Movie Talk

…and the top ten Pixar movies are:

10.  Cars 2

9. Monsters Inc.

8. Finding Nemo

7. Wall E

6. The Incredibles

5. Ratatouille

4. Cars

3. Toy Story

2. Coco

1.  Toy Story 3

The Incredibles is one of my favorite movies of any kind.

My top 10 10 movies.

10. 10

9. The Ten Commandments

8. Force 10 From Navarone

7. October (10 Days That Shook the World)

5-6. The Magnificent Seven / The Three Musketeers (Lester) double feature

4. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

3. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

2. Malcolm X

1. And Then There Were None

DaveSchmidt said:

My top 10 10 movies.

10. 10

9. The Ten Commandments

8. Force 10 From Navarone

7. October (10 Days That Shook the World)

5-6. The Magnificent Seven / The Three Musketeers (Lester) double feature

4. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

3. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

2. Malcolm X

1. And Then There Were None

as an encore, Oceans 11

Dirty Rot-ten Scoundrels

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

drummerboy said:

Saw The Fifth Element again last night, which is from 1997. (had to look that up, I thought it might have been a post-2000 movie) It has become one of my favorite movies. It's so exceptionally well made.

And coincidentally, today comes the sad news that Bruce Willis is suffering from a form of dementia. What a great, unique star he was.

LOVE Fifth Element. Seen it 8 or 10 times. What style. What gorgeous and clever audacity. 
(Chris Tucker, who was so, so great in it, is doing stand up. April 20 at NJPAC.)

I may have to review this.  I saw it in the theater and was super disappointed, particularly because I loved Luc Besson's earlier movies. Maybe it is worth it to give it another chance?

GoSlugs said:

I may have to review this.  I saw it in the theater and was super disappointed, particularly because I loved Luc Besson's earlier movies. Maybe it is worth it to give it another chance?

I think so. When I first saw it I wasn't too impressed either, didn't quite know what to make of it, but it was interesting enough that I re-watched it as it was rebroadcast and it grew on me.

The art direction is fantastic. The intricate (yet ultimately really simple) main plot line is faultlessy executed. I still find things that I missed in previous viewings. And, importantly, it's as much a comedy as it is scifi, and does both genres proud.

Love it.

drummerboy said:

GoSlugs said:

I may have to review this.  I saw it in the theater and was super disappointed, particularly because I loved Luc Besson's earlier movies. Maybe it is worth it to give it another chance?

I think so. When I first saw it I wasn't too impressed either, didn't quite know what to make of it, but it was interesting enough that I re-watched it as it was rebroadcast and it grew on me.

The art direction is fantastic. The intricate (yet ultimately really simple) main plot line is faultlessy executed. I still find things that I missed in previous viewings. And, importantly, it's as much a comedy as it is scifi, and does both genres proud.

Love it.

It's a wonderfully fun movie. 

Somebody has to say it: 

I saw COCAINE BEAR yesterday. It was just what I expected. Lots of fun, gore and laughs. Fun, very game cast including Ray Liotta in his final picture. Some very gruesome bear violence but it's done with a sense of humor. Perhaps not for everybody but I enjoyed it quite a bit. 

I watched "Lawrence of Arabia" recently. I had seen certain parts many times but had never watched it start to finish.  The runtime is 3.5 hours and there is an intermission built into the film.  It's an incredible story and the cinematograpy is spectacular.  I'd love to go see some of those places in person. On the downside, Alec Guiness and Anthony Quinn playing Arabian characters was a stretch.

A note about searching for movies on Roku.  Sometimes I can't find a movie using the general Roku search engine but the movie shows up in the search engine of a particular streaming channel, and not just obscure channels.  I just finished an extremely interesting novel and discovered that there was a recent movie version of it.  It did not show up in a Roku search but its on Netflix.

The other night, in one of its magnificent Oscar month theme blocks, TCM strang together Witness for the Prosecution, 12 Angry Men, Anatomy of a Murder and Inherit the Wind. I caught 12 Angry Men, for maybe the 10th time.

