Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review [Archive] - Page 24

Captain Steel

04-03-18, 05:13 PM

I really liked the small budget, on location indie film, feeling that Rocky had. I didn't expect that from this film. I thought this would be a glossy, big budget, feel good flick. Instead it felt more personal and more real too. I know that Sylvester Stallone had wrote the script and tried for years to get his movie made. I'm glad he did, it was quite the achievement for a unknowing to get his movie made.

3+

This. The look of the film went perfectly with the spirit of the story - i.e. the indie feel of the film, then having the film rise to the level of a big budget feature reflected Rocky's story of rising from obscurity to championship level.

As you probably know, the story was based on real life NJ boxer Chuck Wepner who went on to challenge world champion Muhammad Ali.

Surprised to find you've never seen this before!

The sequels are a mixed bag, but all in all a pretty successful and entertaining series:
II is a great sequel (though slightly predictable),
III is a personal favorite as some major changes occur and Mr. T. makes his debut as the challenger,
IV has some redundancy and a shlocky Cold War theme,
V... I won't even comment on - I don't even acknowledge it in the lexicon.
VI ("Rocky Balboa" 2006) I thought was a good comeback movie.
And I haven't seen "Creed" yet.

GulfportDoc

04-03-18, 08:23 PM

@GulfportDoc (http://www.movieforums.com/community/member.php?u=96919)

The Hustler is one of my favorite films too. Though I'm not a big fan of The Color of Money.

A lot of people notice accents that are off. I see comments about that all the time here at MoFo. I hardly ever notice bad accents myself, maybe it's because I'm from the west coast where we don't have accents:p At least my ears never hear it.

Wow! Interesting! What were you doing there at the time? What did you see?...If I ever visit Louisiana I'll have to check out those bullet holes!
Well I live only 90 minutes away from Baton Rouge, on the Dixie Riviera. I'd been wanting to tour the State Capitol building for quite awhile. We went on the weekend when the state assemblies were not in session. It's a magnificent building, for years the tallest skyscraper in the South. Up at the top you can see for miles-- seemingly all the way to New Orleans. Stunning view! And the building itself is full of art deco stylings.

~Doc

Citizen Rules

04-03-18, 11:02 PM

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A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Director: Ron Howard
Writers: Akiva Goldsman, Sylvia Nasar (book)
Cast: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly
Genre: Biography, Drama
"After John Nash, a brilliant but asocial mathematician, accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn for the nightmarish."

That photo sums up how director Ron Howard told the story of the brilliant but asocial mathematician John Nash. Like that photo the movie hits all the cues for making one feel you're watching something special. And the story of John Nash who struggled with schizophrenia and later won the Nobel prize should have been a soul stirring film. Instead it focused on too many plot twist and contrived feel good moments, which then takes away the more powerful story that could have been told.

I did mostly like the first 1 hour 45 minutes and the film should have ended shortly after he returned home from the hospital, had another relapse and he ask his wife for one more chance to work out his problems...she then goes over to the bed where he's setting and hugs him. The film could have then faded into black, with a title card that said Princeton 1994 and faded into the pen presentation ceremony, then...faded into the Nobel prize scnee. That's how I would have done it.

As it was, I found the last 30 minutes a drag, and I really got tired of seeing the three imaginary people over and over again. I don't even think showing the three imaginary people following him around worked as a visual representation of schizophrenia. I do know it got tiring seeing it at the end.

I have to believe that playing a genius mathematician who's both asocial and schizophrenic would be tough for any actor. So I'd say Russell Crowe did as good as the script allowed. However there were a few times he seemed to be smirking at the camera, and was more Crowe than Nash. I also got the feeling he played the character as a higher functioning autistic person.

Jennifer Connelly was fine as the supporting wife, acting wise that is... But she's way too beautiful for the story to be convincing. She's so stunningly beautiful in this, that it really took me out of the movie. Not her fault, actually it's the director's fault. They could have had the make-up department make her up less glamorous. All the women in this film were made up like that...as totally smokin hot babes. Which seems silly for a story of such a serious nature.

But... Ed Harris did rock the film in the first 2/3rds of this movie. He's just so good! I wish the Soviet spy bomb plot had been the whole movie, as it was much more interesting than the story told of John Nash.

rating_3

Citizen Rules

04-03-18, 11:13 PM

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Moonlight (2016)

Director: Barry Jenkins
Writers: Barry Jenkins (screenplay), Tarell Alvin McCraney (story)
Cast: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes
Genre: Drama

"A chronicle of the childhood, adolescence and burgeoning adulthood of a young, African-American, gay man growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami."

Moonlight was 2017's Best Picture Academy Award winner. A win that was somewhat controversial as at first the wrong movie was read as the winner.

I liked the first two segments which compose the bulk of the movie. I especially found the middle segment with the teen Chiron to be powerful. In the first two segments we see how Chiron being different in a hostile environment filled with drugs and violence effects him. I really felt bad for him! Especially as his home and mother were so deeply messed up. The scenes with his mother were some of the most powerful that I've seen in any movie. The film really immerses us in his personal story and makes his world seem so real. Good film making! And I wanted more of that story.

But the last act with the muscle bound adult Chiron lost it for me. No longer did I care about him as he looked bad ass enough to take on anyone, thus removing the one dynamic of the film that worked so well...sympathy for the underdog.

rating_3

Ms. M

04-04-18, 05:07 PM

Citizen Rules

04-04-18, 06:11 PM

CR, have you seen Dolans Mother? I'm curious, if you would like it more than We must talk about Kevin?

You are right about Ezra preformance, but for me he had supporting role. He was instumental for the plot, coz it was about mother, who "dare" not to love her child. This issue was taboo few years ago. Maybe still is?
What do you think? :)
I haven't seen Mother (2017), it doesn't sound like my kind of movie. I'm not a horror fan and from I read about it, it sounds like a film I wouldn't like.

I never thought of the mother in We Need to Talk About Kevin daring not to love her child. It seemed to me she kept trying to reach out and love him but he was a bad seed from the day he was born. The movie could be seen as a pro abortion movie.

mark f

04-04-18, 06:22 PM

I think Dani's talking about I Killed My Mother by Xavier Dolan.

Citizen Rules

04-04-18, 10:54 PM

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The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Writers: Fredric M. Frank & Barré Lyndon (screenplay)
Cast: Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, James Stewart, Gloria Grahame
Genre: Drama

"The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer are told against a background of circus spectacle."

Oscar winner for Best Picture...but did it deserve to win over such classics as John Ford's The Quiet Man or the Gary Cooper film High Noon. Well, the answer is complex. No one wanted to vote for the anti McCarthy message film High Noon. And Cecil B. de Mille was highly regarded in Hollywood and yet had never been directly rewarded with an Oscar. And while the story line itself in The Greatest Show on Earth is strictly by the numbers and uninspired...and the acting is mishmash at times, there's no denying the grandeur that was the hallmark of Cecil B. de Mille.

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Much of this film works as a documentary with much actual behind the scenes footage filmed at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Florida camp, and features the actual circus troupe who appears in the film, along with hundreds of animals, and trainloads of equipment and tents.

One of the high lights of this technicolor film is the actual circus performances by the stars. That's Gloria Grahame's face that a very real elephant rest it's foot on! And the multi talented Betty Hutton had to learn how to do the trapezes as did her male co star, Cornell Wilde.

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This was Charlton Heston's first leading role in a movie and launched his career. James Stewart plays his entire role in clown make up so isn't as well remembered but he should be.

At 2.5 hours this is long, but well worth it for the exciting and real circus scenes.

rating_3_5

Ms. M

04-05-18, 04:03 PM

I think Dani's talking about I Killed My Mother by Xavier Dolan.
I haven't seen Mother (2017), it doesn't sound like my kind of movie. I'm not a horror fan and from I read about it, it sounds like a film I wouldn't like.

I never thought of the mother in We Need to Talk About Kevin daring not to love her child. It seemed to me she kept trying to reach out and love him but he was a bad seed from the day he was born. The movie could be seen as a pro abortion movie.

I was thinking about Mommy. Sorry for the mistake.

Speaking about taboo I was thinking rather about the disenchantment of the candy vision of motherhood, like in sweet commercials.
Those only loose associations:)

Citizen Rules

04-07-18, 01:00 PM

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Director: Milos Forman
Writers: Lawrence Hauben & Bo Goldman (screenplay), Ken Kesey (novel)
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman
Genre: Drama

"A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients."

I'm impressed!...I don't even know where to start with my praises! Cuckoo's Nest has one of the best written scripts I've ever had the joy to experience in a movie. So kudos to Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman, both who won Oscars for their effort.

And kudos to the actors, the entire cast was extremely talented:

Jack Nicholson, OMG was he great in this or what! To his credit he played R.P. McMurphy as a man who might just be an actual sociopath or instead might just be one huge jack ass. The questionable nature of his character worked wonders as the audience is in the same shoes as the doctors...we don't know if this man really belongs in a mental institute or not?

At first he seems like the typical anti-hero, a role he often played in other movies, but the film then flips that on it's head when he comes with in seconds of choking Nurse Ratchet to death. Which makes me think he's a real sociopath (a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience.)...and that sounds like R.P. McMurphy to me.

When I was younger I thought he was the victim and the nurse was the evil one...but now I can see those roles being blurred and questioned, and that's brilliant screen writing...and acting.

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Louise Fletcher, holy cow she rocked! I had seen this film once like 30 years ago and I remembered her as this evil conniving, sadistic nurse...boy was I wrong! She gave Nurse Ratched depth...and I could see she believed the actions she took was in the best interest of the patients. And yet she's a control freak and McMurphy challenges her control which then pushes her deeper into her authoritativeness.

Nurse Ratched extruded this passive-aggressive personality that was layered with that overly calm & collected voice, brilliant! But she never really crosses the line and becomes an evil caricature, in fact I rather like her...at least until the end. Both her and Nicholson richly deserved their Oscars.

But you know who I thought was great in this Brad Dourif in his first major movie role. He's always been a favorite actor of mine ever since I seen him in Dune (1984). He was flat out amazing in Star Trek Voyager as a reoccurring character who had become psychotic and murdered a crew member.

The rest of the cast were equally good. I learned in an interview with the director that he hated movies where the supporting actors all looked alike, as the audience can confuse them. So he purposely populated his film with actors that had a very distinctive look. He went with unknown actors at the time, that way he could keep his film feeling more real. The only known actor was Nicholson and he was the audiences proxy into the story, so familiarity was a plus for the lead.

The director had one thing he kept telling the actors over an over, 'keep it natural' and that's why the film works so good, it feels like you're in this mental institute with real patients.

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And if all this wasn't enough, they actually filmed and lived for 10 days in a wing of the Oregon Hospital for mental patients. Gosh that makes this film look so authentic as those are real rooms, real sets.

According to the DVD extras the actors really got into their roles and kept in character the entire time. Oh and the head doctor at the beginning of the film, he's a real doctor who worked at Oregon Hospital.

rating_5

GulfportDoc

04-07-18, 01:59 PM

Nice review, CR. It's a great film done during Nicholson's hot heyday. It's interesting that Kirk Douglas had starred in the Broadway production of it 10 years earlier, and subsequently bought the screen rights, but couldn't get it produced as a film. He finally gave it to his son Michael, who was able to get funding for it. It was comparatively low budget, but made a fortune at the box office. I'm sure he cut his dad in for some of the cheese..;)

I agree with you about Louise Fletcher as "Nurse Ratched" (what a name). She had a very strong performance. I hated her in 1975, but now I think she's "hot"...:)

~Doc

Gideon58

04-07-18, 02:14 PM

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[CENTER]One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

[LEFT]Director: Milos Forman
Writers: Lawrence Hauben & Bo Goldman (screenplay), Ken Kesey (novel)
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman
Genre: Drama

rating_5

Excellent review of this classic, Citizen...glad that you singled out Brad Dourif, who was clearly robbed of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Gideon58

04-07-18, 02:27 PM

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The Ten Commandments (1956)

Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Cast: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo, Debra Pagent, John Derek, Cedric Hardwicke, Judith Anderson, Vincent Price, John Carradine
Length: 3hours 40minutes [SIZE=2]

Enjoyed your review of this movie, but I have always found getting through it a chore...despite at least a dozen efforts, I have never been able to get through this movie from beginning to end...it's just too damn long. Yul Brynner is superb though.

Gideon58

04-07-18, 02:34 PM

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Moonlight (2016)

[COLOR=#224C76][SIZE=4][COLOR=Black][SIZE=3]Director: Barry Jenkins
Writers: Barry Jenkins (screenplay), Tarell Alvin McCraney (story)
Cast: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes
Genre: Drama
[SIZE=3]

Glad you watched this movie Citizen but we're in opposite camps on this one...I LOVED the adult Chirone sequence and I think the last 20 minutes or so of this movie, when Chirone and Kevin reunite at Kevin's restaurant, is nothing short of AMAZING!!!

Ms. M

04-07-18, 03:12 PM

I'm not suprised You rated One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest so high. Everything in this movie is perfect. The best is the plot ofcourse, but it's the clame to fame of Ken Kesey, who wrote the book, but Milos Forman made from it masterpiece.

Citizen Rules

04-07-18, 09:54 PM

...I agree with you about Louise Fletcher as "Nurse Ratched" (what a name). She had a very strong performance. I hated her in 1975, but now I think she's "hot"...😊
~Doc Her nurse's assistant, wasn't bad looking either:D

Excellent review of this classic, Citizen...glad that you singled out Brad Dourif, who was clearly robbed of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. I haven't seen all the nominations for Best Supporting Actor for 1975 movies. I looked it up and I would have gave it to Chris Sarandon for Dog Day Afternoon.

Enjoyed your review of this movie, but I have always found getting through it a chore...despite at least a dozen efforts, I have never been able to get through this movie from beginning to end...it's just too damn long. Yul Brynner is superb though. I watched in two nights. Try that. After the parting of the Red Sea, shut it off and see the second part the next night. The first part in Egypt is the best, IMO.

I'm not suprised You rated One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest so high. Everything in this movie is perfect. The best is the plot ofcourse, but it's the clame to fame of Ken Kesey, who wrote the book, but Milos Forman made from it masterpiece.
Milos Forman:up:

Captain Steel

04-07-18, 10:04 PM

Citizen Rules

04-07-18, 10:16 PM

Rules, did you ever see the Christian Bale remake of the Moses story?
It's called Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014).
It lacks the grandeur and epic feel of The Ten Commandments (and of course, no "Technicolor"!) But it's got some decent special effects (and some quite obvious CGI) - it makes the parting of the Red Sea almost look believable. Bale just seems an odd choice for Moses. It adds some twists to the story that aren't in the Charlton Heston movie (and also aren't in the Biblical account). It would be interesting to watch the two in a near time frame to compare them.
No, I never seen it. I was aware of the title, but I thought it was like a DC/Marvel superhero type movie. I might watch it, I like Bale, though I see Ridley Scott directed it and haven't thought much of his latest work. You know I always feel bad for Ramses:(

Citizen Rules

04-07-18, 11:25 PM

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Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962)

Director: Charles Walters
Writers: Ben Hecht (book), Charles MacArthur (book)
Cast: Doris Day, Jimmy Durante, Stephen Boyd
Genre: Musical

A small family run circus in the early 1900s called the Wonder Circus, is in deep financial trouble because pops (Jimmy Durante) can't stay away from dice games. His lovely daughter Kitty (Doris Day) does what she can to stave off the creditors. But there's a big powerful circus in town trying to steal all of their talent, the Noble Circus. Enter the new mysterious guy, (Stephen Boyd) who just might be able to help save the Wonder Circus.

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Billy Rose's Jumbo marks a lot of last...it was the last time Doris Day starred in a full blown musical. It was the last movie made by a brilliant director, Busby Berkeley, who was the 2nd unit director here. And it was one of the last big musicals made by MGM....and it flopped. It was the start of the 1960s and this type of family musical had lost it's appeal to a new generation of movie goers, and were on the way out.

I wish I could say this movie that marked an end of an era was memorable, but it ain't so! The songs are mostly forgettable and the romance between Dorris Day and Stephen Boyd is something akin to warm flat beer. It's there, but it's none to lively.

Unlike the other well known classic circus movie, The Greatest Show On Earth...Jumbo doesn't have much in the way to offer in spectacular circus feats. Come to think of it, Billy Rose's Jumbo is lack luster all the way around.

rating_2_5

Luis

04-07-18, 11:40 PM

Woah, your review really made me want to get to One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest, GAAH, so soon.

Citizen Rules

04-07-18, 11:41 PM

Woah, your review really made me want to get to One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest, GAAH, so soon.Do it!

Luis

04-07-18, 11:51 PM

Do it!

Coming up very soon on my watchlist, so excited!

cricket

04-08-18, 08:38 PM

Citizen Rules

04-08-18, 10:50 PM

I often hear The Greatest Show on Earth mentioned as one of the worst best picture winners but I quite liked it.

The Godfather II is not a favorite of mine although I need to see it again.

Glad you enjoyed Brigsby Bear and I also didn't think much of The Glass Castle. I read your review of The Glass Castle, I think me and you were on the same page. I liked it that you called it a drunken Captain Fantastic, ha! That went through my head when I watched it too. So far 2017 hasn't been that great of a movie year for me. But I probably just haven't watched the good ones yet.

Citizen Rules

04-08-18, 11:04 PM

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Forrest Gump (1994)

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers: Winston Groom (novel), Eric Roth (screenplay)
Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise
Genre: Fantasy Drama, Romance

"The presidencies of Kennedy and Johnson, Vietnam, Watergate, and other history unfold through the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75."

Movies are like a box of chocolates...you have to poke your finger into a whole bunch of them before you find that special one. Forrest Gump is like that lone caramel covered chocolate, that when you find it, it's very rewarding...and tasty too!

Forrest Gump is one unique movie...There's no antagonist and there's no conventional plot structure to the story. Instead we see Forrest go through life and experience it from the eyes of a child. Even as an adult Forrest Gump is very child like in how he views the world around him. He sees life without cynicism or bitterness, his is an open book and despite his slowness he embraces life and life embraces him. He's a lucky man.

But this is no fluffy-sappy movie. We see that Jenny is the antithesis of Forrest. Jenny goes through hell in her life. She's sexual abused as a little girl, and ends up a lost soul. She's someone that life has chewed up and spat out. Life is so hard for Jenny that she tries to kill her pain with drugs. At the end she doesn't even want to live...While thousands of miles away, simple Forest only wants to be with his true love, Jenny. He can see the good in her, thanks to his own simple mindedness.

Definitely a deep movie and one that surprised me with it's sophisticated film making, and deeper than you might think story telling.

rating_4_5+

Ms. M

04-09-18, 03:13 PM

I really like your Forrest Gump rev:) Glad you enjoyed it. It's one of my fav movies.

Citizen Rules

04-10-18, 05:59 PM

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Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Director: Frank Lloyd
Writers: Talbot Jennings & Jules Furthman (screenplay)
Cast: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama

"A tyrannical ship captain decides to exact revenge on his abused crew after they form a mutiny against him, but the sailor he targets had no hand in it. "

Academy Award Winner of Best Picture 1936

It blows my mind to think that only eight years earlier the first talkies were being made. Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935 took movie making techniques, decades into the future. I mean look at that screen shot. So what! you say...you've seen many scenes like that before. But not audiences back in 1935! They must have been blown away to see real ships on the real ocean, when other movies at the time would have had a tiny scale model in a tank with rear projection, and actors on a set built to look like a ships deck.

So look at that scene again through the eyes of 1935, and you'll see how impressive it is. That's three real ships in that scene and the staging with the deckhand in the foreground and the Bounty and Pandora in the background, with a procession of row boats trailing off into the scene...All of that staging just for one shot! It really shows great care of detail. The entire movie is like that.

Audiences in 1935 were treated to on location shooting in Tahiti, one of the first times a movie did that. For many that would have been their first look at such a far away exotic place. For me what Mutiny on the Bounty achieved cinematically in 1935 is nothing short of amazing.

The story of the Bounty is a literature classic and it's a great tale and true, which to me makes it all the more fascinating. Clark Gable later said that Mutiny on the Bounty was the best movie he had starred in. He's powerful here as a man driven to the point of mutiny, he commands the screen whenever he's on. Charles Laughton as the cruel and sadistic Captain Bligh is the stuff of acting legends. Laughton is always good in his movies and here he's at his most colorful.

I enjoyed the spectacle of 18th century sailing vessels on the high seas and the epic adventure in the exotic south pacific islands.

rating_3_5++

Citizen Rules

04-10-18, 06:24 PM

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Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Director: Jonathan Demme
Writers: Thomas Harris (novel), Ted Tally (screenplay)
Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence A. Bonney
Genre: Thriller

"A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated, manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer."

Academy Award Best Picture Winner (1992)

My favorite scenes were the interaction between Hannibal Lecter and Clarice, which were brilliant!...Especially Hannibal's cold reading of Clarice at their first meeting and his uncanny abilities of perception.

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal, he sure created a memorable character and did an amazing job of being intense, and weird, and yet likable too. It was quite the performance and he won an Oscar for it.

I really wanted to see him and Clarice have some sort of bond and that's why their scenes together were my favorite. It was a pretty great script idea that a psycho killer would respect this 'little' FBI trainee. I say 'little' because the cinematography goes to lengths to show Clarice surrounded at different times by really tall men, like in the elevator scene. That's not an accident, it shows us that physically she is surrounded by people much stronger than her, which then makes her task all the more daunting.

Jodie Foster won an Oscar for Best Actress and she was sublime in this movie! It's a pity that most fans don't give her the credit due. Her acting was always sincere (even Hannibal appreciated that aspect of her character). In Jodie Foster's reactionary close up shots to Anthony Hopkins, she convinces us, that the horror of Hannibal is real.

The music score: perfect, perfect, perfect. I was never aware of it, except the couple times I made a conscious effort to listen for it. That then makes it effective.

The sets: I'm a sucker for set detail and man is this movie loaded with cool sets! I loved the psychiatric jail where we first see Hannibal. The heavy cobble stones and rusting metal made it look like a long forgotten dungeon where these derelicts of society languished in darkness.

The second temporary holding cell for Hannibal was memorable too. It was this large cell surrounded by vastness of the otherwise empty room.

I really like Buffalo Bill's house it was loaded with weird looking stuff, one could spend hours just examining each frame for hidden details Good lighting too in there. Notice how his basement holding pit was made of the same big cobblestones that was in Hannibal's cell?

There were some scenes I didn't care for, they were just too dark for my taste. And I think it was a mistake having Hannibal be out on the run and free. I'm sure that was done with the hopes of a sequel being made. But I would have loved an epilogue with Clarice visiting Hannibal one more time, in his new permanent cell. I think they could have had a touching, yet uncomfortable moment there, as a way to reflect back on the journey they both took.

rating_3+

Citizen Rules

04-10-18, 06:35 PM

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Gladiator (2000)

Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: David Franzoni (story), David Franzoni (screenplay)
Cast: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama

"When a Roman General is betrayed, and his family murdered by an emperor's corrupt son, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge."

I'd only seen this once and that was first run in the theater years ago. At that time I loved it and I've been wanting to rewatch it for the longest time. And so I finally did...

I find myself surprised that I didn't love it this time around. I don't have any real problems with the movie and it was fine for what it did. It's just that in all those years my movie taste has changed considerably and what I once liked in movies, I no longer do.

Gladiator delivers on visual spectacle and fight sequences, as one would expect from a Ridley Scott film. But I've never been into action movies or martial art films so the fighting sequences were meh for me, especially the opening fight scene. I hate that filming style of reduced frame rate, fast edits and close ups, it makes me dizzy. That technique is used to shoot a lot of fights in movies and it just feels unsatisfying to me.

Ridley Scott doesn't really focus on the underlying story. Oh sure he alludes to it and the premise of an aging caesar who wished to restore Rome to the people by restoring power to the Senate....while his son grabs power and seeks to do just the opposite, would seem to be a powerful subject, but Ridley doesn't go into that deep enough. I wanted more palace intrigue and less elephants and giraffes. Ridley loves his production design, but here it gets in the way of the story.

This time around I actually rooted for Joaquin Phoenix to win! Sure he was insecure, manipulative and incestuous...and that made him interesting. Joaquin rocks his role and was the most interesting thing in the movie.

Russell Crowe was uninteresting to me in this, just too stoic. I ended up not liking him so when all this bad stuff happens to him, I didn't even care. I was thinking what could Commodus do to get rid of him once and for all!

