Wednesday 2 June 2010

(500) Films of Empire - Day 259

249 - My Darling Clementine - 3 stars
Yet another serviceable Western on the list. I don't know what it is about the genre but I've yet to blown away by one but I still have a few to watch that appear near the top (Unforgiven, Good, Bad, Ugly, etc).
Henry Fonda stars as the noble Wyatt Earp and teaming up with Victor Allure's Doc Holliday who end up in the fight at the OK Corral.
Interesting to watch a Western in black and white and also to see Walter Brennan as a bad guy in this film.
But for what my opinion is worth, the best movie Doc Holliday was Val Kilmer in Tombstone. He stole the show.
Oh yes, and it does indeed have that song in it, which for me is now always associated with Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.

87 - The King Of Comedy - 4 stars
Often referred to as an underrated Scorsese movie but this is clearly not the case as enough people rate it highly enough to be in the top 100, with only Raging Bull and Goodfellas above it.
The story of a stand-up comedian who kidnaps his hero Jerry Langford in order to get a spot on his talk show. Nowadays with the obsession with reality TV and the lengths that people go to to become famous, it does not seem so far-fetched.
I'm going to go on the record here and say that Rupert Pupkin is Robert DeNiro's best ever performance. His awkwardness and delusional self-belief are pitch perfect.
There is terrific support from Jerry Lewis playing against type as the talk show host Jerry Langford, coping well with DeNiro's method acting.
The only weak link for me was Sandra Bernhard as Pupkin's crazy friend and accomplice. She was just too annoying and I would have preffered someone slightly less obviously crazy in the role.

Days remaining - 106 Films remaining - 130

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