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LawrenceA
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Days Won
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Posts posted by LawrenceA
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Sunday, January 17
2 a.m. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970). I missed this last October when I discovered that TCM now had copy protection on my cable provider.
I saw this during the last showing. It's definitely interesting. It was listed in the 101 Best Horror book, but it's much more of a children's fantasy, but not for children. If that doesn't make sense, there ya go. It has some striking visuals, but the style and manner of the narrative started to grate after awhile. I felt if I was a 15 year old goth girl with artistic sensibilities, then this might have been one of my favorite films.
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I recently watched LOULOU and wrote a review in the "I Just Watched" thread. It's a French romantic drama starring Gerard Depardeiu and Isabelle Huppert. I wasn't blown away, but it's supposed to be a dissection of the decline in modern French romance. I just saw dull, average characters doing dull, average things.That's really not bad at all. I've never heard of LOULOU.
But what do I know? I am just an ugly American.
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THE PROWLER - (5/10) - Not the terrific noir with Van Heflin, but instead it's slasher movie #237 from 1981. This dull and generic entry starts with a double murder outside of the small town Graduation Dance of 1945. The dance has henceforth been cancelled, until 1980, when the townsfolk decide enough time has passed and the Graduation Dance can once again be held. But wouldn't you know, ole hack'n'slash comes back and starts moidering the thinly-drawn characters. Featuring classic stars Lawrence Tierney and Farley Granger in small roles. Tom Savini did the exceptional gore fx work, which is why this doesn't get a lower score.
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TopBilled: MY DINNER WITH ANDRE, THE CHOSEN, PRIVATE LESSONS, and PUBERTY BLUES. I know about the first three, but not the last.
Swithin, I really love REDS as well, more each time I watch it. The second in my trilogy of favorite doomed romance epics, after DR. ZHIVAGO and before...
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Bogie, I've never seen PRINCE OF THE CITY, MEPHISTO, MAN OF IRON, MODERN ROMANCE, PIXOTE, or THRESHOLD, but I know what they are.
COUP DE TORCHON, LES PLOUFFE, CIRCLE OF DECEIT, and BLIND CHANCE I've never heard of.
I recently got TRUE CONFESSIONS on DVD, so I'll be rewatching it in a few days.
As for mine, SOUTHERN COMFORT is a terrific action-suspense film about a platoon of National Guard reservists on maneuvers in the Louisiana bayou who start a bloody war with the local backwoods cajuns. It's supposedly a Vietnam allegory, but I don't really read a lot into it. Walter Hill directed, with Powers Boothe and Keith Carradine heading the very good cast.
VERNON, FLORIDA is a very short documentary from Errol Morris, consisting of interviews with the various oddball residents of the small title town. Hits very close to home for me. If you ever want to know what I had to deal with growing up and living where I do, just watch this.
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1981 - 139 films seen
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. The Road Warrior
3. Reds
4. Escape from New York
5. An American Werewolf in London
6. Excalibur
7. Time Bandits
8. The Evil Dead
9. Thief
10. Scanners
Runner-ups: Das Boot, The Howling, Southern Comfort, Body Heat, and Vernon, Florida.
Larry's Choices: Galaxy of Terror & Mystery on Monster Island & The Other Hell ( I just finished this one about 15 minutes ago, so I tacked it on as an extra treat).
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Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1980:
Airplane!
Atlantic City
The Big Red One
The Elephant Man
The Empire Strikes Back
The Last Metro
Loulou
Ordinary People
Raging Bull
The Shining
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THE OTHER HELL - (6/10) - Gonzo Italian horror is a late entry in that peculiar subgenre known as Nunsploitation. Inspired by THE DEVILS, European exploitation producers turned out many films in the 70's about evil, depraved, or crazed nuns. This film comes in at the end of the cycle. A series of murders and sacrileges are occurring at a convent, so an investigator priest arrives to get to the bottom of things. Is it demonic or diabolic possession, or just old-fashioned homicidal insanity?
There's lots of weirdness in this one, some shocking, some stupid. As was the fashion in Italian shock films of the period, a real animal killing is shown (a chicken), so the film loses a few points for that. The music is from Goblin. I particularly liked the part where the grounds keeper is menaced by a housecat with a Hitler moustache.
"Who is it? Who's there?!?"
"THE DEVIIIILLLLLL!"
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film lover, NOSFERATU really should have been on my '79 list as well. It was an oversight on my part.
I had THE GREAT SANTINI listed as 1980, but it really came out in 1979. So if I had to replace it, I would pick either the previously mentioned ALTERED STATES, the excellent ghost story with George C. Scott entitled THE CHANGELING, or a crazy Italian horror film entitled CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD.
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Swithin, I always enjoyed ALTERED STATES, with and without my own altered states.
I haven't seen BERLIN. Fassbinder is another filmmaker I'm woefully underexposed to.
What was the nature of the protest? Exploitation of the natives?
