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Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Director: Peter Weir
Writers: Joan Lindsay(novel), Cliff Green(screenplay)
Cast: Rachel Roberts, Anne-Louise Lambert, Vivean Gray
Genre: Mystery

Premise: On Valentine's Day 1900, a group of Australian college school girls journey to Hanging Rock for a leisurely picnic in the country. On the rock a mystery happens and 3 girls and a school teacher vanish, seemingly in thin air.

Love it or hate it...Picnic at Hanging Rock is a different type of film. The film is mostly void of story, instead it focuses on people's odd reactions to the mystery of the missing girls.

The film looks great. Not just because it's filmed in a beautiful rural Australian setting but because the director takes such great care with his compositions and lighting. The director often fills the foreground and background with his subjects, which create a great depth of field. It almost looks 3D.

The lighting is beautiful, as much of the scenes are shot in early morning light when the sun's color is a warm golden yellow. To add to the dreamy, ethereal quality the school girls are shot through a diffusion filter on the camera lens. This is really a beautiful film to look at!

But does it work? Not so much for me. I could go along with the feel of the film and I was OK that the film doesn't try to solve the mystery. But it just felt pretentious at times. As if someone said, 'lets write some lofty, metaphoric lines about life's beginning and ending. Then we'll have an ominous music score as the girls disappear.' I swear the chunky girl with glasses is the same character as Piggy in The Lord of The Flies. They act alike, the lines they speak are alike, they seem to serve the same function too.

If you like a beautiful shot film with a different feel, then you might like this.

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I'd like to try it again in the future, but for my one viewing, I felt the same as you did about Picnic at Hanging Rock.

I look forward to seeing Downfall.



I love Picnic At Hanging Rock. It's on 100. But it certainly has flaws and I do think you have to like/fall into the atmosphere that the film creates. If that doesn't do it for you, then I don't know that there's much there for a viewer beyond the beautiful composition and look of the film. So, while it's a shame you didn't go for it, CR, I can completely understand why.
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I'm glad I watched it You're right Honeykid it's about the atmosphere, the film does that very well too. I guess I wanted a bit more about the girls lives. I did find them interesting.

Cricket I think you'll like Downfall. It's poignant without being uber dramatic.




The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)

Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Charles Lindbergh(book), Billy Wilder(screenplay)
Cast: James Stewart
Genre: Biography Adventure Drama


Biography, action-drama film of Charles Lindbergh's life as seen in flash backs by Charles as he makes his historic Trans Atlantic crossing from New York to Paris in 1927.

The Spirit of St. Louis
is not a well known film which is a shame, as it's enjoyable and historical. The film is based on the autobiography of Charles Lindbergh. It was shot in 1955 in the new wide screen process called, CinemaScope and in Warner color too, an early color negative process. With it's wide screen format and actual flying scenes, the film looks great. The story is pretty good too.

James Stewart plays 'Lucky Lindy' Lindbergh. It recounts his early days learning to fly an old WWI Jenny biplane. We see him doing stunt flying in his days with a traveling air show called a 'flying circus'. His early days are told by flashback. The film starts with him trying to get enough money to have a special plane built for the transatlantic crossing. The first man to do it would receive $25,000 . Several aviators had died in the attempt.

Impressive is the actual flying recreation of The Spirit of St Louis airplane. We also see real air footage over the sights of Paris, England and other real locations. As this is a CinemaScope color movie, those rare aerial glimpse are a treasure.

The Spirit of St Louis might not be the most riveting movie, but worth it just for the historical aspect.

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Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)

Director: Max Ophüls
Writers: Howard Koch(screenplay), Stefan Zweig (story)
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan
Genre: Drama Romance

A school girl falls in love from afar with an older man who's a wealthy renowned pianist. She studies his every move, she molds herself into the kind of woman that she images he could one day love. But she keeps her love hidden from him as she matures from a schoolgirl to a young woman.

Letter from an Unknown Woman is a poignant, serious film about unrequited love. It can be very touching at times and yet somber and down trodden too.

Joan Fontaine is Lisa, a school age girl living in Vienna in 1900. Joan was 31 years old when making this film but looks and plays a school girl realistically. If you've never seen her in a film this is a good one to watch, she's a fine actress.

