I Just Watched...

[CinemaInternational]

EATING RAOUL (1982) Which I was lucky enough to see was on TCM last night. I watched all of it, dreading KEN RUSSEL's LISZTOMANIA (1976) which is typically over-the-top and essentially plot-less.

I've only seen EATING RAOUL once, when it came out in the theater. I loved it. I would have recorded it in the wee hours of TCM but think it's streaming.
I did take LIZTOMANIA out of the library to finally see it but couldn't get into it after 30 minutes. Thank you for reinforcing that I wasn't wrong & missed nothing.

Ken Russell is an auteur, if by "auteur" you mean someone who makes the same mistakes over and over again.

I remember liking Russell's film The Boy Friend, but that was his most restrained work, at least by his standards. Women in Love was OK as well, but Tommy felt like my eyes and eardrums were being attacked.

[Swithin]

I've only seen EATING RAOUL once, when it came out in the theater. I loved it. I would have recorded it in the wee hours of TCM but think it's streaming.
I did take LIZTOMANIA out of the library to finally see it but couldn't get into it after 30 minutes. Thank you for reinforcing that I wasn't wrong & missed nothing.

Ken Russell is an auteur, if by "auteur" you mean someone who makes the same mistakes over and over again.

I remember liking Russell's film The Boy Friend, but that was his most restrained work, at least by his standards. Women in Love was OK as well, but Tommy felt like my eyes and eardrums were being attacked.

I always want to like Ken Russell's films, but they often do not live up to my expectations. I loved Women in Love, which I haven't seen in years; and I love The Lair of the White Worm (1986), which has sort of an OTT plot, but which is very well done, has a great cast and script, and is at times howlingly funny. I remember going to many of the other Ken Russell films when they were released, and in fact found the ones judged to be OTT to be not OTT enough. I do remember liking The Devils. And Russell has directed some fine work (mostly documentaries) for television.

Gothic is an example of a film that could have been a contender. Great story, based on that famous evening at the Villa Diodati in Geneva in 1816, but it just doesn't work as well as it should. A snippet of the story is presented at the top of Bride of Frankenstein (1935), with Mary and Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron.

One of the funniest scenes in The Lair of the White Worm is when Amanda Donohoe is snake-charmed.

[Allhallowsday]

...
I always want to like Ken Russell's films, but they often do not live up to my expectations. I loved Women in Love, which I haven't seen in years; and I love The Lair of the White Worm (1986), which has sort of an OTT plot, but which is very well done, has a great cast and script, and is at times howlingly funny. I remember going to many of the other Ken Russell films when they were released, and in fact found the ones judged to be OTT to be not OTT enough. I do remember liking The Devils. And Russell has directed some fine work (mostly documentaries) for television.

KEN RUSSELL made a film for BBC TV in the mid-60s called THE BIGGEST DANCER IN THE WORLD which made a huge impression on my 7 or 8 year old mind when it was broadcast out of NYC. EXCALIBUR is the only film of his I can say worked for me. ZARDOZ has some things in it I like, but it is really just a barrel of laughs (and silly or boring in turns).

[jimimac71]

Tom Hanks on the "Ben Mankiewicz Television Channel."
They did a wrap-around for Casablanca.
Okay, to also promote Tom's new book, his first.
OMG! BMTC!
Yup, those are the words from Tom's mouth.
I can see the new logo now, starting with TCM, then the 3 letters rearranged, and the B added.

[Fedya]

KEN RUSSELL made a film for BBC TV in the mid-60s called THE BIGGEST DANCER IN THE WORLD which made a huge impression on my 7 or 8 year old mind when it was broadcast out of NYC. EXCALIBUR is the only film of his I can say worked for me. ZARDOZ has some things in it I like, but it is really just a barrel of laughs (and silly or boring in turns).

I thought Zardoz was a John Boorman movie, not a Ken Russell film.

And I hated Women in Love. It's too bad my review from the old TCM boards is no longer up, although as I said at the time, when faced with a possibly stampeding herd of cattle, Glenda Jackson starts doing interpretive dance. The cattle realize the movie already has enough BS, turn around, and walk away.

Also at that same party, the two guests of honor drown themselves realizing what a turkey the movie is and how they don't want to be in it any more.

