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Post by delon on Dec 14, 2019 14:34:22 GMT
Comments/ratings/recommendations/film posters are welcome and much appreciated.
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Post by wmcclain on Dec 14, 2019 14:40:03 GMT
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Post by politicidal on Dec 14, 2019 17:10:55 GMT
Mississippi Grind (2015) 6/10
Rock & Rule (1983) 5/10
Fierce Creatures (1997) 4/10
Ocean's 11 (1960) 6/10
Asher (2018) 2/10
Stuber (2019) 3/10
Jackie Chan's Project A (1983) 4/10
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Post by MrFurious on Dec 14, 2019 17:24:18 GMT
Cold Pursuit(19) The Edge of Seventeen(16)  ^^ The Death of Stalin(17) The Commuter(18) The Last Right(19) If Beale Street Could Talk(18) Only the Brave(17) American Animals(18) Elizabetth is Missing(19) |
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biker1
Junior Member
@biker1
Posts: 1,804
Likes: 744
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Post by biker1 on Dec 14, 2019 17:44:57 GMT
Reruns this week - the period epics of 1935.
A year when Hollywood exhibited a mastery of the 19thc literary adaptation and recreation of period.
mutiny on the bounty (1935) ☆☆☆☆☆
david copperfield (1935) ☆☆☆☆☆
a tale of two cities (1935) ☆☆☆☆
les miserables (1935) ☆☆☆☆
anna karenina (1935) ☆☆☆☆
the lives of a bengal lancer (1935) ☆☆☆☆
captain blood (1935) ☆☆☆1/2
elsewhere..
once upon a time... in hollywood (2019) ☆☆☆
impressive recreation of late 1960s Hollywood, if lacking a compelling narrative - it meanders. Plus a reminder of some of the crap movies of 1969, that Tarantino so obviously loves.
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Post by mikef6 on Dec 14, 2019 19:38:21 GMT
A Shriek In The Night / Albert Ray (1933). Allied Pictures Corporation. Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot are teamed for a second time (but as different characters) after 1932’s “The Thirteenth Guest.” In this one they are competing reporters for rival newspapers who don’t stop at playing tricks on one another in an effort to steal scoops. The title shriek opens the story as a rich businessman plummets to the sidewalk from the window of his penthouse apartment. Pat Morgan (Ginger Rogers), the dead man’s secretary, is questioned by Police Insp. Russell (Purnell Pratt), but Pat only went to work there in order to find some proof that her boss was mob connected. Ted Rand (Talbot) tricks her into giving him the full story. When his paper goes to print first, Pat is fired by her editor. She determines to get her job back by solving the murder. Ginger is excellent as usual and a joy to watch. Lyle Talbot’s career as a leading man got derailed when his studio, Warner, demoted him to supporting player as punishment for his activism in the formation of the Screen Actors Guild. Nevertheless, he had a long career. As for Ginger, just five months after the release of “Shriek,” “Flying Down To Reno” hit the theaters. Her about 3-minute dance with Fred Astaire in that picture got so much notice that her immortality was guaranteed. The YouTube print of “Shriek” is one of the worst I have ever had the misfortune to see. Very grainy during daylight scenes, but for nighttime or dark basement, all you can see is black. No way to tell what’s going on.  Ginger Rogers hears a mysterious sound in the next room  Girl From Rio / Lambert Hillyer (1939). Monogram Pictures. Marquita Romero (Movita) is about to launch her singing career in her native Rio de Janero when she learns that her brother in New York has been accused of murder and is in jail. What’s a girl to do? Why, along with her journalist boyfriend, Steve (Warren Hull), rush to his side and then go undercover as a singer in the nightclub of the man who she suspects of framing her brother. This hour long musical thriller from Poverty Row is exactly the length it should be and totally predictable. It is interesting, to me anyway, because of Movita. Born Movita Castaneda in 1916, she specialized in “exotic” women. Maybe her most famous role is Tehani, a Tahitian women in “Mutiny Of The Bounty” (1935). 25 years later, she married Marlon Brando, 8 years younger than her. They had two children. Then irony struck. Brando went off to Tahiti to film the 1962 version of Mutiny On The Bounty.” There, he fell in love with his lead actress who was playing a Tahitian woman and married her after divorcing Movita. You can’t make this stuff up. Movita lived to be 98 years old, dying in 2015 as the last surviving cast member of the 1935 “Mutiny On The Bounty.”  Movita .jpg) Night Train To Munich / Carol Reed (1940). Twentieth Century-Fox. If you were to look at the story and cast of this film – a comedy thriller set mainly on a train, Margaret Lockwood as the lead, and those two upper-middle class self-absorbed and oblivious Englishmen, Charters and Caldicott – you might think you were on the set of “The Lady Vanishes.” Well, the same two writers (Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder) were responsible for both screenplays. However, they manage to make “Night Train” almost – “almost” I say – as suspenseful and as much fun as the Hitchcock concoction. The male lead is an on-the-brink-of-stardom Rex Harrison. Harrison plays his secret agent at an ironic distance from the danger going on around him. In a tight situation he might say something like, “I was a member of the Foreign Office operatic society. Do you know I once played Pooh-Bah to the Foreign Secretary’s Ko-Ko?” Although Lockwood is prominent during the first act of this film, later she sort of fades into the background, yielding the lead totally to Harrison. But even Sexy Rexy’s position as star is threatened when pitch-perfect Charters and Caldicott (Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne) come on the scene. Paul Henreid (billed as Paul von Hernried) is a duplicitous Gestapo officer. Thrills and laughs come in about equal measure in this delightful film.    