FILM FRENZY

Brett Goldstein, Jason Sudeikis, and Brendan Hunt in Ted Lasso (Photo: Warner Bros.)

By Matt Brunson

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.)

CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE (1980) / NIGHTMARE BEACH (1989). John Saxon began his career as a teen idol and ended it as a jack-of-all-trades. His appearances ran the gamut from A-list pictures to grade-Z films. He was in the classic Enter the Dragon and the classic clunker (and MST3K fave) Mitchell. He acted opposite Brando in The Appaloosa and Eastwood in Joe Kidd. And he guest-starred on tons of TV shows. Genre fans, of course, remember him for his contributions to horror and science fiction fare, not only biggies like Black Christmas, Tenebrae, and A Nightmare on Elm Street but also lesser known efforts such as the two covered here.

Arriving six years after Deathdream, Cannibal Apocalypse is another film that places shell-shocked Vietnam veterans in a horror-movie situation. Also known as Invasion of the Flesh Hunters, Cannibals in the Streets, and Savage Holocaust, this was one of the 72 titles on the infamous “video nasties” list in the UK during the 1980s and, from those, one of the 39 to be successfully seized, prosecuted, and banned under the Obscene Publications Act (joining other flesh-munching titles like Cannibal Ferox, Cannibal Holocaust, and The Cannibal Man). An Italian production set in Atlanta (shooting sites included the CNN Center, Savannah College of Art and Design Atlanta branch, and Decatur Square), this stars Saxon as Norman Hopper, an officer who rescues a couple of POWs in Vietnam and is rewarded by being bitten by one of them, a fellow named Charles Bukowski (obviously not that Charles Bukowski). Back in Atlanta, Hopper suffers from nightmares and finds himself drawn to all manner of red meat — meanwhile, Bukowski (Giovanni Lombardo Radice, billed as John Morghen) and fellow grunt Tom Thompson (Tony King, who was also a pastor and Buffalo Bills player and is now security head for both Public Enemy and Louis Farrakhan!) are busy laying their teeth on as many victims as they can find. As with many Italian gore flicks of the period, this one borrows liberally from earlier North American successes: Apocalypse Now (the film’s Italian title is translated as Apocalypse Tomorrow), Dawn of the Dead, and David Cronenberg’s body-horror yarns Rabid and Shivers. Whether intentional or accidental, the subtext is there for those who care to apply it — the specter of war is a virus that spreads everywhere, and it’s very much a sign of the times, any times really, when a police chief wonders whether a killing was the work of “a subversive, a queer, a black, a Commie, or a Muslim fanatic” — but as a horror film, it’s merely average.

Not to be confused with Saxon’s earlier Blood Beach (1981), Nightmare Beach turns out to be an interesting and unexpected hybrid of two dissimilar genres: the teen sex romp and the slasher flick. Surprisingly, it works rather well, with as much emphasis on mystery as there is on mayhem. Also released under the far more innocuous title Welcome to Spring Break, this starts with Diablo (Tony Bolano), the leader of a Miami motorcycle gang called the Demons, about to be executed for a murder he insists he did not commit. He swears to return from the grave, and, sure enough, a helmeted motorcyclist arrives on the scene exactly one year later and begins killing the college kids who have descended upon the area for sand, surf, and sex (largely avoiding the misogyny that often dominates this sort of fare, the victims are both male and female beachgoers). When his friend Ronny (Rawley Valverde) disappears, college kid Skip (Nicolas de Toth) goes looking for him, aided by local bartender Gail (Sarah Buxton) — their efforts are not looked upon kindly by police chief Strycher (Saxon), who, along with Doc Willet (Michael Parks), seems to be hiding something. Meanwhile, everyone is left to wonder whether Diablo has really come back to life via supernatural means or whether the killer is just an ordinary man (or woman) with an ax to grind. How many times have we watched a typical teen sex comedy from the ‘80s and wished to see the most obnoxious characters garroted and gored? Well, here’s your movie. For a blond, bland lead, de Toth is rather appealing, matching up nicely with Buxton — it’s also entertaining to watch Saxon, frequently cast as upstanding authority figures, here play one who’s as vile and corrupt as they come.

Extras in the 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray edition of Cannibal Apocalypse include audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas; a making-of featurette not so subtly titled Cannibal Apocalypse Redux; an interview with King; and an alternate opening title sequence. Extras in the 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray edition of Nightmare Beach include film historian audio commentary and an interview with composer Claudio Simonetti.

