rate the last movie you saw

[Paul MacLean]

Reversal of Fortune (8.5/10)

Another critically acclaimed picture I never got around to seeing until now. Outstanding performances from Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close and in particular the highly underrated Ron Silver (who is uncannily the spitting image of Alan Dershowitz).

The film offers a compelling chronicle of the von Bulow case, leading the viewer through a maze of potentially-baffling legalese in a way that is entirely comprehensible. Mark Isham's score is melodic but moody and effective (with a subtlety and musicality you don't hear much these days).

I also appreciated the film's portrayal of Alan Dershowitz, someone for whom I have enormous admiration, both for his (probably unsurpassed) understanding of law and the Constitution, but also for his non-partisan objectivity (especially these days), to say nothing of his altruistic character (half the cases he takes are pro bono).

And Andy's neighborhood is almost visible in the background of the opening shot!

[mkaroly]

Jeremy Irons is a really good actor...very charismatic in his own unique way. Solid film!

[AndyDursin]

NEWS OF THE WORLD
6.5/10

Director Paul Greengrass saddles up for an Old West recycling of familiar material in “News of the World,” a well-meaning film about a former Confederate captain (Tom Hanks), relegated to reading newspapers in small southwest towns, who stumbles upon – and subsequently becomes responsible for – a young white girl who was abducted by Indians after they killed her parents.

The key word in “News of the World” is predictable – this is an elegiac western heavy on mood, as if to compensate for a recycled plot. We know Hanks – dependable as always – is going to bond with the girl. We know they're going to run into trouble as he's left to transport her “home” – whereever that is. We're certain there will be someone sympathetic to their plight en route, but that tragedy is likely going to be involved with the wife Hanks left behind in San Antonio years before.

Despite all the top technical components in the movie – from Hanks' earnestness to Greengrass “behaving” with a minimum of “shaky cam,” Dariusz Wolksi's scope lensing and James Newton Howard's supportive underscore – “News of the World” offers no surprises at all. The film is content to stick to a modern reading of “The Searchers” and other genre films along similar lines, and the pacing is so leisurely that the familiarity of the material becomes even more evident as the film progresses. It's still an entertaining picture that's hard to completely dislike if you're a western fan – it's just not a journey most viewers haven't taken before.

[Eric Paddon]

Salome (1953) 1 of 10

-We're getting close to Holy Week so now it's time to start easing into my annual tradition of films related to the season. This one I saw as a VHS rental decades ago and back then I considered it the WORST of any of the post-war Biblical costume films ever made. Because it was contained in the bargain Rita Hayworth Blu-Ray set I decided to see if that was still the case.

-First, the Blu-Ray transfer is outstanding. The costumes and sets look great. I'll give a point to George Duning for coming up with an appropriate score for this kind of film that it would made a CD worth getting if one were available (but it never will since this is a Columbia movie). But as for the film itself......OUCH! I have never seen a Biblical subject film deviate more from the actual text this one does, all so they can give us a "have your cake and eat it approach" in which Rita Hayworth does her provocative dance (which itself isn't much) out of the mistaken belief she's trying to *save* John the Baptist, but the duplicity of her evil mother (the obviously typecast Judith Anderson) leads to the different result. Never mind of course that the Scripture is quite emphatic that Salome conspired with her mother and it was her own request. All other films that dramatize that at least manage to get that detail right! It just ends up revealing how DeMille was the only one who had the ability to pull off the balancing act of sex and piety, but the people behind this one had no clue. I shouldn't waste my time rattling off the other wrong points of this film, because they'd be endless. It's certainly helped make me realize that critical as I am of "The Robe" for it's lack of fidelity to authentic NT accounts, "The Robe" is still a better film (though not in the same class as "Ben Hur" which is the only film of its kind that can get away with a general license of deviation from Scriptural fidelity IMO and not invite criticism from the faithful).

-Watch this once for the transfer quality and then never again.

[Eric Paddon]

I have finished my annual Holy Week viewing and sat down to fare much better than "Salome" could ever profess to be. In order of viewing.

King Of Kings (1961)
-Not a strong narrative, but seeing it after a clunker like "Salome" makes the flaws less noticable!

Jesus Of Nazareth (1977)
-This was a fan edit that restored missing scenes from the Blu-Ray release and also found outtake footage of a couple scenes as well.

Barabbas (1961)
-When will this *ever* made it to Blu-Ray????

Studio One-"Pontius Pilate" (1952)
-Speculative (and not accurate) look at Pilate is more solid in its first half. Westinghouse commercial announcements were confined to the beginning and end because of the sacred nature of the program, which is a kind of deference we will NEVER see the likes of again.

The Passion Of The Christ (2004)
-Annual Good Friday viewing.

