[quote=“Mickey13, post:6298, topic:1923”]Harakiri aka. Seppuku (1962) and Samurai Rebellion, both by Masaki Kobayashi.
Those films became instantly my favorites of all time. Samurai Rebellion (1967) was a masterpiece as well, but I still prefer Seppuku.
The story is without any hope, the great revenge tale. I’d even say this is the must-see movie.
Seppuku - 10/10
Samurai Rebellion - 10/10 8)[/quote]
Bought Seppuko a while ago, but haven’t watched it yet
Saw Samurai Rebellion a few years ago on a festival in Brussels. Great, great movie.
The Carey Treatment - Great stuff, I thought I hadn’t seen it before but recall seeing it on tv as a kid. Great performance from James Coburn as usual, Jennifer O’Neill was underused considering she was second billed and the ever reliable Pat Hingle put in a solid performance as the chief of Police. Not the sort of film you’d think Blake Edwards would make, nice score by Roy Budd too.
I watched the trailer on the disc after and one of the scenes was different (yes, I know this happens sometimes). In the film during a fight the attacker falls from the balcony at the top of the stairs. In the trailer Coburn grabbed his foot when he fell, held him, then blatantly let go.
Do you think they may have just decided to edit if differently or it was MPAA interference.
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:6302, topic:1923”]I watched the trailer on the disc after and one of the scenes was different (yes, I know this happens sometimes). In the film during a fight the attacker falls from the balcony at the top of the stairs. In the trailer Coburn grabbed his foot when he fell, held him, then blatantly let go.
Do you think they may have just decided to edit if differently or it was MPAA interference.[/quote]
The film-makers were probably going-for the ambivalent hero/tough-guy pitch for theater-audiences, in a Peckinpah or Eastwood mode… but test-viewings of the film probably revealed that females, being more devoted to ‘medical’ movies, would be more liable to be repeat-viewers. -And pass word along to their girlfriends, if Coburn was a ‘compassionate’ hero. So the scene was tweaked a bit.
I tried watching it, but saw only the first 15-minutes or so. -Not sure why I didn’t continue.
Well, before engaging into eternal Pink Panther sequels that were worse and worse as the series went, Blake Edwards made some very different movies. I reccomend Experiment in Terror.
Time for a festive film tonight, in the shape of Bill Murray in Scrooged. He plays a top T.V man who is tight fisted and has a very negative view on the festive season. Great role for Murray to show off his dry humour, and prefer him when he is being bad in this. The ending is a bit on the sentimental side for me. Nice cameo by Lee Major’s.
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:6302, topic:1923”]The Carey Treatment - Great stuff, I thought I hadn’t seen it before but recall seeing it on tv as a kid. Great performance from James Coburn as usual, Jennifer O’Neill was underused considering she was second billed and the ever reliable Pat Hingle put in a solid performance as the chief of Police. Not the sort of film you’d think Blake Edwards would make, nice score by Roy Budd too.
I watched the trailer on the disc after and one of the scenes was different (yes, I know this happens sometimes). In the film during a fight the attacker falls from the balcony at the top of the stairs. In the trailer Coburn grabbed his foot when he fell, held him, then blatantly let go.
Do you think they may have just decided to edit if differently or it was MPAA interference.[/quote]
What really impresses me is that these Archive DVDs have stunning and often unusual covers, while the regular DVDs of the same companies too often have extremely unimaginative covers. If not to say ugly covers.
Probably they are using the original artwork for those. I have tons of old tapes who have killer artwork and every time I come across a DVD reissue of some of them and see how poor and ‘plastic’ the artwork feels, I am thinking that they are probably doing on purpose just to see how bad they can make it, can’t explain it otherwise.
No, they assume modern buyers only want photos on the cover instead of artwork (a member from koch Media said so). Still is the question if so much of these photoshop crimes must be that ugly.
The way they put actor’s heads in totally different bodies that don’t match at all is really funny. And they even do it in big posters of new high budget movies, you’d think they would at least have access to better photoshop artists.
