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

[Adam Lenhardt]

Doctor Sleep [Director's Cut]
Originally Released: 11/08/2019 (theatrical)
Watched: 10/31/2020
4K UHD digital streaming on Vudu via Roku Ultra

I wasn't planning on watching this one again so soon, but my friend had just watched The Shining for the first time a week ago, and I was eager to show him the rest of the story.

Since the last time I watched this, I've viewed Oculus, "The Haunting of Hill House", and the first half of "The Haunting of Bly Manor". I've come to the conclusion that Mike Flanagan is as much of an auteur as Stanley Kubrick, but a very different creative mind with very different aesthetic choices. Part of the fun of this movie is seeing Flanagan overlay his vision onto a cinematic universe that was created by Kubrick. He understands that power and weight of Kubrick's imagery, and he repurposes it for his own ends.

This movie also does the best job of any I've yet seen of showing the world from the point of view of people with psychic abilities. Some of these things are very abstract concepts, but Flanagan finds very effective ways to visualize them.

The Shining is probably the superior work of art, but Doctor Sleep is definitely, for me at least, the superior narrative film.

 

[Dave Moritz]

October 31st, 2020 Saturday

Originally the following movies where scheduled to view today until I found out about the passing of Sean Connery. Yesterday I had chosen the following movies to watch, Back To The Future 2, The Conjuring, and Aliens. 2020 has been a messed up year and now we have lost another iconic actor when Sean Connery passed away. So today was a Sean Connery marathon and maybe tomorrow I might watch more Sean Connery movies but will at least watch one tomorrow.

Todays movies: RIP Sean Connery

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
1080p Blu-ray upconverted to 4K
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 upmixed to Auro 7.1




The Hunt For Red October
4K Blu-ray / Dolby Vision
Native 4K
Dolby True HD 5.1 upmixed to Auro 7.1




Goldfinger
1080p Blu-ray upconverted to 4K
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 upmixed to Auro 7.1
50th Anniversary Blu-ray Box Set

The Rock
1080p Blu-ray upconverted to 4K
Uncompressed PCM 5.1 upmixed to Auro 7.1

 

[Robert Crawford]

This past week's movie viewings:

 

[Robert Crawford]

More movie viewings from this past week:

 

[Robin9]

Yesterday I watched Goldfinger for the obvious and very sad reason. Sean Connery was absolutely superb.

Today, in contrast, I'm going to watch a little-known British B movie: The Malpas Mystery. I came across an interesting photo of Maureen Swanson this morning and she's in the film.

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

Tonight:

 

[bujaki]

Friday:
Dos monjes (Two Monks) (Criterion BD) 1934. A rather conventional story of two men vying for a woman's love told in flashback, actually two flashbacks, and they're conflicting (think Rashomon), and that's part of what makes this film NOT conventional. In one flashback the narrator wears white; the antagonist black. In the second flashback, the colors are reversed. The sets are straight out of UFA and steeped in Expressionism, with high ceilings, crooked windows and doorways. There are deep shadows, canted angles, crane and trucking shots. Realism is eschewed. The finale, as one monk plays the organ while the other monks are seen wearing masks and wielding crucifixes as if to attack him, resembles a horror film. This is a fascinating film which can still be caught on the TCM app. Very highly recommended.
The Love of Jeanne Ney (Kino BD) 1927. Very good transfer of Pabst's melodrama of love, lust, theft, murder. Fritz Rasp plays the villain with relish; Uno Henning is the stalwart hero who is saved by the plucky lead Jeanne. All filmed in studio and excellent location work with extraordinary mobile camerawork. How wonderful late silent films were!
The Holy Mountain (Kino BD) 1926. Leni, the infamous; Leni, the notorious and talented Leni, long before making her Faustian bargain with the Devil. And here she is fresh and beautiful, yes, beautiful and lissome, and dancing in the Duncan style, and climbing mountains, and having men fall in love with her, and dying for her. And it's all oh so excitingly and gorgeously shot: sea and mountains, mountains and sea, and never the twain shall meet and therein lies the tragedy.

 

[bujaki]

Saturday:
The Mandalorian: Ep. 9 (Disney+) The Child is still cute. The story is a classic Western. Enemies join to defeat their common foe.
Indestructible Man (TCM app) 1956. Allied Artists' update of Man-Made Monster also starring Lon Chaney. It's cheap but not quite as bad as it could have been. Chaney is good in a mostly mute part. The film is shot in mostly mean streets of LA. So it's a pass.
Angel on My Shoulder (TCM app) 1946. I believe this a public domain title so the print shown is not in the best condition. Anyway, there is some drollness in watching Claude Rains play a minion of the Dark One instead of an angel as in Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Muni is amusing in his double role and Anne Baxter is perplexed. Enjoyable.

 

[Thomas T]

 

[Dave Moritz]

November 1st, 2020 Sunday

Back To The Future 2
4K Blu-ray / Dolby Vision
Dolby Atmos to Auro 3D 7.1.4

Entrapment
1080p Blu-ray upconverted to 4K
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 upmixed to Auro 7.1

RIP Sean Connery
Yesterdays Connery movies where the following: Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Hunt For Red October, Goldfinger & The Rock.

Star Trek: Picard
1080p Blu-ray upconverted to 4K
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 upmixed to Auro 7.1
S1/E2 Maps And Legends
S1/E3 The End Is The Beginning
S1/E4 Absolute Candor
S1/E5 Stardust City Rag

Can not wait for season two to be available!

 

[John Sparks]

First time viewed on my 110" screen upscaled to 4K and the SD image looked excellent...they both did. Don't know how much of an improvement the BD would have been of VILLAGE.

It was an enjoyable double feature for the wife and I.

Just ordered the Christopher Reeve one.

 

[Robin9]

First time viewed on my 110" screen upscaled to 4K and the SD image looked excellent...they both did. Don't know how much of an improvement the BD would have been of VILLAGE.

I haven't seen the DVD so can't quantify the upgrade, but the Blu-ray disc is excellent. (it's Warner Archive: say no more!)

Barefoot In The Park arrived this morning and I'll be watching it tonight.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I haven't seen the DVD so can't quantify the upgrade, but the Blu-ray disc is excellent. (it's Warner Archive: say no more!)

I still have the DVD because of Children of the Damn, the BD is much better than the DVD.

 

[Thomas T]

 

[bujaki]

View attachment 81351

I remember seeing this film several times when it came out. Maybe once later on. It's been a while...

 

[bujaki]

Fargo (FX) Olyphant and Huston are quite interesting characters.
Angry Inuk (TCM app) 2016. I'll just quote a review by logicators posted in IMDb:
"A compelling documentary that exposes how animal welfare groups exploit our sentiment to raise funds, and in the process destroy the welfare of both human communities and the very animals they claim to protect. It changed my perspective on sealing and helped me understand the harsh realities of life faced by indigenous Inuk people."
Amen to that.
Dark Waters (Netflix) 1956. Next on my Youssef Chahine retrospective, also starring Omar El Cheriff aka Omar Shariff. Ripe melodrama of a love triangle that spans two generations (illegitimate children), upper and lower classes conflict, dock workers being manipulated by unscrupulous agents, lynch mobs, pursuits by sailboats on the Nile, ships on fire; and it's all quite excitingly shot and acted. It's full-blooded melodrama and sometimes over the top, but it won't be ignored!
Uncertain Glory (Netflix) 2017. Winner of multiple Spanish awards, this film is in the Catalan language and takes place near Barcelona, 1937, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. Two friends, fighting for the Republican side (the anti-Fascists) meet there. There's also a widow, a Black Widow, who will corrupt the idealist. It's all like playing chess with all the pieces moving toward a predetermined finale which will be blasted by the bombs dropped from above by German planes supporting Franco and the fascists.

