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Last movie seen — Page 138

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The Adventures of Tintin

Overall I was very happy with this, it was an entertaining and reasonably faithful Tintin movie. For me the style took some getting used to, I think it should have been either slightly more or slightly less realistic.

The main issue I had was with the character of Captain Haddock, who is portrayed as a victim lacking in confidence; a character trait that I would NEVER associate with Haddock. There seems to have been a preoccupation with over-explaining Haddock's drinking while trying to downplay it at the same time - hard to do considering that his alcoholism becomes essential to the plot.

I loved the fact that I couldn't tell Nick Frost from Simon Pegg - the detectives were spot on. Sorely missed in the search for Red Rackham's treasure: Professor Calculus and his shark-proof sub.

8/10

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Madam Satan (1930).

I once caught the end of this film after a busy tiring day at work and thought I was hallucinating.

I've been searching for it ever since.

Lucky for me the Warner Archive Collection released a restored DVD edition to replace the almost impossible to find VHS.

It's a shame that the technicolor sequences haven't survived as that would take an already bizarre spectacle and turn it up to 13.

It starts as a really dull farce (even for 1930) of a sensible but insanely wealthy society wife and her petulant cheating husband. He has an even more wealthy twit of a pal and a very saucy bit on the side.

After confronting the wicked she-cat the wife decides to win back her man by giving him too much of what he wants, Kate Bush fans will know how this story goes.

Her husband's pal is throwing a costume part on his airship and she decides to gate crash with eye-popping and explosive results.

Definitely Cecil B DeMille's weirdest film.

I give it 98 parachutes.

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Repo Man, the U.S t.v. version, i heard stories about how good this was,no swearing, deleted scenes edited back into the movie and the occasional drop out in picture were the ad breaks would have been. 10/10

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Supernova (2000).

Anyone who has viewed the extras on the Alien Quadrilogy DVD Set (and probably the blu-rays too but for previously disclosed reasons I don't have those) will have seen Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett's take on their screenplay and David Giler reporting his and Walter Hill's take on what they did to it.

They claimed to have totally re-written a silly screenplay with one good scene in (you know the one).

O'Bannon and Shusett claim Hill and Giler just changed the character names and added Ash, the robot into the mix and tried to get their names removed from their own script.

Watching this mangled mess has bolstered my prejudices on the issue.

Like Alien 3 (oh the irony after what Brandywine did to Vincent Ward) the film was taken away from Hill and churn edited (in this instance by Francis Ford Coppola no less).

If the goal was to improve the film the re-edit was either (as the kids say) An EPIC FAIL! or the film was really, really crap to begin with.

Dialogue tone and lip synch mismatches make the official version the sort of thing that would be booed off of any Fan Edit forum and the on screen tension is lacking much in the on screen tension department.

A rather good cast of actors deliver remarkably unremarkable performances.

The sets and the special effects must have cost a fortune which poses the obvious question of why a gimp doing robotic dance moves is their take on a ship's android.

The onboard computer is excessively chatty on every speaker in the ship which must be a workplace distraction and Lou Diamond Phillips' plot necessitated grey hair is so obviously painted on it looks more like a fashion statement than a sign of natural aging.

Peter Facinelli's arse cheeks provide the most compelling performance in this film.

Even when Coppola photoshops James Spader's head to it

(you can tell he went to film school with Lucas).

I'm sure Angela Bassett was pleased to find that the few physical differences between herself and co-star Robin Tunney can be removed by a post-production darkning of skin.

I suspect ass action was down to Jack Sholder directing the reshoots (he has a history of getting Monsieur Derriere to perform, ask Marshall Bell of A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 fame for details).

No balls. One Finger.

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XyZ said:

Never seen Firefly. Is it as good ? (One friend told me "no").

He is not a real friend.

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The Wild Bunch. Life-changing, devastating, bitter, revisionist, heartbreaking story of what happens when killers go to Mexico. Career performances from cast and crew. One of the great American films and greatest ever made. An easy film to become obsessed with. Masterpiece. True art in every sense of the word.

Balls cannot describe. One of the 8 films that made me love Westerns. (Ride the High Country, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West and Duck You Sucker!) This is one of those films that everyone needs to see.

And then you will find yourself fascinated with the self-destructive cantankerous hard drinking alcoholic bandanna wearing bearded figure in dark glasses. Sam and Leone made the Western what it is. (Yes, I know John Ford essentially created the Western format and kept redefining it for decades but for me it got too stale.)

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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The Thing (2011).

