Twistin - 45worlds - All Comments

Twistin - 45worlds - All Comments

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
Twistin 5th May 2020		Cinema JFK (1991)	Rated 8/10 Dizzying array of images, incomprehensible speeches and bombastic acting (and let's be honest, filmmaking) that tries unsuccessfully to spin history by twisting the truth and often, outright fabrication. Despite the comic book screenplay, it's still a fantastic rollercoaster ride...just make sure you know that rides are all about illusion and fun, not reality. The best part of the whole film is sitting through Donald Sutherland's explanation to Kevin Costner of what the whole conspiracy entails. Good grief, he deserved an Oscar for memorizing (and smirking through!) all that text. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 3rd May 2020		Cinema Wicked, Wicked (1973)	Rated 7/10 Richard L. Bare got his start in the early 40's directing a whole bunch of those "So You..." short subjects for Warner before settling into a long career in television, most famously for the seven episodes of "The Twilight Zone" he helmed, as well as most of the run of the wacky rural sitcom, "Green Acres". In an unusual turn, one of his last pieces of work was this R-rated theatrical thriller that introduced a new visual gimmick, Duo-Vision. It's the only instance I'm aware of that an entire film was based around the split screen dual action trick, although it was used in small doses in many major films. Even the stereo soundtrack -- one of the first films in that format -- plays into the effect. Early on, I noticed similarities to Phantom of the Paradise, which was released a year & a half later. There's the split screen, the way this film's phantom hangs onto the spotlight while beaming it at the girl singer he has a crush on, the fact that the organ score for "Phantom of the Opera" is played throughout the film...and several more indications that Brian De Palma was radically inspired by Wicked, Wicked. Speaking of music, Tiffany Bolling actually sings two songs in the film. It's mostly played for high camp, which Bare openly admitted, so it's more for fun than chills, despite the lurid horror tone of the poster. Not really a great film, but at the same time, it's not too shabby and worth seeing. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 3rd May 2020		Cinema Waterloo Bridge	Rated 8/10 The second of three filmed versions of Robert Sherwood's play. Due to the Production Code, Myra's troubled situation is somewhat cryptic without reading between the lines, but even that aspect of the film is handled cleverly and without distraction -- even enhancing the flow of the story. You'll be hard-pressed to find a better shot and lit film from this era, but the shining beacon is Vivien Leigh, who was never more beautiful. Leigh considered this to be her favorite of all her performances and it's easy to see why. 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 3rd May 2020		Cinema The Incredible Melting Man (1977)	Rated 3/10 A few scenes are so bad, they manage to entertain simply for the sheer incompetence of it all. But many, many more are so bad that they are annoying. Of course the acting is poor, the screenplay amateurish, the camera work, and frankly, even the storyboarding (assuming it was even boarded) are simply the work of first-time rookie wannabes. So if this was made by friends with a 16mm camera, you could forgive and mildly snicker at the shortcomings. But this was a wide theatrical release accompanied by a massive advertising budget...and it's just a really goofy experience to sit through. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 2nd May 2020		Cinema Cannon For Cordoba (1970)	Rated 8/10 Bit of a rip-off of the 'Magnificent Seven' series, but very enjoyable anyway. Peppard is a natural at this kinda thing and the pacing ensures that there's never a dull moment. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 2nd May 2020		Cinema Men Of Boys Town (1941)	Rated 5/10 Spencer Tracy can always be relied upon to deliver the goods, and I can appreciate the reason the film was made, to raise awareness and money for the real Boys Town, which was in financial need at the time, but that doesn't change the fact that this is just unbearably corny. A chunk of screen time is spent just trying to get one boy to smile. Having to sit through Bobs Watson's performance is painful, never mind Mickey Rooney's boisterous schtick. Darryl Hickman, on the other hand, steals the show with the kind of spirited performance that kept him working for many years. 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 2nd May 2020		Cinema The Last Seduction (1994)	Rated 8/10 Brilliant caper from one of the silver screen's all-time great bitches. Linda Fiorentino is sensational as the woman scorned having the last laugh. A clever thriller with twists and turns, but also a very funny movie (the comedy genre is never attached to this film, but should be!) Joseph Vitarelli's music score perfectly paces the film. Discover this sleeper. 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 2nd May 2020		Cinema Rambling Rose (1991)	Rated 5/10 The performances are solid, but the sermonizing is quite a bit heavy-handed and ruins what could have been a great film. Most of the depression-era story follows the exploits of a nymphomaniac housemaid, then makes an abrupt turn into a women's rights speech in the final reel. All of the attention went to the performances of Laura Dern and Diane Ladd, but it's still Robert Duvall's show. Lukas Haas is also convincing. 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 3rd Apr 2020		Cinema Werewolves On Wheels (1971)	Rated 1/10 Spoiler alert: No werewolf appearance until the final seven minutes -- and no werewolf (yes, singular....as in Werewolf on Wheels) is on wheels until the final four minutes. I heard that kids on YouTube are playing the "Werewolves on Wheels Stay Awake Challenge". Now that really IS a challenge! 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 2nd Apr 2020		TV The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961 - 1966)	Watched some interviews with cast members and apparently the character of Alan Brady was based on Sid Caesar and of course Rob Petrie was based on Carl Reiner himself (Reiner was a comedy writer on Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" and Caesar's Hour.) Hard to imagine Caesar being THAT difficult, but it must be true. I wonder what his reaction was to this characterization.
