EricJ
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Posts posted by EricJ
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1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:
Here are some more that I've (re)watched:
- Jason X (2001) - 6/10
- Halloween: Resurrection (2002) - 4/10
- Freddy vs. Jason (2003) - 6/10
After these, the series all become remakes, reboots and prequels.
That's because New Line--which already had Freddy--bought the property rights to the up-for-grabs Jason and Michael Myers, and later Leatherface, off of Dimension when Michael Bay started doing those tricked-up 00's remakes. They thought they had a house franchise, and hoped to become the Universal Horror of 80's Slashers, but just ended up killing most of them off for good with campy matchups and clueless remakes.
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You mean, guys knocked out, or doing the knocking?
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11 hours ago, Det Jim McLeod said:
I always felt that this was the best in the series. Freddy was making more wisecracks, but he was still menacing and scary. I actually cared about the kids in this one. Plus the sexy blonde nurse didn't hurt either.
Also, the teens were smart enough to fight back, which was starting to become a BIG complaint with fans going through Jason-fatigue about dumb bed-hopping teens waiting to turn around the wrong corner and be skewered--And which preceded the first "Hip, smart" Scream movies by twelve years. The bigger effects budgets and "tongue"-in-cheek wink of the Elm Street movies was one of the other big influences on the Death of the Slasher Movie, in addition to all the parent complaints.
#3 was directed by Chuck Russell, on the basis of his first writing the same lucid-dreaming-wars concept for 1984's Dreamscape, which was a good idea, but...not quite as much in its execution. Nice first draft, but it needed the right "hook" that Wes Craven brought along, although his first Elm Street lacked a little something extra too. Like, yes, Zsa Zsa Gabor.
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11 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
I've been watching the "making of" featurettes and documentaries on each disc (some of which are longer than the actual films!), and it was interesting seeing how much of Friday the 13th Part VII was edited out.
There's also an amazingly involving fan-retrospective documentary on all seven of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Never Sleep Again: the Elm Street Legacy (four hours, and you will not notice) floating around streaming, and fairly easy to run across. Yes, they also delve into the, ahem, fan debate over the "illegitimate" Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, which I noticed was absent from your list 😀 Admit it, they didn't find their speed until #3.
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6 hours ago, Sukhov said:
The Vatican's film list of best religious films-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican's_list_of_films
Art[edit]
- Fantasia (1940)
(Yes, Fantasia....)
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8 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
WELL, WEIRD VERTICAL LINE ASIDE, I watched TUNES OF GLORY for the second time, and my takeaway was pretty much the same- people want to talk about how catty groups of women and gay men are and how they can't get along- but holy ****, STRAIGHT MEN ARE WORSE THAN EITHER, JUST AS PETTY AND VERY OFTEN SOMEONE ENDS UP DEAD.
I've often said, "For a people who complain that they can't take 'bullying and persecution' night and day, they sure do enjoy dishing it out when someone brings up the subject of flop movies or 70's-80's movie/TV shows..." 😉
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21 minutes ago, Sukhov said:
The Japanese cult film House--
Along with the 80s American horror film
and the American TV show
Of which the 80's American horror film is worth looking up.
Speaking of horror films, we have the rather unfortunate upcoming title similarities of new-haunted-house-buyers horror film The Room (2020)
with, erm.... 🤫
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12 hours ago, Peebs said:
As a side note, I read the book years later and it's very different from the movie. I wonder if anyone considered making a new movie that would be closer to the original plot.
Well, there's not MUCH of a book: Potts is married, builds the car, takes the kids on a beach picnic, the kids discover a bank robber's cave, and Chitty's floating, flying and sentience comes to the rescue. That pretty much covers everything before the Intermission.
Roald Dahl was hired as scriptwriter, not just as children's writer, but also as Bond/mystery screenwriter who had just scripted "You Only Live Twice". Since Broccoli was selling it as "Ian Fleming's only children's story", Dahl had the idea of turning Chitty into a kiddy James Bond movie, with Double-0-Potts, his fortuitously-named girl sidekick, and their gadget-tricked car, saving the world from Baron Goldfinger and his child-catching Oddjob. The movie is more of a Roald Dahl creation as a Fleming one--with the wacky repellent belching adult baddies who hate good, sweet, smart innocent children--and you could watch it alongside Willy Wonka or "Matilda" and not even realize anyone else had ever written the source.
12 hours ago, Peebs said:Once they get to Vulgaria, though, they lost me. The Child Catcher was terrifying.
Until he prances about the streets, you'd never realize that was ballet star Robert Helpmann from The Red Shoes, would you?
