Bloom Brothers is one of my favorite movies but I wish Knives Out was better written at the end. Wasn’t much of a twist.
I know what I’m watching next (bolded). Thanks!
TCM is running horror films tonight (3-31). Starting with Godzilla at 8 Eastern, King Kong and Godzilla vs The Thing.
Wow! 
I’ve seen all three, but they’re worth seeing again.
[quote=“GuanoLad, post:1999, topic:699906, full:true”]
News Of The World [/quote]
I just watched this the other night, really liked it. Tom Hanks is perfectly cast. He and Helena Zengel are both excellent. I read the original book first, and even though the screenplay of course makes changes (especially in the second half), I think the film is as good as the book.
It’s remarkable how well the original Godzilla still entertains fans today. It was a clever idea to avoid subtitles by including Raymond Burr as the narrator.
King Kong holds up equally well. I’ve seen it so many times that the violent scenes don’t scare me. Some of them are unintentionally humorous. I admire the stop motion photography that brings Kong alive. Kong’s death still makes me sad.
They did, indeed, do a very clever piece of new filming to incorporate Burr into the film and apparently have him interacting with the main characters. But even as a kid, I eventually tumbled to the fact that you only saw Emiko and Dr. Yamane from behind when they were speaking with Burr, and that those scenes had to have been filmed later.
They were apparently set to do something similar with the sequel, but they decided it was too much work. What would have been The Volcano Monsters, with unspecified American actors shoehorned in, became the dubbed-into-English Gigantis, the Fire Monster. Only it wasn’t shown all that often, for some reason. It later surfaced on VHS and DVD under the title Godzilla Raids Again, for which someone deserves to be shot.
Twenty some years ago I read a description of the original Japanese Gojira, without the interpolated Burr scenes, and shortly after that I obtained what I now realize must have been a black market copy of the uncut film, and realized that I liked it a lot better. (Now I own the Criterion DVD of the film). I felt even better about finally seeing the uncut version of Rodan. The dubbed American version actually cuts some scenes, adds an unnecessary prologue about atomic bombs, dubs in some sappy music, and some of the dubbed voices are insultingly terrible. And that whole “bushido death” soliloquy recited over the dying Rodans at the end of the American dub is not at all present in the original.
I was amazed that they got Burr to come back and reprise his role as Steve Martin for Godzilla 1985, but I was really annoyed that
1.) He still doesn’t share any scenes with the principal Japanese actors. I mean, c’mon, this had a bigger budget. They could’ve flown him over there and shot a few new scenes
2.) They still call him “Steve Marton” instead of, say “Stephen Martin”, so there’s no identification with the comedian
3.) The dubbing is awful
4.) The American version is so transparently shilling for Dr. Pepper that you really want Godzilla to stomp on the Japanese distributorship for the soft drink, or something. (Dr. Pepper had been running series of pseudo-Godzilla commercials at the time, and apparently decided that giving sponsorship money to the new film would be a good idea, with the result that the Burr scenes are filled with shots of pe0ople drinking Dr. Pepper and of Dr. Pepper vending machines in the background. At least we were spared that kind of thing in 1956)
This was on TV all the time when I was a kid, under the Gigantis title. It wasn’t until recently that I realized it was actually Godzilla II.
I saw it on TV as a kid, too. There was even a monster trading card (I’ve still got mine)
https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/162122/cid/10392364/1961-Nu-Cards-Horror-Monster-4-Gigantis-The-Fire-Monster
But I know it wasn’t on nearly as often as the original Godzilla even when I was first watching it, and as I got older it disappeared altogether from TV.I didn’t get to see it again until it resurfaced as “Godzilla Raids Again” on VHS.
Another thing – they made a new Godzilla suit for Gigantis (in fact, they apparently also made another one for the planned new scenes for The Volcano Monsters, which was never used). You can’t tell from the pix at this site, but I swear that the Godzilla in Gigantis has more and longer teeth
Can I get that in a double-breasted…?
I tried watching Godzilla vs The Thing on TCM. It had subtitles and my eyes were already tired.
I never was a fan of Mothra and the mysterious twin girls. Never understood the symbolism.
The only alien movie worth it’s weight is the original Alien or Aliens. Those creatures were way ahead of their time in terms of realism, a huge jump ahead for the genre that has yet to really be matched.
Phantom Threads.
Purported to be Daniel Day Lewis’ last movie, but we’ll see. I enjoyed it immensely, his character’s OCD was off the charts and it was fun seeing the secretly-evil “new girl” at work. A dark movie, but very well done and acted and all the 1950s look and feel were right on the money. Watched it for the 3rd time last night.
