Movie Tab II

Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

06-06-16

First Sunday (David E. Talbert, 2008)

Brass Target (John Hough, 1978)

Egypt Speaks (James A. Fitzpatrick, 1951)

The Quare Fellow (Arthur Dreifuss, 1962)

A new guard (Patrick McGoohan) at an Irish prison begins an affair with the wife (Sylvia Syms) of a condemned man (or "quare fellow") and starts to see his superior�s side of things that repetitive capital punishment serves no positive purpose and brutalizes those who carry it out.
On Your Toes (Ray Enright, 1939)

Something for the Boys (Lewis Seiler, 1944)

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Fender Bender (Mark Pavia, 2016)

+
The Flying Mouse (David Hand, 1934)

A mouse builds himself some wings, but they don�t work and he feels estranged from other mice and the bats who now resemble him.
Untraceable (Gregory Hoblit, 2008)

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Cairo �City of Contrast� (James A. FitzPatrick, 1938)

Cross-Country Romance (Frank Woodruff, 1940)

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The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (Werner Herzog, 1974)

A unusual young man (Bruno S.) is brought to Nuremburg in 1828 by a mysterious man who leaves him with a note. Although he spent his early years chained in a cellar, he later demonstrates an ability for abstract thinking, prophetic dreams and music appreciation.
The Avenger (Roy Neill, 1931)

Modern Guatemala City (James A. FitzPatrick, 1945)

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (Gregory Plotkin, 2015)

Fillmore (Richard T. Heffron, 1972)

Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead were among San Francisco�s and Bill Graham�s Fillmore West final acts in the Summer of 1971.
Dead Reckoning (John Cromwell, 1947)

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Confessions of Boston Blackie (Edward Dmytryk, 1941)

+
Operation Raintree (No Director Listed, 1957)

Divorce Italian Style (Pietro Germi, 1961)

While the citizens of his town watch La Dolce Vita, nobleman Marcello Mastroianni attempts to carry out his plan to kill his wife (Daniela Rocca) so he can marry his beautiful young cousin (Stefania Sandrelli).

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Camo

BANNED

06-06-16

That's higher than i expected DIvorce Italian Style to be for you. I watched it for one of the hall of fames here and really liked it.

mark f

Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

06-06-16

Well, the rating has actually dropped since the forty or so years since I first watched it, but I still think it's one of the best Italian films and one of the best black comedies I've seen.

Captain Spaulding

Defending Champ

06-08-16

Troll
(John Carl Buechler, 1986)

Not as incompetent as its infamous, unrelated sequel -- at least here the set design and FX look somewhat professional, and the performances, while generally poor, resemble that of human beings, which can't be said for Troll 2 -- yet in many ways Troll is even worse than the "best worst movie" it preceded. Maybe it's my fault for watching the movie sober and alone. (I watched Troll 2 a couple months ago with a buddy of mine and we were both pretty inebriated at the time, which I'm sure enhanced the enjoyment factor.) Yet I don't think any substance would've made this viewing experience more tolerable. Simply put, Troll sucks -- and not in a so-bad-it's-good way. There's an early scene in the film where the main family is introduced to the other tenants while an alarm blares incessantly, forcing all the characters to shout at each other in order to be heard. I don't know how long that scene lasts, but it feels like a god damn eternity, and it's indicative of the obnoxious, is-this-*****-ever-going-to-end? torture that the rest of the film entails. There's plenty of what-the-f*ckery, like Sonny Bono as a pervert and random dance scenes and anthropomorphic mushrooms, that sound like they could provide unintentional enjoyment in the vein of Troll 2, but all of it is too irritating to even mock in good humor. The closest the film comes to so-bad-it's-good delight is when Julia Louis-Dreyfus (in a role she probably excludes from every r�sum�) spouts from a pod in a leaf bikini and briefly frolics about a forest . . . where I'm hoping a troll gangbang occurs off camera shortly afterwards. Quite possibly the worst movie I've ever seen.

Freeway
(Matthew Bright, 1996)

Delectably perverse comedy/thriller that transports Little Red Riding Hood to a 90's trailer park populated with mother prostitutes, anatomy-grabbing stepfathers and a disfigured, serial-killing, necrophilia-loving Kiefer Sutherland pretending to be grandma. The film packs a lot into a short running time, including a stop at a women�s prison where heroin-addicted Brittany Murphy swaps spit with Reese Witherspoon. And speaking of Reese, she gives arguably her best performance as the feisty, foul-mouthed, white-trash protagonist. The explicit dialogue is frequently hilarious and the film�s satirical edge makes it smarter than the sleazy, lowbrow exploitation it appears to be at first glance. Above all else, though, the film is simply a lot of fun. Who doesn�t get claustrophobic sucking strange d*ck?

