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Post by Hoosier X on May 5, 2016 8:38:54 GMT -5
Young Victorian Australian lady, where are your shoes? I saw Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) last night. I watched the last half of it a few years ago and I've been wanting to see the whole thing to see if there are any clues in the earlier part of the movie to help the viewer solve the mystery. What is vegemite? Just kidding! Picnic at Hanging Rock is about a bunch of Australian schoolgirls who go on a picnic in the outback. Four of the girls go exploring the lava mountain known as Hanging Rock while everyone is asleep. And only one returns! Most of the movie is about the search, and the effect of the loss on the other students and on the school. One of the girls turns up in a cave a week later, suffering from a few scrapes and exposure, and missing her shoes and stockings and her corset. But she doesn't remember a thing. A haunting film. Very pretty and very dream-like. I don't recommend it for people who get frustrated with movies that keep their secrets locked up. But otherwise, it's very compelling and very entertaining. Nope. No vegemite in here.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on May 5, 2016 9:30:12 GMT -5
My sister loved that film but I never saw it. Maybe it's time to change that! I do love films that keep their secrets locked up!
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 5, 2016 13:19:08 GMT -5
America's Sweethearts (2001) Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, Catherine-Zeta Jones, John Cusack, Stanley Tucci, Hank Azaria, Christopher Walken, Seth Green, Alan Arkin, Larry King
Catherine and John are Hollywood's most popular romantic/ comedy movie stars. But their marriage is now on the rocks. Christopher Walken is an eccentric director who just completed their last picture they did together. Billy Crystal is the studio publicist trying to organize a weekend press junket with the two feuding stars. Julia Roberts is Catherine's sister and go-fer. Everything is going wrong at the press junket and Christopher Walken is holding the film hostage
Kind of a mash-up of two films. The best is the beginning where it's chiefly a black comedy of the business of movie making and publicity. It then settles into a rather routine but decent rom com. Overall it's pretty good . It's the wonderful cast that really drives the quality
Billy Crystal was the chief writer and finished the screenplay years earlier as a vehicle for him to star. By the time it was filmed, he was too old for the role. Robert Downey Jr. was to play the lead part but his legal issues forced him to drop out and be replaced by Cusack. Julia Roberts was hired for the Catherine Zeta-Jones role but insisted on switching to the sister .Crystal was to direct the film but his friend Joe Rioth begged for the opportunity. With all the switching around of roles, it still made casting sense in the end
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Post by dupersuper on May 5, 2016 21:06:51 GMT -5
America's Sweethearts (2001) Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, Catherine-Zeta Jones, John Cusack, Stanley Tucci, Hank Azaria, Christopher Walken, Seth Green, Alan Arkin, Larry King Catherine and John are Hollywood's most popular romantic/ comedy movie stars. But their marriage is now on the rocks. Christopher Walken is an eccentric director who just completed their last picture they did together. Billy Crystal is the studio publicist trying to organize a weekend press junket with the two feuding stars. Julia Roberts is Catherine's sister and go-fer. Everything is going wrong at the press junket and Christopher Walken is holding the film hostage Kind of a mash-up of two films. The best is the beginning where it's chiefly a black comedy of the business of movie making and publicity. It then settles into a rather routine but decent rom com. Overall it's pretty good . It's the wonderful cast that really drives the quality Billy Crystal was the chief writer and finished the screenplay years earlier as a vehicle for him to star. By the time it was filmed, he was too old for the role. Robert Downey Jr. was to play the lead part but his legal issues forced him to drop out and be replaced by Cusack. Julia Roberts was hired for the Catherine Zeta-Jones role but insisted on switching to the sister .Crystal was to direct the film but his friend Joe Rioth begged for the opportunity. With all the switching around of roles, it still made casting sense in the end That's quite the cast... |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 6, 2016 0:09:02 GMT -5
Battlestar Galactica (1978) Lorne Green, Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Herbert Jefferson Jr, John Colicos, Jane Seymour
The 12 colony planets of humankind in a far away galaxy send their armada to sign a peace treaty with the Cylons. Betrayed by traitor and a simpleton president of the council, the armada is wiped out and the 12 colonies destroyed. All that remains is one lone Battlestar and a rag tag assortment of small ships. They retreat to fight another day, find food and fuel and to search for the legendary mother planet, Earth
