I Just Watched...

[TikiSoo]

Blazing Saddles (1974)

It remains insanely funny from start to finish.

Thank God there's some of us not ashamed to admit enjoying politically incorrect humor!
When I showed this to our teen, we audibly gasped at the first N word uttered, I had completely forgotten about it & she was offended.
I told her to roll with it & it remains one of the best times we had watching a movie together.

[Cinemaspeak59]

Beyond Tomorrow (1940) This lovely Christmas fantasy is about three captains of industry, living under the same roof, along with their indispensable housekeeper, who befriend a young couple through interesting means: by tossing their wallets out the window to see if anyone is honest enough to return them. Two people do: a Texan with singing aspirations (Richard Carlson), and a woman who works in an orphanage (Jean Parker). Sentimental, but not overly so, and brimming with goodwill, this movie makes for a nice holiday or non holiday movie.

[laffite]

Speaking of what one may be watching, I have been paying Netflix DVD $57 a month for 8-at-time for over the last couple of pay periods in order to take advantage what they have to offer, which is considerable, and the availability of which will end on Sep 29. Mostly foreign films, a real gold mine. They have much much more than the usual classics we hear about over and over. I have posted about a couple already. I am making a list but do not plan full postings on them, but I may by and by list some of them with perhaps a short paragraph about each looking for any reactions from the group who have seen them. It's a great inventory that will be lost forever (at this level of availability and convenience) and many of the movies may be hard to get. The streaming services are woefully inadequate in comparison (esp foreign), at least as I have seen, though I do not subscribe to all of them and do not therefore know the full extent of their inventories. I am taking full advantage of Netflix DVD as I can.

Note: Netflix DVD has announced that they will send at least 10 extra DVD (from the queue) on the last day of shipping (Sep29) and that it may be possible to keep some of them. Otherwise, all DVDs must be returned by Oct 27. How this will actually work is not clear (says Netflix) but they are working on it. It was revealed also that Netllix has not yet decided what to do wih the remains of their considerable inventory of films. All this according my best knowledge to date.

I wish they would make some of the films you mention available on their streaming service. Netflix came free with T-Mobile when I switched to that service. I enjoyed many of the films/series -- particularly Babylon Berlin, Peaky Blinders, and The Crown -- but now I can't find anything to watch. The Crown will be back soon, but where is the new season of Babylon Berlin? There have been a few interesting films, but not many.

I have been through durations like this. Absolutely nothing to find. I have watched three Netflix shows recently, all Limited Series (which means in case you don't know, a show that will not extend to a second season. They can have anywhere from five to nine episodes [about] but generally not more.) I'm going to just list them (except for one comment) and leave to all to decide by just the title.

1. "Intimacy"

2. "Bodies"

3. "Bodyguard"

Just the one comment about No. 3. Watch the first 20 minutes. I found this for me one of the most intense beginnings ever (suspenseful and totally engrossing). I don't mean that this beginning is amazing and the rest is not. Not so. I recommend keep watching.

//

[laffite]

London is Falling (2016) This started out as a bona fide thriller of high order. It takes awhile but not that long that a long scene killed it for me. It revealed itself as an ordinary action-thriller, with the action being somewhat over done. But it may not be so for you. I was mesmerized by the visuals (thanks to CGI) of a major city (uh, guess which one) under siege that was entertaining. If this were a better movie I might have been shocked. The movie turned into a comic book to me. But it's just me, I would still recommend it, those who like actioners I think would be in for a treat. No patronizing here, the action genre does not thrill me at all.

//

[Lorna]

Beyond Tomorrow (1940) This lovely Christmas fantasy is about three captains of industry, living under the same roof, along with their indispensable housekeeper, who befriend a young couple through interesting means: by tossing their wallets out the window to see if anyone is honest enough to return them. Two people do: a Texan with singing aspirations (Richard Carlson), and a woman who works in an orphanage (Jean Parker). Sentimental, but not overly so, and brimming with goodwill, this movie makes for a nice holiday or non holiday movie.

Man oh man oh man alive would this ever be a different movie nowadays.
I’m seeing some EYES WIDE SHUT masks coming out by the third act.

