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  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent

    Nice review though again one suspects reading that is better than watching the film itself btw I quite like those Mystery Theatre 3000 things where they talk over the film and take the Mickey. I did watch this on DVD when LoveFilm was a thing - DVD rental service, got hooked on it some years ago - but I couldn't tell you anything of it, I've forgotten much of it. These Bond take-offs lack a certain thing - well, they're exploitation movies really - but they don't have any pretence at a higher thing going on to raise the tone, or a dual narrative. It's just, here's a gimmick, here's a firework.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent

    In the Heat of the Night

    If your elderly Dad enjoys a clip of an old film on telly, you buy the DVD for him. Rod Steiger plays the small-town head of police who is called upon to investigate the murder of a big-noise businessman and suspects a mugging from an itinerant. First person who gets picked up is a suited Sidney Poitier who awaiting the next train out of there...

    This film uses the 'n' word a few times so ironically can't be shown much now despite it being a big thing about race relations, the so-called n word now having the explosive, socially disruptive power once accorded to conventional swear words. Aside from that, and the adult themes, this is an A certificate film that nonetheless threatens to get nastier. The interchange between Steiger and Poitier is what makes it, it's a two-hander. The hoodlums in the film seem to resemble the US pop band that sung about Farmer Brown on the Ed Sullivan Show and seem resentful that it was the Beatles that went on to fame and glory and not them. One woman who is of dubious morals turns out to be 16 when she looks all of 30. Generally, the dialogue and race commentary is the reason to watch this as the detective part of the story left me cold, I couldn't quite fathom it and tis wasn't the first time of viewing. Norman Jewison directs with economy and a few shots of real flair, he also did Pacino's And Justice For All, a 70s film which is never on telly now.

    Aspects of the film anticipate Stallone's First Blood, though that went in a very different direction!

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,172MI6 Agent

    @caractacus potts OK Connery sounds both hilarious and awful at once. I bow in awe of your perseverance.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    JUNGLE CRUISE (2021)

    There probably is not a single original element in this movie, it draws from Indiana Jones, The Mummy (1999), Pirates Of The Caribbean amongst others, but it is surprisingly entertaining, mainly due to the lead performances of Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and Jack Whitehall. The brilliant Paul Giamatti is underused as a rival to Johnson’s character.

    Siblings Lily and MacGregor hire jungle cruise operator Frank Wolff to take them down the Amazon in search of the Tree Of Life. There are several excruciating jokes as per the theme park ride at DisneyWorld and the leads play off each other nicely.

    Undemanding fun but 15 minutes too long.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent

    The last emperor (1987)

    I particularely enjoy movies about places, cultures and times we rarely see in movies. This modern classic is an example of this. We are shown the life of Pu Yi who became the emperor of China as a toddler in 1908 and died as a gardener in 1967.

    This is a true epic. I actually remember it used in promos for the cinema experience as oposed to TV. This movie was the first Western movie to be shot in China after the revolution and the very first to be shot in the Fornuften City. The acting, music, cinematography and story is first rate. If you haven't seen it I urge you to watch it on the biggest screen possible.

    Sean Connery was offered the role as the emperor's Scottish tutor, but turned it down.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    THE REPTILE (1966)

    In a Cornish village locals are dying from a form of Black Death which turns out to be caused by a woman biting them, who has changed into a snake after being cursed by a cult in the Far East.

    A typical Hammer movie that would have been better if Cushing or Lee had been involved. Nonetheless it’s a pretty decent effort with good make-up for Jacqueline Pearce as the titular monster.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Bond fan from OzBond fan from Oz Posts: 88MI6 Agent

    Dances with Wolves (1990) - theatrical cut

    Grand, sweeping epic film with a nice score by John Barry (sounding very "Barryesque").

    Kevin Costner is quite good in both acting and directing departments.

    My one complaint about the film is that it's long; I wouldn't want to watch it again.

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,172MI6 Agent

    THE ROCK (1996)

    I didn’t mean to watch this, but it was on and as I caught the beginning it seemed churlish not to finish it. Jerry Bruckheimer’s masterful high-octane action movie about U.S. mercenaries holed up on Alcatraz Island threatening San Francisco with rockets full of deadly poison. Nicholas Cage’s F.B.I. chemical weapons expert teams up with Sean Connery’s ex-S.A.S. non-person, the only inmate to escape Alcatraz prison, to thwart the bad guys. Cue a ton of explosions and machine gun bullets, car chases, fights, tension, grand gestures, throw away humour and incidents which are completely ridiculous but really don’t matter any as the whole picture is faintly ridiculous.

    Normally I dislike this sort of fare, but for some reason The Rock remains extremely watchable, even after the fourth time, and very enjoyable. Good casting and acting all-round helps. So too the production values. Very much an American product with global appeal and featuring one of Connery’s most gleeful and glimmering performances.

    Top marks, I’d say.

  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    edited November 2021

    I've been indulging in a bit of Noirvember lately, and have just watched a part of 1950s film noirs.

    Firstly, TOUCH OF EVIL.

    Often regarded as the last film of the classic film noir period, Orson Welles' Touch of Evil is a cracking noir thriller, boasting a memorable performance by Welles himself, as well as good work from the other leads Charleton Heston and Janet Leigh. It also has a lot of memorable and stylish cinematography, in particular its famous opening long-take which was something I immediately thought of when I first saw Spectre's opening tracking shot. There are a few different versions of the film around, and the blu-ray I was watching had 5 different options - 3 different cuts as well as different aspect ratios to choose from. I opted for the 1998 reconstructed version in good old fashioned 4x3 Academy ratio. I saw the film previously in my student days and certainly didn't get the most out of it on that first version. I'm very glad to have gone back and rediscovered it now. I am now also curious to go and watch the other versions, although I doubt I will manage to do that anytime soon, given the massive list of films I have to get through.

    Second, NIAGARA.

    After Touch of Evil, Niagara felt like a bit of a lightweight outing, but I nonetheless found it highly entertaining. Unusually for a 1950s noir, this one is shot in 3 strip technicolor, which if nothing else, helps make Marilyn Monroe's red lipstick pop out from the screen quite vividly. Set around Niagara falls, the plot revolves around two married couples. One visiting Niagara falls on a honeymoon, while Monroe's character is plotting to kill her much older husband, played by Joseph Cotten (who had a very brief cameo in Touch of Evil as well). Despite the bigger star names of Monroe and Cotten, I found the most captivating performance to be that of Jean Peters, who is essentially the protagonist of the film. I also enjoyed her performance last week when I watched Pickup on South Street, another 1950s film noir. I didn't have the highest expectations for this film, so it came as a pleasant surprise, and it was a nice break from the usual monochromatic urban setting of most noirs.

  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,906MI6 Agent

    Golrush007 said:

    TOUCH OF EVIL.

    ...in which Janet Leigh gets into a spot of bother in a motel room several years before Psycho

    NIAGARA.

    ...also includes much motel room mischief! this film is a time capsule, Niagara Falls looks nothing like that anymore. Today its lucky tourists can even get close what with all the tacky highrise development now built right up to the edge of the river.

    This film makes a cameo in Fleming's From Russia with Love, including Marilyn's red lips!

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent

    The red shoes (1948)

    After watching the great Black Narcissus I promisef myself to watch other movies by Pressburger and Powell, especially this movie. I also know it's a favourite og Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood. The plot is centered around ballet performances, a movie genere mostly involving Black Swann and this movie. A young female dancer and a conductor/composer Are both discovered by an impresario. They find success and the dancer and the composer fall in love, but they are torn between love and ambission in their professions. To further complicate the matter the impresario falls in love with the dancer too.

    The use of colour in this movie is noteworthy. It's one of the ways the distinction between reality and fantasy are blurred, especially during the ballets. A movie focusing on ballets is probably not for everyone, especially one ballet scene lasting more than fifteen minutes. But if you're above average interested in movies and maybe other art forms this is a great movie to experience.

  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,906MI6 Agent

    number24 said:

    The Red Shoes (1948)

    well I like Fred Astaire movies and Gene Kelly's American in Paris, which also has a lengthy ballet sequence.

    And Kate Bush based her mid90s album of the same name around this movie, so its long been on my list of films to see, though I've never had the chance.

  • Royale-les-EauxRoyale-les-Eaux LondonPosts: 814MI6 Agent

    Red Notice on Netflix - which featured both the line "sometimes the old ways are the best" and a silhouetted fight sequence just like the Patrice Bond one.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent

    I read somewhere that The Red Shoes inspired Fred Astair to make "An American in Paris".

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    RASPUTIN THE MAD MONK (1966)

    I’ve been on a bit of a Hammer trip recently simply because a load of them have turned up on the BritBox streaming service.

    I saw this many years ago and didn’t think a great deal if it, and once again my thoughts are as before, an excellent performance from Christopher Lee, as usual, but a rather chaotic film which descends into hysterical parody. It’s a mainly fictionalised version of the infamous Russian mystic who integrates into the Romanov court.

    Would Christopher Lee have been able to make this film today, or would the actor have to be Russian to avoid cultural appropriation?