Ben-Hur (1925)
-Try as I do, I just can't connect with silent movies, even the greatest ones. The silent movie format is just too taxing for me with wall-to-wall music and the overly melodramatic acting etc.

Ben-Hur (1959)
-The greatest movie ever made IMO. It's wonderful script and compelling performances is the reason why its total lack of background authenticity matters not a whit.

Risen (2016)
-While the film slows down a bit in its final 40% after it turns from a fascinating "CSI" take on investigation the stories of the Resurrection to the stunned reaction of centurion Joseph Fiennes to the truth, this is becoming a tradition for me.

Paul, Apostle of Christ (2018)
-Made by the same studio as "Risen" and with Jim Cavaziel this time time as Luke, I just didn't find the overall through-line to be as compelling because the action is confined in two locations (the prison where the Apostle Paul is awaiting execution and the hiding place of the Roman Christians) and things get way too talky.


"Greatest Story Ever Told" I may still get to in the days or week ahead. The silent "King Of Kings" missed the cut this year due to some time pressures.

[Paul MacLean]

Jesus Of Nazareth (1977)
-This was a fan edit that restored missing scenes from the Blu-Ray release and also found outtake footage of a couple scenes as well.

Which Blu-ray do you have?

I have the Mexican release -- in which the scene between Ian McShane and Ian Holm, and the Passover dinner scene are obviously up-converted from standard definition. The rest of the production is mastered in HD (though it looks "soft" to me -- like 720p).

I've wondered if those scenes were "restored from the best possible sources" for the BD release I own. Were those the missing scenes on yours?

[Eric Paddon]

What I have was downloaded from a private website (For free) that took the Shout Blu-Ray and dropped in the missing nine minutes from the Artisan DVD and then added a galore of other footage from other low-budget Biblical things to pad the narrative (not successfully I felt as he'd do this with quick freeze-cuts to Powell for attempted consistency). But he had an outtake for the end shown in an obscure documentary of footage of Jesus entering the Upper Room and the showing of the wounds to the doubting Thomas. I'm assuming he was originally using the Mexican Blu-Ray as his base copy. I then transferred that to four blank Blu-Rays.

Someone uploaded the Shout Blu-Ray to YT and I downloaded that and then made my own edit inserting the missing nine minutes from the Artisan for a more "traditional" home made Blu-Ray. So I have this fan-edit "Kitchen sink" version with a few authentic outtakes and a lot of un-authentic material aimed at creating a full Biblical narrative, and also my own "uncut" version of the original miniseries through my own home editing.

Bottom line is the missing footage can only be sourced from the old Artisan DVD or the old VHS releases from the 80s at this point.

[AndyDursin]

Jesus Of Nazareth (1977)
-This was a fan edit that restored missing scenes from the Blu-Ray release and also found outtake footage of a couple scenes as well.

Which Blu-ray do you have?

I have the Mexican release -- in which the scene between Ian McShane and Ian Holm, and the Passover dinner scene are obviously up-converted from standard definition. The rest of the production is mastered in HD (though it looks "soft" to me -- like 720p).

I've wondered if those scenes were "restored from the best possible sources" for the BD release I own. Were those the missing scenes on yours?

The Mexican Blu-Ray took the only HD master there is and inserted the Passover scene from standard definition DVD into it.

There is no HD master in existence with the Passover scene. The Shout US Blu-Ray is the same transfer as the Mexican Blu-Ray (actually it probably has worse encoding) minus the Passover scene.

It'd be great to get a fully restored, and uncut, 4K version of this (the current HD master is 1080p, but it's not a great transfer like you said Paul), but it's ITV so chances are that's never happening.

[AndyDursin]

Barabbas (1961)
-When will this *ever* made it to Blu-Ray???

I purchased the streaming version on sale for $5 over the weekend. It has the same lousy HD master as the French Blu-Ray I bought, so if those are the only elements in existence (and hopefully that's not the case), that has to be the reason why Twilight Time (or anyone else) passed it over. (I mean it's in worse condition than DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS).

It looks like a transfer from a print, and it's highly problematic -- the colors are faded, the details are soft, and it looks like many generations down from the original negative. It isn't an upscale -- the source materials are just in bad shape.

Considering it's a Columbia/Sony title, it's surprising to see a title of theirs in that kind of condition -- rarely if ever have I seen that kind of inferior presentation on a library title of theirs. Though it's also a DeLaurentiis production, so perhaps his library owns the negative and that's all that's in the Sony vaults?

Hopefully it's something that can be restored and it's not a case where the original negative is gone/misplaced. I don't blame any label for not wanting to release a master in this kind of condition though. TT got picky after the initial complaints on their early Fox titles so unless it was a restored master, they tried to stay away from masters like this one.

[Paul MacLean]

There is no HD master in existence with the Passover scene. The Shout US Blu-Ray is the same transfer as the Mexican Blu-Ray (actually it probably has worse encoding) minus the Passover scene.

