Movie Night: James Arness

Showing posts with label James Arness. Show all posts

November 22, 2014

Movie Night: Them!

Review #663: Them!

Cast
James Whitmore (Sgt. Ben Peterson), Edmund Gwenn (Dr. Harold Medford), Joan Weldon (Dr. Pat Medford), James Arness (FBI Agent Robert Graham), Onslow Stevens (Gen. O'Brien), Sean McClory (Maj. Kibbee), Chris Drake (Trooper Ed Blackburn), and Sandy Descher (Ellinson girl) Directed by Gordon Douglas

Review
Them! was one of the first films released dealing with nuclear created monsters, which were a big thing in the 1950s (that and alien invaders), with a unique opening credits sequence to boot. The words practically glow against the black and white background and rightfully so. The insects used for this film are giant ants, which for me is terrifying enough (swarms of ants are already creepy, imagine a swarm of GIANT ants), but hey. The sounds that the ants make is also pretty chilling. The characters are fine, they serve the purpose of advancing the story without being annoying, though seeing Edmund Gwenn is enjoyable. The effects are brilliant to watch, they especially look good underground when the lights aren't as lit, which makes them look more menacing. I like how the movie just flows well with itself, it doesn't get too convoluted, it has its moments of terror along with moments of action, and the sewer scene at the end is pretty good. What we have here is a finely crafted sci-fi film that helped popularize the nuclear monster/bug era.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

January 5, 2014

Movie Night: The Thing from Another World.

Review #519: The Thing from Another World.

Cast
Margaret Sheridan (Nikki Nicholson), Kenneth Tobey (Captain Patrick Hendry), Robert Cornthwaite (Dr. Arthur Carrington), Douglas Spencer (Ned Scott), James Young (Lt. Eddie Dykes), Dewey Martin (Crew Chief Bob), Robert Nichols (Lt. Ken 'Mac' MacPherson), James Arness (The Thing), and William Self (Corporal Barnes) Directed by Christian Nyby.

Review
The movie (produced under Howard Hawks' Winchester Pictures Corporation) shows promise and it lives up to it. The title sequence is excellent, because it has a certain interest in mind and intrigues you in. The actors do fine, and James Arness does impressive as the Thing's body (I do wonder how scary the movie would be with Thing from The Addams Family), and the movie itself doesn't have too many hokey moments, it has its moments of tension and suspense, such as the end sequence, and the last line is slightly chilling. The movie (I guess it's a cliche to remake movies over 40 years old I suppose) has been remade, one by John Carpenter in 1982, and the other in 2011, but this on its own is a decent movie.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Best of the Best (10/10 ratings)

#001 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day

#014 - Die Hard

#015 - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

#026 - Ghostbusters

#035 - 12 Angry Men

#036 - Network

#039 - The Sixth Sense

#040 - Batman (1989)

#054 - The Dark Knight

#063 - The Terminator

#072 - Frankenstein (1931)

#079 - A Christmas Carol (1984)

#081 - The Maltese Falcon (1941)

#083 - The Iron Giant

#093 - 2001: A Space Odyssey

#099 - Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

#100 - Blade Runner

#102 - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

#109 - A Streetcar Named Desire

#110 - On the Waterfront

#113 - Star Wars (1977)

#114 - The Empire Strikes Back

#124 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2

#125 - Casablanca

#126 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind

#153 - The Incredibles

#155 - Finding Nemo

#159 - The Wizard of Oz (1939)

#168 - Raiders of the Lost Ark

#170 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

#175 - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

#181 - Rebel Without a Cause

#188 - Sullivan's Travels

#199 - Forbidden Planet

#200 - Citizen Kane

#214 - Shrek

#222 - WALL-E

#223 - North by Northwest

#227 - Singin' in the Rain

#228 - Inherit the Wind

#232 - The Princess Bride

#250 - The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

#256 - Nosferatu

#257 - The Curse of Frankenstein

#258 - Dracula (1958)

#261 - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

#286 - Lawrence of Arabia

#288 - Up

#300 - Watership Down

#303 - Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

#312 - The Avengers

#319 - It's a Wonderful Life

#333 - M

#348 - Poltergeist

#351 - Schindler's List

#352 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit

#355 - Lethal Weapon

#356 - Lethal Weapon 2

#361 - The Producers

#382 - Toy Story 3

#383 - The Natural

#394 - Bride of Frankenstein

#399 - The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

#400 - The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

#416 - Yankee Doodle Dandy

#427 - The Magnificent Seven

#440 - Toy Story

#441 - Toy Story 2

#447 - Psycho

#450 - Vertigo

#455 - Rear Window

#456 - It Happened One Night

#480 - Jaws

#499 - Sunrise: A Tale of Two Humans

#500 - Metropolis (1927)

