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Post by rom on Jan 17, 2018 18:49:41 GMT -5
Peter Sellers was one of the most talented actors of his - or any - generation. Brilliant actor with an amazing sense of comedic timing. I agree that while the first Pink Panther film was just OK, A Shot in the Dark is where things really came together.
However, my favorite Sellers performance is in his last film before his death, Being There (1979). This is not a comedy at all, but a drama - and may feature Sellers' best performance - very understated:
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 18, 2018 0:11:14 GMT -5
Peter Sellers made A LOT of great movies. Two somewhat obscure films of his that I love are I'm All Right, Jack and After the Fox.
I'm All Right, Jack (1959) is a rather bizarre British social comedy (for lack of a better term).
After the Fox (1966) is a heist film wherein the Fox (Peter Sellers) and his gang pretend to make a movie as cover for the theft of a cargo of gold bullion. They hire a washed-up American actor trying to find work in Europe (Victor Mature showing quite a flair for subtle comedy) to give the production some authenticity. Also starring Britt Ekland. Directed by Vittorio De Sica!
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Post by rom on Jan 22, 2018 12:03:30 GMT -5
I'm All Right, Jack is a funny, satiric movie. I saw this back in the 200X's on DVD. IIRC, this is one of Sellers' first films. I need to see this again. I also need to check out After the Fox - thanks for the heads-up about that. Sellers also had a small role in another great UK film from that era, The Ladykillers - starring the great Alec Guiness. Fantastic film, that was later re-made by the Coen Brothers in the 200X's. Switching gears, I recently re-watched the classic horror flick The Wicker Man (1973) on Blu-ray. This seemed to be a director's cut of some sort, since there were several scenes I don't remember from previous versions of the film on DVD. This is a creepy & atmospheric horror movie, with an interesting story and a great soundtrack. The story starts out with a police officer (played perfectly by the late Edward Woodward) flying out to a remote island off the coast of the UK, in order to investigate the supposed disappearance of a young child. However, in the course of his investigation, he realizes something extremely sinister is going on - but is initially not quite sure what it is. Woodward is fantastic in the role, as someone who {Spoiler: Click to show} inadvertently gets into something way over his head - and, once he finally realizes what the chain of events is leading up, is powerless to stop what's happening. The final sequence is one of the most horrifying - and memorable - scenes in 1970's cinema.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 23, 2018 1:16:20 GMT -5
One of the reasons the original The Wicker Man is so effective is that it builds the horror within your own mind, building layer upon layer to the mystery and strange behavior. You have a sense of unease from the moment Woodward arrives and it grows as the film progresses. The ending catches you way off guard and the film spills little or no blood (it's been a while), compared to the gorefest of the slashers films and beyond (or the torture-porn crap).
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Post by rom on Jan 23, 2018 11:47:11 GMT -5
Agree completely that The Wicker Man's effectiveness was in creating a sense of unease from the beginning. Woodward was definitely the outsider, and this was seen when he would walk into rooms with large groups of people & they would stop talking & stare at him, etc. The evasive nature of the island natives as he was asking questions was definitely suspicious, and made it clear that they were hiding something. It just wasn't clear what was going on, until the chilling conclusion. Here are three other 1970's horror films that are extremely well-done; none of these are extremely well-known, but I find them far superior to later, more well-known films: Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971): A woman recovering from a nervous breakdown ends up moving to the country (probably New England) with her husband & friend, in order to run a farm. Once they get to the old farming house that they bought, they come across a young woman who has been squatting there... The Sentinel (1977): Extremely creepy film about a model in NYC who moves into a high-end apartment/condo building. After she moves in, she runs into numerous strange/bizarre neighbors. Later, when she meets the real estate agent who rented her the place, {Spoiler: Click to show} she's told all of the other apartments in the building have been vacant for years...she's told all of the other apartments in the building have been vacant for years... Burnt Offerings (1976): Excellent film about a family that ends up renting an old house in the country for the summer. Numerous creepy things start occurring, and get worse as time goes on. I was very impressed by the caliber of actors/actresses in this film: Bette Davis, Oliver Reed, Karen Black, and Burgess Meredith. Incredible. These days, most A-list (or even B-list) actors/actresses wouldn't be caught dead starring in what was essentially a low-budget horror film. And, a special shout-out to the original Halloween (1978). Though this is an extremely popular film & wouldn't fit into the "obscure", I would still consider this a low-budget, effective horror film that also doesn't include an extreme amount of gore - and relies more on a creepy atmosphere. In fact, I would have to say that the 1970's is the best decade for horror films. Many of the films that came out during this era did not rely on blood/gore to be scary, and instead spent time building up a creepy, tense atmosphere - that has not really been seen in the decades since then. From the early 1980's-on the "slasher" film genre started to get popular, and these relied more on "shock" value than anything else.
