A review of the films I've seen this past week.

THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE (1933)
This is an enthralling picture. I have yet to see Fritz Lang’s first film about this character, Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, but I have to track it down after seeing this. In this film, master criminal Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge in a suspenseful performance) is writing instructions for crimes from his cell in the asylum. Apart from being a masterpiece of suspense and build, Lang’s film makes a pretty clear reference to Hitler writing Mein Kampf while in prison. Propaganda Minister Goebbels didn’t even want to release the film, although he did want Fritz Lang for the head of the Reich Cinema; Lang, whose mother was Jewish, fled the country. He left behind one of his many masterpieces. **** stars.

THE BAREFOOT EXECUTIVE (1971)
Light as air Disney film about a chimp who picks all the right TV shows. Yeah, that pretty much says it all. Great to see Kurt Russell and John Ritter (in his film debut), but the film is alternately embarrassing and tedious. Disney apparently still thinks it’s 1957 and rebelliousness is playful. Lame. *1/2 stars.

AN EASTERN WESTERNER (1920)
HAUNTED SPOOKS (1920)
NUMBER, PLEASE? (1920)
GET OUT AND GET UNDER (1920)
I love Chaplin and Buster Keaton, but I’ve never been a huge fan of Harold Lloyd. He’s likable enough, but I’m never really fond of the formula—a milquetoast is forced to step up and become a man to win a woman’s hand. Some of the stunts are great, but I’m never really invested in them. *** stars apiece for some laughs and some neat stunts, but Number, Please? is my favorite of the four.

A SAILOR MADE MAN (1921)
At 46 minutes, this qualifies as Harold Lloyd’s first feature. The plot is the same as always, but it glides by and is fun to watch. It’s not The Freshman, but it’s pretty damn funny. *** stars.

SAFETY LAST! (1923)
One of Harold Lloyd’s genuine classics (my other favorites being The Freshman and The Kid Brother). It’s all worth it for the climactic scene of Lloyd climbing up the side of a building (including the famous clock scene). The plot almost doesn’t matter; it’s the construction of the film itself that’s the real joy. **** stars.

LOVE’S UNENDING LEGACY (2007)
The fifth film in Hallmark’s series of Janette Oke adaptations came so fast I nearly missed it; usually they wait a year, but the fourth film, Love’s Abiding Joy, only came out back in November. They’ve been dipping in quality, and this one just wasn’t very good. I knew that Katherine Heigl wasn’t going to play Marty (though I’m glad Dale Midkiff still plays Clark), but I was at least happy that Erin Cottrell was back for the third time as Missie Davis LaHaye. But opening the movie with Willie dead was a pretty big shock. And what happened to the other kids Clark and Marty had that weren’t even mentioned? I was interested in Missie’s story, but so much of it seemed to just arbitrarily happen to her. These are fairly Christian in tone and practice, and even God seems to only rate a perfunctory mention this time around. It’s time to stop making these, I think. ** stars.

AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY (2001)
This is a beautiful, quiet film about a family of Hungarian refugees. Tony Goldwyn and Nastassja Kinski play a couple who escape Communist Hungary with only one of their daughters in tow, waiting for Kinski’s mother to bring along their infant girl. But because of circumstances, the girl is sent to live with a Hungarian peasant family and her parents, now in America, spend years trying to get their second daughter out. By the time they do, she is a complete stranger to her real parents, and grows into a rebellious teenager (Scarlett Johansson) who feels like she belongs nowhere and is completely alienated from her real mother. This is a moving film about the refugee experience, about culture clash, and how political forces can affect the lives of everyone. A special little gem that did make me cry. **** stars.

HOT FUZZ (2007)
What can I say? Just like Shaun of the Dead, it’s clever and hilarious with some surprisingly genuine emotional moments. There’s nothing I can tell you except to say that this is a damn funny movie with a damned good cast, and I am in awe of the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg/Nick Frost team. Jim Broadbent is especially great here, and the plot twist—which I won’t reveal—is so fucking funny that I laughed until I coughed and nearly puked. In Shaun, there was one great reference line that no one in the theater seemed to get (Ed’s “We’re coming to get you, Barbara,” a reference to Night of the Living Dead). There’s one here, too, also delivered by Nick Frost: “Forget it, Nick…it’s Sandford.” Pure genius. **** stars.

AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000)
I actually hate the Bret Easton Ellis novel this is based on, but I loved Mary Harron’s other two films, so I finally sat to watch this. And I’m glad I did. I thought this was masterful. Why is there such a negative opinion of this movie? Do people just not get the satire element? The whole point of the movie is that just under the surface of “polite” society there exists a violence that occasionally explodes in people. And society just doesn’t care—they figure if they ignore it, it won’t really exist. Maybe it’s the price they pay to live their cushy yet incredibly stressful lives. But it’s there. This is a great film, one that captures the essence of the eighties corporate lifestyle. And that satire is just jaw-droppingly on target. You almost want to laugh until you really realize the implications here. That’s three movies Mary Harron’s directed, and like the other two, I have to give this one **** stars.

