rate the last movie you saw

[AndyDursin]

OUTLAND is a solid, sturdy sci-fi film. I'm sorry Goldsmith didn't respond to it (didn't he decry the mechanical, inhuman nature of the story?), but it's well crafted and entertaining. The Blu-Ray is also definitely the way to go with its superior transfer of Hyams' typical dark cinematography.

On THE HOBBIT -- Peter Jackson, once he's done adding in every last shot of Bilbo relieving himself in the forest glen, ought to go in and do a "Book Cut" and actually pare the thing down so it's an actual adaptation of the novel. Not with every last scrap of "appendices" material he's thrown in. Cut all 9.5 hours of this bloated Trilogy into a single 2 to 2.5 hour feature as the book was actually written. Otherwise, you'd have to pay me to go see "Smoag" in a theater, the last one bored me to tears.

[AndyDursin]

KICK-ASS 2
4/10

Dismal sequel is a big comedown from Matthew Vaughn's original. Completely pointless and dumb, without any of its predecessor's clever satirical touches, and with notably fewer effects and action sequences. A waste of its cast's time and effort.

[Monterey Jack]

Either way -- the good news is that if the HD master that airs on HDTV channels is the original audio mix, then 99.9% of the time the Blu-Ray is going to be derived from the same master. So if it ever shows up, chances are good it'll have the original theatrical audio:

Let's hope so...An American Tail hits Blu-Ray in March.

[AndyDursin]

Either way -- the good news is that if the HD master that airs on HDTV channels is the original audio mix, then 99.9% of the time the Blu-Ray is going to be derived from the same master. So if it ever shows up, chances are good it'll have the original theatrical audio:

Let's hope so...An American Tail hits Blu-Ray in March.

Yeah we'll see. Of course you could end up with the right audio mix and a DNR'd older transfer that's been sitting around. Could be one or the other.

[AndyDursin]

ANCHORMAN 2

7.5/10

Some undeniably hilarious moments ("chicken of the cave") bubble through this overlong and agreeably goofy sequel. What I will find interesting will be the general public's reaction to this film -- the original, though it has a huge cult following, was originally just a modest hit. This movie is even more outlandish and I admired its total disregard for adhering to any type of formula -- Steve Carell's character is even more nonsensical than before, the humor may bypass some viewers entirely...but that's what I liked about it. The movie goes for broke and delivers some choice moments that ought to have the hardcore fans buzzing for some time...but for the casual viewer, I can just see some people going "that was dumb" and the film just kind of petering out at the box-office.

Either way, not all of it works, but it's tough to dislike a modern studio-produced comedy as utterly bonkers as this one.

[AndyDursin]

A CHRISTMAS STORY
10/10

Frag-i-lay........must be Italian!



CHRISTMAS VACATION
10/10

Still the best...



Merry Christmas!!

[Jedbu]

Have been catching up on the following:

STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION, SEASON 4 (Blu-Ray): 7/10

More absolutely gorgeous remastering from CBS Home Video with stunning sound and great extras. It is amazing how much of a difference there is from the first two seasons and this one. It's as if "Best of Both Worlds" really kicked something into gear with the writers and the actors that they really needed, and for me this is the season where both Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes showed what they were truly capable of.

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION: 7/10

A big improvement over the EUROPEAN VACATION debacle, this NL/John Hughes collaboration is one of the few films where Chevy Chase actually seems to be playing a human being. He wants an old-fashioned family Christmas, and even though he is optimistic he also does get riled at people who are either clueless or obnoxious. The whole "Cousin Eddie" subplot comes close to being a bit squirmy, but the warm moments (Chase watching 16mm home movies in the attic, his dad confiding that he got through the holidays with the help of Jack Daniels) mix well with the slapsticky moments, and when Chase realizes that his bonus is a subscription to the "Jelly of the Month club" and lets loose with all the frustration that has been building up inside, who has not felt that way. I just wish the interior shots didn't look so ugly.

STAGE DOOR: 8/10

This ensemble piece top lined by Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers and Adolphe Menjou is a good example of overlapping dialogue pre-Howard Hawks and a much better example of putting a group of solid female actors in a story and letting the characters work their magic than the following year's THE WOMEN. Hepburn is the daughter of a rich dad who wants to make a name for herself in the theater, Rogers is the one who wants stardom but wants it on her own terms and not on her back, Menjou is the producer who uses actresses in a romantic way then casts them aside when someone new comes around, and up and comers like Ann Miller (only 14 at the time!), Lucille Ball and Andrea Leeds (heartbreaking as last year's model) show what they were capable of. Even Gail Patrick, who seemed to make a career out of playing the woman-you-love-to hate in so many films, shows a softer side at time in this adaptation from the kaufman/Ferber play, with really great direction from the need-to-be-rediscovered Gregory La Cava.

Happy New Year, everyone!

[Eric Paddon]

A late Christmas gift arrived yesterday in the form of the Hitchcock Blu-Ray set and the first two I watched last night were "Psycho" and "The Birds". I have previously reviewed them in earlier watchings in this thread and will only note how great the transfers look.

[AndyDursin]

I just wish the interior shots didn't look so ugly.

