Last Movie You Watched.

Somerset wrote:

High Plains Drifter


There was Hell to pay.

Horror flick first, western second?

Well there is definitely a supernatural aspect to the story.

Something Eastwood repeats in his not-so-subtle Shane remake Pale Rider.

The most interesting aspect about High Plains Drifter - to me anyway - is that he subverts the "townfolks terrorized by a gang" trope by making the town and its inhabitants almost as unredeemable as the "bad guys".

The only other example of that I can think of right away is the excellent Jack Arnold western "No Name on the Bullet", in which the mere arrival of a notorious gunfighter in their midst leads to the members of the supposedly quiet and quaint little community to distrust and even kill each other.

Still have yet to see Pale Rider!

That was my second viewing of Drifter. Been a few years though. Calling it outright horror I suppose misses the mark, but it definitely felt more of a piece with fantastic tales moreso than a straight western, which is its delight. It’s not a Rod Serling morality play but it seems closer to that than, say, what I’ve seen a lot of folks talking about, how its a subversion of the American myth yada yada which apparently any western made after a certain year has to be. But if there’s any subversion I agree that it’s of of the trope he himself played so large a role in with his Man With No Name character. (“I never did know your name.”)

Boiling Point - grippingly intense (but not humourless) one-take drama set almost entirely inside a London restaurant on 'Mad Friday' (a nickname in the UK for the Friday before Christmas, so called because festive revellers tend to REALLY 'go for it' that night) starring the brilliant Stephen Graham as head chef Andy desperately juggling staff issues, the establishment's owner continually getting at him, jerky customers (include a rival chef with a TV career who's accompanied by a restaurant critic), and difficulties in his personal life.

Somerset wrote:

Still have yet to see Pale Rider!

That was my second viewing of Drifter. Been a few years though. Calling it outright horror I suppose misses the mark, but it definitely felt more of a piece with fantastic tales moreso than a straight western, which is its delight. It’s not a Rod Serling morality play but it seems closer to that than, say, what I’ve seen a lot of folks talking about, how its a subversion of the American myth yada yada which apparently any western made after a certain year has to be. But if there’s any subversion I agree that it’s of of the trope he himself played so large a role in with his Man With No Name character. (“I never did know your name.”)

Film critics see themselves as subversives. Therefore, when they see something--such as the so-called "western mythos" subverted--no matter how tenuous the subversion, they get a major thrill up their legs. What we really need is the ultimate tsunami of counter-subversion.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Boiling Point - grippingly intense (but not humourless) one-take drama set almost entirely inside a London restaurant on 'Mad Friday' (a nickname in the UK for the Friday before Christmas, so called because festive revellers tend to REALLY 'go for it' that night) starring the brilliant Stephen Graham as head chef Andy desperately juggling staff issues, the establishment's owner continually getting at him, jerky customers (include a rival chef with a TV career who's accompanied by a restaurant critic), and difficulties in his personal life.

I tend to love restaurant/food movies, and this one sounds like it's worth a watch. If you've never seen Dinner Rush starring Danny Aiello, you should. It's as good, in its own way, as Big Night.

The Sisters Brothers - Western with Joaquin Phoenix and John C Reilly as the titular gunslingin' siblings on the trail of a prospector (Riz Ahmed) in order to extract the method he has devised for making panning for gold much easier from him on behalf of their boss 'The Commodore' (Rutger Hauer).

Pretty good ... mostly everything you'd expect from the genre (shootouts, boozing, saloons/whorehouses, spectacular landscapes etc) is in there, plus little touches like Reilly being tickled by the first indoor flushing toilet he's ever encountered.

trevanian wrote:

HEAT - I keep trying to watch it every few years, but have never made it past the first hour (four times thus far.)

Y'know, I watched Heat recently after hearing how great it was for years and, frankly, I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. Yes, it had a very effective shoot-out scene but the other two hours were a bit forgettable.

Also, what's the deal with Al Pacino? Just in general.

Watched the first three Matrix movies, prompted by the release of the new one which I don't plan to watch anyway.

I watched the original on TV probably 20 years ago and it still holds up decently. Got a kick out of seeing ol' Sydney town (including past and present office buildings amongst the action).

The next two, which I'd never seen, basically feel like they're from a different series altogether. Gone is all the philosophising and niftily edited fight scenes and in comes some endless D-Grade sci-fi killer robot action. Basically too much time spent in the "real word" dystopia of squid robots and not enough time in 'The Matrix' with Morpheus saying profound stuff. The third one, especially, is nearly unwatchable, save for Monica Bellucci in that red outfit.

