I woke up feeling....funky.
You'd best believe I'm answering everything with a sharp "Sho'Nuff!" today.
You'd best believe I'm answering everything with a sharp "Sho'Nuff!" today.
Movies Share movies you've watched or are going to watch today.
- Thread starter Dr. Gori
- Start date
Gonna watch Jingle All of the Way with Arny Schwarzeneggnog in it. 
Update: It was pretty damn good & funny. Yes, I did purposely spell Arnold Schwarzenegger's name wrong, to mainly be funny but also to give it that old Christmas spirit!
Update: It was pretty damn good & funny. Yes, I did purposely spell Arnold Schwarzenegger's name wrong, to mainly be funny but also to give it that old Christmas spirit!
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Rewatched one of my favorite Hercule Poirot movies, Evil Under The Sun (1982)!
One of the better Agatha Christie adaptations, if only because the mystery is relatively solvable for the audience. You get everyone's story of where they were during the murder, and conflicting details make it clear one is lying. Good old-fashioned deductive reasoning, and no surprises involving rare poisons.
The movie's also set up like a fun vacation at a beautiful island resort, in the vein of the older Bond movies. It's even directed by Guy Hamilton, of Goldfinger fame.
Albert Finney got the oscar nomination for his Murder on the Orient Express, and Kenneth Brannagh's most recent Haunting in Venice was such a sharp improvement on his last two films, but Peter Ustinov remains my favorite film Poirot.
One of the better Agatha Christie adaptations, if only because the mystery is relatively solvable for the audience. You get everyone's story of where they were during the murder, and conflicting details make it clear one is lying. Good old-fashioned deductive reasoning, and no surprises involving rare poisons.
The movie's also set up like a fun vacation at a beautiful island resort, in the vein of the older Bond movies. It's even directed by Guy Hamilton, of Goldfinger fame.
Albert Finney got the oscar nomination for his Murder on the Orient Express, and Kenneth Brannagh's most recent Haunting in Venice was such a sharp improvement on his last two films, but Peter Ustinov remains my favorite film Poirot.
Going watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas here in a bit.
Today's movie was Marie-Octobre (1959)!
If you've seen 12 Angry Men, that's the simplest comparison for Marie-Octobre. A drama with one location, where eleven people gather to talk for ninety minutes. In this case, not about an official jury verdict, though it is a matter of life or death.
The cast of characters are all former members of a French Resistance cell, gathering to commemorate the death of their leader, Castille, in the closing days of the war. It's a warm scene with old friends, until Marie reveals that she's learned of a betrayal; one of the people in the room gave up their meeting place to the Nazi occupation forces. One of them was a traitor, and got Castille shot. The rest of the film then is an interrogation of one another, as they all rack their brains, recount that fateful night from their perspective, and try to decide as a group which of their former comrades deserves to die tonight.
The whole movie can feel a bit like a stage play, with people just having discussions in a handful of rooms, but the director keeps finding new angles to hold our attention and leverage one of the movies best assets, the gorgeous French mansion of the setting. It's furnished like an old palace, with one modern touch: a television that one of the characters constantly tries to watch a pro wrestling match on. It's maybe a little silly, but the fight is a visual trick to look clearer than any television of the time could, so as to better call our attention to it. The implication is a kind of a metaphor for the verbal sparring happening between our main cast, and while it's another element to break up the potential monotony of almost a dozen people standing around talking, it may be a little on the nose.
Still, the performances are a treat, the movie runs through all manner of possible twists as everyone reveals more about themselves and each other, the group dynamics change as old grudges are brought to light, and has a satisfying conclusion, if not one you might see coming a little early. (No spoilers, but the writers drop a hint of sorts early on that I jumped on mostly for a laugh, then was surprised to find it was genuine.)
At just over ninety minutes, it's a tight and tense little drama that I'd recommend to anyone.
If you've seen 12 Angry Men, that's the simplest comparison for Marie-Octobre. A drama with one location, where eleven people gather to talk for ninety minutes. In this case, not about an official jury verdict, though it is a matter of life or death.