Race Street / Edwin L. Marin (1948). RKO Radio Pictures. Cinematography by J. Roy Hunt. Minor George Raft opus. Raft plays Dan Gannin, an investment adviser on the surface but earns his living as a major bookie. Gannin, though, has been thinking about getting out of the game because he has met the Girl Of His Dreams, Robbie (Marilyn Maxwell). We also meet his two best friends he has known since boyhood, Lt. Barney Runson of the police (William Bendix) who turns a blind eye to his friend’s real profession and Hal Towers (Harry Morgan), another major league bookie. When new gangsters come to town and start offering “protection” to other racketeers, bad things start happening to some of Gannin’s friends and acquaintances. He vows to do something about it. Raft’s characterization is about the same as it is in all of his movies. Bendix is very restrained as if this was just a paycheck job for him. On the plus side, there is a good femme fatale and character actor Frank Faylin gets to break out of his stereotype a bit as an evil criminal mastermind.  Marilyn Maxwell and George Raft  No Man of Her Own / Mitchell Leisen (1950). Paramount Pictures. Cinematography by Daniel L. Fapp (The Big Clock, West Side Story, The Great Escape). Music by Hugo Friedhofer (The Adventures Of Robin Hood, The Best Years Of Our Lives, Ace In The Hole). Another four aces performance by Barbara Stanwyck leads this great film noir/melodrama/“woman’s picture.” Both credited writers and the film editor were women so provided a strong woman’s perspective. Helen Ferguson (Stanwyck) is pregnant, flat broke (a striking image shows four coins totaling 17 cents in the palm of her hand), and unmarried. When she goes to the door of Steve Morley (Lyle Bettger), her ex, he won’t even answer but pushes a train ticket under her door. On the train she meets a friendly married couple who are on their way to meet his wealthy parents for the first time. The new bride confesses that she is without any other family. A massive train wreck kills the young couple and leaves Helen seriously injured. When she wakes, she learns that everyone believes her to be the wife. For her baby’s sake, she takes the dead woman’s identity and proceeds to meet the parents – but how long can someone unused to deceit and deception keep up the ruse? The idea of a woman noir protagonist was so unheard of that contemporary reviewers didn’t know what to do with this film. Bosley Crowther, true to form, gets it all wrong by complaining about the “female agonizing, in which morals are irresponsibly confused.” Also with John Lund as the other brother of Helen’s supposed husband who tumbles to her masquerade but falls in love with her and with prominent early 20th century stage actress and playwright Jane Cowl in another strong female role as Stanwyck’s would-be mother-in-law.   
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Post by teleadm on Dec 14, 2019 20:50:20 GMT
Here is the jingle belling Tele week of wonders:  America used to export to us lovely Christmas Specials with Perry Como, Bing Crosby and Jack Benny and others, and now it's this kind of sentimentality instead, where someone has to go north, where people is obviously backwards, and mentions christmas every other minute, nearly fanatic. What do they do the other 11 months? since there is always a couple falling in love, tearfully a young widow or widower with a son or daughter. I have some trouble telling these movies apart since some feels the same, and looking up directors, writers and a few actors and actresses on our old site, stunned some are doing just that, some actors and actresses does a new Hallmark/Lifetime christmas movie every year, no wonder I can't tell them apart. Not questioning this specific movie! That was my yearly pre-Christmas outburst!  Old-fashioned adventure movie with a twist, Unicorns, stars falling in human shapes, pirate ships that is airborne, witches with fallen youth. and a dying King, since on the English coutryside there is a wall, that seprates normality with magic. Entertaining old-fashioned adventure, but with modern and questioning eyes.  Nice Swedish movie (translated The Best Summer), about unfortunate kids (orphans) that have to spend a summer on the Swedish countryside with a bachelor undertaker, and incredibly boring. They soften him step by step.  I had nearly forgotten about this movie when it suddenly turned up on a TV channel. I bit too long though, and I miss Robin Williams!  145 minures went by very fast, something that seldom happens. One of the great prison films. One of the great movies of the 1970s, even if it might have been based on tall-tales, as later sources sugests. Just the same it's solid great movie!  Annual Christmas movie at my home, though far from John Ford's classic movies. It feels half-baked. Mixing bar-brawls and actually a touching tale of a dedicted French Polynesian islands doctor who might be a heir to a gigantic ship empire, and the daughter he left behind, who suddenly turns up. The story takes place in December and over Christmas. Spanking women to obidience is wrong in my modern eyes, as Wayne does it to Allen to show who's the master of the house.  Entertaining western with a twist with a good storyline (first viewing 15 years ago didn't know it was based on The Asphalt Jungle) Delmer Davis usually kept his movies to the point, before he directed thick bestsellers, and that could be the reason why I liked it, It's tight, have action, and carismatic actors to make it moving, and Alan Ladd (who I don't dislike)  Musical thieves in a boarding house with a sweet old lady hostess. As a big fan of Alec Guinness it was such a joy seeing him play an Alastair Sim-like character. I smiled all the way through this movie.  Had a super-black cat like this once, damn I miss him! Now I'm going to check out what exciting things others have watched during the week: |
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Post by OldAussie on Dec 14, 2019 21:34:59 GMT
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Dec 14, 2019 21:54:48 GMT
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). Brideshead Revisited (2008). Another Christmas Kiss (2014). The Vicious Kind (2009). Cutthroat Island (1995). Dad’s Army (2016). Adult Life Skills (2016). Krampus (2015). Murder on the Orient Express (2017).
