War Movies: the Root Canal Collection (1 Viewer)

Harrytheheid said:
Hey Guys,
Talking about real bad movies; After visiting the K&C shop here in Hong Kong this afternoon, (finally completed obtaining all available SOHK sets except 2 of the Chinese Bobby's), I decided to give the ladies in the shop some peace and quiet while they packed all Missus Heid's new SOHK sets and drifted off to the Queensway shopping mall for a while. Found an HMV shop, so reckoned I could lurk around there for a while and waste some time. Well, they have this brilliant sale of old DVD's on at the moment with some real doozy's for around US$5.00 each. Lemme see, what did I get? Okay;

Mary Of Scotland - The old B&W version with Katherine Hepburn and directed by John Ford. I remember seeing this on Sunday TV a looooooong time ago.
Looking forward to watching it for all the wrong reasons.

Mussolini, The Untold Story, His Downfall To Death - Not expecting this to be a blockbuster, but George Scott's in it so it might be okay.

The War Lover - Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner. Got this cos a young Shirley Ann Field is in it.

War And Peace - The classic Henry Fonda/Audrey Hepburn version

Black Narcissus - Honestly, this is for Missus H

Waterloo Bridge - Another one for Missus H, but its such a tearjerker that there's bound to be some positive vibe outcome from drying the wife's eye's at the end - and mine...

And, and, I had to do it. Simply had to buy this one when I saw it, cos we've been discussing it as a real turkey recently;
THE CONQUEROR - The Duke as Genghis Khan.......
I'll tell Missus Heid that it's a History Channel documentary about her ancestors......:rolleyes::rolleyes:

But the piece of the resistance has to be;
Waterloo
Which i'm about to stick on the laptop and watch right now.

Adios Amigo's
H
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H you got some good buys there.......well a couple:D:D:D

Mary of Scotland is well dated but still holds up and was the beginning of a little known love affair between Ford and Kate Hepburn before she really fell for Tracy. Legend has it that is why a number of Fords female roles downstream were always given the name Kate or Kathleen whenever he scripted/cast a film.

The War Lover was filmed in the UK and is an interesting "method" role for McQueen that didn't quite work. Main problem with the film is Shirley Ann Field's acting:eek::eek:

The Conqueror is a classic Thanksgiving turkey Duke as the "young:eek:" Temujin with dreadful lines such as "Da Tarter womon as fahry blud" > Infamous of course for all the deaths that followed for filming on location of a nuclear test site and transporting tons of the red sand back into the studios so that even canteen workers died as well.

Waterloo pretty good apart from Steigers accent like some Bronx Frenchman not helped by his usual over-acting but most prints of this film did not transfer well onto DVD.

Reb
 
UKReb said:
H you got some good buys there.......well a couple:D:D:D

Mary of Scotland is well dated but still holds up and was the beginning of a little known love affair between Ford and Kate Hepburn before she really fell for Tracy. Legend has it that is why a number of Fords female roles downstream were always given the name Kate or Kathleen whenever he scripted/cast a film.

The War Lover was filmed in the UK and is an interesting "method" role for McQueen that didn't quite work. Main problem with the film is Shirley Ann Field's acting:eek::eek:

The Conqueror is a classic Thanksgiving turkey Duke as the "young:eek:" Temujin with dreadful lines such as "Da Tarter womon as fahry blud" > Infamous of course for all the deaths that followed for filming on location of a nuclear test site and transporting tons of the red sand back into the studios so that even canteen workers died as well.

Waterloo pretty good apart from Steigers accent like some Bronx Frenchman not helped by his usual over-acting but most prints of this film did not transfer well onto DVD.

Reb
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What, you don't think Mussolini, The Untold Story, His Downfall To Death was a bargin?:eek:;):rolleyes::D

You know I think I have never seen Waterloo; I will take a look for that one.
 
UKReb said:
H you got some good buys there.......well a couple:D:D:D

Mary of Scotland is well dated but still holds up and was the beginning of a little known love affair between Ford and Kate Hepburn before she really fell for Tracy. Legend has it that is why a number of Fords female roles downstream were always given the name Kate or Kathleen whenever he scripted/cast a film.

