B-Movie Gazette: "EYES WIDE SHUT" (1999) TURNS 25 - ONCE CONSIDERED AN 'I DON'T GET IT'

B-MOVIE OF THE MONTH - KLONDIKE FEVER (1979)

Canadian director Peter Carter was best known for the B-movie masterpiece Rituals, which, many movie lovers think beat Deliverance at its own game. He died sadly at 49 of a sudden heart attack but not before leaving us with a few other gems like Highpoint with Richard Harris and this sorely overlooked Western drama. Klondike Fever tells the story of Jack London (Jeff East) and his partner (Robin Gammel) as they journey to stake their claim and hopefully take home their weight in gold. It's adventurous, epic in scope with a huge cast and suitable for the whole darn family. Of particular note is Robin Gammel, excellent and funny, Gordon Pinsent who kills it as the crafty "Swiftwater" and an '80's actress who I never tire of mentioning, the lovely Lisa Langlois. It's super cornball along the way and sometimes feels like an afternoon children's special but this is a great film and surprisingly it won a bunch of Genie awards to back that up. Klondike Fever, playing above and on Tubi which recently uploaded a much nicer version than the VHS transfer that they used to have. 2.75 stars/2.75

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

"EYES WIDE SHUT" (1999) TURNS 25 - ONCE CONSIDERED AN 'I DON'T GET IT' - NOW CONSIDERED AN UNCANNY MASTERPIECE

And I'm sure it will come as no surprise, my personal favorite Kubrick film. (Barry Lyndon would be an extremely close second with The Shining not too far behind.)

I remember watching it for the first time on a VHS rental with a then state-of-the-art 25" Sony tube TV, lol. A roommate in our house was spending his last night and I had promised him to go out and shoot some pool. I watched about a third of Eyes Wide Shut before I left which was a mistake because all I could think about while shooting pool was getting back to the house to watch the rest. I loved the ending because I like films where the ending is left open for interpretation.

So much by now has been written and theorized, there are literally YouTube channels devoted to figuring out all the hidden meanings in Kubrick's films.

The first thing I like to remind people when discussing this picture is the source material's title which in English means "dream story," dig it?

It certainly has a hypnotic effect. 4.5 stars/5

For more, here's a really cool article on BBC - "Eyes Wide Shut, the remarkable afterlife of a notorious 1990's Misfire"