Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) or, The Final Ape!

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Incredible chaos and battle scenes are teased on this packed, exciting poster for J. Lee Thompson's Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is the last of the five films in the original Fox Apes franchise. Most people think that this is the worst of the sequels, but I think it is the best. (Of the sequels mind you. None of them can top Franklin J. Schaffner's original Planet of the Apes (1968).)

 
Apes have gained control of Earth, but Caesar, the leader of the apes, wants humans and apes to live in peaceful coexistence. But with polemic, hateful and powerful groups on both sides, will this dream be possible?

 
That is the story of Battle, a film which was scarred by a writers' strife, a disgruntled director (due to an unfinished script and a small budget), and was later reviewed much in light of this by many critics, including the late Roger Ebert.
- Not fair, because Battle is actually a fine and entertaining film. Alright, the plot has some (expected) hurdles; among other things that raise an eyebrow or two, the apes have developed speech and intellect in a mere 20 years. But if you disregard these minor things, Battle is a good film, told with a fitting frame, and it has John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, director)) as the Lawgiver ape.  SPOILER It is also the only film in the series to end on an optimistic, pacifistic note, rounding the groundbreaking science fiction franchise off with style.
It is directed by great English filmmaker J. Lee Thompson (Murder Without Crime (1950)), who also directed the inferior, preceding Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972). The script is by John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington (The Omega Man (1971, both)), with Paul Dehn (Orders to Kill (1958)) contributing story elements.

Related posts:

 

The Apes franchise:  War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) - Reeves and Co. astonish with truly spectacular film that finishes the Ape circle

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) or, Ape 3.1: Mad Apes!
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) or, The Ape Uprising   
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) - The enjoyable if farfetched second Apes sequel
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) - Decent follow-up to the SF milestone   
J. Lee Thompson: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) or, The Ape Uprising

Cape Fear (1962) - Great suspense in effective home invasion thriller 

The Guns of Navarone (1961) - Thompson's wonderful war-adventure classic

 

 

 

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 1.7 mil. $
Box office: 8.8 mil. $ - North America only
= Some uncertainty: A big hit based on North America alone and almost certainly a huge hit with other markets (projected return of 7.35 times the cost)

[Battle for the Planet of the Apes was released 15 June (USA) and runs 93 minutes. Shooting took place around January 1973 in California. My projected final world gross is a low-set 12.5 mil. $. Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. The franchise then lay dormant until Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001). Thompson returned with Huckleberry Finn (1974). Roddy McDowall (The Legend of Hell House (1973)) returned in McMillan & Wife (1973, TV-series), Love, American Style (1973, TV-series) and theatrically in Arnold (1973); Claude Akins (Murder, She Wrote (1984, TV-series)) in 15 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in Tentacles (1977). Battle for the Planet of the Apes is rotten at 36 % with a 4.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Battle for the Planet of the Apes?

The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961) or, The Mad Doctor Javorsky!

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A long list of names are listed in the service of selling Coleman Francis' The Beast of Yucca Flats on this poster

 

Soviet scientist, Joseph Javorsky, who may be a murderer, (but probably isn't), is on the run in Yucca Flats with a briefcase of military secrets. Hunted by the KGB, he wanders into an American nuclear test site and the radiation alters him into a killing beast! He must be stopped!!!

 
The Beast of Yucca Flats is written, co-produced, directed and co-edited by debuting Coleman Francis (Red Zone Cuba (1966)). It is an extremely poorly put together nuclear scare low-budget indie. It starts with a nude murder scene that doesn't really have any relation to the rest of the film. There's not much dialogue, and what there is gets said by faces unseen, - to make the dubbing easier. Guns also fire off-screen for the same reason. People get shot and are then OK in following shots. And the main dramatic action is either laid in the hands of the exerted, foreign giant, who heaves his way around the dessert landscape, or the narrator, who informs us whenever there is a plot point in the story, and is pretty much there to mysteriously guide us through the entire movie. Another bad indication is that Francis did the narration himself.
The Beast of Yucca Flats is infamous as one of the worst films of all time, and it certainly is almost unbelievably bad.
The film stars Swedish wrestler turned strong man and then monster actor, Tor Johnson (Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)) as staggering nuclear monster Javorsky. The one heart that the film gets here is for Johnson and for the still entertaining bad movie value that the outrageous narration and lines lend to the film. Here's a rather long list of ludicrous lines from it, (but which of these could I really with any justification have left out?...)

