Return Of The Film Corner Thread

[JSngry]

3 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Options for what?

Options for movies to see if you want to watch a German tank run over Jack Palance's arm.

If there's options, let's have 'em now, so I can get busy. Life's short, ya' know.

[Dave James]

On 2/15/2020 at 2:07 PM, Brad said:

This is excellent, a semi fictional look at the collapse of Lehman Brothers.  Just as good as The Big Short, which was a tremendous movie. 

That's as well-acted a film as I've seen in awhile.  Even Demi Moore is good.  Some real heavyweights here, especially Jeremy Irons who perfectly captures the greed and avarice that characterized Wall Street before the fall.  The scene where he makes his first appearance is riveting.  I'm a fan of The Big Short" as well, but if I had to choose between the two, I'd have to go with "Margin Call."  No aesthetic distance here...it's a film that really draws you in and makes you feel like you have seat at the table. 

Edited February 16, 2020 by Dave James

[Brad]

2 hours ago, Dave James said:

That's as well-acted a film as I've seen in awhile.  Even Demi Moore is good.  Some real heavyweights here, especially Jeremy Irons who perfectly captures the greed and avarice that characterized Wall Street before the fall.  The scene where he makes his first appearance is riveting.  I'm a fan of The Big Short" as well, but if I had to choose between the two, I'd have to go with "Margin Call."  No aesthetic distance here...it's a film that really draws you in and makes you feel like you have seat at the table. 

I got a kick out of the name of the  Irons character: John Tuld vs Lehman’s Richard Fuld.

I never read The Big Short but did read Charles Gasparino’s The Sellout. Pretty amazing. 

Edited February 17, 2020 by Brad

[Dave James]

6 hours ago, Brad said:

I got a kick out of the name of the  Irons character: John Tuld vs Lehman’s Richard Fuld.

I never read The Big Short but did read Charles Gasparino’s The Sellout. Pretty amazing. 

"Liar's Poker" by Michael Lewis and "Den Of Thieves" by James B. Stewart are also excellent reads. 

[soulpope]

[gmonahan]

On 2/23/2020 at 11:58 PM, soulpope said:

If you watch this one in 4K with a subwoofer, prepare to be knocked out of your chair!

 

 

 

gregmo

[jlhoots]

The Assistant

[jlhoots]

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson & The Band

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire

[mjazzg]

Free State of Jones

Totally fascinating for someone who knew absolutely nothing about the subject. Well acted and dramatised without sacrificing historical nuance from what I can gather with some follow-up reading.

[felser]

Watched a nice movie with my flu-bound wife last night.  "Last Chance Harvey", starring Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson.  It struck a lot of chords with me on alienation, the impact of divorce on kids, aging, career "settling" , elder care, etc.  Look foreward to seeing it again.  Filmed ca. 2009.

Edited March 1, 2020 by felser

[ejp626]

First time watching Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest

I found it incredibly dreary and not remotely compelling. 

[duaneiac]

Last night I watched this triple feature:

Charles Laughton is superb and well deserved the Best Actor Oscar awarded him for his work.  The actresses portraying his wives are also splendid, Merle Oberon,  Wendy Barrie, Binnie Barnes and the wonderful Elsa Lanchester.

An odd docudrama about Bob Mizer, who was sort of a low-rent, gay version of Hugh Hefner as a pioneering purveyor of "adult entertainment", in Mr. Mizer's case, as the photographer and publisher behind Physique Pictorial, a "men's fitness" magazine which featured very scantily clad (later to be fully naked) young men.  The film includes interview segments with men who were actually around and part of the scene back in the L.A. of the late 1940's-1950's, the two gentlemen listed on the above DVD cover being the most well known names.  The film also dramatizes events to show the rise of and some of the heyday of Mr. Mizer's photographic and filmmaking career.  This part seems a bit too campy and less seedy than the reality likely was.  The movie just kind of winds down around 1964, even though Mr. Mizer continued on with his work/passion until his death in 1992.

[jlhoots]

The Traitor

[Brad]

Apocalypse Now. Still a strange movie. 

[medjuck]

4 hours ago, Brad said:

Apocalypse Now. Still a strange movie. 

Was that "the final cut"?  I thought he should have cut some more.   (The French plantation scene makes no sense to me and slows the film down a lot.) 

[Brad]

2 hours ago, medjuck said:

Was that "the final cut"?  I thought he should have cut some more.   (The French plantation scene makes no sense to me and slows the film down a lot.) 

It wasn’t the final cut because there’s no plantation scene. The movie ends with Martin Sheen saying “the horror.” The way I remember it when I first saw it was with Kurtz’s being destroyed and the Doors singing. I was expecting this when I saw it last night so that surprised me.  

[medjuck]

3 hours ago, Brad said:

It wasn’t the final cut because there’s no plantation scene. The movie ends with Martin Sheen saying “the horror.” The way I remember it when I first saw it was with Kurtz’s being destroyed and the Doors singing. I was expecting this when I saw it last night so that surprised me.  

I'm no longer sure what that version is, I've seen so many different ones. 

[duaneiac]

What a dull action movie.

[duaneiac]

[duaneiac]

Peter Cushing gets to be one of the good guys in this one.  It's a pretty lame sci-fi horror pic in which a research doctor working on a cure for cancer on a remote, secluded island accidentally develops some creatures that live by sucking the bones out of living things.  The creatures themselves are laughable -- a kind of rubbery, armor-plated stingray which some stagehand has to throw/drop onto a couple of poor actors who then have to roll around on the ground and make it look like they are engaged in a vicious battle against gruesome death instead of frolicking wit an exotic but beloved family pet.  Very workmanlike direction by Terence Fisher.

[duaneiac]

 

[Brad]

Watched “Yesterday” this morning. Very enjoyable. A world without Beatles music is a very strange world indeed. 

[jlhoots]

I'd like to go out to a movie. Oh, well. 

[gmonahan]

7 hours ago, jlhoots said:

I'd like to go out to a movie. Oh, well. 

Me too!!!

 

 

 

 

gregmo

[duaneiac]

I hadn't seen this film in almost 40 years until I found it on YouTube.  Granted, it's a gimmick movie, but it still kinda works.  It's clearly an attempt at a Hitchcock style film, but the suspense isn't always maintained.  Ray Milland's character is an American physicist who is engaged in sending secret nuclear documents to  . . . well, this being 1952, the audience would know to who/where.  The G-men grow wise and he has to take it on the lam and hide out in some cheap NYC hotel until his "partners" can smuggle him out of the country.  There is a chase up the stairs of the Empire State Bldg. which Hitchcock probably could have made into something more suspenseful/memorable than the extended scene of two guys just running up flight after flight of stairs that exists here.  It has a very wimpy ending, but it's still worth seeing at least once.