September Films Catch Up 2

More films I saw earlier in the year.

****

1. Police Academy 3: Back In Training

There are two police academies in the state; due to budget cuts they are closing one of them. Commandant Mauser of the other academy plans to win by cheating, recruiting two instructors to sabotage the other one. Commandant Lassard of the Police Academy of Police Academy decides to win by bringing back characters from the previous films.

In addition there are new recruits; the wife of accident prone Fackler who he doesn’t want there; Sweetcheeks a victim of the gang in Police Academy 2, and Zed, the now-reformed leader of the gang; Adams, a good-looking woman Mahoney tries to seduce; Kirkland, Tackleberry’s brother-in-law; and Nogata, rejected from Mauser’s academy for being Japanese.

We go through a prank-filled mid-section as Mauser’s agents sabotage events by sending the cadets out on patrol far too early. At the Policeperson’s Ball Mahoney is able to turn things around, saying that what counts are the results at the end. Mauser is unable to reply as he is electrocuted by a wet microphone while his deputy, the dim-witted Proctor, ends up stripped naked and escapes into the Blue Oyster Bar, still full of gay bikers.

The day before the decision a gang of thieves strikes at the Governor’s Ball. Mauser has brought two cadets, who both faint; Lassard’s manages to call for help. When Hooks realises the two instructors are diverting the police, she knocks them out and sends the rest of the cast to intervene, arriving on jet skis and boats for some reason. This saves the governor and tips the choice in Lassard’s favour.

It's essentially Police Academy again, though with the original cadets now as instructors. Despite this they still get to pull pranks and thumb their nose at authority by causing trouble for Mauser and his two secret henchmen. And eventually they do some stunt-laden actual police work at the end. The series isn’t getting anywhere really. The return of civilian characters from Police Academy 2 as cadets is moderately interesting, but the only one who has anything to do is Zed, and that’s mostly to annoy his roommate/former victim Sweetcheeks.

Watch This: A few funny pranks and a couple of good stunts
Don’t Watch This: Our heroes, police officers, put one over the villains, police officers

2. Rumble Through The Dark

Jack Boucher is a cage fighter, and he makes some money, but not enough. He takes it to a casino and happens to win big. As we learn he owes money to Big Momma Sweet who runs fights and has fingers everywhere across the Mississippi delta. Boucher was adopted, and the money went for his mother’s medical bills; now he’s going to lose her house.

Big Momma Sweet has put the word out and when Boucher stops for gas, a guy gets a lift with him and attacks him; the car crashes and he loses the money. He staggers away dazed. By chance a traveling carnival comes across the scene and Anna the tattooed woman finds the cash in a corn field. Boucher goes to Big Momma Sweet; he has to repay the debt or fight in the pit. Back at the gas station Anna, trying to find out where the money came from, is attacked and Boucher rescues her. They ride together and Anna through their conversation and his diary realises that it’s very likely Boucher is her father so she gives him the money.

Inevitably Big Momma Sweet has an offer for him when he returns to pay his debt. Very generous odds. (Boucher works things out in his diary/notebook, doing the sums to see if the winnings will cover the costs of the house). So there will be a final fight, against an enormous body-builder type guy in the hideous fight cage.

The film is stylish and gritty, taking it’s time to show us places, slightly heightened, the casino, Big Momma Sweet’s place, the house he was adopted into, the carnival. How people survive on the margins. The story itself is slight and filled with contrivance, but the effect remains.

Watch This: Gorgeously shot film of a man stumblingly, violently trying to fix things one more time
Don’t Watch This: Guy gets in fights, coincidentally meets his daughter

3. Carmen

Loosely based on the opera and the novella that’s based on; in Mexico some men come looking for Carmen. They find her mother, dancing, on a stage in the open. She does not tell them where she is and she’s killed.

Aidan has returned from the army to his border town home in America. With no work or money he joins a vigilante border patrol group to try and support his family. Already ambivalent, when he meets Carmen trying to escape he joins her and they head for Los Angeles.

Carmen goes to a nightclub run by a friend of her mothers. There she dances and she and Aidan fall in love. But people are still after her.

