Past Movies: Part Deux

[220chrisTian]

Shadowlander: thanks for the recommendations! Literary classics and World War II films are my FAVORITE genres. I've seen The Longest Day a few times, first on TV (anniversary) and later on DVD. I love John Wayne. I've also seen A Bridge Too Far on DVD. It's a sad story but people need to know. Have you seen The Guns of Navarone with Gregory Peck? I highly recommend it!

[Shadowlander]

I have indeed seen The Guns of Navarone, quite a few times, though admittedly it's been a while . If you enjoyed The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far, I'll also recommend giving both the books a look. The author is Cornelius Ryan, and he did a bang up job writing about each of these battles, with lots of characters, interesting tidbits during individual skirmishes and actions, and a few humorous anecdotes from the soldiers who fought in them. He also wrote The Last Battle, about the Soviets finally pushing into Berlin. That was a great read too, and I wish they'd make an ensemble film of it like they did with his other two books.

Here's a few others to check out if you haven't seen them yet. I'll mark the ones that may be a bit...brutal with 3 asterisks.

Sink the Bismarck! (1960)
Von Ryan's Express (1965)
Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
The Battle of Britain (1969)
Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Midway (1976)
The Enemy Below (1957)
Battle of the Bulge (1965)
The Thin Red Line (1998) ***
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
Go for Broke! (1951)
The Dam Busters (1955)
The Great Escape (1963)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Memphis Belle (1990)
Saving Private Ryan (1998) ***
The Great Raid (2005) ***
Defiance (2008)
My Way (2011) ***

I'll go ahead and also recommend Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Both were miniseries on HBO and are faithful retellings of the Army Airborne (BoB) and the US Marines on Guadalcanal, Peleliu, and Iwo Jima (TP). They're both incredible series and beloved by almost any fan of WW2 films. There's still a number of films I have yet to see, some old, some new, like To Hell and Back, Enemy at the Gates, and Fury, among others. Not an exhaustive list, but certainly worth looking at.

Oh, and a few to avoid, at least to my tastes. Pearl Harbor (2001) had such potential but they stuck an unneeded romance/love triangle in it, which unfortunately bogged the film down. Lots of it was made up on the go and even if the dogfights were nice to look at they were still noticeably CGI. I enjoyed Red Tails (2012) for the most part but the editing is very distracting and it comes across like a made for TV film. The dogfight sequences are CGI but still lovely to look at, and the story is a good one. Kelly's Heroes (1970) just annoys the stuffing out of me, as does 1941 (1979), despite the latter being produced by Spielberg.

A quick note on My Way, listed above. I saw this one on Netflix and wasn't really expecting any great shakes but was totally immersed in it within the first 20 minutes. It's about two Korean men who are rivals at foot racing. When the Japanese take over Korea one becomes an officer and the other is conscripted, and it tells of their rather ugly relationship from the start and how the pair ultimately makes their way all the way to Germany where they fought at the beaches of Normandy on D-Day as best friends. It's a Korean film so unless you speak it you'll probably need subtitles like I did . Crazy story and apparently based on a true account, but rather amazing at the same time.

[SnowAngel]

Shadowlander, did you seriously say you don't like Kelly's Heroes??? That's a family favorite at my house!!! Don't listen to him, 220, it's a terrific movie.

My younger sister and I love the Captain America movies, I own both of them and little sis keeps asking to watch them. So I let her watch CA:TFA while big brother and I watched Black Hawk Down the other night, now big brother doesn't think we will wait until mid May to watch The Avengers and Cap 2. A couple weeks I told little sis and big brother we would re-watch them then. I totally and very immaturely intent to prove him wrong.

Big brother was the entertainment supplier last week, with The Outlaw Josey Wales and Black Hawk Down during the week (as well the book Unbroken and the video game Medal of Honor for me). And then Unbroken (2014) last night.

Big brother saw Unbroken in the theater in December and bought/read the book in January. He had pre-ordered the Blu-ray of it, that's why he let me read the book this week. (Every time big brother mentioned it, I kept thinking that's the movie Johobbit talked about. ) Last night he talked Mom into staying up to watch it and then surprisingly my Dad stayed in the family room and watched it too. Dad was going to leave and then maybe come back, he never left until the movie was over. I said all of that to say this if my Dad isn't completely interested in something he doesn't stay. He was very interested in Unbroken even though he didn't know anything about it before.

