Last Movie You Watched.

Blue Velvet (1986)

Despite Lynch being my favorite director it's actually been a while since I sat down and watched his signature film. This film has a complete feeling to it and probably Lynch's most fully realized film. Dennis Hopper at his absolute best turning from hilarious to scary in a matter of seconds. It slips my mind how good Dean Stockwell is in the film as Frank Booth's flamboyant drug contact despite one scene. I remember the first viewing of this film being in my toes throughout the whole film as it's a film that feels like anything could happen no matter how crazy it could be. Still get that feeling watching this film. As much as I'm interested in seeing what Criterion will be putting into their release the MGM Blu-ray while nearly a decade old by now (geez) still looks excellent and crisp.

I just watched that for the first time a few weeks back. Great film! One of the greats of the 80s.

I recently saw The Big Easy. Good to see DAF/TMWTGG's Marc Lawrence pop up.

Well, I made my sometimes traditional way through my Dirty Harry boxset.

Dirty Harry- a classic. Has grit, great lines, fantastic score and John Vernon (much as the late Roger Ebert said no film with M. Emmett Walsh is bad, until Raise the Titanic, so I think anything with Vernon is worth a punt).

Magnum Force- love the score for this film, that opening shot with the theme kicking in. Great to see pre-fame David Soul, Tim Matheson, the late great Robert Urich and still with some grit.

But then it seems to tail away. The Enforcer is good and yet it seems to lose its way in parts. The worst thing is, as much as Jerry Fielding was a good composer, it's the only film without a Schifrin score and so it feels its own entry as a consequence.

Sudden Impact and Dead Pool just are too much. These are the films that did much for the DH legend in a way with the catch phrases, OTT action in parts and the score of Impact is dated by the 80s sound Schifrin employs on the main theme. The late Sondra Locke sadly lacks as a leading actress and the Dead Pool just feels pointless. I'd love to talk to Eastwood about these films as much as he'd stare at me and call me out. For all my critiquing, Sudden Impact has one of my favourite DH moments, appearing in silhouette at the funfair to a bitchin' Schifrin track.

Have to agree on Jerry Fielding's Enforcer score. After two excellent scores from Lalo the Fielding music just didn't work as well. I really like The Enforcer but felt that was one of the things it lacked the most. The ending to that film would have made for a pretty bad-ass ending to the series as I'm not as keep on the eighties outings as they just feel like tacked-on sequels to extend the character into the eighties with some fun moments for sure but lacking that style and cool overall that made it a great series to begin with.

Also agree on John Vernon. A treasure he was much like Walsh is. Would also recommend the Walter Matthau bank robbery film Charley Varrick if you haven't seen it. Directed by Don Siegel and also features John Vernon and Dirty Harry's Scorpio killer Andy Robinson as one of Varrick's accomplices. Joe Don Baker also makes a good heavy in it as a cowboy hat wearing hitman.

To be honest I had the same reaction. I always kinda wrote the DH series off thinking they weren't really full of substance after seeing bits on cable growing up. Then I knew they had remixed the audio tracks on most releases etc and finally gave it a try when I found the nice Laserdisc series boxset at a good price and realized that Don Siegel directed the first one.

Basically it becomes a barometer of when Clint took full control. The first is a true classic and holds it's own against the other great gritty crime/police films of 1971, Get Carter and The French Connection. Critics of the day misunderstood it as fascistic when instead it was presenting a moral quandary in a more sophisticated way than Death Wish would three years later.

Eastwood's production company produced Magnum Force and the other sequels and I think the good elements of MF come from outside talent as is typical with Eastwood productions. Starting here was his mindset of "one take is fine my fans don't care" that drove his old friend Ted Post mad. The script was originally by Michael Cimino and John Milius, and I think it is the work of these three that still manages to shine through the mundane film and make it easily the best of the sequels.

The Enforcer should work, and does in spurts. However it really is a disappointment.

Sudden Impact is like a Lifetime movie where Clint Eastwood continually walks through. I felt The Dead Pool was surprisingly a better film despite the reputation but nothing special. Then again it manages to make the RC car chase somewhat plausible.

