Movies - Take Two. Action!

[Progatron]

^ I think that The Last Crusade is actually the weakest of the three

Uh oh, someone is forgetting that there was a fourth film. And this time it wasn't Nazis - it was the Soviets!

[aith01]

Uh oh, someone is forgetting that there was a fourth film. And this time it wasn't Nazis - it was the Soviets!

I wasn't going to bring that one up because of how controversial it is among fans. But I actually liked Crystal Skull when I saw it in the theater back in 2008. Haven't seen it since then though, so who knows, maybe it won't hold up for me.

[Staun]

^ I think that The Last Crusade is actually the weakest of the three; it felt a lot like a rehash of the first one.

Temple of Doom wasn't as good as Raiders either, but it also took Indy in a very different direction and was a different style of movie. Within the last 10 years or so, I've come to appreciate it a lot more.

This is a good point about TOD, I will watch it again this weekend.

[Staun]

Has anyone seen, Fantastic Planet, recently? Still an experience. I also liked, Heavy Metal, but like Scott said, it's of it's time. Maybe the animation could have been better but the stories were good. It opened in a lot of movie houses.

[spellbound]

The Possession of Hannah Grace - a decent horror film, but far from the scariest I have seen. What is great about it is the performance of actress/contortionist Kirby Johnson in the title role. The protagonist is a former cop/drug addict who is working the night shift at the morgue.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

Has anyone seen, Fantastic Planet, recently? Still an experience. I also liked, Heavy Metal, but like Scott said, it's of it's time. Maybe the animation could have been better but the stories were good. It opened in a lot of movie houses.

heh... this post reminded me of a cult classic animated movie I loved in the 70s ... Wizards

[hippypants]

Fantastic Planet--I watch it from time to time, and it's still one of my favorite animation films. I like the Matrix anime shorts as well. Of course there's Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and the Miyazaki films as well.

Serpico about a honest cop trying to do his job, but also blow the whistle on the corruption within his department. Really showed NYC as a pretty scummy place back then.

Code 46 pretty decent SF yarn. Reminded me a bit of Brave New World with Tim Robbins. Sort of a mystery and romance too.

[dropforge]

Has anyone seen, Fantastic Planet, recently? Still an experience. I also liked, Heavy Metal, but like Scott said, it's of it's time. Maybe the animation could have been better but the stories were good. It opened in a lot of movie houses.

I love both.

You'll like Gandahar, from '88: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095525/?ref_=tt_rec_tt

[dropforge]

heh... this post reminded me of a cult classic animated movie I loved in the 70s ... Wizards

FXM has been showing that a lot, lately. I love all of Bakshi's films.

[Staun]

Fantastic Planet--I watch it from time to time, and it's still one of my favorite animation films. I like the Matrix anime shorts as well. Of course there's Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and the Miyazaki films as well.

Serpico about a honest cop trying to do his job, but also blow the whistle on the corruption within his department. Really showed NYC as a pretty scummy place back then.

Code 46 pretty decent SF yarn. Reminded me a bit of Brave New World with Tim Robbins. Sort of a mystery and romance too.

Yes, I got the first set of the Matrix shorts but lost track after that. What happened to Aeon Flux? I liked the silent ones, before they gave the characters voices, the best. Remember, The Max? That was some heavy dialogue for the time. Serpico was really good. Great NY flavor. You knew something was going to happen to him, it was just a question of what and when. I thought his girlfriend could have been a stronger character.

[Staun]

I love both.

You'll like Gandahar, from '88: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095525/?ref_=tt_rec_tt

Wow! The colors are really vivid. This does look good. Thanks Dropforge.

[Staun]

One more question on this. Did McFarlane do anymore with Spawn after the original series? The 5.1 sound track was awesome. Again, I lost track. Too much to see.

[GuitarGeek]

[QUOTE=Staun;896872]

Has anyone seen, Fantastic Planet, recently? Still an experience.

Good LORD, it's been more than 20 years since I saw that picture, at the Cleveland Cinemateque! They had a print in French, with subtitles. Great, great picture. I still have the poster I bought at the showing, which my mom framed for me.

I also liked, Heavy Metal, but like Scott said, it's of it's time. Maybe the animation could have been better but the stories were good. It opened in a lot of movie houses.

"Of it's time". The frell is that supposed to mean, anyway? Because it's "politically incorrect", or because it was done before computerized animation took over the industry?!

