Movies

[sunday]

14 minutes ago, bojan said:

Emperor of the North Pole and Runaway Train

Allow me to disagree - here it is shown how a railway workshop works, plus a lot of signalling. While there is some of the later in Runaway Train, and more modern, no shop works are shown.

[Ssnake]

I like Bullitt, I really do. But no, sorry, the chase isn't remotely as hair rising as is Ronin's. Heck, even the car chases in the first three Bourne movies surpass Bullitt's moderate stunt difficulty level by at least one order of magnitude.

[R011]

4 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

I like Bullitt, I really do. But no, sorry, the chase isn't remotely as hair rising as is Ronin's. Heck, even the car chases in the first three Bourne movies surpass Bullitt's moderate stunt difficulty level by at least one order of magnitude.

Perhaps.  I should hope they've made better ones in the fifty-six years since it came out.   Bullitt is still virtually the trope maker and still iconic.

[Stuart Galbraith]

French connection was supposed to out Bullett Bullett, and I think it had some of the same stunt team, AND some of the shots were filmed in ruch hour traffic.

Is it better than Bullett? No, because Hackman, superb actor though he is, clearly isnt a race driver like McQueen was, and its a Pontiac sedan and not a Ford Mustang. But its a damn good effort.

The car chase in the 7 ups is pretty well done too.

 

For me, the Italian Job doesnt get enough credit.

My favourite is 'robbery', largely because it shows 2 mk2 Jaguars in the environment they were built for (Police cars and getaway cars).

 

[Ssnake]

The (original) Italian Job's chase had great elements, but also humor elements that I find completely out of place - like driving up the stadium roof on the ONLY access ramp in sight, the stoopid cops driving up as well and stranding there, rather than wait at the bottom of the ramp. If you want to make a comedy, make jokes that are funny. If you make a thriller, I want nailbiting until, maybe, and the and you provide comedic relief. The dangling bus, held in balance by the gangsters on one end and the gold on the other, that was a great ending. But overall, to me, a lot of the attempts at humor haven't aged well, and appear rather silly (not in the Monty Python way).

The remade Italian Job did much better with the action scenes and had an overall more credible story (breaking into a prison to get the permission from the big boss, then breaking out again, all in one night, and none of the inmates slipping out with them, to name one example).  Also, they thought about what a ton of gold in each Mini would do to driving performance. Unfortunately, it loses a lot of style points compared to the original; Michael Caine in his prime was unbeatable.

[Stuart Galbraith]

The comedy did in places detract from the thrill of the chase, I can agree on that. On the other hand, the scene with the tunnel, where one tries to do a 360, and with the music playing, is absolutely fantastic. Try doing that in a Dodge Charger or Ford Mustang.

If you didnt like the humour, you probably wont dig the deleted scene...

 

ButI also probably should omitt the opening titles, which to my mind are some of the best in any in that period. A Lambourgin Miura, Matt Monroe and the Alps. Perfecto.

 

[Rick]

Has anyone seen "Am I a Racist" by Matt Walsh?

[Stuart Galbraith]

There is a new movie coming out called 'Rich Flu'. Its about a particularly virulent strain of flu, that only kills the rich and powerful. I can hear the tanknet heads exploding from here.

 

[Rick]

1 hour ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

There is a new movie coming out called 'Rich Flu'. Its about a particularly virulent strain of flu, that only kills the rich and powerful. I can hear the tanknet heads exploding from here.

 

Indeed! It would be bad if this Rich got the flu.

https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/american-thunder?srsltid=AfmBOop8Rx0PEJSI5PD1AkfuPvYz-yx88tpmwYhS-7oXMi63hPcObQbZ

[R011]

1 hour ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

There is a new movie coming out called 'Rich Flu'. Its about a particularly virulent strain of flu, that only kills the rich and powerful. I can hear the tanknet heads exploding from here.

 

I'm sure it will be amusing and topical and not anvillitious at all.

[Stuart Galbraith]

I'm looking forward to learning how a virus reads the forbes list.

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

34 minutes ago, Rick said:

Indeed! It would be bad if this Rich got the flu.

https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/american-thunder?srsltid=AfmBOop8Rx0PEJSI5PD1AkfuPvYz-yx88tpmwYhS-7oXMi63hPcObQbZ

That would indeed be a sad day. Well perhaps he can change it to George, just like Patton.

[Stuart Galbraith]

8k restoration of Metropolis free to watch on YouTube. You're welcome.

 

[Ivanhoe]

Man, after reading all the buzz about Metropolis, I tried watching a DVD made from a damaged film copy.

From a conceptual point, I get it; from an entertainment/thought-provoking standpoint, it was all too tiresome.

Most arthouse films to me have less value than the Bugs Bunny cartoon doing Wagner.

