Lari the Leper

In a quest to keep writing I've decided to start posting reviews in an efforts to build up something resembling essay writing skills. Never being academically minded I've never put much effort into learning. So criticisms on simple things such as grammar and sentence structure would be appreciated.

RIO BRAVO (1959)

To quite a few people John Wayne along with Elvis represents the evil of the old rich conservative white male. He was friendly with Nixon and Reagan, supported the Vietnam War, advocated a "Hot War" instead of the pussy "Cold War" and of course there's this quote from a 1971 Playboy interview, "I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership to irresponsible people.". Dammit though if I want someone watching my back or desperately need approval of my character from it'd be the Duke.

I've only seen two of his films, including Rio Bravo, so I'm far from an expert but Wayne's screen persona is currently my ideal on masculinity along with countless others generations previous. I want to watch more to learn about honour, self respect and doing the right thing even when it seems impossible. Of course this could me gearing up for my Halloween costume this year (hint: his idol is John Wayne). In Rio Bravo all these traits I hope to emulate are on display.

Wayne playing small town sheriff John T. Chance arrests Joe Burdette, brother of powerful rancher Nathan Burdette. The rancher employs the services of many hired guns to get his brother out. With his loyal crippled deputy Stumpy, Chance deputizes local drunk Dude (Dean Martin)to help keep Joe Burdette behind bars until the marshal arrives. Further complicating things is Chance's blossoming romance with Feathers (Angie Dickinson), a card dealer who just came into town on the last stagecoach along with Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson) riding guard.

I was expecting a siege movie along the lines of Assault On Precinct 13, Act One ends, everyone's holed up ducking from bullets being fired into the building. Not so with Rio Bravo. The movie is waiting for Burdette's men to show and make a move creating more anxiety than thrills. During the wait we have to watch Dude deal with the DTs all the while trying to get his self worth back so he can be useful during the final shootout (before he was a drunk he was damn fast and accurate with a gun). Chance's "recovery program" for Dude certainly isn't the kindest following the lines of, "be nice to him and he'll fall apart in small pieces."

The romance, between Chance and Feathers, feels fresh and real, well as real as any Hollywood film from the 1950s can be. The awkwardness, regretful forwardness, regretful holding back and the flat out emotional anarchy (it should be said it was Feathers going through this emotional rollercoaster, Chance was too worried about the upcoming siege). Maybe these more observant traits were common in classic films but they aren't now when it's only every three or four years you might touch upon a film that has a clue how the emotion love actually moves a person.

Few words on Ricky Nelson who doesn't do much in this movie except look pretty, be good with a gun and sing a period inappropriate song. Gods, he's so pretty one of my viewing partners commented that he's metrosexual before there was metrosexual, I followed with the less clever observation that his face would make a good cum dumpster then the only girl watching with us said I look like Ricky Nelson which made me cringe with conflicting feelings.

Rio Bravo is now one my favorite movies and it should be yours. I can't wait to see it again. If anyone is looking for a gift for me a copy of the screenplay would be adored.

GHOSTS OF MARS (2001)

I'll be briefer on my thoughts on this John Carpenter film.

After reading several positive IMDB comments I ignored my friends' warnings and put this on hoping to see a wrongly maligned and overlooked gem. Those IMDB contributors are either overly forgiving or just stupid.

Set 200 years in the future a Martian Police Unit, consisting of Natasha Henstridge, Pam Grier, Jason Statham and Clea Duvall, are sent to a remote mining outpost to fetch and transport back outlaw Ice Cube for Martian justice. Unbeknownst to them (really do "them" ever really know?) at this mining outpost they dug up an alien artifact unleashing the spirits of the warrior ghosts who possess the bodies of perceived alien invaders, here meaning human, and kill the lot of them.

If I read the script for this movie and was aware of the cast and director I would've been convinced this movie was going to rock beyond compare. An aggressively lesbian Pam Grier, Jason Statham speaking, a villain by the name of Big Daddy Mars, Ice Cube and elements of Carpenter's successful past efforts (Assault on Precinct 13 and The Thing), these stewed together should have made a great genre effort.

Obviously inspired by such films as Bava's "Planet of the Vampires", Hammer Studios' "Quartemass and the Pit" and pulp sci-fi short stories of the Clark Ashton Smith variety, "Ghosts" fails to capture any sort of mood or atmosphere instead relying on getting to the next action sequence as quickly as possible. This leads me to believe this might not be Carpenter's fault, that there might be or have been a slower cut allowing for the aforementioned mood and atmosphere to settle in before the studio (here Screen Gems subsidiary of Sony Pictures) cut it more to their fast paced sensibilities. Only a theory but one that makes sense to me.

Ghosts of Mars is the most frustrating of movie watching experiences, the missed or fouled up opportunity.
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I've just realized these were my first written reviews ever. Let's see how much better I can get.