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Check it out, White Lightning, about thirty minutes in.
Apparently that is a real pool hall.
I know camera adds some distortion depending on the lens, but those ain't no bar pool tables: looks like 9x5/4.5 real tables.
Very gratifying to see, remind me what I been missing. Course ain't none of them hillbillies is playing a man's game, AKA straight pool, but not much action to see on the tables.
Fucking eight-ball. Straight pool for imbeciles.
OK, what do you consider straight pool not for imbeciles?Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
I mainly shoot 8-ball or cut throat. Though sadly not very well.
You challenging me, boy?Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?OK, what do you consider straight pool not for imbeciles?Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
I mainly shoot 8-ball or cut throat. Though sadly not very well.
Yeah, I consider straight pool to be pool. Eight-ball, while I've certainly played enough of it (and it's really the only thing you can do on coin-op tables where you can't spot fouled balls), I think is just a simplified version of real pool.
Cut throat's fun, though — if you don't have enough people to play doubles, or just want to kill some time, I have no issue with cut-throat.
Bear in mind, I pretty much suck. I can beat a lot of bar people at 8-ball, but my game is basically mediocre.
And straight-pool, pocketing the head ball (which is lying off somewhere random while the remaining 14 balls are racked up), while breaking up the remaining 14: it's hopeless for me. I can usually get the loose ball, or at least not scratch, but I don't have the knowledge of side-English to break up the remaining 14-ball cluster in the same shot.
Anyway, it's pointless playing anything other than "stars and stripes" on a coin-op table — everyone knows how, unless you get some macho dickhead who's like "wait a minute, you didn't call that a bank shot, or some stupid made-up rules like that."
9-ball works, even though you can't spot fouled balls on a bar-room table, but IME most random people don't want to waste their fifty cents on a shorter game.
I prefer 9-ball among the "simplified" games, just because a little more strategy and options for success or failure.
But that's just my opinion.
Man.
Never played straight pool, but it is the pool of the 60s like in the Hustler and the Odd Couple?
I've been shooting since I was 8 or so and never played straight pool. I learned on a shitty 6' table (1970's Sears special) and ended up with an really nice 8.5' table. When I shot a lot, I still wasn't good, but then I would shoot at the bar with my friends and after a 8.5 table those 6' tables were suddenly a lot easier. I usually won.
Yeah, straight pool was what they played in The Hustler — of which IIRC Willie Mosconi was the "technical advisor" (I don't know for sure, but maybe the greatest of pool players — IIRC he wasn't a three-cushion billiards player, just a pool player).Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
That's how come Gleason and Newman were able to play so many hours in the movie — a good player can just run up hundreds of "points," which just means balls that are called and pocketed. Every ball sunk, if it's good, that's a point. That's what those strings on the ceiling with little tiles strung up on a wire in pool halls are for.
And that's how come you get that odd 14-ball rack — because just one ball left on the table, you keep going.
I don't remember what the record is, but it's many hundreds of points. Mosconi might still have the record.
Word for playing on smaller tables: I have shit eyesight, and glasses just plain are a problem, especially on bigger tables. IMO, to make a longer distance shot, even just a "gimme" that a kid could make, you got to IMO constantly be looking down at the pocket, and your object ball, and then the cue ball. Like, maybe a half dozen times, constantly verifying the target pocket and the closer-ranged cue and object ball.
I don't know what the state of the art for eyeglasses is — AFAICT, it used to be just huge eyeglasses, but maybe now it's all contact lenses or lasik.
Yeah, I remember a lot of hours at the old Hippodrome when it used to be on Main St. in Buffalo, with nine-foot tables, and then you'd go in some dive and suddenly every crazy little lucky bank shot just seemed to happen.
Personally, I think bank shots are for suckers when there's a better option, but they can work if the slate is flat and you're not playing with a WC Fields-style house cue. Yeah, yeah, I know about all the "systems," but I'd rather play by intuition than try to superimpose some kind of computation. It works or it doesn't — pure intuition.
