Taken, 2002. Stephen Spielberg presents.. mini series on aliens etc.. very good this and worth watching..
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Taken, 2002. Stephen Spielberg presents.. mini series on aliens etc.. very good this and worth watching..
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/...3MTg5._V1_.jpg
Right now, this:
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Friends hiking the Appalachian Trail are confronted by 'The Foundation', a community of people who have lived in the mountains for hundreds of years - and they don't like strangers!
EVIL lurks at every turn... :eyebrows:
Marco.
The Lost weekend, 1945. directed by Billy Wilder starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman. It was based on Charles R. Jackson's 1944 novel of the same title about an alcoholic writer. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also shared the Grand Prix at the first Cannes Film Festival, making it one of only three films (the other two being Marty (1955) and Parasite (2019)) to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the highest award at Cannes.
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Not a bad film - though I often find Ray Milland's delivery to be lecturing rather than normal speech.Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
What's it about?Quote:
Originally Posted by Roy S
FootballQuote:
Originally Posted by Barry
been continuing with this.. great stuff...silly but is it?:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
Looks more like the preamble to a lesbo porn fest!:eyebrows:Quote:
Originally Posted by Roy S
Marco.
Watched the series of 7 episodes over 2 nights. It's been nominated for 18 Emmys and won 2 Golden Globe Awards.
I found it a bit slow but quite engaging.
Paths Of Glory, 1957. Co-written and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb. It stars Kirk Douglas as Col Drax.
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The title of Cobb's novel came from the ninth stanza of Thomas Gray's poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" (1751).[9]
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike th'inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
On its release, the film's anti-military tone was subject to criticism and censorship.
In France, both active and retired personnel from the French military vehemently criticized the film—and its portrayal of the French Army—after it was released in Belgium. The French government placed enormous pressure on United Artists, (the European distributor) not to release the film in France. The film was eventually shown in France in 1975 when social attitudes had changed.
In Germany, the film was withdrawn from the Berlin Film Festival to avoid straining relations with France; it was not shown until two years after its US release.
In Spain, the right-wing government of Francisco Franco objected to the film. It was first shown in 1986, 11 years after Franco's death.
The film was banned by Switzerland as "incontestably offensive" to France, her judicial system and her army, until 1970.
The film was banned in all United States military establishments, both at home and overseas, due to its content.
Bend of the River, 1952. Western film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Julie Adams, and Rock Hudson.
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Stewart took a percentage of the profits. In 1953, William Goetz estimated that Stewart had earned $750,000 from the film.
The movie holds a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The First Great Train Robbery, 1978. Directed by Michael Crichton, who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, and Lesley-Anne Down, with Michael Elphick and Wayne Sleep.
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The film's plot is loosely based on the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, in which a cracksman named William Pierce engineered the theft of a trainload of gold being shipped to the British Army during the Crimean War. The gold shipment of £12,000 (equal to £1,129,671 today) in gold coin and ingots from the London-to-Folkestone passenger train was stolen by Pierce and his accomplices, a clerk in the railway offices named Tester, and a skilled screwsman named Agar. The robbery was a year in the planning and involved making sets of duplicate keys from wax impressions for the locks on the safes, and bribing the train's guard, a man called Burgess. Crichton, the author of the book and the screenplay, was inspired by Kellow Chesney's 1970 book The Victorian Underworld, which is a comprehensive examination of the more sordid aspects of Victorian society.
Good movie, clever and funny.Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
another classic, this time from big Clint... The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976. Clint Eastwood directs and stars... co stars are with Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Sam Bottoms, and Geraldine Keams.
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Upon release in August 1976, The Outlaw Josey Wales was widely acclaimed by critics, many of whom saw Eastwood's role as an iconic one, relating it with much of America's ancestral past and the destiny of the nation after the American Civil War. The film was pre-screened at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities in Idaho in a six-day conference entitled Western Movies: Myths and Images. Academics such as Bruce Jackson, critics such as Jay Cocks and Arthur Knight and directors such as King Vidor, Henry King, William Wyler and Howard Hawks were invited to the screening.Time magazine named the film one of the year's top 10. Roger Ebert compared the nature and vulnerability of Eastwood's portrayal of Josey Wales with his "Man with No Name" character in the Dollars Trilogy and praised the atmosphere of the film. On The Merv Griffin Show, Orson Welles lauded the film, calling Eastwood "one of America's finest directors".
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively gave the film a 90% approval rating based on 41 reviews.
