Silent Sundays: 3 Bad Men

“Come along my three bad men. Let’s go make camp.”

            I say this time again whenever I write up a western film and I will say it again: I am not a huge fan of westerns. When I watch a western there has to be an actor or actress I really like in it or the director is someone I like as well. The 1926 silent film 3 Bad Men had both of my preferences with actor George O’Brien playing one of the lead parts and it was directed by John Ford.

            The story takes place in the 1870s when President Grant opened up the west. Both Americans and immigrants came from their crowded cities to settle in wide open spaces breathe fresh air. At a campsite a man finds gold in the mountains. Dan O’Malley (O’Brien) is one of the waves of immigrants seeking his own parcel of land. While out in the prairies traveling with hundreds of others Dan comes across a young woman named Lee Carlton (Olive Borden) and her father. Their wagon lost its wheel and Dan comes around to help them. When he is done he flirts with Lee a little bit but pulls away when she awaits his kiss.

            Rewards circulate throughout the small established Midwestern towns for three men named Bull Stanley, Spade Allen, and Mike Costigan for holdups and robbery and horse stealing. They watch from a hilltop as the wagons and men on horses pass by below. Bull rides up to a man and asks where they are all heading. The man replies they are heading to the Dakotas to find gold. Bull says there is a man there “jus’ as yeller” he is looking for.

            The town of Custer is controlled by the sheriff Layne Hunter. Layne is not a good sheriff. He has a gang of men that go around intimidating people and causing trouble. A young woman named Millie is in love with him and wants to marry him when a minister arrives in town. Layne gives her a dirty look and closes the window they were speaking through on her. News is brought to Layne that someone out in the prairie has a few thorough bread racing horses. He tells his men to go get the horses.

            Still on the hilltop Bull, Spade, and Mike see the thorough breads. As they are heading down to capture the horses they see another gang come in. When they get to the wagon a man is dead on the ground and Bull goes to shoot the other person. The other person takes off their hat and it is Lee. Bull cannot shoot her after that especially when she begins to cry into his chest. The three men take Lee into town as part of their group. Layne sees Lee getting water from a trough and starts hitting on her. Bull immediately gets off the wagon and comes between Lee and Layne. He tells the sheriff that Lee is with his group and if has anything to say to her he has to go through him.  Layne plans to deal with the three men in his own way since Bull got in his way with Lee. When they are done setting up camp Lee tells the three men they can work for her but she cannot pay them until she gets her land. Bull steps up and says they will work for her for nothing. The next morning Layne comes looking for Lee. She does not like him very much. In his tent, Bull takes out a letter from his sister that says she followed the man she loved. His sister is Millie.

            Bull comes to think that the three of them are no good for Lee after he sees her playing with a baby. He wants to find her a nice man to marry so he sends Spade and Mike out to find one. Spade and Mike go to the local dive to find a man. They find a guy but he is definitely not right for Lee. Dan comes into town and right into the bar. Millie is sitting in a bar with a man that Layne knows. Bull also comes into the bar. Millie sees her brother and runs away from the man. Dan is standing on the stairs when Millie rushes past him. The man chases after her but Dan stops him. Bull helps Dan fight off all the others who joined in the fight. Outside the dive Bull takes a look at Dan and invites him back to their camp asking him if he wants a job. Dan and Lee are surprised to see each other. He asks about her father and she tells him what happened. This time standing alone they kiss.

            Layne sends one of his men to get out of an old man where the gold is. The old man is hurt but before he passes he gives the man with the gold on it to Bull and everyone. Bull tells Layne he has had enough of him. The following day a revolt is planned against Layne and his men with Bull the leader. Layne lets lawlessness rule. He lets his men burn the church down where the women are praying with the minister and he even goes along with them. Millie hears the plan and runs to the church to warn everyone. The minister manages to get out of the church and tries to plead with the men to stop. Millie comes running out toward the minister and catches the bullet in her back. She cries out for her brother. Bull is in the church getting the other out when he hears her. Bull’s men chase away Layne’s men and rescue everyone in the church including Lee who had been there. As Millie lies dying Bull asks her who the man was who took her away. At that moment Layne walks in and Millie screams. Bull chases after him but does not catch him. When Bull returns Millie has died.