Based on an opera there is music and dance throughout; a heightened reality where everywhere people are singing and dancing rather than the fantasy of a musical where they stop to sing. A dreamlike film of trying, and failing, to find a place to live and love.

Watch This: Fantastic musical fantasia
Don’t Watch This: Too much stylised dancing and singing obscuring what the film has to say

4. Addams Family Values

Following the events of The Addams Family Morticia and Gomez Addams have a new child, Pubert. The two older children Wednesday and Pugsley are jealous and make attempts to kill Pubert which their parents gently dissuade them; nevertheless they hire a nanny, Debbie Jellinsky. Despite her love of pastels and niceness in comparison to the prideful Gothicism of the Addams, the parents take to her and hire her.

She’s a serial killer who seduces rich lonely men to marry them, then murder them and inherit their fortunes. She tempts and courts Fester Addams. When Wednesday becomes suspicious she arranges to send Wednesday and Pugsley to summer camp. The camp is probably the highlight of the film, with bright, enthusiastic camp leaders whose favourites are the conventional, white, able-bodied blonde children. Wednesday, refusing to be bright and bubbly, plots a revenge with the other outcast children, having a tween romance with Joel, a nerd.

Debbie manages to keep her disgust at the Addams to herself, marries Fester, attempts to kill him. Her efforts fail, but she manages to estrange Fester from his family. As Morticia says “You have enslaved him. You have placed Fester under some strange sexual spell. I respect that. But please, may we see him?”

It’s fun that being a killer is not what the Addams’s don’t like, though in the end they aren’t a fan when her murder attempts look likely to kill them all. It’s the pastels and bright colours, and to a lesser extent her pettiness and materialism. And that she doesn’t love Fester, that rankles too.

Watch This: Fun dark comedy with some excellent lines
Don’t Watch This: Some bits drag and the way they constantly highlight Morticia’s eyes is distracting in this one

5. Oppenheimer

A biopic of J Robert Oppenheimer, who led the American atomic bomb program during World War 2. The film is framed by the 1959 US Senate confirmation hearings of Lewis Strauss for Secretary Of Commerce for the Eisenhower administration, which brings up Strauss’s orchestration of Oppenheimer’s security clearance being revoked in 1954, when Strauss was head of the Atomic Energy Commission. In another frame we see the hearing when Oppenheimer appealed to have his security clearance renewed, at which the major elements of his career were reviewed, often out of order.

Oppenheimer studies quantum physics in Europe, returning to the United States to teach it there. A pro-union, anti-fascist New Deal Democrat, he spends time with more radical left wing activists; he marries Kitty, a biologist and former communist and has a continuing affair with Jean Tatlock, a communist psychiatrist. His brother Frank was also a communist party member for a time, and supports causes such as Republican Spain.

With the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938 by German scientists, Oppenheimer is one of several who realises this could be weaponised. As World War 2 breaks out this is investigated, the scale of the project to do so becomes clear. This does not prevent the Americans from attempting it; if the Germans were to build an atomic bomb first it would be disastrous. One concern is secrecy and security; nevertheless Colonel (later General) Groves picks Oppenheimer to head the project as the man with the knowledge, organisational skills and the respect of physicists. They build a facility at Los Alamos in the desert of New Mexico, away from everywhere, clashing on the difficulties of conducting scientific research while keeping details secret.

These, along with later security breaches, are the stated reasons for later removing Oppenheimer’s security clearance. In fact Strauss removes him because Oppenheimer wants to co-operate with the Soviet Union in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and Strauss wants to negate his political influence. He also felt slighted by an incident when he was trying to recruit Oppenheimer to the Institute For Advanced Study and after a private talk with Einstein, Strauss was snubbed by Einstein. This is later revealed to be a rather maudlin discussion of their likely legacies and nothing to do with Strauss.

At some point they succeed in building an atomic bomb; as calculated it doesn’t set light to everything in the world, and two Japanese cities are destroyed.