Just like chess.
Actually, if Danny McGoorty's memoir (my real only source of information from someone who was 'there' during the heydey of the Depression era and just after — he played three-cushion billiards, but certainly could shoot pool, and I think both he and a real pool player like Mosconi could and, at least in McGoorty's case did, take people's money playing snooker or variants — I'm not even sure eight-ball was played at all back then, at least as a tournament game).Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
Oh yeah, so they used to sell tickets to watch a tournament of, unlike today, it'd be just two guys playing pool. Those would last for hours, sometimes many hours. And people would watch that shit. Like, lots of people.
Just like that first game between Gleason and Newman.
I don't remember any pool playing in The Odd Couple, but I've only seen the movie twice and it takes me a while to pick up on what's happening.
But there was that Twilight Zone with Jack Klugman and....Jonathan Winters. Also straight pool. It might have been one of that season where they did hour-long episodes, but I don't remember.
I don't know other movies about pool playing (of any kind) — but, just like White Lightning, the bar or a real pool hall seems to be a popular place to shoot.
E.g., the masterpiece, Joe Estevez's greatest triumph as an actor, Werewolf ETA also, opening preamble to The Last Waltz (cut-throat with Rick Danko of The Band explaining the rules), as well as Mean Streets (just regular bar-room shenanigans) — I don't know what Scorsese's deal was, but he sure seemed to have been fascinated with pool in general.
The Odd Couple Pool playing was actually the TV show and might have had Mosconi guest starring as himself. There was also a Get Smart episode with one of the big names of the day.
As to selling tickets to watch pool, consider how popular bowling was back then and golf still is. Now people watch people play poker & video games. Its a weird world and humans are very weird people.
Good. I was half-way worried about if I missed something in the movie. At least I hit the Klugman to the rail.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
Tchyeah. I think the televised poker craze ran its run. Although I overheard at a bar the other day some nitwit sound guy chatting about bowling — so, apparently it's some people still into that. And thank gawd it's not just crazed TBL fans, although I love the movie as much as anyone. Well, not so much as opening cartons of half-and-half and sniffing them, while buying coffee liqueur.
What other movies did pool (or if you like, "pocket billiards") be front and center in? So, Paul Newman has pool and 9-ball covered (as well as race-car driving as I spurted out the other day at work "What do you think you're Paul Newman driving a race car?").
Other than that, I can't think of much except pool halls or bar-rooms being a convenient place for people to shoot little scenes.
Color of Money with Newman & Cruise of course. You know what, I can't think of another. Showed up in TV shows, especially in the 60s into the early 70s.
http://www.mellophant.com/forums/sho...l=1#post268510Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
You're probably right.
I like Danny McGoorty's anecdote about being selcted during a White House tourist-tour of meeting JFK. ETA OK, I'll find the book and quote it — is pretty amusing.
I guess that would have been 1961 or so.
Nobody knew even about pool except there was that guy Willie "Hoppee" who played that funny "pool" none of the servicemen did, except it didn't have no pockets on the table.
So how's about how we gonna score, Sergeant? Ain't no pockets!
It was probably The Hustler that put pool on the table, I guess.
I'm sure I've seen billiards before then in movies, but not as a real plot mover. It was either something high-class clowns did in the officer's tent, or something regular people did for fun.
Their loss, I guess.
There's a great scene when a nude Ahnuld walks into a biker pool hall in Terminator 2, but it's not vital to the plot.
My most recent five:
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2
Had its moments but a disappointing end to the series. Mostly meh.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
A kick-ass spy thriller, with lots of twists and turns. Tom Cruise still has it, and Rebecca Ferguson is a terrific addition to the franchise as a conflicted, beautiful, badass MI6 agent.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Also very good, with Cruise and Ferguson returning. The movie has probably the best helicopter stunts I've ever seen.
The Spy Who Dumped Me
Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon play gal pals who get in 'way over their heads in international espionage. A so-so spy parody, although with a particular good chase scene in Vienna.
