Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

'The Martian' (2015)

Got tired of people asking me if I'd seen this so I got round to giving it a go.

Matt Damon is an astronaut who gets left behind on Mars when his colleagues think he has been killed in a storm.

Another disappointing modern film. You never get properly involved in it, since a few upsets aside you sort of know he is going to be okay and somehow get home. About the closest film I can think of is 'Apollo 13', which unlike this, is a true story. And unlike this has much better characterisation and tension - even though you know the outcome already.

There seems to have been something lost in script-writing ability in the intervening 30 years.

Oh and even though the film is set in 2035, which isn't that far away, the NASA HQ is all shiny and ultra-modern, like it's the 25th century or something, and that doesn't ring true either.

Would have been a better film if they had to scrabble round with scanty resources in order to rescue him, instead they just send the big shiny spaceship back again. Yes, spoilers, but if you've not seen it already then really isn't worth bothering to watch it.

yes i do have film as a dig file via amazon when it was fairly new. i was a bit disappointed too. as you say the script was going nowhere.
type of film you can walk away from for 30 mins and when you return your still pretty much in same spot.

[Macca]

yes i do have film as a dig file via amazon when it was fairly new. i was a bit disappointed too. as you say the script was going nowhere.
type of film you can walk away from for 30 mins and when you return your still pretty much in same spot.

Yes that's it in a nutshell.

The book it was based on is apparently a best-seller but then I guess no-one is writing good novels anymore either, at least not since George McDonald-Frasier died.

[struth]

flashman is my hero

[Macca]

They need to make some more Flashman films, but do it properly for once.

[struth]

They need to make some more Flashman films, but do it properly for once.

the one they made was ghastly tbh... i think the books are best left as books. they will try and rewrite them as they are not suitible for snowflakes..

[struth]

The Bourne Identity (2002)






Matt Damon climbed down the last 30 feet of the building himself, without a stunt double. He called it "the most gruelling thing I had to do."

[Macca]

the one they made was ghastly tbh... i think the books are best left as books. they will try and rewrite them as they are not suitible for snowflakes..

It was so bad GMF refused to allow any more to be made unless he had complete creative control. Which was never going to happen.

[struth]

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).. bluray..





Because writer and director Sergio Leone spoke barely any English and Eli Wallach (Tuco) spoke barely any Italian, the two communicated in French.

During the scene right before the final duel where Tuco (Eli Wallach) is running frantically through the cemetery, a dog can be seen running on-screen at the beginning of the scene. In reality, that was improvised on the spot. Sergio Leone, who was afraid that the scene was going to slip into melodrama, released the dog without informing Eli Wallach first--thus, his look of surprise is quite genuine.

For the scene where Angel Eyes interrogates Maria the prostitute for information about Bill Carson, Lee Van Cleef was appalled by the fact that he was required to actually hit Maria (Rada Rassimov), complaining "I can't hit a woman." Rassimov replied with, "Don't worry. I'm an actress. Even if you slap me for real, it's no problem", but Van Cleef further stated, "I know, but I can't!" As a result, a stunt double was used for shots where Rassimov was slapped, which were intercut with shots of Van Cleef. As he later put it: "There are very few principles I have in life. One of them is I don't kick dogs, and the other one is I don't slap women in movies."

[struth]

The Conversation (1974).. bluray.






Gene Hackman learned to play the saxophone especially for the film.

Gene Hackman played a former N.S.A. Agent who is a surveillance expert in Enemy of the State (1998), and the images of his character in his younger days are taken directly from this film. Hackman's characters are so similar in both movies, fans have theorized that they may be the same person, but there is no evidence of this provided by the makers of either film.

In the first scene inside Harry's apartment the camera is in a fixed position, and does not follow Harry as he walks in and out of view. When he goes to his couch the camera turns left and remains fixed on the couch. This is an imitation of a surveillance camera, as if the viewer is spying on Harry.

[Barry]

Excellent film! The whole plot turns on its head when one hears the change of intonation and stress of the words: "He'd kill us if he could."

I have watched the film so many times, trying to work out how Harry Caul's flat is bugged. Even he can't find the bugging device(s). One suggestion is that it is contained in his saxophone lanyard - but I find that hard to believe.

In my opinion it is a much better film than 'Enemy of the State'.

(Point of information: surveillance operatives (such as those who bugged the Watergate Hotel) are now referred to as "plumbers", after the 1974 film,)