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Post by berkley on Mar 10, 2024 0:18:49 GMT -5
I imagine this must have played on tv at some point when I was a kid but I don't remember ever seeing it, so I'm very happy to have been able to catch it finally after all these years and on the big screen too. That's two big McQueen movies I've seen at the theatre the last year or so, this one and Bullitt. I'd say Bullitt is much the superior of the two overall but no fan of '60s movies or of McQueen or Dunaway will want to miss The Thomas Crown Affair. Thanks for the heads up! It's now added to me Tubi list.
BTW, there's a minor but interesting Canadian connection to The Thomas Crown Affair (apart from director Jewison) that I didn't know about until reading up on the movie after I got home from seeing it.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 10, 2024 2:51:32 GMT -5
I’m watching Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). I just started episode number four. Franz has just gotten out of prison. He made a vow to be a better person and try to stay out of trouble. He tries so hard. But not everybody in 1920s Berlin is being cooperative.
I've been meaning to watch this for years and still haven't gotten round to it. I read the book back in the late 1990s or early 2000s, I think it was, but there's a new translation that's come out since then that I want to try eventually but maybe I'll go ahead and watch the series first - it was a tv series, wasn't it?
14 episodes. 960 minutes.
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Roquefort Raider
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 10, 2024 17:34:03 GMT -5
I had never seen The Assassination Bureau, and the only reason I do not regret it is that the joy of discovering it for the first time today was great indeed! A delightful little film to accompany an afternoon of cartooning.
And holey moley, Diana Riggs was awesome! From young adventuress to elderly schemer, I just adored her throughout her career!
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 10, 2024 18:49:54 GMT -5
I had never seen The Assassination Bureau, and the only reason I do not regret it is that the joy of discovering it fir the first time today was great indeed! A delightful little film to accompany an afternoon of cartooning. And holey moley, Diana Riggs was awesome! From young adventuress to elderly schemer, I just adored her throughout her career! It’s such a great movie!
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 10, 2024 19:57:47 GMT -5
I had never seen The Assassination Bureau, and the only reason I do not regret it is that the joy of discovering it fir the first time today was great indeed! A delightful little film to accompany an afternoon of cartooning. And holey moley, Diana Riggs was awesome! From young adventuress to elderly schemer, I just adored her throughout her career! It’s such a great movie! I was fascinated by the Zepplin. I was going, it’s weird how it doesn’t have any glass in the windows. I ended up doing a lot of research on early zeppelins, and it turns out that, for a while, it was thought that they shouldn’t have glass because the sun shining on the glass would mess up the visibility. As I recall, the Zepplin is a little bit earlier than the historical record in our universe, but it is largely genuine to how the early zeppelins were designed.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 11, 2024 20:33:58 GMT -5
I was fascinated by the Zepplin. I was going, it’s weird how it doesn’t have any glass in the windows. I ended up doing a lot of research on early zeppelins, and it turns out that, for a while, it was thought that they shouldn’t have glass because the sun shining on the glass would mess up the visibility. As I recall, the Zepplin is a little bit earlier than the historical record in our universe, but it is largely genuine to how the early zeppelins were designed. They, more or less, based it on the early designs of Graf Von Zeppelin. The Michael York film, Zeppelin, gives a pretty good look at the German Zeppelin's of WW1, though the mission is pure fantasy. German intelligence funds the construction of an experimental model, which British Intelligence wants to scope out and destroy, after bombing raids on London. York is half German and is set up as a traitor and escapes to Germany. He is chosen because he is acquainted with the designer, from his youth. Elke Sommer plays the designers younger wife, who is suspicious of York. Anton Differing is in charge of the German intelligence and Peter Carsten is in command of the mission. It turns out to be more than a test flight, as they rendeszvous with a ship, in the North Sea and take on supplies and fuel, plus a squad of troops. They then head for Scotland, which is why they needed York and allowed him along, despite not fully believing his story. He can identify the area that is their target, where the Crown Jewels and historic artefacts, like the Magna Carta, have been stored, for the war. They launch a commando mission (kind of hilarious since most are armed with rifles and bayonets) and York has to try to alert the British. They are attacked, at one point, by Sopwith Camels, carrying new incendiary ammunition, which will explode the gas cells. I first saw The Assassination Bureau as an early teen and loved it. Based on a Jack London short work and a brilliant character piece. It also has Clive Revell, the future Emperor (in Empire, in the original theatrical cut), Tell Savalas (as a newspaper publisher, for whom Rigg is working) and Roger Delgado, the original Master, in Doctor Who, as well as Curd Jurgens. It also has a great turn by character actor Vernon Dobcheff, who usually plays Russians. He played a comically dour one, in the film. Oliver Reed is terrific in it and watching it just hammers home how much he wasted of his career, with drinking and brawling. Director Basil Dearden had worked for Ealing studios, including The Blue Lamp, which debuted Dixon of Dock Green, before the tv series and also directed the caper film, The League of Gentlemen, where a group of ex-Army officers and soldiers gather together to pull off an armored car robbery, with military planning and precision. All of them miss the thrills of the war and it gives a kind of cynical view of how things were for many, after the war and the loss of status and rank, or purpose. Great cast, with Jack Hawkins, Richard Attenborough, Nigel Patrick and Bryan Forbes. Oliver Reed has a minor role in it, as a rather camp actor, at a rehearsal hall. Seeing Reed play a character like Mr Humnphreys was a hoot.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 11, 2024 20:41:48 GMT -5
ps Funny enough, Reed's escape, from the Zeppelin is not entirely farcical. When the USS Shanandoah (ZR-1) broke apart (in 1925), in high winds, over Ohio, a group of 7 men survived when CDR Charles Rosenthall piloted the bow section as a free balloon, to safety, on the ground.
