Film Review: Mother of Tears

The final film in Dario Argento’s Three Mothers trilogy has arrived in select cities thanks to the Landmark Cinema chain. My first question is; Does Landmark screen the movies before they buy the rights to them? I left work early to go to my favorite cinema in the San Diego Area, the Ken Cinema. I had seen the art house horror classic “Suspiria” in the same theater more than two decades ago. I was looking forward to Argento’s 2nd sequel to that great classic. The only tears shed in the theater were my own. This is a world class flop on a grand scale. The story is ambitious and relatively original for the horror genre. The execution is amateurish, and over the top bad. The acting is stilted, the special effects are clunky, and the music is derivative of “The Omen” and Argento’s own “Suspiria”. There are several scenes that call for mass hysteria, as the Mother of Tears has unleashed her evil on Rome, causing spree killings, rampant rape, and lawlessness. What we are shown by Argento is a group of four or five citizens arguing and fighting. It’s supposed to be depicting the second fall of Rome. What is on the screen is a slow crime night in any major city in Europe. Udo Kier shows up briefly as an Exorcist, who laments he used to only get requests for about 1-2 exorcisms a month, now he’s being inundated with them. He also takes time to explain the plot. After sitting through this mess, and it was all I could do to not walk out, I now wonder if I’ve overrated “Suspiria” all these years.

R.I.P Hedley Lamarr: Top 5 Second Banana Comedy Performances of All Time

Harvey Korman died at age 81 yesterday. He was a consummate professional, and hysterically funny. He costarred in several Mel Brooks films including "Blazing Saddles" as Hedley Lamarr, and "History of the World Part 1" as Count de Monet. He's best remembered as a cast member of the Carol Burnett variety show, where he elevated sketch comedy into the national consciousness well before SNL. He created many memorable characters in his twelve years on the show. In honor of Harvey Korman, Nixed's Picks will count down the Top 5 Second Banana comedy performances (no disrespect intended) in film history. The best Second Banana's are funny, but know not to overshadow the main character. We're not talking a straight-man here, just a perfect foil for the lead actor or actress to play off. Coming in at Number 5 is Tony Roberts in "Annie Hall". Tony Roberts is an extremely under-rated film actor. In "Annie Hall" he perfectly captured the absurdity of the self-important movie star. It was easily his best performance of the five films he did for Woody Allen. Marty Feldman is at Number 4, for his portrayal of Igor(pronounced Eye-gore) in "Young Frankenstein". Those crazy eyes, that accent, that hump that kept shifting around on his upper back. The scene where he discloses to Dr. Frankenstein that he picked up the brain of someone named "Abby Normal" is an all-time classic. The best recent Second Banana performance comes in at # 3. It's Thomas Hayden Church in "Sideways". His character Jack is a fringe actor who once starred on a soap opera. He takes his best friend Miles on a trip to the vineyards near Santa Barbara, for what he sees as a last chance to get laid before he gets married to an upper middle class woman back in LA. His character gets into one hilarious situation after another, including getting caught banging a steakhouse waitress, by the waitress' husband. If that scene wasn't funny enough, it is trumped by the following scene of Miles sneaking back into the waitress' house to retrieve Jack's left-behind wallet. Coming in at a strong # 2 is David Johansen's work in "Let It Ride". As Looney, the best friend of the main character Jay Trotter, Johansen is the near perfect second banana. He gets enormous laughs, without overshadowing Dreyfuss in the lead role. His characterization is broad, silly, over-the-top, and FUNNY. At # 1 is the side-splitting performance of Charles Grodin in "Midnight Run". A perfect foil for straight-laced bounty hunter Jack Walsh(Robert DeNiro, who gets his own share of laughs), Grodin plays Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas, an accountant on the lam from the mob. Charles Grodin earns huge laughs from facial expressions, deft line readings, and his "Odd Couple" like relationship with DeNiro's character. If someone not too familiar with film history asks me what a can't miss entertaining movie is, I think instantly of "Midnight Run". JG8D69D