(And no mention of Benny Hill playing straight-actor, as the helpful Toymaker?)
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6 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:
A friend of mine was trying to turn me on to MoviePass, but that was just about dead before I even knew about it. A-List was giving me a relatively inexpensive way to still see movies frequently on a big screen.
One of the things that made me such a believer in downtown local independent theaters (even the ones that show commercial A-movies), was growing up within distance of the old Fine Arts theaters in eastern MA. (There was one outside Boston University, one in Waltham, and one just next town over in Maynard.)
They were a regional independent chain that showed the arthouse films and the big Oscar-bait A-films, but as independent theaters--back when tickets were still $2.50-$3.00--they used to offer a 10-ticket punchcard for $25-30, where your tickets were already pre-bought, and you could just show up and get your movie punched until you used it up...Since they were independent, there wasn't much of a tyrannical studio crunch for demanding a cut of who saw which movie. With only three screens, big movies would play for ONE or two weeks, small movies might play for one weekend, and then would be rotated for another hit, since everyone in town who wanted to see it probably had by that point, and anyone who didn't could still drive half an hour to the big commercial plex at Woburn. In between, during a lull, or Tues-Thurs. business, they might dig up some college classic-revivals, like Marx Brothers or Robert Altman, just to fill space until the big movie arrived--I can think of a half dozen classics I first saw on the big screen, just because they were There. It was easy to go, because "Going out to the movies" was just that: You went out, and checked their little monthly-calendar newsletter to see if anything interesting was playing that week, and since you already had your ticket, you could have dinner at the little hole-in-the-wall bistro next door, and just walk in.
THAT is what the Cult of MoviePass seemed to want: They didn't want to cram their faces with movies because they Could, what they wanted was the obligation of going to a movie taken away again, and the act of going out to be fun again. Since movies now have to risk everything on three-and-a-half crucial days, they hype, schedule and blitz the movie as if it's a three-day-only rock concert, to which we have to knock ourselves out to attend, because we "have" to. There's almost zero publicity of the fact that we could, if we wanted, go out on a dull Tuesday night, and see if there's anything we haven't seen that looks curious. At $10-$15 a head--that even barely keeps up the cineplex's overhead without $9 popcorn--that's less of an impulse buy and more of a make-or-break decision. And with the rise of Blu/DVD, "Break" is becoming more frequent.
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Although (eww)...you might want to rephrase that headline.
Years growing up, I used to be driven up the wall by people during the 70's Ron-Miller Disney who were convinced that this was "a Disney musical", just because the producers had gone all out to shanghai anyone who had ever worked on Mary Poppins, in an attempt to genetically replicate it. Thing is, though, it WORKED: It's not the stiff-upper-lip London of Mary Poppins, it's the English countryside, and then into the wild over-the-top world of Roald Dahl's story-scripting...It ends up being halfway between the original Mary Poppins and the '71 Willy Wonka, with all the good points of each.
But it's NOT Disney--It was produced by Albert Broccoli, who owned Ian Fleming's only children's book along with the 007 novels, and thought Poppins was coin of the realm for "how you do" a children's story--So now we have the best of Mary Poppins, the '71 Wonka, and the Sean Connery 007's in one movie. 😁 (There's no "Truly Scrumptious", or even a Baron, in Fleming's original novel. Dahl just had to slip a Bond Girl name in there, and a kid-acceptable Goldfinger as well.)
The Sherman Brothers had left Disney after Walt was gone, and had only middling luck on their own--quick, anybody know a few songs from "Tom Sawyer", "Snoopy Come Home" or "The Slipper & the Rose"?--but their attempt to create English music-hall songs for Dick Van Dyke and Lionel Jeffries is some of their best work since Disney. (Yes, the producers even brought over music arranger Irwin Kostal from Poppins, and Kostal could turn the otherwise chirpy-annoying title song into a brass-band Intermission overture.) And yes, the two children are absolute naturals, and surprisingly un-annoying for a late-60's G-musical.
How, I ask you, can you hate:
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My latest Movie-Activist Crusade is "Burn the Cineplexes" - Which became fatally overbuilt during the 90's, when a boom of late-80's/early-90's hits made the movie business seem a license to print money, and then DVD in the 00's and "Marvel Syndrome" in the 10's gutted the movie-making business down to a crawl.
