It’s not a remake of the (1964) Zulu one,… same name, but different kind of film. >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4LB6RQXp1w
Waterworld (1995): at $175 million, the most expensive movie ever up to that point, but actually, it’s not too bad. At the core, it really just is “Mad Max at sea”, but the budget is at least on screen, with very little CGI and lots of practical effects and huge sets: if nothing else, it sure looks impressive. Director Kevin Reynolds is efficient and competent while Kevin Costner does the moody loner thing pretty well. Jeanne Tripplehorn, one of my '90s movies guilty pleasures, is also good enough. The script though, is incredibly banal and unoriginal and despite Dennis Hopper’s villainous lunacy, this is only an entertaining blockbuster - not great, but not too bad either, as long as your expectations are kept low.
I remember that was more or less my conclusion too. Not great, but not hopeless either, with some great visual moments and and a good-looking Jeanne Tripplehorn.
The first time I saw it, I also couldn’t help thinking it was just an overexpensive a Mad Max rip of, but after some repeating viewings, it entered in the “not so bad after all” file. In the end there’s Dennis Hopper doing his thing, he usually did, and Tripplohorn was a real treat in those days
Ms.45 - (Angel Of Vengeance)Classic, always been a fan of this one (one of my three favourite Ferrara’s along with Bad Lieutenant and King Of New York), the transfer on the Blu Ray is stunning.
Sweeney - Laugh all you want, it was fun (even though it wasn’t anything like The Sweeney) and a whole lot better than I thought it was going to be.
Hopscotch - Matthau plays a CIA agent who’s usually out on the field but thy try to retire him to a desk job, he disappears and writes his memoirs featuring too secret information and posting put chapters from various parts of the world with the CIA hot on his tail but he’s always one step ahead of them. Light hearted thriller, really enjoyed it.
[size=14pt]The Shoes of the Fisherman -1968- Michael Anderson[/size]
Maybe the third or or fourth view of this now forgotten film. still remember the first time I watched a child back then, how important and relevant the film looked to me at the time.
After so many years it stills stands as a good film, that it just couldn’t be made better than it is with all its shortcomings.The story based on a a Morris West novel (That I’ve read), is told closed to the book as they normally do, with several subplots that work better in the book, David Janssen romantic subplot only exists to help turning some parts of the the film into some sort of documentary about Vatican and its traditions, very ell shown by the way. My favorite character apart from Quinn’s Pope Kiril is of course Oskar Werner Father Telemond. clearly and in an obvious way a character based in the real father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and his integrated theory of both scientific and religious believes. I guess by 1968 the the theory of the cosmic Christ must have been an appealing one, this was just before the more political freedom theory, started to appear in South America and become more relevant.
Quiin is great as Pope Kiril, one of those performances that define an actor’s career, but also the rest of the cast with fantastics names, Werner (whit a fantastic line …" The church I hate her, but I can’rt leave her…") De Sica, Laurence Olivier, Janssen and others. True its an unbalanced film, with a lot of cuts in the story, but those are compressible, at least for those who have read the book.
And then we have the reality meets fiction, or the other way around, and how close Quiin character is to real life Pope John Paul, now can be easy to think that a Pope from the East was something to expect in the future, but not so much in 1968. Italian Popes was all people had known for centuries.
So not a great movie in the sense of ho great movies usually are, its even a weak one in some aspects, but clearly a good one to watch from time to time, with some great acting performances and a few great and scenes worth the ticket on their on, never forgot the one when Quinn meets Dr Ruth Faber played by thespian actress Barbara Jefford. Also liked that sixties feeling even if the action is suppose to happen in the 80’s of the last century.
Funny enough I started watching the film withs relatives that visited me in this season, all in teenagers with th younger 16 and the older 19 years old, none of them knew the actors even Quinn but then I think that’s normal I guess, but when the film finished only me and my sister still remain in from of the telly, with the good memories of the first day we watched on TV years ago during the only two channels days. The the main difference from when I first watch this film, and today, is that back then watching a film back then was something special, in the cinema , TV or even a VHS rental later on. i still remember the discussion we had in school when Rambo premiere on TV.
