The highlight of the film being Kerr in a transparent gown, tied at the stake, with her life-long seven-foot bodyguard Ursus protecting her against a wild bull bent on goring her to death.
I was beginning to think this film was a bit highbrow for you Alex... No doubt an extra scene with Bibi, a broken mirror and a murderous priest would put FYEO even higher up your favourites list! )
The highlight of the film being Kerr in a transparent gown, tied at the stake, with her life-long seven-foot bodyguard Ursus protecting her against a wild bull bent on goring her to death.
I was beginning to think this film was a bit highbrow for you Alex... No doubt an extra scene with Bibi, a broken mirror and a murderous priest would put FYEO even higher up your favourites list! )
I don't expect you to understand, you're English, but I'm half Greek....
With Mrs. Barry Nelson and the youngest son under the weather, New Year's eve was spent watching two Disney Pixar movies on DVD. Yes, I am a wild and crazy guy. We watched The Incredibles and Monster's Inc. I enjoyed The Incredibles more, it was very funny with a compelling plot. It did a good job of finding humor in the whole super hero genre. Monsters Inc. was cute, with some humor. I enjoyed it, just not as much as The Incredibles.
now a great film for kid star wars fans . but a bit childish for me ,i have being collecting star wars and a fan,but this one ,not as great as the first 6
i wish they kept the humor like the others and didnt make it to kidie
but it was cool(i am a ST fan). and fans would like it.-AWTD
Valkyrie. A good movie, but far from a great one. There's a strange lack of suspense here, perhaps because if you know any history at all you know the plot to kill Hitler didn't succeed--or perhaps because the actual plot was so simple that it didn't lend itself well to cinematic dramatisation. That said, it's well-made and especially well-acted by a strong international cast. . .but strange that almost all the major players from Black Book have parts here! It's almost like Brian Singer said, "Which was the last movie with Nazis in it? Get me that cast!"
Okay....not sure if I should admit this or not - but we had some friends over...and trying to pick a movie that none of us had seen is virtually impossible.. so we went with this one. (As the trailers were so CRINGEWORTHY and we felt like a laugh.)
TEETH.
Now this is a family site...so I'm not really going to go into any great detail ) But lets just say, this is about a girl who, unsure of her commitment to celibacy, soon realises at a rather nasty encounter with her so called 'boyfriend' that she has an unusual defence mechanism....where there shouldn't be )
However, it seemed she could turn this power on and off...depending on the situation, and her nasty, psychotic, half brother gets his comeuppance once and for all....(even I was crossing my legs at the end of this movie ) )
We all thought it was going to be a lot worse than it was...but it was actually (can't believe I'm admitting this) quite good. However...not for mainstream viewing
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,419Chief of Staff
Really ! What some people watch !
I watched Wall:E yesterday...it looked fantastic in blu-ray...and I really enjoyed it ;%
I watched Wall:E yesterday...it looked fantastic in blu-ray...and I really enjoyed it ;%
Don't blush! I love that film too, and watched it last night on DVD. I think it still stands up incredibly well - the way in which the filmmakers managed to evoke such depth of character with a couple of robots was fantastic.
I also watched Threads, a 1980s BBC dramatisation of a Soviet nuclear attack on the UK and its aftermath. It is all a bit dated nowadays of course, although Britain's lack of preparedness in the film was no doubt worryingly similar to the reality!
I also watched Threads, a 1980s BBC dramatisation of a Soviet nuclear attack on the UK and its aftermath. It is all a bit dated nowadays of course, although Britain's lack of preparedness in the film was no doubt worryingly similar to the reality!
Crickey, I remember watching this when I was at school...it scared the s*** out of me....a really haunting piece of TV...(well it certainly was when I was 14 or so ) But at the time...that really was the threat, and it seemed so probable....thank goodness it never happened here.
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
With my family. Missed the pts and song, and my sister found it a bit flat. Commented on Bond's caddish behaviour in swinging the girl around to take the bullet. No way could Moore's Bond get in a fight with fat bald bloke atop a roof. etc. And very irritated at insipid voice tone of Barbara Bach - 'nothing feisty about her...'
Ghost Town. This one sort of flew under the radar when it came out, but it's a charmer. Ricky Gervais is at his snarky, misanthropic best as a unlikable dentist who suddenly starts seeing dead people. For once the comedy comes from what's said and not from gross-out gags or fart jokes. Recommended.
