Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 14, 2024 20:32:02 GMT -5
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Apr 16, 2024 10:27:17 GMT -5
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Apr 24, 2024 15:58:23 GMT -5
Street Smart
The only thing crazier than the good people at Canon Films making a Superman movie is that, in order to make it, they also had to make a character-based drama about pimps, sex work, and journalistic ethics for star Christopher Reeve. It's not surprising Reeve would be attracted to the material as a chance to do something gritty and play a journalist a bit more morally dubious than Clark Kent. Unfortunately, Street Smart's portrait of urban crime does not feel the least bit authentic, visually or in context. This feels a lot more like a paranoid yuppie fantasy of dangerous inner cities than anything insightful about "the streets" and the contrived ending does not help. It's all the more disappointing given how convincing Jerry Schatzberg's 1971 film The Panic in Needle Park is. What Street Smart does have going for it is an excellent Morgan Freeman performance. Freeman really turns Leo into a terrifying villain and is also captivating to watch. I wish he was in a better movie.
D+
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Apr 24, 2024 17:38:21 GMT -5
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 24, 2024 19:02:30 GMT -5
We both whiffed with Coop the past couple rounds. |
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on May 1, 2024 19:56:14 GMT -5
Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)
The opening ten minutes of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West feature a group of characters silently idling around at a train station, trying to pass the time while waiting for an incoming train, and it is some of the most riveting and low-key tension-fueled ten minutes of film that I've seen in some time. And yet, that's something that seems to be emblematic of Leone as a whole: how he creates some of the purest tension from some of the most uneventful scenes, but as he's said himself, the build-up to the violence can oftentimes be even more exciting than the explosion itself, and that's on full display in Once Upon a Time in the West. In the hands of a lot of other filmmakers with this same structure, this film could easily run the risk of becoming boring. But in the hands of Leone, it's great. It's at once both an epic Western with intense violence and an introspective drama with well-drawn characters. The main outlaws of Frank, Cheyenne and Harmonica (whose use of that very same instrument becomes a distinct feature of the film in and of itself) are well-drawn. They feel representative of the time period and different philosophies and changing ways of life within that time period in different ways, and it's fascinating to watch each of them affect the story in their own ways. Claudia Cardinale also works beautifully as the true heart and soul of the film. And then you've got Ennio Morricone's score, which is of course fantastic and lends the film an extra dose of identity (sidenote: I see you, Hans Zimmer and Gore Verbinski, borrowing from here for the sandbar scene in At World's End; excellent choice). If I have any complaint here, it's only that the movie can certainly feel a little too drawn-out in certain areas -- not surprising, given the epic runtime -- but still, all the ingredients here combine for a cocktail that goes down smooth, and Once Upon a Time in the West is most assuredly one of the best Westerns I've ever seen.
