|
Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jun 19, 2021 22:12:22 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Nalkarj on Jun 20, 2021 2:25:27 GMT
Snake Eyes (1998, dir. Brian De Palma). This got negative reviews in 1998. I have no idea why; I loved it. It’s wonderful, just plain wonderful. It’s kinetic, hilarious, over-the-top, thrilling, suspenseful, bombastic, well-acted, and loads of fun. It’s also got a message, which may not be the most important thing about it but which, judging from reviews, most critics missed: It’s about shadings of heroism, not the military-industrial complex. It opens with one of De Palma’s trademark directorial tours-de-force, a 20-minute apparent single shot, à la Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil, that sets up our characters, plot, and setting with seeming ease—and must have been hell to shoot. Everything else in the movie depends on that first shot; we go back to its events over and over, we and the characters analyze it again and again like how John Travolta analyzes the sound footage in De Palma’s Blow Out. Most critics said it was the high point of the movie and reaped scorn on everything after it. In fact, everything after it is of a piece—gloriously stylized, gloriously De Palma. Critics, who’d apparently never seen a De Palma movie before, also went after the plot—no, honestly. And they even criticized De Palma and screenwriter David Koepp for revealing whodunit early on. Unsurprisingly, De Palma and Koepp made the right choice. Performances all top-notch. It’s basically a two-hander between Nicolas Cage, at his most manic and amazing, and Gary Sinise, at his coldest. Basically because Stan Shaw, an actor I don’t know, gives a remarkable performance that encapsulates the movie’s main theme. Cheerfully old-fashioned, entertaining climax, as silly as anything on a dark and stormy night and all the better for it—but the movie doesn’t end there! The coda just repeats the filmmakers’ point that the story isn’t about the conspiracy, it’s about the duality between the characters and within the Cage character, the fact that sometimes a bad man does a very good deed and a good man a very bad one. I’m convinced that De Palma figures out the most logical, most typical way to shoot a scene, the way 99% of directors would do it, and then decides not to do it that way. Almost every shot is distinct and memorable, filtered through a unique sensibility and with the most intriguing visuals possible. Just great. This reminded me of why I like movies in the first place.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2021 5:40:05 GMT
A truly underrated epic. It’s not perfect, but it deserves more praise. Man, if only modern movies had 1/100th of this movie’s production values!
|
|
|
Post by jeffersoncody on Jun 20, 2021 6:51:04 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Prime etc. on Jun 20, 2021 7:51:12 GMT
STACEY 1973 --classic trash about a centerfold/race car driver/private detective. The story is basically the Big Sleep except the director would rather focus on other activities in a bedroom besides sleeping. Despite the amateurish aspects of it--this was made before Charlie's Angels and long before the modern trends of women-led action films, it shows that this was already being explored in the drive-in circuit.
|
|
|
Post by politicidal on Jun 21, 2021 0:56:32 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jun 21, 2021 5:30:23 GMT
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2021 17:55:45 GMT
Ever seen “Murder, My Sweet”? It’s another film noir starring Powell, only it’s a much better movie.
|
|
|
Post by politicidal on Jun 22, 2021 18:13:54 GMT
|
|
|
Post by jeffersoncody on Jun 22, 2021 21:19:09 GMT
Ever seen “Murder, My Sweet”? It’s another film noir starring Powell, only it’s a much better movie. I have seen MURDER MY SWEET, and agree it's a better film film than CRY DANGER, but I really love the 1975 version of FAREWELL, MY LOVELY (1975) best - Robert Mitchum's world weary Marlowe is my favorite screen portrayal of Chandler's famous private eye.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2021 5:08:06 GMT
Ever seen “Murder, My Sweet”? It’s another film noir starring Powell, only it’s a much better movie. I have seen MURDER MY SWEET, and agree it's a better film film than CRY DANGER, but I really love the 1975 version of FAREWELL, MY LOVELY (1975) best - Robert Mitchum's world weary Marlowe is my favorite screen portrayal of Chandler's famous private eye. Oh! I actually didn’t know that was a thing. I should check that out.
|
|
|
Post by jeffersoncody on Jun 23, 2021 5:51:30 GMT
I have seen MURDER MY SWEET, and agree it's a better film film than CRY DANGER, but I really love the 1975 version of FAREWELL, MY LOVELY (1975) best - Robert Mitchum's world weary Marlowe is my favorite screen portrayal of Chandler's famous private eye. Oh! I actually didn’t know that was a thing. I should check that out.
The supporting cast includes Harry Dean Stanton, John Ireland and Sylvester Stallone.
|
|
|
Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jun 23, 2021 10:18:40 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Feologild Oakes on Jun 23, 2021 10:45:23 GMT
|
|
|
Post by politicidal on Jun 23, 2021 14:16:18 GMT
|
|
|
Post by factchecker2point0 on Jun 23, 2021 19:17:36 GMT
|
|
|
Post by louise on Jun 23, 2021 20:42:45 GMT
Fast and Loose (1930). Fairly amusing comedy about an idle wealthy upper class sister and brother (Miriam Hopkins and Henry Wadsworth) who fall for humble working class people (Charles Sterrett and Carole Lombard). Henry Morgan is their exasperated father. I thought Hopkins’s love interest a bit dull, I actually thought her upper class suitor (David Hutchison) more entertaining. And there’s not much for Carole Lombard to get her teeth into.
|
|
|
Post by phantomparticle on Jun 23, 2021 23:36:28 GMT
Crime Without Passion (1934) Bizarre drama written (and directed) by Charles McArthur and Ben Hecht. Reprehensible lawyer Claude Rains gives his showgirl girlfriend the shaft when he falls for an icy gold digger. Twist and turn script with a memorable finish. Slavko Vorkapich contributes a one-of-a-kind opening montage as three Furies emerge from a drop of blood to fan out over the city in search of souls to corrupt. Margo in her first film role, about to be brutally discarded.
|
|
|
Post by Prime etc. on Jun 24, 2021 7:18:58 GMT
THE FLESH EATERS 1964 --- Such a good low budget horror film. So creative and industrious with limited resources and cast. Omar: "It took me three weeks to make those sandals. I mean they had the love in every stitch."
$1000 On the Black 1966 -- While it has some Leone-style elements especially in the camera set ups--this is much more personal story--between two brothers and their dominating mother. She was a maid who became the most powerful in the town thanks to her murderous son--while the less violent one is returning from a stint in prison for a murder his brother committed. There's a scene where the mother forces women in town to beg on their knees to her in order to stop her son's rampage. One of the more violent I have seen--a town is massacred. The ending uses the image of a body being carried on a corpse into the distance--it's more tragic than the version in Once Upon A Time in the West. It also has four prominent women characters which is unusual from what I have seen-especially since none of them are prostitutes.
|
|
|
Post by wickedkittiesmom on Jun 24, 2021 11:42:10 GMT
James and the Giant Peach.
|
|