What old media are you watching? - Since new media isn't worth watching

Excalibur is legit in my top 5 films of all time. My favorite moment is when Arthur gets knighted mid-battle.
I don’t know if it’s authentic to the original Welsh legends or whatever, but both Excalibur and Camelot kind of have the same thesis, which is that Arthur is promoted like four levels past his actual competence.:story:

1000125573.jpg
 
Last night I watched Jackie Brown (1997). Despite liking all of Tarantino's movies to some extent, I never got around to seeing it for some reason. I liked it a lot, can definitely tell why it's divisive since it's the least like any of his other movies. Plus coming out after Pulp Fiction didn't do it any favors; that's probably why it's the least discussed of his movies from what I'vs noticed. Not my favorite but good and will have to rewatch it. Reservoir Dogs is my favorite and rewatched that too
 
Plus coming out after Pulp Fiction didn't do it any favors
Yeah I always got the sense people praise Jackie Brown the way Bond nerds praise On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It's the contrarian favorite.

1000125661.jpg

Jackie Brown is basically an Elmore Leonard story, It’s just a bunch of middle-aged criminals having a stressful week. Everyone’s tired and the crime sucks. Sam Jackson doesn’t even beat anybody in a fight. He just keeps shooting people when they’re not looking. Eventually someone does the same thing to him. That's why I like the movie.
 
Ver archivo adjunto 8696370
You may be onto something there.
I really wanted to like Disney's Sword in the Stone more than I did. Merlin was a great character, and I dig the "1970's grit combined with medieval color" aesthetic. The biggest problem with it was that Arthur didn't seem to grow as a character. He was the same helpless boy at the end that he was at the beginning. The movie had a great premise: Young future King Arthur learns lessons that teach him how to use his wits and intelligence to solve problems and to not rely on brute strength, thus helping drag England out of a savage age and into a more civilized one. But this doesn't happen. Arthur gets turned into animals, gets chased by predators, then has to cry to Merlin for help. The only part of the film that lived up to this premise was the fight between Merlin and Mad Madam Mim, which had Merlin turning into a virus and making Mim sick, winning the duel. It was the best part of the film, hands down.

In a good film, the end would show Arthur using something he had learned or observed in an earlier scene to solve a major problem and/or to show that he was worthy to become king, but this doesn't happen. The film just gives Arthur the Sword in the Stone. He doesn't earn it or show that he's worthy of it. The character I feel the most sorry for is Kay. He's portrayed as a savage bully who gets his comeuppance, but the truth is, he's just a product of the age he lives in. He's a brute because being a brute back then ensured that you'd have food on your table and protection from your equally brutish enemies. Merlin seems to completely dismiss everything Kay does and gets mad when Arthur wants to be a warrior like him, as if Arthur himself wouldn't need to crack some skulls or use violence to get people in line from time to time. Arthur often fucks up everything Kay tries to do, and frankly, Kay is a lot easier on him than an outright villain would be. The only thing the film does right, is show why Arthur is underqualified to be King of England, and I'm sure the film did that unintentionally.
 
Última edición:
MARATHON OF OLD MOVIE BULLSHIT

Romance on the High Seas (1948 )

1000127266.jpg

A jealous businessman thinks to himself, “my wife might cheat on me,” so instead of confronting her he’s like “I’m gonna get a private detective and also send her away on a boat.”

1000127263.jpg

And then the wife is like “okay, escalation: what if I don’t go, and instead I hire Doris Day to pretend to be me.” If you’re rich in the 40s you can just invent problems and then hire a guy to make them worse.

1000127262.jpg

So Doris Day’s on the boat pretending to be this douchebag's wife, and she immediately falls for the private dick whose job is to catch "her" cheating. And this genius is like "I knew it, this lady's morally corrupt.":blart:

1000127264.jpg

So this is Doris Day's first movie, first romantic comedy, and first pairing with Jack Carson. I’ve seen Jack try drama, I’ve seen him try comedy, even musical numbers...he's clearly just built for light entertainment. He's singing in a bad Caribbean accent, mariachi band behind him… that’s his habitat. Also, there is just something funny about the size difference in these situations. Most comedians are tiny wiry guys. Carson’s like a big dumb giant, just flailing around.

