Movie Thread

[movingtarget]

I thought Olivia Hussey was particularly atrocious, I remember seeing her in Jesus of Nazareth and Romeo and Juliet. This was so long ago though that I don't recall whether she's a lousy actress or whether it was just her role in Black Christmas.

Anyhoo, you never do see what the killer looks like, but his crazed eyes peeking through the door and his demented phone calls gave me the willies.

Speaking of willies I rewatched The Deliberate Stranger (1986) about Ted Bundy the other day, I remember when it first aired on TV as a two-part mini series. Back then splitting a 3-hour movie into two parts made sense, but trying to watch it all in one go is a labor. It's so badly drawn out that about halfway through I fell asleep, I was less than wowed by Mark Harmon. He was considered a sex symbol back then but not my type, maybe if he had been I would have tried to stay awake. Heh.

I think I was more irritated by Margot Kidder who often plays ditzy roles or used to. Hussey was never a great actress I don't think and Keir Dullea was as stiff as a board as her boyfriend. The voices on the phone were bit freaky as well as the killers eyes.

Mark Harmon looked a little like Bundy and I thought the TV series was okay as was Harmon. I thought the two actors that played the main detectives were miscast. Not sure why that TV series of Harmon's is so popular and has been for many years. Go figure. There are one or two good books about Bundy that are much better than any of the docos or tv and movies about him. One or two of the Bundy docos are worthwhile as well and much better than the Harmon mini series.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

I think I was more irritated by Margot Kidder who often plays ditzy roles or used to. Hussey was never a great actress I don't think and Keir Dullea was as stiff as a board as her boyfriend. The voices on the phone were bit freaky as well as the killers eyes.

Mark Harmon looked a little like Bundy and I thought the TV series was okay as was Harmon. I thought the two actors that played the main detectives were miscast. Not sure why that TV series of Harmon's is so popular and has been for many years. Go figure. There are one or two good books about Bundy that are much better than any of the docos or tv and movies about him. One or two of the Bundy docos are worthwhile as well and much better than the Harmon mini series.

I think the TV mini series might still be popular precisely because Harmon was (allegedly) so handsome, as was Bundy (allegedly). I don't get these women who wrote love letters to Bundy up until his final days, the guy was a psycho monster.

Speaking of monsters I thought Jeremy Renner did a good job playing Dahmer in, well, Dahmer (2002), he had this quiet and seemingly harmless quality. Who would have thought he was stashing body parts in his fridge, much less eating them later?

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Watched a couple of stinkers yesterday...

Animal Factory (2000) - Maybe I'm just used to seeing grittier prison movies like American History X, or even much, much grittier real life prison documentaries, Animal Factory just seemed so sanitized in comparison. Nobody had any tattoos and such, and not only did Edward Furlong and Willem Defoe have no chemistry, but they looked like they didn't even belong in a fine establishment such as San Quentin.

Defoe especially had this inexplicable respect from all his fellow inmates - instead of looking like some feared, hardened Aryan Brotherhood leader he looked more like Michael Rasmussen in his best climbing days, all that was missing were the quintessential cyclist's tan lines.

The only redeeming performance in this flick surprisingly came from Mickey Rourke, I didn't even know it was him because he was playing a transgender person wearing women's makeup and everything. So anyway, I thought Animal Factory was a stinker.

The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) - I actually enjoyed this throwback to the decadent disco days, I liked the soundtrack and it was nice seeing a young Tommy Lee Jones and Faye Dunaway not playing a witch for a change. And then came an unnecessary romance between them and an ending that ruined everything - Dunaway is back to her over-the-top Mommie Dearest act (woman, why don't you just grab the gun instead of helplessly screaming and acting all hysterical?), and the identity of the killer came as absolutely no surprise. The reason for his killings was also cliche.

I haven't been this disappointed by the ending in a long time, so yeah, The Eyes of Laura Mars turned out to be a stinker as well. (It was a bad day at the movies for me yesterday.)

 

[movingtarget]

Watched a couple of stinkers yesterday...

Animal Factory (2000) - Maybe I'm just used to seeing grittier prison movies like American History X, or even much, much grittier real life prison documentaries, Animal Factory just seemed so sanitized in comparison. Nobody had any tattoos and such, and not only did Edward Furlong and Willem Defoe have no chemistry, but they looked like they didn't even belong in a fine establishment such as San Quentin.

Defoe especially had this inexplicable respect from all his fellow inmates - instead of looking like some feared, hardened Aryan Brotherhood leader he looked more like Michael Rasmussen in his best climbing days, all that was missing were the quintessential cyclist's tan lines.