Louis Jordan plays Stefan the older, worldly man. A pianist who's music is renowned in Austria. He's a suave man whom women admire and Lisa loves from afar. Louis Jordan is suave on the screen too, he fits this role like a glove.

After a second watch, I still liked the film but my view of Lisa and even Stefan changed. I had previously thought of Lisa as this sweet, enduring young woman who found the love of her life but could never win him. The movie felt like a testament to unrequited love.

This time around I viewed Lisa as a sadly pathetic creature, someone with no self respect and no will power. She literally waste her entire life with her obsession for a man she doesn't even know. Lisa is even willing to destroy her husband's and son's happiness just to chase her pipe dream. In some ways she's even more pathetic than Stefan. Stefan has a one night stand with her and then moves on. But he doesn't know she's pregnant and so forgets her. When he meets her at the opera and wants her, he doesn't know she's a married woman...So he didn't deserve to be called out in a duel to most likely die. That wreck of humanity is on Lisa's head.

I now see the film as a monument to the folly of dedicating one's self to overindulges. With Stefan it's women and booze, which causes him to throw away his brilliant music career.

Lisa's downfall is her own obsession with an unhealthy dream. I believe people like her do exist.

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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Geez, I skipped a couple of days of writing my reviews and now I need to do at least 3 of them.

I know the feeling. I've been falling a bit behind recently too, and I've been playing catch-up the last few days.




4 for Texas (1963)

Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Anita Ekberg, Ursula Andress, Charles Bronson
Genre: Comedy Western
Length: 124 minutes

I'm not really sure what the premise was, this is one of those mid 1960s zany comedies where the actual plot doesn't seem to matter much. I could have cared less about the story at any rate.

The movie is more about: comic scenes, fun action scenes and eye candy thanks to Anita Ekberg and Ursula Andress. And just for good measure the Three Stoogies make an experience. A serious story it's not.

Ursula Andress famous for being a Bond girl in the 007 film Dr. No, takes a comic turn as one of the four for Texas.


Anita Ekberg is looking lovely as the other woman who's paired with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.


Hey it's the Three Stooges!

Frank Sinatra seemed to be bored through out the film and I know he's capable of excellence: (From Here to Eternity, The Man with the Golden Arm, The Manchurian Candidate). Luckily Dean Martin is likable here and makes the film fun to watch. Anita Ekberg seemed bored too, perhaps because she got stuck with Sinatra. Ursula Andress on the other hand had a great part and was watching for her spirited acting. Her and Dean Martin make the film. The bad guy is played by Charles Bronson, who's good at being bad.

4 for Texas is an OK film for a rainy day.

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I know the feeling. I've been falling a bit behind recently too, and I've been playing catch-up the last few days.
Ya I noticed you weren't around much. I just reviewed a film you did on your logbook, 4 for Texas, (up there^). Does that review sound about right to you?

EDIT: you beat me to the punch! I guess you answered my question. Dino was the best part of the film, Sinatra was a downer. (and I usually like Sinatra too)




Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

Director: Kerry Conran
Writer: Kerry Conran
Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Giovanni Ribisi, Angelina Jolie
Genre: Action Adventure Sci Fi

Date line: 1939 New York City, girl reporter Polly Perkins is hot on the trail of the missing scientist, when she's handed two small vials, the contents are unknown. As she seeks out clues to the mystery, giant flying robots land in the city, wrecking havoc, lots of havoc! As the colossus machines nearly trample poor Polly, her ex boyfriend Sky Captain Joe comes to the rescue in his P-40 Flying Tiger air plane, very cool! Together they must solve the mystery before it's too late or it will be curtains for Earth. CR

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a very unique, action adventure film set in 1939. The entire film was shot against a blue screen, this is a newer trend in film making, first used here and on: (Immortal, Casshern and Sin City). This total blue screen technique allows the film to have a very stylized and unique look to the finished film.

Even though this is set in 1939, it's a pseudo 1939, not historical accurate. What's neat about this movie is: the fashions, sets, and even cinematography look like there from 1939. The story itself is the familiar grandiose, action adventure film with an evil arch enemy held up in his secret fortress plotting the destruction of the world.

