The Great Movie Review: King Kong (1933)

In the words of my mother, "You're going to listen to an hour and a half of that woman screaming?" Yes mother, and we're going to like it too.

We all know the story of King Kong. Director meets woman. Woman meets giant gorilla. Giant gorilla meets 7 well armed WWI fighter pilots with scarves and dies.

Given the fact that this movie is 77 ears old, it can't help but feel old. That's not to say that it is not well done; it actually looks pretty good. The live action stuff flows together pretty well with the animation displayed on a screen behind them in the studio. Movie magic!

My favorite was when Kong would throw something into the foreground. The object would fly off screen. Then an object of about the same size and shape would reappear at about the same arching angle and take out a villager. That's entertainment.

The whole time, I couldn't help but think of Robot Chicken. The animation style looks exactly the same. I kept expecting the gorilla to turn to the camera with a moving putty-made mouth and try to sell me some Admiral Ackbar Cereal.

Regardless, I didn't look at the clock nearly as much as I did in Peter Jackson's "version." I guess that's a good sign. When it was all said and done, we were all glad it was over.

In a fight of King Kong vs. King Kong, Peter Jackson loses.

King Kong (1933)

Group Rating (out of 5):

Stevox: 2
Val: 3
Kyle: 2
Micah: 2

Averaging to 2.25 screams out of 5.

Shares this rating with: Trainspotting, Blade Runner and A Man For All Seasons

The Great Movie Review: Sullivan's Travels

A lot of people love this movie: Producers, Directors, Movie Buffs. With news of influences into "Rodger Rabbit" and "O Brother Where Art Thou?," we quickly picked up this AFI loved classic.

Sullivan's Travels is a movie about a comedic movie maker, Sullivan, and his quest to make his first drama. He deems that he has not "suffered enough" to make his deeply tragic film about poverty, "O Brother Where Art Thou," and sets out to live the life of a tramp, hopping on trains and depending on the kindness of strangers. How "method" of him.

Sullivan searches for hardship and seemingly fails until his failure ultimately leads him into actual hardship. In the end, he discovers the benefit of his whimsical comedies all along by watching a Disney movie in a small town church with the less than fortunate.

There are some good thoughts about escapism and the value of laughter here, but my real question: Did people really laugh that hard at slapstick Disney movies? I mean these people are gasping for air and falling on each other like they are in a Mathew McConaughey movie poster.

Overall, my main thoughts and the thoughts of the group were, "meh." I'd much rather watch a whimsical comedy. Though, in light of the message of this movie, I'm not sure what that says about my economic situation.

Thus opens our new theme, Movies about Making Movies.

Cheers.

Sullivan's Travels

Group Rating (out of 5):

Stevox: 2
Val: 3
Kyle: 3
Jenny: 2

Averages to 2.5 Hobos out of 5.

Shares this rating with: Mystic River.

Thankfully the only child in this movie is 13 and drives a tank.

The Bicycle Thieves

There are very few films that shape every film made after it. People always talk about Citizen Kane in this way; I would consider the Matrix to be one of these as well. Well, the Bicycle Thieves is one of these as well.

A poor man out of work struggles to support his family. He finally finds a job that requires a bicycle of which he has none and sells his belongings to purchase one. He heads to work only to have it stolen on his very first day. Scanning the streets of Rome, he and his son wander through an endless sea of bikes and bike parts. Feeling so desperate, the father decides to steal one himself only to be caught losing his credibility with his son and his honor as a man.

While studying in England, I had the pleasure of taking an Italian cinema class that previewed many Italian films made in the 40’s and 50’s. While Hollywood was putting out great and glamorous classics like the Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, Italy was putting out films of a dark and gritty nature. Torn by the war raging on within their own borders, filmmakers made cheap, raw, and real films with real people and real situations that lacked the pretty Rita Hayworth or glamorous plots of Hollywood.

This is a film that every film buff should watch. The camera work is thoughtful and the acting is very good given the actors are not professional. You identify with the main character in his continual unfortunate circumstances; it’s hard to watch such charming people suffer. All in all it is inspirational but depressing.

7 of 10

The Maltese Falcon

1941's “The Maltese Falcon,” #69 on the IMDb Top 250 list, is an iconic piece of film that not only defined, but truly set the standard for all future film noir. In fact, many film historians credit “The Maltese Falcon” as being the first ever example of the genre.

The plot, according to IMDb, is such: “A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.”

To be honest, I thought there would be a lot more fuss over the actual falcon, especially after hearing that “It’s the stuff that dreams are made of” line roughly a bazillion times in various movie countdowns. But, to be fair, we did learn that the falcon is “considered a classic example of a MacGuffin, a plot device that motivates the characters of the story but otherwise has little relevance.”

I loved seeing such an affable, jokey Humphrey Bogart, especially coming after “Casablanca” where Bogart’s Rick is serious, angry, and cynical. Conversely, Bogart’s Sam Spade in “Falcon” is quite irreverant and good-humored.