The interior shots are fine -- but the transfer on the Blu-Ray isn't very good and is need of remastering. I expect with a 25th anniversary next year (amazing it's been that long) that there's a chance Warner might revisit the movie given its enduring popularity. They cranked out a slightly improved CHRISTMAS STORY this year, so I think it's possible.

CHRISTMAS VACATION is actually my favorite Christmas movie! I watch it at least once if not twice a season, and it holds up splendidly.

You make an excellent point on Chase, Jeff. Along with FUNNY FARM (which is one of my favorite comedies from the '80s), this is one of Chase's better performances. When Joanne and I watched the film last week, I also noted that Griswold isn't a cartoon character in CHRISTMAS VACATION, which IMO is why the movie works. Instead of an idiot doofus, he's more a guy trying too hard to please everyone, which makes him more sympathetic and believable -- I mean, Chase played him so broadly in the first two films, you wonder how he could hold down a job. In this movie, you see that he's actually successful in what he's doing, and there's also an undercurrent of warmth in this picture that was missing from its predecessors.

I have always believed that was due to John Hughes. Unlike all the other Vacations, he had total control over the picture -- writing it, producing it, and selecting the director. It wasn't a case like EUROPEAN VACATION where someone even rewrote his script or even the original movie where he was only the writer. The added poignancy of several scenes was really due to him being in full control over the total package, and I think it fits comfortably with PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES and HOME ALONE in his "holiday trilogy" as it were.

What I also find shocking is how there was never a soundtrack released for the film. I LOVE the Mavis Staples theme song, the use of various holiday standards was effectively done, and even Angelo Baldalamenti's underscoring is a huge step above the "cartoony" work of Ralph Burns and Charles Fox in the earlier Vacation movies. With all of that in mind -- and considering how Hughes' movies spawned popular soundtracks -- it's just unfathomable why there was never a soundtrack album released for the film. And why hasn't anyone else gotten to it over the years since? Seriously? Very, very, very weird.

[AndyDursin]

I bought it!!! $10 shipping from Japan in 48 hours too.

[Monterey Jack]

My last films of '13...

-Inside Llewyn Davis: 9/10

-Saving Mr. Banks: 8/10

-Red 2: 4/10

Who was asking for a sequel to Red?!

[Jedbu]

I know I wasn't asking for that sequel...

[AndyDursin]

THE CASSANDRA CROSSING
3.5/10

I had to revisit this as part of Shout's Blu-Ray release -- and wow, is it bad. In fact, it's hard to pick which moment constitutes the film's funniest unintentional moment – the infected terrorist stammering through the train’s kitchen (complete with over-the-top “shock” effects in Jerry Goldsmith’s score)? Or Martin Sheen’s unforgettable breakdown as he falls into Richard Harris’ arms before the movie’s climax? Either way, the carnage in the movie’s unspeakably downbeat ending is noteworthy – R-rated and bloody as nobody (not even children and elderly women) is spared a tragic end. It's so sour that it nearly mitigates the outrageously awful miniature effects that resemble a child playing with his dad’s Lionel train set.

Shout has combined this on Blu-Ray with another horrible ITC production, THE DOMINO PRINCIPLE, written by the same screenwriter, and likewise with a narcissistic "'70s ending".

Both of these make RAISE THE TITANIC look very, very good by comparison...but more on that later

[Eric Paddon]

Rear Window 7.5 of 10

-#4 in my list of films I've seen in the Hitchcock Blu-Ray set. For the first time I actually caught a detail I'd missed completely over the years and that's the sight of the disguised woman leaving the apartment with Raymond Burr (supposedly his "wife" who gets aboard the train later). Overall, I think what fascinates me is how the scale and scope of this set with all the different apartments right down to a glimpse of the side street with cars moving by and the restuarant entrance, all of which can be seen from this one vantage point, just sucks you in completely the way a Disney ride always did for me as a kid. You know its all sets but you are drawn into them completely that you don't care you're not in some practical "realistic" outdoor location.

-The two plot holes that have never satisfied me though are (1) why does Jeff never mention the scream he heard in the dead of night which we know was the murder being committed? Wendell Corey would have likely had a pat answer for it, but it should have been mentioned and (2) I still find it amazing that Jeff is living in an apartment where the front door and his door are left unlocked!

-Giant thumbs down for that awful commentary track though. One of those arrogant film school lectures that gives us zero in production history information and instead over analyzes the plot and also has to veer in the tasteless discussion of sexual and phallic imagery that frankly I think 99.5% of the people who like to watch these movies don't want to know about or don't give a sxxx about.

[Eric Paddon]

Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad 7 of 10

-I'd never seen this film before last night but had the Blu-Ray in the Harryhausen set for some time. I'll need to be giving the various CDs of Herrmann's score a listen as a result of this since I can now see why it's considered one of his classics. The F/X sequences are great and clearly set the standard (indeed, similar scenes in later Harryhausen films like "Jason And The Argonauts" and "One Million Years B.C." pretty much duplicate the pattern of what was done here first) for Harryhausen fantasy films. The weakness is the very bland leads of Kerwin Matthews and Kathryn Grant and the kid genie was also a bit annoying.

Golden Voyage Of Sinbad 7.5 of 10

-It doesn't have as good F/X scenes as the older film, but better leads and a better storyline lift it slightly above the original IMO. The Blu-Ray transfer from Twlight is spectacular.