Movie Tab II

It was because of DeNiro telling Scorsese about DiCaprio about how good he is in This Boy's Life that the two work together so often.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

+1 but Vertigo is Tier 1 Hitchcock

From the dozen Hitchcock movies I watched, Vertigo is my number 1. It's the one I found most effective overall to grab my attention I like it's subtle erotic elements as well.

Vertigo is probably the most well like Hitch on these boards, it's for sure that one or Psycho.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Justin Lin, 2006)

Robots (Chris Wedge & Carlos Saldana, 2005)

+
The Swarm (Irwin Allen, 1978)

Camp Rating:

Quigley Down Under (Simon Wincer, 1990)

American sharpshooter Tom Selleck proves his accuracy from a distance to Australian rancher Alan Rickman, but when the former learns that the rancher hired him to kill aborigines, they become deadly enemies.
Center Stage (Nicolas Hytner, 2000)

Stuck on You (Farrelly Bros., 2002)

+
In the Land of Women (Jonathan Kasdan, 2007)

+
To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock, 1955)

Wealthy American heiress Grace Kelly, who often seems to be as cold as her stolen diamonds, turns up the heat for retired cat burglar Cary Grant.
Don’t Talk (Joe Newman, 1942)

Sugar & Spice (Francine McDougall, 2001)

Step Up All In (Trish Sie, 2014)

Game Change (Jay Roach, 2012)

Senator John McCain (Ed Harris) and Governor Sarah Palin (Julianne Moore) never seem to be on the same page during the 2008 Presidential Campaign, except for a couple of high-profile national events.
The Hard Man (George Sherman, 1957)

The Raid 2 (Gareth Evans, 2014)

Guns of the Magnificent Seven (Paul Wendkos, 1969)

+
Rush (Ron Howard, 2013)

Formula One drivers James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) develop a strong bond through their heated rivalry for the 1976 championship.
In Love We Trust (Xiaoshuai Wang, 2008)

American Yakuza (Frank Cappelo, 1993)

Caught Inside (Adam Blaiklock, 2010)

The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011)

Silent film idols Jean Dujardin and his trusty dog Uggie hit the skids when the talkies take over, while up-and-comer Bérénice Bejo, who became famous kissing the former, makes it big with the changeover to sound.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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''Haters are my favourite. I've built an empire with the bricks they've thrown at me... Keep On Hating''
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John Wick (Chad Stahelski, 2014)
Awfully derivative noir-revenger takes it'self way too seriously, often coming off as unintentional parody...in a bad way. Michael Nyqvist is the only saving grace as a fatalistic Russian mob boss. Keanu seriously needs to start picking better scripts than this.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Adam McKay, 2013)
Once again Ferrell and co nail the cool-ass lapels and retro decor, but miss widely in the belly laugh department. A sometimes smart satire of CNN style journalism It made me smile a few times, but that's it. I still like Will Ferrell though.

Dragonslayer (Matthew Robbins, 1981) +
A childhood favourite this Disney fantasy epic still holds up thanks to some excellent Phil Tippett effects work, and lovely Snowdonia locations. Surprisingly intense stuff and one of the better films of it's type from the eighties.



River's Edge (Tim Hunter, 1986)
Awfully bleak but honest potrayal of disaffected teens and their nonchalant reaction to a friend's murder. Daniel Roebuck is particularly effective as the emotionally detatched killer, but Crispin Glover's overbearing stoner performance almost undermine's the material in my opinion. Still it's a nice foil for Rob Reiner's more feel good Stand By Me released the same year.

Grumpy Old Men (Donald Petrie, 1993)
Bittersweet romantic comedy gets by mainly on star power, but still has its moments despite the overall lack of laughs. Both leads are as charming as ever with Ann-Margaret proving more than a match as their contested love interest. Though Burgess Meredith steals it as Lemmon's curmudgeonly grandpa.

