Resurrecting the Movies thread...

[Front-Ranger]

The problem with the Friends With Benefits proposition (and I assume this was a big theme of the movie) is that it gets to be all about the benefits and little about the friendship.

[oilgun]

The problem with the Friends With Benefits proposition (and I assume this was a big theme of the movie) is that it gets to be all about the benefits and little about the friendship.

AKA: Fcuk-buddy.  Nothing wrong with that, i sure wish i had a couple, lol! 

[serious crayons]

The problem with the Friends With Benefits proposition (and I assume this was a big theme of the movie) is that it gets to be all about the benefits and little about the friendship.

In real life, perhaps. But since it's Hollywood, then you know going into it that at some point the benefits won't be enough and they'll become More than Friends.

[Jeff Wrangler]

AKA: Fuck buddy.

I don't think that term is generally used when the parties involved are male and female, is it? 

[serious crayons]

I don't think that term is generally used when the parties involved are male and female, is it? 

Yes.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Yes.

"Yes," what? "Yes," it is used for male-female couples (eeewww), or "yes" it isn't used for male-female couples? 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Some interesting things seen over the weekend, thanks to Turner Classics.

Saturday night I was home from the anniversary party I went to in time to see most of the classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Released in 1962 but still a B&W film, and what a cast! John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Woody Strode, Andy Devine, Lee Van Cleef, Strother Martin, John Carradine, Jeanette Nolan--consumate professionals all!

Sunday, it turned out, that TCM was celebrating the career of Ralph Bellamy. I didn't know that when I tuned in just to see what was "on," and found myself early on in The Wolf Man, with Lon Chaney, Jr. This was not the first time I'd seen it (Ralph Bellamy had a supporting role, which is why it "qualified"), but even when I did see it the first time, I didn't find it the least bit scary. I found it more of a tragic story than a scary one. I wonder how people felt about it when it was released?

Funny thing about the movie: It's set in Wales, yet the only principal player with anything even approaching a British accent is Claude Rains--good old reliable Claude Rains. 

Anyway, I needed to double check someone I thought I recognized in the cast (it was Patrick Knowles--I was correct), so while the movie was still running I looked it up at IMDb, and was interested to read that most of what we now "know" as the "folklore" of werewolves--the full moon, the silver bullet, etc.--was, in fact, just made up by the screenwriter for this movie! 

Anyway, next up was one of the funniest movies of all time, His Girl Friday, with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, again with Bellamy in a supporting role. I forget now what came next, but it both annoyed and surprised me that since they were "celebrating" the career of Ralph Bellamy, they were running Sunrise at Campobello, an acclaimed film with Bellamy in the leading role of FDR, opposite Greer Garson as Eleanor, late at night, instead of in prime time--too late for me to stay up and watch it when I had to be up for work the next morning. I've never seen Sunrise at Campobello, and I'd like to see it some day.

A note on His Girl Friday: Sure is a movie of its time. There is one scene where one of the reporters phones in a story where he describes the subject as "a colored woman," and reports that she gave birth to a "pickaninny."   

[Meryl]

I'm so glad there's a station that still specializes in vintage movies.  I ended up catching the last half of "It Happened One Night" on TCM this weekend, and it was a refreshing change from today's more cynical, hip couples "meeting cute."

Last night I watched "Blade Runner," a favorite from 1982, on the Sci-Fi channel.  Even with commercial interruptions, it was great to catch up with this movie, so stylish and moody, with great performances from Rutger Hauer as the doomed android Roy, and Harrison Ford as the weather-beaten cop who has to hunt him down.  It holds up very well against the movies of today with all their sophisticated special effects and has a genuine emotional punch to boot.  The Vangelis score is a plus, too. 

[Front-Ranger]

Blade Runner was one of the influences on Duncan Jones when he was creating the 2009 movie Moon, so I'd love to see it. Will have to check out that Sci-Fi channel! The movie was supposedly one of the first to show ordinary people in space instead of superheroes/astronauts.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm so glad there's a station that still specializes in vintage movies.  I ended up catching the last half of "It Happened One Night" on TCM this weekend, and it was a refreshing change from today's more cynical, hip couples "meeting cute."

I'm just glad I still get TCM as part of the "basic" service that comes with my condo fee. Where my dad lives, TCM is included in one of the tiers where you have to pay extra for it.    

I didn't notice It Happened One Night, but I think they were "celebrating" Claudette Colbert Friday night. I saw Midnight, with Claudette, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Mary Astor, and--believe it or not, as an actor--Hedda Hopper!  Ben Mankeweicz said the movie was hell on the director. By that point Claudette could get in her contracts that she could only be photographed from her left side--and Barrymore was by then a hopeless drunk. 

Doncha just love the "autogyro" in IHON? 

Last night I watched "Blade Runner," a favorite from 1982, on the Sci-Fi channel.  Even with commercial interruptions, it was great to catch up with this movie, so stylish and moody, with great performances from Rutger Hauer as the doomed android Roy, and Harrison Ford as the weather-beaten cop who has to hunt him down.  It holds up very well against the movies of today with all their sophisticated special effects and has a genuine emotional punch to boot.  The Vangelis score is a plus, too.  

I remember Blade Runner as being very ... damp.    And--I think--a female android who acted like a Coppelia who had way too much caffeine.