Twistin 2nd Apr 2020		Cinema 2001 Maniacs (2005)	Rated 3/10 Abysmal remake which manages to effortlessly lose all of the edge from the original classic. Jersey-born director Tim Sullivan's disdain for the South is crystal clear, and he makes sure to overload this tepid quickie with broad Southern accents acquired by studying Cajun-chef cooking shows. We're also graced with tasteless bits such as a dim-witted young man with his pants down chasing a pig...seriously? As horrific as the Pleasant Valley ghosts are supposed to be, I found the "victims" even less pleasant, like all modern slasher film teens, one-dimensional hedonists bleeding rudeness and arrogance in every scene which they appear. The film's only satisfying element was Robert Englund's performance. And the ending. I suppose it could have been worse; Rob Zombie could have directed it. 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 31st Mar 2020		Cinema The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)	Rated 1/10 One of the worst movies I've ever sat through. Saw it in its original release and hated it then, but over the years, many of my film buddies have insisted that I missed the train, that it was a satire rather than horror film, insisting that I re-evaluate and give it the cult movie cred it deserves. Tobe Hopper himself defended the film (and its comedic tone), stating that the original had black comedy which the audience was too shocked to acknowledge. I have always been aware of the sick humor from the characters in the first film, which indeed kept the viewers stunned. But this sequel, arriving way past its sell date, isn't marinated with black comedy, it's smothered in cartoon-ish, un-funny nonsense from start to finish. Bill Moseley's character, Chop-Top, is so over-played and annoying that any sense of menace is mangled away. And yet even that low-brow performance is eclipsed by one of the worst pieces of acting imaginable: Caroline Williams, whose agonizing screaming and hackneyed delivery is as unbearable as the goofy screenplay. Even the music soundtrack comprised of all artists from IRS Records feels contrived, filling the soundscape with artists / songs simply to promote that label's roster. So anyway, I decided to put my opinion of the film on hold until I gave it another spin; perhaps I did misjudge it and after all these years, I can make a better assessment through the prism of 30+ more years of film-going under my belt. And my opinion HAS changed...I hate it even more than I did in 1986. At the end of the long, miserable day, no part of this film works, it's just blobs of spoiled meat smelling up the place. 8 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 22nd Mar 2020		Cinema Client 9: The Rise And Fall Of Eliot Spitzer (2010)	Rated 1/10 A polished, stylized hit piece in reverse. "Client-9" is a documentary weighed down by its flattering, apologetic gloss that spends the majority of its screen time doting over its idol. The focus rests on explaining to us why specific crimes are so bad. Of course, these were the crimes that Eliot Spitzer made a name for himself taking down...since we probably can't deduce on our own that Wall Street sharks manipulating mutual funds is evil. No hard questions, no opposing perspectives...I don't even recall any heroes aside from Spitzer. I have little doubt that the financial cannibals depicted are the evildoers they appear to be, but how can I trust a presentation which resembles those extended campaign ads shown at political conventions before the star candidate makes a grand entrance? Campaign ads for Spitzer are indeed interjected with continued bias and lack of objectivity. Nary a slick production affectation is spared. Woke hip-hop music is strategically placed, in addition to emotional piano cues during confessional spiels. An onslaught of over-saturated primary colors, strategic ersatz cinéma vérité elements, merged with still images unfolding via slow pedestal / truck pans and rack focus montages. A virtual overdose of approval propaganda porn. The final reels ask why Spitzer was targeted for his sex crimes -- in this case, violation of the Mann Act (interstate transport for prostitution). Comparisons are routinely made to his opposing party's faults which help reveal the core of the film's problem, and that is painting all of his detractors as the cause of his downfall. "It's just sex..." one interviewee states. In actuality, the financial transactions paid for the pricey trysts were going to a pair of offshore shell companies, a front for the Emperors Club (details ignored by the film.) When the club owners were raided, feds found a safe housing a million dollars in cash! For an escort service? Some sex acts have legal complications and consequences. If you enter politics and play cowboy, it's probably a good idea to veer away from committing federal crimes in your spare time; it's not "just sex". Addressing the March 2008 US Federal Court affidavit, narrator (and director) Alex Gibney: "The list of charges against the Emperors Club, the affidavit, was surprisingly detailed; as a piece of writing it was crafted like a mystery story -- full of clues -- it