5. John Cassavetes in Love Streams - Cassavetes is convincing as the off-beat playboy, as well as the supportive brother, but the impact of his work always remains rather muted.
Best Scene: A naked man.
4. Jack Lemmon in Mass Appeal - Lemmon tries his best to salvage his material giving some honesty to his character even within such a problematic film.
Best Scene: Browning speech.
3. Tsutomu Yamazaki in Farewell to the Ark - Yamazaki manages to find balance within the film's strange tone giving a funny yet still honest portrayal of his character's intense frustrations.
Best Scene: He snaps.
2. Terence Stamp in The Hit - Stamp gives an amusing yet moving portrayal of a dead man walking who seemingly has come to terms with his fate.
Best Scene: "Death be not Proud"
1. John Hurt in The Hit - Good prediction
Varun. The immensely talented Hurt proves himself more than capable at being the heavy this time around giving a properly chilling turn yet offers more depth in his vivid portrayal of a hit man who has been at his job for too many years.
Best Scene: The titular moment
Update Overall
Next Year: 1984 Supporting
76 comments:
SOOO glad Stanton is #2 now.
For 1984 supporting
Harry Dean Stanton - Repo Man(Another one from him)
John Candy - Splash
Robert Duvall - The Natural
Tim Roth - The Hit
Kenneth McMillan - Dune
Louis: Rating and thoughts on:
Mickey Rourke in The Pope of Greenwich Village
Mel Gibson in Mrs. Soffel
Clint Eastwood in Tightrope
Keith Carradine in Choose Me
Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone
Sam Shepard in Country
Woody Allen in Broadway Danny Rose
Noah Hathaway and Barret Oliver in The Neverending Story
Anthony Perkins and John Laughlin in Crimes of Passion
Louis: Ratings and thoughts on the rest of the lead performances you've seen.
Is John Hurt an incredibly strong 4.5 for '1984' or a 5.
Your Female Lead/Supporting top tens with ratings and other 4+.
Yes, Hurt in the top 5 :)
Thoughts/ratings on
Mickey Rourke in The Pope of Greenwich Village
Mel Gibson in Mrs. Soffel
Keith Carradine in Choose Me
Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone
Anthony Hopkins in The Bounty
Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid
Woody Allen in Broadway Danny Rose
Craig Wasson in Body Double
Kevin Bacon in Footloose
Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and Harry Dean Stanton in Red Dawn
(Kicks chair) Fuck, I was one of the only people who actually predicted Hurt to win as well.
Tim Roth - The Hit
John Candy - Splash
James Woods - Against All Odds
Sting - Dune
Harry Dean Stanton - Repo Man
Sting & Kenneth McMillan - Dune
Harry Dean Stanton - Repo Man
Tim Roth - The Hit
John Candy - Splash
Robert Duvall - The Natural
Plus: thought you'd rank The Hit higher on your 1984 list, but glad you took to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. I think you'll love Ghibli.
I'm very glad Ngor's review got edited too, his performance deserved more praise.
I'm glad to see Morita and Caesar go up and I saw that Morita's review was edited as well.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, umm didnt think you would be interested in it Louis, quick thoughts?
Anthony Perkins as the second worst, wow that is a surprise, not seen his film but I usually expect him not to do that badly.
Who thinks Grave Of The Fireflies will make Louis' top ten for 1988.
Luke: If he sees it then yes probably, funnily enough all ten of my 1988 bonus choices (I wont reveal them yet) are from 10 different films lol.
RatedRStar: Dafoe and Day-Lewis are obviously two of those.
Luke: Ye =D
Louis: You must have seen Siskel and Eberts review of Stranger than Paradise didnt you =D, very quick thoughts on that film as well? =D.
Sting in Dune is one of the few performances I can't decide whether he was intentionally camping it up or not. Either way, he was the only entertaining part of that bore.
Louis: You left out Dudley Moore in Micki & Maude.
Luke: I nearly forgot about Caeser and Morita, totally deserving of their upgrades.
And i think Grave Of The Fireflies will totally make his top 10.
Has anyone else seen Your Name? Because I was surprised how much I loved that one.
Louis: When you get to 1988, could you watch the anime film Akira? I think you'll like it.
