What you watchin' tonight?

I re-watched the entire first season of Sleepy Hollow over the last couple days. Just a fantastic series all the way around and that's a small miracle, it could easily have been terrible, the slightest misstep in tone and a show like this will collapse like a house of cards, but I'll be damned if they don't nail it every single time.

...of course the show was created by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman who were also the masterminds behind Fringe so I shouldn't have been surprised by the level of quality.

S.D. wrote:

I re-watched the entire first season of Sleepy Hollow over the last couple days.  Just a fantastic series all the way around and that's a small miracle, it could easily have been terrible, the slightest misstep in tone and a show like this will collapse like a house of cards, but I'll be damned if they don't nail it every single time.  

...of course the show was created by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman who were also the masterminds behind Fringe so I shouldn't have been surprised by the level of quality.

Is it on Hulu or something? I've really been itching to see it.

corplhicks wrote:

S.D. wrote:

I re-watched the entire first season of Sleepy Hollow over the last couple days.  Just a fantastic series all the way around and that's a small miracle, it could easily have been terrible, the slightest misstep in tone and a show like this will collapse like a house of cards, but I'll be damned if they don't nail it every single time.  

...of course the show was created by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman who were also the masterminds behind Fringe so I shouldn't have been surprised by the level of quality.

Is it on Hulu or something? I've really been itching to see it.

They just added it to Hulu Plus.

Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) -- There's a helluva lot I could write about this gem, but I'll try and keep it short. Always heard about the different (and at times clashing) stories about how this second effort from Welles went down, but this is my first viewing. For anyone who doesn't know, the original screening cut of this movie was 148m, and audience reactions were poor (stemming from both overlength and a downbeat ending, the latter not received well by a post-Pearl Harbor crowd). Welles had to film a propaganda film in Brazil prior to final cut duties, and though he was involved long-distance in editing decisions, they were mostly ignored by RKO heads who were in fear of a financial disaster. The craziest part of this all was not how the studio along with editor Robert Wise (before he started his directing career) cut a whopping 40m without Welles' approval, but how RKO President George Schaefer oversaw the destruction of said 40m of print. Sadly, because of this cruel oversight, we will never see the film Welles intended. To make matters even worse, several of the scenes were reshot by Wise, along with an alternate, upbeat ending that I'll get to in a bit (see I said I would keep this short ). This of course destroyed Welles and he retreated from Hollywood duties for some time.

The result is an odd masterpiece of sorts that is feels underbaked, obviously. There's a great ensemble cast here - Joseph Cotten is one of my favorites and has a strong presence here; Tim Holt, who I've mostly seen in westerns, broods and sulks as the unlikable George (yet you keep hoping he spins around), Agnes Moorehead brings tons of tension to the story, and Anne Baxter is great at weaving between sugary and conflicted. The characters are all complex and well-drawn--but you get the feeling that they could pop out even more through the missing footage. In fact, there's a pall that hangs over this film: at any given point I kept wondering if a certain scene would have made more sense or a character's motives more coherent had more information been presented. In other words, it's rather uneven and unkempt. Add to this the reshot scenes, though few, completely deviate from the tone and abstenations of Welles' style--it's more than obvious when these scenes pop up.

The story, a three-act arc based on the Pulitzer-winning novel by Booth Tarkington, is character driven like Citizen Kane and even comes complete with similar tones and styles, such as heavy shadows, composite one-shots, juxtapositions, and dynamic angles. The Amberson mansion itself, a set, was built completely closed, complete with a spiral staircase, to allow free camera roaming--the ball in the first act is memorable and mesmerizing with all the acrobatics following the dynamic exchanges between characters. The allegory is a familiar one--upper classes greeting ennui with familial upheaval, the dawn of technology threatening capitalist trends, the social riches-to-rags paradigm shift--and the story itself is basic--a spoiled heir disrupts his widow mother's relationship with a past crush--but the complexity of the characters, even though lacking from the missing elements, is rock solid and intriguing .

As for the alternate ending--wow. Almost kills the preceding 80+ minutes before it. Never before have I seen such artifice and forced sentiment, except for maybe several evangelical films. Cotten's final monologue is trite and vomit-inducing. You keep waiting for Leslie Nielsen to show up with a punchline. 'Tacked on' is an understatement here; no wonder Welles cut ties with Cotten and Wise.

Overall it's worth a watch and still fascinating regardless. I really wish to god there was a way to see the whole cut, including the dreary ending (which allegedly included a roving shot through the tattered remains of the Amberson's mansion). But at least we can still see just how intuitive and poetic Welles was as a filmmaker. And by the way, his narration (including the end credits--neat!) is a huge bonus here.

Sorry that was very long, but I love this shit haha.

