Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Dr. Whom]

Napoléon (1927)

To be fair, I haven't finished it yet. It is a whopping 560 minutes, but at the three hour mark, I feel I can already say something.

Incredibly, given this length, this is just about the first part of Napoleon's career. Wikipedia tells me this was supposed to be the first of six films, enough to dwarf any LotR marathon. This is my main complaint with the movie so far: it is terribly slow. Every known anecdote or famous quotation must be incorporated in the script. As I said, I'm three hours in, and Napoleon is just about to depart for Italy.
Also, this is pure and undiluted hero-worship. Abel Gance buys into the Napoleon myth 200%. Your milage may vary.
Thirdly it is more of documentary than a dramatic narrative. Events just unfold, in great detail.

All this makes it very much a test of endurance. It does contain some very impressive imagery. There are a lot of location shots (I guess in 1927 it was easier to find places that still looked like the late 1790s). One nice feature is that every time an important character is introduced, you get a text plate explaining who it is and who is playing them. They might want to reintroduce that in modern movies.

I'll return to it after I've finished it.

[Rev. Powell]

Tornado - A sort of samurai revenge film but in 1790 Scotland.  From the director of Slow West.  Have to say, I liked Slow West a lot better than this one.  Some beautiful cinematography, but most of this just feels empty.  Like literally, long still shots of nothing much, and not in an intriguing way.  I wasn't exactly bored, but not enthralled.  It also does this trope I've never quite understood, where characters just walk out to confront someone then do literally nothing but stand there for a minute and get shot.  Weird stylistic editing that doesn't work for me either. 

Didn't quite work as it should have. Opening scenes were good, Tim Roth as the villain was good, idea of samurai in a western-style setting was good, but by the end it seemed to squander all those assets.

[M.10rda]

Doctor, I recall from my youth that when Gance's NAPOLEON was discussed, it was referred to as being much longer than 560 minutes - like somewhere in the 17-25 hour range. Was there once a version that was that long, but the majority of it has been lost? Or (as you suggest in your review) did Gance intend that length but he just never managed to produce the balance?

[chainsaw midget]

"Agent 008: Operation Exterminate" (1965)
An entertainingly silly Italian-made James Bond knock-off, with a British spy (Alberto Lupo) sent to Cairo to team up with a lovely American agent (Ingrid Schoeller) and keep some "anti-radar technology" out of enemy hands. So basically it's 90 minutes of poorly dubbed gibberish full of car chases, fistfights, and exotic Egyptian scenery. Not the worst "Eurospy" film I've seen, but there are better ones out there. Directed by Umberto Lenzi, later of "Cannibal Ferox" and "Nightmare City" fame.

"Rock & Rule" (1983)
In a post-apocalyptic world, an aging rock star kidnaps a young singer whose voice will break down the barriers to another dimension and grant him ultimate power ... or something like that.
This dreary "adult" animated musical sci-fi adventure ala "Heavy Metal," makes almost zero sense -- the plot is a confused muddle and the animation is choppy. There's some cool music by Cheap Trick, Lou Reed, and Debbie Harry, but none of it is enough to save this mess.
AVOID.

Honestly, I thought the fact that it made almost no sense actually worked in it's favor.