Movie Review: The Young Lions (1958; 20th Century Fox/Twilight Time)

...one really has to give prolific director Edward Dmytryk a respectably just comeuppance of appreciation, as far as his ability in not pigeon-holing himself into one particular film genre. When one considers his spectrum of film productions, we're talking about seeing him dip into just about every film genre under the sun, and then some...and prove himself respectably exceptional in each and every one. An under-appreciated filmmaker by name (...an infamous 'socialist blacklist' stigma took care of that, which in itself...encompassing a rather vast number of participants...is yet another provocative Hollywood story, altogether...a tale to be later told, to be sure), his films, nonetheless spark great acclamation and appreciation by sheer mention of their eclectically varied titles, alone. A little steamy intrigue, set in a New Orleans bordello, in 1962's "Walk on the Wild Side"...the classic horror of 'ape, into woman, into ape-woman', with 1943's "Captive Wild Woman"...corruption and crime in the boxing ring, as revealed in 1940's "Golden Gloves"...cleaning up a dusty, one-horse town, plagued by gun-toting cowboy thugs, in 1959's "Warlock"...the entwining, film noir-ish mystery and intrigue, found in 1944's "Murder, My Sweet"...blackmail and terrorism, on the cusp of a fledgling computer age, in 1975's "The Human Factor"...and the ever genre-shifting list goes on, and on, and on...

Movie Review: The Dogs of War (1980: United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time)

...ah, mercenaries...ya' gotta love 'em, right?? Heroes unto themselves, in the sense that...much like bounty hunters...they act and behave of their own accord, and get the job done via unconventional and unorthodox means, when those who subscribe to the lawfully established and so-called acceptable 'rules of the game', have failed. Driven by their own self-serving agenda...the culmination, be that of heartful heroics, thrill-seeking recklessness and/or monetary gain...and yet, wholly honor-bound and dedicated to the cause, in which they were hired to taken on. Confident, albeit arrogant in their ability to persevere, and yet...considering the unpredictability of the vocation...quite well aware that the next mission laid before them, might well be their last. As such, lovingly embracing a death wish, so to speak...but hey, at least there's a paycheck in it, should one survive, to fight yet another day...

...good grief!! 'Heroes', nothing...this viewer pretty much just defined the classic 'anti-hero', right??...

Movie Review: Salvador (1986; Hemdale/MGM/UA/Twilight Time)

...ya' know?? It's often quite interesting and intriguing, the evolution of a filmmaker. The inaugural hits...the initial misses...and that marked milestone of a film, which carries said filmmaker to greater heights, even to the point where, for good or for bad, whatever comes after, is still quite anticipated and well-received by viewing critics and audiences alike. For most, one's introduction to a specific filmmaker is typically something wrought well-after that aforementioned milestone, and after having been privy of latter, higher-profile work, curiosity prescribes...even sometimes demands one to back-pedal to that now-renowned and revered filmmaker's earlier work...

...cutting to the chase, let's just throw the name out there, 'kay?? Ready, go...Director Oliver Stone. Bam!! Right away, what comes to most folks' minds are the high-profile films of keen political rhetorics, observations and engagements, whether such things are observed and/or depicted in the exploitative media ("Natural Born Killers"), in a war-torn battleground ("Platoon", amongst others), in the high-rise financial arena (...can you say, "Wall Street"), on the grassy football gridiron (...a la, "Any Given Sunday"), or heck, even in the obvious of politically-driven locales...namely Washington, D.C., itself (..."JFK", "Nixon", "W.", etc.), Of course, there are those moments of filmmaking escapism...for lack of a better word...'breaks' in the political rhetorie, so to speak, as director Stone etches out the smaller, eclectic, more character driven stories (...of course, we're talking "Talk Radio", "U-Turn", "Savages"...the

Movie Review: "Che!" (1969; 20th Century Fox/Twilight Time)

...now, admittedly and...well, more than a little embarrassingly (...considering that I often make claim to being a respectably knowledgeable history buff), in going into this film for the very first time, recently, this reviewer quite literally knew nothing about the main protagonist herein...this (...squinting through reading glasses, at the disc's film's capsule synopsis) Che Guevara...though I do recall his artistically poignant impact on pop culture visuals, as well as his subsequent impact on the establishment-bashing youth of the time, without really knowing who he was. If anything, at that very young age, I was...at the very least...dimly aware of, and inundated with the media inklings and breaking news broadcasts of what was happening, as well as what had happened, in Cuba's rather torrent and controversial history, from the early sixties, up through the dawn of the '70's decade; at least I had something to go on...something, in an attempt to match the historical person depicted, with the history associated with him...

Movie Review: Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (1957; 20th Century Fox/Twlight Time)

...there's no denying that the literary concept of the 'odd couple', has made for countless interesting and intriguing motion pictures, since...well, since the onset of the motion picture, itself. Two characters...polar opposite of each other...different worlds...forced to exist, at least for the moment, within the same circle...sometimes enemies, often just indifferent of each other...frustrated over each other's differences, and yet, out of irony, managing to find common ground to work with, out of their similarities. But then, considering those ideals and observations, let's break it down to specifics...not just merely two different people. How about man and woman?? More specific, you say?? How about one of dutiful spirituality, and the other, of spiritual indifference?? We've all see this type of thing before, as well...'63's "Lilies of the Field", '75's "Rooster Cogburn" and '51's "African Queen", just to name a few. But then, "The African Queen"...with oddly, though ideally matched Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn as the film's dueling protagonists...wouldn't be the first time that grizzled and seasoned filmmaker John Huston touched upon the classic 'odd couple' concept of one character being dedicatedly pious, and the other...well, to read the opposite side of the coin, one much more opposingly and conflictingly impious...with the result, invariably quite compelling and moving...

Movie Review: The Last Tycoon (2012, Well Go USA Entertainment)

...Shanghai, in the 1930's...a most uneasy and tumultuous, though in a way, adventurous time in Chinese history...has often been favored, as a most compelling and lucrative setting in many Asian-produced films, released in the past several decades...and in perusing the archival pages of Shanghai's unstable and violent, albeit opportunist history, during this time, it might well be understandable, as to why this particular era readily made for a most interesting and exotic locale, for film. The area itself was often embroiled in power struggles...both of international intrigue, as well as within it's own social cache; with Shanghai divided between Chinese and European factions, and gambling, prostitution & opium smuggling being the underground order of affairs, violence and corruption took a ruling hand. Corporate and governmental underhandedness became as prevalent as the growing cliques of warring, territorial gangsters, whose embrace of fame, power and riches helped to usher in a great and overpowering measure of lawlessness amongst the social masses, who were grossly divided...with the rich and powerful living it up, as if there was no tomorrow, and the underclass firmly held down in submission. And all of this, right on the cusp of Japan's formidable bid for occupation of Shanghai, and it's surrounding areas...in what would be an unflinching, no-holds-barred assault, which would change the very foundation and history of the area...