Li'l Duce's Reviews Palace

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Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris (1974) Translating songs in different languages is very hard, still Mort Shuman and Eric Blau did a tolerable job with Brel's. What doesn't work here is the singers: Shuman is simply terrible (his Amsterdam makes you puke) while Elly Stone (who didn't pay a visit to a dentist before shooting began) is Broadway singing at its worst.  Much better Masiell. But if you like Brel (like I do) then you can't but like the movie, thinking of the songs in the original while you listen to their translation. So it's 8\10. And I'm no anti-translation of songs: actually I think that MacKuen's rendition of Ne Me Quitte Pas (in the movie the song is sung by Brel himself in french) is better than the too melodramatic original.

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Scream of Fear aka Taste of Fear (1961) I didn't like this: little suspense, little logic (does Stasberg imagine things or what?), Ronald Lewis acting is wooden, Lee is little seen, you name it... 4\10

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Max et les ferrailleurs (1971) Stretched out plot which makes no sense with a moronic finale. Romy Schneider, not as gorgeous as in the Sissi movie an age earlier, gives a great performance. 4\10

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We Were Soldiers (2002) Among the best war movies ever and good candidate for best Vietnam movie ever. I could have done without the final speech of the viet leader or the images of the dead vietcong's wife or girlfriend. But this is the first movie which gave me the feeling of what is like going to war: the sequence when the soldiers leave home at night not knowing if they will return  I don't think it was to be seen elsewhere, but it is most saddening than all the images of war horrors one can imagine. 9\10

P. S. The movie is set in 1965, still the people are able to sing at the farewell party "Hold On, I'm Coming" to be released a year later.

[drinkanddestroy]

We Were Soldiers (2002) Among the best war movies ever and good candidate for best Vietnam movie ever. I could have done without the final speech of the viet leader or the images of the dead vietcong's wife or girlfriend. But this is the first movie which gave me the feeling of what is like going to war: the sequence when the soldiers leave home at night not knowing if they will return  I don't think it was to be seen elsewhere, but it is most saddening than all the images of war horrors one can imagine. 9\10

P. S. The movie is set in 1965, still the people are able to sing at the farewell party "Hold On, I'm Coming" to be released a year later.

I saw this one decade ago. As I recall it, the first half moved way too slowly for me, but the second half, in Vietnam, was insane. I can recall few movies depicting the horrors of war better than the second half of We Were Soldiers did.

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Mr. Arkadin (1955) As it happens with other Welles movies (Lady from Shanghai, for example) this is better watched without sound and no inkling about what the characters say. I don't know if the two version I saw (this one and the other dubbed in italian I saw on tv in the '80's, which could be the same one as the french dvd) approach Welles idea of what the movie should have been like, but I doubt could have been much better of the final product(s). And I can't stand those fake hair and beard and moustaches Welles sport. Still the movie has some famous scenes (Welles apologues) and angles and photography (especially the Naples dock scene) which can't but earn it a 8\10.

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Before the Revolution (1964) I don't like Bertolucci and I remembered this as the best movie by him. Which probably still is though only for the two sequences shot with the background songs by Gino Paoli (masterfully arranged by the Maestro). 7\10

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Falstaff (1966) Perfect except for the little imaginative battle and Gielgud's performance: sometime a little bit over the top. 9\10

[Groggy]

We Were Soldiers (2002) Among the best war movies ever and good candidate for best Vietnam movie ever. I could have done without the final speech of the viet leader or the images of the dead vietcong's wife or girlfriend. But this is the first movie which gave me the feeling of what is like going to war: the sequence when the soldiers leave home at night not knowing if they will return  I don't think it was to be seen elsewhere, but it is most saddening than all the images of war horrors one can imagine. 9\10

Glad I'm not the only one who likes this.

[drinkanddestroy]

We Were Soldiers (2002) Among the best war movies ever and good candidate for best Vietnam movie ever.

I've seen less Vietnam movies than I can count on one hand, but IMO at least one was clearly better: The Deer Hunter.

p.s. Does Forrest Gump count?  

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The Stranger (1946) Rubbish.

[drinkanddestroy]

The Stranger (1946) Rubbish.

yeah, it's a shitty movie.

[cigar joe]

The Stranger (1946) Rubbish.

Agreed

[drinkanddestroy]

I also think it was a mistake to use Orson Welles as a Nazi. Of course, many great and beloved actors have played really bad characters in movies, but a Nazi is a whole different level of evil, it's someone that the viewer really has to just HATE with every fiber of his being; even though acting is all about transforming oneself into another character, when it's someone so well known and loved as Orson Welles, it's really difficult to summon the amount of hatred appropriate for a Nazi, and that automatically causes the story not to be taken all that seriously. The second Orson Welles comes on the screen, there is just a different feel than if someone else had, whom the audience has no prior feelings for.

Not that it's a good movie anyway, but I do think that having Welles play the Nazi was not a good choice.

[cigar joe]

I also think it was a mistake to use Orson Welles as a Nazi. Of course, many great and beloved actors have played really bad characters in movies, but a Nazi is a whole different level of evil, it's someone that the viewer really has to just HATE with every fiber of his being; even though acting is all about transforming oneself into another character, when it's someone so well known and loved as Orson Welles, it's really difficult to summon the amount of hatred appropriate for a Nazi, and that automatically causes the story not to be taken all that seriously. The second Orson Welles comes on the screen, there is just a different feel than if someone else had, whom the audience has no prior feelings for.

Not that it's a good movie anyway, but I do think that having Welles play the Nazi was not a good choice.

Very valid point agreed. Welles, for me anyway, has always been hit or miss in his acting efforts.