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: Superfast!

Superfast!
3 in the Box, The Safran Company, USA, 2015.

Another so called parody from Friedberg/Seltzer.
Very bad.
...
...
...
Maybe I should watch the movie first. 

Lucas White (Alex Ashbaugh) is a white (duh) cop who tries to infiltrate multi-culti street racer gang. Their leader is Vin Serento (Dale Pavinski) with pretty sister Jordana (Lili Mirojnick). Other members are jealous Curtis (Daniel Booko) and not-so-unobviously lesbian Michelle (Andrea Navedo). Against all odds Lucas gains their trust. Crime lord Juan Carlos de la Sol (Omar Chaparro) sets them up and during a shoot-out Lucas accidentally shoots his boss Detective Hanover (Gonzalo Menendez), oops. Vin and the gang plan revenge by robbing crime lord's money. Incredibly stupid Detective Rock Johnson (Dio Johnson) tries to catch the gang but is too busy rubbing baby oil on his muscles.

Lucas White

Vin, Michelle Curtis and Jordana

Cesar and Senor de la Sol

"Fast and the Furious" series has grown to such self-parody nowadays that spoofing it is kind of wasted effort. The nonessential plot is modeled from FF parts one and five. There is something funny in the way the stock characters are named as Rapper Cameo, Model Turned Actress and Cool Asian Guy. Also the main gang looked a lot like the originals and Rock-parody was quite fun. Otherwise the jokes were either recycled from better parodies, overlong and unfunny or just gross-out. On the positive side the z-grade celebrity jokes were kept at minimum and the story kept the focus of the parody in one film series. However cheap pop-culture references and pseudo-commercial jokes that are obscure to everyone but Americans are still there. This is not a good movie but considering the cinematic atrocities FriedChicken/AlkaSeltzer duo has put out ("Meet the Spartans" "Epic Movie", "Disaster Movie"...) this is a step to right direction. Maybe the lowest point of parody genre has been reached already. But it is still a thousand mile trip back up.

Rock Johnson

Rapper Cameo (Rogelio Douglas Jr.)

Rating:Bad

Starring: Alex Ashbaugh, Dale Pavinski, Lili Mirojnick, Andrea Navedo, Daniel Booko, Rogelio Douglas Jr., Chris Pang, Omar Chaparro, Joseph Julian Soria, Dio Johnson, Amin Joseph, Cuete Yeska, Gonzalo Menendez, Shantel Wislawski, Luis Chávez, DaJuan Johnson, Alexis Lopez, William Barney, Shakira Barrera, Eric Mccoy, Dres Reid, Christine Clayburg, Chanel Celaya, Mickey Friedberg, Nick Rey Angelus, Chris Trouble Delfosse, Michael Flores, Anthony Martins, Shad Roberts, Rick Silver, Kenny Yates
Directors: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer

Movie Review: Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto
New World Pictures, USA, 1977.

Three guys Michael, Trevor and Franklin plan the ultimate heist...

Fooled ya! This movie is not related to the video game series. Except maybe as an loose inspiration. It was Ron "Happy Days" Howard's debut as a director and it was produced by Roger Corman. Howard's clan was heavily involved: the story was written by Ron and his dad Rance and Ron's brother Clint has a role in the movie.

Paula Powers' (Nancy Morgan) rich parents do not like her boyfriend Sam Freeman because he is poor. They would like her to marry a rich snob instead. Sam and Paula steal daddy Bigby's (Barry Cahill) Rolls Royce and start a trip to Las Vegas. Nice trip is shadowed by bounty hunters that Bigby's favourite fiancé and sore loser Collins Hedgeworth (Paul Linke) sends after them. Other chasers are Hedgeworth's mom (Marion Ross), Preacher (Hoke Howell), private detectives and a bus full of pensioners. Over-eager Dj Curly Q. Brown (Don Steele) reports the latest events of the chase.

