Brilliant comedy!
Devil (2010)
- John Erick Dowdle -
Very predictable.
Red Eye (2005)
- Wes Craven -
Zero twists in this one. We are still waiting for the real action to finally start when the end credits start rolling. Adorable Rachel McAdams is the only reason to watch this movie.
A Richard Pearce double-bill: Heartland (1979) & Threshold (1981). Well shot and acted, enjoyed them both thoroughly. I think Donald Sutherlandâs performance in the latter is among the best of his career.
Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon-Sword of Destiny (2016)âŠI turned it off after 20 minutes, couldnât take it anymore, the original is ten times better than this crap.
The Finest Hour (2016)âŠMeh!..nothing special, iâve seen better.
Night Train to Lisbon (2013)âŠI donât know why, but somehow i enjoyed this.
Spectre (2015)âŠFinally watched it!..without a doubt the worst Daniel Craig bond movie, it was ludicrous as hell. Time to move on (Craig)!
Finally watched the third Riddick movie, simply called Riddick. To my surprise it was the best - or at least the most entertaining - of the three Riddicks. The first one, Pitch Black, was a fairly original Sf-horror movie, but it was too talkative and had too many stupid characters. The second one, Chronicles of âŠ, was a PG-version of what is essentially Rated-R stuff.
REVIEW:
Saboteur (1942)
- âa lesserâ Hitchcock -
A bit of of-the-time war propaganda, a bit of moral lecture from circus freaks, overall not bad, worth seeing for its great opening, even worth seeing for this great shot only:
Paris Texas - 1984 - Wim Wertens
I remember that for a a period of time after I seen it for the first time maybe some 5 or 6 years after it first came out, still a teen, and I totally absorbed the filmâs unique combination of visual and music, was too young to understand Sam Shepard more than live screenplay.
I havenât seen in a while, but for some reason I always came back to it. This was the film that always made me dream of the American landscape and all the mythology involved in the on the road.
Paris Texas is a Road Movie of the classic type, starts almost like a Leone and it ends like a Ford classic, but the Wim Wenders direction gives it a unique characteristic that I really donât find in any other movie.
The acting is an amazing tour de force from Harry Dean Staton a great actor, that final scene with Natasha Kinski is perfect just perfect a fantastic monologue , itâs funny how such an American film, was directed by a German director in a winning combination.
Thereâs really not much to say, yes the brilliant Ry Cooder soundtrack, in similar Leone/Morricone combination.
Still one of my favourites that I forget that is, but always remember.
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I know exactly what you mean El Topo, regarding that entire post but particularly that quoted segment.
TWISTER (1996, Jan De Bont)
Described as a âtheme park ride of a movieâ, Twister offers its viewers a wholotta twister. Itâs twister here, twister there, twister everywhere. The storyâs about two teams of storm chasers - scientists (weâre told they are scientists) who love twister storms as fanatically as some philatelists love stamps; the characters are as one-dimensional as the storytelling is straightforward, but theyâre both perfectly serviceable.
The actors seem to enjoy themselves (especially Philip Seymour-Hoffman as a storm chaser with ADHD problems), but apparently they went through a stormy hell while making this movie: Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton were temporarily blinded by electronic lamps used to create some special effects and both Helen Hunt and Jami Gertz got concussions when stunts went wrong. Itâs also said that Jan de Bont was enormous pain in the ass on the set.
Anyway, I had not seen it since it premiered in theatres and had forgotten how spectacular it was. Excellent special effects and some flying cows (only a Dutchman would come up with such an idea!) make this first rate entertainment. A masterpiece of a disaster movie, if ever there was one. Letâs twister again.
4/5
Excellent film, interesting genre mix and some great writing and filmmaking here. Surprisingly good
Assassination in Rome ((Il segreto del vestito rosso - 1965, Silvio Amadio)
Also called Assassinio Made in Italy
Again a proto-giallo, made years before the genre was defined by the likes of Argento, Bava, etc. It stars two American actors (Cyd Charisse and Hugh OâBrian) and has no real giallo atmosphere until the final 10-15 minutes (which are indeed very giallesque).
OâBrian is a reporter living in Rome who comes to the aid of old flame Charisse, whose husband goes missing. With a plot involving drugs, espionage and a hidden microfilm weâre often closer to eurospy than giallo. Well-made but slow-slow-moving, the feeling is more fifties Hollywood than sixties CinĂ©cittĂ , but there are some discreet hints at eroticism that betray the movieâs origins. Some nice location work in Venice and Rome, well-integrated into the story-line (among other things we get an interesting glimpse of the inside of the CinĂ©cittĂ studios).
6/10
TEST PILOTA PIRXA - 70s polish sci-fi from a Stanislaw Lem story about robots (ânonlinearsâ in the film) replacing human in space travel and probably in any other kind of work. Not bad, in fact the special effects and the settings were quite convincing (and quite 70s as well, but thatâs not a problem for me), but in the end I felt that something better could come out working with this particular story and the questions it raises.
Urge (2016) Aaron Kaufman
Awful film with bad acting and excruciating dialogue about a group of friends lead by a hotshot millionaire longing for a weekend of fun on an island, until they are introduced to the blue âUrgeâ drug at a night club, thatâs when things get really weird and maddening. The always reliable Pierce Brosnan is the only good thing in this as a sly devilish character and he looks good too.
LES MISERABLES (1933)
I finally got around to watching this five-hour long epic yesterday, having bought it from âMasters of Cinemaâ a couple of years ago.
Although five hours long, the saga is split into three distinct parts, and is filmed in the original French language, with English sub-titles.
I wasnât expecting much, but was totally blown away by how well the epic was made, and by how the story of the main characters immediately grabs the viewerâŠtruly a gem from the âGolden Ageâ of Cinema.
If the only version you have seen is the recent musical, starring Hugh Jackman, then this version is worth a viewingâŠ
a Masterpiece!
Review coming up on the GCDb of Venom. Oh my this movie had me jump! The other movie I saw was These Are The Damned, excellent as well. Tonight Iâll go see the latest Linklater film, which will be my 200th movie this year. No kiding.
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No excuses from you then, when this yearâs SpagvemberFest rolls around. 
Oh I was born ready⊠been containing my spaghetti consumption this year so far but I am gearing up for a lot of rewatches and stuff⊠dont mess with me
Twelve OâClock High (1949)-Henry King. A re-watch, hadnât seen it for a long time. Great World War II classic with Gregory Peck and a good cast that still manages to entertain and masterfully tell the story
Hail, Caeser! (2016)- Ethan Coen, Joel Coen. Awful waste of time this was, boring zzzz⊠not funny zzzz⊠with very little being said for lengths of time. Pffft!
REPORT TO THE COMMISSIONER - Undercover cop gets killed by another cop and everyone in the department is trying to cover his ass before the shit hits the fan. Excellent 70s gritty crime flick, the elevator sequence is so tense and the conclusive finale is downbeat not unlike other similar endings of films of the same decade.
FINGERS - Harvey Keitel plays a mobster who kinda tries to escape from his past, but the circumstances force him not only to continue his former activities, but to become more vicious than ever before. His performance is simply superb and the generally the whole film is top-notch.
Also rewatched THE FRENCH CONNECTION & DIRTY HARRY.