Today things are more easy, so we have more difficulty in remember them.
Hammersmith Is Out, 1972… with Liz Taylor, Richard Burton, and Beau Bridges (playing a character that his brother, Jeff usually plays). I thought it was about a crime-boss escaping from jail. Well… it is about a ‘boss’ escaping… Sloppily directed by, and co-starring Peter Ustinov, it’s the standard ‘pact with the devil’ plot. But it’s worth a watch to see Taylor, Burton, and Bridges chew-through the scenery. Sun-tanned Liz is breathtakingly slutty.
Of the two Costner’s epic PA-themed flops, I’ve always liked The Postman much more, but you’ve summed my impression of the Waterworld pretty close.
Across 110th Street (1972)
Great movie, way above any other blaxploitation flick I’ve seen so far. Calling it “blaxploitation” is kind of not doing justice to this movie, because it escapes borders of exploitative genre cinema. It is simply very good 70s crime drama. Script is tight and believable, acting is very solid and I was most pleasantly surprised by the excellent dialogue. There are layers, subplots, each character receives personal story and you can really feel the heat, the sweat and the dirt of the Harlem streets. Forget the Shaft, this is the real deal.
I own excellent soundtrack on vinyl, it’s one of my faves. The famous main theme (used later in other great crime movies) is represented in alternate version in the begging of the movie.
Cheers. Glad its not been remade then, as cannot see how you could improve on it.
The Raid (Evans / 2011)
As Yod would say, non stop row.
Who would have thought an Indonesian martial arts film made by a Welshman would be this good.
[quote=“Phil H, post:11512, topic:1923”]The Raid (Evans / 2011)
As Yod would say, non stop row.
Who would have thought an Indonesian martial arts film made by a Welshman would be this good.[/quote]
Yes, a modern classic in its own right.
Some of the martial arts on display are on a level with the things Bruce Lee and Angela Mao used to show. Stunning.
[quote=“Phil H, post:11512, topic:1923”]The Raid (Evans / 2011)
As Yod would say, non stop row.
Who would have thought an Indonesian martial arts film made by a Welshman would be this good.[/quote]
Agreed, it’s a remarkable film. And just wait 'til you see The Raid 2! I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but the sequel is even better (IMO). It’s been playing here in the States since April 11th or so, and I’ve already gone to see it three times. I never go to the cinema to watch a movie twice anymore, let alone three times, yet I liked it that much. In just three films, starting with Merantau, Gareth Evans and Iko Uwais have improved exponentially with each film.
An American remake of The Raid is in the works by The Expendables 3 director Patrick Hughes. I can only say that, even with a much bigger Hollywood budget and probable big-name stars, there is no way that it can equal the original. There are a lot of factors that make The Raid franchise what it is, and I can see the Hollywood version as being just another unmemorable action movie. Occasionally, American remakes of Asian films are good, but it’s extremely rare. Most are severely lacking in various aspects, such as nuances, etc., and other things that made the originals so special. The American remake of the Japanese film Shall We Dance is just one example. Hughes seems to think his remake of The Raid can be just as good as the original. I highly doubt that.
This is a shame, though somewhat inevitable. I don’t mind the concept of English language remakes if it’s the only way to get a good story to people who just can’t do subtitles, as long as that good story isn’t watered down so badly as to be no longer worth telling. My best friend simply isn’t a confident reader and he really, really struggles with subs, and he misses out on a great many fantastic movies as a result. But The Raid is a magnificently visual beast, that barely even requires subtitles, let alone a remake into the English language (fwiw, I gave my DVD of The Raid to my subtitle-fearing friend when I upgraded to blu-ray, and he bloody loved it).
I still haven’t seen The Raid 2 yet but, with every new positive remark, I’m getting more and more excited to finally get to it. I haven’t been this excited by a movie since Prometheus, except this time it really seems as though the movie is going to live up to the expectation! 