The cast of characters are all former members of a French Resistance cell, gathering to commemorate the death of their leader, Castille, in the closing days of the war. It's a warm scene with old friends, until Marie reveals that she's learned of a betrayal; one of the people in the room gave up their meeting place to the Nazi occupation forces. One of them was a traitor, and got Castille shot. The rest of the film then is an interrogation of one another, as they all rack their brains, recount that fateful night from their perspective, and try to decide as a group which of their former comrades deserves to die tonight.
The whole movie can feel a bit like a stage play, with people just having discussions in a handful of rooms, but the director keeps finding new angles to hold our attention and leverage one of the movies best assets, the gorgeous French mansion of the setting. It's furnished like an old palace, with one modern touch: a television that one of the characters constantly tries to watch a pro wrestling match on. It's maybe a little silly, but the fight is a visual trick to look clearer than any television of the time could, so as to better call our attention to it. The implication is a kind of a metaphor for the verbal sparring happening between our main cast, and while it's another element to break up the potential monotony of almost a dozen people standing around talking, it may be a little on the nose.
Still, the performances are a treat, the movie runs through all manner of possible twists as everyone reveals more about themselves and each other, the group dynamics change as old grudges are brought to light, and has a satisfying conclusion, if not one you might see coming a little early. (No spoilers, but the writers drop a hint of sorts early on that I jumped on mostly for a laugh, then was surprised to find it was genuine.)
At just over ninety minutes, it's a tight and tense little drama that I'd recommend to anyone.
Probaly going to watch FF Advent Children today.
For some weird reason, I saw a bunch of documentaries over this holiday season that all share one thing in common: at least some parts of them were probably made up! Let's dig in:
Be My Cat: A Film for Anne was a weird fucking found footage horror movie about a Romanian amateur filmmaker who's trying to convince Anne Hathaway – the real-world Hollywood actress – to star in his movie. It's heavily psychological and very unnerving to watch, but the acting was superb and the locations in particular were nightmarish. One of the actresses in particular looks so close to Hathaway that it really freaked me out when BAD STUFF started happening to her... great cast of only four characters.
I do like good found footage, but the vast majority of the genre sucks gorillas through a crazy straw, so maybe I'm overly generous when a good one comes along. I'd totally recommend checking this out, though – there are no jump scares or instances of gratuitous gore or anything, just a scarily-realistic depiction of Eastern-European actress fandom.
I remember Catfish being a really big deal at the time – the "don't tell anyone what it is" marketing worked, and a lot of my friends were really impressed by it. I knew what the story generally was going in, because now "catfish" has been coined as a term for "people on the internet who lie about themselves", but I don't think it really affected anything. It's about these late-2000s hipster millennials who go to meet a guy's internet girlfriend and get a little more than they bargained for.
There's this whole controversy over whether or not the filmmakers completely made this story up – I'm of the opinion that they kind of did embellish some parts, but it's still entertaining. The characters are all kind of insufferable for the first half, but by the time the story really gets going, it is interesting, and I'd say makes the watch worth it. The "young people on Facebook" era of the internet is now dead and gone, so if you want to revisit it, this is as good a movie as any.
And, finally, as I mentioned, I saw Feels Good Man – the Pepe the Frog documentary – too! I kind of felt obligated to see this, because I was "there" – I posted on 4chan during the 2016 election season, and it was definitely a culture worth documenting, for better or worse. When you see any documentary like this, you kind of know what you're getting into, but I thought the filmmakers and especially the editors did a very good job of presenting several sides of the story.
Matt Furie, who created Pepe, comes off as a completely unsympathetic, monotonous, Californian hipster comic creator, as do his colleagues – but, really, did you expect any different? The last third of the movie is about him "winning" a battle against Alex Jones, but seeing the two interrogations side-by-side, you can tell the filmmakers are saying "both of these people are fucking psychos". It was a very even-handed documentary, which surprised me.