Grumpier Old Men (Howard Deutch, 1995)
Contrived sequel is just an excuse to tie up some loose ends for Walt' and stretches credibility pretty thin; with a still sexy Sophia Loren providing the love interest. Once again Meredith gets the laughs (and his leg over) as Lemmon's randy grandpa.

The Nest aka Nid de guêpes (Florent-Emilio Siri, 2002)
This crackerjack action-thriller was almost totally slept on outside it's native France despite being a very canny unofficial re-working of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13. Samy Naceri's would-be gang of robbers, Nadia Farès' special forces outfit, and some warehouse staff form a disparate group of people defending a high tech storage installation against largely unseen Albanian Mafia hoods. Memorable characters, nail biting tension, an uber-cool sense of style, and high octane action make this far superior to the 2005 re-make. This is almost on a par with the original.



The Man From Hong Kong aka Dragon Flies (Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1975) +++
Undoubtedly the most entertaining movie I've seen in the last couple of years Trenchard-Smith and Golden Harvest's Enter the Dragon cash-in is arguably just as much fun, even if the martial arts on offer aren't quite as polished. This one comes off like Coogan's Bluff on Ketamine with moody Chinese star Wang Yu rocking up in Oz to ferry a drug mule home before falling foul of George Lazenby's racist crime boss. With an opening fight on Ayers rock between a debuting Sammo Hung and Roger Ward (unrecognisable with hair) this only gets more outrageous; from Lazenby's very seventies penthouse armory and swanky line in proto-Alan Partridge wear; to Aussie stunt ledge Grant Page's chaotic rumble with Yu in a restaurant, and Jigsaw's funky disco monstrosity scoring the opening credits. This is non-stop action campery at it's finest and possibly the best time I've ever had with an exploitation flick.



Busting (Peter Hyams, 1974)
Hyams' wise cracking look at police bureaucracy has Elliott Gould and Robert Blake's vice cops desperately trying to take down a local crime lord in the face of departmental corruption. Cynical to the max, this ultra-gritty-ditty slightly predates Richard Rush's inferior buddy cop flick Freebie and the Bean whilst benefiting from sharp un-pc dialogue, and an especially cool role for prolific star Gould. I've trawled through a lot of these seventies cop flicks now and this is definitely one of the most 'real' hampered only by the abrupt Dirty Harry style ending.



The Late Show (Robert Benton, 1977)
Another under seen seventies gem should please fans of The Long Goodbye (it was produced by Altman) and offbeat comedies. This one's an odd couple homage to noir classics with Art Carney's washed up old P.I. dragged into one last shaggy dog whodunnit by Tomlin's kooky busybody. Kind of like Harold and Maud meets Manhattan Murder Mystery this one's a real charmer with in-jokes galore (many of which admittedly went over my head) a deliberately convoluted plot, and two winning performances. Highly recommended.

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100 Favourites From The Future: REWIRED

Diamond Men (Daniel M. Cohen, 2001)

+
Windtalkers (John Woo, 2002)

Spider Baby or, The Maddest Story Ever Told (Jack Hill, 1967)

The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper, 2010)

Britain's King George VI (Colin Firth) practices his exercises with his speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush) so that he can rally the nation by an important speech during WWII.
Night of the Lepus (William F. Claxton, 1972)

The Music Box (James Parrott, 1932)

The Last Man on Earth (Ubaldo B. Ragona, 1964)

-
No Country for Old Men (Coen Bros., 2007)

+

Hitman Anton Chigurh (Javier Badeem), basically a human manifestation of death and destruction, will stop at nothing to find some missing drug deal money.
Equinox (Iack Woods, 1970)

Tit for Tat (Charles Rogers, 1935)

The Book Thief (Brian Percival, 2013)

+
Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, 2006)