What's it all about Orphee/Is it just for the moment we live?
Jean Cocteau's sublime version of the Orpheus myth, restored by the BFI and showing occasionally on the Sky Arts channel. A poet has a close encounter with Death incarnate (a haughty pale French woman), and learns how to travel to the Underworld. Handy knowledge to have if your wife dies, but it seems Orpheus is half in love with Death and she with him. Cocteau creates an eerie Underworld made up of empty rooms and broken buildings. The entrance can be found through every full-length mirror, though it doesn't work in real life, because I tried and just bounced off the glass.
Jean Cocteau's sublime version of the Orpheus myth
Wearily adds another to lovefilm list...
I dunno, renting DVDs is taking its toll a bit. It's rather like if couples had to sign up to loveshag.com, a tax iniative by Gordon Brown in which couples get to sign up for a list of their shags for 2009, say 200 (oh alright, you pick a number) y'know, 10 in the kitchen, 130 in the bedroom, five in a car. After a while, the list stretching ahead, you might both think, sod it, let's just cancel our subscription.
I suppose what I am trying to say is that it takes away some of the spontaneity... ;%
Les Diaboliques
Lesley Diaboligues is a zany 1950s French cartoon character with an alter ego. and plays truant from school and plots to kill the headmaster with an explosive blackboard duster...
Oh alright, Hitchcockesque but also Kubrickesque 1950s film about a wife planning on bumping off her husband with the help of his mistress... if you can get over that French bit of amorality. The key moment I'd seen on one of those Top 100 Scariest Moments programmes :v so it kind of ruined the film for me, plus there's another key moment which kind of redeems that and makes sense of the plot. Trying to avoid spoilers. The school setting (the hubby is a schoolmaster) is unusual. A bit like Rope.
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
edited January 2009
"Shine A Light"
It's been a while since Martin Scorsese shot a rock 'n roll documentary/concert performance---his The Last Waltz, starring The Band, is one of the best ever B-) ---so I was thrilled to get this DVD for Christmas.
I've been a Rolling Stones fan since I was a kid (saw them for the first time in a football stadium in Madrid, Spain, in 1981---I thought they were old then! ) ) ) ), and it's a given that, since they tour quite frequently and never fail to put out a concert DVD, they've already been fairly extensively documented---from Altamont to the Rock and Roll Circus, and their much-more-recent Four Flicks---but so what??
An interesting point of contrast between Shine A Light and The Last Waltz is that, with TLW, Scorcese clearly intended to document a singular historic moment, the grand finale of The Band, with a star-studded supporting cast: capturing these guys as they basically bail out relatively early, still as young men. Scorsese also peppered that film with contemporary interviews with the members of The Band.
With SAL, Scorsese focuses on a specific performance, but with the Stones it's really just the latest of ten million performances, with a short but eclectic and interesting guest list (Jack 'AWTD' White, Christina Aguilara and the legendary Buddy Guy) and an equally interesting set list. Here Scorsese inserts archival interviews of the band members, and the theme is constant: Longevity.
Of course, the elephant in the room is the age of these guys, who still stalk the stage, rail-thin with their wrinkled, reptilian, hand-tooled leather-like skin, gaunt faces, Stones hair and patented bad-boy attitude. In one of the old interviews, Jagger is asked, two years into the band's career, how much longer he expects them to last. Jagger says that they ought to be good for "another year." In another, Dick Cavett asks Jagger if he can envision himself still performing at age sixty. "Oh, yeah," Jagger says. "Very easily."
What's most fun is the fact that the elephant in the room gets smaller as the show goes on, as the band's obvious joy of performance shines through. Sure, Jagger can't hit the same notes he could forty years ago---and Keith Richards muffs the opening riff of Satisfaction---but it's still a grand time.
Some day, one of these boys is going to croak it...or Charlie's going to get fed up with touring...and it's good that we'll always be able to see them jam---whether as brash young men...or brash old men.
Highly recommended for anyone who appreciates rock and roll musical history.
Special thanks to Another Loeff for the Christmas gift! {[]
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
David Mamet gets all Way of the Dragon on us, with a slightly daft, but enjoyable film about a Ju-Jitsu instructor and his struggle to maintain his honour in a corrupt world.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is magnificent in the lead role. But it is the out-of-the-box casting of Tim Allen as an ageing action star, I repeat, as an action star! that makes this a must-see. Now all I want is for Mamet to remake American Ninja.