I'm not saying that Nightbreed (1990), Exorcist III (1990), Freejack (1992) Exorcist The Beginning (2005), Dominion (2005) and many many more would have been perfection if they hadn't been Morgan Creek Productions but they do have a track record.

Certainly this film would have been improved with a bit more characterisation and a slower build up, it would have been improved with less obvious CGI and an even more bleak ending.

All these things were there until Morgan Creek previewed the film (as they have done with so many other films) and adjusted the film to the preview score card.

What is left isn't bad.

Ennio Morricone's music for the first film is sadly missing here (the few times it's riffed are like a window being opened in a stuffy room) but the performances are generally good and the photography isn't gimmicky and looks nice and crisp.

Ulrich Thomsen uncannily resembles Anthony Ainley with a die job.

 

 

There are nice nods to continuity throughout but the overall effect of the piece is little more than mildly diverting.

The one death I wanted to see explained was the radio man (Colin in this film) in the first film he is found with a deep slit to his throat and both of his wrists.

If you have ever tried this at home its actually rather difficult to self inflict entirely.

Sadly there is no onscreen exploration of the possibilities of this corpse.

I would pay to see this film again with all the good stuff put in and the bad stuff taken out but I imagine if form is followed Morgan Creek will either lose the original materials or not pay for the necessary post production on a special edition.

It also points up the sound logic of not making Prometheus a direct prequel to Alien.

2 faces.

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Videodrome.

God, what a bore this was. I managed to stay awake watching Das Boot, but this had me dozing off after an hour in. Truly this is one of the most overrated films in existence. 5-bordering-on-4/10

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DuracellEnergizer said:

Videodrome.

God, what a bore this was. I managed to stay awake watching Das Boot, but this had me dozing off after an hour in. Truly this is one of the most overrated films in existence. 5-bordering-on-4/10

Videodrome is one of my favorite cult movies, and maybe my favorite by the master Cronenberg.

It's a study on how we've desensitized ourselves to sex and violence in everyday culture/entertainment. Media like television can essentially be used to brainwash and control people. Nearly 30 years after the movie was released we see how predictive it was.

Then again, if you ask me the propensity for violence was always there. We just have different delivery methods (watching people executed centuries ago vs. watching violence on tv presently). Same shitty human nature.

Long live the new flesh!

“Grow up. These are my Disney's movies, not yours.”

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Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009)

I'm really surprised I hadn't heard about this film before now. A friend of mine stumbled on it on HBOGO. We both knew right away we wanted to see this just because Chris O'Dowd stars in it (we're big IT Crowd fans). It's basically a really fun British comedy about time travel. I enjoyed it.

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captainsolo said:

 

Balls cannot describe.

YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!

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Contagion

This bored me, and I'm at a loss to explain how it rates higher than Outbreak on imdb. Starts out with promise, then nothing much happens and the most interesting character turns out to be irrelevant. This is a movie you could watch while doing something else and enjoy it about the same.

5/10

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Valhalla Rising (2009).

If you ever wanted to know what Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972) set around the time of the Norman conquests, in Scotland and elsewhere, would look like if made with next to no money, here it is (only it cost $7 million).

It seems a lot of people have rented this film or purchased it based on the cover which shows a rough looking inked up Mads Mikkelsen (Le Chiffre off Casino Royale sans cheese (2006)) and have been somewhat disappointed it wasn't 300 (2007).

I was forewarned as it was shot largely in my neck of the woods.

I like really, really slow and ponderous films, when I'm in the mood and this could have been up there with some of Vincent Ward's early films if it had a bit more tweaking.

One thing it does share with 300 is lots of digital blood, which in this case is coloured so vibrantly as to be distracting.

I imagine it must have meant to look unreal because Odin help them if this wasn't deliberate but the effect just looks cheap.

Other than that you have a very very slow and ponderous film with occasional acts of ultraviolence, that looks really nice and might give you something to meditate on if you can keep your eyes open long enough.

1 eye.

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Returning to Ken Russell.

Lisztomania (1975),

Hilarious, eye-popping, lewd, fantastic imagining of episodes from Liszt's life.

If the sight of Rick Wakeman as a Frankenstein creature dressed as Marvel's Thor raised by a vampire Wagner sounds interesting, this film may be just what you are looking for.

Loved Ringo Starr's popemobile.

1 really, enormous penis.

Valentino (1977),

More sober (though it still has it's moments) biopic.

Stars Rudolf Nureyev as the other Rudy and he fits the role perfectly.

Looks beautiful and Ken has a real feel for the period he is evoking (he even has a cameo role as an OTT film director who's bizarre imagery is described as BS).

