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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 2, 2019 17:18:33 GMT -5
ps, Joseph Mazzello, who plays Tim in Jurassic Park and co-stars in Radio Flyer, can now be seen as Queen bassist John Deacon, in Bohemian Rhapsody! He can also be seen as Marine Eugene Sledge, in HBO's The Pacific. Sledge wrote the memoir, With The Old Breed, upon which the mini-series was partially based (along with robert Leckie's memoir A Helmet for my Pillow, and the story of John Basilone, who won the medal of Honor, at Guadalcanal and was killed in the invasion of Iwo Jima, after requesting a return to combat duty).
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Post by Farrar on Jan 2, 2019 17:29:26 GMT -5
4. Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) - I would probably have liked this better if I hadn't just seen so many really great ones! (1971) Worth it to see James Taylor and Dennis Wilson (he may not have been the most talented Beach Boy but boy was he photogenic!). 5. Cria cuervos (1975) - This is a very strange Spanish movie about a girl who would probably give Wednesday Addams the creeps! Great movie! Another one I would have rated a lot higher if I had seen it a different month. Wow, I'd forgotten I actually saw this, I saw this many years ago, about 10 years after its U.S. release. A friend of mine loved Saura's films and dragged me to see this when it showed up at a revival house. I remember at the time I found the film confusing, guess I should take another look at it, since I do like Geraldine Chaplin, who starred in this (she was Saura's then-paramour and muse). And then there's the young child actress Ana Torrent, who a few years earlier had made a splash in another lauded Spanish film, The Spirit of the Beehive (which I loved). I've read in some places that Saura was very impressed by Torrent and created Cria as a showcase for her. 10. Vagabond (1985) - I love filmmaker Agnes Varda SO MUCH! And I think this is my favorite film of hers. Just see it! Yes! I love this film. I may have mentioned I am a huge Varda fan; just re-watched Cleo From 5 to 7 recently.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 2, 2019 17:55:27 GMT -5
The theater in Twin Falls does a thing called Flashback Cinema. On Wednesdays and Sundays they have an older movie in the theater. This past Sunday we went and saw Die Hard...which all of us had seen numerous times. I had never seen this in the theater, first having seen it on HBO in college. I firmly consider this the ultimate action film.
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Post by brutalis on Jan 4, 2019 8:42:22 GMT -5
Spent last night watching some classic Marx Bro's insanity. The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. I had forgot just how much of a "musical" the Cocoanuts really was with so many dancing girls and songs found in it and that much of those musical numbers were creating new techniques that would be standards such as overhead shots of the girls legs/arms/outfits making a kaleidoscopic effect and actually filming the dance numbers live with an orchestra. The comedy is superb, especially when Groucho and Chico are on set together working on their blueprint to sucker the guests in an auction (which if you know anything of the Marx Bro's it is bound to go wrong) and Chico going off the plan on the bids during the auction is hilarious. Harpo gets his moments in eating a telephone and drinking ink.
Animal Crackers everyone should know about with Groucho's famous returning explorer from Africa Captain Spaulding routines. Groucho dances (Hooray I must be Going) and jokes ( one morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas, how he got in my pajama's I don't know) his way at every turn during this movie. Chico does his usual paino playing with flair and Harpo bounces around as he normally does with his bottomless pant pockets routine. Plenty of mirth and humor during this one with Groucho performing some quite intricate and long monologue/diatribes playing with words spectacularly. Another great give and take of frustration between Chico and Groucho when trying to figure out how the painting was stolen (by left handed birds Chico declares) so they can try to collect the reward.
A really relaxing and genuinely funny 3 hours of DVD watching. I haven't laughed out loud at a movie in quite awhile lately so it was nice having some real chuckles and guffaws. Thanks you zany Marx Bro's!!!