Everyone: Cast and director for a 2017 remake of Platoon? I think Tom Hardy would make a great Bob Barnes, while one of Andrew Garfield/Paul Dano/Domnhall Gleeson could pass for Sergeant Elias IMO.
94dfk1: Sam Rockwell as everyone, including the villagers.
94dfk1: I'm not that great with casting, but for the main guys.
Chris: Andrew Garfield
Gator Lerner: James McAvoy
Sergeant Elias: Sam Rockwell
Barnes: Matthias Schoenaerts
King: Idris Elba
Harold: Mahershala Ali
Louis: Your rating for Kathy Bates in About Schmidt.
Louis: Lastly, Your rating for Emma Thompson in Stranger Than Fiction.
2010s Platoon directed by David Mackenzie
Chris: Will Poulter
Barnes: Matthias Schoenaerts
Elias: Paul Dano
O'Neill:Macon Blair
King: Mahershala Ali
Big Harold: Lil Rel Howrey
Lerner: Emory Cohen
Louis: Your top 10 duel scenes in cinema.
Louis: As well as your top 5 Van Heflin and Walter Huston acting moments.
I am so glad that Stanton is #2,and that Morita got a massive upgrade for what I consider one of the best mentor performances ever.
Louis, I won the prediction.
You can see it in Cassavetes review.
1.Hurt
2.Stamp
3.Yamazaki
4.Lemmon
5.Cassavettes
Louis: Your thoughts on I See You from Avatar.
Request: The Simple-Minded Murderer/Stellan Skarsgard
Calvin: Great choices. Speaking of Schoenaerts, I saw The Drop not too long ago and didn't realize it was him until the credits. Definitely one to watch out for in the future.
94dfk1: I think Schoenaerts is one of the top ten actors in the world right now.
His work in Bullhead was enough for me to believe he's one of the best working today, he'd gladly be my win for 2011 if it wasn't for Oldman.
I've got Schoenaerts in my 2012 Lead lineup for Rust And Bone, as well as Mikkelsen x2, Toby Jones (Berberian Sound Studio), Tom Courtenay (Quartet) and Terence Stamp (Song For Marion).
For Supporting, Brimley (Cabin In The Woods), Bo Larsen (The Hunt) and Folsgaard (I'd rather have him in Supporting for now and let Louis decide during his viewing, whether he's Co-Lead or Supporting).
Luke: So after Louis does 84' supporting are you confident he'll do 2012?
Charles: He'll follow the same pattern I think as the first cycle of years. 70s, 80s, 10s, 60s etc.
I know Louis' been wanting to watch Mikkelsen's work in The Hunt for a number of years now. 2012 currently has more requests and Louis did 2012 second from this decade during the initial alternate reviews.
Charles: I also believe Louis will do years that people on the blog are really wanting him to do sooner rather than later. That's why we got 2005 first from the 2000s than having either 2003 or 2008, because I really wanted his views on Kingdom Of Heaven.
Luke: That's great than. it's awesome how you have this stuff implanted in your head, haha.
Luke: Also, i'm glad he did 2005 instead of 2003, because than i had the chance to request Frost in Elephant.
And i'm certainly looking forward to 2012's line-up next.
Charles: Well, that's me constantly going back to old reviews and reading comments from way back, as well as checking the order of years from beginning to end.
Louis did 1971 first in the alternate years and did so again in the bonus rounds.
Luke: Do you think Louis will ever do a 3rd alternate round for a year, such as 2005?
Charles: Agreed. :)
It's good you did, because I wasn't sure whether we'd get a full lineup for 2003, when Crowe's being reviewed as well.
I have seen Elephant, albeit 5-6 years ago and I remember Frost being pretty good.
Charles: I'd rather if Louis moved on to television reviews or something of that nature. What we should do, is recommend films to him that he missed. Watch them in his own time and review a performance that he felt was great.
Charles: I don't see how he could, considering he's seen about everything from that year than.
Luke: I completely agree with that.
Charles: I've had that idea in my head for awhile now, because I was bit annoyed at myself for not asking Louis to watch The Black Cauldron from 1985, since I feel Hurt's voice work is rather underrated there.
*a bit annoyed
Luke: Great you bring that performance up, Hurt's voice is quite fantastic there.
The Black Cauldron was TERRIBLE, though.
Robert: I thought it was just okay, but I really do like Hurt's work there.
It's a film that I've always wanted to see a live-action remake of.
