I seem to be watching movies at an incredible clip this year. Another 23 movies in March! I blame this month’s haul partly on my discovery of another hero on YouTube, whoever’s behind the Grjngo Western Movies channel. They’ve posted dozens and dozens of westerns, both American and Italian, in gorgeous, high-quality HD prints. Since I discovered their page, I’ve been binging on spaghetti westerns I haven’t been able to find decent copies of until now. You’ll notice there are a hell of a lot of them in the list below. Anyway, with no further ado…
Best of the Bunch:
Bad Trip (2020) The Eric Andre Show has been one of my favorite TV shows since pretty much the moment it went on the air, a crazed deconstruction of the late night talk show that threatens to devolve into complete chaos at every second. He’s managed to channel that same manic, dangerous energy into Bad Trip, a prank flick that ranks as probably the best of the relatively recent genre. The “plot,” such as it is, consists of Andre and his best friend (Lil Rel Howery) taking a road trip from Florida to New York, while being pursued by Howery’s escaped convict sister (Tiffany Haddish). Of course, this is nothing more than an excuse for Andre and his co-stars to engage in all kinds of insane, raunchy shenanigans across the Atlantic coast. I don’t want to give away too much, because half the laughs are in the surprises Andre pulls just when you think you know where a scene is headed. Seriously, though, this movie is hilarious. I appreciated that the jokes aren’t ever at the expense of the random bystanders caught up in Andre’s insanity—he’s not out to expose America’s dark side like Sasha Baron Cohen. In fact, pretty much everyone actually comes out looking pretty good, accepting even Andre’s most out-there behavior with good humor and understanding. For a flick featuring penises caught in a Chinese finger trap, it’s actually got a surprisingly sweet attitude underneath it all. And did I mention it’s hilarious?
Other highlights:
Palm Springs (2020) I’m not a big fan of rom-coms, but I am a huge fan of Andy Samberg, which tilted the scales in favor of watching this. I’m so glad I did. It’s kind of a drunken prankster’s riff on ‘Groundhog Day,’ and easily one of the funniest flicks I’ve seen in a while. Samberg and Cristin Milioti are fantastic and hilarious as the couple trapped in their own endless time loop, doomed to relive the same Palm Springs wedding for all eternity. A perfect, light dose of sunshine that couldn’t be more welcome.
The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe (1973)
Watched a lot of Italian westerns this month, and the best was probably this entertaining tale of a Chinese immigrant’s troubles when he moves to Texas. This has all the earmarks of absolute cheese: an east-meets-west kung-fu western shot in Spain by Italians. But against all odds, it’s actually a good movie! Chen Lee turns in a solid, stoic performance as the mistreated immigrant who dreams of becoming a cowboy. He’s rebuffed at every turn by racist rednecks, until he’s recruited to unknowingly smuggle Mexicans across the border to serve as slave labor. As the slow-witted white smugglers should have probably guessed, Shanghai Joe doesn’t cotton with human trafficking. The rest of the flick concerns his ass-kicking vengeance. Surprisingly, it all somehow works, and is consistently engaging for all of its brisk 89 minutes.
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) Hadn’t seen this since the 80s, and it holds up pretty darn well. It’s kind of a shock to see Willem Defoe looking this fresh-faced and youthful, I must say. The flick is a gritty, well-done crime thriller focused on master counterfeiter Defoe and the cops pursuing him, highlighted by a rightfully famous wrong-way chase down an L.A. freeway. Alas, the Wang Chung soundtrack dates this flick horribly every time it chimes in, which is often. Filmmakers never seem to realize that today’s hip, new sound is tomorrow’s hopelessly outdated cliché. Anyway, pretty good flick if you can get past that music.
Bandidos (1967) Another rock-solid spaghetti western. When a traveling marksman is maimed by some asshole train robber, he devotes his life to finding and training a sharpshooter to avenge him. There are some actual surprises along the way, as well as some truly fantastic, imaginative camera work from Sergio Leone’s cinematographer, Massimo Dallamano.
The Complete List for March (first-time viewings in bold):
Bad Trip (2020, Kitao Sakurai) *
Bandidos (aka Guns of Death; You Die…But I Live) (1967, Massimo Dallamano)
California (1977, Michele Lupo)
The Crew (orig. Braqueurs) (2015; Julien Leclercq)
El Desperado (aka The Dirty Outlaws; The Big Ripoff) (1967, Franco Rossetti)
Dunkirk (2017, Christopher Nolan)
F is for Fake (1973, Orson Welles)
The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe (orig. Il mio nome è Shanghai Joe; aka My Name is Shanghai Joe; Shanghai Joe; The Dragon Strikes Back) (1973, Mario Caiano)
God Forgives…I Don’t (orig. Dio perdona… lo no!; aka Blood River) (1967, Giuseppe Colizzi)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone)
The Grand Duel (orig. Il grande duello; aka Storm Rider; The Loner; The Great Duel) (1972, Giancarlo Santi)
Killer’s Kiss (1955; Stanley Kubrick)
Lost Bullet (orig. Balle Perdue) (2020; Guillaume Pierret)
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979; Werner Herzog)
Palm Springs (2020; Max Barbakow)
The Ruthless Four (orig. Ognuno per se; aka Every Man for Himself; Sam Cooper’s Gold; The Goldseekers) (1968, Giorgio Capitani)
Sad Hill Unearthed (2017, Guillermo de Oliveira)
Shoot the Living, Pray for the Dead (orig. Prega il morto e ammazza il vivo; aka To Kill a Jackal; Renegade Gun; Pray to Kill and Return Alive) (1971, Giuseppe Vari)
A Stranger in Town (orig. Un dollar tra i denti; aka For a Dollar in the Teeth) (1966, Luigi Vanzi)
The Stranger Returns (orig. Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola; aka A Man, a Horse, a Gun) (1967, Luigi Vanzi)
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985; William Friedkin)
The Trip (2010, Michael Winterbottom)
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January 2021
February 2021
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