+

An Albuquerque family drives to Southern California to have their daughter participate in a beauty pageant for youngsters. Here they stop along the way to eat some breakfast; (left to right) Druggie, porn-addicted grandpa Alan Arkin, suicidal gay uncle Steve Carell, sworn-to-a-vow-of-silence brother Paul Dano, pageant contestant Abigail Breslin, long-suffering mom Toni Collette and unsuccessful self-help guru dad Greg Kinnear.
Drifters (Xiaoshuai Wang, 2003)

Trade Winds (Tay Garnett, 1938)

-
Sacred City of the Mayan Indians (James A. FitzPatrick, 1936)

+
The Place Beyond the Palms (Derek Cianfrance, 2012)

Motorcycle stunt rider Ryan Gosling’s bank robberies lead to life-changing events for him and some police officers.
Grace (Paul Solet, 2009)

There Goes My Girl (Ben Holmes, 1937)

Blind Date (Roy William Neill, 1934)

Hercules (Brett Ratner, 2014)

Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) shows his power and moves.

Night Of The Lepus? Well done, mark. That's properly awful.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Maid in Manhattan

Nominally it's a fairytale along the lines of Pretty Woman but the film tries so hard to be sweet that it fails miserably.


Jennifer Lopez plays Marisa, a single mother from the Bronx who works as a maid in the snazzy Beresford hotel. In a moment of gross unprofessionalism, she tries on one of the guest's Dolce and Gabbana coats and who should walk in but favourite candidate for Congressman Chris Marshall (Ralph Fiennes)! Naturally he mistakes her for the guest and hilarity ensues as Marisa tries to hide her humble origins.


Or rather, hilarity does not ensue. For a rom-com, it's not very funny; there's some innuendo and girly gossiping that seems awkwardly out of place in a film that's very much Family Entertainment, drained of all sex.


Let alone her chemistry with Fiennes, Lopez has no chemistry with Ty (Tyler Posey), her 'adorable' genius son. She drags him around much in the same manner as Fiennes drags Chris's dog Rufus around. OMG, he has a dog that he WALKS HIMSELF because he keeps it real like Jenny from The Block. That's won me over.


Early on in the film Marisa chastises him for ignoring her and listening to his Walkman. "You can't turn off Simon and Garfunkel!" he says. With such clunky attempts at humour it's no wonder that the filmmakers felt inclined to pour a load of treacly crap on top.


Unfortunately the treacle is a real buzz-kill. It's not so much a romantic fantasy as a fantasy to find the perfect dad for her child. Young children in romantic films solely exist to pimp out their parent to handsome romantic millionaires/beautiful women half the father's age. because children should clearly have complete control over their parents' romantic lives. It's very hard for Lopez and Fiennes to muster up sizzling chemistry when they have to drag around a child and a dog.


Although Lopez's character is a cliche Jenny From The Block (what a song that was!), Fiennes' character is worse than a cardboard cut-out. Clearly he was instructed to act as a grinning robot as he never stops smiling. He's so NICE that it's impossible to see why Marisa would fancy such an anodyne man. At a charity ball he gets to be a little more charming as Lopez appears in a gorgeous dress (I would love a dress that is an instant aphrodisiac for millionaires) but back in 'real life' the passion dies and we're left with the leaden reality.


There's one or two lines about race which could have been an interesting element but it's quickly swept under the carpet, and the politics of the piece are incredibly patronising to working class people (can politicians only sympathise with the working classes by sleeping with one of them?).


The only thing that is good about the film- and what makes it redundant- is that Marisa and Chris are capable as individuals. He's not an entirely useless politicians and she's so capable a maid that she's being headhunted to be a manager. Both characters manage to fulfil their ambitions whilst having a relationship (and that's a rarity for a female character). Unfortunately this quality makes the central romance redundant. The key to a successful romcom is that the man and woman 'complete' each other. In Pretty Woman, we understand what attracts Vivian and Edward and what they offer each other. Marisa and Chris have nothing to offer each other apart from the taste of how the other half lives.


Honestly I have never cringed at a film so much. Some well-placed Norah Jones tracks in the love scenes and a stunning dress does not make up for it.

