Devil Rides Out, The (1968)

Christopher Lee stars in this enjoyable little witchcraft chiller. Lee plays Duc de Richelieu, an older man who discovers that a young friend of his has become involved with the black arts, his coven led by Mocata (Charles Gray between Bond films). He takes it upon himself to prevent this young man (Patrick Mower) and an associated young woman (the lovely Nike Arrighi) from their unholy Baptism into Satanism. Charles Gray plays a serviceable villain in this, while Christopher Lee excels as the dreadfully serious no-nonsense doomsayer and protector. The only other noteworthy member of the cast is Nike Arrighi as Tanith. She's one of the more irresistible actresses I've seen in a Hammer film--it's a shame she retired from acting so early. I wish I could figure out what kind of accent she has. With several fun sets considering the budget and a couple tense, exciting scenes involving magic, The Devil Rides Out is one of the better Hammer thrillers from the late 60s (although still not as excellent as Quatermass and the Pit). Definitely worth a watch. Good occult thrillers are not easy to come by.

7/10

A Note on the Restoration: The version I watched was the recent restoration in which Hammer chose to "fix" some of the effects left unfinished by either lack of funds or time. While the improvements are mostly unnoticeable to someone unfamiliar with the film and done tastefully (The only effect that was obviously digital a strike of lightning--don't they know lightning never looked like that in the 60s?), it does bring up the question of what level of alteration is acceptable if at all. I'm not sure I can provide a clear answer. The improvements didn't seem to be for stupid reasons like "to update the film to younger generations," or needlessly adding garbage to fulfill some delusional director's vision, but rather because they wanted to put a finishing touch on effects that were obviously unfinished due to circumstance. It's kind of like Harryhausen colorizing Merian C. Cooper's 1935 film She because their original intentions were to shoot in color, so he colorized it as a gesture of appreciation for the film. Does that justify the alterations? I'm not sure. Regardless, they should at least provide the original unaltered version for the purists.

Living Daylights, The (1987)

The Living Daylights takes the Bond series far away from the la-la land of shoddy rear projection and abundant stunt doubles and grounds it back into realism. Timothy Dalton's Bond is grim but not bad and not without a few moments of dry wit. The plot is standard grade spy stuff: defections, back stabbings, decoys, and other sneaky tricks. They throw in a subplot involving Afghan rebels, but it's not noteworthy. Actually, the story was pretty boring. I'm a big fan of both Jeroen Krabbe and John Rhys-Davies, but neither actor managed to develop their characters enough to stand out. They seem kind of half-hearted about the whole thing. The Bond girl, Maryam d'Abo, also seemed bored. She just didn't seem into it. Fortunately, the filmmakers decided against the tasteless wordplay and cheesy visual puns that plagued the Moore films and instead favored a more From Russia with Love-flavored tone that was lighter on gadgets and jokes. The stunt-work was impressive and there's a noticeable improvement in the limited rear projection work. The Living Daylights isn't a great film, but it's a huge improvement over its immediate predecessors. I don't understand all the hate towards Dalton's Bond. I thought he was pretty good despite the lackluster film surrounding him.

6/10

Dredd (2012)

Not quite a remake since the 1995 Judge Dredd was such a notorious misfire, Dredd delivers a solid and entertaining, if not somewhat limited, action film to fans waiting for a Dredd film done right. I've never read the Dredd comics, but I know one of the big issues with the 1995 film is that Stallone took his helmet off. Well, rejoice fans, Karl Urban keeps his on the entire time. The film's story is not much more than a standard video game plot, a sort of sci-fi Die Hard where Judge Dredd and rookie sidekick have to fight their way through a locked-down building complex full of obstacles and enemies to get to the boss-woman at the top. It's not particularly original or special, but the visual flair and the execution of the action saves it from the heap-pile of generic re-dos. While I didn't think the film was mind blowing, it did whet my appetite for more Mega City and has me hoping for a sequel where budget constraints won't limit them to a single (albeit large) location. Dredd reminded me those mid-grade 80s action films that didn't really push the genre, but were well-made enough to keep you watching.

