Reviews

This is the first Toto movie I've seen. It's a good way to get acquainted with this extremely droll buffoon, one of the most popular characters in Italian film. A parody of the contemporary Hollywood film Caesar And Cleopatra, the movie's almost nonexistent plot revolves around the confusion between Marc Antony and his scamp, slave trader brother Totonno (both roles played by Toto), who masquerades as his more illustrious twin. A mix of low, knockabout comedy and clever repartee (much of it lost on this Americano), the film is basically a vehicle for Toto to make with the yucks, a small man with a beak nose, wit and humor flashing in his eyes and every gesture as he hams his way through this ninety minute romp. Able support is provided by Magali Noël as Cleopatra who shows up scantily clad in a phosphorescent clam shell. The radiant, gorgeous Moira Orfei does a good comic turn as Ottavia, sister of Augustus. Carlo Delle Piane is also amusing as Cleopatra's bratty, cowardly son, Cesarione.

Jokes fly fast and furious as Toto alternately woos and spurns Cleopatra depending upon which character she encounters, Antony or his posing brother, until the poor woman is driven to the brink of desperation. Toto And Cleopatra functions well as a parody of sword and sandal films in general with the same excellent sets and handsome costumes as in the genre, but played strictly for laughs all the way with not a real hero in the bunch. Italian cinema was a lot less averse to sexuality than American films of the time and many gags are openly suggestive, adding to the general zest and brio alla'Italiana. The film ends on a suitably ludicrous note with no one really hurt, unlike the actual miserable, historical truth.

I recommend this film to sword and sandal fans who can take a joke, admirers of Italian cinema in general, and anyone who wants to see a master comedian at work at the absolute top of his game.

This is an interesting documentary about a truly bizarre incident that occurred in 2004 in a small town in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Marvin Heemayer, a middle aged businessman with a grudge against Granby and its principal citizens, went on a two hour rampage. Yet instead of going bughouse like most nuts in this country do nowadays with a high powered rifle alone, Heemayer, an admitted genius welder, took a heavy bulldozer, armored it with concrete reinforced steel plates, and then used the dozer to destroy businesses and the city hall. Although no life was lost other than Heemayer's, he left a vast swathe of senseless destruction, permanently searing the memory of his basically pointless tantrum into Granby's residents.

The doc's first hour sets the stage for Heemayer's onslaught, providing background as to why a highly skilled, relatively affluent man would do such a thing. A talented craftsman with a head for business, Heemayer made enough from his muffler shop in Granby to do as he liked: travel, hang out with his girlfriend, and most of all snowmobile, a winter past time he pursued with fanatical passion. Yet despite this apparently ideal, idyllic setup, resentment steadily built up as Heemayer became frustrated in his business dealings, increasingly more convinced the town's good old boy network was in league against him. Most of this is conveyed by a voiceover of the long jeremiad Heemayer recorded just prior to going bananas with his homemade tank. Some might find this segment overlong and tedious, but it makes it plain the slights and wrongs Heemayer railed against largely existed in his mind alone. As one friend put it, "he spent too much time in the hot tub by himself." The poor, deluded man basically hyped himself into believing God told him to do this terrible thing.

Even those who find the prologue overlong will still be amazed and appalled by the doc's climactic footage. Resembling one of the crude behemoths that crashed through no man's land in WWI, Heemayer's bulldozer was basically unstoppable with small arms fire no more effective against it than BBs. He used the dozer blade to devastating effect, first destroying a concrete batch plant next to his own business, then City Hall, and finally a hardware store. It was an absolute wonder no one else was hurt, especially since the library was located in City Hall. Heemayer was incredibly ingenious, not only armoring the bulldozer, but installing loopholes to fire high powered, .50 caliber rifles, video cameras to assist him in steering, and a ventilation system to keep the viewing ports clear. What a shame all this cleverness was devoted to destruction. The frenzy only stopped when the bulldozer got stuck and ended as these things so often do with Heemayer killing himself.

I recommend this film to people with a clinical interest in human dysfunction and also (no shame) to guys like myself who are fascinated by armored vehicles and the damage they can do.

I don't see the point of this film other than as a cautionary tale on the miseries of syphilis, a message put across more effectively by those public safety shorts made back in the 30's and into the 60's.

