WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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RedRiver
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by RedRiver »

I like TOPKAPI, but you make a good point. Jules Dassin had a fine hand for this type of story. RIFIFI is wonderful. NAKED CITY an influential American film. But Huston, Hayden and their band of misfits take the big score with this genre. ASPHALT JUNGLE remains the heist by which all others are judged.
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CineMaven
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by CineMaven »

Jules Dassin handled "BRUTE FORCE" pretty well too.
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movieman1957
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by movieman1957 »

Looking through some old posts I found our long lost friend Klondike saw Unstoppable. I watched it last night and the title is appropriate because the action is pretty unrelenting. It's based on a true story.

It's the story of a unmanned train under full power tearing its way through Pennsylvania and the railroads attempts to stop it. Denzel Washington plays a 28 year veteran engineer who takes it on himself along with his partner to stop the train against corporate's orders. While you get some background on Washington and his life and his conductor/partner Chris Pine it is secondary to the action of stopping the train. Denzel is the rock in this picture. His quiet knowledge, confidence and determination carry the film. Otherwise it's a 98 minute chase.

Some films you have to suspend your disbelief and this one comes to a stretching point but it is mostly about the role of the news coverage as it is portrayed in the film. The first thing is a news helicopter follows the train at a very low altitude pretty much the whole way through the picture. I would think local authorities would at a minimum have it put higher or back off all together. The reporters all along the way have names of people involved while this is going on. During one attempt to block the coming train by slowing it down with another train, in a matter of a few minutes, they know the name of the engineer. They put his picture on screen with his name. They also know the name of the guy responsible for letting the train get away from him in the first place. I don't think that would have been the case when it happened though it might have happened that way. I don't know for sure.

Can editing be too much and too fast? The camera doesn't stop. If it is not quick cuts it is a camera panning or turning or anything but sit still. That part was a little dizzying.

To have spent more time picking on things then bringing out what was good about it I still enjoyed it. Stick to the train stuff and you have a pretty entertaining film if you're not expecting too much.
Chris

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RedRiver
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by RedRiver »

That does sound entertaining. Seems I saw a TV movie with a similar plot. Mid-1970's, I'd say.
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CineMaven
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by CineMaven »

i saw and enjoyed "unstoppable" when it came out. denzel seems to be moving into the "older-experienced-guy-in-movies" persona. what happened to my young handsome matinee idol? time, i guess. chris pine's grandmother was Anne Gwynne.

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charliechaplinfan
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I watched You Can't Get Away With Murder with Humphrey Bogart in the lead and Gale Page as the girl. My only complaint with this one is the title, it gives the ending away. It's a fast moving film about a hoodlum and a susceptible boy in the neighbourhood who joins in a stick up to impress his hoodlum friend. After the first heist they go for a second heist but things go wrong and a guy is killed by Bogie but with a cop's gun who then gets prosecuted for the murder. A bit of a tangle which gets sorted at the end, Bogie is the most memorable character in the movie, Billy Halop is good as Johnny and Henry Travers as Pop is a fatherly mentor to the young Johnny. An early starring role for Bogie but a good one nevertheless.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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Vienna
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by Vienna »

SHOW THEM NO MERCY, a 30s Fox drama, with Rochelle Hudson and Edward Norris as a young married couple caught in a kidnapping plot by Cesar Romero, Bruce Cabot and Edward Brophy.
It's always good to see Cesar in a serious role and he does well as the leader of the gang.
MikeBSG
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by MikeBSG »

Yesterday I watched "In Bruges" (2008), directed by Martin McDonagh.

I ended up liking this movie more than I expected to. At first, I thought it would be two guys drinking and swearing for 90+ minutes, and I figured out why they had been sent to Bruges before the film revealed that

BUT this is really a cleverly plotted film, with things seemingly tossed away at the start of the movie coming back and paying off in a big way near the end of the film, so that when "In Bruges" was over, I realized that this was actually some very good filmmaking.
RedRiver
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by RedRiver »

I'm intrigued by your description of the Bogart film, Chaplin Fan. It sounds like a lot of fun!
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by MikeBSG »

This morning I watched "All I Desire" (1953) directed by Douglas Sirk.

This was a very enjoyable film. Barbara Stanwyck plays an actress who returns to her hometown around 1910 or so. She sees the family she ran out on. Some are happy to see her. Some are not.

It is a very well-made film. I loved the party scene, in which everyone was dancing and having a good time, and you couldn't tell if the movie was about Stanwyck's redemption or whether she was stirring up trouble for the next generation. The movie turned out to be barely 90 minutes long, and it probably wrapped everything up too fast to be truly first rate, but I thought this film was really worth a look.

Interesting side point: the comic servants are Scandinavian "Ole and Lena" types. (Indeed, the cook is named Lena.) You don't usually see that in a Hollywood film. It made me think of Lake Woebegon.
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by Rita Hayworth »

RedRiver wrote:I'm intrigued by your description of the Bogart film, Chaplin Fan. It sounds like a lot of fun!
It is a lot of fun ... and its one of my favorite early films of Humphrey Bogart was in.
:)
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

It was fun, he was top billed but didn't have the most screen time but when he's on he's memorable, I hadn't realised that Billy Halop was one of the Dead End kids, I still need to watch that movie. I would highly recommend it as a film that doesn't require much from the viewer but gives a lot back.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
RedRiver
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by RedRiver »

ALL I DESIRE is certainly worth a look. It's not one of the two or three Sirk soapers I cite in conversation. But it's mature, challenging and heartfelt. It's Douglas Sirk!
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

My next door neighbours would agree with your partner's niece on that one Kingrat.

I enjoyed your review of Of Human Bondage, I didn't know of the later film, I read the book a month ago, it's huge, I thoroughly enjoyed it, Leslie Howard was perfect casting to play Phillip, Bette Davis to play Mildred, the rest of the book would have difficult to bring to the screen.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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