Last Movie You Watched.

Lucy was ok until she turned into that goo at the end.

I watched The Meg again as it's now on HBO....

Lost Highway (1997)

This film is still one of my favorites. Like a lot of Lynch the plot is pretty much secondary to the mood and visuals. This one while has it's weird elements is more Horror/Noir and while it has some weird characters outside of Richard Pryor's little cameo lacks the usual humorous quirky characters and opts for menace. Robert Blake is particularly creepy and while he does verge into dark comedy with his tailgating scene Robert Loggia is pretty imposing as Mr. Eddy. Bill Pullman is a solid lead and Patricia Arquette does a solid job embodying femme fatale without making it too theatrical. The film's atmosphere really sticks with me though the most particularly Lynch's choice of seedier L.A. locales and music choices with David Bowie's "I'm Deranged" over the opening credits plus some excellent stuff from Barry Adamson and Trent Reznor. Like a lot of Lynch's films it's best to take the film more as an experience rather than a cohesive story but I'd say this film in particular is the one in his filmography that the approach is needed the most. It's almost impossible to give a synopsis of the film without just telling everything that happened.

Received the new Kino Blu-ray last Thursday and have watched it multiple times in the past few days. Despite the ongoing controversy around it I'd say the Blu-ray is very good for what it is. Of course a 4k remaster with Lynch's oversight for Criterion was my highest hopes for the film but this Blu-ray will do and is probably the best it's ever looked on home video especially due to the color timing and solid encoding. The sound quality is also very good and something I'm most thankful given the audio quality of the 2008 U.S. DVD release.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Blunt Instrument wrote:

I still haven't forgiven Besson for Lucy. Ugh.

Hadn't seen that since theaters, but I remember enjoying that a lot for its sheer absurdity.

As BC said her turning into a supercomputer made of black jelly that could 'see' back to the beginning of time was just too much for me, even in a sci-fi flick.

Looking at both The Fifth Element and Lucy, I take "sci-fi" by Besson with a grain of salt the size of Gibraltar. In fact, I haven't even seen Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, but my understanding is that it's bonkers.

One nitpick about Anna: Despite being set in 1991, there's a lot of anarchism such as 90s laptop computers having Wi-Fi capability, USB drives, and webcams, all of which wouldn't come out til later in the decade. I think the only thing they got right tech-wise was old Nokia phones with the pull out antennas, but even then it seems like it's too common among characters.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

Fake age? What's that about?

There is a rumor that CZJ has lied about her age ever since her breakthrough and that this was revealed during a visit to the White House, when she was forced to reveal her real age to the secret services (supposedly for background check purposes).

Supposedly she is around a decade older than her listed age of 49.

I personally believe she lies about her age, but I'm not sure I'd buy it's a full decade.



This is how she appeared on her episode of "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" in 1993. That was released when she was 24 and thus was likely shot around the time she was 23.
I always thought she looked more late than early 20s in that performance.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Looking at both The Fifth Element and Lucy, I take "sci-fi" by Besson with a grain of salt the size of Gibraltar. In fact, I haven't even seen Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, but my understanding is that it's bonkers.

One nitpick about Anna: Despite being set in 1991, there's a lot of anarchism such as 90s laptop computers having Wi-Fi capability, USB drives, and webcams, all of which wouldn't come out til later in the decade. I think the only thing they got right tech-wise was old Nokia phones with the pull out antennas, but even then it seems like it's too common among characters.

Ah, now The Fifth Element is great fun.

Toy Story 4 - as ever, a joy. By way of a Bond connection, Dalton's in it as Mr Pricklepants again.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Toy Story 4 - as ever, a joy. By way of a Bond connection, Dalton's in it as Mr Pricklepants again.      

Happy to hear that. Mr Pricklepants was one of the very best things in TS3, and that's saying a lot since they got so much right in that movie.

Salomé wrote:

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

Fake age? What's that about?

There is a rumor that CZJ has lied about her age ever since her breakthrough and that this was revealed during a visit to the White House, when she was forced to reveal her real age to the secret services (supposedly for background check purposes).

Supposedly she is around a decade older than her listed age of 49.

I personally believe she lies about her age, but I'm not sure I'd buy it's a full decade.



This is how she appeared on her episode of "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" in 1993. That was released when she was 24 and thus was likely shot around the time she was 23.
I always thought she looked more late than early 20s in that performance.

She looks about the same a few years later in Zorro. I don't know if I believe it. Her not getting work done (facelifts, cosmetic surgery, botox, etc.) like many of her contemporaries seems to counter the idea she's concerned about ageism or ageing.

The IPCRESS File

on Blu-ray. I find it a fantastically enjoyable film. The antithesis to Bond in a way. The 'hero' is first seen making breakfast, fastidiously doing his coffee, he wears specs and physical when he needs to be. The filming makes it quite real, the locations chiefly. It's things like the forms they fill out and the codewords/numbers for such thigns that make it a delight. Nigel Green and Guy Doleman's snippy exchange over forms for example. Or Nigel Green to the chap who Palmer recruits to break into the warehouse: "This operation was meant to start at 2.25. YOU started at 2.35. I find THAT not good enough!"
It's as such that I find the inclusion of a love interest slightly intrusive. I think Palmer could get away with it, personally, Sir Michael as lead or not. From what I remember of the book, there was no real presence of a love interest and indeed, Palmer was never named.

