What we got here are a couple of Texas lowlifes--Ray Bob and Eddie--only one of them is lower than the other, and the lower one, Ray Bob, is one mean SOB. Ray Bob would as soon shoot you as look at you, you don't say the right thing. Eddie is a more forgiving kinda guy.

But as runnin' buddies they're together and so Eddie gets caught up in Ray Bob's karma. Not good. Meanwhile we got Della Street who's on the lam for defending herself against a scumbag, and the law, in the form of Rule Hooks, who's out to nab whoever killed his friend, another lawman.

This Cook guy is one helluva writer. I was you, I'd pick this up and read it. You'll have a great time; these are characters who talk to you same time they're talking to each other, you catch my drift. This has heart, soul, and some nasty stuff in it which being a crime novel's bound to happen.

I loved this. Think you will too.

Here's a pretty good try at a comic crime film that doesn't quite make it. Some of the elements are definitely in place and on occasion this is really funny. But the director/screenwriter duo here doesn't mine the situations for all they're worth and so the result is less than it should be.

The best character in the film is a gay wacko hitman with a squeaky voice and archetypal nasty villain laugh. He's without question one of the best characters in Japanese (or any) contemporary film, hands down. You can't wait to see what he'll do next whenever he's on screen and this really boosts the film's punch.

Other characters include a teenage girl who runs away from her hotel job working for a sleazy bell captain; a young rebellious Yakuza who steals a lot of money from his boss; the local Yakuza boss himself, his trying-to-be-cool son, and the local crew; and a selfish outsider who nevertheless lends a hand to the young Yakuza guy.

So all the elements seem to be in place for a quirky film and, as mentioned, some of them do gel. But the film could and should have done a lot more with the teenage girl, and with the Yakuza boss' sister who seems to be on screen just for show. As well, some of the dialogue among the local Yakuza crew is funny, but more often than not it isn't, and when it fails, you can feel the film trying hard to make you react. This forced quality is unfortunately too often in place to make this a memorable film.

But the hitman is great. If it was up to me, I would do a film with him as the main character.

Nice try, but needs work.

What saves this film--noticeably weaker than a number of other Chabrol efforts--is the acting. Veteran actress Natalie Baye is superb here, as is the actress playing her Aunt Line, Suzanne Flon. Also notable are Benoit Magimel and Melanie Doutey as the two young lovers.

While the actors all turn in solid performances, the plotting and story leave something to be desired. Chabrol specializes in the corruption of the well-to-do and how the lower classes conflict with those above them. This conflict can result in superb filmmaking (La Ceremonie, La Rupture, Les Biches). But this film is decidedly lopsided; with its essentially single focus--corruption and guilt--it lacks the dramatic punch and juice found in the other films cited here.

One can explore these themes (guilt and corruption) and certainly generate a powerful piece of drama. But Chabrol seems to be comfortable when they are inextricably tied to class conflict and when they are not, as is true here, he does not dig deep enough to make these themes as strong as they should have been to elicit real emotional intensity. What we have instead is cinema that slickly skates on the surface of these two related issues--corruption and guilt--without really plunging into the basis, the repercussions, the intricate complications they can generate.

Without revealing too much, a woman running for mayor focuses on getting out the vote, while her lecherous husband goes after young women--two in particular. Meanwhile, the husband's son--recently returned from America--and the wife's daughter (the husband and wife are each on a second marriage; hence the two younger people are half-siblings) fall hard for each other. Add to that a dark secret the woman's aunt has kept to herself for decades and there's the elements of the plot.

The climax is weak because the momentum generated is just not sufficient to result in any real emotional payoff. One of the above characters may receive his/her just desserts, but they don't count for much because there is essentially a humdrum development on display here.

Too bad. If Chabrol had added his signature element of class conflict he could have subverted the essentially superficial sheen of the film as it is with enough push and pull to make it really interesting. One can still admire it for the actors but not as a thrilling piece of dramatic cinema.

