Movie – Victory (1981)

The college I went to was a small, Division III school in sports.  At that level there are no sports scholarships allowed and most of the athletic teams were hardly more than clubs.  The one sport where the college was very talented and competitive, however, was soccer.  (We went to the 12-team national tournament two of the four years I was there, representing the New England region, but never advanced out of the round robin opening section.)  Even though I was not on the team, I got caught up in all things soccer, and that included joining the college’s showing of the occasional soccer movie.  I remember we started watching one named Victory and all of a sudden the crowd is reacting – “Wait a minute.  That’s Sylvester Stallone!  He made a soccer movie?”  The answer is “sort of”.  A more accurate description is that he is in a WWII escape film that revolves around a soccer match.

Movie – The Visitor (2007)

The Visitor is the movie that Richard Jenkins had been waiting 25 years for.  After having been a supporting actor in any number of well-respected films (starting with 1985’s Silverado and 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters, through stints with both the Coen Brothers and the Farrelly Brothers, right up to 2005’s North Country), he finally got the chance to carry his own film.  Instead of being “that guy” that you recognize, but maybe can’t remember his name, he finally became “the guy” and boy did he deliver.  He received a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar nomination for his work in this film.  He is the biggest reason to see it.

Movie – V for Vendetta (2005)

The movie V for Vendetta is based on the 1980s graphic novel of the same name.  It was written by Alan Moore (Watchmen), but he refused to allow his name to be used in connection with the film because, well, he’s kind of a grump.  In this case he didn’t like the fact that the movie character of V was a rebel instead of an anarchist like in the graphic novel – a distinction that few movie viewers would have been able to make anyway.  The movie had far larger challenges than the lack of approval by the original author: it had to convince people to like, or at least understand the viewpoint of, a character that was essentially a terrorist.  This was especially challenging with 9/11 having just happened four years earlier.

Movie – Valkyrie (2008)

Valkyrie details the actual events surrounding a plot by some officers in the German military to assassinate Hitler.  Unless you slept through every single history class, or believe Tarantino’s version of what happened to Hitler, you know that this plot did not succeed.  You may be wondering why you should watch a movie when you already know how it’s going to turn out.  If you are like me, you know the basics of what happened, but as the saying goes, the devil is in the details.  There is far more going on than just trying to bump off Hitler.  There has to be an entire plan in place to stage a coup afterwards to ensure that Himmler or Goebbels doesn’t just take power.  Where do you get the manpower to do that?  How do you control them?  Why did the plot fail?  What happens to the participants of the failed coup?  More important, what happens to their loved ones?

Movie – The Verdict (1982)

The Verdict is a courtroom drama starring Paul Newman.  It received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, but lost to Gandhi (1982).  AFI named it the fourth best American courtroom drama of all time in 2008.  This genre of movies is a lot like the romantic comedy genre – you don’t watch them to find out what’s going to happen at the end; you watch them to see what happens on the way.  This movie provides a good journey by making it all about the damaged man who’s desperately trying to win a case for his client.  Newman does an excellent job in this role.

Movie – Vanishing Point (1971)

Vanishing Point is pretty much the definition of a 1970s cult movie.  It features counter-culture and racial subplots in dealing with the people in power (i.e. the cops and the media).  It also features a white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T with a 440 cubic inch V-8 engine that becomes the true star of the film as the driver of it evades the police across multiple states.  (For those folks who don’t speak “car” that’s a really fast and powerful machine.)  The result is an interesting movie that is as much about the times as it is the car.

Movie – A Very Long Engagement (2004)

A Very Long Engagement re-teams director Jean-Pierre Jeunet with his Amelie leading lady Audrey Tautou.  While there are a few similar touches in both films, Amelie is more on the happy-fantasy side while A Very Long Engagement deals more with the realities of war and its aftermath.  That’s not to say that it is a dreary drama.  There are some touches of humor, such as the repeated arrival of a bike messenger.  If you don’t watch the film expecting “Amelie 2” then you should find it to be a very good movie.

Movie – Volver (2006)

Anyone who has seen one of writer/director Pedro Almodovar’s films (i.e. The Skin I Live In, All About My Mother) knows that pretty much anything can happen in them…except a completely “normal” story.  Of all of his movies that I have seen Volver may be the most mainstream.  It still has the Almodovar touch, though.  It’s a heartwarming tale of the bonds among mothers, daughters, and sisters…and how easy it is to kill someone and get away with it.

Attack of the “V” Movies

“Voilà!  In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished.  However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.  The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. [laughs] Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.” – V, V for Vendetta

(And if you are thinking that I am doing this category just so I can use this quote….then you’d be right.)

As usual I am going to pick a variety of movies, some very well known and some veering outside the usual.  The only thing they will always have in common is that their titles start with the letter “V” (not counting the articles "a" and "the").

As I post the reviews, I will come back and post the links to them here:

Volver
A Very Long Engagement
Vanishing Point (1971)
The Verdict (1982)
Valkyrie
V for Vendetta
The Visitor (2007)
Victory (1981)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea  (previously posted)

On to the reviews…

Movie – Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was a big budget disaster flick written, directed, and produced by Irwin Allen.  Allen specialized in these kinds of movies (The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, etc.)  He was sort of the Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, 2012, etc.) of his day.  At first I had some fun being amused at the outdated machinery and some bad science, but after a while I found myself caught up in the story.  I ended up liking the film and it made me curious about the TV show that spun off from it.