            The great race for land is the following day at twelve o’clock. At twelve on the dot Bull, Lee, Mike, Spade, and Dan dash off for their land. Layne and his men watch the rush and he tells his man to wait to see where Bull and the rest stop and they will catch up to them. The Carlton group, as they are known as, is in the lead. They have to go through a pass to get to the land they want. Bull, Mike, and Spade tell Dan and Lee to go on ahead they will meet them. The three bad men know that they have to try to hold off Layne and his men as long as they can. They pull cards and whoever has the highest card has to stay behind. Spade is a card cheat and he purposely picks the highest card. The next person to stay behind is Mike and he stays in a small storage house with gun powder inside and bullets flying around. Bull is the last one standing. Dan wants to help him fight but Bull wants him to go with Lee so he punches the poor Irishman out cold. Bull gets into a shoot out with Layne and his men and immediately gets wounded. He crawls behind a rock and from behind it he stares Layne down and they both shoot killing each other.

            Years pass and Dan and Lee are settled on their farm with their son Stanley Costigan Allen O’Malley. Dan takes the baby over the three hats on the wall and tells his son that one day he will tell him the story of the best three bad men there ever was.

            I really enjoyed 3 Bad Men. The story was not a usual western and I liked that a lot. I liked how the three criminals looked and sounded mean but when they met someone who cared for them they cared for that someone. Once you find out that Bull has a sister you know exactly why he cares for Lee like he does and you like him all the more for it. George O’Brien gets top billing but he is barely in the film. In his few scenes he was wonderful. This is the first time I have ever seen Olive Borden in a film and I thought she was good. O’Brien and Borden made a good pair. The film really belongs to Tom Santschi who played Bull. He was fantastic. Santschi looked like a tough criminal but one that could also have a heart and he played both sides of the character perfectly. John Ford’s direction is as always amazing. In the land rush scene you feel excited and tense as if you were actually in the race yourself. His camera angles were stunning in the land rush scene. The film does have its cheesy moments such as some over acting and the ending was good but it packed some cheese with it. Besides the cheesy moments 3 Bad Men is a very good silent film and a very good western with a lot of heart.  

Red (2010)

“This used to be a Gentleman's game.”

            Twelve years ago I caught a marathon of the TV show Alias on ABC Family. My grandparents raved on and on about it and how much I would like seeing this girl kicking everyone’s ass wherever she went. So when I saw there was a marathon on ABC Family I started watching it and from the first episode I saw I was hooked. That night was the premier of Alias’s second season and from then on my life has never been in the same in many ways. Honestly, if I never watched Alias I would not be running this blog today. Anyway, to get to the point, since that time I have love watching movie and books about spies. I think the world of espionage is fascinating both in real life and fantasy. I always say if I was smart enough I would love to work for the FBI or CIA as an undercover agent. For the past three years my grandparents have been telling me I need to see the movie Red because they kick a lot of ass, shoot and kill a lot of people, blow up almost everything and most of all because it is hysterical. I watched Red and it was one of the funniest most enjoyable movies I have seen in a while.

            Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired black-ops agent. He lives in a nice quiet neighborhood all by himself in a nice house. Every month he gets his pension from the government and when he does he likes to call to speak to his case worker Sarah (Mary- Louise Parker). Both of them are bored and lonely in their lives. Sarah dreams of traveling and lives vicariously through her romance novels while Frank wakes up at 6am everyday and works out and also reads the novels Sarah tells him about. At 3am one morning Frank gets up and walks downstairs. There are men in his house in combat gear looking for him. Frank easily takes them out. He takes out bullets in one of the guns he pulled off one of the bodies, puts them on a frying pan, and heats it up. The bullets go off and soon enough a barrage of bullets are unleashed onto his house by a whole fleet of men in combat gear. Frank manages to take them out as well and gets away.

            Sarah had a bad date. She comes home and Frank is standing in her hallway. Sarah screams her head off that Frank is in her apartment. He is there to take her away since people are after him they will be after her to kill her because she has been talking to him. He ties her up and sticks her in the backseat of his car.

            Frank takes Sarah all over the place to find his old black-ops buddies. He finds out they are all targeted because they were involved in a recovery mission down in South America years before and they now need to be eliminated. He rounds up Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), and Victoria (Helen Mirren) who all have their own special talents with weapons and information. They are all being chased down by an ambitious CIA agent named William Cooper (Karl Urban) whose job it is to get rid of people.

            The movie is too hysterical to give away too much detail other than what I have already written.

