OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies - Oh my, did I catch a jewel of a French comedy tonight. Remember that movie Spy Hard, which starred Leslie Nielsen and Andy Griffith. It is that sort of spoof on James Bond films... with one little twist... it was very funny. Seriously, multiple laugh out loud moments (a couple particular fight scenes come to mind).

The film was crafted beautifully. The main character, think of him as part James Bond, part Jacques Clouseau. He wasn't a gross caricature as Nielsen would play in Spy Hard, nor completely stupid like Clouseau. He has wit, is macho, has power and ability, but can be extremely lame brained and childish. His character seemed to have all the right edges to make the movie work. 

The character has to find out what happened to his colleague and friend, so he heads down to Cairo. A bunch of Muslim related humor, not defamatory in any way, if anything more attacking him than anything else. 

Doing a spoof on a spy film isn't easy. They often suck of caricatures and hyperbole and mindless humor. This movie had a lot of intelligent humor, situational humor, and some well developed humor as well. It was just so well put together. Absolutely perfect 007 spoof!

8 of 10

Hobson's Choice - I get mixed feelings about this comedy starring Charles Laughton, John Mills (father of Halley Mills), and Brenda De Banzie. Originally a play, the film at times seems to have a start, stop feel like a teen just learning to drive a stick shift. I think the pace and transition between scenes could have been better.

Laughton plays a great role as the lead Patriarch. I've seen him now in five films, and he seems to play a different version of bad guy in most of them (unlike Bette Davis who is typically always the same baddie), except the The Ghost of Canterville, which he is a hero. His manner is in full swing, from gestures, to tone, he plays a pretty good drunk. His pompous nature on the screen never seems to get out of hand. Just the right touch.

I think Mills plays a good role of the mindless laborer, turn somewhat competent company man. I think his transition was a bit start/stop-ish. 

The sisters' existence in the film also seemed to lack something. They had a purpose, but in the film, their existence seemed less important that the plot-device purpose they had. 

The story is fun. Overall, I'd give the film 6.75 of 10.

An Affair to Remember - A movie about an affair that is memorable. Stars Cary Grant (2012) and Deborah Kerr (Date Movie) as two people who meet on a cruise. Grant, a charming but playboyish guy, is engaged to be married to a woman in NYC. Kerr is in a long-term relationship, taking a cruise while her husband is busy on a business deal. In the end, it is a bit cliche. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy loses girl, boy forgets girl, girl dies in tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl.

They meet and then the emotions and realities conflict. There are no icebergs in this movie, so they don't sink, which gives them plenty of time to sort things out. The movie is pretty good. A nice story, with a decent if not old twist. 

7.5 of 10

The Black Swan - Yeah. It was unique, but I kept having a problem determining whether this was just a story or whether we were supposed to be able to figure out what exactly was happening. I think it was the prior, but I found that conflict hard to enjoy the movie thoroughly, I mean other than umm... those scenes. I'd say the movie was well crafted visually, but I honestly didn't have a clue what it was trying to say. Was the mother overbearing, what exactly did Lily do, etc... I will say the visual effects on her skin were brilliantly done.

7 of 10

Charade - A blockbuster of stars, Grant, A. Hepburn, George Kennedy, James Colburn, Walter Mathau are in this film about a wad of cash that has gone missing. It is a twisty, turny, who did it, where is it sort of thing.

A pretty good movie overall. I think I'd like to watch it again once it has been remastered. The version I saw was lackluster visually. 

7.5 of 10

The Conspirator - Screw the naysayers. This is surely to win Redford an Oscar for best director and will be a nominee for Best Film. The Conspirator does a remarkable job of chronicling the "trial" of the Mary Surratt. While not perfect, I think the film kept a decent aim of detailing the process of the trial, the politics behind it that aimed at expediency to "save" the Union, and the frustration of the lack of rights in the tribunal. Oddly enough we are living through a similar thing with the 9/11 "trials".

