Hitchcock reportedly hated the idea of having to make a gimmicky “3D” movie, but was pressured by the studio. Nevertheless, the film has the single best 3D movie scene I’ve ever seen, when
Grace Kelly is being strangled, and reaches OUT of the screen into the audience.
It was so striking, they used it on one of the movie’s posters:
In order to have the 3D effect "work, and to make sure all elements were in focus, they built a giant prop telephone, and also a giant prop pay telephone with a giant Ray Milland finger to dial it. There were publicity photos of Hitchcock clowning around with these.
Today it was “Heroes of the East” Chinese guy marries Japanese girl, and they get in a battle over whose martial arts are superior. The first part is a fun comedic story, but once her aggrieved teachers get involved and the fighting starts it’s both fascinating and a little samey. Still very good, and I’d recommend it if you’re in the mood for Shaw Brothers.
Watched Toy Story which is now 28 years old and astonishingly holds up very well. It entertained my son for a good forty minutes which is rare for a film. This has to be the gold standard of family entertainment because there is just as much there for adults as kids. (Sid is downright horrifying though.)
I really didn’t notice the visuals as a problem. I wouldn’t have guessed they were 30 years old. You could see it a little bit in the design of the humans, but the movie doesn’t dwell on humans much, so it wasn’t a distraction.
The Rapture baffled, intrigued and bothered me in pretty much equal measure. I can’t say I loved it, but it made me think and really stuck with me. The last scene is quite powerful and haunting.
Dial ‘M’ for Murder isn’t Hitchcock’s best (I think that’s Notorious, with The 39 Steps and Vertigo close behind), but it’s still good. Never saw it in 3D.
Toy Story is still terrific, and I’d say the best of the series, although they’re all very good IMHO.
Would have been a great animated movie even without the computer aspect
It just kind of all came together. The first computer cartoon on a major level could have been something like Antz or another good, but not amazing, movie. Nope, they hit an absolute home run the very first time Pixar was able to make a full feature.
Pretty big amount of hype building around this movie, but it only ended up being OK for me. There is pretty much zero dialogue and the entire movie is a woman being pursued by…aliens. It’s well made, except this movie suffers from a common affliction in movies and TV today. Some scenes are lit so dark, I could not see almost anything that was happening. I guess we are required to fully turn off our lights and watch the movie only at night? Most of the movie was visible, but a rather large segment in the middle was impossible to see.
It was fine, not a top tier movie for me from this year.
Speaking of Hulu, I saw Robots the other day. It stars Jack Whitehall and Shailene Woodley and is based on a short story by Robert Sheckley. It was not great but was slightly amusing.
My son was at the perfect age to enjoy Toy Story as a children’s movie when it was in theaters. And it was the most perfect movie to have merchandise spinoffs, since it was all just the toys featured in the movie, marketed in different degrees of quality and price. As I recall, we had them all! I’m pretty sure most of them are still in the classic wooden toy chest where he kept them.
Barbarosa (1982) - Willie Nelson riding his own horse and Gary Busey at his goofy best. A bomb at the box office, I don’t think it’s quite reached cult status, but I’ve seen it at least a half a dozen times. Great movie.
Just saw this. ‘Talky’ is a traditional quality of Godzilla movies. It’s a restart of the Godzilla series based on the original documentary now set in current times. The monster is introduced with more detail and an impressive re-imagining that shows him emerging from the sea as a much more aquatic animal that then takes on his well known bipedal form. The intention may have been to show him developing from a tadpole stage to an adult amphibian. I’ll be rewatching to pick up more details.
I saw THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING last night on PBS. Very dated, but the part where a U.S. woman hears about the Russians invading and starts screaming about the impending rapes, a comical overreaction in the film, had an eerie relevance in 2023.
I distinctly remember buying that toy chest. My wife and I saw an ad by someone making these sorts of things, and we drove out to an address way out in the countryside to pick it up. The address turned out to be a huge estate with your typical big iron gates (which were open at the time) and a big imposing mansion in the background. My wife said “this can’t be the place”, but we drove in anyway. Turned out, it was some rich guy who did woodworking and cabinetmaking as a hobby. The toy chest was a beautiful thing, made of tastefully sculpted light oak with a hand-painted image of fruits and flowers on the top. It was a work of genuine loving craftsmanship and, even aside from its nostalgic value, remains one of my prized possessions. I have absolutely no recollection what we paid for it but it was no great sum and it’s become one of my important pieces of lifetime memorabilia. Its “Toy Story” toy contents is a bonus that just adds to the nostalgia.
Barbie - in IMAX! Manages to be both profound and goofy and make it work. Men are rather badly portrayed in it but, I must admit, not generally unfairly. That said, there was an unnecessary amount of Will Ferrell in it.
The IMAX showing had added post-credits outtakes, which were a lot of fun.
That is sweet! My dad made a (much simpler) wooden chest for my brother and me when we were little, to contain the handcrafted hardwood building blocks that he also made for us. (You probably couldn’t let small kids use such things today: they were pretty solid and hefty, though he carefully sanded the edges so they were less lethal than they might have been! Anyway bro and I never actually hit each other with them IIRC, so all’s well that ends well. )
Wonder what happened to that chest (with our names painted on it and everything) and blocks? hopefully, and probably, passed along to a friend or family member after we all outgrew it.
Well, unless you wanted a buzz lightyear toy that is, as is well documented in the sequel Disney did not think that the movie would be a success and was slow to get toys to market. I was not of an age to want to buy toys when I went to see it at the theaters so it did not bother me.
