[42ndStreetFreak]

Thank you very much.

Talking of which...I'm a happy man Carpenter's "Elvis" has finally got a DVD release!



"The Professor"

Before he wowed the dinner party brigade with "Cinema Paradiso" Giuseppe Tornatore made this troubled 5 hour TV mini series that never saw the light of day as a 5 hour TV mini series.

Instead it was cut down by half and released as a feature and the cutting really shows (especially later on) as far as the rather muddled plot goes.
And yet this severe editing was also probably a good thing in other ways.
It's a bit like being saved from drowning only to find the lifejacket chucked out to you has had a dog turd smeared around the collar.
Sometimes salvation can be a messy business.

The trimming works as far as having even remotely watchable pacing goes and certainly as far as keeping your brain from flowing out of your ears goes.
Something that surely would have happened in its 5 hour form as you would have tried to grasp the bewildering number of 'every other one looks alike' characters who all have 10 different, politically and culturally Italian specific, plots and double crosses to their incomprehensible name.

Never a real fan of Sicily and Naples set mafia tales me (give me those lovely Italian-American Mafia mongrels any day as far as groovy Mob drama goes....I love those big fat bastards) as they tend to be very country specific as far as political plots and deals go, lack any good Mob action, and it often leaves me cold when Guiseppe argues with Domenico about which Catholic politician to bribe this afternoon.
Hell no, give me a fat guy (in a bad short sleeved shirt) called Vinnie arguing with another fat guy (in a zip up top) named Carlo about the best meatball recipe while 'whacking' some mug in the woods any time.

Thankfully though the thing is saved (and even made pretty damn watchable) by the hammy as all hell turn by the always hammy as all hell Ben Gazzara as 'The Professor' who by virtue of not being as thick as all the other guys in prison creates a criminal empire based on MUCH...MUCHLY...MUCH death and destruction in the form of bloody shootings and nasty knifings.

Away from Gazzara that surprisingly amount of cold blooded violence keeps things energised (see a woman get holes blown in her as she walks along holding the hand of her little boy, see a guy get stabbed so many times the shower room turns crimson) and here we can thank the editing to ensure that the film does not slow to a dead mans' walk between these outbursts.
Hell the plot is so full of betrayals, shadowy schemes, double-dealings, betrayals, misunderstandings and international plotting that we have more than enough to be going on with any way.

Bloated (despite being gutted, go figure), too complex and culturally specific to truly excite...but there are still enough scenes of carnage (including a great assassination/finding the bodies montage that must have been on Scorsese's mind when he crafted that great and similar sequence in "Goodfellas") and enough scenes of Gazzara going nutzoid in a series of bad wigs to keep any trash hound at least entertained.



"SAW 6".

If as far as plotting went you really had no chance following the 'Saw' films after "Saw 2" if you had never seen any of the others...here even those who have followed the series will find themselves needing very much the mass of flashback sequences to appreciate the full goings on in "Saw 6".

And even then, despite all that and despite that the plotlines left dangling are all tied up, "Saw 6" has a few new 'Er?' moments of its own creation thanks to some sadly murky plotting near the end.
As such the need to reprise so much of the plot from flashbacks throughout the film (not just at the end as usual) and the less than clear plotting at times make "Saw 6" not as satisfying as the last 2 sequels imho and the need to flashback means the film never really becomes it;s own film until a good 40 minutes in.

Some of the traps are nasty nasty (especially the opening, prepare to wince!) but by now the traps are getting stale in general. As such this is not as good as people have been saying it was.
Still a must for "Saw" fans though...and it has a finale moment that's just great and totally unexpected.
Although for the first time ever in the series, despite this really being an end as far as the past five "Saw"movie plotlines are concerned, the film ends on a genuine cliffhanger. As such it never, ever becomes a real whole.
But the cliffhanger could well pave the way for a (HOPEFULLY!!!!!) final movie that could really deliver and satisfy.