Over the weekend I rewatched both the original Battlestar Galactica (1978) and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979). These movies came about in opposite ways. BSG was released as a TV pilot but was then re-cut, remastered and released in theaters with the brand new Sensurround sound.
Buck Rogers was first released in theaters and was reasonably successful making 22 million on a 3.5 million dollar budget. The same year it was re-cut and broadcast on TV as a pilot.
Many of the effects in both films are the same. They both used new technologies developed for Star Wars. Still BSG was the better done film. Acting, writing and music were all superior.
Of course they both had stupid robot comic relief in the form of Twiggy for Buck Rogers and for BSG it was Muffit. Muffit was a chimp in a robot dog costume.
Of course they both had stupid robot comic relief in the form of Twiggy for Buck Rogers and for BSG it was Muffit. Muffit was a chimp in a robot dog costume.
I found Wonder Woman surprising as an comic book origin story , the framing of this movie was different from any comic book movie I had seen since The Dark Knight. The whole sequence with the Amazons on Themyscira was clever in fact I would like to see a whole Amazon movie is they had a good story. The WWI setting was unique for a recent comic book film. The ending was alas , too calculated and a bit silly.
The Iliad has proven to be hard to make as a movie. Helen of Troy 1956 was serious try , tho alas a bit clumsy.
Wolfgang Petersen's Troy , 2004, was a really good try, but in the end seemed to defeat Petersen …...
The whole narrative of the epic poem is odd it is going to take someone with an extraordinary imagination to make a visual narrative of it.
I read the Iliad some years ago, recall the various warriors taunting their enemies by telling them how they will defile their corpses. No women will mourn for them, etc. Prairie Home Companion had a Six Minute Iliad, with voices of Jack Nicholson as Achilles, Elvis P. as (the) King Agamemnon, Mr. Rogers was in there as someone, etc. Quite funny.
Three Bowery Boys films, all from TCM Halloween month. These guys started in films as a gang, became The Dead End Kids, & finally, The BB. Most of these films were about one hour long, all were B-grade. As the BB, they hang out in Louie's Sweet Shop, the center of their activities. 'Slip' Mahoney as the leader, Sach, as his dimwitted sidekick, Gabe, as the only one who is anywhere near behaving as an adult, has various respectable jobs, etc. The others are supporting cast. Louie is played by Slip's actual father, and both are noticeably short.
Spook Busters (1946) Not Ghost Busters; Slip opens an exterminators business, after the gang obtains 'credentials' from a shady pest-control school. So, they are hired to wipe out the pests in an old house currently occupied by mad scientists, which is unknown to the owners. So, they immediately go to work, & wouldn't you know it, it is after dark.
Master Minds (1949) Sach, the dimwit, has a toothache, & when it pains him, he spouts prophecy. Slip, hoping to cash-in on Sach's new ability, opens a psychic business at the arcade. Crooks hear of it, and, as I recall, they want to know the outcome of horse races.
Bowery Boys Meet Monsters (1954) There are three zanies living in a haunted house, one has a man eating plant, one has a 'robot' the third has a gorilla. All three want Sach, the latter two, will settle for just having his brain.
Noir Alley:
Woman in the Window (1944) Up until just after the halfway point, I was sure I had never seen this before. Then, I knew otherwise. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it, as though seeing it for the first time. Edward G. Robinson plays a psychology professor whose friends include a physician (Edmund Breon) & the District Attorney (Raymond Massey). All three are members of a gentleman's club, adjacent to an art store, in the window of which ia a portrait of a woman. They discuss her beauty, etc. & go home, but EGR loiters at the widow, admiring the painting. He then sees the reflection of the model in the window, turns, and there she is Alice Reed (Joan Bennett). He is a married man has two kids, all of whom had just taken a train to visit relatives. Yet, he goes to a bar with the woman, becomes somewhat acquainted with her, then goes to her apartment with her.
Suddenly, her lover bursts through the door, attacks EGR, who being handed, a pair of scissors by JB, repeatedly stabs the attacker in the back. They decide to cover-up the killing, though it was self-defense, & Heidt (Dan Duryea) comes to blackmail them.
I have said too much, already. great film, though the production code forced a weak ending upon it.
The Killing (1956) a Heist movie, a well-planned racetrack hold up with just the right actors in the right roles. Fritz Lang directed it, Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) plans one last heist, then hopes to marry his girlfriend & retire. He has his circle of associates, who are in on the plan, and two others whom he simply pays to a) start a brawl in the racetrack's bar, & b) shoot the horse favored to win. Thus, creating a series of diversions needed to pull-off the heist. But, things go just a bit wrong.
So, he has bought a cheap, but large second hand suitcase from a pawnshop, & dumps the contents of the duffel bag, (the money) into it. at the airport, he demands this large suitcase, be cayy-on, but the guy declines, insisting it must be among the other cargo.
