It's got tanks. It's got a big monster. It's got Weta Workshop building all that and Gary Kurtz of Star Wars & The Empire Strikes Back fame producing. I think Panzer 88 is one film I definitely want to see. I hope it gets made.
Read a good article here.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Unlikely weekend combination
While visiting friends in the countryside we watched X-Men: The Last Stand for game background and Låt den rätte komma in because everyone wanted to see it.
X3 is pretty uneven, but stays just on this side of watchable. Still, it's hard not to wish that Bryan Singer had stayed on the project. Let the Right One In (its English title), on the other hand, was a real surprise and a real gem. A Swedish vampire movie about two 12-year-old kids sounds like it shouldn't work. Happily, I was proven wrong.
X3 is pretty uneven, but stays just on this side of watchable. Still, it's hard not to wish that Bryan Singer had stayed on the project. Let the Right One In (its English title), on the other hand, was a real surprise and a real gem. A Swedish vampire movie about two 12-year-old kids sounds like it shouldn't work. Happily, I was proven wrong.
Monday, April 18, 2011
We win, Gracie!
If you're going to make a dumb movie, why not make it gloriously dumb? Armageddon is handicapped by a natural immaturity, and I forgive it. Harry Stamper is the man.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Hitch and Grace
Being the topics of the two film books I bought this week: Alfred Hitchcock: The Complete Films by Paul Duncan (2011) and High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly by Donald Spoto (2009), the latter as a Finnish translation.
The first book is from TASCHEN, so the focus is on images instead of text, but that's fine since I already have quite a few words about the master.
The first book is from TASCHEN, so the focus is on images instead of text, but that's fine since I already have quite a few words about the master.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Anybody can type
A Howard Hawks & Cary Grant double bill today with Only Angels Have Wings and Monkey Business. Both are among my favorite directors/actors and both are in great form here. Wings portrays one of Hawks' small groups of professionals doing a difficult job, this time airmail pilots flying a dangerous route over South American mountains. Jean Arthur was great as the female lead; I definitely need to get more of her movies.
Monkey Business has Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe, and funny chimps. I was smiling pretty much all the time. Charles Coburn utters an absolute killer, deadpan line when he and Grant watch punctuation-challenged Monroe sashay (the only word that seems to fit) out of his office. The men look at each other. "Anybody can type."
Monkey Business has Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe, and funny chimps. I was smiling pretty much all the time. Charles Coburn utters an absolute killer, deadpan line when he and Grant watch punctuation-challenged Monroe sashay (the only word that seems to fit) out of his office. The men look at each other. "Anybody can type."
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
No need to remake that one...
The Coen brothers tried, anyway. I haven't seen their version of The Ladykillers, but I have seen the original now and find it hard to see how it could be meaningfully improved upon. Wonderfully black English humor.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Kane
Tonight was the second time I watched Citizen Kane. I recall I found it good but not great as a young adult. What can one say about "the best film of all time" (which it certainly isn't, because no single film is)?
Well, I can say I found it pretty compelling. Effective non-linear narrative, ace cinematography, Bernard Herrmann score, and young Orson Welles kicking ass on both sides of the camera. Good, intelligent reasons to like it. But it's the story itself that sticks to me. A poor boy gets everything and finds out he has nothing. That is simply a great, powerful myth.
The transfer on the DVD I have was nothing to write home about, though.
Well, I can say I found it pretty compelling. Effective non-linear narrative, ace cinematography, Bernard Herrmann score, and young Orson Welles kicking ass on both sides of the camera. Good, intelligent reasons to like it. But it's the story itself that sticks to me. A poor boy gets everything and finds out he has nothing. That is simply a great, powerful myth.
The transfer on the DVD I have was nothing to write home about, though.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Twice the nostalgia value
When Back to the Future was released, if offered a hefty slice of 1950s nostalgia. Watching it yesterday, I realized another 30 years will soon have passed since 1985, and 80s nostalgia was very much in effect. Huey Lewis, Van Halen, Walkman... ahhhh.
As a film it is of course still impeccable entertainment, guaranteed to lift your spirits. This time around I particularly liked Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson's performances. To no one's surprise, the Blu-ray looks and sounds great.
I remember parts II-III as somewhat less entertaining. But it's been much longer since I last watched those, and now that I have the whole trilogy it will be revisiting time soon.
As a film it is of course still impeccable entertainment, guaranteed to lift your spirits. This time around I particularly liked Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson's performances. To no one's surprise, the Blu-ray looks and sounds great.
I remember parts II-III as somewhat less entertaining. But it's been much longer since I last watched those, and now that I have the whole trilogy it will be revisiting time soon.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Project Hitchcock lurches back into life
After an all-too long break we managed to continue the project by watching The Trouble with Harry. It was very funny but quite different from any other Hitch movie I've seen. Shirley MacLaine featured in her first film appearance.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
A driving visionary
H.B. Halicki was a man who really wanted to make a superior car movie. He directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the original (and vastly better than the remake) Gone in 60 Seconds, and did his character's stunt driving while at it. He also owned many of the vehicles used in the filming.
The result is half endearing low-budget filmmaking without much of a script, and half amazing chase sequences. Halicki was injured twice while driving. You can see that cars were something the crew was passionate about, and in a movie like this you don't need much else.
The result is half endearing low-budget filmmaking without much of a script, and half amazing chase sequences. Halicki was injured twice while driving. You can see that cars were something the crew was passionate about, and in a movie like this you don't need much else.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)