Li'l Duce's Reviews Palace

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The Young Lions (1958) I remember this as one of the first movies, if not the very first one, I watched as a film, not as some kind of alternative reality. Must have seen it again another couple of times. At imdb I read that the book is much better: not a great feat. This is heavy melodrama badly acted by Brando (I must have developed an irritation toward him lately) not helped by the inconsistency of his character (it seems that the book is much better in this respect). Martin and Clift are good but their characters are just as inconsistent. 6/10

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Another Time, Another Place (1958) I had bought the dvd long time ago just because Connery was there and I was curious to see him in the first important part (though no lead, or maybe yes as he sure is in the first third of the movie) of his career (though in the credits his name is wrongly preceded by the word "introducing"). Well, I presume the female audience may still find something interesting in this heavy melodrama and I must admit I wasn't bored by it, as the story proceeds fast and lets you hanging all the time about what it is really about. Of course I won't watch it again. 6/10

[drinkanddestroy]

The Young Lions (1958) I remember this as one of the first movies, if not the very first one, I watched as a film, not as some kind of alternative reality. Must have seen it again another couple of times. At imdb I read that the book is much better: not a great feat. This is heavy melodrama badly acted by Brando (I must have developed an irritation toward him lately) not helped by the inconsistency of his character (it seems that the book is much better in this respect). Martin and Clift are good but their characters are just as inconsistent. 6/10

pretty crappy movie

And I get that having a "gray hat" generally makes for a more interesting movie than having a blatantly evil bad guy, but here it is bullshit. Brando'a character is a proud German soldier who supports Hitler and then after the war is over he's shocked, shocked to learn that there's extermination going on here  

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I forgot to add that Schell's performance is the best of the movie as he is the most credible character. I like his voice and his germanized english and I gave the movie that rating because of the hospital scene.

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A Hard Day's Night (1964) I must have reviewed it here already. First saw it on tv in 1971 or 1972. One of the movies I'll take with me in the tomb.

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Back to the Future Trilogy.  Had I noticed before the OUATITW quotation of the pan shoot  from above the railway station? Anyway, the pace is always fast and some of the lines are still funny (the one about Reagan and Lewis and Wyman still the best). I give 8 to the first and 7 to the other ones.

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The Seventh Seal (1957) It gets better and better, with original audio and big screen. Probably the best movie on the Middle Ages.

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And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)

I'm not a Monty Python fan and this didn't make me change my mind. Their comedy is based on magnification and opposition, not a great imagination effort. 5/10

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The Image Makers (2000) A late Bergman, though based on a play and shot on video. But one has to be thankful for that as, though there is a little teatrality there is less melodrama than in his late horrors like Fanny and Alexander or Scenes from a Wedding. 7/10

[Groggy]

And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)

I'm not a Monty Python fan and this didn't make me change my mind. Their comedy is based on magnification and opposition, not a great imagination effort. 5/10

I like the Pythons at sketch length. Their films are interminable.

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Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Had seen it before dubbed. But the original audio does little to make it better. Boring even more than the above. 4/10

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The Meaning of Life (1983) Lots of SE and money put into it to disguise the fact that the movie is aseries of bad jokes stitched together. Depressing. 3/10

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Wild Strawberries (1957) One shouldn't watch Bergman's movies in his teenage: What do you expect to understand? Still I liked the movie, though I couldn't remember a thing except for the masterful dream sequence (best ever with the one in 8&1/2, a long way from those disneylike Hitchcock did). It has defects (as Kauffman pointed out, some narrative strains have no development)  but of course they are compensated by some moments of masterful creativity.

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The Devil's Eye (1960) The Hell scenes (with a Satan who might have been a Liberace double, though I doubt Bergman ever knew who the piano player was) are very good, unfortunately two or three protracted scenes are only based on quite going nowhere dialogues and make the movie dull in parts.

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The Wild One (1953) I remember this as the first movie I ever saw on TV, though I'm probably wrong. I read lately the short story on which it was based on, a much better work than the melodramatic story concocted around it by Hollywood. Brando doesn't persuade me: he's not so good, looks goofy, even though the inconsistency of his character doesn't help him.  Marvin is miles above him. Though I saw it again (but eons ago) didn't remember good Flippen and Carey were in it. The only merit the movie has is that generated a year later the italian spoof which launched Sordi's career and is still a comedy classic.