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Mysterious Island
10/10
Loved this film since I was a kid. You can guarantee it's on every Christmas too!
Can we start a thread - is Mysterious Island a christmas film? I say it is. 
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Do they say its a christmas film? Ask them.
Votes count.
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Shape of water.
Premise ok but too dull and got sillier n sillier. 6 out of 10.
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Mary Poppins. 8.8 out of 10.
Good songs. And i could see nothing wrong with dick van dyke's cockney accent. Perfectly fine.
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Posted: |
Dec 25, 2018 - 11:46 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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A CINDERELLA CHRISTMAS (2016) - 5/10
This made-for-TV romance has little to do with Christmas. In this take on the Cinderella story, a party planner (Angie Wells) surreptitiously attends a masked ball she has planned when her officious cousin and boss (Sarah Stouffer) can't attend. Naturally, she and the party's host, a young millionaire (Peter Porte), immediately fall in love. When she is about to be unmasked, she flees, and the young man spends the rest of the film trying to find her, while the cousin tries to convince him that she was the real girl behind the mask. The Christmas connection? The party planner reveals at the ball that she always wanted to have a Christmas wedding, so the millionaire uses the promise of one to lure her out of hiding. The pair find each other in the last five minutes of the film, but we never see the wedding. This film is proof that it's not just the Hallmark Channel that can produce these frothy Christmas themed films--this one aired on the ION Channel.
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Venom - 7/10
With more emphasis placed on the relationship between ego and host over the circumstantial banality that surrounds them, the film succeeds in creating a dynamic that surpasses whatever else the plot tries to throw at the proverbial dartboard, and what a dynamic duo. It becomes evident that Brock's effusiveness infuses with his abusive-bromantic symbiote, allowing the latter to engage in more personalized banter than any typical, typed-up CGI would. If this keeps up (granting more than quickie conspiratorial throughlines in the symbiote's own travails), Spider-Man may eventually face his greatest enemy ever: an anti-hero everyone likes.
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Lethal Weapon. I like to watch it around Christmas time. The Blu-ray looks beautiful (it's a great set), I still don't know which one I like the best, 1 or 2, but this one really moves along, & works a treat.
I prefer 2's treatment between cops and crooks alike over 1's slow burn between the buddy cops. #1's ending was purely ego-driven and just becomes a sad joke to me (endemic of the macho 80s), while #2 has the sequence (you know which one) that still floors me with its tragic scope.
Lethal Weapon: 6/10
Lethal Weapon 2: 9/10
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Agree with your rating for JL. Really the only worthwhile thing about it were Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot who's extremely charming.
I still want to see Gadot in Wonder Woman 1984, but during the conversations they had in Justice League, which were instigated due to "waiting for the bad guy to do something", all I was thinking about was "WHEN IS THE BAD GUY GONNA DO SUMTHUN!". And then he eventually "does something", as prescribed by film logic, and I wondered "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG? WHERE DID YOU LEARN TO RULE A WORLD... ON A FARM???".
I gave a similar rating for Doctor Strange though I found less faults in the story than you. I thought the film was highly entertaining with a strong cast and a bit more adult than the average MCU film. The only thing that really fell flat for me were the attempts at humor.
I think Strange tried to do too much, too soon and ended up reaching a compromise that didn't need to happen if it had just paced itself between films. Dormmamu could've been the next Thanos, but instead he's a slightly better designed Big Bad than Queef Galactus (Fantastic Four) and Queef Parallax (Green Lantern), who's outsmarted by a guy who just got the job of Sorcerer Supreme. JFK assassination jokes are less soon than this.
Also, while I liked the parallel and eventual rift drawn between Strange and Mordo, it also ultimately felt too rushed, as if the film was afraid it wouldn't make enough cash to justify dragging out Dormmamu, insinuating the Anti-Strange into effect. Again, visions of Sinestro from Green Lantern kept dancing through my head. If Marvel wanted to rip off a movie, why Green Lantern? Why not Terms of Endearment or Tom Jones?
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Posted: |
Dec 28, 2018 - 12:41 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE COCKEYED COWBOYS OF CALICO COUNTY (1970) - 6/10
Nanette Fabray's husband Ranald MacDougall wrote and produced a comedy western entitled "A Woman for Charley." The film was originally devised as an entry in NBC-TV’s “World Premiere” series of made-for-television movies. Dan Blocker, an actor best known for playing “Eric ‘Hoss’ Cartwright” on the NBC television program "Bonanza" was cast in the lead role of “Charley Bicker,” opposite Nanette Fabray, who played "Sadie," a bar girl at the local saloon. A bevy of other character actors also appeared in the film: Mickey Rooney, Wally Cox, Jack Elam, Jack Cassidy, Henry Jones, Jim Backus, Stubby Kaye, Iron Eyes Cody, and others.
Beginning sometime in spring or early summer 1969, principal photography took place on the Universal Pictures studio lot in Studio City, CA. After completion of the film in July 1969, Universal decided it was good enough for theatrical release. Reportedly, the film was slightly revised before being re-titled THE COCKEYED COWBOYS OF CALICO COUNTY. The film opened in Los Angeles on 10 June 1970.
In the film, Blocker, the blacksmith of Calico, is crestfallen when the mail-order bride he thought was coming fails to show on the appointed date. Embarrassed in front of all his friends, he decides to leave town. But since he is the only blacksmith for a hundred miles, the townspeople hatch a plot to keep him around.
This amiable comedy certainly shows its televisions roots, but it's great fun to see so many well-known faces in the cast. Tony Leader directed and Lyn Murray scored the [G]-rated film. The film was Dan Blocker's last before his death in 1972. He had appeared in 415 episodes of "Bonanza" beginning in 1959.
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Posted: |
Dec 28, 2018 - 3:14 AM
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By: |
Tall Guy
(Member)
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2001, A Space Odessey - 9.9/10
I think I was about 10 when I saw this on the big screen, in a double feature with (believe it or not) It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. I understood it then about as much as I do now. Only now, I can appreciate the artistry that Kubrick poured into it and the influence it had on other films. CE3K followed less than a decade later but it seems much longer than that, as if 2001 had been around forever. That’s probably a trick of my age in relation to when the respective films were made.
I watched it on 4k Blu-ray and the quality was simply breathtaking. Colours were faithful, lines were pin-sharp and the sound was spot on. If I had one small criticism it’s that the dialogue (what there is of it) seems to be mixed slightly too low in relation to the eerie and ethereal score, and when we had the volume right so we could hear the words, both cats scarpered, unnerved by their first exposure to Ligeti. We could probably remedy this by tweaking the speaker balance. Or locking the cats out for the duration.
If ever there was a film to nudge someone into taking the plunge into 4k it’s this one. The blacks are deep and impenetrable, the skin tones flawless (in a film where you think that might not matter, somehow it absolutely does) and HAL’s unblinking and baleful eye a truly satanic red. If only Kubrick were alive to see how technology has finally caught up with his visionary film making!
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Posted: |
Dec 28, 2018 - 5:10 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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MARY POPPINS RETURNS (2018) - 8/10
In this Bizarro version of MARY POPPINS, every character, song, and situation of the original film has its analogue in the new film--which itself is half sequel and half remake. And frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way. When you consider everything that could have gone wrong with this endeavor, it's amazing how much goes right.
Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda are fine as a latter day Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman channel the Sherman Brothers perfectly in all of their songs (Richard Sherman was music consultant on the film). The sets look as if Shepperton Studios had pulled the old sets from OLIVER! out of storage and polished them up. The producers are quite restrained in their use of special effects. Even the animation style is a throwback to 50 years ago.
A wallow in nostalgia? Sure. But better this than a MARY POPPINS updated to the present day, larded with CGI and computer animation, and set to a hip-hop beat. Despite the film's length (130 minutes), none of the kids in the audience seemed to get restless. Perhaps they've never seen anything like it. (The new film is actually nine minutes shorter than the original.)
One anecdote: As I was walking out of the theater, I heard a woman in her 60s say to her younger companion, "I like that Lin-Manuel Miranda. I'll bet he wrote a lot of those songs." This, after having sat through the end credits in which Marc Shaiman is credited for every song. Poor Marc Shaiman. No respect. No respect at all.
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".....both cats scarpered, unnerved by their first exposure to Ligeti.."?g!
They were not the only ones!
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Posted: |
Dec 29, 2018 - 5:56 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE FAVOURITE (2018) - 8/10
When ex-aristocrat "Abigail" (Emma Stone) comes to the court of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) to seek employment as a servant, her charm endears her to the Queen. This annoys defacto head-of-state "Lady Sarah" (Rachel Weisz), the ailing Queen's current friend, confidante, and sexual partner. The stage is set for plotting, conniving, and cat-fights aplenty, as the two women vie to be the Queen's favourite.
The focus is on the women here, as this dark comedy posits a world in which men play only a peripheral role. Three fine performances are the main reasons to see the film. The film's score is primarily classical music, but also includes some Elton John and incidental music by Johnnie Burn.
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Bless you, Solium! As one whom has to watch these at this time of year, I don't think there are any words to express my sympathy. 
