King Kong (1933)

retrieved from netflix.com


 

Star Rating- 4
Length of Film- 100 minutes
Director- Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack
Cast- Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher, Sam Hardy, Noble Johnson, Steve Clemente, & James Flavin












When I was watching this film, I decided to text my dad to tell him what I was watching and also get some feedback from him. This was our conversation...

L- Watching King Kong (1933). Peter Jackson did an amazing job with the remake. It's practically the same. It's unrealistic to see the brontosaurus (plant eater) attacking the men. You can tell there's a screen anytime the actors are in the same shot as Kong.

L- Holy shit! Kong just broke the t-rex's jaw! That was pretty intense! I couldn't imagine what the audience thought, 80 years ago.

D- The 1933 King Kong is a great movie. Kind of corny, but how they did it was fascinating. I guess they had scenes of him eating people but they had to cut it out. Really surprised how sexual Fay Wray was with Kong.

L- Yes...she wasn't wearing much for the time period.

D- True, that time period of movie was very provocative. Which really surprises me.

"Censors took scissors to several scenes, including one in which Kong removes some of Wray's clothes, tickles her, then sniffs his finger". -The Greatest Movies Ever

Going along with my texts I sent my father, I enjoyed this movie. It was suspenseful and it shocked me! There were parts that were corny, but for it being 1933, the "special effects" were off the charts!

"Willis O'Brien a pioneer in the use of stop-motion photography, used an 18 inch model of King Kong covered in rabbit fur. The miniature was shot frame by frame, repositioned each time, then edited together as animation. O'Brien then perfected rear-projection techniques that used animation and actual footage of Fay Wray to make them appear to be in the same shot". -The Greatest Movies Ever

Everything about this film was impressive. I could not believe how much they were able to accomplish for 1933. If you can get over the screen that separates the actors from Kong in a few scenes, you're watching a gem of a movie.

This movies DESERVES to be on the list and it DESERVES to be a part of Entertainment Weekly's Top 100 list and The Ultimate Ranked List of the 101 Best films of all time! (Gail Kinn & Jim Piazza)


" 'Twas beauty killed the beast."

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Star Rating- 2
Length of Film- 101 minutes
Director- John Huston
Cast- Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane, Lee Patrick, Sydney Greenstreet, Ward Bond, Jerome Cowan, Elisha Cook Jr., James Burke, Murray Alper, & John Hamilton
Oscar Nomination- Hal B. Walls (Best Picture), John Huston (Screenplay), Sydney Greenstreet ( Actor in Support Role)


 


This is going to be a quick post. This was not a good movie. It was all very...beige. It's not because it was a black and white film, but Bogart and Astor were a snooze. There was NO excitement.

In my opinion, this movie shouldn't be on the list, but I understand WHY it is on the list of 1,001 movies. It was the FIRST "Film Noir" film and it was the first mystery film where the dame was the murderer. It started a new generation.

Here are some fun facts of film courtesy of "The Greatest Movies Ever" book by Gail Kinn & Jim Piazza

*More than once, Spade makes derogatory references to Wilmer's presumed homosexuality (because he carried a perfumed hand kerchief). In fact, he refers to Wilmer as a gunsel, a term that the censors assumed was a slang reference to a gunman. Gunsel is actually a vulgar Yiddish term for homosexual.

*Two "Maltese Falcons" we're used in the film. The first one is on display in the movie museum at Warner Bros. Studios, it's tail feathers dented from when Bogart dropped it. 

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Retrieved from Netflix.com

Star Rating- 3
Length of Film- 80 minutes
Director- Don Siegel
Cast- Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones, Jean Willies, Ralph Dumke,  Virginia Christine, Tom Fadden, Kenneth Patterson, Guy Way, Eileen Stevens, Beatrice Maude, Jean Andren, & Bobby Clark







Before you sit down and watch this movie, you have to know a little background of what was going on in the 1950's, and THEN you'd understand why this movie is on this list.

        "A number of cutural commentators have remarked on the  "paranoid style" of most
         American sci-fi movies of the 1950's when the "Red Scare" intensified the Cold War  
         atmosphere between the United States and the Soviet Union...The movie was
         produced during an era when many Americans were seriously discussing the
           possibility of building back yard bomb shelters to "protect" themselves from an
         expected nuclear attack by the Soviet Union." -Understanding Movies by Louis
         Giannetti

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is set in a small, quaint town where everything is perfect and in place. Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) was called to come home from a medical convention because he had patience lining up at his door, frantic to see the doctor. As soon as he got home, no one was desperate to see him; they were all normal. A couple of individuals complained, very emotionally that their loved one wasn't them. They looked, and acted like them, but weren't them.

Blah, blah, blah... pods were found, and they put the puzzle pieces together that the transformation is complete when they fall asleep.

The picture up above is a photo of the pod, and yes...they did use dish soap to make the bubbles. It was the 50's...meh. Dr. Bennell and his egirlfriend, Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter) took medication to keep them awake, and all the zombie in the town went after them. The last part of the movie, our lead characters were running...running to get away and to survive.

The ending is not relaxing nor does it resolve anything. They left the movie completely open so the audience had the fear that it could happen, and that it could spread to where they live. And THAT is why this movie is on the list and THAT's why it's a classic. It fed into the fear of what was going on that decade. Quite brillant.  

Trainspotting (1996)

Star Rating- 3 1/2
Length of Film- 94 minutes
Director- Danny Boyle
Cast- Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Macdonald, Peter Mullan, James Cosmo, Eileen Nicholas, Susan Vidler, Pauline Lynch, Shirley Henderson, Stuart McQuarrie, Irvine Welsh, & Dale Winton
Oscar Nominations- John Hodge (screenplay)


Oh boy... I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I pushed play, but I was surprised, in a good way. Renton (Ewan McGregor) is a drug addict, who did squat with his life. After having his last hit, he prepares to detox by himself: with 3 buckets. For piss, shit, and puke. 

He goes to a known drug dealer and takes some opium rectal suppositories. You will see him reach in his pants and insert them into his rectum. The next part...is not for the weak of stomach. He HAS to go to the bathroom, and ends up losing the suppositories, so he sticks his hand in the toilet YUCK!!! Then his head...then his upper body...

This movie does a great job portraying the mind of a heroin addict. We swim in the toilet searching for suppositories, we see a dead baby crawling on the ceiling then turning his head around in a very exorcist way, newly arrested friend is taunting Renton with ball and chains on his ankle. 

This movie is over all fucked up, but memorable and escapes you to this world...their drug addicted world. It's one of those movies that you'll remember for years to come. I believe that Trainspotting inspired 1999's Requiem for a Dream.  Watch the movie and make up your opinion. Happy watching :o)