Li'l Duce's Reviews Palace

[titoli]

L'armata Brancaleone (1966) one of the classic italian comedies. What left me perplexed is Volont?'s performance: never saw him acting so bad, like he's miscast or didn't care to play the part. 7/10

[titoli]

Brancaleone alle Crociate (1970) Non as good as the original, but still worth checking. Here you have Sandrelli for Spaak: nothing lost, obviously. 6-7/10 

[titoli]

Heat (1995) Too long, it gets boring and boring as it proceeds. Had it been cut an hour it could have earned a 7-8/10. As it is it's 6-7/10. Pacino is often at his hammiest worst, while De Niro delivers probably his tamest performance in an action movie: no grimaces, no noddings, no shouts.

[titoli]

Cabin in the Sky (1943)  Good comedy, though only the finale in the night club featuring Ellington and other great numbers is over the top. The Armstrong number was incredibly cut and only the audio has survived. 7-8/10

[titoli]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) Especially in the first part, where is more of a superhero thriller than a superhero special effects. The action scenes are really something, especially the car chase and there are no love or techno-sociological fillers. In the second part the CGE's take the upper hand but still they are interesting. 7-8/10

[titoli]

Bix (1991) This could have been a great jazz movie but, for unfathomable reasons, they made a mess with the chronology and the episodes of Beiderbecke's life are thrown away casually and you can't make head or tails of the evolution of the character unless you are an expert of the great jazzman's life. A pity because the reconstructions of the musical scenes are visually and musically top notch, though the actor playing Bix looks not like the original. 6-7/10

[titoli]

Cinderfella (1960) Another lame effort by Tashlin-Lewis. The only clips worth watching are those with the Basie Orchestra playing and Lewis doing doing his clowneries. Even the dinner scene, which might have provided good chances for gags, is resolved uninventedly, apart from the basic idea. This looks rather as a general rehearsal for Nutty  Professor  . 5/10

[titoli]

Kelly's Heroes (1970) Hadn't seen it before, except for the finale. It's good, no doubt. A mixture of genres well-acted except for Sutherland: his voice and delivery are intolerable. The Schifrin main theme sounds like it was made for another movie set in the 70's, but I absolve him because of the homage to Morricone.  7/10

[drinkanddestroy]

Kelly's Heroes (1970) Hadn't seen it before, except for the finale. It's good, no doubt. A mixture of genres well-acted except for Sutherland: his voice and delivery are intolerable. The Schifrin main theme sounds like it was made for another movie set in the 70's, but I absolve him because of the homage to Morricone.  7/10

IMO Sutherland is good

[Cusser]

Kelly's Heroes (1970) Hadn't seen it before, except for the finale. It's good, no doubt. A mixture of genres well-acted except for Sutherland: his voice and delivery are intolerable. The Schifrin main theme sounds like it was made for another movie set in the 70's, but I absolve him because of the homage to Morricone.  7/10

Before its release, I saw a clip of the three facing the tank on the Mike Douglas talk show, and GBU music was used pre-production for that ("The Trio").

[titoli]

Daredevil (2003)  I quote from a IMDB review: Daredevil is the movie that Burton's 1989 Batman should have been. I know Special Effects have moved on since then, but Daredevil has the pacing, storytelling, character development, direction and overall style that Batman lacked.  Exactly what I was thinking watching it. Of course, the movie is far from perfect. but it has a cutting edge other Marvel and DC superheroes lack (see the Subway scene). And maybe that's why it wasn't a hit like other movies of the genre. 7/10

[dave jenkins]

Daredevil (2003)  I quote from a IMDB review: Daredevil is the movie that Burton's 1989 Batman should have been. I know Special Effects have moved on since then, but Daredevil has the pacing, storytelling, character development, direction and overall style that Batman lacked.  Exactly what I was thinking watching it. Of course, the movie is far from perfect. but it has a cutting edge other Marvel and DC superheroes lack (see the Subway scene). And maybe that's why it wasn't a hit like other movies of the genre. 7/10

There are two versions of the film, including the following (per Wikipedia):

Director's cut
A director's cut of the film was announced for a spring 2004 DVD release. This version contained new additions like previously unseen footage and a removed subplot, and was to be a bit darker with an R rating. The film, released in 2.35:1 widescreen format, was released with DTS and Dolby Digital sound. The new version of the film has newly recorded commentary to accompany it, featuring Mark Steven Johnson and Avi Arad. A "Making of Director's Cut" featurette also accompanied the film. The release date of the DVD was later pushed back to November 30, 2004.[79][80] On September 30, 2008, the director's cut was released on Blu-ray.[81] The DVD release of the director's cut removed the bonus material included on the theatrical cut's DVD release, but that content was restored for the Blu-ray release (although the Blu-ray release only contains the director's cut).

One of the biggest changes to the film was the addition of a subplot involving a drug addict played by Coolio. This subplot is missing from the theatrical version of the film, but is present in the novelization by Greg Cox, published in 2003.[82]

Executive producer Kevin Feige commented on this version of the film, believing "the people who had other opinions [of Daredevil] will be won over by this new version."[79] Reviewer Danny Graydon of Empire called it a "considerable improvement on the original version," notably preferring the more violent undertones, a lesser focus on the romance, and the equal focus of Daredevil and his lawyer alias Matt Murdock and the subplot involving Coolio. Some critics continued to feel Affleck was unsuitable as Daredevil and that Duncan portrayed the Kingpin in an over-the-top manner.[83] IGN's Jeff Otto and Andy Patrizio deemed this version an improvement over the original: They felt this version was more loyal to the Frank Miller feel of the Daredevil world, with more focus on themes such as Murdock's struggle with his Catholic upbringing. On the whole they felt the film would be far more pleasing to fans, and overall better than the theatrical release.[84] Comic-book enthusiasts have gauged the director's cut as one of the better recuts of a superhero film.[85][86]

[T.H.]

Man, is that awful 2003 Daredevil movie really being critically re-evaluated? I guess I can give it a little credit by saying that it's an actual movie compared to the violently anti-creative MCU stuff of the last decade.

And according to Titoli's scores, Daredevil (2003) is better than Heat, which might be the single greatest movie of the last 30 years.

[titoli]

And according to Titoli's scores, Daredevil (2003) is better than Heat, which might be the single greatest movie of the last 30 years.

I explained the why and wherefore: Heat, with an hour cut, would have earned more than Daredevil.  It's just too long. About being the best movie of the last 30 years, I don't want to even start discussing.   

[titoli]

The Last Samurai (2003) It lasts too long. Actually you watch the first battle and the last one and the rest is just a rehashing of A Man Called Horse or whatever came after of the westerner beating the Indians (here Japs) at their own game. Here the premise is even more complicated as the values the westerners adopt are the wrong ones, as history would prove. Or at least, not completely right. But the fact remains that 2 hours of this are boring as hell, Cruise can't act (no news there) and there's nothing you haven't seen before. 4/10