A movie a day

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The House of Fear (1945)

Jump around! Jump around! Jump around! Jump up, jump up, and get down!

No wait, that was House of Pain.

Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of murders that... oh, who gives a sh*t. These stories all have practically the same plot. I've now seen all fourteen Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone, and as a whole, they're pretty good. The best of them are terrific and the worst of them are still mildly entertaining. Unlike the James Bond series, there are no "bad ones." The House of Fear isn't one of the best nor one of the worst, nothing to complain about but nothing to recommend to someone who's never seen a Holmes film.

Well, Week 1 is over with, as long as I don't watch anything later tonight. I've managed to watch 15 movies in a week. Before, I usually watched just one or two. Bring on Week 2. Here's a recap:

Week 1, September 1-7: Screamers: The Hunting (2009), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Blade Runner (1982), D.O.A. (1950), eXistenZ (1999), Terror By Night (1946), Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), La Jetée (1962), Videodrome (1983), The Speckled Band (1931), The Great Mouse Detective (1986), Sherlock Holmes and the Sign of Four (1983), Pursuit to Algiers (1945), Total Recall 2070: Machine Dreams (1999), The House of Fear (1945)

Nice House Of Pain reference Jory.

Week 2 begins. I promise they won't all be Sherlock Holmes movies and Philip K. Dick adaptations, but right now that's what I'm interested in. Next it'll probably be nothing but all the Dracula adaptations I've missed. Anyway, on to it.

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

An undercover narcotics agent is ordered to spy on a drug dealer, but due to the split personality disorder caused by his own drug abuse, he doesn't realize that his target is his alter ego. I saw this twice before (in a theatre – there was only one other person there the second time I saw it) but I couldn't resist buying the DVD when I saw a new copy recently for $1.97 on Amazon Marketplace. The movie is a pretty good adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel but it doesn't pack the same punch. Someone once described the book to me by saying, "It's the funniest book ever written and the saddest book ever written." This is true. The film, on the other hand, isn't the funniest movie ever made or the saddest movie ever made. It's a shame that David Cronenberg wasn't allowed to make this movie, because he would have nailed it. Still, it's not bad at all.

The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

Also known as Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride. A cult resurrects Dracula, who wants to unleash a plague upon the Earth. I love classically trained British actors and their lack of snobbery. This is the kind of lurid exploitation movie in which a female vampire's blouse is always ripped open so the audience can see her tits when someone drives a stake through her heart, but Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee treat the material like it's Shakespeare. Thirty years ago, a lot of effort went into even the trashiest of vampire movies. Today, we have Twlight. The world is not a better place.

This is sequel number seven to Horror of Dracula (1958) and the second movie in the series that takes place in the present. The first one, Dracula A.D. 1972 (NOT B.C. 1972! THAT'S ANOTHER 1972 ENTIRELY!), is a complete waste of the "Dracula in the present" idea since he spends the entire movie in a church. Satanic Rites is better by default since it actually features Dracula interacting with the outside world of the 1970s, not to mention it's got a lot more action. There's more going on in ten minutes of this movie than the entirety of Dracula A.D. 1972. It's all very cheesy, but it's a good cheesy. These movies had great titles, by the way. Who the hell doesn't want to see a movie called Dracula Has Risen from the Grave or Taste the Blood of Dracula?

The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002)

You won't see Sherlock Holmes doing this in the Robert Downey Jr. movies:



A lot of hardcore Holmes fans hate this movie because it features a Holmes who is a blonde instead of a brunette, who smokes cigarettes instead of pipes, who injects cocaine while on a case to stimulate his senses instead of in between cases to alleviate boredom, and whose relationship with Watson is more spiteful than friendly. The negative reviews on Amazon all basically say, "It's not like the book, therefore it's awful."

But if you're not the kind of purist geek who complains about Superman's cape being two inches too short or the wrong shade of red, and you didn't complain about Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes not being exactly like the books, I can't imagine you not enjoying this. It's very well acted, written, and directed, as you would expect from the BBC. For me, it's just as good as the excellent 1939 and 1959 versions. Anyone who likes the current BBC show Sherlock should give it a watch. It's on YouTube.

