Small world... Well I have had the honour of running into Mike Leigh in London a couple of times, next time I will inform him "Poppy's a ****!" very loudly indeed. His office is upstairs from a knocking shop btw.*
and WHYYYYYYYYYYY? SiCo is the word 'honour' coming up with a red line underneath? Next this site will be called Absolutely Jimmy Bond... :v
* I read this in an interview, did not run into Mr Leigh upon visiting said knocking shop.
A small and very civilised French film about a woman who dies, and her children are faced with the decision to sell her things, including the house they grew up in. It really is extremely civilised; nobody yells, there aren't any fights or major arguments. I can imagine that many people would hope that when their parents die, the decision to sell (or not) the family home and artworks is as peaceful as this. However, it is still incredibly sad watching some of these characters 'lose' when it comes to deciding whether or not to sell.
It is a fantastic film, in which very little happens, with Juliette Binoche dying her hair blonde in an effort to appear younger (a bad move IMO), and which is perhaps a little overlong towards the end. (There were several times in which the film could have ended, but didn't.) Nonetheless, I would definitely recommend it as I do think think it is a very good film and seeing it can be a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Or in my case, a late Monday evening.
"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
Old-fashioned potboiler in the spirit of All The President's Men, combining murder, political malfeasance, greed and journalistic ethics. Russell Crowe stars as the old-school newspaper reporter trying to chase down a story which involves his college buddy, an up-and-coming Congressman (Ben Affleck) who is investigating a Blackwater-esque private security firm. Rachel McAdams plays a blogger who works for the paper and ends up learning "real" journalism from Crowe while also teaching him a few things...no, not those kinds of things.
All in all, an OK way to spend a couple of hours, but it's the kind of film that gets worse and worse the more time you have to reflect on it. One obvious problem is that it's packed with tons of characters and subplots which don't have time to be properly developed in a 2-hour film. This is disappointing but not surprising, because the movie is an adaptation of a 3-part British miniseries which ran in 2003 and which was highly-acclaimed. It's as if the writers of this film felt pressure to live up to the miniseries, but were ultimately constrained by the limits of feature film.
A ageing hitman on one last job becomes increasingly perturbed as it seems he must travel to Venice for an eccentric gig which involves hiding in a coffin on a funeral barge and using a throwing knife to assassinate... okay okay
An ill, ageing composer (Dirk Bogarde) convalesces in Venice at just the wrong time, 1911 when a cholera epidemic is taking over the town. There, at an elegant hotel on the Lido (sandy stretch with water, featured in the James Bond short story Riscio) he encounters a family with a blond teenager, with whom he becomes enraptured. That's it really, though very well done and with music from Gustav Mahler.
Bogarde is very good, not sure he ever quite came across as old as his character was meant to be, nor was Venice quite as sweltering either, guess it may have been filmed earlier in the season. It's a bit like Lolita really, except the ageing academic is falling for a teenage lad, not ladette, but it's still forbidden fruit that precedes some downfall. Possibly it comes across as more homosexual in the film than in the novel, where it was more about aescetic appeal.
Watching this for the third time (my sister came round and she hadn't seen it) I have to say this is Craig's best Bond film, for me. It's the real deal, and Craig looks genuinely youthful and fit and gives a more rounded performance, whereas in the Bonds his performance comes across as a statement of intent, it's relatively mannered.
And the look is great, lovely unobrusive cinematography, London in the summer. It's the sort of film that improves with a drink. Great soundtrack too, they make it look easy.
NB the way the villain is genuinly menacing, even though he gets even less screen time than Mr Green.
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
I really enjoy that one; one of my favourite Brit crime pictures.
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
An adaptation of a stage musical dealing with a rather bizarre nightclub in 1931 Germany in which Liza Minnelli plays Sally Bowles, an American singer, who gets involved in a love triangle. The film sets the central characters against a backdrop of rising Nazism. Similarly to Bertolucci's The Conformist,Cabaret links Nazism with perversity.
As much as I admire this film, I can't say that I love it. The music, singing and dancing are all superb. Bob Fosse, the director, was quite simply one of the greatest musical directors of all time. Liza is Liza :x while Joel Grey (whose daughter Jennifer was in Dirty Dancing) is magnificent. Additionally, the film is stylisitically extraordinary. Not only does everything look great but Fosse shot the film as if he was a photographer. Many of the characters are shot as if they were being photographed. It's quite amazing, and unusal for its time. Carabet was released in 1972, yet it doesn't feel like a 70's film, certainly not an early 70's film, when most of the early 70's films were alot more realist.
One of my problems with the film related to its Oscar success. It won 8 Oscars, including Director, Actress and Supporting Actor. While Liza certainly deserved to win Lead Actress, Joel Grey, as great as he was, did not IMO deserve to beat either Robert Duvall or Al Pacino from The Godfather. Additionally, I don't think that Fosse was good enough to have beaten Coppola for the Director Oscar. It might be asked whether this matters, but IMO everything about a film matters. The fact that Cabaret did so well Oscar-wise created an expectation that I don't think it lived up to, and the fact that it beat The Godfather in two key categories puts it in company which I don't think it deserves to be in.
My other problem was that, for all its style, for all its technical brilliance (superb cinematography, art direction, editing), for all its amazing performances, direction, music, makeup, costume design and choreography; for everything that would make it a great film, it just didn't move me. I felt distanced from the story, and while I don't always need to be 'included'; with a film that is set in a specific era which automatically commands an extreme negative reaction (whether it be Nazi Germany or Pol Pot's Cambodia or any other murderous regime), I do think that it a bad idea to alienate the audience.
