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Tried to watch the new Kenneth Branagh version and didn't like it much, couldn't watch it all. But the 70s's version wasn't bad. Not something you would watch more than once. Quite a catalogue of stars.
I watched Murder on the Orient Express (1974) again recently, love the scenery, and of course, all the stars. Pretty much every big name of yesteryear was in this flick.
Generally I like the older mystery movies (Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple), didn't care for House of Long Shadows (1983) though, despite all the big names. Seeing Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Vincent Price all in one movie was great. But the main character who played the visiting Yank was so annoying I couldn't even finish watching it. It's too bad the main character had to spoil this particular murder party.
House of Long Shadows was fun just to see the genre stars together but yes it's not a very good movie. The old Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies were good as were the TV ones with Peter Cushing. Murder By Decree, the Holmes movie with Christopher Plummer was quite good. As for the new TV version called Sherlock, I don't mind it from time to time. Cumberbatch and his sidekick have a good chemistry on screen. I haven't been watching many genre movies lately. Been watching a few series lately like Wallander, The Looming Tower, Better Call Saul, House of Cards and of course Game of Thrones. The last two got worse the longer they went unfortunately. Better Call Saul is just as good as Breaking Bad but with less violence. Lights Out was the last horror movie I saw. Pretty good.
Finally watched Joker. Very good but I would probably stop short of calling it a classic. Magnetic performance by Jaoquin Phoenix and he deserves all of the accolades he has received. He was pretty much on screen in every scene. Obvious references to the Scorsese film The King of Comedy.
I really liked the Brit version of House of Cards and the original Swedish Wallander. I have seen the Brit remake of Wallander with Kenneth Branagh, but think he was just a little too OTT for the part and the series didn't have the same feel. On that note...
I think the Swedes make surprisingly good crime dramas, the scenery and story-telling makes for a very nice change of pace. (I do get tired of the usual setting of NYC in American crime dramas.)
Did you watch the Oscars last night?
I only watch them to see if there are any must-see movies I haven't heard of that I need to watch at some point in the future, guess I'll have to catch Parasite.
On a sidenote - while I agree with a lot of Joaquin Phoenix's views I think his acceptance speech was just a mess. I understand being nervous in front of millions of viewers, but he was just almost incoherently rambling on and on. Renee Zellweger also rambled on nervously...
I did enjoy the presentation from the cast of Cats, though. Dressed in those costumes they were bound to have fun, despite the fact that the movie itself had completely bombed at the box office.
i haven't watched the awards shows for many years as I don't have the patience any more and one of the reasons is the rambling speeches................Golden Globes is the less pretentious version of the Oscars. if anything the Grammys are the worst, maybe too many drugs ?
Parasite has been getting mainly great reviews.
The original House of Cards was very good with a great central performance. There have been two Swedish versions of Wallander. I saw the later one which was good with Rolf Lasgaard. As for the Branagh version, I thought it was really well shot and he was good but I thought some of the supporting cast were miscast badly. Have to catch the original series eventually. Still have to watch the final series of the House of Cards remake, without Kevin Spacey of course. if anything Robin Wright's performance was better than Spacey's. Best thing I have seen from her.
I'd love to see the original Wallander again, but here in the States it might be hard to find.
More about the Oscars...
I was working on a jigsaw puzzle while I had the Oscars on, so didn't get too bored with the whole thing. Think I might want to catch Joker and JoJo Rabbit in addition to Parasite once they are streamed hopefully for free.
In the meantime I was able to unearth a free streaming of Rocketman (2019)...
Never was the biggest fan of Elton John's music (feel the same way about Billy Joel and his piano rock), but I have to admit the soundtrack was very well done. And while I never specifically sought out Elton's music I did still know all the songs.
I think Rocketman is reminiscent of the Velvet Goldmine and Behind the Candelabra - at times it's very glitzy and flamboyant. But there were some parts (especially at the end) that were rather somber and heartfelt, so it wasn't all just a glittery, superficial joyride. So for this reason I ended up liking it. (Don't think Elton deserved the Oscar for best song this year though, his hit songs start to sound very similar if you listen to them all in one sitting. and "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" is no exception.)
Completely from the left field - why was Eminem performing "Lose Yourself" at the Oscars last night? I like the song (and even his movie 8 Mile), but there was just no reason for him to be there. It was so bizarre.
That's odd. Usually the only songs they have live are the nominated songs and of course the opening to the awards which is often musical.I'd love to see the original Wallander again, but here in the States it might be hard to find.
More about the Oscars...
I was working on a jigsaw puzzle while I had the Oscars on, so didn't get too bored with the whole thing. Think I might want to catch Joker and JoJo Rabbit in addition to Parasite once they are streamed hopefully for free.
In the meantime I was able to unearth a free streaming of Rocketman (2019)...
Never was the biggest fan of Elton John's music (feel the same way about Billy Joel and his piano rock), but I have to admit the soundtrack was very well done. And while I never specifically sought out Elton's music I did still know all the songs.
