Category: Z-View

Key Largo (1948) / Z-View

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Key Largo (1948)

Director:  John Huston

Screenplay:  Richard Brooks and John Huston from a play by Maxwell Anderson.

Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor, Thomas Gomez, Thomas Gomez, Harry Lewis and Jay Silverheels.

The Pitch: “Bogie. Bacall. Huston.”

Tagline: “WHERE MEN IN HIDING WAITED…WITH READY GUN!”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Frank McCloud (Bogart) a World War II vet, travels to Key Largo, Florida to visit the family of a soldier in his unit who was killed in the war.  McCloud arrives at the hotel just ahead of a hurricane and finds the hotel deserted except for his friend’s father and widow and famous mobster, Johnny Rocco and his crew.  Rocco’s crew are already on edge and the worsening weather keeps pushing them closer to the breaking point.

Rating:

The Cotton Club (1984) / Z-View

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The Cotton Club (1984)

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay: William Kennedy & Francis Ford Coppola

Stars:  Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Bob Hoskins, James Remar, Nicholas Cage, Fred Gwynne, Lawrence Fishburne, John P. Ryan, Tom Waits, Jennifer Grey, Ed O’Ross, Woody Strode and James Russo.

The Pitch: “Let’s make an event movie based on famous gangsters with dancing!”

Tagline: “Welcome to The Cotton Club. Where Crime Lords rub elbows with the rich and famous. Where deals are made, lives are traded. And the legends of jazz light up the night.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

It is still hard for me to believe I don’t like this movie better than I do.  Look at the director (Coppola!), the cast (too many to list) and the subject matter.  How can this not rate higher?  Perhaps the narrative is too all over the place…

There’s the young musician [Gere] who inadvertently saves a gangster [Remar] and ends up in a romantic triangle with the gangster’s girl [Lane].

There’s the African-American brothers who want to make it as a dance team but end up feuding and split up.

There’s the two gangs which are almost ready to go to war.

There’s the Cotton Club – the place owned by whites, but the talent is black and where a lot of the action happens.

There’s the… well, I could go on, but I think you get the idea.  The music is fine.  The dance numbers [especially by the Hines brothers] are fun.  It’s also a kick to identify the real historical figures portrayed in the film.  Still, the movie itself falls short.

Rating:

Tarzan Escapes (1936) / Z-View

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Tarzan Escapes (1936)

Director:  Richard Thorpe, John Farrow (uncredited), James C. McKay (uncredited), George B. Seitz (uncredited), William A. Wellman (uncredited)

Screenplay:  Cyril Hume based on novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Stars:  Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan and John Buckler.

The Pitch: “Let’s make another Tarzan movie.”

Tagline: ” It’s New! It’s amazing! 2 years to produce!”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Jane’s cousins come to the jungle.  Their father has died and Jane is needed to see that the will goes through.  Jane agrees to go back to England for a short time and then return to Tarzan in the jungle.  Jane’s guide has plans to capture Tarzan and sell him to a sideshow.

Jane starts on her journey.  Tarzan is captured.  To make things worse a warring tribe is on the way to wipe out the white hunters.

Rating:

Miami Blues (1990) / Z-View

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Miami Blues (1990)

Director:  George Armitage

Screenplay:  George Armitage from a novel by  Charles Willeford

Stars:   Fred Ward, Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Charles Napier and Paul Gleason.

The Pitch: “How about a crime movie based in Miami?”

Tagline: “Real badge. Real gun. Fake cop.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Ex-con, Frederick J. Frenger Jr. [Baldwin] heads to Miami for a fresh start.  A fresh start means stealing and conning.  When Frenger ends up with a cop’s gun and badge, he finds that it makes stealing and conning easier.  The cop [Ward] makes it his life’s mission to track down the thief using his identity.  Oh, and there’s a sweet prostitute [Leigh], too.

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Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) / Z-View

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Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Director:  Charles Lamont

Screenplay:  John Grant from a story by Lee Leob

Stars:  Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marie Windsor, Michael Ansara and Richard Deacon.

The Pitch: “Hey, Abbott and Costello Haven’t Met the Mummy yet!”

Tagline: “It has been said that a man’s best friend is his mummy…”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Abbott and Costello are in Egypt… and they meet The Mummy.  Hilarity [ok, a fair amount of laughs] follow.

