A few reviews

[TM2YC]

A Star is Born (2018)
I was 100% invested and absorbed in the rise but the fall started to lose me a bit. The first half where Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga are playing this really authentic sounding and emotionally real rock 'n' roll, begins to move towards plastic glitter Pop in the second half. I was confused for a time because I was unsure if I was supposed to be thinking this is gaudy, manufactured and soulless (and the characters would think this), or if I was supposed to think this is Gaga's career going from strength-to-strength? (it was the latter). Cooper's visual Direction was basic (the cinematography was gorgeous though) but his handling of actors and taste for raw performances was masterful. He really made me love and care for these characters. A great first film overall.

Dammit, is there nothing Bradley Cooper can't do? Handsome, a brilliant Actor and Director, funny, can make people cry when playing a cybernetically-enhanced CGI Raccoon and has the voice of a drunken hobo angel.

[ArtisDead]

Hellraiser 1 & 2 = Awesome
Hellraiser 4 = Not bad
Hellraiser 3 & 5-10 = Awful

I completely agree. With all things considered, there are places the first two films fall short. Production, sets and acting come to mind as mentioned previously by TM2YC.

But the story...can you imagine what could have been? In the hands of a producer with larger budget and better actors?

One can dream...

The first two are still close to the top of my list of horror movies. You can do what you like with all if the rest.

[ArtisDead]

Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015)
Fascinating yet flawed Documentary insight into the internal world of Kurt Cobain and how his life informed the lyrics and music of Nirvana. Visually exploring his diary entries was a valid idea, cutting up old movies and home videos to fit his audio tapes was a valid idea, animation was a valid idea too, talking-head interviews was an uninspired but viable idea as well... but they should have decided on one style, or perhaps mixed them up a lot more. It is somehow both too vague on biographical structure and yet not abstract enough to work fully as an introspective mood piece. Still, if you like Cobain's music, I'm sure this will give you a few new perspectives on it.

Agreed! My brother lives in Forks, Washington and played in a band. He actually was friends with Kurt and Krist while they were scraping. The picture the media paints is never the same as the diorama that reality paints.

It's good to see a documentary get close to the truth. Check out Soaked in Bleach.

[TM2YC]

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
A remake of the wonderful 1924 Douglas Fairbanks Silent film (which I marginally prefer), a precursor to the 1960s historical films of Ray Harryhausen and a heavy influence on Disney's 'Aladdin'. The dotty old Sultan and his evil Grand Vizier Jaffar are lifted wholesale, along with several other elements, including musical motifs. There is also a hint of 'Temple of Doom' when the eponymous thief is robbing a magic jewel from a giant statue (including a giant spider battle). If you like any of those sorts of adventures, then you'll have fun with this.

Michael Powell Directed a large chunk of the film (I think?) but five other Directors also worked on it. Powell would cast this film's star, the Indian actor Sabu in his later acclaimed 1947 film 'Black Narcissus'. I didn't think the pastel colour pallet fully exploited the possibilities of Technicolor like Powell's later films (this was early days). Some of the matte paintings and model shots are very fine and easily still hold up. Some of the chroma key shots hold up less well but this was the first film to use the process I understand.



Oh look the whole thing is on youtube:

[bionicbob]

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
A remake of the wonderful 1924 Douglas Fairbanks Silent film (which I marginally prefer), a precursor to the 1960s historical films of Ray Harryhausen and a heavy influence on Disney's 'Aladdin'. The dotty old Sultan and his evil Grand Vizier Jaffar are lifted wholesale, along with several other elements, including musical motifs. There is also a hint of 'Temple of Doom' when the eponymous thief is robbing a magic jewel from a giant statue (including a giant spider battle). If you like any of those sorts of adventures, then you'll have fun with this.





Oh look the whole thing is on youtube:

Absolutely LOVE this movie!!!!  Saw for the first time when I was 7 years old, and still enjoy it thoroughly to this day.  My greatest joy was introducing it to my daughter when she was 6, and seeing her fall in love with the same wonder and magic.  It is still one of favourite movies to watch together. 

