What have you been watching?

Ha, Ben...
Tough to make a good fantasy- so they had to animate it:
Lord Of The Rings 1978
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_%281978_film%29

 

My latest film is the Japanese 'The Emperor in August' (Nihon no ichiban nagai hi ketteiban) from late 2015, which is a WWII drama about the historical events that took place among the Japanese government, army, and emperor during the early days of August 1945.

I watched "The Emperor in August" two day's ago and found it to a very good an accurate to the actual events the led to the Japanese surrender. It is a remake of the 1967 film, Japan's Longest Day (日本のいちばん長い日 Nihon no ichiban nagai hi), also known as The Emperor and the General. Most Westerners believe the that two atomic bombs were the ultimate reason for the surrender. Of course they had a great impact, but they were not the ultimate reason for the surrender. The main reason was the Soviet Union's declaration of war, and the fear among the Japanese to loose Hokkaido to the Soviets. These two movies give a brief insight to those who don't like to read historical books.

The Soviet attack through Manchuria, sometime called the 'forgotten war' totally changed the the situation for the Japanese.

 

Started watching documentary series "Republic". It' about Republic of Ragusa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ragusa

 

Decision Before Dawn.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043459/

 

Yesterday I watched the Japanese film from 1972 "Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (Gunki hatameku motoni)". It was directed by Kinji Fukasaku and is about one woman's search to find the truth about her husband's death in World War II. The act switches between 1945 and 1971.

This film was selected as the Japanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 45th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.It was also one of the films selected for a Los Angeles tribute to Fukasaku, after he died.

This film is highly recommended and one of the very best Japanese WWII films I have watched.

 

Storage Wars...lots of Storage Wars.

 

Badlands Texas.
True story, none of the scripted reality crap...maybe the cowboy poet with the eye patch, but was a good story.
Hard to believe dude was set free, what with the evidence and all.

 

Stalingrad (1989) film 1 and 2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalingrad_(1989_film)

 

Watched The Godfather (1972).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather

Croatian national television always runs classics and other not so popular foreign and home movies which is awesome.

 

Do you know that there are at least two versions of the three Godfather films mixed to one very long film?

- The Godfather: A Novel For Television (The Godfather Saga) (1997) [9.2] Crime [This one is in nine parts]

- The Godfather Chronological Epic 1901-1980 (2011) [9.9] Crime [This one is in four parts]

 

I didn't know that. Thanks for info.

 

Just watched it two days ago. The movie was financed internationally but is mostly Polish. It never achieved an American theatrical release and went straight to dvd. I liked it for what it was. It would have received an PG13 in the USA as all the violence is suggested but happens off screen. After doing a search on this site I found this is the only mention of "Edges of the Lord" and think it deserves better.

The major theme is one of Catholicism, so if you aren't into that, skip it. If you are, it has some interesting things to say about living up to the ideals of your faith. The premise is that a Catholic man takes in a Jewish boy to shelter him from the Germans by passing him off as distant a member of his family. The man is married with three sons of his own and has placed his own children in mortal danger. The schools (if there are any) are closed.and so the kids have a lot of time to run around and get into trouble. This leads to tragic consequences. The Germans are, for the most part, an ever present but mostly unseen menace.

I liked the production design. You get a feeling of the poverty of this small Polish village under the German occupation. The music score maybe draws too much attention to itself.

The acting is unequal, due I suspect, to many of of the key players being a) Polish, working in english, which is not their first language and b) children, so they don't have the technique and experience that the older actors have to fall back upon.

The American actors in the cast were Haley Joel Osmont, who had an great run as a child actor from 1999-2003 (The Sixth Sense to Second Hand Lions) - as a young adult he has lost a lot of that "look" that made him attractive to casting agents, which is too bad because his talent is unbelievable. Willem Defoe in a supporting part here as a village priest. He brings his usual intensity and conviction, but it's really not about him. A couple of less well known British and Canadian child actors... Liam Hess and Richard Banel round out the non-Polish cast. They all match their accents to those of their Polish counterparts so that none of them stand out in any major way.

I would rate it slightly higher than the previous poster. For what it is or tries to be, maybe a 7 or 7.5 out of 10. Hope this helps future posters who might look it up.

 

I have lately been watching one older Soviet film, "The Cranes are Flying" (Letyat zhuravli) from 1957, and the Japanese "The Eternal Zero" (Eien no 0) from 2013.

The Soviet film is a drama and is very highly rated by IMDb, but doesn't live up to expectations. I lacks dept and with a pretty thin story. There are so many good Soviet films about the second world war and The Cranes are Flying is not one I would recommend.

The Japanese "The Eternal Zero" has everything the Soviet film are lacking, dept, a good story and very well played. On the negative side are the war scenes, which over-use the Mitsubishi Zero - it becomes a torpedo plane, a high-dive bomber, and the prime craft also for the kamikaze attacks, but apart from that it is indeed a very good film.

 

Bombardier

Lot's of good footage of B-18s. Never seen any movies of them before. Also a lot of prewar military trucks and fire engines.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035689/

 

I've been re-watching Malcolm in the Middle for about fifth time. It always cracks me up.

 

Just began season 2 of Bloodlines on Netflix. Dramatic to say the least

 

Today I watched the 1985 version of the Finnish WWII feature film "Unknown Soldier" (Tuntematon sotilas). It was a massive film that lasted 3 hours, 17 minutes and 41 seconds - at least one hour too long for my taste. Apart from that I think the film was better than expected although not as good as the first black and white version from 1955.

 

I watched Le Mans (1971) action movie starring Steve McQueen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Mans_(film)

 

There are two Czech films about their role in the RAF, one very good one called "Dark Blue World" (Tmavomodry) from 2001 that is about the Battle of Britain. This film is recommended.[SIZE=11pt] [/SIZE]

Yesterday I watched "Riders in the Sky" (Nebesti jezdci) from 1968 that is about the RAF 311 Bomber Squadron. This film is rather pathetic and is not recommended.