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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

The Brothers Grimsby (Louis Letterier, 2016)

Creature Companion (Melika Bass, 2018)

Lourdes (Jessica Hausner, 2009)

Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)


A few obvious Spielberg film references.
Traveling Saleslady (Ray Enright, 1935)

The Arrangememt (Elia Kazan, 1969)

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (Wes Ball, 2015)

Get Yer Ya Ya's Out (Albert Maysles, Brad Kaplan & Ian Mankiewicz, 2009)
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Jimi Hendrix & Keith Richards c. 1969.
The Hymns of Muscovy (Dimitri Venkov, 2018)
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Chappaquiddick (John Curran, 2018)

Two Too Young (Gordon Douglas, 1936)

Colleen (Alfred E. Green, 1936)


The movie’s highlight – the fashion show.
The Immortal Blacksmith (Sammy Lee, 1944)

The Work (Jairus McLeary & Gethin Aldous, 2017)

The Kid from Kokomo (Lewis Seiler, 1939)

Runaway (Michael Crichton, 1984)


Maniac Gene Simmons celebrates Independence Day early.
Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor (Lynne Sachs, 2018)

Yankee Doodle Goes to Town (Jacques Tourneur, 1939)

Ideal Home (Andrew Fleming, 2018)

Manhatta (Paul Strand & Charles Sheeler, 1921)
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Doc showing Manhattan pre-Chrysler and Empire State Buildings.
__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Four Jills in a Jeep (William A. Seiter, 1944)

Hail Columbia (No Director Listed, 1934)

American Spoken Here (Basil Wrangell, 1940)

Disobedience (Sebastián Lelio, 2018)


The physical attraction between two women (Rachel Weisz & Rachel McAdams) raised in an orthodox Jewish community remains strong after many years.
Fast Life (Harry Pollard, 1932)

Sweepstakes Winner (William McGann, 1939)

Alice and Martin (André Téchiné, 1998)

French Connection II (John Frankenheimer, 1975)


”I’d rather be a lamppost in New York than the President of France, but I came over here to get Frog One.”
That Brennan Girl (Alfred Santell, 1946)

The Inside Story (Allan Dwan, 1948)
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So Long Enthusiasm (Vladimir Durán, 2017)
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Brothers (Arthur Barron, 1977)
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Using pseudonyms, Black Panther George Jackson (Bernie Casey) - basically in prison for being black - and Angela Davis (Vonetta McGee) fight for black activism and fall in love. You can guess what happens.
Dude Cowboy (David Howard, 1941)
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The Dance Contest (Dave Fleischer, 1934)
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Trigger, Jr. (William Witney, 1950)

Wait for Your Laugh (Jason Wiss, 2017)


Rose Marie was a radio, music and TV legend who started off as Baby Rose Marie and was protected by Al Capone – honest.
Annapolis Salute (Christy Cabanne, 1937)

...and justice for all. (Norman Jewison, 1979)
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Nostradamus IV (Cyril Endfield & Paul Burnford, 1944)

A Branch of Pine Is Tied Up (Tomoyasu Murata, 2018)


Stop-motion, twins, a tsunami, a snowglobe, a rabbit, the past, present and afterlife are interconnected in this short.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Visiting Virginia (James H. Smith, 1947)
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Kenner (Steve Sekely, 1968)

Colorful North Carolina (James A. FitzPatrick, 1942)
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Kill or Cure (George Pollock, 1962)
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Private detective Terry-Thomas and local inspector Lionel Jefferies provide giggles in this light-hearted murder mystery.
The Tell-Tale Heart (Jules Dassin, 1941)

Harry Smith at the Breslin Hotel (Robert Frank, 2018)

Searching for a Special City (No Director Listed, 1965)

The Nights of Zayandeh-Rood (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1990)
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An examination of censorship before, during and after the Iranian Revolution involving a censored film by its exiled filmmaker.
Twenty Plus Two (Joseph M. Newman, 1961)

Cradle of a Nation (James H. Smith, 1947)
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Summer of ‘63 (No Director Listed, 1972)

Mister Buddwing (Delbert Mann, 1966)


Amnesiac James Garner cannot recall anything about his life – probably due to a traumatic experience.
Criminal (Ariel Vroman, 2016)
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Memories and Melodies (James A. FitzPatrick, 1935) hrt

Strange Glory (Jacques Tourneur, 1938)
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A Walk in the Spring Rain (Guy Green, 1970)


Seeming soulmates Ingrid Bergman & Anthony Quinn are committed to other people (her) or lifestyles (him).
Glimpses of Western Germany (James A. FitzPatrick, 1954)
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The Night AKA La Noche (Edgardo Castro, 2018)

The Face Behind the Mask (Jacques Tourneur, 1938)

The Workshop (Laurent Cantet, 2017)
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A group of students in a summer writing workshop create an original thriller in the context of contemporary European politics.