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Dec 15, 2019 7:17:16 GMT
Mississippi Grind (2015) 6/10 <NOT a CLASSIC as it ONLY came out as RECENTLY as 2015!!!
Rock & Rule (1983) 5/10
Fierce Creatures (1997) 4/10 <NOT a OLD ENOUGH YET to be a CLASSIC as it ONLY came out in 1997!!! NEEDS to BE 1994 OR OLDER!! UNLESS it an INSTANT like Jaws (1975) OR Star Wars (1977) which it's NOT!!
Ocean's 11 (1960) 6/10
Asher (2018) 2/10 <NOT a CLASSIC as it ONLY came out as RECENTLY as 2018 (LAST YEAR)!!!
Stuber (2019) 3/10 <NOT a CLASSIC as it ONLY came out as RECENTLY as 2019 (THIS YEAR)!!!
Jackie Chan's Project A (1983) 4/10
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Dec 15, 2019 7:21:43 GMT
Cold Pursuit(19)
The Edge of Seventeen(16)
^^
The Death of Stalin(17)
The Commuter(18)
The Last Right(19)
If Beale Street Could Talk(18)
Only the Brave(17)
American Animals(18)
Elizabeth is Missing(19)
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Dec 15, 2019 7:24:29 GMT
Reruns this week - the period epics of 1935.
A year when Hollywood exhibited a mastery of the 19thc literary adaptation and recreation of period.
mutiny on the bounty (1935) ☆☆☆☆☆
david copperfield (1935) ☆☆☆☆☆
a tale of two cities (1935) ☆☆☆☆
les miserables (1935) ☆☆☆☆
anna karenina (1935) ☆☆☆☆
the lives of a bengal lancer (1935) ☆☆☆☆
captain blood (1935) ☆☆☆1/2
elsewhere..
once upon a time... in hollywood (2019) ☆☆☆
impressive recreation of late 1960s Hollywood, if lacking a compelling narrative - it meanders. Plus a reminder of some of the crap movies of 1969, that Tarantino so obviously loves.
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Dec 15, 2019 7:30:55 GMT
A Shriek In The Night / Albert Ray (1933). Allied Pictures Corporation. Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot are teamed for a second time (but as different characters) after 1932’s “The Thirteenth Guest.” In this one they are competing reporters for rival newspapers who don’t stop at playing tricks on one another in an effort to steal scoops. The title shriek opens the story as a rich businessman plummets to the sidewalk from the window of his penthouse apartment. Pat Morgan (Ginger Rogers), the dead man’s secretary, is questioned by Police Insp. Russell (Purnell Pratt), but Pat only went to work there in order to find some proof that her boss was mob connected. Ted Rand (Talbot) tricks her into giving him the full story. When his paper goes to print first, Pat is fired by her editor. She determines to get her job back by solving the murder. Ginger is excellent as usual and a joy to watch. Lyle Talbot’s career as a leading man got derailed when his studio, Warner, demoted him to supporting player as punishment for his activism in the formation of the Screen Actors Guild. Nevertheless, he had a long career. As for Ginger, just five months after the release of “Shriek,” “Flying Down To Reno” hit the theaters. Her about 3-minute dance with Fred Astaire in that picture got so much notice that her immortality was guaranteed. The YouTube print of “Shriek” is one of the worst I have ever had the misfortune to see. Very grainy during daylight scenes, but for nighttime or dark basement, all you can see is black. No way to tell what’s going on.
Ginger Rogers hears a mysterious sound in the next room
Girl From Rio / Lambert Hillyer (1939). Monogram Pictures. Marquita Romero (Movita) is about to launch her singing career in her native Rio de Janero when she learns that her brother in New York has been accused of murder and is in jail. What’s a girl to do? Why, along with her journalist boyfriend, Steve (Warren Hull), rush to his side and then go undercover as a singer in the nightclub of the man who she suspects of framing her brother. This hour long musical thriller from Poverty Row is exactly the length it should be and totally predictable. It is interesting, to me anyway, because of Movita. Born Movita Castaneda in 1916, she specialized in “exotic” women. Maybe her most famous role is Tehani, a Tahitian women in “Mutiny Of The Bounty” (1935). 25 years later, she married Marlon Brando, 8 years younger than her. They had two children. Then irony struck. Brando went off to Tahiti to film the 1962 version of Mutiny On The Bounty.” There, he fell in love with his lead actress who was playing a Tahitian woman and married her after divorcing Movita. You can’t make this stuff up. Movita lived to be 98 years old, dying in 2015 as the last surviving cast member of the 1935 “Mutiny On The Bounty.”
Movita
Night Train To Munich / Carol Reed (1940). Twentieth Century-Fox. If you were to look at the story and cast of this film – a comedy thriller set mainly on a train, Margaret Lockwood as the lead, and those two upper-middle class self-absorbed and oblivious Englishmen, Charters and Caldicott – you might think you were on the set of “The Lady Vanishes.” Well, the same two writers (Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder) were responsible for both screenplays. However, they manage to make “Night Train” almost – “almost” I say – as suspenseful and as much fun as the Hitchcock concoction. The male lead is an on-the-brink-of-stardom Rex Harrison. Harrison plays his secret agent at an ironic distance from the danger going on around him. In a tight situation he might say something like, “I was a member of the Foreign Office operatic society. Do you know I once played Pooh-Bah to the Foreign Secretary’s Ko-Ko?” Although Lockwood is prominent during the first act of this film, later she sort of fades into the background, yielding the lead totally to Harrison. But even Sexy Rexy’s position as star is threatened when pitch-perfect Charters and Caldicott (Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne) come on the scene. Paul Henreid (billed as Paul von Hernried) is a duplicitous Gestapo officer. Thrills and laughs come in about equal measure in this delightful film.
