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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 11 Jun 2022, 23:08 
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I'm starting to pare down my LD collection because I just have too damn many. One title that I was thinking I could let go of is . . .

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Because I have the Steelbook blu-ray . . .

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So for the heckuvit, I decided watch the movie for the umpteenth time but to compare the soundtracks, because that's the ONLY reason to hold onto the DTS LD. I fully expected the blu-ray to sound better (since you know, the DTS MA soundtrack on the blu-ray is supposedly 5+Mbps and the DTS LD is a mere 1.44Mbps), but impossible as it might be, the DTS LD still sounded more powerful than the blu-ray. I did the ol' Doug Pratt routine (Pratt being the man behind The Laserdisc Newsletter) where he says "anytime I want to get my guests to jump in their seats, I just pop in the DTS LD of Jurassic Park and queue it up to the part where the goat leg drops on the jeep. Gets 'em every time."

Left the volume on my receiver at the same for both the LD and blu-ray. LD had more bass, more clearly defined rain sound effects, and that goat leg crashed onto the jeep with more "OOMPH!"

Yeah totally counter-intuitive with the technologies, but I guess we can chalk this up to a lazy soundtrack transfer since I guess Universal was more concerned with the look of the movie and the soundtrack was "good enough."

I'll probably still sell the LD, but it will still irk me knowing that when I watch the blu-ray again, I'll know in the back of my mind that this should sound better :lol:
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 12 Jun 2022, 13:32 
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teddanson wrote:

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Today I dug out my Sony HMZ-T3W and played Metalstorm 3D which I bought on Blu recently.

3D was minimal, subtle, but effective enough in places. As for the film it's just a disjointed, plodding, procedural, ploppy collection of loose, watery stools. :thumbdown:



not to forget this ol' NINTENDO NES classic along the way;

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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 12 Jun 2022, 19:05 
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elahrairrah wrote:
I'll probably still sell the LD, but it will still irk me knowing that when I watch the blu-ray again, I'll know in the back of my mind that this should sound better :lol:

Sounds more like grounds to keep the LD.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 14 Jun 2022, 11:39 
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Inspired to watch some classic Western films recently, so started with this one which hooked me from the brilliant trailer. Valdez Is Coming, and you better believe he is too!

I watched the German MGM Blu Ray release, which, contrary to the information that is out there is not the Explosive release which had the lesser quality audio track to the Kino Lorber release. This MGM version now has the same DTS HD track as the Kino disc. The image quality is alright, I'm assuming that the best was done with the elements made available. Some scenes appear a little softer than others in places but it's nothing dealbreaking. Audio is pretty standard stuff, nothing that will blow your socks off but it's nice and clear and gets the job done.

As for the film, it blew my mind! I came away from this film with the impression it was a bit of a mix between Rambo First Blood and the Mark Gregory hyperfilm Thunder! I won't spoil it for you but suffice to say, if Bob Valdez asks you if you can give someone $100 then for the love of God just hand over the money already!

I liked this film a lot, and although the ending is a little bit abrupt, and I initially felt a bit cheated, that feeling was soon gone and replaced with a sense of joy at just how good the ending actually is. I won't go in to detail any further for fear of ruining it for you if you decide to watch Valdez Is Coming (which you absolutely should, it's brilliant). Only real negatives for me with this film are that it does take a while to get going. It's a slow burner but in retrospect it does actually help the film's cause because you do build up a bit of empathy towards Valdez and his grievance. Also, the film is let down towards the end with a couple of 'horse falls', which, if you purchase the UK Blu Ray, will be censored. I'm not a advocate of leaving animal cruelty in film, Cannibal Holocaust for example I prefer to watch the cruelty-free version. However with this particular disc I did go for the uncensored German release over the UK one as I do like to opt for films to be intact and for me, horse falls, while unpleasant to watch, were a part of cinema work for decades and a lot of films that feature them would look a bit silly being snipped all over the place just to remove them. On the other hand if the cruelty is just barbaric e.g. Cannibal Holocaust then that's a different matter entirely. Even the cockfight in Enter The Ninja I don't mind it being snipped out, there's just no need for it. Though it is still good to have the option of a branchable edition (e.g. like with Holocaust) so that such work isn't erased from history forever and forgotten about so as to think it never happened in the first place, that's ridiculous.

Valdez Is Coming is a solid film with an excellent ending. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am going to seek out some more classic Westerns to watch soon.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 14 Jun 2022, 18:44 
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takeshi666 wrote:
elahrairrah wrote:
I'll probably still sell the LD, but it will still irk me knowing that when I watch the blu-ray again, I'll know in the back of my mind that this should sound better :lol:

Sounds more like grounds to keep the LD.

well, like I said, paring down the collection.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 16 Jun 2022, 11:17 
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21 Hours at Munich made for fairly compelling viewing. It was interesting to see that the film was shot in 1976, just 4 years after the atrocities of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, and even more startling is that the film was shot at the actual locations where the real-life events took place. I would imagine it would have felt rather strange filming on location so soon after what happened and events likely still fresh in everyone's mind. That made me question the morality of the film before it had even started. Was this going to be just a glorified cash-in?

Thankfully 21 Hours at Munich doesn't appear to come off as a cash-in picture (maybe it was, but I can't find anything to back that up). The story is told with a reasonable degree of restraint and without trying to sensationalise what happened and turn it in to some gung-ho pyrotechnic-laden fiesta. When analysing the timeline of events between the film and the actual real-life events, it's accurate for the most part (side from a little creative freedom in places because after all, it's a film, though this did draw criticism at the time). I also liked the disclaimer at the start of the film, with regards the film's basis and the note about actual locations being used. Additionally at the end of the film it is interesting to hear about what happened when the surviving members of Black September landed in Tripoli, that they received a heroes welcome. It completely takes any potential sensationalist sting out of the film and instead raises questions for the viewer to ask themselves with regards the actual events that took place. Kudos for that.

As for the film itself, it's fairly well played out. Again, the use of real locations is a huge boon and I feel adds to the overall vibe and atmosphere of the film. Casting was fairly good. Nice to see a young David Hess, pre-Krug, in a more subdued role as one of the hostages. He does well here, as do the rest of the supporting cast. There's no real feeling of overacting, with each role played with aplomb. I was a little hesitant around Franco Nero as one of the lead roles. More in that his accent wavered a little in places, and because he is typecast from so many of his other roles it sometimes didn't feel like he was entirely the best fit. With that in mind I still think he does well here and handles the sensitive subject matter really well.

