I'm not a Star Wars fan, but F*ck Lucas, SW:ANH is just Star Wars. That was what it was called and it is what I will always call it. I will accept Star Wars the first movie as a clarification, but having to call it a New Hope is just dumbshit.
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I'm not a Star Wars fan, but F*ck Lucas, SW:ANH is just Star Wars. That was what it was called and it is what I will always call it. I will accept Star Wars the first movie as a clarification, but having to call it a New Hope is just dumbshit.
I'm with you, for the following reasons: even if Lucas was the "creator" of his little movie (which is false, given that movies at that level are collaborative), he has no special authority over the object, which exists independently of him, now.
But be serious, outside of the web and maybe a comic book store convention, do people really insist on the whole New Hope thing? I think "the first Star Wars" is good enough.
The "New Hope thing" has been around for decades. But as long as you're understood, it's all good.
Recently seen:
Bad Day at Black Rock
A 1955 crime drama, with Spencer Tracy as a crusty, disabled World War II vet arriving in an isolated, boss-controlled desert town for reasons that are only gradually revealed. Very atmospheric but didn't grab me, all in all.
Spectre
The latest James Bond movie. Daniel Craig is excellent as always as 007, and there's a great opening sequence set during Mexico City's Day of the Dead festivities, but also some amazingly implausible action scenes (even for a Bond film!) and a so-so plot. Overall just not as good as it might have been.
Back to the Future
Saw this 1985 sf comedy classic on the big screen again for the first time in many years, with the score played live - and very well - by the Cleveland Orchestra. Just as funny, upbeat and clever as I remembered.
A Little Princess
A pretty good 1995 adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett children's classic. Beautiful cinematography and a farfetched but heartwarming story.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
A highly derivative plot (the Rebels must destroy yet another superweapon), true, but lots of shoutouts to earlier SW movies, a welcome return of the original cast, and two charismatic, appealing new stars - a conscience-stricken former stormtrooper and a beautiful, plucky young woman who is strong in the Force. Despite some nitpicks, I really enjoyed it.
If anyone wants to see the reason people hate French movies, by all means watch *Two Men in Manhattan*.
OTOH *Le doulos* more than holds up to repeated viewings.
*Star Wars* (the new one) -- best recent action flick I've seen in a long, long time. Like the young blood among the actors, got lost/wasn't paying attention to a lot of the plot, but MOST IMPORTANTLY FOR ME, the sound mixing was EXCELLENT. For once, there's a recent movie that doesn't have giant crashing machinery noises and blasting music and tiny quiet dialogue. It was perfect. I liked the nods to Rodney Brooks's project of creating robotics which mimic human affects, in the little droid on the Dyson vacuum ball.
*Hateful Eight*. For once, somebody avoided the trend, nascent in the 1970s, culminating in *Unforgiven*, for revisionist Westerns. This was something Budd Boetticher could have watched and not spit on. Great movie, and, more importantly, a great Western in the classic, abstract way that Westerns were made in the 1950s on shoestring budgets.
Everyone's going to be interested to know that the English title of *Le doulos* is, apparently, *The Finger Man.*
If that isn't the funniest fucking thing you've ever heard, as a movie title, then I'll go down on you personally.
Oh yeah, speaking of baseball, I did finally run down a copy of *The Pride of St. Louis* a few weeks ago. Yeah, nothing really to write home about, and of all the crazy shit Dizzy Dean supposedly said/did over his life, they sure didn't make much of it. I mean, there's a reason every moron on the street knows about Dizzy and Daffy Dean, at least by name and a few colorful anecdotes, and it isn't just because everybody in America was born with a glove in their hand.
Oh, too late for edit, but, like EH I saw *Sense and Sensibility* recently -- in my case it was about a week ago. Pretty sure I've seen it before, but, regardless, it was indeed a charming picture. And, ad EH, would you....ahem...agree with me ad *Bad Day Black Rock* that it sucks? I guess that's a little harsh -- you've got to admit, it really got the all-stars in one room. I just think it's a disappointment, and not a very interesting picture. ETA kind of makes me wonder why I've seen it like a handful of times, though. I guess I thought it would get different every time. Oh well.
Yes, Bad Day at Black Rock was less than the sum of its parts. I wouldn't say it sucks, but it was a disappointment, I'm sorry to say.
My eldest son is home from university and on a Star Wars kick, so together we've recently seen:
SW Ep. III: Revenge of the Sith
The best of the prequels (which isn't saying much), with some great action sequences as Palpatine seizes power and smites the Jedi.
SW Ep. IV: A New Hope
Still my favorite of them all. Other than Han and Luke's Seventies haircuts, it still holds up very well, with a near-perfect mix of action, adventure, combat, humor, mysticism and romance.
SW Ep. V: The Empire Strikes Back
The battle on wintry Hoth, the escape through the asteroid field and Luke's training with Yoda are the best parts of this movie, but its cliffhanger ending keeps it out of contention for the top prize.
SW Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi
Bad: another Death Star and those damn Ewoks. Good: Luke confronts the Emperor and Vader achieves some form of redemption before his death. A better movie than I remembered, I have to admit.
SW Ep. VII: The Force Awakens
Saw it a second time and, despite the overfamiliar final act, enjoyed it all over again. I appreciated the music more, as well as the character Rey and the mystery of Luke Skywalker.
*The Mechanic*, the movie from the early 1970s with Charles Bronson, isn't as "good" as I remember. In fact, it doesn't really hold up that well compared to the crime movies Melville was making at the same time.
I revise what I said about *Highlander* being so bad it's hilarious. It just gets worse and worse once you're in on the joke. Like what I imagine to be witnessing many executions. Grim. Dire. Duty.
ETA Oh yeah, so this is kind of weird. Prior to seeing *Hateful Eight*, my desire to execute someone to death by hanging was renewed by seeing one of the Randolph Scott Westerns from the 1950s -- can't think of the title right now. Then saw *Hateful Eight*, and was like, "woah, that's sick, dude!" THEN, a few days after, I saw one I hadn't seen before, also with Randolph Scott, called *Hangman's Knot*.
fucking A, you heard it here first -- I cracked that little QT's code. You'll never read the parallels anywhere else on the internet. That's balls-out trippy, man.
You might also like Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman, which I haven't seen, but it got good reviews at the time: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462477/
Son of a bitch's bastard son of a bitch cocksucker assholes, some QT jerkoffs apparently mention *Hangman's Knot* here. Fucking cram an arriflex up their motherfucking assholes and break it off, bitch cunt whore fucker.
Don't ask why I found that steaming turd of a shit fucker link. I will kill all of them.
****************
Looking forward to the movie about the hangman, EH -- that sounds like a good way to spend an hour or two.
Here's more on the guy - was quite a macabre celebrity in his day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Pierrepoint
*The Set-Up* -- Robert Wise directed it, Bob Ryan was the big star in it (a young Robert Ryan -- I guess I didn't know he was ever younger than an athletic 45 years old). Wow. I guess it's a rule that all movies about boxing have to be really bleak and have no point. I remember *Night and the City* with Dick Widmark as being fun, as well as the remake with De Niro, but maybe I'm not remembering correctly.
True trivia factoid: apparently Jean-Paul Belmondo was some kind of prize fighter for a little while before "making it" as an actor.
True trivia question: I've wondered this for a while, but was Ray Wise (actor -- played Leland Palmer in *Twin Peaks* TV & movie and the devil in that TV show....Reaper from a while back) related to Robert Wise?
*Blast of Silence* -- strange, strange movie, with a second-person voice over, with odd lines. "He had a face that made you want to punch it. You drove faster.*
*Classe Tous Risques* -- absolutely a great gangster movie, and one of the few for which I was able to easily find the original novel it was based on. The movie is better, and the author of the novel was some kind of collaborationist who was sentenced to death for his crimes, but got off with only prison. ETA the movie is not just "absolutely a great blah blah" -- it captures pretty much everything classic and good about the genre. It's like *Touchez pas au grisbi*, except with a good plot and real action. In other words, style AND balls.
*The Verdict*, with Paul Newman, just sucked balls. What was Mr. salad dressing drunk or something for real all through the movie? It just stank, and reminded me that Paul Newman really wasn't all that great, except in *Color of Money*
The *Lord of the Rings.* So that wasn't the *Screwtape Letters* guy, and it wasn'y Anthony Burgess, so it was Tolkien among the classical scholars.
WTF, dude? I tolerate SF/fantasy tales pretty well, and I not only liked Bruce Jackson's *Heavenly Creatures* a whole lot, but I also love New Zealand, because a family friend was from there, and he was cool, and Zoe Bell and Melanie Lynskey are from there, and I like lamb and creamed honey. Never been, but much like parts of Australia, it's someplace I'd like to go someday.
Dude, it's three hours long, and Gandalf's pipe is ridiculous -- what did people do in the theaters? Smoke weed in the theaters, NYC style, while talking over the movie, and have flashbacks featuring Jimmy Page as a spirit guide?
The music was boring, but it the audio was mixed very well, to me.
*Anna Karenina* with Knightley and Jude Law. Silly movie, with a bunch of stupid MTV camera tricks. Sorry to say, Knightley kind of looked ugly and talked stupid. I didn't know Jude Law was a real actor, though -- I guess he might be English or something. Maybe it got a nomination for a Teen Choice award -- I had no idea it existed. It gets a solid Bowfinger/thumb dangling.
*Asphalt Jungle* and *The Killing* -- inspired by a recent seeing of most of Melville's movies (some for the first time). I am convinced, even though Sterling Hayden was some kind of rat for the HUAC, he is about the most menacing guy ever. I knew it before, but he stands up to repeated viewings -- kind of a taller Dick Widmark, just one of those people you never get tired of watching. I used to make fun of *Asphalt Jungle* because of Marilyn Monroe and Huston's using the dissolve cuts, but I was wrong. Nice movie. *The Killing*'s Coleen Gray (from *Nightmare Alley*) -- I remember she was in it, but forgot she was very effective.
*Fort Apache* -- I have no memory of seeing this, but it rules.
I thought the Lord of the Rings movies were pretty damn well done. Now the Hobbit movies were bad, terrible and a candidate for one of the worst movies ever in that order.
Well, sure, once you get Topher Grace into the picture, and Sir Alec Guinness shooting lightning bolts, of course it's going to be well done.
From last year, a so-called romantic comedy called *Results*. Kind of cute, I guess. I liked it when the moron got punched by the kid and had his phone stolen.
Both *The Omen* and *Rosemary's Baby* hold up very well. Yeah, I know "people" like to whine about Polanski and "the world is so unfair," but he made a good movie. Also, I don't particularly like kids, or Mia Farrow, so both these movies were right up my alley. Although Farrow was surprisingly effective in her role, as was Cassavetes -- he made a good satanist.
Looking forward to Hail Caesar! Planning to see it when it comes out. I think it opens Friday.
I'm a Coen Bros. fan (The Big Lebowski is my all-time favorite, with Fargo, A Serious Man, Raising Arizona and No Country for Old Men not far behind) and will definitely see it.
Recently seen:
Spotlight
Pretty good drama about the Boston Globe reporters who broke the story of the decades-long coverup by the Roman Catholic Church of priestly sex abuse. Reminded me a lot of another good scrappy-journalists-taking-on-the-powerful movie, All the President's Men.
The Assassin
A Chinese historical drama, about a conflicted female assassin assigned to kill a childhood friend. Beautiful cinematography but a very puzzling plot.
Galaxy Quest
Saw this again in honor of the late Alan Rickman, who of course is great in it. One of my favorite sf comedies, with a very funny ensemble cast and lots of Star Trek in-jokes.
North by Northwest
Finally saw this Hitchcock classic all the way through. It drags a little at times but more often than not is an engaging Fifties thriller.
Hitchcock/Truffaut
A recent documentary about the famous 1962 interviews of the older British by the worshipful younger French director. Of Hitchcock's masterpieces, Psycho and Vertigo get the most attention. A highlight of the film is the commentary by other current directors, including Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Wes Anderson and David Fincher, about the lifelong impact Hitchcock's films have had on them.
I watched Galaxy Quest for the umteenth time the night I heard Alan Hans Gruber, Snape, Give him a hand he's British Rickman died.
I watched the Man that Fell to Earth after Bowie passed. It was even less interesting this second time I saw it. I should have re-watched Labyrinth instead.
My favorite Coen Brothers movies are The Hudsucker Proxy & O' Brother Where Art Thou. One is a classic screwball comedy that hearkens back the classic age of the screwball and the other is the Odyssey retold.
Maps to the Stars
In some ways just another Cronenberg movie, which is good if you like the whole double-identity, terror idea, like I do. With two twists: Julianne Moore gives the only good performance in a good movie I've ever seen her do, and it's set in Hollywood. And some good dialogue: "Benji, why don't you drop it?" --"'Drop it?' I have a better idea: why don't you show me your cunt? I know you have one, jew faggot."
L'aine des Ferchaux
I knew there was something to like in earlier Melville movies, I just forgot about it.
Man Behind the Gun
Kind of a Western version of the Chinatown plot, water rights in southern California.
The Small Back Room
I thought this one was more of an anti-liquor screed, like *The Lost Weekend* but with good actors and made for an adult audience. No. It's pro-liquor, pro-Brits, pro-banging-Deborah-Kerr. In other words, on two out of three essential points, it wins.
HIGHLY recommend: A Touch of Genius (a documentary about the musician Nicolas Slonimsky). Terrific slice of life, from someone who emigrated from the Bolshevik Revolution and became, in the US, one of the first to perform modern music, by Americans like Charles Ives and John Cage, and Edgar Varese.
I didn't know anything about him, except for his infamous *Slonismky's Thesaurus of Scales*, which supposedly Coltrane used to practice out of. I've looked at it, and it's pretty weird and not very interesting -- sort of like Eddie Harris's *The Intervallic Method*.
Apparently he was the man. "So, this is what happened to the original Baker, who actually existed, but he shouldn't have existed, because he mixed up many things, but anyway, the Dictionary, *Baker's Biographical Dictionary*, remained, and that's how I became the editor."
"So, I had my wife, who died, twenty-five years ago, but I have a daughter, and and a ... grandson....and....a granddaughter. So, this is enough."
Framed by documentary footage of a very elderly but hilarious and cogent Slonimsky returning to Russia -- not for the first time since 1918 or whenever he left, but the first time to St. Petersburg in free Russia, I believe.
"Now I have reached the age of absurdity. To exorcise the ghostly digits of my age, I have now adopted a personal countdown, modulo 100....In 1994, I will be zero. On this hopeful note, I conclude." --Slonimsky, *Perfect Pitch* (memoir)
The Misfits. Very different than my memory of it. Eli Wallach is kind of doing the same role as he did in *The Good the Bad the Ugly*, which is amusing.
Guido -- "She sure moves though, don't she?"
Gay -- "Mmmm. She's real prime."
Wow. I forgot a lot of the first bit of *The Misfits*. At the first little party, with Thelma, Gay, Eli, and Marilyn. Wow, Marilyn's character is the definition of that one person in the Cheech-and-Chong-circle who is an absolutely downer.
Gone in 60 Seconds. Just killing some time the other day, ended up watching most of it again. Sweet duster in the scene with overdubbed "You just want me to be fat like all the other pollocks"
Never noticed how little of the dialogue is just randomly dubbed in, at least at the beginning. The one time I noticed it synched with people, the actor Toby Halicki flubbed the line, "You just be there to drive us to the airport or pick us up at the airport."
Chisum (1970) longest shitty title sequence. Directed by................someone with a name...................well, famous last name. Probably related.
ETA looked it up out of...curiosity. Andrew V. McLagen -- sure enough, son of Victor McLagen. Also, I didn't recognize Ben Johnson as "Pepper" -- then again, I only had the movie on while shaving and brushing my teeth, but long enough to say for sure that Ben Johnson didn't help any.
EETA from the Wikipedia page on *Chisum* (c'mon, you know I HAD to see the movie eventually!): "During filming, John Mitchum, brother of Robert, introduced John Wayne to his patriotic poetry. Seeing that Wayne was greatly moved by the word, Forrest Tucker suggested that the two collaborate to record some of the poetry, which resulted in a Grammy-nominated spoken-word album, America: Why I Love Her."
For those who have heard John Wayne's album, and, like any reasonable person of taste, wishes he or she hadn't, I guess it's the fault of this movie. And Bob Mitchum's EEETAretarded differently-abled Billy Carter/Roger Clinton sibling.
EEEETA shit son of a bitch. Kathleen Byron, not Deborah Kerr. I get them confused, not because they look especially alike, but because of the movies they were in. I'm pretty sure Micky Powell was boning on KB pretty good. I don't remember, though. Take-away message? Don't rely on my memory too good, even if you are me in this world.
I forgot I saw Heist from last year. Made me ill. It wasn't that there was too much violence, just that it was gratuitous, and every character in the movie made me sick. Disgusting trash. Hope you enjoy it, you milennial fuckwits, that's your generation's *Taxi Driver*. Instead of anything good, you make shit, and now you get to eat it. Which is fine, because it's food for children.
I just love the toddler-oriented culture your generation spawns. Don't like my pipe tobacco? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that was an AIDS baby. No, you look like a fetal alcohol syndrome kind of gal.
By all means go to the movies. After you!
***************
ETA I forgot I saw last night the Rifftrax of *Phantom Menace*, and the first bit of *War of --- Attack of the Clones*.
You know what? Those movies are just fine. They're kids movies, and they seem to be more fun than kids' movies when I was coming up -- what, like *ET* and the Disney cartoons.
I was an adult when these movies came out, but I was not paying attention to nerds online, what with being an adult and everything, so I missed any furor bellicosa or whatever, but I think they're just fine.
I don't especially want to see them again, though.
I saw *Hudsucker* just because of your mention of it, probably quite a while ago. I wouldn't have pegged it as a Coen Bros. movie, and, in fact, while I was amused by it and remember it fondly, still think it's noteworthy because one forgets (or might) that it is a "Coen Bros." movie. They play it a little bit straight, and for me, that makes it noteworthy. I confess I end up watching......Jeff Bridges..............Julianne Moore.....the *Big Lebowski* still, just because it has so many great little moments in it. "Goldbricking asshole disturbing my beach community!" (or whatever it is).Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
I had no idea there's a new one they're doing out now/soon -- so, thanks in advance for that, I guess. I liked the preface to the...I think Faber and Faber thing of some of their screenplays. Don't need to see them all, but if it looks good and starts soon, at least it's something.
OK, Hail, Caesar! was pretty damn good and pretty damn funny. I would give it a solid 8 or maybe a 9. Josh Brolin was absolutely brilliant in the main role and Clooney was excellent in a role well suited to Clooney. The cast of character actors that added to this film was pretty wonderful.
Deadpool is probably next for me, my son wants to see it and we're both off tomorrow.
By weird happenstance I watched the 3 best boat pictures today. This morning was African Queen, then Jaws was on Encore and shortly after BBCA had The Hunt for Red October. They are all great and in different ways. The pinnacle of all three movies though has to be the quiet scene in Jaws when Quint related the fate of the crew of the USS Indianapolis.
Deadpool, best Ryan Reynolds film ever.
Of course this bar is very low, he has never actually made a good film before.
Deadpool was entertaining but nothing special. Anyone else see it yet?
One weird note, I took my son to see it but he is a teen, at the end of the movie I saw a father walk out with what I guess were his 10 and 8 year old sons.
Don't you mean Deadpool one of the best Marvel Superhero movies ever.
It's no Citizen Kane but it certainly hits every geek spot and it's great to see a film actually stay a lot truer to the source material than most.
They gave the fans the movie they wanted and the fans have responded in droves.
*The Big Short* saw last night. I (a) didn't know it existed until recently and (b) if I had, I wouldn't have bothered, because I don't like boring stuff. In both cases I wouold have been wrong. Wildly entertaining and creative, almost floridly so, movie.