Incredibles 2
Saw it again and enjoyed it just as much. A great superhero adventure, and a worthy sequel to the original.
Cloverfield. There is not any one thing good about this piece of garbage. In fact, I think its sole purpose is to make people vomit. There is no one nor anything that can make this "movie" not suck balls. There are some cute stupid girls in it, but that's not enough. And for the ladies, there's some mentally incompetent dudebros in it. And something about some monster or whatever.
Here's a somewhat good QUESTION: why is it that the best film cutters, or at least the most famous in the post-Eisenstein age, tend to be women? ETA That's not right. Just the most famous editors, not necessarily "the best."
It's not really a question of tight collaboration with "their" directors: after all, photographers have tended to remain allied with directors of various pictures.
I'm a little tired right now, but just sticking with major directors, like Melville, Scorsese, Tarantino, the list just goes on and on.
If I were a cynic I'd think it were the same kind of attachment, culturally, to "stitching" or "sewing" (Sadie Plant, Zeroes + Ones is a good source for this analogy) of various kinds that led other prominent women to careers in constraint-bound writing (e.g., poetry, esp. from the XVIè), computer programming, analytic philosophy (vd. realist phenomenology), mathematics, among the more "masculine" technical arts.
I'm fairly sure at least a few dozen worthwhile essays have been published on the subject, but I find it's worth noticing on this forum, since one of our own is an accomplished film and video editor in training for her own vocation, and perhaps the discussion can be amplified.
I change my mind: the first X-Men is kind of a fun movie.
Don't really see the need for any sequels — well, the reasons are obvious for making as many as they want — but this is not the "golden age of comic book movies."
There's no such thing. Just some kind of rebirth from when Hollywood started out in the 1920s, until "they" got serious about movies in the 1930s.
Yeah, I remember what Husserl supposedly said are the three phrases one might say when encountering a new idea: "It's rubbish," "It's been done before," and something else I don't remember. And that's only an apocryphal reference: I don't know that Husserl said any such thing in his published lecture-transcriptions, just that there's a lot of anecdotes passed around among academic-types that may or may not be really accurate. Ranging from obvious facts, such as Norbert Wiener's last name is not pronounced "veener," to personal anecdotes based on RL encounters of the relater to the subject.
Husserl did, I believe, suffer a form of nicotine poisoning from smoking his pipe too much, and I don't think anyone doubts how his very large-format handwritten manuscripts were smuggled to Leuven in fish barrels, and, obviously, his peculiar shorthand system is in plain evidence (he developed a very idiosyncratic system of writing which very few people can read).
Just watched What's Up Doc for the first time in several decades I believe. It is not a remake of Bringing up Baby, but was inspired by and followed a general formula from it. I was surprised it held up pretty well. The best of Barbra's screwball comedies. (The Owl and the Pussycat & For Pete's Sake being the other two). It is goofy, has loads of familiar faces and had be laughing plenty.
RESOLVED The first twelve-and-a-half minutes of Once Upon a Time in The West cannot be bested. IMHO I still think it's Leone's best. Although it's kind of turgid, and even grim, but I find it to be an A+ movie. After countless viewings.
Also, Jack Elam is the reason some parents warned you agin 0.22 rifles, because you might shoot your eye out.
Yeah, I agree with WE? — people say it's a remake, but in the parlance of our times, it was more a reboot. Dubious casting, but it worked, and the last time I saw it, maybe three years ago or more, I was amused.
That might make the top ten for worst/funniest titles in the movies. You know, dump, evacuate one's bowels. I can't think of the other nine contenders, except for the English title of the FR movie Le doulos, viz., The Finger Man. Cause, you know "finger," polysemous word, both deictic/indexical, but also genitals.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
However, that does sound like an amusing movie. Probably wait 'till TV/DVD/computer.
One of my favorite comedies ever. The chase scene through San Francisco streets is a classic.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
My most recent five:
What's Up, Tiger Lily?
