Dracula: Prince of Darkness

As the supplemental material of the Blu-ray indicated, Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1965) is one of the best examples of a Hammer Horror film.

It’s a NASTY movie!

The film starts with a flashback sequence in which we see Count Dracula, played by the legendary Christopher Lee (insert a “we’re not worthy” bow) and Dr. Van Helsing, played by the also legendary Peter Cushing.

Now, several years later, a group of hapless tourists from England are wandering through the Carpathian mountains to “broaden their minds”.

Since it wouldn’t be a proper horror film if said hapless travelers didn’t encounter something or someone particularly nasty on their journey – and this is a VERY proper horror film – they are led to Castle Dracula after their driver (who has far more common sense) refused to continue taking them on their journey after dark.

And, man do they encounter the ultimate Nasty!  (I’ve said “nasty” quite a lot in this review, haven’t I?)

I hadn’t seen this film in years, and what struck me on this viewing was just how mean-spirited it was. And for 1965, I expect the resurrection scene was particularly shocking.

Christopher Lee didn’t have a single word of dialogue in this film. (Neither did Peter Cushing; he wasn’t in it!) Yet with only facial expression and body language (and an occasional hiss), Lee emotes a pure, overwhelming sense of distilled evil.

Speaking of emoting evil, a special nod has to be given to Barbara Shelly. As one of the travelers, she came off as prudish, and a total wet-blanket. Ah, but after her circumstances … er … changed, her portrayal was completely animalistic and terrifying. What a great range!

I wholeheartedly recommend this film – with one reservation…

Hammer was noted for finding new ways of killing off vampires. Some of them, such as the method employed in this film’s sequel, Dracula has Risen from the Grave (1968), were fantastic. Unfortunately, in this film it was weak.

Still, an excellent, in-your-face horror film!

The Monuments Men

Despite some of what’s been written about it, The Monuments Men (2014) was good.  Quite good, actually.

But not typical…

What is lacking is the iron-jawed superhero types who get shot to bits yet still manage to persevere for “duty and humanity” (ok, that’s actually a Three Stooges reference but it sounded good).  It also lacks the “buddy” cast that some wartime movies offer, nor does it spend long, aching amounts of time pondering the “what’s it all about?” aspects of war or give us grim, black comedy to supply a goodly amount of social commentary while tickling our funny bone.

What we get instead is a bunch of very average-Joes (or should I say “average GI-Joes”?) who are brought together to save the art – and therefore much of the cultural heritage – of Europe during WWII (the big one).  But these average people were portrayed by a monster cast including:  George Clooney, Bill Murray, Matt Damon, John Goodman, and Cate Blanchett, among others, who manage to not look so much like movie stars but as the characters they’re portraying.

Very nice…

According to the film, which purports to be based on a true story, the Nazis were bent on stealing the art of the cities they’d conquered – to rid their conquered peoples of their culture and to provide the art and artifacts for a planned Führer Museum in Germany.

Kinda despicable on a number of levels.

Yet despite the premise, the film as a whole had a easy-going quality to it.  Not that the characters or their situations were shown as being frivolous; rather, that the film didn’t heighten these situations artificially.  It wasn’t a heavy action flick, nor was it a tense drama.  Really, it appeared to be more of a slice of life – and the characters, being ordinary, somehow came off as being just that much more heroic as a consequence.

Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

Along those lines, the film gives us a full picture of life:  funny, sad, touching, tragic, heroic.  And even though we never get a back-story on anyone, I always felt I was watching real people rather than caricatures.  And some of the low-key acting is nothing short of sublime.

I’d say this movie was a “big little film”, meaning that it had a scale and magnitude to it but it didn’t go around touting itself as being important.  Yet, at the end of the film, I was filled with appreciation for what these people did – and what they sacrificed to do it.

***

I’m writing this last part several days after having seen this movie, and I must say that I’m still savoring the experience.  I expect I’ll see this again when it comes to the cheap shows.

Dallas Buyer’s Club

Dallas Buyers Club (2013) is not a fun movie.

It’s not meant to be.

This is a serious, gritty film filled with people you’re probably not going to like very much, toughing it out against enormous odds, setbacks, and their own plethora of human frailties.

And it works…

Matthew McConaughey stars as Ron Woodruff, a promiscuous, self-centered, drug-using,  s.o.b. who contracts the AIDS virus.  It’s hard to feel too sorry for someone like that, and the film doesn’t try to make him out to be anything other than what he is.  Yet, like all of us, he wants to survive – and he goes to great lengths to make sure that happens.

And again, it works…

A buddy of mine mentioned that while characters aren’t always likable, they can still be compelling.  That’s a good description of the characters here.  We’re compelled to take an interest in what they’re doing – even though we might initially want to look the other way.

All in all, this isn’t a film one would choose for a fun night out at the movies.  Rather, it’s a bit more challenging – and not for everybody.

And if this film wasn’t a fun ride, it was an interesting – and worthwhile – one.

Jack Ryan Marathon (+1)

For the past several years, a group of us will do an all-out movie marathon at my brother’s place.  Marathons past have included The Godfather trilogy, Planet of the Apes and its sequels, Alien and its sequels … you get the idea.

