AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER (2002) - Review

Austin Powers in Goldmember

Action/Adventure/Comedy
1 hour and 34 minutes
Rated: PG-13

Written by: Mike Myers & Michael McCullers
Directed by: Jay Roach
Produced by: John S. Lyons, Eric McLeod, Demi Moore, Mike Myers, Jennifer Todd, and Suzanne Todd

Cast:
Mike Myers
Beyoncé Knowles
Seth Green
Michael York
Robert Wagner
Mindy Sterling
Verne Troyer
Michael Caine

The grooviest movie of the summer has a secret, baby!

Following the enormous successes of both Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Austin Powers: They Spy Who Shagged Me, it seemed only logical that actor and creative mastermind behind the films Mike Myers would continue to ride the gravy train for as long as economically possible. After all, the James Bond franchise, which the Austin Powers films directly spoof, had been going strong for twenty movies up until the time of Austin Powers in Goldmember was released. Who was to say the success of Austin Powers ever had to stop? Goldmember, like its two predecessors, did prove to be a success, likely performing as well as it did on the established fanbase of the franchise alone. That being said, Goldmember was a genuinely funny movie, however it did not measure up when it comes to the quality of the other two films in the series.

To begin with, there's much to like about Goldmember. Many of the jokes and avenues explored within its story are fresh and new. Like its predecessors, not a moment is wasted in Goldmember in referencing and poking fun at the James Bond movies - as well as other spy and action films of the past. The Japan setting offers some humorous jabs toward the Bond films of the 1960s, arguably the bread and butter behind the entire Austin Powers franchise, by spoofing the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice. A sumo wrestling stakeout as well as some corporate espionage are all direct nods to this film. Similarly, the sequence involving a fist fight between Powers and series staple Fat Bastard leads to a hilarious take on the famous sequence from Live and Let Die where James Bond escapes danger by running across the backs of crocodiles. Powers must, instead, run across the stomachs of bathing sumo wrestlers in order to avoid Fat Bastard.

The character of Foxy Cleopatra, played terrifically by Beyoncé Knowles, is another direct reference to the action films of yesteryear. Foxy Cleopatra is clearly a riff on Foxy Brown and other blaxploitation heroines of the 1970s, particularly those played by genre legend Pam Grier. Knowles confirmed this in interviews for the film, stating she watched Grier's movies in order to prepare for the role. Knowles's Cleopatra is a hilarious edition to the Austin Powers universe.

Similarly, other knew characters are introduced and fit right in with the returning ones that fans have come to love. Best of all is Mike Myers playing Freaky Deaky Dutch villain Goldmember. Goldmember's bizarre foreign and stereotypical qualities as well as his .... well, namesake, nod directly to Bond villains of the past, in particular Auric Goldfinger. Another brilliant edition is Michael Caine as Nigel Powers, Austin's faja ... or father. Caine showcases his terrific abilities as a comedic performer, and the scenes where he and Myers riff off of one another are truly comedic gold, and were undoubtedly improvised given the level of talent the two men hold.

All of these additions, as well as the familiar characters that the fanbase has come to love, make Goldmember feel fresh in many ways, and lend to it being a funnier movie than any sequel has any credit in being. However, Goldmember remains what is probably the weakest entry within the Austin Powers franchise for a number of reasons.

For starters, many of the previous jokes that were made in the first two Austin Powers movies are recycled into this one. While it's easy to understand why - if it ain't broke, don't fix it - one would much rather have seen Myers and director Jay Roach take the time to come up with more new material. After all, what made The Spy Who Shagged Me a sequel that was on par with the first film in the series was that it hardly utilized recycled jokes, and mainly focused on new material. This is not how Goldmember turned out. So many recycled jokes are present, that at one point the movie even pokes fun at itself for doing so. Which leads into the next problem with Goldmember, its persistent breaking of the fourth wall. In some cases, this too is humorous. But the truth is none of the meta jokes in Goldmember receive the kind of laughs as the original ones delivered within. 

