Films Recently Watched

  On 11/12/2021 at 7:23 PM, brian trageskin said:

been watching a bunch of hitchcock films. spoilers ahead:

I know we're crossing the streams with the TV thread, but you ever check out his TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents? I've been watching a lot of those recently. there's like 250+ episodes.

  On 11/12/2021 at 9:53 PM, zero said:

I know we're crossing the streams with the TV thread, but you ever check out his TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents? I've been watching a lot of those recently. there's like 250+ episodes.

i think i've seen a few ones as a kid, not sure though. thanks for reminding that this exists.

  On 11/12/2021 at 9:53 PM, zero said:

I know we're crossing the streams with the TV thread, but you ever check out his TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents? I've been watching a lot of those recently. there's like 250+ episodes.

Vertigo, The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes are all pretty good. Bernard Herman’s score in Vertigo is pretty good.

But yeah, that show was awesome- that’s the first Hitchcock I ever saw, or maybe The Birds, I can’t remember.

Rope is awesome but also very stagey if you hate that sort of thing. Faked one take movie, I'm a sucker for that sort of stuff.

North by Northwest is also great. Psycho. Frenzy is pretty cool as well. 

That said, there's quite a lot of movies of his I don't enjoy very much. The Birds is borderline unwatchable.

Other good Hitchcock flicks:

sabotage, rebecca, dial m for murder, rear window, north by northwest, psycho & torn curtain.

Suspicion,  Shadow of a Doubt and the man who knew too much are so-so , IMO. I think I saw the wrong man but I can’t really remember it.

I tracked this down because of one vague memory of a rap skit I wanted to sample, and after scrubbing all the way thru this shit movie, they overdubbed that ONE part with brostep, lol

  On 11/12/2021 at 10:38 PM, Himelstein said:

Vertigo, The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes are all pretty good. Bernard Herman’s score in Vertigo is pretty good.

But yeah, that show was awesome- that’s the first Hitchcock I ever saw, or maybe The Birds, I can’t remember.

  On 11/12/2021 at 10:49 PM, Silent Member said:

Rope is awesome but also very stagey if you hate that sort of thing. Faked one take movie, I'm a sucker for that sort of stuff.

North by Northwest is also great. Psycho. Frenzy is pretty cool as well. 

That said, there's quite a lot of movies of his I don't enjoy very much. The Birds is borderline unwatchable.

  On 11/12/2021 at 10:50 PM, J3FF3R00 said:

Other good Hitchcock flicks:

sabotage, rebecca, dial m for murder, rear window, north by northwest, psycho & torn curtain.

Suspicion,  Shadow of a Doubt and the man who knew too much are so-so , IMO. I think I saw the wrong man but I can’t really remember it.

vertigo is one my favourite films. saw it as a teenager and found it spooky as fuck. my older brothers saw it when they were kids and were traumatized by it. hermann's score is the shit. 

i've already seen rope, north by northwest, dial m for murder, torn curtain, the birds and psycho. and i love stagey films.

  On 11/12/2021 at 3:22 PM, T3551ER said:

Saw you are on an an Everest kick. Took a while to track this down but wife and I watched this documentary a few years ago. Remember it being highly compelling (suspect better than the IMAX film) and includes interviews with the climber/documenter and members of the party that survived. Honestly would watch this over a dramatic re-enactment any day, extremely well done/enjoyable and pretty fascinating insight into how people's minds work in very extreme situations...

 

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yes. that's the best version of that story and what started me on the everest kick. 

if you enjoyed that, i also highly recommend this 2019 disaster that popularized the everest traffic jam photograph

one thing i noticed that made me chuckle: when you watch footage of the everest expedition in 1953, by the time those guys reached camp four, they were running up the mountain just wearing a shirt and a knitted vest. in the 90s, these guys are dressed like they're astronauts. 

this was wild. a martial version of hausu based on a violent manga series. 

Watching Shang Chi while my eyes roll around in the back of my head. It's rated 93% on rotten tomatoes 

this was a jordoworsky script directed by ed wood

I just watched that as well, I had fun but my brain left my body. Chop Suey the movie. 

Oh no. A new post. I was talking about the ten rings of Ching Chang. 

Notorious is a great and underrated Hitchcock film. 

Recently.....

Dune 2021: Pure and utter shit. HATED the overblown score mostly but the pace, script, dialog,. acting, were all wooden and stale and the film is soul-less 1/10

Dune 1984: watched this afterwards and while it ends VERY badly with rushed editing etc overall itc compelling in its characters and crazy 80's space-opera production  4/10

The Rental: Very poor choices by its protagonists making you scream at the screen to cop-on but a  nifty little thriller all the same 8/10

Host: One of my faves of the year - tight, original, well executed, and genuine jumps. Bravo! 10/10

Old Henry: starts of ordinary Western ... its gets a 9/10 though

  On 11/15/2021 at 12:26 AM, Silent Member said:

I just watched that as well, I had fun but my brain left my body. Chop Suey the movie. 

