last movie you watched

[pmp]

Most of this week's viewing has been taken up with a new BBC3 horror/thriller/comedy called "Wreck," in which a young man joins the staff of a cruise liner in order to find out what happened to his sister who, it is said, jumped from the boat three months earlier. BBC3 aims its series at teenagers and 20-somethings, but I have to say this was rather fun, in a completely off-the-chart bonkers kind of way, with the last couple of episodes going into territory that no viewer is likely to have predicted. Worth a watch, if you can cope with some very awful CGI.

[Walter Hale 4]

Last night (sunday evening) I was watching The King of Comedy, as per my dvd recording from two weeks ago of SBS world movies Robert De Niro Week. Movie was directed by Martin Scorsese and was the 5th film with Scorsese / De Niro director-actor partnership since 1973.

In contrast to the Cape Fear remake rubbish i wrote about recently, The King of Comedy (1983) is a masterpiece.

Movie starred De Niro along with Jerry Lewis (Jerry LANGFORD in the film), who plays an ageing TV comic that still holds a huge fan base but is somewhat fed-up of his famous status; while Robert's character Rupert Pupkin idolises him.

De Niro's role was utterly brilliant. We're so used to seeing De Niro playing a cool or tough guy so watching him as Rupert playing a blend of dark-comedy and drama was fascinating.

Wiki spoiler alert...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Comedy_(film)


Good article on Scorsese / De Niro 9 movie Collaborations.

https://screenrant.com/martin-scorsese-robert-de-niro-movies-together-ranked/

Note: there is now a tenth Scorsese-De Niro film in the works...

https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/killers-of-the-flower-moon-release-date-cast-details/

[Scarre]

I tried to watch "Spencer"... no thank you. Did not watch it to the end. Disappointing.

[pmp]

Last night, I watched Ring of Spies, a rather dull spy movie from 1963 starring Bernard Lee. It's OK, but not very exciting.

Earlier in the week, I caught Halloween H20 on Sky. I liked this a great deal when it came out, but I didn't find all that much of interest 24 years on. It's much more in the style of a Scream film than something from the Halloween series, and squarely aimed at teenagers. But it's all over and done with in 83 minutes, meaning there's not much meat on the bones, and it all seems pretty much by-the-numbers slasher film. Jamie Lee Curtis is actually quite poor here, I think, and Josh Hartnett (in his first film) has nothing really to work with. He found himself in similar territory in The Faculty, a year or so later, and that's a much better film.

I also saw New Years Evil, a "horror" film from 1980, which is more of a thriller than a horror movie, in reality. It bills itself as a slasher movie, but it really isn't. The most interesting aspect, really, is the film's take on how punk rockers and stoners spend their New Years Eve in 1980. It's a fun time capsule, but not all that exciting.

[pmp]

Earlier in the week, I watched the first season of "Chucky," the TV series which is an extension of the Child's Play films. I'm not overly-familiar with the film, only having seen one, but I found the TV series to be very enjoyable, even if it does get completely bonkers by the end. Looking forward to season 2 when it reaches our shores in December.

Last night, I saw the new blu ray edition of Mark of the Vampire, a horror movie (kind of) from 1935 starring Lionel Barrymore and Bela Lugosi. It's not a great film, but it's a fun one, and the Warner Archive edition looks excellent.

Finally, this evening I have returned to "Amadeus," a film which I never seem to grow tired of and, in many ways, I admire more each time I see it. In two way, it is similar to the recent Elvis film, in that the Elvis film tells the story through Parker (the villain of the piece), and Amadeus tells its story through the eyes of Salieri (also the villain of the piece). Also, both films run for almost exactly the same duration in their original cuts. Unlike Elvis, though, Amadeus's main narrative of Salieri's hatred of Amadeus isn't remotely true, only the bare facts of Mozart's career are true. Even so, Amadeus shows how to make a masterpiece when telling the story of a musician, and does so without any of the flash and eccentricities of Luhrmann's film.

