Movies - Take Two. Action!

[Trane]

A few at random:

• Fellini's 8-1/2
• Cinema Paradiso
• Arrival (a new favorite I've watched a half dozen times now, each time it gets better)
• Catch 22
• Five Easy Pieces
• Blade Runner
• A Little Romance
• The Bicycle Thief
• The 400 Blows (or anything by Truffaut)
• Spring Forward
• Zefferelli's Romeo & Juliet
• King of Marvin Gardens
• Malena
• 12 Monkeys
• Multiplicity
• Kitchen Stories
• Blow Up
  .....
  

Unlike you, I couldn't possibly make out a list (one that most of you relate to anyways), because if I'm often out in the cinema, I rarely choose US or even English-speaking movies, as my cinematic cultures englobes films from all-over the planet - my faves this year are from Kirghizstan, Marocco Hungary, Egypt, Lebanon and Nepal (Centaur, Razzia, On Body And Soul, Nile Hilton Incident, The Insult and White Sun, respectively, but no order of value) - and I've got a strong love to Spanish and South-American movies of the last two decades

you can see what I've been seeing and reviewing (en Français, s'il vous plait ) in the last three years here below (if you care)

https://rateyourmusic.com/~CoolTrane

A few US classics (well, not likely to ever investigate deeply in the pre-67's movies) of mine would be:
Shawshank Redemption
Mystic River
Bladerunner (and I'm not into sci-fi)
Dance With Wolves (loved the recent Hostiles too)
48 Hours (Eddy Murphy never got funnier after his big screen debut) and Witness (Love HF outside those Raiders/Sar Wars series)

One film that comes to mind that will be 25 years old next year is The Shawshank Redemption. This flick qualifies for me as great storytelling combined with compelling performances and is always one of the films that - if you ever come across it on TV - you land there and just watch it again. It never gets old.

What movie favorites do you all have that you never, ever tire of watching?

Absolutely love SSR, but I could never not tire of a movie, unless a filmed concert.
AAMOF, except for a couple of gifts, I own almost no movie DVD (could never get sufficient mileage out of it), only music-related ones.

[Jerjo]

I finally saw Justice League. Wow, what a train wreck. The villain was a total waste of time and space. DC somehow doesn't do these big world-saving themes well at all. And while I agree that Gal Gadot has a sumptuous rear end, the obvious focus on it was distracting at best and ridiculously objectifying at worst. The death of Superman in the previous movie was ridiculous and it seemed like this was really about resurrecting him. But that resurrection had little emotional heft to it despite the efforts of Diane Lane and Amy Adams. And for fuck's sake, Batman is more than just quips about being rich and growling. Batman is THE SMART ONE. HE FIGURES SHIT OUT. For some reason, they decided we didn't need much of that. Oh, he got the team together, sorta. But it was pretty lacking in that department.

The acting was decent but I suspect that the actors weren't giving their A game. Gadot was leagues better in her solo movie, I've seen far better out of Affleck and Momoa. Ezra Miller got to wisecrack...a little. The rest were just wasted.

4 out of 10 unsold action figures languishing on the shelf.

[Scott Bails]

I had my kids this past weekend, and we watched a couple old musicals (my kids love musicals): Grease and Singin' in the Rain. Grease is part of my childhood, and I can watch it anytime. That soundtrack was very over-played in my house, growing up. And Olivia Newton-John never hurts, either. I hadn't seen Singin' in years, but it's still amazing to watch Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. Not much of a plot, but the dancing is ridiculous.

The kids loved both of them.

[moecurlythanu]

^ Who was it who said, "Warp 'em when they're young?"

[DocProgger]

I finally saw Justice League. Wow, what a train wreck. The villain was a total waste of time and space. DC somehow doesn't do these big world-saving themes well at all. And while I agree that Gal Gadot has a sumptuous rear end,

Not being a big fan of the comic book movies or the Fast and Furious franchise, I was not aware of Gal Gadot until I saw her in this movie with Jon Hamm and Zach Gal...... Keeping up With the Joneses on the dish. What a jaw droppingly stunning woman. My gosh she is gorgeous. And what a background. I might have to check her out in Wonder Woman just to gaze at her....