I was not able to post yesterday. My daughter was afraid of going to sleep because of Chucky (yes, the movie - no, she has not watched the movie - dont ask...), so I had to stay with her until she finally fell sleep. Here it goes:

Hanabastation (2011): Cuban film directed by Ian Padron. Mayito (Ernesto Escalona) is the only son of a relatively wealthy family in La Habana. He is the center of the universe for his over-protective mother, and beloved by his father. And he has all he wants. Carlos (Andy Fornaris) is a poor boy who lives with his grandma (his mother died, his father is in jail) in a marginal neighborhood. The kids are classmates, but they are not friends. Neither Carlos or Mayito have friends at school.

When Mayito gets lost in the May Day parade, he somehow ends up in the poor neighborhood where Carlos lives. He bumps into Carlos on the street and asks his help to return home. Carlos promises he will help him if Mayito invites him home to play with his playstation. Mayito firsts agree,  but then tries to avoid Carlos. Carlos gets mad and fakes a phone call to Mayito's mother, telling him his mother will pick him up by the end of the day. The kids spend the whole day together, learning about each other, about their differences, going through a lot of situations that help them bond. Mayito learns what it means to be poor, how it feels having a friend, to take care of himself, and to stand up for himself.

Habanastation is not a great movie, but it is a good movie. I liked it a lot because it made me remember my own childhood, the one I had and the one I wished I had. It is fresh and funny.

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

I watched this again with the DVD commentary turned on. I have no idea why.

The Tomb of Dracula (1980)



Animated by the Japanese, voiced by Americans, and written by meth addicts. Modern vampire hunters encounter Dracula in Boston, and it's wicked retahded. Also, Satan is pissed that people are mistaking Dracula for him. (He should have chosen CitiBank and taken advantage of their identity theft protection.) Oh, and Dracula is turned into a common mortal, and instead of sucking blood, he steals some guy's wallet so he can buy a hamburger. This pile of insanity has a bunch of different titles: The Tomb of Dracula (the name of the comic book it's based on), Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned, Dracula: The Vampire Emperor of Darkness, or just plain Dracula according to the Internet Movie Database. I'm calling it Dracula & Satan's Bogus Journey.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1988)

You know the story. A bunch of superstitious people blame a series of murders on a mythical demonic dog and Sherlock Holmes investigates. This is the fourth adaptation of this story that I've seen (after the 1939, 1959, and 2002 versions), and it was the least interesting. Not bad but not good enough to recommend it over the others. Jeremy Brett is the best Holmes but there wouldn't be much reason to watch if another actor were playing the part. There are much, much better episodes of the Jeremy Brett series than this. It's the kind of dull PBS drama that teachers show their classes after reading the book. The Internet Movie Database lists 19 versions of The Hound of the Baskervilles, but I'm in no rush to see any more than the four I've already experienced.

Unthinkable (2010): Yusuf Atta Mohammed (Michael Sheen) is an American Muslim who has planted nuclear bombs in three U.S. cities. A team is formed to stop the bombs before they explote. The team has 5 days. Agent H. (Samuel L. Jackson) is the black-ops agent assigned to interrogate Yusuf and get the location of the bombs by the means necessary.  Special Agent Helen Brody (Carrie-Ann Moss) plays the good guy who believes in justice, freedom, and right. The movie has some nice but safe torture scene. I think it exagerates a lot with the concern about the prisioner's rights. I mean, we do know what they do when nobody is watching. Info leaks. The usual fight between good and bad, and at the end everybody "uses" good. I do not appreciate "good" is a woman. We always are the "good" (which actually means stupid and imprudent) guy. 

It's not a great movie, but is actually watchable. It is not as bad as I expected. Watch it with someone because it will give you topic for a good debate afterwards. Michael Sheen is very good, but he usually is. 

The Masks of Death (1984)

Ah, Sherlock Holmes. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.



It's pretty good.

Peter Cushing is awesome, even though he was 900 years old.

I feel like crap today so write your own critique.

Meek's Cutoff (2010): The year is 1845. Three families hired Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) to guide them through the Oregon desert to The Dalles city. What was supposed to be a 2 weeks journey turned into a 5 weeks nightmare. Exhausted and running out of water, the pioneers suspect their guide has no idea where they are. When Mrs. Tetherow (Michelle Williams) finds herself face to face with a Native American (Rod Rondeaux) the whole crew gets scared. Mr. Meek decides to go after the Indian and get him captive. He does so but then the men decide trying to convince the Indian to lead them to a water source. 

The whole value of this movie resides in allowing us to experience how it should have been to be a pioneer in the Wild West. Facing the hardness of this strange land and the fear of the unknown. That, it achieves. But you will be listening to the river flowing and the wind blowing, and watching people walking for a looooooong time, and then you will long for electricity, or at least a fire, because in the night shots you will barely see some silhouettes, and you be forced to picture the scene in your mind.  