There is talk about this being the better film than Eric Bana hyperfilm Munich (which is a tremendous film in it's own right). I'm not so sure. For me the two films are entirely different. Munich focuses more on events post-attack, where 21 Hours at Munich is focused purely on the timeline of the terrorist attack from start to finish. Literally it's the timeline of events acted out. Both are good, and welcome films in their own right in my opinion. It's interesting to note that 21 Hours at Munich was made for television in the USA but released theatrically in other countries. For a 'TVM' I was expecting low budget stuff, but what you get here is a fairly stellar cast, actual locations and some decent pyro for the closing shootout. It is quite a talky film, but then you are dealing with a film about political issues, hostage negotiations and so on. Not a Dwayne Johnson guns n grenades festival!

I came away from this thinking it was a pretty good film that I'm glad I was able to see, especially on a decent Blu Ray transfer. The subject matter of course is not for everyone, but I think the film handles it well and the overall result is a positive one. Definitely one to catch a viewing of if you are even remotely interested in the events of September 5th 1972.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 20 Jun 2022, 22:16 
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Watched the German Blu Ray of Michael Winner's Lawman starring Burt Lancaster and the bloke who played the dad in The Waltons.

WHAT. A. FILM.

GENUINELY. WHAT. A. FILM!

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This has gone straight in to my top films of 2022 list. It's brilliant. There are no other words to describe it.

Watch it as quickly as you possibly can. That concludes this 'review'.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 22 Jun 2022, 13:04 
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Had a look at another Network Blu Ray yesterday. This time it was the 1966 Bond-esque film Deadlier Than The Male. I'll cut to the chase now and simply say that this film was really quite good!

The film is based on the 'Bulldog' Drummond novels from the 1920's through to the late 1960's. I believe it was about the 16th or so film to be made based on the Hugh Drummond books, according to one of the cast interviews on the disc (more on that later). What we're given here with Deadlier Than The Male is a bit of a 007 vibe, with Richard Johnson playing a very Connery-esque role as the detective adventurer Hugh Drummond (who's actually an insurance claims investigator, go figure!).

There are many parts of Deadlier Than The Male's sum that I really enjoy. The opening sequence on the aircraft, for example, I thought made for a superb opening and really set the tone for what the film was about. Essentially a lot of glamour, but with those glamourous roles it wasn't used as some naff way to tell the story. The female roles in the film are actually vicious, nasty and really bloody terrifying!! Kudos to the main leads Elke Sommer and Sylvia Coscina who are a pair of nasty badasses and ultimately make many of their targets crumble because they know full well that they are not capable of controlling their urges. Again, it's not really done in some naff Russ Meyer/Tinto Brass style but rather with a bit more thought and complexity. If anything, the female roles are far more dominant that the big boss they ultimately work for. That was quite an eye-opener taking in to account the time the film was made and I think provides a refreshing take for this type of crime/adventure/spy film.

There's some good set pieces throughout the film. I particularly enjoyed a fight sequence in an underground car park. There's some nice one-liners sprinkled around through the film's runtime too. Oh, and this is the only film I know of where someone is attacked by a chess set! You need to watch the film to see what I mean. Deadlier Than The Male has some nice Bond-style gadgetry too. Again, not done in a particularly naff way, there's some decent tech on display here and a couple of bits that would make you pause for thought if someone was after you in real life!

As for the disc itself, it's Network On Air, what is there to say about them aside from all the gushing praise already? This is another disc with a jam-packed booklet, a sleeve with information packed on it's reverse and some nice extras to round it off. Picture wise, it states the transfer is from the original negative, though I found some parts looked a little softer. Perhaps those were from other elements? I'm not sure, but it all does look pretty darn good, as is often the case with Network Blu Ray titles. I sound like a shill for them, I'm not, God's honest, but they really do seem to put out quality every time. At least with the discs I have from them in my collection.

The only minor quibble I have with the film is I found the title song by The Walker Brothers a bit bland. Maybe it's because I would have preferred Space to have done the theme song. Though alas they wouldn't write their song until 1996! It's a shame really when a band like The Walker Brothers put out such whopper songs like The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore and Make It Easy On Yourself that they did a really odd sounding track for this film. Maybe other folks like it but I'm not exactly keen on it. Here's the Space song anyway to enjoy:



I mentioned earlier I'd talk about the extras on this disc. They aren't exactly plentiful in that you only get a theatrical trailer and cast interviews. However it's the cast interviews that really shine. What you get here are a series of interviews in full, black and white high definition that appear to be taken from some sort of television series about cinema. Maybe a show that was broadcast before Barry Norman and Paul Gambacini came along years later.

Anyway, the interviews are exceptional. One in particular with Elke Sommar is quite the eye-opener. I learned she speaks 6 languages, mainly because she can't bare the thought of going to another country and not being able to converse with a local in their native language! There's also some interesting behind the scenes footage on set that is shown too so it gives you more of an inside look as to what went on during the making of the film. Which in itself is a surprise that they bothered at all to go to such lengths when the film was wrapped within 3 months. If you do buy the disc then certainly make sure to watch all of the interviews, they are very much worth your time.

In essence this is a really enjoyable caper film that took me by surprise a little as I was expecting it be all T&A and nothing more. It helps that the disc it's presented on is superb too. Highly recommend checking this one out, especially if you are even remotely interested in 007-inspired films. I don't think you will be disappointed.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 01 Jul 2022, 12:37 
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Grabbed a copy of the wonderful limited edition Medium Rare Blu Ray edition of Julien's favourite film, Waterloo, and watched it last night.

I wouldn't normally be in to the big, sprawling, 637 hour epics. Usually packed with grand, sweeping sets, hours and hours of intricate, wordy interchanges that only those with a doctorate in languages and multiple Field's Medal winners can decipher and enjoy and centred on subject matter that would make even the most hardened of film nerds literally weep sadistic tears of apathy in to their embroided British Leyland handkerchiefs.