Cast-wise it's top notch. Nigel Green rarely puts a foot out of place and you buy into his character right until the end. Again, a shame he never did a Bond film and indeed, Guy Doleman is a delight. He had the right qualities to be a M I reckon (that sarcasm with Palmer), though we have to make do with his brief role in Thunderball. (Closest would be his turn in the first episode of the Prisoner. Can you imagine Bond and M clashing shopping trolleys in a supermarket?)

Bondwise there's a few connections like Barry and Saltzman, Doleman etc. One of Caine's best.

--

The Cruel Sea

probably one of the best adaptations of a book of any type going. I would dare include the likes of Dances With Wolves and On Her Majesty's Secret Service and then say Cruel Sea is above them. Bearing in mind this was 1953, it's as grim and realistic as it can be. If made now, they'd be so much blood, guts and gore to ram it home (I'd say Spielberg could make this now and make it on point). The book by itself is devastating, relentless in its depiction of war, of the convoys, of the sheer weariness of it all and it never lets up (to the point, the film keeps Sinden/Lockharts love interest alive whereas she is killed in the book) and the film does a good job.
One of the best films ever made.

Last movies watched were:

Harper (1966) Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Robert Wagner

Telefon (1977) Charles Bronson, Lee Remick, Donald Pleasence.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

She looks about the same a few years later in Zorro. I don't know if I believe it. Her not getting work done (facelifts, cosmetic surgery, botox, etc.) like many of her contemporaries seems to counter the idea she's concerned about ageism or ageing.

It might not be about her personally caring about her age. It might be a career move. From a certain age, roles get increasingly limited for Hollywood actresses. If she truly was in her mid to late thirties at her breakthrough in "The Mask of Zorro", then she might have been given the advice to pretend that she is younger than her real age to extend her A-list leading lady shelf life.[/quote]

That's true. And since US casting directors aren't allowed to ask an actor's age, it's possible. If she is a whole decade older, that would make her almost 40 when she gave birth to her first, and nearly 43 for her second.

The Party's Just Beginning

This was a surprise. Written and directed by Karen Gillan (of Dr. Who/Marvel/Jumanji fame) and certainly good enough that I now take her seriously in those two fields. Essentially a reflection upon grief and loss told from the perspective of a young Scottish woman living in Iverness.

Gave Ronin a rewatch the other day. Is the same stretch of road used for the Nice car chase the same as that used in Goldeneye?

Aside from the thrilling car sequences, the best thing about this movie is seeing three great Bond villains in the same film.

Ronin is my favorite film of the past 25 years. I think it is a misunderstood, criminally underrated masterwork and was what should have been the start of Frankenheimer's late period which sadly was not to be. I also think it's DeNiro's best ever and last truly good performance but I know I'm in the minority on that one.

I've wondered that myself. It's probable that some stretches of road may have been the same but it does look different and Frankenheimer was a big Francophile who got permissions not usually given for shooting permits.

Big call to say it's your favourite film of the past 25 years! I think it's great. It's one I go back to every couple of years.

Spider-Man : Far From Home - a high-school summer vacation comedy that just happens to star a superhero? Yeah, kinda. Breezy fun.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

Big call to say it's your favourite film of the past 25 years! I think it's great. It's one I go back to every couple of years.

Well to be honest the more and more I think about it there's really no competition outside of TWINE, DAD and Eyes Wide Shut-maybe Kingdom of Heaven, Tell No One, Bourne Identity and a few others are close. I've extolled it's virtues for as long as I can remember and find it a film so full of intricacies that I could go through it frame by frame.

https://thehificelluloidmonster.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/ronin-1998/
This is an older piece I wrote on the film.

The Guardian - after the classic Exorcist, you'd have thought William Friedkin was at least a safe pair of directorial hands for a supernatural horror. But I have frankly flushed scarier things than this risible garbage.

Stars Carey 'Pam Bouvier' Lowell and Jenny Seagrove, who does at least sportingly get her kit off a fair few times throughout.

The House that Jack Built

tedious, boring ,didn't enjoy one minute of it and makes me wonder why I ever liked von Trier in the first place lol

I thought Melancholia was very good. Nymphomaniac I and II get by on pure shock value as opposed to cinematic competence. "Tedious" and "boring" assessments will probably ensure I don't watch The House That Jack Built, so thanks!

Melancholia I didn't love but it was nice on the eyes and ears. Great sound and vision experience so no regrets watching it. I really liked Dogville but I do spend a lot of time wondering if von Trier is a genius or an outright hack as if often the case with art directors. Debating watching "Mother!" as I have the same feelings towards Darren Aronofsky.

Have to be in the right mood for von Trier, I discovered, so haven't ventured out as yet to his other films. I'll have to check out Dogville.

Cold Comes the Night. Brian Cranston, Alice Eve.

The story of an aging Russian mafia heavy, escorting a load of cash from Philly to Montreal, when he and his young dumb partner stop in upstate New York for a rest at a cheap hotel and the situation turns foul.

Great twists, every character is working an angle. Fine thriller.

https://youtu.be/G3mPQnO7-HI

Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans

I am biased as I love everything Herzog and this was no exception. It's bizarre and unrealistic like life itself and I am still laughing thinking about it.

" I'll kill all of you. To the break of dawn. To the break of dawn, baby."