What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.

[gattaca]

^^^ Yeah, I was looking at those while watching the film. Men's hair of the 1970's was highly variable so that + all the wounds, starvation, stress etc... depicted in the makeup may have been a very, very difficult.   Basically, I think every guy in the film looked quite different.  I'm also guess some of the emancipated scenes we briefly glimpse after they are rescued were very difficult and may have been heavily digitized.  Just my gut after watching the film. V.

[Jeff Wrangler]

^^^ Yeah, I was looking at those while watching the film. Men's hair of the 1970's was highly variable so that + all the wounds, starvation, stress etc... depicted in the makeup may have been a very, very difficult.   Basically, I think every guy in the film looked quite different.  I'm also guess some of the emancipated scenes we briefly glimpse after they are rescued were very difficult and may have been heavily digitized.  Just my gut after watching the film. V.

That makes sense. I actually sort of had that in mind--especially the injuries. I recently got a "review" from a friend who has seen it, and from what he had to say about it, it just struck me as sort of funny that it would be nominated for Best Hair and Makeup.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

From the end of the Oscars telecast last night.



If you know Kimmel well enough you'll get it.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--Ricky Stanicky

This is a comedy staring John Cena, Zac Efron and William H. Macy. It's about three friends who, since childhood, have always used an imaginary friend they named Ricky Stanicky to get out of trouble. Twenty years later they're still using "him" as an alibi when they're confronted with actually having to have him appear in person.

The RT scores from critics is underwater. 43%. They're assessment: Ricky Stanicky gets some big laughs thanks to John Cena's up-for-anything performance, but they aren't enough to support the movie's thin plot and excessive runtime.

I agree that the movie should have stayed at 85-90 mins. instead of 108 mins., but this is my rule for ANY comedy: If it makes me laugh a lot despite some problems, I have a great tolerance for them. I can see this is the type of movie that would be great in a theater with a lot of people. You'd have a good time. I can see critics alone by themselves watching this at home and being cranky. So don't review it then. The audience score is much more generous. 73%.

Critics and comedies: Just remember, critics hated the 1981-82 film Porky's and it made a fortune at the box office. There were three sequels to it! The writer and director of the film was Bob Clark. When Bob Clark's film A Christmas Story came out the critics were actually unkind to it. They hated Porky's and the man who made it so much they dissed it. A Christmas Story's become a classic and critics have, let's say, revised their old reviews of it from the past.

John Cena is quite fantastic in this film offering one surprise after another. Zac Efron is one of the three friends. One of the other of the three friends is gay and I only mention that if it's another tipping point reason someone might want to check the film out.

Also: I never read comedy films reviews before seeing them because critics like to give away jokes. For example: I remember reading a review of the film Caspar back in the day, you know--the ghost--and the beginning of the film had some amusing laughs and a few cameo appearances from well known actors. Not only did the review I read tell you the set up and who these actors were, they told you who the actors were that did parts that were cut out of the film.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--The 49th Parallel

This is a 1941 British film made from the Powell/Pressburger team and starring Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier, Raymond Massey, Glynis Johns and others. From what I've read it was made as a propaganda film by these Britishers to convince the U.S. to join in the fight against the Nazis. By the time it was released in the U.S. in 1942 the war had come to us.
 
The 49th Parallel is the border between the United States and Canada. The basic plot is: In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, U-37, a German U-boat, sinks a Canadian freighter, then evades the Royal Canadian Navy and Air Force by sailing into Hudson Bay. While a raiding party of six is ashore in search of food and fuel, the U-boat is sunk by RCAF bombers. The six survivors set out for the neutral United States, led by Lieutenants Hirth and Kuhnecke.

The movie is not subtle, and not intended to be, as the filmmakers were trying to wake people up to the dangers of tyrannical forces. Doesn't that echo things here right now? There's a really effective speech made by Leslie Howard in the film about how these tyrannical leaders get their followers by repeating their mantra over and over. Repeat repeat repeatrepeatrepeatrepeat. Sound familiar?

When the film was shown in the U.S. it was retitled The Invaders and 19 minutes was cut, of it's 2 hrs. 3 mins. running time. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Screenplay and it won for Writing: Best Motion Picture Story.

[Rob in Puyallup]

Have you all seen _All of Us Strangers_ yet?

It's on Hulu and Disney+.

Wow.

[CellarDweller115]

Hiya Rob,

there have been some posts here about All of Us Strangers.   Start here and scroll down.

https://ultimatebrokebackforum.com/index.php?topic=141.msg3168262#msg3168262

and there are posts about it in this thread.  Start here and scroll down.


https://ultimatebrokebackforum.com/index.php?topic=277.msg3179402#msg3179402

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Hi, Rob!

