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  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    The Thing 1982, a classic horror -{
    The Running Man, Classic Arnie
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    Play Misty For Me

    Clint Eastwood's first film as director. Great thriller, with touches of "Psycho" and surely an influence on "Fatal Attraction" and others. It's notable that Clint's films have good roles for actresses (this one, "Million Dollar Baby", "Changeling", etc) and that he allows his other actors to have their time in the spotlight since Clint the director isn't overly generous to Clint the actor unlike certain other actor/directors (cough, Barbra Streisand, cough).
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    I remember that cameoing in a movie theatre in Dirty Harry.
    SdxjV59.jpg
    Thanks for reminding me of it {[]

    Lately, I went and saw Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and amidst the scathing reviews I heard from just about most my acquaintances, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it...not just the last 30 minutes. Takes place at one of my favourite eras in Hollywood with great cast, music and direction, as per usual. TONS of references and even a Bond spoof :D . Ultra-violence exists, but I cheered it on. I liked that Tarantino's "gang" cameos and casts here but it's a breakaway from what he's done. As much a hangout movie as Jackie Brown, with a twist.
    It seemed a bit like damage control when I was watching the movie, considering Weinstein, since he chose Roman Polanski to live right next door. Why was he dressed up like a discount Austin Powers, though? Not Pulp Fiction but above any recent movie he's done so far...and better than most movies released these days, on that score.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    North Country (2005)

    This is a drama based on real events in the US coal mining industry in the 1980's. Charlize Theron plays a member of the first group of women to work at the local coal mine. They endure horiffic bullying and sexual harassment (all types of harassment seen in the movieis talken from real cases in the mines). Theron's character sues the company for not doing anything to protect them.
    Charlize Theron was nominated to an Oscar for best actress in a leading role and Francis McDormand for best supporting actress. The cast and acting is first rate and include Sean Bean (who survives!), Woody Harleson, Jeremy Renner and Sissy Spacek. My only critisim against the film is the final court room scene. It's sentimental, unrealistic and better suited for a soap opera than a gritty quality drama like this. Even though this film is only fourteen years old I started thinking of how rarely we see this type of films in the cinema: films about working class people , dealing with controversial issues and centered on women, but still with stars in the cast and a fairly high budget. Today many will think of action francises and superheroes with some of the cast now.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    I remember that cameoing in a movie theatre in Dirty Harry.
    SdxjV59.jpg
    Thanks for reminding me of it {[]

    My pleasure. While shooting Dirty Harry director Don Siegel was indisposed for the shooting of one scene so Clint Eastwood (who had directed some TV before) took over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nglh-BExEus
    Clint repaid the favour by casting Siegel (who had directed him in 4 previous movies- Coogan's Bluff, Two Mules For Sister Sara, The Beguiled, Dirty Harry) as a friendly bartender in Misty.
  • AimForBondAimForBond CanadaPosts: 4MI6 Agent
    BladeRunner 2049
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Halloween 3 : The season of the Witch.

    I love how they tried something different with this Halloween movie. It's an almost
    Horror James Bond film, with a Villain out to attack the world.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Looker ( 1981) a great sci-fi thriller with Albert Finney and James Coburn. From the
    Writer Michael Crichton, who gave us West-world and Jurassic Park.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff
    Just when you thought Keanu Reeves had stopped making awful movies, along comes. . .Replicas! Keanu is at his worst, delivering his lines as if he can't make sense of the words he's saying. But this isn't all his fault: the dialogue is cliche and just plain bad, and the supporting performances range from wooden to hammy. Oh, it's about a genetic engineer who clones his dead family. You know where it goes from there.
    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Robin Hood 2018 ............. oh Dear ! :#
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff
    The Man Who Killed Hitler and then the Bigfoot. With a title like that you'd expect a Roger Corman-like exploitation movie. Well, in some ways it is--the main character does both things--but as played by Sam Elliott (as the old version; Aidan Turner is the younger one) the man in question is deep, human, and ultimately moving. Really, this has it all: war, comedy, scifi/horror, love story, old age meditation. . .you've got to see it to believe it.
    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Leviathan ( 1989)
    An enjoyable B movie type horror, in the vein of " The Abyss " but on a cheaper budget.
    Good cast and some creepy moments, a cross between Alien and The Thing.

    Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ( 2016 )
    Not anywhere as funny as the title would suggest. A great idea for a comedy sketch
    but fails as a feature length story.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Prince of Darkness, ( 1987 )
    John Carpenter takes on the Anti Christ in this 80s Horror.

