Saturday, October 7, 2017
Alien: Covenant (2017)
The crew of a colony ship, bound for a remote planet, discover an uncharted paradise with a threat beyond their imagination, and must attempt a harrowing escape.
Highly professional sequel to the director's Prometheus and a great addition to the Alien saga offers a more stringent plot than the the predecessor and offers lots of visually stunning scenes and shock moments; Fassbender is perfect in his android double role.
On renewed viewing: I especially enjoy the fantastic scenery and Michael Fassbender's performance
Town Creek (2009)
(aka Blood Creek)
A man and his brother on a mission of revenge become trapped in a harrowing occult experiment dating back to the Third Reich.
A preposterous story is given the nonstop full action treatment, but little horror; Michael Fassbender as the supernatural villain is unrecognizable.
Friday, October 6, 2017
First Lines: Rafael Sabatini - The Sea Hawk
Sir Oliver Tressilian sat at his ease in the lofty dining-room of the handsome house of Penarrow, which he owed to the enterprise of his father of lamented and lamentable memory and to the skill and invention of an Italian engineer named Bagnolo who had come to England half a century ago as one of the assistants of the famous Torrigiani.
Blade Runner (1982)
A blade runner must pursue and try to terminate four replicants who
stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.
Groundbreaking sci-fi thriller in noir style with a coherent bleak
vision of the future, perfectly designed, still achieves to amaze even
today.
On renewed viewing: still finding wonderful new details, a very rich movie.
Halliwell**: "Gloomy futuristic thriller, looking like a firework
display seen through thick fog, and for all the tiring tricks and
expense adding up to little more than an updated Philip Marlowe case."
Maltin*1/2: "A triumph of production design, defeated by a muddled
script and main characters with no appeal whatsoever. However, the film
has a fervent following. Loosely based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Italianamerican (1974)
Martin Scorsese interviews his mother and father about their life in New York City and the family history back in Sicily.
A very simple, intimate family documentary that manages to bring amazing insights to Italian-American immigrants' history and life, but also reveals a lot about Scorsese's parents relationship.
Halliwell (no star): "A sophisticated home movie, rooting a family in their environment. The credits include the recipe for Mrs Scorsese's meatball sauce."
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
First Lines: Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Lost Prince
There are many dreary and dingy rows of ugly uses in certain parts of London, but there certainly could not be any row more ugly or dingier than Philibert Place.
