Robin Miller <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> wrote:

>The Equalizer 3 (movie) (Netflix, Jan. 1)

>Robert McCall vows to stop an Italian crime syndicate from brutalizing
>and extorting the residents of a small coastal town that has won his
>heart. 2023 film starring Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, and Eugenio
>Mastrandrea; 1h 49m.

>https://www.netflix.com/title/81674658

>https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17024450/ [rating 6.9]

I got the distinct impression that Denzel mainly did the movie to exploit
producers, taking advantage of a paid vacation to a lovely part of
the world.

>. . .

>School of Rock (2003; posing as a schoolteacher, a down-on-his-luck
>guitarist secretly turns his class into a rock band -- and shows them
>the liberating power of rock 'n' roll; starring Jack Black, Mike White,
>and Joan Cusack)

This movie is loads of fun. The children aren't cloying and they really
do learn to play their instruments.

>Mystic River (2003; haunted by a monstrous crime, three childhood
>friends in Boston cross paths again decades later in connection with a
>murder investigation; directed by Clint Eastwood; starring Sean Penn,
>Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon)

Notoriously, Eastwood wrote the score to avoid hiring a real composer
and keep the money for himself.

I saw this movie once, in theater. I've never had the desire to revisit
it. It's on tv often enough, so it wouldn't have difficult.

>One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975; a rabble-rousing prisoner
>transfers to a psychiatric ward thinking it'll be better than hard labor
>-- until he tangles with the controlling Nurse Ratched; starring Jack
>Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, and Michael Berryman)

Louise Fletcher was supposed to be a very nice person in real life.

>Blazing Saddles (1974; satirical take on Hollywood westerns follows the
>tortured trail of a freed slave who's elected as the sheriff of a racist
>town; Mel Brooks film starring Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, and Slim
>Pickens)

He wasn't elected. It's a plot point. Oh for gawd's sake. Someone who
doesn't watch movies ever wrote this description.

>Death Wish (1974; after an architect's wife is murdered and daughter is
>raped, he seeks vigilante justice against not only the culprits but
>other wrongdoers as well; starring Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, and
>Vincent Gardenia)

Liam Neeson owes his career to the popularity of this movie.

>The Conversation (1974; an audio surveillance expert faces a moral
>quandary when he suspects that a couple whose conversation he's been
>hired to record will be murdered; Francis Ford Coppola film starring
>Gene Hackman, John Cazale, and Allen Garfield)

This is a great movie.

>The Front Page (1974; eager to quit his job and get married, a reporter
>in 1920s Chicago finds himself lured back on the beat when his editor
>offers a story too big to resist; starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau,
>and Susan Sarandon)

This is not a good movie. See the Adolphe Menjou/Pat O'Brien movie
instead. It's much better. 1931

>The Great Gatsby (1974; mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby is obsessed
>with Daisy Buchanan, who's married to unfaithful Tom, making for a
>tragic love triangle; starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, and Bruce
>Dern; screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola)

Uh, Sam Waterston? Bruce Dern is great.

>The Parallax View (1974; while investigating the assassination of a
>leading U.S. senator, a journalist uncovers a conspiracy involving a
>shadowy multinational corporation; starring Warren Beatty, Paula
>Prentiss, and William Daniels)

I like this movie. It makes no sense.

>Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974; a widowed singer and single
>mother starts over as a diner waitress in Arizona, befriending her
>coworkers and romancing a ruggedly handsome rancher; starring Ellen
>Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, and Mia Bendixsen)

Uh Alfred Lutter and Jodie Foster? For the first time in her career,
Foster gave a natural performance and wasn't given heavy-handed direction
so typical of how children in movies were directed.

I have no idea who Mia Bendixsen was.

>Chinatown (1974; with a suspicious femme fatale bankrolling his
>snooping, private eye J.J. Gittes uncovers intricate dirty dealings in
>the Los Angeles waterworks; Roman Polanski film starring Jack Nicholson,
>Faye Dunaway, and John Huston)

Gittes takes a terrible situation and makes everything worse. I've never
understood why we're supposed to like him. Faye Dunaway was terrific and
John Huston ended his career on a bang.

>The Sting (1973; a rookie grifter and veteran con artist plan to fleece
>a homicidal racketeer through a phony racetrack scam in 1930s Chicago;
>starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Robert Shaw)

Load of fun; just ignore that the music is from the wrong time period.