Allow me to bring another French film to the table. :v Although, in my case, it's no classic.
Chouchou
An adequate French comedy about a gay cross-dressing North African immigrant who poses as a Chilean refugee and, among other things, finds love. I know, what a shock. The performances are fine; the humour is mostly based on the naive innocence of the main character (in one scene, a priest asks him to meet him after the service on Sunday only to be asked what was being serviced) and is sometimes quite funny, and the film features a wonderful acceptance of all of the characters. But it's predictable, the film rambles on towards the middle, is sometimes dull and it comes across as an entertaining but hardly ground-breaking work. See it if it's on TV; otherwise don't bother.
"He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
Sophie Marceau in more than a pouty French actress with nice breasts shocker! Marceau directs her first film, a psychological thriller with a burnt-out cop (Christopher Lambert) investigating the mysterious death of a movie star (Marceau) thirty odd years ago. But Lambert is having visions of the dead woman and struggling with his own grief over the death of his wife. It isn't perfect, but it's a better directorial debut than Ben Affleck's widely over-praised Gone Baby Gone. Christopher Lambert, ridiculed for his straight-to-DVD action films, is a far better actor in his native French and he's brilliant here as a kind of frazzled Gallic Columbo winding up suspects and his superiors. Marceau isn't the only Bond connection. CR's Simon Abkarian also appears as Lambert's boss.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
edited January 2009
"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"
One of those forgotten surprises that just turned up at the top of my Netflix queue---an earnest and fluffy bit of nonsense featuring my not-at-all favourite actor, Jude Law, plus a very spunky and period-charming Gwyneth Paltrow and an eyepatched Angelina Jolie as a badass chick named Frankie ) One pleasant surprise, for me, was Giovanni Ribisi as Sky Captain's puppy dog-like, techno-wiz sidekick (everybody should have one!), Dex.
Loeff Jr and Loeff III really got a kick out of this one, and I enjoyed it a bit more than I expected---I loved the highly stylized, nearly cartoon-noirish look of the piece, and the retro futurism; in places it very much resembled Fleischer's classic Superman cartoons. My boys are recently-indoctrinated Flash Gordon fans---of both the 1980 film and the classic Buster Crabbe serials---so this, being very much in that vein, was perfectly in tune for them, and it's thankfully very obvious, early on, that one oughtn't take it too seriously.
As thoroughbred green-screen pictures go, I give it a marginal recommendation...provided you take your brain out and sit it on a shelf, to relax, prior to viewing B-)
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
The Gestapo set up a high-class (pornochic to you and me - oh, alright, just me then) brothel in Berlin to bug German officers who may be disloyal to the fatherland.
Sort of The Sex Lives of Others
This is a Tinto Brass film so you get wobbling t+a, stockings and suspenders and Nazi insignia. Erotica of a bygone era. It's a Nazi exploitation film of a kind (no zombie Nazis though) but I couldn't quite dismiss it.
After all, the first 20 minutes do much to explain how the Nazis took over. After worthy films like Downfall, the titillating approach is just as valid, as one is primed for the gratuitous cruelty the Nazis revelled in. With a shock, you kind of realise you're on the Nazi's wavelength in an exploitation film. When an apparently live wiggling pig is gutted for the film, one is revolted, only to think, well, I'm not a vegetarian so why should this disgust me? All it suggests is a preference for looking the other way - just as others looked away during World War II. Likewise, when the trained hookers are made to seduce cripples or dwarfs in cells along a corridor, it looks horrible - but I realised with a start that I was sharing the very same sentiments the Nazis would have towards the infirm.
The recruitment of the hookers, all to show faith to the Fatherland as the main criteria, works well. But the most memorable part of the film is also its downfall, as the new recruits are ordered to strip in a large airy gym and made to shag stripped German soldiers, in a makeshift ad hoc orgy. Not really likely for 1939 or even today when the new recruits would most likely be virgins. 8-)
Because of that, Salon Kitty fails to convince despite having more credible intentions than other films. I didn't find the two leads - the brothel madam Kitty, who just wants to have a good time and forgo politics - or the young idealistic hooker that alluring either.
