Re: Good (or bad) Movies PART 2

[jimv]

Stupid, stupid me, I had a brain fart and meant to say Zero Mostel. Sorry

I never saw Mostel; he was the original!  When I finally saw the play on Broadway, Topol was in it.  While Mostel was playing it in NY, Topol was playing it in London.  When they decided to make the movie, I guess the makers like Topol better.

[LennG]

I never saw Mostel; he was the original!  When I finally saw the play on Broadway, Topol was in it.  While Mostel was playing it in NY, Topol was playing it in London.  When they decided to make the movie, I guess the makers like Topol better.

From what I heard, they wanted Mostel but he had other engagements. I think he was touring with the play and wasn't available. AND, Topol already knew the part.

[jimv]

Well, I only know Topol.  And, I'm  happy with him .

BTW, I just re-watched one of my favorite Greg Peck movies, "Night People."  It was made in '54 at the height of the Cold War.  Still a very good movie.

[jimv]

The other day I DVRed a 1953  movie off TMC  I watched it yesterday.  I hadn't seen it in years.  It starred an aging Frederic March & was directed by Elia Kazan.  It's titled "Man on a Tightrope."  An excellent movie!  It's about a Circus in Communist Czechoslovakia trying to escape across the border into the American Zone of Austria.  If any of you can get your hands on a copy, I highly recommend it!

[LennG]

Saw this many years ago and it was an excellent watch.

[LennG]

It really has been a long time since anyone posted on this thread, as, I guess, newer movies (that was the original purpose, to review new movies) have been lost since there really haven't been many new movies.

As I mentioned in the 'What we are watching' thread, I had just finished watching The Crown on Netflix and just loved it. Gillian Anderson did such a remarkable job playing Margaret Thatcher, I really wanted to see other movies about her, so we found, an Oscar-winning role by Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, 'The Iron Lady'
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1007029/
I know this movie is about 10 years old, but we had never seen it and what better time than now.
So myself and my darling wife watched this last night.

I can't say I really liked it a lot. It was good, and, as always, Ms. Streep just assumes the part and probably did deserve the Oscar for the role.
Briefly, it is about Ms. Thatcher after she was out of office, her husband had just died and she spends more time talking to an imaginary husband than anything else. That aside, her story was told thru flashbacks almost from childhood thru her time as PM of England. Maybe I expected more, but I was sort of disappointed as I felt more time was spent with her 'older' persona than with the story of her remarkable life and rise to become the first woman PM in England.

Again, just a remarkable performance by Ms. Streep, but overall, I was slightly disappointed in the movie as a whole.

[jimv]

Sorry you are disappointed, Lenny.  I really enjoyed the movie & I own a Blu ray version of it.  I'm not a fan of Meryl Streep but she was terrific in the part,  She really became Margaret Thatcher.  And, it shows how she, Ronald Reagan & Pope john Paul II  took down the Soviet Empire.  I strongly recommend it!

[LennG]

"News of the World" with Tom Hanks

See my review on the What are we watching thread


Excellent

[LennG]

We are starting to gear up for the Acadamy Awards. The Golden Globe nominations just came out and it gives me an idea of what were the 'better' movies from last year. This past year was something Hollywood has never experienced, when movies came out primarily for the TV and streaming markets.

So, one of the top movies, as far as nominations go, was a movie called 'Mank'. It is the story of Herman Mankiewicz, a sort of prolific screenwriter who basically wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane (even though the official wording is he did with along with Orson Wells).

Anyway, 'Mank' is his nickname and he is played by Gary Oldman, who won the Oscar for portraying Churchill in The Darkest Hour, and always gives a riveting performance.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10618286/  The movie is free on Netflix

Just a side note,
if you watch TCM you know Ben Mankiewicz as one of their main hosts. He is the son of Joseph Mankiewicz, who was Herman Mankiewicz's younger brother.

So, on to the movie. As I said, it sort of follows Herman Mankiewicz's trials and stuff, trying to write the screenplay for Citizen Kane. It offers many flashbacks as to how the 'old' Hollywood was, with many characters from those days, LB Mayer, William Randolph Hearst, David O Selznick, among others. PLUS the movie is filmed in glorious Black and White. So why didn't I like it?

I really never got a handle on this movie. Herman is a drunkard and his struggles to write are all here, but the story was just way too talky, jumped around from past to present, to past to present just way too much, at least for me. I almost turned it off several times as I was so confused. The story was his effort to write Citizen Kane and the many subplots that went into his doing it the way he did, (he basically hated Hearst, who Kane was supposed to be based on).

I was so looking forward to this movie--anything about olden Hollywood, and done in Black and White, just begged for me to watch, but, as I said, I was very disappointed in it. I wouldn't say I wouldn't recommend it, but I won't as others may really get into it and love it. Again, I didn't.

