cdgalwegian wrote: » I will sometimes watch what I know will not be a great film, or has been roundly rejected at least, just to see an actor or a director that I'm interested in, but not to that extent. Now that's suffering for your art. That's speaking from someone at the lazier end of being a cinephile; of the persuasion 'No pain, no pain'.
Tony EH wrote: » Oh I've been aware of it's reputation for years. But it was one that I was meaning to check out anyway and make up my own mind + I have a bit of a goo for Italian giallo/horror from the 70's and 80's. I was kinda hoping that their might be a bit of charm to it, like 'The Last Shark' - another Italian 'Jaws' rip off - but, alas, no.
cdgalwegian wrote: » Genuinely curious here. I assume you read some review prior to watching it, as material that somehow piqued your interest.
Tony EH wrote: » 'Tentacles' After the phenomenal success of 'Jaws' in 1975, there were a slew of sea monster movies quickly chucked out to cash in on its currency and there were none so eager to cash in than the maestros of cinematic cashing in, the Italians. 'Tentacles', or Tentacoli, exchanges a massive Great White shark for a massive octopus, which can apparently suck the marrow out of people's bones and leave nothing but an emaciated corpse behind to be washed up on the beach afterward. This beast has been disturbed by some dodgy underwater business activity and suddenly decided it would try a bit of manflesh for a change of diet and the locals and tourists of a Californian seaside town are on the menu. It's up to Will Gleason (Bo Hopkins) and his pair of trained orcas to tackle the tentacles and save the day. 'Tentacles' sounds like it should be a riot. A legit "so bad, it's good" movie that can provide some dubious fun with a few beers, and there are a number of those types of movies made from Italian producers during the period that fit that particular gap. But, unfortunately, the majority of the film is so dull that it becomes a real challenge not to check ones watch in between each attack. Making things worse is the fact that 'Tentacles' is actually shot quite nicely too, by Roberto Piazolli, so there's not too many wobbles happening there to offset the tedium in the dull script, which one time Star Trek contributor Steven Carabatsos had a hand in. The effects aren't too bad in the main, either, and the only laughs in that dept. come at the end when a pair of crushingly obvious model killer whales attack what seems to be a real octopus, albeit a dead one (hopefully). The tedium never manages to subside and aside from a slightly tense opening scene director, Ovidio G. Assonitis (which sounds like a bad dose of something), fails to raise the pulse even momentarily. Probably the most surprising thing about 'Tentacles' is the sheer amount of famous actors and familiar non-stars that they managed to get on board. Somehow, they convinced John Huston, Shelly Winters, Claude Akins and Henry Fonda onto this wreck, as well as the aforementioned Bo Hopkins who, while of a lesser umph, had a period of relative fame during the decade. But, the ultimate test of patience is the movie's reuse of music from other Italian productions. The most obvious being the centrepiece regatta scene that poaches Stelvio Cipriani's score from 1973's 'La Polizia Sta A Guardare'. Italian productions have a history of stealing music from other films as a way of keeping costs down, such as 'Zombie Creeping Flesh', which brutally nicked Goblin's 'Dawn of the Dead' tunes. But, unlike 'Zombie Creeping Flesh' which still entertains because it's a genuine "so bad it's good" movie, 'Tentacles' ends up just being generally boring and a waste of time all round. 1/10 (generous, if you ask me)
Harry Palmr wrote: » Christ, just rewind and watch Chinatown in one go! Sacrilege to start and not finish such a film. In that same era I watched The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) Directed by Peter Yates. Determinedly low key story of a low level Boston Irish criminal and those in his circle and how they come to grief. Robert Mitchum as the title character is his every reliable self looking a good decade older than his supposed 51 years of age (in the film). Richard Jordan, Peter Boyle and Alex Rocco are the other main leads. The real star is Boston in it's hideous post war redeveloped concrete 'inglory'.
flasher0030 wrote: » Just looking for a bit of advice:- I have set myself a 2 hour slot tonight to watch something. Was going to throw on something older like Mean Streets, Marathon Man, China Town, Serpico. Some movie like that. I've seen Godfathers, Goodfellows, Scarface Or maybe Vertigo. It got great reviews, but is that because it's such an old film that was really ahead of it's time. Or would you look at it now, and think wow, that was really good. Some of those movies get generous reviews on the basis that they were made many moons ago, when resources to make movies were obviously a lot more limited. Any advice is welcome. I watched about 20 mins of Chinatown last night, and seems good. Will prob go with that.
Sugarlumps wrote: » LL Cool J.
p to the e wrote: » Which version?
Sugarlumps wrote: » Rollerball – Kinda futuristic sport involving rollerblades. Stellar cast. First 5 – 10 minutes were okay, braindead but passable for the purpose of falling asleep. Ramped up in the last 15 minutes, went full retard. Like Trump had written it.
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