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
(Jonathan Levine, 2006/2013)

All the boys want to f*ck Amber Heard, even though she's not that hot and her character here has the personality and screen presence of a dishcloth. For a slasher, there's not a lot of slashing. The characterization is flat, so spending time with these characters is a chore. Plus the manner in which the few murders play out doesn't leave much room for suspense, thrills, or even cheap jump scares. On the plus side, the film is well shot, drawing comparisons to Badlands/Days of Heaven-era Malick, but I personally prefer my horror to be unpolished and rough around the edges, so even the film's biggest positive is a negative for me. I saw the twist ending coming, yet the last ten minutes still played out differently than I expected, ending the film on a strong note. Johnny Depp's cameo where he shows up to give Heard a black eye is weirdly prescient.

Game of Death
(Robert Clouse, 1978)

I was aware that Bruce Lee died before completing the film, but I didn�t realize just how little of the film he had actually completed. Instead of getting Lee�s swan song with a few scenes of stand-ins, I got a Brucesploitation film with maybe 8-10 minutes of the man himself. Seeing the ways in which the film tries to hide the stand-in�s face, along with the stand-out-like-a-sore-thumb archival footage of Lee�s past roles awkwardly edited into the film as reaction shots and a �head transplant� that makes my Captain Spaulding photoshops look like a million dollars, is amusing for awhile, but the lame plot, atrocious acting and the lack of exciting action quickly turns the film into a bore. The only scenes in Game of Death worth watching, not surprisingly, are Lee�s fight scenes � especially his iconic encounter with 7-footer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. However, those few moments aren�t enough to redeem an ugly, lumbering, tasteless film that feels more like an insult to the martial-arts legend than a film which honors him.

No Way Out
(Roger Donaldson, 1987)

I wasn't enjoying this at all for the first thirty minutes or so, but once the plot finally kicks into gear this becomes quite the edge-of-your-seat, white-knuckle, sphincter-clenching thriller. The three leads -- Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Will Patton -- are perfect for their respective roles. With the relentless pace and all the twists and turns, it's hard enough to catch your breath as a viewer, let alone worry about having your suspension of disbelief broken by thinking too hard about miraculous coincidences that keep the tension rolling. Not yet sure how I feel about the twist-ending that feels a little too tacked on after the fact. Sean Young has a few sexy scenes, but it's impossible for me to see her without thinking of the tuck job in Ace Ventura.

The Ballad of Narayama
(Keisuke Kinoshita, 1958)

Love the fascinating premise (a poor, rural village has a long-standing tradition where anyone 70 years of age or older is abandoned at the top of a mountain). Love the film's meditation on mortality and the treatment of the elderly. Love the film's evocative nature. I even love the film's gorgeous artificial sets and obvious backdrops. But the kabuki-style presentation, with its annoying narration delivered via a warbling, where's-the-f*cking-mute-button-when-I-need-it? singing voice, got tiresome pretty fast. I'm disappointed in myself that I let one individual element negatively impact my appreciation and enjoyment for what's clearly a visually-striking, unique, heartbreaking film. I also think the comic exaggeration of key dramatic moments played a part in my emotional disconnect. Hopefully the acclaimed 1983 remake will have a stronger impact on me whenever I get around to watching it.

The Blob
(Chuck Russell, 1988)

Just as good, if not better, than the 1958 original -- although years have passed since I watched the Steve McQueen version so take that statement with a grain of salt. This remake is well paced, surprisingly gory, features some very impressive creature effects and just the right amount of camp. Me enjoyed it.

Abar, the First Black Superman
(Frank Packard, 1977)

A blaxploitation film about a black man with superpowers fighting racists and neighborhood Nazis sounds like a cheesy, campy good time, but unfortunately Abar, the First Black Superman takes itself way too seriously. A sense of self-awareness and a brisker pace would�ve done wonders for the film. The movie�s biggest sin (besides draining all the power from MLK�s words by playing them ad-nauseam) is waiting an eternity before bringing the �first black superman� into the mix. I was hoping for dodgy FX-driven showdowns between Black Superman and the KKK. Instead I got extreme close-ups of Black Superman�s face while he transforms a priest�s gaudy car into a horse and carriage, makes a python magically appear in a white woman�s bed (not a euphemism), then blows the racists out of town by shrinking the frame. I can deal with the atrocious acting and the amateurish direction, but it�s a shame seeing a silly premise with guilty-pleasure potential try to pass itself off as a philosophical, thinking-man�s film.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun
(Alan Metter, 1985)

Vacuous and shallow even by 80's standards, yet still possessing just enough of the decade's "Material Girl" charm to make it watchable. Highlight of the film: a nun performs a gymnastic's routine on a pommel horse. Disappointment of the film: the producers were apparently too cheap to acquire the rights to Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," so instead we have to settle for a copycat cover of the titular song.

