December Films Update 5

Yet another 10 films from earlier this year

****

1. Night Call (2024)

Mady is a locksmith in Brussels, which is currently disrupted by Black Lives Matter protests after a police killing. He gets a call out from a young woman, who can’t offer him the money or any ID because they’re locked in. She tells him there’s a punchbag inside and when he opens it up, there it is. However she then leaves with a bag and the owner of the flat returns. He’s a neo-nazi who attacks Mady, and is killed in the fight. Then some gangsters turn up; the neo-nazi was holding money as part of a deal and they need the money that night.

Mady and some of the lead gangster’s henchmen are sent to find the woman and the money. It turns out she’s in league with one of the henchmen, they’re trying to steal the money so they can get away. Mady tries to somehow get out of this situation, only to discover the gangster has police contacts; he takes cover in the protest only to be arrested.

A competent thriller, using Brussels effectively (I assume, it’s been twenty years since I actually visited). I might be missing something of the racial subtext (I relied on the subtitles, my conversational French is not very good), but I think it’s mostly in the background (until it pushes into the plot). A good entry in the innocent thrust into a desperate situation genre, in this case with the one useful skill that only comes up a couple of times.

Watch This: Exciting crime thriller effectively situated in time, place and society
Don’t Watch This: Exploits politics for cheap plot points

2. The Four Feathers (1939)

The Royal North Surrey Regiment are ordered to Sudan to take part in the Mahdist war. Lieutenant Harry Faversham joined the army to please his father, a general who fought in the Crimea; he decides to resign. His three friends, considering this cowardly, each send him a white feather. His fiancée Ethne (the sister of one of his friends; also he beat out another in her affections) is taken aback. He demands another feather from her, and when she won’t, takes one from her fan.

Meeting a former army doctor who was a friend of his father he recounts his situation. The doctor tells him he isn’t concerned that Faversham would kill himself as he isn’t a coward. Realising this, he sets out to Sudan to redeem himself. With the help of an Egyptian colleague of the doctor he disguises himself as a member of a tribe the Khalifa had the tongues cut out of for treason, having their sign branded on his forehead. He then heads out to the Sudan.

To force the Nile the British commander sends a company out into the desert as a decoy, commanded by Durrance, one of Faversham’s friends. Caught out in the open, he’s blinded by sunstroke but hides it from his troops. They’re attacked and overrun. The two other friends are captured. Durrance, left for dead, is rescued by Faversham, who stays mute and leads him back to the British.

Durrance is sent back to England, still blind, where he recounts the story to Ethne, her father and the doctor. He has Ethne read the letter she sent him, only for the card and feather to fall out, everyone else around the table realising Faversham rescued him. Meanwhile in the Sudan Faversham infiltrates Omdurman, has himself put into the prison with the two friends. When the British attack they break out and seize the armoury, all becoming heroes. He returns their feathers and then returns to England.

This is an earlier version of The Four Feathers, or indeed Storm Over The Nile. The latter recycles both the majority of the script and some of the more expensive action sequences of this film! It’s oddly mannered, especially Durrance’s performance, and there’s a definite disconnect between the old generals telling his war stories around the table and the actual brutality and stoic heroism of the war as shown. It’s a better and more interesting film than Storm Over The Nile!

Watch This: Still something to this story of doubt, fear and redemption
Don’t Watch This: Faversham is foolish, then foolhardy, also there are other, more modern versions

3. King Rat

In a Japanese prisoner of war camp all the British and Australian prisoners are suffering – except for American Corporal King and his gang. He has control of black market dealing and other scams. Lieutenant Grey, the Provost of the camp, tries to catch him but can’t. King has no respect for anyone, but does recognise that Grey is incorruptible.

King meets with Flight Lieutenant Marlowe, who translates for him. Marlowe (significantly posher than Grey) slowly gets caught up in King’s plots. King has contacts amongst the Japanese. They all know the end of the war is coming and believe the Japanese will kill them all rather than release them; King intends to have enough money to bribe their way out. This involves a rather complex plan with a diamond.

Marlowe’s arm is infected and the doctor thinks it’s going to have to be amputated. King gets some medicine for it. He starts breeding rats, selling the meat to officers, claiming it’s mouse deer. Meanwhile Grey discovers that there is a hole in the weight the quartermaster has been using to distribute rations. When he reports to the senior officer, he is outraged to discover that the culprits have just been dismissed from their posts. He’s offered the rank of acting captain to let it go. Meanwhile a dog killed a chicken and had to be killed in turn, to the distress of the dog’s owner. King and his friends get some meat, only to realise it’s the dog. They eat it anyway.

