rate the last movie you saw

[BobaMike]

I like him in Brewster's Millions, even though I know it isn't a good movie.

The only thing I like about Superman 3 is the bad guy's ski slope on the roof...and the sexy secretary.

[AndyDursin]

I like Superman III but I agree it's not a great use of Pryor's talents. I'm a fan of his also Michael, why not start a thread!

[Paul MacLean]

Richard Hartley's score with it's Chariots of Fire style main theme is okay during the film's more mystical moments but when it comes time for action sequences its clear he doesn't know how to score them right at all.

I didn't think much of the film either, but I think Hartley's score is fantastic. I agree the main title sounds like Chariots of Fire (this was certainly imposed by the filmmakers), but the body of the score is epic, with achingly beautiful melodies and colorful orchestrations.

I would blame John Guillermin for the way some of the action is scored though -- Guillermin didn't care for "action music". Jerry Goldsmith was appalled when Guillermin discarded Goldsmith's tragic, strident cues for the 3rd act of The Blue Max and instead tracked them with the soaring, triumphant music written for earlier scenes. John Scott said that Guillermin didn't want "battle music" for King Kong Lives, but a "love theme".

What I'd give to hear a score as good as Sheena today.

[Eric Paddon]

The soundtrack album which I got on CD when it was a brief and quick 1000 copy sellout from Varese (remember the days when the 1000 copy titles would be gone within 24 hours??) is certainly a good listen.

[AndyDursin]

TINTORERA...TIGER SHARK
3/10

Scorpion Releasing brings viewers a definite slice of the Exploitation '70s with TINTORERA (87 mins., 1978, R), a Mexican B-offering that finds shark hunters Hugo Stiglitz and Andres Garcia competing for fins and females they “shag” from the nearby beach resorts. Susan George, Fiona Lewis and Priscilla Barnes (“Three's Company”) are a few of the lovely females, occasionally topless, who parade through this silly Rene Cardona-helmed affair that's broken up every now and then by scenes of actual shark hunting and marine creatures getting harpooned. Suffice to say one such shark decides to take a bite out of the local populace, resulting in Stiglitz going full Quint in the final minutes...well, not really, but that's as much plot as you'll get in this Hemdale adaptation “based on the bestseller by Ramon Bravo.”

“Tintorera” is less a “Jaws” ripoff than a sun-and-sand drama of its time. It's hard to envision the moppy-haired, fuzzy-bearded Stiglitz as a sexual magnet, but the '70s were obviously a different time so who's to know. The pleasures of the movie are grounded in the Cancun-lensed scenery and not much in the characters or story line, which was trimmed down for a U.S. theatrical release, here preserved on Blu-Ray by Scorpion, working from an attractive HD master (1.85) by MGM. Die-hard fans may lament the lack of the movie's longer Mexican version, but there's enough entertainment on-hand here to satisfy most drive-in nostalgia buffs of the era. The commentary by Troy Howarth and Rod Barnett is fine but has some occasional gaps (probably due to something MGM didn't like), plus the trailer and a clear 2.0 DTS MA mono soundtrack featuring an early score by none other than Basil Poledouris! There's not a lot of “Conan” like potential in this particular score, but it's pleasant enough and boasts a song performed by Carol Connors, crooning for another soggy sea saga just a short time after her involvement in Ennio Morricone's score for “Orca: The Killer Whale.”

This trailer pretty much gets it right

[Paul MacLean]

TINTORERA...TIGER SHARK
3/10

"A what?"


Sorry, couldn't resist!

Looks hilarious -- and why hasn't anyone released Basil's score?

[sprocket]

why hasn't anyone released Basil's score?

Dragon Domain has:
http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/titl ... Che+Uccide

[Monterey Jack]

-Runaway (1984): 3.5/10

Yet another check mark on my "view every Jerry Goldsmith movie" list, this was a fairly tedious piece of work, definitely not one of Michael Crichton's high water marks as a filmmaker. A mediocre police thriller given a modest, humorously clunky "futuristic" skin that makes one yearn for the biting satire and hard-hitting action of Robocop. Even Goldsmith's cheesy all-electronic score is a snooze, sounding like one of those synth mock-up pieces you sometimes hear as bonus tracks on CDs after the main presentation. The only bright spot is a very sexy, pre-Cheers Kirstie Alley.

[Paul MacLean]

-Runaway (1984): 3.5/10

No, RoboCop it aint. Still it's a masterwork compared to Rent-A-Cop, King Solomon's Mines and some of the other dreck on which Jerry Goldsmith squandered his talent.

