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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 1, 2014 14:55:24 GMT -5
Watched The Snow Creature yesterday while ironing. It's a yeti film in two parts: the first describes how an American botanist captures an abominable snowman in the Himalayas, and the second shows what happens when the snowman gets loose in Los Angeles.
The first part is kind of O.K., even with its very minimal special effects and a decidedly unimpressive snow creature. The tension between the Sherpas and the politically-incorrect westerners is even kind of interesting, leading to a sucessful mutiny among the men. The oddest part there is that the Sherpas all speak Japanese, as far as I can tell!
Part 2 is pretty conventional and boring, with cops chasing the creature in the sewers of LA. At this point it didn't need to be an abominable snowman; just any monster would have done the job. The ending is abrupt and anticlimactic, leading to an experience not to be recommended.
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Post by Jesse on Dec 5, 2014 6:58:09 GMT -5
Still bitten by the film noir bug from last month, this week I've watched I Wake Up Screaming (1941) and In a Lonely Place (1950). I Wake Up Screaming is an interesting 'whodunit' starring the lovely Betty Grable. In a Lonely Place is worth checking out for the Humphrey Bogart performance alone.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2014 10:05:35 GMT -5
Finally finished Blade Runner! 84 films on the list watched! That's a great accomplishment! Wesley!  |
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Post by impulse on Dec 5, 2014 13:41:22 GMT -5
With Star Wars all over the net with the new moving coming out, I wanted to share something cool with the original trilogy. I don't know if anyone else here is as annoyed at the changes Lucas has made over the years as I am, but I know others out there are. His refusal over the years to release an HD, restored-but-not-altered version of the theatrical release was particularly frustrating. Thanks to the free time and commitment of folks on the internet, fans have painstakingly reverted the HD release back to match the theatrical releases as closely as possible. Very cool stuff.
They're called Harmy's Despecialized Editions*. The guy used the recent Bluray releases and upscaled DVDs from the 2004 copies that had the theatrical trailers on the B side to make 720P original trilogy glory. If you've already purchased and own a legit copy in another format (gotta have that license, in no way shape or form am I advocating or supporting piracy), they are really cool to check out if you can.
*Mods/Admins, I don't think this is against any rules or will cause any trouble, but I absolutely don't want to cause any issues for the site or any members, so if this needs to be removed/altered/etc, i fully understand.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2014 7:44:31 GMT -5
That's a great accomplishment! Wesley! Thanks, I hope to watch some more once I get out of school. This year's 25 new preserved films should be announced in a couple weeks. Hopefully I have seen a few already. Last year I had previously seen 3/25: Mary Poppins, Pulp Fiction, and Forbidden Planet. I seen that list too ... and I have pretty much seen about 80% of the film on that National Film Registry List that you been talking about. I'm a movie buff myself and I have watched so many movies that I spend most of my time watching them than anything else in the world. Congratulations, I just loved Forbidden Planet and Mary Poppins too. I'm very happy that you are enjoying it ... and thanks for sharing your thoughts as well. |
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Post by Dizzy D on Dec 18, 2014 7:17:20 GMT -5
Haven't seen Luxo Jr. from those you mention, but I've seen the rest + Rosemary's Baby, Rio Bravo and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2014 10:22:20 GMT -5
Haven't seen Luxo Jr. from those you mention, but I've seen the rest + Rosemary's Baby, Rio Bravo and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Well, if you can spare two minutes, here's Luxo Jr. in its entirety: Loved that 2 minute video - so entertaining! |
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Post by MDG on Dec 18, 2014 10:55:39 GMT -5
Well, if you can spare two minutes, here's Luxo Jr. in its entirety: Loved that 2 minute video - so entertaining! Yeah--I saw it as part of an animation festival when it first came out and was amazed at the amount of personality the animators were able to instill into the "characters" |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 18, 2014 13:37:17 GMT -5
I love Luxo, Jr. A great choice by the National Film Registry.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Dec 19, 2014 9:28:49 GMT -5
I watched my second Cronenberg movie last night, Scanners. It was good movie. It started right off the bat after the credits rolled, and kept a good pace all the way to end with the final confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist. I liked it quite a lot more than I did Shivers, which I watched a few months back. I have eXistenZ coming next on DVD from Netflix. Hopefully this will be a good as Scanners was.
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Post by MDG on Dec 19, 2014 12:23:04 GMT -5
I watched my second Cronenberg movie last night, Scanners. It was good movie. It started right off the bat after the credits rolled, and kept a good pace all the way to end with the final confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist. I liked it quite a lot more than I did Shivers, which I watched a few months back. I have eXistenZ coming next on DVD from Netflix. Hopefully this will be a good as Scanners was. I watched Scanners a couple of weeks back, not having seen it since the original release. It was good, but i found it a little by-the-numbers. That is, all the energy seemed to be around laying out the backstory of the Scanners, but the main characters weren't particularly interesting. My thoughts when it ended were around the value of a good maguffin. Also watched Shivers and Rabid recently and liked them more. Trying to watch Crash at some point soon. |
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Dec 19, 2014 13:06:27 GMT -5
I watched Scanners a couple of weeks back, not having seen it since the original release. It was good, but i found it a little by-the-numbers. That is, all the energy seemed to be around laying out the backstory of the Scanners, but the main characters weren't particularly interesting. My thoughts when it ended were around the value of a good maguffin. Also watched Shivers and Rabid recently and liked them more. Trying to watch Crash at some point soon. I can see that now that you say it. I did really like Michael Ironside's performance as Revok, but yeah the protagonist wasn't all that believable, at least in the role he was given, not in the actor's performance. I did like the ending though. For what I thought was going to go down, and what actually did I wasn't expecting. I added Naked Lunch (as a side note, have you read the book? It sounds interesting to read.) and Rabid to my netflix list. I favor Scanners over Shivers or The Fly, but these are the only films of Cronenbergs I've seen so far. Any other recommendations? |
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Post by Dizzy D on Dec 20, 2014 4:33:45 GMT -5
Mm.. I thought I had posted yesterday, but somehow it never did.
Anyway Cronenberg:
Crash was.... weird. (Not weird, in the usual Cronenberg style).
I didn't like Spider too much, but I do like Videodrome (which is also weird, but in another way), History of Violence (even if it is different from the comic) and ExistenZ. And Naked Lunch but it's now on your list. (It wasn't when I first wrote this).
I can hardly remember Dead Ringers or the Dead Zone and I haven't seen any of his newer movies.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Dec 20, 2014 9:05:08 GMT -5
I ended up finding eXistenZ and Cosmopolis on netflix instant so I'll probably watch them this weekend. I've got Naked Lunch, Rabid, Spider, A History of Violence, Videodrome, Dead Ringers and Crash all available on DVD. Not sure how many I will watch but Naked Lunch is next.
While the premise of Crash doesn't really sound like my kind of movie, ever since Wolf and The Secretary, I have a lot of faith in James Spader's ability to be evil, maniacal, and/or a plain old a-hole.
The Brood has an unknown availability on netflix so not sure if I'll ever get that. But after reading Lenoard Maltin's thoughts on it on the Wikipedia page I am deftly curious. Has anyone see it?
Edit: eXistenZ was a pretty good film. The uncertainty of what is real and what is not plays upon a big fear I feel I would have if virtual reality comes in my lifetime. I thought he paced the movie fairly well. There was a lull for me about the middle of the movie where it seemed there was no direction or coherent plot. Unfortunately you don't realize what is what until the very end. Then after that you even realize the start of the movie and it falls into place. It's almost disconcerting on a first viewing. But knowing that for a second viewing it might be interesting to try to piece together knowing what you know from a previous viewing to see if it really does make sense.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 20, 2014 19:51:30 GMT -5
Is anybody else watching their favorite holiday movies yet?
The one I try to watch every year is the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol. I find it immensely entertaining! This is the one where Reginald Owen is Scrooge, Gene Lockhart is Bob Cratchit and Ann Rutherford (of Andy Hardy fame) is the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Maybe I like it for the wrong reasons because I laugh out loud a lot. I mostly enjoy this because the Cratchits are so over-the-top cheerful and enthusiastic about everything! No matter what trivial item is being discussed, the whole family is always happy and chirpy and laughing and LOUD, and they all go galloping about the house like a bunch of easily amused half-wits. I also find it hilarious that - except for the oldest daughter and Tiny Tim - they all seem to be the same age. (Bob and his wife are played by Gene Lockhart and his wife in real life, Kathleen. And one of the daughters is their real daughter, June, who some of us will remember as the mother on the Lassie series.)
And Tiny Tim cracks me up too. He's gigantic. Well, maybe not gigantic, but he must be about 12 and he weighs 140 pounds and every time somebody is shown carrying him on their shoulders, they look like they're about to collapse. The actor is Terry Kilburn, who was in one Sherlock Holmes movie and also Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He also gets way too excited about everything. In the scene where they bring in the cooked goose, he almost has to be restrained from jumping on the table and humping the goose. (Watch the movie if you think I'm exaggerating!)
This is only the second year that the 1938 Christmas Carol has been a tradition for me, but I think I'm going to keep it for a while. I still have it on the DVR and I'm hoping to watch it again before Christmas, maybe more than once.
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