Ministry of Fear, 1944. Directed by Fritz Lang and stars Ray Milland. Based on the 1943 novel by Graham Greene, the film tells the story of a man just released from a mental asylum who finds himself caught up in an international spy ring and pursued by Nazi agents after inadvertently receiving something they want.
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In a review at the time of release, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote positively of Ministry of Fear stating: "Mr. Lang has given the picture something of the chilling quality of some of his early German shockers—a strangely arch and maniacal surge that comes through suggestive use of camera and morbid pace in more critical spots. The clammy and numbing sensations of fear are thereby conveyed in a manner that is quite unusual for our generally overworked screen."
This is the region A bluray from Criterion,
Man in the Vault, 1956. The film was the directorial debut of Andrew V. McLaglen, and stars William Campbell.
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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, 2011.
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El Dorado, 1966. directed by Howard Hawks(the second of 3 hawks films on subject) and starring John Wayne, James Caan and Robert Mitchum.
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Barring ensamble film 'the longest day' this was only film the two major stars, wayne and mitchum did together
Saturday matinee... Jack the Ripper, 1959, produced and directed by Monty Berman and Robert S. Baker. It stars Lee Patterson and Eddie Byrne and co-stars Betty McDowall, John Le Mesurier, and Ewen Solon.
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There are 2 versions on this bluray, USA and UK.. this is the UK version.
Sullivan's Travels, 1941. Written and directed by Preston Sturges and stars Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake.
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This is the Arrow Bluray.
The film's primary theme is best summed up in the last line of dialogue as spoken by Sullivan: "There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan."
The scene in which the prisoners are taken to watch the 1934 Disney cartoon Playful Pluto takes place in a Southern black church; the film treats the African-American characters there with a level of respect unusual in films of the period. The Secretary of the NAACP, Walter White, wrote to Sturges:
I want to congratulate and thank you for the church sequence in Sullivan's Travels. This is one of the most moving scenes I have seen in a moving picture for a long time. But I am particularly grateful to you, as are a number of my friends, both white and colored, for the dignified and decent treatment of Negroes in this scene. I was in Hollywood recently and am to return there soon for conferences with production heads, writers, directors, and actors and actresses in an effort to induce broader and more decent picturization of the Negro instead of limiting him to menial or comic roles. The sequence in Sullivan's Travels is a step in that direction and I want you to know how grateful we are.
The ever-young 'Some Like It Hot', 1959. Billy Wilder directs and it stars Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and features George Raft, Pat O'Brien and Joe E. Brown.
https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_..._330/image.jpg (Joe E Brown and Jack Lemmon... 'Nobody's Perfect')
One of the greatest of the greats imho....pure genius at times.
Some Like It Hot received widespread acclaim from critics, and is considered among the best films of all time. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 66 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Some Like It Hot: A spry, quick-witted farce that never drags." According to Metacritic, another review aggregator which calculated a weighted average score of 98 out of 100 based on 19 critics, the film received "universal acclaim". Chicago Sun-Times's Roger Ebert wrote, "Wilder's 1959 comedy is one of the enduring treasures of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft." Ebert gave the film four stars out of four and included it in his Great Movies list. John McCarten of The New Yorker referred to the film as "a jolly, carefree enterprise". Richard Roud, writing for The Guardian in 1967, said with this film Wilder comes "close to perfection".
The Searchers, 1956. Directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, set during the Texas–Indian wars, and starring John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece (Natalie Wood), accompanied by his adoptive nephew (Jeffrey Hunter).
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The Searchers has been cited as one of the greatest films of all time, such as in the BFI's decennial Sight & Sound polls. In 1972, The Searchers was ranked 18th; in 1992, 5th; in 2002, 11th; in 2012, 7th. In a 1959 Cahiers du Cinema essay, Godard compared the movie's ending with that of the reuniting of Odysseus with Telemachus in Homer's Odyssey. In 1963, he ranked The Searchers as the fourth-greatest American movie of the sound era, after Scarface (1932), The Great Dictator (1940), and Vertigo (1958). The 2007 American Film Institute 100 greatest American films list ranked The Searchers in 12th place. In 1998, TV Guide ranked it 18th. In 2008, the American Film Institute named The Searchers as the greatest Western of all time. In 2010, Richard Corliss noted the film was "now widely regarded as the greatest Western of the 1950s, the genre's greatest decade" and characterized it as a "darkly profound study of obsession, racism, and heroic solitude".
