Day 14 – Zeta One

Title: Zeta One (aka The Love Factor)

Director: Michael Cort

Year of Release: 1969

Major or Recognizable Actors: James Robertson Justice, Charles Hawtrey

Anyone else involved of note? Based on some sort of magazine… it was hard to read the tiny print in the opening credits

Availability: DVD

Brief (spoiler-free) summary: The extra-dimensional, all-female domain of Angvia is threatened by the inquiries of the sinister Major Bourdon, and only super-stud secret agent James Word can help stop them…

Have I seen this before? No

What do others say? “kinda funny[…] what you might call a B-movie, a very entertaining one.” Soundtrackfan.com

What does Katy say? “If you like your sci-fi mod, goofy and sexy, watch this. If you don’t, what’s wrong with you?”

Thoughts: A British mod, sci-fi Bond-parody sex comedy, and of a kind that makes me wish that particular subgenre had more entries. The costuming here, and the minimalist “futuristic” set design are both everything one might hope for — lots of colored gels on the lights, egg chairs, orange velour and go-go boots (or less) on the ladies… Splendid. Not as smutty as I’d expected going in, and not as witty and charming as it might have been. The first several minutes (almost the whole first act) was the buildup to a strip poker game that didn’t seem all that interested in titillation… and the rest of the movie followed suit! With entries like this, no wonder Michael Reeves was the main draw at Tigon Pictures! But, for a movie of such low ambitions, it delighted rather consistently. Hawtrey in particular steals the scenes he’s in as the effete henchman Swyne.

Was it worth my time? Yes

Would I recommend this to others? Yes

Day 12 – Sexmission

Title: Sexmission (Seksmisja)

Director: Juliusz Machulski

Year of Release: 1984

Major or Recognizable Actors: None are known to me.

Anyone else involved of note? co-written by Machulski

Availability: DVD

Brief (spoiler-free) summary: Two men cryogenically frozen in the future of 1991 wake up much later than they’d expected, into a world populated only by women.

Have I seen this before? No

What do others say? “It’s interesting that a country which was under a strict regime itself should produce a criticism of such a state, but mainly this is about the sexes getting along with each other and falling in love. I don’t know how long it took for women’s liberation to reach Poland, but on this evidence it wasn’t taken very seriously.” -Graeme Clark, The Spinning Image

What does Katy say? “Goofy”

Thoughts: A very Euro sense of humor carries this movie, which is decidedly sexist, but in such overblown ways as to appear harmless. The political content/critique seems to needle the late Warsaw Pact-era system, but not with enough substance or bite to make any real waves. The draw here is in the future set design and costuming, as well as the alien-ness of the movie’s social preoccupations and worldview.

Was it worth my time? Yes

Would I recommend this to others? Yes

Day 4 – The President’s Analyst

Title: The President’s Analyst

Director: Theodore J. Flicker

Year of Release: 1967

Major or Recognizable Actors: James Coburn, Severn Darden, Joan Darling

Anyone else involved of note? Screenplay by Flicker; Animation by DePatie-Freling

Availability: DVD, VHS

Brief (spoiler-free) summary: An urbane and somewhat eccentric New York psychoanalyst is surreptitiously screened to be the personal shrink of the President of the USA, and thus the sole bearer of all the President’s stress. After a while, though, he finds that the job is getting to him…

Have I seen this before? No

What do others say? “Very lively when Flicker is just making sophomoric jokes, but he doesn’t seem to know what he’s good at, or how to stick to it.” -Pauline Kael

Thoughts: I haven’t seen any of Coburn’s Flint movies, which this seems of a piece with, but this title is charming enough that I’d gamble a stamp. Here, he’s got fine comedy chops in what amounts to a comedic precursor to Three Days of the Condor. The paranoia is ratcheted up reasonably high without going too high over the top, and the emphasis on constant surveillance seems awfully contemporary despite the movie’s age. The real star of the show here, though, is Darden as sympathetic Russian spy Kropotkin, whom he plays with easy charm and wonderful timing. There’s also an amusing psych-rock performance scene that turns into a psychedelic orgy — it’s a throwaway, but amusing nonetheless.

Would I recommend this to others? Yes

Day 3 – The Host

Title: The Host (괴물)

Director: Bong Joon-ho

Year of Release: 2006

Major or Recognizable Actors: None are known to me.

Anyone else involved of note? None are known to me.

Availability: DVD, Blu-Ray

Brief (spoiler-free) summary: A strange monster-fish menaces Seoul, and in the process kidnaps a young girl. Is the monster the carrier of a nasty biological virus? The girl’s family aren’t going to wait to find out in their quest to save her.