They interview some "4channers" who I'm certain were complete plants – one is the stereotypical fat guy who lives with his mother, the other is a Tumblr femanon who wears thick-rimmed glasses and has a laptop covered in lolicon stickers, and the last is a ridiculous crypto bro who sings along to an altered version of the Pokemon theme in a swanky car and shows off his rare NFT collection. I kept imagining what my parents would think if they watched this! The movie is very steeped in 4chan culture – seeing the word "wagecuck" and this reaction image in an actual film was weird – and, to the filmmakers' credit, they don't tone anything down.
What I liked most about the movie was, unbelievably, the visuals. Seeing the "canon" version of Pepe animated alongside his friends from the original Boy's Club comic was kind of mind-boggling after knowing him as a reaction image who presses the button on the outside of the gas chamber, but I thought the animators did a really good job capturing the character. I'd totally watch an animated series of him, which will obviously never happen. Honestly, I thought this movie was great, and I'd completely check it out if you either were a 4channer or are interested in the culture... though, of course, be prepared to see some koo-koo stuff if you do.
ALL THESE MOVIES WERE GOOD! I can't believe it – I need to spend more of my time watching stuff like this, clearly!
Be My Cat: A Film for Anne was a weird fucking found footage horror movie about a Romanian amateur filmmaker who's trying to convince Anne Hathaway – the real-world Hollywood actress – to star in his movie. It's heavily psychological and very unnerving to watch, but the acting was superb and the locations in particular were nightmarish. One of the actresses in particular looks so close to Hathaway that it really freaked me out when BAD STUFF started happening to her... great cast of only four characters.
I do like good found footage, but the vast majority of the genre sucks gorillas through a crazy straw, so maybe I'm overly generous when a good one comes along. I'd totally recommend checking this out, though – there are no jump scares or instances of gratuitous gore or anything, just a scarily-realistic depiction of Eastern-European actress fandom.
There's this whole controversy over whether or not the filmmakers completely made this story up – I'm of the opinion that they kind of did embellish some parts, but it's still entertaining. The characters are all kind of insufferable for the first half, but by the time the story really gets going, it is interesting, and I'd say makes the watch worth it. The "young people on Facebook" era of the internet is now dead and gone, so if you want to revisit it, this is as good a movie as any.
Matt Furie, who created Pepe, comes off as a completely unsympathetic, monotonous, Californian hipster comic creator, as do his colleagues – but, really, did you expect any different? The last third of the movie is about him "winning" a battle against Alex Jones, but seeing the two interrogations side-by-side, you can tell the filmmakers are saying "both of these people are fucking psychos". It was a very even-handed documentary, which surprised me.
They interview some "4channers" who I'm certain were complete plants – one is the stereotypical fat guy who lives with his mother, the other is a Tumblr femanon who wears thick-rimmed glasses and has a laptop covered in lolicon stickers, and the last is a ridiculous crypto bro who sings along to an altered version of the Pokemon theme in a swanky car and shows off his rare NFT collection. I kept imagining what my parents would think if they watched this! The movie is very steeped in 4chan culture – seeing the word "wagecuck" and this reaction image in an actual film was weird – and, to the filmmakers' credit, they don't tone anything down.
What I liked most about the movie was, unbelievably, the visuals. Seeing the "canon" version of Pepe animated alongside his friends from the original Boy's Club comic was kind of mind-boggling after knowing him as a reaction image who presses the button on the outside of the gas chamber, but I thought the animators did a really good job capturing the character. I'd totally watch an animated series of him, which will obviously never happen. Honestly, I thought this movie was great, and I'd completely check it out if you either were a 4channer or are interested in the culture... though, of course, be prepared to see some koo-koo stuff if you do.
ALL THESE MOVIES WERE GOOD! I can't believe it – I need to spend more of my time watching stuff like this, clearly!
I watched the Laid-Back Camp Movie & it was really funny & good. I've been meaning to watch it since 2022.
Well, this kinda sucked. Today's movie was Human Desire (1954).
Fritz Lang followed up his 1953 hit, The Big Heat, with another noir film starring the main actors from that movie, Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame. It worked, why change it? The basic premise:
"A Korean War vet returns to his job as a railroad engineer and becomes involved in an affair with a co-worker's wife following a murder on a train where they meet."
Sounds like messy fun, I had to see it. Trouble is, the Hays Code was in effect, and the studio censors sure thought it was messy too. Instead of a love triangle of dangerous passions, you get a murderous husband, a manipulative wife, and a...virtuous hero? As the movie reaches a boiling point of tension, with the veteran asking his lover to marry him, she reveals the full scope of her husbands crimes. "If only he were gone", she implies. Will Glenn Ford kill his lover's husband, has desire driven him to the brink?
Nah, that would be too *fun*. The studio dictated that all guilty parties pay for their crimes, and the protagonist be a moral man who would never entertain the idea. In the most anti-drama choice possible, Ford just washes his hands of the whole affair and leaves. The husband murders his wife when she tries to leave him, and our hero is implied to take up with a younger woman who's barely in the movie. Jesus wept.
I watched it, but I wouldn't tell anyone else to. Everyone involved made better movies, watch those instead.
Fritz Lang followed up his 1953 hit, The Big Heat, with another noir film starring the main actors from that movie, Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame. It worked, why change it? The basic premise:
"A Korean War vet returns to his job as a railroad engineer and becomes involved in an affair with a co-worker's wife following a murder on a train where they meet."
Sounds like messy fun, I had to see it. Trouble is, the Hays Code was in effect, and the studio censors sure thought it was messy too. Instead of a love triangle of dangerous passions, you get a murderous husband, a manipulative wife, and a...virtuous hero? As the movie reaches a boiling point of tension, with the veteran asking his lover to marry him, she reveals the full scope of her husbands crimes. "If only he were gone", she implies. Will Glenn Ford kill his lover's husband, has desire driven him to the brink?
Nah, that would be too *fun*. The studio dictated that all guilty parties pay for their crimes, and the protagonist be a moral man who would never entertain the idea. In the most anti-drama choice possible, Ford just washes his hands of the whole affair and leaves. The husband murders his wife when she tries to leave him, and our hero is implied to take up with a younger woman who's barely in the movie. Jesus wept.
I watched it, but I wouldn't tell anyone else to. Everyone involved made better movies, watch those instead.
Excellent movie – I saw this right before the pandemic and I was stunned at how apt it was all these years later. BERGMAN WAS A GENIUS!!!!!
Absolutley he was.
Crisis and The Devil's Eye are good to
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I totally agree—Smile 2 was excellent. I had reservations about the first one because the marketing made it seem like another generic Blumhouse movie, but I ended up loving it. I think Smile 2 stood out because the pop singer angle was a fresh twist. The cinematography was also fantastic, especially during the drug deal opening scene.”
I totally agree—Smile 2 was excellent. I had reservations about the first one because the marketing made it seem like another generic Blumhouse movie, but I ended up loving it. I think Smile 2 stood out because the pop singer angle was a fun place to take the story and differed enough from the original to make it fresh.
The cinematography was also fantastic, especially during the drug deal opening scene.
Watched two movies! Also beat Resident Evil 2, and prepared for winter, pretty good day!
After the phenomenal success of 1934's The Thin Man, audiences were clamoring for more of William Holden and Myrna Loy's Nick & Nora. They brought excitement to married life that was seldom seen in pictures, matched only by their rampant party drinking. (Seriously, if anyone else used to tend bar, you've probably heard of a Nick and Nora glass for cocktails.)
With the same director, W.S. Van Dyke, the sequel isn't looking to rock the boat, but capitalize on the strengths of the first movie. Namely, the lead actors. They even improved the biggest failing of the previous film, Nick's parlor scene finale, the old detective staple. The original doled out a convoluted dinner room revelation that underwhelmed while dragging on forever. No fear of that happening here, with a more interesting locked room mystery, and a villainous reveal that steals the whole movie, I'd rather not spoil anything but damn, the killer, uh, kills it!
