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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 26, 2017 21:46:08 GMT -5
Innocent Blood (1992) Arguably one of John Landis' lesser efforts it's no less watchable if you're a fan of his other work. It has the same sense of humor and reverence towards the genre. This one was actually filmed and set in my home town. A sexy vampiress who only feeds on criminals reluctantly teams up with an undercover Pittsburgh cop to stop a mob boss turned vampire. The premise is ridiculous and the mobsters are a bit cliche but the practical special effects are decent. There are a ton of really fun cameos including Sam Raimi, Frank Oz, Dario Argento and Tom Savini. I think this is worth watching for the Don Rickles death scene alone. There's also a bunch of clips used from classic horror movies. Anne Parillaud's first Hollywood film, after La Femme Nikita. It has some moments and she is good (as is Robert Loggia); but, it really felt like a disappointment, after seeing her in Nikita. It seemed beneath her ability (same for Loggia). Still, she was better used here than that abomination of a Man in the Iron Mask film.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 31, 2017 14:11:33 GMT -5
Here they are, the movies from the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" list that I saw in August. These are all pretty recent. The oldest movie is from 2005. For a while, I was focusing on recent films and I decided to watch the last few movies I hadn't seen from the last ten years and be done with them. So now I've seen all the films on the List from 2006 to 2016. From the rest of the list, there's only about 260 films to go! Tsotsi (2005) - A great film from South Africa about how awful it is to live in a South African shanty town. The protagonist is a really nasty piece of work named Tsotsi, a leader of a gang of thugs. He shoots a women in the stomach and steals her car ... and there's a baby in the back seat! This one really reeled me in. The Class (2008) - A French film about the teachers in a high school in a bad neighborhood and how awful and violent and insolent the students are. I liked it well enough. It certainly has its moments. Precious (2009) - I've been avoiding this movie for YEARS, but it's actually a darn good film. I can see why it was so highly praised when it came out. Nostalgia de la luz (2010) - A rather strange documentary about the Atacama desert in Chile. I liked it a lot because I know so little about Chile and I enjoy films about places I don't know much about. But this movie is kind of quirky and I don't know how it will work for other film fans. Of Gods and Men (2010) - A true story about a group of monks at a monastery in the Atlas Mountains in Algeria. The monks have been there for a long time and they get along very well with the Muslims of the local village. But Algeria has a growing problem with Islamic extremists and everyone is fearful that the monks will eventually be targeted. Probably my favorite among the films from the List that I saw this month. One of the monks is the guy who played Drax in Moonraker! War Horse (2011) - I'm still having trouble believing this is on the List because it's so dumb at times. Oh, don't get me wrong, I love it! It's dumb but it's so wondrously, gloriously dumb, and I was on the edge of my seat, wishing really really hard that I had seen it in a theater. And there's a battle scene later in the movie where the horse is loose, running around in the trenches, getting stuck in barbed wire! If the whole film had been as good as that scene, War Horse would be a contender for best World War I movie ever made. Le Havre (2011) - A very low-key film from the Finnish director who made Ariel. It's a lot better than Ariel. Toni Erdmann (2016) - This is something of a weird wild card of a movie. A unique viewing experience, and I'm not going to try to guess who I should recommend this to. It's in German. And It's weird but not in that peculiar unpleasant uncomfortable way that many German movies are weird. And it's almost three hours long. I didn't find it hard to sit through. I liked it a lot at first. In the middle, I was wondering why it was on the List and hoping there was a payoff. And then the last 30 or 40 minutes is really amazing and weird and makes up for the soft middle. In September, I'll be back to watching movies from the entire history of cinema. TCM is showing Gimme Shelter later in the month. And the MOVIES! channel is showing The Ladies' Man as part of a Jerry Lewis marathon. And those are both on the List! I'm looking forward to both of them. Especially The Ladies' Man as I'm a big fan of Lewis and I've never seen this one. I also set the DVR for The Nutty Professor, which is also on the List. I've seen it before but it's been 40 years or more! I liked it when I was a kid and I'd really like to see it again. (Note to Jerry Lewis fans: Both the MOVIES! channel and TCM are showing Jerry Lewis marathons on September 4. The only film that's being shown by both channels is The Nutty Professor, so this is a great chance to see a bunch of Jerry Lewis films, including some you might never have seen. I especially like The Bellboy. That's my favorite Jerry Lewis movie!
