I watched another John Wayne movie in which he was horribly miscast, and it’s not The Conqueror. It’s called The Sea Chase (1955), where John Wayne plays a German ship captain during World War II. Yep. He’s with the Nazis. Oh, he’s not a Nazi himself, and he never even utters the word “Germany” in the movie, only ever referring to “her homeland” as the plot is to get the ship back to German port or die trying. Spoiler: they die trying. So it’s kind of a slog of a movie in the first place notwithstanding the tepid romance with Lana Turner on board.
Wayne makes no attempt at any sort of accent. And you basically forget he’s German every fifteen minutes, but I think that was the plan.
I hadn’t heard of this movie before I fired it up. I’m betting it wasn’t one of his bigger hits.
Just watched The Life of Chuck, which was strangely sweet and poignant. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s worth it for the dance scene in Act Two.
Looking back, that Sunday night Disney show on NBC really produced some quality series. “The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh,” “The Waltz King” (Kerwin “Sinbad” Matthews as Johann Strauss) and Karl Boehm as Ludwig van Beethoven in “The Magnificent Rebel” were great examples. Some of the two or three part series were released theatrically in other countries, and sometimes the theatrical versions would show up as a co-feature in the USA a couple of years later, as did many of the “Tru-Life Adventure” documentaries Disney produced.
Of course, they all had the unmistakable (and often criticized) Disney touch, but they were entertaining for kids as well as educational. When was the average kid going to learn about Beethoven?
Not everything was good (some of the more lighthearted series were a bit weak) but with that kind of output there were bound to be a few clunkers.
Nobody (2021). I saw there was a Nobody 2 and had seen part of an interview where Bob Odenkirk mentioned it and had wanted to be in an action movie, which prompted me to seek it out. I was not disappointed with the result. Although it does have some well known tropes for such films, it was a more quirky action movie than many others I have seen recently. The performances by all the cast, with the surprising appearance of Christopher Loyd, were enjoyable. The action sequences were great with some things that I had not seen before. There were also some subtle touches added that you don’t catch unless you are paying close attention. They do introduce the possibility of sequel at the end, which they have now have done, though it was no explicitly added. Overall a great addition to the genre.
I like both of the Nobody films, because they are action films, and they’re an older guy like me, and they are so obviously having fun. Also, there’s very much something to be said for action movies where the lead actor has strong comedy experience and can play it either subtle or broad.
Some time ago, I had read that Asylum made a passable to good movie. They used Sherlock Holmes, which is in public domain, and made a fun and zany mystery movie with Holmes, Watson, and the rest.
No. They did NOT. It’s so bad, I skipped through the back half and I think the movie deserves it. Despite what this movie indicates, you can make a good movie for $250,000 or whatever this budget was.
I get that Asylum is quick and cheap, but so was Roger Corman and many of his movies are more or less VHS/DVD competent.
One of the worst “movies” I’ve ever seen. I put movies in quotes because it is barely that. Blurry, badly recorded dialogue, none of the actors know what is going on, and special effects that are bad for even 1990, let alone 2010.
Asylum did make Z-Nation, a fun zombie show.
This, however, was not worth $1 at the Walmart or Dollar Tree bin. Note: I paid zero because Hoopla, the library app, carries this and many Asylum movies. Why? Because they probably pay about $100 for unlimited streaming rights.
Yes, it’s what they do. I was aware. But if anything should be filmable on a low budget, a Sherlock Holmes story should be. No rights, little bit of sets to look older, mysteries are all pre-written.
It’s atrocious. You could take them to court on the false claim that what they produced was advertised as a movie and is not even a fully edited cut of the dailies.
I don’t blame the actors. They had no idea what was going on and a job is a job.
I mean, I like Full Moon Pictures. Charles Band is a schemer/scammer, but his movies pass at least the minimal level of “this is a movie.”
Roger Corman did produce and release a few frauds* in his day. But many of his movies are really fine, just lower budget. Fantastic Four, Space Raiders, etc.
*Ultrawarrior is just snippets of other movies sewn together.
The mood one is in definitely affects appreciation of a movie. I’ve just seen this and my feeling is that although the movie has many faults, “not recommended” is a bit harsh, but I do see your point.
I would characterize it as a big-budget blockbuster that falls way short of its goals. Also has a few too many clichés – the team manager (Javier Bardem) wants our hero (Brad Pitt) to race for him, but he refuses – the old cliché of the Reluctant Hero – but at another point, the reverse occurs. And of course, inevitably, our hero and the racing team’s technical director (Irish actress Kerry Condon) have sex, because, why not?
It’s also afflicted with a bit too much hard rock soundtrack, mainly in the early part of the movie.
If you want to watch a great movie about Formula 1 racing, watch Rush (2013). This is a fantastic film.
Yes. Movie from 2010 has worse effects than Lost World TV show from 1998 or so.
I don’t get why Asylum is so bad. Like I said, Lloyd Kaufman and Charles Band have companies that make quick, cheap movies and despite their flaws, they are much better than this.
Asylum claims a marginal profit on each movie of at least $100K, and bear in mind they also get some semi-hits now and then. Given that, there’s no incentive to do anything different than churn out 25 terrible-quality movies a year.
As to why, I am acquainted with the writer of a few of their films, and he made basically nothing from it. So, they pay almost nothing to everyone, including the writers, and that’s what they get.
I just did some more research and discovered that all of the Sherlock Holmes stories were in the public domain at that time except ten that were published in 1927.