CITY ON FIRE (1979)

The star-studded cast can't hide the fact that the story for this movie suuuuuccckkkks.  After being introduced to all of the (bland) characters, we're finally treated to this nameless city blowing the fuck up (thanks to a disgruntled oil refinery employee) and...it's pretty boring.  Poorly photographed explosions mixed in with stock footage.  The story eventually focuses in on some firemen's efforts to rescue the people trapped in a hospital and...that's boring as well.  In fact, there's nothing about CITY ON FIRE that isn't boring!  Boring script, boring special effects, boring photography, boring acting.  I really enjoy disaster movies, but CITY ON FIRE straight-up bored me to death.  Which is a shame since Henry Fonda and Shelley Winters are both amazing talents (just watch MISTER ROBERTS or A PLACE IN THE SUN if you don't believe me), but they are strictly on auto-pilot here.  Collecting a paycheck.

Outside of morbid curiosity or self-hatred, I can't think of too many reasons to ever subject yourself to this overcooked turkey.  Skip it with a vengeance.

According to Box Office Mojo, CITY ON FIRE cost $5.3 million to make and only brought in $784,000.  That's kinda funny.

Eating egg shells.

HIGH AND LOW (1963)

"Success isn't worth losing your humanity."

Just as a wealthy businessman, Toshiro Mifune, is on the verge of spending every single yen he has on a stock deal that will give him control of the corporation that he works for, he receives a phone call that will change his life forever: his only son has been kidnapped!  The kidnapper wants a massive ransom that will financially break Mifune, but he agrees.  The kidnapper promises to call back with instructions and right as Mifune is discussing things with his frantic wife...his son walks in.  Wat da fuq?  Ends up the kidnapper accidentally kidnapped Mifune's chauffeur's son instead of Mifune's kid.  Now Mifune must decide if he should risk certain financial destruction for an employee's child.  He must also ask himself "If I don't, will my wife ever have sex with me again?"

I love police procedurals, especially when the investigation is headed up by Tatsuya Nakadai!  He's one of my absolute favorite actors and seeing him and Mifune together is always exciting.  Takashi Shimura also shows up as a cop, but for whatever reason his role is very small.  I was really disappointed by that.  Anyway, HIGH AND LOW is a very well made film with an exciting story, awesome camera work (the train scene was bad ass) and top-notch acting by an impressive cast full of familiar faces.

A few minor complaints would be: the runtime (143 minutes) is a little too long and the cops...not only did they do a terrible job at tailing the kidnapper on foot (how he never spotted them is beyond me), but they were 100% responsible for that one woman's death!  Then again, maybe that was done on purpose to show that the police only care about protecting wealthy people, even at the expense of letting a penniless drug addict die.

Definitely worth a watch for fans of Japanese cinema and good movies in general.

I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965)

Three young girls (who are as naive as they are stupid) spend an evening prank calling random people. One of their calls triggers a psychotic guy (John Ireland) into murdering his wife and then later on, when they call back saying "I know what you did and I know who you are." he flips out again and murders his nosy neighbor (Joan Crawford)!  Now the only thing he needs to do is silence the person on the phone.

Logic and reality are thrown far, far out the window, but it doesn't matter because I SAW WHAT YOU DID is so campy that I don't see how anybody could watch it and not laugh themselves silly. On the one hand, it tries to pass itself off as a thriller, while at the same time the music would be more suited for a Scooby-Doo cartoon and the teenage girls are just so carefree it's hilarious. Especially towards the end. Holy shit, I don't think I've seen anybody so carefree about nearly getting murdered since THE YOUNG GRADUATES!

John Ireland does a great job as the unhinged killer, Joan Crawford is Joan Crawford and the two actresses playing the teenage girls...well, they're not very good, but their goofy acting actually adds to the charm of the movie. If you're looking for a real horror movie then you'll be disappointed, but if you're just looking for something funny to giggle at then I SAW WHAT YOU DID should fit the bill.

It was kinda interesting to see how this film turned the tables on the infamous PSYCHO shower scene (with the killer being in the shower and the victim being outside) and how the feel and look (especially towards the end) of the movie actually foreshadowed many of the Slasher films that would follow in the coming decades.

Remake - I Saw What You Did (1988)