[beaugestus]

I haven't been on the "Porch" for a long time. So I dropped by and like Lenn and Jim I too am movie addict. When I noticed when you guys were talking about John Wayne movies I saw one of my favorites with him was not mentioned. I am sure you guys have seen it, Tall in the saddle. I was wondering what you thought of the film?

[jimv]

I haven't been on the "Porch" for a long time. So I dropped by and like Lenn and Jim I too am movie addict. When I noticed when you guys were talking about John Wayne movies I saw one of my favorites with him was not mentioned. I am sure you guys have seen it, Tall in the saddle. I was wondering what you thought of the film?

"Tall in the Saddle" was made around 1944.  I have a copy of it but haven't watched it in years.  It co-starred Ella Raines.  As I recall, JW was some kind of Gov't agent.  I forget who played the villain.   I could go downstairs & look it up but, at this time, I'm too lazy.

[LennG]

I haven't been on the "Porch" for a long time. So I dropped by and like Lenn and Jim I too am movie addict. When I noticed when you guys were talking about John Wayne movies I saw one of my favorites with him was not mentioned. I am sure you guys have seen it, Tall in the saddle. I was wondering what you thought of the film?

Great, we2 need more movie people around here. We have several great threads here, like the one about quotes from movies (see how you d, that is something 60 pages long now. We also have a terrific thread about what you are watching now, which gives some of us feedback on some good shows on TV, be it regular, Prime, Netflix etc. I know I am always on the lookout for something worthwhile to watch.

As for Tall In The Saddle--like Jim, I have seen it, but not for quite a while. Wayne was good in it but it wasn't near his best work. If memory holds, it was a decent enough John Wayne movie and an enjoyable watch, but nowhere near some of his best work.

Please join in here. 

[LennG]

It is coming to that time of year, where the so-called 'best' movies are nominated for Academy Awards. I looked at what was nominated for the Golden Globes and those are a pretty safe bet for most to be included in the Oscar nominations. So it is that time of year to start to catch up on some of these movies, at least the ones that might interest me.
That said, yesterday I watched 'Nomadland' a movie starring Frances McDormand as Fern who the entire movie is about.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9770150/

McDormand may well be America's best actress right about now, supplanting Meryl Streep. She has already won 2 best actresses awards and she is the favorite to win one again this year for her performance in this movie. She IS the movie.

So, Fern just lost her husband, and the town where she lived folded up so she is on the road, living out of her van, traveling across America. doing odd jobs for money and working where she can, meeting all sorts of people along the way. I read all the reviews of this movie and all were glowing. I guess, overall it was an amazing performance by Ms. McDormand, but the movie is very depressing. It is like watching a movie like Grapes of Wrath in a way, as just the entire overtone of the movie is dark and depressing. There are moments that are full of like, but, for me, I was expecting something more. Even the music score is bluesy (if that is a word) and depressing.
It is a slice of Americana that has been lost but it was an interesting watch.
I would recommend this movie, if not, just to watch Ms. McDormand's performance alone. Kids will definitely get bored with the movie, but it is suitable for everyone. Myself, I would recommend it to teens and above, but even teens will get bored as nothing gets blown up, not even close.

[LennG]

See my review of Sound of Metal in the What are we watching thread.

2, maybe even 3, if I had an extra thumbs--DOWN.

[LennG]

In my quest every year, to try and see as many of the movies that have been nominated for Best Picture, I watched another one in that category yesterday,
"Promising Young Woman'.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9620292/
With a cast of young actors and actresses, and another Oscar nomination for best actress for Carry Mulligen (the main character) I thought, well here is a movie I might really like. WRONG again. Well, let me say this one was better than some of the others I have seen, like Mank and the Sound of Metal, but I have to say IMVHO, they are really scraping the bottom of the barrel this year to even find 5 movies to nominate, let alone the 10, (or however many they did nominate).
I read the synopsis, a young woman pretends to be drunk at bars, etc. waits for guys to pick her up and sort of have their way with her until she 'wakes' up and releases vengeance on them for a friend who this happened to years ago. I sort of 'love' revenge-type movies, but this one was silly, not really a drama in that sense and not even a Black Comedy which I think, it was trying to be. I will say I liked it better than the other two movies I've mentioned, but, as of now Nomandland, which I didn't think that great, is, by far, the least of the bad ones.
This one was just silly, looks like it was made for young adults. Overall, for a movie like this, there was no sex, no blood, some cursing, but overall, a bunch of nothing. I have two more to go before the Oscars come on, so I'm hoping for something better.
As of now, Hollywood should be ashamed.