To resume, it has its value as a movie, but its as hard as the desert itself to stand. Ah, and it has an open ending.

The Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes (1985)

Why did I watch this documentary? Did I think it would tell me something I didn't already know? I've already read so extensively about the history of Holmes literature, and I've already seen most of the films discussed, and I've read about the ones that I haven't. This is for people who know nothing about Holmes. For me, it's like going back to kindergarten. Half of it is just film clips. It's narrated by Christopher Lee, so it's not a total waste of time, but I could have used this time to watch something new.

Does this even count as a movie? It's a 45 minute documentary. I hope it does, because I don't feel like watching anything more today.

Mr. Popper's penguins (2011): One of the down sides of having children is that they would like to go to the movies to watch some crap. And you will have to take them. I have even planned on opening a kids-only movie theater, where you can leave your kids an pick them up when the movie finishes. If they are like my daughter they will spend the redt of the evening talking about it the movie, anyway. Well, back to the "movie".

Tom Popper (Jim Carrey) is a successful business man with "daddy" issues. His father dies and gives him as inheritance a live penguin. Trying to get rid of the penguin he ends up with 5 more penguins (we will never know who paid for the rest). He tries unsucessfully to get rid of the penguins (for a successful business man he is kind of dumb), and then his kids fell in love with the penguins and he cannot get rid of the penguins anymore without letting his kids down (yeah, right). Then begins the journey that will change his life, will make his kids love him again, his ex-wife magically fall in love with him again, and bring a lot of more good and magical stuff in his life. This movie is not only predictable, but defies any logic, and I did not even like the penguins. All I could think of was "Jim Carrey is old", and "why does my kid know the lyrics of Ice, Ice Baby?".

Frankenstein (1931)

Dr. Frankenstein is such a pimp in this movie. When his friends barge in on his castle, he lets them inside and proudly admits to them that he's been robbing graves and stealing body parts from medical schools. They call him crazy, and he responds by inviting them to watch as he re-animates a corpse. Afterwards, he leans back in a chair, smoking and bragging about what he's done. I like how the sky background in the final scene is an obvious painted curtain, full of wrinkles, as if the filmmakers were saying, "Yeah, we just hung a bedsheet up, what of it?" I also like how the angry mob has a battering ram the size of an oak tree and yet they can't knock down the door of a rickety old barn.

Tropa de Elite 2 - O Inimigo Agora É Outro (2010): When my husband asked me if I wanted to watch this movie with him I said: "No". I mean, you know what they say about sequels. I imagined it was more of the same, and I was not intested in watching how the BOPE killed more favelados. But after watching the movie he told me: "It is good. You have to watch it". My husband and I have similar taste in cinema. If he tells me a movie is good, I listen. He was right. 

Tropa de Elite 2 starts with a rebelliom in the High-Security Penitentiary Bangu 1 in Rio de Janeiro. The BOPE, lead by Lieutenant-Colonel Roberto Nascimento (Wagner Moura), is sent to control the situation. After the BOPE intervention ends up in a massacre, Nascimento is transferred to the Secretary of Security. 

From his new position, Nascimento will help BOPE to fight drug dealers. But when drug dealers are under control, another enemy is unleashed: the militia, led by Major Rocha and supported by the Governor,  take control of the city and develop a squeme to exploit the favela population. With the power on their side, this new mafia is stronger and more difficult to defeat, and will put in danger Nascimento's family,  his career, and his own life.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Four years after directing Frankenstein, James Whale was asked to make a sequel. Bride of Frankenstein, I think, was his way of telling the producers to go f**k themselves. I'm surprised they released it instead of saying, "Very funny, Jim. Now where's the real movie?" Every film critic in the world will tell you that it's some kind of masterpiece and superior to the first movie in every way, but I'm not drinking that Kool Aid. Bride of Frankenstein is like a 1935 version of a Michael Bay film. The acting is terrible and every potentially good scene is ruined by the most awful and unfunny humor imaginable. Old ladies scream, the monster smokes a cigar, and wacky comedy music plays in the background. So much happens that makes no sense at all, like when Dr. Frankenstein's colleague shows off his collection of tiny humans living in bottles (?!) and it's never spoken of again. The bride creation scene has no weight to it since the original monster pulls a lever and blows up the castle about two minutes after it happens. Even Van Helsing was better than this.