What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)

[Maltin]

With the film being released in the early days of the Internet and before having my own computer connected to the internet, I did have quite a few reviews printed. Reading Roger Ebert’s review, he does note that many of the early reviews were blasé although went on to give the film 3.5 stars out of 4. Variety’s review by Todd McCarthy, which was probably one of the early ones Ebert referred to, said it can scarcely help being a letdown but it’s bad that it disappoints in so many.

Re-reading the Ebert review reminds me of why I so enjoyed his reviews. Even though I thought The Phantom Menace was not very good, his love of movies in general shines through and makes me want to watch it again to try to experience the wonder that he experienced. I'm not too impressed with his dismissal of Star Trek though

I am reminded of the Isaac Asimov story "Nightfall," about the planet where the stars were visible only once in a thousand years. So awesome was the sight that it drove men mad. We who can see the stars every night glance up casually at the cosmos and then quickly down again, searching for a Dairy Queen.
...
an astonishing achievement in imaginative filmmaking. If some of the characters are less than compelling, perhaps that's inevitable: This is the first story in the chronology and has to set up characters...I will say that the stories of the "Star Wars" movies have always been space operas, and that the importance of the movies comes from their energy, their sense of fun, their colorful inventions and their state-of-the-art special effects. I do not attend with the hope of gaining insights into human behavior... Set against awesome backdrops, the characters in "The Phantom Menace" inhabit a plot that is little more complex than the stories I grew up on in science-fiction magazines. The whole series sometimes feel like a cover from Thrilling Wonder Stories, come to life. The dialogue is pretty flat and straightforward, although seasoned with a little quasi-classical formality, as if the characters had read but not retained "Julius Caesar." I wish the "Star Wars" characters spoke with more elegance and wit (as Gore Vidal's Greeks and Romans do), but dialogue isn't the point, anyway: These movies are about new things to look at...But mostly I was happy to drink in the sights on the screen, in the same spirit that I might enjoy "Metropolis," "Forbidden Planet," "2001" "Dark City" or "The Matrix." The difference is that Lucas' visuals are more fanciful and his film's energy level is more cheerful; he doesn't share the prevailing view that the future is a dark and lonely place.
...
As for the bad rap about the characters--hey, I've seen space operas that put their emphasis on human personalities and relationships. They're called "Star Trek" movies. Give me transparent underwater cities and vast hollow senatorial spheres any day.

Star Wars — Episode I: The Phantom Menace movie review (2024) | Roger Ebert

If it were the first "Star Wars" movie, "The Phantom Menace" would be hailed as a visionary breakthrough. But this is the fourth movie of the famous series,

www.rogerebert.com

 

[trabuquera]

The Emperor of Paris (2018) via Amazon. Grimy period-crime epic from France with Vincent Cassel giving the usual Gallic macho sneer in the lead role as a criminal-turned-snitch-turned-proto-detective-mastermind in chaotic Napoleonic times (the 1810s I think). Most just a lot of sweaty chaps in pantaloons and top hats shouting at each other then attacking each other with daggers, swords, rubbish antique firearms, candlesticks, etc, but done with a decent budget and sort-of-informative about this very confusing period in French history. I thought a lot of it was going over my head - even with subtitles - but it turns out it's based on the life of a bloke who's clearly a legend in France but I'd never heard of: Eugène François Vidocq - Wikipedia - the real-life model for both Jean Valjean AND Insp Javert in Les Miserables , as Vidocq was a friend of Victor Hugo. It's quite a yarn but the film is dramatically flat and confusing. Good if you want to brush up your idiomatic 19th-century French criminal slang though. Lots of familiar French actors crop up and Olga Kurylenko speaks great French and also looks brilliant in Empire-line fashion, one of vanishingly few women who can do that... some fun CGI renditions of the pre-Haussmann, leftover-medieval bits of Paris at that time as well. Pffft Gallic shrug

 

[Reno]

Re-reading the Ebert review reminds me of why I so enjoyed his reviews. Even though I thought The Phantom Menace was not very good, his love of movies in general shines through and makes me want to watch it again to try to experience the wonder that he experienced. I'm not too impressed with his dismissal of Star Trek though

Star Wars — Episode I: The Phantom Menace movie review (2024) | Roger Ebert

If it were the first "Star Wars" movie, "The Phantom Menace" would be hailed as a visionary breakthrough. But this is the fourth movie of the famous series,

www.rogerebert.com

I never cared that much for Ebert, as hinted in my last post, I am a massive fan of Pauline Kael. I have most books about and by her. I love her writing and her thinking about film, even though half of the time I disagreed with her. Even when she hated a film I loved, I respected her thinking behind a pan, she had a great bullshit detector.