Like I said, I didn't hate it, but I had a hard time getting through the 2 1/2 hours, as it felt like a 90 minute story to me.

rating_3

Citizen Rules

04-11-18, 10:54 PM

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The Godfather (1972)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Writers: Mario Puzo & Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay), Mario Puzo (novel)
Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan
Genre: Drama Crime

So, I finally watched The Godfather. Most impressively I never checked how much time was left in the film. That's amazing for me, especially as it's a 3 hour movie and usually if I'm getting bored I'll check the time remaining at least a half dozen times.

I really enjoyed the first hour with Marlon Brando, especially the wedding sequence. At this point the film reminded me of Elizabeth (1998) as the godfather was like royalty and had his own protocols for respect, while granting an 'audience' and dispersing 'favors and edicts'. That was fascinating to see. Marlon Brando's Don Corleone was like a monarch on the throne, cool stuff.

The second act was interesting as a mob war broke out and I enjoyed seeing so many stars in one movie. Damn! there's way too many to name. I swear Abe Vigoda looked ancient even way back in 1972. And on the flip side Diane Keaton never looked younger. My favorite subplot was the Johnny Fontane character who was based on real life Frank Sinatra.

I did get a bit bored by the third act. Just too many characters for any of them to become fully fleshed out and become real to me. This is what happens when a complex lengthy novel is brought to the screen: either the director has to cut characters & sub plots out of the story...or...spend less time on the development of them. And that's what keeps me from loving this film, it really needed to be a mini series to cover all the vast material in Mario Puzo's novel.

So I appreciate this film and enjoyed watching it, but I'm not sure what I will rate this at as it didn't 'speak' to me. By that I mean I don't find myself pondering the story the next day, nor did it elevate my thoughts or make me feel deeply.

rating_3_5

Citizen Rules

04-12-18, 10:44 PM

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It Happened One Night (1934)

Director: Frank Capra
Writers: Robert Riskin (screenplay), Samuel Hopkins Adams (short story)
Cast: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly
Genre: Comedy Romance

"A spoiled heiress running away from her family is helped by a man who is actually a reporter in need of a story."

The movie that made Frank Capra a household name and was the first film to win all of the top five Academy Award categories, I.E. Oscar Grand Slam: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. The Grand Slam wasn't repeated until One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest in 1976. The only other film to do this was The Silence of the Lamb.

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Left to right: Little Shirley Temple presents the Oscar for Best Actress to Claudette Colbert, who didn't expect to win and had to be fetched from the train station. Middle, director Frank Capra holds his Oscar for Best Director a win that marked the start of a bright directing career...Right, Lionel Barrymore admires the Oscar that Clark Gable just won for Best Actor.

It Happened One Night was a small budget film from a then smaller studio, Columbia. Neither Clark Gable or Claudette Colbert had much hope of this quickie film shot mostly on location in only 30 days of making much of an impact. But it did! Audiences loved the smart ass banter between the two leads, and unlike other romantic comedies of the time, the two actors never get all lovey dovey. Gable never even kisses Claudette. This made the film stand out. The everyday working man played by Clark Gable was someone audiences could relate to. And they loved seeing the rich girl having to rough it on the open road, which was just desserts for a depression era audience.

This is not a screwball comedy, I don't know when this was labeled a screwball comedy, but it's not. It's more of a comic road trip movie, in which the rich spoiled girl at every turn loses a bit of something, until she's penniless and without a change of clothes or even food to eat. It's very much like the John Candy film Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Claudette Colbert is very charming in this, her leg, hitch hiking scene has become a classic. Clark Gable is really in fine form and played a role that he hadn't done before which was the roguish smart ass. He would go on to big things and often played similar characters based on his role here.

It Happened One Night is one of the great classic films of the 1930s!
rating_5

Citizen Rules

04-13-18, 03:30 PM

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The Shape of Water (2017)

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writers: Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor (screenplay)
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon
Genre: Drama-Romance, Fantasy

Winner of the Oscar for Best Picture

I'd call this, The Shape of Things to Come. Because this is where Hollywood is heading: Dumbed down, sappy scripts...with really good actors and stylish sets...Add to that mix, a few socially relative messages tacked on for 21st sensibilities, and you get the illusion of something far more grandiose than the potboiler script can actually deliver...The Shape of Water masquerades as something far greater than it really is.

It's a film that's all dressed up with a du jour color pallet, in this case it's teal, not green, TEAL. Teal is everywhere in the sets and clothing...that is until our girl Friday takes a, um spin, with the creature and starts seeing cherry red.

All these go-nowhere add-ons creates an illusion of film grandiose and these mag wheels and racing stripes on mom's 4 door car, won it an Oscar.

Did I mention that the movie dragged for me! I didn't buy into the romance that happened way to quick, and the Soviet spies were a dopey script idea right out of a B budget movie. Come to think of it, if this had been a low budget movie made in the early 1980s, it would be one of those so bad you like it flicks.

Though I have to say, as over the top that his cattle-prod wielding ass was, Michael Shannon the actor was damn good in this. He was so intense and so into his character that I was kind of rooting for him. I mean he's hard not to like, he's so over the top and yet totally focused, he's a fine actor. Too bad this wasn't done in a black comedy style, then the finger ripping scene would have been a hoot!

I liked Richard Jenkins in this and I really liked Sally Hawkins too, then again I always like her. I thought her deep friendship with her closeted gay next door neighbor was the best part of the film. That felt real and special.

But I wish the creature idea had been left at the Marvel/DC doorstep, and a more serious film about outsider people struggling in the early 1960s and feeling isolated because of their differences....that would have made a much more stronger film, than what we get.

rating_2_5

Citizen Rules

04-13-18, 11:08 PM

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Wonder Wheel (2017)

Director: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Cast: Kate Winslet, Jim Belushi, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple
Genre: Drama

"On Coney Island in the 1950s, a lifeguard tells the story of a middle-aged carousel operator, his beleaguered wife, and the visitor who turns their lives upside-down."

Oh yeah...Weird Woody finally put out another good one! Seen this the other night and I'm already wanting to see it again!

Allen uses the lifeguard character at the beginning of his film to serendipitously tell the viewer that Wonder Wheel contains symbolism, as the lifeguard says: he's working on a play and the poet in him loves symbolism...And the romantic in him loves very dramatic characters.

And that's what you get, stunning use of colors and creative lighting, the likes of which I've never seen before. The colors in context come from the neon lights of Coney Island but in the deeper scheme of things the colors and lighting change, as does the mood of the scene or change in the character's mood. It's all quite nicely done.

The family is colorful too, to say the least, in a dismal but connectable way. The lifeguard mentions the works of Eugene O'Neill and that's Woody letting you know O'Neill is his muse for Wonder Wheel.

Hugo Kudos to the actors!

I've never been a big fan of Jim Belushi's but OMG he delivers in this one. I didn't even think of him as Belushi. He really comes across like a real life Ralph Kramden from the 50s The Honeymooners. But not as comical, but every bit there.

Kate Winslet has been a favorite of mine for a long while, here she takes it up a couple notches! I read online that she was unsure if she could plays such an intensely troubled person while delivering brutal honest. But she does!

Great story too and smooth long takes with out jarring edits, as you would expect from a skilled film maker like Woody Allen.

So far this is my favorite film of 2017

rating_4+

Citizen Rules

04-16-18, 03:38 PM

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Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972)

Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (original title)
Director: Werner Herzog
Writer: Werner Herzog
Cast: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo
Genre: Adventure, Drama

"In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado."

One of the most visually stunning films I've ever seen! I was hooked at the very first scene. All those men coming over the Peruvian mountains on those steep narrow paths, and in the background is more men snaking up the mountain side far into the distance. Talk about depth in the composition. That scene went on a long time....and I'm so glad it did. Werner Herzog gives the viewer ample time to just 'be there' on the mountain side where time seems to stand still. That intentional slowness by holding the shots makes then the journey by those 100's of men carrying tons of weight seem all the more arduousness. Such brilliant direction & cinematography.

I loved the first river scene with the camera mounted low on the raft... we can feel the muddy river spinning the raft around and around. It all seems so hopeless for the men as the river looks as it will swallow them up at any second.

The jungle scenes too added to this foreboding feeling that the men were heading deeper into this beautiful hell...and it's all because of a driven mad man, Aguirre played with equally contorted madness by Klaus Kinski.

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In the last part of the movie we can feel the weight of this doomed journey, as the raft is battered and the surviving men are forced to eat algae that they pluck from between the water soaked logs of the raft. We see hope is lost as the men drift deeper into the unknown, all for the lust of the golden pipe dream of El Dorado.

Very impressive film, one that I want to watch again.

rating_4

KeyserCorleone

04-16-18, 04:32 PM

It took you 890 reviews to finally watch The Godfather? Practically the essential New Hollywood movie?

I feel it's the greatest movie ever made. That's why I reviewed that one first. It spoke to me in ways Ihad never seen in movies before. And while I've only seen 750 movies or so, I'm getting through a lot of classics and trying to get through top 100 movie lists from websites and magazines. Really, The Godfather screams "this is what a film has to be" to me, and never faisl to deliver. But it may be a "watch more than once" movie.

Of course, I loved the third film almost as much as the first to. Coppola's my favorite director.

Citizen Rules

04-16-18, 11:23 PM

It took you 890 reviews to finally watch The Godfather? Even worse than that:p it took me 10,000 movies until I finally watched it. I just wasn't that interested in seeing it. I'm glad I did watch it though.
Coppola's my favorite director Coppola's good. Have you seen Rumble Fish? that's one of his more artsy type films. I thought it was pretty special.

KeyserCorleone

04-17-18, 02:16 AM

Rumble Fish was almost fantastic. It just needed a little more coherency.

Citizen Rules

04-17-18, 11:51 AM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=43785&stc=1&d=1523976545 The Station Agent (2003)

Director: Tom McCarthy
Writer: Tom McCarthy
Cast: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale
Genre: Drama, Comedy

A week in the life of Finn, a 'little person'...as we experience his world and the way people relate to him, after he relocates to an abandoned train station in rural New Jersey.

I liked it! This is a Citizen Rules type movie😊 It was refreshing to see a film that wasn't preachy, wasn't in your face, and didn't spoonfeed the audience. The Station Agent is much more subtle that that. Subtle is something I look for in movies.

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Another film with the same subject matter might have shown Finn being harassed and bullied because of his size. Then he would find a mentor, learn to fight back and triumph in the end. That would be cliched...and it's been done a zillion times.

Thank goodness The Station Agent is fresh and more grounded in reality. I'd call it a slice of life as most of what happens is low key. Finn only gets shoved around once, and it's not because he's a 'little person' but because he interferes in a scuffle between Michelle Williams' character and her redneck boyfriend. And yet on Finn's face we can see his inner emotions as he's pushed into a car, hurting his arm and unable to fend off the bigger guy. That scene says a lot about the inner workings of Finn's mind and how all the chance encounters he's had with people has made him withdrawn and untrusting of others.

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He just wants to be left alone to read his books...and yet there are people who want to be his friend, if he can just put aside the past hurt and learn to trust them.

I liked Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson in this. I don't think I've seen Peter Dinklage before but I have seen Patricia Clarkson and always seem to like her and the movies she's in.

rating_4

Citizen Rules

04-17-18, 12:02 PM

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Glory (1989)

Director: Edward Zwick
Writers: Kevin Jarre (screenplay), Lincoln Kirstein (book)
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes
Genre: Drama, History

"Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates."

That was my favorite scene from the movie. I loved the location and staging of the attack on Fort Wagner. There's something about the tranquility of the ocean and the softness of the sand, that contrasted so poignantly with the men dying in such a lovely spot.

My other favorite scene was the military training camp where the soldiers were drilled in the disciplines of soldiering. That set looked real to me. I haven't read anything about the movie, but I bet that was an actual set, maybe even from the Civil War era. The bricks were weathered and in places the walls had crumbled away. It looked old, very old. Very cool.

I was OK with the music score as it made the story, and the movie feel grand. I believe the director chose that score and made the film the way he did so as to impart a larger than life, momentous feeling to his story of the soldiers' struggle to gain respect by gaining the right to die in battle.

I didn't care for Matthew Broderick or his second in command the tall blonde guy...I did like Morgan Freeman and the black actor with the glasses was good too...It really wasn't an actors movie as much as it was a thematic movie, and a powerful theme it was.

rating_3

Gideon58

04-18-18, 01:41 PM

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Glory (1989)

[FONT=Book Antiqua][SIZE=5][SIZE=4][FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3]Director: Edward Zwick
Writers: Kevin Jarre (screenplay), Lincoln Kirstein (book)
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes
Genre: Drama, History

and the black actor with the glasses was good too...It really wasn't an actors movie as much as it was a thematic movie, and a powerful theme it was.

rating_3

The actor with the glasses is named Andre Braugher...his other film credits include Primal Fear and Get on the Bus. He won an Emmy for his role on the NBC drama Homicide: Life on the Street and currently co-stars with Andy Samberg on the FOX sitcom Brooklyn Nine Nine.

Captain Steel

04-18-18, 01:55 PM

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Glory (1989)

rating_3

Only a 3? I give this movie a solid 5 any day. It's one where I've never started watching it and was able to turn it off (even though I've seen it many times). It's a personal favorite as far as period pieces, war movies, and historical / racial dramas.

I do admit that Broderick and Elwes were odd choices, but I somehow think they were supposed to add to the contrast of races and age (plus there's the contrast of placing 2 young comedic white actors in dead-serious lead roles).

Citizen Rules

04-18-18, 02:08 PM

Only a 3? I give this movie a solid 5 any day. It's one where I've never started watching it and was able to turn it off (even though I've seen it many times). It's a personal favorite as far as period pieces, war movies, and historical / racial dramas.

I do admit that Broderick and Elwes were odd choices, but I somehow think they were supposed to add to the contrast of races and age (plus there's the contrast of placing 2 young comedic white actors in dead-serious lead roles).Nah, I didn't care for it all that much. I hate to rank on 'Ferris Bueller' but Matthew Broderick was one of the weak points of the film. It's a weird film in that it seems like I should like it, but just the way it was edited and put together didn't seem fulfilling to me.

It was in the 15th Hall of Fame and here's my voting list.

1 American Graffiti (1973)
2 Rebecca (1940)
3 The Elephant Man
4 The Station Agent (2003)
5 L'Avventura (1960)
6 In the Mood For Love(2000)
7 Aguirre,The Wrath of God (1972)
8 Out of the Blue (1980)
9 Glory (1989)
10 Shallow Grave (1994)
11 Hedwig Angry Inch (2001)

Captain Steel

04-18-18, 02:23 PM

I understand. Perhaps a future viewing down the road might change it's score.
I admit that initially Broderick was a bit hard to swallow (at the time he was typecast as a teen-movie protagonist), but I did like the movie a lot after my first viewing and still like it today.

Beyond Broderick, I love the cast - the regiment soldiers are convincing: the whole antagonism between former slave "Trip" and educated northerner "Thomas" (with Morgan Freeman serving as referee and trying to maintain unity). While actors like Bob Gunton, Cliff De Young and Richard Riehle made for some good "villains."

Citizen Rules

04-18-18, 10:10 PM

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The Yards (2000)

Director: James Gray
Writers: James Gray, Matt Reeves
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron
Genre: Crime Drama

A hidden gem...why this film isn't more well known is beyond me?

The Yards has it all: An intelligent script based on true events about crime and corruption among the contractors who repair the subway cars in Queens, New York. It has a family run crime business feeling to it, that fans of The Godfather should enjoy. And it has a damn good performance from one of the best actors working today, Joaquin Phoenix.

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It has at it's heart, a man who was just released from jail and is trying to go straight (Mark Wahlberg). He's in need of a job and ends up working for his corrupt uncle (James Cain) and finds himself in a dark rail yard, sabotaging trains. Then he finds he's been ID by a cop and his uncle decides he's a threat to the business and must go....Heavy stuff and it's all handled very well.

My favorite thing about the movie is the side story about a determined and sometimes emotionally controlling man (Joaquin Phoenix) and his distant girlfriend (Charlize Theron), who's growing increasingly scared of her boyfriend.

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The best thing about The Yards is that all of it's story is grounded and so feels real and not like some over the top Hollywood flick and as it's based on real incidents the story is even more impressive.

rating_4

Miss Vicky

04-18-18, 10:37 PM

It's been quite some time since I watched The Yards, but I do remember not being especially enamored with it, aside from really liking Phoenix's performance.

If you're interested, Joaquin and director James Gray worked on three other movies together - We Own the Night, Two Lovers, and The Immigrant. I'm not crazy about the first two, again aside from the performances, but I really enjoyed The Immigrant.

nat666195

04-18-18, 10:42 PM

Citizen Rules

04-18-18, 10:44 PM

nat666195

04-18-18, 10:50 PM

Miss Vicky

04-18-18, 10:51 PM

You may also like reservation road aswell.

Excellent movie. Different director, though.

Citizen Rules

04-22-18, 01:25 PM

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American Graffiti (1973)

Director: George Lucas
Writers: George Lucas, Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Wolfman Jack
Genre: Drama Comedy Serendipity......That says it all.

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Watching this last night for the first time in years was an emotional experience for me. I could write a novel why but I won't...besides who cares about my teen years, right? Instead I'll tell you something I learned about the movie's history.

I had always thought of American Graffiti as this big Hollywood film made by a famous director. Boy was I wrong!

American Graffiti was made by an unknown at the time director who was literally fresh out of film school. Today we think of George Lucas as a powerhouse director, with billions of dollars. When he made this movie he was just a young guy and had won a 'grant' from Universal to make a tiny budget, auteur film with him having creative control. That was part of Universal's independent film maker project which was inspired by the success of the 'indie home made movie' Easy Rider. There was about a half dozen films made in this program by up and coming film makers.

Lucas wrote the script and the studio gave him funding of only $775,000 and 28 days to shoot it. Richard Dreyfus called it 'gorilla film making'. They worked around the clock and lived on location in a motel. The actors were all unknowns, many were working other jobs besides acting just to make a living.

What Lucas final showed the studio the movie it was something they had never seen. An unconventional story that followed four different characters in a unrelated way. There were no big character arcs, no big plots. Instead it was shot documentary style with the actors improvising some of their lines. Lucas deliberately used the takes that had small flubs in them so as to make these people look real. This was shot on the street with cameras mounted on the cars, not in a studio, for more reality.

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At a movie screening the audience loved it! But the head of Universal studio hated it. He told the producer, Francis Ford Coppola that the film was to unconventional and wouldn't be released. Coppola then tells the studio head that the young director is a visionary and the studio head should get down on his knees and thank the young director for giving the studio such an amazing film.

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Instead of accepting the film the studio shelved it and even considered releasing it on TV. They just could not see how a movie could have four inter cut stories going on at the same time....Today most TV dramas and many movies are made in the multi story, inter cut style that American Graffiti helped introduce.

Is this the best movie ever made, probably not..but it's one of the most influential ground breaking films to be made.

rating_5

Citizen Rules

04-24-18, 11:02 PM

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Rebecca (1940)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Daphne Du Maurier (novel), Robert E. Sherwood (screenplay)
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
Genre: Drama, Mystery

Is Joan Fontaine adorable in this film or what! I don't care what Rebecca looked like, she couldn't have held a candle to Joan. And interestingly enough we never see Rebecca, not at all. Hitchcock allows our minds to fill in the blanks of what the drowned beauty looked like. That works wonders for creating tension in this Gothic tale.

It's very telling that Joan's character has no name. Think about it, we never hear her first name she's always referred to as Mrs de Winter. It's like she only exists in Rebecca's shadow, a non person struggling for a breath....Surrounding her is the suffocating Manderley estate where everything screams Rebecca, especially the house keeper Mrs. Danvers, who's strange obsession with Rebecca adds a whole another layer to the film.

I'd have to say that Joan Fontaine was one of the most skilled actresses working in the 1940s. Just check out Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) to see what I mean. Sure there were bigger names with more colorful personalities, like Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn....but watch Joan's body language in this movie. She rolls her shoulders forward and makes her self smaller...Everything she does from her posture to her facial expressions comes out of method acting, she is her character.

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And the script too is so brilliant too. For most of the movie her husband is out right rude to her, so was her lady boss at the beginning of the film. Then there's the house keeper who brow beats poor little Joan at every turn. It's like she's about to be swallowed up by this world that she has entered...Then after we learn the truth about Rebecca, her husband becomes caring and warmer towards her. Finally as we get close to the end of the film, Joan's character has found herself and can now stand firmly on her own two feet.

There might be more 'juicy and tantalizing' Hitch films, but as far as I'm concerned Rebecca is Hitch's best.

rating_5

Citizen Rules

04-25-18, 10:49 PM

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The Elephant Man (1980)

Director: David Lynch
Writers: Christopher De Vore & Eric Bergren (screenplay)
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft
Genre: Biography, Drama Grace under adversity

Such was the man they called a freak, Joseph 'John' Merrick. David Lynch's film poignantly captures the spirit of that man. A spirit filled with grace and dignity, Merrick maintains his humanity despite the brutalities that other men have showed him.

This is a movie and movies are art, and as such uses the craft of the film maker to capture the essences of the man they called an Elephant Man. That essence was gentle by nature, a man who wanted to be good. He didn't seek revenge on those who would hurt him. He sought the bravery of understanding, he was innocently wronged and yet doesn't harbor hatred....I found his character inspiring.

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Moved I was...I felt teary eyed during several scenes and for me that's an extreme rarity. The tea scene where he's invited into the home of Dr Treves (Anthony Hopkins) and is graciously met by the Doctor's lovely wife, was quite a touching scene. So was the meeting with the stage actress played to perfection by Anne Bancroft.

I loved this story with it's humanity....and I loved the way David Lynch filmed it too. Lynch creates a visual world where the 19th century London comes alive with it's richly detailed cobblestone streets, hulking steaming machinery, all filmed with effective directional lighting that gives great texture, on black and white film stock. What a visual feast the film is! Loved the surrealist multi exposure scenes...especially the elephants charging which adds an air of mysticism to this unique story. Bravo.

rating_5

Citizen Rules

04-25-18, 11:02 PM

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L'Avventura (1960)

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Writers: Michelangelo Antonioni (screenplay)
Cast: Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti, Lea Massari
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Romance
Language: Italian

"A woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. During the search, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other."

There's a lot to like here. Mostly I like how the film invites us to come along for a boat ride and later a tour of Sicily. It's like we're part of the group and we are along for the ride. The film never varies from that feeling either. I found it relaxing in a way, as the scenes are never rushed, nor do they even feel like scenes. It felt like I was hanging out and on a vacation.

When we get to the rocky island and most everyone goes ashore and the Captain says they are some old ruins on top of the island...I was thinking 'what a cool island, but we'll never get to see it.' But we did! We go right up to the top and see the ruins and this gorgeous view of the sea. Then we go inside that little building that's closed off. I like that the film just spends time allowing the feel of the place to soak in and shows us around.

Truth be told, I was glad Anna (Lee Massari) disappeared. She was kind of a pain in the ass and besides her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti) was so much more interesting, so I was glad when she disappeared. I wasn't surprised either as the film had already established that she was: unhappy, and a liar with the shark incident, and took a very dangerous dive from a moving boat (which was a pretty impressive scene). So yeah, I'm not surprised that she was the one to disappear.

The mystery of the disappearance was interesting as it was actively pursued. But then at the right time in the film, the director puts the ex fiance together on a train with the blonde friend Claudia. The film then shifts the focus onto the relationship between the two. It was interesting to see the effects of their lust, versus their guilt over the possible death of their friend/fiance. Well, not Sandro he didn't seem to care too much about his missing fiance one way or another.

One of the more interesting scenes is when Sandro goes into the hotel to get a room and Claudia is feeling guilty and worried her missing friend might be there, so she stays outside....and ends up surrounded by gawking men. Those starring men illustrate her inner turmoil at that moment of her journey

Another telling scene is the empty town at the top of the hill. Claudia describes it like a cemetery, utterly void of life. And that's their future together, they don't have one.

By far the most passionate scene was when they embrace in the grass. OMG the look on Claudia face, the way she breathed and the look in her eyes. Ah ha, that's romantic passion!

rating_4

Citizen Rules

04-25-18, 11:11 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=44016&stc=1&d=1524708516
In the Mood For Love (2000)

Ascetics and Aesthetics

The ascetics of a relationship built on unconsummated love, wrapped in gorgeous haute couture du jour. The aesthetics of 1963 Hong Kong were in abundance and Mrs. Chan was quite the fashion plate in all those high collared, form fitting dresses with the bold prints.