****/****
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on May 1, 2024 20:37:19 GMT -5
Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)
The opening ten minutes of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West feature a group of characters silently idling around at a train station, trying to pass the time while waiting for an incoming train, and it is some of the most riveting and low-key tension-fueled ten minutes of film that I've seen in some time. And yet, that's something that seems to be emblematic of Leone as a whole: how he creates some of the purest tension from some of the most uneventful scenes, but as he's said himself, the build-up to the violence can oftentimes be even more exciting than the explosion itself, and that's on full display in Once Upon a Time in the West. In the hands of a lot of other filmmakers with this same structure, this film could easily run the risk of becoming boring. But in the hands of Leone, it's great. It's at once both an epic Western with intense violence and an introspective drama with well-drawn characters. The main outlaws of Frank, Cheyenne and Harmonica (whose use of that very same instrument becomes a distinct feature of the film in and of itself) are well-drawn. They feel representative of the time period and different philosophies and changing ways of life within that time period in different ways, and it's fascinating to watch each of them affect the story in their own ways. Claudia Cardinale also works beautifully as the true heart and soul of the film. And then you've got Ennio Morricone's score, which is of course fantastic and lends the film an extra dose of identity (sidenote: I see you, Hans Zimmer and Gore Verbinski, borrowing from here for the sandbar scene in At World's End; excellent choice). If I have any complaint here, it's only that the movie can certainly feel a little too drawn-out in certain areas -- not surprising, given the epic runtime -- but still, all the ingredients here combine for a cocktail that goes down smooth, and Once Upon a Time in the West is most assuredly one of the best Westerns I've ever seen. ****/****
Excellent. |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on May 2, 2024 7:40:09 GMT -5
Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)
The opening ten minutes of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West feature a group of characters silently idling around at a train station, trying to pass the time while waiting for an incoming train, and it is some of the most riveting and low-key tension-fueled ten minutes of film that I've seen in some time. And yet, that's something that seems to be emblematic of Leone as a whole: how he creates some of the purest tension from some of the most uneventful scenes, but as he's said himself, the build-up to the violence can oftentimes be even more exciting than the explosion itself, and that's on full display in Once Upon a Time in the West. In the hands of a lot of other filmmakers with this same structure, this film could easily run the risk of becoming boring. But in the hands of Leone, it's great. It's at once both an epic Western with intense violence and an introspective drama with well-drawn characters. The main outlaws of Frank, Cheyenne and Harmonica (whose use of that very same instrument becomes a distinct feature of the film in and of itself) are well-drawn. They feel representative of the time period and different philosophies and changing ways of life within that time period in different ways, and it's fascinating to watch each of them affect the story in their own ways. Claudia Cardinale also works beautifully as the true heart and soul of the film. And then you've got Ennio Morricone's score, which is of course fantastic and lends the film an extra dose of identity (sidenote: I see you, Hans Zimmer and Gore Verbinski, borrowing from here for the sandbar scene in At World's End; excellent choice). If I have any complaint here, it's only that the movie can certainly feel a little too drawn-out in certain areas -- not surprising, given the epic runtime -- but still, all the ingredients here combine for a cocktail that goes down smooth, and Once Upon a Time in the West is most assuredly one of the best Westerns I've ever seen.
****/****
 If A.I. existed in 1968, it would have generated the screenplay for this movie. It has everything you’d expect in a Sergio Leone western. If the ComingSoon forum existed in ‘68, this would have been Doomsday’s Dark Knight. But Leone is perhaps a much more calculating filmmaker than Christopher Nolan because Once Upon a Time in the West manages to be both self-restraint and self-indulgent. Claudia Cardinale stars as Jill McBain, a prostitute from New Orleans that has married an Irish farmer from the Arizona-Utah border of Monument Valley, a famous site of John Ford movies. Upon her arrival to the town of Flagstone, located in this region, she learns that her husband and his three children have been murdered in cold blood by Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and his gang. Distraught and unwilling to tackle her husband’s farm, Jill decides to sell the land and move back to New Orleans. But a harmonica playing stranger, played by Charles Bronson in his first successful leading role, shows up at the farm to inform her that the true assassin of her family is a railway enforcer named Frank (Henry Fonda). It turns out that the rails will be passing through the farm and her husband was in the process of converting the land into a train station and neighboring town called Sweetwater. He was killed in an attempt to steal the land