How is That For a Monday (2023) opens Friday 10/27

Sripal Sama's multi-character drama is a hell of a good ride. It's the sort of film that on the face of it looks like it's one thing and reveals itself in the end to be something wonderfully different.

...MONDAY is nominally a caper/ crime film. I say nominally because the film is set up by a bunch of bumbling thieves breaking into a house and things not being as expected. Their target is gone as they try to complete their mission we, and they run across various people who figure into things, including Shyam Kumar who is the focus of the action and who is having a really bad day. While the criminal activities of the gang set everything in motion the real point of the film is not crime but human interaction on the best level.

One of the things that I really love about the film is that Sama doesn't follow the expected Hollywood path. Not only does the plot not bend as we expect it to, but he doesn't give us a typical Hollywood lead. Kaushik Ghantasala as Shyam is an Indian programmer trying to find his way in life and America is fantastic. He gives a fantastic performance that hopefully will get him bigger roles. He is wonderfully not all American but still tied to the land of his birth. This allows Sama to open us up to the world, not just Hollywood idea of it. He uses Shyam as a main character to give us  new rhythms to experience as the film moves along in its own course and time, forcing us to fully engage since we are listening to the beats of a new voice in film. 

I should say I'm not going to be saying much more about the film because this is a film thing that is very much the journey. This is about the hows and whys the characters crisscross so if I am to discuss how certain people meet up it will take some of the fun of you trying to sort out how everything ties together. Additionally I want you to take the journey of the characters  not knowing where their beats and rests are going to be.

I will add that the film scores many points with it ultimately being about the characters. This isn't a "caper film" where the characters all are out to get the Mcguffin, rather this is about the characters and how they are reacting to the things that are happening/crashing in their lives. Yes less about the robbers, and more about everyone else. This is a film where everyone is arcing not being one note.

If I am to quibble with the film it is with the opening scene. Introducing us to characters who will show up later in the film, it doesn't grab us in the right way. The billionaire who is at it's center is not someone we want to know. As a result its cliffhanger ending is not something we care to see resolved. The film should have started with the one after the opening credits which grabs us and pulls us instantly into the film. The early morning delivery, is funny and it's the point where we lean into the film and decide to take the ride (and you will want to take this ride)

This is a gem of a film that you will need to search out. Sripal Sama has made a wonderful little film that surprises at every turn. I can't wait to see what he does next.

The Umbrella Men: Escape from Robben Island, (2023) Toronto 2023

The sequel to one of the joys of 2022  is one of the joys of 2023.

Following up the events of THE UMBRELLA MEN this film follows the events of the first film. However things go side ways and Jerome and Morty end up in prison. The rest of the gang have to take matters into hands and rescue their friends and clear their name.

Beginning with what maybe my favorite opening of the year, it’s a musical number that is just a delight, the film drops us back into the lives of the characters we fell in love with last year. Not needing to set everyone one up, the film just pretty much goes, pulling us along and making us smile along the way. Sure this is a caper film, and we are interested in seeing how it comes out, but for the most part I didn’t really care. I was just having too good a time watching the interaction of all the characters I now call friends. It’s just a lot of fun as everyone cracks wise and plots a prison break.

In some ways I may like this film more than the first film. Part of it is that the film just goes and partly because the film is better. It’s as if the filmmakers took everything they learned from the first film and improved on it. Everything is just better.

If you saw and loved the first film, watch this one. If you haven’t seen the first one see this one anyway. It’s just so much fun. Besides, you’ll pick up everything you need to know along the way.

Double Down South (2022) Dances With Films New York 2022

Diana blows into a small Southern town and is noticed at a run down plantation turned pool hall. Quickly showing that she can more than hold her own against the big guys, Diana convinces Nick that he should stake her. With Little Nick acting as her coach/confidant she begins to a run to a fortune playing keno pool.

Film noir collides with a caper film that is a hell of a ride.  This is a twisty turny film that has a great deal going on. There is so much going on I'm not going to really discuss the plot since I don't want to give anything away. 

I will say that the film is trying to be more than just a thriller. This is a film that wants to take on both racism and misogyny, being set in a world where anyone not a white man is a target. While the film gilds the lily  a bit to make it's point, the film does make a point, at times taking the piss out of the good ol boys.

If I have any quibbles with the film is that the film feels long at running just shy of two hours. While I wouldn't know what to trim, there is a moment somewhere where in the middle where I just wished it moved a tad faster.

