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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 20, 2014 19:55:25 GMT -5
How about a little break now, Tim? Christ, you weigh a ton! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 21, 2014 23:23:34 GMT -5
I decided to watch Auntie Mame tonight. I haven't seen it for 20 years or more. I'd forgotten how much fun it is! Especially the relationship between Rosalind Russell and Coral Browne.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Dec 22, 2014 15:11:59 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. We have a whole slew of holiday movies we make a point of watching every year: Scrooged, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, We're No Angels (with Bogie!), Home Alone 3 (arguably the best of the Home Alones), White Christmas, The Ref, Muppets Christmas Carol (no goose humping, thank you, though a rat does dance on a flaming hot goose...), Unaccompanied Minors, and probably others I'm forgetting. We added Bing Crosby's Holiday Inn (the precursor to White Christmas) to the collection this year, but their tribute in blackface to Abraham Lincoln's birthday I would have to classify as "wildly racist". Don't know if that will be an every year one, or maybe we'll fast forward through that part. |
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Dec 22, 2014 16:48:25 GMT -5
We're No Angels is incredible. Peter Ustinov is so awesome in that movie. But all three of them together are great.
"I think he looks like a glass of milk."
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Post by DE Sinclair on Dec 22, 2014 16:56:34 GMT -5
We're No Angels is incredible. Peter Ustinov is so awesome in that movie. But all three of them together are great. "I think he looks like a glass of milk." I often use the phrase "disagreeably surprised" in everyday conversation. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 22, 2014 17:01:05 GMT -5
I haven't seen We're No Angels in 25 years. I don't remember it being such a great movie. But it was directed by the great Michael Curtiz, so that makes me think I should give it another look one of these days.
Yesterday, I watched Santa Claus, a 1959 film made in Mexico and dubbed in English for U.S. distribution. Santa lives in a castle on a cloud that floats above the North Pole and one of his neighbors is Merlin. Santa spends most of the movie matching wits with Pitch, a devil who is an underling to Satan. Pitch persuades some boys to break some windows and conspire against Santa but Pitch is unable to get little Lupita to steal a doll.
It is surreal and kooky. It was the subject of an episode of MST3K that I vaguely remember.
I don't know if it will be a likely candidate for a Christmas tradition movie, but I may try it out for a few years. I might try and find the Spanish-language version.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Dec 22, 2014 17:25:25 GMT -5
I haven't seen We're No Angels in 25 years. I don't remember it being such a great movie. But it was directed by the great Michael Curtiz, so that makes me think I should give it another look one of these days. You've got to like fairly dark humor, because most Christmas movies don't have a body count. Even so, it may not be for everyone. |
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Dec 22, 2014 17:37:50 GMT -5
I haven't seen We're No Angels in 25 years. I don't remember it being such a great movie. But it was directed by the great Michael Curtiz, so that makes me think I should give it another look one of these days. You've got to like fairly dark humor, because most Christmas movies don't have a body count. Even so, it may not be for everyone. For me it's exactly why it's one of the few Christmas movies I like to watch. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Dec 27, 2014 17:44:42 GMT -5
I'm seriously tempted to check out the following movie, filmed in 1964 and shelved as unwatchable until 4 years later when its 2 stars hit the big time. It was released as a TV movie and I believe available on YouTube as well as cheap public domain DVDs. Please share your opinions if you have already viewed it
Alexander The Great
Starring: William Shatner, Adam West, John Cassavettes, Joseph Cotten, Simon Oakland
Shatner actually plays 2 roles- a cowboy and his peyote lovin' twin Indian brother. My god, with a cast like this, I'd watch them sitting around a table burping for an hour. It was made as a proposed TV pilot. Get on your knees and thank your nerdy gods that Alexander The Great didn't make the grade leaving Shatner and West free to audition for other shows
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Post by berkley on Dec 27, 2014 21:53:05 GMT -5
I'm seriously tempted to check out the following movie, filmed in 1964 and shelved as unwatchable until 4 years later when its 2 stars hit the big time. It was released as a TV movie and I believe available on YouTube as well as cheap public domain DVDs. Please share your opinions if you have already viewed it Alexander The Great
Starring: William Shatner, Adam West, John Cassavettes, Joseph Cotten, Simon Oakland
Shatner actually plays 2 roles- a cowboy and his peyote lovin' twin Indian brother. My god, with a cast like this, I'd watch them sitting around a table burping for an hour. It was made as a proposed TV pilot. Get on your knees and thank your nerdy gods that Alexander The Great didn't make the grade leaving Shatner and West free to audition for other shows Shatner and Adam West together might be fun to see. |
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Post by spoon on Dec 27, 2014 22:09:47 GMT -5
Last year or so I made it my goal to watch every film preserved in the Library of Congress by the National Film Registry. Since 1989, 25 films are selected each year to be preserved because they have been deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. To date there have been 625 films preserved in the NFR, I have viewed 81 of them. I figured that watching the films preserved by the NFR would be a great way to ensure I watched American's most significant films, a better indication tool than the Oscars in my opinion. Now when I say "film", I don't mean just theatrical movies. There are significant documentaries, theatrical shorts like The Three Stooges' Punch Drunks, a Betty Boop short, experimental films, etc. One I really enjoyed was a family's home movie of when they won a trip to Disneyland. And of course the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination is preserved as well. If you want to learn more about the NFR, there's a great documentary from 3 years ago about it called These Amazing Shadows. Or also here's the Wikipedia link, where you can also look at the list of preserved films. Check off which ones you've already seen, and maybe the list will inspire you to catch up on some classics. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Film_RegistryI just watched 3 this past week. Halloween, which isn't my style but it's one off the list, 12 Angry Men, which I really enjoyed, and Michael Jackson's Thriller video. I had been avoiding watching the latter because I'm not a Michael Jackson fan but the video was only 12-13 minutes so I figured it was one of the quicker ones to cross off the list. This year's films will be announced in December. You can make nominations that the board will vote on. Nominees must be at least 10 years old. Anyway, that sounds more like an infomercial, haha, but really I encourage you guys to explore the National Film Registry. I have my own obsessive watching quest. I'm trying to watch all the Best Picture Oscar nominees. Yes, a lot of film people are critical of the Oscar nominees, but that's the list of chosen. It gives a different perspective: what was held in esteem by a certain group of movie people at the time they were released. I've been at it for about 6 years or so, so I'm very far along. I'm down to fewer than 30 movies. It's probably an impossible task, because The Patriot (1928) is considered a lost film. Maybe it will show up in somebody's attic someday. There are also a couple films that might only be available in relatively complete condition at a UCLA archive. TCM's 31 Days of Oscar is a good time to DVR and watch films from my list. I'm excited that The Emigrants, a Swedish film from the 1970s that I was having trouble finding, is going to be broadcast by TCM this February. |
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Post by spoon on Dec 28, 2014 12:24:04 GMT -5
I have my own obsessive watching quest. I'm trying to watch all the Best Picture Oscar nominees. Yes, a lot of film people are critical of the Oscar nominees, but that's the list of chosen. It gives a different perspective: what was held in esteem by a certain group of movie people at the time they were released. I've been at it for about 6 years or so, so I'm very far along. I'm down to fewer than 30 movies. It's probably an impossible task, because The Patriot (1928) is considered a lost film. Maybe it will show up in somebody's attic someday. There are also a couple films that might only be available in relatively complete condition at a UCLA archive. TCM's 31 Days of Oscar is a good time to DVR and watch films from my list. I'm excited that The Emigrants, a Swedish film from the 1970s that I was having trouble finding, is going to be broadcast by TCM this February. I myself originally thought I would try to watch every Best Picture winner, but I decidedly chose against doing that because I disagree with a lot of the decisions (Annie Hall over Star Wars in 1977?) and upon learning of the NFR realized that would be a much more inclusive and somewhat less subjective grouping. And I liked that it was about films that had stood the test of time and were deemed so important that they are preserved by the federal government. Of course there is a lot of overlap between Best Picture winners and NFR films, but not entirely. But