This was one of the first movies I ever watched on HBO. I loved it and probably watched it five or six times over the course of the next few weeks.
I haven’t seen it since, however. Perhaps I should watch it again to see what I’ve forgotten or misremembered.
I just found these trivia items on IMDB.
Peter Sellers was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor. Some said the reason Sellers lost was because of the outtakes at the very end of the movie as the credits are rolling. Sellers himself later said the outtakes “broke the spell” of the movie.
Despite Peter Sellers’ repeated requests, the producers would not remove the outtakes from the version they submitted to Cannes.
Interesting. Sometimes I watch the end credits of a movie, sometimes not, sometimes depending on whether the style and music of the credits carries forward the mood that the movie put me in. In the case of Being There, which was indisputably excellent, the outtakes of Peter Sellers giggling at his own lines seemed really out of place, and I didn’t watch the rest of the credits. If this was director Hal Ashby’s decision, it was another bad one, like his decision to alter the ending as I already mentioned.
By contrast, the end credits to the beautiful Arthur the King began with a statement about the money that had been raised dedicated to Arthur’s medical treatment and how much the foundation continues to benefit dogs in need. Then the credits rolled over images of the real-life Arthur and his humans. It was perfect.
The First Omen
Very strongly recommended.
Oh, boy, what a movie. And what a surprise! I’m sure the studio was trying to slap together a quick Omen prequel and had only the opening weekend cash grab in mind. But, wow, this movie turned out terrific, scary, and has some of the best horror imagery of the year.
This movie goes so hard, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing a studio horror prequel on a thin budget with a first-time director. But it’s scary, intense, well acted, well directed, and has some scenes I will remember for a really long time.
This just shot into my top 5 of the year so far. What a huge and pleasant surprise.
Definitely check it out.
I didn’t post it at the time, but I finally saw Steve Martin’s Pennies From Heaven on TCM a few weeks ago. I remember when it came out that it was known to be a departure from Martin’s wild-and-crazy persona, but I didn’t realize just how much of a departure.
Can’t exactly say I enjoyed it. Martin plays a jerk (not The Jerk) who still gets a lot worse than he deserves. I give him credit for taking the chance, though; couldn’t help but think of how his career progressed from his standup days to more mature comedies like Roxanne and L.A. Story.
Yeah, viewers expecting Martin’s zany persona in a Dennis Potter vehicle (which are always spectacularly bleak) made for a lot of negative reviews. And the juxtaposition of movie-musical fantasy numbers with harsh realities made the emotional gut punches that much more painful.
It’s a pretty good film for what it is, but it wasn’t what most of the people who saw it expected.
Eileen. Great movie - lots of layers. Highly recommend.
I saw “Pennies from Heaven” many, many years ago, and while I thought it was pretty good, it was more tragedy than any attempt at comedy. I liked the way the old music was incorporated into the story. I even have the soundtrack album. As I recall, it fell flat at the end with a disappointing conclusion that didn’t make a lot of sense.
The Beekeeper. The worst movie in memory that I’ve managed to finish, though I was stuck on a plane, so my choices were limited. Statham basically sleepwalks through this, and the plot and plot developments are stupid even for a dumb actioner. It verges on being a The Asylum picture.
Oh, thank goodness someone else had the same reaction I did. It actually got fairly good reviews, but was one of the worst of the year for me so far.
One of the most interesting end credits scenes I know of is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWow24GcSCM , which comes from Queen of Katwe. Each of the major actors walks into the room. Then the real person who they were playing walks into the room.
I was warned at the time that it wasn’t a happy, feel-good type of movie. Anybody who expected it to be hadn’t done their research.
After seeing it, I read up a bit on it. It’s a remake of a BBC series, I think, which Martin apparently loved. Now I’m a little curious to see that, and how closely he followed the original.
I haven’t seen that Potter series (although I’ve seen others) but the answer is almost certainly that the original is a lot slower and even more depressing.
I watched Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning on the weekend. It was a very long chase sequence, occasionally interrupted by a parade of sleight-of-hand tricks to hide the maguffin. Very enjoyable, though the big deal stunt of the bike off the cliff was a bit underwhelming. The train crash was way more exciting.
I have always liked Hayley Atwell and she is particularly appealing in this. The MI series consistently cast very well.
One thing I noticed was how most of the fight scenes used blades as weapons rather than guns. Unusual.
You got it on that big stunt. As impressive as it was to do, it was just OK in the movie.
The train sequence that takes up the last 30 minutes of the movie is terrific.
“Pennies” was Steve Martin’s next movie following “The Jerk.” What a contrast! No wonder people assumed it would be a comedy. That was his image. The trailer makes it look like a colorful singing-and-dancing extravaganza, not the rather bleak movie that it is.
I 80% agree, or thereabouts. Very watchable movie, especially toward the end. But I (irrationally) missed the riveting novelty of this world that was such a feature of Fury Road.
At this point, we’ve seen this world before and know a fair bit about what it’s like. It cannot be expected to blow our minds with its sheer strangeness every other minute, the way much of Fury Road did. Nonetheless, the memory of that sheer strangeness makes Furiosa seem to suffer a little bit in comparison.
Minor quibble, though. If you liked Fury Road and want to revisit that world, Furiosa will absolutely be worth your time.
Tora! Tora! Tora! 1970 large American and Japanese cast
I first saw this film at the theater a few weeks after Jaws, released June 20, 1975, came out. Pretty sure the trailer ran before Jaws. The studio must have rereleased it to theaters. I was still watching Disney kiddie films in 1970.
Toro is the most balanced story about Pearl Harbor. They used a separate Japanese director and cast to tell the planning, preparation, and execution of the surprise attack.
Pearl Harbor was considered safe from attack. The extreme distance from Japan and the shallow harbor were natural defensive barriers.
That belief was shattered on Dec 7, 1941.
I consider it a must see film. People need to be reminded how easily countries can allow conflicts to escalate into armed war.
Not sure if it’s true, but part of the publicity for Tora was that the filmmakers spent more money to film the reenactments than the Japanese spent on the actual attack.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), I have watched this numerous times and can quote many parts of it as can many Dopers. Still, it was great to see it in a theater and notice some things here and there that weren’t as apparent on a smaller screen or that maybe I had forgotten. A completely absurd movie that happens to have a semi-coherent plot. It is great in that it is not just sight jokes or bawdy humor, but a mix of all kinds of things. Certainly not for everyone but quite fun for those with a certain type of funny bone.
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