1000127269.jpg

Overall, I liked this way more than My Dream Is Yours, but it’s not exactly memorable. It’s comedy of errors on a cruise ship.

Four Daughters (1938 )

1000127277.jpg

It’s basically four sisters and their dad who all play music and are sad.

1000127280.jpg

Some composer dude, Felix, rolls into town and suddenly everyone’s in love. And there’s Mickey too, Felix’s buddy, who’s basically a bad luck charm. The youngest daughter, Ann, has eyes for him.

1000127282.jpg

I like Claude Rains, don’t get me wrong, but the blustery old man thing is not his wheelhouse. I saw him as Professor Challenger in The Lost World and it was a similarly dull affair. He's made up to look old and it's not all convincing.

1000127272.webp

The movie’s basically trapped inside the house, right? I’d swear it was a play. Nope, actually from a book. It doesn’t pick up until John Garfield appears.

1000127284.jpg

Garfield is one of those actors you can't watch without thinking about how he died. Like James Dean or Nancy Benoit. He said in an interview he based his Mickey character on Oscar Levant. I don't see the slightest resemblance. Garfield reminds me of Bugsy Siegel, darkly funny and dangerous.

1000127278.jpg

I took to calling the daughters the Blob. They all move in a pack, look the same, talk the same. The guy who plays Felix is appealing. Tries to be sweet...in the stock role of bachelor in gray suit.

1000127285.jpg

Mickey kills himself and… boom, movie's almost over, I’m out.
 
Última edición:
Watched Yojimbo and Sanjuro.

Yojimbo is fantastic, main character is a based badass that kills all the criminals by manipulating them into going into war against eachother, but without it feeling like standard 700 iq anime protagonist. The dark humour is great and the final battle is a good climax.

Sanjuro though is meh. It's way more black and white, so it loses the dark humour. The main character is also more of a pacifist compared to previous Total Outlaw Death in the first film. Yeah technically he is fighting against people who don't have any choice, but it removes a lot of the fun in the previous film.
 
In honor of Chuck Norris, I watched the film he said helped turned him into a more mainstream action star: Lone Wolf McQuade. Also starring David Carradine, a pre-Star Trek: Voyager Robert Beltran, and Barbara Carrera, it's full of 80s gunfights and explosions without being too cheesy.
 
In honor of Chuck Norris, I watched the film he said helped turned him into a more mainstream action star: Lone Wolf McQuade. Also starring David Carradine, a pre-Star Trek: Voyager Robert Beltran, and Barbara Carrera, it's full of 80s gunfights and explosions without being too cheesy.
Agreed. The organ music during the final fight is just....*chef's kiss*.
img_4818_0.jpeg
^ Saw that in a double feature with this last night. Genuinely the funniest movie I've seen in a while. The chemistry between Burt Reynolds, Sally Field and Jerry Reed is palpable
 
Finally got around to seeing Fantasia earlier this month. It's truly tremendous that this film came out in 1940. Disney's first feature length animated movie was Snow White in 1937. It holds up so incredibly well due to the sheer artistry behind it. Some segments were weaker than others but this movie's peaks are genuinely impressive. The Ave Maria bit at the end of Night at Bald Mountain is legitimately kind of moving. I should see Fantasia 2000 soon to compare, but I really do think that Fantasia movies should be made like 2-4 times per century. One every 25-50 years. It would do society some good to introduce children to classical music and artistic animation at the same time.
 
Finally got around to seeing Fantasia earlier this month. It's truly tremendous that this film came out in 1940. Disney's first feature length animated movie was Snow White in 1937. It holds up so incredibly well due to the sheer artistry behind it. Some segments were weaker than others but this movie's peaks are genuinely impressive. The Ave Maria bit at the end of Night at Bald Mountain is legitimately kind of moving. I should see Fantasia 2000 soon to compare, but I really do think that Fantasia movies should be made like 2-4 times per century. One every 25-50 years. It would do society some good to introduce children to classical music and artistic animation at the same time.

