The African Queen...

Several years ago, back in my first year at University, we were shown The Maltese Falcon (on a restored print, fact fans) during the first semester's foundation unit, which covered the essentials of cinema. It was at this screening that I immediately became a Bogart fan, and therefore set about gathering up as many Bogart films as I could find - indeed, you might say I was Bogarting the Bogart, to coin the popular phrase that derives from his name.

Back when Virgin Megastore was still around (it's now Zavvi, after a take-over of the franchise), there was a 4 DVDs for £30 offer on, and one of the discs I picked up was The African Queen, Bogart's 1951 double-act with Katherine Hepburn, which one the former a long-awaited Oscar.

For some reason, however, I never got around to watching it. So for years (count five and a bit) the DVD has sat on my shelf, watched only once - by two of my uni mates when they'd ran out of stuff to watch in bed. But as previously blogged about, I'm in a major "gotta watch a bunch of films I've got but haven't seen yet" mindset, so I nabbed The African Queen off the shelf and shoved it into my computer and barged through it like a knife through butter.

I've no idea why it's taken me so long - partial laziness, partial waiting for the right mood to kick in, partial too busy to do so mentality - but spiffing it certainly is. It might not be Bogart's best performance, but it's strong and engaging nonetheless and rides completely over the somewhat oddball plot (take the boat down river through rapids and leech infested reed beds in order to ram into a German boat to blow it up ... with hand-made torpedoes).

Indeed, it's easy to chuckle at the story at times, but that's all forgettable as the two central performances are so engaging that it's just all about Charlie and Rosie's journey through Africa. A definite must-see for Bogart followers.

Surfing through new viewing adventures...

Or, in other words, me catching up with films I've had recorded off TV on video for years and have only just got around to watching! It's always the way, too many movies, not enough time to watch them all...and inevitably you end up with a bunch unwatched (I've even got "The African Queen" on DVD which I bought years ago but still haven't watched, hell, a friend borrowed it and watched it years ago and I've still not sat down and checked it out).

Anyway, first up it was "The Thing From Another World", and for what it is (guy in a suit, loosely based on the source story), it's actually pretty good fun, took me back to my Uni days watching old black & white films...obviously, Carpenter's rendition is infinitely superior (and still utterly terrifying), but the old rendition was quite enjoyable...I don't know why it took me so long to get around to watching it, I had it polished off in no time (despite it not being the longest film anyway, sometimes it can take me a while to get through a film I've been putting off for a long time, but not in this case...I would have seen it straight through had I not had some filming to do elsewhere that day...)

Next up, and on the same videotape, "The Wild Bunch", another film I'd been leaving for ages unwatched. Well...I think I'm more a "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" kinda guy personally, although when the action kicks off in TWB, I have to admit it's rather spiffing and I certainly do appreciate it's place within Westerns but also Western Cinema...mind you, I prefer "Straw Dogs" in terms of Peckinpah (a film I must re-watch sometime soon, much like "The Crazies", which I've been hankering for of late...and yes I know, that's a George Romero movie...but you know what I meant regardless).

Then - "Chopper" - I'd had this recorded for me whilst I was away at Uni, if memory serves, and FilmFour were doing one of their free weekends (back when they had cash and were a extra-fee-based service). Eric Bana - brilliant in this - a charming nutter brought to life. Not really sure whether there was much over all point to the film, or over all arc to the story, it almost felt like a collection of moments or sections of time in the title character's life (yes, I know he's real, but again, you know what I meant). Fortunately it was of mere running time, so it didn't out-stay it's welcome.

And finally - and currently - "Blue Velvet". I've often seen the same bit on Sky (with Kyle Mc-thingymy in the cupboard watching Hopper go nuts), and once again, never really got around to sitting down to watch it. So far I'm 30 minutes in, interesting...but I'll have to finish it off before I'd even attempt to comment, not that I predict I'll really understand most of what is going on - take "Eraserhead" for example. I famously took a good 2 or 3 months to actually finish the film, watching it for no longer than 10 minutes at a time because it wigged me out so much, it was just too much weirdness and freakiness and that damn bird-person-baby-thing wailing just sent me off every time...a wailing baby just creeps me out man *picks nose* ... (if you didn't get that vague reference, pfft, whatever mate, yeah? lol...)

So yes...I must try and crack on with "The African Queen" as well, and get that return-viewing of "The Crazies" done and dusted as well...

Such a hard life isn't it? YARGH!!!