I wouldn't necessarily say recommend anyway, just ask Louis to watch the film to get an opinion on someone's work.
Anonymous:
Rourke – 4.5(I have to say I think we all lost something special when we lost 80’s Mickey Rourke. If what happened had not happened I say you could have listed him as one of the most charismatic actors of all time. Anyway Rourke is charisma incarnate here and earns the title of the Pope of Greenwich village which shouldn’t be taken lightly. The true achievement of this performance was that Rourke, along with two supporting turns, saves the film to the point that I actually really liked the film. Rourke even manages to make the most out of rather terrible performances from Daryl Hannah and Eric Roberts. He went so far to make me care about Eric Robert’s character, despite whatever Eric Roberts was doing in the role, which deserves some sort of award all by itself. I feel Rourke's style was perhaps a little mistreated at its time because it's not indulgent. He uses for the suave side of Charlie but is effective in revealing the more vulnerable aspects of the man in such a modest and moving way.)
Gibson(Soffel) – 4.5(Mrs. Soffel is a horribly depressing film as the film does even lighten the tone in even its more optimistic moments. Gibson does his best the salvage the film, though it is difficult to deal with the dreariness of it all given that his character has the most to be unpleasant about. Gibson excels in the role that easily could have been one note, that of either the angry convict, or sort of the handsome outlaw. Gibson takes neither of these approaches. He's charming to be sure but he actually downplays that to be just an unassuming aspect of his overall personality. He also offers a greater depth to his character's anguish as Gibson infuses within the anger some sense of guilt as well. He never makes the man ideal offering depiction of a man understanding his flaws while also dealing with his lot in life.)
Eastwood - 4(The film is a slightly curious mix in that it is part Dirty Harry and part The Offence it does commit itself to either. It keeps to its murder mystery while somewhat superficially examining the cop who seems only seems a few ropes from the murderer. That aspect is mainly left to Eastwood's performance. Eastwood is effective at least in the set up of portraying the detachment of his character towards win and the inherent lust that seems pervasive within all of his actions. Eastwood's best scenes actually are the ones with his character's daughters, which includes one of Eastwood's own daughters. These scenes are effective as Eastwood feels so genuine in portraying the somewhat hapless manner of his single dad, but also the honest shame in his characters as faces them knowing the rest of his behavior. The film doesn't quite delve deep enough, he seems cured by killing someone else with a worse problem, but Eastwood does well with the limitations though is still held back by them.)
Carradine - 4(The whole film is of a strange bent along with so many films of 1984. Carradine gives an off-beat portrayal of this guy who doesn't seem right in the head, yet somehow in a charming way. That could easily be towards the cloying territory but Carradine makes it work. Carradine portrays the guy as someone keenly aware of how others view him and manages to make this sort of knowing quality in his work very endearing. Carradine never quite plays a scene as you'd expect, yet not in some over the top fashion, but quietly realizes the guy's personal way towards life which is off-beat yet Carradine makes it believable.)
Douglas - 4(It is kind of like Michael doing Kirk as he goes for his father's sort of lovable renegade style with his performance. He brings that same type of energy to his work finding that right type of likable boisterousness in his delivery yet compounding it with this amount of humorous cynicism at the same time. What really makes his performance, and the film though, is his chemistry with Kathleen Turner. The two are great together as the fun they seem to be having in playing off each other is infectious in almost a William Powell/Myrna Loy sort of way.)
Shepard - 4(I have to the say the three save of the farm movies of Country/The River/Places in The Heart is rather fascinating because of how similar they are even past their premise. Their most major difference is the male lead in Places again the other two. In Country and The River though we are given the stubborn man who doesn't deal with their crisis exactly the best of ways. Shepard, along with the film, starts very strong granting such authenticity to the role of the old farmer, and has excellent chemistry with every one of the family matters. The film though loses its way which is realized within Shepard's character who just becomes an angry mess. To Shepard's credit he manages to not become one note and by realizing the desperation as the seeds of the anger. It is unfortunate as gets the short straw though since the film mostly forgets about him until the last couple of minutes.)
Allen - 3.5(Nothing new to see here but a good example of his normal shtick.)
