Wow no thats really interesting. Thanks for the link. I will definitely watch some. I'm more interested in noir from a filmmaking perspective hence I find them endlessly fascinating.
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Spoilers What Movie Are You Watching?
- Thread starter Huntn
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i rented Guardians of the Galaxy on VUDU on my Smart TV and that movie was awesome. it was a unique approach for marvel, very well made. it had alittle too much jokes but other than that it was excellent.
Watched "Suffragette" last night. I never realised that we (South Australia) were the second place in all the world to allow the vote for women. I always thought we were first, but it appears New Zealand beat us to the punch by a year!
This must be sleazy Hong Kong movie weekend for me.
Last night, Sun Chung's sometimes funny and somewhat raunchy Big Bad Sis (1975) - Women's lib gone triad. If the triad was a lady hustler who wanted to go legit after seeing how many innocent lives her gambling hoodoo was ruining. Oh, but that's the serious version. Chen Ping is Shaw Brothers' answer to Pam Grier (even staring in a note-for-note SB take on Coffy (The Sexy Killer)) and she's just way too much fun. But anyway, her title character becomes the surrogate protector etc. for poor, pathetic waifs at the sweat shop factory she's been working in since quitting the gang gambling racket. But the triads just won't let her go when she starts butting into their prostitution and such.
This evening, a Golden Harvest poopfest, The Body Is Willing (1984). Thankfully, Chan Wai Man was the heroic male in this but just an awful story about a Japanese pop star and her little sister's very bad return to Hong Kong. And the sleazy men who take woeful advantage. Honestly, I should have known what I was getting into with the dvd cover and the title. Thankfully, I exorcised this mess by playing spot Ti Lung's dragon tattoos in a movie I'll probably watch in full tomorrow and another Chen Ping Shaw Brothers vehicle, The Vengeful Beauty.
EDIT: The Vengeful Beauty is apparently an alternate sequel to the infamous The Flying Guillotine (made by the original's director) in spite of the sequel Flying Guillotine Two (which I like)...okay, I'll stop confusing me and everyone else. Needless-to-say, Chen Ping is the title scornful lady who loses everyone she loves thanks to the not-so-benevolent Emperor and his main flunky, Jin Gangfeng. There's a really great stinger I wasn't expecting that comes about 13 minutes before the end, and Chen Ping is just as much fun kicking butt in a period movie as she is playing Pam Grier. We lose the Guillotines about half way through, but that does not detract from the story. For 80 minutes the pacing can be a bit off, but still, a good time.
Someone on another board confirmed that VB is an alternate sequel to FG while FG2 is the actual one. So confusing.
Last night, Sun Chung's sometimes funny and somewhat raunchy Big Bad Sis (1975) - Women's lib gone triad. If the triad was a lady hustler who wanted to go legit after seeing how many innocent lives her gambling hoodoo was ruining. Oh, but that's the serious version. Chen Ping is Shaw Brothers' answer to Pam Grier (even staring in a note-for-note SB take on Coffy (The Sexy Killer)) and she's just way too much fun. But anyway, her title character becomes the surrogate protector etc. for poor, pathetic waifs at the sweat shop factory she's been working in since quitting the gang gambling racket. But the triads just won't let her go when she starts butting into their prostitution and such.
This evening, a Golden Harvest poopfest, The Body Is Willing (1984). Thankfully, Chan Wai Man was the heroic male in this but just an awful story about a Japanese pop star and her little sister's very bad return to Hong Kong. And the sleazy men who take woeful advantage. Honestly, I should have known what I was getting into with the dvd cover and the title. Thankfully, I exorcised this mess by playing spot Ti Lung's dragon tattoos in a movie I'll probably watch in full tomorrow and another Chen Ping Shaw Brothers vehicle, The Vengeful Beauty.
EDIT: The Vengeful Beauty is apparently an alternate sequel to the infamous The Flying Guillotine (made by the original's director) in spite of the sequel Flying Guillotine Two (which I like)...okay, I'll stop confusing me and everyone else. Needless-to-say, Chen Ping is the title scornful lady who loses everyone she loves thanks to the not-so-benevolent Emperor and his main flunky, Jin Gangfeng. There's a really great stinger I wasn't expecting that comes about 13 minutes before the end, and Chen Ping is just as much fun kicking butt in a period movie as she is playing Pam Grier. We lose the Guillotines about half way through, but that does not detract from the story. For 80 minutes the pacing can be a bit off, but still, a good time.
Someone on another board confirmed that VB is an alternate sequel to FG while FG2 is the actual one. So confusing.
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The wife & I got the new Land Before Time from RedBox for the daughter. Fairly certain we both fell asleep. The daughter seemed to enjoy it though.
That takes me back. My daughter loved those movies. Again and again. Enjoy those times when they are young. When they are older they won't want family movie time.