10, 000 powder puffs.

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TV's Frink said:

captainsolo said:

 

Balls cannot describe.

YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!

Ok, maybe something more like:

4 unquestionable grand large balls of infinity out of 4. ;)

The Ballad of Cable Hogue

This is a quirky film, allegorical and comedic, which is about the last thing you'd ever expect from Sam. It works for what it is  and is a kind of film that can never be made today. Recommended.

3.5 balls out of 4.

Straw Dogs

I've now seen this movie something like 15 times. Each time it gets better. Darker. Faster. More intense. It took me years to find uncut and uncensored and a quiet place to be able to watch it alone. A misinterpreted masterpiece-one of those really out there films from that glorious 1971-73 period of British filmmaking. Broodingly dark, possibly Dustin Hoffman's best performance, brutal, probably NSFW, and in the end a simultaneous vindication and damnation of the human condition. Oh, and some bagpipes... ;)

I showed this movie to people in film school as a part of the society I ran during a Peckinpah tribute. There were walkouts. No one got it. (Same with: Pat Garrett, Alfredo Garcia...heck they really didn't get any of them. Idiots mostly.) Then the guy who was about to premiere his bastard remake came to speak to the department, and it was all I could do to restrain myself from strangling him. Complete buffoon.

Remember when a movie could be worth a damn? This will quickly refresh your memory. Be ready though. It's rough.

4 balls out of 4 balls. Forgotten, unfairly maligned masterpiece. One of Peckinpah's finest achievements.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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georgec said:



DuracellEnergizer said:

Videodrome.

God, what a bore this was. I managed to stay awake watching Das Boot, but this had me dozing off after an hour in. Truly this is one of the most overrated films in existence. 5-bordering-on-4/10


Videodrome is one of my favorite cult movies, and maybe my favorite by the master Cronenberg.

It's a study on how we've desensitized ourselves to sex and violence in everyday culture/entertainment. Media like television can essentially be used to brainwash and control people. Nearly 30 years after the movie was released we see how predictive it was.


An obvious message doesn't make the film any more enjoyable for me, unfortunately.

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Altered States (1980)

Surprisingly sober considering the subject matter.

There are a few silly moments during 'cellar dweller' scene which probably could have been trimmed or framed differently but other than that it's a fine entry in the slightly over reaching sub-genre of 'exploration of the self' science fiction films.

Other examples being the interesting but too worthy Brainstorm (1983) the awful The Lawnmower Man (1992) and the flawed but underrated The Cell (2000).

It only really feels like a typically Ken Russell film during the earlier religious based hallucinations.

Nice performances all round including a rare performance by Bob Balaban as a tweedy scientist (joke).

Fringe fans will no doubt gawp at a young and very sexy Blair Brown featuring in a film which foreshadows with a much straighter face some of the material featured in that show.

Four magic mushrooms.

Crimes Of Passion (1984).

Ken wanders into Brian De Palma territory here by riffing Hitchcock but with a lot more cock than hitch.

As much as I love the wonky weirdness of Body Double of the same year I think this film wins by a nose by virtue of having a heart.

Underneath all the sleaze and anarchic outrage is a very simple tale which is bizarrely romantic as far as any film with a sex crazed street preacher seeking redemption through a razor sharp dildo can be.

Anthony Perkins and Kathleen Turner are grand in this, John Laughlin and Annie Potts are playing dull characters so don't get much of a chance to do anything.

Three quaaludes and a pair of crotchless knickers.

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Bingowings said:

...a pair of crotchless knickers.

waaaahhh????

How would that work?? Wouldn't it just be simpler not to wear any?

<span style=“font-weight: bold;”>The Most Handsomest Guy on OT.com</span>

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Kinky undergarments aren't generally designed with practicality in mind.

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Gothic (1986) :

A bit of wasted potential with this one.

All the characters are so over-cranked to start with that adding gallons of opiates to their system has very little effect of note.

It's a shame because the cast (other than Julian Sands) is really good and the costumes and the setting are lovely the subject is ripe with possibilities but the presentation and the pacing is lacking.

Two possible ways this could have worked better would be to either start of with the camera work and the performances being a typical costume drama affair and then ramp up nightmarish imagery and mania as more laudanum is consumed or keep the camera neutral and don't show any of the visions at all but have the characters ramble and rave about what they are seeing and leave everything to our imagination.

The latter might work better as radio play but the film as it stands is only mildly interesting.

A couple of teeny floppy leeches.

Salome's Last Dance (1988).

Loved it.

Gothic reminded me a little of Tom Stoppard in theme but this one is even more Stoppardian.

