Last year, between the two of us, we watched an average of 317 movies.
This year our goal is to top that by watching at least one a day.
And as an extra special torture, we've decided to write about all of them.

28 March 2008

Mike's Murder, dir. James Bridges (1984)

NIKKI says:
I don't really know what I thought of this one. It wasn't at all what I was expecting, though why I was expecting something akin to Missing with Jack Lemmon I just don't know.

It's one of those films from the early '80s that looks suspiciously like a TV movie. I can't imagine this went to cinemas. It's very Movie-of-the-Week.

Basically, Betty reunited with her tennis coach boyfriend after he becomes involved in some drug deals gone bad. Betty wants to rekindle their old flame knowing little about his drug issues. He stands her up and ends up dead. Not content to take his disappearance lying down, she tries to figure out what happened. She ends up mixing with some fairly dangerous dudes.

I guess the intrigue here is wrapped up in this young, naive woman infiltrating big-city drug bosses. There's an element of excitement there, but I found much of this film unrealistic and I really didn't care for Mike all that much in the first place. I wanted to know why Betty was risking so much to solve his murder and yet he did so very little for her. Not fair, perhaps? Well, not entirely. But in order for me to believe she would take such steps, I needed a bit more of a reason to care for Mike.

The film suffered, too, from Over-80s-ness with weird clothes and hair and tennis coaches and cabana boys in tight shorts with absolutely no sense they look ridiculous. But I can handle that. Everything else? Mmm, I don't know. Not great, this one.

2/5

The Big Sleep, dir. Howard Hawkes (1946)

STEVE says:
Every time I watch The Big Sleep, I'm reminded of an episode of The Simpsons: Homer's sitting on the couch, watching Twin Peaks, as Special Agent Cooper opines "That's some damn fine coffee you got here in Twin Peaks... and damn good cherry pie." On TV, The Giant is waltzing with a white horse as a traffic light swings from a nearby tree branch. Homer stares at the TV, transfixed.

"Brilliant!" Homer says. "I have absolutely no idea what’s going on."

Much the same way I feel watching The Big Sleep. I know it's brilliant, the direction is faultless, the writing top-notch. But I can't shake the feeling, when all is said and done, that I've missed something.

It's like Hawkes and screenwriters, Leigh Brackett, William Faulkner and Jules Furthman set out to make the most deliberately obtuse film they could. Based on Chandler, you know the plotting is going to be intricate, and with the machine gun dialog, you want to be paying attention and not wandering off mid-film to make a sandwich. But still, no matter how much attention is paid, you come out wishing for Cliff's Notes.

But when Chandler himself is shocked to find that even he doesn't know who killed the chauffeur Owen Taylor, what the hell chance to I stand?

4/5

Nikki did not view.