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robthehand

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Posts posted by robthehand

  1. Carousel (NT revival cast)

    Is that the 1993 London Revival or its 1994 US run? I find the London version is amazing, while the US version isn't so good (the actress playing Julie is incredibly grating). Though both CDs have some unique musical inclusions.

    London (NT = National Theatre), I didn't even know they'd recorded the US transfer of that production. I know the London album isn't anywhere near complete, but I'm very happy with it overall.

  2. Carousel (NT revival cast)

    Superman: The Movie (my own one-disc edited version, or if I can't do that, disc one from the blue box)

    Vertigo (Joel McNeely re-recording)

    Babes in Arms

    Which recording? :lol: (I've been meaning to buy a recording ever since I saw the show last year, can you recommend one?)

  3. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. After all I'd heard about how this Billy Wilder film was butchered, I was expecting an incoherent, muddled mess. The film does suffer in it's plotting, but, otherwise, I had a wonderful time with it. Excellent performacne by Robert Stephens in the lead, and a stunning Rozsa score. In fact, all the music in the film is great, even the source stuff (the Russian dances adapted by Rozsa). I hadn't known about Rozsa's cameo, it was a nice small surprised. More than anything, I was surprised by how touching the film was, both in it's belief in the character, and in the nicely transmitted muted passion of the character. To call it a failed comedy is a rather strange observation.

    I keep on thinking that after the half-a-dozen masterpieces I've seen by Wilder, that I'm gonna stop finding good films in his ouvre. I am thrilled to be consistantly dissapointed in this assumption.

    Great film, glad you liked it. Who called it a "failed comedy", by the way? I think what comedy there is works well, but the film is mainly a drama (and a very good one). I'd love to see the deleted material (especially if it's as good as Rozsa claims in the CD booklet), but I think the film works anyway as it is. And the score is one of my absolute favourites.

  4. For the UK:

    Do they show previews and commercials,

    Yes, both. Can be for about 20 minutes on the new releases.

    what are the main snacks.

    Popcorn, and hot dogs and burgers.

    Are people allowed to smoke?

    No. There's no smoking allowed in any public buildings in the UK now.

    Do you have stadium seating,

    Mostly. Smaller cinemas sometimes don't, but nearly all the big ones do.

    IMAX

    Yep.

    Do you still have grand movie palaces?

    Sadly not. There are only a few I've come across, most of them have been knocked down or converted into multiplexes.

    Marc has told me movies routinely have intermissions in The Netherlands. Is it like that elsewhere around the world?

    Neil

    I've heard about it happening in mainland Europe, but I've never seen it in the UK (fortunately).

  5. That's the old disc. It's been supplanted by the one included in the box set I linked to above. That set also have an anamorphic Vertigo and that one includes the original mono track as well.

    Neil

    Both of those are coming out separately (finally!) in October, as well (along with Rear Window).

    http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/vertigo.html

    http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/psycho.html

    http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/rear-window.html

    After these are out, I think that only leaves the remastered Birds DVD that isn't available separately.

  6. MGM are releasing a new box set in October containing:

    Rebecca

    The Lodger

    The Paradine Case

    Spellbound

    Notorious

    Young and Innocent

    Sabotage

    Lifeboat

    http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/alf...collection.html

    Extras look very nice. Obviously don't know anything about the quality yet, but hopefully it'll be good. I'd wait until this set's out and been reviewed before making a decision on what to get. As mentioned above you're safe with the Criterion DVDs of The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes, and the three Alfred Hitchcock Presents volumes from Universal.

  7. Hey, this is very good news. At last, that small fibre of reputation still attached to Lloyd Webber's name will be disintegrated and he will be revealed as the greedy hack who looks like a train wreck that he is.

    Not a Lloyd Webber fan, then? ;) I think those "search for a star" reality TV shows he did might have already done that.

    I love Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Tell Me on a Sunday, and some of his other stuff. I hate Joseph and most of Cats (especially Cats because of how he butchered some of those great poems). I should hate Aspects of Love as well, but I don't, because Michael Ball was in it. As I said I haven't made my mind up about Phantom, though there are definitely parts that I like.

    I'll probably see his new show, though, I have no idea why since it's almost certainly going to be rubbish. Wonder if he'll cast it by reality TV.

  8. Considering he hasn't had a hit since Phantom I'm not surprised he's stooping to write a sequel. I'm sure it'll be bloody awful music with bloody awful Sarah Brightman screeching over the top.

    Is that true? I thought quite a few of his shows had been successful (financially, that is). Though I'm not exactly looking forward to this sequel. I'm not even sure if I like the original that much. It certainly has some great moments, but I'm not sure that it's a great show at all.

  9. Fight Club, Jacob's Ladder, Cape Fear, big budget A-listers all worthy of worst film awards.

    movies like The Superhero movie, The Disaster movie, etc, are made on a thin dime and are bad movies but they have no lofty goals, I'd much rather go after the three films I mentioned for their failures. They were made with actual talent.

    I definitely agree with your point, if not the examples.

    Heaven's Gate might be my pick. Such an incredible amount of talent, yet virtually every element is misjudged or just plain bad.

  10. I'll also add Cate Blanchett/Irina Spalko - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in number 7.

    Oh my god what?

    My thoughts exactly.

    I can't believe I mentioned Philip Quast as Javert in Les Mis and yet completely forgot about Colm Wilkinson. In general I'm not a fan of Wilkinson's at all, but he simply is Valjean. And he's not even the first actor I saw in the role - that was John Owen-Jones, who has to be as good an actor, and has a far better voice, but didn't "inhabit" the role in the same way Wilkinson did.

    I'll also add Derek Jacobi in I, Claudius. A completely flawless performance - though unfortunately now whenever I see him in anything else I keep expecting him to stutter. :o

  11. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

    Alec Guinness as George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

    Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Alien.

    Peter O'Toole as T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia.

    Clint Eastwood as Blondie in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

    Jason Miller as Damien Karras in The Exorcist.

    Philip Quast as Javert in Les Misérables.

    Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent and Superman in Superman: The Movie.

    Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho.

    Boris Karloff as The Monster in Frankenstein.

    These are all examples (for me) where I completely forget that I'm watching an actor playing a role - the actor and the character are inseparable. I'm sure I'll think of lots of others as soon as I've posted this. In fact I've thought of one already: Joel Grey as the MC in Cabaret.

  12. Is that from Colloseum? Since from Varese, it's costing me about $70-75 including shipping. No reason it should cost you any more than that, you're closer. :D

    For the UK it's cheaper from Colosseum (for once). £47.50 for the CD + £7 postage = £54.50. Varese would be £45 (approx.) for the CDs including postage, but also an international transaction fee and the dreaded import duty (£9 + 20% of the value) brings it to about £63.

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