mrbasehart's Film Challenge! - COMPLETE

[ScottotD]

I doubt I'll say this much:

Six-String Samurai is a rockabilly-post-apocalyptic-martial-arts movie, with definite shades of the Lone Wolf and Cub series.  Set in alternate universe where a nuclear war wiped out most civilisation and Elvis became king of Las Vegas, it's clearly a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously.  The protagonist is Buddy, who wields his guitar as expertly as the Samurai sword that's sheathed in it.  He's headed for a gig in Las Vegas that will presumably make him the new king (Elvis is dead), but in saving a young boy's life, finds himself a reluctant guardian to the silent youth.  As they make their way to Vegas, they meet a whole host of weird and wonderful characters, with most wanting them dead, especially a man called Top Hat, who seems to represent Heavy Metal, in opposition to Buddy's rock and roll.  There's a few good fight scenes and it has some imagination, but the unrepentant "coolness" of it all distanced me from the movie, especially when they try for the sincerity at the end, when it really hasn't earned it.

wow, I need to see this.

[mrbasehart]

It's certainly worth seeing.  Unique.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

It's certainly worth seeing.  Unique.

It's weird....probably lack of sleep...but I'm starting to hear the voice of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses as I read your reviews....

Don't take it personal.

[mrbasehart]

It's certainly worth seeing.  Unique.

It's weird....probably lack of sleep...but I'm starting to hear the voice of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses as I read your reviews....

Don't take it personal.

Well, I do wear glasses.  I am a guy.  It's not far off. 

[mrbasehart]

The Bargee is a British comedy made in the 60s and starring two staples of British TV: Harry H Corbett and Ronnie Barker.  They play canal boatmen who ferry goods up and down the riviers of Britain while Corbett's character uses his nomadic lifestyle to get in on with any woman he can find, while Barker plays his reluctant wingman.  Things come to a head when one of Corbett's conquests is found to be pregnant, and her father, a feared disciplinarian is out for the father's head.  I've never particularly liked Corbett's presence onscreen, cinema or otherwise, and here he plays an Alfie-like character that's really hard to empathise with when things start to wrong for him.  Barker is much better, but all his best work was on TV (do Porridge, Open All Hours or The Two Ronnies translate well in other countries?) and this limp comedy does him no favours.  The copy I saw was awful too, so not even the splendid scenary helped.

[Tripe]

The Bargee is a British comedy made in the 60s and starring two staples of British TV: Harry H Corbett and Ronnie Barker.  They play canal boatmen who ferry goods up and down the riviers of Britain while Corbett's character uses his nomadic lifestyle to get in on with any woman he can find, while Barker plays his reluctant wingman.  Things come to a head when one of Corbett's conquests is found to be pregnant, and her father, a feared disciplinarian is out for the father's head.  I've never particularly liked Corbett's presence onscreen, cinema or otherwise, and here he plays an Alfie-like character that's really hard to empathise with when things start to wrong for him.  Barker is much better, but all his best work was on TV (do Porridge, Open All Hours or The Two Ronnies translate well in other countries?) and this limp comedy does him no favours.  The copy I saw was awful too, so not even the splendid scenary helped.

Where did you find it, I've only ever seen it by seeing that it's going to be on in the wee hours or something in the TV schedule.

[mrbasehart]

The Bargee is a British comedy made in the 60s and starring two staples of British TV: Harry H Corbett and Ronnie Barker.  They play canal boatmen who ferry goods up and down the riviers of Britain while Corbett's character uses his nomadic lifestyle to get in on with any woman he can find, while Barker plays his reluctant wingman.  Things come to a head when one of Corbett's conquests is found to be pregnant, and her father, a feared disciplinarian is out for the father's head.  I've never particularly liked Corbett's presence onscreen, cinema or otherwise, and here he plays an Alfie-like character that's really hard to empathise with when things start to wrong for him.  Barker is much better, but all his best work was on TV (do Porridge, Open All Hours or The Two Ronnies translate well in other countries?) and this limp comedy does him no favours.  The copy I saw was awful too, so not even the splendid scenary helped.

Where did you find it, I've only ever seen it by seeing that it's going to be on in the wee hours or something in the TV schedule.

At my favourite movie site, www.gormogon.com  It was a bad copy though, recorded from late night Australian TV with some blurring and tracking problems.

[Tripe]

See it's not a great film but I rather like Corbett and Barker generally.

I also grew up near the Avon ring so I like films about canal boats and the people who live/work on them (Rosie and Jim is the best show done by Ragdoll ever!!! ).

[mrbasehart]

I don't like Corbett's voice.  He also looks like one of my Uncles.  I love Ronnie Barker though.  As for Canal boat films, I saw one recently that was pretty good, The Farmer Takes A Wife, starring Henry Fonda and Janet Gaynor.

