TV Game Show Host Supreme

 

TV host Bob Barker has passed at 99. This fixture of television spent many years on the game show, Truth or Consequences, before landing the game show revival of The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007 an all time hosting and game show record during which he won 19 Emmy Awards as host and producer.  He championed animal rights and responsibility. Barker, a real life black belt, also had a  memorable fist fight with Adam Sandler in the film comedy, Happy Gilmore. He also hosted Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants as well as the Tournament of Roses Parade for many years. He was a TV icon.

 

Vengeance and Desire in OLD BOY

 

Director/co-writer, Park Chan-wook, is enjoying a renaissance with the rerelease of his 2003 Korean film, Oldboy, an intense, masterful thriller that keeps you guessing until its stunning, extremely unsettling ending.

Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) ends up arrested and drunk, but when released, he is taken captive and subjected to isolation and unimaginable suffering by a mysterious keeper. Years go by, and he becomes embittered and full of rage when he wanders back to the real world on a quest to exact revenge.  He also meets a young woman, Mido (Kang Hye-jung), who takes interest in him, and the two are conjoined to unravel his mysterious past fraught with misdirection and often violent confrontations. The answers are buried deep in the past, and when the truth emerges, it goes deeper than Dae-su can imagine as he is pushed beyond his limits. 

During his captivity, Dae-su questions his reality not knowing who to trust, and whether he is losing his sanity. His decent into madness foments an inner rage for retribution, to discover his tormentor. This raises questions like what has happened to his family and past life, and what purpose is he being trained for- a specific task or being manipulated as part of a larger conspiracy?  

With dazzling camerawork augmenting and juxtaposing nightmarish visuals and beautiful images, this film (with a nod to Brian De Palma’s Obsession) appears to have influenced TV’s Daredevil (single take hallway fight), John Wick Chapter 3-Parabellum (Vivaldi accompanied action scene), and the films of Quentin Tarantino. The mood is foreboding and dark while violent moments are sudden and uncompromising.  It’s a diabolical, complex plot about past sins and unimaginable consequences so convoluted and devious, it defies expectations, and though it may be upsetting, it’s a film that is continually fascinating.

****1/2 of ***** stars

A Seventies Master Director

 

Director William Friedkin has passed at 87.  This veteran of TVs golden age was influenced by European New Wave cinema and made his mark in the 1970s with The French Connection, with multiple Oscar wins including Best Picture and his direction and containing one of the most hair raising car chases in screen history. He followed up with arguably the greatest horror film of all time in his adaptation of The Exorcist which scored many Oscar noms and box office gold. He was not afraid to tackle controversy with the films The Boys in the Band or Cruising and although he had personal projects that didn't catch on like The Sorcerer, he would remind the public of his prowess with To Live and Die in L.A. He dabbled in a memorable, updated Twilight Zone episode The Nightcrawler, TV projects like the excellent C.A.T. Squad TV movies and his last forthcoming film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. A top filmmaker who knew how to generate tension.