|
Post by xelloss on Jun 6, 2008 13:33:09 GMT -5
So, I picked up a couple of older movies on DVD I'd been wanting... I nabbed the original DEATH WISH (I've always liked Chuck Bronson), THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (too many famous actors to list), and THE WARRIORS (GREAT movie)...
-Mark
|
|
|
Post by Scott on Jun 6, 2008 13:40:26 GMT -5
Three good ones. The Magnificent Seven is probably the best of the three. The others, while still good, didn’t stand up to the test of time like M7 did.
|
|
|
Post by amalric on Jun 6, 2008 16:45:58 GMT -5
Agreed. I thought Yul Brynner was the coolest guy alive when I first saw that as a kid. Right up until I saw Westworld, when he was just too robotically freaky.
|
|
Rhuvein
Magician
Beware . . Mjolnir
Posts: 228
|
Post by Rhuvein on Jun 9, 2008 21:17:14 GMT -5
M7 is a fabulous movie - every which way.
Heh, James Coburn is my favorite - simply because he's a great actor and is "Derek Flint"!!
;D
|
|
|
Post by xelloss on Jun 10, 2008 23:59:34 GMT -5
Coburn also studied for quite some time under Bruce Lee... Steve McQueen did as well, but not for as long as Coburn who I've seen footage of sparring with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (too funny, but I'd hate to get caught by one of Kareem's side kicks)...
The thing I love about the Warriors is the whole 'epicness' of it, a fight against incredible odds to get home (very much like the Odessy)...
I wish Yule could have done more Westerns or sci-fi stuff... He was great in both M7 and Westworld...
-Mark
|
|
|
Post by amalric on Jun 11, 2008 3:17:40 GMT -5
Not to mention that some of those gangs in the Warriors were just plain weird! But it was epic ~ tense and nervy all the way.
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Jun 11, 2008 7:50:28 GMT -5
My favorite "YUL" was "ULTIMATE WARRIOR" (1975) but truthfully I haven't seen it as an adult. When I seen it around 1977-1978, it was an "extra" double feature with DAMNATION ALLEY. I vaguely rcall it was right around the time STAR WARS came out.
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Jun 11, 2008 9:09:38 GMT -5
Not to get too far off the mark but I just thought of something thats on mind. I've been watching a lot of NIGHT GALLERY and ALFRED HITCHCOCK on that CHILLER channel. I watched an AH episode the other day that scared shit out of me when I was a kid "AN UNLOCKED WINDOW" (1965) about a killer of live-in nurses. It was spooky but it didn't sufficiently have the effect that it once did. That said I watched an episode of NIGHT GALLERY with Bill Bixby that I never saw "LAST RITES FOR A DEAD DRUID" (1972) and it scared the shit out of me. Maybe the shock was over for the Hitchcock episode. All that said isn't it hard to judge something years later that's "bubble has been burst" for you already? Take JAWS (1975) for example these films are so geared for shocks that all you've got left is believable actors and situations. However, take a film like FRIDAY THE 13th part 6 (1986) or 7 (1988) or whatever and while it was shocking when the neighbor popped over to borrow a cup of sugar when the protagonist is nervous about noises, thats all this film has: shocks. So what is a classic? Something that is rewatchable and still retains some nuance that reperpetuates itself? Alright, CITIZEN KANE (1941) hands down. I love this fucking movie. I can list monster movies but you just can't slap this shit on in mixed company unless its new. I remember putting on THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953)and it getting tomatoed by the peanut gallery. Sheesh! Its a good thing that I didn't put on SLIME PEOPLE (1963)The bastards! Anything with Ray Milland in it. I just watched DIAL "M" FOR MURDER (1954) and THE THING WITH TWO HEADS (1972) and he rocks. As for Toshiro Mifune, another favorite of mine, you can't say the same unless its with Kurosawa and vise-versa. SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)great, YOJIMBO (1961) great, RASHOMON (1950) great, HIDDEN FORTRESS (1958) great STRAY DOG (1949) great LOWER DEPTHS (57)great HIGH AND LOW (1963) great. Mifune in the SAMURAI TRILOGY (1954-1955-1956) or any non-Kurosawa movie? Theres nothing there to watch. Plus his American movies are just as this mostly muted foreigner and he conveys little of that old Toshiro. Honestly I've watched YOJIMBO a lot. Clint Eastwood is another one that keeps you coming back. My love of his "Harry" and "No Name" movies compel me to watch his directorial efforts. Which frankly ain't too shabby...UNFORGIVEN (1992) sticks out the most. Remember "The duck of death"? That fucker should do another western even if he "just plays the mayor". He just said a week or two ago that no more "Harrys" for him. Shit!
