Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > The Lighter Side
ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!
Fran:
From IMDb: Television made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is the story of a legendary showman's double life - television producer by day, CIA assassin by night. At the height of his TV career, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA and trained to become a covert operative. Or so Barris said.
=reply= Sandy
Thanks.
memento:
From a dissatisfied reviewer on IMDB: Okay, so Elvis Presley movies aren't the creme de la creme of the cinema, but " Double Trouble" really scrapes the barrel's bottom. Despite it being 1967, the film seems to take place in a 1930s screwball surreality, with a teenage heiress being followed by bad guys and Elvis alternately in love with her and the numerous other girls on the trail. He plays a rock singer touring smoky dives overseas, and newcomer Annette Day is his 17-year-old main squeeze ("18 in only four days!"). There must have been no shortage of nubile young actresses in 1967 who would've loved a co-starring part in a Presley picture, so why the producers picked sugary, harmless Annette Day is anybody's guess (she looks and sounds like Samantha Eggar's baby sister--with Deborah Walley's hairdo). An embarrassing movie for all concerned, and arguably Elvis' worst. NO STARS from ****
oilgun:
Stuck in a Christian 'rehabilitation' camp, Ming recalls his double life, a whirlwind of sex and drugs as a rent boy, and a sedate, romantic life with the older and more conservative Yen. Secrets and lies haunt their relationship, as Ming's mother confronts her son's sexuality in a most extreme fashion and Yen tries to get Ming to give up hustling.
Fran:
Original title: Flammen & Citronen
From IMDb: During Nazi occupation, red-headed Bent Faurschou-Hviid ("Flame") and Jørgen Haagen Schmith ("Citron"), assassins in the Danish resistance, take orders from Winther, who's in direct contact with Allied leaders. One shoots, the other drives. Until 1944, they kill only Danes; then Winther gives orders to kill Germans. When a target tells Bent that Winther's using them to settle private scores, doubt sets in, complicated by Bent's relationship with the mysterious Kitty Selmer, who may be a double agent. Also, someone in their circle is a traitor. Can Bent and Jørgen kill an über-target, evade capture, and survive the war? And is this heroism, naiveté, or mere hatred?
memento:
IMDB: Set on the scenic French Riviera, Neil Jordan's `The Good Thief' is a remake of 1955's `Bob Le Flambeur,' a Gallic film that enjoyed a successful re-release in this country a few years back. This new version is a stylish caper film about an aging master criminal who comes out of retirement to help lift some priceless paintings from a Monte Carlo casino.
In terms of plotting, there is little that we haven't seen in this type of film before. First, there's the idea for the heist, then the wooing of the reluctant `reformed' criminal, then the gathering of the other participants, then the intricate planning and rehearsing for the job, followed by the inevitable double dealing and double crosses, and ending with the sly turnabout ending to set our heads spinning and make us question everything we have seen heretofore. But Jordan has a knack for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, and this he accomplishes with a complex screenplay, a strong sense of atmosphere, a host of well-developed characters, a sly sense of humor and an assortment of first-rate performances from a talented cast. Nick Nolte is superb as Bob, a shrewd, world-weary thief who is also a compulsive gambler and drug addict. Needless to say, the role seems tailor made for the star. Most of the rest of the cast is made up of French or Eastern European actors, all of whom do a fine job in their assorted roles.
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