Jason's Blog, page 98

Jane Greer 2

Yvonne DeCarlo 3

Except The New Girl

Tennis elbow

... is no fun. Okay, you get more time to read, but that's it.

Comes A Horseman

Jason Robards wants their ranch, Jane Fonda and James Caan fight back. Directed by Alan J. Pakula

Ah, those Pakula films are seldom a barrel of laughs and this is no exception. It's a pretty good film, though, a slow 70s Western set in the 40s, so besides cowboys and horses you also see cars and even a plane. The cinematography is by Gordon Willis, so of course the film looks gorgeous. Fonda is almost unrecognizable with no make-up, as a laconic ranch owner, Caan is also convincing in a cowboy hat, and following the genre rules there's a shootout at the end, but cut to a minimum, as if Pakula was embarrassed to put it in there.

The Electric Horseman

Robert Redford is the has-been rodeo star advertising breakfast cereal for a big corporation, who has the chance to redeem himself by stealing their drugged up horse and setting it free, Jane Fonda is the reporter trying to get the story. Directed by Sydney Pollack.

Not the best of the Redford / Pollack films. It's not even the best of the Redford / Fonda films - Barefoot in the Park, made 12 years earlier, wins in that department. Fonda is a bit annoying in her part as the pushy reporter, or rather the role is annoying. The first half of the film is best, then it gets a bit too mushy out in the prairie scenes. And as a whole it could have been more subtle. Corporate greed has sold out American values, yes, we get it, Sydney, we get it.

Trust

Martin Donovan meets Adrienne Shelly. Also starring Edie Falco, directed by Hal Hartley.

To me, this is still Hartley's best film, but that might be because this is the first film of his I saw. I had never seen any of the actors before either, so there was no baggage, you could believe they were not actors, they were the characters. Both Donovan and Shelly are very appealing, and there is a certain sadness in rewatching the film now, in Shelly dying so young and so senselessly. But the film itself holds up well. It's perfectly constructed and the script is both clever and funny. It's a young man's film with a young man's concerns, though. Will I have to find a job and get married? Will it change me? Will it turn me into my parents? A family is like a gun, you point it in the wrong direction you're gonna kill someone.

Frida, Parrot

Dark, Winter

Dark Shadows 
Tim, Tim, Tim... What happened to you, man? You had it all, man, and you threw it all away, maan. Why am I doing a bad Dennis Hopper impersonation all of a sudden? I don't know. Sorry. Anyway, this is not a good film. It's not funny, scary or weird, and it should be at least one of those things. Who is the audience for this film? It's hard to say. And it's not a film that should cost 150 millions. Take away 100 millions and it would probably be a better film. Where's the poetry of the cheap effects? Where's the imperfections? Where's that strange, haunting, little scene that you remember ten years later? No, it's just another film. Yeah, we sure need more of those. Thanks, Tim!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The first hour is pretty good, then it gets a bit boring, with dragged out shakycam action scenes and big CGI stuff blowing up. They could have taken out 20 minutes, maybe even lost The Falcon to narrow down the focus to Captain America and The Winter Soldier. The best, most memorable scenes in the film is the one with Peggy Carter and the electroshock one. The best action scene is actually given to Nick Fury - it has tension, that lacks in most of the other fight scenes. But you can't complain about Robert Redford saying Hail Hydra.

Prefab Sprout