The War Lover was filmed in the UK and is an interesting "method" role for McQueen that didn't quite work. Main problem with the film is Shirley Ann Field's acting:eek::eek:

The Conqueror is a classic Thanksgiving turkey Duke as the "young:eek:" Temujin with dreadful lines such as "Da Tarter womon as fahry blud" > Infamous of course for all the deaths that followed for filming on location of a nuclear test site and transporting tons of the red sand back into the studios so that even canteen workers died as well.

Waterloo pretty good apart from Steigers accent like some Bronx Frenchman not helped by his usual over-acting but most prints of this film did not transfer well onto DVD.

Reb
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But, but, but.....they were cheep Reb......

Cheers :D:D
H
 
Yo Trooper, H really surprised you have never mentioned "Tunes Of Glory" now that was a real classic.
Bernard.
 
Cardigan600 said:
Yo Trooper, H really surprised you have never mentioned "Tunes Of Glory" now that was a real classic.
Bernard.
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Yo-De-Yo Trooper C,
It's sitting in Shenzhen waiting for my visa to get processed and me to pick it up on Thursday, along with;

Drums Along The Mohawk
Life And Death of Colonel Blimp
Sharpe - The Complete Series
Early Doors - Series 1 And 2
Tunes Of Glory

AND

A TF order
A Minuteman order
A Hobbybunker order

I'm working on how I'm going to sneak all this into the house on Friday but haven't come up with a reasonable plan yet..!!
Kinda relying on all the SOHK stuff I bought for her yesterday to do the trick.....:D:D:D

Cheers Mate
H
 
Sharpe, the Complete Series is a great haul. I'm envious. Hope your plan works.;):D
 
H
A great line for you - from ToG toward the final scenes- and should keep you out of trouble:-

"Och! the silly wee man!:D:D:D

Reb
 
UKReb said:
H
A great line for you - from ToG toward the final scenes- and should keep you out of trouble:-

"Och! the silly wee man!:D:D:D

Reb
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Just got back from Wan Chai and hooked into the scene you mention Reb, It was pretty bad. :D:D
BTW.....Zoe turned out to be just as I imagined....:eek::eek::p
Cheers
H
 
1) The Thin Red Line with Sean Penn.....The original 60s version was ok, though.
2) Pearl Harbor- just awful! Historical inaccurracies and poor special effects the biggest of which was using modern navy vessels with no attempt to alter them through computer graphics. The kicker was when P-40 pilots end up on the Doolittle Raid. Hard to believe my daughter's history teacher had them watch this!
3) Windtalkers for most reasons already mentioned. Great book though!
 
Rob said:
U571 and anything with Mel Gibson.

Rob
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Rob

Hope you are wearing your funny hat:D:D and not being serious.

Nothing wrong with the Yanks pinching our German code-breaker and Gibson loves the Brits more than the French do and always accurately depicts us

Reb
 
Absolutly luved Mary of Scotland. She came to a bad end though....
"Maah Untie Mary Had A Canary Up The Leg Oh Her Drawers"
"She Pullt A String, Oh What a Ming, And Doon Popped Santi Claws!

Waterloo Bridge next.
The hankys are ready for my nose at the final scene......
And then.......mabey......The Conkerer..!! :p:p:p
Cheers
H
 
Anyone ever heard of "Hell Raiders"? I recently caught it on "free" pay per view. Somehow, I still came away feeling ripped off!! Admittedly, the first five minutes was all I could stand. So maybe it got better....NOT!

I found a review on the web. See below. Though, I cant imagine having to sit through the entire thing. The poor reviewer must have been sick in bed with a broken remote!


"IMDB Oh. My. God. I think I just saw the world's worst movie. Ever. Hell Raiders is (I'm guessing) supposed to be about a band of army demolitions experts set out to destroy a building where they've stupidly left some very important classified papers hidden away in the floor.

But jeez is this thing terrible. From the opening sequence where they use a bunch of stock footage to get to where they're going, you think "hey, this might be alright!"

Then the acting starts. If you want to call it that. This thing is so full of bad acting, bad direction, bad camera work, bad editing, bad makeup, and a bad soundtrack. Quite honestly there's nothing much I could take away from this that I remembered as good in any way shape or form.


Yeah, lets talk about the acting. Imagine the worst acting you've ever seen, and then double that. Our merry band of demo experts look to all be in their forties through their sixties(!), save for the new guy who gets shot for being stupid straight away. Then there's the journalist Laura Grant (Joan Huntington), looks to be in her forties and is just not attractive in any way. Oh, and her "romance" with the Major (John Agar) is just way over the top, even for a soapy TV mess like this.

The camera work is equally bad, from the slow zooms and unnecessary pans, you can't help but notice it. Whether that's a limitation of the equipment (all video? dunno.) or just hacks behind the lens. There are a lot of shots that you just can't help bust up laughing over, like the Major just stopping and trying to look pensive about something, but it just looks like they forgot to yell 'cut' or something....

If you get the chance to catch Hell Raiders on late-night cable, maybe watch it when you're stone drunk for a good laugh or two, but steer clear if you're looking for a good movie. Even if you're looking for a fair one. Thankfully it doesn't seem to be available on video anywhere. Thank God."
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Well, that sounds like a finalist candidate. Thanks for sharing that one R, I must keep note of it for the "really bad" movie nights.
 
Since it has been a while since the last addition I though I would tabulate the results to date and add a few comments.
First (if I counted correctly:rolleyes:), here is the list in order of negative votes (with defenders votes in paranthesis) or as otherwise noted below:

The Thin Red Line 4
Windtalkers 4

Green Berets 2

Battle of the Bulge 3 (2)
Apocalypse Now 2 (1)
Pearl Harbor 2 (1)
U571 2 (1)
Force ten from Navarone 2(1)
Coverfield
Rambo
Mars Attacks
Steel Helmet
The Fighting Rats of Tobruk
Stalingrad 1958 version
Castle Keep
Ambush Bay
Stealth
Drums of the Deep South
Inchon
The Last Drop
Hell Raiders
The Purple Plain
Tobruk
Midway

Gods and Generals 1(1)
The Patriot 1(1)
Guns of Navarrone 1(1)
Kelly’s Heros 1(1)

From these results it would seem that Thin Red Line and Wind Talkers are clear winners. After that, the results are very mixed. Battle of the Bulge had 3 critics but 2 defenders so should be moved lower than Green Beret with a clear 2 critics. Apocalypse Now, Pearl Harbor, U571, Force ten from Navarone each had 2 critics and 1 defender with a net 1 negative vote. Then we have Gods and Generals, The Patriot, Guns of Navarrone, Kelly’s Heros each with 1 vote and 1 defender, so these should be last on our negative list. Personally, while one could quible with some pet deficiency in any of these four, I can't see that any of them really deserve to be considered the worst on any list and in fact that are at the top of several lists in other polls here and elsewhere. The same might be said for Battle of the Bulge, Apocalypse Now, Pearl Harbor, U571 and Force ten from Navarone. Amusingly, I have the dvds for all of these but Gods and Apocalypse and did like both of these as well.:eek::D;)

This leaves the remainder that received 1 negative vote and no defense, except Cloverfield and I simply cannot accept any defense of that "epic loser".:D

So what does it all mean? We all have a reasons for disliking one movie or another but several can agree that some are just plain bad. I guess we knew that but it was fun to find out again.
 
I have been thinking for awhile now and I just cannot say I have seen a bad war movie. I dunno but I guess I just have the ability to look at them for what they are and enjoy them. I guess if any get lumped into "bad"- is't Apocalypse Now.
 
greetings. i know i'm late to this thread but had to add my two cents. Pearl Harbor was REALLY BAD. watch Tora Tora Tora and 30 Seconds Over Tokyo and you will be MUCH happier. also Gods And Generals really saddened me. it was poorly written and much of the crucial action (battle of Sharpsburg) was edited out to save time. what made me sickest was the seen with General Lee attending the uso show. must have been some writers nightmare scenerio. General Lee, clapping, laughing, and singing along? gimme a break.
 
lancer said:
greetings. i know i'm late to this thread but had to add my two cents. Pearl Harbor was REALLY BAD. watch Tora Tora Tora and 30 Seconds Over Tokyo and you will be MUCH happier. also Gods And Generals really saddened me. it was poorly written and much of the crucial action (battle of Sharpsburg) was edited out to save time. what made me sickest was the seen with General Lee attending the uso show. must have been some writers nightmare scenerio. General Lee, clapping, laughing, and singing along? gimme a break.
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Got to agree there, Pearl Harbour was bad.Tora Tora Tora was so much better.The acting in Pearl was so wooden i was in danger of getting splinters.Can you imagine returning from the dead to find your best friend sleeping with your girl,having a fight,having a drink and forgetting about it.Give me a break.:rolleyes:

Don't even get me started on U571!!;)

Rob
 
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