It’s striking how minutely it captures the human dynamics of social media — the impatience, the diatribes, the pressure-releasing asides, the passing fury, the default antagonism to contrary information, and the appeal of unsure prodders like Juror Davis who listen, acknowledge and keep their cool.

DaveSchmidt said:

The other night, in one of its magnificent Oscar month theme blocks, TCM strang together Witness for the Prosecution, 12 Angry Men, Anatomy of a Murder and Inherit the Wind. I caught 12 Angry Men, for maybe the 10th time.

It’s striking how minutely it captures the human dynamics of social media — the impatience, the diatribes, the pressure-releasing asides, the passing fury, the default antagonism to contrary information, and the appeal of unsure prodders like Juror Davis who listen, acknowledge and keep their cool.

yeah that was some night of movies.

Love Witness for the Prosecution and Charles Laughton.  His portrayal of the Hunchback of Notre Dame is to me one of the most moving performances in the history of filmdom. 

bub said:

Love Witness for the Prosecution and Charles Laughton.  His portrayal of the Hunchback of Notre Dame is to me one of the most moving performances in the history of filmdom. 

For another moving Laughton performance, check out Tales of Manhattan, if you haven’t already. It’s an episodic charmer that Edward G. Robinson also carries to its heights.

bub said:

Love Witness for the Prosecution and Charles Laughton.  His portrayal of the Hunchback of Notre Dame is to me one of the most moving performances in the history of filmdom. 

Love Hunchback. Laughton is fantastic.  So creepy but so clearly big with heart. 

Wing attack - Plan R, is in effect on TCM

DaveSchmidt said:

The other night, in one of its magnificent Oscar month theme blocks, TCM strang together Witness for the Prosecution, 12 Angry Men, Anatomy of a Murder and Inherit the Wind. I caught 12 Angry Men, for maybe the 10th time.

It’s striking how minutely it captures the human dynamics of social media — the impatience, the diatribes, the pressure-releasing asides, the passing fury, the default antagonism to contrary information, and the appeal of unsure prodders like Juror Davis who listen, acknowledge and keep their cool.

What a list! I've seen all 4 multiple times. I remember seeing the remake of 12 Angry Men as well.

I have to say - Cocaine Bear was pretty entertaining - unexpected.

jamie said:

I have to say - Cocaine Bear was pretty entertaining - unexpected.

yes, great fun. 

I see that the film LIVING with Bill Nighy is now available for streaming on Netflix. I saw it twice in the theater and loved it. I highly recommend you check it out.  (This is not your Love Actually Bill Nighy.) 

Quirky small film on Max. Reality.  The script is the transcript of her interrogation...

rcarter31 said:

Quirky small film on Max. Reality.  The script is the transcript of her interrogation...