Heavy Metal's a damn awesome movie. I just saw in a theater, for the first time, last year. Not exactly the best movie going experience I've ever had (they had to trouble fitting the image on the screen, and the audio was too loud, and seemed to coming out of speakers that were probably state of the art in 1977). But man, is that still an awesome movie. The stories are all great, there's lots of great quotable lines (do not get me started!), some cool songs, and a really good Elmer Bernstein orchestral score.

As for the animation, there's a few things you should know:

1. they had about four or five different animation houses scattered all over North America (and beyond?) working on that picture. If the quality seems to change from story to story, that's why.

2. Columbia moved the release date up several months, so there's things that could/should/would have been done, that they couldn't because the corporate idiots at the home office thought it was better to "get" whichever audience they thought they were gonna get by cutting the production short by four or five months or whatever it was.

As such, things like the flickering sky during Taarna's flight over the desert landscape (following the barbarian massacre) coudn't be corrected. But ya know, I never even noticed that it flickered, or at least, I never realized it wasn't supposed to flicker, until I saw the DVD, and heard Don Masek and the animators talk about. They're like "Yeah, we wanted to go back and correct that, we could have, if Columbia had given us the time to do it". But the fact that they were able to dot hat sequence at all, was pretty amazing, in 1981. Remember, this is hand drawn animation, you could do that shit and theoretically make it look better, on a laptop today, but back in 1981, that kinda stuff didn't exist. They basically had to use the same camera system that Lucas used to shoot the trench bits during the Death Star battle sequence, and used that to film a landscape they had constructed on a giant table, then they rotoscoped in the animation. Flickering sky or not, it still look stunning to me.

Also, the shot of the house exploding at the end: you'll notice that's not animation. They had actually built a model prop house, to get a fix on what it should look like in the animation, and for that sequence they blew it up. Now, they had intended to animate it, but once again, the meddling of the Blofeld wannabes at Columbia prevented that.

At any rate, I love Heavy Metal the way it is. If you go back and do all that on a computer, it would look a little different, but I still don't think it would necessarily be better.

And how can you not love a movie that has songs from Devo, Cheap Trick, Black Sabbath, Riggs (did Riggs ever do anything besides this?! I love Radar Rider!) and Nazareth?

And that dialog:

"Yeah, New York City! Scum center of the universe! Now they're talking about letting in lowlifes from other planets!"

"The UN building? That's a laugh: they turned it into low rent housing! It's a dump!"

"Guards! Castrate him!"

"If you refuse, she dies, you die, everyone dies!"

"For an ape, his English wasn't too bad, either!"

"Wow, 18 years of nothing, and now, twice in one day!"

"Stupid bitch! Let go of my Loc-nar!"

"I know who's Loc-nar it is! It's my Loc-nar!"

(after reading long list of Captain Lincoln F. Sterrn's alleged crimes) "...and one moving violation"

"He's never done anything illegal...unless you count the preschoolers' prostitution ring!"

"He's never done anything immoral...except all the times he sold dope disguised as a nun"

"Sterrn! He should be ripped up into ittle bitty pieces, and buried aliiiiiiiiive!"

"How'm I supposed to fix this guy?! He's fucked!!!"

"You're sorry?! What about me?! I gotta put this asshole back together"

"Of course, you feel guilty! All Earth women who experience sexual ecstasy with mechanical assistance always tend to feel guilty!

And I'll stop there. I know you've already stopped reading.

[GuitarGeek]

heh... this post reminded me of a cult classic animated movie I loved in the 70s ... Wizards

Wizards plays on the Fox Movie Channel once in awhile. Good picture. Probably the only Ralph Bakshi picture FXM can show without hacking it to kingdom come! Bakshi claimed it was his "family" picture, but it seems like whenever people come out of the "exploitation" industry, and try to make a "family picture", they somehow can't quite get themselves into the space of "family entertainment". In this case, there's still a fair amount of violence, there's futuristic Nazis, and in at least some bits, you can see Elinore's nipples through her dress.

But it's another awesome animated feature. "They killed Fritz! Those atrocity filled vermin!"

"It's no good! Give 'em plan B!"

[GuitarGeek]

I love both.

You'll like Gandahar, from '88: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095525/?ref_=tt_rec_tt

aka Light Years, the title of the English language version. I saw that years ago, on Cinemax, probably. The English language version has voice work from Christopher Plummer, Glenn Close, Jennifer Grey, and both Penn and Teller (yes, that's right, Teller speaks in this picture!). But according to Wikipedia, it uses a different musical score, and one scene was edited.

