GBGoodies 2015 Movie Logbook

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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.


Laura (1944) - I watched this movie for the Film Noir HoF. This is another re-watch of a movie that I've seen before, but this movie was my nomination, so you can probably guess that I love this movie.

Dana Andrews stars as Mark McPherson, a police detective who is investigating the murder of Laura Hunt, (Gene Tierney). The suspects include cynical newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker, (Clifton Webb), Laura's playboy fiancé, Shelby Carpenter, (Vincent Price), Laura's aunt, Ann Treadwell, (Judith Anderson), Laura's housekeeper, Bessie Clary (Dorothy Adams). As Det. McPherson investigates Laura's murder, he sees her portrait, reads her diary, and falls in love with her.

Gene Tierney is absolutely beautiful, so it's easy to see why everyone falls in love with Laura. The acting is amazing by everyone, especially Clifton Webb who gives a standout performance. Even Vincent Price, who is best known for his horror movies, shows that he could have been a great dramatic actor too. The best word that I can use to describe the music is haunting. It's perfect to set the mood of the film.

If you're looking for a good mystery/thriller, I highly recommend this wonderful movie.

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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.


Out of the Past (1947) - I watched this movie for the Film Noir HoF. It's one of the few movies nominated that I hadn't seen already, so it was a first-time watch for me.

Robert Mitchum stars as Jeff Bailey, an ex-private investigator who moves to a small town to try to escape his past. Unfortunately for him, his past finds him when his ex-partner shows up, and tells him that gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) is looking for him. We find out in flashbacks that Jeff had been hired by Whit to find his girlfriend, Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer), who shot him and stole $40,000. Jeff found her, but instead of bringing her back to Whit, he fell in love with her. Without giving away any spoilers, we come back to present day, and as his past comes back to haunt him, he agrees to one last job for Whit to try to get his life back.

This is a great movie with a dark storyline, and surprises around every corner. The dialogue is intelligent, and the acting is superb. This is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that should not be missed. I highly recommend this movie.

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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.


Against All Odds (1984) - This is a remake of the 1947 film noir movie Out of the Past. The remake stars Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward, and James Woods. After watching the original movie, I wanted to see the remake.

The remake is okay, but it's not nearly as good as the original. It's been updated to present day, and the main characters have been changed, but not for the better. The ex-private investigator is now an aging football player, and the femme fatale is no longer a mysterious, seductive woman, but she is now a wealthy socialite. The story still has a lot of twists and turns, but it also has plot holes, and it lacks the clever dialogue of the original movie. Even the motive of the main character has been changed from escaping his past to simply needing the money.

If you're looking for a good thriller, I would recommend watching the far superior Out of the Past, rather than this movie. The title song from Against All Odds is excellent, but the movie isn't nearly as good.

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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
I liked Against All Odds when I saw it, about 30 years ago.

I vaguely remember watching Against All Odds many years ago, and I remembered bits and pieces about the movie, but not enough of it to consider it a "re-watch". But I did remember thinking that the title song was great, and the video for the song, which showed scenes from the movie, was better than the movie itself.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.


Onibaba (1964) - I watched this movie for the 1964 movies list. After reading the description of the movie, I was pretty sure that it wasn't my type of movie, but I tried to watch it with an open mind and give it a chance.

The movie is about two women in Japan who were left alone to fend for themselves during a war. After their crops fail, they find a way to fight poverty by killing any soldiers who wander onto their land. They steal their armor and their weapons, and sell them to get money for food. Their neighbor shows up and tells them that the old woman's son, who is also the young woman's husband, was killed in the war. When the young woman tries to go to the neighbor's hut to sleep with him, the old woman does everything she can to keep the two of them apart. They talk about the existence of purgatory and hell, and when a soldier shows up one night with a mask, the old woman uses the mask to trick the young woman into thinking that there is a demon after her.

Unfortunately, I didn't care for this movie at all. The story itself had potential, but it was slow and boring at times, and drawn out way too long. None of the characters were likable, even at the beginning of the movie, so it made it hard to care about what happened to them.

The movie picked up a little bit, about an hour into the movie, when the guy with the creepy mask showed up, but even though the movie was classified as a horror movie, it never really felt like one to me. I didn't find the mask scary at all. It had a bit of a creepy look, but it was mostly goofy-looking with a worried expression on the mask's face.

Plus, some things in the movie just didn't make any sense to me. These soldiers they killed were supposed to be samurai soldiers, but they were able to be killed easily by two weak women. That makes no sense. Aren't samurai soldiers supposed to be "the best of the best"? The women might get lucky once or twice, but this seems to be a normal pattern for them. And when the young woman was running because she was afraid of the demon that was chasing her, she ran into the neighbor in the field, and she stopped to have sex with him. If she's so scared, why would she stop and have sex?

The only part of the movie that I liked was the ending.

WARNING: "SPOILERS ABOUT THE ENDING!!!" spoilers below
At the very end, when the woman jumped over the hole where they've been dumping the dead bodies, it doesn't matter whether or not the old woman makes the jump, or falls into the hole. Either way, she deserves her fate. If she makes the jump, she's already disfigured from the mask, so she basically looks like the demon that she was pretending to be. If she misses the jump, she falls into the hole with the dead bodies and dies, leaving the young woman alone to her own fate.


