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LawrenceA

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Posts posted by LawrenceA

  1. 18 minutes ago, Gershwin fan said:

    He's not saying people don't enjoy them. He's saying they're not high quality art.

    Yeah, we need more "high quality art", like the critically-adored Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, or Mysterious Object at Noon.

    The biggest box-office hits are rarely "high quality art", and that's nothing new. The #1 box-office hit of 1949 was Samson & Delilah. In 1955 it was Cinerama Holiday. In 1978 it was Grease. In 1987 it was Beverly Hills Cop II. In 1998 it was Armageddon. And in 2007 it was Pirates of the Caribbean part 3.

    Like N&N said earlier, I get where Scorsese is coming from (popcorn flicks have pushed nearly everything else out of the theaters, and mid-range dramas and others have virtually disappeared), but the motion picture business has never been about "high quality art". 

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1
  2. I agree that the fake trailers in Grindhouse were enjoyable ("Werewolf Women of the SS" was a personal favorite), I also really enjoyed Robert Rodriguez's half, Planet Terror. Very entertaining.

    On the other hand, I thought Tarantino's half, Death Proof, was easily the worst thing that he's made.

  3. January 2020 

    The Final Programme  (1973)     January 7

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    Brewster's Millions  (1985)      January 14

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    Demons of the Mind  (1972)     January 14

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    The Mummy's Shroud  (1967)    January 14

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    Gerry  (2002)      January 21

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    Sliding Doors  (1998)     January 21

    xSlidingDoors_BR_Cover_72dpi.png.pagespe

     

    Body Parts  (1991)     January 28

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    Let's Scare Jessica to Death  (1971)      January 28

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    Very Bad Things  (1998)       January 28

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  4. Ley Lines, Takashi Miike, Japan (1999)  -  7/10

    gv1n0cvgaRuDxq8MTpB2ExIlozg.jpg

    Director Miike closes out his "Black Society" trilogy with this crime drama about a trio of friends, all of Chinese descent, living in Japan. They are joined by a prostitute as they embark on an odyssey of petty crime that escalates into a confrontation with a yakuza gang and its violent boss. As with the earlier Shinjuku Triad Society and Rainy Dog, the festering animosity between the Japanese and the Chinese lays the foundation for an exploration of desperate, doomed characters who can find no place in the world. Miike's penchant for shocking violence and outrageous sexuality is once again on display, but the character development is perhaps the best here of the three films. 

    • Like 1
  5. 33 minutes ago, Dargo said:

    I won't be around starting tomorrow afternoon as my and my wife's trip to France will begin then.

    Hey, enjoy your trip to France-ville. You'll be missed. Well, by some of us, anyway.

    • Thanks 1
    • Haha 1
  6. 18 minutes ago, longshot2 said:

    Any ideas on this movie -

    A female reporter or student gets lost or her car breaks down near a town with a mysterious past history. There is some history of the town dying off and coming back when clock chimes ring.

    The inn she checks into has an innkeeper but things she see are not really there disappear - like the fire in the fireplace, dancers at a party, and the inn keeper who shows her to her room.

    There is an underground tunnel beneath her bedroom where the reporter wanders down and get taken by a cult or something. 

    I believe her brother and boyfriend find the town and look for her and the end of the movie includes a church, an old priest, and ghost coming up from the cemetery. They do escape I believe. 

    Sounds like Horror Hotel aka The City of the Dead (1960)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_of_the_Dead_(film)

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053719/?ref_=nv_sr_3?ref_=nv_sr_3

     

    • Thanks 1
  7. Wax Mask, Sergio Stivaletti, Italy (1997)  -  6/10

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    Bizarre period-piece horror. In 1910 Paris, a series of murders occur, coinciding with the opening of a new museum of wax figures. The museum's proprietor is the respected Boris Volkoff (Robert Hossein), but his beautiful new assistant Sonia (Romina Mondello) thinks that something sinister is afoot. Also featuring Riccardo Serventi Longhi as a reporter investigating the crimes, Gabriella Giorgelli, Umberto Balli, Valery Valmond, and Gianni Franco.

