Last Movie You Watched.

Strikes me as a modern Marooned (Peck, Hackman etc) but will check it out at some point.

I also enjoyed THE MARTIAN. It's light and airy and fun, which I wasn't really expecting, but sometimes at the expense of tension or drama (as BI just pointed out). The cast is pretty awesome, but I couldn't help feel that they were somewhat wasted on characters that were often little more than talking heads.

One can only hope that Ridley builds on this. PROMETHEUS was kind of shit.

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940)

Underrated Hitchcock. Strange, as it's much better than THE BIRDS and NORTH BY NORTHWEST. Wonderful set pieces and performances. The windmill scene is genuinely eerie and I love the fact that Edmund Gwenn was brought on to play a retired hitman. Brilliant casting.

It is a genuinely great Hitchcock thriller although I'm not sure I'd call it much better than North by Northwest. I probably prefer it by a hair but it's undoubtedly more memorable than something like Saboteur or Suspicion which I recall enjoying a great deal when I watched them but can barely remember now. Notorious too, although that's certainly more controversial. I probably wouldn't consider it in the very top flight of Hitchcock films like Spellbound, Rear Window, or Vertigo, but it sits very comfortably among classics like Strangers on a Train and Shadow of a Doubt. Why it doesn't receive more attention is beyond me, but hopefully the beautiful Criterion blu will encourage more people to see it.

I've never seen the appeal of The Birds so I'll give you that for sure.

There's just so much to enjoy in FC. The apparent assassination of Van Meer followed by a quick escape through an umbrella-covered crowd is a flawlessly executed piece of business which has stuck in my mind since first viewing. I also love the sequence where McCrea escapes a couple of heavies by climbing out of a window and sneaking across the ledges outside the hotel into the room of George Sanders' daugher - in his dressing gown. And, as you say, the windmill scene is sublime.

Fantastic film indeed, got used as part of my history course at university. Well, chiefly the end scene with the broadcast as the bombs fall.

George Sanders was always worth watching in any film he did.

Mad Max : Fury Road - still this year's most flat-out entertaining movie so far, for my money. Jaw-dropping, batshit-insane action that somehow (unbelievably) didn't prove injurous or fatal to those involved.

HJackson wrote:

I also love the sequence where McCrea escapes a couple of heavies by climbing out of a window and sneaking across the ledges outside the hotel...

Another great scene.

Hilly wrote:

Fantastic film indeed, got used as part of my history course at university. Well, chiefly the end scene with the broadcast as the bombs fall.

George Sanders was always worth watching in any film he did.

Sanders was another highlight of the film. I always laugh when he walks in on Fisher's cronies as they interrogate Van Meer and asks if they'd like to buy insurance. Hitchcock and his writers were masters at mixing comedy with suspense.

Control wrote:

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940)

Underrated Hitchcock. Strange, as it's much better than THE BIRDS and NORTH BY NORTHWEST. Wonderful set pieces and performances. The windmill scene is genuinely eerie and I love the fact that Edmund Gwenn was brought on to play a retired hitman. Brilliant casting.

I like NBNW better, but FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT makes a fantastic precursor to that along with THE 39 STEPS. Interesting thing is that Hitchcock was not allowed to refer to the villains as Nazis, as this film was made before the US entered the war but now today it's so obvious it doesn't even need to be said. The windmill set piece is great, but that last sequence with the plane going down is still pretty amazing to this day. Still amazed that Hitchcock was able to get away with that infamous headshot from censorship.

I am glad Criterion selected it and gave it the best treatment. It is curious that it doesn't get as much attention as Hitchcock's later films, but I also feel that way about most of his 40s films. LIFEBOAT, SPELLBOUND, NOTORIOUS, and ROPE all deserve as much attention as his Paramount/Universal years. I like REBECCA a lot too, though it seems many regard that more as a Selznick thing but it's still damn great. Another one with George Sanders.

A local cinema is running a short 'Crime Season', so today I took in The Usual Suspects ... you can't 'un-know' the brilliant twist ending the second time around, of course. But still a top-notch thriller.

The Osterman Weekend (1983)

Peckinpah's last movie. Not a classic or one of Peckinpah's best but a fun, complicated thriller with some good performances especially from Craig T. Nelson and John Hurt who steals the film whenever he's onscreen playing a crazed CIA agent.

Crimson Peak - it has a ripe Gothic atmosphere, the cast gamely throw themselves into it, it looks fabulous and the blood flows pretty freely.

But it just ain't scary.

UNDER THE SKIN (2013, Glazer)

Frustratingly inconsistent in what it wants to say, but frequently striking. It's use of hidden cameras filming unsuspecting members of the Scottish public doesn't really reveal all that much. Perhaps more interesting than it is effective, it remains an absorbing experience with a strong performance from Johansson and a disturbing, yet uniquely moving and beautiful conclusion.

★★★.5

CRIMSON PEAK (2015, del Toro)

Expected more than jump scares and poor CGI. Relationships and motives were extremely unconvincing, whilst Jessica Chastain's seemed to be doing an Eva Green impersonation; the latter would've perhaps been a better choice for the role.  The graphic violence also seemed out of place in an otherwise fairly tame film that's simply not romantic, scary or original enough. Stick with del Toro's vastly more imaginative and emotive Pan's Labyrinth. Added to the list of this year's major disappointments including The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Slow West.

