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A few reviews

TM2YC

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When You're Strange (2009)
Even though I love The Doors' music, the fawning tone of this documentary nearly put me off the band for good. It talks about the group like they were rock icons from birth, as if they were never real people with interesting lives. Johnny Depp talks utter b*llocks on the voice-over of the "Morrison was a quixotic poet wizard, tumbling through the sensual desert of possibility, tuned into his own shamanic dream" variety (I made that up but you get the idea) like it's out-takes from his 1998 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' recording sessions. No doubt there is some amazing footage of the band playing live though and the music is of course incredible.

 

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Paper Moon (1973)
An utterly delightful depression-era road-trip comedy-drama from Peter Bogdanovich, starring Ryan O'Neal and his 8-year-old daughter Tatum O'Neal. It would make a neat double-bill with 'Rain Man', as it's also about a conman and his growing relationship to an estranged relative on the road. Ryan plays Moze, an ineffectual, childish, small-time, conman who finds himself "lumbered" with what we assume is his daughter after her mother is buried in the opening scene. Tatum's Addie proves to be much more cunning, persuasive and determined than her adult counterpart. Tatum's performance is so strong for a child actor and it might be Ryan's best turn as well. They can both do comedy and drama, so I got really worried for their characters by the end. The black and white visuals looked incredible on the Masters of Cinema blu-ray and the jukebox Jazz score sets the period very well. Definitely straight on to my favourite movies list.

 

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The Century of the Self (2002)
Adam Curtis
traces a line through 20th Century history, beginning with Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis concept, the developments of his ideas by other family members, to it being applied to marketing and politics. Like 'The Mayfair Set' it's divided into four parts but unlike that last work, 'The Century of the Self' feels like one whole that you need to watch together. The parts explore; Sigmund Freud and his nephew Edward Bernays who basically invented what he dubbed "public relations", selling an image to people, instead of just a product; Freud's daughter Anna making psychoanalysis popular in America and the rise of "focus groups"; counter cultural ideas opposing Freud, like EST training and "self actualisation"; finally how the Bill Clinton and Tony Blair campaigns targetted swing voters through psychology (the latter aided by Freud's great-grandson Matthew, a PR consultant). The last argument is talking about exactly the kind of precisely targeted marketing/campaigning techniques that are done by algorithm now but were done by boffins then. The ideas don't seem to have changed in 20-years, just the processing power which has allowed consumers/voters to be modelled ever closer. The best bit is the clip Curtis found of a blatant 50s/60s US car commercial "subliminally" selling to women, which says the car is "nearly 4 inches longer!" then cuts to her practically having an orgasm while caressing the steering wheel :LOL: .

The hilarious vintage car commercial (NSFW, well the audio anyway):


 

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The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Martin Scorsese's 'The Last Temptation of Christ'
was notorious at the time, drawing condemnation from the Vatican, protests, censorship, bans, death threats for Scorsese and even a terrorist bombing of a cinema where it was being shown. Watching it now I'm struggling to see what was so controversial? It's not inflammatory, or disrespectful and treats the story, life and struggles of Jesus with great seriousness. It's chiefly concerned with his doubts, pain and confusion as a man but never suggests he isn't divine also. Harvey Keitel's performance as Judas was nominated for the 'Worst Supporting Actor' Golden Raspberry but again, I can't see why. Did they not watch him with angry tears in his eyes confronting Jesus in the final sequence? The last part as it segues from "It is accomplished!" into Peter Gabriel's celebratory church-bell Rock score is magic. One criticism I can agree with is the length, it's nearly 3-hours of people in shawls debating religion in the desert, sometimes they are standing, sometimes they are sitting. It felt long but I wasn't bored at any point either. I think Christian viewers would find the film powerful (speaking as a non-believer), so it's a shame if a lot of them have been put off watching it after all the claims of "blasphemy". By the way, the Criterion blu-ray is the way to go because another blu-ray transfer I saw was poor.


Siskel & Ebert's contemporaneous reviews are glowing and similarly unable to see what is controversial, finding it a "devout movie" and "a religious experience":


Lin-Manuel Miranda speaks about his very personal relationship with the film:


Peter Gabriel's fantastic credits music:

 

Moe_Syzlak

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It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, though I still listen to Gabriel’s score all the time. From what I remember the issue with Keitel was that his Brooklyn accent stood out like a sore thumb.
 