The only redeeming performance in this flick surprisingly came from Mickey Rourke, I didn't even know it was him because he was playing a transgender person wearing women's makeup and everything. So anyway, I thought Animal Factory was a stinker.

The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) - I actually enjoyed this throwback to the decadent disco days, I liked the soundtrack and it was nice seeing a young Tommy Lee Jones and Faye Dunaway not playing a witch for a change. And then came an unnecessary romance between them and an ending that ruined everything - Dunaway is back to her over-the-top Mommie Dearest act (woman, why don't you just grab the gun instead of helplessly screaming and acting all hysterical?), and the identity of the killer came as absolutely no surprise. The reason for his killings was also cliche.

I haven't been this disappointed by the ending in a long time, so yeah, The Eyes of Laura Mars turned out to be a stinker as well. (It was a bad day at the movies for me yesterday.)

I remember trying to watch Animal Factory and not getting to the finish. Think I saw The Eyes of Laura Mars years ago and thought it was pretty forgettable. Dunaway made her fair share of rubbish along with a few good ones. She probably should have been in more star vehicles but studios stopped calling her because of her on set behavior like many others. She basically sabotaged her own career but won't be remembered as a great actress anyway for the most part.

 

[Bilboes]

Just watched The Old Guard, quite a good movie. After receiving our Saniflo toilet https://bestflushingtoilets.org/saniflo-toilet-reviews/, I go right ahead to watch this. I will just install the toilet after.

 

[jmdirt]

I have typed in lately " Donald Sutherland movies " and have enjoyed the results for the most part. I did watch The Assignment " even with Ben Kingsley it was a tough time.
I also watched 3 Laura Linney movies, all were good..she was in my head because of Ozark, which I read is cancelled..?
I will put this out there..The Weight of Gold,narrated by Michael Phelps,it's pretty heavy and will probably make you think about the doping area of this site, but I think it's worth watching.

Did you watch The Weight of Gold on HBO or did you find a free/fee option? We streamed HBO for quite a while (mostly for GoT), but didn't feel like we were getting $10 a month/$120 a year worth of entertainment so we stopped.

 

[movingtarget]

Calvary (2014) an unusual movie about a priest working in a small town. Well written and acted but dominated by the performance of Brendan Gleeson who is good in just about everything he does. Some black humor but not exactly a feel good movie, pretty bleak and full of characters you would prefer to avoid. I was kind of relieved when it finished.

 

[movingtarget]

Dolls (2002) arthouse movie by Takeshi Kitano. Three stories, very slow and full of symbolism and open to interpretation, with little dialogue but visually superb. Won't be everyone's cup of tea ! Very different but watchable.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Capricorn One (1977) - I'm sure the Apollo Moon Landing deniers love this one, I thought the basic premise was just ludicrous. Nevertheless, suspending all disbelief it's actually a pretty decent thriller... I first saw this flick when I was a kid, ever since I've had a fear of helicopters. In this movie the the two dark choppers are especially menacing.

The cast is stellar - James Brolin, Brenda Vaccaro, Hal Holbrook, (OJ), Sam Waterston, and they even managed to toss Telly Savalas in toward the end. There are a few glaring plot holes, but all in all it's not the worst way to spend 90 minutes.

North by Northwest (1959) - Finally got around to watching this, except for the Indiana cornfields everything in this movie smacked of luxury. Everything - the hotels, the train, the fashions, and even that architecturally stunning building in the second to last scene was visually captivating.

There was suspense, the dialogue was clever, but I have to admit I was getting a bit restless toward the end. Thankfully another twist had been thrown in, so the movie never got boring. Can't say it's my fave Hitchcock movie because I haven't seen them all, but I can understand why people consider North by Northwest Hitchcock's masterpiece.

 

[movingtarget]

Capricorn One (1977) - I'm sure the Apollo Moon Landing deniers love this one, I thought the basic premise was just ludicrous. Nevertheless, suspending all disbelief it's actually a pretty decent thriller... I first saw this flick when I was a kid, ever since I've had a fear of helicopters. In this movie the the two dark choppers are especially menacing.

The cast is stellar - James Brolin, Brenda Vaccaro, Hal Holbrook, (OJ), Sam Waterston, and they even managed to toss Telly Savalas in toward the end. There are a few glaring plot holes, but all in all it's not the worst way to spend 90 minutes.

North by Northwest (1959) - Finally got around to watching this, except for the Indiana cornfields everything in this movie smacked of luxury. Everything - the hotels, the train, the fashions, and even that architecturally stunning building in the second to last scene was visually captivating.

