Oh, I definitely would. I like Citizen Kane A lot but I bloody LOVE the Carry On pictures. Mind you, that Carry On ensemble are an incredibly talented bunch. I maintain that Hattie Jacques is one of the finest comedy actresses we’ve ever produced.
Sometimes I’ll take to a shit film purely because of its shitness (you know: Like The Creeping Terror or somesuch).
Not bad at all, this. Probably somewhat overly sympathetic to Tonya Harding’s position but then again the movie is telling an awful lot of its tale from her perspective. It happily does this though because it’ll equally happily present the same events from other perspectives too, as well as giving characters the opportunity to break the fourth wall and directly refute each other’s versions of events. In that sense, it reminds me a little of The Wolf of Wall Street (though I’d hasten to add that I, Tonya is not in the same league as that movie by any stretch) and quite a lot of Twenty Four Hour Party People, Michael Winterbottom’s look at Tony Wilson and the rise and fall of Factory Records. Margot Robbie is decent enough in the title role, bringing to mind Jaime Pressly’s turn as Earl Hickey’s dynamite white-trash ex-wife Joy Turner in My Name is Earl, and I didn’t even recognise Marvel’s Winter Soldier Sebastian Stan as Tonya’s bellend husband Jeff; but the movie is stolen from the pair of them by Allison Janney as Tonya’s utter c*nt of a mother.
To this day (literally: she was protesting her innocence on Good Morning Britain only this morning) the real Tonya Harding insists she had no prior knowledge of her ex-husband’s bumwitted plan to hobble Nancy Kerrigan and remove her from contention for the 1994 Winter Olympics.
I watched the movie a while ago as well. One of the few Clints I had not watched yet because a) most people seemed to think it was one of his weakest movies, and b) I love Trevanian, the author of the book the movie was based upon
It seemed to me that Clint had simply misread the novel and misunderstood Trevanian’s intentions. The Eiger Sanction is a serious thriller novel, violent and nasty, but at the same time it’s clearly parodying the genre. The second Hemlock novel, The Loo Sanction (what a title!) goes even a step further in this aspect. Clints movie is watchable and there are a few well-executed scenes (notably towards the end), but overall it’s a ponderous, heavy-handed affair (while it should have been tongue-in-cheek) and yes, one of Clint’s least interesting efforts
Trevanian’s best novel is by the way The Main (not a Hemlock novel); The Summer of Katya is great as well.
This movie blows, a complete waste of time this was. Always the same when they (cunts) try to drag out a franchise with writers who are so friggin clueless. Pffffft
I read his first 4 novels long, long ago. I liked them back then very much, especially the 2 Hemlock novels, which were violent and quite funny at the same time. The Main was pretty different, but good, and Shibumi was a tough thriller with some philosophical aspects and a too conventional ending. But then did not buy this Katya novel, and after that heard never again anything of him.
Looking at Wiki it seems he really disappeared for a long time, instead of building up on the Trevanian pseudonym.
He’s not my favorite thriller author - that would be either Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald or Patricia Highsmlith - but I still think he was pretty good. I read his novels long ago, when I wrote reviews of crime thrillers for a magazine. I remember that I gave The Main four out of five stars. I’ve never returned to any of the novels (I should re-read The Main). I don’t remember Shibumi very well.
Indeed it is. Well, I’ve several big favourites depending on my mood as I’m sure do most of us but yes, if pressed to name just one, I’ll default to Alien every time.
Tbh, I narrowly prefer Alien³ over Aliens, too. I mean, Aliens is a decent picture and I LOVED it back in its day but, over time, it’s felt to me like more of an eighties nostalgia movie to be enjoyed alongside Ghostbusters and f*cking Raiders of the Lost Ark. Not that that’s a bad thing, but its impact has lessened considerably for me whereas Alien remains a hugely elegant and tense horror/thriller, with one of the finest small ensemble of actors gathered for any movie.
Also, James Cameron repeatedly strikes me as a bit of an arrogant prat whenever I see him interviewed and this tends to impact negatively for me - if completely unfairly - on the movies he makes (even more unfairly, this glitch doesn’t affect my feelings about The Terminator which I still bloody adore; just the rest of his filmography. People, eh?).
I also prefer Alien over Aliens. And I also prefer Alien 3 over Aliens and Alien. Hell, I prefer Alien Resurrection over Aliens. And you know what, I even prefer Prometheus over Aliens. But I don’t prefer Alien Covenant over any of these movies, because it just wasn’t very good.