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#1
Off Topic Discussion / Re: And I quote...
Last post by indianasmith - Today at 06:38:39 PM"Republicans understand the importance of bondage between parent and child." - Vice President Dan Quayle.
#2
Off Topic Discussion / Re: Random Statements About So...
Last post by claws - Today at 06:33:20 PMQuote from: indianasmith on Today at 06:57:30 AMKristi Noem is Kristi Noemore.
Awful, utterly disgusting person. Hope she's gone for good.
#4
Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2
Last post by M.10rda - Today at 01:50:16 PMDR. SOCRATES (1935):
This is another silly mid-30s film elevated by two fine actors slumming. In spite of the title it isn't some gothic sci-fi/horror thing.
Lee Cardwell (Paul Muni) is a former surgeon with Doctor Strange's exact origin story minus the sorcery - a bad accident has rendered Cardwell's hands too shaky to perform surgery, so he's semi-retired to a big house in a podunk town, where he sees patients mostly free of charge even though most of the local yokels mock him openly and think he's up to some nefarious shenanigans just because he's a nerd. (One adult bully names Cardwell "Doctor Socrates" when they see him reading - wait for it - Plato....... yeah, I dunno either.) It's perplexing that these idiots spend so much time perseverating over Cardwell when there's an actual crime spree running openly amok in their region, headed by a big dumb gangster named Red Bastian. One day Cardwell goes to the bank just as Bastian is about to rob it, and simultaneously a hard-working itinerant laborer played by Ann Dvorak wanders through town looking cute and gets mixed up in the whole silly imbroglio.....
For much of the previous century, Paul Muni was remembered as the finest actor of the 1930s. Charles Laughton was probably his closest competition, but Muni was better-looking and so got to play more leading man roles. A real Daniel Day-Lewis of his era, Muni loved makeup and accents, tended towards portrayals of famous guys, and played characters of many nationalities/ethnicities - including, unfortunately, a Mexican and a Chinese dude. Muni was still a big enough deal historically in the early 80s that Pacino would've certainly thought of Muni's performance as SCARFACE in 1932 when considering the remake. DR. SOCRATES would definitely have been seen as "minor Muni". Lee Cardwell isn't a historical or literary figure and the screenplay is subpar, to be generous. Muni wears glasses and a weird little moustache (maybe his own, maybe fake) but that's it for transformation. (He kind of looks like Josh Hartnett's geeky little brother.)
But Muni's still a solid actor even with little to work with, and it's possible he took this job just to do another picture opposite Dvorak, who spectacularly played his sister in SCARFACE. Dvorak wasn't a glamor girl, just [sic] a smart, foxy Nice Girl/Girl Next Door....... like SECRETARY-era Maggie Gyllenhaal but maybe tarter. If I was Muni I wouldn't have signed on to this one unless they wrote in an actual make-out scene w/ Dvorak... well, as long as she was willing, of course.
Typhoid saves the town from the crimewave.
It's a silly film. 3/5
This is another silly mid-30s film elevated by two fine actors slumming. In spite of the title it isn't some gothic sci-fi/horror thing.
Lee Cardwell (Paul Muni) is a former surgeon with Doctor Strange's exact origin story minus the sorcery - a bad accident has rendered Cardwell's hands too shaky to perform surgery, so he's semi-retired to a big house in a podunk town, where he sees patients mostly free of charge even though most of the local yokels mock him openly and think he's up to some nefarious shenanigans just because he's a nerd. (One adult bully names Cardwell "Doctor Socrates" when they see him reading - wait for it - Plato....... yeah, I dunno either.) It's perplexing that these idiots spend so much time perseverating over Cardwell when there's an actual crime spree running openly amok in their region, headed by a big dumb gangster named Red Bastian. One day Cardwell goes to the bank just as Bastian is about to rob it, and simultaneously a hard-working itinerant laborer played by Ann Dvorak wanders through town looking cute and gets mixed up in the whole silly imbroglio.....For much of the previous century, Paul Muni was remembered as the finest actor of the 1930s. Charles Laughton was probably his closest competition, but Muni was better-looking and so got to play more leading man roles. A real Daniel Day-Lewis of his era, Muni loved makeup and accents, tended towards portrayals of famous guys, and played characters of many nationalities/ethnicities - including, unfortunately, a Mexican and a Chinese dude. Muni was still a big enough deal historically in the early 80s that Pacino would've certainly thought of Muni's performance as SCARFACE in 1932 when considering the remake. DR. SOCRATES would definitely have been seen as "minor Muni". Lee Cardwell isn't a historical or literary figure and the screenplay is subpar, to be generous. Muni wears glasses and a weird little moustache (maybe his own, maybe fake) but that's it for transformation. (He kind of looks like Josh Hartnett's geeky little brother.)
But Muni's still a solid actor even with little to work with, and it's possible he took this job just to do another picture opposite Dvorak, who spectacularly played his sister in SCARFACE. Dvorak wasn't a glamor girl, just [sic] a smart, foxy Nice Girl/Girl Next Door....... like SECRETARY-era Maggie Gyllenhaal but maybe tarter. If I was Muni I wouldn't have signed on to this one unless they wrote in an actual make-out scene w/ Dvorak... well, as long as she was willing, of course.
Typhoid saves the town from the crimewave.
It's a silly film. 3/5 #5
Off Topic Discussion / Re: Random Statements About So...
Last post by LilCerberus - Today at 01:31:15 PMSoo, Nathan Fillion is hinting at a Firefly reunion, while some suspect it's just a gimmick for an upcoming AwesomeCon.....
#6
Bad Movies / Re: How many of these Dracula'...
Last post by Dr. Whom - Today at 01:16:33 PMI think I3 is John Forbes-Robertson in the Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
#7
Off Topic Discussion / Re: And I quote...
Last post by LilCerberus - Today at 11:59:19 AMRep. Nancy Mace @RepNancy Mace
X.com
The loudest voices screaming "Release the Epstein Files" just voted to BURY the sexual harassment files of Members of Congress.
Get it now?
X.com
The loudest voices screaming "Release the Epstein Files" just voted to BURY the sexual harassment files of Members of Congress.
Get it now?
#8
Games / Re: Movie Title Chains
Last post by Rev. Powell - Today at 11:31:25 AMOnce Upon a Time in America (1984)
#9
Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2
Last post by Rev. Powell - Today at 10:53:16 AMEROTIC GHOST STORY 2 (1991): The demon from the first movie is now lovesturck and terrorizes a village that offers him a virgin every month for protection. Reasonable male fantasy material with a script that sometimes seems made up as it goes along and some wild elements: eyeball licking, a fireball monk, and (I never thought I'd say this) maybe too many sex scenes (although the women are uniformly exquisite). 3.5/5.
All of the Hong Kong movies I've been reviewing lately are from the box set "Supernatural Shockers" and straddle the line between good and bad movies: they're exploitation films with high production values.
All of the Hong Kong movies I've been reviewing lately are from the box set "Supernatural Shockers" and straddle the line between good and bad movies: they're exploitation films with high production values.
#10
Entertainment / Re: What have you been listeni...
Last post by Rev. Powell - Today at 10:11:56 AM
New Bill Frisell and Pat Metheny in the same week!