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Joe Blevins 
"Don't I look handsome?"
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 Posted - 08/17/2009 : 01:34:22
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In case you were wondering whether this set is worth picking up, let me quote from a few of the previous reviews. Here are some excerpts, presented in the style of those hyperbolic movie ads which take critical quotes out of context:
"Drags horribly!"
(Click)
"Sluggish! At least half an hour too long!"
(French Quarter)
"Lengthy! Plotless! You don't wanna watch it!"
(Night Club)
"Adequate! Bland!"
(Hot Target)
"Flat! Sluggish and repetitive!"
(Double Exposure)
"A vanity project! Dull! Long, uneventful!"
(Blue Money)
"Slow paced and kind of dull!"
(Pick-Up)
When you peruse that list, you'll understand why it's taken me nearly as long to review 8 thrillers as it did to review 50 chillers. It's a bad sign that I've had to reuse adjectives like "sluggish" and "dull." |
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lemmycaution 
"Long mired in film"
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Posted - 08/17/2009 : 04:01:50
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| We need to coin a new word: duggish! Er, on second thought, that would refer to Russ Meyer flics. |
Edited by - lemmycaution on 08/17/2009 04:04:10 |
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 08/18/2009 : 00:24:56
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quote:
Originally posted by lemmycaution
We need to coin a new word: duggish! Er, on second thought, that would refer to Russ Meyer flics.
Slull, maybe?
I've been consciously trying to avoid using the "b" word (boring), because that's too common a complaint among filmgoers who are impatient with anything less than a thrill-packed action movie. I fully understand and appreciate the fact that a movie from the 1970s is not going to be paced like a movie from the 2000s. Look, it's fine for movies to slow down and take their time, but you really have to earn the right to do so. Some ways to earn that right: interesting characters, an involving plot, a well-written script with riveting dialogue, etc. (The After Dark Thrillers have been noticeably short on these qualities.)
I suppose one other possibly-justifiable reason to slow down is to give the audience a chance to drink in all the sumptuous visuals, but this can be a trap. The director of Pick-Up was also the film's cinematographer, and he's clearly proud of all the nice location footage he shot in the Florida wetlands. And that footage is actually pretty nice, something I neglected to mention in my review. BUT HE INCLUDES ALL OF IT! Seriously, pal, one shot of flamingos would have been plenty to establish that there are, in fact, flamingos nearby! We get it! Move on! |
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 08/22/2009 : 22:05:17
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And the 8 Thrillers project finally, finally concludes:
8. Separate Ways (IMDb rating 5.5)
Or: Scenes From a B-Movie Marriage.
It seems inconceivable now, but in the 1970s and 1980s there was apparently a market for movies about marital turmoil. For lack of a better term, let's call it divorce-ploitation: Kramer Vs. Kramer, An Unmarried Woman, Ordinary People, stuff like that. National Lampoon Goes to the Movies even satirized the subgenre with a segment called "Growing Yourself" in which Peter Riegert copes with one of these wacky modern divorces. Like the rest of that unfortunate Lampoon film, "Growing Yourself" is not terribly funny or well-done, but it does get some of the details right -- such as having a sappy "sensitive" theme song (in this case done by Don McLean). Nowadays, domestic drama has mostly moved back to television, but for a while there it played on the big screen, too.
Separate Ways is divorce-ploitation done on the cheap -- well, not exactly divorce in this case. It's more like separation-ploitation. (Take another gander at the title.) TONY LO BIANCO and KAREN BLACK play the squabbling married couple this time around, and it's the combination of those two cult movie stars that got me interested in this flick. Separate Ways, in fact, is the reason I bought After Dark Thrillers in the first place. Tony Lo Bianco is a marvelous character actor who gives an indelible performance as a sleazy con-artist-turned-murderer in The Honeymoon Killers. And Karen Black? Well, this article sort of summarizes her mysterious appeal. Everything about her seems just on the verge of campiness: her pouty lips, her slightly cross-eyed expression, her big hair, and her breathy line-readings. I had hoped the unlikely combination of Black and Lo Bianco would result in a movie that was at least interesting, if not necessarily good.
Unfortunately, Separate Ways feels by-the-numbers and flavorless. Lo Bianco's an alternately controlling and neglectful husband. Black is an unfulfilled housewife. They bicker. He has an affair. They argue. She has an affair. They squabble. Lots of drinks are downed, and a perfectly good cake is destroyed. Of course, they have a child together -- one of those sickly-sweet, only-in-the-movies kids with the obligatory bowl haircut. (Luckily, the kid is forever being packed off to visit with friends or relatives so he doesn't disrupt the plot too much.) Familiar actors like William Windom and David Naughton help anchor various subplots. Between arguments, our two frazzled marrieds spend some time pondering their miserable condition while the standard syrupy music plays. The main theme of the movie is that dreaded bugaboo, the Breakdown of Communication. While watching Separate Ways, I was constantly reminded of this quote from comedian Tom Lehrer:
"Speaking of love, one problem that recurs more and more frequently these days, in books and plays and movies, is the inability of people to communicate with the people they love: husbands and wives who can't communicate, children who can't communicate with their parents, and so on. And the characters in these books and plays and so on, and in real life, I might add, spend hours bemoaning the fact that they can't communicate. I feel that if a person can't communicate, the very least he can do is to shut up."
Well said, Tom.
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Edited by - Joe Blevins on 08/23/2009 06:25:54 |
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 08/23/2009 : 06:55:19
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And that about does 'er for After Dark Thrillers: 8 Movie Collection. It took me a month to get through these eight films because, frankly, they were not terribly compelling except as cinematic footnotes. The last one, Separate Ways, was not even a thriller. It was a pretty straightforward drama. In some ways, though, it did remind me of 50 Chilling Classics because the transfer on it was muddy and washed-out. Separate Ways was actually shot by legendary cinematographer Dean Cundey, but you'd never know it because the transfer is so crummy. Maybe not Chilling Classics crummy, but not nearly as good as some of the other films in this set.
A word about Sybil Danning: I believe it's her picture that's on the bizarre cover of this set. (In case you can't tell, the blonde dominatrix lady is being strangled with a strip of blood-red celluloid.) You can't see it in that picture, but there's a line of text at the very top of the picture which reads:
FEATURING: KAREN BLACK, SYBIL DANNING AND BRUCE DAVISON
This is two-thirds true. Karen Black is all over Separate Ways. She's in at least three-fourths of the scenes, and even spends some of the movie dressed as a fox -- with ears and a tail and everything. (You don't want to know.) And Bruce Davison plays a pretty prominent dual role in French Quarter. But Sybil Danning fans -- if there are any out there -- will be sorely disappointed if they purchase this set. Like Black, Danning is also in Separate Ways, but in a role so minor she is not even among the featured actors listed in the opening credits. In the film, Tony Lo Bianco owns a failing car dealership, and Danning is one of his salespeople. Both Lo Bianco and Karen Black make leering remarks about Danning's chest, but that's about the extent of it.
I don't think I'll give out any awards this time, because there's not much to award here. I guess Double Exposure is the best of these eight films, but only because its competition includes such feeble flicks as Night Club and Blue Money, both of which can go straight to hell as far as I'm concerned. Click is actually a little too pathetic to recommend as a guilty pleasure, and the remaining four films fall into the dreaded "neither good nor bad" category.
So congrats, Double Exposure! You win by default. (As Homer Simpson once said, "Default -- the two sweetest words in the English language.")
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Out with the Chillers, in with the Thrillers!