Hathaway/Oliver - 2/1.5(Very old memory on this one that I had forgotten to include on the original list. As I recall though both were fairly bland child actors. Oliver having a bit of that cloyingness of the worst kind, though not the very worst of that type while not delivering in the more dramatic moments. I do recall Hathaway being quite good in the horse scene, but rather wooden otherwise.)
Laughlin - 1(One of those performances where you don't ponder how come you've never seen this guy again. Laughlin is that perfect combination of being incredibly bland yet over the top all the same. His work does not have a hint of charm and he waves randomly from the worse kind of ham to the worst kind of dull.)
Perkins - 1(Kind of the performance to see how Norman Bates could have all gone very wrong even when not played by Vince Vaughn. Perkins is somewhat better than Laughlin if only because only a great actor like Perkins is capable of giving a performance this bad. Perkins plays a sex obsessed preacher who goes from being a lust voyeur to a moral preacher in a matter of seconds. Obviously this is not the most subtle of roles to begin with and the film is quite awful outside for the most part yet that still doesn't quite excuse Perkins's performance here. He is so horribly ridiculous with every one of his contorted ridiculous expressions throughout only shown up by his always over the top deliveries. He's not scary, nor funny, or believable in any way. It's a horrible performance.)
Luke:
Wasson - 3.5(This is an interesting case in that Wasson is not an overly charismatic lead and in fact he seems like the perfect fit for the schlocky vampire movie within a movie he's starring in, however it works out well because of that. Wasson is good at being pretty much a hapless schlub as both an actor and a guy peeping on his neighbor. Wasson somehow manages to be likable because he's so convincing at being this fairly pathetic guy who's way in over his head as Wasson never makes him more than he should be. There's a nice earnestness and quite honestly lack of confidence that makes him work well as the DePalma's sort of subversion of the usually far more suave Hitchcockian hero.)
O'Neal - 3.5(I guess O'Neal is just at his best whenever he's arguing with a little girl. O'Neal again manages some actual charm in his early romantic scenes then is actually pretty funny in portraying the hopeless ego of his Peter Bogdanvich esque director.)
Lurie - 3.5(Obviously this performance is about not exactly doing anything at all, but Lurie's quite good at doing not anything as well. He's not quite Adam Driver good in terms of not doing anything all but he's still pretty good at it.)
Swayze - 3(Swayze actually does more than decent job in the role in offering this attempted confidence at the man whose given the leadership position without asking for or wanting it. He properly gradually offers more confidence in the role until he sort of a commando by the end. In addition the few moments that require more, such as the execution of a prisoner and informant, Swayze does deliver in creating the needed severity in those moments.)
Redford - 3(The baseball player who does not need to try played by Redford not needing to try. He's coasting big time here but it does kind of work for the player who is just as confidant in his abilities.)
Hines - 3(Hines offers a bit of low key charm in his sections though his rising dancer story never really coheres with the rest of them all that well.)
Bacon - 3(Okay I think Footloose may the DUMBEST movie I've ever seen, the fact that so many of the actors take it so seriously, particularly John Lithgow and Diane Wiest, only seems to make it even dumber. Having said that it is also kind of AMAZING because of that. Bacon deserves some of the credit for just bringing so much conviction to every silly scene he is in the highlight being his oh so earnest delivery of "I thought this was a party" with that perfectly timed glitter falling in front of his face.)
Gibson - 3(Gibson just is far less convincing in the role, though really the best combination would have been Sissy Spacek/Sam Shepard. Gibson isn't bad but he always seems slightly off in the role. He never quite brings the needed intensity to the passionate individualistic farmer and is very much overshadowed by Spacek.)
Roberts - 1.5(Never have I seen an actor try so hard and fail so miserably. You can tell that Roberts so much wants to be one of these "daring" performers but he just comes across so poorly. Nothing feels natural about what he does with his bizarre mumbling, and his physical gestures that just never seem to make any sense. An A+ for effort, but F for the actual execution.)
Gere - 1(No A for efforts for him. Gere here just is wrong, just very wrong here. His acting just is off, and his chemistry with Diane Lane is also missing though maybe that's because she's as off as he is here. Gere is not an engaging or likable lead in the least. His performance is actually a major problem since he should be a balancing factor at its center but since he's not the whole film suffers.)
Guttenberg - 1(Hard to get through this film honestly being such an obvious Stripes ripoff, right down to a Warren Oates lookalike, and I didn't even like Stripes. Anyway our leading man Guttenberg isn't charming and has no comedic timing, quite the poor combination.)