with your list encompassing nominees, you have a good selection to choose from. I hope you get to see those 30 soon! And yes, hopefully The Patriot turns up. There's just one Best Picture winner among the nominees that are left on my list: The Greatest Show on Earth. I've heard it cited as a Best Picture winner that didn't stand the test of time. Part of the motivation for me is to watch films that I would have sought out otherwise but that other people have appreciated. But I checked off what I had already seen before I started my quest; I don't feel the need to re-watch. It looks like there are some definite advantages to the NFR list. Aside from standing the test of time, it looks the NFR has less genre snobbery than the Oscars. Dramas definitely have a leg up versus comedies, science fiction, and other genres at the Oscars. That wasn't always the guess. Comedies used to get more nominations. The comedies nominated today tend to be mostly dark or cynical. Jaws, Star Wars, and Raiders of the Lost Ark all were nominated. Part of the fun (and frustration) of the Oscars is debating the choices. I love the Olympics and history, so on paper, I should love Chariots of Fire. But I think it was one of the least deserving winners. Kramer vs. Kramer cleaned up, but I find it highly overrated. The Hurt Locker may be my least favorite of the 10 nominees in its year, but it won. How difficulty is it to find some of the lesser known films on the NFR (like the shorts)? |
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 28, 2014 14:01:10 GMT -5
I think it's weird that someone would cite Annie Hall over Star Wars as a particularly bad Oscar choice. I know a lot of people (including me!) love Star Wars and I understand that a lot of people prefer Star Wars and wish it had won.
But Annie Hall is a great movie! I love it. And I'm not alone. Even people who don't like it can hardly deny that a lot of people love it and it still holds up and has a lot of fans all these years later.
I've seen Star Wars maybe once in the last ten years. But I still watch Annie Hall every two or three years because it still speaks to me.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 28, 2014 15:41:27 GMT -5
I think it's weird that someone would cite Annie Hall over Star Wars as a particularly bad Oscar choice. I know a lot of people (including me!) love Star Wars and I understand that a lot of people prefer Star Wars and wish it had won. But Annie Hall is a great movie! I love it. And I'm not alone. Even people who don't like it can hardly deny that a lot of people love it and it still holds up and has a lot of fans all these years later. I've seen Star Wars maybe once in the last ten years. But I still watch Annie Hall every two or three years because it still speaks to me. I cited that one because I didn't like it at all. In my experience, everyone I know who has seen it dislikes it. I was going into it thinking, okay Woody Allen and a Best Picture winner, and it beat out a movie that's possibly the biggest culture phenomenon of all time, it has to be at least somewhat good, right? In my opinion, it was not. I'm glad it speaks to you and that you and other people like it, but for me and the people I know who have viewed it, we don't like it. Although it too is preserved by the National Film Registry, so clearly it is held in high regard by some people. But also Star Wars was in the inaugural class of preserved films in 1989 along with Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, and the Wizard of Oz. That's pretty high class company, but I will admit Annie Hall was not too far behind, inducted in 1992. But it just doesn't do anything for me. Anyway, I guess our experiences with it, and those who we know who have also seen it, just differ.  That's fine. I just think you could come up with a better example of a classic film that was beaten by something pretty mediocre that no one ever talks about anymore. Almost any other year would offer a better example than 1977.
Like 1979, when Kramer vs. Kramer (which is a pretty good movie, overall) won over both Apocalypse Now and All That Jazz. In hindsight, that's ridiculous.
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Post by spoon on Dec 28, 2014 15:49:33 GMT -5
I like Annie Hall. It's one of those movies that I wouldn't have been interested in except it was on my nominees list. That started me into Woody Allen movies (both others on my list - Hannah and Her Sisters, Midnight in Paris) and those that aren't (Manhattan). But I could certainly see how it could be unappealing to some people. It's one of Allen's films in which he's on-screen so often. Even though a lot of his schtick is being self-effacing, he can come across as annoying or smug.
One of the fascinating things about movies is how far opinions diverge. Lots of people love The Searchers (it gets mentions right at the beginning of this thread), but I really don't like it.
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