French Revolution

There's a significant film movement in motion. It's origins can be traced back to the fantastic horror film "High Tension". The bar has been raised quite substantially by filmmakers Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. It's a bloody French revolution in the horror genre. "Inside" was release in France in 2007. It's available in it's unrated glory(gory?)on DVD from Netflix and in video superstores like Best Buy. It's well worth the investment for any horror aficianado. This movie is tightly filmed, effectively creepy, suspenseful, scary, and more than delivers on state of the art horror effects. I believe you'd need every drop of blood Kubrick used in the famous elevator scene from "The Shining" just to film the first 30 minutes of "Inside". I can't describe in words how bloody this movie is. It has to be seen to be believed. You also get an extremely well made chiller along with the gore and shock. To go into the plot or any other details would surely diminish the impact of the movie. It's a Nixed GUARANTEE. Move to the top of your queue. It's simply one of the few truly scary movies of the past 20 years. After you rent it, you'll be at Best Buy the next day buying your copy.

DVD Review: The Great Debaters/Antwone Fisher

There are certain films you have preconceived notions about. I was certain Denzel Washington's "The Great Debaters" was going to be a sanitized, feel-good rendition of the true story about an all black, small Texas college debate team during the time of Jim Crow. The PG-13 rating only reinforced my prejudice. So I skipped this film upon it's initial theatrical run. It received very good reviews, acclaim, and was thoroughly "pushed" by Oprah Winfrey, who's Harpo productions is listed on the credits. I wasn't buying it. "Antwone Fisher", also directed by Denzel, was also based on a true story. Again, armed with a PG-13 rating, I didn't think the film could properly dramatize the novels seedier aspects of child abuse. I did not buy a movie ticket for this either upon it's release in 2002. Recently I had an idea of having a mini-Denzel Washington film home film festival, and put these two films, along with "American Gangster", at the top of my queue. I'm glad I did. "The Great Debaters" is an extremely literate, well-told, well-directed, beautifully filmed adaptation of a magazine article about the first all black school debate team to join in a match vs the nations' top white schools, including USC(Harvard substitutes for USC in the film). I felt I had received a great education viewing the movie, as well as being entertained. The performances from the young cast are universally pitch-perfect. The standouts in the cast include Forest Whitaker's real-life son, Denzel Whitaker. The film pushes the boundaries of the PG-13 rating by depicting some of the more vicious aspects of our countries legacy not told in history books. Great detail and sensitivity is displayed in capturing exactly what it must have been like to be a Negro in 1935 rural Texas. Not knowing what parts of the back country would be safe to navigate through, being humiliated in public by white citizens and law enforcement alike. Not being able to travel, eat, or sleep in establishments throughout the south. There is a Rocky-type sports movie finish, but there so many other rich rewards in this film for a hearty recommendation. Watch the extra features which include Washington interviewing many of the historical figures portrayed in the film.
"Antwone Fisher" is a deeply personal story about one man's journey to find himself. Derek Luke is outstanding in the titular role, displaying intense anger, and poetic depth to his character. With the help of a command appointed psychiatrist, played by Denzel Washington, Fisher is forced to confront his demons. In shattering flashbacks we see Fisher's upbringing in a foster home headed by an abusive mom. Violence and sexual abuse are depicted realistically and unflinchingly. The psychiatrist and young Navy enlisted man form a very strong bond. They push each other to do the hard work necessary to find a new beginning to their respective lives. If you skipped these movies during their theatrical run, rent them together for a very entertaining and enriching film night.