Cannibal Apocalypse: ★★

Nightmare Beach: ★★★

COLLATERAL (2004). The notion of Tom Cruise playing a hardened killer may have sounded like a gimmick — yet another bald attempt to score that Oscar that still eludes him — but as Michael Mann’s Collateral demonstrated upon its release, it was a gamble that paid off. Cruise didn’t win any awards, but his performance is nevertheless a fine one, nicely seasoned with just the right touch of piquantness. Sporting salt-and-pepper hair that suits him rather well, Cruise stars as Vincent, a contract killer who forces a cab driver named Max (Jamie Foxx) to ferry him around nocturnal Los Angeles so he can carry out his assignment. Vincent’s been paid to bump off five individuals who can help the law clamp down on an international drug cartel, but along the way he has to contend with his driver-hostage, who’s none too happy with his latest fare and repeatedly tries to escape. Scripter Stuart Beattie creates some interesting give-and-take dynamics between Vincent and Max, yet he and Mann seem to be equally interested in the peripheral elements: a relaxed soliloquy by a jazz musician (Barry Shabaka Henley) who’s still marveling over his brush with greatness; a dialogue between Max and one of his passengers, a self-doubting prosecutor (Jada Pinkett Smith), that feels real because neither character knows exactly where it’s heading; and the reflective headlight glare captured in the eyes of a wayward coyote that’s silently padding its way through an urban — and decidedly untamed — jungle. In the same year that he took home the Best Actor Oscar for Ray, Foxx earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Collateral, with the flick scoring a second nod for Best Film Editing.

Extras in the 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Code SteelBook edition include audio commentary by Mann; a making-of featurette; a deleted scene; and rehearsal footage of Cruise and Foxx.

Movie: ★★★

COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA (1952) / THE ROSE TATTOO (1955). Although Burt Lancaster wouldn’t win his Academy Award until 1960’s Elmer Gantry, the previous decade found him cast alongside two actresses who earned their Oscars playing opposite him. The similarities between Come Back, Little Sheba and The Rose Tattoo don’t end there: Both were based on acclaimed Broadway shows, both saw their leading ladies making their English-language film debuts, and both were directed by Daniel Mann and shot by the singular James Wong Howe.

Shirley Booth is known so much for her starring role on the hit TV series Hazel (1961-1966) as well as her celebrated theatrical career (including three Tony Award victories) that it would be easy to completely forget that she ever made movies were it not for Come Back, Little Sheba. She only appeared in five films over the course of her career (and all in the 1950s), but the first was the one that brought her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Reprising her Tony-winning role from William Inge’s play, she’s cast as Lola Delaney, a dowdy housewife married to Doc (Lancaster), a chiropractor who’s been sober for exactly one year. Lola fritters about the house all day — mainly hoping that her missing little dog Sheba will soon return — while Doc dutifully trudges to work. It’s a boring existence for both until they accept a boarder: pretty Marie (Terry Moore, earning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination), viewed by both Doc and Lola as the daughter they never had and by Doc as perhaps something else as well. The performances are, as expected, strong, but despite being shot on film, almost everything about this production remains stagebound, from the rhythms of the plot (and its attendant dialogue) to the framing of the scenes.

The Rose Tattoo is perhaps almost as stagebound as Come Back, Little Sheba, but it doesn’t feel it, thanks to a more interesting locale, a meatier storyline, and an extraordinary performance at its center. Anna Magnani had been appearing in films for over a decade before she became an international star through her work in Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 Italian neorealist classic Rome, Open City. Tennessee Williams, enamored of her talent, wrote the play The Rose Tattoo specifically for her, but her limited English prevented her from taking the role until years later, when the 1951 Broadway hit (which starred Maureen Stapleton) finally made it to the big screen. Set in a Sicilian community on the Gulf Coast (most likely in Louisiana), this finds Magnani delivering an earthy, unbridled performance as Serafina Delle Rose, mourning over the death of her (unbeknownst to her) philandering truck driver husband. She remains fiercely protective of her teenage daughter Rosa (Marisa Pavan) but has otherwise largely retreated from the world. That changes once she encounters Alvaro (Lancaster), a cheerful trucker she describes as having “my husband’s body with the head of a clown who smells like a goat.” Magnani would make only three more American films (including The Fugitive Kind, a Tennessee Williams adaptation co-starring Marlon Brando, and opposite Anthony Quinn in The Secret of Santa Vittoria), preferring instead to work in her Italian homeland. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress (Pavan), The Rose Tattoo won three: Best Actress for Magnani, Best Black-and-White Cinematography for Howe, and Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Set Decoration.

