Not to mention Chinatown, The Last Detail, Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider, chuck in The Shooting, Ride in the Whirlwind ("Why don't ya put a tune to it, Vern?") and The King of Christian Slater.
Foxtel previews The Shining:
"Adapted from the Stephen King horror novel of the same name. For the film that made Jack Nicholson's career, Director Stanley Kubrick shot around 400 km of film."
Interested, also, in the 400 km part. Anyone know how much film was shot?
Various google searches have come up with "1,300,000 feet of film". Those more mathematically inclined than myself might be able to convert this to the metric version.
Is the figure true, or is it just one of those oft-repeated myths ("Melbourne is the second biggest Greek city in the world after Athens")?
At any rate, I have not seen this film -- but Jack Nicholson is usually worth a look, even at his worst, and at his best is the best. Another myth, which I have touched upon in this forum previously, is the notion that "Merryl Streep is a great actress", which a moment's consideration will reveal to be an unsupportable proposition. From the tedium of "Out of Africa", to the addition of a new bad accent in "Azaria", to the shameless and unspeakable incompetence of "Mamma Mia". In "Heartburn", she plays Jack Nicholson's love interest (and vice versa, I suppose), and I think not much method acting was required of Jack in the scene where he blows his cool over a piece of chicken.
Posted by: Professor Rosseforp | 01 April 2009 at 19:04
Can't remember Heartburn, but Jack must have a thing for chicken and tantrums. He did the same in Five Easy Pieces.
Meryl's unwatchable.
Apropos, just, I can't cop The Deer Hunter.
Posted by: Tony | 02 April 2009 at 12:44
Heartburn TRASHED a good book.
The casting was so very wrong.
re cross-eyed Karen and Five Easy Pieces (for piano)
We all know "hold the wheat toast between your knees", although every time I see it referenced, I think the screenwriter had never met a waitress from a diner near any oilfields. They stab customers they dont like.
Amen to The Meryl Thing. WTF?
Renee Zellweger craps all over Streep: her Nurse Betty was an Oscar-worthy performance.
Chuck in ANYthing with Christopher Walken in it, even that mouse thing. He is luminous.
I would have thought Easy Rider made Nicholson. When it opened in Sydney there were long long queues around the block to get into it.
Kubrick:
I will pay 2001 and Dr.S,
but everything else he did is dross, culminating in that disgusting exhibition "Two Years With Skinny and The Nut"
Posted by: Ann oDyne | 02 April 2009 at 18:13
I really like Paths of Glory and The Killing.
Trouble with Walken - he was in The Deer Hunter.
Posted by: Tony T | 02 April 2009 at 19:35
I will pay 2001 and Dr.S, but everything else he did is dross...
Come come. Full Metal Jacket is superb. Much more than a war movie with lots of swearing. But it's set during a war and it has lots of swearing so I'll be the first to admit it's pretty hard to get those small facts out of one's head.
Barry Lyndon. "Rollicking good yarn," as they say. My biggest problem with that one was a 35 year old Ryan O'Neal playing a 16[?] year old kid at the start. That really involved a lot of effort to suspend disbelief.
The Shining scared the living facking crappers out of me. Almost put my mate in the loony bin I reckon. I had to laugh when I read in 2004 that British scientists mathematically proved it was the SCARIEST. MOVIE. EVARR.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3537938.stm
Posted by: Big Ramifications | 02 April 2009 at 20:14
2001 A Space Odyssey is one of the most tedious films I have ever partly watched -- this includes "The Piano", which is saved by the always brilliant Harvey Keitel, and "The Getting of Wisdom", "Picnic at Hanging Rock", and "My Brilliant Career" -- which aren't saved by anything, but are not as dull as 2001.
Posted by: Professor Rosseforp | 02 April 2009 at 21:39
I thought Chicago took over from M-town (notice how hip I am?) in the 90s.
Posted by: Random | 04 April 2009 at 08:05
did you see London The Times feature on The Wire cos it's being screened there 11pm every weeknight.
You may enjoy the homage to Richard Lester Bucks Night sequence in The Boat That Rocked. You may enjoy Branagh channelling Peter Seller's characterisation of 'I'm Alright Jack'. and you may enjoy all the nudity, oh and there's music too.
Happy Easter Monday
Posted by: Bwca Brownie | 12 April 2009 at 19:24