Nixed's Top 5 Gambling Movies of All-Time

It's really difficult to make an interesting film about someone else gambling. When this blog was suggested to me by a friend, I wondered if I could come up with five gambling movies I could recommend. It was a chore but here goes. At # 5 "A Big Hand for the Little Lady" starts off the list. It's a very witty con-artist film with a heavyweight cast. Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Burgess Meredith are featured in the film. Each year in Laredo, Texas five prominent businessmen and assorted professionals gather for a high stakes poker game. Nothing stops this annual rite. We see a lawyer leaving a case before his final arguments have been made. A wealthy cattleman(Robards)postpones his daughters' wedding to make the game. Henry Fonda's character drifts into town. He's supposedly just "passing through" on his way with a handful of cash to spend on his new homestead. He's accompanied by his wife and son. To tell anymore would be spoiling this nice little caper film. Number 4 is "Rounders", about a law student(Matt Damon)who was taken for everything he had in a poker game, and now works a graveyard shift and hits the books at the behest of his girlfriend(Gretchen Mol). He stumbles onto an office poker game during a early morning delivery attended by his law professors. He astounds them with his ability to discern their "tells". His diligence to staying away from the tables is lost the minute his best friend(Ed Norton) is released from prison. They are soon on a quest to hit every private game in the Tri-State area to build up enough capital to pay off "Worm's"(Norton)gambling debt. Damon and Norton are quite good together, but John Malkovich steals the show as Russian mob boss Teddy "KGB". At # 3 is certainly the funniest gambling movie ever. "Let It Ride" starring a manic Richard Drefuss as Trotter, a small time horse player, is hilarious from beginning to end. After pledging to his wife to quit betting horses, he is given a "tip" that an upcoming race may be "fixed". This leads Dreyfuss and his pal Looney(David Johannsen) to the track to make an easy buck. Trotter soon has one mystical experience after another, and he turns his initial win into tens of thousands, hitting winners on race after race. This movie has a Damon Runyanesque feel to it. The director Joe Pytka perfectly captures the race track milieu and all of the seedy and colorful characters that inhabit the track. Dreyfuss, Johannson, Jennifer Tilly, Allen Garfield all score huge laughs. Teri Garr is very funny as Trotter's wife, who arrives at the jockey club in the middle of his hot streak and proclaims, "I don't understand why you can't just enjoy the horse races without betting on them." It's not a great movie, but it is a great comedy. "The Color of Money" is at # 2. Fast Eddie Felson(Paul Newman) is getting old. He can no longer play pool like he used to. He finds a remarkably talented pool player in Vincent(Tom Cruise in maybe his best performance ever)that, with the help of Vincent's girlfriend, he plans to use to make money "hustling" other players. Martin Scorsese brings his frenetic camera work and quick-fire editing to the proceedings. Newman and Cruise play off each other well, and are supported by good bits from Forrest Whitaker and John Tuturro. The top gambling movie of all time? "The Gambler"(1974). No, not the Kenny Rogers TV movie. This film stars James Caan and is a gritty character study about compulsive gambling. Caan has never been better. He stars as Axel Freed, a NY City college professor of literature with a penchant for playing table games of chance. Sooner than the credits stop rolling he has incurred a debt of 44,000 and change. One character says "That's six El Dorado's". In today's economy maybe one El Dorado. He asks his mother for the money and she relents. She asks what they'd do to him if he couldn't pay. "For ten grand they break your arm, for twenty grand they break your leg." Does Axel go immediately to pay back his 44 grand? No, he bets three Ncaa basketball games at "fifteen dimes" each, and heads to Las Vegas with his girlfriend. He goes on the mother of all wins streaks at the crap tables, roulette wheels, and finally is seen hitting an 18 at the blackjack table. When the dealer turns over a three, he says "that's it, it's over." The film is the one accurate depiction of a gambler who really doesn't feel good until he loses. Written by James Toback and directed by Karel Reisz, it's a lost gem from the golden age of film, and Nixed's Pick as the best gambling movie of all-time.