 
Narrator: A man runs, someone shoots at him

Narrator: Flag on the moon. How did it get there?

Narrator: Boys from the city. Not yet caught by the whirlwind of Progress. Feed soda pop to the thirsty pigs.

Narrator: Touch a button. Things happen. A scientist becomes a beast.

[after one of the Beast's victims dies:]
Joe Dobson: Well, doctors can't help her. Maybe angels, but not doctors.

[last lines:]
Narrator: Joseph Javorski. Noted scientist.
 

And as for the Swedish-born beast star, here's a collection of some of the many humorous faces of our good pal Johnson:

 

 

 

 

 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 34k $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain

[The Beast of Yucca Flats was released 2 May (USA) and runs 54 minutes. Shooting took place in 1959 in California, including in Los Angeles. Details on the film's theatrical earnings or scope are regrettably not to be found online. Francis returned with The Skydivers (1963). Johnson returned in The Dick Powell Theatre (1961, TV-series) and theatrically in Head (1968). 12k+ IMDb users have given The Beast of Yucca Flats a 1.8/10 average rating.]

 
 
What do you think of The Beast of Yucca Flats?

The Little Mermaid (1989) - The fantastic, romantic return of Disney animation

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The colorful and infectiously happy poster for Ron Clements and John Musker's The Little Mermaid

 

The Little Mermaid is a Disney classic based on the same-titled 1837 fairytale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen (The Snowman (1861)). It was the last Disney film to be done with only hand-painted cel animation and analog film work. This required more than 1 million hand-made drawings. The enormous effort paid off as a hugely successful fairy tale animation that marked the start of the 'Disney Renaissance'. Disney animation had fared poorly during the 80s, but Mermaid turned things around, and in the following decade's renaissance, Disney was revived to its former glory within animation with major film successes like Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Tarzan (1999) is thought of as the end of the Disney Renaissance.

Ariel is an unhappy mermaid, who idolizes humans against her father King Triton's demands. She falls in love with the human Prince Eric and makes a Faustian deal with the sea witch octopus Ursula to be a human for 3 days. If she succeeds in getting a kiss of true love from Eric within that time frame, Ariel will be freed from Ursula's eternal bondage, which also entails that Ariel has lost her voice.

 
Seeing Mermaid again today is a great experience, and it is obvious that much has happened in the world of animation since 1989. Animation now almost singularly means computer animation, and big releases run like near adult comedies on kiddie speed or acid (it sometime seems), and are sold with famous comedians like Steve Carell, Jack Black or Will Ferrell as poster candy. This way more people decide to join the little ones to the multiplexes, and the studios make more dollars. (And potentially lose more, as we also see regularly as with Turbo (2013) or Rise of the Guardians (2012) recently.)
Back to the Mermaid, - which has no star voice actors at all, but doesn't fare any the worse for that reason.
It's a beautifully animated movie with strong, charming characters: Ariel's cautious friend, Flounder, the New York-accented, funny seagull and Triton's right hand crab, Haitian-accented Sebastian. There's scenes of raucous slapstick, as when Sebastian survives a ridiculous, French chef, and many really amazing songs, - an element that sadly seems largely extinct in today's animation output. Mermaid deservedly won Oscars for Best Original Song (Under the Sea by Alan Menken (Sausage Party (2016)) and Howard Ashman (Aladdin (1992))) and Best Original Score by Menken. (It was also nominated for the song, Kiss the Girl.)
Ariel's eyes sometimes grow to hysterical excess, (bigger than the shells that make up her bra), in outrageous romantic feeling, and caused by prince Eric, who actually seems like something of a dullard throughout the film. It is an intensely romantic fairy tale, - about half of the film is about her getting him to kiss her, - and, understandably, Andersen's original, tragic ending has been thrown into the sea in favor of something lighter and happier.
The film is written and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker (Hercules (1997), both), with Ashman, Gerrit Graham (Oliver & Company (1988)), Sam Graham  and Chris Hubbell (Peter Pan and the Pirates (1990-91), both) contributing dialog, based on the Andersen story.
An online list of scary movie villains from non-horror movies recently included Ursula from The Little Mermaid and that with good reason. - The sea witch of Mermaid is a damn scary creation. A devilish, tentacled, super-obese diva, somehow reeking of sins of every nature, who keeps the souls of her unlucky clients as slimy, weeping snails in her gloomy, violet-colored, underwater lair. I don't remember villains in any recent animation films coming even close to Ursula in malice and scare-factor. Her evil culminates in a nightmare-inducing sequence, where she grows to enormous kaiju monster size in the sea. (Perhaps Western animators today are less induced to go all in with evil villains in their films than was the case in 1989. If so, that's a damn shame.)
Curiously, Ursula was inspired by the drag queen/disco singer/performance artist/actor/actress phenomenon, the now many years dead and gone Divine, most famous for her parts in John Waters films like Roman Candles (1966), Mondo Trasho (1969) and Pink Flamingos (1972). These films couldn't be further replaced from Disney's target group and are definitely not for children. (In the latter film, Divine notoriously devours real dog feces.)
Here's pictures of both movie personas for your own comparison:

Sea witch Ursula from The Little Mermaid

Drag queen legend Divine from something decidedly non-Disney

Cost: 40 mil. $
Box office: 211.3 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 5.28 times its cost)

[The Little Mermaid premiered 13 November (New York) and runs 83 minutes. The Andersen story had been planned as a Disney feature ever since the 1930s but had been scrapped for unknown reasons. Production took place in California. It was Disney's biggest budget in decades and the first time they would include Broadway-type songs in the film. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Harlem Nights and holdover hit Look Who's Talking, to a 6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 5 weekends in the top 5 grossing 84.3 mil. $ (39.9 % of the total gross). A 1997 re-release garnered impressive 27.1 mil. $ additionally in North America. Disney broke with their strategy to keep releases from the home video market for years to profit from re-releases by releasing Mermaid to home video after 6 months, garnering enormous merchandise and video profits, reportedly bringing the film's total revenue past 1 bil. $. The film won 2 Oscars, for Best Score (Menken) and Song (Under the Sea by Ashman and Menken, with their Kiss the Girl also getting nominated.) It also won 2/4 Golden Globe nominations, 1/3 Grammy nominations and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Two direct-to-video sequels were made, and a 2023 live-action remake is in post-production right now. Clements and Musker returned with Aladdin (1992). The Little Mermaid is certified fresh at 93 % with an 8.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Little Mermaid?

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) - More than decent follow-up to the SF milestone

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The plentiful text promises lots of excitement on this poster for Ted Post's Beneath the Planet of the Apes

A rescue mission carrying astronaut Brent crash-lands on the planet of the apes and discovers a harrowing truth in tunnels beneath their civilization!

 

Beneath the Planet of the Apes is written by Paul Dehn (Orders to Kill (1958)), with Mort Abrahams (Route 66 (1962-63, producer)) contributing story elements, and directed by Ted Post (The Peacemaker (1956)). It is the first sequel to Franklin J. Schaffner's science fiction masterpiece Planet of the Apes (1968).

The film, in short, is not as successful or innovative as its predecessor but still solid entertainment.
Both effects and the action elements have been upped, and yet the debate-sparking elements in the original's storyline are also intact, this time in the forms of war-loving, brutal gorillas, protesting chimpanzees, against the simians' special culture surrounding violence against women. - And then there's the extremist, bomb-worshipping mutants! All in all Beneath has a lot of 'stuff' in it, for lack of a better word, to spur thoughts and parallels to the real world, making it highly successful SF, - if not, however, as revolutionizing as the groundbreaking original.
SPOILER The story about Charlton Heston's (Ben Hur (1959)) character Taylor from the first movie, who now has to be saved 2000 years into the future is a little thin, and the mutants are a bit far-fetched. If one wants to be critical about Beneath the Planet of the Apes. - But their pastel-colored costumes are prime kitsch, and I bought into the story irregardless.
James Franciscus (The Cat o'Nine Tails (1971)) is the new hero, - cast because of his resemblance to Heston, - and he is a woolly, poor hero. But then Heston reappears! SPOILER The ending, (in which Taylor blows up planet Earth), is quite something, and it is also in great alignment with the dystopic end of the original.

