jbfichera Reviews

Eric Clapton and His Rolling Hotel (1981)

A rare gem! For any fan of Clapton and Rock 'n' Roll

[20 April 2004]

"In 1979 Eric Clapton put his band in a three-carriage train and traveled from town to town throughout Europe, from one concert to the next. It was an easy way to transport and house the band and its equipment, and it offered ample opportunity for interviews, group interactions, and filming. Clapton talks about his music and his work and peaks the viewer's interest with stories about musicians like Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison. Interviews are balanced with performances by Muddy Waters, Elton John, and George Harrison, as well as Clapton and his band in full concert."

This extremely rare (and sought after) film is not great, but it is very interesting and revealing. The film acts as a very good and non-glamerous portrait of a band on the road and captures Clapton at the height of his alcohol addiction. It paints a very unflattering picture of the rock legend who is intoxicated for the entire film. At one point Clapton and his crew play a very cruel joke on a French journalist who interviews and photographs Eric's American security guard Larry Mcneny, believing him to be Clapton.

The highlights of the film are the alcohol influenced interviews with the fragile and insecure guitarist. In them he talks about his career, his relationship with Patti Boyd and the writing of the song `Layla' (which Patti herself also comments on). The most revealing and beautifully "real" moments of the documentary come when Clapton speaks in-depth about the night that Jimi Hendrix died and his anger toward Hendrix for leaving him all alone in this world. He also discusses his audiences, their response to his music and the insecurities he feels when they walk out while he is playing.

As I already stated, this is not a great film, but it does show a side of rock 'n' roll and more specifically Clapton that most people don't get to see. A completely open and sympathetic Clapton, as well as rare concert footage, make this documentary a must for any fan.

Resurrection (1999)

One of Lambert's best!

[8/10 · 20 August 2002]

We all him as the original Highlander and as Rayden in the first Mortal Kombat film, but Christopher Lambert has been around for awhile and has made a pretty impressive number of films (however the quality of many of them is not that impressive). Though many of his films lack something to be desired he has made some classics and he always brings in a solid "Lambert" performance and every now and then he brings in a performance that even surpasses that. Resurrection happens to be one of those performances.

The film itself is actually quite good and it is a bit of a shame that it did not get a wide release in theaters, but unfortunately Lambert just can't bring 'em in anymore (however he is a staple in the straight to video market). The film is a gritty detective story (so NO SWORDS guys) in the style of SEVEN and re-teams Lambert with his Highlander director, Russell Mulcahy. What is interesting here is that the film is co-written and conceived by Lambert, which I think is a first for him (though I'm not sure). What makes this significant is that, Lambert gets to branch out a little and play a character with a little more depth. Which I'm sure is something he's been longing to do since GREYSTOKE. Another interesting thing about the film is that it has genius/director David Cronenberg acting in a small part as a priest(That's what I'm waiting for, the Crononberg/Lambert, Director/Actor team-up).

The film is well shot and acted. It is suspenseful and even a little more thought provoking than the average suspense/mystery. It has a twist that I believe works pretty well.

Well in other words, the film is good. See it if you can.

The Hunted (1995)

An absolute must for Lambert fans

[10/10 · 20 August 2002]

It is not the best "film" ever made. Heck, it is not even the best Lambert "film" ever made, but what we have here is an action packed (go out and rent it/grab some popcorn/turn out the lights/drink a cold brew and have good time) movie!

A sword wielding Lambert fights a bunch of ninjas. I think that is enough said!

Fortress (1992)

A Lambert CLASSIC in every sense of the word!

[10/10 · 20 August 2002]

Stuart Gordan the master of really (and I mean REALLY) cheezy literature based horror movies (Re-Animater, Pit and the Pendulem, Castle Freak, From Beyond etc.) brings us FORTRESS, a Christopher Lambert, Sci-Fi classic. Look it is a little cheezy, but that is Gordon's style. If you like Sci-Fi and if you like Christopher Lambert, you'll probably like this movie.

Sometimes I feel a little bad for Lambert. He's an international star, who's career looked so promising after GREYSTOKE in 1984. He got type casted as the sword guy do to the popularity of HIGHLANDER and has been making nothing, but straight to video action/dramas for the past 15 years. Yeah, I feel bad for him, but then, I watch his movies. What can I say? I really enjoy watching them. Most of them may be cheezy or even bad, but when I go to the video store and I see a new Lambert box sitting on the shelf I get excited. So yeah, maybe his career didn't go the way he had planned and maybe he is stuck in "straight to video", but thank God he is! That way when guys like me go to the video store and we're not in the mood for some hollywood bullsh*t, and we've rented every horror movie on the shelves a hundred times, and there hasn't been a new Bruce Campbell "straight to video" classic released in ages, we can pick up one (or all) of the seven Christopher Lambert videos that have come out that week and know that our weekend is not going to be a complete waste!

Highlander (1986)

Come on! It's HIGHLANDER!

[10/10 · 20 August 2002]

What can be said about this slightly above average '80's film that sparked a fascination with viewers and hurled itself into American pop-culture? It has spawned three feature film sequels, two television shows and one cartoon show. Replicas of the the swords used in the film can be found in armory shops, magazines and catalogs. It featured a really cheezy sound track by QUEEN and forever condemned its star to the role of the "sword guy" in a slew of straight to video hits.

