Came across some reviewing gems all from a talented gent on Amazon. Here are some highlights.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Cheapoh German movie, made for under five hundred thousand dollars, set entirely on a raft on a South American river---it probably had a major influence on Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW.
The photography is very good, considering the circumstances. And kinksi is ok; he's considered some great actor mostly because he behaved like a scumbag.
A poor horse is thrown off a raft, and into a jungle, maybe to die in real life. And monkeys are shown jumping off the raft and swimming away, with kinski even throwing a monkey into the water----with no director commentary about what happened to them, so it's easy to imagine the worst happened to these animals once their use as movie props were over with.
West Side Story
AMERICA is one great song and dance number. Rita Moreno is fantastic.
Natalie Wood is bland. The opening SHARKS dance is ok, though contemporary kids would certainly make fun of the gang members' sexual persuasion while watching them dance.
Most of this movie is just plain boring---at over 2 hours long! And why not be politically incorrect and note how here it's a Latino girl (gringo Wood) who falls in love with a Gringo boy---when in real life it seems like 99.9 percent of the time it's the other way around, with some gringo girl and latino boy.
Way way back in the 1960s the idea of a modern shakesphere adaption, and inter-racial dating seemed oh so radical, which is the real reason why this junk won 10 oscars.
Mean Streets
Nerd Score Sleazy would like everybody to think he actually grew up tough in NYC----though this allegedly autobiographical junk was written by somebody else AND rips off scenes from lots of other movies.
Keitel with his hand over the fire was ripped off from "Lawrence of Arabia," for one thing.
And, Deniro is annoying----a lot of Deniro performances in 70s movies are annoying, which is why he only really became known to a mass audience with his later comedies.
Deniro getting shot at the end is the best part---cause Deniro and his character are so annoying he deserved getting shot in the movie.
This movie was a big influence on Hong Kong action movies, and Hong Kong action movies aren't exactly known for their realism.
All The President's Men
For over two hours blonde beach bunny Bobby Redford and his sidekick go chasing after...what? THERE'S NO PAY OFF TO WHAT GOES ON. This movie can't hold up as a story on it's own. It's very much a movie based on a real story----cause it goes nowhere! All the really important news events happened months after the plot of this movie ends!
Movie ends with the blond beach bunny (who didn't even darken his hair to be truthful to dark-haired Bob Woodward) and his sidekick running---like little girls---to Jason Robards, to tell him that their life is in danger....WHEN IT'S OBVIOUS IT WASN'T, SINCE THE MOVIE ENDS RIGHT THERE, WITH EVERYBODY ALIVE AND WELL.
The character of Deep Throat also comes off as fake, despite him showing up on the news decades later---it's safe to hang out in dark parking decks but not safe to talk on pay phones or some other phone..? And, for anybody born after this movie, it's never explained in the movie where the nickname Deep Throat came from!
Battle for Algiers
for decades, critics have parroted the official line of how this movie looks soooo much like a documentary, with the cliche, too, of no documentary footage was used in this movie.
truth is: this movie has the very professional look of an I LOVE LUCY episode, complete with 3-camera type direction and editing.
the movie goes nowhere, there is no satisfactory ending to the movie.
one of those many movies that critics love for its politics, and not because it's an actually---enjoyable movie.
supposedly, when this movie was first shown, back in the crazy 1960s, movie goers would cheer when the terrorists/freedom fighters blew up french civilians.
this movie played at night---in dubbed english---on channel 3, kyw, in philadelphia; but only arabic version with subtitles is now available.
this movie was directed by an italian marxist---but according to marlon brando, who acted in the director's movie, BURN, this marxist director was a racist, making sure his italian crew ate better than the 3rd world actors, during the making of BURN.
Vampyre
LOOKS LIKE AN OLD STAG MOVIE
This is, basically, a silent movie---a couple years after THE JAZZ SINGER.
HORROR OF DRACULA, from terrance fisher, is a million times better, though fisher isn't the respectable celebrity like the director of this junk that pretentious movie fans admire.
Spy Who Came in From the Cold
The only reason this swinging london movie is in black and white is because all the much more fun james bond movies are in color----near the end, richard burton even says most spies are...homosexuals (though he says it in a non-politically correct way).
Burton goes from swinging london to dreary east germany----and it all looks alike, thanks to the black and white photography. It wasn't until the 70s with THE GODFATHER that film makers knew how to make different color films.
Most of the film is talk, talk, talk, though the last 20 minutes does have the twists and turns of RED ROCKS WEST and SLEUTH.
This is kinda like a black and white, no explosions, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE----old geezer Burton even has a hippy chick (with a peace sign on one of her posters) chase after