Race Street / Edwin L. Marin (1948). RKO Radio Pictures. Cinematography by J. Roy Hunt. Minor George Raft opus. Raft plays Dan Gannin, an investment adviser on the surface but earns his living as a major bookie. Gannin, though, has been thinking about getting out of the game because he has met the Girl Of His Dreams, Robbie (Marilyn Maxwell). We also meet his two best friends he has known since boyhood, Lt. Barney Runson of the police (William Bendix) who turns a blind eye to his friend’s real profession and Hal Towers (Harry Morgan), another major league bookie. When new gangsters come to town and start offering “protection” to other racketeers, bad things start happening to some of Gannin’s friends and acquaintances. He vows to do something about it. Raft’s characterization is about the same as it is in all of his movies. Bendix is very restrained as if this was just a paycheck job for him. On the plus side, there is a good femme fatale and character actor Frank Faylin gets to break out of his stereotype a bit as an evil criminal mastermind.
Marilyn Maxwell and George Raft
No Man of Her Own / Mitchell Leisen (1950). Paramount Pictures. Cinematography by Daniel L. Fapp (The Big Clock, West Side Story, The Great Escape). Music by Hugo Friedhofer (The Adventures Of Robin Hood, The Best Years Of Our Lives, Ace In The Hole). Another four aces performance by Barbara Stanwyck leads this great film noir/melodrama/“woman’s picture.” Both credited writers and the film editor were women so provided a strong woman’s perspective. Helen Ferguson (Stanwyck) is pregnant, flat broke (a striking image shows four coins totaling 17 cents in the palm of her hand), and unmarried. When she goes to the door of Steve Morley (Lyle Bettger), her ex, he won’t even answer but pushes a train ticket under her door. On the train she meets a friendly married couple who are on their way to meet his wealthy parents for the first time. The new bride confesses that she is without any other family. A massive train wreck kills the young couple and leaves Helen seriously injured. When she wakes, she learns that everyone believes her to be the wife. For her baby’s sake, she takes the dead woman’s identity and proceeds to meet the parents – but how long can someone unused to deceit and deception keep up the ruse? The idea of a woman noir protagonist was so unheard of that contemporary reviewers didn’t know what to do with this film. Bosley Crowther, true to form, gets it all wrong by complaining about the “female agonizing, in which morals are irresponsibly confused.” Also with John Lund as the other brother of Helen’s supposed husband who tumbles to her masquerade but falls in love with her and with prominent early 20th century stage actress and playwright Jane Cowl in another strong female role as Stanwyck’s would-be mother-in-law.
  
A few years ago I watched Night Train to Munich (1940) on Netflix Streaming. Very-good film.
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Dec 15, 2019 8:00:07 GMT
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Post by claudius on Dec 15, 2019 12:43:42 GMT
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (1979) “Howard Hessman/Randy Newman” 40TH ANNIVERSARY Do my ears deceive me or did I just hear notoriously copyright-forbidden “Stairway to Heaven” on an official DVD release? Universal DVD.
THE SCOOBY DOO AND SCRAPPY DOO SHOW (1979) “The Ghoul, the Bat, and the Ugly” 40TH ANNIVERSARY. Velma gets a new voice (her third Marla Frumkin), even though it will be for four more episodes (and won’t be back until 1984). Warner DVD.
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF FLASH GORDON (1979) “Tournament of Death” 40TH ANNIVERSARY BCI Eclipse DVD.
THE TRANSFORMERS (1984) “Fire in the Sky” 35TH ANNIVERSARY Skyfire finally makes his debut (ever notice his toy version resembled a Macross Fighter?), although the out of order broadcasts already shown him to viewers earlier. Shout DVD.
MUPPET BABIES (1984) “Good Clean Fun” 35TH ANNIVERSARY My Anniversary viewing of the series (temporarily) ends with the season finale, which involves Fozzie having a pie fight duel with the Three Stooges from SLIPPERY SILKS. Bootleg DVD.
ER (1994) “Blizzard” 25TH ANNIVERSARY. Warner DVD.
UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS (1973) “Goodwill to All Men” From the series’ third season, it is Christmas 1913, and Richard Bellamy and his servants are visited by Georgina Worsley, stepdaughter of the family’s late Southwold lord (he and his sister, Richard’s wife Marjorie, died in the Titanic disaster). The girl befriends the new maid Daisy; together the two decide to visit the latter’s impoverished family with food ‘borrowed’ from the house’s Christmas desserts: reality hits their adventure hard in this last holiday of relatively World Peace. This episode introduced Georgina (Lesley Anne Down) replacing last season’s stars Nicola Paget’s Elizabeth. She will be a regular for the remainder of the series’ run. This comes from the Acorn Media Up & Down Third Season DVD.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JESUS (1993) “The First Christmas” The first episode of Cine-Mundo Inc./USA News’ Three-part documentary on Jesus. Scholars and historians examine the origins and accuracy of the Infancy Narratives of Luke and Matthew. Narrated by Armand Assante with Betty Buckley quoting the Bible, with paintings, sculptures, and location footage giving the visual aspect. A Christmas perennial this viewing comes from a recorded VHS broadcast in December 1996 on The Learning Channel (before it became a Reality-TV channel).