I would recommend Cabaret, however I do not regard it to be a mastepiece, and as such, I would advise anyone interested in seeing it to forget all the hype and to make up your own mind.
"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
FelixLeiter ♀Staffordshire or a pubPosts: 1,286MI6 Agent
Hot Fuzz
half yesterday n half today, this never ceases to make me laugh. ) that was laughter for those unfamiliar with it
Love simon pegg in anything and this is me favourite of his, just ahead of Shaun of the Dead. violence and gore shouldn't be funny yet somehow it is. it was the scene (shown on Parky ) of them storming Somerfield that made me want to see it and it was just as good today as when i first saw it. -{
I agree Dan Same, I like the idea of Cabaret, and the Tomorrow Belongs to Me moment is great; one commentator said it was the one time in a dark film when the sun is shining, which makes it even more sinister. But otherwise it left me a bit flat. Somehow Liza's Sally comes across as kooky rather than decadent and amoral.
Amores Perros
Well, I saw the first 30 mins of this then gave up. It's mostly dog fighting and matted dog hair and canine corpses being dropped off and dragged away, not my thing really. Other than that, it has that sense of doom in which the unpleasant guys wield the whip and the one decent bloke is too much of a wally to auger well.
I agree Dan Same, I like the idea of Cabaret, and the Tomorrow Belongs to Me moment is great; one commentator said it was the one time in a dark film when the sun is shining, which makes it even more sinister. But otherwise it left me a bit flat. Somehow Liza's Sally comes across as kooky rather than decadent and amoral.
Well, I saw the first 30 mins of this then gave up. It's mostly dog fighting and matted dog hair and canine corpses being dropped off and dragged away, not my thing really. Other than that, it has that sense of doom in which the unpleasant guys wield the whip and the one decent bloke is too much of a wally to auger well.
NP, it seems that we really are in agreement this week as I can't say I particularly enjoyed this film all that much myself. Not surprising since I really disliked Babel, which the director also directed; although I did like 21 Grams. However that was more due to the acting and writing than the directing.
"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
Notorious curiosity from 1931, aiming to capitalise on the horror boom. It stars the inhabitants of a side show - pinheads, Siamese twins, the living torso and so on; I guess I'm not using the PC language here. It's an ambivalent watch, as the 'entertainment' comes from viewing these human oddities yet of course without such exploitation, they would be unable to eke out much of a living.
Though it's a horror, we are on the Freaks' side as they are the good guys with a camaraderie, ganging up against the cruel, able bodied trapeze artist who flirts cruelly with a midget fellow, luring him away from his intended, a female midget (the guy appeared later in The Wizard of Oz as one of the trio serenading Dorothy).
A Tales of the Unexpected type ending. A short film, not tremendously entertaining - the lack of music on the soundtrack and almost audible silence a staple of such early movies. Still, memorable nonetheless and I wouldn't be surprised if the evil blonde wasn't used to model the cartoon Cruella from 101 Dalmations upon.
This afternoon I finally took in X-men Origins: Wolverine. For the life of me, I can't understand why critics are dumping on this movie. So it's not a classic that tries to redefine the genre--does every superhero movie have to be The Dark Knight? This is 105 minutes of action and entertainment, with colorful characters and good performances by both Hugh Jackman and Liev Schrieber. There are flaws, such as sometimes dodgy special effects (even Wolverine's claws sometimes looked like cartoon drawings) and clumsy plot points ("Oh, I know this won't kill him but it will cause him to have amnesia so we can tie this all in with the first X-men movie"); but I enjoyed myself. Then again, I'm not an X-men fanboy, so whatever liberties were taken with the characters went right by me.
Silent horror film, a landmark for its German expressionism (er, whatever that is. Think it pops up on a set in Casino Royale at some point).
Enjoyable, with a good score. Too much exposition at the end. It's about a creepy fellow who gets permission to set up his stall when a travelling festival comes to town, with fatal consequences on the townfolk. The finale lost me a bit.
A bandit, a drifter and a sadistic army sargeant cross and double cross each other as they hunt for $200,000 in gold amid the backdrop of the Civil War. One of (if not arguably THE) greatest westerns ever put to film, I've seen this movie countless times so its only natural that when the BluRay edition was released, I'd buy in.
In terms of presentation, visually the movie is only an incremental step up from the previous remastered DVD edition. The movie was shot using the techniscope process, which squeezes two pictures onto each 35mm frame of film, so the video quality will never equal a true scope presentation. Nevertheless, the BluRay does yield a sharper image with a richer color palette. This is as good as this movie will ever look at home. The disc also has a much beefier soundtrack. Purists may decry the 5.1 surround sound remix, but it does make for a more immersive experience - in the scene where Blondie and Tuco blow up a bridge between Union and Confederate forces, the pieces of shrapnel from the explosion bounce all over the room.
This BluRay also has what is quite possibly the coolest menu animation ever, as images from all three of Leone's spaghetti westerns are presented in an animated 3D-like diorama that zooms and rotates, displaying iconic images from the film, all to Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstacy of Gold". Honestly, that alone was almost worth the price. The disc also includes a number of deleted scenes, documentaries and audio commentaries (all of which are carried over from the remastered DVD).
RogueAgentSpeeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
edited May 2009
Profondo rosso or Deep Red/The Hatchet Murders
Good old fashioned Italian horror from Argento. B-)
I remember going to see this at the movies with my older cousins as a kid and while it may no longer be necessary for me to shield my eyes on the tense parts anymore, it's still quite creepy in its own way.
For those who may have seen this one before, there is a really random WTF moment in this that was quite disturbing for me when I was little and is a little unsettling for me still after 30 years of not watching it. You know the part I'm talking about. )
7.5/10
House By The Cemetery
I believe this one was directed by Fulci and it's about a family that moves to Boston and takes up residence in you know what- hence the title .
Very atmospheric and beautiful in a nostalgic sort of way but the pacing was a little choppy on plot. I'm not certain who was the actress that played the maid at this moment in this one but man was she hot in a 70s way.
My sister, who lives up that way, tells me that the house used in this movie is still there. It's an art institute now.
A good little film nonetheless. If you like this type of genre and lots of gore, this might be for you.
7/10
Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice isUNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
RogueAgentSpeeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
Keeping up my horror movie habit with:
John Carpenter'sPRINCE OF DARKNESS
A great film but it comes across as unintentionally funny in more than a few parts. Not really certain if Carpenter was going for humor here but he balances it well with the creepiness of the picture. All I can say is:
"Death by bicycle!")
Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice isUNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
I am not a big Ben Stiller fan, but I did enjoy his performance in the first Night at the Museum. In that movie he was a likeable hard luck dad, trying to earn the respect of his son. In the latest Museum movie he is back to his usual too smart for the room personna and pretty much an unlikable character, which early in the film takes away from the films enjoyment. But, then Amy Adams arrives on screen and the film comes to life. Adams plays Amelia Earhart a spunky full of moxie 20's fly girl who assists Stiller in his quest, and she almost single handedly saves the movie. When she is on screen the film is alive, when she off screen the films loses life.
The story is rather slim and is mainly an excuse to unleash some comic set pieces. Some work some don't. I thought the film gained speed as it went along building to a decent finish. Hank Azaria has three roles playing Abe Lincoln, The Thinker and Kahmunrah (the villian). Although his Thinker and Abe Lincoln were good, his villian is neither menacing or funny enough. Overall I enjoyed the film and really enjoyed Amy Adams performance, but can only give the film a mediocre recommendation.
Overall I enjoyed the film and really enjoyed Amy Adams performance, but can only give the film a mediocre recommendation.
That's not much of a recommendation. :v I loved the first film, but I have to say that I'm not looking all that much forward to seeing this film. I will see it, probably with my GF, but my enthusiasm for it has really died down recently.
"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
A bandit, a drifter and a sadistic army sargeant cross and double cross each other as they hunt for $200,000 in gold amid the backdrop of the Civil War. One of (if not arguably THE) greatest westerns ever put to film, I've seen this movie countless times so its only natural that when the BluRay edition was released, I'd buy in.
In terms of presentation, visually the movie is only an incremental step up from the previous remastered DVD edition. The movie was shot using the techniscope process, which squeezes two pictures onto each 35mm frame of film, so the video quality will never equal a true scope presentation. Nevertheless, the BluRay does yield a sharper image with a richer color palette. This is as good as this movie will ever look at home. The disc also has a much beefier soundtrack. Purists may decry the 5.1 surround sound remix, but it does make for a more immersive experience - in the scene where Blondie and Tuco blow up a bridge between Union and Confederate forces, the pieces of shrapnel from the explosion bounce all over the room.
This BluRay also has what is quite possibly the coolest menu animation ever, as images from all three of Leone's spaghetti westerns are presented in an animated 3D-like diorama that zooms and rotates, displaying iconic images from the film, all to Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstacy of Gold". Honestly, that alone was almost worth the price. The disc also includes a number of deleted scenes, documentaries and audio commentaries (all of which are carried over from the remastered DVD).
An absolute masterpiece. I really love this film. I don't own it on DVD, but it's one of several films that I'm looking to get.
"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
wow. just wow. Johnny Depp was stunningly brilliant as always :x
One of the best film adaptations of a novel I've ever seen...I've got the Criterion Collection Edition of the DVD, which features audio commentary by none other than the Late HST himself B-) It's a scream---literally
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
Australia. Baz Luhrmann said this would be an old-fashioned movie, and it is. Unfortunately, it's also corny, cloying, and--at nearly three hours--agonizingly long. Just about every name Australian actor out there is in this (and it's great to see Bryan Brown again), but I actually think the movie might have been livened up a bit if a part had been created for Yahoo Serious!
Underrated Hitchcock thriller that pushes all the right buttons. My sister got it mixed up with Brief Encounter, and hadn't seen it before.
However there's a plot hole and I put it in a spoiler for those who love the film and don't want to know about it:
The tennis pro needs an alibi for the time the murder was committed but struggles to get one. A famous celebrity, walking around in public, could always count on an alibi, as any passing stranger would be likely to recognise him, unlike most of us. Of course these days, CCTV footage would sink the whole premise, chances are.
It's interesting. While I don't condone Sean Connery's general crankiness nor the fact that he has turned his back on the franchise that made him a wealthy superstar, I can see where some of his ambivalence may have come from. After all, he was capable of some brilliant acting when called upon to do so, and perhaps the role of Bond never gave him the room to stretch out his acting chops.