Still, Ken Adam did the sets and lends a classy look. Tinto said that he'd know about the look, having grown up in East Berlin. The film has a certain excess that works in its favour, even if the pacing seems a bit flat at times.
Put this down as the best movie I saw this year (released 2008). An acting showcase, with Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams giving amazing performances Come Oscar times, I am sure nominations are on the way.
The movie takes place in 1963, with Meryl Streep as a Catholic school principle, Hoffman as the parish priest and Adams as a young nun teaching 8th grade. Streep suspects Hoffman of having improper contact with a young black student from Adam's class. As you watch the movie it is not clear if anything happened and the two nuns have only some very slim circumstantial evidence. Streep is convinced something happened, while Adams chooses to believe nothing happened. The movie becomes a battle of wills between Hoffman and Streep with Adams caught in the middle between the two strong willed characters. The movie draws you in because you don't know if anything happened and you watch to see which character will prevail.
I rented this to redeem myself for Salon Kitty the other night. It's a French drama set during the Paris wartime occupation.
However, as I settled down on Friday night to watch it, tucking into my Lindt Milk Chocolate Santa (half price now from Whistlestops in London train stations!) I found instead I'd rented Les Enfants Du Paradis, a creaky faded black and white film. I couldn't face it, so sent it back.
Just ordered the complete set of Matt Helm films from eBay, and this was the first I watched. I saw it waaay back in about 1970 at the cinema, and haven't seen it since. Back then, I thought it a fair rip-off of the real thing. Watching it now, the most interesting aspects are the contributions of Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee as well as the sad loss of Sharon Tate.
Next, The Silencers, then the other two...
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
I always enjoy seeing these...Sharon Tate was beautiful...although lamentably distant from their superb source material, seeing Dino swing his way through the Sixties is a hoot B-)
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I always enjoy seeing these...Sharon Tate was beautiful...although lamentably distant from their superb source material, seeing Dino swing his way through the Sixties is a hoot B-)
The Silencers is my favorite of the four. Stella Stevens is gorgeous. She and Dino have great chemistry during their spats.
Based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this long movie (166 minutes) tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man born physically old, who grows physically younger as he ages. Similar to Forrest Gump, his life story is full of colorful characters who he interacts with throughout his life. Cate Blanchett plays the love interest, Benjamin and Blanchett are life long friends, she is young when he is old and she is old when he is young. They have a deep love for each other and during that brief period where their lives intersect at a similar age they live together and produce a young baby girl.
I was never bored, the performances are all good and the story is compelling. Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button really underplays the character, which I think was the correct approach because he knows he is different and he observes life different than everyone else, so I think he would be a quiet thoughtful person. The story is a little depressing in some ways, showing how short life realy is and how people we love come and go. Having seen Doubt the night before, I would say Doubt is the better picture, but Benjamin Button is worth seeing also.
Based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this long movie (166 minutes) tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man born physically old, who grows physically younger as he ages. Similar to Forrest Gump, his life story is full of colorful characters who he interacts with throughout his life. Cate Blanchett plays the love interest, Benjamin and Blanchett are life long friends, she is young when he is old and she is old when he is young. They have a deep love for each other and during that brief period where their lives intersect at a similar age they live together and produce a young baby girl.
I was never bored, the performances are all good and the story is compelling. Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button really underplays the character, which I think was the correct approach because he knows he is different and he observes life different than everyone else, so I think he would be a quiet thoughtful person. The story is a little depressing in some ways, showing how short life realy is and how people we love come and go. Having seen Doubt the night before, I would say Doubt is the better picture, but Benjamin Button is worth seeing also.
Barry, I'm glad you enjoyed it, although I was personally very bored. I found it to be the most disappointing film I've seen within the past year, due to my high expectations (it has long been one of the big films for me too see) but also because I found it to be very emotionally distant, Benjamin to be too passive and Blanchett (whom I usualy adore) to be extremely annoying. I will be seeing Doubt very soon, however, which I very much am looking forward to.
I should also mention that I hate Forrest Gump, yet I love David Fincher. If this was a case of Fincher meets Forrest, sadly Forrest won.
"He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
Barry, I'm glad you enjoyed it, although I was personally very bored. I found it to be the most disappointing film I've seen within the past year, due to my high expectations (it has long been one of the big films for me too see) but also because I found it to be very emotionally distant, Benjamin to be too passive and Blanchett (whom I usualy adore) to be extremely annoying. I will be seeing Doubt very soon, however, which I very much am looking forward to.