    Galaxy of Terror ( 1981 )
    A space horror from The House of Roger Corman, an Alien rip off, but It's one of those
    films I'd read about and finally got round to watching. One odd fact about it is that
    James Cameron worked as set designer on it before moving on to greatness. :D
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    Avengers Endgame

    To be honest I'm not a big fan of this genere (with a few exeptions) since they rely too much on CGI. But a movie should be judged by to what extent it manages to be what it wants to be, and I think this one succeeds. A big plus for Chris Hemsworth who dares to portray Thor as a fat drunk :))
    He is picked up in a Tönsberg that looks like it's in Scotland or Iceland, but gets full marks for wearing a knitted cardigan that's 100% Norwegian. I don't have one myself, but many of my friends do.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    Once upon a time …… in Hollywood

    What I don't like so much is Tarantino's tendency to include extremely violent scenes and make them in a way that funny. I know his stories are about movies are about movies and not life, but I still often find it jarring. I felt the most violent scenes don't really fit the rest of the movie and it would be a even better film if he changed the most gory scenes.

    Agree. I do quite like his films (Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds especially) but the level of extreme violence and gore he insists on including, don't sit well with me and detract from my complete enjoyment of his films. Just seems OTT to shock for the sake of it.

    A succinct review, I didn't get time to bang on about this film. In fairness, I didn't 'get' the ending which has a twist of sorts, which I don't want to get into. Suffice to say Once Upon A Time... is the way you start a fairytale, and you get two kinds, the nasty Grimm fairytale and the Happy Ever After kind.

    The film is a bit of a shaggy dog story and only after did I realise it's supposed to be.

    But yeah, it's like in too many recent films QT suddenly says, you know, I've done the set-up and I've got you going - now I'm just going to trash it all and be damned, take it where I want! Have a laugh with it, after all, it's my ball and I can do what I want with it!
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff
    The Liquidator (1965/66--I've heard both given as its year of release), based on the first of John Gardner's Boysie Oakes novels. Rod Taylor is pretty good as the cowardly hero, and there's a fine supporting cast of Trevor Howard, David Tomlinson, and Jill St. John in her pre-Bond girl days. There's good stuff here, but I found it kind of poky and honestly I couldn't tell if it was trying to parody Bond or be a serious Bond-style thriller (there's even a pre-title sequence and a [bad] title song crooned out by Shirley Bassey). Another weird element: the American St. John tries her hand at an English accent, but the Australian Taylor puts on an accent that is. . .American-ish? Anyway, two and a half stars, if I'd be rating it.
    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    The Third Man 1949

    My best friend bought us tickets to go see this classic on the big screen. It had been newly restored, and looked fantastic. Before the film proper, we were treated to film of a zither player explaining the technicalities of the instrument and the score and afterwards to a filmed interview with one of the last surviving crew members (Angela Allen). All fascinating.

    The movie itself was as good as it has always been. Iconic cinematography, classic story, that wonderful music, and the timeless performances from Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli (heartbreaking), Trevor Howard, and some chap named Orson Welles. Film noir done British style. The war-ruined city of Vienna is the backdrop and provides much of the atmosphere.

    Our first "M" Bernard Lee had a substantial supporting part, and future Minister of Defence Geoffrey Keen a one or two line bit. Guy Hamilton was assistant director (and doubled for Welles in some scenes). John Glen (uncredited) worked on the film too, I think it was his first, hence the references in TLD (the balloons, the Ferris wheel).
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent
    Eh? Did you come down to London to see that Barbel, or catch a showing in Scotland? The London one was a month ago!

    I saw the one in London Piccadilly, film author Matthew Sweet introduced it. Yes, plenty of Bond references as you've pointed out. Excellent stuff, though it wasn't a Q&Q with questions from the audience. I would have asked if anything was left on the cutting room floor, or how it compared to other Greene movies. Two endings he didn't come up with: this one, and the final scene of Brighton Rock which takes the ending and turns it on its head with quite affecting ingenuity.

    That zither went on a bit beforehand! I rushed my 90-year-old Dad to get to the opening, only we had to sit thru that!
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    Hi NP, it was at the GFT (Glasgow Film Theatre) on Sunday. The zither player, Matthew Sweet, etc, were all on film both before and after the main feature as said above.
  • Sir Hillary BraySir Hillary Bray College of ArmsPosts: 2,174MI6 Agent
    The Day Shall Come

    A tragi-farce from Chris Morris, in which Moses Al-Shabazz, a hapless and mentally unstable (but ultimately harmless) Miami street preacher/urban farmer, is targeted by unscrupulous FBI agents as an easy mark for a domestic terrorism arrest, if only they can entrap him into doing something incriminating.

