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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
1978 | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
The Invasion
Invasion of the Body Snatchers- is one of the best remakes of all time. Its horrorfying, terrorfying, spooky, creepy and excellent.

The Plot: This remake of the classic horror film is set in San Francisco. Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) assumes that when a friend (Brooke Adams) complains of her husband's strange mood, it's a marital issue. However, he begins to worry as more people report similar observations. His concern is confirmed when writer Jack Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum) and his wife (Veronica Cartwright) discover a mutated corpse. Besieged by an invisible enemy, Bennell must work quickly before the city is consumed.

I would highly reccordmend this film.
  
Don't Look Now (1973)
Don't Look Now (1973)
1973 | Drama, Horror, Thriller

"One of my other favorite films is Don’t Look Now, which is kind of an antecedent or… something we were going for a similar vibe with our film, The Forest. I think, to date, it’s still one of the most disturbing movies that’s ever been made. I love how Venice is a very unique specific place in that movie. I’m a huge Donald Sutherland fan. I had an opportunity to work with him at one point and always loved that movie, and I was just gushing over that film. And I like its sense of stranger-in-a-strange-land, how it’s about a westerner that’s trapped in this very unique and specific environment, which is something we were trying to mimic in The Forest."

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Backdraft (1991)
Backdraft (1991)
1991 | Action, Drama, Mystery
The fire sequences and half of the acting (0 more)
The other half of the acting (0 more)
You go - we go
I remember first seeing this film when I was about 9 or 10 and loved it! I thought Kurt Russell was God and went through a stage of wanting to be a fireman. Now 'a few years' later I can objectively review it...Kurt Russell is still God!!! Along with his performance theres equally awesome ones from Robert de Niro & Donald Sutherland. Some of the other performances are a bit bad (Billy Baldwin I'm looking at you!) but the real star of the show here is the fire sequences. They are truly amazing and manage to put you in the scene so that you feel you're in the middle of the fire with them. A true classic.
  
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
1992 | Action, Comedy, Horror
Plot, casting, comedy No Angel. (0 more)
Not dark enough (0 more)
A movie you can really sink your teeth into
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a horror/comedy about a high school cheerleader who learns that it is her destiny to hunt vampires.
juggling being a student/cheerleader & Training to hunt & kill the undead proves to be a little more stressfull as the final hour draws closer.
A fun light hearted yet dark themed Classic.


 The movie was a moderate success at the box office but garnered mixed reviews by critics.

taken in a different direction than writer Joss Whedon intended, five years later, he created the darker, more successful TV series of the same name.


directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui
starring Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland, Paul Reubens, Rutger Hauer, Luke Perry, and Hilary Swank.
  
The Italian Job (2003)
The Italian Job (2003)
2003 | Action, Drama
All i can really remember about the 1969 original is that it is a crime caper, starring Michael Caine, and that it involves Mini Coopers.

As such, I'm not sure whether to class this as a remake, a reimagining or something else entirely!

This version stars Mark Wahoberg, Cherlize Theron, Donald Sutherland, Jason Staham and Oz-from-Buffy (Seth Green) and starts with a heist in Venice: a successful heist, with the perpetrators then betrayed by Ed Norton's 'Steve', who leaves them all for dead.

The rest of the film - mainly set in the States - then follows the remainder of the crew and their quest to get even against Steve, in a plot that yes, once again, involves the use of Mini Coopers!

It would hardly be The Italian Job without said cars, after all ....
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Eagle Has Landed (1976) in Movies

May 22, 2018 (Updated May 22, 2018)  
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
1976 | Action, International, Mystery
Pretty reasonable, slightly silly all-star war movie; the Germans attempt to bring the Allies to the negotiating table by kidnapping Churchill. Sent on this improbable mission is Michael Caine's decent paratrooper officer and his men, and ridiculously Irish IRA man Donald Sutherland. Spoiler alert: Germany still loses the war.

Good performances, mostly, and some well-staged action in the closing sections of the film; what's curious about it is the way that the Germans are mostly presented sympathetically, at least as much as the British and American characters. It's a war movie without bad guys, but without much sense of moral or emotional investment either - as a result it's enjoyable as a piece of action cinema, but rather shallow. (It doesn't feel like the moral ambiguity is a deliberate creative choice: Caine thought the director was more interested in going fishing than in overseeing the final edit.) Fun in a disposable sort of way; you could be forgiven for expecting more, given the talent involved.
  