teased the reader with a few sentences each with Clients 1 to 8, and then five riveting pages on Client number 9....The affidavit was full of steamy sexual banter...was the writing meant to convict the accused or embarrass the client?". The emphases in that quote cluster are not mine and are spoken with a mix of disdain and taunt. During those descriptions, words / phrases from the affidavit are highlighted like "pay for wire transfer", "collect the fee", and "private location". Subjects describe intruding questions from the FBI, as if their doing so was unusual and proof that the target of this inquiry was wronged by investigators probing for details. Gibney is upset at descriptions and details in an affidavit because it makes the subject of an investigation look bad?!? My beef with Spitzer is not partisan, nor based on his sex scandal. In July 2005, during his tenure as attorney general, I followed a case which appealed to my interest in the music industry - a shakedown on payola operations from major labels. I read multiple articles on the topic with vested interest. Sony was the target corporation in the investigation and "takedown" and found guilty of a catalog of state and federal crimes, resulting in praise from folks like Don Henley. Our AG is the hero, right? Wrong. As punishment, an Assurance of Discontinuance was issued in which Sony-BMG agreed to donate $10 million to a New York-based philanthropy group that funds music appreciation programs for N.Y. Further, a statement was released by Sony admitting they did wrong, accompanied by a "pledge" to do better in the future. Oh, and they agreed to stop the payoffs-for-airplay, reforms when problems are identified, and my favorite: hiring a compliance officer responsible for monitoring promotion practices, and to develop an internal accounting system to detect future abuses. Internal! In other words, monitor yourself. Where was this mentioned in our love letter to Spitzer? This film is pitched as a tale of "betrayal", but who betrayed him? Eliot Spitzer was a charismatic, talented politician and you really want to rally around him and to his defense; it's easy to be seduced by his combination of communication skills, assured dynamism, presence. and the sense that we all want a superhero to come along and put away bad guys. None of those skills excuses his crimes, hubris, or other issues the way his career is whitewashed in this celluloid slop. The producers appear to be bought off by their own idealism. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 1st Mar 2020		Cinema A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood (2019)	I realize that, I was simply correcting your mention of the TV show name... Quote: True story of the journalist who interviewed Mister Rogers about his "Beautiful Neighborhood" TV Serie It's all good. :-)
Twistin 24th Feb 2020		Cinema A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood (2019)	The show was actually called, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Twistin 15th Feb 2020		DVD 50-Movie All Stars Collection - Treeline Films	"These are all made-for-TV movies..." While the majority of these films are made-for-TV, some are not. "Evel Knievel" is noted above in the listings as: 41. Evel Knievel (1971 made-for-TV movie) This was a theatrical release from the Fanfare Corporation and was a popular drive-in hit in the southern USA states long before it ever appeared on television and was most certainly not made-for-TV. Also, "Stunts" was a 1977 theatrical release from New Line Cinema.
Twistin 13th Feb 2020		Cinema The Medical Aspects Of Nuclear Radiation (1950)	Rated 5/10 Phew! Good to know, as this film points out, that all the talk about the ill effects incurred from exposure to nuclear radiation is just a lot of hyperbole. And most of the bad things you experience will typically go away not long after said experience. It appears that all one has to fear is fear itself. What a relief! 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 13th Sep 2019		Cinema Mommie Dearest (1981)	This is so pedantic I can hardly believe such a debate is even in play. I do wish a mod or admin would just step in and say yay or nay to calling any film with children or families as a "theme" a part of this genre. It will be a first as far as I am aware, but if "Mommie Dearest" can exist under this definition, what crazy stretch will be next... Quote: ...so the 'Family' genre would only be used when significant (in the opinion of the data creator). I doubt seriously the "data creator"'s opinion is the final word. You're really splitting a lot of hairs; the purpose of a genre is to give the user an idea of the type of film it is, not the content, which is why there is no dog or cat genres.
Twistin 12th Sep 2019		Cinema Mommie Dearest (1981)	Quote: 'Mommie Dearest' is one of the those films really focusing on children and family relationships. As a genre heading, 'Children & Family' is appropriate here. Also, it's a sly reminder of the film's content. By that rationale, The Omen and The Exorcist would also qualify for the genre, Children & Family, right? Probably irrelevant, since I'm guessing no one else cares...