The Wizard of Oz. I last saw it decades ago and it’s only gotten better. It’s been mentioned upthread and I imagine you Dopers have done this one to death, so I’ll keep it brief.
Three things still creep me out big time:
- The legs of the Wicked Witch of the East and the way they curl up on themselves.
- The Scarecrow talking with his straw guts ripped out.
- The word below in “She’s gone where the goblins go, below, below, below, yo ho.”
Other things I’m still impressed with: The little dog’s reactions are perfect in nearly every scene. If you like Judy Garland’s voice, have a look online for an audio from a deleted scene in which she sings Over the Rainbow while sobbing. Another scene that chokes me up is when they’re skipping off down the road, the Scarecrow’s legs give out a few times and Dorothy reaches out to steady him. And, of course, the film’s messages are wonderful: believe in yourself (look first in your own backyard), try to understand others, choose good friends and take care of them, and watch out for posers and sociopaths. A good road to follow.
This was great. So much better than I anticipated, even with its positive reviews.
Moose 2 the moviw …its a parody of horror movies done by a comedy trope
i thought it was amusing in spots ,
I decided to get a copy of Universal Soldier (1971) which was George Lazenby’s follow up after his acting debut as James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service two years earlier.
It’s not a bad film in my opinion. He played a mercenery in the arms selling industry who got out haunted by what he had been a part of. But being in that work built up associations who would return in his life and put him in a bind.
The film was clearly a response to the counterculture days of the Vietnam war. It would have played well at festivals and at niche indie screenings. But in 1971 his reputation was still fresh off the Bond film and I guess demand and expectation was unfairly high for a film of this kind so it was a flop.
He should have done Diamonds Are Forever instead that year.
A couple of brand new “I tried but just couldn’t get through them” films:
SAS: Red Notice, based on an Andy McNab book and boy, does it show. This plays like one of those “Tales that guy in the pub who always claims to have been in the Special Forces but is almost certainly lying tells” - all the characters are two-dimensional and awkwardly written, especially the main character who is both posh (with a large estate and a butler) and also a rough-and-ready action man who charges into combat without a helmet so you can see his pretty face. The bad guys are amoral psychopaths because of course they are. And by an AMAZING coincidence the good guy and his hot girlfriend who is also a doctor just happen to end up on the same train as all the bad people, and then some Die Hard shit happens and I dunno, I stopped watching at this point.
Points for having a much better cast than the script remotely deserves: Andy Serkis (whose character is outed as a secret bad guy pretty much at the very beginning), Tom Wilkinson, Noel Clarke, Hannah John-Kamen and so forth. And points for the main two-dimensional villain being female, played by Ruby Rose still desperately trying to launch an action career in yet another terrible film (see also: The Doorman). But really - don’t bother.
Also:
The Misadventures of Hedi and Cokeman. I’m sorry, film - it’s not you, it’s me. Once, not that long ago, a crass, stupid comedy about two dysfunctional idiots trying to make it as drug dealers despite their myriad flaws would have been right up my alley. I would have laughed at the extreme slapstick violence and the fact that one of the main characters spends the film wearing nothing but an open fur coat and some tighty-whitey underpants. And the fact that you’re in French doesn’t bother me at all - it’s not like I watched you for the dialogue anyway.
But I’m older now, too old to find jokes about people shooting someone in the head with a bazooka as funny as I used to. It just doesn’t do it for me anymore. So go - find yourself a younger, more carefree and immature audience. We’ll always have Paris.
10 Commandments on ABC
I’m still impressed with the cast and scope of the movie. A movie this grand couldn’t be replicated today. Almost every A list actor is in it. Liz Taylor and R Burton were notable exceptions.
Wikipedia production notes are very good.
Since it doesn’t look like there is going to be an Oscars thread (and I’ve seen shockingly few of the major award contenders), I’ll just put this here.
I saw the Animated Short and Live Short nominees. My quick takes:
Animated Short
Meh. The “profound” shorts are a little too on the nose and the “funny” ones are mildly amusing at best. If I was forced to pick…probably Yes-People from Iceland.
Live Short
At least a couple of these moved me a little. But don’t go looking for chuckles. Even the most “humorous” short makes you feel guilty for chuckling. But this category usually goes hard for the feels, so that’s a nit pick. However, it is not a nit pick that just about all the nominees have the same message: “Life’s a bitch, and then you die, if you’re lucky. But we’re going to show you some people who are even deeper in the mire and more hopeless than you. Won’t that be fun?”
Unfortunately, the Hollywoody star studded short from the USA, The Letter Room, is probably the most nuanced (and uplifting, if learning to live with hopelessness can be considered uplifting") and will probably win.