TM2YC

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It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, though I still listen to Gabriel’s score all the time. From what I remember the issue with Keitel was that his Brooklyn accent stood out like a sore thumb.

I read that some viewers/critics had had that reaction but it's not like he was trying to do an accent and failing (which can be highly amusing), he's just speaking in his own voice, nobody else is doing an accent in the movie. Maybe it was a radical thing back '88 to do that? HBO's recent award winning 'Chernobyl' had everybody doing there own Yorkshire/Scottish/Swedish accents instead of Russian and nobody seemed to mind. You go to the theatre and nobody is putting on an Italian accent to play Julius Caesar.
 
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Moe_Syzlak

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I think it’s an American thing. Americans hear a neutral American, English, Scottish, Australian, Irish accent and think, “oh yeah that sounds like the biblical Middle East.” 🤣

But a heavy NY, Boston, southern, Texas accent? It doesn’t fly. It’d be like Arnold doing Shakespeare.
 

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Maybe it was a radical thing back '88 to do that? HBO's recent award winning 'Chernobyl' had everybody doing there own Yorkshire/Scottish/Swedish accents instead of Russian and nobody seemed to mind.

So they were taking their cues from the 17th greatest film of all time, Valkyrie. :D
 

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The Age of Innocence (1993)
More than half of Martin Scorsese's films have been "period dramas" in the true sense of those words but 'The Age of Innocence' is his only one that fits the usual image of the genre. Scorsese really takes you into the impossibly mannered and emotionally restrained world of 1870s New York high society. By the time you get to the scene where Newland simply unbuttons Ellen's glove and kisses her wrist, you understand they are so chased that this might be the most erotic moment of their lives. Nobody ever says what is truly in their hearts but Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder make it clear through their eyes. The tone, style, period setting, changing fortunes of the characters and atmosphere provided by the voice-over reminded me a lot of 'The Magnificent Ambersons'. The lustrous detail of the costumes, props and interiors would be enough to sustain 139-minutes without any drama, they look stunning on the 2018 Criterion 4K restoration. There are several traditional glass-shots/matte-paintings (at a time when they had gone out of fashion and/or been replaced with CGI) that are some of the best I've ever seen. I had to pause the movie a few times to watch them again and sometimes I still struggled to believe they weren't real. The sweeping romance of Elmer Bernstein's score is easily up there with his finest work. I also loved the gliding camera moves but I was less keen on the frequent cross-fading mid-scene for no obvious reason. This is sadly the last film in which Scorsese's two adorable parents would both make one of their many cameos (it's dedicated to his father).


This may be merely the least impressive of the glass-shots!:

16544_12_large.jpg
 
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The Thing from Another World (1951)
Knowing what the hokey creature looked like and after listening to the opening scenes with the male characters exchanging "Hur, hur, women!" banter I feared this was going to be very dated. Actually I thought the gabbling overlapping dialogue felt quite naturalistic for the 50s, the scientific ideas are treated seriously and the first full appearance of the creature (through a doorway) gave me a genuine jump scare, which is impressive 70-years later. "The thing" just looks like a big lumbering Frankenstein beast (not a patch on the shapeshifting John Carpenter reimagining) but it's used sparingly, with much more screen time devoted to the human characters imagining what "the thing" is up to when they can't see it. I really liked the cynical reporter character but I could've done without the weak love subplot. The insane full-body burn is something to see, it looks like the inferno is in danger of engulfing the whole set and the main actors and I wasn't entirely sure if the people running in with fire extinguishers were supposed to be soldiers from the base, or panicking film crew. I found it amusing that all the mayhem is caused by an electric blanket being left on.




The Thing From 1951 (2021) aka The Thing (1982)
After watching the 1951 Howard Hawks' 'The Thing', I watched The Scribbling Man's fanedit of John Carpenter's 'The Thing', which converts it into a black & white, 4:3, 1950s style movie, with no swearing and appropriately reduced violence. I could never tire of JC's film but a fresh way to enjoy it was still welcome. The reframing of the scope shots, down to academy-ratio worked seamlessly and the spooky 50s rescore was a treat. My favourite bit was the new music over the jump-scare where "the thing" runs past the camera in the dark. The beauty of this 1982 classic is that you can never be fully sure of who is "the thing", when they get copied, or if some of their actions are because they're human, or because they're alien, so the film will always be fascinating to rewatch.


More info in the project thread: https://forums.fanedit.org/threads/the-thing-from-1951.20347/
 

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The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
Sam Peckinpah
decided to follow up his violent action-packed hit 'The Wild Bunch' with this more amiable and comedic Western. The subtle dry sense of humour begins immediately as the titular prospector holds a sarcastic dialogue with God as he marches through the arid desert, after his two treacherous partners steal his water and leave him to die. This sets it up as a traditional revenge plot but the unexpected meanders of life take the story in a very different direction. Whether by divine intervention or not, Hogue discovers a spring near a stagecoach route and realises it's the only source of water for miles, so there is money to be made. Jason Robards is wonderful in the title role, crabby, pig headed and nearly illiterate but he's got a kind, romantic soul. His romance with town prostitute Stella Stevens is really lovely and tender. They're both wishing for something better but fearful to embrace it in case fate takes it away. The bit of dialogue when they are about to have their figurative "wedding night" is one of the all-time great lines as she says "You've seen it before, Hogue" and he smiles at her and replies "Lady... nobody's ever seen you before". Puritanical religion is repeatedly mocked throughout the film, including David Warner as a sex-mad priest and Hogue accidentally collapsing a tent on some Bible-bashers. Hogue's attitude, outlook and backstory had parallels with Robards' character "Cheyenne" in Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. So I'm tempted to now view 'The Ballad of Cable Hogue' as a film about Cheyenne's father in my personal "head canon" (even though it presumably takes place sometime after history wise).




Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron (1993)
The Arrow 'Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia' blu-ray comes with an insane sounding new bonus 10-hour "Director's Cut" of this Sam Peckinpah career retrospective but I opted for the more manageable original 95-minute version instead. However, the quality and passion of the interviews is so high that I might give the long version a shot one day. The likes of James Coburn, Ali MacGraw, Kris Kristofferson and Jason Robards speak with misty eyes and rueful grins about their departed friend. Kristofferson plays guitar and Robards also reads incredible extracts from Peckinpah's correspondence with real gusto. The most moving tribute is from screenwriter Jim Silke who sheds a tear recalling a last day with Peckinpah that was like they were young men again. The self-destructive demons that haunted Peckinpah were clearly formidable. His only escape seemed to be making movies but his erratic behaviour and substance abuse because of those same demons increasingly made studios unwilling to let him make movies... a sad vicious downward spiral.

 

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A fanedit...

Mission Impossible II The Spence Edit

Spence is one of my favorite faneditors. I love his approach. He sees films in a unique way that helps him to find the best attributes of films that others may overlook for obvious reasons. He said, "I won't edit a film that I don't like."

That is why I was in a state of amazement when he chose to edit Mission Impossible 2 and present it as his reintroduction after a long absence from fanediting. I know we are all glad to see him back...but with this monster?

I couldn't figure out why Spence would choose the worst film in this overblown Tom Cruise ego gratifying franchise. That was my first impression when he allowed me to preview this edit several months ago.

To be honest, the franchise is alright from an action standpoint. Never boring and usually well made, but I don't care for Tom Cruise in these type of roles. I didn't like him as a Charles Bronson wannabe in the Jack Reacher films (I loved the books, so that was very disheartening). I definitely don't like him out of character trying to out Bond the plethora of actors who have played Bond.

Mission Impossible 2 has moments of excitement, moments of sheer idiocy and moments of sheer idiotic excitement. It's never boring, but it features Tom Cruise in his cocky, wise-guy mode, rather than his earnest, searching, don't-hate-me-because-I'm-beautiful mode.

The movie seems something less than the sum of its parts. It comes off as an aggressive live action cartoon. That is part of the appeal bit it negates any chance it might have had of making any emotional impact (which was unlikely from the start).

The movie has downright ridiculous moments. The dove flying in when the hero appears, the gratuitous sex scene, the score, the out of franchise music choices which cause it to be stuck in an era...but the most ridiculous contrivance of all, although cool in theory, is the characters' ability to put on elaborate prosthetic masks and voice patches, then rip them off after someone has been fatally duped. That's above and beyond the suspension of disbelief in any reality.

So much for my disdain for the original. I wondered what the ???? was Spence thinking?

Straight out the gate Spence improves the movie exponentially by incorporating in-franchise music as the score, causing the edit to feel more in line with the other entries in the series. I cannot overstate what an improvement this is to the edit as a whole.