Extras on each title (sold separately) consist of film historian audio commentary; the theatrical trailer; and trailers for other Kino titles.

Come Back, Little Sheba: ★★½

The Rose Tattoo: ★★★

IN THE LINE OF DUTY III (1988) / IN THE LINE OF DUTY IV (1989). No Michelle Yeoh? No problem! The Everything Everywhere All at Once Oscar winner may have starred in the two films that would later be considered the first movies in the In the Line of Dirty series — 1985’s Yes, Madam! and 1986’s Royal Warriors — but Cynthia Khan would smoothly take over as leading lady in the subsequent five flicks in the franchise. Whereas Yeoh portrayed different characters in her two entries, Khan plays kinda sorta maybe the same person in all her installments — she’s Inspector Yeung (sometimes listed as Rachel Yeung, sometimes as Yeung Lai-Ching), a Hong Kong cop who can swap martial arts maneuvers with the best of them.

In In the Line of Duty III (aka Force of the Dragon), Khan’s intrepid policewoman is first introduced as a rookie traffic cop having her job mansplained to her by an annoying colleague. But after foiling a robbery, she immediately rises up the ranks, and she’s soon investigating a jewelry heist pulled off by a particularly savage team. She’s joined in her pursuit by the gruff Inspector Otaka (Hiroshi Fujioka), who’s seeking to avenge the murder of his protégé. Like Royal Warriors, this one’s excessively violent — even the character who most qualifies as comic relief gets blown to smithereens — and it strains to be more than a standard revenge thriller. But there’s no faulting the action, and the climactic warehouse showdown really delivers.

In the Line of Duty IV (aka In the Line of Duty IV: Witness) delivers even more, with a series of spectacular action set-pieces supporting an impressively active storyline. In this one, Luk (Yat-Chor Yuen), a Chinese immigrant working the docks in Seattle, is falsely believed to have murdered an undercover agent who had been investigating a drug trafficking operation. When Luk hightails it back to Hong Kong, he’s tracked by Inspector Yeung as well as two Asian-American lawmen (Donnie Yen and Michael Wong) — he’s also pursued by the real culprits, who know that he witnessed the slaying and can finger the killer. The character of Luk adds a wild card to the proceedings, and, as in many films of this nature, the stakes are raised once it’s revealed that one of the heroes is actually one of the villains (his reason is pure Reagan-‘80s in that the CIA requires more money to support the murderous right-wing Contras in Nicaragua). Among the action highlights are Yeung’s battle inside an elevator shaft and the Yen character’s fight atop a building.

Blu-ray extras on both titles (sold separately) include audio commentary by Hong Kong film expert Frank Djeng and filmmaker and martial artist Michael Worth, and English and Hong Kong trailers. In the Line of Duty III also contains an interview with John Sham (who produced Yes, Madam! and Royal Warriors and co-starred in Yes, Madam!), while In the Line of Duty IV also offers archival commentary by Wong and Hong Kong film expert Stefan Hammond and an archival interview with Yen.

In the Line of Duty III: ★★½

In the Line of Duty IV: ★★★

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948). As was usually (always?) the case when Orson Welles was involved with a film, the off-screen stories proved to be as entertaining as the tale placed before the camera. There was Columbia head Harry Cohn’s offer to pay whoever could explain the plot of The Lady From Shanghai to him after he screened it for the first time. There was the trivial tidbit that the yacht seen throughout much of the picture belonged to Errol Flynn, who helped out on the production in both sober and soused states. There was Welles’ decision to cut off the trademark tresses of leading lady (and Welles’ then-wife) Rita Hayworth, thereby infuriating Cohn. And, as with The Magnificent Ambersons and Touch of Evil, the studio took the film out of Welles’ hands, cutting his 155-minute version down to a more manageable 88 minutes. Yet, as with those other classics, even studio interference couldn’t obscure Orson’s inspired vision, and what remains is a riveting film noir full of offbeat touches. Welles plays Michael O’Hara, a roustabout who unwisely gets mixed up with a disabled yet brilliant lawyer (Everett Sloane), his beautiful and younger wife (Hayworth), and his oily partner (Glenn Anders, who seemingly sweats as much in this one picture as an NFL running back does over the course of an entire season). Welles’ wicked sense of humor is apparent throughout, and the climactic “hall of mirrors” sequence is deservedly legendary and remains highly influential (see the Bruce Lee dazzler Enter the Dragon and its similar, and similarly thrilling, set-piece).