I recognized Mary Astor from her role as Mrs. Smith in “Meet Me in St. Louis,” and her turn as a femme fatale in “Maltese Falcon” was quite a change from the way I was used to seeing her! And of course our old friend Peter Lorre, who we’ve previously seen in “Arsenic and Old Lace” and “Casablanca,” made his required appearance in the film as yet another snivveling double-crosser.

The movie was a bit confusing, with numerous twists, lies, and double-crosses—by the end I was still trying to piece together where the true alliances had lain, why certain characters had made the choices they had, and who had committed the murders after all.

The group’s reception of the film was mostly lukewarm, but generally favorable. Stephen and Kyle don’t particularly care for dramas, so I think the movie ended up being a bit of a chore for them. When Jesse saw the menu screen pop up revealing the title of the movie, he exclaimed, “I’m so glad we’re watching this!” In the end, my feeling is very much the same. I’m so glad I finally saw this movie, which is #31 AFI’s Top 100 list. It’s a film that I can recognize as being well-crafted and certainly worthy of laud, but one which I will probably not have a desire to see again anytime in the near future.

7 out of 10 stars.

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens

Vampires. That is what this movie is about. It is a direct copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula. However they never attained the rights to the film and was therefore Prana Films one and only film. Bram Stoker's wife sued the company causing them to go out of business. Albin Grau was one of the founders of this company and it was his idea to make a vampire film. During his time in the military, in 1916, a Serbian farmer told him that his father was a Vampire and an Undead.

This film was released in 1922, but has since been updated with names of people from Stoker's book. Being a silent film there is no original score. So to make this a movie they took classical music and put in enough to fill the entire movie. There was no scoring involved, AKA, it didn't fit. At times when it should have been scary, light hearted music was playing making it almost comical. In real life there would be a piano up front, or some guys playing strings. So the music would have fit. It was later remixed with a Gothic Industrial soundtrack by Aleister Einstein. This soundtrack gives the film a much creepier feel, with indistict human voices and mysterious far away melodious that you might recognize, Silver Bells being on example. This soundtrack fits the movie much better, but is still somewhat dissapointing.

In short, it is what it is. A silent film. Being the beginning of the entire history of film there is a lot they can get away with. But there were some cool parts. Like Count Orlok/Dracula (the vampire) rising from his casket, and the shot of the caskets, from people dying of the plague, coming down the street was very poignant. It is much less morbid than this paragraph would lead you to believe, and is hardly what I, or others, would consider a horror movie.

I give it a six out of ten.

Casablanca

Before I revealed to the group exactly what we were watching this week, I told them I didn't expect everyone to like my pick. I knew it probably wouldn't be terribly popular. But, I told them, you can't be a true movie fan without seeing... "Casablanca."

This cinematic legend from 1942 tells the story of Rick and Ilsa, a sort of star-crossed pair of former lovers, who find each other in Casablanca after several years apart. The whole movie has a very film noir-ish quality to it, with lots of shadows, fog, cigarette smoke, flashbacks, and mysterious characters. This is the film that gave us such classic movie lines as "Here's lookin' at you, kid," "We'll always have Paris," and many, many more.

I warned everyone before the movie started that this is definitely a melodrama; you've got a guy standing in the rain at a train station morosely reading a letter, a leading lady who dramatically cries and turns away from the camera, young girls who implore our hero Rick for help, and everything in between.

But don't get me wrong, "Casablanca" has some amazing comedic moments as well. Claude Rains as Captain Renault in particular is an excellent character who gets to deliver some very fun and clever lines ("How extravagant you are, throwing away women like that. Some day they may be scarce. ").

After the movie ended, Jesse remarked that he expected to be bored at some point during the film, but that he really never was. I agree, it's a movie that you absolutely fall into and don't notice that time has passed until it's all over. It's somewhat a mystery, somewhat a comedy, and definitely a romance of sorts. It really has everything you might want!

"Casablanca" is one of the most celebrated movies of all time, if not the most celebrated. In addition to the Academy Award for Best Picture, it has been named one of the best movies of all time by countless magazines, film institutes, film critics, etc. And with good reason- "Casablanca" has stood the test of time and still maintains its humor, its poignancy, and even its relevance.

I own the movie, so of course I love it. Jesse and Stephen spoke highly of the film after it ended, both saying it was very "solid." Kyle kept up his reputation has the hard-to-please member of the group by not caring for the movie all that much. I suppose you can't win them all!

We ended the afternoon by watching "Carrotblanca," a very clever Looney Toons spoof of "Casablanca" from 1995. It's a great little cartoon made all the more funny as a direct follow-up to "Casablanca" itself.

Overall I would call this edition of movie club a success. "Casablanca" is a timeless classic that just gets better and better with repeat viewings. I give it 9 stars out of 10.