[Rob]

[Walter Hale 4]

The Omen (1976).jpg

[pmp]

A very good film that has aged well for the most part. The mid 70s to early 1980s was an odd time, when cinematic legends and other top-rate stars were seemingly climbing over each other to be in horror or supernatural movies or TV movies:

Embryo (Rock Hudson)
Demon Seed (Julie Christie)
Eyes of Laura Mars (Faye Dunnaway)
The Medusa Touch (Richard Burton, Lee Remick)
Omen 2 (William Holden)
The Changeling (George C Scott)
The Manitou (Tony Curtis)
Dominique (Jean Simmons)
Ghost Story (Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr)
The Shining (Jack Nicholson)
The Fury (Kirk Douglas)
Exorcist 2 (Richard Burton)
Craze (Jack Palance)
Dracula (Jack Palance)
Dracula (Louis Jourdan)
Don't Look Now (Julie Christie)
Tales that Witness Madness (Kim Novak)
Satan's Triangle (Kim Novak)
Blood Tide (Jose Ferrer)
The Boys from Brazil (Gregory Peck)
The Screaming Woman (Olivia de Havilland)
The Hearse (Joseph Cotton)
Salem's Lot (James Mason)
The Island of Dr Moreau (Burt Lancaster)

That's not a complete list. But I'm not sure why that happened. If it had occurred straight after the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford horrors of the 1960s, it would have made sense, but there was a gap of ten years between Baby Jane and the start of this cycle. I wonder if Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston and Westworld with Yul Brynner might have been the catalyst, even if Apes is sci-fi rather than horror. Or maybe the Giallo horror films in Italy, that were attracting big American and British stars.

[pmp]

Tonight was War of the Worlds, which has just been issued on 4K in a package with a blu ray of When Worlds Collide. I haven't seen either since I was a kid, and the DVDs of War of the Worlds are well-known for pretty awful visuals. The 4K is a great improvement, but the picture quality isn't going to convert anyone to the medium - indeed, the blu ray of When Worlds Collide actually looks better. Still WOTW is a very good film, but I'd never class it amongst the best of the sci-fi films of the 1950s, which invariably tapped into Cold War and atomic bomb fears. War of the Worlds doesn't really do that, and while the ending is fine in book form, it makes for something of a let-down in film form. It means there is no final big battle, or a great idea that brings about the end of the story. It just peters out. Personally, I like the Tom Cruise film better, even if it isn't particularly close to the book. I'm not a Cruise fan, but Spielberg knows how to approach this kind of material, and made a very fine blockbuster from H G Wells slim volume. All of that said, the effects of this 1950s version are really excellent, and deserved their Oscar win.

[pmp]

This week, The Sleeping Tiger was released on blu ray. This 1954 film was the first to pair Dirk Bogarde with director Joseph Losey - they would later make The Servant and Accident together. The Sleeping Tiger is more commercial than both, but it's still an intelligent movie, covering relatively new ground for movies of the period. There is a foreshadowing here of The Servant in the themes at play. The blu ray looks and sounds very good, and has an informative interview with Bogarde's biographer as a bonus feature which is worth watching, too.

[pmp]

Tonight I saw Audrey Rose, a 1977 movie billed as a horror, but isn't really. A couple and their 11 year old daughter live happily until a man enters their lives, claiming that the daughter is a reincarnation of his own girl who had been killed in a car crash. It's an interesting idea, but, coming in the midst of a horror cycles that included The Exorcist and The Omen, this may well have got harshly critiqued by those going to the cinema thinking they were about to get more of the same, which is what is suggested by the trailer and the posters etc. It's well acted, and directed by Robert Wise (The Curse of the Cat People, West Side Story, The Haunting, The Sound of Music). For me, it didn't work particularly well - lurching from horror to family drama, and, finally, to courtroom saga. An interesting movie, but not one I'm likely to revisit.

[MikeFromHolland]

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Watched this Russian movie Voskhozhdenie (1977) by Larisa Shepitko (who died in a car crash at 41) and couldn’t help but thinking about the war in Ukrain right now, with winter coming. Soldiers may experience the same challenges and sufferings as in this very troubling movie. At the end it showcases an awful dilemma. A film that’s absolutely in my top 5 of war movies. Not because of its action, for there is not much, but because of the psychological aspects.





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[Tang Lungs side kick]

Skinny Tiger , Fatty dragon 4/6

Sammo and Karl Maka as HK cops vs a drug dealer......Sammo imitates Bruce Lee a few times but besides that the movie isnt great imo , personally i prefer the 70s fight scenes , the 80s are more hyper active for my taste (at least in this movie) & chinese dubbing bit tedious to listen too

Mothers Day 4/6 , horror with 3 women hiking who meet a mother and her 2 inbred sons (the training scene kinda parodies Rocky , ha ha)

Its okay , reasonable entertainment

[pmp]

I've watched very little of late, but did see Outside the Law (1920) tonight. Not seen it before, but it's a very fine crime melodrama that holds up well, and is very enjoyable. Sadly the last reel suffers from nitrate damage, but still worth watching.