Been watching a ton of shit; instead of my usual runicen-length reviews I'll just provide some ratings:

Gaslight (1944) - A-
Dead Ringers - B+
Black Book aka Reign of Terror - A
Safety Not Guaranteed - B

A damn good run. Oh wait i forgot:
Pretty Little Liars - D
That Metal Show - NP

Ok, mostly damn good ;-)

I've been randomly jumping around to episodes of old 60s and 70s tv shows; Twilight Zone, Rockford Files, Bionic Woman, Columbo, Emergency!, Avengers (Emma Peel & John Steed), The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

One of these days I'll get brave and revisit Starsky & Hutch, C.H.I.P.S. and S.W.A.T.

See that sounds fun; something I've been wanting to do for a while. Can't beat the aesthetics of those old shows (although I'd prefer to check them out on a small CRT TV than a massive HD. God I miss scanlines.

This Fucking Gun for Hire (all hail Ladd & co.!) - A
Star Trek: The Motion Picture - A

On the latter, this was my first time watching it in HD--seems to me the quality actually milks the movie of its ethereal oomph. Some of the (GLORIOUS) optical effects has such a hyper-resolution that I felt like I was watching matte work rather than taking a trip through V'ger's space, if that makes sense. Thinking about whipping out the 'ol VHS to confirm.

I like watching old TV series that were based & filmed in Los Angeles in the 70s, I love seeing how the neighborhoods have changed, the old cars, the fashions, etc. Most of my favorite TV shows as a kid were filmed here (even if they were supposedly set elsewhere) so I kind of grew up looking at Los Angeles all the time without really realizing it. When I first moved to L.A. it was crazy, because everywhere I went I recognized something I had seen from a movie or a TV show or an album cover...

corplhicks wrote:

This Fucking Gun for Hire (all hail Ladd & co.!) - A

Great flick. The studio pared Ladd with Veronica Lake because she was short enough to make people think Ladd was a normal height leading man...he wasn't...he was 5'6 which was below the norm in Hollywood those days. Paring him with the 4'11 Veronica Lake made him appear like a giant. In actuality often other actors would have to walk in a trench beside Ladd so he would appear normal size.

Divergent - actually a much better flick than I was expecting.

S.D. wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

This Fucking Gun for Hire (all hail Ladd & co.!) - A

Great flick.  The studio pared Ladd with Veronica Lake because she was short enough to make people think Ladd was a normal height leading man...he wasn't...he was 5'6 which was below the norm in Hollywood those days.  Paring him with the 4'11 Veronica Lake made him appear like a giant.  In actuality often other actors would have to walk in a trench beside Ladd so he would appear normal size.  

I knew about Ladd's height and the trenches but I never knew that Lake was 4"11"! That's how short my wife is! She certainly doesn't look it in the film.

It's an awesome movie; I used to watch it all the time as a kid and it made for a great revisit two decades later. Ladd is one of my favorites.

Been on a trash movie kick again lately. SyFy recently added some of their "Original Movies" to the Free On Demand stuff on my cable so I've been OD'ing on some particularly odious originals that I missed out on the first time around, i.e. "Copperhead," "Piranhaconda," and the hilarious "S.S. Doomtrooper," a WWII-set action flick with the dude from "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" leading commandos into Nazi Germany to destroy their newest super weapon - a poorly CGI'd nuclear supersoldier who looks like a blue Hulk. Hilarity, as always, ensues.

Last night whilst flicking thru Netflix I found an early 90s action flick called "Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back" which I'd seen on HBO ages ago, about a martial artist kicking ass on a bunch of white supremacists in the Deep South. The bad guys in this movie were such unrepentant scum bags that it was LOADS of fun watching them get their asses whooped. Plus, it had Gina Gershon in it, which is always a plus.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Been on a trash movie kick again lately. SyFy recently added some of their "Original Movies" to the Free On Demand stuff on my cable so I've been OD'ing on some particularly odious originals that I missed out on the first time around, i.e. "Copperhead," "Piranhaconda," and the hilarious "S.S. Doomtrooper," a WWII-set action flick with the dude from "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" leading commandos into Nazi Germany to destroy their newest super weapon - a poorly CGI'd nuclear supersoldier who looks like a blue Hulk. Hilarity, as always, ensues.

Last night whilst flicking thru Netflix I found an early 90s action flick called "Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back" which I'd seen on HBO ages ago, about a martial artist kicking ass on a bunch of white supremacists in the Deep South. The bad guys in this movie were such unrepentant scum bags that it was LOADS of fun watching them get their asses whooped. Plus, it had Gina Gershon in it, which is always a plus.

I FONDLY remember BotB 3, which, yes, had horrible villains in it. That sequel was really the best (of the best aha!) one and even had a decent, if derivative, storyline. Of course, my perspective could change now; I haven't seen it since my early 20's.

I watched Wolf Of Wall Street again last night, damn that's a funny movie...

corplhicks wrote:

I FONDLY remember BotB 3, which, yes, had horrible villains in it. That sequel was really the best (of the best aha!) one and even had a decent, if derivative, storyline. Of course, my perspective could change now; I haven't seen it since my early 20's.