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters

    @caractacus potts - Thanks, somehow it had escaped my notice that Niagara is the Monroe film featured on the billboard outside Krilencu's gaff in FRWL. When last I read that novel I hadn't yet heard of the movie Niagara, so it didn't really lodge itself in my memory.

  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,906MI6 Agent

    here's the passage from the book

    Fleming wrote:

    They walked on down the boulevard, keeping close to the wall. After ten minutes, they came in sight of the twenty-foot-high hoarding that formed a facing wall to the T intersection at the bottom of the street. The moon was behind the hoarding and its face in the shadow.

    ...

    Bond rested his forearm against the door jamb and raised the tube to his right eye. He focused it on the patch of black shadow opposite. Slowly the black dissolved into grey. The outline of a huge woman's face and some lettering appeared. Now Bond could read the lettering. It said: NIYAGARA. MARILYN MONROE VE JOSEPH COTTEN and underneath, the cartoon feature, BONZO FUTBOLOU. Bond inched the glass down the vast pile of Marilyn Monroe's hair, and the cliff of forehead, and down the two feet of nose to the cavernous nostrils. A faint square showed in the poster. It ran from below the nose into the great alluring curve of the lips. It was about three feet deep. From it, there would be a longish drop to the ground.

    ...

    Out of the mouth of the huge, shadowed poster, between the great violet lips, half open in ecstasy, the dark shape of a man emerged and hung down like a worm from the mouth of a corpse. 

    In the movie, the poster is replaced by one for Call Me Bwana, a recent film starring Bob Hope and Anita Ekberg, a bit of cross-promotion for another EON product. I doubt many recall Call Me Bwana today aside from that billboard in FRwL!


    I tried to do a google search for the poster Fleming is describing. None of the results really fit, because the actual posters are rightfully highlighting Monroe's magnificent hourglass bod, not stopping short at her lips. But its also specifically a Turkish language poster, so may be an original design unique to that market (it also names the accompanying cartoon). I wonder if Fleming actually saw such a poster when he was in Istanbul attending the Interpol conference in 1955 (the real life experience that inspired the book)? or could be entirely out of his own imagination

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,172MI6 Agent

    Gene Kelly was in An American in Paris. I believe The Red Shoes was the top US box office hit of 1948. It also got a best picture nomination and lost out to Olivier's Hamlet. A good year for British movies.

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    edited November 2021

    This thread may be of interest- Your favourites from Hammer Films — ajb007

    Edit: I haven't read through the whole thing to see if you know about it or not, please forgive me if you do.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    Thanks, Barbel. I did know about this thread, I posted a comment about the OnThe Buses trilogy 🥺

    I love most of the Hammer output and revisiting them from time to time is always a joy.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • JoshuaJoshua Posts: 1,138MI6 Agent

    I've seen it before but I watched The Man Who Would Be King yesterday. It has become one of my favourite films starring two of my favourite film stars, Sean Connery and Michael Caine. I'm sure everyone here has also seen it it but if not, then you must. You will not be disappointed.


    I didn't know that the part of Roxanne, the woman who Sean Connery's character tried to marry, was Michael Caine's real life wife.

  • JoshuaJoshua Posts: 1,138MI6 Agent

    Before The Man Who Would Be King was The Billion Dollar Brain. I'm afraid I am not a fan of the Harry Palmer films. I have seen The Ipcress File but the others do not entertain me enough to watch all way through.

  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,906MI6 Agent
    edited November 2021

    Hot Enough for June, 1964

    starring Dirk Bogarde, Sylva Koscina, Robert Morley, Leo McKern, and Roger Delgado 


    I'm using the handy list of fifty 60s Spyfilms from Mikey Richardson's Guns, Girls and Gadgets: Sixties Spy Films Uncovered to find new films to watch. This is only the first nonBondFilm on his list and I've never heard of it. So obviously I still have much to learn!

    This is a variation on the Innocent Recruited type plot, with Bogarde as an out of work writer sent by the Employment Office for an unwanted job interview with Robert Morley, who represents himself as a glass merchant with business dealings in Czechoslovakia. He sends Bogarde to Prague with nothing but a tourguide and a password, on pretext of a business meeting, without informing him he is now a spy and will be returning with Top Secret documents. Everybody in Prague knows Bogarde is a spy except for Bogarde.

    Bogarde is assigned a driver, played by Koscina. I know Koscina from Deadlier Than the Male (1967) where she stole the film in a double act with Elke Sommer. She's mighty good here too, an icy Communist who is secretly sexy. The two characters quickly grow intimate, but she fails to tell Bogarde she is the daughter of the local Secret Police chief (McKern). There is a scene involving a gauze curtain that I think may be the sexiest Cold War kiss ever.