[quote="CJB"]

trevanian wrote:

Also, what's the deal with Al Pacino? Just in general.

I find that back when he was still able to play low -- in the mid-70s -- he could be quite good. But once he found out he could Shatnerize things and still somehow win an Oscar, he has been close to unwatchable. I remember enjoying THE INSIDER enough to watch it a couple of times, but outside of DICK TRACY and (somehow) GFIII, I don't think I've enjoyed anything with him in it since AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.

Plus he is somebody who once I started reading about his unprofessional behavior on some sets, I can't help but dislike for himself. I think William Goldman tells about how a film had a location beach shoot that took hours to set up, and just as they were about to roll, he just went for a dune buggy joyride, not returning till the weather was unsuitable. The director upbraided him, rightly and righteously, and he just walked off again and I guess only came back to finish the film after apologies to him were made.

Hoffman is another one where I've read so much bad and infuriating stuff that it affects my ability to enjoy his work. I still watch MARATHON MAN every year or so, but that's sort of in spite of him rather than because of him, and because Schneider is rock-solid in it. I do like him in small doses, like STRANGER THAN FICTION and PERFUME.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

The Sisters Brothers - Western with Joaquin Phoenix and John C Reilly as the titular gunslingin' siblings on the trail of a prospector (Riz Ahmed) in order to extract the method he has devised for making panning for gold much easier from him on behalf of their boss 'The Commodore' (Rutger Hauer).

Pretty good ... mostly everything you'd expect from the genre (shootouts, boozing, saloons/whorehouses, spectacular landscapes etc) is in there, plus little touches like Reilly being tickled by the first indoor flushing toilet he's ever encountered.    

It's a good adaptation of a very fun(ny) novel. Still Patrick deWitt's best.

CJB wrote:

trevanian wrote:

HEAT - I keep trying to watch it every few years, but have never made it past the first hour (four times thus far.)

Y'know, I watched Heat recently after hearing how great it was for years and, frankly, I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. Yes, it had a very effective shoot-out scene but the other two hours were a bit forgettable.

Also, what's the deal with Al Pacino? Just in general.

He was very good in Serpico. But that was a long, long time ago.

cuz Tony Montana

Somehow he went off the deep end after Godfather II.

The only Pacino film I’ve ever had a desire to watch more than once is Looking for Richard.

Kenneth Branagh's autobiographical Belfast has, of course, the outbreak of the Troubles as its constant backdrop. But by God, it's about SO much more ... the joys of childhood, first love, the warmth of tight-knit family and community bonds and a love of film. It has a huge heart and absolutely ACHES with nostalgia. And it's beautifully, evocatively shot in black-and-white.

I winced. I laughed. I cried. I absolutely bloody loved it. A love letter to this place and all of its people.

The First Great Train Robbery - Michael Crichton scripted (from his novel) and directed 19th-century crime caper with Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down plotting to nab a haul of gold bullion from an in-motion steam train. A fun romp, with Connery indulging in some train-top stuntwork that looks more perilous than anything from his Bond flicks, Sutherland enjoying himself as a expert safe-cracker and Down providing the glamour (the sight of her in stockings and a corset is worth the price of admission alone).

End Of Watch - action-thriller that follows South Central LA cops Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena in both their day-to-day work (as they deal with gangs, drug-dealing and human trafficking) and their off-duty personal relationships. The leads' performances help to overcome the genre's perhaps over-familiar aspects.

I remember reading an interview about 40 years ago with Crichton that referenced TRAIN ROBBERY along with WESTWORLD about how he was able to convince actors to do their own stunts.

In addition to Connery's toupe-raising work, which still takes my breath away (especially the rubbing-back-of-neck-while-facing-backwards shot), the distant shots of Richard Benjamin riding the high cliffs were apparently a ton more scary than they look, as there were 50mph winds and he was just going along a narrow path (I'm pretty sure they're referencing the part when Brynner's robot is sighting in on him and about to take the shot when Benjamin's Peter Martin descends out of frame.)

Not sure if it was there or elsewhere that I read Connery actually fell off the moving train at one point. Have often wondered about veracity of story, given how he previously responded to on-set injury (with Sakata at Pinewood's Fort Know on GF, he apparently walked or limped off-set after having his back injured.) Also trying to figure out how you could fall off the top of a moving train and not break at least a few somethings. Not sure how many folks are around who could confirm or debunk at this point, as principals (DP Unsworth, Crichton, Connery) are all dead. Maybe camera operator Gordon Hayman would remember, he is I believe still around. I should ask the BSC magazine folks if they have any contact info on him, I just checked and he worked on a ton of UK-shot films, though no Bonds.

