SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)

"She's so refined. I think I'll kill myself."

One of the biggest misconceptions about SINGIN' IN THE RAIN by people who've never seen it is it's just a hundred and three minutes of people yodelin into the camera like lovesick Howler monkeys, but actually this movie is very funny and filled with clever jokes. "Cosmo, call me a cab." "OK, you're a cab."

The film opens at a big movie premiere featuring two of Hollywood's biggest stars, Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen). The rumor mags are filled with stories about them being in love in real life, but in reality Don can't stand Lina because she's actually a vile, simple-minded snake. Don's career began with him simply helping out around the studio and Lina treated him like garbage...until he became a star. The public knows none of this and Don lets them believe the illusion. Things are going pretty good until one night at a party a girl that Don has fallen for (played by Debbie Reynolds) accidentally hits Lina in the face with a cake. Lina has her fired and Don is furious with her. This really puts a strain on their working relationship and to make matters even worse the Talkies hit and now they have to actually talk and sing in their movies! Lina has a voice like fingernails on a chalkboard so the studio, at Don's suggestion, hires Debbie Reynolds to be the singing voice for Lina. All kinds of stuff happens next.

Through all of that there is one fantastic musical number after another. Every single one is a classic, but if I had to choose a favorite my pick would be the shortest one: "All I Do is Dream of You". I'm not sure why, but I just love it to death. Woody Allen even used it in his masterful CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. Honestly though, if you were to pick any other song I would agree with you also.

The script for SINGIN' IN THE RAIN is brilliant. There's tons of funny lines, the story is imaginative and the pacing is perfect. This movie flies by and when it's done you just want to watch it again...so naturally it didn't win shit at the Academy Awards. Nothing, not even Best Music.

I cannot recommend SITR enough. It really is one of the greatest Musicals of all time, if not the greatest and it's extremely influential. If you consider yourself a serious student of Cinema then SINGIN' IN THE RAIN is required viewing.

THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE (2011)

Awesome idea for a movie: a soldier in the Iraqi army is forced to be Uday Hussein's body double. If he refuses his entire family will be tortured and killed. Reluctantly, he accepts and has his face surgically changed to be exactly the same as Uday's. He lives with Uday and studies all of his mannerisms so he can be his political double as well, making speeches and television appearances. Through all of this he begins to see to full extent of just how fucked things are and he believes that Uday might really be insane. He has to escape.

I loved the idea for this movie and was quite excited about it. I was expecting it to be extremely violent and vile like a SCARFACE centered around a dictator with endless power and no sense of right or wrong, only greed. Instead, there was hardly any violence at all and most of the nasty things that happened were implied or just barely touched on. I never got a complete sense of hopelessness and terror that you would expect in a story like this. Saddam Hussein was a complete asshole who had zero problem ordering the massacre of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and here you got a story about a innocent guy forced to live side-by-side with this monster's son and be the double of a guy who has a private torture chamber and rapes and murders women and children as sport, so you would expect this movie to be more depressing than the fish aisle at Wal-Mart, but instead it was just meh.

Fascinating idea and I would love to read a well-written book on the subject of dictator's body/political doubles. As far as the movie goes, it's still worth watching, but I just wish it was more brutal.  Dominic Cooper's dual performance alone is worth the price of admission.

COWBOYS & ALIENS (2011)

Hollywood cowboys vs. Hollywood aliens.

Cowboy Daniel Craig wakes up in the middle of nowhere. He has amnesia and some metal contraption clamped on his left wrist. Before he can even get his bearings, three scruffy looking dudes (who probably smell like poo-poo) ride up and start talking shit. Craig beats the crap out of them...so obviously, he knows how to fight. He then travels to the nearest town where it becomes apparent that he is a wanted criminal. After some more fighting, he's arrested and then while being loaded up into the paddy wagon...aliens attack!  During the attack the metal device on Craig's arm activates and he uses it to shoot down one of the alien vehicles. The next morning, Craig joins a posse and they head off in search of the aliens who kidnapped some people during the attack.

With a title like COWBOYS & ALIENS, I was expecting the film to be a little campy, like TREMORS, but instead C&A comes across like it almost wanted to be serious...I think. What do I know? But with the torture scene, the deaths, the alien experiments, the ominous lighting and the semi-gritty tone, I think the film was going for a serious mood. Even worse than the mixed tone signals is the slow pace. Jesus Christ, I was damn near going into a coma waiting for something to happen and then when it did...it was still boring!!! And who came up wit the idea of gold rustling, shell-less turtle aliens? What the fuck? Ahhhh, fuck it. Watch the movie if you want, it's not horrible, just completely lacking in imagination and cleverness. I could have written a better script than this soulless snoozer without even breaking a sweat.  It did have a great cast though.  If you need me I'll be in my room watching TREMORS and THE LAST STARFIGHTER.

One interesting thing the filmmakers could have done, but I guess it wasn't legally possible, was have Harrison Ford's character lose an alien artifact and then have Indiana Jones find it in the next Indy movie.