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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 3, 2021 20:05:24 GMT
I guess you & Agnes can watch it together later, Rikita.
Thanks for those recommendations, Kimby -- both look quite good.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 3, 2021 20:32:18 GMT
I just received my cheap DVD of Warm Bodies today. I haven't watched it yet, but I love that movie, and there are at least 10 bonuses on the DVD.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 4, 2021 5:39:02 GMT
We watched a comedy called A TRIP TO GREECE. It’s the fourth and final film in a series that began with “The Trip” in 2010, and included trips to Italy in 2014 and Spain in 2017. If you liked My Dinner With Andre and Sideways you will probably like this film. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon spend six days eating and drinking and joking and doing pretty darn good impersonations while retracing Odysseus’s journey across Greece. Good fun, with perhaps a small nod to the Bob Hope “Road to....” movie franchise. www.imdb.com/title/tt10482504/
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Post by Kimby on Mar 4, 2021 13:24:51 GMT
SWEET COUNTRY is a good Australian film that reminds me of To Kill A Mockingbird crossed with an American Western. Set in the outback frontier, “whitefellas” try to eke out a living on remote cattle stations with the help of aboriginal laborers “blackfellas” who are badly mistreated. Sam Neill is the only actor I had seen before and he plays about the only good guy in the film, besides some of the aboriginals. A “whitefellla” is killed early in the film, the “blackfella” who did it goes on the run, the obsessed and incensed lawman goes after him, and without giving away the story, eventually there is a trial. Justice prevails - or does it? The great Australian landscape is a major character in this beautiful film. www.imdb.com/title/tt6958212/
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 4, 2021 14:01:56 GMT
While channel surfing the other day, I happened upon the awful Baz Luhrmann movie Australia and it was even worse than when I had seen it on the big screen. For a movie made with real Australians (Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Ben Mendelsohn, etc.), it was astonishing how wrong all of the acting was. I found myself compelled to keep watching because I couldn't believe my eyes.
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Post by questa on Mar 5, 2021 0:51:13 GMT
"Australia" bombed out here, too. It was too American-ised and people would go to the movie just to laugh in all the wrong places and 'send it up'.
I'm surprised you haven't heard of Bryan Brown. He has been doing good stuff for ages and is one of Oz international stars. Usually plays the quiet hero type.
Bryan Brown Highest Rated: 100% Red Dog: True Blue (2016)
Lowest Rated: 7% Cocktail (1988)
Birthday: Jun 23, 1947
Birthplace: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Text expanded. The virile yet thoughtful lead of numerous Australian features in the 1970s and 1980s, including such landmark films as "Breaker Morant" (1980) and "Stir" (1980), Bryan Brown's sturdy performances brought him to Hollywood in the 1980s, where he essayed largely one-dimensional figures in "F/X" (1986) and "Cocktail" (1988). He was better served in more independent-minded fare, where his ability to root out and examine the flaws of these stoic figures was put to better use; Brown would later give more nuanced turns in Australian-made fare like "Two Hands" (1999), with Heath Ledger, and "Dirty Deeds" (2002). A leading figure in that country's film and television career for over three decades, Brown's body of work commanded and received the respect due to a versatile performer who favored quality over box office returns.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 5, 2021 4:07:50 GMT
I'm surprised you haven't heard of Bryan Brown. He has been doing good stuff for ages and is one of Oz international stars. Usually plays the quiet hero type. I didn’t know his name, but now that you mention it, questa, he does look familiar.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 14, 2021 15:30:20 GMT
And last night’s film on DVD was also a story of immigrants trying to make their way in a new country. BLINDED BY THE LIGHT follows an appealing Pakistani high school boy in 1980’s England who rebels against his strict father to become a writer. He gets his inspiration from the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen’s music, which seem to speak directly to him. It isn’t a documentary because the writers took liberties with the particulars to make for a better story, but the real “Javed” is featured in the commentary in the extras. www.imdb.com/title/tt8266310/
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 14, 2021 17:20:28 GMT
That was a very good movie. The title in France was changed to "Music of My Life" so that people would not think it was a medical drama. In a similar vein, you might like Yesterday, which was about a young Asian man in England, big Beatles fan, who wakes up one morning in a world that has never heard of the Beatles. So he "writes" and performs the songs, becoming a superstar. Until...
