Review added to Cinema by Twistin:

WUSA

Rated 8/10

"A perfectly beautiful hustle crumbles at the core."

WUSA is an establishment counter-culture product from an era in which directors were given more artistic freedom from the Hollywood system than in the past. And like so many pro-revolution offerings from that generation, cracks in the pavement are also revealed, unsimplifying what modern Hollywood now feeds us as monaural political cosmogeny.

Paul Newman is a drifter who is hired as disc-jockey and mouthpiece of an influential right-wing radio station. Joanne Woodward is his girl and Anthony Perkins is Rainey, a social worker investigating welfare statistics. After a conversation with an underground newspaper writer, Rainey learns of WUSA's outrageous agenda to end government funding of the poor.

Many one-dimensional stereotypes and rigged optics skew the portrayal of protagonists and antagonists, severely obstructing the plausibility of the story's "right wing conspiracy". That in itself is so far-fetched it's remarkable to find subverted in such a stunningly attractive canvas. The cast is nearly flawless, the dialogue rich and the cinematography opulent. Toss aside the paranoid abnormalities and take in the rare look at late-60's New Orleans, garnished with a talented cast in top form (including a tasty buffet of support players!)

Two decades later, Tim Robbins would take a similar path (through an Oliver Stone prism) with Bob Roberts -- again, very visual, but taking unfair advantage of the credulity of his audience. Unlike Robbins' diatribe, Newman delivers a sympathetic and convincing messenger with an ambivalent palette of rebellion inside his own moral core. This dichotomy is stingingly pronounced when delivering his convention speech in the third act -- a scene otherwise embellished with radically manufactured melodrama.

Despite the internal flaws, WUSA is a highly recommended experience, a technical showpiece lost in the shuffle from an overflowingly influential era. Director Stuart Rosenberg directed a number of lost gems in the 70's (Move, The Laughing Policeman, Pocket Money, The Drowning Pool -- the latter two also featuring Paul Newman), none of which could put a dent in his success with 1967's Cool Hand Luke. Notable is Lalo Schifrin's score and a good Neil Diamond song, "Glory Road". Also look for a solemn musical performance by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Review added to Cinema by Dr Doom:

Blue Blood [1974]

Rated 6/10

This obscurity is like a muddled mix of The Servant and Rosemary's Baby. Oliver Reed is the domineering butler Tom who seems to have a hex on his employer (Jacobi) leading us to question who really is master of the house. Of course Lucifer may be the true master of the house although I'm still not sure whether the satanic elements of the film were supposed to be real or just a depiction of the nanny's (Owen) inner mind.

All in all it's an enjoyably ludicrous romp with Reed as watchable as ever. Even the terrible accent he's attempting can't spoil his performance (South African? Australian? or was he just drunk?)

Review added to Cinema by Dr Doom:

Crossplot

Rated 6/10

This film feels like an overly extended episode of The Avengers or some other Pop-Art espionage candyfloss TV show. From the opening Psychedelic credit sequence to the traditional Bond ending of Roger Moore seducing the leading lady it has every swinging spy cliché in the book.

The plot concerns a gigolo advertising executive (Moore) who hires the not very convincingly Hungarian model (Lange) for a campaign and gets caught up trying to save her from a fascist underground sect who want her dead. The fascists, led by Aunt Jo (Hyer) think she knows of their plot to infiltrate the hippy protest group M.F.P. (Marchers for peace) and assassinate a visiting head of state creating enough unrest for them to seize control of Britain. Hmm.

The M.F.P. are hilarious hippy stereotypes led by Lord Tarquin (!) who ride around in an open top jeep (Blow-Up!) and have parties where people play songs on acoustic guitars. Lois Lane treats us to this particularly cringeworthy lyric - " A shadow fell on his face and a teardrop fell for the human race"

Roger Moore pretty much holds this film together. His minimal acting style is the antidote to the ludicrous plot and painful script. Take for example his first meeting with Marla Kogash the Hungarian model at the centre of it all.

Moore: "Miss Goulash?"
Lange: "Goulash is a Hungarian dish"
<Moore actions the famous "Eyebrow">
Moore: "Goulash it is then"

Classic Moore I'm sure you will agree.

This was his first major film role and it would be another four years before he played Bond.

Other bits to looks out for...

The baddies in a Rolls Royce chasing the goodies in a mini - How English can you get?

Gabrielle Drake (Nick's sister) in a bit part as Moore's P.A.

Dudley Sutton (Tinker from Lovejoy) as a baddie with awesome fuzzy sideburns.

Review added to Cinema by Twistin:

2010

Rated 7/10

The heredity is most certainly in place, but many don't like to connect this sequel to the original 2001: A Space Odyssey for a number of (valid) reasons. No, it doesn't feel like the original in any way -- mostly because Stanley Kubrick steals the ownership of the stories he adapts. For example, in 2001, the film was completely Kubrick's vision and not Clarke's. He did the same with A Clockwork Orange (much to the chagrin of Anthony Burgess) and with The Shining (much to the chagrin of Stephen King). Whether hijacking a story is a good practice for filmmaking remains open to debate, but the fact of the matter is, that is the way Kubrick made films. The original was not a space opera, as the cliché goes, but a space ballet, submerged in mysterious optics which fascinated audiences from 1968 to present. For that reason, it became one of the great films that will be forever referenced. A sequel? Certainly the ending left viewers perplexed and longing for some explanations. The possibility of a satisfactory expansion is the core appeal.

2010 begins with the disadvantage of existing in a decade that was rife with shiny sci-fi packages inspired by Steven Spielberg. That means that deep, complex explorations are reduced to teen level Classics Illustrated fare. It's certainly easy enough to digest for even the least sophisticated audience, coupled with the feel-good adventure motif that drove so many boxoffice hits in this era.

Speaking of era, 2010 was also released at the peak of cold war hysteria as the world sat on pins & needles anticipating a global nuclear conflict between the USA and the USSR. Hollywood exploited this paranoia frequently, which was not an expressly bad idea, since writers experienced great results exploring the unthinkable scenario. It's rather clumsily implemented here, however, resulting in a pedestrian ending.

If you like your sci-fi lite and uncomplicated, this is above average for it's 80's ilk, but if you seek mathematically abstract and complex enigmas, you'll likely be disappointed.