Woody Allen's mashup of Japanese spy movies, with silly dialogue substituted for the original words. Sixties Japan's answer to 007 goes hunting for the world's greatest egg salad recipe. Pretty funny.
Hitler's Hollywood
Interesting documentary about Goebbels's cinematic propaganda machine, which churned out anti-Semitic films, romances, military adventures and costume dramas until just weeks before the fall of Berlin.
First Reformed
A dark, powerful drama about the priest of a failing parish whose faith is shaken when an environmental activist he is counseling commits suicide. Ethan Hawke is outstanding as the priest.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Saw a beautifully crisp, clear 4K restoration of Kubrick's 1968 classic sf film. Still a remarkable movie, and it holds up remarkably well.
The Shape of Water
A mute cleaning lady in a 1962 top-secret U.S. military lab begins a romance with the amphibious humanoid held captive for experiments there. Not as good as its most rapturous reviews, I thought, but worth a look.
I think seeing a crummy print of 2001 once on a smaller screen theater was good for me — I feel I know the movie well enough and have at least "done the theater experience" once is probably enough. I can deal with the smaller screen, but it's definitely one to look up on the larger screen at at least once.
I'd happily see a better print from a better projector, but probably will wait until a local university or college has loan of a copy and probably even roll a bit of a J beforehand (not a big solitary weed smoker, but this movie is kind of begging for it — not that I would know :)).
I can only imagine the worst in US big movie theater, with yuppie moms tending to their complaining younglings and running out every five minutes for some Junior Mints, so I'll prefer to remember seeing it on a big screen once and, of course, re-watch every few years as I learn more about the photographic effects is good for me. Anyways, it's not a movie for kids anyway, unless you dose their Jujubes or whatever and enjoy watching your terrified beloved's night terrors for days.
I am enjoying, somewhat, watching a modern car-chase movie called Ronin yet again. I may not watch it to the end — parler franchement,ordure de cinéma around Roman ruins in SE FR, kind of tedious, but it has its moments.
Putain de hard drive fail so I lose many good movies, but althugh jfais pas de RAID, plenty of backups, so minimized, and all movies ordered by director or significant producer saved redundant.
I find it amusing to observe how De Niro seems to change his FR accent to suit each scenario, somewhat. I've looked through the USGov training materials for diplomats, and, one assumes, people who work for "the Company," and I assume he's modulating his accent somewhat to suit each need. However, he never seems to speak a passable FR, even one line, which seems odd.
Well, that's fine — I have an American accent in speaking FR as well, but then again I never worked for The Company.
/**********
and NO, it's not 2001 that was "slow," it's that people got too fast. Back then they had robot FACES!
*********/
This is redundant, but everytime I see Gone In 60 Seconds (the real one), that is just the most awesome car movie with the some of the worst mistakes in ADR possible.
It's truly sui generis — and not in a bad way, like some politicians we all know.
The flaws just add to the brilliance.
I'd forgot what a nice character study the movie Hud is: beautiful photography, Patricia Neal at her best. The "plot" is kind of dull, but it is one of the earliest pure character-study movies I can recall. The plot's not important, but we're still dealing with Hud (Paul Newman) in one of his best roles.
And, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Well, what can I say. I had to stop this morning just after the Large Marge scene, but I think next to Ed Wood, Tim Burton could have dropped off the face of the earth and still have been a legend. One of the few movies I've seen that is is as entertaining for young kids as for adults. Yeah, I know the cartoons and the Pixar and stuff, but I haven't seen any of those and am unlikely to. Unless I trick some lady into birthing me some human chattel, and then I probably would.
I was wrong about The French Connection — TBH I always feel a little soiled and dirty after watching Gene Hackman, especially in his movies from the 1970s.
And I never truly appreciated probably the one thing this movie is known for best, namely, "the car vs. el-subway" chase scene.