A reflection on the last year of America's most notorious hoodlum, this film generated zero dramatic tension for me. Capone is shown at his Florida mansion as he becomes increasingly more deranged and dysfunctional as the spirochetes eat away his mind while friends and family watch on in helpless despair.

The film made considerable efforts to develop an effective mise-en-scene with antique cars, authentic costumes (men in period suits, women in print dresses), and Florida location shots. The effect was somewhat spoiled though by two glaring anachronisms, which probably won't bother anyone else at all: 1. Nessun Dorma plays regularly in the background, only sung by Pavarotti who at the time the film was set was still in knee pants; and 2. Capone hallucinates back to a party in his honor at the roaring '20's height, only racially integrated with black and Asian guests, something that just didn't happen in that highly prejudiced era, especially among lowlife gangsters.

Throughout the film, Capone battles various enemies, real and imagined. Under constant government surveillance, figures from Capone's past emerge as well, with much interplay between what's supposed to be actually happening and the ghosts in Capone's mind. What passes for a plot turns on the $10 million Capone may have stashed somewhere. Even this McGuffin didn't stir any interest as far as I was concerned. Although a film about a gangster, Capone largely lacks the elements of a crime film that fans of the genre enjoy. Since it's a film solely about a man's degenerative end, no stakes seem to be involved; there's no real story arc about the rise and fall of a vicious gangster as in Scarface (both the original and the Pacino remake). We're just asked instead to contemplate the pitiful, sordid physical and mental decay of a truly rotten human being.

This is despite a strong cast of talented actors (e.g., Matt Dillon, Kyle McLachlan) with an over the top performance by the lead. Tom Hardy proves once again he will literally do anything the role requires. Face covered in putty to depict deep scars and syphilitic sores, he staggers around the house and grounds growling in a deep baritone, throwing fits, fouling the bed while asleep with his wife, and ultimately reduced to wearing adult diapers with carrots substituted for the cigars Capone chain smoked.

The problem is that, despite the makeup and method acting, Hardy really doesn't resemble Capone who had a very round, moon face. This has happened before. One particularly egregious example was casting the very Irish looking Jason Robards as Capone in The St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Capone left me with such a bad taste I immediately watched Al Capone afterward, the well done, realistic '59 flick in which Rod Steiger (who facially did resemble Capone) masterfully portrayed the criminal in all his boorish flamboyance.

I recommend this film to no one.

Although a beautiful, finely made film, this is also the saddest Western I've ever seen, tragic to the point of heartbreak. This makes sense since it takes an unflinching look at the real frontier experience and is definitely not some Hollywood fantasy. Three women in mid-19th Century Nebraska go mad from the strain of living on the raw, empty prairie. Unable to care for them, local folk decide to send them back East, a migration in reverse.

Hilary Swank gives an outstanding performance as Mary Bee Cuddy, the finest, truest example of a brave, good frontier woman in film I've ever seen, better even than Jean Arthur in Shane. I deeply admired her character as the movie went on and empathized with her struggles and disappointments, many at the hands of thoughtless, callous men. Her tragic, unexpected end simply made me want to weep.

On the other hand, George Briggs, the protagonist played by Tommy Lee Jones (who also directed), is the sorriest excuse for a Western hero who ever forked a horse. A larcenous, lying, shiftless drifter who thinks exclusively of himself, rescued from hanging by Cuddy's unexpected arrival, Briggs's sluggish development of the rudiments of a conscience as he travels with Cuddy and the madwomen back to Iowa constitutes the story's moral arc. Despite occasional kindness and displays of frontier savvy and toughness, Briggs is never fully sympathetic, with instances throughout the film of his general bad character and others' contempt and disregard for him. Jones gives his usual professional performance, completely committed to the role, unpleasant as it is.

Jones also did an outstanding job directing. Long shots of the bare, unforgiving Nebraskan plains with miserable sod huts cut into low hills to escape the punishing wind, effective backstories showing how each poor, suffering woman went mad, accurate mise-en-scene with authentic period detail throughout, and strong performances all around by well cast actors. Three particular standouts are John Lithgow as a good hearted, frontier minister; Tim Blake Nelson in a brief, but effective turn in one of his signature rustic roles, and Meryl Streep as the minister's wife who takes the madwomen into her home in Iowa.