[MikeFromHolland]

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There was a 2 for €35,- sale at Zavvi, so besides buying and watching The Ascent I also watched Mouchette (1967) from Robert Bresson. It looks like you can’t go wrong with Bresson, for this is another fascinating film. Slow paced as always, realistic and thought provoking. Loved it.




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[pmp]

More films than normal over the last few days. I won't comment on Paradise Hawaiian Style, as I've done that in AllElvis.

Don't Worry Darling is a film from this year starring Chris Pine, Florence Pugh, and Harry Styles. I have to say that I thought it was very good. Set in the 1950s/early 1960s, in Victory, a small town attached to the company where everyone in the town works. Clearly there is something not right in Victory, and one housewife decides to find out what is really going on. It's a good looking movie, filled with good looking people, and with a great 1950s/early 1960s soundtrack. Chris Pine is the head of the company, and he's actually the worst thing in the movie, I thought. As the central couple, Florence Pugh and Harry Styles are both excellent - and it's good to see Styles choosing movies that are slightly left-field, what with this and the gay drama My Policeman (which I haven't seen). There are vibes here of the Stepford Wives and Pleasantville, but the last act doesn't necessarily go down the expected route, which is nice. Well made and good entertainment.

New Orleans, meanwhile, is a 1947 movie starring Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday (in her only acting role - with good reason). Without the jazz stars providing the music, this would just be an average melodrama that nobody would remember. But the music is excellent, and also features Woody Herman shooed in towards the end. Looking at it from the point of view of music history, it makes absolutely no sense at all, but clearly no-one cared. And, of course, according to this film, the person who popularised jazz was white. As was the case in Syncopation (a much better movie than this, I might add) and Birth of the Blues. But this was 40s Hollywood, and par for the course.

Tonight I saw The Night Clerk, which I first saw a few years back. Tye Sheridan plays a young man with Aspergers Syndrome who works as a night clerk in a hotel and, through the hidden cameras he's put in the hotel rooms, witnesses a murder that he then is suspected of. Some of it is quite charming, other parts are somewhat cringeworthy and not necessarily a positive portrayal of someone with Asperger's. But as a film, it holds the attention. But Sheridan has done a lot of these awkward young men type roles, and at some point he needs to move on.

[pmp]

Tonight's film was Equus. Just a little bit of light entertainment! OK, maybe not. Richard Burton plays the psychiatrist burdened with trying to treat a teenager who has blinded half a dozen horses. Slowly he starts putting the events leading up to it together, but it leads him to question his own life. The plays itself is wonderful, and I've seen it a few times when a production has come to my part of the country, and the film is wonderful, too. At the time of release, many thought that recreating the events only talked about on stage deprived it of some of its power, but I'm not sure that's true, because the film has that extra element that the stage play didn't have: Richard Burton. It was a perfect role for him at that point in his career, and he inhabits the role entirely. In typical Burton fashion, the film was sandwiched between the awful Exorcist II and the fun-but-OTT Medusa Touch. He seemed to choose his work at that point rather like Orson Welles - one role that he really wanted and two that paid the bills. Both he and Peter Firth (in the equally demanding role of the boy) won Golden Globes, and both got nominated for Oscars. It's not a film for everyone, though, and it's a film as demanding for the audience at times as it is for the actors.

In an odd side-note, I was about twenty and still living at home when a phone call came for me from a drama group in Ipswich (about 40 miles from where I live). Apparently they were mounting Equus and looking for someone to play the Peter Firth role, and my drama teacher from school had, oddly, suggested me. I didn't know anything about the play at the time, so went to the library to get a copy of it, saw what was involved, and politely declined!

[pmp]

Goodbye Mr Chips is coming to blu ray (finally) via Warner Archive. They are releasing five movies next month - their first full slate in a very long time.