I don't think I even saw the other two "BotB" flicks...  if memory serves, I just stumbled on "3" while channel surfing one night and happened to land on it just as the head bad guy was making one of his epic rant speeches about "mud people" and "N-words" ....I was like "what the hell is this?"...then suddenly this Asian guy with an awesome mullet starts kickin' the shit out of everybody and I'm like "Wow! This movie fucking RULES," hahaha.

Plus, I remember now why I dug Gina Gershon so much back then... cuz she looks kinda like Tori Welles, one of my favorite early 90s porn stars. Haha

Watched "The Frighteners" (Peter Jackson, Michael J. Fox, Jeffrey Combs) for the first time in years 'n' years on Netflix last night... still a hoot!

Bright Lights Big City - B+. Pleasant character study that doesn't ever really get as gritty as it wants to be, but still features a powerhouse Michael J and a top notch score by Donald Fagen.

Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream House - B-. Spottily funny classic with some great moments from Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and the very funny Melvyn Douglas. More a movie for the middle class and misdirected in some spots, but still fun.

The scene in Mr. Blandings with the well-digger is hilarious. I've always liked this movie, seen it many times over the years. I actually prefer The Bachelor & The Bobby-Soxer from the year before (which also teamed Grant & Loy) but nothing really wrong with Mr. Blandings.

The scene with Loy describing the room colors is an all-time classic.

If you ain't eatin' WHAM, you ain't eatin' ham!

S.D. wrote:

The scene in Mr. Blandings with the well-digger is hilarious.  I've always liked this movie, seen it many times over the years.  I actually prefer The Bachelor & The Bobby-Soxer from the year before (which also teamed Grant & Loy) but nothing really wrong with Mr. Blandings.  

The scene with Loy describing the room colors is an all-time classic.  

If you ain't eatin' WHAM, you ain't eatin' ham!

B&BS is a riot of a movie; a good degree funnier than this one for me. But Blandings has some outstanding moments, like the two you describe, the storage closet scene(s), and the scene where the couples sabotage the architect's plans. Overall you can't beat that pairing; I love Loy's dry, near-cynical approach.

The scene with Grant trying to shave while Loy is taking a shower and the mirror keeps fogging up is another gem.  

That architect scene..."well first, you've got the second floor about twice the size of the first floor!"

Myrna Loy was just a total gem, one of the smartest, funniest and let's be honest, breathtakingly gorgeous actresses that Hollywood ever produced. Go back and watch The Thin Man and her style of acting was VERY modern, there is nothing dated in her delivery, she was way ahead of her time.

And the line about the rabbited whatevers lol!

She was, practically postmodern in her approach. My favorite gig of hers, other than Thin Man, was Wyler's Best Years of Our Lives. I wanted so much more of her performance in that movie. She definitely deserved top billing.

Some more of my favorite Myrna performances:

Penthouse - Loy as a prostitute in this fun little pre-production code romp.

Libled Lady - a must-see screwball comedy also starring Spencer Tracy, William Powell & Jean Harlow.  This one goes to my desert island with me.

Test Pilot - Gable, Tracy and Loy..what's not to love about that casting?

The Rains Came - One of the few times she plays an unlikeable character, but she does it so well.

I Love You, Again - The best Powell/Loy vehicle outside of the Thin Man series, the script is brilliant.

Third Finger, Left Hand - Loy and Melvyn Douglas in another screwball comedy gem.

I'll throw out more later....

P.S. - Rabbited Lintels

Rabbited Lintels! Lol.

I've only seen a couple of those, i should just run down the whole list. I Love You Again was hilarious! Going to see if they're all on Amazon Prime.

EDIT: that's a negative, but I've found a bunch of VHS tapes on Amazon and Ebay for dirt cheap. It's got me thinking...

EDIT 2: hooray for youtube!

Shawn, you're gonna LOVE this haha!

Tonight on Pretty Little Liars, we have a black & white period episode scripted in classic noir style! Tons of homages throughout. Some of the dialogue is really awkward, and while I would've hoped for some snappy verbage like in Brick, it's a mixed bag of warring tones that the talent (or lack thereof) can't properly deliver (even Ezra's character has difficulty saying something like "it's 15 cents, I'm good for it"). I have to say the black & white looks extremely film-like and the shadows are well used, and the costuming/makeup is pretty wow. Anyway, this is certainly a novelty (akin to the musical episode in Fringe) that really doesn't deserve this sort of analysis, but I can't deny it's one of the more entertaining episodes I've seen in a while.

Predators (TV cut) - C+ (better than I expected; perhaps an uncut viewing would improve upon that. Brody is terribly miscast though)

Footlight Parade - A

Gold Diggers of 1933 - A

The Little Mermaid - A-

Snow White & the Seven Dwarves - A+

Sleeping Beauty - A+