My weekly movie reviews. You can also read these on letterboxd.
This week focuses on three movies directed by Larry Cohen, the master of tabloid cinema.
THE AMBULANCE (1990)
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Larry Cohen’s THE AMBULANCE is one whacky movie.
It features a crazy conspiracy plot and a cast of unhinged characters (James Earl Jones and Red Buttons are standouts). Eric Roberts, still in his prime, brings so much energy and insanity to his protagonist role. The scene where he gets poisoned is unforgettable! If only someone could bring back the glory of Roberts from this and RUNAWAY TRAIN and inject it into his 50-movie a year career for one last hurrah…
Back to THE AMBULANCE, Cohen’s scenes (whether they work or not) feels so fresh, so original. From the offbeat dialog to the eccentric performance, I felt myself often thinking how moments like these don’t appear in anyone else’s movies. He was a true maverick and a master of the “tabloid” movie. THE AMBULANCE is sensationalist cinema and a lot of fun.
Watched on Amazon Prime.
SPECIAL EFFECTS (1984)
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
Some films don’t need a protagonist. GANGS OF NEW YORK comes to mind, a movie that would have been tremendously better if it focused only on Bill the Butcher and left out DiCaprio’s hero altogether. The same applies for Larry Cohen’s SPECIAL EFFECTS, a movie that works every time it focuses on its villain, played by Eric Borgosian, and fails whenever it turns the camera to good guy Brad Rijn. Everything drags when he’s on screen. This film didn’t need a moral center like the ones at the center of Cohen’s clear influence here, Hitchcock, and if there was one it needed to be a quirky hero like the ones Michael Moriarty played in Q and THE STUFF.
As is, SPECIAL EFFECTS is mediocre Cohen leaning towards bad. The concept is amazing but the script doesn’t do it justice and neither does most of Cohen’s execution. He feels bored on this one.
P.S. I did like the TOOTSIE cameo!
Watched on Tubi.
BONE (1972)
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
I like the idea behind Larry Cohen’s first feature more than I like his actual execution of the material.
The first fifteen minutes feel dangerous as Yaphet Kotto’s character descends on the bourgeois couple at their swimming pool. These initial interactions are tense, funny, and feel edgy even by today’s standards. But once the husband leaves the house, the movie loses a lot of energy. Every time Cohen cuts to his shenanigans out and about, BONE feels weak and unfocused. When he returns to the house, there are still some standout moments between Kotto and the wife as he tortures her mentally and physically but Cohen’s screenplay is ultimately the problem here, writing with lots of great ideas presented in a very uneven way.
The master of tabloid cinema has just yet to hone his skills and that’s evident with this first fascinating but flawed effort.
Watched on Tubi.
