Displaying items by tag: View from the Cheap Seats

I’ve figured out what’s wrong with movies.

This thesis prevailed on me as I went to see the 3-D Imax version of a new picture called The Great Wall. This picture opened to dismal reviews, but the previews had made it look righteous and the effects, I knew, would be fun, and they were and the whole experience wasn’t bad.

And on the way out, I was thinking of all these feckless movie reviewers who get published and why they would trash this movie. I thought to myself: “Why were they so hard on this movie? It’s just a fun “B” picture?”

And then I figured it out. They all are. 90% of what we see in the theaters are “B” pictures with “A” budgets.

Let’s discuss... [Read on here...]

All right, we’re starting today with some new disc reviews: I’ve just posted my thoughts on Fox’s Independence Day: Resurgence in 4K Ultra HD format, as well as Paul Greengrass’ Jason Bourne in 4K Ultra HD format from Universal. Meanwhile, Tim has posted a review of Arrow Video USA’s The Hills Have Eyes (1977) on Blu-ray Disc. All three of these titles are worth a look.

Also here at The Bits today (in case you missed it when we posted it here at the site yesterday), our dear friend Bud Elder has turned in a new View from the Cheap Seats column called Movie Begats and More. In it, Bud runs down new deep catalog releases from all the usual indie distributors and remembers the late Leon Russell. Don’t miss it!  [Read on here…]

I’ve about decided that a full book could be written regarding just about every produced movie – Lord knows there’s always enough behind the scenes drama to fill a daytime soap. But I love it. Who was supposed to be in what? Who wrote the script? That stuff. The success of X movie produced Y.

OLIVE FILMS

And here’s a story about a Robert Redford motorcycle picture called Little Fauss and Big Halsey, recently released for the first time on home video by Olive Films.

Al Ruddy came to Hollywood in the early 60s and as a young pup sold what has become a classic sitcom called Hogan’s Heroes. Ruddy and Charles Eastman wrote the script for Little Fauss and sold it to Paramount with a then hot director named Sidney Furie (who was bankable because of The Ipcress File and The Naked Runner). Redford was brought on board in the process as was my friend and lifelong Ruddy partner Gray Frederickson. [Read on here...]

We’re kicking things off today with a great new View from the Cheap Seats column from our own Bud Elder in which he muses over classic film scores, catches up on some of the recent deep catalog releases coming out on Blu-ray from the indie distributors, and has a few things to say about a fella named George Hamilton too. Do check it out!

Also available today is a new Blu-ray review from Jim Hemphill, none other than Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s A Perfect Day (2015), now available on disc from IFC Films and MPI Media Group.

Now then, in announcement news this afternoon… [Read on here…]

I think it’s time we caught up. Walking outside during this Oklahoma summer is like tasting something after it’s been in the microwave about eight minutes. The heat and stupidity started even before Memorial Day and has not abated. It’s like we’re living on Mars – I’ve been pricing those spacesuits which protected Matt Damon.

But thank goodness for the movies. Especially the kind one watches in the comfort of one’s own home. Let’s discuss.

Here’s a serious complaint – as I learned over the years, watching a great film is a multi-sensory experience – you see, you listen, you emote. And for me, always a major component of that experience is the music score. For those who pay attention, music is usually the heart of the movie – name a classic up through about 1990 or so for which you can’t hum a main theme. Or name a dud or two with a score that is better than the picture. [Read on here...]

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We’re kicking things off this afternoon with my review of the BBC’s Sherlock: The Abominable Bride on Blu-ray Disc. Sherlock is an absolutely fantastic series, if you haven’t already picked it up yet. I highly recommend it.

Also here at the site today, we’re pleased to welcome our very own Bud Elder back after a bit of an absence. He’s been a busy fellow these last few months, but he returns today with a new View from the Cheap Seats column featuring some thoughts on Film Noir and recent “B” classics on disc. Don’t miss it.  [Read on here…]

I’m trying to remember when I put it all together, when it dawned on me that there were these wonderful movies, shown, at the time, when there were only three local stations and local guys programmed the movies, after the last late show. They were cheap, even I could see that, but there was just something about these black and whites that kept me fascinated and many a long night I would suffer through local commercials just to see either justice done or perverted.

And the titles – Private Hell 36, Shack Out on 101, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands and Five Against the House. And the actors, has-beens and wanna-bes, but they were just terrific. Tom Neal and Ann Savage and Dennis O’Keefe and Preston Foster and Lawrence Tierney. And this was the “B” list.  [Read on here...]

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We’ve got a great new View from the Cheap Seats column from our own Bud Elder today, entitled The Biggest Movie Story in America, featuring another of Bud’s great stories and a rundown of recent releases. Don’t miss it.

Also today, Tim Salmons has just turned in a new review of Scream Factory’s Invaders from Mars (1986) on Blu-ray.  [Read on here…]

I had to sit on maybe the biggest movie story in America. For a long time. And now that it’s been completed and is over, I’m shocked that the whole thing hasn’t been on the front page of The New York Times.

I’ve perhaps casually mentioned that I helped create (didn’t get in the way of) a film school here in Oklahoma City, actually at Oklahoma City Community College. The idea was, unlike film degrees that are based on watching and studying themes and points of view and reading scripts, the creative side, so to speak, to offer a technical, hands on degree program, why a community college was selected in the first place. And to enhance the experience, we got the finest equipment in the world – Avid editors and cameras and lenses and lights and then, through a lot of hard work from a lot of good people, here came the ultimate – a full end studio, built to the specs of an actual Hollywood soundstage. If another state funded school has a facility like this, I’d like to see it.  [Read on here...]

(Photo by Robin Holland Photography)

Robert Altman said his last “that’s a wrap,” can you believe it, some eight or nine years ago and it seems as though any hope of mainstream studio films with emotional weight, sharp characters, social satire and natural, cliché free dialogue was buried right next to him.

Every Hollywood director since the beginning of the medium owes a debt to Robert Altman. His style was so distinctive, so fresh and so natural that people would say to themselves, “Oh that’s what directors do.”  [Read on here...]