 

Related posts:

The Apes franchise: War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) - Reeves and Co. astonish with truly spectacular film that finishes the Ape circle 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) or, Ape 3.1: Mad Apes!
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) or, The Final Ape!  
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) or, The Ape Uprising   
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) - The enjoyable if farfetched second Apes sequel 

Kim Hunter and James Franciscus are photogenic and sexy as human prisoners in Ted Post's Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Watch an original TV promo for the film here

 
Cost: 2.5 mil. $
Box office: 18.9 mil. $ (North America only)
= Huge hit (returned 7.56 times its cost domestically alone)

[Beneath the Planet of the Apes was released 23 April (Italy) and runs 95 minutes. Pierre Boulle, author of the 1963 Planet of the Apes novel that started the franchise, wrote a script that was thrown out by the studio. Heston agreed only to a brief appearance and wanted his salary to go to charity. Schaffner was not able to return to direct due to his work on Patton (1970). Shooting took place from February - April 1969 in California, including in Los Angeles. Fox cut the budget in half to 2.5 mil. $ due to several recent, costly flops, and one cost-cutting strategy was the incorporation of sets from musical Hello, Dolly! (1969) in the film.It opened #9 to a 250k $ first week in 4 theaters, and it reached #1 in its 6th week with 863k $. The success immediately prompted another sequel to go into production: Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971). Post returned with 9 TV and TV movie credits prior to his theatrical return with The Baby (1973). Franciscus returned in Night Slaves (1970, TV movie) and theatrically in The Cat o'Nine Tales (1971); Kim Hunter (The Kindred (1987)) in 5 TV credits prior to her theatrical return in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971). Beneath the Planet of the Apes is rotten at 37 % with a 5.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Beneath the Planet of the Apes?

The Boat/Das Boot (1981) - Petersen's awe-inspiring WWII epic

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The formidable German poster for Wolfgang Petersen's The Boat, using a newspaper-like graphic that seems to set the high-seas drama of the film in poignant relief. The tagline means, 'A voyage to the end of sanity'

In 1942 World War II is in full swing, and German u-boat U-96 heads out to fight in the Battle of the Atlantic.

 

The Boat is written and directed by German master filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (Ich Werde Dich Töten, Wolf (1971)), whose 4th feature it is. It is an adaptation of the same-titled 1973 autobiographical novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim (Die Festung (1995)). The original title translates to, 'the boat'.

The Boat is a really suspenseful, West German U-boat WWII epic from the now retired, German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (In the Line of Fire (1993)), who specialized in grand tales of men facing incredible elements or enemies. He also directed films like The NeverEnding Story (1984), Outbreak (1995), Air Force One (1997), The Perfect Storm (2000), Troy (2004) and Poseidon (2006).
The Boat is genuine, claustrophobic submarine terror. There are a number of versions available, including a mini-series version and an 'Original Uncut Version' of nearly 300 (!) minutes, but this review is based on the most commonly seen 150 minute version. The Boat is and was at its inception a giant movie, the most expensive German production ever since Fritz Lang's sci-fi masterpiece, Metropolis (1927). It is a spectacle to behold, and cannot and should not be removed from this part of its attraction.
For a suspense film, it is impressive that The Boat 'only' really peaks twice within its 2½ hours, - and still remains 100 % unnerving. This is perhaps due to its ambitious and formidable shoot, which was chronological and ran for a year (!), keeping the cast living almost as real submariners for that period.
The film is impressive and educative for anyone interested in knowing how a German U-boat functioned during WWII. The history is already known, so to speak, when it comes to the German side Nazi depiction of the war, (it's a misguided tragedy in other words), SPOILER and this is one of the rare war epics, where you will follow what for all intents and purposes seem like 'heroes' for a long playing time, - and still not weep a tear, when they are all blown to bits in the end. (At least I didn't.)
One thing that annoyed me was the fact that the large boat crew was made sympathetic in such a degree that it only contained one real Nazi member. I wonder how we would have seen and experienced The Boat, had the soldiers in fact been Nazis. Reading about the point online I gather that it is unclear at best, if naval soldiers were less Nazified than the rest of the German army and people were at the time depicted, and so this critique seem to stand and be justified.
Still, The Boat is one of the great war films of the 20th century, and perhaps one of the greatest German films period. Especially for the war and/or historically interested, this is a must watch.

