Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday, January 7, 2018

PORCO ROSSO (1992)

Lesser-known, fabulously entertaining Hayao Miyazaki anime channels the spirit of late ‘30s Howard Hawks (especially ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS/’39) to fine effect. Porco, lone surviving pilot of a spectacular WWI dogfight, has become a famous pig-faced independent seaplane operator, tracking down pirates & rescuing hostages. Right now, he needs to sneak into Italy, where’s he’s a wanted man (er . . . pig) for a big repair job. And the crack engineer on hand is a 17-yr-old girl. No romance, though, Porco still pines for the widow of a lost flying bud who runs a café on a secluded island (where morals are duty-free). There’s unexpected emotional pull in Miyazaki’s original story (something about the pig’s solitary life, more Humphrey Bogart than Cary Grant), and the film still boasts the clean narrative lines of early Studio Ghibli while hitting new technical peaks. (What a palette!) Exciting, gorgeous, unafraid to take a breather when needed, and a big plus in its English-language cast, starting with Michael Keaton’s pitch-perfect Porco.

DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS; with Hawk’s TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT/’44 or Michael Curtiz’s CASABLANCA for the Bogie angle.

No comments: