What's on your Daily Viewing List? (2 Viewers)

[bujaki]

Last night:
Claire's Camera (Criterion Channel) From the director of The Day He Arrives. Interesting structure as Isabelle Huppert weaves in and out of a group of Korean movie people at a Cannes film festival. I found it intriguing for its short running time.
The Pleasure of Being Robbed (Criterion Channel) Josh Safdie directed this mumblecore outing. Had never seen one of his films. It's oddly interesting as it follows the misadventures of a petty thief in NY.
After such offbeat films I turned to a laugh riot:
Merrily We Live (Classic Flix) Hadn't seen this in ages. What a delight! Billie Burke was nominated for an AA for her supporting role in this film.
Today I saw:
Joker (IMAX Laser) Joaquin Phoenix is amazing in a disturbing tale of the birth of a populist movement. 'Nuff said.

 

[Dave Moritz]

October 9th, 2019 Wednesday

***Official 20th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge 2019***

Sinister makes for movie #5 for the month of October!

Saw lll
1080p DCP upconverted to 4K
5.1 Dolby

Sinister
HD DCP upconverted to 4K
5.1 Dolby

 

[Matt Hough]

Last night, I revisited Licence to Kill. Never one of my favorite Bonds, its tone is unrelentingly grim, and while the stunts are magnificent, the antagonist seems more of a thug than a criminal mastermind. Still, I enjoyed it more than I remembered enjoying it. I reviewed the Blu-ray in 2009, and I'm not sure I had watched it again since then until last night.

The Blu-ray quality was first-rate, BTW.

 

[bujaki]

Tuesday night:
The Long Haul (Mill Creek BD) 1957. The other trucking film from England. Good, but not as good and gritty as the same year's Hell Drivers. The PQ here is the weakest in this set of noir films.
Pickup Alley (Mill Creek BD) 1957. Cat-and-mouse story of Victor Mature chasing Trevor Howard all over Europe. Anita Ekberg provides looks in 'Scope. Much better PQ.
The Hot Rock (TT BD) 1972. Filmed in NYC the summer I moved there. A caper inside a caper inside a caper; a cross, a double cross and a double-double cross. Delightful film buoyed be a lithe script and charming performances. Excellent PQ.
Wednesday:
War and Peace: Part One (Criterion BD) 1966. Third time watching this magnificent Russian epic, first watched in 1968.
Zatoichi and the Fugitives (Criterion BD) 1968. Bleak ending in this, the 18th entry. The quality of the series is still upheld.
The Tijuana Story (Mill Creek BD) 1957. Another newspaper expose of corruption.
The Case against Brooklyn (Mill Creek BD) 1958 Bookies and police corruption.
Oslo 1952 Winter Olympic Games (Criterion BD) Another exciting entry in this series. Photography, editing, and the athletes are just amazing.

 

[Robert Crawford]

On a UK DVD that isn't in its OAR:

 

[Robert Crawford]

On Region "B" Blu-ray:

 

[Matt Hough]

I was surfing Netflix tonight looking for nothing in particular, but just to see if anything would look enticing, and I found Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I hadn't watched my Blu-ray in quite some time, so I streamed this HD, and it looked and sounded very nice. Such a wonderful film, too, filled with continual action, surprises, and thrills.

 

[bujaki]

Just War and Peace: Part Two (Criterion BD). Watching this great film piecemeal, as it was meant to be experienced.

 

[Robert Crawford]

On DVD "Clash by Night" (1952):

 

[Robert Crawford]

At the cinema in 3-D+ in HFR:

 

[Matt Hough]

Just before settling down for the evening, I glanced over and saw a Blu-ray case lying behind a cabinet. It happened to be Imitation of Life which had somehow gotten pushed out of its place. Since it was out, I watched the 1959 version (for the millionth time) tonight. Always marvel at how touching and resonant Juanita Moore is in this film. I guess Shelley Winters' role in The Diary of Anne Frank provided more of a showcase that brought her the Oscar, but I would have voted for Juanita.

 

[Robert Crawford]

On 4K/UHD disc:

 

[bujaki]

War and Peace: Part Three (Criterion BD) The battle of Borodino as staged by Bondarchuk, no CGI, has to be one of the most outstanding set pieces in cinema history. Watch it in awe.
Powdersmoke Range (TCM app) 1935. Very satisfying oater with Harry Carey and a slew of other Western stars.
Marie Antoinette (TCM app) 1938. I hadn't seen this one since the very early '70s, and not in the Roadshow version, which this was: Overture, intermission, entr'acte, exit music. The print has been remastered since there were no cigarette burns. Shearer's performance during the last 15 minutes of the film achieves tragic heights. She was probably never better. Tyrone Power was simply beautiful. No wonder Shearer asked for him.

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

I finished season 3 tonight episodes 21,22 and 23.

 

[DFurr]

Tomorrow night is indeed a strange title.
Rubber, 2011 BD
Has anyone seem this movie?

 

[JohnRice]

Tomorrow night is indeed a strange title.
Rubber, 2011 BD
Has anyone seem this movie?

I saw it several years ago. Profoundly weird, but also gets a little monotonous. Not necessarily a concept that plays out into a feature length film.

 

[Robin9]

Yesterday I watched Undertow, a very minor Universal crime film starring Scott Brady and Peggy Dow with John Russell, an actor I've always liked, leading the supporting players, one of whom is Roc Hudson. (Yes, no K in "Roc") This is the first TCM disc I've seen with only mediocre picture quality.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yesterday I watched Undertow, a very minor Universal crime film starring Scott Brady and Peggy Dow with John Russell, an actor I've always liked, leading the supporting players, one of whom is Roc Hudson. (Yes, no K in "Roc") This is the first TCM disc I've seen with only mediocre picture quality.

Did you watch this on a projector and would it look better on a smaller screen?

 

[Matt Hough]

I'll be watching Clash by Night at lunchtime. I have some TV from last week I haven't gotten to yet, and if I have time, I'll be watching Glass this evening.

 

[bujaki]

War and Peace: Part Four (Criterion BD) 1967. Last section of this great epic. The sack and burning of Moscow beggars description; the retreat from Moscow of the French army is simply staggering. This is epic and intimate film making in a scale of inventiveness that is only equaled by Gance's Napoleon. Having read the book for a second time within the last decade, it is amazing to see images that are visualizations of Tolstoy's prose. This is the third time I've seen this film within my lifetime.
The Color out of Space (Brink Vision Limited Edition BD) 2010. This is a German version of the Lovecraft story that has been remade recently. I'm not familiar with the source story. This is an adaptation made by a couple of film students (their first feature, much too ambitious for their graduation project), shot in B&W, with orange used sparingly as the ET COLOR. As a matter of fact, the title of the film in German is Die Farbe (The Color). Interesting premise told via an unreliable narrator.
American Gigolo (Criterion Channel) 1980. Paul Schrader's Calvinist vision of a man's descent into Hell and his eventual redemption through the love and sacrifice of a woman, accompanied in the soundtrack by a sudden burst of the most celestial music ever composed by man: Mozart's Concerto for clarinet, second movement. Sublime.
Clash by Night (TCM) Well-acted melodrama. It would have been noir had it stuck to the play's ending which would have forced the Production Code to step in and make it noir (femme fatale and all).