The Invisible Man (1933)

 

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Invisible Man (1933) – J. Whale

Inexplicably, I never reviewed James Whale’s classic version of the H. G. Wells’ story, even having watched it many times before (and now in 4K Ultra HD).  This is Claude Rains’ Hollywood debut: even if you don’t actually see him for most of the film, that voice is enough! We begin somewhere in the middle, after Rains as Jack Griffin has already discovered the secret of invisibility (through chemical means) and now desperately wants to find the antidote, to become visible again.  He’s holed up at a local British pub/hotel owned by Una O’Connor and Forrester Harvey (playing as broadly as they can for comic relief), becoming more and more disagreeable (under his bandages, hat, and false nose) until they call in the constable.  Meanwhile, the head of his lab Cranley (Henry Travers) and scientific colleague Kemp (William Harrigan) have figured out that Griffin is the Invisible Man and even know the unfortunate side effects of the chemical he’s used that will eventually make him go mad.  Although Cranley and his daughter, Griffin’s love interest, Flora (Gloria Stuart, later in Titanic, 1997), want to help Griffin, his rival Kemp wants to turn him over to the police.  Of course, it doesn’t end well for Griffin.  Whale pulls out all the stops with regard to the special effects and, as this is still the pre-Code era, it shouldn’t be a surprise to find out that Griffin has to spend most of his time naked – although he’s too preoccupied with finding a way back to visibility to get up to much mischief (apart from a couple of murders and some monomaniacal rambling).  Quite a few sequels followed this.

The Odyssey (2026)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Odyssey (2026) – C. Nolan

It seems that I only go to the cinema for “event movies” these days, since everything else seems to eventually come to the small screen (which has gotten increasingly sophisticated across my lifetime).  Somehow, I scored some $7 tickets, so Amon and I headed out to see Christopher Nolan’s latest this afternoon (though not in iMax or even 70mm).  I purposefully hadn’t read too much (except parts of one essay declaring it not true enough to Homer’s original).  Amon and I have watched a lot of the classic adventure films, so it is good to be able to say that this is a fine example of the genre.  Nolan introduces some of his typical flashback structure to the film, where we first meet Penelope (Anne Hathaway), wife of Odysseus (Matt Damon) and her son Telemachus (Tom Holland), who have been awaiting Odysseus’s return from the Trojan War for the past 20 years.  We know his exploits have been passed among the people of Ithaca in song, but no one knows if he is alive or dead, even though many of his men and even his King (Agamemnon) have long since returned home.  We soon discover that Odysseus has been stranded in a mental fog, eating lotus flowers, on an island with Calypso (Charlize Theron) recovering from his injuries for the past 7 years. We see his exploits in flashback, featuring the classic episodes involving the Trojan Horse, the Cyclops, the witch Circe (Samantha Morton), Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens, and more. Nolan knows how to manage the pacing of the adventurous bits and the more talky parts of the narrative (mostly involving Robert Pattinson and other suitors for the hand of Penelope and their conflict with Telemachus and with Odysseus’s aging servant Eumaeus (John Leguizamo)) to keep things moving across nearly 3 hours. As he journeys home to Ithaca, Odysseus is occasionally visited by Athena (Zendaya) who serves as his guide and inspiration. I’m not sure having Zendaya and Lupita Nyong'o (in a bit part as Helen of Troy) in the cast is enough to make this film “woke” (although perhaps some MAGA viewers may also have concerns about Elliot Page, who has a key role); the American accents on display from Hathaway and Damon alone are enough to require suspension of disbelief that this is really ancient Greece. (and let’s leave the boring-old culture wars out of this anyway). Moreover, although there is a lot of fighting, ultimately there is some anti-war sentiment here too, as we learn of Odysseus’s regrets at the terrible killing and raping of civilians in Troy by his own men/army. He wants to repent. (This doesn’t stop him from becoming a one-man army late in the film though). As a spectacle, the film is loud and action-packed although pretty sombre through-and-through.  I only occasionally thought of Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Ray Harryhausen’s special effects but that was for kids and this is for adults (with similarly wondrous cinematography but less of a sense of wonder).  Perhaps this would be diminished on the small screen and perhaps I have over-rated it due to the big-screen. Nevertheless, for an escapist day out, it ruled.

