I was going to write this line when I saw somebody had already written it
Mishima was a great writer, one of the greatest of the 20th century; a lunatic maybe, but a great artist.
I tried to watch one of those Mexican Santo movies yesterday but it was too boring. I canât believe they made over 60 movies like this.
[/URL] [size=12pt]You canât win âem all[/size] (1970, Peter Collinson)
Overlooked pseudo buddy western, not set in the West, but in the East, that is wartime Turkey on the eve of the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Basically itâs a remake of Vera Cruz, but there are also influences of the Zapata westerns and films like The Wild Bunch and Villa Rides
Charles Bronson and Tony Curtis are two fortune seekers (the first a cynical mercenary, the second a smiling rascal) who are hired, by a Turkish sultan, to escort three of his daughters and a shipment of gold to Smyrna. The sultan sends one of his generals with them, as to be sure that the Americans wonât take the gold (and the girls) and run. But of course this general is gold hungry himself, and so is the beautiful governess hired to look after the girls ⌠And then thereâs also a renegade general (a clear reference to the historic AtatĂźrk) with his troops âŚ
By no means a great movie, but very watchable, with a good cast and an interesting setting; the characters played by the two stars arenât really fleshed out, but both turn in a nice, relaxed performance, and seem to enjoy themselves a lot. We get a spaghetti like barroom brawl, some pseudo Peckinpah battle scenes (theyâre not too bloody, more in line what Villa Rides had to offer) and a lot of funny and would-be funny one-liners
There are several possibilities to watch the movie free on-line and itâs also available (in separate parts of about 10 mns) on You Tube. However these streamings are not in the original aspect ratio, so I suppose the beautiful widescreen photography of the Turkish landscape will be lost. The torrent on CG is in widescreen and has excellent image quality (see the screenshot)
http://stagevu.com/video/hxbczsypppng
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![http://img43.imageshack.us/i/youcantwinemall.jpg/[/url]](http://img43.imageshack.us/i/youcantwinemall.jpg/%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
Battle Beyond the Stars 1980 Jimmy T. Murakami
Another great fun production from Corman
Two rip off in one, the Seven Samurai and Star Wars, well not so much rip offs but more parodies.
The ship itâs one of the best in the story of scii-fi films ;D, forget the plot acting and stuff, this just itâs pure fun to watch, the only drawback itâs to see Peppard on the part of Cowboy, Vaught and Saxon been in so many movies thatâs itâs just more one, Corman or not, but Peppard was indeed a more than reasonable actor who bottle down his career I guess (and some wrong films choices didnât help).
Anyway apart from this nothing to say, there some great funny moments, those alliens that communicate using heat are a must, and if you donât really like this kind of movies you should see this one at least for Sybil Danning :o,
Thereâs also a scene that remind me that one from Dr Strangelove where Sellers canât control his arm.
I saw most of it in an Hospital Waiting Room with a portable DVD reader and headphones (looked Mr Gadget) and when I noticed go a buch of kids behind me seing it also ;D
Some light fun I wonder how this films would be in the big screen
Rewatched Hitchcockâs Rope. Not one of his finest works, it remains a technical marvel with its almost seamless structure (it was shot, famously, in a series of long 10-minute takes, cleverly masked), and extremely bold in its depiction of a (thinly disguised) homosexual relationship between two well-to-do young New Yorkers who murder a friend just to prove that they can.
The affected lead performances and bursts of high-flown dialogue - a reminder of the storyâs theatrical roots - are initially distracting, but as the arrogant murderersâ plan begins to unravel, as James Stewartâs suspicions multiply, the tension is, as youâd expect from Hitch, expertly maintained.
[size=12pt]Black death[/size] (2010, Christopher Smith)
I was looking forward to this well-received action-horror movie by talented young British director Christopher Smith. I liked his previous work (Severance, Triangle) and wasnât let down by this dark, disturbing movie, set in a plague-ridden England of the 14th century
The story is about a group with a mission, sent by the bishop to investigate rumours about a so-called necromancer, a person who is able to resuscitate the dead. The group is led by Sean Bean, and Dutch actress Cary van Houten is the necromancer.
Deliberately paced, but atmospheric, suspenseful, and above all intelligently written.