That must mean I'll love it then Dan.
'The Day the Earth Stood Still'
Keanu Reeves was there/The day the earth stood still/Claude Raines was the Invisible Man
Doesn't sound right, does it? Jon Hamm from Mad Men is in this. That's a great show. Watch it instead. This is big, it's boring and a load of special effects.
Comments
I was beginning to think this film was a bit highbrow for you Alex...
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Love a drive in the country. Don't you...?
Wow....one of the greatest films I've EVER seen
Suspenceful and disturbing.....this was pretty out there in '74 being banned in France , U.K & Norway among other places.
Black x-mas 4.5/6
Carpenter pretty much borrowed this formula didn't he
A spooky film supposedly inspired by Montreal murders during x-mas.
Friday 13th 4.5/6
Better than I thought....this prolly wouldn't be around if not for Halloween
now a great film for kid star wars fans . but a bit childish for me ,i have being collecting star wars and a fan,but this one ,not as great as the first 6
i wish they kept the humor like the others and didnt make it to kidie
but it was cool(i am a ST fan). and fans would like it.-AWTD
may the force be with you
TEETH.
Now this is a family site...so I'm not really going to go into any great detail
However, it seemed she could turn this power on and off...depending on the situation, and her nasty, psychotic, half brother gets his comeuppance once and for all....(even I was crossing my legs at the end of this movie
We all thought it was going to be a lot worse than it was...but it was actually (can't believe I'm admitting this) quite good. However...not for mainstream viewing
I watched Wall:E yesterday...it looked fantastic in blu-ray...and I really enjoyed it ;%
I also watched Threads, a 1980s BBC dramatisation of a Soviet nuclear attack on the UK and its aftermath. It is all a bit dated nowadays of course, although Britain's lack of preparedness in the film was no doubt worryingly similar to the reality!
Crickey, I remember watching this when I was at school...it scared the s*** out of me....a really haunting piece of TV...(well it certainly was when I was 14 or so ) But at the time...that really was the threat, and it seemed so probable....thank goodness it never happened here.
With my family. Missed the pts and song, and my sister found it a bit flat. Commented on Bond's caddish behaviour in swinging the girl around to take the bullet. No way could Moore's Bond get in a fight with fat bald bloke atop a roof. etc. And very irritated at insipid voice tone of Barbara Bach - 'nothing feisty about her...'
Roger Moore 1927-2017
What's it all about Orphee/Is it just for the moment we live?
Jean Cocteau's sublime version of the Orpheus myth, restored by the BFI and showing occasionally on the Sky Arts channel. A poet has a close encounter with Death incarnate (a haughty pale French woman), and learns how to travel to the Underworld. Handy knowledge to have if your wife dies, but it seems Orpheus is half in love with Death and she with him. Cocteau creates an eerie Underworld made up of empty rooms and broken buildings. The entrance can be found through every full-length mirror, though it doesn't work in real life, because I tried and just bounced off the glass.
Wearily adds another to lovefilm list...
I dunno, renting DVDs is taking its toll a bit. It's rather like if couples had to sign up to loveshag.com, a tax iniative by Gordon Brown in which couples get to sign up for a list of their shags for 2009, say 200 (oh alright, you pick a number) y'know, 10 in the kitchen, 130 in the bedroom, five in a car. After a while, the list stretching ahead, you might both think, sod it, let's just cancel our subscription.
I suppose what I am trying to say is that it takes away some of the spontaneity... ;%
Les Diaboliques
Lesley Diaboligues is a zany 1950s French cartoon character with an alter ego. and plays truant from school and plots to kill the headmaster with an explosive blackboard duster...
Oh alright, Hitchcockesque but also Kubrickesque 1950s film about a wife planning on bumping off her husband with the help of his mistress... if you can get over that French bit of amorality. The key moment I'd seen on one of those Top 100 Scariest Moments programmes :v so it kind of ruined the film for me, plus there's another key moment which kind of redeems that and makes sense of the plot. Trying to avoid spoilers. The school setting (the hubby is a schoolmaster) is unusual. A bit like Rope.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
It's been a while since Martin Scorsese shot a rock 'n roll documentary/concert performance---his The Last Waltz, starring The Band, is one of the best ever B-) ---so I was thrilled to get this DVD for Christmas.
