What Movie Have You Seen Today?

[PPK_30]

The Odyssey

Relieved, is how I feel. I think that Nolan lost his way after Interstellar, with the “meh” Dunkirk, execrable Tenet and average Oppenheimer. But THIS, is him back to his epic, towering best.

Damon is fantastic in the lead role, and it’s nice to see him in such a big part, anchoring the film and the emotion too. I think that’s what was missing from the last couple of Nolan pictures, someone to really root for. The scenes on the boat at sea, all real with not a green-screen in sight almost erases the last couple of decades worth of VFX tripe we’ve all been subjected to. This is real, shot across multiple locations, the actors suffering as much as their characters did. The film flies along, and I was so immersed in the last 40 mins or so that my bag of pic n mix was left untouched, completely forgotten about.

Its shot beautifully, scored majestically, and reaches such a tense climax before an incredible emotional pay-off I left the cinema exhausted. More like this please Christopher!

[MrKiddWint]

@byline

She felt like an all-too-obvious plot device giving Teresa Wright’s Peggy a reason to go after Dana Andrews’ Fred, but she was a little too “on the nose” for my tastes, as a cardboard-cutout vamp

Your overall analysis is great, and you are most accurate here. The character of Marie has long been seen as the weakest part of the film.

[byline]

@MrKiddWint

Your overall analysis is great, and you are most accurate here. The character of Marie has long been seen as the weakest part of the film.

Thanks! I’m not sure if Marie was in the original source material, Glory for Me by MacKinlay Kantor, but it felt like she was shoehorned into this screenplay as the obvious villain in the “love” triangle.

The thing is, the villain was already there: War, with its physical and psychological devastation. We didn’t need any more than that.

[Jim]

The Jewel of the Nile. Absolute codswallop. Possibly the greatest descent from original to immediate sequel? Over to you to suggest worse.

[stromberg]

What on earth brought you to watch this at all? 003 with his usual blowtorch and the mandatory box of scorpions?

[David_M]

@Jim

The Jewel of the Nile. Absolute codswallop. Possibly the greatest descent from original to immediate sequel? Over to you to suggest worse.

Airplane 2: The Sequel?

Speed 2: Cruise Control?

Legend of Zorro?

Jewel of the Nile is definitely up there, though.

[dalton]

@David_M

Airplane 2: The Sequel?

Speed 2: Cruise Control?

Legend of Zorro?

Jewel of the Nile is definitely up there, though.

Exorcist II: The Heretic

[stromberg]

Any Jaws sequel?

[jamesb007nd]

Speed2 is a very good example indeed. What a waist!

Smokey and the Bandit 2 was also very bad.

And recently here in The Netherlands:
Amsterdamned 2, but there is a 40 years gap between the original and the sequel, maybe that is a record too?

Halloween and Halloween 2 (the original one and the sequel, not the remakes)

Jaws and Jaws 2

Piranha and Piranha 2 Flying Killers

[stromberg]

@jamesb007nd

Smokey and the Bandit 2 was also very bad.

But it shines when you compare it to Smokey and the Bandit 3

Another franchise getting worse with each sequel certainly is Police Academy.
Some might say that it has got a rather low starting level anyway, but I have to confess that it is a guilty pleasure of mine (I swear, only the first one) …

[MrKiddWint]

@Jim

Over to you to suggest worse.

THE STING II

AIRPORT 1975

STAYING ALIVE

[Jim]

@stromberg

What on earth brought you to watch this at all? 003 with his usual blowtorch and the mandatory box of scorpions?

No, all of those were very tasty. Just wanted to see how low I could go; evidently, given the others now listed, not low enough. Don’t think I’ve seen any of those and now won’t.

[secretagentfan]

Disclosure Day

Beautifully shot, edited, scored and directed, like only Spielberg can.

And yet… I was disappointed.

This film is a fascinating idea (what if alien encounters were real and the proof was released to the world?) turned into a story which is absolutely unsatisfying.

Instead of making the disclosure day of the hidden information the first turning point of the story and then showing the consequences, it is merely focusing on the hunt for the information. There is a great chase sequence, yes, and there are many intriguing moments, conversations on how this disclosure would change our world views on religion. But the whole 2 1/2 hours are wasted on what feels like the pilot for a tv show which only gets into the real meat of the story in the next installments.

