Last movie seen — Page 117

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Brilliant, dirty, grimy, barren, bleeding Peckinpah vision of tormented lives in Mexico. Probably the last great work from the director. (I know, haven't seen Cross of Iron yet.) It takes the intense degree of utter emptiness from Pat Garrett and amps it up several degrees. Insanely brilliant.

4 severed heads out of 4 sweaty, bleeding Warren Oates carrying machetes.

Duel/The Sugarland Express

I got to see these at my local arthouse in 35mm as double feature. I've wanted to see Duel theatrically forever, as it was supposed to be extended to 90 min (same as DVD version) and be opened up to 1.85:1. The print I saw was unbelievably vibrant, relatively free of damage, and had absolutely remarkable color depth. It was the extended 90 min version, but shown at 1.33:1. I don't know if that's the print Universal sent or if it was masked that way. (didn't look that way because there was no real screen spillover, and it took the projectionist a good 5-10 minutes to switch the masking to 2.35:1 for Sugarland.)

All I can say is after seeing this film a good 15-20 times, I was still blown away.

A still brilliant 4 manic Dennis Weavers out of 4 endless stretches of desert road.

Sugarland  is the lone Spielberg film that I hadn't seen. It's really the lost film in his canon. For quite some time I've held a theory that both this film and Duel are combined into the overall story arc of Jaws. (Duel behind the second half of man alone vs. powerful beast, and Sugarland as the more folksy, humorous, down to earth portrait of society.)i think it's finally time to put this down on paper, because Sugarland indeed came off that way.

It is a well made film with a very Earthy tone of browns and a dense grain structure from the 70's stock and location shooting. The overall problem comes from the abrupt switch from quirky folksy humor to sudden dramatic scenes. The film is based on a true story, but it seems to not know where it wants to go in the end.

A well made 3 100 police car chases out of 4 Ben Johnson closeups.

Gunslinger, as riffed by Joel and the Bots.

They never fail to make me laugh out loud.

Two western town facade time warps out of two.

darth_ender said:

Decided to begin watching Dune (2000 miniseries).  It's strange and glosses over so much from the novel so far, but what can you do  with such a complicated novel when converting it to a visual medium anyhow?  My wife likes it so far.

I quite like the 2000 mini.  There's a "long cut" of it that I think is substantially better and also introduces some european style nudity, which I'm sure your wife would approve of as much as mine did (which is to say not at all).

Bingowings said:

The Children Of Dune miniseries is much better (it covers the next two books so doesn't have comparison with the Lynch film hanging over it as a second sword of Damocles).

But I firmly disagree with this.  I thought that mini was a mess.  I've never read the sequel books, so it might not be the mini's fault... but it seems to have no idea where it's going until it's just over.  And I was always into Dune for Paul, so I guess I stopped caring once he exited stage left.  Maybe I should have read Paul of Dune, but it is written by that darn KJA.

TV's Frink said:

xhonzi said:

darth_ender said:

Decided to begin watching Dune (2000 miniseries).  It's strange and glosses over so much from the novel so far, but what can you do  with such a complicated novel when converting it to a visual medium anyhow?  My wife likes it so far.

I quite like the 2000 mini.  There's a "long cut" of it that I think is substantially better and also introduces some european style nudity

So...armpit hair? ;-)

 And how!

I Accuse My Parents.

Boy lies a lot. Boy meets girl. Boy joins mob. Boy leaves mob. Boy goes to court. Boy blames his parents. Boy gets off scott free. Parents everywhere learn a lesson.

2 out of 2 irresponsible parents.

I'm on an MST3K kick. Refer to Frink's avatar.

Tyrphanax said:

I Accuse My Parents.

Boy lies a lot. Boy meets girl. Boy joins mob. Boy leaves mob. Boy goes to court. Boy blames his parents. Boy gets off scott free. Parents everywhere learn a lesson.

2 out of 2 irresponsible parents.

 

I'm on an MST3K kick. Refer to Frink's avatar.

"X-Men: First Class" 

and

"Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins"

"X-men: First Class" was excellent. Remo Williams on the other hand was quite lame, and I can understand why the adventure never did continue.

That is a film in desperate need  of a re-make. 

Predators

I went into this film expecting something along the lines of Predator, or Predator 2. Just your run-of-the-mill cheesy, campy action romp.

Holy shit was I wrong on that one.

Predators is far from the run-of-the-mill action romp I was expecting, and more along the lines of a serious, Hollywood blockbuster action flick with a plot twist that seriously came out of the blue for me (and I'm one of those people who tries to figure out where the movie is going to end up as soon as I can). I was really on the edge of my seat the whole time with this one. I had no idea where it was going, and I loved every minute of it.

Predators is now one of my top few movies, and easily the best in the franchise. One out of one invisible friends.

"A Hard Day's Night"

darth_ender said:

xhonzi said:

darth_ender said:

Decided to begin watching Dune (2000 miniseries).  It's strange and glosses over so much from the novel so far, but what can you do  with such a complicated novel when converting it to a visual medium anyhow?  My wife likes it so far.

I quite like the 2000 mini.  There's a "long cut" of it that I think is substantially better and also introduces some european style nudity, which I'm sure your wife would approve of as much as mine did (which is to say not at all).

So I finally go the chance to watch part II, and it is the extended version.  You're correct, there is some European-style nudity (as opposed to Asian, South American, or Oceanian-style nudity, I mean, how many ways can you show one's privates?).  I was truthfully disappointed with all of that, and it seemed to advance the plot very little.  If they'd spent more time telling the story of Dune and less flaunting bodies, it might have been interesting, but now I'm pretty turned off and not sure I want to finish it.

For the record, I think all of that nudity is in Part II.  I think there's some sideboob in a tent in one scene, and that might still be coming up.

The reason I called it "european" style is that they shot 2 versions of those scenes.  In the "US release", the girls were lightly dressed in sheer linens and silks, but enough to cover up the naughty bits.  In the European(where and by whom it was filmed)  release, they used the full nudity version.  When they released the extended cut, I guess they (and Roger Ebert) figured that people want to see as much nudity as possible, but silly TV or public cinema standards are getting in their way.  So, of course, when it comes to home video releases, the more nudity the better!

And considering the success of "UNRATED! (w00t!) dvd's" maybe they're right.

But the extended version does add about 10 minutes to each of the three segments.  And, as I recall, those 10 minutes do help quite a bit.

I would encourage you to finish the third part.  But if you haven't dug the first 2/3, maybe you still won't care for it.

The wife and I watched Unstoppable a few days ago. 

2 things:

1. It made me think of the previous discussions at to whether "knowing the end or knowing who lives/who dies" is enough to wreck the drama of a story/film.

This movie is basically completely understood from the poster.  There's a runaway train.  It's Unstoppable.  Kirk and John Creasy are going to stop it, because they ARE EVEN MORE UNSTOBBABLE!  (X-TREME!!!!)  Tony Scott, however, is able to bring plenty of tension to the action regardless of there never being any doubt in the audience's mind how it's going to end.

2. As I have mentioned before, I have a "motion simulator" chair that moves with some of the movies out there.  Unstoppable supported this feature and frankly I'm not sure I would have bothered with this movie except that I heard it was awesome "in the chair".

And it was.

Super 8. Got the feeling this was a movie about kids in the 70's that was deemed too noncommercial...so they added government conspiracy...and a mysterious thing causing havoc in order to have action.

2 balls out of 4.

Kane. The Blu-ray is due out in a few days...with a new 4K transfer with NO LOWRY DIGITAL INVOLVEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY! And on Amazon there's an added bonus: an official DVD release of Ambersons.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khaaaaan