Extras in the 4K Ultra HD + Digital edition consist of audio commentary by filmmaker, author (This Is Orson Welles), and Welles’ friend Peter Bogdanovich; a conversation with Bogdanovich; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★½

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (2015). The Cold War rages on, and when we first meet Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and Ilya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) in 1963, they’re rival agents (Solo for the CIA, Kuryakin for the KGB) attempting to kill each other. Solo is trying to smuggle an important asset named Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander) out of East Berlin while Kuryakin is trying to stop him. It’s not long after, however, that the men’s respective organizations order them to team up in an effort to stop the usual coterie of global villains from getting their hands on nuclear warheads. Warner Bros. didn’t do itself any favors by releasing this celluloid update of the hit TV series (reviewed below in From Screen To Stream) into theaters so soon after Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, since both sport similarities beyond the fact they’re based on ’60s spy shows. This undeserving box office underachiever may not quite match the intensity or excitement of the Tom Cruise vehicle, but it’s nevertheless a worthwhile endeavor, with director Guy Ritchie toning down the spastic shooting style that all but destroyed his Sherlock Holmes films with Robert Downey Jr. That’s not to say this is sleepy filmmaking, but the technical flourishes displayed in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (including a rare modern use of split screen) actually benefit the storyline rather than just function as masturbatory moviemaking. There are at least two dozen actors who would have made a better Napoleon Solo than Cavill, but I’ll give him a break since he’s not as soul-crushingly dull as when he played Superman in the dreary fanboy fave Man of Steel. The real delight is Hammer, with Illya Kuryakin proving to be the film’s most interesting character as well as its primary wellspring of humor.

Extras in the 4K edition include a featurette on the TV show; a piece on recreating the look of the 1960s; and an image gallery.

Movie: ★★★

TED LASSO (2020-2023). Full disclosure: Ted Lasso always looked like a hard pass to me. When the series premiered, the hype was deafening, and it sustained an astonishing level of love (from both critics and audiences) over the majority of its three seasons. The premise sounded doable, but even in these times of sustained American anger and angst at everything everywhere all at once, the prospect of watching some good ole boy perpetually dispensing folksy wisdom and good cheer sounded a bit twee. Color me wrong: Finally catching up with the series, I found it to be an overall delight, and while it might not turn out to be one of the great ones over the long haul, it’s the perfect pick-me-up for the here and now. Jason Sudeikis plays a small-time Kansas college football coach who’s hired to take over the reins of an English Premier League soccer — excuse me, football — team, AFC Richmond. Ted arrives in England with his assistant, Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), by his side, only to immediately be labeled a “wanker” by an infuriated public. His hiring makes no sense, but team owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) has her reasons. Against all odds, it’s up to Ted to turn this mediocre outfit into a championship unit, but first he has to win over players like team captain Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) and team narcissist Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster). He receives assistance from cheerful player Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh), self-critical equipment manager Nathan Shelley (Nick Mohammed), anxious director of communications Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift), and Keeley Jones (Juno Temple), a model who is “sort of famous for being almost famous.” Rich characters (Roy and Keeley are faves), hilarious dialogue, (mostly) compelling situations — what’s not to love? Nominated for 61 Emmy Awards over its three seasons (including at least one nod for each of the nine principal players), this earned 11, including two for Outstanding Comedy Series (it was beaten in Season Three by The Bear), two for Sudeikis (Lead Actor) and Goldstein (Supporting Actor), and one for Waddingham (Supporting Actress).

The Blu-ray, titled Ted Lasso: The Richmond Way, offers all 34 episodes. There are no extras, but a “Believe” poster is included.