|
|
GT
Wizard
Duke of Indiana, Knight Commander
Posts: 2,032
|
Post by GT on Jun 12, 2008 4:30:34 GMT -5
Hmm... movies I watch over and over... "Forbidden Planet", "Big Trouble In Little China", "Army of Darkness", "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind", "Better Off Dead", "Journey To The Center of the Earth (the James Mason version)--those all come to mind.
|
|
|
Post by amalric on Jun 12, 2008 4:43:37 GMT -5
CITIZEN KANE is right up at the top of all-time classic movies. DIAL "M" FOR MURDER is one of my absolute favourites ~ Milland is so brilliantly smooth in it, but it's classic Hitchcock from start to finish, and from the point where the detective unravels the mystery to the conclusion it's just genius. I think I've seen SEVEN SAMURAI and HIDDEN FORTRESS ~ isn't HF the film from which George Lucas borrowed some of the ideas for the first STAR WARS film? R2-D2 and C-3PO were based on two bumbling characters from that film as I recall, and the plotline is very similar. Eastwood just rocks. Whatever Spike Lee thinks. I'd have to add in HIGH NOON (1952), for the mounting tension (and for seeing Lloyd Bridges without wrinkles, in his youth!); and DR ZHIVAGO (1965), however ridiculous the casting of Omar Sharif, amazed me when I was a kid, although that's perhaps just me; and SHE (1965), with Ursula Andress ~ there's a good yarn ripe for an AD&D scenario. I saw that when I was very young, and didn't find out until years later which film it actually was, as I couldn't remember. I had nightmares for a time of black slaves - chained together - being thrown into a lava pit as sacrifices, and it came from that. Not that it scarred me for life, or anything....* twitches*
|
|
|
Post by amalric on Jun 12, 2008 5:16:09 GMT -5
Oh, and I loved JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH and all those trashy 60s films with "lost worlds" and dinosaur-alikes.
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Jun 12, 2008 9:32:53 GMT -5
Yeah, HIDDEN FORTRESS reads like the the STAR WARS road map that kept all the locations but redrew the map! Especially the STAR WARS film character concepts Han/Obi and Luke/Leia being the general and the princess. The R2D2 and C3PO being the two bad draftees as well as being represented by the pile of sticks which is like the Death Star plans. I've heard that the ship interactions were snipped out of various war pictures and hodgepodged together with the Death Star trench scene taken from a film called DAM BUSTERS. I never seen it. Some have said that he was influenced by Jack Kirby and I'd have to agree. THE NEW GODS had an orphan who used the Astro-Force and an old Patriarch that consulted The Source. The Banthas and Sand People seem very Kirby-esque. And check out this pic from KAMANDI THE LAST BOY ON EARTH #! (Oct-Nov 1972): Chewie! Of course, its just a forced perspective. The next panel shows a wolf profile. Buts that too close to say they didn't get it from there considering. The FORBIDDEN PLANET is obvious as well. Inside the Death Star is the same as the interior of Altair IV: huge drops off walkways, columns arising from the abyss with narrow access areas around their circumference. The speeder that the robot drives. The astrogation area with the viewer of of the C57D matches the Millenium Falcon's enginerring area (remember Solo sitting there while they were "Forcing" it up behind him?)
|
|
|
Post by amalric on Jun 12, 2008 15:09:42 GMT -5
The Death Star trench is very similar to DAM BUSTERS (1955), outside of the fact that X-wing fighters are the attack squadron, as opposed to huge Lancaster bombers! Dam Busters is a portrayal of the 1943 bomber raids by Royal Air Force 617 Squadron ("The Dambusters") on three German dams in WWII. It's a pretty standard war film of that era, but it's very accurate and rather poignant - many of the planes (and hence their crews) didn't make it back. If you're raised on British WWII history, as I was, it's fascinating stuff.
