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Last movie seen — Page 141

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Manhunter is just meh, which I really wasn't expecting. In fact, the whole time I watched it I kept thinking I could switch and be watching To Live and Die in L.A. And there are way too many cuts of the movie for no apparent reason.

 

For a Few Dollars More. Possibly the best of all three Dollars films, and possibly the best Western ever made. Here Leone gets his rhythm down and eases into the style he is known for. Perfect balance between entertainment and art, between action and drama. The grand operatic sweep of his later films is hinted at, but FAFDM retains the almost serial like atmosphere of A Fistful of Dollars, which still keeps us coming back for more. A vast improvement on the first film and completely flawless. Everything is amped up here; the performances, the style, the cinematography, the sets, dialogue...and dear god the score! There are moments that will send chills down your spine (Hearing that organ for the first time in the church duel blew me away. Still does.) and tons of quirky little boings, springs, and whistles.

And you'll never look at a pocket watch the same way again.

Sadly, though the video presentations are much better now after a new master being struck from the Techniscope original, the original elements are not in the best of shape. The best available materials MGM had a few years ago was a degraded print that even went pink in one shot.

4 balls of infinity out of 4.

God, I could watch it again for the 500th time.

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 about Manhunter is seeing it now you have to rewind your mind back to when it was made.

The whole serial killer/evil genius personality profiler procedural has been done so many times now it's a really tired cliche.

There have been multiple long running television shows and hundreds of films on along those lines but when Mann made Manhunter it was all pretty much fresh and therefore more diverting albeit not particularly realistic.

It doesn't have as much of the plot of the book as Red Dragon but it does have a sense of realism and atmosphere that film is missing.

 

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Boogie Nights 10/10

A Place in the Sun 9/10

Sullivan's Travels 10/10

 

And, if made for TV movies count:

Game Change 9/10

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Manhunter fucked up by deviating too much from the book.

Red Dragon fucked up by hiring a hack director and winking too much at Silence of the Lambs.

Both are deeply flawed adaptations of what I consider to be a far superior book to Silence, though the adaptation of that is pretty much flawless, which is why it's a better film than either of the RD adaptations.

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Well it is not a movie but I just finished watching the entire first season of Game of Thrones in just a few days, and DAMN was it great! but the 1 thing I just hate lol is why, oh why, did Lord Stark have to die? he was by far the coolest character in the show.

 

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Explorers find a giant sculpture of a head on an alien planet, a holographic map room and evidence that life on Earth was engineered by an advanced race of Godlike beings.

A massive sandstorm blows up and before you know it.... NO NOT THAT ONE IT"S NOT OUT UNTIL JUNE.

No I'm talking Mission To Mars (2000).

What was in the water around the turn of the millennium that made well respected directors of the 70's and 80's make expensive and astonishing crap science fiction films?

I previously mentioned Supernova of the same year, of which Walter Hill (with a bit of help from Francis Ford Coppola) should be deeply embarrassed.

This time it's Brian De Palma's turn to sully his considerable (albeit not to everyone's taste) talent in SPPPPPPPPPPPPAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCEEEEE!

Just about everything in this film doesn't work, make sense or inspire even rubbernecking interest.

The score is intrusive and often does the opposite of what it's meant to.

Scenes which on paper, I assume, were designed to provoke tension or pathos backfire like a funky banger too clapped out to make it unassisted to the wrecker's yard.

The product placement is astoundingly vulgar.

Don't watch this film, just stay away, run if you have to.

No balls

On the same naughty staircase but at least it's got a few moments of fun so it's not on the same stair Ghosts Of Mars (2001).

What a waste of a good cast and Ice Cube.

John Carpenter, what went wrong?

Where did your mojo go?

It's basically Assault On Precinct 13 meets The Fog , with a bit of They Live on Maaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrsssss (only mostly awful)!