I never had that with Ebert, I thought he didn't always have great taste and compared to Kael, who was an influence on him, he was a bit of a lightweight. I loved the documentary on him though from a few years ago, he came across as a wonderful man. There also is one out on Kael, which still hasn't been made widely available yet.

 

[Maltin]

I never cared that much for Ebert, as hinted in my last post, I am a massive fan of Pauline Kael. I have most books about and by her. I love her writing and her thinking about film, even though half of the time I disagreed with her. Even when she hated a film I loved, I respected her thinking behind a pan, she had a great bullshit detector.

I never had that with Ebert, I thought he didn't always have great taste and compared to Kael, who was an influence on him, he was a bit of a lightweight. I loved the documentary on him though from a few years ago, he came across as a wonderful man. There also is one out on Kael, which still hasn't been made widely available yet.

I haven't read much of Kael. I do have 5001 Nights at the Movies but it's on a CD-ROM for Cinemania and it doesn't work with Windows 10 I just looked for that Kael documentary but does not seem to be listed on the streaming services I have.

 

[Reno]

I haven't read much of Kael. I do have 5001 Nights at the Movies but it's on a CD-ROM for Cinemania and it doesn't work with Windows 10 I just looked for that Kael documentary but does not seem to be listed on the streaming services I have.

The Kael documentary has only played film festivals so far. 5001 Night at the Movies isn’t the best representation of her work as it’s her essays reduced to a few sentences.

 

[redsquirrel]

Love, Thy Name be Sorrow/The Mad Fox - Strange Japanese film that starts normally enough as a sort of melodrama only to develop into a sort of folktale, the director makes use of all sorts of styles/effects - colorised experiments, animation, inspiration from kabuki plays, collapsing sets, animal masks - it is probably a touch too long IMO, the first (relatively traditional) part could be cut a little, but it is definitely worth seeing as it really is something quite different. Michiko Saga is excellent as two twins sisters and the vixen.

 

[Chz]

Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace
How is it, years down the line from the initial outcry? It's an entertaining film but it's difficult to get past the awful acting and bad CGI. Every scene where CGI and real things are together looks shit.

If you think the acting is awful in that, wait until you get to the next one and see Hayden Christensen's "acting".
Though I shouldn't be so hard on him. If the lines and direction are so bad that Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Sam Jackson and Natalie Portman all look horrid, then what possible chance did he have?

 

[T & P]

Oh where to start with A Phantom Menace (and its successors)? Apart from the disappointing CGI, the film fails to deliver at so many other levels. Whereas it gets points for trying an original story, the plot is, frankly, really fucking boring, and the dialogue so bad even award-winning established actors deliver flat, wooden performances.

In my mind Lucas clearly felt the need to throw in as many characters from the original trilogy as he could. C-3PO and R2 should have never been written in, at least not in the way they were. The introduction of R2 and subsequent medal of honour for valour for doing his job was truly pisspoor and cringeworthy. Given that in the original trilogy he and Obi Wan didn’t seem to know each other, he should have simply not been in that film, at least not in contact with any of the characters from the original trilogy. And Anakin turning out to be C-3PO’s creator was desperate and random and fan service of the worst kind.

And then most of the action bits in the film are taken by a pod race that takes a substantial amount of the film’s running time, and which was wholly pointless and unnecessary. A child could come up with a scheme for the Jedi knights to raise the money required to repair their ship and free Anakin (and his mother, more on that later) without having to devote 20 minutes to them betting on a race.

And last but not least, never mind Jar Jar Binks. The biggest problem is young Anakin. I’m sure the actor was a lovely likeable kid but the character he portrayed as the future Darth Vader was an insufferable annoying brat and about as ill-fitting as a young Vader-to-be as anyone could have imagined. Not helped by some truly diabolical lines, such as ‘Now, this is pod racing!’ or, in the middle of a space battle flying a fighter all by himself like he’d been doing it for years, proclaiming ‘This is tense’.

