Monday, December 13, 2004
Woah, like, Dude--this rules
Not seeing this film until I'm 35 is inexcusable. What the fuck was I thinking? O'Toole, Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, and yes, even a young Timothy Dalton put on a veritable acting clinic. What a ride! I've never seen O'Toole so commanding, so present, so confident. Hepburn is all over the emotional map as Eleanor of Aquitaine: cunning, maudlin, conniving, hopeless, dismayed, triumphant, elegant, wretched, playful, despondant, humiliated, corrupt, charming; was there nothing she couldn't do as an actress? Could anyone else have played this role? Hopkins, barely out of his pram, is a coiled spring as the murderous sodomite Richard. What a fantastic film.
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4 comments:
Don't feel bad. I haven't seen this movie, and I'm a huge Hepburn fan. I'm Netflix-ing it now. (BTW--Two of her crown jewels, BRINGING UP BABY and STAGE DOOR, are coming on DVD in March. If you havent seen them, I recommend them highly).
Speaking of Netflix. I've been writing them, trying to get them to carry BLACK CHRISTMAS. have you seen it? Read the reviews on Amazon...delicious. How have I missed this?
I also asked them to carry HELL NIGHT. I remember it being terrifying, so of course it will be lame now.
TOURIST TRAP and MY BLOODY VALENTINE are coming up in the queue. I'm catching up on all the B-movie junk I havent seen, while ignoring all the major films I havent seen. Continuing evidence of my rapidly declining IQ.
Eleanor is certainly the most demanding role I've seen Hepburn tackle--in some scenes she's plumbing the depths of despair, then nagging O'Toole and then terrifyingly sadistic, all within moments. Fantastic.
I've seen both Tourist Trap and My Bloody Valentine--the former about two months ago, the latter I haven't seen in 12 or 13 years. Both are worth seeing. Tourist Trap has a kind of rote plot--crazy brother/sister/mother influences dude, dude kills said sibling/parent and takes on his/her hateful characteristics. Alas, it's more like Savini's Maniac than Hitchcock's Psycho, but it has some effective weirdo special effects--I think I read somewhere that a von Sternberg descendent worked on the cinematography? WTF? Stephen King wrote about this movie in Dans Macabre as being one of his unknown faves--he also mentioned X--The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, which is in my queue.
Oh, and I haven't seen Black Christmas, because Netflix doesn't have it and I refuse to get it on VHS from Movie Time. I hope they listen to you and add it soon.
Was Hell Night a Linda Blair vehicle? I don't remember being scared watching it, but I remember being disappointed (at age 13) that Blair's boobs weren't exposed once--they do, however, heave out the top of her Victorian dress a lot.
Yes, HELL NIGHT is Linda Blair, and you are right--her boobs look fabulous all heaving and bouncing in her Victorian get-up. All I remember is the haunted house is very creepy, and that a monster comes up out of a trap door in her bedroom. It really spooked me as a kid.
I may just break down and buy BLACK CHRISTMAS for $15.
I dont know why Netflix doesnt have these. They carry fucking BLOOD FEAST and CANNIBAL FEROX for Christ's sake--is anyone really renting that dreck?!
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