I've been thinking recently about revisiting The French Connection since I didn't like it nearly as much as I feel I should. I've never thought about watching the sequel before but you've got me interested.



Like most of the personal threads, this one has had a severe lack of back and forth. I'm certainly part of that problem as I don't normally engage in much conversation anyway. At least in Movie Tab, some people would engage Mark on what he watched. I don't know why that came to a stop, but reading Mark's thoughts is one of the most important things this forum offers for me. I must have it!



Miss Vicky's Loyal and Willing Slave
Sorry to see the possible demise of your movie tab round-ups Mark. While I've not been around much for a while now, checking out your opinion (even just through a rating) was always just about my favourite thing on here.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
@mark f you rated Ready Player One pretty high. I've yet to see it, but it comes off as a shallow market for nostalgia, which is "in" right now. The book itself felt like a geek listing off his favourite nerdy things and a "hey, remember this, remember that" mentality. Which got old fast and made for a repetitive read.

In your opinion, how does Spielberg handle this? Does he manage to avoid it, giving some actual stakes for these people in this virtual world, or is it another "let's see how many pop culture reference we can fit in this" mumbo-jumbo?
__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews



The Big Country (William Wyler, 1958)


Glorious Movie-Movie is one of the best westerns ever made, with a ton of memorable characters, albeit centered around a rather strange central character for a western. That character is former ship captain Jim McKay (Gregory Peck) who has gotten fianced into a Texas ranching family by way of Pat Terrell (Carroll Baker), who eventually shows herself to misunderstand him and be extremely superficial. Pat's father, The Major (Charles Bickford), tries to rule his neck of the prairie with the help of his practically-adopted son Steve Leach (Charlton Heston) who has a yearning for Pat himself. What McKay doesn't know is that he's walked into the middle of a feud between The Major and rival Rufus Hannassey (Burl Ives) who has his own cross to bear in the person of his oldest son Buck (Chuck Connors). The person who seems to hold the key to this war is schoolteacher Julie (Jean Simmons) who owns the Big Muddy, the river where both families need to water their cattle.

Aside from just being tremendous cinematic storytelling on every level, The Big Country shows a love of the land even when the humans roaming over that land are incredibly corrupt and violent. Nobody seems to respect McKay, except for perhaps the Major's Mexican jack-of-all-trades Ramón (the awesome Alfonso Bedoya). They constantly think that he's a coward, a dude, or just plain stupid, but they have no concept of what it takes to navigate a ship through two oceans and command the men onboard at the same time. All the acting is beautiful, almost all of them playing iconic characters. William Wyler likes to emphasize how "big" the "country" is, and he's aided by DP Franz Planer and especially composer Jerome Moross, whose score seems to have later been interpolated into both Elmer Bernstein's The Magnificent Seven and the Marlboro commercials. I suppose if The Big Country were to remind me of another movie it would be George Stevens' Giant which I also need to add to my mafo 100.
Nice review Mark, for sure one of the best westerns ever made, also adding it to my 250, probably near Giant's position.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
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I'd say there is about 2% shouting in There Will be Blood. Plainview is a salesman, and if you haven't been exposed to a certain type of salesman, then you should count yourself lucky and use this film as an innocent way to experience them without literally getting locked in a room with one or more. Some people believe that the final scene is over-the-top; the whole milkshake/bowling alley diptych, but it actually is a mirror of the earlier scene where Daniel spent his most-open, honest exchanges in the film. Those were with his "brother" Henry. They talked about what they shared in the past and what's "inside" Daniel as he becomes more and more successful and why he acts the way he does; at least his rationalization of why he does what he does. And to tell you the truth, you don't have to be an American capitalist to relate to his thoughts. He wants to win at all costs and doesn't enjoy seeing others do well. Sure, it could be a capitalist who thinks such things, but it could also be a socialist dictator or an imperialist from our ancient past. The fact that when Daniel finds that there is a bit of his exposed soul out there with Henry, who turns out to not be his brother, means that Daniel has to kill him and get rid of any evidence of his true feelings from anyone who isn't of his own blood. This can also be seen as a parallel theme to why Daniel isn't as open and honest with his "son" because he, too, is not "of his blood".