Cobbled together from the TV episodes, this 2 hour intro to the series was shown in the theaters in Sensurround (and maybe some seats left over from The Tingler). Not the first thing to jump onto the Star Wars juggernaut, but the first big budget film to do so. Lorne Green as Commander Adama looks as good in a cape as atop horse. Luke Skywalker, I mean Capt Apollo is his son, a serious minded warrior. Han Solo, I mean Starbuck is the devil may care womanizing rebel. The Cylon troops bare a resemble to Darth Vader, if one Vader was popular how about a battalion of them
In retreat and needing supplies they find an outpost planet that's a disco casino. It's 1978 folks. They also meet a cute little boy and his robot dog. Every 5 minutes the boy gets into trouble because his dog went missing. Please ray blast the kid
Its obvious that the writers know nothing about good classic SF. It's about shooting and running and jet plane, I mean space ship battles. George Lucas sued the producers of BS over some similarities to his movie. At the same time George Lucas was fighting lawsuits from the estate of Alex Raymond and Flash Gordon
After watching this again since it debuted, I can see we I eventually abandoned the show within the first season. Unlike the original Star Trek, the show had a sameness week after week and the characters were rather one-dimensional. And it had an annoyingly cute kid always needing rescuing. Dirk Benedict as Starbuck never seemed as cool as the show wanted viewers to believe he was. If this was what was left of humanity, I say fuck it, lets start over
The Cylon troops speak as if they have a hole in their throats and put one of those voice-corders and get that mechanical sound effect( I am a Cylon Warrior and I use to smoke cigarettes). You know what I mean
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 6, 2016 0:21:01 GMT -5
I am now cracking open another boxset and will delve through periodically. This one is Forbidden Hollywood put out by Warner Bros and basically it's films made between 1930 and 1934, in other words pre-code rarities. Starting with:
Hard To Handle (1933) Jimmy Cagney, Mary Brian, Alan Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly
Jimmy is a con artist who gets ripped off himself continuously. He organizes a dance marathon and fixes it so his girlfriend will win. But Jimmy's partner runs off with all the proceeds.Next Jimmy arranges a public treasure hunt for $5,000 on an amusement park pier. The event attracts hundreds of folks who tear the pier apart looking for money. Jimmy goes into the reducing cream business, sells land for grapefruit growers-he makes money but winds up in trouble with the law or gets fleeced as well. Poor Jimmy- the girl he loves has a controlling mother too
It's OK and watchable because it's quick paced at 78 minutes and Cagney is just a bundle of energy, spitting out his lines in rapid fire. The dance marathon scene is fun with an unaccredited appearance from Sterling Holloway and the pier riot with hundreds of extras is a joy too.
Nothing I noticed in the film would have held this back under the code but it's decent enough
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Post by Bronze Age Brian on May 6, 2016 0:35:31 GMT -5
The Trip is a 1967 Roger Corman movie that is very similar to Psych-Out, another movie I watched recently and posted a few pages back. What's interesting is both of these movies are so alike, but they end up offering a different perspective on the acid culture. This one's also written by Jack Nicholson. The Trip stars Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. All three actors would perform in Easy Rider two years later.
The Trip puts you in the shoes of Paul Grove (Peter Fonda), a TV director that is ready to take LSD for the first time. His friend John (Bruce Dern) acts as protector for Paul's acid ride, which they decide is best to try at Max's (Dennis Hopper) place. Paul's trip starts out innocently enough, with psychedelic images and trippy sexual caveats at hand, and then later descends into madness as he believes he's killed his friend John and escapes.
The movie takes on an interesting turn as we watch Paul stumble through the Sunset Strip high on acid. There is a pretty hilarious scene to mention, when he decides to go into a laundromat and begins to be amazed by the spinning action of a drying machine. There he gives the lone woman in the room some strange company. He ends up in a nightclub where he meets a babe and she takes him home and they have sex. The movie ends with him dreaming of being chased on a beach by men on black horses, and the screen "cracks" as if to indicate he's had a bad trip. But I have to assume a Hollywood bigwig forced Corman to put that in the end, as there is really nothing to indicate that Paul's trip was all that bad.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 6, 2016 8:20:14 GMT -5
I've been wanting to see The Trip for decades, and it's on TCM later this month!