Sam and Paula

Priscilla (Elizabeth Rogers) and Bigby Powers

Curly Q. Brown

Ron Howard's debut direction is a scathing criticism of forced marriage and a study about love across the class divide from road movie perspective... i.e. it is a silly chase comedy. This is a low budget drive-in cult classic from the 1970s, it has not much plot and it is not the most prominent of the car chase comedies but it is likable in its simplicity. It is just gags, amusing car chases and gratuitous car crashes, pure cult trash. Lots of cars are stolen and crashed, and a fruit stand is destroyed just because. The characters are all caricatures and hilariously over the top. The atmosphere is goofy and fun and no one gets hurt too bad. Thanks to talented crew, it has nice camera work and it is fun: both are features that many modern low budget film makers struggle to achieve.

Collins Hedgeworth

Car wash

Rating: Good

Starring: Ron Howard, Nancy Morgan, Elizabeth Rogers, Barry Cahill, Rance Howard, Paul Linke, Marion Ross, Don Steele, Peter Isacksen, Clint Howard, James Ritz, Hoke Howell, Lew Brown, Ken Lerner, Jack Perkins, Paul Bartel, Bill Conklin, Robert Weaver, Garry Marshall, Leo Rossi, Rev. Bobs Watson, Jim Begg, Allan Arkush, Gisella Blake, Reed Chenault, Jean Clark, Ancel Cook, James Costigan, Laurence Cruickshank, Bill Denochelle, Jimi Fox, Lars Frederiksen, Wayne Goodwin, Ben Haller, Gene Hartline, Cheryl Howard, Karen Kaysing, Todd McCarthy, Leo Michelson, Eddie Mulder, Cal Naylor, Conrad E. Palmisano, Vic Rivers, Felicitas Sanchez, Rick Seaman, Glenn Towery, George Wagner, Tom Waters 

Director: Ron Howard

Movie Review: Two-Lane Blacktop

Two-Lane Blacktop 

Michael Laughlin Enterprises, Universal Pictures, USA, 1971. 

The Driver (James Taylor) and The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson) are laconic and car-obsessed chaps who basically live in their car, black custom-built Chevy '55. Road racing is their way of life. The Girl (Laurie Bird) is a hippie trying to go to San Francisco so she joins them. Her presence results in a drama triangle. That doesn't last long though, as the guys are more interested in their car than her.

The Mechanic and The Driver

Chevy

The Girl

The guys challenge a man of tall tales, G.T.O (Warren Oates) to a road race. Winner gets the loser's car. As contrast to the old Chevy, G.T.O's Pontiac is modern muscle car. However the race doesn't have much importance. Sometimes they stop to repair the cars, hang around and chat. Sometimes G.T.O gives a lift to hitchhikers and tells untruthful stories about himself, being a former fighter pilot, movie director and whatever. However he is a burned-out adrenaline-junkie whose motor leaks. "What do we have, thirty-forty years?" reminds a delusional hitchhiker or a messenger of death.

G.T.O

The style is very minimalistic and existential. It has more in common with French New Wave films than with usual chase films. The cinematic time capsule preserves flashes of 1970s Americana, gas stations, race tracks and diners. Everyone is going somewhere and nowhere. Nothing much happens but there is nothing unnecessary. It has the same kind of rootlessness and disillusionment of post-Vietnam era U.S.A as in "Easy Rider" and "The Vanishing Point". The only place for freedom is on the road and even that does not matter. 

The scrolling yellow road line in the beginning looks like inspiration for the scenes in James Cameron's  "Terminator 2" and David Lynch's "Lost Highway."

Rating: Very good

Starring: James Taylor, Warren Oates, Laurie Bird, Dennis Wilson, David Drake, Richard Ruth, Rudy Wurlitzer, Jaclyn Hellman, Bill Keller, Harry Dean Stanton, Don Samuels, Charles Moore, Tom Green, W.H. Harrison, Alan Vint, Illa Ginnaven, George Mitchell, A.J. Solari, Katherine Squire, Melissa Hellman, Jay Wheatley, James Mitchum, Kreag Caffey, Tom Witenbarger, Glen Rogers, Tomas Moore, Big Willie Robinson III 

Director: Monte Hellman

Movie Review: Bullitt

Bullitt
Warner Brothers/Seven Arts, Solar Productions, USA, 1968.

