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One eyed jacks, Brando.
Been a few years since i saw this. Didnt remember much about it. Had a bit of a reputation of being a little slow, and although i adore the beautiful love theme and main title, i have never quite 'got' the adoration of the full score, so i wanted to check out how it fitted in the film.
It is certainly well-crafted and an interesting story of cold-dish revenge and how circumstances can alter intentions.
Others will know more about it than me but there were reports of Brando being impossible on set and waiting three days for the right wave in the background! But overall the final product seems worth it.
I found that the score in the film fitted very well - in fact, you notice it more each time that lucious love theme cuts in - to me Friedhofer seems to have almost taken the perfect pace of the theme from the coastal setting which cleverly seems move in time with the waves.
Some good performances from the main actors and memorable support from ben johnson and slim pickens and katy jurado.
It sustained its length quite well, and oozes class. proper film, 8.5 outta ten.
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Five card stud on tcm.
Havent seen this in years and, although a little bit silly, it was more watchable than i remembered.
Good score by Jarre whch could do with a release. I always recalled the lively Dean Martin title song, nice tune altho some of the lyrics and the bridge in the middle seemed a bit forced and crowbarred in, although that said i have been humming it all day. ..He was king at Five card stud...!
Incredible supporting cast of western stalwarts, Denver Pyle, Whit Bissell, John Anderson, Roy Jensen, Ted de corsia (the villain in sterling Haydens Gun Battle in Monterrey) and the first time i saw Yaphet Kotto.
7 out of 10.
Anyone else a fan of this one or its score?
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QUO VADIS?, the 2001 polish film. 170min international version (miniseries cut exists).
4/10.
The irritating overuse of close-ups put me off. Even on TV it got annoying. I can't imagine what it must be like watching this in a theatre (it was intended for international theatrical release). Actors all unknown outside of Poland. Not terribly charismatic, though the actress who played Lygia was very beautiful. Nero, OTOH, looked like a character from Lord of the Rings. Acting Ok to terrible. Cinematography, not so great. Better than average score by Jan Kaczmarek. The director was Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 78 at at time. Now dead. The pacing, even in the "short" version, feels like that of a 78 year-old. At least the Colosseum scenes with the lions are fairly brutal. 
Not terrible. Just dull. Now I like the 1951 original more, and even the 1985 Italian TV mini series with Klaus Maria Brandauer as Nero doesn't feel as lame as it used to be.
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Posted: |
Aug 27, 2013 - 8:46 PM
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By: |
DeputyRiley
(Member)
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:-) A favorite. Fine cast... great atmospherics (by ace cinematographer Dean Cundey and makeup effects wiz... Rob Bottin (who also played Captain Blake). And, I love the score. Thanks Deputy...
-----
Into the Blue (2005) -- 6/10
A little better than average. I liked that I didn't really know where the story was going. Unfortunately it ultimately didn't go anywhere great, but I was guessing throughout the film and there were a few surprises and misdirections that were fun. Josh Brolin having a good time as a bad guy is always fun -- in this film I loved how good he was with little student children, taking them on a tour and making them laugh and teaching them about deep sea salvage...while he probably has several dead bodies nearby. Scott Caan has tremendous energy which I like, but he's pretty much doing the same thing here as he always does. Paul Walker as usual isn't great but somehow I always like watching him in movies, no matter which. Jessica Alba was good. I really liked all of the action set on the ocean floor, it felt clever and unique to me to take a cookie-cutter drug-dealers-and-treasure-seekers thriller story and staging most of the major events and chases on, in, or under water. Overall not a great maritime adventure thriller, but not a terrible one either.
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Posted: |
Aug 31, 2013 - 7:07 PM
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By: |
TominAtl
(Member)
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The Grandmaster - 7/10
Having seen countless numbers of martial arts films due to living with someone from Asia who has a predication towards those kinds of films. What makes this film a bit of an exception is it's execution. It's way more artsy than say "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and it takes itself extremely seriously as apposed to most other "chop socky" films if you will.
The film follows Ip Sun, the legendary kung fu master whose biggest claim to fame is that he is the one who found and taught the legendary Bruce Lee.
The movie starts in the early 1900's, just before Japan invaded China shows his rise to grand master status while one by one defeats other grand masters of other forms of kung fu. The film is beautifully shot but is a bit claustrophobic in that most of the scenes are shot in close ups or medium close ups. Very few master shots in show. In addition, many shots during the action scenes are in slow mo, showing detailed close ups of everything, from feet dragging across the floor to rain drops splattering off a characters hat while spinning with a round kick. It makes for great cinematography but it stifles the action too much. The color palette is very reminiscent of "Snow Falling on Cedars" if you want a reference. Gorgeous but slow.
My main beef with the film is that perhaps due to edits made for America, the film does jump around in time and the final 30 mins do not focus on the main character but rather his love interest and what happened to her. It makes for an odd ending, with a 10 min coda on what he did after her story ends.
So overall its a good film to watch but is a bit frustrating at times. It comes across as an epic film, looks like an epic film, and the pace is such too, but it falls under 2 hrs and feels like 3.
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RIDDICK 0/10
Crap story [essentially all of it is in the trailer] as is the character development but all that could have been forgiven if it actually brought the noise and was balls to wall action packed...and it wasn't. I honestly wouldn't even call it an action movie.
A massive let down.
-- The fight between THE ROCK and VIN DIESEL was more intense then ANYTHING in this film.
AVOID
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