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Post by Kimby on Mar 15, 2021 17:08:50 GMT
Thanks, K2, for that reference. Last night’s film was BAD BOYS FOR LIFE, a Will Smith cop buddy movie that will appeal to those who like gunfights and car chase movies. Entertaining, but of limited appeal. www.imdb.com/title/tt1502397/
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Post by Kimby on Mar 27, 2021 13:05:16 GMT
Another night, another film. THE ASSISTANT portrays one day in the life of a lowly office assistant to a Harvey Weinstein-like NYC producer, who we never actually get to see but whose actions hover over everyone’s awareness. The lead, Julia Garner, has a very expressive face and is nice to look at, but you have to wonder WTH her character is doing in this line of work. The film is purportedly about the reasons for the Me Too movement, but feels much smaller to me. Worth the time, but I wouldn’t pay to see it in a theater. www.imdb.com/title/tt9000224/
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Post by Biddy on Apr 18, 2021 0:49:51 GMT
last night I watched the Operative with Martin Freeman. I thought it was a pretty good thriller.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 28, 2021 12:25:48 GMT
Watched THE LIGHTHOUSE last night. By gar, that were a gnarly bit o filmmaking! A descent into madness on a barren rock in the middle of an increasingly angry sea. Shot in black and white and in a 4:3 aspect ratio, it plunks the viewer right into the lives of two keepers portrayed by Robert Pattinson and Willem DaFoe. If there was an Academy Award for animals, the seagull would be likely to win it. www.imdb.com/title/tt7984734/
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 28, 2021 14:17:29 GMT
I'm glad you finally saw it. This movie absolutely could not have been made in colour.
Poor Robert Pattinson has been obliged to masturbate in so many of his movies. High Life, Damsel, The Devil All the Time... Everybody says that the scene in The Lighthouse was the most convincing. He had previously said that it's impossible to simulate such scenes and appear convincing. (You be the judge.) In any case, he has come a long way since Harry Potter and Twilight. It is highly doubtful however that there will be a masturbation scene in the upcoming The Batman.
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Post by Kimby on May 13, 2021 12:46:53 GMT
We re-watched BODY HEAT, a 1981 steamy (in more ways than one) film noir-like suspense film set in Miami and Palm Beach during an even-for-Florida hot and humid spell of summer weather.
William Hurt and Kathleen Turner meet “accidentally”, fall hard for each other and fall into a plot to make her character a wealthy widow. It ends well for one of them.
This movie holds up well for being 40 years old. The lack of air-conditioning (except in a few public buildings) was a puzzler, though, as even our mid-western childhood homes had added AC over 50 years ago, and Florida summers are nearly unsurvivable without it.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 13, 2021 13:34:37 GMT
I remember the ambience of Body Heat very well although I do not remember the plot.
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Post by Kimby on May 13, 2021 14:02:46 GMT
It’s worth a rewatch, K2.
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Post by Kimby on May 14, 2021 17:25:14 GMT
Another movie worth a re-watch is 1979’s BEING THERE, starring Peter Sellers - in his penultimate film before his untimely death at 54 in 1980 - and Shirley MacLaine, with Melvyn Douglas in a supporting role. A sweet, funny tale with a bit of the Emperor’s New Clothes thrown in for good measure. www.imdb.com/title/tt0078841/“His simplistic, serious-sounding utterances, which mostly concern the garden, are interpreted by virtually everyone as allegorical statements of deep wisdom and knowledge regarding business matters and the current state of the economy in America.”
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Post by Kimby on May 16, 2021 14:56:02 GMT
Another library find: Stanley Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, which I last saw as an 18-year-old when it was released in America as an X rated movie.
The casual violence (called “good ultra-violence) is a bit shocking (probably more so in 1972) but the lead character’s narrative voice is so calm and measured that both Kimbys were lulled into dozing.
We’ll finish it tonight.
Update: we finished it and it was worth watching. One thing that struck me while watching it was the similar feeling that was created by the musical score of another Kubrick Film 2001: A Space Oddesey (hmm. Spell check has no suggestions for me).
In Clockwork Orange, Beethoven was a major player, somewhat humanizing the psychopath protagonist.
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Post by Kimby on May 23, 2021 13:26:35 GMT
www.imdb.com/title/tt0067328/Our PBS Saturday Night Cinema was Peter Bogdanovich’s THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, set in small town north Texas in 1951 as a group of teenagers are graduating high school and finding their way in the world while they deal with their raging hormones. Great performances by Timothy Bottoms, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Jeff Bridges, Eileen Brennan, and a pretty good and easy-to-look-at newcomer Cybill Shepherd (who became involved with the director and had a fling with one of the male leads during the filming). Two supporting actors Oscars were earned, by Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson, who was on screen for less than 10 minutes, a record according to IMDB. The screenplay by Larry McMurtry also was nominated for an Oscar, and the film location was actually his home town of Archer City Texas. It was filmed in black and white, so any modern paint color inconsistencies could be ignored. It also created a period appropriate atmosphere. It was filmed in 1971 and it was fascinating to see Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn and especially Cloris Leachman so young onscreen.
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Post by Kimby on May 24, 2021 15:33:51 GMT
Another recent free movie on PBS: THE RIGHT STUFF, about the beginning of America’s space program. Set in the 1950’s and 60’s as test pilots were stretching the boundaries of what aircraft could do, and Russia had rocked America’s self-confidence by being the first to launch a satellite and the first to put a man in space. The 3- hour long film’s portrayals of the “astronauts” and their wives is particularly endearing. The mid century clothing and hairstyles are spot on. The montage of health and endurance testing of the astronaut candidates is grueling. And the montage of multiple failed rocket launches is an embarrassing reminder of America’s temporary failure in the space race, as well as a gut check for the astronauts selected to ride atop one of NASA’s rockets. Loved it when I saw it the first time, and loved it again last night. www.imdb.com/title/tt0086197/
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Post by kerouac2 on May 24, 2021 15:42:17 GMT
I really liked all three of your last movies, which I all saw on the big screen back then. I have not had the urge to see any of them again, but there are really very few older movies that I want to see again (maybe 5%), probably because there are so many new movies to see.
