Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison –John Huston –1957
John Huston and John Lee Mahin writers
*** (out of five)

“Allison” is a good, old fashioned picture. Old fashioned in the sense that 1) It takes its time with its characters and gives us a chance to know and like them and 2) Every little plot point isn’t telegraphed ten minutes ahead of time. –Ah, for the good old days when films weren’t designed by committees according to formula.

Robert Mitchum is really good in this one.

Hero –Yimou Zhang –2004
Feng Li and Bin Wang writers
*** (out of five)

Honestly, the wire work thing is wearing a little thin. Between The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I for one have seen enough. That coupled with the fact that Hero doesn’t have much of a heart, kept me at arm’s length. This story is completely plot-driven and at no point are we able to empathize with our heroes. The film shares a lot in common with Rashomon in that it’s a series of sometimes contradictory flashbacks meant to illustrate a theme. While I appreciated the theme, the film itself didn’t exactly fill me with a warm fuzzy feeling.

I should mention however that the cinematography and art direction were really excellent. The use of color in particular was superlative.

Star Trek Nemesis –Stuart Baird –2002
John Logan writer
** (out of five)

Like most guys from my generation, I have a casual interest in Star Trek (particularly in stories featuring the triumvirate of Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley). “Nemesis” slipped by me on its theatrical run so I ordered it as part of today’s Netflix shipment.

This outing isn’t nearly as bad as Star Trek V but it is pretty lousy. Its thematically stilted “nature vs. nurture” plot doesn’t have any sort of resonance –particularly since it’s so obvious and unengaging. “Nemesis” borrows pretty heavily from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but where that film pays off emotionally better than any other “Trek” film, this one just lays there. The producers assume they can tug at our heart-strings without doing any of the work to win us to their cause. If you’re like me, you won’t care all that much when major characters make their final exit. I gave a little shrug and reached for the remote.

Star Trek is never going to go away completely; it’s too entrenched in the culture. Maybe it is time though for it to take a little rest, however. Paramount would be wise to pull the franchise out of the public eye for ten years and then bring it back with a shot of new blood. –The old boy’s finally starting to show its age…

Ikiru –Akira Kurosawa –1952
Shinobu Hashimoto and Akira Kurosawa writers
**** (out of 5)

Part of me questions the wisdom of having the entire last third of this movie be a post-mortem of a dead man’s actions. It’s somewhat emotionally distancing and I really wanted to see the events of Watanabe’s last five months unfold in real-time. This is a minor complaint however and I do understand the point that Kurosawa was trying to make by adopting this sort of structure. For whatever “mis-steps” the film does take, there are some beautifully transcendent moments here. Akira Kurosawa on his worst day (which Ikiru in no way represents) is a better filmmaker than most other people alive or dead.

Big Wednesday –John Milius –1978
Dennis Aaberg and John Milius writers
** (out of five)

This strikes me as John Milius’ Southern California answer to American Graffiti. “Wednesday” covers a greater span of time and delves a little deeper thematically (into marriage, procreation, death and failure) but it doesn’t resonate as strongly nor are its characters as accessible as the ones found in Lucas’ own coming of age drama. Jan Michael Vincent’s character relies a lot on silences and facial expressions and unfortunately the actor is a little too wooden for the task at hand.

Still, the surf footage is pretty amazing even by today’s standards.

The Sting –George Roy Hill –1973
David S. Ward writer
*** (out of five)

Somehow I never got around to seeing The Sting until this evening and, for me, it didn’t quite live up to its esteemed reputation. It’s very well directed, the stars are all well-cast and acquit themselves well and the story’s twists and turns are certainly engaging. Nevertheless, the cinematography has what I like to call “70s TV flatness”. It’s dull and uninspired. As the phrase implies the movie looks very much like a television show from thirty years ago. Also –and I admit that I was tired when I watched the DVD– I’m not completely convinced that all of the movie’s dots can be connected. We learn that Redford’s character was in on a subplot involving the FBI after the fact and there seemed to be no evidence of this as things were unfolding. In addition, there’s a vaguely incongruous scene where a female assassin attempts to kill our boy Robert. This felt tacked-on to me.

The above downsides (coupled with a mildly anti-climactic finale) added up to un-met expectations. The Sting is well-acted and entertaining but it’s not quite the classic I was hoping for.