Date viewed: 2/12/11
Venue: Home (NWI)
Somebody on Twitter mentioned being an admirer of Peter Watkins, who directed THE WAR GAME and several historical docs. The name was new to me, but I was glad to find this on NWI. THE WAR GAME is a fairly shocking pseudo documentary about the potential nuclear fallout in Britain after WWIII. Of course I have no technical knowledge of such things, but THE WAR GAME feels entirely authentic and believable. Scary shit.
Rating: 7.0
Date viewed: 1/30/11
Venue: Home (DVD)
It’s strange how they used to put effort into remakes. Even though THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is a little “dumbed down,” in terms of the characters (when compared to SEVEN SAMURAI), it is still a supremely entertaining film.
I was surprised to find Charles Bronson had more charisma and screen presence than his more revered fellow cast members, including Steve McQueen (whose appeal outside of his looks is still lost on me) and Yul Brynner.
Date viewed: 1/10/11 – 1/11/11
Venue: Home (Blu-Ray)
I’d heard about COOL HAND LUKE for most of my life without actually knowing anything about the story other than the “failure to communicate” line. Turns out, it’s about a cocky war veteran loser and how he deals with being imprisoned in a work camp for cutting the heads off of parking meters. I was surprised by all the recognizable faces, but completely shocked by George Kennedy’s performance. I grew up knowing him as the pitch guy for Beano and the “other guy” in THE NAKED GUN series; I had no idea he could play such a sensitive badass. I’ll definitely seek out more 60s/70s George Kennedy performances.
Rating: 8.0
Deadbeat At Film 