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Chris Columbus recommended Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) in Movies (curated)

"Godfather and Blazing Saddles got me into falling in love with film, but this is a pivotal movie that was probably — I think it was 1969 — prior to that I had been to the movies a few times and seen some hideous movies like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and that sort of thing, and The Jungle Book. I went with my cousin to see Butch Cassidy. It was an amazing mixture of what I thought was sort of a poignant character study and a comedy. What’s amazing about the movie — and the reason I watch it time and time again — I had never seen such chemistry between two actors. Newman and Redford were just incredible together, and those sequences in the movie were some of the funniest sequences I’ve ever seen. So they taught me how to stage comedy a little bit, yet at the same time, it had serious undertones. It was beautifully directed and shot, and you watch it today, and it feels like it was made last week."

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Kudos

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Tetro (2009) in Movies

Sep 21, 2020

Tetro (2009)

2009 | Drama, Mystery

7.0

(1 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Representative of late-period Coppola in just about every way: ostentatious visual display (this >> 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘢 >> 𝘕𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘢 >> 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵), uneven and often nonsensically crammed narrative (even if it does [beneficially, this time] lack the ambitious delirium of 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩), underwhelming coda, and an emphasis on weird + sprawling conversations over all else. The final act crumbles mostly, but otherwise found this to be quite enchanting. There's something about watching Vincent Gallo act that's just so magnetizing, I couldn't look away - the dude is crazy good in this (even if you still can't convince me him and Edward Norton are different people). Took me a bit to really get a feel for the fierce lancing of overly-pretentious, dickheaded artists rather than the worship of them as I initially gauged - as well as this just being a rock-solid story of art and family dynamics (helluva twist too [if underplayed], and the segments where trauma is expressed through stage productions are 👌👌). Wish it rebounded in the end but nonetheless it's compelling in spite of its flaws.

Kudos

Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated My Son, the Vampire (1952) in Movies

Oct 21, 2020

My Son, the Vampire (1952)

1952 | Classics, Comedy, Horror

7.0

(1 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Mother Riley Meets Bela Lugosi

My Son, the Vampire as known as Mother Riley Meets The Vampire as known as Vampire Over London is a good movie.

The plot: Irish washerwoman Old Mother Riley (Arthur Lucan) foils a would-be vampire (Bela Lugosi) and his misguided robot.

This was the final film of the Old Mother Riley film series, and did not feature Lucan's ex-wife and business partner Kitty McShane, whom he had divorced in 1951.

In 1963, a recut American version called My Son, the Vampire was released, featuring an introductory segment with a song by American comedian Allan Sherman.

On the suggestion of producer Richard Gordon, Bela Lugosi had travelled to the UK to appear in a stage play of Dracula, which failed. He needed money to return to the US. Gordon persuaded fellow producer George Minter to use Lugosi in a movie in London.

Lugosi was paid $5,000 for his role. The plot was taken from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Its a funny horror comedy.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Great God Pan in Books

Aug 21, 2019

The Great God Pan

Arthur Machen | 1894 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy

5.0

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

Classic of late Victorian horror-fantasy. A misguided scientist performs a surgical procedure on a young woman's brain which leads to her madness and death; but over the years that follow it becomes clear that he is also responsible for unleashing something much, much more disturbing.

It's slightly amusing to consider that this novella was criticised on first release for its decadence and sexual content - by modern standards it is, on the surface at least, very tame. But that's the nature of the beast in this case - this is a horror story where all the disturbing scenes happen off-stage, which is where the monster stays as well. Everything happens through implication, and is left somewhat to the reader's imagination, a trick which Machen pulls off rather more deftly than some writers who hailed him as an influence. I must be honest and say that the lack of a big reveal and a genuine climax wrong-footed me a bit, but the story is on the whole ingeniously structured and well-written, atmospheric and unsettling.