There was suspense, the dialogue was clever, but I have to admit I was getting a bit restless toward the end. Thankfully another twist had been thrown in, so the movie never got boring. Can't say it's my fave Hitchcock movie because I haven't seen them all, but I can understand why people consider North by Northwest Hitchcock's masterpiece.

North by Northwest has been reavalulated it seems. Now much better regarded than it used to be. I liked it a lot but not as much as a few other Hitchcock movies. The scenes with the plane and Mount Rushmore never get old !

Capricorn One was good fun. Seems quite a few people believe in Capricorn One more than NASA !

 

[Tricycle Rider]

North by Northwest has been reavalulated it seems. Now much better regarded than it used to be. I liked it a lot but not as much as a few other Hitchcock movies. The scenes with the plane and Mount Rushmore never get old !

Capricorn One was good fun. Seems quite a few people believe in Capricorn One more than NASA !

The helicopter scenes in Capricorn One were what led me to finally watch North by Northwest, I just had to see that iconic plane chasing scene in the latter. Admittedly the former was a bit stupid - why wouldn't the choppers have split up in different directions if they were desperately searching for someone? Why stick together?

Both scenes were eerie though, while already being afraid of choppers now I may become fearful of crop dusters courtesy of North by Northwest.

 

[movingtarget]

The Hateful Eight (2015). The usual Tarantino fare, very very long, too much talking, and cartoonish violence. After the third exploding head there are no surprises ! But this is his style so...........that said I thought it was one of his better movies but I still think Pulp Fiction was his best but I haven't seen his latest movie yet. Interestingly the screenplays he writes for other directors often turn out to be better movies than his own efforts such as True Romance, Reservoir Dogs and From Dusk Till Dawn. Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance was good and it looked great, would have been outstanding at the cinema on the big screen.

 

[Laplaz]

The Hateful Eight (2015). The usual Tarantino fare, very very long, too much talking, and cartoonish violence. After the third exploding head there are no surprises ! But this is his style so...........that said I thought it was one of his better movies but I still think Pulp Fiction was his best but I haven't seen his latest movie yet. Interestingly the screenplays he writes for other directors often turn out to be better movies than his own efforts such as True Romance, Reservoir Dogs and From Dusk Till Dawn. Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance was good and it looked great, would have been outstanding at the cinema on the big screen.

Yeah, Pulp Fuction surely his best, followed by Inglourious Basterds and Kill Bill. The Hateful Eight was good, but maybe a bit too long.

 

[movingtarget]

Yeah, Pulp Fuction surely his best, followed by Inglourious Basterds and Kill Bill. The Hateful Eight was good, but maybe a bit too long.

Have to admit that I didn't like Inglourious Basterds at all and I liked the first Kill Bill movie more than the second.

 

[BlueRoads]

Leave No Trace. Loved it. Quiet, beautiful, feels very authentic and pushes forward while avoiding to get zoomed in a series of clishé plot summits. Minus point: all the characters they meet are basically the same, sparing of words and extremely kind and supportive. But that makes it a kind of feel-good movie while dealing with some tough stuff, and I'm not adverse to that.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

The Hateful Eight (2015). The usual Tarantino fare, very very long, too much talking, and cartoonish violence. After the third exploding head there are no surprises ! But this is his style so...........that said I thought it was one of his better movies but I still think Pulp Fiction was his best but I haven't seen his latest movie yet. Interestingly the screenplays he writes for other directors often turn out to be better movies than his own efforts such as True Romance, Reservoir Dogs and From Dusk Till Dawn. Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance was good and it looked great, would have been outstanding at the cinema on the big screen.

Heh, this is such a perfect description and so on point re: Tarantino, I tackled Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last night. True to form it was long, some scenes were either too drawn out or outright unnecessary. This is supposedly Tarantino's love letter to Hollywood, don't the Hollywood folk write themselves love letters already anyway every year during the Oscars?

I did like the references to past movies and actors and such, but about midway through I was getting bored. The only thing that kept me going was the Sharon Tate storyline, I was wondering whether it would be adequately and factually covered. It was neither adequate nor factual, Tarantino gave the whole thing his own spin. Sharon Tate is a different movie.

I liked Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and even both Kill Bill movies, but that's where my Tarantino fandom ends. I don't have to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood again, I can't remember a thing from Inglourious Basterds, and there was another flick of Tarantino's I had seen, but can't even remember the name of it now. So all in all I can handle Tarantino, but only in limited doses. I honestly don't feel like I'm missing out if I'm not rushing out and seeing his latest offerings.