THE COLLECTOR (1965)
I always hate to be critical of something so pedantic, but John Fowles’s novel is one of my all time favorites, and this movie adaptation is on the weak side. William Wyler directed this film about a butterfly collector who “collects” a woman he is in love with. Terence Stamp is very good. Samantha Eggar is game and quite lovely, but doesn’t have much of a role to play (sadly). There isn’t much depth here; it’s very straightforward and doesn’t play with the psychology. There are no real emotions. Good, but it could have been so much more. *** stars. Maurice Jarre’s score is lovely, but totally inappropriate to this movie.

CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER (2006)
There was once a time when I thought Zhang Yimou’s films were cold and remote. But between Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and Curse of the Golden Flower, I’ve seen some great filmmaking. Gong Li, an actress I didn’t like until I saw her in Memoirs of a Geisha, outdoes herself here as Empress Phoenix. This is a royal family drama that is nearly Shakespearean; or to use Bolt, it’s The Lion in Winter as a Chinese imperial drama. Emperor Ping (Chow Yun-fat) wants to remove his first son as Crown Prince and replace him with his middle son Jai, a great warrior. The Empress, however, has plans of her own: there is pain to rectify and revenge to be taken. Like Zhang’s other films, this is stunningly beautiful to look at. The choreography is exquisite, the colors are bold—this was another one of those films that made me wonder why American films have to be so dark and drab. The acting is superb, and the predictability of the story doesn’t take anything away from its beauty and majesty. Yes, it’s anachronistic (the Forbidden City wasn’t built until around 500 years after this movie takes place) and it’s ahistorical, but so what? So is Shakespeare. And this is on that same level. Amazing. **** stars.

NAZTY NUISANCE (1943)
Apparently, The Devil with Hitler did well enough that Hal Roach decided to make a second B picture with Bobby Watson getting knocked around as Hitler. Instead of Satan, this time Hitler, Mussolini, and Sukiyaki go to a fictional Arab country to sign a deal with a despot, but are tormented by a shipwrecked American sailor pretending to be a magician. Completely stupid, but kind of fun, just like The Devil with Hitler. I wonder how audiences reacted to these at the time; it’s kind of disappointing to me that people are so overly sensitive, so PC, so afraid not to be fair to everyone all the time, that barely anyone has parodied Osama bin Laden in entertainment. Yes, it’s propaganda, but come on, why is it so forbidden? **1/2 stars.

IN AMERICA (2002)
This is, for me, Jim Sheridan’s masterpiece. The story of an Irish immigrant family who moves to New York City, what makes this film are the wonderful performances. Paddy Considine, an actor I like more and more as I see him in more movies, plays the father, an actor trying hard to do the right thing for his family. Samantha Morton plays his supportive wife, who believes in him even when it may be reckless to. There’s this scene with the family at a fair that is one of the most harrowing scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie. They’re also dealing with the recent loss of their infant son, while raising their two girls (Sarah and Emma Bolger, charming as all get-out) in an environment that is harsh to the innocent. During all of this, the family strikes up a friendship with Djimon Hounsou, playing an artist who is slowly dying of AIDS. This could easily descend into bathos and scenes of histrionics, but the whole movie unfolds through the characters and their very human reactions to life and death, hope and sadness, joy and pain. It’s magical, this one. **** stars.

GOSFORD PARK (2001)
I’ve mentioned before that I’m really not a big fan of Robert Altman. I like a few of his movies, but I also feel that he has a tendency to just throw a bunch of actors into a movie and let them mill about not really doing much in an underwritten script that is meant to be observational but really isn’t about anything. And for me, this was one of those, only with British actors. There are some of my favorite actors in the world here (Helen Mirren, Derek Jacobi, Clive Owen, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Eileen Atkins, Jeremy Northam) and other magnificent talents. But there’s no story to connect with. It looks pretty, but like a lot of other Altman movies I don’t like, it’s not to any great effect. **1/2 stars. For the record, the Altman films I like are M*A*S*H, Brewster McCloud, The Long Goodbye, and The Player. But there are a number I’ve yet to see.

UNITED 93 (2006)
I heard someone compare this film to The Passion of the Christ and Black Hawk Down, and I thought those were perfect comparisons: I didn’t like those movies, either. This is a real-time docudrama of the events of 9/11, both on the ground and in the air, with some speculation as to what occurred on United flight 93. A sobering experience? Not so much. I didn’t have any connection with this movie at all. Like the other two films mentioned, things happen and then it’s over. There are no characters to care about, no viewpoints expressed, no feelings evoked. I remember watching the plane hit that second tower on live television. I remember feeling panic and confusion, and overwhelming sadness and fear throughout the day. This movie does nothing to convey those emotions. It has tried so hard to be even-handed and fair and objective, that the film is completely antiseptic. How can I care about something that isn’t real (it’s a film, not a documentary) when there is no acting, no dialogue, and no point of view. There’s nothing; it’s hollow, and I don’t care how hard-hearted that makes me sound. I’m not reviewing a real-life occurrence, I’m viewing a film representation of it, and I was almost offended by the way everyone in the movie intones their lines and keeps looking at things like they know one of the most important events in modern history is happening around them. This is not a movie about people. It’s a movie about how Hollywood can justify making money by deifying the events of United 93. And I thought that was pretty cheap. No stars.