Rollerball (1975).
Science fiction film set in 2018 which at its time of release was a while away, but not so far now of course. Film centres on a violent sport which always fascinates me. It does make the film seem alot shorter than it is for me, as these scenes just seem to go so fast. Watching the men of power being scared by James Caan’s character and how Caan cannot seem to get a straight answer from the powers that be are elements just as interesting as the sport itself for me.
P T Anderson’s The Master - brilliant!
Nymphomaniac: Vol. I & II (2013) - 6/10
Requiem for a Dream (2000) - 7/10
Sleepless (2001) - 7/10
Triangle (2009) - 7/10
After Hours (1985) - 9/10
The Truman Show (1998) - 8/10
Papillon (1973) - 8/10
The Legend of 1900 (1998) - 8/10
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - 8/10
East of Eden (1955) - 7/10
Marketa Lazarova (1967) - 7/10
The Machinist (2004) - 7/10
Blood Is Dry (1960) - 7/10
Went The Day Well (1942) - 7/10
The Thick-Walled Room (1956) - 7/10
Le conseguenze dell’amore (2004) - 8/10
Dreams Of Eroticism - Several short stories based in and around subjects of the royal court. Pretty sleazy this one and extremely misogynistic, not for feminists. Ripped off clothes, beatings, rape, sadistic torture! All good fun ;D
The Optimists - Peter Sellers stars as a street entertainer who lives in a derelict house by the Thames in SW London. He is befriended by two kids (who seem to be allowed to wander the streets all day) who at first annoyed him before becoming friends. Pleasant easy viewing.
The Nesting - Haven’t seen it for many years. I writer who suffers from claustrophobia rents a house that is haunted by the ghosts of prostitutes who had been slaughtered many years before.
Raiders Of The Seven Seas - Boring.
A Nightingale Sang In Berkely Square - Late 70’s British bank heist film. I remember seeing it on TV when I was about 12 or so. It’s nothing special but there’s something purely enjoyable about it.
Sorcerer - Roy Scheider and some other desperate characters take on the task to delivery some highly sensitive explosives on a treacherous journey. First time I’ve ever seen it, really enjoyed it and the transfer looks absolutely stunning.
Corbari - 1970- Valentino Orsini
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Not a particular good film, but far from a bad choice for a watch, and with a nice bonus of watching Gemma in a different tone.
Gemma plays the part of Silvio Corbari, a real character that during WWII was a partizan that fought the Nazis and Italian Fascists on its own with some success. in Northern Italy, without the help of the organized resistance, that he abandoned for what he thought was their lack of action. He set up a free zone in a small village while fighting the nazis, but with little support he was killed before the end of the war.
Not a documentary, its a pure Italian film and as a historical document in that perspective is a great film. Gemma does a good job portraiting a real hero, he gives a very sincere performance as the partizan lider. Corbari and his group of partizans conquered a small but vital town (cause of its crossroads), of Tredozio. The area was immediately proclaimed by Corbari the Partisan Republic of Tredozio, and was to stand under his ‘banner’ for 11 days, despite several enemy attacks to reclaim her, before finally falling back into the hands of the Fascists.
With a character with such a fantastic life history and some crucial and relevant events in Italian history, the film should and could be a bit better, there’s not a lot of action, and the romantic part of the plot (with Tina Aumonta playing Corbari lover) takes an important bit in the film, but like I said it doesn’t feel like those cheap Italian war film, and Gemma is indeed very believable as the partizan leader, in a part that I initially think suited for an actor like Volonté.
So in the end a nice watch, and not only for the SW fan (Frank Wolff also has a part in the film), there’s betrayal romance, and fighting for a cause, all in Italian alnguange so its sounds better. I can say that to me its more a dramatic film, than a typical war film. It was not the first take that the drector Orsini made about the Italian Partizans, and if like I said the film could have been better, it does have some great scenes funny enought two executions, one at the start and the other at end.
3.5 stars and a great Gemma