Technically, the right word would be "effective", but it's inappropriate in this film's context. One thing I noticed early in the movie is how it manages to convey the inhumanity of the Nazis without ever making use of the usual movie Nazi mannerisms: There are no rolling 'r's or messed up 'th's in their pronounciation or anything even remotely resembling a German accent; no ridiculous Hitler moustaches; the fascist ideological tutor looks like a picture book 19th/20th century Brit; and not a single German actor is in this. It makes the message more powerful that it is all the actions and not the look that makes the horror of these characters. The final climax of the movies stays loyal to this – over several minutes, there is no dialogue, just helpless one-way shouts, and the horror unfolds from what happens, not from graphic depiction.
A really fine western, it has the same plot as The Comancheros, but much meaner. This is reflected in the scores, Bernstein's music for The Comanchereos is big & melodic, where as Goldsmith provides a more spit & sawdust score. I think it's his best western music. I think Fox missed a trick in not pairing these two films up in a two DVD package. I know it's still awaiting a DVD release in the states. I have the Spanish DVD, which looks good but zooms into 16.9 after the titles. It's just been released in France & if the aspect ratio is correct I might re-buy it. It's one of my favorite westerns. 8/10.
Horror Express (1972) - 4/10. Atmospheric train ride with monster/alien on board wreaking havoc. Pretty silly, but I love any movie with the pairing of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Telly Savalas was playfully over the top in a small role as a Cossack.
This is a Romanian sword-and-sandal film directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu, and it's a fairly good one too. I found from amazon.de (a good place to search for rarities) with the title "Kampf Der Titanen Gegen Rom". It includes the original Romanian audio and English subtitles.
The film takes place during a war fought between Romans and Dacians during the reign of Emperor Domitian. The main character is a Roman soldier named Severus. During the war he learns of his past connection to Dacians, leading him to a sort of a loyality crisis.
The film is certainly impressive visually. Even though the picture quality isn't that great, those wide images of Romanian landscape are still beautiful. The battle scenes are great, and so is the guy who portrays Domitian. The film is also very respectable in the sense that it does not feel like it has to add some nonsense to the historical narrative.
Inglourious Basterds. It was OK, but far too much talk, it was like a filmed radio play. Tarantino does write a great dialogue scene, & the pay off is always good, but not enough action for me. I'm glad he hasn't gone done the gunge route with the visuals, the picture is beautiful. 6/10.
The Lake House - A surprisingly sweet, charming and consistently good and interesting film - and I don't usually like Sandra Bullock's acting. There are some elements I'm still pondering that didn't seem to make sense, but all and all it worked well - 9
Triangle. A friend lent me a Blu-ray of it. I hadn't heard of it, & really enjoyed it. To watch this, the less you know about the film the better, enough to say it's a Twilight Zone kind of thingy - I'm still trying to figure it out! 7/10.
and
Lethal Weapon. I always enjoy this, it just works so well, & a great feel good ending. I look at all four every couple of years. The other three aren't as good, but still very enjoyable 10/10 - 8/10 - 6/10 - 8/10.
Nice, but it dragged on for too long. Nice Seventies atmosphere and a great sinister Frank Lagella, but else nothing much about it. Too bad, I actually like Richard Kelly.
I found these three flicks used on Ebay for two bucks each, so I figured what the heck.
The Thing From Another World
I had never seen this film in it's unedited form until now. I only remembered two scenes from seeing it on commercial television. The Kerosene tossing fire scene and the electrocution ending. Man, what a snorer this "classic" is. Takes forever to get going. A bizarre relationship between Sheridan and Tobey. The silliness of the vegetable creature. This is one case where a remake was much more entertaining than the original. Sorry to rate it 5/10.
Starship Troopers 2 - Hero Of The Federation
The best way to describe this film is that it looks like an episode of the original "Outer Limits". Murky photography and low production values mar every scene. At least the commentary track and "Making Of" features made it worth the two dollars. 3/10.