Have I seen this before? No.

What do others say? “Bravely shifting tones from the horrific to the slapstick and back again, Bong Joon-ho has made a movie that’s comprised almost equally of family sitcom, political indictment, high-urban paranoia and maximum-geek, monster-movie delight.” -Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

What does Katy think? “I hated it.”

Thoughts: This was charming at times, but ultimately I’m not sure that this marriage of the family-based comedy and the big-monster horror film really gelled properly for me. There were aspects I liked, among them the unpredicatbility of the ways that the choices clung to genre expectations, and it was nice to see scenes that I associated in tone more with the Dickensian sentimentality of, say, City of Lost Children in the same logical structure as a profound anxiety/distrust of the US military logic and its control over less powerful nations, but as the film ended, I didn’t feel like I bought into its fundamental concepts totally enough to be entirely won over.

Was it worth my time? Yes

Would I recommend this to others? With Qualifications.

Day 1 – Royal Flash

Title: Royal Flash
Director: Richard Lester
Year of Release: 1975
Major or Recognizable Actors: Malcolm McDowell, Oliver Reed, Alan Bates, Bob Hoskins, Britt Ekland
Anyone else involved of note? Screenplay by George MacDonald Fraser from his novel
Availability: DVD
Brief (spoiler-free) summary: Harry Flashman is a no-good, womanizing Victorian lout who, through luck and cowardice — plus an enormous ego — manages to find himself in the good graces of many of the 19th Century’s most notable figures. His fortunes take a particularly bad turn when he becomes involved by way of Lola Montez with the plans of Baron Otto von Bismarck.
Have I seen this before? No
What do others say? “Mr. Lester throws away more gags in “Royal Flash” than some comedy directors think up in an entire career. Now and then you wish he’d take time to develop a routine a little more, to give it a classic beginning, a middle and an end, instead of rushing on to the next sequence.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times
Thoughts: There’s some solid comic timing here, and some very reasonable performances. McDowell is charming as the alternately hapless and mistakenly confident Flashman, in what appears to be the exact midpoint of his roles in Clockwork Orange (the Machiavellian lout) and Time After Time (the idealistic Victorian). The first third of the movie or so has a flavor like Lisztomania — lots of famous historical figures showing up for their cameos, and gives the feeling that we might be in for a more intelligent Forrest Gump. As the movie hits the main body of its plot, though, it slows down considerably, and falls — somewhat inexplicably — into dungeons-and-princes swashbuckler territory. While that’s charming in its way, and it certainly makes me want to check out Lester’s Three Musketeers movies, it didn’t really seem to be quite in keeping with the rest of the movie — or at least, where I thought the movie might end up. If anything, Oliver Reed here as the villain kept calling to my mind his turn as the anti-heroic lead in the earlier Assassination Bureau, which also featured sinister sword-fighting Germans, brothels, sight-gags and an epic setpiece conclusion, but felt like it had a bit more heart as an over-all production. Reed certainly seemed to be having a better time in the earlier role, though it’s nice to see him share the screen with his Women in Love co-star Bates again, if only for nostalgia’s sake.
Was it worth my time? Yes
Would I recommend this to others? With Qualifications — McDowell is better (for my dime) in Time After Time; Assassination Bureau is a better version of fundamentally the same film.

Tank Girl – Day 83

Title: Tank Girl
Director: Rachel Talalay
Year of Release: 1995
Major or Recognizable Actors: Lori Petty, Naomi Watts, Ice-T, Malcolm McDowell, Iggy Pop
Anyone else involved of note? Based on the comic book by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett (with liberal quotations of art by Hewlett and Philip Bond); Music by Graeme Revell, with a soundtrack featuring Devo, Björk, Hole, The Magnificent Bastards, Bush, face to face, Ice-T, Iggy Pop, Joan Jett and Portishead; Production design by Catherine Hardwicke; SFX makeup by Stan Winston, Vocal effects by Frank Welker
Availability: DVD, VHS
Brief (spoiler-free) summary: In a post-apocalyptic desert future, a sassy rebel against the all-power corporation that controls the water supply takes her revenge against their injustices by force.
Have I seen this before? No
Thoughts: This was alright enough, but not everything I’d hoped for. A little too calculated, all the best jokes were taken verbatim from the comic book — that is, were the actual comic panels onscreen. Cute, but not what I’d hoped for. That said, Naomi Watts is several times more beautiful as a bespectacled brunette.
Was it worth my time? Mostly
Would I recommend this to others? No