Sadly, they did make a strange mistake. After a lengthy intro sequence of Nick and Nora returning home, the middle of the movie has enormous sections that don't feature them at all, and the rest of the cast struggles, secret villain notwithstanding. The build-up of the mystery doesn't rise above hard-boiled boilerplate, and the second act drags until the climax where this movie comes alive again.
If you enjoy detective stories, the snappy dialogue of screwball comedies, or just want to try something older than your used to, give it a try! (The series usually streams on HBO Max, apparently they portioned it out to some TCM-exclusive separate service, but the series expires from their in two days and might revert back to Max.)
....I also watched Howard's End (1992), a Merchant Ivory production that landed Emma Thompson a Best Actress Oscar. I'm not sure I liked it, and I'm torn on some of what it was trying to get across. Really, I just need to sit and think on it some more, but I don't feel ready to write anything about it now.
After The Thin Man (1936)
With the same director, W.S. Van Dyke, the sequel isn't looking to rock the boat, but capitalize on the strengths of the first movie. Namely, the lead actors. They even improved the biggest failing of the previous film, Nick's parlor scene finale, the old detective staple. The original doled out a convoluted dinner room revelation that underwhelmed while dragging on forever. No fear of that happening here, with a more interesting locked room mystery, and a villainous reveal that steals the whole movie, I'd rather not spoil anything but damn, the killer, uh, kills it!
Sadly, they did make a strange mistake. After a lengthy intro sequence of Nick and Nora returning home, the middle of the movie has enormous sections that don't feature them at all, and the rest of the cast struggles, secret villain notwithstanding. The build-up of the mystery doesn't rise above hard-boiled boilerplate, and the second act drags until the climax where this movie comes alive again.
If you enjoy detective stories, the snappy dialogue of screwball comedies, or just want to try something older than your used to, give it a try! (The series usually streams on HBO Max, apparently they portioned it out to some TCM-exclusive separate service, but the series expires from their in two days and might revert back to Max.)
....I also watched Howard's End (1992), a Merchant Ivory production that landed Emma Thompson a Best Actress Oscar. I'm not sure I liked it, and I'm torn on some of what it was trying to get across. Really, I just need to sit and think on it some more, but I don't feel ready to write anything about it now.
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Anyone in to Max Payne? That movie was ass right? Listen to this. My grandfather was talking to me last year about this movie he watched with John Travolta called I Am Wrath. I thought to myself "the movie sounds kinda wack but I'll bite" so I went home that night and called up my homie on Discord because we were already planning on watching a movie that night. This movie plays just like Max Payne. Dudes wife gets killed in some government stuff, so already right there it's hitting that story. But halfway through there's a specific plot point that happens that parallels Max Payne 2 and the ending parallels Max Payne 3. It's a big coincidence for sure, and the movie wasn't the greatest. But it'll always be memorable for me because I joked about it being just like Max Payne the whole time and even called like half the movie.
Recently I got the DVD of Always: Sunset on Third Street (aka Always San-chome no Yuhi) which was a slice of life movie from 2005 showing post-war Japan from the point of view of a small street in Tokyo when its tower was being built in the late 50's. It's not flawless and has some acting flaws but it's a touching story with memorable characters interacting.
My favourite scene was the one
My favourite scene was the one
involving a TV being bought by a family so the entire neighborhood came to watch a wrestling match when suddenly it went off.
MOANA 2
I'm not even going to give this film the dignity of having a full-fledged hate rant. It was so disjointed, there was a hyped-up "villain" who ends up being a good guy and gets maybe 5 minutes of screen-time in a lame song. We don't get to see the actual villain. (Not gonna spoiler that because this film has little going for it.) Maoi becomes a useless cuckold and does nothing the whole film. Probably written by ChatGPT. Nothing was new or interesting, there were a couple of generic forced characters like the smart Lisa Simpson-type, grumpy old guy, flamboyant jock but they contributed nothing at all. They gave Moana a sister...OK, why??? I feel bad for the animators. This film did not need to exist. It sucked. 2/5, only giving it that because of the visuals. Disney has been on such a dive lately.
Did you know that every currently-announced, non-cancelled Disney movie throughout the end of the decade is either a live-action remake or a sequel? Those guys need some good new ideas ASAP.
