My Cousin Vinny for the 400th time.
@jcocktosten posted:My Cousin Vinny for the 400th time.
Utes!
3022. Highly recommend.
@brucehayes posted:3022. Highly recommend.
IMDB - 4.6., TOM - 50pts. Well it does have Miranda Cosgrove (sort of.)
Don't care what the ratings say, I loved it.
@brucehayes posted:Don't care what the ratings say, I loved it.
I don't know if my post was clear, I only gave one rating (IMDB) the other is my own (TOM.)
Well it's in one of the highest aspect ratios of I've ever seen, I'm guessing around 2.6 to 1. (I can't find a listing for it.) So it has that.
@The Old Man posted:IMDB - 4.6., TOM - 50pts. Well it does have Miranda Cosgrove (sort of.)
Sometimes a movie is just entertainment and that's OK too. Like wine, if you like it, it's a good movie. If yilou don't, it's a bad movie.
@bman posted:Sometimes a movie is just entertainment and that's OK too. Like wine, if you like it, it's a good movie. If yilou don't, it's a bad movie.
I'm offering anyone here a bottle of wine from Purplehaze's cellar if they can finish this movie. 
(And it's only 90 minutes long. Seems easy? Try it.)
The Old Guard - on Netflix. Meh...
Queen
" The Bad and The Beautiful" -- 92pts. Easily Vincente Minnelli's best film. "Hollywood" likes a cynical Hollywood story and this 1952 film about the rise of a film studio executive, has that, and also one of Kirk Douglas's best performances. There are also so many good actors in this particularly perhaps Barry Sullivan's best roll and a very good role for Citizen Kane's servant Paul Stewart. Also featuring noir actress Gloria Grahame playing against type.
Second only to "Sunset Boulevard" in its jaundiced look at Hollywood, It perhaps offers more hope than the glorious despair of that movie which came out less than a year earlier.
Richard Jewell
OK but heavy handed politics on Eastwood's part.
@steve8 posted:Richard Jewell
OK but heavy handed politics on Eastwood's part.
Wow - how surprising
@steve8 posted:Richard Jewell
OK but heavy handed politics on Eastwood's part.
TOM, "What can you say about a director who sets out to make a movie about a person who was wronged by the media who then turns around and in the same movie wrongs someone from the media?"
Slaughterhouse 5
Part of a batch of unopened blu-rays that I won at a local auction. Including among others, the entire Pink Panther series.
@mneeley490 posted:Slaughterhouse 5
Part of a batch of unopened blu-rays that I won at a local auction. Including among others, the entire Pink Panther series.
What did you think? Really difficult to make that great book into a film.
@steve8 posted:What did you think? Really difficult to make that great book into a film.
It's impossible. There never has been a good movie based on Vonnegut. It's perhaps even more difficult than making a good film based on the books of Philip K Dick.
@The Old Man posted:It's impossible. There never has been a good movie based on Vonnegut. It's perhaps even more difficult than making a good film based on the books of Philip K Dick.
FWIW I thought the film of Clockwork Orange was better than the book. I can't think of too many others though.
I recently watched four best Serbian movies. They are “Strangler vs. Strangler” (1984), “The Dagger” (1999), “Emir Kusturica’s Underground” (1995) and “The State of the Dead” (2002). I am so impressed by them, but what interests me is the latter movie. It’s about a Yugoslav loyalist who moves from Slovenia to Belgrade due to a short-lived civil war.
The Professional - still a superb movie.
Message from the King.
The Big Lebowski
Such a wonderful film
@steve8 posted:FWIW I thought the film of Clockwork Orange was better than the book. I can't think of too many others though.
I never read A Room With a View, but I imagine it doesn’t live up to the film.
@steve8 posted:FWIW I thought the film of Clockwork Orange was better than the book. I can't think of too many others though.
I never compare films and books. I judge films against other films, not books.
The T.A.M.I Show -- 1964--kicked off a week of musical documentaries on TCM from the 50s through the 70s. This rarely seen documentary is loaded with one amazing musical act after another. Probably the most famous performance, and one that has been seen in various other documentaries, is James Brown. He absolutely tears the house down. Famously Mick Jagger was hesitant to follow Brown's act. This caused Jagger to step up his performance and it is quite remarkable. Especially because so many of their hits are in the future. This is the original group with Brian Jones (who would be dead at 27 [when else?] five years later.)