To be truthful, at the beginning of the film, I was real angry at the literal millions of Americans that probably smile at the thought of the assassination of President Lincoln. But as the movie goes on, I started to feel gross embarrassment for not even knowing the scope of the assassination, the attack on the Secretary of State Seward and the aborted attempt on VP Andrew Johnson. 

The film goes through a lot of what was known and the case on Surratt of which less was known and more staged because they couldn't get to her son. The movie does an interesting job at leaving the issue of guilt open, and I don't think the movie failed because of any sense of politics. There is one scene where I felt angry that Mary Surratt notes that for the four years she felt for the side she was on, Pro-Confederacy and it created a "You're just like me" false dichotomy. Her attorney, a Union Veteran, didn't confront the BS argument. I think that was perhaps the only moment in which the movie tried to be too neutral.

Overall, the acting was great, the pace was slow but deliberate, and it is a historical movie not a dramatization. This is the stuff that you wish Hollywood would create more of. 

9.0 of 10

Planet 51 - An animated film about an alien civilization that gets "invaded" by mankind. A good film, nothing special, but not droll like Madagascar. I think the film would have done a little better if not the feeling that Rover was a complete ripoff of Wall-E. Now, it is quite possible that Rover could be have been independently designed, but it did seem like a riff on Wall-E. The film is cliche, but has some charm.

6.3 of 10

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - A really great film. Details life in a ward that Jack Nicholson's character sneaks his way into, to avoid serving time in jail. Nicholson's character becomes conflicted between riding out his time verses trying to improve the standing of those he is living with in the ward. Ultimately this leads to his uber-conflict with dominating bitch, Kai Wynn... I mean Nurse Ratchet. 

The movie is absolutely impressive. The acting all around is great, not surprising based on the future talent gathered in that ward. The "crazies" don't stand out and everything seems so real and believable.

9.5 of 10

On The Waterfront - A brilliant film. Flat out, simply great. Watch this film. Mobs, boxers, Leonard Bernstein... and its on the waterfront. Really great performances, though I don't think the film warranted three best supporting actor nominations. 

9.7 of 10

Passengers - A film about a plane crash and getting over the crash. I knew absolutely nothing about the film... didn't even knew it existed. Plane to say, I kind of caught the twist and relatively early.

The twist wasn't too surprising, but honestly, I felt the twist was crap, ie... they cheated. I felt like Truman Capote at the end of Murder by Death. 

I like Anne Hathaway and the movie wasn't terrible, but there isn't much reason to watch this film.

5 of 10

Beyond Rangoon - Typical Hollywood film about a military regime. A couple and the wife's sister visit Burma in the late 80s or 1990. Things become heated and the couple leave, but the sister stays back because she lost her passport. Stuck in the country for two days, she decides, against her sister's wishes to go sightseeing. Things to go to heck in a hand basket and the main protoganist is swept into the middle of it. 

The movie felt it was missing something. I don't know whether the lead actress was right for the role. Her character's story is interesting, however. Overall, the film was good and I felt compelled to watch it as the Junta is still in charge of that country. Aung San Suu Kyi is noted, at the end, having kicked butt in the election, but was now under house arrest, the film was made in 1995... she was last released from house arrest in November 2010. 

The film was also poignant with regards to recent events in Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya. How the people who are going out to protest authoritarianism are really putting their lives on the line, not knowing whether the military will put the guns down (Egypt) or fire them (Libya). 

Even more reflective, there is a portion in the film where Arquette is flabbergasted about how Burmese soldiers could just fire at their own countrymen. A person responds that they were lied to, that the people were communists trying to take over the country. Makes me think of America and how the liberals are painted as socialists and anti-family, trying to purposefully destroy our economy, moral fabric, and nation. It made me think that soldiers are typically right-wing. Makes me wonder, how many buy that argument and would shot to kill if ordered to. 

It then gets me to thinking. Burma is in bad shape. Its citizens have been repressed for decades. Yet, no call to arms by anyone in America. Oh... gas goesup to $3.50 and we need to start thinking about intervening in Libya... but Burma? I'm sad to say it wasn't until about 2002 that I even knew anything happened there.