Oscar Wilde visits his local brothel on Guy Fawke's Night 1893 with his main male squeeze Alfred Douglas and is treated to a performance of his own play Salome which has just been banned.

So here we have a 20th Century film of a 19th Century fictional performance of a play set 2000 years before.

What is remarkable is that all three levels hold up.

The film aspect is underlined by have Ken Russell playing a photographer (presumably a pornographer) called Ken in his own film, also providing stage direction for the film and appearing as a character in the play.

Being staged in a brothel allows Ken to get away with murder (hopefully not literally).

Lots of boobs and bottoms on display but at the heart of the piece is the theme of betrayal of love that ripples it's way up and down the extreme production design.

Five moons.

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A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003).

A charming, beautifully photographed South Korean tale of domestic bliss.

Five edible flowers.

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Dancer in the Dark


I am a huge Bjork fan. Yes, I know that's not how her name is spelled, it's just that my keyboard doesn't allow for the "o" to have those two little dots above it. I own most of her stuff, everything from Debut to Biophilia. She is amazing, and I love how she always has a new sound behind each of her albums.

So I was surprised when I had never heard of this movie, despite the fact that it's the reason that she was at the Oscars in a swan dress in the first place, and that it was directed by Lars Von Trier who I have a great deal of respect for.

Well, after viewing, I realized that not only can she sing, but she can ACT too. And boy, can she act! The acting by everyone else is just as good, but Bjork steals the show. Perfect casting in fine form.

The movie starts in 1964. We are introduced to Selma, a woman from Czechoslovakia with a very shy and mousy demeanor and thick glasses. Selma is also losing her eyesight, something that she is trying to hide from everyone otherwise she will lose her job which she can't afford to lose because she's destitute. Later in the movie, she makes a decision that alters her life for the worst. That's all I'm going to say about the plot because I suck at making a synopsis, and I couldn't really do it justice no matter how hard I tried.

The film has an awesome soundtrack by Bjork, using her vocal "shouts" to inflict emotion. One thing that keeps the movie real is that the musical numbers only happen when she's in some kind of dream state. The modern sound of the songs while in a movie that happens in the early 1960's also keeps the surreal atmosphere during those scenes.

I was crying at the end, and I have a feeling you will to if you have any sense of taste or a soul at all.

9/10

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Went on a Welles marathon Friday:

  • Citizen Kane- It's been called the greatest movie ever. Is it? Possibly. I definitely love it: the devastating consequences of the American dream. I couldn't find any bad acting.... Great. I hated it the first time I saw it, but it's a movie that grows on you fantastically. Toland was a genius.
  • Magnificent Ambersons- EXTREMELY UNDERRATED! I loved it so much. I watched a reconstructed version and it's so much more powerful than the theatrical cut. People would have respected this so much more if the studio didn't butcher it... as much as Kane I would say. The sets and dialogue are fantastic. I always wonder why Orson didn't cast himself as George (as he thought the character was based off of him); Holt was good but Welles could have been better if he made himself to look young.
  • The Third Man- Fine. It's not a Welles' film but it was my favorite of the movies I watched today. For me, The Third Man is THE BEST MOVIE EVER MADE BY HUMANs. It's so impossibly underrated like Ambersons. It's better than Kane in my opinion. The dialogue and story are so quick and fresh even today. The zither is an unusual but completely effective sound track choice. Post War Vienna is so haunting yet enticing. Cotten is perfect, Valli is stunning, and Welles is indescribably good. Cotten's and Welles's relationship is so well played as well as Cotten's and Valli's. All of the actors deserve great credit. "The Cuckoo Clock" line still sends chills down my spine. Most devastating ending in a film. The sewer followed by those last two minutes... send audiences reeling.
  • Chimes at Midnight- Eh... I finished the day off with this. I watched a good copy by Studio Canal. The Shakespearean plot is good. I'm certain this is the best adaptation of the two plays. Strong visuals and good acting but somehow not as potent as the other films I watched. It definitely deserves a viewing. Welles sinks into Falstaff properly. The battle scene still stuns; if you're a student of film, you should at least watch that part.
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Magnificent Ambersons has been highly regarded for quite some time and if anything I think The Third Man (lovely as it is) is a tad overrated.

Take out Welles' very small role and you are left with a thriller that while stylishly filmed is largely unremarkable next to other films of he period.

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You didn't watch Touch of Evil??

 

Greenie am the sad. :(

 

I love the opening shot in that film.

<span style=“font-weight: bold;”>The Most Handsomest Guy on OT.com</span>