I’m well beyond my physicist fanboy age; still it’s fun to see these giants of nuclear theory and experiment on a big screen. If there’s slightly less of how to organise a gigantic research project than I’d have liked, that’s on me; the film does do some of that amongst it’s many things, Oppenheimer’s complex family and love life, the political situations he had to navigate, and even a sense of the science. I didn’t expect much from it, and there’s no maths unsurprisingly, but it does show and tell some of the technical details. Which is all good. The cast is first rate.

Watch This: Complex biopic that weaves between strands of Oppenheimer’s life, never quite getting away from the atomic bomb
Don’t Watch This: Long film that abridges and dramatizes real events that can be looked up

6. Dark Prince: The True Story Of Dracula

Supposedly a biopic of the historical Vlad Dracula, known as Vlad the Impaler, inspiration for the fictional vampire Dracula. Vlad is having to justify himself before a council of Orthodox churchmen. His homeland (called Romania in the film) has been invaded by the Muslim Turks, and so he has allied with the Catholic King Stephen of Hungary to raise an army to drive them out. They think he’s abandoned the orthodox faith so he tells them his life story to explain.

Young Vlad and his brother Radu are the heirs to Wallachia, they spend a lot of time sparring. The Turks invade. Radu is captured and taken away to the Sultan. Vlad flees to Hungary, spending time at the court of King Stephen. He nurses his hate. When at last Stephen decides it’s in his interests to attack he has Vlad marry Lidia and promise to convert to Catholicism. Vlad invades, and matches and surpasses the cruelty of the Turks, impaling his enemies. Lidia is shocked by this and, now having a son, Vlad reluctantly allows her to retire to a convent. Then the Turks send their secret weapon, Radu, now at the head of an army, serving the Sultan.

Just to be clear this is fairly inaccurate history, the claim to be the true story no better than any ten minute flashback in various Dracula films that explicitly state he became a vampire (rather than hinting it at the end as they do here). There’s a few good stunts and the confrontation with Radu after some years has a bit of bite to it. They set this up as a mirror image, the two brothers choosing different paths, Radu trying to gain concessions for his homeland by serving the occupier, Vlad joining with equally foreign powers to liberate his home, by making his own concessions. But they don’t really have anything to say about this.

Watch This: Moderately interesting historical action film
Don’t Watch This: If you want to learn about Vlad The Impaler, truth or legend

7. The Beach Girls And The Monster

On the beach in California the boys and the girls are having fun. Bunny, one of the girls, runs away from her boyfriend flirtatiously. A monster appears and kills her. The sheriff finds weird footprints and takes them to local marine biologist Dr Lindsay, who lives up the top of the cliff (and is annoyed by all these kids having parties on the beach).

One of the kids is his son Richard, who wants to hang out with his girlfriend Jane rather than go back to being his dad’s lab assistant. Despite being obsessed with marine biology Dr Lindsay has found time to marry a much younger woman, Vicky, who feels neglected and so goes out drinking and flirting. Also living in the house is Mark, a sculptor, a friend of Richard’s who was hurt in a car accident that Richard was responsible for.

This rather complicated domestic set up takes centre stage, only for various shenanigans on the beach to keep interrupting, including extended surfing scenes – pretty good surf photography – and song and dance and puppetry (?) numbers around a fire on the beach. And then that’s interrupted by the monster.

The monster’s not great and there are reasons for that, but that just pushes the nonsensical explanations back a level. The beach stuff is insubstantial but fun, the domestic drama is dark and overwrought and for some reason the surf scenes are well done.

Watch This: Monster menaces women in bikinis while family falls apart
Don’t Watch This: Lots of mediocre bits jammed together incoherently

8. Amityville: It’s About Time

Jacob Stirling is an architect; he comes home to California from a trip to Amityville where he picked up a clock in an estate sale. (It turns out it’s an evil clock, see previous Amityville films for other items). At home are his two teenage children, Lisa who is young and naïve, and Rusty who is rebellious and troubled. Babysitting them is Stirling’s ex-girlfriend Andrea, an art student (she’s significantly younger than Jacob, but also an adult, I think she’s supposed to be a post-grad or something. It’s a little off but not creepy… yet.)

