rate the last movie you saw

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AndyDursin
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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2881 Post by AndyDursin »

MAN IN THE WILDERNESS
8/10

Rarely-circulated follow-up to “A Man Called Horse” from numerous members of that triumph’s production team — star Richard Harris, producer Sandy Howard and writer Jack DeWitt — was an obvious influence on “The Revenant,” and with good reason. DeWitt’s screenplay adapts the same, allegedly true story of Hugh Glass, a 19th century fur trapper who was left for dead by the people he was working for in the Pacific Northwest. His fight for survival — after an encounter with a bear that nearly kills him — is told in vivid visual fashion by director Richard C. Sarafian, though “Man in the Wilderness” is ultimately a richer story than its later, more graphic Leonardo DiCaprio counterpart, at least from a humanistic angle: Harris’ sensitive and credible performance as Glass, here dubbed Zachary Bass, carries an enhanced emotional component as his hero isn’t driven by revenge, but more motivated to return to the family he left behind. Flashbacks are effectively intercut with excellent scope cinematography (the film was shot in Spain, Mexico and Arizona), making for a surprisingly moving film. In fact, Harris is marvelous here, dialed down and believable in what ranks as one of his best performances (the actor considered the film to be excellent and blamed bad marketing on its box-office failure), and even John Huston, playing the heavy, is far less villainous than one might expect.

Brought to Blu-Ray from the Warner Archive, “Man in the Wilderness” has been treated to a sumptuously detailed 1080p (2.40) AVC encoded transfer with near-photographic levels of detail, outstanding for a catalog title from that era. The movie, seldom screened on video save a 2008 DVD edition, looks spectacular, and the DTS MA mono audio houses a robust and lyrical score by Johnny Harris.

The trailer is the sole extra on a highly recommended disc.

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AndyDursin
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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2882 Post by AndyDursin »

CABOBLANCO
5/10

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A rocky production, CABOBLANCO was a strange attempt at recreating the romantic-drama dynamic of “Casablanca” with Charles Bronson as an American trying to run away from the world in a picturesque Peruvian port during the late ‘40s; Jason Robards as a former Nazi looking for sunken treasure; and Dominique Sanda as a newly arrived French woman, searching for her lost lover whom Bronson’s Cliff Hoyt once knew.

Independently produced by Lance Hool, “Caboblanco” was shot in the late ‘70s but didn’t make it to theaters until it was distributed by Avco Embassy in the winter months of 1981. By that point, the film had edited quite severely, as evidenced by credited actors like Clifton James who doesn’t appear in the film at all (!), as well as abrupt cutting that seems to drop in and out of scenes arbitrarily. The plot, credited to Mort Fine and Milton Gelman, is subsequently harder to follow than it ought to be, and the film itself a general misfire, in spite of its talent.

What does make it watchable are lovely Mexican beach locales (Robards’ house is spectacular), captured in widescreen by director J. Lee Thompson (helming his third film with Bronson), plus an easy-going, more relaxed performance by the star than usual (he must have liked the surroundings?) and, last but not least, Jerry Goldsmith’s score. Though not one of the maestro’s best, the memorable main title boasts a bold, appropriately Latin flavor, and his use of “The Very Thought of You” tries valiantly to spice up DOA interplay between Bronson and the wooden Sanda.

“Caboblanco” certainly doesn’t work, but it’s an admirable failure that’s been enhanced on Blu-Ray thanks to Kino Lorber. The 1080p (2.35) transfer seems identical to the German release from a few years back, boasting nice colors via source elements that aren’t always in pristine condition. The 2.0 DTS MA sound is, thankfully, in stereo (and sounds pretty decent whenever Jerry’s score is present), though there’s persistent hiss on the track.

Extra features in a worthwhile supplemental package include a vintage, half-hour archival “Making Of” shot on the set (in high definition); an informative, engaging interview with producer Lance Hool, discussing the film’s independent financing and how Thompson not only retooled the script to emulate “Casablanca” (much to the film’s detriment) but frequently failed to bring out Bronson’s best as an actor; the trailer; and a commentary (more like an “audio essay”) from Bronson expert Paul Talbot.

