Blue Sunshine (1978) or, Can You Ever Trust Someone Who Has Taken LSD?

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One truly psychedelic poster for Jeff Lieberman's Blue Sunshine

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When a singing guest at a party gets his hair ripped off, he goes amok and burns two other guests, before getting run down. As it turns out, he - and a bunch of other people - go amok and lose their hair, because they took some bad LSD 10 years earlier.
That is the gripping premise in Jeff Lieberman's Blue Sunshine, which both attacks the hippie-culture and contemporary America's close relations to different kinds of chemistry.
Zalman King (The Ski Bum (1971)) isn't bad as the protagonist, but apart from him, Sunshine features an incredible host of terrible actors.
Still in all, it does manage to create images of a haunting nature and some eeriness, a special intro, a crime scene-scene that was later copied in Brett Ratner's Red Dragon (2002) and scary music by Charles Gross (Valdez Is Coming (1971)).
Blue Sunshine is a weird treat for fans of weird 70s sci-fi/horror with political ties, and is reminiscent of David Cronenberg's superior Scanners (1981).
Director Lieberman feature-debuted with Squirm (1976), a film about attacking worms. His last feature, so far, has been Satan's Little Helper (2004).



Title shot from the movie

One of the uncanny, former LSD-takers in Jeff Lieberman's Blue Sunshine

Another striking poster for the film - click to enlarge

The original trailer gives away so much, so here's instead a full scene from Blue Sunshine, and boy, what a scene. If this doesn't hook you, the film isn't for you

Budget: 0.55 mil. $ (est.)
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty

What do you think of Blue Sunshine?
Have you seen other Jeff Lieberman movies; if so, how were they?
Other trippy 70s genre films worth watching?

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - The magnificent and mysterious monster bride

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A sombre, beautiful poster for James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein

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From the Golden Age of studio-created horror movies - especially from Universal Pictures, - James Whale (The Invisible Man (1933)) finally followed his hugely popular 1931 Frankenstein up with The Bride of Frankenstein, which boldly and inventively starts out from a make-believe conversation between Mary Shelly (writer of the original Frankenstein (1818)) and Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. We are then catapulted into the fictional universe of the animated monster again.
Whale has chosen several details from the novel that had not been used in the first film, like the monster's relationship to the old, blind man and its ability to speak, which I think, however, is overused a bit in Bride.
But Boris Karloff (The Mummy (1932)) portrays his tragic figure brilliantly, and Ernest Thesiger (The Ghoul (1933)) is superiorly evil as Dr. Pretorius. The effects, camera and set work is stunning. The fantastic cinematography is by John J. Mescall (Magnificent Obsession (1935)). The film had censorship issues in many countries and is teeming with symbolic, religious and scientific elements that have stirred rich analyses of it in many different directions.
Finally, Bride is always remembered for Elsa Lanchester's (Mary Poppins (1964)) now iconic costume wig, if not for some of its many other appealing, strange, remarkable contents. A great horror classic.

Related review:

Boris Karloff: The Ape (1940) or, The Costume-Crazed Doctor!

Elsa Lanchester as The Bride of Frankenstein in James Whale's horror classic

Watch an original trailer for the movie here

Budget: 0.397 mil. $
Box office: 2 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of Bride of Frankenstein?
If you have any funny anecdotes concerning the film, please share them

Blackadder Goes Forth - season 4 (1989) - A low-point WWI-trenches adieu

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From the left: Tim McInnerny, Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Tony Robinson and Hugh Laurie in costume for BBC's Blackadder season 4

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Despite its gathering of all the Blackadder regular actors for the first time in the same season; Rowan Atkinson, Miranda Richardson, Hugh Laurie, Tim McInnerny, Stephen Fry and Tony Robinson, - this is the laxest season in the (a)historical sitcom's four runs.
Metal fatigue and endless repetitions in the argument-routine have now become staples in Blackadder, which has recommenced in a WWI-trench in Goes Forth.
The style is unchanged; vulgar and yet sophisticated British satire, and the show still has quite a few laughs to its credit, e.g. in episode 2, Corporal Punishment, wherein George (Laurie) defends Blackadder in a capital punishment trial. In episode 4, Private Plane, an actual flight scene is included, along with funny Rik Mayall (Guest House Paradiso (1999)) as the womanizer Lord Flash-heart.
In the sixth and last episode, Goodbyeee, SPOILER everyone perishes in a rain of bullets, rather befitting the show.
This fourth season has reminisces of the American war-sitcom M*A*S*H* (1972-83), but the problem here is that Atkinson, - the title character and jet engine of the comedy, - walks in circles here and isn't terribly enthusiastic or energetic, unfortunately.

