The Duel ( a.k.a. Duel of the Iron Fist ) ( 1971 )
For budgetary reasons I am probably not going to buy a new martial arts film for another month or two ( unless something suddenly goes OOP ), which gives me a chance to rewatch some of the films in my library. This week I picked at the last second The Duel, one of Chang Cheh's violent gangster films from the early 70s where everyone either carries a knife or hatchet, and the gangsters have nothing better to do but try to hack each other up. It has a very decent plot, one which Cheh liked enough to recycle in Flags of Iron ( 1980 ). ( I was so tempted to watch Flags of Iron as a double feature, but just didn't have the time. )
Going back to the 80s when The Duel aired on television as part of the Saturday afternoon martial arts movie theater on a local station, and going through my bootleg SB Video copy, an authorized VHS release from Canada that inexplicably edited out all the violence, including the opening rumble at a funeral and last ten minutes where Ti Lung and David Chaing take on an army of thugs, and finally the official DVD release, I have previously watched this film about a dozen times. An this is the first time I noticed Scrooge McDuck was in the film. His picture is on the box of a tattoo artist along with a few drawings of nudes. Except that this film is supposed to take place in the 30s, a decade before Scrooge was created.
For some reason when I first watch the DVD, I watched using the English dub instead of the original language soundtrack with subtitles as I usually do with martial arts films. This time I kept the subtitles on and occasional cut back to the English track for comparison. One big difference, while most of the music is the same, the Chinese track uses the theme from 2001 A Space Odyssey whenever one of the heroes attacked the evil gangsters while the English track used some of the archive music from the Shaw Brothers music library. Another big difference, how dumbed down the English dub is. ( As usual. ) The Duel is not one of the classic Shaw Brothers films, but it is pretty close. And thanks to Dragon Dynasty acquiring the rights to a lot of Shaw Brothers films they never released, this is one of the few Chang Cheh gangster films to be available on home video in America.
RoboCop ( 2014 )
Beginning next week I have a blaxploitation superhero film from the 70s followed by three Asylum films. All of them with bad reviews. I am not going to see a good superhero film for at least 3 weeks, perhaps more. So I was hoping the final RoboCop film this week was not going to be bad. Actually, despite poor reviews, it was a good film. Not great, just good.
The biggest problem with this RoboCop reboot is that the film makers completely missed the point of making a RoboCop film. RoboCop is supposed to be a Robot. The reboot he is still Murphy. While his body is all robot, his face and brain is Murphy who has all of his memories and personality. So basically a bionic man rather than robot.
Another thing I didn't like about this reboot, it seemed like there was no good reason for Keaton to suddenly turn into the bad guy in the final 30 minutes other than the film needed a villain for Murphy to fight in the climax.
Despite the flaws, it was well made, had a lot of excellent action scenes, and really good visual effects. So despite the reboot f$#king up the RoboCop story, it was still very entertaining.
Coconuts ( 1929 )
To be honest, I didn't intend to get around to the Marx Brothers films this summer. The plan was to complete the WC Fields films, and work on the last of the films with Buster Keaton and Three Stooges cameos so their libraries would be completed. Also, I really should get around to buying the rest of the Chaplin films. Worse, the only one I have on DVD is A Countess From Hong Kong and the rest are on VHS. But then I found out the Warner Bros Marx Brothers collection had gone OOP, so I had to buy it before collectors and Amazon jacked the price up on what was left.
The main thing holding me back from buying the Marx Brothers films was that the official DVD release of their Paramount films was botched. Not only was there no attempt at restoration, but they didn't even use the best know prints. I decided to hold off until someone released the same films restored. And wouldn't you know it, Universal just released the film's on Blu-ray using the best know prints. Add to that, Amazon began reporting they were running low on Love Happy with no word if Olive Films would be printing any more. So I ended up buying their films out of chronological order, and subsequently watching them out of order. Last week I watched the final Marx Brothers film. This week I am watching the first.
The story is that the Marx Brothers were so horrified by the final cut if this film that they tried to buy the print from Paramount so they could destroy it instead of releasing it. And for the first half hour of this movie it looked as if this would be a bad film. It is supposed to take place in Florida, but instead is on a really bad movie set with a painted back drop of palm trees that look exactly like a painted backdrop. Groucho is the first to show up, and he seems to be walking through his role. He says a few lines, then the film cuts to a music number with the B characters. When that ends Groucho says a few more unfunny jokes and we cut to a dance number with bellhops. When Chico and Harpo finally show up, their initial gags aren't funny. But just as it looks like the film will be a complete stinker, Groucho's acting suddenly perks up to his usual self and he is suddenly telling jokes that work. Chico and Harpo's material also picks up. So the second two thirds of this film is a successful comedy, and the opening third is a dud.
One surprise is how little of Zeppo is in this film. I knew Zeppo rarely did anything funny in these movies. But his character barely has any lines and is barely on screen. Even more surprising, he was not cast as the film's romantic lead. That role goes to someone else, and that character is in a lot of the film.
Topic: What was the last movie you watched? (Read 1586296 times)
