ANGEL HEART

(March 1987, U.S.)

If anyone had ever asked me what film maker could successfully combine a 1950's-style film noir detective story with supernatural voodoo-style horror, I would have likely only come up with David Lynch. As it turns out, director Alan Parker (MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, FAME, PINK FLOYD THE WALL) managed to pull off one of the most frightening films I've ever seen without being officially labeled as a horror film.

It seems to me that ever since THE SIXTH SENSE (1999), many thrillers have attempted to pull off the ultimate "Holy shit!"-surprise-shocker-twist-ending, and often it ends up with a person (or persons) turning out to have been dead the whole time (even the TV show LOST ended that way!). These endings, in my opinion, have also become easier to spot early in the film. I mean, I don't know about you, but I was able to guess that Leonardo DiCapprio WAS a patient at that hospital in SHUTTER ISLAND inside the first 20 minutes!

ANGEL HEART, however, offers a resolution that I don't think is easy to spot, despite the frequent clues, and that's a good thing for the viewer. How can you truly enjoy the surprise you're going to get at the end of a film if it's easy to spot before it's over? At the time of the film's release, Mickey Rourke was considered a successful box office draw. As Harry Angel, he gives his best perfomance I've seen since DINER (1982). Robert DeNiro is effectively creepy as the Devil himself. And as for Lisa Bonet...well, just watch her in this film and it's easy to see why The Cosby Show was probably too embarrassed or disgraced to keep her on the show after that.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Louis Cyphre: "They say there's enough religion in the world to make men hate each other, but not enough to make them love."

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

(October 1944, U.S.)

You know what I miss? I miss Agatha Christie theatrical films. I miss an all-star cast with Peter Ustinov playing Detective Hercule Poirot. Well, he's dead now and they haven't had a Christie film in the theater since EVIL UNDER THE SUN in 1982. Thankfully, we have DVD and the classics can live on.

This original British film adaptation of the classic novel is far from perfect, mind you. It's flaw, in my opinion, lies in it's rather lame attempt to have humor where humor doesn't necessarily belong. After all, this is a grim tale of ten strangers gathered in a strange house on a strange island by a strange and unknown host who are systematically getting murdered one-by-one (just like ten little indians). On the other hand, though, it's not nearly as campy and silly as one of it's terrible remakes, TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1965). On the very positive side, the film uses elements of film making like light, darkness and shadow that has made film noir legendary. If you've ever read the book (as I did back in high school English class), you'll know the end resolution of "who done it" and why is quite astounding.

There have been numerous film version of the original story. The first one is usually the best, as is the case here.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Judge Francis Quinncannon: "Mr. Owen could only come to the island in one way. It's perfectly clear. Mr. Owen is one of us!"

AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

(June 1979, U.S.)

So, let's talk about Al Pacino! This man has been my favorite actor since I was a kid. This man is responsible for some of the best films of the '70's. He has a true passion for his craft that I don't believe many of today's young (so-called) actors can claim. Oh, and by the way, the man can yell like you wouldn't believe! His on-screen performances seem to take on a whole new perspective when he starts to scream at the top of his lungs. Anyone remember, "Attica! Attica! Attica!" from DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975)?

AND JUSTICE FOR ALL is a black comedy/courtroom drama that not only converys the obvious message about our legal system that we're alreay known for the longest time (that it SUCKS! It really, really SUCKS!), but it also turns the irony and insanity of the system into situations so outragous, you can't help but find them funny. In a system so corrupt, Pacino's character Arthur Kirkland appears to be the only lawyer in town with any sense of regard for truth and justice, and he ends up becoming more-or-less ostracized by the entire Baltimore legal community. By the end of the film, his partner who has previously had a complete nervous and violent breakdown is somehow permitted to return to the law, while Kirkland ends up being disbarred as a result of his moral integrity.

I have to say, in all honesty, despite Pacino's historical portrayals of Michael Corleone, Frank Serpico, Sonny Wortzik and Lt. Frank Slade, it is his outrageous performace in AND JUSTICE FOR ALL that has stuck with me above and beyond the other characters. His inevitable verbal courtroom explosion is a sequence I will never get tired of watching.

By the way, AND JUSTICE FOR ALL is the second R-rated film I ever saw. I was twelve years-old.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Arthur Kirkland: "The one thing that bothered me, the one thing that stayed in my mind and I couldn't get rid of it, that haunted me, was why. Why would she lie? What was her motive for lying? If my client is innocent, she lying. Why? Was it blackmail? No. Was it jealousy? No. Yesterday I found out why. She doesn't have a motive. You know why? Because she's not lying...and ladies and gentlemen of the jury...the prosecution is NOT gonna get that man today, no, because I'M GONNA GET 'EM! My client, the honorable Henry T. Flemming should go right to fucking jail! The son of a bitch is guilty! That man is guilty! That man there, that man is a slime! He is a slime! If he's allowed to go free then something really wrong is goin' on here!
Judge Rayford: "Mr. Kirkland, you are out of order!"
Arthur: "YOU'RE out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They're out of order! That man, that sick, crazy, depraved man, raped and beat that woman there, and he'd like to do it again! He told me so! It's a show! It's a show! Let's make a deal! Let's make a deal! Hey Frank, you wanna make a deal? I got an insane judge who likes to beat the shit outta women! Whaddy wanna gimmie Frank, three weeks probation?
Frank Bowers: "Dammit!"
Arthur: (to Judge Flemming) "You, you sonofabitch, you! You're supposed to stand for something! You're supposed to protect people! But instead you fuck and murder them! You killed McCullough! You killed him! Hold it! Hold it! I just completed my opening statement!"

ANALYZE THIS

(March 1999, U.S.)

Short of watching one of those Zucker-directed spoof comedies, ANALYZE THIS is a comedy where the laughs never let up, even when it tries to be a little serious or emotional. I mean, how can you possibly take the concept of Robert DeNiro playing a crime boss who needs psychiatric treatment from a guy like Billy Crystal seriously even for one minute? Everytime the two of them speak to each other, you find a new reason to laugh. And with a track record like CADDYSHACK (1980), VACATION (1983) and GROUNDHOG DAY (1993), you know you're bound to laugh at almost any Harold Ramis film.

Actually, take note of the word SPEAK in my previous sentence. I have always enjoyed comedy that relies on dialogue and wit as opposed to physical comedy and slapstick. One is likely to rememeber something a guy like Groucho Marx SAID in a film instead of cliche pitfall or something. Unfortunately, having to hear someone like Lisa Kudrow speak in anything she does on film requires a great deal of patience. Frankly, I don't care how smart she is or how many degrees she supposedly has, she'll always sound like ditzy Phoebe Buffay to me.

And now, with your patience, a more personal story related to this film...in August 2000, I attended a two-day Hollywood pitch seminar in Los Angeles. What this means, basically, is that you spend two days standing on long lines waiting to pitch your screenplay ideas in just five minutes to someone in the film industry who will pretend to be interested in what you're telling him and give you the kind of encouragement that sounds good at the table - when in reality, you're never going to hear from this son-of-a-bitch as long as either of you live.

(Wow, that was deep!)

Anyway, the best part of the seminar for me was meeting a group of guys like me waiting on the long lines. It wasn't long before we were laughing and bullshiting with each other like it was summer camp. It also wasn't long before we found ourselves quoting lines from ANALYZE THIS and constantly pointing fingers at each other and saying, "You, you, you're good, you!" When it was all over, I didn't exactly have Hollywood scrambling to option my screenplays. What I did walk away with was an idea for a screen story and an email friendship that I have kept up for the last ten years with a fellow screenwriter and novelist I'll call John (because that's actually his name).

And so, it is to John that I dedicate this post. Thank you for ten years of friendship and support in our writing endeavors. Here's to the next ten, buddy!

Favorite line or dialogue:

Paul Vitti: "Oh, just one more thing - if I talk to you and you turn me into a fag, I'm gonna kill you, you understand?"
Ben Sobel: "Could we define fag? Because some feelings may come up..."
Paul: "I go fag, you die. Got it?"
Ben: "Got it."
Paul: "Simple. Heh?"

AMITYVILLE HORROR, THE (1979)

(July 1979, U.S.)

My post for this film is interestly timed because the actual, infamous house located at 108 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island was recently put on the real estate market for a mere $1.15 million dollars (anyone interested?).

Keeping in mind that the purpose of this blog is movie memories and not necessarily house memories, I can still claim that the original 1979 version of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR is an entertaining haunted house horror film that manages to effectively use the ideas of suggestion and psychological human breakdown to deliver creepiness and fear without an excessive use of violence or blood. Because it’s a horror film, one must be willing to accept a certain degree of performance that may fall below the par of the full potential one might expect from talented people like James Brolin and Margot Kidder. Their performances are as solid as you can expect for actors who must play the role of a husband and wife living in fear and whose marriage is deteriorating in the face of a supernatural phenomenon. It’s veteran actor Rod Steiger as Father Delaney who honestly carries the performance level of the film, despite a role that is not too large, as a man of religious faith struggling with the reality (the film’s reality, anyway) of what evil truly is and what it can do to good people. It is, however, a film of fiction and nothing more. And even in fiction, there's nothing wrong with entertaining yourself by getting a glimpse of Margot Kidder's tits and ass! Sure puts a new spin on previously seeing her play Lois Lane...

