I Just Watched...

[HoldenIsHere]

Okay, I'm done.

Anyone else get a gut feeling from this posting that Lawrence has decided to quit this message board?

I have the same feeling for his movie reviews as he had problems with the same troll on the TCM boards.I have been reading each of his posts for many years,he has great,intelligent humour,makes judicious comments on films and he was making excellent comments in the off-topics board at TCM,I do not know him personally but he is the main reason I visit this board,i'am not a frequent contributor but I decided to reduce my limited participation.I hope he will ignore the troll as he recommended it to another member about the same person, Me too I thought all the trolls decided to go at 'the other one' but some are here now...

Yes, nakanosunplaza, one of the biggest creepias from the TCM boards has found his way to the SSO unfortunately and is posting his usual snark. That person fancies himself a comedian but alas the "jokes" are feeble at best and rude at worst.
That troll historically belittles people who have something intelligent and insightful to say about movies. Tellingly, that person likes to use the expression "pseudo-intellectual" to mock other posters' comments. People who use that expression often have feelings of inferiority about their own limited knowledge of a subject.

I hope that we all at the SSO will ignore the troll.

I hope Lawrence knows how much we appreciate and enjoy his posts.

Yes, kingrat, Lawrence's insightful and entertaining posts add so much to the SSO and added so much to the TCM boards.
It would be a shame if he stopped contributing because of some snide comments from someone who brings so little of value to the message boards.

[Intrepid37]

Anyone else get a gut feeling from this posting that Lawrence has decided to quit this message board?

No. I don't get that feeling at all.

That's what he meant. Leaving the Board. I have not communicated with him but he has threatened this before.

Are you saying he's a drama queen? Threatens to quit repeatedly?

That seems like odd behavior for an adult.

[laffite]

No. I don't get that feeling at all.

That's what he meant. Leaving the Board. I have not communicated with him but he has threatened this before.

Are you saying he's a drama queen? Threatens to quit repeatedly?

That seems like odd behavior for an adult.

He is anything but a drama queen. He seems to be merely a little sensitive at times.

[Intrepid37]

That's what he meant. Leaving the Board. I have not communicated with him but he has threatened this before.

Are you saying he's a drama queen? Threatens to quit repeatedly?

That seems like odd behavior for an adult.

He is anything but a drama queen. He seems to be merely a little sensitive at times.

Well, that's a relief.

I guess I was right, then - I didn't think he was quitting and from what you say, he wasn't. Just pretending to quit in order to demonstrate being "a little sensitive" according to you.

I think he just meant he was done posting for the day - but you know him better than I, I'm sure.

[TikiSoo]

Please, can we get the thread back on topic?

[Fedya]

The Duellists (1977).

Harvey Keitel, of all people, plays a soldier in Napoleonic France who has on obsession with duels, and keeps challenging fellow soldier Keith Carradine to a duel every time they meet over the course of 15 years.

This was director Ridley Scott's feature film debut, and he wanted to pay homage to the visual style of Barry Lyndon in the way he filmed this movie. Scott is visually very successful in that regard, showing he had a lot of potential that would come to fruition with Alien a few years later. The problem is that the story is a bit thin, having been based on a short story by Joseph Conrad. That, and Keitel (especially) and Carradine (somewhat less so) are miscast.

The Duellists is the sort of movie that it's easy to see why critics would go gaga over it. Normal people who can't comprehend why Sight and Sound critics would put crap like Jeanne Dielmann at the top of their greatest films list might have a somewhat less positive view of The Duellists, although it's not as if it's bad by any stretch of the imagination.

7/10.

[Intrepid37]

I just watched When We Were Kings again - a chronicle of the lead up to and fight between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman in 1974 Zaire.

What an amazing fighter Ali was. Virtually nobody gave him a chance against the seemingly invincible Foreman. We watch Foreman annihilating top-ranked opponent after opponent before he fights Ali. Foreman was a humorless monster back then - a truly frightening man with whom to be locked into combat.

But Ali knew what his own body could take - and Foreman would never be the same after Zaire.

Very exciting period in sports history -fascinating to watch even now.

[CinemaInternational]

I saw a 90s film the other day that, in spite of bad reviews at the time and being completely forgotten today, was actually a very good film. The film was 1995's moonlight and Valentino, and it was a great showcase for four fine actresses (Elizabeth Perkins, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathleen Turner, and Gwyneth Paltrow) in a story about coping with grief and starting over. Perkins plays a woman who in the opening minutes of the film finds out that her husband has been killed in a traffic accident, and the rest of the film deals with her attempts to pick up the pieces of her life with help from her best friend (Goldberg), her sister (Paltrow), and her former stepmother (Turner, who pretty much steals the film). It's very simple, but very well acted, touching, and it has a few amusing lines in the second half. The acting is very good across the board. Some of the supporting characters are very vague, but otherwise I really liked it.

Side note; Despite what the end credits claim, it was inspired by real life incidents, as the Perkins character is based on the film's writer, who happens to be Neil Simon's daughter. So that means that the Kathleen Turner character is actually based on Marsha Mason.....

[Detective Jim McLeod]

[
Strawberry Blonde (1941) TCM On Demand 7/10

A dentist (James Cagney) in late 19th century New York looks back on the courtship of his wife (Olivia de Havilland).

First time viewing for me and it was a fun romantic comedy. Cagney gives his usual great energetic performance, a scrappy guy but loses more fights here than he does in other films. de Havilland is also wonderful as the outspoken free thinking nurse he falls for. They have great chemistry, I would like to see their other film The Irish In Us (1935) . They were also in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) which I saw but they don't have any scenes together. Rita Hayworth is also fun as a flirty gold digger who nearly steals Cagney away. Superman fans like myself will be delighted to see George Reeves as a college boy who annoys Cagney at the beginning and end of the film.

[Allhallowsday]

LAND OF THE PHARAOHS (1955)

Popcorn movie! So much fun!

[Thompson]

Bullitt — Man, where was my head the couple of other times I watched it?? This is a great movie (IMO) all the way around. I was especially taken with the music, the soundtrack. The whole movie seemed so real, the action scenes pounced right on you, splendid camera work. The acting was right.
Dog Day Afternoon at 4:30

[Cinemaspeak59]

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) Don't fret over why an army of professional assassins are such lousy shots. Just enjoy the soaring fight & action scenes, nourish setting, and the movie taking itself so darn seriously but without a trace of smugness. A successor to Keanu Reeves could be in the wings in the form of Rina Sawayama, making her debut.

[laffite]

Beautiful Creatures (2013) This movie gets 47-54 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. Gosh, I thought it was better than that! Emma Thompson is absolutely stupendous! She can still be sensuous as she matures further along in age and talent. Go Emma!

Comments? About Emma, or anything?

//

[Lomm]

Not a classic film, but a classic character...Sunday night we watched Marlowe, starring Liam Neeson in the title role as a former cop turned private detective investigating a disappearance. Many twists and turns along the way, with a good cast and very good capture of the time period (1940s). However the story is a bit dull and predictable. Honestly, I dozed off once. Worth seeing just for the setting and atmosphere of 1940s California.

[Intrepid37]

Not a classic film, but a classic character...Sunday night we watched Marlowe, starring Liam Neeson in the title role as a former cop turned private detective investigating a disappearance. Many twists and turns along the way, with a good cast and very good capture of the time period (1940s). However the story is a bit dull and predictable. Honestly, I dozed off once. Worth seeing just for the setting and atmosphere of 1940s California.

How would you say it compares with the one starring James Garner?