The evil clock ticks too loud, also attaches itself to the mantlepiece so that it can’t be moved. When Rusty goes downstairs that night the room looks like a torture chamber. When Jacob goes jogging the next day his watch stops, and on his way back he’s attacked by Peaches, the neighbour Mrs Tetman’s dog.

Apparently having no other friends, it’s down to Andrea to pick Jacob up at the hospital (where she’s mistaken for his wife*) and move in to look after him and the children while he recovers. Time starts moving oddly in the house; Rusty is asked to clear the table, leaves the room, comes back and it’s clear and Andrea asks where he’s been for the last two hours. Andrea moves into Lisa’s room (Andrea has a boyfriend so is observing proprieties) and Lisa onto the couch, but then Lisa can’t sleep from the ticking.

Things start to get out of hand; the dog is killed, another neighbour who Rusty hangs out with diagnoses an evil force has entered the house, is killed in turn. Andrea’s boyfriend Andy turns up to confront her and Jacob, he melts into the floor. The clock takes over Lisa and Jacob entirely. In the climax it uses it’s time powers to make Rusty regress to a baby, but being able to manipulate time cuts both ways.

The series has abandoned references to exorcism and the Catholic church, or perhaps the other way round. The time aspect is interesting, but isn’t made that much of, and the ending is exactly the one you’d expect. So much so that I thought there might be a twist or a final hint that there’s still an evil spirit about! SPOILERS There isn’t.

Watch This: Horror film with an evil clock
Don’t Watch This: Feels too long appropriately enough

* At some point Andrea and Jacob have sex with some disturbing visions but I can’t remember where in the sequence of events this occurs. A more conscientious reviewer might go back and check, sorry about that. 

9. Presence Of Mind

Her father having died, a young woman hires out as a governess. Her employer, The Master, is the uncle of two children whose parents died. They had some special requirements, including being brought up in a Catholic country, so they live on a Spanish island. The Master himself does not wish to be unduly disturbed by his wards, and so gives full responsibility to the Governess.

The boy, Miles, is away at school. The Governess does fine with Flora, the girl, though she’s a little strange and talks to imaginary people and odd things happen. Then Miles is expelled from school, the housekeeper starts to be antagonistic and hidden secrets begin to emerge.

It’s a stylish period adaption of Henry James’ A Turn Of The Screw, though it takes things in it’s own way. No frame story, and the sun-drenched Spanish coastline along with rocks and waves. Sadie Frost as the governess appears nude briefly as was the style in films of this sort at the time.

Watch This: Languid ghost story whose setting hones the creepiness
Don’t Watch This: Weird death-obsessed people overcome by their own flaws

10. Turned Out Nice Again (1941)

George Pearson (George Formby) works in Dawson’s underwear factory; the yarn is not up to scratch and this is the fault of Nelson the overseer. It seems he might have been bribed; he’s fired and George gets his job and a pay rise. This means he can now marry his girlfriend Lydia. However his domineering mother disapproves of everything, including them buying a big house and furnishing it on hire-purchase.

George takes Dawson’s old-fashioned underwear to an expo in London where he discovers Nelson working for a slightly more modern firm (George is introduced to the word “scanties”). At dinner Nelson plies him with champagne then gets £300 from him for exclusive British rights for a new yarn that a dodgy salesman is trying to offload. The yarn seems fine, but they don’t know if it will make up okay.

When George gets back it turns out the yarn makes transparent under garments, embarrassing George and scandalising Mr Dawson senior. Lydia gets involved and George resigns when she’s insulted. Having lost his job and spent his savings on the yarn rights, men come to take the furniture away. George’s mother tries very hard to conceal her satisfaction at this.

Obviously it turns out nice in the end. There’s a sub plot about breeding pigeons and George’s uncle Arnold. Formby sings four songs, makes a couple of cheeky references to some of his other popular songs but doesn’t sing them.

Watch This: Cheery, good-natured comedy that finds amusement in underwear
Don’t Watch This: It’s a music hall performer singing, misunderstanding things and occasionally doing slapstick