What have you watched recently? 3D!

Lyle lyle crocodile

Madcap kids musical with a little star power.

I liked it for a bit of a light hearted laugh.

But if your going singing crocodile go full out , crocodile hadn't enough screentime and was mostly sequestered away in a house.

Not enough songs and none of them standout.

My Gauge of a good musical is if I'm not humming the tunes the next day somethings wrong.

Watching this right now after your recommendation. Really good 😂.

My mother and mother in law are both nearly 80. Think they would enjoy it for sure.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

Was well sick in the bed last week and I watched this most of the days I was in it, just brilliant stuff, one of the few films that you just enjoy being totally immersed in. Klaus Kinski skulking about the place with his lopsided walk and look that's both hilarious and terrifying at the same time. I hadn't seen this in years but I didn't remember laughing as much the last time I viewed it, there is some hilarious sequential editing in this thing such as the scene where the conquistador's attack the burning jungle village and you get this two second clip of a dog calmly lying down feeding her pups as the demented troop attack an invisible enemy that isn't even there, Kinski roaring at the horse so hard it falls down etc. Just brilliant stuff, they'll literally never make them like this again and thank the Wrath of God they won't even bother. 10/10

Le Samouraï (1967)

The recent passing of Alain Delon gave me the inspiration to check this out. Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, it tells the story of a hired killer who is betrayed by his employers.

This is a very lean film, sparse on dialogue and exposition. It's beautifully shot, and there's a real subtle but influential use of colour. Delon is fantastic in the role, as are the rest of the cast.

The Last Picture Show (1971)

This is a coming-of-age film set in a small town in America that manages to avoid the cliches associated with this genre.

Peter Bogdanovich is the director - this was the second film he directed but this feels like the work of someone who has done many more films. The ensemble cast (including the likes of Jeff Bridges and Cybill Shepard) are all very impressive, and Ben Johnson won best supporting actor for his performance. The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director as well as a few others.

The thing that stood out to me above all else was the writing. There's a quiet desperation (to use the song title) in these characters and the writing really draws that out - the characters are flawed, but not the cliches you sometimes see in these films. It also doesn't follow the same narrative track that these types of film use and instead pans out in a much more grounded and realistic way.

Amadeus - 9.5/10

When an opportunity to see the #1 film of the 80’s on the big screen arises, you simply cannot let it pass. I got to the screening a few minutes late to see F. Murray Abraham sat there in his old man make-up looking like a cross between a Bonobo ape and the Crypt Keeper. I started to wonder if I’d accidentally stumbled into a screening of Beetlejuice 2 by mistake. It’s a shame that over 4 hours in make-up yielded such shoddy results and I started to suspect that maybe this film hasn’t aged too well. Luckily, that was the one and only major flaw.

This has got to be the greatest music biopic ever made. Every aspect of the production is beautifully realised. It brilliantly captures both the lavishness of 18th Century Royals and how utterly mental rich people can be. It’s a rare case of an Oscar sweeping epic that deserved every accolade that came its way. The costumes, hair styes, set design, music and performances are all pitch perfect. These period films can often seem a bit ‘wiggy’ but here the world feels completely authentic with incredible attention to detail on every aspect of the production.
F. Murray Abraham puts in what must surely be one of the all-time great screen performances as Mozarts’ rival Salieri. He brings such subtlety to his reactions, particularly his incredulity as seeing his rival effortlessly surpass his musical abilities. He mixes conflicting emotions, such as disdain and awe, with a profound inner turmoil at being the only man in the room to truly understand Mozart’s Godlike greatness. It also adds significance to his one-scene role in one of my favourite films of recent times; Inside Llewyn Davis. If the Coen’s admire his performance here as much as I suspect, I assume the reason they wanted him for that scene was because he is essentially cinemas foremost music expert. The man who recognised the genius of Mozart from a mere glance at his sheet music. His withering riposte of “I don’t see a lot of money here” after Oscar Isaac pours his heart out in front of him now has a lot of extra weight to it.

Tom Hulce is solid as Mozart and has a lot of fun with that nails-down-a-chalkboard cackle of his, which was taken from a couple of dubious ‘reference letters’ from two women who allegedly met him. Hulce did a lot of prep for the role and studied John McEnroe’s tennis tantrums to get himself into the obnoxious man-child mindset. I’m surprised he didn’t go on to make more of a name for himself.

One of my other recent cinema trips was to see Sleepy Hollow and Jeffrey Jones caught my eye. His face is so suited to these period pieces as he looks like a Tudor era painting come to life. He is perfectly cast here, and I can see why Tim Burton worked with him so frequently. He embodies that Gothic aesthetic to an almost unsettling degree. Unsettling being an apt word as it turns out that the man is a sex offender. Who’d have ever guessed?

Whenever I hear someone bemoan Hollywood’s current fixation with lazy, cheap Oscar-baity music biopics, I’ll point towards Amadeus and say “they weren’t always **** you know?”

Beetlejuice

I wanted to rewatch this before seeing the new one this weekend. It was a film I loved as a child and have probably seen it twenty or thirty times but it could be more than twenty years since I last saw it.