I've seen it, yes, wow!

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I miss going to see movies in theatres as much as I used to go. New and old. Last night with a couple friends I went to one of the screenings at the 25th Noir City event at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. It was a stormy day, rainy night and the place was sold out. It was so glorious! The presentation was a nitrate print of the 1947 film Nightmare Alley. It was remade a couple years ago and nominated for Best Picture. The Noir film historian Eddie Mueller was there to talk about the evening and the film. Out on Hollywood Boulevard afterward the restored Egyptian theatre neon was so bright and beautiful glowing in the rainy skies over Hollywood. Then I came home and watched Easter Parade (1948) which makes me very happy in the Spring of each year!

[killersmom]

This sounds wonderful, Lyle. What a great evening you had! Sounds amazing! Lucky you!

Happy Easter!!

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Thank you so much, Linda! What a nice hug!
Hope you had a lovely Easter weekend!

[Flyboy]

I miss going to see movies in theatres as much as I used to go. New and old. Last night with a couple friends I went to one of the screenings at the 25th Noir City event at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. It was a stormy day, rainy night and the place was sold out. It was so glorious! The presentation was a nitrate print of the 1947 film Nightmare Alley. It was remade a couple years ago and nominated for Best Picture. The Noir film historian Eddie Mueller was there to talk about the evening and the film. Out on Hollywood Boulevard afterward the restored Egyptian theatre neon was so bright and beautiful glowing in the rainy skies over Hollywood. Then I came home and watched Easter Parade (1948) which makes me very happy in the Spring of each year!

Interesting, Lyle! Supposedly in the current remake of Nightmare Alley, Bradley Cooper has a full-frontal nude scene! Oh, MY! 

[Lyle (Mooska)]

He does? The director, Guillermo del Toro, remade Nightmare Alley and he says: “Although we shot ‘Nightmare Alley’ in color, we lit it as if it were going to be black and white,” said del Toro. “You can see exactly the same level of design, and we wanted to give viewers this special vantage as a take of the classic noir genre that the film is part of.” After the release of the film there was another limited b&w release a month later which was called: Nightmare Alley: Vision in Darkness and Light. A friend and I went to see that in the theater and awhile later watched the color version on streaming. Both are fantastic looking and I can't decide which way I like it better. They both offer the viewer something worthwhile.

[killersmom]

Award-Winning TV and Film Actress, Dies at 97

She received a Golden Globe in 1954 as that year’s rising star and appeared in movies alongside Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Paul Newman.

Barbara Rush, the supremely poised actress who rose to fame with supporting roles in 1950s films like “Magnificent Obsession” and “The Young Lions,” died on Sunday at her home in Westlake Village, Calif., in Los Angeles County. She was 97.

The death, in a senior care facility, was confirmed by her daughter, Claudia Cowan.

If Ms. Rush’s portrayals had one thing in common, it was a gentle, ladylike quality, which she put to use in films of many genres. She was Jane Wyman’s concerned stepdaughter in the 1954 romantic drama “Magnificent Obsession” and Dean Martin’s loyal wartime girlfriend in “The Young Lions” (1958), set during World War II. In 1950s science fiction pictures like “It Came From Outer Space” and “When Worlds Collide,” she was the small-town heroine, the scientist’s daughter, the Earthling most likely to succeed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/01/movies/barbara-rush-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hk0.KBHP.AsB58DUJXjLZ&smid=url-share

[Jeff Wrangler]

OK, this is by no means movies I saw this weekend, but I recently came across something I found interesting.

My father saved the entire evening newspaper from my hometown for the day JFK was shot. The paper still included all the things that a daily newspaper included in November 1963, including the movies playing in local theaters:

A local drive-in was showing Irma La Douce, with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine.

Another theater was showing Twilight of Honor, with Richard Chamberlain in "His first motion picture starring role!"

Also playing was Mary, Mary (Debbie Reynolds, Barry Nelson, Diane McBain, and Michael Rennie).

We had a second Jack Lemmon flick, Under the Yum-Yum Tree.

Another theater had The Great Escape (Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Richard Attenborough).

We also had Walt Disney's The Incredible Journey.

This was the middle of Pennsylvania in 1963, so I was surprised to find an ad for a place that called itself an "art" theater that was showing something called A Pair of Briefs. Another had a double bill of The Ship of Condemned Women and Journey to Nowhere.

Lastly, what appears to have been a lodge hall listed two showings of The VIPs, with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The next day there would be a special matinee that also featured Ma and Pa Kettle in the Ozarks plus cartoons and prizes.