Michael Caine Blogathon Special: The Italian Job (1969)

The Italian Job (1969)

Oakhurst Productions, UK, 1969.

Participating The Marvellous Michael Caine Blogathon event arranged by Gill from Realweegiemidget Reviews to celebrate his 85th birthday!

Heist man Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) has just been released from prison. Meanwhile the Italian Mafia has killed his friend who bequeathed an ultimate heist plan to Charlie. The plan is to travel to Turin and rob an armored van using a self-caused traffic jam as a ruse. The funding comes from jailed crime king and patriot Mr. Bridger (Noël Coward) whose love for Queen and Country turns him into a supporter of the plan. After all the heist is a chance to get back at those pesky Italians who have just made an important industrial contract making the British automotive industry suffer!

Charlie Croker

Mr. Bridger

The plan requires a participation of different specialists, one of the most memorable being computer specialist Professor Peach who chases big women (appropriately performed by Benny Hill). The plan culminates into the heist and escape with three Mini Coopers speeding through shopping malls, down the stairs and on the roof of a stadium.

Professor Peach

The Mini Cooper chase is iconic

The Cockney character Michael Caine performs here is a lovable rogue. He's stylish, cool and popular with women. Charlie's girlfriend Lorna (Margaret Blye) is quite liberal in the Swinging Sixties way and even arranges coming out party for Charlie with semi-clad girls. It is hard not to think about showing the character even more virile than James Bond (Caine had turned down the role two years earlier). Charlie even drives Aston Martin that looks similar to Bond's favourite vehicle, being only an older model.

Lorna

Planning the heist

This is a classic heist movie with British tongue-in-cheek style fit in the style of 1960s. Before the iconic final chase the movie is carried by Michael Caine's charm and the comical hijinks of his teammates. The cinematography with Italian cities and mountain roads looks beautiful and there is eye candy for fans of vintage cars. The story is light and comical and even campy, making it never too serious although the Mafia offers a serious threat. Of the actors the most memorable are Caine, Coward and Hill. However many minor characters are left quite underdeveloped and some of the plotlines are never resolved, leaving the story literally hanging in the air. Sequel was planned but it was was never made.

Rating: Very good

Starring: Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Tony Beckley, Rossano Brazzi, Margaret Blye, Irene Handl, John Le Mesurier, Fred Emney, John Clive, Graham Payn, Michael Standing, Stanley Caine, Barry Cox, Harry Baird, George Innes, John Forgeham, Robert Powell, Derek Ware, Frank Jarvis, David Salamone, Richard Essome, Mario Valgoi, Renato Romano, Franco Novelli, Robert Rietty, Timothy Bateson, David Kelly, Arnold Diamond, Simon Dee, Alastair Hunter, Lana Gatto, John Morris, John Louis Mansi
Director: Peter Collinson 

Movie Review: On the Border

On the Border a.k.a Coyote Rain
Nu Image / Millennium Films, Webster & Montague Production, USA, 1998. 

Jaded security guard Jake Barnes (Casper Van Dien) guards a bank located near Mexican border. Bank manager Ed's (Daniel Baldwin) wife Rosalita (Rochelle Swanson) has a steamy affair with Jake. Ed wants to kill the other man but doesn't know who he is. Ed is also laundering South American drug money. Jake and Rosalita plan to rob the bank as a big shipment of dirty money is arriving soon.

Jake Barnes

Ed

Rosalita

Jake meets a suspicious hitchhiker girl Kristin (Camilla Overbye Roos) on the road and offers her a temporary housing. Violent criminal Barry Montana (Bryan Brown) forced her to seduce Jake as he also plans to rob the bank. Jake's old 'friend' Sykes (Bentley Mitchum, Robert's grandson) is released from the prison and arrives to town to further mess things up. Can you guess what he is up to? 

