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Thanks for the advice. I am going to add them to my watchlist :)
Very odd, but very good. Well worth watching
Bullet Train
Fun, easy too watch mindless fun. Typical Hollywood fare.
Lots of fun.
PS: Judging from the cover, I expected a black-and-white movie, but it is in fact full-colour Panavision or Cinemascope or whatever the difference may be.
You are in for an experience. Very much like Carpenter's The Thing, The Fly was an opportunity for Cronenberg to go all in with the body horror and special effects, turning the story into a completely different beast from the original. The Fly has Goldblum's best performance too in my opinion. All around, the film is a pretty devastating experience.
It's definitely not for the squeamish!
So she checked our Spielberg collection and found she had never watched Hook. I know I did, but probably still in VHS times. I kept my DVD when buying a Blu-ray because the DVD has extras and the BD doesn't. But both were still shrink-wrapped, so I suppose it's been over twenty years I saw that film.
It's not going to become part of our group of favourite Spielberg films, probably because neither of us knows the original Peter Pan story, and we're not so into his more cute/sentimental types of movies. But it's still marvelous, with a lot of crazy ideas, and great acting by the likes of Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Bob Hoskins and an incredibly cute Julia Roberts. Not to mention the grand production design and the wonderful score by (of course) John Williams. Good fun and worth watching. It may be 32 years old, but yet another relatively early proof that Spielberg really can do no wrong.
Edit: Regarding the performances, I inexcusably excluded praising Maggie Smith, who was made to look considerably older than she did during her tenure in the Harry Potter series.
Got this new 4k from The Criterion Collection last week. Terry Gilliams version of the story came in for a lot of criticism at the time. But I love his take on it. Wonderful Production values, from sets to costumes, to effects, and it looks fabulous in this 2 disc issue. Great cast, John Neville a perfect Baron, Jonathan Pryce, a gorgeous Uma Thurman as Venus, and a scene stealing Oliver Reed as Vulcan. The only downside is the late Robin Williams appearance as King of the Moon, who irritates and is unfunny! The set pieces are dazzling, from The Baron winning a bet with the aid of his skilled companions, through a wonderful scene where he dances amid cherubs with Venus, and a glorious triumphant battle at the end, all scored by Michael Kamen ( who went on to score LTK in '89!) Went to see this when it was released in March 1989, to a packed audience, and was shocked to find it only lasted a week!!
Really enjoyed this viewing yesterday, perfect Bank Holiday viewing!
Dir: Ida Lupino
Screenplay: Ida Lupino, Collier Young
Cast: Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy and William Talman
A really good, tightly edited 71-minute tension packed thriller.
This film was based on the actual story of two kidnapping victims in 1950 and their kidnapper - who had also committed a series of murders to people that had offered him a ride along the US interstate highway system. What is really impressive about the film is that while Lupino could have turned this into a fictionalized account of “macho”, instead she opted for a more emotional case study – of both the perpetrator (William Talman) and his two intended victims (Frank Lovejoy and Edmond O’Brien). There is no false bravado on the part of the victims, only a willingness to do what was required to stay alive. The performances are all first-rate.
A more detailed review (written up by fellow MI6’er @ggl007 ) can be read here (its’ in Spanish – so you will need to use your internet translation option): https://www.eltaquigrafo.com/articulo/cine/viaje-de-ida/20220702092816019909.html
Ms. Lupino was famous in her all too brief directing career of focusing on “emotional truth” rather than action for the sake of action and for taking on controversial subjects in a series of modestly budgeted films:
NOT WANTED (1949) -out-of-wedlock pregnancy
NEVER FEAR (1950) – disability
OUTRAGE (1950) – rape
THE BIGAMIST (1953) – bigamy
Despite her outstanding direction in the HITCH-HIKER, Ms. Lupino only helmed seven films in her lifetime, the last being THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELES (1966). She did, however, direct several episodes of TV programs in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as continuing to act well into the 1980s.
Highly recommended.
I'm glad you liked the film!
I just saw it. My reaction is quite the opposite.
