Film Flam - Watching Earthquake (1974)

 

Remember: Universal has given "Earthquake" its MAXIMUM EFFORT.

Slaughter's Big Rip-Off

I've hit a Blaxsploitation pocket in my current movie queue and "Slaughter's Big Rip-Off" has come up.

On paper, it's the perfect movie - it stars Jim Brown, James brown did the score, a car goes over a cliff with the hero in it and he survives without injury... and in the first scene an airplane with a machine gun swoops down and shoots Punky Brewster's dad in the head. But that's not why you called. The most fascinating aspect of the movie is that the powerful white villain is played by Ed McMahon. Yes, that Ed McMahon.

And the thing is, he's pretty believable. He has the 80s Mad glasses, a suit, he yells at his underlings and he's a convincing Bad Boss Man. He reminds me of Frank Rizzo. Of course, looking at the picture above, he also looks like Cameron Mitchell.

In the end, it doesn't work out for him. He tries to defeat Slaughter by giving him 3 ½ stars instead of 3 ¾ stars and Slaughter guns him down with a machine gun.

And I should re-iterate that it's a perfect movie on paper. In actuality it's pretty average fare.

IMDB 250 8.2 - Papillon (1973)

Papillon (1973)

"Welcome to the penal colony of French Guiana, whose prisoners you are and from which there is no escape."

As two prisoners are being transported to the penal system in French Guiana and make a deal. Papillon (Steve McQueen) will protect the more fragile Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman) and, in exchange, Dega will finance Papillon's prison escape.

The plot sounds like "The Great Escape" but it's actually closer to "Lawrence of Arabia". It's long, it's big and it's long. There are long sequences portraying long stretches of solitary confinement in a dark cell. There are long sequences portraying the attempted escape from prison. There are long sequences depicting what happens after that (not spoiling anything). And there are long sequences showing what happens after that. Like "Lawrence of Arabia", this movie has an "epic" feel to it - they're going to tell you a larger than life story and it doesn't matter if it takes longer than life to tell it.

The main strength of this movie is the acting. Dustin Hoffman is always good but Steve McQueen is phenomenal. Here, he gets to display a huge range of emotions and states from "old age" to "crazy" to "sick and at the point of death". And you'll never catch him "acting". Every second feels authentic. I was already a fan going in, and this movie only made me more of one.

For the first half of the movie one might think it's about the human spirit and human determination. But by the end, one can't help but wonder if it's really about obsession and insanity. And where does one draw the line?

7/10.
Total Top "250" Movies Seen: 363.

IMDB 250 7.1 - Stalker (1979)

Stalker (1979)

Somewhere beyond the barbed wire fences and guns of a dystopian future city, lies a mysterious area called "The Zone". Is it the site of a nuclear meltdown? Is it the work of aliens? No one knows. There is rumored to be a place within "The Zone" called "The Room" where a man's wishes become reality. Two men, the Professor and the Writer hire a man (known as a "Stalker") to lead them to it.

Filmed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War on a non-existent budget, "Stalker" features minimal dialogue, minimal music, minimal editing, no special effects and the first 40 minutes are black and white. To say that it's slow is an understatement - it moves at a glacial pace. The actors - when they do speak - debate the nature of God, existence, life, science and art. It's as if Ingmar Bergman made a science fiction movie.

All that said, and even though I generally don't like Ingmar Bergman, I like "Stalker". The main strength is the cinematography. The cinematography of this movie is among the best I've ever seen in any movie. You can pick a frame of this movie at random, frame it and hang it in a gallery and it will probably belong. The sepia-tinged black and white of the first part in particular is simply perfect.

Besides the cinematography, the other main strength is the writing. Tension builds slowly as the men navigate the Zone and questions start to stack up. I found the mystery of "The Zone" and the exploration of a strange world and its other-worldly possibilities undeniably interesting. It's somewhat reminiscent of "Lost". In that aspect, the sparse dialogue only adds to the mystery. Less is more.

Obviously, "Stalker" is decidedly an "art house" film. The pacing is extremely slow, shots are extremely static, the existential conversations, the fact that it's subtitled combined with the almost 3 hour run-time all means that it's not for everybody.... or even a lot of people. But if "art house" movies don't scare you and you don't mind a movie that challenges your attention span, "Stalker" is a must-see.

8/10.

Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 349.
Also, IMDB has split the double feature "Our Hospitality/Sherlock Jr." into two separate movies so....
Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 350.