The Cranes Are Flying
(Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957)

Cinematography so masterful it threatens to overshadow both the film's emotional poignancy and its potent anti-war message. It's rare for me to pay more attention to how the camera is filming something as opposed to what the camera is filming, but I was in constant awe of the cinematographer's virtuosity -- from the effortless way the camera glides above crowds without losing track of our leading lady, to the fluidity of the long handheld takes, to the gorgeous usage of shadows and light, to the striking juxtaposition between foregrounds and backgrounds, and, in particular, the manner in which the cinematography so candidly mirrors and accentuates the inner turmoil of the characters. The composition in each and every scene is utter perfection. If I was an aspiring filmmaker and not a serial-killing clown, this is a film I would study and absorb. Also, from what little I've read online, the cultural and historical significance of the film can't be exaggerated. The Cranes Are Flying is one of the first Russian films (maybe the first?) to capture the honest, brutal ramifications of World War II. Director Mikhail Kalatozov, finally free of Stalin's artistic suffocation, put forth onto celluloid the bruised, naked, resilient soul of a war-ravaged nation grieving more casualties than any other country. And who better to give a face to that unbearable grief than the gorgeous, sturdy Tatiana Samoilova (who, in my opinion, bears a slight resemblance to Audrey Hepburn, except with a fuller face and greater sex appeal), whose eyes alone convey an endless depth of emotions. The Cranes Are Flying is a stunning achievement on many levels, possessing a masterpiece of cinematography and an all-time great performance by a leading lady, that explores war less as its subject than as its primary theme. A powerful film. An important film. A beautiful film.

The Savage Five
(Chang Cheh, 1974)

The more Shaw Brothers films I watch, the more they all blend together, so I give The Savage Five props for setting itself aside from the pack by being a kung-fu western. The marriage of such disparate genres should automatically carry with it a sense of novelty, yet everything about this east-meets-west story feels like a rerun. The plot -- evil bandits wreak havoc in a town of pacifists until a group of individuals rise up to defeat them -- is well-trodden territory. The music is borrowed from other spaghetti westerns. The gunplay feels awkward and neutered compared to other westerns, and it sadly comes at the sacrifice of the excellent fight choreography I've come to expect from Shaw Brothers productions. None of the villains stand out. The same can be said for our heroes, with the exception of David Chiang as the Thief With a Heart of Gold. All of this results in a film that's both a lackluster western and a lackluster kung-fu film.

Riddick
(David Twohy, 2013)

I wasn't crazy about Pitch Black or The Chronicles of Riddick, finding both pretty average, but this third entry in the series is the first one I would label a bad film. Riddick is basically just a rehash of Pitch Black. Vin Diesel pretends to be macho and battles a bunch of poorly-rendered CGI creatures before befriending an alien dog (the only likable character in the film, by the way). Then a bunch of mercenaries show up and the film drags hard as we spend most of the next hour with a ragtag group of unlikable, disposable, easily forgettable stock characters spouting clich� after clich�. Things improve a bit in the last act when a new threat forces everyone to combine forces in order to survive. This new threat -- think raptors with scorpion tails -- is scarier looking than the pterodactyl-like creatures in Pitch Black, but the script squanders any potential stakes or tension with its anti-climactic dispatching methods. Add to that the film's ugly orange-brown aesthetic and Riddick becomes a tedious bore.

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seanc

Lone Wolf

06-08-16

Glsd to see you posting Captain, unfortunately I haven't seen any of those to comment. I have seen bits of No Way Out but never was interested in giving it my full attention for some reason. I like both the actors a lot.

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Camo

BANNED

06-08-16

Great post Spaulding

. Plenty of brilliant Spauldingisms there so i want quote them all. The only one i've seen is Game of Death. The first thing i ever saw from that was the Kareem fight so i couldn't wait to see it and yeah pretty much what you said. The Bruce Lee sensei-ghost from No Retreat No Surrender is less insulting than this.