#505 - The Adventures of Robin Hood

#530 - Alien

#569 - Gone with the Wind

#573 - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

#574 - Aliens

#579 - Frozen

#599 - The Kid

#600 - City Lights

#601 - Three Colors: Blue

#631 - Chinatown

#635 - Nebraska

#636 - Being There

#641 - The Apartment

#655 - Young Frankenstein

#659 - True Grit (2010)

#667 - The Freshman

#674 - Grandma's Boy (1922)

#688 - Horse Feathers

#690 - Life Itself

#695 - Broken Blossoms

#697 - The Artist

#701 - Back to the Future

#702 - The Hustler

#714 - Inside Out

#725 - The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

#750 - All About Eve

#758 - Safety Last!

#759 - The Gold Rush

#765 - Fargo

#777 - The Seventh Seal

#800 - Shadow of a Doubt

#809 - Sunset Boulevard

#810 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

#820 - Modern Times

#891 - Beauty and the Beast

#900 - Nashville

#904 - Cabaret (1972)

#907 - White Heat

#908 - The General (1926)

#910 - Notorious (1946)

#941 - Sherlock Jr

#968 - Throne of Blood

#990 - Taxi Driver

#1000 - The Last Picture Show

#1111 - Spirited Away

#1218 - Pulp Fiction

#1232 - Nanook of the North

#1233 - Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

#1246 - Akira (1988)

#1248 - Apollo 11 (2019)

#1249 - Footprints on the Moon: Apollo 11

#1255- Do the Right Thing

#1292 - Nosferatu the Vampyre

#1301 - Dr. Strangelove

#1322 - Battleship Potemkin

#1323 - The Adventures of Prince Achmed

#1349 - Stagecoach (1939)

#1355 - The Philadelphia Story

#1358 - To Be or Not to Be (1942)

#1367 - A Matter of Life and Death

#1368 - The Best Years of Our Lives

#1385 - Seven Samurai

#1386 - La Strada

#1392 - The Searchers

#1400 - The 400 Blows

#1415 - Mary Poppins

#1416 - My Fair Lady

#1429 - Once Upon a Time in the West

#1438 - The French Connection

#1440 - A Clockwork Orange

#1445 - The Sting

#1448 - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

#1460 - Apocalypse Now

#1463 - Raging Bull

#1496 - Goodfellas

#1498 - The Silence of the Lambs

#1501 - Unforgiven

#1506 - The Shawshank Redemption

#1519 - The Truman Show

#1520 - Saving Private Ryan

#1525 - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

#1533 - Adaptation

#1544 - The Departed

#1546 - There Will Be Blood

#1553 - Fantastic Mr. Fox

#1570 - Birdman

#1584 - Parasite (2019)

#1596 - The Housemaid

#1615 - Edward Scissorhands

#1629 - Miller's Crossing

#1634 - Symbiopsychotaxiplasm

#1640 - Boyz n the Hood

#1643 - Malcolm X

#1655 - Daisies

#1656 - Harlan County, USA

#1657 - The Decline of Western Civilization

#1712 - The Fly (1986)

#1729 - Alice

#1731 - The Phantom Carriage

#1758 - My Neighbor Totoro

#1768 - Dumbo

#1773 - Red River

#1774 - The Cameraman

#1792 - This Sporting Life

#1812 - The Eternal Breasts

#1813 - The Connection

#1825 - Double Indemnity

#1828 - Rebecca

#1835 - Everything Everywhere All at Once

#1887 - The Thin Man

#1932 - Django Unchained

#1933 - Grave of the Fireflies

#1958 - Interrogation

#1962 - Man with a Movie Camera

#1966 - Z

#1980 - O.J.: Made in America

#1983 - Lady Bird

#2000 - Duel

#2048 - The Day After Trinity

#2050 - Oppenheimer

#2060 - Bringing Up Baby

#2075 - Viridiana

#2077 - Man Bites Dog

#2078 - Wild Strawberries

#2142 - Killers of the Flower Moon

#2153 - Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

#2204 - Sleuth [1972]