I dunno, on the pulpy covers I’ve seen they look REALLY fully formed to me. Positively and buxomly heaving with form.
Oh. That’s not what you mean, is it?
(What on earth did my mother think of the Dejah Thoris covers of the “John Carter of Mars” books my uncle bought me when I was a kid?!)
Oh wow - just did an image search for “Dejah thoris covers”, and I didn’t think images like that showed up without adding a NSFW tag! The ones I had as a kid were positively chaste in comparison. I guess there was a big comics line I didn’t know about until today?
This is one of the books I had:
Gotta like the Book Depository page. People who bought A Princess of Mars also bought Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars. I mean … yeah, I have read both, but several decades apart, and apart from the setting there’s not much overlap!
Um, to go back vaguely on topic, I wouldn’t mind rewatching John Carter of Mars. It was a Disney film … maybe it’ll be on Disney when that shows up here. Not a great film by any means, but nowhere near deserving of the mockery it got.
Years ago I knew an Australian couple here who were into fantasy and science fiction- the woman’s mother sent her half-a dozen books in the Gor series.
I asked her if her mother knew the series. No, she didn’t know anything about F&SF, just picked them up in a rummage sale.
“Why, are they any good?”
“Well, they’re different”, I replied.
Yeah, I think Dr. Yueh mentions it to the Baron, briefly, in blink-and-you’ll-miss-it style: show, don’t tell!
Yeah, I figure that’s how Book Depository winds up listing Red Mars next to Princess of Mars. Parents and aunts and uncles know the kid likes sci-fi / astronomy / Mars, and buy anything with Mars in the title.
Really enjoyed Free Guy. Whole family did.
Tried to watch Small Engine Repair but wasn’t feeling it.
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) - It’s an incredibly long movie (about 3 hours long) but it was engaging enough that it didn’t feel nearly as long. All in all it was a very strong movie with reasonable level of mawkishness and propaganda. The ensemble was evidently phenomenal, especially Spencer Tracy. I know people usually single out Schell, Clift, Garland or even Lancaster as the stand-outs, but I thought Tracy beautiful anchored all the grievances and chaos around him with grace and dignity. His character Judge Haywood approaches the trials with such admirable humility and inquisitive sincerity. Definitely one of the great jurists in cinema. His closing statement is imo one of the best monologues I have ever seen. Not only is the writing perfection and the message important, Tracy’s delivery is nothing short of transcendent.
The Search (1948) - An adequate companion piece to Judgment at Nuremberg. Monty Clift elevated a fairly thinly-written role with abundance of charm, and the child actor was also quite good. The film showed the psychological trauma the persecuted children sustained in concentration camps intelligently (though I definitely could do without the annoying narration), and the chemistry between Monty and the kid was really good, but the writing was lacking in parts. The climax in the end was in particular anti-climatic as fuck.
Btw it was quite chilling to learn that the child actor couldn’t leave Czechoslovakia after the film was released as Prague had fallen under the hem of the Soviets then. Sad.
this has been on my netflix list for some time because i like domhnall gleeson, but the rom-com-ness of it has delayed viewing. have to say, i enjoyed it. i read ‘the time travellers wife’ and loved it, and the movie was such a disappointment, but this was the movie that that book could have been. a bit sappy, but fun.
Boris Vallejo.
I’ll leave that here.
That movie actually seems to have quite a following. Like you I just thought it was OK.
I think the following is more because it’s an unjustly maligned film. It’s remembered - if at all - as a terrible clunker of a film. But it’s actually a decent sci-fi / action movie. Sort of like Ishtar is apparently not all that bad? But at least Ishtar is remembered.
Gotta disagree on Ishtar. IMO that movie is/was pretty bad. Not Dick Tracy bad, but close.
Cape Fear (1962) - Robert Mitchum was monumental, the cinematography and direction masterful, but the story itself really brought it down. The whole time I was thinking how stupid and inept every single character was. Their dumb actions and lines of thought really took me out of it.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) - Aesthetically faultess and the story was engrossing. Haven’t read the book so I can’t tell if it’s a worthy adaptation, but as a stand-alone movie it’s pretty good.
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They (1969) - One of the pulpiest, bleakest, cruelest movies ever. It really was good fun. I’ve never really liked Jane Fonda much but she was staggeringly good in this. A movie everyone should watch before signing up for a reality show lmao.
The Grifters (1990) - For a film noir about a bunch of grifters the script was too loose to keep me enthralled. Only worth watching for Anjelina Huston. One of the best I’ve seen from her.
David Byrne’s American Utopia
Amazing performance, mezmerizing, incredibly creative and artistic, Broadway show level and he is so entertaining to watch. Sometimes you get to see something special and sometimes it gets recorded, this is one of those things.
Use good sound system or headphones.
Another great one.
Also rewatched Full Metal Jacket. A Clockwork Orange next.
I hadn’t heard about it, but it looks interesting. I’ll give it a go later.