A week or maybe two weeks ago I saw *The Black Narcissus* again -- you know, I don't think I ever saw it to the end. There should be a separate category of movies I never finished. "Sausages! They will eat sausages. All Europeans eat sausages wherever they go. They will eat sausages until they tell me what else they like to eat." Yeah, the big crowd-pleasing pay-off is towards the end, much like *The Red Desert*, and it's one of the few movies I feel an urge to see on the real screen.
Can't agree, not as good as Avengers or as fun as Guardians of the Galaxy but then I don't know or care about the source material. But hey, way better than Thor, Hulk or the Iron Man trilogy. Actually better than any Xmen movie for me too.Quote:
Originally posted by CatInASuit
Despite an annoying similarity to a Dirty Harry movie's title, *Deadpool* gave me a nice sense of cohesion with what I imagine to be the millenials' relation to (or composition of) the Zeitgeist. Mainly, the jokes seemed about what I observe the kids laughing at, and the action was quick, but tame. Cute movie. Among recent action flicks, it's no *Man from U.N.C.L.E.*, but it was cute.
I think this was a DC character, but the next superhero movie is going to be about Banjo Man, right?
I think I stumbled on where they got Madeleine Kahn's ridiculous accent in *Blazing Saddles*: straight out of *Rancho Notorious*, Marlene Dietrich. Fritz Lang, between that one and *Western Union*...I hope he got paid well, at least, because those two movies stink on ice. Oddly enough, I had no idea they were "Lang pictures" until after seeing them.
Madeleine Kahn was absolutely doing a parody/tribute to many old Marlene Dietrich characters.
I did not know that. I don't think I'd seen a single Dietrich Western until just now -- and that accent didn't really click until the two settings (Blazing Saddles and the other one) were united. ETA forgot to mention that the title song to.........scrolling up...Rancho Notorious is the worst I've heard yet. Something like "a tale of murder, hatred, and reveeeeennnge." The singer's name was hidden in pretty small print in the opening credits, so maybe he was paid well, too.
But I was seriously just this second coming in to post the biggest spoiler for *The Revenant*:. And the stunt acting is tiresome -- nobody wants to see David Blaine crap himself in a plexiglass cage suspended from a hang-glider. But that's just like my opinion, man.Spoiler (mouseover to read):
boring Apocalypse Now
Oh yeah, but QUESTION: why exactly was Blondie supposed to be "the good" in the movie? That was irony or something, right? "I'm looking for the owner of that horse. He's tall, he's blonde, he smokes a cigar, and he's a pig."
Blondie being the good is relative to the others and also if I recall correctly a little bit of a translation thing. The title is really "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo" and I think though I could be wrong that in this case buono referred more to good looking than good in heart (or alignment if you will).
ETA: I went digging, Buono can absolutely mean Fair or Lovely
Nicely done. So it's like leering at somebody and saying "elle est bonnnnnnne" but in Italian and talking about Clint Eastwood.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
Recently seen:
Chimes at Midnight
Orson Welles directed and starred in this 1966 B&W Shakespearian mashup focusing on Falstaff and Prince Hal. Had its moments but disappointing overall.
Mad Max: Fury Road
Good but not great. Surprised by all the Oscar love it got.
The Maltese Falcon
Saw this noir classic in a 75th anniversary remastered print. Still holds up well.
Deadpool
Lots of fun, I agree - a tongue-in-cheek, fourth-wall-breaking, raunchy, ultra-violent superhero yarn, with a very well-calibrated mix of action and jokes.
Groundhog Day
It has it all: laughs, tragedy, romance, a moral core, and a deeply philosophical resonance that really appeals to me. Great premise, fine cast and just one great line after another.
You know those short bits between TCM movies with either the host talking or some modern actor waxing poetic about an older one, I think that is what I remembering for the "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo" and combined with years of Latin in school many decades ago I was pretty sure the good was not quite what it sounded like in the English title.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
Chimes sounds interesting but many of Welles projects were interesting but not terribly entertaining.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
I will see Mad Max eventually I guess, but the love for it surprised me to no end.
The Maltese Falcon I watch recently, still compelling and still great. Humphrey suffers a little from being a one character, actor but this can be awesome in the case of Jack Nicholson or Samuel L. "I'm about to kick your ass" Jackson or mostly dreadful with Keanu Reeves and Stallone. In Bogart's case it is awesome.
I also love any appearance from Peter Lorre, he always adds to any movie he is in.
Deadpool we appear to agree on overall. So cool. CIAS's enjoyment seemed more elevated then ours.
Groundhog Day is one of my favorite movies, a perfect 10 for me and better yet one of maybe a dozen films that suck me into watching it time and again if it is on while I'm channel flipping. Murray was probably at his best and that is saying something for me. I love so much of his work. I've never been a fan of Andie MacDowell but even she is nearly perfect in this.
Was this a rewatch for you or were you lucky enough to be seeing it for the first time?
This was either the third or fourth time I've seen it. I don't like to watch it every year - that would be too much, and it would become routine - but every three years or so seems to suit me.
Johnny Utah's character went to law school on a football scholarship. That is all. Brain damage explains Keanu. Not sure about Stallone -- maybe his brother got all the brain power.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
Sad to report that, after seeing *The Right Stuff* maybe eighteen tima es, it's starting to show a little bit around the edges -- the formulaism, the stock characters, the lumpy humor.
Cannot confirm but after seeing the first half-hour or so of *The Untouchables* a few hours ago, it might not have aged all that well. I don't know. Maybe Sean Connery is the Bogey of his time -- redoutable, hard to take seriously, but delivers the goods.
The on-the-air broadcast of Bob Duvall and Hot Lips in the movie M*A*S*H is the first time I've laughed out loud in a while. I'm hungry for you, Margaret (from before). Kiss my lips, my hot lips.
In the spirit of movie Q: what's the deal with people licking the marijuana joint in the "movie" way? See *Blazing Saddles*, and (IIRC) the scene in *Serpico* when Pacino and Albert Brooks are "exposed" to weed as part of their training as narcos? I've never seen that done IRL, ever -- for sure, wetting around if it starts to "canoe" from a very loose roll, and I'm not an expert, and don't go out of my way to smoke, since I'm not a fourteen year old hippie with girly hair.
That seems like a good question. Not talking about pleasure-boating, talking about sharking.
It appears Alicia Vikander is 5'5" -- she seems much shorter in *The Man From UNCLE* and *The Danish Girl*. I should wait to comment on *TDG* until I've finished it, but the first half is light-hearted, charming, and a nice character study. I mean, it looked like that when I looked over the shoulder of someone on mass transit who let me listen as well.
In other news, *Machete Kills* isn't a very good movie at all. I'm pretty sure I've seen it, but maybe not, or I have no memory of it, or maybe I do but I can't remember. "Michelle Rodriguqez: You fuck her? [sniffs] Yeah, you did. Danny Trejo: You got a problem? Rodriguez: Yeah, I got a problem. When you smell like pussy, it means you're pussy-whipped. And when you're pussy-whipped, your judgment's cloudy." That's about it, as far as snappy dialogue goes. Carlos Estevez is funny, though, and the nurses from the original made an encore performance.
*The Great Escape* yet another one that failed me. This one I've probably only seen a handful of times. Mind-crushingly boring is the best I can say. I couldn't sit through it again. I sound like a millenial, but that movie is one big cliche'. OTOH, look how young everybody looks. I just realized how that sounds, but seriously, that was probably a big star-maker for those kids like Jimmy Coburn and even ... The Mechanic ... fucking A I'm old I can't remember his name ... the BRONSON!
ETA I edited my post to revise "star-fucker-maker" to "star-maker." I require that this board should have visible edit traces, like Facebook. You guys already have the best spoiler-box out there, but I love the idea of making all edits publicly available. Keep the time-limit, I guess -- I can imagine some different-abled person going nuts and going crazy, but I have my rules for myself, namely, spew spontaneously and mark edits, and so it's the way I want things, but am lazy, so someone else do that.
*The Danish Girl* is one of the best biopics I've ever seen. Q -- do people actually get spontaneous nosebleeds? If so, that's pretty cool trick for a party. Slight danger about an hour through of getting all weepy and heavy drama queenish (on the part of everyone), but it rallied remarkably, and put me in a good mood for a while afterwards. Remarkable -- something in it for everyone. Boy, Alicia Vikander is really good at crying.
*Ex Machina* -- Maybe I'm not the intended audience, but I thought it was goofy, but not at the level of "cute." OTOH, the main inventor-guy really did make a great villain -- put everything despicable into one person, and that's him all over. It's like *Bladerunner*, except not (a) good (b) thought-provoking (c) sexy (d) in case I didn't stress good enough, good.
Sadly yes, people do get spontaneous nosebleeds, my son is one that does.
I love the Great Escape but I also like Hogan's Heroes so my judgement may be in question by many anyway.
Sorry about that. Ignorance fought! But with slightly less funny answer than I wanted.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
I mean, who doesn't love *The Great Escape*? The first four or five times. I'm starting to realize there's an upper bound to how many times one can see a movie and still get something out of it, even if that something is a tepid, "comforts of home" type thing.
In "honor" of Jacques Rivette's death not too long ago I tried to watch the recent *Va Savoir*. It hit a little too close to home, and made me uncomfortable, so I disapprove.
However, I finally got around to watching *Inland Empire* (the David Lynch picture). Wow. Laura Dern is a pretty good actress -- didn't really know that. Well, I don't know how to judge acting, so let's just say she fooled me at faking being a good actress.
ETA I did actually watch *Bladerunner* again to get the taste of *Ex Machina* out of my head. The super-duper director's cut extra or whatever it's called. Truly a great movie. The first few times I saw it, it was like "Rutger Hauer's awesome!" But, no it's a great movie. *Ex Machina* OTOH is three hours of watching a douchebag, a lacky, and some computers. It is a piece of shit movie.
*The Westerner* is pretty stupid. I'm sorry I wasted time seeing it again.
Yeah, whatever, we've all seen it.
Put his teeth in, and he's Roy fucking Bean.
Whatever. Another one I wish I was glad to not have seen yet again.
*The Invisible Man* is a twisted, wild movie. I don't think I've ever seen it before. The real one -- I bet it's been remade, but the James Whale one with Claude Rains.
Speaking of Jimmy Whale, I saw *The Bride of Frankenstein* the other day -- it's been a long time since I saw it. That Mel Brooks stole everything from that movie! That schemer! IIRC he got some of the original props, but I feel so cheated I refuse to believe it.
Our international film festival is now in full swing; lots of good flicks. I've recently seen:
Brother
A 2015 Belgian dark comedy/drama about a schlub who impersonates his much-more-suave, but now dead, near-twin brother to get at the late brother's ex-girlfriend's fortune after she contacts him, 20 years later, to say she never stopped loving him (the by-then-late brother, that is). I guessed both the twist and the ending, but it's still worth a look.
Snowtime!
A Canadian animated film about kids in a wintry northern town building, and then fighting over, an elaborate snow fort. A good anti-war message, but as a film it never quite took off.
Right Footed
Documentary about an American woman born with no arms. She learns to care for herself and eventually earns both her driver's and her small-aircraft pilot's licenses, and becomes an advocate for the disabled and amputees. Interesting and inspiring.
April and the Extraordinary World
French animated film about an alternative timeline in which major scientists (Einstein, Bohr, Curie, etc.) disappear right on the cusp of fame and neither world war is ever fought. A smart, plucky Paris girl, April, tries to figure out what's going on, aided by her talking cat, her genius grandfather and a young admirer who is not what he seems. Interesting premise, good animation but overlong, I thought.
Every Face Has A Name
A Swedish documentary filmmaker went through 1945 footage of WWII refugees arriving in his country, reviewed passenger lists and, in the present day, tracked down and interviewed as many survivors as he could. We see several as they watch the footage, spotting themselves, friends and family members from long ago, and describing (sometimes in tears) their wartime experiences and what has happened to them since. Well-made and very moving, and draws a direct link to the current European refugee crisis.
Pretty jealous: my friend who tipped me off on *Winter Sleep* and *Cycling with Moliere* among other things has been dry lately on good artsy movies, so I'll look forward to checking some of those from the festival out, if/when I can.
*Strategic Air Command* is one of the most terrible movies that could have been awesome. Anthony Mann directing. Jimmy Stewart as a sort-of analog of him IRL (WWII pilot, returned to do stuff for the Air Force). Some nice pictures of the B36. It was just awful. June Alyson's character as the screeching wife was unbearable. And supposedly the guy who was supposed to be Curtis LeMay just was kind of wimpy from what (VERY) little I know about LeMay IRL. The color was high-keyed, awful, though I'm sure they spared no expense. And Stewart's character was not a compelling hero-type. Not a wimp, but just a confused, sad man in some ways -- not that I'm an authority on psychology.
*Hail Caesar!* or however it's spelled was pretty cute. Did not care for Clooney's performance, nor his ridiculous costume. Did not like the sailor-dance sequence: it was completely off, and in no way resembled any real thing. Did not like the Jew writer = pinko commie....stale. Was puzzled by Marcuse's appearance among the pinkos. Yes, I know all about Marcuse, I just thought it was weird. Liked: Tilda Swinton for once not resembling a ghoul and getting praised for it. ETA did not like the Busby Berkeley water-dance spoof either: it was corny, and stupid, and the original was also stupid and only perseveres because of Mel Brooks's spoof.
Yeah, it was kind of just a lush "eh, screw it, let's do a movie and invite our friends to be in it," so, that's what I liked about it. Also, not dark like *The Player,* which was shit. It could be a nice bookend piece to the other recent tribute/fun one -- the one that got some awards, black and white silent movie, something something, blah blah.
The Artist, maybe?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Artist_(film)Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
More movies I recently saw at the film festival:
My Internship in Canada
Pretty good political satire about a low-profile Canadian MP whose vote becomes enormously important when the country is considering going to war and he's the tie-breaker in Parliament.
Demimonde
Hungarian costume drama about an aging Budapest courtesan just before World War I and her manipulations of her lovers - a wealthy architect and a moony young poet - and her two servants, one of whom knows too many of her secrets.
God Knows Where I Am
Excellent, very powerful documentary about a mentally-ill woman who spends a winter in an abandoned New Hampshire farmhouse, keeping a journal as she slowly starves to death. There are interviews with friends and family, but the script is otherwise almost entirely drawn from her sad, eerie journal.
The Lovers and the Despot
So-so documentary about Kim Jong-Il's minions' kidnapping of a South Korean director and his actress wife to help revivify the North's film industry. A bizarre incident but not all that great a movie.
Anthropocene
Pop science documentary about how humanity is changing the world around us through pollution, agriculture, urban sprawl, etc. Almost always interesting, and not as gloomy in its long-term outlook as you might expect.
Yes, it was *The Artist*. Thank you for reminding me. Even, apparently, an ardent fan has a poor substitute for a fan base.
Last movie seen, two days ago: *The Spy Who Loved Me*. Prior to that, I'd seen in rapid succession the Connery flicks. This was the only one I thought was as "good" as the novels. In other words, not at all, but....
I don't know.
I'm having second thoughts about the Bond franchise -- and, no, I'm not naive, I had seen most of these before.
Eh, whatever, the Roger Moore one might be the last movie I'll ever see. Sweet car-machine, anyway. I don't know how much more magic movies can have for me after *Jaws*, *Gone in 60 Seconds*, and so forth.
We've seen the best.
What is Sofia Coppola doing? Some crypto-lesbian hipster stuff?
Documentaries are where it's at, but distribution seems, in a layman's opinion/observation, extremely problematic. You wouldn't think so, but it seems to be the case.
Oh well, a new generation of liberal arts assholes will graduate from St. John's and write some more shit in the sand about some black bluesman they wouldn't spit on if it didn't pay.
Whatever.
I was watching the Madness of King George last night. I saw it when new at the movies, last night it put me to sleep successfully though. I haven't watched many movies lately, odd for me.
*The Madness of King George* was excellent "company" while I was doing my once-per-five-years cleaning of my toilet today. Actually, I watched a bit more of it afterwards, and it's kind of amusing. I remember hearing about it when it came out, but that was my first year at college, so it's not a surprise I didn't go out and see it.
Actually, it is possible for porcelain to become stained, such that scrubbing with your hands and a scrubber-brush-thing and bleach doesn't really do much.
Just thought that should be mentioned.
Saw Stonehearst Asylum today, it was quite good for a movie I never heard of at all. Stars Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, Kate Beckinsale who barely ages, David Thewlis and a small part by Michael Caine. Well made movie, maybe a little slow but well written. Apparently based on a Poe story.
Last night I watched the 1967 film Countdown directed by Robert Altman (of MASH fame) and starring James Caan and Robert Duvall (most famous for The Godfather of course). It was an OK movie, not bad, not great. The 2 stars were outstanding and a nice supporting role by Ted Knight of all people.
I also watched Houdini starring Adrien Brody & Kristen Connolly. This was a 2014 mini-series. It was quite good though again a little slow. Brody was great as the Great Houdini.
One of the better Moore 007 movies, I'd say, and I always loved the car-that-became-a-sub.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
A pretty good historical drama. My favorite scene was when the courtiers meet in a church; one arrives late and the others immediately try to speak to him. He snaps, "Can't you see I'm praying, goddammit?"Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
WTF is the deal with *Shutter Island*? I remember it when it came out, but it seems pretty stupid to me. Is Scorsese just a twisted old fruit, or did he have a stroke, or something? Brain damage from an infection caused by a deviated septum from cocaine?
I can't write this up now, but speaking of Hitchcock/Truffaut -- no, I haven't found the documentary, but I'm very familiar with the book. So, I found the original radio interviews. "Detroit...la ville américain....destroits...voilà.."
I think this is hilarious -- you can really see this lady interpreter's wheels turning in her head. It's a very good lesson in how to interpret in real time from French-English and back. She's good, I just find it amusing.
Like I said, I'll have to come back to it and explain it to you people.
Oh, you mean Bob Duvall from *Apocalypse Now* and *The Apostle*. Yeah, I know his work.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
I've probably mentioned this before, but if you actually really try hard enough you can see Ted Knight in an uncredited rôle at the end of *Psycho*. Kind of looks the same. I don't know who originally "discovered" this piece of trivia -- I know some boob said it on that other board -- but I don't know who found it out originally.
Here you go: http://www.amazon.com/Hitchcock-Truf...hcock+TruffautQuote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
My last five from the film festival:
Rabin In His Own Words
Good documentary about the Israeli leader in his evolution from soldier to politician to peacemaker to martyr.
Lace Crater
Strange indie film about a woman who has a one-night stand with a... ghost, maybe? Things don't go too well for her after that.
Embers
Very well-done sf drama about the collapse of society after a pandemic leaves everyone unable to form long-term memories. Kind of like Memento gone global.
Lo & Behold, Reveries of the Connected World
Fascinating but uneven Werner Herzog documentary about artificial intelligence, the Internet and both the promise and perils of high tech.
Little Gangster
Dutch comedy about a bullied kid who tries to get some respect at school by spreading the rumor that his very meek dad is actually a Mafia kingpin.
"If you deliberatly sabotaging my band, I will fuck you like a pig."
"You are a worthless, friendless, faggot-lipped piece of shit whose mommy left daddy when she found out he wasn't Eugene O'Neill."
Saw *Whiplash* again. It's very rare for me to find something that's about the one thing I'm good at in life. Trying. Never mind about succeeding, fuck all that. Just keep trying every second, and don't stop until you're dead. Now you have my whole philosophy of life. Try. Fail. Try again. Fail harder. But don't ever stop or you lose the big one. Yeah I know, deep fucking thoughts, but whatever.
What's more, it's visually striking. I bet the director and photographer have great fucking things ahead of them.
well lookie cookie -- "Leland Palmer" is the name of an actress in *All That Jazz*, was watching a bit last night again.
David Lynch, I've got your number!
"Bronson: There are bars on the windows and FBI at the door.
Remick: How do you know they're FBI?
Bronson: How do I know a bear from a yak?"
--Telefon
Geez. *Nashville* was...well, whatever it was, it was some piece of work. It brought out some emotions in me. Not really good ones, necessarily. In fact, it kind of made me feel a little empty inside.
Maybe that was the point.