It'd be great to get a fully restored, and uncut, 4K version of this (the current HD master is 1080p, but it's not a great transfer like you said Paul), but it's ITV so chances are that's never happening.

I'm curious, why would ITC sign-off on new remasters of UFO and Space: 1999, but not Jesus of Nazareth?

In any case, I watched it again this weekend, and here's my review...


Jesus of Nazareth (9/10)

Still the finest adaptation of the Gospels.

Director Franco Zeffirelli adroitly captures the same level of scope as the classic biblical adaptations of the 1950s, but wisely avoids the "stagey" pageantry and sometimes-artificial quality which afflicted some of those films -- their shiny, clean sets, their stylized lighting and (lets face it) their occasionally turgid and sanctimonious tone. The environment of Jesus of Nazareth looks earthy and "lived in". Dust and grit pervade the sets. Cinematographers David Watkin and Armando Nannuzzi bathe the film in naturalistic lighting, which adds enormously to the sense of realism. Filming in real, historic structures adds further verisimilitude, but production designer Gianni Quarantaso's work is so believable it's hard to tell which sets are actual historic architecture and which were created for the film.

Costumes likewise resemble actual clothing. The exquisitely-tailored Roman uniforms and shiny breastplates of 50 religious epics are here replaced with wrinkled, weathered tunicas and dull, pitted armor -- as would be the case for legionnaires serving in a remove province.

Robert Powell never achieved international stardom (which is baffling, considering his enormous talent and magnetic screen presence), but this actually benefits Jesus of Nazareth -- Powell is so unknown, that when we look at him, we see the the Messiah, not the actor. Powell himself said in a later interview "No one can play Christ -- not really", but he proves highly convincing in the role -- he exudes the humbleness, compassion and gentleness which is Jesus, but also exhibits the righteous indignation -- which is also Jesus -- in the Money changers" scene. Throughout it all, he holds himself with the demeanor of a king.

Although much of the supporting cast are well-known, they inhabit their characters with equal persuasion. It's also remarkable to consider the number of great actors assembled for this production. You'll never see a cast of this level ever again -- certainly not in a faith-based subject -- Anne Bancroft, Laurence Olivier, Rod Steiger, James Mason, Christopher Plummer, James Earl Jones, Michael York, Valentina Cortese, Ralph Richardson, Peter Ustinov, etc., etc. While it is a sure bet not all of them were religious believers (and maybe a few did it for the money and a trip to Morocco), the overall willingness to appear in Jesus of Nazareth indicates a level of respect for the subject. Likewise, the production itself was co-financed by Sir Lew Grade -- who was Jewish -- and shot in Tunisia and Morocco, so many of the extras and crew were Muslims. Extras in the synagogue scenes were played by Jewish members of the local community. This all points further to the shared sense of respect, of all involved, toward the subject.

The scourging of Jesus and the crucifixion sequence are grisly and devastating. While not as gruesome as the (arguably more authentic) sequences in The Passion or The Last Temptation of Christ (this was the only thing Scorsese got right!), the performances -- from both Powell and the the actors cast as the Roman guards -- more than make-up for the lack of gore (and this was, after-all, made for television in the 1970s -- they couldn't really allow things to get too bloody).

Maurice Jarre's score is arguably his finest -- and the best ever written for a production based on the Gospels. His music avoids the "heavenly choirs" of Newman and Rozsa (though I do love Rozsa's scores). It's fair to say Jarre had a unique style, and while it sometimes could clash with certain types of subject matter, here it fits perfectly. The score is always reverent, but never once sanctimonious. Jarre's expertise in world music is also put to good use here, his score featuring instruments like the santur, uggav, chalil, shofar, chatzotzerah, etc. It's sad no expanded CD of this score reissue has yet appeared (James Fitzpatrick has been trying for years to track-down the location of the master tapes).

Jarre's cue for the Three Kings sequence a particular highlight, the way he underscores each king with a unique motif, and specific instrumentation -- an Ondes Martenot for Gaspar, a dulcimer-like instrument for Melchior, percussion for for Balthazar -- which he artfully resolves as the three characters intersect on their journey. Genius.

True, Jesus of Nazareth embellishes things here and there -- like inventing a backstory for Herod Antipas; then again, Herod's character -- that of a powerful, but cowardly and easily cajoled despot -- is completely in line with how the Bible describes him. I find it hard to criticize the production but it could be argued the backstory created to "explain" Judas' motivation cuts him too much slack. He is depicted as an intellectual who admires Jesus, but has doubts about his divinity. Moreover, the character is tricked into betraying his Redeemer (as opposed to doing so out of venal greed -- as described in the Gospels). But that is a nitpick. And some have criticized the production for omitting certain things -- like the storm scene, where Jesus walks on water. (This was in fact filmed, but not used in the final cut.)