Series: ★★★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980). Like Cannibal Apocalypse and Nightmare Beach (reviewed above), here’s another eighties genre flick starring John Saxon. Never too proud to steal an idea for one of his own low-budget efforts, Roger Corman took note of Star Wars’ sizable gross and decided he needed to respond with his own sci-fi saga about a naive youth taking on an all-powerful tyrant with the help of some colorful allies. The result was Battle Beyond the Stars, which ended up being Corman’s most expensive production but one that easily recouped its cost at the box office. Borrowing as much from The Magnificent Seven as from any space opera, this finds Shad (Richard Thomas) electing to prevent the evil Sador (Saxon) from enslaving his planet by hiring a group of mercenaries to defend it with firepower. George Peppard plays Cowboy, the Earthling among the heroes for hire, while Robert Vaughn, one of the original Seven from 1960, turns up here as well. Cheesy fun with the usual quotient of Corman cheesecake (busty Sybil Danning as the warrior woman Saint-Exmin), Battle Beyond the Stars, like numerous Corman productions, served as a training ground for future industry movers and shakers, including Titanic director James Cameron (here toiling as art director), Aliens producer Gale Ann Hurd (here toiling as assistant production manager), Glory composer James Horner, and the effects wizards on such hits as Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and The Abyss.

Movie: ★★½

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (1964-1968). Thanks to a certain 007, secret agents were all the rage in the 1960s, and this series cashed in by focusing on the exploits of Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum), who worked for the organization U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement) under the auspices of section head Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll). McCallum, who would emerge as an audience favorite, is seen more fleetingly in the first season, which is actually fine since Vaughn delivers an ingratiating performance as the cocky, devil-may-care Solo. While the show would eventually grow sillier (the unfortunate influence of the campy Batman series), the first two of the four seasons are comparatively more serious, as our heroes repeatedly quell global threats perpetrated by the villainous outfit Thrush. A few actors better known for their film appearances popped up as guest stars during the show’s run (including Vincent Price, Kurt Russell, George Sanders, Janet Leigh, and the ill-fated Sharon Tate), but more interesting is seeing those performers who were soon to become TV mainstays: Carroll O’Connor, still seven years away from portraying Archie Bunker in the landmark show All in the Family; Robert Culp, who would soon be co-starring in the rival spy series I Spy; Barbara Feldon, who would soon be co-starring in the spy spoof series Get Smart; Jack Lord, later of the long-running Hawaii Five-O; and, most intriguingly, future Star Trek co-stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy guesting in the same episode. The show only cracked the Nielsen Top 25 once (#13 in Season Two), thereafter shooting itself in the foot with the tilt toward kitschy humor. Jerry Goldsmith’s theme music is outstanding, among the best of this great composer’s career.

Series (at least initially): ★★★

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957). Even a three-course meal consisting of lobster bisque, a medium-rare steak, and crème brulee doesn’t come close to matching the exquisite, juicy taste of the dialogue slung around in this riveting drama written by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman. Practically everything clicks in this drama in which unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) will do just about anything to curry favor with powerful newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster). So when Hunsecker’s sister (Susan Harrison) falls for a clean-cut musician (Martin Milner), Sidney agrees to appease the jealous J.J. (perhaps not since Scarface‘s Tony Montana had a movie character displayed such an unhealthy attraction toward his own sibling) by driving them apart through malicious gossip and outright lies. The contributions of two industry titans, cinematographer James Wong Howe (who won an Oscar for shooting another Lancaster flick, The Rose Tattoo, reviewed above) and composer Elmer Bernstein, are key to the film’s success — the jazzy score works in tandem with the evocative NYC location shooting — and while Curtis generally leaves me cold, his performance as Falco is arguably his best. Yet the rapid-fire dialogue is this film’s truly astonishing component, from the classic lines (both from J.J. to Sidney) “I’d hate to take a bite out of you; you’re a cookie full of arsenic” and “Match me, Sidney” to lesser known but equally impressive snatches of cynicism (I’ve always been partial to J.J. opining that “Sidney lives in moral twilight”). The film’s only significant debit is its ending, which feels rushed, incomplete, and therefore not entirely satisfying.

Movie: ★★★½

Review links for movies referenced in this column (links open in new windows):
The Abyss 
Aliens 
The Appaloosa 
Black Christmas 
The Cannibal Man 
Deathdream 
Enter the Dragon 
The Fugitive Kind 
Glory 
James Bond Film Series 
Joe Kidd 
The Magnificent Ambersons 
The Magnificent Seven 
Mystery Science Theater 3000 
Rabid 
Rome, Open City 
Royal Warriors 
The Secret of Santa Vittoria 
Star Trek  
Star Wars 
Tenebrae 
Touch of Evil 
Yes, Madam!