 

[TravisR]

Fargo (FX) Olyphant and Huston are quite interesting characters.

Both of those guys are so good. In this and everything else I've seen them in.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Rock
Originally Released: 06/07/1996
Watched: 11/02/2020
1080P HD digital streaming on Hulu, upscaled to 4K via Roku Ultra

In response to the passing of the great Sean Connery, I revisited what is inarguably Michael Bay's finest motion picture -- as others in this thread already have and I suspect many, many people across the world as well. If nineties action flicks can be considered their own distinct subgenre of the action film, before CG took over everything but after MTV had had its effect on editing and pacing, then there is a case to be made that The Rock is the artistic pinnacle of that subgenre.

Is it completely ridiculous? Yes. But unlike Armageddon, it's reined in just enough to main suspension of disbelief in the moment. It's cobbled together from the best bits of so many action movies that came before, but superbly executed with action sequences that are more often than not brilliantly conceived. And it has a terrific villain, who the audience likes and respects more than most of the supposed good guys.

Nicholas Cage is at his Nic Cage-ist as Stanley Goodspeed, a brilliant chemical weapons specialist who is at his finest under pressure but has very little in the way of real life field experience. This movie has very cynical notions about the civilian and military leadership of the United States, but Goodspeed is sort of a counterweight to those notions; the idealistic career civil servant who is extremely good at the thing that taxpayers hired him to do, with a firm understanding of right and wrong.

Sean Connery's character in this movie goes by John Patrick Mason; it's a Disney release after all, and neither the Broccolis nor Eon Productions had anything to do with it. But you can't convince me that Connery isn't playing James Bond. There is no name listed on his prison records, and he was a British spy before he was captured. Connery's last officially sanctioned appearance as Bond was in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever, and Mason is said to have been captured and incarcerated in 1972. Assuming that he was disavowed by MI6 at that point, perhaps the James Bond cover identity passed to a new assassin in her majesty's secret service who happened to look a lot like Roger Moore...

 

[Thomas T]

 

[bujaki]

Hell Bent (Kino BD) 1918. One of the few surviving silent films from this period directed by Jack Ford. By all rights a B western starring Harry Carey, but showing the rising talent behind the camera. Even the entrance into the story itself is ingenious, bringing a Remington painting to life. Carey plays a bad man who will eventually be redeemed by the love of a good woman. There are humorous touches along the way; exciting chases and shootouts; treks on burning sands with a deadly sandstorm to boot; all these things captured quite amazingly by the DP, Ben Reynolds (Greed, The Wedding March). May be a B, but it's quite good and for Ford aficionados, it's a must. Thanks, Kino.
The Sign of the Cross (Kino BD) 1932. Charles Laughton plays Nero as a self-absorbed, toddler-like head of state indulging in fabricated conspiracy theories against minorities. Karl Struss captures some beautiful images and DeMille never ceases to amaze for the boldness of his vision (kitsch vs. sublime). I wish we'd been offered the alternate version with the WW2 flyers over burning Rome and the censored sequences (Joyzelle completely cut (?) and the arena's violence and nudity quite altered. The transfer is superb.
Wake Island (Kino BD) 1942. Rah, rah propaganda from the heart when it was needed. What true patriotism looked like when the nation could rally behind one cause: survival against one enemy, whether visible or invisible. Still an exciting film about valor and sacrifice (all white men, I must point out) and the best I've seen this film look.
Disputed Passage (Kino BD) 1939. Muddled story (as all of Lloyd C. Douglas's stories are, what with mixing medicine and some sort of ethereal religious philosophizing), this one is about a doctor who is robotic in his practice: love has no place in his heart, that is until he meets Lamour (is she or isn't she Chinese?); and then, as in almost every Borzage film, love transcends all. Excellent transfer. Borzage's mastery saves the day.