Gambit

(1966)
Directed by Ronald Neame
Written by Jack Davis (screenplay) and Alvin Sargent (screenplay); story by Sidney Carroll
Starring:  Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, Herbert Lom
IMDB Entry

Caper films are always entertaining, but the key – like with anything else – is to keep them fresh.  Gambit is an attempt to try a little big different with the genre with a tricky plot and lost of double crossing.

Harry Dean (Michael Caine) discovered Nicole Chang (Shirley MacLaine), who is a Hong Kong showgirl.  She also bears a striking resemblance to the late wife of a wealthy man, Shahbandar (Herbert Lom), which leads to Dean’s plan:  Nicole will meet with Shahbandar as a way to get into his apartment, and Harry will use the distraction to steal a valuable statuette of Shahbander’s wife.  It seems rather simple at first, but begins to get more and more complex at time goes on.

The movie has several gimmicks.  First of all MacLaine does not speak during the first half hour of the film, as the plot is revealed.  It seems to go off perfectly, but it turns out that it didn’t work at all, and the real plot involves multiple twists so that you can’t really know what’s going on until the end.

At the time it came out, Maclaine was a top star and she’s wonderful, first as the mysterious dancer, and later as a real person.  Michael Caine was still a rising star when cast, but his success in The Ipcress File had started his career.*  He gives his usual fine performance.

The movie has pretty much been forgotten.  Director Ronald Neame had an up-and-down career, with successes like The Poseidon Adventure and The Prime of Miss Jean Brody, but nothing that really put him on the map. 

The movie does have some wonderful ideas, well executed, but time seems to have left it alone.

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*Alfie, which gave him wider stardom, was released just before Gambit.

I.Q.

(1994)
Directed by Fred Schepisi
Written by Andy Breckman (story and screenplay) and Michael Leeson (screenplay)
Starring  Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, Walter Matthau, Lou Jacobi, Gene Sacks, Joseph Maher, Stephen Fry, Tony Shalhoub, Charles Durning,
IMDB Entry

Fred Schepesi directed a nice little list of interesting films in the 80s and 90s, ranging from serious drama, to spy thrillers, to adaptations of plays, to comedy.  But he was especially good at romance, and I.Q. was a weird and charming film about love and advanced physics.

Ed Walters (Tim Robbins) is a garage mechanic who ends up doing a repair for Princeton doctoral student Catherine Boyd (Meg Ryan).  Sparks fly, though Ed is the only one to recognize it, since Catherine is already engaged to James Moreland (Stephen Fry).  Still, Ed won’t give up.  He finds something of hers and decides to return it, where he meets her uncle, Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau).  Einstein and his scientists friends Liebknecht (Josephy Maher), Godel (Jacobi), and Podolsky (Gene Saks) team up to turn Ed into an intellectual so Catherine will fall for him.

Now, forget about historical accuracy.  Like Inglourous Basterds, the film just doesn’t care.  What makes it work is a sense of sweetness, where Einstein is a doting uncle and the other physicists are committed to the idea that love is more important that intellect.

Matthau has a lot of fun with the role, and the romance is in some ways secondary to the matchmaking scenes.  But overall, it’s a charming little comedy.*

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*I’m sure I liked it because of my interest in all things Einstein, due to my grandfather’s friendship with him.

You, Me, and the Apocalypse

(2015-16)
Created by Ian Hollands
Starring Matthew Baynton, Jenna Fischer, Joel Fry, Gaia Scodellaro, Rob Lowe, Megan Mullally, Pauline Quirke, Karla Crome, Patterson Joseph, Kyle Soller, Fabian McCallum
IMDB Entry

There are clearly some anglophiles at NBC.  Years ago, they attempted to bring British shows like Dame Edna and Spitting Image to American TV.  They were critical success, but flops in the ratings.  This year, NBC decided to do it again with the end-of-the-world comedy/drama You, Me, and the Apocalypse.

There series follows many stories in a world where a comet is about to strike Earth and end all life there.  Jamie Winton (Matthew Baynton) is a bank manager is Slough* who is suddenly arrested as a terrorist.  Jamie is still getting over his abandonment by his wife Layla, and starts to discover he had a twin brother Ariel, who is with her and who is head of a group of hackers.  Meanwhile, Rhonda McNeill (Jenna Fischer), who is going to jail for hacking the NSA.  She’s innocent but wants to protect the real culprit, her son Spike (Fabian McCallum)as a hacker to protect her son Spike.  In jail, she befriends the white supremacist Leanne (Meagan Mullally).

At the same time, Sister Celine Leonti (Gaia Scodellaro) is asked to work at the office of the Devil’s Advocate at the Vatican, led by the rather unpriestly Father Jude (Rob Lowe).

And then the word gets out:  a comet is about to hit Earth.  So things get a bit complicated.

The story starts out as a black comedy with some serious elements, but as it goes on, it becomes a serious film, with overtones of religious faith and straight-on adventure.  It constantly surprises as characters do things you never thought they’d do

The cast is, of course, excellent.  Mathew Baynton is especially excellent as both Jamie and Ariel, switching from lost and decent, to pure evil.  Meagan Mullally’s Leanne is so different from her role in Will and Grace that you wonder if it’s the same actress.

The show just finished its first season on NBC with a cliffhanger.  Unfortunately, the ratings were not great, so there’s doubt there will be a second season.  At the moment, it can be watched on the NBC site and also on Hulu; give it a look.

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*A town about 20 miles from London