★★

2015 - Seen On The Big-Screen-Athon

1. BLADE RUNNER (1982)
2. TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)
3. METROPOLIS (1927)
4. 8½ (1963)
5. À BOUT DE SOUFFLE (1960)
6. MACBETH (2015)
7. MAD MAX : FURY ROAD (2015)
8. ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953)
9. THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (2014)
10. LA FRENCH (2014)
11. LEGEND (2015)
12. THE GOOB (2014)
13. THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E (2015)
14. SLOW WEST (2015)
15. CRIMSON PEAK (2015)

Murder my Sweet

Caught the blu ray and fell in love again with Chandlers world, the only negative is that Dick Powell isn't Humphrey Bogart, he's still great (awesome in fact) but it's just one of those 'once you've seen Bogart as Marlowe' things. For the most part the blu ray is richly contrasted, sharp and beautifully detailed however there are three short scenes that would look poor even for a VHS copy, always a bit odd that any part of a film can be so distinctly inferior quality wise to the rest (or else stealthily escape restoration).

9/10

Mulholland Falls

A decent cast and ideal period to play out a conspiracy laden murder thriller......unfortunately the whole thing falls apart through its execution delivering no sense of period, no compelling characterisation, no thrills and no fun - quite an achievement in some twisted sense......step forward and take a bow Mr Tamahori!

3/10

The Three Musketeers, 1973

after doing nothing but Bond films for three weeks (with the odd non-Bond thrown in), a pleasant change with one of the many versions of the Musketeers. Forget the TV series on the BBC or that latest film, this was it. For one thing we have the quartet: York, Chamberlain, Finlay and the imperious Reed. As a kid when I saw these films a few times, Chamberlain for reasons unknown was my favourite but Oliver Reed now has some form.
And on top of this you have Christopher Lee, Charlton Heston, even Spike Milligan and Raquel Welch doing a fair amount of bouncing. Ah, there was an actress as Richard Burton once said to Elizabeth Taylor.

It's humourous but not without it's serious moments. The swordplay energetic and sometimes played for laughs.

But last word is that honourable mention, though he says little, to Mr Roy Kinnear.

Nothing more, nothing less.

For Hallowe'en night ... It Follows.

Certainly unsettling (due in no small part to the excellent score), but I'm not sure it's entirely deserving of the praise heaped upon it.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Better than I thought it would be.
Unfortunately, once we leave Vienna the best part of the film is done and at that point, the first act is barely finished.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

For Hallowe'en night ... It Follows.

Certainly unsettling (due in no small part to the excellent score), but I'm not sure it's entirely deserving of the praise heaped upon it.

I agree with QTs appraisal. A great idea but imperfectly executed and in the end there was a lack of conviction in his own ideas was apparent (the too conventional horror movie ending).

Jurassic World

Silly but fun - of the sequels probably a par or marginally ahead of 3 but certainly much more enjoyable than 2.

7/10 from me.

The Hundred Foot Journey or whatever it's called.

Solid, if fluffy. Nice performances. Holy jesus the Charlotte Le Bon girl though, breathtakingly good looking on screen.



I don't know what she's saying but I like it.

Notorious (1946)

It's a classic which much has been written about so no use in recycling what's been said before a billion times over. Got this in a Blu-ray triple pack with Rebecca and Spellbound. Fairly strong transfer plus some good extras so I'm pleased.

Strangways&Quarrel wrote:

Notorious (1946)

It's a classic which much has been written about so no use in recycling what's been said before a billion times over. Got this in a Blu-ray triple pack with Rebecca and Spellbound. Fairly strong transfer plus some good extras so I'm pleased.

The set I just purchased is in the mail. The transfers looked good on BluRay.com.

Branded to Kill (1967)

Found the first Criterion DVD of this for a couple bucks last week at a library sale. It's a non anamorphic print but still fairly sharp looking despite window boxed. Loved the hell out of this film. To be honest it doesn't make a whole lot of sense at times but it's just too damn fun and briskly paced to care. I've only seen Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter before but after seeing this I'm sure going to dig into more of his films especially anymore with Jo Shishido.

Pistol Opera (2001)

... well maybe not too much of Suzuki's work. Afraid his follow-up to Branded to Kill didn't quite grab me. I liked the idea of it being a mostly female cast but this was just dull and weird for the sake of just being weird and this coming from a David Lynch fan. The previous film I guess you could say a similar statement but this film has far less excitement and action packed than that film was plus nowhere near as visually pleasing even when it tries incredibly hard. The final battle was alright if not drowned in pretentiousness ("ohhh, atom bomb visual ... aren't I so deep?") plus Jo Shishido's character returns played by a different actor and lacking a lot of the cool and professionalism he had in the above masterwork. The only thing that really got my pulse above the usual beats watching this film was the overt sexual tension between the main heroine and her female employer who's really the best part of this film.

How come the follow-up took 34 years?

Blunt Instrument wrote:

How come the follow-up took 34 years?

According to a interview in a book on Yakuza films I got initially the film was intended as a remake of the first film and was even marketed as such but as it developed it became a sequel. Also when Branded to Kill was released Nikkatsu studios who he was working for at the time fired him and had the movie shelved because they didn't like the picture and felt it wouldn't make any money. Suzuki took them to court because in the contract no matter what the final film has to be released theatrically, Suzuki won and the film got released but this left him with a bad reputation among the film studios and wasn't able to work on another film project for ten years. In between the period of 1977 and 2001 he only made six more feature films which for a man who directed around 40 features from the time he started in 1956 and was fired in 1967 was quite a small amount. I'm guessing his increased popularity in the nineties is probably why he ultimately decided on the project as the Criterion DVD of Branded to Kill was released two years prior to Pistol Opera being made.