            The cast was perfect. They all interacted wonderfully. I was dying seeing Helen Mirren holding these huge guns and being a bad ass. To me Mary-Louise Parker and John Malkovich stole the entire movie they were the funniest to me. It looked like they all had a great time making this movie together. I like that whoever made this movie  did not just throw all these great actors in it for the sake of having names (well maybe they did) and only having them in the movie for like two seconds. Each actor had a wonderful amount of screen time and they were all perfect.

            Red is immensely enjoyable. I was cracking up with almost every scene because the characters were funny the dialogue was very sharp and witty. There are some scenes that you think “oh shit how are they gonna get out of this” and then boom they are out or something totally unexpected happens. Red is one of those action movies that just has everything that makes it great and enjoyable. Highly suggest seeing Red especially if you are like me and love watching spy movies.

 

The Killer Inside Me (2010)

“It's always lightest just before the dark”

            Four years ago when I was in London I saw posters for The Killer Inside Me in the Tube stations. The title alone intrigued me along with the cast. Kate Hudson, Casey Affleck, and Jessica Alba are three actors I could not really picture being in a movie together let alone one with such a title.

            The story is about a police officer named Lou Ford (Affleck) in a small Texas town he has lived in all his life. He sent to tell a prostitute named Joyce Lakeland to get out of town before she is arrested. She smacks him and yells at him to get out then he smacks her back and then all the sudden they are having sex. Then he starts coming around to see her more.

            The local big shot in town pays Lou to get Joyce out of town because his son is going around with her and wants to marry her. Lou gets the son to Joyce’s place and he winds up beating Joyce’s face to a pulp and then shoots the son making it look like Joyce shot the guy. The local big shot takes Joyce to a bigger town where she can be taken care of but she dies.

            After this Lou begins killing people to get to his end of taking the local big shot down. His plan backfires. He figures out that the police have evidence on him and he needs to clean up his mess.

            I cannot offer a better explanation because I was not crazy about The Killer Inside Me. Unfortunately only the title was intriguing. I forgot how awful Jessica Alba is as an actress and Kate Hudson really is no better. Casey Affleck is not that great himself. The story was actually surprisingly shocking because it was brutal. It was not like crazy fake gory it was real life gory. Some of the violent scenes you really do not see coming and they shock you. I think The Killer Inside Me could have been a lot better. There could have been a better cast no doubt about that. It felt very slow and I lost interest. There was just no hook it began boring. The only redeeming quality of the movie is the music I actually really liked the music.

 

Frances Ha (2012)

“I don’t know if I believe anything I’m saying.”

            I am not even sure why I wanted to see Frances Ha. No, I lied I do know why I saw it was released through the Criterion collection and Criterion is known for putting out good artistic movies. Also, a movie blog that I follow said Frances Ha was good. I figured I would give the movie a shot since I need to watch more modern movies.

            The story of the movie is really a mix of scenes from the life of a single woman named Frances (Greta Gerwig). Frances is a dancer who lives in New York City. At the beginning she lives with her best friend Sophie in Brooklyn. One day Sophie tells Frances that she has the opportunity to move to Tribeca where she really wants to live. After this Frances moves all over the place and tries to figure out what she wants with her life.

            I am not going to go into too much detail because, one, it is a new movie so there is information for it all over the place and, two, the movie is supposed to take place over a year or so and to explain everything that happens I would make it sound terrible and schizophrenic.

            Frances as a character was interesting. I liked her because I can relate to her in certain ways. She is a student of the arts like me and finding a steady well paying job in the arts is never easy or good enough. She is just a normal young woman trying to find her way and live her life. Her relationship with her friend Sophie is one I think we have all had. It was a relationship that was really close for a long time and then it just floated away and they talked very little. The only way Frances found out anything about Sophie sometimes was through other people.

            I do like how the story and the characters are realistic. These are people you have met in your life or personally know. One of the characters could ever be you. Nothing about this movie was glamorized it was real life. How many times in your life have you felt stuck or had a flakey friend?

            Noah Baumbach’s direction I enjoyed immensely. I love the fact that it is in black and white. I think the color and cinematography add to the reality and force the viewers to just focus on the story and the character in front of you and not her surroundings.