 

[movingtarget]

Heh, this is such a perfect description and so on point re: Tarantino, I tackled Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last night. True to form it was long, some scenes were either too drawn out or outright unnecessary. This is supposedly Tarantino's love letter to Hollywood, don't the Hollywood folk write themselves love letters already anyway every year during the Oscars?

I did like the references to past movies and actors and such, but about midway through I was getting bored. The only thing that kept me going was the Sharon Tate storyline, I was wondering whether it would be adequately and factually covered. It was neither adequate nor factual, Tarantino gave the whole thing his own spin. Sharon Tate is a different movie.

I liked Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and even both Kill Bill movies, but that's where my Tarantino fandom ends. I don't have to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood again, I can't remember a thing from Inglourious Basterds, and there was another flick of Tarantino's I had seen, but can't even remember the name of it now. So all in all I can handle Tarantino, but only in limited doses. I honestly don't feel like I'm missing out if I'm not rushing out and seeing his latest offerings.

i like some of it obviously but I think Pulp Fiction is the closest he got to a fully formed and memorable film. I will get around to watching Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. I heard that some people were not happy about the Sharon Tate part of the movie and some of the Bruce Lee fans were not happy either.

Watched Mr. Turner (2014) about the famous artist JMW Turner. Well directed by Mike Leigh with some great visuals as you would expect with a lot of the movie shot from the artists point of view. Not a particularly likeable character and obviously eccentric and I'm not sure how much of the biopic is true but it was an effective movie, albeit slow moving and quite long. Very good performance by Timothy Spall as Turner.

 

[Unchained]

Did you watch The Weight of Gold on HBO or did you find a free/fee option? We streamed HBO for quite a while (mostly for GoT), but didn't feel like we were getting $10 a month/$120 a year worth of entertainment so we stopped.

I saw it via Amazon prime video

 

[Tricycle Rider]

i like some of it obviously but I think Pulp Fiction is the closest he got to a fully formed and memorable film. I will get around to watching Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. I heard that some people were not happy about the Sharon Tate part of the movie and some of the Bruce Lee fans were not happy either.

Yes, family and friends of Bruce Lee (including Kareem Abdul Jabbar who knew Lee personally) thought the depiction was disrespectful, I thought it was silly and cartoonish. You'll form your own opinion once you see the movie.

On a side note - among the many, many trivia tidbits about Once Upon a Time... at IMDb is one that states that the Wilhelm scream had been used, I just had to look up what the Wilhelm scream is. Found this little gem on youtube.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio

 

[movingtarget]

Yes, family and friends of Bruce Lee (including Kareem Abdul Jabbar who knew Lee personally) thought the depiction was disrespectful, I thought it was silly and cartoonish. You'll form your own opinion once you see the movie.

On a side note - among the many, many trivia tidbits about Once Upon a Time... at IMDb is one that states that the Wilhelm scream had been used, I just had to look up what the Wilhelm scream is. Found this little gem on youtube.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio

Very funny.

 

[42x16ss]

Heh, this is such a perfect description and so on point re: Tarantino, I tackled Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last night. True to form it was long, some scenes were either too drawn out or outright unnecessary. This is supposedly Tarantino's love letter to Hollywood, don't the Hollywood folk write themselves love letters already anyway every year during the Oscars?

I did like the references to past movies and actors and such, but about midway through I was getting bored. The only thing that kept me going was the Sharon Tate storyline, I was wondering whether it would be adequately and factually covered. It was neither adequate nor factual, Tarantino gave the whole thing his own spin. Sharon Tate is a different movie.

I liked Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and even both Kill Bill movies, but that's where my Tarantino fandom ends. I don't have to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood again, I can't remember a thing from Inglourious Basterds, and there was another flick of Tarantino's I had seen, but can't even remember the name of it now. So all in all I can handle Tarantino, but only in limited doses. I honestly don't feel like I'm missing out if I'm not rushing out and seeing his latest offerings.

I thought that Inglourious Basterds had many more strong scenes than weak, Christoph Waltz was tremendous IMO while Brad Pitt was sadly underutilised. The first scene, as well as the scenes leading to the cinema climax were excellent, as was the first half of the cantina scene before it got out of control.

The end of the cinema climax was totally ridiculous though, it spoiled an otherwise very good film for me.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood only had a couple of memorable scenes for me - Di Caprio starring as the villain in the Western was something else (his finest performance ever for me) and the scene where Brad Pitt went to the commune. I felt guilty laughing at the final scene, again it was closed with questionable, over the top violence.

Its disappointing that Tarantino writes some of the most phenomenal runs of dialogue you will ever see only to totally disrupt the vibe of the film with such unsettling violence.