[Superfly]

\we watched a couple old musicals (my kids love musicals): Grease and Singin' in the Rain. Grease is part of my childhood, and I can watch it anytime. \

I used to hate the film Grease, but over the years I've watched it so many times with my wife that I now actually love it. In return, I've trained her to love Joe Dante's film; Piranha.

[frinspar]

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Oooh, that's one I haven't watched in years. Still have it on VHS somewhere.

Watched Dirty Rotten Scoundrels earlier. Never gets old for me.

And Erik The Viking is on Movieplex right now. Another I can watch any time.

We caught Sorry To Bother You this weekend.
That was a trip. Funny stuff, plenty of social commentary. Pretty bizarre, and when it goes sideways, it REALLY goes sideways.

[Koreabruce]

Here's the trailer for the movie Bohemian Rhapsody with Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. Looks interesting:



The actor who plays Brian May really does resemble him!

[Scott Bails]

I've heard a lot of people say that Rami Malek looks just like Freddie. I don't really agree. But he nails his mannerisms, and sounds an awful lot like him. And yes, the guys playing Brian May and Roger Taylor look very much like them. John Deacon.......doesn't seem to have a major role in this, from the trailer.

[Painter]

Here's the trailer for the movie Bohemian Rhapsody with Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. Looks interesting:



The actor who plays Brian May really does resemble him!

Apparently, this was pretty troubled production: http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/b...emian-rhapsody

Only time will tell how this will affect the final product.

[JKL2000]

What happened to Sascha Baron Cohen?

[Progatron]

What happened to Sascha Baron Cohen?

From IMDB:

Sacha Baron Cohen was the original choice to play Freddie Mercury. He left the project due to creative differences with the band's guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. The deal with Baron Cohen fell apart after May voiced upset after finding that the project would only be a biopic of Freddie Mercury and not the rest of Queen. May felt that it should focus on the other members and the aftermath of Mercury's death. He also voiced his negative opinion of the casting choice of Baron Cohen, whom he felt was too much of a comedic actor who wouldn't do Mercury justice in drama.

Fine with me - I've only seen the trailer of course but it looks like Malek nails it!

[Scott Bails]

I thought Cohen bowed out because the film ends with Live Aid and doesn't deal at all with Freddie's "darker side" and illness?

[rcarlberg]

Cohen has been busy with his new Showtime series "Who Is America," where he has punked Dick Cheney, Dana Rohrabacher, Joe Wilson, Bernie Sanders, Howard Dean, Joe Arpaiao, Ted Koppel, Sarah Palin, Roy Moore, Rep. Joe Walsh,, O.J. Simpson and others. He's also nearly done with a new movie which parodies Trump during its final credits.

[Hal...]

What movie favorites do you all have that you never, ever tire of watching?

For me, it's more like if I happen to run across it on TV I'll end up watching it to the end. Even then, some of my all time favorites have become a little too familiar and so I avoid watching them for awhile so I can reappreciate them. So, these are the ones I've seen at least 15 times (a few are 30+) but haven't seen in quite awhile:

Alien
An American Werewolf in London
The Andromeda Strain
Angel Heart
Apocalypse Now
Blackhawk Down
Blood Simple
Blue Velvet
Bound
Caddyshack
Casablanca
A Christmas Story
Dangerous Liaisons
Get Shorty (my fave Elmore Leonard movie)
The Haunting
Harvey
It's a Wonderful Life
Lost Highway
North By Northwest
The Princess Bride
Psycho
Rear Window
Scrooge (1951 movie w/Alistair Sim)
The Shining
The Silver Streak
Stalag 17
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Train
12 Angry Men (best dialogue in a movie, ever?)
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Waterboy (IKR?)
Young Frankenstein

But the ones I still haven't quite gotten tired of:

The Blues Brothers
The Day of the Jackal
Dr Strangelove
Hancock
Heat
I Am Legend
Kill Bill Vol 1
Shane

[Hal...]

Alastair Sim as Scrooge in the 1951 British version of Dickens "A Christmas Carol"...

