TiVoPlex
By John Seal
February 6, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 2/7/12
2:30 AM Showtime
Hobo With a Shotgun (2011 USA): There’s just no way you can go wrong with a film entitled Hobo With a Shotgun - especially when the titular tramp is portrayed by exploitation veteran Rutger Hauer! Hauer plays a homeless wanderer hoping to settle down in a new town, purchase a lawnmower, and start his own gardening business. Alas, garden care opportunities are lacking - and to make matters worse, the locals are a bunch of pricks who don’t treat Hobo with the respect he deserves. Soon he’s locking, loading, and blasting away at anyone who so much as looks at him sideways. If you grew up enjoying ‘80s schlock like The Exterminator (1980), you’ll adore this over the top salute to the grindhouse, which - while not played for laughs - is also grimly funny at times. Airs again on Showtime 3 at 10:10 PM and throughout the month.
12:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Cruel Sea (1953 GB): Is there a better movie about World War II naval warfare than The Cruel Sea? The Caine Mutiny is a candidate but also a stretch, being more psychodrama than action flick. I’m going to assert, then, that The Cruel Sea stands head and shoulders above the rest, with Eric Ambler’s screenplay well deserving its Academy Award nomination. Based on Nicholas Monsarrat’s excellent novel of the same name, the film is set aboard HMS Compass, a Royal Navy vessel assigned the unsexy but critical (and extremely dangerous) task of convoy escort. For those not familiar with the story of the Atlantic convoys, Germany’s U-boats almost won the war in 1942, when they sank hundreds of merchant vessels laden with food and armaments en route from the U.S. to Britain. Jack Hawkins headlines as Compass Captain Ericson, Donald Sinden offers excellent support as first mate Lockhart, and Denholm Elliott and Stanley Baker are also aboard, swabbing decks and hoisting mainsails. The writing is excellent, the acting superb, but most importantly the special effects and second unit work are truly outstanding - you’ll really feel like you’re in the middle of the North Atlantic while you’re watching the film. Wear a muffler and a life jacket, and keep a bucket handy.
Wednesday 2/8/12
12:30 AM Showtime
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead (2009 USA): It’s not every week we get two candidates for "best film title of all time," but between this and Hobo With a Shotgun, we’re really spoiled for choice. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were, of course, peripheral characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, their minor roles in the play expanded upon by 20th century scribe Tom Stoppard, whose hilarious stage hit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was in turn adapted (not very successfully) for the screen in 1990. Now comes the zombie variation on the theme, and it’s a hoot. Jake "son of Dustin" Hoffman stars as aspiring theatrical director Julian, who finds himself struggling to stay alive whilst working with a cast full of vampires, including coven leader Horatio (John Ventimiglia), who’s slowly bringing his fellow thespians over to the dark side. The film doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its title (how could it?), but I found it thoroughly amusing. Also airs at 3:30 AM.
5:00 PM Sundance
Cherry Blossoms (2008 GER): Elmar Wepper and Hannelore Eisner play an old Bavarian married couple thrown into crisis in this meditation on the fragility of life and the meaning of true love. Wepper is Rudi, a working man on the verge of retirement; Eisner is spouse Trudi, who balks at informing Rudi that he is seriously ill and decides to take him on a trip to Berlin to visit estranged son Karl (Maximilian Bruckner). An unexpected tragedy ensues, and the still clueless Rudi takes his leave of Germany and departs for Japan, where reconciliation and hope awaits atop Mount Fuji. It’s not as soapy as it sounds, and is followed at 7:05 PM by Shadow, an Italian horror film about mountain biking. Really!
9:40 PM HBO Signature
Amor en Fin (2009 MEX): I haven’t seen this Mexican drama yet, but plot synopses suggest it’s an ensemble piece consisting of multiple narrative threads, with a presidential election serving as the film’s unifying factor. Amor en Fin stars Adriana Barraza, Oscar nominated for her performance in 2006’s Babel.
