True Lies
Finally sat down and watched this. Better than I expected but for me, especially not being a Cameron fan and being a huge spy buff it was rather flat. The action was so over the top it was hard not to laugh, and the entire affair subplot went far too long and was frankly downright cruel in places. The supporting characters make the film, and to be honest I wanted more of them and less of the plot. Just having Art Malik (whom I've loved for years as Kamran Shah in TLD) is a bonus, but then you have all the wonderful real life bits of humor like the camera battery dying.
The DD 5.1 LD mix was pretty good but not great. Apparently they remixed this one for the home but not the DTS or DVD.
3 balls out of 4. It does have Charlton Heston with an eyepatch which automatically gets a pass from me. ;)
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Arguably the best swashbuckler of them all. Gorgeous B&W photography, top notch Selnick production, perfect casting, full of charm and romance and adventure. They do not in any sense of the word make them like this any more. One for the ages.
Timeless 4 out of 4. Essential viewing.
Broken Arrow
Pitifully dull, from the writer of Speed, and painfully so. While the earlier film gets by on some sense of charm, plot twists and action-this one has nothing. It tries and in the smaller moments with the actors there are bits of fun. But this again remains a painful example of how John Woo went from being the greatest maker of action pictures since Michael Curtiz to the maker of American dreck.
2.5 out of 4 at best.
Witness for the Prosecution
One of the great courtroom dramas, full of Wilder touches, but cannot shake off being an adaptation of a hit play. It works best when not knowing the end result and thus loses some staying power when coming back to it later. The best aspect is the actor's ensemble.
The LD was remarkably good from a great matted widescreen print.
4 out of 4.
The Third Man
Finally got to see this in 35mm from a very clean Rialto print.
What can one say? It is probably the moment in cinema in which the world fully realized being grown up in the aftermath of WWII. It defies all expectations and remains forever timeless, much like the flipped negative image of the inherent romanticism in Casablanca.
4 out of 4. One of the greatest motion pictures ever produced.
Touch of Evil
Orson's last picture that is visible in some state of it's intended self. A masterpiece. A dark, twisted, beautiful, honest, vile, nasty, exploitative and haunting portrait of the human condition. One of the best films ever made in this country and it still never gets the recognition it rightfully deserves. I saw the 1998 reconstruction again in 35mm, this time open matte. For ToE the 1.85 is much better IMO and what was intended. Some shots look better in Academy but the feel is far better when matted properly.
The film's influence on Psycho cannot be ignored as it is so blatantly obvious.
4 out of 4. One of the greats. Essential.
The Magnificent Ambersons
Arguably the most painful picture to ever watch. Overwhelmingly sad and infused with such a sense of death that it become unbearable. The wistfulness for times long gone in Kane dominates the entire film and the studio butchering only makes it worse. Halfway through things start to get incomprehensible and the entire third act is ruined. The whole picture is ruined, gutted and destroyed and all that we have left is the remnants of this half dead phoenix that remains one of the most unforgettable pieces of unreality ever produced in this life.
It is beyond time for a Blu-ray and a definite studio backed worldwide search for elements.
The Warner transfer is the best we've ever had, but the fan version by ElmoOxygen which combines the HD web upscale with the Criterion and foreign extras is a godsend. I watched my CAV Criterion all the way through for the first tome which thankfully isn't rotted and has such a great sense of soft focus and diffusion that isn't quite the same on the WB transfer. It evokes the film perfectly, just like the Criterion It's a Wonderful Life CAV.
4 out of 4. One of the greats, and still the biggest travesty in motion pictures. THE most important of lost films.