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Roquefort Raider
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 12, 2024 17:20:43 GMT -5
I just watched 2011's The Wicker Tree, which as its name suggest has something to do with the 1973 classic The Wicker Man (the one with the bunny masks, not the one with the bees).
It starts out okay, despite a certain "movie of the week" feel. Then, after we've established who the main characters are, it starts to veer into Wicker Man territory (paganism being practiced in some quaint village in the middle of nowhere, with quirky but friendly residents). Then... well... it stops evoking and just becomes The Wicker Man, only far less interesting. It has none of the original's surreal quality or sense of alienation, and ends up feeling like an extended episode of some horror anthology TV series. Light on the horror, either psychological or visual, and clearly setting us up for a twist ending that was telegraphed long in advance.
It's unfortunate, as the first half of the film works quite well, but I'd recommend watching The Wicker Man again instead of watching this one.
(I just checked... it has scores of 20% and 10% on Rotten Tomatoes. That strikes me as a bit harsh, but on my own scale it would exceed a 30-35%].
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Post by Batflunkie on Mar 13, 2024 17:38:52 GMT -5
Pleasantville (1998)
This is a movie that I come back to every so often. I think what I like about it the most is the theming about a boy who's obsessed with a "Leave It To Beaver" style show that's aired in reruns on "not quite TV Land" and gets sucked into that world and ends up changing it for the better with his sister
I also like how well the execution of color is executed as something that's both scary and life affirming
Something that I also picked up on in this watch through (hadn't seen it in years tbh) was how people in Pleasantville like Mr. Johnson (Jeff Daniels' character who runs the Malt shop were Bud works) are scared to go against their own mental programming from years of routine
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 14, 2024 13:52:06 GMT -5
Something that I also picked up on in this watch through (hadn't seen it in years tbh) was how people in Pleasantville like Mr. Johnson (Jeff Daniels' character who runs the Malt shop were Bud works) are scared to go against their own mental programming from years of routine Because thinking for oneself is scary.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 14, 2024 14:37:32 GMT -5
Something that I also picked up on in this watch through (hadn't seen it in years tbh) was how people in Pleasantville like Mr. Johnson (Jeff Daniels' character who runs the Malt shop were Bud works) are scared to go against their own mental programming from years of routine Because thinking for oneself is scary. Now....we have no real world evidence to back up that idea. Why just look at the total absence of crackpot theories, on the internet...... Okay, bad example. Then look at our elections....... No, wait......... Advertising? Wait, wait.....I'll think of something.......... Help me out here, guys........
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Post by Rags on Mar 19, 2024 9:23:33 GMT -5
I watched Class of 1984 (it's on bluray)...also adore the song 'I am the Future' that plays over the opening scenes at the school.
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Post by Batflunkie on Mar 19, 2024 9:49:10 GMT -5
I watched Class of 1984 (it's on bluray)...also adore the song 'I am the Future' that plays over the opening scenes at the school.
It's sequel, Class of 1999 is pretty fun too. It takes place in a rundown society where a school hires cyborg teachers that kill the gangs that inhabit it
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Roquefort Raider
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 20, 2024 18:25:05 GMT -5
I just rewatched The Descent (2005), a British horror movie in which a group of spelunkers get caught in a cave system inhabited by horrid, naked mole rat-like humanoids. It's really good at what it does, despite a few silly and predictable jump scares. However... THEY CHANGED THE ENDING FOR AMERICAN AUDIENCES! Unfortunately, that's the version we can see on Tubi.
That's a pretty #@$ thing to do, as in this case it completely undercuts the power of the original ending. I can't imagine the director agreeing to that. According to wikipedia, it was a case of "Well, American viewers don't like this or that". For crying out loud... a work of fiction stands on its own, no matter who's viewing it. Why mess with it?
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Post by Calidore on Mar 20, 2024 19:21:43 GMT -5
Wow, I remember Class of 1984. IIRC, it was pretty decent as '80s revenge movies go. Roquefort Raider, if you liked The Descent, you should have a look at Neil Marshall's previous film, Dog Soldiers. It's about a group of soldiers on a training exercise who end up trapped in an abandoned farmhouse besieged by werewolves. It's more action movie than horror movie, and the banter between the soldiers is hilarious.
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