A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983) There has been much written about Bob Clark’s adaptation of Jean Shepherd’s nostalgia stories that I see it unnecessary to give any further information. I watched this on an MGM/UA VHS, which allows me to view the ending credits playing Carl Zitter-Paul Zaza’s lovely instrumental for “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” a scene not included in the TBS/TNT annual Christmas Day 24-hour marathon.
MARY AND JOSEPH A STORY OF FAITH (1979) 40TH ANNIVERSARY The success of JESUS OF NAZARETH led to several TV movies like THE NATIVITY (1978 starring Madeline Stowe) and this production, with Jeff East and Blanche Baker as the expectant parents (with Colleen Dewhurst stealing the show as Elizabeth). There are many references to future Biblical events: Joachim is betrayed and crucified like his grandson, an Angel appears at a tomb, Mary’s friends deny her after her blasphemy-accused unwed pregnancy is revealed, a stoning is delayed because of the sins of the stone casters. Warner VHS.
BEETLEJUICE (1989) “Cousin BJ/Beetlejuice’s Parents” 30TH ANNIVERSARY The last episode of the first season (the first story dealing with a visit from Lydia’s maternal and paternal uncles and aunts, climaxing with a nod to the film’s “Banana Song” dance, albiet with a different song. The second story shows Beetlejuice’s parents). Shout DVD.
ROCKO’S MODERN CHRISTMAS OR YOU CAN’T SQUEEZE CHEER FROM A CHEEZE YULELOG (1994) 25TH ANNIVERSARY this month. Rocko the wallaby tries to enjoy Christmas despite the lack of snow (the cloud seem to have some…problems) and the machinations of Mr. Bighead (one of Charles Adler’s many roles in this series). Shout DVD.
THE RACCOONS CHRISTMAS (1980) Peter Gillis’ pilot to the future TV series with the voices of Leo Sayer, Rita Coolidge, and Rupert Holmes. This is a VHS recording of an edited 1984 broadcast on my local NBC channel. Included is a Gobots commercial, a MR T Cereal Commercial, and a Late Night Movie promos for BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL and the theatrical version of MOSES (the announcer mistaking Anthony Quayle for Anthony Quinn).
PEACE ON EARTH (1939) 80TH ANNIVERSARY Hugh Harmon’s anti-war animated short about an old squirrel telling the young ‘uns about the extinction of man. Back when TNT and TBS used to broadcast Turner Entertainment’s ownership of the MGM animated shorts, PoE was among them (I think my first experience with the short was a TBS TOM & JERRY CHRISTMAS Special that showed Christmas-themed shorts). Something that won’t happen again. From the A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938) DVD by Warner.
THE ADVENTURES OF ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE AND FRIENDS (1959) “Rocket Jet Fuel 7 & 8” 60TH ANNIVERSARY. The story continues as Rocky evades missilefire (which he resolves by sending a message that he is a US Taxpayer, rendering nonviolate), while Boris and Natasha hold a party for Bullwinkle and the Moon Men (with a sleeping potion that ends with them memorably dropping out). Meanwhile, Goldilocks meets the Three Bears and Mr. Peabody and Sherman meet Wyatt Earp. Sony Wonder DVD.
SCTV (1982) “Christmas Staff Party” The title says it all with John Candy as Johnny LaRue (nearly freezing to death on Street Beef), Doctor Tongue, Divine, and Orson Welles. Eugene Levy as Judd Hirsch. Rick Moranis as Bob McKenzie, Richard Dreyfuss, and Elton John. Dave Thomas as Doug McKenzie, Tex Boil, Liberace, and Michael Caine. Joe Flaherty as Guy Caballero, Alan Alda, and Sammy Maudlin. Andrea Martin as Edith Prickley, Ethel Merman, Edna Boil, and Marsha Mason. Catherine O’Hara as Lola Heatherton, Dusty Towne, and Maggie Smith. Shout DVD.
MICKEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1983) 35 Years Ago, this was my first experience with Charles Dickens’ oft-told Ghost story. The first major appearance for Wayne Allwine’s Mickey Mouse, Alan Young’s Scrooge McDuck, and the last for Clarence Nash’s Donald Duck. Scrooge McDuck hanging over the coffin from Hell left an impression to me. Viewed on a VHS recording of its 1984 Television premiere broadcast on NBC. Commercials include a scary promo for PINNOCHIO’S 1984 re-release, Rainbow Brite, promos for REMINGTON STEELE, RIPTIDE, HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN, A-TEAM and the Jane Seymour-Hart Bochner TV version of THE SUN ALSO RISES, and a family commercial of my local painting company Brendell (back when it was a family of six).
SIMPLE GIFTS- SIX TALES FOR CHRISTMAS (1978) Broadcast on PBS (the video includes a 1970s caption of the WNET station), SIMPLE GIFTS deals with six (actually seven) differently-animated tales involving the season, all involving- as host Colleen Dewhurst attests- gifts given, received, or unfulfilled (with the narrations of Jose Ferrer, Hermoine Gingold, and David Jones). The Maurice Sendak intro presents an impoverished and freezing child who transforms into a Christmas Tree to help fellow children in similar problems. The first tale is “A Memory of Christmas” based on Moss Hart’s autobiography Act One (itself a film starring George Hamilton). Portrayed as a series of photograph stills animated by dissolves, it tells the story of a father and son exploring the Christmas gift carts on the marketplace, unable to buy anything and even more unable to recognize the more important gift they could give to each other. The second tale is “Lost and Found” based on Fontaine Fox’s early-20th century comic strip Toonerville Trolley, dealing with a henpecked husband and father (voiced by Paul Dooley) and his role in Christmas. The third tale is the Seymour Chwast-drawn “The Great Frost” from Virgina Woolf’s Orlando, where the title character has a bittersweet romance with a feisty Russian visitor. Tale Four is the brief “My Christmas;” Charles B. Stackman illustrates the diary entry of 11-year-old Theodore Roosevelt’s Yuletide recollections in Rome, Italy. The fifth tale is James McMullan-illustrated “December 25, 1914: A Letter from the Western front by Captain Sir Edward Hulce” relating his experience of the Christmas Truce (with a bittersweet disclaimer). The sixth and final tale Is R.O. Beechman’s “No Room in the Inn,” about the Holy Family being shunned, accepted, patronized, and then shunned again by the Bethlehem residents. A perennial since 2009 (I first saw parts of this on PBS in December 1995), this viewing comes from a PBS Home Video VHS.
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (1977) “Miskel Spillman/Elvis Costello” This Third-Season episode has the 80-year-old winner of a “Anyone can host SNL” contest fulfilling her victory. Notorious for Elvis Costello’s spontaneous change of song. Universal DVD.
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (1982) “Eddie Murphy” This Eighth season Christmas episode (hosted by Eddie Murphy replacing Nick Nolte, much to the chagrin of several castmates) consists of “Merry Christmas Dammit!” (a Gumby Christmas special with Joe Piscopo’s Frank Sinatra and Gary Kroeger & Julia Louise Dreyfuss’ Donnie & Marie singing “Blue Christmas” before making out) and “A Christmas Message” (Julia Louise-Dreyfuss’ April May June tells the story of the Nativity before turning it into a rant about crying babies and deadbeat husbands). This comes from the Starmaker’s THE BEST OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE HOSTED BY EDDIE MURPHY VHS, which deletes Lionel Richie’s appearances as well as several sketches.
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS (1965) What can be said about this classic TV Christmas special that has not already been written? I viewed this on a Video Treasures/Hi-Tops Video VHS of an older TV edit that doesn’t include the restored-post-1990s scene of Linus sling-shooting a snowball with his blanket. This video print also freeze-frames the “A Charlie Brown Christmas The End” credit scene.
THE FIRST CHURCHILLS (1969) “Not Without Honor” 50TH ANNIVERSARY Finale of the Stuarts drama, with Sarah and Queen Anne on the outs, Queen Anne dying, and the Marlboroughs planning to build Blenheim Palace. Acorn DVD.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (1998) “Amends” Something is troubling Angel (more than usual for our tortured vampire with a soul); he is seeing ghosts of his victims, including Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMotte in a role she regretted reprising). Despite reservations, Buffy decides to the get to the bottom of it before Angel either dies or becomes evil again. FoxVideo DVD
THE SMALL ONE (1978) The late 1970s gave a bunch of animated specials concerning a put-upon donkey who eventually gets Mary and Joseph to Bethelehem (THE LITTLE BURRO and NESTOR THE CHRISTMAS DONKEY the others). This Disney Theatrical short was probably Don Bluth’s biggest work for the studio (before he quit over creative differences) as well as an early work for Richard Rich (who would end up producing a series of Biblical animated shorts). This comes from a 1982 Disney VHS that has the original unedited print (the original “We even cheat a little if we much” lyric from ‘The Merchants’ Song’ is intact). It also includes WINTER a 1930 Silly Symphonies short, a clip from THE THREE CABELLEROS (The ‘Las Posados’ segment), and a promo trailer for Disney films on video.
DRAGON BALL Z (1989) “A Hot, Unbounded Battle! Goku VS Vejita!” 30TH ANNIVERSARY The fight between Goku and Vejita begins! Funimation DVD.
NUTCRACKER THE MOTION PICTURE (1986) I tend to watch several versions of Tchiakovsky’s Ballet. First for this Christmas is a full-length film treatment by Carroll Ballard, from Kent Stowell-Maurice Sendak’s stage production by the Pacific Northwest Ballet. This version deals with a WIZARD OF OZ- Freudian tones as Clara- between child and woman- deals with her unusual relationship with her godfather Drosselmeyer, who gives her a dream where she sees fantasy characters impersonated by people she knows (The Nutcracker Cavalier is personified by her father; fortunately Clara morphs into an adult woman for the romantic duet). A perennial since 2000 (although I had watched it before, usually in broadcast that includes segments by Tony Randall), this viewing is from an MGM on Demand DVD (replacing the Paramount Home Video VHS).
SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU? (1969) “Spooky Space Kook” 50TH ANNIVERSARY this month. Watched this one by mistake (order of creation, not by broadcast). Warner DVD.
MISTER MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1962) UPA’s version of Dickens, with the near-sighted curmudgeon playing the Christmas curmudgeon with Gerald McBoing Boing as Tiny Tim and songs by Jules Styne and Bob Merrill. First saw this on USA Network back in the 1980s. I always play this when I decorate the Christmas Tree. Sony Wonder DVD.