Also, the main characters are nothing but exposition givers, which - especially for a movie trying to maintain that empathy is essential - is such a lost opportunity. This is a movie which makes characters constantly explain everything, devising situations which just overcomplicate everything instead of zooming in on the real themes.

Frankly, if any other writer or director had handed in this script it would have been considered a first draft with exciting ideas - and then sent off to do several more drafts to really explore these ideas. However, I understand that David Koepp had to write tons of drafts to arrive at this one. I get the feeling that Spielberg did not trust his own idea and tried to turn it into something that might better fit into the marketplace (a chase picture!).

The comparison is unfair and yet unavoidable - but CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND basically had the same idea at its core but made every correct decision that DISCLOSURE DAY did not. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS focused on emotional journeys of people who felt absolutely real. DISCLOSURE DAY has stock characters. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS makes the connection with alien life a at first scary, then fascinating and enchanting discovery. DISCLOSURE DAY takes more than two hours to build up a surprise which is none at all since we already know that it is about alien life and UFO sightings.

I must say I think this is Spielberg´s least interesting film ever. Which adds to my ongoing disappointment with the cinema of the 2020´s. Technical finesse has never been better but storytelling is worse than ever.

[secretagentfan]

Alright… I warned you. Here it comes.

Casino Royale (1967)

Completely unfunny. Total excess. Incoherent. A colossal waste of money and talent. Only the score is good.

That’s what regularly gets blasted on the net (and back then in the papers) at one´s innocent question: is that spoof from Charles K. Feldman any good?

And I admit: I have never made it through the whole film before. It seemed to confirm all the bad reviews from the start, and the best one could say about it was that it was “an acquired taste”.

Well, it seems that I have finally acquired it.

Because I was surprised how well all the strands of plot attempts, directed by the many very different directors, came together and complimented each other. I know, the whole production was a money burning mess, and everything is thrown at the screen, from a stuttering Niven Bond to a bunch of dancing “Indians” fighting in the Casino where a Bond nephew played by Woody Allen is having bomb hiccups counting down to his and everybody’s demise - and I have not even mentioned Peter Sellers as a Baccarat expert with Michael Caine glasses and Orson Welles enjoying his magic tricks obsession at the game table while Ursula Andress, in her own voice and accent, expertly flirts with everyone and the audience during a much more faithful interlude taken from the Fleming novel than I expected. Wait, there is also a German Caligari-esque set in which a delightfully unhinged set piece with the female Bond version takes place (“Is he dead?”- “Hard to say, he always looks like that.”). And it all is totally bonkers - and totally delightful. I had so much fun watching this movie - and I did not even have one ounce of a Vesper Martini, nor any other intoxicating stuff. The film was enough.

To think that this is a James Bond parody coming after THUNDERBALL conquered the world, one can all the more appreciate how the classic beats were transformed into comedy excess. And hey, it was the first film in which Bond had a daughter! (Sneaky nod in NTTD, right, EON?)

Yes, the jokes are often silly and even childish, but sometimes they are extremely funny (Allen escaping the firing squad only to land in another firing squad situation). And when the jokes don’t land the actors, the set decoration and the always wonderful Burt Bacharach score carry me along.

When it was over I thought I could easily start again.

Maybe this happened because it is summer and I am on a holiday. But I do think or better feel that this will be a constant re-watch delight, a movie I return to just to feel comfortably amused and forget about life for a while.

So, “Casino Royale” (1967), shoots straight up my list of feel good-movies.

This is definitely one they don’t make anymore. A true treasure. Surrealistic fun and much more clever than it gets credit for. It went over most audiences´ heads back then and still does. Because life is chaos and why not enjoy it with a smile. It gets better then.

[stromberg]

Glad you enjoyed it. And welcome to the club

[MrKiddWint]

@secretagentfan

So, “Casino Royale” (1967), shoots straight up my list of feel good-movies.

Can MODESTY BLAISE be far behind?

[jamesb007nd]

Yesterday I watched “Il Mercenario” aka “A Professional Gun” (I-1968) from Sergio Corbucci.

