Hitchcock – 34 movies

Well I messed up on this one. I’m not sure why, but I thought I had seen every Hitchcock film, but a quick search confirmed I hadn’t.

I thought I might give up this post but, but I’m gonna do it anyway, and probably do another one later, when I’ve watched the ones I missed.

So, here is my list:

Dial M for Murder;  Family Plot; Foreign Correspondent; Frenzy; Jamaica Inn; Lady Vanishes; Marnie; Mr and Mrs Smith; North by Northwest; Notorious; Number Seventeen; Psycho; Rear Window; Rebecca; Rope; Sabotage; Saboteur; Secret Agent; Shadow of a Doubt; Spellbound; Strangers on a Train; Suspicion; The 39 Steps; The Birds; The Man Who Knew Too Much; The Paradine Case; The Trouble With Harry; To Catch a Thief; Topaz; Torn Curtain; Under Capricorn; Vertigo; Waltzes from Vienna; Young and Innocent

The first Hitchcock I ever watched was The Birds, when I was about 15 years old, and it completely creeped me out.

I had never watched Psycho until I started my marathon, but of course already knew the basics about it, and did the “knife through the shower curtain sound”, almost as much as I hummed the Jaws song.

Before I started the marathon, I had watched: The Birds, Marnie, Rear Window, and North by Northwest (witch I had fallen asleep half way through, I’m ashamed to say). And my absolute favorite was Rear Window!

So, first things first: Don’t watch it all at once!

I started watching a movie a day, and by the time I got to The Paradine Case, I could hardly take it anymore.

Don’t get me wrong, I love suspense, I really do… but after 20 movies, you kind of start to go “Oh, I know where this is going… and this… and this… and that…”, and it starts to loose it’s charm.

It’s true they are not all suspense movies, but it’s not enough… So, I took a break for a while  (a year!), and when I started again, I had so few to watch I saw them all in one week. But I’d say, the thing to do, is watch one per week or every two weeks.

So, 34 films in, my absolute favorites are:

– Dial M for Murder

– Rear Window

– Rope

– The Man Who Knew Too much

And from the rest, the ones that came close to being absolute favorites, but just didn’t make the cut: Lady Vanishes; Marnie; North by Norhwest;Number Seventeen; Psycho; Rebecca; Shadow of a Doubt; Spellbound; Strangers on a Train; Suspicion; The Birds; The Paradine Case; The Trouble With Harry; Topaz; Vertigo; Young and Innocent.

As for the rest of the films, they fall in the “I’m probably not gonna see that again, or talk about it much”, category. So I’ll talk only about the ones I liked most, maybe some day, I’ll tell you about the other ones.

Dial M for Murder – Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046912/?ref_=nv_sr_1

A man (Ray Milland) carries out a plot to murder his wife (Grace Kelly), but things go wrong and he has to improvise a plan B, on the spot.

Reminds me of John Dies at the End (I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m assuming John dies at the end), only because, at the beginning you already know the story. You know who is the murderer, who he is trying to murder and how he planned to do it, but since it goes awfully wrong, you get to see him squirm and twist and turn everything around to work in his favor. Fun to watch, easy to see, and gripping ’til the end.

Rear Window – James Stewart and Grace Kelly – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047396/?ref_=nv_sr_1

A photographer sits at his window all day, recovering from injury, watching his neighbours, and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Exam, 1408, Cube, The Man from earth… the hole story in one place. And that is what Rear Window is all about, a man guessing and trying to catch a murderer, without ever leaving his room. Paranoia, was a take on this, but a very bad one, as far as I’m concerned… too much moving around… Castle also has an episode based on this movie.

This was my favorite when I first watched it, and remained my absolute favorite Hitchcock film after I watched all the others, and re watched this one two other times. I love it!

Rope – Dick Hogan, John Dall, Farley Granger, and again James Stewart

Two young men, strangle a classmate, hide his body in the room and invite family and friends to a dinner party as a means to challenge the perfection of their crime.

Again, one room, a bit more moving around. A bit different from Rear Window, this one starts right after they hide the body. They tell you what they did, right from the beginning, but you keep watching the screen just to see how far they can take it.

The Man Who Knew Too Much – Jame Stewart and Doris Day – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049470/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3

A family takes a vacation to Morocco, and stumble on an assassination plot. The conspirators, however, are determined to keep it a secret.

Starts of nice and simple, a family on vacation, having fun, and then strange things start happening left and right, and you keep trying to make sense of them. The man who knew too much, starts of not really knowing what he knows that got him into so much trouble, and that is the beauty of it.

Lady Vanishes – Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas and Dame Mae Whitty – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030341/?ref_=nv_sr_1

While traveling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.

Is she really gone? Was the girl imagining it? Why? Yes, that kind of film, you only really get it once every piece of the puzzle is in place, at the end.