Again, this is not meant to excuse Connery in any way, but rather to provide a preamble to my review of this film...because it contains what is IMO the single best performance I have ever seen him give.
The setting is a WW2 British military prison in North Africa. It's a prison not for enemy combatants, however, but rather for misfit British soldiers who have gotten in to trouble for some reason or other. The prison is overseen by a weak-willed commandant who lazes about, sleeps with local prostitutes, and would rather be anywhere else than this post. He delegates everything to Regimental Sergeant Major Wilson (a square-jawed Harry Andrews) who is more than happy to impose his iron sense of discipline under the non-watchful eye of his milquetoast boss. He believes strongly that the prison is there to completely break the prisoners, then build them back up into soldiers worthy of serving in HRM's forces.
Into the camp come some new arrivals, a motley crew if ever there was one:
[list=*]
[*]Roberts (Connery), a former RSM busted down to the lowest rank for refusing to send his men on what he considered to be a suicidal mission against the Germans (he is proven right, as no one who went came back).[/*]
[*]McGrath (Jack Watson), a tough, tempermental roughneck who's in for fighting.[/*]
[*]King (Ossie Davis), a black Jamaican who stole and drank liquor from the officers' mess.[/*]
[*]Bartlett (Roy Kinnear), a fat, lazy slacker.[/*]
[*]Stevens (Alfred Lynch), a weak desk jockey deemed a deserter because he visited his wife without permission.[/*]
[/list]
These five are targeted by RSM Wilson as particularly offensive miscreants, and he assigns them to a single room in the wing overseen by Staff Sergeant Williams, a vicious sadist (played with true creepiness by Ian Hendry). Williams runs them up and down "the hill", a man-made pile of rocks and dirt that is steep on both sides and probably 4-5 stories high. He reserves his harshest treatment for Roberts (an ex-RSM and therefore superior officer) and Stevens (whose general weakness he despises).
Not surprisingly, the heat and abuse take a severe toll on all five men, eventually with tragic consequences. The tragedy forms the dramatic crux of the film as the men begin to rally against the abusive tactics. Subtly differing motivations appear within the staff, even among those who seem aligned -- for example, Wilson (brutal, horrifyingly racist, totally unsympathetic to the prisoners, but ultimately believing in their potential for redemption) and Williams (simply interested in brutalizing powerless people). The prisoners are aided by a sympathetic Staff Sergeant (played by Ian Bannen) and by a Medical Officer (Sir Michael Redgrave) who initially can't be bothered but eventually finds the strength to do what's right.
Connery is nothing short of brilliant. As an ex-RSM, Roberts becomes the natural leader of the misfits, even as he has some serious issues with each of them (and they with him). Connery made this film in between Goldfinger and Thunderball, so he's in fine physical shape (no toupee, however -- just his receding hairline and a thin mustache). He brings a real tortured depth to the role, and he is forced to act in ways that are far outside the suave boundaries of Bond. His seminal moment is a one-on-one with RSM Wilson, in which Roberts gives an anguished explanation for actions, but neither trumpets them nor apologizes for them. It's the best scene I have ever seen Connery play. For me, the late-model Connery (post-1980) has basically been playing "Sean Connery" in his films, even in The Untouchables. But this film is a reminder of what he was capable of in his younger days, and it more than stands up to his other powerhouse performances in films like The Molly Maguires and The Man Who Would Be King.
The film is directed by the great Sidney Lumet. Shot in black-and-white and without any music in the soundtrack, it has a similar look and feel to his earlier films Twelve Angry Men and Fail-Safe, although the outdoor settings distinguish it from those two. Lumet uses several odd camera styles, a few of which seem too contrived but most of which contribute nicely to the disorienting nature of the film. The ending is very interesting, because it comes quite suddenly and results in a jarring reversal of momentum to how the events seem to be playing themselves out.
As you can tell by the length and effusiveness of this post, I found The Hill to be absolutely captivating. It's bleak, to be sure. But it's the kind of film that doesn't get made anymore. Most of all, the man who many of us here revere for his portrayal of our favorite spy is an absolute revelation playing an entirely different type of government servant.
Another animated classic from Pixar, Up is the warm-hearted story of an elderly gentleman (voiced by Ed Asner) who decides to set out on the great adventure he and his late wife had always planned. However, he soon learns that a young explorer scout has accidently accompanied him on his adventure. Before long they pick up a rare chocalate loving bird and a dog, all of whom will assist him in reaching his goal.
It takes this film only about 10 minutes before you develop sympathy for the old guy, as the story of how he meets his wife and how they spend their years together is told smartly through a series of small scenes that despite its relatively short time frame, is extremly heart warming. The climatic scene where the group does battle with a famed explorer who wants to capture the rare bird is clever and suspenseful.
As with all Pixar animation their attention to detail is displayed throughout the film. The score is fittingly uplifting and all the voices fit the characters. I saw the 2-D version and don't recall too many scenes that would have leant themselves to 3-D. ALthough the film does have some good laughs, I would not call it hilarious, but I would call it clever, warm-hearted and humorius. Highly recommended.
With all Pixar films you get a short film before the feature, for UP, the short film was Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy features cumulus clouds making babies for all the world's creatures, animal and human. The clouds create the baby and of course the stork delivers it. One stork has the unfortunate task of delivering all the dangerous creatures in the world, like alligators, electric eels and porcupines. This leads to some very funny moments. A funny bonus to Up.