I'd give the movie 5 popcorn ratings just for the way she walked! Her hip swaying was part of the film's sub-context and the cinematographer framed her in a way that we can see her curvy attributes from the mind set of Mr. Chow. That's not just wolf whistles for a hot babe...the film does indeed present her as a sexy, but not obvious woman of taste and class. Her walk clues us in on how Mr. Chow perceives her.

I loved the art production of the film, the sets were so intricate and so balanced. I'd say each room, each hallway and every scene is designed with feng shui in mind. That is if I understood what feng shui is all about. At any rate I thought it looked real cool. From the first shot of Mrs Chan's room with the painting of the red apples on the wall and a bowl of red apples resting on the table below...I knew someone had taken great care to make visual art out of the story.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=42030&stc=1&d=1519153280

Most shots had a 'closed in' feeling and we never get broader shots of the building they live in, all we see is a narrow corridor and a few rooms. Even when we enter their rooms the director chooses to limit the information there by not showing us much...I liked that! Especially as it put the focus on the two people as if they existed outside of the everyday world. That's focused directing.

rating_4

Captain Steel

04-25-18, 11:12 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=42201&stc=1&d=1519496985

rating_5

I agree with this rating! ;)

Citizen Rules

04-25-18, 11:15 PM

I agree with this rating! ;) You do? why the winky? Oh never mind;) Have you seen the televised theater play of The Elephant Man that was shown on TV around the same time? The Elephant Man has no make up and the actor contorts his body to give the illusion of the affliction. I haven't seen it since it aired but I remembered it as being good.

Captain Steel

04-26-18, 04:21 PM

You do? why the winky? Oh never mind;) Have you seen the televised theater play of The Elephant Man that was shown on TV around the same time? The Elephant Man has no make up and the actor contorts his body to give the illusion of the affliction. I haven't seen it since it aired but I remembered it as being good.

The winky was only because I disagreed with the rating on Glory (but I agree with this one)!

Never seen the play. I also had no idea that Mel Brooks was associated with the movie (aside from his wife being in it).
It wasn't until I saw a tribute to Brooks that had a person in an Elephant Man costume run out on stage that I ever heard of an association - it made me very confused and I had to look it up. (Mel Brooks was an uncredited Executive Producer.)

Citizen Rules

04-26-18, 10:14 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=42175&stc=1&d=1519438466

Out of the Blue (1980)

Director: Dennis Hopper
Writers: Leonard Yakir, Brenda Nielson
Cast: Linda Manz, Dennis Hopper, Sharon Farrell
Genre: Drama

I liked this! I've not seen anything else like this that I recall. So this was definitely a hidden gem. It felt like some of the personal, independent films that were made in the early to mid 1970s. Not surprising then, as it was Dennis Hopper who directed Easy Rider. I thought Out of the Blue came close to being an urban-docudrama underground classic.

There's a lot to like here as the film delves into the psyche of a disturbed teenage girl...and the wreck of a life that she's left with after her boozing, irresponsible father slams into a school bus killing the kids on board. Sure she's a weird kid! Which in itself was fascinating and the actress that plays her, Linda Manz commands attention. Just the look of weathered pain on her face, and her aggressive nature tells us she's the walking wounded. I thought she was excellent in the role. She's also really good in The Wanderers (1979) and in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978). I could have watched her strange life and the odd places she went for hours, it felt real to me.

Dennis Hooper was well suited to his role as the drunken, lout dad. The troubled floozy of a mom was played to trashy perfection by Sharon Farell. These are some messed up people! but their lives felt real, so real you could almost smell the Jack Daniels and the stale smoke on their clothes.

The sub plot about the angry father wanting to settle the score for the death of his son on the school bus, put an even deeper spin on things. And I wish they would have staid more on that theme. Because even though he was out of jail after serving 5 years, he could never be free of what he did. It would always eat at him... and with the anger the parents would feel towards him, his inability to keep a job and his own grief...that would have tore him apart. So I think it was mistake not letting that grief drive the rest of the film to it's climax.

I do think the director took the film down a notch by including the seedy sex scenes situations (nothing is really shown). They weren't really needed and seemed to be more for titillation. The first one where CeBe goes to a taxi drivers room to smoke a joint and there's a girlfriend? or was it a prostitute? also in the room who's there to make it with Cebe? But how did she know CeBe was coming?....That was all a bit to unbelievable. It seemed like throwing in the proverbial car chase for good measure. But overall a unique indie film.

rating_3_5

Citizen Rules

04-26-18, 10:21 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=42108&stc=1&d=1519354125
Shallow Grave (1994)

Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: John Hodge
Cast: Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor
Genre: Crime, Thriller

"Three friends discover their new flatmate dead but loaded with cash."

I have to say the first 18 minutes were a drag...yes, I timed it. I quickly grew tired of the trendy, aka trying way to hard to be hip, film making vibe that those first 18 minutes gave off. I don't know if I was suppose to find the interviews of the prospective roommates funny, but I didn't, grating was more like it. Luckily after 18 minutes the movie settles down and I became interested in the story.

Boy! did they have one nice apartment flat or what? Very cool looking decor, especially the 1950s Electroluxe refrigerator...yahoo! It was odd though that the set designer took the nickle chrome finish off the fridge and redone it in gold plating. Then again, thinking about the early 1990s I remember gold plated looking faucets and light fixtures were a big deal then. I always liked chrome better myself. Someone said the film really looks like the early 90s was a long time ago, yup and this film is like a time machine back to big glasses, blow dried hair, long sweaters and bulky computer monitors!

Kerry Fox and Christopher Eccleston were both OK in this. But could Ewan McGregor be anymore annoying? Ugh, just looking at that photo makes me want to slap his smug lil' face. Which then makes the movie's surprise ending all the more fun!

2.5

Gideon58

04-27-18, 11:32 AM

The winky was only because I disagreed with the rating on Glory (but I agree with this one)!

Never seen the play. I also had no idea that Mel Brooks was associated with the movie (aside from his wife being in it).
It wasn't until I saw a tribute to Brooks that had a person in an Elephant Man costume run out on stage that I ever heard of an association - it made me very confused and I had to look it up. (Mel Brooks was an uncredited Executive Producer.)

I saw that TV version of The Elephant Man too...I think Billy Crudup played the part if memory serves...I thought he did a very credible job of making us believe the disability without the makeup.

Citizen Rules

04-27-18, 12:22 PM

I saw that TV version of The Elephant Man too...I think Billy Crudup played the part if memory serves...I thought he did a very credible job of making us believe the disability without the makeup.I'm glad someone else seen it and liked it.

Citizen Rules

04-27-18, 10:14 PM

Carrying on with....reviews, that no one seems to read:cool: is quite possible the worst movie ever made. It really sucked!

Movie watched thanks to @KeyserCorleone (http://www.movieforums.com/community/member.php?u=94296) :p

Citizen Rules

04-27-18, 10:41 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=44067&stc=1&d=1524878804
The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)

Director: Coleman Francis
Writer: Coleman Francis
Cast: Douglas Mellor, Barbara Francis, Bing Stafford, Tor Johnson
Genre: low budget monster film

A Hungarian scientist escapes the iron curtain only to be found by Soviet agents in Yucca Flats, USA. Just as the communist agents are about to neutralize the rogue scientist, a nuclear blast strikes them...transforming the scientist into a killer...CR

Wow! was this one helluva stupid movie or what! The Beast of Yucca Flats has been called the worst film ever made....and I believe it. And this isn't one of those so cheesy it's fun films, it's just crummy cheapo film making.

Coming in at an hour long, this was shot on a shoe string budget and without sound, probably because a) the actors weren't real actors and couldn't act, so who needs sound...and b) it's cheaper to pay one guy to narrate the film than it is to drag sound equipment out into the desert.

I like to say this movie at least had an idea and it did! To make money for nothing! The creative title got this movie showings at drive-in theaters, making the film makers some good money.

The Beast of Yucca Flats is so bad that the monster, played by Tor Johnson the Swedish wrestler who made films with Ed Wood, kills his first victim BEFORE he turns into a monster. Say what?.......The film describes him as a family man whos family has been killed by the evil commies and is on the run...It's only after he's exposed to a nuclear blast that he becomes a killer monster. So why this scene? Because It made money!

The producer needed something flashy so after the filming was done he paid a girl to be briefly topless. That will pack them into the theaters! He edited the scene into the beginning of the movie where it makes no continuity sense and yet it's the best scene in the movie.

I could go on, buy why? We get horrible acting, idiotic people and poor Tor Johnson struggling around the desert. Tor was older at the time and can be seen using a big stick as a walking cane. Sadly this movie killed his movie career, and he was only paid $300 for his troubles.

I'm giving this half a rating, and that's for the topless shot and additional cleavage...Oh and for the cute bunny too.

rating_0_5

Captain Steel

04-27-18, 11:11 PM

Citizen Rules

04-27-18, 11:20 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=44068&stc=1&d=1524880601
The Lost Weekend (1945)

Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Charles R. Jackson (novel), Charles Brackett (screenplay)
Cast: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling
Genre: Drama

"The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout."

Ray Milland is one of the all time great actors and he knocks it back as the self loathing alcoholic that is fighting the bottle and losing as he goes on a 4 day drinking binge...aka a bender.

For 1945 this Billy Wilder directed movie is brutally frank and honest about the powerlessness an alcoholic can feel over the bottle. Audiences must have been stunned by what they seen on the screen...and Ray Milland portrays a very believable alcoholic. The movie shows the deceits, the lies, the stealing and the self deprivation that the alcholic puts his loved ones through. Milland's charater would seem to have it all, a beautiful, intelligent and caring girlfriend played by the future wife of Ronald Regan....Jane Wyman.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=44069&stc=1&d=1524880950

Jane's character is real good at being an 'enabler' in that at first she thinks her boyfriend just like to drink a lot. Later she wises up and gets tough in her attempts to dry out the drunken boyfriend. But no matter what the situation her faith and love in him is never shaken.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=44070&stc=1&d=1524881721

The actress who played the b girl (Doris Dowling) added a certain notoriety and grittiness to this already gritty film. Love the expression on Milland's face in that photo.

One of my favorite scenes was how in desperation he would hide booze bottles but then get so drunk he couldn't remember where they were hid. Oh and the scene in the DT tank at the hospital, powerful stuff. Milland reportedly spent a night in the detox tank to find out what it was like. And it doesn't sound like a place anyone would want to visit!

rating_5

Citizen Rules

04-27-18, 11:21 PM

Who doesn't read your reviews?I don't know? they forgot to tell me:p

Citizen Rules

04-28-18, 08:45 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=44085&stc=1&d=1524958244

Howard the Duck (1986)

Executive Producer: George Lucas
Director: Willard Huyck
Writers: Steve Gerber (Marvel comics character), Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz
Cast: Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, Tim Robbins
Genre: Comic book, comedy, music

A scientific experiment gone awry on Earth accidentally transports a sarcastic but intelligent duck creature from another planet and sets him done in LA. Once on Earth, Howard the duck most help a girl rocker and a nerdy lab worker stop an evil alien creature from destroying the world. CR

Billed as one of the biggest flops of all time, Howard the Duck has been a thorn in the career of a man who's been called a special effects genius, George Lucas. Lucas still contends that one day people will recognize Howard the Duck is a masterpiece....Hmm maybe he was kidding when he said that?

After his critically acclaimed success with THX1138 and American Graffiti, Lucas then turned towards big budget, flashy special effects movies aimed at kids and at kid-at-heart adults. I mean who doesn't know about he phenomenal success of the Star Wars series and Indian Jones movies?

But then there's the embarrassment called Howard the Duck...What could have Lucas been thinking when he decided to produce this movie? A PG movie with adult type jokes, but with a cutesy duck talking duck creature that would seem to be suited to a kid's movie...Throw in more CG special effects and FX stunts then 5 other movies combined and you get one weird movie. I mean one can't watch this movie without thinking did we really need that elaborate car wreck stunts, not to mention the 2 million dollar duck suit in the movie!

Had this been toned way down, it might have came in at 10 million instead of 30 million. Then with a kid audience this might have made a profit....Howard the Duck combines clever adult jokes which are funny at times, but then again what adult wants to watch a talking duck? It's an oxymoron.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=44086&stc=1&d=1524958260

The movie does have a cult following and there's some real rock music with actress Lea Thompson actually singing. It's pretty good too. I liked Lea in this, she's likable which is a good thing because Howard is not a likable character. He's an annoying one joke idea that gets stretched out to a 2 hour movie length.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=44088&stc=1&d=1524958276

See what I mean! If you think that looks charming then you might like this film, me I thought it was all wet. rating_2

GulfportDoc

04-28-18, 09:22 PM

The Lost Weekend (1945)

Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Charles R. Jackson (novel), Charles Brackett (screenplay)
Cast: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling
Genre: Drama

"The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout."

Ray Milland is one of the all time great actors and he knocks it back as the self loathing alcoholic that is fighting the bottle and losing as he goes on a 4 day drinking binge...aka a bender.

For 1945 this Billy Wilder directed movie is brutally frank and honest about the powerlessness an alcoholic can feel over the bottle. Audiences must have been stunned by what they seen on the screen...and Ray Milland portrays a very believable alcoholic. The movie shows the deceits, the lies, the stealing and the self deprivation that the alcholic puts his loved ones through. Milland's charater would seem to have it all, a beautiful, intelligent and caring girlfriend played by the future wife of Ronald Regan....Jane Wyman.

Jane's character is real good at being an 'enabler' in that at first she thinks her boyfriend just like to drink a lot. Later she wises up and gets tough in her attempts to dry out the drunken boyfriend. But no matter what the situation her faith and love in him is never shaken.

The actress who played the b girl (Doris Dowling) added a certain notoriety and grittiness to this already gritty film. Love the expression on Milland's face in that photo.

One of my favorite scenes was how in desperation he would hide booze bottles but then get so drunk he couldn't remember where they were hid. Oh and the scene in the DT tank at the hospital, powerful stuff. Milland reportedly spent a night in the detox tank to find out what it was like. And it doesn't sound like a place anyone would want to visit!

rating_5

A great film, and I think very unsettling. I suspect the role really cemented Milland's career as a top actor. He was pretty courageous at the time, since no one really knew about alcoholism then. It was thought of as a weakness.

I was thinking that Alcoholics Anonymous consulted on this film, but I'm not sure. The society was only 6 years old at the time. I know they consulted on 1952's Come Back Little Sheba, with great performances by Burt Lancaster and Shirley Booth. In fact it was AA who led him into getting sober.

Nice review.

~Doc

Citizen Rules

04-28-18, 09:40 PM

A great film, and I think very unsettling. I suspect the role really cemented Milland's career as a top actor. He was pretty courageous at the time, since no one really knew about alcoholism then. It was thought of as a weakness.

I was thinking that Alcoholics Anonymous consulted on this film, but I'm not sure. The society was only 6 years old at the time. I know they consulted on 1952's Come Back Little Sheba, with great performances by Burt Lancaster and Shirley Booth. In fact it was AA who led him into getting sober.

Nice review.

~Doc I've heard of Come Back Little Sheba many a time, but I never knew what it's subject matter was until your post. I'll have to catch that one, one of these days. Have you ever seen the original teleplay of Days of Wine and Roses that was shown on Playhouse 90? I think it's more gut wrenching and honest than the later Jack Lemon version, though I do like that movie too.

Citizen Rules

04-28-18, 10:01 PM

https://adesojiadegbulu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Slumdog_millionaire1.jpg
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Directors: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
Writers: Simon Beaufoy (screenplay), Vikas Swarup (novel)
Cast: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Saurabh Shukla
Genre: Drama, Thriller

The life story of a teenage boy who grew up as an orphan on the mean dirty streets of Mubai, India. Told through flashbacks, as he explains during a brutal police interrogation how he, an uneducated 'slumdog' could possible win millions of dollars on the Indian TV version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? CR

A powerful film, with a very misleading poster. This is not a feel good film, it is powerful and thought provoking, but many of the scenes show the sad and brutal life of slum children in India. These slumdogs live in garbage dumps and are brutalized by gangsters. In one scene, small homeless children are gathered from the dirty streets by a nice smiling man. He feeds them and teaches them to sing. Then he forces them to beg on the streets....and in a gruesome scene pours boiling hot liquid into the eyes of a small child to blind him....Blind children earn more money as beggars. There's also torture scenes in the police station. Of course this is a Danny Boyle film and those kind of horror-esque scenes are his trademark.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=44090&stc=1&d=1524963656

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I had a hard time watching some of this, the torture scenes in particular are gruesome...but it is an excellent movie and Dev Patel as always is top notch. Slumdog Millionaire won an Oscar for Best Picture for 2008.

rating_3_5+

Citizen Rules

04-28-18, 11:22 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=44094&stc=1&d=1524968498
Maudie (2016)

Director: Aisling Walsh
Writer: Sherry White
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance

Based on the true story of a Nova Scotia woman with disabilities who lives in a poor, remote village during the 1930s. She's slow witted or so her family thinks, but...she has a flair for painting and a knack at taking care of herself. Which she does when she moves away from the aunt who had cared for her and she goes to live with a stoic man who lives in a tiny house and advertised for a house keeper. CR

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=44095&stc=1&d=1524968504

Much better that that poster would seem to suggest. Sally Hawkins is awesome in this and while it's not a sappy heart warming story and at times the man who should would eventual marry can seem mean, her indomitable spirit and love of art wins out. She manages to make money selling her folk art style of painting. A style that I might add has become very popular since her time.

Ethan Hawkins is the simply and quiet fish monger who hires her for nothing more than to clean up his little house in the country. At first he considers her no better than his dogs. Actual he considers her lower than dogs. And see that bothered me because it was like the film makers knew they needed some conflict so in the first part of the film his character comes off as the antagonist to Sally's protagonist. But based on the end of the story which comes as the couple are much older, I don't think that was a fair representation. At any rate when he initially slaps her and tells her she's nothing at all, I hated his character and I never did totally warm up to him. And I don't think that's what the film makers hand in mind.

A decent made film that felt like the script needed to be rewrote to be something special.

rating_3_5+

Ms. M

04-29-18, 08:17 AM

Slumdog Millionaire feel-good movie? What a peculiar sense of humour;)
I watched this movie only once, what is weird, coz I think it's brilliant - intense, true and original.
You wrote about brutal scenes with children (and of course You are right), but also parts showing trapping of main woman character were aweful.
On the whole I think the story is massive.

Ms. M

04-29-18, 08:21 AM

Maudie (2016)

At any rate when he initially slaps her and tells her she's nothing at all, I hated his character and I never did totally warm up to him.

rating_3_5+

I had the same feeling, when I was watching this scene, but I got satisfaction, when Hawks charackter was sweeping the floor at the end of the movie, without saying any word. I thought then: "Ha! Victory!" :D

Citizen Rules

04-29-18, 12:16 PM

I had the same feeling, when I was watching this scene, but I got satisfaction, when Hawks charackter was sweeping the floor at the end of the movie, without saying any word. I thought then: "Ha! Victory!" :DI enjoyed the movie, and I watched it thanks:) to you talking about it on the Rate the Last Movie You Saw thread. My wife really liked it too.

Ms. M

04-29-18, 12:50 PM

I enjoyed the movie, and I watched it thanks:) to you talking about it on the Rate the Last Movie You Saw thread. My wife really liked it too.
Wow! I'm glad to hear this:blush:

Citizen Rules

04-29-18, 01:04 PM

Wow! I'm glad to hear this:blush: I always pay attention to which movies you love, I think we have similar taste. By the way, The Dressmaker:up: loved that film.

Ms. M

04-29-18, 03:11 PM

I always pay attention to which movies you love, I think we have similar taste. By the way, The Dressmaker:up: loved that film.
Thank you very much, I appreciate your words:)
The Dressmaker was epiphany to me (as my avatar shows;) ).

Citizen Rules

04-29-18, 03:18 PM

...
The Dressmaker was epiphany to me... An epiphany? in what way? Don't tell me you use to be a couture dressmaker working in the outback of Australia;)

Ms. M

04-29-18, 03:33 PM

An epiphany? in what way? Don't tell me you use to be a couture dressmaker working in the outback of Australia;)
Hahaha! No, but I made the trousers once.If does it make me a dressmaker, I'm ok with that;)
I meant it is such my kind of film. You know, sometimes it takes a lot of time to find 5/5 movie.

Citizen Rules

04-29-18, 03:47 PM

Hahaha! No, but I made the trousers once.If does it make me a dressmaker, I'm ok with that;)
I meant it is such my kind of film. You know, sometimes it takes a lot of time to find 5/5 movie.:up: You have good taste, Ms. M:)

GulfportDoc

04-29-18, 07:57 PM

I've heard of Come Back Little Sheba many a time, but I never knew what it's subject matter was until your post. I'll have to catch that one, one of these days. Have you ever seen the original teleplay of Days of Wine and Roses that was shown on Playhouse 90? I think it's more gut wrenching and honest than the later Jack Lemon version, though I do like that movie too.
I think you will like Come Back Little Sheba. Shirley Booth gives a wonderful performance. She may have won an Oscar for it. Burt, of course, is good too.

I don't know if I ever saw that Playhouse 90 broadcast. I was 14 years old in 1958, and we did watch some of those plays, but I don't remember. It would have gone right over my head at that age anyway. I haven't seen it since, but I'd sure like to. Piper Laurie was always one of my favorite actresses. 3 years later she was fabulous in The Hustler.

~Doc

Citizen Rules

04-29-18, 08:04 PM

I think you will like Come Back Little Sheba. Shirley Booth gives a wonderful performance. She may have won an Oscar for it. Burt, of course, is good too.

I don't know if I ever saw that Playhouse 90 broadcast. I was 14 years old in 1958, and we did watch some of those plays, but I don't remember. It would have gone right over my head at that age anyway. I haven't seen it since, but I'd sure like to. Piper Laurie was always one of my favorite actresses. 3 years later she was fabulous in The Hustler.

~Doc I seen the original Days of Wine and Roses in a DVD set
"The Golden Age of Television" (https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Age-Television-Criterion-Collection/dp/B002M36R1O).

The DVD set contained:

Marty (1953) Patterns (1955) No Time for Sergeants (1955) A Wind from the South (1955) Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956) Bang the Drum Slowly (1956) The Comedian (1957) Days of Wine and Roses (1958)

GulfportDoc

04-29-18, 08:10 PM

Maudie (2016)

Director: Aisling Walsh
Writer: Sherry White
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
...
rating_3_5+

I enjoyed the film, in fact I think I watched it based upon your mentioning it in the "movies watched" thread. I was suspicious of the screenplay though, so I did some research. They took large liberties with the real story. Everett (the husband) was not at all mean, in fact he was supportive, and even did the housework. The writers simply wanted more topical melodrama.

~Doc

Citizen Rules

04-29-18, 08:14 PM

I enjoyed the film, in fact I think I watched it based upon your mentioning it in the "movies watched" thread. I was suspicious of the screenplay though, so I did some research. They took large liberties with the real story. Everett (the husband) was not at all mean, in fact he was supportive, and even did the housework. The writers simply wanted more topical melodrama.

~Doc Yup, I suspected that Everett was written 'bad' at first to create drama, though there was no real need for it. I mean they were dirt poor, it was the depression, they were struggling and artist. All that is enough to create tension in the film without having Everett be a tyrant at first. Still I did like it. I've liked most films with Sally Hawkins. Well not her last big one, The Shape of Water. I didn't care for that much, though she was good in it.

Citizen Rules

04-29-18, 09:07 PM

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Wagons East (1994)
Director: Peter Markle
Writers: Matthew Carlson (screenplay), Jerry Abrahamson (story)
Cast: John Candy, Richard Lewis, John C. McGinley, Ed Lauter, Abraham Benrubi, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo, Ellen Greene
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Western

"In the 1860's Wild West, when a ragged bunch of misfit settlers decide they cannot stand living in their current situation, they hire a grizzled cowboy to take them on a journey back to their hometowns east."

Continuing my quest to watch the biggest flops of all time, has taken me to the last film of one of my favorite comic actors, John Candy. I've been working on watching all of John Candy's films and with the last filmhe made, Wagons East, I've now done that.

I've avoided this film for a long time, not because it's been panned by critics and movie watchers alike, but because Candy has always been a personal hero to me and this is the film where he died while making the making it in Durango Mexico. He was only 6 days away from completing the film. As a result they had to use a stand in and reuse some of his scenes with dubbing. Maybe the dark cloud over this film explains it's extremely low rating of 4.7 at IMDB. A rating I don't feel it deserves.

