I have a great admiration for Steve McQueen…the ‘King of Cool’
This is the ‘King’, at his best…not saying anything…but expressing everything…
With this role, McQueen wasn’t being the ‘Cooler King’, ‘The Cincinnatti Kid’; ‘Papillon’ or anyone…
He was the best.
Whether in ‘Le Mans’, or other miss-guided efforts, he was king…
The Mandalorian episode 1-5
Last 10
CLASH OF THE TITANS is Harryhausen’s masterpiece, grand and glorious. But did you know he was planning a follow-up?
Last night: Tenet (Nolan, 2020)
Needlessly obtuse chore to sit through in which a special ops agent (John David Washington, BlacKkKlansman) joins a “temporal” black ops agency - codenamed Tenet - who are capable of moving through time backwards. Why? I don’t know. To what end? I don’t know. And what are the stakes? I don’t know that either.
What I do know is that the whole thing looked stunning as one would expect from a Christopher Nolan film but was entertaining in the same way that The Times crossword puzzle is entertaining. Thing is, if I wanted to do a puzzle I’d do a f#cking puzzle, not watch a film. I want to get lost in the movie, not be lost by it. Nolan has a habit of making headscratching pictures which demand your attention but his demands are beginning to grate. John David Washington is not an especially charismatic lead, the usually excellent Kenneth Branagh spends the movie muttering away in a stereotypical Bond villain accent and the sound mix on the blu-ray was truly atrocious. Sounded as though it had been mixed with the rec levels up far too high. All of the loud noises - and this movie is 95% loud noises - sounded horribly distorted even at low volume, at which point the dialogue became incoherent.
I’ll give it another go at some stage; I didn’t especially care for Inception or Interstellar on first viewings either. But I’m wondering why I have to keep working extra hard for this director.
Agreed.
I gave up on this one after about an hour. The characters, or perhaps the lack of charismatic actors, lost my interest. KB is also just a joke to me … the biggest ‘Lovey’ in the business, or, ‘The Man Who Would Be Olivier’ … he’s so completely deluded, I almost feel sorry for him.
Boy’s-own adventure of the highest order…excellent from start to finish, with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton taking on the German army…
I watched this last night, having looked forward to seeing it. Unfortunately, I was under-whelmed by it…perhaps my opinion will soften and improve upon a second viewing.
The occasional joke is fine, in any medium, but this film seemed to thrive on turning the ‘Thor’ mythology into a figure of fun and buffoonery, with more ‘quips’ per minute than a giant-sized packet of salted ‘Walkers’.
There were some memorable moments…the ‘death’ of ‘Odin’, the revelation that ‘Thor’ had a sister, and the destruction of Asgard…all moments that - for myself, at least - lost their poignancy because of the non-stop gags. Even the deaths of some of ‘Thor’s’ friends, near the beginning, were done in such an off-hand way, with no depth, or feeling…followed by 'laugh-a- minute dialogue that seemed totally inappropriate.
In many ways, this is the most tragic of the ‘Thor Trilogy’, and yet it was treated as the least serious.
Anyway, another viewing make change everything…or perhaps not…at least the action scenes were pretty impressive.
The Mandalorian episode 6-12
The series is by now cleverly intertwined into the Star Wars Saga. It takes place in the aftermath of the Return of the Jedi. The last episode of season one and the first of the third season we are back on Tatooine, the planet with twin suns, the imperium is back on the planet, the Sarlacs piits has got a new inhabitant, and so has Jabba the Huts palace. And who knows, a new powerful Jedi warrior might just be in the making.
Boba Fett the bounty hunter who is reintroduced in these episodes is rumoured to take a major part in season three, yet to be released, together with his father, also a bounty hunter, named Jango Fett, that is right, JANGO, with a reference to Corbucci’s Django.
Hoping to watch ‘YOJIMBO’ tonight…diected by the Master, Akira Kurosawa, and starring the ultra-cool samurai without a master, Toshiro Mifune…
Applause, also, for Tatsuya Nakadai, who plays the ‘Ramon’–like baddie, and went on to appear in Kurosawa’s ’ Kagemusha’, and ‘Ran’.
Perfection, and one of the best movies that you will ever see… 
The inspiration for Sergio Leone’s 'FISTFUL OF DOLLARS’…
I stayed close to the castle used in WHERE EAGLES DARE on holiday in 2018.
I’d love to visit the Casle one day…
Last films of the 2020
My ex-wife nicked all my soundtracks, that I’d been collecting before I even met her…
The Film soundtracks were my life’s-blood…which is why she took them…
I even wrote to the composer, Ron Goodwin. and received a gracious reply…
It breaks my heart now, because I dont have it…
’Where Eagles Dare’ opening theme…
Cold blooded and unnecessary that. Sorry mate. The only famous person I wrote to and received a reply from was Tim Wonacott from BARGAIN HUNT.
Anyway I was always interested in soundtracks but they seemed to get rarer and expensive so I gave up collecting them.
Hoping to watch ‘YOJIMBO’.
As much as I adore Sergio, and Clint, I think that Kurosawa and Mifune nailed it with this gem…
Well ahead of it’s time, and even if ‘Fistful’ didn’t exist, this master-piece would still be a classic.
I prefer the Kurosawa/Mifune original as well, one of my many all time favorites.
Finally got to sit down and watch my Austrian Blu Ray of The Cop in Blue Jeans with Tomas Milian and Jack Palance. A very fine quality release and the film is both action packed and funny, worthy of many rewatches.
MIDWAY (2019, Roland Emmerich)
Okay, the special effects are up-to-date and the point of view is more balanced than in most blockbuster war movies from the Sixties, but otherwise this war epic about the historic battle of Midway is a very old-fashioned movie with lots of stars impersonating historic characters and talking in deep voices to give you the impression that they’re under a lot of pressure, but willing to risk their lives in order to serve their country (or, in the case of the Japanese soldiers, their emperor). It’s a lavishly produced affair but director Emmerich and his stellar cast can’t overcome some truly mediocre scripting and awful dialogue. But I guess most viewers will watch the movie for the battle scenes (and they are quite spectacular).
½ out of 5
Taking a break after back to back movie challenges in November and December and visiting a few masters of cinema as a kind of palette cleanser.
Yesterday was Bergman’s The Seventh Seal.
Today will be Fellini’s Amarcord