The film currently maintains a 96% approval rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "The Searchers is an epic John Wayne Western that introduces dark ambivalence to the genre that remains fashionable today."
Magnificent film.
Sherlock Holmes, 2009. Directed by Guy Ritchie ... Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law portray Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.
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Blow Out, 1981. Written and directed by Brian De Palma. It stars John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow and Dennis Franz.
This is the Criterion Bluray.
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The New Yorker, Pauline Kael gave the film one of her few unconditional raves:
"De Palma has sprung to the place that Robert Altman achieved with films such as McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Nashville and that Francis Ford Coppola reached with The Godfather films — that is, to the place where genre is transcended and what we're moved by is an artist's vision...it's a great movie. Travolta and Allen are radiant performers".
Roger Ebert's four-star review in the Chicago Sun-Times noted that Blow Out "is inhabited by a real cinematic intelligence".
Apocalypse Now(final Cut), 1979. Directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Harrison Ford, and Dennis Hopper.
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Real human corpses were bought from a man who turned out to be a grave-robber. The police took the film crew's passports and questioned them, and then soldiers came and took the bodies away.
At times, Dennis Hopper tormented Marlon Brando, leading Brando to refuse to be on the set at the same time as Hopper.
The Final Countdown, 1980. Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, James Farentino, Katharine Ross and Charles Durning star.
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Catherine the Great
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/17...g?v=1571843650
Made for Sky TV and starring the devine Helen Mirren (who was also an executive producer), this is a pig's ear of a production. Sumptious sets and costumes, there are several flaws in detail and an absolutely dire script!
Local Hero
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A wonderful, funny and life affirming films.
If you liked 'Gregory's Girl' (but thought it a bit 'twee'), then Bill Forsyth does better this time around.
The Holcroft Covenant, 1985. directed by John Frankenheimer and stars Michael Caine.
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Although James Caan was originally cast as Noel Holcroft, he walked off the set due to disagreements with the producers. Director John Frankenheimer later said "I will be forever grateful to James Caan. Forever. Because he gave me the best gift that's ever happened to me in my career, which is Michael Caine."As far as I'm concerned, he is probably the best actor I've ever worked with," added Frankenheimer. "Certainly the best actor I've ever worked with who gets the girl."
I read Robert Ludlum's books including The Holcroft Covenant many years ago, I quite liked them. My favourite was The Road to Gandolfo, which I thought would make a great basis for a film.
ive got it on audiobook.. just the other day bought The Parsifal Mosaic audiobook too. quite like his stuffQuote:
Originally Posted by walpurgis
The Fourth Protocol, 1987. Mchael Caine again stars this time with Pierce Brosnan. A Fredrick Forsyth novel this time.
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Not a bad film, save Kim Philby died of old age and was not shot as shown in the film. I have a copy somewhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
Avanti, 1972... one of my favs this. not a bad line or bad scene. Genius, and the score is super too.
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The Day Will Dawn, 1942. It stars Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Hugh Williams and Griffith Jones, and was directed by Harold French from a script written by Anatole de Grunwald, Patrick Kirwan and Terence Rattigan, based on a story by Frank Owen. The music by Richard Addinsell was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Muir Mathieson.
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David Parkinson gave the film three out of five stars in the Radio Times, and wrote, "Markedly less restrained than many other British tales of wartime resistance, this well-meaning flag-waver is far more effective than the majority of have-a-go Hollywood movies on the same theme...what sets this apart is a remarkable cast of British stalwarts, not one of whom puts a foot wrong. Special mention should be made, however, of Deborah Kerr, who lends quiet courage to an unrewarding romantic part, and Francis L Sullivan, who makes a most malevolent Nazi".
Sullivan played a similar part in Pimpernel Smith the year before.
Peggy Sue Got Married, 1986. directed by Francis Ford Coppola starring Kathleen Turner and Nick Cage.
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Jack the Ripper, 1988. Stars Michael Caine, Lewis Collins, Jane Seymour and Hugh Fraser among many...
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A 2 episode for tv film Directed by David Wickes. Not the most accurate but holds the interest; thanks to cast and a decent script.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977. Written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut.
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The film was nominated for eight Oscars at the 50th Academy Awards, including Best Director, Supporting Actress (Melinda Dillon), Visual Effects, Art Direction (Joe Alves, Daniel A. Lomino, Phil Abramson), Original Music Score, Film Editing, and Sound (Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don MacDougall and Gene Cantamessa). The film's only win was for Vilmos Zsigmond's cinematography, although the Academy honored the film's sound effects editing with a Special Achievement Award (Frank Warner).