They’re called together and the Japanese commandant tells them the war is over and Japan has surrendered. Later a British paratrooper arrives to be greeted by stunned silence and disbelief. King is the first to recover, to the paratrooper’s suspicion – why is King so healthy and smart compared to everyone else. Eventually King and the other Americans are taken away by the American army, leaving before Marlowe can say goodbye and pin down if they were friends. Grey is pleased to see King reduced to a mere corporal again, which Marlowe upbraids him for, telling him that it was having King as a nemesis that kept him going.

Watch This: Gritty prisoner of war film, cutting deep into despair and depravity
Don’t Watch This: Desperate and grim

4. The Lord Of The Rings: War Of The Rohirrim

It’s 200 years before The Lord Of The Rings and legendary king of Rohan Helm Hammerhand has two sons, Hama and Haleth, and a daughter Héra. He plans to marry Héra to a lord of Gondor to reinforce the ancient alliance, though others, including Héra are not happy about it. A Dunlending lord suggests his son, Wulf, should marry her; they argue and have a bout of fisticuffs, during which Hammerhand accidentally kills him. Wulf vows revenge, is banished and disappears for a number of years.

Héra and her cousin Fréaláf encounter a dead Southron and his enraged mumak (giant war elephant). Héra lures it away to be killed by another monster, only to encounter Tarrg, a Dunlending general. He kidnaps her and takes her to Isengard, Wulf’s fortress. Wulf has gathered an army including Southrons; Héra considers marrying him to avoid a war, but then is rescued by Fréaláf and her aunt Olwyn (one of the last shield-maidens).

Wulf invades. Fréaláf suggests abandoning the capital of Edoras for the fortress of Dunharrow, and Helm casts him out for a coward. Lord Thorne promises troops, but turns out to be a traitor and Héra kills him. Héra evacuates the city they flee to the Hornburg but Hama is killed in battle, Haleth murdered after being taken prisoner and Helm is incapacitated with grief.

Incapacitated? As the siege goes into winter Helm sneaks out at night to kill enemy soldiers with his fists, demoralising them. One night Héra goes out after him, and they discover orcs and a troll before being cut off; Helm holds off the enemy while Héra escapes, to be discovered the next morning frozen to death still upright, undefeated. Héra uses Chekov’s Eagle who she befriended to send Helm’s horn and armour to Fréaláf, and when the siege engines make an entrance puts on an old wedding dress and fights Wulf in the final battle.

An animated, indeed anime, film about some of the legends from The Lord Of The Rings. Do we need to see orcs searching for rings, Saruman coming to Isengard, a cool shield maiden saving the realm? If anything The Lord Of The Rings bits hold it back, yet on the other hand generic anime fantasy would not have likely been made and marketed to the extent I’d see it and enjoy it. Anyway, it was fine, very good in places.

Watch This: Superior fantasy anime with some fun Lord Of The Rings connections
Don’t Watch This: You don’t care about fantasy in general and Lord Of The Rings in particular

5. Adventures Of A Private Eye

Bob West is the assistant of Judd Blake (Jon Pertwee) a private detective. Blake is going away for a few days and leaves West in charge of the office, telling him not to do any actual private detecting. Immediately Laura Sutton comes into the office. She’s being blackmailed with pictures from her racy past. She’s due to inherit from her deceased husband, but only on the condition that her reputation is spotless. There are several family members who might benefit from this, but West rightly dismisses them, going to see the photographer.

Inevitably he gets caught in a compromising situation, then is called by Laura to come to a family meeting in their country house. There he meets various family members, and having sex with one of them on a boat they end up naked in the river where someone takes a picture that goes to the papers, no actual news happening in 1976 apparently. Things take a turn when he has to deliver the money in a nightclub; delayed getting in he misses his rendezvous and tangles with the Lisa Minelli impressionist and her gangster boyfriend.

This is, as it turns out, more strongly plotted than most of these ridiculous 1970s British “sex” “comedies”; it’s just unfortunate that the various smut and jokes are not every memorable. West, as the naïve and bad private eye is a cypher of a straight man as the world throws inexplicable situations and naked women at him.

Watch This: You’re on some sort of mission to see 1970s comedies or something
Don’t Watch This: Bad jokes, stupid plot

6. Muppets From Space

Gonzo, a muppet (an entertainment ensemble/extended family portrayed by puppets) of unknown species is worried that he is alone in the universe after a dream in which Noah will not let him on the ark. He gets a message in his alphabet soup that suggests aliens want to talk to him so he climbs on the roof to look. There he is struck by lightning. Afterwards he decides to go to the TV station and gatecrash the show UFO Mania. As it happens Miss Piggy, another muppet, is working there and uses an accident with the presenter to take over the show and interview him.