Kristin

Sykes

The film offers 1990s direct to video B-movie goodness. It is a noirish thriller with some steamy erotic scenes. It is a slightly better Casper Van Dien film if you are willing to forget the plot holes and some recycled script ideas. The border town setting offers some nice cinematography. Nothing is as seems and just about everyone wants the money. The ending is hilariously over the top with double-crosses and double-double-crosses! The femme fatales are ambiguous and it is difficult to see how it will end. Van Dien is wooden but still has more facial expressions than Kristen Stewart. Actually he fits the role as a bored guard who is stuck in the desert town. Bryan Brown chews the scenery with some weird scenes, that is a dangerous way to answer a phone:

Barry on the phone

Rating: Good

Starring: Casper Van Dien, Bryan Brown, Daniel Baldwin, Rochelle Swanson, Camilla Overbye Roos, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Heidi Jo Markel, Bentley Mitchum, John Bishop, Bridget Wilkes, Gina Angela Ritchie, Elizabeth Bradley, Bill Stuart, Valentin Sandoval, Alma Nava, Ruth Bastillos, Gary Paul, Frank Bowles, Pavel Jezek, Fernando Fuentes Sr., Heidi Carrasco, Judith Van Vleet, Daniel Zubiate 

Director: Bob Misiorowski

Movie Review: Gone In 60 Seconds (2000)

Gone In 60 Seconds (2000)
Touchstone Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, USA, 2000.

Car thief Kip Raines (Giovanni Ribisi) gets in deep deep trouble. He fails his job for crime lord Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston). His big brother Randall 'Memphis' Raines (Nicolas Cage) is a retired car thief. Memphis agrees to steal 50 cars to save his brother. The job is not easy especially when Detective Roland Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) is trying to stop the crime wave. Memphis gets his old crew together. He job is not easy especially when Detective Roland Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) is trying to stop the crime wave. Memphis gets his old crew together: od dog Otto Halliwell (Robert Duvall), driving instructor Donny Astricky (Chi McBride), mute brawler Sphinx (Vinnie Jones) and mechanic Sara 'Sway' Wayland (Angelina Jolie with blonde hair). Also friends of Kip help.

Kip Raines

Randall 'Memphis' Raines

Raymond Calitri

The gang plans to steal the cars during one night to avoid getting caught. Shelby GT 500 'Eleanor' is a car that Memphis has always had bad luck with. Now the involment of cops and rival car thieves gives extra challenge.

Roland Castlebeck

Sara 'Sway' Wayland

Sphinx

H.B. Halicki's original  "Gone in 60 Seconds" (1974) did not have a great script but the low budget, amateur actors and casting average Joe's and Jane's as extras gave it authenticity. The new big studio version can not compete with that. The remake film tries to make the drama more serious. It tries to give a better justification for the 50 car heist. Therefore it takes a long time before it gets to the main thing: the chasing scenes but the chase scenes are not so great either.  Ironically the original relied on overly long car chase with minimal plot, this one feels that is has too much plot and too few car chases. Interestingly there is some homage to the original, a scene where they accidentally steal a car full of drugs and a chase in L.A. flood channels à la "The Junkman." Nicolas Cage repeats his patented weird manouvres creating some (unintended?) laughs that work better than the other attempts at humour. Otherwise the film is standard forgettable Hollywood heist thriller.

Weeeeiiiirrrddd

Shelby GT 500 'Eleanor'

Rating: Average

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Giovanni Ribisi, Angelina Jolie, T.J. Cross, William Lee Scott, Scott Caan, James Duval, Will Patton, Delroy Lindo, Timothy Olyphant, Chi McBride, Robert Duvall, Christopher Eccleston, Vinnie Jones, Grace Zabriskie, Michael Owen, Jaime Bergman, Holiday Hadley, Harry Van Gorkum, Frances Fisher, Grace Una, Jesse Corti, Stephen Shellen, Alexandra Balahoutis, Rainbow Borden, Vic Manni, Sanjay, Doria Anselmo, Lois Hall, Dean Rader-Duval, C.J. Picerni, Kevin Weisman, Anthony Boswell, Billy Devlin, Bodhi Elfman, Arye Gross, Greg Collins, Cosimo Fusco, Eddie Mui, Joseph Patrick Kelly, Scott Burkholder, Margaret Kontra Palmer, Charlene Bloom, Kevin West, Billy 'Sly' Williams, Alex Walters, Lombardo Boyar, Angela Tassoni, Scott Rosenberg, Steve Danton, Tyler Patton, Carmen Argenziano, Dan Hildebrand, King Alexander, Nick Meaney, Michael Peña, Juan Pina, Tim DeZarn, John Carroll Lynch, Douglas Bennett, Bob Sattler, Dan Andreiu, David 'Shark' Fralick, Cecily Gambrell, Michael Gerald, Trevor Goddard, Brad William Henke, Ken Jenkins, Brian McNamara, George Meyers, Master P, Bob Pepper, Drew Renkewitz, Vincent Terzian
Director: Dominic Sena

Movie Review: Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)
H.B. Halicki Mercantile Co., USA, 1974. 