    After a variety of farcelike misunderstandings, Bogarde finally twigs as to what he has to do and meets with his contact: a men's room attendant with whom he has to make awkward conversation in order to give the password, giving the secretive spywork an additional incriminating twist. Once he finally has the Secret Document, Bogarde must now make his way to the British embassy, just across the street, but is hampered by the fact he was the last one to know what his job is and the Embassy entrance is blockaded by local Secret Police types. Some good Hitchcockian suspense here as we watch him try to solve that problem.


    I usually avoid subjective value judgements in these Film reports of mine, but I will say that this is a quality production, in contrast to a lot of the SpySpoofs that would follow. This is a variation on the typical Hitchcock spy thriller with an additional dose of farce, rather than a reaction to the first two Bond films. But... before Bogarde is introduced, we see a new recruit is needed is to replace an actual agent who had been killed just before the Secret Document was to be handed over, and we see the dead agent's file being closed, and the file number reads... 007!


  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    HOME SWEET HOME ALONE (2021)

    Another rehash of Home Alone. This is so listless it defies description, Truly, one of the worst films I have ever seen.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff

    Last night I watched THE PROTEGE. That guy, Martin Campbell, can put together a dandy action film. This one has terrific fight scenes, good performances by a largely veteran cast--Michael Keaton gets to show that when he dons Batman's cowl again he won't need a walker, and Maggie Q finally gets a good starring role--and a good sense of humor. It's nothing we haven't really seen before, but that's OK. Campbell has shown himself to be pretty good at introducing new actors to play Bond. . .and I think there could be a job opening for him soon. . .

    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,906MI6 Agent

    Gymkata said:

    GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE

    ...Egon (Harold Ramis) took off from New York with all of the GB gear about 20 years or so ago. He went to the middle of Oklahoma and became knows as the crazy dirt farmer...

    did they somehow include "new" footage of Harold Ramis in the film? he must have past away nearly a decade ago...

  • JoshuaJoshua Posts: 1,138MI6 Agent

    Not a film but I've just finished watching the series 'Chernobyl' on DVD. It is the best thing I have seen for a long time. I'm sure everyone here has already seen it but I cannot recommend it enough if you have not.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    edited November 2021

    Portrait of a lady on fire (2019)

    What is it with the French and lesbian love stories on film? This one has recieved very good reviews and I can see why. The story takes place in Bretagne late in the 18th century. The artist Marianne is called to the island by a woman to paint her daughter Héloise. The painting is to be sent to her future husband in Italy. The problem is Héloise refuses to sit for the painting, the only way she can protest against an arranged marriage. Because of this Marianne has to pretend to be a servant who follows Héloise on her walks on the shore to secretly study her for the painting. An emotional relationship develops. Unlike "Blue is the warmest colour" (starring Lea Seydoux) this movie doesn't use the male gaze (translation: we don't get scenes of hot scenes of sapphic sex).

    Only late in the movie did I discover two things: There's no film score, only source music. Of cource this makes all the music important and impactful. Second, only one man delivers one line. All the other speaking roles are female. The reverse of most war movies in other words.

    The movie is beautifully shot, every scene is like a painting. The acting is also very good. Interestingly the director Celline Sciamma had a romantic relationship with Adele Haenel (Héloise). There are many themes to look for such as fire (obviously), water, the role of the muse and the old Orpheus and Euredice.

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent

    I concur. One thing about it is that - and I belatedly picked up on this - is that it's really an allegory for modern times. I mean, it's a comment on what's happening now re the cover up of everything. One character says, it doesn't matter what you say, they just deny it. This can be read as comment on Putin today - like Bond's rueful comment in GoldenEye along the lines of how regimes change but the lies remain the same - but also on, well, the UK as some of us unlucky enough have found out.

    The writers seem to be using this event in recent history to pass comment on our rulers today.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    edited November 2021

    The Father (2020)

    Antony Hopkins plays a man named Antony who's increasingly suffers from dementia. This is possibly the best acting I've seen Hopkins do, and that's dating something! He swings from charm to confusion to paranoia to anger and on to fear just like dementia patients can do. His daughter Anne (Olivia Coleman) tries to take care of him, but it's hard for her. Antony's increasing confusion is often shown from his point of view. The director uses techniques such as time jumps, repeated scenes, imaginary scenes, even an actor playing different roles or actors sharing a role. But also small things like paintings changing places or subtly changing colours. The movie is very well written and directed, full of great acting performances and very moving. No wonder it won several of the most Presthus awards.

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