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| marantzo |
 Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 12:07 pm |
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"I think Close Encounters goes on too long,"
Yes indeed. And the crowd all staring at the spaceship etc. with a gosh golly smile in their faces was also something that looked silly to me. Normally I would think most would be looking and wondering what was going to happen, with a worried look. And when the aliens appear, you would think that they would be afraid at first. Oh well.
Another Spielberg ending that took the movie down a peg or two. Up to then it was quite good. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 12:23 pm |
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These are the films that Spielberg directed that I liked with no or very slight reservations.
Jaws
Raiders of the Lost Ark
ET
Always
Jurassic Park
Minority Report
Catch Me If You Can
The Terminal |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 12:32 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: These are the films that Spielberg directed that I liked with no or very slight reservations.
Jaws
Raiders of the Lost Ark
ET
Always
Jurassic Park
Minority Report
Catch Me If You Can
The Terminal
Never seen Always or The Terminal. I suppose I should, but something tells me to avoid them like 1941, and like I should have avoided The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the worst Spielberg I've ever seen. Also hated A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Amistad is a perfect example of Spielberg at his preachiest and most boring. Catch Me If You Can is entertaining up to a point although way too long IMO, but Minority Report is perhaps SS's most underrated film. Not by Roger Ebert, who ranked it #1 in its year, but by almost every other film critic. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:27 pm |
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I only saw Always once and I enjoyed it. It was interesting in a romantic/sci-fi (sort of, kinda) way. The Terminal was a nice film without any bad scenes that I remember. I saw it twice. You walk out of the theatre happy.
I didn't know that Minority Report got bad reviews. Makes no sense, it was very good.
Now that you mentioned Catch Me If You Can was overly long, I remember it being too long. Did like it though. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:52 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Lovelace is worth seeing...for the story and for the acting. Just the fact that I was shocked after watching the film to find out Sharon Stone had been in it. She was unrecognizable as Linda's mother. That's a good thing...shunning her glamorous sexy image.
I never would have picked Amanda Seyfried for Linda. Well, she became a brown eyed brunette and was mesmerizing. Peter Skarsgard was believably smarmy as Linda's husband who incredibly went on to marry Marilyn Chambers.
The movie does slant favor toward Linda. Still, it's history and it was funny to see Walter Cronkite do the news about Deep Throat being banned in NYC. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 2:01 pm |
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| I guess the ban of Deep Throat in NY was countered, because it was playing when I lived there. Never bothered to see it of course. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 2:04 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6954
Location: Black Hills
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Wow, we went into chat mode and I missed it! Minority Report - didn't know it was underrated. That and Jaws are my favorite Spielbergs.
I also prefer Gump, which for me had a satirical edge, to the Shawshank. The appeal of Shawshank escapes me (pun intended). But it probably did justice to the novella it was based on. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 2:25 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6954
Location: Black Hills
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William Friedkin apparently watched Double Indemnity, then Blood Simple, while smoking some strong weed, and then giggling maniacally went off to adapt a stageplay of Texas Fried Chicken Noir into a film called Killer Joe. (catching up on my McConaughey vehicles while I wait for the arrival of Dallas Buyer's Club in my 'hood) Loaded with trailer park stupidity and depravity, this is a filthy reeking steaming pile of Southern stereotypes....and what a hilarious steaming pile it is.
My search function let me down, but I think Marc recommended this (probably after seeing its premiere at SXSW, where the audience got to see a short reel of Friedkin standing in a concert hall in Vienna, introducing the film - it's on the DVD, and weirdly funny...) - and I thank him, quite belatedly.
I realize now that FRIED chicken is a dominant theme in a FRIEDkin film. Maybe by 2063 we will understand such correlations. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 3:09 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Skyscraper Souls (1932) and Employees Entrance (1933) are basically the same film. Warren William plays a ruthless boss in both films who chases after a young underling, gets caught up in a love triangle, gets shot by the other guy and in both cases covers up the crime pretending the shooting was an accident.
Skyscraper Souls takes a place in a building WW ones, though he's taken a shortcut or two and has to come up with a scheme or two to cover his debts. The cast consists of other workers in the building, and it's a good idea, especially when such towers such as the Empire State Building (1931) were all the rage. Employees Entrance has a less grand scale, with a large department store as the focal point. I'd be more tempted by Loretta Young, but Maureen O'Sullivan does a pretty good job in the role of good girl who gets her head turned by men and wealth. Both films have a nice cast of supporting players.
If I had known they were essentially the same film, I would have watched them in order -- with Skyscraper Souls first. In Souls, WarWill's assistant is his mistress, but he pushes her aside for her younger secretary. In Entrance, he's bedding the girlfriend/later wife of his protege.
The one thing I disliked about Skyscraper Souls was the assistant/mistress played by one Helen Coburn. She speaks in a British-style accent and is fairly wooden. I just looked her up on IMDb, and that appears to be her only film credit. Guess she wasn't exactly a hit. She also was born in LA, so that faux-British accent is just an upper-class affectation that grates on modern ears. Hedda Hopper plays WW's wife, who could care less that he plays around as long as he supplies her with money to romp around Europe. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 3:47 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| Gary....when have you ever stayed out of the loop? |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 6:18 pm |
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Befade wrote: Gary....when have you ever stayed out of the loop?
Betsy, I don't know what you mean. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 7:13 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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The lists of deserving Oscar winners are pretty much the same as I'd pick, and I might add that "Annie Hall" is one of my top five eternal favorites. Possibly partly because I'd just broken up with the one guy I was really crazy about (who was also an Allen fan) shortly before it opened, and it hit all kinds of buttons. Still does.
This morning I caught a TCM flick called "East Side, West Side," which I had a vague idea would star Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall, so when I saw that it was Barbara Stanwyck and James Mason (as well as Ava Gardner and Van Heflin), I was hooked. It was based on a Marcia Davenport novel and involved a murder, but it wasn't really a mystery. It certainly held my attention, though. (But then, put Mason on a screen and my attention is guaranteed.) |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 8:47 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12902
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I was watching The Goodbye Girl yet again and it occurred to me that Richard Dreyfus is one of the few actors to win an Oscar for doing Shakespeare, and the only one to win an Oscar for doing him in.
The others that come to mind (excluding West Side Story) are Lawrence Olivier, Ronald Colman and Gwyneth Paltrow, and I suppose you could include Judy Dench. Any other ones? |
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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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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 9:51 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Gary...I just meant that I'm sure you would not have missed a phenomenon like Deep Throat.
Now I'm netflix streaming Salinger and wanting to go back and read his stories. A movie was made of one of them. Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut. The title was changed. Salinger wasn't happy. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 11:00 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Darn, I meant to catch "The Goodbye Girl," though I've seen it several times. Dreyfuss used to come to our film class every semester--he said that it had always been his fantasy to sit in front of five hundred people and talk about himself--and he said he thought winning the Oscar meant he could take a break from movies for a while. (He was doing "Julius Caesar" when he got the award, and had a funny story about telling the other actors that there would be applause when he came onstage the night after he won, so they'd have to pause before his first lines--but there was no applause, and the other actors just gave him The Look.) So he took a year off from filming, and when he was ready to work again, it was like starting all over; he had a lot of trouble getting good roles, and made several little movies that went nowhere, like "The Competition."
He's an example of an actor with a big ego but a talent for humorous self-deprecation. And always a very popular guest for the class. (He winked at me once. I did love working for that class.) |
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