I'm guessing out of the frying pan, into the fire?Originally Posted by nosebone
I'm guessing out of the frying pan, into the fire?
New Alien movie in the works, but a standalone, not a sequel.
There's a big audience for micro budget predictable horror films so YMMV
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
I didn't even know about this movie - is it the songs from the original musical? The Impossible Dream and all that?
The problem with rewriting it so he's a dwarf instead of having a large nose is, IMO, that the best parts of the original play are the ones where he's jokingly extolling the virtues of a large nose. So this means someone had to write a lot of probably inferior dialog about how great it is to be a dwarf. BUT, I believe you when you say it was good!
For me I thought they were both physical deformities so it was the same thing from a slightly different angle. To be honest, if it was anyone other than Dinklage playing the dwarf part I might have thought differently, but he does quite an amazing job in the role IMO. Overall, I had mixed feelings on the film, but thought the dwarf angle part of it worked.
That's "Man of La Mancha", based on "Don Quixote".
The only thing drawing me to Cyrano is that in the clips I saw Dinklage was so believable in the role. And the dude can sing as well.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I would not say he has a great voice, but it was perfectly adequate for what he did in this film. I would agree that he was very believable for the most part. Some of the fighting scenes where he is fending off a bunch of full size guys maybe takes a bit of a stretch, but his backstory as a trained swordsman kind of backs that up.
The Green Knight--adapted from the anonymously written 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, not much story, but some interesting visuals, it was fairly boring to me however.
The Fifth Chord--Italian crime drama, close to a giallo, but more a slasher. Pretty decent.
As may be, the adaptation is very loose -- for one there are no animal helpers (or whatever that was) in the original...
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
Who would believe it nowadays if it was a man with a big nose? For chrissake just get some plastic surgery
Listen to my music at https://electricbrainelectricshadow.bandcamp.com/
Gerard Depardieu?
Saw The Green Knight in the theater back when it came out. I enjoyed it, but did not think it was quite as good as most critics praised it.
Psycho (1998). I remember thinking back in 1998 that it wasn't bad, exactly, just pointless and would have given it a C. After watching it again, yesterday, I'd give it a D. The veterans - Chad Everett, Robert Forster, Philip Baker Hall, and Rance Howard - are all good whereas the relative newcomers - Anne Heche, Vince Vaughn, Viggo Mortensen, and William H Macy - all seem like this is their first movie. That's not entirely fair. Vaughn is mostly decent, albeit lacking the nuance of Tony Perkin's performance, and Macy as Arbogast is typical Macy. It's just that Vaughn's little laugh comes off as affected, not natural, and Macy wearing the fedora, or that particular fedora I should say, was a bad choice. Anne Heche isn't entirely bad but as the screenwriter of both movies, Joseph Stefano, said, she "comes in, plays an entirely different character, but says the same words." I think Viggo Mortensen was the worst. Affecting a southern accent, his dialogue is completely unintelligible in the opening scene with Heche in the hotel room.
Of the "newbies", Julianne Moore comes off the best but her portrayal is quite different than Vera Miles'. She's more aggressive. Which isn't a bad thing, exactly. It does take place in the late '90s, after all. But her entrance in the movie shows her striding in confidently wearing ear buds. What was the point of that? That's the sort of trope you see with disaffected youth in indie movies, not a woman in her late 30s in a major production. I will say this though: she gets kudos for the way she notices the basement door in Norman's house. How many times have you seen an actor look over at something important that they hadn't noticed before? It usually never quite comes off as natural. In the original, Vera Miles is actually walking away from the door when she notices it and does a double take. The double take is a good choice but the problem is it's a look not a passing glance. So it isn't entirely successful, either, imo.
So if that was all, I'd still probably give the movie a C. Gus Van Sant's direction, however, drops it to a D. My biggest gripes:
- the first few shots of Marion seeing "Mother" and Mother's first stab takes way too long. Marion gasps before she screams? And Mother holding the knife up before pulling back to make that first stab? Fail.
- given that it was shot in the late '90s, I think there should have been a lot more blood, especially given that Mother stabs her at least 10 times.
- the blood isn't red enough; in fact, it's pink. And before someone says "it's mixed with water", notice that when new drops of it land on the floor of the shower, it's already pink.
- the cuts to completely irrelevant shots during the murders of Marion and Arbogast. In the first case, there are cuts to stormy clouds. In the second, there's a cut to a nude woman with a blindfold on and then a cut to a cow standing in the rain in the middle of a road. WTF is the point of that? I've seen a lot of avant-garde and surrealistic films over the years and this is straight out of those kinds of movies. But he's not making that kind of movie. So what exactly is the point? Pretension?
- while all of the dollying and panning shots are smoother in the remake, they're usually shorter, too. Which shows that Van Sant, even when he's copying the Master, isn't at the Master's level. But that's no surprise, is it?
- the psychological explanation for Norman's condition at the end is way too short, by over 2 minutes compared to the original. Not sure why.
Seems like a lot of explanation for a movie that's worth avoiding, doesn't it?
The one positive experience watching this on Peacock was the irony of seeing an ad for Austedo, which is used in conjunction with drugs prescribed for mental illness.
“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe
The New York Ripper--I've been watching some giallo type films lately. This film is noted for the main killer that quacks like a duck.
Funny, I just bought the 4K of this yesterdayalong with a couple box sets of giallos. One yellow box and one red. Also bought a Hammer horror collection. Can't help myself...
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
What giallo did you pick up? I saw one last night and will post later, I can't think of the title of it. What titles would you suggest?
Each box has 3 movies. The red box has early ones : The Possessed, The Fifth Chord and The Pyjama Girl Case. The yellow box has : What have They Done To Your Daughters?, Torso and Strip Nude For Your Killer. I have seen a few of them a while ago and all a lot of fun in that crazy Italian way
If you haven't seen Argento's Tenebre, Deep Red or The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, I highly recommend those.
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
Thanks, Klonk. I have Deep Red on DVD. I'm catching up on the rest of them as I run across them. I saw Blood and Black Lace the other night by Bava, which takes place in the fashion industry. Pretty good. I found it on YT.
Here's a doc on Paul Naschy
Nice! I will let you know how the box sets are when I get through em. Four Flies On Grey Velvet is another really good one.
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
NSFW: Language
Last edited by spellbound; 03-13-2022 at 11:56 AM.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
Dead Calm (1989) 8/10
Great Aussie thriller with the stunning debut of Nicole Kidman.
Drive My Car (2021) 7/10
Japanese Oscar nominated film that's a long (3 hours) artistic and emotional story about coming to terms with tragedies. Really beautiful to watch it unfold, but it's not for going to be everyone.
Street Smart (1987) 6/10
Luke warm crime thriller starring Christopher Reeve and Morgan Freeman, who was incredibly menacing as a psycho pimp here.
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
Candyman (2021) - horror from the 'hood. Well done.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
Phenomena--Argento, may be his best film for me though I haven't seen them all. It had a young Jennifer Connelly and Donald Pleasence. Sort of giallo/slasher.
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