Well, shoot, a fella could have a good time in Dallas with all that.
Captain America: Civil War - seen it, really enjoyed it...go do the same.
Great contribution, CIaSp
I also keel Gene Hacknamng because he make a movie about my people..
Terrific documentary. A real labor of love. I actually got a little bit misty-eyed at the very end. Not sure why. Maybe that means it was good, or something. I didn't know Truffaut died so young -- that wasn't why I was mancrying, although it's a bit of a shame it wasn't the other way around, between him and Godard (I don't know why the two are associated so often -- I think they were friends and about the same age, but so were lots of people) -- too bad.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's HeirHere you go: http://www.amazon.com/Hitchcock-Truf...hcock+TruffautQuote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
He was great in *Close Encounters*! :)
Finally got around to seeing Huston's *Freud: The Secret Passion* -- meh, OK, whatever. Suzannah York was pretty compelling. I guess that was post-accident Monty Clift -- he did a good job, too, although pretty intense. I'll blame Huston for that -- what did Sarris file him under, "Less Than Meets the Eye"? Maybe.
ETA oh yeah, the real gem among "finally getting around to watching": *Double life of Veronica*. Not finished yet with it, but I find it extremely moving so far.
EETA OK, after a few times having seen it, I think the hammer must fall down on Welles's *The Stranger*. Pretty much a bad, boring movie.
Last year's *Fantastic Four* -- I liked the earlier two, but this was great. I think I've finally found a superhero/comic movie I actually liked quite a bit, rather than was merely amused by.
Probably doesn't hurt that I'm a big fan of the movie *Whiplash* (the kid in it is the stretchy guy, and according to Esquire magazine [which means probably false, and/or idiotic, but I don't care] he's kind of a prick IRL, so I like him), and HUGE FAN SUPERFAN NOMNOMNOMNOMNOM of Kate Mara. I didn't know any of the backstory either, just that they talked about the Fantastic Four in *Reservoir Dogs*, and that there was a car called "The Thing" and the other movies.
OK fine, maybe they should just do a sequel of the kid and Kate Mara making a porno and I'd be satisfied, but I liked it, and that's the way the news goes.
Hmmm...how are you doing "really," here?Quote:
Originally posted by CatInASuit
I thought it was cute, and I liked the idea.
Not two and a half hours cute, though -- I reserve that level of engagement for a Transformers movie, where you have time to drink a case of beer and start throwing cans across the room at a basketball hoop.
OTOH, finally got around to seeing *Saving Private Ryan* (well, in three parts, and the last half-hour I'll see when I feel like it). I only remember being in some hipster "cocktail lounge" sometime in the late 1990s and the ueber hip bartender was talking to somebody, "yeah, I took some acid and watched *Private Ryan*" and then he said something else.
Pretty damned good war picture -- I'd put it up there with *The Steel Helmet* and *The Big Red One* and *The Longest Day*. 2 hours 48 minutes, IIRC, so, yes, I could see taking some acid and just kind of getting into it. At the time I was thinking "ZOMG what is this guy mad? I like to write poetry or walk through the woods!" Well, the perks of getting older is, yes, you can get more out of some stuff when you're ready.
*******
Oh yeah, that was a good get, above, the one about the pedophile priests. Engaging movie. I wouldn't have bothered or even known about it. Good movie. Finally puts degenerates like political clergy and journalists on the same field. I liked it, anyway, would see again, if there were some good reason to.
In other news, *It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World* is pretty goddamned fucking funny. Long son of a bitch, too. After 1.5 viewings, still not sure if Ethel Merman or Jim Backus is funnier. Probably Merman -- more screen-time, but then again she kind of reminds "you" (general you) of someone you know, am I right? Well, I'm not wrong. Jimbo gets his end in, though.
Finally saw *The Last Metro* for the first time. For once a Nazi movie that is literate. It's like if *Inglourious Basterds* wasn't differently-abled, in a good way, and was crossed with *All That Jazz* and the good *A Star is Born*.
Also finally knuckled down and choked down *Fail Safe*. Well, it had Matthau in it, and Col. Thursday was tolerable for what seemed IMHO a low point in his career. It's no *Dr. Strangelove,* but Kubrick was a moron anyway, so that latter has an upper limit on how many times it should be watched.
*It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World* is pretty great, one of the few super-sized all-star casts to ever really work.
I liked Fail Safe but it is basically a watch once movie, like On the Beach.
I know, right? I've really honestly tried to get into Todd's *Around the World in 80 Days* and some others I'm sure I can't recall, but mostly just a big hassle. (Says the guy sitting with his feet up at home wearing his undershorts and drinking beer while watching movies). Then again, they did drink a lot of martinis in those days -- maybe that helped. Plus necking.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
ETA *Wonder Boys* is actually a pretty terrific little movie. Not a big Michael Douglas or Tobey Maguire fan, but I have to admit, they occasionally are in some very interesting flicks. The Bob Dylan song, "Things Have Changed," quoted in the quote thread by EH, is one hell of a song, too. The music video sucks, but the lyrics are pretty moving.
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is indeed a very funny movie; saw it again a few years ago and loved it all over again. Did you catch the Three Stooges' cameo?
Fail Safe is quite good - I would love to have voted for Henry Fonda for President if I'd ever had the chance. The book is even better, and the President in that is pretty clearly (although not mentioned by name) John F. Kennedy. Did you know that George Clooney did a live TV all-star-cast remake of the movie in 2000?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail_Safe_(2000_film)
Saving Private Ryan is schmaltzy but powerful; one of my favorite war movies. The Omaha Beach opening is harrowing, and the scene with Gen. Marshall reading Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby always gets me.
I was underwhelmed by Wonder Boys on screen, although I'd liked the book a lot. Just didn't work as well as the book did for me. I do like Dylan's Oscar-winning song in it, "Things Have Changed." He even built a sly joke into it - the song ends exactly a minute after he sings "The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity."
Haven't seen Captain America: Civil War yet, but I definitely will - and soon, I hope.
I'm kind of surprised the book *Wonder Boys* had much of an audience -- I haven't gotten anywhere close to reading it, but I can imagine it being something I would not like at all. I don't know, just something about books about writers doesn't sound good -- Saul Bellow had a few, and Malcolm Lowry had one....I don't know, there are others, but novelists are fucking assholes anyway, until they're dead and the obits have yellowed into dust.
Carpenter's *Assault on Precinct 13* has to be up there in one of the best dozen or so remakes (this case, *Rio Bravo*, more or less -- not exactly, but you know, same idea). However, *The Fog* and *Vampires* are not good movies at all.
Although in that last one, James Woods seems to be a good actor, I guess. I don't understand his appeal at all -- he's supposed to be a raging asshole IRL, and is in loads of shitty movies.
I missed a bunch of the cameos in *Madx4 World*, I'm sure. I'm still cracking up at the odd line I recall here and there, like Ethel Merman, "Where'd you get that funny accent? Are you from Harvard?" I didn't even recognize Jack Benny in the car until I read the wikipedia page, and Jack Benny's drawn on one of my 40th 39th birthday cards.
The Stooges are the firemen at the airport, silently and grimly holding a hose, axe and other equipment. A very elderly Buster Keaton also has a cameo as the guy who waves a car into a garage during a chase scene (I forget which one). There are lots of others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s...eo_appearances
Recently seen:
Zootopia
Charming, eye-candy-filled Disney film about a city of anthropomorphic animals, and the spunky female rabbit who wants to be the first bunny in the police department. Good but not great.
Calvary
I rewatched this dark comedy, about an Irish village priest whose life is threatened in the confessional by one of his flock - but which one? A powerful, sometimes-harrowing meditation on love, sin, redemption and forgiveness. Brendan Gleeson should've gotten an Oscar.
Ice Station Zebra
Hadn't seen this Cold War submarine drama/Arctic adventure in many years. Some WTF plot moments, but not bad for what it is.
Believeland
Documentary about the trials and tribulations of Cleveland, Ohio's pro sports teams, and how some fans 'waaaaay over-identify with "their" teams.
Doubt
Drama about a prissy nun (Meryl Streep) in the Bronx in 1964 who comes to suspect that a charming priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) may be sexually abusing a schoolboy. Amy Adams is also excellent as a naïve young nun.
Found that Mystery Science Theater 3000 has *Manos Hands of Fate* up on Youtube -- one presumes legally, since to my knowledge the Youtube people are pretty picky about copyrighted works, as they should be. I don't think I've heard the commentary before on it, although I remember seeing some of the movie somewhere, although I don't remember finishing the movie, for some reason. It does make *The Room* look like the "Citizen Kane of bad movies" by comparison. That Torgo guy is killing it. Looks like a hipster from current era. Too bad he shot himself in the head with a shotgun on purpose to death before the "movie" was released. That's kind of too bad.
On a related note, seems like Terry-Thomas didn't have a good final few years of his life, according to Wikipedia. Hard to say if that's too bad, or just whatever, but he was funny as hell in *Madx4 World*. "I should say rather not, but we should press on with the greatest dispatch," or something.
Oh, finally saw some of the first *X-Men* movie. Yeah, that is not so good. There are some problems with that movie. At least I know where all that "Cerebro" "Magneto" stuff all the kids are talking about comes from, though. Yeah, something something battle, whatever.
I just saw *The Witch* from last year, on a recommendation from a friend, last night/this morning. It really aroused my interest and admiration of Satanic rites, which I haven't thought of since I was twelve or so. Hard to believe the main actress, the daughter Thomassina (I think) was nineteen or so when this was shot -- she believably played a girl who was like twelve or something. Maybe she just has one of those faces. No, I was not aroused -- the opposite, I just wanted to knife her in the eyes. Because they were too prominently photographed, with like fill lighting or whatever it's called, and it was gross-looking to me, as a non-fan of prominent human eyeballs.
OK, so the news is that the two sequels to the X-Men movie were terrifying and confusing to me. And the new X-Men Apocalypse one was just confusing, but that's a different subject.
Related, though, is that *Master and Commander* was also confusing and pointless to me. I know, somebody will say the book was better, and for once, I believe that probably is true -- because how could it *not* be? I also don't understand Russell Crowe's appeal. Not quite as little do I understand his success as that of James Woods, but he certainly had his day as....what, a kind of short, brawny guy who kind of looks like a girl?
Conclusion? The 2000s were not a great decade for blockbuster movies.
Of course, I wasn't really paying attention to any of these -- I heard every word, though -- but even reading the Wikipedia plot summaries after/during confused me.
In other news, *The Star Wars Holiday* special is still the best kid's movie I've ever seen. The hallucinogenic little CGI people dancing a song alone is worth the price of admission.
And, also, of true Z-movies, *Touch of Satan* isn't bad.
And I'll head this off at the pass -- no, I don't just sit around watching movies. I often have one on "in the background" while at my desk. Not great for productivity, but it's like old people/shut-ins who listen to the radio/have the TV on "for company." It drowns out the noises in my head. And, yes, I am kidding about that. My frontal-lobe repair operations have been wildly successful. Neural pathways have been created, neurogenesis has occurred, and all that.
Update: I spent a lot of time quite a while ago finding a copy of the remake of one of my favorite movies, *The Wages of Fear*, and watched it again last night. I didn't understand one thing about that movie. Except that the soundtrack was some horrible late-seventies prog-rock (hey, I've put in my time with the standard albums, out of obligation to Tony Banks, Rick Wakeman, and so on -- I don't have to like everything ever made, you know).
How in the hell did they get Roy Scheider to do the movie? Must have been some contract thing, I guess.
I saw Manos: Hands of Fate awhile back and it is really, really bad. Delightfully so! But once was enough.
I saw Master and Commander and liked it. I've only read one of the Patrick O'Brian books from that series, HMS Surprise, which I also liked, but not so much that I wanted to rush out and read the whole series (as a high school buddy of mine has done).
I've seen all of the X-Men movies except the current one, and have enjoyed each to varying degrees. None of them was an absolute clunker, I'd say. I'm sure I'll see this one too.
Well, the last one, this current one, seemed the best of the bunch. The funny thing was the feeling of déjà-vu after some of the original trilogy -- I know I'd seen some of those on TV. They are not good movies, but they seemed to have made enough an impression on me that I vaguely recall something about them.
The new one's pretty good, though -- if you have the brainpower to manfully make sense of it, though, I'd question your motives.
In other news, *Blue Thunder* is about the stupidest movie I've ever seen.
And, to come full circle, unless you want your eyeballs to melt, do yourself a big favor and don't watch it back-to-back with *The French Connection*.
Final answer. That is some stupid-ass bullshit.
BTW, this can be construed as part of the "Q&A" part of the thread title. Recently, Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal's film committee recommended an "Adult with Caution" (A/C) rating as a way of self-monitoring on the part of the vast film industry. Here's an interview from a few months ago with another prominent filmmaker which gives some general context.
I find it extremely interesting to take note of this evolving process, and to compare it, just at a glance, with similar notions in the United States/Hollywood.
That sounds pretty orientalist/paternalistic/condescending, but it is not intended to be, since, after all, when it is a question of culture and tradition, Hollywood, say, is by far the younger and brasher of the upstarts.
Anyway, for fans of politics (aka "culture") and also of movies and the arts in general, this is a pretty good time to be scanning the newspapers and see for yourselves.
Thanks. I always do.
Recently seen:
Another Dawn
A 1943 Mexican noir film about a guy trying to get his hands on incriminating documents that will help him bring down a corrupt politician. Nice atmosphere but meh dialogue and acting.
A River Runs Through It
Robert Redford-directed and -narrated drama about two very different brothers who bond over fly-fishing in the 1920s. Plenty of Montana-frontier scenery porn.
Captain America: Civil War
Probably in the top third of superhero movies I've seen, with great action sequences and a timely plot about vigilantism and the rule of law. A bit overstuffed with characters, though.
Love & Friendship
Clever, funny, well-acted, beautifully-shot Jane Austen adaptation. Kate Beckinsale ought to get an Oscar for her star turn as the scheming, self-absorbed anti-heroine, and Tom Bennett is hilarious as a nincompoop nobleman.
Dallas Buyers Club
Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto definitely earned their Oscars for this one, as a redneck homophobe who takes on the FDA in the early days of the AIDS epidemic and his trans friend who broadens his horizons a bit.
And the latest batch:
Safety Last!
A great Harold Lloyd silent comedy, with that famous scene where he dangles from a clock high above the city streets. Lloyd wasn't just a skilled physical comedian, he could really act - his expressions in scenes with his overbearing boss and his sweetly naïve girlfriend were just perfect.
Road House
Having heard about this so-bad-it's-good Patrick Swayze martial arts film for many years, I finally watched it. Now I never have to again, and that's just as well (despite some laughs at the terrible dialogue).
Murder on the Orient Express
David Suchet is quite good as the French (non, Belgian!) detective Hercule Poirot in this 2010 adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel. Even knowing the plot and how it all turns out, I enjoyed it.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
I'd never seen the whole thing before. This Frank Capra political spoof is cynical and idealistic by turns. Deservedly a classic, although I found Jimmy Stewart's titular character a bit annoying at times.
Babette's Feast
A French chef makes a fabulous meal to thank the Danish spinster sisters who welcomed her into their home years before when no one else would. A touching tale of love, sacrifice and gourmet dining, it won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 1987.
*Laserblast* is one of the funnier C-Movies (I need a new grade between Z movies, like *Birdemic* or *Julie and Jack* or *Manos*, *The Room*, or *Planet 9 from Outer Space*, or whatever it's called, and B-movies, like *Battlefield Earth*, *Roadhouse*, and the like).
Also, Transformers 2 is unwatchable.
OTOH, *The Human Centipede* is one of the better "shocker" movies I've seen. Finally got around to it. I kind of like the mad doctor -- he's like a role model for me. Hey, he's better than Hitler, so I win.
Needed a laff th other day, so saw *Safety Last*. Don't remember when I'd seen it before, but I do remember that Harold Lloyd is about my favorite of the silent athlete/actors.
I'm pretty sure he must have been out of his fucking mind.
But his persona was just such an appealing everyman character.
But yeah, he was fucking nuts. Surprised he didn't get his balls cut off or himslf blown up.
I still don't "get" why Buster Keaton gets all the publicity, and the romanticized narrative. Nothing against him. Just that I've always laughed more at Harold Lloyd.
Jimmy Smith Goes to Washington
Great song, great movie.
I agree, Harold Lloyd was the best of the big 3. I laugh least at Chaplin of them. It is interesting how little success Lloyd had once talkies came in, I know I saw one of them and it fell pretty flat and it was one of his successes.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
My most recent flicks:
El Cid
Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren star in this Sixties biopic about an early Spanish hero. Epic battle scenes but otherwise overblown and sometimes even a little silly.
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
Well-crafted German film about one of the White Rose student opponents of Nazism. A tribute to quiet courage and an unshakeable commitment to humanity.
Finding Dory
If you liked Finding Nemo, you'll like this - a worthy Pixar sequel. Ed O'Neill is especially good as an octopus with a bad attitude.
Jaws
Having seen bits and pieces over the years, I finally saw the whole movie, and liked it. The shark sfx are a little crude but it still holds up well.
Free State of Jones
Matthew McConaughey is fine in the lead role, as a man fighting the Confederacy on the home front in Mississippi, but the movie is overlong and sometimes even a bit boring. A worthy topic but not that good a movie.
Free State of Jones had really horrible commercials. Sounds like they did not misrepresent the movie.
Finally got around to *Stoneheart Asylum*. Kind of boring and stupid. But it appears that Beckinsale has grown out of her awkward ugly-duckling stage and into a pretty good actress, between this and the recent Jane Austen one.
Oh yeah, no one needs to see *Future Force* or *Future Zone*, both starring David Carradine from 1989 and 1990. Those are not good movies.
But Rifftrax has up their commentary for the new *Star Wars* for sale (commentary provided, you supply the movie, is the deal) -- I like it a lot more than the one time I barely stayed awake through it once, and I liked it then too. I just like it more now, is all.
ETA *Jaws* first time? Tut-tut. Tut-tut. Died at the age of a hundred-and-three. But Mary Lee kept her virginity for fifteen years. The RiffTrax for *Jaws* is highly amusing, as well. I'm not a shill for them, I swear, but I find non-rifftraxed movies inferior to the rifftraxed ones.
Jaws was awesome and has held up well despite the mechanical shark known as Bruce.
Stoneheart Asylum was good but not great or exciting.
Finding Dory was good to watch but not memorable. Not a classic Pixar film but entertaining enough.
Just saw Rock the Kasbah. This Bill Murray vehicle was panned pretty much but I found it entertaining if uneven.
I always thought the shark was a little light in the loafers.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
Yes, it's true that *Stoneheart* was a good film, if boring and stupid. It sure LOOKED good, at any rate. I'm just not into "what a twist!" movies, and it kind of saddened me to see how ragged Michael Caine was looking, and not just his makeup/character. And I'm tired of Ben Kingsley, sorry to say. Just tired of looking at his mug.
*The Deer Hunter* -- abandoned buildings porn. De Niro's style of playing pool -- perfect, exactly what decent shot-makers do IRL, hit hard, no control.
I don't know how Cimino did it, but he really got something there -- verisimilitude. He may not know how to make a good movie, but it's like....one of those paintings, or something. It's like if you gave a movie to a twenty-something kid (in mind at least -- no idea of Cimino's biography except he did that and *Heaven's Gate*, which I still haven't been able to sit through), and said "paint an impressionistic movie of a time and place, and put some plot in it to get the people to come see it."
Practically a fucking advertisement for fucking Rolling Rock, though. Remember that, when people used to drink Rolling Rock and Genenssee and Labbatt's Blue and shit like that?
John Terry, *Hawk the Slayer* I knew I recognized him from *Full Metal Jacket*. Whatever.
*Trumbo* -- got through it after turning it off after one attempt at the five minute mark. Still, a little rah-rah go Communism, but they simmered it down a bit. I recommend the 1977 biography of Trumbo for a more balanced view -- just another very prolific hack. I didn't know he wrote *This Gun for Hire*, but I don't think they mentioned it in the movie, for all of its influence on gangster movies from the 1940s through the 1970s. It's a cute little movie -- could have been a nice "inside's view" of that era in Hollywood, but they didn't want to, so I guess they made the movie they wanted. I didn't finance the picture, so who am I to complain?