There will never be a perfect dramatization of the story of Jesus -- hence my rating of 9/10 -- but Jesus of Nazareth still outclasses every single production of this kind ever made, and I doubt it will ever be surpassed.

[AndyDursin]

I'm curious, why would ITC sign-off on new remasters of UFO and Space: 1999, but not Jesus of Nazareth?

I'm imagine the Gerry Anderson shows sell more copies at this point in time. But to be clear, JESUS OF NAZARETH was 'remastered' for HD -- but definitely, it could benefit from a real restoration from the original negative. It looks like they just produced an HD master of whatever elements they had on-hand.

It's supposed to be co-owned by ITC and RAI, maybe the Italians hold the negative and they're the ones who need to restore it? Could have been too much work/time/effort than ITC wanted to put into it.

Certainly it's worthy of a 4K remaster. Too bad it's not handled by another studio who could've given it more care.

[Eric Paddon]

I've found that I can enjoy "Jesus Of Nazareth" more when I watch it at the beginning of my yearly marathons as opposed to ending with it because ending with it I found kept causing me to focus too much on the minor flaws. Had I been allowed to make some adjustments to the script, I would have done these things that IMO would have fit the overall style Zeffirelli aimed for and at the same time restored some key Gospel accounts.

1-The Temptation scene. This was filmed but cut because Zeffirelli, for the same reason he was having trouble with doing the scenes of a risen Christ felt his naturalistic instincts clashing with the need to show something that requires intruding the overtly supernatural into what we see. I thought Stevens had done this scene well with his "Dark Hermit" approach in GSET, so it's not as if it's impossible to do it, but we lose a key part of the Gospel narrative without this scene.

2-Given how Zeffirelli is determined to depict Pilate as a bored bureaucrat who isn't interested in Jewish affairs (to the point where he has Pilate leaving Jerusalem right after the Crucifixion which isn't accurate), I'm surprised he jettisoned the account from Luke where Pilate tried to pass the matter off to Herod Antipas on the grounds Jesus was one of his subjects as a Galilean. Plummer is IMO the best Herod Antipas ever, and we lost a chance to see him and Powell interact. I also would have retained the presence of Pilate's wife, who according to Matthew had urged Pilate "not to have anything to do with that righteous man" because of a dream she'd had.

3-Zeffirelli for some reason shows Jesus carrying the cross beam on his back like the other two prisoners which means we don't have a Simon of Cyrene scene of him helping to carry the cross. This was a case of sacrificing Gospel accuracy to what he probably considered "realism" of another kind but it's a bit jarring to see this detail left out when it's so well-known.

[BobaMike]

NOBODY (2021) 6.5/10

Thoroughly enjoyable action film starring Bob Odenkirk (of Better Call Saul, SNL/Conan, and Mr. Show fame). He plays a put sadsack family man, who after his house is robbed, reveals that he was once a government assassin and gets involved with Russian mobsters. Odenkirk is perfect, and the first half of the movie was really good. There is an amazing fight set on a bus between him and 4 hoodlums that is expertly staged, and Odenkirk is believable as a fighter. Christopher Lloyd plays his father and has some fun scenes. The credits listed Michael Ironsides (from Starship Troopers), and I kept looking for him- then I realized the old fat man was him! He's changed a bit...

The ending of the movie is a little too much "Home Alone-booby traps for adults" for my taste, but still fun.

Perfect movie for a middle aged guy, but I can't imaging taking my wife to see it

[Monterey Jack]

The credits listed Michael Ironside (from Starship Troopers), and I kept looking for him- then I realized the old fat man was him! He's changed a bit...

He's basically morphed into Wilford Brimley.

Nobody was great fun, especially Chrisopher Lloyd.

[Monterey Jack]

-The Blue Lagoon (1980): 3/10



This...is awful. Aside from the technical polish of Nestor Alemendros' cinematography and Basil Poledouris' gorgeous score, this is a ghastly, embarassing, unintentionally funny botch. I've heard stories of how notoriously cheesy this is for years (not to mention the riotous parody of it in Top Secret!), but it's even lamer -- and funnier -- than I ever would have imagined. Plus, the fact that Brooke Shields was fourteen when it was filmed gives all of the prurient elements extra ick factor (yes, a body double was used for the nudity, but still...ew). Mostly, though, it's dull, an interminable series of scenes with the young leads frolicking in admittedly-beautiful Fiji locations, with the rank acting of Shields and Christopher Atkins (not helped by being forced to deliver lines like, "Why are all these funny hairs growing on me?" ) giving the film a leaden, torpid quality. Shame that a handful of Poledouris cues were left off of the Intrada CD, because I never want to sit through this again.