Between 1974-1989 indie car movie legend H.B. Halicki 'The Car Crash King' starred, directed and produced a bunch of car movies known for wild stunts and numerous crashes.

Insurance investigator Maindrian Pace (H.B. Halicki) has a garage side business. However his real business is selling stolen cars making them seem legal using seal numbers salvaged from scrapped cars. Pace makes a deal with a crime lord: he must steal 48 cars in couple of days. His co-worker Eugene Chase (Jerry Daugirda) must postpone his honeymoon because of the job. The gang and Pace's girlfriend Pumpkin (Marion Busia) then start the job with one condition: all of the cars must have insurance. The list contains variety of cars including limousines, truck, Rolls-Royces and exotic cars. 

Maindrian Pace

Eugene Chase

Pumpkin

Most of the thefts go relatively easy, but acquiring 1973 Ford Mustang codenamed 'Eleanor' causes troubles. Also one car comes with bags of heroin in the trunk. Getting rid of it strains the partnership of Maindrian and Eugene. Sgt. Hawkins (John Halicki) comes to visit the garage just as the guys are trying to get rid of the drugs. 

Atlee Jackson (George Cole)

'Test-driving' a Manta

Sgt. Hawkins (John Halicki) visits the garage

When Pace goes to steal Eleanor a crazy 40 minute chase begins. Rubber burns and 93 cars are wrecked. 

"Gone in 60 Seconds" utilized real police and firemen as supporting actors and many of the actors were Halicki's relatives or friends. Also then-Mayor of Carson Sak Yamamoto appears as himself.

The outlaw style filming caused some ruckus as many bystanders did not know about the film project. At times is a very rough film and there was no official script, but it is clearly inspired and inventive low budget grindhouse film-making. The characters are paper-thin but no one watches these films for Oscar-winning performances or great for plot. The vintage cars and final chase are the reason to watch the film. Also it is a relic of the era when movies used real stunts and effects instead aid of computers. The hairstyles and cityscapes are preserved in this time capsule of 1970s California. Car carnage is made a bit more serious towards the end with injured people being pulled from the car wrecks.

Unfortunately the original Country style music has been replaced with some generic sounding thriller score in the DVD-editions. These kind of car chase films must have Country music! What is worse the removed songs affect also the overall mood of the movie, ruining at least one scene that was meant to be kind of romantic.

Rating: Good

Starring: H.B. Halicki, Marion Busia, Jerry Daugirda, James McIntyre, George Cole, Ronald Halicki, Markos Kotsikos, Butch Stockton, Phil Woods, J.C. Agajanian Jr., Christopher J.C. Agajanian, Gary Bettenhausen, Edward Booker, Anthony Cole, Mark Cole, Michael Cole, Billy Englehart, Jonathan E. Fricke, Parnelli Jones, Hal McClain, Don Simmons, Ron Simmons, Sak Yamamoto, Edward Abrahms, Wally Burr, Maureen Coddington, Cheryl Dunn, Monica Englander, Emily Fladland, Frank Halicki, John Halicki, Nancy Halicki, Rudy Halicki, Edward Havens, Philip Kachaturian, Mel Kenyon, Gary Patterson, Jack Popejoy, Dennis Stouffer, Jack Vacek, Bud Wackeen, Bunny Walsh, Taylor Webb, Jeff Winkless, Terence H. Winkless, Christine Wright 

Director: H.B. Halicki

Movie Review: Paris - When It Sizzles

Paris - When It Sizzles
Richard Quine Productions, George Axelrod Productions, USA, 1964.