Equally problematic is the film's third act. By this point it just feels as if Myers and Roach were looking for some way in which they could wrap up the film (and possibly even the franchise) and panicked because they realized they were entirely out of ideas, and did not want to recycle the endings of the first two (despite their recycling of literally everything else). One wishes they would have taken a little more time to flesh out the story and maybe watch some more James Bond movies for inspiration. Instead, what we're given is an uninspired deus ex machina of a conclusion, that undoubtedly left more fans saying, "really?" than it did laughing.

While it is still a movie packed full of hilarious moments, and one whose newest characters add enough levels of fresh humor to make it an entertaining watch, Austin Powers in Goldmember ultimately fails to live up to the comedic precedent set by its two predecessors in the franchise. Its recycling of jokes from those movies, its meta references, and its completely uninspired conclusion would likely leave even the most ardent Austin Powers or Mike Myers fans feeling in more ways than one let down.

5.5/10

CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) - Review

Carnival of Souls

Horror/Mystery
1 hour and 18 minutes
Rated: PG

Written by: John Clifford
Directed by: Herk Harvey
Produced by: Herk Harvey

Cast:
Candace Hilligoss
Frances Feist
Sidney Berger
Art Ellison

She Escaped Death. Now It Wants Her Back!

With the booming of drive-in culture really reaching its peak in the late-1950s, the time frame of the 1950s until around the mid to late 1960s saw a plethora of B-genre movies being produced, most with the intention of filling out double or triple feature billings, simply because there was a market for them. In the cities, grind houses churned these movies out just as rapidly as the rural drive-ins could, and teenagers and youngsters everywhere were hardly ever deprived from a vast array of choices when it came to B-genre cinema. Most of these films lacked much in the way of quality, even though most remain to this day quite fun and amusing. However, every once in a while a B-movie would come along that would genuinely surprise its audience with its overall content pegging it as being much more brilliant than the labeling of B-cinema could merit it.

Such is the case for Herk Harvey's 1962 supernatural horror film Carnival of Souls. The motion-picture stems entirely around a simple but brilliant concept that Harvey masterfully never loses sight of. In essence, the main premise of Carnival of Souls never fades to the sidelines, and Harvey magnificently weaves the suspense and terror around it at all times. He was a filmmaker who clearly understood the importance of story over all other elements.

And yet Carnival of Souls has been ripped apart over the years as being a sexist allegory - or at the very least a sexist product of its times - commenting on the now debunked theory of female hysteria. While there are certainly arguments to be made that are credible if one chooses to view the film in this light, it seems as if Harvey was much more interested in paranoia and the inescapability of death - i.e. mortality - than he was with commenting on female pseudo-psychology. Carnival of Souls would not function any differently as a film if its protagonist were male, and this is again because Harvey's point seems to be an examination of paranoia surrounding one's own mortality. While the female figure, played by Candace Hilligoss, on surface levels does come across as a helpless damsel in distress, Carnival of Souls doesn't fall into the trappings of other 1960s B-horror movies riddled with sexism by having a male hero save her, or attempt to save her. Hilligoss's character, Mary Henry, must find her own answers - something she at first seems incapable of doing due to her fear and paranoia. But by the film's end, Mary answers the call. She finds it within herself to face down what's been haunting her all along to find her conclusions - as dangerous as they may be.

Also undermining the sexism claims are Mary's abilities to fend off the advances of her brutish and overtly rape-y neighbor John Linden, played by Sidney Berger. If Mary were really the helpless damsel in distress one of two things would have come about from her interactions with John: 1) she would have succumbed to his grim intentions, or 2) some other alfa-male figure would have stepped in and saved her from John. Instead, Mary is capable of keeping John at bay all on her own, until finally her sweeping paranoia drives him completely away from her. 

Within the story, Harvey manages to create some truly terrifying and sinister moments of atmospheric  horror genius. These begin with Mary's stumbling out of a river - still alive after a fatal car crash. They continue to moments involving the ghostly figure of a man's white, lifeless visage haunting her throughout her new life in Utah. These all lead up to the climax of Carnival of Souls, a brilliant descent into paranoia and madness that is masterfully orchestrated and without a doubt one of the scariest, one of the most beautiful, and one of the most memorable conclusions to any supernatural horror film, B-movie or mainstream, from this era.

