Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola & Martin Scorsese | 119 mins | DVD | 15 / PG
Anthology of three shorts, connected only by the New York setting (which, incidentally, may as well be anywhere in all but the last segment).
Scorsese’s Life Lessons opens the film, a tale of an artist and his love for his younger assistant. It’s an alright little drama. Next is Coppola’s dire Life Without Zoe, concerned with an irritating rich little brat and her irritating rich little brat friends (none of whom can act). Mercifully the shortest piece, but its very existence is lamentable. Finally, Allen’s Oedipus Wrecks drags the quality up. It may largely be typical Allen fare (see my Annie Hall review), but it’s quite funny and the fantastical twist halfway through is brilliantly bizarre.
As a whole, then, an unsurprisingly mixed bag.
The segment Life Without Zoe featured on my list of The Five Worst Films I Saw in 2007, which can be read in full here.
My experience of David Lynch’s work has so far been limited to 
Widely considered to be Woody Allen’s breakthrough movie and winner of four of the ‘Big Five’ Oscars. One might call it a romantic comedy, but it’s very much an indie comedy-drama (for one thing, it utilises the ever-popular tactic of not taking place in chronological order), rather than the mainstream cliché-fest that first springs to mind whenever “rom-com” is mentioned.
Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra lead the cast in this musical comedy about three sailors who have 24 hours of shore leave in New York. The plot is sometimes predictable, but at least it’s not as standardised as many. Equally, none of the songs are truly memorable but most are fun while they last.
Late silent-era drama — though you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a comedy until halfway, when the light antics of a young couple in ’20s New York give way to some increasingly dark drama (interesting trivia: seven endings were shot for distributors to choose from, some happy and some sad; all chose sad ones. However, the copy we saw (taped from an ’80s TV showing) had a happy ending).
Bob Hope and Jane Russell star in this Wild West comedy, in which Calamity Jane (Russell) has to stop a group of men smuggling rifles to the Indians. It’s clearly designed as pure entertainment, mixing styles in a way no film would dare attempt today — there’s broad comedy, gunfights, horse chases, and even a song or two!
I’ve always been a bit wary of Chan’s films: he’s renowned for using comedy in his action (to help break away from the frequently-applied “new Bruce Lee” label), which isn’t really to my taste; but after we were shown an impressive clip from this in a lecture I felt I had to give it a go.
A predictable British rom-com, enlivened only by a few good moments and performances, as well as the excellent ’80s soundtrack.
Two 20-somethings meet on a train from Budapest to Paris, get off in Vienna and spend the night there until one of them has to fly out in the morning. A simple premise, though you may wonder how it sustains 95 minutes.
Michael Caine stars as the eponymous London lothario in this ’60s sex-based comedy/drama, which helped bring about a change in British abortion law thanks to its chilling final act.
100Films.co.uk 