Marnie – Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058329/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Mark marries Marnie although she is a habitual thief and has serious psychological problems, and tries to help her confront and resolve them.

A different kind of love story, a better kind of love story, as far as I am concerned. I’ll never forget Marnie, and her problems with the color red, nor the way Mark took an interest, and was the only man who really cared.

North by Northwest – Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125/?ref_=nv_sr_1

A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.

A believe this is, so far, my best friend’s favorite. A great suspense story, where you follow a man who knows just as much as you, forced to run and hide, while trying to figure out what he got himself into.

Number Seventeen – Leon M. Lion and Anne Grey – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023285/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

A gang of thieves gather at a safe house following a robbery, but a detective is on their trail.

An abandoned house with a lot going on. Who did what? A great mystery.

Psycho – Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles and John Gavin – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/?ref_=nv_sr_2

A Phoenix secretary steals $40,000 from her employer’s client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

Do I really need to tell you anything? It’s a great film, that gets creepy really fast by the end.

Rebecca – Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032976/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

A self-conscious bride is tormented by the memory of her husband’s dead first wife.

It just keeps you wondering until the end, who is sane and who isn’t. Another, “what is going on!?” type!

Shadow of a Doubt – Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036342/?ref_=nv_sr_2

A young woman discovers her visiting “Uncle Charlie” may not be the man he seems to be.

This one almost made the absolute favorites, but it seams to be lacking something. What I find priceless, however, is the way the girl’s father and his friend, keep trying to come up with the perfect murder.

Spellbound – Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038109/?ref_=nv_sr_1

A psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.

Psychiatry and murder, lovely! Could do without the love story, I think!

Strangers on a Train – Farley Granger and Ruth Roman – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044079/?ref_=nv_sr_1

A psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder…a theory that he plans to implement.

I believe I saw a Bones episode inspired by this, once. Again, the way to commit the perfect murder comes into play.

Suspicion – Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034248/?ref_=nv_sr_2

A shy young English woman marries a charming gentleman, then begins to suspect him of trying to kill her.

Keeps you wondering until the end. Is it true? Isn´t it? What is going on? Questions and more questions.

The Birds – Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/?ref_=nv_sr_1

A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness.

The only reason why this isn’t an absolute favorite is the ending, too many questions left unanswered.

The Paradine Case – Gregory Peck and Ann Todd – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039694/?ref_=nv_sr_1

A happily married London barrister falls in love with the accused poisoner he is defending.

Not only the barrister, but apparently, everyone falls in love with this woman. You basically spend the entire film trying to do the same as the barrister, prove her innocence.

The Trouble With Harry – Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Dunnock and Shirley MacLaine – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048750/?ref_=nv_sr_3

The trouble with Harry is that he’s dead, and everyone seems to have a different idea of what needs to be done with his body…

A nice funny ans mysterious comedy where Harry, never says a word, and gets buried and dug up, about four times.

Topaz – Frederick Stafford, John Vernon and Karin Dor – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065112/?ref_=nv_sr_1

A French intelligence agent becomes embroiled in the Cold War politics first with uncovering the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and then back to France to break up an international Russian spy ring.

A french spy, helping an american spy in Cuba, who then gets information from the russian the americans are helping, that some of his french friends are working for Russia. What’s not to like!?

Vertigo – James Stewart and Kim Novak – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052357/?ref_=nv_sr_1

A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend’s wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.

Intense. You can see the obsession in his eyes, every time he looks at her.

Young and Innocent – Nova Pilbeam and Derrick de Marney – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029811/?ref_=nv_sr_4

Man on the run from a murder charge enlists a beautiful stranger who must put herself at risk for his cause.

How easy it is to convict an innocent man.

And that’s all for now.

What are your favorites!?

Fortysomething – Tv Series

Meet Paul Slippery, a fortysomething year old man with, what seams to be a very odd life!

Since Sherlock is one of my favorite TV series, and I quite enjoy Mr Cumberbatch’s performances, I decided to look up what he did in the past. Of course, once I saw a TV series with Hugh Laurie as well, I just had to take a look.

The story revolves around Dr. Paul Slippery (Hugh Laurie, also the director), facing a mid-life crisis. Amongst many things, his three sons (Rory – Benedict Cumberbatch; Daniel – Neil Henry; Edwin – Joe Van Moyland), keep exchanging girlfriends and creating impossible situations with all sorts of sex toys (it reads nastier than it is), and his wife (Estelle – Anna Chancellor) has just started a job as a headhunter. Oh yes… and he sometimes hears other people’s thoughts.

The show only has 6 episodes, because it was canceled for having low ratings, and you can see why. It’s not bad, but it’s not something you couldn’t imagine your life without, and sometimes feels like a bore. The situations this group keeps getting itself into are incredible and complex, sometimes to the point of a Simpsons episode, but it evolves very slowly, and some of it is just “meh”.