I think Rocketman is reminiscent of the Velvet Goldmine and Behind the Candelabra - at times it's very glitzy and flamboyant. But there were some parts (especially at the end) that were rather somber and heartfelt, so it wasn't all just a glittery, superficial joyride. So for this reason I ended up liking it. (Don't think Elton deserved the Oscar for best song this year though, his hit songs start to sound very similar if you listen to them all in one sitting. and "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" is no exception.)
Completely from the left field - why was Eminem performing "Lose Yourself" at the Oscars last night? I like the song (and even his movie 8 Mile), but there was just no reason for him to be there. It was so bizarre.
I liked Elton John in the 70s same with Billy Joel, both had some good albums but to my ears it got blander as they went into the 80s and beyond. I saw Billy Joel live once in the 80s and it was a very good show, better than i expected.
Jo Jo Rabbit seems to be loved or hated. I wonder what the German reaction has been like ? Seen a lot of two star reviews and quite a few 4 star reviews. I guess we will see an American version of Parasite now !
I'm sure there probably will be an American re-do of Parasite at some point - many American viewers are not fond of reading subtitles, and Hollywood has completely run out of ideas.
I have to roll my eyes each time there is a remake of a good foreign film, the Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes to mind. The original trilogy was so good I didn't even bother with watching the remake.
And Hollywood even remakes its own movies from the not so distant past - why was there a remake of The Lion King recently? Wasn't there a very popular version that had come out only 25 years ago?
Magnificence, Koronin! We Are Marshall(2006) is now streaming on Roku for free, so naturally I had to watch it.
I think it's okay as a sports movie, but being sports movies are usually supposed to be inspirational they can get a bit cheesy and overly sentimental. We Are Marshall suffered from this a bit, given the nature of the true tragedy that had occurred at Marshall I thought the movie could have been a lot darker and grittier. Alas...
At least it was informative, I had never heard of the plane crash. And apparently there had been another plane crash at Wichita State University just weeks prior that had killed a good number of their football team, so, you learn something new every day.
I was surprised the budget was $65 million (and the movie lost $20 million at the box office), what did they spend it on? Oh, maybe half of it went toward McConaughey's salary. Ha!
One a sidenote - the only truly gritty sports movies I can think of are Raging Bull and the very first Rocky, I haven't even been able to re-watch Raging Bull because it's just so dark. Maybe one of these days when I'm working on a jigsaw puzzle I'll tackle it again, in the meantime I want to see Eddie the Eagle. I know it'll be as cheesy as hell, but I remember seeing Eddie jumping at the Winter Olympics all those years ago, so I would like to take a stroll down that memory lane.
I think it's okay as a sports movie, but being sports movies are usually supposed to be inspirational they can get a bit cheesy and overly sentimental. We Are Marshall suffered from this a bit, given the nature of the true tragedy that had occurred at Marshall I thought the movie could have been a lot darker and grittier. Alas...
At least it was informative, I had never heard of the plane crash. And apparently there had been another plane crash at Wichita State University just weeks prior that had killed a good number of their football team, so, you learn something new every day.
I was surprised the budget was $65 million (and the movie lost $20 million at the box office), what did they spend it on? Oh, maybe half of it went toward McConaughey's salary. Ha!
One a sidenote - the only truly gritty sports movies I can think of are Raging Bull and the very first Rocky, I haven't even been able to re-watch Raging Bull because it's just so dark. Maybe one of these days when I'm working on a jigsaw puzzle I'll tackle it again, in the meantime I want to see Eddie the Eagle. I know it'll be as cheesy as hell, but I remember seeing Eddie jumping at the Winter Olympics all those years ago, so I would like to take a stroll down that memory lane.
Raging Bull was very good but not in my top 3 Scorsese films. They would probably be Taxi Driver, Mean Streets and The Last Waltz. I met Jake La Motta on a speaking tour many years after he retired from boxing. The mind was still sharp and the handshake was a crusher ! From what I have read about him the character in the movie was pretty close to the real one.
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I just watched a De Niro double-feature, I re-watched both Raging Bull (1980) and Taxi Driver (1976).
My biggest issue with Raging Bull is not so much all the violence in the ring (with boxing that's expected), but all the violence and infidelity toward the women. How that kind of repulsive behavior was ever acceptable is beyond me. Otherwise it's a very intense and good movie, evidently De Niro did actually do some training with LaMotta, and LaMotta thought De Niro did have some talent as a boxer. Also, in order to keep things authentic De Niro did actually want to gain 60 pounds in order to depict the older LaMotta instead of just using padding and makeup, for several months he ate everything in sight. Talk about method acting...
I read up a bit about LaMotta, for somebody who took so many blows to the head he had lived to the ripe old age of 95. And how he went from champion boxer to stand-up comedian is a mystery, aside from being a violent, sexist *** LaMotta must have been quite the character.
Evidently there's a prequel/sequel called LaMotta: The Bronx Bull, but I don't know anything about it or where you could even watch it. Are you familiar with it?
I'll have to put 1917 on my viewing list, Sir Fly had also mentioned a war movie upthread that I'll have to give a looky at some point. Just have to get into the mood for war movies.