 

Related post:

 

Wolfgang Petersen: Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Approximately 18.5 mil. $
Box office: 84.9 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.58 times its cost)

[The Boat was released 17 September (West Germany) and runs 149 minutes - with longer versions also available. The majority of the budget was reportedly spent on constructing the u-boats. Shooting took place in France and Germany from 1979-81, with most of the filming completed in one year, in which the actors were strictly kept out of sunlight to make them pale. The film was afforded the widest release to its day in West Germany, where it reportedly grossed 5.1 mil. $ within its first 2 weeks of release. It made 10.9 mil. $ (12.8 % of the total gross) in North America, most from the original German, subtitled version, although an English dub version was also released. The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Cinematography (Jost Vacano (Spetters (1980))) to Billy Williams and Ronnie Taylor for Gandhi, Director to Richard Attenborough for Gandhi, Sound Effects Editing to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Editing to Gandhi, Adapted Screenplay to Costa-Gavras and Donald E. Stewart for Missing and Sound also to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The Boat is currently voted in as #79 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250, sitting between Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Petersen returned with The NeverEnding Story (1984). Jürgen Prochnow (Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)) returned in War and Peace/Krieg und Frieden (1982). The Boat is certified fresh at 98 % with a 9.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Boat?

The Beyond/ ...E Tu Vivrai nel Terrore! L'Aldilà/7 Doors of Hell (1981) - Fulci's ultimate vision of surreal horror

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A colorful, psychedelic poster for Lucio Fulci's The Beyond

 
A Louisiana hotel contains a portal to Hell. And when that portal opens ... shit gets ugly!

 
The Beyond is written by Dardano Sacchetti (Quella Villa in Fondo al Parco (1988)), Giorgio Mariuzzo (Aenigma (1987)) and co-writer/director Lucio Fulci (I Ladri (1959)), with inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft (He (1926, short story)) and Clark Ashton Smith (The Black Diamonds (1907)). It is the 2nd film in Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy, coming after City of the Living Dead (1980) and before The House by the Cemetery (1981). The original title translates to, '... And you will live in terror! The afterlife'.

The Beyond contains: Copious uses of zoom shots; a funky/timely/confusing score by Fabio Frizzi (City of the Living Dead/Paura nella Città dei Morti Viventi (1980)), surrealistic imagery, locations and characters, (among others are Fulci as a bookseller); brutal animals (dogs and tarantulas attack); multiple eye-stabbing and falling scenes and incredibly lax zombies, (perhaps because Fulci only added them to satisfy the German financier/distributor.) The film is stylish and nightmarishly scary, with incredible images (cinematography by Sergio Salvati (Banzai (1997)) and fantastic special effects. The story is somewhat confusing, again perhaps because Fulci was not primarily interested in presenting a developing, traditional narrative.
SPOILER The no-mans-land surreal ending is really something. (And the behind-the-scenes story that the dead, pale corpses lying around are really Italian vagabonds paid in booze to lie there is just awesome film trivia.)
Late film critic icon Roger Ebert snorted at The Beyond and gave it only half a star, proving only that he never understood horror movies. The Beyond is a cult favorite if ever there was one.