from him. So, Jill and the stranger, along with Cheyenne, who wants to clear up his name, team up to get revenge and also build the station before the train arrives. Leone’s Dollars Trilogy were essentially action films. Once Upon a Time in the West has all the tropes you’d find in the trilogy, but instead used to create a romanticized version of the Old West. Here, you won’t find a cynical Clint Eastwood defeating the bad guys to earn a quick buck. You instead get Charles Bronson protecting a widowed woman that wants to fulfill her immigrant husband’s dream of making it in America. Even the bandit Cheyenne has a heart of gold. It’s surprisingly touching, while also featuring all the quirks you come to expect from Leone. The score by Ennio Morricone is another home run. The cast is all great, including a rare heel turn by Henry Fonda. You like that, PG Cooper? I used a wrestling term just for you. Anyhoo, Once Upon a Time in the West is another Leone masterpiece. It’s certainly slower in pace than the Dollars Trilogy, and the plot takes longer than usual to get cooking, but stick with it. You won’t regret it. |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on May 6, 2024 6:15:47 GMT -5
The Last of Sheila (1973) Remember in his review for the Holdovers, when Dracula confessed that he didn’t believe in the existence of boarding schools? I won’t be making a radical statement of that level. However, I will reveal that I’ve been ignorant to existence of murder mystery games. I’m familiar with it as a genre of entertainment. I watched the Saved by the Bell episode, just as Doomsday did, but I was unaware that bored rich people had actual murder mystery game nights. Apologies. I’m just a mere peasant. We play Monopoly on game night. The premise for this movie was inspired by real-life murder mystery games hosted by Anthony Perkins. I don’t know about you, but if I were a bored rich white guy, the last place I’d be is at a murder mystery game hosted by Norman Bates. Perkins co-wrote the script with Stephen Sondheim (of Sweeney Todd fame). Herbert Ross (of Footloose fame) directed. Joel Schumacher (Batman & Robin) was the costume designer! If Mr. EyeBrowCinema has made it this far, he’s likely annoyed that I’ve padded this “review” more than his college students. So what did I think of this movie? It’s alright. I could have just watched Glass Onion on Netflix instead of wasting $2.99 on this shit. At least when PhantomKnight forced me to get a Peacock subscription, I snuck in Ted: The Series (great show by the way) and Wrestlemania. I should at least get a video essay out of the $2.99 I spent. Shiela starts with Shiela getting run over by a car and dying. A year later, her husband (a movie producer) invites his Hollywood friends to play a murder mystery game in the south of France. The killer is among them. There’s some twists and turns and then the movie ends. Remember I Know What You Did Last Summer? Jennifer Love Hugh Tits runs over a fisherman and a year later he returns from the dead to kill her. That’s pretty much the same movie. Watch that instead. Much better movie.
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on May 6, 2024 7:27:20 GMT -5
Glad you liked it?
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on May 6, 2024 11:07:06 GMT -5
I watched the Saved by the Bell episode, just as Doomsday did Very underrated episode. Watching 16 year old Zack make a pass at the 35 year old fake maid always gave me hope as a kid. |
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on May 6, 2024 11:07:27 GMT -5
Also we've got almost everyone from this round, who's in for the next one?
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on May 6, 2024 11:22:40 GMT -5
Very underrated episode. Watching 16 year old Zack make a pass at the 35 year old fake maid always gave me hope as a kid. And yet, he passed on the hot school nurse. Meanwhile, Kelly had no reservations about sleeping with her boss and her college professor. Also we've got almost everyone from this round, who's in for the next one? In |
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on May 6, 2024 11:40:01 GMT -5
Also we've got almost everyone from this round, who's in for the next one? in |
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on May 6, 2024 13:31:42 GMT -5
I have the dvd of Man with a Movie Camera and will watch this week. In for next round.
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on May 6, 2024 14:07:26 GMT -5
In.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on May 6, 2024 17:48:39 GMT -5
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on May 6, 2024 17:51:45 GMT -5
Excuse me, sir. You have other pending obligations. |
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on May 7, 2024 19:36:10 GMT -5
I watched Man with a Movie Camera. It was really cool. Full review soon.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on May 7, 2024 22:17:13 GMT -5
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on May 7, 2024 22:27:58 GMT -5
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on May 8, 2024 1:52:05 GMT -5
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on May 8, 2024 7:21:31 GMT -5
The Wrong Guy seems to be doing the rounds around here, I'll try and see if I can get a copy of that. |
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on May 8, 2024 7:28:08 GMT -5
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on May 8, 2024 7:28:19 GMT -5
BTW, this is the 30th time we've been paired for this thing which finally ties the number of times I was paired with Jibbs |
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