Yeah, if Texas Killing Fields had been plotted tighter and someone besides Sam Worthington had played the second lead, it would have been terrific. As it stands, it is an interesting film because it has that grit and sparseness. Plus, it's a solid warmup for Jessica Chastain to go from there to Zero Dark Thirty.

The movie version of Dogs of War is okay, but if I remember it right, it cuts out the whole reason Forsyth wrote the novel in the first place - his anger over how Africans were being exploited - and without that, it just seemed rather empty.

Mine is "and the whole damn place goes crazy twice/And it's once for the devil and once for Christ". Although, as I get older, the line before that ("and I lift my voice to the awful truth which you can't reveal to the ears of youth/Except to say it isn't worth a dime") also resonates.

Nearly 25 years ago, I went and saw Sting at the Concord Pavilion the summer before my junior year in college. I was expecting him to play his solo stuff and a lot of Police songs as well. I was not expecting him, as an encore, to sing "Home on the Range", nor was I expecting the crowd to be so into it. That was…

This is Bergman's Fellini film; strange, more bizarre humor than Bergman usually goes for, but altogether wonderful.

I agree about Duryea, and not just in his ability to play creeps; he could also play weak men (or men who thought they were badass but weren't) very well. "Scarlet Street" is a prime example.

I love "Testament of Dr. Mabuse", but for me, the best Lang movie no one talks about is "Spies". Such a great film that grabs you right away and never lets go.

There's a bootleg DVD out there with both of those (which I agree are great), along with some other shorts he did. I wish this inventory had mentioned those, because they're more "adult", and better, than anything Henson did on SNL.

Or that he co-wrote a David Mamet film, "Things Change" (granted, it was one of only two PG-rated Mamet films, but still).

Is it just because of the format, though? I think part of it also has to do with publicists taking over everything and insisting on just regular photos of the band or artist (which is also why, for example, movie posters have gotten more bland and generic). There are exceptions, of course - I think the covers for…

"His visual style wasn't all that loud with none of the mania you usually
see in experimental Hollywood (I'm looking at you Frankenheimer)"

I haven't seen this in years, but I remember thinking it was fun as well. It may be a bunch of set pieces masquerading as a movie, but those set pieces are a lot of fun, including the airport gags. And it's still amazing they got away with the ending.

Yes, and I'm amazed they got away with it. Sure wouldn't happen today.

It does have his impressionistic style, but I wish he'd had a better story to work with. I know I'm sounding like one of those people who think the book is always better than the movie, but Greene's novel, as Noel points out, is edgier and more charged, emotionally and morally, and for whatever reason (according to…

It's interesting you'd put "Fury" in the category of films whose "midsections don't hold up next to their opening and closing scenes", as the closing scene, for me, is where it feels compromised thanks to the Code restrictions of the time. I still love the film, though. As far as his English-language films that are…

It is insane, but it's also funny…at least, it was for me (Keach was a hoot). Plus, Shelley Duvall is great as the temptress.

As much as I love The Prestige - it's my favorite Nolan film, and one I can watch over and over again - I'm glad to see someone who likes that and The Illusionist. I would have liked The Illusionist more had they cast someone else besides Jessica Biel (never been a fan), but it's a very entertaining film - Norton and…

Or Sam Cooke.

From William Goldman's "Adventures in the Screen Trade": Goldman was trying to get a movie made from his novel "The Thing of it Is…", about a songwriter who goes to Europe with his wife to save their marriage. Stanley Donen was set to direct, and Mia Farrow was set to play the wife (we're talking early 70's here).…

Obligatory mention of the old joke about the third-rate actor who was booed for his piss-poor rendition of Hamlet, and halfway through the "To Be or Not to Be" speech, yelled at the audience, "Don't blame me, I didn't write this shit."