I loved this one, as well. I think it's also on Shudder (hence the Joe Bob Briggs connection). Well worth everyone's time.
Stumbled onto Turner Classic Movies last night. Watched "Jezebel". Surprisingly relevant due to Covid and culture clashes currently going on. Solid B+.
They had a great opportunity to do it again with The Pacific, but that turned out a turd. They didn't bring in the type of consultants as BoB had - specifically veterans who fought there - so real life events were not near as accurate as BoB. People weren't true to life, like that "Snafu" character, who annoyed most Marines who knew him. They didn't like him, and chances are Snafu inadvertently killed one of his own men, which was covered up. The list goes on and on... I knew a lot of Marine Corps riflemen from K/3/5 because I wrote a bestseller about them, through the eyes of one Marine, and I attended the red carpet premier of The Pacific. Before these Marines died, they always complained about Sledge and how Sledge took rifleman's stories and applied them to the mortar section, which Sledge was a part of. Sledge did acknowledge the riflemen in his book, naming many by name, but then put himself in their shoes and actions, because let's face it, back then the mortars had to be 100-200 yards behind the rifle squads for their mortars to be effective on the enemy. Therefore, the mortar teams couldn't have been at the very front of the line, or they wouldn't be doing their jobs. Yeah, Band of Brothers was better. Much!
23 Paces To Baker Street (1956) Van Johnson stars as a blind playwright, who overhears what sounds like a kidnapping plot whilst in a London pub. The police aren't interested, so Johnson - along with spurned love interest Vera Miles & manservant Cecil Parker - sets out to unravel the mystery. Their sleuthing finally pays off, with potentially deadly consequences. It's a slow burner of a film - and Van Johnson's acting is a tad stilted - but once the action does start it's engrossing enough. There's a neat plot twist for the finale. 7/10
I just finished reading Heat 2 so I decided to rewatch Heat. I hadn't seen it since the 90's. Great cast and performances. It still holds up 8/10. The night before we watched Cinema Verite, the story of the creation PBS 70's reality show American Family. We thought it was good. 7/10. Diane Lane's performance was a 10/10.
Columnist (2019) Satirical Dutch psycho-comedy with a more serious underlying message that doesn't get in the way of the fun, and it certainly is fun. Good acting from the leads. 8/10
The Shining (1980) - 4K UHD 7.5/10 Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of the Stephen King novel. Another film I haven't seen in a really long time. Not really a huge Stephen King fan or in horror films in general but this one was pretty good. Jack Nicholson is the main reason to see this and the camera work and music is pretty effective too.
Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017) 7/10 This film hurts as much as it is beautiful, and it's very beautiful. It's also extremely ugly when children are forced to pick up after the garbage that adults leave in the world. The film shows how children cope, if they can at all. It's supernatural. It's fantasy. It's touching. It's dark. The child actors are some of the best I've seen. The movie was riding a solid 6/10 for me, until about the last 15 minutes, when the film upped the ante, giving it one of the best endings I've seen in awhile. Dangerous (1935) 4/10 I didn't like this movie. It was fairly dull and didn't do anything, nor go anywhere, as it felt like a rehash of better films like Baby Face (1933) and Of Human Bondage (1934). I think Bette Davis was right, that her Oscar for this film was a consolation prize for getting snubbed the year before. Besides, how many films did Davis want to do about a dangerous/nutty person? She would go on to play similar roles. This is just a poor ripoff, and not a well-made film.
This movie exists just to tick a certain number of required boxes....and then the credits roll. It could have been sooooooo much better.
'The Long Riders'. Plenty of pretty faces (which I don't mind at all), but overall quite ordinary. Overrated a bit. 7/10.
SISU 9/10 It might be the best movie I have seen this year. A swift ninety-one minutes of sweet revenge on some very despicable Nazis. Maybe the near ending big crash was a bit over the top, but the ride getting there was hysterical.
The Batman - 8/10 My second watch and I like parts of it more than I did the first time and I like the middle part less. This time around I was more critical of the plot points and how they get there. It's a really good overall plot and it captures the mood of a nuance to Batman we haven't seen much. The last section is worth watching just for Paul Dano.
It is definitely what I call a "popcorn flick," Lol, but it is very entertaining. Realistic, it is not.
I Want to Live (1958) Harrowing film in which Susan Hayward plays a woman convicted of murder. Hayward’s performance is amazingly good and she won Best Actress for it. The last part of this movie is very hard to watch. 9/10
Driller Killer (1979) Is it a 'video nasty'? Maybe; maybe not. Perhaps a punk rock psychodrama. It certainly features some fab punky sounds from that period. The acting is something of a mixed bag. Quite a bit of improvisation, apparently. Struggling New York artist Reno is slowly driven nuts by his environment & the people around him. He buys a drill and decides to make a few holes in the local 'bums'. Like you do. Is it scary? No. Sickening & revolting? At times. Overall though, it's quite banal. But then, we all know about the banality of evil. So perchance it's a work of genius. Maybe; maybe not. 6/10
This thread just gets better, some of you guys watch a LOT of movies. I love reading all of the reports.