[size=14pt]Ice [/size] b Robert Kramer[/b]
From time to time I do like to watch this more counter-culture type of movies, normally their are a waste of time not making any sense at all (like Le vent Dâest form Godard and itâs troupe), other too pretentious and also so much politically motivated that they end up to became a parody of themselves, most of them are just plain boring (till today I could not finish the viewing of Zabriskie Point), but in some more rare cases they could brilliant like the Peter Watkins films (Gladiators, Punishment Park just to name this two).
This one itâs somehow of a surprise itâs not a brilliant film, but a pretty much decent effort from the director, it got a plot with beginning middle and end itâs comprehensible, and most importat, does not sunk itself in the message. More surprisely than the subject itself, the story of an underground revolutionary group in the US (under some kind of a big brother regime), and itâs internal fights (more than the fight agaisnt the enemy itself), itâs the time it was made during the Vietnam war and before the Watergate scandal. Thereâs not much action or anything itâs the film itâs more passing the message, but does it without insulting the intelligence of the viewer and trying to show us than sometimes the so called revolucionary are so far away from the real world that rather than the solution they become another part of the problem. The plot unfolds in some near future where the US abandoned the Vietnam war, to start a new one in Mexico, it was much praised at the time of itâs released, something I found natural cause this type of films were normally European productions
Iâ ve seen some other stuff from this director a long time ago, one was a work made in Portugal about the period after the 74 revolution, and was no more than a bad political panflet (missing what the real problems were) to show to the âGringosâ, and maybe an excuse to spend some days in Algarve. The other one was a documentarie called Route One USA and it was a very interesting and well done one.
If youâre not use to watch this more experimental verite cinema French style kind of movies, this one will be boring, if like films like the ones from Peter Watkins youâre going to like this one to.
Kramer itself
I saw Signs (2002) last night. To say too much would be criminal, but suffice to say itâs about aliens and crop circles making Mel Gibson and his family look suitably scared. It is cracking edge of your seat entertainment.
Yes, good film. Nonsensical, but scary as hell.
It was on Belgian television too last night, but I had seen it not too long ago, so only watched a few minutes. I especially like Phoenix is this one. Along with The Sixth Sense Shyamalanâs best movie. I donât hate his later work, but it cannot be denied imo that the quality of his movies is in decline.
Ong Bak 2 , I was a big fan of the original and this was not disappointing at all for me. The action scenes are well made and exciting ⌠thats all this movie is really about.
I viewed John Carpenterâs The Thing (1982) yesterday. Still one of the best science-fiction horror movies ever (itâd make an awesome double bill with E.T. [1982] ;D!).
[quote=âscherpschutter, post:2443, topic:1923â][/URL] [size=12pt]You canât win âem all[/size] (1970, Peter Collinson)
Overlooked pseudo buddy western, not set in the West, but in the East, that is wartime Turkey on the eve of the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Basically itâs a remake of Vera Cruz, but there are also influences of the Zapata westerns and films like The Wild Bunch and Villa Rides
Charles Bronson and Tony Curtis are two fortune seekers (the first a cynical mercenary, the second a smiling rascal) who are hired, by a Turkish sultan, to escort three of his daughters and a shipment of gold to Smyrna. The sultan sends one of his generals with them, as to be sure that the Americans wonât take the gold (and the girls) and run. But of course this general is gold hungry himself, and so is the beautiful governess hired to look after the girls ⌠And then thereâs also a renegade general (a clear reference to the historic AtatĂźrk) with his troops âŚ
By no means a great movie, but very watchable, with a good cast and an interesting setting; the characters played by the two stars arenât really fleshed out, but both turn in a nice, relaxed performance, and seem to enjoy themselves a lot. We get a spaghetti like barroom brawl, some pseudo Peckinpah battle scenes (theyâre not too bloody, more in line what Villa Rides had to offer) and a lot of funny and would-be funny one-liners
There are several possibilities to watch the movie free on-line and itâs also available (in separate parts of about 10 mns) on You Tube. However these streamings are not in the original aspect ratio, so I suppose the beautiful widescreen photography of the Turkish landscape will be lost. The torrent on CG is in widescreen and has excellent image quality (see the screenshot)
http://stagevu.com/video/hxbczsypppng
[URL=http://img833.imageshack.us/i/vlcsnap2010090715h06m46.png/][url]http://img43.imageshack.us/i/youcantwinemall.jpg/[/url][/quote]Thanks for the link. Stagevu is great.