[GuitarGeek]

Yes, I got the first set of the Matrix shorts but lost track after that. What happened to Aeon Flux? I liked the silent ones, before they gave the characters voices, the best.

Aeon Flux was weird. I've always wondered what was the reasoning behind the change in direction. There were a bunch that seemed to tell a story of some sort. Then after those, there were several that seemed to be isolated stories, each short being something different, and I believe I read deliberately discontinuous with each other (i.e. there's not supposed to be a continuity).

Then they started producing several half hour ones, I think, those were the ones with the dialog. I guess they figured nobody would watch a half hour program without dialog, who knows?

Remember, The Max?

That wast he one about the weirdo in the blue and yellow costume, who was trying to protect the curly haired girl from some villain or something? Kept going back and forth from what he called "the Outback" and Manhattan, and the insinuation was that he might be just schizophrenic and "The Outback" just might be a delusion of his or something (maybe a little bit like Rael?). As I recall, they used Tony Levin's opening Stick line from the King Crimson track Satori In Tangiers on the show regularly.

[Rogue Mail]

Fantastic Planet--I watch it from time to time, and it's still one of my favorite animation films. I like the Matrix anime shorts as well. Of course there's Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and the Miyazaki films as well.

Serpico about a honest cop trying to do his job, but also blow the whistle on the corruption within his department. Really showed NYC as a pretty scummy place back then.

Code 46 pretty decent SF yarn. Reminded me a bit of Brave New World with Tim Robbins. Sort of a mystery and romance too.

Re Serpico, if you have not seen Sidney Lumets similar movie Prince Of The City I highly recommend it.

Its a similar story set in the 80's, with Treat Williams playing a young NY detective who gets drawn deeper and deeper into the embedded corruption in the police department. When he is caught with his hand in the till, he agrees to co operate with the police to give information and names of corrupt cops...but stresses he wont rat on his colleagues.

Treat Williams gives a career best, monumental performance here. He was never that good again. and its indeed an epic movie, three hours plus.

Another interesting twist is that Williams character grew up in the same neighborhood as the mob, and is even related to some of them. That makes things very awkward when he starts gathering information and wearing wires etc.

I cant spoiler tag the next bit, but it does contain plot info...



There is one classic scene where he slips up and gets caught out wearing a wire by one of the mob guys he is trying to bust, and the only way he can get out of it is getting his cousin to vouch for him. I always loved the response to the mob guy from his cousin...

"I says we think he's a rat, and we think we should fuckin' clip him. He says if you think he's a rat, then you should clip him. But if you do, you better be sure he's a rat. Because the people that like him, they're good people."


And thats very typical of the sort of authentic dialogue the film contains. You really get a sense that these are real NY cops and real mob guys...they look and sound authentic.

Some familiar faces there too, like Bob Balaban, Richard Foronjy, James Tolkan, Lindsay Crouse and a lot of guys from other mob movies you will surely recognise.

Very highly recommended if you have not seen it.

[Painter]

Wizards... m'eh. YMMV, I loved it when I came out cause it looked different than Disney. But I watched it recently. Very dated and the animation is sloppy. I expect to find some of Heavy Metal to be watchable but ultimately I fear it will be a disappointment.

Part of me likes the imperfections that Seventies-era optical printers and matte techniques bring to those films and special effects sequences.

Two animated gems that are still astonishing to watch are The Thief and The Cobbler from Richard WIlliams. A movie that he would have never finished cuz he was such a perfectionist. Read the wiki on the production.

And Twice Upon A Time. This film is so unique looking with great voice talent. And a phenomenal nightmare sequence. Parts of it look like a Saul Steinberg comic come to life.

I haven't read this thread through, so I am sure this was brought up, but I caught Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse last weekend. Incredible. Also watched Your Name, Japanes anime. Mind-bending. But I was let down by Isle of Dogs. And I had loved The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

I really need to watch more Wes Anderson. I love his "proscenium, axonometric" style of cinematography. Very Kubrick-esque.

[Staun]

Aeon Flux was weird. I've always wondered what was the reasoning behind the change in direction. There were a bunch that seemed to tell a story of some sort. Then after those, there were several that seemed to be isolated stories, each short being something different, and I believe I read deliberately discontinuous with each other (i.e. there's not supposed to be a continuity).

Then they started producing several half hour ones, I think, those were the ones with the dialog. I guess they figured nobody would watch a half hour program without dialog, who knows?