Now the industry literally revolves around "Record-breaking opening weekends", trying to cram all their business into getting everyone in the country to see the movie in four days, five or six times a year, which, with screen wide-release literally three times what it was in the late 80's, everybody in the country can. Massive theaters are virtually empty during the weekdays, except for a runaway hit movie, which can now last as long in theaters, as, gasp, three weeks!(Not to mention the permanent black name that corporate cineplexes have inflicted on an entire generation: Say the word "Movie theater" to anyone under 30, and I'll give you a buck-ninety-five if they DON'T start whining about "Dirty theaters", "Loud audiences", "Cellphones" and "Commercials". We now have a generation that literally does not see anything good about going out to see a movie, because they've never had any other experience of it.)
The huge overhead of running 15-20 screen movie fortresses out on the highway-mall jungle was a Boom, if not a Bubble, that was waiting to go Bust, but it didn't seem like anything downright catastrophic would cause it. Until we had to close the big chains for two months, and started coming to the rescue of "Independent arthouses" that were showing their loyalty to small films by virtually streaming them to their audiences, and making the support of downtown local theaters seem like the populist good-fight.
When This Is Over, all we'll remember is who the good guys were.
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9 hours ago, Sepiatone said:
Who are the "they" you refer to that keep showing clips of Mel Gibson's PASSION OF THE CHRIST? I've never seen clips of it anywhere since my only view of it 15 years ago.
A while ago, "They" were referred to as "the Passionistas", Religious-Right influencers so dazzled by the fact that a Really Big Hollywood Star made a Biblical movie, they not only ballot-stuffed the opening box office, but tried to spread hype that "Hollywood has now seen the success of Christian movies at the box office!" Until New Line tried believing that, and made "The Nativity Story" the next Christmas, which sank under the radar without a trace.
The other big hype at the time was to start a big (also ballot-stuffed) fan "movement" to demand that Passion be re-released in cineplexes every Easter as a "New tradition". So, studios tried that--With, just to play it safe, a new toned-down PG-13 cut that wouldn't scare the regular people. Unfortunately, the wishful folk didn't realize that theaters never bother with theatrical re-releases nowadays; the reissue barely played 400 theaters, and also sank without a trace. Apparently, those who wanted the "tradition" had already bought it on disk , and everyone else knew there were already BETTER New Testament movies. (But, like a certain other poster on the board, the Passionistas thought "Gee, if the Really-theaters show it again, that'll prove it's great!") 😀
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As for me, I've been plugging The Jesus Film (1979), The Gospel of John (2004) and Amazon's "Visual Bible: The Book of Matthew" every year, so I'll change things up:
The Greatest Story Ever Told is...actually better than its "campy roadshow flop" reputation that precedes it: What usually throws audiences off is that the book was based on a radio show that tried to retell the NT in modern conversational dialogue, and the movie retains some of the laid-back, more humanized depictions of the characters. Max Von Sydow is still too remote and icy as a Jesus, but Telly Savalas makes a realistically political and manipulative Pilate, David McCallum plays a Judas who's heartbroken at the idea of ratting on his friend, and Donald Pleasance is seductively creepy as the, wink-wink, "old Hermit" that Jesus meets in the desert. The "Around Jerusalem in 80 Days" gimmick of star cameos isn't as distracting as it sounds, and, like Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, is fun to see which name actors can play recognizable existing characters and who can't. (John Wayne as a Roman centurion, of course, is one of the "Can't"'s.)
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1 hour ago, Rudy's Girl said:
Some remakes of 2019
- Child's Play
- Charlie's Angels
- What Men Want (Formerly What Women Want)
- Pet Sematary
- Shaft
- The Grudge
Child's Play was public-domain MGM-orphan, Pet Sematary was Paramount-orphan (and Night of the Hunter is United Artists-orphan), Charlie's Angels and Shaft were supposed to reboot new "Franchise labels" for Sony and New Line, What Men Want was both "chick-washing" and "black-washing" old established titles, and The Grudge was just trying to revive old 90's hits.
There are a lot of reasons remakes are made these days, than just besides "Studios musta run out of ideas". If you think your rice and toilet-paper stockpile is getting a bit bare-shelf during the Quarantine, that's NOTHING compared to 10's studios trying to start "New franchises" without the indignity of having to hire screenwriters...
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6 hours ago, SansFin said:
These are not of Yakuza and some of them are quite long but they are the first ones to come to my mind to recommend to someone who wishes to explore Japanese cinema:
My Neighbor Totoro (1993)
Well, if you're going to include Studio Ghibli on the list of Japanese Films, the Miyazaki "trilogy" is generally considered to be My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) and Spirited Away (2002). There are others, of course, but those who are new at this must prioritize.
