Return Of The Film Corner Thread

[kinuta]

Thunder Across The Plains - Andre De Toth (1953)

To Each His Own - Mitchell Leisen  (1946)

Corny, sentimental soaper is of limited interest but Olivia De Havilland is great as always.

[kinuta]

How Green Was My Valley - John Ford (1941)

 

Given it's age, the BR looks absolutely pristine. The level of detail is amazing.

Almost like watching the film for the first time.

Edited May 31, 2016 by kinuta

[BillF]

11 hours ago, kinuta said:

How Green Was My Valley - John Ford (1941)

 

Given it's age, the BR looks absolutely pristine. The level of detail is amazing.

Almost like watching the film for the first time.

Used to hear a great deal about that one in my childhood. My parents had clearly been impressed.

[kinuta]

50 minutes ago, BillF said:

Used to hear a great deal about that one in my childhood. My parents had clearly been impressed.

Notorious for getting the best pic oscar over Citizen Kane. I think that's a stigma unfairly held against it by some classic film fans.

It does creep very near to maudlin but is redeemed by tremendous direction, superb cinematography and willingness make a strong social statement by showing the dark side of coalmining and how the formerly beautiful valley was wrecked by greed and the ruthless pursuit of profit.

Besides all that it's got Maureen O'Hara at her most radiant and makes a good companion piece to The Quiet Man.

I'm biased, I love John Ford, the beauty of his films makes up for his penchant for the sentimental.

[kinuta]

Fort Apache - John Ford (1948)

 

 

[kinuta]

The Dead Pool - Buddy Van Horn (1988)

 

Felt like some Dirty Harry and picked the least viewed film of the series.

The usual wooden characters are enlivened by Patricia Clarkson who never gives a bad performance.

On the other hand, Liam Neeson is embarrassing as the movie director, complete with clip on ponytail.

[duaneiac]

Perhaps a tad longer than it needed to be, but the scenes of the robbery being carried out are quite compelling.  A good cast and Peter Ustinov did a fine job in his Oscar winning performance.

Some movies make one wonder, "What were they thinking?".  Here, it was quite obvious what they were thinking after the smash success Disney had with Mary Poppins -- "Lets make a spectacular musical fantasy about another character from a series of British children's books!" -- but the whole endeavor went horribly wrong.  To make a good movie musical requires 1) a score with a number of catchy, memorable tunes, and 2) performers who can sing those tunes.  Doctor Dolittle was severely hampered from the outset by having neither of those elements.  I recall seeing this movie as a kid and not liking it too much then -- and that was back in the long-gone days when a 7 year old kid was still unsophisticated pretty easily entertained.   There was just so much wrong with this, from a script that wanders around with no real story or destination in mind, Rex Harrison always looking as though he would rather be anywhere else (and in the scene where he had to "sing" a love song to a seal, who could blame him?), Anthony Newley's horrible bellowing of Leslie Bricusse's third-rate songs, an obvious lack of appreciation for the spirit of the source material. This was a beautifully filmed, bloated, soulless, crass and extremely expensive miscarriage.  At least it did inspire me to read a couple of the books a few years later, so it wasn't a total loss on me as a kid.

[BillF]

One of the best films I've seen for a long time, reminiscent less of contemporary French films than of Ken Loach, the Dardenne brothers or even 99 Homes. The French title, literally "the law of the market", has been changed to The Measure of a Man in English. I would have preferred Market Forces.

[kinuta]

25th Hour - Spike Lee (2002)

[kinuta]

X Men Apocalypse - Brian Singer (2016)

What were they thinking ?

I have a soft spot for the X Men films but this is the worst.

Bloated, all over the place, crap cgi and a high 'so what' factor.

Watch Days Of Future Past or First Class instead.

[jlhoots]

Dheepan 

Edited June 5, 2016 by jlhoots

[BillF]

The Peddler

Argentinian documentary about a rural filmmaker.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1636454/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

[kinuta]

Light entertainment

The Score - Frank Oz (2001)

The Sentinel - Clark Johnson (2006)

[kinuta]

The Unsuspected - Michael Curtiz (1947)

Triple 9 - John Hillcoat (2016)

 

Dirty cops, Russian mob, three especially hard hitting set piece action sequences. Good.

[kinuta]

Glorious 39 - Stephen Poliakoff  (2009)

The Missing Person - Noah Buschel (2009)

[T.D.]

Red Army (2015), dir. Gabe Polsky

[duaneiac]

A movie based on the events of the murder (or rather, "justifiable homicide") of Lana Turner's "boyfriend" Johnny Stompanato by her daughter Cheryl Crane.  The names and details are all altered to avoid lawsuits, but every one must have known what this movie (and the Harold Robbins novel it was adapted from) was about.  Very tawdry and melodramatic, but Bette Davis and Susan Hayward chew the glitzy scenery with gusto.  A pre-Mannix Mike Connors and a pre-has-been Joey Heatherton also starred.

[kinuta]

The Spanish Prisoner - David Mamet (1997)

[kinuta]

Fat City - John Huston (1972)

[kinuta]

In Harm's Way - Otto Preminger (1965)

Excellent wide screen B&W, and good, low key performance by John Wayne.

The film is 40 minutes too long, cluttered up with daft love interest detours, a ridiculous plot involving Kirk Douglas and baffling opening at a dance that has nothing to do with the rest of the film. JW, however, did a good job.

 

[kinuta]

Eye In The Sky - Gavin Hood (2015)

Gripping, highly watchable.

[kinuta]

The Racket - John Cromwell (1951)

Lust For Gold - S. Sylvan Simon (1949)

[kinuta]

No End In Sight - Charles Ferguson (2007)

Lest we forget .

Yellow Sky - William A. Wellman  (1948)

[kinuta]

Along The Great Divide - Raoul Walsh (1951)

[BillF]

Not impressed.