Just a guy who's fully entitled to his opinions.
My latest five:
Selma
Powerful historical drama about MLK and the Civil Rights Movement, with a great cast and excellent cinematography.
Trainwreck
Mostly-funny, very raunchy romantic comedy about a slutty, borderline-alcoholic party girl and the buttoned-down surgeon who catches her eye.
Last Man on the Moon
Pretty good documentary about Gene Cernan, the last (for now) astronaut to walk on the Moon, telling his life story from his childhood to his Navy jet-pilot days, to NASA and space, and since. Worth a look for any space junkie like me.
Dogma
Religiously-themed comedy with an all-star cast (including George Carlin as a Roman Catholic cardinal). Having heard a lot about it over the years, I have to say, it didn't have nearly as many laughs as I expected. It wants to be funnier than it actually is.
Star Trek Beyond
Pretty good ST sequel, with some nice character scenes, exciting action sequences (despite too many gimme-a-break implausibilities), excellent sfx and a very interesting new supporting character. A key shortcoming: I never quite bought the villain's backstory.
Love Dogma, but it is 20 years old now and has probably aged a bit.
I really enjoyed Star Trek Beyond, I think it is the best Star Trek since IV probably.
Good tip about the new *Star Trek* -- my mind is still reeling at the thought that I might "get to" eventually not only the new *Ghostbusters* but a remake of *The Magnificent Seven*, which I hadn't heard about. That one is at least some fresh meat that probably doesn't suck.
If they're going to be "rebooting" for, apparently, until all the millennials perish and all of their spawn, they should remake something funny and iconic. Like *The Dukes of Hazzard*....wait....*Miami Vice*......and *The A-Team* have -- here's the common thread -- an action starring role in a remake of *Deliverance*.
Starring actual pigs.
*Carnival of Souls* still got it.
Can you believe the main actress is still around and killing it? I always thought she had a nice figure.
ETA I had to double-take to make sure you people were talking about the same movie *Dogma* I was thinking of. I guess so. Meh, I was either too young or too old to enjoy that particular piece of the American cultural film puzzle. Not really tempted to see it again to see if it's any good -- it used to be on like VH-1 or one of those all the time.
EETA *Last Man on the Moon* sounds cool. I confess I would order my past-times as Rewatching *The Right Stuff* > Beating up Space Nerds > Self-applying the term space nerd, but it's pretty good math and the jocks who rode the planes were pretty cool.
And Ray Jardine, god among hikers, was an aerospace engineer.
And the planes themselves, generally...well, there are some good ones, and some others let's just say.
A lot of good telescopes, though -- someone should do a fun biopic costume drama about Caroline Herschel. Maybe have that Daisy Ridley or whatever do her.
My latest five:
The Seven Percent Solution
Enjoyable, entertaining Sherlock Holmes film in which the great detective is treated by Sigmund Freud for his cocaine addiction, and confronts a dark and long-suppressed secret from his own childhood. An all-star cast and an interesting plot - mostly serious but with some good laughs.
Up
Heartwarming Pixar movie about a grumpy old man, an overeager young Scout, an adorably dumb dog and their adventures in the wilds of South America.
All The Way
Bryan Cranston is terrific as LBJ in this political/historical movie about all the wheeling and dealing, maneuvering and backstabbing it took to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed.
X-Men: Apocalypse
Pretty good but overlong superhero flick. A highlight, just as in the previous film: the scenes of Quicksilver zipping around, saving the day (or clowning around) while everyone around him practically stands still.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
One of my all-time favorite movies; just as great as ever. Saw it this time with the full score performed live by the Cleveland Orchestra - added quite a bit to the experience.
Funny, I saw *Raiders of the Lost Ark* yet again with the Rifftrax not too long ago. Yes, that is what I would call an extremely entertaining movie. "Sit down before you fall down, Mr. Jones."
Unfortunately, *Blues Brothers* isn't, IMHO, all that amusing a movie after all, except for the bits with Aretha and Ray. I suspect Akroyd and Belushi might have been pretty long in the ego department, but maybe it was just the director's fault for indulging in extreme closeups of their ridiculous mugs.
The new Star Trek is sort of cute, I guess. I don't know. Kind of confusing, and too much stuff happening in it. Maybe the director, editor, and screenwriters should have followed my expert pharmacological advice and taken about a lot of Valium for the duration, calm down a bit. Just my opinion.
*The Seven-Per-Cent Solution* sounds awesome. Robert Duvall as Watson? How could it not be awesome!
I don't know how/why I'd never seen Chabrol's The Unfaithful Wife until now.
I'd call that movie kind of a downer. Yes, I don't care about the cahiers folks, particularly -- not that I don't care very much for some of their films, but as a movement, it is not my place or time.
However, comparing to other of Chabrol's movies, it seems he might have been going for something, in his life -- that might be worth looking more closely.
Saw again Alphaville yet again. In fact, I remember very well when and where I first saw it, in a theater. I think it's a stupid stunt.
But, killing some time today, saw most of The Searchers again. I'm not sure if there is a more relatable character in novels or in film than Uncle Ethan, in recent times.
Oh yes, a while ago I was just looking for something to pass the time -- low blood sugar, low brain power, whatever. I do not know how it's called A Band Apart probably. Yeah, I don't know. I've seen it a bunch of times, but a few little things struck me as new this time. Like the way Odilie has that curl in her hair. Stuff like that.
Maybe young kids aren't so bad after all, I guess, even with that ridiculous stunt audio work.
Truth be told, he's not a very good Watson IMHO, but the movie is still worth a look. Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxzoWxT2E2YQuote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
My most recent five:
Keep of Lost Causes
A pretty good Danish cop drama. After his partner is killed, a troubled detective is assigned to the Cold Case Squad and tries to figure out what happened to a rising politician who disappeared on a ferry boat.
Way Out West
Laurel & Hardy in a fish-out-of-water Wild West comedy; they play couriers trying to recover the misappropriated deed to a gold mine. Some great slapstick.
Under the Sun
Disappointing documentary on the lives of everyday North Koreans subjected to relentless government propaganda.
Angel Heart
Saw this 1987 supernatural detective story again. Great movie; every time I see it I notice something new. Mickey Rourke, Lisa Bonet and Robert De Niro are all excellent.
Touch of Evil
So-so Orson Welles potboiler about police corruption along the U.S.-Mexican border in the Fifties. A justly famous tracking shot opens the film, but Charlton Heston is badly miscast as a Mexican cop.
Well, I guess you have a point that Heston's character wasn't very interesting, and that Heston may not have been all that super an actor. I think the good parts (Dennis Weaver, Dietrich, Welles, Akim, Mercedes) tip the scales towards it being a damned entertaining movie, though.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
I came across the second "hanging" movie I alluded to above, but couldn't remember the title. It's called *Ride Lonesome* -- one of the Boetticher/Randolph Scott Westerns from the 1950s. Right, so the deal is SPOILER AHEAD Scott is some kind of bounty hunter who captures James Best, in an attempt to lure his brother (Lee van Cleef) out of hiding to rescue him. Lee van Cleef executed Scott's wife a while ago by hanging her from a tree.
Justice prevails at the end. James Best is very entertaining in it, and I think James Coburn might have had one of his first roles in this one, too.
Plus, the conceit is sort of shockingly horrible. See? I eventually remember things.
*******************
Yes, that's right, I do remember Lisa Bonet being good in *Angel Heart* -- I wasn't a big Cosby Show watcher, but I remember that she was good in the picture. So was Mickey Rourke, for that matter. I wonder how much acting he had to do, exactly, to look like a greasy sleazeball?
First film role in fact. Damn, I'm good.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
*Last Man on the Moon* turned out to be a pretty nice slice of reminiscences from a pretty interesting guy. Lots of neat video footage of "life on the moon." Gene Cerney's a pretty sharp old guy, along with his buddies from "back in the day."
*The Magnificent Seven* remake was OK -- Denzel was actually pretty great, and looks like he had a lot of fun playing a pretty cool customer. It's really not what I would call a remake -- just kind of a riff on the same idea as the original (well, you know, the Western, not the Japanese movie, which I've seen a few times, but don't remember that well). If a grouchy purist like me had fun watching it, I'm sure fans of kind of macho action Hollywood movies would as well.
Haven't seen *Le boucher* (*The Butcher*, I suppose, would be it's English title, but you never can tell what they'll come up with) in a long time, and I didn't recall it being as dark and existentially sort of sour, but it is. I'm almost ready to go ahead and claim that Chabrol, the director, had a theme.
Speaking of Westerns, a few I'd never seen:
*Hondo*
*Broken Arrow*
*Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia* (sort of a Western, I guess). Easily Warren Oates' best role, from what I've seen.
*Major Dundee* Charlton Heston! I did not know he was actually a pretty good actor. Well, I thought he was fine in kind of a complicated character.
Hitchcock's *Rope* -- haven't seen that since I was a teenager or younger, I don't believe. Actually a pretty neat little movie. I didn't realize that the actor's name is John Dall, spelled like that (the guy from *Gun Crazy*), and is not the same guy as the director John Dahl, apparently. I believe I read somewhere that Joe Lewis, who directed *Gun Crazy*, picked him to star in that because he was a homosexual -- something about he thought it gave some vulnerability to the character. I don't know about that, but hard to miss the homoerotic undertones in *Rope*, which kind of surprised me, given that I wouldn't think Hitchcock had much sympathy for that side of psychology. Pretty tense little thriller, too -- I think my heartrate increased wondering how Jimmy Stewart was going to proceed. ETA also, gave me a good chance to read the wikipedia page on the Leopold and Loeb trial, which I didn't know anything about, really, except that there was such a thing.
Also, Hitchcock's *The Wrong Man* with Henry Fonda is, for me, the most terrifying tale of dread Hitchcock ever made. Just ghastly and shocking -- there but for the grace of god, I guess, we go.
And, *From Here to Eternity* -- there's a reason that's a famous movie. One of many famous "big" Hollywood movies I'd never seen, and it's one hell of a tale. Never been much of a Burt Lancaster fan, but he nailed his role (and, at least on screen, Deborah Kerr, so good for him, I suppose). I backed it with *Tora Tora Tora*, another Pearl Harbor picture, but I'm not sure I'd recommend those as a double feature, particularly. *TTT* was kind of boring, IMHO, and a little too loud for my tastes.
EETA oh yeah, Budd Boetticher's last movie, also Audie Murphy's last movie, I believe (or close), *A Time for Dying*. Fun western with a big "shoot out" ending. Victor Jory gives a fun reading of everyone's favorite "hanging judge" Roy Bean, and Audie Murphy really just has a pretty small role as Jesse James, but is pretty charismatic. Kind of an odd one for Boetticher -- I'm not sure what he wanted to say, but it's a nice, kind of old-school classic Western.
Glad you liked the astronaut movie. I've wanted to see the TMS remake but haven't gotten around to it yet.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
Rope underwhelmed me, as I think I posted earlier. Not Hitchcock's best by a long shot.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
I've seen both movies and liked them, but I agree that FHTE is the better flick. And this might make you see Frank Sinatra's character in a new light!: https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...-here-eternityQuote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
WARNING composed yesterday submitted today. I shall deal with today's comments and questions when I get around to it.
The remake of *The Alamo* (2004) -- I'm not prepared to say it was a crummy movie, but it was turned into one by the "editor," and the music supervisor. So, for that means, the music sucked, and it was boring and stupid. It makes the original John Wayne/Dick Widmark one look like a taut masterpiece by comparison, and that in itself is a pretty long movie. And, no, despite appearances, I don't really have anything against Texas or Texans -- I just don't think they should be allowed to congregate in groups, except for purposes of playing music, growing cattle, cooking Mexican food, and fighting.
The remake of the Chabrol movie, called *Unfaithful* really ... somewhat a porno with a very nice looking Diane Lane, but is also kind of annoying because the Frenchman makes you want to punch him in the face, primarily because he's better than me at seducing women. I think Lane's kid is one of those kids from some TV show. Gere's character was about the same level of boring generic "husband" as the original. In the original, though the wife wasn't more arousing than many of the women you meet on the street, and her little boy-toy made no effort at being charming, so you didn't really feel any emotions, just a bleak, empty hollow. Which is, to me, far more interesting as a movie. Oh, wait a minute. I have to amend and say it really gets better in the second half. Gere towards the end to Lane: "Cause I know you, Connie, and I fucking hate you. I didn't want to kill him, I wanted to kill you." So, I guess it's a better movie than the original, but is more emotion-getting, so it's completely different, and the two versions shouldn't really be compared except for the same plot, and everyone knows plot is just superficial junk.
Chabrol's *Les bonnes femmes* is hilarious, I found. No Frenchwomen cursing in this except for saying "shit" a few times. I don't have subtitles for this one except in Russian, which I don't understand, so some of the intricacies of whatever plot might have escaped me, but I thought it was amusing good fun. Apparently according to Wikipedia it's got a pretty good reputation, but I never remember hearing about it, so it was new to me.
Also, WC Fields in *Million Dollar Legs*, despite, again, according to Wikipedia, having quite the reputation, isn't my favorite of the WC Fields movies, but it's a cute little caper/comedy. Actually, I was hoping to get a few good laughs in before bed the other night, but it didn't amuse me as much as *Les bonnes femmes*, so I went to bed unsetisfyet.
That's pretty good. I think I read something about something, but didn't remember who was doing what.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
If it weren't for that, AISTM, Frank was at a lower point in his career, I'd have guessed FS had something to do with the revisions, but all told, looking back almost seventy years, I'm glad that underworld tales were left to the professionals (you know, like Otto Preminger and Fuller and the crime movie people).
Not for any moral reasons, but everyone likes a good struggle, as long as it's not your backyard, and in the clear of day everyone can see ... like in *Sweet Smell of Success*, "every hip person knows you're carrying that dame for him" or whatever.
Oh yeah, you guys get it here first: AFAIK, nobody has identified Trump with not one but two Hitchcock villains, with uncanny perspicacity. So, as I indicated elsewhere, the killer from *Frenzy*. And, as I've found in the past few weeks, Charles Laughton's character in *Jamaica Inn*. ETA yeah and you fucking twats will thank me later -- for I Jizzelbin have foretold the future! Well, you know, or something.
It's kind of eerie, especially the latter, how well it matches.
Oh yeah, Hitchcock did two French language movies during the WWII, one called "Bon Voyage" and the other something about Madagascar (==Malagache). I don't know what the fuck was going on there, but Monsieur Hitchcock maybe did not agree with his, something, or whatever. I have no idea, and I'm not going back to find out, at least not for another ten years. Well, somewhat amusing little escapades, I guess, but I couldn't say for whom these movies were meant.
But, speaking of Hitchcock, *Suspicion* is another I'd seen as a teenager or younger and forgot about. You know, I don't know shit about Joan Fontaine, nor her sister, like twins or some stupid bullshit, but I'll be a suck-egg mule if she isn't pretty damned good in that picture. Pretty nice figure.
My most recent five:
A Fine Mess
A collection of pretty funny Laurel & Hardy shorts, including one in which they're racing to clean up Oliver's house before his wife returns earlier than expected, and another in which they're movers trying to get a piano up a very steep hill.
Point of Order
A documentary, largely drawn from original kinescopes, of the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings. Could have been better-edited, but a somewhat interesting look at the beginning of the end for ol' "Tailgunner Joe."
On the Silver Globe
A Polish sf drama about space explorers regressing to savagery on a distant planet. Fragmentary, pretentious, and interminable - I walked out before it ended, which is rare for me.
When Marnie Was There
Anime film about a shy, asthmatic girl and the friend she discovers in a Japanese coastal village. There's a twist that my teenage son and I almost figured out. Beautiful animation; a good but not great film.
Forbidden Planet
Saw this classic 1956 sf film again, and it holds up pretty well. Gene Roddenberry credited it with partly inspiring Star Trek; you can certainly see the influence.
Aaaaaaand my most recent five:
Hamlet
A film of the beautifully-staged recent British National Theatre production. It stars Benedict Cumberpatch, who is terrific in the lead role, veering between despair, playfulness, (feigned) madness and euphoria.
Arrival
A somber, moving sf drama about first contact with an alien race and how it changes humanity. The movie focuses on a linguist (Amy Adams) and a physicist (Jeremy Renner) who are added to the U.S. government’s diplomatic team; very intense and thought-provoking, with a great cast. Compares very favorably to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Contact and The Abyss.
Doctor Strange
Much more light-hearted, a comics-based special-effects extravaganza about a reluctant wizard learning how to defend Earth against supernatural threats from beyond our own dimension. Not a masterpiece, but good fun. Cumberpatch again stars.
The Big Lebowski
My all-time favorite Coen Bros. movie - I think this is maybe the fourth or fifth time I've seen it. The Dude abides.
Love Actually
Schmaltzy, funny Christmas-themed British romantic comedy with an all-star cast, including the delectable Keira Knightley. The plotline with the two porno stand-ins is still cringeworthy, and all that keeps this movie from a IMHO more-suitable PG rating.
Saw Doctor Strange at the movies, I enjoyed it very much but yes, no masterpiece. loved the Floyd tune used early in the movie.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a fun but also not great movie. The special effects were spectacular of course. Visually a great movie, acting was fine but the storyline was nothing special.
Rewatched:
Jaws: Still holds it own. This is no monster movie but a masterpiece of characters and dialogue that works around a monster hunt. One of the great movies.
Saving Private Ryan: A little slow at times but excellent movie with an outstanding acting from Tom Hanks.
A Bridge too Far: A forgotten gem with one of the best theme ever composed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n7vrvM0iO4
The movie is about Operation Market Garden and is effectively the sequel to The Longest Day. The book was also by Cornelius Ryan. Adapted by William "Princess Bride" Goldman. It has a huge all-star cast. Incredible war scenes and a good mix of great acting and great hamming (Elliot Gould did not chew the scenery, he mauled it).
I finally saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I'm not a big Star Wars fan and only really love Empire Strikes Back. I think the Prequels are absolute garbage, but #7 was fun, exciting and a good viewing.
Today I will be watching the Godfather Saga, 7.5 hours of one of the greatest movies ever made and the greatest sequel ever. I have Cold cuts and cannoli of course. The Saga includes a few missing scenes and is edited together chronologically.
Yeah, mine too. I think *Barton Fink* was my first Coen bros I saw -- they're the non-tranny brothers, I believe, but I've come to find this one amusing. Probably seen it about four or five times also. Not a lot but not a little. I guess I've seen the rest of their movies, but I'd still watch this one if I had a brain injury and felt like looking at that pig Julianne Moore for the unpleasant bits.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
Apparently I unwittingly opened a jar of Charlton Heston whup-ass on seeing that....Major Dundee. Finally got around to seeing *Planet of the Apes.* Frank Schaffner, known by me as director of *Patton*, so that was fun. And, the other one, *El Cid* -- that was a pretty good little epic.
I haven't seen very many of the big Hollywood epics. I saw *The Robe* once because of its technical importance, but I still haven't seen the 10 commandments or Ben Hur or shit like that.
*El Cid* delievered.
And, FWIW, *Planet of the Apes* was kind of good -- it sort of makes its own gravy, but I was expecting to laugh ironically all throughout. It's kind of a cute little movie.
I saw A Bridge Too Far many years ago and should see it again. Nothing like a good WWII movie. Agree with you, What Exit?, as to Saving Private Ryan and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
A "good little epic," Jizz? Hmmm. And which version of Planet of the Apes did you watch?
Well, sure, the Franklin Schaffner one, the original. 1968 I think. Never saw it before.
TNP has taunted customer service people repeatedly recently and thinks it's hilarious. Yay for having everything be in written form so I can have copies and everyone can do writing, except for Japanese yellow little non-Europeans who .......... Yay I like having everything in writing so I can know that I'm correct at every layer of interaction and I can identify mistakes, because I'm not a yellow....yay, I like having a written record of my interactions, because each open ticket idenitifies the source user and a unique code that....yay, I like having
Yep, it's good to be right. Takes all fucking day, though.