In the Loop – Day 63

Title: In the Loop
Director: Armando Iannucci
Year of Release: 2009
Major or Recognizable Actors: James Gandolfini, Gina McKee, Anna Chlumsky, Mimi Kennedy, David Rasche, Steve Coogan
Anyone else involved of note? No
Availability: In [some] theaters (as of this writing)
Brief (spoiler-free) summary: A somewhat incompetent, low-level British minister and his staff become embroiled in the debate as to whether America will go to war in the Middle East.
Have I seen this before? No
Thoughts: This was even more funny than I’d hoped. As a political satire, the foreign policy train-wreck was funny in the hand-biting way. As a British comedy of a post-Office/Fawlty Towers stripe (the movie is a spin-off of Iannucci’s British show The Thick of It, which features the Malcolm character in this film), it was filled with moments of delightful awkwardness. And finally, the wonderfully scripted banter kept me howling. I can’t recommend this enough.
Was it worth my time? Yes
Would I recommend this to others? Yes

Mortuary Academy – Day 60

Title: Mortuary Academy
Director: Michael Schroeder
Year of Release: 1988
Major or Recognizable Actors: Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, Tracey Walter (Bob, the Joker’s Goon), Wolfman Jack, Cesar Romero
Anyone else involved of note? Screenplay by Paul Bartel (at least according to IMDB, if not the credits themselves)
Availability: DVD, VHS
Brief (spoiler-free) summary: Two entitled teen brothers inherit their late uncle’s lucrative mortuary, under the condition that they also graduate from the mortician’s school that the uncle also founded. The headmaster of the
Have I seen this before? No
Thoughts: Aside from Lust in the Dust, which I’ve been keeping back for just such a moment, I’ve seen all of Paul Bartel’s features. This begins to lead into somewhat suspect territory. Mortuary Academy, from the man who was Bartel’s assistant director for Lust and the mediocre Longshot, the producer of One Dark Night and director in his own right of Cyborg 2 and 3, seemed a strong second-best option, as it’s (ostensibly) written by and stars Bartel. It was alright, but ultimately not great. If he had been behind the camera, this film would be at least as good as some of the “hack work” Bartel-directed pictures of the mid-80s, but nowhere near how good he is at his best. His performance is enjoyable, though, and he is both properly officious and extraordinarily off-putting in his one-sided, awkward “seduction” sequences. I laughed.
Was it worth my time? Yes
Would I recommend this to others? With Qualifications; Everything else I’ve seen of Bartel’s (except maybe Not for Publication and Longshot) has been better.

Manhattan – Day 47

Title: Manhattan
Director: Woody Allen
Year of Release: 1979
Major or Recognizable Actors: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep, Wallace Shawn
Anyone else involved of note? Written by Allen and Marshall Brickman, Music by George Gershwin, Cinematography by Gordon Willis
Availability: DVD, VHS
Brief (spoiler-free) summary: An insecure television writer has a series of existential crises, made all the worse by his burgeoning affair with his best friend’s mistress
Have I seen this before? Yes
Thoughts: This is Woody Allen’s best movie (though supposedly his least favorite!). The cinematography is beautiful, the characters don’t make any claims to likability, there are great epiphanic moments, and almost all the humor is laced with visible self-loathing and melancholy. It’s sweet and sad, and manages to not hide behind some of the cuteness that Allen at times (over)uses.
Was it worth my time? Yes
Would I recommend this to others? Yes

Marshall Brickman

The Applegates – Day 37

Title: The Applegates (Meet the Applegates)
Director: Michael Lehmann
Year of Release: 1990
Major or Recognizable Actors: Ed Begley Jr, Stockard Channing, Dabney Coleman
Anyone else involved of note? Voices by Frank Welker; Produced by Denise Di Novi
Availability: VHS, Laserdisc
Brief (spoiler-free) summary: Giant, intelligent insects from the rainforest go undercover in Ohio as what they imagine a typical American family must be like in order to destroy humanity, which is destroying their homes. Unfortunately, their chosen ’50s ideology quickly crumbles in the face of the temptations of late ’80s suburbia…
Have I seen this before? No
Thoughts: The high concept pitch must have been Coneheads meet Leave it to Beaver. This isn’t bad at all, in fact it had me laugh out loud a few times. That said, it covers territory that seems rather well tread; see also my posts on Reefer Madness: The Musical and Runaway Daughters, or consider that this was directed by the man who also did Heathers, and the producer that was behind Edward Scissorhands. A certain vein of suburban critique seems almost too easy, and ultimately congratulates the very things elements that it is critical of. While this was amusing, it also was decidedly cut from that cloth, and that was something of a disappointment.
Was it worth my time? Yes
Would I recommend this to others? Yes