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STOP MAKING SENSE (1984) – 8/10
I haven’t seen a lot of concert films, but STOP MAKING SENSE, with the band Talking Heads, is the only one I’ve seen that is nothing but concert. Director Jonathan Demme doesn’t waste any time showing what goes on backstage, watching audience members file into the hall, interviewing musicians or hangers-on or people philosophizing about the state of rock music. If David Byrne, the leader of Talking Heads does any talking to the audience during the show, Demme has chosen not to show it (other than Byrne’s introduction of the band members at the end). The resultant 90 minutes is as pure a distillation of the Heads’ music as you are going to get outside one of their albums.
Demme culled the footage from three different shows at Los Angeles’ Pantages Theatre during the band’s 1983 tour to promote their album Speaking in Tongues. In order to minimize the number of cameras in the frame, one show was all shot from one side of the stage, the next night was shot from the other side. Demme wanted to shoot additional performance footage on a sound stage made to recreate the Pantages Theatre The band vetoed this idea because they thought the lack of audience response would have hindered the energy of their performance.
Talking to Rolling Stone in 2016, Demme was asked what the secret was to making a great concert film. Ever modest, he gave the credit to his performers. "It comes down to two things," he said. "Whoever's doing the work of making the music, they have to have a cinematic quality. … I wouldn't say showmanship, exactly, but that the people creating the music are interesting characters. And second, that their experience makes for an interesting, if only interior, journey for us to watch."
Lead singer David Byrne is certainly a character—twisting his face into contortions, uttering a myriad of sounds along with the songs, wearing an oversized white suit, doing a Fred Astaire-type dance with a floor lamp. His fellow bandmates and backup singers are more “normal,” as rock musicians go, but are quite energetic nevertheless. Not being too familiar with the band’s oeuvre, most of the songs were new to me, but all of them are toe-tappers, and I can’t imagine them being delivered any better than they are in the film.
The 1984 movie is notable for being the first made entirely using digital audio techniques, although after the final digital mix was done, it had to be converted to analog so that it could be sent out in Dolby Stereo prints, which is an analog process. (Digital sound in films was not yet a thing.) It was Jonathan Demme’s first stereo film.
The film has gone through many hands since it was released by Cinecom Pictures. After Cinecom went bankrupt in 1991, the film was acquired by Polygram Filmed Entertainment, which was then acquired by MGM. The film finally ended up with Palm Pictures, who had released various video versions over the years. Eventually, the rights to the film reverted back to the band, because band member Jerry Harrison, along with fellow Heads David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, and Chris Frantz, had originally self-financed and produced the film under the banner of Talking Heads Pictures.
Now, A24 has done a 4K restoration of the film for a current re-release to theaters, and has upgraded the audio to the latest Dolby Digital Atmos process. But before that could be done, the original elements had to be located, since Palm had used prints that were several generations old to produce their videos. After a long and fruitless search, a desperation call to the head of MGM produced the film negative, which was located back in the MGM vault, something they didn’t even know they had. The original sound elements had been rescued from destruction by Sony, along with a whole semi-trailer load of recordings, when the Todd-AO sound studios closed and were torn down. The sound tracks were in an early, no longer used, digital format, but the restorers found someone who could work with the process. So now we have the restored film, looking and sounding better than ever.
The original film was produced for $1.2 million and returned $4.9 million at the U.S. box office. This re-release has already added $3 million to that total. An expanded CD of the Sire Records soundtrack was released back in 1999, and on August 18 of this year, a Deluxe Edition was released as a limited edition two-LP set as well as digitally, and a new Dolby Atmos digital release may be forthcoming. In 2021, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.
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The Big Boodle(1957)6/10
With Errol Flynn, Pedro Armendariz, and Gia Scala.
Errol is a card dealer, in a casino, in Cuba. During a stint he is passed some phoney pesos. From then on he gets deeper into trouble, with everyone. The police, Cuban villains and women.
A late entry in Flynn's career and while no masterpiece, it was watchable. Mainly due to my not being familiar with it. Errol looked a bit tired but this added a bit to his performance as the ' wtf is going on' character, at least at the outset, until he finds his bearing. Armendariz played his part well- pain in the arse but honest police chief. There were plenty of other shifty looking people that had nothing to do with the story,except to make you say ' I bt its him'.
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...The Boys from Brazil 6/10
I can't understand how anyone can give this film such a high rating ...
6 isn't high, it's above average watchable.
6 is a low mark for Boys from Brazil.
And it was definitely improved by the superb score.
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)
Along with the first adaptation from 1953 by Don Siegel (who has a cool cameo, along with Kevin McCarthy) still one of the best adaptations of Jack Finney's novel "The Body Snatchers". When I originally saw it as a kid, I enjoyed it as a creepy science-fiction movie, but nowadays, I find the commentary on social conformism much more interesting (and scarier.) Glad to finally have Denny Zeitlin's wonderful score on CD.
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Passages (2023)
Toxic narcissist Tomas (Tomas Freiburg) and his wayward cock tramps all over doormats named Martin (Ben Whishaw) and Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos) until they finally come to their senses and give him the heave-ho. Then Tomas takes a bike ride.
Underwhelming cheating spouse melodrama.