Other acts of note: Chuck Berry who is unfortunately buried among go-go dancers. The producers put a lot of effort in to choreography. It's staged by David Winters assisted by Toni Basil who, along with Terri Garr, appears with the dancers. They too often take the attention away from the actual singers and bands and you just won't believe the jiggle from one, particularly, well-endowed girl's bikini top, but ignore it as best you can. A terrific set by Gerry and the Pacemakers of all people. Gerry Marsden, who is still alive, just enjoys himself as much as I've seen any singer. There are actually feature two Merseybeat groups the other being an OK performance by Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas.
Another surprise is the remarkable performance of Lesley Gore whose fierce singing of You Don't Own Me now appears to have been decades before her time. One of the nice things about the show each each act gets time to stretch out and come up with well-thought out performance. The Miracles (not yet known as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles) is the first soul act in the show and they just kill it. The same can't be said for the next soul performance Marvin Gaye who gives a lackluster performance and gets swamped by the go-go dancers. Motown artists Diane Rose and the Supremes do their usual great job and their of some amazingly tight closeups of them that add to the emotion of their singing.
The Beach Boys do their usual precision work, perhap a little too perfect, a little too clocklike. And Jan and Dean do some of their "Sure sounds like the Beach Boys to me" songs. They also cutely introduce the acts sometimes in costumes.
Another thing that makes this a wonderful collection of important performances is they are actually singing their hits. By this time American Bandstand was already having performers lip sync on television. Though it didn't happen for a few more years eventually lip syncing took over that bastion of live entertainment, The Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan's show is also a great place to catch these acts. I think he went to lip sync around 1966 or so. This show has all live performances that have to be worked out with changing all these acts in and out, backing them with a orchestra if needed and keeping the show going with dancers all over the place. I should mention that a good chunk of the backup band was made up of people from The Wrecking Crew under the direction of Jack Nietzsche. Including drummer Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco and Glen on guitar and Leon Russell on the piano.
Finally the most incredible thing about this film is it's film. I'll explain. As I'm watching it I'm seeing a 1.8:1 aspect ratio, filmed black and white movie. So I often look to see what system they are using for this widescreen ratio. There's really only one way for them to do it which would be matted 35mm film. I took a quick look on IMBD and see it's a process called Electronovision, which is odd, and continue watching. And then I start seeing that every camera they're using is a large television camera from the time with a lens turret huge pedestal mounts. So at this point it's making no sense. It turns out this process with the silly name, Electronovision, is actually a way that was used to get high definition from video tape in 1964! It's actually special video recording that was transferred onto film using the kinescope process. This is even more shocking since kinescope is the process that was used for saving life television programs of the late 40s and 50s has a well deserved reputation for low visual quality. The bottom line on all this is because they chose this process you essentially have a very well produced, almost high definition film with performances by some of the founders of rock 'n roll and soul.
Those who have TCM should check out what else they're showing in the next week.
TOM, The T.A.M.I. Show is available on Blu-ray as a double feature with The Big T.N.T. Show, which was filmed two years later. Well worth the investment.
@sunnylea57 posted:TOM, The T.A.M.I. Show is available on Blu-ray as a double feature with The Big T.N.T. Show, which was filmed two years later. Well worth the investment.
After seeing it on TCM I immediately looked and saw that on Amazon. Currently out of stock but I have it pre-ordered. This is an historical document which should be owned by anyone interested in American music history. Again, I'm just blow away by the concept of high definition video being implemented in the early 60s.
The Men Who Stare at Goats - a bit whacky, but fun.
As part of the TCM musical documentary week I watched The Song Remains the Same last night. The first and only time I ever saw it before was in 1977 at a midnight screening with a bunch of friends.
It remains self-indulgent excess.
I recorded the T.A.M.I show the other night so I'll watch that soon. Didn't know anything about it but the list of artists and the fact it was HD was enough to tape it.
@steve8 posted:What did you think? Really difficult to make that great book into a film.
Well, Valerie Perrine wasn't bad to look at. 
Dr. No.
Still epic.
@bman posted:Dr. No.
Still epic.
Such a great movie.
The fact that the famous "Bond, James Bond" line is actually Bond having a little fun with Sylvia Trench was something that took me a while to realize.
I know everyone talks about Ursula Andress as the first Bond girl, but for me it was always Miss Taro.
