Sex-BOMB - "Tom Jones" (1963)

Wow this was bad. So bad. Can’t tell you how much we wanted to turn this off. Mat has actually said he’d rather sit through ‘Forrest Gump’ again than this one!

So where to begin? I guess with the beginning which was actually kind of promising. It was quite a slapstick, funny opening, quite different for the times but the occasional witty dialogue and comical situations soon degenerated into a farce that Monty Python would have been embarrassed to produce.

This is a costume/period drama set amongst the English countryside and aristocracy and Tom Jones is the natural child of someone (e.g., illegitimate) who grows into a debaucherous, lecherous tramp. The plot (if we can stretch it to that) is that Tom is set up by the jealous ‘good and true’ son/nephew and kicked out of the manor to traipse around the country side getting into scraps. At one point he even has sex with someone who may or may not be his mother – and that’s not even the most distasteful scene!

The only reason it has scored even in the 20s (Mat = 22, D=24) is because annoyingly Albert Finney who plays Tom is actually really good. Despite the trainwreck of a movie, he displays a great control and presence and doesn’t ham things up like his co-stars. He almost succeeds in making this incredibly unlikeable character sort of likeable.

The other saving grace were elements of the script (that I believe were lifted straight from the book) which were actually very well written and could have produced a decent film if the filmmakers hadn’t decided to make a gyroscopic film version of Benny Hill meets Pride and Prejudice.

Please don’t ever watch this one! No-one else should have to suffer through this piece of poorly executed, insulting, nauseating and discombobulating mess!

Going Bing's Way - "Going My Way" (1944)

Mat here.

'Going My Way' won Best Picture in 1944, and is a pleasant, but ultimately forgettable, star-vehicle for Bing Crosby. Bing plays Father Chuck O'Malley, a young, hip Catholic priest sent to help a failing New York church.

Father O'Malley has some wacky ideas, like turning the local delinquents into a choir to keep them off the streets. His new-fangled ways don't sit well with old-fashioned Father Fitzgibbon (played by Barry Fitzgerald, who was nominated in both the lead and supporting actor categories for this role, and won best supporting - the rules have since changed so that this can't happen any more), but Father O'Malley's success gradually wins him over.

The songs are definitely a highlight of the film, with Bing & Co. breaking into song often. The classic 'Swinging On A Star' comes from this film, and right picked up it's own Best Song Oscar.

Between songs it tended to be a little dull, and the film is almost half an hour too long - there's a scene where the collection plate is going round and it's clear the church is going to be OK, then there's all this other stuff, including a giant church fire, that was all unnecessary. Cut from the collection plate scene to Bing packing up to go help another church in need and it would have scored better.

I gave this one 54/100 and Danielle gave it 61/100.

Play it again, king of the world - 'Titanic' (1997) and 'Casablanca' (1943)

We’re combining these two reviews because we’re running horribly behind with our weekly film-watching and reviewing goals but also because they’re almost at opposite ends of the classics spectrum and make for a good contrast! That’s what we’re telling ourselves anyway.

They both deal with epic love stories against historically important backdrops and they both have key scenes that have worked their way into the cultural zeitgeist – albeit for fairly different reasons. How many people have caught a ferry in the last 10 years without trying to replicate Kate and Leo’s king of the world moment? And who doesn’t know the line, “this is the start of a beautiful friendship”?

However, ‘Casablanca’ manages to deliver a poignant portrayal of one love story that reflected the choices, the conflicts and the sacrifice of so many people in wartime, while ‘Titanic’ takes an epic tragedy and turns it into an amusement park ride, complete with water features.

'Casablanca' endures because whether you like Bogart or not (mat – yes!, me – no), you care about the situation he finds himself in. You know this girl has hurt him and he’s learnt to rely on himself and do what’s best for him. Suddenly his loyalty and moral code are tested against his selfish desire for self-preservation and love. At the same time, Ingrid Bergman is faced with the ultimate pull between duty and love and I think we can all relate to the struggle between what we want to do and what we know we need to do.

The war, the location and the stories of those in limbo in Casablanca only augment the themes of love, duty, honour and sacrifice. The whole film displays the tug-of-war between the values you have the luxury to treasure in ‘normal society’ versus what needs to be done in the extraordinary circumstances of war. Mat scored this a 96 (making it one of his best rated movies), but I only gave it 82 (although I think my Bogart-bias is showing here!).

In the same way that ‘Casablanca’ managed to comment on life’s truths by showing us at our most stressed and vulnerable, ‘Titanic’ tried to comment on more overarching themes than ‘count the lifeboats before you sail’, but just can’t pull it off. The story is too manipulated and fabricated and that is the real tragedy. You only get snippets of what could actually have served as pivotal and important moments; the young Irish woman in the doomed third-class berths telling her children a bedtime story about everlasting youth or the elderly couple quietly holding hands on their gilded bed even as the water rushes in under them.

Didn’t Cameron think there was enough drama with the sinking of the ‘unsinkable ship’ without having to throw in a class war, a forbidden love, then (god help us) a frame-up and chase scene complete with firearms through the sinking ship?!?!

Having said all that, ‘Titanic’ is still pretty fun to watch, the underwater footage they shot of the real Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic is incredible and haunting, and the stars are likeable and watchable . Mat scored it a 62, but I could only get to a 56 – I don’t like knowing when they’re trying to jerk my heart strings! A decent script and some heavy editing really could have pushed this into the lasting classics rather than the generational classic I believe it’s destined to be.

Mat here.

I had to add a quick word about Casablanca, as my score of 96/100 has put Casablanca ahead of all the other Best Picture winners I've watched.

All of the elements of Casablanca come together to produce a film as close to perfect as I can imagine. Everything I look for in a film is here: engaging characters, an exciting setting, clever dialogue, actors at the top of their game, some of the best cinematography I have seen, genuine emotion and capped off with a very un-Hollywood ending.

What more is left to say? Casablanca is not only the best Best Picture winner in my book, I would also argue that Casablanca is probably the best movie of all time. We haven't finished every film on the Best Picture list yet (not by a long shot), but I'm doubtful anything will approach the heights of Casablanca.