A brooding Elvis Presley sings some great songs, treats his women mean and fights Walter Matthau.
This was probably his best [singing] movie, although it still leaves some things to be desired: a stronger structure and a better grasp of how to capture Elvis as a live performer, for two. A good support cast really lifts this one so Presley’s charisma doesn’t have to carry the whole can. Carolyn Jones is a smouldering siren, Dean Jagger a good representative for the older generations, Matthau scheming and unrepentant as the crocodile-like villain, snarling, powerful, vicious. Vic Morrow and Dolores Hart pop up as well.
The screenplay is nominally based on Harold Robbin’s bestseller A Stone for Danny Fisher, but there’s almost nothing left of the novel except a couple of characters. Michael Curtiz filmed in black and white to give the movie a noirish effect, but it’s not very noir, just a little seedy. New Orleans has rarely looked more raunchy and yet so miserable.
The soundtrack was a massive seller, and rightly so. Oddly the best and bestselling single on it [Hard Headed Woman] is only heard briefly as an audience queues outside a nightclub. Compensations can be found in Elvis raucously howling the anthemic Trouble and the joyously clumping and clapping to Dixieland Rock.
All round good entertainment.
P.S.
I'm taking a break. I'm sure you're all fed up with my reviews by now. Back with more in a couple of weeks.
This is not necessarily my favourite Elvis movie but IMO it's the best, for pretty much the reasons you mention. Surrounded by excellent actors such as Matthau, Elvis doesn't embarrass himself and gets some top class songs to sing. Sadly, this would not always or even often be the case.
Morticia Adams! love her, I wanna see more of her work. I see she had a huge filmography, but I think the only other thing I saw her in was Wonder Woman where she played Queen Hippolyta (replacing the Chloris Leachman from the pilot, so that was some big sandals to fill)
chrisno1 said:
I'm taking a break. I'm sure you're all fed up with my reviews by now. Back with more in a couple of weeks.
more reviews please! yours are the best written and cover the most diverse range of movies, and are always good for stoking discussion.
This is Oliver Stone's now classic Vietnam war movie. Many tend to say movies like this one are "realistic". Most of us can't possibly know, so I guess the words we're looking for are "convincing" and "believable". Platoon has aged very well and it still packs a punch. Today it's strange watching Charlie Sheen in a serious role and Johnny Depp in a supporting role.
I wonder if a major studio movie treating the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq in this way can have such a cultural impact Platoon had when it was released. Would it even be made? Movies like "American sniper" and "Zero Dark Thirty" are very good movies, but they don’t have the dark view of war and cynical view of US foreign policy we see in Platoon.
Prick Up Your Ears is a fine Alan Bennett script directed by would-be Bond director Stephen Frears - as such, it exhibits intelligence and taste if being a little short on pizzaz - a bit like Michael Apted's style. It's about the life of gay playwright Joe Orton, based on his diaries, and his slightly Sid James - Tony Hancock style relationship with his lover and flatmate Kenneth Halliwell, in that Halliewell is the Hancock type who is a bit of a misery cramping Orton's style (the comparison sticks because the actor who plays Halliwell - Alfred Molina of Raiders opening scene and 'Doc Oc' in the Spiderman film - also played Hancock in a BBC adaptation.
Bennett matches Orton's sly, snobbish and acerbic take on his fellow men though it can't help make his cottaging exploits seem like something British and traditional like it's Last of the Summer Wine.
It's odd to see so many English names here - Gary Oldman is brilliant as Joe Orton, of course. It's amazing to think he also did Smiley and Churchill. Of the others - Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Walters, Richard Wilson, Molina, et al it's amazing to think all these years on they're all still alive while Orton, Halliwell and Brian Epstein - referenced due to a mooted script for the Beatles - were all gone by the 70s.
The title is a bit of wordplay, the last word being an anagram.
You can read Chrisno1's review above - though I didn't get to take Debbie to the cinema to see it, otherwise...
Oh, one advantage is that it's only 90 mins, it doesn't outstay its welcome. Factor in all those clips of aged folk recalling their great love affairs and it's even shorter. Yet oddly it doesn't seem short, it's kind of epic in its reach over time, some 15 years or so.
Not sure there's a bum note in the entire film, though it's odd how Billy Crystal seems older in the mid years but younger in the latter part of the film.