I have a lot of movies I should report on -- and no, jackass, I don't just sit around and watch movies, it's just I don't have a life, and also some "movies" and even some TV shows to report on -- iow, a lot to answer for, but I'm still picking Dvorak keyboard out my teeth, so I will have to say,Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
gooble gabble,
yes, you have discovered the source.
I didn't find it until I was in my twenties, but, yes, the movie *Jaws* is the source. Of much sorrow, but much joy.
Watch it well, paduan. The rifftrax really is pretty funny, as well, but since I'm an experienced teacher, I can tell you that until you've seen all of Robert Shaw's other film appearances, you may not be ready.
Or something.
Yep, to borrow from my suppliers, "Murray Hamilton -- king of all names."
Never mind, you're too young.
Very likely.
My latest five:
The Hill
Sean Connery stars in this 1965 drama, playing a convict who clashes with the sergeant who runs the sun-baked, brutal WWII British military prison in which he's being held. Good, gritty and realistic.
On the Beach
Downbeat film about the last survivors of World War III, waiting for global radiation to finally reach the last outpost of humanity in southern Australia. Gregory Peck plays a U.S. submarine commander and Ava Gardner is the alcoholic woman who falls for him.
It's a Wonderful Life
Saw this Christmas classic again, this time with the full orchestral score performed live. Jimmy Stewart is great, as always, and Donna Reed is still a knockout girl-next-door.
Manchester by the Sea
Casey Affleck is very good as a blue-collar guy trying to bring up his orphaned teenage nephew. A very powerful study of grief, guilt and family ties. The classical music score (including two pieces from Handel's Messiah) is a little incongruous, but works.
Rogue One
The first stand-alone live-action Star Wars movie, showing how the Rebels got the plans for the Death Star in the first place. A big cast and lots of action. Two thumbs (mostly) up.
Aaaand now my latest five:
Hail, Caesar!
The Coen Brothers' latest. Good but not great; its evocation of Fifties Hollywood has its moments (including recognizable parodies of Esther Williams, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Kelly and Clark Gable).
Cloud Atlas
My third time seeing this film, and it's still terrific - a richly-layered, sweeping science fiction/historical epic spanning many hundreds of years, exploring the ties which bind all humanity and the forces which threaten to tear us apart. Tom Hanks and Halle Berry anchor a fine cast.
Hidden Figures
Historical drama about the long-neglected black female mathematicians who helped NASA win the Space Race. Pretty good acting but a predictable plot.
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Very funny animated movie about everyone's favorite multitalented, supergenius, bow-tied talking dog and his less-clever pet, er, adopted son. Look for Bill Clinton in a brief but on-the-nose cameo.
The Princess Bride
Believe it or not, I'd never seen the movie all the way through before. A lot of fun, endlessly quotable, and Robin Wright has never been more breathtakingly beautiful.
I watched the Disney Alice through the looking Glass. It was terrible. Poorly written and directed.
I really enjoyed this movie, not sure why. I would give it a very good rating, probably an 8.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
I could barely get through this one. I thought it was mess actually.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
Might go see this, might wait for it to come to the small screen.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
Hmmm, I gave up about 20 minutes into this movie. Surprised by a favorable review.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
One of my Perfect 10 movies. Love it and have watched it quite often. one of the Infinitely Quotable movies. The movie is made of awesome and Billy Crystal & Carol Kane still managed to top nearly everything else. Though the Battle of Wits and "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." do equal or exceed it.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
I re-watched Patton and Saving Private Ryan recently. Both are of course nearly perfect movies that do get a little slow at times. I round these out with Tora, Tora Tora! but that is only good, not nearly perfect.
Thanks, WE.
My latest five:
A Christmas Carol
The 1951 version, with Alastair Sim, considered by many to be the best film adaptation of the Dickens tale. It was good, but I still prefer the 1984 movie with George C. Scott.
Dead Poets Society
Hadn't seen this since it first came out. A funny, heartfelt, uplifting but ultimately tragic coming-of-age tale set at a Fifties boys' school in New England.
Koyaanisqatsi
A 1982 experimental film with lots of time-lapse footage and an evocative soundtrack by Philip Glass, about how overcrowded, mechanized human society struggles with nature (the title is the Hopi word for "unbalanced life"). Interesting but sometimes a bit tedious.
Groundhog Day
I watch this endlessly-quotable movie every few years around the titular holiday, and always enjoy it. A modern classic, a terrific comedy with a heart and a rich theological/spiritual core. Bill Murray, his character veering from selfishness to despair to altruism to joy, really should've won an Oscar.
Mifune: The Last Samurai
Documentary about the great Japanese tough-guy actor and his long collaboration with director Akira Kurosawa. Oddly enough, neither man was interviewed for the movie, or even shown in archival interviews; we see them only through their work, and via the observations of others (family, coworkers, and admirers including Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese).
Ned...Ryerson! No, I truly cannot remember the last time I saw GHD but it's a permanent part of my mental furniture.
And now something you'll really like:
"Le tigre aime la chair fraîche" -- Daniela Bianchi. I'm sure has inspired more than one erson to cede to self-abuse. I don't know what the movie was about -- something about some spy shit, and an airport, and Daniela Bianchi plays a part-Turkish, part-French daughter of soebody. People have odd accents in this one. There was a funny line, something about "don't let air touch beer, otherwise it starts to decompose." A few other good ones I don't recall -- it's not offensive, just sort of a little odd, like David Lynch dialogue, except maybe not quite as good. The photography was nice -- just sort of regular, subdued black and white. Also odd, almost surreal, and the camera is always moving just a little bit, dollying in and stuff, when you look at it.
Bianchi was also the Bond Girl in From Russia With Love, I think. Mrowrrr.
That is correct. That is how I learned of her presence and proceeded to stalk my way through as many of her lady pictures as I could find.
She was also in a movie with the bad Connery, the evil twin called Neil (just like the antihero in "Heat") called something like 'OK Connery.'
I'm sure I'm not the first one to notice that "Connery," when said with a Parisian accent, sounds almost exactly like the French word for "bunch of stupid bullshit."
Bianchi was a terrific talent. I don't really have an excuse as a forty-year old man for having watched that Bond movie more than once, but I can't help it if she passed my exacting standards. Exceeded. violently. Roughly....overload....overload.....abort!
*War on Everyone*. Pretty funny. Sample quote: "Hey assfuck, did you shit in this?" I personally found it hilarious, but I think it would be more hilarious if they could play shit like this on television. Bunch of puss-assed little bastards.
*Groundhog Day* -- Andie MacDowell did a fine job. I was surprised that Phil wasn't really as much of a prick as I remember him before his transformation -- he seemed like a regular guy who'd be funny to chat with at a corner bar.
I have never seen the Corman *Little Shop of Horrors* before. Pretty amusing -- despite appearances, I'm a sucker for Jew humor, and this was right at the edge of acceptably stereotyped. Maybe Akim Tamiroff and Mel Brooks could have come up with something more shtetl, but they didn't. It's incredible it was shot in 2 days -- Corman was a kind of a genius. What kind, I'm not sure, but some kind for sure. "I can it see it now, 'Seymore Kreylboyne, Rest in Peace.' In ARABIC!" Oh, and according to Wikipedia, the score's story is pretty interesting. My ears perked up at the little atonal piano riff -- either out of vague recognition or just that I thought it sounded cool. Apparently the score was pressed into service for a number of other movies, most of which I've seen. Also, I'd recommend the recent documentary about Corman -- it's not a great documentary, but it has some adequate reminiscences from people, including the big man himself.
Speaking of Corman, I'd never seen *A Bucket of Blood* before now. It's better than most of the "beatnik" teensploitation movies. That's really not saying very much, but I thought it was kind of good. I'd never watch it again, unlike the Corman-Vincent Price terror movies (the one with Ray Milland was pretty dire, IMHO -- I don't why Milland isn't made fun of to the extent of a Shatner or a Pacino -- he is a big fucking ham, but his worst sin is that he isn't amusing).
Hey, you dickmagnets get a rare treat. I did this the night before the last.
Out of courtesy, I'll size it:
*Pride and Prejudice* -- you know, I've enjoyed the other recent Austen films, but I like this one because it's kind of....peculiar, in a bunch of ways. It's gritty. I don't want to be disgusting, but you really get the special aroma of a household of women (yes, I know what I'm talking about -- it's distinct from a locker room or a college dormroom, and not without its unique qualities). I was captivated by the very beautiful still photograph of Mrs. Knightley promoting the film, but I applaud the photographer and director and her for not making her into a pinup, photographed with vaseline over the lens, but an actual person. Maybe not to the almost exploitative grotesque, in the classic sense, of *A Dangerous Method*, but her performance is equally fine. I remember reading the book maybe fifteen years ago and thinking it was just about the funniest thing since *Vanity Fair*, but I might have missed something or been distracted by the witty dialogue. At any rate, as I become older and even crabbier and no longer need apologize for my admiration for FR Leavis to colleagues, I believe a good goal for my next year will be to reappraise Austen in the light of my new happy acquaintance of ten years, George Eliot, and my old friends Joseph Conrad and Henry James. I don't believe FR Leavis made any effort at a comparative study of his short-list of novelists (Leavis was wrong to exclude Proust and Musil, but I believe he was some kind of closet Anglophile who hated the continent. Doesn't quite explain James, who despite his having become a subject, I do not believe was a true Anglophile, being a cultivated man of tradition, but maybe Leavis was confused. He was English, you know. Edmund Wilson didn't have that disability, but he had broader and different fields to till), but I think the Austen of *Pride and Prejudice* and the Conrad of *Nostromo* could be interesting to think about, as an exercise in historical criticism.
Back to movies, I just remembered that both those novels happened to have had long BBC miniseries, which I remember seeing a long time ago -- I know Colin Firth from the *Nostromo* one (I remember he was pretty good as Mr. Gould in that, but not much else about the picture, and I don't really recall the *P&P* one except wikipedia says he was probably in that too). That sort of thing I wish I could wipe out of my memory, because I don't really want some chunky Welshman or whatever kind of deviant cockblocker son of a bitch interfering in my prurient fantasies reveries about the heroines. Odd coincidence, though. I really wish I didn't have this way of thinking of things I don't care about. Whatever, I regret nothing. If I had any visual ability, I could just make some kind of abstract expressionist painting of my incoherent annoyance, but instead I'll just whinge like a little crybaby.
I'm an Aries, and I just found out that is to be expected of me.
Nothing much I can think of to report, except to add yet another title to the list of movies I can't really sit through. *The Long Riders*. Don't know why that was on my list, probably just heard it was good and I like Westerns. Maybe it is good -- I can't keep all those characters straight though, and Randy Quaid seemed a little off his game (believe it or not, I happen to think he was legendary in *The Last Detail* and *Last Picture Show*). Couldn't deal with the *The Wicked Lady* either -- I really tried, lured in by the promise of a younger Marina Sirtis, but not worth it. Nor was *Grizzly* -- sorry fans of shitty rip-offs of *Jaws*, but you can have that one to yourselves. Oh yeah, *Vigilante*, with Robert Forster, also didn't make the cut. Kind of weird and psycho. So, you know, I should like it, but I'm not that much of a prevert. And yet, still, I can't make it through *Under the Tuscan Moon* -- I guess I'm going to have to start pasting photographs of Diane Lane to a papier mâché head and torso and her downtown and filling it with deli meats and hope the insects don't get to it before I do.
*Alligator* was pretty good though. Little known fact: Michael V. Gazzo (you know, Frankie Pentangeli) might even tie Robert Loggia for the king of the much-revered "school of yell-acting."
In new news: *The Light Between Oceans*. Kind of boring, but the first ten or fifteen minutes are cute. And it's a two-fer for multi-generational open-minded pervs who don't mind married actresses, one of whom is getting a little long in the tooth: Mrs. Rachel Weisz AND Mrs. Vikander. And there is a surprisingly intimate scene in the bedroom. Fassbender is a little quick on the draw, but it's understandable given that it's Alicia Vikander. And, actually, she's kind of got that Keira Knightly thing going on too -- awesome, but also good at acting and stuff. About the movie. Yes, "kind of boring" doesn't quite make it. Not only is it horribly boring, I think you must need ESP or some shit to figure out what the fuck is going on. It is also very fucking grim, and about some weird English or British or UK Commonwealth cult or something, and something about Germans and dead babies and shit. There's also a bunch of little kids (or maybe it's just the one) in it, which I don't care to see. It's like *Wicker Man* (the original, terrible one, not the brilliant remake with Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn and Italian-American icon Nicolas Cage), except really ridiculous and way more boring.
Wow, that was awful. It's also extremely long, at nearly 9/4 hours.
So, yes, to get it the taste of it out of my head, I'll recall the words of the always-cheery *Godfather Pt. 2*, when Harry Dean Stanton and the other federal marshall find that Frankie 5 angels who "got a lot of good stuff out of [history]," took a nice hot bath and opened up his veins. To anyone contemplating the same, I think you've probably found the ideal movie to watch while you bleed out Coppola-style. You could watch Lars von "Dogme sux I roolz" Trier's fucking *Antichrist* after this and come out with a shit-eating grin on your face bigger than Dick van fucking Dyke.
What. The. Fuck. I think I'm going to do something unprecedented, and beg BEG BEG Mike Nelson and his Rifftrax crew (Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy -- I think Bill is twisted enough to do it, so maybe I'll try the long con on him, take years, but worth it) to do a commentary on this. They're getting on in years, and this could be an even bigger artistic accomplishment than their admiringly-made, and sort-of-amusing commentary to *Casablanca*. It could be their *Pee-Wee's Big Holiday*, or maybe their *Chimes at Midnight* -- their *Dernier métro* -- a somber reflection on who we are, where we are going, and what the fuck is wrong with these people.
Oh yeah, and good job, me: you didn't want to watch *The Pianist* because it looked depressing, but you watched this. Good thinking. Great. Just great.
However, Alicia Vikander does get to cry in this one. Not as good as in *The Danish Girl*, but kind of a good cry. I bet she was thinking of watching this movie when she did it.
This is a bad movie, in other words, is what I'm saying, it is a moral stain, and it is the only time I wish the Catholic church had more of an influence in the film industries of the world, so they could extort the businessmen of the film world to ban the shit out of this fucking piece of immoral, Satanic trash.
But how did I feel after watching the movie? I felt like vomiting. Really, that is the truth, I have never felt this ill after observing any piece of art. A deep desire to vomit. Good thing I'm fasting at the moment, but bad thing because my gut is full of black tea and it might hurt. I'm keeping it down. Smoke my pipe. That'll be good. Have a Xanax.
Well, sorry you had to see that. If you didn't guess, that's my blow-by-blow commentary on the movie, real time, beginning to bitter end. So I broke my rule about not composing ahead of time, but I've shared a few notes in this thread that were jotted down in VIM GREATEST TEXT EDITOR EVAHH before -- not often, but I feel I should be honest, since I like rules when I make them.
OK, 1 mg alprazolam, taken at 2:06 of the movie, maybe take the edge off. Probably not. Tea, decaf, check. OH, look, final scenes, those fucking assholes trying to make some happy ending. Bullshit they are lying fucking asshole pukes and they should be punished.
I wish I still had my copy of *Faces of Death* to cheer me up. Not sitting through the credits, don't give a shit, hate the music. Précis: not just awful, it's god-awful. Thanks Max Cannon, for that line.
What do I have here...."Pink Flamingos." "Salo." No, no, I don't want to watch people eating shit on screen, BIG-TOP PEE-WEE!!!!! Yippee! That'll do just fine. And FTR, I don't paricularly like Big Top Pee-Wee. Another Xanax, a warm-up on my decaf tea, and I can watch my beloved Pee-Wee do his worst, almost.
Huh. I forgot -- why does Pee-Wee have a pet pig named Vance? Why is it so pink and freshly-scrubbed? I don't remember much about this movie, apparently. Pee-Wee's Pink Pet Pig. Could be a good family restaurant name -- maybe get his trademark cooperation. Could be fun. I think I might be a genius, or an idiot. Probably neither. That's for me to know and you to find out. Bux-ton.
OK, this is a pretty stupid mean-spirited movie. But I just saw Pee-Wee's last one not long ago again, and I don't need to see that ever again. I've seen the first way too many times, and I don't want the music in my head -- I have a nice thing going today with the first two of Bach's French Suites and a piano reduction of Bernard Hermann (hey! seriously! neat! dueling Hermans!)'s "Prelude to *Psycho*" and Liszt's arrangement of Schubert's "Erlkönig" to play with today and I don't want Elfman fucking with that. Oh well, I guess I get the movies I deserve. Heh. Pee-Wee petting Winnie's hair like she was a pet. This is pretty bizarre. Heh. I'm off to chuckle-ville, population, half-man! Oh hey, it's the lady from *Twin Peaks*! Wow, what a bitch. Huh, that mean old general store owner reminds me....I used to have a big old meat cleaver. Wonder what happened to it. Got it from a flea market in Buffalo. It had "made in Pakistan" stamped on it, and it was pretty butch. How can you lose a giant meat cleaver? Oh now I remember. Kris Kristofferson. I hate that guy. Now I have to decide if I dislike him or Joe Manganelli or whatever his name is more. Eh, don't care -- this might be the only good movie Kristofferson ever did, and this movie kind of sucks. Oh yeah, and the girl from *Hot Shots Part Deux*. She's kind of freaky, but she'll do. Huh. I think she's French, but has blue eyes....or green or something. Huh. Some schmutz behind my ears and my hair's kind of greasy. Probably should do something about that. Oh well, tomorrow's a good day for that.
Once I get done with my comparative analysis of contemporary portrayals of women in *Pride and Prejudice* and *Nostromo* I'll take a new project of trying to figure out what Pee-Wee's deal is. His humor is a little eccentric: little-known fact that I'm discovering at the moment. However, it does not deviate from the mainstream of Western culture, so I do not condemn it. Commedia del Arte on acid. I feel I must, Hunter S. Thompson style, embed myself in his gang and explore his life, then write a really weird, ground-breaking book about it. I suspect my standards of hygiene may be repellent to him, so I don't think I'll have to worry about him taking advantage of my own pink, porcine flesh while I psycho-sexually exploit his tastes for the sake of getting the scoop. That's not a bad idea -- I'm betting Pee Wee or maybe even Paul Reubens has quite a story to tell. I shall not rest until his story is told, even if I have to make it all up and be severely litigated for my heroic contributions. Hmmm..... I'm on to something. Another Xanax and more tea. I have decided: I am a GENIUS! A SEVERELY-DELUDED, BARELY-ADEQUATE GENIUS WITH BRAIN DAMAGE AND ABNORMALLY HIGH SELF-CONFIDENCE! Mwahahahahaha. Suckers.
Eh, fuck this, I'm watching the MST3K movie again. It's almost 0100, and this isn't a very good MST3K, so it should put me to sleep and I should take more Xanax and go to sleep for about two hours longer than I need and get started early tomorrow. Ah, morning, dilute the stench of instant coffee with delicious whole milk, clean this filthy rats-nest I call hair, and I get to eat tomorrow -- I might even do my eating in the morning. Two nice juicy homeburgers (or most of my rooms billowing with smoke while I save the burgers from abominable ruin) on Sourdough and a can of beans. Oh yeah, and I have actual shit to do. Thanks to my obsessive fasting, though, it is highly unlikely I will actually be opening my bowels for days. Because of being old and having eccentric eating habits.
Ah, signing out. Sleepy. Boring movie. Best way to get to sleep: fight it! Take drugs! Fight until you collapse helplessly on a bare futon with a clean blanket, because your bedroom has bedbugs, a hat with earflaps, glancing feebly at the score to Siegfried-Idyll thinking about Werewolf Women of the SS and the newly-widowed Keira Knightly freed from her marital duties, welcoming a clean-cut virtuous Parsifal who will help fight her artistic demons and execute her life's work of breeding in underground bunkers, where animals will be bred and slaughtered. I do it because it's normal, dammit! It's American! A poet-warrior in the classic sense, I expand my mind! And no expanding elsewhere until REM sleep which will probably be perturbed or of low quality. Lethe!