DVD Review: Walk Hard:The Dewey Cox Story

Comedy, more so than any other film genre, is subjective. No matter how many people say they laughed all the way through "Superbad", "Knocked Up", or "Talladega Nights", you'll find hordes that say they didn't. The following is only and opinion and not a recommendation. I learned to not recommend comedies years ago when I sent my parents to see Woody Allen's "Manhattan". Here is another comedy from the Judd Apatow assembly line. He served as co-writer on this project. I laughed consistently throughout this mostly dead-on parody of Musician Biography films. "Walk the Line" is the most obvious target here, and John C. Reily and Jenna Fischer mine comedic gold from their scenes together. Look closer and you'll see films such as "Ray", and "That Thing You Do", skewered with good results. Jake Kasdan directs in an almost "Airplane"-eque style, peppering the screen with quick fire visual humor, and milking each scene for every laugh available. He takes all the obvious route choices for humor, but also gets harder laughs by allowing his actors to develop their characters just a bit longer than most comedies of this ilk. About 65% of the jokes in this film "hit", making the clunkers easier to digest. Remember, by no means am I saying YOU will find this movie funny.

DVD Review: 30 Days of Night

It's rare when a horror film delivers legitimate R-rated suspense and thrills. Director David Slade, fresh off his critical success "Hard Candy", has delivered. This movie has a fairly quick set up. Barrow, Alaska is the northernmost city in Alaska. We see most of the townsfolk leaving the town before the impending thirty days of darkness that covers the town each year. A skeleton crew of a sheriff and disparate business owners prepare to hunker down. Into town creeps an outsider who is soon arrested for, well, being a creep. While in lockup he starts hinting that something is coming. This warning is more convincing because the creep is portrayed by the eccentric actor Ben Foster. The sheriff is soon dealing with dead dogs, vandalism, and power outages. What follows is a modern-day vampire tale in the mode of at least a half-dozen classic films ranging from "Night of the Living Dead" to "The Birds." Despite being extremely derivative of the vampire film catalog, as well as the Hollywood action flick, it triumphs. This is due to taking some time to build character development, and then not holding back one iota when the vampires start feeding. Another welcome absence is the smug one-liners that often follow a "big kill" by the hero in such genre films. The acting is competent, with one standout performance turned in by Tony Huston as the lead vampire. Minor quibbles include the use of too many CGI effects, and a lack of a reasonable back story to explain who/what/where in regards to the vampires. We get one scene early on of what seems like the Ben Foster character walking into town after getting off a ship some hundreds of miles from the city of Barrow. Did he serve as some sort of Igor to the vampires and transport them here on the ship? For more answers check out the graphic novel that was the source material. Otherwise just enjoy a well-made suspenseful vampire film.

Top 5 Director-Actor Collaborations

With the DVD release of "Sweeney Todd" this week I started to think of great Director-Actor teams throughout the history of cinema. Certainly the films of Tim Burton-Johnny Depp, now six in all, deserve consideration. Inventive visually and fantastic in nature, they may lack the "weight" associated with the film collaborations Nixed Picks as his Top 5 of all time. There's also only one film in their six together Nixed considers a classic, 1994's "Ed Wood". Honorable mention also goes to Bob Rafelson- Jack Nicholson for their five films together as director and star. That union produced an all-time classic in 1970's "Five Easy Pieces" and one near-classic, 1972's "King of the Marvin Gardens". At # 5 Nixed has the combo of Alfred Hitchcock-James Stewart. From 1948's "Rope" to 1958's "Vertigo" they made four films together. They paired on one of Hitchcock's masterpieces, "Rear Window", in 1954. Stewart was the perfect everyman for Hitch. An Average Joe involved with nefarious circumstances and platinum blondes. At # 4 is the team of John Ford-John Wayne. They elevated the Western to new heights through their nine films in the genre. They worked together at least 14 times as director and star on major films, with Wayne featured in cameos and walk-ons in several others before hitting it big in 1939's "Stagecoach". Interestingly it was Ford, not Wayne, who enlisted in the military during WW2, and was considered an enormous Patriot. 1956 saw the release of "The Searchers", one of the best Westerns ever made. At # 3 stands Akira Kurosawa-Toshiro Mifune. Where John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock garnered accolades and awards away from their alter egos, it would seem impossible for one of these artists to exist without the other. The fact that they worked together sixteen times supports this observation. From 1948-1965 the two re-invented Japanese cinema with ground-breaking films including "Roshomon" and "Seven Samurai". These films' themes and approaches have been copied in countless American films. Ingmar Bergman-Max von Sydow are my # 2 pick.Max von Sydow imbodied the angst-ridden guilty soul of Bergman's riffs on Man's desires, and the related consequences.They worked together eleven times. Most notable in their canon are "The Virgin Spring" and "The Seventh Seal". Nixed also considered Bergman and Liv Ullmann for this spot for their ten films together. The Bergman films of the late 50's and early 60's though were less contemplative.They also seemed more important and less self-important than the Ullmann films in the late 60's and beyond. The number one collaboration between director and actor? Easy. Martin Scorsese-Robert DeNiro. Through eight films spanning 1973-1995, this is the perfect marriage of director and actor. The best of the bunch was 1976's "Taxi Driver", followed closely by "Raging Bull", and "Goodfellas". All three belong an anyone's list of top 100 films, maybe top 25. "The King of Comedy", "Cape Fear", and "Casino" are second rung Scorsese with many moments of brilliance sprinkled in. Nixed needs to see "Mean Streets" and "New York, New York" again before proclaiming either a classic or a flop.

Film Review: Stop-Loss

Can anyone make an Iraq War film that the public wants to see? There have been a few very good films with the Iraq War as a theme/backdrop. None have made even a ripple at the box-office. "In the Valley of Elah" was released last fall to glowing reviews and featured an Academy Award nominated performance from Tommy Lee Jones. It topped out at 6.7 million domestic gross earnings. That was the highest grossing Iraq-themed film out of the half-dozen that made it to theaters. This week Paramount Pictures and MTV Films released "Stop-Loss" with a heavy advertising campaign that prominently mentions a 4 1/2 star review from Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. The movie features a young, good-looking cast, and promised to be the film that finally brought a mainstream audience to a movie "about" the Iraq War. "Stop-Loss" debuted at # 8 for the weekend with 4.5 million in receipts, well behind a movie about MIT students who win big at the blackjack tables in Vegas. The American moviegoing population is just not interested in this war. Maybe no one is. A recent audit of the major newspapers in the US showed that only 6% of all stories published on the front page were about the Iraq War. About the film. It's a very sombering story of a small town Texas soldier who has served the five years he signed up for. A clause in that contract he signed says the military can recall him to serve out what normally is "inactive" time as an active duty soldier. This is called being "stop-lossed". The director tells us in her coda that out of 650,000 troops that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, 80,000 have had this happen to them. The main character aptly calls it a "backdoor draft". The center piece of Kimberly Peirce's film is a road trip through the US that Staff Sergeant King(Ryan Phillipe) and his best friends fiancee embark on after he goes AWOL. On his way to see a Congressman in DC who once told him to "see me if you need anything", he visits a multiple amputee from his platoon, a deceased soldiers' parents, and encounters a sort of underground group of other stop-lossed soldiers who are "hiding out". Back at home in Texas his best friend has decided to re-enlist, and his other friend has started self-medicating with alcohol. During his journey we see that Sgt. King is suffering from severe PTSD. We won't reveal what ultimately happens or what is decided, but it's one of the most haunting and heart-breaking final shots of any war movie I've ever seen. My wife and I left the theater feeling angry and helpless. After seeing the box-office totals I felt sadness.