Weird feeling just now, writing 'Connery' and 'dead.'

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Kenneth Branagh's autobiographical Belfast has, of course, the outbreak of the Troubles as its constant backdrop. But by God, it's about SO much more ... the joys of childhood, first love, the warmth of tight-knit family and community bonds and a love of film. It has a huge heart and absolutely ACHES with nostalgia. And it's beautifully, evocatively shot in black-and-white.

I winced. I laughed. I cried. I absolutely bloody loved it. A love letter to this place and all of its people.

I don't think I have heard you so passionate about a movie before. I will try to remember that. I really liked his version of Frankenstein

Scream - figured a 10:00 am Sunday screening of an 18-rated movie might not be too crowded, and so it proved ... had the cinema to myself!

25 years on from the first flick, this latest in the franchise proves that the blend of meta-humour and slasher-whodunnit still works pretty well (apart from a too drawn-out climactic showdown).

Well, it's just about fifty years old but here we go

[b]The Poseidon Adventure[/b[

this is one of those films I remember from childhood (probably 6-7, early 90s) that left a mark.

I daren't suppose a modern audience would care for it in a way. However, for a film of its time, it does the job.

Sure it's a model of the ship in the credits but it's passable enough and helped by a pre-Star Wars Williams score. Then you have the rather simple trick of rolling the camera to make out the Queen Mary is itself rolling in the swell. Poseidon might go all out CGI-wise but these were the days when you filmed somewhere and did your best (Starsky & Hutch did a similar job on the Queen Mary mid-series). Furthermore, you get that great script on the screen just after the credits ("...this, is their story.")

Apparently some folk can't take Nielsen seriously here owing to later roles. Somehow I can. I go into it knowing it's a serious role and he does a good job.

Though Airport in 1970 happened, this film hurried in a new era of disaster films which tapered by 1975 and yet persisted to the end of the decade. What a cast. Apparently Hackman was not mad on this as he thought he was a bit OTT but it works for the film. In the book there is sufficient doubt of the Reverend's credentials to make the role work in film. All the ingredients of a classic disaster movie are here. The prelude, the effects, the characters with whatever going on.

I've never seen Eric Shea interviewed about the film or indeed clips of him in adulthood. Next to the film I know him for the Batman '66 episodes involving Cliff Robertson ("Shame, Come back Shame!").

Stella Stevens is incredible in every sense.

"Sub-sea earthquake..."

Shit is about to go down my man.

"To love, dummy!"

As a kid Shelley Winters' character was quite something in that she seemed, forgive the expression, larger than life (hence what follows being shocking). I guess by 1972 her career had entered the realm of what every actor inevitably hits but she personally is great in this.

Poor Bob Hastings doesn't make it. Shame as I bet he'd wind up the others as they escape.

Unlike the remake (I'm discounting the TV movie as I've not seen it), the captain and co have fore knowledge of what is ahead. "It must be mountainous..."

I do love somehow that the Poseidon has a lookout (the Queen Mary did have a crow's nest but surely by the 70s, if the ship has sonar/radar, they don't need a lookout). It does mean the poor swine copped it in a rather spectacular fashion.

"Oh My God...", a rather simple but brilliantly delivered line accompanied by a Williams cue.

I feel for the captain, forget his fate, he sounds the boat stations siren but no one reacts as such.

Though it's curious he orders "hard left" (instead of hard port) and to send a mayday (not SOS). I figured ships were different...

...the tilting camera does the job. There is still something quite awesome about that wave overwhelming the Poseidon, the mast poking through. For all we know, the bridge crew survived the initial impact, after all they wallowed on the surface long enough.

One thing the remake had was that during the capsize, it showed the other parts of the ship and yet that shot of Poseidon here lingering on the surface amidst a boiling sea feels impressive. The way everyone falls in the dining room is a bit much today maybe but next thing you know, the room is upside down.

Only John Williams could make the hoisting of a Christmas tree epic.

"Just panties, what else do I need?"

It's the 70s, go with it.

In the remake this happens later but the wiping out of the ballroom survivors is still something in itself. The screams, the shot of the water, Hackman forcing the doors shut as the screams ("Reverend!") filter up. Hackman conveys the anguish perfectly. Admittedly, the water isn't rising as dramatically as it did in the remake but it's still a potent moment. What else can he do?

Simple as it is today, that burnt out kitchen set and the dead chef staring up creeped me out in the day.