A DISNEY CHRISTMAS GIFT (1983) Disney cobbled this special together with scenes of 1983 Disneyland and shorts and film clips. “Once Upon a Wintertime” (from MELODY TIME), PETER PAN’S “You Can Fly” number, the Merlin departure/Tournament/Sword drawing scene from THE SWORD IN THE STONE (with Wart’s dialogue in the major scene silenced), PLUTO’S CHRISTMAS TREE, the ice scene from BAMBI, the “Bibbidi, Babidi, Boo” number from CINDERELLA (with June Foray adding her own voice to Verna Felton’s), and an edited version of THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (removing Junior’s Blackface moment and adding footage from SANTA’S WORKSHOP). Disney VHS.
THE AVENGERS (1966) “Too Many Christmas Trees” (1966) Something is bothering the usually unflappable John Steed; dealing with a recent leakage of governmental secrets, he is suffering from nightmares involving a creepy Father Christmas and premonitions of things to come (such as the sudden death of a colleague acknowledged of those secrets- from neurological causes). Is it his past catching up with him (“I wouldn’t mind that. That would be fun!”) or is it psychological trauma originating from the revelation that there is actually no Father Christmas? (“Oh no, isn’t there really?”). Emma Peel decides to help his friend by taking him to a Christmas celebration in the country held by a Dickens collector (Melvyn Johns), culminating with a costume party of Dickens characters (Emma is Oliver Twist). What also culminates at the manor is the cause of Steed’s mental problems. Directed by Roy Ward Baker, this episode in the black-and-white Peel season also has an in-joke involving Steed’s previous lady Cathy Gale (“What is she doing in Fort Knox?”). This comes from THE AVENGERS Fourth Season PAL DVD.
A MUPPET FAMILY CHRISTMAS (1987) Kermit and THE MUPPET SHOW gang spend Christmas at Fozzie’s mother’s house (much to the chagrin of housesitters Doc and Sprocket). It’s a holiday get together that unites the Muppets with the casts of SESAME STREET and FRAGGLE ROCK (plus a home-movie appearance by the Muppet Babies). From a 1988 ABC broadcast that shows the special in its uncut form with all the songs included. Commercials include promos for WHO’S THE BOSS, ROSEANNE, MR. BELVEDERE, JUST THE TEN OF US, THIRTYSOMETHING, MOONLIGHTING and the short-lived MURPHY’S LAW, as well as a Ritz Crackers advertisement with a young Jerry O’Connell.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (1999) “Hush” 20TH ANNIVERSARY Award-winning episode where most of the episode is silent (demons steal everyone’s voices so they can kill without notice). Also the first appearance of Tara. FoxVideo DVD.
ANGEL (1999) “Parting Gifts” 20TH ANNIVERSARY Alexis Denisove’s Wesley Wyndham Pryce joins the cast. FoxVideo DVD.
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS (1984) “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” 35TH ANNIVERSARY. A & E DVD.
GANKUTSUOU- THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (2004) 15TH ANNIVERSARY “An Engagement Broken” Geneon DVD.
MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS (1969) “The Ant- An Introduction” 50TH ANNIVERSARY The episode that debuts “The Lumberjack Song” sketch. Terry Gilliam makes one of his rare appearances, dressed as Mr. Poof (mask, cape, boots, speedo, and a cigarette holder). Paramount VHS.
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) 80TH ANNIVERSARY. David O. Selznick’s Epic adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s Civil War Novel. I only watched Part 1. Warner Blu-Ray.
Also watched parts of SANTA CLAUS THE MOVIE (1985) and A CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE MOVIE (2003).
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Post by vegalyra on Dec 15, 2019 17:26:12 GMT
I wish I had more free time to watch the vast amount of quality films like some of you do....  I was on a French kick the past couple of weeks, I'll just compile both weeks into one post.  Razzia Sur La Chnouf  Touchez Pas Au Grisbi  Bob le Flambeur  Horror of Dracula (threw in a Hammer film for good measure - it was actually a dark and stormy night outside so seemed fitting) |
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Dec 15, 2019 18:35:19 GMT
Knives Out (2019) 🗡🗡🗡  The whodunnit genre is so much fun and so is this movie! Rian Johnson presents us with a twisty, funny and just plain fun entry. The cast is loving this too, you can tell.  Daniel Craig seems to be enjoying himself quite a lot more here than he does playing James Bond. He will probably go on and do lots of quirky roles in the future. Christopher Plummer is simply an acting god, he commands every one of his scenes, as if anyone would dare one-up this guy! Shoutout to that trio of lovelies: Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette and Katherine Langford! 💚💛💜 In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)  "You have no idea what's coming..."  A big concept sci-fi serial killer thriller. Starts strong but becomes increasingly more predictable as it progresses. Still, it was worthwhile, the story is well paced, even if you can tell where it's going. Life (1999)  I had to rewatch Life with someone to prove to them that it was actually a great movie, and not just some silly comedy. And I did prove them wrong! Eddie and Martin are great together as frenemies sentenced to life on a chain gang. Yes, there are huge laughs to be found, but also an unexpected poignancy and depth. This movie will have your emotions going in all directions.  Murphy and Lawrence play their characters perfectly, even when they advance in years (and makeup). Murphy is so good, and Lawrence too, it shocks me to think how unnoticed this movie went upon release, and is still unappreciated today. So many cast members were not yet famous at the time, like Anthony Anderson, in his film debut, or Sanaa Lathan. Too many more who have since passed away: Bernie Mac, R. Lee Ermey, Michael Taliferro, Rick James and Heavy D, and even director, Ted Demme, may they all rest in peace.  You really feel for these characters, and the passage of time seems genuine and not thrown at you to force you to feel something. This movie is quite beautiful and will stand the test of time as one of Murphy's greatest. M. Butterfly (1993)  Not your usual Cronenberg movie. Jeremy Irons and John Lone fall in love in 1960's China, except Irons thinks Lone is a woman. It's a true story as well. A bit slow but it's well made and you can't help but keep watching to see where it goes. Pete 'n' Tillie (1972)  "Honeymoon's over. Time to get married."  Walter Matthau plays ragtime piano in the nude and Carol Burnett gets into a water fight, and yet, this movie leaves you feeling pretty glum by the end. That was how you did comedy in the 70's, I guess.  Although I had no idea he was in this before I watched it, beloved supporting actor, René Auberjonois, plays a close friend, and I watched it on the day he passed away. The Old Man and the Gun (2018)  Redford's big screen finale (although technically it isn't, he was in Avengers: Endgame (2019) )seems more interested in him than in the character he plays. The friendly bank robber thing seems hard to buy into, even though this whole thing was based on a true story.  However, what made the movie for me was pairing Redford with Sissy Spacek. These two legends have chemistry off the charts, hard to believe they've never worked together before now. Well worth watching just for them. Overall, a fitting end to a great career for Robert Redford.  The Hate U Give (2018)  Forced me to reexamine the way I see the world, gave me a new perspective. If a movie can help expand your thinking, that's a powerful movie. The movie is not perfect but it was one of the more effective tellings of modern race relations I've seen. Amandla Stenberg is mega-talented!  Bart Got a Room (2008)  Some poor schlub can't get a date to his prom, hilarity ensues. Could have been a more zany romp than it is, but chose to go a more realistic route.  My god, poor William H. Macy and that perm from Hell! 😈 Dirt (2018)  Something about Johnny Drama and racing cars, yada yada yada, an okay time waster. The 15:17 To Paris (2018)  Oh Clint..oh no...  This could have been a much more tension-filled movie but the story jumps around far too much like an episode of Lost on fast-forward.  These guys are definitely heroes but this movie is so messy. Their acting as themselves is often awkward. And what's up with all the sitcom actors cast in this movie? The Curse of La Llorona (2019)  A rather ordinary horror movie based on a well-known Mexican legend. It's mostly by-the-numbers except that there are a few effective moments in there I quite liked.  Linda Cardellini (why didn't she call the Scooby Gang?) and Raymond Cruz work hard to make this good. I thought it was connected to The Conjuring Universe but I think it just shares some producers or something.  Hope you all have a great movie week, see ya next time and stay away from frozen flagpoles!  
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Post by bravomailer on Dec 15, 2019 18:44:36 GMT
Hoffa (1992)
5/10
Having recently watched The Irishman, I decided to see this. It isn’t in the same league as Scorsese’s movie and it isn’t very good. Nicholson, in a way, is more convincing as Hoffa than Pacino was. He looked and sounded more like the famed Teamster boss than Pacino did. That’s not to say it was a better performance, only a better imitation. I thought Pacino’s Midwestern accent was far thicker than Hoffa’s and was almost comical. Nonetheless, Pacino conveyed Hoffa’s arrogant and self-delusional side which led to his demise. Scenes of large-scale demonstrations and fights aren’t convincing, despite the swelling music and sweeping camera shots that try to tell us how important everything is.
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Dec 16, 2019 0:54:40 GMT
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Post by mikef6 on Dec 16, 2019 2:21:53 GMT
hitchcockthelegend Great review of “The Birds.” My sentiments, exactly. Just one comment about the cross-cutting between Melanie and the crows on the climbing frame (in the U.S. we call it a “jungle gym”). Hitch cross-cuts until about a half-dozen birds have landed and then, in an impossibly brilliant stroke, he HOLDS on Melanie, making us wonder what’s going on behind her. When she sees a crow flying over, she follows it with her eyes until it lands and she sees that the jungle gym is filled with birds. Hitchcock repeats the trick about a minute later when Annie tells the children to walk out quietly but run when she tells them. Again, we expect cross-cutting, but the camera goes to the flock in the schoolyard and HOLDS THERE until we hear running feet off camera and the birds take flight. Gives me goose bumps just writing about it. Two years ago, I finally achieved a dream I have had for a long time. My Lovely Wife and I got to spend some time in the northern California towns of Bodega Bay and Bodega. In Bodega Bay, the Tides restaurant has changed very much since the film shoot (there had been a serious fire), but if you go to their outdoor seating overlooking the bay, you can see the dock where Tippi Hedren rents an outboard motor boat from 1930s comedian, Doodles Weaver. It has hardly changed a bit. The schoolhouse was an abandoned building in 1962. The film crew dressed it up a little bit and hung a sign on it. The house next door where Suzanne Pleshette lived was a façade. That entire site is now filled with mature trees. The “schoolhouse” is completely remodeled, a private residence, but there is so much interest that the owners have put in a small parking lot for visitors’ convenience – but you park right in front of a sign asking you to stay behind the fence and respect privacy – which everyone was doing when I was there. This building is located in the nearby town of Bodega. When the school children flee down the hill, they arrive at the Tides which, in Reality, is seven miles (11km) away from where they started. Movie magic. I was wondering how much interest people still had in a 50+ year old movie so I asked the two nice ladies in the Bodega Bay Visitors Center how often they get questions about “The Birds”? They laughed at me. They had copies of maps to locations on hand to pass out. They said that one-third of all questions they get are about “The Birds” locations. That made me feel good. The school building in the movie  The school building today 
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