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Lothar reminds me of a character from one of the Basil Rathbone Holmes films, forget which film.
Bought The Phantom and The Shadow earlier in the year, all movies i loved when i watched them as a kid. The films have that old serial feel. Enjoy anything that's set in the pre war, depression period or Victorian colonial period.
Thanks, mon ami, @DarthDimi. :) I admire Audrey because of her commitments and her personal outlook. She is still a lovely example. I'm so glad we have her on film. That is one reason why I love movies; we have that captured, so we can see it again and again; unlike plays.
Let me start by wetting your appetite: Terence Young directing, Ennio Morricone scoring, Gert Fröbe, James Mason, Audrey Hepburn, Romy Schneider, Irene Papas and Omar Sharif starring. Sounds good, right?
Well it stinks. Most of these people, sadly enough, are way passed the height of their careers at this point. And it shows. Even the great James Mason seems to be spitting out his lines for a paycheck. Bloodline comes off like an episode from Dallas or Dynasty, stretched to a tedious 115 minutes. How you do that? By pretending it's a drama film for grown-ups about the politics of business and the trouble of needing money fast, thereby writing tons of silly dialogue which grown-ups are supposed to speak in real life. However, despite trying to elicit a sense of realism, the screenwriters also resort to a Robby The Robot type of supersmart talking computer which actually helps a police investigator, played by Fröbe, to unravel all the film's mysteries which anyone of us can see through as if it were the cleanest plate of glass. Add to that some sleazy scenes of snuff movie making which contribute absolutely nothing to the story, and you can understand why this Agatha Christie wannabe left nothing but a sour taste in my mouth. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze contains more logic in its storytelling I'm saddened to report.
It had been three years since Audrey Hepburn's last movie role (Robin And Marion). She really wasn't into acting anymore, for many years in fact. After her great successes of the 50s and early 60s, she had step by step withdrawn from movie making. Young had partnered with her over a decade before Bloodline for Wait Until Dark, clearly the better film. Maybe casting Audrey was really about him calling in a favour or something. Still, at the age of 50, Audrey looked beautiful. Too bad she was given such a terrible script to come back with. And she didn't by the way. Two more films after this, one of them actually a cameo, and she'd be out of acting for good. I hate to see her miss out on a truly great swansong. Bloodline is at best a bloodstain on her otherwise pretty decent career.
Don't watch this film. You'll hurt yourself when you do. Only a completist, say someone who wants to watch all of Terence Young's films, or all of Audrey's (like myself), may find a good enough reason to dive into this puddle of bugger. Poorly written, for the most part poorly performed and even poorly shot, Bloodline makes its namesake in the Hellraiser series look positively epic.
I did like her in the earlier Two for the Road; that was quite a different film for her, more contemporary and adult. And she was very good in Wait Until Dark (which I think was her final Oscar nomination). Both of those films were in the 60's. I found Robin and Marian to be too sad for me to want to see it again (although she was lovely and Sean was fine).
I want to also add about Audrey - she knew how to age gracefully. No surgery, just good living, and she let her wrinkles happen naturally. Still, her beauty shone through as she allowed herself to look older, and of course especially her inner beauty was still there. I find photos of her from her work with UNICEF to be inspiring and she was still a lovely, lovely woman. Still looked like herself. Unlike many "stars" who cannot get past their 30's without at least Botox these days it seems.
Some other women I have seen that seem to have just let nature take its course are: Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Charlotte Rampling, and Maggie Smith. That is an impressive list of fine actresses there, too.
Totally as an aside, I recently discovered that Judi and I are the same height - ha! As I get older and older, my biggest wish is that I still look like me. Judi through all the years still definitely looks like Judi; I like that.
I think it's a vast improvement over Hell On Earth but not nearly half as good as the first two movies IMO. ;-)
Two For The Road is one of the few Audreys I have yet to watch. Might give it a try today. ;-)
I like the first 4 films. Inferno was where it started to go wrong for the series.
Has a Horror series fallen further than the Hellraiser series? Most (like Friday The 13th, Halloween & A Nightmare On Elm Street) manage to remain theatical, most start theatrical but end up dtv, but Hellraiser started theatrical and has ended up *whispers* ashcan *whispers*. The difference here, to other ashcan films, is that someone actually decided to release Hellraiser: Revelations.
Worth watching.
Dir. Stanley Donen
Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn star in this slightly cynical romantic film about a couple examining their past 12 years of being together while on the road. I thought the film kept a good spirit, despite being very blunt on the subject of love in a marriage. I honestly believe this is a film most adults will be able to appreciate. I speculate there's at least one character in this movie you can identify with on an emotional level. Mancini's score is, as usual, outstanding. Good film, even if I prefer Donen's other Hepburn films - Funny Face and Charade - over this one.
Charade a film i have watched hundreds of times, superb cast, always been a fan of Mattau (The Odd couple one of my favourite films from that era, Hopscotch with Glenda Jackson sticks in my mind though not watched for decades) Charade must be one of Mattaus earliest roles. My mum often watched Hitchcock movies when i was young, inevitably led to me watching Charade. As far as homages to Hitchcock go, i would say Charade is arguably the best. Certainly enjoy it more than Torn Curtain and Topaz :)
Billy wilder the film that comes to mind most is Some like it hot. Not sure i have seen Fortune cookie, will look out for it thankyou. Love the both of then in The Odd couple, a film i always get drawn into when i watch it. Superb film.
Grumpy old men just popped into my head, late 80s or 90s. Remember quite enjoying that.
Grumpy old men, just remembered Anne Margarate starred in that film. She was gorgeous in her youth.
You mean Ann-Margret. :) I have a cd of hers on my (long) shopping list...
Even Bond movies don't get much better than this.
I simply adore The Big Sleep. Bogey and Bacall make a wonderful team! Out of the four they did together, it may actually be my favourite.
This is one of my favorite horror films. It's scary, the atmosphere and setting is very, very eerie, it has some great, gory kills, the backstory is wonderful, the suspense is there, the villain is brutish and horrifying, the action/fight sequences presented are really well done and intense, and it has one of my favorite horror movie characters of all time in it: your typical 'gnarly jock sex-addicted' male who completely spins the character stereotype around and spices the events up. It's so amazing, I'm surprised it's such an underrated movie.
'Out For Justice'
It's been one of my favorite action movies ever since I was a kid. It's a ponytail-sporting Steven Seagal cutting down gangsters as he tries to kill the methhead who killed his best friend. It's so entertaining. The finale fight between the two is brilliant, because it's two incredibly different men, so it's essentially Seagal disarming him and throwing him around the entire time.
I absolutely did not expect to be wowed by this, but I was. Wow.
Haven't rewatched this in a few years, so I popped in the blu-ray and watched the three-hour extended cut. I love this film, but it's intercut with a lot of new footage so the pacing tends to be here and there at times. Still, it has some tense moments, a lot of character backstories, some built-up, tense shootouts, and a great resolution, even if it is 1% realistic/99% Hollywood. I also like that they had the real Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts on set to help with filming, to add in little bits of authenticity where they could. Scott did really well with capturing the 70's in this, as well, and the cast list is stellar. This is probably the only film that I truly like RZA in.
This movie was great fun, I was chuckling throughout most of it. Arnold is obviously having fun in this movie.
7/10.
I've not seen Raw Deal but I did see The Running Man again the other day. To be honest I prefer the much hated Kindergarten Cop.
Haven't watched Kindergarten Cop yet. I'm having an Arnold marathon of sort. Raw Deal is just pure fun. In some ways it feels like a sequel to Death Wish 3 but without Charles Bronson.