FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940)

In the months leading up to WWII an American newspaper boss is frustrated with the lack of reliable information coming from his foreign correspondents, so he assigns a no nonsense crime reporter (McCrea) to the task.  McCrea's first assignment in Europe is to interview a Dutch diplomat named Van Meer.  Things happen and Van Meer is assassinated as he's talking to McCrea.  McCrea chases the killer and in doing so discovers that the victim of the killing was a double and Van Meer is actually alive!  McCrea is persuaded to briefly hold on to this information while they try to rescue Van Meer.  Meanwhile, enemy assassins are trying to kill McCrea and suppress his story.

I wasn't all that impressed with FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT.  The assassination scene and the subsequent chase scene are both well made and exciting...although the cops reaction times during the assassination were pathetic.  Other than those two sections (and a few bright moments with Laraine Day as McCrea's love interest), the rest of the movie is pretty dull.  Yeah, I'm sure audiences were thrilled at the airplane scene (although not too thrilled since the film lost money), but watching it nowadays it just doesn't hold up.  Moderate pace that needed speeding up, average acting, a large number of distracting mistakes, lots of scenes are obviously rear projected, heavy-handed propaganda throughout including the ending.  Worth a watch for those interested in Alfred Hitchcock, but it's nothing to get overly excited for.

After watching the film I did some reading up and I found this interesting quote from Joel McCrea talking about Hitchcock: "He had a habit of drinking champagne for lunch and I remember one day after lunch we shot a boring scene with me just standing there talking.  After it was over I expected to hear him call 'cut', but I looked over and he was sleeping, snoring with his lips sticking out.  I called for the cut, he woke up and asked if the scene was good.  I said 'The best in the picture.' and he said, 'Print it.'"

Lights above the set clearly visible.

"Excuse me sir, it appears your mustache has fallen off."

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994)

Insurance investigator Sam Neill is hired by a publishing house to find their lost horror writer, Sutter Cane.  Using clues from Cane's book covers, Neill discovers a map that leads him to the fictional town of Hobb's End, which is the setting in many of Cane's novels.  Progressively creepy stuff happens (reoccurring bicycle rider on the road, paintings moving, phantom children, evil dogs, mutants, tentacles, dogs and cats living together) and soon Neill discovers that he's in a world of shit.

Time has not been kind to IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS.  The last time I last saw it was back in 1995 when it first came out in the theaters and I thought it was pretty creepy.  Revisiting it now...not so much.  Actually, it's not even creepy at all.  Instead the whole thing looks cheap around the edges, the story isn't near as grand as it promises to be, there's barely any violence, the only female with descent screentime to the unsexy "sexy" vampire from FRIGHT NIGHT II, the story drags on without any payoff, Sam Neill's performance comes off much campier than I remembered and the intro credit song by John Carpenter is like a bizarre lovechild of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Enter Sandman".

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS isn't a bad movie, it's just dedicates so much energy into this whole perverted reality "are we living in a book?" bullshit that it forgets to actually have any scary moments.  Worth a watch for fans of 90's horror, but it's nothing to get excited about.  If you want me I'll be in my room watching PRINCE OF DARKNESS.

THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987)

In 1930, Al Capone (Robert De Niro) was one of the most powerful gangsters in America.  Most of his power, wealth and influence came from the US government's brilliant decision to make booze illegal.  Thanks to Prohibition, organized crime syndicates got a massive boost.  It's estimated that, during the Prohibition, the illegal alcohol beverage industry averaged $3 billion per year in illegal untaxed income!  Rather than just repealing Prohibition, the government sends in Prohibition agent Kevin Costner to take down Capone.  Costner quickly learns that Capone has the police in his back pocket, so he assembles a tight-knit group of agents that a willing to risk everything to stop Capone illegal shenanigans.  He calls them...Hero Squad, I mean, The Untouchables. 

That sounds exciting...a government-backed special agent versus a ruthless gangster who has more money than god.  If it was told in a cynical, dark and extremely violent way it would be awesome!  Instead Brian De Palma's THE UNTOUCHABLES just isn't very good.  The acting is laughable (1987 must have been an absolute crap year for movies for Sean Connery to actually win an Academy Award for his totally average performance.  Then again the award probably should have just gone to R. Lee Ermey for FULL METAL JACKET), the music (while by itself is fine) is sometimes jarringly out of place in this film (example: the happy sounding music during the horse riding scene...the nerdy accountant gleefully yelling "Woooooo!!!" didn't help things either), the story is telegraphed way in advance and has zero tension...and the direction!  Ohh brother. I've never been an admirer of De Palma and this film does nothing to change that.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but the entire way this movie looked just irritated me.  It looked like a movie.  Staged and unnatural.

Also for a movie being about Al Capone there's very little Al Capone in the film.  I think he had like 6 - 7 scenes total and none of them were very long.  Skip it. If you need me I'll be in my room watching "Boardwalk Empire".

 The guy in the middle of the screen looks like he twisted his ankle.

 "Yearbook"?  Don't you mean "textbook"?

 After the hand grenade lands for the second(!) time the explosion comes from out of the ground beside it.