I've been a Rolling Stones fan since I was a kid (saw them for the first time in a football stadium in Madrid, Spain, in 1981---I thought they were old then!
An interesting point of contrast between Shine A Light and The Last Waltz is that, with TLW, Scorcese clearly intended to document a singular historic moment, the grand finale of The Band, with a star-studded supporting cast: capturing these guys as they basically bail out relatively early, still as young men. Scorsese also peppered that film with contemporary interviews with the members of The Band.
With SAL, Scorsese focuses on a specific performance, but with the Stones it's really just the latest of ten million performances, with a short but eclectic and interesting guest list (Jack 'AWTD' White, Christina Aguilara and the legendary Buddy Guy) and an equally interesting set list. Here Scorsese inserts archival interviews of the band members, and the theme is constant: Longevity.
Of course, the elephant in the room is the age of these guys, who still stalk the stage, rail-thin with their wrinkled, reptilian, hand-tooled leather-like skin, gaunt faces, Stones hair and patented bad-boy attitude. In one of the old interviews, Jagger is asked, two years into the band's career, how much longer he expects them to last. Jagger says that they ought to be good for "another year."
What's most fun is the fact that the elephant in the room gets smaller as the show goes on, as the band's obvious joy of performance shines through. Sure, Jagger can't hit the same notes he could forty years ago---and Keith Richards muffs the opening riff of Satisfaction---but it's still a grand time.
Some day, one of these boys is going to croak it...or Charlie's going to get fed up with touring...and it's good that we'll always be able to see them jam---whether as brash young men...or brash old men.
Highly recommended for anyone who appreciates rock and roll musical history.
Special thanks to Another Loeff for the Christmas gift! {[]
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
David Mamet gets all Way of the Dragon on us, with a slightly daft, but enjoyable film about a Ju-Jitsu instructor and his struggle to maintain his honour in a corrupt world.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is magnificent in the lead role. But it is the out-of-the-box casting of Tim Allen as an ageing action star, I repeat, as an action star! that makes this a must-see. Now all I want is for Mamet to remake American Ninja.
Chouchou
An adequate French comedy about a gay cross-dressing North African immigrant who poses as a Chilean refugee and, among other things, finds love. I know, what a shock.
La Disparue De Deauville
Sophie Marceau in more than a pouty French actress with nice breasts shocker! Marceau directs her first film, a psychological thriller with a burnt-out cop (Christopher Lambert) investigating the mysterious death of a movie star (Marceau) thirty odd years ago. But Lambert is having visions of the dead woman and struggling with his own grief over the death of his wife. It isn't perfect, but it's a better directorial debut than Ben Affleck's widely over-praised Gone Baby Gone. Christopher Lambert, ridiculed for his straight-to-DVD action films, is a far better actor in his native French and he's brilliant here as a kind of frazzled Gallic Columbo winding up suspects and his superiors. Marceau isn't the only Bond connection. CR's Simon Abkarian also appears as Lambert's boss.
Life is too short. Far too short.
One of those forgotten surprises that just turned up at the top of my Netflix queue---an earnest and fluffy bit of nonsense featuring my not-at-all favourite actor, Jude Law, plus a very spunky and period-charming Gwyneth Paltrow and an eyepatched Angelina Jolie as a badass chick named Frankie
Loeff Jr and Loeff III really got a kick out of this one, and I enjoyed it a bit more than I expected---I loved the highly stylized, nearly cartoon-noirish look of the piece, and the retro futurism; in places it very much resembled Fleischer's classic Superman cartoons. My boys are recently-indoctrinated Flash Gordon fans---of both the 1980 film and the classic Buster Crabbe serials---so this, being very much in that vein, was perfectly in tune for them, and it's thankfully very obvious, early on, that one oughtn't take it too seriously.
As thoroughbred green-screen pictures go, I give it a marginal recommendation...provided you take your brain out and sit it on a shelf, to relax, prior to viewing B-)
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Charming tale about the teen detective. Emma Roberts looks like she's going to be as successful as her aunt Julia.
The Gestapo set up a high-class (pornochic to you and me - oh, alright, just me then) brothel in Berlin to bug German officers who may be disloyal to the fatherland.
Sort of The Sex Lives of Others
This is a Tinto Brass film so you get wobbling t+a, stockings and suspenders and Nazi insignia. Erotica of a bygone era. It's a Nazi exploitation film of a kind (no zombie Nazis though) but I couldn't quite dismiss it.