Also, the thing that caught my eye was that “he hears other peoples thoughts” line, and the fact is, that gets lost in the mist of complications with blow-up dolls, and believing his wife is having an affair, or even feeling threatened by his wife’s lesbian boss. It gets mentioned once in a while, but there really is no following through on it.

But there is “good stuff” as well.

One of the characters I really liked to dislike was Paul’s colleague Dr. Ronnie Pilfrey (Peter Capaldi), whom you just despise since the first moment you see, and usually ends up in hilarious situations, having hilarious outburst.

Edwin’s mischief is always weirdly funny. And Rory and Daniel’s battle to secure girlfriends between the sisters Laura and Lucy (Emma Ferguson and Siobhan Hewlett), is at times, amusing.

If I had to point the finger at something, I would say Paul and Estelle are just not up to scratch. They have their moments, but not much of them.

Apparently,  the appearance of several actors who went on to greater fame has subsequently led the series to sell well on DVD, but all and all, it’s not that essential to you TV series library, or at least not to mine.

Take a look:

http://sharetv.com/shows/fortysomething_uk

Top of the Lake – Tv Show

 

On my search for mini-series, a while back, I stumbled upon this one in a “Mini-series you must see” top, and I have been thinking about posting something about it, ever since I started this blog… the thing is… I don’t really know whether I liked it or not!

Well, let’s see if I can get some clarity writing about it, shall we?

The story is simple, but shocking. A 12 year old girl is found pregnant, chest deep in frozen water, in a New Zealand lake, trying to kill herself, and Detective Robin Griffin, in her hometown for a visit is called to help, but gets nothing out of the girl. The plot thickens when the girl disappears, and the investigation only brings up more and more questions.

The cast was quite new to me, so I can’t tell you a lot about what the actors are known for, with the exception of Holy Hunter, who I know mostly from the film The Piano, and plays GJ, a spiritual leader of a group of new age women, but they all played very believable characters. Robin Griffin, played by Elisabeth Moss, is the Detective who is on a visit and ends up following the case with much more interest then anyone from the local police, it seams. David Wenham, plays Al, the Detective Senior Sargeant who seams more interested in maintaining his position then anything else. Peter Mullan plays Matt, the girls father, a violent and controlling man who lives by his own rules. But my favorite, I can’t really tell you why, is Johnno, played by Thomas M. Wright, one of Matt 3 sons, who is turning his life around after 8 years in a Thai prison.

The series went slow and steady, very slow at times, with dull moments that told you nothing new about where Tui (the 12 year old girl) might be, and who the father could be, but by the end of each episode I would find myself wanting to watch another, and another, and another.

Tui, looked kind of in shock the hole time, never really showing any emotion as to what was happening to her, and most of the people seamed a lot like that, closed behind the doors of their own little worlds, not really showing anything. In fact, the biggest emotional burst came from Robin, who looked as if she was the only person interested in this case or in anything really.

The thing I can tell you is, that it gives you a good idea of what a close and small community is like. How everyone knows who they can stand up to and mostly, who they can do nothing about and how most people are quicker staying still rather then doing something to stand for themselves.

I devoured the series if only to finally find out what had really happened to Tui, but by the end, still couldn’t make up my mind on whether I had liked it or not.

So there you are… it’s not action packed, if that’s your thing, but I guess if you like mystery, you should watch it. It seams a bit strange at times, but by the end of each episode, you will be wanting more, but be careful, because it can be shocking.

Prisoners

I watch a lot of movies… I mean, A LOT, a lot… And sometimes, it gets to a point in a movie where you just know what’s going to happen next, and you kind of anticipate the plot twist… and, let me tell you, that’s not a good feeling.

Of course, I try to watch every movie without thinking about it, but sometimes, it’s just impossible to ignore your movie watching instincts and say to yourself “Oh man, I know where this is going!”

However, this one was not like that!

Amazingly, I found myself hooked to the screen, constantly doubting my thoughts about what’s going to happen. 

It’s not action packed, so if that’s your thing, this is not for you. 

I’m not a big fan of Jake Gyllenhaal, but he really nailed this one, playing a detective named Loki (a good name to start with), with ticks and all. And don’t get me started on Hugh Jackman’s part, incredible, really makes you feel like this is actually a true story.

You can get the story by watching the preview, without getting too much information. Two families get together for thanksgiving day, and their two little girls go missing. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), investigates the case, but the parents, mostly Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), don’t think he is going the right way, after he releases the main suspect for lack of evidence, and not only pressure him, but also decide to take the investigation into their own hands.

The characters just seam real, and you keep asking yourself, what’s going to happen next.