Here he is, the Dr. Demento of the underground cartoonists, the hero of wackos everywhere. Look, right on the page. Is it a prurient Rorschach? Is it a acid tripping cartoon devouring whoever looks at it? Stop, you're both right. It's S. Clay Wilson, more powerful than a lightning bolt up the kazootie, faster than a speeding Lothario, and s**t like that.

Nobody else does what he does, pardners. Ol' Clay been around since the 70s and kept right on-a goin'. This guy rocks. You want devils with huge, uh, you know, anatomical features? You got it. You want women hornier than the men who lust after em? You got that too. You want morality turned topsy-turvy just so's you can have a rip-roarin' good time? Here she be.

Clay's the guy to read when you don't wanna take drugs no more but you still want that feelin'. Ain't nothin' like some S. Clay to pop your clutch and put you directly into fifth gear. Probably in that order too. Logic? Out the window. This is pure sensuality in cartoon form. Grab it and guzzle like you can't stop, cause you won't be able to.

The cover gives a clue. A big one. Ladies and gentlemen, my man, S. Clay Wilson.

If you don't know who Jack Ziegler is--AND if you love crazed surrealism in your cartoons a la Kliban--this is for you, bud. Freud said jokes are funny because in going from point A to point C, the A to B segment is what we expect, but then the B to C segment is a skewed version of what we expect, and that skewing is what throws us off balance, causing a small shock to the system, resulting in laughter.

Ziegler's B to C segments are so skewed that the laughter is inevitable. All I can say is, pick up a Jack Ziegler book and you won't be sorry. Great stuff to get you through those tough times, like, you know--no job. No girlfriend. No visible means of support. Like that. At least you can laugh.

Right?

Ginette Vincendeau's study of Jean-Pierre Melville, subtitled An American in Paris, is a superb addition to anyone's library of works on film directors and is a perfect complement to the now sadly unavailable set of interviews by Rui Nogueira, Melville on Melville.

The subtitle is a nice touch. Melville was, for his time, a radical filmmaker who embraced American film noir and, for that matter, American film in general. His influence can easily be perceived in the work of many other directors, both contemporary with his time, and later, including, among others, Truffaut, Tarantino, and John Woo. Indeed, Tarantino and Woo are mentioned here, as is Truffaut and Godard. Melville's famous falling out with the latter is highlighted--this followed a period in which Godard professed admiration for Melville. The turnabout is of some real interest.

As this is a current book, Vincendeau naturally did not have the opportunity to speak to Melville directly, as did Nogueira. But she does much with what is known of Melville and offers insights into his character that Nogueira did not. Her dissection of his films is truly first-rate; she analyzes both the films, objectively, and Melville's personal involvement in each of them. Her discussion of the director's perspective on society--what makes it tough, what makes it bearable, what gives it meaning--dovetails nicely with her observations on his work as a filmmaker.

One of the great things about buying the Criterion DVD release of Le Cercle Rouge is that it includes an excerpt from the Nogueira book in which Melville himself talks about that film. The Vincendeau book is indispensable for those who want a penetrating examination of one of the greatest of all French filmmakers.

Highly recommended.

Bob Clark's 1974 film Deathdream is a very good try at an American horror movie with a great idea that somehow does not quite gel. Fusing the Vietnam War with the classic tale "The Monkey's Paw", Clark here creates what could have been a minor masterpiece but unfortunately falls short.

The main character, Andy, is a young soldier in the Vietnam War. One day his parents receive the tragic news that he has been killed. They are grief-stricken, of course, but cling to the hope that somehow he may still be alive. The mother, in fact, keeps saying to herself, "You promised me, Andy"--to return, that is.

And one night, he does. Naturally his parents are overjoyed. What they don't know is that Andy has come back as, unfortunately, a walking dead man--a zombie. At first things seem to be relatively normal, but soon enough Andy's condition starts deteriorating and he needs a lot of blood to keep things healthy, so to speak.

The film starts to fall apart as the Andy's condition itself deteriorates and it becomes basically a gorefest--which for gorehounds is fine, but for those of us who want more can be frustrating. While the first half of the film is excellent, the second half sags and that's really too bad.

I would really have loved to give this four stars, but it's just not quite there.