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I watched Wagons East twice over a span of a couple months. I can say this movie made me laugh, it was a fun watch, with some interesting characters. It's not a John Candy film as it's a rather large ensemble cast. Candy doesn't have that many scenes. As always he's funny even if he's just standing there reacting to another actor.

Being filmed in Mexico this looks authentic, of course it's a comedy, so it's not trying to be a documentary. Richard Lewis was funny as was Robert Picardo of Star Trek Voyager fame. If you like either actor you'll know what to expect.

It's kind of sad that John Candy's last film wasn't well received, it certainly deserved better.

3.5

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Captain Steel

04-29-18, 09:32 PM

I think I said this before, but I thought the best part (and best character) of Wagon's East was John C. McGinley as gay cowboy "Julian" - and his ending up saving the day at one point was a scene that helped make the movie. (Plus, I got a kick out of the fact that he had a potted plant up front with him in his wagon!)

I think I became a McGinley fan after his performance as Sgt. O'Neill in Platoon. I also liked him in Office Space (as one of "the Bobs"), but he made for a great villain in the lesser-known made-for-TV movie Intensity (1997) where he plays a psychotic serial killer.

Wagons East is no Blazing Saddles, but I agree, it's not as bad as the critics made it out to be.

Citizen Rules

04-29-18, 10:19 PM

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Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
Director: David Miller
Writers: Dalton Trumbo (screenplay), Edward Abbey (novel)
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau, George Kennedy
Genre: Drama

"A fiercely independent cowboy arranges to have himself locked up in jail in order to then escape with an old friend, who has been sentenced to the penitentiary."

I watched this one because it had a screenplay by legendary writer Dalton Trumbo. A man who penned many a fine movie script, only to find himself black listed in the 1950s because he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He wasn't a communist, but on moral grounds he would not knuckle under to the witch hunt that was taking place in Washington DC...A witch hunt that was mainly aimed at liberal minded Hollywood people, especially the writers.

Trumbo was an award winning script writer who's film credits include:

Papillon (1973) (screenplay)
Johnny Got His Gun (1971 ) (screenplay)
Lonely Are the Brave (1962) (screenplay)
Exodus (1960) (screenplay)
Spartacus (1960)(screenplay)
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) (uncredited)
Roman Holiday (1953) (screenplay)
Rocketship X-M (1950) (uncredited)
Gun Crazy (1950) (screenplay)
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945) (screenplay)
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) (screenplay)
Kitty Foyle (1940) (screen play)

That's quite an impressive list!

I didn't initially get this movie, until just a few moments ago when I was reading about Dalton Trumbo. Then the movie's theme clicked and I knew Trumbo was writing about his own misfortune at the hands McCarthyism.

In the movie Kirk Douglas plays a modern day cowboy. He's a good natured and fiercely independent man. He loves his horse and his freedom...In the opening scene we see him riding alone on the opening prairie. He comes to a barbed wire fence, that blocks his way. He complains to his horse that the land should be free to pass, so he cuts the fence with a pair of wire cutters that he keeps in his pocket.

It's only now that I understand how that scene is symbolic of the lost freedoms McCarthyism and black listing brought to America. Indeed the entire movie is about a changing America. Maybe even more telling is that: after Kirk Douglas rides into a little southwest town he visits an old friends house, there the wife (Gena Rowlands) tells him her husband is in jail for helping illegal Mexicans get food and water.

Douglas could take the easy road and move on, after all his friend only has 2 years in jail. But instead he ruins his own freedom by standing up for his friend, by busting him out of jail. Which then puts Douglas on the run. Just like Trumbo put himself on the line and ended up out of work, out of money and literally on the run.

When I think of the film in those terms, I see the brilliance of Trumbo's script.

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Kirk Douglas is very likable as the not to bright but loyal cowboy. The loyalty and love he shows his horse says a lot about the man. George Kennedy makes a really good-bad cop, the kind you love to hate. Balancing that out is Walter Matheu as the sheriff who understands what the cowboy is all about and even admires him, and yet he still has to do his duty and bring him to 'justices'.

rating_4

GulfportDoc

04-30-18, 10:29 AM

I seen the original Days of Wine and Roses in a DVD set
"The Golden Age of Television" (https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Age-Television-Criterion-Collection/dp/B002M36R1O).

The DVD set contained:

Marty (1953) Patterns (1955) No Time for Sergeants (1955) A Wind from the South (1955) Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956) Bang the Drum Slowly (1956) The Comedian (1957) Days of Wine and Roses (1958)

That looks like a great set, especially since those early TV dramas are hard to find. I remember seeing some of them. Playhouse 90, U.S. Steel Hour, and the like.

They had a lot of quality programming back then. And, for sure, I think they should bring back variety shows!

~Doc

cricket

05-06-18, 11:04 AM

Slumdog Millionaire gets a bad rap around here but I've seen it twice and I love it.

I'm planning on showing my wife Out of the Blue tonight. She knows nothing about it.

Citizen Rules

05-06-18, 01:04 PM

Slumdog Millionaire gets a bad rap around here but I've seen it twice and I love it.

I'm planning on showing my wife Out of the Blue tonight. She knows nothing about it. Which version of Out of the Blue?

cricket

05-06-18, 02:26 PM

Which version of Out of the Blue?

Mine. We watched the other one that you found about a month ago. It was decent.

Citizen Rules

05-07-18, 10:38 PM

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LBJ (2017)

Director: Rob Reiner
Writer: Joey Hartstone (screenplay)
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Stahl-David, Richard Jenkins
Genre: Biography, Drama

"The story of U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson from his young days in West Texas to the White House."

A frank look at the man who took over the U.S. Presidency after the Kennedy assassination in 1963. Lyndon Johnson, otherwise known by his initials LBJ, is put under the director's microscope in this often overlooked film from 2017.

Director Rob Reiner who's known for his left leaning liberal views, presents LBJ in a surprisingly humane way. While the darling of left wing politics, Robert F. Kennedy is shown as a strong willed, ass hole. At least he's an ass hole to LBJ. I've seen a number of documentations on LBJ and RFK and this film and the way it represents RFK's extreme disdain for LBJ has been documented.

So while I usually wouldn't get my history from a movie, this movie at least mostly gets it right. LBJ could bust balls with the best of them, but that doesn't make him a bad man. In this reviewer's opinion LBJ was OK.

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The film mainly focuses on the time frame of LBJ's early days. It starts with John F. Kennedy's decision to have LBJ be his running mate. A decision that his younger brother, Robert Kennedy is pissed about! RFK ends up in a very powerful position in his brothers cabinet, he's the Attorney General.

The actual assassination is only covered in a slight way and through what is suppose to be archival film footage, hence the quality of the above screen shot.

Most of the film deals with Lyndon Johnson's transition to the Presidency in the days following the assassination. RFK is constantly a thorn in his side, and the film comes to an emotional head with President Johnson's decision to support and help pass JFK's Civil Rights Act. And if you don't already know what happens, then you really need to watch this film!

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That's Woody Harrelson as LBJ complete with facial prosthetics. And if you look real hard at the First Lady, Ladybird Johnson you will see Jennifer Jason Leigh.

rating_3_5

Citizen Rules

05-09-18, 08:22 PM

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Cimarron (1931)

Director: Wesley Ruggles
Writers: Edna Ferber (novel), Howard Estabrook (screenplay)
Cast: Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, Estelle Taylor,
Genre: Drama Western

A progressive thinking newspaper editor, joins a 19th century land rush when the Oklahoma territory is opened up for settlement in 1889. Yancy Cravat is a maverick and a fighter for justice and soon becomes a leading citizen in the brand new boom town of Osage. CR

Best Picture Oscar Winner for 1931

Now that's an iconic shot! There were 5000 extras in that shot and 28 cameras were used to do it. Who says the early 1930s films don't have scope! That scene would never be done today without the use of CG. Old films rule!

Overall the film is visually impressive for the massive scope it provides in the outdoor sets. The town is huge, and we see it at different time frames too. Each time it changes drastically as the boom town of Osage grows up. At the end of the film it's modern day (1931) and the characters have aged over 40 years.

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So what really surprised me was the progressive ideas done in the film. We have one of the lead charters, Yancy Cravet, supporting Native America rights and condemning their poor treatment by the government. There's an interracial marriage of Yancy son to a Native American girl which causes family strife but the progressive dad supports him. What really surprised though was the character played by Irene Dunne-Sabra Cravet. She ends up become a Congress woman and the film endorses the empowerment of women. Only in a precode would you get such a far reaching film as Cimarron coming out of Hollywood back in the day.

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Irene Dunne and Richard Dix.

The acting and dialogue at times can seem stiff and the dialogue a bit contrived, modern audiences probably won't warm up to the movie. Though it's themes of equality and ethics should be of interest to all.

I've never seen Richard Dix before. At first he seemed like a silent actor in a early sound film....though I though he was decent, especially as the film progressed and he got older, then he became more three dimensional. Irene Dunne is a skilled actress and I always enjoy her performances and she's good here too...and very young looking I must say, I hardly recognized her at first.

rating_3_5++

Citizen Rules

05-10-18, 11:05 PM

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Local Color (2006)

Director: George Gallo
Writer: George Gallo
Cast: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Trevor Morgan, Ron Perlman, Samantha Mathis, Ray Liotta, Charles During
Genre: Drama

This reminded me of the TV show The Waltons. Nope, John-Boy was not part of it, but it was a look backwards to 1974 with a now successful artist telling his story through voice over narrative to us the audience. Other than that narrative voice over there's no other similarities. And there was a lot more swearing than John-Boy would have been allowed to do!

This is a story of a 18 year old who wants to become an artistic painter. He befriends a grumpy old alcoholic Hungarian man, who once was a renowned painter but styles changed and his style of painting is not longer considered en-vogue. There's some interesting stuff in here about art, and how a lot of what people think of art is just BS and hype.

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One of the best parts of the film was the discussion of modern impressionistic art vs realism in painting.

It's a quiet film at times, yet it has enough tension between the two characters to keep it interesting. Both Armin Mueller-Stahl & Trevor Morgan who play the older and younger painters were good. I have to give a shout out to Ray Liota and to Ron Perlman as the art expert who gets the wool pulled over his eyes by the older painter. It's a funny scene and too true in the art world.

Samantha Mathias plays a older woman who's interested in the young painter. I liked her character too and the brief relationship they have during the summer get away.

Local Color isn't the type of movie that you can write a 1000 word review on, it's good and so you should watch it!

rating_3_5

Citizen Rules

05-11-18, 09:55 PM

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Meet John Doe (1941)

Director: Frank Capra
Writers: Richard Connell (story), Robert Presnell (story) (as Robert Presnell), Robert Riskin (screenplay)
Cast: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan
Genre: Drama

A rich business man with political aspirations, takes over a small newspaper and starts firing people, as he wants to make the paper into headline grabbing sensationalism...After being fired, girl-reporter Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) pens a dozy of an editorial from a man who's disillusioned with the economy and the world in general and will kill himself on Christmas Eve by jumping off the roof of City Hall. The fictions man is given the name John Doe. The story sells papers but the other newspapers threaten legal action calling the story a fake, which it is. So to save their hides they find a down and out man vagrant man John Doe (Gary Cooper) and pay him to say he wrote the editorial letter. John Doe sparks a political grass roots movement and soon finds himself with 100,000 of followers, while his boss the corrupt newspaper man seeks to use him for his own political aspirations.

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This is one of Frank Capra's signature movies. It never won an Academy Award, but the film has had lasting effects and has never left the public's mind. What makes this film so great is the little man who vs the corrupt political machine and tries to make a difference. The story is constructed in such a way that it remains interesting even today.

Gary Cooper is in fine form here and well suited for his role as John Doe, the reluctant hero and man of the people. And was Barbara Stanwyck ever more lively and charming than here? Together they have real chemistry which makes the movie a joy to watch. Rounding out the cast is a solid group of character actors:

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Edward Arnold is the corrupt political boss who buys the news paper to use it for his own means...He's good at playing the heavy, a role he often plays in films. But it's Walter Brennan who steals every scene he's in. And he has an important role as the consciousness of John Doe. When John Doe gets to big for his britches, it's Walter Brennan who reminds him what life is really all about.

rating_4

Citizen Rules

05-12-18, 10:19 PM

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Tom Jones (1963)

Director: Tony Richardson
Writers: John Osborne (screenplay), Henry Fielding (novel)
Cast: Albert Finney, Susannah York, George Devine
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, History

"The romantic and chivalrous adventures of adopted bastard Tom Jones in 18th century England."

Everybody loves Tom Jones??? I sure in the hell didn't! This 1963 Oscar Best Picture Winner, hasn't aged well. IMO it has to be the worst picture to win the Oscar. I don't understand how it won 4 Oscars?

The movie felt like a loose-structured, free-form 'hippie film', like the movies that were popular in the mid to late 1960s. I was surprised it was made so early in the decade. So I suppose points should be given to the Brits who were ahead of America in making that style of film.

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Personally I don't like the 'lets ham it up and stare at the camera bit'...Tom Jones was all shenanigans. It reminded of the old Benny Hill TV show, which I never really got into. Though fans of such hammy movies like Airplane (1980) should love this zanny, anything for a laugh film.

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Lovely Susanna York saves the day and I suppose I can't knock Albert Finney as he's only doing what the script and director told him to do. Still his character was way annoying.

It was cool seeing a very young David Warner as the bad guy, sly manipulator. A role that he would go on to make a career out of.

rating_2 and if it wasn't for Susanna York that rating would even be lower.

Citizen Rules

05-12-18, 10:53 PM

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The Post (2017)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Liz Hannah, Josh Singer
Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson
Genre: Biography, Drama, History

Based on a true story of the first woman newspaper publisher in America, who in 1971 had to make a critical decision to publish a stolen Pentagon top secret report on the failure of the Vietnam war.

One competing newspaper had already published excerpts from the document that shows that four different American presidents had known that the Vietnam war was unwinnable and that they lied to the American public about it.

With a court order injunction stopping the New York Times from further publishing the top secret document, Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) owner of the The Washington Post has a hot potato dropped into her lap when she's give a copy of the stolen Vietnam report. Her gusty editor (Tom Hanks) wants her to publish the info, a move that could land her in jail. CR

I found the story and the history to be very important and interesting, but Stephen Spielberg just didn't bring this subject to life. A similar film Spotlight, nailed the subject of news reporting with a heart felt movie, but here everything felt lack luster. I'm surprised because Spielberg really hit a home run with Tom Hanks in Bridge of Spies.

I liked Tom Hanks here though we never really get to the core of what drives this man. Meryl Streep IMO is too well known to play this role. She was fine, but I think another actress could have breathed life into this movie.

rating_3

GulfportDoc

05-13-18, 12:51 PM

To me, The Post was simply a PC nod to a faded queen newspaper-- a film which tried to re-live the glory days of All the President's Men. They got their PC licks in, but the movie fell flat.

The reason is that the screenplay was dull. Why was it dull? Because there really was not much story there. "I want to publish." "No, I can't publish." "But I really want to publish........ but I can't." How many times can that be used as a tension device, especially when everyone knows the outcome? The answer? Once, not twenty times..:rolleyes:

The real story would have been the daring exploits of the New York Times. They were the ones who were forging new territory. It would have been fodder for a much meatier screenplay.

As it was, The Post was just a shameless attempt to ride the coattails of the earlier film, and to trot out Streep and Hanks. The crafts stuff was good, but otherwise a "B" movie. All smoke and no fire.

~Doc

Citizen Rules

05-13-18, 11:03 PM

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Frances (1982)

Director: Graeme Clifford
Writers: Eric Bergren, Christopher De Vore
Cast: Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, Sam Shepard
Genre: Fictionalized Biography

The story of Frances Farmer, a Hollywood actress of the 1930s and 40s. Based on a fictionalized novel that came out a couple of years earlier. The story tells of how Frances life gets turned upside down when she lashes out against what she believes is injustices. She ends up in a mental hospital where they eventual lobotomize her.

Trouble is Frances Farmer was never lobotomized and wasn't a victim of her out spoken nature. She suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and at a time when there was little understanding of the condition and the treatments were ineffective (insulin shock injections, electric shock, ice baths, heavy sedation.)

The movie is based on the book Shadowland by William Arnold. Which was original written as a true biography but came out in court after the producers of the movie were sued, that the writer of the novel highly fictionalized elements of Frances life to create drama. Most notely the story of her having an orbital lobotomy at Western State Hospital in Washington state, which has been largely discounted as fiction.

There's two other movies about Frances Farmer made around the same time, but Frances is the best known of the three.

I thought Jessica Lange made a good Francis Farmer, and I just seen Francis Farmer for the first time in a movie, she was quiet the actress! It's too bad her career was cut short. The actress who played her mom was exceptional good.

rating_3

GulfportDoc

05-14-18, 10:43 AM

Citizen Rules

05-14-18, 12:49 PM

I aim to go back and watch that again. Haven't seen it since it came out, and I hadn't known much about Farmer at the time.

But you're right, she didn't have a lobotomy; and even made a successful return to acting. Unfortunately she died of throat cancer in her 50s. So many of the good ones went down from heavy smoking.

~Doc That's so true about smoking by early movie stars. I remember reading Gene Tierney took up smoking to lower her voice, as she though she sounded like Minnie Mouse on the screen. And it worked, smoking lowered her voice, then later it killed her.

GulfportDoc

05-14-18, 08:17 PM

Yeah, it was a crying shame. No one knew then that smoking could kill you. The great Nat "King" Cole smoked 4 packs of baby Kools (without the filters) because they kept his voice lower. Look at Bogart. John Wayne smoked 5 packs of Camels daily. 'Course he made it to aged 72, but so many went down in their 50s and 60s.

~Doc

Gideon58

05-15-18, 01:33 PM

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Frances (1982)

Glad you finally saw this, Citizen...the movie has its problems, but I think Lange's performance is one of the top five performances by a lead actress in the 1980's and I'm pretty much the only person on the planet who thinks she should have won the Oscar over Meryl Streep. And yes, Kim Stanley was also superb as her mother.

Citizen Rules

05-15-18, 02:11 PM

Glad you finally saw this, Citizen...the movie has its problems, but I think Lange's performance is one of the top five performances by a lead actress in the 1980's and I'm pretty much the only person on the planet who thinks she should have won the Oscar over Meryl Streep. And yes, Kim Stanley was also superb as her mother. I would have gave the Oscar to Merly Streep, but very close call, Lange was great too.

Have you ever seen Frances Farmer in a movie? I did just the other night, I need to write the review for it.

Gideon58

05-15-18, 07:15 PM

No, have never seen a Frances Farmer movie, I've thought about watching Come and Get it because it is mentioned in Frances and because Walter Brennan won one of his three Oscars for it.

mark f

05-15-18, 07:24 PM

That's her best and a solid film all around.

Citizen Rules

05-15-18, 07:27 PM

No, have never seen a Frances Farmer movie, I've thought about watching Come and Get it because it is mentioned in Frances and because Walter Brennan won one of his three Oscars for it.
I have that one to watch, just have to find the time. I did watch Son of Fury with Frances Farmer, Gene Tierney and starring Tyrone Power.

Citizen Rules

05-17-18, 10:43 PM

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Son of Fury (1942)

Director: John Cromwell
Writers: Philip Dunne (screenplay), Edison Marshall (novel)
Cast: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, George Sanders, Frances Farmer
Genre: Historical Drama-Adventure-Romance

About: Set in London during the early 19th century...A young boy of noble birth (Rodney McDowell) is cheated out of his title and estate, by a cruel and greedy uncle (George Sanders). The uncle claims to be the only living heir, so owns the boy's estate and makes the boy work in servitude as a stable boy. The boy grows up (Tyrone Power) and falls in love with his uncle's daughter (Frances Farmer). He pledges to earn enough money to win back his rightful title. So off to the south pacific he goes, where he finds wealth and a beautiful native girl, (Gene Tierney).

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My Thoughts: That all sounds like a good receipt for a rip roaring adventure, complete with high seas sailing, and beautiful women too, and it is! This was great fun. It had just about everything including filming on a real tropical island, which surprised me.

This has been on my watch list for a long while as it was one of Tyrone Power's favorite movies of his films. The other was Nightmare Alley. Tyrone was much more talented than he was given credit for, usually he was stuck playing matinee heroes in lightweight movies, here he gets a chance to more.

But the main draw for me was to see a Frances Farmer film, after just watching a biography drama on her called Frances. I thought she was excellent, with real screen presences and a sense of empowerment, she had a real deep voice too, I didn't expect that. I'll have to watch more of her films, as she made a positive impact on me.

And of course this has two of my favorite stars...The man you love to hate, George Sanders. Here he's just flat out bad and yet he still manages to be a bit of a likable cad in a couple of scenes. And what can I say about the lovely Gene Tierney, that hasn't already been said.

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Son of Fury, a movie that is worth a rewatch.
rating_3_5++

Gideon58

05-18-18, 01:21 PM

Farmer's resemblance to Jessica Lange is kind spooky.

Citizen Rules

05-18-18, 01:28 PM

Farmer's resemblance to Jessica Lange is kind spooky.Yup she does look like her. I know you seen Frances (1982), but have you seen the other movies based on Frances Farmer?

Susan Blakely plays Frances Farmer in a 1983 television movie Will There Really Be a Morning?, based on Farmer's autobiography. Lee Grant plays Farmer's mother in this production.

Sheila McLaughlin directed, co-wrote and starred in the 1984 small budget movie Committed.

Gideon58

05-18-18, 01:43 PM

Yup she does look like her. I know you seen Frances (1982), but have you seen the other movies based on Frances Farmer?

Susan Blakely plays Frances Farmer in a 1983 television movie Will There Really Be a Morning?, based on Farmer's autobiography. Lee Grant plays Farmer's mother in this production.

Sheila McLaughlin directed, co-wrote and starred in the 1984 small budget movie Committed.

Come to think of it, I think I did see Will There Really Be a Morning? about a hundred years ago. Blakely can't act, but I remember Lee Grant being fantastic as the mom, as she always is. Never seen Committed.

Citizen Rules

05-18-18, 01:45 PM

Come to think of it, I think I did see Will There Really Be a Morning? about a hundred years ago. Blakely can't act, but I remember Lee Grant being fantastic as the mom, as she always is. Never seen Committed. Committed seems really hard to find.

Citizen Rules

05-18-18, 10:27 PM

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Gaby (1956)
Director: Curtis Bernhardt
Writers: Robert E. Sherwood (play), S.N. Behrman (screenplay)
Cast: Leslie Caron, John Kerr, Cedric Hardwicke
Genre: Drama Romance

This is the third movie based on the 1930 play, Waterloo Bridge. The 1st was Waterloo Bridge (1931) with Mae Clarke & Kent Douglass. The 2nd was Waterloo Bridge (1940) with Vivian Leigh and Robert Taylor.

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Each of those movies are different from one another, but Gaby is more a reboot, than a remake. The names have been changed, the story is very different both in a light carefree feeling and in structure, and it has a happy ending too! Done in color on wide screen CinemaScope with a 2.55:1 ratio. The film looks great with rich colors and lavish sets. But that ultra wide screen format makes it hard to do closeups. I don't think there was one real close up in the movie. Most of the shots are far away to medium range which makes the love story part seem distant as if we were viewing it from afar. The quality of the print I seen was poor and blurry. It's not an easy movie to find. But fully restored it would look spectacular.

Leslie Caron who started out as a French dancer has a long scene on stage as a ballet dancer. The problem with the film is Leslie Caron is outright bitchy and cruel to her love interest played by John Kerr who's a nice guy with a crush on her. By the time she starts to warm up to him, I'd already formed opinion about her cold as ice personality and didn't care for her, which made the rest of the love story tepid at best.

I kind of liked the happy ending, though it lacked the power of the other two previous versions.

rating_3

Captain Steel

05-18-18, 10:33 PM

Dang! A Leslie Caron movie I haven't seen! (Not sure if I'd like her bitchy, though!) ;)

Citizen Rules

05-18-18, 10:48 PM

Dang! A Leslie Caron movie I haven't seen! (Not sure if I'd like her bitchy, though!) ;) I can't say I've seen her in many films, just a few musicals from the 50s.

Captain Steel

05-18-18, 11:52 PM

I can't say I've seen her in many films, just a few musicals from the 50s.