Thursday 2/9/12
9:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955 USA): If you didn’t get enough Jack Webb last month, there’s more of the ol’ grouch on hand today. This time the stone-faced one directs himself as cornet player Pete Kelly, a 1920s-era muso earning a crust in Kansas City speakeasies. It’s a rough and tumble existence, as our hero discovers when his drummer is murdered and a local thug (Edmond O’Brien, in fine fettle) forces his dipsy but tuneless songthrush gal pal on Pete’s band. Gee, sure sounds a lot like The Girl Can’t Help It, but Webb is no Tom Ewell, and his character cuts a much less sympathetic figure. As long as you can put up with the taciturn thing, though, there’s a lot to enjoy here, including terrific Cinemascope color cinematography and a great supporting cast, including Janet Leigh, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Lee Marvin, and even a pre-fame turn by The Girl Can’t Help It’s Jayne Mansfield!
5:00 PM Sundance
Man on Wire (2008 GB): Oscar's Best Documentary Feature of 2008 was also, arguably, the best film of any sort that year. It returns to the small screen this afternoon, and though it doesn’t play as well on the boob tube is still strongly recommended. The film recreates the astonishing tale of Philippe Petit, a puckish Frenchman renowned for his feats of daring. Petit was bound and determined to walk between the towers of the World Trade Center, but not on the ground: he intended to do it on a wire suspended 1,350 feet in the air! His audacity, bravery, foolishness, and humor will leave you gasping in admiration. If you missed this previously, don't miss it tonight. Also airs 2/12 at 12:00 PM.
Friday 2/10/12
3:10 PM Starz in Black
Kill the Irishman (2011 USA): Within a somewhat provocative title lies a very enjoyable, above average gangster flick. The previously unheralded Ray Stevenson headlines as Danny Greene, a red-headed mobster stalking the streets of Cleveland in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Danny’s also an FBI informant, however, leading to strained mob relationships and more than a little spilled blood. Based on a true story, writer-director Jonathan Hensleigh’s film doesn’t stray too far from the Goodfellas mold, but a good gangster flick doesn’t need to. Added value is provided by an outstanding supporting cast of familiar faces, including Christopher Walken, Paul Sorvino, Robert Davi, and Tony Lo Bianco. That’s a pretty impressive assortment of bad fellas.
8:35 PM Showtime 3
Clash (2009 VIE): I wish I could report that TiVoPlex’s first Vietnamese film (YAY!) is better than it is, but sadly I can’t. It’s a fairly routine action crime-drama about a hired gun (Johnny Nguyen) despatched to steal a computer critical to Vietnam’s national defense system. Our hero has the help of a beautiful sidekick (Veronica Ngo), and you can guess what happens next - they fall hard for each other, and the job gets increasingly dangerous. Fists and feet proceed to fly with gay abandon.
Saturday 2/11/12
11:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Gloria (1980 USA): Of all the bad Hollywood remakes over the years, few have been as pointless as the Sharon Stone "re-imagining" of this John Cassavetes classic. The original airs tonight and stars Academy Award-nominated Gena Rowlands - terrific as a moll with a heart of gold - and benefits tremendously from director Cassavetes’ verite approach and outstanding use of New York locations. Best of all, it airs in its original aspect ratio tonight as part of TCM’s annual 31 Days of Oscar celebration.
Sunday 2/12/12
7:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Hester Street (1975 USA): This movie freaked me out when I was 13. Well, not the movie so much as the ad campaign, which relied largely on the gaunt, goggle-eyed presence of star Carol Kane to sell the picture. Perhaps it was the massive crown of Bride of Frankenstein hair that scared me, not the eyes - I’m not sure anymore because Carol Kane no longer freaks me out. Not surprisingly, it was many years before I gathered enough courage to actually watch Hester Street, and though by no means one of my favorite films it’s certainly better than I would have imagined in 1975.
Kane plays Gitl, a Jewish immigrant newly arrived in America, where she’s joining her husband Jake (Steven Keats) who left the old country some years ago. Jake is fully assimilated and soon discovers his wife’s habits and superstitions are no longer quite as endearing as they once were, inevitably leading to familial friction and estrangement. The story is fairly pedestrian but the acting is excellent, and director Joan Micklin Silver’s decision to shoot in black and white a wise one. Kane’s performance earned her an Academy Award nomination, but she lost out to Louise Fletcher’s enjoyably over-the-top outing in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I guess hair spray trumps the natural look.