Starship Troopers 3 - Marauder
A marked improvement over Part 2 in the series. From the first five minutes you can see it had a much bigger budget than the second film. Casper Van Dien returns to his role of Johnny Rico. A very cute Marnette Patterson has a supporting role. We get to see the flying "Marauder" suits featured in the original novel. Certainly watchable. The DVD has two commentary tracks. 6/10.
"Nice" is the best way to describe Amin Matalqa's pleasant if sorta sleepy character drama, but hey, nice to see "one of us" in the director's chair (his DVD commentary with composer Austin Wintory is a geeky delight, reminding me of the hour-long phone conversations we used to have back in the 90s). Great touch dedicating the film to Michael Kamen and Basil Poledouris, as well.
I had never seen this film in it's unedited form until now. I only remembered two scenes from seeing it on commercial television. The Kerosene tossing fire scene and the electrocution ending. Man, what a snorer this "classic" is. Takes forever to get going. A bizarre relationship between Sheridan and Tobey. The silliness of the vegetable creature. This is one case where a remake was much more entertaining than the original. Sorry to rate it 5/10.
Wow! I think that's the first negative review I've ever seen of The Thing. I've always loved it and find it's a tightly-paced little flick. It's on a regular rotation in my DVD collection and I easily give it a 10/10. The remake is good (though it's more a faithful adaptation of the original story than a remake of the 1951 film), though I prefer the original since I was watching it for a long time before ever seeing the John Carpenter version.
A masterpiece on all levels and one of filmdom's finest. I've never ceased to be amazed by its power both in the smaller moments and the larger epic battle scenes. Beware the short prints that leave out the more intimate scenes and don't tell the full story. This is a movie that requires time and patience to be fully appreciated.
I had never seen this film in it's unedited form until now. I only remembered two scenes from seeing it on commercial television. The Kerosene tossing fire scene and the electrocution ending. Man, what a snorer this "classic" is. Takes forever to get going. A bizarre relationship between Sheridan and Tobey. The silliness of the vegetable creature. This is one case where a remake was much more entertaining than the original. Sorry to rate it 5/10.
Wow! I think that's the first negative review I've ever seen of The Thing.
I really wanted to like it. I wanted to add it to my collection of 50's classics such as 'War of the Worlds', 'Them!', 'Forbidden Planet' and 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'. The film just left me (ahem) cold. But then I give 1968's 'Night of the Living Dead' a higher rating than 'Citizen Kane' just to show you where my head's at.
This one simply failed to entertain me. I hoped in vain for some of that 1960s Michael Caine cool that FUNERAL IN BERLIN or BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN offered. The movie looked like it was a lot of labour for all parts involved to shoot it, but it did not look like a labour of love.
Matt Monro's "On Days Like These" was wonderfully out of place though. I've hummed it the whole day.
I figured this movie could go either way. But I had no idea that, if it was bad, it would be this bad. I thought it captured the spirit of Holmes to a degree, but it was ultimately sunk by a story that seemed to make little sense half the time and was just boring the rest, with a villain who's off-screen for far too long to do any good. Not to mention the worst Hans Zimmer score I've ever heard. I'll stick with the Granada Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett.
But then I give 1968's 'Night of the Living Dead' a higher rating than 'Citizen Kane' just to show you where my head's at.
Haha!! I would probably do the same, even though I don't care for the original Living Dead.
In my younger days I used to find room to squeeze in as many appropriate titles for viewing during the season of Holy Week. Now I have to be more selective given job responsibilities, but increasingly when faced with a choice of viewing this or "King Of Kings" I inevitably choose this one, because while I might like Rozsa's score from the latter better than Newman's for this one (and I have indeed spent the last two days listening to the CD on my car), as a film this one works better for me. Ray's effort just doesn't deliver the same impact that this one does for me (though both Zefirrelli and Gibson would surpass both films considerably with their later efforts).
