[salem]

Seen movies? Yep.
Seen GOOD movies? Nope.

Watched Man of Steel the other day... Average movie TBH.

I would agree. If I were grading it as a school essay I would say C-, must try harder. Although I do think that the flashback scenes of him as a young man and Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent gave the film a bit of depth, the action is too full-on, too many plot-holes, and not enough breathing space. Bit short on characterisation, which is unusual for such a long film. However, I do feel that Henry Cavill and Amy Adams were excellent as Lois and Clark. Great special effects, but the pacing is off. Entertaining movie, but muddled. A real mixed bag.

Did watch Jack Reacher recently and was pleasantly surprised. Although Cruise is nothing like the Jack Reacher of the novels, he's good in the role, movie is well directed. Ending is slightly disappointing after the buildup, but is still a good movie.

[rtpoe]

Diabolique / Les Diaboliques (1955)

Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse) is a right bastard. How he got to stay as or even become the headmaster of a boarding school is beyond me. In addition to being so cheap he buys the school's food from the "reduced for quick sale" bin (and even serves it to his guests!), he abuses both his wife and his mistress (Vera Clouzot and Simone Signoret). The two women have had enough of him, and come up with a foolproof plan to kill him. The plot goes off without a hitch....until the body doesn't turn up where they stashed it. Then odd things start happening. The suit Michel was wearing when they hid the "body" comes back from the cleaners. A student says he's seen Michel around the school... And that annoying detective in the rumpled old raincoat....

Henri-Georges Clouzot beat Alfred Hitchcock to the punch with this one, nabbing the rights to Celle qui n'était plus (She Who Was No More) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac before Hitch could get his hands on them. The movie has been remade a couple of times, but to much less effect.

"This is the way a suspense movie is supposed to be. We've got killers (or at least would-be killers) who have entirely believable reasons for committing their crimes, we've got a bad guy who’s such an absolute scumbag that any audience would be naturally inclined to side against him no matter how morally compromised the "good guys" might be, and we've got a seemingly air-tight scheme that somehow goes wrong anyway. The tension builds up slow and steady until it reaches a climax that would really have thrown audiences for a loop when Diabolique was first released. Director Henri-Georges Clouzot displays a masterful eye for light, shadow, and frame composition, achieving a mood of eerie menace that is more commonly associated with supernatural horror than with a straight murder mystery. And on top of it all, there's a lot of snappy, well written dialogue and first-rate acting all around. Even the comic relief is well handled — firmly grounded in the surrounding story and sufficiently underplayed that it never makes a nuisance of itself. I'm not sure I’d call it (as I've seen so many people do) "the greatest suspense movie of all time," but Diabolique is definitely a credible contender for that title." - Scott Ashlin, 1000 Misspent Hours

[solvegas]

" She wore a yellow ribbon " with John Wayne ( 1949 ). John Wayne's favorite movie he ever did. The story of one old cavalry soldier at the twilight of his career on a last mission. 

[luvdemwhoppers]

Mercury Rising

[rtpoe]

Is it possible for a good or even great movie to ruin a career?

Peeping Tom (1960, UK)

Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) is a sort of freelance assistant cameraman for a film studio. When he's not helping with adjusting the focus and exposure on the set, he has a very peculiar hobby, aside from selling nudie pix to girlie mags: Filming women as he kills them. He plays a little cat-and-mouse game with the police as he then films the discoveries of the bodies. Turns out his dad was a psychologist studying the fear response...and one of his long-term subjects was Mark...

He meets a young woman, Helen Stephens (Anna Massey) who happens to be a tenant in the large house that he owns (thanks to inheriting it from his parents). They manage to hit it off. Will Helen be able to help Mark? Will the police find him before he kills again? Will Helen be his next victim?

For whatever reason, the critics hated it. Really hated it. Hated it enough to make sure Powell wouldn't do any significant work outside of TV ever again...

It compares well with Psycho (which came out the same year), and still holds up as one of the best psychological horror-thrillers of all time.

[pedonbio]

Forbidden Planet, 1956

If there weren't such a bias against science fiction, this movie would be on many top-ten lists. The story is simply The Tempest remade in a science fiction future where a human crew quit communicating shortly after landing 20 years before. The rescue mission finds two survivors, a doctor and his daughter. They find a planet otherwise fully functional, left operating by its original inhabitants, the Krell, who apparently vanished in a single night. The earlier crew, we find, had likewise perished in a single night, ripped apart by invisible beasts.