‘Reality’: True story of NSA leaker is stranger than fictionSydney Sweeney plays Reality Winner, leaker of Russian election interference document, in this haunting film based on verbatim transcriptsReview by Ann Hornaday(4 stars)The genius of “Reality,” Tina Satter’s flawlessly calibrated thriller based on her 2019 play “Is This a Room,” lies in its utter banality: Set mostly in a featureless one-story home in Augusta, Ga., on a stifling hot day in June 2017, this tense, mesmerizingly paced drama unfolds with a steady drip of mundane moments that gather walloping force as the minutes tick by.The Reality of the title is Reality Winner, a National Security Agency contractor who leaked a document regarding Russian hackers seeking to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and was subsequently sentenced to five years in federal prison, the longest sentence ever imposed for that crime. Few Americans probably remember Winner’s case, which in this case is an advantage, better allowing Satter and her star — a revelatory Sydney Sweeney — to work their tautly coiled craftsmanship.Winner is just getting home from running errands when she’s approached by two FBI agents (Josh Hamilton and Marchánt Davis), who meet her in the driveway and almost immediately begin asking whether there are any animals in the house. Reality’s dog and cat become absurdly comic supporting players in a Kafkaesque chamber piece whose dialogue is taken entirely from transcripts of the ensuing interrogation. Winner — small, blond, a specialist in Dari and Pashto who teaches yoga and owns a pink AR-15, among other firearms — is a bundle of fascinating contradictions: She’s comfortable talking nat-sec shop with the guys and is nothing if not cooperative as more agents gather to search her home, with Hamilton’s special agent Garrick sequestering her in a storeroom to carry out most of his questioning.Satter’s original title was taken from a brief — and surreal — interruption in Winner’s interrogation; “Reality” is more literal — with its close-ups and wider visual range, the movie becomes an even more compelling portrait of an already compelling subject — and also more layered, as Winner’s story and demeanor morph from wide-eyed naiveté to something more ambiguous. Sweeney, best known for playing cynical Gen-Zers in series like “The White Lotus” and “Euphoria,” delivers a powerhouse performance, stripping every trace of Hollywood glamour to play a 25-year-old Air Force veteran who’s both incredibly strong and breathtakingly vulnerable.Satter, who makes her filmmaking debut here, brilliantly deploys cinematic technique to deepen and animate what might easily have been a static tableau of talking heads, intercutting real-life tape and introducing moments of static to stand in for redactions in the official record. One of those elisions is the name of the online outlet to which Winner sent the incriminating article. When she says the name out loud, it plays like a whopper of a reveal. As in the recent films “I Carry You With Me” and “You Resemble Me,” Satter melds fact and fiction with meticulous and ultimately stunning results. As a spellbinding example of a new form of docudrama, “Reality” is the kind of movie that demonstrates what cinema can do in the hands of true artists: maybe not change the world, but widen and deepen our understanding of it. “Reality” isn’t just stranger than fiction: It’s subtler, sadder and exponentially more haunting.TV-MA. Available on Max. Contains some mature thematic elements. 83 minutes.

rcarter31 said:

‘Reality’: True story of NSA leaker is stranger than fictionSydney Sweeney plays Reality Winner, leaker of Russian election interference document, in this haunting film based on verbatim transcriptsReview by Ann Hornaday(4 stars)The genius of “Reality,” Tina Satter’s flawlessly calibrated thriller based on her 2019 play “Is This a Room,” lies in its utter banality: Set mostly in a featureless one-story home in Augusta, Ga., on a stifling hot day in June 2017, this tense, mesmerizingly paced drama unfolds with a steady drip of mundane moments that gather walloping force as the minutes tick by.The Reality of the title is Reality Winner, a National Security Agency contractor who leaked a document regarding Russian hackers seeking to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and was subsequently sentenced to five years in federal prison, the longest sentence ever imposed for that crime. Few Americans probably remember Winner’s case, which in this case is an advantage, better allowing Satter and her star — a revelatory Sydney Sweeney — to work their tautly coiled craftsmanship.Winner is just getting home from running errands when she’s approached by two FBI agents (Josh Hamilton and Marchánt Davis), who meet her in the driveway and almost immediately begin asking whether there are any animals in the house. Reality’s dog and cat become absurdly comic supporting players in a Kafkaesque chamber piece whose dialogue is taken entirely from transcripts of the ensuing interrogation. Winner — small, blond, a specialist in Dari and Pashto who teaches yoga and owns a pink AR-15, among other firearms — is a bundle of fascinating contradictions: She’s comfortable talking nat-sec shop with the guys and is nothing if not cooperative as more agents gather to search her home, with Hamilton’s special agent Garrick sequestering her in a storeroom to carry out most of his questioning.Satter’s original title was taken from a brief — and surreal — interruption in Winner’s interrogation; “Reality” is more literal — with its close-ups and wider visual range, the movie becomes an even more compelling portrait of an already compelling subject — and also more layered, as Winner’s story and demeanor morph from wide-eyed naiveté to something more ambiguous. Sweeney, best known for playing cynical Gen-Zers in series like “The White Lotus” and “Euphoria,” delivers a powerhouse performance, stripping every trace of Hollywood glamour to play a 25-year-old Air Force veteran who’s both incredibly strong and breathtakingly vulnerable.Satter, who makes her filmmaking debut here, brilliantly deploys cinematic technique to deepen and animate what might easily have been a static tableau of talking heads, intercutting real-life tape and introducing moments of static to stand in for redactions in the official record. One of those elisions is the name of the online outlet to which Winner sent the incriminating article. When she says the name out loud, it plays like a whopper of a reveal. As in the recent films “I Carry You With Me” and “You Resemble Me,” Satter melds fact and fiction with meticulous and ultimately stunning results. As a spellbinding example of a new form of docudrama, “Reality” is the kind of movie that demonstrates what cinema can do in the hands of true artists: maybe not change the world, but widen and deepen our understanding of it. “Reality” isn’t just stranger than fiction: It’s subtler, sadder and exponentially more haunting.TV-MA. Available on Max. Contains some mature thematic elements. 83 minutes.