This year, the marathon was a little different.  Instead of a film and its sequels, we chose to view the various Jack Ryan films made over the years.  (For those of you who don’t know, Jack Ryan is the spy in the late Tom Clancy novels.)  So without further ado, here are this year’s marathon films – along with one extra.

The Hunt for Red October

First up in our marathon was the first “Jack Ryan” film made, The Hunt for Red October (1990) – featuring a very young Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan and Sean Connery as the captain of the Soviet submarine, the Red October (named after the Russian revolution).

This film was great!

The premise of the film is that a new type of submarine has been launched by the Soviet Union – and of special concern is the sub’s ability to make use of a new kind of propulsion system that’ll render it virtually undetectable by sonar.  Such a sub could, in theory, pass by all of the United States’ defenses and wait in total stealth mode off our coast – then start lobbing nuclear missiles at us.  (I hate when that happens…)

The, one would assume, would be a positive boon to the cold-war era Soviets except for one small problem:  the captain of the Red October has other plans…

The story in this film is tense – and plausible.  One of the reasons this film had me on the edge of my seat is that the entire story seemed as though it could have actually happened.  Suspension of disbelief becomes a no-brainer and the ability to be drawn into the drama is very much heightened.

Also,  the star-power is off the charts:  along with the aforementioned Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin were Scott Glenn, Sam Neil, and James Earl Jones – among others.  A cast of true heavyweight actors, and it shows.

This film was so well done that it had only one real flaw… it spoiled me for what came next.

Patriot Games

Next on the agenda was the first installment with Harrison Ford:  Patriot Games (1992).

I’d heard that author Tom Clancy didn’t warm up to Ford’s portrayal of Jack Ryan, stating that the 49-year-old was too old to portray the 31-year-old Ryan.

I agree.

Harrison Ford (who made a great Indiana Jones) seemed to me to be too worldly to portray Ryan.  Part of the appeal of the first movie was the character’s “fish out of water” manner.  He was a researcher for the CIA and appeared to be quite uncomfortable out in the field.  By contrast, Ford appeared awkward when he was giving a speech yet looked right at home mixing it up with the bad guys.

And what was one of the first film’s biggest attributes – its plausibility – was totally gone in this film.

I’m glad I saw it for the continuity of the storyline and our marathon, and it definitely had its moments – but I wouldn’t see it again.

Clear and Present Danger

Ford’s next Ryan flick was Clear and Present Danger (1994).

This time around I thought matters got more plausible – the United States president determines that a certain drug cartel represented a “clear and present danger” to the American public, and therefore he feels obligated to do something about them.

Strictly off the record, of course…

And as we’ve seen in the headlines of real life, such clandestine operations can go somewhat south of expectations.

While this movie didn’t reach out and grab me by the throat the way the first one did, neither did it seem at times to be just a little silly the way the second one did.

Harrison Ford still gives a grittier, worldlier performance as Jack Ryan – although the character himself is also older in this movie.

A definite improvement in the series; however, things will get better still…

The Sum of all Fears

The series got a re-boot with Ben Affleck assuming the title character in The Sum of All Fears (2002).

In this film we return to a younger, somewhat bright-eyed and naïve Jack Ryan – and I felt much more comfortable with Affleck’s portrayal.  And Morgan Freeman was excellent as William Cabot, the Director of Central Intelligence.

Early in the film, the President and his team are discussing a nuclear emergency drill they participated in, when Cabot comments that it’s not a country with hundreds of nukes that bothers him – it’s the guy who has only one…

This film works that premise very well – and in today’s world of terrorism, that fear hits home.

As one of the movie-marathoners commented, this movie (along with the first one) were “big films” – and sure enough, he was right.  The threat in this movie was of an epic scale, and in some way comes full circle with the first movie in terms of the threat:  Somebody who wants to attack the U.S. with a nuke.

The “bigness” of the threat added to the “bigness” of the tension the film created.  That tension is ratcheted up still further by Ryan’s inability to cope with the situation (at one point he states, “…and I don’t know what to do!”).

Good stuff – I would have liked to have seen more from this group, but alas they only made this one film.

Happily, 2014 took care of that unfortunate situation…

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

And here’s the “+1” film I alluded to in the title of this piece, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) – another re-boot of the series.

I’d read a number of negative reviews when this movie opened, so I saw it (back on January 23rd) with a little trepidation.  (This also means I saw this one more than a month before our marathon began; I’m writing about this film on January 24th.)

Man, were those negative reviews wrong!

I liked this film in that it shows how the character first gets into the spy game (although I can’t say how closely it resembles Tom Clancy’s vision – I haven’t read the books, although I really should…)

Instead of being a super spy, this film’s Jack Ryan is overwhelmed by the circumstances he finds himself in.  Sometimes he’s downright freaked-out by what he’s had to do.  This makes the character very human and relatable, and I thought Chris Pine (who also plays the new Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek movies) did an admirable job with the character.

Now this is not an intellectual spy movie in the vein of the excellent Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy (2011) – with the excellent Gary Oldman as George Smiley.  (Come to think of it, the producers really need to follow that one up with Smiley’s People!)  This one is more of a spy-thriller, and it had me on the edge of my seat many times.

It would be interesting to see whether this team develops the series based on an actual Tom Clancy novel.  I hope they do.

* * *

So there you have it – another marathon come and gone.  As always, good friends and family, good food, and good times ruled the day!