ICE COLD IN ALEX (1958) is one of the best british WWII films (fictitious), with Sir John Mills and Anthony Quayle. But if you want a really good WWII film, the preposterous but brilliant WHERE EAGLES DARE (1968) - with good old Clint, no less - rules the roost.
|
|
GT
Wizard
Duke of Indiana, Knight Commander
Posts: 2,032
|
Post by GT on Jun 12, 2008 19:56:41 GMT -5
Amalric--I happened to think of a cool British phenomena: I love the old Quatermass movies!; and yes, I do love "Citizen Kane"!!! When all is said and done, as you get older it's your fond memories that are worth more than any amount of money! ^__^ I've got an old Remco 'Seaview' and a Revell 'USS Missouri' in my closet that are virtually priceless from where I sit (yeah, you can buy 'em on Ebay, but you had to BE THERE to truly appreciate them... kinda like Tom Baker as Dr. Who---if you watched it "then", you grok that era! ) ^__^
|
|
|
Post by GRWelsh on Jun 12, 2008 19:59:46 GMT -5
The movies I seem to watch most often, over and over again, are "Conan the Barbarian," "Time Bandits," "Silence of the Lambs," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) and "Heavy Metal." Those are the movies I often pop in even if it is just to listen to them in the background. There are so many old movies I like, though, I have a huge collection of movies I taped off of TCM, mostly from the 30's and 40's. It amazes me how many great movies there were already in the first few decades of film: "Citizen Kane," "How Green Was My Valley," "Stagecoach," "Casablanca," "The Maltese Falcon," "Sergeant York," "The Ox-Bow Incident," "Beau Geste," "Now Voyager," etc. And a few of the silent movies are unforgettable, too: "Cabinet of Dr. Caliguri," "Nosferatu," "M" and best of all "Metropolis."
I also notice strong similarities between old movies and newer ones: especially "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Hidden Fortress" with "Star Wars," "Casablanca" and "Gunga Din" with the Indiana Jones movies. Watch "Gunga Din" and "Temple of Doom" back to back.
|
|
GT
Wizard
Duke of Indiana, Knight Commander
Posts: 2,032
|
Post by GT on Jun 12, 2008 19:59:55 GMT -5
Oh, yeah... and Gene is right on the Kirby comics--I've got some old Kamandi up in the "stacks", and they seem redundant nowadays, but they really fired my imagination back in the 70's.... part "Island of Dr. Moreau" and part "Gamma World" (the latter of which they predated!)
|
|
GT
Wizard
Duke of Indiana, Knight Commander
Posts: 2,032
|
Post by GT on Jun 12, 2008 20:04:00 GMT -5
Grash---"Heavy Metal" rules even if just for the soundtrack alone!! And "Metropolis" will always stand (along with "Forbidden Planet") as a benchmark of sci-fi films, as well as in cinematography... ^__^ I recently watched "Equinox" again, and realized how many movies were influenced by it! ^__
|
|
|
Post by Scott on Jun 12, 2008 20:24:09 GMT -5
Conan the Barbarian, Bog Trouble in Little Chine, Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade, Full Metal Jacket, Saving Private Ryan, Terminator, Aliens, and Predator stand out as the movies I could watch over and over.
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Jun 12, 2008 21:09:36 GMT -5
I've said THE PRODUCERS (1968) a zillion times. honestly, I just can't get tired of it even though the Broadway rehash came and went. Say the same for Python movies. Fields, Laurel, Hardy and Chaplin are all good but you might have to sit on them for a while for a repeat watch. Some more tips on other Ray Milland classics LOST WEEKEND (1945), MINISTRY OF FEAR (1944), THE UNINVITED (1944) or my personal favorite PANIC IN YEAR ZERO! (1962) are great starts in your spiral into, what I call, "Milland Madness"!
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Jun 12, 2008 21:14:15 GMT -5
Ya know, I'm fucking retarded... THE THIRD MAN (1949) Duh! I've only got the theme song on my MYSPACE page! I've got a screw loose.
|
|