Another strong entry in the Latin American crime film sub-genre, Jose Ramon Novoa's Sicario, set in Bogota, is a riveting thriller which, though somewhat formulaic, makes the most of its emphasis on how poverty drives people to acts of desperation.

As is true of several crime films set in Latin America (City of God, Johnny One Hundred Pesos, and others), Sicario centers on street youths who resort to crime to bring in the money they have so little of. Here, Jairo, 13 or 14, lives with his mother, younger brother, and an even younger sister. He quickly falls in with an older youth who eventually brings him to a contact linked to the guerillas (one suspects FARC, although it could be another group) who are heavy traffickers in cocaine, one of Colombia's premier cash crops, unfortunately.

Eventually conscripted to the inner sanctum of a top drug lord, Jairo is assigned to assassinate a key political figure. This occurs after he's dispatched two or three lower level politicos and the drug lord is sure he can do the job. In the midst of his violent activity and occasional visits to whorehouses, he finds time to be with his girlfriend for whom, as is true of his mother, he gives most of his ill-gotten gains.

Every act of violence seen in the film is critical to the plot, and the actors do an excellent job conveying the characters they portray. The director has some cinematic tricks up his sleeve but does not overuse them; the viewer senses Novoa is a smart filmmaker who knows his craft well.

Colombia's film output is relatively low, but this is certainly one of the best films from that country.

Recommended.

Here's where Michael Caine shines, as a corporate exec who gets passed over for the promotion he's so feverishly expecting he'll get in favor of a young Turk--well played by Peter Reigert--who lords it over Caine's character in subtle (and not so subtle) ways. Caine's wife, also well played by Swoosie Kurtz, one of the great unknown American stage and film actresses, is a serious [problem] to him. So he has two people in his life who are supremely annoying.

What does he do? Well, let's just say that his solution to these two problems ends in the population of the world changing, shall we?

The dialogue in this very smart blackly comic thriller is sharp as a razor; it's a lot of fun to watch Mr. Caine give us his best as a put upon exec who's more than capable of flying into a rage at the drop of a hat and of executing his very sneaky and well thought out plans for revenge. Also on hand is Elizabeth Perkins, an equally intelligent office colleague who attracts Caine in more ways than one, but does not suspect him of any wrongdoing at all. That is, until...

One of the best office comedies around, A Shock to the System is a stinging portrait of greed and selfishness in America--for my money, far better than the somewhat overblown Wall Street. This is a movie that gives you a great evening's entertainment and part of the reason for that may be to secretly exact vengeance upon those corporate bigwigs who've prevented you from getting a job for so long, given this miserable economy.

Great job. Highly recommended.

Thomas Vinterberg's Celebration is without question one of the best of the Danish Dogme (spelled this way in Denmark, not Dogma) 95 films.

As the film opens, we see various people, in groups of two, three, and more, converge on a large house--walking, driving, and bicycling. They are gathering to celebrate the 60th birthday of the man who fathered four children--they who have now come to pay their respects with their wives, husbands, boyfriends and girlfriends. The man has made a tidy sum thanks to his unnamed business, and he and his wife live quite comfortably. Also invited are the older couple's friends, and by the time everyone has arrived, there is a full house indeed, all seated at the host's large dinner table.

Speeches are made, glasses are chinked together in toasts, food is eaten. The daughter has a black American boyfriend and it's a wicked foreshadowing that has him insulted by one of his girlfriend's brothers--an out and out racist remark.

This sets the stage for a shocking turn of events when one of the man's sons stands and proposes a toast to his father that leaves the guests completely stunned. A dark secret is revealed that is so out of place with the reason for the "celebration", nothing can ever be the same following the younger man's toast.

The drama here is powerful, intense, seething. One of the trademark strengths of Dogme 95 cinema, as many of us know by now, is its focus on story alone, without reliance on any special effects--CGI, lighting, or otherwise--and Vinterberg has here wisely chosen a story so strong that to "enhance" it with anything remotely resembling special effects would be doing it a major disservice--would be, in fact, blatantly stupid.

This is one of the best Danish films of the 20th century and should absolutely not be missed.

Very highly recommended.