[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

His main theme to the documentary The World At War* is superb and incredibly apt. I don't know much of his work.

*Best WWII documentary ever made.

What Erik said. An excellent compilation with some of his best work.

I'm personally very fond of his (strongly Rimsky-Korsakoff influenced) score for the 1924 The Thief Of Bagdad, but sadly the only album available for that is a boot taken from the DVD soundtrack (which isn't too bad: it's a silent film after all).

Holodomor

A shocking documentary about the famine in Ukraine in 1932-33.
Due to the ruthless provisions of the Soviet state, at least 8 million (!) people died from starvation in 500 days. More than 400 villages extincted completely.
By 1933 people began to eat the dead, then sometimes they killed each other and ate the bodies.
The whole idea behind this enormity was that according to the Soviets the independent class of peasantry was an enemy of the state so - as their intellectual leader, Marx put it - they had to be exterminated.
Stalin was the main executor behind the plans but the original plans derived from the other bastard, Lenin.
It was a Hungarian TV documentary with interviews with the survivors and many staggering archive footage.
I think there should be many more movies (both feature and documentary) about the crimes of the communists.

I think I will get this. Looks like a nice compilation and cheap too

THE FRIGHTENERS

I do like this movie very much despite the negative review of this movie. Michael J Fox was once again quite impressive in this movie after Back to the Future trilogy. Only the climax was little bit boring and i felt that they poured over dose of computer graphics. However, it was well directed by Peter Jackson and good score by Danny Elfman.

Oh yeah! i like her very much. She looks very cute.

I much preferred the Da Vinci code. This one was more typical Hollywood action/MTV, without a single breather. I much prefer atmospheric movies that takes their time, instead of people running around all the time. That, and the Da Vinci code had Ian McKellen.

Peter

Agree, i enjoyed it immensely and the score works wonders in the film!

Watched it yesterday. Agree with your definition: nothing outstanding, but very solid in all aspects. I loved the score by the way, IMO the best score written by Eastwood. A simple but very effective theme arranged and orchestrated in many ways, some of them very touching actually.

Oh it IS repetitive. But he (or Niehaus) managed to orchestrate it pretty good on its many variations.

I thought Eastwood's score was horrible. It was absolutely the wrong tone for the film... and it was EXTREMELY repetitive. Even my wife hated the music. Every time that awful theme popped up she would say "Now, come on, Clint! Knock it off!"

-Erik-

Clint nailed it in MYSTIC RIVER and MILLION DOLLAR BABY but has gone down the awful street since then, he should really let someone else do the music for him.

Changeling is basically the same as Million Dollar Baby, so it's hard to see how you could have such opposing reactions to them?

Gran Torino (2009)

Charming little film about grumpy old man Clint befriending and warming to misfit Vietnamese neighbour boy, to the benefit of both.
No cliche is left out as the film plays a bit like a more brainy version of Karate Kid (although slightly watering down the message that proper violence solves everything), but it is buoyed immeasurably by Clint's powerhouse and charismatic performance. What makes it so interesting is how strongly he has cast off the Dirty Harry image people have for decades associated him with, without actually fully rejecting it. It makes his performance all the more strong.

While the interaction between Clint and the Vietnamese neighbours is likeable and interesting, and some of the scenes are a delight (such as him having been invited to the party next door, or the continuous Asian gratitude) the film as a whole feels curiously flat (probably because we've really seen it all before).

I never noticed the music much (so it didn't offend at least) but the end song (croaked by Clint himself) is pretty insepid.

3 out of 5

Incidentally, not being a car buff at all ()never could understand that fascination. To me it's just a vehicle), I only found out in the film that a Gran Torino is a 70s type of Ford car.
I think it's butt ugly but I guess it means something to Americans. Or car buffs.

But holy crap, are those asian kids poor actors or what? I still thought it was a wonderful movie and I would have rated the movie a 9 on imdb, but the amateurish acting bumped it down to an 8.

Peter