The 12th Hall of Fame

Joe (John G. Avildsen, 1970)
Imdb

Date Watched: 02/04/17
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: 12th Hall of Fame, Cricket's Nomination
Rewatch: No

I had some very mixed feelings about this one. I really struggled to get through the first half of the film. Peter Boyle and Dennis Patrick were both very good in their roles, but pretty much everybody else ranged from passable but forgettable to downright awful. Susan Sarandon and Patrick McDermott were the worst offenders, but most of the cast was just not good. Once the film really got going I did enjoy the story - though I wasn't totally surprised by the ending - but I really didn't like the dark, kind of gritty look of the film. I don't know if that's owing to the film's age and budget more than to an artistic choice, but it bothered me. Just a very uneven film in terms of quality.

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Usually when I choose a nomination, there's 4 or 5 people that I'm confident will really take to it. This time there was just 1, and that person hasn't watched it yet.

Midnight Run


While this was a rewatch it has been quite a very long time since seeing it and I was pretty happy to see it show up on this HOF.

Enjoyed it back in the day and rather enjoyed it now. Grodin and Deniro play excellently together and pretty much everyone else did a really good job throughout. Ashton (Taggert from Beverly Hills Cops) got to go more obnoxious and still remained likable, which is tricky. I had forgotten that Kotto played Agent Mosley and was glad to see both Farina and Pantoliano doing their usual characters to a "T".

The pacing, the dialogue and the cinematic technique IS very 80's but it all works without being too dated - which is something special.

While this is a very short review it does not compare to the enjoyment of revisiting this film.
THANKS for nominating this, Silent Vamp!

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

The City of Lost Children

I watched the English dubbed version and it was done very well. I'm pretty sure Ron Pearlman did his own voice in English with a strong Russian accent, and it fit him. The little girl's vocal track matched up perfectly as far as I can tell, it sounded like her voice. Usually dubbed movies seem distracting, but either the actual actors dubbed this in English, or whoever did the voice acting and sound mixing deserves awards.

I liked this pretty well. I'm not big on fantasy movies and it seemed targeted at pre teens, but that's not a bad thing as I enjoyed it anyway.

Ron Pearlman and the little girl had the best chemistry and I was rooting for them all the way. The little blonde boy who liked to eat sausage cracked me up. All around I thought this was really well done. I liked the twin evil ladies, the talking brain and the Captain Nemo guy who lived under the harbor.

At times some of the characters were overly zany, especially the clones... now I know why the French love Jerry Lewis movies, he would have been right at home here.

The sets were totally cool and the movie did something I love, world building. I believed that this alternative place could exist with all the outstanding characters. I still don't know if I understood all of the story, but that doesn't matter because it was a fun watch.
Good nom Clazor.

Were you unable to watch City of Lost Children with the original audio track, or did you want to watch it in English? I usually try to stay as far away from dubs as possible. It's good that this one was apparently well done though, and didn't ruin the movie for you.

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I choose English dubbed on purpose, sometimes dubs are bad and distracting, but for me I often get more out of the movie with dubs as I can follow the movie more readily. It just depends. I tried looking up who did the dubs but I couldn't find anything. I did read this:

I liked the scene itself as it was menacing and tense...and at a critical moment in the story. But it was hard watching him slap the little girl. I wish they hadn't done that.

Yeah, that scene was a little uncomfortable to sit through for me as well. Maybe the French think it's more appropriate to hit children than we do? haha

I think it was you who said the movie was R rated in America but seemed aimed at youth. I agree, to me most of the film seemed PG or even G. Sure there was one brief topless scene from a long shot and the slap scene, but mostly it was pretty much benign. I liked it.

I only have yours, Barbara, Casablanca & The Man From Nowhere left.

Is JJ and Royalwit still in this?

ahh, the french




I had a feeling you'd enjoy that one, CR

In the first 15 minutes, I was so lost as to what was happening, I wasn't sure I would like it, but then it grew on me and I got into it. It kind of worked as a mystery too as we don't really get who created all the clones until the end.

Yes

the beginning WAS very chaotic and in its self drew me in to all of it. Great movie

I have Never Let Me Go, The City of Lost Children, Barbara, The Man from Nowhere, Joe, Midnight Run, and U-Turned left

I have a decent size chunk meself: Barbara, Budapest, hiroshima, sanshiro, U Turn and Joe

I'm watching The Man From Nowhere Saturday, and then I have Withnail and I, and rewatches of Romper Stomper and Hiroshima Mon Amour.

I was going to watch The Man From Nowhere, next that's why I asked about Royalwitcheese. Has anybody heard from him lattely?

I'm psyched you liked it so much . The evil ladies were awesome, I agree. Next to Perlman and Miette they're my favourite character, and the scene where they cook was awesome, they were so synced. I don't even want to know how much planning and rehearsing must've went into that one short scene. Oncle Irving was another one I liked, mostly because he's continuously undermining and messing with Krank. When I first saw this I was also wierded out by the opening. It took me a few seconds to realize that the kid was dreaming, but then everything just went haywire and I loved it.

I'm actually blown away that this movie's got the mostly positive response it has. I thought it might be too wierd for most people, or perhaps that the style wouldn't put you off. As is, I'm stoked to see how this finishes in the end.

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Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?

His profile says that his last activity was one week ago. I feel like I haven't seen him around in longer than that though.

Maybe he's just been busy?

Midnight Run

I'll echo the sentiment of this movie being a lot of fun. The banter between the two leads was usually great, and while I never really laughed, it would be improper if I said it wasn't funny. I find "fun" to be a more accurate description than "funny" however. Unlike Camo, for some reason the scene with the daughter broke my heart. I don't know what it was, but I felt terrible for the girl. Maybe it's because in my life I have dealt with the issues, directly and sort of indirectly, of parents not being there for children or parents alienating another parent. Any situation where a parent isn't involved with a child really gets under my skin. It's just that that scene was way more emotional for me than any other scene, so it was somewhat out of place. Still, everything else was bunches of fun. This was like Blues Brothers with way worse music. I could see myself having this on as a movie to end the day off with, and I think that's a neat thing to have in a hall of fame. Not every film has to be an arthouse masterpiece. Good nom.

"This was like Blues Brothers with way worse music."
I LOVE THAT!!

and I agree Clazor about the twins and the cooking scene. VERY AMAZING stuff.

I do remember seeing a post from royale saying was very busy but would be returning.