 

Related posts:

Lucio Fulci: The House by the Cemetery/Quella Villa accanto al Cimitero (1981) - Underwhelming Fulci horror

City of the Living Dead/Paura Nella Città Dei Morti Viventi/The Gates of Hell (1980) - New England town turns to a gory hell in Fulci's slow shocker favorite 

 

 

Listen to Frizzi's amazing main theme from the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 400k $
Box office: Uncertain - projected at at least 2.3 mil. $
= Uncertain - but probably a huge hit (projected return of 5.75 times its cost)

[The Beyond was released 29 April (Italy) and runs 87 minutes. Shooting reportedly took place on the basis of a 3-page outline instead of a traditional script, running from October - December 1980 in Louisiana, including in New Orleans, and in Rome, Italy. It grossed approximately 416k $ in Italy and was also released in a row of other markets, including Spain where it was reportedly especially successful. In North America, it was released in 1983 as 7 Doors of Hell, recut, shortening it by several minutes, and with a new score and faulty end credits. This still grossed 455k $ in its opening weekend and reportedly made the distributor a roughly 700k $ profit, which would mean a gross of  around 1.75 mil. $. Together, the film should have a gross of at least 2.3 mil. $ and possibly significantly more. In the UK it was released with an X rating and several cuts demanded by the BBFC, the censor organ who also later included it on their 'video nasties' list. - It was not released uncut in the UK until 2001. Roger Ebert gave it a ½/4 star review, translating to 4 notches under this one. Fulci returned with The House by the Cemetery/Quella Villa Accanto al Cimitero (1981). Catriona MacColl (Horsehead (2014)) returned in Noires Sont les Galaxies (1981, TV-series) and theatrically in The House by the Cemetery; David Warbeck (Craze (1974)) in Fuga dall'Arcipelago Maledetto (1982). The Beyond is fresh at 67 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Beyond?

Broken Flowers (2005) - Hip search for son and self with Jarmusch and Murray

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+ Best Road Movie of the Year

Star Bill Murray looks unsure of the situation, standing on a doorstep with a bouquet of flowers on this poster for Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers

A former Don Juan, who is now a very domestic aging, single gentleman, gets a letter that says he has a son, and he decides to head out and visit former lovers to learn more about this circumstance.

 
Broken Flowers is written and directed by Ohioan master filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (Permanent Vacation (1980)), based on an idea by Bill Raden and Sara Driver (Sleepwalk (1986)). It is Jarmusch's 9th feature.  

It is an excellent 'little' film. 'Little' because the existential crisis and emotions expressed by its lead character Don (Bill Murray (Hamlet (2000))) are so limited and underplayed.
The film has a stellar cast of women that are all enjoyable, - especially Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under (2001-05)), who has a priceless dinner scene involving Don and carrots. The other women are Jessica Lange (Frances (1982)), Julie Delpy (L.A. Without a Map (1998)), Tilda Swinton (Moonrise Kingdom (2012)), Sharon Stone (Border Run (2012)) and Chloë Sevigny (Mr. Nice (2010)). Also Jeffrey Wright (W (2008)) is a joy as a male compadre to Don, and both the editing by Jay Rabinowitz (Requiem for a Dream (2000)) and the Ethiopian jazz score by Mulatu Astatke (Little Heaven (2011)) are wonderful.
Murray seems throughout the movie to be a fragile, confused man with severe hangovers, and his part is nearly too close to the one he plays in Sofia Ford Coppola's modern classic, Lost in Translation (2003).
SPOILER Broken Flowers' has an open ending seemed unresolved to me, but the film is still a gift.

 

Related posts:

Jim Jarmusch: 2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

The Limits of Control (2009) - Jarmusch hits career low with idea-bereft embarrassment

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) - Pleasant, precious vignette sit-down with some wonderful people    
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) - Whitaker serves ancient samurai justice in Jarmusch's cool treat   
Dead Man (1995) - Jarmusch's bold, poetic, rich Americana masterpiece 
Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Down by Law (1986) - Jarmusch's jailbreak movie is an independent character gem 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 47.3 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.73 times its cost)

[Broken Flowers premiered 17 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 101 minutes. Shooting took place from November 2004 - ? in New York and New Jersey. The film opened #16 to a 780k $ first weekend in 27 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #12 and in 433 theaters (different weeks), grossing 13.7 mil. $ (29 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 9 mil. $ (19 %) and Germany with 4.2 mil. $ (8.9 %). The film won an award at Cannes (Jury Grand Prize), was nominated for a European Film award and an Independent Spirit award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Jarmusch returned with Raconteurs: Steady, As She Goes (Version 1) (2006, music video) and theatrically with The Limits of Control (2009). Murray returned in The Lost City (2005). Broken Flowers is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Broken Flowers?