oghier_ghislain_de_busbecq
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
21 years
Reviews
Coogan's Bluff (1968)
Forgettable Eastwood
Though I give this film a '5', take Clint out of the lead role and this it drops to a turkey with a rating of '3' (if I'm feeling charitable that day).
What's going on here? Deputy Coogan leaves Arizona for New York to bring home a wanted felon. He pisses off the local police while getting involved in a few conflicts highlighted by really crappy fight sequences. He meets a laughably clueless woman whose part was clearly written by someone who saw June Cleaver as dangerously progressive. Naive caricatures of the Sixties Drug Culture abound. Coogan eventually gets his man, the locals forgive Coogan his meddling, the airhead sees Coogan off despite the way he cruelly used her, and Coogan happily shares a smoke with the perp who tried to kill him. You'll strain yourself looking for the plot herein.
Ugh ... this is a waste of celluloid. Why on Earth this is available on DVD in the U.S., but neither Reds nor A Fistful Of Dynamite are, boggles the mind.
On the other hand, it's Clint, and he does redeem it to an extent. And it's not as bad as Bronco Billy or Space Cowboys.
Viewers familiar with Dirty Harry will note the familiar action-sequence and sky-view fadaway techniques of director Don Seigel.
What's going on here? Deputy Coogan leaves Arizona for New York to bring home a wanted felon. He pisses off the local police while getting involved in a few conflicts highlighted by really crappy fight sequences. He meets a laughably clueless woman whose part was clearly written by someone who saw June Cleaver as dangerously progressive. Naive caricatures of the Sixties Drug Culture abound. Coogan eventually gets his man, the locals forgive Coogan his meddling, the airhead sees Coogan off despite the way he cruelly used her, and Coogan happily shares a smoke with the perp who tried to kill him. You'll strain yourself looking for the plot herein.
Ugh ... this is a waste of celluloid. Why on Earth this is available on DVD in the U.S., but neither Reds nor A Fistful Of Dynamite are, boggles the mind.
On the other hand, it's Clint, and he does redeem it to an extent. And it's not as bad as Bronco Billy or Space Cowboys.
Viewers familiar with Dirty Harry will note the familiar action-sequence and sky-view fadaway techniques of director Don Seigel.
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
"Long Live The Hud!"
Another fascinating piece from the Coen Brothers, 'The Hudsucker Proxy' is an homage to the films of the 1930s. From the grey faux-Gothic cityscape to the over-the-top acting and rapid fire dialogue to the subdued colors to the stark sets, this film hearkens back to an earlier era of films.
The plot is simple enough. When company president Waring Hudsucker commits suicide, the board of directors, led by the deliciously evil Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) determines to devalue the stock by putting a 'shmoe' in charge of the company so that when the late Hudsucker's controlling interest in stock hits the market in 30 days, Mussburger's cabal can snap it up on the cheap. Enter shmoe Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins). Jennifer Jason Leigh is the newspaper reporter who infiltrates Hudsucker Industries under the guise of secretary, and is Barnes' love interest in the film.
Robbins performs more than adequately but is outshone by terrific performances by Newman and, in particular, by Leigh, who absolutely nails this role. Her saucy, lilt of the tongue is wonderful; she simply oozes sensual sass, and all in the very decent parameters of decades gone by in Hollywood.
Other highlights of the film include - the wonderful sets, where less is more; the usual Coen cinematography, which makes the film a visual delight above and beyond acting and plot; the clock (an unbilled role, in a sense). Curious characters pop up and return Buzz the Elevator Operator, the Clock Maintainer, and many others. And, of course that clock!
As will all Coen brothers films, this one calls me to see it again, as I always seem to discover new elements when watching their works for the second, third, fourth times, and beyond. A very worthwhile film enjoy!
7 out of 10
The plot is simple enough. When company president Waring Hudsucker commits suicide, the board of directors, led by the deliciously evil Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) determines to devalue the stock by putting a 'shmoe' in charge of the company so that when the late Hudsucker's controlling interest in stock hits the market in 30 days, Mussburger's cabal can snap it up on the cheap. Enter shmoe Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins). Jennifer Jason Leigh is the newspaper reporter who infiltrates Hudsucker Industries under the guise of secretary, and is Barnes' love interest in the film.
Robbins performs more than adequately but is outshone by terrific performances by Newman and, in particular, by Leigh, who absolutely nails this role. Her saucy, lilt of the tongue is wonderful; she simply oozes sensual sass, and all in the very decent parameters of decades gone by in Hollywood.
Other highlights of the film include - the wonderful sets, where less is more; the usual Coen cinematography, which makes the film a visual delight above and beyond acting and plot; the clock (an unbilled role, in a sense). Curious characters pop up and return Buzz the Elevator Operator, the Clock Maintainer, and many others. And, of course that clock!
As will all Coen brothers films, this one calls me to see it again, as I always seem to discover new elements when watching their works for the second, third, fourth times, and beyond. A very worthwhile film enjoy!
7 out of 10
Bronco Billy (1980)
A Pointless, Fluffy Piece of Silliness
Clint Eastwood is Bronco Billy, the leader of a Wild West troupe, one of six regular misfits who comprise a struggling-to-break-even touring show. The seventh member of the bunch is a woman, Billy's assistant, but such women never last long, and the position is chronically open. Enter Antoinette Lilly (Sandra Locke Eastwood's girlfriend at the time). It seems Miss Lilly, as Doc (Scatman Crothers) calls her, is a would-be heiress who will only receive her long-deceased father's estate if she's married by the time she turns 30, so on the eve of that birthday she gets hitched to the cartoonish Geoffrey Lewis.