The same thing happens at the end of the film. Daniel apparently likes to hang out in his "War Room", his bowling alley, at night. He drinks and he passes out, right in the middle of the bowling lane where he undoubtedly tries to violently mow down all the little enemy pins with his violent bowling ball(s). Poor, overmatched Eli believes that he still has the trump card on Daniel, so he enters his boudoir of violent success with absolutely an innocent's concept of the kind of battle he will find himself in. Daniel seems to be in hog heaven when he has a chance to pay back somebody else who has seen him expose his weakness, even if in that case, Daniel was still in salesman mode and was never sincere for a second, but Eli could still lord it over him in front of his parishioners. The fact that Daniel could drink Eli's milkshake before destroying him physically is Daniel's psychological payback to Eli for having the audacity to believe that he was his equal in any regard, including salesmanship. The drinking of people's "milkshake"s isn't really over-the-top either, since Daniel knows that Eli is not long for this world. Why not give him a personal show even more spectacular than the ones that Eli presented in his "church"? I just find it very interesting that the desire for oil as a way to defeat an enemy and to become and strengthen oneself as a "superpower" does have its satiric value, even if I still don't see the movie as a "true" critique of the current U.S. administration.



I drank some of my daughter's chocolate milkshake in Alaska. I used a straw. It was very difficult for me to actually get it to pass through the straw because it seemed to collapse in on itself the harder I sucked. The way I was able to get a good taste of the milkshake was to take the straw out and suck on the bottom (opposite end) of it. It made me start to wonder why Daniel had such an easy time drinking Eli's milkshake.

One other thing I started thinking about (notwithstanding the earlier comment that "I drink your milkshake" was a direct political quote) was that I always ordered a chocolate malt(ed) instead of a milkshake because I always found it easier to pass through the straw, let alone the fact that it had more flavor. Now, did Daniel drink Eli's milkshake because it was the more difficult way to get what he wanted? Daniel does seem to occasionally do things the difficult way. I want to ask all the people who recall the beginning of the film, how in the hell did Daniel drag himself, apparently for miles, with a broken leg, up out of his mine and all across the rugged territory he had to navigate to get to lay claim to his find? I realize that he's a tough S.O.B., and I don't mean this early scene to be a flaw in the film. Maybe you can just fill in some of the details which we all miss from the time he's screwed to the time he makes it to the assayer's office. What do you think happened? I'd say it was as significant as anything else that IS ACTUALLY SHOWN in the film.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)


I enjoy how Eastwood takes his time developing the story, bringing in more and more characters, starting out tragically, then lightening the tone. Sam Bottoms (The Last Picture Snow, Apocalypse Now) is very affecting as the young Rebel who's Josey's closest friend at the beginning. Chief Dan George (Little Big Man) is a hoot as always and plays well opposite Eastwood. John Vernon (Dirty Harry, Animal House) is effective playing Wales' friend and enemy depending on his orders and Billy McKinney, The Rodent's fave character and the rapist from Deliverance is hateful as Captain Redlegs. Will Sampson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) brings great dignity to Ten Bears in his brief, powerful, and extremely-well-written meeting with Josey. Sondra Locke, who was so good in her debut, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, makes an ethereal love interest who brings out the gentler side in Josey, and makes her first of six appearances in Eastwood films. Eastwood is as iconic here as in any of his Leone flicks and spits a mean wad of tobacco juice. His direction often resembles that of John Ford and Howard Hawks at times. Here was my last write-up about it [responding to someone who didn't like westerns]:



No matter how Eastwood came to direct the film this remains his best, most-thoughtful and entertaining flick. It's simple yet complex, it's highly-dramatic but very funny, it's crammed with action but has many thought-provoking scenes. The Outlaw Josey Wales is a fortuitous set of events especially for all filmwatchers who partake of its charms. If you truly believe that Eastwood is a slipshod filmmaker who stumbles into his awards and acclaim, maybe you should take some deep breaths and watch this film. If you still don't get it maybe you should try studying some American history instead of acting like Westerns are beneath you and have nothing for you to learn about and enjoy.



I still don't understand the whole milkshake thing.
I. Drink. Your. MILKSHAKE.