Author Topic: Retro Filmspots Review Thread (1974)  (Read 64138 times)

Jared

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3492
Re: Retro Filmspots Review Thread (1974)
« Reply #350 on: September 14, 2012, 12:24:04 PM »
California Split

Passes Rounders as my favorite gambling movie, although that subgenre is pretty empty in my opinion. Elliot Gould and George Segal play the lead roles as gamblers on a hot streak. While their luck at the casinos/tracks/etc is good, they are both obviously degerate gamblers and the effects on their personal lives is shown but not exactly lingered on. They also seem to have a knack for getting robbed and pissing people off (Gould doing one of his better "guy that won't shut up" role probably encourages most of this).

It's definatley got the trademarks of an Altman movie...the overlapping dialouge and such. Personally I think his other 1974 effort, Thieves Like Us, is quite a bit better, although both fall somewhere in the middle of his work.

3/5

smirnoff

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26251
    • smirnoff's Top 100
Re: Retro Filmspots Review Thread (1974)
« Reply #351 on: September 14, 2012, 05:17:00 PM »
Hmm, I don't know if I care to see it anymore. Rounders is my favourite, and the idea of watching another degenerate gambler story is a real turn off after seeing The Gambler. :-\

AAAutin

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 4186
Re: Retro Filmspots Review Thread (1974)
« Reply #352 on: September 14, 2012, 05:24:58 PM »
Hmm, I don't know if I care to see it anymore. Rounders is my favourite, and the idea of watching another degenerate gambler story is a real turn off after seeing The Gambler. :-\

For what it's worth, I like it as much as ROUNDERS and far more than THE GAMBLER. (But that's me.)

Jared

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3492
Re: Retro Filmspots Review Thread (1974)
« Reply #353 on: September 14, 2012, 06:32:06 PM »
Ah, I like Bob le Flambeur better than both California Split and Rounders. Just forgot about it. I should also articulate that I dont really care for Rounders all that much.

smirnoff

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26251
    • smirnoff's Top 100
Re: Retro Filmspots Review Thread (1974)
« Reply #354 on: September 14, 2012, 06:44:33 PM »
Harry and Tonto
(Paul Mazursky) IMDB: 7.3/10

The trailer would've really saved me here. If I'd gotten a whiff of the goofiness I'd have avoided it altogether. Just not my style.

Harry Coombes is a "get off my lawn", intellectual, widower who rambles across the country because the big city now longer seems to want him anymore. He brings his cat.

I don't know much about Art Carney, but do I know I didn't laugh at anything he did or said in this film. I'm not blaming him or anyone else,  but that's one simple reason (out of 3 or 4) that I didn't enjoy myself. It's a fish out of water story that looks to generate humour and insights by pairing an old guy up with hookers, beatniks and a native american. That's a fine basis for a movie, I just didn't like how it was put together. Too much quirky circumstance.

The spirited of the movie is commendable: that there's value in opening your heart to strangers, being honest with your friends and family... that sort of thing. It just didn't have much bite. It didn't shake me up, you know? At some point the gloves need to come off, or it's all just for pretend.

Gimme Grumpy Old Men or The Straight Story any day.


Discoveries so far:

Harry and Tonto
The Odessa File
11 Harrowhouse
The Stranger and the Gunfighter
The California Kid
Gone in 60 Seconds
Parallax View
The Execution of Private Slovik
Black Windmill
At Home Among Strangers, Stranger at Home
« Last Edit: September 16, 2012, 09:56:29 PM by smirnoff »

smirnoff

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26251
    • smirnoff's Top 100
Re: Retro Filmspots Review Thread (1974)
« Reply #355 on: September 14, 2012, 06:57:25 PM »
Hmm, I don't know if I care to see it anymore. Rounders is my favourite, and the idea of watching another degenerate gambler story is a real turn off after seeing The Gambler. :-\

For what it's worth, I like it as much as ROUNDERS and far more than THE GAMBLER. (But that's me.)

If it ends with bats, two holes and a corn field I'm in. Otherwise I'm not feeling sympathetic enough right now to bother.  :-\

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: Retro Filmspots Review Thread (1974)
« Reply #356 on: September 14, 2012, 11:33:15 PM »

The Odessa File - A German freelance journalist named Peter Miller (Jon Voight) comes into possession of a concentration camp survivor's diary.  He learns of a vicious SS Commandant (Maximillian Schell) still at large.  With little help from the police, he investigates, digging deeper into the secrets of ODESSA: an organization that helps protect Nazi war criminals while also plotting to destroy Israel.

smirnoff recently used the phrase "It is what it is" in his review of this film.  That about sums it up, really.  It goes through the motions, employing most of the usual tropes of the spy and paranoid thriller genres.  The gradual uncovering of the truth and the vague threats as the hero gets closer to it, the process of infiltrating the enemy, the cat-and-mouse games, et cetera.  All this would be fine if it was done with any flair, but it isn't.  The material itself is fairly interesting (including a certain late reveal) but Neame executes it with little panache and Voight isn't bringing much to the table either. 

It's not a slow film.  It's not a boring film.  It's not a stupid film.  It's entertaining enough and tense enough to pass the time in a sufficiently pleasant manner.  But there's nothing more than that.  It is what it is.  Rating: Fair (67)

sdedalus

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 16585
  • I have a prestigious blog, sir!
    • The End of Cinema
Re: Retro Filmspots Review Thread (1974)
« Reply #357 on: September 15, 2012, 01:35:30 AM »
Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles - I really liked Spaceballs when it came out.  Saw it several times in the theatre and on VHS.  I bet I would have liked these when I was ten years old, too.  Now, meh. The meta ending for BS was kinda cool, but Monty Python did it better a year later.
The End of Cinema

Seattle Screen Scene

"He was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people?"

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: Retro Filmspots Review Thread (1974)
« Reply #358 on: September 15, 2012, 03:19:01 AM »
Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles - I really liked Spaceballs when it came out.  Saw it several times in the theatre and on VHS.  I bet I would have liked these when I was ten years old, too.  Now, meh.

Can you pinpoint the exact age when you lost your sense of humor and became dead inside?

sdedalus

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 16585
  • I have a prestigious blog, sir!
    • The End of Cinema
Re: Retro Filmspots Review Thread (1974)
« Reply #359 on: September 15, 2012, 11:02:01 AM »
Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles - I really liked Spaceballs when it came out.  Saw it several times in the theatre and on VHS.  I bet I would have liked these when I was ten years old, too.  Now, meh.

Can you pinpoint the exact age when you lost your sense of humor and became dead inside?

11, apparently?
The End of Cinema

Seattle Screen Scene

"He was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people?"

 

love