Tag: Tangerine Dream

Quick Thoughts – July Round-Up, Part 2 of 2

‘Kamikaze 89’ (1982)

I wish I could more effectively talk about this film, but it’s based on a book I’ve never read (“Murder on the Thirty-First Floor”) and produced in a language I don’t speak (German), so I’m somewhat limited in my understanding.  However, I can tell you it’s a futuristic dystopian crime story.

‘Kamikaze 89’ is about Inspector Jansen (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in his final film role), who is given charge of solving the case of a bomb threat at “The Combine”, which controls all media in the land.  The biggest problem is that he only has a few days to pull it off, but, fortunately, the list of suspects turns out to be comparatively short.  However, the more suspects he meets, the more he learns that things may not all they seem at “The Combine”.

I wanted to like this movie, I really did, but ultimately I’m going to have to throw it in with ‘High-Rise‘ as another dystopian film that looks good and has a lot of cool retro-futuristic elements, but ultimately is missing something.  With ‘High-Rise’, I wasn’t really sure how to fix it, but with ‘Kamikaze 89’ it’s plain to see that it lacks energy.  I’m usually the last person to call a film “boring”, but ‘Kamikaze’ was definitely leading me down that road.

Some more money in the budget may have helped as well, either that or a director who could do more with less.  In the end though, I can’t give it a solid recommendation.

Rating: ★★½

 

‘Coming to America’ (1988)

It’s cliché, I know, but I honestly don’t know what to say about this movie that hasn’t been said already.

Everybody involved was firing on all cylinders: John Landis in the director’s chair; Eddie Murphy at his apex; Arsenio Hall threatens to steal the movie; Rick Baker with all the special make-up; Nile Rodgers with the musical score; all the supporting actors (too many to list).  Everything comes together to make this a classic (not to mention the New York stuff is great to see).

There are so many great bits and little moments, from “Soul Glo”, to the barbershop, to Reverend Brown.  It’s a wonderfully hilarious comedy, but, in addition, it has some real heart, in the form of Akeem and Lisa’s budding relationship.

I know I say this often, but if you’ve never seen it, get on it!

Rating: ★★★★½

 

‘Wolfen’ (1981)

ⅯⅭⅯⅬⅩⅩⅩⅠ – ANNO LVPVS

1981 – The Year of the Wolf

For those in my generation, the concept of “twin films” is quite familiar.  You know, when two high-profile movies come out in the same year and have major similarities (not to say that they are the same, however): ‘Dante’s Peak’ and ‘Volcano’; ‘Antz’ and ‘A Bug’s Life’; ‘Deep Impact’ and ‘Armageddon’; and so on.

1981 offers us perhaps the ultimate example of “triplet films”, as it gave us three horror movies involving wolf creatures: first, in April, came Joe Dante’s ‘The Howling‘; then came ‘Wolfen’ in July; and then August gave us the most famous of the three, ‘An American Werewolf in London‘, directed by John Landis.

Now, I must specify that ‘Wolfen’ is not about werewolves, but about…super wolves?  Honestly, the movie doesn’t do a great job of explaining exactly what they are, except that they are portrayed on screen by actual wolves, and somehow they tie into Native American history (in the movie; not in real life).

‘Wolfen’ is a movie I really wanted to love.  It has such a cool vibe, it was shot almost entirely in NYC, Albert Finney plays a classic laconic detective, and Gregory Hines absolutely shines in his first movie (technically, ‘History of the World: Part Ⅰ’ was his debut, but ‘Wolfen’ went into production beforehand).  And, of the three wolf films of ’81, I think it’s the scariest.  The problem is that the story just doesn’t quite gel, especially compared with its siblings.

That said, I think it’s definitely a film worth seeing, and I’d be happy to watch it again.  There’s more than enough good work to appreciate.

Rating: ★★★½

Quick Thoughts – July Round-Up, Part 1 of 2

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (1930)

Of all the armed conflicts in human history, perhaps none was more senselessly brutal than World War I.  Early 20th Century Europe was a powder keg waiting for one good spark, and when it came, the continent (and beyond) was plunged into darkness for four long years.  Worse yet, the battlefields and high seas were the most violent Petri dishes imaginable, as aging military tactics met groundbreaking new technology: airplanes, submarines, tanks, chemical gas; pretty much anything that could be weaponized was put to such use.

Based on the seminal novel by Erich Maria Remarque, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ is an equally important motion picture, as it captures the madness of “The Great War” from the level of the common soldier; from enlistment, to training, to combat, to back home, and, ultimately, to death.

It doesn’t seem logical that a film made four score and six years ago about a war that happened a century ago would feel at all contemporary, yet ‘All Quiet’ somehow manages to do just that.  The battle scenes, though not filled with the blood and gore we’re accustomed to now, are as harrowing as can be.  What I find even more striking, however, are the characters and their conversations, trying to simultaneously hold onto their humanity while also numbing themselves in order to be effective.  If you’ve seen ‘Fury‘ or ‘American Sniper‘ in recent years, you can draw lines back to ‘All Quiet’.

If I have one major criticism, it’s that you feel the movie’s length (it runs over two hours) and sometimes scenes don’t quite flow together, but given how long ago it was produced, that can be forgiven.

There’s little doubt that this is an all-time great film that everyone should see at least once.

Rating: ★★★★½

 

‘Top Gun’ (1986)

When people ask me what my favorite arthouse film is, I always say it’s the first few minutes of ‘Top Gun’, before “Highway to the Danger Zone” comes in, because it’s nothing but a bunch of long, gorgeous “magic hour” shots of flight deck operations aboard the USS Enterprise, set to that beautifully ambient Harold Faltermeyer score.  Really, until Mr. Loggins comes storming in, my brain tells me this is going to be one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, but then reality eventually sets in, and I retreat to a place of disappointment.

That’s right.  ‘Top Gun’, that awesome movie you loved when you were a kid, is actually terrible.  In fact, by and large, if there aren’t airplanes, Tom Skerritt, or Michael Ironside on the screen, the movie’s a hot mess: the script is bad, the story is dumbed-down, and the romantic sub-plot is horrendous and needlessly log-jammed into the middle of the film.  It’s bad.  It’s a bad movie.

Now, that’s not to say it’s totally irredeemable, because F-14s are awesome, and F-14s taking on other fighter jets are even more awesome, but all that action doesn’t quite make up for the fact that almost every other element is cringe-worthy.

Basically, ‘Top Gun’ is the kind of movie you put on and fast forward through all the boring parts.  There’s absolutely no need to spend all 110 minutes watching the whole thing.

Rating: ★★½

 

‘Risky Business’ (1983)

‘Risky Business’ is another movie I throw in the Overrated bin.  Not unlike ‘Beverly Hills Cop‘, this film lives in the muddled middle: not funny enough to be an effective comedy, and not intense enough to be a cool high school crime drama.

Frankly, the movie is sophomoric, and I get that as a high school story maybe it should be that, but what I really mean is at certain points it feels like it was made by an actual 10th grader.  Perhaps the ultimate example of this is when Joel and Lana (Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay) are attempting to get intimate on a Chicago “L” train and the soundtrack is blasting Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”; it’s just such a poor creative choice that made me hate the movie in that moment.

However, there is some good work here, especially the Tangerine Dream score, but not enough for me to recommend the movie outright.  Stick to ‘Ferris Bueller’ if you’re looking for a Chicago-area high schooler wish fulfillment movie.

Rating: ★★½