 

The French Connection (1971)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The French Connection (1971) – W. Friedkin

Paul Schrader recently said (on Letterboxd) that he was surprised how much “shoe leather” was involved in The French Connection – and it is true, this is an action movie where the characters are constantly on the move. Director William Friedkin and editor Jerry Greenberg do a great job with the pacing of the film, introducing us to Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) and his partner “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Scheider) as they do some routine drug busts in seedy parts of Manhattan then gradually showing them start to suss out a much bigger deal going down.  That bigger deal involves Marseilles businessman (and major drug lord) Alain Chartier (Buñuel favourite Fernando Rey) who arrives from France to make the exchange in person.  Doyle and Russo have to tolerate the involvement of the Feds as they stake out the principals, tail them on the subway, and even chase an El train by car (one of the most famous car chases in cinema).  As befits ‘70s America, it’s a downbeat affair, but gripping all the way.  Hackman’s Doyle is a shitty guy, racist, single-mindedly willing to do anything (including break the law) to bust the perps; Scheider’s Russo is along for the ride. Based on a true story and you aren’t surprised that this is how the NYPD may have operated – the location settings add to the gritty allure.

The Ladykillers (1955)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Ladykillers (1955) – A. Mackendrick

Positioned near the end of Ealing Studios’ amazing run of comedies, many featuring Sir Alec Guinness, The Ladykillers is also a caper film where whatever can go wrong does.  This is no knock on the very clever armoured car heist planned by Professor Marcus (Guinness wearing some very scary false teeth) and his gang (including Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, a young Peter Sellers, and Danny Green).  They just weren’t prepared for Mrs Wilberforce (Katie Johnson), an old lady whose particular way of doing things makes trouble for just about everyone and throws a spanner in the gang’s plans.  Although perhaps it made sense for them to rent her spare room in the house by the railway tracks (pretending to be a string quartet needing practice space, ha, ha), they didn’t realise they’d have to contend with her parrots, nosy elderly friends, fondness for reporting things to the police, etc. etc.  The pivotal moment in the plot here is not dissimilar from the final catastrophe in Kubrick’s genre-related The Killing (1956), which came out the next year. After that, the gang just can’t hold it together in the face of Mrs Wilberforce’s scrutiny and will.  Director Alexander Mackendrick went on to make Sweet Smell of Success (1957), an extremely bitter and cynical look at the media in New York, while Guinness graduated to David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), both leaving comedy behind (perhaps not completely).  But what a way to go!

Project Hail Mary (2026)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Project Hail Mary (2026) – P. Lord & C. Miller

Another sci-fi blockbuster in what has become a well-established genre going back to the 1950s, if not earlier.  Project Hail Mary nods to the past classics (2001, Close Encounters, E.T., Interstellar, etc.), often explicitly.  But, as directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (best known for directing The Lego Movie, 2014, as well as producing the various Spider-verse films) from Andy Weir’s book, it has a very odd tone, perhaps goofy is the right word? (The movie’s soundtrack definitely contributes to this tone). I kept asking myself whether the film was designed primarily for kids (not unlike E.T.) because the level of corniness and especially sentimentality is awfully high, especially for a film that includes a worldwide disaster-level premise (instead of the world overheating it is actually going to cool down by 10 or 15 degrees as some strange bacteria seem to be eating away at the sun).  Ryan Gosling is essentially a one-man show as the scientist-turned-schoolteacher sent thousands of lightyears away to solve the problem.  The story is told partly in flashback, as we learn how exactly Gosling (playing Ryland Grace) ended up in space with the help of project director Sandra Hüller. Gosling is charismatic as usual but the comical earnestness he’s tasked with sometimes feels a bit “cringe”.  To say more about the film’s plot would probably be criminal because it took me in directions I did not expect.  In terms of its speculation about future events, does it get it right? Looking back at the genre today, it often seems prophetic (hello Hal) but also can end up being technologically dated.  The same fate may befall Project Hail Mary and I suspect that some aspects might seem silly decades down the track (sillier than intended) but truly it is hard to say what it might have gotten right. Overall, the film looked great (maybe even greater in iMax?) and I certainly was never bored but I’m not sure I signed up for a buddy comedy?  