The film's last scene is especially effective: the incorrigible reprobate Briggs dances and sings aboard a ferry headed back West, accompanied by a banjo and bones, with strong intimations of his own imminent death. Jones shows grace and style in this scene and I'm certain he meant to evoke the famous 19th Century painting of a young man dancing aboard a flatboat. Yet rather than evoke images of hope, progress, and growth, the conclusion only hints at more miserable violence.

This is a good Western, but not for folks who prefer stuff like Gene Autry or John Wayne flicks.

This film basically takes the incident from Gone With The Wind where Scarlett shoots a Union soldier and Melly helps her hide the body and fleshes it out into a full length film described as a revisionist Western, but it strikes me as more accurately characterized as a horror movie with a naturalistic, Civil War setting.

Two sisters, Augusta and Louise, and a female slave, Mad, struggle to survive at subsistence level on their Georgia farm during the menfolk's absence, any forest game long ago hunted out, living off potato and carrot stew.

A full plate of misery turns into a veritable brimming cornucopia of woe and pain in the form of two bummers from Sherman's army, sent ahead to reconnoiter supplies for advancing Union columns, but instead using the opportunity to engage in plunder, arson, and murder. The film's opening scene introducing them is a tightly constructed, Grand Guignol pageant of horrid savagery that effectively frames both characters and the arc their nihilistic souls will follow. A sight of the attractive Augusta at a local tavern, on a desperate quest to find medicine for her raccoon bit sister, is enough to set the bummers after her. They arrive at night and a frantic siege of the farmhouse ensues, marked by rapidly escalating tension, violence, and rape. This part of the film reminded me of Straw Dogs where Dustin Hoffman fought off intruders, also while besieged in a remote farmhouse.

Strong performances are given by everyone in the film, but particular credit goes to Brit Marling as Augusta, Sam Worthington as the head thug Moses, and especially Muna Otaru as Mad the family slave. Marling is convincing as an innately strong, beautiful young Southern woman, determined to preserve herself and her own no matter what, a true, brave lady as shown by her constant, selfless devotion and physical courage. Worthington is an interesting study of a villainous monster with sympathetic human flashes, confessing at one point he doesn't know how to stop what he's doing. The acting palm definitely goes to Otaru though with her portrayal of a young woman who's experienced the absolute worst slavery has to offer, but still remains indomitable, dead game, ready to fight to the bitter end.

Although not didactic, this film faces some hard truths about American history, how the Civil War in general and Sherman's March in particular were perfect settings for men to indulge in the very worst of human nature, becoming outright murderous psychopaths, the pure, steadily gnawing terror of women alone and near defenseless on an isolated farmstead, and the sheer, disgusting misery of slavery. Yet even with all that heavy import, it's still one hell of a horror movie with fast pacing, grotesque, disturbing imagery, and gritty, realistic violence.

This film isn't for the squeamish. It also doesn't seem to fit the Western genre. I recommend it to horror fans and Civil War buffs.

The late, great George "Gabby" Hayes, King of the Old Hollywood western sidekicks, once gave his opinion of the genre. "I hate 'em," Hayes honestly answered. "Really can't stand 'em. They always are the same. You have so few plots."

Hayes obviously never saw Django Kill...If You Live, Shoot!, a bizarre blend of spaghetti western with grotesquerie from a giallo horror film. Thomas Milian, a Cuban-American actor who did OK in Italy playing psycho gunslingers, is the Stranger, half Mexican, half American, gunned down with the other Mexicans in a gang by their treacherous American compadres after a gold theft. Buried alive, Milian crawls out from a mass grave and is found by two Native American scavengers who don't resemble actual Native Americans at all. After they revive Milian and fit him out with some golden bullets for his gun ("more deadly than lead"), he pursues his betrayers and comes to a town called The Unhappy Place. And here's where it got really weird.

The Stranger learns the gang members were murdered before he arrived. This is one of the first very nasty scenes where the gang is cruelly hunted down by a much bigger mob and either shot or hung with their bodies left hanging as a warning. The rest of the film turns on various characters' search for the stolen gold, the real villain of the film. The saloon keeper plots and fights with the general store owner while both men fear Sorrow, the openly gay, flamboyant big rancher with a pistolero army clad in black shirts with fancy white embroidery (too butch). Through it all the Stranger drifts, in the town, but not of it, a serene, Christ like figure except for his habit of pumping people full of golden bullets. The identification with Jesus gets literal when Sorrow's bully boys kidnap the Stranger, strip him to a loincloth, and chain him to a cross.

