I really liked Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but for reasons that would largely be lost on most viewers. Unlike many films that use classic Oldies as a soundtrack device (most of the time incorrectly for the time period), the music was spot-on accurate. And best of all, they combined the music with real airchecks of L.A.'s monster Top 40 station of that era, 93 KHJ. The jocks on KHJ were legends in their own time and among us radio folks, remain legends to this day. As a former radio guy, I was very impressed and it really got me into the whole L.A. vibe of the time. And the visuals of L.A. in the late 60s were astonishingly well re-created. We watched it twice, and we never do that.
That said, I agree that it did drag on much too long, and several sequences could have been shortened or eliminated entirely without doing damage to the story.
Nice to see Bruce Dern still working his magic at his age. Always liked him.
Watched The Goodbye Girl on the strenght of “Dreyfuss won an Oscar for this. Right?” Cute movie, some good lines, (c)overt 1970s sexism which doesn’t go over like it did. The three leads played well against each other, regardless of the rather paint-by-numbers (by now, 2022) story.
I watched Inferno tonight. It’s a 1953 film shot in Technicolor, Stereophonic Sound, and 3D. 20th Century Fox pulled out all the stops on this one – just as the 1950s 3D fad was starting to fade.
It’s actually pretty good, with Robert Ryan as a man with a broken leg left to die by his adulterous wife (Rhonda Flaming) and her geologist lover (William Lundigan, a few years before he started playing various astronauts). An aged and unrecognizable Henry Hull (werewolf of London, among a great many other flicks) shows up as a prospector. Some reviews called it arguably the best 3D film made, but I think that’s going a bit too far.
I’d seen a scrap of this ages ago, but never found out how it ended, and later learned it was shot in 3D. I recently obtained an anaglyphic copy of it on DVD, which gives a pretty good 3D image. Not great cinema, but well-executed 3D, and worth a watch.
Because everyone wants and needs to watch violent Viking films? You are going to have to sell it better than that. There are plenty of people who avoid that currently-popular genre.
Just watched The Lost City, with Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Daniel Radcliffe. Largely a Romancing The Stone rip-off, but not as good. As these kinds of adventure comedies go, it was fine, but nothing special.
It’s streaming on Peacock for no extra charge. We watched it yesterday, the saga style took a lot of getting use to but we enjoyed it. Nothing has done Viking’s as well as the Last Kingdom for me but it was still very entertaining and had vivid imagery.
While I was recovering from gastroenteritis (and that’s my excuse), I watched the three Fantastic Beasts movies (the prequels to the Harry Potter films). The first one was pleasantly amusing, mainly because of the beasts and the endearing magizoologist Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, who reminded me of the field biologists I have known. The following two were increasingly dull. The third in particular was unbelievably dull considering how much it clearly cost to make. I never watched a fight between Good and Evil in which I cared so little about who won. Do not recommend.
Yes! I’d forgotten about this. It was wonderful to hear period music played the way it was at the time. As for DJs whenever I hear about this Machine Gun Kelly guy, I think of that DJ on 93 KHJ.
Well, I loved it. Saw it in a theater in El Segundo IIRC in a double feature with Marat/Sade – very weird double feature. Genevieve Bujold was so pretty in King of Hearts.
I liked The Lost City better than Romancing the Stone but that’s mostly because I find Michael Douglas repulsive.
I just watched Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel which was funny and charming. And they filmed in The Winchester!
I just finished Interceptor on Netflix starring a very jacked Elsa Pataky (not surprising when you’re married to Thor). It’s not a good movie, but it was entertaining. Her sadly topical backstory wherein a superior had her exiled to a remote missile interception platform as a result of blowing the whistle on his creepy advances and the ensuing online abuse wasn’t really needed IMHO and felt like a lazy way to make her seem like a real kick-butt military hero, but seeing her punch and kick various people was quite fun. (The backstory isn’t plot-relevant, I’m just a spoiler fanatic).
Add me to the list of people who have seen The Judge.
Count me in the “fair to middling” camp. It was generally well-acted - Robert Duvall is his usual irascible self, and Billy Bob Thornton was surprisingly good given his relatively small amount of screen time. RDJ babbled on as he does; I note that while he doesn’t play a huge range of characters in his films, he does tend to slot into films where his usual persona fits well. His character even gets mocked for his “verbal diarrhea”.
The film did take a number of twists and turns as the multiple plot lines rolled along, and I agree that they do appear to have thrown in the kitchen sink with a murder charge, terminal illness, old family squabbles and traumas being dredged up, pending divorce with child in the middle, old girlfriend with child of undetermined parentage, brother with intellectual challenges and an obsession with film, city slicker picking fights with the small-town locals, etc, etc, etc. It’s a lot.
On the whole, however, I think it worked reasonably well, avoids some of the more obvious clichés, and ties up all the plot stuff as well as it could. Not a “must see” but certainly worth watching if you happen to have the time.
The Call (Netflix, 2020, Korean - dubbed or subtitled) This horror movie is about a 28 year old woman who moves into a creepy house and gets a phone call from the past. It was pretty good. It broke new ground with a fresh twist on the the-call-is-coming-from-inside-the-house plot which is always something exciting for a film in the horror genre. My wife and I watched the dubbed version and thought that was well done. It was perhaps a bit slow in some places and the ending was predictable, but overall it was worth watching.
It Follows (Netflix, 2014) What if The Ring was an STD!?!? That not only sums up the plot, but I think kickstarts the question, ‘are they serious?’, which I assure you will be asking again and again. Because though most of it they ride the rails between being a legitimate horror flick and yet also lampooning classic films. It’s never for laughs, mind you, and may even be an attempt at an homage. Still, the atmosphere they build with the acting, directing and shots makes for an intense experience even with few jump scares and no special effects. A film that manages to do that deserves credit for the feeling they create which is what horror is all about.
Bob’s Burgers The Movie (Theatre, 2022) A 1 1/2 hour Bob’s Burgers episode. You get what you’re expecting. It was ok. Mostly a rehash of several old episodes with cameos from almost the entire side character menagerie. The Musical portions were alright, but there were better songs in previous episodes. In all, it seems clear to this Bob’s Burgers fan it only got the green light because COVID allowed animators to work remotely and it was a semi bankable product. You don’t need to see it even if you like the show. If nothing else wait until it comes out on a streaming platform which I am sure is what was intended anyway.
I saw King of Hearts in high school and it was a big meh for me, in part because of the anvilicious message. War is crazy? Crazy people are more sane than soldiers in modern war? Yeah, ok, I get it.
Yes! I watched it a few weeks ago myself, having just seen a lively, funny comic stage adaption of it. One of my favorite Hitchcocks.
This movie played for almost five years uninterrupted at the cinema in Central Square in Cambridge MA back in the 1970s. It was a duplex, so they showed other films at the cinema, but it really was the only film they showed in one theater. I suppose if you had a huge audience of local-area college students to draw on you could do something like that in the 70s.
When I eventually saw it, though, I didn’t see it there. It was interesting, but not what I’d call a great film.
Watched the French movie “Delicious” on Amazon Prime. A good story about a peasant chef who has become chef to royalty and who then falls from grace and, with some help, invents. . .the restaurant!
The cinematography is terrific. Many of the scenes have the lighting and appearance of Renaissance paintings.