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07-24-2005, 04:01 PM
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#62 of 451 
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Adam_S
Member
Location: Marina del Rey, CA
Join Date: Feb 2001
Local Time: 06:30 AM
Local Date: 07-24-2008
Posts: 4,979
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Scarface (1983) -  
Quotes list - "Say 'hello' to my leetle friend!"
OARDVD
07/24/2005
I think he's a fucking peasant
And of course that's why the person who calls Tony a peasant, and the person he was talking to both die, because they underestimate Tony, they're still caught in the medieval conception, unable to realize that although the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer all the time there's never been another country in history where that was actually fluid for people to advance in class. In a sense this is the great American Horatio Alger story, it just happens to be about drugs. Pacino is wonderful to watch, but overall the entire film feels very overblown. In fact the big music video sequence when Tony makes his move is just pathetic and kind of entirely inappropriate to the rest of the film. Overall I prefer the original. Good flick though, lots of great lines and iconic moments, but overblown.
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07-24-2005, 05:54 PM
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#64 of 451
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Adam_S
Member
Location: Marina del Rey, CA
Join Date: Feb 2001
Local Time: 06:30 AM
Local Date: 07-24-2008
Posts: 4,979
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Hands Across the Table -
Stars List - Carole Lombard
OARVHS
07/24/2005
Pretty standard rom-com with Lombard and Fred McMurray. They're both Gold Diggers, he's old money ruined in the crash and she's a manicurist. Only trouble is that he's engaged to the daughter of the 'Pineapple king' and she has a crippled, wealthy former pilot falling for her.
Naturally they fall for each other on an innocuous date and he passes out drunk before he can make his train that will let him make his boat to Bermuda. He ends up staying there (innocuously) for the rest of the picture and then realizes he has to drop his fiancee and get a job and marry this poor girl.
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07-24-2005, 09:27 PM
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#66 of 451
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Adam_S
Member
Location: Marina del Rey, CA
Join Date: Feb 2001
Local Time: 06:30 AM
Local Date: 07-24-2008
Posts: 4,979
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Top Gun -
Quotes List "I feel the need, the need for speed."
OARDVD
07/24/2005
Top Gun is one of those movies I've sort of seen before but never sat down and watched all the way through. It's very well made with good performances, however the characters and script are pretty thin, good effort is made, but Maverick's actions are often unmotivated or just melodramatic lacking focus.
The soundtrack is so damn good though. Danger Zone, Take My Breath Away, You've lost that lovin feeling, Great Balls of Fire. Some great stuff there, Take my Breath Away is still, considering the last dances I went to, the slow dance song of choice twenty years later, shame it's not on the Songs list.  Cheesy, yes, effective--well just watch this flick with your girl. 
Adam
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07-29-2005, 08:47 PM
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#68 of 451
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Member
Location: New Zealand
Join Date: Mar 2003
Local Time: 01:30 AM
Local Date: 07-25-2008
Posts: 2,882
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The funny thing - of the new AFI films in the Quotes list, there were three films listed that have never been released on VHS or DVD in NZ that I would have had to tried to acquire from overseas - Beyond the Forest, Knute Rockne All American, and The Naughty Nineties.
The next month, TCM very kindly showed the first two of those films. I've now watched Forest and have Rockne taped and ready to watch. Now I just need to wait for them to show Naughty Nineties.
And speaking of Abbott and Costello movies:
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Other than my irritation at the inaccuracy of the title (they never meet Frankenstein), it's a pretty good film. I loved the fact that they had the original Dracula (Lugosi) and Wolfman (Chaney), even if they had to use a new actor for the Monster. I tend to feel that the film would have been completely dfferent had it not had the original stars. As it was, the film really felt like a genuine Universal monster film - even though the plot, with Dracula trying to resurrect the monster, seemed a little silly. The great thing was that the monster scenes were played completely straight. Dracula, the Monster, and the Wolfman, were never trying for the laughs. They were always serious. The comedy grew out of the reactions of Abbott and Costello to the otherwise serious situation. And it worked well. It was a lot of fun and most enjoyable.