Django has the standard spaghetti Western trimmings, guys who obviously aren't American wearing cowboy hats with ridiculously dinky brims; location shots in Spain that don't resemble the American Southwest at all; absurdly grandiose, highfalutin dialogue; not much in the way of continuity, only adding to the confusion; and most importantly, much time spent with characters engaged in long, silent portentous stares at one another. Add to that a steady stream of downright bizarre imagery and events, a small, prone child being ground down by a man in a chair; a madwoman trapped in a second floor room who cryptically signals from the window; a defiled cemetery with the crosses flung down and the graves dug open, all to find the gold, and it adds up to a trip, albeit an unpleasant one. The penultimate scene where a character's greed ends in a literal shower of molten gold simply must be seen to be believed.

I recommend this film to fans of spaghetti Westerns, giallo horror movies, and anybody with a strong stomach who digs a crazy flick. If you're not overly concerned about petty stuff like good taste and a plausible plot, you're in for one wild, weird ride.

Although one of hundreds made by Paramount whose rights were sold for TV distribution in the industry's early days, this film has apparently NEVER been broadcast until March 2020, a gap of nearly a century since it was last seen. It's paradoxically a pity the film went so long unviewed and simultaneously delightful it's been recently unearthed for modern film fans to see. And The Texan is absolutely worth watching, a fast moving, well scripted, pre-Code gem based on an O. Henry story.

Cooper plays the Llano Kid, a larcenous Texas outlaw, quick with his pistol, with a knack for evading the law. He falls in with Thacker, ably and gruffly played by Oscar Apfel, a con man with a proposal. Thacker knows a wealthy Mexican widow who pines for her son who ran away years ago. He asks the Kid to pose as the son so they can cheat the widow out of her money. Although initially reluctant, the Kid's mercenary instincts prompt him to go along. In Mexico, the Kid meets the widow, Dona Ibarra (somewhat overplayed by Emma Dunn) and his gorgeous, friendly cousin, Counsuelo, a perfectly lovely Fay Wray, hard to recognize here as a brunette and doing a passably accurate Mexican accent.

Cooper's Kid is a type he played to perfection in later years, a tough, capable cowboy, able to handle conflict, but tonguetied when emotion is involved, especially with women. As his character spends time with Dona Ibarra, you watch his reserve worn down by her overpowering, unconditional love. She loves him like a mother and the Kid comes to love Dona Ibarra as a son. This leads to a climactic scene where the Kid tersely but eloquently tells Thacker he wants no further part of his miserable scheme. Cooper shows strong acting talent here. Cooper's rejection of Thacker leads to a violent shootout at the film's end. With no further spoilers, the film comes to a satisfying dramatic conclusion.

Cooper wasn't even 30 when he made this film and he's a delight to see. Smooth featured (this was decades before his face lift), impossibly long and lean, a true top cowhand just as much at ease in the saddle as on foot, endowed with natural style and poise, Cooper looks fantastic in a flat hat and short vest, particularly when he dresses as a vaquero in Mexico with high boots, a serape, and a long, braided quirt. His acting was good throughout the film with even a flash of his impish humor when Dona Ibarra serves the Llano Kid a typical American meal of doughnuts, pickles, and apple pie. Fay Wray was a very beautiful woman and did a good job with the limited part she had as the romantic interest. Strong support was provided by James A. Marcus as the Bible spouting, pistol toting Texas sheriff John Brown.

Anybody who's a fan of Gary Cooper or Western movies (can there be any gap between those two sets?) needs to see this film right away!

Ah, Jack Palance. He of the rugged build, deeply inset Slavic eyes, prognathous lantern jaw, silky baritone, and the sinister smile with more than a hint of madness. Usually cast as a heavy, especially after his breakthrough role as the casually murderous gunslinger in Shane, Palance actually displayed considerable range as a character actor during the course of his career with a long European stint where he worked in spaghetti westerns and art house flicks with a few turns in the sword and sandal or peplum genre, popular drive in and movie theatre fare in the US and Europe in the late '50's and early '60's, riding the crest of the wave created by Steve Reeves as Hercules.

