Last Film You Watched + Your Comments?

[Kel E]

Rocky 3 I think this is my favorite film of the series. Its got Mr T, and a catchy 80s song even though I normally hate pop music in movies. I pity the fool who can not appreciate the clever and skilled way Stallone milks this concept. His dialogue is also really good--he takes ideas that could come across as hokey but manages to make them sound smart and sincere. Good comic relief from Burt Young. But its Mr. T's movie all the way.

Prediction? Paaain.

[Kel E]

King Kong 76


Although I consider it blasphemous to remake my favorite movie, on its own merits I think Dino Kong a well made effort. There's some funny lines and the cast does a good job. The musical score is memorable. I miss the dinosaurs but I suppose it make sense to leave them out since a dinosaur would make a more attractive capture than a giant gorilla I suspect. The big let down is the man in the ape suit aspect to it--but from a historical perspective the mechanics of the ape mask were far advanced than anything done up to that time and they still are impressive--though nothing compared to Rick Baker's ape costume designed for the Mighty Joe Young remake. The life-size Kong which was heavily advertised in Famous Monsters (was looking at some issues the other day and they showed that giant Kong all over the place) was hardly in the movie.

One thing that hampers any remake attempt is that the original is the only version where no one really sympathizes with him. In every version from Son of Kong through the late 30s radio play to this and especially in the 2005 remake which I didnt care for they go to extremes to make him the good guy which i think is unnecessary--even counter productive.
Still I do prefer this to the 2005 film ans remakes go. Maybe some time I'll revisit King Kong Lives.

[TheRoadWarrior]

CLOCKWORK ORANGE...

I'd only read the book, and with the ban, never seemed to get around to seeing it as it wasn't available, and then when it was... it had lost some interest for me...

Found that it was very much like the book or least from what I can recall of the book, a faithful/good adaption and caught the mood and feel of the read.

Enjoyed the famous opening shot, and particularly noticed a lot of the camera work, slow-mo, fast-mo, and how Kubrick's craftsmanship keeps us watching.

[drterror666]

Of course, the film loses the final chapter in the book. I think Kubrick was right to ditch it, but Burgess fans will hate me for saying that.

[Kel E]

Marathon Man
I dont think it ages well. Apart from the dental scene and the Roy Schieder stuff I found it rather dull with some plot problems. The William Devane character gives Dustin Hoffman the location of Laurence Olivier in the city even though he plans to shoot Hoffman as soon as he can get his gun back? And this right after he kills the two nazi helpers? Why? It made no sense to me.
As Mengele stories go i prefer the Boys From Brazil.

[Blink]

CLOCKWORK ORANGE...

I'd only read the book, and with the ban, never seemed to get around to seeing it as it wasn't available, and then when it was... it had lost some interest for me...

I saw this on it's first UK cinema release in 1971,controversial films sometimes lose their controversialness after long periods of time similar to The Exorcist.

[tobiaswragg]

Of course, the film loses the final chapter in the book. I think Kubrick was right to ditch it, but Burgess fans will hate me for saying that.

Tough. Kubrick wrote and directed the film, not Burgess.

I reacquainted myself with this film recently (after initially suffering through bootleg tapes of it; about the only Kubrick I can be bothered with, incidentally). Your post there put me in mind of another film I had the pleasure of revisiting again after a long time, The Final Programme. I mentioned it on another forum and received the expected response ('oh, Moorcock doesn't like it'). I couldn't care less. I think that the film's better, as a matter of fact. So does Tim Lucas.

[TheRoadWarrior]

DrT666, I read the book yonks ago, so it's one I can't recall, it was good to see C/Orange as a crystal clear version though, as blink says, it's dated, but it's still got that edgy aspect you'd expect. I gave up comparing book and films a long time ago, as they've got different priorities, so try to read the book first, if it's a book that I think the film will condense and ruin as a read.

Kubrick's fears of the violence on these shores he felt the film might encourate was interesting, but when it was released after his death, it was silence, it had well and truly passed any attention of that kind it seems.

[TheRoadWarrior]

Watched some of Polanski's THE GHOST, last night, seemed very 'watchable', and began watching the original GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, again, seemed okay, tend to give films a miss that have hype, and watch them later ON, SOMETIMES YEARS LATER ON ...and hopefully you then see them for what they actually are. Again, it was also watchable but not quite sure if I thought it deserved the all the fuss and reputation.

[drterror666]

DrT666, I read the book yonks ago, so it's one I can't recall, it was good to see C/Orange as a crystal clear version though, as blink says, it's dated, but it's still got that edgy aspect you'd expect. I gave up comparing book and films a long time ago, as they've got different priorities, so try to read the book first, if it's a book that I think the film will condense and ruin as a read.

Kubrick's fears of the violence on these shores he felt the film might encourate was interesting, but when it was released after his death, it was silence, it had well and truly passed any attention of that kind it seems.

I think Kubrick's banning of his own film was a real knee jerk reaction, although it did help up the film's notariety. I like Kubrick's version of the story because it adds a sense of 'what goes around, comes around', whereas Burgess' ending lost that with the final chapter, what with Alex giving up and becoming a family man. I find this ending a bit of a cop out and quite conformist; I argue that Alex could never conform to anything, that he was the ultimate anarchist.