It’s a fucking horror show and a massive letdown in the original trilogy. But incredibly, not as bad as episode Il.

 

[T & P]

And to finish off, the issue of Anakin’s mother being left to rot for many years before her son decided in Ep II he should perhaps go and free her. That’s more a failing of the latter than of Phantom Menace, but it is just indescribably shit storytelling.

 

[Chz]

Watched a Spanish film, Everybody Knows. It started off fairly well and keep me interested. Good acting, and the family felt quite real (a strong point of the writer). But the finale pushed my suspension of disbelief that little bit too far and I ended up feeling disappointed with it. Mostly because it was written and directed by Asghar Farhadi and I've come to expect a lot better from him.

Spoiler: Spoilers

The idea that someone can whip up €300k in cash from selling a bit of real estate and somehow keep the whole thing under the radar of the police is ludicrous.

 

[redsquirrel]

A Touch of Zen - an arthouse wuxia film, probably a little long at three hours but interesting as trying to do something a little different from usual in this genre, with the hero not as warrior but a scholar. The fight scenes don't have the type of special effects seen in modern works but nevertheless they are as exciting as anything. Definitely worth watching.

The Iron Lady - on C4 so decided to watch this against my better judgement, a bad mistake. Just fucking dreadful, I'm not even talking about the politics, the film itself is just badly written and directed. Silly little scenes which do not really lead anywhere and IMO Streep's lauded performance is frankly just not very good, an impression rather than anything deeper. Avoid.

 

[D'wards]

I rewatched Young Frankenstein. Absolutely perfect.
I found Marty Feldman absolutely hilarious. He had such a funny and likeable way about him.
Its a shame he didn't do more films but with those looks I can see how his parts would have to be niche

 

[T & P]

I rewatched Young Frankenstein. Absolutely perfect.
I found Marty Feldman absolutely hilarious. He had such a funny and likeable way about him.
Its a shame he didn't do more films but with those looks I can see how his parts would have to be niche

By far my favourite Mel Brooks film. Great comedic performances all around and some genuinely funny gags/ jokes.

IIRC Feldman died quite young, no? He certainly was the crowning glory of this film.

 

[lunar]

Marty Feldman wrote Quite a lot of comedy. Under-rated.
Gene Wilder was also brilliant in the film.
Mel Brooks once said he wrote scenes where Hitler would be ridiculed. That is apparent in Young Frankenstein.

 

[lunar]

Just watched The Twilight Zone. Currently watching season 3.

 

[freakydave]

Saw two good films this week already

The Handmaiden: Korean thriller. I don't watch a lot of Korean films but it is amazing how they come out with these really clever and dark things for fun. This one is apparently really highly rated, I thought it was quite silly, but I was enthralled.
Very exploitative, the idea of Japanese as a bunch of sick racists and also the incredibly porny elements, it just shouldn't work, but it did.
It's about a con organised by Korean crooks on Japanese aristocrats in occupied Korea in the the 1930s, very convoluted and more twists that an alpine road.

The Hateful Eight: I did watch this twice drunk and high when it was new, but I watched it last night concentrating on it and got a lot more out of it. I think it's in his top 3.

 

[ginger_syn]

Glass, it was good.

 

[krtek a houby]

Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace
How is it, years down the line from the initial outcry? It's an entertaining film but it's difficult to get past the awful acting and bad CGI. Every scene where CGI and real things are together looks shit.

Duel of the fates is pretty epic, though.

 

[magneze]

Duel of the fates is pretty epic, though.

All the characters are non-CGI though?

It's when CGI & non-CGI characters are on screen, the perspective is just wrong.

 

[Idris2002]

The Looking Glass War

1970, from the Le Carre novel. Anthony Hopkins is the young MI6 agent training an even younger Christopher Jones for infiltration into the GDR. Everything goes horribly wrong. The themes are the late sixties generation gap, and the inability of the UK to get over the Second World War. The ancient and decrepit handlers of the section are hoping to refloat their careers by reenacting the glory days of that conflict: which means that Hopkins and his kid soon get a lesson in betrayal.