No idea what impulsed me to buy this film, other than it's a pretty sexy looking set. Julien told me he has the poster that comes with this set on his bedroom wall, and rightly so! :thumbup:

Anyway, the film itself surprised me. It's bloody BRILLIANT. You've about 133 minutes of film presented here. the first 40 minutes or so are pure build up. The abdication, descent in to exile and ultimate return of Mr. Bonaparte (played absolutely f'ing TREMENDOUSLY by Rod Steiger I should add). Then the famous regal ball is played out, complete with about 837,000 real candles (I genuinely believe the majority of the budget of this film went on candles, it even states in the making of featurette on this disc that all the candles in the film were real, no CGI etc).

...and then... well, you've got about AN HOUR AND A HALF. YES, AN HOUR AND A BLOODY HALF of one of the grandest, most violent and bloody impressive battles I've ever seen captured on film.

THIS. FILM. IS. TREMENDOUS.

If you cease to read any further (and well done if you got this far reading my drivel), just know this; the second half of this film is just something to behold. It's grand, it's a spectacle, it's just bloody brilliant.

There is no pissing about with CGI, fancy SFX explosions and piddling about with silly stunts and fannying around with about 8000 takes to get something right. This is literally tens of THOUSANDS of actors, ranging from stunt men, children, THE ACTUAL RUSSIAN ARMY (boo hiss in 2022 :evil: ) and whoever else could be persuaded to join the cast, literally spending the best part of 90 minutes of a 133 minute long film, beating the absolute and utter living CRAP out of each other.

It's shot in such a way that you cannot take your eyes off the screen for a moment. Director Sergei Bondarchuk (who was recently mentioned in a thread on LDDB from someone who wanted to get his other epic War and Peace on Laserdisc) has created something absolutely beyond spectacular here. The cannon explosions are just brilliant, the deafening zooms ripping through the air, the explosions, the guy getting fecking CANNON FIRE DIRECTLY IN TO HIS BACK AND TEARING HIS GODDAMN SPINE WIDE OPEN WITH THE MOST GRISLY MAKE-UP I'VE SEEN is just jaw dropping stuff.

The scaling of the farm and windmill, lads boxing the heads off of each other. Rifle fire, horses charging across barren lands and shot in such a way that they not only look so grand and majestic, BUT were shot in such a deliberate way that some of the slow motion sequences of horse charges were shot to replicate exact oil paintings that were made during the period.

The trivia for this film is on another scale entirely. The film cost £12m to make in 1970, making it one of the most expensive films ever made at the time (and in 2022 £12m is now just shy of £133m I should add). Not only did it cost a lot of money to make, it cost a lot of time too, taking producer Dino di Laurentis over TEN YEARS to finally get the project to commence shooting. Not only did it cost a lot of money and take a lot of time to get the film going, but, and this is incredible when you look back, Mosfilm, who stepped in with a £4m cash injection, 20,000 soldiers, the Russian Army cavalry and more engineers and technicians than you could possibly dream of (because, you know, a £4m cash injection is nothing for a war film unless you enlist an actual army and 20,000 additionally actual real-life soldiers), decided that this wasn't enough.

So they went and remodelled an entire landscape, that literally took YEARS to do. They bulldozed 2 hills, deepened a valley, laid miles of roads, transplanted 5,000 trees, sowed fields of rye, barley, and wildflowers, and reconstructed 4 historic buildings. Because after all, this is an epic film so why not be all epic about it and change the landscape of an entire town!

The lengths that the cast and crew went to for this film is just mindblowing. Yet when you see the sum of all of those parts up there on the screen you can only stand and applaud the effort that went in to Waterloo. I could not even begin to imagine what kind of watery, Bisto-consistency STOOL FEST would be cobbled together today to reboot this film. If Hollywood or any other entity has any plans to do such a thing then they should stop right now and just leave well alone. You will not better what has been created here. It's impossible. It cannot be done. Leave it be.

The trivia for this film goes on forever, and I strongly encourage you to check out all of the extras on the disc and read the reproduction programme included with this set. I'll leave you with a couple more juicy slices though. Firstly, the opening credits don't even appear in this film until about 12 minutes or so in. Waterloo doesn't mess about, you are straight in to Steiger in the throws of stress, worry and pain before the scene climaxes by the delivery of one of the shoutiest moments in cinema (Maurizo Merli in High Crime has nothing on this bloke). Of even greater importance is that John Savident is in this film. Yes, the very same John Savident that played Fred Elliott in Coronation Street!

The stats for this film just go on and on, but what about the disc itself? I will openly admit that I wasn't very keen on the 5.1 track. Maybe on a proper 'audiophile' setup it may sound superb, but for me I switched to the original 2.0 stereo track, which in my opinion sounded a lot louder and bolder than the 5.1 track. There's a great battle sequence with drummers and pipers marching toward Wellington and his army. The drums are so loud and packed with range that you get the top end you expect from the hit of the snares and the rim shots, but also some seriously satisfying low-end from the tom toms and so forth. My subwoofer was bouncing around like Zebedee on a skiing holiday!

I don't think the audio tracks are without their faults though. I found both very difficult to listen to in terms of the vocal elements. This is another one of those films where a Clear Voice feature needs to be utilised. If I didn't have that switched on I'd have missed a fair chunk of dialogue. Not that there is a great deal of it in the latter half of the film as it's just an hour and a half of violence.

From what I've read, the UK disc is censored for horse falls. I might get the German disc a) as a comparison for cuts and b) to see if the audio track is any better with regards speech. One point to note is that I did think for a moment that the disc had a sync issue as some dialogue from one of the cast looked off. This is in fact debunked as the actor Jack Hawkins had his larynx removed 4 years prior to making Waterloo and thus had all of his lines dubbed by another actor. He would alas pass away in 1973.

Waterloo is a spectacular film, more than worthy of the 'Epic' status, yet incredibly it was a flop at the box office and didn't exactly reap in many awards either, which I find to be utterly baffling. I'm sure there may be folk reading this drivel who disagree. Ben Hurr, The Bible, Gandhi II, all epics and winners of a trillion awards but come on, how on Earth did Waterloo come away with naff all after all the blood, sweat and tears poured in to it? I strongly recommend anyone reading this to grab the Blu Ray and watch the film. It's brilliant.

STRONG PORNOGRAPHY ALERT:

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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 01 Jul 2022, 18:00 
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Well now I have to see it, I don't think I've ever seen this one.
If you have one of the best actors known to man, Rod Steiger then it must be seen. Does he do a French accent just as bad as his Spanish accent in Duck You Sucker??.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 01 Jul 2022, 19:06 
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rein-o wrote:
Well now I have to see it, I don't think I've ever seen this one.
If you have one of the best actors known to man, Rod Steiger then it must be seen. Does he do a French accent just as bad as his Spanish accent in Duck You Sucker??.


That's the beauty of it. No tomfoolery with silly non-native accents. He does wobble slightly now and again but I think it's because he is so lost in the role of Bonaparte he forgets himself. I thought he was absolutely stupendous in Waterloo. The abdication speech is just beyond the realms of quality acting and is most certainly eligible to pass through the velvet rope and in to the VIP lounge to mingle with other legendary acting roles in cinema history.

The whole cast is superb to be honest. What got me though was the spectacle of the battle and how it was captured on film. It's unlike a lot of other films I've seen. Of course it will have its comparators and perhaps films that are better. I honestly couldn't give a fig when you look at the sheer effort that went in to making Waterloo. It's quite something.

I hope others may be inspired to watch it and hopefully enjoy it. Of course, we are all of us different and tastes may vary. :thumbup:

...also, this has to be a candidate for most amazing U certificate of all time. How on Earth does a man staggering around a battlefield with half his skeleton exposed and his spine and guts hanging out of his back qualify as U? :lol:
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 03 Jul 2022, 10:40 
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Another 'I swear I'm not shilling I promise' Network Blu. This time it's a blind buy, but upon further investigation, a seemingly special film. This is the 1953 film Small Town Story, and until recently it was assumed to be lost forever. The film was on a lost films list from the British Film Institute (BFI) in the hopes that someone may be able to discover a print somewhere.

Amazingly a copy showed up. Unfortunately not in the greatest condition, which Network do make pains to point out in the sleeve notes. There are problems noted with the first reel, notably print damage and scratches that couldn't be repaired. Also there are dropped frames sprinkled throughout the 69 minute run time. With that said though, this is a restoration of quite literally the only copy of Small Town Story in existence in the entire world. In fairness, what's presented on this disc is nothing short of remarkable, Considering the condition of the negatives and that there is nothing else in existence for anyone to work with. The reels they found are it. Nothing more.

The disc is no frills. You get a choice of subtitles on or off, and a small image gallery which is taken from the lovely recreated press booklet that is packed in with this release. Network booklets are some of my favourites, up there with Indicator imho. That's it though, so it's on with the film.

Small Town Story is pretty brief at 69 minutes, but rather enjoyable. It's very British and very much about football (Sorry, soccer :lol: ) with a kidnap/love story loosely thrown around it. Essentially a Canadian football star who returns to the UK after the war wants to look up an old flame while playing football for Oldchester United (<scouse accent while drinking milk> "Oldchester United? Who are they? Exactly!" </scouse accent while drinking milk>) and also getting scouted by Arsenal, then called The Arsenal.

It's a little bit more than that though, as it turns out his old flame is an absolute trollop and her sugar daddy is a total c**t too. They end up stitching our hero up and a bit if action ensues with the help of a third party who looks suspiciously like Gordon Ramsay. It's a decent little caper but Jesus wept you can't help but think our hero is an absolute divvy for not realising yer wan is a complete slapper and that he could do loads better!

It should be noted that there's a short, but rather nice car chase sequence near the end too. It's obviously sped up, but I enjoyed it, as surreal as it was being wedged in to the film.

What I loved most though was the camera work on the pitch. There's some great dolly and tracking shots of the players. Squads from both Arsenal and Millwall (who's fans at the filming of the matches I'm shocked to discover didn't end up throwing chairs at each other or throwing a dart in someone's eye "I BLOODY LOVE YOU GUMBOOOOOO!!!") were involved in filming, including a few wooden acting sequences from starlet of the day Denis Compton, who's precious few scenes make Wayne Rooney look like a nuclear physician.

I hasten to add that there's some nice skill on show during the filmed matches. Some cheeky nutmegs, decent long balls and crosses, and also some of the worst play acting I've ever seen. It makes some of the dark arts that sadly litter our beloved sport today look like an episode of Barney.

Small Town Story is a brief, breezy watch that shouldn't be taken seriously. There's some lovely hints of classics like Brewsters Millions in this film too, I should add. You can almost cast each role as Monty Brewster, Warren Cox, even Chuck Fleming from Action News is in this sort of!

This is definitely worth a watch if you get a chance. If only to see a film that was for the longest time in BFI's top 75 most wanted list and amazingly has been found and preserved forever. Now that is a feel good story that's just as good as the one in the film itself.

Yer man Regan though is still an absolute knobhead for thinking his old flame was a ride when it's quite clear she doesn't want anything to do with him. Move on son! :lol:


Notes: I've added this as a supplementary as our good chums across the Atlantic may not be as enthused, with all respect. There's a great bit of transfer contract wrangling towards the end of the film between Arsenal and Oldchester United. It's made a done deal in less than 5 seconds with not a broken fax machine in sight! I didn't even spot Peter Odemwingie in his Range Rover outside the Oldchester United stadium, or Harry Redknapp pulling up in to camera shot with his arm out the window of a B reg Austin Montego to offer his opinion on deadline day. Unbelievable Jeff!

Notes: How times change. Nearly everyone in this film spend the entire 69 minutes drinking tea and smoking themselves to death. Especially Regan's trollop who goes through 20 Woodbine like George Best would go through a pint. Yet they can all still play 90 minutes without gasping for oxygen cannisters or ringing Thora Hird for a lend of a stairlift.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 08 Jul 2022, 16:57 
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Arriving on Blu in the mail earlier this week was a copy of Ghost Warrior (also known as Swordkill). I watched the 101 Films UK/Ireland Blu Ray yesterday.

This was a blind buy of a film I have never heard of before, though the story is along the lines of an Iceman, that sort of thing. There is very little to the plot, or indeed the runtime of Ghost Warrior. It's 80-ish minutes tells the story of a samurai warrior discovered frozen in ice for hundreds of years, only to be discovered and transported to Los Angeles for investigation and assessment by a team of scientists. Then one of them gets an idea about trying to bring the frozen warrior back to life!....

