Double Switch

Fred Rogers kept me sane back in the late 1970s, details unavailable. I don't believe I need to see a movie about him. But I recall his show went dark about 20 years ago and who knows if those reruns are still in PBS scheduling. I should check to see if so and then schedule them to DVR. Had a thing for Lady Aberlin.

As long as I'm here, I have found a reason to need Netflix (but doubt I'll cave). Toototaban!

And there was the "best Hitchcock movie he never made" - Charade. (Directed by Stanley Donen) I wonder what Hitchcock thought of it. Never having seen Charade before, barely recalling it, in fact, except for the Mancini pop tune of the same name, I borrowed it from the public library. I wonder just who thought this was anything like a Hitchcock movie? I surely don't. This is the review I left on the library review blog: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This movie, touted as the best movie Hitchcock never made, is nothing more than a silly '60s caper flick featuring a too-old-to-be a-romantic-leading-man in Cary Grant and a lovely, if lightweight (not just thin) Audrey Hepburn. There is no McGuffin There is no icy blonde to conquer There is no compelling score, only a fluffy, if "hooky," pop-music theme from ubiquitous Henry Mancini The titles are a Saul Bass ripoff There was, however, an obligatory and obvious scene of rear projection of Grant and Hepburn having dinner on a boat traversing the Seine. This was truly distracting. There was no suspense at all as each thug's demise was completely telegraphed in advance, including that Walter Matthau was the actual crook, not Cary Grant. There was some shameful scenery chewing from Coburn, Kennedy, and Glass. Kidnapping the kid was not an homage to the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much. It was just a bit of madcap silliness. Stanley Donen made a lot of pretty good movies. This was a pretty good movie, too, but it's not Hitchcockian by any stretch no matter how far you reach.

4/1/1920 ~ 12/24/1997 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfpagB8wWnghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfpagB8wWng

As for car chases/chasees/chasers, I have two words: Bill Hickman.

Vic Sage wrote: i loved Tampopo, but you'll have to go out and eat Ramen right after seeing it. I love that stuff! Slurp! And it's good to see Tsutomu Yamazaki as a good guy, still around at 83.

Vic Sage wrote: Double Switch wrote: Would you tell me where those numbers come from? i found a website that ranked all of Kurosawa's films as an aggregate of IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, etc. Then i seeded them in each bracket accordingly, with slight tweaks based on my own assessments. Impressive! I rewatched Ikiru again the other night and was still overwhelmed by the end with every aspect of it. In a while I'll head over to the library to pick up Tampopo*, Dodes'kaden, and Hakuchi (The Idiot) for some overindulgence. Then I'll know if it's The Idiot or Scandal that I need to find as I know I saw one of them but not which one. For me they fell into the slot along with I Live in Fear. *Some day I need to go on a rave regarding Juzo Itami.

Vic Sage wrote: the early bracket would have 7 films: 1- No Regrets For our Youth (46) vs 8- [bYE] 2- Sanshiro Sugata (43) vs 7-Those Who Make Tomorrow (46) 3- Man Who tread on Tiger's Tail (45) vs 6- Sanshiro Sugata, Pt.2 (45) 4- One Wonderful Sunday (47) vs 5- Most Beautiful (44) but as i said, these were studio films that Kurosawa didn't have complete control over, and some were produced during the war; he considers DRUNKEN ANGEL to be the first film that was completely his. Yeah, I confess I did not read your preface before looking at your lists. The caveat could be that who knew when AK would have autonomy and he had to toe the company line a while - betting he had no clue either. Would you tell me where those numbers come from? Yes, the one I forgot was No Regrets for our Youth. And, I could have looked that up and did not.

There is another bracket: Early Kurosawa sans Mifune that includes Sugata Sanshiro 1 & 2 (when his leading man was Susumu Fujita, who makes an appearance as the cowardly sword master in Yojimbo), They Who Tread Upon the Tiger's Tail, The Most Beautiful, and One Wonderful Sunday. I feel like I'm forgetting something. It would be harder to find Kurosawa movies without Takashi Shimura (21). The rap on AK was that he avoided strong women characters but that's silly. He used Isuzu Yamada in The Lower Depths, Throne of Blood (best ever Lady Macbeth), and Yojimbo as the scariest, strongest bitches ever. Also, Princess Yuki in The Hidden Fortress is Princess Leia through and through. Don't forget Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede in Ran. I think pairing Dodes'kaden against Dreams makes more sense but I don't know what the rules are. Dersu Uzala stands alone. There are a few I have not seen: Scandal and The Idiot, I think, and Sugata Sanshiro 2. At the moment, my DVD library includes Ikiru, The Lower Depths, Rashomon, Sanjuro, Yojimbo, Kagemusha, Ran, The Hidden Fortress and Seven Samurai. Back in the VHS days, I had a few more that I did not replace when LVD took over, and when laser rot ruined my disks and I switched to DVD, I did not reacquire everything. I want another copy of High & Low but the price is not right and I can get it from the library when I want another view. If this were a "desert isle" 5 list, I'd take Rashomon, High & Low, Ikiru, The Lower Depths, and Yojimbo.