Just as brilliant as the film's story are its technical aspects. Carnival of Souls is beautifully photographed by cinematographer Maurice Prather. Prather managed to capture the two worlds of both day and night, as well as Mary's paranoia versus her functioning state in a gorgeous manner. Certain set pieces never seemed to be photographed the same way twice, mirroring this duality of worlds. Prather brilliantly shows us a Utah church, an abandoned carnival, and even a room in a boarding house in two different lights. First as something grand, but seemingly normal, then as something dark and sinister, filled with shadows and unknown spaces. Editors Bill de Jarnette and Dan Palmquist utilize seamless transitions in certain moments to create the illusion that all these spaces are somehow sinisterly connected. Perhaps their weird wash-transition to indicate Mary's slipping out of reality is the only moment of editing that comes across as a bit hokey, but even this is easily forgiven. 

But the most brilliant technical aspect of the film is its score. Composer Gene Moore, like director Herk Harvey, seemed to understand the brilliance surrounding the idea of keeping things simplistic. Moore's score for Carnival of Souls, entirely performed via the pipe organ, flutters between the church-like and angelic and the sinister and bizarre notes of a carnival calliope. This, like the cinematography and editing, helps to create the worlds of the living and the dead while simultaneously blending the two together in a connecting and seamless fashion.

The performances in Carnival of Souls are effective enough for its being a B-movie, and Candace Hilligoss does manage to appear genuinely frightened in sequences that merit her character as being so. Moments of extended dialogue, however, seem to reveal the casts' shortcomings as actors. Still, this does not ruin the viewing experience of the film, since, again, director Herk Harvey was most interested on focusing upon the story of Carnival of Souls, keeping that as the main focal point - not the characters.

Featuring brilliant direction, an intriguing concept, and incredible technical qualities including gorgeous cinematography, effective editing, some truly creepy makeup effects, and an outstanding score, Carnival of Souls manages to triumph over its few shortcomings as well as its B-movie label by being a much more brilliant motion-picture than that particular marking would otherwise suggest its being.

8.5/10

A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964) - Review

A Fistful of Dollars

Western
1 hour and 39 minutes
Rated: R

Written by: Victor Andrés Catena, Jaime Comas Gil, and Sergio Leone
Directed by: Sergio Leone
Produced by: Arrigo Colombo & Giorgio Papi

Cast:
Clint Eastwood
Marianne Koch
Josef Edger
Wolfgang Lukschy
Gian Maria Volontè

This is the man with no name. Danger fits him like a glove.

While European filmmakers had dabbled in the western genre for as long as their American counterparts, the general European-filmgoing public didn't pay much attention to this particular genre up until the mid-1960s. Prior to its success, it was the peplum, or genre of gladiator movies, that Italian filmmakers and audiences set their interests on. Much like the spaghetti western craze that followed it, peplum films even utilized waning American actors to their benefit (Christopher Reeves was a popular name within the genre). But, of course, genre fads die off and are replaced with new interests. With the release of Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, the spaghetti, or Italowestern, had finally managed to grab a foothold with audiences not just in Europe, but across the globe.

But what set A Fistful of Dollars apart from the Eurowesterns that came before it? How did Leone manage to find success with his visionary film that so many other Italian filmmakers missed out on? The biggest and most obvious answer to these questions is that Leone managed to create something completely different within an already familiar genre. Whereas the Eurowesterns that came before it attempted to copy the much more popular American-made westerns in both stylization and characterization, Leone threw all of these genre hangups entirely out the window. Gone is the likable hero riding in on a white horse to save the day. Gone is the damsel in distress that serves as a romantic driving force for the film's hero. Gone is the man in black antagonist whose motivations seem to be purely evil, and completely polar opposite to the driving forces of the morally incorruptible protagonist. Gone are the Native Americans, grossly misrepresented. No, Leone's film may not be the first Eurowestern to physically exist, but as far as the precedents it established, A Fistful of Dollars is unquestionably the first ever true spaghetti western.