Oh no. A new post. I was talking about the ten rings of Ching Chang. 

The advertising seemed to falsely give the impression they would explain the Mandarin and Ten Rings, it turned into bosom buddies.

mmph, also watched Ten Rings. Find myself extremely conflicted about this one. It was a treat to see a superhero who "looked like me" as well as a movie that brought up issues that I felt really resonated with me. There's that almost casual line at the beginning in the restaurant where he says something like "you remember what it was like" when discussing being targeted as a minority as a kid that... just the way he says it, and the way it's delivered as such a matter of fact way I was, like, yes. exactly. this is exactly what it feels like/what that conversation would look like. And, also, those issues about being a generation or two removed from those who immigrated and dealing with this tension between the tradition of your original culture and the pull of, now, being "American" too. And there was Tony Leung who just fucking kills it in every scene. 

But then there's the whole "oh right we remember this has to be a Marvel movie so gotta check the hero's journey tickbox, have a final battle, cg shit blows up good." At times it feels like the film is an homage to asian cinema but at others it seems like it's just at the edge of being a diluted, westernized idea of it. Sometimes the CG looks downright bad, which is weird given the Marvel budget for such things (and their insistence on having to use it). Frankly, I'd have loved to see this film if it somehow hadn't been forced into the mold of the Marvel schema, but then we wouldn't have the film at all I guess? 

I guess I'd say that I mostly enjoyed it, but moreso in the first half than the second. I think if I didn't have a cultural affinity for it then I'd probably feel the way I did about Black Panther: a pretty good Marvel flick that goes steadily more flaccid until the last act where it just starts feeling like someone flinging around their rubber cgi noodle at a green screen to decreasingly meaningful effect. 

7.5 activated Wangs / 15 Wong's Singing Karaoke 

jess franco's classic about a bunch of top birds torturing unaware men at an anonymous club of debauchery, most notable for the salon kitty operation

  On 11/15/2021 at 3:39 PM, phudoshin said:

Dune 1984: watched this afterwards and while it ends VERY badly with rushed editing etc overall itc compelling in its characters and crazy 80's space-opera production  4/10

4/10 is just for "oh your beautiful diseases" then I build on that. So Lynch's Dune is 8/10

Ran through the Bond series again in recent months, god I love that franchise! My current ranking:

1. Dr No. (9/10)

2. Casino Royale (8.5)

3. Spectre (8.5)

4. Goldfinger (8)

5. The Living Daylights (8)

6. Quantum of Solace (8)

7. Octopussy (7.5)

8. For Your Eyes Only (7.5)

9. You Only Live Twice (7)

10. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (7)

11. Tomorrow Never Dies (7)

12. Die Another Day (7)

13. Skyfall (7)

14. The Spy Who Loved Me (7)

15. Never Say Never Again (7)

16. From Russia With Love (6.5)

17. Goldeneye (6.5)

18. Diamonds are Forever (6)

19. Live and Let Die (6)

20. Licence to Kill (6)

21. No Time to Die (5.5)

22. The Man With the Golden Gun (5.5)

23. Moonraker (5)

24. The World is Not Enough (5)

25. Thunderball (5)

26. A View to a Kill (4.5)

On Hitchcock, I've seen 40. Vertigo is his best by a long way, but I'm also very partial towards Rebecca, Suspicion and Dial M for Murder.

Tonight's  movie club with friends is  "Censor"

On another note, the local cinema in the small town near me (pop 2000 ) has closed officially due to Covid. It remained closed at the start of the lockdown  but the family who run it have given up - I hope it gets bought out and rekindled. It is called the Phoenix cinema after-all . it was so warm and friend ran byt 3 simblings in their 50's and their dad before them... free tea/coffee biscuits on Tuesdays, classic films... and old style cinema shop, anual film festivals.. lovely for my kids. VERY sad to see it go

  On 11/16/2021 at 7:06 AM, Roo said:

On Hitchcock, I've seen 40. Vertigo is his best by a long way, but I'm also very partial towards Rebecca, Suspicion and Dial M for Murder.

Dial M for Murder is my favorite. I watched The 39 Steps for the first time recently, and I liked that more than I expected.

Could be funny  

Confession: I watched Red Notice

Darker Confession: I... ok, fine, I liked it. It's exactly what you expect (heist movie with the Rock being the Rock, Ryan Reynolds being Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot being hot). It's pretty to look at and action-y and heist-y. It's mindless entertainment but not a bad way to kill a Sunday afternoon. ..

this was shockingly pretty good. the first 20-30minutes are basically the running man- after that things get really interesting. it's also filmed like a 60s arthouse sci-fi with an (obviously) paltry budget that is complemented by some pretty clumsy and very juvenile directing choices. 

in other words: it's top tier b-movie territory