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Excellent write-up, kingrat. EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS remains my favorite book on movies I've ever read. I can't recommend it highly enough.
I haven't seen THE COMPETITION, THE HORSE OF PRIDE, or THOSE LIPS, THOSE EYES.
It's also been a very long time since I saw SERIAL or CARNY.
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In the US, you also had the New York Dolls, who were frequently regarded as Glam, and whose outrageous fashions inspired more than a few performers, notably Aerosmith, who in turn inspired a whole generation of glam-metal groups in the 1980's.
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Himmel, how many notables have died already? This January is turning out to be very lethal!
All of the Obit threads that we've made since January first and that's still not every film notable who's died. There's also been David Margulies, busy character actor best known as the mayor in the GHOSTBUSTERS movies, and Franco Citti, who was in THE GODFATHER in the Italian sequences, as well as films by Pasolini.
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Well, you have to remember, RAW DEAL was done to fulfill contractual obligations Schwarzenegger had, so his heart wasn't really in it. I always thought his slicked back hair looked silly, and just having Arnold in the world of the mafia seemed like a wrong fit. I would have to say...huh, what's that? Wrong RAW DEAL? Oh, sorry.
But I did record the one last night, just haven't watched it. I'm watching nunsploitation at the moment.
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TopBilled, I haven't seen HOPSCOTCH and NIJINSKY.
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LOL about Brian Blessed. He is over-the-top hilarious in FLASH GORDON, but the whole movie is, really.
OUT OF THE BLUE is a grungy drama about a parolee (Dennis Hopper) trying to reconnect with his troubled young daughter (Linda Manz from DAYS OF HEAVEN). Neil Young's music for the film is very good.
HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD is an Italian army vs zombies movie.
FIEND is a very low budget possession movie.
I haven't seen MON ONCLE D'AMERIQUE, THE HOUNDS OF NOTRE DAME, and MOSCOW DOES NOT BELIEVE IN TEARS.
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1980 - 173 films seen
1. The Shining
2. Raging Bull
3. The Empire Strikes Back
4. Caddyshack
5. Airplane!
6. Ordinary People
7. The Long Riders
8. The Stunt Man
9. The Elephant Man
10. Flash Gordon
Runner-ups: Kagemusha, The Great Santini, The Last Metro, Out of the Blue, and The Long Good Friday.
Larry's Choices: Hell of the Living Dead & Fiend
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MY YOUNG AUNTIE - (7/10) - Good kung fu comedy from the Shaw Brothers. In a rather convoluted plan, a young kung fu fighter is married to an elderly landowner so that when he dies, she will inherit his property instead of her new brother-in-law. She moves into her new estate, where her deceased husband's old nephew and his grown son live. She gets into various scrapes with her new grand-nephew and his friends, before having to directly face her brother-in-law's evil forces.
Star Kara Hui is terrific, and she won the Hong Kong Film Award for best actress for this film. Hsiao Ho is fine as well as the mischievous grand nephew, while director Lau Kar Leung also appears as the old nephew, and Gordon Liu has a small role as a school friend. The fights are very well done, and there's a real standout sequence at a costume party. Recommended.
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i will quickly mention that I have caught up with two more films from 2015.
The Big Short (2015) was a flawed disappointment in my view. I don't think the screenplay was able to handle the dense material very well and at times it becomes a Scorsese wanna-be mess.
Joy (2015) on the other hand was a delightful surprise. Jennifer Lawrence is more than capable of carrying this picture.
So do you feel Lawrence deserves her nomination this year? There seems to be more grumbling about her's than anyone else's.
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kingrat, I've managed to not see your top two picks. Hopefully I can rectify that this year. NORTH DALLAS FORTY was a big surprise to me. I didn't see it when it was new because I have little interest in sports and even less in football. I had always dismissed the film as another comedic romp, like the more humorous aspects of THE LONGEST YARD, since they marketed the film as a comedy. I just decided this past year to watch it for Nick Nolte. I was very surprised by how good it was, and the brutal truths it explored about the business of the game. Shows why you shouldn't always judge by your first impressions of a movie.
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We'll wait till midday tomorrow, the 16th, to start 1980, so anyone who wants to catch up the end of the 70's can do so.
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Open thread
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Open thread
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Good thread idea!
FRIDAY THE 13th - FRIDAY THE 13th: THE FINAL CHAPTER
HELLRAISER - HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER 2
All the others it's the original except for
INSIDIOUS and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
both of which I really don't like any of them.
Top Ten Films of...
in Your Favorites
Posted
CHARIOTS OF FIRE is a film I've grown to appreciate more as the years go on and I've rewatched it a handful of times. I didn't really care for it when I saw it in the theater, but I now appreciate the characterizations and the period detail much more. I do agree with Swithin as to its sloppiness; it doesn't really flow as it should. But maybe that's why Hudson didn't win best director?