Had to upgrade Caesar, since with the review as written, a 3.5 made no sense. Morita I'll admit was sort of a reverse Taxi Driver situation.
Thompson - 3.5
Bates - 4
Actress:
1. Kathleen Turner - Crimes of Passion - 4.5
2. Sissy Spacek - The River - 4
3. Kathleen Turner - Romancing the Stone - 4
4. Lily Tomlin - All of Me
5. Sally Field - Places in the Heart
6. Mia Farrow - Broadway Danny Rose
7. Lesley Ann Warren - Choose Me - 4
8. Sarah Patterson - The Company of Wolves - 4
9. Genevieve Bujold - Choose Me - 4
10. Nobuko Miyamoto - The Funeral - 4
Supporting:
1. Nastassja Kinski - Paris, Texas
2. Geraldine Page - The Pope of Greenwich Village - 4.5
3. Sigourney Weaver - Ghostbusters
4. Suzanne Hamilton - 1984
5. Aurore Clement - Paris, Texas
6. Melanie Griffith - Body Double - 4
7. Dianne Wiest - Footloose - 4
8. Tuesday Weld - Once Upon a Time in America
9. Laura del Sol - The Hit
10. Genevieve Bujold - Tightrope - 3.5
RatedRStar:
In regards to Nausicaä, well you can just take my love for it as my love for painted backgrounds. Seriously though, well not entirely, I do love painted backgrounds that are so rare these days. Anyways the film itself was downright beautiful to look at but I actually found the story very compelling as well. It managed to do sort of a "save the trees" message without being hamfisted about it all which was impressive for an animated film. One the reasons being is it actually bothered to realize its characters and its strange world so vividly, again even past the incredible animation.
Well I did see their review of Stranger Than Paradise, but I also saw they both put The Cotton Club in their top tens that year which boggles my mind. Anyways I guess you can just put me down as Jim Jarmusch mark since I love his storytelling style. Again his work manages to make the mundane so oddly transfixing.
Calvin:
I thought I ranked The Hit rather high considering I love every film above it.
Sheen - 3(He oddly isn't given all that much to do yet the moments that do feature him heavily he is good in particularly in one moment where he realizes the emotional devastation of witnessing a mass execution.)
Stanton - 3(He's in only a scene, and one tenth of scene yet he still makes an impression. Stanton realizes the tough old father with his somewhat cold yet still loving relationship with his sons, the hidden anguish of knowing he's going to die soon, and then of course the epicness of the line "Avenge me!!!!!!" all in a couple of minutes.)
Anonymous:
I certainly will.
Charles:
Duels:
Final Duel - For A Few Dollars More
Final Duel - The Good the Bad and The Ugly
Final Duel - Once Upon A Time in the West
Exhaustive Duel - The Duellists
The Samurai v The Gunslinger - Yojimbo
Bride v Crazy 88's - Kill Bill
Luke v Vader - The Return of the Jedi
Final Duel - A Fistful of Dollars
Forrest Massacre - The Sword of Doom
Roy v Cunningham - Rob Roy
Anonymous:
Van Heflin:
1. Could have climbed any mountain - Johnny Eager
2. Telling Johnny what he would've done - Johnny Eager
3. Making the deal - Patterns
4. Poetic gangsters - Johnny Eager
5. Trying to save his last man - Act of Violence
Walter Huston:
1. Scratch tempts Jabez Stone - The Devil and Daniel Webster
2. Fit of laughter - The Treasure of Sierra Madre
3. Runaway Soul - The Devil and Daniel Webster
4. After the shootout - The Treasure of Sierra Madre
5. Revealing the Jury - The Devil and Daniel Webster
Louis: Thoughts on Kathleen Turner (Both), Spacek, Farrow, Patterson, Field, Page and Wiest.
Louis: I am gonna watch Siskel & Ebert review Crimes of Passion lol see what they reckon, I dont know why, I just want to see a clip of Perkins to see how bad he is lol.
I should say as well that I honestly didnt like The Neverending Story, I felt it War Horsed its well into the soul lol in terms of manipulation lol.
Louis: Thoughts and ratings on Drew Barrymore and Shelley Long in "Irreconcilable Differences", Diane Keaton in "Mrs. Soffel" and Jessica Lange in "Country".
