Hmm. Didn’t notice them - and none of them have any lines, unlike the U.S. and Royal Navy crews.
The Amazing Maurice
Based on the Discworld book by Terry Pratchett, this movie is one of the better adaptations of a Discworld book. This, however, is not saying much…you can not capture the with and sharpness of a Discworld book in movie form because the narration is so essential.
Anyway, they made a children’s movie out of Maurice and his Rats and they did diminish some of the more intense things, as you expect. However, the gist of the story is the same and they actually did a fairly good job. The movie is good and I do think kids would like it, but if you love the book by Pratchett, this has about 10% of the charm.
Not bad, but there really is just no way to fully capture a Discworld book in movie form. I’ve never seen it done and I don’t think I will.
*friend from the DGA got a screener of this movie and very kindly let me view it. It hits proper DVD release in April, I believe.
It sacrifices the rats’ storyline, which makes up the majority of the book, for the human and cat story, which is fine but not my favourite bits. Also it’s pushed up the wacky meter a tad, for animation’s sake.
Exactly. A lot of the time, I was thinking, “I thought this was way more about the rats than the cat.”
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.
I’ve waited to rent it. Finally gave up and purchased on Amazon Prime. It was a bonus version with extra clips after the movie.
Excellent performances. DiCaprio did really well playing Rick Dalton and the roles Rick played within the movie.
Tarantino did a nice job recreating the atmosphere of late 60’s LA.
The end is so satisfying. I wish a 80 year old Sharon Tate had vauge memories of a neighbors home invasion. A passing moment in her family’s life. A trained guard dog made all the difference. Even when the intended victims were high.
2 guns (2013) - starring Denzel and Marky-Mark. It’s a pretty good buddy action flick. The two leads play undercover DEA and Naval Intelligence officers, respectively, playing each other against the middle. It’s one of the few roles that I’ve actually like Mark Wahlberg in. There’s also a totally kick-ass Dodge Challenger in the movie … always a plus.
I finally watched The Banshees of Inisheren. And I loved it. Note perfect and heartbreaking. Great performances, and it made sense watching it…other people’s reviews put me off somewhat. It was like a work of music – the rhythm and the flow. I felt that the references to the Civil War were subtle but clear.
I also loved the opening with that Bulgarian folk song (Polegnala e Tudora). I’ve loved it since I first heard the Pennywhistlers do it in the mid 60s.
I also watched the Janet Gaynor/Frederic March version of A Star is Born. I’d never watch any of the, what?, five versions of the story, but I quite liked this one. I’m a big Frederic March fan, and Janet Gaynor was fine. It was a bit of a fairytale with, as Oscar Levant said, the real tinsel of Hollywood underneath. Nicely done.
4 - which came out in 1937, 1954, 1976, and 2018.
Thanks for adding them up! So, I saw the original. And I just mentioned in the Remakes thread, I don’t see any reason for all of them, though the lead roles would be very juicy to play.
Just to be pedantic:
“This film bears such a striking resemblance to A Star Is Born (1937) that it is often considered “the original version” of that often remade classic. In fact, David O. Selznick, who produced both this film and Star is Born, was threatened with a lawsuit by this film’s writers, claiming plagiarism.”
Wikipedia also mentions a 1951 television version of A Star is Born, and a couple of Indian remakes.
It flashes in and out so regularly it’s obviously a Cepheid variable.
I just watched What Price Hollywood? last week. I can see how the synopsis makes it sound similar, and, yeah, young girl wants to make it in Hollywood and gets a drunk to give her a start sounds similar. But the two movies have different story arcs. In WPH, the drunk is a director not an actor, and he’s not a love interest (although he does end up dead), and the story is much more focused on Constance Bennett’s development as a actress. She does a very nice little montage where she practices saying the one line she has in her first movie until she nails (there is a bit of a callback to this in ASIB, but it’s just a throwaway, and Gaynor is a star from her first movie, and she’s the lead). It also has a happy ending (with Commissioner Gordon as her hubby) and a kinda single mom side story (it was pre-Code).
The Godfather
I saw this movie only one time, around 1999. I borrowed a Blu-ray copy and am watching it on my 58-inch TV and it is a different experience(back then, little TV And VHS).
Yeah, this is a good movie. I know many people love it and consider it one of the greats-of-all-time, but I think I just see it as a very solid movie that ages well. Not absolutely astonishing, but a very good movie with many memorable parts.
I can’t imagine the impact it had seeing this in the theater in 1972, though. It is ahead of its time and seeing it in that time and place would have been pretty incredible.
The scene where Michael shoots the guys at the restaurant still works as a hugely shocking and great cinematic moment.
Marlon Brando really did show up for work on this movie, even if he is mainly reading his lines of a cue card. He was good enough to deliver a great performance even if he wouldn’t work on memorizing lines.
I’ll watch part 2 as well, though my memory of the third one from back in 1999 was that I found it to be kind of embarrassing in parts.
Many people prefer 2 slightly to the first one, but I think just about everyone views the third as a mess. Not an unwatchable mess - I think people exaggerate how weak it is. But it is definitely less coherent in a number of ways and less consistently acted.
Yeah, I thought DeNiro was superb in the second movie, but, yeah, the first one was definitely a very good film. I’ve been warned, though – I’ve never watched the third one.
My memory is that it isn’t completely terrible, but contains some pretty terrible moments. To be honest, the whole thing felt finished at the end of Part 2 and part 3 feels like a lame add-on.
It’s probably not as bad as the Phantom Menace, though.
Ha! I haven’t watched The Phantom Menace either.
That restaurant scene is my favourite scene of all time. The acting by Pacino, the direction, the choice to not subtitle the Italian dialogue, but most of all the masterful editing with the build up of the train audio acting as an indicator of Michael’s inner conflict, turmoil and rage. Love it.