I genuinely think we are running out of conceivable ideas. How can a company with billions to their name not be able to come up with something new? I loved Coco and Luca. Hell, even Encanto. But those looked the same as everything that came before it, based off of pre-existing ideas. Maybe we have reached our creative limit.
There are enough folk tales in the world to make movies of.
It's not like we dried out humanity's folio of oral history.
I liked Moana 1 but I was a bit disappoint with Raya and the Last Dragon because while it's an interesting setting the story felt a bit too much the same as we got before (like getting artefacts and making tribes going together against a common foe).
Live Actions are also quite lazy when the original still stood up. I could've expected a remake of Snow White in a more modern 2D drawing style because it clearly shows its age but that wouldn't make it automatically better because it's good to see how things evolved.
Even Japan has that bad habit of making Live Actions of good animes or making sequels of sequels (like DB Super and Boruto) when fresh ideas can come in.
I think it's more so Hollywood and a lot of other existing western studios that have hit the creative limit. They are realizing lately that they can't keep doing the same stuff over and over anymore. I think Streaming has played a big part in this because risk taking isn't as prevalent as it was with traditional tv. I mean you can come up with the next big "binge-worthy" series that gets funneled through all of the streaming platforms and then when one of them picks it up and craps that first season out, and it sucks? They can just silently cancel that and move on. And I think that's been bleeding into the movie industry where now you see on theater week the movie also gets dropped on a streaming platform. That way they can maximize how much money it generates even if it's a steaming pile of doodoo, because at least you have millions of other things to watch if you don't like the new Captain America or Lilo and Stitch Live Action.
I've heard of this one recently, looks absolutely bonkers. It's a strange glam-rock musical that adapts Phantom of the Opera into a contemporary (1974) setting in the corrupt music business. It was directed by Brian De Palma, who also directed Scarface a couple of years later. I heard really great things about this movie and it's soundtrack too. I didn't spoil myself about too much about this movie, so I'm going in mostly blind save for a couple of frames I saw, some trivia and background info I found. What's really cool is that Atlas Studio took inspiration from this movie for the character designs for SMT and Persona apparently! I hope the movie is good, I might comment about what I thought of it tomorrow!
Pretty freaky looking stuff! You can definitely see the inspiration for the designs of Goro Akeici in Persona 5
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@ProcolKrautSprout73 It's a pretty wild one, there's a lot of extreme close-up panning around that's kinda disorienting, but the performances are crazy and the plot's all bonkers, with a lot of the finale delivered in the fashion of a 60's Batman episode. I kinda love it, hope you have fun with it.
As for me, today I watched The Silent Partner (1978), where a cagey bank teller clashes with a nefarious mall Santa, in a gentle (until it isn't) example of "Canuxploitation". You know, butts, boobs, explicit violence, but set in Toronto! Originally directed by Daryl Duke, creative differences saw him walk not long into production, and the film's writer, Curtis Hansen, stepped in to finish the movie. Hansen must have liked the experience, as he went on to write and direct multiple movies, including the fantastic L.A. Confidential in the 90's, launching Russel Crowe's Hollywood career, and Eminem's 8 Mile years later. Does The Silent Partner feel like either of those later films? Well, not so much, but none of those had Elliot Gould and Christopher Plummer!
I can't recall a single movie growing up with Gould, until his role as the financier in Ocean's 11 (2001), and that was my loss, because this guy was one of the best leading men of the 70's. He's great here, believable in the role of a small branch bank teller in a Toronto mall, but he's just amoral enough for the darker turns he takes. To clarify, this isn't a Die Hard scenario or a heist per se, instead an observant Gould spots a robbery about to happen, and twists it to his advantage. He's a little smug, and just smart enough to believe he'll get away without consequence. Enter: Mall Santa Christopher Plummer.