Rating:

The Killers (1946) / Z-View

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The Killers (1946)

Director:  Robert Siodmak

Screenplay:  Anthony Veiller from a story by Ernest Hemingway

Stars:  Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien and William Conrad.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a movie based on Hemingway’s The Killers.”

Tagline: “One Moment with Her…And He Gambled His LUCK…LOVE…and His LIFE!”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Two hit men show up in a small town to kill a gas station attendant known as “Swede” [Lancaster].  When warned the hitmen are in town, Swede thanks the man but refuses to run.  He lays back down and waits for their arrival, a totally defeated man.

The hit men arrive.  Kill him and leave.

Insurance investigator Reardon [O’Brien] gets the case and slowly begins to unravel the mystery of why hit men were sent to kill a small town nobody.  What follows is a story of mobsters, big time robberies, double-crosses and in the middle of it all a beautiful woman.

The opening scene – of the hitmen at the diner is a favorite and sets the tone for a classic movie!

Rating: 4 of 5 stars.

“The Mountain Men” (1980) starring Charlton Heston and Brian Keith / Z-View

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“The Mountain Men” (1980)

Director:  Richard Lang

Screenplay: Fraser Clarke Heston

Stars:  Charlton Heston, Brian Keith, Victoria Racimo and John Glover.

Tagline:  Alone… each is a bombshell.  Together… they’re dynamite.

The Overview:

Two aging mountain men survive in a world that is changing and will soon leave them behind.  If the hostile conditions of the frontier don’t kill ’em, the Indians or the corn whiskey might.

Thoughts:  Beware of Spoilers…

I remember seeing this movie back in the early 80’s on HBO and loving it.  I recently revisited it and while I still enjoyed it, The Mountain Men wasn’t the movie I remember loving so much.

The interplay between Charlton Heston and Brian Keith [who steals every scene is in] is worth the price of admission. Heston and Keith had worked together on the 1953 film Arrowhead.

It’s fun seeing a young John Glover in his first screen appearance.

The Mountain Men was director Richard Lang’s first time helming a feature film.

The Mountain Men‘s screenwriter, Fraser Heston, is Charlton Heston’s son. The Mountain Men screenplay was Fraser Heston’s feature film debut.

The Indians are too Hollywood looking now and some of the scenes don’t hold up as well.  Still I liked it a lot, just not as much as I remembered loving it.

Rating:

It Follows (2014) / Z-View

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It Follows (2014)

Director:  David Robert Mitchell

Screenplay: David Robert Mitchell

Stars:    Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, and Olivia Luccardi.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a low budget horror movie – they almost always make money!”

Tagline: “It doesn’t think. It doesn’t feel. It doesn’t give up.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

After having sex with a boy she really likes, Jay [Monroe] learns that he has passed a curse on to her. [Great choice in guys, Jay.]

“It” [the thing of the curse] will follow her, always walking but able to take different human forms and if it catches her, it will kill her.

Suddenly everyone walking towards her seems to have evil intent.  And at least one does!

Rating:

Lone Survivor (2013) / Z-View

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Lone Survivor (2013)

Director:  Peter Berg

Screenplay: Peter Berg based on the book by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson

Stars:    Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a movie based on the best-selling book Lone Survivor.”

Tagline: “Based on True Acts of Courage”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

A Navy Seal team sent behind enemy lines on a mission to capture or kill a Taliban leader is accidentally discovered by a goat herder and his teenage son.  The soldiers faced with a dilemma, kill innocent people [and face military prison] or let them go and take their chances on being discovered.

The soldiers let them go and then find themselves outnumbered and under attack by superior numbers.  The movie’s title doesn’t leave much room for a real happy ending, does it?

Rating:

Submerged (2015) / Z-View

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Submerged (2015)

Director:  Steven C. Miller

Screenplay: Scott Milam

Stars:   Jonathan Bennett, Talulah Riley, Rosa Salazar and Mario Van Peebles.

The Pitch: “What about a movie with a group of 20-somethings stuck in a submerged car with people waiting to kill them above?”

Tagline: “You can’t scream and hold your breath at the same time.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Late one evening after a night of partying, a group of 20-somethings are traveling home in a limo when it is forced off a bridge.  The limo sinks to the bottom of the river and water slowly begins to fill the car.  When one of them tries to escape and get help, he is killed.  The trapped kids realize that there are people topside waiting to kill them.