The Leslie Caron movies I've seen are:
An American in Paris
Lili
The Glass Slipper
Gigi (never saw the whole thing)
Fanny

And her documentary: The Reluctant Star

Citizen Rules

05-20-18, 02:31 PM

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Red Headed Woman (1932)

Director: Jack Conway
Writers: Katharine Brush (book), Anita Loos (screenplay)
Cast: Jean Harlow, Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Leila Hyams, Una Merkle
Genre: Pre-Code Comedy

A wreck-loose floozy relentlessly tries to seduce her boss (Chester Morris), a married man. Lillian (Jean Harlow) will do anything, no matter how underhanded to break up her bosses marriage so that she can marry him and live a life of luxury. Along the way she sleeps with other men too, just to use them to her own advantage. CR

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The red headed woman, Jean Harlow...normally was a platinum blonde. She gets her hair dyed red at the beginning of the film and tauntingly says to the camera, "So gentlemen prefer blondes, do they?"

Jean Harlow is the woman you love to hate in this red hot 1932 Pre-Code film from MGM. Few films of the time packed such blatantly sexual themes as Red Headed Woman did. So much so that the film was banned in Great Britain until 1965.

Lillian (Jean Harlow) is an unabashed home-wrecker who employs every dirty trick in the book to break up the happy marriage of her boss (Chester Morris) and his lovely & sweet wife (Leila Hyams).

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The lovely Leila Hyams is the forsaken wife and Chester Morris is the husband and boss that Jean Harlow pursues at no matter the cost.

Oh sure this scenario of the working girl secretary falling for her handsome boss and finding a way into his arms, has been done many, many times since Red Headed Woman came out. And often the boss has a wife too...but the difference is the wife is always presented as cold, uncaring and very unsympathetic to us, the audience. We don't like her, but we do like the sweet sectary and root for her to win...In Red Headed Woman the bosses wife is charming and we like her and he's a nice guy too. The bad woman is the secretary and that's what makes this film so different. The protagonist has zero redeeming qualities and yet she's still likeable for her quirky personalty and zeal to win. She's delightfully evil!

And I have to give a shout out to comic actress Una Merkle who lays Jean's side kick, Una steals every scene she's in and that's not an easy task as Jean Harlow her self is a major draw.

rating_4+

Citizen Rules

05-20-18, 10:52 PM

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Nocturne (1946)
Director: Edwin L. Marin
Writers: Jonathan Latimer (screen play), Frank Fent
Cast: George Raft, Lynn Bari, Virginia Huston
Genre: Crime Mystery Drama

"In 1940s Los Angeles, when womanizing composer Keith Vincent is found dead, the inquest concludes it was a suicide but police detective Joe Warne isn't so sure."

I like this movie, but no way is George Raft as cool as that movie poster would suggest! Joe Warne (George Raft) is a 40ish bachelor who lives at home with his mother, yup you read that right! He's rather droll and is the type to be in his pajamas by 10 P.M. OK...but that makes this film cool! I mean whenever did you see a dull detective who lives with mom? I've seen a lot of film noirs and I've never run across another film like this one.

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I hesitate to call this a film noir as that implies a certain style and feeling to the film. And this movie is more like a very laid back, murder mystery than a noir...nothing is really at stake and no one is ever in danger. Instead the pay off is in watching the everyday guy detective Joe, who's a bit of an odd ball and likes to study facts and he's got his eye on the pretty brunette too. His keen eye helps him realize the suicide was indeed a murder with the other cops don't notice....But who did it? He knows it was one of the women who's pictures hung on the wall of the playboy music composer, now dead.

I usually find George Raft to be dull, so image my surprise when a film presents him in the same way. I had to laugh when the lovely dame that he liked, called him dull to his face! Well there's nothing wrong with that as George Raft proves in this one of a kind movie.

rating_3_5

GulfportDoc

05-21-18, 08:33 PM

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The Big Knife (1955)

Director: Robert Aldrich
Writers: James Poe (screenplay), Clifford Odets (stage play)
Cast: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Rod Stieger, Wendell Corey, Shelley Winters, Everett Sloane
Genre: Drama, Film-Noir

Synopsis (spoiler free): Hollywood movie star Charles Castle (Jack Palance) has some deep troubles! His wife (Ida Lupino) is divorcing him. The head of the studio (Rod Steiger) is blackmailing him into signing a 7 year movie contract. His best friend's wife (Jean Hagen) has the hots for him...So does a no-talent struggling actress (Shelley Winters) who happens to be shooting off her mouth around town about the actors dark past. All of this comes to head over a course of 48 hours.
...
Believe it or not I just recently found a source for this movie, so we finally watched it last night! I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the film, although I may have, and it went over my head as a kid.

To me it’s not really noir, but more of a melodramatic character study. Unfortunately the already over ladened script is further suffocated by having almost the entire film take place on one set (Castle’s living room). It’s a play that was simply filmed. Presumably the company blew all its funding on paying the truly heavyweight cast, and didn’t have enough left over for other production expenses. As it was the production felt too compressed, too dense.

But what a cast! The workhorse character of course is Palance’s, with lesser parts to Lupino, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Wendell Corey, Everett Sloane, and Shelly Winters. Unfortunately Palance was such a macho guy it’s difficult for him to seem convincing in his milquetoast or acquiescing scenes; and even more of a stretch to imagine his ending. Perhaps that’s where they got the cryptic title.

But despite frequent and sometimes confusing dialogue between the characters, the ensemble and intra actor chemistry was weak, making it seem like each character had several turns to be featured, with everyone else simply waiting their turns. “Okay, here’s one of your big scenes. Take it away.”

Whether the fault was the original play by Clifford Odets, or the screen writer’s, the dialogue and the expressed emotions were too thick and rapidly changing to seem anything like normal.

It could be that the direction was simply misguided. Still, during the mid-’50s it was fashionable to make heavy “meaningful” dramas, which explored emotional territory and subjects in new ways. I’ve read that Odets was a practitioner of that style. It was certainly popular on Broadway and live TV dramas (Playhouse 90, U.S. Steel Hour, etc.), as well as in films like On the Waterfront and many others.

I’m a fan of every actor in the film, and it was worthwhile to see it. But its flaws took an “A” cast and turned it into a “B” picture.

~Doc

Citizen Rules

05-21-18, 08:55 PM

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Battle of the Sexes (2017)

Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Writer: Simon Beaufoy
Cast: Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Sarah Silverman, Andrea Riseborough, Elisabeth Shue
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama

Based on the true story of a highly hyped 1973, tennis exhibition match between the World Women's tennis champion Billie Jean King and former tennis champion, a 55 year old out of shape self promoter, gambler and show off, Bobby Riggs. Dubbed the Battle of the Sexes, Bobby Riggs claimed no woman tennis player ever could beat him. CR

I liked this movie and I'd say I had fun watching it too. But overall it was just about what I expected from this kind of comedy-bio-drama movie:

It's sort of fun, did some things right...but was a whole lot of: movie making by the numbers. It seemed more like a product to be churned out, than something extra special. Well it was a comedy after all, so I shouldn't be too surprised that I wasn't blown away by this.

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Pros: It gets history right, mostly

From what I know of the real Battle of the Sexes, it was a hugely hyped event, that touted the ultimate male chauvinist (Bobby Riggs), against a fighter for women's liberation (Billie Jean King). I was just a kid at the time but I can remember that Bobby Riggs would appear on TV being wildly goofy. So I'd say the premise is accurate.

Cons: It's a one note film
The film makes it's point that men were jerks and women thought of as little dainty objects, oh so well. In fact I reached a point were I though, OK let's have one man who isn't behaving like some stereo typical Neanderthal. The film is preachy on this subject, so much that it started to seem silly.

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Pros: Steve Carell is Bobby Riggs

Steve Carell was hilarious as the outrageous Bobby Riggs! The scene where he checks into a gamblers anonymous meeting and proceeds to tell everyone that there that don't have a gambling problem! they just suck at it!..and need to learn to gamble better, was hilarious! I actually laughed out loud at the whole scene. One might think he played it over the top, but one look at the real Bobby Riggs and you'll know that he didn't.

Pros: Emma Stone was fine as Billie Jean King

Emma Stone was fine as Billie Jean King, a bit stoic, then again the real Billie Jean was probably a bit stoic too. Though I'd say Billie Jean has a prettier smile.

Pros: Authentic looking 1973 sets

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I recently watched The Post a film set in the early 70sand was not impressed with the set decor. Nothing about The Post seemed to feel like the early 70s. But here with Battle of the Sexes, they nail the look and feel of the early 70s. My favorite set piece was the hair salon, just look at that paint design and colors, yup that looks authentic!

rating_3+

Captain Steel

05-21-18, 09:08 PM

Citizen Rules

05-21-18, 09:10 PM

Believe it or not I just recently found a source for this movie, so we finally watched it last night! I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the film, although I may have, and it went over my head as a kid. It's cool that you seen it finally.

Unfortunately the already over ladened script is further suffocated by having almost the entire film take place on one set (Castle’s living room). It’s a play that was simply filmed... As it was the production felt too compressed, too dense. I can't argue with that, as it's true. It does seem very play like being set in mainly one room, with all the characters delivering play-like monologues...Though that's exactly what I loved about it.

Whether the fault was the original play by Clifford Odets, or the screen writer’s, the dialogue and the expressed emotions were too thick and rapidly changing to seem anything like normal. It's best to take it like a dramatized play, and not a slice of real life.

It could be that the direction was simply misguided. Still, during the mid-’50s it was fashionable to make heavy “meaningful” dramas, which explored emotional territory and subjects in new ways. I’ve read that Odets was a practitioner of that style. It was certainly popular on Broadway and live TV dramas (Playhouse 90, U.S. Steel Hour, etc.)... Very true, I've watched some TV dramas from those shows you mentioned and that was the style. It's a style that I really enjoy.

If you want to see one heck of an odd film noir, that certainly doesn't feel like a film noir...check out George Raft in Nocturne.

Citizen Rules

05-21-18, 09:15 PM

I used to think Bobby Riggs looked like Artie Johnson (of Laugh-In fame)... glasses, both short, same haircut.
Unfortunately, at age 89, Artie would be a little too old now to play Bobby Riggs these days.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGHYfOrXsAArp_D.jpg Yeah he did look like a younger Artie Johnson. Have you seen the movie? It's sort of a blast from the past. I didn't realize Elisabeth Shue was in it. I guess it's been a long time since she made Back to the Future Part II and Part III.

Captain Steel

05-21-18, 09:19 PM

Yeah he did look like a younger Artie Johnson. Have you seen the movie? It's sort of a blast from the past. I didn't realize Elisabeth Shue was in it. I guess it's been a long time since she made Back to the Future Part II and Part III.

And she was Daniel's girlfriend in the first Karate Kid movie!

No, haven't seen Battle of the Sexes yet, but I'd like to.

Citizen Rules

05-21-18, 11:33 PM

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Food, Inc. (2008)

Director: Robert Kenner
Writers: Robert Kenner, Elise Pearlstein
Genre: Documentary

"An unflattering look inside America's corporate controlled food industry."

I guess what I was expecting to see was a one sided look at the food industry in America. So I thought it would be about meat bad - vegans good. But it wasn't about that. I never felt that the film maker was saying that eating meat was bad for the planet. I did find this to be an illuminating documentary.

What I found intriguing and quite sad was that a handful of super corporations control a big part of the food supply in America. Even worse those corporations control the politicians. Or more accurately some politicians give their loyalties to the highest bidder, usually the corporations. If that wasn't enough, some of the government officials in charge of the FDA etc, are former associates of these huge food conglomerations.

I feel sorry for the next generation, as I fear corporate greed and political sell out is ruining our country. I guess I already knew that before watching Food Inc. but seeing how insidious corporate greed is...was eye opening.

This documentary did what a good documentary should do, it informed while holding my attention. It was balanced, it was well made and articulate. I will remember this one for a long time.

rating_4

Gideon58

05-22-18, 07:39 PM

Gideon58

05-29-18, 01:43 PM

And she was Daniel's girlfriend in the first Karate Kid movie!

No, haven't seen Battle of the Sexes yet, but I'd like to.

The role was kind of thankless, but Shue was fantastic in Battle of the Sexes

Gideon58

05-29-18, 01:46 PM

The Leslie Caron movies I've seen are:
An American in Paris
Lili
The Glass Slipper
Gigi (never saw the whole thing)
Fanny

And her documentary: The Reluctant Star

Gigi is one of the most overrated films in history...have never understood all the love for that movie.

cricket

06-02-18, 07:44 PM

Agree on Battle of the Sexes. It was good but had the potential to be so much more.

Captain Steel

06-02-18, 09:47 PM

Gigi is one of the most overrated films in history...have never understood all the love for that movie.

Fanny (1961) was interesting in that it seemed to start out as a light romantic comedy, but by the end it was a pretty serious drama with some pretty adult themes.

GulfportDoc

06-03-18, 12:15 PM

Gigi is one of the most overrated films in history...have never understood all the love for that movie.
I never liked the film either. 1958 was just about the end of the great musicals. It was a cute story, with a good cast. But it was mostly the lavish production, with good songs by Lerner and Loewe that highlighted the movie. Also Maurice Chevalier had become an icon, and the picture played into nostalgia at the time. But frankly I got sick of hearing the song "Gigi", which Chevalier sang on several contemporary TV variety shows.

~Doc

Citizen Rules

06-03-18, 01:20 PM

I've only seen Gigi once, I don't even remember it. I guess I'd call it middle of the road for me.

Citizen Rules

06-05-18, 10:36 PM

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My Name Is Nobody (1973)
Il mio nome è Nessuno (original title)
Director: Tonino Valerii
Writers: Sergio Leone (idea), Fulvio Morsella (story)
Cast: Terence Hill, Henry Fonda, Jean Martin
Genre: Comedy Spagetti Western

A young oddball gunfighter (Terence Hill) with a strange sense of humor takes to following an older gunfighter (Henry Fonda) around the wild west. 'Nobody' worships the older gunfighter and at the same time keeps challenging him...whilst the older gunfighter only wants to take a boat ride and retire in peace. CR

Produced by spaghetti western king, Sergio Leone, My Name is Nobody, takes the earlier works of Leone and adds a comic twist to it. I was going to say it lampoons the earlier spaghetti westerns, but that's not really what the film is about. It's more of a serious comedy or perhaps it's more wacky than the proceeding westerns by Leone. One thing is for sure this film seems like something Quentin Tarantino would have made. As it features intent of style over substances. It works, but at 2 hours the quirkiness begins to wear thin.

On the hand, this has some of the most amazing sets used in a western. Especially the Native American village on top of a mesa. I was impressed with what looked like an actual silver mine operation, I'd say that was a real location. There's some funny odd stuff, and Henry Fonda is good as the aging & wishing to return in peace, gun fighter. And I guess Terrance Hill was suitable wacky as the young strange-stranger who wants to turn the old gun fighter into a living legend....so he can be in the history books.

Watch it if you are wanting to see something a bit different. Just remember the English version is dubbed, and only Henry Fonda did his own voice, which adds to the quirkiness.

rating_3

SmudgeEFC1985

06-07-18, 04:15 PM

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Battle of the Sexes (2017)

Funnily enough, I thought the nicest guy in it was Bobby Riggs! I dont know if it was deliberate, but I thought he came across like he wasnt a complete pig, but was hamming it up to lend more hype to the tennis match, while saying and doing things he didnt necessarily believe in.

Im always happy when I see any modern film with Elisabeth Shue in. The girl is my childhood (Back to the Future, Adventures in Babysitting & the Karate Kid!) and considering those films are now over 30 years old, she looks really good. Big fan of Andrea Riseborough too, really liked her in this.

Citizen Rules

06-07-18, 07:57 PM

Funnily enough, I thought the nicest guy in it was Bobby Riggs! I dont know if it was deliberate, but I thought he came across like he wasnt a complete pig, but was hamming it up to lend more hype to the tennis match, while saying and doing things he didnt necessarily believe in.

Im always happy when I see any modern film with Elisabeth Shue in. The girl is my childhood (Back to the Future, Adventures in Babysitting & the Karate Kid!) and considering those films are now over 30 years old, she looks really good. Big fan of Andrea Riseborough too, really liked her in this. You were a fan of Elisabeth Shue at 2?:)...I know what you mean, you discovered her movies after they came out. She was great in all of those films you've mentioned. Have you seen Leaving Las Vegas? she was great in that.

SmudgeEFC1985

06-08-18, 01:12 PM

I have not, it's going on the list!

Gideon58

06-08-18, 01:15 PM

Don't forget Cocktail and Soapdish...she has prominent roles in both of those films.

Ms. M

06-09-18, 03:28 PM

Citizen, wonderful avatar :up:

Citizen Rules

06-09-18, 05:05 PM

Citizen, wonderful avatar :up: Thanks Ms. M:)

I like yours too, it's from one of my favorite newer films:up:

Citizen Rules

06-09-18, 11:03 PM

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Wonder Woman (2017)

Director: Patty Jenkins
Writers: Allan Heinberg (screenplay), Zack Snyder (story)
Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright
Genre: DC Superhero

After a WWI pilot (Chris Pine) crashes his bi-plane into the sea, Diana the Amazonian warrior aka Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) rescues him and they form a bond. She leaves her island paradise to venture into the world of man to stop the evil god Aries, who she thinks is the cause of WW1. CR

This is the first DC superhero movie I've seen. I liked Gal Gadot, I thought she was perfect for the role. Chris Pine was OK though he didn't have much chemistry with her. Then again this isn't some sophisticated movie with deep character study. What you get is what you expect: Lots of CG, lots of video game style fighting, not much in character development and at 2 hours 21 minutes a bit long in the tooth.

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I liked the overall story premise but I could have done without long fight sequences with Wonder Woman flying through the air.....slowing down to a near freeze, then speeding up as she attacks. Good grief, isn't that style of cinematography out of favor yet? I sure wish it was! I found it silly, like a Saturday morning cartoon, ala Powder Puff Girls. Then again I'm guessing this movie is aimed at teens, so I guess that's what they want.

When Wonder Woman wasn't flying though the air I did enjoy her portrayal of her character. The funny thing was the woman in the photo below was a carbon copy of Elsa Lanchester, right down to the guttural laugh sounds she makes. Not sure why she was needed in the film, she didn't do anything.

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Chris Pine and Gal Gadot. Not much more to say as Pine's character was along for the ride.

rating_3

Captain Steel

06-10-18, 02:01 AM

Wonder Woman (2017)

When Wonder Woman wasn't flying though the air I did enjoy her portrayal of her character. The funny thing was the woman in the photo below was a carbon copy of Elsa Lanchester, right down to the guttural laugh sounds she makes. Not sure why she was needed in the film, she didn't do anything.

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Chris Pine and Gal Gadot. Not much more to say as Pine's character was along for the ride.

rating_3

I had mixed feelings about it as well - I think my favorite part was Diana trying to acclimate in England. As for the special effects - as usual the movie devolved into a CGI video game. (And as always - a half hour too long for a superhero movie.)

The "Elsa Lanchester" lady was the character Etta Candy - I think she was in the movie as a hat tip to fans of the original Wonder Woman as she was Diana's long-time friend & side-kick dating back to the Golden Age. In the original comics she was an overweight American college student with a sweet tooth (contrasting her best friend's super-heroic female physique). She's had many incarnations over the decades and even showed up with a military career in the W.W. TV series of the 70's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etta_Candy

In the Golden Age of comics it became typical for heroes not just to have junior or super-powered side-kicks, but many of them had comedic sidekicks who were average people and most often bumblers of various sorts: Plastic Man had the intellectually challenged Woozy Winks, Green Lantern had a cab driver named Doiby Dickles, the Golden Age Flash had sidekicks known as the Three Dimwits (modeled after the Three Stooges) and Wonder Woman had Etta Candy.

Citizen Rules

06-10-18, 10:13 PM

Wonder Woman (2017)

The "Elsa Lanchester" lady was the character Etta Candy - I think she was in the movie as a hat tip to fans of the original Wonder Woman as she was Diana's long-time friend & side-kick dating back to the Golden Age. In the original comics she was an overweight American college student with a sweet tooth (contrasting her best friend's super-heroic female physique). She's had many incarnations over the decades and even showed up with a military career in the W.W. TV series of the 70's. Ahh...OK that makes sense. I was thinking maybe Elsa Lanchester was in the 70s TV show Wonder Woman. What did you think of Gal Gadot as a choice for Wonder Woman?

Captain Steel

06-10-18, 10:31 PM

Ahh...OK that makes sense. I was thinking maybe Elsa Lanchester was in the 70s TV show Wonder Woman. What did you think of Gal Gadot as a choice for Wonder Woman?

Mixed feelings.
Pros:

Her Israeli background and accent gave her an exotic feel that fit with an Amazon from a hidden island.
She's physically fit and has combat training which adds credibility to her character.
She's beautiful (so no problems there).

Cons:

To me she seems a bit on the petite side - whereas WW has always been somewhat statuesque. For some reason, Gal appeared much taller in her Diana persona than in her WW costume. Linda Carter seemed to have a physique I associate more closely with WW.
Not Gal's fault, but in her 3 movie appearances her hair seems a bit limp, scraggely and lifeless (I'm really nitpicking!)
I'm not really sure about her acting - she seemed a bit flat at times which played to her character being an outsider to any cultures we understand, but I never felt an emotional attachment or resonance to her. Not sure if this was an acting flaw or due to the overall production.

Speaking of Linda Carter - she was nearly as perfect a ringer for WW as Chris Reeve was for Superman (after a lot of working out, of course), but her acting also was always a bit flat or "one note" - never really displaying a wide range of emotions.

Citizen Rules

06-11-18, 10:31 PM

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The Silencers (1966)

Director: Phil Karlson
Writers: Donald Hamilton (novels), Oscar Saul (screenplay)
Cast: Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, Daliah Lavi
Genre: Spy Adventure Comedy

'Retired agent Matt Helm is re-activated in order to stop an evil organization from exploding an atom bomb over the USA and starting WWIII.'

Wholly smokes!....This was great fun! The Silencers is the first of four spy films based on the Matt Helm character played by that swanky singer and all around fun guy, Dean Martin.

The spy novels that the movies are based on were written by Donald Hamilton from 1960-1993. I've not read any of the books but the movie is said to be very different than the novels. It works as both a take on the James Bond films, but fitted to the personality of Dean Martin.

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Only in the 1960s would we have drinking while driving! In fact Deano has a will stocked wet bar in the back set of his spy car.

So we get plenty of pretty girls all decked out in mid 1960s couture fashions...and good old Matt 'Deano' Helm has a bedroom that's fit for a swinging bachelor, complete with remote control bed and a luxurious bubble bath big enough for a party.

I found this movie to be more serious than I would have thought and yet it delivers some laughs, while entertaining. A young Stella Stevens was really good in this too. She plays a hapless girl who just happens to be dating an evil spy, which then makes Matt Helm think she's an evil counter spy herself. Which then puts her in all sorts of harms way.

http://78.media.tumblr.com/c23c20dca9f6cb78be515ee23718101d/tumblr_ms6453cjkF1qaksomo1_400.gif
Not as crass as it appears, the young lady losing her clothing is Stella Stevens and Dean Martin suspects her of being an enemy spy. I guess he's looking for hidden weapons;)

Cyd Charisse has a role as an exotic dancer, that has to be seen to be appreciated. At 40 she's still looking great and fit as a fiddle. She sings too, though she's dubbed, it's still a great number.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45241&stc=1&d=1528765897
That's Daliah Lavi in blue, and dead on the floor is another beauty played briefly by Nancy Kovak.

The bad guys aren't all that colorful but Deano and his gal pals are! Don't miss the coolest spy tool ever made!...the reverse shooting gun.

rating_3_5++

Citizen Rules

06-12-18, 10:40 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45267&stc=1&d=1528852744
Blast from the Past (1999)

Director: Hugh Wilson
Writers: Bill Kelly (story), Bill Kelly (screenplay)
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, Dave Foley
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

In 1962 a brilliant but eccentric scientist (Chrisopher Walken) builds the ultimate bomb shelter under his families house. When a jet plane crashes into his house he mistakes it for nuclear war and seals himself and his pregnant wife (Sissy Spacek) into the bomb shelter, which has an automatic lock for 35 years. During that time his son (Brendan Fraser) grows up and when the lock is opened he must go up into the world to buy supplies for his family. There he finds a vastly different world than he's use to...and he meets a girl (Alicia Silverstone). CR

I love this movie! It made me laugh, it made me cry and it made me ponder the mysteries of life....OK I didn't actually cry, nor did I ponder crap. But I did laugh and I did love it, and that's enough for me:)

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45269&stc=1&d=1528852759

The premise was a gas. Someone stuck in a bomb shelter for 35 years, without knowing what was going on in the world above. The bomb shelter was way cool too! I mean it was stocked with everything you could image. Loved the way it was made to look like their house. It kind of looked fun to live in! And Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek made for great - wacky parents. I couldn't ask for more.

