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lshap
Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 9:27 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2004 Posts: 4246 Location: Montreal
Marantz -- Good call on Sweet & Lowdown. It may not displace my top 3 aforementioned Allen films but it's a very underrated effort.
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marantzo
Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 9:30 pm Reply with quote
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The final encounter with his father in FOD was just plain garbage and so blatantly obvious that I figured there's got to be a twist here, but no, it trundled along it's merry sappy way. And lest you think I'm a hard ass, I cry easily at movie and bad one's too, because it's easy to manipulate tears from an audience. No sign of quality at all. But sometimes it's so dumb that I don't have to worry about the embarrassment of crying at a really crass, lowest common denominator of a movie.
marantzo
Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 9:32 pm Reply with quote
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Thanks lshap for the support of my view. I take back what I said above.
Ghulam
Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 9:41 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4742 Location: Upstate NY
Although his Radio Days seldom gets mentioned, I thought it was a pretty good movie.
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Mr. Brownstone
Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 9:52 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 2450
Joe wrote about Field of Dreams:

"it's what they've got stored up inside them from their past. If it were twice as bad, I think most of them would still cry."

I think that's absolutely astute. Even if I didn't have the anxiety and estrangement from my father that Costner experiences, if my father died and returned, there are three things in the whole wide world I would do with him:

1. Take a drive in the country.

2. Sit on our back porch and have a beer.

3. Have a catch.

I'll freely admit the film may be a schlockfest, but touches on a naivete about the little America I thought I grew up in that was truly mythic, mysterious, glorious, and pure.

Sweet & Lowdown:

The final climactic scene in the movie where SPOILER ALERT Penn smashes his guitar is apparently a direct homage from another film, I was told, but I can't remember the inspirational source film. Any ideas?

Favorite Woody Allen flicks:

1. Bullets Over Broadway - the Karl Marx theory of sex is probably my favorite moment ever in a Woody Allen film
2. Crimes and Misdemeanors - Martin Landau is phenomenal in this: I would have had Anjelica Huston whacked, too, to be honest. Hysterical shrew…
3. Manhattan - Unfortunately, the sweet scene where Allen and Hemmingway go to the movies is now back-loaded with an kinds of unintended baggage due to Woody’s Soon-Yi fling
4. Annie Hall - Never could live up to the slobbering raves my friends in college gave this flick before I saw it, but pretty wonderful anyway
5. Bananas - Haven’t seen this in a while. Should probably rent it again. Delightful, I seem to remember in a very general way.

I just cannot get this fucking bold and italics command to work right.[/i][/list]

_________________
"My name is Gunnery Sergeant Major Highway. And I have drunk more beer, pissed more blood, banged more quiff and knocked more skulls than all you numbnuts put together." - Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge
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lshap
Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 9:57 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2004 Posts: 4246 Location: Montreal
Mr. Brownstone wrote:
The final climactic scene in the movie where SPOILER ALERT Penn smashes his guitar is apparently a direct homage from another film, I was told, but I can't remember the inspirational source film. Any ideas?


Howbout the unforgettably poignant scene on the frat-house stairs with John Belushi in Animal House.

I'm getting teary-eyed again. Shit - twice in one night...
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Mr. Brownstone
Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 9:59 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 2450
Um... no, I don't think that's it.

I never found the guitar scene in Animal House to be as funny as when Belushi dumps the mustard on his own chest.

_________________
"My name is Gunnery Sergeant Major Highway. And I have drunk more beer, pissed more blood, banged more quiff and knocked more skulls than all you numbnuts put together." - Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge
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Joe Vitus
Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 10:24 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Lshap,

Marantzo already answered my take on whether it takes a good movie or not to manipulate tears. I want to add that, since so few movies have dealt with the estrangement between fathers and sons, Field of Dreams has it particularly easy.

Having said that, although I dislike the movie, that isn't because it is so manipulative. It just doesn't touch me. I have absolutely no problem with people liking a movie just because it gets to the mawkish, sentimental part of them. There are movies I love for just that reason. Field of Dreams simply isn't one of them.