Based on the novel "Mute Witness" by Robert L. Fish.

Let's finish the unofficial car movie marathon with a cop movie classic containing one of the iconic car chases filmed.

Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is a tough San Francisco cop. Ambitious and crooked politician Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) assigns him to protect witness Johnny Ross (Pat Renella) before a trial against mobsters. Using the  testimony from a vicious gangster would advance Chalmers' career. While Bullitt is off duty spending time with his designer girlfriend Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset) two hitmen wound Ross and Inspector Stanton (Carl Reindel).

Frank Bullitt

Cathy

Walter Chalmers

The assassin (John Aprea) tries to finish the job and Bullitt tries in vain to prevent it. However Bullitt finds out that the case is more complicated than it seems. Despite pressure coming from Chalmers, Chief Bennett (Simon Oakland) allows Bulllitt to continue his investigations. Luckily Bullitt has a fast Ford Mustang that is useful for catching the crooks. However Cathy witnesses a crime scene and is horrified by the ugly things Bullitt sees and violence that he commits in his work. But for Bullitt serving justice without moral integrity is the driving force. As George Orwell put it: "Those who abjure violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf."

Chief Bennett

Don Gordon as Sgt. Delgetti

The famous chase

The film has a cool later 1960s look and also realistic looking hospital scenes. The film has quite little action and it feels more like a modern hard-boiled detective story Chandler style but with less dialogue. It is better to avoid watching it waiting for fast-paced action, this is more a crime mystery film. As for the action scenes, the car chase is the highlight, featuring Russian Hill in San Francisco that is used in later films by everyone and his dog. The laconic style seems to have influenced 1970s cop movies, "French Connection," films of Charles Bronson and Eastwood's "Dirty Harry." There is also a jazzy soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin. Robert Duvall appears as cab driver.

The special edition DVD includes some interesting documentaries "Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool" and "The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing."

Rating: Very good

Starring: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon, Simon Oakland, Norman Fell, Robert Duvall, Georg Stanford Brown, Justin Tarr, Carl Reindel, Felice Orlandi, Vic Tayback, Robert Lipton, Ed Peck, Pat Renella, Paul Genge, John Aprea, Al Checco, Bill Hickman
Director: Peter Yates

Movie Review: Race with the Devil

Race with the Devil

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Saber-Maslansky Productions, USA, 1975.

Motorcycle salesman Frank (Warren Oates) goes to campervan/biking vacation with motorist Roger (Peter Fonda) and their wives Alice (Loretta Swit) and Kelly (Lara Parker). Apparently they haven't seen "Texas Chainsaw massacre", they should know to avoid American back countries. There are always inbred cannibals, monsters and stuff! Soon the nice vacation takes a nasty turn when a group of Satan worshippers begins to sacrifice humans on the nearby hill.

Roger and Frank

Kelly and Alice

Satanic ritual

The Sheriff (R.G. Armstrong) seems amused. It must be those damn hippies again having a drunken orgy again! Meanwhile the ladies loan some reference books for deciphering the ominous message that was left in the campervan. The freakish local residents begin to get on their nerves. Then the cultists start playing psychological warfare on them. Finally they have to drive like crazy to save their lives.

The Sheriff

Ominous message

Race With the Devil!

This is an weird mixture of car chase action movie, horror thriller and motorhome invasion- movie. Kind of fusion of "Wicker Man" and "Mad Max." It offers some good thrills and scares. Of course the story is quite silly with whole towns supporting the evil cult. Possibly it felt more believable in the seventies after the Manson murders and Jonestown cult mass suicide three years later in 1978. Also the side plots are left hanging as this is clearly horror flick meant to be watched drive-in theatres. Still watched in the right mood it has good cast, good tension and solid nightmarish plot development.

Knock knock! Who's there? Crazy cultist!

As a trivia Tom Hanks is watching this movie in "The 'Burbs."