The late Alfie Lynch lived down at Woodingdean near Brighton, where my dad worked as an optician. He was a patient, my dad told him he'd watched The Hill the other night. 'Very good' he said. 'The only decent film I made!' said Mr Lynch. There you are, a sort of anecdote.
I watched five mins of Basic Instinct 2 last night. Awful. Really dreadful exposition - for those who don't know, that's a device used by writers to bring the viewer up to speed on the plot and who's whom. It's best to be as unobtrusive as possible, though the Bond films usually pull it off simply by having Bond meet M in his office after the song fades. 'Moonraker, sir?' 'What do you know about Moonraker, 007?' and Bond goes, explaining it. It's not too obtrusive because it's Moore's Bond doing his smarty pants routine, therefore in character. M, Bond and Smithers in GF is a great example, the dead exposition leavened by the banter between the three over the brandy.
In Basic Instinct, an old journo friend meets David Morissey's lawyer and just tells him all about his past case, info he already knows, so we know... 8-)
Big Wednesday
This is a coming-of-age drama, complete with hokey voiceover intro in style of Stand by Me, about a group of lads growing up in a surfing town in the late 1950s into the 60s.
I gave up after an hour, though it failed the 20 minute rule - do you guys on netflix have this? - where at that point I realise it hasn't captured my imagination. It's written very broad. In the first half hour there are some extended fistfights in the style of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, you half expect a fiddle to be playing in the background, where just one punch could kill someone, but no one has a broken nose, cut lip or anything. The first takes place at a party, where it's already been established that the long-suffering mum is upstairs reading a book and rolling her eyes at the loud music. But when it all kicks off downstairs, and someone is thrown through a glass window, she's nowhere to be seen.
The Yanks in it - I was gonna say they're too American, which sounds bad. But you know The Graduate, when Benji is trying to locate Elaine in the final reel, and meets some jocks in a shower, and struggles to relate to them a bit. It's like the characters are all like that.
Comments
Small world...
and WHYYYYYYYYYYY? SiCo is the word 'honour' coming up with a red line underneath? Next this site will be called Absolutely Jimmy Bond...
* I read this in an interview, did not run into Mr Leigh upon visiting said knocking shop.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
A small and very civilised French film about a woman who dies, and her children are faced with the decision to sell her things, including the house they grew up in. It really is extremely civilised; nobody yells, there aren't any fights or major arguments. I can imagine that many people would hope that when their parents die, the decision to sell (or not) the family home and artworks is as peaceful as this. However, it is still incredibly sad watching some of these characters 'lose' when it comes to deciding whether or not to sell.
It is a fantastic film, in which very little happens, with Juliette Binoche dying her hair blonde in an effort to appear younger (a bad move IMO), and which is perhaps a little overlong towards the end. (There were several times in which the film could have ended, but didn't.) Nonetheless, I would definitely recommend it as I do think think it is a very good film and seeing it can be a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
Watched the whole film on You Tube Loved it!
Old-fashioned potboiler in the spirit of All The President's Men, combining murder, political malfeasance, greed and journalistic ethics. Russell Crowe stars as the old-school newspaper reporter trying to chase down a story which involves his college buddy, an up-and-coming Congressman (Ben Affleck) who is investigating a Blackwater-esque private security firm. Rachel McAdams plays a blogger who works for the paper and ends up learning "real" journalism from Crowe while also teaching him a few things...no, not those kinds of things.
All in all, an OK way to spend a couple of hours, but it's the kind of film that gets worse and worse the more time you have to reflect on it. One obvious problem is that it's packed with tons of characters and subplots which don't have time to be properly developed in a 2-hour film. This is disappointing but not surprising, because the movie is an adaptation of a 3-part British miniseries which ran in 2003 and which was highly-acclaimed. It's as if the writers of this film felt pressure to live up to the miniseries, but were ultimately constrained by the limits of feature film.
Wait until video release.
A ageing hitman on one last job becomes increasingly perturbed as it seems he must travel to Venice for an eccentric gig which involves hiding in a coffin on a funeral barge and using a throwing knife to assassinate... okay okay
An ill, ageing composer (Dirk Bogarde) convalesces in Venice at just the wrong time, 1911 when a cholera epidemic is taking over the town. There, at an elegant hotel on the Lido (sandy stretch with water, featured in the James Bond short story Riscio) he encounters a family with a blond teenager, with whom he becomes enraptured. That's it really, though very well done and with music from Gustav Mahler.
Bogarde is very good, not sure he ever quite came across as old as his character was meant to be, nor was Venice quite as sweltering either, guess it may have been filmed earlier in the season. It's a bit like Lolita really, except the ageing academic is falling for a teenage lad, not ladette, but it's still forbidden fruit that precedes some downfall. Possibly it comes across as more homosexual in the film than in the novel, where it was more about aescetic appeal.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Watching this for the third time (my sister came round and she hadn't seen it) I have to say this is Craig's best Bond film, for me. It's the real deal, and Craig looks genuinely youthful and fit and gives a more rounded performance, whereas in the Bonds his performance comes across as a statement of intent, it's relatively mannered.
And the look is great, lovely unobrusive cinematography, London in the summer. It's the sort of film that improves with a drink. Great soundtrack too, they make it look easy.
