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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 3:26 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| bartist--Wow. Three for three, we both agree. (I can't even recommend the last one and the other two are awful.) |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 4:59 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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If I'm honest, I'd say I'm eminently unqualified to review that last one, because I tend to struggle with allegory as a genre. My guess is that the Saramago novel "Double" on which "Enemy" was based would be far more illuminating. And more coherent, but that's only a guess.
I will get round to "I See You" - had heard that it was nicely twisty, if lacking nuance. Ms Hunt has been fending off Nazis, and doing a fine job, in the current PBS/BBC series World on Fire which my wife is really into. I was drawn in more by Leslie Manville, who plays a rather conflicted and snotty mother of a British soldier whose gotten himself into a romantic mess. This is the series in which Sean Bean doesn't die. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon May 18, 2020 9:23 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Leslie Manville is a great actor(tress). Helen Hunt is very okay. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 1:18 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Watched a bunch of old romantic comedies where Audrey Hepburn is sweet and charming and paired up with some rather aging leading men. Sabrina finds 25 year old AH with Bogart; Ariane/Love in the Afternoon has 27 year old AH marry an old-looking Gary Cooper; and then the later Charade where Hepburn is around 33 and hooks up with grey-haired Cary Grant. Not surprisingly, Grant is the only one who can pull this off.
What was this all about?
Is it just the middle-aged screenwriter/producer fantasy that a great looking young woman would find someone of their type attractive? Or was Audrey Hepburn perceived as too classy for the newcrop of moody young stars, and her class seemed like a throwback that matched with the older generation? Both?
Anyway, kinda creepy. And it didn't help that the film I watched in the middle was The Major & the Minor, where Ginger Rogers pretends to be 11 (12 next week), and gets hit on by a whole army of men and boys. |
Last edited by gromit on Wed May 27, 2020 2:09 am; edited 1 time in total
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 6:25 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I've heard it said that there was a shortage of leading men of the right type, so yeah. Although she did have William Holden, who was in his mid thirties at the time of "Roman Holiday." |
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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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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 6:56 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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The Steel Helmet is Samuel Fuller's first major film and also the first major film set during the Korean War. Like a lot of Fuller's films, he didn't have a huge budget, so he created an intimate movie about the experiences of survivors from various units combining in the face of a major North Korean invasion. Much of the later part of the film is set in a Buddhist temple which is a character in itself. (Most of the scenes take place in a forest set or the temple.) No name actors I noticed, and considering that the lead actor is Gene Evans, who was usually a supporting type outside of Fuller films, I wouldn't expect any. He's playing a grizzled sergeant whose unit was slaughtered and is made for the part.
Quite effective, and worth a shot. Fuller was in the infantry himself and used his experiences in the film. |
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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: Wed May 27, 2020 4:32 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Syd wrote: I've heard it said that there was a shortage of leading men of the right type, so yeah. Although she did have William Holden, who was in his mid thirties at the time of "Roman Holiday."
Don't know whether you meant this or not, but William Holden was NOT in "Roman Holiday." It was Gregory Peck. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 4:32 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Syd wrote: The Steel Helmet is Samuel Fuller's first major film and also the first major film set during the Korean War. Like a lot of Fuller's films, he didn't have a huge budget, so he created an intimate movie about the experiences of survivors from various units combining in the face of a major North Korean invasion. Much of the later part of the film is set in a Buddhist temple which is a character in itself. (Most of the scenes take place in a forest set or the temple.) No name actors I noticed, and considering that the lead actor is Gene Evans, who was usually a supporting type outside of Fuller films, I wouldn't expect any. He's playing a grizzled sergeant whose unit was slaughtered and is made for the part.
Quite effective, and worth a shot. Fuller was in the infantry himself and used his experiences in the film.
Saw "The Steel Helmet." Really excellent. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 5:21 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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billyweeds wrote: Syd wrote: I've heard it said that there was a shortage of leading men of the right type, so yeah. Although she did have William Holden, who was in his mid thirties at the time of "Roman Holiday."
Don't know whether you meant this or not, but William Holden was NOT in "Roman Holiday." It was Gregory Peck.
That's right, Holden was in "Sabrina" with Hepburn and Bogart. Peck was also in his mid-thirties.