The GDR security costumes are outfitted in what appears to be 3rd Reich uniforms, while British officers kit do for what are presumably meant to be the Soviet liaison with the Ossi border control.

Cinematically, there are parts of it that are "Godard for normal people", but one scene blatantly rips off Ingmar Bergman (specifically I was thinking of Summer with Monika). The "cool jazz" soundtrack must have been dated at the time, and the VC-10 passenger jet is lovingly portrayed as an example of jet-set glamour.

I'd watch it again. Anyone know anymore like this (I've already scene the Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin, if that helps)?

 

[killer b]

We watched this Polish thriller last night, Corpus Christi - about an ex-con who impersonates a priest to become the vicar of a small backwoods village. Really good stuff - kind of like a bleak Polish sister act. The star Bartosz Bielenia is incredible - really intense and beautiful, and totally believable.

Review: 'Corpus Christi' is an Oscar-nominated knockout

Jan Komasa's drama, one of Poland's biggest international hits, lives up to its reputation, and more

www.latimes.com

 

[freakydave]

I was drunk but I watched 'Band a part' yesterday. So so so cool. Like modern cool is ok, but 60s French constantly smoking cigarettes and being alienated in the 60s cool is better. It's very poppy and fast moving for a 60s film, highly recommend

 

[redsquirrel]

A High Wind in Jamaica - Adaptation of children's novel by Alexander Mackendrick. In late 18th Century a group of children on the way back to England from Jamaica get kidnapped by pirates. Not quite in the same class as The Railway Children but not without its charms, Anthony Quinn and James Coburn are as watchable as usual.

Hot Millions - Peter Ustinov is a swindler who is trying to use a computer for a fiddle while also starting up a romance with Maggie Smith. Something of a period piece - strikes, early computers, fashions - and a little too long but passes the time.

Les Assassins de L'order/The Lawbreakers - French policier with a political bent. A judge has to investigate the case of a former criminal killed in custody. Nicely downbeat and cynical.

 

[Sue]

I read A High Wind in Jamaica as a kid but I've never seen the film. Been meaning to hunt it out as I like Mackendrick's film and because (very randomly) Martin Amis is one of the kids.

 

[Reno]

I haven't seen A High Wind in Jamaica in a long time but remember it being closer to Lord of the Flies than to The Railway Children. As it happens, I ordered the blu-ray this weekend, so I will give it another watch soon.

 

[redsquirrel]

I read A High Wind in Jamaica as a kid but I've never seen the film. Been meaning to hunt it out as I like Mackendrick's film and because (very randomly) Martin Amis is one of the kids.

Yep the one that dies (add joke about why life could not imitate art).

I haven't seen A High Wind in Jamaica in a long time but remember it being closer to Lord of the Flies than to The Railway Children. As it happens, I ordered the blu-ray this weekend, so I will give it another watch soon.

In terms of style it probably sits somewhere between the two, but I've never seen any film version of Lord of Flies so don't know about the quality.

 

[Reno]

Yep the one that dies (add joke about why life could not imitate art).
In terms of style it probably sits somewhere between the two, but I've never seen any film version of Lord of Flies so don't know about the quality.

I've only seen the adaptation of Lord of the Flies from the 60s by Peter Brook, which I remember being quite good.

 

[Reno]

I'm craving cinematic comfort food at the moment and watched Indiscreet, which I had not seen in many years. It has a nothing plot based on a wisp of a premise, yet hanging out with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman being utterly charming for a couple of hours, was tonic for the soul.

 

[Sue]

I'm craving cinematic comfort food at the moment and watched Indiscreet, which I had not seen in many years. It has a nothing plot based on a wisp of a premise, yet hanging out with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman being utterly charming for a couple of hours, was tonic for the soul.

I love that Ingrid Bergman is all at his dancing shenanigans.

 

[Reno]

I love that Ingrid Bergman is all at his dancing shenanigans.

She's found out that he's deceived her about something just before and is considering whether to dump him.

Watching this also reminded me that romantic comedies up to the 60s were a perfectly fine genre, while most romantic comedies from the 80s onwards make me run for the hills.