[LostHorizons]

Tom Hanks on the "Ben Mankiewicz Television Channel."
They did a wrap-around for Casablanca.
Okay, to also promote Tom's new book, his first.
OMG! BMTC!
Yup, those are the words from Tom's mouth.
I can see the new logo now, starting with TCM, then the 3 letters rearranged, and the B added.

Uhhhh… didn’t you yourself say you wanted TCM to incorporate more current release movies and current actors to broaden their income??? I don’t get you at all…

[Bronxgirl48]

THE MAN WITH A CLOAK -- egregious waste of a good cast in agonizingly dull, rather pretentious period melodrama with a unique literary twist that should be fascinating but decidedly isn't.

[jimimac71]

Tom Hanks on the "Ben Mankiewicz Television Channel."
They did a wrap-around for Casablanca.
Okay, to also promote Tom's new book, his first.
OMG! BMTC!
Yup, those are the words from Tom's mouth.
I can see the new logo now, starting with TCM, then the 3 letters rearranged, and the B added.

Uhhhh… didn’t you yourself say you wanted TCM to incorporate more current release movies and current actors to broaden their income??? I don’t get you at all…

No, wasn’t me. Never. My post doesn’t connect at all with your post.
I’ve suggested ways for TCM to make income and you disagree with anything I say.
You don’t get me because you’d rather not.
You were in error about my situation with the TopBilled forum too.
I suggest you ignore me from now on and I will do the same.

[Swithin]

Haunted Honeymoon (1940)

Robert Montgomery travelled to MGM’s UK studio to play Lord Peter Wimsey in this film based on a story by Dorothy Sayers. The other actors are all British, although Constance Cummings was an American who had settled in London. The film opens a few days before Lord Peter is to marry Harriet Vane (Cummings). When Vane (a crime writer) expresses a desire to settle in her childhood home in Devon, Lord Peter purchases the estate as a present for his wife-to-be. Husband and wife make a pledge to leave their careers in crime detection behind them. The film quickly segues to the village, where we are introduced to all the barmy locals, each of whom has a reason to kill the man from whom Wimsey purchased the house. The man is killed just before Lord and Lady Wimsey arrive, but in all the fuss, no one finds the body until one hour into the film. There's a lot of business related to the eccentricities of the locals, including a woman who is intent upon giving the Wimseys parsnip wine and parsnip jam.

Much of the film is taken up with idle chit chat which seems to make up the time, since not much is happening. When they finally get around to dealing with solving the murder, it turns out that the most obvious character, who was the first we met (played by Robert Newton), is the guilty party. A rather endless segment related to a hanging cactus points to the evidence.

So, a moderately enjoyable but not very special film, with nice English locations and excellent actors, including Sir Seymour Hicks, Leslie Banks, Googie Withers, Joan Kemp-Welch, Louise Hampton, and several others, who make up the odd inhabitants of the village of Biddlecombe.

The film was called Busman's Honeymoon in the UK.

[LostHorizons]

Tom Hanks on the "Ben Mankiewicz Television Channel."
They did a wrap-around for Casablanca.
Okay, to also promote Tom's new book, his first.
OMG! BMTC!
Yup, those are the words from Tom's mouth.
I can see the new logo now, starting with TCM, then the 3 letters rearranged, and the B added.

Uhhhh… didn’t you yourself say you wanted TCM to incorporate more current release movies and current actors to broaden their income??? I don’t get you at all…

No, wasn’t me. Never. My post doesn’t connect at all with your post.
I’ve suggested ways for TCM to make income and you disagree with anything I say.
You don’t get me because you’d rather not.
You were in error about my situation with the TopBilled forum too.
I suggest you ignore me from now on and I will do the same.

No, I just don’t understand what you are getting at. YOU said you wanted TCM to play ads for newer releases and to discuss upcoming movies and releases? Stuff like the Tom Hanks thing is what would happen if TCM did that. That is what I am getting at.

[Allhallowsday]

KEN RUSSELL made a film for BBC TV in the mid-60s called THE BIGGEST DANCER IN THE WORLD which made a huge impression on my 7 or 8 year old mind when it was broadcast out of NYC. EXCALIBUR is the only film of his I can say worked for me. ZARDOZ has some things in it I like, but it is really just a barrel of laughs (and silly or boring in turns).

