#83 - House of Flying Daggers

This review is historic. WHY? Well, this is the very first review that I am writing in the same day that I have watched the movie being reviewed. What a concept. And it only took 82 other times to make it happen. Sure, I could have done it before, but it seems like lately if I don't write something the day of viewing, it may take a week or so before I can get to it. So, here we have it. I make no guarantees that it will be any better, and don't get used to it either. Just thought it was worth mentioning since it's obviously rare.

I love all of these Asian historical epics. I find them fascinating, well written, well acted, and the cinematography is some of the most amazing work you will ever see. I am a sucker for historical epics in the first place. The fact that these movies are in a foreign language and about a history that I know next to nothing about is of little import. I loved Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I loved Hero. I loved Kung Fu Hustle. Okay, that last one was a bad example, but it's still a fun movie. What I particularly enjoy about the Asian epics is that they take a moment in history and create a world that includes a little mythology, a little bit of fable, and a little bit of good ol' storytelling. The great thing with the movies I have seen is that they all seem to use these elements in different, yet amazingly effective ways in order to tell their stories. This movie is no less amazing, and go figure, it's from the director of Hero. I didn't know that until I got the picture for this review, but I can definitely see some similarities of visual aesthetics and style.

Here's the shocker with this movie: it's a romance. But this ain't yer daddy's romance. In fact, you don't even realize what it is until late in the picture when you have been sucked in by the story and extremely stylized combat scenes. By that time you are drawn in by the intensity of the situation that has been established. But it's not done by bait and hook. The only reason that it is so unexpected is because it's not what I expected to see from this genre. I was caught up in excellent fights, beautiful imagery, and what appeared to be a story about miltary vs. fugitives. As I have said before, I am not a big fan of romances. But when a movie portrays a romance in a unique way, I find it to be quite entertaining. This is the case with this movie. And another thing, I've barely talked about the beauty of the film and I sure as hell haven't said anything about the ending, both of which are quite notable, but I want you to see for yourself.

#82 - The Circuit 2

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#81 - Star Spangled Rhythm

So, here we have the second movie from a Bob Hope Classics DVD. If you you read the My Favorite Blonde review(It's #80...you should be able to find it), you know that I enjoy watching Bob Hope perform and the idea of seeing more was a good one to me. So...when was he going to show up? Seriously, I was watching this movie under the assumption that I was going to see Bob Hope, yet he was nowhere to be found. I thought to myself, "What the hell is going on here?" How do you have a movie in a Bob Hope tribute DVD...AND NOT HAVE HIM IN IT!?!?!? Well, the answer is simple. It's not really a Bob Hope movie. In fact, it's something altogether different. But he does show up, so I guess it counts. Lets put To Kill A Mockingbird in the Robert Duvall collection. Let's put Father's Day in the Mel Gibson collection. Let's put Home Alone in the John Candy collection. Let's put Arachnaphobia in the John Goodman collection. Get my point?

What we have here is a veritable who's who of Paramount Studios from back in the day when actors, directors, and writers were contracted to individual studios. Mary Martin. Dick Powell. Alan Ladd. Dorothy Lamour. Veronika Lake. Fred MacMurray. Hope and Crosby. Preston Sturges. Cecil B. Demille. And there are tons more. How could they possibly cram all of these stars into one movie? Well, all you need is a paper thin storyline about a young man in the military on shore leave visiting his father who works at the Paramount lot. I could go into details about the story, but there really is no point because that's not what this movie is about. As I was watching this movie, I felt as though I was in the middle of a two hour advertisement for Paramount Studios. Cameos galore, numerous styles of musicals numbers that are placed into the film in various contrived ways, and a number of different comedy scenes and routines that are also placed in the film in their own special ways. It's weird. I didn't like the premise cause it seemed so obvious what they were doing, but the scenes and numbers were very well written and well done and fun to watch. Upon a teeny bit of poking around, I found that this was Paramounts first effort to make a film for soldiers fighting in the war. Given that, I can't frown on this film because it does what it was intended to do. I just wish it was a more complete movie, like National Velvet.

You know what I like about some of these older movies that have show within a show type performances? I like it when the shows are supposedly thrown together at the last minute, and then the production value is absolutely top notch. Huge sets, special effects, the whole shebang, and thrown together overnight. I understand that I am bringing up something unimportant to the point of the movie, and honestly, I hate people who bring up these kinds of points as a negative aspect for a film. You know those people. The kind of people who complain about weak character development in summer blockbusters. The kind of people who complain about editing continuity errors. Sometimes, and I do mean sometimes, these things don't really matter. In the case of this movie, I happen to find it amusing, mostly because I'm in the entertainment business and I know that putting something like that together takes MONTHS of planning and WEEKS of preparation.

Do you ever get the feeling that sometimes I am not writing a review and instead I am rambling on about random topics related to movies that only sort of relate to the movie I watched and therefore I end up not saying much about the movie at all? Yeah, me too.