Thanks, Jizz! It was her appearance in Pride & Prejudice that first started me on my longstanding Keira Knightley crush.
My latest five:
To Have And Have Not
A classic 1944 B&W French Resistance drama with Bogie and Bacall (their first movie together), set on Martinique. Hoagy Carmichael appears as a hotel's piano player and provides the music. More than a few similarities to Casablanca. Good stuff.
Deluge
A 1933 disaster movie about earthquakes and tsunamis destroying civilization, and the survivors trying to form a new society. Melodramatic and with laughable sfx. Skip it.
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened
A heartfelt, bittersweet documentary about the cast of the notorious 1981 Broadway bomb Merrily We Roll Along, and what became of their acting and singing careers afterwards. Jason Alexander went on to a Tony and Seinfeld and did pretty well for himself, but most of the others, well....
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Early Sixties romance set in Manhattan - George Peppard and the luminous Audrey Hepburn meet, fall in love, clash, separate and then realize, of course, that they're meant for each other. Very dated (especially for Mickey Rooney's very un-P.C. turn as an excitable Japanese photographer) but still worth a look.
Baraka
A wordless 1992 documentary about humanity, faith and nature, with beautiful imagery from Africa, South America, Asia, Europe and the U.S., set to a New Age score. More of a sensory experience, I'd say, than a movie.
I finally saw 42, the Jackie Robinson bio from 2013. Well done, a solid 8 and enjoyable once it gets past the first 20 minutes or so.
To Have And Have Not is fairly good, it is pretty much a sequel to Casablanca and has one of the most famous lines in movie history.
Bacall was incredible in it. So gorgeous.Quote:
Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow.
Breakfast at Tiffany's is worth a watch, if nothing else but to see Audrey in it. It has some excellent scenes though. I know Mickey Rooney was truly terrible in it but in his defense it was still a time when that crap was going on in many movies and Breakfast is just far better known then most of the others.
I feel like I've said this before, but I'll say it again, *To Have and Have Not* is fucking great. Walter Brennan, the great ham (and Oscar-beloved!), is reined in, and I just love the musical bits with Hoagy -- not that I don't love *Casablanca*, but I can't stand the music scenes in that.
I've often felt like I should read *Breakfast at Tiffany's* again (we had to read it in HS, and I don't remember shit about it), because, for as many times as I've seen the movie, I just can't get into it at all. And I loved *The A-Team* as a kid, so, you know, I should love everything George Peppard did.
According to Wikipedia, "American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer stated in interviews that he was in the habit of watching Exorcist III before killing his victims because it put him "in the mood"."
I pretty much fucking hate Jeffrey fucking Dahmer -- in fact I think he's a fucking asshole and I don't care who knows it.
But that is a pretty awesome thing to say. Exorcist III sucks wang -- it is an awful movie. Better than II, though.
I have neither seen Exorcist III nor killed anyone, so I've got that goin' for me.
"La la land" saw most of last night. If ever there was a movie I was predisposed to hate with every fiber of my being, it was this, but I thought it was kind of cute, and I'll watch the rest of it soon. I still can't tell the difference between the male actor (I think it's the Gosling guy) and any of the others of his generation, and I'm not a big fan of that girl.....whatsername, Stone, from *Superbad* and *Birdman*, but she was pretty good in the bits I saw.
ETA it was the same guy who did *Whiplash*, which I think has some of the best dialogue in a recent movie, so I had high expectations.
Saw most of Roman Holiday last night. Good lord, I sometime forget why I fall in love with Audrey Hepburn every time I see this movie. Well I was reminded yet again. Also the plucky comic relief of Eddie Albert was made of awesome and of course Gregory "Atticus Finch" Peck was awesome in his first comedy role. Someone commented somewhere that this movie could have been called Tall Dark and Handsome the movie and while I don't agree I do see the point of view.
It was her first lead role and part way through the filming Peck told the producers to put her name above the credits as she was going to win an Oscar for the role. He was 100% correct. She did win the Oscar.
Nice reminder. You know, I don't know if I was confusing *Roman Holiday* with something else. That was a fucked-up movie, IMHO, but it sure did want to make me rape a drunk 19-year old sorority girl.
You know, Audrey Hepburn was neither tall nor really "handsome," but she was kind of cute -- meh, there's always one of "those girls" around. I saw one yesterday, still kickng myself for not perving on her.
Just tried to watch the end of *Lala land* or whatever it's called. Sorry, I don't see how I could have seen part of it. "Listen, man, you have to understand, jazz is not it's just you had to be there."
That's the biggest piece of shit I've seen ever.
However, I did lke *42* -- Ford probably found his one good role since he stopped being Indy. Yeah, it wasn't a great movie -- it was like a men's......"League of Her Own"....but still, eh, whatever, if I drained a fifth in the theater on a hot summer day with some pals, probably would have been fun.
*50 Darker Grey* or whatever. Cannot be watched. At least the first five minutes cannot. I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be the good "quality picture" portion of the movie, so doubt it gets better. Don't ask why I was looking at it.
"And justice for All* -- now THAT'S a helicopter movie. None of that *Blue Thunder* bullshit. Yep. That is all. Yep. I only saw it to see where that quote "You're out of order, this whole court is out of order!" came from, but it was a good Pacino apprentice yell-acting movie. Would watch again.
*Hidden Figures* -- charismatic actors, good movie. I'm not one to be a math nerd, because I'm not (I have to work hard at it), but it seemed kind of suspicious that the main plot points, which were basically that "the gals" killed it at the blackboard, didn't seem to be anything more than trigonometry. However, I'll bet that those were the "finishing touches" on some stranger stuff (probably not much stranger than multivariate calculus), which IME, boils down to just doing algebra eventually like in high school. The women actors were much stronger than the men -- could have been stronger roles, could have been one of the men was that idiot from TV, I don't know. Space nerds will like it, but there's not a lot of space shit in it -- just space math stuff, which I addressed earlier.
Just saw "Love the Coopers", turns out it had like a 19% on Rotten Tomatoes. But when I recorded it I saw a cast that included John Goodman & Alan Arkin and figured it couldn't be too bad. So it was a little slow but it was a solidly entertaining Christmas movie. Arkin & Goodman were both excellent as always and surprisingly Diane Keaton was pretty good. Marisa Tomei was outstanding and could have used more screen time.
White Heat (1949) was on few days ago and I have to say it was as excellent as I had heard. Not surprisingly James Cagney was great but Margaret Wycherlyas his mother was also outstanding. Sadly Virginia Mayo was as bland as mayo on wonder bread but I think she only ever was good opposite Danny Kaye.
Nothing else I saw recently was anything but forgettable.
Recently seen:
The Lego Batman Movie
Good, silly fun - a very enjoyable superhero spoof with lots of clever in-jokes and shoutouts to earlier incarnations of the Caped Crusader and pop culture generally.
Ram Dass: Fierce Grace
Biographical documentary of a noted American-born guru, whose life changed irrevocably after he has a stroke. Good but not great.
Key Largo
B&W noir drama set in a decaying Florida hotel during a hurricane, as Bogie and Bacall deal with Edward G. Robinson and his gang of hoodlums hiding out there. Really enjoyed this.
Amadeus
A filmed 2016 National Theatre stage production of the famous Peter Shaffer play. Lucian Msamati plays Salieri, the antihero, with a bit more gusto than F. Murray Abraham did in the Oscar-winning 1984 movie, and the frequent presence of the musicians right on stage was an interesting feature. Recommended despite its length (3.5 hours, a bit much).
All The King's Men
A 1949 B&W political drama, loosely based on the career of the Depression-era Louisiana demagogue Huey Long. I'd read the Pulitzer-winning Robert Penn Warren book recently and loved it, but the movie was just too overblown and melodramatic for me.
I really love Key Largo, one of the all time classics. All the King's Men was interesting but not great. I enjoyed Amadeus when I saw it so many years ago but I would rate it about a 8 or 10. Pinto was not great as Mozart but F. Murray Abraham was stupendous.
I watched Pixels, this was terrible. Truly terrible Adam Sandler movie.
*L'homme qui aimait les femmes* can be recommended for those who care to inspect that aspect of character which inhabits, in part, perhaps, all men. ETA "Like some animals, women go into hibernation: for four months, they disappear, and aren't seen. The first bit of sunshine in March, as though they were given some mobilization, they throng upon the streets, in sun-dresses and high heels. Hey, life begins again, we can rediscover their bodies and discriminate two categories: the big shanks and the little apples." "Comme certains animaux, les femmes pratiquent l'hibernation. Pendant 4 mois, elles disparaissent, on les voits pas. Au premier rayon de soleil du mois de mars, comme si elles s'étaient donné le mot ou avaient reçu un ordre de mobilisation, elles surgissent dans les rues, en robes légères et talons hauts. Allons la vie recommence enfin, on peut redécouvrir leurs corps et différencier deux catégories: les grandes tiges et les petites pommes." The sound was perfectly done as well -- even through tiny speakers one can hear the movie usher's nylons rubbing against each other, just as remarked in the voice-over. No music nor dialogue or detail of sound effects, like typewriting or footsteps is out of place. It is, however, difficult to watch if one is touchy about possibly seeing certain strong resemblances between the character and one self. Me, I am not afraid, but for me it was best to watch with several intermissions. In effect it's a very intense movie, without much of a plot, so it's tiring in a way that a similar movie with dialogue distributed among several characters, as somber and low-key, perhaps, is not. The performance of Delphine, when she goes all crazy at the guy's apartment was pretty amusing, and very good. I don't know about the main guy's performance -- just kind of as neutral and blank as one could possibly do. I don't know if that's a good acting, but if so, he did fine. ETA also the moment when the older lady (what was she, like around 40, I guess) admits she prefers younger men to the hero of the story -- I don't remember the character's name nor the actress, but that was a tender obligation to the audience to provide the sort of mirror demanded by an audience, the better to see the main character. I still don't recall if "the man" had a name or not -- if so, it was just an ordinary name, much like I think Truffaut intended the man to be a sort of exaggeration or parody of the sensual side of life. Just some dude. No, the man's name is not important, but it is only through the responses of women that we understand him. I think more probably I just can't remember.
I believe I've seen most of Chabrol's movies by now. I think he's a maniac, without self-restraint, and with an extremely sinister view of the world, completely empty of charitable responses or essences. Highly entertaining, I can say for the great many of his movies, but there is the idea that you must be enjoy watching a pervert at work.
I suppose that if, for example, beginning with his movies of the late 1970s, these were to have been dubbed in English, they would have been very successful among the francophobic American (and non-Québécois Canadian) movie-goers, since these movies are similar to the perversions made in Hollywood. There are subtitles, but the distribution is poor in the US, and nobody wants to read a movie. This you may contrast to Melville's movies, which, despite being sometimes similar to having an American theme of gangster, I don't believe would be enjoyed broadly by the American public. Nor would Chabrol's movies up to the point of, say, *Violette nozière*, which up until then, were magnificently bleak, empty comic ironies that I don't think any regular person would enjoy.
Mann's *The Black Book/Reign of Terror* -- first or second time I saw it I was looking at Alton's photography. I heard the dialogue this time. It is the worst -- it sounds like something a teenager or twenty-something imagining how adults speak wrote. The movie, however, I stress, can be watched. Maybe a student of the Jacobins would be irritated by something, as literal-minded people sometimes are, but I think normal people can admit it's just a story. I stress again, with dialogue written by a child who does not understand how English is spoken, however amusing the correspondance with the rise of Tail Gunner Joe in the United States at around the time.
I also would recommend the production of Beckett's *Endgame* with David Thewlis as Clov -- I believe it was a television production, maybe on the BBC. I don't believe it was at all faithful to the stage directions, but it was not outrageous. I do not have any records of different productions, so perhaps for those who know the play, it can be watched, but perhaps the comparatively lush settings will perturb some, although the performances I believe to be succinct and direct.
I also watched again *On the Waterfront*, and found myself more interested in Malden's performance than previously. I suppose Malden was OK, but the character had some mediocre dialogue and the direction of Kazan seemed heavy-handed and stagey.
*The Last Temptation of Christ*. I challenge someone to watch this very strange movie without hearing Harvey Keitel's voice as "Winston Wolf" from *Pulp Fiction*. In my opinion, that's a feature, not a bug. I hate to say it, but he's probably not all that good an actor, although I liked his Judas and he seemed sincere. I was shocked to learn of a bombing in Paris theater at the time of the movie's release -- not exactly surprised, given that the French are kind of known for going apeshit in general about various things, and aren't exactly pillars of moderation or religious tolerance. IMHO, of course, but I think that's basically a correct description. Willem Dafoe was a big surprise -- I think he's kind of a strange actor, known best by me for doing pretty odd roles in movies I don't like, but I liked his Christ very much. He should have got an award. I wouldn't have recognized Barabara Hershey, but she nailed it as well. Oh, hey, that pun was actually not intended, but I take full credit for it anyway!
*The Passion of the Christ* -- not what I was expecting. I'm not sure what I was expecting -- probably George Lucas-style caricatures of hook-nosed Jews -- but it was a pretty good movie. Maybe I'm desensitized to violence, as a fan of action movies and gangster and car-chase movies and Westerns, but I didn't find it unduly bloody or sensationalistic. Also, while they used Greek and Latin and what I suppose was Aramaic (street Hebrew?), it was not such an ordeal, and in fact I thought it was kind of neat -- I think you can kind of get the gist of what's being said anyway, if you know the story, and don't want to stare at the subtitles so much. So, in my opinion, they struck a nice balance between having a bunch of boring subtitles and having some of the old languages for flavor -- I didn't really notice the subtitles too much, whereas I usually am very irritated by them. The guy who played Pontius Pilate was very effective -- I dont think I've seen him in anything else. I'm sure people would argue about this and that bits of accuracy, but I don't know anything about bible times except through some of the Roman poets and orators, so it doesn't matter to me. It did inspire me to drag down the Vulgate New Testament and look through Luke, but I was pretty drunk at the time and just thought, "hey, this *is* a pretty neat translation, the RCC should get their shit together and start using it more." My Greek basically doesn't exist in any real sense, so it's not like I'm judging the translation, it just is a very welcome change from those who are used to Latin prose being very....elaborate and Ciceronian and basically a PITA to read. Nah, the Vulgate's great -- very simple and direct. Oh, I didn't really care for Caviezel's Christ -- something about the way he was played kind of makes you want to punch him in the face -- I'm not agitating for a "macho Jesus," to the extent that I care about historical representations, which is not at all, just my opinion. The head Jew was very effective, I thought, though. And Pilate's wife had some good scenes -- I think she got in a good cry. Not Alicia Vikander-good, not that good at crying, but pretty good. Also, I'm not a Mel Gibson h8r -- *Blood Father* was an OK movie, and unless I'm missing something, I think he just got wasted and mouthed off to some cops about Jews and some kind of crazy conspiracy theory. Not admirable, but, hey, like, glass houses and stones and whatever.
Excellent double-feature, if you're in the mood for a shitload of Christ. Or, in my case, you've had fifteen beers and are kind of bored.
Oh, here's another one in the same genre, I guess: the 2003 version of John Osborne's play *Luther*. The guy who played Luther was just great, actually, everyone was. I haven't seen the big movie version with Keach, but being familiar with the play, and having had another look at it recently, I think it's incredible that anyone could have created a screenplay from the play -- it's not very evident to me how it could have been done successfully, but I give thumbs up. It's been a long time since I've seen or read *A Man For All Seasons*, so perhaps the same could be said for that, but I'm not sure. I should watch that again -- Scofield and Shaw, that's a couple of actors for you, I tell you what.
ETA, I just noticed in rewatching *Rosemary's Baby* that it's mentioned a few times that John Cassavetes' character played Luther on stage in NYC. Don't know what to make of that. I don't know why I was watching that again -- I think I was thinking, "hey maybe those Puritan asshole bitches will shut up now that they can attempt to punish the alleged violent criminal Polanski."
And also, somewhat to redeem my latest assessment of Malden's acting, I don't recall if I've seen Hitchcock's *I Confess* before -- I must have, but I didnt remember any of it. Monty Clift is doing his usual slightly over-the-top intense glaring at the camera, but Karl Malden plays the role of an abominable police detective. I think the movie is set in Quebec -- probably by convenience to explain the prominence of the role of the Church in the movie. Not very shocking that a police detective is not sympathetic in a Hitchcock movie, but the extent to which Malden's character is basically Satanic in motivation and zeal is kind of odd. In fact, none of the characters are sympathetic at all -- I guess Clift's character doesn't break the seal of the confessional, and he behaves honestly, but not admirably throughout the movie. This is very far from Robert Bresson's world of serious clergy with serious problems. Recommended for people who are curious about how Hitchcock dealt with his own Catholic denomination -- I get the feeling he didn't really care much more about the local parish clergy than the local police, but given that he seems to have absolutely despised the police, that is saying something. What a strange little fat man.
*The Entity* is a pretty exciting little thriller. I admit, the thought of a young Barabara Hershey in a ghost porno getting molested sounded pleasant, but I find it was not very titillating. Instead, it was just a good fright movie.
*Boxcar Bertha* OTOH, was mildly...ahem...amusing, except for the parts when that sex maniac drug fiend choking enthusiast had to be in the movie. I went through a Scorsese phase as a young teenager, and this was one of the ones I couldn't find. Now, I want to see *Who's That Knocking* again, and all I have is a pirated VHS tape in a corner of my "bad books/old things/clothes/mattresses" room which normal people call a "bedroom." And a small note on the corner of one of many slips of paper reminding me to look it up on youtube.
*Silence*. If you liked *Bridge on the River Kwai*, but thought it was too short and the characters too sympathetic, you'd probably like this.
*Jazz on a Summer's Night* -- the famous concert at....Monterey I guess. I've always loved -- LOVED -- Anita O'Day's performance of "Sweet Georgia Brown," so much that that's the only way I play that tune. Surprisingly, when I'm just at home screwing around drunk at the keyboard, I sometimes play that, because I think it's hilarious. No, no, the whole concert included amazing stuff I've never seen. Louis and Teagarden doing ... of course ... "Rocking Chair" (for non-jazz people, that was one of their famous ones). Everybody, man. Just great. The crowd shots alone are a wild trip. I now recognize two great concert movies -- *The Last Waltz* and this one.
Here's a good little trivia tidbit about the amazing Allison Hayes. Sorry, no link right now, but people who, like me, have seen her in *The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman* (I may have spelled that incorrectly, but you get the idea) and were disappointed, having already explored her softer side in classics like *The Undead*, as well as people who are unlike me, I guess, will be interested to note that she was an accomplished "classical pianist" and taught "classical piano" for four years before becoming a titled beauty queen. Oh, you really should look up her Wikipedia page -- her death was untimely and she sort of had a sad life, it seems. I don't know anything about lead poisoning, or cancer, except that they're bad.
Oh, right, so here's a review of *The 50 Foot Woman* or whatever it's called. Allison Hayes is not actually in the movie that much, except for a few minutes as a very unappealing, far-too-large woman (apparently this confirms my experience so far that I find women who are tall are not especially appealing to me, but does not disconfirm my suspicion that short women are OK, perhaps within some limits, were they didn't got no reason to .... never mind, trust me, you're fine, short ladies, I've never done the "I will put it in my pocket and keep it and name it Georgette" and then sit on you by mistake) and some hysterical shrieking. And, from recollection when I looked her up, Yvette Vicker(s?) is of no relation to the fah-bu-luss Martha Vickers from *The Big Sleep*, and she's not very good in the movie.
So, not a very remarkable movie, but I suppose everyone has to sit through it once.
But the take-away-point is that I heard somewhere that Allison Hayes was a professional musician playing legit music of some kind, and I doubt there are any recordings available, which is too bad, because that would be neat. There's a really pretty stacked 19-year-old on youtube somewhere playing Khatchaturian's Toccata onstage, though, but I can't remember her name.
