Movie #137 - The Shining

"A masterpiece of modern horror."

As one of the biggest fans of this movie, you really cannot argue with this tagline. Not surprisingly, this movie is in my personal top three movies of all time, with the list being somewhat interchangeable with The Exorcist and Psycho included.

This movie is Jack Nicholson at his best - way before he just became a shell of the actor he was in the late 70's and early 80's. Nowadays, Nicholson is playing himself, as opposed to actually adopting roles and flexing his acting prowess.

The movie has some slow points and after watching it on average seven to nine times per year when it's on television, this movie is no longer scary for me. It probably didn't help because it is one of the first movies I remember ever watching when I was a kid, so I probably saw this movie back when I was about three or four years old. Great parenting eh? No big deal, not like it made me into an ax murderer or something, just made me pretty jaded and not afraid of most current horror movies.

Plus, not to sound too old (29 turning 30 in 2010), this movie is still quite good compared to some of the crap that is being churned out these days. Current horror movies are glorified slasher films, using gore tactics and loud music. Gone are the days of the classic musical score, elite level acting, and just a good story to tell and a great screenplay. Cinematography is no longer an art form, as CGI and horror costumes are taking over... sorry, but the Saw series and anything by Eli Roth for example cannot hold a candle to this movie.

The acting is superb, even with a small cast of characters. The movie is about cabin fever combined with what a haunted hotel will do to someone. Nicholson is complemented well with the frantic acting of Shelley Duvall, while Scatman Crothers makes another appearance with Jack in this film - seek out One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the other collaboration between these two. However, for those who have seen this film, Crothers and Nicholson are only briefly on screen together.

Danny Torrance is the real treat of this movie. Not only is he creepy (portrayed by Danny Lloyd), but his character is what makes this movie work. He sees all of the echoes of the past and he sees all that is bad with The Overlook Hotel. The explanation of the "shining" power is better explained in the book by Stephen King, however, I like Stanley Kubrick's adaptation here, although there is much lost, despite the length of the movie.

There was a remake of this movie done about 12 years ago starring Steven Weber and Rebecca De Mornay, however, I will leave that poorly done adaptation out of this discussion. I personally saw that mini-series, and although it is closer to the work of King's novel, it was so poorly done and over-hyped, that is was quite the disappointment.

Overall, I will never get sick of this movie. I love the score and there are some great scenes to this film. That's all I do now - watch these classic films for my favourite scenes.

I've got a few, but I decided to go with this one instead - it was a tough decision, but I think I made the right one:



As for the trailer, here you go... not a bad way to entice audiences back then. If they re-released this movie in theatres now, I would present it in the same way. Maybe upon the 30th anniversary in May 2010... methinks this is a good idea.

Movie #14 - The French Connection

I must admit... I have wanted to watch this movie for many years now. Ever since I was a kid, I always heard that one of the best police movies is The French Connection. Well, it does not disappoint. This film is Gene Hackman at his best... not to forget, a cool counterpart in Roy Scheider.

Hackman and Scheider were at the top of their game in this movie. Intensity and passion were easily conveyed by both actors. This pairing of A-list actors from that era really worked... something that could be compared to the accomplishment of pairing Walken and De Niro in the Deer Hunter or Pacino and De Niro in Godfather II.

Hackman and Scheider portray New York City Narcotics officers 'Popeye' Doyle and 'Cloudy' Russo... great nicknames by the way. The plot was based on a true story of a real narcotics ring that two police officers had uncovered during the 70's which involved a french connection with smugglers from France.

The chase scenes here are incredible for the time period. This is probably a template movie for many television and movie chase scenes reminiscent of the classic film, Bullitt. I watched recently on a top movie list show that it was rumored that some of the action sequences were actually shot in real time without proper stuntmen and stuntcars.

This film was directed by one of my favourite directors... William Friedkin. Although his recent work has been total crap, his early work is inclusive of one of my favourite films of all time - The Exorcist. Friedkin won an Oscar for his efforts in this film along with Hackman for Best Actor. I would've liked to have seen Scheider win also, but he was nominated... which is great acknowledgement for his performance.

Back to my comment about the scenes. The rumour is that Friedkin mounted cameras on top of Hackman's car and along the street. He never did block off any traffic or hired stunt drivers for any of the shots. This way, the full out chase scene involving Hackman chasing after a subway car with his French sniper friend would seem more realistic on screen. Don't get me wrong, I am sure that Friedkin fixed some of those scenes, but I would not be surprised if most of that rumour is true. It did look more realistic and resulted in a great chase scene. The conclusion of that scene is probably the most recognizable shots in the film and hence, I chose it for the picture in this blog post.

Finally, I can say that I have watched the French Connection... if I ever see this movie again on television, I'll add it to the list of movies that I watch just to see one or two scenes for...

Movie #9 - Suspiria

I never thought I would be able to say this, but I might've actually seen the worst movie in my whole life. And lets just say, I don't know the exact figure of how many movies I have watched, but I would assume that I have seen at least more than 1000+ movies.

During Halloween 2007, I happened upon a list of Top 10 horror movies of all time published by MSN.com. Knowing that these articles are usually biased, I decided to give the list a chance and read on through.

I discovered that the list included 6 movies that I have seen before, including 2 of my top 3 favourite films of all time: Psycho and The Exorcist. However, the other 4 movies baffled me, not because they were odd inclusions, but because I had never been exposed to any of them before.

At #4 on that list included the Dario Argento film from 1977, Suspiria. Claiming to be one of the most wonderfully, stylistic horror movies of its era, potentially of all time. I recently picked up a copy of this movie from a trip to Stratford, and I was excited to watch this movie. 1977 was a year of great movies, so my expectations were quite high.

The movie started off somewhat expected... creative death scene, quite graphic by 1977 standards with the stabbing of the exposed beating heart and the full out hanging of the woman in the scene. However, I believe the use of colour (technicolour) hurt this film. The colours in many of the scenes were too bright and vibrant... maybe that was the point. However, I could look beyond this movie if there was a decent script or even a point to the whole thing,

The final solution of this movie... witches and the haunting of the school... was tacked on in the final 20 mins of the movie... something that is billed to be the scariest part of the whole thing... according to the tag line, the last 12 minutes are scarier than the first 92 mins.

Well, it totally flopped. This movie is highly regarded in many film circles, yet I believe it is overrated. What makes this worse is that the film is a remastered version of the original, which includes every scene that was meant for theatrical release.

There are some positives... I got to spend a nice night with my wife. I did in fact like the score of the film, however, I felt it was misused throughout different scenes in the movie. Also, the set chosen for this film and the lighting were cool at times, but still did not overcome a lack of plot, script or even decent scares, thrills, or chills.

Put this movie up against my 3 favourites any day - The Shining, Psycho, and The Exorcist and you will see how bad this movie truly is.

Here's the top 10 list that I found... I am saddened for I no longer want to watch the other 3 movies that I haven't seen yet - Eraserhead, Don't Look Now, and Repulsion.

10. Eraserhead

9. The Exorcist

8. Halloween

7. Don't Look Now

6.Texas Chainsaw Massacre

5. Nightmare on Elm Street

4. Suspiria

3. Night of the Living Dead

2. Repulsion

1. Psycho

At least he got the #1 movie right. I'll give him that.