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Training Day (2001, Antoine Fuqua)

3/4 of this movie is good to great, the final 1/4 is kind of a letdown.
Denzel's performance is hellishly charismatic tho.



the final 1/4 is kind of a letdown.
Huh? Did we see the same movie?
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I love SOAD but need to rewatch it. Cronyn didn't leave an impression as Joseph Cotten deservedly stole that show. Yet another reason!

I'm a big fan of Rope and UC so I'll just chalk this as another reason I should be a bigger fan.

I only know of Rafelson/Nicholson/Lange remake of Postman. Didn't know there was a Marvin one. I'll have to track it down.
My mistake. I was conflating two movies in my gourd at the same time: Postman and Killers. I was referring to the '64 remake of The Killers. FWIW I edited my previous post.

Rope and Under Capricorn are not my favorite Hitchcock's-- for different reasons. But they, of course, have one thing in common: the extremely long takes. The takes were much more complicated in "Capricorn". I wonder if Cronyn had any input in that? Probably not.



My mistake. I was conflating two movies in my gourd at the same time: Postman and Killers. I was referring to the '64 remake of The Killers. FWIW I edited my previous post.

Rope and Under Capricorn are not my favorite Hitchcock's-- for different reasons. But they, of course, have one thing in common: the extremely long takes. The takes were much more complicated in "Capricorn". I wonder if Cronyn had any input in that? Probably not.
Ah! Yeah. I’m a fan of that version. Siegel directing Marvin, Cassavettes and Dickenson, you can’t go wrong. Also, it had Reagan playing a villain. Worth seeing just for that.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Hitch picked him because he could write sustained sequences that would lend themselves to longer takes.



*****
UNDERWORLD USA fits in nicely alongside Fuller’s other noir/neo-noir and perhaps features his most striking visuals and aggressive filmmaking. The movie feels relentless, always moving always looking for an angle. It doesn’t have the strength of House of Bamboo’s plot, the unique racial dynamics of Crimson Kimono, or the surrealism of Naked Kiss, but it bests them in moments of pure cinema. As Scorsese put it, every image is like bolded print.



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

ALWAYS
(1989)

First viewing. Underrated ghost film by Steven Speilberg featuring a great cast that includes Richard Dreyfuss, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Audrey Hepburn in her last feature film. Not Speilberg's best but still an enjoyable watch.


I think Always is a great movie. The only issue for me is the miscasting of Brad Johnson as Ted.

It was the movie that I chose when we were doing the Movie of the Month a few years ago.
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Training Day (2001, Antoine Fuqua)

3/4 of this movie is good to great, the final 1/4 is kind of a letdown.
Denzel's performance is hellishly charismatic tho.
I didn't feel that the final quarter of Training Day was substantially worse than what came before, but that's because the entirety of it felt like a pretty standard, meandering crooked cop Thriller to me, without much of a point or anything worth saying. That being said, though, it's still worth watching just for Denzel's rare turn as a villain, so at least there's that.
Ah! Yeah. I’m a fan of that version. Siegel directing Marvin, Cassavettes and Dickenson, you can’t go wrong. Also, it had Reagan playing a villain.
Psssh, Reagan was villain enough when he was President, if you ask me.





Training Day (2001, Antoine Fuqua)

3/4 of this movie is good to great, the final 1/4 is kind of a letdown.
Denzel's performance is hellishly charismatic tho.
gosh it been long time that i havent watched training day again lol



Huh? Did we see the same movie?
So you thought all of it sucked?

To me, the film maintains its intensity pretty well up to a certain point, keeping you in suspense as to whether Jake is going to succumb to the dark side in the end, but once that's made clear and out of the way, it suddenly gets way too obvious and predictable - and the final showdown is kind of underwhelming.



In Cold Blood (Brooks, '67):



I thought Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman... I thought so right up to the time I cut his throat.

WARNING: spoilers below
Despite how ahead-of-its-time Truman Capote's "non-fiction novel" In Cold Blood was considered at the time of its release (a book which, to be perfectly honest, I still haven't read), I suspect that the film was likely just as groundbreaking within its own medium; after all, since it was released in 1967, it played side-by-side in theaters with such watersheds as Bonnie & Clyde and The Graduate, films which helped pushed the envelopes on cinematic portrayals of sex & violence, but most importantly, advanced the cinematic style of Hollywood film by light years, leaving behind a legacy that's still felt in the industry to this day. However, though it was slightly buried in that year's box office compared to those two juggernauts, In Cold Blood is still just as intense and devastating an experience as ever, feeling as though it's barely aged a day since its release 50 years ago, making it rank as my current favorite film from that legendary year, and also just one of the best movies I've seen from any year, period.

The film tells the true story of Dick Hickock & Perry Smith, two ex-convicts who, in November of 1959, robbed and murdered the Clutters, an idyllic family of Kansas farmers, as the title says, "in cold blood". However, while the murders are obviously the film's inciting incident, director Richard Brooks smartly doesn't structure it as such, instead, showing us what happened just before and after that fateful night, revealing to us chilling details in its aftermath, such as a severed phone cord, a bloody shoeprint, and the ropes that were utilized to hogtie the Clutters as they waited to be slaughtered. The police investigation of, community reactions to, and journalistic reportings on the crime are presented as a parallel track in the film to Dick and Perry's short-lived life on the run, as they drift from Mexico to back to Kansas and all points inbetween, before being apprehended for a final time during a gambling trip to Vegas.

