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| gromit |
 Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:18 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Little Malcolm and His Struggles Against the Eunuchs is fairly good. Not as weird as I'd hoped really. One art school dropout decides to form a political movement to avenge his expulsion, and he has two lackeys who fall in line behind his demagoguery. I like how we hear a whole load of generalized indictment against his enemy, but the arch-nemesis is never seen.
There's a lot of Big Talk and little action. Some amusing dialogue. It kind of fits in with some Monty Python at times, and is a definite forerunner of the silly arguments that pepper Withnail & I.
I really liked the opening scene when Malcolm Skrawdyke is trying to coax himself out of bed mid-afternoon.
"Get up. Get. Up. Stop theorizing about it and just do it. It's the will to action. Action, that's what's important ... But what initiates the action? Maybe some unseen force is in play. Air currents. Or ..."**
Then his enthusiasm when he finally bolts out of bed:
"Done it! Done it! Self-mastery, that."
Being an early 70's film, there's a good deal of conflating sex and politics, and sexual politics. Impotency and overplanning are running themes, as the initial bed scene underscores.
** actual dialogue may vary.
Whoever proposed Little Malcolm & the Eunuchs as a good rock band name -- NOBODY joins a rock band to be called a eunuch. Trust me on this. |
Last edited by gromit on Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:56 am; edited 1 time in total
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:21 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| The Ides of March is one silly movie. Terrible story. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:31 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Quote: Whoever proposed Little Malcolm & the Eunuchs as a good rock band name -- NOBODY joins a rock band to be called a eunuch. Trust me on this.
Heh, heh. I think whoever (cough) suggested it had in mind one of those bands that names itself in an ironic and self-deprecating fashion.
Ghulam, like Big Dan Teague in "O Brother Where Art Thou," I salute you for your terseness in going to the heart of the matter. Several performances were worth watching, in spite of the film as a whole - esp. Wood. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 10:00 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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| Ides of March was awfully sloppy in its plotlines. A film which was harmed by having stars behind it who could get their film made too easily. Would have been better if a writer came up with the idea, let it marinate, received criticism over the years, and honed the script until it made sense and worked. I did like Giamatti and PS Hoffman as the campaign managers. But that was about it. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 10:01 am |
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Ghulam wrote: The Ides of March is one silly movie. Terrible story.
Great cast. I won't be seeing it. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:41 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Thanks Gary for keeping us up-to-date on films you won't be seeing. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:19 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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| Idea of March isn't a train wreck or anything. It's just the type of film you watch half of on cable .... |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:30 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Marc, have you watched any of the BFI Flipside series, either back in the day or more recently?
Lots of 60's and 70's films about hippies, and drug users, and outcasts and sexuality.
I've been reviewing some the past month or so.
More, Voice-Over, and Little Malcolm and His Struggles with the Eunuchs are all quite good. Private Road and Deep End were interesting in spurts but less successful.
I'd like to get a hold of Richard Lester's The Bed Sitting Room and Peter Watkins Privilege. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:21 am |
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| Moved to Current. |
Last edited by marantzo on Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:31 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:30 am |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:07 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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marantzo wrote: Ghulam wrote: The Ides of March is one silly movie. Terrible story.
Great cast. I won't be seeing it. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:23 am |
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| Beware The Ides Of March. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 2:29 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
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Finally started watching The Fall until I got a message that the disk was damaged and sent it back for another (after cleaning it and trying it on another machine). Which was really frustrating because it's one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. Some critics were bothered by the framing story, but it worked for me; essentially it comes down to putting yourself into someone else's shoes.
This was directed by the same director who did the equally beautifully filmed The Cell, which I also really liked and others were bothered by. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 8:00 am |
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| I liked The Cell also. Weird and visually quite a trip. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:27 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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The Monkees film Head is one sloppy film.
The idea is to have The Monkees slapped into all sorts of different genres of movies -- kind of like all their TV episodes squashed into one film.
So there's a Lawrence of Arabia takeoff; a Golden Boy boxing spoof (amusingly with Davey Jones as the fighter, in the ring against Sonny Liston); a song and dance number; a Western, a war scene; a dandruff commercial with the Monkees as dandruff in Victor Mature's hair, etc.
It's all a big mish mash and The Monkees are disenchanted and trying to rebel against being manipulated, and constantly breaking the 4th wall. Jack Nicholson mostly wrote the film, trying to structure it as an acid trip. But it's just a messy variety show approach with trippy trappings.
I liked the dance number with Davey and Toni Basil ("Hey Mickey!). They filmed them dancing wearing black on white clothes in a white studio, and then again in reversed colors -- white on black clothes in a black studio. And then they edited these two together. Kind of fun. Some of the concert scenes were fine/good. And I liked the psychedelic colors when they are in the water -- the kind of manipulating it's now pretty easy to do to any picture on your computer, by simply clicking negative and then swapping colors.
But most of the film is just an incoherent mess. I listened to some of the Monkees commentary and they frequently say, You'd have to ask Jack what that means. The commentary was interesting as Nesmith paints himself as a totally naive back then; Dolenz talks about his childhood acting experience and how that prepared him for the media attention and demands of The Monkees success. Davey is kind of happy, optimistic and praises everyone for being so good and talented. I kind of lost Tork in the mix of voices. |
Last edited by gromit on Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
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