I was a bit bummed when he left the bomb shelter, but quickly the film found it's footing and the juxtaposition of the naive nice guy coming up against the denizens of Hollyweird...err I mean Hollywood was top notch comedy. Good stuff!

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45268&stc=1&d=1528852751

Brendan Fraser knocked it out of the ball park. He's reactions were too funny, as they came out of what a guy from a nice family circa 1962 would say and do if he was plopped down in Hollywood circa 1999. Alicia Silverstone was decent too, though she came across a bit too bitchy to be a love interest. I would have liked to see Winona Ryder in this role.

Shot out to Dave Foley for some good on screen time. Good stuff all around

rating_4

Citizen Rules

06-12-18, 11:22 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45270&stc=1&d=1528856355
Fading Gigolo (2013)

Director: John Turturro
Writer: John Turturro
Cast: John Turturro, Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Vanessa Paradis
Genre: Comedy-Drama

A well meaning older man (Woody Allen) decides to help his therapist (Sharon Stone) have a menage a trois. So he ask his friend (John Turturro) who's in need of money to works as a gigolo. Along the way he meets a deeply religious Hasidic Jewish woman, Avigal. She's a widow of a rabbi which then causes problems with the Jewish neighborhood patrolman who loves her. CR

I picked this movie up at my library because I seen Woody Allen on the DVD cover and I thought it was one of his lesser known movies. It's not. John Turturro wrote and directed this film. But it still feels a lot like some of Woody's better works. It's set somewhere in New York, in a orthodox Hasidic Jewish neighborhood. Which I thought was very interesting as I didn't know that they would have their own street patrol capable of detaining people and questioning their religious/moral activities. I don't know if this happens in real life? but it was interesting in the movie.

This is rated R and sounds like pure spectacle, but it's not. Except for one brief topless shot of Sharon Stone, who's still looking good btw, this could be a PG13 movie. We don't really see much of the gigolo work, just him meeting the rich woman and introducing himself. Then it fades into the next scene. Woody Allen was much older than I've seen him before in a movie, but he's still got that sharp wit and funny delivery of his lines.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45271&stc=1&d=1528856362

It was nice to see Sharon Stone, though she doesn't have much air time. For me it was the overall lightness of the film, Woody Allen and John Turturro's characters and the secondary Hasidic community story line that made this film worth watching.

rating_3_5

Captain Steel

06-12-18, 11:39 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45240&stc=1&d=1528765890
The Silencers (1966)

I found this movie to be more serious than I would have thought and yet it delivers some laughs, while entertaining. A young Stella Stevens was really good in this too. She plays a hapless girl who just happens to be dating an evil spy, which then makes Matt Helm think she's an evil counter spy herself. Which then puts her in all sorts of harms way.

http://78.media.tumblr.com/c23c20dca9f6cb78be515ee23718101d/tumblr_ms6453cjkF1qaksomo1_400.gif
Not as crass as it appears, the young lady losing her clothing is Stella Stevens and Dean Martin suspects her of being an enemy spy. I guess he's looking for hidden weapons;)

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45241&stc=1&d=1528765897
That's Daliah Lavi in blue, and dead on the floor is another beauty played briefly by Nancy Kovak.

rating_3_5++

Take at look at Stella Stevens in this clip from The Silencers (at 0:40).
I was amazed that when they show her face how much she resembles Scarlet Johansen today!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMbRZsFmK8o

Also, Daliah Lavi was my pick to play Zatanna (in my fantasy JLA movie c. 1966)...
AND I had Stella Stevens in it too as my pick for Black Canary!
https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=1486042#post1486042

(I can never figure out how to post a link to a specific post in a thread.)

Dani8

06-12-18, 11:53 PM

gbgoodies

06-13-18, 01:31 AM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45240&stc=1&d=1528765890
The Silencers (1966)

Director: Phil Karlson
Writers: Donald Hamilton (novels), Oscar Saul (screenplay)
Cast: Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, Daliah Lavi
Genre: Spy Adventure Comedy

'Retired agent Matt Helm is re-activated in order to stop an evil organization from exploding an atom bomb over the USA and starting WWIII.'

Wholly smokes!....This was great fun! The Silencers is the first of four spy films based on the Matt Helm character played by that swanky singer and all around fun guy, Dean Martin.

The spy novels that the movies are based on were written by Donald Hamilton from 1960-1993. I've not read any of the books but the movie is said to be very different than the novels. It works as both a take on the James Bond films, but fitted to the personality of Dean Martin.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45245&stc=1&d=1528767281
Only in the 1960s would we have drinking while driving! In fact Deano has a will stocked wet bar in the back set of his spy car.

So we get plenty of pretty girls all decked out in mid 1960s couture fashions. And good old Matt 'Deano' Helm has a bedroom that's fit for a swinging bachelor, complete with remote control bed and a luxurious bubble bath big enough for a party.

I found this movie to be more serious than I would have thought and yet it delivers some laughs, while entertaining. A young Stella Stevens was really good in this too. She plays a hapless girl who just happens to be dating an evil spy, which then makes Matt Helm think she's an evil counter spy herself. Which then puts her in all sorts of harms way.

http://78.media.tumblr.com/c23c20dca9f6cb78be515ee23718101d/tumblr_ms6453cjkF1qaksomo1_400.gif
Not as crass as it appears, the young lady losing her clothing is Stella Stevens and Dean Martin suspects her of being an enemy spy. I guess he's looking for hidden weapons;)

Cyd Charisse has a role as an exotic dancer, that has to be seen to be appreciated. At 40 she's still looking great and fit as a fiddle. She sings too, though she's dubbed, it's still a great number.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45241&stc=1&d=1528765897
That's Daliah Lavi in blue, and dead on the floor is another beauty played briefly by Nancy Kovak.

The bad guys aren't all that colorful but Deano and his gal pals are! Don't miss the coolest spy tool ever made, the reverse shooting gun.

rating_3_5++

Great review of The Silencers. I love Dean Martin as Matt Helm. I wish he had made more than only four Matt Helm movies. I think they're better than James Bond movies because they're more fun. :)

Did you notice Roger C. Carmel (aka Harry Mudd) as one of the villains?

gbgoodies

06-13-18, 01:38 AM

(I can never figure out how to post a link to a specific post in a thread.)

Captain Steel,

To link to a specific post, you have to link to the date/time stamp in the upper right corner of that post. Just right-click on the date/time stamp, and choose "Copy link address". (That address is the URL of that specific post.)

Captain Steel

06-13-18, 12:18 PM

Captain Steel,

To link to a specific post, you have to link to the date/time stamp in the upper right corner of that post. Just right-click on the date/time stamp, and choose "Copy link address". (That address is the URL of that specific post.)

Thanks! It worked! So simply & so easy, yet I NEVER would have figured it out on my own! :)

Citizen Rules

06-13-18, 01:06 PM

....Did you notice Roger C. Carmel (aka Harry Mudd) as one of the villains? I did! At first I'm like he's familiar, then I realize I've seen him in Star Trek TOS...then I remember Harry Mudd. And there's another Star Trek TOS alumni, Nancy Kovak who's a blonde in the movie, but was a brunette in A Private Little War. She was Nona the witch woman who saved Captain Kirk's live with when he was bit by the poisonous giant white gorilla.

Citizen Rules

06-13-18, 01:12 PM

Take at look at Stella Stevens in this clip from The Silencers (at 0:40).
I was amazed that when they show her face how much she resembles Scarlet Johansen today!
45279
I think you misspelled 'face' wrong;)

Also, Daliah Lavi was my pick to play Zatanna (in my fantasy JLA movie c. 1966)...
AND I had Stella Stevens in it too as my pick for Black Canary!
https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=1486042#post1486042
Good choices:up: I didn't know who Daliah Lavi was until I seen The Silencers.

Citizen Rules

06-13-18, 11:11 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45314&stc=1&d=1528941233
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959)

Director: Michael Anderson
Writers: Eric Ambler (screenplay), Hammond Innes (novel)
Cast: Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston, Michael Redgrave, Richard Harris
Genre: Adventure, Crime, Drama

A small time, ship salvage operator (Charlton Heston) comes across a derelict ship, on fire and adrift at sea. He braves the storm and boards the ship so to lay a claim to salvage rights. There he finds a seemingly deranged man (Gary Cooper) who is intent on sinking his own ship as he believes the former crew and captain sabotage their own ship for insurance money. CR

The Wreck of the Mary Deare is a 1959 MGM, wide screen CinemaScope color film, that was a collaboration between British and American film makers. This is the film that Alfred Hitchcock was going to make along with his screen writer Ernest Lehman. Hitch went as far as finding a ship to film, when his screen writer told him he couldn't come up with a story. So the two made North By Northwest, instead.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45313&stc=1&d=1528941220

One might wonder how different this might have been as a Hitch film. Though I thought it was great just as it was. It works as a mystery with the strange, seemingly abandoned freighter, the Mary Deare, smoldering and adrift on the high sea. The mystery deepens when Gary Cooper a Merchant seaman with a checkered past enters the picture. Where did the crew go? Who started the fire? And who dynamited the side of the sinking ship?

It works as an action film as Charlton Heston is dangling by a rope from the side of the ship and the waves bash him nearly unconscious. The entire first part of the film is an exciting ship rescue, well done too!

And it works as a tense drama with the later court room scenes that are reminiscent of another Gary Cooper film, The Trail of Billy Mitchell.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45312&stc=1&d=1528941212

Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston are in top acting form here. They make a good pairing too. And look out for an evil lout played by Richard Harris....Ohhhh he's so evil!

rating_4+

gbgoodies

06-14-18, 01:23 AM

Thanks! It worked! So simply & so easy, yet I NEVER would have figured it out on my own! :)

You're welcome. It's easy to do, but hard to figure out until someone tells you where to find the link. :)

I did! At first I'm like he's familiar, then I realize I've seen him in Star Trek TOS...then I remember Harry Mudd. And there's another Star Trek TOS alumni, Nancy Kovak who's a blonde in the movie, but was a brunette in A Private Little War. She was Nona the witch woman who saved Captain Kirk's live with when he was bit by the poisonous giant white gorilla.

Good catch on Nancy Kovack. :up:

That's not one of the better "Star Trek" episodes, so she doesn't stand out in other parts as much as Roger C. Carmel does.

BTW, I went to Dave & Busters yesterday, and they have a Star Trek game that pays off in Star Trek collector cards when you win. (They're similar to baseball cards, but with pictures of Star Trek characters.) They just changed to a new set of cards, and it's Star Trek villains, including Khan, Q, Trelane, the Talosian (from "The Cage"), the Borg Queen, Klingon Commander Kor, Gul Dukat (from DS9), and the Gorn. I was kind of upset that they didn't include a Harry Mudd card in the set, but I guess he's not really a villain. Hopefully he'll be included in a future set.

GulfportDoc

06-14-18, 08:14 PM

The Silencers (1966)
Director: Phil Karlson

Writers: Donald Hamilton (novels), Oscar Saul (screenplay)
Cast: Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, Daliah Lavi
Genre: Spy Adventure Comedy

'Retired agent Matt Helm is re-activated in order to stop an evil organization from exploding an atom bomb over the USA and starting WWIII.'
rating_3_5++
I'd read a whole bunch of Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm series books, mostly from the '60s and '70s, and loved them. He was considered the best American writer of spy crime fiction during his lifetime.

When I first saw that Dean Martin was starring in a Matt Helm movie, I was delighted, and eager to see it. Unfortunately the movies have almost nothing to do with the novels, except for perhaps some very basic outlines. As you say they were tailored to Martin's persona.

Anyway I thought the movies were idiotic, obviously meant to cash in on the James Bond craze. But come to think of it, it might be worth a re-visit just to experience the films on their own level. They might be pretty good campy comedies...:)

~Doc

Citizen Rules

06-14-18, 08:21 PM

Captain Steel

06-14-18, 09:02 PM

I'd read a whole bunch of Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm series books, mostly from the '60s and '70s, and loved them. He was considered the best American writer of spy crime fiction during his lifetime.

When I first saw that Dean Martin was starring in a Matt Helm movie, I was delighted, and eager to see it. Unfortunately the movies have almost nothing to do with the novels, except for perhaps some very basic outlines. As you say they were tailored to Martin's persona.

Anyway I thought the movies were idiotic, obviously meant to cash in on the James Bond craze. But come to think of it, it might be worth a re-visit just to experience the films on their own level. They might be pretty good campy comedies...:)

~Doc

For me, Matt Helm were "4:30 Movies" and Deano was Matt Helm.
I never even knew he was a "real" fictional agent with his own series of novels before the Dean Martin movies until long after I saw the movies.

So, were the novels also cashing in on the James Bond craze? (Guess I'll have to look up when they came out and compare them to Ian Fleming's creation.) :)

The movies are idiotic, but they are funny and you wouldn't find better eye candy in a Bond flick, they have great music and they're just so sixties!

Citizen Rules

06-14-18, 10:32 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45331&stc=1&d=1529025088
Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957)

Director: Richard Thorpe
Writers: László Vadnay, Art Cohn
Cast: Dean Martin, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Eva Bartok, Walter Slezak
Genre: Comedy, Musical, Romance

Dean Martin is in Rome and he's a millionaire playboy with his own plane and a string of hotels. Hence the title 10,000 Bedrooms.

Deano is surrounded by four beautiful Italian woman, who are sisters. One of them, Maria (Eva Bartok) has eyes for the millionaire bachelor. Whilst Deano ends up being smitten by the youngest sister Nina (Anna Maria Alberghetti) who's only 18....whooo! be careful Deano. The hitch is, (pun intended:p) for Deano to marry Nina he has to first get her three older sisters married off. The father played by Walter Slezak is adamant about keeping with tradition. So that's how the story goes...

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45333&stc=1&d=1529025102

Ten Thousand Bedrooms was Dean Martin's first movie after breaking off from the movie making team of him and Jerry Lewis. Thank goodness too, as I never liked those Martin and Lewis films.

This was a big budget film shot in color and CinemaScope. It was shot partially on location and offered something to moviegoers that TV couldn't...a chance to see full color, scenes of exotic locales. I love how the movie opens with Martin flying his airplane into Rome...We see gorgeous shots of St Peters, the Coliseum, the Forum and much more. Later we see many neat shots of Rome and Italy.

This is billed as a musical-comedy-romance, but outside of Deano singing a couple short songs to the girls as he dances with them, there's not much music. But there is romancing and light comedy and it makes for a pleasant way to spend some time.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45332&stc=1&d=1529025095
Eva Bartok left looking at her star struck younger sister played by
Anna Maria Alberghetti.

Will love prevail? And if so with who? You'll just have to watch to find out!

rating_3_5

GulfportDoc

06-15-18, 09:47 AM

For me, Matt Helm were "4:30 Movies" and Deano was Matt Helm.
I never even knew he was a "real" fictional agent with his own series of novels before the Dean Martin movies until long after I saw the movies.

So, were the novels also cashing in on the James Bond craze? (Guess I'll have to look up when they came out and compare them to Ian Fleming's creation.) :)
...
The Donald Hamilton novels were serious spy crime fiction, more like LeCarre or Ludlum. I've never read a Flemming Bond novel, but the Matt Helm novels were nothing like either the Bond or Helm movies. I suspect that Cubby & Co. probably camped up the Bond movie scripts in comparison to the novels as well.

But I really like all the Bond movies, and I'd might enjoy the Helm films in a different way than from the novels. I'll have to go back and revisit one.

~Doc

Citizen Rules

06-15-18, 12:47 PM

...

But I really like all the Bond movies, and I'd might enjoy the Helm films in a different way than from the novels. I'll have to go back and revisit one.

~Doc
Doc, do you like the newer Bond films? I use to love Bond films myself, but lost interest some time ago. I still Sean Connery and Roger Moore as Bond but haven't even seen the last Bond films made.

Gideon58

06-15-18, 02:46 PM

[CENTER]https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45331&stc=1&d=1529025088
Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957)

[LEFT]Director: Richard Thorpe
[LEFT] Writers: László Vadnay, Art Cohn
Cast: Dean Martin, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Eva Bartok, Walter Slezak
[FONT=Arial Narrow] Genre: Comedy, Musical, Romance
]

This sounds like fun, kind of like Taming of the Shrew....will be adding this one to my watchlist.

Citizen Rules

06-15-18, 02:47 PM

This sounds like fun, kind of like Taming of the Shrew....will be adding this one to my watchlist. It's not nearly as good as Taming of the Shrew. It's more light and entertaining. A big plus is the actual scenery of Rome.

Gideon58

06-15-18, 02:52 PM

[CENTER]https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45240&stc=1&d=1528765890
The Silencers (1966)[FONT=Arial Narrow]

I've seen bits and pieces of this movie but never from beginning to the end, I'm going to have to change that...I remember LOVING Cyd Charisse's dance number during the opening credits and Stella Stevens is always worth watching...adding to watchlist.

Gideon58

06-15-18, 02:56 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45267&stc=1&d=1528852744
[LEFT]Blast from the Past (1999)

Director: Hugh Wilson
Writers: Bill Kelly (story), Bill Kelly (screenplay)
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, Dave Foley
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

I liked this movie a lot...I always considered it the third installment of Brendan Fraser's "Fish Out of Water" trilogy, after Encino Man and George of the Jungle. Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek are wonderful as his parents.

GulfportDoc

06-15-18, 07:43 PM

Doc, do you like the newer Bond films? I use to love Bond films myself, but lost interest some time ago. I still Sean Connery and Roger Moore as Bond but haven't even seen the last Bond films made.
Yes, I like the newer ones too. Of course IMO, Sean Connery IS James Bond; the best by far. However Daniel Craig is a strong second place.

His first Bond --Casino Royale-- opened with the most exciting foot chase scene in memory. Craig brought a new athletic and brooding quality to Bond. And of course there's no campiness at all in the films in which he has starred.

I think you'd like some of them, but you really must see the opening sequence in Craig's Casino Royale.

I always look forward to the new one-- whomever it is.

~Doc

Citizen Rules

06-15-18, 10:52 PM

Yes, I like the newer ones too. Of course IMO, Sean Connery IS James Bond; the best by far. However Daniel Craig is a strong second place.

His first Bond --Casino Royale-- opened with the most exciting foot chase scene in memory. Craig brought a new athletic and brooding quality to Bond. And of course there's no campiness at all in the films in which he has starred.

I think you'd like some of them, but you really must see the opening sequence in Craig's Casino Royale.

I always look forward to the new one-- whomever it is.

~DocIronically the last new installment in the Bond films that I seen was Casino Royale. It was also one of the last films I seen in a theater, if not they last one. I really liked, I liked the part about him being poisoned an his solution to that. Eva Green was one of the best Bond girls around.

Actually I prefer campy-ness in my spy films. That's why I like the Roger Moore films. And of course a big fan of the original Sean Connery.

GulfportDoc

06-16-18, 12:19 PM

I agree that Roger Moore was wonderful. Sort of the Jim Rockford of the James Bonds...;) He was unique.

Citizen Rules

06-16-18, 10:46 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45373&stc=1&d=1529198927
Come and Get It (1936)

Directors: Howard Hawks, William Wyler
Writers: Edna Ferber (novel), Jane Murfin (screenplay)
Stars: Edward Arnold, Joel McCrea, Frances Farmer, Walter Brennan
Genre: Drama

A greedy lumber-baron (Edward Arnold) is cutting down forest at an alarming rate and without replanting. He only cares about one thing power and money...OK that's two things. He falls in love with a good heartened saloon girl (Frances Farmer) but ditches her after their engagement, so that he can marry the daughter of the richest lumber man in the state. This way he becomes his partner. The problem is he loves the saloon girl and not his new wife. Years go by and he has a upstart son (Joel McCrea) who wants better longing practices.

Meanwhile dad falls in love with the very young daughter of the saloon girl who married his best friend (Walter Brennan) Wow! talk about a soap opera, but then again this is based on the book by the queen of epic-sprawling novels Edna Ferber. Who also wrote the novel Giant.

This movie had a troubled production. Samuel Goldwyn agreed to shoot the movie as written in Edna Ferber's 1935 novel. That novel harshly criticized modern logging practices that were denuding the land without reseeding the forest. The original director was Howard Hawks, who during Samuel Goldwyn's time in the hospital turned the movie into a love triangle. Goldwyn was so pissed that he fired Hawks and replaced him with William Wyler and they re-shot a third of the movie.

As it turned out the film got a face lift with lots of stock footage of logging operations that have to be seen to believe! Especially the giant old growth trees that slide down a water slide on a huge mountain side and then shoot into the water below. It's pretty cool and the logging stuff was my favorite part.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45374&stc=1&d=1529198934

Original Goldwyn wanted Spencer Tracy to be loaned to them but MGM would have none of that. So instead we get an odd leading man in Edward Arnold, who mostly played character actors. It's kind of hard to see him in a romantic lead with the lovely Frances Farmer. I think a young Spencer Tracy would have been much better in the role.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45375&stc=1&d=1529198946

I mainly watched this to see Frances Farmer and she's prominently featured as both Lotta the saloon girl and Lotta's daughter also named Lotta....odd I know!

This is a public domain movie and available on Youtube and it's a good copy too!

rating_3_5

Full Movie of Come and Get It (1936)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVMDym4OFXc

Citizen Rules

06-17-18, 11:06 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45393&stc=1&d=1529285780
A Night to Remember (1958)

Director: Roy Baker
Writers: Walter Lord (book), Eric Ambler (screenplay)
Cast: Kenneth More, Ronald Allen, Robert Ayres
Genre: Biography, Drama, History

At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, the British ocean liner R.M.S. Titanic, billed as an unsinkable ship, sinks on it's maiden voyage in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean....after striking an iceberg a few hours earlier the ship began taking on water and was doomed. The Titanic carried 2,200 passengers and crew, with only enough life boats to save less than half that number. CR

There's been well over a dozen films made about the Titanic...A Night To Remember is considered by many to be the best of the bunch. The story is based on actual transcripts from the hearings in 1912 about the sinking of the Titanic, as told by those who had survived. The film tells the story from the viewpoint of one of the souls who did survive, 2nd Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller aptly played by Kenneth More. Lightoller is our guide into a movie that plays out like a you-are-there documentary, that then gives us a deep insight into the tragedy.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45392&stc=1&d=1529285770

After watching this and Titanic (1953) what struck me is how real A Night To Remember felt. It captured the initial confusion that resulted from most passengers on the ship not even knowing that they were sinking. And it brought home the sheer panic caused by utter desperation in the loading of the lifeboat scenes.

Another powerful aspect of the film was how by incorporating stock footage of other similar size ships, it seemed as if we saw Titanic being launched and sailing out of the harbor to it's destiny.

The interior sets are fantastic! I've seen many documentaries on the Titanic and the decor in the movie looked very much like the real thing.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45397&stc=1&d=1529287275

I loved the boiler room scenes. You could almost feel the heat from the coal fires and the deadly cold from the sea water pouring in...the drama was very human.

rating_5

Captain Steel

06-17-18, 11:47 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45393&stc=1&d=1529285780
A Night to Remember (1958)

rating_5

Huzzah! Now wasn't this so much better than that fiction-laden, CGI chick-flick? ;)

I remember seeing this for the first time in my late teens and it blew me away. It's aptly named because I never forgot A Night to Remember. Re-watched it recently too!
It was one of the few Titanic films to address the role the SS Californian played in the disaster - the ship was only a few miles away from the Titanic and could have largely prevented the huge loss of life with time to spare if only things had gone a little differently.

I'm one of those who says this is still the BEST film about the Titanic ever made.

Citizen Rules

06-21-18, 11:13 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45482&stc=1&d=1529632813
Titanic (1953)

Director: Jean Negulesco
Writers: Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch
Cast: Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner, Audrey Dalton, Richard Basehart, Thelma Ritter
Genre: Drama, History, Romance

"An unhappily married couple struggle to deal with their problems while on board the ill-fated ship."