 

[movingtarget]

Black Christmas (2006) a remake that takes out everything that worked well in the original. One for the gorehounds. The acting was so so at the very best and the director Glen Morgan has done much better genre movies. Just an exercise in blood spray ! Silly movie but I guess the final 10 seconds was worthwhile. After this I was surprised that another remake was made which is supposed to be a feminist re-imagining of the story but I will never know so I can only use my imagination to picture it or not ! I can only agree with the critics score on the Rotten Tomatoes site.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Black Christmas (2006) a remake that takes out everything that worked well in the original. One for the gorehounds. The acting was so so at the very best and the director Glen Morgan has done much better genre movies. Just an exercise in blood spray ! Silly movie but I guess the final 10 seconds was worthwhile. After this I was surprised that another remake was made which is supposed to be a feminist re-imagining of the story but I will never know so I can only use my imagination to picture it or not ! I can only agree with the critics score on the Rotten Tomatoes site.

Oooh, I'm going to have to watch the remake now, it sounds like a pretty stupid but fun way to spend some time. I'm in the mood for that right now.

On my end I watched Witness for the Prosecution (1957) last night - I wasn't quite sure what tone this movie was trying to set, being an Agatha Christie piece it seemed more like a lighthearted murder mystery than a drama. The nurse character was truly obnoxious and annoying, while he joked about it just like her barrister boss I would have wanted to kill her myself.

What was really interesting was during the end credits a voice had cautioned the audience to not give away the ending to others, I had never seen that before. Evidently during filming and the premiere security was so tight that the attendees has to sign some papers stating they would not leak the climax, and even the actors themselves didn't know up until the very last minute when the ending was being filmed. Having seen the whole movie now I can see why, the ending was truly an unexpected twist.

Anyhoo, it was not my fave Agatha Christie, some changes had been made from the original story. Maybe the original would have been a bit better, but the movie was all right as it was.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

I thought that Inglourious Basterds had many more strong scenes than weak, Christoph Waltz was tremendous IMO while Brad Pitt was sadly underutilised. The first scene, as well as the scenes leading to the cinema climax were excellent, as was the first half of the cantina scene before it got out of control.

The end of the cinema climax was totally ridiculous though, it spoiled an otherwise very good film for me.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood only had a couple of memorable scenes for me - Di Caprio starring as the villain in the Western was something else (his finest performance ever for me) and the scene where Brad Pitt went to the commune. I felt guilty laughing at the final scene, again it was closed with questionable, over the top violence.

Its disappointing that Tarantino writes some of the most phenomenal runs of dialogue you will ever see only to totally disrupt the vibe of the film with such unsettling violence.

The ending to Once Upon a Time was so stupid, all of a sudden the movie became a silly gorefest.

Tarantino just doesn't know how to edit himself, not every idea that pops into his head should be committed to film. I can't even imagine what the director's cut of Once Upon a Time would look like, evidently the original unedited version was 4 hours long!

 

[movingtarget]

Oooh, I'm going to have to watch the remake now, it sounds like a pretty stupid but fun way to spend some time. I'm in the mood for that right now.

On my end I watched Witness for the Prosecution (1957) last night - I wasn't quite sure what tone this movie was trying to set, being an Agatha Christie piece it seemed more like a lighthearted murder mystery than a drama. The nurse character was truly obnoxious and annoying, while he joked about it just like her barrister boss I would have wanted to kill her myself.

What was really interesting was during the end credits a voice had cautioned the audience to not give away the ending to others, I had never seen that before. Evidently during filming and the premiere security was so tight that the attendees has to sign some papers stating they would not leak the climax, and even the actors themselves didn't know up until the very last minute when the ending was being filmed. Having seen the whole movie now I can see why, the ending was truly an unexpected twist.

Anyhoo, it was not my fave Agatha Christie, some changes had been made from the original story. Maybe the original would have been a bit better, but the movie was all right as it was.

I remember seeing it years ago but don't remember much about it. There have been some great court based movies over the years : 12 Angry Men, Judgement at Nuremberg, The Verdict among others. Anatomy of A Murder is one that the critics raved about that I don't think I have seen. Will have to check that one out.

There have been plenty of marketing gimmicks in movies over the years including not letting the audience out of the cinema until the movie was over ! The B Grade movie director William Castle was up to all sorts of tricks and was known as a bit of a huckster. Alfred Hitchcock liked to have some fun with the audiences as well before movies were released. Then you have the old chestnut at the beginning of movies : "This is based on a true story," often very loosely and sometimes not at all. Sometimes that can work especially if the crime was a well known one. Can increase the tension a little if the film is well made. Might watch Witness For The Prosecution again eventually !