THE EAGLE

The other night I sat down after a long and fruitless day to watch a film a friend lent me: The Eagle, one of the most celebrated films of Rudolph Valentino’s career. If you don’t know Valentino do some research or check your film fandom at the door.

More of a Star than an actor Valentino become the world’s first true film Idol during the silent era, a sensation at the Box Office and the original ‘Latin Lover’ to women the world over.

Directed by Clarence Brown

Screenplay by Hans Kraly and George Marion, Jr; from the novel Dubrovsky by Alexander Pushkin

Starring: Rudolph Valentino; Vilma Banky; Louise Dresser; James A. Marcus

The Eagle (1922), one of his biggest sensations, saw Valentino as Lieutenant Dubrovsky, a Russian soldier under the command of Catherine II (aka Catherine the Great).
Dubrovsky quickly gains the favor of the Czarina – who wishes to show him her affections and help his career, asking him “Do you desire to be a General?” – for inexplicable reasons he rejects her attentions. In spite, she signs his Death Warrant.


Returning home Dubrovsky finds a dying father, and learns that his family fortune and lands were stolen by a man named Kyrilla. Dubrovsky swears vengeance – and along with men of the local populace – becomes a masked bandit calling himself The Black Eagle.

The film is average at best, and anyone expecting a Douglas Fairbanks like epic swashbuckler will be sorely disappointed.

The Black Eagle is all over the place. It has no real direction and never real evokes any sort of emotion or sense of urgency that it needs.

The acting is standard for the period, slightly theatrical and overdone. Vilma Banky (Catherine II) delivers the best performance of the film, while Valentino simply gives what would become his trademark style – flash over substance to showcase a larger than life presence and a penchant for winning the heart of the ladies.

Surprisingly, for an early era silent film, The Eagle is highly familiar and derivative. It is based upon the novel Dubrovsky by Alexander Pushkin, but has little to do with it. No masked bandit story appears in the novel. In fact The Eagle has more in common with Zorro and Robin Hood, then it does a period novel.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
An average film at best, and nothing more than a Star Vehicle for Valentino.

RATING: 5

LOGAN

Anyone who reads any of my blogs should realize I am a massive comic book fan and reader. So, no surprise I saw Logan on opening day. (I had a free pass anyway) While I have never been a huge X-Men guy, I know all about them as Make Mine Marvel.

From the moment I saw the first Logan trailer I had a special feeling about this film. The trailer promised a more down to earth, gritty film with some ‘Southern Lit’ feel to it.

Logan delivered just that.

Logan delivers the Wolverine film comic book fans have been waiting for since 1999 and X-Men. Logan delivers the best of all the X-men films. Leave it to the last days of Wolverine, I mean Logan, to be his best.

This is not so much an X-men, or a Wolverine film, as it is Old Man Logan.

And, without spoilers for those who haven’t seen it, yes almost all the rumors that swirled about Logan are true.

Logan takes place sometime in the future after Mutants have been effectively wiped out. Only Logan, Xavier and Caliban are known to exist. And Caliban because he once help hunt down his fellow mutants, as a sort of penance he now helps Logan protect Xavier.

Then comes Laura – X-23 – and all Hell breaks loose like never before in any X-men film.

Make no mistake, this is the most violent X-Men film, period. Double period.

Down to Earth, Gritty, Violent Filled, we finally see the real Wolverine in action.

Beyond the action, this film delivers an emotion wallop that makes all the violence seem tame. As someone noted when leaving the theater “Greatest depressing movie ever.” The guy was right.

There was little to nothing I found lacking in Logan. This was a finely tuned and crafted film. Production quality was top notch, effects were dead on, and then there is the script and acting.

The script is stellar. It is laired and has a literature quality to it. It is at the same time about nothing, and everything.

Logan has become nothing, a shell of himself. His only goal is the protection of Xavier.

By the end of the film, it becomes about everything. Everything Logan was and could be.

What really make this film rise above is the performances. Patrick Stewart is awesome as a dementia, perhaps Alzheimer’s touched Charles Xavier. Hugh Jackman delivers his tour-de-force performance. If this is his last time clawed, it is a time no one will ever forget.

Then there is Dafne Keene, Laura/X-23. How the hell did she hold her own with Stewart and Jackman?

Logan is what we have been waiting for.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Here it is Ladies and Gentlemen, the closest thing we have yet to a Super-Hero art film.

RATING: 8.75

FOIRBIDDEN EMPIRE

Directed by Oleg Stepchenko

Screenplay by Aleksandra Karpov, Oleg Stepchenko

Based on Viy by Nikolai Gogol

Starring Jason Flemying

Aleksey Chadov

Valery Zolotukin

Anna Churina

Charles Dance

Forbidden Empire is a Russian and Ukraine fantasy film co-production, starring English actor Jason Flemying as Jonathan Green, a cartographer traveling from Western Europe to the East creating a new type of map, and longing to marry his love back home.

While travelling throughout Transylvania Green finds himself caught in a deep, dark and cursed village where evil infests.

The truest evil that Jason Flemying’s character faces in Forbidden Empire is the film itself. A stellar work of Russian cinema it isn’t. The film is bogged down with a lack of focus, no direction, uneven acting and a lackluster script.

While Flemying may never be considered a great actor, he does bring energy to most roles. That energy does nothing to help in this film, as it is counteracted by his character being a buffoon.

For a film that is supposed to be about a cursed village, overwhelming evil and horror it surprisingly lacks in any of those elements. If anything it is more goofy and campy.

The production values don’t help. While the cinematography is good, and color pops, poor CGI kills the mood of the film. What creatures and demons there are look terrible. I can’t imagine this being a 3D film of any good quality.

Yes, this film was released in Russia and Europe as a 3D production.

Now it is time for full disclosure: I tried. I really tried, but I couldn’t quite finish this film. I made it twenty-minutes in, then fast forwarded through the rest.

This film is based on a story called VIY, but it does nothing to make one what to seek out the source material.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
It should be FORIDDEN to see this film.

RATING: UNFINISHED