First time I've noticed a dead body floating in the water as Stevens and Buttons get lifted to safety up the upturned stairwell.

Poor Acres is first to go. It's interesting, personally, that he dies in the flooded stack but Borgnine is able to make it when he dives into it.

The sight of the other survivors still resonates. That haunting image as they shuffle. In the book, there are other survivors seen being pulled out of the bow and so perhaps, the doctor's party makes it somehow. It is something that besides the Reverend's group, another group took it upon themselves to get going whereas in the ballroom everyone else opted to stay.

Apparently Hackman and Shea almost copped it when the water swallows them up in the corridor. Notably in the novel this is probably where the kid is lost forever.

I'm not sure on the continuity aspect but like how they all get dirtier as it wears on.

Full credit to the cast doing underwater stuff.

Why God this woman!?

The music becomes hopeful as they close in on the red wheel...but...

In a way Stevens' death feels a bit much but I guess it shows that no matter how close they made it, it wasn't safe.

The Reverend's raging against God is perfect. It works on a few levels.

In a way the actual hero is Red Buttons.

And so they make it.

Only for Irwin Allen to think, sequel!

Jackass Forever - of course by now Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee Man et al are surely old enough to know better ... but saints be praised, they do it anyway. Gloriously, wincingly, hilariously puerile.

Death On The Nile - Kenneth Branagh gives Hercule Poirot's 'leetle grey cells' a workout for the second time. It's a good-looking adaptation, and from what I can gather (having neither read the Christie novel or seen any previous versions) the details of the central murder remain basically intact. However, some 'for a modern audience' touches grated a bit and ultimately meant I think I enjoyed this less than Branagh's take on Murder On The Orient Express.

Nightmare Alley

Well, at the very least it's grown-up cinema, which is more than you can say about most of what comes out of the studio system nowadays.
Having seen and enjoyed the earlier adaptation of the same novel (starring Tyrone Power and directed by Edmund Goulding), I would say that Guillermo del Toro does not truly improve upon it.
But it's nicely shot, definitely deserving of its cinematography nomination and the cast is filled with A-listers and quality character actors (David Strathairn especially is terrific yet again).

WALK HARD - finally watched this after realizing Judd Apatow was a co-writer. All I can say is, I need to emphasize the word 'co-.' Some of this is pretty funny in the early going, but most just plays like the kind of biopic it seems to be trying to spoof. What makes things worse is that when they try for honest emotion, it comes off like a cut-rate take on A MIGHTY WIND, and that comparison becomes even more dire considering that two members of The New Main Street Players are cast in this film.

Then last night I was trying to figure out if I was in a THUNDERBALL mood or wanted something a little more spyish ... out of the blue, I popped in FIREFOX, which at least feels like a spy movie for the first half. My wife had never seen it, and was totally digging the sneaking around stuff, but it left her on the ground once Clint takes off. I've always felt that the movie manages to work in the last part not because of the fx -- which are very bold and glaringly ineffective at times, which is very much a given with the limitations of optical compositing tech -- but because he cast the film with some interesting and often unfamiliar faces who convince in their short turns on screen, especially the General Vladimirov character played by Klaus Lowitsch, who I guess was a staple of German TV and should have been in a Bond movie or two. I was flabbergasted to find out that Warren Clarke, Eastwood's main guy while in Russia, is the same actor who played Dim in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (and a Gestapo officer in TOP SECRET!)

I should give it points for depicting delayed stress syndrome (forerunner to PTSD, I guess), but that aspect falls really flat, almost like they have hired an allergic pilot who keeps sneezing at inappropriate moments (hey, a FIREFOX parody.)

I've probably watched this movie a dozen or fifteen times, but this is only the third or fourth time I've seen the original theatrical length cut. I guess they cut the movie right after release for cable and VHS, and maybe they only restored it for blu-ray, because it has been awhile since I saw it at this length.

This film may also be noteworthy for being the first time I remember Eastwood not having the big pompadour hair ... it almost looks like he has a low-flow shower, his hair is so flat. Then, a couple years later, in SUDDEN IMPACT, he moves very clumsily at times, and I remember wondering if age was catching up with him or if he were now sick or dying. All these decades later, clearly my concerns were seriously premature. I mention this hair fixation because that is ultimately why I didn't watch THUNDERBALL -- the piece Connery wears in it is WAY below the FRWL/GF standard of excellence, and I didn't want the distraction, though now I think it would have been a better choice.

Firefox! Now there's a movie I haven't thought of since I was about 12. I believe I sought it out from Blockbuster when I was going through my Airwolf and Baa Baa Black Sheep phase.