Eric Paddon
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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2883 Post by Eric Paddon »

AndyDursin wrote: By that point, the film had edited quite severely, as evidenced by credited actors like Clifton James who don’t appear in the film at all (!).
Sheriff Pepper taking *another* vacation to an unlikely place? :)

Eric Paddon
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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2884 Post by Eric Paddon »

Outland (1981) 6 of 10

-First time for me with this film because the Goldsmith score was one of my recent pickups. I've seen Hyams do government conspiracy well ("Capricorn One") and I've seen him abuse sci-fi to make unsubtle contemporary statement ("2010"). "Outland" kind of fell in the middle for me because while I think the "message" isn't suffocating like it is in "2010" the real problem is that from a story standpoint, it just didn't hold together for me because he was trying to do "High Noon" in a space setting and at the same time give us a message about evil corporations etc. (I noticed how the name of the corporation is the same one he invented in "Capricorn One" as the builder of the defective life support system!) The problem is that the sci-fi setting and the corporation as your evil bad guy meant that the story internally just doesn't hold together.

-Case in point. If this corporation is so powerful etc. and a lowly Marshal like Connery is the naive guy who doesn't know what he's dealing with etc. don't you think they'd come up with a more sophisticated and less overt way of disposing him? Are you trying to tell me that this corporation can't find ONE person in their ranks to do something simple like, I don't know, poison his food? If you're a frontier western guy going up against a lone bad guy etc. that's one thing but in this setting I wasn't buying it. Besides, I almost think this corporation might have the sense to try something more sinister like say, sabotage the sleep chamber for Connery's wife and kid so they never wake up from the journey back to Earth? If you're going to present me with a formidable threat, then at least have the threatening force act in a credible manner! Oh and don't get me started on the stupidity of one of the hit man opening fire in a greenhouse with much thinner safety glass between it and the outside then one might think.

-The influence of "Alien" on this film is quite obvious (that film also suffered from giving us an improbable anti-corporation plot point that IMO damaged the premise of the story though it was only one minor part of the film and not more of a focus like here). It made the film interesting to look at even though the plot is thin on all levels. Was surprised by the prominent role for James B. Sikking who did this just before starting "Hill Street Blues". I have to admit, I didn't recognize John Ratzenberger at all wherever he was (I presume he was without his moustache then)

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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2885 Post by Eric Paddon »

Had to find a reason to get my father out of the house so we turned this into a lunch and a movie outing.

Sully (2016) 8.5 of 10

-Impressive look at the Miracle on the Hudson pilot and the crash. Hanks was convincing in the role and the recreation of the crash/rescue was effective and compelling. I think my one serious quibble is showing us the crash midway through the film as part of a flashback device and IMO it would have been better to just open the film with the crash in a straightforward way and *then* delve into the matter of Sully coming to grips with this, is he a hero or not, etc. I almost got the impression they wanted to hold back the sequence until midway through the film thinking if they showed it right away the audience might not care as much about the more human story later on. But since we get the crash scene "replayed" again at the climax of the film when the CVR is replayed I think the spacing would have been better. That's just my one complaint from a structural standpoint.

-But for the need to do something with my father I likely wouldn't have gone, but I'm glad I found something that was enjoyable for both of us. I did though get a reminder of how the moviegoing experience is a colossal pain in the rear with a half hour of TV trailers (and there were some really disgusting promos for a horror series soon to debut on F/X that I did not want to see) and then at the "start" time of the movie you get subjected to an endless barrage of trailers for films that I have no interest in ever wanting to see and given my father's frail health, I really wanted them to get on with it.

Eric Paddon
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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2886 Post by Eric Paddon »

Two viewings tied to new score purchases!