NB the way the villain is genuinly menacing, even though he gets even less screen time than Mr Green.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I really enjoy that one; one of my favourite Brit crime pictures.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
An adaptation of a stage musical dealing with a rather bizarre nightclub in 1931 Germany in which Liza Minnelli plays Sally Bowles, an American singer, who gets involved in a love triangle. The film sets the central characters against a backdrop of rising Nazism. Similarly to Bertolucci's The Conformist, Cabaret links Nazism with perversity.
As much as I admire this film, I can't say that I love it. The music, singing and dancing are all superb. Bob Fosse, the director, was quite simply one of the greatest musical directors of all time. Liza is Liza :x while Joel Grey (whose daughter Jennifer was in Dirty Dancing) is magnificent. Additionally, the film is stylisitically extraordinary. Not only does everything look great but Fosse shot the film as if he was a photographer. Many of the characters are shot as if they were being photographed. It's quite amazing, and unusal for its time. Carabet was released in 1972, yet it doesn't feel like a 70's film, certainly not an early 70's film, when most of the early 70's films were alot more realist.
One of my problems with the film related to its Oscar success. It won 8 Oscars, including Director, Actress and Supporting Actor. While Liza certainly deserved to win Lead Actress, Joel Grey, as great as he was, did not IMO deserve to beat either Robert Duvall or Al Pacino from The Godfather. Additionally, I don't think that Fosse was good enough to have beaten Coppola for the Director Oscar. It might be asked whether this matters, but IMO everything about a film matters. The fact that Cabaret did so well Oscar-wise created an expectation that I don't think it lived up to, and the fact that it beat The Godfather in two key categories puts it in company which I don't think it deserves to be in.
My other problem was that, for all its style, for all its technical brilliance (superb cinematography, art direction, editing), for all its amazing performances, direction, music, makeup, costume design and choreography; for everything that would make it a great film, it just didn't move me. I felt distanced from the story, and while I don't always need to be 'included'; with a film that is set in a specific era which automatically commands an extreme negative reaction (whether it be Nazi Germany or Pol Pot's Cambodia or any other murderous regime), I do think that it a bad idea to alienate the audience.
I would recommend Cabaret, however I do not regard it to be a mastepiece, and as such, I would advise anyone interested in seeing it to forget all the hype and to make up your own mind.
half yesterday n half today, this never ceases to make me laugh.
Love simon pegg in anything and this is me favourite of his, just ahead of Shaun of the Dead. violence and gore shouldn't be funny yet somehow it is. it was the scene (shown on Parky
Amores Perros
Well, I saw the first 30 mins of this then gave up. It's mostly dog fighting and matted dog hair and canine corpses being dropped off and dragged away, not my thing really. Other than that, it has that sense of doom in which the unpleasant guys wield the whip and the one decent bloke is too much of a wally to auger well.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
NP, it seems that we really are in agreement this week as I can't say I particularly enjoyed this film all that much myself. Not surprising since I really disliked Babel, which the director also directed; although I did like 21 Grams. However that was more due to the acting and writing than the directing.
My next film, Freaks.
Notorious curiosity from 1931, aiming to capitalise on the horror boom. It stars the inhabitants of a side show - pinheads, Siamese twins, the living torso and so on; I guess I'm not using the PC language here. It's an ambivalent watch, as the 'entertainment' comes from viewing these human oddities yet of course without such exploitation, they would be unable to eke out much of a living.
Though it's a horror, we are on the Freaks' side as they are the good guys with a camaraderie, ganging up against the cruel, able bodied trapeze artist who flirts cruelly with a midget fellow, luring him away from his intended, a female midget (the guy appeared later in The Wizard of Oz as one of the trio serenading Dorothy).
A Tales of the Unexpected type ending. A short film, not tremendously entertaining - the lack of music on the soundtrack and almost audible silence a staple of such early movies. Still, memorable nonetheless and I wouldn't be surprised if the evil blonde wasn't used to model the cartoon Cruella from 101 Dalmations upon.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Silent horror film, a landmark for its German expressionism (er, whatever that is. Think it pops up on a set in Casino Royale at some point).
Enjoyable, with a good score. Too much exposition at the end. It's about a creepy fellow who gets permission to set up his stall when a travelling festival comes to town, with fatal consequences on the townfolk. The finale lost me a bit.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
A bandit, a drifter and a sadistic army sargeant cross and double cross each other as they hunt for $200,000 in gold amid the backdrop of the Civil War. One of (if not arguably THE) greatest westerns ever put to film, I've seen this movie countless times so its only natural that when the BluRay edition was released, I'd buy in.
In terms of presentation, visually the movie is only an incremental step up from the previous remastered DVD edition. The movie was shot using the techniscope process, which squeezes two pictures onto each 35mm frame of film, so the video quality will never equal a true scope presentation. Nevertheless, the BluRay does yield a sharper image with a richer color palette. This is as good as this movie will ever look at home. The disc also has a much beefier soundtrack. Purists may decry the 5.1 surround sound remix, but it does make for a more immersive experience - in the scene where Blondie and Tuco blow up a bridge between Union and Confederate forces, the pieces of shrapnel from the explosion bounce all over the room.
This BluRay also has what is quite possibly the coolest menu animation ever, as images from all three of Leone's spaghetti westerns are presented in an animated 3D-like diorama that zooms and rotates, displaying iconic images from the film, all to Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstacy of Gold". Honestly, that alone was almost worth the price. The disc also includes a number of deleted scenes, documentaries and audio commentaries (all of which are carried over from the remastered DVD).
