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Yeah, I'd agree that's the weakest portion of the flick. Kind of the problem with killing off the character you've set up as the movie's chief antagonist at the 30 min mark.
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It still could have worked, but the movie starts taking itself too seriously about halfway through. Fully embracing its dark comedy/satire would have made it legendary.Comment
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Rewatching Braveheart. Yeah, the movie has some historical issues, but it’s fun, pro Scot, and has some quotable dialogue. Also, some really decent acting jobs.
Notably:
Brian Cox (Uncle Argyle - I have an Uncle Argyle, so I kinda dig it).
Patrick McGoohan does a great Longshanks.
Mel Gibson does a decent enough job, but the little kid who played a young William was great.
Brendan Gleason as Hamish and James Cosmo as Campbell were good and of course David O’Hara as the crazy Irish guy, Stephen.
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is sometimes hard to verify their authenticity." -Abraham LincolnComment
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Not much of a review, but I just got done watching Norsemen on Netflix. It's a Viking show with a mix of the expected mild gore and drama mixed with a little Monty Python absurdity. After the first two seasons the third is set prior to all of the events that you have already seen. The foreshadowing is hilarious. I'll probably go back and watch the first two seasons over.
It was shot in Norwegian and then in English. Some of the accents are a bit tough to understand, but it is a fun watch.
Norsemen is a Norwegian comedy television series about a group of Vikings living in the village of Norheim around the year 790. It originally premiered in Norway under the name Vikingane (Vikings) on NRK1 in October 2016. It is produced for NRK by Viafilm. The series is written and directed by Jon Iver Helgaker and Jonas Torgersen.[1]
The series is recorded in the village of Avaldsnes in Karmøy municipality, Rogaland, Norway, and it was recorded simultaneously in both Norwegian and English-language versions by filming each scene twice.
I feel like I am watching the destruction of our democracy while my neighbors and friends cheer it onComment
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LIFEBOAT (1944)
d. Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, William Bendix, Hume Cronyn, Mary Anderson, Henry Hull, Canada Lee
Eight people survive a U-boat attack on their ocean liner when they drag another from the sea. The 9th member of the lifeboat is a Nazi -- the U-Boat itself was sunk right after sinking their ship and as it turns out, he was the Captain of that U-Boat and not an ordinary sailor. Tensions rise as the Ally survivors fight among themselves and the Nazi Captain Willie (Walter Slezak) assumes greater and greater authority.
Of all the movies that Hitchcock made this is the one that most explicitly acknowledges WWII and in some ways it doesn't really feel like a Hitchcock movie. Just a damn good one. The entire movie takes place on basically one set: a lifeboat at sea. We never see anything else or know any other setting than this one small boat. It's a small cast and just about everyone in it is great. Tallulah Bankhead is fantastic. Walter Slezak is fantastic.
The backstory is almost more interesting to talk about though. You might notice by the poster that John Steinbeck is credited with the story. In fact, he tried to have his name taken off the film. He didn't like how the one black character in the boat, Joe, was cut down from his original story to a stereotypical 'negro porter' character. He also didn't like that there was a significant public backlash against the film because many critics thought the movie depicted Nazis in too friendly a light. From a modern perspective this is a bit hard to understand but WWII audiences wanted mustache-twirling villains. Willie apparently should have been an obnoxious, bumbling, bigoted loudmouth oaf from the start. And instead his character is pretty sophisticated. He's the most resourceful and knowledgeable person in the boat and he cleverly weaves his way into seizing control (until he goes too far). But his character has depth, he's clearly NOT depicted as the hero.
A lot of members of the cast seemed cursed in one way or another and met tragic ends. Bendix and Hodiak died of health problems way before their time. Slezak ended up killing himself at the age of 80 also because he had given up hope over his health. Tallulah Bankhead, who was a legendary actress known more for the stage than film, was also (for lack of a better word) a nymphomaniac. By the time she hit menopause she was also hopelessly addicted to pain pills and booze. That eventually affected his ability to act and by the early 60's she was pretty much done. She died in 1968.
