Movies: personal classics

Angela Landsbury was so malevolent as Harvey's mother. She was the brains of it all next to Keigh Deigh(an actor who would later play the Red Chinese super agent Wo Fat on Hawaii 5-0 and appearing on an episode of Kung Fu and having his own tv pilot called Khan, a private detective who is the descendent of Ghengis or Kublai Khan).

 

Die Hard. The character of John MacClaine was originally written for Chuck Norris but he turned it down. Bruce Willis(from Moonlighting) got the part and went from a comedic actor to action hero. Some critics didn't like the film because MacClaine was not like other action heroes. But that was not the point. John MacClaine was an ordinary guy, who had his own problems like fear of flying and troubles in his marriage, suddenly thrust into an incredible situation and becomes the only hope to save his wife and other people and defeat the bad guys led by Hans Gruber(played very well by Alan Rickman). This movie inspired many action films to come afterward. The score for the film was composed by Michael kamen. Kamen hated the movie. John McTiernan, the film's director wanted Kamen to incorporate Beethoven's Ode To Joy into the score. Kamen didn't like that idea but thought that if McTiernan wanted Ode To Joy, Kamen decided to incorporate the song Singin' In The Rain as an homage to Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange, which both songs were featured.

 

The Chase(1966). This film had a mega-watt cast led by Marlon Brando, Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, E.G. Marshall, Jane Fonda, Martha Hyer, Julie London, James Fox, singer-songwriter Paul Williams in a small role and many others. The Chase was produced by Sam Spiegel, a very strong musical score by John Barry and directed by Arthur Penn. Despite the cast, this film suffered because it portrayed southerners in the worst light. I first saw portions of this film on television when I was a kid. It was the first film I had ever seen Robert Redford(the second time was the film The Hot Rock) and Marlon Brando(the second film was The Wild One) and it kept me glued to the screen. I rediscovered the film years later and paid close attention to the plot and characters. I remembered feeling bad for Robert Redford's character and Marlon Brando's character, most of all. It left me wondering where everything went wrong and why Robert Redford's character was so instrumental to the tragic events that followed. All in all, The Chase was a good film.

 

I loved Desperado. I had no idea at the time of its release that it was a follow-up to Robert Rodriguez' first film El Mariachi(a film about mistaken identity). It had great music in the film, too like Roger & The Gypsies classic Pass The Hatchet,( On the soundtrack, the version that is played while Quentin Tarantino tells his story is the second part of the song), Forever Nightshade Mary, and White Train(the song where Antonio Banderas and his two bandmates go into battle). This was Salma Hayek's break out film(her first American film was Mi Vida Loca in which Angel Avilles was also in that film, too. It was made in the same town Robert Rodriguez filmed El Mariachi. Rodriguez drew the story boards for every scene in the movie and did a lot of clever editing. Great film.

 

Troy. Good & entertaining take on the Trojan War saga. Critics obviously expected it to be some seriously dramatic Oscar worthy account due to the acting talent featured in the film. Brian Cox is excellent as the overly arrogant & power hungry King Agamemnon. Especially loved the animosity between Agamemnon & Achilles.

 

Mutiny On The Bounty(1962). This was a very massive production for MGM at the time and a lot of problems. In the end, was a big and lavish film that starred Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard as Captain William Bligh. Some critics didn't care for the film because of Marlon Brando's demands(he even married the lead Tahitian actress, a dancer from the film). Other male cast members were having flings with the Tahitian female extras and some of them were married. The women came to England and were abandoned to fend for themselves. It had a powerful and evocative musical score by composer Bronislau Kaper. Despite all of the troubles that plagued the production, it is a very good film.

 

I thought Troy was a good movie. I can't believe that everyone seemed to hate it. And even Peter O'Toole said he regretted being in the movie.

 

Really? I thought it was good

 

Yep, really.

"Troy," Oh "Troy:" The reliably candid O'Toole wasn't afraid to publicly diss his career missteps, as evidenced by his shots at the 2004 epic "Troy." He had some harsh words for the Brad Pitt vehicle and its director, Wolfgang Petersen. "Ugh, what a disaster," he said at the Savannah Film Festival. "The director, that kraut, what a clown he was. When it was all over, I watched 15 minutes of the finished movie and then walked out."

From this website: https://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/yahoo-movies/o-stories-ll-hear-peter-o-toole-12-165352629.html

 

Reminds me of Sean Connery dissing The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, another movie that in my opinion suffers from the same fate as Troy. Not Oscar worthy in any way but an entertaining movie that gets panned by both fans & critics alike. Makes me wonder what the hell Connery was thinking back in the 70's when he did the movie Zardoz, if he thinks The League of Extraordinary Gentleman was a bad movie choice on his part.

 

That's crazy, when I saw the title of this thread, The Wraith popped right in my head. I was just scrolling to see what others had said, and Bam!

 

The Wraith is one of those movies I can watch over and over and never get tired of it.

Here is a few more.

 

The human, original version of the kids movie Monsters Inc., Fred Savage in Little Monsters.

 

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen suffered because of Stephen Norrington and Sean Connery's conflicts during the production and there were many like a flood in the Czech Republic that wrecked the sets and Connery having to appeal to the Czech people to help raise money for it. I enjoyed the movie's premise of literary heroes joining together to save the world(the graphic novel by Alan Moore was a little more extreme than the movie). I thought Connery did a good job as Alan Quatermaine and Naseerudin Shah was great as the ass kicking Captain Nemo. The soundtrack featuring the music by Trevor Jones was never sold in the U.S.(you can purchase it from www.monstersinmotion.com). After The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Stephen Norrington left directing major motion pictures. Sean Connery didn't want to do The Avengers(1998). I think he was offered the part of John Steed(it would've been interesting and Ralph Fiennes would play Sir August DeWinter). He had turned his back on doing spy stories then but Jerry Weintraub convinced him and Connery was given the role of Sir August DeWinter.