Nit pick aside, this is a solid film you'll want to see when it plays near you

Red Notice (2021)

Globetrotting caper film pits Dwayne Johnson against Ryan Reynolds against Gal Gadot in grand but emotionally empty cops and robbers caper film.

This film felt emotionally dead to me. the three leads seem to walking though a film that doesn't do anything new but simply recycles bits from the stars earlier films. Its so bad that I don't think the film needed a director since every one on screen has done this sort of thing so many times there was nothing they would need to be directed to do. If you ant to see how bore they are watch Dwayne John in this film and then look at his work in the brief clips we've seen of his BLACK ADAM passion project.

The film might have been able to get away with it if the action sequences had been snappy but they aren't. They are by the numbers to the point they feel like a low level Lifetime cable film with boring explosions.

I tuned out early.

RED NOTICE is the new definition of a paycheck job.

Seven Golden Men films

There were two films about the Seven Golden Men . Both are essentially extended heist films with complications.

SEVEN GOLDEN MEN
A genius named the professor robs a bank in Switzerland of its gold deposits with the help of his girlfriend and seven disciples.

Good but strange caper film that begins with the robbery, which lasts for over an hour of screen time, before becoming a standard well planned caper has complications for the last half hour. Not bad, but very odd in that the film really doesn't let you know any characters other than the professor and his girlfriend for most of the film. Who are these people, you really don't know, even if it is amusing. Its easiest to explain the film as like watching one of the recent Danny Ocean films but starting with the actual robbery, without all of the set up and character introductions.

I really Seven Golden Men, as a set piece it is one of the best heists ever put on film. It’s so good that even in the years between my viewing the film springs back into my mind as technical marvel. However as good as I think the film is I really can't understand how the film spawned a sequel, except the film haunted enough other viewers that it made enough money to justify it. Don’t get me wrong it’s a great film on its own terms but its kind of emotionally distant.

Absolutely worth tracking down especially with its sequel.

SEVEN GOLDEN MEN STRIKE BACK
Follow up to Seven Golden Men takes the position of why do one heist when you can do several at the same time?

This time out the Professor and his crew are captured mid heist by the American government and forced to kidnap a third world dictator (aka Castro). The professor agrees for seven million dollars. As the heist goes on the government has to contend with not only the Professors weird way of doing things, but also his decision to run a second heist at the same time – the theft of several thousand tons of gold from the hold of a ship.

Very hectic film is an enjoyable romp but isn’t quite up to the first film. Blame it on the film trying to do way too much in its 100 minute running time. There is simply too much going on, including some form of character development. By the time the kidnapping is accomplished I was exhausted- and there was still almost 40 minutes of the film left to go. More is less, despite this being a better made film. Don’t get me wrong I like the film a great deal, I just don’t love it. I think the lack of the laser focus that drove the first film hurts this film. Is simply juggling way too much.

Reservations aside this is still worth a look, especially if you do so in connection with the first film

Stealing Chaplin (2020) Festival of Cinema NYC 2020

Two dimwitted British con-men living in Las Vegas steal the body of Charlie Chaplin in the hope of getting enough money to payback the loan sharks the are in deep to. The trouble is things go horribly wrong and it looks like the pair may end up as dead as the body they have stolen.

This amusing mix of comedy, caper and crime will entertain the hell out of you if you let it. While never quite reaching the heights of say the Ocean's 11 films, STEALING CHAPLIN works because the cast is good and invested in what is going on. Sure our heroes are really morons but they are loveable and we like then enough that we don't want anything bad to happen to them. While never fully believable, the film is firmly in the low budget inde film world, we really don't care because we are fully invested in what happens.

I had a blast watching this film. This is the sort of film that back when we cold go to the movies I'd go to with my dad to get out of the house. It is also the sort of film we'd eat up when we ran across it on  cable (hey wait stop, that looks good)

STEALING CHAPLIN is a small gem of a film. It is a perfect film to take in at the Festival of Cinema NYC's drive in Friday night.

Nate Hood's Quarantine Capsule # 57 Ocean’s Eleven [1960] ★★½

Lewis Milestone’s Ocean’s Eleven is precisely as meat-headed as one would expect of a Rat Pack vanity project. The story of eleven former 82nd Airborne paratroopers banding together to rob five Las Vegas casinos on the same night, the film is shameless in its pandering to the egos of its legendary coterie of entertainers. The actors all play thinly veiled versions of themselves: Frank Sinatra is a smooth-talking lady’s man with the plan; Dean Martin is the droopy-eyed crooner and voice of reason; Sammy Davis Jr. is the enthusiastic yet dignified can-do go-to; and so on and so forth. (The most entertainingly on-the-nose doppelgänger is Peter Lawford’s Jimmy Foster. Lawford—an actor more renowned for his family connections to the Kennedys than for his talents—plays a spoiled mama’s boy whose “day job” consists of asking his parents for spending money.)