Titanic (1953) not to be confused with Titanic (1997), though both films share much similarities. Titanic (1953) was a big Hollywood film that won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay. I use to think this was my favorite older version of the ship called R.M.S. Titanic but after watching A Night To Remember (1957) a few days ago I realized that film was superior to this one. However this is still a good film and well worth watching.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45483&stc=1&d=1529632821

This one tells the story as a backdrop to an older couple's martial problems. The wife played by Barbara Stanwyck wants to take her two children back to her small hometown in America. The husband (Clifton Webb) is a snobbish, well-to-do tycoon who wants his children raised in the lap of luxury and class in Europe. I didn't think their martial problems were all that interesting. To make matters worse Clifton Webb plays a heartless father and husband who's so cold that you don't mind seeing him take a dip in the North Atlantic.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45484&stc=1&d=1529632826

A secondary romance is between the older teen daughter (Audrey Dalton) and a young Robert Wagner, who's a breath of fresh air to the otherwise stuffy characters. The young couple are interesting and of course the doomed ship threatens their newly found love.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45485&stc=1&d=1529632835

I didn't find the sinking disaster as tragic or as real as in A Night To Remember. They did do a good job though and it looks like the actors are indeed fleeing for their lives. Well except the 1500 who went down with the ship.

rating_3_5

Citizen Rules

06-22-18, 09:56 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45528&stc=1&d=1529715322
Winchester (2018)

Directors: Michael Spierig (as The Spierig Brothers), Peter Spierig (as The Spierig Brothers)
Writers: Tom Vaughan, Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Cast: Helen Mirren, Sarah Snook, Finn Scicluna-O'Prey
Genre: Biography, Fantasy, Horror

"Ensconced in her sprawling California mansion, eccentric firearm heiress Sarah Winchester believes she is haunted by the souls of people killed by the Winchester repeating rifle."

A PG-13 Biography, Fantasy, Horror. OK, not my type of movie, but I was interested in the biography-true story of the real Winchester mansion and the lady who made it. So I thought, 'why not watch this, I mean it's got Helen Miren so how bad can it be?'

How bad? pretty bad...It had an unimaginative story that might entertain 14 year olds, but had me thinking 'yeah whatever'.

The acting by Sarah Snook was flat and wooden. Every time she spoke she took me right out of the movie. Not a good thing. Now, I've seen Miss Snook in other stuff and she was good, but here she just didn't get a handle on her character.

Jason Clarke who plays the opium taking doctor who's sent to evaluate the mental condition of Mrs Winchester, was just a tad more palatable than Sarah Snook. But I swear the two of them were treating the movie like a made for TV production.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45529&stc=1&d=1529715331

The movie does deliver one thing, at least partially...it shows us the inside of this mysteriously big mansion with stairs that go nowhere and doors that open into nothing. So that was cool to see. And true to form Helen Miren makes the movie watchable. She's good.

But as far as being scary, nope...and as far as being clever or entertaining? I'd rather watch The Haunting (1963) or even William Castle's 13 Ghost (1960)

rating_2

Dani8

06-22-18, 11:12 PM

That's a shame about Winchester but I'd still like to see the house and Helen!

Did they actually use the house?

Luis

06-22-18, 11:21 PM

I think I said this somewhere in another thread but Winchester is the worst film of the year so far for me.

Dani8

06-22-18, 11:25 PM

I think I said this somewhere in another thread but Winchester is the worst film of the year so far for me.

Lol. I've seen that a few times so you're in good company, it seems.

Citizen Rules

06-22-18, 11:25 PM

That's a shame about Winchester but I'd still like to see the house and Helen!

Did they actually use the house? I don't know? I kind of think they didn't shoot in the real house...but the house in the movie was cool and Helen was great of course. And that's about the only 2 good things. At least I never got bored and the movie went fast.

I think I said this somewhere in another thread but Winchester is the worst film of the year so far for me. Ha, I think I've only seen 2 or maybe 3 films from this year so far. I have a hard time finding good new films to watch. Have you seen much from this year?

Luis

06-22-18, 11:30 PM

Ha, I think I've only seen 2 or maybe 3 films from this year so far. I have a hard time finding good new films to watch. Have you seen much from this year?

I feel like I have, the count is 27 so far, I have a thread dedicated solely to the 2018 films.
https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=52698

You might find one that peaks your interest.

On a side note, I remember you telling me to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest already. Just finished it right now actually! Hahaha

Citizen Rules

06-22-18, 11:35 PM

I feel like I have, the count is 27 so far, I have a thread dedicated solely to the 2018 films.
https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=52698

You might find one that peaks your interest.

On a side note, I remember you telling me to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest already. Just finished it right now actually! Hahaha Thanks I'll take a look at that tomorrow. I'm heading off to watch some old Twilight Zone:eek:

pahaK

06-22-18, 11:39 PM

I don't know? I kind of think they didn't shoot in the real house...but the house in the movie was cool and Helen was great of course. And that's about the only 2 good things. At least I never got bored and the movie went fast.

I remember reading that there is little footage from the actual house but practically everything was shot in studio because the house was too crammed to set up cameras and stuff.

Dani8

06-22-18, 11:47 PM

Thank you, pahak. Stunning sets then. I wonder how long something like that takes to replicate.

Citizen Rules

06-23-18, 11:09 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45553&stc=1&d=1529804930

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45552&stc=1&d=1529804907

Elvis and Anabelle (2007)

Director: Will Geiger
Writer: Will Geiger
Cast: Blake Lively, Max Minghella, Joe Mantegna
Genre: Drama, Romance

Anabelle (Blake Lively) is a local beauty queen with a bossy stage mother (Mary Steenburegen) who's hell bent on making her daughter the next Miss Texas Rose at what ever the cost. She pushes her and pushes her, and when Anabella goes to vomit to make her tummy flatter, she flat out dies after winning the crown. She ends up dead and in a small town mortuary run out of a run down old house by Elvis, no not that Elvis. This Elvis (Max Minghella) is an embittered lonely young man who's a misfit and hates everything around him including himself, except his father (Joe Mantana) who he loves and takes care of. The problems start when he falls in love with the dead beauty queen, who awakens on the table and has no idea where she is. CR

Blake Lively makes this movie special! She shines in this. I've said this before buy Blake has real star quality potential. If only she could land herself in a great film, I thing she would be one of the top stars working. This movie, ain't great, but it's still got a lot going for it.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45556&stc=1&d=1529804973

Elvis and Anabelle is a small Indie film, the type that didn't get a big theater release and so is not well known today. It starts out with a rather catchy, albeit dark song that seems to set the tone of the film. But don't be fooled, as the film goes along the light creeps in and just maybe love will save the day.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45555&stc=1&d=1529804960

Oh that's Keith Carradine as the step dad who's suppose to be a creep when he's drunk, only we never see that, but Anabelle does say that to Elvis.

I do have one complaint, and that is Max Minghella's character. Max is probably a good actor but he's ill suited to this movie. I'm talking zero chemistry with Blake. He plays his character so damn negative, that he made Oscar Levant look like a charmer....Which is sad, as if another actor had been hired that could do both lonely outcast and likable underdog, then this movie might have been a cult classic. Thus helping the effervescent Blake Lively to go onto bigger and better things. But as it is Max Minghella's character is such a weird downer that you don't want him to wind up with the down to earth beauty queen.

rating_3_5+

Citizen Rules

06-27-18, 07:50 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45658&stc=1&d=1530138259
Going My Way (1944)

Director: Leo McCarey
Writers: Frank Butler & Frank Cavett (screenplay)
Cast: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh, Jean Heather, Gene Lockhart
Genre: Comedy Drama

A young upstart Catholic Father, Chuck O'Malley (Bing Crosby) is sent by a Bishop to take over a financially destitute parish in a poor neighborhood. The church is in such financial trouble that the elderly Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald) can't bring in enough money to kept it going. To protect the feelings of the elderly Father, the younger Father pretends to have been sent as an assistant. The two men don't see eye to eye, as one is very old fashioned and the other very progressive.CR

Going My Way was a huge success back in 1944. It was the highest grossing film of that year and was nominated for a whooping 10 Academy Awards!
It won seven Oscars including:

Best Actor Bing Crosby
Best Supporting Actor Barry Fitzgerald
Best Director
Best Original Story
Best Screenplay

It spawned a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's, which also featured Bing as Father O'Malley and starred Ingrid Bergman.

But back to Going My Way, I thought this was a gem! It's one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in a long time. It weaves several stories of the troubled people in the parish, along with the main story of the two Fathers. The characters are three dimensional and very human. The film is sentimental, but...not too much, it has just enough humanistic qualities to make the story captivating.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45661&stc=1&d=1530138467

Two of the stories are about a group of delinquent kids from the poor streets of the parish. They're always getting in trouble and stealing stuff. The younger Father decides the best way to help them is to teach them to sing, so he forms a boys choir. The second story involves a pretty young woman who runs away from home and is mistaken by the police as a street walker. Father O'Malley gives her some advice on singing, as she sings too, and helps set her on the correct course in life.

Bing is quite good in this, but it's Barry Fitzgerald who steals the show. He's perfectly suited to his role. He's played other priest before but his performance here is my all time favorite of his.

Going My Way...I love this film! They don't make them this anymore.
rating_4_5++

Citizen Rules

06-27-18, 08:50 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45668&stc=1&d=1530142725
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)

Director: Leo McCarey
Writers: Dudley Nichols (screenplay), Leo McCarey (story)
Cast: Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, Henry Travers
Genre: Drama Comedy

At a big city Catholic school, Father O'Malley and Sister Benedict indulge in friendly rivalry, and succeed in extending the school through the gift of a building.

The sequel to 1944's Going My Way. This time Father O'Malley (Bing Crosby) is sent by the head Bishop to St. Mary's, a Catholic school in financial trouble. It's headed by an order of nuns. The head nun is Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman). Both of them get along fine, but differ in the ways they do things, this then causes good natured conflict and makes for comedy-drama situations.

Barry Fitzgerald does not reprise his role as he couldn't! If you've seen Going My Way, you'll know why. In his place is a business man (Henry Travers) who played the angel in It's A Wonderful Life. Here he owns a huge building nearby to the falling down Catholic school. Then nuns would like nothing more that for this business man to donate his entire building which isn't even completed yet, to them...so they can run a modern school.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45666&stc=1&d=1530142630

I liked this OK, but the script is more forced, the comedy more predictable and Hollywood-ish. Henry Travers was no replacement for the wonderful Barry Fitzgerald.

Still worth a watch.
3.5

Captain Steel

06-27-18, 10:38 PM

Citizen Rules

06-27-18, 10:50 PM

Yeah, this one is good, but it (and its namesake) don't compare to A Night To Remember.

Like the 1997 version, this one engages in fictional stories set aboard the ship. JMO, but the fictional dramas seem to take away from the intensity of the actual event as captured in ANTR, it's like the Titanic becomes a setting and not the primary focus of the story. That's exactly what the movie was going for, fictionalized drama with the Titanic's sinking as the backdrop. I like fictionalized drama BTW, but here it's not well done.

I've seen many films based on the Titanic and most go for the human drama, which I suppose is easier and cheaper to film. There was a TV movie from 1997 also called Titanic that told the story from the lives of the people aboard. I think it did a good job, I should see it again. It was the first movie to show the Titanic breaking in two.

And if I remember correctly, this one ends rather abruptly, covering very little of the aftermath: the lifeboats, the survivors and the rescue (whereas A Night To Remember seemed to spend an adequate amount of time covering the lifeboats and search for survivors).
Very true, the in-the-freezing-water with Lt Lightoller and his struggle on top of an overturned life boat made for a lot of heart felt excitement. I mean you could feel the desperate situation, it seemed real...As a kid I once filled a sink full of ice cold water, with as many ice cubes as I could fit into it. Then I put my hand in it to see what the Titanic survivors would have felt. It hurt like hell! It felt like a million needles piercing my skin.

Captain Steel

06-27-18, 11:21 PM

Speaking of ship disaster movies, this got me remembering one starring Robert Stack called The Last Voyage (1960).

Have you even seen or heard of it, Rules?

It pre-dates the Poseidon Adventure and is in color.
Unlike the Poseidon Adventure it doesn't follow an ensemble of characters (ala typical Irwin Allen disaster movies), but pretty much focuses on one family (can't tell much more without spoilers).

I happened to catch it in the middle on TCM one day and had to watch it to the end - then luckily I found it again and watched the whole thing. It does a good job with tension and suspense and the cinematography is very realistic as I believe most of it was filmed on a real ship - worth a look.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054016/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_56

Citizen Rules

06-28-18, 12:57 PM

Captain Steel

06-28-18, 01:15 PM

No, I hadn't heard of it, thanks for recommending it. I love ship sinking movies!

I looked at some trivia for this one and it is "based" on the sinking of the Andrea Doria, but what's really coincidental is that the ship used in the movie is the real life S.S. Ile de France which was the ship that came to the rescue of the Andrea Doria.

Citizen Rules

06-28-18, 01:19 PM

I looked at some trivia for this one and it is "based" on the sinking of the Andrea Doria, but what's really coincidental is that the ship used in the movie is the real life S.S. Ile de France which was the ship that came to the rescue of the Andrea Doria.Have I mentioned The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=1911027#post1911027) to you? I just seen it a while back and I even reviewed it too. Amazing movie, very realistic looking ship scenes, especially the boarding of the ship in heavy storms from a smaller ship looked great. It's one part action, one part thriller, one part drama and a whole bunch parts mystery. I'd never seen it before but damn it's got it all.

Captain Steel

06-28-18, 05:40 PM

Have I mentioned The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=1911027#post1911027) to you? I just seen it a while back and I even reviewed it too. Amazing movie, very realistic looking ship scenes, especially the boarding of the ship in heavy storms from a smaller ship looked great. It's one part action, one part thriller, one part drama and a whole bunch parts mystery. I'd never seen it before but damn it's got it all.

Hi Rules, I only vaguely recall the review. I'll have to put it on the list (you know how I love ships at sea movies!)
And I wouldn't want to miss it with THAT cast (don't think I've ever seen a movie with Gary Cooper and "Chuck" together)!!! ...and then on top of it: Someone left a Cake Out in the Rain! :p

Citizen Rules

06-30-18, 08:05 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45738&stc=1&d=1530397080

Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Billy Wilder (screenplay), I.A.L. Diamond (screenplay)
Cast: Dean Martin, Kim Novak, Ray Walston, Felicia Farr, Cliff Osmond
Genre: Adult themed comedy

Billy Wilder wrote and directed this adult themed sex comedy, that stirred up a heap of controversy when it was first released. Even today the film that deals with wife swapping and prostitution can raise an eyebrow or two.

Originally this was to be called 'The Sizzling Hour'...a title that sounds much more adult and more fitting than the cutesy title they went with. But don't be fooled into thinking this is a G rated Doris Day type comedy, it's not.

One of the things I love about this is Dean Martin plays a very serious character. Which is quite unusual for the singer who mainly did comedy roles. Here he plays himself, which is also highly unique. We start off watching a real performance by Dino at The Sands. He then hops into his expensive Italian car and heads to Las Vegas to shoot a TV show special. Along the way he runs into a road block and is forced to take a shortcut into a hole in the wall town, Climax Nevada. Where two desperate song writers (Ray Walston and Cliff Osmond) sabotage his car so that Dino will be forced to spend the night, given them time to pitch their songs to him. Along the way they come up with a plan to hire a prostitute (Kim Novak) to play Walston's wife, so Walston can give his wife to lusty Dino.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45739&stc=1&d=1530399660

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45740&stc=1&d=1530399668

Dean Martin is great as a womanizing cad! He had real guts to play such an unsavory and unlikable character. Especially as he's playing himself. He's good at it too!

Ray Walston is golden as the insanely jealous husband and would be song writer who's willing to do just about anything to make Deano happy. Originally this was to star Jack Lemon who couldn't make it, then filming started with Peter Sellers who had a heart attack and couldn't finish. I'm glad Peter Sellers didn't make this, Walson is a much better choice anyway.

Fellica Farr is the loving wife of Ray Walston, who never knows what's going on but ends up doing a lot to help out! She's good. You have to see the movie to know what I mean. The Catholic Legion of Decency strongly objected to the film, which forced Billy Wilder to reshoot the last scene with Fellica Farr and Dean Martin. The restored print however does have the original, scandalous scene.

Shoot out to a very funny, Cliff Osmond, who makes the most of his on screen time.

I'm not always a big fan of Kim Novak. Originally this was to be a Marilyn Monroe vehicle, but after her suicide in 1962 the film was rewrote for Kim Novak. Novak is good, not special, but her more subdued performance helps to balance the almost maniacal energy of Ray Walston.

rating_4

Dani8

06-30-18, 09:44 PM

Who committed suicide, CR? Good grief it's a harsh industry! Good review. Thanks for posting👍

Citizen Rules

06-30-18, 09:51 PM

Citizen Rules

06-30-18, 10:16 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45745&stc=1&d=1530406872

None But the Brave (1965)

Director: Frank Sinatra
Writers: John Twist & Katsuya Susaki (screenplay)
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Clint Walker, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takeshi Katô, Tommy Sands
Genre: War Drama

'During WW2, a platoon of Marines crash-lands on a tiny Pacific island occupied by a small Japanese unit.'

The only film Frank Sinatra ever directed, and he tried something very different too. The core of this film is ground breaking, it was a joint production between U.S. and Japanese film makers. Both teams contributed to the script and many Japanese actors were used and given equal billing. Even the opening credits bear out that this film is going to be different! as it's told from two view points.

The Japanese soldiers are stranded on a small and unimportant island. So unimportant that the U.S. didn't even bother landing there during WWII. They're starving and out of contact with their homeland, so build a small boat in attempt to rejoin the ongoing war, as it's their duty.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45744&stc=1&d=1530406862

During an air battle a U.S. war plan carrying Marines crash lands on the island. The Marines are also alone, as their radio is destroyed, leaving them to fend for themselves. What makes this film different is, we see the two groups of men going about the same task and from each of their view points. Eventually they talk and decide to work together. So in some ways this is an anti-war film. But don't worry there's still plenty of fightin' and killin' going on.

This was filmed on Kaui, Hawaii and so looks tropical, because it is! The on-location shooting does wonders for the film. So it's too bad Frank Sinatra who plays a drunken military doctor, sleep walks through the movie. It's a movie that has high ideas, but relays on stale one liner wise-cracks....It contains some of the silliest fighting sequences ever put on film. You have a man with a machine gun firing on a group of enemy soldiers and missing most every time. It's hookey when it shouldn't be. One has to see Tommy Sands' over the top Marine Lieutenant to believe it!

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45742&stc=1&d=1530406844

The one really good scene is when the two enemy camps make contact and Frank Sinatra goes to aid a wounded Japanese soldier and has to amputate his leg. Sinatra does this seen awesome and the seen is powerful. I wish the rest of the movie could have been this good.

rating_3-

Dani8

06-30-18, 10:27 PM

Who committed suicide, CR? Good grief it's a harsh industry! Good review. Thanks for posting👍 Thanks:p

It was Marilyn Monroe in 1962, she would have played Polly The Pistol the bar girl...that's the character Kim Novak took over. I wonder how it would have been with Marilyn?

Did Marilyn take an overdose or was it accidental? I always thought it was reported as accidental or inconclusive? Of course then there were in conspiracy theorists who say she was murdered.

Citizen Rules

06-30-18, 10:32 PM

Did Marilyn take an overdose or was it accidental? I always thought it was reported as accidental or inconclusive? Of course then there were in conspiracy theorists who say she was murdered.Who knows for sure? So it's open to interruption. But personally I flat out don't believe she was murdered, don't believe it was any conspiracy. She was known to be very troubled, I believe she had attempted suicide before. And reportedly she was just dumped by Robert Kennedy and was despondent. It's too bad because she had a great film career, I've really enjoyed her in many of her movies. Her last film she completed was The Misfits, a powerful film.

Dani8

06-30-18, 10:40 PM

Citizen Rules

06-30-18, 10:44 PM

I agree. Just one big bag of tragedy. So sad. She apparently was highly intelligen... Yes she was! I'm glad you mentioned that. I've seen documentaries about her and she was very bright and educated. Well read too.

Dani8

06-30-18, 11:13 PM

I can't tolerate stereotypes like that. Do men get typecast due to the color of their hair? She wasn't even blonde I don't think. Maybe men just get typecast as vicious bald guys which I think might be changing. I'm a bald redhead so I wonder how the casting couch would stereotype me seeing as I refuse to wear a wig. I think women really cop it in that regard and I blame women not men for that. Rebel Wilson always seems to get roles of overweight blond Bogan and she has a law degree which i only found out recently. Same with Amy Schumacher I believe. My bro met Angelina Jolie the other day and he said she's very very smart. I thought of a few more but I'm sun drunk and they've temporarily slipped through my fingers.

Captain Steel

07-01-18, 12:45 AM

Gideon58

07-01-18, 08:38 PM

You're welcome. It's easy to do, but hard to figure out until someone tells you where to find the link. :)
Good catch on Nancy Kovack.

I always remember Nancy Kovack as the bitchy Sheila who kept trying to come between Darrin and Samantha during the first season of Beiwtched

Citizen Rules

07-01-18, 09:39 PM

I always remember Nancy Kovack as the bitchy Sheila who kept trying to come between Darrin and Samantha during the first season of Bewitched I remember that episode, at a dinner party of all of Darrin's old friends, Sheila kept belittling Samantha. So Sam first made Sheila sneeze, then made her wig fall in her soup:eek:

Gideon58

07-01-18, 10:43 PM

Sheila actually made two other appearances on the show.

Gideon58

07-03-18, 02:44 PM

Thanks:p

It was Marilyn Monroe in 1962, she would have played Polly The Pistol the bar girl...that's the character Kim Novak took over. I wonder how it would have been with Marilyn?

I read somewhere that Marilyn was also the first choice to play Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Citizen Rules

07-03-18, 02:46 PM

I read somewhere that Marilyn was also the first choice to play Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's. So glad she didn't do Breakfast at Tiffany's, it's Audrey Hepburn who makes that movie.

Gideon58

07-03-18, 02:50 PM

[CENTER]
https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=45658&stc=1&d=1530138259
Going My Way (1944)

Director: Leo McCarey
Writers: Frank Butler & Frank Cavett (screenplay)
Cast: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh, Jean Heather, Gene Lockhart
Genre: Comedy Drama

[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3]

[CENTER]It won seven Oscars including:

Best Actor Bing Crosby
Best Supporting Actor Barry Fitzgerald
Best Director
Best Original Story
Best Screenplay

I don't know if you're aware of this Citizen, but Barry Fitzgerald was nominated in both the lead and supporting categories for this performance. Academy rules were changed the following year so that actors could not be nominated in both categories for the same performance.

Gideon58

07-03-18, 02:52 PM

So glad she didn't do Breakfast at Tiffany's, it's Audrey Hepburn who makes that movie.

Yeah, I can't imagine anyone but Audrey playing that role either...it never would have happened though because Marilyn was in no shape to work circa 1960, which is in when Breakfast was filmed. If they had cast Marilyn, the film never would have been completed.

GulfportDoc

07-04-18, 01:41 PM

Gideon58

07-04-18, 01:46 PM

Yeah, I could have seen Maggie McNamara as Holly, but I definitely think the right actress ended up playing the role.

Citizen Rules

07-04-18, 02:00 PM

You're right about Hepburn. Although Maggie McNamara (The Moon Is Blue, Three Coins in a Fountain) would have been good for the role; but she was having troubles then as well..:( Lots of tragic ends in the acting profession.Every time I see Maggie McNamara in a movie, I think faux Audrey. Maggie is a good actress but unfortunately she's a little too much like Audrey Hepburn, she looks like her she acts like her... and that usually is a hindrance, not a help to an actor's career.

Citizen Rules

07-04-18, 09:50 PM

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Suburbicon (2017)
Director: George Clooney
Writers: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast: Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Oscar Isaac
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery

"As a 1950s suburban community self-destructs, a home invasion has sinister consequences for one seemingly normal family."

Looks great! Script sucks!...What a wasted effort of some really well done 1950's American sets, that get paired with a lazy script by the Coen Brothers. Nothing creative and nothing worthy of the Coen Brothers name. The story is a rehash of old and tired ideas.

It's a murder mystery, ooohhhh, big deal. I thought they might have done something fresh here. I mean with perky Julianne Moore on board and stoic Matt Damon, this should have been ripe for some poignant & introspective look at how suburbia America was....OR a fresh look at how it was perceived, but never was. Instead we get a murder mystery that's a snooze fest.