Although the other muppets are dubious, one viewer is not; K Edgar Singer of COVNET, the US alien investigation agency. He needs proof to keep running it so has Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat (muppet) brought to his base. Rizzo is put in the lab with the other lab rats (muppets) in a prison-like sequence. They attempt to interrogate Gonzo, but of course he knows nothing, and they eventually decide to try brain surgery.

Several of the leading muppets realise something is wrong and go to break Gonzo and Rizzo out. Gonzo’s sandwich (possibly a muppet) starts talking to him, asking him where they should land. He suggests Cape Doom which is overheard. A madcap jailbreak sequence ensues to the annoyance of Singer’s boss who orders COVNET shut down. Singer grabs a weapon and head for Cape Doom.

Everyone goes to Cape Doom, including a crowd of alien believers. It looks like nothing will happen but then an alien ship arrives for the finale.

I note that I called the muppets “an extended family” at the top, which will give away the ending, except that we know what it’s going to be as we’ve seen a muppet film before, or any kid’s film probably. This has better jokes than most films but is not an especially great addition to the muppets’ oeuvre.

Watch This: Some muppet alien fun
Don’t Watch This: Just a lot of silly puppet slapstick 

7. A Hill In Korea

During the Korean War a patrol of British soldiers is sent out to see if the enemy have occupied a village. It appears they haven’t – there are only two people left in the village who they send away – but then one of the soldiers enters a house and it’s boobytrapped, killing him. Heading out, they discover a large force of Chinese soldiers heading their way. The officer Lieutenant Butler (George Baker) takes three men with the automatic rifles to try and delay them while the others get away. After fighting for a while, one of them is killed, and the sergeant returns to tell him they’re cut off.

They return to a temple on a hill above the village, but then find the radio man has dumped the radio. They fight off a Chinese patrol, then more attacks. American aircraft bomb both them in the temple (despite a recognition signal in the courtyard) and the attacking Chinese. Eventually the bombing causes the Chinese to withdraw so they can escape.

Notable for having Michael Caine as both one of the soldiers, and also as an adviser, as he had served in Korea. One of the aspects that make this rather old-fashioned film stand out is the tension between National Servicemen (conscripts) and Regular (professional) soldiers. There are some good tense bits where, thanks to the slightly murky black-and-white and the long range, it’s hard to tell what the enemy are doing.

Watch This: Tense war film with a good cast
Don’t Watch This: Very little to say about war, soldiers of various background coming together against a common enemy (the Chinese)

8. The Brutalist

In 1947 László Tóth, a Jewish-Hungarian architect emigrates to the United States. He’s survived the Holocaust and World War II, but has been separated from his wife Erzsébet and their orphaned niece Zsófia. He goes to stay with his cousin Attila in Philadelphia, living in the backroom of their furniture business, where László also works. Attila has changed his name, converted to Catholicism, married an American and generally assimilated.

They’re hired by Harry Lee Van Buren, the son of wealthy businessman Harrison Lee Van Buren, to renovate his father’s library. László does so in an elegant, modern style, but they are interrupted by Harrison, who did not expect this, returning home with his dying mother, and throws them out. Harry refuses to pay them and Attila eventually finds an excuse to have László leave.

Living in charitable housing with his African-American friend Gordon and his son, addicted to heroin, and working loading and unloading coal, László is contacted by Harrison who has come to appreciate the library. He has now paid up, not paying being his son’s choice, and learned that László was a well-respected architect before the war. He has a job for him, to build a community centre as a memorial to his mother.

László takes the job. Meeting Harrison’s lawyer (who, it seems, is also the lawyer to the vice president – presumably Alben Barkley, meaning it is now 1949) who is also Jewish, they make the long and difficult arrangements to bring his wife and niece to America. They require evidence that the niece is a close part of the family, and they find some photos. Eventually they do arrive, Erzsébet is in a wheelchair and Zsófia does not speak.

The building plans are altered to László’s annoyance, the claim being budget, though there’s a moment where he’s suggesting concrete while they want to clad it in marble I think? Anyway he pays for some bits out of his own fee. Harry, the son, is rude to László, also lewd about Zsófia. A train is derailed with some of the parts for the building, killing a worker, and the lawsuits and publicity shut it down.

A handful of years later László is working as a draughtsman in New York; Zsófia has recovered her ability to talk, is married, pregnant and wants go to Israel with her husband; Erzsébet is a journalist. Harrison decides to finish the project. To get it done they needed to make it a Christian place and Harrison and László go to Italy to get a piece of Carrera marble for the altar. While staying with the anarchist quarryworkers László uses heroin again and Harrison rapes him.

