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Posted: |
Jan 18, 2020 - 10:29 AM
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By: |
joan hue
(Member)
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Once Upon A Time In America (l984): 8.5 out of 10
I did some research on this movie. Seems that Leone wanted this movie to be two 3 hour movies. Hollywood said no. Ebert saw it at the Cannes festival (the 4 hour version, I think) and raved about it. Hollywood cut the released version in America to 139 minutes, and it was savaged by critics as it didn’t make much sense.
I have watched it at various time over the years and just found the “Director’s Cut” at my library. It was a 2-disc set lasting about 3 hours. Some snippets or cut scenes were dovetailed into the movie, and those scenes were a bit grainy with poor lighting. Still, I think they contributed to the narrative.
I think this is an amazing movie even though there are still some loopholes in the narrative. I.E. How did Noodles (DeNiro) manage to never see a picture on TV or in newspapers of Woods as Secretary? The child actors were great and certainly resembled their adult counterparts. I thought all the adult actors were excellent except for Elizabeth McGovern who acted like a piece of petrified wood. (It was also hard to watch how females were treated. Slaps, slugs, rape, etc.)
Morricone’s music sported only about 3 themes, but the themes certainly gave emotional gravitas to the narrative. The main theme is haunting and gorgeous. I read he was not eligible for an Oscar because his name was not in the opening credits. Huh?
I’d always associated Mafia with the Italians. Bad stereotype. So, watching the Jewish Mafia juxtaposed against Orthodox Jews was very interesting.
Spoilers ahead about the ending. I believe many years ago we had a discussion about the very enigmatic ending. Did Max die or not? After the garbage truck goes by, who are those people that drive by Noodles and who look like they are out of The Great Gatsby? Why is Noodles back in the opium den grinning at the end? Good stuff for speculation.
The themes are clear. Poverty that leads to violence, love, abiding friendship, loss and betrayal. It is heartbreaking watching Noodles call Woods Mr. Secretary instead of Max. Noodles’ memories of the past, even with its guilt and heartbreak, will NOT be changed. His memories of the past will remain indelible even in the mirror of reality.
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There does seem to be a Rip Van Winkle subtext re Noodles - he remains a permanent adolescent/unwise young man, thus the repellent treatment of women, his being unaware of the changing times (not knowing Woods is the Secretary of Commerce), the implication that the 1960s scenes are all Noodles' "pipe dream."
It's a rich, rich film even with its criminal characters whose behavior and actions often make you wince.
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Posted: |
Jan 18, 2020 - 10:56 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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BOMBSHELL (2019) - 8/10
This film, about the sexual harassment charges that brought down Roger Ailes, the head of Fox News, received three well-deserved Oscar nominations. First, for the makeup, which converts actresses and actors, both well-known and not so well-known, into dead ringers for their real life counterparts at the Fox News Channel. If you know these people from watching that channel, you can see how good the re-creations are. If you don't know them, they are identified for you with onscreen titles, but you'll just have to take my word for it regarding the uncanniness of the portrayals.
The second nomination is for Charlize Theron's portrayal of Megyn Kelly, the once prime-time star of Fox, who incurred Donald Trump's wrath when she asked, during a Republican primary debate, about his history of verbal derision of women's looks. Theron has a naturally husky voice like Kelly's, but she also nails the anchor's speech patterns to a tee. Her character is the most conflicted in the film, as she struggles with whether to come out in support of former Fox morning star Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), who is suing Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) personally.
The third nomination goes to Margot Robbie, who plays a fictional character who is a composite of many female staffers who worked at Fox. Robbie received her nomination for one long, squirm-inducing scene in which she has a private meeting with Ailes in his office. If you've ever wondered what went on behind closed doors with the likes of Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, et al, here it is served up in all of its toxicity.
Jay Roach directs the film in a brisk 109 minutes. This is obviously not the Jay Roach of the Austin Powers films or MEET THE FOCKERS, but the Roach of the TV movie GAME CHANGE and TRUMBO.
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Posted: |
Jan 19, 2020 - 5:13 PM
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By: |
Xebec
(Member)
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Spring Breakers
1/10
Unbelievably tedious. Edited like a Netflix documentary on a subject not worthy of documenting. James Franco is pretty decent. But it's apparently one of the films of the decade, so i'm out of touch.
Triple Frontier
6/10
Decent action heist film. Solid cast.
Lone Survivor
6/10
Decent war action, based on a true story, so probably about 50% true. Didn't like the score.
1917 (i typed 2017 originally)
6.5/10
Decent enough film. Good but not great. Looks very nice. I'd heard it was long one shot, but it's clearly broken up into several big chunks (and that's without the dozens of cuts i probably missed). I think sticking to that formula doesn't help it.
The music makes itself known on a couple of occasions, in one scene it builds up rather grandly as a soldier runs through a ruined town (though why the music went big there i found odd, as it built up from a non-event to a non-event).
The story is fine, feels fairly bog-standard, but the way its shot made me just think of watching a cut scene from video game at times: "there's a hole, you have to jump", "go down this tunnel to find the way out".
There's less emotion in the film than you get from the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth. I thought Dunkirk did a better job of getting you to care about a standard Tommy.
Some dodgy CGI animals, falling into water, and composites of explosions or something odd looking going on near the end.
Some nice visual set-up and callbacks. It's worth a watch.
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Posted: |
Jan 20, 2020 - 1:56 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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12 Angry Men (1957) ... 8/10
My second or third viewing of this classic non court-room court-room drama ... this TV satellite broadcast gave superb definition (at times the B&W image looked 3-D) and the film's 90+ minute running time never flags.
The star cast are, of course, fantastic though I've never been a fan of Ed Begley and, whilst liking Lee J. Cobb (so many great roles) I find his role in this a little too OTT.