6/10
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The Specialist (Luis Llosa,1994) 5/10
Boy, they sure don’t make ‘em like that anymore. The movie practically revels in its glossy, over-the-top extravagance. Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone aren’t so much performing as posing, every other shot of Sharon Stone looks as if lifted out of Vogue Magazine, Cigarettes and cigars and expensive cars abound, and who better than James Woods to play a mean, ice-cold bad guy. He seems to have a ball. The plot is nonsensical and basically just serves as a backdrop for some cool action scenes and a ludicrous love scene between Stallone and Stone. Woods and Stallone play ex-colleagues who were once explosive experts at the CIA, but now work “freelance”, Woods for a gangster. Stallone is choosier when it comes to picking his jobs and prefers to blow up only people he finds morally objectionable, your friendly neighborhood executioner for hire, so to speak. In comes Stone, who wants to take revenge on Eric Roberts, because he and his gangster family are responsible for her family's death. Or maybe she’s actually working with Woods, who wants to get Stallone to come out of hiding and finish him off. The plot is actually quite complicated for a thriller of this kind, taking turns right and left so the characters have something to do, since there are not nearly as many action sequences as one would expect in a Stallone blockbuster from this time. That’s probably because by the mid 90s, the “tough guy action movie” had started to overstay its welcome, and stars like Schwarzenegger and Stallone were trying to branch out into other types of movies, so THE SPECIALIST mixed in a heavy dosis from classic noir film and obviously capitalized on Stone’s fresh fame from BASIC INSTINCT. John Barry’s elegant music elevates the whole affair from glossy to hyper-glossy.
But, say what you want, we had a lot of fun watching this movie. The same year Quentin Tarantino came out with his masterwork PULP FICTION, THE SPECIALIST was the “real deal”. This is purest “pulp fiction”: tough guys and sexy dames, a far fetched revenge plot, sleasy (and completely superfluous) sex scenes, explosions with lots of KABOOM!, and one liners. (Even the bomb timers come with one-liners here!)
Great stuff, you have to be in the mood for it for sure, it’s not so much a “good” movie, but it comes with the smell of another era, and for the running time of the movie, the 90s were alive again. Lot’s of fun if you go with the flow.
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Yes, the John Barry's score is very nice. The producers of the film obviously wanted something elegant and stylish, rather than a straightforward action/suspense score.
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Posted: |
Oct 11, 2023 - 12:20 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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HOCUS POCUS (1993) – 7/10
I had previously only seen this film on broadcast TV, but I decided to take in one of the 30th Anniversary theatrical showings. It’s not as good as I remember it, but I bumped it up one point for its lively John Debney score (last released by Intrada in 2013).
In a lengthy prologue, three 17th-century witch sisters (Bette Midler. Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy) are hanged in Salem, Massachusetts after stealing the spirit of a young girl in order to maintain their youth. They also turned the girl’s teenage brother, “Thackery Binx” (Sean Murray), into a black cat. Flash forward to the present day, when teenager “Max” (Omri Katz), younger sister “Dani” (Thora Birch), and girlfriend “Allison” (Vinessa Shaw) accidentally reincarnate the witches on Halloween night by lighting a candle that burns with a black flame, found in an old, closed museum. The witches have until morning to conjure up the spell that will allow them to steal the spirit of Dani and the other young children in town. But our intrepid trio snatch the book of spells from the witches, and the chase is on, with the kids being helped by Binx the cat, who has been around all these years.
Screenwriters Mick Garris and Neil Cuthbert have set up a decent premise, but the humor is pretty much limited to the witches, with Bette Midler playing straight woman to the comic unruliness of her two sisters. There are a few gags when the witches confront modern life and technology, but not much is done with that idea.
Special effects are similarly limited (at least based on today’s standards)—the witches fly on their broomsticks and Midler shoots some lighting bolts out of her fingers. Nevertheless, HOCUS POCUS was Disney’s first foray into the digital era after purchasing two new computers and a proprietary software package for its existing in-house effects unit. Through Buena Vista Visual Effects (BVVE), Disney became the second major studio with in-house digital effects capabilities behind Sony Studios’ Imageworks. Among the effects created with the new digital technology was a six-layer digital composite which combined live-action footage of a house, a miniature of its upper floors and roof exploding, and three puppet witches shot against a blue screen, flying out across a matte painting of a moon and clouds which were set into motion digitally. Additional digital effects were created by the Rhythm & Hues company in Hollywood which created “Binx,” the talking cat. Rhythm & Hues achieved Binx by filming a real cat, digitally removing its head, and digitally cloning its fur for use in their 3D-model.
Kenny Ortega (NEWSIES) directed HOCUS POCUS. The film’s best scene occurs when the witches crash a big adult Halloween party and are mistaken for guests. They end up on stage with Parker and Najimy performing as backup singers as Midler belts out a rendition of "I Put a Spell on You.”
In another good scene, uncredited brother and sister Garry and Penny Marshall play a creepy husband and wife. Garry is dressed as Satan for Halloween, and the sisters mistake him for the real thing. Garry Marshall had previously directed Midler in BEACHES (1988).
The $28 million production had just OK grosses of $40 million domestically on its initial run. A 2020 re-release and now this 30th Anniversary re-issue have brought in another $6 million. For the re-releases, the sound has been upgraded from analog Dolby Stereo to Dolby Digital Atmos, which helps the enveloping music score considerably.
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The Mule(2018)7/10 ish
With the legend.
Finally saw this one, my first new Clint flick in ages. I wasn't remarkable but steadily enjoyable. Not a lot happens with little action. It just moseys along , like Cli t.
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Posted: |
Oct 12, 2023 - 10:44 PM
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By: |
Tall Guy
(Member)
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The Boys from Brazil 6/10...The score suited the film, with that deliberately banal waltz popping up all the time to underpin the tawdry aspirations of the bad guys. A good example of a score that works in the film but why in Ennio’s name would you choose to listen to it in isolation?
Hey, TG, you might think you're safe whilst abroad ... but if you play with fire you're likely to get burnt. I do, BTW, agree ... for me, a fan of JG, find this one of his least inspired (bottom quartile) ... i.e. it suited the film! 
Heh, by the time they track me down, I’ll be gone!
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