That is truly well done — maybe I was spoiled by always having had a "thing" for car chase movies, but after at least a few times, I think I get it now.
It's not so much the stunt driving, it's the suspense that's built up that makes it so exciting.
I was wrong about The French Connection — TBH I always feel a little soiled and dirty after watching Gene Hackman, especially in his movies from the 1970s.
And I never truly appreciated probably the one thing this movie is known for best, namely, "the car vs. el-subway" chase scene.
That is truly well done — maybe I was spoiled by always having had a "thing" for car chase movies, but after at least a few times, I think I get it now.
It's not so much the stunt driving, it's the suspense that's built up that makes it so exciting.
I finally saw The Shape of Water: I liked the style of the film. It had some charm, but it also needed a good disciplined editor to shave about 20 minutes off the movie. Good but not great and too slow.
You know? Blue Thunder is not a terrible movie. Robocop: that's a terrible movie.
I contend that Roy Scheider can make a ridiculous movie almost seem watchable.
He's an odd fellow. He commands the screen, but he's not a conventional leading-man type. He must have had a superb agent — IMHO he picked winners and probably swam in piles of cash and cocaine in his heyday.
It ran on camp, we know it was a silly and basically stupid movie but it was a fun stupid movie.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
True enough.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
Actually I wasn't completely serious or wanting to deride Robocop — actually, it's a pretty good movie, and Peter Weller was outstanding.
However, it does seem to fit in the 1980s gee-whiz kind of technology genre as Airwolf Blue Thunder.
So, I went for the low-hanging fruit comparison. And air-balled the joke. Well, we can't all be Don Rickles or Redd Foxx!
I'm starting to think, after the zillionth time, some of the Abbott and Costello movies, such as Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy might be a little bit ridiculous.
Just a hunch.
ETA, yes, that was supposed to be a joke about "heyday" and Roy Scheider and Heywood Floyd. Well, they can't all be winners!
QUESTION: Who the helll was "Tom Hagen" kissing on the cheek at about ten minutes thirty five into, obviously, The Godfather?
ALSO QUESTION: I don't think, also about The Godfather, that returning servicemen typically wore their dress uniforms to family affairs. Even decorated officers, like "Mikey."
What's the story about that? Yeah, I read the novel a few times and have seen the movie more times than I should say.
Just wondering.
I can't picture the scene, I may have to watch the movie again.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
It is possible he was still active duty and on leave for his sister's wedding. Thus the dress uniform. He was returning but they didn't say he was discharged yet to the best of my knowledge. It is unusual but a possible hand-wave at least. Even more likely if he needed to report back by midnight or some such silliness.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
That's truly an impressive theory. Thanks for that. Makes sense — Michael would have been enlisted or commissioned for a certain period, and I don't know exactly the dates of his entire life story.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
I guess I just don't really know about military customs, it just seemed odd to me. Maybe not odd if Mikey was a career soldier — probably something, speaking of Bob Duvall, The Great Santini would have done. It is a compact way of putting all of Michael's back-story into the visuals at the wedding scene, and is effective for a lot of reasons related to "the family."
I'm content to just say "well, Coppola thought it seemed good, and it was." There probably is something in the novel about this, but damned if I'm going to research this.
//////////////
Observation: the Bob Mitchum Cape Fear is not a movie to "Netflix and chill" to your best girl.
I'm guessing.
I think Michael's wearing of his Marine Corps uniform was also his way of asserting his independence from his father, who (in the book at least) was puzzled and even a bit contemptuous of anyone who would go in harm's way for his country and not The Family. Michael was saying, "Look, Pops, I not only fought for my country, I did pretty well by it, too." A young Don Vito's outlook was also shown in The Godfather, Part II, when he and his thugs doffed their hats and stood at attention for the Italian national anthem at a street fair, but put their hats back on and walked away when the band began to play "The Star-Spangled Banner."
