Sunday good movie bi-fecta

[buffcoat]

Red Beard by Kurosawa.

Very good.  I think he's my favorite director, up there with Billy Wilder.

Kagemusha is next on my Kurosawa list (that is, next on the movies that TCM has shown that I haven't seen).

[masterofsparks]

I tried watching The King of Marvin Gardens. Turned it off after about 40 minutes when it became clear that either:

a) The film was going nowhere

or

b) It was going somewhere but doing it so slowly that no payoff could make the slow trudge to get there worthwhile

I have no problem with slow movies but this was torturous. On the plus side, I thought Nicholson was really good. It was interesting to see quiet, understated Jack.

[buffcoat]

Is that a Monopoly version of King of Kong?

[Chris L]

Kagemusha is next on my Kurosawa list (that is, next on the movies that TCM has shown that I haven't seen).

Criterion is releasing this on blu-ray soon, as sort of a consolation for their having lost the rights to RAN. 

I tried watching The King of Marvin Gardens. Turned it off after about 40 minutes when it became clear that either:

a) The film was going nowhere

or

b) It was going somewhere but doing it so slowly that no payoff could make the slow trudge to get there worthwhile

I have no problem with slow movies but this was torturous. On the plus side, I thought Nicholson was really good. It was interesting to see quiet, understated Jack.

KING O' MARV G is pretty pretentious (and not in the overused sense, it's actually pretentious) but I liked it.  Jack is rather sullen in it.  Definitely a product of "New Hollywood" that's practically from another dimension today. 

[Martin]

I dig King of MG, don't remember it as all that slow. And it's only like 100 mins or so I think. But then I'm a sucker for most early-70s Nicholson movies. (Including his little-seen and very of-the-times directorial debut Drive, He Said.)

Haven't seen a single movie for at least two weeks. Sucks.

[buffcoat]

This is for reals, now, because this week I am Nielsen family.


Between Sunday and today I watched two: The Three Faces of Eve and The Barefoot Contessa.


Eve was good.  It's a bit weird to see how stilted the attitude toward mental illness looks, but it had to be a very forward-looking movie at the time.  Joanne Woodward is great and deserved her Oscar.  She's a real Georgian, and her accent is very good (and variable across the three personalities).  She's playing three very different women but she gives them some similarities.  A true breakout performance, even retrospectively.

She's also beautiful, which doesn't hurt.


The Barefoot Contessa is great, too.  I'll watch anything with Bogie in it except his early two-minutes-onscreen heavy roles, um, and Knock on Any Door.

Going out on a limb here, but Bogart is my favorite actor.  He plays type again here, but it's fantastic.  I'd have liked to see what he would have done in his 70s.

Ava Gardner is very good, as well (and, of course, drop-dead gorgeous also).  Smithfield, NC's own.


I recommend both.

[wood and iron]

This is for reals, now, because this week I am Nielsen family.


Between Sunday and today I watched two: The Three Faces of Eve and The Barefoot Contessa.


Eve was good.  It's a bit weird to see how stilted the attitude toward mental illness looks, but it had to be a very forward-looking movie at the time.  Joanne Woodward is great and deserved her Oscar.  She's a real Georgian, and her accent is very good (and variable across the three personalities).  She's playing three very different women but she gives them some similarities.  A true breakout performance, even retrospectively.

She's also beautiful, which doesn't hurt.


The Barefoot Contessa is great, too.  I'll watch anything with Bogie in it except his early two-minutes-onscreen heavy roles, um, and Knock on Any Door.

Going out on a limb here, but Bogart is my favorite actor.  He plays type again here, but it's fantastic.  I'd have liked to see what he would have done in his 70s.

Ava Gardner is very good, as well (and, of course, drop-dead gorgeous also).  Smithfield, NC's own.


I recommend both.

Speaking of Bogie, not too long ago I watched Key Largo. That was pretty fantastic.

[nec13]

I dig King of MG, don't remember it as all that slow. And it's only like 100 mins or so I think. But then I'm a sucker for most early-70s Nicholson movies. (Including his little-seen and very of-the-times directorial debut Drive, He Said.)

Haven't seen a single movie for at least two weeks. Sucks.

My favorite early 70's Nicholson film has to be The Last Detail. What a great film. Unfortunately, the DVD isn't worth buying. So I just kept my old VHS copy.

On the dais for this weekend is Clifford, Fitzcarraldo, The Burden of Dreams, and Rear Window, all of which I have checked out from the library.

[buffcoat]

Key Largo is appreciated, but not nearly enough.  Same with To Have and Have Not.

[dave from knoxville]

Years ago, when I did historical film assessment similar to what I am doing with current actors on my blog, Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart were 1 and 2 among all screen actors, although I honestly can't remember which was which. I should maybe repeat that. Somebody go to my blog and request it, if you're interested.

[buffcoat]

I watched The Year of Living Gangrenously Dangerously last night.

They don't make movies like this anymore.  For one thing, the whole cast is sweating.  And a lot of times the noise of a fan or the traffic makes the dialogue hard to hear.

Nowadays, Mel Gibson (and for God's sake Sigourney Weaver as the female lead) would make it through the whole of Indonesia fresh as a daisy.

And it was weird to see The Shadout Mapes playing a half-Chinese dude.


Overall good though.  I'd recommend.

[Christina]

I watched The Year of Living Gangrenously Dangerously last night.

They don't make movies like this anymore.  For one thing, the whole cast is sweating.  And a lot of times the noise of a fan or the traffic makes the dialogue hard to hear.

Nowadays, Mel Gibson (and for God's sake Sigourney Weaver as the female lead) would make it through the whole of Indonesia fresh as a daisy.

And it was weird to see The Shadout Mapes playing a half-Chinese dude.


Overall good though.  I'd recommend.

I like this one too. Remember when Mel Gibson was actually interesting & not batshit crazy?

[buffcoat]

I watched The Year of Living Gangrenously Dangerously last night.

They don't make movies like this anymore.  For one thing, the whole cast is sweating.  And a lot of times the noise of a fan or the traffic makes the dialogue hard to hear.

Nowadays, Mel Gibson (and for God's sake Sigourney Weaver as the female lead) would make it through the whole of Indonesia fresh as a daisy.

And it was weird to see The Shadout Mapes playing a half-Chinese dude.


Overall good though.  I'd recommend.

I like this one too. Remember when Mel Gibson was actually interesting & not batshit crazy?

I almost do.

[Geoff Johnston]

I watched The Year of Living Gangrenously Dangerously last night.

They don't make movies like this anymore.  For one thing, the whole cast is sweating.  And a lot of times the noise of a fan or the traffic makes the dialogue hard to hear.

Nowadays, Mel Gibson (and for God's sake Sigourney Weaver as the female lead) would make it through the whole of Indonesia fresh as a daisy.

And it was weird to see The Shadout Mapes playing a half-Chinese dude.


Overall good though.  I'd recommend.

Whenever I hear about this movie, I immediately think about Johnny Dangerously and then I just want to see Johnny Dangerously.

"My father hung me on a hook once.  Once."

[buffcoat]

Whenever I hear about this movie, I immediately think about Johnny Dangerously and then I just want to see Johnny Dangerously.

"My father hung me on a hook once.  Once."

I find Johnny Dangerously shockingly underrated for a pretty bad movie.  That is, it's bad, but nowhere near as bad as people think it is.  And it has many memorably funny lines.  Johnny's mother alone comes in for half a dozen.

"I go both ways."

Somehow Airplane! soaks up all the credit for zany-one-liner movies from the 80s.