Spence also recognized the need to more evenly distribute the action throughout the film to create a more even pace which drastically improved the momentum and rewarded the viewer's investment. I love what he did with the shootout at the Biocyte facility. Major improvement!

And...(to quote L8wrtr...) My man! Spence either trimmed or removed much of the over the top John Woo moments, that ventured into cartoon territory. The edit takes the plot and the franchise more seriously, as a result and becomes a far better investment of the viewer's attention.

Spence states that this franchise is his favorite (I am sorry that we can't agree on that. I still respect you!). He felt that this film had elements that haven't aged well and that there's a really good movie in there...that the script is a solid Hitchcock esque caper full of twists, turns, backstabs and reveals. The performances overall great, with Tom Cruise giving a charming turn as a softer and more romantic Ethan, a deliciously dirtbag villain, and one of the best female leads the series has had. Also, though they lay the "John Woo-ness" on a little too thick at times, the action is well staged and choreographed.

His goal was to remove the dated elements of MI-2, pick up the pace, and bring it more in line with the other films in the series.

And in that...he achieved remarkably! I did enjoy this edit far far far more than I thought I would all three times that I watched it and I did finally figure out what the ???? he was thinking...

Two very enthusiastic thumbs up for the edit (and you are required to own the original) but avoid watching it at all costs!
 
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TM2YC

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When a Stranger Calls (1979)
I knew 1979's 'When a Stranger Calls' was the basis for the babysitter/phone-call opening scene in 'Scream' but I didn't think it would be this close, plus it's also a leading lady misdirect in a similar way. 'When a Stranger Calls' is chilling and creepy but I slightly undermined the drama for myself by being convinced there was a big twist coming but the story is exactly what it appears to be. The structure is odd, like three separate but connected films. When I later read it was an extension of the Director's own 22-minute short film (expanded to 97-minutes), it made more sense. You could cut an hour from the middle and not effect the conclusion but you'd be missing a very good hour. Carol Kane's sudden hysterical terror in the restaurant scene is shocking because it feels so authentic.

The marketing angle used in this vintage trailer has been copied more than a few times:

 

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Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Francis Ford Coppola's
movie (one of his too few big box-office hits) is a flawed masterpiece but those problems are compensated by an overall intoxicating artistic vision. In my opinion, the definitive Dracula movie. The English accents of Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder are bad (hers to a lesser degree), although most of the cast are also doing exaggerated accents which are not there own, so Reeves and Ryder blend in better than they might've. The plotting is a bit scattershot, meandering all over the place in terms of tone, time, place and character. It often tips over from gothic theatricality, into full-on camp (e.g the double-entendres about Lucy wanting to fondle the Texan's massive weapon). Gary Oldman's powerful lead performance is of course the highlight but let's not forget how much macabre fun Anthony Hopkins is as Prof. Van Helsing. The costumes and sets are like nothing else drawing on Michelangelo, Caravaggio and Klimt. The most dazzling aspect of the production is the FX, which are (virtually) all done in camera, as if it was a film from the time of Georges Méliès (a couple of scenes are actually shot on a hand-cranked silent movie camera). So no CGI (in the era of 'Terminator 2' and 'Jurassic Park') and no traditional optical printer FX either. It's all glass shots, models, smoke and mirrors, false perspective, puppetry, reverse photography, back projection and physically winding the film back to do multiple exposures. 3-decades later, I doubt the analogue expertise still survives in the film industry to allow something like this to happen again. Even in 1992 Coppola had to fire the original FX team because they told him what he wanted to do was impossible without computers, so he got his son to handle the FX instead... and of course it was possible. On this rewatch I was fascinated by how they got Dracula's teeth to grow. Was it some kind of mechanism inside Oldman's mouth that he had to operate by moving his jaw or tongue? I'd love to know. That 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' did not win the Academy award for 'Best Art Direction' is one of the more obviously indefensible decisions they've made over the years. Wojciech Kilar's operatic score is unforgettable.



 

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another fanedit...

The Hobbit The Battle of The Five Edits by Stromboli Bones

I think right out the gate people need to realize that this edit doesn't borrow from the edits of the legends that inspired Stromboli as much as it pays homage to those edits and editors. He makes that very clear in the first post of his thread. This is very personal to him. He loves all things Middle Earth...to such a degree that he married his wife on Bilbo and Frodos' birthday.