    This originated as a project for the ailing director Lucio Fulci, who had fallen on hard times and was suffering from ill health and was living in poverty. Dario Argento helped produce this film as a project for him, co-writing the script with Fulci and Daniele Stroppa. However, Fulci died before production could begin, and the directorial reins went to special effects pro Stivaletti. The result is a strange, pseudo-Steampunk gore remake of House of Wax that doesn't make a lot of sense but looks really good and remains entertaining throughout.

    • Like 2
  8. Rainy Dog, Takashi Miike, Japan (1997)  -  7/10

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    Yuuji (Sho Aikawa) is a former yakuza living in Taiwan, working as a contract killer for a local triad boss. His grim life starts to unravel once he falls for a prostitute (Xianmei Chen), and a former lover drops a young boy on his doorstep, a son he never knew he had. Now Yuuji takes his girlfriend and his son on the run as the vengeful relatives of one of his recent victims goes on a bloody rampage. Filmed on location in Taiwan, this has more dialogue in Chinese than Japanese. It's also more mainstream than most of Miike's films, although still violent and dwelling on the uglier aspects of humanity. Tetsuo the Iron Man star Tomoro Taguchi has a memorable supporting role as a bumbling yakuza assassin.

    • Like 2
  9. 10 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:

    This has a pretty starry cast for underground: Broderick Crawford, Dan Dailey, Michael Parks, Jose Ferrer, Celeste Holm, John Marley, Howard De Silva, Rip Torn, Ronee Blakeley, Lloyd Nolan, Jack Cassidy, June Havoc....

    Yeah, it's rather sedate for a TCM Underground film, but it's written and directed by Larry Cohen, who also wrote-directed the following It's Alive, the best of the monster-baby movies.

  10. 1 minute ago, CinemaInternational said:

    TCM certainly shows plenty of pre-codes which were suggestive, but from today's vantage point were not very explicit. But, most films from the late 60s onward that do feature such more risque scenes are usually shown late at night with only the rare exception like Hair or Reflections of a Golden Eye, both of which have played in afternoons past. Given that 8 PM films on the East Coast are at 5 PM on the West, it might prove a bit inopportune, because, though unlikely, the FCC might argue that young children might somehow be "exposed" (heh) to inappropriate material and thus veto an idea. TCM rarely has full nights of TV-MA material.

    Cable channels aren't subject to those broadcast FCC fines, though, are they?

  11. 6 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:

    Seems like a spotlight throughout the month on the 1920s...... 

    And TCM really doesn't want people to sleep on the last Sunday of the Month. The infamous The Night Porter (about a masochistic relationship between a Nazi prison guard and one of his former inmates) is followed by Come and See (a Russian war film considered to be an exceptional but also extremely emotionally distressing film). Whatever they are, they will never be advertised with the phrases "Fun!" or "A Barrel of Laughs!"

    Come and See is an outstanding film, but it is tough viewing. I wasn't thrilled with The Night Porter. It was a little too dull and serious for its scandalous reputation.

    I'd recommend all of the other TCM Imports films, as well, especially the lesser known The Bridge.

    The Oulaw and His Wife is an interesting early effort from Victor Sjostrom (The Phantom Carriage).

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
  12. Silent Sundays

    • Bardelys the Magnificent
    • The Lodger
    • a bunch of Harold Lloyd shorts on the 19th
    • The Outlaw and His Wife

     

    TCM Imports

    • The Shop on Main Street
    • Kapo
    • The Bridge
    • Au revoir, les enfants
    • Lacombe, Lucien
    • The Night Porter
    • Come and See

     

    TCM Underground

    • Chopping Mall
    • Multiple Maniacs
    • Female Trouble
    • The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover
    • It's Alive (1974)
    • Scary Movie (1991)
    • Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
    • Deathsport
    • Cherry 2000

     

    • Thanks 4
  13. Trapped is a public domain title, so it's available in a lot of terrible editions. I have it on one of those 50-movie sets from Mill Creek. 