The title of which, as I'm sure you know, is Scrooge. By far, it's the best adaptation of ACC, almost entirely because of Alastair Sim. Other actors who've played Scrooge have been really good at one aspect of Scrooge but not the other; i.e. mean or redeemed. Sim is just perfect in the role. Indeed, it might be the best bit of casting in the history of cinema.

As for the horror thing, the only movie that has ever scared me (as opposed to shock, gross out, suspense-fill, or startle unpleasantly) is Wait Until Dark (1967), starring Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, and Richard Crenna.

That's a really good movie. Alan Arkin is one of the greatest villains ever.

Add "Running Scared" with Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal.
All of those 80s buddy cops movies are a blast.

I don't know if you can consider them buddy cop movies, but my favorites are 48 Hours and Midnight Run (w/Robert de Niro & Charles Grodin).

"Jackie Brown" is my FAVORITE Tarantino!

I knew someone was probably going to say that, and I have no problem with it. I'd just much rather watch Inglorious Basterds or Pulp Fiction.

Mine is Kill Bill Vol 1, which is kind of a strange pick for me but is the one I enjoy the most. Oddly, KB Vol 2 isn't nearly as good, imo.

Reservoir Dogs comes second. I also really liked the Death Proof segment from Gindhouse and I'd like to see The Hateful Eight, again.

I recently rewatched Django Unchained. Not one of QT's best.

[DocProgger]

The title of which, as I'm sure you know, is Scrooge. By far, it's the best adaptation of ACC, almost entirely because of Alastair Sim. Other actors who've played Scrooge have been really good at one aspect of Scrooge but not the other; i.e. mean or redeemed. Sim is just perfect in the role. Indeed, it might be the best bit of casting in the history of cinema.

That is a good one, but I like the musical film version of Scrooge with Albert Finney the best. I remember seeing that film in the theater as a kid, and the Ghost of Christmas Future part gave me the willies for days. Very well done version of ACC.

Also re Midnight Run, one of my favs to revisit frequently (finally got on Blu ray recently), kind of an underrated DeNiro film and I always like Grodin, great mix of action and comedy. Farina has some priceless lines, and I always crack up when DeNiro's kid says to a handcuffed Grodin, 'You don't look like a criminal", and Grodin retorts sheepishly, "I'm a white collar criminal".

[progeezer]

Hal said:

The title of which, as I'm sure you know, is Scrooge. By far, it's the best adaptation of ACC, almost entirely because of Alastair Sim. Other actors who've played Scrooge have been really good at one aspect of Scrooge but not the other; i.e. mean or redeemed. Sim is just perfect in the role. Indeed, it might be the best bit of casting in the history of cinema.

Yup, & that's why I threw in Charley's name. To see the enormous range Sim had, watch The Ruling Class and the St. Trinian's films.

He is one of my 5 favorite actors ever.

[JKL2000]

We just signed up for Filmstruck, so watched a strange double feature with my son last night: Rebel Without a Cause and Aguirre, The Wrath of God. Seen Aguirre a couple of times before, but only bits of Rebel....

[JKL2000]

Re: the Mercury/Queen film, I’m of course still interested to see it, but I’d have been more interested with Cohen in it. Cohen does play a sometimes “serious” role in Sweeney Todd, but I guess it’s not much to go on as to how he’d be as a dramatic actor.

[Hal...]

That is a good one, but I like the musical film version of Scrooge with Albert Finney the best.

That was my ex's favorite, too. And as good as Finney can be, he's a much better redeemed Scrooge than a mean one.

Reginald Owen, who was in the 1938 adaptation, is good too. BTW, a very young June Lockhart, of Lassie and Lost in Space fame, was in that version, too.

Farina has some priceless lines...

I forgot about Dennis Farina being in that movie. He had some great lines in Get Shorty, too.

Yup, & that's why I threw in Charley's name. To see the enormous range Sim had, watch The Ruling Class and the St. Trinian's films.

After reading one of your comments in the old thread, I think I looked for one of those other movies at the library but couldn't find anything.

