Advantages: It's Miike, making a Japanese Western! Disadvantages: The dialogue sounds amateurish.
Yikes. I used to be a Takashi Miike fan, until I watched this film that is. What can I say? The film is a mess. The story and the way that it unfolds, is all over the place, and Tarantino's performance is awful. Now I might have been able to forgive all of that, call it a 'genre piece'. Heck, Miike had the look of the film down pat. A Japanese western, very novel. The thing is I just couldn't (and still can't) forgive the fact that the Japanese actors ... ...film for me in two ways:
1. I love Japanese cinema, I'd much rather hear the actors speaking their first language to be honest. Sue me.
2. Even if I looked past that fact, these particular actors seem pretty 'uncomfortable' speaking English. That may even be an understatement. This second point absolutely ruins the picture for me. It throws me out of the ex perience, and leaves a very bad taste in the mouth. That's all there is to say. Never mind ...
Advantages: Good music and scenery Disadvantages: John Wayne!
...his choice. His choice being The Cowboys which was when John Wayne was at his peak so I am told. The film sees John Wayne playing the role of William Anderson who is a 60 year old ranch owner who is trying to get his cattle to market as this will be his last year due to his age. He does not have any cowboys as they have all deserted him to go in search of gold. One of his friends suggests he goes to the town school and recruit the boys to help him ... ...he has 10 of the boys at his ranch and he is training them up to help him. During the training of the boys an older man turns up who I believe is called Nightingale and joins them. Nightingale helps with the teaching of the boys and soon finds himself as their role model. They are successful in training them and they soon set off on the 400 mile journey with the cattle to get to the market. Will they all arrive and sell the cattle and what life lessons ...
Advantages: Top western, good measure of violence Disadvantages: None
...mystery is more so in High Plains Drifter as the plot unfurls and we also see elements of the supernatural, which is also witnessed in his later film, Pale Rider. The movie is wonderfully written by Ernest Tidyman, who also brought us Shaft in the seventies. The dialogue is superb, captivating and capturing the essence of all the movies of this genre – tough, clichéd, cheesy and intelligent. It also stars Verna Bloom as Sarah Belding, Billy Curtis ... ...released in 1973 and lasts for 105 minutes. The direction by Eastwood is pretty good, to say it was only his third venture into this field. I caught this movie again recently and found myself instantly captivated. Although I have watched it numerous times, it has been a while since my last viewing. I found it had dated very little in the last thirty-five years. Not like his Dirty Harry movies – which are still good, but certainly dated. This may ...
Advantages: Ward Bond and Wayne act well together Disadvantages: Dodgy backdrops!
...made well over 100 films, Hondo is a film he made midway through this time. THE FILM
The beginning of the film see Hondo Lane, played by John Wayne arriving at a ranch in the middle of nowhere where he is seeking a new horse as he lost his last one when he came up against the Apache. When he gets to the ranch he is greeted by Angie Lowe, played by Geraldine Page and her son Johnny, played by Lee Aaker. Angie tells Hondo that he may purchase one ... ...away at the moment. As Hondo is looking around the ranch he discovers that her husband has been away for sometime and he stays to help her out with some jobs which need doing. Hondo then leaves the ranch to go to the US Calvary to inform them that some of their soldiers have been killed by the Apache.
The Apache chief turns up at the ranch and asks Angie why she will not leave the land instead of staying on her own. Angie informs him that she will ...
Advantages: Two big starts doing comedy Disadvantages: Can be slow in some places
I saw the last 20 minutes of this comedy when it was on TV. I went out and bought the DVD as I have never seen this the whole way through. Glad I did.
When watching this film through from start to finish you do get a sense of awe in respects of the production values and the big sets that were used in production. Scenes like the boarding of the ship, the logger contest and the town street scenes all have dozens of extras to fill the screen. Something ... ...computer as a cost saving.
The plot is that Stewart Granger plays George Pratt and John Wayne plays Sam McCord with Fabian playing George's brother Billy. Grainger and Wayne are partners, totally 50/50 on everything. They own a mine in Alaska and have hit the big time with the gold rush happening around the turn of the century.
As McCord is off to Seattle to source mining machinery and George asks Sam to bring back the love of his life, Jenny who ...