Unbroken was very good and highly interesting (obviously). I think the sharks took everyone by surprise, although I was expecting more after reading the book. And just like the book I highly recommend Unbroken the movie.

My little brother is sitting on my lap while I am trying to write this even though he should be in bed asleep and he keeps doing this - copycatting the little smilie.

SnowAngel

[johobbit]

Thanks for these various WWII recommendations, SL and SA! I am fascinated by that intense time of history.

SnowAngel, I have read (and loved) Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, but have not seen the film. My hubby saw it, though, and said that while on its own it was a good movie, it really didn't do the book justice.

I saw Still Alice in the theatre a couple of weeks ago and thought it very good. The ending took us aback somewhat, as it seemed too abrupt. Still, how does one bring to a conclusion such a poignant movie?! My mom has Alzheimer's, so, needless to say, watching this was a tear-jerker. But, as always, the book exceeds any big screen adaptation, 'though, overall, it was very faithful.

[220chrisTian]

Shadowlander: Thanks for the book recommendations. Of the films you listed, these are the ones I’ve seen.

Band of Brothers (too much foul language for me)
The Battle of Britain
Battle of the Bulge (liked)
The Dirty Dozen
The Great Escape
Kelly’s Heroes (liked)
Memphis Belle (best part is the music)
Midway (liked)
Pearl Harbor (incredibly bad)
Red Tails
Run Silent, Run Deep
Von Ryan's Express (liked)

I liked Kelly’s Heroes because they were gung-ho to win battles. The sad irony is that they fought so well because they were chasing money instead of rescuing victims. [Have you seen Gung-Ho (1942)? I had no idea it was a Japanese term!] Here are some more recommendations; my favorites are in bold. I love epic scores!

The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
Empire of the Sun
The Hiding Place
La Vita e Bella
Paradise Road
The Pianist

SnowAngel: I liked Josey Wales, since I'm a big fan of Clint Eastwood westerns (Two Mules for Sister Sarah!). I'll watch Unbroken when my public library gets a copy. I haven't seen the Captain America series, since I try to pick movies that I know my mom will watch. She avoids certain genres and actors, as do I, but our interests don't always match.

Johobbit: I plan to see Still Alice when it's on DVD, since my grandfather died of the disease in the mid-90s. But he was over 70.

[Puddleglum]

Just saw Do You Believe? the other night with the Mrs. Excellent! For those unfamilliar I will not spoil the suprise, but I will say that it was well written, and acted. The Christian message was spot on, and not presented in such a way as to get sappy.
The script contains enough straightforward messages, mixed in with bits of humor to lighten things up.
Some of the scenes might be a little intense for the very young, but very mild compaired to much of hollywood fare in theatrs today.

[220chrisTian]

Thanks for the recommendation, Puddleglum!

Shadowlander: I loved War and Remembrance, a mini-series based on Herman Wouk’s novel. I haven’t seen his The Winds of War, which was also adapted for TV. Shining Through, set in Washington, DC and Nazi Berlin, has an all-star cast (Liam Neeson, etc) but a flawed script. I’d love to see One Against the Wind with Judy Davis, but I can’t find a copy anywhere. Valkryie with Tom Cruise: I wouldn’t have been part of the plot to kill Hitler, but the story was a national tragedy. Have you seen The Young Lions with Marlon Brando? It’s a strange film that tells the stories of three soldiers: two Americans (one Jewish) and a German Nazi.

[Alice_WL]

Hey all..

I just saw Hotel Transylvania in its entirety today for the first time. I liked it.

I like most Disney movies, and Frozen is currently my favorite (next to the Frozen Fever short). I'm also waiting for disney's Cinderella (2015) to come to DVD, I hate going to theaters.. Too loud for my sensitive ears.. :/

Snow White and the Huntsman (which has fighting scenes), is a non-disney movie I also like. I'm more into the fantasy / fairytale / magical (family friendly) type movies. Reality movies just don't hold any interest for me.

