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| whiskeypriest |
 Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 8:08 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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A few more movies before the free stuff goes away....
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey/Desolation of Smaug
Two confessions: I liked the Lord of the Rings movies, and nearly obsessively reread the books in my youth. I do not mind changes to the books - it is not Holy Writ - but the changes made to the books here show just why the movies do not work: a devotion to effects over story (fighting mountains, a battle under the mountain), the devotion to "character development" instead of the characters themselves, and the strange need to add what appears to be an ill-considered romance. I did not mind, for instance, the expanded story regarding the Necromancer, since it links the Hobbit with the Lord of the Rings movies in a way the books couldn't, but the addition of Radaghast appears to be solely to fulfill the Jar-Jar Binks role.
Saving Captain Phillips
I may not have that title right. But it is a nice thriller, even if the outcome is not one of the thrills, since I remembered what happened. Barkhad Abdi was good, Hanks is always serviceable. My regret? Any movie with Cathy Keener in it should have more Cathy Keener in it.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
A rewatch, my wife's choice. But it is always nice to be reminded of just how much I hate Nia Vardalos.
Shoot the Piano Player
Which I really liked. Follows the story of a former concert pianist with a rather unsavory family, who has lost himself in the anonymity of playing the piano in a dive. Sort of a French New Wave take on Vertigo, except the obsession is the second love interest's. A nice blend of humor and drama, with comic relief villains who wind up a bit more dangerous than they first appear. Liked it a lot. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 9:35 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Quote: Any movie with Cathy Keener in it should have more Cathy Keener in it.
except synekdaky, ny. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 1:32 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Shoot the Piano Player is wonderful. Along with Jules and Jim, my favorite Truffaut. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:46 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Quote: Any movie with Cathy Keener in it should have more Cathy Keener in it.
except synekdaky, ny.
That's not her fault. No one actor is to blame for this misbegotten disaster. Definitely on my all-time worst ten list. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 6:57 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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bartist wrote: Quote: Any movie with Cathy Keener in it should have more Cathy Keener in it.
except synekdaky, ny. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 10:50 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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| Fans of Sideways might want to check out the 1962 Italian film which inspired it. Alexander Payne introduces Il Surpasso on the Criterion disc. A pretty good road movie, with a mismatched couple of guys, and various adventures. I liked how Vittorio Gassman is such an extrovert and makes himself the center of everything. Good film, and nice glimpse of Italy's boom years. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 11:46 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1931). Somewhat clunky in an early sound era way, but the best of the several versions I've seen of the story (including the good 1920 Barrymore version and The Nutty Professors). Frederic March is often good as Jekyll and superb as Hyde. I especially like the gusto with which he plays the early scenes as Hyde; you sort of like this monster. A feeling that doesn't last long as he turns Ivy's (Miriam Hopkins) life into a living hell.
This is a pre-code film, which makes for a very sexy Ivy (and a pretty sexy Muriel as well). In fact, a lot of scenes have a sexual charge you don't tend to see in Jekyll/Hyde films, which is why this version got cut when the Code started getting enforced. I don't know how much has been restored, but the version I saw on TCM wouldn't have passed the Code.
The film is noted for its transformation scenes, including a couple where Jekyll changes to Hyde or vice versa on camera. There are also widespread use of split screens, and whole minutes of looking through Jekyll's eyes. (And, if I remember, at least one through Hyde's eyes.) Nice cinematography, with Hyde leaping railing and his cape flapping, making him look like a bat. Jekyll's lab, like Rotwang's and Frankenstein's, was the inspiration for many mad scientists.
Paramount actually wanted John Barrymore to reprise his role (and he would have been very good), but he was under contract to another studio, so March, who had played a version of Barrymore on stage, got the part as the next best thing. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 10:52 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Caught first half of Anat of a Murder the other night, on my tablet (surprisingly watchable, the B/W helps on the size screen). Lee Remick....oh my. Glasses: steamed. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 11:56 am |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| She had quite the star charisma. Her early film roles, especially for me The Days of Wine and Roses (Leaving Las Vegas prototype?), were outstanding. Her dying at 55 used to be one of my arguments for atheism. I really wanted us to grow old together. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 10:46 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Back in SD, catching up...realize havent seen TDoWaR in 30 years, so in the que it goes and will consider your LLV comparison, knox. Drove 550 miles in a mitsu mirage, 37 mpg, but cant say much for the cabin noise - a banshee wail may arise at 72 mph if there is a slight misalign of passenger door. Which there will be, if anyone has slammed its tinfoil panels a trifle much.
World's Greatest Dad - am nearly speechless at intersecting brilliances of Bobcat and Robin - wow, instantly my favorite RW pic. TY, all who praised it here, would haave passed on it otherwise. 3rd Eye still a reservoir of film erudition, far from its sometimes semblance of moribundity, in spite of the extreme collective agedness of its assembled greybeards and misc. lurkers and such. Like Einsteins brain, it is small but remarkably convoluted. Not sure what I mean there...but that's part of the gemuttlich charm of the place, where pure logic takes a backseat and let's some deeper intuition drive. One apostrophe too many, so I bid you good night. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 6:48 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bartist--So glad you agree with me (and others) about the excellence of W'sGD. Bobcat's helming is equally amazing in Sleeping Dogs Lie, which I recommend wholeheartedly.
Your comments on Third Eye are right on the money, and you are an invaluable addition to the mix, my friend. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 7:27 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Back in SD, catching up...realize havent seen TDoWaR in 30 years, so in the que it goes and will consider your LLV comparison,
IMO Days of Wine and Roses and Leaving Las Vegas have virtually nothing in common except for the fact that both deal with alcoholism. LLV deals with an acknowledged alcoholic who is in the process of slowing killing himself on purpose. Days concerns two people in denial of their problem. Mike Figgis's direction of LLV is stylish and inventive. Blake Edwards slicks up the story of Days and allows Jack Lemmon to overact. Lemmon is always worth watching and often brilliant, but in this movie he hams it up. Remick is fine. But neither of them hold a candle to the original portrayers of these characters in the late-1950s television original--Piper Laurie and Cliff Robertson--who made the story unrelentingly grim but far more memorable. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 9:16 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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| The original TV version is available in the Criterion Golden Age of Television box set. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 3:24 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Leaving LV was based on a true story......sigh.
I remember seeing Anatomy of with my grandmother and my mother at a drive in when I was 12. Embarrassing. The summer before she died she was reading Lady Chatterley's Lover. We were at the beach. I was 14 and met my first boyfriend. She was painting a beach scene. I still have the painting. It's aged well. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 3:59 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Befade wrote: Leaving LV was based on a true story......sigh.
I remember seeing Anatomy of with my grandmother and my mother at a drive in when I was 12. Embarrassing. The summer before she died she was reading Lady Chatterley's Lover. We were at the beach. I was 14 and met my first boyfriend. She was painting a beach scene. I still have the painting. It's aged well.
Who are the "she"'s here? Your mother or your grandmother? |
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