Douglas, Kirk and Michael - Catalogue Of Great And Multi Genre Films.

Jan 21, 2019 4:33:54 GMT biker1 said:

Kirk Douglas 10
out of the past
champion
ace in the hole
lonely are the brave
seven days in may
paths of glory
the bad and the beautiful
young man with a horn
spartacus
gunfight at the o.k. corral


Michael Douglas 10
wall street
falling down
the china syndrome
romancing the stone
fatal attraction
basic instinct
behind the candelabra
traffic
coma
the ghost and the darkness

Nice one biker. I will have to give another try to The Ghost and the Darkness as it has been many years since I saw it last. Something bugged me about it, maybe the CGI? So I'll have to go in again.

Young Man of Music/Man With a Horn I really liked, though Kirk takes some getting used to as a musician, but I gave it a strong 8/10 on review.

Jan 21, 2019 12:05:28 GMT timshelboy said:

Yes both of them major stars of their eras and I reckon I have seen 90% plus of each

Best to worst Top Tens

Kirk

SEVEN DAYS IN MAY ( I envy you watching this for the first time - a knockout film)

THE ARRANGEMENT (Shamefully underrated - both the movie and his performance - far more vulnerable than usual)

And I could actually recommend at least another ten!

HMs to {unranked) MAN WITHOUT A STAR, IN HARMS WAY, CHAMPION, IS PARIS BURNING (although he has nothing cameo) ,20000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA,  GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL, DETECTIVE STORY, THE VIKINGS, LUST FOR LIFE, PATHS OF GLORY and TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN

Avoid (like the plague) - HOLOCAUST 2000 sucks big time

Michael (actually surprised how easy it was to find ten I liked that much)

BASIC INSTINCT

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA (a total joy)

WONDER BOYS (ditto - real breath of fresh air in a CV overcluttered with wannabe "controversial"sex thrillers*)

THE CHINA SYNDROME

FATAL ATTRACTION

FALLING DOWN

ROMANCING THE STONE

THE GAME

THE WAR OF THE ROSES

TRAFFIC

AVOID - DISCLOSURE was pretty poor

* loved the in joke in 1997's IN & OUT - where Michael gets an Oscar nomination for a film called PRIMARY URGES  Would love to see that one!

Oh I defo look forward to Seven days In May, what a cast list!

That's uncanny you put forward The Arrangement so strongly, because it caught my attention the other day because I was going to do a Richard Boon thread and he's in it! It completely slipped my mind. I honestly hadn't heard of it before - and I love Dunaway as well!! I wonder if it's unseen over the years due to accessibility? I don't recall it showing on British TV, and there is no British DVD release I can see.

Yep, I found it hard to leave a few out of Kirk's top ten, OK Corall in particular. 

Indeed, Michael's are more easy to put down. I have actually grown to like Disclosure, I really like how it seized the day as regards the time it was made. Now I'm more on board with the film it is and not what I had initially hoped it would be - and what the trailers hinted at it would be! I was surprised my review went down really well on line as I expected most to feel the way you do about it. >

Sexual harassment is about power. When did I have the power? When? 

Disclosure is directed by Barry Levinson and co-adapted to screenplay by Paul Attanasio and Michael Crichton from Crichton's own novel of the same name. It stars Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald Sutherland, Roma Maffia, Dylan Baker, Caroline Goodall and Rosemary Forsyth. Music is scored by Ennio Morricone.

Tom Sanders (Douglas) is an executive at DigiCom, a high-tech computer company, who hopes that now it's finally his time to get promotion. Passed over for an outsider, he's further irked when it turns out to be Meredith Johnson (Moore), an old passionate flame of his from years previously. When Meredith arranges for a meeting between the two later that evening, Tom finds himself sexually harassed by her. Spurning her aggressive overtures, Tom is shocked to learn the next day that she has filed a charge of sexual harassment against him. He naturally counters the charge, but this opens up a can of worms for both him and the future of DigiCom.

The 1990s practically belonged to Michael Crichton, it seemed for a time that everything he wrote was adapted to the big screen for some form of entertainment. With Jurassic Park still warm and still garnering bucket loads of cash, two other Crichton adaptations worked their way into theatres; both of which were a world away from the family friendly extravaganza of Jurassic Park. One was Rising Sun, a messy wasted potential of a movie, the other was Disclosure, a zeitgeist snatcher that seized the moment.

The topic, and the novelty of flipping the gender aggressor, was always going to make Disclosure of much interest, thus the film and the novel made big money: aided still further by the hot casting of Douglas and Moore, who were still draw cards in the early 90s. Crichton, after being displeased with other adaptations of his work, got big say on the screenplay as a written project. So with director Levinson in tow, he set about pushing the buttons of his audience, attempting to continue the heated debates that were brought about previously from Douglas' Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct. If it's Crichton's or Levinson's fault that it didn't work out that way? I'm not sure, but fact is, is that Disclosure really wasn't that potent back then, and certainly now it's not even lukewarm.

There's too much techno babble going on, and an over keenness to stick the nose up at the big business vultures picking the flesh off of the lesser minions. Entering the last half hour of the film, it's easy to forget there has actually been a sexual harassment case! Here's the crux of the matter, if going in to it for a first time viewing expecting this to be a powder-keg of sexual harassment muckiness and legal intrigue, then you are in for a big disappointment. I know, because I was one of the paying patrons at the theatre back in 94! You sense that one of the makers got a bit carried away…

Yet the film still has much going for it if stripped of that expectation, not least that it packs a pile of tension in that last half hour and the finale is rather rewarding. I'd go as far to say I'm a fan of the film, but it's not the film I originally went to see! There's a trio of interesting and differing female characters at the front of the narrative, even if Moore's stair-master vixen isn't exactly developed beyond being a bitch, and the virtual reality sequences have an appealing charm about them. The cast are turning in good ones, with a notable shout out to Caroline Goodall who wisely underplays it as the wife. While the interior set design (Gary Lewis/Joseph Hodges) for the DigiCom HQ is wonderful with its 90s excess of glass meeting mirrors and open spaces. Which leaves us with what?

A film that is not what you expect! Which in this case is both disappointing and a surprise. 7/10

Top post Tim, thanks.