The Wages of Fear (1953)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Wages of Fear (1953) – H.-G. Clouzot

Nail-biting suspense here, although director Henri-Georges Clouzot takes his time to develop the characters and their desperate straits before really getting stuck into the action.  Yves Montand plays Mario, one of a group of expats stranded in a poverty-stricken South American village, doing odd jobs to get by, but mostly leeching off his friend Luigi (Folco Lulli) and messing around with barmaid Linda (Vera Clouzot).  When older gangster-type Jo (Charles Vanel) shows up looking to make money, he makes contact with the American oil company drilling in the area, looking for an angle.  Nothing doing, so he parks himself at the local saloon and riles up the other expats as their frustrations mount.  Then comes news that one of the oil rigs has caught on fire; the Americans need to get some nitroglycerine to the site to stop the burning. To save money, they decide not to wait for safer modes of transport and offer $2K to anyone willing to drive ordinary trucks loaded with nitro across rough terrain for 300 miles. The danger is high, but the men are desperate.  Mario, Jo, Luigi, and Bimba (Peter van Eyck) sign up and commandeer two trucks that leave at dawn, spaced 30 minutes apart.  The rest of the 156 min film is the tense journey, the obstacles along the way, the interpersonal disputes, the stoicism, the fear, the mishaps (if that word can be used for this sort of disaster).  Like many a noir or heist film, The Wages of Fear is a procedural with the characters taking stock of each new problem (for example, a huge boulder stuck in the path) and devising a solution to get beyond it. All the while, the trucks are poised to blow up with the slightest wrong move.  Grand Prix winner at the Cannes Film Festival that year (before the Palm d’Or was introduced as an award in 1955).

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) – J. Cameron

Until I rewatched The Terminator (1984) at the end of last year (and Aliens, 1986, at the start of this one), I had forgotten what a great director of action James Cameron was (having more or less tuned out after Titanic, Avatar, etc.).  So, I guess it comes as no surprise (in this rewatch) that Terminator 2 plays out like one long action sequence. This is (of course) a sequel but the original film’s sci-fi plot with its potentially confusing time-travel elements did not really take too long to explain to Amon (who missed the first one):  AI-robots send a “terminator” (Arnold S.) back in time to the kill the mother of the future leader of the revolution against the machines before he is born (and a human also comes back with him, hoping to protect Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), but ending up fathering the future hero as well).  As T2 begins, we are advised that another terminator and another protector have come from the future – to the 90s – this time to kill John Connor (Edward Furlong) himself.  So, when Arnold appears, naked as before, seeking clothes, a gun, and a motorcycle, from the local biker bar, we think, yup, that’s the terminator.  Yet, this is not the same Arnold that we saw in 1984 at the start of his career, more of a monosyllabic tough guy (“I’ll be back” notwithstanding). Fast forward to 1991 and he’s revealed his comic side and presented a more charismatic face to the world (beyond just the brawn). So, again no surprise that Arnold plays John Connor’s protector in this film (reprogrammed by Connor himself in the future) and the true bad guy, the T-1000 liquid metal terminator model, is played by Robert Patrick. Patrick needs to kill Connor to stop the revolution but the heroic trio need to stop not only T-1000 but also Joe Morton from using the remnants of the Terminator from the first film to engineer the robots of the future who eventually take over, setting this plot into motion. But the special effects are really the star here, which is no slight on Hamilton’s buffed up Sarah, Patrick’s steely singlemindedness, Furlong’s cocky but vulnerable teen, or Schwarzeneggar’s compelling schtick (“Hasta La Vista, Baby!”).  Nevertheless, despite so many minutes given over to sheer action (and shape-shifting Patrick), by the time we get to the ending, the film has earned its emotional conclusion (which might have prevented the opportunity for a sequel, given that the future can change, but you know).  You might call this one of the sequels that tops the original but I do have a fondness for the trashy low-budgetness of the first.