duaneiac Posted September 7, 2019 Report Share Posted September 7, 2019 (edited) Back in the late 1980's early 1990's I went through a big Cornell Woolrich phase. I read a bunch of his books with such alluring titles as Night Has A Thousand Eyes, The Bride Wore Black, Waltz Into Darkness, The Black Curtain, and The Black Path of Fear. This film was loosely based on that last novel. It begins, as these things will, with a down on his luck war veteran stumbling into a job as chauffeur for a mobster type with a beautiful, oppressed wife. Vet/chauf naturally falls in love with the dame and hatches a plan that will whisk them both off to carefree Cuba. "What could go wrong?", you may ask. "MURDER", the movie answers. The first two-thirds of the film are pretty good, but the final third takes a pretty radical departure from the book and was very much WTF? viewing for me. Still, there are some interesting and, at times, compelling touches throughout. Robert Cummings is, as usual, a bland tower of oatmeal. Peter Lorre is very good, not overdoing it but always providing a sense of impending violence. I've never heard of Steve Cochran, but he was very good as the bad guy. Edited September 7, 2019 by duaneiac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted September 7, 2019 Report Share Posted September 7, 2019 An Inspector Calls - Guy Hamilton (1954) Traffic - Steven Soderbergh (2000) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duaneiac Posted September 8, 2019 Report Share Posted September 8, 2019 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted September 8, 2019 Report Share Posted September 8, 2019 Give Me Liberty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted September 8, 2019 Report Share Posted September 8, 2019 Too Big To Fail - Curtis Hanson (2011) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted September 11, 2019 Report Share Posted September 11, 2019 Cold Case Hammarskold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted September 11, 2019 Report Share Posted September 11, 2019 (edited) Amazing Grace - Sydney Pollack (2018) Incandescent, intense and absolutely inspiring. A must see. Yesterday - Danny Boyle (2019) From the sublime Aretha to the ridiculous, worst ever Danny Boyle film. Without the music this would have been nothing, with embarrassingly squirmish dialogue and facepalm attempts at humour. Just my opinion, of course. Edited September 11, 2019 by kinuta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted September 12, 2019 Report Share Posted September 12, 2019 (edited) Pollack is one of the reasons Amazing Grace hasn't made it to the big screen until now. He neglected to bring clapper boards -- necessary to synchronize sound and picture -- to the filming so the film basically sat in the can until producer Alan Elliott, through the use of digital technology, managed to sync up the sound and film in 2010. The other principal reason was Aretha herself but after she died her executor cut a deal with Elliott so the film could come out. Edited September 12, 2019 by Brad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted September 12, 2019 Report Share Posted September 12, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Brad said: Pollack is one of the reasons Amazing Grace hasn't made it to the big screen until now. He neglected to bring clapper boards -- necessary to synchronize sound and picture -- to the filming so the film basically sat in the can until producer Alan Elliott, through the use of digital technology, managed to sync up the sound and film in 2010. The other principal reason was Aretha herself but after she died her executor cut a deal with Elliott so the film could come out. I knew there had been major problems synchronizing the image and sound, that had only been overcome recently. I'm just glad someone put this out. Of course I've had the record since it's release but seeing it is a whole new level of involvement. Does anyone know anything about the energetic choir leader , Alexander Hamilton ? Edited September 12, 2019 by kinuta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted September 14, 2019 Report Share Posted September 14, 2019 Linda Ronstadt: The Sound Of My Voice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted September 14, 2019 Report Share Posted September 14, 2019 The House Of Mirth - Terence Davies (2000) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted September 15, 2019 Report Share Posted September 15, 2019 Official Secrets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted September 15, 2019 Report Share Posted September 15, 2019 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Is it allowed for a sixty year old to really, really, enjoy this film? It's a fun film to watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted September 17, 2019 Report Share Posted September 17, 2019 Hustlers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted September 18, 2019 Report Share Posted September 18, 2019 The last three nights - A Most Violent Year - J.C. Chandor (2014) A Most Wanted