Thursday, July 27, 2006

Speaking of brevity ...

I've had a few movies sitting on the shelf for a while, and I might as well get them out there. Let's do this, all quick and dirty like.

Fistful of Dollars
The first of Sergio Leone's famous spaghetti western trilogy, which went a long way toward making Ol' Squinty Eyes a big star. I've never been a big western fan -- my dad is cringing right now -- but this had enough flair to keep me entertained. Clint Eastwood plays a nameless stranger seemingly playing both sides of the fence when it comes to two warring families in a small town. Maybe the most memorable bit happens early on when Clint tells the undertaker to get three coffins ready, only to up the body count by one. The big question, though: Why is he the Man With No Name when a guy clearly calls him Joe?

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Now this is more my speed: science fiction. You can have your deserts, rivers and valleys. Here's my idea of the untamed frontier. And who better to lead us there than the U.S.S. Enterprise? Sure, I'm a classic Star Trek fan, and I couldn't resist another viewing of the last movie featuring all of the original crew. Here we have Kirk and McCoy imprisoned by Klingons after an ambassador is killed en route to a peace conference. Sets up maybe the best line, from McCoy after Kirk has kissed an alien woman for maybe the 563rd time: "What is it with you, anyway?"

The Cincinnati Kid
I may have said this before, but I've never totally understood why some people think Steve McQueen is all that. I mean, "Bullitt" is OK, and "The Great Escape" is fine, but he generally seems kind of blank and nowhere near the actor that Paul Newman is. Maybe I need to track down old episodes of "Wanted: Dead or Alive." Anyway, this movie has Stevie as a young card shark taking on the king of stud poker, played by Edward G. Robinson. We also get Karl Malden as McQueen's buddy, Ann-Margret (woof) as Malden's wife, Tuesday Weld as McQueen's girlfriend, and a young Rip Torn -- who I didn't recognize at all -- as a high roller. Pretty good cast, merely OK movie. I like the card stuff as much as anyone, but things got boring here and there before the climax. Even that was a bit disjointed, thanks to weird close-ups and voice-overs.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Yeah, remember this one? It was HBO not long ago, and I was curious to see how this landmark film combining live characters and cartoons would seem in this Pixar age. Answer: pretty damn dated. Oh, the animation is still good, but old-style Disney and Warner Bros. characters are so ... well, two-dimensional. It's quaint, really, and a little sad. The story? Eh, not bad. Roger Rabbit is supremely annoying, and Bob Hoskins as a drunk detective isn't much better. True, there's enough adult jokes to earn this a PG rating, but even those don't have the same zip and wit you see nowadays. That leaves us with creepy Christopher Lloyd as the villain and Kathleen Turner as the voice of Jessica Rabbit, the femme fatale. Sorry, Rev. Jim and Joan Wilder, but I'll stick with Nemo and The Incredibles.

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