I think the film helps bring up a lot of questions that are very applicable today. 

6.7 of 10

California Suite - A film by Neil Simon about four couples/groups staying in suites at the same hotel. The movie goes through the individual stories of four couples/groups in the hotel, they never interact. You have Richard Pryor/Bill Cosby and their wives together on vacation, Michael Caine/Maggie Smith attending the Oscars, Alan Alda/Jane Fonda (a split couple) discussing what to do with their daughter who visited Dad out of the blue, and Walter Mathau/his wife (sorry, I forget her name) in town for a nephew's Bar Mitzvah. 

Of all the stories Caine/Smith and Cosby/Pryor were the best. Honestly, Alda and Fonda's script just seemed too witty and not very honest. The wit and sarcasm between Caine and Smith seemed a bit more natural. Cosby and Pryor were funny. Mathau's plot had a neat twist to it. 

It's a good movie, but not one I'd sit through again, however, if the Alda/Fonda pairing were given a less witty and a bit more natural plot wise, the movie could have been better. It just felt like a yo-yo ride in their scenes. 

6.0 of 10

The Italian Job (Michael Caine version) - A movie about a job... in Italy. A good, enjoyable movie. A nice ending. 

7 of 10

Sunshine Cleaning - It's about two sisters, a son/grandson and a father/grandfather. Its a good movie, not great. You pretty much know where it is heading by the subtle anvil-like hints placed in the plot. What saves this film is that they casted well, as Adams, Arkin, and Blunt can act well. 

The story is simple, need money quick... has a contact, starts a new business, learns the ropes along the way, learn the history, the fall, resolution. The movie was a bit canned but hey, that's what you get. And the conflicts are typically more plot device driven (not necessarily believable either in that it happens or the character's resolution to it), with only one of them being an actual twist. The movie, itself, however, does have a good cast, so you won't necessarily be pulling your hair out. 

5.5 of 10

The Boston Strangler - Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, and George Kennedy star in the film about DeSalvo, a man who murdered 13 woman in the early 60s. The movie develops in three stages, the beginning of the killings/investigation, the chase and capture, and then the "confession". Based on what I've read on Wikipedia, the movie itself seems to differ from actual events, though the movie in the beginning insisted the movie was factual. The acting was good by Curtis, though I wasn't going gaa gaa over it. The film is good overall, and the pacing was well done.

My largest complaint may be the factual accounts in the story.

7.0 of 10

Of Human Bondage - Bette Davis and Leslie Howard star in a film about one-way love. It was, rightfully, hailed as a great film. Howard played the role of a guy who just wanted a particular woman, despite the clear issues that presented for him. Davis played what would be her typical wicked role. I would like to applaud the work they did with her, making her seem to age greatly in the film. Davis starts off as a cute waitress, then ends up looking like she is 75 at the age of 30. Frances Dee plays a similar role as Howard, a person who sees what she wants, but it isn't exactly mutual. The film follows Howard's journey from artist to medicine and the women he comes across, the ones that would have him and the only one he really wanted. It is hard to sympathize with Howard's character at times and he becomes somewhat self-destructive. The only question that remains is will he redeem his life.

The problem with Davis films is that you've seen one, you have really seen most of them. She rarely played the role of a victim of anyone but herself. That kills any suspense that could have existed in her films, much like The Letter. Might be a reason why I love The Petrified Forest so much. 

In other news, the origin of the loud noises while something important is being talked about may have originated in this film, as Howard remarks secretly to Dee near the end of the film, with a chorus of car horns honking at them as they cross the street. 

Bette Davis's performance was widely held as remarkable, and oddly enough she didn't even receive a nomination for best actress. Davis had many voters write her name in for the ballot and it is still unknown what the official results of the voting that year was, though Claudette Colbert won for It Happened One Night. She won the following year for Dangerous, a similar, though more redeemed, role for her played against Franchot Tone. Davis would note that Hepburn's performance in Alice Adams was more deserving in '35. 

8 of 10