Vic Sage wrote: best Japanese movies: 1) everything by Kurasawa 2) everything else I'm thinking about creating a Kurosawa poll but am considering doing it in segments (prior to Mifune, with Mifune, after Mifune, color v. b/w) so there are ways to go there. Also, I want to feature a poll regarding my other favorite Japanese director, Yasujiro Ozu, but I suspect not as many will be familiar with his work. Anyone wanting to jump in before I get to it will have my full enthusiastic support.

Thanks - I had no idea, which is why I signed onto this board. There are a lot of people here with great ideas I'd otherwise miss out on. Briefly checking it out, it looks well worth the $99.99 annual fee. I'll be starting my free trial later tonight.

Edgy MD wrote: Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: When you see one, especially a good one, even if its old, start a poll on it here. Or even if you're just thinking about one. Anybody see the movie about the South Korean girl with the massive genetically enhanced pig? Thanks for all these thoughts above and here. I also don't attend movies in theaters due to how loud they are played (at least where I live) and that it seems no one can watch a movie without their cellphone on and that's distracting, too. The other thing is my attention span also has shortened. Maybe that's why I drifted back to old movies, many of which are in the 90 minute range. Knowing now how long The Irishman is, I'll wait until I can watch it in smaller doses. Until sometime in October, I had TCM as part of my cable package until it got hijacked. Then I realized that was my primary channel and DVRing was my #1 activity. Now gone. I still have The Caine Mutiny to watch plus needing to rewatch Eraserhead again (I finally noticed the pile of dirt on Henry's table so more scrutiny is needed). I'd end my DVR level but that would mean not being able to record Grand Sumo on NHK so that will wait a while (yes, I know I can watch that on YouTube but I still like it on the living room tv (I don't have the means yet to watch YouTube on that tv). The other thing is Better Call Saul season 5 will start in a few months and I want to FF through the commercials. Now I will mostly borrow movies from my city library system and also watch what is available on Amazon Prime. I looked up https://www.npr.org/2017/06/27/534554318/in-ambitious-okja-a-teen-attempts-to-save-her-super-pig-from-slaughterOkja and will see if I can get it locally. I'd not heard of Bong Joon-ho and appreciate you mentioning this. Polls: OK, I'll think about that and maybe do one about Japanese movies. I don't know as many French movies but have to say Diabolique (1955 - Clouzot) is pretty much at the top of that list.

The reason I ask is that I haven't bothered to watch any new movies (by that I mean pretty much everything made in the 21st century, which is entering its 20th year soon). I'm just not into CGI and explosions as plot devices. I could be called a retrograde movie fan because I would more love to discuss film noir than movies that are bioflicks or remakes of earlier hits. As an example, I would never bother to watch a remake of The Manchurian Candidate or Psycho because the originals were excellent. I see no reason to revisit them as if they were not already perfection. I quit the Star Wars franchise after the third one. That was enough for me. I truly have no idea how many there are now and would need to look that up. And, everyone following this franchise now, in drooling anticipation of the next iteration, likely were not around for the very first of these movies (1977). Please tell me I'm wrong. But - that's just me. Maybe I am alone in my reverence of The Big Sleep and The Philadelphia Story and Dodsworth. And Eraserhead. Surely in a crowd this size, there must be at least one fan besides myself of Eraserhead. At the moment I am about to start watching The Elephant Man, the movie that came after Eraserhead and made David Lynch, if not a household word, at least a blip on the radar of serious movie goers.

=whippoorwill post_id=27176 time=1574724496 user_id=79] Hated that one. No wonder you never went back

Edgy MD wrote: If it matters, the first two Toy Stories were released last century. Sure, it matters, but I managed to miss that, too. I think the last animated movie I saw was only partially animated: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?