Related reviews:

Blackadder the Third - season 3 (1987) - The royal silliness reaches its peak in fun and wits
Black-Adder II (1986) season 2 - More historic, English tomfooleries from BBC
The Black Adder - season 1 (1983) - Historic fooleries with Rowan Atkinson and co.
Rowan Atkinson: Bean/Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie/Bean: The Movie (1997) or, A Bean in America

Rowan Atkinson may look amusing here, but his level is not up to snuff overall in Blackadder Goes Forth

This is a recently made mock-trailer that presents the fourth season as a 'poignant war epic' and does so pretty well

Do you agree that the fourth season is the series' weakest?
Why/why not?

The Tree of Life (2011) or, Mother, Father, Sharks, Dinosaurs, My Brothers, Sunflowers, the Desert, the Wind and Me

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1 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Non-adult Actor: Laramie Eppler, Hunter McCracken, Tye Sheridan (lost to Amara Miller for The Descendants)

+ Best Art Film of the Year

25 frames from Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, showing its apparent ambition to include everything in life in its 'tale'

The unusual, poetic Illinois-born director Terrence Malick (Badlands (1973)) won the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 2011 with his 5th feature, The Tree of Life, which is a visual meditation on the circumstances of life on earth, from beginning to end, more or less.
Talking about 'the plot' in Tree seems incorrect, since it truly isn't a plot film. But it does have a core story of sorts, even though it is never fully illuminated:
A family in 50s Waco, Texas: A kind, all-embracing mother, an authoritarian and often away father and three sons. The older one develops a conflict with himself and his attitude towards the mix of ideals at home. The parents fight and finally move out of Waco.
Linked to the 'plot' is one of the sons, who walks around New York in the present day and thinks back on his childhood. He is played by Sean Penn (Milk (2008)), who has later said that he didn't understand the film. This is understandable, and he surely has the strangest role in the film; with hardly any lines, he just walks around the cityscape looking confused, lost and/or contemplative. He walks in a desert, he walks on a beach. Penn looks sulky or depressed, and that seems to be his role. It's not a great part, even if Penn is accomplished at looking blue; I understand if he left Tree with an apprehensive head-shaking.
On the other hand, the 50s level has great roles, and great acting by everyone there; Brad Pitt (Fight Club (1999)) is impressively credible as the father; Jessica Chastain (The Help (2011)) beautifully portrays the mother, who tries to instill female sensitivity in her sons but sometimes must accept that they are male.
And the boys who play brothers are simply incredible. How Malick gets this level of authenticity out of such young actors is amazing to me. They are Tye Sheridan (Mud (2013)), Hunter McCracken and Laramie Eppler. Their faces and bodies are just so alive and so true in their scenes. There are also great scenes of scores of kids playing in a playground etc., and I thought that the scenes with the kids were the best thing in Tree. So evocative of childhood, so true and so rare. Magnificent work here.
The cinematography is very organic and alive in Tree without ever feeling stressed. It is accomplished by the bold, talented Emmanuel Lubezki (The Children of Men (2006)).

Jessica Chastain and Tye Sheridan are mother and son in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life

The details:

The film is stuffed with nature, chemistry and the universe. The 'story' comes in drops and isn't concerned with hooking its audience, before the film blurs out in poetic imagery. These lengthy passages can be likened to some of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and little else that I have ever seen. Malick is still very unique as a filmmaker. It is visually quite stunning. But perhaps hurried?
The pacing is very fast, so we jump through explosions, volcanoes, organisms, dinosaurs and sharks in few minutes, while the narration is carrying out a kind of one-way conversation with God/poem. Though interesting to look at, these passages were not my main interest in Tree.
I feel that something is missing in the film. Because it is The Tree of Life, supposedly an all-encompassing rendition of life, I feel it slights several aspects of life, and I have to criticize that: Death, sex and waste to name three of the foremost things in life. Death is hinted at a few times; sex and waste are non-existent. Illness is hinted at. Killing, - even killing to survive in nature, - is erased.
In this light, Tree is not a serious film about life.
Rather it is a highly pleasing, aesthetically speaking, very lyrical and poetic film with some very fine 50s scenes. (And some mysticism, like Chastain suddenly floating around in the air.)
But essentially escapist, and seemingly not serene about this fact.
Malick's journey as a director is very interesting. From his masterpiece feature debut Badlands (1973), he took long to follow it up with Days of Heaven (1978) and then incredibly long to follow that up with the great The Thin Red Line (1998), - for which he was twice Oscar-nominated. He then made The New World (2005), a beautiful but strained and pretentious look at the exploration and 'civilizing' of America. After Tree, - for which he was again Oscar-nominated as Best Director, - he has quit being the incredibly slow director; releasing To The Wonder (2012) to down-turned thumbs almost everywhere, and this year, Knight of Cups, a story about fame and excess with Christian Bale and a long line of other famous actors. He even has a second film coming out in 2014, Voyage of Time, a film that seems close to Tree but without any plot level. This has spurred rumors that Malick might be dying, although this is just speculation. The recluse director is notorious for his unwillingness to give interviews himself, so, naturally, we don't know for sure what is the reason for Malick's sudden escalating productivity.

