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Apparently it was Coppola who instigated the TV Mini-series. Asking his editor Gary Malkin to make a 7 hour version for television.
According to Wiki he did it to raise funds for Apocalypse Now which was vastly over budget at the time.
Tremendously enjoyed this Hercule Poirot flick. Peter Ustinov and David Niven are wonderful together in this exotic mystery thriller. Mia Farrow is also a delight in what might be my favourite Agatha Christie adaption.
Some Bond alumni: Lois Chiles does well as the beautiful rich girl that sets the whole plot on fire. TMWTGG's Peter Murton is responsible for some nice interior designs as well.
Furthermore, great score by Godfather composer Nino Rota. Achieved cinematographer Jack Cardiff (The African Queen) also provides beautiful imagery of the famous Egyptian landscapes.
Fright Night, 1985
One could always rewatch the great Halloween (1978) around this time of the year, but I decided to go for something entirely different.
In the midst of the slasher hype of the 1980's, this film is surprisingly old-school. Which is a good thing. It mixes typical slasher tropes such as horny teens with a good old-fashioned vampire story.
Nice atmosphere, great synth score and fantastic performances by Chris Sarandon and Roddy McDowell. The youngsters are, regretfully, less convincing and especially that sidekick is a pain in the arse.
Nevertheless, a nice little film.
There is the former player falling in love for the first time plot
The guy who was a screw up at his old job finally making it plot
And the whole dealing with s loved one with a disease plot
The film should of focused on one of these and it would of been ten times better but I do get to see Anne Hathaways Boobs twice so that does raise the films a bit for me
6/10
I presume you are refferring to The Godfather Saga? I think i just downloaded that a week ago.
Agreed.
Apocalypse Now Redux was an absolute chore to sit through. Much better to see the scenes in the brilliant doc Hearts Of Darkness.
I'm probably in a minority of one but I was never a big fan of the flashback scenes in Godfather part 2.
Yes there are some great scenes in them and the Little Italy scenes really evoke the time and place. But I find Michael's rise to power and the price he ultimately pays much more interesting.
With John Cusack & Stacy Keach, two actors I have a lot of respect for, in the cast, I had been waiting to see this. It turned out to be a bit on the disappointing side, Keach was in and out of the film in about 5 minutes (which made his casting a waste, they might as well had cast an unknown). Cusack has made better films, Keach as made made better films, and there are better zombie-esque films out there. So I can't honestly say that I would recommend Cell.
This was one of my most anticipated films of the year. I'm a huge fan of the first two, and of Hanks as Robert Langdon. I always enjoy how director Ron Howard is able to weave tension, beautiful locations and verbose expository dialogue nicely together in a neat package. However, I was concerned going in that this third entry wouldn't be up to the level of the first and particularly the second entry. The trailers and the snippets of dialogue I could discern underwhelmed.
The verdict: I had reason to be concerned. In my view this is decidedly the least impressive of the three films. It definitely doesn't deserve the lowly 20% it currently has on RT, but it's not up to the level of the first two.
The scenic locations are there, and are more beautiful than ever. The film almost has an early Bondian travelogue feel, right down to an interior shot of the Hagia Sophia that could have come right out of FRWL. Tom Hanks is as excellent as ever as Langdon. He knows the role inside out by now, and it shows. It's like a 2nd skin to him.
So what's the problem? Well, the premise is somewhat underbaked. While the antagonist's master plan is interesting enough, the film doesn't delve into his motivations or dwell enough on it, and so the audience isn't given an opportunity to connect with him in a way that could have helped the film. Moreover, there are several characters that pop in and out without explanation, and which give the film a somewhat haphazard and confused flavour. We learn later who they are and how they are all linked, but by then the damage has been done. It's almost like Memento without Nolan's genius.
Finally, and most detrimentally in my view, the cast is just not up to par. There is no one with the gravitas of Stellan Skarsgard, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Jean Reno, Jurgen Prochnow or Paul Bettany here. Irfan Khan, Ben Foster and Omar Sy just don't cut it I'm afraid -not by a long shot. Sidse Babett Knudsen does a decent enough job and she has the acting chops but it's not enough. Perhaps the worst offender is Felicity Jones. These Langdon entries are known for their charismatic female leads, and Audrey Tatou and Ayelet Zurer exceeded expectations in the first two films. Jones is so wooden and expressionless that it's like watching paint dry. It doesn't bode well for SW-Rogue One next month I'll tell you.
