Posted by bagchucker on 5/31/2018 12:26:00 AM (view original):
ahhhh, to be a general

i hope this isnt you cliffs noting the 2k page thriller you said you read

Ha, there was a great early episode of Cheers that revolved around Sam going sleepless for about a week to finish War and Peace in order to impress Diane, and in the final scene he wants to kill Cliff for not telling him there was a movie he could have watched instead.

SAM: How long is this book?

CLIFF: I've delivered a few for the book clubs and it's three-and-a-half pounds.

COACH: Forget it, Sam. Nobody can read four ounces a day.

I doubt anyone's heart would be in it anymore. It would be like a Cosby Show reboot with Jimmie "J.J." Walker now playing the dad.

Posted by bagchucker on 5/31/2018 12:48:00 AM (view original):
academy award best foreign language film

my gf will find it for me and watch it with me based on that

Ha! Like you have a GF!!! :)

Posted by crazystengel on 5/30/2018 12:45:00 PM (view original):
I finished watching War and Peace (1968 Russian version) last night. Absolutely brilliant, and beautiful to look at (so many shots are framed like great paintings). There are plenty of American and British screen adaptions of Tolstoy's novel, but you really have to go to the Russians for this one. An American War and Peace is about as proper as a Polish Huckleberry Finn or an Egyptian Great Gatsby.

Here's Roger Ebert's review, which I think is very fair.

Also, read the book first! You'll appreciate the movie a lot more that way.

Is that Kutuzov sitting? Haven't seen the movie but the book is fantastic.

Yes, that's him. The actor was perfectly cast for the role, Brandoesque but less hammy.

A few of the roles unfortunately were given to actors who were too old for their parts. For example the woman who played Helene (Pierre's cheating wife with the golden bosom) was 10-15 years too late to play her character. That's about the only quibble I had with the film, the ages of some of the actors not matching up with the ages of their characters.

Posted by crazystengel on 6/1/2018 12:27:00 AM (view original):
Yes, that's him. The actor was perfectly cast for the role, Brandoesque but less hammy.

A few of the roles unfortunately were given to actors who were too old for their parts. For example the woman who played Helene (Pierre's cheating wife with the golden bosom) was 10-15 years too late to play her character. That's about the only quibble I had with the film, the ages of some of the actors not matching up with the ages of their characters.

Cool. The way Tolstoy describes him, I figured it had to be him. I can picture that actor nearly falling asleep at any moment.

Yeah, Hélène is, what, 18 (to start off) in the book? Only Princess Mary would I understand being cast with a slightly older woman (of the ones that get married.) I need to set aside a month and read it again.

Posted by dino27 on 6/1/2018 2:41:00 PM (view original):
killing eve gets my highest recommendation...watched 2 episodes now,,.....sandra oh is great as a self absorbed sleuth.......the assasin is very sexy charismatic and brings a james gandolfino range to her character........there is a high entertainment quotient and british wit galore.
it has received rave reviews.

British wit as in Monty Python-esque or more a satire/black humor?

Posted by dino27 on 6/1/2018 3:10:00 PM (view original):
i cant say enough also about netflix.....it is so international......korean.....japanese...korean...british.....etc......all original netflix programming.
they should have shows with chinese actors..english subtitles..can do in usa or other countries.......chinese speaking audiences are very much left out.

there! I think you've said enough about Netflix! I knew you could do it! :)

didn't they make a Man From Uncle movie a few years ago?

Yes, they did:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1638355/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Posted by dino27 on 6/3/2018 4:24:00 PM (view original):
TOP 20 GRAVEST VAMPIRE MOVIES

1. DRACULA - BELA LUGOSI - 1931 - fangtastic
2. DRACULA - CHRITOPHER LEE - 1958 - let it bleed
3. 30 DAYS OF NIGHT - 2008 - terrifying

The Christopher Lee version is superb. William Marshall's portrayal in Blackula is actually pretty damn good.

Mitch Hedberg: "I went to a doctor, all he did was suck blood from my neck. Don't go see Dr. Acula."

Quote from last week's New Yorker on the effect of superhero movies on the film industry:

[A] minimal standard of human relatability is not being met, on a routine basis, in the medium’s most dominant genre. People who are nothing like us rescuing a world that is nothing like ours is not a recipe for artistic renewal.

"Human relatability" indeed! No superhero movie playing right now has a chance to move me as much as War and Peace did, despite War and Peace being a 50-year-old Russian film based on a 150-year-old Russian novel.

Posted by crazystengel on 6/3/2018 10:52:00 PM (view original):
Quote from last week's New Yorker on the effect of superhero movies on the film industry:

[A] minimal standard of human relatability is not being met, on a routine basis, in the medium’s most dominant genre. People who are nothing like us rescuing a world that is nothing like ours is not a recipe for artistic renewal.

"Human relatability" indeed! No superhero movie playing right now has a chance to move me as much as War and Peace did, despite War and Peace being a 50-year-old Russian film based on a 150-year-old Russian novel.

Where on earth did you find it? I don't do Netflix so I may have a hard time finding a copy.

DVD from the library. I'm very fortunate to be in Toronto, we've got a terrific library system.