As the water level rises they try to figure out why they are targets and if there is any way to survive.

Rating:

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) / Z-View

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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Director:  George Miller

Screenplay: George Miller and Brendan McCarthy and Nick Lathouris

Stars:  Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult and Zoë Kravitz.

The Pitch: “George Miller has written and will direct a NEW Road Warrior movie!”

Tagline: “THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THE MAD”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Max Rockatansky [Hardy], a loner, surviving in an apocalyptic waste land is captured by a cult who plan to drain his blood for their warriors.  Max finds him teamed with Furiosa [Theron] and five women slaves in their escape across the desert.

Miller creates an amazing action adventure that is insanely mesmerizing to watch — the crazy action, the insane stunts, the beautiful cinematography, and unique world — I love this film!

Rating:

Terminator Genisys (2015) / Z-View

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Terminator Genisys (2015)

Director:  Alan Taylor

Screenplay: Laeta Kalogridis & Patrick Lussier

Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney,  J.K. Simmons and Courtney B. Vance.

The Pitch: “Schwarzenegger will come back for another Terminator movie!”

Tagline: “The rules have been reset.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

We all know the story, right?  In the future Kyle Reese is sent back to the present to protect Sarah Connor so that her yet unborn son will one day grow up to save humankind from machines.

Now see the tagline.  The rules have been reset.  Things happen as before only slightly differently… or in some cases very differently.  While this is fun for a while for fans of the series; it creates the same problems that all movies/shows with diverging timelines have.  What’s it matter?

You like Kyle Reese better in the original?  Different timeline.  You don’t like this Sarah Conner?  Different timeline.  Which time line should we care about?  Ultimately, I lose interest because things can be forgotten, changed or wiped out — just move to a new timeline.

Still, Terminator Genysis was fun enough if taken as a standalone story.  As for me, Terminator and Terminator 2 are the “real” Terminator timelines.  End of story… until the next sequel.

 

Rating:

The Car (1977) / Z-View

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The Car (1977)

Director:  Elliot Silverstein

Screenplay: Dennis Shryack & Michael Butler & Lane Slate from a story by Dennis Shryack & Michael Butler.

Stars: James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley RG Armstrong and Kim Richards.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a horror movie about a murderous car that may be possessed!”

Tagline: “There’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no way to stop… The Car.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

A mysterious black car is running down town folk in a small western town and it’s up to the sheriff to figure out a way to stop it!

The Car would have been the third or fourth feature at a Drive-In.

Rating:

Hush (2016) / Z-View

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Hush (2016)

Director:  Mike Flanagan

Screenplay: Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel

Stars: Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr., and Michael Trucco.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a woman in isolation stalked by a mad killer movie, but with a twist — the woman is deaf!”

Tagline: “Silence can be killer.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Maddie is a deaf writer who decides to head up to her cabin to do some writing.  She believes the isolation will help.  Of course she wasn’t counting on a mad serial killer deciding to make her his next victim.

Clever twist on what could be a played out genre.  Contains some truly creepy scenes.

Rating:

West of Zanzibar (1928) / Z-View

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West of Zanzibar (1928)

Director:  Todd Browning

Screenplay:  Elliott J. Clawson

Stars: Lon Chaney, Lionel Barrymore and Mary Nolan .

The Pitch: “Let’s make a movie with Lon Chaney directed by Todd Browning!”

Tagline: “A story of love and revenge in the African jungles!”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

A magician named Phroso [Chaney] discovers his wife has been having an affair with a man named Crane [Barrymore].  Phroso confronts Crane, and during their fight is thrown over a rail, breaking his back and leaving him paralyzed and alone.

Later his wife returns only to die a short time later.  Before she dies Phroso learns that she had a daughter and Crane is now an ivory dealer in Africa.  Phroso heads to Africa with the child and plots his revenge.  First his makes sure that his wife’s daughter is raised in a brothel so that she grows up to be a drug-addicted prostitute.  Then he  takes on the persona “Dead Legs” and over the course of nearly two decades builds his criminal empire.

Once the time is right, Phroso brings the grown daughter to him so that he can extract his final revenge on her and Crane.  Dark stuff, indeed and with a twist [although easily seen coming] worthy of the Twilight Zone.

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