Cinemaniac Reviews

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Archive for the tag “1976”

19 Apr 2013
8 Comments

Taxi Driver

Review No. 462

“Driven” to get you inside his mind.

taxi_driver_ver4
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Paul Schrader
Travis Bickle: Robert De Niro
Iris “Easy” Steensma: Jodie Foster
Tom: Albert Brooks
Matthew “Sport” Higgins: Harvey Keitel
Senator Charles Palantine: Leonard Harris
“Wizard”: Peter Boyle
Betsy: Cybill Shepherd
Also Starring: Diahnne Abbott, Harry Northup, Joe Spinell, Martin Scorsese, Steven Prince, Victor Argo

Distributed by Columbia Pictures on February 8, 1976. Produced in English by the United States. Runs 113 mins. Rated R by the MPAA–graphic violence, profanity, sexual situations.

Taxi Driver was watched on April 6, 2013.

“You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? You talkin’ to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the f–k do you think you’re talking to?” –Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro)

Taxi Driver scopes in on a streetwise insomniac who grows insane, acts out his vigilante fantasies, and loses touch with everything he used to be. You’d imagine that a movie like this would disturb, and to think that this gets us so well in its character’s mind, it’s quite a shock that the movie is an incredibly poignant one. We see everything through the eyes of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), as he drives around in a taxi cab, deals with the city’s night timers (whom he thinks are the scum of the earth), endures multiple stabs in the back from the woman he loves, and ultimately, attempts to save the life of Iris (Jodie Foster), a prostitute who has not even turned thirteen.

I loved this character development in Taxi Driver. The film was written by Paul Schrader, who summed it up with one of Hollywood’s most ingenious, yet heartbreaking endings. What is just as heartbreaking is that the movie is overrated. Yes, it is very good, but very over appreciated. As far as collaborations between actor Robert De Niro and director Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver is my least favorite. I don’t know if De Niro was trying to act sleep deprived or if he was just not fit for the character, but if it were the former, he didn’t go far enough.

But realize that when I say this is my least favorite, it’s almost a compliment. The film is Scorsese’s; so much about it simply can’t not impress. Although Bernard Herrmann does prove to have composed many more brooding musical scores, he continues the director’s NYC jazz style effectively. I do much prefer Scorsese’s writing, simply because he’s greatest as a simultaneous writer-director; we don’t get that here, but Schrader’s screenplay is rather effective. The key word is “effective.”

B PLUS

TOMORROW, ON CINEMANIAC REVIEWS…

L.A. Confidential

Posted in Crime, Drama, Thriller, [Film Reviews] and tagged
18 Nov 2012
16 Comments

Network

Bottom Line: Well, this one’s a real nail-biter.

Directed by: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Ned Beatty, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, William Holden

“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” –Peter Finch as Howard Beale

The more I think about Network, the more my thoughts boil down to one single theory: it isn’t a drama. Okay, it is, but it doesn’t open as one, so to speak. Network is political satire, and this is used to build an exponentially intensifying, terrifically jaw-dropping drama. This is a story of how the media can so easily corrupt human lifestyle. We don’t realize how much time we spend in front of the TV, and fall victim to it; sadly, our flaw is just as relevant as it was in 1976 when the film hit theaters. Our leading character is Howard Beale (Peter Finch). Beale is a revered anchor on UBS, one of very few stations who has yet to broadcast a hit. Suddenly, Beale appears on the air spewing profanities like a sailor, ranting and complaining about how his life is “bulls##t”. Those in the control room are flooded with phone calls upon the very first obscenity; he continues and they’re prepared to cut him off. But over half these phone calls aren’t complaints. They’re praise for the authenticity found in the rambling.

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Posted in Comedy, Drama, [Film Reviews] and tagged
29 Oct 2012
8 Comments

The Omen

Bottom Line: The narrative would stand better in mini-series territory, but the film itself belongs in Hell.

Directed by: Richard Donner
Starring: Anthony Nicholls, Billie Whitelaw, David Warner, Gregory Peck, Harvey Stephens, Lee Remick, Martin Benson, Patrick Troughton, Robert Rietty, Sheila Raynor

“Here is wisdom.  He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man: and his number is Six hundred and sixty-six.” –Revelation 13:18

Films like The Omen are the ones that most often leave me feeling cold.  Starting off, this is a film that looks like it could, in fact, be great.  The nature of the first fifteen minutes is shocking and often unsettling, due to the dramatic depth every horror movie should have.  But then the foreshadowing transforms into a script that yields a trivial amount of faith to coincidence, while indulging sadistically on sacrilege.  Now you all know that I would never waste an entire review complaining about a film’s sacrilege.  I saw no justification for severe obtuseness of the anti-Christian plot, but there are too many more problems I must address.

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Posted in Horror, [Film Reviews] and tagged
28 Jul 2012
5 Comments

Silent Movie

Special thanks goes out today to Ckckred for reminding me to revisit this film. I must have been about ten or eleven years old when I first saw Mel Brooks’s Silent Movie, right after finding his underrated Spaceballs to be a wild hoot.  Clearly, I remembered not much of it from that long ago, as I discovered when I gave it a second shot tonight.  I tried to laugh in silence to remain the purpose of the movie, but it was extremely difficult at times to do so.  So please…shut up and read my review!!!

Bottom Line: Very, very funny Mel Brooks comedy.

Directed by: Mel Brooks
Starring: Anne Bancroft, Bernadette Peters, Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, James Caan, Liza Minnelli, Marcel Marceau, Marty Feldman, Mel Brooks, Paul Newman

It seems some of Mel Brooks’s most creative ideas turn out as either overlooked or underrated, both to ridiculous amounts.  He’s an utter genius, but when you have people that pay no mind to HIGH ANXIETY, his Alfred Hitchcock lampoon, or critics who find SPACEBALLS, his STAR WARS parody, far more stupid than funny, we’re left with ideas like YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and BLAZING SADDLES that are equal parts successful and hilarious, but definitely more innovative than inventive.  Of all the pots of gold that have been overlooked, SILENT MOVIE is the czar, without a doubt.  I’m confident in saying that millions of people who enjoy slapstick humor and farcical ridicule have no clue what they are missing out on.

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Posted in Comedy, [Film Reviews] and tagged
14 Oct 2011
2 Comments

Carrie

Bottom Line: Stephen King’s first film adaptation is excellent, freaky.

“I can see your dirtypillows. Everyone will.” —Piper Laurie as Mrs. White

Directed by: Brian de Palma
Starring: Amy Irving, John Travolta, Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek

Films have been depicting how much senior prom is a rite of passage for teens nearly since film itself came to be. Of all directors and films, though, Brian DePalma does the most fantastic job with CARRIE at showing his angle of what is clearly more than just a dance. (Especially when someone invites Carrie as a date.)

The story begins when Carrie White, in her mother’s words, “becomes a woman” in the locker room. Not only are her peers prone to harassing her more, but Carrie has now also become the subject of embarrassment and extreme humiliation. And on top of that, her extremely religious (and arguably abusive) mother has found this the time to start nagging her about how she has the Devil in her and that she has sinned greatly. The girls in Carrie’s gym class are punished with five days detention (jeez, I don’t think I would ever be able to stand that!), but they don’t care. They set Carrie up with a date to the prom, and they have a nasty, bloody prank planned. Little do they know what will happen as a result of their bizarre prank.

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Posted in Horror, Science Fiction, [Film Reviews] and tagged

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