So, what's the plot of this film? It's hard to say. There's the romantic tension between Billy and Miss Lilly, but the problem is that for the first half of the movie she's so haughtily insipid and detestable that when she suddenly becomes 'one of the troupe' halfway through the film, it's not only unbelievable, but the audience is well past caring about her. There's the chronic lack of funds behind the Wild West show, but this topic isn't touched upon enough to really be the raison d'etre of the film. There's Miss Lilly's predicament of being stranded in the rural west, cut off from the funds that fuel her spoiled life of luxury (she's mistakenly believed to be dead by her family and the press). But are we really supposed to believe that she couldn't get back to New York and her waiting fortune if she gave it a bit of effort?
No, the point of this film seems to be that Billy is the leader of a family, a lovable bunch of losers who hang together through thick and thin. This is a warm, fuzzy film or at least tries to be.
Along the way, Clint shows us his skills with a gun, even foiling a bank robbery in a shooting that is grotesquely out of place in an otherwise relatively non-violent film. One of the gang is arrested on an old draft evasion charge; Billy bribes the local sheriff. The show's tent burns down; an orphanage makes them a new one. But numerous mundane pitfalls do not a plot make.
Compounding the problem is the acting, or lack thereof. Aside from Scatman Crothers, the supporting cast is quite amateurish. Eastwood isn't on top of his game either, though he looks better simply by virtue of being surrounded by such a lackluster bunch.
And for all this, the film plods on for 116 minutes. To what point? Good question
4 out of 10
So, what's the plot of this film? It's hard to say. There's the romantic tension between Billy and Miss Lilly, but the problem is that for the first half of the movie she's so haughtily insipid and detestable that when she suddenly becomes 'one of the troupe' halfway through the film, it's not only unbelievable, but the audience is well past caring about her. There's the chronic lack of funds behind the Wild West show, but this topic isn't touched upon enough to really be the raison d'etre of the film. There's Miss Lilly's predicament of being stranded in the rural west, cut off from the funds that fuel her spoiled life of luxury (she's mistakenly believed to be dead by her family and the press). But are we really supposed to believe that she couldn't get back to New York and her waiting fortune if she gave it a bit of effort?
No, the point of this film seems to be that Billy is the leader of a family, a lovable bunch of losers who hang together through thick and thin. This is a warm, fuzzy film or at least tries to be.
Along the way, Clint shows us his skills with a gun, even foiling a bank robbery in a shooting that is grotesquely out of place in an otherwise relatively non-violent film. One of the gang is arrested on an old draft evasion charge; Billy bribes the local sheriff. The show's tent burns down; an orphanage makes them a new one. But numerous mundane pitfalls do not a plot make.
Compounding the problem is the acting, or lack thereof. Aside from Scatman Crothers, the supporting cast is quite amateurish. Eastwood isn't on top of his game either, though he looks better simply by virtue of being surrounded by such a lackluster bunch.
And for all this, the film plods on for 116 minutes. To what point? Good question
4 out of 10
Honkytonk Man (1982)
A Flawed Piece With Some Worthwhile Moments
Clint Eastwood - Dirty Harry, The Man With No Name - occasionally embraces a project that is the antithesis of his usual anti-hero roles. There is a touch of those characters in "Honkytonk Man"; Red Stovall is a loner, for example. But the similarities stop there. This is an Eastwood labor of love. One gets the impression that he enjoyed making this film and really didn't care one iota whether the public did, or whether it made any money. While the love and nurturing that he poured into it doesn't make it a great film, or even a very good one, it does have its moments and is worthy of a viewing.
Eastwood plays Red Stovall, a consumptive man of the road who makes his living crooning and playing his guitar in roadhouses and flophouses. Knowing that his affliction while take him sooner or later, probably sooner, he embarks for Nashville to take his shot at the Grand Ole Opry with his nephew Whit (played by Eastwood's son, Kyle) and his father in tow. After a very slow first 45 minutes, during which many a VHS/DVD renter has likely been irrevocably lost, the film picks up pace. Along the way they encounter various foils of the road - a small-town sheriff, a deadbeat who owes Red some badly-needed money, an ambitious young woman, car troubles - but finally arrive in Nashville where Red takes his shot.
Clint sings in this one, and he's not half bad; however, in one seen where his disease gets the better of him mid-song and one of the session musicians has to take over at the microphone, the replacement's voice outshines that of Red, an unintentional reminder of Eastwood's limitations.
There's a reason Kyle Eastwood has only appeared in only four films, all others being minor roles. But there is also a connection here between father and son, and it works. There are plot holes - whatever happened to Grandpa? - but the final hour of the movie redeems the film and it ends on a note that Hollywood wouldn't choose, almost always a good thing.
6 out of 10.
Eastwood plays Red Stovall, a consumptive man of the road who makes his living crooning and playing his guitar in roadhouses and flophouses. Knowing that his affliction while take him sooner or later, probably sooner, he embarks for Nashville to take his shot at the Grand Ole Opry with his nephew Whit (played by Eastwood's son, Kyle) and his father in tow. After a very slow first 45 minutes, during which many a VHS/DVD renter has likely been irrevocably lost, the film picks up pace. Along the way they encounter various foils of the road - a small-town sheriff, a deadbeat who owes Red some badly-needed money, an ambitious young woman, car troubles - but finally arrive in Nashville where Red takes his shot.
Clint sings in this one, and he's not half bad; however, in one seen where his disease gets the better of him mid-song and one of the session musicians has to take over at the microphone, the replacement's voice outshines that of Red, an unintentional reminder of Eastwood's limitations.
There's a reason Kyle Eastwood has only appeared in only four films, all others being minor roles. But there is also a connection here between father and son, and it works. There are plot holes - whatever happened to Grandpa? - but the final hour of the movie redeems the film and it ends on a note that Hollywood wouldn't choose, almost always a good thing.
6 out of 10.