I’m quite fond of Murray’s vanity project The Razor’s Edge. Murray co-wrote the script and it is one of very few films where the screenplay is a notable improvement on the original book - it removes all of Somerset Maugham’s most annoying affectations while keeping the emotional core of the story. Sadly the one duff note is Murray himself, who played his first serious role as an emotionless lump. The rest of the cast was stellar, and had Murray let someone else star it would have been an absolute gem of a film.
count Dracula, directed by Jess (Jesus) Franco.
As I’ve remarked several times on this Board, I stumbled across this partway through on TV, and it blew me away. It was made on a low budget, but with an impressive cast, and is remarkably faithful to the book. the low budget helps, because they filmed the Castle Dracula scenes in an actual castle, and it has a sense of realism far beyond most adaptations of the book. I had no idea which film it was for a long time.
It stars Christopher Lee in a non-Hammer role as Dracula, with Klaus Kinski (who would later play Count Orlok in the remake of Nosferatu) as Renfield and Herbert Lom (!) as Von Helsing.
Unfortunately, the film falters after they leave Transylvania and begins to plod, and the second half is admittedly unwatchable.
I similarly recommend the movie from 1977 called Terror of Frankenstein or Victor Frankenstein (not to be confused with the 1977 film of the same name). It’s the first really faithful version of the film, starring Leon Vitale (who played Lord Bullington, Ryan O’Neal’s son, in Barry Lyndon). More true to the book than Kenneth Branaugh’s/Francis Ford Coppola’s version, which it preceded by many years.
It, too, tends to drag in places, but it’s well worth watching
I like a lot of elements, but man, is that film joyless. Friends joke I haven’t smiled since the 1980s and even I think the film was grim. I don’t need Ned Beatty bumbling around or tire irons going boing when they hit him, but the emotional palette is as dreary as the visual palette.
The book is my favorite (same as Murray) and yeah, he really shouldn’t have played Larry. Really, it 'swhat turns the film from a passion project into a vanity project.
Really? To me, the songs (some of them, at least) are the best part of the movie. I still sing “Everything Is Food” in the kitchen, to the eternal consternation of the Mrs.
Robot Arm is right: "Setup? We don’t need no stinkin’ setup!!
I bet you don’t sing the whole thing in the original tempo. It goes on much longer and at a much slower pace than it really ought. (See also: “Sweethaven”)
Yes, “sufficiently” is the key word here. Not a great movie, but it had its moments. Ferrell’s quarrels with Matt Lauer were funny, but the scene you mentioned is my favorite too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L24hGLbmNrw
I don’t love it but most people hate Showgirls, but I’ll watch it again.
Yeah, that’s a good one.
That’s another nice one!
The weird movies I dearly love to inflict on people…
Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death
Rom coms I like better than the critics:
French Kiss
My opinion of the best Stephen King offerings differs from the conventional wisdom: