Let's see. Recently I've seen
The White Ribbon. The cinematography was truly spectacular.
The Great Gatsby. Not as bad as it could have been, but still pretty boring.
Now I want to see Blue Is The Warmest Color, when it comes out.
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Let's see. Recently I've seen
The White Ribbon. The cinematography was truly spectacular.
The Great Gatsby. Not as bad as it could have been, but still pretty boring.
Now I want to see Blue Is The Warmest Color, when it comes out.
I saw The Great Gatsby. It was pretty good. Somehow I got through high school without having to read the book. Now I just might read it. I'm interested in Gatsby's lover. Score: 8/10
There were a couple of weird comedies that were in the library that I also sat through:
John Dies at the End: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1783732/ This is about as close as I want to get to alternate universes, but I was able to sit through it with amused interest. Score 7/10
Team America: World Police: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372588/?ref_=sr_1 This one I almost stopped watching. It was rude, crude and two of the actors, who were just puppets, even got nude for a puppet sex scene. Overall, it is more appropriate for a teenage audience, but my daughters didn't want to waste their time on it, so, maybe a male teenage audience. Team America, of course, does more damage than the terrorists they are trying to fight except at the end when they do save the world with one second to spare. The bad guys were Kim Jong Il and the members of the Film Actor's Guild. Many of the scenes, however, were predicable. Score: 4/10
Flicking through YouTube's manifold collection of films, I alighted on Where the Sidewalk Ends. With a cast including Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Karl Malden, Gary Merill and directed by Otto Preminger, it seemed to be a cinch for a smackeroo ( sorry about that, watching American films noir does that sort of thing) but unfortunately it suffered from the lack of plausibility inherent in a majority of, if not all, crime dramas. The script by the legendary Ben Hecht was risible, which is par for the course in this type of film, but the acting, given the constraints of the genre, was good and, despite the aforementioned drawbacks, provided an entertaining 95 mins.
What do you think of Jeremy Renner, Qimi?Quote:
Originally Posted by qimissung
Recently I have seen "Ironman". It was quite good and very funny as usual:) 7/10
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937). 7/10
A major success in its day, this film now seems overly sentimental and contrived. The story centres on an elderly couple losing their home due to mortgage foreclosure and their enforced separation as each goes to stay in a different location with younger family members. The problems of trying to fit the old people in with their offspring leads to tensions and much unhappiness for all concerned. The direction was competent and the acting, especially from the old couple, was good but the script was mawkish and doesn't pass muster today.
Make Way For Tomorrow does seem to deal with a contemporary issue although I haven't seen it.
I recently saw The Sorcerer and the White Snake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sor...he_White_Snake Score 9/10
This is a variation of an ancient Chinese legend. When my wife examined the description of the movie on the cover she immediately recognized it as the "White Snake story". I never heard of it before. It is probably like not hearing about Beauty and the Beast. The story is about good and evil and romantic love.
If I Were You: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587309/
Score: 10/10
A woman by accident finds her husband with his lover at a restaurant. She follows the lover to her apartment and establishs a relationship which leads her to a whole new world. Very unusual, funny and something I wouldn't mind seeing again.
I've watched People Like Us recently and really liked it. Chris Pine performed quite well in the film. I’ll look forward to see his more films. 8/10
Watched 'Warm Bodies' I like zombies and Shakespeare. A bit of both one more than the other. I enjoyed it, I love John Malcovitch.
I saw another movie of Chris Pine last night, This Means War. It was not as good as People Like Us, but I enjoyed it anyway. 7/10
I have just watched The Clue of the Silver Key, one of a series of B pictures based on crime stories by Edgar Wallace and which were a major feature of early 1960s British cinema, The actors were all stock performers whose names will mean nothing to US film goers but are instantly recognisable to aficionados of British B movies. Many of these films have achieved a perverse cult status because of their low production values. This film is a prime example because, and I am not joking, the butler did it.
You know, that probably counts as a spoiler, because nobody would actually expect that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
Ah, but it's not difficult to spot the culprit because, while all the other suspects are tense and edgy, the butler is remarkably relaxed and jovial until unmasked. The interest, insofar as there is any, lies in how he was able to do it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Calidore
I watched a Michael winterbottom film called 'The Trip'. It advertised that I would be laughing all of the way through.
I thought a few moments of it were amusing, but it did show lovely footage of the British countryside, and some lovely food. I have since realised that a lot of it was improvised, which changed my impressions of it entirely.
7/10 for me now, before maybe a 6.
I liked this film, it takes quite a bit of talent to improvise and it was cool to 'travel' through England on a poetry/writer tour.Quote:
Originally Posted by Silas Thorne
Iron Man 3, I liked it, he's not my favorite superhero but good. Pepper Potts was good in it and Ben Kingsley's character kinda surprised me, maybe because I am not a genius when it comes to the comic books. Way better than 2. My son loved it so I give it 8/10...
Cash on Demand (1961)
This black and white film from Hammer studios concerns a clever provincial bank robbery by a confidence trickster posing as a security officer from the head office of the bank's associated insurance company. Allowing for the unlikely scenario, it provides some tense moments as the con man tricks the prim and proper manager into helping him. Bravo performances from Andre Morrel and Peter Cushing with good supporting parts from the bank staff make for an enjoyable 80 minutes viewing.
7/10
I have just watched for the second time this week a 3 hour documentary called What Happened on the Moon.
Absolutely fascinating and pretty damning evidence from professionals that the moon landings were faked. I remember watching the first 'landing' on TV as a youngster and saying out loud: 'But it's a film set !' Anyhow, the most fascinating section is part three dealing with the development of rocket technology in Germany and subsequently in the USA and USSR. The connection between Fritz Lang's film Frau im Mond and how it was used to inveigle Hitler's approval for funding the V2 project and its effect on the US Apollo programme is truly amazing. Because the film is exhaustive in highlighting impossibilities in the filmed moon landings, it must get a 10/10.
There are a couple of questionable points in the documentary but there are plenty that aren't.
http://youtu.be/sKainIQiaKA
I found "The Clue of the Silver Key" that Emil reviewed on YouTube. It seemed like I was watching a play. Although I knew from the review that the butler did it, I didn't see how until the end. Then it became obvious. Score: 5/10
I also saw "She Did Him Wrong", an old Mae West movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Done_Him_Wrong I understand this movie saved Paramount from bankruptcy. The movie could have been longer spending more time on the relationship between West and Grant. I've never seen Mae West before, but after seeing her I can see why many found her attractive. It was mainly the way she spoke. She seemed voluptuously overweight, but that may have been the preferred style of the 30s. She had all the good lines, like, "It takes two to get one in trouble."
Score: 8/10
Since it was 2 for $1 at the library, I also watched "Sexy Evil Genius": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexy_Evil_Genius Unfortunately my mind was still on Lady Lou (Mae West) who seemed even more attractive to me while watching the two females in this movie: Miranda (Michelle Trachtenberg) was cute, but she seemed like a child compared to West, and Nikki, the "genius", (Katee Sackhoff) was too annoying to even compare her to West although Nikki had moments of generosity just as Lady Lou did.
Score: 3/10
Congratulations, you must be one of the few Americans who has seen a British B movie. The word you were looking for to describe the play-like quality of its presentation is 'stagy', which is a facet they all share and is what endears them to their many British followers as well as their nostalgia for a Britain that is no more.Quote:
Originally Posted by YesNo
The legendary Mae West is indeed voluptuously overweight, but it's all in the right places and her sexuality is very much in the viewer's face. Noted for her risqué sayings, she was alleged to have asked a potential leading man how tall he was. The guy said six feet six and a half inches; to which she replied : 'Never mind the six feet, let's talk about the six and a half inches.'
There Will Be Blood. I hadn't seen it in quite some time, I think since it was originally released, but it didn't cease to amaze me. The soundtrack by Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead is pretty amazing, as is the acting from Daniel Day Lewis. I would say that this is my favorite of his three Oscar winning roles. Completely mesmerizing film!
10/10
I started watching parts of this and it does make me wonder whether the photographs were taken on the moon or not. It seemed that the astronauts didn't rise high enough when they jumped, for one example.Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
One of West's famous lines I remember hearing as a child. I thought it went something like "Why don't you come up and see me sometime." What I found out in the movie is she actually said, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me".Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
I think my version came from a Popeye cartoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgUD-CUe-7o
The interesting thing about the film is that the 'conspiracy theorists', unlike the usual naysayers, are, with the exception of the co-authoress of Dark Moon, qualified scientific experts in their fields; some of whom actually worked on the Apollo project. However, one of the things that doesn't hold water in the film is the one you mention. If, as is suggested , the astronauts were attached to wires to simulate jumping in low gravity, then the astronaut's jump shown could have been as high as they wanted it to be. The other flaw in the programme is the statement that Armstrong and co. could have been surrogates standing in for real astronauts who did go to the moon. This is simply silly because who would volunteer for a mission in which they knew they wouldn't be coming back?Quote:
Originally Posted by YesNo
However, the clincher is the fact that other light sources were obviously used because it's impossible to obtain clear pictures in deep shadow areas and the shadows cast by different objects on the 'moon's surface' were at variance with each other, as the professional photographer and the industrial imagist clearly demonstrated: this is an impossibility unless other light sources were used. Even the Swedish guy from Hasselblad who designed the camera they used couldn't explain it and Nasa's spokesman tried to brush it aside by saying such evidence was nit-picking. One of the rocks in a photo clearly had the letter 'C' stamped on it and it was lined up with another letter 'C' marked on the ground. Then there is the statement by one of the Apollo astronauts that it was possible that the film might have been damaged by conditions on the moon and NASA could have staged the landings.
The whole black and white sequence resembles a bad 1950s B movie. which gets it 2/10.
If I was you lot I'd forget 'movies' and start watching All Creatures Great and Small on You Tube. 10/10.
Now, now Neely, All Creatures Great and Small is a British TV series about a veterinary surgeon and therefore rather parochial for an American website.
However, I have just watched Forbidden Cargo (1954) a black and white British film with a cast that reads like a composite list of 1950s actors as well known to British audiences in their day as the likes of James Cagney, Spencer Tracy etc.etc. were to American cinema goers.
The great Nigel Patrick plays a customs officer on the trail of a gang of drug smugglers and ends with a believably exciting motor chase through London's docklands before the gang are caught. No aliens, vampires, CGI, explosions, zombies, foul language or other forms of infantilism; just believable entertainment. 8/10
I haven't had a chance to finish What Happened on the Moon, but I can easily believe that many of the videos and photos of the moon landing were faked for Cold War propaganda purposes especially if live coverage proved a problem. The question that now bothers me is whether we actually went there or not. I told my daughter my current doubts. I probably shouldn't have. But if the Apollo missions were all a fake for propaganda purposes that would be almost as amazing a feat as going to the moon itself.
No vampires?:shocked:
Mrs Neely's quite fond of The Painted Veil, not a bad film either, I think we've seen it about four times in total, though not watched it this year. The sound track refrain thing also captures a certain mood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1tyVlKjJZI
Though as I say I've not watching many films at the moment.
I showed some of Hitchcock's Tales of the Unexpected to some Y7s today (11/12 year olds) which went down quite well. I thought they would riot at the sight of black and white TV, but the direction of Hitchcock managed to pull it off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr6aFSOZEfk
I love that show! I hadn't thought about it being available on youtube.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neely
The East 8/10 It's a movie about a young woman who infiltrates a group of bioterrorists. It explores a lot of ethical issues, and, if you care at all about the planet, makes you want to do more for it's well-being. A small, independent movie. I recommend it.
The film explains that the Russian and American scientific communities had been in collusion since the end of WWII to trick their respective governments into releasing the enormous funds for space travel: in much the same way as German scientists had inveigled their government to fund the original rocket programme. The German military, however, saw the potential for warfare and, to the chagrin of the scientists, shelved the space travel aspect in favour of weaponry. The 'space race' was a media creation which both scientific establishments encouraged to keep the funds flowing. The Apollo missions were not faked for propaganda but to ensure that NASA continued to impress the US government into releasing the money for further exploration. As the film points out, although NASA was a government agency, a relatively small group of scientists controlled everything that the government and the populace saw. We now know that the television images were not broadcast direct from the moon, as NASA originally stated, but were actually transmitted via an Australian transmitter, this is only one of numerous anomalies concerning the the photographic and televised material from that time. I don't know whether man went to the moon or not and frankly I don't much care but, on the evidence of this documentary, it would seem unlikely.Quote:
Originally Posted by YesNo
As Abraham Lincoln is alleged to have said: " You can fool some of the people all of the time; you can fool all of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neely
The Painted Veil is one of my favourite Maugham novels although I haven't seen the most recent film version. Using Satie's music is a smart move as it compliments the period as well as anything could. Reading the comments on this Youtube video, it's easy to see that the great storyteller's magic struck home to a majority of the film's audience. The title of the novel comes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. According to A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia, the novel was received very well by the French but had mixed reviews in England. I might get round to watching the film but the vast array of material on Youtube takes up quite a lot of time anyway.
But what makes this evidence more valid than the evidence of the events that it's supposed to be debunking. And why is the debunking of the tinfoil-hatters' claims less valid than their debunkings?Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
It is the same evidence. One side says it is evidence we actually went to the moon. The other side tries to show that the evidence was faked. It is little more than one set of scientists critiquing the evidence of another set of scientists and calling the evidence into question.Quote:
Originally Posted by Calidore
I'm only a third of the way through the documentary, but it does look like the evidence for the lunar missions was faked whether for Cold War purposes or to get funding for NASA, as Emil points out. Or both.
Regarding the tinfoil hatters, probably the best thing is to stay as close to the evidence as possible and not accept the opinions of authorities too quickly, although that is all we usually have to go on.
For the past two days I feel like a child who has been presented with compelling evidence that Santa doesn't exist.
My wife wanted to know what I was so busy watching. I asked her, "Did you know that the Apollo moon landings might have been faked?"
"Yeah. The flag was waving in the air on the moon and the shadows were not right. That's old news."
Well, the documentary was released over 10 years ago, so I guess it is old news. Am I the last to know?
Well I suggest you watch the film and make your own deductions. I've watched all of it twice and made mine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Calidore
No you're not the last to know. Even though I had my suspicions I also paid little attention to claims of falsification until this documentary. It was the fact that the hoax claim was being made by members of the scientific community that kept me watching until the end. Unless someone can prove that there were no other light sources used in the photography and filming of events 'on the 'moon', they must have been faked: there is no other possible explanation. If the video is ten-years-old, certain individuals involved with Apollo will probably be pleased to let sleeping dogs lie in the hope that the increasing passage of time will blur over the obvious inconsistencies highlighted in the video.Quote:
Originally Posted by YesNo
I think most of those "did astronauts really land on the moon" theories have been debunked, guys.Quote:
Originally Posted by YesNo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_la...iracy_theories
Interesting but not entirely convincing. As was explained in the documentary, light reflection from the surface of the moon is far too low to give the kind of definition shown in some of the photos. There is also much other evidence of peculiarities that the 'Mythbusters' do not appear to have an answer for. Rather than relying on their, perhaps not entirely disinterested explanations, it might be wiser to watch the documentary as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by qimissung
You apparently didn't actually read the entry qimissung linked to. This issue was amply addressed—as is the other nonsense the conspiracy theorists have dredged up. Try reading it again. And perhaps you could explain the confirmation of Galileo's prediction using a hammer and a feather? Let me guess—they are both on invisible wires?:rolleyes5:Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
I didn't know about the title coming from Prometheus Unbound, that's interesting. You should watch the film for it is a good one and you are sure to enjoy it, Edwood Norton is very good in it, a good actor anyway I think. The soundtrack is also up your street. I only mention it because we were watching an Agatha Christie on You Tube, Five Little Pigs, which featured the same music. It's certainly worth watching.Quote:
The Painted Veil is one of my favourite Maugham novels although I haven't seen the most recent film version. Using Satie's music is a smart move as it compliments the period as well as anything could. Reading the comments on this Youtube video, it's easy to see that the great storyteller's magic struck home to a majority of the film's audience. The title of the novel comes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. According to A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia, the novel was received very well by the French but had mixed reviews in England. I might get round to watching the film but the vast array of material on Youtube takes up quite a lot of time anyway.
I can only suggest that you watch the video. All of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by WyattGwyon