2010 Films XXIX-XXXV
XXIX: Meteor (Ronald Neame, 1979)
Disaster movie with Sean Connery reaching that age when he really shouldn't be making nice at the female eye candy any more (which reminds me, I need to watch Zardoz for values of need for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture). A large meteor is headed our way, and the American need the illegal Russian space missiles to help their own illegal space missiles to fire at it and thus presumably have lots of bits of Croydon-sized meteor rain down. I keep telling myself that if the story is good enough, the quality of the effects doesn't matter. Then spot the logical flaw.
XXX: Gumshoe (Stephen Frears, 1971)
Film that obsesses my dad for some reason never adequately explain (and it's not as if I've ever been aware of him watching it). Eddie Ginley (Albert Finney), failing bingo caller, wannabe stand up, wannabe private eye is sent a gun and a photograph of a dame on his thirty-first birthday, the latter fact being the least likely. He's not clear what hes meant to do, or if he's the person to do it, but someone clearly wants him to stop. Set in Liverpool and Bloomsbury, this is a splendid noir parody, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and a good supporting cast. It's set up with a question of Ginley's mental health, but never falls back on a Potter-esque dream explanation.
XXIX: 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)
This was going to be one of the two Fellini movies I saw at the Carbuncle within eight days, but given my reaction to this, I thought I'd watch my DVD copy when I want to see Dolce Vita. Supposedly Fellini had writer's and thus produced this musing on the film maker's lot - part reality, part dream, part fantasy, presumably part fantasy. Some nice black and white cinematography but a couple of weeks on I've forgotten anything else. Not my cup of Formosa Oolong.(The director is trying to make an sf film, and I didn't believe a word of it.)
XXX: The Anderson Tapes (Sidney Lumet, 1971)
Heist caper where Duke Anderson (Sean Connery) brings together a gang to rob a whole apartment block on Labor Day weekend. This is distinguished by the way in which Anderson wanders into a whole series of surveillance scheme, but escapes detection because the agencies don't talk to each other. More fun than Enemy of the State... and clearly Connery is trying to get away from Bond (although presumably this is pre Diamonds are Forever
XXXIII: Superman (Richard Donner, 1978)
You'll believe a man can lie in front of a green screen. Frankly here you can see what goes wrong with superhero movies - an origin myth that takes up a first hour, another hour to give him something to save and twenty minutes left over to outstay its welcome. I'm not sure it would have worked better if they'd played it seriously, but who decided these movies should be comedies? On the other hand, and I'm surprised to say this, Reeve's performance has held up better than Hackman's.
XXXIV: Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges, 1980)
Best. Film. Evah. Nuff said.
I'm holding back on A Single Man, because it needs a spoilery rave and rant.
I've been looking for the following for ages - there's a Wise director's cut, but I wanted the original release, the Star Trek trilogy box was films 2-4 and there was stupidly expensive boxset of the ten. Star Trek movies don't show up in CEX. But finally I found a cheaper complete films boxset on Amazon, and so I've got all the films should I wish to watch/rewatch them.
XXXV: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Robert Wise, 1979)
And then there's sequels where it takes a hour to get the team together again, an hour to give them something to do and twenty minutes left over to outstay its welcome. This is the one where the crew go out to meet an entity which is looking for God or might be God. Kirk fluffs the best lines, Spock resents being there, Uhura is on reception, Sulu and Checkov needn't have shown up, Scottie has been on the Guinness and Bones steals it all. Oh, and there's some upstart that makes them all look old (back when young mavericks didn't have all the answers) and a female Kojak whose swallowed a light bulb. Oh, and one of the extras says that it's the first film of a television programme, as if Holiday on the Buses was never made.
Totals: 35 (Cinema: 8; DVDs: 19; TV: 8)
Disaster movie with Sean Connery reaching that age when he really shouldn't be making nice at the female eye candy any more (which reminds me, I need to watch Zardoz for values of need for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture). A large meteor is headed our way, and the American need the illegal Russian space missiles to help their own illegal space missiles to fire at it and thus presumably have lots of bits of Croydon-sized meteor rain down. I keep telling myself that if the story is good enough, the quality of the effects doesn't matter. Then spot the logical flaw.
XXX: Gumshoe (Stephen Frears, 1971)
Film that obsesses my dad for some reason never adequately explain (and it's not as if I've ever been aware of him watching it). Eddie Ginley (Albert Finney), failing bingo caller, wannabe stand up, wannabe private eye is sent a gun and a photograph of a dame on his thirty-first birthday, the latter fact being the least likely. He's not clear what hes meant to do, or if he's the person to do it, but someone clearly wants him to stop. Set in Liverpool and Bloomsbury, this is a splendid noir parody, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and a good supporting cast. It's set up with a question of Ginley's mental health, but never falls back on a Potter-esque dream explanation.
XXIX: 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)
This was going to be one of the two Fellini movies I saw at the Carbuncle within eight days, but given my reaction to this, I thought I'd watch my DVD copy when I want to see Dolce Vita. Supposedly Fellini had writer's and thus produced this musing on the film maker's lot - part reality, part dream, part fantasy, presumably part fantasy. Some nice black and white cinematography but a couple of weeks on I've forgotten anything else. Not my cup of Formosa Oolong.(The director is trying to make an sf film, and I didn't believe a word of it.)
XXX: The Anderson Tapes (Sidney Lumet, 1971)
Heist caper where Duke Anderson (Sean Connery) brings together a gang to rob a whole apartment block on Labor Day weekend. This is distinguished by the way in which Anderson wanders into a whole series of surveillance scheme, but escapes detection because the agencies don't talk to each other. More fun than Enemy of the State... and clearly Connery is trying to get away from Bond (although presumably this is pre Diamonds are Forever
XXXIII: Superman (Richard Donner, 1978)
You'll believe a man can lie in front of a green screen. Frankly here you can see what goes wrong with superhero movies - an origin myth that takes up a first hour, another hour to give him something to save and twenty minutes left over to outstay its welcome. I'm not sure it would have worked better if they'd played it seriously, but who decided these movies should be comedies? On the other hand, and I'm surprised to say this, Reeve's performance has held up better than Hackman's.
XXXIV: Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges, 1980)
Best. Film. Evah. Nuff said.
I'm holding back on A Single Man, because it needs a spoilery rave and rant.
I've been looking for the following for ages - there's a Wise director's cut, but I wanted the original release, the Star Trek trilogy box was films 2-4 and there was stupidly expensive boxset of the ten. Star Trek movies don't show up in CEX. But finally I found a cheaper complete films boxset on Amazon, and so I've got all the films should I wish to watch/rewatch them.
XXXV: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Robert Wise, 1979)
And then there's sequels where it takes a hour to get the team together again, an hour to give them something to do and twenty minutes left over to outstay its welcome. This is the one where the crew go out to meet an entity which is looking for God or might be God. Kirk fluffs the best lines, Spock resents being there, Uhura is on reception, Sulu and Checkov needn't have shown up, Scottie has been on the Guinness and Bones steals it all. Oh, and there's some upstart that makes them all look old (back when young mavericks didn't have all the answers) and a female Kojak whose swallowed a light bulb. Oh, and one of the extras says that it's the first film of a television programme, as if Holiday on the Buses was never made.
Totals: 35 (Cinema: 8; DVDs: 19; TV: 8)