Peter Fonda is the President of the fictional Angels motorcycle gang. The group goes to find the stolen motorcycle of member Bruce Dern. Violence follows. Dern steals a cop's motorcycle, but the cops chase him and he gets shot. Fonda, with the help of girlfriend Nancy Sinatra, steals him out of the hospital. Dern dies. They have a funeral, which devolves into a violent party. It's all very nihilistic, with Fonda's most significant lines, spoken when the gang carts off Dern's body to bury him, being "Nothing to say" and "Nowhere to go."
Hell's Angels on Wheels (1967)
Jack Nicholson is a guy who sort of gets adopted by the not-so-fictional Hell's Angels as a mascot/prospective member after one of the gang breaks the headlight of his motorcycle and he offers to fight him. Nicholson gets beaten up by some sailors, the gang beats up on the sailors, one of them dies. While the cops are after the gang for the murder, Nicholson is after the girlfriend of the President of the gang. Not much plot, really. Instead of a funeral, we get a biker wedding. Ends very suddenly.
I went to see Widows. I thought it was good, the acting was great (particularly Viola Davies and Elizabeth Debicki) and it was well directed - the final heist scene was very tense, and McQueen did some interesting things with some of the quieter scenes, such as the car journey through the neighbourhood entirely shot from the bonnet of the car. If I had a complaint it might be that it did feel like the main characters went from not knowing what they were doing to apparently being very competent in a really short space of time.
The Last Legion (2007). Mr. Darcy Colin Firth as Roman Commander Aurelius is ordered to protect the new Caesar, Romulus Augustus, a boy, who is promptly captured by invading Goths. The film follows Aurelius and his troop as they rescue Romulus, are betrayed, run to Britannia, defeat an army and set up the Arthurian legend.
The film is a bit naff, but in a fun way. A few editing changes and committing to a 15+ rating and it could have been a very good S&Sandal film. Watchable, once, if you're in the right mood.
Terminator 2
I've been catching up on classic films I've never seen in the past 2 years. This is how you make a film! The ending was too contrived, but didn't spoil it.
Upstream Colour (2013)
Rented as soon as I saw it was by the guy who wrote Primer. Upstream Colour was intriguing to start with. After a while I didn't have a clue what was going on, so it was only okay in the end.
The Spiral Staircase (1946)
A good thriller.
Poetry (2010)
A grandmother attempts to write her first poem. I didn't get into this and the attitude of the 5 dads was too shocking, which was portrayed by the grandmother to an extent.
He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not / À la folie... pas du tout (2002)
Just as it was getting boring it suddenly became interesting.
Nocturnal Animals (2016)
Probably the least interesting film I've seen starring Jake Gyllenhaal. And probably Amy Adams too.
Deja Vu (2006)
I didn't realise this was a sci-fi. Pretty good.
Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017)
The first film from former Studio Ghibli people. Nice to look at but I became bored.
Widows (2018)
An enjoyable heist film.
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
I don't consider myself a massive Queen fan but this is well worth seeing on the big screen. It's more a celebration than a film that takes on the serious issues, which all seem glossed over.
The Godfather (1972) - I've not seen this for decades, so I was virtually watching it anew. The scenes are excellent - Coppola handles crowds particularly well - and the acting is very good. There are some odd issues with pacing and the passing of time - small children just appear, and a subplot involving a wife-beater isn't properly resolved until the last moments - which makes me wonder if the 168 minute version I was had been cut.
One thing that really struck me was the use of light. It's the darkest film I've seen since Dirty Harry. Quite often, characters in close-up just have blackness behind them. There are moments in both films where you simply can't see what's on screen, which I think indicates a level of trust in the audience that you'd rarely get today.
Rampage
As far as giant monsters destroying cities go, this one was not bad. Even without the baseball bat, I'll never be able to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan as anyone but TWD's Negan.
Never saw that show. First time I can remember seeing Morgan was in Extant as JD RIchter. I guess most people know him from Grey's Anatomy, another I haven't watched.
Apparently, even Morgan sees something of the TWD bad boy in his Rampage role.
Sedate black-and-white Italian shocker. The title character is a lunatic who dons a wet suit and scuba gear to prowl through the canals of Venice, then jumps out to grab young women, drown them, carry them off to his underground lair, and embalm them so he can add them to his collection of preserved beauties. When not in the water, he wears a monk's robe and a skull mask, in an attempt to prevent the viewer from figuring out which minor character he turns out to be. Our hero is a reporter. He gets mixed up with a group of young female tourists and has a romance with their leader. Lots of scenes of the ladies admiring the city, as well as an Elvis-like rock singer. Things get a bit more exciting near the end, and our hero and his girlfriend make separate investigations into the killer's hideout. The ending is surprisingly downbeat.
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