[dropforge]

I finally saw Justice League. Wow, what a train wreck. The villain was a total waste of time and space. DC somehow doesn't do these big world-saving themes well at all. And while I agree that Gal Gadot has a sumptuous rear end, the obvious focus on it was distracting at best and ridiculously objectifying at worst. The death of Superman in the previous movie was ridiculous and it seemed like this was really about resurrecting him. But that resurrection had little emotional heft to it despite the efforts of Diane Lane and Amy Adams. And for fuck's sake, Batman is more than just quips about being rich and growling. Batman is THE SMART ONE. HE FIGURES SHIT OUT. For some reason, they decided we didn't need much of that. Oh, he got the team together, sorta. But it was pretty lacking in that department.

The acting was decent but I suspect that the actors weren't giving their A game. Gadot was leagues better in her solo movie, I've seen far better out of Affleck and Momoa. Ezra Miller got to wisecrack...a little. The rest were just wasted.

4 out of 10 unsold action figures languishing on the shelf.

Joss Whedon fucked that movie up. He rewrote scenes and reshot footage that was fine as is. He redid dialogue, and yeah, he's responsible for Batman's worst lines like "Something's definitely bleeding." That's how you got a badass force-of-nature Batman in one movie and a total joke in the next. It was like Joss watched the movie with Clooney before he wrote his scenes. That crap WB fed everyone about Joss doing it "with Zack"s blessing" was bullshit. All they did was piss everyone off.

We'll have to wait for Matt Reeves' take on Batman to wash that stain off the pavement.

[GuitarGeek]

In return, I've trained her to love Joe Dante's film; Piranha.

Piranha is a good picture, but I much preferred the sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning. Second best movie James Cameron was ever involved in (even if it was just for a couple weeks).

John Deacon.......doesn't seem to have a major role in this, from the trailer

Yeah, that would seem likely. I have the impression, both from comments from others and also from the very occasional bits of interview footage that I've seen, that he was "The Quiet One". There's a documentary where they're talk about how, when it came time to present songs for the next album, he'd often say something like "Well, I've got a couple songs, I'm not sure if they're any good...", whereas the other three were apparently very into fighting to get their songs on the record. Apparently, the one exception was You're My Best Friend, where John reportedly "broke his vows of silence" to let it be known he wanted it to be a single.

There's also a documentary that came out in the late 80's, I think pretty much about the band's visit to Budapest, I believe it was, on the Magic Tour. There's footage of Brian, Roger, and Freddie, going to some kind of public event, which turns into a media circus, they're surrounded by people, paparazzi, etc. Cut to John, hanging out, by himself, in this big park or something, with the few people present apparently being unaware of who he is.

Also, consider once they were finished with Made In Heaven, John basically retired from public life. He hasn't participated in any of the reunion projects, and he only appears in documentaries done since that time in archival footage. In fact, in one of them, Brian makes a comment about one of John's songs, something to the effect "Only John really knows what that one's about, and he's not talking, though he approves of what we're do".

So the fact that his presence in a biopic about Freddie or the band or whatever, might be underplayed a bit.

Or it could be one of those deals like that horrendous movie about The Runaways, where Jackie Fox (who is now a lawyer, incidentally) basically sued the producers to keep her name out of the picture. So, they had to invent a fictitious bassist with some other name (which was helpful, because it meant they didn't have go through the revolving door thing with The Runaways' bassists), who basically has next to nothing to do with the plot of the film, other than the bit where she tries to commit suicide, and I can't even remember if that's actually in the film or not (in real life, Jackie flipped during the band's Japanese tour, and apparently came within seconds of slashing her wrists, with only Cherie Currie wrestling the mirror shard out of Jackie's hand to stop it from happening). Beyond that, though, the film was mostly about Cherie Currie and Joan Jett, with the rest of the band being painted into the background (and even then, they kinda screwed with the truth there).

Edit: Holy crap! Wikipedia says one of Jackie's classmates at Harvard was Barack Obama!

[rcarlberg]

The gist of this one is the attempt to get Michael Douglas' wife back.

Does he drive a Morgan?

[JKL2000]

John Deacon isn’t a major character in the Queen film, but his hair is.