GWJ Film of the Week

Eva Earlong wrote:

Guess we're gonna have to watch The Thing! :D

I am not opposed to this idea.

CptDomano wrote:
Eva Earlong wrote:

Guess we're gonna have to watch The Thing! :D

I am not opposed to this idea. :D

The thing about that is... It is on Netflix IW, so it's on the list now. We'll get to it eventually.

Poor tuffalo. He's try to drag us into the world of art house cinema, and all we keep suggesting are sci-fi movies and Rad.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Poor tuffalo. He's try to drag us into the world of art house cinema, and all we keep suggesting are sci-fi movies and Rad.

Are you saying those movies are not art house quality? FOR SHAME!

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

For anyone interested, the New Yorker write up on Upstream Color is a great read.

Reading this certainly helped make sense of a few confusing parts, but after reading it again I see exactly the part that still baffles me: "a person identified in the credits as “the Sampler” has somehow figured out that people infected with worms are attracted to an amplified raspy thumping sound, which he plays through speakers aimed into the earth late at night in a rural field."

He's somehow figured this out? HOW DID HE FIGURE OUT SOMETHING SO INCREDIBLY BIZARRE?! I think that mystery is one of the things that would help everything make more sense, but I should probably know better than to ask why and just enjoy the questions it leaves

DiscoDriveby wrote:

He's somehow figured this out? HOW DID HE FIGURE OUT SOMETHING SO INCREDIBLY BIZARRE?! I think that mystery is one of the things that would help everything make more sense, but I should probably know better than to ask why and just enjoy the questions it leaves :)

My guess is that he was/is somehow infected himself. The other people have links only to their individual pigs the organism was transferred into. But he had the ability to "mind meld" or whatever you want to call it with all of the pigs back to the minds of their original human hosts and spy on their lives. In order to do that he had to have hosted the original source organism, right? Since he is linked to all of them. I guess it just never occurred to him that the link goes both ways.

When are we doing Escape from New York?

oilypenguin wrote:

When are we doing Escape from New York?

Pff, Escape from New York.

I'd say Big Trouble In Little China is probably much more art house worthy.

CptDomano wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

When are we doing Escape from New York?

Pff, Escape from New York.

I'd say Big Trouble In Little China is probably much more art house worthy.

+infinity

CptDomano wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

When are we doing Escape from New York?

Pff, Escape from New York.

I'd say Big Trouble In Little China is probably much more art house worthy.

The Kurt Russell/John Carpenter trilogy can be the week after Rad.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
CptDomano wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

When are we doing Escape from New York?

Pff, Escape from New York.

I'd say Big Trouble In Little China is probably much more art house worthy.

The Kurt Russell/John Carpenter trilogy can be the week after Rad.

IMAGE(http://www.wingkong.net/media/chars/lopan/holiday.jpg)

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Poor tuffalo. He's try to drag us into the world of art house cinema, and all we keep suggesting are sci-fi movies and Rad.

I'll have you know I wrote a paper on John Carpenter's The Thing for my Film Arts class. That man knows how to use a camera to suggest the suspense of walking into the unknown.

HBO Go currently has the sh*tty "prequel" up, too, so we can do a compare and contrast of why John Carpenter's was good and why the 2010/2011 (forget which version) was total ass.

Actually, I save a bunch of them sci-fi horror films for October. Gearing up for Halloween calls for The Thing, the Alien Trilogy, the Predator films (feels weird to say "trilogy" even though I like all three), Gojira, Cloverfield, and of course, Hellboy 1 & 2.

ccesarano wrote:

Actually, I save a bunch of them sci-fi horror films for October. Gearing up for Halloween calls for The Thing, the Alien Trilogy, the Predator films (feels weird to say "trilogy" even though I like all three), Gojira, Cloverfield, and of course, Hellboy 1 & 2. :D

The Thing and the first Hellboy are on Netflix. Gojira is on Hulu Plus.

The rest don't seem to be available on either service, which makes it kinda hard to pick any of them for the purposes of this thread.

I was just tossing them out there as all being part of my annual tradition. It's my friends I force to suffer through all of those (and I'm sure I actually forgot a film or two).

As for this thread, I just sent Tuffalo a bunch, and will likely send more, though they're certainly in the "these would be nice" category.

Though if the original Gojira makes its way to Netflix, then Hell Yes.

Upstream color thoughts coming after work. I'm a big fan.
*EDIT*
I lied, but its a f*cking awesome movie.

"Like a burglar."

Well this is an interesting thread. Sorry I missed it so far.

Although I'm an Amazon Prime person, so might not match up with some of this Netflix only stuff. Still, I'll try to join in when I can.