Don't ask where I find my information, it just comes to me.
The film version of ... *Man For All Seasons* holds up very well. Nice lady that Susannah York. Yeah, it holds up.
And, IMHO, *The Big Sleep* and *Treasure of Sierra Madre* stand up pretty good too.
At least I thought so yesterday, and I was in correct disposition, so I'll stand by my choices.
The film version of ... *Man For All Seasons* holds up very well. Nice lady that Susannah York. Yeah, it holds up.
And, IMHO, *The Big Sleep* and *Treasure of Sierra Madre* stand up pretty good too.
At least I thought so yesterday, and I was in correct disposition, so I'll stand by my choices.
Truffaut, casting triomph with the girl in *The green room*
Oh, I see now -- I had never seen *The Green Room* before but not only am I very familiar with James, but somewhat less so with his shorter fiction, except for "The Beast," and a few others; in fact I was reading it a bit a few mornings ago, just to see if I could remember how the English language could have been perturbed by a severe conscience, and, I am delighted that the grey-eyed, slender pixie of a woman matches my imagination of the character in the book.
Henry James is a fucking pervert. Au moins the text in the movie is indsicreet. However, it features the best auction scene in a movie, and perhaps in all media, maybe next to (I can't remember if it's Billy G or Dusty who does it) the ZZ Top "mad auctioneer" part to that one song.
Oh, two things: Truffaut is like Tarantino, he should not be allowed to act in his own movies. Also, here is what is weird, I was watching with the subtitles and they were not done correctly, even in French language when one can clearly hear everything (this is a very well-mixed movie, sonically, like those of Chabrol), so I wonder what idiot said "eh, OK, thumbs up, you just put this writing stuff on it and it's close enough."
In truth, it is an incompetently edited movie, and Truffaut, near his death-bed, had ample opportunities to assess his ridiculously vile performance as an actor. Also, the music is terrible. I place all of the blame for this good movie on the editor, the music supervisor (NOT the sound mixer, who was excellent), and the producer, finally. The girl was enchanting, and it appears they shot enough feet of crap to make a goose feel right at home. And the text, while incoherent, draws on the power of one of the small handful of great novelists who worked in the English language. Well, there are plenty of astonishing American novels, but only a few really worthwhile ones from the British, sorry to say. Just my opinion, but I happen to be right. :)
Yeah, if more than a few people stood my presence IRL, this would be a good camp movie for a party.
Truffaut, casting triomph with the girl in *The green room*
Oh, I see now -- I had never seen *The Green Room* before but not only am I very familiar with James, but somewhat less so with his shorter fiction, except for "The Beast," and a few others; in fact I was reading it a bit a few mornings ago, just to see if I could remember how the English language could have been perturbed by a severe conscience, and, I am delighted that the grey-eyed, slender pixie of a woman matches my imagination of the character in the book.
Henry James is a fucking pervert. Au moins the text in the movie is indsicreet. However, it features the best auction scene in a movie, and perhaps in all media, maybe next to (I can't remember if it's Billy G or Dusty who does it) the ZZ Top "mad auctioneer" part to that one song.
Oh, two things: Truffaut is like Tarantino, he should not be allowed to act in his own movies. Also, here is what is weird, I was watching with the subtitles and they were not done correctly, even in French language when one can clearly hear everything (this is a very well-mixed movie, sonically, like those of Chabrol), so I wonder what idiot said "eh, OK, thumbs up, you just put this writing stuff on it and it's close enough."
In truth, it is an incompetently edited movie, and Truffaut, near his death-bed, had ample opportunities to assess his ridiculously vile performance as an actor. Also, the music is terrible. I place all of the blame for this good movie on the editor, the music supervisor (NOT the sound mixer, who was excellent), and the producer, finally. The girl was enchanting, and it appears they shot enough feet of crap to make a goose feel right at home. And the text, while incoherent, draws on the power of one of the small handful of great novelists who worked in the English language. Well, there are plenty of astonishing American novels, but only a few really unqualified masterpieces ones from the British, sorry to say. Just my opinion, but I happen to be right. :)
Yeah, if more than a few people stood my presence IRL, this would be a good camp movie for a party.
People who are as big a fan of *Jackie Brown* as me might enjoy Joe Sample doing his tune "Street Life," of which, of course was big in the movie: Joe Sample alone at a piano doing "Street Life"
The 1981 Burt Reynolds movie Sharky's Machine also opens with a version of "Street Life": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWG9ROB_2Zk
My most recent five:
The Lion in Winter
Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn chew French castle scenery with great gusto in this medieval costume drama, playing a wily King Henry II and his fierce, long-imprisoned wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Watch for a very young Anthony Hopkins as their son Richard (the future Lionheart).
A Farewell to Arms
Having just read the Hemingway novel, I thought I'd check out the 1932 movie. Meh. Not nearly as good as the book.
Their Finest
Funny, touching comedy-drama about British filmmakers in WWII trying to keep up morale on the home front, making movies on a shoestring while being intermittently bombed by the Luftwaffe. The lovely Gemma Arterton is very good as an aspiring screenwriter. Bill Nighy, playing a past-his-prime actor reaching for one last bit of cinematic glory, steals every scene he's in (as is his wont).
King Kong
Watched the 1976 remake, which is still good, cheesy fun. Charles Grodin stands out as the ambitious, heartless corporate stooge.
King Kong
Also watched the 2005 Peter Jackson remake. Much better sfx, and the cast led by Naomi Watts and Jack Black certainly does its best, but the movie feels overstuffed and just too long.
I did see the clip from *Sharky's* -- I confess I about puked hearing that alto sax solo.
That is quite a sound that is uniquely 1980s.
*Blood Feast* is a ridiculously bad movie. As is *Piranha*. Both very cheesy fun. *Black Christmas* with the ... stimulating ... Olivia Hussey is just a fun movie as well, but it's actually kind of good. Margot Kidder is funny, and I think this is the only movie besides 2001 I've seen Keir Dullea in. An exceptional fright movie -- and, I can't be sure, but the "laughing detective" might have inspired Lynch's oddly giggling sheriff in the movie *Twin Peaks*. Wouldn't surprise me.
Speaking of people who were in Kubrick movies, I finally got around to seeing *Hardcore*, which features George C. Scott. Meh, it has some famous lines, but this may make me a bad person, but I don't esteem Paul Schrader very highly. Even his book on transcendence in cinema reads like it was written by a guy with shit for brains. But, the movie was produced by John Milius, who rates high in my book, so maybe that's why this was an OK movie.
And speaking of George C. Scott, I did see a while ago an excellent ghost movie featuring him, called.........I think *The Changeling*. Probably the single most amiable and relatable character in a ghost story -- usually the people being terrorized are kind of unsympathetic. Olivia Hussey's character as above is similar, come to think of it -- she played a nice, regular girl, very rational and likeable. Oh, and George C. gives an amusing little speech explaining some kind of Calvinist sect to his hooker sidekick -- I like theology, but not enough to study any of it on purpose, except for as it relates to my practice.
Finally got around to seeing a sort of companion piece to the charming *The Umbrellas of Cherbourg*. I can't really stand the famous big Hollywood musicals from the late 1940s and 1950s, but I like these -- extremely eccentric movies, but with an alarmingly sunny, bright disposition. The other musicals I like are from the 1930s, the Lubitsch ones and the Gold Diggers series, and things like *Footlight Parade* and stuff like that, but I can't make a real comparison between these, out of basic ignorance of the "genre."
Really silly movie, but just so odd -- not quite Lynchian, but for the sense that it presents a straight reality slightly perturbed and ironic. I suppose there is am insight into how the Gauls view humor and charm in general, very light and almost frivolous, but not something you find reflected very often in French cinema, for some reason, except maybe for the Jacques Tati movies, which are nothing if not absurdist and almost deranged. I suppose there is a general cultural emphasis on the tragedy as a general, from Racine and Corneille, that has deep roots, pun intended ("racine" is, just like in English, just a word for roots, sort of).
And one of the few movies for which I found French-language subtitles. It kind of makes me a little crazy to translate between English and French, my brain can only do one or the other, not both at once -- it's basically hard for me to do literal translations, although I'm good at just giving the gist of what's said in English, which I think is the best way to do it, and while the songs have simple lyrics, very well enunciated, I don't listen to French popular music enough to make it very natural to always understand just by listening. I'm not ashamed to admit I need to look at the libretti for operas as well, but I'm not generally that interested in the lyrics or even the plot of operas. Even in movies, I'm not that interested in the words except for being on the lookout for strange lines to populate my little mind, or interesting regional accents, or some kinds of strange gangster slang from older films, which is always fun, although probably kind of corny to a modern speaker.
Quite a cast, too. Although I missed not seeing Anne Vernon from *Cherbourg* again -- she was a nice little discovery for me, and while I admire Deneuve, as an actress, she did so many movies that she might be a little over-exposed. The lip-syncing was really well done -- if it hadn't been for wikipedia, I might not have noticed, except for common-sense that that kind of singing probably couldn't be done with so much movement of the bodies. The dance numbers could have done without -- I'm sure it was technically proficient, I'm just not interested in seeing that.
My most recent five:
Nixon
Overlong Oliver Stone-directed biopic of the scandal-ridden President. Anthony Hopkins and Joan Allen are pretty good as Dick and Pat, but James Woods is especially on the mark as H.R. Haldeman. Nice use of newsreel footage, shakycam, and B&W scenes for flashbacks.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Saw the 2011 American remake again. A great cast and a great script, set against a chilly Swedish winter backdrop. One of my favorite recent thrillers.
Deconstructing the Beatles: Revolver
A very entertaining, interesting film of one of historian, musicologist and Beatles expert Scott Freiman's well-researched multimedia lectures. Definitely worth a look for any Beatles fan.
Deconstructing the Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's
Ditto, on the group's game-changing 1967 album.
The Hunt for Red October
Despite Sean Connery's bizarre Scots-Russian accent, still a fun, exciting Cold War naval technothriller.
I did happen to find some odd movie called *Action Jackson* -- I was looking for the.....was it Carl Weathers? "original" -- but this was from about 2014, and was from some part of India. I couldn't really follow much of it, but it was sort of funny, like a spy comedy.
Oh, I think on the same evening I popped back in Sha Po Lang (I still can't remember the American.......SPL: Kill Zone, or something like that). Absolutely brutal fight scenes, with huge mega-stars like Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung. No, still can't understand anything about it, but it is as amusing to me as when it came out.
do o suspecy my pipe tobacco had crack in ithe young girls. Of rochefort is a vile and disgus5ing movie. It is a horror. And the lipsynching was awful. This is is prisoner of war torture. An abomination
Finally a positive. Remember whatever stoner jackass found out Dark Side of the Moon and the Wizard of Oz sort of worked out?
Well here's mine. Play sound off Une femme est une femme, and also, within picture, play The Exorcist. It is trippy as hell weird.
Take the Pink Floyd/Oz connection with a pound or two of salt: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...izard-of-oz-em
My latest five movies:
The Abyss
Enjoyed this 1989 James Cameron sf first-contact adventure all over again. Great cast, interesting story and remarkable undersea scenes.
The Age of Adaline
A charming sf romance about a woman who doesn't age for decades after being zapped by lightning. Harrison Ford plays a former lover of hers (and the guy who plays a young Harrison Ford is uncannily on the mark).
Deconstructing the Beatles: Rubber Soul
Another well-done Scott Freiman album documentary, although some of the songs get short shrift.
Obit
Very interesting documentary on the NYT obituary staff, striving to write worthy profiles of their recently-deceased subjects on tight deadlines (ahem).
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Pretty good Harry Potter prequel, set in NYC in the Roaring Twenties, as British magical-animal wrangler and protector Newt Scamander tracks down several escaped critters and finds his true love along the way.
Baloney sausage on that DSotM -- it really is super trippy. I don't care if it's a coincidence or suggestion of semantic ordering. I think, but do not know, that you have to be under the influence of OTC cold and flu medication to really appreciate it, though.
*The Abyss*. Well, it had Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in it, and Ed Harris. They were good. Always are, in fact.
I think I fell asleep/passed out first time I watched *House of Wax* -- it is a fun little movie. Not anywhere near as good as the Poe/Corman "cycle" with Vincent Price, but it's a start. I liked it better than *Avatar*, speaking of 3D movies, and more than *Jaws 3D* as well.
*altered States* Cute little sciFi mystery movie. Lighthearted, not dingy and immoral like todays ones.
*The Cardinal* crammed full of social isaues, unlike preminger's usual one per flick. Didnt recognize Burgess Meredith.
*altered States* Cute little sciFi mystery movie. Lighthearted, not dingy and immoral like todays ones.
*The Cardinal* crammed full of social isaues, unlike preminger's usual one per flick. Didnt recognize Burgess Meredith.
I made it through about 1/2 of "Rogue One", what a crappy boring mess of a movie. We were all watching it and one by one my family starting playing with their phones instead. I asked if anyone wanted to continue and it was 4-0 for no and never. Bad writing, worse directing, terrible sound, only for special effects, and honestly weird to bad acting.
I enjoyed Dunkirk. Not a great movie but very well done I thought. On the Longest Day down to Pearl Harbor Scale I would say a solid 7 or maybe an 8.
My latest five:
The Black Hole
For some reason I decided I wanted to see this Disney sf film again - it had been awhile. So-so cast, laughable science, great score, and decent sfx for the time.
Jodorowsky's Dune
Documentary about the trippy, never-made Seventies movie adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. Tentative casting including Salvador Dali as the Emperor, David Carradine as Duke Leto, Mick Jagger as Feyd-Rautha and Orson Welles as Baron Harkonnen. The slightly-mad director could never satisfy the Hollywood suits that he could control either costs or the running time of the movie (at one point he said it might be 10 hours long!), so the project imploded, but still had an impact on a number of later sf films.
Where Eagles Dare
Saw this fun, ultraviolent, wildly over-the-top WWII adventure for the first time. Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood play the British and American leaders of a commando squad trying to rescue a captured U.S. general from a wintry Nazi mountaintop castle. Lots of gunplay, chases and 'splosions.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Still the best Terminator movie, I think. Great cast, near-nonstop action, an important message, remarkable cinematography and sfx, and one of the cleverest, scariest movie villains ever.
Dunkirk
Liked but didn't love this WWII drama about the evacuation of British troops from the French beaches. Surprised by all the rapturous gushing it's getting from movie reviewers; not sure it would even make my own Top Ten War Movie list. There's a very implausible scene at the end; you'll know it when you see it.
Just watching again, in the background: The power of comedy.
Yeah, the main actors are obviously famous, and justly, big-name creatures.
Maybe it's just my copy, but the subtitles are, if not wrong in this case, poorly placed and timed.
I prefer the mainstream European standard, established in th 1930s and held to up to now, which is that one dubs.
If one is sure that Isabelle Huppert's voice is the one heard on the soundtrack, I suppose one is generally ignorant of the prevailing standards of European cinema. It's just not the way one is used to. Huppert is a compelling actress, but her voice is not irreplaceable.
I don't know, it's just a fact.
Vide the....which I saw again about a month ago.......*Day for Night*.
Yeah, so fuck you, hippies.
Never saw either of those, actually.
My latest five:
Into the Night
So-so 1985 crime comedy with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jeff Goldblum. The best thing about the movie is the featured B.B. King song of the same name.
Room Service
Marx Brothers comedy about a theatrical troupe overstaying its welcome at a swanky hotel. Pretty funny. Look for a very young Lucille Ball in an early role.
Interstellar
Rewatched this Christopher Nolan sf epic and enjoyed it all over again. Great cast, interesting story, mind-binding science, very impressive sfx and an uplifting message.
The Bridge Over the River Kwai
Heavily-fictionalized WWII drama about the building of a Japanese military bridge by British POWs. Alec Guinness definitely earned his Oscar as the stubborn, principled British commander who tragically loses sight of his true duty.
Terminator Genisys
The latest installment in the franchise; a virtual reboot via alternate timeline. Worth a look despite mixed reviews, I'd say. Ahnuld is Ahnuld, of course, a little long in the tooth but still game, and Emilia Clarke (best known as the Khaleesi in Game of Thrones) does pretty well as a feisty Sarah Connor. Didn't care much for a major plot element (see below), but there are some impressive action sequences and good character moments.
Spoiler (mouseover to read):
John Connor is turned into a villainous robot by Skynet using nanotechnology.
Meh, I watched a few minutes of *Rogue One*. I don't see what you people are complaining about. It looks to me like playing a game of King's Quest, and having plenty of time to jerk off or grab your pretend girlfriend's tit or downtown, or whatever. Grab a 2-liter of Mountain Dew and a slice of pizza your mom left out for you, and talk about how your friend's older brother said he wanted to prong his girlfriend, and he was in like sixth grade, even. That kind of thing -- hard to apply "adult" standards to it.
Meh, seems about right. Hell no, I'm not going to finish watching that: it looks like some shitty moron eight year old got some fake crayolas and drew some crap all over mommy's "business" computer.
But, it's still better than *ET* or some of the crap we had growing up.
But, here is a good recommendation: a nice little home-spun documentary about the musician Phineas Newborn, Jr. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vKrh-QIrP4. I have belief that youtube hosts it legally, or else they wouldn't.
When I was a young teenager learning off the records, Phineas kind of put me off because he sounded a little TOO good. I wanted the rough and regular, the stuff I heard people playing in person, and on some records. Now when I came back to trying to playing scales in thirds and sixths Phineas impresses me more, just because was able to do what I'd want the technique to do, but combine with the freedom of Bill.
No, I transcribed his "blues for the left hand" off the video, and also "the sermon" for the LH off the record in the past year, but I still can't make it sound as good as his. The Brahms-Bach Chaconne for LH looks easy in comparison.
After noticing the Rifftrax boys have up a commentary for *Rogue One*, I gave it another shot. I stand by my earlier statement that it's pretty dire going in cold, but even if the jokes are kind of mediocre (RiffTrax sets a high bar for jokes, but they can't all be hilarious every time) it makes the movie kind of amusing, sort of watching it from a distance.
Mind you, I didn't have any idea what was going on, who anybody was, or anything, but I can see why the movie got some buzz, beyond it being ZOMG STAR WAR. I don't read movie reviews, after a traumatic experience reading James Agee's collection years ago, so I don't know how it was generally received, but I would bet that it did right by its audience, whoever that might be.
So call it polishing a turd, or adding value, or whatever, but the RiffTrax makes the movie kind of amusing (which isn't always the case -- some of the big-budget movies, like *Glitter* and others are just so awful nur noch ein Gott kann uns retten.
Movie question: is that strange dance scene in *La Notte* for real? To refresh your memory, it's this scene where Giovanni (that guy whose name I probably spell wrong) and Lidia (Jeanne Moreau) are taking in the floor show at some bar, which consists of a dancer who performs an extended scene based around manipulating a glass of liquid balanced on her forehead, between legs, etc.
I find it unbelievable, however it may be a trick of some kind. Therefore I require to know if it is to be considered a part of regular dancing or is an illusion.
And for those who were curious about the 1959 film version of *Dangerous Liaisons* and never got around to seeing it.
Sorry, just my opinion, but it sucks dong. It shouldn't because it has that perennial sad sack Jeanne Moreau in it, looking practical as ever, and some good Th Monk soundtrack.
No, this is yet another example of why straight squares don't like French movies.
It's not unwatchable, but it is also trivial, self-satisfied, pretentious as fuck, slow, dour, and it looks like a college girl photographed it to please her Eurotrash boyfriend.
Not recommended.
It has come to my attention that the 25 year old lady wearing the fright wig playing a high school student named Mary Jane or whatever in 2002's *Spider-Man* is hot as balls.
And it is only at night that the elusive red snapper emerges from the briny depths to greet the select few. Or daytime, really. Or, whenever.