I know we are supposed to think it's a retro exploitation flick, what with having Pam Grier in it and all (she does have the good sense to make a quick and complete exit) but that's no excuse for for what amounts to a costume wrestling film without wrestling.

Has anyone figured out which country Jason Statham really comes from?

The 'diamond geezer' routine doesn't wash with me, I've never heard anyone from Chesterfield sound like him.

There are a few giggles in it but it's really only for masochistic completists.

Half a ball.

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Bingowings said:

Explorers find a giant sculpture of a head on an alien planet, a holographic map room and evidence that life on Earth was engineered by an advanced race of Godlike beings.

A massive sandstorm blows up and before you know it.... NO NOT THAT ONE IT"S NOT OUT UNTIL JUNE.

No I'm talking Mission To Mars (2000).

What was in the water around the turn of the millennium that made well respected directors of the 70's and 80's make expensive and astonishing crap science fiction films?

I previously mentioned Supernova of the same year, of which Walter Hill (with a bit of help from Francis Ford Coppola) should be deeply embarrassed.

This time it's Brian De Palma's turn to sully his considerable (albeit not to everyone's taste) talent in SPPPPPPPPPPPPAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCEEEEE!

Just about everything in this film doesn't work, make sense or inspire even rubbernecking interest.

The score is intrusive and often does the opposite of what it's meant to.

Scenes which on paper, I assume, were designed to provoke tension or pathos backfire like a funky banger too clapped out to make it unassisted to the wrecker's yard.

The product placement is astoundingly vulgar.

Don't watch this film, just stay away, run if you have to.

No balls

The one thing I liked in this film was  the fact that it portrayed weightlessness in a fairly realistic way... that's it.

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

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dark_jedi said:

Well it is not a movie but I just finished watching the entire first season of Game of Thrones in just a few days, and DAMN was it great! but the 1 thing I just hate lol is why, oh why, did __________ have to die? he was by far the coolest character in the show.

 

I'm taking the name out because that's a pretty huge Season 1 spoiler ... but I'm reading the books right now, and all I'll say is that George R. R. Martin loves to kill his characters, even/especially important ones.  But it works out, since there's always a shitload more people you just haven't met yet (hell, I'm on book 5 now and I'm still running across newly-introduced major characters).

Season 2 starts April 1 - it's gonna be awesome.

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The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

This was a beautifully shot film, and Vincent Price is as entertaining as ever. However, the film was also overlong, and I don't feel that it all came together very well in the end. 5/10

The Premature Burial (1962) - 6/10

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Ligeia is the most lofty of the Corman Poe's. It is the most emotional, and the one with actual dramatic conflict behind everything. (Screenplay by Robert Towne) The first time I saw it, I thought it was the best of them all, but upon each revisit, it begins to drag and drag and drag until you realize that aside from the opening, a few scenes in the middle and the ending, that this has all been done before...in the Poe's!

Burial is a nice little sleeper whose only fault is that it does what it is supposed to and nothing more.

I'd probably rank Ligeia third best overall behind Pit and the Pendulum and Masque of the Red Death. Masque gets better each time and is an absolute gem. The worst would have to be The Haunted Palace, but that's actually based on Lovecraft instead of Poe.

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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You guys talking Game of Thrones, take it to the TV thread.

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Yeah, this is the thread where you say you just saw Inception John Carter.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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I'll take that as a confession that you didn't see it.  IGNORED!  (But still friended).

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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Enemy Mine (198-something...)

 

I LOVE this movie.

:D

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

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Guess I'm ignored...again ;)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Original MGM DVD with 161 minute US theatrical cut. It's worn, torn, damaged, with 1.0 mono and freaking glorious. I hate the bastard SE extended cut with the Italian scenes rammed back in and the bad recording of an obviously older Eastwood and Wallach, the worst 5.1 remix in the history of time and the bad DVD and Blu-ray full of EE and DVNR from the same bad video master. The added grotto scene is completely unnecessary.

