Recently Watched Films

I've got to make time for this one just for the hell of it. I read Rowan Atkinson's autobiography years back, and remember him bringing up his role in this movie. I can't recall what he said about it, but I doubt it was glowing praise. 

Greatest Show On Earth? Maybe not, but it's a hell of a spectacle. This is one of those movies which would really benefit from seeing it on the big screen to truly appreciate the scale and scope. It's a movie that really couldn't be made now, because it has real live circus performances mixed with scripted performance, and these circuses just don't exist any more, and there's no way you could do those animal tricks any more. Betty Hutton and Gloria Grahame really shine here, outdoing their male counterparts (this was Charlton Heston's break-out role so he was lesser known than the other leads, And Jimmy Stewart wears clown make-up for the entire movie), and the pair, along with Cornel Wilde, had to learn genuine circus skills for their roles.

This movie ticks so many of my personal boxes it may just have got one over on The Dark Knight for me. 

Last movie in the John Ford set and it's also a pretty good one. Political satire this time around. 

I could barely watch this. A random pickup from a second hand shop, but what a bad pick this turned out to be. Not only a crap film that wastes any and all potential the idea may have, but as a massive arachnophobe, I spent a lot of the time having to look away from the pure nightmare fuel that this movie turned out to be. I'm usually okay with spiders to look at on film when I'm expecting them, but this film is about an arachnophobe, and they used the foulest, creepiest looking spiders they could find for this with lots of close up shots. I don't know if they were in fact CGI or real but it didn't matter. For me, it was too much. And I wish the blu ray case had given some indication about how important the spiders were to the plot. All it has is two tiny ones on the cover where you can barely see them (also as part of a scene they're not even used in, as well as being much more normal looking ones than actually appear in the movie). Makes me think content advisory labels should be made to mention when a film heavily exploits a common phobia like this. I actually feel attacked by this movie. Fuck spiders and fuck this movie. It's become only the second film I've rated 0.5 that I did (kind of) make it to the end of. The rating usually reserved for crap I can't finish. 

Went classic and old school after the train wreck that was Rupture. Sadly this one is missing some six minutes of footage that has to be pieced together with the audio track and production stills every so on and the quality of some material that was previously missing takes a dive, but mostly this has been made to look really great for a 1930s film. It's not the best I've ever seen but it was enjoyable. 

Wasn't sure about this at first but it gradually got more and more twisty. I enjoyed it. 

Yeah, kinda meh. Bond without the iconic theme turns out to be just plain weird. Connery is clearly past it to play the character convincingly (even more so than the too long in the role Roger Moore) and after a while I found I just couldn't care less. I mean what actually is the point when Thunderball exists? It's not all bad though. Bond has a fight with Bomber from Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and gets to meet Mr. Bean. 

Re-watches:

Even better on the second watch. I promised myself last time that the next time I saw this I'd watch it in one sitting. Well I failed that again due to getting distracted by something. But next time I'm going to make extra effort to watch this right. I expect it will get better again when I do. Probably Ceylan's best film.

A very long overdue re-watch. In fact it's been so long it was mostly like seeing the movie for the first time. 

I still want District 10. 

I've only seen this version once before. I prefer the Swedish one, especially the extended cut that turns all three into a six episode miniseries. But I think this one is a rare case of an English language remake of a foreign film that is actually worthy. I found a blu-ray copy for only £1 today, so decided to upgrade my old DVD copy. Moreso because Fincher is one of my favourite directors (I also got Gone Girl on blu-ray for the same price) than because of what the film is. I'm still most likely to go for the Swedish versions when I want this story. 

Wow, one hell of a story! And so fucking long... It's a lot better than I expected. Some bits of it are kind of shit, but there's some proper drama which still holds up today in others. It's often called racist, as it glorifies the antebellum era of the southern states, but I think it also reflects a lot of the attitudes of both the 1860s when it was set and the 1930s when it was made which makes some people uncomfortable.

A day in the life of a Scotland Yard inspector. A rare British film from John Ford. Played in a really quirky way - not an outright comedy - but manages to really nail the British sense of humour. An achievement for a director with Irish ancestry who apparently didn't have much time for us Brits. 

Quite a gentle feel-good movie, which I suppose was what people wanted sometimes during WWII. Despite being about a Catholic priest, the religious element never seems to intrude or get preachy. It's also classed as a musical, but it's really more a movie with songs in.