Watched Three kings last night.
An interesting (and not too far from some home truths) view on the Gulf War.
The Great Escape (1963)- One of my favorites. The movie shown on TCM (in color), looks like it's due for refurbishment.
Although he was a racer, motorcycle guy, that's not Steve McQueen!
My understanding was - or, I have read - that Steve McQueen actually tried to pass himself off as a double and do some of his own stunts in that movie.
Can I assume it was at least partially filmed in Paris? I have a cool Harley Davidson shirt from there. I'll see if I can find this for streaming.
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Five myths about the movie the Great Escape, still a great movie. 0f interest, 76 escaped, 3 escaped capture, and 50 were shot by the Germans. No American prisoners in the real story and this was not a the only mass escape during the war. In the movie, it was the boys who took the boat, and the Aussie who took a a bicycle who made it out. Seems like a train, might not be the best choice. The plane should have been a synch.
Very interesting post, and not at all surprising.
However, the character played was Richard Attenborough was based on a real life individual; re transport, an extraordinary true story - which I saw in a documentary - described how some Polish prisoners actually succeeded in escaping from Auschwitz wearing stolen German uniforms and using the Commandant's car to escape.
Loved Sunset Boulevard - superb cast in an excellent and haunting movie.
The others are all vey good, too.
Have you seen The Maltese Falcon? (Add John Huston to your list of directors who 'got' the idea of noir in movies).
Anyway, I recommend that you try to watch that - as it is another superb movie - and, to my mind, ranks as a definition of film noir.
Hope she is better now; warmth, fluids and bed rest, would be my suggestions.
The Sugar Daddies (1973) Okay, there is absolutely no way I am watching One Husband Too Many any time soon as this movie satisfied my sexploitation Hong Kong whims /sarcasm/ (What the heck was I thinking in buying these anyway?) Oh right, this one was simply to see what Sun Chung could do with a sitcom-bad sex comedy about poor yet randy young office grunt Siau Wu and his means to get ahead. And what are those means? Take advantage of young women willing to be paid for bedroom business with Wu's older coworkers and boss.
Yeah, the dude becomes a pimp of sorts which naturally ruins his life as he runs into lovely nubile swinging gold diggers as equally greedy and amoral as he is. And there's the karma for you.
I could easily call this paint-by-numbers story especially the last third (would my saying climax here get me banned? Heavens I hope not.) Although, I must admit Chung Wah (whom I've only seen in one other Sun Chung film and he was great in that) played the sneaky Siau Wu quite well here (until things fall apart anyway.)
Now I need some kung fu to get my brain back in order...
Yeah, the dude becomes a pimp of sorts which naturally ruins his life as he runs into lovely nubile swinging gold diggers as equally greedy and amoral as he is. And there's the karma for you.
I could easily call this paint-by-numbers story especially the last third (would my saying climax here get me banned? Heavens I hope not.) Although, I must admit Chung Wah (whom I've only seen in one other Sun Chung film and he was great in that) played the sneaky Siau Wu quite well here (until things fall apart anyway.)
Now I need some kung fu to get my brain back in order...
Regarding Steve McQueen, I think he did quite a bit of fast motorcycle driving in the movie, but the jumps are where the powers that be, put their foot down. What good is a broken or dead actor to the production?
Okay, this weekend has sucked movie-wise 2-3 (I liked 2 out of 5). Out of sleazy HK movies into way-too-gritty Japanese martial arts in The Killing Machine. Why was Sonny Chiba practicing kung fu in this when he's an expert in Japanese martial arts? Could it be flimsy excuse that his WWII Japanese spec ops soldier felt he had learn the enemies' styles while in their territory?
Anywho, Chiba is Mr. Soh, a young soldier who cannot accept that Japan gave up at the end of WWII. The dude is pissed, as a nationalist he's already tired of the Japanese feeling beaten and neglected only months after the surrender. This man is entirely too much tough love wrapped up in a furious package that can only be described as what if Wolverine was from Japan? His kicks are among the painful and violent I've seen from any martial artist, I was constantly wincing and flinching when he went to town on anyone because his strikes and legwork look 100% legit.
While Soh goes to town on any man who challenges him, he has a big heart for the oppressed: women, children and the elderly so he keeps getting into scraps to protect those whom he urges to be strong. Nice try, Chiba. I am not sure if this is supposed to be a depiction of a warrior suffering from P.T.S.D. (as Shaw Brothers' Four Riders does so darn well, despite its sometimes teeny bopper moments), but Chiba's responses felt like someone who learned to kill and cannot readjust to civilian life.
I like Sonny Chiba's animalistic fighting and from what very little I've seen, I think he's fun. Toshiro Mifune, he's not. I have to give the director and set designer a zillion props for making this film feel like the battered and war torn environment of 1946 Japan. It made the violin-laden story even more depressing. I am sure that was the point, war is hell and the aftermath can be equally traumatizing.
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That didn't stop anyone in late 70s / early 80s Hong Kong from doing those kinds of things and bits that were much, much crazier / worse.
Okay, I promise to add something else more profound to this conversation next time.
Anywho, Chiba is Mr. Soh, a young soldier who cannot accept that Japan gave up at the end of WWII. The dude is pissed, as a nationalist he's already tired of the Japanese feeling beaten and neglected only months after the surrender. This man is entirely too much tough love wrapped up in a furious package that can only be described as what if Wolverine was from Japan? His kicks are among the painful and violent I've seen from any martial artist, I was constantly wincing and flinching when he went to town on anyone because his strikes and legwork look 100% legit.
While Soh goes to town on any man who challenges him, he has a big heart for the oppressed: women, children and the elderly so he keeps getting into scraps to protect those whom he urges to be strong. Nice try, Chiba. I am not sure if this is supposed to be a depiction of a warrior suffering from P.T.S.D. (as Shaw Brothers' Four Riders does so darn well, despite its sometimes teeny bopper moments), but Chiba's responses felt like someone who learned to kill and cannot readjust to civilian life.
I like Sonny Chiba's animalistic fighting and from what very little I've seen, I think he's fun. Toshiro Mifune, he's not. I have to give the director and set designer a zillion props for making this film feel like the battered and war torn environment of 1946 Japan. It made the violin-laden story even more depressing. I am sure that was the point, war is hell and the aftermath can be equally traumatizing.
[doublepost=1473042082][/doublepost]
Regarding Steve McQueen, I think he did quite a bit of fast motorcycle driving in the movie, but the jumps are where the powers that be, put their foot down. What good is a broken or dead actor to the production?
That didn't stop anyone in late 70s / early 80s Hong Kong from doing those kinds of things and bits that were much, much crazier / worse.
Okay, I promise to add something else more profound to this conversation next time.
yeah the whole situation in sunset blvd was kind of creepy honestly. There were varying factors keeping him (i forgot his name) with that silent film actress, but when the scenes with that other younger girl who liked him were on, I was thinking...just go with her.
also yes i have seen maltese falcon. i saw it late at night and it was slightly confusing, but i definitely liked it. I'll have to rewatch it again, however. My mom has read the book actually so I'll probably rewatch it with her sometime.
Okay, this weekend has sucked movie-wise 2-3 (I liked 2 out of 5). Out of sleazy HK movies into way-too-gritty Japanese martial arts in The Killing Machine. Why was Sonny Chiba practicing kung fu in this when he's an expert in Japanese martial arts? Could it be flimsy excuse that his WWII Japanese spec ops soldier felt he had learn the enemies' styles while in their territory?
Anywho, Chiba is Mr. Soh, a young soldier who cannot accept that Japan gave up at the end of WWII. The dude is pissed, as a nationalist he's already tired of the Japanese feeling beaten and neglected only months after the surrender. This man is entirely too much tough love wrapped up in a furious package that can only be described as what if Wolverine was from Japan? His kicks are among the painful and violent I've seen from any martial artist, I was constantly wincing and flinching when he went to town on anyone because his strikes and legwork look 100% legit.
While Soh goes to town on any man who challenges him, he has a big heart for the oppressed: women, children and the elderly so he keeps getting into scraps to protect those whom he urges to be strong. Nice try, Chiba. I am not sure if this is supposed to be a depiction of a warrior suffering from P.T.S.D. (as Shaw Brothers' Four Riders does so darn well, despite its sometimes teeny bopper moments), but Chiba's responses felt like someone who learned to kill and cannot readjust to civilian life.
I like Sonny Chiba's animalistic fighting and from what very little I've seen, I think he's fun. Toshiro Mifune, he's not. I have to give the director and set designer a zillion props for making this film feel like the battered and war torn environment of 1946 Japan. It made the violin-laden story even more depressing. I am sure that was the point, war is hell and the aftermath can be equally traumatizing.
[doublepost=1473042082][/doublepost]
That didn't stop anyone in late 70s / early 80s Hong Kong from doing those kinds of things and bits that were much, much crazier / worse.
Okay, I promise to add something else more profound to this conversation next time.
Were 80s Hong Kong actors expendable?
Were 80s Hong Kong actors expendable?
LOL It certainly seemed like it. Jackie Chan is not lying when he said broken every bone in his body and I've seen some other actors and stunt people I like, performing some seriously crazy stuff, such as jumping off a suspension bridge without any protection. They've all talked about serious injuries. Anything for the box office, because all those guys and a few ladies fought for real there (real blows and in some cases real weapons.) I used to blow all these stories off but now that I've watched a lot of these films and saw those stunts, I just think these folks were batpoop crazy.
Funny how people how different reactions.