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Post by brutalis on Jan 23, 2018 13:52:33 GMT -5
Spent most of Saturday and Sunday watching Grit TV. Saturday began with The Law and Jake Wade from 1958 with Robert Taylor and Richard Widmark and Widmark is in fine angry psychotic form out of jail and feuding with his ex-partner highwayman over money they stole together that sent Widmark to jail. Starring Henry Silva, DeForest Kelly. Afterwards was Saddle the Wind another Robert Taylor film from 1958 where he is a retired confederate soldier/gunslinger trying to make his way as a small rancher. He does well until his young unstable brother (a very young John Cassavetes) stir up trouble in town.
Sunday morning began with yet another 1963 Robert Taylor/Robert Loggia/William Windom movie called Cattle King. It is the traditional rancher versus cattle baron and barb wire feud. But it is very well done and entertaining and packed with lots of the familiar faces.
Then it was an afternoon spent Walking Tall with sheriff Buford Pusser as Grit ran all 3 cult movies in a row together. Joe Don Baker in the original movie helped make this a hit when it came out and he has plenty of bark in his bite carrying along his tree limb handing out justice against the local gambling and criminals. In the following 2 sequels with Bo Svenson taking on the Pusser role after Baker declined and Buford Pusser was going to play himself but died before filming began. Svenson does his best but hasn't the charisma of Baker so the 2 sequels suffer but manage to remain interesting oddities of then current ideas of film fantasy versus factual instances. A nice lazy weekend indeed...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2018 19:04:55 GMT -5
My Favorite Peter Sellers Movies excluding the Pink Panther Series
Tom Thumb (1958) Waltz of the Toreadors (1962) The World of Henry Orient (1964) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) What's New Pussycat (1965) Casino Royale (1967) The Party (1968) Murder by Death (1976) The Prisoner of Zenda (1979) Being There (1979) The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980)
The one in bold is my number one Sellers film.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2018 21:08:45 GMT -5
I just watched Under Siege starring Steven Seagal and it's was explosive, action packed, and quite a ride for heckva of film that also starred Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey with Erika Eleniak as Jordan Tate in one of her better roles.
I just loved the behind the scenes and that microwave bomb that was cool and the Missouri big guns came to life as well. Man, I have seen this so many times ... it's always a fun movie to watch and its still is.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 29, 2018 3:18:29 GMT -5
I just watched Under Siege starring Steven Seagal and it's was explosive, action packed, and quite a ride for heckva of film that also starred Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey with Erika Eleniak as Jordan Tate in one of her better roles. I just loved the behind the scenes and that microwave bomb that was cool and the Missouri big guns came to life as well. Man, I have seen this so many times ... it's always a fun movie to watch and its still is. Must....fight.....temptation....for....head....to....explode............... AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That film is 100 kinds of ludicrous, to a Navy veteran. I love the fact that there just happens to be an old gunner's mate chief onboard, who just happens to know how to fire the 16-inch guns at the submarine that Tommy Lee Jones and his friends have (and that a few people are able to load the guns, which requires a large gun crew, usually, not to mention the stability of the gunpowder, as witnessed by the USS Iowa explosion, in 1989). Or how a fighter jet is able to intercept and shoot down a cruise missile, in flight. That's just general Hollywood goofiness, compared to the plot sins, which showed no one involved had ever been in the Navy, had done any research, or had even consulted with a Public Affairs Officer. First, you have the fact that most of the crew has been reassigned (as the battleship is being mothballed); but, it still has nukes on board. The nukes go first, then the conventional ammo, then the personnel. People are always lower on the military totem pole. I won't get into Gary Busey's character, as it pales in comparison to having Busey be a Naval officer in the first place (the guy would never pass the psych evaluation). Meanwhile, the silliest bit is that Seagal's character was a Navy SEAL who was busted out and couldn't hold a security clearance, so he could only be a cook. To even apply to go to Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUDS) School, to