Twistin 8th Sep 2019		Cinema Mommie Dearest (1981)	Regardless of the nature of the words used for this genre heading and their explicit definition(s), calling a film such as this Children & Family suggests the content is for Children & Family, which is the generally accepted definition (ie, in video store sections). By the same measure, a "road movie" does mean any movie that takes place on or focuses on a road. There are broader implications than strict definitions of words used.
Twistin 3rd Sep 2019		Cinema Mommie Dearest (1981)	Genre: Children & Family? Seriously?
Twistin 3rd Jul 2019		Vinyl Album The Super Dupers - The Super Duper Record Of Super Heroes	WOW! That's interesting to know. I borrowed this album from a neighbor kid back in the day and just loved it more than even he did. Lost all memory of it until a number of years ago when my repressed memory spit up one of the goofy lyrics, leaving me with the difficult task of finding this record I had almost no other memory of to search with. (In this case, that one other memory was the red label with the letter D logo.) Finally found and bought it online, still pleases my eardrums after all those years. And now that I think about it, that MUST be Russell singing "Captain Marvel Jones"! Too funny. "Shazam, y'all!"
Twistin 11th Jun 2019		Cinema That Darn Cat! (1965)	Um, this film is a thriller?!? Really?
Twistin 11th Jun 2019		Cinema Inherit The Wind (1960)	It's also historically inaccurate.
Twistin 4th May 2019		Vinyl Album 1910 Fruitgum Co. - Indian Giver	The outfits, cigars, squaw, etc. are satirizing Native American Indian pop culture, not unlike the way the genre (bubblegum) satirizes pop music conventions. The genre was so intentionally and unashamedly contrived, few in the industry got the joke and dismissed it at face value. The same can be said for the jacket artwork which in no way is 'depicting' Native Americans; it's just an innocent play on the title slang term. Likewise, Yogi Bear does not attempt to depict actual bears. The term PC is another way of saying hyper-sensitive. In 1969, people were not seeking reasons to be offended. This was not an attack on the previous two observations, just on the idea of modern audiences re-imagining this record through their own misguided prism.
Twistin 21st Nov 2016		Cinema Stopover Tokyo (1957)	Rated 4/10 Not at all what I was expecting, given the storyline, which follows a Soviet spy (Edmond O'Brien) attempting an assassination while an American agent (Robert Wagner) tries to stop him. That's supposed to be the plot, but it felt like a sub-plot that is given occasional time between a dull romance involving Wagner and Joan Collins, with another American agent also vying for Collins' affection. But even that plot device is shoved aside while the main focus of the film seems to hinge on a little Asian girl, who ends up becoming an orphan after her father (an agent, naturally) is killed in the line of duty. The pacing is lethargic with dreamy Japanese music connecting a lot of pretty travelogue shots that seem more focused on showing off the smoldering color processing and widescreen vistas than bothering with a storyline. Lots of pretty location shots, but precious little else. If you're looking for a thriller, you're better off watching a grade B crime noir film. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 26th Oct 2016		Cinema The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)	Rated 4/10 Cheesy horror film, The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant is very much of it's time...especially in the fashion department. Pat Priest (Marilyn on TV's horror-comedy, The Munsters) and legendary DJ Casey Kasem -- who both turn in mediocre performances -- are dressed in what was considered modern at the time. In a cheapo 70's horror film way, Priest's clothing can be excused. Kasem, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely. I'm guessing it was his choice, to look younger. The shirt he wears in the final act is scarier than the monster. Bruce Dern, a veteran of exploitation cinema in mostly biker films, is effective even with the weak screenplay and laughable special effects. The film was clearly aiming for the Saturday kids of 1971, who no doubt gobbled it up and were satisfied. And since it was aimed at kids, a couple of scenes involving Danny's father being killed, as well as the violent death of a biker, were trimmed to get the GP rating. Those edits, by the way, were sloppy and the scenes suffered for it, but apparently the DVD release has restored them, which bumped the film up to an R-rating. I haven't seen this cut and probably won't bother. The next year, American International recycled the 2-headed theme with The Thing with Two Heads, although played for laughs with race and the generation gap, as well as slightly better production values and a couple of recognizable actors for the marquee. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 31st Aug 2016		Cinema The Phenix City Story (1955)	Rated 8/10 Some online reviews for this film prefer to attach a racism subtext to this film, which I find perplexing. Race exists within the story, but that is simply because race exists period! Yes, it's Alabama, and yes, the real life John Patterson was a racist and segregationist in the George Wallace vein, but the movie never goes there. Aside from the response from a cop answering the phone call about the dead black girl, there is no trace of race and white indifference, despite some claims to the contrary. Unfortunately, modern audiences view everything through a grievance prism and peruse all media in search of injustice they might embrace and draw attention to. The introduction sequence is carelessly elongated and would only have been interesting if trimmed tight like the rest of the film. Otherwise, this is a very intense thriller considering its release date. Interestingly enough, director Phil Karlson more or less remade this film as Walking Tall with some scenes practically 1:1 shots, characters rubber-stamped, and the same string of events unfolding in the same order as that mostly fictional biopic which managed to be even more violent than its parent source. It's a story about a city run by criminals living above the law and decency standards of the community, characters muscling extreme brutality over anybody who dares to raise a voice in their direction (ie, when a gambler catches the house cheating him and speaks up, he's beaten within an inch of his life and dumped in the streets.) Children are hit by cars or outright murdered, a politician shot in cold blood - just a catalog of corruption. No marquee stars to get in the way of the storytelling, but it was nice seeing character actor Edward Andrews in such a serious role, rather than the comedy stereotype he's better known for. Also, Kathryn Grant is very cute. I would hesitate to even call this film noir, since it really doesn't follow the conventions of the genre, but it will certainly appeal to fans of the form or anyone else looking for a great, lost sleeper. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Twistin 21st Aug 2016		Cinema Those Redheads From Seattle (1953)	During my many years as a projectionist, when I would have to remove the aperture plate during a running 1.37:1 film to, for example, remove dust that is projecting onto the screen, I was able to see additional information on the top and bottom, displaying onto the curtains (and I could also see the sound strip on the left side curtain, as well). In those days, I really was not concerned with aspect ratios and just brushed it off as an anomaly that I couldn't be bothered with (I was young...) I also noticed this during a bad splice that would cause the film to go out of frame. The prints with hard-matting were easy to re-frame after the bad splice because the black bars served as a guide. That tells me that theaters showing 1.37:1 films were presenting them in 1.85:1 -- at least the many theaters I worked for. There were probably theaters in larger markets that were able to display 1.37:1 proper, but we always used two formats: flat & scope. For scope, we had to change to an anamorphic lens and use a different aperture plate. Hence, a hard-matted 1.85:1 non-anamorphic film projected on-screen identically to a 1.37:1 film. Also, when showing anamorphic widescreen films, the side curtains were opened wider in order to display the full 2.35:1 frame. Not sure what you mean by half frame, but with 35mm film the image area is located between the sprocket holes, 4 perforations on each side. That image area is 24.89x18.67mm (1.33:1), but with the optical sound added it is 22×16mm (1.37:1). I think your numbers are counting the full width of the film, including the sprocket perforations which are not used for the image.
Twistin 21st Aug 2016		Cinema Those Redheads From Seattle (1953)	George, I can respond to aspect ratios. Think of 1.33:1 and 1.37:1 as basically the same thing because they more or less are; 4:3 films are referred to as the two aspect ratios liberally. The difference in the two is based upon the image shot on film in the camera, which uses the full 35mm frame size of 1.33:1 (also for 16mm), but once the soundtrack is added to the film, it occupies the left edge of the frame area contiguously, thus reducing the aspect ratio width to 1.37:1. Hence, there is no area of the frame being cropped from the final negative and printed film release. Perhaps the reason for the confusion is the display area of TV was until recently 1.33:1, so even if a theatrical film is 1.37:1, some variation alters that to a 1.33:1 broadcast AR. At the cinema, what you see on the screen can vary. The most common aspect ratio is 1.85:1, created by matting (cropping) the 1.37:1 frame, theatrically matted with the projector's aperture plate. You can often locate TV or VHS copies of 1.85:1 films which are un-matted and reveal additional information on the top and bottom of the screen, never intended to be seen by the public. However some films are hard-matted* and instead of the information still existing on the print, that area of the frame is solid black, thus preserving the director / cinematographer framing. The downside is that those 4:3 versions have to be panned & scanned, like is done with anamorphic widescreen films (2.35:1 / 2.39:1). Sadly, I am often finding 2.35:1 films on cable TV (and starting to turn up on DVD / Blu-Ray) that crop the sides in order to achieve 1.78:1 aspect ratio for the purpose of filling the screen space of 16:9 TV's / monitors which are the norm in most homes today. This practice is not unlike the past practice of butchering widescreen films to fill the screen on old 4:3 TVs. (sigh) * European filmmakers often prefer matting to 1.66:1 rather than 1.85:1.

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