I was in the mood for an old black & white so I picked The Mating Season from 1951, mainly because it has Gene Tierney in the line-up. She's lovely as usual, but it's Thelma Ritter who;s stealing the show and makes this rather predictable comedy worth watching.
At times, my wife and I were shouting at the TV.
Still, as gripping (and perhaps more so) than many fictions I've watched. The films raised a lot of questions along the way. My wife's college roommate is a lawyer and she kept texting to her friend many questions about the whole legal process.
Current TV (a mid-level cable tv channel in the US) ran a countdown of the 50 Documentaries You Must See before You Die and as a result, we've thus far watched the three Paradise Lost films and on a much more upbeat note, The King of Kong.
LOVED King of Kong. Absolutely brilliant piece of film, brilliant subjects, brilliant execution, one of my favourite movies I saw that year (whatever year it was that I saw it).
She always does.Originally Posted by algernoninc
That's a very American late 20th Early 21st Century orientated list. Okay, it doesn't purport to be a list of the 'Greatest' documentaries ever made, but ANY list of important documentaries can't ignore Robert Flaherty's films, or Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (no matter how horrible and abhorrent the subject matter - and let me make it plain here before people start thinking I'm a Nazi - the subject matter is totally horrible and abhorrent, nevertheless Triumph of the Will is a great documentary film). And how could they leave out Koyaanisqatsi (1982)? a film that is pure documentary. There's no commentary no dialogue; just images.
Last edited by JunkMonkey; January 31st, 2012 at 05:33 AM.
I'm no documentary officionado, I don't typically watch them in fact. The Current list is probably skewed, but a good starting point.
Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Catfish were all good, don't think I've seen any of the rest, maybe When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts but I can't remember. A few I would add to that list are Super High Me and Gonzo:The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.
Tonight I have been mainly stenching up my TV screen with Kannibal (2001) - a straight to DVD, self-financed, incomprehensibly plotted, dreadfully acted piece of serial killer bumsplatter which is close to nudging Zombie Women of Satan off top spot in my Crappest Film ever Made in Britain list. Godawfully dreadful in every field. I can't work out whether it was the direction - which was frankly ****ing awful, the script - which was frankly ****ing awful, or the production values - which were even worse than ****ing awful (when they were there at all). In the end though I decided it was the script. It's always down to the script in the end, really isn't it? As evidence I tender the following badly-delivered monologue lovingly transcribed by me - which is a bit of a job off a VHS with only a blunt pencil and the back of a credit card bill to write on. But I did it.
So, the killer, having finally messily disposed of all the members of a Russian crime family and some of their lesbian lovers (and eaten most of their livers while he was at it), makes his way to New York, to the side of the sickbed of the matriarch of the clan. Why are you doing this? she wheezes through a layer of badly applied latex. He inserts a video tape into the player at the end of her bed. Cue a not very good English actress putting on a variable 'Noo Yawk' accent as she pretends to read the news straight to camera...
You have to admit that is a really great bit of shitty writing. "A failed bank raid that went wrong," does that mean it succeeded? Another treasurable moment came when the police inspector wanted to know if someone was 'implied in the murders' instead of implicated - a singularly dreadful bit of acting, by the way, from Lucien Morgan who turns in an astonishingly amateur looking performance that would have got him booed off the stages of village halls around the country if he had tried it in front of live audiences."This is February the fourteenth sixty minute special coming to you from down-town New York. Today saw devastation and travesty (sic) in the streets of Manhattan like never before seen when a failed bank raid went wrong and one woman and her unborn child were killed instantly when a hijacked bus careered into the side of her station wagon. It all started at 5:45 when a gang of four armed men broke into the Federal Reserve Building. Unluckily for that (sic) an informant had raised the awareness of the police and a team of FBI were waiting. After a lengthy gun battle one of the men escaped and hijacked a local 201 bus to make his getaway. We understand the bus started its journey at 6:15, the hight of the rush hour traffic in Manhattan, and if it were not for police valour and diligence in this matter there could have been many more accidents. Within a short space of time police had set up various road blocks along the route the bus was travelling hoping to stop the carnage before it careered out of control. It was along the highway that the bus hit the station wagon causing it to smash into another vehicle head on killing the occupant on impact."
This one's a keeper.
C(r)aptain America: The First Avenger
Just kidding, it's not that bad. Actually, I'd say it's pretty darned good. Marvel's Avenger-related movies (i.e. Incredible Hulk + Iron Man onwards) have been incredibly good as far as comic book movies go, with Iron Man 2 arguably being the weakest link due to Sam Rockwell and massive misuse of Whiplash. Anyway, Cappy A is the one I wanted to see the least as I have little interest in him as a character, but I was a little concerned due to Chris Evans, who played the Human Torch in the slightly questionable Fantastic Four movies (of which I have both on DVD, so go figure).
So, with low to average expectations initially, I have to say I really enjoyed it. The plot was a little wobbly and seemed more to be "This is Cappy A, this is a woman with a strained shirt, this is Hugo Weaving pulling his face off. Get ready for The Avengers" more than anything, but it did its job fairly well. The acting was generally really good, plus it didn't really fall into the trap of casting the lady as nothing but sex appeal. She could really hold her own, and it was awesome.
Few problems, though. Aside from the plot, the special effects were dire at the best of times. You could tell when they'd been used, whether it was Chris Evans looking really weird thin, or even just the various fight scenes. Cappy A's friends seemed really underused, too, so much so that they weren't even introduced that well. Uh... I just forgot the other problem.
Anyway, really good film. Looking forward to The Avengers later this year.
Daredevil
Ho boy, where to start? Take some rather hammed up acting, some incredibly poor choreography (sorry, Ms Garner) and the most embarrassing music of the early(ish) 2000s, and you get Daredevil. He's probably the least popular of the most popular heroes in the Marvel stable, and one whom I don't think gets a lot of recognition. This movie did not help matters in the slightest.
Still, it's watchable.
Tomorrow I tackle Elektra!
I wouldn't bother, Loer. You know what a crap movie aficionado I am but even I baled out on Elektra after 20 or so minutes. I think it was the fact that Terence Stamp looks so utterly bored in it that finally made me turn it off. It was really obvious he didn't want to be there.
I've watched Dungeons & Dragons more than once.
I'll leave that there.
About three quarters of Troll Hunter before my brand new tivo threw a wobblie and lost access to on demand content. First engineer call within 24 hours. Must be some kind of record.
Anyway, as for the film, quite enjoyable. Slightly light hearted but enjoyable none the less. A kind of Norwegian troll based version of Cloverfield.
As promised, I watched Elektra this evening.
Hahahahaha. Hahahaha. Oh dear. It was mercifully short (90mins), and... oh dear. The acting was generally really not that good - I'd say that guy from ER was the best. Jennifer Garner just cannot look like she's fighting. She looks really funny when she does. So, basically the film is Jennifer Garner ass-pouting in tight trousers, Jennifer Garner dying, Jennifer Garner looking really weird and The Freak Show Of Weird Powers making me cringe with how bad they are.
Oh, and that kiss? How totally over the top and unnecessary was it?
Where did you even find Elektra?
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