The original film is really the only one that matters and the only one with guts. I'm dying to get Indicator's Charley Varrick release. More and more I find that Siegel was a true journeyman and a born cinematic conduit. His book "A Siegel Film" is one of the absolute best books ever written on the craft of filmmaking and the nature of Hollywood. (Trust me I've read thousands of film books.)

And yes, the only way to hear the original mono tracks of the first four films (Yes, they're all mono because Mr. Eastwood is cheap.) is to go all the way back to the initial VHS/Beta runs because right after that they all got stereoized for every successive tape, Laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray release. (And re-remixed for the 5.1 era too.)

I find the DH series to be like the Rambo series. There is a public perception of them being overtly macho, and intellectually empty-yet the first film of each is totally different from that and a great adult drama with lots of large moral questions.

With Harry throwing his badge into the water in disgust at the end of DH I wonder if a series was always intended.

Strangways&Quarrel wrote:

Have to agree on Jerry Fielding's Enforcer score. After two excellent scores from Lalo the Fielding music just didn't work as well. I really like The Enforcer but felt that was one of the things it lacked the most. The ending to that film would have made for a pretty bad-ass ending to the series as I'm not as keep on the eighties outings as they just feel like tacked-on sequels to extend the character into the eighties with some fun moments for sure but lacking that style and cool overall that made it a great series to begin with.

Also agree on John Vernon. A treasure he was much like Walsh is. Would also recommend the Walter Matthau bank robbery film Charley Varrick if you haven't seen it. Directed by Don Siegel and also features John Vernon and Dirty Harry's Scorpio killer Andy Robinson as one of Varrick's accomplices. Joe Don Baker also makes a good heavy in it as a cowboy hat wearing hitman.

I've not seen Charley Varrick, will check it out one day. One Vernon role that is delicious is his turn in Animal House.

And quite agree with your post HGTB- I think it was Magnum Force that Milius had much written for it that didn't happen. Would've been good for Milius' full input to come to the fore.

Absolutely. Even Ted Post has been quoted before wishing that he would have just been allowed to make the movie properly and that it cost him many jobs later on because people thought he was no longer very good in the director's chair.

A great shame. I rewatched MF last night but had been perusing IMDB's "goofs" section (at least 80 for MF) and enjoyed the film that way. Sounds like Post had his hands tied by far by Eastwood, to the extent he said Eastwood's ego was applying for statehood. Milius never wanted to show the death of the prostitute for example. As with Bond films, a case of what might have been.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=209528&page=11

I've been discussing Bond with some others in this thread on NSNA originally where they've been getting into many behind the scenes elements that contradict with the official diatribes we all know by heart. Some really interesting stuff has been brought to light such as the original Dirty Harry project starring Sinatra directed by Irvin Kershner that imploded, only to have John Wayne reject it before reverting to the original approach and bringing in Siegel.

While somethings Bond related said here I don't exactly believe, some are going into original Maibaum materials and the backstories particularly of the 80's era. Start at page 11 and see what you think. Obviously you can tell that I'm the die hard John Glen defender.

One poster mentions a pure Maibaum FYEO draft far darker than the film pre-Wilson's involvement that was reputedly thrown out. This would dovetail with what I've read on his darker rejected TSWLM original draft.

Hunt For The Wilderpeople - when a kid is taken in by a couple for fostering and then the wife dies, him and his foster father (a magnificent 'grizzled old bugger' turn from Sam Neill) go on the run in the wilds of New Zealand rather than have the kid end up back in the care system. A warm (but not twee) and funny comedy adventure.

Captain Marvel - action, chuckles, the likes of Garbage, Elastica, Nirvana and R.E.M. on the soundtrack ... and a scene-stealing cat. If you usually enjoy these movies, then this is as reliably entertaining as the others.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Captain Marvel - action, chuckles, the likes of Garbage, Elastica, Nirvana and R.E.M. on the soundtrack ... and a scene-stealing cat. If you usually enjoy these movies, then this is as reliably entertaining as the others.