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Post by Jesse on Jan 8, 2019 22:52:12 GMT -5
The David Lean films I watched were The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962) both absolute epics. The Brando movie is the one where he has the iconic line "I coulda' been somebody. I coulda' been a contender." Some really great performances in that one too.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 11, 2019 13:58:04 GMT -5
I watched One Way Passage (1932) this morning. Yesterday, I was browsing the TCM schedule and I saw this film listed. William Powell and Kay Francis. That's pretty much enough for me! Especially Kay Francis. William Powell is great but I've been watching his films for decades, whereas with Kay Francis, I only discovered her a few years ago and there's still a lot of Kay Francis films to see. Kay Francis has an incurable disease and only has a few months to live. William Powell is an escaped convict who has been recaptured and is being escorted back to San Francisco where the death penalty awaits him. hey meet in Hong Kong and romance develops on the ocean liner back to the States. And it's awesome! Maybe you have to love movies from the early 1930s a lot to love this as much as I did. And only 68 minutes! The best thing is the performance of Frank McHugh. He's a petty thief and grifter and barely makes it to the ship one step ahead of the Hong Kong authorities. He falls in with Countess Barilhouse (actually Barrel House Betty, a fun performance from Aline MacMahon withan outrageous German accent), a grifter, and they form a conspiracy to do what they can to help William Powell escape justice. McHugh is a dumpy little elf, a pickpocket, a shoplifter and a drunk who happily steals drinks at every bar he sees. I love his laugh when he thinks he's gotten away with something. I didn't even know McHugh was in it! Performances like this are the main reason why I pick films from the 1930s, almost at random, so much of the time.
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Post by berkley on Jan 14, 2019 0:07:56 GMT -5
Over the Holidays I saw, for the very first time, Dead End. Actually, I missed the first 20 minutes or so and had to watch that part on youtube after I got back here to my apartment. This is the film that introduced "the Dead End Kids", an annoying group of young brats who inflicted their presence on more than a few similar movies in the 30s and 40s. I've always disliked them and there was nothing here in their first appearance to change my opinion. However, apart from that, Dead End is an enjoyable film, with first rate performances from Humphrey Bogart in an early example of one of his signature gangster roles, and female lead Sylvia Sidney, who seems to have been a pretty major star at the time (late 30s). I've become slightly obsessed with her since seeing her in this and will definitely be looking for more of her films.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2019 11:50:14 GMT -5
Dracula's Daughter is going to be on Svengoolie this Saturday ... and I'm going to look forward seeing it again. One of my favorite movies that came out in 1936.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 14, 2019 12:31:20 GMT -5
Over the Holidays I saw, for the very first time, Dead End. Actually, I missed the first 20 minutes or so and had to watch that part on youtube after I got back here to my apartment. This is the film that introduced "the Dead End Kids", an annoying group of young brats who inflicted their presence on more than a few similar movies in the 30s and 40s. I've always disliked them and there was nothing here in their first appearance to change my opinion. However, apart from that, Dead End is an enjoyable film, with first rate performances from Humphrey Bogart in an early example of one of his signature gangster roles, and female lead Sylvia Sidney, who seems to have been a pretty major star at the time (late 30s). I've become slightly obsessed with her since seeing her in this and will definitely be looking for more of her films. She's great in Sabotage, an Alfred Hitchcock film from the same period. I also love her in Mars Attacks!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 14, 2019 12:33:02 GMT -5
Dracula's Daughter is going to be on Svengoolie this Saturday ... and I'm going to look forward seeing it again. One of my favorite movies that came out in 1936. I like this well enough but it's not one of my favorite Universal horror movies. I love Nan Grey's small part though.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 14, 2019 13:23:58 GMT -5
Over the Holidays I saw, for the very first time, Dead End. Actually, I missed the first 20 minutes or so and had to watch that part on youtube after I got back here to my apartment. This is the film that introduced "the Dead End Kids", an annoying group of young brats who inflicted their presence on more than a few similar movies in the 30s and 40s. I've always disliked them and there was nothing here in their first appearance to change my opinion. However, apart from that, Dead End is an enjoyable film, with first rate performances from Humphrey Bogart in an early example of one of his signature gangster roles, and female lead Sylvia Sidney, who seems to have been a pretty major star at the time (late 30s). I've become slightly obsessed with her since seeing her in this and will definitely be looking for more of her films. I love this movie. The kids don't get to me, I guess, but even if they did, there's lots to like, including that killer set. Here's the original from the B'way production in 1935. And from the film...