    I was unfamiliar with Morris before seeing this; those of you in the UK probably know him better than I do, as he's had a long career as a radio and TV satirist. His previous film, Four Lions, about a group of inept UK jihadis, seems to be well-regarded (I've not seen it).

    The Day Shall Come plays like an absurdist farce for most of the time, before shifting into a real tragedy late on. Tonally, it's very much like The Death of Stalin, not surprising given that Morris has long collaborated with Armando Ianucci, who made that film. The Death of Stalin was my favorite movie from 2018, and while this one isn't as good, it definitely kept my attention throughout. Marchánt Davis (also completely new to me) is superb as Moses, and the main FBI goofballs are played by the ever-reliable Anna Kendrick and Denis O'Hare.

    All in all, I recommend this to anyone who can find it. You'll laugh at the absurdity, but the farce contains a deeper warning that is anything but absurd.
    Hilly...you old devil!
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent
    Yesterday

    One shouldn't critique something which is really only a decent inflight movie, as you probably know it's about a struggling musician who has a bike accident during a worldwide blackout and upon awaking from a coma finds that only he knows who The Beatles are, to the rest of the world they never happened. So he sets about pilfering their songs for his own benefit.

    The main problem with this conceit, of course, is that the Beatles' songs really were ruddy awful.

    When he starts up playing Yesterday, saying a great guitar deserves a great song, and his mates start to choke up and cry, asking who wrote it... sounds like they're just sucking up to Macca. It's a nursery school tune with greeting card lyrics.

    Now before the likes of Loeffs start to pm Barbel to wonder what someone has done with NP and should the police get involved, before realising the new NP might well be an improvement on the old one and maybe even likes Daniel Craig as Bond, I should say I am half-trolling here and am about to post my rave review of With The Beatles on the Vinyl thread, mark you I'd only recommend it on mono vinyl on the yellow Parlophone label and not on CD or iTunes or anything.

    Now Yesterday may have been covered more than any song in history but if that's true, how come none of the other covers are any good? Matt Monroe's version is awful, unlistenable. I'v got Monroe's Greatest Hits and you have Born Free, Softly As I Leave You, FRWL, On Days Like These and Walk Away, all classics, then he does this and it's drek.

    The record of Yesterday is brilliant. But it's got to be The Beatles, so sung and played by Macca and arranged by George Martin.

    This applies to a great many Beatle classics, with few exceptions.

    Ironically, the song in this film that works best is the playout, Obla-di Obla dah, and that's not seen as one of their best. But it is foolproof, as a band called Marmalade took it into the Top 5. There are others like that... Do You Want to Know A Secret got covered and was a hit, and Mary Hopkins Goodbye - a Macca tune - is also lovely.

    But stuff like Hey Jude or Something - I never warmed to versions by Shirley Bassey.

    Ironically some of the Beatles' solo output might translate better. Band on the Run is by any reckoning a great song. Happy Xmas War is Over also works well in any hands and so would Harrison's All Things Must Pass. The film doesn't really touch on this.

    Still you don't really see a film like this to have these questions raised.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    :)) I've still to see that one, opinions seem to vary widely on it.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent
    Richard Curtis films need a great lead such as Hugh Grant; Four Weddings originally cast Alan Rickman I understand but just as Grant would not have been good as Hans Gruber going after John McClane, I can't see Rickman working in this role!

    The lead in this Himesh Patel is okay but not excellent, I suppose as he's Asian I'm in dodgy ground when I say he wears the harassed expression of the Indian guy in The Big Bang Theory, he actually seems to have more star power with his beard at the beginning of the film, where he seems to have more of the Russell Brand manner about him. That said, it's a boon to have an Asian in a film who is pushing 30 and a bit of a loser and don't have his parents bearing down on him saying why can't you be a doctor or a lawyer - it breaks that stereotype and it does have a surprisingly positive social effect to have an Asian as a lead in a film like this rather than as the sidekick.

    Ed Sheeran is in it a lot and does well, no duff acting at all. In another film he'd turn out to be a jealous character or something, to send himself up, but it's not that kind of movie - it's not Paul Simon in Annie Hall, or Ricky Gervais' Extras, and maybe just as well.

    Would-be Bond director Danny Boyle directed; it's okay and serviceable but no Bond fan watching will think they missed out on anything special on this basis.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff
    Joker. It's been a long time since a film has left me with such mixed emotions. As I sat in the theater watching it I often felt uncomfortable. . .as one critic said, this is a movie where a mentally unbalanced loser turns into a serial killer. It's not pleasant watching: the killings are graphic and brutal, with none of the comic book over-the-topness that reminds you that this is just a movie. Still, I found a lot to admire: Joaquin Phoenix is damned brilliant in the part, and you can't help but be fascinated by his performance. The production design is also incredible, invoking Scorsese films like Taxi Driver and evoking the ethos of a lot of 1970s films that the city is just a metaphor for hell. And certainly the filmmakers strive for relevance: I halfway expected to see that the script was written by Democratic presidential aspirants Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as the film shows Gotham City as a place where the poor and lower-middle class are routinely brutalized by the rich elite. Thomas Wayne--a sainted figure in the comic book, as he's a multimillionaire who chooses to practice medicine and devote a lot of his time and money to the poor--is here a cold and indifferent plutocrat who lives on a gated estate and narcissistically believes he's Gotham's "savior." And Joker's first victim--the death of whom turns the J-man into a folk hero--is a Wall Street type played by an actor who is a dead (no pun intended) ringer for Donald Trump Jr., even down to the hairstyle. So, anyway, do I recommend Joker? Dunno. This is one you just have to see for yourself and make up your own mind.
    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • BIG TAMBIG TAM Wrexham, North Wales, UK.Posts: 773MI6 Agent
    JOKER: Quite simply, fantastic. From the opening 1970s Warner Bros logo it doesn't put a foot wrong. Set in 1981, Arthur Fleck's essentially a kindhearted soul but one of life's failures. Forced into psychosis by a cruel turn of events & a society that doesn't give a damn about a fragile state of mind. Unable to hold down a proper job due to a Tourettes-style laugh he literally plays the clown to make ends meet. Living with his doting mother doesn't help & he continually flits between blissful fantasy & brutal reality. A set of circumstances cause him to be fired & a downward spiral propels him into a world of vengeful violence. There are more violent films but its intensity makes the violence more shocking. The film creeps up on you & gets under your skin. It takes its time. A blessing in this age of breakneck pace. Yes, it's unrelentingly grim but with a vice-like grip that doesn't let go. The film pays homage to many past classics, visually & thematically: DEATH WISH (1974), ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975), NETWORK (1976), TAXI DRIVER (1976), THE KING OF COMEDY (1982), MANHUNTER (1986), HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1991), THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991), FALLING DOWN (1993), SE7EN (1995) & FIGHT CLUB (1999) to name a handful. But it never feels like pastiche. This is very much its own film. In the title role an emaciated Joaquin Phoenix is magnificent. He moves from sympathy to hostility in a heartbeat & you're continuously tripped up as whether to like or loathe him. Fabulous soundtrack too made up of Bernard Herrmann style thrumming cellos (a la PSYCHO) & a spattering of well chosen tunes (to wit THAT'S LIFE, WHITE ROOM & ROCK & ROLL PART 2). I don't go to the cinema as much as I used to, or as much as I'd like to. There seem to be one too many blockbusters offset by a slew of worthy Oscar bait (which in their own way are equally formulaic). Texture has gone as studios play it safe to guarantee box office receipts. TV's taking over as the place for diversity. So I cling to a film like JOKER which bucks the trend of formula cinema. It gives me hope that my kind of cinema isn't entirely dead. Next up, Martin Scorsese's THE IRISHMAN this coming Sunday. I cannot wait.
  • Sterling ArcherSterling Archer Posts: 197MI6 Agent
    I watched live and let die for a second time and I enjoyed it a lot more than my first time around. It was a bit of a jarring introduction to Moore the first time I saw it but the second time it was a really fun ride that had me laughing out loud.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Death Trench:
    Basically zombies in the trenches of WW1. Not great but it's on Amazon prime
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    edited October 2019
    I saw LTK on Friday and I think I haven't enjoyed it this much since I first watched it in the cinema. The film is perfectly tailored for Dalton, the plot is tight and very strong, there are many really good stunts, it feautures one of the best villans in the series, the girls are some of the better ones (perhaps not when it comes top physical beauty, but personality and story), Otomi is actually areally good location, David Hedison was the best Leiter before Jeffrey Wright and Q gets to go out in the field!
    There are Things that should have been fixed, but they are mainly tweeks. The bigger changes I would have liked is rewriting the final telephone call with Felix and moving bar fight where Bond picks up Pam from Bimini to Thailand or Cambodia. It would be a night scene, so it wouldn't cost much. I never minded the "ninjas" and the winking fish.
    In my current opinion LTK is the best Bond film of the 1980's.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Horror Express :
    Peter Cushing Christopher Lee and Telly Savalas all stuck on a train with an evil alien killing
    all round the place. Fun 70s horror film. I love the line at one point when Cushing and Lee
    are being questioned about how they could be the evil killer, to which Cushing replies something
    like " Don't be ridiculous We're British " :D
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth :

    Another spoof of Scream, and I found it very funny. :D
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
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