Despite whatever childlike and adolescent curiousities I previously had toward the infamous house in Amityville, Long Island in the past, it’s more than clear as a thinking and logical adult today that the only true event that ever took place at the house on Ocean Avenue was the inexplicable slaughter of a family by a son who was clearly insane. Whatever controversies exist about that house exist only because of the crime that took place on November 13, 1974. But even those controversies and what eventually led up to The Amityville Horror hoax (yes, I said hoax!) are fascinating and intriguing, nonetheless, if you have a taste (even a mild one) for tales of true crime. In 2002, I read a book written by Ric Osuna called THE NIGHT THE DeFEOS DIED: REINVESTIGATING THE AMITYVILLE MURDERS, which documented not only the murders themselves, but the DeFeo family and all of their disfunctions, as well. Without going into too much detail about the book, it basically details how DeFeo killed his family with the help of his sister Dawn and two of his friends. It’s a well-written account of a true-life crime and what may or may not had lead up to it. But even a seriously written account such as this is open to controversy and discrepancy because apparently Ronald DeFeo has changed his story of what happened so many times over the years, it’s become virtually impossible to determine what’s accurate and what’s not. One issue the book does explain is how the 1974 murders were the origin of what lead to George and Kathleen Lutz allegedly purchasing the house with the deliberate intent of not only creating fictional accounts of their experience there, but also deliberately fleeing the house twenty-eight days later in order to create the illusion of what they would try to sell to the public as the truth, when in fact, it was nothing more than a well-crafted and very detailed hoax (there’s that word again!) that the American people, if not the world, was stupid enough to entertain as possible truth (as a kid, I was practically guilty of that myelf). Honestly, however the Lutz’ might have ended up (George and Kathleen are today deceased), I have to give them their due credit for selling a prize fable and managing to reap the endless rewards that came with it. More power to them!

By the way, I've never driven by the actual house. I'd like to. I suppose after all of it's history, it would be like wanting to actually cross the street at London's Abbey Road. Here's what it looks like today...

Favorite line or dialogue:

Kathy Lutz: "I just wish that...all those people hadn't died here. I mean...ugh...a guy kills his whole family. Doesn't that bother you?"
George Lutz: "Well, sure, but...houses don't have memories."

AMISTAD

(December 1997, U.S.)

I don't know if you've noticed or not, but I'm not even out of the 'A' category of my film collection and I'm already on my third Steven Spielberg film. You just gotta love the guy, right?

One of the first things you have to understand about watching a film like AMISTAD (or JFK, MUNICH, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS or any other so-called "historical" film) is that it's bound to be laced with issues that many would consider historically inacurate. The point, though, is to simply sit back and try to enjoy the film as entertainment from a very reputable artist. That being the case, AMISTAD is a truly underated Spielberg film and very likely to be the best documentation of the history of African slavery in America since the 1977 ABC-TV mini-series, ROOTS. Here, though, our protaganist, known by his Spanish slave name, "Cinque" (unforgettably played by Djimon Hounsou) is a true hero who breaks free of his slave chains on board the slave ship, La Amistad, and slaughters his captors. Once on American soil, he and his brothers never give up their struggle to obtain their freedom and return to their native soil of Africa.

Anthony Hopkins give as brilliant a performace as he ever has as former President John Quincy Adams. His long and passionate courtroom speech in defense of the Africans is truly moving; one to rival even the likes of such dramas as INHERIT THE WIND, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD or JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG. One watches, one listens and it's hard to believe that this entire story is actually taking place AFTER a document like the United States Constitution was ever written; a document whose ideals and principles may as well be considered worthless during these times of 19th Century slavery.

Favorite line or dialogue:

John Quincy Adams: "Well, gentlemen, I must say I differ with the keen minds of the South and with our President, who apparently shares their views, offering that the natural state of mankind is instead, and I know this is a controversial idea - is freedom...is freedom. And the proof is the length to which a man, woman or child will go to regain it once it is taken. He will break loose his chains. He will decimate his enemies. He will try and try and try, against all odds, against all prejudices, to get home."

AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, AN

(August 1981, U.S.)

During the 1980's, the thing that made the FRIDAY THE 13TH and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET sequel franchise films so bad (and believe me, they were really fucking bad!) was that these so called "horror" movies tried to hard to be funny instead. It didn't work and it never does work...except for this one film, in my opinion.

Director John Landis already knew how to be funny, with movies like ANIMAL HOUSE (1978) and THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980), and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON is funny in all the right places. But it doesn't go so overboard as to deter from what needs to be scary about a werewolf story. There are many scary moments that make even a hard-ass son-of-a-bitch like me cringe with fear. The entire sequence when we see David Naughton's character (David) change for the first time into a werewolf is done with excellent craftsmanship, thanks to legendary make-up artist Rick Baker. In his werewolf form, David commits some very frightening and ghastly murders in just his first night out and causes a horrible series of deaths in London's Piccadily Circus on his second.

The story of a wolfman has been done-to-death throughout cinema history, from Lon Chaney Jr. to Jack Nicholson. Landis' film version makes us laugh in the process, without sacrificing the fear and the folklore of the werewolf that we've come to know and enjoy over the years.

Favorite line or dialogue:

David Kessler: "I'm a werewolf."
Alex Price: "A werewolf? Are you alright now?"
David: "I don't know. I'll let you know the next full moon."