Related posts:

Terrence Malick: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Badlands (1973) or, Kit and Holly in Love

Brad Pitt and Laramie Eppler as father and son in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life

Watch the trailer for the film here and try not to get goose-pimples. Impossible. Visually, Malick's films are incredible, and Tree of Life is no exception.

Budget: 32 mil. $
Box office: 54.3 mil. $
= Minor success

What do you think of The Tree of Life?
What do you think is the deal with Malick's many movies now?

The Blue Angel/Der Blaue Engel (1930) or, A Man's Downfall

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Marlene Dietrich was made a star by the film, and Emil Jannings ended his time as a star after Joseph von Sternberg's Der Blaue Engel

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We are in a German provincial town, where we follow a high-school teacher, who, - in an attempt to correct his students, - strays into the men's club Der Blaue Engel, where the beautiful Lola Lola sings and dances. The quaint, bespectacled man's downfall from then on is one of film history's hardest, most profoundly sad tragedies. The current IMDb-review's caption for the film is, 'Humiliation, Degradation, Despair', and it seems a fitting one. Engel is a truly bleak film.
The teacher is grippingly portrayed by the great, German actor Emil Jannings, who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1929 for his performances in The Last Command (1928) and The Way of All Flesh (1927), but later did Nazi-propaganda and was an active Nazi himself.
Marlene Dietrich (Touch of Evil (1958)) achieved international stardom with her part as the depraved whore Lola Lola, whom she plays and sings with great feeling and authenticity.
The film is reportedly the first, major German sound picture, and it was shot simultaneously in German and English for commercial purposes. The English version is the least viewed of the two, and I'm glad that I didn't see the wonderful actors struggle with the foreign tongue, when I saw it.
Visually, with photography by Günther Rittau (Metropolis (1927)), Engel is underplayed, unsensational in often sneakily long shots, ending in the SPOILER almost traumatizing clown performance and the clown's final return to his empty classroom. Alas and alack, by that time the film has pierced your heart through and through seven ways from Friday.
Austrian-Hungarian director Joseph von Sternberg (Dishonored (1931)) left Germany permanently, as so many of his other great colleagues at the time, after Der Blaue Engel, because of the hostile climate there. He carried on a long affair with Dietrich, cast her in 6 of his films in all and got divorced from his wife because of her.
The film was remade in Hollywood in 1959 by Edward Dmytryk, but there seems to be little reason to look up this version.

Related posts:

Top 10: Best German movies
Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

The inimitable Emil Jannings towards the tragic end of Der Blaue Engel

Watch the lengthy, original trailer for the must-watch here, (unfortunately in unsubtitled German)

Budget: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of Der Blaue Engel?
Any other similarly harsh tragedies from the era that you can recommend?

Blackadder the Third - season 3 (1987) - The royal sillines reaches its peak in fun and wits

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Rowan Atkinson, once again, as Blackadder

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At this the third season in the historical, - although hoax-historical as well, - BBC sitcom, we have moved forward to 1760, where, once again, another Blackadder descendant, Edmund, is serving a British ruler; the uncannily inane prince of Wales, who is played to hysterical amusement by the then very facially vivacious Hugh Laurie (House M.D. (2004-12)).
Besides him and Blackadder, who is again played by the masterful Rowan Atkinson (Bean (1997)), season 3 only has two other regular characters; butler Edmund's helper Baldrick (Tony Robinson (Big Top (2009)) also does splendidly) and Mrs. Miggins, a coffee-shopkeeper.
It does the show well that it has rid itself of the unfunny ladies of the second season. The episodes also seem less vulgar and with greater focus on the lingual ingenuities, which sometimes threaten to totally run away with the show, but the fun during these creativities is constant.
The plots often drone over monetary problems and the incompetence of Baldrick and the prince of Wales. In Ink and Incapability, (all the titles are concocted as amusing word-plays that comment on the plots), Edmund is forced to try to write a dictionary. In the season's last episode, Duel and Duality, both Frenchmen, actors and Scots (again) are duly ridiculed, as Atkinson plays a double-role as Blackadder's cousin McAdder from the highlands. - Magnificent!
SPOILER At the very end, the prince dies in a duel, and Edmund dabbles himself to the much-coveted title.
This is the most down-toned and best season in the series.

Related reviews:

Rowan Atkinson: Bean/Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie/Bean: The Movie (1997) or, A Bean in America
Black-Adder II (1986) season 2 - More historic, English tomfooleries from BBC
The Black Adder - season 1 (1983) - Historic fooleries with Rowan Atkinson and co.

Watch a funny, 3-minute sample from the 3rd series here

Do you agree that this is the best season of Blackadder?
Any other British sitcoms that are a barrel of laugh?