So, if you are into thrillers, and like movies that leave you gasping at the end, you should definitely watch this one. It’s long, but it’s well worth watching.

Oblivion

Well, I was putting off watching this movie because someone told me it wasn´t that much of a big thing, and that tends to put me off, even if the person doesn’t have quite the same tastes as I do, and this one actually did. So I  kept pushing it back and pushing it back, until last night.

I grew up watching Tom Cruise’s career rise and rise. When I was a kid Top Gun and Days of Thunder were a big big deal and I have a memory of watching Cocktail over and over again thinking “This is sooooo cool!”. But when you’re a teenager, you like an actor because he is cute. Well, I’m glad I thought the guy was cute, ’cause I kept watching his movies… A Few Good Man, Interview with the Vampire, Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, Valkyrie… and he just keeps going. Of course, there are some, lesser movies in there, or rather, some that I don’t really like, but ultimately he’s the one that convinced me to give Oblivion a try (well, him and Morgan Freeman, of course), and I am definitely glad he did.

Oblivion tells the story of a planet earth devastated by a war with an alien enemy. Jack (Tom Cruise), manages and repairs, together with his partner Vicka (Andrea Riseborough), the drones that safeguard the ocean-borne power stations that generate fusion power from seawater to power the Tet, the space station where the remaining human survivors await the migration to Titan (one of Saturn’s moons). On planet earth the alien invaders, known as Scavengers, destroy ocean-borne power stations and, mostly drones, trying to get at Jack… but why?

I loved it! Although a few thoughts of what might happen kept lingering in the back of my head, ultimately it managed to surprise me, witch is no easy thing to do, nowadays. The idea is great, the story is well told (for a second I thought I had a plot hole, but it came to be that I didn´t), there is mystery, some action, nice details… of course, it could, for once, happen somewhere else other then the USA, but that’s something we’ve already gotten used to.

All and all, a good movie!

 

The Andromeda Strain – Tv Show

Yes, there is also a movie with this name… The movie came out in 1971, and is also based on a book called “The Andromeda Strain”, written by Michael Crichton and published in 1969.

Now… I haven’t seen the movie or read the book… yet! I will, and posts about it will be written, but for now, I’ll just tell you about the TV series.

This two episode mini-series tells us the story of a satellite that has fallen to earth, near a small town in Utah, unleashing an unknown virus that kills everyone except for two inhabitants. Of course, as often happens in movies and TV shows, the military summon a team of experts to investigate and come up with a cure, while the area is quarantined, and the news bout the incident contained.

I was quite happy with the first episode, but the second one seamed a bit rushed, everything just kind of happened suddenly in the last 10 minutes, which made it a bit disappointing, I must say.

Also, all through the series the scientists speak in complete “science mode”, which, although realistic, makes it hard to follow and fully understand what is going on.

Benjamin Bratt, playing the leader of “team scientists” (actually code named “Wildfire”), and Eric McCormack, playing the nosy (drugs and alcohol recuperating, with a grudge against the army), reporter, do a great job giving us a brave (almost crossing over to complete nut job), reporter and a strong fearless leader, and who wouldn’t want them on our side.

It wasn’t a complete let down, and the actors were pretty good, but altogether it was disappointing.

I already have the movie waiting, but I was so disappointed by the TV show, I keep thinking the movie is going to be that way as well. anyway, once I’ve seen it, you will know.

Outcasts TV show

I’ve been catching up on my tv shows… To do it faster, I’ve been choosing mini series, however this one show, with only eight episodes managed to jump into my radar and I just could not let it speed through without learning more about it.
You see, this is not a mini series, but one of those shows that gets canceled after a bunch of episodes, because ratings are just not cutting it for the execs.
The thing is, a show about the human race trying to make it, after corrupting their own planet, in a new one, discovered within a godly locks zone, five spaceship travel years away, sounds just like my kind of tune, so I couldn’t just ignore it… I tried, by the way… and it just didn’t work.
The first few episodes, might have been what I describe as: meh *shrug*, but the fact is I got hooked pretty soon after, and it was sensational.
Since the show had been canceled, I tried to find some feedback as to why, and it turns out that the ratings just weren’t making it, but what really got me were the brutal reviews that talked about this show as if it were complete rubbish.
Well I just couldn’t let this be!
To me, the show read as believable and realist, well not as realistic as this could be happening today, but realistic in the sense that this could very well happen, and is pretty much how our species would act.
Everything from the scenery, (very low tech and colony like), to the very few high tech gadgets just got to you to the point that you could really believe somewhere in the future this was possible. But what made the show, for me, were the constant emotional gut ranching moments that always managed to bring a tear to my eye.
Altogether, and though it leaves you right when it’s about to get better, it is a show you don’t want to miss.