Rating: Good

Starring: Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit, Lara Parker, R.G. Armstrong, Clay Tanner, Carol Blodgett, Phil Hoover, Ricci Ware, Paul A. Partain, James N. Harrell, Karen Miller, Arkey Blue, Jack Starrett, Wes Bishop, Joyce King, Paul Maslansky, Dan Hewitt Owens, Tommy Splittgerber
Director: Jack Starrett

Movie Review: Fast & Furious 7

Fast & Furious 7 a.k.a Furious 7 a.k.a Furious Seven a.k.a  Fast Seven 

Universal Pictures, MRC, China Film Co., Original Film, One Race Films, Dentsu, Fuji Television Network, Québec Production Services Tax Credit, Colorado Office of Film, Television & Media Abu Dhabi Film Commission, USA, Japan, 2015. 

The movie starts where the previous part ended. Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is still amnesiac and  Dominic (Vin Diesel) is trying to help her remember. Brian (Paul Walker) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) are trying to adjust to peaceful family life. Hobbs (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) and Elena (Elsa Pataky) are busting criminals. Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) are probably just enjoying their vacation.

Letty & Dominic

Peaceful life comes to an abrupt end when Han (Sung Kang) is murdered by rogue agent Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). This connects the plotline to the events in "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift." Deckard is brother of the villain in the previous film. He also destroys a hospital, injures Hobbs and blows up Dominic's house. Busy guy.

Deckard Shaw

Dominic's family and friends are in danger. Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) offers to help Dominic and his friends if they save hacker named Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanue) and find the ultimate hacking tool God's Eye. She was captured by evil warlord Jakande (Djimon Hounsou). Also the God's Eye is hidden in a secure place so Dominic and his team travel around the world fighting bad guys and performing incredible stunts.

Mr. Nobody

Ramsey

Jakande

Although Paul Walker died before the film was completed, it was completed using digital technology and using Paul's brothers as stunt doubles. The film looks seamless as it is impossible to say which scenes have the real Paul Walker. What was missing from the previous part was the possibility to make the ending feel more emotional, after all Dominic's team suffered there some devastating losses.  "FF7" is not afraid to have an emotional ending making it a proper goodbye to Paul Walker.

Dominic's team is back

Fast & Furious badassery reaches a new level. Parachuting cars. Bus full of miniguns and a crazy stunt involving the same bus. The Rock stays most of the time in the background before saving the day in the end. Jason Statham steals the scenes he's in by performing an indestructible evil version of the tough guys he usually performs. Kurt Russell seems to have fun. Martial artist Tony Jaa (known for "Ong Bak"- trilogy) appears as minor antagonist Kiet. Also WWE star Ronda Rousey has a match against Michelle Rodriguez.

Director James Wan is known for his horror movies and for producing "Saw" sequels so for him this was an unusual production. Although I'm not the biggest fan of his style, his visual tricks seem to work here better than in his horror productions. He manages to direct damn entertaining testosterone-fueled Hollywood action that raises the par for the (inevitable) sequels.

Dude where is my flying car?

Kiet

The Rock cosplays Heavy from "Team Fortress"

Singer Iggy Azalea has a cameo as a racer girl.

Rating: Very good

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Dwayne Johnson, Lucas Black, Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, Elsa Pataky, Gal Gadot, John Brotherton, Luke Evans, Tony Jaa, Djimon Hounsou, Noel Gugliemi, Ali Fazal, Sung Kang, Ronda Rousey, Miller Kimsey, Charlie Kimsey, Eden Estrella, Gentry White, Iggy Azalea, Jon Lee Brody, Levy Tran, Anna Colwell, Viktor Hernandez, Steve Coulter, Robert Pralgo, Antwan Mills, J.J. Phillips, Jorge Ferragut, Sara Sohn, Benjamin Blankenship, D.J. Hapa, Faheem Najm, Brian Mahoney, Brittney Alger, Romeo Santos, Jocelin Donahue, Stephanie Langston, Jorge-Luis Pallo

Director: James Wan