It was pretty fun seeing how gleeful Samuel L. Jackson got over pussy.

The Lives of Others

Brilliant film. Totally engrossing, beautifully acted, photographed and scored. For espionage lovers, I highly recommend you check it out if you haven't already. Makes me wish Octopussy did so much more with East and West Berlin.

Sebastian Koch I remembered from Black Book. He's played some excellent characters (and very well too) during those couple of years. I'm surprised he hasn't popped up in a Bond film yet as a villain. He was very good in Bridge of Spies, also. His heavier build might have made him a little closer to Fleming's Le Chiffre than Mads...

A little while ago, secondhand, I got a 'Frank Sinatra Collection" boxset. Three films -Tony Rome/The Detective and Lady in Cement. Being a huge Sinatra fan I felt, I had to. Finally got round to Tony Rome.

so, er, Tony Rome

looks good but a muddling film. Not bad, but I found my interest waned along the way. A scene with what turned out to be lesbians (a near middle aged heavyset woman paired with a fire-hot stripper...) was quite honestly weird. Didn't look right, didn't sound right and didn't play right -even Sinatra looked uncomfortable. I only described the pair as quite honestly that underlined the whole thing. Even if they were two fire hot strippers I suspect it'd still look and sound bad.
Good to see Bullitt's Simon Oakland in action, not a bad actor. Likewise Richard Conte, only recall him in the original Ocean's 11 (with Sinatra) and thus weird to see him survive the whole film.

But the draw? Well, a pre-DAF Jill St. John. Bikini, nighties, casual wear, nothing is not good enough for her. This'd be about a year after the Batman episode she did (well, the very ever first episode and only one of two episodes where somebody dies in the series, and how, fulling into the Bat-reactor!) and she has a similar hairdo. Similar character to Tiff in a way, ballsy, strong dislike for most men and ultimately falls for the lead guy.

(and good to see Miami Beach outside of Goldfinger but as a proper location. No sets in Pinewood for our man Rome).



"A pussy used to be so sunny..."

Tony Rome is a gorgeous looking movie. Overall it's a movie I like revisiting although I think it's a mixed bag. Sinatra was an easy fit for the private eye role and Conte who's most famous for Barzini in The Godfather was also pretty solid in it. If you don't mind horror for something else with Robert Oakland I recommend Dan Curtis' Kolchak series. The most prominent role I think I've seen him in as the main character's boss Tony Vincenzo and paired well with lead Darren McGavin and the humorous cynicism of the series.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Mixed feelings about it overall. On the plus side I think the cast was really good particularly Oldman as Dracula and the movie overall followed the original book closer than a lot of previous Dracula films. The downside I can't help but feel this film felt overdone. The costume design a bit too extravagant, the camera work very flashy at times with rather tiring at times visual effects, and I honestly never got a sense of location from this film. It most often felt like I was watching people act on a set rather than an actual location especially in outside scenes and that's something I never even felt with the lesser Hammer films. While it has enough good points to not wind up on my bad list have to say I was underwhelmed with it.

Angel Heart (1987)
Creepy Horror-Noir with great performances from Mickey Rourke and Robert DeNiro. Mixes the private eye drama of a Raymond Chandler with voodoo and the occult. DeNiro's performance is particularly creepy here and definitely another fine chapter in DeNiro's classic era of legendary performances. Charlotte Rampling also shows up as well. The film makes a good pairing with Jacob's Ladder as they are both gritty, grainy looking films with similar twists. Overall a great little movie.

8mm (1999)
Was in a darker mood last I guess with this triple feature ending with one. A very grim and violent Neo-Noir with a strong performance from Nicolas Cage as a P.I. tracking down the authenticity of a snuff film. Very good performances from Joaquin Phoenix, Peter Stormare and James Gandolfini as well as a solid directing job from Joel Schumacher. The film's definitely unique and unsettling. Can count this film as one of Cage's best.

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https://bondandbeyond.forumotion.com/viewtopic.forum?t=3621