become a SEAL, you have to have a rating; a job specialty. Only certain ratings are allowed to apply, especially those with valuable mission skills. Mess Specialist (a cook) is not one of them. If a sailor were tossed out of the SEAL community (without being court martialed or administratively discharged from the Navy), he would return to the fleet under his rating and return to duties normally carried out by that rating. A radioman would go back to being a radioman on a ship, a bosun's mate goes back to Deck Department, etc... Then, a security clearance has nothing to do with your rating, other than a need for a specific clearance for specific duties. Most sailors have at least a "secret" clearance, allowing them to see classified material up to the "secret" classification. That included me, as a midshipman. However, that doesn't mean you have access to classified material. Security Clearance and Classified Material Access are two different things. Then again, it doesn't matter, as Seagal, in real life, is such a p@##$ that he wouldn't make it past Week 1 of BUDS, let alone Hell Week! Ask Gene LeBell about how tough Seagal is.... The ultimate piece is the knife fight, which shows Seagal has no clue about knife fighting. You attack with the point of the blade, even in Filipino escrima, which has slashing techniques that include reversing the blade. Seagal and Jones spend almost all of their time with blades reversed, doing the most choreographed moves I have ever seen (and I have watched a ton of swashbucklers and lucha libre). It's a better film than the bulk of Seagal's dreck, and you do get to see Erika Eleniak topless; but, it just sends my logic filter into fits. Probably more watchable to civilians. It doesn't help that is Used to be stuck on board ship, when we were at see, with nothing to watch except movies from the ship's library, which included a lot of bad action films, including several from Seagal. A month at sea meant a lot of showings of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme and Seagal. I mean, you can only pack so many books in your sea bag. I'd much rather watch Stallone mumble and Schwarzenegger butcher the English language than see Van Damme and Seagal "act." But, don't let me stop anyone from watching it......
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 29, 2018 3:25:27 GMT -5
ps, in the poster, Seagal is wearing an officer's Service Dress White uniform, with an admiral's shoulderboard insignia!!!!!!!! His character is supposed to be a chief petty officer.
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Post by brutalis on Jan 29, 2018 8:01:19 GMT -5
Sunday watched two Glenn Ford Westerns on Grit TV. 1st up from 1956 The Fastest Gun Alive with Broderick Crawford, Jeanne Crain, Russ Tamblyn and Leif Erickson. ford does quite well as the meek and timid store owner who becomes frustrated with all the talk about gunslingers and reveals he is a gun slick extraordinaire so he can bask in the limelight of the townsfolk. Of course the catch is they don't know that for all of his gun skill (he shoots 2 silver dollars in the air) he has NEVER faced a man in a real gunfight. Of course some real villainous sorts come to town and Ford is exposed. He ultimately makes the final stand against Crawford in a duel and the movie ends with Ford's fast gun legacy dead in the ground as the town tells visiting law enforcement that both men died killing each other. Then as they leave Ford is shown alive and thankful to the town for burying his past.
The 2nd was 1969's Heaven with a Gun. Costarring Barbara Hershey, David Carradine, Carolyn jones, John Anderson and Noah Beery. A town divided by cattleman versus sheep men has a fast drawing Preacher come to town who opens a new church using his gun to allow equal opportunity religion. The feud comes to a head and the church is burned down and Ford must choose to either be a gunslinger or a preacher as Carolyn Jones tells him he can't be part of both and succeed. He throws away his guns and asks the church folk to band together to put a stop to the feuding and the town rally's to the call.
Two very different kinds of western's that attempt to do more than just shoot em up. Both go for the hard questions and subjects and both enlivened by the dour and calmly cool Glenn Ford leathery gunman with a conscious.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2018 9:23:01 GMT -5
ps, in the poster, Seagal is wearing an officer's Service Dress White uniform, with an admiral's shoulderboard insignia!!!!!!!! His character is supposed to be a chief petty officer. That's a major goof on their part and not acceptable at all ... I understand your grief about that movie but I like it anyway and we are each to our own ...
