The Undefeated (1969) – At the end of the Civil War, northerner John Wayne is happy to take the remaining cavalrymen who followed him into war out West to catch wild horses to sell to the Army. Southern officer and gentlemen Rock Hudson, meanwhile, burns his plantation house rather than let it fall into northern hands, and he and his soldiers and their family, in plainclothes but still loyal to the South, take up Mexico’s Emperor Maximilian on an offer to join him. Wayne’s and Hudson’s people run into each other a couple of times in the West, and a grudging admiration between honorable ex-enemies forms.
Most stunning for modern eyes is the good-ol’-fashioned brawl scene, when the northerners and southerners, come together for a Fourth of July celebration, blow off steam by pounding the crap out of each other. The womenfolk are horrified, of course, but Wayne and Hudson stand by, looking on approvingly; it’s an acceptance of “violence as male bonding” that you don’t normally see these days.
John Dies at the End (2012) – I’m not sure what I think of this one. A lot of fast-paced creativity and mind-bending post twistiness; on the other hand, I never figured out how the first ten minutes fit into the rest of the story, either chronologically or dramatically. Also, the final revelation about Paul Giamatti’s character pretty much negated all of the super-mind-power tricks that we began the movie with. Adapted from David Wong’s novel by director Don Coscarelli, it shares a feel with Coscarelli’s original Phantasm movies, including the sense that things are dancing just outside of being satisfying.
A Christmas Carol (1999) – I know, it’s not much of a stretch for Patrick Stewart to play “crotchety Brit” (see also his turn as Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (1998)), but he still does it so well. I had also forgotten that Richard E. Grant plays Bob Cratchit — I’m not saying that Grant has a wider range than Stewart, but he is called to demonstrate a wider range in his roles. Aside from the costume design for the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (which seems more like some kind of anime-inspired cosplay) and some digital effects which the producers should have known better than to linger on so lovingly, it’s a commendable adaptation. (But my favorite is still the 1951 version starring Alastair Sim.)
Abandoned movies: Firepower (1979), Deadly Blessing (1981), Karate Killer (1976)
I remember thinking John Dies at the End turns into a completely different movie in the third. Unfortunately, a movie that I didn’t really enjoy all that much.
I think there was way too much setup which never led to a payoff.