Reviews

Half of 'The Heart of Justice' consists of a recurrent series of situations after a crime was committed.

Elliot Burgess (Dermot Mulroney) is an aristocratic youngster from the high society of New York, and he assassins a successful author of bestsellers, Austin Blair (Dennis Hopper), after the old man has been having an affair with his teenage sister, Emma Burgess (Jennifer Connelly), in the exclusive club, where all the Burgesses usually spend their summer.

Particularly, Blair's latest novel blatantly portrays all the Burgess in a satirical way, out of the pillow-talk from such an affair.

There also is incest suggested between both siblings as one of the motivations for the crime.

As usual with the 'Neo Noir' productions, 'The Heart of Justice' is almost flawless technically, exuding all the enthusiasm of a 100-percent American genre in plain Manhattan.

Similarly, the cast is awesome; Connelly perfectly takes up the role of the demolishing 'femme fatale' in this story, in this case being a teenage lady, just coming out from high school. This is HER movie, indubitably.

However, 'The Heart of Justice' skids in its approach to the story; the profile and the demeanor of its characters don't correspond to real 'yuppies' from the 'top of the world'.

The movie also fails managing the series of events; the extensive series of flashbacks usually turn uninteresting and awkward.

The success of the Columbo TV series had to do with the clown side of the weird detective; such a story-spoiler-style wouldn't fit in a 'Noir' (or 'Neo Noir') movie though, always so bleak and intellectual.

'The Headline Woman' could have been so much of a movie.

It actually consists of two different stories -practically-, one after the other.

The fast-paced first half is exceptional indeed, little short of the original 'The Front Page'. It consists of a bunch of witty and cynical journalists in the pressroom of the police headquarters of a big town, as they try to sway an officer for bringing them information daily.

There is a gang war between racketeers of gambling, so there is armed action, killings, and even high society parties.

In the second half, though, 'The Headline Woman' swaps half of its characters, leaving us with the ordeals of the stunningly beautiful titular lady, Myrna Van Buren (Heather Angel), being protected by one of the journalists, Bob Grayson (Roger Pryor).

'The Headline Woman' disappoints, because the studio ('Republic Pictures') unfortunately didn't invest in totally rounding it up.

It's evident, that they were enthusiastic though, and it resulted in a B+ (or A-) movie.

'Headline Hunters' is a run of the mill b-class movie of 1955, from the studios of 'Republic Pictures'.

Because its director, William Witney, and the main star (Rod Cameron as Hugh Woodruff) stemmed from the western genre, this movie can't escape from its cliches.

Whereas there is a rough main character (Woodruff) whose friendly feelings prevail and is redeemed in the happy end, there also is a crucial fight in a saloon-like place.

The profession of journalism (still very powerful in the 1950s) is much distorted because of such a premise, nevertheless its simple story is very coherent, even including colorful socio-political twists.

By 1955, 75 percent of households in the USA already had a TV set, and it's clear that this hour-long movie was meant specifically for broadcast.

'He Said, She Said' is an elaborate rom-com, enthusiastically authored by its two directors (Marisa Silver and Ken Kwapis, from an anecdote of their own life while dating in Paris with them recounting their own past differently).

The story was then rounded up as an actual script by Brian Hohlfeld, with all his Hollywood expertise.

Pretty much with the same glamor of the 'Moonlighting' TV series, 'He Said, She Said' presents the battle between feminism and machismo, from the mainstream media (newspapers and TV networks) of the city of Baltimore.

This movie has deep story-arcs with all of those pretty much rounding up very nicely, and all the situations are fresh, intelligent and colorful.

There is fantasy and a mildly dark comedy, whereas the sophistication of Sharon Stone is put to use perfectly, with her own dazzling sub-plot.

'He Said, She Said' results in a fine and lucid production, almost with no flaws.

'The Great Mr. Nobody' is a very complex (yet absorbing) movie, related to the pulse of the times in 1941, with the USA about intervening in the war of Europe.

As so, it presents the -almost counterculture- sufferings of 'Dreamy', the very humble and failing clerk of the advertisement department in 'The Daily Express' newspaper, in a big town with a port.

Dreamy has for family: a loyal girlfriend (one of his coworkers), a mad-for-sailing old friend living with him, and a little pal with some physical disability (who sells papers on the street).

Dreamy of course cares for all of them, while being such a 'sentimental fool' to jump into action, to likewise intervene into any conflictive scene, he chances upon on the street.

Between the lines, 'The Great Mr. Nobody' stirs all kinds of social and political feelings, until rounding up as another historical geniality from Hollywood.

'Fletch Lives' conspicuously is a movie with not much of a brainstorm for the penning of its script.

It resorts to a bunch of the great formulas of Hollywood (such as a great cinematography and an end a-la 'Die Hard'), but it was supposed to run on the jokes of Chevy Chase, the great artist from SNL.

In this movie, those jokes are (all) actually very poor and even raunchy sometimes.

Worsening the situation, 'Fletch Lives' has a very shallow plot (it's not an adaptation of an original novel of Gregory McDonald) with huge plot holes.

The story is about Fletch inheriting a plantation in Louisiana from his old aunt, and unexpectedly stumbling upon some local racketeers eager for him to sell the property, whereas there is also a famous televangelist with an amusement park, eager to build a second one in the region.

Farnsworth: Irwin, admit that you are a sinner.

Fletch: Uh, well I've sinned. Didn't take any Polaroids or anything, but... I've sinned. Yeah.

Eddie 'Gonzo' Gilman is a come-to-age student, in an upscale high-school of New York city, and he has a column in the student's paper.

