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Only Lovers Left Alive, a review by Danae Cassandra

Only Lovers Left Alive
Year of Release: 2013
Directed By: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Anton Yelchin, Mia Wasikowska
Genre: Drama, Horror

Overview:
The tale of two fragile and sensitive vampires, Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton), who have been lovers for centuries. Both are cultured intellectuals with an all-embracing passion for music, literature and science, who have evolved to a level where they no longer kill for sustenance, but still retain their innate wildness. Their love story has endured several centuries but their debauched idyll is threatened by the uninvited arrival of Eve's carefree little sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska) who hasn't yet learned to tame her wilder instincts. Driven by sensual photography, trance-like music, and droll humor, Jim Jarmusch's ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE is a meditation on art, science, and the mysteries of everlasting love.

My Thoughts:
I'm kinda torn on this film. I loved the performances - Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton are great, and this is a great character study, especially of Hiddleston's character. There's such great atmosphere, beautiful scenes and interesting ideas. It's wry and melancholy, with an interesting criticism of both the decline of art and culture and of those who bemoan the decline thereof.

Still, something about it didn't click with me. Maybe I wasn't in the proper mood - and it's a moody piece, there's very little plot here. I want to go back to it at some point, probably when I'm more in the mood for an art film or drama. Despite the presence of vampires, this has very little horror.

Watched For: Hoop-tober 3.0, Horror/Halloween Challenge 2016

Bechdel Test: Fail
Mako Mori Test: Fail

Overall: 3.75/5

Horror/Halloween Challenge Films: 40/52

(From Horror/Halloween 2016 Challenge on October 28th, 2016)

Rio Bravo/El Dorado, a review by Rogmeister

You might call this The Howard Hawks-John Wayne Deja Vu Western Experience  


Rio Bravo (1959)
Cast: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez, John Russell, Claude Akins
Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Director: Howard Hawks

Whenever people start naming the greatest westerns ever made, you don't have to go far down the list to find this movie. It's often placed in the top 5 along with such films as The Searchers, Stagecoach, Red River and The Wild Bunch. I consider The Searchers to probably be the best western of them all but I seem to alternate between that film and this one as to which is actually my personal favorite western. The Searchers is a mighty intense film at times but this one is probably a bit more fun to watch.

In the beginning, we see no-good Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) gun down a man in cold blood in a saloon who is promptly arrested by Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne). The town is then surrounded by the men his brother Nathan, a rich rancher (played by Lawman's John Russell) hires and who periodically try to get him out. Chance doesn't want any help, one friend who tries (Ward Bond) is killed within an hour of telling everyone he needs help. Chance still gets help from a gimpy old deputy named Stumpy (Walter Brennan), a usually drunken deputy Dude (Dean Martin) and a young gun named Colorado (Ricky Nelson...yes, that Ricky Nelson) who was riding guard for the wagon train that Chance's friend had brought to town. Chance tries to keep Joe in jail and also try to keep an eye on Dude who seems to be about to come apart at any moment.

The movie moves along at a good pace despite it's over 2-hour running time. There's humor (especially involving Stumpy), romance (between Chance and a girl named Feathers played by a young Angie Dickinson), and lots of action that ends up with Stumpy chucking sticks of dynamite towards the warehouse the bad guys are in as Chance blasts at them with his Winchester, resulting in a quite-explosive finale.

A previous DVD had been issued of this and then a few years ago, in honor of Duke Wayne's 100th birthday, they released a new edition of this (along with some other films).  I bought Rio Bravo: The Ultimate Collection...interestingly, I'm not sure that's still available.  I looked it up at an online retailer and they didn't have it.  They do have a 2-disc special edition and I imagine it's the same discs but you don't get the other extras I was lucky to get...a reproduction of the lobby cards, the movie pressbook and the comic book adaptation.

Disc extras include an audio commentary by Richard Schickel, the movie trailer and also trailers for 4 of Duke's early "B" westerns of the 1930s, and featurettes on the film and on director Howard Hawks.



El Dorado: Centennial Edition
Cast: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Charlene Holt, Paul Fix, Arthur Hunnicutt, Michele Carey, Edward Asner
Music: Nelson Riddle
Director: Howard Hawks

He was limping when he left...
He was limpin' when he got here!

The interesting thing about Rio Bravo is that producer/director Howard Hawks did a virtual remake of the film 8 years later...a film called El Dorado. The main plot and certain events were so dead-on that no one could believe it was anything else. They did make some changes in that later film, though John Wayne did star in both. In the second film, the younger character was named after a different state (Mississippi) and couldn't hit anything with a gun so they gave him a sawed-off shotgun. He was played by James Caan. And it was the sheriff (Robert Mitchum) who was drunk, not a deputy. The older deputy was playd by Arthur Hunnicutt this time, not Walter Brennan. And to further give the good guys a disadvantage, Wayne's character got a bullet lodged in his back that would occasionally give him temporary paralysis in one side. It's still considered a very good film in it's own right so check it out when you get the chance. Hawks used plot elements from Rio Bravo a third time in Rio Lobo...that film's not so good.  So I'd recommend you watch and enjoy both Rio Bravo and El Dorado...and leave it at that.

This "Centennial Edition" just came out this summer...for some reason, it has the number "9" on its spine but I'm only aware of one other Centennial Edition film that's come out, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.  Maybe there will be more?  Or maybe there are indeed others in the series I'm not aware of.  I was comparing the looks of this DVD with the previous DVD and it looks similar, though the paintings shown during the opening credits seem just a bit darker in this edition.  This edition features quite a few extras (the original had only the trailer).  Besides the trailer, this 2-disc set gives you two audio commentaries (one with Peter Bogdanovich and the other with Richard Schickel, Ed Asner and author Todd McCarthy), a 7-part featurette on the movie, a piece on the art of the Old West and an interview with producer A.C. Lyles about John Wayne.

(From Roger's Ongoing Westerns Marathon on July 9th, 2009)

"Due South" marathon, a review by Tom

1.17 The Deal (1995-03-30)
Writer: Paul Haggis (Created By), Peter Lefcourt (Writer)
Director: George Mendeluk
Cast: Paul Gross (Constable Benton Fraser), David Marciano (Detective Ray Vecchio), Beau Starr (Lt. Harding Welsh), Daniel Kash (Detective Louis Gardino), Tony Craig (Detective Jack Huey), Catherine Bruhier (Elaine), Ramona Milano (Francesca), Jim Bracchitta (Frank Zuko), Rod Wilson (Joey Paducci), Shay Duffin (Father Behan), Louis Di Bianco (Charlie), Sam Coppola (Cabrini), Gordon Pinsent (Fraser Sr. (voice)), Bud Tanner (Kenny), Maria Ricossa (Head Mover), Nahanni Johnstone (Store Clerk), Claire Cellucci (Choir #4), Eric Robertson (Organist), Brandi Ward (Ursula)

This episode was always really memorable for me. I loved how Ray takes on Frank Zuko.
And finally Francesca appears again

Rating:

(From "Due South" marathon on July 23rd, 2009)