I like Gwyneth Paltrow, she comes across as wholesome & nice on the big screen. Her character is indeed likable and sweet. The movie is told from her point of view. Jude Law makes a good hero as Sky Captain. If you a fan of Angelina Jolie she has a small role in the film too, though not much screen time.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was a much better film than I expected, thanks to the retro look and Gwyneth Paltrow.

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I felt like this about this film,though I have to say I think I started to tire of it towards the end and I wouldn't have rated it as highly. Maybe a box less, but I remember little of it. I did like the look of the film, though.



I got tired towards the end too. I loved the film in the first 20 minutes, but then the story went to a huge, action adventure, edge of your seat type movie and that's not what I like. I don't care for endless battles with twist and turns. But I like Gwyneth and the look of the film.




Divergent (2014)

Director: Neil Burger
Writers: Veronica Roth(novel), Evan Daugherty(screenplay)
Cast: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet
Genre: Sci-Fi Action Thriller

Premise: In some distant dystopian future, Chicago will be a walled city, split into five factions. These factions are based on a personality test. On choosing day, teens must leave their families and decide which factions they will join. Once they choose a faction they can not choose another and if they leave their faction they become outcast, living in the streets begging for food. Tris (Shailene Woodley), learns on testing day that she is a 'Divergent', a rarity where a person has various personality traits and so defies being pigeonholed holed into a class faction.

A picture is worth a thousand words. See that picture of the cast, that tells you everything you need to know about this movie. Unfortunately I went into watching this blind, I had no idea of what I was about to watch. I soon realized this was a teen movie aimed at the same audiences that liked Twilight.

If you're into watching a teenage girl: jumping and fighting and basically trying to defeat the bad guys and save the city too, well then you might like this movie. The production values were high, there was lots of stunts and CG effects... and the film looked good. But be forewarned it's long, too long. At 2 hours, 20 minutes, the movie gets tiresome. There's not much to the story, we don't really learn about life in the other factions or about what lays in the ruins land outside of the city walls.

The first 20 minutes of the film started off promising, finally it devolved into your basic CG blockbuster-action-adventure-teen-sci-fi. It does the action, fighting stuff good, so some might like it for that reason.

The lead actresses, Shailene Woodley, was actually very good. I just didn't care for the story.


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Gray Lady Down (1978)

Director: David Greene
Cast: Charlton Heston, David Carradine, Stacy Keach
Genre: Adventure Drama

On the return voyage home a nuclear submarine, the USS Neptune collides with a cargo ship in heavy fog. Severely damaged the sub sinks in 2000 feet of water. The sub will be crushed at 1200 feet. Can the crew be saved?

Released in 1978, Gray Lady Down feels a lot like other 'disaster movies' made at that same time: (Airport, Raise the Titanic). The film is heavy on action and detailed scenes of the rescue attempt. However it's light on character development, which makes us not really care about the trapped men. There's one big plot hole: In the first scenes the submarine captain (Charlton Heston) and some of his crew are out on the sub's deck when the sub is struck by the cargo ship....in the very next scene we see the sub sinking far below the surface. Nothing explains how the men got back into the sub and sealed the hatch. And they are not even wet!

This isn't a particular good drama. After watching the film I know next to nothing about the submarine captain and what makes him tick. We learn next to nothing about the men. Instead the film focuses on the rescue procedure which is a factually showing of how the Navy at that time rescued men stranded in a sub.

The scenes that showed the submersible rescue vehicle and the Navy ship are real and so look great. I would say that is the highlight of the film. But the inside of the sunken sub is a set and looks way to big to be real, I never get the feeling of being a sub.

Just an OK movie for a lazy day, don't expect much and you might enjoy it.

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I'm glad you reviewed Divergent because it's been on my watchlist since it was released, but based on your review, it doesn't sound like my kind of movie.
I hated that film. My wife kind of liked it. I'm sure younger people might like it, but not me.



I've had the DVD of Sky Captain for years, but I haven't watched it.

I had no interest in Divergent anyway, but your review and that picture you posted definitely seals the deal.



A system of cells interlinked
I didn't care for Divergent, either. Some young Adult stuff can be pretty compelling, but this flick degenerated into an action-fest pretty quickly. Woodley seemed stranded in the role, with the rest of the players barely registering. They showed up, took their marks, and went through the process.
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