I think Blu-ray covers are even worse than dvd’s, they should just stick to original art.
The adventures of a group of mercenaries led by Jason Statham and Robert De Nero. Problems arise when Statham wants to stop this kind of work. Muddled film punctuated with some ok action scenes. Statham just plays Statham as usual. De Nero is getting a little old for these type of roles, but he has some of the best scenes in the film.
If you ask me, The Lord of the Rings and The Pirates of the Caribbean were as much sources of inspiration as good old Arnie.
The film looks good, but in a typical CGI way, so even if you recognize a location, you say to yourself: where they really there, or did they recreate it with the help of a computer program?
At first this remake seems okay, with an awful amount of computerized blood spurting from inflicted wounds and Conan being born on the battlefield (with the help of a caesarian section!), but Conan keeps jumping, running or sailing from action scene to action scene, hacking dozens of opponents to pieces everywhere he goes, and after a while you say :
Oh well …
Don’t watch this if you’re interested in story or character development.
All in all it’s probably not as bad as most critics thought it was, but at 113 minutes this Hyperborean really wears you out.
Momoa is an okay Conan, but Stephen Lang and Rose McGowen easily steal the film from him as the evil father and daughter
Oh well, at least it’s not a watered down PG version
THE LONG SHIPS - Boring viking-themed film with Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier. Lots of things going on that couldn’t happen in no way in the real world- I really don’t know where to start from regarding this… Anyway… Secondly, the viking long ship looks small and cheap, this is no ship for a 2+ hour epic adventure, this is stuff you might see in an italian zero-budget 80s peplum. Widmark despite his looks is not what you’d expect from a viking leader muscle-wise and Poitier looks pretty funny in that wig. The action and especially the battles is a little bit above kindergarten level. I’m sorry to any fans this movie may have on this board, but I’m afraid I couldn’t get the whole thing very seriously…
[quote=“scherpschutter, post:6314, topic:1923”][size=12pt]Conan the Barbarian (2011)[/size]
Don’t watch this if you’re interested in story or character development.[/quote]
by the way, i think it´s not that difficult to make a good Conan movie - don´t know if they based their story on some novel, but there´s plenty of great novels about Conan from other writers (Howard wrote only one, if i´m correct) like L. Sprague de Camp, and also some good comicbook adaptations exist - so, they could adapt some good story
to characters - all in all, Milius´ Conan also had not some tremendous character development and it worked very well
these filmmakers are just too lazy and not very resourceful
okay, who´s the next guy for bad sword and sorcery adaptation? - Sláine?
I kinda like it, but I can see why some people wouldn’t. It needed a cast of thousands to make the bell-scene believable, lowering it down the cliff. And a solid gold bell isn’t going to float upsidedown. The mass-to-water displacement ratio would send that thing to the bottom… I think Oscar Homolka steals every scene he’s in, as a cantankerously mischievous Viking-shipbuilder… " Ale! We must have more ale! "
The lighthorse-charge against the shipwreck-survivors is fimed pretty realistically. The fight in the harem, with girls running everywhere, was entertaining despite early 60’s censorship standards. They even throw a gay satire in… Widmark-and-Poitier were good friends in real-life, so I think they just decided to do a ‘buddy adventure’, even though their characters played antagonists. I like Widmark’s line, which he uses a few times; " I tell the truth, nobody believes me. I lie, everybody believes me. "
Yeah, one thing was that with the bell floating and being pulled so easily by a bunch of guys in the sea. Another one was early in the film where Widmark escapes from Poitier’s tower and swims for possibly some days through the fjords and accidentally ends up in the shore where his home is. I went to Norway this summer and I tell you the fjord water is really cold, no man would survive swimming for days through them. Apart from that, Widmark is discovered by his brother who brings him home and gives him some ale and in a few minutes everything turns back to normal for him, yes, it was that easy and that quick. I could go on for some time, but I think those are enough…
Agreed on Homolca, he was great and probably the best thing of the whole movie.
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