That wast he one about the weirdo in the blue and yellow costume, who was trying to protect the curly haired girl from some villain or something? Kept going back and forth from what he called "the Outback" and Manhattan, and the insinuation was that he might be just schizophrenic and "The Outback" just might be a delusion of his or something (maybe a little bit like Rael?). As I recall, they used Tony Levin's opening Stick line from the King Crimson track Satori In Tangiers on the show regularly.

I think AF was supposed to be visual but like you, I think they became afraid that no one would watch. The voices, I think, messed things up. It did start you at the beginning of a story and sometimes it would simply drop you in after certain events had already occurred and you were supposed to think your way around the story. I got sucked into, The Max, because of the dialogue. You had to pay attention as to what was being said to get the meaning and symbolism. Kind of like watching the TV series, Deadwood. Watching, Gandahar. how did I miss this?

[Staun]

If you want to see a film just for the story, try, Peyton Place. It's a WW 2 New England setting in a small town. It's about the people and events in the town and how they relate to each other. Tame by most standards but it's interesting and the acting is top shelf. A beautiful film really.

[GuitarGeek]

And Twice Upon A Time. This film is so unique looking with great voice talent. And a phenomenal nightmare sequence. Parts of it look like a Saul Steinberg comic come to life.

Yeah, I remember reading about Twice Upon A Time in Starlog way back in the early 80's, and I think I saw it on HBO. In the last few years, I've seen it a couple times on TCM, and I think it still holds up very well. Reportedly, there's at least two different versions of the movie. Apparently, in one, Synonmenes Botch "swears constantly throughout the picture", so says Wikipedia. The one I saw TCM didn't have "constant swearing", but there are a few cuss words.

Supposedly, the director wasn't happy about the "constant swearing" version being released, and threatened to sue HBO if they didn't pull it and replace it with his preferred cut. So they swapped versions, but then people complained that HBO was showing censored cuts of movies, so they dropped the picture altogether and said they'd never show it ever again.

I think that might have actually been the first place I remember hearing Lorenzo Music's voice, who had been the voice of Carleton The Door Man on Rhoda and during the 80's and 90's, the voice of Garfield the Cat. He also co-created The Bob Newhart Show, and composed the theme music for the show.

[Painter]

Yeah, I remember reading about Twice Upon A Time in Starlog way back in the early 80's, and I think I saw it on HBO. In the last few years, I've seen it a couple times on TCM, and I think it still holds up very well. Reportedly, there's at least two different versions of the movie. Apparently, in one, Synonmenes Botch "swears constantly throughout the picture", so says Wikipedia. The one I saw TCM didn't have "constant swearing", but there are a few cuss words.

Supposedly, the director wasn't happy about the "constant swearing" version being released, and threatened to sue HBO if they didn't pull it and replace it with his preferred cut. So they swapped versions, but then people complained that HBO was showing censored cuts of movies, so they dropped the picture altogether and said they'd never show it ever again.

I think that might have actually been the first place I remember hearing Lorenzo Music's voice, who had been the voice of Carleton The Door Man on Rhoda and during the 80's and 90's, the voice of Garfield the Cat. He also co-created The Bob Newhart Show, and composed the theme music for the show.

I have a pirated copy of the HBO version. The swearing is at best PG-13 or mild R. It actually improves the picture (in my opinion) and takes it further away from the Disney territory. And, regardless of what John Korty (the director) thinks, it hardly qualifies as "constant swearing". Again, in the eye of the beholder. The swearing is more in the humorous vein than "gritty". The swearing really fits in with the character of Synonymess.

[GuitarGeek]

I have a pirated copy of the HBO version. The swearing is at best PG-13 or mild R. It actually improves the picture (in my opinion) and takes it further away from the Disney territory. And, regardless of what John Korty (the director) thinks, it hardly qualifies as "constant swearing". Again, in the eye of the beholder. The swearing is more in the humorous vein than "gritty". The swearing really fits in with the character of Synonymess.

I wonder if that's the one that I saw on TCM, then, as I think PG-13 best describes what I saw. According to Wiki, there's a DVD that has both versions on it.

[Painter]

I wonder if that's the one that I saw on TCM, then, as I think PG-13 best describes what I saw. According to Wiki, there's a DVD that has both versions on it.

Little known fact, David Fincher (Gone Girl, Se7en, Fight Club), worked on special effects on Twice Upon A Time. One of his first credits.

[hippypants]

Sidney Lumets similar movie Prince Of The City

I've heard about this one and it maybe on my Netflix queue. At one time I nearly bought it at a Big Lots, so I'll check it out. Thanks.