    I gave the movie a 6/10, but I don't recall much from it.

  14. Live Flesh, Pedro Almodovar, Spain (1997)  -  7/10

    Carne_treumla.jpg

    Melodrama with Javier Bardem as David, a former cop left in a wheelchair after being shot by Victor (Liberto Rabal), an unstable young man obsessed with beautiful model and drug addict Elena (Francesca Neri). Victor had taken Elena hostage, and when David and his abusive, alcoholic partner Sancho (Jose Sancho) responded to the scene, Victor and Sancho struggled, and Victor's gun went off, hitting David. Several years later, Victor is released from prison and begins stalking Elena. She's now married to David,  who has become a famous paraplegic athlete. Meanwhile, Sancho's relationship with his long suffering wife Clara (Angela Molina) continues to deteriorate. Also with Penelope Cruz and Pilar Bardem.

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    This was a little more conventional and "safe" than many of Almodovar's other films that I've seen. It's well acted, and looks good, but it lacks any kind of real spark. I liked the film's opening sequence, set in 1970 and showing Victor's birth aboard a city bus. Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, later to marry, don't share any scenes, although Cruz spends much of her brief screentime with Pilar Bardem, Javier's real-life mother. 

    MV5BN2IwZGQ1ZjUtZTk1OS00MWU5LTk0NmYtY2Yx

    • Like 2
  15. 6 hours ago, universalkaiju said:

    It says 17 movies, what are the other two? They are showing Gojira and 14 other movies from the Showa era.

    1. Godzilla
    2. Godzilla, King of the Monsters (the American dub/edit of Godzilla)
    3. Godzilla Raids Again
    4. Mothra vs Godzilla
    5. Mothra
    6. Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster
    7. Invasion of Astro-Monster
    8. Son of Godzilla
    9. Destroy All Monsters
    10. All Monsters Attack - There seems to be a hole in the schedule here - They have this 70-minute movie scheduled from 8PM until 1AM! My guess is they will show Ebirah, Horror of the Deep and Godzilla vs Hedorah/Godzilla vs the Smog Monster in this time slot.
    11. Rodan
    12. Godzilla vs Megalon
    13. Godzilla vs Mechgodzilla
    14. Terror of Mechagodzilla

    War of the Gargantuas, another Toho giant monster film, is scheduled after Terror of Mechagodzilla.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  16. I seem to recall Burstyn winning a Best Guest Performance Emmy for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for what was little more than a glorified cameo. It's been a while since I saw it, so maybe there's more to it than I recall, but I remember being surprised to see her nominated for it, and then when she won I thought it didn't speak highly of her competition. 

  17. 1 hour ago, hamradio said:

    As.. here in the Youtube clip.

    Also... didn't worked out as planned (past tense)

    Your use of "here" is correct.

    However, your use of the past tense "worked" in this context is incorrect, and should have been "work". 

    • Thanks 1
  18. 42 minutes ago, kingrat said:

    Glenda Jackson winning for Touch of Class was one of the weirdest wins ever. People don't usually win for comedies, and the film, though successful, wasn't a huge hit.

    Who would you have chosen among the nominees?

    • Glenda Jackson, A Touch of Class
    • Ellen Burstyn, The Exorcist
    • Marsha Mason, Cinderella Liberty
    • Barbra Streisand, The Way We Were
    • Joanne Woodward, Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
  19. 16 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

    unless the actor or actress literally dies in real life and they were so beloved or old no substitutes/recasts would be accepted.

    Yeah, Mr. & Mrs. Horton (Macdonald Carey & Frances Reid) on Days are good examples.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
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