Ultimately this isn't a total disaster. There is enough here to save the film. Still, one comes away thinking that Howard and Hanks were handicapped by budget constraints (the film was reportedly made for a $75m production budget, which is half the 2nd film's cost before inflation adjustments) which may have impacted the quality of the supporting cast they could employ. Even Hans Zimmer doesn't really give it his thundering best, suggesting that his orchestra budget may have been cut. The screenplay could also have been tightened up, and perhaps missed Akiva Goldsman's involvement.
Recommended - but it really could have been so much more. I'm a huge fan and so am critical, as I am with Bond, when things aren't done at their best.
Like that Bond film, the lead actor holds it together, but the film is a bit disjointed and disappointing compared to the prior entry, and one comes away thinking it could easily have been a lot better with a little more script/character development. It's not entirely awful either - a bit frustrating in a way.
:D
Well ok, if you would just cut out everything after the island sequence in SF up to the start of the Skyfall sequence, the film would definitely escape the bottom of my ranking and maybe go up a good 5 places.
But as a principle I wouldn't want ANYTHING altered in any of the films. It's a pandora's box in my opinion.
Even if I would be very tempted to actually buy and watch a re-cut of QOS, not that this will ever happen anyway.
Friday the 13th
Probably had the best ideas to work with. Uses the idea of twisted motherly love as a motivation for mass murder, which comes out in Betsy Palmer's adequately creepy performance as Pamela Voorhees. The final girl showdown and iconic ending are good to end the film.
However, the film is plagued by the dated 80s effects, (like the slow-motion decapitation) some fake jumpscares as well as the film being inappropriately and over-scored. Some of the best moments occurred when the film was silent. Seeing Alice make coffee quietly in the dark, or hiding in the closet as Pamela was looking for her outside were much more anxious than the moments that used those incessant strings!
6/10
Friday the 13th Part II
The most well-directed of the three. The problems in the previous film were less apparent, except for the fake jumpscares. The score was a little better, but was now getting very repetitive. The ending is also a little unresolved (where is Paul?)
Contributed a lot to the series obviously by introducing Jason. Unfortunately, I didn't feel as scared by Jason as Pamela for some reason. Even though he is set-up adequately, there isn't that same feeling. Oh well. Narrowly beats the first film since it knew how to have fun at key points and developed some suspense to go along with it. Ginny is better acted than Alice, although we don't know her very well. And yet the moment where Ginny pretends to be Pamela is very haunting. I actually jumped twice in this film. Nice, straightforward, if a little empty, B-movie slasher.
7/10
Friday the 13th Part III
Friday the 13th Part III had the most thrilling final girl showdown, and the final girl Chris is the most attractive and indeed the smartest yet. Unfortunately, you must slog through almost 70 minutes of the most underwhelming of fake jumpscares, thin plotlines, thin and badly acted characters (Shelley) and blatantly repetitive and grating score. It is disappointing, therefore, that Jason gets to don his iconic hockey mask for the first time in this garbage, this film were he really is just a hulking figure - his poignant purpose of avenging his mother is already lost to the audience. Sad filmmaking. I wish they did not crap on the original's classic ending with the cheap and senseless Pamela knockoff.
Hey, but at least Vera's death (shot in the eye with a spear gun) looked pretty good!
2/10
Ranking:
Friday the 13th Part II
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th Part III
Someone tell me if Final Chapter is any good...
Yeah, the last movie I watched was Captain America: Civil War & it was pretty awesome. :))
Not gonna lie, but I must admit, some extended cut movies can be quite the stretcher to watch. Case in point being the extended cut of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The first time I saw it, I was burned out by the time they got to Sad Hill (That's not to say it's a bad movie, 'cos, c'mon, it's Leone!)
But of course, there will always be those movies that are supposed to be long and epic, which is why I love them (The LOTR films, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Hamlet, Seven Samurai, etc.).
So, I can see why it had to be that long and have an extended cut.
This is one of my ultimate nostalgic, feel-good cartoon films. Love me some Scooby, and Boo Brothers is my absolute favorite film from the franchise! Such a hilarious, quirky film. I'll always love it.