My wife and I actually did a lot of this a few years back. At her last job at a university we had access to free DVD/VHS rentals, 3 at a time, for up to a week. We went through a ton of old stuff, Casablanca, Hitchcock, Seven Samurai, and lots of others. I was trying to work my way down some of the IMDB top #250 at the time, but didn't get very far.

ccesarano wrote:

HBO Go currently has the sh*tty "prequel" up, too, so we can do a compare and contrast of why John Carpenter's was good and why the 2010/2011 (forget which version) was total ass. :D

They should have based that movie on Peter Watts' Hugo Award-nominated short story, The Things. It re-tells The Thing from the perspective of the Thing.

Vega wrote:
DiscoDriveby wrote:

He's somehow figured this out? HOW DID HE FIGURE OUT SOMETHING SO INCREDIBLY BIZARRE?! I think that mystery is one of the things that would help everything make more sense, but I should probably know better than to ask why and just enjoy the questions it leaves :)

My guess is that he was/is somehow infected himself. The other people have links only to their individual pigs the organism was transferred into. But he had the ability to "mind meld" or whatever you want to call it with all of the pigs back to the minds of their original human hosts and spy on their lives. In order to do that he had to have hosted the original source organism, right? Since he is linked to all of them. I guess it just never occurred to him that the link goes both ways.

Ooh, that is an interesting theory...

Argh, I need to watch next week's film so I can get this one out of my head!!

DiscoDriveby wrote:

Argh, I need to watch next week's film so I can get this one out of my head!! :)

It's a great palette cleanser. I watched it last night and had a great time. I'll wait to post some thoughts until a couple other people have watched it. Well, technically I already posted 1 thought.

Sturges? I'm in:)

Just finished watching it, had some mixed feelings. On the whole I found the first half a bit boring, was more entertained by the second half, but found the ending to be rather horrible. I guess it all depends on how you feel about the characters, which, especially in the second half of the film, are all quite colorful. The supporting cast here is wonderful and have some of the best writing going on.

I actually think my mother would enjoy this film, so I'm going to give it a recommendation for her.

Now, more in-depth:

Spoiler:

I couldn't find it in myself to like either of the protagonists, though for different reasons. I actually found it quite amusing when Jean was analyzing the man in the mirror and how everyone interacted with him. She was like a female pick-up artist, and I found the writing there rather clever until they got to her room. Then it was as if her personality shifted a bit too drastically.

After that I couldn't help but wonder how she could fall for Pike. I mean, he's a nice guy, but he didn't really do enough for her to fall for him that I could tell. Pity the bastard? Perhaps, as he's the definition of sucker but at least is well-meaning. That doesn't lead to full-on love, though.

It was the halfway point that made things interesting, though, as that's when you break out of what has become romantic-comedy conventions and into a world of "what's going to happen next?" I was waiting for the jig to be up, though, rather than Jean transforming so much into Eve, to break his heart so badly, and then wait, no, she IS in love with him after all! And that the sucker would be so pitiful as to really not get it, to really believe they were two different people...ugh.

I liked the Bodyguard and Pike's Dad a lot. Wonderful characters. I'm not sure how I should feel about Jean, let alone whether I feel sorry for her or wish she got her comeuppance. But by the end I just wanted Pike to stop being such a dillhole.

So those are some of my thoughts.

ccesarano wrote:
Spoiler:

But by the end I just wanted Pike to stop being such a dillhole.

Spoiler:

I know. He's the worst, isn't he! He's such a loathsome creature not unlike a snake. It's hard not to love the Jean/Eve character except for the fact that she falls in love with such a dumb ass. That part of the plot is ultimately unrealistic and a little hard to swallow because there is no good answer as to why she does. You just kind of have to accept it because that's what bring about a lot of the comedy.

The other fun thing about the movie is the symbolism and ways of getting the subject of sex past the censors. There's the penis/snake symbolism. There's the bubbling steam whistle and the train going into the tunnel with a whistle both symbolizing sex. There's probably a few more. Ultimately, I think that's one of the more fun aspects of this movie. Hitchcock uses the train going through the tunnel thing in a couple movies.

Spoiler:

In truth, I feel like you can't completely feel sorry for her because, well, she started out as a crook trying to scam the guy. She's not quite a "hooker with a heart of gold" if you catch my meaning.

As for the symbolism, y'know, I wasn't actually looking for clever camera work in this film. I suppose you're right, though the timing was a bit strange. I found the train segments to just be a really clever way to blend in and out of each story, which I figured was completely Jean's attempt to make Pike regret his decision to marry her.

Though I will say, when he was using the exact same spiel about the open field and such on her (and he still didn't realize it was the same damn person!), I just wanted to slap my forehead and scream "Douchebag!" I love how the horse kept interfering, though. Started out as "the dream proposal", even with her mentioning the nuzzling horse, but it was his horse that kept poking in, and not quite to nuzzle.