For the longest time I thought this was the same movie I had seen as a kid but that turned out to be "Abandon Ship!" (1957) starring Tyrone Power. That movie haunted me when I was young because it's dark, bleak, depressing as hell. Basically the commander of an overcrowded lifeboat knows a storm is approaching and and orders people to be thrown out one by one because he figures they'll sink if they take on much water. Anyone clinging to life gets thrown out first. Then the elderly. Then the injured or incapable of being a rower. One officer chooses to jump in rather than kill an old woman to save himself. They survive the storm and get rescued like 2 days later. The euphoria turns to horror when the survivors all realize they possibly sacrificed 15 people for no reason. Bleah. Like I said, depressing, and presents tough moral questions.
What a great feel-good post! Highly recommend these for quarantine watching!!!
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F/X (1986)
d. Robert Mandel
Starring: Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Diane Venora, Jerry Orbach, Mason Adams, Cliff De Young, Martha Gehman
For a brief time in the late 80's, Australian star Bryan Brown was a thing. Probably better remembered for Cocktail or Gorillas in the Mist.
In this somewhat boiler-plate 80's action flick he plays Rollie Tyler, the best special effects man in Hollywood, who is hired by the Witness Protection Agency to fake the assassination of a mob boss turned informant, Nick DeFranco (Jerry Orbach). Rollie doesn't realize he's being set up to take the fall for Defranco's actual murder. Now he's on the run using his...uh...special effects skills to avoid capture and catch the real killers!
This is a passable flick if you're in the mood for an 80's action/thriller that you may have never seen before. There's a pretty good fight scene about midway through the movie that I don't wanna spoil. And a decent car chase later on. All set in shitty 80's New York City pre-cleanup.
And then there's Brian Dennehy....oh man. He doesn't show up until about 50 minutes in! But his character is great. He's an NYPD detective that's been trying to bust DeFranco for years. The epitome of the 80's cop that doesn't play by the rules. He alone makes this movie worth watching. Not gonna lie. And the guy playing his his partner is fun too.
Oh yeah, a small part for Roscoe Orman aka Gordon from Sesame Street!!
Would recommend. I haven't watched the sequel yet (from 1991) but i hear it's a bit of a step down.
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Good review of the Disney Star Wars trilogy.
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Nice mate in 4 for white:"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is sometimes hard to verify their authenticity." -Abraham LincolnComment
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SPELLBOUND (1945)
d. Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo Carroll, John Emery
A new director arrives to take over a mental hospital in Vermont but is hiding a number of secrets.
Not one of my favorites but still a good movie. Ingrid Bergman is great. So is her mentor "Dr. Brulov". Not quite as high on Gregory Peck but he's fine.
The most surreal Hitchcock film I've seen to date. The dream sequence was actually designed by Salvador Dali and it went on for almost 20 minutes (according to Bergman) before being cut way down to about 2 minutes.
I'd have to say this movie feels more dated than most Hitch films. For one, the constant emphasis on "Bah, women make poor psychiatrists and just need a man" attitude. And two, the heavy focus on Freudian psychoanalysis, which few psychiatrists follow to my knowledge today. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Understandable that this one doesn't get as much screen time today as others of Hitchcock's best.
Oh yeah there's also a surprisingly grisly scene in which a child gets impaled on a fence. Enjoy!
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I watched The Gift last night with The Wife. Really good movie.Comment
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I saw the Dune trailer. Will be there for that. Parts of the original Dune did not hold up well."The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is sometimes hard to verify their authenticity." -Abraham LincolnComment
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Looks incredible.
Haven't read the book or seen the 1984 Dune, but have been looking forward to the film because "Dune" 2020 director Denis Villeneuve is my top 2 (Christopher Nolan) favorite active director today. Cast and team behind this film should make it a big hit.
AAL 2023 - Alim McNeillComment
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You haven’t seen the original Dune or read the books? It’s worth a watch if for nothing but some of the quotes/dialogue and to see Sting as Feyd of the House Harkonnen and Patrick Stewart as Gurney.
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is sometimes hard to verify their authenticity." -Abraham LincolnComment
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The story and dialogue by Herbert is very good, imo. The struggle for Spice even at the destruction of a planet and subjugation of a race of people, the Bene Gesserits (think a cross between nuns and witches), the worms, the politics and power struggle between worlds to get the Spice, The development of a messianic figure. The politics and betrayals have a very real feel."The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is sometimes hard to verify their authenticity." -Abraham LincolnComment
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