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Post by stryker on Nov 13, 2022 14:46:28 GMT
2004.
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Post by politicidal on Nov 13, 2022 15:16:39 GMT
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Post by Nalkarj on Nov 14, 2022 20:10:59 GMT
Vibes, 1988, dir. Ken Kwapis. Critics tore this one to pieces in 1988, but I dunno, it’s fine. And it’s a lot better than a bunch of comedies released nowadays, especially in acting and joke-writing. (Compare with last year’s similar The Lost City, which isn’t terrible but isn’t half as funny as Vibes.) Jeff Goldblum here is doing the Jeff Goldblum thing while playing Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby, a bizarre blend that somehow works. Cyndi Lauper is no Katharine Hepburn, but she’s fine and can handle the one-liners. Peter Falk has a small part but makes the most out of every line—and he gets the best joke (which seems like it’s building to one punchline and surprises the viewer with a better one) in the movie. I saw this because the writers are Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, the team behind City Slickers, A League of Their Own, Splash (and the forgotten Forget Paris, which I loved). Vibes certainly isn’t as good as City Slickers three years later—particularly structurally; one Chekhov’s gun comes off as annoyingly obvious, and Ganz and Mandel clearly don’t care about the knockoff-Indiana-Jones plot—but, again, it’s (to quote Gypsy) small and funny and fine. By the way, what happened to Ganz and Mandel? Their last writing credit is for Tooth Fairy, a 2010 children’s movie with The Rock as the Tooth Fairy that gets a 17 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. They’ve done a handful of interviews in the last few years—oh, and they adapted their Mr. Saturday Night script for Broadway. But no movie work.
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Post by politicidal on Nov 15, 2022 3:49:54 GMT
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Post by stryker on Nov 15, 2022 22:17:14 GMT
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Post by politicidal on Nov 15, 2022 23:07:45 GMT
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Post by gspdude on Nov 16, 2022 2:17:27 GMT
The Wages of Fear(1953) A B&W thriller from France, mostly in French with English subs. The original 2 Hr 28 Min version. 4 unemployed men in a central American country are engaged to bring 2 truckloads of Nitro along a dangerous route. Suspenseful and well acted with realistic settings. 8/10.
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Post by politicidal on Nov 16, 2022 2:58:55 GMT
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Post by teleadm on Nov 16, 2022 5:32:27 GMT
A Regimental Sergeant is a by-the-book, strict disciplinarian, who seems like an anachronism in a sleepy peacetime African outpost of the modern British commonwealth. Ridiculed behind his back by his subordinates, he must play host to a liberal women M.P. making a tour of the base. However they are suddenly caught in a local coup d'etat. He must use is skill avoiding a firing squad. This was better than I thought it would be. Not so much a war movie but more a sort of battle of wits. The Regimental Sergeant seems as if he was born in the wrong century. With Richard Attenborough, Jack Hawkins, Flora Robson, a young Mia Farrow, Cecil Parker and lots of familiar faces from British movies. Guns at Batasi 1964 directed by John Guillermin
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Post by politicidal on Nov 16, 2022 18:18:56 GMT
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Post by stryker on Nov 16, 2022 21:52:19 GMT
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Post by teleadm on Nov 17, 2022 5:54:14 GMT
Tried something different, like a Spanish noir crime movie. On a rainy and stormy night a couple and their 19y/o son comes to a hotel in Gijon, Spain, to stay for a few days. They are eager to go out and see the sea and it's waves just after checking in. The wife returns in panic, their son has been swept away into the sea. The police investigates, but can't find any body. Since nobody has actually seen the son, questions arise if there actually was a son accompanying them. Could it be a case of insurance or inheritance fraud? While the police investigates, we the viewers can see in flashbacks to why they came to that hotel late at night on a rainy and stormy night. This was actually a quite good movie that I had never heard about before. Relatively easy to follow with subtitles. Mexican actor Arturo de Córdova, who plays the father, is the only actor I've heard of before since he made a few movies in Hollywood. Red Fish aka Los peces rojos 1955 directed by José Antonio Nieves Conde
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Post by gspdude on Nov 17, 2022 14:17:24 GMT
Impact(1949) Decent Noir in which Brian Donlevy(who kept reminding me of Clark Gable) must deal with a cheating wife, a murder plot, and bogus criminal charges. 6/10. Trivia note: I recognized the Van that Donlevy hopped a ride in as the one (or pretty damn close to it) used to transport Mighty Joe Young in the 1949 movie which I've seen at least 30 times.
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Post by politicidal on Nov 17, 2022 14:28:34 GMT
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Post by gspdude on Nov 18, 2022 1:43:46 GMT
Vice Raid (1959) Good cop tries to smash call girl racket and save bad girl. Mamie Van Doren looks good, but too corny to take serious. 4/10.
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Post by politicidal on Nov 18, 2022 16:23:06 GMT
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Post by Nalkarj on Nov 18, 2022 16:45:15 GMT
It Happened Tomorrow, 1944, dir. René Clair. Hard to evaluate this one. It’s smart and charming and has Linda Darnell, all pluses. (This is a rare “good girl” part for Darnell, one of the sexiest movie stars ever, and she does a great job with it.) Some of Clair’s direction is as exciting as anything in À nous la liberté (which I also saw for the first time recently) or And Then There Were None. The script, by Clair and great screenwriter Dudley Nichols, is nicely written and clever. The last 20 minutes or so delve into the emotional effects of time travel (which really is what this is), and there’s one of those great anagnorisis moments at the end where Dick Powell, as the hero, has this flash of revelation. All the story elements dovetail, and both Powell and the viewer say, “Aha!” (I love moments like that.) But—it’s just not that funny. The script doesn’t have that many jokes or even comic situations, and the few it has don’t really come off. The problem is that the movie is structured like a comedy, and the comic moments always appear to be right around the corner, but they never come. Curiously, Clair and Nichols’s And Then There Were None—which does not have a comic setup— is funny. And the movie, while certainly charming, isn’t that compelling until the last 20 minutes. It’s the kind of thing you’d put on on a rainy day and then forget about. As well written as the script is, it lacks forward momentum (something that Clair’s I Married a Witch, for example, has). I guess the best way to sum up It Happened Tomorrow is by saying I liked but didn’t love it.
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Post by politicidal on Nov 18, 2022 18:24:00 GMT
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Post by teleadm on Nov 18, 2022 19:14:29 GMT
Well this was a trip down memory lane, a staple on Swedish Television when I was a kid (late 60's early 70's), and I've never seen it in color (and this was a restored version). It is a beautiful movie to watch, with great cinematography and sets and color pallets, the use of shadows, and the stunts of Gene Kelly, all those are impressive. Storywise it's a bit too compact, like an Illustrated Classics magazine, and cramming too much into two hours plus. And what a cast a super MGM movie could put up. Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, Van Heflin, June Allyson, Angela Lansbury, Frank Morgan, Vincent Price, Keenan Wynn, Gig Young, Robert Coote, Reginald Owen, Patricia Medina. I enjoyed watching it for sure. The Three Musketeers 1948 directed George Sidney
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Post by politicidal on Nov 18, 2022 23:29:27 GMT
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