Good shout, TRK. The Wolf Man and American Werewolf in London are the two best WW films but Dog Soldiers is right up there too - it has some great lines and the creatures are brilliant. 🐺
Tati's fourth and final film as the character M. Hulot, not nearly so discussed as the first three. I'd seen those first three (and the earlier Jour de Fête) 20 odd years ago (Playtime on an authentic cinerama big screen!), and several times over spotting new details each time, but never seen this one before.
Hulot now has a job, working as a designer for a car factory in Paris. He has designed a camper van full of gadgets, and must accompany the prototype as it delivered to an auto show in Amsterdam. The bulk of the film is the journey along the highway, choked with traffic jams, the prototype itself transported in back of an unreliable truck. Costarring with Hulot is Maria Kimberly as the tall gangly posturing Public Relations person who talks loudly in American across three countries and causes much of the chaos as she attempts to clear the path. She drives a bright yellow convertible, and we repeatedly see oblique longshots of the highway traffic disrupted by Marie's crazy driving, climaxing with a meticulously choreographed multi-car pileup. This is probably more plot than all his previous films combined?
The criterion website has a very good essay on this film
This movie is about a captain of a US Navy destroyed defending a convoy against German submarines during the battle of the Atlantic. In my opinion this part of WWII should be seen more in movies and TV. I especially hope for a miniserie focusing on a merchant navy ship in one of the Murmansk convoys. This movie goes some way in fixing this.
The captain is played by Tom Hanks. The script is also written by him. I think he pulls of both jobs well. What's going on is shown and explained in a smart way. While the movie is exiting to watch, we don't get the white-knuckle tension of Das Boot. I also think the device of the submarine talking to the destroyed via the PA system is urealistic and a bridge too far.
Grayhound is a worthy effort and entertaining, but no modern classic.
It's never shown on telly - a good thing it seems, but just once in a while rubbish like this could be a diversion. They could have on Channel 5 'Christmas Turkeys' - Casino Royale 67, Ishtar, H Hawk and Howard the Duck - that last one had a John Barry score - how? Just how?
I am in the position where many of these films are new to me. Today I am going to watch the western film 'Shane'. I have been told that this too is a classic and well worth watching. If it proves as good as 'Psycho' (in a different way of course) then I am in for a treat.
I found this site. It may be of interest to film lovers. It appears that it is a work in progress but it is still worth a look. I haven't looked for James Bond locations yet so do not know who detailed any information about them is.
I wasn't quite sure if I was going to enjoy 'Shane' as Western films are not really my interest, but actually I found it to be a splendid watch. I think I missed most of its subtle meanings, so had to content myself with a straightforward film about good versus evil.
I'll skip to the conclution - The sequel isn't as good as good as the first one. The basic theme ("careful what you wish for") is good, but somehow the plot doesn't work too well. I also think the villans are good, but the action scenes don't work for me, they feel too CGI and not physical and exiting enough.
Plastposen 3.5/6 , comedy about a man who just needed to throw his garbage out and by accident gets mixed up in a bank robbery case and other mishaps (incredibly dated synth music , hah)
Batman DKR 5/6 , pretty good
Burning 2......4/6 , comedy similar to Cannonball films , in this one they drive from Norway to Murmansk , Russia
Joshua, Shane is a great movie. I love westerns, if you haven’t seen The Magnificent Seven (1960), not the recent remake, take a look, it’s my favourite film of all time, and has a pre-Man From UNCLE Robert Vaughn as a gunfighter who has lost his nerve.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Comments
Glad you enjoyed it. Such a fun(!) film when you're in the right mood.
I've only seen an American Werewolf in Paris once. I think that tells you enough!😄
In the Werewolf genre, if you haven't seen Dog Soldiers, it's worth a viewing.
KING CREOLE (1958)
A brooding Elvis Presley sings some great songs, treats his women mean and fights Walter Matthau.
This was probably his best [singing] movie, although it still leaves some things to be desired: a stronger structure and a better grasp of how to capture Elvis as a live performer, for two. A good support cast really lifts this one so Presley’s charisma doesn’t have to carry the whole can. Carolyn Jones is a smouldering siren, Dean Jagger a good representative for the older generations, Matthau scheming and unrepentant as the crocodile-like villain, snarling, powerful, vicious. Vic Morrow and Dolores Hart pop up as well.
The screenplay is nominally based on Harold Robbin’s bestseller A Stone for Danny Fisher, but there’s almost nothing left of the novel except a couple of characters. Michael Curtiz filmed in black and white to give the movie a noirish effect, but it’s not very noir, just a little seedy. New Orleans has rarely looked more raunchy and yet so miserable.
