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Ha Ha! Love Wolf Creek, but I admit it's a very hard watch, especially the first time you watch it.
It's the most disturbing horror film of it's kind since the original Texas Chainsaw. A nice uneasy build up and then the film really delivers serious terror.
John Jarratt is chilling as the disturbingly real Mick Taylor and it's really well directed by Greg McLean. Who never really made anything to come close to it since. A meh killer croc movie called Rogue and a Wolf Creek sequel that was garbage.
A film noir directed by Otto Preminger. A police detective accidentally kills a man and is later assigned to find the killer. Good.
Panic In The Streets (1950)
Directed by Elia Kazan. Okay, I suppose.
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Early on it was hard not to just giggle, but I thought it was an enjoyable watch in the end.
5 Fingers (1952)
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The story about a spy, based on a real story. Okay.
Le salaire de la peur (The Wages Of Fear) (1953)
4 desperate guys accept a job that endangers their lives, of which the company hiring them doesn't give a crap about. This was excellent.
Shane (1953)
A classic western.
Invasion Of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Good.
Forty Guns (1957)
An okay western.
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
Good, but I don't love it as much as many do.
The Prince And The Showgirl (1957)
Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier, directed by Olivier. Boooring. Sheesh.
I think I'll continue to avoid Wolf Creek.
This arrived earlier it's the big screen edition, only 8 minutes are shot with IMAX cameras though what an amazing 8 minutes, the battle in the forest looks fantastic in big screen on my 4K TV.
I expect more mental fortitude from you. I thought the insane were immune to other's insanity, or provocative and sickening images? You've changed...
Great track first time watch the film grabbed me immediately, very well directed film.
Yeah RONIN is being released this month through Arrow Video, Who Dares Wins I got today also which is another Arrow presentation. I had a quick look at Who Dares Wins nice box and the print is much better than the DVD I have.
Great movie like the gritty realism of movies made at the time, Collins is a badass would have made a good proto Craig Bond.
Came across as too cocky apparently!
It’s been a few years since I’ve seen this late Anthony Minghella directed epic. One of my all time favourites now, it’s amazing to recall that I almost fell asleep on first theatre watch in 1999, at a midnight showing after a night of partying with friends. It's based on the first of Patricia Highsmith’s novels focusing on the deceitful, sexually ambiguous and awkward anti-hero Tom Ripley (played here by Matt Damon).
The film begins with Tom struggling to make ends meet in 1950’s New York. He runs into shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf (the late James Rebhorn), who upon seeing the school’s insignia on his borrowed jacket mistakenly assumes that Tom attended Princeton along with his wayward son and heir Dickie (Jude Law) a jazz lover, who is currently cavorting in Italy with his rich fiancée Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow). Tom plays along that he knows the spoiled, rebellious and aimless Dickie, in what becomes a fateful decision. Greenleaf pays him to go to Europe and bring back his son. Tom studies jazz and researches Dickie relentlessly prior to heading off. He finds his man on the beaches of Mongibello and realizes that Dickie is his polar opposite, a smooth, handsome, and very much ‘in the moment’ person (his love of jazz is a metaphor for his carefree existence which contrasts with Tom). The two hit it off and Tom is enamoured with his new friend. In fact, homoerotic feelings surface as they spend time together. Soon Tom discovers that he is just a temporary passerby in Dickie’s jet set world – a realization made all the more painful by the appearance of Dickie’s obnoxious friend Freddie Miles (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman). Freddie immediately senses that Tom is a ‘commoner’ and excludes him from the tight knit group’s future social events. Dickie’s new found flakiness also begins to grate Tom, relationships become severely strained and events suddenly unfold in mysterious and unpredictable ways with devastating consequences.
Why do I like this film so much? Well there are a number of reasons. The performances for one are incredible. Damon is excellent as con artist Tom Ripley. He is unsure, disturbing & devious at once. It’s a wonderfully textured performance. We know who he is, but yet we can’t help rooting for him, which is testament to Damon’s work. Law is also superb here as the spoiled charming brat Dickie (it’s a role he was made for) who discards friends like meat. Paltrow is very good too as Marge, especially in the later parts of the film. She knows Dickie is a prick but she loves him anyway and begins to suspect that Tom is not all that he seems. Paltrow embodies the character's increasing suspicions and hopelessness perfectly. Hoffmann is amazing (as usual) as the odious Freddie. We can feel the entitlement and arrogant privilege dripping off him like sweat. If that’s not enough (and it should be), the always brilliant Cate Blanchett also has a small role as rich traveler Meredith Logue, as does Jack Davenport as friend Peter Smith-Kingsley.
Minghella’s direction is assured and he & cinematographer John Seale imbue the film with a wonderfully authentic retro glamour class and style which I find intoxicating. Italy has never looked better, there is a sweeping scale to the whole thing & it’s very atmospheric. The plot itself is quite interesting and suspenseful. It starts off a bit slow but builds beautifully to a crescendo as Tom finds the noose tightening and has to use all means necessary to extricate himself from his deception. There are some great individual scenes as well. Finally Gabriel Yared’s jazz infused score is wonderful & fits the proceedings like a glove, being at times playful, suspenseful and romantic depending on the circumstances. The film feels like something from a different age.
Recommended.
2nd viewing, this time in 70mm IMAX. It was like seeing it for the very first time. The detail & clarity apparent in this format is exceptional and it is the best way to experience this film. There is far more image actually in the screen during those scenes shot with the IMAX technology as well, as shown below. It gives a 'taller' and boxier image letting far more sky, beach and sea into the viewing frame as Nolan intended it. The resolution is phenomenal.