Also the first thing i thought when i saw your post was: damn is Elaine in Troll? haha.

cricket

Registered User

06-08-16

Alright Captain! I'm with you on Freeway, No Way Out, The Ballad of Narayama, The Blob, and The Cranes are Flying!

gbgoodies

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

06-09-16

Originally Posted by Captain Spaulding

No Way Out
(Roger Donaldson, 1987)

I think No Way Out is a very underrated movie. If you haven't seen it, you should watch the movie The Big Clock (1948) with Ray Milland. No Way Out is a remake of The Big Clock, and as much as I like No Way Out, I think The Big Clock is a much better movie.

Originally Posted by Captain Spaulding

The Blob
(Chuck Russell, 1988)

I didn't really care much for The Blob remake, but I doubt that would surprise anyone who knows my taste in movies. (I only watched it because I went to junior high school with someone who was in the movie, so it piqued my curiosity.)

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Captain Spaulding

Defending Champ

06-09-16

Originally Posted by gbgoodies

I'll keep an eye out for The Big Clock if it ever airs on TCM. I'm curious to see how the story would play out in such a different era, especially with how much technology plays a role in the remake.

Someone in the cast or just an extra? Pretty cool, regardless.

gbgoodies

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

06-09-16

Originally Posted by gbgoodies

Originally Posted by Captain Spaulding

Someone in the cast or just an extra? Pretty cool, regardless.

Ricky Paull Goldin. It's been a long time since I saw the movie, but if I remember correctly, he played a friend of one of the main characters.

MovieMeditation

Friendo.

06-09-16

SPAULDING!!!!!!!!!!!

honeykid

MoFo Whisperer

06-09-16

Nice to see you back, Captain.

I'm with you on Freeway. It's a lovely little 90's gem.

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mark f

Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

06-10-16

The Clock Store (Wilfred Jackson, 1931)

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The Hollywood Revue (Charles F. Reisner, 1929)

Heartburn (Mike Nichols, 1986)

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Dig! (Ondi Timoner, 2004)

Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhols and Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre are best friends and indie rock rivals going in different directions.
The Broadway Melody (Harry Beaumont, 1929)

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Chef Donald (Jack King, 1941)

Supercross (Steve Boyum, 2005)

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Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1982)

The leader (Jeremy Irons) of a Polish work team, who has come to London to work cheap on a home remodeling job, learns that his homeland has been taken over by the military and doesn�t inform the other men who don�t understand English.
Blue State (Marshall Lewy, 2008)

Cave Explorers (Heinz Scheiderbauer, 1957)

The Abominable Crime (Micah Fink, 2013)

It All Came True (Lewis Seiler, 1940)

Nightclub owner/killer Humphrey Bogart hides out at the boarding home of the mother (Jessie Busley) of his piano player/fall guy (Jeffrey Lynn), and while there, he feigns illness and gets fed chicken soup by the co-owner (Una O�Connor), the mother of a singer (Ann Sheridan) who once worked for the killer.
Krampus (Michael Dougherty, 2015)

Out in the Night (Blair Doroshwalther, 2015)

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An Eye for an Eye (Michael Moore, 1966)

Dr. Wai in the Scriptures with No Words (Ching Siu-Tung, 1997)

The �Adventure King� (Jet Li) battles numerous enemies, some supernatural, in his search for a mythical scripture.
Pimpin' Pee Wee (Brian Trenchard-Smith, 2009)

An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1977)

Ivan Brovkin on the State Farm (Ivan Lukinsky, 1959)

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Zootopia (Byron Howard, Rich Moore & Jared Bush, 2016)

+ Maybe higher

Zootopia�s first rabbit policemammal, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), and her foxy buddy Nick (Justin Bateman) investigate the disappearance of a missing otter who may be a key in a larger criminal conspiracy.

meatwadsprite

Nice to meat you.

06-10-16

The Jungle Book

Not anywhere near as smart or weird as the original, and there's some really lame ideas in there, but still an enjoyable flick. Worth the price of admission to see Christopher Walken sing "I Wanna Be Like You".

Captain America : Winter Soldier

Feels like Dark Knight without the balls. Starts out excellent and then kind of drudges on forever until I've completely lost interest. I like the premise, but Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson are so damn boring. They're practically robots, you could just CGI them out of the movie completely.

Captain America : Civil War

Captain America is just one dude in a big superhero ensemble here, which is how I prefer it. Civil War pits Marvel's most exicting character (Iron Man) against it's most boring (Captain America) and tries to find an excuse to get their whole cast of characters to beat the crap out of each other. They bring in a 10 year old as Spiderman, they bring in dudes I forgot even existed from Avengers 2, they bring in Paul Rudd from the horrible Ant Man movie and he's amazing in this.