He adopted his nickname, from Hunter S. Thompson's alternative journalism ('Gonzo style'), and so he is such a freedom fighter, against the establishment (usually keeping him down): the principal of the school and the elite students, controlling everything.

At the same time, though, all of them (good and bad guys) must keep their scores and discipline with a tight grip, in order to qualify for college.

Gonzo revolts, though, releasing his own paper (The Gonzo Files), in such a conflictive way, challenging everything and everyone at school, for the sake of justice.

In such a crusade, Gonzo also adopts Hunter S. Thompson's symbol: a hand closed in a fist, with two thumbs.

'Beware the Gonzo' is a very complex (and violent) movie, and yet it has the fluency of an absorbing primetime TV-show, thanks to the expertise of its producer, Bryan Goluboff (the same of 'Law and Order: SVU').

The movie doesn't have any moral agenda anyhow, it's just an entertaining movie with a solid story.

It was produced by the organizers of the 'Tribeca Film Festival', also in New York.

'The Ghost Breakers' is a movie of a very big production, where the filming sets are little short of 'Citizen Kane's.

It's a Disney-like effort for Bob Hope, in those years -together with Paulette Goddard- one of the most popular stars of Hollywood.

With its unstoppable succession of elaborate -yet very silly- jokes and superb cinematography it certainly is a winner, in the same style of the Marvel movies nowadays.

Larry: I'm a ghost breaker. (...) Well, you've heard of trust breakers and home breakers? I'm a ghost breaker. I take family skeletons out of the closet and dust them off. (...) Parada: Are you the one who is advising Ms. Carter not to sell her castle?

Larry: Oh, no. My advice is to keep the castle and sell the ghosts.

Parada: I myself have heard of only one ghost, the spirit of Don Santiago.

(...) Larry: Uh, what connection is there between this bogeyman of yours and the buried treasure?

Parada: Treasure? What treasure?

Larry: Well, there's always money where the ghost walks.

'Gentlemen of the Press' is one of the darkest counterculture experiences an spectator can undergo.

Wickland Snell is a righteous and workaholic star reporter of a newspaper of New York, and step by step he plunges into the obscenity of the mediocre society -he actually moves in-.

The title refers to the 'gentleness' of Wickland, about his daughter Dorothy, with him losing his mind to protect her and her husband.

During the first two acts, the movie can't really take off from being only an adaptation of a Broadway play, but near the end, the story progressively gains all kinds of shades of gray -REALLY dark tones-, to so become really absorbing.

It's a tricky movie, because its author (Ward Morehouse) was also one of those 'bloody' reporters.

Walter Houston (Snell) takes on a tough and rightful role a-la Kevin Costner, while Kay Francis (as the so lascivious Myra May) is such a femme-fatale, taking him to 'Little Hades', there in New York.

It's evident that 'Gambling on the High Seas' was filmed on the fly by Warner, as a double-feature movie for cinema theaters. They just took a successful movie from 5 years before ('Special Agent') and adapted it with really no pretensions.

The story is very good, for starters, about Jim, a crusader-reporter, engaged to end with the gang of Morella, spreading terror in their big town of New England.

The crooks are running a casino-cruiser in nearby international waters, so it's impossible for the authorities to catch them.

Beyond the premise, 'Gambling on the High Seas' is riddled with mistakes in the continuity of the events, in the names of the characters (one of the gangsters ended up played by two different actors), and in its many goofs.

Nonetheless, both technically and about the cast involved, the movie still flaunts all the expertise of Hollywood, and it's very entertaining.

By 1953, reporters weren't kings of the 'Fourth State', but mere princes, nevertheless the newsroom was still their mighty palace. 'Front Page Story' presents a whole day in such a domain, with the helmsman: editor John Grant.

The movie is a mediocre 'soap opera' though, with four separated stories of a bittersweet ending: the crisis of Grant's marriage, a woman undergoing a trial for committing euthanasia, a mad scientist accused of espionage, and five kids who end up orphaned after losing their mother and being evicted from their home. Although it's decently filmed and has great scenes at 'Fleet Street' and 'Trafalgar Square', the movie has a poor script, riddled with cliches.

'The Front Page' is a celebration from the great Billy Wilder of the classic from 1931.

It's an impressive demonstration of resources from Hollywood and of artistic enthusiasm.

Marilyn's director clearly sought to repeat exactly the same chemistry of 'The Odd Couple' with Matthau and Lemmon, and he did it successfully!

The movie of 1974 though isn't totally tailored for the taste of a modern spectator. Although the script of the movie is simply brilliant -despite being better to keep the subtitles all the time-, all the old jokes about journalism and 'Fake News' -from the original movie- aren't really funny anymore.

Anyhow, this movie of 1974 is REALLY hardcore on political and streetwise jokes; it's really meant as a -really good- adult experience only.

Also, for the same price there is a magnificent representation of the city of Chicago -geographically and historically accurate- in the 1920s; it actually seems like an episode from the 'Discovery Channel' indeed.

As one of the first 'talkies', 'The Front Page' experiments with a lot of filming technology, particularly with the 'Rotambulator', allowing a complete mobility of camera. Most incredibly, some scenes seem filmed in the 1990s, with all the CGI then, such as the 'Batman' series. The movie wouldn't win an Oscar because of its political content, of course.

It's such a big town story, meaning that it's all cynicism, particularly from the so egocentric and eccentric journalists, who were 'kings of the world' in those years, when newspapers were like Microsoft nowadays.

'The Front Page' is a flawless experience, despite some forced situations, like a theater play.