rate the last movie you saw

[AndyDursin]

Most of Elmer's score wasn't used -- at least the love theme, which is gorgeous, and which he re-used to good effect in HEAVY METAL.

[Paul MacLean]

Saturn 3 is great for some unintentional laughs!

And I have to say it is a really good-looking movie, with some fantastic set design (Stuart Craig was production designer). But the film has a sad history. It was a passion project of Star Wars and Superman production designer John Barry, and was to have been his directorial debut. But he was fired from the project, and sadly died of meningitis soon after.

I'd love to know what nutcase thought Stanley Donen was a suitable choice to replace Barry as director!

Most of Elmer's score wasn't used -- at least the love theme, which is gorgeous, and which he re-used to good effect in HEAVY METAL.

I interviewed Bernstein in the 90s and he said that his score was "savaged" by the filmmakers. Personally, it is one of my favorite of his scores, and offered the composer an unprecedented opportunity to be outright weird. And yeah, Bernstein's love theme was completely removed from the film, as was his music for the opening scenes of the space station -- for which he composed disco music!

He also composed a disco cue for a deleted scene where Douglas and Fawcett decide to try some of the drugs Keitel brought with him.

Unfortunately, the English language version of this scene is no longer on Youtube, but here is a German-dubbed version...

[Eric Paddon]

Donen was producing the film from the beginning. He and Barry had worked together on "Lucky Lady" and Barry first presented the idea and script to him (ironically, Donen was married to Yvette Mimieux during this period and she went on of course to do "The Black Hole"). So when he decided that Barry couldn't cut it directing he was exercising his prerogative as producer to take over.

[TaranofPrydain]

Saturn 3 is so deathly dull as a film. It is just plain boring.

[Paul MacLean]

I thought it was high time to revisit the Harry Potter movies (not having watched them since 2018). I find my feelings on them have altered a bit in seven years.

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s (or Philosopher's) Stone (8.5/10)

I think I was a little too hard on this film on my last review. After 24 years this movie still looks great, and is a thrilling, fantastical ride -- like The Wizard of Oz of the early 21st Century. There's no shortage of brilliantly imaginative moments in this movie, like the Troll fight, and the Quidditch Match, or conversely, meaningful life lessons, like the Mirror of Eresed ("It does not due to dwell on dreams and forget to live, Harry").

I was more struck this time by the strong influence of Charles Dickens on JK Rowling's work — Harry is a classic Dickensian character, in the mold of David Copperfield, Oliver Twist or Pip from “Great Expectations” (significantly, Chris Columbus discovered Daniel Radcliffe when he saw the young actor in the title role in the BBC's David Copperfield). Hogwart's ghosts owe to A Christmas Carol (as does the festive Christmas segment of the film), and like Dickens, Rowling touches on social injustices -- without getting too didactic. Columbus seizes on this Dickensian aesthetic (the denizens of wizarding world are mostly attired in early 19th century style garments), and cleaves it to an appealingly “Spielbergian” sense of adventure (and sentiment -- not a bad word). This movie has genuine warmth and charm, like the feeling of sitting by a warm fireplace on a cold, snowy day.

This movie is also very funny. No huge surprise this being the director of Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire. The troll sequence in particular is at once scary, and hilarious. Columbus has his critics but he was the absolute right choice to direct this movie, being an experienced director of child actors, and also one adept at comedy — plus as the writer of Young Sherlock Holmes, it’s hard not to believe he was not himself an influence on Rowling.

This movie also looks great in 4k. After finishing the 4K disc, I popped in the Blu-ray to compare the two, and I was struck by how terrible the Blu-ray transfer is. UHD does John Seale’s photography proud -- so-much-so, that after viewing this new transfer, I rate The Sorcerer's Stone as the best-photographed picture of the entire series.

John Williams’ score is among my top-three favorites of his (the others being Superman, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). I’ve always found his score for Sorcerer's Stone to lie somewhere between The Witches of Eastwick and Hook, as it bursts with supernatural thrills and innocent wonder. It is among his most inspired and imaginative work.

[Eric Paddon]

Highlander (1986) 6 of 10
=Never saw this before last night and the only reason I did was because I needed to study the performance of Roxanne Hart to look for imagery I could make use of for an AI project of mine. I would have probably liked the film more if it didn't have the awful Queen songs and had a more traditional type of symphonic score all the way through. As it was, the work Kamen did on this didn't particularly stand out for me. As for the storyline I got hooked into it as I went along but I had to guffaw at how they set this in medieval Scotland and when Connery shows up with the only authentic Scots accent, he's not even playing an authentic Scot character! Still, I was impressed by how there was a straightforward good-evil dichotomy in the struggle (kudos also for how Connor is respectful inside the Cathedral while his opponent is profane and mocking). But I take more than a point off for the ending in which the "gift" Conor now has is being able to know the thoughts of everyone and thinking how he can shape that. Sorry, that really creeps me out and it's no "gift" for that kind of meddling with free will to exist IMO. The simpler and better solution was that the "Gift" for someone not motivated by Evil should be being freed from immortality and being able to live a normal lifespan and love and have children again. But I guess because they wanted to have a sequel possibility there from the get go, no he's got to have some OTHER power to fall back on.

I was sorry to read also that they deleted (and the footage is presumed lost) of Rachel burning down "Nash's" store and home as the Police Lieutenant comes up and she promises to explain. The cops just disappear without explanation in the final cut and we needed some closure on that plotline IMO.

Obviously it deserves an extra point for the fact that it was a truly original concept back then and that says a lot compared to how there is nothing original today but I just felt that overall this came up short.

[Paul MacLean]

I would have probably liked the film more if it didn't have the awful Queen songs and had a more traditional type of symphonic score all the way through. As it was, the work Kamen did on this didn't particularly stand out for me.

I personally consider Michael Kamen's score one of his very best. I think it is much better than Robin Hood or any of his action scores. That was back when he was orchestrating his scores all by himself (as opposed to five years later when he was using 20 orchestrators, some of whom were even ghostwriting!).

This really didn't impress you?



When I first saw this movie (just a few weeks after seeing Brazil), my thought was "Who is this Kamen guy? He's the best thing to come along in years!"

I hated the Queen songs when I first saw this movie, but they've grown on me -- particularly the way "Who Wants to Liver Forever" is utilized in the film.

Obviously it deserves an extra point for the fact that it was a truly original concept back then and that says a lot compared to how there is nothing original today but I just felt that overall this came up short.

It's far from a perfect film, but it's certainly one of the best-looking movies I've ever seen (particularly the Scottish sequences). And for me, some of its imperfections are part of the fun!

[Eric Paddon]

Since I have to admit I am not a fan of medieval history (which I suspect is the reason why always passed on this film before), I tended to perk up more during the modern sequences in New York (though I was probably one of the few who noticed that the wrestling scene was taking place in the Meadowlands since you can see a New Jersey Nets banner but then he emerges from what is supposed to be Madison Square Garden!). With Connery I just guess I was sort of puzzled that he was in his full Scottish brogue and yet he's playing an "Egyptian born currently passing as a Spaniard" character while IN Scotland! They should have just made him pretending to be a Scot so that for once his own voice would have been right for the part (or was that just a deliberate inside joke for him to be revolted by the description of what haggis is?)

Given my music tastes I'd have to have immortality before those songs will ever grow on me.

[John Johnson]

Saturn 3 is great for some unintentional laughs!

And I have to say it is a really good-looking movie, with some fantastic set design (Stuart Craig was production designer). But the film has a sad history. It was a passion project of Star Wars and Superman production designer John Barry, and was to have been his directorial debut. But he was fired from the project, and sadly died of meningitis soon after.

I'd love to know what nutcase thought Stanley Donen was a suitable choice to replace Barry as director!

Most of Elmer's score wasn't used -- at least the love theme, which is gorgeous, and which he re-used to good effect in HEAVY METAL.

I interviewed Bernstein in the 90s and he said that his score was "savaged" by the filmmakers. Personally, it is one of my favorite of his scores, and offered the composer an unprecedented opportunity to be outright weird. And yeah, Bernstein's love theme was completely removed from the film, as was his music for the opening scenes of the space station -- for which he composed disco music!

He also composed a disco cue for a deleted scene where Douglas and Fawcett decide to try some of the drugs Keitel brought with him.

Unfortunately, the English language version of this scene is no longer on Youtube, but here is a German-dubbed version...

I believe I still have the CD somewhere.

[John Johnson]

Highlander (8/10...no, 8.5/10!)

I showed this two a couple of friends in their 30s who had never seen it. One thought it was good, but nothing special. The other got a huge kick out of it.

This movie is such a trip, and never gets old. In fact -- like good Scotch -- it just gets better with age. When first released it seemed so nutty -- almost off-puttingly so. Today, in the wake of all the sci-fi / fantasy / comic flicks made since (with their coterie of outlandish characters) Highlander doesn't come-off as so kooky.

It does remains highly entertaining however -- and a sumptuous visual feast with dazzling cinematography (which rivals Blade Runner in its striking invention). No movie has ever captured the look and feel of the Scottish highlands better. Michael Kamen's score is his best in my estimation, and while I've never been a rock 'n roll guy, the Queen songs work well and add a unique dimension to the film.

Many moons ago, in another life, I had access to studios tapes. I remember coming across the score to Highlander. I seem to recall it was on two tapes, and it didn't all fit on. Various takes on bagpipe music.

[Paul MacLean]

With Connery I just guess I was sort of puzzled that he was in his full Scottish brogue and yet he's playing an "Egyptian born currently passing as a Spaniard" character while IN Scotland!

By that point I'd already seen Connery as an Arabic bandit with Scottish accent, and an ex-English soldier (who says he's from Durham) with Scottish accent, so I just went with it. Besides, a year a later he played an Irish policeman with a Scottish accent!

Many moons ago, in another life, I had access to studios tapes. I remember coming across the score to Highlander. I seem to recall it was on two tapes, and it didn't all fit on. Various takes on bagpipe music.

Can you try and find those???

[John Johnson]

With Connery I just guess I was sort of puzzled that he was in his full Scottish brogue and yet he's playing an "Egyptian born currently passing as a Spaniard" character while IN Scotland!

By that point I'd already seen Connery as an Arabic bandit with Scottish accent, and an ex-English soldier (who says he's from Durham) with Scottish accent, so I just went with it. Besides, a year a later he played an Irish policeman with a Scottish accent!

Many moons ago, in another life, I had access to studios tapes. I remember coming across the score to Highlander. I seem to recall it was on two tapes, and it didn't all fit on. Various takes on bagpipe music.

Can you try and find those???

Paul,

Long gone I'm afraid. I had a small collection of them.

[Paul MacLean]

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (8/10)

I found this one slightly better-paced than the first -- though it does have some slow moments (the dueling class could have used some trimming, and we didn’t really need to see Harry getting lost in Knockturn Alley). The warmth and charm of the original film remains is as strong in this sequel, and Columbus' use of the camera is much more kinetic and eye-catching than the comparatively static Sorcerer’s Stone. Like the first film, this one also holds-up well after 24 (!) years, and boasts some terrific sequences -- in particular the creepy spider sequence and the the big climax with the baselisk.

It’s too bad John Williams did not have time to score the whole picture -- but even the repurposed John Williams cues work better than most others could have done.

[Eric Paddon]

Santa Claus The Movie (1985) 5.5 of 10
-This is another 80s movie I didn't see during its original run and I never saw at all until last night when I decided to see the new import 4K release that is region-free. I wanted to see how the "Superman" approach was utilized and sure enough the first part of it tries to evoke the first part of "Superman" by giving us a "serious" origin story for Santa cloaked in a lot of reverence. But the problem is that the Salkinds were thinking the Newmans could do what Donner and Mankiewicz pulled off and the Newmans just aren't that good at it. In fact the whole "ancient Elf" bit with Burgess Meredith going on about a "Prophecy" is really a structural re-working of what the Newmans wrote for the opening sequence of "Sheena" the year before without any attempt to REALLY do things properly. I suspect that Donner and Mankiewicz, if they had been doing this might have been savvy enough to decide the "Ancient Elf" should have been established as the original St. Nicholas (who lived in the 4th Century) and that after a thousand years he was looking for a successor to carry on his work. Something like THIS would have tied together more of the Santa legend and would have at least given us a token concession to the religious side of Christmas, which alas by this point in time, Hollywood had no desire in acknowledging any longer. And another example of how shallow the Newmans are with this kind of reverent approach is how "Claus" and "Anya" just blindly accept from the outset that they're never going to see their home again or the people in their village who know them well and are never going to know what happened to them. It's the same kind of "erasure of past identity" thing that the Newmans also did in their "Sheena" script which hampered that effort (and was in fact something the Newmans in that case changed from earlier script drafts written by others). Showing them struggle just a bit to adjust to this and only really commit themselves to their Destiny later when "Ancient Elf" (or let's say for argument St. Nicholas) spells things out.

The film picks up after this for the next half hour for the whole sequence that takes up up to the modern era. David Huddleston, who was only known for being a character actor (the crooked Congressman in "Capricorn One") is quite good as Santa (he's a believable Santa, which I couldn't say of Ed Asner the one time I suffered through "Elf") and while showing Santa flying through New York was at the time a too conscious riff on the flying scenes from "Superman" it takes on an extra poignance to see the World Trade Center prominently in the footage, and I also confess I much prefer this kind of 80s FX footage to later era CGI footage. But when the "plot" involving Moore running away and Lithgow's one-note villain kicks in (and who just HAPPENS to be the guardian of the very unmemorable little girl) that's when we see the Newmans remind us of how their penchant for silly camp wrecked "Superman III" and "Sheena". The tonal shifts are just too jarring. If you wanted to make a movie centered on Moore as an Elf who loses his job because of his inefficiency and runs away that might have worked but the seamless transition from reverent origin to fun that was in "Superman" just isn't here. And the film never seems to make up its mind whether the world actually believes in Santa or not because at one point we see people adopting the usual "There's no Santa" stuff and then later as the Lithgow silliness is in high gear it almost seems like the world KNOWS there's a Santa (plus not having Santa confront Lithgow is another mistake).

I was glad I saw it, but I probably would have needed to see it age 12 (and by 1985 I was 16 and considered myself "Too old" to want to see this) to enjoy it more. I'd only recommend it for viewing with a young child who might find something enjoyable (the fact it's devoid of the usual lowbrow comedy that modern films always indulge in to make sure it gets at least a PG rating is a plus)

[AndyDursin]

I watched it again with Theo last year on 4K and had the same basic reaction as you Eric. I was especially surprised at not only how little Dudley Moore is actually on-screen in the movie, but how lifeless he is in the film. He made some bad movies back in the mid-late '80s but seldom did it look like he was going through the motions -- he looks positively bored in the picture.

I agree on the script, though I actually prefer SUPERMAN III to this movie and SHEENA by a wide distance. The 2nd half shenanigans with Lithgow aren't well managed or laid out -- WHY is the girl Lithgow's niece? It's a complication with no pay off. As much as I love Lithgow -- and he was a hoot as a bad guy in everything from CLIFFHANGER to RICOCHET -- he's unable to get any mileage out of the script and its cardboard villainy. As a point of comparison I much preferred Robert Vaughn's mildly amusing, similar megalomaniac villain in SUPERMAN III.

What does work is the production value, the physical effects, the majesty of Mancini's score -- all of that looks gorgeous in 4K -- though I don't think all the songs are good (as I wrote in the Quartet thread, I much prefer the Sheena Easton end credits song to what Mancini and Briscusse wrote...it's utterly hilarious they're trying to spin this new 2-CD release as a positive that they didn't include it in this new release! This is also the 3rd release that label has made of the score within the last decade I believe).

Overall, it's definitely no classic but has some charming moments -- at least early on -- and it looks good in a way modern films cannot approach. It's unfortunate other screenwriters were not brought onboard to reshape the plot because it needed it -- and might've been truly good if it had been retooled.