László spirals out of control, eventually confessing the events to Erzsébet who confronts Harrison and the project is shut down again. In a coda at an architectural festival in 1980 we see many buildings the now elderly wheelchair using László designed. Zsófia gives a speech about the Van Buren Centre and how spaces in it reflected László and Erzsébet’s cells in the two concentration camps they were in, and the underground tunnels linked them, the building being about living with and working through the trauma.

The film is three hours long with a one minute interval in the middle. It looks good, moves fairly slowly and deliberately. It tells us from the start that this is about recovering from horrors, and then horrors continue. Harrison claims that conversations with László are stimulating, a rich and powerful man who doesn’t get a lot of people giving him new ideas (even though Harrison does most of the talking). Anyway a lot going on.

Watch This: Strong acting and a few interesting ideas
Don’t Watch This: Guy tries to use a building to get over the horrors of the past, finds the horrors of the present

9. The Atomic Submarine (1959)

In the late 1950s and 1960s, the film informs us, nuclear submarines both naval and civilian are crossing under the ice of the Arctic Circle. However several have now gone missing so the US Navy sends the submarine Tigershark out to investigate. With them are some civilian scientists with the mini-sub Lungfish. Lieutenant Commander Holloway finds himself sharing his quarters with Dr Carl Neilson Junior, a pacifist who he disdains. At one point Neilson is offered a way off the ship which he refuses, following which Holloway calls him a coward who doesn’t know what duty is compared to the men who put on the glorious uniform etc, a speech that would have fitted better earlier.

They discover that a flying saucer they call Cyclops keeps being seen before ships go down; they eventually realise it been going back to the North Pole for magnetic recharging after every attack. They lie in wait on it’s projected route. The torpedoes don’t work due to a gel around it, so they ram it. Trapped together, Neilson, Holloway and some sailors take the Lungfish to board Cyclops and try and free them and/or figure out what’s going on.

On board the sailors try to free the Tigershark. Holloway is telepathically contacted by the one eyed octopus alien who runs the UFO and it explains their deal; a scouting expedition to learn about the Earth before conquering it. He blinds it and escapes, the other sailors dying in the process. There’s a bit of drama that Lungfish can’t communicate with Tigershark, then they get back, only for the UFO to be healing itself.

This is rather silly for a film that takes itself seriously, trying and failing to use actual science. For a film released in 1959 to predict that under-ice civilian submarines would be in use “in the late 50s” is a bold stance.

Watch This: Underwater science fiction adventure
Don’t Watch This: The underwaterness is poorly portrayed and the film’s discussion of pacifism is underwhelming

10. The Lost City (2022)

Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) is a former archaeologist turned adventure romance novelist, with a bestselling series starring Dr Angela Lovemore as an archaeologist and Dash McMahon as the man of action. Something of a recluse since the death of her husband five years ago her book publicist Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) convinces her to go to a romance event to launch her book. She’s wearing a pink sequined jumpsuit and she’s sharing the stage with Alan Caprison (Channing Tatum) the cover model for Dash. Things go wrong and she tries to leave.

She’s taken to see Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe) the scion of a billionaire family who has been passed over in inheritance. He’s obsessed with finding the mythical Crown Of Fire in a lost city on a volcanic Atlantic Island. As it turns out that was Loretta’s area of study and she used some of the carvings she deciphered in her novel, carvings no one has been able to read until now. He invites her to join his expedition. She refuses and he kidnaps her.

Realising that she’s missing Alan, Beth and Allison (Patti Harrison, the social media person) track her using her smart watch. Alan calls Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt), a former Navy SEAL who he met on a meditation retreat and they meet on the island. Fairfax has a clue to the location and tries to get Loretta to decipher it. Trainer and Alan break into the camp to rescue Loretta, but Trainer is shot, leaving Alan and Loretta to try and escape into the jungle in a haphazard way. Inevitably this turns into an action-romance-treasure-hunt story, though a comic and farcical one.

This was amusing, with a few good bits. Trainer relentlessly competent, doing amazing stunts as the action hero is a good contrast to the scrappier things the other characters get to do. In the end it comes down deciding that actually this IS an action-romance and that’s a good thing to be, though not to take it too seriously. Which I guess is actually my opinion too. Not sure about the pink jumpsuit though.

Watch This: Entertaining adventure film
Don’t Watch This: Very pleased with having it’s cake (stunts, romance, mystery) and eating it (making fun of all those things) too
Not Another Lost City: Though the odds are you've not seen this other one.