Predictably, the film is sickeningly misogynistic: the women are all either arm candy, strippers, masseuses, or shrill harpies. Even worse are the scenes where Sinatra & Co. joke about repealing women’s suffrage and making women their “slaves.” Even though these moments are explicitly depicted as buddy-buddy kidding…yeesh.

Yet the film has two things that liven up the macho myth-making. The first is the actual heist scene which surprisingly channels many of the same pop art sensibilities Saul Bass used in his animated title sequence: quintuple film exposures of all five casino signs simultaneously winking out during a planned power outage; geometric camera compositions amidst crowded casino floors both in the light and in the dark; unearthly fluorescent footsteps trailing the thieves from the vaults. But this is all cinematic eye candy.

What truly makes Ocean’s Eleven unique is how it serves as an autopsy of the Greatest Generation’s self-mythology. By 1960, the Rat Pack were largely in their mid-to-late forties, and they must’ve known that their time in the spotlight was nearly over—the scene of Martin jamming with vibraphonist Red Norvo now seems positively quaint knowing that elsewhere rock music was well into the initial stages of world domination. In hindsight, the film seems like one final, definitive assertion of relevancy on the part of its participants. The fact that it ends with an out-of-nowhere downer conclusion makes this attempt all the more tragic. Their moment had past. It was the boomers’ world now.

STACKS (2020) is a funny film

A short caper film for the age of Covid 19.

I will not say any more than I have since it's short enough you should just watch it.

Double Trouble (2017) NYICFF 2019

Julka is at boarding school while her parents work in France. When her parents forget she is to join them for summer vacation she is forced to stay with her aunt who barely acknowledges her existence. When Julka leaves a door open and thieves steal everything off the walls including some valuable plans, Julka and the son of one of her aunt's neighbors must spring into action and try to track down the stolen items.

DOUBLE TROUBLE is an amusing film that is going to play better for older children than adults. The reason is that there is a lightness of the touch in regard to the happenings and while there is suspense as to what is going on (things are not quite as they seem)  there never really is any doubt that things will be okay. Part of it is the tone of the film and part of it is the narration pretty much says as much right at the start.

For kids who haven't seen a lot of caper films this is going to be a blast since it is both funny and tense. For the adults it will be a amusing but nothing special since the caper isn't a solvable mystery as one that is revealed in left hand turns. It's never bad but this is one for the kids more than the parents.

Worth a look if you're taking the kids.

DOUBLE TROUBLE PLAYS March 2,3 and 16th at NYICFF. For more information and tickets go here.

Blue Iguana (2018)

Sam Rockwell executive produced and stars in BLUE IGUANA a funny caper film about two Americans brought to London in order to steal a certain package. That the film is getting released in the August doldrums would make you think it probably isn't very good, but the truth of the matter is it's really funny and while decidedly off beat, it's a charmer.

I have to confess something right at the start. I have fallen madly in love with Phoebe Fox. Fox plays Katherine Rookwood, a not so honest attorney, who travels from England to New York to hire Sam Rockwell and Ben Schwartz for her very illegal job. Blowing into the diner where the boys work early she is has the look of someone out of her depth. However once she begins speaking and putting the boys corrupt boss in his place by laying out his scams I was charmed. Crook or no she instantly became the girl of my dreams and I was hooked on BLUE IGUANA.

Of course the fact that the film is wonderful beyond Fox didn't hurt either. The marvelous cast appears to be having fun as they go though the criminal paces and spouting wicked one liners that are going to be stolen by everyone who sees the film. The film is an absolute delight from top to bottom.

I don't know what else to say but get a tub of popcorn, a beverage of choice and wade into the madness- personally I can't wait to see it again.

BLUE IGUANA hits select theaters and VOD beginning Friday

Lupin the Third (2014) Fantasia 2015

From Ryuhei Kitamura who made the Godzilla satire FINAL WARS and the pretty good horror film MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN comes this send live action adaption of the classic character.