*Jaws 2* is pretty bad movie. I think *Jaws 3D* had more heart. I don't know much about Roy Scheider, but it seems he really internalized the macho, leather-faced guy. Not very sympathetic. Funny thing is, I recalled seeing it before, but couldn't be sure. Also, the child/teenage actors are an undifferentiated blob of suckitude. And what happened to Lorraine Garry (sp?) and Murray Hamilton they seemed to have aged hard in only a few years since the original *Jaws*. Weird.
Michael Caine, asked how he could appear in such a sucky sequel, said something like, "I have never seen Jaws: The Revenge. I have seen the porch on my house that it paid for, though, and it is magnificent."
I'm sure Ian Holm was thinking about "house on Lake Como" plenty of times too. Sort of the actor's equivalent of "lie back and thinking of England," I guess.
Still doesn't explain what Harrison Ford was thinking while doing *Firewall*, except for maybe giving voice to his daily complaint "ehh, grumble grumble, I had that damned password somewhere, meh, computers."
Speaking of Caine, *Interstellar* turned out to be a very mysterious little movie. I don't remember seeing it before, but if I had, I'd forgotten it. I didn't know Anne Hathaway was a real actress -- nor Matthew McConaughey (sp?),whom I just knew as Wooderson from *Dazed and Confused*. Two very credible performances. I can't swear I know what exactly happened, but that's OK,
Agreed. They're both very good in Interstellar.
My latest five:
There's Something About Mary
Saw this grossout romantic comedy again for the first time since it came out. Weird, raunchy and very funny, just as I remembered.
Blade Runner
Rewatched this sf detective-noir classic so it'd be fresh on my mind when I see the sequel this fall. A flawed cop (Harrison Ford at his best), a beautiful woman with a tragic secret (Sean Young, lovely), and a dark, dangerous city stretching out to the horizon. Still holds up very well.
Tomorrowland
Didn't do well at the box office, but I enjoyed it. George Clooney is quite good in a clever, big-hearted sf adventure that dares us to dream again.
La La Land
Now I understand what all the fuss was about! I'm not much into musicals, but thought this exuberant love letter to L.A. was a lot of fun. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are great as the romantic leads, and J.K. Simmons steals every scene he's in as a grumpy restaurateur. Highly recommended.
The Martian
Rewatched this sf adventure of an American astronaut (Matt Damon) stranded on Mars. Man against nature at its purest, with knockout cinematography and some good laughs along the way.
I'm sorry, true believers, but *Operation Dunkirk* is not happening for me. I like Nolan's movies, in general, probably the same as everyone else, but it's kind of making my head explode, since I also like war movies, and it's so different from the genre (admitting that among war pictures, there's an awful lot of variety, but also some conventions, even among mavericks like Sammy Fuller, and, of course, Coppola, but he's a true oddball), it's just confusing to me.
I do appreciate its reasonable length -- any movie over two hours long had better have a damned good reason beyond business accounting methods, however that works. I also appreciate not using the big name stars -- I don't need to see George Clooney or Brad Pitt or one of the fungible younger generation of white people to enjoy a movie, and I find it distracting, even though some of those people do good work and I have nothing against them.
ETA there are some cool visual effects, though. I think I might be a simpleton re plot -- hell, I'm ashamed to say I can't understand James's *The Princess Cassamassima*, or however it's spelled, and I still want to find something in there, but it confuses and frightens me.
Wow. Am hitting on zero cylinders.
On the one hand, I'm not wrong in thinking the new *Wonder Woman* is some idiotic Galaxy World Quest spoof, made entirely to make fun of morons.
On the other hand, it's probably true that the technically-gifted among the young should probably be mercy-killed.
After all, it's never been the case, in all of human history, that younger people, except for some technical specialists, and perhaps in poetry and music, have ever accomplished anything. And yet, it seems, they are acquiring capital.
Since it obviously is not cultural capital of any valuable sort, we have some problems, people.
And, yes, what I've said is correct -- there have been some prodigies in music, and some technical specialities like geometry, arithmetic, and, even within the discipline of philosophy, relatively immune to prodigies, save Hume, the field of logic.
And, yes, logic is, just like mathematics, one of the liberal arts. That's not possible to debate. Maths and logic, while distinct disciplines, are known exclusively to liberal arts majors -- the applications of mathematics are known to engineers and other technical specialists. Logic is not generally known to mathematicians, nor to scientific specialists in general, except those engineers who work in applied logic.
No immature person has written a good novel, nor composed anything enduring, nor discovered any fact of humanity. With few exceptions.
But, apparently, it is the child's time to pretend to make little sketches like a *Wonder Woman*.
I am very proud of myself for not going Travis Bickle on my computer screen and making it through Paranormal. Very unpleasant, unrewarding.
I have also terminated my old affection for Claire Danes on seeing Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, because I find her nose to be, while not beakish, flat and large like that not unknown to some of the people my steamer's crew and I encountered in the depths. I have question why is the Terminatrix lady not in more movies, but it may be she is not a very good actress.
*Blood Sucking Freaks* is a masterpiece, and it was an excellent companion while I was, appropriately enough, data munging some text files.
I also revise my opinion of (the first half of) *Wonder Woman* -- it got a few half-smiles out of me, and I say it's a cute little comedy/action movie, which is nice.
Well, it seems Rotten Tomatoes "0%" rating is not that good. I knew that *Gator* wasn't worth that low a rating. And now I'm surprised that *Silence of the Hams* gets the same 0% as *Alien from L.A.* and other trash.
It's not that bad. The Wikipedia people should stop "citing" that "source" of "information." It only encourages them.
Yes, I won't harp on music movies too much, least of all Glenn Gould stuff -- I'm not one of his super-fans, but still, one has to pay attention.
I call attention to an interesting part in the Monsaingeon film, for Canada TV or whatever, called in English *Alchemist*. In Pt.II, but from the beginning, about 52 minutes in, with Gould, the engineer, and the tapeop in the booth, marking out at which point Gould should go back and re-record a tiny segment WITH HIM LIFTING UP SLIGHTLY LESS ON THE UNA CORDA PEDAL.
For those who don't know piano, or even those who do, that's a ridiculously small detail.
Impressive.
Also, propers to the poor tapeop who seems confused by asking to rewind "about six bars," and yet he handles it like a pro.
/*ETA************
I should clarify I noticed just after, at about 56m40s GG starts in with one of my favorites I'm still trying to figure out how to best play it -- from the A maj Engl Ste. I forgot about this bit, but I found it refreshing to see GG trying the A section of the bourée in multiple ways. I finally have all of that in my mind, but I'm still not happy with the "best way" to do it.
Well, good I watched this again -- I don't recall Gould's recording, although I have it somewhere.
That is all.
*/
Nice insight into how the sausage is made.
Oh, about the docu as a whole -- it's the best of the several films about Gould made. It's all interesting, somewhat, but there's not very much music in most of them, just odd personality stuff, whereas this one is more just "bang, microphone, bar 37 of the Bourée from Engl. Ste. in A maj, play it back." More for people who don't even care about Gould much, but just like music and behind-the-scenes.
My latest five:
Bridge of Spies
Tom Hanks is very good as the lawyer for a Soviet spy and the negotiator for release of an American pilot during the Cold War. Great European location shooting, especially in Berlin.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Saw this comedy classic again - just as hilariously good as ever, and filled with quotable lines. Ni! Ni!
Concussion
Will Smith plays an African-born Pittsburgh coroner who figures out that retired Steelers have been brain-damaged by repeated head trauma during their careers. He faces off against the NFL, which wants nothing to do with his research. Your average David vs. Goliath movie, all in all.
The Campaign
Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis square off against each other for a Congressional seat in this over-the-top political comedy. Not as funny as it could be, but worth a look.
Battleground
A so-so B&W movie about tired, bored, scared, dirty GIs enduring the Battle of the Bulge during WWII.
*Fitzcarraldo* is a movie that is guaranteed to be extremely ennervating, especially if you are like me and have never heard such gems as Verdi's take on Hugo's *Hernani*, and never wish to again.
However, I guess it's some kind of a movie. Kind of peculiar, but that's show business. ETA however, Claudia Cardinale is superb -- I'm impressed at her comparative longevity and versatility (?) as an actress, but then again, she started with above average aptitude, I suppose.
Oh, I guess I should add this remark about James Foley, whoever the fuck that is, 's *Glengarry Glenn Ross*. I was vaguely thinking about going for Halloween as Alan Arkin, I don't know, generic Arkin ca. *Catch 22* or something. I didn't think it through.
However, I didn't know that son of a bitch could really act. I know all about Ed Harris, but the scenes between the two of them, even with that Middle Eastern writer Mamet's "quirky" dialogue getting in the way, yeah, Arkin is good.
Well, I'm not sure. He is still Arkin, but I enjoyed his little bit, especially around 45 minutes in or so.
He works within his limitations.
ETA not relevant, but it's been a while since i saw *GgGR* last -- it's kind of a nice reminder of how a man should talk to the cops. "You, sir, officer, I need you to sit down and wait one second, and I'll be with you when I'm ready."
EETA but it reminds me I'm very much not sorry to see "saxophone 'jazz'" of the 1980s and 1990s to be gone, I hope. That is fucking awful music, and Pat Metheny is even more than 1000% right to tear into that enemy, spill their guts. Awful music.
*Blade Runner 2049*. Certified fresh, yeah, good job. I think the producers calculated that people these days like their intricate little plots, and so ordered up some Game of New Orange Black Cards. It's not Ariosto, but I'm sure this will find its niche and be a popular movie.
*Wrecker* from 2015. A good anti-car-culture (at least some latent criticism of the airhead "I can haz automobile works? Yay! Halp, road scary! Car no workee!" idea) movie.
I think the producer(s) would disagree that it's a remake of *Duel*, but I think that's pretty much what it is, except not very thrilling or good.
Still, it's better than the weak clone of *Repo Man* that is the dumpster-movie, *Psychotronic Man*. I don't know which was first, but *Repo Man* is one of the modern classics, and *Psychotronic Man* is...I don't know, the fruits of a money-laundering scheme.
I think I left the words "in hell" off the end of that sentence.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
But, hey, it's got that dancing fancy lad people inexplicably like in it.
Also, either no blade running at all, or way too much blade running in it. I forgot which.
*Demons*, directed by Lamberto Bava (of *Devil Fish* or *Devil Shark* "fame," I think). Ridiculous Italian horror movie from 1985 I think.
I've never understood less of a plot than this one. Pretty much something in here is guaranteed to repel and annoy anyone, young and old.
ETA the English dubbing was hilarious, though, and Natasha Hovey was excellent.
You know how you stumble upon a movie occasionally with a superior cast and think your in for a real treat. Well last night I found a movie by Terry Jones starring Simon Pegg, Kate Beckinsale, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin & Robin William. That's right all of the living Monty Pythoners.
Well I am sad to say Absolutely Anything was mediocre at best. A little funny and poorly put together.
Going to see Thor Ragnorok today. I hope it is excellent.
Thor was OK, had a good mix of humor and was of course much better then the first 2 Thor movies. The use of the Immigrant Song was perfect. Cate Blanchett did an excellent job of channeling The Galadriel who takes The Ring from Frodo in playing Hela.
I also watched Bonnie and Clyde (1967) yesterday. I know for the time it was a break through movie (by Hollywood standards) but the acting was not great. Warren Beatty, Gene Hackman & Estelle Parsons were OK but nothing special and Faye Dunaway & Gene Wilder looked like the rookies they basically were. (note, Gene Wilder went on to me one of my favorites, but not in this movie.
The movie was not well paced and the dialogue was pedestrian. I think it is a movie that was important at the time but without the writing or acting to defend it as movie that isn't "just not aging well".
I then ended up watching The Big Sleep 1946. Seeing this compelling movie directly after Bonnie and Clyde did not help my opinion of Bonnie and Clyde. The still relatively new Lauren Bacall could act circles around Faye Dunaway and of course was far more beautiful as bonus. Bogie is awesome itself, one of the all time greats and it is not fair to compare Beatty to him but what a difference in skill and presence. The dialogue is perfect and the pacing excellent. A well written, acted and directed classic I have not seen since I was a little kid and so it might as well have been for the first time. A great movie.
Hey, the prequel to *Chinatown*!Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
I watched a few minutes just now for laughs, on account of an extra hour because of DST ending. I didn't pay attention to before how little music there is in the first two scenes -- a quiet kind of sinister but fancy bit creeps in when Doghouse is at the library, then a good old fashioned "walking-while-snooping" cue in front of Geiger's bookstore.
I probably won't be able to stop watching this again, at least until my favorite line, "I've got a bottle of good rye in my car, but I'd much rather let it get wet in here."
*Deep Red*, by Argento, 1975 I think.
I think you really have to pay attention to understand the plot, which I wasn't, but I'm sure there is one.
I thought it was fun -- at least my audio it was about 50/50 English and Italian, which is kind of fun. I didn't know David Hemmings did anything besides *Blow-Up*, but he's a charismatic actor.
The music was also surprisingly pretty good -- I see it was by some Euro-Prog rock group Goblin. I liked what I heard much better than most prog (there's some fun stuff in the genre, but not a lot, to my tastes).
////////////////////
Oh yeah, I did finish *Big Sleep* -- yet again, I still didn't quite figure out what exactly happened (not necessarily what happened to the driver, the classic plot-hole, but just in general I wasn't keeping track of who did what when where -- and I've seen the movie probably a dozen times). You know, I think I'd put Bogey's performance here as his best, maybe tied with *Sierra Madre*. Just a brutal, savage type, devoid of anything but crude, self-serving charm, and yet you can't keep watching. Maybe it's not a deep character, but I think it takes balls to play somebody like that. Bacall, too -- her character, really, was completely without anything redeeming. She wasn't even a femme fatale, just a bitch. But, still, she girdled up and went for it.
Not going to look it up, but I think the lady who played Geiger's sort of assistant who made it out alive at the end -- I'm pretty sure she was in one of those Abbott and Costello Meet the ____ movies.
Dorothy Malone's character -- a rare INTJ female. I forgot what Randolph Scott western she was in, but she was good in that too. I wish her character had more screen time.
My latest five:
Tim's Vermeer
Very interesting documentary about an inventor and engineer who theorizes that noted Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer used optical gadgets to make his nearly-photographically-accurate paintings. Tim sets out - despite having, by his own admission, zero artistic ability of his own - to duplicate the process and create his own version of a famous Vermeer painting. Penn and Teller directed and produced the movie, and briefly appear.
Kind Hearts and Coronets
A clever 1949 dark comedy, set in Edwardian times, about a cold-blooded aristocratic wannabe who sets out to "prune the family tree" and kill everyone standing between him and a British dukedom. Alec Guinness plays nine (or ten, depending on how you count) roles as the various D'Ascoyne heirs (including a woman), and does them all very well, of course.
Blade Runner 2049
A worthy sequel to the 1982 Ridley Scott classic. A fine cast, interesting script, powerful score (although occasionally too loud) and just as detailed and fully-realized a futuristic Los Angeles dystopia. It moves the story forward and deals engagingly with the same important issues of humanity, identity and slavery as the original. Definitely worth seeing on the big screen.
Alien
Watched this sf classic again; it still holds up well.
Aliens
Ditto. It remains one of my all-time favorite sf action-adventure movies ever. Sigourney Weaver rules the screen.
Something about red pill blue pill came up somewhere, so ended up watching *The Matrix* (the only one that exists -- the sequels are garbage). Obviously with the Rifftrax. I mean, how else?
You know, I can see now why this was a big phenom. Definitely a cute movie. Don't get me wrong, it's really fucking stupid pothead philosophy, and I think this is Keanu's worst performance -- I'm pretty sure I saw that Shakespeare thing, and I was just a teenager on a date, I think, so I don't care about that.
Yeah, it's kind of funny for a laugh. Although watching that bald freak with the goatee chew with his mouth open made me want to puke. And remembering faintly what kind of stupid crap they invented for the Oracle in the later movies, I kind of wanted to give her a tracheotomy with her lit cigarette, just for fun. I fucking hate cookies. And her latin little sampler or wood engraving was stupid.
I hate the Matrix, I found myself laughing at the movie while watching it. It was so completely ridiculous and the acting so poor.
On that note, I just watched "The Man With One Red Shoe" 1985. Tom Hanks comedy spy movie that worked because of Tom Hanks and Dabney Coleman being so good in it. It is far from a perfect movie but is almost as enjoyable as Splash. For whatever reason, this movie never found an audience and was a box office bomb or at least disappointment. Fun but overall silly movie.
Just before that I had watched "The Shop Around the Corner" 1940. This Jimmy Stewart classic was remade twice successfully, once with Judy Garland In the Good Old Summertime (1949) as a musical and of course with Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan as You've Got Mail. The original is still the best. Frank Morgan (The Great and Powerful Oz himself) is of course great in the movie. Felix Bressart has the only role I think he distinguished himself in as the older clerk in the shop.
A fun RomCom I guess and now mostly associated with Christmas.
I just saw again something that bears repeating, for, I don't know, the archives.
Of something.
Yeah, the first moments of Claude Chabrol's *The Ceremony* (I guess that's what it's called in English, I don't know, it is the same word).
I challenge anyone to come up with a more disturbing first "interview" with having "tea" than that first scene.
Negative. So mean. Oh my gosh, Keanu was way hotter in Point Break also with the older guy. So hot.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
I've been meaning to see *Jodorowsky's Dune* for years, but finally tracked down a copy.
Wow. I'm suspecting maybe I as a 10 year old didn't really find what Jodorowsky did in the book. I don't feel I can take the time to reread it, but I should probably have a look at it again.
Jodorowski...wow, quite a guy, I guess.
I've been meaning to see *Jodorowsky's Dune* for years, but finally tracked down a copy.
Wow. I'm suspecting maybe I as a 10 year old didn't really find what Jodorowsky did in the book. I don't feel I can take the time to reread it, but I should probably have a look at it again.
Jodorowski...wow, quite a guy, I guess.
Did you ever get to see the French original "Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe", with Pierre Richard in the Tom Hanks role?Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
Saw Freaks again (by Browning, the Dracula guy). It's no Nightmare Alley as far as carnival movies go, but I was confused, and even the gooble-gabble scene didn't thrill me as much as my memory of it.
Also Tom Jones again -- I was trading quips about Susannah York on FB, something about Thomas More and the anti-Catholic roots of Thanksgiving Day. Damn, she was fine looking broad, but she wasn't in the movie nearly as much as I remembered. Of course, I was only half-watching. Not as much harpsichord on the soundtrack as I remember, but still, a cute little movie, of course.
ETA What Exit? good call on Shop/Corner. That was a Lubitsch IIRC. I actually did not know they remade it even once -- in fact I thought it was a remake. All I remember is good old Jimmy was skinny as a rail in that one. A real hard gainer -- I wonder if he had to bulk up for his WWII service not long after.
I never even heard of it.Quote:
Originally posted by A. Nonny Mouse
Watched Mr. Right, a fun psychotic screwball comedy. Instead of the male lead's life being changed by the manic pixie dream girl; a manic pyscho dream guy and manic pixie dream girl change each others lives. A Max Landis film starring Anna Kendrick & Sam Rockwell. I like Anna and I think Sam is one of the best chameleons in Hollywood. Oh and if you ever wanted to know, Anna is cute in cat ears.
Watched Aliens last night, just a perfect movie. Everyone is great in it. One of the best action films ever.
Watched Terminator Salvation; the acting was fine but the writing was crap. A vaguely entertaining action flick with a plot that made no sense at all and was poorly directed/acted. It felt like a string of cliches strung together and not well put together.
I tried the new Ghostbusters movie, I only got about 20 minutes into it and deleted the recording. Oh my god, what a worthless and unfunny and completely unneeded remake. It was painfully awkward.
The Duellists. An OK movie, I guess. Makes you wish the next time someone IRL insults you, it was more acceptable to try to kill them with your bare hands. Nowadays we have to settle for constantly recording on phones, looking up identities, waiting years, and then putting up a webpage, like "Officer Civilian Fatgunt Molests Collies." Reminded me of Col. Blimp, but I don't know what Scott's influences were. It appears Harvey Keitel really never did the whole "talk different" part of acting, but its OK.