And the cold-blooded killing of Professor Dent is just classic.
@Rothko posted:Such a great movie.
The fact that the famous "Bond, James Bond" line is actually Bond having a little fun with Sylvia Trench was something that took me a while to realize.
I know everyone talks about Ursula Andress as the first Bond girl, but for me it was always Miss Taro.
And the cold-blooded killing of Professor Dent is just classic.
But why did he shoot the professor just as he was about to say who he worked for?
I don't think he was going to tell Bond who he worked for. He was just trying to preoccupy Bond while he grabbed his gun off the floor.
Now, I do think that perhaps you could argue that he should have kept Dent alive for interrogation. But I think that Bond had had enough of Dent trying to kill him.
@mneeley490 posted:Well, Valerie Perrine wasn't bad to look at.
If you want to see more of her body, watch the awful Lenny with Dustin Hoffman in the title role with Perrine as the long suffering Honey Bruce. Directed in black and white by Bob Fosse it does have a great Lesbian scene, so there's that. Her career sputtered after Arthur Hiller's awful bio-pic about W.C. Fields, W.C. Fields and Me in which she plays Fields' long suffering mistress Carlotta Monti. She was primed for great things but after but these two movies, especially the one about Fields, led to the non-lead in the awful Superman films and then not much. For those of a certain age she will always be remembered for the nude shower in the PBS TV movie of the existential play Steambath. Written by Bruce Jay Friedman (who died this year at 90) it's noted as the first American TV production to have nudity and a female's nipples. I kid you not. With Bill Bixby and Kenneth Mars.
@Rothko posted:I don't think he was going to tell Bond who he worked for. He was just trying to preoccupy Bond while he grabbed his gun off the floor.
Now, I do think that perhaps you could argue that he should have kept Dent alive for interrogation. But I think that Bond had had enough of Dent trying to kill him.
Talk about an interesting person, Dent is played by Anthony Dawson. Dawson's most famous role is of course the "killer" in Dial M for Murder. You wouldn't know it to look at him but he was quite the ladies' man. He had a brief affair with the lead actress of the movie, you know, Grace Kelly. He was a favorite of director Terence Young who cast his voice and cat-stroking hands for Ernst Stavro Blofeld in his two James Bond movies, From Russia with Love and Thunderball.
@bman posted:Dr. No.
Still epic.
The first Bond and still one of the very best, imo.
@The Old Man posted:Talk about an interesting person, Dent is played by Anthony Dawson. Dawson's most famous role is of course the "killer" in Dial M for Murder. You wouldn't know it to look at him but he was quite the ladies' man. He had a brief affair with the lead actress of the movie, you know, Grace Kelly. He was a favorite of director Terence Young who cast his voice and cat-stroking hands for Ernst Stavro Blofeld in his two James Bond movies, From Russia with Love and Thunderball.
I had not realized Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball were all directed by the same person though Goldfinger was directed by someone else. It makes sense, though. Despite Goldfinger broadly being considered the best, I’ve always preferred the three Young Bonds to it. And I’ve always viewed those three Bonds as being similar in quality and 3 of my 4 favorites. (Casino Royale, while totally different, is also top 4 for me.)
Yes, the directors are, Guy Hamilton for Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever and two non-Connery efforts. The amazing Terence Young did Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Thunderball. The surprisingly good final Connery vehicle, You Only Live Twice, was supervised by the English journeyman director, Lewis Gilbert.
I am a solid Sean Connery man and don't think there is anyone else that was James Bond. I don't actually enjoy seeing Bond moved into modern times because the character, like Sherlock Holmes, is a creature of his times. If Bond isn't wearing a fedora it ain't Bond. The most interesting connection in Goldfinger, which I do think is the best James Bond movie, is its director Guy Hamilton was the assistant director on The Third Man, which had a certain wonderful English army Sergeant Paine played by the future M, Bernard Lee. "Holly Martins, the famous western writer?"
The T.A.M.I. Show
Definitely some good performances sadly marred by the screaming audience.
The Kids Are Alright
Another one I hadn't seen since a midnight screening more than 40 years ago. Some decent clips.
Hitsville: The Making of Motown
Definitely enjoyed this one. I didn't realize Smokey wrote that many songs for other artists, although his output paled in comparison to Holland-Dozier-Holland.