And that's it. That's your plot pretty much. Yes it's basic, yes it somehow manages to find itself littered with holes and a premise that's just utterly preposterous. You know what though? I enjoyed every single second of Ghost Warrior and regret nothing. I think by going in expecting nothing but 80 minutes of B movie lunacy, it quelled any expectations or preconceptions of what may lay ahead. Thanks to that I was able to just sit back and enjoy the show!

Ghost Warrior is not particularly well acted. There's not a great deal of action either, although what is in it is bloody brilliant (literally)! You get some satisfying kills and oodles of the red stuff thanks to Yoshimitzu's pair of fine blades severing off everything in sight! It's not really delivered in a comedic or comic book style, there is a subtle tone of the serious to the fights, especially at the beginning and end of the film. Talking of which, the end sequence was really well executed I thought. It definitely delivered satisfaction in spades yet it's hard to describe the final sequence in detail without giving the game away which would be a shame if you are going in to this picture blind.

The 101 Films Blu is nothing special in terms of bonus features. That's because there are none! You get a menu and a play button. That's it. Which is a shame as at the very least I would have loved to have partial subtitles available for the Japanese language sections of the script. However I am unsure of if any subtitles were displayed on the theatrical run and cannot confirm it as there's no information out there on this. It's a shame but in fairness you can more or less guess what's being said anyway.

I strongly recommend Ghost Warrior. It's a stupid, silly little film with a short runtime, but it's lots and lots of fun and as the runtime chugs away you'll likely find yourself, as I did, really growing fond of the story and the 2 lead characters. Definitely pick this one up if you can, it's a great bit of fun!

Side note: I know it's a gag in the film, but yer man does look a lot like Toshiro Mifune! (and Sonny Chiba too) :lol:

Side note 2: I got to thinking if the film was shot in 1983. The reason being that in one scene, our hero walks past a cinema and it says Rocky III and Hercules (the Lou Ferigno one) are playing.

CAUTIONARY NOTE: Don't bother watching the trailer. It's one of those trailers that just gives too much away. Go in to this one totally blind for maximum enjoyment!
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 12 Jul 2022, 11:55 
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So after a weekend rewatching two 'comfort favourites'. Michael Sheen as Brian Clough in The Damned United, and Steve McQueen in (my opinion) Le Mans, the greatest motor racing film of all (or indeed any) time; I settled down yesterday to another blind buy from those buxom young pups I am honestly not shilling (I'll repeat this till I'm in my grave) at Network On Air. I got a handful of Network Blu's recently and watched Small Town Story not long back. Next it was the turn of 1967 heist thriller, Robbery.

This film is based on the story of a true event, The Great Train Robbery, and was filmed only 4 years after the event actually happened. Potential for a film cash-in perhaps? :think:

The film opens with, what is for me, probably the highlight of the entire production. An intense, butt-clenching car chase through the streets of London at absolutely bezerk speeds and in cars that were clearly not designed to be ragged around in such a way (there's actually a moment in the chase that I think is a mistake as one of the cars slams against a kerbside, or sidewalk for our North American chums). The whole sequence is shot in such a way that the entire event leaves you genuinely breathless. There's a moment towards the end of the chase sequence (and I won't spoil it) that quite literally had me putting my foot out in front of me to stamp on a brake pedal that didn't exist! It's genuinely exhilarating, absolutely perfectly shot and a true testament to the skill of drivers and crew involved. Honestly at one point I had to check my sofa as I thought poo came out and I was drenched in sweat, for a moment I thought I'd done a buy one get one free and both pissed and shat myself! :lol:

Post-chase, the film then puts the building blocks in place with a mildly Ocean's 11-esque planning stage to get us aquainted with the forthcoming major event and to get to know the criminals a little better. It doesn't delve in to the granular detail, it's quite breezy in fact and doesn't really impede the near-2 hour run time.

I very much enjoyed the way Robbery was shot. Director Peter Yates (the same Peter Yates that directed Bullitt, hence the opening car chase in Robbery is absolutely sensational) has a real eye for framing. There's a wonderful mixture of sweeping shots, guerilla-Greengrass shaky cam and claustrauphobia sprinkled throughout. Even post-robbery and at the films climax, there's some great helicopter shots to add a heavy air of tension and dread. And here comes the I promise I'm not a shill piece, strap yourselves in! I'm a broken record I know, but for crying out loud, the picture quality on this Blu is fantastic. According to the booklet and restoration notes, Network used the original camera negative but also took things a step further. The film is presented for the very first time in it's correct AR and has also had some footage that was previously cut, restored for the very first time. Audio is very good too, no need to enable Clear Voice here. You also get a great selection of extras on the disc, including a making of featurette, cast and crew interviews and galleries but also a full-length documentary on the actual great train robbery. Oh, and the standard Network pack-in booklet and reverse sleeve notes. So decent value then. :thumbup:

Robbery is a very entertaining heist film. Two hours flew by but it's that opening chase sequence that really not only helps the film set it's stall out early, but unknowingly set a precedent and a platform for cinema car chases forever. Yates would go on to direct Bullitt the following year, and we all know about the car chase in that film! On the chase sequence alone, Robbery stands head and shoulders above many films, but the film as a whole is equally a very enjoyable and thrilling experience and one I will certainly revist again for repeated viewings.



Side note: This Blu is one that is absolutely worth your time. Don't bother with the DVD or any prior releases on other formats (VHS etc), they are all in the wrong AR and incomplete. Go for the Network Blu for the most complete version with the correct AR and a bundle of extras. (Disclaimer again: I buy all my stuff myself, I'm no shill or influencer/YouTube knobhead!) :thumbup:
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 14 Jul 2022, 11:37 
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Just a small update on Robbery, but an important one worth mentioning that I couldn't comfirm for a while as I wasn't sure but now can. Fred Elliot (John Savident, yes he of Waterloo cameo fame too!) from Coronation Street is in this film in a cameo role!!!

It should also be noted for eagle eyed Savident-watchers, he has a role in A Clockwork Orange too. :thumbup:


Non-supplementary notes:

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Nearly reduced my home to rubble watching the first 20 minutes of the Italian 4K Steelbook I got a few weeks back of Tenet last night. Great film but I only wanted to test it and my 4K Cinema Paradiso discs. Knocked those off and watched 1985 legendary film Brewster's Millions on Blu instead. Seen it 8 trillion times, it never gets old, still one of my comfort favourites of all time. Seeing Chuck Fleming reminded me of the Small Town Story blu I watched the other day.

What has everyone else on the LDDB forum been watching? :think:
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 15 Jul 2022, 11:03 
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Oh dear. This was really poo.

The first stinker from the funsters at Network On Air. Not the disc, as the picture and sound are all the usual first class you'd expect (I think this is a Studio Canal scan/restoration?). It's the film, oh it's just so poo. What a shame as there is a good bit of potential for it, yet it just goes nowhere (like this 'review').

I didn't care about the hostages, the cause of the hijackers, the stand off, the negotiation. It just feels like 94 minutes of nothing except for maybe one or two moments that briefly grip the viewer. Connery is supposed to be a Swedish head of security for (and wait for it, this is God's honest truth) the country of Scandinavia.

Really?

Instant turn-off right there. Couple that with every single person in the film having an RP accent, yet they are supposed to be from 'somewhere in Scandinavia' just chips away at the credibility of the film even further. I was a bit disappointed in Lovejoy, sorry, Ian McShane too. He was alright as the main bad guy, barking orders, being menacing and all the rest of it, but the whole hostage situation just reeked of being overly polite. Oh, and there's a moment near the start where some aul fella thinks at 900 years of age he can be the hero before finding himself locked in a toilet for being so gung-ho. There's a couple of characters in the film who behave like this and you just question yourself out loud asking WHY? Why (in the film) act like an absolute KNOB and jepordise the safety of everyone else?

The whole thing is entirely forgettible and just really quite dull. I'm not sure what stage Connery's career was at in 1974 but in Ransom he just looks like he doesn't really want to be there. It's understandable why, I'd have been bored to death too working for a CONTINENT with overly polite hijackers with RP accents.

There's some juicy trivia to be gleaned from Ransom though. Specifically around the Mey-Air passenger aircraft that was used in the film (see the photo of it below). The plane was loaned to the film production by a Norweigian financier named Hans Otto Meyer, hence the airline was called Mey-Air (in real life, also the film was shot in Norway). Ransom started filming in January 1974. During filming the airline went bankrupt and the plane was repossessed by Boeing at the end of February 1974. All of the aircraft shots that had still to be filmed were never completed.

Apparently during filming both Sean Connery and Lovejoy, sorry, Ian McShane, were given a tour of Meyer's home and had a few parties there. Meyer showed Connery and Lovejoy, sorry, Ian McShane, a tour of a secret weapons cache in his home. Meyer was arrested a few years later and it was only then that the Norweigian government were alerted to a secret Norweigian army that very few people even knew existed! :crazy:

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Oh and I have one other nice titbit of information for you! During the hijack there's a little boy who comes out of the toilet and keeps yelling "bæsj" which is apparently (an apologies, my Norweigian is not as good as Marge Simpson's Norweigian, or Swahili) the Norweigian word for POO! :lol:

But none of these juicy facts can save this borefest. It's a shame because I think there was certainly potential there, it was just so..........beige. If I want hijacks and aircraft hijinx, I go straight to the Airport films, although that said Airport '79 is quite the collective of sloppy Tacobell-resembling gravypoo. Look out as well for some terrific still shots of Lovejoy, sorry, Ian McShane that are reused many times at the film's climax. It's so poorly done I just burst out laughing. Poor Lovejoy! (Sorry, Ian McShane).

Anyway, as much as I love Network, this one really is a turd. Connery and/or Lovejoy, sorry, Ian McShane fans may get something out of it but for me this one is going straight to CEX and reinvested in to something else.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 23 Jul 2022, 13:07 
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So, a pile of tat arrived recently and I think I done well by selecting the mighty 1974 epic Juggernaut for an evening of high brow cinema at my abode.

In all seriousness, the film actually promises quite a bit. You have a fairly stellar cast for starters, and also a reasonably promising trailer. What is actually delivered? Well, I'll be upfront with you from the off, what you get here is a surprisingly very good thriller. Juggernaut isn't without it's flaws though, which I'll outline now.

I think the marketing for Juggernaut is a smidgen misleading. I thought i was going in to an Irwin Allen-esque disaster spectacular. Perhaps something like Poseidon. But whats delivered is more of a thriller, and when Juggernaut hits it's stride, boy does it deliver! The problem is that the director, for some inexplicable reason, decided to add some moments of comedy in the film courtesy of Roy Kinnear.

The comedy just doesn't work. In fact, Kinnear's character ends up being an increddibly annoying git who I was hoping would be one of the cast that would be offed. The scene where he's singing at the fancy dress party almost had me ripping my telly off the wall and punting it out the window. These comedy moments totally take away from a superb thriller, they should have been removed entirely in my opinion.

Casting is excellent. You get great turns here, in particular from a young Anthony Hopkins who you can tell from his role here has a seriously bright acting future ahead of him. Omar Sharif was a bit disappointing though. I don't think it was entirely his fault that his role is rather dull as the ship's captain. I just think he wasn't used to the full and in turn he looks a bit bored here. Shirley Knight does fairly well as Sharif's trollop and the ship's floozy bike. Loses credibility though for entertaining Roy Kinnear's character who I hate with my entire soul.

The plot is riddled with British Leyland 'that'll do' coachbuilding moments though. Never has a ransom thriller been so conveniently played out. But i will totally submit to the fact that the closing moments of the film are genuinely gripping. I shouldnt be so harsh on the comedy moments though as there are a couple of classic moments that had me wetting myself. I think they were meant to be serious moments but I had to laugh.

The bomb disposal team that gets airdropped in to the sea, one of the 'special agents' has to rescue a sailor in a lifeboat that goes overboard. The sailor is doing a terrible job of pretending to drown and as the frogman drags him back to the ship he yells in his face "Kick! Kick you b*****d!!" :lol:

In the same sequence, one of the frogmen falls off a ladder at the side of the Britannic ship. The captain asks one of the frogmen if he's going to go back in to get him before he floats away. "Nah, the sea is too rough" he says. Really? You just let a comrade die like that? It reminded me of the Duke's scene at the end of Trading Places. "Mr. Duke your brother is unwell..." "f**k him!!!!!" :lol:

A couple of tidbits of information around this film for you that you might like. The ocean liner used in the film was German owned and called The Hamburg. It was sold to a Russian company just before filming started and was leased to the production. With a ship secured for filming, an advertising campaign was run in the UK press, promising a North Sea cruise for free to any extras in the film. The cruise was free on the understanding the ship would be searching for and sailing in the worst seas possible.

Although the film is about bombs being placed on a ship, spookily, in 1975 two bombs were detonated on the ship, it did not sink it. I can't find out any more information on that event or who was behind it. Interestingly, Anthony Hopkins has gone on record to state how massively underrated he thinks Juggernaut is, despite the fact it was a huge flop.

I agree with him, I think Juggernaut is superb entertainment if you can forgive the flimsy script and the atrocious character played by Roy Kinnear. Juggernaut is genuinely thrilling at the right moments and does a good enough job of keeping you engrossed virtually throughout.

Juggernaut therefore earns the newly made up for this 'review' Skyriders award. This means you can happily watch this film on a Sunday afternoon, so long as its raining and you are doing the ironing. :thumbup:

Roy Kinnear's character can die in cinema hell though. Good God...
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 28 Jul 2022, 11:02 
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Comfort and Joy was a blind buy I watched earlier this week. I'm familiar with director Bill Forsyth and his previous work (none of which I've actually seen, just know of) that includes Gregory's Girl, probably the most well known title, and Housekeeping, which those who love a bit of Criterion action will likely know about. Comfort and Joy appears to be one of his films that's more under the radar than his other works, and that's a shame, because what we have here is a surprisingly fun little film that's also packed with little titbits of information and wrapped up in to a reasonably breezy 106 minutes.

It's fast approaching Christmas 1984, and Comfort and Joy focuses our attention on local radio DJ Dickie Bird. One evening, after dinner, his kleptomaniac girlfriend Maddy decides to tell Dickie that she's leaving him. There and then she cleans out their apartment and leaves our Dickie on his lonesome just in time for Christmas. Poor sod.

It's not all doom and gloom though as our loveable miserable sod decides not to dwell on lost love (at least for the next few minutes) and instead takes his shiny new BMW out to a rough looking estate to buy an ice cream (as any rational person would). Venturing out to buy an ice cream on a rather sketchy looking estate from a sketchy looking ice cream van would prove a life changing moment for Dickie as he accidentally stumbles upon an ice cream van rival gang war and thus our story properly begins...

Comfort and Joy is a genuinely intriguing and often funny film. It's humour isn't delivered in the typical comedy film fashion (mainstream gags, action, mainstream gags, action, mainstream gags, the end etc). It's humour is delivered rather wry and dry (as Thom Yorke might say), it might appeal more to UK audiences because of this (that whole thing about folks maybe not 'getting it' if you know what I mean). Comfort and Joy is never really offensive in its deployment of humour, it just might not be what folks are expecting to get out of a typical comedy film. That's a shame really as I would hope more people would be prepared to give this film a go as it's genuinely charming, if a little stumbly in it's pacing.

Bill Paterson does well here in his turn as Dickie Bird and is supported well by Eleanor David (Maddy) and love interest Clare Grogan as Charlotte (credited in this film as C P Grogan, which I haven't seen her credited under before, the P is just her middle name initial). Music fans will be keen to learn that the soundtrack is by Dire Straits head honcho Mark Kuh-nop-fuh-lerr! He does use a couple of music cues here from a couple of Straits tracks, Telegraph Road and Private Investigations. The rest of the soundtrack reminded me a lot of the Chicken Shack soundtrack in 1986 hyperanime OAV Urban Square. Jazzy and sometimes melancholic, very noir-esque in places. Kuh-nop-fuh-lerr (who loves Kuh-norr stock cubes because they've got the Kuh-know-how) does a fairly juicy job with the score, I think it complements the film nicely.

It's a shame that Comfort and Joy was a flop upon release, however there is mention in the cast and director interviews on the Blu Ray disc that the film couldn't have been released at a worse time. For in the Glasgow area of 1984, there were genuine ongoing problems with ice cream vans, dubbed the Ice Cream Van Wars that involved genuine criminal activity and turf wars between ice cream van drivers. You can find out more information about this over on Wikipedia. The fact this was an ongoing problem in the area apparently blighted the release of Comfort and Joy which was viewed by some as bad taste in making an innocent comedy film about ice cream van gang wars when there were real problems going on at the time.

A couple of small titbits you may also enjoy include the photo pirched on radio station director Hillary's desk. It's actually a genuine photo of himself as a young man in the Navy in which he served between 1941 and 1945. There's also a gold disc hanging in Dickie Bird's office at the radio station. The disc actually belongs to co-star Clare Grogan's band Altered Images and was awarded for their 1982 album Happy Birthday (the title song of which you may very well know from the 1984 film Sixteen Candles). Stick around for the end credits too in order to hear Dickie Bird making a pigs ear of a radio commercial recording!

I quite enjoyed Comfort and Joy. I went in blind, expectations set very low and came out the other side having watched a fairly decent little low budget escapade. It's not anything groundbreaking or to litter with awards. In fact I think the film could have done a little better by following the storyline between Dickie and Maddy a bit more. It's a fun enough little film though and certainly worth a view. It may ring more bells of nostalgia for viewers who grew up in the area around that time, particularly with the real life events that sadly stunted what legs this film may have had to carry it for slightly better box office success.

Well worth a view. :thumbup:
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 29 Jul 2022, 20:34 
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I saved the best(?) until last in the recent selection of Network blu's I ordered from them recently. Today was the turn of The Nightcomers, a film which I knew absolutely nothing about and only bought it blind because I couldn't get over the fact the headliners in this film are Marlon Brando and the stairlift LEGEND herself, Thora Hird in an 18 rated schlockfiesta! It just doesn't compute, and unless you are going in to this fully aware that it's a supposed prequel to The Turning Of The Screw, then you'd be forgiven for thinking The Nightcomers doesn't compute either.