Revak is one of the few films where Palance plays a good guy romantic lead, although even here his usual brooding intensity steals pretty much every scene he's in. In this film, Palance plays the son of a Celtic island king, taken hostage with his sister by the evil Carthaginian Kainus to compel his father's submission. Once his sister chooses death by drowning over dishonor after being compelled to do a strip tease/dance routine that's really silly and tacky even by peplum standards, Revak swears eternal war against the evil Carthaginians. Things look bad for Revak once he arrives in Carthage at the mercy of a cruel taskmaster, until a red hot babe in a palanquin intervenes on his behalf who turns out to be Princess Cherata, sister of Kainus. Like a good peplum movie, things move swiftly from there with Revak drawn into palace intrigue as he conspires with others (mostly enslaved noble Romans) to escape from Carthaginian slavery.

For fans of the genre, one with an admittedly limited but nonetheless enduring appeal, this film has all the goodies, the things we've come to expect from a peplum: excellent sets done by a fine Italian hand, albeit with an inappropriate Hellenistic look, dancing girls, a muscular protagonist in a leather shorty outfit, and best of all, truly groanworthy dialogue with much "By the Gods!", "Silence, dogs," and so forth and so on. Palance grimly soldiers through his role with steely determination and does a more than creditable job in the main action sequence where he brawls with the much bigger and burlier Deliasis (Pietro Ceccarelli) for the entertainment of Princess Cherata's guests. He's also OK in the brief romance scenes, greatly aided by Milly Vitale as Princess Cherata, a gorgeous example of one of the genre's chief attractions for me, namely, stunningly beautiful Italian women scantily clad in "antique" outfits. The actors' palm has to go to Guy Rolfe, though, who suavely performs a scenery chewing hambone turn as the evil Kainus, playing his part with aplomb, even when he has to wear a ridiculous looking fish head helmet. It's a cliche that the villain is usually the most entertaining character, one that Rolfe proves in spades!

I recommend this film to peplum fans, Jack Palance enthusiasts, and anyone interested in some old fashioned, harmless, fast moving fun.

I saw this film and was surprised to learn afterward that no reviews were to be found online (at least in English). This is a good, hardboiled crime film with the added advantage of being based on real events. Add an effective score by a great film composer, Ennio Morricone, and it made gripping viewing for me.

By means of flashback and linear narrative, MOC tells the forty year chronicle of the Corleone gang, a pack of vicious thugs who rose from humble rural beginnings to dominate the Palermo real estate market in the '80's, expropriating property from owners by threats and violence.

The actors give excellent performances. Two particular standouts are, of course, the leads, David Coco as Bernado ("Binnu") Provenzano, and Marcello Mazzarella as the fearsome, animalistic Toto Riina. Mazzarella's ability to project menace is powerful, a short man just itching to explode and murder someone. Even as an old man trapped in a prison cell, his eyes radiate viciousness and fury.

An even more impressive job is done by Coco in portraying the cool, cerebral Provenzano, the brains of the outfit. He convincingly shows the character's state of mind as he marries and has children against his better judgment, in an attempt to have what he knows is forbidden to him, a happy, normal life. The attempt fails as it had to do, and the criminal mastermind ends up a hunted fugitive, hiding first in a monastery and finally a goatherd's hut to avoid arrest.

The Corleone mob were noted for their savagery. Indifferent to outdated concepts like omertà, they not only murdered their enemies, but their families as well. As I said, this is a hardboiled film, with many violent incidents, with one shoot out taking place during a holy day procession that's is particularly powerful visually, but also really gory. There was no end to the mob's violence or their hubris, as they proved by murdering police officers and prosecuting attorneys, to include the notorious explosion that killed Judge Giovanni Falcone in 1992. A constant theme throughout the film is the danger of a criminal enterprise daring to strike against the state. The Corleone mob learns the truth of this adage the hard way, their members either shot dead by the police or thrown into prison for life.

All in all, even if it this was just made for Italian TV, I think this was a good movie. My only real criticism is that the old man make up for David Coco at the end looked incredibly fake. I recommend this to people who like films or shows about the Mafia, especially The Sopranos or The Godfather.