I thought it was a beautiful and poignant film and the Reznor/Ross score might be their best ever. (Interesting that Mendes didn't have Thomas Newman score this film...falling out? Just a different direction? Regardless, the Reznor/Ross score sounds very much like Newman.)
Its been several years since I watched this, there is a lot to like in this often profound collaboration of Spielberg and Kubrick. I suspect if Kubrick had had greater involvement he would have toned down Spielbergs penchant for over sentimentality. None the less this is a superior Science Fiction film though on this rewatch many of the themes I felt quite unsettling and suited more to horror. I need to check if this film has had a 4K remaster as the film is visually stunning.
EDIT: Bond connection: Gabriele Ferzetti as one of the Nazis that grow increasingly wary of Dirk Bogarde's "Max" - even dubbed by David de Keyser just as in OHMSS.
That is annoying. That happened with the Doctor Strange sequel too. I'm okay with having to watch all the films to be up to speed with what's going on in the ongoing narrative, but that's not cool to expect everybody to keep up with all the TV series too. Reference the shows in oblique, tangential, or dispensable ways, that's fine, but not in ways that are essential to understanding the narrative at hand. You're catering to too niche of an audience.
Sounds very interesting. Going to give this one a watch.
A dramatization of the 6 day siege of the Iranian Embasy in London, that cemented the reputation of Mrs T, and for the first time, brought the SAS out of the shadows for the British public (and the world) to see. If you've seen Who Dares Wins, you'll know what happens. Though 6 Days tries to be a little more documentary like, by splicing in archival news footage, and also focuses more on the SAS as a team, rather than one man as in Who Dares Wins.
I suppose you will watch it in Italian? I was undecided, since it is an Italian movie. However, as with many of those utilizing international actors, about half of the roles are dubbed either way (think Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon in The Leopard). I briefly considered watching the German version, since the movie takes place in Vienna and virtually every character is supposed to be German/Austrian or at least German-speaking. Finally I decided to watch it in English, since the main protagonists are both played by English actors in their native language. Least of the possible evils.
Last night I watched something more lighthearted:
Priceless road movie comedy about a somehow very damaged family. Alan Arkin won both an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, as the foul-mouthed, sex-crazed grandfather who had been kicked out of a nursing home for dealing with heroin inside. For my taste very funny.
I thought it was funny when I saw his name. But I doubt that it was a coincidence.
Yes, it's a post-modern in-joke, for sure! Amused me, anyway. :D
Esatto ;)
Though I do understand your choice for English in this case, or even German for that matter.
It’s always a bit ambiguous with these older international films, with every actor being recorded in their native language.
I don't speak or really know Italian, but I do have at least one DVD that is only in Italian and only has Italian subtitles: Giuseppe Tornatore's Malèna... with a certain Monica Bellucci in the title role. Reason: It was the only "uncut" version (108 vs. 92 minutes) available at the time. And I found that with five years of Latin and three years of French at school and a bit of hobby Spanish later I understood at least almost(!) everything by the subtitles. That's better than having a butchered version of a movie, just because the subtitles are in a language one truly understands.
The remaining minor issue (if any) solved itself when I wished to upgrade to Blu-ray and found a Korean(!) BD of Malèna, which is also the complete cut and has the Italian soundtrack, but also English subtitles.
Anyway, Malèna, another film that’s been on my watchlist for as long as I remember… Did you like it?
I love it. Just like all of Tornatore's work that I know (my knowledge is not complete, e.g. I'm mad that there is no Blu-ray version of L'uomo delle stelle - I'm normally not buying standard DVDs any more). It doesn't mean I watch Malèna all the time, nor even every year. But at least two of Tornatore's movies are in the top five for me that I can think of:
La leggenda del pianista sull' oceano (The Legend of 1900) - probably the movie I'd take along as the sole entertainment on a remote island with me... (f... Bond)
and (of course)
[Nuovo] Cinema Paradiso, probably the best substitute if I can't get a copy of "Legend of 1900" before going to that island.
Big fan of Visconti and Antonioni here, and Argento too for different reasons of course :)
One of the few Van Damme films that I don't like. Though Quinn's escape from The Colony is a great sequence, and and at the end of it, even feels like a homage to TLD.