DVD Review: Charlie Bubbles (1967)

A British take on the existentialist movie, a new twist on the kitchensink drama. a very 60s road movie or a semi-autobiograpical tale of alienation? Make your own mind up about Charlie Bubbles.

It's certainly a memorable film, if only for the ending - but more about that later. Albert Finney is Charlie Bubbles, the northerner made good. In fact, very good. He's a millionaire author, living a lavish life in London - think servants, Rolls Royce, fine dining and public adoration. But he doesn't quite fit in. He's made his money writing about his northern upbringing and is still seen as the stereotypical northerner by 'the establishment', even if he does now travel in circles usually reserved for the great and the good. Yes, Charlie's loaded, but his life lacks a certain something.

After a drinking bout with fellow northern author Smokey Pickles (Colin Blakely), Bubbles realises he has forgotten a very important engagement - a trip back to Manchester to see his estranged wife Lottie (Billie Whitelaw), not to mention a trip to Old Trafford with his son Jack (Timothy Garland) for a Manchester United game. After a quick change and some food, he jumps into the Rolls with his personal secretary Eliza (Liza Minnelli in her first movie role), setting off on an overnight rive up north.

The Wrong Box (1966)

A 60s movie with a cast including Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Nanette Newman, John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Peter Sellers and Tony Hancock? Sounds too good to be true? Well it is true - and strangely, The Wrong Box remains something of an unknown quantity.

Despite the era, this isn't a swinging sixties movie - it's actually a Victorian farce. But as the style of the 60s owed much to a Victorian revival, that doesn't take too much effort. The plot however is something that might require a few spare brain cells.

DVD Review: What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

In the mid-sixties Woody Allen became a hot property after scripting the hit comedy What's New, Pussycat? (1965).  Exploitation legends James Nicholson and Sam Arkoff at American International Pictures promptly purchased a Japanese spy movie called Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi ("International Secret Police: Key of Keys") and roped Allen in to re-dub and re-script the picture, transforming it into a zany comedy.  The result was What's Up, Tiger Lily? 

Allen's version recasts star Tatsuya Mihashi as Phil Moskowitz (!), the ace superspy recruited to track down a top secret egg salad recipe.  His employer, the High Macha, ruler of "an exotic country that isn't real but sounds believable", warns him villains are also on its trail.  "They kill, they maim and they call information for numbers they could easily look up in the book."  Aided by sexy sidekicks: Suki Yaki (Akiko Wakabayashi) and Teri Yaki (Mie Hama), Phil tangles with no-goods Shepherd Wong (Tadao Nakamura) and Wing Fat (Susumu Kurobe) in a wild and crazy caper, interspersed with interviews with "creator" Woody Allen ("Danger is my bread and butter") and musical numbers by The Lovin' Spoonful. 

Part of American pop's response to the British invasion, The Lovin' Spoonful were spliced into the movie against the wishes of rock music hater Woody Allen.  Indeed, Allen was scathing about the whole enterprise, calling it: "stupid and juvenile" and tried to sue the producers (including Henry G. Saperstein, who co-produced many a Japanese monster movie with Toho) to prevent the film being released.  He recanted after the film drew good reviews and proved a box office success.  Forty years on, What's Up, Tiger Lily? remains frothy fun with some choice Allen witticisms ("I'd call him a sadistic, hippophilic necrophile, but that's flogging a dead horse"). 

DVD Review: Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery 10th Anniversary Special Edition (1997)

Is it really 10 years since the world 'shagadelic' came into being? It must be, because Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery 10th Anniversary Special Edition is on the market.

I've got to be honest, I was dreading re-watching this. Time hasn't been too kind to the movie's legacy - the name 'Austin Powers' conjures up images of bad fancy dress costumes and even worse impressions, not to mention those tired old catchphrases. In fact, if someone proposed burying the movie (and its two sequels) underground for 100 years, I would have backed them all the way. But I did watch it again - and you know what? I actually enjoyed it.

Because despite all the baggage, this is a very funny, very well-written comedy spoof. And if you happen to have an obsession for 60s cinema (as I do), there's also the opportunity to bore your friends with a spot of 'reference spotting' from the likes of Our Man Flint, Dr Goldfoot, (original) Casino Royale, The Silencers, Valley Of The Dolls, Girl on A Motorcycle, Smashing Time, Blow-Up and various Bond movies to name just a fraction.

DVD Review: Sleeping Dogs (2006)

Comedians don’t generally translate well into script-writing, especially when it comes to film. Not nowadays, anyway. Britain’s seen enough of its finest comic talents who trod the boards on Saturday Live or The Secret Policeman’s Ball go on to make crappy big-screen adaptations of their best-loved characters (Kevin And Perry Go Large, Ali G Indahouse) to reinforce the point. Trouble is, most characters are a one-note joke – you can’t do a lot with a character that’s so ubiquitous thanks to a catchphrase or an action. Borat only really succeeded because he was a “sleeper” character, and as such was able to get away with a lot more than Ali G, for example, couldn’t. We knew what Ali G would say, but not Sacha Baron Cohen’s other creation.
   
Even in America, comedians tend to shy away from writing their own film scripts because they’re either too outrageous or they prefer the safety of television, where they only have to fill half an hour and they call the shots. Jerry Seinfeld, for example, will never make a Seinfeld film. There won’t ever be a Cheers or Frasier movie. Dave Chappelle, who was so successful with Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, only went with a ‘concert film’.