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You cannot have it both ways. A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never. (The Red Shoes, 1948)

Care to elaborate on this one mark? It's been on the fringes of my radar for years being a seminal Jack Hill flick (you know I'm a fan of his seventies blaxploitation and Filipino shot output) but just looks a bit too weird for me. I've heard it likened to Eraserhead which (and I know this is about as fashionable here as purple plaid bell bottoms) always puts me right off. Is it really that weird? The stills look campy as hell but I'm exercising caution. Incidentally I saw Arrow Cult Labs recently put out a dandy R2 release of the film.

Oh and The Music Box is a personal fave.

He wants the other monkey...YOU!

Spider Baby is campy but it just doesn't strike me as funny or entertaining. When it was made, it would have simply been considered crap. I've seen it three times to see if I'm missing something, but aside from some of the music and Sid Haig's wig, it just seems weird for weird's sake. That is when it isn't dull. But you may get an extra charge out of it because of the Hill connection. It does pick up a bit in the second half, action-and-horror-wise, depending on how much you care beforehand.

Thanks. You've just confirmed my suspicions. Weird for weird's sake's my least favourite kind of weird. Sid's wig'll just have to wait.

Super Sleuth (Ben Stoloff, 1937)

Pathfinder (Marcus Nispel, 2007)

The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)

A Matter of Life and Death aka Stairway to Heaven (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1946)

The Next World is an enormous, split-level place where the residents can look down or up depending on their location.
Endless Love (Shana Feste, 2014)

The Long, Hot Summer (Martin Ritt, 1958)

Thunderball (Terence Young, 1965)

A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951)

-


Stella (Kim Hunter) tells Stanley (Marlon Brando) that her familial home has been “lost” by her sister Blanche (Vivien Leigh) whose weight is being guessed by Stanley’s best friend Mitch (Karl Malden).
Something New (Sanaa Hamri, 2006)

+
Big City Blues (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932)

Night Flight (Clarence Brown, 1933)

Airport (George Seaton, 1970)

Pilot Dean Martin and stewardess Jacqueline Bissett enlist little old lady Helen Hayes to help them divert and capture a disturbed passenger with a bomb she’s seated next to.
Prelude to a Kiss (Norman René, 1992)

-
Heathens and Thieves (Megan Peterson & John Douglas Sinclair, 2012)

The Merry Frinks (Alfred E. Green, 1934)

Used Cars (Robert Zemeckis, 1980)

Used car salesman Kurt Russell wants to enter politics where the big money is, but he’s got to do a favor for his employer first.
Going Highbrow (Robert Florey, 1935)

The Audition (Roy Mack, 1932)

Mary Jane’s Pa (William Keighley, 1935)

Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)

Runaway 13-year-olds Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman party at their private beach, while their families and the authorities earch for them.

Nightwatch (1994) - Ole Bornedal

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The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) - Peter Jackson



Burnt By the Sun 2 (2010) - Nikita Mikhalkov



Goldfinger (1964) - Guy Hamilton

+

Wit (2001) - Mike Nichols



A Story of Yonosuke (2013) - Shuichi Okita



Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) - Woody Allen



Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) - Michael Bay

-

Good Will Hunting (1997) - Gus Van Sant



Under the Skin (2014) - Jonathan Glazer

-

Glazer is a seriously good filmmaker. His three movies have all been great and there aren't many modern directors who have me waiting excitedly to see what they do next.

Sane, why do you watch those "crappy hollywood" movies if you rate them so badly? I think there is a certain rating bias, older and more obscure movies are rated systematically higher.

Because you never know which films you'll end up liking. I think tagging most action-based films from Hollywood as 'crappy' is nothing but prejudice.

And I don't see any bias at all, it's simply because Sane prefers older and obscure films. Same thing with your anime love, in our eyes you're terribly biased.

Don't know about Sane but my reason is because I watch everything.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."