Cannibal: The Musical! is a (unsurprisingly) musical comedy based on actual events that took place in the late 19th century near the Colorado rockies.  Alferd Packer guides a bunch of eager prospectors into the wilderness and they become hopelessly lost, and it's alleged that Packer kills and eats them all to survive.  In jail, Packer recounts his version of events to a plucky young news reporter which tells a slightly different story.  With musical numbers.  I'm not a huge fan of the Parker and Stone movies, that is, I've enjoyed most of them well enough, but I never really loved their films like some people can.  The same holds true for Cannibal.  It's fun, and the musical numbers are easily the highlight, but I found the humour missing more than it should have, with too many weak or obvious jokes.  Still, I can probably say this without much doubt: it's the best movie Troma ever put out. 

[mrbasehart]

I'm back on the trail - hooray!

The Young Girls of Rochefort is a very beautiful, very sunny, French musical from the 60s.  Catherine Denueve (perhaps only second to Grace Kelly as the most beautiful women to appear on screen) and Francoise Dorleac (killed very shortly after filming had finished) are musical twins, both frustrated teachers who are on the verge of packing up and leaving for Paris to pursue their careers in opera and composition.  Their mother is also unlucky in love after leaving her fiancee because of his silly last name (!).  There's also a sailor who's about to be demobbed who has painted a picture of his "feminine ideal" which happens to look a lot like one of the twins, and a newly arrived music shop owner with a silly last name...  Yeah, it's one of those films where believability isn't highly regarded, as all  coincindentally miss their true loves until the last moments of the movie, but until then, it's a light, frothy journey filled with charming performances and a jazzy soudtrack.  Gene Kelly appears for a few dance numbers, but is dubbed when it comes to singing, which is perhaps an odd choice considering people know what he sounds like, but I'm guessing he couldn't wrap his voice around some of the faster paced French songs - most of which are quite brilliant.  I know it's not hard to make France look pretty, but here it's quite stunning: from the broad square where the biggest dances take place, to the open-fronted, chrome-plated cafe where most of the characters meet, it's not hard to see why musicals in France are a natural fit.  Superior to practically everything the Yanks were putting out at the same time, it's a must for fans of the genre.

[Rude]

...

Do i just throw a challenge out here? How about... Begotten or The Passion Of Joan Of Arc. I didn't see either on your lists. I also didn't see Pink Floyd: The Wall on your lists, but i think i remember you discussing it somewhere on the forum before. So maybe it's just missing or something?

-Rude

[mrbasehart]

Yup, although I've stopped taking challenges just yet until I finish the current set.  I have all the films now, so I should hopefully be done pretty soon.  Then I expect people will either get tired of doing this, or just give me a torrent of rubbish knowing that I'll try and watch it. 

[Tripe]

or just give me a torrent of rubbish knowing that I'll try and watch it. 

I don't know what you could be talking about.

Along the lines of one of Rude's suggestions, have you seen this Richard III?

[mrbasehart]

or just give me a torrent of rubbish knowing that I'll try and watch it. 

I don't know what you could be talking about.

Along the lines of one of Rude's suggestions, have you seen this Richard III?

What? All of the adaptations of Richard III?

Help! is the second and last fictional movie the Beatles would make.  A madcap adventure whereupon Ringo is targeted by an "Eastern" nation's cruel leader because he happens to have received a sacred, sacrificial ring in the mail.  Unable to remove the ring from his finger, Ringo and the rest of the Beatles have no choice but to flee.  Essentially it's a chase movie, with some Beatles songs thrown in at various points during the movie with no particularl rhyme or reason about their placement and with hardly any correllation to the plot.  The familiar cheeky Beatles persona from Hard Day's Night is carried over, with them all being manic and spouting absurdisms and non-sequiturs.  The problem is, is that the movie's not funny.  Hardly at all.  And when there's a lack of laughs, you realise how tiresome the entire thing is.  Without the inclusion of some of the Beatles' best work musically, this would probably qualify as a terrible movie, but as it is, it's strictly for fans only.

[mrbasehart]

Knight Chills is a...horror movie? made in 2001 and is possibly the worst film yet suggested by you guys.  A group of D&D'ers meet every Saturday night to quest in their own special, nerdy-kinda awesome way, but one of them is a little demented and has the hots for one of the female players (this is how you know it's a work of fiction - women and D&D?) who finds the guy pretty loathsome.  When the guy dies in a mysterious road accident, his buddies in the gaming group start being butchered by a knight in armour riding a horse.  I wonder who it could be? The film is practically an advert on how not to make a movie: it has horrible performances from top to bottom, lousy dialogue, D&D scenes that go on forever (but in a cool TeamRAD-like nerdgasmic basement area) and a production value that must have run into the tens of cents.