AFI 100: #80 - The Apartment

Jack Lemmon plays C.C. Baxter, a low level corporate shrill in NYC.  Baxter works as an insurance clerk for a large company headquartered in downtown.  He's just a young kid trying to climb the corporate ladder through long hours and dedication, or so we think.  We find out Baxter has a fairly nice apartment across the street from Central Park, but he often doesn't go directly home after work.  It's not because of his dedication, but because of a strange arrangement he has made with his office superiors.  Baxter has agreed to lend out his apartment on various weekday nights as a secret home base to four different executives in the company so they can have secret liaisons with their young mistresses.

We see how much trouble this causes Baxter.  In one scene, he gets sick from sleeping out in the winter air of NYC when one of the bosses is using the apartment a little later than usual.  Then the next day when Baxter just wants to go home and recover from sickness the rest of the night, he has to work like crazy to rearrange the bosses' scheduled visits.  We see that the bosses themselves don't seem to care that Baxter's health, but rather only about their own affairs.

Besides work, Baxter also has a crush on a cute and sharp tongued elevator girl within his building.  The girl, Miss Kubelik, is played by Shirley MacLaine.

Eventually Baxter's generosity to his bosses pays off with four great recommendations from them to the director of HR.  There, the HR director, Mr. Sheldrake, played by Fred MacMurray, promotes Baxter to an office position.  However, he clever deducts why Baxter is so popular and asks to borrow the apartment himself.  The rub comes when we ironically discover that Sheldrake is using Baxter's apartment to romance Miss Kubelik.

Hijinks ensue as we see the true nature of adulterous relationships and when Baxter is ambushed by a tough situation.  Eventually Baxter has to make a decision.  What does he want more? Advancing his career or the girl of his dreams.

"The Apartment" is a good movie.  It's an interesting look into 1950s/1960s life in NYC a la AMC's "Mad Men."  Jack Lemmon does a great job portraying Baxter who is a nice, enthusiastic guy trying to find his way in the world.  Unfortunately, Baxter is too eager to please and often finds people taking advantage of his generosity and convenience.  It's gratifying to watch the film as he realizes high company positions may not be worth the price of being a pushover and losing out on what he really wants.  The movie can sometimes be sad and serious with its subject matter.  One example of this is seeing Baxter as an isolated bachelor engrossed in his work.  However, I never felt the movie's lighter mood was ever compromised.

I think ultimately people are drawn to the movie because they relate to Jack Lemmon's character.  Most of us have been in his shoes as a young professional sometimes feeling lonely and bored.

Movie Rating: *** - Average

AFI 100: #93 - The French Connection

To be honest, I have wanted to view this film for a very long time.  I was always attracted to the mystery and the thrill it seemed to promise.  It's definitely a movie people such as my dad remember and note as a good movie.

The movie stars Gene Hackman (Hoosiers, numerous other movies) and Roy Scheider (most notably Jaws) as two cops in NYC working the narcotics beat in the 1970s.  Hackman is tough guy cop Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, a reckless man who doesn't care much for doing things by the book and is relentless in his quest to bust more junkies.  Schneider plays his more reasonable partner Buddy "Cloudy" Russo.  Together they shake down low level junkies in bars hoping to get the glory of the big bust.

As the cops are cleaning up the city, they happen upon a low level criminal who seems to be involved in a large international drug deal with a French heroin magnate.  The rest of the movie chronicles the cat and mouse game as the cops shadow, stake out, wire tap the involved parties as the "bad guys" try to close the lucrative deal in NYC.

The movie shows 1970's NYC as a gritty, dirty place with subdued colors.  Along the course of the film, we begin to discover that the character of the cops matches that setting.  Doyle is relentless in his quest to bust more criminals through any means possible.  He is shown senselessly beating perpetrators during arrests and interrogations, pushing for wiretaps, shooting adversaries in the back, and being utterly destructive in the famous car chase scene.  The things he does makes civil liberties attorneys drool with anticipation.  Even his colleagues seem to think his results lack true impact and cause all kinds of collateral damage.  He is a despicable character to say the least.  In contrast, the French drug lord is suave, urbane, and sophisticated.  He is very well dressed, cultured, and surprisingly well behaved.  Therein lies the rub of the movie: Who are the good guys?  Who the bad guys? And more importantly who do you want to win in this battle of wits?

The question presented to us as viewers is that old Machiavellian one of "Do the ends justify the means?"  Can we do immoral things to punish and eliminate immoral people and activities (think US Patriot Act)?  Perhaps the most shocking question posed is "How do you feel when you pull out all the stops (thus comprising yourself), but you still come up short?"

The French Connection is a sometimes thrilling look at the world of cops and criminals.  The setting and characters are done well.  However, I was really disappointed overall with the movie.  The movie was sometimes very slow with all the stake outs and shadowing going on.  Also I was not pleased with the ending because I felt it was very abrupt and incomplete.  I don't think it's worthy of being on the AFI 100 list.

Movie Rating: ** -Bad

Movie Review Ratings

Before beginning to write out my thoughts about various movies, I will outline my rating system.  Personally, I like the five star system for rating a movie's quality.  It is as follows:

One Star * - One of the worst movies I have seen.  Don't waste precious time on this.
Example: Adam Sandler's "Just Go With It", an awful movie that made my skin crawl just watching it.

Two Stars ** - Disappointing movie.  Not good.
Example: "Public Enemies."  Just didn't click as I had hoped.

Three Stars *** - Average.  An OK movie.  Most movies fall into this range
Example: Too many to count.  I thought "The Blind Side" definitely falls into this range.

Four Stars **** - A good movie.  Well made and worth seeing in theaters
Example: "Marvel's Avengers."  Very well put together, entertaining, funny, and took super hero movies to the next level.

Five Stars ***** - Spectacular movie.  One of the best I have ever seen.  Highly recommended.  A true and often timeless classic.
Example: "Citizen Kane."  Lauded by most as the best of all time.  Watch it and you will see why.  It changed the game.

For AFI 100 movies, I will add an additional rating.  This rating is in relation to the movie being ranked on the list and follows stock analysis ratings.

Overrated - Movie is ranked too high by AFI.  Didn't live up to expectation.

Neutral - Ranked about right on the AFI list.

Underrated - Should be ranked higher.  Undervalued.

For purposes of reference, I will be using the revised 10th year anniversary AFI 100 (2007) ratings to refer to movies and their rankings.

With all that said, let's starting writing some posts.

Classic Movie Kick: AFI 100

Time to dust off this blog.  It's been a long time, but I am back and motivated to write a bit more.

Movies are a big part of our culture.  Some people are movie buffs and always see the latest flicks in the theater, while others have never seen "Star Wars" well into adulthood.

I have seen my fair share of movies, but I could never claim to be an expert on classic movies.  In years past, I was always filled with curiosity when I watched the AFI TV specials about their top 100 movies of all time.  Obviously, I had seen some of them, but many of the greatest ones were a complete mystery to me.  It had always been a goal to see more of these classics at some point in my life.

I am finally gearing up for that goal now.  After watching movies from a list off another website, I realized that many of the movies overlapped with the AFI 100.  Since I was watching a decent amount of them anyway, I figured I just start knocking off the ones I hadn't seen yet.

So in the next few weeks, I will be posting some thoughts and reviews about AFI 100 and other movies that I come across.  Hopefully it will mark a triumphant return to blogging.