News on that front, there's a Italian Blu-ray that features better color, detail and no DVNR!! It's from a company called Mondo and is the extended Italian version minus the grotto scene-only downside is there's no English but there is Italian mono.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1145562&page=15

TGTBATU is Leone straddling the gritty entertainment of the Dollars films with the later operatic grandeur of Once Upon a Time in the West.

4 balls out of 4. Got to get a poncho.

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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Hanna - I really enjoyed this. Nothing deep or all that original about it, but it's a stylish film with a fantastic performance by Saoirse Ronan, and a killer soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers.


7/10

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Dracula (1931)

I frankly don't get the praise that everyone gives this film. It's poorly written, poorly directed, and most of the cast sucks. On the other hand, I do like the Castle Dracula/Carfax Abbey sets, and the initial scene with Dracula and his brides rising from their coffins (minus the vampire bug part) is beautifully shot. 5/10

Dracula (Spanish version) (1931)

This is somewhat better than the American version, with a largely better cast and tighter writing. It's still built on the same crappy script, though, and Carlos Villarias - regardless of his wonderfully lecherous grin - is inadequate as Dracula. 5/10

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) - 6/10

House of Usher (1960) - 6/10

Firestarter (1984)

Yet another Stephen King adaptation that wholely fails to do the source material any degree of justice. All the depth and nuance that makes the novel as good as it is is completely absent here, the direction is completely wrong, and almost every actor has been miscast. 5/10

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Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame (2010).

It does everything that the PT seemed to want to do but all in one film and about 200% better.

5 Fire Turtles.

The Immortals (2011) some nice visuals and a few good performances but it does render the whole thing down to the level of watching computer game cut scenes intercut with a wrestling match.

The Greek gods are reduced to rather crap superheroes the Titans get a worse deal in this film than either version of Clash Of The Titans (at least there they didn't bother to turn up at all).

I guess it goes with the territory that this has hardly anything to do with the myths that inspired it.

1 Hot Cow.

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I finally sat down with both Dracs a while ago and actually found that I rather dislike the Spanish version. I understand why it has its reputation, but aside from being visually stronger and having some more spirited performances, it drags considerably. It's too long, and has none of the atmosphere or charm of the English version. And with the Spanish actor, Dracula gets quite hammy.

Usher and Pit are kinda funny since they are essentially the same film. But Pit is so much more realized in every way that it makes Usher seem one-note. It may drop Poe, but it is a much better flowing film for it. I love these scripts written by Richard Matheson, even as a person who adores Poe's work.

 

Once Upon a Time in the West

Bold, operatic leap from the "Dollars" trilogy into the mythology of the Western Leone loved so much. However, his reasoning and mind couldn't stand the "always righteous" fake moral quality of classic Westerns (I can't either) and had to make a true Western that used the mythology to shatter these amid all the cliches. This came out even further in the criminally forgotten Duck, You Sucker!

It took an Italian to fully appreciate and realize the American genre. It is a simultaneous glorification and subversion of the Western that finally becomes grand operatic drama. The cast is perfect, the visuals are striking, the pacing languid and long, and as a filmmaker Leone raises the bar for himself. Morricone creates yet another of the great film scores.

"Something to do with death." 4 balls with duster coats out of 4 harmonicas.

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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Hellboy (2004) - 5/10

Vargtimmen AKA Hour of the Wolf (1969) - 7/10

Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara AKA The Last Trick (1964) - 6/10

Historia Naturae (Suita) (1967) - 6/10

Tma, svetlo, tma AKA Darkness/Light/Darkness (1989) - 6/10

Mužné hry AKA The Male Game AKA Virile Games (1988) - 6/10



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Tales from the Crypt (1972) - 6/10

The Masque of the Red Death (1964) - 6.5/10

The Fantastic Four (1994)

Not a good movie by any means, but still better than the craptastic '04 film. 5/10

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Have you really watched 14 movies in 2-3 days?

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