All this time on the road gives us ample opportunity to gain deeper insights into both men, delving intimately into both their individual and shared psychologies; Dick, played by a fresh off In The Heat Of The Night Scott Wilson, is casually, arrogantly psychopathic​, but is nonetheless humanized by his dark "friendship" with Perry, and by the way he very humanly cracks under the weight of crimes once he's brought to justice, while Perry himself, agonizingly portrayed by Robert Blake, is the product of an unfaithful, alcoholic mother, a physically & emotionally abusive father, and a damaged childhood in general. He's an awkward, pathetic, broken man, both physically and mentally, constantly gulping down aspirin in the hopes of quelling at least one of his many pains, and the tense, uneasy relationship Dick & Perry share throughout the film give In Cold Blood its backbone, as we travel with, and grow to somehow pity both of these confessed killers, reminding us that even the "monsters" among us are still, at the end of the day, fellow human beings as well, no matter how reprehensible they may seem at first.

The horror of their relationship culminates during the night of the murders, which Richard Brooks brilliantly flashes back to for the climax of the film, giving the scene a tremendous weight it would've lacked if we hadn't already spent so much time getting to know these characters, and the pivotal, long-delayed sequence doesn't disappoint when it finally arrives, lasting for over 15 minutes, and showing us in agonizing detail the step-by-step process of the robbery, as Dick & Perry intrude upon and restrain the Clutters, searching futilely for a rumored safe full of money that isn't even there. The whole sequence is vividly captured by Conrad Hall's stark, intensely intimate black-&-white cinematography, and plays out in almost complete silence on the soundtrack, as the desolate Kansas wind howls outside like some sort haunted spectre, and, when the murders finally do happen, they are almost as upsetting to witness on film as they would have been in person, and, though hardly graphic in its level of violence by today's jaded standards, the sequence is nonetheless captured with an incredible intensity that was not only unseen in the films of that time, but remains rare even today, proving that indeed, sometimes less is much, much more.

This intensity that is delivered during the film's centerpiece scene is reflected throughout the entirety of In Cold Blood, rendering the before and afters of the massacre equally memorable in their vividness, and the film doesn't try and make a real sort of sense or meaning out of the central tragedy, portraying it equally as senseless on film as it really was in life. And, at the end, as the gallow trapdoor opens and Smith falls to the end of his rope for his crimes, there are no more answers to give, just the sound of the man's heart slowly stopping, as the film fades away into black one last time.

Favorite Moment:





Final Score: 10



More American Graffiti- 8/10
It’s not even half as good as the original which is one of my all time best movies (I consider it better than the Star Wars series in fact). But it is still very good. It has a more humorous tone than the original and is clearly a much more lighthearted movie.
What really amazes me is how it feels like it could have been made today, which is insane for a movie that is over 40 years old. Many of the actors who are extremely young in it are now old and have been so for the last 5-10 years. It doesn’t like an old film at all, something about it is so instinctively modern.
This is not only because of the scenes of police attacking a protest and calling them communists and then being called fascists which hit a little too close to home in 2020 (and makes one wonder how much the world has really advanced in the last several decades) but the general tone and sense of humour of the movie.
One could easily imagine this movie coming out today with no changes whatsoever to the script but starring Adam Sandler, David Spade and Chris Rock and no one would be able to tell it was a 40+ year old movie.



Agent Vinod - An okay Bollywood spy film that gets a lot of hate (from what I've read anyway). I found it enjoyable enough but quite difficult to follow.


Goosebumps 1 & 2 - My kids chose both the Goosebumps movies for consecutive family film nights. I found them entertaining enough with good special effects. My kids loved them, especially slappy the dummy. Goosebumps 1 -
Goosebumps 2 -


Secret beyond The Door - A psychological thriller in which Joan Bennett marries widower Michael Redgrave, who has a very strange hobby. It is very well shot, with great performances and a strong story.
This is one of my favourite films of a favourite of mine in Michael Redgrave.



So you thought all of it sucked?

To me, the film maintains its intensity pretty well up to a certain point, keeping you in suspense as to whether Jake is going to succumb to the dark side in the end, but once that's made clear and out of the way, it suddenly gets way too obvious and predictable - and the final showdown is kind of underwhelming.
I agree that the last act is weaker than the first two, mostly because of the same reasons than you. I felt that the film succeeded in playing well the psychological cat and mouse game between Alonzo and Jake for most of its duration, but the last act shifts into a more action-oriented gear. There's no tension anymore.
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Agent Vinod - An okay Bollywood spy film that gets a lot of hate (from what I've read anyway). I found it enjoyable enough but quite difficult to follow.


Goosebumps 1 & 2 - My kids chose both the Goosebumps movies for consecutive family film nights. I found them entertaining enough with good special effects. My kids loved them, especially slappy the dummy. Goosebumps 1 -
Goosebumps 2 -


Secret beyond The Door - A psychological thriller in which Joan Bennett marries widower Michael Redgrave, who has a very strange hobby. It is very well shot, with great performances and a strong story.
This is one of my favourite films of a favourite of mine in Michael Redgrave.
classic goosebumps tv series in the 90s were better