Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

A_Different_Drummer For many IMDb members, the 70s may just as well be the 1870s, the disconnect is so large.Comedy? No it isn't.It was a 70s movie with hints of satire but not a comedy. There are no punchlines. There are no pauses for laughs.Caine at his peak shows how pleasant surroundings and a tight voice-over can engage the audience to a degree we seldom see today.This is pure entertainment. Ferris Bueller eat your heart out.One lead actor (Caine) one supporting actor (Rooney) and a bunch of people you never heard of.And it works.

wes-connors In Rome, British pulp fiction writer Michael Caine (as Chester Thomas "Mickey" King) is hired to ghost-write the memoir of a mysterious American celebrity. This turns into a bizarre adventure which, we're told in the opening, will put five people in the cemetery. It's written and directed by Mike Hodges, and producer Michael Klinger makes "Pulp" a three Michael affair. Apparently a satire of secret agent films, "Pulp" is neither witty nor intriguing. The Beatles' producer George Martin composed the serviceable but unmemorable soundtrack music. A good supporting cast helps during the dull periods. You get Mickey Rooney (as Preston Gilbert) essaying a gross old movie star (in his underwear, no less). Lionel Stander (as Ben Dinuccio) is a shady publicist (earning a cigar). Lizabeth Scott (as Betty Cippola) appears for the last time before the camera. And, leggy Nadia Cassini (as Liz Adams) has to be the sexiest model "hot pants" ever had.**** Pulp (8/16/72) Mike Hodges ~ Michael Caine, Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott

Scott LeBrun "Pulp" is a diverting, interesting film in the careers of actor Michael Caine and director Mike Hodges that deserves another look. It's an offbeat, somewhat sedate, and quite witty send-up of detective fiction, done in style and filmed on location in Malta. Caine plays Mickey King, an author who's approached to ghost write a biography of retired actor Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney), an American expatriate. King finds a web of intrigue surrounding him, with one striking encounter after another, as he determines to find out what sort of mess he's gotten himself into. The movie comes up with a fine and funny beginning, as we see a team of typists at work while King's narration is heard in voice over. In fact, it is the narration of King that is one of the brightest elements, as he makes commentary on his various situations in florid style. The role is one of Caine's better ones, and fellow screen legend Rooney is equally fun to watch, in his typical flamboyant manner. Hodges's sharp screenplay allows for a fair amount of unpredictability, and the audience will delight not only in the kooky charm of the movie, but in not knowing what to expect. Slick cinematography and excellent use of locations are a heavy asset, as well as a great supporting cast also including Lionel Stander as Gilbert's associate Ben Dinuccio, Lizabeth Scott as Betty Cippola, Nadia Cassini as Liz, Dennis Price as the enigmatic English stranger, Al Lettieri as the talkative Miller, Robert Sacchi as Jim Norman, and Leopoldo Trieste as Marcovic, with Luciano Pigozzi and Janet Agren in small parts. What with Sacchi resembling Bogart and Pigozzi resembling Peter Lorre, their appearances are welcome and entirely appropriate. The movie is breezy and enjoyable right up until its rather ingenious closing credits which leave us laughing; it may have its darker moments along the way, but it never loses its appeal. Seven out of 10.

jacegaffney Mike Hodges' GET CARTER (1971) is, supposedly, a realistic gangster flick about a hit man, played by Michael Caine, who murders without demur and, indiscriminately, screws every bird in sight; yet, wells up at the thought that - is it his niece? - has been snatched up by a porno-movie ring. He systematically knocks off mob kingpins and we are invited to watch him do it - with cold-blooded relish.PULP is gangster related too, but pure Lewis Carroll in narrative plausibility; nevertheless, Caine's Mickey King is amusingly credible in the manner in which he drinks in the dream world that happens to him.PULP pulls off something that few films (including SUNSET BLVD., with the marvelous William Holden) are able to do. It makes an author its central character and you believe, from start to finish, that he is, in fact, a man of curiosity and invention, who makes his living by the employment of words.Among Hodges' other films, CROUPIER (1998) is closer to PULP than GET CARTER is because its protagonist's literary pretensions resemble King's habit of describing a shady milieu which operates in moral twilight. Both pictures suffer from direction too tightly melded to intriguing fictional conceits. However, the phlegmatic understatement of Caine's voice-over commentary (written by Hodges) is maintained impressively, the Malta locations and surprising russet colors - not to mention the freak-show supporting cast of Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott, Dennis Price, Nadia Cassini's mile-long legs and, Bogart look-a-like, Robert Sacchi make it a must for connoisseurs of the truly offbeat.Was this comment useful to you?