TV/Movies Megathread

[mongers]

'Jupiter Ascending' not as desperately bad as I thought it might be, but still rather a cgi yawnfest. 

[Admiral Yi]

I had never watched any of Mississippi Burning until last night, partly because James Woods annoys me and partly because movies about the Civil Rights era can be dreary, but I caught the courtroom scene last night and at least that part was very well done.

I also rewatched a good chunk of A Bridge Too Far.  It is so incredibly perfect.  Massive amounts of authentic equipment, a dozen beautifully drawn characters, and the cinematography is just stunning.  The scene with the Dakotas and the gliders taking off is a ballet.

My question is about this movie is: how the hell did it get made?  There can't have been enough audience for what is essentially the most awesome History Channel documentary ever made to justify the budget.

[The Brain]

I had never watched any of Mississippi Burning until last night, partly because James Woods annoys me

That's hardcore.

[Eddie Teach]

Probably never seen John Carpenter's Vampires either.

[celedhring]

I also rewatched a good chunk of A Bridge Too Far.  It is so incredibly perfect.  Massive amounts of authentic equipment, a dozen beautifully drawn characters, and the cinematography is just stunning.  The scene with the Dakotas and the gliders taking off is a ballet.

My question is about this movie is: how the hell did it get made?  There can't have been enough audience for what is essentially the most awesome History Channel documentary ever made to justify the budget.

William Goldman is one of my screenwriting heroes. He talks a bit about this film in his book, there was a lot of thought put in creating the characters and such. He says that pretty much everybody loved working in it, and it shows. Personally I think it's a bit bloated, long and repetitive, but there's lots of good stuff in it.

Bridge Too Far was twice as expensive as Star Wars IIRC. The producer that raised the money was a very shrewd businessman; the star-studded cast made it so foreign distributors salivated about the film before it was done, so he was able to raise a lot of money through pre-sales. He would show distributors carefully selected unfinished footage (all the materiel he had allowed him to produce some truly striking reels) and give distributors the chance to buy the rights upfront before their domestic rivals. and most would bite. This has become standard practice nowadays - most films are sold to distributors before they are finished.

He more or less found out that the more money you throw into a movie, the more you can raise with it. Bridge Too Far is considered - alongside Jaws or Star Wars - one of the precursors of the blockbuster model (even though it was a box office failure at the time).

[Ed Anger]

Best part of the film. Johnny Frost kicking SS Recon ass.

[Savonarola]

Four Sons (1928)

This is a John Ford silent film concerning Mother Bernie; a beloved matron in her village somewhere in Bavaria and her four sons.  They live an outlandishly stereotypical German existence; complete with picklehaubes, an evil major who wears a monocle, dirndl, lederhosen, beer, slap dancing, a heavy set butcher, and roast pig.  Then one of her sons moves to America.  Then the First World War breaks out and I'm sure you can see where this is heading.

There are some great moments of John Ford's gentle humor in the film; but overall it's not one of his better works.  He drags out the ending far too long and the Bavaria he shoots is just too over-the-top to be believable.

It's too bad Ford couldn't get the real Erich von Stroheim to play the evil major; (he clearly based his performance on von Stroheim's propaganda film villains.)  At that point in von Stroheim was busy trying to find new ways to torch his career.

[garbon]

Tried watching John Carter. Got about 30 minutes in and it just feels like nonsense.

[Savonarola]

On the subject of Erich von Stroheim...

Greed (1924)

A much better legend than a film.  This is obviously badly mutilated, and unless you've actually read Frank Norris's "McTeague" it would be hard to follow what's going on.  Still many of the scenes which remain are impressive, especially the Death Valley sequences.

[celedhring]

Which version have you watched? I have yet to watch the restored cut with stills in place of lost scenes. It seems to me it's probably a jarring experience.

[Eddie Teach]

And Then There Were None. 10 strangers invited to a remote island, where they're accused of murders and start getting killed off. With a surprise ending- [spoiler]the title lied, two survive.[/spoiler] Pretty good.

Out of the Past. Robert Mitchum gets hired to return a dame to a big-time "gambler" played by Kirk Douglas. Instead he falls for the dame and they run off together. This does not turn out well. Great movie.

[Josephus]

Tried watching John Carter. Got about 30 minutes in and it just feels like nonsense.

I couldn't even make it that far.

[Savonarola]

Which version have you watched? I have yet to watch the restored cut with stills in place of lost scenes. It seems to me it's probably a jarring experience.

It was a free one I found on Youtube with all the title cards in Italian.  Non è la migliore versione del film.

[celedhring]

Which version have you watched? I have yet to watch the restored cut with stills in place of lost scenes. It seems to me it's probably a jarring experience.

It was a free one I found on Youtube with all the title cards in Italian.  Non è la migliore versione del film.

Ok, it's the "classic" unrestored cut. Same one I watched.

Love how back in the time there were so many hoaxes of an original cut being found, or some semi-secret organization owning it and screening it only to people that knew the secret handshake, or whatever.

[LaCroix]

took a girl to bridge of spies. pretty good movie! thanks for the recommendation, malthus