            I am not sure how I feel about Frances Ha. I did not hate it but I did not particularly like it. I can see how some reviewers have called it endearing and how Frances is amusing but I was not impressed. As I said I like the realistic-ness of it I liked that the character was eccentric and not typical but there was something with the story that I was not thrilled with. Maybe it was the fact that Frances was too free spirited and impulsive and did not want to grow up. Hell, it could even be the fact that we are both the same age and she is living in New York City and is just squandering the possibilities in front of her and I am just a jealous bitch. Who the hell knows what I feel about France Ha. I will say if you do get the chance to watch Frances Ha do watch it by all means. It is very original which is refreshing when so many movies today have neat and tidy happy romantic endings that are not real life.

 

The Bling Ring (2013)

“It goes to show America has a sick fascination with the whole Bonnie and Clyde thing.”

            Everyone has an idea what they would buy if they were a filthy rich celebrity. My goodness, my list is a mile long! I would want a sports car (I drive like an asshole to begin with), to live in a gorgeous house somewhere either in London or California or New Jersey (lay off NJ is where I am from. And no I would not live near the shore I already live near it and it is not all it is cracked up to be), Chanel whatever I can lay my hands on and other designer clothes, perfume, and jewelry (again, lay off, I am a girl after all), an apartment near the Metropolitan Museum of Art (so I can go there whenever I want) I would collect prints by my favorite photographers, whatever photo camera I wanted, all the movies on DVD and Blu Rays and books I can possibly imagine, and the number one things  on my list are an incredible library and an insane movie theater. My house/apartment would not be outrageously gaudy or extravagant I am simple and I appreciate art and design. It would be modern but comfortable and homey.  

            But since most you reading this blog are not filthy stinking rich have you ever thought what it would be like going into a celebrity’s home and what kinds of insanely expensive things they would have inside? If you were to somehow get inside a celebrity’s home would you still things if they were not around? In The Bling Ring a group of friends goes around to the homes of celebrities when they are not home and steal whatever they see and their hearts desire.

            Marc Hill starts a new school in Calabasas, California. The school is for kids who could not cut it in a normal high school. For example Marc skipped too many days of school. He meets a girl named Rebecca and she immediately takes to him. Rebecca has Marc meet her friends Chloe, Nicki (Emma Watson), and Sam. All of them have high tastes and constantly wonder what it would be like to be a celebrity with a lot of money even though most of them come from money. Rebecca is obsessed with Lindsay Lohan and out of all of the friends she desperately wants the celebrity lifestyle.

            One day while reading some Hollywood news website Rebecca and Marc read about Paris Hilton hosting a party outside of California. This gives Rebecca the idea to have Marc look up Hilton’s address and to go rob her house. That night the two go to Hilton’s house and find a key underneath the outdoor mat.

            This one break-in leads to several more at Hilton’s house alone as well as other celebrities’ houses. The other break-ins include Nicki, Chloe, and Sam. They find money and jewels and clothes. With the money they go out to clubs around the city and spend whatever they want.

            Eventually all of them are caught. Nicki, Chloe and Sam were only seen on one surveillance camera while Marc and Rebecca were caught on multiple cameras. The first three are only given a year in jail and a three hundred thousand dollar fine. Marc and Rebecca are given four years and an eight hundred thousand dollar fine.

            The cast was good but I felt they were all wasted in their roles. Emma Watson completely stole the movie (no pun intended I swear). She was brilliant. She looked fantastic too. I was impressed with how well she put on the California accent and hid her British accent. Leslie Mann played her mother in a few scenes. You want to talk about an actress whose talents were totally wasted in a film then talk about Leslie Mann in this movie.

            This is the first time I have seen a Sofia Coppola movie. Her direction was not too bad and so was her writing. I found her direction dull. Coppola lingered too long with some of the scenes and I hate it when directors do that. The scenes she lingered on were not good to begin with. The other scenes were good I liked Coppola’s direction in them.

            The Bling Ring was a film I had wanted to see for a while and, to tell the truth, it was only to see Emma Watson. Watson did not disappoint as I said she was fantastic. The story was a bit frustrating and that is because I cannot believe how dumb it made some celebrities look. How damn stupid are you if you have a house worth millions and items that added all together are probably worth more than the house to leave a key under the mat?! Sure they all had a security system in place but no alarms? Some celebrities are stupid to begin with and this just made some of them look even worse and they get no sympathy from me whatsoever for what happened to them. The characters were rich annoying troubled people who just did what they did for a rush because they were bored and were obsessed with the fake celebrity lifestyle.  

            The Bling Ring is worth seeing at least once just for Emma Watson. Just do not have any expectations going into it.

            I shall leave off with a question to you: How would you want to become filthy stinking rich?