The plot of the film has Lupin and his friends taking on Michael Lee a member of their organization known as the works. Michael and his gang crash a big meeting, kill the head of The Works and steal a valuable necklace along the way. Lupin and his friends vow revenge and  go after Micael leading to a year long chase- all the while chased by Zenigata of Interpol.

Overlong slowly paced this is a film that's kind of heart breaking. Its a film full of great set pieces, accurate live action portrayals of the animated characters but a plot line that is far from compelling. Actually the plot is such you simply won't care, you'llbe like me hoping for the next action sequence while you're trying to deduce why this film two and a quarter hours long.

Its not bad but its not as interesting as its animated predecessors

Worth seeing streaming but I'd take a pass if I had to pay movie theater prices

IN BRIEF: MASTER PLAN (2015) Fantasia 2015

You have one shot to catch the caper/thriller/revenge tale MASTER PLAN at Fantasia and that is tonight at 945 and if you like well done capers make your way to the J.A. De Seve Theatre.

The plot of the film has car thief Charles Ingvar Jönsson going on one last robbery with his partner and uncle. When he sees another car with a lap top on the seat he decides to steal both of them. It all goes horribly wrong and Charles uncle is killed. Vowing revenge he puts a team together....and you get the idea.

Solid caper isn't anything we haven't seen before (I mean the girl Charles is hot for not only is a thief but sports hair like Angelina Jolie in GONE IN 60 SECONDS) but it is entertaining. While I've complained about a couple of films at Fantasia not doing anything new with the tropes of whatever genre they are operating in, sometimes you can make something new out of something old-you just have to dress it up correctly.  MASTER PLAN dresses it up so that if it was the girl next door you'd suddenly become smitten because suddenly she looked hot in a new dress.

There isn't a great deal to say beyond that other than perhaps to say that you'll need a big bowl of popcorn.

For tickets and more information go here.

Electric Man (2012)

David Barras's ELECTRIC MAN hits DVD Tomorrow (and FilmBuff's VOD is October 15). It's a micro-budgeted caper film concerning a comic worth a £100,000 and the crazies who want to get their hands on it. in the promotional material as Clerks meets the Maltese Falcon. I'm not sure that the description is apt except in the most general of  ways.  To me this is an amusing little caper film that is probably a bit too long, but at the same time it's an enjoyable romp if you forgive its short comings.

The plot of the film is set in motion when an eccentric comic collector is killed by his brother so it looks like suicide. He wants to get his hands on his copy of Electric Man #1  which is worth £100,000 and sell it to an obsessive Electric Man fan. The plan goes wrong almost instantly as the comic ends up at a comic shop that is desperate need of repairs. The owners see it as way to get out of the financial hole they are in Events then begin to spiral out of control as everyone begins to try and get their hands on the comic.

Okay lets get a couple of things out of the way. The reviews that came out of the UK were mixed- some people loved it and some people didn't. I mention this because just after the film was offered to me for review and said I'd take a look, I was told some very mixed things about it by a friend. It was one of those moments where I wondered if I should have said yes.

Now having seen the film I can honestly say that it's a good little film, flawed to be sure, but as an evenings entertainment it's not bad.

The problems with the film comes not from the micro-budget (truthfully the film doesn't look like it was made for no money) or the performances which are very good (actually they are good enough that they put the film over), the problem with the film is the script which tries to mash too many things together into one film as if director/writer Barras was trying to get everything into his one shot at making a movie. With the script going all over the place from comedy to caper to romance to Guy Richie homage and back again Barras never manages to find the right rhythm or pacing for the film. sequences run on too long and in a couple of sequences the comedy falls flat as the humor seems forced.

But does that make the film bad?

Oh hell no. Actually the only real complaint I have is that's its too long at 100 minutes.  so that by the time the film ends its meandered to a stop rather than come to a conclusion even if it puts a smile on your face.

To put it another way this another of the small films that Unseen was started to highlight. This is a small film, that odds are no one is going to notice, which has a great deal going for it and very little visibility. This is a film that deserves to be seen by more than say a film festival audience or the critics who were directed it's way PR people.

As I said above the cast is really good and they manage to sell the story and hold it together much more than the script should allow them to.

And despite my bitching about it the script does have several really good bits. I love the opening in the bar where the guy comes up behind Uncle Jimmy with a baseball bat. There is this wonderful sense of "what have I just put on and where is this going" that even most more polished films never achieve. The romances between Wolf and Jazz and the women is frequently spot on. There are also the surreal moments where various characters show up costume that keep the film feeling more than your typical micro-budgeted or inde film

Another high point is the score. How the hell did such a good sounding score end up with such a small film as this?