The Narnia movies were great as well. They did great with the CGI. ^_^

[wild rose]

Alice_WL, I liked Frozen too, but I felt the plot was rather unfinished and a little under developed, but I really enjoyed the characters. Who was your favorite character? Mine was Kristoff

I haven't seen the new Disney Cinderella, I wanted to go to the theaters to see it, but it came out around the same time as Annie, and I only had the funds to see one movie, so I went with Annie (which I really enjoyed by the way, it was pretty good for a remake.) I'm also waiting for Cinderella to come out on DVD so I can see it. I'm a little annoyed though, that Disney is remaking all their cartoons into live action films, it sort of seems like a cheap way to make money. The trailer to Cinderella did look pretty neat, and she had a REALLY pretty dress, so I am looking forward to seeing it.

I generally love Disney cartoons, my favorite ones are Beauty and the Beast and Tangled. Cinderella and Tarzan take a close second

Oooh, and just recently I watched Big Hero Six, I really enjoyed the film, it was different from other Disney cartoons, I liked the plot and the way it turned out.

[aragorn2]

Just rewatched Edgar Wright's The Worlds End the final film in the Cornetto trilogy. It's my personal favorite of the 3. The first 2 while hilarious rarely rose above the level of very well made spoofs. This final one combine Wrights great humor with great characters and a surprisingly poignant story. And it's got some of the best brawls scenes I've ever seen.

(But it does have a lot of language)

[Aslanisthebest]

*notes the WWII film reccomendations* Ditto to what jo said--such an interesting time.

Who was your favorite character? Mine was Kristoff

Ditto!

My sister watched the new Cinderella, and her summary of it was, "The story was not very original, but the whole thing was like watching a fairy tale." I'm waiting until it comes out on video to see it.

Last night, I watched Life is Beautiful. It was technically a rewatch, but the first time I watched it, I was too young to really remember anything about it. I think it makes it on my top five favorite films. Such a beautiful movie. Not many movies make me cry, but this one did constantly. I think the fact that it is centered on these characters and how the changing world of WWII affected them rather than being focused on characters in WWII is what makes it very powerful storytelling.

[wild rose]

Bella, Life is Beautiful is truly an amazing film. The first part you are laughing your head off and by the end you just end up in tears.

Seeing you enjoy WWII movies I thought I'd recommend The Dawns Here Are Quiet, it's a Russian 1972 movie, but it can be found with English subtitles. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. I saw it accidentally on tv a while back (when we still had a tv ) and I seriously cried through it.

[220chrisTian]

I've seen Life is Beautiful many times.

I watched Ben Hur (1959) on DVD this week. One extra was "The Making of an Epic" (1993), narrated by Christopher Plummer. Compared to other biblical films from this era (Robe, Ten Commandments), Ben Hur is well done – cast, cinematography, costumes, music, etc. But compared to the novel on which it’s supposedly based, this film is a travesty. Gore Vidal and Christopher Fry’s screenplay is horrific! Ben Hur and Messala’s falling out isn’t a lover’s quarrel either. We need an adaptation that gets all the religious elements of Lew Wallace’s novel right.

[stargazer]

I had a chance to view Interstellar this weekend with friends, and agree with the reviews of it that were posted before (beginning here).

It definitely reminded me of 2001, and even the musical score hinted at this a number of times, but I found this movie far more interesting and watchable. I liked the father/daughter dynamic and the worlds at the other end of the wormhole.

Watching it as I did with a number of self-proclaimed sci-fi geeks, most of the main plot points and surprises were called out very early (who the ghost was, who 'they' were, Doyle's role as a redshirt, etc), but it was still enjoyable to watch. I liked the importance of time as a theme and the way they dealt with relativity and time dilation.

A couple of nitpicks: the huge waves on the water world would probably have been visible as they came in for a landing, saving the trouble there. And why wasn't the ship equipped with several probes so all the planets could be checked out at once? All it really would have to be is a radiation-shielded camera. That would have solved the dilemma of not having time to check out each planet in person. (I imagine it's possible that the time dilation effects would have hampered this).

But all in all a very enjoyable movie. Some liberties were taken with current theory about what happens when something crosses a singularity's event horizon, but physics near a black hole is so crazy anyway that this really didn't matter (unlike Gravity, which messed with well-known properties of its title force in the familiar environment of low earth orbit ).

[johobbit]

We have opened a general Movies topic here, which includes Past, Present, and Future Movies. For any related discussion, that's the place to go.