Good old fashioned Italian horror from Argento. B-)
I remember going to see this at the movies with my older cousins as a kid and while it may no longer be necessary for me to shield my eyes on the tense parts anymore, it's still quite creepy in its own way.
For those who may have seen this one before, there is a really random WTF moment in this that was quite disturbing for me when I was little and is a little unsettling for me still after 30 years of not watching it. You know the part I'm talking about.
7.5/10
House By The Cemetery
I believe this one was directed by Fulci and it's about a family that moves to Boston and takes up residence in you know what- hence the title
Very atmospheric and beautiful in a nostalgic sort of way but the pacing was a little choppy on plot. I'm not certain who was the actress that played the maid at this moment in this one but man was she hot in a 70s way.
My sister, who lives up that way, tells me that the house used in this movie is still there. It's an art institute now.
A good little film nonetheless. If you like this type of genre and lots of gore, this might be for you.
7/10
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
John Carpenter's PRINCE OF DARKNESS
A great film but it comes across as unintentionally funny in more than a few parts. Not really certain if Carpenter was going for humor here but he balances it well with the creepiness of the picture. All I can say is:
"Death by bicycle!"
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
I am not a big Ben Stiller fan, but I did enjoy his performance in the first Night at the Museum. In that movie he was a likeable hard luck dad, trying to earn the respect of his son. In the latest Museum movie he is back to his usual too smart for the room personna and pretty much an unlikable character, which early in the film takes away from the films enjoyment. But, then Amy Adams arrives on screen and the film comes to life. Adams plays Amelia Earhart a spunky full of moxie 20's fly girl who assists Stiller in his quest, and she almost single handedly saves the movie. When she is on screen the film is alive, when she off screen the films loses life.
The story is rather slim and is mainly an excuse to unleash some comic set pieces. Some work some don't. I thought the film gained speed as it went along building to a decent finish. Hank Azaria has three roles playing Abe Lincoln, The Thinker and Kahmunrah (the villian). Although his Thinker and Abe Lincoln were good, his villian is neither menacing or funny enough. Overall I enjoyed the film and really enjoyed Amy Adams performance, but can only give the film a mediocre recommendation.
wow. just wow. Johnny Depp was stunningly brilliant as always :x
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One of the best film adaptations of a novel I've ever seen...I've got the Criterion Collection Edition of the DVD, which features audio commentary by none other than the Late HST himself B-) It's a scream---literally
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Underrated Hitchcock thriller that pushes all the right buttons. My sister got it mixed up with Brief Encounter, and hadn't seen it before.
However there's a plot hole and I put it in a spoiler for those who love the film and don't want to know about it:
Murray Walker reminded me a bit of Bill Murray.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017
It's interesting. While I don't condone Sean Connery's general crankiness nor the fact that he has turned his back on the franchise that made him a wealthy superstar, I can see where some of his ambivalence may have come from. After all, he was capable of some brilliant acting when called upon to do so, and perhaps the role of Bond never gave him the room to stretch out his acting chops.
Again, this is not meant to excuse Connery in any way, but rather to provide a preamble to my review of this film...because it contains what is IMO the single best performance I have ever seen him give.
The setting is a WW2 British military prison in North Africa. It's a prison not for enemy combatants, however, but rather for misfit British soldiers who have gotten in to trouble for some reason or other. The prison is overseen by a weak-willed commandant who lazes about, sleeps with local prostitutes, and would rather be anywhere else than this post. He delegates everything to Regimental Sergeant Major Wilson (a square-jawed Harry Andrews) who is more than happy to impose his iron sense of discipline under the non-watchful eye of his milquetoast boss. He believes strongly that the prison is there to completely break the prisoners, then build them back up into soldiers worthy of serving in HRM's forces.
Into the camp come some new arrivals, a motley crew if ever there was one:
[list=*]
[*]Roberts (Connery), a former RSM busted down to the lowest rank for refusing to send his men on what he considered to be a suicidal mission against the Germans (he is proven right, as no one who went came back).[/*]
[*]McGrath (Jack Watson), a tough, tempermental roughneck who's in for fighting.[/*]
[*]King (Ossie Davis), a black Jamaican who stole and drank liquor from the officers' mess.[/*]
[*]Bartlett (Roy Kinnear), a fat, lazy slacker.[/*]
[*]Stevens (Alfred Lynch), a weak desk jockey deemed a deserter because he visited his wife without permission.[/*]
[/list]
These five are targeted by RSM Wilson as particularly offensive miscreants, and he assigns them to a single room in the wing overseen by Staff Sergeant Williams, a vicious sadist (played with true creepiness by Ian Hendry). Williams runs them up and down "the hill", a man-made pile of rocks and dirt that is steep on both sides and probably 4-5 stories high. He reserves his harshest treatment for Roberts (an ex-RSM and therefore superior officer) and Stevens (whose general weakness he despises).
Not surprisingly, the heat and abuse take a severe toll on all five men, eventually with tragic consequences. The tragedy forms the dramatic crux of the film as the men begin to rally against the abusive tactics. Subtly differing motivations appear within the staff, even among those who seem aligned -- for example, Wilson (brutal, horrifyingly racist, totally unsympathetic to the prisoners, but ultimately believing in their potential for redemption) and Williams (simply interested in brutalizing powerless people). The prisoners are aided by a sympathetic Staff Sergeant (played by Ian Bannen) and by a Medical Officer (Sir Michael Redgrave) who initially can't be bothered but eventually finds the strength to do what's right.