[Stuart Galbraith]

It depends what version it is. Most of the versions Im used to from the 80's had several scenes cut, making the plot a muddle (although the cut that was scored by Queen was very entertaining). About 10-15 years ago they found some footage that had been in a can for 90 years and was not in good shape, but had several scenes that had been lost. Thats what you can see here with the lines on them. In time they will probably even fix that with AI.

Personally, I love it. Right here, every film about a distopian future, from Logans Run, to Bladerunner, to Megaopolis, had its start. HG Wells hated it. But of course was largely about the inevitable progression of mankind, whereas of course I think 100 years later, we know far better that Metropolis is probably a lot closer to it.

Whilst we are at it, make time to watch 'Pandora's Box', if only for a 23 year old Louise Brooks scorching up the screen. Man I dig her hair.

 

[Stargrunt6]

I'm 2/3 into the criterion Apocalypse Now, and I feel you @Ivanhoe.  It's not arthouse but it's close, with it's on the nose symbolism. 

[Ivanhoe]

38 minutes ago, Stargrunt6 said:

I'm 2/3 into the criterion Apocalypse Now, and I feel you @Ivanhoe.  It's not arthouse but it's close, with it's on the nose symbolism. 

The difference being the actors all had the right stuff, and the dialogue was really tight (and the editors didn't eff it up). Most arthouse is, IMHO, about concept rather than delivery. Few can do both.

One of my  criteria (nopunintended) for a top-100 movie is that during multiple viewings, the details hold up. Dialogue, inflection, timing, facial expressions, etc. When every moment in a scene is tight, for example the interview between Leon and Holden in Blade Runner. The visuals are compelling, but the dialogue, man. A great director makes the viewer forget there was a director or DP.

Speaking of which, there are numerous classics I need to revisit. Not the least of which includes: Sunset Boulevard, Midnight Cowboy, American Graffiti, Unforgiven.

If you're looking for something completely different, The Conversation starring Gene Hackman. Extremely slow pace, but a very interesting movie.

I haven't seen the original yet, but the Hollywood version of The Departed was surprisingly good. With all the A-listers I was expecting a mess.

A movie I didn't like at the time was The Americanization of Emily. Felt unnatural for Jim Rockford to be a coward. Recently I read a bit written by someone in the business who asserted that Garner's acting in it was some of the best ever. So I need to give it another try.

Another slow movie that kept my attention was Lost In Translation. Acting was good, directing/editing was better.

[Ssnake]

I think Metropolis is best seen as an inspiration for futuristic cities like Tolkien's work was for the Fantasy genre.

It was an absolutely monumental undertaking at the time with the set construction and armies of extras.

But, yes, we don't make dialogs like that anymore, and for good reason. The message of the film is, well, very simple for it runtime to deliver it. The acting is very muth theatralic like most films of the period, as most actors came from theater, and acting schools prepared exclusively for the stage.

All of this doesn't help the film today.

At the same time, you suddenly realize where most dystopian cities of classic science fiction films were invented.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Metropolis aged better than many that came after it. For example, Well's Wings over the World in 'Things to Come' looks, to modern eyes, distinctly fascist.

 

As for the acting, very few actors from the silent world made it into the speakies. Brooks did for about 5 years or so, and so did Chaplin. But very few others did, including Brigitte Helm whom to her credit apparently rejected Goebbels advances.

I think you have to understand how they did acting in the silents and just roll with it. For audiences that were used to stage acting or nothing, they probably thought nothing of it.

 

 

Edited October 13, 2024 by Stuart Galbraith

[Stefan Fredriksson]

If you remove obvious stuff like Lord of the rings, Matrix, Aliens and Terminator 2, I think one of the films with very high rewatchability is L.A. Confindential.

[bojan]

LA confidential, Usual Suspects, Things to Do in Denver When You are Dead are golden trilogy crime movies of the '90s.

[TrustMe]

22 minutes ago, bojan said:

LA confidential, Usual Suspects, Things to Do in Denver When You are Dead are golden trilogy crime movies of the '90s.

You missed out Seven (1995)    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114369/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_seven 

 

 

 

 

[Stargrunt6]

2 hours ago, TrustMe said:

You missed out Seven (1995)    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114369/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_seven 

 

 

 

 

You can have all the Seven that you want...

 

That movie had nothing going for it but shock factor. The villain wasn't that interesting. Pitt and Freeman did do good performances though. I found the story shallow. 

[TrustMe]

2 hours ago, Stargrunt6 said:

You can have all the Seven that you want...

 

That movie had nothing going for it but shock factor. The villain wasn't that interesting. Pitt and Freeman did do good performances though. I found the story shallow. 

I thought that it was unique with an interesting twist at the end.

[Yama]

I feel 7 was one of those movies which were good for one view, but don't have much of a rewatch value. It was cool and memorable, but it rides on the mystery, and once it's resolved, tension is gone.