My latest five:
Sergeant York
Gary Cooper as the country bumpkin, initially a conscientious objector due to his religious faith, who becomes the greatest American hero of World War I and is rewarded by a grateful nation (even getting the girl at the end). Not a bad action movie for its time.
The Third Murder
Pretty good Japanese courtroom drama about a man charged with a brutal murder who admits his guilt. However, his changing explanations of how and why he committed the crime lead his cynical defense counsel to doubt him, and to dig into the case further.
The Citizen
A poignant Hungarian drama about an African immigrant trying to gain citizenship in Hungary. He befriends his citizenship-test teacher and provides shelter to a pregnant Iranian refugee, and their intertwined relationships lead in some unexpectedly tragic directions.
Kusama: Infinity
Documentary about the acclaimed Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, a Pop Art contemporary of Warhol who achieved fame much later in life and is still painting at age 89. Worth a look if you like her work, or would like to learn more about her.
The Interview
Over-the-top, occasionally gross political comedy about a lightweight TV talk-show host (James Franco) and his reliable, much-smarter producer (Seth Rogen) who land an interview with Kim Jong-Un, and are recruited by the CIA to kill him. Very uneven, but with a lot of laughs by the end.
This fits roughly in the rubric of "movies" question — I suppose you could count the one or several of those TV-movies as a movie.
Anyway, if one takes the creator of Gilligan's Island at his word, and if one thinks that there is a one-to-one and onto (i.e., bijective to remind you all of what today's secret word is) correspondence between each principal character of the show and the "seven mortal sins," what's the best way to match the seven items?
I note much confusion on the internet.
I propose:
Ginger: lust
Prof: pride
Thurst How: greed
Eunice How: gluttony
Skipper: wrath
Mary Ann: envy
Gilligan: sloth
If anyone disagrees, I suggest they to ess my dee.
However, I don't believe that there need be a perfect bijection between sins and castaways: Skipper and Eunice could both be gluttonous, in different manners. Skipper could also be wrathful.
It is possible to overthink Gilligan's Island, my friend, as strange as that may seem.
My latest five movies:
Iron Man
Maybe the third time I've seen it - just as much fun as ever. Great cast and dialogue, a good character arc for Tony Stark, kick-ass action sequences, and engaging montages as he designs and builds his various armored suits.
Rushmore
A quirky, funny, ultimately heart-warming romantic comedy about the rivalry between a jaded businessman (Bill Murray) and a brainy prep-school student for the affections of a winsome English teacher. Still one of Murray's best movies.
2010: The Year We Make Contact
Not nearly as lyrical or intriguingly ambiguous as Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the title is clunky, but it's a solid sf-adventure sequel.
I, Tonya
Very funny dark comedy about Tonya Harding and the shattering of her Olympic figure-skating dreams. The movie makes no bones about the wildly-differing recollections of Harding, her abusive ex-husband and her loser bodyguard, and it often, and gleefully, breaks the fourth wall. Allison Janney of West Wing fame really earned her Oscar as Harding's Stage Mom From Hell.
Dante's Inferno
The first full-length Italian movie, released in 1911. It's a B&W silent movie; I saw it with a synth score performed live. Overacted, as was the style at the time, and with laughable sfx, but it has some memorable scenes set in Satan's dreaded realm.
I just saw Logan, I wish it was edited down maybe 15-20 minutes, but overall I would say the most enjoyable X-Men movies thus far.
I disliked Iron Man the first time I saw it. Rushmore was fairly good though Wes went on to some much better movies later on. I don't recall 2010 as very entertaining, not bad, just forgettable. I don't know the other two. I'll probably eventually see I, Tonya.
Logan is already on my stack of library DVDs to see!
My latest five:
Jurassic Park
Hadn't seen it since it first came out. Still an exciting action film with impressive dinosaur sfx and a beautiful jungle-island setting. Jeff Goldblum, as a sardonic celebrity scientist, steals every scene he's in.
Somm
Engaging, clever, beautifully-shot documentary about several young men preparing for the extremely difficult Master Sommelier exam. A must-see for anyone who likes wine.
