Movies you've seen recently (Part 2)

Cafe Society
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Merlina Mercouri later became a prominent politician in her native Greece. She was, indeed, the girlfriend or wife (I don’t recall which) of the Director, Jules Dassin.

I saw “Topkapi” in 1964 when I was 12 and thought it was pretty cool. It was a movie for sophisticated adults! I watched it a few decades later and was somewhat less enthused. At two hours it’s a bit of a slog for what was to be a whimsical caper movie. Definitely a curio of its time. Ms. Mercouri’s “talents” notwithstanding, damn fine cast, though.

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She strikes me as fairly attractive. Everyone can make up their own mind about this by looking at the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFiAWWwh168 . The whole movie is also available online for free with advertisements. She was married to the director, Jules Dassin, for most of her adult life.

4426

Agree about OBAA. Now, I fully admit that my attention span has gotten so short that watching any movie start to finish has become a challenge, but I turned OBAA off after about the same 45 minutes. I may try to go back another time, but it didn’t grab me.

4427

None of which explains why

Hey, not everybody has to find every major actress personally attractive (and IMO the heavily exaggerated early-1960s eye makeup style wasn’t doing Mercouri a lot of favors). But I do think it’s a bit capricious to complain that an experienced and accomplished jewel thief and heist gang leader is being played by an actress in her early 40s.

Does every female lead in a caper movie really have to look like a twentysomething ingenue? I get that middle-aged male movie viewers are conditioned to expect a lot of nubile female eye-candy fanservice in this and similar film genres, but let’s not get too locked into the genre conventions here.

4428

Now you’re all depressing me. I’ve wanted to see Topkapi since I saw Mission Impossible. I have it backed up on the DVR. I see it is a long film, but I hoped it would be fun, not a slog.

4429

I agree. I saw it for the first time a few years ago. What was uncanny to me was the opening wedding scene which is so familiar because my husband’s family is just like that. His family isn’t part of a criminal enterprise or anything, but the vibe, the money, the sheer number of them, the way they interacted, they just nailed well-to-do Italian Catholic family. It kind of blew my mind.

The film itself is truly beautiful. It’s watching the whole thing naturally unfold rather than rushing from beginning to end. I understand why it’s considered one of the greatest of all time.

4430

If I hadn’t seen it in a movie theater, I probably would have have given up, too. But I’m glad I stayed to the end. Barely. Largely because of the cinematography.

4431

I was entertained throughout and thought the suspense scenes were very well done. But overall it was a disappointment.

I am going to be pissed if this takes Best Picture over Sinners.

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Tarot (2024) on Netflix
Typical supernatural teen horror, which is practically my favorite genre, but I really didn’t like this as much as I should have. The kills were kind of meh, but that’s fine. It was the central conceit that “combining Tarot with Astrology is the strongest form of divination.” (Actual quote.) My eyes rolled so hard at that idea that I never managed to get past it. Which is unusual; I don’t believe in ghosts but love ghost movies, I’m an atheist but love exorcism movies, etc… But hoo boy do I not have patience for anything that takes astrology seriously. (I didn’t mind the Tarot part.) If you can get past that it’s a middling but passable modern horror.

Primal (2010) on Tubi (the day before it expired)
Australian indie horror where six 20-somethings head to remote Australia to study prehistoric cave paintings for a thesis. The setting is mountain and jungle/forest, which isn’t what I usually associate with Australia, but whatever. I’ve watched this one a couple times over the years; I’ve always had a soft spot for Australian film. (I’ll watch anything with Sophie Lowe, for example, though she isn’t in this one.) Loved it then, loved it again now. The CGI is pretty awful, feeling more like 90s level “Species 2” quality than a low budget 2010 flick, but it’s not used much until the very end. The basic plot is that the environment can regress you to a primeval state with jacked up teeth, super jumping powers and a pretty hardcore bloodthirst. The characters make reasonable decisions throughout the ordeal, which is a big plus for me. The very last line is worth a shout-out for being satisfying, albeit telegraphed.

Severance (2006) on Tubi
Not the Apple TV series. This delightful romp is about a corporate retreat in a cabin in the woods that goes horribly wrong when a psycho starts killing people. The corporation in question is a weapons contractor, and there is a great moment when one of the workers defends against the psycho with one of those fancy weapons. For some reason I thought Stephen Merchant was in this, but he is not. I didn’t recognize anybody except the captain from Black Sails. The English accents weren’t thick, necessarily, but I did need to use closed captioning.

House of Wax (2005) on Tubi
Warning that Amazon also carries this but it’s an edited version, possibly for TV. Tubi carries the original uncut version. Famous mostly for featuring Paris Hilton, who is as wooden as you’d expect. I hadn’t rewatched this one in 20 years but I quite enjoyed it. The kills were fun, though someone in production clearly hates achilles tendons, with multiple scenes slicing them. 2005 was fully back in the exploitative days, so it was funny watching how they contrived getting Elisha Cuthbert into a stereotypical thin white tank top for the bulk of the movie. Combining her with Jared Padalecki, Nick Van Holt and Chad Michael Murray definitely gave it that “tv stars make a movie” vibe, which for whatever reason I always root for to do well. I’m giving this one a thumbs up; would recommend.