Stromboli, like Adam Dens before him, will likely only do one edit. He will then go back to his real life raising his family. That's a shame because the edit is a masterpiece. The magic lies in his ability to take the best ideas from those he considers to be legends and use his own creative vision to bring them together as colors within a canvas of his own creation. You can never say that this edit is not an original idea because to say that is to say that no edit is...because, as Wraith so astutely pointed out in an effort to make the principle clear, we are all borrowing ideas from the original film makers. We have custody of nothing.

I have previewed this edit for several weeks now as it has waited for an academy member to review it. Technically, the edit appears flawless. There are no drop-offs, no rough transitions in video or audio. The narrative structure flows without a hitch. That's obviously a subjective statement because one person will feel that this should be taken out or left in. Another person will feel the opposite. One thing that is obvious is that Stromboli has an eye for the cool tricks that the other editors used. He incorporates most of them, like Spence's sword throw, L8wrtr's Smaug exit, M4's Thorin scar removal and many others, as well as, his own tricks, masterfully.

The five episode structure works perfectly, as well. He found the perfect places to hook you into the next episode. Never a dull moment. As much as i admire and respect the other edits, this is the first time that I didn't think to myself while watching, that I wished the movie was a tad shorter. In fact, I anticipated the next episode.

I will say more when I review the edits properly upon release. This edit certainly needs to be watched by someone with the authority to say that it's ready for approval because it is.

The title sequence is one of the most creative I've seen in over 300 edits watched and the trailer is amazing.

No, this was not a paid endorsement.
 
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The Innocents (1961)
'The Innocents'
is a psychological chiller rather than a thriller, or horror. Everything from the gothic sets, to the exaggerated scope compositions and especially the "nails on a blackboard" sound design and avant-garde electronic music (created with input from BBC Radiophonic Workshop pioneer Daphne Oram) is designed to keep the viewer unsettled. Deborah Kerr plays the Victorian governess either haunted by demons and possessed children, or just going insane. It's never made completely clear which it is. Child actor Martin Stephens is really sinister as Miles, without doing much that is overtly, or provably evil. He might just be a mischievous little boy. The famous Truman Capote co-wrote the script.



Night of the Living Dead (1990)
I think Director Tom Savini and writer George A. Romero's remake of Romero's own 1968 Zombie trailblazer will be best appreciated if you have a good familiarity with the original. Because it sticks pretty close the overall framework but changes some of the aspects of the relationships in new and interesting ways. The most noticeable is "what if Barbara wasn't catatonic and/or hysterical, what if she was clear headed and the shock of the situation progressively deadened her inside?". The different ending arguably doesn't have the impact of the original but I thought it was still a terrifically chilling last message. It was great to see Babylon 5's Patricia Tallman in something else and Tony Todd gives an electric performance as usual. Knowing it was directed by splatter maestro Tom Savini, I expected more jaw-dropping 'Day of the Dead' style gore but he keeps it low key and concentrates on drama and character instead.

 

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Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
The plotting is a bit scattershot, meandering all over the place in terms of tone, time, place and character.

I haven't seen it since high school, and only on VHS, so I'm sure I'd have to see it again and in HD to properly appreciate the visuals (that red bathrobe/butt-shaped hairdo getup aside). That said, having recently read the book at the time, I remember thinking that the decision to make Dracula a sympathetic antihero totally ruined the narrative side of things.

An interesting video I believe I've posted before on the many deviations from the novel: (the adaptation deemed "most faithful," the 1977 BBC miniseries, is currently streaming on US Amazon Prime.)l:


Finally, did you ever try the Netflix three-part series by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat? I did a review post on it, but it seems to have been lost in the forum move. It's bonkers insanity in the very best way. :)
 

TM2YC

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the adaptation deemed "most faithful," the 1977 BBC miniseries, is currently streaming on US Amazon Prime.)l:

did you ever try the Netflix three-part series by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat? I did a review post on it, but it seems to have been lost in the forum move. It's bonkers insanity in the very best way. :)

The Gatiss?Moffat series was a BBC production too but they had a deal with Netflix so they could show it a few days later too. I've not seen it yet. The reviews I heard seemed to all say the first half was brilliant but the 2nd half was rubbish. I will get round to seeing it some time.
 
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