Man - Anton Corbijn (2014) Sicario - Denis Villeneuve (2015) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duaneiac Posted September 19, 2019 Report Share Posted September 19, 2019 An interesting documentary about the world of industrial musicals. The story is centered around Steve Young, a writer for David Letterman's shows, who got into these little known musicals when he had to seek out oddball records for skits on the Letterman show. He gradually became interested in and then obsessed with the music in these old trade show souvenirs. The film takes us along as Mr. Young meets fellow record collectors in this specialized field and as he meets some of the performers (including Florence Henderson and Martin Short) who worked in these industrial shows and he even gets to meet some of the composers of the shows, who are like legends in his eyes. The film is a little slow at first, but it has a couple of goods surprises, a little sadness and a boffo ending. The following song plays an integral role in the film, so if you can appreciate music like this, you might enjoy this film. I sure did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted September 19, 2019 Report Share Posted September 19, 2019 All The Way - Jay Roach (2016) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted September 20, 2019 Report Share Posted September 20, 2019 Downton Abbey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted September 21, 2019 Report Share Posted September 21, 2019 Ad Astra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted September 21, 2019 Report Share Posted September 21, 2019 The Assassin - Hou Hsiao-hsien (2015) I've now watched this three times but am still unable to follow the storyline. It hardly matters as the visual splendour more than compensates for the murky plot. 7 hours ago, jlhoots said: Ad Astra The trailer looks very interesting. I hope it lived up to your expectations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duaneiac Posted September 24, 2019 Report Share Posted September 24, 2019 Well that was really, uh . . . something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted September 24, 2019 Report Share Posted September 24, 2019 9 hours ago, duaneiac said: Well that was really, uh . . . something. Like “Reefer Madness”. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted O'Reilly Posted September 24, 2019 Report Share Posted September 24, 2019 On 9/19/2019 at 1:31 AM, duaneiac said: An interesting documentary about the world of industrial musicals. The story is centered around Steve Young, a writer for David Letterman's shows, who got into these little known musicals when he had to seek out oddball records for skits on the Letterman show. He gradually became interested in and then obsessed with the music in these old trade show souvenirs. The film takes us along as Mr. Young meets fellow record collectors in this specialized field and as he meets some of the performers (including Florence Henderson and Martin Short) who worked in these industrial shows and he even gets to meet some of the composers of the shows, who are like legends in his eyes. The film is a little slow at first, but it has a couple of goods surprises, a little sadness and a boffo ending. The following song plays an integral role in the film, so if you can appreciate music like this, you might enjoy this film. I sure did. There's a really good radio show about marketing on CBC called Under The Influence hosted by Terry O'Reilly (no relation) which covered that topic a couple of years back -- and it's available here: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-70-under-the-influence/clip/12424026-when-madison-avenue-met-broadway-the-world-of-industrial-musicals-an-encore-presentation Lots of the music stands, if you drop the lyrics... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted September 24, 2019 Report Share Posted September 24, 2019 Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duaneiac Posted September 24, 2019 Report Share Posted September 24, 2019 7 hours ago, Brad said: Like “Reefer Madness”. For me, it wasn't even enjoyable in that "so over the top it's funny" manner. The movie seemed to me like a really weak episode of The Wild, Wild West, (y'know from that period when Ross Martin was out of the show for medical reasons and James West had to do even more of the work himself) with Vincent Price's character running around turn-of-the-century San Francisco engaging in various chases/fights/escapes in the midst of a Tong war as he tries to break up a kidnapping/yellow slavery ring and free several nubile, young, imprisoned Asian women. Sorry, it doesn't make any better sense than that. The story is confusing, the pacing is bad, yet somehow Vincent Price manages to retain his dignity and soldiers through it all like the professional he was. It's rather fitting that the movie literally ends up in the sewer Spoiler alert: No opium is actually eaten in this film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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