Confucius ( 2010 )
I am not sure exactly what I was expecting from this film. On the one hand it has been described as an "action packed saga" and a "battlefield epic". Yet on the other hand, I knew it was a biopic of the philosopher who was against violence, and lived during an age that predated martial arts. I wouldn't call this film action packed, unless you count Confucius and his followers walking along roads as action. There is one 10 minuet battle scene in the entire film about 40 minutes into the 125 minute film, but that is about it. Oh well. Other than that, it is a decent and beautifully filmed biopic. But after three weeks of the Vengeance Trilogy, I was sort of hoping for something closer to Battle of Wits. Well, I know I will have better luck next week. Due to some unavoidable expenses in the past couple of months, along with needing to buy the Paramount Marx Brothers set during my last Amazon order, I have not bought any new martial arts films. So basically next week ( and the next month or two after ) I will be reaching films from my library. I haven't made up my mind yet if I will spend the summer watching my favorite martial arts films, or using the time to listen to the audio commentary from some of the Dragon Dynasty films. Perhaps a little of both. Who knows.
Robocop 3 ( 19993 )
This film got a lot of negative reviews. But they seem to be because Peter Weller was replaced with Robert John Burke, and because Orion decided to remove all the violence so the series could be kid friendly. So I kept my fingers crossed that those were the only things wrong with the film. After I finish the Robocop franchise I have a bunch of low budget made for SyFy Asylum films to get through. At least a month's worth before I get back to any other Superhero genre films. And I am hoping the last two Robocop films will at the least be mildly entertaining before I have to spend August watching crap. Not making it look good is that Frank Miller, who wrote the script for Robocop 2 and 3, had since disowned both movies, claiming Orion would order him to rewrite the scripts with notes of what they wanted put in the film and what they wanted taken out. After completing the script for this film Miller vowed to never work in the movie business again. A vow he kept for 12 years before he returned to co-direct Sin City.
The good news here is that I liked this film. The only thing I saw wrong with it was a flawed visual effect. Robocop has strapped on a jetpack and is suppose to be flying over a street battle between the bad guys and police and taking out the enemy with his weapons. Unfortunately it is not well done, and Robocop keeps going in and out of scale. Otherwise this was a good film. When I was told this film was bad, I was expecting something as bad as the fourth Batman movie with Mr. Freeze, and fearing the worst, something as bad as the Asylum/Tomcat/Troma films. But I didn't think this film was bad at all. Hopefully next weeks Robocop reboot will be decent as well.
Love Happy ( 1949 )
The Big Store was suppose to be the Marx Brothers final film. Then Chico wound up owing a lot of money in gambling debts, so to pay them off the brothers reunited for A Night in Casablanca, and that was suppose to be their final film. Harpo wanted to continue making movies, writing the script for what he hoped would be his first solo film. But just before filming was to begin, United Artists told the producers that there would be no film unless all three Marx Brothers appeared in it. Not only had the Marx Brothers already retired as an act from film, twice, but had not performed together on stage for years. Chico had given up performing completely, and much like his brother Zeppo, decided to move into the more lucrative business of being an agent. While Groucho, who occasionally worked ion screen such as the Carmen Miranda film Copacabana ( 1947 ), had found a second career as a radio star with the quiz show You Bet Your Life, which was about to be moved to Television giving Groucho a third career as a television star. As it turned out Chico owed gambling debts again, so was willing to make another film. Groucho was less eager. He eventually would agree to do a wrap around segment which could be filmed over a weekend, and only agreed to do that because otherwise Harpo's film would never be made. None of them were thrilled that United Artists was calling it a Marx Brothers film. Harpo was so disappointed at how much the script was altered to include his brothers that he would say he regretted making the movie for the rest of his life. Groucho completely disowned the film, never mentioning it again, not even in his autobiography. Although for one reason that I will explain later, having interviewers ask him about the film became unavoidable.
Watching the film you could tell it was a disaster as a lot of dialog by the secondary characters is muted and talked over by Groucho's narration. It is almost as if during the editing process the studio tried to get rid of as much of the B plot as they could. And although all accounts tell of Groucho's scenes being part of the script prior to shooting, it appeared to me as if the Groucho scenes were conceived after the rest of the movie was completed. As if UA originally agreed to a Harpo and Chico film, then decided it would not be released unless scenes with Groucho were filmed and edited into the existing film. The plot is a bit of a retread of A Night at the Opera with some of the plot from Room Service tossed in. The B plot taken from Room Service, a poor theater troupe is trying to put on a musical called Love Happy, but when the financer goes MIA without paying for the props, sets or costumes, the backer threatens to have them confiscated before opening night. Enter the A plot. Stagehand Harpo acquires food for the troupe by shoplifting from a swanky supermarket. Unbeknownst to him, the owner of the supermarket is using it to smuggle in a stolen diamond necklace in a tin of sardines, which is among the food Harpo steals. Realizing Harpo has shoplifted the diamonds, the smugglers has him arrested and brought to the store where they hold him hostage. They are unable to get him to talk, but eventually figure out the tin is somewhere in the theater Harpo is a stagehand at. In order to search for it without suspicion, the leader of the smugglers, Madame Egelichi, agrees to finance the show. Harpo escapes from his captors and returns to the theater where he discovers the diamond necklace before the thugs can find it, and ends up giving it to the girl from the B plot as a birthday gift. The thugs see her wearing it through a window. When they do confront her she is no longer wearing it and has forgotten where she has put it. In order to save her Harpo grabs a fake diamond necklace from the props, convinces the thugs they are the real thing, and has them chase him out of the theater and over the rooftops of Times Square.
While Marx Brothers fans may find this film disappointing for many reasons, it is by no means a bad film. I found it much funnier than The Big Store and Room Service. Because it was originally conceived as a Harpo solo film, he gets most of the screen time, including a brilliant chase through the neon signs of Times Square. And if the gags in that scene seem like they are straight out of a Looney Tunes cartoon, that may be because the script was co-written by Frank Tashin who worked as a director of those cartoons. Chico gets a decent amount of screen time an out of work performer who cons his way into the show. Chico gets to help out during the climatic chase scene, the prelude to which has Chico and Harpo once again doing their routine where Harpo has to tell him something urgent using only whistles and charades. Groucho opens the film, telling the audience he is a detective who has been on the trail of the stolen diamonds for years, and acts as the voiceover narrator for the rest of the film. His character doesn't have any interaction with the rest of the cast through most of the film. At one point he is about to go to the theater to grab the diamonds and arrest Madame Egelichi when he is stopped by another thug who holds him prisoner in his office. He somehow escapes and appears during the final act rooftop chase scene where he briefly interacts with Chico, Harpo and Egelichi. Although this all happens on a rooftop set that does not match with any of the other rooftop sets from the rest of the chase. Groucho doesn't even bother to put on his grease paint mustache and eyebrows, or even his toupee. For the first time in film he does have a real mustache, but only because he was growing it for the upcoming televised version of You Bet Your Life. While Groucho wasn't even bothered to go with his full costume, he does deliver some very funny jokes, and has a funny sight gag involving an hourglass. And he was responsible for a bit of Hollywood history. One of his scenes involved a sexy girl walking into his office and wanting to hire him for a case. according to Groucho, the director brought in three actresses and asked him to pick one to play the part. He picked the blonde. It turned out to be the screen debut of Marilyn Monroe.
Topic: What was the last movie you watched? (Read 1415321 times)
