Windbreaker!

The Long Goodbye is a decent noirish flick, but there are sooooooo many other titles out there I'd recommend first.  The only reason I watched this is the luxury of fast-turnaround Blockbuster Online DVDs.

The highlight for me was Henry Gibson.  That guy makes any movie watchable, even if he's only onscreen 5 minutes.

I'm very, very irritated with Frank Darabont right now.  The first half of The Mist had so much promise, but the second half turned ridiculous.  And I'm not talking ridiculous in the sense of creatures lurking in an ominous mist outside the store where you're trapped -- I'm talking ridiculous in the sense of what normal people might do when faced with real terror.  History tells us that mass suicide is not a likely scenario.

What *really* turned me off was the phony Bible-thumping character.  So much so that once her role escalated, I never recovered.  I could not bring myself back to the feeling I had in the first 60 minutes -- extremely nervous due to the claustorphobic nature of the set.  She was phony because Darabont didn't bother trying to make this woman 1% believable.  Does ANYONE in Hollywood know a born-again Christian?  Anyone?!  Half of her poppycock dialogue alleged to be biblical prophesy was just wild ad-lib on Darabont's part.  Bah!

And the "shock" finale was just that -- shock value.  No merit.  (I'll be kind and warn you to turn away if you don't want to be spoilerized)

Look, you want me to believe that the dad, chick, old lady, and nice geezer sit in the car for 30 seconds after driving who-knows-how-far before deciding they better off themselves?  What's to say the mist doesn't stop 50 feet ahead of them?  I saw this freakin ending coming a mile away and hated it.  Not for the sheer fact that dad turned the gun on everyone, but because it wasn't the time for it.  Maybe if they had been in the car 3 days without food and water, surrounded by creatures... but not the immediate sacrifice.  "Let's drive as far as we can because we want to survive, dammit!"  "Oh, out of gas now?  Ok, I had a nice life.  Buh-bye."

Be like me and buy every one of the WB Film Noir Box Sets.  On Dangerous Ground is the first one I watched out of Vol. 3 and it alone makes the box worth grabbing.

Noir staple Robert Ryan plays Robert Ryan (a tough cop who regularly beats up bad guys).  "Why do you make me do it? You know you're gonna talk!"  The first act takes place in a dark, rainy city.  The cinematography sets up the first-person, lonely, hopeless sort of feeling quite well.  Then the film completely shifts character -- Ryan is transferred out to the wintry countryside to catch a killer on the loose.  Watching Ryan act is always a treat.  There are some scenes where he doesn't even speak, but manages to speak volumes through expressions and body language. 

Don't rent it, buy the set!

I want to say I love L'avventura... it's unique and considering it arrived in 1960, way ahead of its time in terms of the method of plot delivery.  This film basically has a surprise beginning, as opposed to a surprise ending.  My beef is that it was a smidge too long (2:20).

At the beginning, Anna is the centerpiece.  She and some friends are on a remote island when she disappears without a trace.  Boyfriend Sandro and pal Claudia pursue the few leads that surface without success.  Then at some point (I'm not exactly sure when), they don't really care about finding Anna anymore.  And neither does the viewer.  It becomes clear that the film's focus is Claudia, not Anna -- and not Claudia's physical adventure tracking Anna, but her emotional adventure with and without Sandro.  Sandro is a tool.  Claudia should realize it, but doesn't until the end. 

The disc looks great.  It's Criterion, and you know those guys can restore an old film like nobody's business.  Rent it.

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure this is the first full-length silent movie I've seen.  LOVED IT.  If you're reading this, then you probably already own it or scan Harry Knowles' column at Aint It Cool News to get DVD recommendations.  If by chance you haven't seen it, it's a testimony to the high quality that old movies were capable of.  (A thousand apologies for ending a sentence with a preposition).

Let me cut to the chase - if you have not seen Lucky You, there is no reason to rush out and pick it up.  It's just too long for what it is.  Get a cheaper cast and make it a one-hour, one-shot TV movie on ESPN without commercial interruption.  I don't care what card sharks tell you -- watching a Texas Hold 'Em game on TV is not thrilling, and the narration to educate us on the rules only muddies things.  We're still just watching expressions and cheers to see who won each round.

I like Drew Barrymore.  But all her romantic characters are virtually interchangeable. 

As is typically the case with his noir reviews, JimBell's take on The Narrow Margin is consistent with mine, but more eloquent.  This DVD is part of the excellent Warner Bros. Film Noir box sets (vol 2) that I gush about regularly.

This is not throwaway film noir material.  In fact, it's one of those decades-old films that will make you say "why can't they make movies like that more often today?"  A small but talented cast combined with mounting tension can make any plot enjoyable.  Like 2003's Identity, for example.  My only complaint is that Detective Brown didn't discover "Mrs. Neal's" body after the mob hood shot her in the back.  Man, that would have been killer payoff, especially if right after that Brown chases the hood who jumps off the back of the train to hook up with mob reinforcements.  It would take incredible self-control not to shoot the guy in the back, but Brown knew the Highway Patrol was en route.  But... not everyone is as  smart as me (including Richard Fleischer).

I may have to have words with Puhner over this one.  I'm not sure, but I think I saw he rated Underworld Beauty "loved it" which made me queue it up with Blockbuster Online.  I love film noir, and I'm a sucker with Asian cops & robbers flicks -- so I was intrigued by this DVD.  But in the end, I've got to say the only thing that really captivated me was the Asian kids bopping around a dance hall to American 1950s swing music, complete with bobby socks and black leather jackets.