Movie producer Alexander Meyerheim (Noël Coward) is waiting for movie script from Richard Benson (William Holden). Richard is more interested in boozing up and chasing skirts. He gets a new secretary Gabrielle Simpson (Audrey Hepburn) who is a stunning linguist. There are only two days to write the script for movie "The Girl Who Stole Eiffel Tower."

Alexander Meyerheim

Richard

Gabrielle

Richard tries to make up the story while flirting with Gabrielle. The characters in the scripted story look surprisingly similar to them. The possible plotlines switch between agent story to campy vampire story and to caper story. Gabrielle begins to fall in love with Richard but does the middle-aged cynical drunk want to change his habits? 

Campy Dracula

Oh, Paris.

The film is a remake of "La Fête à Henriette." It is light as a cotton candy. This one I saw a long time ago and I remembered it to be better. The shaggy dog film is not William Holden's or Audrey Hepburn's brightest moment although both are charismatic as always. It is stylish and chic but suffers from overblown events and gets carried away with its own cleverness. Much of the film is about the fictional B-grade agent/caper meta-story. The film has some good and pioneering satire on Hollywood cliches and formulas and it also laughs at the minimalistic New Wave- cinema. There are many inside jokes about Hollywood and stars from Marlene Dietrich to Tony Curtis visit in small roles.  

Marlene Dietrich

Maurice / Philippe (Tony Curtis)

Part of The 2016 Movie Watching Challenge (#44. Classic romantic movie)

Rating: Average

Starring: William Holden, Audrey Hepburn, Grégoire Aslan, Raymond Bussières, Christian Duvaleix, Michel Thomass, Dominique Boschero, Evi Marandi, Noël Coward, Tony Curtis, Marlene Dietrich, Mel Ferrer, Orestis Ganakis, Henri Garcin, Frank Sinatra

Director: Richard Quine

Movie Review: American Hustle

American Hustle 

Starring:  Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Louis C.K., Jack Huston, Michael Peña, Shea Whigham, Alessandro Nivola, Elisabeth Röhm, Paul Herman, Saïd Taghmaoui, Matthew Russell, Thomas Matthews, Adrian Martinez, Anthony Zerbe 

Director: David O. Russell 

Columbia Pictures, Annapurna Pictures, Atlas Entertainment, USA, 2013. 

Irving Rosenfield (Christian Bale) is an con artist, who scams crooked businessmen by promising them loans that require some arranging fees. He gets a collaborator to add some style to his operations, a sexy redhead Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams). Both of them have had to reinvent themselves to survive in life. After an ambitious FBI-agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) arrests them, they have to co-operate with him to bust bigger con artists and other criminals. However Richie is planning to have a shining career so he aims to bust the Mayor of New Jersey Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) for corruption. After political scandals and economical recession in USA, Irving would rather see things starting to get more optimistic for the people. 

Hairstyle is important for Irving

Irving meets Sydney Prosser

Richie DiMaso and Sydney

Irving and Sydney are lovers, but Irving is blackmailed by his bimboish wife Rosalyn. Sydney gets angry at Irving after hearing that he is married, and starts to seduce Richie to avoid going to jail. The moral problem for Irving is that Carmine is a politician everyone likes and who works to improve his city and create new jobs for the poor people. So Richie is trying to corrupt a good guy to advance his own career. The operation gets larger and things start to get dangerous when the Mob gets involved. 

Rosalyn Rosenfeld with gangster Pete Musane (Jack Huston)

Mayor of New Jersey Carmine Polito

The movie is loosely based on the Abscam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam) operations that FBI used  to combat corruption in the 1970s. After the operation FBI was accused for using entrapment tactics and guidelines for sting operations had to be formed. The acting in the movie is great. While in "The Machinist" Christian Bale was skeleton-thin, this time he is overweight and wears an amusing toupee. Bale is charismatic as Irving and Amy Adams is great as his seducing colleague. Jennifer Lawrence makes a good role as Irving's manipulative wife.  There is also a cameo appearance by Robert De Niro as a Mafia boss. The 1970s cool atmosphere is great with great music and stylish costumes. Also the hairstyles add to film's atmosphere. The movie is an entertaining an interesting caper story in the tradition of classic caper movies.

Robert De Niro has a cameo role as a Mafioso

Rating: Very good