I saw this when I was a kid and it was on TV. I found it to be a pretty good movie, though I think I Iiked it more when I saw it years ago. The copy I saw was in 4K resolution and to be honest, the movie looked less good than I expected it to. I’m not a film expert, but it was like they opened the camera lens up to much to take too much light in and I could see the film grain. This does not occur if you watch a 4K copy of Lawrence of Arabia or even Star Wars(released 4 years later). It must have been a decision, but it was very noticeable.
You would have probably seen the film grain had you seen that film in a theater in 1973. I’m sure someone with more knowledge of aspect ratios and film stock will pipe in with a more complete explanation, but the main difference between “The Sting” and “Lawrence of Arabia” is that The Sting was shot on 35 mm film, while Lawrence was shot on 70 mm film, a vast difference in resolution. Star Wars was shot on 35 mm stock but at a wide-screen aspect ratio, while The Sting was not.
Of course, it’s now possible for a 35 mm negative to be digitally cleaned up and made to look clearer and sharper than when it was new, but it’s a laborious, expensive process and perhaps The Sting hasn’t been deemed worthy of a do-over.
I never saw The Sting until a few years ago, and really enjoyed it. Newman and Redford are terrific, as is Robert Shaw as the heavy. I liked seeing the scam being planned and then unfolding in all its clever complexity. The ragtime soundtrack is anachronistic, of course, but really adds a lot to the film.
Going In Style, 1979. George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasburg star in a sweet, quiet film about three elderly men who rob a bank. 99.9% sure I saw this in the theater on its first run. (HBOmax)
One of the great war movies of all time, but I had not yet seen it. A movie made in the Soviet Union about the horrors of WW2 and the entire movie, we see through the experience of one boy.
Yeah, you need to see this movie if you have not. It’s incredible and there is a 40 minute segment near the end that is as memorable and impactful as any war movie you will see. The director used no actors, just regular people. It’s incredible.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is one of my wife’s all-time favorite movies, and I like it quite a bit as well.
But, based on your posts in this thread, it just might not be your kind of film, and that’s OK.
I don’t currently have anything to add to the excellent comments and recommendations made by many posters, but I just want to say that this thread is a tremendous font of information. Keep 'em coming! Currently I have Return of the Vampire queued up to watch, and am looking forward to Asteroid City (I generally enjoy Wes Anderson films) and No Hard Feelings.
I agree on Come and See, at least two major scenes stick with me to this day, having watched it about 20 years ago. But it makes Schlinders list seem like a party movie.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall, well, I quite enjoyed it, and I hate Russell Brand with a passion (he was much more on television in the UK at the time, claiming to be a standup comedian, and he is fucking awful at it, he presented a sort of X Factor for standup comedians and did “sets” so bad the audience just sat in silence). The memorable scene for me there is near the end, but is kind of worth sticking around for. I can completely see why you’d turn off though, it is “I used to go out with that horrible person?” for a lot of the start.
I might even have been charmed by watching it on a plane on our first trip to Hawaii too though, so that could have helped.
Matilda (the Musical) - I think in general I enjoyed this more than the original film with Mara Wilson in the title role - there was a lot more depth and color and fun to it. But I must admit that while Emma Thompson did her usual sterling work, I’ve gone off her “ugly unpleasant woman in latex” shtick. Pam Ferris was inherently better at being Trunchbull IMHO.
Rewatched Paul last night. It’s an “extended edition” that I picked up at a flea market. But it’s been so long since we last saw the movie that we couldn’t honestly recall which scenes are added, or which we’ve seen but forgotten.
Still a great flick for watching. Even though Simon Pegg and Nick Frost wrote and starred in it, they don’t consider it part of their “Cornetto Trilogy”, Sean of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End. No cornetto in it, I guess.
Yeah, I don’t think the soviets had a good Oscar PR nomination machine.
I put Come and See and Schindlers list into movies I’ve “enjoyed” but never want to watch again, thus I can’t grade them against each other, really. Son of Saul is the holocaust horror of recent times I “loved”. Other such films, like Martyrs, Irreversible, Meghan is Missing, I appreciate having watched them. Not doing them again.
Inna introduced me to this film back in May, my fault for not mentioning it back then. I was struck by the differences in how Soviet cinema portrayed WW2-era German troops vs American cinema. We portray them as coldly efficient, a fighting force as scary in their discipline as they are in ideology. Otoh, Soviet cinema portrays them as barbarian hordes, a pestilence which swept the countryside with none of the regimented coolness we Yanks like to believe they had.
I’d agree with you here; I haven’t seen the de Vito version for a number of years but to my mind Ferris was far more intimidating. Singing probably doesn’t help though, to be fair.
I also felt the ending, where they had changed things a bit from the book, changed the impact of what Matilda does to her somewhat as well. Spoilered: -
I am sure in the book that no one (apart from Miss Honey) knows Trunchbull’s first name is Agatha, so when she sees the chalk writing the name on the blackboard, it scares her a lot more, the implication it is Magnus doing it. There is also no need for any physical intimidation, which this film version does via the chain thing. I’m sure that in the book it was all psychological, which is far scarier and creepier.
Had a very lazy Sunday yesterday, and the Mrs and I watched two movies on Netflix.
The Out-Laws
A nerdy bank manager (Adam Devine) meets his future parents-in-law (Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin) for the first time, and suspects they have a dark secret.
It’s goofy, preposterous, mostly predictable, and weirdly violent at times. Despite the uneven tone, it’s good for a few laughs if you feel like shutting off your brain for an hour and a half.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
I knew Nicolas Cage played (a version of) himself, but beyond that, I didn’t know what to expect. It was definitely different.
They could have shot basically the same script with the main character as some fictional movie star, and it would have been a decent movie. But making it specifically about Nic Cage added a brilliant stroke of surrealism that bumped it up to a very good, almost great, movie.
It’s definitely self-referential and meta, but the wink-wink-nudge-nudge is not too obnoxious; it’s part of the fun.
Not going to give away any of the plot—just watch it.