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| gromit |
 Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:35 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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bartist wrote:
Saw A Woman, A Gun, and a Noodle Shop last night -- or the 45 minutes I could stand. Gromit has it right -- the director can't do comedy. Or the humor is getting lost in translation.
I had kind of blanked the experience out.
But now I recall that the second half is better -- not good, but tolerable, when the pace picks up and it more closely follows the plot of Blood Simple. The first half is excruciating with some very broad, irritating humor attempts. I still have no idea why the landscape is so weirdly color-filtered to look all surreal and glowing.
It's really such a weird failure; I have no idea who it was trying to appeal to. The first half humor reminds me of the broad character sketches common on Chinese New Year gala shows. You know, fun for the whole family pablum. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 12:31 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Are there any good brain tumor movies? Phenomenon -- no. Autumn in New York -- no. Trying to think...
Another contender is today's Gus Van Sant release Restless, about a girl with a b.t. She's played by Mia Wasikowska, the current go-to girl for quirky. It sounds unwatchable but will probably be watched by many. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 12:42 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| How come it's always women who have the cinematic brain tumors? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 12:54 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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carrobin wrote: How come it's always women who have the cinematic brain tumors?
Read back. This conversation started with my description of The Music Never Stopped, about a male brain tumor, but just as sappy as the female kind. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:35 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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carrobin wrote: How come it's always women who have the cinematic brain tumors? |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 4:15 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I'm watching Siskel and Ebert's 1978 recap, and I'm impressed that one of them picked The Medusa Touch and the other The Wild Geese for their worst of the year, both of them starring Richard Burton ("Medusa Touch" also has Robert Vaughn). As Roger says about "Medusa Touch", "It makes a convincing case for the possibility that Richard Burton is not only one of the best actors of our time, but on his bad days, one of the worst." [The Medveds had Burton as their worst actor, specifying the bad Burton.) The clips shown bear it out. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 4:37 pm |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 5:05 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| (moved to current...HTF did I get over here??) |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 5:49 pm |
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I have a great liking for The Wild Geese. I was advised to buy stock in Allied Artists, which I did. Nothing much happened, then they got the rights to the distribution of The Wild Geese, with those name actors. The stock went up and up and up. I sold half of mine and the other half when it seemed like the company was in trouble. Came out with a big profit. My friend, a film distributor got the film for a screening because he also had money in Allied Artists. That's where I saw the film. It wasn't all that bad. Not good, but hell, it made me money.
Oh yeah, Allied Artists went broke a short time later. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:24 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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marantzo wrote: I have a great liking for The Wild Geese. I was advised to buy stock in Allied Artists, which I did. Nothing much happened, then they got the rights to the distribution of The Wild Geese, with those name actors. The stock went up and up and up. I sold half of mine and the other half when it seemed like the company was in trouble. Came out with a big profit. My friend, a film distributor got the film for a screening because he also had money in Allied Artists. That's where I saw the film. It wasn't all that bad. Not good, but hell, it made me money.
Oh yeah, Allied Artists went broke a short time later.
The Medusa Touch looks to be the worse of the two films. Burton's playing a telekinetic who causes various disasters such as airplane crashes and a cathedral. The scene I saw was the airplane crash which looks pretty cheesy. I notice both films are considerably higher rated on IMDb than Boom!, Hammersmith is Out! or The Assassination of Trotsky and way above Exorcist II.
Right in the middle of this run, he did Equus and got his seventh and final Oscar nomination. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 6:56 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner was a movie I fell in love with at first viewing in 1962 and saw many times in the movie theater (the only way you could see movies in those far-off days). Hadn't seen it since '62 until now, and I'm thrilled to say it hasn't lost one iota of its punch. Tom Courtenay is stunning in the role of a juvenile delinquent whose rebellion takes an unusual form and has a never-to-be-forgotten impact. I expected the brilliant ending to retain its force, but was a little trepidatious about the rest of it. No need. The movie, beautifully directed by Tony Richardson and photographed by Wlater Lassally, is still one of the greatest films of the 60s, and unfortunately a forgotten one. In the canon of "angry young men" works, it easily beats Look Back in Anger, This Sporting Life, and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. They're all worthy, but TLOTL-DR is in a class by itself. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 8:33 am |
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| I also saw The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner when it played in Paris. Courtenay was terrific. The movie was a knock out. I saw This Sporting Life around the same time. I would put it in the same league. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was good, but not great. The first time I saw Look Back In Anger I loved it. When I went to see it again I still loved it. When i saw it many years later I found it hard to watch. Way over the top and Burton got very annoying indeed. It didn't take long to lose any sympathy for the screaming whiner. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 12:43 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| I've viewed early Courtenay -- Billy Liar, Long Dist. Runner, Zhivago -- and he always seemed to be superb. I am less up on Bates, but seems like he was sort of in that AYM school starting out, too. I don't suppose anyone here is conversant with early Alan Bates films. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 2:40 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: I don't suppose anyone here is conversant with early Alan Bates films.
Either this is a deadpan joke or you are not familiar enough with carrobin. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 5:51 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Hey, it's Sir Alan, you know.
Actually, he didn't make many of those kinds of movies (unless you count "Georgy Girl" in the genre), although "Look Back in Anger" gave him his first big role onstage. |
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