[MikeFromHolland]

Tonight's film was Equus. Just a little bit of light entertainment! OK, maybe not. Richard Burton plays the psychiatrist burdened with trying to treat a teenager who has blinded half a dozen horses. Slowly he starts putting the events leading up to it together, but it leads him to question his own life. The plays itself is wonderful, and I've seen it a few times when a production has come to my part of the country, and the film is wonderful, too. At the time of release, many thought that recreating the events only talked about on stage deprived it of some of its power, but I'm not sure that's true, because the film has that extra element that the stage play didn't have: Richard Burton. It was a perfect role for him at that point in his career, and he inhabits the role entirely. In typical Burton fashion, the film was sandwiched between the awful Exorcist II and the fun-but-OTT Medusa Touch. He seemed to choose his work at that point rather like Orson Welles - one role that he really wanted and two that paid the bills. Both he and Peter Firth (in the equally demanding role of the boy) won Golden Globes, and both got nominated for Oscars. It's not a film for everyone, though, and it's a film as demanding for the audience at times as it is for the actors.

In an odd side-note, I was about twenty and still living at home when a phone call came for me from a drama group in Ipswich (about 40 miles from where I live). Apparently they were mounting Equus and looking for someone to play the Peter Firth role, and my drama teacher from school had, oddly, suggested me. I didn't know anything about the play at the time, so went to the library to get a copy of it, saw what was involved, and politely declined!

Nice! I was too late to order the 2-disc BFI limited edition, for it’s OOP already. Willtry to find it elsewhere..

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[MikeFromHolland]

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The release was planned for December 12th, but to my surprise the mail-man handed over the beautiful Curzon “Career Retrospective Blu-Ray Collection Book” to me this morning already.

Will make for quite a few hours of quality time coming Holiday Season…

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[Walter Hale 4]

Hey my friends, it's good to see this thread has come to life again. Mean that

[Walter Hale 4]

Friday night i watched "Closed Circuit" , For the most part this is a U.S./Brit political thriller, though you won't be fooled.

But it in the end, it's full of holes, to be honest. Closed Circuit starred Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, Riz Ahmed and directed by John CROWLEY. Anyone here seen this movie?


Spoiler alert:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2218003/

[MikeFromHolland]

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Watched the first blu-ray disc of the Wim Wenders boxset and it contained his debut full feature film “The goalkeeper’s fear of the penalty”, based on the novel with the same name (in German) by Peter Handke. This film makes me want to read this novel, for the main character doesn’t have much text in this film, I wonder what his thoughts were.

It’s very slow paced (which I like) and not much out of the ordinary is happening. Except for one small moment in which he kills a woman in her bedroom. The moment doesn’t seem to bother him one bit in the rest of the film. Fascinating. His life goes on and he keeps a close eye on newspaper articles about the killing. That’s all.

In the final sentences of the film, it all comes together, when he tells how a goalkeeper operates when the football game gets exciting…



Wenders himself about the film and the music in it. He had to skip Elvis (among others) from the Soundtrack. Interesting:



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[pmp]

Last night I finally opened the most recent Eureka set of Boris Karloff films, this one including The Strange Door, The Invisible Ray, and Black Friday. Last night I saw Black Friday, and have to say I thought it was rather poor, despite liking it back in the day when I first saw it - but I've seen many mad scientist films since then, and so the novelty might have worn off. In this film, Karloff plays a doctor who performs a brain transplant in order to try to find out where a gangster has hidden his loot. It's all rather daft, but played perfectly straight throughout. But it feels elongated, despite its 70 minute running time, and there are much better examples of the sub-genre than this. The blu ray looked "fine," but it's not all that much better than the DVD.

[Tang Lungs side kick]

Bravest fist 2/6 , zzzzzzzz , yawn......BO-RING. Kung fu with Michael Chan.....theres no excitement in this movie , no memorable fight scenes.

Aces go places II , 4/6.....nonsense plot but funny , Baldys kid is a bit of a rascal

"A James Bond-type burglar King Kong (Sam Hui) and his friend Albert "Baldy" Au (Karl Maka), a bald police detective join forces to try to track down a rare set of stolen precious diamonds before it ends up in the hands of a notorious European mobster named "Black Gloves" (Filthy Harry in the dubbed version and during the English-speaking parts of the original film). The two unlikely duo are supervised by Baldy's wife, Supt. Nancy Ho (Sylvia Chang), a masculine, fiery-tempered policewoman as they are chased by many mafia members throughout the film in crazy chase sequences involving a number of car and motorbike stunts"

There are several 007 references in Aces go places III which im watching now.....

Gledelig jul ("Merry xmas") 4/6 , this is a bit naff.....Otto Jespersen is funny but this movie isnt anything special. Otto is more funny in "Børning" car comedies imo.....

Love the Coopers 4/6 , another naff xmas movie....the family fights , a gay cop whos in the closet , Olivia Wilde pretends she has a new bf. Olivia is nice eye candy though