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Post by Jesse on Aug 31, 2017 15:15:57 GMT -5
Red Dawn (1984) A group of teenage insurgents rebel against the occupying Communists that have come to liberate them from the tyranny of their Capitalist oppressors. This was actually the first time I sat through this entire film having only watched bits and pieces of it growing up. It's an okay action adventure movie with some decent casting if you can get over how seemingly ridiculous the premise is or how it plays out like paranoid cold war era propaganda. There's an interesting documentary about the director John Milius that's worth checking out.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 31, 2017 17:26:55 GMT -5
That movie was so huge in 1984. It is soooooo bad. The premise and the writing are just so hideously bad.
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Post by berkley on Aug 31, 2017 17:44:05 GMT -5
Saw Beat the Devil yesterday for the first time. Outstanding, one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. All-star cast and crew, directed by John Huston, starring Bogart, Peter Lorré, Gina Lollabrigida, among others. Particular stand-outs for me were Jennifer Jones and Edward Underdown as a married English couple, and Robert Morley as Peterson, but everybody was first-rate, down to thȩ smallest part, particular. Great script by Billy Wilder Huston and Truman Capote (not sure where I got the idea Wilder was involved), apparently based on a novel so I'm not sure how much came directly from that and how much was theirs, but full of good speeches. Again, even the smaller roles have some great lines. My highest recommendation for this one.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 1, 2017 1:02:59 GMT -5
Red Dawn (1984) A group of teenage insurgents rebel against the occupying Communists that have come to liberate them from the tyranny of their Capitalist oppressors. This was actually the first time I sat through this entire film having only watched bits and pieces of it growing up. It's an okay action adventure movie with some decent casting if you can get over how seemingly ridiculous the premise is or how it plays out like paranoid cold war era propaganda. There's an interesting documentary about the director John Milius that's worth checking out. As we always called it: "High school kids outwit Spetsnaz!" John Milius really was/is a whackjob, though he wrote an entertaining movie. That movie is awesome if only for a pre-Back to the Future Leah Thompson, a pre-Ferris Bueller & Dirty Dancing Jennifer Grey, a pre-Platoon and drug-fuelled insanity Charlie Sheen, pre-Roadhouse Patrick Swayze and C Thomas Howell. Of course, you also get the always great Powers Booth and William Smith, and the always villainous Vladek Sheybal. I still remember watching it in theaters and listening to cheers break out when the kids ambush their first Russians, at the gas station, via spider holes. Tons of problems there: Russian tanks are diesel, not gasoline; some of those Russian soldiers were using Belgian FN FAL rifles, and the prisoners facing the firing squad are directly in the Wolverines' field of fire, when they start shooting. For a guy so enamored with the military and war, Milius didn't know jack about it. Still, it is great, dumb fun. I do have to admit I saw it 3 times, in the theater. I was 16, though, so at least I have an excuse.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 1, 2017 1:21:36 GMT -5
Saw Beat the Devil yesterday for the first time. Outstanding, one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. All-star cast and crew, directed by John Huston, starring Bogart, Peter Lorré, Gina Lollabrigida, among others. Particular stand-outs for me were Jennifer Jones and Edward Underdown as a married English couple, and Robert Morley as Peterson, but everybody was first-rate, down to thȩ smallest part, particular. Great script by Billy Wilder Huston and Truman Capote (not sure where I got the idea Wilder was involved), apparently based on a novel so I'm not sure how much came directly from that and how much was theirs, but full of good speeches. Again, even the smaller roles have some great lines. My highest recommendation for this one. I love this movie so much! I bet I've seen it 20 times since I first saw it on late-night TV in Los Angeles about 1990. Are you saying Mrs. Chelm is a liar? Well, let's just say she uses her imagination more than her memory.
