I recall its having David Soul as a lead was a big problem.
Agreed, he was very wooden, but not even a young Nick Nolte (or whomever else they might have ideally had) would have lifted this turkey far. The young magic/monsters-loving boy who becomes a vamp-hinter with Soul was similarly underpowered.... felt like casting malpractice really.
A young Bonnie Bedelia (I only knew her from Die Hard prior to this) as Soul's love interest - was better than Soul but her character is just *terribly* written, & is asked to do such preposterous and (sexistly) unexciting things that she's wasted.
Stand By Me was another good movie made from a King-story. Christine (about a car) & Firestarter (w/ Drew Barrymore) are sorta watchable. And so are, of course, Shawshank & Green Mile, neither of which is, however, *my* thing at all.
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ecarle (14979)
4 years ago
I recall its having David Soul as a lead was a big problem.
Agreed, he was very wooden, but not even a young Nick Nolte (or whomever else they might have ideally had) would have lifted this turkey far.
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There is the issue here that the quality of "writing for TV" in 1979 was far below that of the better movies of the time...it took DECADES for TV to attract a generation of movie-level writing talent(likely because the money and freedom lured them....) Conversely, there seems to have been, in the 50's, a pretty good roster of writers for the dramas of the time -- Paddy Chayefsky, Reginald Rose...but even THOSE guys, once they got to the movies, didn't work much.
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The young magic/monsters-loving boy who becomes a vamp-hinter with Soul was similarly underpowered.... felt like casting malpractice really.
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Yeah. Honestly, other than James Mason and the Psycho bits, I recall Salem's Lot as being "all sizzle, no steak" in the quality horror department. And projects like this helped Stephen King feel like a "potboiler king." He's not Hitchcock -- but then Hitchcock didn't do a lot of horror -- movies like The 39 Steps, Rebecca, Under Capricorn and The Wrong Man have nothing to do with King World.
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A young Bonnie Bedelia (I only knew her from Die Hard prior to this) as Soul's love interest - was better than Soul but her character is just *terribly* written, & is asked to do such preposterous and (sexistly) unexciting things that she's wasted.
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Bonnie Bedelia was around a lot in the years before Die Hard...but more in the 70's...I recall feeling that Die Hard was almost "bringing her out of the past." She was Bruce Dern's pregnant wife in the grueling dance marathon in "They Shoot Horses for Me' and I think she played a real-life female race driver in another one. Ah, but Die Hard is her legacy...a great match for Bruce's New Yawk tough guy.
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ecarle (14979)
4 years ago
Stand By Me was another good movie made from a King-story. Christine (about a car) & Firestarter (w/ Drew Barrymore) are sorta watchable. And so are, of course, Shawshank & Green Mile, neither of which is, however, *my* thing at all.
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Oh, yeah. THOSE. Hah -- yes some good films have been made from King material. Funny how two of them -- Stand By Me and Shawshank -- had no supernatural aspects at all, no real horror. I think that the final half hour of Shawshank is magnificent in its inspiration and uplift(the final shot on a Mexican beach is like of heaven itself; and Morgan Freeman here gave us the first and best taste of his narration skills)...but it is a grim and depressing first two hours getting there. I never want to watch THAT part, again. Stand by Me, I remember only for not much caring about it, one way or the other. The young cast maybe, didn't "connect."
The Green Mile...well, I put The Green Mile as my "favorite film of 1999" based on the memory of the first time I saw it...the combination of Tom Hanks(riding high back then), the deep tearjerking emotion of it AND the horror around the edges(the disastrous electric chair frying of a "nice guy" is a scene of Hitchcockian build-up and execution; all the more horrific because a villainous guard rigs it to happen). But I don't much watch it anymore when it comes on TV -- and I DO watch my other favorites of the year.
I think swanstep recommended The Matrix as more representative of 1999...and I DO watch that whenever it comes on. The premise remains a wonderful brain teaser, and remember that I'm a Keanu Reeves fan -- I've always felt he has star quality, a sweet empathy...and a surprising capacity for violence(well, it USED to be...no more since John wick arrived.)
I think The Matrix moves to my favorite of 1999 slot -- The Green Mile has to move down a notch.
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ecarle (14979)
4 years ago
And yet, STILL: Stephen King seems to have written scores of books and short stories that were made into scores of movies, and so few of them are classic or memorable or much of anything.
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ecarle (14979)
4 years ago
"...I put the Green Mile as my favorite of 1999...I think swanstep recommended The Matrix as more representative of 1999."
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I'm reminded that as the 90's went for me, 1999 was a year where I couldn't FULLY back my favorite(The Green Mile), whereas in other 90's years, I was firm in the one I loved: 1997: LA Confidential(my favorite of the 90s.) 1994: Pulp Fiction(the "arrival" of QT.) 1990 and 1995: GoodFellas and Casino are variations on a theme, a style, a sound, a director...and two actors.
Moreover, I found two years of the 90's in particular, to be really great years for movies in general:
1994:
Pulp Fiction
Ed Wood
True Lies
The Shawshank Redemption
Forrest Gump(yes, I liked it a lot.)
1997:
LA Confidential
Jackie Brown(my favorite QT)
Face/Off (what a concept!)