This is a very highly rated movie on IMDB and other sites, so those of you who like foreign films and arthouse films will probably like it, but it just wasn't for me.

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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.


Zulu (1964) - I'm not a history buff, (in fact, it was my worst subject in school), but if I understand this movie correctly, it was about a small regiment of British soldiers protecting themselves and their wounded soldiers from the Zulu. Even though they were outnumbered, the British used better strategy, better organization, and sheer determination to overpower the Zulu.

I'm not really a fan of war movies, but this was a pretty good movie. It was never boring, probably because it focused more on the people rather than just the fighting. It showed how the British soldiers worked together as a team to fight against a much larger army. As expected, there is a lot of action, and some of the scenes are very tense, building up to a spectacular climax.

If you're a fan of war movies, I would say that this is probably one that should be on your "must-see" list.

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If she's so scared, why would she stop and have sex?
Because that's what good girls do.


It's too bad you didn't like it, although I'm not surprised. I am with you in feeling that it's not a horror film.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Because that's what good girls do.


It's too bad you didn't like it, although I'm not surprised. I am with you in feeling that it's not a horror film.

After I watched the movie, I read a few of the comments on IMDB about the movie, and several people said that the mask scared them, but I didn't think the mask was scary at all. It had such a stupid expression on the mask's face that it actually made me laugh when I first saw it.

Did you think the mask was scary looking?



Too bad you didn't like Onibaba. I love everything about that movie. I love the characters, and the slow pace. It's not a scary horror movie though. It's more like a suspenseful drama. I could also see how people would consider that horror back then.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Too bad you didn't like Onibaba. I love everything about that movie. I love the characters, and the slow pace. It's not a scary horror movie though. It's more like a suspenseful drama.

I usually like suspense movies, but this one just didn't do much for me. It didn't feel like a suspense movie either. It just felt like a bad drama to me, but obviously I'm in the minority on this movie.



Well, you do have to understand why it's good, and not just why you didn't like it. The acting, directing, cinematography, and script are all very well done. The pacing, though boring for some people, works for the atmosphere, mood, and personalities of the characters. I think it really helps sink in the dull-drum of living in the middle of nowhere with so few other people, and the laziness of the characters. I loved how flawed the characters were. They argued, and they were selfish. Most movies glamourise their characters, but this film did the opposite, it dragged them in the mud.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Well, you do have to understand why it's good, and not just why you didn't like it. The acting, directing, cinematography, and script are all very well done. The pacing, though boring for some people, works for the atmosphere, mood, and personalities of the characters. I think it really helps sink in the dull-drum of living in the middle of nowhere with so few other people, and the laziness of the characters. I loved how flawed the characters were. They argued, and they were selfish. Most movies glamourise their characters, but this film did the opposite, it dragged them in the mud.

I agree with you that the cinematography was good, but I disagree about the rest.

Unlike most people here on MoF, I'm not a movie expert, but I can usually recognize a good movie, even if it's not my kind of movie. For example, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Taxi Driver, Midnight Cowboy, and a slew of other movies, are great movies, but they'll never make my favorites list.

I just didn't see the greatness in Onibaba.



I'm not a history buff, (in fact, it was my worst subject in school)...I loved history, that was like my only good subject, that and lanch (I flunked spelling too)...What was your best or favorite subject in school?



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Taxi Driver, Midnight Cowboy, and a slew of other movies, are great movies, but they'll never make my favorites list.
Is that because they're R-rated? What's your fave movie that's rated R?
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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
I'm not a history buff, (in fact, it was my worst subject in school)...I loved history, that was like my only good subject, that and lanch (I flunked spelling too)...What was your best or favorite subject in school?

My best subject in school was math, but it wasn't my favorite subject. My favorite courses were ethics and law, and my favorite subject was science, but only some parts of science, like chemistry and genetics. I didn't like the biology stuff when we had to dissect a frog. (I actually refused to dissect a frog, and I got an "F" for that class.)



I knew it...Almost always when someone doesn't like history in school, they're really good at math. It works vise-versa too. I was bad at math but good at history.

Though I don't remember learning about the Boar Wars, I did like Zulu. Was that the movie where the Zulu warriors were lined up on a cliff ridge, chanting in unison and thumping their spears against their shields?....If so that was one powerful scene, both emotionally and cinematographlly.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Is that because they're R-rated? What's your fave movie that's rated R?

I never thought about it before, but you could be right. I don't pay much attention to the movie ratings, but I usually don't like movies with a lot of sex and/or violence. I prefer rom-coms, musicals, and dramas.

To give you an idea of my movie tastes, I looked up a list of the top R-rated movies, and these are some of my favorites from the list.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic/mpaa.htm

Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Air Force One
Rain Man
Good Will Hunting
Analyze This
When Harry Met Sally...
Brokeback Mountain
The Descendants



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
I knew it...Almost always when someone doesn't like history in school, they're really good at math. It works vise-versa too. I was bad at math but good at history.

Though I don't remember learning about the Boar Wars, I did like Zulu. Was that the movie where the Zulu warriors were lined up on a cliff ridge, chanting in unison and thumping their spears against their shields?....If so that was one powerful scene, both emotionally and cinematography.

Yeah, these guys were "thumping their spears against their shields":