Posted as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. You should join us! Just pick three movies based on the theme Wanderer has chosen for the week; it's that easy!
I'm not as excited about this week's topic as I was about last week's. Police Movies. Enh. It's not that I don't like them, just that I don't seek them out. I'll watch one if it gets good reviews, but otherwise I could mostly take 'em or leave 'em. So I decided to have a little fun with this week's picks. I hope you enjoy!
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, 1975) - In which a bunch of weirdos dressed in Arthurian garb travel around the English countryside reenacting the bloody quest for the Holy Grail, and the police are in hot pursuit!
Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992) - In which a hot bisexual murder suspect flaunts her womanhood while being interrogated in front of a roomful of cops, and they all completely lose their minds and forget how to do their jobs.
Clue (Jonathan Lynn, 1985) - In which they all did it, and Communism was just a red herring.
Hope to see you next week!
Great way to look at the theme! Holy Grail is such an odd, goofy but fun film and yeah for Clue!! Love that piece of silliness. I hated Basic Instinct but it's a good choice for this week's subject.
ReplyDeleteI love cop movies but by and large older ones. So much so that I had trouble paring mine down to less than four, which are:
Stakeout (1987)-Buddy movie is just what the title suggests. Two cops, Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez, are running a surveillance on an ex-girlfriend, Madeleine Stowe, of escaped convict, Aidan Quinn. All goes well until Dreyfuss accidently runs into Stowe and then falls for her. What separates this from the pack is the terrific chemistry between Dreyfuss and Estevez, good work by both Stowe and Quinn and an excellent pace set by director John Badham.
The Big Heat (1953)-Fritz Lang's noir masterpiece. A crooked cop commits suicide and leaves a letter full of incriminating evidence on the crime syndicate he was involved with. That letter is discovered by his Medusa of a wife who realizes it could bring down "the Big Heat" if exposed and uses it to her advantage. Honest cop Glenn Ford doing routine follow up on the suicide suspects something fishy and while probing gets a bit too close leading to tragedy and making him a dogged and determined man hellbent on justice. Punctured by burst of unexpected violence and tightly directed by Lang this has many fine performances and a stunning one by Gloria Grahame, perhaps her career best.
Lured (1947)-One of a kind little number from director Douglas Sirk with a truly eclectic cast. Lucille Ball plays a taxi dancer who is recruited by the London police as an undercover agent when her friend and fellow dancer disappears and may have fallen victim to a lonely hearts serial killer who meets his prey through newspaper personal ads. She proceeds to have many strange encounters, including an extremely odd one with Boris Karloff. She also crosses paths with nightclub owner and self proclaimed incorrigible cad George Sanders who charms her but perhaps has a dark secret. Ball, miles away from frumpy housewife Lucy Ricardo, comes across very well as the level headed protagonist.
Honorable Mention-No Way to Treat a Lady (1968)-A cat and mouse game between a prickly, mother ridden detective played by a hang dog George Segal and a serial killer who is a master of disguise, Rod Steiger in a scene stealing performance. It's a battle of wits between the two and George meets the knockout Lee Remick, who has her quirks too, along the way. A fun unusual ride.
LOVE The Big Heat. Stakeout has a great cast, so I will have to seek it out.
DeleteLured sounds AMAZING. As does No Way to Treat a Lady (what a title!), if only slightly less so than the Sirk. Lucille Ball as a taxi dancer. MUST SEE.
I think you'll really like Lured, it's not quite as skillful as Written on the Wind but full of noir shadows and beside the three I mentioned also has Charles Coburn as the chief of police and Cedric Hardwicke as Sanders secretary. Lucy is sly and saucy and the most stylishly dressed taxi dancer you'll ever see.
DeleteI love MP & the Holy Grail, but would never have thought of it for this topic. Kudos to you. Basic Instinct is great. Never saw Clue, though.
ReplyDeleteHehehehehe Holy Grail was actually the first one I thought of for this, after the obvious ones I was certain lots of people would pick but almost no one did (Beverly Hills Cop, 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon, and that all-time classic Kindergarten Cop). The whole cop plotline is so absurd and comes out of nowhere and I LOVE that what's initially an absurd, funny little running gag turns out to be THE major plot point in the final scene of the movie.
DeleteYou MUST watch Clue. Fantastic cast of the best comic actors of the time, all doing superb, super-quotable work.
I kinda felt the same last week, I don't hate dance movies, I just never seek them out.
ReplyDeleteI've only seen The Holy Grail (which I love) which I would have never considered adding, haha, A very left field choice.
Yeah, I felt like going very left-field this week. Although once I thought of Basic Instinct I knew I had to include it despite it fitting quite squarely into the theme.
DeleteHoly Grail and Clue are classic, and I love how you spun them into the theme. Basic Instinct is one of those 'why is this hyped?' type films for me, but nice diversity in the list, buddy!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I love Basic Instinct in a "GOD this movie is so deliciously trashy!" way. Plus: Sharon Stone, at her absolute hottest, tearing shit UP. But yeah, it's not exactly a good movie.
DeleteThis is a great post, man! I love that you went outside the box on this one. The Monty Python and Clue picks are genius!
ReplyDeleteThanks, man! I felt like going outside the box a bit this week.
DeleteNice picks! I haven't seen these ones anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteThank you! That was the goal! :)
DeleteMonty Python is a brilliant choice! And that scene in Basic Instinct is priceless.
ReplyDelete