The Reaping (2007) on Tubi
Hillary Swank plays an apostate who debunks miracles along with her former assistant, played by Idris Elba. David Morrissey enlists their help with his small Louisiana town, which appears to be suffering from biblical plagues. It’s hard to make biblical plagues scary for a viewer – it’s not like a river of blood is going to jump scare you – so the filmmakers make do with hallucinations and dream sequences to reasonably good effect. This was a much better movie than House of Wax; production value and cast were a full tier above, despite apparently having the same budget. Also featuring Stephen Rea and a young AnnaSophia Robb.

The Messengers (2007) on Peacock
Ran across this on IMDb when I was checking the budget of the Reaping vs House of Wax. I mistakenly thought it was a Katie Holmes movie (Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark), but it’s Kristen Stewart as a troubled teen, pre-Twilight. Her family moves from Chicago to a farm to make a fresh start growing sunflowers. Production design did a great job with the creepy house, but wow did they lean way too hard into bad CGI for the spooky spirits. Think of Samara from The Ring, but at like 10x speed. On the plus side, the creepy house and jump scares delivered a proper, if generic, horror experience.

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While this isn’t 100% true of all movies currently being made, I think a lot of the subtlety and nuance in a slower moving story that Pacino and the other actors showed in the Godfather is something current audiences don’t want and movie execs don’t have the patience for.

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Reflection in a Dead Diamond

Recommended.

A very bizarre, but entertaining, movie. Really out there at points. Perhaps event “avant garde”, but the more you watch, it is a focused story and does have more or less a plotline and resolution.

An older gentleman, clearly retired, allows his mind to drift back…to him being a James Bond spy…or possibly just to when he acted as a James Bond character.

It’s unclear if he is an actor, a spy, or one of those who is suffering from dementia.

Very wild, visually imaginative, and helped a lot by being under 90 minutes. Just the right length to not become super frustrating.

What a weird one.

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Yes, that makes sense, thanks for answering.

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I rewatched The Madness Of King George, starring Nigel Hawthorne in a tour de force performance. Love that movie.

Though the movie states that it’s thought George III suffered from porphyria, Wikipedia says it’s now more probable that he had bipolar disorder. He eventually became permanently insane and his son took over as regent. But does untreated bipolar disorder make you permanently insane? I thought you just cycled between ups and downs.

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A few years ago, I wasn’t sure I had actually watched any of the Godfather films in their entirety, so one weekend when the wife was away, I watched all three. The story was interesting and the acting on a level to be expected from that talented cast, but nothing was screaming “best film ever made”. Though versed in the history of the Mafia, I come from a west coast WASP background, so maybe that’s why I feel so disconnected from the kind of enthrallment others find in the saga.

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Twinless. I really liked this, a dark comedy that went in some unexpected directions. The last of the Film Independent Best Feature nominees I hadn’t seen; I don’t think I’d put it over Train Dreams or Sorry, Baby, but it was also nominated for screenplay, and it’s in the running.

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I tried watching The Godfather several times. Marlon’s mumbling at the wedding party ruins it for me.

I really should watch and focus entirely on Michael and the other characters. I’ve been told that the story is very good.

Godfather is such a groundbreaking film. It’s on my bucket list to eventually watch.

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Godfather was an amazing movie to watch in 1972, powerful and well-acted story telling. It remains a great watch but seeing it for the first time now won’t have the same impact as it did 50 years ago.

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The focus really does move away from Marlon Brando. He’s in it, but not as much after a certain point.

4442

Do it if only for the Italian restaurant scene. My favourite movie scene ever. It’s masterful.

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F1: The Movie (Apple) To differentiate it from “F1: The Broadway Musical”, I guess.

Rivalry between 2 Formula 1 drivers on the same team. With Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Javier Bardem, Kerry Condon, that guy from The Crown, what’s-her-name from Ted Lasso.

We probably would never have watched it if it hadn’t received an Oscar nomination. And it was kind of fun in a dumb way, It has all the usual cliches of a sports film although the competition is just between the 2 stars on the same team: the other drivers they race against are completely anonymous.

It appears that the filmmakers assumed that their audience knew nothing about motor sports (a fair assumption), so all the in-race drama is provided by a voice-over–possibly supposed to be TV commentators; maybe the track announcer (which might be the answer because the voice has an echo effect)? But this voice gives us a play-by-play entirely focused on our 2 stars, telling us exactly why what we’re seeing is significant e.g., “All drivers are entering the pits during this yellow flag…EXCEPT HAYES! HE’S GOING TO MAKE UP TRACK POSITION … A RISKY MOVE HOPING THAT HIS TIRES HOLD OUT!!”