Soundtrack to Fellini's Casanova by Nino Rota
Soundtrack to Fellini's Casanova by Nino Rota
1977 | Soundtrack
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"When I was young I became a huge Fellini fan and realised there was just one person doing the music for all his films. Casanova is one of the lesser known Fellini films I'd say. I hadn't seen it until my girlfriend and I watched it about five years ago. It blew me away because it's one of the spookiest; it's a very bizarre film, and the visual and musical landscape are both edgy and weird, as well as sexy. It's one of my favourites now. Nino Rota is perhaps my favourite composer now. I feel like something happened in the 60s with film scores where these classically trained composers were suddenly expanding their palettes to include synths, electric harpsichords and guitars. Nino Rota has really influenced me a lot, he chooses spooky notes and disturbing sounds, although I never knew about the Casanova score until 6 or 7 years ago. My girlfriend started watching the film with Donald Sutherland and we couldn't believe the soundtrack, it was so interesting and moody. It turned out to be my favourite Nino Rota score, even though I hadn't heard it until then."

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The Leisure Seeker (2017)
The Leisure Seeker (2017)
2017 | Drama
2
5.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A runaway couple go on an unforgettable journey in the faithful old RV they call The Leisure Seeker.



Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland in a movie together... I wanted to love this one. I'm sad to say that I really didn't.

Having not seen a trailer I was completely blindsided by the actual subject matter. From the things I've seen, and the IMDb description above along with "Adventure, Comedy, Drama" under it's entry I was expecting something entirely different. Something funny, and more like a teen road movie, but with older people. But the tale of last chance before ill health wins, is bleak to say the least.

It's a strong and important message about life with, and after, illness. The two are essentially on the run from their ill health, Ella is terminal and John is nearly completely lost to his memories. You get the fleeting highs and lows that the couple do throughout, but they don't make up for the slow and "every day" nature of the movie.

This one was another on the "I'd have left but then I wouldn't have been able to bitch about it" list.
  
A Book of Dreams
A Book of Dreams
Peter Reich | 1973 | Biography, Medical & Veterinary, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I remember by in the late 1980's, when Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting" (from her album 'Hounds of Love'). The song was inspired by this book, and a video also followed, in which Donald Sutherland played the late Wilhelm Reich and Bush was the 10-year-old Peter Reich. I was enamored with both Kate's music, as well as the artist herself, so I was taken in by it. I also made it a point to read the book, which at that time was difficult, as it had gone out-of-print. So, jump to the present..

I found the book available for my Kindle, so I gave it read, as it was on my "Life's Reading Bucket List". And, while I am glad to have checked it off that virtual list, it was not what I was expecting.

The book jumped perspectives - from 10 year old Peter to his adult self, in the 1970's - leaving me a bit disoriented at points, making it difficult to focus on the underlying story. It recollects memories, interspersed with odd, dream-like statements. And, at the end of it all? Not really much of an ending, nor a conclusion to all the oddness.

Conclusion? I still love the song "Cloudbusting". The book that inspired it? Not so much.
  
Ad Astra (2019)
Ad Astra (2019)
2019 | Adventure, Drama, Mystery
A Sci-Fi Film Grounded In Reality
Ad Astra is a 2019 sci-fi/adventure movie directed, produced, and co-written by James Gray. Ethan Gross was the co-writer and other producers on the film were Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, James Gray, Anthony Katagas, Rodrigo Teixeira and Arnon Milchan. The movie was produced by 20th Century Fox, Regency Enterprises, Bona Film Group, New Regency, Plan B Entertainment, RT Features, Keep Your Head Productions, MadRiver Pictures, TSG Entertainment and was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film stars Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler and Donald Sutherland.


When all life on Earth is threatened by mysterious power surges, U.S. Space Command seeks out astronaut Major Roy McBride for a special mission. He is the son of famed astronaut H. Clifford McBride, who headed the "Lima Project" which purpose was to search the Solar System for intelligent life. Now, after sixteen years of silence and his father believed dead, they inform Roy that the surges have been traced back to the "Lima Project" and he must travel Mars to try and contact his father to save the Earth.


I was super excited about this movie before watching it in theaters. Even though I saw the trailers, I made sure not to read up on it or watch them too much because I didn't want for anything to spoil it for me. Honestly after watching it, I still have mixed feelings. In a lot of ways I liked the film but almost equally I didn't. There was a lot that I was kind of disappointed in but also a lot that happened different than what I thought was going to happen, especially when it came to the plot. This movie was very realistic for a science fiction space movie when I thought it was going to be more fantastical. I think that was the main reason for me not liking it as much as I thought I would, also the pacing threw me off because this movie was really long. I kept waiting for it to get good and it never really did. There were a couple of good scenes overall but I agree with some critics or reviewers who said that it either needed to be shorter or a lot longer and made into a mini-series. I thought Brad Pitt did an excellent job in his role as Major Roy McBride but I understand people who criticized his performance because his character is very unemotional. I also really liked Ruth Negga's performance and think she did a fantastic job. I was let down that Tommy Lee Jones didn't have as much screen time as I thought he was going to, double for Donald Sutherland as well. Not a lot more I can say without spoiling parts of the movie. I wound up giving this movie a 6/10. I would have given it a point lower but there's a lot that makes this film above normal.