Monterey Jack wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2024 11:22 am This is the kind of unpretentious, realistically priced B-movie we need more of.

Agreed!

The Beekeeper (8/10) I love the films of Akira Kurosawa, David Lean and other great cinema artists...but sometimes I'm in the mood for mindless exploitation trash. And The Beekeeper delivers this in SPADES. The film stars Jason Statham (you know what you're in for right there) as a reclusive beekee...

The audience that would be, "hey let's go to a movie Friday," then walk up and literally see what was playing -- that audience is gone. Completely gone. So you have fanboy-driven IP's which appeal to kids and teens and is built-in. Book your seats in advance, you know when you're going to...

"I haven't gone to a theater since TOP GUN". Well, that's me! I thought -- naively -- that Top Gun 's popularity as a "big screen popcorn experience" might jump-start and restore movie-going, but it didn't really. A number of months ago I stopped to get something to eat in a nei...

AndyDursin wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 10:45 am thankfully the action scoring is robust and one has to thank Ken Thorne for that, as the veteran composer is credited with orchestrating and conducting the score.

And probably ghosting some of it too I suspect!

The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan (6/10) How many times are they going to remake this story? Ok, I'll accept than an actual French adaptation of a story written by a Frenchman is valid. But this is a very uneven movie which ultimately doesn't work. First the good. This film is visually sumptuous, wi...

^^ I'd hazard a guess Ridley Scott won't be casting Brian Cox in his films anytime soon.

The Ten Commandments (9/10) My first viewing in five years. DeMille's picture remains one of great epics -- biblical or otherwise -- and every subsequent epic, Ben-Hur, Spartacus, Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator , et all -- stands on its shoulders. I reviewed it in detail after my previous screening ...

This week is a good show -- imagine THE WARRIORS, THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY and HARDCORE all in theaters at the same time. A whole different universe than the crap sent out to audiences today. I liked The Warriors myself, but (as you probably recall Andy) was laughing during much of Hardcore ! I agre...

Eric Paddon wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 4:33 pm I'm assuming that extra hour is where all the scenes that explained WHY Napoleon was invading other countries went to?

I know that Kingdom of Heaven was not improved by the restoration of footage. I doubt it will help Napoleon.

Oh well.

https://www.joblo.com/ridley-scotts-4-h ... oleon-cut/

Incredible she had to tell Steven and George to shoot the RAIDERS ending with Indy and Marion that was scripted -- yet they felt they didn't need it! :lol: :lol: People tend to assume the writer and director come-up with all the ideas, but in reality the director is working with a bunch of creative...

Further on Marcia Lucas, here's an interesting Youtube video that provides a lot of background on her contributions to Star Wars (as well as Raiders) and her career in general...

Yes, thank-you Andy for your wonderful reminiscences.

....as was the snubbing of Bernstein for a Best Score nomination, though I don't quibble with the posthumous Oscar given to Victor Young). I suspect it had something to do with Bernstein having been grey-listed in Hollywood for several years (from which he was rescued by DeMille). Of course as valu...