>Charley Varrick (1973; after burglarizing a small-town bank, petty crook
>Charley Varrick and his motley crew become targets of the mob in this
>action-packed thriller; starring Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, and
>Felicia Farr)

This is a fantastic movie.

>Detective Forst [new; complete season 1] (3:01 am, Netflix)

>When a detective's maverick approach to investigating gets him
>suspended, he teams with a journalist to solve a series of brutal
>murders outside the law. Polish series.

Do we get the scene in which he slams his service revolver and badge
down on the captain's desk?

>Transplant (new time slot) (8 pm, NBC)

>Moves from Thursday 9 pm.

Transplanted into a new time slot?

Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Robin Miller <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>
>
>> The Conversation (1974; an audio surveillance expert faces a moral
>> quandary when he suspects that a couple whose conversation he's been
>> hired to record will be murdered; Francis Ford Coppola film starring
>> Gene Hackman, John Cazale, and Allen Garfield)
>
> This is a great movie.
>
>> The Front Page (1974; eager to quit his job and get married, a reporter
>> in 1920s Chicago finds himself lured back on the beat when his editor
>> offers a story too big to resist; starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau,
>> and Susan Sarandon)
>
> This is not a good movie. See the Adolphe Menjou/Pat O'Brien movie
> instead. It's much better. 1931
>
>> The Great Gatsby (1974; mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby is obsessed
>> with Daisy Buchanan, who's married to unfaithful Tom, making for a
>> tragic love triangle; starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, and Bruce
>> Dern; screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola)
>
> Uh, Sam Waterston? Bruce Dern is great.
>

These are three (plus Murder on the Orient Express with Albert Finney as
Poirot) to try watching with my mom. Let me know if I shouldn't.

--Robin

Robin Miller <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>>Robin Miller <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>>The Conversation (1974; an audio surveillance expert faces a moral
>>>quandary when he suspects that a couple whose conversation he's been
>>>hired to record will be murdered; Francis Ford Coppola film starring
>>>Gene Hackman, John Cazale, and Allen Garfield)

>>This is a great movie.

>>>The Front Page (1974; eager to quit his job and get married, a reporter
>>>in 1920s Chicago finds himself lured back on the beat when his editor
>>>offers a story too big to resist; starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau,
>>>and Susan Sarandon)

>>This is not a good movie. See the Adolphe Menjou/Pat O'Brien movie
>>instead. It's much better. 1931

>>>The Great Gatsby (1974; mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby is obsessed
>>>with Daisy Buchanan, who's married to unfaithful Tom, making for a
>>>tragic love triangle; starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, and Bruce
>>>Dern; screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola)

>>Uh, Sam Waterston? Bruce Dern is great.

>These are three (plus Murder on the Orient Express with Albert Finney as
>Poirot) to try watching with my mom. Let me know if I shouldn't.

My mother is a huge fan of Robert Redford, in particular the way he
looked between Barefoot in the Park (1967) and perhaps the late '70s. The
quality of the movie isn't necessarily relevant. Who did Bob Woodward
sell his soul to in order to get Redford to play him in All the
President's Men (1977)?

I'm sure your mother will enjoy The Great Gatsby. The movie looks good
but it's not a great adaptation of the novel. The novel was not written
in a way to make it straight forward to adapt. But the two performances
I remember for their excellence are Waterston and Dern.

I gave you my opinion of The Front Page (1974). I should point out that
the 1931 version was restored in 2016 and looks better than it has in
years. That's a much better movie.

The Conversation is one of those movies that's well reviewed by critics
and well loved by movie fans. It was never a popular movie. It's not
exactly obscure but it's possible if you watch this movie with your
mother, neither of you may have seen it before. It's worth watching.

Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Robin Miller <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>>> Robin Miller <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>>>> The Conversation (1974; an audio surveillance expert faces a moral
>>>> quandary when he suspects that a couple whose conversation he's been
>>>> hired to record will be murdered; Francis Ford Coppola film starring
>>>> Gene Hackman, John Cazale, and Allen Garfield)
>
>>> This is a great movie.
>
>>>> The Front Page (1974; eager to quit his job and get married, a reporter
>>>> in 1920s Chicago finds himself lured back on the beat when his editor
>>>> offers a story too big to resist; starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau,
>>>> and Susan Sarandon)
>
>>> This is not a good movie. See the Adolphe Menjou/Pat O'Brien movie
>>> instead. It's much better. 1931
>
>>>> The Great Gatsby (1974; mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby is obsessed
>>>> with Daisy Buchanan, who's married to unfaithful Tom, making for a
>>>> tragic love triangle; starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, and Bruce
>>>> Dern; screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola)
>
>>> Uh, Sam Waterston? Bruce Dern is great.
>
>> These are three (plus Murder on the Orient Express with Albert Finney as
>> Poirot) to try watching with my mom. Let me know if I shouldn't.
>
> My mother is a huge fan of Robert Redford, in particular the way he
> looked between Barefoot in the Park (1967) and perhaps the late '70s. The
> quality of the movie isn't necessarily relevant. Who did Bob Woodward
> sell his soul to in order to get Redford to play him in All the
> President's Men (1977)?
>
> I'm sure your mother will enjoy The Great Gatsby. The movie looks good
> but it's not a great adaptation of the novel. The novel was not written
> in a way to make it straight forward to adapt. But the two performances
> I remember for their excellence are Waterston and Dern.
>
> I gave you my opinion of The Front Page (1974). I should point out that
> the 1931 version was restored in 2016 and looks better than it has in
> years. That's a much better movie.
>
> The Conversation is one of those movies that's well reviewed by critics
> and well loved by movie fans. It was never a popular movie. It's not
> exactly obscure but it's possible if you watch this movie with your
> mother, neither of you may have seen it before. It's worth watching.
>

Thanks, Adam. With older films, the actors are usually more important to
my mom (if she likes them) than the quality of the movie.

But she doesn't like them getting old. She won't watch current Tom
Selleck films because he doesn't look like how she remembers him. :-)

--Robin

Adam H. Kerman wrote:

> Robin Miller <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>>>Robin Miller <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>>>>The Conversation (1974; an audio surveillance expert
>>>>faces a moral quandary when he suspects that a couple
>>>>whose conversation he's been hired to record will be
>>>>murdered; Francis Ford Coppola film starring Gene
>>>>Hackman, John Cazale, and Allen Garfield)
>
>>>This is a great movie.
>
>>>>The Front Page (1974; eager to quit his job and get
>>>>married, a reporter in 1920s Chicago finds himself lured
>>>>back on the beat when his editor offers a story too big
>>>>to resist; starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and
>>>>Susan Sarandon)
>
>>>This is not a good movie. See the Adolphe Menjou/Pat
>>>O'Brien movie instead. It's much better. 1931
>
>>>>The Great Gatsby (1974; mysterious millionaire Jay
>>>>Gatsby is obsessed with Daisy Buchanan, who's married to
>>>>unfaithful Tom, making for a tragic love triangle;
>>>>starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, and Bruce Dern;
>>>>screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola)
>
>>>Uh, Sam Waterston? Bruce Dern is great.
>
>>These are three (plus Murder on the Orient Express with
>>Albert Finney as Poirot) to try watching with my mom. Let
>>me know if I shouldn't.
>
> My mother is a huge fan of Robert Redford, in particular
> the way he looked between Barefoot in the Park (1967) and
> perhaps the late '70s. The quality of the movie isn't
> necessarily relevant. Who did Bob Woodward sell his soul
> to in order to get Redford to play him in All the
> President's Men (1977)?

See William Goldman's "Adventures in the Screen Trade"
for info on how All the President's Men came together.

>
> I'm sure your mother will enjoy The Great Gatsby. The
> movie looks good but it's not a great adaptation of the
> novel. The novel was not written in a way to make it
> straight forward to adapt. But the two performances I
> remember for their excellence are Waterston and Dern.
>
There's also a section in the book on The Great Gatsby.
> I gave you my opinion of The Front Page (1974). I should
> point out that the 1931 version was restored in 2016 and
> looks better than it has in years. That's a much better
> movie.
>
> The Conversation is one of those movies that's well
> reviewed by critics and well loved by movie fans. It was
> never a popular movie. It's not exactly obscure but it's
> possible if you watch this movie with your mother, neither
> of you may have seen it before. It's worth watching.

Nyssa, who read the book just a few days ago and especially
enjoyed the sections about who does what when a movie
is developed and filmed