It got more famous by being in a Wes Anderson film, but I was introduced to it at some point in my school career. This isn't the easiest or best example of classical music, but it's supposed to show young listeners the different parts of the orchestra.


This is really the piece (really an excerpt) that I have used to show what classical music can be. One of my favourites.
 
DORIS DAY DOUBLE TEETHURE

1000129780.jpg

On Moonlit Bay (1951) and By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)

1000129752.jpg

So this movie is just Doris Day playing a tomboy in 1900, which back then meant you owned one baseball. She's like, “I don’t wanna be a lady,” and her father (Leon Ames) is losing his mind because she climbed a tree once and didn’t embroider a pillow about Jesus.

1000129754.jpg

Her love interest (Gordon MacRae from Oklahoma!) read one opinion column and now won’t shut the hell up about “marriage is fake” and “society is a construct.” He moves next door and starts lecturing her dad like, “Sir, I will not participate in your capitalist dowry system,” meanwhile he’s unemployed and eating their pie.

1000129759.jpg

The sequel is the same thing but now the suitor comes back from World War I and still won’t commit. "Still figuring myself out.”:suffering:

1000129761.gif

Meanwhile the little brother (Billy Gray) is running around like Eric Cartman causing chaos for no reason. That kid’s whole role is just invent fake disasters so adults can yell at each other.

1000129768.png

It’s becoming very clear to me that Doris Day spent the early part of her career just absolutely carrying a bunch of mid movies on her back. Also the real subplot across both movies is just her teeth evolving like Pokémon. First movie: normal human teeth. Second movie: boom, chiclets. Like she bit into a piano keyboard and won. I love a woman that looks like she could eat corn through a picket fence.

1000129772.jpg

The dad is this banker who moves, like, one mile across town into some old haunted-looking mansion, and the whole movie treats it like he just relocated to the Appalachian shadow realm. He crossed the street and suddenly people are like, “We don’t trust city folk here.”

1000129775.jpg

The actor keeps falling into that classic bumbling sitcom dad thing where every single decision he makes gets overruled immediately. He’s just there to get owned in his own house.

1000129777.jpg

The son in the first movie is basically doing The Omen. Not even an artful dodger type. And the mom keeps protecting him no matter what. Like he could blow his sister's head off with a Smith & Wesson and she’d be like, “boys will be boys." In the sequel they realized they made the kid too insane, so now he’s just a dumbass instead of a future court case.

1000129779.jpg

There is a nerd character too. He keeps trying to woo Doris Day. In the sequel they swap him out for another nerd (Russell Arms) who’s more smug than pathetic, which honestly improves things because now when he wipes out on an ice rink, it feels earned.

1000129781.jpg

Aren’t these supposed to be musicals? There’s barely any music. They keep replaying the title songs like it’s the only record in the house, but if you showed up expecting Doris Day to really sing, you’re gonna feel robbed. She’s still funny as when they let her do comedy, great facials. But most of the time she’s stuck playing ensemble filler while the movie wanders around looking for a plot.

Verdict: 2 stars
 
Última edición:
The Plainsman (1936)

1000129913.jpg

Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper) is the only competent man within a 50 mile radius. Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur) is down bad for Bill. But he loves only one thing: GUNS!

1000129910.jpg

The government hands out rifles during the Civil War, then some greasy dudes sell those guns to Native Americans. Classic American twist.:champ:

1000129915.jpg

Then it all builds to the famous part where Wild Bill gets shot while playing poker, holding aces and eights.

1000129918.jpg

So by this point Cecil B. DeMille has his style locked in. Nobody actually knows what Moses looked like. You can just invent whatever. But with Wild Bill Hickok, we know what the guy looked like, how he lived, how he died, who killed him… DeMille’s treating it like What if Wild Bill Hickok was also Jesus and John Wayne at the same time.