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Post by Hoosier X on May 6, 2016 8:56:56 GMT -5
Kim Novak looks around suspiciously, concerned about intruding mission nuns. I watched Vertigo (1958) last night. I've seen it a few times, and I've never been a big fan. From an essay by Chuck Klosterman, I heard of the interpretation that Jimmy Stewart's character is hallucinating most of the movie. I couldn't make that work either. Here's what I think happened: L.B. Jeffries, the hero of Rear Window, is recuperating from being thrown out a window by Perry Mason's sociopathic twin. He has to find a way to pass the time and his girlfriend Lisa has forbidden him from peeping out the window and spying on the neighbors. So he starts working on a short story or novel. He's kind of bored with Lisa, so he builds his fantasy around a girl he's seen at one of the local bars who hangs around with heroin addicts. Or maybe the whole story was hallucinated by a bunch of Australian schoolgirls on a picnic who were abducted soon after by corset-stealing aliens. |
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2016 11:09:52 GMT -5
Hoosier X, regarding Vertigo and I have seen it twice and I did not care for it either and never was a fan of this movie at all. I was very disappointed in this film and expected to be good.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 6, 2016 12:45:16 GMT -5
A Forbidden Hollywood DVD
Ex-Lady (1933) Bette Davis, Gene Raymond, Frank McHugh
Magazine illustrator Bette and boyfriend Gene are passionately in love with each other. And I mean passionate as in blatant pre-marital sex. I mean the next morning they are both putting their clothes on in the bedroom. Bette doesn't believe in marriage, she's free spirited and thinks marriage will ruin the sex. However she finally gives in to her boyfriend and they tie the knot. Not much longer, they both start to stray with other partners. Bette's instincts might have been right after all, even if her father berated her for being "cheap"
Oh yeah, this movie would not fly at all once the code was enforced the following year. Bette is slinky and a platinum blonde. Not a great film but interesting for it's liberal sentiment towards sexual relations
It's basically a remake of the 1931 Barbara Stanwyck movie Illicit
Don't get fooled, Bette Davis is not a mutant nor transgender in the film. Frank McHugh however, I have my suspicions
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Post by Hoosier X on May 6, 2016 16:38:22 GMT -5
Frank McHugh and some guy seize the initiative with a little business venture. I wonder what ever happened to the other guy? |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 7, 2016 12:54:56 GMT -5
American Beauty (1999) Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper
Kevin Spacey is going through a mid-life crisis. Alienated from his wife's affections and hating his job, he's extremely attracted to his teenage daughter's best friend. Meanwhile a new family moves in next door with it's teenage son constantly and surreptitiously video-taping Spacey and his family
Alan Ball wrote this film and went on to create/ write Six Feet Under. He certainly knows how to tackle some uncomfortable subjects. A perfect double feature with Kubrick's Lolita. The performance from Spacey is magnificent. Oscars all around for best picture, beat actor, directing, writing and cinematography. It's certainly has a creepy feel with both the peeping tom aspect and Lolita storyline. It's just so perfect with how the plot advances and character development. The dialogue is fantastic too. Also some nice choices for classic rock background music appropriate for the Spacey persona
I'm gushing here but I certainly enjoyed this even more the 2nd time around after watching this in the theaters 17 years ago. 25 thumbs up |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 7, 2016 13:06:10 GMT -5
Monster's Ball (2001) Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Peter Boyle, Heath Ledger
Billy Bob is a correction's officer and has just assisted in the electrocution of a convict. He winds up give assistance to a destitute woman (Berry) who has suffered a tragic accident. A relationship follows with the young lady not knowing that Billy Bob helped execute her convict husband
Well known for one of the steamiest sex scenes ever in a major Hollywood film, Halle Berry certainly deserved her Oscar for that and the performance she gave surrounding that sex. Another film with uncomfortable topics such as racism, child obesity, senility and capitol punishment. But it does not try top preach, it just mesmerizes you as you watch it unfold. One of Thornton's best roles IMHO.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 8, 2016 0:41:00 GMT -5
Send Me No Flowers (1964) Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall, Clint Walker, Edward Andrews, Paul Lynde
Rck and Doris are a married, suburban couple. Rock is a hypochondriac and after a doctor' examination he mistakenly believes he has only a few weeks to live. Tony Randall is his next door neighbor and best buddy. Together they try to find the right 2nd husband for Doris without her knowledge. Rich oilman Clint Walker seems to be the one
The 3rd and final teamup of Day/Hudson and Randall. Thankfully its unlike the previous films of mistaken identities and courtship. However it's a bit bland, no great laughs and no surprises. Paul Lynde has a short but marvelous piece as a cemetery director. Hudson is a big guy but Clint Walker makes him look small.Doris has a nice pouffy bouffant hairdo.
If you want to see a similar but much funnier comedy on the same subject, I would suggest Burt Reynolds and the film The End
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