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Thread: Omnibus movies Q&A thread including trivia

  1. #501
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    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.

  2. #502
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    Quote Originally posted by Jizzelbin View post
    ...*The Seven-Per-Cent Solution* sounds awesome. Robert Duvall as Watson? How could it not be awesome!
    Truth be told, he's not a very good Watson IMHO, but the movie is still worth a look. Here's the trailer:

    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.

  3. #503
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    Quote Originally posted by Elendil's Heir View post
    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.

    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?

  4. #504
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    Quote Originally posted by Jizzelbin View post
    I think James Coburn might have had one of his first roles in this one, too.
    First film role in fact. Damn, I'm good.

  5. #505
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    *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.
    Last edited by Jizzelbin; 22 Oct 2016 at 11:24 PM.

  6. #506
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    Quote Originally posted by Jizzelbin View post
    *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.
    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 View post
    Hitchcock's *Rope* -- haven't seen that since I was a teenager or younger, I don't believe. Actually a pretty neat little movie....
    Rope underwhelmed me, as I think I posted earlier. Not Hitchcock's best by a long shot.

    Quote Originally posted by Jizzelbin View post
    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.
    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-eternity

  7. #507
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    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.

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    Quote Originally posted by Elendil's Heir View post
    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-eternity
    That's pretty good. I think I read something about something, but didn't remember who was doing what.

    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.
    Last edited by Jizzelbin; 28 Oct 2016 at 06:53 PM.

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    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.

  10. #510
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    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.

  11. #511
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    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:
    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.

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    Quote Originally posted by Elendil's Heir View post
    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.
    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.

    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.

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    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?

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    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.

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    Quote Originally posted by What Exit? View post
    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.
    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,

    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.

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    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.

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    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.

  18. #518
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    I watched the Disney Alice through the looking Glass. It was terrible. Poorly written and directed.

    Quote Originally posted by Elendil's Heir View post
    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).
    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
    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.
    I could barely get through this one. I thought it was mess actually.

    Quote Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
    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.
    Might go see this, might wait for it to come to the small screen.

    Quote Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
    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.
    Hmmm, I gave up about 20 minutes into this movie. Surprised by a favorable review.

    Quote Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
    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.
    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.

    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.

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    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).

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    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.

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    Bianchi was also the Bond Girl in From Russia With Love, I think. Mrowrrr.

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    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.

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    *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).

  24. #524
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    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!

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    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.

  26. #526
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    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.

    Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow.
    Bacall was incredible in it. So gorgeous.

    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.

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    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.

  28. #528
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    I have neither seen Exorcist III nor killed anyone, so I've got that goin' for me.

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    "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.
    Last edited by Jizzelbin; 23 Feb 2017 at 01:18 PM.

  30. #530
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    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.

  31. #531
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    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.

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    *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.

  33. #533
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    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.

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    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.

  35. #535
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    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.

  36. #536
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    *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.
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    *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.
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    *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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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:
    Last edited by Jizzelbin; 29 May 2017 at 11:58 PM.

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    The 1981 Burt Reynolds movie Sharky's Machine also opens with a version of "Street Life":

    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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

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