[ArtisDead]

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
A remake of the wonderful 1924 Douglas Fairbanks Silent film (which I marginally prefer), a precursor to the 1960s historical films of Ray Harryhausen and a heavy influence on Disney's 'Aladdin'. The dotty old Sultan and his evil Grand Vizier Jaffar are lifted wholesale, along with several other elements, including musical motifs. There is also a hint of 'Temple of Doom' when the eponymous thief is robbing a magic jewel from a giant statue (including a giant spider battle). If you like any of those sorts of adventures, then you'll have fun with this.

Absolutely LOVE this movie!!!!  Saw for the first time when I was 7 years old, and still enjoy it thoroughly to this day.  My greatest joy was introducing it to my daughter when she was 6, and seeing her fall in love with the same wonder and magic.  It is still one of favourite movies to watch together. 

WOW! One of the first adventure films that I ever saw! My MeMaw had an old...get this...video disc of it (they were in a plastic case and looked like records) in glorious Technicolor.

We used to beg her to let us watch it. We usually had to do some mundane chore to earn the privelege like scraping the cow manure out of the stalls in the barn. It was always worth it. Best time we ever had scraping manure.

An old favorite for sure but the recollection is making me smell cows for some reason.

[jrWHAG42]

Everyone is talking about how great this film is, maybe I should watch it.

[ArtisDead]

Everyone is talking about how great this film is, maybe I should watch it.

I hope that you don't recall the smell of cows. Otherwise you should enjoy it. 

[TM2YC]

Die Nibelungen (1924)
Fritz Lang's Silent Epic is one continuous nearly 5-hour narrative but is divided into two almost equal parts. The 1st half, 'Siegfried' is definitely a silent film for Tolkien fans. The titular hero strides the land forging legendary weapons, acquiring magic powers, defeating mighty foes with the aid of enchanted items, seizing vast golden Dwarf treasures and slaying a dragon (a full-size fire-breathing articulated Dragon puppet!). The 2nd part 'Kriemhilde's Revenge' is perhaps more influential on 'Game of Thrones' than Tolkien, with Siegfried's wife Kriemhilde in the Daenerys Targaryen role as she leaves her home and seeks military power to wreak bloody revenge on her former Kingdom. We have a fictionalized Attila the Hun in the Khal Drogo spot, who is also portrayed as a barbarian horse master. The fire and smoke drenched slaughter of the final battle reminded me of the way death and madness are shot in Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece 'Ran'. Gottfried Huppertz original score is magnificent in 5.1 and I kept thinking it was going to break into the Batman theme .

Unfortunately the pace of editing in 'Die Nibelungen' is glacially slow and explanatory and dialogue intertitles are few and far between. I imagine German audiences intimately familiar with the 'Nibelungenlied' myth could fill in the gaps. In the same way that an Englishman like myself would be able to understand a Silent film of the Robin Hood myth just by the visuals. I'd wager you could cut the film down by a couple of hours, add more intertitles and still not cut any scenes. 'Die Nibelungen' was well worth seeing once but I doubt I'd watch it again.



The Legacy of the Nibelungen (2011)
The 'Die Nibelungen' blu-ray came with a feature-length Documentary on it's making, restoration and cultural impact. I was fascinated by all the little clips of the myriad different versions, multiple negatives (each a unique cut), shortened cuts with more intertitles for international audiences, versions with different tints, versions with Wagner music and later talkie reworkings. It's possible I might have enjoyed one of these other versions more than the scrupulously faithful official version restored and assembled by the Murnau Foundation. The film also explains Goebbels' adoration of the film and it's later adoption by the Nazis as something quintessentially Germanic. I think I enjoyed this Doc more than the actual film.

[ArtisDead]

You must be a serious cinemafile to watch that stuff. That goes beyond arthouse. 

How do you do it?