jamesrupert2014

Down Mexico way, grinning good bad-guy Catlow (Yul Brynner) and his band of clichés execute a heist of two-million dollars while dealing with Indians, Federales, tenacious mercenary killer Miller (Leonard Nimoy) and equally tenacious lawman Marshal Ben Cowan (Richard Crenna). Although based on a novel by Louis L'Amour there's not much new in the story and the characters (other than Miller) are not very interesting. The various chases and shoot-outs are stereo-typical for the genre and the musical score sounds like a bad blend of Elmer Bernstein and 70s sitcom themes (plus some cheesy 'love music' to accompany a sappy slow-motion flower-framed romantic horseback tryst). Nimoy, like his character, is worth the couch-time, but as a 'jolly scoundrel', Breyner gets tedious fast, Crenna's lawman makes for a bland 'frenemy', and Daliah Lavi is screechingly awful as a 'fiery señoretta' in love-hate with the titular sardonic rogue. Despite lots of people getting shot, the film is lighthearted, almost tongue-in-cheek, but unfortunately most of the 'comic touches' fall flat (except the scene in which Catlow finally stops grinning and wisecracking after getting kneed in the 'nads). Forgettable to all by the most dedicated horse-opera fans (or Trekkies fascinated by the goofy fight scene between a beaming Brynner and a naked Nimoy).

With the help of a flakey self-help group, Robert Montague Renfield, Dracula's semi-immortal dogsbody and murderous familiar, decides to quite his toxic co-dependant relationship with the dark count, an act of rebellion that displeases his vicious, eternal, blood-thirsty (literally) boss. The premise is fun, the writing witty at times, and Nicholas Hoult (channeling a young Hugh Grant) is excellent as Renfield but, unfortunately, by the halfway point, the film devolves into yet another supernatural gore-extravaganza (technically well done but not as clever or interesting as the first half). Nicholas Cage is great as a particularly evil Dracula and his dental prosthetic, designed to look like Lon Chaney's in the lost silent 'London After Midnight' gives him a unique look. I won't dump on Awkwafina - she wasn't very good but neither was her cliched 'foul-mouthed-but-honest-kick-ass-grrl-cop' character, so who's to blame(?). Although profane and gory, the film is a lot of silly fun, especially for Dracula-philes, who will appreciate the witty little touches (Renfield can't figure how the vampire entered his apartment without being invited until he realises that his welcome mat says "Welcome. Come on in"). The survival of one the principal baddies suggest that a sequel may be on some producer's wish-list.

A sanitation engineer named Marshal P. Knutt (Jim Dale) is mistaken for a U. S. Marshal named P. Knutt and is sent to Stodge City to clean up the town and rid it of the murderous cattle-rustler 'The Rumpo Kid' (Sid James, look up 'Rumpo' if necessary). Made at the height of 'Carry On' popularity (and peak of 'TV Western' popularity in the USA), this outing is pretty typical of the sniggering, lowbrow Brit sex-coms: lots of leering, endless double entendres, exaggerated double-takes, goofy sight gags, off-colour puns, and lots of legs'n'knickers. The usual cast is in town: Kenneth Williams as Judge Burke (whose family are Wright-Burkes (get it?)) is quite funny affecting a 'Merican accent. Weird little nebbish Charles Hawtrey plays Indian Chief 'Big Heap', which rolls just about every Native American stereotype into one feathery bundle and Joan Sims flashes a lot of cleavage as saloon-gal Belle Arimitage. Jon Pertwee ('The Third Doctor') briefly appears as Knutts's short-lived predecessor. The plot is the standard 'city-slicker in the old west' shtick (think Bob Hope in 1948's 'The Paleface' or Don Knotts in 1968's 'The Shakiest Gun in the West') and the finale, the inevitable showdown at high-noon between The Rumpo Kid and Marshal Knutt, is ludicrous (sewers with manhole covers in an old west town?!?). If you like the Carry On series, you'll likely consider this one is pretty good...if you don't, tell them to "peace off"