After a few close scrapes, we learn that the doctor has been studying the Krell society. They had tapped geothermal energy, which would last as long as the planet. They had also developed a means of creating material objects simply by thinking about them and, in a fateful omission, had ignored the "monsters from the Id", those things created by the **61** minds, which ended their society. Likewise, the doctor had gotten ahead of his own understanding and done the same thing to his own party and nearly did the same to the rescue party.

What I remember most vividly from my first viewing of the movie (in 1956) was the geothermal energy. I learned that the first efforts had been made in California early in the 20th Century; by now Iceland gets about 90% of its energy from geothermal sources, and a few other countries get appreciable quantities that way.

[rtpoe]

There are different kinds of "bad" movie.

There are those that are painfully, offensively bad - like Battlefield: Earth or anything with Adam Sandler. There are movies that fail tragically at the fundamentals of acting, writing, and storytelling. Most of those are simply boring and fall into deserved obscurity.

Then there are those movies that are entertaining in their badness, that leave you gaping in amazement at what you are watching; for which laughter can be the only response.

To wit: STARCRASH (1978)

Produced in the heady days immediately post-Star Wars when anyone who had ever even seen an issue of Cinefastique was being hired to kit-bash spaceship models to ride the coattails of the space opera fad, Starcrash is perhaps a perfect storm of bad choices, the first one being in director Luigi Cozzi (aka "Lewis Coates"). Cozzi’s work best known to American audiences are the two Lou Ferrigno Hercules movies, and this movie certainly is no departure in terms of competence. The man simply didn’t know how to do these movies right, but to his credit, that didn’t stop him: if he was going to do it wrong, by golly, he’d do it wrong for all he was worth! And thus what resulted here was the funniest, most captivating train wreck of a supposedly non-comedic movie since the golden age of Ed Wood. - Nathan Shumate, Cold Fusion Video

The other inspiration of Starcrash is only slightly less obvious, and that is Barbarella, what with the weapons that all look like objets d'art and the one-damned-thing-after-another plot; but what made the Jane Fonda vehicle palatable was the sex and a subversive sense of humor, and to say Starcrash lacks those is to understate the situation; it lacks those so much that the videotape may suck those very qualities out of any movies unfortunate enough to be situated near it, like an entertainment black hole. - "Dr. Freex", The Bad Movie Report

This is one of my favorite bad movies. It lacks any sense of reality, is rife with ridiculous dialog, and is filled with special effects that are extraordinary in their cheesiness. I have never grown tired of watching it and recommend it without reservation to anyone who enjoys other than fine films. Heck, even those who usually avoid the type of movies celebrated on this website should give it a try. It is that good at being bad. I love this movie. I wish it was a girl, so I could break her ankles and keep her chained to a bed in a remote cabin. There, with no worry of discovery, I could read her my poetry (about her) and feed her sauteed songbirds caught especially for her consumption. I think I am going to cry. Okay, creepy homages to "Misery" aside, you absolutely must see "Starcrash." - Andrew Borntreger, Badmovies.org

The Emperor’s forces shoot golden torpedoes that smash through the Count’s windows — yes, his deep space station, especially the bridge, sports lots of windows—and pop open to disgorge laser-firing Imperial soldiers. I should note that although these things smash through all these windows, there’s not a sign of explosive decompression or escaping atmosphere to be seen. In space. See what I’m getting at here? - Ken Begg, Jabootu’s Bad Movie Dimension

[rtpoe]

The Gamera Trilogy

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995)
Gamera 2: Attack of Legion (1996)
Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999)

Kaiju done right!

In the early 90s, Daiei Studios was looking up at their rival Toho, and seeing how that studio had kept the Godzilla franchise alive by essentially reinventing it, both stylistically and thematically. Why couldn't Daiei do the same thing with their kaiju?

So they did, and they put everything into the effort. These are kaiju for adults - there's no cloyingness or "Kenny" characters around. Gamera gets a real origin story, and they stick with it across all three movies. Characters (and their actors) stay through all three films. The effects are very well done; it's still guys in suits for the most part with only a little CGI where needed. One thing they do better than the Godzilla movies is that the big monster fights are at least well lit if not in daylight, so you can clearly see the action.

These three are probably the best kaiju movies to date, with the sole exception (obviously) of the originial Gojira.

