The Stranger, Spanking the Monkey, Gozu, Versus, & The Gingerbread Man

The Stranger is interesting from a historical standpoint, but the studio limitations, the main one being Edward G. Robinson rather than Agnes Morehead in the G-man role, make the movie nothing that special, except for the finale in the clocktower, which is pretty effective. Otherwise, Welles doesn't put too much of his own stamp on it, except for making the Nazis really really unpleasant. My favorite bit of weirdness was that apparently Edward G. Robinson can hear a dog being kicked within a 15 mile radius even when asleep. Thems some good hearing. But the thing that actually woke him up was something I immediately noticed upon the hearing of it. Nobody says things like that except for Nazis. Edward G. Robinson clearly wasn't at all intelligent as the rest of the movie made him out to be.

Spanking the Monkey was a little Oedipal for my tastes. Also strange seeing a young Carla Gallo. Interesting though, but sort of strange, and I'm not just talking about using Morphine for the soundtrack. Jeremy Davies is excellent, as is his mother. I thought that the ending was very appropriate for it, as that was one seriously messed up family.

Gozu is typical Miike weirdness. Insane yakuza imagining yakuza attacking dogs and cars, more lactation, reincarnation, plus a full-grown man being born during sex... I didn't even mention the cow-head. Pretty weird freakin' film. Not nearly as good as his other films. Still insane, but the weirdness doesn't seem to have as much of a point as others.

Versus is bizarre Japanese zombie-samurai-yakuza-(a bit of) vampire craziness. Good fight scenes, and a somewhat interesting idea for a movie. I don't entirely think that the movie's ending actually makes sense. There were some very funny bits, some very good gore, and the acting is acceptably crazy for the movie. Probably just would have been better if the director had actually made an ending. Sequels are fun, but it would have been nice for this one to make a little sense.

The Gingerbread Man is overlong and a mess of a movie. Branagh's accent is good, but the movie's nowhere near good for an Altman film. I'm only somewhat suprised, as it was in the midst of his dry spell. Not sure whether anyone could have made a good movie of this though. At least Grisham's other works are... well, actually none are particularly good. This one just seems to make a little less sense than the others. And that Mercedes convertible can really handle everything. I'm impressed.