[Lorna]

sorry, this might not be one of my better reviews.

i got really sick tuesday night and whilst laid up the next day, I came across RED BEARD (1965) on youtube.



it was the 16th and final collab of AKIRA KURASAWA and TOSHIRO MIFUNE- MIFUNE (at MAXIMUM DADDYNESS) is a doctor in JAPAN OF THE 1860'S who dedicates his life to the poor and tangles with bureaucracy and social injustice and ignorance- it's kind of a CITY OF HOPE meets THE CITADEL with one really great scene where MIFUNE kicks the absolute crap out of 16 guys and then has them stretchered up so he can treat their fractures, contusions and protruding bones.

this movie is THREE AND A HALF HOURS LONG and it flies by, but honestly (hear me out) THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN A TV SERIES INSTEAD, a sort of JAPANESE "DR KILDARE" set in SHOGUNATE JAPAN with TOSHIRO (or his television equivalent, I imagine there was one) in THE LIONEL BARRYMORE "GAAAAAAAAAAAAH/ I'm too old for this s***" part.

the film insists on becoming a confoundingly half-hearted portmanteau (the life stories of the various tragic patients unfold)- but for some reason KUROSAWA has the characters TELL us their tales, he does not SHOW US, and while the acting is great AND THE STORIES COMPELLING, it is trying to watch 15 minute long monologues in other languages.

A little more pedestrian than I was expecting, BUT I have come to EXPECT A LOT from KUROSAWA, in a way that is not fair to him- he just set the bar SO HIGH with 90% of everything else I've seen him do.

[BagelOnAPlate]

Blazing Saddles (1974)

It remains insanely funny from start to finish.

Thank God there's some of us not ashamed to admit enjoying politically incorrect humor!
When I showed this to our teen, we audibly gasped at the first N word uttered, I had completely forgotten about it & she was offended.
I told her to roll with it & it remains one of the best times we had watching a movie together.

Blazing Saddles is my least favorite Mel Brooks movie and not because of its so-called "political incorrectness."
I just don't think it's very funny. At all. (Well, maybe Madeline Kahn's song is funny.)
Fart jokes get old really fast.

But Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Spaceballs and History Of The World, Part I . . .
Love them!

[jamesjazzguitar]

Blazing Saddles (1974)

It remains insanely funny from start to finish.

Thank God there's some of us not ashamed to admit enjoying politically incorrect humor!
When I showed this to our teen, we audibly gasped at the first N word uttered, I had completely forgotten about it & she was offended.
I told her to roll with it & it remains one of the best times we had watching a movie together.

Blazing Saddles is my least favorite Mel Brooks movie and not because of its so-called "political incorrectness."
I just don't think it's very funny. At all. (Well, maybe Madeline Kahn's song is funny.)
Fart jokes get old really fast.

But Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Spaceballs and History Of The World, Part I . . .
Love them!

I love Young Frankenstein but that is it for Brooks movies. I love Get Smart but my understanding that was more from the mind of Buck Henry than Brooks.

[Swithin]

I'm not a huge fan of Mel Brooks movies. I remember liking The Twelve Chairs, very much, but apart from that, I like a couple of scenes here and there in his films, like the airport security scene from High Anxiety and the Inquisition scene from History of the World Part I. And there's one line (or rather the delivery of it) in Robin Hood: Men in Tights that I like very much.

"What is this, a game show? What did I win, a Pinto?" -- High Anxiety

And possibly the best worst pun ever, from History of the World Part I:

"Let's face it - you can't Torquemada anything!"

[Allhallowsday]

...Blazing Saddles is my least favorite Mel Brooks movie and not because of its so-called "political incorrectness."
I just don't think it's very funny. At all. (Well, maybe Madeline Kahn's song is funny.)
Fart jokes get old really fast.

But Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Spaceballs and History Of The World, Part I . . .
Love them!

There are parts of BLAZING SADDLES I enjoy, more now than 50 years, but I think THE TWELVE CHAIRS is funnier.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is a spectacular alignment of the planets, comedy gold, a masterpiece.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

Home For The Holidays (1972) Youtube 6/10

An old man (Walter Brennan) invites his 4 grown daughters to his house for Christmas, he tells them his young wife (Julie Harris) is trying to kill him.

