Author Topic: Top 100 Club: smirnoff  (Read 27346 times)

smirnoff

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Re: Top 100 Club: smirnoff
« Reply #20 on: September 14, 2019, 11:36:32 PM »
Our common ground reminds me of a Canadian film called Last Night (1998) about a group of people dealing with the last day of Earth in various ways. It's a low-key affair because most have accepted there's nothing they can do and are just figuring out how they want to live the end of their life. I would not expect you to watch it and go "oh, this is a much better version of the movie I love." I think Last Night is the movie you love tailored more to fit my frame. Last Night also has a love story playing out under the larger picture. I agree with how you describe the relationship in Perfect Sense, I just found the characters those two very interesting actors have been given to play to be very uninteresting.

There's a few familiar Canadian actors popping up in the trailer. Most notable for me, Jackie Burroughs

Who I grew up knowing in this role


But in the trailer she's some street person revolutionary :))

smirnoff

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Re: Top 100 Club: smirnoff
« Reply #21 on: September 15, 2019, 10:00:54 PM »
Rambo

Based on the trailer for Rambo: Last Blood, I wouldn't say Rambo is required viewing... but it looks like the ending of Rambo dovetails nicely into the new film.

Anyone else want to be my Rambro this month? :)

colonel_mexico

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Re: Top 100 Club: smirnoff
« Reply #22 on: September 15, 2019, 10:06:06 PM »
I'm always game for some Stallone! Haha
"What do you want me to do draw you a picture?! Spell it out?! Don't ever ask me, as long as you live don't ever ask me more!"

smirnoff

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Re: Top 100 Club: smirnoff
« Reply #23 on: September 16, 2019, 02:32:29 AM »
I'm always game for some Stallone! Haha

He directs it too! :)

I got my BluRay edition all ready to go. Just need a free minute to watch it. :))

colonel_mexico

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Re: Top 100 Club: smirnoff
« Reply #24 on: September 16, 2019, 09:00:31 PM »
Nice, which one are we watching? I'll give it a spin soon!
"What do you want me to do draw you a picture?! Spell it out?! Don't ever ask me, as long as you live don't ever ask me more!"

smirnoff

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Re: Top 100 Club: smirnoff
« Reply #25 on: September 17, 2019, 09:14:25 AM »
If you've never seen First Blood (1982), I would say that's the place to start. Jumping in to Rambo (2008) cold just wouldn't do the character Justice. And First Blood is an excellent and different kind of Vietnam war film. A stand alone classic really.

But if you have seen FB, then I'd say you're ready for Rambo (2008) because it'll help all that chaos have meaning.

I'll join you either way.

colonel_mexico

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Re: Top 100 Club: smirnoff
« Reply #26 on: September 17, 2019, 11:21:32 PM »
Let's do FIRST BLOOD, I've seen it, but its been a reallllllllly long time...I'll throw it on Thursday night and post!
"What do you want me to do draw you a picture?! Spell it out?! Don't ever ask me, as long as you live don't ever ask me more!"

smirnoff

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Re: Top 100 Club: smirnoff
« Reply #27 on: September 17, 2019, 11:59:49 PM »
Let's do FIRST BLOOD, I've seen it, but its been a reallllllllly long time...I'll throw it on Thursday night and post!


1SO

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Re: Top 100 Club: smirnoff
« Reply #28 on: September 21, 2019, 12:21:32 AM »
A Late Quartet
I don't mean to sound dismissive when I say this was pleasant. Sometimes, the simple pleasure of watching old pros relax into a script that lets them pass the greatness around can form the kind of film that lodges in your heart. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener and Christopher Walken all get to do something a little different. Not challenging, but a softer side. (How I miss Hoffman, an extra layer of sadness to this film.) I wonder if we all have a movie like this. For me, it's an almost identical film from the very same year called Quartet. (I know!) My Essential stars Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay and Billy Connolly, and coincidentally they also play members of a musical Quartet. (My film even has a Hoffman. The director is Dustin H.)

As someone in the business, I found particular interest in the 4th member of the group. Mark Ivanir is no amateur, but he has to fill out this card of acting heavyweights, and he doesn't just hold his own. He's every bit as good. I'm more familiar with Imogen Poots, 5th in the billing, and she's mostly fine though there's a key scene with Keener where she doesn't seem confident. Director Yaron Zilberman put a lot of faith in Ivanir not having to be carried, just like the big three put their faith in a relative unknown like Ivanir. It's gets a bit soap opera around the middle, with Walken being given little to do but remind you he's in the film with some sad, lonely scenes. The end however, delivers some big heart. (smirnoff, much as Walken gets the big moment in the ending and it's a wonderful curtain call of a scene, I was particularly struck again by Ivanir, when he takes Hoffman's words, closes the music and chooses to play with his heart.)

colonel_mexico

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Re: Top 100 Club: smirnoff
« Reply #29 on: September 21, 2019, 09:37:20 PM »
RAMBO FIRST BLOOD - There is so much to love about this.  Some of my thoughts as I took a very enjoyable path down memory lane. 

The opening sequence of Rambo walking into an idyllic landscape of Somewhere, America with children running in the fields.  Peaceful.  But there is no peace for the old soldiers haunted physically and mentally of the horrors of their former lives. 

Holidayland, Welcome to Hope!! - such a funny name for the place where this story is going to unfold.

Brian Dennehy makes such a great villain in this, he is critical of Rambo and the flag on his jacket, "you’re looking for trouble around here wearing that" but is also wearing a similar kind of jacket.  It is more of a stance on homelessness, keeping out the vagrants who have no business in their quiet and boring town. 

The car/dirt bike chase is really good, racing through the dreary farmlands and mountains of Holidayland.  I wonder how much of that Stallone did on his own. 

Even after Tiesel (Dennehy) finds out Rambo is a Medal of Honor winner he still is going to go after him.  The hubris of a cop who feels invincible because he's protected by a badge and the "law" on his side. But Rambo tells him the hard, cold truth:
"In the town you’re the law, out here its me, I’ll give you a war you won’t believe."  [[I wonder how much his Grand Theft Auto stars go up every time he damages the local cops]]


Another line struck me by Tiesel, "People start CINECAST!ing around with the law and all hell breaks loose" - yep, that would be correct.
I LOVE Richard Crenna especially when he tells Tiesel that they will need “a good supply of body bags!" 

After the weekend warriors blow up the mine and the cops radio in "That Rambo guy, he’s on the loose again" and Rambo's riding in the truck I feel like we need the Dukes of Hazzard theme music blasting, "just a good old boy never meaning no harm, driving a truck with an M60!" Lol!

The scene when he descends on the city, the end of the campaign and he throws the lighter to blow up the gas station I was wondering where’s the yippie-ki-yay mofo??

Have a coke and a smile with the military guy hiding in the DRUGS sign, another homage to the sad eulogy of the survivors of war.

Rambo gets the win and even the state police are the ones who bring Rambo in.  Tiesel lives, but totally emasculated.

The ending song sounds like a Lee Greenwood tune, I was waiting for the shot of General Schwartzkopf and the first Desert War.
"What do you want me to do draw you a picture?! Spell it out?! Don't ever ask me, as long as you live don't ever ask me more!"