Fred Astaire was in his late fifties when he starred opposite Hepburn in "Funny Face." |
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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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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu May 28, 2020 4:41 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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A weird aspect of Sabrina is that it draws attention to the age difference.
She starts off infatuated with Holden who is reasonably close to her age, but then falls for his older brother Bogart who looks a lot older than Holden. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu May 28, 2020 11:40 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Recent views
The End of All things - grotesque but beautifully shot art film set in a post-apocalyptic Wales. It's about how humans need to believe in something unseen, and has some provocative and haunting moments. Until it degenerates into a rather misogynistic plot line and murder and cannibalism. One is also called upon to believe that the apocalypse has caused a climate where it rarely rains and the sun never shines, yet Wales has kept up with photosynthesis and stayed remarkably green. It doesn't matter, it's more allegory than sci-fi.
The Old Man and the Gun - Robert Redford as the famous "gentleman bank robber" Forrest Tucker* which Redford said would be his swan song. Bob turns 84 this summer, so I can almost believe him.
He's great, as are his robbery assistants Tom Waits and Danny Glover, and the whole ensemble has some fun with what is a fairly predictable plot, and the overall sedate tone allows for the emergence of Redfordian charm.
Virus - a Japanese film, 1982, full of American 60/70s TV actors, in which cheesiness ratchets up to levels usually found only in cheese factories. Every so often it cuts away from sweating men in submarines or distraught scientists in labs or sinister German agents to women in a Tokyo topless bar, presumably so we can learn how the pandemic virus impacts all facets of quotidian life. Despite this attempt to stimulate my lower chakras, I drifted to sleep somewhere around minute 50. One scene, though I was barely awake so I could be wrong, seemed to present Antarctica as having trees.
Hmm.
* Maybe that's why he liked aliases so much. A man can only take so many F Troop jokes, right? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 10:39 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Rewatched Borat, though might have dozed for 30 mins in the middle. It was late.
It's rather episodic and scene endings get cut short. I guess that's the price of guerrilla filmmaking.
Baron Cohen is really committed and pushes things far and you find yourself laughing despite the stupidity. Such as the nude wrestling spilling into the Mortgage Convention. Or the redneck rodeo where he sings praise to Kazakhstan to the American national anthem. I assume having a film crew insulates him somewhat and allows people to let things go on longer than otherwise.
His physical comedy is terrific. Such as when he's Kazakh dancing, or US dancing, or running alongside a bus in NYC. I also really like when his suitcase opens on the subway and chickens break loose.
The costuming is really good. Especially his thong bathing suit with shoulder straps. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun May 31, 2020 12:31 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Having a tight deadline for getting my apartment ready for possible buyer views, I have of course been distracted by TCM a lot lately (and of course the apartment is still a mess). But last night I caught "Spiderman: Homecoming" on the FX channel; I'm not really an Avengers follower (the word still means Steed & Mrs. Peel to me), but I'd heard good things about this one, and it was quite enjoyable. I hadn't known that Michael Keaton was the villain--and he lived up to Billyweeds' praise, with his good-neighbor looks compromised by his menace-or-mischief? eyebrows; the "dad to daughter's date" chat in the car at the dance was pretty terrifying. I also liked the special effects and, as usual, the glimpse of Stan Lee at a window. Spotting him always makes me feel cool.
I also caught "Beetlejuice" on another channel recently, which I hadn't seen since film class. I liked it then and I like it now. It's a real Keaton way-over-the-top performance, fun for everyone.
Somehow it's very soothing to watch old movies, where people gather in groups and eat at restaurants and dance and argue and nobody wears a face mask (except sometimes in the Avengers flicks). I wonder whether things will ever be quite so relaxed again. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2020 10:12 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Had a similar thought about the escape to "normal" unmasked life that film offers. Things pretty crazy in my town. And the town my kids live in, where peaceful protestors have been gassed and shot rubber bullets at by police....and paintballs fired from MAGA nuts passing in trucks. A building next door to my father's last residence burned down. Ah how I long for the good old days when all we had was corrupt governance, rage tweets, and viral pandemic. Simpler times.
Beetlejuice I need to re-watch, if only to watch a graduate from my high school faceplant in his dinner (Dick Cavett).
Hope your move goes smoothly, what with all the current events. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2020 6:37 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I saw a description of 2020 as a rerun of 1968 combined with the Great Depression. |
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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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