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Julianne Moore and Matt Damon look right at home in the 1950s decor. I dug their house! I mean every single detail of the house from the kitchen faucet to the TV set and even the lamps were 50s mid century modern decor. I was in heaven watching the set design. It's so good I'd give it an Oscar!

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But this has to be one of the laziest, uninspired scripts that the Coen's have penned. In an early scene a young black couple moves to the all white Suburbicon neighborhood and the 1950s neighbors are ALL up tight about it. That could have been a strong part of the film, we could have learned about racial views and the challenges this nice black family faced in a 1950s idealized reality. But they were wasted. I don't think the couple got more than a few brief lines to speak. Their son is befriended by a white boy and that was a nice seen, but all to brief.

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So with a silly script, I just kicked back and checked out all the cool 1950s cars! And there's a lot of 50s cars in the film. And that's about all there is that's worth watching.

rating_2_5

Ms. M

07-05-18, 04:25 PM

Citizen Rules

07-05-18, 10:57 PM

Oh. It's devastating opinion. I think this movie was so much not what you expected to watch that it make you angry a little bit. I know this feeling;) but I don't mean this particular movie. I had fun watching it. The sens of humour was exactly in type of Coen Brothers, so this time I can't agree with you, but as always I like to know your point of view. I think if the Coen Brothers had directed it, the movie might have had more zing! I've mostly like the Coen Brothers movies. I haven't seen them all of course, but I'm working to remedy that:p

Citizen Rules

07-05-18, 11:19 PM

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Best in Show (2000)

Director: Christopher Guest
Writers: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy
Cast: Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara
Genre: Documentary Spoof-Comedy

Director Christopher Guest, writes and stars in this documentary style comedy spoof of people and their dogs who are competing in a national dog show.

This was great fun! There are so many great actors here that it's hard to name them all. The movie starts out at the opening of the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show (based on the real Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show). The cameraman shows us the set up for the big national dog show and we get a peak at the behind the scenes grooming areas...Then we get interviews with a half dozen dog owners who are feverishly grooming their dogs to a high polish...so that they can get a shot at the coveted Best in Show award.

And that's about it, but it's more than enough! I loved when all the contestants along with their dogs checked into the hotel. The hotel manager played by Ed Begley Jr. was perfectly cast, too funny I tell ya. Everyone is so colorful and fun, without being too silly. Once the actual competition starts, we get Jim Piddock and Fred Willard hosting the big dog show. Fred Willard with his off the cuff and dog-clueless remarks is priceless!

rating_4

Dani8

07-05-18, 11:53 PM

Captain Steel

07-06-18, 12:02 AM

Hey, anyone remember this thread?
https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=42094

I'm glad Citizen Rules is reviewing some Christopher Guest movies!
These movies are unique in their level of understated comedic quirkiness!
I think I rated Best in Show as the best of the bunch, but it's a tough call since they all have their moments.
And I agree that Fred Willard pretty much steals the movie when he comes on as the announcer.

Dani8

07-06-18, 12:28 AM

Fred was hilarious. One or more of the judges and some of the exhibitors were actual judges and handlers. Chris says on the BTS that an old girl was very pissed off that her dog didnt win. LMAO!

A few of the actual judges were in sydney and came to watch a show wben i was exhibiting. We put on a patomine for them during lunch break and i played the gold digging lesbian with the fluffy hat. The president of the dog show hosting the show played Fred's role as narrator and a very flamboyant gay guy played Scott. I cant remember who else was in it. Damn hilarious fun. I still have the fluffy hat i wore!

Gideon58

07-06-18, 12:11 PM

Gideon58

07-06-18, 12:27 PM

45279
I think you misspelled 'face' wrong;)

Good choices:up: I didn't know who Daliah Lavi was until I seen The Silencers.

Ok, just looked at some photos on google images and I really don't see the resemblance between Stella Stevens and Scarlett Johnassen.

Captain Steel

07-06-18, 12:41 PM

Ok, just looked at some photos on google images and I really don't see the resemblance between Stella Stevens and Scarlett Johnassen.

Maybe it was only in that one shot of Stella's face in The Silencers. Maybe it was the hairdo too - she had a short red haircut similar to one Johansson wore in one of the Avengers movies.

Citizen Rules

07-06-18, 01:20 PM

Captain Steel

07-06-18, 05:45 PM

What kind of dog did you have, Dani?

Fred Williard wasn't my favorite part. He was funny but I started getting tired of that bit after awhile. My favorite was Ed Begley Jr. I mean he's both a Star Trek Voyager and Laverne & Shirley alumni:up:

I know what you mean, but (to the best of my recollection) didn't Fred only appear toward the end of the movie at the actual dog show? I don't remember him in the first half as they're following the various contestants.

Speaking of Ed Begley Jr., I just re-watched A Mighty Wind... I didn't remember this at all, but Ed plays a station manager for a Public Broadcasting-type network and he's of Norwegian decent or something (named Lars Olfen if that's any clue!).
But he keeps trying to appeal to Bob Balaban's character (who's Jewish) by injecting Yiddish words and phrases into every other sentence when the two are talking. So understated, but his attempted pandering is so funny - it doesn't sound it in my description, but when you realize what he's doing, it is subtly hilarious (included are the subtle looks of surprise on Bob Balaban's face when he begins to hear these Yiddish expressions coming from Ed Begley's Scandinavian character.)

Dani8

07-06-18, 07:43 PM

Double rep!!! I love this movie, and rewatch it frequently. I used to show dogs with Mr D so this had us rolling in the aisle. Especially great is that its all shot impromptu. I dont know if all of christopher's movies are shot this way as it didmt come up in the mocumentary.
What kind of dog did you have, Dani?

Hey, anyone remember this thread?
https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=42094

I'm glad @Citizen Rules (http://www.movieforums.com/community/member.php?u=84637) is reviewing some Christopher Guest movies!
These movies are unique in their level of understated comedic quirkiness!
I think I rated Best in Show as the best of the bunch, but it's a tough call since they all have their moments.
And I agree that Fred Willard pretty much steals the movie when he comes on as the announcer. Fred Williard wasn't my favorite part. He was funny but I started getting tired of that bit after awhile. My favorite was Ed Begley Jr. I mean he's both a Star Trek Voyager and Laverne & Shirley alumni:up:

I have rough coat JRTs, CR. PLUS Demented pug who was so amazingly beautiful and icon of yhe dog world she became thr objevt of a vicious custody dispute between two egotistcal breeders so in yhe dead of night myself and the jacks donned our ninja hazmat suits and made off with them never to be seen again.

I loved all the characters, especially the hotel staff, and the butcher, and OMG Cookie.

What a tramp, going for petrol points no doubt.

Citizen Rules

07-07-18, 11:31 PM

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Indochine (1992)

Director: Régis Wargnier
Writers: Erik Orsenna & Louis Gardel
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Linh Dan Pham
Genre: Drama, Historical, Romance, Action
Language: French

"This story is set in 1930, at the time when French colonial rule in Indochina is ending. A widowed French woman who works in the rubber fields, raises a Vietnamese princess as if she was her own daughter. She, and her daughter both fall in love with a young French navy officer, which will change both their lives significantly."

Big, epic sweeping film about the French occupation of Vietnam set during the 1930s and covering events up to the 1950s when Vietnamese nationals began fighting back to take their country from the French.

This epic focuses on a rich and disconnected French woman (Catherine Deneuve) who runs a huge rubber plantation worked by the locals. She's part of the elite world of French nationals who call Indocine (Vietnam) their home. Her daughter is a Vietnamese girl who she adopted at birth. She too has lived a life of luxury while her people have suffered at the hands of the occupation.

Like most epics, there's romance and heart break and changing allegiances. Finally there's the realization that the 'good times' for the French aren't going to last much longer...As in the north, communist China has helped supplied Vietnamese gorillas, who begin blowing stuff up.

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Filmed on location in Vietnam and Malaysia the film is breath taken in it's natural beauty. The production values are high and the sets look as good as the picturesque country side.

Indocine won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

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The first part of the 2 1/2 hour long movie is a bit slow as it focuses on relationships which later are challenged by the political forces that erupt in the country. By the end of the film things become quite terse and tense.

rating_3_5++

Citizen Rules

07-08-18, 11:12 PM

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Baby Face (1933)
Director: Alfred E. Green
Writers: Gene Markey, Kathryn Scola
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook, Theresa Harris
Genre: Pre Code Drama

A dirt poor, young woman (Barbara Stanwyck) who's been sexual abused and exploited by her boot legging father, decides to use her sex to her own means. She ruthlessly exploits men, using sex as a means to get what she wants. She connives and sleeps her way up the corporate ladder in a big city bank until she's rich beyond her wildest dreams. CR

This is the film that brought on the Hayes censorship code. Baby Face is considered to be one of the most notorious Pre-Code films, and one that pushed the envelope of permissibility. The story idea came from Darryl F. Zanuck of Fox Studio who used a pseudonym to hide his true identity, one wonders why? Produced by the leader of cutting edge social commentary films, Warner Brothers Studio...and the rest is history!

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The film is shocking on many fronts. It starts out in an illegal beer hall during prohibit, that's run by a unscrupulous man. We see slot machines...and serving the beer is the teenage daughter Lily, played by Barbara Stanwyck. It's implied that her dad prostitutes her to make money. When the building burns down killing him, Lily is glad and takes her friend, a black woman Chico (Theresa Harris), to the big city to make her way. The film is also unique in that Lily remains loyal to Chico through out the story. Despite the fact that Lily becomes hard as stone and uses anybody to get what she wants.

Barbara Stanwyck is awesome in this! This is one of her signature pictures. George Brent isn't too bad either, he plays the rich business man that Lily tricks into a relationship.

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At 75 minutes (restored print with deleted dialogue added back in) this is a fast paced, hard hitting film. And one of the best of the pre code movies.

rating_4_5

GulfportDoc

07-09-18, 10:45 AM

Great picture, CR! I'll have to queue that for a re-watch.

The Hayes Code didn't do much good. Look how far we've slid in modern times... "Forbidden fruit", I guess.

~Doc

Citizen Rules

07-09-18, 02:39 PM

Great picture, CR! I'll have to queue that for a re-watch.

The Hayes Code didn't do much good. Look how far we've slid in modern times... "Forbidden fruit", I guess.

~Doc I'm not a fan of most modern potty mouth R rated films. Writers today take a PG movie, then inject a slew of F bombs in an attempt to appeal to youngsters who think swearing is hip & edgy. The problem is: the writers don't know how to make people talk naturalistic so they throw in F.... like a comma in a sentence, as opposed to using it only for select characters or at select times. When over done it sounds fake. and that then makes it apparent that an unskilled writer penned the words. I shut off Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing Missouri for that very reason. After 45 minutes, the attempt to make shock language out of a nothing script, made me bored with the explanatory expletive film.

GulfportDoc

07-09-18, 07:36 PM

I agree with you. But the unsettling part is that some of these writers are indeed skilled. So what kind of commentary on modern society does a gratuitously expletive laced script reflect?..:rolleyes: I guess the answer is that it's the decayed status of our present society. Or at least it's reflective of the beliefs of the ones making all the noise...

~Doc

Citizen Rules

07-14-18, 08:31 PM

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Marriage on the Rocks (1965)

Director: Jack Donohue
Writer: Cy Howard
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, Dean Martin, Nancy Sinatra, Hermione Baddeley,
Genre: Comedy

Dan Edwards (Frank Sinatra) heads up a big ad agency and he works real hard at it. He loves his wife Valerie (Deborah Kerr) but has little time for anything but work! His best friend Ernie (Dean Martin) is a care free bachelor who's a good friend to the family. When the wife talks him into taking a second honeymoon in Mexico things get confused and he ends up divorced from her, only to get married again in a few days. Problem is, the marriage is in Spanish and before anyone knows it, his best friend Ernie has accidentally married his wife instead! Causing Dan to live as a bachelor, see photo below....

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Marriage on the Rocks is one of those mid 1960s films that sound oh so much better on paper, than they really are. The set up sounds like some wild swinging is going on....don't believe it! There's a few laughs here, but Frank Sinatra sleep walks his role. Frank reportedly was bored with making movies in his later career and unfortunately his boredom shows in his acting. Though in this case, he's suppose to be an overworked, droll, ho-hum type of guy...so maybe he deserved an Oscar!?

Dean Martin is likable here and he's got one helluva a cool bachelor pad on the beach, with a big open fireplace in the middle and plenty of girls too. That's Frank setting around the fire with some babes. Deborah Kerr does a fine job here of the wive who just wants a little attention from her husband and her and Dino have the best scenes together.

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Interesting to note that this is the only film that Nancy Sinatra made with her dad. She doesn't have a big role here, probably her best scene is at the go-go dance club with her friend who dances in a cage.

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By far the funniest scenes were the Mexican honeymoon scenes. Cesar Romero was a laugh riot as the hotel manager and lawyer who kept pushing divorcees and marriages...all for profit.

rating_3

Citizen Rules

07-14-18, 10:49 PM

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Badlands of Dakota (1941)
Director: Alfred E. Green
Writers: Harold Shumate (story), Gerald Geraghty (screenplay)
Cast: Robert Stack, Ann Rutherford, Frances Farmer, Broderick Crawford, Richard Dix
Genre: Romance, Western

In the wild western town of Deadwood, Dakota Territory, a powerful man (Broderick Crawford) sends for a childhood sweetheart to marry (Ann Rutherford). Sending his younger brother (Robert Stack) to fetch her, the two fall in love which causes the older brother to join a gang of outlaws. Meanwhile Calamity Jane (Frances Farmer) joins forces with Wild Bill Hickcock (Richard Dix) to repeal a Sioux attack. CR

I watched this for Frances Farmer, but found it's a fun little western-drama-with a bit of romance and historical characters thrown into the mix. It has a lot of stars and I found they were all pretty good. The cast is impressive. Besides the listed actors the film also has: Hugh Herbert & Andy Devine in comic rolls and Lon Chaney Jr.

The plot itself is pretty broad but action packed. This isn't a serious drama or hard hitting western. But there's lots of shooting and riding and best of all we get to revist the town of Deadwood where Wild Bill Hickcock was killed while playing poker. To this day the react that infamous shooting of the legendary man.

This is a public domain movie and so can be found on Youtube. It's not the best copy but it's watchable.

rating_3

cricket

07-15-18, 07:23 PM

Added Baby Face to my watchlist.

Citizen Rules

07-15-18, 09:57 PM

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The Naked Spur (1953)

Director: Anthony Mann
Writers: Sam Rolfe, Harold Jack Bloom
Cast: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, Millard Mitchell
Genre: Western, Action-Thriller

"A bounty hunter trying to bring a murderer to justice is forced to accept the help of two less-than-trustworthy strangers."

The Naked Spur is one damn good western! It's intelligent, exciting and it kept me on my toes. It reminded a bit of Treasure of the Sierra Madre in just how desperate people can get, when huge sums of money are involved. The on-location shooting in the wilderness of Colorado does wonders for the film. I mean the trees and mountains should get an acting credit! The film has a rugged beauty that amplifies the story at hand.

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Speaking of actors, hot damn! this has got a talented bunch. That's Robert Ryan as the free wheelin' hombre with a price on his head. And that little filly with the dirty face is none other than Janet Leigh, before she took that infamous shower at the Bates Motel.

And the grisly looking prospector is played to flamboyant perfection by Millard Mitchell. He's quite colorful and so is Ralph Meeker in a slimy way...He's an ex soldier with a dubious past and a dishonorable discharge. Oh, and the man with the gun, is the bounty hunter played by legendary James Stewart. Who's not as nearly as kindly as you might think.

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This is properly called an action-thriller-western. The scenes of climbing the cliff side and later of trying to cross a raging river (no not that river, it's a BIG one!)...those scenes rival in excitement anything I've seen in any western.

rating_4

Citizen Rules

07-15-18, 10:49 PM

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Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)

Director: Stephen Frears
Writers: David Rose (idea), Kathy Rose (idea)
Cast: Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Christopher Guest
Genre: Drama Comedy

A filthy rich London widower of social means (Judi Dench), buys a rundown old stage theater in London and reopens it with the help of a brilliant but demanding theater producer (Bob Hoskins). After initial success they run into financial difficulty, so during WWII they open an all nude girl review show. CR

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Yes, Mrs Henderson Presents is based on a true story! I was surprised that there had been a full nude showgirl stage show back in the early 1940s. But it happened for real at the Windmill Theater.

It's a good movie as it functions as a spicy behind-the-scenes look at how a stage theater is run. In that way it reminded me of The Chorus Line, and that's where the similarities end. We do get to see some of the musical revue numbers performed, complete with nude beauties in the background. The undressed women were not allowed to move, at all, that was the law. They got away with being nude in a very clever way...you'll just have to see the movie to find out how they did it.

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The only thing I found shocking is Bob Hoskins in a full nude shot, ugh! I did not need to see that! Though to be fair it was brief and for comic relief. And the movie does have it's funny moments but the comedy is of the intelligent from circumstance type, not slipping on bananas kind.

Judy Dench, Bob Hoskins and Christopher Guest were all spot on and dressed to the nines to boot. But it's the lovely ladies and the splashy shows they put on that's the real eye catcher.

rating_3_5

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Gideon58

07-15-18, 11:29 PM

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Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)[B][SIZE=5]

I absolutely LOVED this movie, even more than you did, rating it a box of popcorn higher than you did, but I'm glad you liked it.

Citizen Rules

07-15-18, 11:37 PM

I absolutely LOVED this movie, even more than you did, rating it a box of popcorn higher than you did, but I'm glad you liked it. I was totally thinking of you when I wrote the review. I thought you would like it as it was about the theater.

Chypmunk

07-16-18, 03:12 AM

I quite enjoyed Mrs Henderson Presents too (same rating as you CR), I thought Dench & Hoskins played off each other nicely in it. It's set in the UK though so it's theatre btw :p

Citizen Rules

07-16-18, 09:07 PM

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Cavalcade (1933)

Director: Frank Lloyd
Writers: Noel Howard (stage play), Reginald Berkeley (screen play)
Cast: Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Una O'Connor
Genre: Drama, Romance, War

"The triumphs and tragedies of two English families, the upper-crust Marryots and the working-class Bridges, from 1899 to 1933 are portrayed. "

It's sad that this Academy Award Best Picture winner is largely forgotten today. I found this multi generational story to be rewarding. It starts on New Years Eve 1899 and follows two families and their children, through the next three decades. It presented a tapestry of love and life, as the various couples in the film experience the events of the 20th century that unfold around them, forever changing them.

One path is taken by the well-to-do rich family who have two sons, and the other path is taken by their head butler and his wife who buy a small pub...they have a daughter. As the decades go by the men go off to war and societal values change. These changes effects the two couples based on how strong or weak their love is for each other.

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As the children grow up and become adults their lives too are shaped by the events that take place in the first part of the 20th century. One son finds true love and spends the perfect night with his fiancee on-board a doomed ship, the Titanic. The other son finds love with the daughter of the former butler and maid. He's sent off to WWI like his father was sent off to the Boar Wars some years earlier.

I was struck by the serenity of acting by the cast and especially by Diana Wynyard who plays Lady Jane Marryo. She bears a striking resemblance to Norma Sheerer. There are no big names in this movie as it was made by one of the smaller studios Fox.

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Cavalcade is an interesting study of cultural, time and people and how events shaped them.

rating_4

Citizen Rules

07-16-18, 11:20 PM

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Thelma & Louise (1991)

Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: Callie Khouri
Cast: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Brad Pitt
Genre: Adventure, Crime, Drama

Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Ridley Scott, Callie Khouri and a 1966 T-Bird convertible is what makes 1991's Thelma & Louise one helluva a special movie!

When Thelma & Louise hit the screens almost 30 years ago it caused a sensation...and a back lash against the film that some called irresponsible film making, and some called male bashing. There were worries that little girls would see the film and become gun slinging wild women who drove their cars off cliffs! I just watched the film, then watched the commentary track with Geena, Susan and script writer Callie Khouri. And they talked at length about how this film was reacted to. I'll just say I loved it!

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The movie starts off like a drama-comedy but then turns serious with an attempted rape and beating on Louise (Geena Davis) by a local low life at the bar. What happens next is telling and sets the tone for the movie. After the man stops attacking Louise and she's safe, Thelma (Susan Sarandon) in a fit of indignation and rage shoots and kills the unarmed man. The film never says that's a good thing, and indeed this is what makes the two women go on the run. We then watch their lives for the next few days as they try to survive on the open road. We see their friendship and understanding of each other deepen, until it's so deep that they can't bear to be separated, even at the final tragic ending.

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I think it's the personal story of these two women and the way the two actresses give them life that makes me really care about their plight. The chemistry between the two is dynamite. I don't know if it's circumstance or not, but both have red hair and that too seems to fit the film.

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Much of what makes Thelma & Louise dynamic is the script written by Callie Khouri. This was Callie's first big movie and you can tell it's a script that she poured her soul into. Callie gives Thelma and Louise depth, she gives them a back story and she transforms them by the journey that they take.

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Shout out to Ridley Scott. We all know Ridley does world building and set details like no one else. Here, Ridley is in fine form with so many rich shots and sets that are truly stunning enough to be a stand alone photograph!

This was the first big film Brad Pitt ever starred in. He's quite young here and does one helluva job as the colorful and roguish JD. I couldn't help but wonder if J.D. might be an acronym for James Dean. Pitt reminded me of James Dean in Giant.

My only complaint: I wish this movie was longer, as I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it!

rating_5

Chypmunk

07-17-18, 03:20 AM

I've not seen Thelma & Louise for a long while but do remember enjoying it quite a lot at the time. Makes me feel really old when seeing the initial release dates of some movies :D

pahaK

07-17-18, 03:48 AM

Makes me feel really old when seeing the initial release dates of some movies :D

Hah, yes. Saw Thelma & Louise in theaters too :D

Ms. M

07-17-18, 12:33 PM

Makes me feel really old when seeing the initial release dates of some movies :D
Hm, I thought the same:(

Ms. M

07-17-18, 12:47 PM

Ms. M

07-17-18, 12:53 PM

One more thing, Citizen. I like the way write about movies. It's not a review, you just point out few details and thanks to this you put my attention for something I hadn't noticed before, like JD. Good job:)

Citizen Rules

07-17-18, 01:31 PM

I've not seen Thelma & Louise for a long while but do remember enjoying it quite a lot at the time. Makes me feel really old when seeing the initial release dates of some movies :D

Hah, yes. Saw Thelma & Louise in theaters too :D

Hm, I thought the same:( Ha, you guys all have the same idea:p....So do I!...I'll say to my wife, 'we're watching a newer film tonight, Thelma & Louise'....then I do the math and figure out it's 27 years old:eek: Time flies when you're watching good movies;)

Citizen Rules

07-17-18, 01:35 PM

I,m glad that yoy liked T&L, Citizen. I agree with you in 100 percent that those two actress made this movie a masterpiece. As you wrote the chemistry between them is very intense. The story is logic and psychologicaly authentic, ladies are pushed to kill the guy and nobody feels pity for him.
Speaking of bad influence on young girls... I guess there was no many movies about strong women thirty years ago, especially in this kind of movies. The portray of a woman is very different nowadays films,isn't it. I personally like watching films with women as the lead characters, because those movies often have more depth and soul to them, especially if the script writer is a woman.
The portray of a woman is very different nowadays films,isn't it That's interesting Ms. M that you mention that. In what way would you say films today portray woman differently than 30 years ago?

Captain Steel

07-17-18, 01:56 PM

I'm going to "buck the system" here with an unpopular view, but I remember disliking Thelma and Louise when it came out.
I'm probably due for a re-watch as I only saw it once at the time of it's release.

I don't remember the details, but I do remember it was one of those movies where I was irked at some of the reactions and kept saying things to myself like, "Why didn't they just go to the police - they could have avoided all this trouble." I'm sure there was probably an answer in the plot to my question.

But it left me feeling like those horror movies where you say, "Why not just leave the house? Don't go in the basement, that's stupid, leave the house and go call the cops even if you were getting high - their priority will be the guy slashing people with a giant knife rather than the joints in your pocket." When you see the characters not do the logical or sensible thing, you're kind of pissed at them and don't mind seeing them get killed for their stupidity.

Now, I could be totally off base with this analogy since, as I said, I really don't remember the details of the movie.

Since it was such a hit I'm sure it was deeper than the plot I remember: two ladies on a trip who are victimized, engage in vigilante justice, become outlaws and then just commit suicide. (Hey, now that I described it, it does sound pretty good!) ;)!