I was cured all right! Lovely!

[tobiaswragg]

Was he not receiving death threats because of the film, from people who hated it, as well as some rather worrying, 'stalkery' mail from the film's idolaters? I think that I might have withdrawn it as well, under those circumstances. I remember Burgess getting some grief as well. 'But not you, Stanley, you keep out the way', he snapped on a TV show, presumably a reference to Kubrick's reclusive lifestyle.

[TheRoadWarrior]

The only issues I can remember from various articles I've seen over the years in movie magazines was Kubrick's belief that we Brits were special (...well, we knew that hey...!) in the sense that there was this tribal thing we have going on, a sort of Mods and Rockers, Punks and Skins tinderbox and that the film keyed into the UKs particular psyche and in 70s Britain it was likely to send us all over the edge and so on, anarchy reigns.

But he based some of this on a few incidents either at cinemas, or acts of violence related, reputedly, to the film. I don't know - there's been this spate of industrial tension and the 1970s and how it nearly all blew back then programmes on recently, so who knows.

On the ground, all that I remember was a reputation it shared with something like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or The Exorcist, these were the films that had something that was so sinister, or destabilizing that you were likely to turn into an anarchist, die of fright, or even be tempted by the Devil as a result of watching them.

I remember in the 1990s, Empire magazine, still fairly new then, kept writing open letters to Kubrick, arguing that film fans were being deprived of something special, but by the time it got released, I think we'd seen so much by then it had truly got left behind. I mean we've had a lot of heavier stuff out since then, and with the old video nasties turning up in every HMV and labels like Vipco, and so on, real shock is pretty hard to do now, I reckon.

I'd read a few things about the novel, the whole 'it feels good to be bad....' and the whole 'a society which is arguably worse than the crimes of Alex and his cronies' .... and how by the end there's some kind of statement behind it all that freedoms are what matter, even if there is violence, that's the cost etc, is how I've heard Burgess explain it, in the way Trainspotting said 'yeah, drugs are bad and mess you up, but there is a reason people do them...'

One anecdote I recall: Burgess said when he was writing the book that his wife had been raped way back by sailors and as he recalled this incident, it actually turned him on... bloody authors hey!?

[thehamish]

The 28th Reich. just your standard tale of time travel and metal nazi spiders. passable fare.
John Carter was based on an awful Edgar Burroughs novel btw.
If theyd spend that kind of money on a WILLIAM Burroughs adaptation, then cinema would be saved (or not haha).

[tobiaswragg]

One anecdote I recall: Burgess said when he was writing the book that his wife had been raped way back by sailors and as he recalled this incident, it actually turned him on.

Apparently, this was indeed the case and I should also point out that his wife subsequently died as a result of the attack. To perhaps explain Burgess' rather disturbing bloodlust, I understand that writing can act as a form of catharsis, and I suspect that there was an element of that going on in this instance.

[TheRoadWarrior]

pheew- I didn't know that Tobias, that adds another layer to TCO.

btw- I've only read one other book by Burgess, "A Dead Man in Deptford" he has an interest in Christopher Marlowe, the London playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare's who was murdered aged 29, and whom he'd based his Phd paper --via Liverpool Uni- on ... the Phd paper being written whilst German bombs were still dropping on the city, I've read.... and gather "Earthly Powers" is a key Burgess novel, so may try and obtain a copy and read it sometime.

Pheew, Tobias, still thinking about that extra snippet you've provided.

[tobiaswragg]

The only other work by Burgess that I can recall reading is The Clockwork Testament, in which, under the veneer of fiction, he deals with his feelings as regards both Kubrick's film, which one critic said had 'brutalised and coarsened' the novel, and which he reportedly came to hate, and his, in my view, entirely understandable annoyance at being dragged into the outcry which followed incidents of murder and rape (supposedly) inspired by viewings of the film.

[TheRoadWarrior]

Yeah, I think I probably had it in my mind that Burgess/Kubrick got on, but I'm probably influenced there by the A.C. Clarke/Kubrick collab on 2001, and without thinking about it subconsciously assumed TCO would have been a smooth relationship.

It seems like a large number of authors are unhappy about their works up on the screen, there's the famous case of Mr Stephen King of course, and you just come across adaptations where there's a lot of discontent on the part of the novelist. Understandable given how complicated the development process is with many films...

[drterror666]

Not to mention Alan Moore, of course. I just wonder why he even bothered selling the rights to his stuff. Still, you'll never see an adaptation of the Lost Girls trilogy

[Kel E]

Deep Rising
Does this count as a guilty pleasure? I have no guilt that I like this movie.

I am not too fond of Stephen Sommers films after the Mummy but this was fun and funny--the only thing is he goes overboard with is cg. Its noticeable in a few places here and the Mummy and he completely loses control in the Mummy Returns.

[Blink]

Deep Rising
Does this count as a guilty pleasure? I have no guilt that I like this movie.

Me neither.