1000129905.jpg


DeMille wants to tell the entire myth of the Old West through one guy, First, Bill's this psychotic Indian fighter, just stomping around being a hardass. During the cavalry scenes he turns into the Duke: refusing to answer questions because they’re beneath him, yelling at soldiers, like they're his kids and he's pissed off that they knocked over a store display.

1000129920.jpg

In the beginning he hooks up with Buffalo Bill (James Ellison) who’s settling down, getting married. Meanwhile Wild Bill is still mentally at war. They do establish his gun skills. He just wiggles his fingers like he’s casting a spell and then instantly kills five guys.

1000129906.jpg

Halfway through the movie it becomes... a war epic? I thought we were searching for those rifles that were sold to Indians as “farming supplies,” which is the funniest euphemism. You gotta rotate your crops… and your ammunition.

1000129921.jpg

Later, a blacked up Anthony Quinn arrives to announce that his tribe killed Custer.

1000129912.jpg

In the last act, Wild Bill randomly becomes a pacifist, now he’s cowboy Jesus. Then he gets shot holding the dead man’s hand.

1000129922.png

The women in general are written like hysterical obstacles. Jean Arthur's character consists of clinging to Wild Bill and yelling things like “Bill, you’re crazy!” or “You’re one mule-headed man, Bill!” so often that I started wishing I had a shot glass handy.

1000129923.jpg

The movie does look expensive. Lots of extras, cavalry charges, location shooting. If all you want is cowboy action, it delivers. Just don't use your brain, even for a moment, to understand anything that happens in it.

1000129924.jpg

Like how Bill can shoot guys in self-defense and be wanted for murder, but then later he just arrests an entire gang by himself like he’s the sheriff. Yeah he just walks into town like, “I’m in charge now,” and everyone goes along with it.

1000129926.jpg

My favorite part is when he tracks the gang on foot while they’re on horseback and wagons. No clues, no horse, nothing. He just psychically knows where they are. Professor X but for yee-haw crimes.

Verdict: 2 stars
 
In honor of Chuck Norris, I watched the film he said helped turned him into a more mainstream action star: Lone Wolf McQuade. Also starring David Carradine, a pre-Star Trek: Voyager Robert Beltran, and Barbara Carrera, it's full of 80s gunfights and explosions without being too cheesy.

Still a great flick. Saw it myself again the other night. The fact that THIS is what ended up inspiring Walker, Texas Ranger is something I can kinda see and get behind. Now I'm likely going to end up starting to watch that as well.

As far as me personally, I'm rewatching a lot of Star Trek TNG, and honestly, a lot of the first and second seasons weren't as bad as people make them out to be.
 
img_4818_0.jpeg
^ Saw that in a double feature with this last night. Genuinely the funniest movie I've seen in a while. The chemistry between Burt Reynolds, Sally Field and Jerry Reed is palpable
Jackie Gleason was also a great villain who played off Reynolds perfectly. Really nailed the corrupt sheriff role.
As far as me personally, I'm rewatching a lot of Star Trek TNG, and honestly, a lot of the first and second seasons weren't as bad as people make them out to be.
There were still good episodes (Datalore, Conspiracy, A Matter of Honor, Pen Pals), but you could tell it was still finding itself compared to later seasons.
 

Bird-Johnson era African Roundball. I'm not really into sports that dont offer death and disfigurement, but it's pretty fun watchin' this country boy dominate the court and whispering shittalk under his breath the whole time. Knowing Johnson could spring a leak at any moment adds that extra element of danger I crave.
 
There were still good episodes (Datalore, Conspiracy, A Matter of Honor, Pen Pals), but you could tell it was still finding itself compared to later seasons.
Picard and Data are the only characters worth my time. It's such a weird pairing too. You got the rube from Night Court acting next to some dusty RSC dude.

1000129959.jpg
 
Atrás
Top Abajo