The film's hero, an antihero known only as the Man with No Name (yes, the coffin maker refers to him as, "Joe" throughout, but one gets the impression this character might refer to all yankee men with this namesake) replaces the typical morally pure western hero archetype. The Man with No Name is only interested in one thing and one thing only, his own self preservation and enrichment. While there are indeed moments of good that shine through from this character - his rescuing of Marisol and reuniting her with her family, as well as his saving Silvanito in the film's climax (this is perhaps mainly because the Man with No Name is fiscally indebted to Silvanito) - one gets the impression that these slight motivations of good and morality driven actions are not as important to the characterization of the Man with No Name. The point is made clear from the start. This is a man who enjoys profiting from toying with and killing other outlaws. He is not really a man who can be trusted. And yet we as an audience are endeared to him. Leone understood the irony behind taking an otherwise unlikable character and placing him at the center of the story as the "hero.". It allows for this fantasy world of the Wild West to be built around him. If he's the most likable or trustworthy figure, then surely the rest of this world is going to be gritty, brutal, nasty, and nihilistic in nature - all of which Leone creates here and would become staples of every spaghetti western that would follow A Fistful of Dollars.

Helping to further convey this gritty and hardedge vision of the west are the film's technical aspects. Cinematographer Massimo Dallamano gave the film an overall bright and sun-scorched image, so much so that even sequences filmed at night feel impossibly bright, as if there is no where to run and hide from the hard gazes of outlaws. While the film lacks the overall grand imagery that would become prominent in Leone's follow up westerns, as well as some of the westerns helmed by other Italian filmmakers, A Fistful of Dollars uses its ultra-low budget to its advantage. The single location of an out-of-sight, lawless bordertown feels genuine, and matches the rundown, gritty tone that permeates the story of the film. Similarly, the town's open and empty feeling also mirror the inescapability and hopelessness that Leone wished to create with his vision of the west.

The film's performances are remarkable, especially when considering the cast was comprised of either actors who were relatively green in experience and at the time were nobodies. Clint Eastwood obviously embodies the Man with No Name with all the conviction and believability of a seasoned character actor. There is a clear reason why this has remained his most iconic character that he has portrayed, maybe only rivaled by Dirty Harry. The supporting cast is equally impressive, with José Calvo as the irritable Silvanito constantly reminding the man with no name of the ugliness and realities of the world he occupies. These sequences serve as a sickly comedic reminder of the rather grim undertones of the movie. Most astonishing is spaghetti western icon Gian Maria Volontè as the film's villain Ramon Rojo. As Ramon, Gian creates a deeply ugly and twisted villain - a sadistic killer - but one who serves to mirror qualities present inside the film's hero. The two are opposite sides of the same coin, or maybe even just the same side of the same coin, one half of which is just a little more gritty. The exchanges between Volontè and Eastwood throughout the film are unquestionably the most enjoyable moments within A Fistful of Dollars and the final showdown between the two - while maybe not as epic in terms of scale in comparison to the conclusions of Leone's other westerns - is truly remarkable to behold, and the tension therein is both palpable and powerful.

The glaring problem with A Fistful of Dollars, despite all its amazing innovations to the genre of the western, is of course that it is a blatant ripoff of the Akira Kurosawa samurai film Yojimbo. This is unfortunate since Leone would later prove himself an ingenious storyteller - one arguably on the same level as Kurosawa - with his later films: For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, Duck, You Sucker, and Once Upon a Time in America are all brilliantly original and well-crafted stories. Why Leone chose to follow Kurosawa's story so closely - merely transposing its setting to the American west - is bizarre. Perhaps his confidence in himself as a filmmaker and storyteller had not yet reached the levels that it would once he achieved fame and respect with the release of A Fistful of Dollars.

Despite its unoriginal story, A Fistful of Dollars remains an incredibly innovative and important motion-picture that set the precedents and rules regarding all Italian-made, and really even American made, westerns that would follow in the wake of its enormous success. By throwing away the genre conventions and operating on his own intuition, Leone created a masterful film that can genuinely be called the first ever true spaghetti western.

9/10