I think that last older DVD that I bought was Women in Love with Glenda Jackson, Alan Bates and Oliver Reed. If ever you have not seen it, I recommend it.
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Post by casimira on May 24, 2021 16:09:17 GMT
Lots of good recommendations in here. Having been without any computers or screens for 2 weeks plus I want to catch up on some good movies to watch. I am having difficulty reading at this time as my concentration is very limited.
I did see The Assistant and totally agree with you Kimby. It was intriguing and almost hypnotic in a way as one watches the main character repeat her daily ritual and the almost robotic nature of her going through the motions of daily life. It most certainly had to be a spin off of the Harvey Weinstein scumbag scandal. It ends so abruptly until you finally realize that there isn't going to be any change in the routine and no plot other than the day to day routine of this young woman's life.
Body Heat is one of my favorite movies and I would watch it again in a heartbeat. The first thing my husband noticed was the absence of air conditioning. But, had there been AC in the house, the whole plot would have been moot. Kathleen Turner really played that role with such precision and presents about as cunning and devious a personality as I've ever seen an actress pull off.
I will keep my eyes open for some of the others mentioned.
Yes, Women In Love is an excellent film and well worth another viewing of. All of the acting etc. is top notch.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 24, 2021 18:48:32 GMT
Women in Love is one of my all time favorite movies!
"Nothing materializes".
And ohmygawd, that opening scene -- the weary coalminers returning home from work along with the beautifully chic Brangwen sisters, with I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles played on a clarinet as the soundtrack.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 24, 2021 19:08:56 GMT
That's why I finally bought the DVD -- I needed to see that movie again.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 24, 2021 19:24:15 GMT
Admittedly there are a few hokey bits in the movie, but overall ~ wow.
That scene with Rupert & Ursula in the bracken is a (fully clothed) piece of perfect eroticism.
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Post by Kimby on May 24, 2021 20:01:09 GMT
Women in Love is one of my all time favorite movies! "Nothing materializes". And ohmygawd, that opening scene -- the weary coalminers returning home from work along with the beautifully chic Brangwen sisters, with I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles played on a clarinet as the soundtrack. Would you be referring to the 2013 version starring Rosamund Pike? Or an earlier version?
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Post by kerouac2 on May 24, 2021 20:05:55 GMT
there are a few hokey bits in the movie, but overall ~ wow. Ken Russell was always known for going over the top in his movies, but that was part of his charm until it got out of hand. The Music Lovers, The Devils...
You can't much go over the top than those... and yet I loved them anyway simply because he was doing things that no other director was daring to do. It was a bit later that I got tired of Ken Russell, although I very much enjoyed the totoally ridiculous The Boyfriend -- but i saw it first at a private test screening about six months before it came out, and at least 30 minutes of total weirdness wad removed (almost certainly by the poducers and not the director) -- and of course they were the most interesting scenes in the movie since they were so outlandish. Unfortunately, the director's cut has never been released. All the way back to Women in Love, it only took the mention of Vladek Sheybal to send my friends and me howling with laughter.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 24, 2021 20:07:27 GMT
Would you be referring to the 2013 version starring Rosamund Pike? Or an earlier version? Kimby -- this version!
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Post by bixaorellana on May 24, 2021 22:51:06 GMT
Yes, Kimby ~ as above, the good version. I never heard of the 2011 mini series until you mentioned it here. Looking online, it appears to be mostly forgotten. I had to leave the theater at the last part of The Devils & to this day know I didn't flee soon enough. I remember standing in the lobby as a man came out supporting his poor wife, who was a mixture of very pale & green around the gills, as well as almost collapsing. The Music Lovers almost did me in as well. Even though it was so obviously ott, I remember being quite emotionally affected by it. Of course this was a thousand years ago. What I mostly remember about The Boyfriend was being disappointed in how un-entertaining it was. That, & reading that all the stockings worn in the film were real silk stockings discovered in an abandoned warehouse. I was never okay with the casting of Jennie Linden in Women in Love. The movie came out back when I was reading Lawrence, and I was a big fan of both The Rainbow and of the book Women in Love. For one thing, it's very hard to really shine next to Glenda Jackson. And for another, I have a prejudice against actors (& news announcers) who always seem to have a slight smile on their faces. Carey Mulligan suffers from this, for instance, as does Jennie Linden. I just looked her up and apparently WinL was her biggest big deal. I find it interesting that she named her son Rupert. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennie_LindenTrue it is that Ken Russell could be outrageous & outrageously self-indulgent in his films, but his credentials are hugely impressive. I wouldn't mind watching again all those mini-bios he did for tv. www.imdb.com/name/nm0001692/
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