Last weekend I think I talked about the music used by Tarantino for his movies and I thought the days after about all my favorite Spaghetti movies and when yesterday I got home early (36 degrees is too much to work in the sun) I watched this great western.

Corbucci is my favorite Spaggetti western director after Leone. He made a couple of realy great movies which I realy can recommend. He is also known as “The other Sergio” and Django (I-1966) is the most famous of his movies I believe, but the others which followed are probably better.
This one is a Zapata western, which means that takes place during the Mexican revolution. It’s about a Mexican man, played by Tony Musante, who tries to lead his men against the oppressors—initially out of self-interest and a desire for wealth—but as the story unfolds, he follows his heart and tries to do the right thing. Opposing him is Spaghetti western superstar Franco Nero as “the Polack,” a mercenary driven purely by greed who nonetheless harbors a certain sympathy for his Mexican counterpart. Then there is the story’s villain, played with devilish, over-the-top flair in a way only Jack Palance could pull off. Ultimately, the three meet in an arena for a showdown, with Nero acting as a sort of referee.

If you haven’t seen the film yet, I highly recommend it—if only for the score by the duo of Morricone and Bruno Nicolai.

[jamesb007nd]

Yesterday I watched “The Deserter” another European western I love. I am not sure if it is a 100% Italian Spaghetti western though, because it is produced by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by Burt Kennedy. It is an Italian/ Yugoslavian co-production and with a cast full of American actors, unbelievable how many well known names are in this movie:

Chuck Conners, Richard Crenna, Ricardo Montalbán, Ian Bannen, Slim Pickens, Albert Salmi, Woody Strode, Brandon deWilde (the boy from “Shane”), Patrick Wayne (son of) and last but not least director/sometimes actor John Huston as the general. How on earth did they get all this guys in one movie filmed entirly in Yugoslavia?
But the cast is led by Bekim Fehmiu, who I am told is in the best version of The Odyssey in a 1968 televisonseries. He plays a captain of the army who discovers his wife and the rest of her village is murdered by Apache Indians and the rest of his life is dedicated by seeking out for revenge. He finds his wife skinned alive and I remember that this was a shock to see when I was a kid from 12 years old. We speak of the beginning of the eighties and right then we didn’t see as kids and weren’t used to much when it came to movies and violence like childeren do now with the internet etc.
Then the Indian attack more villages and the deserted captain is hired to form a group of experts to find them and kill them. Than it becomes a kind of Dirty Dozen like movie to get them in shape and with all kind of different characters like a priest who is also a dynamite expert (Connors) or a Native American tracker (Montalbán). And Strode is always impressive ofcourse!
A great movie, unfortunately there is not a real good version available, I have a dvd taken straight from a VHS tape, at least it looks like that.

[jamesb007nd]

Last Saturday late afternoon I looked for and watched the old blu ray from “Vera Cruz” (USA-1954) from Robert Aldrich starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster.
I have to admit that I not often like American westerns. I find them to soft and boring, sory John Ford and John Wayne fans, I like Spaghetti westerns so much more.
But… there are a few exceptions, like The Wild Bunch, The Professionals and this one and I didn’t realise this before but they all have in common that the main characters are not entirely good and upright, yet primarily driven by personal gain; furthermore, the action takes place entirely across the border in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution, serving—as it were—as a blueprint for future spaghetti westerns, particularly the Zapata subgenre.
As for the actions of the various characters, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many hidden agendas and double-crosses in one movie.
In the end, of course, Cooper does let his heart speak and chooses the right path, because… Gary Cooper is and remains Gary Cooper, after all!
And Lancaster… he flashes his famous smile so often that he looks like one giant advertisement for toothpaste.
Smaller roles feature Cesar -The Joker- Romero, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, and Charles Bronson—and the latter spends half the movie playing the harmonica; now, where have I seen that before?
A lot of action and suspense and fun. This movie is apparently also one of director Paul Verhoeven’s personal favorites.

To be honest, I mainly watched this film to see whether I should buy the new 4K version, but then again, isn’t that just a ‘luxury problem’ and shouldn’t I be satisfied with what I already have?

[MrKiddWint]

@jamesb007nd

shouldn’t I be satisfied with what I already have?

One should always upgrade Aldrich when posible.