peanutthegreat

After seeing this (and The Hustler), I thought: why was there a sequel? The Hustler was perfect by itself, and it really didn't need a "Tom Cruise 80's Movie" to be its sequel. The plot was overdone at times, and way underdone at other times. Some of the camera shots were inventive, but did not help the film one bit. Surprising disappointment at Scorsese's The King of Comedy. The acting was also a major problem. Tom Cruise swinging a pool-stick around kung fu style with "Werewolf of London" playing throughout was silly, and even Paul Newman -- possibly the greatest living actor -- was not at his best. If he did not win an Academy Award for The Hustler, then this performance did not deserve it. I'm not saying he wasn't good, because he was, but his given far better performances.

I watched "El Mariachi" shortly before "Desperado." Mariachi is not only a great independent film, but one of the best films of the nineties, easily. Robert Rodriguez showed a great amount of talent as both a Director and a Writer. Desperado, however, played out more like a music video than anything. It starts off with Steve Buscemi telling a story about a killer-mariachi, followed by Antonio Banderas shooting up a bunch of people. If it was supposed to be funny or violent (or both), I'm not sure: it came across as silly, and pointless. Anyone looking for a cool shootout should look elsewhere, such as Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch." As for Banderas' acting, it's not much more than shooting people. Those who do not like him will not start liking him from his performance here. Then comes a part of the film that made me cringe: the ending of "El Mariachi," re-edited to stick Antonio Banderas in Carlos Gallardo's place. Liking Mariachi and Gallardo as much as I do, and equally disliking Antonio Banderas, it was not much longer before I shut it off. I realize that being Robert Rodriguez's films, he can do what he wants. But why Banderas? And how come the scene from Mariachi that was flashbacked did not have the consequence on the mariachi-character that it should have? I think that this was about the point that some guys walked into a bar where Banderas was singing/dancing more like a rock band than a mariachi singer, and if I remember right, he either killed them, or they were hallucinations. Then, some of the other characters that were introduced earlier in the film get killed in a bar/restroom. Within minutes, I turned the vcr off: Desperado had no chance for redemption at this point. It was like a comedy that wasn't funny, a violent action flick that was cheesy and unrealistic, a sequel that was unworthy and illogical, and on top of all of this, a cast that was, for the most part, rank.

"Song of the Thin Man" was probably my least favorite of the entire "Thin Man" series. After watching something like ten hours worth of Thin Man, the ending to "Song of the Thin Man" was very disappointing. They left it open as if they already had plans for another sequel. It is an entertaining film, but not quite as good as the other Thin Men. It seems that William Powell and Myrna Loy drank less and less with each passing Thin Man, and that made the older ones better. "Song of the Thin Man" wasn't bad, however. It had some very funny stuff, like the scenes where the Charles' were going to different jam sessions, trying to find the missing clarinet player, and Nick Charles wasn't picking up on the dialogue. My favorite part of this film comes at one such point where Myrna Loy says, "Mr. Charles is a bit of a schmoe." The way the mystery was solved at the end of "Song of the Thin Man" was not as good as in the older ones: it seemed rushed, like the writers ran out of ideas. the unusual thing about watching this film was that it seemed like William Powell was as old as he was when the series started, but Myrna Loy seemed much, much older. In reality, though, when the series ended, Loy was at the age that Powell was when it started. I guess the real problem with this film was that it ended the entire series, but it left a feeling like there should have been more to it. It didn't say what happened afterwards, whether Nick retires, or does he continue to work as a detective?