After all, the first 20 minutes do much to explain how the Nazis took over. After worthy films like Downfall, the titillating approach is just as valid, as one is primed for the gratuitous cruelty the Nazis revelled in. With a shock, you kind of realise you're on the Nazi's wavelength in an exploitation film. When an apparently live wiggling pig is gutted for the film, one is revolted, only to think, well, I'm not a vegetarian so why should this disgust me? All it suggests is a preference for looking the other way - just as others looked away during World War II. Likewise, when the trained hookers are made to seduce cripples or dwarfs in cells along a corridor, it looks horrible - but I realised with a start that I was sharing the very same sentiments the Nazis would have towards the infirm.
The recruitment of the hookers, all to show faith to the Fatherland as the main criteria, works well. But the most memorable part of the film is also its downfall, as the new recruits are ordered to strip in a large airy gym and made to shag stripped German soldiers, in a makeshift ad hoc orgy. Not really likely for 1939 or even today when the new recruits would most likely be virgins. 8-)
Because of that, Salon Kitty fails to convince despite having more credible intentions than other films. I didn't find the two leads - the brothel madam Kitty, who just wants to have a good time and forgo politics - or the young idealistic hooker that alluring either.
Still, Ken Adam did the sets and lends a classy look. Tinto said that he'd know about the look, having grown up in East Berlin. The film has a certain excess that works in its favour, even if the pacing seems a bit flat at times.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Put this down as the best movie I saw this year (released 2008). An acting showcase, with Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams giving amazing performances Come Oscar times, I am sure nominations are on the way.
The movie takes place in 1963, with Meryl Streep as a Catholic school principle, Hoffman as the parish priest and Adams as a young nun teaching 8th grade. Streep suspects Hoffman of having improper contact with a young black student from Adam's class. As you watch the movie it is not clear if anything happened and the two nuns have only some very slim circumstantial evidence. Streep is convinced something happened, while Adams chooses to believe nothing happened. The movie becomes a battle of wills between Hoffman and Streep with Adams caught in the middle between the two strong willed characters. The movie draws you in because you don't know if anything happened and you watch to see which character will prevail.
A tremendous movie, highly recommended!
I rented this to redeem myself for Salon Kitty the other night. It's a French drama set during the Paris wartime occupation.
However, as I settled down on Friday night to watch it, tucking into my Lindt Milk Chocolate Santa (half price now from Whistlestops in London train stations!) I found instead I'd rented Les Enfants Du Paradis, a creaky faded black and white film. I couldn't face it, so sent it back.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Just ordered the complete set of Matt Helm films from eBay, and this was the first I watched. I saw it waaay back in about 1970 at the cinema, and haven't seen it since. Back then, I thought it a fair rip-off of the real thing. Watching it now, the most interesting aspects are the contributions of Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee as well as the sad loss of Sharon Tate.
Next, The Silencers, then the other two...
I always enjoy seeing these...Sharon Tate was beautiful...although lamentably distant from their superb source material, seeing Dino swing his way through the Sixties is a hoot B-)
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this long movie (166 minutes) tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man born physically old, who grows physically younger as he ages. Similar to Forrest Gump, his life story is full of colorful characters who he interacts with throughout his life. Cate Blanchett plays the love interest, Benjamin and Blanchett are life long friends, she is young when he is old and she is old when he is young. They have a deep love for each other and during that brief period where their lives intersect at a similar age they live together and produce a young baby girl.
I was never bored, the performances are all good and the story is compelling. Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button really underplays the character, which I think was the correct approach because he knows he is different and he observes life different than everyone else, so I think he would be a quiet thoughtful person. The story is a little depressing in some ways, showing how short life realy is and how people we love come and go. Having seen Doubt the night before, I would say Doubt is the better picture, but Benjamin Button is worth seeing also.
I should also mention that I hate Forrest Gump, yet I love David Fincher. If this was a case of Fincher meets Forrest, sadly Forrest won.
That must mean I'll love it then Dan.
'The Day the Earth Stood Still'
Keanu Reeves was there/The day the earth stood still/Claude Raines was the Invisible Man
Doesn't sound right, does it? Jon Hamm from Mad Men is in this. That's a great show. Watch it instead. This is big, it's boring and a load of special effects.