Some Favourite Movies

"Marty"  starring Ernest Borgnine

Thanks for the info Gregkurrell. I had heard that Ernest Borgnine had passed away the other day at age 95. My thread on old TV Shows will need to be updated as well because like a lot of other people I was a fan of McHale's Navy. 

Sands of Iwo Jima: A 1949 film starringJohn Wayne that follows a group ofUS Marines from training to the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Act of Valor: A group of Navy SEALs go after terrorists who are going to attack America.

Thanks for the post ChessForceRecon. In regards to War films " The Battle Of Britain " is one of my favourites. Another favourite is the " Battle Of The Bulge " and both of these movies feature the late Robert Shaw in major roles.

The Battle of Britain is also one of my favorites.

A Bridge Too Far is another really good one.

Thanks for the new post ChessForceRecon, yes " A Bridge Too Far " is a very good movie. Another good one that I like is " Tora Tora Tora " which shows the events leading up to Pearl Harbour. 

I've recently been able to obtain all 3 Chapters of " Lord Of The Rings ) " on extended DVD editions of 4 discs each. I've now watched Chapters 1 & 2 ( the movie parts ) and the added scenes for the films are quite good at filling in the stories of all of the adventures that the four Hobbits and their friends have ( each Chapter now takes up 2 discs just for the movie portion ). Once I complete Chapter 3 ( " The Return Of The King " ) then I want to go back and look thru the info about the making of these terrific films. 

When I initially heard they were going to make movies out of the Lord of the Rings books, my first thought was, "How?" The books are so long and the story line seemed too complicated to be easily adapted. But I liked the movies.They simplified/changed some aspects of the story; however, they managed to overall remained true to the ideas contained in the books.

Now after the passing of a few years, I think it is amazing that technological advances are already making the cgi look dated.

Andy Serkis (who played Gollum) also played the chimp, Ceasar, in the new(er) Planet of the Apes movie. I find motion capture acting techniques very interesting.

Thanks for the info Corrijean. I remember when the " Lord Of The Rings " books came out in paperback versions but I never did get around to reading them. Many people that read the books seem to feel that the movies are quite good. I kind of compare these movies to the original " Star Wars " films but of course " Lord Of The Rings " is more like what happened back in the Dark Ages on this planet.

Tolkein was Professor of Anglo Saxon Literature at Oxford. That's a major reason the books have the feel of a saga.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HewVSKrq22A

Why hasn't anyone mentioned 'annie'?!!

Thanks for the recent posts. Jtt96, I'm not sure why " Annie " has been ignored but I guess that each person has their own favourites. 

"Murder in Coweta County" is based on a true story...I had already read the book about it when the movie came out...one of the most frightening scenes I've ever seen is when Johnny Cash warns all those inbred nitwits "anyone touches my men, I'll kill 'em"; one actually believed him.  Andy Griffith only looked like the real John Wallace at the end (with his head shaved)--and did anyone notice the actor who played J. Cash's brother?  He also played Tim "Tooltime"s neighbor; at least in this movie, one got to see his face!

I feel like there were some silly changes though. Gandalf is supposed to be the respected and wise wizard but he gives everybody terrible advice that they ignore resulting in victory. Unless he's using reverse psychology...

I just watched Aguirre: The Wraith of God.  Highly recommended, unless you're a wienie who can't read subtitles.

As I recall, there were 2 major changes in LOTR, between the books & the flicks: (1) getting rid of that Tom Bombadil nonesense (it never felt like it belonged, to me) & (2) getting rid of "The Scouring of the Shire" which I felt bad about, since it fit so well with the rest of LOTR...and, let's face it, in both the books & the movies (especially the movies), Frodo was such a wuss!

What do you guys think of Ray Harryhausen movies?

Thanks for the updates. Needless to say each movie that we watch has good points and bad points. I very much like the extended versions of the LOTR films as some of the gaps in the story are filled in even tho at 2 discs per movie making a total of 6 DVDs it is a bit of a marathon ( plus there are 6 more discs on the making of these movies ). As far as the length of the movies is concerned I think that it would have required a fourth film to get more of the original story onto the screen.  

On the Ray Harryhausen movies he certainly was the King of creating monsters back in the days before computer animation.

Javan64: Thanks for the info on the movie with Andy as a Bad Guy.

With Frodo's character we had to develop sympathy for that character for the movies to work. Also of course they needed the right person to play Frodo or the whole project would have been a failure.

Ivandh: While Gadalf the Wise knew many things about being a Wizard, military strategy may not have been his area of expertise  lol.