Connect with us

Movie Reviews

Beyond Fest review: ‘Caligula’ naughtier than ever in Ultimate Cut – UPI.com

Published

on

Beyond Fest review: ‘Caligula’ naughtier than ever in Ultimate Cut – UPI.com

1 of 5 | Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren star in “Caligula.” Photo courtesy of Vitagraph Films

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 (UPI) — Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, which screened at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles, is unlikely to win over critics of the original film. But, fans of the notorious Penthouse production will be treated even more debauchery in a more focused narrative.

The film charts the rise and fall of Roman Emperor Caligula (Malcolm McDowell). The empire’s excesses involve the carnal delights that Penthouse magazine specialized in.

However, producer Bob Guccione took the film away from director Tinto Brass and added hardcore sex to the film’s orgy scenes. The Ultimate Cut is comprised entirely of alternate takes of scenes or footage that has never appeared, and none of Guccione’s additions.

It remains the story of Caligula, though. Caligula’s predecessor, Cesar Tiberius (Peter O’Toole) already had a harem of sex slaves performing for him or fulfilling his needs.

Advertisement

So any take chosen is still full of background actors naked, writhing and simulating sex. Some sex acts are even suggested in shadow.

Once Caligula becomes Cesar, he enjoys the abuse of power. He makes light of the actual duties of the position.

Some absurdity remains in the nature of the material and is not necessarily out of place in an epic of decadence.

Caligula dances and prances around. In the rain his palace becomes a Slip N Slide. With his short kilt, McDowell inadvertently moons the camera every time he turns around.

The most memorable scenes from the film are still in this cut. Those would be the execution by decapitation machine, and the assault on newlyweds Proculus (Donato Placido) and Livia (Mirella D’Angelo).

Advertisement

Much of the film’s last hour is restored for the first time, which gives Caligula an actual arc. It explores Caligula’s insatiable madness to its inevitable conclusion.

McDowell plays the megalomania of speaking in dramatic declarations like, “If only all Rome had just one neck” and declaring himself a god.

The third hour also restores much of Helen Mirren’s role as Caligula’s wife, Caesonia. Considering the softcore sex scenes she shares with McDowell in this section, it’s surprising Guccione would have ever omitted erotic material with his lead actors.

Caligula is never boring. It can be exhausting, so at three hours plus an intermission, one might have taken the opportunity to hone the cut down to a more manageable running time. Perhaps Caligula is destined to be excessive by its very nature.

The only excess that feels out of place is the decision to open the film with more than five title cards explaining the circumstances of the original production. That is too much information to read at the beginning of a film.

Advertisement

This version of the film should just be presented either for people to discover afresh, or for fans to explore further before or after the film.

At that, even without Guccione’s interference, there are plenty of orgies and taboos in this edition of Caligula. Even without the hardcore sex scenes Guccione added, Caligula will never be tame.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Movie Reviews

Once in a Blue Moon: bittersweet drama set in pandemic-era Hong Kong

Published

on

Once in a Blue Moon: bittersweet drama set in pandemic-era Hong Kong

3.5/5 stars

Working-class despair, relationship troubles and long-buried family secrets vie for attention in Once in a Blue Moon, writer-director Andy Lo Yiu-fai’s long-awaited follow-up to his exquisite 2016 film Happiness.

Depicting the prosaic concerns of two adult children in a single-parent family in Hong Kong during the Covid-19 pandemic, Lo’s bittersweet film is a character-driven drama that is heavy on feelings. It is thoughtful and endearing, and prefers minor developments to major dramatic conflict.

The film begins with an old photo as its protagonist, Mei-chen (Gladys Li Ching-kwan in her most complete performance yet), explains in a voice-over that it is the first and last time she was pictured in a family portrait alongside her father, who left the household before she turned one and never returned.

Advertisement

【《望月》正式預告登場🌕】

All her life she has regretted not having had the opportunity to get to know her father, although she faces more immediate problems in the present.

Mei-chen, who is inexperienced in romance, has just started using a dating app at the urging of her happy-go-lucky cousin (Amy Tang Lai-ying), but her first date produces not a match but an awkward trip to a love motel, followed by plenty of unanswered texts and even more question marks in her head.

