I saw the Uruguayan film Whisky (2004) Very subtle low key minimilistic comedy. Never boring even though very little happens.
Originally Posted by El Loro:
I saw the Uruguayan film Whisky (2004) Very subtle low key minimilistic comedy. Never boring even though very little happens.
Seen this and thought it was very good, i do like films where little happens or there is not much dialogue
Originally Posted by jackassfan:
Hell Drivers (1957) 8.5/10
I've seen this several times and rate it as one of the best British films of the 50s and the cast list is remarkable.
Originally Posted by El Loro:
Originally Posted by jackassfan:
Hell Drivers (1957) 8.5/10
I've seen this several times and rate it as one of the best British films of the 50s and the cast list is remarkable.
Its a great film, I would have given it a 9 but it loses half a rating because of the woman secretary whos role in the film wasnt needed at all i thought
I saw The Professionals (1966), the western starring Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Jack Palance and Claudia Cardinale. Also featured Ralph Bellamy. It's a good western. Chronologically and stylistically it could be placed between the earlier The Magnificent Seven and the later The Wild Bunch.
As others have commented, at one stage Marvin etc have got onto the train fleeing from the Mexicans, the Mexicans manage to stop the train, climb on board to find it empty, and we then see Marvin etc riding through the canyon on horseback as if they've been magically transported from the train on to their horses.
Originally Posted by jackassfan:
Two top quality films, particularly The Angry Silence.
The Dupes (Al-makhdu'un) (1973) 7/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuC_dZebFF8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUVOjSYAaNA&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZV5Yf-AOT4&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8186XQYtTE&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82N905U_XzI&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYd5UNqjRmE&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLjvGzKlsLQ&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fp7iLUGIdU&feature=relmfu
I saw Surrogates (2009) starring Bruce Willis. An interesting premise for a storyline - people stay in the safety of their homes whilst having mind control over their artificial surrogates are outside "living" their day to day lives, and then a murder takes places where not only a surrogate is "killed" but the effect is to kill the real person. It could have been a much better film but it's not. The length of the film is 89 minutes including credits which suggests to me that there was some serious problems in the making of the film and that the film was changed from the original intent.
I saw A Double Life (1947) starring Ronald Colman in an Oscar winning performance as an actor driven to madness by becoming confused between real life and the part he was playing - Othello.
Shelley Winters was also in the film in her first credited role.
Betsy Blair had a very brief role in what was her second film. She was very attractive:
She was a victim of the McCarthy era and was blacklisted resulting in very few films. She was married to Gene Kelly during this time and as a result of his insistence with the studios she appeared in Marty (1955), the film for which she is best remembered, She later married the director Karel Reisz.
Eroica (1958) 8/10
Shirin (2008) 6/10
I saw Macbeth (1948) the Orson Welles version and I saw the restored version rather than the cut one.
As was so often the case with his films, the studio savaged the film on release cutting out scenes and dubbing some of the dialogue so the cut version and the restored version are different films.
Welles got the actors to use Scottish accents, some of which were so thick that it was near impossible to hear what was said. The film was shot in 3 weeks on a small budget but that didn't really matter. The film was dark, full of shadows and menacing, but that suited the film.
Flawed, but still outstanding. Kurosawa must have had this version in mind when he made Throne of Blood
I resaw Call Northside 777 (1948) starring James Stewart, Lee J Cobb and Richard Conte. A fine drama documentary about a newspaper reporter's efforts to prove that an innocent man had been wrongly convicted. The film is largely factually correct, and for more details of the real-life story behind the film read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...ek_and_Marcinkiewicz
I Am A Fugitve From A Chain Gang (1932) 10/10 2nd viewing
Haywire (2011) 4/10
Originally Posted by jackassfan:
I Am A Fugitve From A Chain Gang (1932) 10/10 2nd viewing
An outstanding film indeed.
I resaw Odd Man Out (1947) one of the two best British film noirs made, the other being The Third Man which was directed by the same director - Carol Reed (who was male).
Odd Man Out starred James Mason in possibly his best performance as the doomed man, The photography was by Robert Krasker (also did The Third Man) and was suitably full of darkness and shadow.
On a point of trivia, one of the two girls in the telephone kiosk scene near the end of the film was played by Dora Bryan in her film debut.
The film also featured Dan O'Herlihy in his second film. By a complete coincidence, he was also in Macbeth (his 4th film) which I posted about a few days ago. He is possibly best known for being the boss of the company in Robocop and was Robinson Crusoe in Luis Bunuel's film.
Originally Posted by jackassfan:
John Carter (2012) 3/10
I'm not surprised you gave this film a low rating. I haven't seen it but although Edgar Rice Burroughs was best known for his Tarzan stories, his science fiction was not of high quality. I would rate his science fiction writing as in the same league as E E 'Doc' Smith who wrote the Lensman series of books.
I saw Twelfth Night (1996), Shakespeare's comedy of gender confusion caused by twin brother and sister separated by a shipwreck, each thinking the other had perished. Adapted and directed by Trevor Nunn, and starring Imogen Stubbs, Helena Bonham Carter, Toby Stephens, Ben Kingsley, Richard E Grant, Nigel Hawthorne, and others. Very well acted, but much of it was played straight. Sir Toby Belch was played by Mel Smith, and he was very good in that role.
I saw Le Quattro Volte (2010) which I see that Jackassfan saw some time ago and rated it 8/10 which I agree.
The title means 4 Times or 4 Realms. The film has no dialogue and has 4 sections. An old goatherd at the end of his life. On his death a goat is born, gets lost and seeks shelter near a tree. The tree flourishes for a time before being cut down, used by the villagers in their sporting games. After the games, the tree is taken away, sawn up, and becomes the foundation for the charcoal burners to make wood into charcoal, and the charcoal is taken back to the villagers for them to burn and the valley becomes full of smoke.
So the 4 stages are man, animal, vegetable (the tree), and mineral (the charcoal).
These 4 stages come from Pythagoras's belief that there is within us four lives - man, animal, vegetable and tree.
Michael (2011) 8.5/10
I saw Shenandoah (1965) starring James Stewart. An excellent western about a farmer and his family caught up in the American Civil War. Stewart was perfect for the role and it is hard to think of anyone who could have been better.
Although not the same story, I did notice some similarities between this film and Mel Gibson's The Patriot.
Baby Face (1933) 8/10
Sanam (2000) 8/10
A couple of films I've seen recently.
I resaw The House on 92nd Street (1945). Almost a documentary in style, this film was an account of the FBI infiltrating and destroying a group of Nazi fifth columnists in the States bent on stealing "Process 97" from government scientists. The film was made during the latter stages of WW2 and the producer/co-director inserted some voice-over narration to link Process 97 with the development of the atomic bomb. The producer/co-director Louis de Rochemont produced "The March of Time" newsreels which would explain why this film felt closer to a documentary than a feature film.
I also saw A Little Princess (1995) directed by Alphonso Cuaron. A children's film based on the classic book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, it was a delightful film and one of the best children's films ever made. Like the best children's films, it was very watchable for adults as well. The film was reasonably faithful to the book with some changes which did not matter. On the onset of WW1, a British man based in India with his daughter has to go to fight in France, so sends his daughter to a boarding school in the States. He tells his daughter that all little girls are little princesses - hence the title - it's nothing to do with royalty.