Somm: Into the Bottle
The sequel documentary, not quite as good as the original. More like ten very short films on wine's origins, lore and appreciation than a single movie.
Johnny Dangerously
Michael Keaton, Marilu Henner and Joe Piscopo costar in an uneven but mostly-funny parody of Thirties gangster movies.
Inside Llewyn Davis
Oscar Issac is very good as a struggling folk singer in early Sixties New York. Terrific score and a fascinating Coen Bros. look at a lost American subculture.
Huh.
I never noticed in this beautiful scene of highway vigilanteism against poor drivers (or perhaps in favor of "one thousand-four-hundred horsepower" lol), the "crumple zone" of Loggia's Benz performs its function, with the damage to show, but is missing in future shots.
I'd like to know how the crew did this one -- normally, I don't care, but I've seen this so many times it sticks out.
Not a typical Buddy Joe Hooker "car kicking ass" scene, just I think they probably spent a week getting this one together. Dunno.Quote:
--Don't you ever fucking tailgate. Ever!
--Tell him you won't tailgate.
--Ever!
--I won't ever tail...
--Do you know how many fucking car-lengths it takes to stop a car at thirty-five miles an hour: six fucking car lengths. That's a hundred and six fucking feet. If I had to stop suddenly, you would have hit me. I want you to get a fucking driver's manual, and I want you to study that motherfucker. And I want you to obey th goddamned rules. Fifty fucking thousand people were killed on the highway last year because of fucking assholes like you. Tell me you're going to get a manual.
--I, uh, get a manual.
--Fucking A!
Suspiria (Supposedly there's a remake, but I mean the real one). Just about a perfect movie — despite the "giallo" designation, it's a fairly tame movie. But it's also freaky as hell.
Big Wednesday (John Milius). Yeah, it never fails to put a small smile on my face. A little bit retro, a little bit just kids being kids.
I love Suspiria , a great little obscure movie that seems to grow a little in fame each year. The star of the movie, Jessica Harper went on to make one of my favorite movies ever, My Favorite Year.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
I don't know Big Wednesday, what's it about?
Oh, Big Wednesday is supposedly John Milius's (writer/director) "autobigraphical" story.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?I love Suspiria , a great little obscure movie that seems to grow a little in fame each year. The star of the movie, Jessica Harper went on to make one of my favorite movies ever, My Favorite Year.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
I don't know Big Wednesday, what's it about?
It's about a small group of surfer friends and their "coming of age" during the ramp-up to full-Vietnam.
Maybe it's not the most exciting movie, but it's still a nice little portrait.
It's not at all like other movies John Milius is associated with, like Apocalypse Now or Red Dawn. Just a quiet, kind of charming movie that happens to have some surfing in it.
You know, like Point Break. :)
Ok, here's one I never noticed before.
In The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, the swindler who got Bogart and Tim Holt to do all that work and was going to skip out on their payment.
In the bar-fight scene, that fat old guy really was one hell of a fighter!
I mean, he was no Sammo Hung, but it's a ridiculous how much ass that fat old swindler kicked, against sinewy, sun-hardened roughnecks.
Never mind, just an observation.
ETAThis is a late, lame addition, but how in the hell did Walter Huston's character get to be so savvy, down to the peso (sp?), of the contemporary (relative to the time, of course), of mining equipment? Some guy who has been out of the "business" for years, perhaps a decade or more, knows to estimate the cost of renting mules, and all that stuff? This is the kind of stuff comic book people would make internet wars about and stuff. And it all comes down to Bogart getting that "fat rich printed number, the kind of sugar papa likes," even down to the peso. In comic book/nerd people, that would never stand. That's why good movies are good — they don't give a shit about what some nerd thinks.
Oh, I left out one of the good movie trivia I forgot about:
David Lynch's house was designed and, arguably, built by Frank Lloyd Wright. AFAIK, that's where he still lives, and from what I've heard, he loves or loved it.
