Movie Club

Movie Stuff etc. SEPTEMBER 29TH 2021

I’m a heathen where it comes to the stage. I prefer any mediocre movie over the best of plays. I hate musicals. No matter how many of you or how often you tell me how magnificent it is, I am never going to see Hamilton. I saw all I needed of it on Curb Your Enthusiasm. I would be Larry and fall asleep in the audience.

This weeks Club Movie was Glengarry Glen Ross, adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning Mamet play. I’m hot and cold on Mamet. I tend to lean towards his adaptations of other people’s work, his collaborations, and his original screenplays over his plays. I’m going with The Verdict (Paul Newman’s greatest performance) as my favorite of Mamet’s work with Ronin and The Untouchables as two runners up. The Untouchables was the first movie I saw in the Cinema, at Whiteplains NY, when I moved to the USA, so I’ve a soft spot. Again, Connery doesn’t even attempt to hide the Scottish accent playing Irish cop Malone – got him an Oscar though.

I also took in Wag the Dog this week; the political satire is more relevant today that on it’s 1997 release. The Oscar nominated screenplay is sharp and hilarious. But the real revelation this week was Salesman, the superb 1967 documentary that follows a team of Bible salesman as they ply their trade, working from Catholic Church provided leads. See it. You’ll like whatever job you have way better afterwards.

The Movie group was 80% Thumbs Up for Glengarry Glen Ross, largely driven by the magnificent performances and the dialogue. One nay-sayer found the found language un-necessary and excessive, the same viewer thought Reservoir Dogs excellent. Help – I’m easily confused.

Where I completely enjoy GGR, and use the film’s most offensive quotes when ever possible, its not a film that completely takes the stage out of the play on screen. It does have the greatest cast of any movie in the past 30 years – six Oscars between four winners – all the remaining cast are nominees.

Next week the Movie Team is being lead on an experimental voyage by XO-Brienne Bannister. We are taking a dive into Many Saints of Newark, sight unseen.

Movie Stuff September 22nd 2021

Of the seventy movies viewed by my company’s movie club few had 100% Thumbs Up: Sunset Boulevard (1950); District 9 (2009); The Hunt for the Wilder People (2016) & King of Comedy (1982). Today Crimson Tide (1995) joined the One Hundred Percent Club. These films were a complete popular success where The Godfather (1972) had dissenters and Blade Runner (1982), my favorite, split the room. What do I know?

Check out the Movie Club page for the full list (https://tooleingaround.com/t-shirts/)

As is my way, in preparation I did some Submarine binging (as did XO-Bannister), with mixed results.

Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) – this WWII standard pitting new kid on the block (Burt Lancaster) against old master (Clark Gable) still holds up. It succeeds in large part because they commandeered a real submarine for filming and had a grand old time hunting the high seas.

The Hunt For Red October (1990) – the most successful submarine film ever hasn’t aged so well. Alec Baldwin was never destined for lead man status, mainly because he can’t act (except one excellent scene in Glengarry Glen Ross). It never gets old listening to Connery burr away, not even trying for a Russian accent …. “Today we shaaaail into hsssstory”. Ahaar Sean!

The Bedford Incident (1965) – seemed to be a film thrown together for the sake of a cynical ending. Its a pretty great ending.

As a partner for the Nuclear Apocalypse Crimson Tide theme, I re-watched Failsafe (1964). It still terrifies and still ranks as one the greatest anti-war films made. Henry Fonda is at his best playing one of the great movie presidents, orchestrating a bleak ending that’s never been bettered.

And finally, the mac-daddy of all submarine movies, Das Boot (1981) – the German made U-Boat classic. Its a grimy, claustrophobic, realistic masterpiece. At 208 minutes the Director’s Cut is a long dive, but absolutely worth the plunge.

Today’s viewing crew found Crimson Tide to be the rare big budget film that managed to be entertaining and intelligent; a war movie with limited blood and violence that opened a broad discussion on duty versus morality.

It was suggested that Crimson Tide would be an excellent brand name for a line of tampons. Steadier heads explained that the title refers to the University of Alabama football team. The things I learn.

Crimson Tide was the first and best collaboration in a five-movie run between Denzel Washington and Director Tony Scott. The best Tony Scott features a different Alabama – the Tarantino scripted True Romance (1993).

Crimson Tide is not the best submarine film, that’s Das Boot. Crimson Tide is the most enjoyable.

Next Week: Movie #72 – the toxic Mouthy Mamet Masterpiece – Glengarry Glen Ross.

Keep Track and follow along weekly. This weeks movie for discussion Crimson Tide.

Week	Movie	Presenter
1	Rocky
2	Jaws
3	The Usual Suspects
4	The Maltese Falcon	James Whitelaw
5	Risky Business
6	Goldfinger
7	Thelma & Louise
8	In Bruges
9	The Silence of the Lambs	Brienne Bannister
10	Children of Men
11	Shane
12	Purple Rain	Chenessia West
13	The Godfather
14	Alien
15	Heat
16	Fargo
17	Point Break
18	One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
19	Trainspotting	James Whitelaw
20	Bull Durham	Brienne Bannister
21	Sing Street
22	Network
23	Pulp Fiction
24	The Shining	Lizzie Bailey
25	No Country for Old Men
26	Goodfellas	John Sullivan
27	Memento
28	District 9
29	North By Northwest	Sally Regan
30	Die Hard
31	Hunt for The Wilderpeople
32	Bad Santa
33	Snowpiercer
34	Chinatown
35	Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
36	All the President’s Men
37	Airplane	Sally Regan
38	True Romance
39	Sunset Boulevard	Brienne Bannister
40	Grease
41	V For Vendetta	Connor Legge
42	In The Heat of the Night	Chenessia West
43	Blade Runner
44	The Grand Budapest Hotel
45	Enter The Dragon
46	Roman Holiday	Sally Regan
47	Apocalypse Now
48	The Triplets of Belleville	Lizzie Bailey
49	In The Name of the Father
50	King of Comedy
51	John Wick: Chapter Two
52	Cinema Paradiso
53	Grosse Pointe Blank
54	Claudine	Chenessia West
55	Mad Max Fury Road	Asha
56	Gregory’s Girl	James Whitelaw
57	The Man Who Would Be King	Jen Carella
58	Joker
59	O Brother Where Art Thou?	Brienne Bannister
60	My Cousin Vinny	Cathryn Rizzuto
61	Aliens
62	The Town
63	Fight Club
64	Fatal Attraction
65	Reservoir Dogs	Gabriel Lozano
66	Being John Malkovich
67	The Blues Brothers
68	Gravity
69	Boogie Nights
70	Sexy Beast
71	Crimson Tide