[size=30]GWJ Film of the Week #4[/size]

[size=20]Stagecoach[/size]

IMAGE(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7C-EbHHOpP8/TcnFRqSZ3OI/AAAAAAAABwI/UsiXullwPog/s400/stagecoach%2B12.jpg)

Director: John Ford
Writers: Ernest Haycox (original story), Dudley Nichols (screen play)
Notable Actors: John Wayne & John Wayne
Synopsis (Criterion): This is where it all started. John Ford’s smash hit and enduring masterpiece Stagecoach revolutionized the western, elevating it from B movie to the A-list and establishing the genre as we know it today. The quintessential tale of a group of strangers thrown together into extraordinary circumstances, Stagecoach features outstanding performances from Hollywood stalwarts Claire Trevor, John Carradine, and Thomas Mitchell, and, of course, John Wayne, in his first starring role for Ford, as the daredevil outlaw the Ringo Kid. Superbly shot and tightly edited, Stagecoach (Ford’s first trip to Monument Valley) is Hollywood storytelling at its finest.

The film can be watched on Hulu. Part of the reason I choose Stagecoach is that it doesn't require a Hulu+ subscription. You do have to put up with a few commercials, though. I think we'll probably go Netflix and modern next week.

Firefly was lovingly described by Joss as Stagecoach... in space... with a whore.

ccesarano wrote:
Spoiler:

I love how the horse kept interfering, though. Started out as "the dream proposal", even with her mentioning the nuzzling horse, but it was his horse that kept poking in, and not quite to nuzzle.

That horse was so crazy that my wife and I thought it was almost unscripted! It's like the horse really wanted more camera time and by golly it was going to get it!

Overall I don't have too much to say about the movie myself--I'm not a *huge* fan of black and white movies as for some reason they just can't hold my attention. Lady Eve was entertaining enough, but the premise of the story definitely forces you to suspend a lot of belief. I mean, seriously--Pike is so ignorant that he believes Jean and Eve really are two different people? In addition, the whole idea that Eve marries Pike to show him what a mistake he made, but then regrets it later? I dunno, it was a little too campy for me. Again, this ends up being my issue with most movies from this era--I sometimes just can't get past how over the top the acting and story can get. Won't stop me from still giving them a fair shot, though

CptDomano wrote:

Overall I don't have too much to say about the movie myself--I'm not a *huge* fan of black and white movies as for some reason they just can't hold my attention.

I've been a bit worried about this, so that's one reason we'll switch things up as much as possible. Yeah, as mentioned, the next one will be modern.

I do enjoy old movies and one of my all-time favorites is The Philadelphia Story which is a romantic comedy from 1940, so was eager to watch and compare since I'd never seen a Barbara Stanwyk movie. I enjoyed the sort of fast-talking (eccentric) pace she set as a character, and how Pike sort of dialed her down as the straight man. My favorite scenes were the ones where that was highlighted -- on the ship when she first takes him back to her room, flirts with him, then stops before they get to the good stuff (jeez lady, the guy's been up the Amazon for a year and you tease him?!) and, of course, the horse scene!

The romantic chemistry between them seemed very weak, though, and for me that seems to be where a lot of the logic falls out of the plot. Why did he fall for her (twice!)? If the point is to laugh at the expense of men and their ever-escaping snakes then why does she end up falling for him in the end after all? It's easy to chalk it up to "it's old timey so maybe they thought the romance worked back then," but I'd say the strength of a lot of movies from that era is the great on-screen chemistry.

Now I have to go make Domano watch piles of black and white movies until I find some he likes...

I'm a bit behind, so I just finished watching The Lady Eve. First, let me say that I absolutely love movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Love, love, love them. Unfortunately, I didn't feel that way for The Lady Eve.

Spoiler:

As others have pointed out, the film suffered from weak story and one of the dumbest and most milquetoast main characters I have ever watched on screen, Charles. It's hard to buy into a romantic comedy when you're actively wondering what the girl sees in the guy.

Making it worse was that Henry Fonda was playing Charles. It's almost a crime to see an actor of that caliber in such an empty suit role. Watching him do pratfalls was just painful.

If you really want to see Fonda act, then watch 12 Angry Men, The Grapes of Wrath, or The Ox-Bow Incident. If you want to see him in a good comedy playing the perfect straight man, then watch Mister Roberts (hoo!, the cast in that one: William Powell, James Cagney, and Jack Lemmon).

Stanwyck brought life to Jean/Eve, who was by far the most developed character of the entire movie. If you enjoyed her acting, then saddle up to Double Indemnity. You'll get the triple treat of watching her act in an even better role with much better story and you'll be introduced to writer-director Billy Wilder.

I'll admit I kinda tuned out after Charles failed to recognized Jean as Eve. The supporting cast made the second half bearable, but there's only so much great actors can do with so-so writing.