What can be said? I really don't know. Do I like the film? Well, yes I do. Do I like its sequels? Well, I definitely don't think they are any good, but yes I guess I do. Do I like any of the TV shows it has spawned? I'll be honest with you, I've never seen an episode. Not that I have intentionally avoided them, I just haven't watched them. I actually would love to see the pilot of the series, because it has Lambert in it.

It's a classic! It is probably because of this film and GREYSTOKE that I am such a huge Lambert fan today. I don't think it is his best film, but it is up there. If you haven't seen it yet, where the hell have you been? And how have you avoided it for so long?

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)

Not such a good film after all, but Lambert is great!

[7/10 · 20 August 2002]

I remember seeing this film in the theater in 1984 when I was 6 years-old (you do the math). I absolutely loved it. I was Tarzan for the 2 weeks after seeing it (climbing the furniture, jumping around making monkey sounds). It started a fascination with Tarzan and monkeys, but oddly enough a longer lasting love for Christopher Lambert (keep in mind that I saw Highlander very shortly after this). 1984 was the last time I saw that film, until about a month ago. It happened to be on cable as I was getting ready for bed at 3:30 am and even though it was late and I was tired and I had to be at work at 9:00 am, I stayed up to watch this movie that I loved as a kid.

Upon viewing it I realized that it was not that great of a film and even odder then that, that Andie MacDowell's voice was dubbed by someone else. Ian Holme was of course solid as usual, and surprisingly the monkey suits still kind of held up, but what was most surprising was how good Lambert was as Tarzan. He was great! The depth he managed to capture in so few lines, his primal body language and most importantly his ability to bring this character through its extremely large ark, were just amazing.

As I stated earlier I am Lambert fan, but I'm used to Highlander, The Hunted and Fortress. In this film he was really quite good and it is a shame that he never got a chance to portray a character with such depth again.

So to make a short story way too long, I was a little disappointed that the film was not that good, but I was glad to see that Lambert was good and I do not regret staying up until 6:00am to see it.

Scarlet Diva (2000)

The daughter of a great director and a great director in her own right!

[9/10 · 14 August 2002]

I recently had the great fortune to view SCARLET DIVA on the big screen in New York City. I have been a fan of Ms. Asia Argento's acting talent for quite some time and also a huge fan of her father (Dario Argento) for even longer.

When I first heard that she had directed a semi-autobiographical DV feature I was a bit interested, but ultimately I have to admit I was not expecting it to be good. My initial thought was that the film would interest me, because I am interested in the subject matter, but I guess I thought that she was just another "actor turned director", and even worse, she thought she could follow in her father's footsteps.

Upon viewing the film I quickly realized that I was wrong. She was not just an "actor turned director", she was just an artist that simply decided to change mediums (and still work in the same medium, considering that she did also star in the film). Further more, I also quickly realized that she was not following in her father's footsteps. In fact she was not even attempting to.

Now, about the film itself. It was extremely interesting and engaging. One of the film's main strengths was its visual artistry. I had read that the entire film was shot on digital video. If this is in fact true, I give Asia and her Director of Photography a lot of credit. Some of the film does look like typical video, but a lot of it doesn't. A lot of it looks really nice, not like video at all. If they did shoot the entire film with DV, I have to thank them for showing independant filmmakers like myself, that it is possible to NOT make DV look like crap. THANKS!

The photography was not the only beautiful thing about the film's visuals. The art design and editing also made the film very interesting to watch. Typically I am not a fan of "hyper-stylized" filmmaking, with crazy cuts and a shakey camera, but I have to say that, though this film had a definite style, I enjoyed it. There was some hand held camera work and there was some stylized cutting (like jump cuts and the use of wipes instead of dissolves or fades), but ultimately they were not that intrusive to the film. I guess what I am trying to say is that she did not over use them. The whole film wasn't a style fest, Style was only used when it needed to be.

So I guess to sum up this review, I liked it. I suggest you go see it if you can. Even if you don't think you're going to like, give it a shot, because you might be surprised. And for all those "horn-balls" out there that want to see the film because you read all about its steamy, porn-like sex scenes. I'm sorry to disappoint, but they're not all that steamy or porn-like.

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

The Return of the Master

[10/10 · 11 July 2002]

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is a masterpiece of cinema and specially of the horror genre. This film also marked the return of the genius of director John Carpenter. A few of the projects Carpenter directed leading up to this film left a little to be desired. Some had poor scripts and some were horribly mangled by the studio, but even the ones that were truly great, didn't meet up to the standard the Carpenter had set for himself in his earlier work (like in THE THING and HALLOWEEN). When this film was released in 1995 Carpenter showed his fans and critics that he was indeed the master of the genre film and truly a cinematic craftsman.

Swimming (2000)

A good little film!

[10/10 · 21 November 2001]

Swimming is a pretty good film. It is not well known, and will probably never be huge, but it should not be over looked. Robert Siegel delivers a pretty well directed film, with excellent performances from "the up and coming" Lauren Ambrose, Jennifer Dundas Lowe and Joelle Carter. If you have the chance to see this film, I highly recommend it. It is enjoyable and an easy watch. Give it a shot.