Billy,

Don't know how to respond to your Annie Hall post. I think the movie is anything but slight, and makes the most resonant statement about romance of any movie in the past two generations: that being transitory doesn't make it any less real, or important. Most movies want you to think people meet, fall in love, and stay that way forever (or find they were not "really" in love to begin with). Annie Hall says people fall in love for real, and then fall out of love, or fall into a different kind of love. I think that's much more significant than the silly adulteries or underage dippings in Manhattan. I also love the mixture of styles. The animation, the dream sequences, the scene where Alvy and Rob are walking down the street, and the camera holds on the empty space until they arrive. It's got a great, sloppy look. And I think it's a much more alive, much more energetic movie than Manhattan.

One thing I hate about the DVD: when the subtitle scene comes on, it says "subtitle" above the lines. Wish it could be gotten rid of.
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Marj
Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 11:19 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan
Where to begin?

Marilyn, I loved what Jeremy Northram did in Gosford Park. Is he as great on the S/T as I remembered?

I admit to being a lover of Field of Dreams, I'm sure for all of the reasons the Lorne stated. I also happen to love the history that the films touches upon. I think if Shoeless Joe Jackson somehow, miraculously landed in Central Park, I'd be teary eyed too! And here's a shocker. I hate Kevin Costner. Someday, try this. Put on one of his films, and close your eyes. Just listen to his voice. When Pam said he is flat, I shook my head because what I think is flat is his voice. I know great actors aren't judged by their voices, but this guy has such a bad monotone, I personally cannot get by it!!

I promise I'm working on the HTML Codes. Rolling Eyes
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Mr. Brownstone
Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 12:29 am Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 2450
I'm watching Matrix: Reloaded right now.

I'll be damned if I understand what the hell is going on.

I feel like a 17th century frontiersman watching a car chase.

_________________
"My name is Gunnery Sergeant Major Highway. And I have drunk more beer, pissed more blood, banged more quiff and knocked more skulls than all you numbnuts put together." - Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge
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Marj
Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 12:38 am Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan
Mr. B - You just described exactly how I reacted to it too!!
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shannon
Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 1:32 am Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 1628 Location: NC
Quote:
I feel like a 17th century frontiersman watching a car chase.


HA!
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Marc
Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 1:56 am Reply with quote
Joined: 19 May 2004 Posts: 8424
I LOVE OUR NEW WEBSITE, BUT ITS TOO ACCESSORIZED. IT REMINDS ME OF ONE THOSE TRICKED OUT GHETTO BLASTERS.
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Joe Vitus
Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 4:25 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Marj,

BIG WELCOME! Glad to finally see you here.

Marc,

I, too, love this site. Personally, I wish we had cookies that would take us to the last post we read, à la that other site. But I love everything else. I'm really happy to be here.
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billyweeds
Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 7:03 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
Alec Guinness gives a performance in "Tunes of Glory" which is mind-boggling. It may be my favorite film performance of them all. First of all, it's exciting because it is so different from Guinness's other work. Guinness is a supreme artist, but almost always in a very low-key vein. He is a great underactor; even in his funniest comedies, he gets his laughs as a sort of sound-movie version of Buster Keaton In "Tunes" he turns up the volume and raises the stakes to a degree where for a while (maybe his first couple of scenes) you're scared he can't sustain the level of over-the-topness he establishes.

His character, Jock Sinclair, is the most popular good-old-boy in a Scottish regiment, is a drunken asshole who also happens to be a great guy. He's the temporary commander of the regiment and his relationship with the other men is swiftly established early on by Guinness and a superb supporting cast (Dennis Price, Gordon Jackson, etc.) directed insightfully by Ronald Neame, whose career peak this indisputably is.

His position is usurped by the man taking over the reins, one Basil Barrow, whose name sums him up. A by-the-book martinet with serious neurotic tics, Barrow is a product of school ties and is the heir apparent to the regiment. John Mills is so amazing in the role that in any other film he'd walk away with the acting honors.

The female side of the ledger includes (only) Susannah York in a charming movie debut as Guinness's daughter and the fantastic Kay Walsh in a marvelously written role as his girlfriend/fuck-buddy.

What happens in the plot I wouldn't dream of telling, nor would it really help you understand the beauty of this movie. Suffice it that the story is compelling from start to finish, and there are a few genuine surprises in store. It's a great movie. And if Guinness's final scene doesn't leave you in awe, please keep it a secret from me. I wouldn't want to think those things about you.
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