AND his longtime creative collaborator, the editor and writer Mary Sweeney, is actually his wife, or long-term companion. And has been for quite some time.
Oh, I left out one of the good movie trivia I forgot about:
David Lynch's house was designed and, arguably, built by Frank Lloyd Wright. AFAIK, that's where he still lives, and from what I've heard, he loves or loved it. Apparently up somewhere on Mulholland Drive. He has several houses for his uses, but apparently pretty much never leaves his FLW house or grounds much. I wouldn't know.
AND his longtime creative collaborator, the editor and writer Mary Sweeney, is actually his wife, or long-term companion. And has been for quite some time.
You can say that again!
My latest five:
First Man
A downbeat, depressing biopic about Neil Armstrong. Some great space scenes but the Apollo 11 Moon landing is almost an afterthought; the movie is mostly about Armstrong's marriage. The last scene between Armstrong and his wife is a stunning misfire IMHO (some people in the theater actually laughed out loud - not at all the reaction the director was going for, I'm sure).
Keanu
Uneven Key and Peele comedy about two square suburban guys trying to pass for bloodthirsty gangstas as they try to recover an adorable kitten. Meh. Not nearly as funny as it wanted to be.
The Lodger
Saw this silent Alfred Hitchcock B&W 1927 thriller, loosely based on the Jack the Ripper murders, with a live improvised organ score, which was fun. Not Hitchcock's best, but worth a look.
Logan
Terrific near-future superhero action flick with Wolverine and Prof. Xavier facing a new enemy and their own mortality. Just possibly the best X-Men movie yet.
The Evil Dead
Classic low-budget horror gorefest. Not nearly as entertaining as everyone told me it would be.
Ed Wood's movie Jail Bait is actually a pretty good movie. Sure, it's definitely a B-movie, a kind of corny crime movie, but the production values are pretty high and it's not really a rank exploitation movie.
I think The Lodger is the only Hitchcock silent movie I've seen — I was under ten when I rented it from the library, and I don't recall much of it, but thanks for the reminder to see it and start exploring more of Hitchcock's silent movies.
My latest five:
Her
Joaquin Phoenix plays a near-future lonely guy who falls in love with an AI, voiced extraordinarily well by Scarlett Johansson. A parable of computers and connectedness, love and loneliness. Recommended.
Iron Man 3
Funny and exciting high-tech superhero film. The terrorist-attack scenes on (and off) Air Force One are particularly good.
About a Boy
A London cad, played very well by Hugh Grant, gets reconnected to humanity as a reluctant father figure to a geeky teenage boy. A charming movie with lots of laughs.
The Disaster Artist
James Franco capably directs and stars in this film about a film, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of "the Citizen Kane of bad movies," Tommy Wiseau's so-awful-it's-funny The Room. A cringeworthy but engaging tale about struggling to make it big in Hollywood.
Inherent Vice
A pot-smoking hippie private eye (Joaquin Phoenix again, in a very different role) in 1970 Los Angeles tries to find a missing real estate tycoon and avoid lots of people trying to either frame or kill him. Vaguely reminiscent of The Big Lebowski, but stands on its own. Josh Brolin shamelessly steals every scene he's in as a troubled, blustering John Wayne wannabe on the LAPD.
Donnie Brasco — seen it a few times, and it's still solid, start to finish.
True Grit (remake) — sorry, fans, but while I thought the first two "acts" were novel and engaging, I had to turn it off before the end. For me, Josh Brolin is overexposed as an actor, and the comparison to Robert Duvall ends up very much in the latter's favor. Still, it's beautifully photographed and Steinfeld (sp?), Bridges, and especially Damon were extraordinary. Seen it before at least once, and the original a few times more than that.
Broken Arrow (the Delmer Davies, Jimmy Stewart western). Noteworthy, I guess. I'm sure I've seen it before, but Stewart's "aw shucks" delivery just couldn't shake past imagining him in Harvey. A little much.