What DVD have you just watched?
Posted by: u5227470736789439 on 27 November 2005
All the best from Fredrik
It is the beginning of summer in a Northern Turkish village. Lale and her four sisters innocently play with schoolboys on their way back from school. Their game, an act of transgression according to neighbors, ignites a scandal with unexpected consequences. From that moment forward their lives will change forever. The five sisters, sparked with a desire for freedom, grapple with the rules and impositions of their family.
13 Hours.
Well, well, here was a surprise; I was expecting a fairly mindless Michael Bay movie but what I got instead was actually rather engrossing, with some attempt proper character development, some actual dialog and script thrown in with the grunts, and macho "woos", "yeahs" and "bros". Yes, there are issues; the facts surrounding some of the events, particularly with regard to support provided by the locals, are probably a bit skewed, and the fact that much of the film was made in Malta is without doubt with many obvious Valletta landmarks, buildings and even a distinctive Maltese bus in evidence. However, none of this should detract from what is essentially a soldier's story during a particularly tough assignment. In short, think along the lines of Michael Bay does Black Hawk Down and you'll get an idea of this film.
Through parallel story threads set 40 years apart, the odyssey follows two Western scientists who travel deep into the Amazon jungle looking for a rare plant possessing healing power, with enigmatic shaman Karamkate as their guide.
It's a fair while since I watched this. I think the first time I must have been somewhat distracted by the trade-mark Tarantino violence because this time I found it much richer in storyline, character development and dialogue. Christoph Waltz is absolutely superb.
Don Cheadle and Ewan McGregor in Miles Ahead.
This DVD is wonderful and thoroughly engaging. The whole movie flows like a great Miles Davis tune. Fans of Miles /Jazz will enjoy the cameo performances during the film of major influences on Miles life and music (Gil Evens Bill Evens, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter). However, it is not a cradle to the grave bio pic. Having lost his muse and succumbed to years of medicated silence. Miles (Don Cheadle) is rumoured to be on the brink of a comeback. But an attempted interview with Dave Brill (Ewan McGregor) from Rolling Stone magazine soon descends into a caper chase of drug deals, shootouts and stolen tapes, interspersed with flashbacks to Davis’s once-inspirational relationship with Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi) Like Miles music, the film’s structure is modal, with Cheadle getting the legend’s changing stance spot on, slipping on a cymbal crash between his incarnations as the sharp-suited epitome of cool and the coke-addled “Howard Hughes of jazz”.
Planty and band do "Mighty Re-arranger" plus some interestingly different arrangements of Zep favourites..........worth a look.
Made in the wake of the unexpected success of Blow Up, Michelangelo Antonioni's first and only American film, released in 1970, was a critical and commercial bomb. This rambling countercultural tale remains very much a product of its time, and one can see why the critics panned it. The two leads, Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin, are good looking but are both dreadful actors and there's no chemistry between them; the script, such as it is, is all over the place and the hippy moralising is trite to the point of being excruciating.
However it's got two things going for it: one, the innovative use of music and the soundtrack itself (featuring the Floyd, the Dead, John Fahey, Jerry Garcia, etc) is a thing of wonder; and two, the cinematography, which is breathtaking (Zabriskie Point is crying out for a good quality Blu-ray release).
The film, although a failure, also deserves to be watched for its stunning final scene, in which a slow-mo explosion is accompanied by a version of the Floyd's "Careful With That Axe, Eugene".
In the early part of his career, John Carpenter was a fantastic low-budget film-maker. Dark Star, Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog and Someone's Watching Me! are all testament to a craftsman whose imagination and resourcefulness far exceeded the budgets he was given to work with. This 1981 dystopian thriller (set in 1997) is, with the possible exception of Assault on Precinct 13, the best of all the novies from this part of his career.
The story goes thus - in 1997, the whole of Manhattan has been turned into a kind vast Alcatraz, cut off from the rest of the world. Hardened crims are sent in to fend for themselves and never come out. A bunch of terrorists hijack Air Force One and crash it into Manhattan, where he is taken hostage by the prisoners. Someone has to get the President out - he's due to speak at a vital nuclear disarmament conference (this picture was made at the height of the cold war, remember).
So Snake Plissken (Carpenter's then leading man, Kurt Russell), a soldier-turned-criminal serving a life sentence, is offered a pardon if he goes in and gets the President back. But he's only got 24 hours.
I used to love this movie when it first came out (I was still a teenager then, sigh), and time has been very good to it, I think.