Again this movie is too afraid to take the story somewhere truly dramatic, but it's hugely entertaining anyway.

Deadpool

Deadpool pretty much equates to watching old people who think they're being really cool.
Good popcorn movie fun.

The Conjuring

The story is pretty dimwitted and flimsy, the real quality is in the execution. James Wan has a huge talent for real scares. There's a lot of effectively creepy moments, even though the movie jumps from one to the next with no downtime in between.

Unintentionally funny, creepy, and intense. Pretty much all you can ask for from a horror movie.

Frost/Nixon

Frank Langella gives an incredible portrayal of Nixon in this surprisingly sympathetic biopic.

Going Clear : Scientology and the Prison of Belief

Weirder than it's fictional counter-part, PTA's The Master. Out of all the religions out there, scientology is definitely the funniest. This documentary expands on that goofy image scientology occupies in the public concious to reveal a slimey, villainous core.

Malcom X

This is actually two disparate films merged into one. The first half is excessively cartoony and stupid. I understand what Spike Lee hoped to acomplish with the first hour and half but it pretty much fails on every front. The second half is a huge improvement and really involving, although there's still a surplus of weird decisions that don't quite work.

Malcom X ends up being presented as a valiant, but confused man, whose values are constantly morphing. Which isn't real of course, this dude was one of the strongest voices of his time. Despite the films shortcomings, Denzel Washington gives an incredible performance here. The scene where he drives to his last speech while Sam Cooke plays in the background is stunning.

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Gatsby

Master of My Domain

06-10-16

Originally Posted by mark f

Zootopia (Byron Howard, Rich Moore & Jared Bush, 2016)

+ Maybe higher

Glad to see you liked it a lot Mark.

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Cobpyth

As Time Goes By

06-11-16

Originally Posted by mark f

Zootopia (Byron Howard, Rich Moore & Jared Bush, 2016)

+ Maybe higher

Watched this last night. Indeed a very good flick!

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

Mr Minio

Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right

06-11-16

I guess I just became the king of laziness.

If you have any questions about these films, or woud like me to elaborate on any of these, feel free to ask!

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

Camo

BANNED

06-11-16

Really glad you like A Streetcar Named Desire so much, hopefully it will make your 50's list. Suprised how high you rated Scum, i like it but i don't actually think it is a good film. I really didn't like Wings when i saw it but that was about 5 years ago i should revisit it.

Mr Minio

Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right

06-11-16

Well, to be honest, I myself am a little bit surprised by how much I loved A Streetcar Named Desire. I mean, in 2014 I saw On the Waterfront, a movie that is widely recognized as Kazan's masterpiece, and although I thought it's very good, it didn't really strike me as masterpiece, or anything of the sort. A Streetcar Named Desire on the other hand I wholeheartedly loved and I think I even liked (more or less) all the characters, even though none of them were faultless. I especially sympathized with Vivien Leigh. Frankly, my dear (pun intended), her performance in Gone with the Wind kind of flew over my head and I didn't really think much about her as an actress, but here she really amazed me. It may be due to the fact that as juxtaposed to Brando's method acting, her performance was very old-school, mannered, even lackadaisical, but at the same time it suited her character very well. On meta-level, the film is a little bit of a goodbye to this old-school Hollywood acting style and a welcome to all these Strasberg disciples. I don't know what more to say, if you asked the day I watched the movie, I probably would have way more to tell you.

Scum was my second Alan Clarke film (just after that meticulous, almost structural masterwork - Elephant) and it really hit a note with me. Its unadulterated brutality with a visible reason for it (or at least what led to it, in Elephant we only have the executions), the cunning protester (the shoeless one), the British surroundings and the reality of reformatory. All of this composed very nicely into what I can call a fulfilled film. Looking forward to Made in Britain now.

Wings is awesome. The aerial battle scenes were done with such prowess that I doubt they could make them that good today. From what I read, the cameras were placed on the planes and every actor piloting the plane had to also keep track of the camera to make sure it records everything properly. I also read that at least one of the actors had to learn flying. The cinematography is pretty good, with some breathtaking shots. My favourite would be the one, in which the camera hovers above many tables to eventually stop before the table with the protagonists. The swing one at the beginning is pretty swell, too. There's that typical melodrama/romance/war plot you can find in many movies, but back then it was still fresh and if it feels outdated or cliche it's only because so many movies AFTER Wings used this scheme. I really like the use of symbols, that although pretty obvious, really do their job well.

Camo