Glad you enjoyed it well enough. A former boss of my husband (while he was in the Air Force and whom he keeps in contact with) and his wife are from Huntington, W VA and were there when the plane crash happened. They were happy with the movie and said it's as close to fully factual as you're going to get for a Hollywood movie. They thought it did a good job telling the story. They also told us that Marshall U had to sign off on the script before it was green lighted. The University wanted it to be as factual as possible.
It's one of the sports movies near the top of my list of sports movies. Major League and Miracle are my top two and then after that it gets more muddled with We Are Marshall, Hoosiers, League of their Own, and several others.
I enjoyed his talk and he was very patient with the fans afterwards signing autographs and whatever. He had his new wife with him at the talk, maybe his wife bashing days were over by then ! Not familiar with the Bronx Bull movie. De Niro was a crazy method actor as far as preparation for movies went. Hoffman was supposed to be the same without the huge swings in weight but Christian Bale was probably even worse. He was basically anorexic for the movie The Machinist and has done similar things for other movies. The Machinist was a real cult movie. Might have to revisit that one as I never seemed to like it as much as most other people.
Magnificent news!
The Machinist is now streaming for free on Crackle, so naturally I'll have to watch it. I haven't seen it yet, but have vague recollections of people liking it. That, of course, doesn't mean anything, sometimes I don't like movies that everyone else likes, and vice versa.
Dustin Hoffman has made some good ones - Marathon Man, All the President's Men, and Tootsie come to mind. I have seen The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy, but it was so long ago I can't remember a thing. Might need to revisit them some day.
I still need to see Kramer vs. Kramer and Straw Dogs, not sure Hoffman's filmography was very strong after Ishtar. (Which I unfortunately did see.)
Ishtar was a such a flop it almost bankrupted a studio. Vanity project for Warren Beatty and Hoffman which no one seemed to like, I never saw it or maybe a few minutes switching channels. Midnight Cowboy was a classic and All The President's Men and The Marathon Man were very good. The dental scene in the latter was excruciating. I never saw all of Tootsie or Rainman, have to see those. Papillon was very good as was The Graduate which was Hoffman's first film. Kramer vs Kramer was very well acted by all involved and deserved it's awards. Straw Dogs put some people off with it's violence but it's worth seeing. In the 70's it was a cult classic. I still think that Peckinpah's best movie was probably The Wild Bunch although I haven't seen all of his films. He also made a good war movie called Cross of Iron about Germans fighting a losing battle on the Eastern Front in WWII. Some critics thought that Peckinpah glorified violence but Cross of Iron was an anti war movie and I think it was one of his last movies. He was an alcoholic and his career was derailed somewhat by his behaviour in Hollywood. Pretty sure that Cross of Iron was a European production.
Is it safe? Is it safe?
That tooth drilling scene is definitely memorable in all the unpleasant ways. But aside from that it's a very good movie.
I finished watching The Machinst (2004) a bit ago - meh, it was okay I suppose. I was underwhelmed by the ending and the whole thing seemed a tad pretentious, a man is haunted by his guilt - okey dokey.
Christian Bale really didn't need to lose all that weight to be convincing, evidently he wanted to lose an additional 20 pounds (where??), but the filmmakers convinced him not to because they were fearing for his health. At the weight he was already he had little energy for some of the more active scenes, that's method acting taken to an asinine level.
I did find the scenery interesting, I had to look up those three smoke stacks that had been shown in a few scenes. Evidently this had been a thermal power plant in Spain at one point, it is not clear to me whether the stacks are still there. Hm, at least I Iearned something, the movie itself I don't need to see again.
I'd say almost all his movies are pretty good. If I needed to pick out one, it would probably be The Ballad of Cable Hogue
That is one of the ones I haven't seen along with Major Dundee which I saw a little of and Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia which is a great title and supposed to be a good movie as well. The Arthur Penn movie Bonnie and Clyde made in 67 and The Wild Bunch were definitely stylizing violence with the slow motion scenes of people being shot and they were influential movies. Bonnie and Clyde was controversial for other reasons as well. Arthur Penn made some very good movies and Bonnie and Clyde was really well done. The final scene was a stunner. Also one of Warren Beatty's and Faye Dunaway's best. Gene Hackman was also good as he usually is.
I actually thought the look of The Machinist was probably the best thing about it. Some nice visuals. Some people raved about it but that wasn't my experience.
Evidently no American studio was willing to finance the movie, so it became a multi-national effort and they ended up filming in Spain. I thought the sewer scene was interesting and spooky, but wouldn't know how to go about finding out where exactly in Spain this sewer is located so I could read up more. It doesn't take much to catch my eye...
Anyhoo, after The Machinist I wanted to close out my night with some dumb fun, and boy did I ever find it by watching D-Railed (2018).
It started out well enough - it was Halloween, people were wearing costumes, and they were going on a murder mystery train ride. So far so good, but then the plot quickly turned into a mish-mash of a mess, the movie didn't seem to know where it was going.
The acting and special effects were woeful, the costume of the lake monster (it was definitely a shout-out to horror movies from long ago)... the movie had potential, and I don't think it was even an issue of budget. It was just very messy story-telling. But at least I had found what I was looking for in that it was just some very dumb and forgettable fun, so, yeah.
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