I saw it a few weeks ago. As I didn't recall hearing about the case I had no idea where it was going. Interesting because in the Trump turmoil some commentator referred to Reality's sentence. 

Not sure if this belongs here but tonight I watched a film called “Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom” on PBS. Filmed live, but not live, in 2021 during the lockdown, Dylan re-interprets 13 of his early classics. It's basically a lip-synched performance of his new album. With stand-in non-musicians as the musicians. Oy!
If you love- or are interested in - Bob Dylan, it’s a wacky, eccentric, but absolutely Dylan experience. A must see. Some of it is hard to watch, frankly, esp. if you’re accustomed to a particular Dylan period or persona. 
Dylan is so wacky and yet so lovable. A true genius. Unique. Amazing wit. So poetic. If he did nothing more than make Blood on the Tracks, he’d still be deserving of a Nobel Prize. It's streaming on Apple+.  It's a smoky, bizarre, black-and-white one-hour performance film and it’s not always what you think it is. 

Here’s a review. 
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/bob-dylan-shadow-kingdom-1234745678/

Excerpt: ”Even the electric instruments appear to barely be amplified. At times, the guitars on “Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” sound like they don’t have resonator boxes; it’s nonstop scrub-strumming against Jeff Taylor’s lonesome (and very Gallic) squeezebox, which airily carries the chords. Throughout the entire album, Dylan’s singing is sly and effortlessly powerful. His voice here has body, its rough edges cannily elided, his phrasing constantly finding new angles on lyrics that may once have seemed nailed in place. “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” sounds like a drunken plea rather than a lover-man come-on — not an unexpected twist, but Taylor’s skeletal, forlorn playing adds depth to Dylan’s pathos.”

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

Not sure if this belongs here but tonight I watched a film called “Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom” on PBS. Filmed live, but not live, in 2021 during the lockdown, Dylan re-interprets 13 of his early classics. It's basically a lip-synched performance of his new album. With stand-in non-musicians as the musicians. Oy!
If you love- or are interested in - Bob Dylan, it’s a wacky, eccentric, but absolutely Dylan experience. A must see. Some of it is hard to watch, frankly, esp. if you’re accustomed to a particular Dylan period or persona. 
Dylan is so wacky and yet so lovable. A true genius. Unique. Amazing wit. So poetic. If he did nothing more than make Blood on the Tracks, he’d still be deserving of a Nobel Prize. It's streaming on Apple+.  It's a smoky, bizarre, black-and-white one-hour performance film and it’s not always what you think it is. 