Connery is nothing short of brilliant. As an ex-RSM, Roberts becomes the natural leader of the misfits, even as he has some serious issues with each of them (and they with him). Connery made this film in between Goldfinger and Thunderball, so he's in fine physical shape (no toupee, however -- just his receding hairline and a thin mustache). He brings a real tortured depth to the role, and he is forced to act in ways that are far outside the suave boundaries of Bond. His seminal moment is a one-on-one with RSM Wilson, in which Roberts gives an anguished explanation for actions, but neither trumpets them nor apologizes for them. It's the best scene I have ever seen Connery play. For me, the late-model Connery (post-1980) has basically been playing "Sean Connery" in his films, even in The Untouchables. But this film is a reminder of what he was capable of in his younger days, and it more than stands up to his other powerhouse performances in films like The Molly Maguires and The Man Who Would Be King.
The film is directed by the great Sidney Lumet. Shot in black-and-white and without any music in the soundtrack, it has a similar look and feel to his earlier films Twelve Angry Men and Fail-Safe, although the outdoor settings distinguish it from those two. Lumet uses several odd camera styles, a few of which seem too contrived but most of which contribute nicely to the disorienting nature of the film. The ending is very interesting, because it comes quite suddenly and results in a jarring reversal of momentum to how the events seem to be playing themselves out.
As you can tell by the length and effusiveness of this post, I found The Hill to be absolutely captivating. It's bleak, to be sure. But it's the kind of film that doesn't get made anymore. Most of all, the man who many of us here revere for his portrayal of our favorite spy is an absolute revelation playing an entirely different type of government servant.
I've had this one for a few years and still never got around to seeing it. Definitely feel like watching it now!
Alex ! I'm shocked you have never seen The Hill
Go and watch it ASAP - it is good film....and as Sir H says, a great performance from Connery.
Strong review as well, Sir H -{
Another animated classic from Pixar, Up is the warm-hearted story of an elderly gentleman (voiced by Ed Asner) who decides to set out on the great adventure he and his late wife had always planned. However, he soon learns that a young explorer scout has accidently accompanied him on his adventure. Before long they pick up a rare chocalate loving bird and a dog, all of whom will assist him in reaching his goal.
It takes this film only about 10 minutes before you develop sympathy for the old guy, as the story of how he meets his wife and how they spend their years together is told smartly through a series of small scenes that despite its relatively short time frame, is extremly heart warming. The climatic scene where the group does battle with a famed explorer who wants to capture the rare bird is clever and suspenseful.
As with all Pixar animation their attention to detail is displayed throughout the film. The score is fittingly uplifting and all the voices fit the characters. I saw the 2-D version and don't recall too many scenes that would have leant themselves to 3-D. ALthough the film does have some good laughs, I would not call it hilarious, but I would call it clever, warm-hearted and humorius. Highly recommended.
With all Pixar films you get a short film before the feature, for UP, the short film was Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy features cumulus clouds making babies for all the world's creatures, animal and human. The clouds create the baby and of course the stork delivers it. One stork has the unfortunate task of delivering all the dangerous creatures in the world, like alligators, electric eels and porcupines. This leads to some very funny moments. A funny bonus to Up.
The late Alfie Lynch lived down at Woodingdean near Brighton, where my dad worked as an optician. He was a patient, my dad told him he'd watched The Hill the other night. 'Very good' he said. 'The only decent film I made!' said Mr Lynch. There you are, a sort of anecdote.
I watched five mins of Basic Instinct 2 last night. Awful. Really dreadful exposition - for those who don't know, that's a device used by writers to bring the viewer up to speed on the plot and who's whom. It's best to be as unobtrusive as possible, though the Bond films usually pull it off simply by having Bond meet M in his office after the song fades. 'Moonraker, sir?' 'What do you know about Moonraker, 007?' and Bond goes, explaining it. It's not too obtrusive because it's Moore's Bond doing his smarty pants routine, therefore in character. M, Bond and Smithers in GF is a great example, the dead exposition leavened by the banter between the three over the brandy.
In Basic Instinct, an old journo friend meets David Morissey's lawyer and just tells him all about his past case, info he already knows, so we know... 8-)
Big Wednesday
This is a coming-of-age drama, complete with hokey voiceover intro in style of Stand by Me, about a group of lads growing up in a surfing town in the late 1950s into the 60s.
I gave up after an hour, though it failed the 20 minute rule - do you guys on netflix have this? - where at that point I realise it hasn't captured my imagination. It's written very broad. In the first half hour there are some extended fistfights in the style of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, you half expect a fiddle to be playing in the background, where just one punch could kill someone, but no one has a broken nose, cut lip or anything. The first takes place at a party, where it's already been established that the long-suffering mum is upstairs reading a book and rolling her eyes at the loud music. But when it all kicks off downstairs, and someone is thrown through a glass window, she's nowhere to be seen.
The Yanks in it - I was gonna say they're too American, which sounds bad. But you know The Graduate, when Benji is trying to locate Elaine in the final reel, and meets some jocks in a shower, and struggles to relate to them a bit. It's like the characters are all like that.
Roger Moore 1927-2017