As a bit of an Apollo geek from childhood, this was excellent. I haven’t watched the documentaries yet, but it seems they found and dusted off some footage that hadn’t been watched for a while. About once every five minutes, there was a shot or sequence I’d never seen before. Great to see the whole mission in a relatively unhurried way, not just ten seconds each of launch/landing/one small step…/splashdown which is what one often gets. The music was tastefully done too.
Watched the 1st one last night. First thing that strikes me is the wide colour palette. Really good. The original filming is not the absolute best quality, which is surprising, as it’s only a 1985 film. Still, as always, it’s great to see 4K revealing the original quality rather than be limited to the transfer or screen quality. Sound is not particularly brilliant.
Review of the film is obviously not needed. You either love classic adventure movies or you’re just a pretentious misery
I saw the first one at my local Odeon last Sunday. I found myself laughing in anticipation of what was about to be on the screen!
I love watching older films on the BIG screen. When I was at Uni a local flea-pit cinema did this as their business. As well as watching true classics, like Nosferatu, one superb double bill was ‘The Forbidden Planet’ folowed by 2001; I much preferred TFP - Philistine that I am!
It runs out of steam towards the end (the build-up and preparation for the raid on the Nazi officers’ stronghold are more interesting than the raid itself) but Robert Aldrich’s 1967 WWII actioner, a massive hit in its day, is always worth a rewatch.
There’s a fantastic cast – Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Robert Ryan, Ernest Bourgnine, Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas, George Kennedy, Trini Lopez, Ralph Meeker, Richard Jaeckel etc; there’s the very 1967 anti-authoritarian premise; aningenious plot full of twists; and typically taut direction from Aldrich.
Interestingly, most of the older members of the cast had actually served in World War II (which had only ended 22 years previously), which adds a touch of realism. Marvin; Ryan as the pompous, rule-bound Col Breed; Cassavetes as the trouble-making, resentful Franko; and Savalas, having a whale of a time playing the splendidly-named psychopath, sexual deviant and racist Archer Maggot are all outstanding.
Mark Robson was a decent, workmanlike director – never part of the first rank, but someone who could craft a good film if given the right material. Big hits like Peyton Place, Bright Victory, The Little Hut, Earthquake, Valley of the Dolls and The Inn of The Sixth Happiness were all his.
Von Ryan’s Express (1965) is probably his most-seen picture these days. It stars Frank Sinatra as a US pilot who leads a daring mass escape from Italy into neutral Switzerland by hijacking a Nazi prison train. As well as Sinatra, the excellent cast includes Trevor Howard, Sergio Fantoni, John Leyton, James Brolin, Adolfo Celi, Rafaella Carrà and Brad Dexter, good use is made of the Italian scenery, the plot is ingenious, the film was mostly filmed on location and WW2-era vehicles and other props were used, giving the movie a realism that other war adventures of the time didn’t always have.
If the picture has a fault, it’s that it’s too long – 30 to 40 minutes could have been trimmed, especially from the beginning.
There were some classics made around this time - I loved this. I remember going to see this at a cinema in Wales as a kid during the summer, wonderful memories.
One of those £5 purchases where one is deeply suspicious of the 4+* rating on Amazon - and so it proved to be. There’s not much script, the acting is cliched (a polite summary) and the violence plentiful. From the John Wick school of subtlety in parts.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) on 4K disc (on offer for £10 from HMV).
First impression: ‘Blimey, there’s a lot of film grain. Ah, well, they obviously couldn’t be bothered doing a better mastering job. At least it was cheap.’
Second impression: ‘OK, let’s compare it to the freebie Blu-ray that came with it. Wow, that’s much worse - motion smearing, blocky colour…’
Third impression: ‘I wonder if they’ve sneakily mastered that one badly to make you think the 4K’s better. Let’s compare it with my old Blu-ray that I was just about to send to the charity shop. Holy moley, that’s even worse, plus a whole load of film dirt I’d never noticed. How bad must the old DVD have looked for this to have been an improvement?’
So, in this case at least, I can definitely see 4K’s better. Quite the journey of discovery.
I can understand why some have struggled to like this film. I think it probably works better at adult level in understanding some of the concepts & elements in play rather than as pure children’s entertainment. The animation and production is tremendous but I’m sure some of the facets of the storyline would have passed younger ones by e.g. that life changes with age, experience and as personal relationships mature/move on.
Could they have done better and used an alternate storyline to finish this great & fun franchise - I think so. Some of the legacy characters are reduced to bit-part players, which reduced the fun-factor IMV. This isn’t the first highly-rated franchise to run out of steam.
LOL!