Charade (1963) - Most joyous film I’ve seen in a while. Hepburn’s charm is off the charts and her chemistry with Grant is palpable. The script is funny and witty, the fashion is stunning, and the twists are fun and surprisingly unpretentious. Everything about it just works. Love.
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) - Such a monumental, gripping, haunting, and unusual experience. It’s one of those films that reveals itself to be really about something else altogether as the story unfolds. Hurt and Julia were revolutionary. Esp. Hurt. Definitely one of the most deserved Oscar wins in the category.
10 Rillington Place (1971) - Attenborough and John Hurt were fantastic, but the rest of the film fell flat. I guess Richard Fleischer just isn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t love Compulsion (1959) for very similar reasons.
Rewatched 《Silence》 the other night. Watched it in the cinemas in 2017 with some friends and we were all appropriately kinda silent… didn’t know what to make of it. I understood it a lot better this time round. It helped that I had perspective, coincidentally having just read a fascinating book relating to the history of it called In Search Japan’s Hidden Christians. It’s an intense film. Not for everyone, but it’s very well done. I need to go read the book now.
It was actually filmed in Taiwan, mostly in Yangmingshan and Hualien I think; I’m surprised I didn’t recognise it while watching.
‘Big Trouble in Little China’ (1986) 9/10… holy shit… this is just such a fun movie. Almost like a comic book movie before comic book movies were a thing (and more entertaining than the adequate, but by-the-numbers flicks Marvel and DC keep pumping out). If this came out today, they’d surely make a franchise out of it. It’s not deep, but just the most fun I’ve had watching a movie in ages. Kurt Russell seems like he’s having the time of his life too.
There’s a DVD with KR and JC commenting while you watch, and it seems KR didn’t really realize it was a comedy. Hard to pick a favourite JC movie but that one is in my top 3
Eh, I think the magic will be gone. You can’t recreate those very 1980s non-CGI effects and sensibilities. And it’ll probably be too PC in how it deals with Chinese mysticism and other goofy aspects of the original. Plus, I’m guessing no Carpenter.
If it gets good buzz or reviews, I’ll give it a chance though.
Yeah, that’s a great one: gloriously ridiculous. The 80s were all over the place for action movies, with highs and lows - Big Trouble was definitely one of the highs. I’ve got fond memories of seeing that with the swim team when it was in the theater - and it was so obviously set up to have a sequel at the end!
I always loved how Kurt Russell’s character isn’t really the hero of the film, spends the whole time thinking he’s the hero, but is still likable! Utterly full of himself and swaggers out at the end, and you just know the people left behind are thinking “Whoah, that white guy is really full of himself, isn’t he?”
I’m mildly confused about Dwayne Johnson continuing the franchise. I enjoy him in a lot of films; now that I think of it, the first of the recent Jumanji movies is one of the best recent heirs to the silly action movie tradition of Big Trouble in Little China. But … Kurt Russell just delightfully blunders through everything, a goofier Indiana Jones. I’m not sure if Johnson quite operates that way.