![http://img43.imageshack.us/i/youcantwinemall.jpg/[/url][/quote]Thanks](http://img43.imageshack.us/i/youcantwinemall.jpg/%5B/url%5D%5B/quote%5DThanks){kind=link}
The wife being ill, and in bed, I chose for a double bill with two of my friends
First Arnie, in The Running Man (1987, Paul Michael Glaser)
I always liked Arnie: he canât act and doesnât speak English, but still made it in Hollywood and became governor of the state of California. I had good recollections of this movie, and still found it quite enjoyable, but as a satire it doesnât always work. There are too many lame jokes and silly one-liners, and - sorry pal - Arnie simply is miscast in this movie. Arnie is a terminator, a man who eats predators for breakfast, heâs not vulnerable enough to play a character whoâs in immediate danger of being killed in TV-show. As a result a film that should have been dark and cynical, often looks funny (in a not so funny way). Conchita Alonsoâs Spanglish doesnât help either (and it doesnât match Arnieâs Austrian English!). No doubt Paul Verhoeven would have done a lot more with this material, even with these actors (Glaser is by the way either Starsky or Hutch from the original TV-series)
Then Paul Newman in Twilight (Robert Benton, 1998)
Good old Paul as an aging detective with a past, clearly modelled after the types created by Chandler, Hammett and MacDonald; Newman actuallly appeared in a few Ross MacDonald adaptations.
Also starring Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, James Garner and Reese Witherspoon
Good atmosphere, fine acting, overall a very pleasant film, but with such a cast you expect a masterpiece, or at least more than just a very pleasant film; the problem is the script: it was written by Benton himself, and he might be a competent director, as a writer heâs no Ross MacDonald. It could have worked better too if Newman and Hackman had swapped roles (I noticed on the net that Iâm not the only one who got that idea).
Sarandon and Witherspoon both have brief nude scenes
Having watched There Will Be Blood yesterday, I can say that Daniel Day-Lewis certainly deserved all the praise he was given. It certainly was a powerhouse of a performance. The film itself is brilliant in its direction, photography, music and editing.
Yes, great film
Juste avant le nuit (1971) - claustrophobic and discomfiting Claude Chabrol âthrillerâ about a successful married businessman (Michel Bouquet) whose sado-masochistic affair with his best friendâs wife ends with him accidentally strangling her during a sex game.
Bouquet is initially relieved that nobody suspects him, and settles back into middle-class normality with his wife (Stephane Audran) and kids. But his guilt gnaws away at him and he develops a compulsion to confess. Hereâs where it gets shocking, and reveals Chabrolâs habitual contempt for bourgeois society, because when Bouquet tells his wife what he has done, she stands by him, even sympathises with him; even his best friend refuses to hold Bouquet to account. Nothing - not even a murder - can disturb the sheen of their comfortable, complacent existence.
Itâs slow, quiet and meticulously observed, with impeccable acting and an ending thatâs as enigmatic as it is troubling.
Warlords of the Deep ;D
A typical 70âs fantasy adventure with Doug McClure 
He and his friends have to fight vs. Monsters, Aliens and a big Octopus. More or less the same movie like The Land that Time forgot, The People that Time forgot and At the Earthâs Core.
[size=12pt]Savage Harvest[/size] (1981)
In an African country (apparently Kenia) a group of people is besieged by lions after an interminable drought has forced the predators to start looking for new prey.
And you know, once those bastards have tasted human blood âŚ
In other words: Jaws with Claws. There is a scene with one of the characters talking about lions attacking Chinese workers (shouldâve been: tigers) that will remind you of a similar scene in Jaws, but otherwise the film is more like Night of the Living Dead with Lions.
A few very scary scenes with lions attacking people, but those scenes are few and far between.
Still, if you like these âpredators-stalking-human-victims-moviesâ, this is an above average achievement
3/5
[B]CRY OF A PROSTITUTE / GUNS OF THE BIG SHOTS[/B] - Henry Silva is a hard bastard in this, you donât wanna be spilling stuff on his shoes on purpose!
Yep he sure is . Viewed it again recently myself. Some tough moments in the film.