Night Crossing (1982) 8 of 10

-Boy do I wish I'd discovered this film years ago! By the 1970s and early 1980s it had become very rare to see a movie that depicted the Communist world in a negative light. This film offers a reminder of just how terrible life behind the "Iron Curtain" continued to be. The too-All American cast in some roles like Beau Bridges, Doug McKeon etc. does undermine the authenticity a little bit, but at least there are strong performances from John Hurt, Jane Alexander and in a smaller role Ian Bannen. Goldsmith's score echoes "Capricorn One" to a degree and it works. I was put-off at first by the fact the existing DVD is 1:33 format, but looking at it, I have to assume this wasn't shot widescreen since the TV ratio looks normal.


A Place In The Sun (1951) 9 of 10

-First time ever for me seeing this classic. Elizabeth Taylor's maturity as an actress (in addition to her beauty) when she was not yet 20 is incredible when I think of how gravitas and maturity has vanished in the last generation of Hollywood actors. Montgomery Clift I have not seen too many movies of and I wasn't overly impressed for much of the way but by the end, I had been won over. A definite classic of acting, characterization, direction etc.

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Paul MacLean
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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2887 Post by Paul MacLean »

Eric Paddon wrote: Night Crossing (1982) 8 of 10

I always felt this film was maligned unfairly. No, it's not a classic, but it is a solid, effective and suspenseful yarn -- and based on true story to boot. I remember Siskel and Ebert savaging Night Crossing, and Ebert specfiically singling-out Goldsmith's score as "cornball".

Personally I think it is one of Goldsmith's greatest efforts (and certainly one of his best standalone albums).

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Monterey Jack
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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2888 Post by Monterey Jack »

Paul MacLean wrote:I remember Siskel and Ebert savaging Night Crossing, and Ebert specfiically singling-out Goldsmith's score as "cornball".
And yet they praised Goldsmith's score to Mr. Baseball. :shock: :lol:

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AndyDursin
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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2889 Post by AndyDursin »

There will be suspensions the next time someone trashes the MR. BASEBALL score.




;)

Eric Paddon
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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2890 Post by Eric Paddon »

What Siskel and Ebert could have seen wrong with "Night Crossing" I have no idea. I will grant the violent shooting death at the border in the opening part may have put off some people going to a film with the "Walt Disney" label (and no doubt further influenced the decision to create the Touchstone label) but I can't help but wonder if some critics, in an early 80s period when we were seeing so many nuclear war paranoia movies, were loathe to say anything good about a film that to some people would have "reinforced old Cold War 'stereotypes'".

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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2891 Post by AndyDursin »

THE SHALLOWS
5/10

Blah low-budget thriller pits surfer Blake Lively against a large Great White shark after she’s stranded on a coral reef with literally nobody around. This Columbia release somehow made a decent sum at the summer box-office but it’s little more than a direct-to-video type of affair – complete with mediocre digital effects – as Lively tries to outwit her opponent after getting thrashed about and severely injured. A few lambs for the slaughter, meanwhile, pop up on the mainland from time to time, just to break up the monotony of Lively talking to an injured sea gull (who ultimately generates less sympathy than Wilson in Tom Hanks’ “Castaway”).

Jaume Collet-Serra, whose checkered cinematic past includes the mediocre Liam Neeson entries “Non-Stop” and “Unknown,” tries to spice up the action with eye-popping color cinematography of the movie’s Australian shooting locales, but “The Shallows” never really registers on the suspense meter, mainly because Collet-Serra isn’t particularly adept at generating thrills. The movie’s shark attack sequences aren’t particularly exciting, and there’s next to no emotion generated by the bland Lively, even though the first 20 minutes are devoted to sequences of her sending texts and chat sessions with family back home (exciting!). In another, better movie, the film’s hysterical finale might’ve fun, but alas, the unlikely success of “The Shallows” comes off as more a statement on this summer’s meager offerings than the film’s actual quality.

Sony’s attractive 1080p (2.40) transfer is a stunner, and the 5.1 DTS MA sound houses a better than average Marco Beltrami score. Special features include a host of behind-the-scenes featurettes and deleted scenes, along with a Digital HD copy.

