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“To be honest, I wasnāt expecting much from this flick but since there was a decent cast, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be Dax Sheppardās most ambitious directorial effort so far, Iāll give him that, but the damned thing still turned out to be pretty weak, Iām” read more
From the TV Series to the Big Screen
“To be honest, I have to admit that Iām not very familiar with this band but thatās probably one of the reasons why I wanted to check this documentary. My first contact with them was around 20 years ago, when I was living in England. Back then, one of my Spanish roommates made me listen to this b” read more
“To be honest, Iām usually not a huge fan of Billy Wilderās comedies but I thought I might check this one out anyway. Well, this movie is mostly remembered as being the first time that Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau would work together (they would eventually collaborate on 11 movies) but, to be h” read more
“I wasnāt expecting much from this movie but since I was in mood in watching a rather dumb action flick, I thought I might as well check this one out. To be honest, I believe that the concept had actually some potential and, at least, it was more spectacular than the really lame āForce of Natureā” read more
“Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was really eager to check it out. Well, the damned thing definitely deserves its notorious reputation and it is indeed by far the bleakest WWII movie I have seen. Of course, Iām well aware of the atrocities that happened back then in” read more
Notes: First of all, when you watch this flick, you have to keep in mind that you are actually watching one of the first ancestors of our contemporary horror movies and it was pretty neat to see how much have changed in 70 years. Back then, there was basically no sex, no blood, in fact, to be honest, nothing much happened during the whole thing when you think about it. Pretty muck like today, they made this choice mostly because they basically had no money but it made the whole thing even more effective. There was indeed constantly this eerie atmosphere which was not really frightening but it still made me uneasy throughout the whole duration. To show the impact of this flick, you should know that the horror movie technique of slowly building tension to a jarring shock which turns out to be something completely harmless is actually called a āLewton busā after a famous scene from this movie. How amazing is that? Anyway, even if it didnāt grow old very well, it is still a decent watch though. 
Notes: For many years, I kept coming across those two names, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and they were always referred as some of the best movie directors ever (Martin Scorsese, for example, is a huge fan) and, supposedly, the movies they made together represented the Golden Age of British cinema. After hearing all these, I started to watch all the movies they made together. This movie was the first one I saw and, so far, it is easily my favorite one. I mean, I'm not really into ballet but the movie was just gorgeous to see with some solid directing and it was also very interesting to see how a ballet in general works. The story was also rather fascinating and they seamlessly combined a realistic approach to ballet with some fantasy scenes (which reminded me of 'Black Swan'). Like I said before, I'm not really into ballet so I wasn't exactly blown away by the whole thing but it was still very enjoyable. 
“I wasnāt really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was suggested by a fellow Listal member and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I always had a weak spot for minimalist features but, even though this one was not bad at all, I thought it ” read more
Notes: After watching the damned thing, the first thing I thought was how interesting it was that such a small and low key feature would actually win the Best picture Academy award. Indeed, do you think it would have a chance against our contemporary epics with a huge budget such as āGladiatorā, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, āDance with the Wolvesā, or āTitanicā? Even if some smaller productions did win the big prize recently like āSpotlightā, āBirdmanā or ā12 Years a Slaveā, they were still much more ambitious than this movie. Eventually, the fact it was so small was definitely part of its charm and why it was fairly successful commercially and critically when it was released. For Ernest Borgnine, a character actor throughout all his lengthy career, it was definitely a all-time high and he even won the Academy award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance. Anyway, I thought it was charming movie with a a really solid Ernest Borgnine.
Notes: Honestly, it has been a while since I have watched this flick and maybe I should re-watch it again at some point. Anyway, back in the 90ās, I was quite a fan of Ken Loachās work so I was quite eager to check this movie, one of his very first. Indeed, it is usually considered a massive classic from the British cinema so I had some rather high expectations. Eventually, to be honest, even though I thought it was a decent watch, I canāt say I was really blown away by the whole thing. I donāt know, maybe I was just too young at the time to really appreciate it but I just couldnāt see what was so amazing about the damned thing. I mean, the directing was solid, as usual with this director, and I always loved the way he mixes a really realistic barren social environment with a captivating dramatic story. Furthermore, the young actor playing the lead character was also quite amazing. And yet, this tale was slightly too generic and predictable to become really remarkable. Anyway, even if it didnāt turn out to be one of my favorites movies, it was still pretty good.
Notes: Since I have seen every single major movie directed by John Carpenter except this one, I just had to watch it really bad. Eventually, it took me a very long time to finally get my hands on it. Unfortunately, something quite dreadful happened though. Indeed, I finally managed to secure a 2nd hand DVD while vacationing in France but, when I was back home, I discovered that it was actually a French dubbed version with no original version with or without subtitles... It was definitely a major disappointment but I still didn't want to throw the damned thing away. Anyway, fortunately, the movie itself was pretty good. Basically, it is a B movie, an exploitation flick, and even though I'm not a huge fan of this genre, this was definitely one of the best that I have seen so far. Of course, the acting and the dialogues were not nothing amazing but it is really inherent to the genre, and since the whole thing was in French (shrug...), maybe it was just some poor dubbing. The plot was not bad, sometimes a little bit hard to follow, and apparently inspired by 'Rio Bravo', but pretty much like its illustrious predecessor, I failed to see what was so amazing about this story. Above all, I really enjoyed the amazing score by John Carpenter. Indeed, Carpenter is not only a very good director but also an impressive composer who produced some really memorable soundtracks.