(I was going to post about the Galaxy Express 999 movie streaming for free on Amazon Prime, but seems they've just removed it and left the dim sequel instead. Oh well, at least they've still got Robot Carnival (1987), Project A-Ko (1986) and Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer (1984).)
QuoteKwaidan (1964)
This is a good "basic" Japanese Essential to watch alongside Kuroneko and Onibaba, since it also deals with the classic established ancient ghost-stories, but with a more abstract, full-color palette, on surreally artificial soundstages, than the other two modest-budgeted B&W films.
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(Two examples of a medical condition that has difficulty accepting the social approval/disapproval of others for their own self-perception...This week on TCM Neurology.)
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On 4/7/2020 at 3:30 AM, YourManGodfrey said:
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
This is one of those films that I didn't truly appreciate until the very end. During the film, I thought it was okay, but not great. When it ended, I was able to reflect on all of the absurdity that took place. Yojimbo and Sanjuro are still my top two, but this was a weird and wild ride from beginning to end. I think I'm going to watch Rashomon next, because I missed its previous showing on TCM. Then, I have a choice to make between Drunken Angel, Seven Samurai, and Red Beard before they expire in a few days. Any recommendations?
Seven Samurai, if nothing else. Three hours long, and (once the samurai start arriving in town, after a slow fifteen or twenty minute setup), literally TWO HOURS will go by before it even occurs to you to look at your watch.
After that, you're free to do Red Beard and Drunken Angel back to back, as two examples of Old Benign/Cynical Kurosawa Doctors.
Outside of TCM, Throne of Blood should be on the list somewhere, and if you can't get Ran for color Kurosawa, look up Dreams now that it's got a Criterion:
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Technically, it's because Night of the Hunter sank into the same United Artists orphan status as most other recent remakes.
Blithe Spirit, however, has ALWAYS been Public Domain. (And a play.)
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5 hours ago, jamesjazzguitar said:
As you know these requests are rarely about not being able to see the film(s) in question but instead the need for some type of tribute \ honor to be given.
Thus similar to the 'why doesn't TCM show this actor's film on their birthday' type post.
Also from Guess-Who. (Or two others, but, in 7 out of 10 cases...)
For whom the entire classic film world REVOLVES around whether or not one cable channel gave them mass-public validation, for him to get some indirect personal validation from--Instead of any personal issues about whether he himself was able to go out and watch them on disk.
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I never realized it was possible to have "Violet eyes" until Elizabeth Taylor started getting closeups in the 60's:
https://www.livescience.com/33149-did-elizabeth-taylor-really-have-violet-eyes.html
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Let everyone else quote the cheap 007 pun--I prefer to remember a "goddess" of 60's cinema:
(I missed the Cathy Gale years on The Avengers, but somebody had to show Mrs. Peel how to do it first)
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16 hours ago, spence said:
but as I said the network of all movie networks can't be complete without them, shouldn't have to rent them, or pay elsewhere to see them, tcm is the pinnacle
Remember when Rainbow Man--the guy who first invented the holding up of "John 3:13" at sports games--tried to get important TV time by holding hotel guests hostage, and after hearing the reason why, the police hostage negotiator diplomatically told him, quote, "With all due respect, sir...I think you watch a little too much TV"?
From the tone of your threads, spence, with all due "respect"...you may be watching a little too much TCM. 🙄
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1 hour ago, CinemaInternational said:
They had a HD copy on Showtime recently, but the version that aired on Friday is likely the original master or at most recent date the 1990s. It had the MGM/UA block logo that has pretty much been excised from almost all of the films that it appeared on in the late 80s. I can only think of one film on DVD that retained it in recent years: Rain Man.
Yeah, that pretty well tags both movies as just MGM Orphans that happened to be floating around for TCM to pick up. Both titles are pretty well omnipresent on streaming, and showing up on TCM shouldn't surprise anyone by now.
In the old birth-of-DVD days, we used to have to memorize the Public-Domain list, so we'd know ahead of time that a discount DVD of "Royal Wedding" or "My Man Godfrey" might not be the highest quality. Nowadays, we have to do it with late-80's/early-90's UA and Orion movies, every time "Hoosiers" or "Rob Roy" shows up.
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I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
The '19 version is being promoted as "The return of Richard Stanley!" - The breakout new-age flavor-of-the-week director who was discovered on Hardware (1990), but whose feature career infamously dropped off the map after the long shenanigans trying to get the 1996 Marlon Brando Island of Dr. Moreau completed.
There's a very good '14 documentary, Lost Souls, on the doomed making of Stanley's version of "Moreau", and...wow. The guy was a little....OUT THERE, even by Nic Cage standards. 😳