This is one BIZARRE film. Make absolutely no mistake about it. I'd also point out that this is 110,000% NOT a film to watch with yer nan just because Thora Hird is in it. It's all well and good flipping through a stairlift brochure, watching re-runs of Harry Secombe on Songs Of Praise and getting all nostalgic just because Thora Hird is in it, but this isn't a film for the older generation because of it. In fact it'll be you who's responsible for offing your grandparents when they have a connery after watching this film!

For starters, I nearly had a connery myself tying to get over just how bloody s**t Brando's accent is in this film. he talks like leprachaun on a Lucky Charms advert. Child actors Verna Harney and Christopher Ellis aren't that stellar either. They get by, and in fairness there's some pretty tough stuff in this film for them to be dealing with at such young ages, but it probably shows when you look at their filmographies that they didn't do too much more work (or perhaps I shouldn't judge so harshly and that they just opted to change careers, I can't seem to dig up that information other than Verna Harney seems to have done some work as a casting agent in 1994).

It gets worse though, and I don't mean with wooden acting. I'll just put it this way, if you thought a knob (excuse pun) of butter in Last Tango In Paris was enough to ruffle your feathers, then you'll love The Nightcomers. Brando wastes no time in getting stuck in to Bly House nanny Mrs Jessel (played by Stephanie Beacham in her first film role) but we're not talking about a quick missionary and a cigarette. Oh no. Brando's got all the gear aside from a sex swing, and judging by the amount of rope he's carrying in to the bedroom with him (I'd say there were a few ships in the harbour freed from their moorings thanks to this dirty old sod!) he's about 2 churns short of a dairy farm with the sheer volume of BDSM and sodomy going on in Miss Jessel's bedroom. Michael Winner doesn't shy away from showing almost 'the lot' either, it makes the 50 Shades films look like an episode of The Wiggles!

It does all get a bit uncomfortable though for various reasons that I won't describe here so as not to give the game away. Though I did find myself genuinely scrunching my eyes up and saying "what the actual f**k?" out loud a few times. I mean, it's not every day you see a frog smoking a cigar at the start of a film, which in turn makes you begin questioning what you are about to see and really sets a low bar for just how much the weird factor escalates in this film up to it's climax (pun uninstended).

The thing is though, the ending is actually rather good. It's because of the fact that this is a prequel that I now want to see the follow on film that was made in 1951. The Nightcomers isn't just about Marlon Brando humping Stephanie Beacham for 97 minutes with a shipyard worth of rope, a churn of Lurpack and a trowel. It's actually a bit of a psychological horror (hence the dots all connect when you read the synopsis for the follow up film). The problem is it's had liberties taken with the books the film and it's 'sequel' are based on, it's a bit lethargic in it's pacing and is marred by some stilted acting at times.
[Reveal] Spoiler:
Thora Hird getting a crossbow in the neck
and the grisly way in which some other characters are dispatched is worth the price of entry alone though!

There's some interesting historical stuff I found on The Nightcomers. First up I had a look in the New York Times archives and found this little entry from the Wedensday Feb 16th 1972 edition of the New York Times that describes the film as "a particularly listless and greedy parody, the sort that makes no coherent comment on the work it so freely exploits" and "the performance of Marlon Brando, which is, in a phrase James used, "a succession of flights and drops." Stark contrast to the trailer which uses quotes from the New York Times in it's marketing and selects quotes that are far less detrimental. There's even a UK version of the same trailer that replaces the USA press quotes with UK ones (see below). Oh and yes, the crop to show the advert for A Clockwork Orange was done on purpose. Why would I cut that out? :D

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Fast forward to the January 7th 1973 edition of the New York Times and The Nightcomers gets a mention for a potential candidate of one of the ten worst films of 1972 (see below snippet) which i think is a little harsh as, granted, it's not a particularly good film, but it's not a totally terrible one either. I did have some trouble dealing with the fact Brando was filming 97 minutes of BDSM with a crap Irish accent when not long after (and in fact he landed the part while The Nightcomers was being edited) he was playing a role that would be a defining moment in his career with The Godfather.

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Care for some titbits around the film? Well, in a scene near the end, there is a moment where Brando's character Quint is telling the children a story about selling a horse. Brando asked Michael Winner if he could be drunk telling the story for better effect. Winner agreed and they shot the scene near the end of shooting with Brando absolutely MULLERED.

According to Michael Winner he was worried the film would be cut to shreds for it's UK release. So he went and had a word with the UK film censor who was reviwing the film who told Winner that it would be nice to meet Marlon Brando in person (with a nudge and a wink). Winner organised a party in order for them to meet though it would then transpire that the film censor retired just before the film went up for certification!

One rather astonishing titbit relates to a sequence near the end of the film, so I'll be as spoiler-lite as I can. Stephanie Beacham was advised to wear a thick wetsuit for a specific scene but instead opted for the thinnest wetsuit she could so as to not alter her figure too much. She ended up turning blue with cold and had to be resuscitated on the river bank. The crew thought for a moment that they had lost her but thankfully she was able to be revived. There's an absolute wealth of interesting pieces surrounding this film, these are just a few but it's well worth you digging around to get an insight in to it, it's all quite bizarre.

I don't think I truly enjoyed The Nightcomers as such. I mean, I'm glad I watched it and I'll be a little hestitant to hand it over the counter at CEX to trade it in for something else (especially when the inner sleeve looks like the interior of a Soho telephone box), but it really isn't that good of a film. I can say for sure that I didn't like the film immediately after viewing, but as I found out more about it and the intricacies around the psychology of the film, and it's backstory for it's 'sequel', I grew fonder of The Nightcomers and am actually glad I watched it.

Certainly catch it if you can get the Blu cheap or find it on a legal streaming service, but don't go out of your way. As for me, I'll be looking to watch the sequel. :thumbup:


SIDE NOTE: Feel like I'm taking over this thread. Has anyone else watched anything fun and wants to share? I don't want to be a killjoy for everyone else, sorry. Just sharing my views on stuff I've watched so tell me to jog on if so. :thumbup:
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 30 Jul 2022, 00:32 
Jedi Master
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Love reading your stuff ted, I haven't been watching much if anything and want to see that waterloo film. Just been busy and lazy with life and haven't had
time to do much film stuff.

I think that and attention span to sit and watch a film is near gone now for some reason.........
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