December 17, 2007
Gratuitous Llama Netflix Movie Review
Waterloo (1970)
An historickal depiction of Napoleon's last epic battle of 1815. I'm of two minds about this film. On the one hand, the writing wasn't very good and the non-shooting-at-people scenes seemed rayther dull and stuck in a kind of early 70's goo. On the other hand, the film employed 20,000 extras to depict the armies and that was highly entertaining. On the whole, I'd probably recommend watching it the once.
The part of the Duke of Wellington was played by Christopher Plummer, who looked and acted exactly like Captain von Trapp, except that he was chasing Frogs, not running from Nazis. For my money, the best screen version of the Iron Dook I've ever seen is still Hugh Fraser's from the Sharpe series:
As for That Bonaparte, he was played here by Rod Steiger, who I never really bought. My favorite Screen Napoleon is a tie between Ian Holm in Time Bandits and Terry Camilleri's (who?) in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Bill: You ditched Napoleon?
Ted: Deacon! Do you realize you've stranded one of Europe's greatest leaders in San Dimas?
Deacon: He was a dick!
UPDATE: BTW, my Netflix queue is beginning to run dry and I'm at a bit of a loss to know where to go next. Feel free to leave any recommendations you have in the comments. No zombie movies.
LAST EMPEROR YIPS from Steve-O:
And speaking of bad Napoleons, here's a cheezy linkwhore pshop circa 2004:
What about mummy movies? Cause you haven't lived til you've seen Bubba HoTep. Just sayin'.
Other than that, I haven't seen anything worth recommending lately, so I'll be curious to see what people offer up as well. :)
Posted by: beth at December 17, 2007 02:24 PMArmando Assante is, to me, the perfect casting for it by appearance, but the 15 minutes I saw of Napoleon and Josephine, the made for TV chick flick, wasn't reassuring.
The best performance of a historical Brit I think I've seen in the last few years had to be Albert Finney as Churchill in The Gathering Storm.
Posted by: The Abbot at December 17, 2007 04:07 PMAndroid - the best sci fi movie no one ever saw.
The Day After Trinity - interesting documentary on the Manhattan project.
Ran - Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece about the Shogun wars in Japan
Shall We Dance - the original Japanese version, not the Richard Gere remake.
Hero - Politics aside, it is a beautiful movie
Ghost in the Shell - original movie. Watch at least once in the Japanese with subtitles. (They have to change the dialog when they dub a movie)
Cowboy Bebop - if you like anime, if not, you might not care for it.
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - for an early Hugo Weaving as a drag queen, and Terrance Stamp as an aging drag queen.
Smoke - interesting low budget film with Harvey Keitel and William Hurt.
Koyaanisqatsi - a weird visual portrayal of modern life. (means "life out of balance," in Hopi.)
Posted by: Zendo Deb at December 17, 2007 09:11 PMI tossed "Ran" into the queue before I read your comment. I also added "The Seven Samuri" because while I own "The Magnificent Seven", I've never seen "TSS".
Posted by: Robbo the LB at December 18, 2007 08:59 AMCheck out Ian Holm as Napoleon in "The Emperor's New Clothes." It's an all-but-ignored, though totally delightful, movie with a refreshing take on what initially sounds like a hackneyed premise. You won't be disappointed.
Another off-beat film that completely took me by surprise and has really resonated with me ever since is "Everything is Illuminated." This is a subtle and sneakily poignant film that was also virtually ignored when it first came out a couple of years ago. Don't worry if you've read the book (a sprawling mess), the movie focuses on just a portion (the best part) of the story. Great performances by Elijiah Wood and Eugene Huntz of Russian band Gogol Bordello.
Posted by: Night Writer at December 18, 2007 06:57 PMWaking Ned Divine - a very funny offbeat comedy set in Ireland
The "House of Cards" trilogy - these were three successive BBC miniseries showing the rise of a backbencher to Prime Minister through backstabbing and murder. Well acted and quite funny. Great catch line "You might think that but I couldn't possibly comment" to give a non-confirming confirmation to a reporter.
Kelly's Heroes - one of my all time favorites with a number of great lines as well
Posted by: DJH at December 19, 2007 06:40 PMNW - I rented The Emperor's New Clothes once and can't remember a thing about it.
DJH - I've always meant to get round to WND. Good suggestion!
Posted by: Robbo the LB at December 20, 2007 04:09 PM
Image courtesy of the lovely and talented 