The cast is splendid - Russell, Harry Dean Stanton, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Bourgnine, Donald Pleasance, Adrienne Barbeau and there's an and an eye-popping turn from Isaac Hayes as the "Duke of New York", the ruler of the prison. The art direction/set design and use of locations is superb, the direction taut and the synth score, composed and played by Carpenter himself, is justly acclaimed. The direction is taut and precise, the story (by Carpenter) is a good 'un and the characters - a real gallery of grotesques - are fleshed out nicely.
Even on my modest set-up the Blu-ray transfer occasionally exposes the movie's low-budget origins, but it's still a gripping watch. 9/10 for this one.
The Headless Woman.
A 2008 Argentine psychological thriller art film written and directed by Lucrecia Martel and starring María Onetto. The plot revolves around a woman who hits something while driving on a deserted road. Not being sure if she has hit a person or an animal, she drives off, and becomes increasingly mentally disturbed.
MDS posted:
It's a fair while since I watched this. I think the first time I must have been somewhat distracted by the trade-mark Tarantino violence because this time I found it much richer in storyline, character development and dialogue. Christoph Waltz is absolutely superb.
+1. Excellent movie. I find that Tarantino films are best appreciated after the third or fourth viewing, with time taken in between. There's a lot to digest, and a numbing of the violence and familiarity with the plot helps. The third or fourth viewing was where Brad Pitt's performance really shone for me. I found Waltz superb from the get-go.
tonym posted:
Very Cohen Brothers! It follows a couple of days in the life of a movie producer in the 20's -30's, with umpteen different crises happening simultaneously. Chaotic, lots of cameos, and some truly brilliant reconstructions of practically every type of movie genre from that age, staged in such a way as to be simultaneously deferential but wonderfully corny. Great turn from Ralph Fiennes as a frustrated movie director, George Clooney playing stupid movie star, at his daft best in the hands of the Cohens. Loved it!
I watched this recently on a flight and I'd say Tony's review is spot on. Per my post above regarding repeated watchings of Tarantino films, Coen brother movies likewise seem to make more sense and get better with repeated viewings. Being on a flight I was isolated from any feedback and I think it would be fun to watch this again in a room with others. I'd add that Josh Brolin was outstanding in his lead role and yes, Clooney played the affable doofus to the hilt.
We watched Spotlight over the weekend. An engrossing film, with excellent performances, particularly from Michael Keaton. The DVD was courtesy of Lovefilm and the picture quality was top notch. Strongly recommended.
Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot - Jaques Tati.
Almost silent, classic comidy.
A lavishly-packaged 60th anniversary Blu-ray of this classic 1951 film, in which director and star recreate the partnership which had caused a Broadway sensation back in 1948.
The transfer on this print is sensationally good, as is the packaging and accompanying notes; and of course Alex North's jazzy score and Harry Stradling's cinematography are wonderful, but I'm not sure that the picture itself is actually that good. The acting by Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden is good in a technical sense, but it all feels a bit heavy-handed, overly dramatic in that very 1940s/50s "Method" way.
Brando in particular seems (in this particular film, not in all his movies, I should emphasise) to embody the "I've suffered for my art, now you're going to suffer too" school of acting (more recent practitioners of this very dubious "art" have been Christian Bale and Daniel Day Lewis) that stand in stark contrast to the more naturalistic and - to my mind - far superior style of Tracy, Bogart, Gable, Fonda, Douglas and other Golden Age greats.
Part of the problem also lies with Elia Kazan, a clunky and heavy-handed director given to over-emphasis and bombast; and with the source material (Tennessee Williams' 1947 play), which was always a bit over-ripe anyway, and made positively hysterical by director and main star.
It's an important and influential film, but a dated one, and perhaps one that's not that great in the end.
Prompted by Fatcat's Jacques Tati yesterday, I dug this out to rewatch..................utterly charming, almost silent movie.
The Barchester Chronicles
Brilliant Trollope, and an excellent adaptation. I remember watching it when it was originally transmitted and being bowled over by Donald Pleasance, someone at that time who I thought of as Blofeld.
An annual dip into superb TV; and a bi-annual dip into the source material!
M
After Frenchman Arthur Vlaminck has graduated at the National School of Administration he joins the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. Vlaminck's ambitious new colleagues try to bully him around while his superior Claude Maupas acts on the other hand rather phlegmatic. Somewhat surprisingly Vlaminck's career gains momentum.
Mr Underhill posted:The Barchester Chronicles
Brilliant Trollope, and an excellent adaptation. I remember watching it when it was originally transmitted and being bowled over by Donald Pleasance, someone at that time who I thought of as Blofeld.
An annual dip into superb TV; and a bi-annual dip into the source material!
M
Indeed Mr Underhill, a wonderful series. I love Alan Rickman's superlative Obadiah Slope too - maybe it's wrong to single out members of the cast, they're all quite brilliant. I shall now watch this again later.