Best Picture Hall of Fame

I'm watching The Godfather tonight...and that will be a first time watch for me. Any bets on my reaction to it?

Kinda made me chuckle that you loved II so much but cared little for the first movie. And yes, that ending IS brilliant.

Oh, and I do believe the answer to that reference would be:



Loved all the reviews, sorry to hear that there were more less than enjoyable viewings than actual enjoyments.
It was great to hear about the book regarding 12 Years a Slave

VERY ready for this one. Nomination already in hand.

I believe you will think highly of it.

you're gonna LOVE the scenery. In regards to the "look" of the late forties.

You are going to love it. Where you at?

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Letterboxd

#JusticeForHamilton

I think he will really like it as well. I look forward to that review.

Just Gladiator for me, and I'm consider watching it today since there's really nothing to see at theater

Great movie, All The King's Men tells the rise and fall of a politician in 1940's America. The novel seems like it was inspired by Citizen Kane as the timing lines up. The difference being firs the book came out rather than just the film so the movie couldn't be ignored.

Brodrick Crawford is fantastic in this, a role originally offered to John Wayne (which would have been awesome), but Wayne was always a bit of a politicians puppet of sorts so he wouldn't take a role like this.

I really love the first half of this movie, the characters are very well defined, you've got some great world building and the school collapse is done quite well.

Crawford's fall was a little too long for my taste, I think it could have been better served for last twenty minutes as opposed to the last hour. The build was a lot more interesting than the fall. But still great movie.

Every wonder why movies from almost 20 years ago look better than movies made today?

Russell Crowe is appropriately cast as Maximus the general of a Roman army. When the effeminate Commodus seizes power by slaying his father Maximus ends up a slave in the fighting pits of Rome. Unlike Rocky which I feels loses a bit on repeat viewings Gladiator improves itself. Richard Harris and Oliver Reed are both very good in this as well as Connie Nelson, who's never really stood out to me in her other works.

But Ridley's Scott's film is gorgeous, it looks almost better today than it did in the theater because you can actually appreciate all the little nuances.

I didn't necessarily think it deserved Best Picture back in 2000 but in hindsight I think it's aged better than it's rival Traffic.

The Godfather

So, I finally watched The Godfather. Most impressively I never checked how much time was left in the film. That's amazing for me, especially as it's a 3 hour movie and usually if I'm getting bored I'll check the time remaining at least a half dozen times.

I really enjoyed the first hour with Marlon Brando, especially the wedding sequence. At this point the film reminded me of Elizabeth (1998) as the godfather was like royalty and had his own protocols for respect, while granting an 'audience' and dispersing 'favors and edicts'. That was fascinating to see. Marlon Brando's Don Corleone was like a monarch on the throne, cool stuff.

The second act was interesting as a mob war broke out and I enjoyed seeing so many stars in one movie. Damn! there's way too many to name. I swear Abe Vigoda looked ancient even way back in 1974. And on the flip side Diane Keaton never looked younger. My favorite subplot was the Johnny Fontane character who was based on real life Frank Sinatra.

I did get a bit bored by the third act. Just too many characters for any of them to become fully fleshed out and become real to me. This is what happens when a complex lengthy novel is brought to the screen: either the director has to cut characters/sub plots out of the story...or...spend less time on the development of them. And that's what keeps me from loving this film, it really needed to be a mini series to cover all the vast material in Mario Puzo's novel.

So I appreciate this film and enjoyed watching it, but I'm not sure what I will rate this at as it didn't 'speak' to me. By that I mean I don't find myself pondering the story the next day, nor did it elevate my thoughts or make me feel deeply. I mean it was well made, but I have no desire to watch the other two sequels any time soon.

Attachments

 

I still haven't gotten to part 2 or 3. I've now seen the first one twice.

Puzo's novel is awful, would have been bad as a miniseries. FFC made the perfect decisions on what to cut, some of it they went into in Part II then the rest was basically descriptions of Sonny and Carlo's manhood and their powerful sexual prowess.

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Gladiator



Are you not entertained?!?

I am every time I watch this. The score is one of the most brilliant in movie history and I really am a big fan of how the movie looks. For an epic this is a big piece of the equation for how good a movie is for me and it delivers. The costume and production design are impressive as can be. And so are the CGI Tigers.

Russell Crowe was great as Maximus, but yes the acting highlight was Joaquin Phoenix as the evil Commodus. One of the best supporting actor roles of all time and he got screwed out of an Oscar by Benicio Del Toro! I love the supporting cast as well, in particular thought Connie Nielsen did an outstanding job. Richard Harris, Djimon, and Oliver Reed were on point as well though.

Love how the movie tuggs at emotions. Love how the field looks when Maximus is having flashbacks and it's a sad tale when he finds out about his family. I also was a huge fan of that last scene with Djimon. It's just great filmmaking by Ridley Scott. This is definitely his masterpiece. A great story that hits all the right notes.

+

And with that, I'm second across the finish line. My favorite HOF yet, thanks to everyone for being in this!

Look forward to the results!

"A gross cupid". That just made me crack up.
Don't think I've ever read any of Puzo's books.

Really grateful he came up with the story but Puzo isn't a good writer, his descriptions of people and things are hilarious like you pointed out. The Godfather is all i've read by him but i've heard it's his best which isn't promising.

On The Waterfront from 1954 is the story of corruption on the docks of New Jersey. Brando is set up as an unwitting accomplice to a murder and a jusuit Priest leads the charge against the crooked harbor master.

1954 was such a great year as we got this and Rear Window at the same time two of the best from the 1950's and two very dilectually opposed sorts of films. On The Waterfront is gorgeous with great blocking so the action scenes work very well, it also has a sweeping score and basically the entire cast got Oscar nominations (Brando, Marie-Saint, Malden, Cobb, and Steiger) with Brando and Saint winning.

The movie won for Art Direction, Cinematography, and Editing which is no surprise as they are all excellent. This was Kazan at his best and while his followups were good I think he focused too much on story and not visuals in his later works. Sometimes just a simple murder can be told with beauty.

Glad you love it Siddon! And that's a great shot that you picked for the picture!

Vamp, I just read all of your reviews. All were nicely written with that personal touch that makes them, well personable A couple of my thoughts:

If someone was to ask me who my favorite actors that are working today were, I wouldn't remember to say Ed Harris, but I should!. Ed Harris is one of those supporting actors who can outshine everyone else. I really liked him in this movie and just about any movie he's in. Yup Ed Harris and Robert Duvall are two of my favorites. Though I didn't really think Duvall got to do too much in The Godfather.

I like that, it's a neat story and it says a lot. Thanks for including that

I went through his list of books and it seems it's mostly around The Godfather premise and similar story lines.