This is an interesting 1970s TV movie with a fine cast and a good plot twist. The daughters are played by Eleanor Parker as the oldest, take charge one, Jessica Walter is an alcoholic pill popper, Jill Haworth (the least known of the four) is the promiscuous one with several ex husbands. Sally Field is the sweet and innocent youngest girl. Brennan (his last role) spends most of his time lying in bed making accusations. An interesting thing is Eleanor Parker and Sally Field playing sisters, just 2 years before they played mother and daughter in another TV movie Maybe I'll Come Home In The Spring, which is one of my favorites.

Other notable things are Joseph Stefano is the writer (he also wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's Psycho) and the director is John Llewellyn Moxey who directed the classic TV horror movie The Night Stalker that same year.

I was always a big fan of TV movies made in the 1970s and this was a first time viewing for me. I was looking for a twisted Christmas film and this seems to fit the bill. There is not much Christmas atmosphere among the suspense and murder. The copy on Youtube is good.

[Lorna]

Home For The Holidays (1972) Youtube 6/10

Thank you for this.
I have strong memories to this day of OBSESSING OVER THE COVER OF THE VHS TO THIS at my LOCAL VHS RENTAL STORE throughout the 1980's.

(I know some of you 80's kids also wandered the HORROR section)

[Lorna]

i caught BLACK ANGEL (1946) this morning- a 1946 Universal noir starring DAN DURYEA with a small, strange role for PETER LORRE- who was of course himself small and strange, so it was a good fit.

the wife of a man convicted for killing an up-and-coming female vocalist in a Hollywood Hotel teams up with the victim's alcoholic estranged songwriter husband (DURYEA) to go undercover as a nightclub act at the SUNSET STRIP ESTABLISHMENT of prime suspect PETER LORRE in order to prove her husband's innocence before he GETS GASSED IN QUENTIN.

does it get any more HOLLYWOOD in the 40's than that, I ask you?

this is a tricky movie, because it's got a fun story and it moves at a clip, it draws you in (especially with an opening shot that is animated and an homage (i presume) to the opening of KING VIDOR'S THE CROWD) and it's nicely stylized with some catchy songs- BUT OVERALL, IT'S A PASTICHE OF OTHER FILMS AND LARGELY PIFFLE (albeit fun, fast-moving piffle)...UNTIL THE ENDING.

It's got ONE HELL of an ending, so much so, I had a hard time remembering just what had transpired before it in writing this review (it came back to me, as through a glass dimly)

BRODERICK CRAWFORD is in this(IN A SMALL PART, THANKFULLY) and I can't believe it, but the director MADE HIM ALMOST WHISPER HIS LINES and it's so nice when BRODERICK CRAWFORD ISN'T SHOUTING (which i HERETOFORE THOUGHT WAS NEVER)

also, a HIDEOUSLY TACKY PIECE OF JEWELRY plays a MAJOR PART IN THE PLOT. Seriously, JOAN RIVERS wouldn't hawk this thing on QVC back in the day if you were holding a gun to MELISSA'S HEAD just off-camera.

(Spoilerish)

30'S LEADING MAN WALLACE FORD is in this as well, in what amounts to a small part that seemed as if perhaps got cut down- and I'm not sure if their casting him in the WILLIAM BENDIX BEST FRIEND PART wasn't something of a RED HERRING which worked on me because I totally thought this thing was gonna end like THE BLUE DAHLIA (also 1946)- to which this film is a sister (in more ways than one)

[HoldenIsHere]

...Blazing Saddles is my least favorite Mel Brooks movie and not because of its so-called "political incorrectness."
I just don't think it's very funny. At all. (Well, maybe Madeline Kahn's song is funny.)
Fart jokes get old really fast.

But Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Spaceballs and History Of The World, Part I . . .
Love them!

There are parts of BLAZING SADDLES I enjoy, more now than 50 years, but I think THE TWELVE CHAIRS is funnier.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is a spectacular alignment of the planets, comedy gold, a masterpiece.

Yes, YOUMG FRANKENSTEIN is my favorite Mel Brooks followed by HIGH ANXIETY.
I've seen both of those movies many times --- and certain scenes many more times.
SILENT MOVIE also has some very funny moments.

But I was not impressed with BLAZING SADDLES.
I don't think I laughed once when I saw it, and it wasn't because I was offended by any "political incorrectness" (I understood the context).

[Lorna]

My favorite scene:
(Anyone surprised?)