Also, I know you were asked to watch these films on the 1984 alternate lineup post, so if you watched them, can you give your thoughts and ratings on Daryl Hannah in "Splash", Diane Keaton in "The Little Drummer Girl", Vanessa Redgrave in "The Bostonians" and Molly Ringwald in "Sixteen Candles"?
Great job, btw.
Louis: Is John Hurt a 4.5 or 5 for 1984.
Louis: I know you have had a lot of questions so there is no rush to answer this one, basically which film and a brief summary on which do you like more out of Body Double and Dressed to Kill?
Saw Ghost in the Shell. I'm going to watch the original anime soon enough but as it is I thought it was strong in parts but rather off in others.
Louis: Your thoughts on Now We Are Free from Gladiator.
Louis: Thoughts and ratings on the cast of The Natural
I think Louis should review the Pope of Greenwich village men if he wants to :)
Calvin: No Woods or Duvall then.
Luke:
Turner (Crimes) - (I don't usually love Turner's work so I was quite surprised to see her thrive while the usually reliable Perkins flops. Anyways Turner is the only one of the main three that manages to work within Ken Russell's bizarre sloppy tone. I really didn't like the film at all but I have to applaud what Turner does here. Her character is quite unwieldy to be sure but Turner is able to find her path. In the sex scenes, which are all ridiculous, Turner is of them in this certain as though she is on a whole different frame of mind, a delusional dream. Well with Turner that's the point as she undercuts those moments with the greater subtly immediately afterwards as she portrays sort of the cynicism recognizing what she does. She undercuts that even though in her day clothes scenes where she gives a very subdued performance where she effectively is able to give an honest understanding to the rest of her performance. The layers Turner brings realizes her more than just a series of acts which she easily could have been if she'd been more like Perkins. It's a terrific performance in a terrible film.)
Turner - (Stone) - (Well this is just an incredibly charming performance and again she is just great match with Douglas. The two have so much fun together. This also you can kind of view as the good version of Kate Capshaw's performance in Temple of Doom. Turner is able to create the right sort of well spunk to her character even as she is quite hapless, and is endearing because she always shows she's trying even as she's completely out of her element. She also manages her transition to a pseudo adventurer convincing by so slowly bringing that sort of internal confidence in her portrayal.)
Spacek - (The best of the farm ladies to be sure. Spacek doesn't have that much to work with but given it's Spacek she makes the most of the bits she has. She is able to realize the anguish of the situation in such a moving fashion while being rather subdued that feels more honest to her character than someone I will get to in a bit. Also her trapped under the tractor scene is just a brilliant piece of visceral acting.)
Farrow - (She gets to be far more flamboyant than usual in her Allen films, since she's usually plays the sensible person. It's an entertaining gun moll take. Not an overly complicated performance but a fun one.)
Patterson - (By the way this was quite the odd film. Her performance though was essential to it in that the way she specifically interacts with the various wolves is directly connected to the overall theme of the film. Her performance realizes this complication, while also having sort of the red riding hood simplicity one would expect to a certain extent. She though reveals the more complex combination of allure and fear of the wolf in an effective fashion.)
Louis: Your Top 5 actresses of all-time.
Calvin: I don't mind missing out on Woods, since he has the win for his better performance.
Field - (Second farm lady. A good performance despite this farm film jumping around more than the other two and having a different dynamic in terms of her male co-stars. Field's good though in again bringing the right gutsy determination to the role, but this time slowly building on it from her more unassuming early scenes.)
Page - (Brilliant two scene wonder by one of the very best as she brings so much character in every second of her screentime. Just that way she smokes is really worth something in itself. She makes this mother such a lived in figure as she so naturally brings so much humor and certain earthy wisdom to the role while still be quite moving as well.)
Wiest - (Again the gravitas she brings to the film is kind of extraordinary given how stupid the film is. She goes the distance though giving such an honest portrait of grief. She realizes it as this old grief though, as she's no longer overt yet the sorrow is within her. In addition she has great chemistry with Lithgow, as the years of their marriage are keenly felt, both the sorrows and the love.)
Deiner:
Barrymore - 3(She was perfectly fine in doing her more cutesy routine, but honestly I felt the framing device was the weakest aspect of the film.)