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07-29-2005, 10:00 PM
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#69 of 451
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2003
Local Time: 08:30 AM
Local Date: 07-24-2008
Posts: 3,955
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Quote:
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The great thing was that the monster scenes were played completely straight.
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This is certainly the key to the film. There are some Universal fans who bash this movie because they feel the monsters are being made fun of but I find this to be a silly statement for several reasons. The biggest reason is that the monsters here are a lot more violent than in any of the previous films. The Wolf Man does a lot more damage than before, the death of a certain doctor is probably the most graphic in any of the films and finally, the film really tries to scare the viewer. I think the key in the scares is, for A&C fans, we love the duo so there's a reason we don't want to see them hurt by the monsters. At the same time, as you said, fans of the monsters should love this because they are at their prime. There was a lot of controversy at the time of release because parents weren't happy that their kids came out crying after a "family" A&C film. While there are plenty of laughs here there's no doubt this film scared the crap out of people back in the day and I still think it holds more suspense of any of the Universal films. Another critic of this film was Lon Chaney, Jr. who said A&C ruined monster films but he was clearly drunk at the time. 
Glenn Strange who plays the monster also did so in HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA. Jack Pierce, the man who made all these monsters, originally wanted Karloff's monster to look like Strange did in these three films. In a way, from the make up point of view, this is how the monster is suppose to look. Of course, it would have been great had Karloff agreed to do the movie. Stranger is the fact that Lugosi wasn't the first choice to play Dracula. I think the film benefits greatly from him who, IMO, is better here than he was in DRACULA (1931).
There have been hundreds of horror/comedies but this here is certainly the best.
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08-08-2005, 05:38 AM
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#70 of 451
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Member
Location: New Zealand
Join Date: Mar 2003
Local Time: 01:30 AM
Local Date: 07-25-2008
Posts: 2,882
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Sons of the Desert
Laurel and Hardy are members of the California branch of the Sons of the Desert lodge, and intend to go to the lodge conference. However, when their wives object, Hardy is forced to pretend to be ill and in need of an ocean voyage in order to get away from the wife and get to the conference.
It was an interesting experience watching Laurel and Hardy. I used to love them as a kid, but haven't watched any of their material in 10 or 15 years. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I expected.
The film has three very definite stages to the film, and it was only the last part where I really felt the film came together. The first part, with the two trying to plan to attend the conference, had some wonderful little sequences - Stan being locked out, or Oliver's supremely unconvincing efforts to play sick. But there were as many bits that didn't work as did work, and I was astonished at the way the two mugged for the camera. Quite off-putting. But still, some good stuff.
The middle section, with the two attending the conference, was pretty dire. Pretty much laugh-free, it is fortunately pretty short. The worst part - a potentially amusing part where Oliver ends up talking to his wife on the phone without realising it, ended up going nowhere and played no part in the film.
But the third part of the film redeemed all of its faults. A great extended sequence has the two returning home, only to discover that they need to hide their return for 24 hours, unaware that their wives have discovered their deception. It's a delightful part of the film, impossible to describe without spoiling it, but an absolute must-see. It is on sequences like this that L&H have built their reputation, and after an unimpressive first two-thirds, the two completely justified their position as comedy greats.
The film is in the Laughs list, and also the Quotes list, for Hardy's line, "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!". The interesting thing for me was that I remembered that it was Laurel who would always mess things up, but it was Hardy that would suffer the consequences - hence the fanmous line. What was interesting in the context of the film was that it was all Hardy's fault - it was Hardy that forced Laurel to go to the conference, who decided to go with the fake cruise story, who at every point made the decision that would lead them inevitably to that nice mess. So the line's not just about the mess teir in, it's about diverting blame away from the person responsible. Which I found interesting.
And, incidentally, the disc I watched also had a colour version. I glanced at it for 30 seconds out of curiosity, and had to turn it off. Worst colourisation effort ever. Words cannot describe how ghastly it was. he thought that people would prefer to watch that over a nice clean B&W print fills me with dread.
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08-11-2005, 06:48 PM
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#71 of 451
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Adam_S
Member
Location: Marina del Rey, CA
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