If you know Plummer from movies like 1965's The Sound of Music (he knows *exactly* How To Solve A Problem Like Maria), this one might play a little shocking. He is an absolute bastard here, I'd swear he beats a woman or makes a death threat in every scene. He's not a refined gentleman thief, or a good man forced to break bad; no, this guy? Ya'll, he just isn't a nice boy. After the robber gets robbed, Plummer starts a cat and mouse game with Gould that's zero Eros, all Thanatos. These guys hate each other, and it's gonna get worse before it gets better.
There's somehow multiple romantic subplots, one of them in particular feels like a whole other movie. (My best guess, a vestigial limb from the novel it's adapted from, Think of a Number by Dutch author Anders Bodelsen.) The main love interest is compelling early on, with an intriguing Susannah York playing a little hard-to-get with Gould initially. It fizzles though, replaced with a more outlandish relationship with Céline Lomez, a French-Canadian singer who's a decent femme fatale but her role was clearly disposable, Baby's First Dangerous Woman on the writer's part. Also, a very young John Candy is here in a bit part, to keep things extra Canadian.
After a suspenseful opening, the movie eases back on the tension to it's detriment, and never really recaptures the feeling it started with. There *is* one instance later on that lands this picture in the exploitation category, a violent surprise that I won't spoil here. Another pass on the script, possibly to include more interactions between our two lead characters, would have done a lot of good in my opinion. That being said, I do lightly recommend The Silent Partner to anyone who likes either of it's stars, tense crime thrillers on the more intellectual side (there isn't really any action to speak of), or just fans of gun-toting mall Santa's. Or Canadians, maybe? I dunno, y'all might watch this every Christmas already.
Picture unrelated, I don't need a reason.
I can't recall a single movie growing up with Gould, until his role as the financier in Ocean's 11 (2001), and that was my loss, because this guy was one of the best leading men of the 70's. He's great here, believable in the role of a small branch bank teller in a Toronto mall, but he's just amoral enough for the darker turns he takes. To clarify, this isn't a Die Hard scenario or a heist per se, instead an observant Gould spots a robbery about to happen, and twists it to his advantage. He's a little smug, and just smart enough to believe he'll get away without consequence. Enter: Mall Santa Christopher Plummer.
If you know Plummer from movies like 1965's The Sound of Music (he knows *exactly* How To Solve A Problem Like Maria), this one might play a little shocking. He is an absolute bastard here, I'd swear he beats a woman or makes a death threat in every scene. He's not a refined gentleman thief, or a good man forced to break bad; no, this guy? Ya'll, he just isn't a nice boy. After the robber gets robbed, Plummer starts a cat and mouse game with Gould that's zero Eros, all Thanatos. These guys hate each other, and it's gonna get worse before it gets better.
There's somehow multiple romantic subplots, one of them in particular feels like a whole other movie. (My best guess, a vestigial limb from the novel it's adapted from, Think of a Number by Dutch author Anders Bodelsen.) The main love interest is compelling early on, with an intriguing Susannah York playing a little hard-to-get with Gould initially. It fizzles though, replaced with a more outlandish relationship with Céline Lomez, a French-Canadian singer who's a decent femme fatale but her role was clearly disposable, Baby's First Dangerous Woman on the writer's part. Also, a very young John Candy is here in a bit part, to keep things extra Canadian.
After a suspenseful opening, the movie eases back on the tension to it's detriment, and never really recaptures the feeling it started with. There *is* one instance later on that lands this picture in the exploitation category, a violent surprise that I won't spoil here. Another pass on the script, possibly to include more interactions between our two lead characters, would have done a lot of good in my opinion. That being said, I do lightly recommend The Silent Partner to anyone who likes either of it's stars, tense crime thrillers on the more intellectual side (there isn't really any action to speak of), or just fans of gun-toting mall Santa's. Or Canadians, maybe? I dunno, y'all might watch this every Christmas already.
Picture unrelated, I don't need a reason.
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I just rewatched one called "Bad Moon" its a werewolf movie that terrified me as a kid
so i decided to watch it again now that im bigger & braver..
it sucks dont bother watching it.
so i decided to watch it again now that im bigger & braver..
it sucks dont bother watching it.
the werewolf gets beaten by a regular german shepherd
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