Long - 3.5(Enjoyed her chemistry with O'Neal in their early scenes then equally enjoyed their anti-chemistry in the later scenes. In addition to that I liked both her more earnest and moving depiction of the jilted wife, then her more overly comedic take on the egotistical writer. No transition there, but that was the point in the film.)
Keaton - 4(A good performance from her and I felt she was interesting in her choice to portray perhaps a naivety to her throughout the film. In that she creates the sense that she is very much always in over her head, and hasn't quite reasoned out what she is doing while making the passion behind her faith as well as her love for the man certainly absolutely honest.)
Lange - 2.5(Not a big fan of Lange in general and I didn't find she quite blended in the way Field and Spacek did in their extremely similair roles. She's fairly decent in the early scenes but I found she started becoming more a representation of a person in the situation than an actual person. This was particularly evident in her bizarre Braveheart speech which she delivers like a Braveheart speech, which did not fit her character we saw in the early scenes, and there's no real transition within her performance for it to make sense either.)
Seen parts of Splash, but more on that later.
Keaton (Little Drummer Girl) - 2.5(I felt she was terribly miscast in the role as the actions and reactions of a far younger character. Her emotions just seemed more of a twenty year old, it was bit of a reverse of Mickey Rourke in Year of the Dragon, where she's hitting the emotional notes yet they just seem so off still. It didn't help that I found the film was rather poor outside of Klaus Kinski.)
Tahmeed:
Very strong 4.5.
RatedRStar:
I preferred Body Double (Rear Window meets Vertigo) as a whole over Dressed to Kill (Just Psycho), though I rather like DePalma's "trashy Hitchcock" to begin with. It might because of that why I prefer Body Double which pretty embraces its trashiness wholesale. Neither are as good as Blow Out, but they both have some great sequences that call back to Hitchcock's best. Body Double though is more fun while Dressed to Kill gets a little too caught up with its twists as well as its Psycho homages. It also makes the mistake of recreating bad Hitchcock material, by doing an homage to the terrible psychiatrist explanation scene from Psycho.
Luke:
Well I'll just say those in contention are:
Sissy Spacek, Liv Ullmann, Marion Cotillard, Geraldine Page, Naomi Watts, Joan Fontaine, Sigourney Weaver, and Greta Garbo.
Ruthiehenshallfan99:
Close - 2(I agree with her, the cinematographer got her the nomination. There is nothing special about her performance as she just seems to be there to look angelic and little more.)
McGavin & Prosky - 3(Not sure they had to double down on the evil businessmen but both are pretty good in presenting the nice genial smile hiding the snake.)
Basinger - 3(Felt this was honestly one of her better performances then again her character was suppose to be rather hollow and she does that false emotion rather well.)
Farnsworth & Brimley - 3.5(These two were easily the highlights of the film and there just wasn't enough of them to go around. The two though were so endearing Brimley as the crusty manager though so genuine in his passion towards his team's success and Farnsworth as always bringing the most heartwarming unassuming charm you could ever ask for.)
Louis: Ratings and thoughts on the cast of The Company Of Wolves.
Louis: Your cast and director for a 1960's version of Body Double.
Luke:
Honestly it's Jordan's film through and through.
Lansbury - 3.5(Perfectly cast and does not disappoint being exactly the storytelling grandmother you'd expect her to be. As she manages to bring that sort of unnerving quality in her delivery even within the general her warmth of her work.)
Rea - 3(Effective piece of a bit of visceral work from him, but he is technically a bit overshadowed by that rather insane transformation of his.)
Warner - 3(Underutilized but he's about as good as anyone could have been in that role. Offering at least some depth to a purposefully simple part.)
Bergese - 3(He's good in that he manages to be both quietly terrifying yet subtly alluring all at the same time. He brings the right physicality as he has an animalistic style even when a man.)
Stamp's great in his five seconds of screentime.
Anonymous:
Body Double 1960's directed Alfred Hitchcock:
Jake: George Segal
Sam: Larry Hagman
Holly: Jayne Mansfield
Gloria: Ann Blyth
Rubin: Pat Hingle
Detective McLean: Murray Hamilton
Michael McKean and Christopher Guest gave the best comedic male performances of 1984. They were so into their roles and so subtle and deadpan that their characters felt genuine. They're funny and believable.
Post a Comment