Prince Of The City (1981)
****
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Lindsay Crouse, James Tolkan
MPAA: R
Sidney Lumet has made some of my all-time favorite movies (12 Angry Men and Deathtrap being particular standouts), and I was still stunned by how gripping and powerful this sprawling tale of police corruption was.
Treat Williams is Danny Ciello, a cop who, despite not being entirely on the side of the angels himself, is lured into a sting operation to curtail police corruption. He's in virtually every scene of a 167-minute movie featuring over 125 speaking roles, and he OWNS it. From his brash cockiness as the story unfolds to his rage and disillusionment as the operation drags on, he is mesmerizing, aided by a who's-who of versatile New York character actors.
This is a procedural in the truest sense. There aren't any shootouts or explosions, no over-the-top movie moments that remind you that oh yeah, you're watching a movie. Despite all the recognizable faces in the cast (mostly unknowns at the time, including Williams) the movie feels real, like if you touched the screen your hand would come back covered in authentic NYC grime.
Speaking of NYC, Lumet and cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak (which I just spelled from memory, go me!) create a world that feels lived-in and foreboding, while also managing some truly beautiful shots of the city and its surrounding boroughs. The movie is hardly a travelogue, but it presents a New York now lost to gentrification, a place that is at times dangerous, alluring, and not just a little bit seedy.
If you haven't seen it, I couldn't give you a higher recommendation. It's a frank, sometimes brutal meditation on the nature of honesty that is thoroughly engaging all the way through to the bitter final line. It's also a master class in wringing tension out of scenes that show nothing but people talking. Don't be daunted by the epic length...epics don't get more intimate than this.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
"The house always wins."
Hostel: Part III (2011)
**1/2
Dir: Scott Spiegel
Starring: Kip Pardue, Brian Hallisay, John Hensley
MPAA: Unrated
Great opening scene. I don't want to spoil anything, but the beginning of this latest chapter in the gruesome horror series does a pretty fantastic job of subverting your expectations while still staying true to the other movies. The whole movie actually has a few tricks up its sleeve that ultimately make it more satisfying than part 2, but it's still not a particularly great movie.
The action has moved from the Eastern Bloc to American soil, specifically Las Vegas, as a group of somewhat douchey young men get together for a bachelor party and run into the Elite Hunting Club, now using their Vegas environs to place bets on the victims (what they may say to beg for their lives, how long they may survive, etc.). It's novel, but by bringing the movie to the US it loses the "stranger in a strange land" sense of alienation that drove the other two movies.
Also, being the first in the series to go direct to DVD, the flick looks cheap. Of course that's to be expected, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching a pilot for Hostel: The Series, which, for the record, is a show I would watch the ever lovin' shit out of.
This is Spiegel's second movie as director, and his first in over 10 years. The other was From Dusk Til Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money, another above-average DTV sequel. He still has a habit of employing distractingly showy POV shots, but he's much less reliant on them than he was in Dusk.
Budget limitations and odd directorial choices aside, this is a solid little movie. It's much tamer than the other two despite the meaningless "unrated" tag (since it was never theatrically released there was never a rated cut) but the kills are varied enough that it doesn't feel like a retread of things we've seen before. There are some truly clever twists that also keep things fresh, and all things considered it's definitely worth a watch, especially if you liked the others in the series.
**1/2
Dir: Scott Spiegel
Starring: Kip Pardue, Brian Hallisay, John Hensley
MPAA: Unrated
Great opening scene. I don't want to spoil anything, but the beginning of this latest chapter in the gruesome horror series does a pretty fantastic job of subverting your expectations while still staying true to the other movies. The whole movie actually has a few tricks up its sleeve that ultimately make it more satisfying than part 2, but it's still not a particularly great movie.
The action has moved from the Eastern Bloc to American soil, specifically Las Vegas, as a group of somewhat douchey young men get together for a bachelor party and run into the Elite Hunting Club, now using their Vegas environs to place bets on the victims (what they may say to beg for their lives, how long they may survive, etc.). It's novel, but by bringing the movie to the US it loses the "stranger in a strange land" sense of alienation that drove the other two movies.
Also, being the first in the series to go direct to DVD, the flick looks cheap. Of course that's to be expected, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching a pilot for Hostel: The Series, which, for the record, is a show I would watch the ever lovin' shit out of.
This is Spiegel's second movie as director, and his first in over 10 years. The other was From Dusk Til Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money, another above-average DTV sequel. He still has a habit of employing distractingly showy POV shots, but he's much less reliant on them than he was in Dusk.
Budget limitations and odd directorial choices aside, this is a solid little movie. It's much tamer than the other two despite the meaningless "unrated" tag (since it was never theatrically released there was never a rated cut) but the kills are varied enough that it doesn't feel like a retread of things we've seen before. There are some truly clever twists that also keep things fresh, and all things considered it's definitely worth a watch, especially if you liked the others in the series.
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