I do think Goldsmith's score is very well-written, with strong themes and some impressively complex counterpoint in the writing. That said, those early digital keyboards he used have a shrill sound, and there isn't a lot of variety of timbre.

[AndyDursin]

Musically I really like the end title from RUNAWAY. It's very melodic and I find that score much more listenable than most of his synth outings. Actually it's probably my favorite of those Goldsmith electronic things, as strident as some of it is.

The film is dopey but watchably slick. Like most of the time when MJ really hates something from the 1980s, I find myself defending it and saying, like Paul noted, it's not entirely that bad.

[mkaroly]

Musically I really like the end title from RUNAWAY. It's very melodic and I find that score much more listenable than most of his synth outings. Actually it's probably my favorite of those Goldsmith electronic things, as strident as some of it is.

The film is dopey but watchably slick. Like most of the time when MJ really hates something from the 1980s, I find myself defending it and saying, like Paul noted, it's not entirely that bad.

The movie has its charms...Selleck is decent in it in his way. I like it for Gene Simmons' over-the-top performance...back when he should have been more committed to KISS than he was...he totally went Hollywood and left Paul Stanley with the heavy lifting in KISS during that era.

[AndyDursin]

PAYBACK (1999)
8/10

My first exposure to this Mel Gibson thriller was when Brian Helgeland's "Director's Cut" release happened back in 2006. I can't remember if I actually watched the theatrical version all the way through at the time -- I did review the revised "Straight Up" cut -- but I had imported the European Blu-Ray from Warner with both cuts on there years back and finally sat down to really watch the released version of "Payback" last night.

Contrary to what I wrote at the time, this is a good movie -- in fact it's extremely likeable -- and the theatrical cut (Gibson's preferred cut) is the better film. A solidly entertaining, even underrated, adaptation of one of Donald Westlake's many "Parker" novels (also serving as the basis for John Boorman's "Point Blank"), this tough but also funny film manages to capture Westlake's prose quite effectively -- not that I read those books, but my Dad did for many years, and would tell me about "parts" of them when I was growing up. Gibson is right in his element here and he's playing off a dynamite supporting cast, including William Devane, James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson (in the theatrical version), Maria Bello, Lucy Liu, and David Paymer among them.

The story about what happened on this movie is well known, with producer/star Mel opting to reshoot large parts of the movie and tone it down after the test screenings for Helgeland's original version were dismal. Terry Hayes was brought in to script new scenes because Helgeland refused to be involved with the reshoots, and the result was a toned down, funnier and also much improved version than the original, comparatively more violent, meaner and abrupt cut.

The story itself certainly plays much better in the theatrical version, which adds a little bit of plot but also tones down some of the harshness to Helgeland's original version. Yes, Mel is more likeable in the revised cut also (which adds some atmospheric voice-over), but the movie is still plenty violent enough, and curiously appealing all the way through.

Paramount's U.S. Blu-Ray only has the "Straight Up" Director's Cut -- Warner's all-region European Blu-Ray is still available and is much superior. You get both cuts in superior transfers (VC-1 versus MPEG-2) with superior audio (Dolby TrueHD versus plain Dolby Digital) and all the extras from the U.S. release on top of it. The only edge to watching the Director's Cut is the removal of the filters that were used in the Theatrical Version, giving the movie a more natural -- but also less atmospheric -- look.

Still available, and recommended --

[Johnmgm]

I also prefer the theatrical cut, but appreciate the director's cut. I have read alot of Donald Westlake/Richard Stark novel's and both versions of Payback are good approximations of his work.

[AndyDursin]

Exactly, it's not a disaster by any means, I just prefer the overall "package" of the theatrical version. One of the few instances where reshooting and post-production tweaking resulted in something that improved upon what was already there -- which was already pretty good.

[Monterey Jack]

I discovered Westlake's "Parker" books, ironically, by reading the liner note of FSM's release of Quincy Jones' excellent score to the 1968 thriller The Split, which gave an in-depth examination of the character's literary origins. I'm a big fan of their terse, unornamented style. That said, I've never seen Payback -- either version -- and should rectify that one of these days, as I'm a big Gibson fan (say what you will about him as a person, but he's always been a riveting screen presence).

Also, this is the second Amazon link Andy's provided that doesn't show up in my browser. Maybe it's because I had a pop-up blocker installed recently...?