[Upcoming Releases]

 

[Your Favourite Foreign Language Films]

A Serbian Film - Milos is an aging porn star who lives in a small Serbian apartment with his young son and his wife that he loves to violently sleep with. Milos' popularity is fading and he needs money which he plans on getting by appearing in an art movie. Milos will not be shown the full script beforehand of course (only selected excerpts) Unknown to him, the director has plans for him much more violent and brutal than anything he would imagine and things will not go the way he wishes. The sexual violence depicted in this is much, MUCH more intense than in most other films and this film's brutality is famous. I can not downplay how horrifying the acts depicted in this film are. Much like Cannibal Holocaust, many theater goers actually thought the **** and violent sex acts in it were real after viewing it! This is not recommended to the squeamish.

[Somewhat Off-Topic: What have you been reading lately?]

4 hours ago, Vautrin said:

~~~~~~~~~. I don't take advice on literature from overweight American

imperialists and won't be starting now.

Let me guess. You dislike him because of the Perdicaris Affair? lol. Roosevelt was right that Dickens can really be a bit of a bore. Dickens could have really benefited from a better editor. 

[Somewhat Off-Topic: What have you been reading lately?]

7 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

i actually do think that thoughtfully abridged versions of DICKENS and ELIOT would not be a bad idea. A 120 page edition of DANIEL DERONDA would be sensational.

You actually reminded me of this quote from Teddy Roosevelt on Charles Dickens-

“The wise thing to do is simply to skip the bosh and twaddle and vulgarity and untruth, and get the benefit out of the rest.” – Theodore Roosevelt, on reading Charles Dickens

 

[Blame Star Wars (1977)?]

48 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:

And in spite of what my daughter insists, I think the FX hold up well enough after these lo, 42 years.  What we( meaning me and a few buddies) initially liked about the movie was that is was MORE than just a SCI-FI flick.  There were elements of the WESTERNS we grew up watching, and similar banter to that heard in those WWII flicks we saw on TV since we were kids. And all wrapped around an Errol Flynn swashbuckler!  

I will never NOT like watching this movie.

Sepiatone

There are also many visual and thematic references to Kurosawa's samurai films.

[Blame Star Wars (1977)?]

4 minutes ago, NipkowDisc said:

does tonite's version of star wars have that stupid cgi smoke ring when the death star explodes?

and screw that 'a new hope' HS too.

It's most likely going to be the remastered version that appears on other TV channels from time to time.

[Somewhat Off-Topic: What have you been reading lately?]

1 hour ago, speedracer5 said:

I have a really hard time reading and enjoying 19th century literature, specifically British literature. I can't stand Charles Dickens. Though, I must admit that I only read Great Expectations in school.  That's the only Dickens I've read. I feel like that is enough.  

You mean you've never read a Christmas Carol? That one is much shorter and to the point. It's a good one for the Christmas season. We read that in school at a really young age. I don't really like British literature either but I love 19th century literature, particularly the Young Hegelians like "Saint Max." 

[Somewhat Off-Topic: What have you been reading lately?]

2 hours ago, laffite said:

...and I believe he practically saves Martin's life while in America. As you and others probably know, Dickens visited America in 1842 and was none to pleased about the place. MC was his first novel post-America visit and he airs his decidedly naegative views.

It makes a lot of sense considering the 19th Century Gilded Age US was like a caricature of the poverty-filled societies he wrote about and detested.

[Was this cartoon on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse"?]

Here is a complete list of cartoons show on Pee Wee's Playhouse-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pee-wee's_Playhouse#Golden_Age_cartoons

[Was it really necessary to remove the Wizard of Oz thread.]

2 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:

But yeah, the OP's mistake in that thread was one of the all-time whoppers, and my first thought, too, was that he personally requested the thread be taken down. I don't even know how one does that, but I presume there's a way.

