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He was but I was particularly blown away by Rod Steiger. I was watching him the whole time thinking, 'Holy fuck. Did he win an Oscar for that? I don't remember but I sure would vote for him.'

He did.

Pretty tough field of movies that year. Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Cool Hand Luke, The Dirty Dozen . . .
 
The Best Picture nominees from that year - which included Doctor Dolittle but not The Dirty Dozen nor Cool Hand Luke.



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Just finished my rewatch of The Sopranos. Excellent series. Thoroughly enjoyable the second time through.

I found a slight natural decline in quality as the seasons went along but nothing drastic. It changed and evolved in clever and creative ways while continuing to challenge and be thoughtful. It also did not lose sight of the idea that it is supposed to entertain. This is what puts it a solid notch above something like, say, Mad Men which I feel has a similar level of artistic invention - but it sometimes forgets to have actual interesting stuff happening.

The Sopranos always had stuff happening.

There is a lot I could say but just to pick one thing for starters since it is so fresh in my mind: the ending. It has been much discussed and here is my assessment: it is not particularly good. It is not hideously bad - I can come up with an intellectual justification for it - but I really think they could have done a lot better.

So that's my 2 cents on that.



But anyway, I consider it an all-time great show which I can see myself rewatching every 7-8 years for the rest of my life.
 
yes the ending is particularly bad. They had so many lose ends they would have needed a genius writer to tie anything together in a meaningful way. Ending was a necessary(?) cop out.

Nonetheless I would re watch it. It is still a higher quality drama than most anything I remember.
 
I borrowed the whole DVD set from a friend.

He also owns The Wire which I plan to revisit next. I have long considered those my #1 and 2 dramas of all-time (with The Wire first) so I will re-assess those rankings. I also want to revisit Six Feet Under which he doesn't own. How I go about that will be a more interesting question, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Actually he also has the latest season of Burn Notice so I will probably take a brief interlude to watch that. It is nowhere near the same category as the others but it is an okay diversion.
 
A further thought about The Sopranos. I think I was more aware than the first time through of what horrible people all the mafiosos are. It could be my memory playing tricks but I think the first time I watched it, I was kinda pulling for the Jersey guys a lot of the time. This time ---> they are all truly scum.

I am always able to keep in mind that it is just a TV show and therefore I can enjoy it - but knowing that it is all based on stuff that really happens ---> those real people all deserve a visit from Dexter.

If the mob is in fact being torn apart from the inside by informants as they portrayed, I could not be happier. They all deserve it.
 
It is all presented in a very interesting thoughtful way.

*spoiler alert*

Like when Vito the gay guy is outed, you can really start to have sympathy for him. It is so unfair how the mob guys handle the situation. And then he goes to the small town and even finds love, you feel happy for him.

Then he causes a little fender bender and he shoots the completely innocent guy in the other car in the head rather than be inconvenienced.

It's like, "Oh yeah. He is scum of the earth. I forgot."


Cleverly presented though.
 
Some ratings and re-ratings since the last time:


The Paper (1994) - Reasonably well assembled, entertaining Ron Howard flick. Call it 7 out of 10

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - Clever satire for its time. Many people would describe it as hilarious but there were surprisingly few laughs for me. A few chuckles and several knowing nods - that's about it. Way overrated to my way of thinking (currently #39 of all time) however it's okay. 7 out of 10.

V for Vendetta (2005) - another 7 out of 10. It's okay.

The Old Man and the Sea (1958) - Spencer Tracy brings the classic tale to life. It's good. Some of the effects are comically bad but they did the best they could at the time. I often dislike too much voice-over however it worked in this case using Hemingway's words. 7.2 out of 10

Munich (2005) - one of Spielberg's better efforts IMO. Thoughtful. A tad dry though. 7.2 out of 10.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - Another 7 out of 10. Pretty okay old flick.

The Music Man (1962) - Best Picture nominated musical. Some nice numbers, some that make me shrug. Plenty of cheese. Can't go higher than 5.3 out of 10

Frankenweenie (2012) - Tim Burton animated effort. 5.6 out of 10.
 
Mudcat
I found this suicide scene very compelling

Click to expand...

I always remembered that one, I thought that the sports store owner in Season 2 might be heading to this but this is someone else

We just finished season 2, man that finale holds up. You knew Puss was done but at the moment Tony says "Hey Puss, did she even really really exist?" you really knew he was done. If Tony says something like to you, you're getting out alive :redx:

 
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