and revealing bits at a time.  It also has a lot of humor and charm.

One thing I noticed as a motif in this movie was situations was the ways in which people are stereotyped.  Someone would get information about one person and make all kinds of incorrect assumptions about them.  Here's a few examples.  When Garber finally meets Inspector Daniels and you can tell he didn't expect him to be black.  People kept speculating about whether all the cop on the train might be a woman and if a woman would be capable of action.  There's absolutely no evidence one way or another but people get so obsessed by the idea.  And then when Garber finally goes up to the male cop who was on the train, he can only see him face down, but  because he has long hair he calls him "Mam".  There is also the situation where the Japanese officials from the Tokyo transit system they assume can't understand English because they never respond in English and act naturally very Japanese.  But they are embarrassed when they talk crap about them and realize they understood the whole time.  There is also the situation of all of the assumptions that they make when trying to track down the perpetrator.  I wish I would have written them down but there are many more examples.  For some reason this motif made the movie just seem even more full.  It didn't seem forced or cliché and it pushed the script into perfection.

Seriously this movie is tight.  All the roles are written and cast perfectly.

The woman who sleeps through the whole ordeal on the subway just kills me too.  See, I love when movies play with this kind of seriousness and hilarity simultaneously.  But it's a difficult thing to pull off.  The funny has to be brilliant and the seriously has to be intense.

But oooooh NO NO NO NO NO!  Doing research for this review I have realized that Tony Scott is going to be remaking this wonderful movie!!  Well it was based on a novel, so maybe technically he is doing a new adaptation rather than a remake, but what is the point when it has already been done so perfectly.  And look who is going to be cast.  John Travolta and Denzel Washington!! NO NO.  This does not bode well.  How can Denzel play Gerber and still have the moment where he is surprised the police inspector is black!  Well maybe you could say that it just wouldn't happen these days.  Well in that case maybe this movie is really about the early 70's.  Heck if they are going to make it for current times aren't many of the procedures for the subway going to be totally different?  I read on wikipedia (so it may be dubious) that the system for naming trains is different now anyways so the title shouldn't even be called Pelham One Two Three.  Anyways they could always update everything for the current day and age, but I'm not sure if I trust this team of filmmakers.  Apparently he is also remaking The Warriors too!  WTF!  ****, why did my review of such an awesome movie have to turn into this tangent of ill foreboding?

Rating: 10/10

Under discussion:

Tommy  (1975)

This blog entry is part of my “movie year countdown”.  To read more about that check out my first Spout filmblog entry.

Tommy

Ok this movie is just ridiculous.  I'm not sure if I would have liked it more if I had been more familiar with all of the music first, but something just feel uncomfortable about it.  Maybe I'd like it more if I was stoned.  Although I usually don't like being stoned, but I mean if I did.

I did watch the Pinball Wizard section over a few more times before I returned the DVD.  I'm not sure if it's because it's the most familiar song in the movie, or because the sequence is just plain awesome, or because Elton John brings something extra, but that part seems to exceed the rest of the movie.  Except for maybe Fiddle About!  Keith Moon is a real creep!

The mom and dad were just plain annoying.  Tina Turner I have always found extremely frightening and disturbing.  And that scene where they are basically wallowing around in chocolate or shit or whatever just seems pretentious.

Rating: 5/10

Under discussion:

Pumping Iron  (1976)

This blog entry is part of my “movie year countdown”.  To read more about that check out my first Spout filmblog entry.

Pumping Iron

As is the case with many behind-the-scenes documentaries, what is actually behind-the-scenes of the documentary itself is even more interesting.

There is a lot here that was essentially faked or constructed for purposes of interesting narrative.

Arnold Essentially created a character for himself.  He had already retired from Body Building and was only convinced to try for the Mr. Universe title again by the filmmakers who knew there was no doubt he would win from the start.  The idea that Lou Farrigno ever had a chance was ridiculous, but they played up that idea and a rivalry that never really existed.  Arnold stated later that he was not playing himself straight, but basically a character of himself.  He made up a lot of lies and said a lot of outrageous things to make the movie seem more interesting.  There were story lines with other characters that were essentially fabricated as well.  If you are interested, check out the DVD commentary and special features.

Not to say that there aren't a lot of true moments in the movie, but if you are watching this to see a true early Arnold realize that it may be to him that this was actually just one of his earlier acting gigs to some extent.  Although obviously a role he knew a lot about.

Also watch the special features for some interesting deleted scenes with Bud Cort.

Rating: 7/10