The soundtrack was a massive seller, and rightly so. Oddly the best and bestselling single on it [Hard Headed Woman] is only heard briefly as an audience queues outside a nightclub. Compensations can be found in Elvis raucously howling the anthemic Trouble and the joyously clumping and clapping to Dixieland Rock.
All round good entertainment.
P.S.
I'm taking a break. I'm sure you're all fed up with my reviews by now. Back with more in a couple of weeks.
Not fed up at all!
This is not necessarily my favourite Elvis movie but IMO it's the best, for pretty much the reasons you mention. Surrounded by excellent actors such as Matthau, Elvis doesn't embarrass himself and gets some top class songs to sing. Sadly, this would not always or even often be the case.
chrisno1 said:
KING CREOLE (1958)
...Carolyn Jones is a smouldering siren...
Morticia Adams! love her, I wanna see more of her work. I see she had a huge filmography, but I think the only other thing I saw her in was Wonder Woman where she played Queen Hippolyta (replacing the Chloris Leachman from the pilot, so that was some big sandals to fill)
chrisno1 said:
I'm taking a break. I'm sure you're all fed up with my reviews by now. Back with more in a couple of weeks.
more reviews please! yours are the best written and cover the most diverse range of movies, and are always good for stoking discussion.
Not fed up at all, no.
Platoon (1986)
This is Oliver Stone's now classic Vietnam war movie. Many tend to say movies like this one are "realistic". Most of us can't possibly know, so I guess the words we're looking for are "convincing" and "believable". Platoon has aged very well and it still packs a punch. Today it's strange watching Charlie Sheen in a serious role and Johnny Depp in a supporting role.
I wonder if a major studio movie treating the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq in this way can have such a cultural impact Platoon had when it was released. Would it even be made? Movies like "American sniper" and "Zero Dark Thirty" are very good movies, but they don’t have the dark view of war and cynical view of US foreign policy we see in Platoon.
I wonder if any of the Afghanistan or Iraq veterans will turn out to be talented filmmakers in 10-20 years?
I will give the 'Paris' sequel it a try if it comes on TV but I expect I will turn off if it is bad.
I haven't seen Dog Soldiers either. I have looked briefly and think it is on You Tube.
Prick Up Your Ears is a fine Alan Bennett script directed by would-be Bond director Stephen Frears - as such, it exhibits intelligence and taste if being a little short on pizzaz - a bit like Michael Apted's style. It's about the life of gay playwright Joe Orton, based on his diaries, and his slightly Sid James - Tony Hancock style relationship with his lover and flatmate Kenneth Halliwell, in that Halliewell is the Hancock type who is a bit of a misery cramping Orton's style (the comparison sticks because the actor who plays Halliwell - Alfred Molina of Raiders opening scene and 'Doc Oc' in the Spiderman film - also played Hancock in a BBC adaptation.
Bennett matches Orton's sly, snobbish and acerbic take on his fellow men though it can't help make his cottaging exploits seem like something British and traditional like it's Last of the Summer Wine.
It's odd to see so many English names here - Gary Oldman is brilliant as Joe Orton, of course. It's amazing to think he also did Smiley and Churchill. Of the others - Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Walters, Richard Wilson, Molina, et al it's amazing to think all these years on they're all still alive while Orton, Halliwell and Brian Epstein - referenced due to a mooted script for the Beatles - were all gone by the 70s.
The title is a bit of wordplay, the last word being an anagram.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
When Harry Met Sally
You can read Chrisno1's review above - though I didn't get to take Debbie to the cinema to see it, otherwise...
Oh, one advantage is that it's only 90 mins, it doesn't outstay its welcome. Factor in all those clips of aged folk recalling their great love affairs and it's even shorter. Yet oddly it doesn't seem short, it's kind of epic in its reach over time, some 15 years or so.
Not sure there's a bum note in the entire film, though it's odd how Billy Crystal seems older in the mid years but younger in the latter part of the film.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Good shout, TRK. The Wolf Man and American Werewolf in London are the two best WW films but Dog Soldiers is right up there too - it has some great lines and the creatures are brilliant. 🐺
Richard Wilson isn't English, Napoleon. You should have said "British".
Yes, alright, that's true. The thing is, Alan Bennett's world is so determinedly 'English' it seems to cast its actors in that context.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Trafic
Jacques Tati, 1971
Tati's fourth and final film as the character M. Hulot, not nearly so discussed as the first three. I'd seen those first three (and the earlier Jour de Fête) 20 odd years ago (Playtime on an authentic cinerama big screen!), and several times over spotting new details each time, but never seen this one before.