Budget $19.4 million.
Box office $306.1 million.
Still a great film. I've seen it loads of times, but always enjoy it.Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
Blowup, 1966. stars David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin, Tsai Chin, Peter Bowles, and Gillian Hills, as well as 1960s model Veruschka.
It was directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.
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MGM did not gain approval for the film under the MPAA Production Code in the United States. The film was condemned by the National Legion of Decency. The code's collapse and revision was foreshadowed when MGM released the film through a subsidiary distributor, Premier Productions, and Blowup was shown widely in North American cinemas.
Writing about Antonioni for Time in 2007, the film writer Richard Corliss states that the film grossed "$20 million (about $120 million today) on a $1.8 million budget and helped liberate Hollywood from its puritanical prurience".
The film earned $5.9 million in theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada in 1967.
The film's non-diegetic music was scored by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, while rock group the Yardbirds also feature. The film is set within the mod subculture of 1960s Swinging London.
Excellent film and one which captures the mood of the '60s in 'Swinging London' perfectly.
I wonder if 'Blow Up' was the inspiration for 'Blow Out': both films starting with the idea of an artist (photographer and sound recorder respectively) inadvertently stumbling on something odd and potentially risky as they went about their business.
Curiously I love 'Blow Up', but think little of 'Blow Out' (as I do of most of Brian de Palma's films).
The Titfield Thunderbolt, 1953. British comedy film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Stanley Holloway, Naunton Wayne, George Relph and John Gregson. The screenplay concerns a group of villagers trying to keep their branch line operating after British Railways decided to close it. The film was written by TEB Clarke and was inspired by the restoration of the narrow gauge Talyllyn Railway in Wales, the world's first heritage railway run by volunteers. The name "Titfield" is an amalgamation of the villages of Limpsfield and Titsey in Surrey, near Clarke's home at Oxted.
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There was considerable inspiration from the book Railway Adventure by established railway book author L.T.C. Rolt, published in 1952.[6] Rolt had acted as honorary manager for the volunteer enthusiasts running the Talyllyn Railway for the two years 1951–52. A number of scenes in the film, such as the emergency re-supply of water to the locomotive by buckets from an adjacent stream, or passengers being asked to assist in pushing the carriages, were taken from this book.
blow out is one of my fav de palma films lol. travolta and nancy allen were a good pair together. both of course were in carrie tooQuote:
Originally Posted by Barry
The Square Peg, 1959. Normn Wisdom takes on the third reich
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The Interrupted journey, 1949. Directed by Daniel Birt and starring Valerie Hobson, Richard Todd, Christine Norden and Tom Walls. A young Roger Moore plays an uncredited role as a soldier.
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The film's ending is sometimes considered by critics to be contrived, as Todd realises that much of the plot has been a nightmare and awakens from this dream sequence shortly before the conclusion for a happy ending. However, it has been noted that the whole film "simulates the qualities of a nightmare" through its use of coincidences and the lighting. The Encyclopedia of Film Noir describes it as a "superior film noir" and compares its ending to the 1944 The Woman in the Window.
Blue Murder at St Trinian's, 1957.... Directed by Frank Launder and written by him and Sidney Gilliat, it was the second of the series of four films. The film stars Terry-Thomas, George Cole, Joyce Grenfell, Lionel Jeffries and Richard Wattis.
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Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times, "what is important and delightful is that the spirit of knockabout farce, evolved in "The Belles of St. Trinian's," is retained uninhibited in this film...it is wild but generally funny—explosively funny in spots, especially when that fellow Terry-Thomas, who was the mustachioed major in "Private's Progress," is dragooned as a bus driver to transport the girls to Rome. And since he has toothy Joyce Grenfell to accompany him on the trip—she's "a crazy, mixed-up police-woman," as she dubs herself—the fun is as much in their behavior as it is in that of the belles. None of the latter is notable as an actress; all are lissome and lively girls. They make for pleasant company on a mad excursion. It's only too bad that Mr. Sim had to languish in jail".
Quatermass and the Pit, 1967. Directed by Roy Ward Baker and stars Andrew Keir, James Donald, Barbara Shelley and Julian Glover.
It was released in the USA as Five Million Years to Earth.
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Forces TV - Blakes 7 followed by UFO - 2 hours of proper telly.