[GaliWalker]

Me too! Elysium was his only week entry, and even that wasn't bad.

[Sore Feet]

[zephyr]

This may be a little drier than the normal fare here. I recently watched All The President’s Men, (1976) a movie directed by Robert Redford about the two Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who led the charge on unraveling the Watergate cover-up through hard work and tough journalism. This happened in a relatively low-tech era of face-to-face interviews, note-taking, phone calls and deep research. This film can be found at many libraries. Here’s the trailer. It’s very low-key in a way, but the story is compelling and there is a lot of suspense. I enjoyed the second CD of special features as well. Highly recommended. The film was nominated for 8 Oscars and won four. Such a very important bit of history. ~z

[zephyr]

Another American classic from a much earlier era. From the Wikipedia article: “High Noon is a 1952 American Western film directed by Fred Zinnemann … and starring Gary Cooper…The plot, depicted in real time, centers around a town marshal, torn between his sense of duty and love for his new bride, who must face a gang of killers alone.” The film features Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges and a strong cast of supporting character actors. It was created and released during the Second Red Scare and the Korean War. Here is the trailer and Oscar-winning theme song as sung by Tex Ritter. In all the film had 7 nominations and 4 wins including Best Actor for Gary Cooper.

One of the supporting actresses stole every scene she was in (in my opinion)—Katy Jurado. She's amazing. Enjoy, ~z

.

[GaliWalker]

I love High Noon, although my preferred version of the title song is by Frankie Laine:

[zephyr]

The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 film based on the 1959 political thriller by Richard Condon about “…the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brain-washed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy. The film was released in the United States on October 24, 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was well-received and was nominated for two Academy Awards.” Directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury, Lawrence Harvey and Janet Leigh. I enjoyed Frank Sinatra in this movie. Here is the opening scene.

Though very tame by today’s norms, there is a considerable amount of deadly violence in this film. Be forewarned. The premise alone is startling and difficult to digest—enemy infiltration into our political system for nefarious reasons of personal enhancement. And this is from over 55 years ago. The betrayal and cold-bloodedness is difficult to witness. Not a movie I would eagerly see again. ~z

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Saw "Allied" a couple days ago. I enjoyed it. A bit slow paced, but intriguing enough. I think Marion Cotillard has been excellent in everything I've seen her in. One minor quibble, while I really like Lizzy Caplan I thought she was badly miscast in this film in a minor role, she just didn't fit.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Saw "Wonder Woman" last night. The DC Universe finally got it right with one of their films. Went to the indie theater in downtown Edmonds. The place was full to capacity. After the movie (about 8:30) I looked down the hill to the west and saw a beautiful sunset materializing, so headed down to appropriately named Sunset Ave. and gazed at the sky, water and partially visible Olympic Mountains for a while. Lovely end to a good day!

[Backpacker Joe]

Ok just to add another. I just got back from Wonder Woman. I think it just might be the best comic character movie Ive ever seen! Im not sure how they could have been done better! I hope the current director does more of them. She hit the ball out of the park. Ill be buying this movie on Ultra 4K Dvd when it comes out.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

XXX: Return of Xander Cage was totally over the top, but entertaining. I enjoyed it more than I expected to. As long as you aren't expecting realism or plausibility, should be okay. Quite an international cast of various bad ass men and women. Donnie Yen rose to the top of the field to my eye. Tony Jaa wasn't allowed to do near as much butt kicking as he could have. Nina Dobrev playing a dorky, awkward techie character was kinda fun, but I couldn't overlook that she is gorgeous. Not that dorks can't be gorgeous.

[Toni]

[Backpacker Joe]

[RichP]

Captain Fantastic has been reviewed on this thread before but I thought I'd put in another plug for it. Great acting by the heroic and conflicted Mortensen who discreetly pays homage to his Argentinian upbringing by drinking yerba mate in several scenes. Some recognizable local settings and a glimpse of what kids could be like without cell phones and video games. It made my plane ride much more tolerable.

[NacMacFeegle]

I've been watching the Sci-Fi series "Eureka", and was very impressed by it up until the last few episodes of the first season. It started out as a lighthearted, mostly episodic show with crazy concepts and enjoyable characters. However, near the end of the first season they changed the entire tone and format of the show. It turned into an overly dramatic and grim serial, and the most enjoyable character of all had his personality totally altered. I just watched the first episode of the second season, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. It's turned into just another predictable grim-dark TV drama, and it's incredibly disappointing to see that happen in what was shaping up to be exactly the show I'd been looking for.

[gb]

Watched Passengers. That is the worst movie I've seen since The Three Stooges Go to the Moon. - Jennifer Lawrence notwithstanding....