STARDUST MEMORIES (1980)

Sandy Bates (Allen) is a successful filmmaker who is completely stressed out with burden of success (leeches, pestering fans, strains on relationships, fake people, etc.), but worst of all he's unhappy. He's invited to a weekend film festival of his movies and during the festival he can't get a moments peace from the fans (one gets into his room late at night) and while trying to salvage his relationship with Isobel he finds himself attracted to the damaged Daisy (the wonderful Jessica Harper) but also haunted by memories of his past love Dorrie.

STARDUST MEMORIES is one of those films that gets even better with repeat viewings. I'm most definitely not a Allen expert, but I feel that a lot of people don't really see SM correctly. I have nothing to back up my theory but I believe (and I don't think this is a spoiler) that if you pay attention at the beginning of the film Bates is dreaming about Dorrie when the maid screams. He runs into the kitchen and sees the dead rabbit. At that point he looks at it and he goes into another dream. It immediately cuts to him arriving at the film festival (that he already stated he wasn't going to) and everybody is exaggerated and grotesque. It's all a fantasy. Then later, still in the fantasy, his fondest memory could very well be a scene from one of his movies. We never really get enough information about his relationship with Dorrie to tell whether it's real or not, but I like to think that it is a scene from a movie. Which is sad when you think about it...his fondest memory is a scene from a movie.

If you are a fan of Cinema then you owe it to yourself to watch STARDUST MEMORIES. It's better than I could ever express and a nice stepping stone into the films of Bergman and Fellini. Highly recommended.

Sharon Stone's film debut.

I might be out on a limb here, but is this scene a nod to WISE BLOOD?

CRY_WOLF (2005)

Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, but even with zero nudity, zero gore, almost zero blood, very little violence and maybe the lowest body count of any slasher movie ever...if you can even call CRY_WOLF a slasher movie...I kinda liked this movie. The biggest reason I liked it was the really hot red-haired chick from the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake and WRONG TURN was the main girl, but also because it was fairly well-written, except for the whole not being very violent bit.

A woman was recently murdered in the woods near a posh private high school. With Halloween approaching, some of the students think the murder is funny and decide to create a hoax mass email about how there's a serial killer called Wolf going around the country from campus to campus killing students and this is just the beginning of his reign of terror at Westlake Preparatory Academy. You can probably see how this is going to go.

I'd never even heard of CRY_WOLF before I bought it for $1 at a local used bookstore, but it wasn't bad and maybe even worth two dollars! The cast wasn't too annoying; the main chick is gorgeous; the story was entertaining even if it wasn't original; the school backgrounds looked nice; the pace was quick; I got a lot of laughs out of it...hell, give it a try and see what you think. It's at least worth a watch for horror fans. The weirdest thing was even though it was released in 2005 it looks like it was made in 1997.

A COLD NIGHT'S DEATH (1973)

Veteran actors Robert Culp and Eli Wallach are two scientists sent to a remote high altitude research station after the previous scientist, Vogel, quit responding to radio calls. Flown in by helicopter, Culp and Wallach find Vogel locked in the radio room with the window open. It was 20 below zero outside. The strange thing is Vogel had the keys to the locked door in his hand.

The pilot leaves and now Culp and Wallach are left alone high up on a mountain with only a few research monkeys locked in cages to keep them company. They settle into a daily routine, but soon strange things start happening...machines turned on, windows open, doors closed, the generator turned off. What the hell's going on around here?!

A COLD NIGHT'S DEATH originally aired as a ABC's "Movie of the Week" on January 30, 1973 and at only 74 minutes it packs in the story.  But even with it's economical storytelling, A COLD NIGHT'S DEATH isn't much more than an extended episode of "The Twilight Zone"...but a really good episode! For a one time watch, it's definitely worth checking out. On a side note: for nearly the entire film I found myself thinking about 1982's THE THING.

Recommended.

[Update 10/31/2022: This has nothing to do with the review, just thought it was interesting.  I'm currently reading an Adrian Monk mystery novel, "Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse" by Lee Goldberg, and one of the characters randomly starts talking about this movie.  Isn't that odd?]

You can see Eli's pants even though he's in the shower.