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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2892 Post by Eric Paddon »

Obsession (1976) 7.5 of 10

-First time for me with this when I decided on impulse that Herrmann's score after hearing a sample would be part of my last binge purchase. I was enjoying this immensely as a superior take on the "Vertigo" concept (I always found "Vertigo" to be impressive visually and with a great score but it falls apart from a poor story) but then in the last 10-12 minutes it REALLY fell apart for me. Okay, I had figured things out about Lithgow early on. I had dismissed the idea that they were going to pull a "daughter" switch at the climax once we saw the Italian mother so I got properly jolted when that reveal happened. It's the part from when Robertson confronts Lithgow and all that happens afterward to the conclusion (where DePalma's self-conscious riff on the "Vertigo" kiss causes the film to descend into total self-parody at the very end after just properly turning things up a notch from the original) that this film lost a point and a half for me. I would have even preferred a "dark" ending with Bujold stabbing herself to death and Robertson being hauled off to the loony bin. It wasn't bad enough to destroy the film, but it did turn a great movie into just a very good one IMO.

One technical quibble I also have is that in the opening 1959 sequences, no pretense was made to get the hair and clothes right. Robertson's wardrobe and hair is just as much 1975 then and that hurt the passage of time element.

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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2893 Post by Monterey Jack »

-The Bedroom Window (1987): 8/10

Cleverly-scripted homage to classic "Wrong Man" Hitchcock thrillers about a man (Steve Guttenberg...hey, it was the 80's :oops: ) whose rich-bitch mistress (Isabelle Huppert) witnesses a violent assault on a local woman (Elizabeth McGovern). Not wanting to reveal that she was in her lover's apartment at the time of the incident, Guttenberg suggests simply that he take claim to being the witness instead, which, as things often do in these type of thrillers, ends up going spectacularly awry. Written and directed by the late Curtis Hanson, The Bedroom Window suffers mainly from the casting of Guttenberg, who is too lightweight and amiably bland a presence to really anchor the character's desperation and guilt as the tower of false claims he constructs gradually begins to crumble. With a stronger leading man, The Bedroom Window might have been a minor classic, but even as-is, it's a pretty enjoyable watch (although seeing it via YouTube was not the preferred way to do so), a reminder of how sadly rare these kinds of modestly engrossing, adult thrillers are these days, and of Hanson's unflashy skills as a filmmaker.

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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2894 Post by Eric Paddon »

Blowup (1966) 1 of 10

-Ten minutes collectively of effective, suspenseful scenes brilliantly shot surrounded by 100 minutes of boring, tasteless crap and a story that takes forever to start, and then after offering a hint of something promising then wastes its time the rest of the way going nowhere. I was scanning through waiting for something to happen. Hell, I was even hoping David Hemmings would get shot in the final scene to relieve the boredom I was feeling. This film has now displaced "2001: A Space Odyssey" as the most overrated film of the 1960s I've ever seen. Because I can at least revisit "2001" to admire a few parts of an overrated whole, but this film was 100 minutes of my life (allowing for what I was forcing myself to scan through) wasted that I can never get back.

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AndyDursin
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Re: rate the last movie you saw

#2895 Post by AndyDursin »

BLOOD FATHER
6.5/10

Short but effective B-programmer makes you realize how much Mel Gibson has been missed on-screen. Playing a weary ex-con roped back into helping his wayward teen daughter (Erin Moriarty), Gibson’s John Link ends up taking on members of a drug cartel with whom she’s become mixed up with. Jean-Francois Richet’s movie offers Gibson another decent forum for his on-screen charisma, and he effortlessly makes you care about his character, relationship with a fellow recovering addict (William H. Macy), and attempts to get his daughter clean. Ultimately, “Blood Father” is let down by a predictable climax and hampered by Moriarty’s less-than-convincing, annoying performance (which seems more suited to a teen drama on the CW), but for Gibson fans, it’s at least worth a rental.


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