6ixtynin9 & The Outlaw

6ixtynin9 not only has a stupid title (well, at least the one on the packaging, as opposed to the one in the movie itself), but also has some misspelled subtitles. Plus, it may be the silliest and most reliant upon coincidence movie I've seen in a long time. However, it's a movie that is also enjoyable and I'm pretty sure is a big metaphor for the Asian economic crisis. I also don't entirely see why so many characters kept calling the lead so attractive. She was more attractive than every other one, but not particularly attractive. And that gigolo was so damn ugly. Wow.

The Outlaw was horrible. What was Thomas Mitchell thinking? Well, I know what he was thinking, but man, that'd suck to have the Howards fight and get stuck with Hughes directing rather than Hawks. But no one does a particularly good job in this, and Jane Russell acts about as well as I can bench 250. That's right, if she were to attempt to act she'd probably end up with a huge weight crushing her windpipe. Her breasts also are a little too conetastic. Probably wearing a corset. And while we can thank Hughes for magic bras because of the movie, we can't thank him for anything else. Especially not the horrendous score. It's worse than a sitcom's laugh track. Every single time there's a "joke" the score needs to remind you to laugh. And when a character has a setback, it brings out the "wha-wha-wha-whaaa". And finally, I am not a breast man, so that aspect of the movie was completely wasted on me. The only thing that keeps it from being one of the worst movies of all time is the overacting and the whiplash from the characters twisting and turning because the script doesn't really know what to do with anyone. Especially the actor playing Billy the Kid who's a terrible actor. Worse than Jane Russell. Which is really saying something. She was, at least, acceptable in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Which brings it back to Hawks and the script. Since Jules Furthman worked with Hawks a few times on some great movies, my bet is that Hughes is a person who can kill a movie if he's given too much control.