A highly intelligent and knowing homage to silent era Hollywood, I thought the movie brilliant, - and I think most modern movies - the few I see by accident, - so risibly awful that it is not funny - but I must admit that the word creepy never occurred to me.
This was a movie about Hollywood's own past, - and its relationship with parts of that past, a movie with a stunning plot, a superb cast, and a terrific script, (with barely a special effect in sight). Even those who played the smaller parts (Buster Keaton, or Cecil B. de Mille, for example) were legends. This was acting, a movie about acting (the clip shown by Gloria Swanson's character is actually a clip of a movie she herself had made in -the silent era), and the types of acting that were no longer fashionable or sought by audiences.
William Holden managed to play a weak (but not an evil) character superbly (not an easy thing to do in the US where male identity is so conflated with a robust expression of masculinity, and portraying male weakness is regarded with suspicion).
Both Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim had been stars - genuine, massively successful box office stars (and, in the case of von Stroheim, a brilliant director) during the silent movie era, and it was a rare treat to see what good actors both of them really were, especially in a movie that paid homage - as Sunset Boulevard did - to the silent movie era.
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Right yeah, I got he homage to the silent film era and that she was stuck in her past. Additionally her old decrepit house I found as an allegory for the silent film era. I think in the film you can see remnants of how it used to be very vibrant and full of color (the house) but now, just like the silent film era, it has decayed and rottened.
As for me finding it creepy, I think this goes back to your masculinity concept. I'm not a person who defined masculinity as being macho or whatever, but the fact that I still found it somewhat unsettling that he refused to tell her the truth about her situation and the fact that he was just ok with all of it was slightly creepy to me if I was in his shoes. Like, you see (I think it's Cecil b de Mille) and other characters just be yes men towards her, and I think even if you weren't a cartoon macho man, someone could at least give her a dose of reality. Although you could also argue that him not trying hard to make her "see the light" is somewhat selfish and cowardly. He's getting paid, and she's living in la la land, so what's it to him? His impending doom from this predicament gives it the noir feel which billy wilder executes really well
Anyway, I agree it was a fantastic movie.
Watched "The Boogey Man" (80s) a couple of days ago - which wasn't a fantastic film in any way, shape or form.
But still, Ulli Lommel created a quite eery New England atmosphere and the synth soundtrack by Tim Krog, who strangely never composed anything again nor beforehand - movie-wise at least, was really nice. The actors, like the general movie, rather (low) b-movie tier, but Suzanna Love (think married to Ulli Lommel at that time) was great and John Carradine had a small appearance. Overall a movie so bad that it's good again.
Next Lommel waiting for me is "Devonsville Terror" which is also featuring her. Ultimately leading to "The Tenderness of the Wolves" which is said to be his masterpiece.
But still, Ulli Lommel created a quite eery New England atmosphere and the synth soundtrack by Tim Krog, who strangely never composed anything again nor beforehand - movie-wise at least, was really nice. The actors, like the general movie, rather (low) b-movie tier, but Suzanna Love (think married to Ulli Lommel at that time) was great and John Carradine had a small appearance. Overall a movie so bad that it's good again.
Next Lommel waiting for me is "Devonsville Terror" which is also featuring her. Ultimately leading to "The Tenderness of the Wolves" which is said to be his masterpiece.
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This Weekend I watched.
Star Trek Beyond - I liked it, but I have soft spot for Sci-Fi in general particularly, Star Trek, Star Wars and Stargate.
And rewatched a Robbin Williams filmed called RV and caught on TV a 1957 - 12 Angry Men (true classical).
I intent to see Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, in memory of Gene Wilder
Star Trek Beyond - I liked it, but I have soft spot for Sci-Fi in general particularly, Star Trek, Star Wars and Stargate.
And rewatched a Robbin Williams filmed called RV and caught on TV a 1957 - 12 Angry Men (true classical).
I intent to see Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, in memory of Gene Wilder
While I enjoy the Star Trek movies - not least the decent production values - I have to say that I far prefer their respective incarnations as a TV series.
My experience is that the best stories - stories, that is, that included compelling plots, great - and sometimes, epic - narrative arcs, profound examination of - and exploration of - character, thoughtful scripts, proper ensemble acting - all came - to a far greater degree - from the various TV series, and not the movies, which tended to be a gorgeous spectacle, but didn't ever challenge you in the way that the very best episodes of the TV shows (ST, STNG, DS9, above all) did.
My experience is that the best stories - stories, that is, that included compelling plots, great - and sometimes, epic - narrative arcs, profound examination of - and exploration of - character, thoughtful scripts, proper ensemble acting - all came - to a far greater degree - from the various TV series, and not the movies, which tended to be a gorgeous spectacle, but didn't ever challenge you in the way that the very best episodes of the TV shows (ST, STNG, DS9, above all) did.
I was in the mood for something lighter, and Man Up delivered.