I think in order to do that, you have to private message the moderator.

[Netflix Splurges on Big-Budget Movies]

2 hours ago, laffite said:

During the couple or so months I had the streaming plan, this was the best movie. There were three foreign TV shows that I rather liked, two seasons each of The Paper (Croatia), Faud (Israel) and Occupied (Norway).

One good foreign TV show available on Netflix, that I have been watching recently is Dark - a creepy supernatural show from Germany about a small town affected by the disappearance of two children and a similar incident that happened decades ago resurfacing. Many have been comparing this show to the US show Stranger Things but I haven't seen that one so I can't comment. 

[Films in 2019]

 

[Films in 2019]

My review of Wolf's Call (2019)-

Wolf's Call (2019)- Decent French thriller from Antonin Baudry. Francois Civil plays a radar expert in the French navy who experts in detecting missiles. Jihadist terrorists get a hold of a Russian sub and an empty nuclear missile and fire it at France in the hope of provoking France and the West into bombing Russia and starting WWIII. A rogue French submarine captain with the nuclear codes will not accept this answer and is hell bent on nuking Russia at all costs, while Civil and the rest of the crew do everything in their power to stop him. The plot to this is a bit long and convoluted but it still maintains to be an interesting film. The CGI effects are very noticeable but it doesn't take away from the experience of the film. A librarian with the odd name "Prairie" serves as a love interest in the beginning of the film but this seemed unnecessary and only takes away from the story. This of course leads to a disgusting sex scene made only worse by the actress' small, triple A cup breasts (she seriously looks like a male in that scene  ). Seeing her flat body rolling around was probably one of the least sensual, sex scenes I've seen in a movie. The script for this was extremely poor as well (when questioned about the poor state of infrastructure on the ship, a sailor blurts out "THIS IS FRANCE!!"). The script is littered with non-sequiturs and odd attempts at humor that only fall flat. Not to spoil anything here but the ending to this is the kind of cheesy, unrealistic one you expect from these types of movies that would not happen at all in this situation in real life. You can probably guess it yourself without seeing it. Overall, this is a decent way to spend 2 hours if you enjoy cheesy action thrillers but I wouldn't really recommend it. I would give it a score of 5.5/ 10.

[Box Office: Disney Hits Record $7.67B in 2019 Global Revenue as 'Lion King' Nears $1B]

7 hours ago, EricJ said:

Consider me not amazed that foreign countries went to see talking CGI animals.  😐

(After all the desperation of Warner/DC fans to say "But...Batman v. Superman was a hit if you count the German audience!", it's become a joke among movie fans to say "Only flops, fanboys and studio execs care about 'Worldwide box office'".
The China-mania for Transformers and Pirates 5--and Lion King--pretty much knocked the credibility out of that one for good.  And let's not even start on the "Ice Age" movies.)

There's a reason for that--Okay, two, if you count Dumbo:

The foreign markets (especially China) are guaranteed to eat up whatever Disney churns out. Even the mediocre movies that don't do as well as expected in the US, make it up through the foreign market. The Columbia Ghostbusters remake not getting a proper China release is a major reason that it bombed. China alone is bound to keep Disney happy for a long time.

As for the future of Disney, I'm sure they'll find even more of their older films to remake in the future. Maybe they'll even do a remake of the 1001 Dalmatians remake.  I wouldn't be surprised.

[Box Office: Disney Hits Record $7.67B in 2019 Global Revenue as 'Lion King' Nears $1B]

4 minutes ago, TopBilled said:

They're turning out a lot of remakes this year: DUMBO, ALADDIN and now THE LION KING.

Mulan too.

 

[I Just Watched...]

8 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

For me, Abbas Kiarostami is the least interesting filmmaker in the past 20 years that's considered by critics to be a major talent. Perhaps I haven't seen the right movies (I still haven't seen Taste of Cherry), but what I have seen (Close-Up, Certified Copy) has left me cold, and usually extremely bored. The one exception is The Wind Will Carry Us, which I hated for the first 75% of the movie, but felt it came together to say something interesting by the end. From the prior descriptions, and based on Kiarostami's other works, 24 Frames sounds absolutely dreadful. 