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 29, 2018 12:18:48 GMT -5
ps, in the poster, Seagal is wearing an officer's Service Dress White uniform, with an admiral's shoulderboard insignia!!!!!!!! His character is supposed to be a chief petty officer. That's a major goof on their part and not acceptable at all ... I understand your grief about that movie but I like it anyway and we are each to our own ... I don't begrudge anyone liking a movie. Heck, I like Doll Squad, which is terrible; yet, so-bad-it's-good. I love the movie All The Marbles, which gets generally mediocre reviews, including one from Wrestling With Wregret, a humor channel on Youtube, which I enjoy. I still think it's a pretty good film and that Mickey Rourke's The Wrestler is vastly over-rated, though it has a lot of good elements. I was the lone person in my circle who hated Watchmen and I don't get the love for Fight Club. Everybody has their own experience with a movie.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 29, 2018 12:23:23 GMT -5
That's a major goof on their part and not acceptable at all ... I understand your grief about that movie but I like it anyway and we are each to our own ... I don't begrudge anyone liking a movie. Heck, I like Doll Squad, which is terrible; yet, so-bad-it's-good. I love the movie All The Marbles, which gets generally mediocre reviews, including one from Wrestling With Wregret, a humor channel on Youtube, which I enjoy. I still think it's a pretty good film and that Mickey Rourke's The Wrestler is vastly over-rated, though it has a lot of good elements. I was the lone person in my circle who hated Watchmen and I don't get the love for Fight Club. Everybody has their own experience with a movie. I'll go ahead and keep you company on the last two.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 29, 2018 13:04:51 GMT -5
I don't begrudge anyone liking a movie. Heck, I like Doll Squad, which is terrible; yet, so-bad-it's-good. I love the movie All The Marbles, which gets generally mediocre reviews, including one from Wrestling With Wregret, a humor channel on Youtube, which I enjoy. I still think it's a pretty good film and that Mickey Rourke's The Wrestler is vastly over-rated, though it has a lot of good elements. I was the lone person in my circle who hated Watchmen and I don't get the love for Fight Club. Everybody has their own experience with a movie. I'll go ahead and keep you company on the last two. Watchmen is completely missing Alan Moore's voice and is so artificial-looking it takes me out of the film. I would have rather had an animated version. At least then it is easier to buy into the artifice. The acting is generally bad, apart from a very select few, and characters lack the essential elements from the comic. Kind of hard for Dan Dreiberg to be an impotent schlub when he is buff and handsome. Veidt is just terrible, lacking everything that made the character work. Rorschach is way too sympathetic, which isn't surprising, given Snyder's politics. When I worked at Barnes & Noble I had long arguments with co-workers who enjoyed the film. I can't stand the ending and find it ridiculous that {Spoiler: Click to show} Veidt would be able to suppress all of these innovations when Dr Manhattan would probably just present it to scientists and officials. Fight Club is a mystery to me. Everyone in it seemed so unrealistic that I couldn't buy into it being what was actually happening. I wasn't surprised to see them show that it is all in his head, as that was my reaction from the start. It was like identifying the twist to the Sixth Sense from the trailer. I hadn't seen the film and friends were talking about the twist. I said, "What, that Bruce Willis is dead?" They replied, "You saw it?" I replied, no, it's obvious: kid sees dead people, kid talks to Bruce Willis, therefor; Bruce Willis is dead. Same with Unbroken. Samuel L Jackson keeps talking about the villain being the opposite of the hero, he is fragile while Willis is invulnerable, he's the villain. We all just agreed to disagree on those films. There are others I enjoy enough, but think are overpraised. The recent film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy is a decent movie; but condenses too much material and is shaky on timeline, since it cuts back and forth, with only Gary Oldman's different glasses to clue you in to the period. I much prefer the Alec Guinness mini-series, which gives room for the material to breath. I thought the Manchurian Candidate remake (which I was enthusiastically prepared to hate) was pretty good, adding a nice modern paranoia to the classic Cold War paranoia. I don't think John Frankenheimer ever needs updating; but, Demme did a fine job. I even like some of those bad action films I bemoaned above. I hate most of Van Damme's stuff; but, enjoy Universal Soldier. It's a bad rip-off of Deathlok and similar sci-fi; but, it's engaging enough and funny enough to keep my interest. Besides, Van Damme doesn't speak much, which helps. Heck, I even enjoy Bloodsport, even though it is A) total BS (Frank Dux is a notorious liar, from the martial arts world; and, B) swiped tons of material from Enter the Dragon. Still, there is enough to redeem it (the guy who played Ogre, in Revenge of the Nerds, is pretty fun and the fight choreography is pretty good) that I will watch it, if I come across it. I even enjoy Hasselhoff as Nick Fury, in the tv movie (the rest of the cast, though...).
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