Michael Keaton is the only place to start. He's a scene stealer and really raises the level of comedy for what is otherwise quite tame for laughs. I didn't remember him having what is actual quite a little amount of screen time but he IS the film. Even his lines that aren't jokes are delivered with comedic mastery and I can't believe I didn't remember this brilliance: "I've watched the Exorcist 167 times and it gets funnier every time I see it!"

Alec Baldwin (before he went quirky) is charming and Geena Davis is solid. Catherine O'Hara (in a sort of Schitt's Creek prototype) and Wynona Ryder hold up their end. There could be more development of the story because it moves fairly quickly. I also remember previously feeling more tension during the seance/wedding scene.

I've always liked Tim Burton films and this is a visual treat but I feel like others (ANBC, Edward Scissorhands, even Ed Wood) go further. There's certainly the embryonic stages of his style on display (the sculptures, the sandsnake).

Also, I remembered it being kind of 'dirty', in the childish sense that shouting sex would get you attention, but I'm really surprised my mother let me watch that from such a young age.

I'm relieved I still enjoyed it. I don't know how well it holds up but its still entertaining.

The Third Man - 1949

Directed by Carol Reed and based on the book by Graham Greene

Holly Winters is a writer who travels to post war Vienna to meet his friend Harry Lime, only to find that Lime has been killed in mysterious circumstances.

Vienna itself is a principal character in this, the dark and twisted streets serving as an apt metaphor for the confusion and cynicism Winters encounters as he tries to understand what happened to his friend.

I'm a huge noir fan, and this is a fantastic example of noir done well, a mystery that is satisfying to unravel, but one that does not trip over itself as it becomes clearer what has happened. There's a fantastic scene on top of a ferris wheel with razor sharp dialogue, and a closing sequence through the sewers which is equally good. The final scene is also very memorable, and a very fitting finale to the story.

The film is 75 years old this year, and whilst some of the scenes in the first half of the film might look dated, the second half of the film is as good as anything that I have seen.

Full Shift

French drama about a struggling single mother. Watched on BBC player.

I enjoyed it. Very snappily edited , reminded me of Uncut gems in that respect. Kind of pacing that just keeps you in there. Good writing, realistic Dialogue , well acted. Thumbs up.

The French Connection - It's been years since I watched this so it was pretty much like a first viewing for me. The dirt riddled streets of New York, particularly the jungle of Brooklyn, are the main character in this gritty crime thriller. Gene Hackman has always looked old and haggard but this time he's a bit of a ladies man. The decision by Friedkin to have no music over the car chase but just use the crunching impacts, growling engines and horns blaring to maximum effect is such a fantastic choice. 8/10

My Cousin Vinny - What a surprise this was. I figured it would be the typical "fish out of water" scenario but it's actually far more clever than that. This isn't Legally Blonde where the main character fails upward but rather the lawyer (Joe Pesci) is quite clever but just inexperienced and is learning as he goes. Some of the legal jargon and technicalities are apparently essential viewing for those in the legal business. I'm sure we've all heard the controversy of Marisa Tomei's Oscar win but she's fine in it and I don't recognise any of the other movies that were nominated that year so maybe time has told. 8/10

The Equalizer - I remember enjoying the first one and hating the second one so I was cautious about this one. And surprisingly the result is somewhere in the middle. The gory violence has seemed to gone up but Denzel's wonderful smile has remained. It's ridiculously cheesy at times but there's some decent entertainment in there. 6/10

The Lord of The Rings : The fellowship of the ring.

Inspired to revisit since watching the Amazon series. Initially I didn't mind the series and wasn't offended by it to the degree that hard core Tolkein fans seemed to be.

The first of the trilogy is just ... well .. excellent really. How easy to mess this up , but Jackson didn't. A lot of the criticisms levelled at the Amazon shows began to make sense. Compared to the Trilogy the shows are very wordy , so much dialogue. The Movies don't have that , it's much more show don't tell and so feels way better paced and involved.

Another Criricism I read was that the amazon elves were not in the least elvish , just like regular humans with pointy ears. The Trilogy elves carry themselves with an aloof ethereal majesty, I could believe they'd lived thousands of years. The Amazon elves , more like eastenders characters in cosplay.

The Orcs in the Trilogy , impressively bad ass , just plain rotten to the core , the Amazon orcs , ridiculous.

Watching the fellowship I'm just amazed at how someone did such a great job taking that source material and making such great movies out of them while not to my mind disrespecting the books or pandering to any audience. The effects have not aged too badly at all ,breathtaking cinematography , these are still beautifully shot films.

I feel that the LOTR Trilogy is something from a sort of innocent pre social media widespread internet golden age. Just sincerely authentic attempts to make great movies for the fans and general audiences, honoring and respecting the source , no agendas , no other considerations.

They don't make them like they used to is the one il grab from the cliche bag here.

Paul Verhoeven double bill, Robocop and Elle.

Robocop still stands up as a great satire of its time. It looks dated to me though, unlike say, Aliens which was released the year before.

What stood out for me this time was the opening scenes which are shot just like a European director might shoot his first American film.

Elle was not what I was expecting at all. It wasn’t lurid or pulpy like most of his films. It reminded me of a Claude Chabrol psycho drama, very French.

Very restrained with an odd dynamic between the characters. Kind of hard to figure out some of the characters motivations. It was a very engrossing watch though and Isabelle Huppert was reliably excellent.