Hulot now has a job, working as a designer for a car factory in Paris. He has designed a camper van full of gadgets, and must accompany the prototype as it delivered to an auto show in Amsterdam. The bulk of the film is the journey along the highway, choked with traffic jams, the prototype itself transported in back of an unreliable truck. Costarring with Hulot is Maria Kimberly as the tall gangly posturing Public Relations person who talks loudly in American across three countries and causes much of the chaos as she attempts to clear the path. She drives a bright yellow convertible, and we repeatedly see oblique longshots of the highway traffic disrupted by Marie's crazy driving, climaxing with a meticulously choreographed multi-car pileup. This is probably more plot than all his previous films combined?
The criterion website has a very good essay on this film
'The next film I'm going to see'.
'Psycho' tonight on the classic movies channel. I have not seen this film before but heard that it is good. I hope it doesn't disappoint.
Well I watched 'Psycho'. What a terrific film! I presume everyone has seen it but, if you haven't, I urge you to. You will not be disappointed!
Grayhound (2020)
This movie is about a captain of a US Navy destroyed defending a convoy against German submarines during the battle of the Atlantic. In my opinion this part of WWII should be seen more in movies and TV. I especially hope for a miniserie focusing on a merchant navy ship in one of the Murmansk convoys. This movie goes some way in fixing this.
The captain is played by Tom Hanks. The script is also written by him. I think he pulls of both jobs well. What's going on is shown and explained in a smart way. While the movie is exiting to watch, we don't get the white-knuckle tension of Das Boot. I also think the device of the submarine talking to the destroyed via the PA system is urealistic and a bridge too far.
Grayhound is a worthy effort and entertaining, but no modern classic.
That's great that you managed to see it. It's a classic.
It's never shown on telly - a good thing it seems, but just once in a while rubbish like this could be a diversion. They could have on Channel 5 'Christmas Turkeys' - Casino Royale 67, Ishtar, H Hawk and Howard the Duck - that last one had a John Barry score - how? Just how?
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I am in the position where many of these films are new to me. Today I am going to watch the western film 'Shane'. I have been told that this too is a classic and well worth watching. If it proves as good as 'Psycho' (in a different way of course) then I am in for a treat.
I found this site. It may be of interest to film lovers. It appears that it is a work in progress but it is still worth a look. I haven't looked for James Bond locations yet so do not know who detailed any information about them is.
https://www.reelstreets.com
To add to my last post. Here is location details - then and now - from Goldfinger.
https://www.reelstreets.com/films/goldfinger/
I like those kind of sites. Have a look at JAMES BOND IN SWITZERLAND | film locations then & now | documentary - YouTube and more in that series, very enjoyable.
Thank you. I will.
I wasn't quite sure if I was going to enjoy 'Shane' as Western films are not really my interest, but actually I found it to be a splendid watch. I think I missed most of its subtle meanings, so had to content myself with a straightforward film about good versus evil.
Wonder Woman 1984
I'll skip to the conclution - The sequel isn't as good as good as the first one. The basic theme ("careful what you wish for") is good, but somehow the plot doesn't work too well. I also think the villans are good, but the action scenes don't work for me, they feel too CGI and not physical and exiting enough.
Plastposen 3.5/6 , comedy about a man who just needed to throw his garbage out and by accident gets mixed up in a bank robbery case and other mishaps (incredibly dated synth music , hah)
Batman DKR 5/6 , pretty good
Burning 2......4/6 , comedy similar to Cannonball films , in this one they drive from Norway to Murmansk , Russia
I hear the new Kombat movie is as bad as MK2 , only difference better SFX
Coming 2 America and Bill & Ted 3 isn't all that from what I've heard (maybe it's blessing they won't attempt new He-Man movie......)
Rigg prolly did those mini films because of $ (that was also main reason she did the failed sitcom in '73 : Hwood paid way more than UK)
Grindelwald, are you referencing my post about Diana Rigg's MiniKillers super8 movies way back here on pg348. ?
Have you seen them? Can't believe they paid her much! and this after two seasons of the Avengers and OHMSS!
What was this sitcom she did? I don't know anything about that. Was she any good as a sitcom actress?
Joshua, Shane is a great movie. I love westerns, if you haven’t seen The Magnificent Seven (1960), not the recent remake, take a look, it’s my favourite film of all time, and has a pre-Man From UNCLE Robert Vaughn as a gunfighter who has lost his nerve.