[rtpoe]

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

A screen adaptation of an Agatha Christie story, it has the head-spinning twists at the end that typify her work.

Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Charles Laughton) is a barrister just getting back to work after a hospital stay for a heart attack. His doctors have ordered him to give up his cigar and brandy habits, and Nurse Plimsoll (Elsa Lanchester) is watching him like a hawk to make sure he follows those orders. He's also been told to stay away from stressful cases, but when murder suspect Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power, in his last role) is brought to his office by another lawyer, Robarts cannot pass on the case.

Sir Wilfrid: (Having obtained a cigar from solicitor Brogan-Moore) "Give me a match."
Leonard Vole: "Sorry, I don't carry matches."
Sir Wilfrid: [to Brogan-Moore] "I thought you said I'd like him."
Leonard Vole: "But I do have a lighter."
Sir Wilfrid: "You're quite right, I do like him."

Marlene Deitrich, still hot in her mid-50s, plays the title character of Christine Helm (aka Mrs. Vole).

As with a lot of courtroom dramas, don't expect everything to follow correct legal procedures. But what you can expect is a lot of cracking good dialogue! Laughton excels at the comedic aspects of his character, especially in the interplay between Robarts and Nurse Plimsoll. And as it happened, Elsa Lanchester was Laughton's wife, and the role was written specifically for her so she could keep an eye on him (his health was starting to decline at the time) during filming.

[solvegas]

Three days ago I saw " The Wizard of OZ " on the big screen in IMAX at my local theater. I've always enjoyed and been enchanted by this movie but I had never seen it in the silver screen in all my years, just on TV. It is much better in the movie house. I borrowed ( babysat ) a friend's three year old who needed to do some errands so it looked like grandpa was taking his granddaughter to see it. The little tyke was transfixed and loved it. After the movie we were both singing, badly, " We're off to see the Wizard ! " and when safely delivered back to her mother she told mom she wanted to see it again. At $14.50 a pop I don't think so.

[salem]

Forbidden Planet, 1956

If there weren't such a bias against science fiction, this movie would be on many top-ten lists. The story is simply The Tempest remade in a science fiction future where a human crew quit communicating shortly after landing 20 years before. The rescue mission finds two survivors, a doctor and his daughter. They find a planet otherwise fully functional, left operating by its original inhabitants, the Krell, who apparently vanished in a single night. The earlier crew, we find, had likewise perished in a single night, ripped apart by invisible beasts.

After a few close scrapes, we learn that the doctor has been studying the Krell society. They had tapped geothermal energy, which would last as long as the planet. They had also developed a means of creating material objects simply by thinking about them and, in a fateful omission, had ignored the "monsters from the Id", those things created by the **61** minds, which ended their society. Likewise, the doctor had gotten ahead of his own understanding and done the same thing to his own party and nearly did the same to the rescue party.

One of my favourite memories from my childhood was when BBC2 (a UK terrestrial channel) showed classic Sci-Fi movies at 6pm throughout the winter. Along with Invaders From Mars, This Island Earth and The Day the Earth Stood Still was the classic - Forbidden Planet, which was always my favourite. Apart from starring a very young Leslie Nielson it also had the lovely Ann Francis and last but not least, Robby the Robot.

There has been a J Michael Straczynski penned script for a remake in development for a few years now, wonder of anything will come of it. I don't think they could match the eerie spookiness of the original though.

[pedonbio]

Not a great movie, but I saw a re-run of the original "Matrix" today--Do you remember that it started with an attempt to kill one of the characters ("Trinity") in a phone booth?

[solvegas]

Not an old movie but yesterday I saw " Gravity " with Sandra Bullock and George Rooney and enjoyed it immensely. Good yarn and at 91 minutes not a overwrought and overlong Hollywood production that is so typical nowadays. I also recommend " Rush ". Those of us who did follow F1 racing back in the 70's will love the story and the racing. Also, this movie is set before the AIDS crisis and the new adventurous sexual revolution. Brought back some mammaries .... er ..... memories. 

[pedonbio]

I saw Gravity, too. A great movie; some movies are worth watching in a theater, if only for the special effects, which are outstanding. Sometimes the vertigo is worth it.

[MaxiMoundsSexyBigTitsAndSexyBigAss]

Saw  'The Raven' 2012, with John Cusack, such an underrated film.  An interesting take on the last days of Edgar Allen Poe's life.