Enjoyed this a lot more than expected - it’s no masterpiece, but then that’s a very overused term, often applied to Eastwood’s latter films.
It’s a fairly simple story, with much gentle humour and nice one-liners. What appealed most to me was how comfortable and confident Clint is playing the antithesis of his usual screen persona. I’ve never been a great fan of his acting in self directed movies, but this one makes the exception.
Don’t expect to be blown away … as this is a leisurely paced, though thankfully not overly long film. It may droop a tad towards the end, and teeters on the edge of sentimentality … but basically it’s an easy enjoyable watch. 6/10
Rewatching the classics. I like to do that as well, but I have learned to be a bit sceptical and reticent. A while ago I concentrated of the classics from the late Sixties and early Seventies, the period in which I grew up. Some movies I didn’t particularly like back then, like Easy Rider or Bonnie & Clyde looked far better now, while other movies that I had loved, like for instance Bullitt, The Wild Bunch or Deliverance, had lost some of their appeal to me. Still good movies, but somehow no longer the movies that I had experienced as a much younger man, as if I was looking at a picture or a home movie of a girl I had been in love with long ago: you still see the beauty, but don’t feel the affection anymore. I’m now afraid to go back further in time, to movies like Citizen Kane or Casablanca. The last time I watched Kane (maybe 10-15 years ago, don’t know exactly when) I felt a bit awkward: I didn’t think it was bad, but was this the ultimate masterpiece?
I watched it like 10 years ago, thought it was okay. If I were to pick my favorite Welles’s flick, it would probably be something like Touch of Evil or The Trial. I have to re-watch it at some point.
The thing about those greeeeeat, beeeeeeeeg movies is that they were historically crucial in the development of the cinema, but they’re often overhyped to the degree all the hype partially detracts from the experience itself. Not that they’re bad per se, but people eulogize over them so much, it’s like the hype is so pervasive and over-the-top it begins to detract from the film experience itself if that makes sense. Citizen Kane was Ebert’s favorite film and officially is enshrined as this preeminent artistic masterpiece in the annals of international cinema.
While Ebert probably was genuinely infatuated with the film, I feel a lot of people tend to regurgitate these opinions with a view to portraying themselves as culturally knowledgeable enough, they employ these films in their little social schemes in the same way intellectuals juggle with quotes from Proust to make themselves look important and culturally relevant, which then inflates this cultural bubble to the point of utter preposterousness. It’s dumb, it’s truly retarded. I’m willing to believe Dean he genuinely loves this film, but if some random film enthusiast comes out and professes to be a huge fan of Citizen Kane and jerks off to it 24/7, then I’m going to take with a grain of salt I’m afraid.
I just find it to be a thoroughly entertaining film.
Poor Orson never set out to make “The greatest film ever made” or ever believed it to be, but it sadly has that annoying stigma.
I’m guilty of this, but instead of Kane, it’s Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead.
Also, if someone comes out and starts going on about his favorite, critically-acclaimed movie in the likes of ‘I appreciate the film for its detailed depiction of the societal rejection of its main character whose desires stifled by the oppression from his milieu are phantasmagorically framed in the context of its opulent Freudian symbolism…’, yeah, that’s a massive red flag as well.
For my birthday on Thursday I enjoyed a nice Blu Ray double feature of Kutabare Akuto-Domo: Tantie Jimusho 23 (Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards!) and Murder by Death, Detective Bureau 2-3 was an enjoyable little Yakuza film and Murder by Death is one of my favorite comedies.
Last ten days: King of Thorn (Katayama, 2009) Behind the Curve (Clark, 2018) The Jungle Book (Reitherman, 1967) The Brave Archer (Chang, 1977) Ring (Nakata, 1998) Ring 2 (Nakata, 1999) Spiral (Iida, 1998) Bros: After the Screaming Stops (Pearlman/Soutar, 2018) Ring 0 (Tsuruta, 2000)
I just watched The Dirt with my wife. It’s a movie about the life of Motley Crue and I think it was pretty good… Drugs, Sex and Rock & Roll is what this film is all about.
Just finished up L’Aine des Ferchaux by Jean-Pierre Melville, his first color film. This is so far the only Melville Crime film to miss the mark for me. This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the film as I remained interested throughout, but something just seemed to be missing. The backstage drama between Melville and Charles Vanel, and later Melville and Belmondo maybe played a part too. Definitely need to give this film a second chance at a later date.
Managed to fit some other movies in between my daily marathon of Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead.
The Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler, 1946) - 4/5 Sid and Nancy (Cox, 1986) - 3/5 Steamboat Bill Jr. (Keaton, 1928) - 3.5/5 Sherlock Jr. (Keaton, 1924) - 4.5./5 The General (Keaton, 1926) - 4/5 Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958) - 4.5/5 The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963) - 4/5 Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954) - 2.5/5 Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock, 1943) - 3.5/5 Dial M for Murder (Hitchcock, 1954) - 5/5 Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock, 1951) - 5/5 Rope (Hitchcock, 1948) - 4/5 North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959) - 4/5 The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hitchcock, 1956) - 3.5/5
I liked it a lot. Although we will never know what went on in the minds of the formal Texas Rangers, this movie is played out well. I liked the scenery and the recreation of the time period.
It is not a western but did came close.
Dragged Across Concrete > 100% - best movie I’ve seen lately, simply breathtaking
Only God Forgives (Refn) > 50% - quite poor effort for Refn
Holmes And Watson (Will Ferrell) - 60% = According to reviews this should suck bigtime, but I don’t see much difference from other Ferrell’s work, well, if you don’t think all of his work suck bigtime. It’s not that good as Anchorman or Taladega Nights, but it’s quite okay.
Upgrade > 70% = cyberpunk with well-made action scenes, it all looks like cyberpunk version of Venom with Tom Hardy, even the actor looks like his twin.