It is, of course, a disturbing story and we're left wondering whether the Jury came to the right decision. Putting aside the individuals' prejudices on which the story hangs, one of the most disturbing scenes, for me, is right at the start: the uncredited Rudy Bond - the Judge - who in his brief scene portrays someone so bored with his job, shows no compassion or concern, but basically tells the Jury to go and deliberate. Whether or not this scripting was intentional, I hope it's not a reflection of reality (then or now). No doubt any competent Defence council (attorney) would use this as grounds for an appeal 
Not a film I'll rush to watch again for a year or two but I'd happily view it sometime.
Mitch
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A New World (Terrence Malick, 2005) (6/10)
Finally saw this yesterday, and this was at times rather painful to watch.
The plot in a nutshell: In 1607, Englishmen arrive in “The New World” to build a colony, but soon find themselves starving and unable to cope with the harsh living conditions. Pocahontas, who for some strange reason is never, not even once in the movie, actually called “Pocahontas” or any other name of hers for that matter, falls in love with Captain John Smith and helps the colonists, then, after Smith chooses career before love, she falls in love with John Rolfe, travels to England, marries Rolfe and has a son with him, gets finally reunited with John Smith, and dies.
That is basically what happens. Why did I call this painful to watch? I have seen many bad movies over the years, and some of them have been really bad and a lot of fun nevertheless, and some of them are just misguided or poorly conceived or whatever.
The New World is something special. It is a gorgeous movie, wonderfully cast (with, among others, Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale, a terribly underused Wes Studi and a perfectly chosen Q’orianka Kilcher as “Pocahontas”), authentically looking, beautifully photographed, and onto the comparatively simple and well known story Malick hinges a multitude of different perspectives and points of view (similarly to what he did in the THE THIN RED LINE, a movie I love), there are many great moments and wonderful ideas in THE NEW WORLD. I am sure that many must have thought they were making a masterpiece while shooting this.
Yet the final movie has issues, and what is most painful about it seems to me that the issues could have easily been avoided and the movie COULD have been a masterpiece.
Were it not for two things, but these two things really set the movie down a few notches:
First of all, as gorgeous as many of the scenes look individually, they often seem to be cut and paste together at random. I know Malick isn’t always interested in straight dramatic narrative, fine, and THE THIN RED LINE worked very well the way it is, but THE THIN RED LINE was still a coherent movie to watch.
In THE NEW WORLD, pacing and flow are sometimes off to the point where it pulls you out of the movie. It’s as if the movie fell through a shredder and was then hastily and wrongly re-assembled with Scotch tape, with certain chunks left out.
Secondly, the music… good lord, what was Malick thinking? Now, I really love the music of both Richard Wagner and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, they were great composers, and both Rheingold and the Piano Concerto #23 are wonderful pieces of music, I have several recordings of either piece. But in this movie, they completely ruin the mood, they are devastating. This is a textbook example of the importance of film scoring and where it differs from classical compositions meant to be listened to on their own. Whenever Wagner, and worse even Mozart get used -- and unfortunately Malick uses them a lot -- the movie becomes cringeworthy to watch. The music cries out for attention, yet is only patchwork, only pieces of both compositions are used, a coherent mood is never established. It just does not work. At all. Not one bit. It almost hurts.
Whenever the scenes are actually scored with the music James Horner wrote, on the other hand, the movie becomes alive, and all of a sudden the movie clicks and seems to work. As someone who is -- as I said -- a big fan of Wagner and Mozart, I cannot for my life figure out why Malick thought their music would fit into his film, especially not when he had such a wonderful film score composed for the film that actually DID work. He must be tone deaf or something.
So in the end, I am glad now that I’ve seen this film, I am sure I will watch it again one day, because there is much to admire in the way the movie is shot and parts of it work very well. But the terrible editing and the mis-use -- no, let me re-phrase that -- the abuse of otherwise great pieces of classical music force the movie down several notches, so a “6” is the best I can do. With better editing and James Horner instead of Mozart and Wagner, this could have been great.
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Zwar, your review is worthy of its own thread. Don't let it die in this xebec wasteland.
Thanks, Mr. Phelps! I watched it yesterday and had to get if off my chest. :-)
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Posted: |
Jan 20, 2020 - 11:56 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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SEVEN WAYS FROM SUNDOWN (1960) - 7/10
"Seven Jones" (Audie Murphy), the brother of a murdered Texas Ranger, joins the force. Upon his arrival at his post in west Texas, the newly minted Ranger and his sergeant (John McIntire) are assigned to track down outlaw "Jim Flood" (Barry Sullivan), who unbeknownst to Jones is the man who killed his brother. While tracking their quarry, the pair are ambushed by Flood, and the sergeant is killed. Jones eventually captures Flood in New Mexico, only to find him quite a personable fellow--jovial even. Flood vows, however, that he will not go back to stand trial, while Jones is equally determined to take him back. So begins the long trek home, as Jones tries to thwart Flood's constant attempts at escape, while dealing with Apaches, bounty hunters, and trail towns filled with Flood's friends.
This sturdy western marks writer Clair Huffaker's first feature film screenplay, sourced from one of his unpublished novels. (He would go on to script such westerns as RIO CONCHOS and THE WAR WAGON.) Although George Sherman was originally hired to direct SEVEN WAYS FROM SUNDOWN, he requested to be relieved of the assignment after the picture's start date was delayed. Harry Keller (DAY OF THE BADMAN, 1958) took over. William Lava and Irving Gertz scored the film.
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I saw Seven Ways recently Bob. Never been a massive fan of Audie but this was more than watchable. Quite decent dialogue between murphy and Sullivan, who plays a likeable rogue.
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