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Post by berkley on Sept 1, 2017 3:32:17 GMT -5
Saw Beat the Devil yesterday for the first time. Outstanding, one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. All-star cast and crew, directed by John Huston, starring Bogart, Peter Lorré, Gina Lollabrigida, among others. Particular stand-outs for me were Jennifer Jones and Edward Underdown as a married English couple, and Robert Morley as Peterson, but everybody was first-rate, down to thȩ smallest part, particular. Great script by Billy Wilder Huston and Truman Capote (not sure where I got the idea Wilder was involved), apparently based on a novel so I'm not sure how much came directly from that and how much was theirs, but full of good speeches. Again, even the smaller roles have some great lines. My highest recommendation for this one. I love this movie so much! I bet I've seen it 20 times since I first saw it on late-night TV in Los Angeles about 1990. Are you saying Mrs. Chelm is a liar? Well, let's just say she uses her imagination more than her memory. I love how every single character is an eccentric of one kind or another, and yet none of them come across as over-played. Bogart's character is probably the least odd, and he's still pretty shady. My only regret is that Lorré didn't have more to do, but that's only because I like him so much, not because it detracts from the film in any way. It's one of those films that, if it had been made more recently, I'd get the dvd to see the scenes that were cut.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 1, 2017 9:30:18 GMT -5
I love this movie so much! I bet I've seen it 20 times since I first saw it on late-night TV in Los Angeles about 1990. Are you saying Mrs. Chelm is a liar? Well, let's just say she uses her imagination more than her memory. I love how every single character is an eccentric of one kind or another, and yet none of them come across as over-played. Bogart's character is probably the least odd, and he's still pretty shady. My only regret is that Lorré didn't have more to do, but that's only because I like him so much, not because it detracts from the film in any way. It's one of those films that, if it had been made more recently, I'd get the dvd to see the scenes that were cut. Peter Lorre has his share of great lines. "In my country a child of 6 has more pain in his heart than you will have at 60." I also love that sweaty little runt, the psychopathic killer the British major. That scene where he's upsetting Mr. Chelm by talking about Hitler's "good points" is hilarious. And that tall skinny Italian guy, Ravelli. I think the actor's name is Marco Tulli. He only has a few lines here and there but he cracks me up. I saw him last year in Variety Lights, Fellini's first movie.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 2, 2017 9:30:30 GMT -5
They're playing the Goonies at the Mendon Drive in this weekend, I'm definitely going!
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Post by Jesse on Sept 3, 2017 11:35:45 GMT -5
They're playing the Goonies at the Mendon Drive in this weekend, I'm definitely going! "Goonies never say die!"
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Post by Jesse on Sept 3, 2017 14:07:31 GMT -5
I especially like The Bellboy. That's my favorite Jerry Lewis movie! I've been meaning to rewatch this for sometime and am hoping I can tomorrow when they air it but it's on at 2am which kinda sucks.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 3, 2017 18:16:38 GMT -5
Here's a weird "comic book in a movie" sighting. I'm watching Kenneth Anger's short film "Scorpio Rising." It's one of the movies from the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" list. There's a scene where a dude is laying on the bed in a cluttered room. He's reading the comics - Lil Abner, Prince Valiant, Peanuts. "The Wild One" is playing on the tiny television set. A couple of Siamese cats are on the bed with him. There's a stack of magazines and it looks like one or two of them might be comic books but you can't tell for sure. And off by itself is a comic book that is unmistakably The Brave and the Bold #47. As for the movie, it's not for everybody. I liked it a lot. A very quick and entertaining 28 minutes. At this point, I think maybe I've seen enough experimental or abstract filmmaking that I can enjoy it a lot more than I used to, even if I don't really get it.
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Post by Jesse on Sept 5, 2017 9:17:31 GMT -5
Rope (1948) I rewatched this as it aired on TCM over the weekend. It's one of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movies and I think it's one of his most underrated. There are a couple of really good performances and a great use of tension that builds up throughout until the climactic ending.
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Post by Jesse on Sept 5, 2017 9:28:26 GMT -5
The Getaway (1972) I've been meaning to watch this for awhile and honestly didn't enjoy it as much as I was expecting to. It definitely wasn't bad by any means but I wouldn't rank it as either Sam Peckinpah or Steve McQueen's strongest work. Unlike their other films that I've watched I'm not sure I see myself getting excited about rewatching this. I still thought it was entertaining though and there were some decent action scenes but I found it difficult to root for the protagonists during some of the film. Although by the climax I felt they were kind of great together in a Bonnie and Clyde sense having witnessed them go through so much together and in the end that's really what the film is about. There are also some really bizarre Sally Struthers scenes.
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