I thought Zardoz was a John Boorman movie, not a Ken Russell film.

And I hated Women in Love. It's too bad my review from the old TCM boards is no longer up, although as I said at the time, when faced with a possibly stampeding herd of cattle, Glenda Jackson starts doing interpretive dance. The cattle realize the movie already has enough BS, turn around, and walk away.

Also at that same party, the two guests of honor drown themselves realizing what a turkey the movie is and how they don't want to be in it any more.

EXCALIBUR is BOORMAN too! That's what I get for remembering wrong! Thanks!

[jimimac71]

Uhhhh… didn’t you yourself say you wanted TCM to incorporate more current release movies and current actors to broaden their income??? I don’t get you at all…

No, wasn’t me. Never. My post doesn’t connect at all with your post.
I’ve suggested ways for TCM to make income and you disagree with anything I say.
You don’t get me because you’d rather not.
You were in error about my situation with the TopBilled forum too.
I suggest you ignore me from now on and I will do the same.

No, I just don’t understand what you are getting at. YOU said you wanted TCM to play ads for newer releases and to discuss upcoming movies and releases? Stuff like the Tom Hanks thing is what would happen if TCM did that. That is what I am getting at.

Yes to advertising! No to new films.
Talk is cheap and I bet the hosts could enjoy talking up new stuff.
Did you see the Tom Hanks wrap-arounds?
Tom Hanks also did a wrap-around for Jezebel.
Tom Hanks was interviewed by Ben Mankiewicz.
I had nothing to do with it.
I’ve made suggestions.
Again, where are yours?
WB, maybe WBD, has 50 billion in debt, right?
Just as messed up as good old AT&T.
So TCM is in no better shape than before.
I don’t care what happens, regarding my suggestions.
TCM is probably going to survive.
I enjoy regular TV programs and TCM is not something I must have.
My opinion really is for fans beyond me.

[Masha]

Jurassic Park (1993)

A zoo which is set up as a theme park suffers some glitches which release the animals but a few employees being eaten alive by prehistoric beasts is just the cost of doing business.

I saw this in theater when it was first released. I was not overly impressed. This is the first time I have watched it since then. I remain unimpressed.

It is a grand technical achievement. The story is epic. This telling of it is so weak that it must rely on cheap gore and jump scares to elicit any excitement.

There are a few moments of brilliance but they are overshadowed by the endless hair-pulling and beating of chests.

Jeff Goldblum is precious simply by being Jeff Goldblum. It is sad to say that the character played by Samuel L. Jackson is so very two-dimensional that even he can do little with it.

The only scene which I consider memorable is when the girl timidly reaches out to touch the dinosaur and it sneezes on her. The look on her face speaks so very perfectly of the many decades of therapy it will take for her to come to terms with the experience.

6.4/12

It is available for viewing free with commercials on: TubiTV.

[TikiSoo]

EXCALIBUR is BOORMAN too! That's what I get for remembering wrong! Thanks!

Haha! I used to mix up Blake Edwards' films with Robert Altman films since similar freewheeling' styles & time periods.

But I wondered...looking over Ken Russell films the only ones I liked at all was THE BOYFRIEND, WHORE & TOMMY. I was underwhelmed by TOMMY, but like it better with subsequent viewings.
Russell's THE DEVILS was one of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen. I have a DVD of it but can't bring myself to watch it again, 30 years later.



I'll never forget when Lorna (on the other boards) saw it and went gaga over super creep Oliver Reed and wondered what caused such bad taste in men?

[TikiSoo]

I’ve made suggestions. Again, where are yours?

I thought you decided to "ignore" him...why engage with more questions?

Masha said:

It is a grand technical achievement. The story is epic. This telling of it is so weak that it must rely on cheap gore and jump scares to elicit any excitement.

That is a perfect sentence describing the movie Jurassic Park. No further reviews needed.

Side note: I recall a woman being very unhappy/angry/disappointed about the Animatronic Dinosaur show that traveled to Museums a few years ago, "The Dinosaurs in the show weren't REAL, they were mechanical!"