A small treasure is the animated opening titles. They kind of make you wish that the film was the story of Electric Man instead of the story of his comic book.

I like this film. Is it the be all and end all, no, but it is a film that is worth your time. If nothing else I'm guessing that this maybe the sort of film where down the road you see someone up and coming and realize that you saw where it all started.

In Brief: The Grand Heist (2012) Fantasia Film Festival 2013

A literal ice heist...well... its an Ocean's 11 style heist film set in the Joseon-era that has a bookseller getting a band of con men and crooks together in order to steal the most precious commodity in Korea, ice.

Utterly enjoyable romp brought a huge smile to my face and an over riding desire to get the film on DVD so that I can watch it again with my dad.  This film is a real blast that's full of wonderful characters, great set pieces and enough twists to keep you guessing all the way to the end.

While I've been writing up short reviews for the films at Fantasia either in order to be timely or because I don't have a great deal to say, I'm keeping the review for The Grand Heist brief because I don't want to spoil anything for you. Yes its a caper film of the sort we expect nowadays  from Hollywood and elsewhere (heck, I reviewed the English caper film Wasteland earlier this evening) so you know how some of this is going to go-you know there are going to be twists- but at the same time I don't want to spoil the details for you. Yes I know whats the point of reviewing a film if you don't talk about the film, well my attitude is that I shouldn't have to tell you a great deal about some films, just say if its good or bad, and then hope that my enthusiasm carries over.

While the single screening for the film at Fantasia is done I do hope this film travels. I hope it shows up on DVD or netflix or better yet in a movie house near you...or near me cause I want to see this film again.

Coming Home (2011) Celebrating Chinese New Year!

A small trifle that's kind of hard to classify- which you'll understand when you see it.

Simon Yam plays an art restorer who is needed to repair a stolen painting that was damaged when it was stolen. In order for the bad guys to get paid they need to have a perfect painting. At first Yam refuses but the bad guys won't be denied and they take steps to get their way.

Containing elements of historical wu xia epics, caper films, comedy and family drama (Yam and his daughter are strained in their relationships) I wouldn't know how to really classify the film. It's probably safest to say it s a comedic caper film. Though that isn't fully the case since it occasionally takes some odd turns with the split nature of Yam's daughter. To be honest I don't know how to describe it accurately except to say it's pretty good.

Watching the film I kind of completely understood why the film hasn't been touted really anywhere in English. I had the film on DVD for a while and I know I picked it up simply because Yam is in the film. The trouble is I had it so long that any discussions I might have had about the film, which is labeled completely in Chinese have long disappeared from my brain. Wanting to have some idea about what I was seeing I went on line and really only only found brief mentions of the film, at least in English. It seems most people seeing it aren't writing about it in English.

I really liked the film a great deal. Is it the be all and end all? Hell no but it's a nice little comedy caper. On the plus side I smiled like the dickens through a good portion of the film, but at the same time I know come years end the film will probably have gotten lost in the crush of films.

Definitely worth seeing if you run a cross it.

Inside Out (1975)

Enjoyable but wholly unremarkable caper film that stands out solely because of the cast headed by Telly Savalas, Robert Culp and James Mason.

The plot has down on his luck Savalas contacted by James Mason, the commandant at his POW camp during WW2. Mason has recently been told that a cache of Nazi gold is possibly still hidden somewhere in Germany. Savalas decides to help Mason and they recruit Robert Culp to help them. There is of course a twist, the man who knows where the gold is is locked away forever in prison for being one of the Nazi High Command. If they want to find out where it is they have to get him out.

Yes this is another one of the ever growing crime caper sub-genre films of break into prison to get the guy who knows out. As these things go it's as cliched as they come. This one hits all the plot points from disguises to one guy taking the prisoners place to convincing the prisoner it's 30 years earlier. Its not bad, but it does hit all of the typical points a tad too hard.

In it's favor the film does have a nice twist in that once they discover where the gold is they have to then go get it, which is in East Germany.

Absolutely unremarkable and forgettable the film is still an enjoyable little romp of the nostalgic kind. Honestly had I not had memories of seeing this film when I was growing up back when it aired on Cinemax and HBO I never would consider seeing it again, but it has a place in my childhood memories.

Doesn't that mean you shouldn't see it? Hell no, its a fine little film that's worth a bowl of popcorn and a soda. Its just one that you might not want to revisit.