Superb film and a tremendous viewing experience.
Though he did have an unfortunate way of pronouncing it.
Haha that's nice that he loved it. I'm still close with lots of Disney Animated Classics despite being older now. I don't care; I still enjoy them just as much as before!
I am a Imax junky I need to try and find time to go and watch Dunkirk in Imax.
Agreed I am a big Nolan fan more so as he has spearheaded the use of Imax, was the whole of Dunkirk shot in Imax?
Here's a link to some info on it:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/5/15925258/christopher-nolans-dunkirk-imax-70mm-film-projection
Watched this again recently. Easily one of my favorite Mitchum noir/adventures. Vincent Price steals the show at the end completely hamming it up as a matinee idol thrust into a rescue mission. Great stuff!
Cheers will have a read... Nolan has progressively increased Imax footage with each subsequent film, the cameras are so big some shots in smaller spaces are difficult though the rate technology improves a full motion picture shot in Imax won't be far away.
THREE AGES (1923) / Buster Keaton
Keaton's an all-time favorite with me, not only as a silent comedian but also as a director. THREE AGES is no SHERLOCK JR. or THE GENERAL, but it's a really solid first feature. For much of the film Keaton holds back his exceptional athleticism and the often mechanical-like conceits which so often come to challenge it, seemingly in favor of figuring his way around the feature format. There's a nice American football sequence, however, and he goes to work somewhat in the finale (which contains his famous missed leap between buildings, and subsequent fall through awnings, swing down a pipe, launch through a window, and slide down a firehouse pole). The film, as ever with Keaton, feels like it's always happening in the now, which is what really draws me to Keaton to begin with: he often feels no less immediate than a ballerina balanced on her pointe shoes or a magician catching a bullet in his teeth. Keaton liked to get his material on the first take, which allows for the same anxiety of a live performance, first, in not knowing what's going to happen to him, or how whatever is happening to him could possibly be happening, and, second, through a wonderment as to how anyone could possibly be doing what he does, yet alone doing it so well.
DAYS OF HEAVEN (1979) / Terrence Malick
An astoundingly beautiful, meditative, and fine film by Malick. I'm not much a fan of THIN RED LINE but I adore BADLANDS. This is much the same story you'll find there in the latter—a couple on the move across the States, weighed down by the male partner's questionable morality—yet you can feel Malick pulling away from the kind of film BADLANDS was and more towards the type THIN RED LINE would be, and really everything he's done since. In parts the editing feels a little self aware, but that's a niggle. I always love Gere, and Brooke Adams is great. Morricone is top of his game, but when isn't he?
MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (1929) / Directed by Dziga Vertov, Edited by Elizaveta Svilova
I couldn't not credit Svilova for her role as editor in what is one of the most well-edited films I've ever seen. (I still think F FOR FAKE takes that title, but this comes damn close.) I think the quality of playfulness in art is chief, and that is precisely what goes on here for a little over an hour. Enthralling jazz between Vertov and Svilova, between camera and editing room, giving here and taking there, and the result is a magic like only pure cinema can deliver.
Imagine a Keaton-esque resolve to the pre-title action of SPECTRE and the building facade falling forward.
EDIT: @Birdleson HIS KIND OF WOMAN sounds great! First I've heard of it. Adding it to the watch list.
Average film.
Meiko Kaji is amazing in these films, says all she needs to say with a look and a stare, and few words. A lurid Japanese exploitation film from the mid 70s that has a lot going for it, action, naked flesh, revenge and plenty blood. The ending suggests that the story is run…but Kaji came back for one more (FPS: Grudge Song) with director Hasabe.
https://goo.gl/images/5Mpxca
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
Pretty good film, the CGI as seen in the trailers really delivered, it was very close to Cameron's 'Avatar' level of quality. However, the film had some major pacing issues - the few action scenes took a long time to get going, and the quiet scenes sometimes took me completely out of the film - I don't mind long talkative scenes to get the plot going or for character development - but here many scenes served absolutely no purpose and I wondered why they were in the film. Once the action started though, I was very much entertained. The lead roles, played by Clara Delevigne and Dane Dehaan had zero chemistry and we're not very credible as world-class space pilots/adventures. Clive Owen was very good but had limited screentime, and I enjoyed a small appearance by Ethan Hawke (or Ethan Hunt according to @barryt007 ;) ). Not the worst sci-fi adventure film out there, but far from the best, and it did disappoint me as I thought Luc Besson would deliver to the caliber of 'Fifth Element'.
War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
Absolutely spectacular, one of the best film I've seen in a very long time. The CGI/motion capture was phenomenal, Andy Serkis has rarely been better, and Woody Harrelson gave the performance of a lifetime as the very chilling main villain. The plot and dialogue were very interesting and thought-provoking, and the near 2.5 hours of screen time went by like a bullet. Also, yet another excellent soundtrack by Michael Giacchino - please get this man to work on a Bond film!
The Dark Tower (2017)
This one was my favorite of these 3 latest films I've seen. 90 minutes, lots of frenetic action scenes, lots of humour, and very badass/charismatic performances from Idris Elba & Matthew McCounaughey (the main kid actor was very good too). Elba had dozens of very badass kills during the various shootouts - especially the climax where he killed 20+ goons in about 5 minutes, something that would impress John Wick himself. This was a really fun, mindless action flick, and I love films of this style. I don't know if the planned sequels will ever happen, but I'll sure rewatch this film often once it is available on Blu Ray.
Next for me: Atomic Blonde next week and Hitman's Bodyguard a week later.