Great recommnendations and films Films about "wars" evolve with time. The trend tends to be from the victories to the glorious failours and then more subtle details. Plus, unfortuately there are new wars. Regarding WW2, in additon to the about mentioned films I would add "The Pianist" by Roman Polanski, "Schindler's List" by Steven Spielberg and "The Reader" by Stephen Daldry. As regards more modern conflicts, I recommend "Spy Game" by Tony Scott as well as "The Hurt Locker" by Kathryn Bigelow.
The ‘Thin Red Line’ is a really good film; Terence Malik, I believe? I particularly like the scene where the Japanese soldiers emerge from the river banks, very chilling. Thought provoking end too.
I have a large collection of older war movies, pretty much all of which I can recommend: The Heroes of Telemark The Battle of the River Plate The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp Above Us The Waves Run Silent, Run Deep 49th Parallel All Quiet on the Western Front Aces High Carve Her Name With Pride Appointment in London Ill Met by Moonlight I was Monty's Double In Which We Serve Malta Story Reach For The Sky The Lion Has Wings The Way Ahead We Dive at Dawn Tunes of Glory Went the Day Well? The Long and The Short and The Tall Too Late the Hero All worth watching.
No one seems to have mentioned Sam Peckinpah's Cross Of Iron in their favourite war films. Unusual in that the story is told from a German perspective, it is graphic and brutal, as you would expect from Peckinpah. Recommended.
What are the worst films anyone has seen? For me, the following films I could not sit all the way through; Wayne’s World Austin Powers Anything with Jim Carey except Man on the Moon
I have an aversion to all those “... Movie” so-called comedies that just (badly) ripped off other films. You know, “Scary Movie” etc.
Yes, they are truly dreadful. My tolerance of the multiple Marvel / DC Comics inspired releases is also waning. I have become Superhero numb.
Saving Ryan’s Privates was pretty good. Not watched it in ages, but was lucky enough to attend the premier in London
quite liked austin powers. In past 2 years i have watched (since i was an adult and can understand) Rocky 1, 2, 3, 4, Die hard 1,2,3,4,5, Stars war 4,5,6, Alien, Aliens, Rambo first blood, Terminator. Boy they don't make classics like they used to.
I quite enjoyed the recent film "The Disaster Artist" - a biopic about the writer/director/star Tommy Wiseau of the film voted the worst of all time - The Room. He funded the film himself too, reportedly up to $6M of his own cash - and the film only made $1,800 in it's opening weekend! It's now deemed a cult classic, but the dialogue and cinematography is clunky at best, and downright awful most of the time - so cringe worthy it's almost worth watching (but it is really bad). The Sharknado films - awful, wooden acting, cheap as chips special effects, dumb story lines in all of them (and yes, I've seen at least 3 of them!!) - good Saturday night pissed viewing if nothing else. The wife likes to watch the new trend of horror films, where a family either move into a new house which is inevitably possessed, or take in an adopted/orphaned/abandoned child who is possessed - leading to the same storyline in them all. 90% of them are dire, with terrible acting and script - nothing like the original Poltergeist or Amityville films.
Bit of a chaotic and unpleasant trip back with delays and plane changes, but did manage to get to watch Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story. Well worth watching though not really very well made. It was much more Mick Ronson’s role in the Bowie story, virtually nothing on his early life and not so much on what he did post his relatively brief stint as a Spider from Mars. Some odd, quite stilted voiceover from Bowie, who’s praise is never quite as fulsome as I would have expected, some good archive footage including interviews with Ronson himself, and lots of talking heads - Lou Reed (and everyone else to be fair) loved him. I didn’t realise that besides being a great guitarist he arranged and scored loads of stuff - the first score he wrote, after learning how to do it by looking over someone’s shoulder, was Life on Mars, and the arrangements on Reed’s great Transformer LP, including Walk on the Wild and Perfect Day, were his, and of course All the Young Dudes. He seemed a lovely bloke as well as a great musician. I suspect Bowie wanted to badge him as a ‘great early seventies’ guitarist because his influence on Bowie’s breakthrough albums (and still my favourites) was immense, and Bowie didnt really want this recognised. They remained mates until Ronson’s death before he was even 50. He clearly wasn’t interested in getting rich, just liked being involved in music, and had no cash during his illness. For Bowie fans and of course Ronson devotees recommended, though it’s not a great film. Side review - Delta premium economy class - garbage. A slightly padded seat and about two inches of extra leg room over economy. Same food etc. This seems standard for US airlines, I guess premium can’t be much more expensive than coach, but not worth it.
Recommended in advance Jonathan Meades on Jargon, BBC4 10.30 tomorrow. Meades, along with Adam Curtis, is one of the giants of television, everything he does is unique, personal and thought provoking, film essays on food, art, architecture, society, you name it. Now he apparently destroys jargon in favour of slang, and a lot of swearing is involved. He is an acquired taste, you’ll either love him or hate him and you will know within the first 3 minutes. He is unashamedly pompous, intellectual, challenging, incapable of dumbing down, hugely opinionated and very funny. In my opinion. I also get why many would hate him. Here’s a taster, to save you time and blood pressure issues if you want to smash his face in based on this
If you have time, please watch the latest episode of Judge Rinder Crime Stories on ITVHub. It covers the tragic death of a young girl who I had known for pretty much her whole life and whose family are coping with their young daughter being killed by a drunk/drug driver at the age of just 19. We really need to toughen the laws and sentencing for these people.
Went to see deadpool 2 tonight Go and see it Was thoroughly entertained Stay for the credits Is deadpool any good
I enjoyed it kiwi....jnr saw Deadpool 2 and said it was good too. I liked the tongue in cheek humour of Deadpool.