Titanic(yes, I liked it a lot...from when the iceberg hit.)
As Good As it Gets ("How do I write a woman? I think of a man...and I take away reason and accountability.")
Gross Pointe Blank(the Ultimate John Cusack film -- and Dan Ackroyd is actually funny!)
And yet, I saw a book in the bookstore a few months ago called "1999: The Best Year for Movies in the 90s."
1999? When I had trouble committing to a best? Oh, I guess so. Everybody likes different movie years for different reasons. But I thumbed through the book and found that many of the titles didn't "send" me. American Beauty?(Spacey was much better in LA Confidential.) Election?(yeah, the themes are great, but how irritating it is.) I dunno. I'd still take 1997 or 1994 first...
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swanstep (2640)
4 years ago
Bonnie Bedelia was around a lot in the years before Die Hard
I just caught Bedelia as a small-town college music major in Frankenheimer's The Gypsy Moths (1969). She doesn't have a lot to do in her role but she's good & *very* pretty (particularly in her first scene at the piano) in a very on-trend-at-the time, Katherine Ross-Olivia Hussey-Ali McGraw way. One of the male leads falls for her character (and she reciprocates) but he leaves town at the end anyway prompting, I imagine, the whole audience to think, 'You Idiot!' [Films that end with a main character succumbing to his or her fate as determined by class, temperament, or what have you, making what *we* can see is huge mistake are really their own bitter-sweet animal - Billy Liar (1964) ends with Billy heading back to fantasy rather than get on the train to swinging London with Julie Christie. It's *torture* for the audience, and Gypsy Moths has some of that.] Quite a nice film that tries to be both a Point-Break-like action film *and* a soulful small town portrait like Some Came Running or Last Picture Show. The balance doesn't quite work but I give it points for the attempt and it's a very easy watch in any case. Hackman is especially entertaining and ready for the big time in his next few pictures. [Update: I checked and The French Connection-to-The Conversation golden period was still 6 pictures away for Hackman at this point. Hackman definitely paid his dues and worked like a demon before he finally broke big.]
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ecarle (14979)
4 years ago
Bonnie Bedelia was around a lot in the years before Die Hard
I just caught Bedelia as a small-town college music major in Frankenheimer's The Gypsy Moths (1969).
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You see.?..she was around for a couple of decades before Die Hard. I recall seeing her as a "blast from the past" in that film. James Shigeta, too. He was so honorable and brave as Hans Gruber's first victim(the powerful Japanese corporate head) - and I was remembering him from 1961's "Flower Drum Song"(a staple on NBC Saturday Night at the Movies.)
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She doesn't have a lot to do in her role but she's good & *very* pretty (particularly in her first scene at the piano) in a very on-trend-at-the time, Katherine Ross-Olivia Hussey-Ali McGraw way. One of the male leads falls for her character (and she reciprocates) but he leaves town at the end anyway prompting, I imagine, the whole audience to think, 'You Idiot!'
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Yeah, as a young guy, I never got that in the movies. the job over the beauty who loves him(and he doesn't take her with him.)
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[Films that end with a main character succumbing to his or her fate as determined by class, temperament, or what have you, making what *we* can see is huge mistake are really their own bitter-sweet animal
- Billy Liar (1964) ends with Billy heading back to fantasy rather than get on the train to swinging London with Julie Christie. It's *torture* for the audience, and Gypsy Moths has some of that.]
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A couple of 60's folk rock songs had that theme: "We'll Sing in the Sunshine," and "Leavin' On a Jet Plane." They are schmaltzy, but they are heartfelt, and the folk aspects made them nostalgic.
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ecarle (14979)
4 years ago
(The Gypsy Moths) -- Quite a nice film that tries to be both a Point-Break-like action film *and* a soulful small town portrait like Some Came Running or Last Picture Show. The balance doesn't quite work but I give it points for the attempt and it's a very easy watch in any case. Hackman is especially entertaining and ready for the big time in his next few pictures. [Update: I checked and The French Connection-to-The Conversation golden period was still 6 pictures away for Hackman at this point. Hackman definitely paid his dues and worked like a demon before he finally broke big.]
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That's true about Hackman. What's interesting, I think, is that Hackman may not have realized that The French Connection was not only going to win him a Best Actor Oscar, but would make him an instant leadsing man(this didn't happen, say , to Best Actor winner F. Murray Abraham.) I was intrigued that in the 1971-1972 corridor, Hackman was considered for two supporting roles -- in Big Jake(the Richard Boone role versus John Wayne) and in Junior Bonner(as Steve McQueen's brother). He lost those roles, but he was now too big for them anyway.
Indeed, in the 1972 action movie "Prime Cut," newly-crowned Best Actor winner Hackman was moved above the title with Lee Marvin on the posters -- but not in the credits for the movie itself. Hackman took that movie as "support."
I've never seen The Gypsy Moths, but I recall it as a "prestige" movie, with John Frankenheimer directing and Burt Lancaster reunited romantically with Deborah Kerr for some "middle-aged sex."(So said the reviews -- I was always reading reviews.)
I think maybe I should see it. I keep trying to go back and "collect' the movies I never saw.
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