Here’s a review. 
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/bob-dylan-shadow-kingdom-1234745678/

Excerpt: ”Even the electric instruments appear to barely be amplified. At times, the guitars on “Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” sound like they don’t have resonator boxes; it’s nonstop scrub-strumming against Jeff Taylor’s lonesome (and very Gallic) squeezebox, which airily carries the chords. Throughout the entire album, Dylan’s singing is sly and effortlessly powerful. His voice here has body, its rough edges cannily elided, his phrasing constantly finding new angles on lyrics that may once have seemed nailed in place. “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” sounds like a drunken plea rather than a lover-man come-on — not an unexpected twist, but Taylor’s skeletal, forlorn playing adds depth to Dylan’s pathos.”

Loved, loved, loved it! But Dylan is one of the few artists that I am devoted to unconditionally. I don't even try to be objective. My ex and I are friends with Dylan's drummer George who left a couple of years ago. I've seen him live on stage and backstage when Al Cooper, a friend's pal, played with him.

The 30th Anniversary Concert that followed was great. Loved Eddie Vedder's voice for the Dylan song and went crazy over Johnny Winter doing Highway 51. Its on again Saturday so I'm going to catch what I missed. I'm tempted to spring for the CD. Not the biggest Neil Young fan but he looked like he was over the moon performing Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues and Tracy Chapman was perfect.

Meanwhile, it looks like Warner Bros. is dismantling TCM. Sad.

https://www.thewrap.com/tcm-layoffs-restructuring-warner-bros-future-hosts/

Morganna said:

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

Not sure if this belongs here but tonight I watched a film called “Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom” on PBS. Filmed live, but not live, in 2021 during the lockdown, Dylan re-interprets 13 of his early classics. It's basically a lip-synched performance of his new album. With stand-in non-musicians as the musicians. Oy!
If you love- or are interested in - Bob Dylan, it’s a wacky, eccentric, but absolutely Dylan experience. A must see. Some of it is hard to watch, frankly, esp. if you’re accustomed to a particular Dylan period or persona. 
Dylan is so wacky and yet so lovable. A true genius. Unique. Amazing wit. So poetic. If he did nothing more than make Blood on the Tracks, he’d still be deserving of a Nobel Prize. It's streaming on Apple+.  It's a smoky, bizarre, black-and-white one-hour performance film and it’s not always what you think it is. 

Here’s a review. 
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/bob-dylan-shadow-kingdom-1234745678/

Excerpt: ”Even the electric instruments appear to barely be amplified. At times, the guitars on “Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” sound like they don’t have resonator boxes; it’s nonstop scrub-strumming against Jeff Taylor’s lonesome (and very Gallic) squeezebox, which airily carries the chords. Throughout the entire album, Dylan’s singing is sly and effortlessly powerful. His voice here has body, its rough edges cannily elided, his phrasing constantly finding new angles on lyrics that may once have seemed nailed in place. “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” sounds like a drunken plea rather than a lover-man come-on — not an unexpected twist, but Taylor’s skeletal, forlorn playing adds depth to Dylan’s pathos.”

Loved, loved, loved it! But Dylan is one of the few artists that I am devoted to unconditionally. I don't even try to be objective. My ex and I are friends with Dylan's drummer George who left a couple of years ago. I've seen him live on stage and backstage when Al Cooper, a friend's pal, played with him.

The 30th Anniversary Concert that followed was great. Loved Eddie Vedder's voice for the Dylan song and went crazy over Johnny Winter doing Highway 51. Its on again Saturday so I'm going to catch what I missed. I'm tempted to spring for the CD. Not the biggest Neil Young fan but he looked like he was over the moon performing Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues and Tracy Chapman was perfect.

Johnny Winter’s performance was stunning. I’m very familiar with his recording of Highway 61 but seeing him perform it live was fantastic. I saw him live at the very end of his life at a festival in Lancaster, PA. It was sad, he was carried to the stage and couldn’t really play.  
(I’m not a Neal Young fan either but after this performance, I’m still not.  He’s a mediocre whiner. Very little talent. That emperor has no clothes on. There. I said it. Sue me.) 

saw Sound of Freedom in a semi packed theater.  How Disney and other major studios passed on this boggles the mind.  Outstanding film and great acting.