HBO Series "In Treatment"

In Treatment: HBO Original Series

I stumbled across "In Treatment", a 45 episode original series that has been airing on HBO Monday-Friday for the last nine weeks, during some down time at my job as a PTSD screener. HBO was showing the early episodes online to garner interest in the show. I rationalized watching it at work since it dealt with individual counseling and at least one character MIGHT have PTSD.
The basic structure and set up of the series is this. A therapist and his patients' sessions. HBO would follow one patient every Monday, and so on through the week. So for nine weeks we get to sit in on these sessions with the psychiatrist. Mondays it was a beautiful young doctor named Laura, Tuesdays a Navy pilot mandated to get treatment after bombing a school inadvertantly on a mission in Iraq was shown (MY PTSD TIE-IN!). Wednesdays it was a teenage gymnast who may or may not have driven her bike into oncoming traffic. Thursdays a couple with many issues are featured, and finally on Fridays the therapist sees his own therapist to help make sense of his week. The acting and writing are top-notch and award-worthy considering this is television. Gabriel Byrne, who usually annoys me in most of his big screen outings, is in full command here as the therapist with his own family and marriage issues. There are Emmy, SAG, and Golden Globe nomination can't miss performances from at least two of his patients. Blair Underwood as the Navy pilot Alex has NEVER been close to this good in anything. The teenage gymnast is played by Mia Wasikowska and she is nothing short of a revelation in this role. Solid work is also turned in by Michelle Forbes as the psychoanalysts' wife, Dianne Wiest as his mentor, and Glynn Turman turns in an unforgettable one episode shot as Alex Sr., the Navy pilots Dad, looking for answers. HBO is now airing the first fifteen episodes for free on hbo.com. The episodes online are edited for language but you don't lose any of the content. One minor criticism of the show is that it was slightly hampered by its' structure when it tried to introduce other characters from the therapists' personal life. Just give us the sessions.

Music March Madness

I don't download much music, don't burn cd's, so when I move to a new area one of the top priorities is finding a good drive time/commute radio station. It didn't take long to fall in love with 94.9 in San Diego. When they say "It's about the music", they mean it. Most, heck ALL other commercial radio consists of am drive time dj/idiots who laugh at their own material in-between traffic, weather and news reports. I often get twenty full minutes of music during my twenty two minute commute to Camp Pendleton(imagine that!). The station features what is best described as "progressive rock" with healthy doses of Eddie Vedder, Muse, Rage Against the Machine, Smashing Pumpkins. Some bands I've discovered I like include Radiohead, and Death Cab for Cutie. Of interest, and how this ties into the theme of my blog, is that this March 94.9 has started it's own version of March Madness. They've "seeded" rock bands using the popular NCAA men's basketball tourney format and have a "play" off during certain hours of the day. Instead of West/East or other geographical regions they have broken up the regions into musical decades. They've seeded the best bands from the 70's 1-16, and the 80's, 90's and 00's(aughts?). There was no backlash though for the "committee" leaving out certain bands, and bands from say Seattle weren't mad that they got sent "out east". Winners are decided by online voting during certain hours of the day when the station plays selections from the two bands facing off head to head. The "tourney" is well underway and there have been a few upsets. Devo, a # 14 seed, knocked off the # 3 seed in the 80's The Beastie Boys. All the # 1 and # 2 seeds survived the opening round and are preparing for much tougher battles in the round of 32. The # 1 seeds are as follows: 1970's-Led Zepplin, 1980's-U2, 1990's-Nirvana, 2000's-Radiohead. Here are Nixed's Picks for this particular Music March Madness. I see U2 coming out of a relatively easy 80's bracket taking down REM in the Elite Eight, and then going on to face the 70's winner Led Zepplin but not having enough to take out Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. The other finalist will come from my surprise winner of the 90's bracket, The Smashing Pumpkins, seeded at a ridiculously low # 7 vs the 00's winner Nirvana. I see Nirvana taking this mainly because of the demographics of the listeners. Those same listeners won't be able to sleep at night voting in Nirvana over Led though. The winner is Led Zepplin!