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 14, 2019 14:53:40 GMT -5
Somehow, over the decade following Dead End, the Kids evolved from realistic urban urchins into the slapstick Bowery Boys. I can't think of a similar transformation in movies, but comics have had some - Atlas' Venus series, and Dick Briefer's Frankenstein both went thru multiple genres in a single run.
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Post by berkley on Jan 15, 2019 3:32:08 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm probably being a little unfair to the Dead End Kids, or at least to the intention behind them in Dead End, which was a commendable effort at social commentary. It's possible that if I had seen them in this, their first appearance, before all those later movies in which they were reduced to a kind of comedy schtick, I might have appreciated them more. As it is, they get on my nerves whenever they pop up on the screen. I was criticising Arsenic and Old Lace a little while ago for being too stagy, but it's interesting that Dead End doesn't really suffer from this at all, even though most of the action takes place on the same set - the one pictured at the bottom of Prince Hal's post. Maybe it,s the outdoor setting, or that they added a few other scenes - a few simple interiors, other angles or nearby areas of the same neighbourhood - enough to give it more visual variety than Arsenic, anyway.Or maybe it's just that that outdoor set is so well done, as prince Hal pointed out: it looks like a whole little world in itself , with all kinds of nooks and crannies to explore.
Thanks to Hoosier for mentioning Sabotage that'll be high on my list of Sylvia Sidney movies to look for. It's crazy that she was in Mars Attacks, never would have guessed that was the same actress.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2019 8:33:58 GMT -5
I just watched (all night long) movies and they are ... Macao, Starring Jane Russell and Robert Mitchum ... it's one of my favorite films that was made in 1952, after that I watched ... Desert Rats a movie starring James Mason as Rommel and Richard Burton and Robert Newson also starred and have not seen it years.
I also watched the Spirits of St. Louis too ... excellent movie regarding Charles Lindbergh. Came out in 1957.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 16, 2019 0:34:36 GMT -5
I just watched (all night long) movies and they are ... Macao, Starring Jane Russell and Robert Mitchum ... it's one of my favorite films that was made in 1952, after that I watched ... Desert Rats a movie starring James Mason as Rommel and Richard Burton and Robert Newson also starred and have not seen it years. I also watched the Spirits of St. Louis too ... excellent movie regarding Charles Lindbergh. Came out in 1957. Desert Rats was done in relation to The Desert Fox, also with Mason as Rommel. Rats is a pretty good look at how the strategies shifted to fight Rommel, by going after his supply lines, until the British (and ANZACS and other Colonial troops) were in a better position to face his forces in battle and before the Operation Torch landings. Aside from Burton and Mason, you have Long John Silver, himself, Robert Newton, as a former teacher of Burton's character, who is there as a non-com (and is a sentimental old drunkard). It gives a pretty decent look at commando tactics in the desert, while The Desert Fox opens with a commando raid on Rommel's HQ, which was intended to kill him; but missed him. The Desert Fox is an interesting, if somewhat historically flawed look at Rommel and the desert campaign, as well as his involvement, ultimately, in the plot to kill Hitler. Good performances there, though probably a little overly sympathetic to Rommel. He ignored and rationalized a lot, before he decided Hitler had to go. He gets too much of a pass for that, in my opinion. Spirit of St Louis is just an excellent film, with Jimmy Stewart at his best. my Dad, who was a life-long aviation enthusiast, loved that film. Stewart, as an experienced combat pilot, was perfect for the role, with a similar build and political outlook (though the film deals with his flight, not his later involvement in the isolationist movement). My dad also loved Strategic Air Command, also with Stewart, especially since that was closer to home. The film features the B-36 bomber and my Dad served with a B-36 squadron, in SAC, at Roswell, NM.
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