7/10

Red Dawn (2012)

Chris "Thor" Hemsworth and Josh "Drake and Josh" Peck star in this substandard remake of John Milius's paranoid Cold War propaganda film. The film starts off on the wrong foot by trying to give Josh Peck a legitimate, "serious" character (hot-head high school football player). The problem is that not only is Josh comically bad at acting, he looks way too old to be a senior in high school. He is so comically bad that he pulled everyone watching out of the picture every time he was on screen! Just one split-second cut-away to Josh would send all those viewing into fits of laughter. Hemsworth does a decent job, but he doesn't deserve any special treatment for being the only competent actor in the film. The supporting cast is annoying at best, irritating at worst, and the plot just doesn't quite work without the Russians being the main threat. North Koreans are lame. The villains have no shred of humanity like in the '84 film--they are just generic action movie automatons that are there to get shot and blow up for cheap thrills. The remake is stripped of the darker themes of war and the attempts at muddying up the lines of morality. Red Dawn 2012 is another pathetic entry in the unending line of generic remakes designed to cash in on the original's reputation.

4/10 

China Syndrome, The (1979)

The China Syndrome stars Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, and Jack Lemmon in a conspiracy thriller about a nuclear power plant mismanaged by its corporate heads for the sake of reputation and a quick buck. Fonda and Douglas give good performances as an ambitious news anchor and her independent cameraman as they battle against the money trail for the truth about an accident that they capture on film during a visit to the plant for a routine story. The best performance and the heart of the film is Jack Lemmon's as the shift manager and begrudging whistle-blower. I guess I've never really gave him much credit as a dramatic actor, but he was fantastic. The film could have easily become an anti-nuclear PSA, but it didn't stray very far into that territory at all. Rather, it was about technological hubris, corruption, and human error. As Lemmon's character, Jack Godell insists, "the system works," and it does. The higher-ups chose to ignore the warning, and then the human system kicked in--against Jack Godell. For some reason I thought the film was going to be slow, but it's an engaging, slick, and chilling ride.

8/10

Great Silence, The aka Il grande silenzio (1968)

The Great Silence is a bleak, cold spaghetti western with one of the most shocking, memorable endings ever in a western. The film isn't quite as put together or technically competent as its contemporary, Once Upon a Time in the West, but the subject material, setting, and ensuing climactic battle. The Great Silence revolves around corruption in a Utah town regarding the victimization of a group of Morman outcasts (who have bounties put on their heads). Frank Wolff plays a clumsy sheriff with good-intentions assigned to clean up Snowhill, UT, which is plagued by an infrastructure supporting scum like the bounty hunter Loco. Kinski's performance as Loco is quite excellent. Silence (Trintignant), an infamous mute gunslinger, arrives in town and begins a sort of investigation. The film's setting is unusual for a western: it's set in feet of snow with the weather playing heavily into the challenges of the film, from frozen guns and iced-over rivers to horses struggling to walk with the snow up to their bodies. And again, Ennio Morricone delivers a stellar score. The only major issues I had with the film were a slew of awkward moments that seemed script or director-related. These were not made any better by the absolutely terrible dub typical of 1960s Italian productions. Unfortunately, because both the English and Italian tracks were post-dubbed, I'm not confident the Italian dub would be much better.

8/10

Once Upon a Time in the West aka C'era una volta il West (1968)

Once Upon a Time in the West is a masterpiece spaghetti western from Sergio Leone, artfully deconstructing the Western genre and giving us something both clever and entertaining. A man and his family are murdered by a gang on the day of his new wife's arrival. Several men step in to help her discover why and prevent the inevitable confrontation with Frank (Fonda) and his men. Henry Fonda shockingly changes it up and plays the villain. Charles Bronson portrays a nameless cowboy who plays a harmonica and is haunted by his past. My favorite character was Cheyenne,  played by Jason Robards, as he brought a certain eloquent charisma to the role that the tougher characters lacked. Claudia Cardinale portrays the wife, complicated and sometimes difficult to sympathize with--I also don't think women were that hot back then. The film was often thought-provoking or just plain controversial, which makes it even better to mull over. Technically, the film is stunning, employing a surprisingly slow but perfectly executed pace and flowing cinematography. The sound design is striking, with all of the sounds of the Old West augmented in the mix (creating a kind of fantastic reality) which is aided by Ennio Morricone's brilliant score. Once Upon a Time in the West, along with The Wild Bunch, should be considered the crowning examples of an epic western.

10/10