But not everything is meant for everyone's tastes, and I should resign myself to this particular director's works holding no appeal for me.

It's way too long but I thought it was very visually beautiful. Like looking at a painting in movie form. That said, it really, REALLY would work better at a shorter length.

[I Just Watched...]

24 Frames (2017) - This Iranian art film is the last film of famed director Abbas Kiarostami. The film has no overarching narrative or plot. The film brings to life scenes of before and after paintings of greats like Brueghel. It is visually stunning and each frame is overlaid with real animals and people moving about in a way that tries to blend the real life motion with the stillness of the painting. The fake and the real are displayed alongside each other interchangeably. As I mentioned, there is no real narrative to it but a crow appears in the background of each painting linking them together. The soundtrack is also quite nice and fits the theme. The Madame Butterfly aria blasts as a tree is shaken by the wind and a French woman sings a slow love song to people enjoying the sight of the Eiffel Tower. Reading the IMDB page, I thought this was going to be very dull but surprisingly, I found it very beautiful and soothing. The only qualm I have is that it is a bit too long at almost two hours. I feel it is too long for such a plot-less, non-narrative idea. It would have worked better as a 30 or 45 minutes short or with the frames separated into multiple films to be viewed at different times. Though overall, this is a visually engrossing film and worth watching. A good final film from Kiarostami.

[Criterion: 1000 releases and counting]

I have only one Criterion DVD of a Hitchcock film (and it was a gift) but I do not even have a working DVD player at the time and many Criterion films turn up on TCM in great condition. I do not need to own a large collection of things so I rarely buy a lot.

[has anyone watched cnn's the movies]

Huh, looks like mostly mainstream Hollywood blockbusters (Marvel really doesn't need to be there certainly). No Independent movies? No In the Mood for Love or Look Who's Back?

[Your Favourite Foreign Language Films]

1. Identity Card,  Ondrej Trojan, Czech Republic

2. The Illusionist, Sylvain Chomet, France

3. Nostalgia For the Light, Patricio Guzman, Chile

4. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand

5. Trigun: Badlands Rumble, Satoshi Nishimura, Japan

6. A Serbian Film,  Srdjan Spasojevic, Serbia

7.  Karl the Butcher vs. Axe, Andreas Schnaas, Timo Rose, Germany

[Somewhat Off-Topic: What have you been reading lately?]

15 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

My first thought whenever I meet or read anyone who professes to have 1. read in full and 2. liked any of the following: PORTRAIT OF A LADY, MOBY DICK, MIDDLEMARCH, 100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE and ANYTHING BY THOMAS WOOLF- GOD FORGIVE ME, but my first thought is "you're lying to me."

I mean, you may be a good person- but you're lying to me about this, and nothing you say can convince me otherwise. I'm like the cops in the JonBenet case you are LYING about one or both of those things and MY MIND IS MADE UP.

It's like people wearing YOKO ONO TEE SHIRTS, like, you MUST be doing this ironically, I accept no other explanation.

 

I would add Tess of the d'Ubervilles and Vanity Fair to this list too.

[Criterion: 1000 releases and counting]

1 hour ago, EricJ said:

I...don't know what's showing on TCM in October, but now you know what's part of the boxset and what isn't.  

I think he's asking if they are going to show the Criterion touch up of the movies in October. My guess would be yes.

[Criterion: 1000 releases and counting]

8 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

I hear you on that; also, not that CRITERION is without merit, I really enjoy A LOT of their COVER ART:

I like this one quite a bit.

[what movie score shoulda won an oscar for best score?]

This one was from before there was a reward for scoring, I believe but it should have won for Best Song at the least. It was not even nominated.

 

[Will Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ Live Up to the Box Office Hype?]

It looks okay but I don't want to see it in theaters. If it goes on demand or is up on Netflix, I will see it. I heard that Manson is only in it a few seconds unfortunately, so I don't know how the murders will tie into the story.