Continue Reading

Movie Reviews

‘K-Pops!’ Review: Anderson .Paak’s Delightful Directorial Debut Hits All the Right Notes

Published

on

‘K-Pops!’ Review: Anderson .Paak’s Delightful Directorial Debut Hits All the Right Notes

BJ (Anderson .Paak) is an LA-based karaoke bar drummer, passionate about making it big with his original music. On a particular evening in 2009, he encounters Yeji (Jee Young Han), a punk emo girl who struggles to find a committed man in the city. They fall in love after a duet and dinner date at a Korean restaurant. They break up after a while because of his lack of involvement with her. 12 years later, the very confident BJ is still working at the same place with no prospects. His boss Cash (Jonathan “Dumbfoundead” Park) connects him to a new gig in South Korea as his great aunt’s drummer for the show she hosts, an American Idol-like competition for the next teen K-Pop star. 

Cash tries to get BJ to meet Kang (Kevin Woo), the show’s heartthrob, and see if they can work together. While on the job, he’s rebuffed by Kang and winds up meeting one of the lowest projected contestants, Tae Young (Soul Rasheed, .Paak’s IRL son). When he sees Yeji for the first time in 12 years, he realizes that Tae Young is his biological son. In the wake of this discovery, BJ takes it upon himself to take Tae Young under his wing and teach him with his know-how about music outside K-Pop, putting the “Bla” in “Blasian”. With his skill, BJ makes every effort to turn Tae Young into a superstar.

Continue Reading

Movie Reviews

Movie Review – Speak No Evil

Published

on

“Speak No Evil” is a remake of a 2022 Danish movie with a famously vile twist. I went into this film expecting it to have the same twist. That’s not to say that I expected it to have the same “ending,” exactly, as I knew the film might deviate from the source material once it reached a certain point. But there could be no question that it was indeed winding its way to that point. It was no surprise that what came after that point was horror movie shlock, but I was surprised by how captivated I was by what led up to that point.

The film finds protagonist couple Ben and Louise Dalton (Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis, respectively) on vacation with their daughter Agnes (Alix West) in Italy. They’re about as unhappy there as they are at home in London, which is to say pretty unhappy, with Ben falling short as a provider and Louise possibly dabbling in infidelity. But things pick up when they meet fun couple Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their mute son Ant (Dan Hough). The kids become fast friends, the families have a great time together, and Paddy and Ciara invite the Daltons to their house in the country.

The thing is that when everybody met, they were all on vacation, so the playing field was level in terms of accommodations and shared mood. The dynamic shifts a little when the Daltons are guests in Paddy and Ciara’s home. At first it’s just little inconveniences like the guest room sheets having stains and there not being a proper bed for Agnes. But as the days go by, the Daltons find that they like their hosts less and less. Paddy and Ciara don’t treat an immigrant neighbor very well, they’re too open about their sex lives, and they have some differing views on parenting that they’re increasingly unafraid to impose. Also, Ant keeps urgently trying to tell them something, which is frustrating because a condition with his tongue makes it impossible.

The film is at its best in this portion. Everyone has acquaintances whose sense of boundaries don’t quite mesh with their own, and the film milks that universal anxiety for all it’s worth. It might not be “horror” in the traditional sense, but I’d sure be scared to be in some of these situations where I might come off as a bad friend or ignorant or “in the wrong.”

Of course, this movie isn’t being sold on exploiting the audience’s fear of social faux pas, eventually the other shoe has to drop and proper horror elements have to present themselves. And from that point forward, this movie becomes just another exercise in flat tires, cut phone lines, and characters running up the stairs when they should be bolting out the door. Oh, and a villain or villains that have been meticulous for years suddenly getting so sloppy that you’ll wonder how they ever had any success in the first place.

Advertisement

“Speak No Evil” was doing so well for so long. The astute technical team recreates certain shots perfectly from the original movie and the gradual dissolution of politeness and respect is paced beautifully. Part of me was hoping that the Daltons could get away from Paddy and Ciara just so their battle of passive-aggressiveness could be picked back up at another time. But no, this just has to be a movie with a body count, and the chances for a sequel are as bleak as the original’s ending. I do give a recommendation to “Speak No Evil,” but it would be evil of me to say that you should expect a truly excellent movie.

Grade: B-

“Speak No Evil” is rated R for some strong violence, language, some sexual content and brief drug use. Its running time is 110 minutes.


Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending