Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[BagheeraMcGee]

Originally Posted by Black Sun

Is American Buffalo just a bad movie? It’s been on sale for 10 bucks for ages and seems to have a permanent spot on the Going Fast list (not fast enough apparently). I’m tired of looking at mildly annoyed Dennis Franz on a bench every time I want to browse TT deals.

And to answer your question, it's certainly not the best film made from a David Mamet work (my favorite is still House Of Games), but it's not bad by any stretch.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Black Sun

Is American Buffalo just a bad movie? It’s been on sale for 10 bucks for ages and seems to have a permanent spot on the Going Fast list (not fast enough apparently). I’m tired of looking at mildly annoyed Dennis Franz on a bench every time I want to browse TT deals.

[English Patient]

Originally Posted by Black Sun

Is American Buffalo just a bad movie? It’s been on sale for 10 bucks for ages and seems to have a permanent spot on the Going Fast list (not fast enough apparently). I’m tired of looking at mildly annoyed Dennis Franz on a bench every time I want to browse TT deals.

It's a really, really good movie, one of my top 100 films. Before Glengarry Glen Ross came around, it was Mamet's most well-known and respected play.

Dustin Hoffman is great in it, as is Franz. I think if you like Glengarry, you'll like American Buffalo. But it can sort of off-putting for the casual viewer, because it's basically 3 people talking/yelling at each other for an hour and a half. The key attraction is the interesting, profane, occasionally surreal and absurd dialogue.

[mja345]

"American Buffalo" is a great film, but if someone has never seen any of Mamet's work, then I could see it being difficult viewing. Sean Nelson and even Dennis Franz's characters are reasonably sympathetic, but Teach, Hoffman's character, is an obstinate, loud-mouthed, unfeeling prick and the viewer has to spend 90 minutes with him. But Hoffman is absolutely brilliant in it and proves why he's one of the greatest screen actors of all-time, as he takes a difficult character and makes him compelling.

Mamet's writing is all about precision, not free-flowing conversation. Both types of writing can be excellent, but "American Buffalo" is a great example of how he executes his writing style.

[buck135]

Originally Posted by English Patient

It's a really, really good movie, one of my top 100 films. Before Glengarry Glen Ross came around, it was Mamet's most well-known and respected play.

Dustin Hoffman is great in it, as is Franz. I think if you like Glengarry, you'll like American Buffalo. But it can sort of off-putting for the casual viewer, because it's basically 3 people talking/yelling at each other for an hour and a half. The key attraction is the interesting, profane, occasionally surreal and absurd dialogue.

Sold. Thank you!

[English Patient]

Originally Posted by mja345

"American Buffalo" is a great film, but if someone has never seen any of Mamet's work, then I could see it being difficult viewing. Sean Nelson and even Dennis Franz's characters are reasonably sympathetic, but Teach, Hoffman's character, is an obstinate, loud-mouthed, unfeeling prick and the viewer has to spend 90 minutes with him. But Hoffman is absolutely brilliant in it and proves why he's one of the greatest screen actors of all-time, as he takes a difficult character and makes him compelling.

Mamet's writing is all about precision, not free-flowing conversation. Both types of writing can be excellent, but "American Buffalo" is a great example of how he executes his writing style.

Another thing that can be off-putting is the "story," which is not what most viewers are used to in movies. In most movies about a heist/robbery, there will be plenty of action - but American Buffalo is basically 3 not-particularly-smart people talking about/planning a robbery. But one of the great things about this movie is that by the end of it, once all the characters' agonizing, grueling, brutal, nasty conversations are over, you feel as if they've gone through every human emotion imaginable and you kind of feel as worn out as the characters.

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by Black Sun

Is American Buffalo just a bad movie? It’s been on sale for 10 bucks for ages and seems to have a permanent spot on the Going Fast list (not fast enough apparently). I’m tired of looking at mildly annoyed Dennis Franz on a bench every time I want to browse TT deals.

TT lost the rights to the film somehow. When that was announced, they said they were going to have to destroy all the remaining copies; for whatever reason, that was postponed, but they are trying to sell off as many copies as they can, so they leave it at $10. Similar to "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner", so you know that it isn't quality-based.

[Snl40boi]

Well that was fast I orderd two movies last week. I ordered one movie from Twilight Time movies one day and the next I ordered another movie from screen archive. And they are both arriving tomorrow. I guess they must of sent all the orders with the same shipping. Because I know I paid for the slowest shipping they have.

[Richard--W]

Originally Posted by Twilight Time

In a way, everybody is a small account now, with no company, big or small manufacturing more than 3,000-5,000 units initially now on any given title. One of the main problems is that although the manufacturing is done somewhere in Tennessee, the pick, pack, and shipping comes out of Pennsylvania, so that involves another delivery by road of materials as opposed to everything being done in the same place. Anything that involves long-haul road deliveries from one state to another slows it all down even further, because afterwards our shipments have to be driven to Virginia and Texas.

We would have thought U.S. plants could handle all the business, but Technicolor is still trying to find the right solution to the problem - we'll see what happens.

TT, Has there been any progress in obtaining Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid ?

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Richard--W

TT, Has there been any progress in obtaining Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid ?

TT doesn’t deal with WB.

[RCRochester]

Pulled the trigger on the Incident and Wild Bill. I know people gave me a lot of lukewarm feedback on the latter but after watching the trailer and taking into consideration the talent involved and the fact I'm a fan of westerns, I'm taking a chance on it while it's on sale.

[CineSicko]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Pulled the trigger on the Incident...

Me too. It arrived today, and I'll be watching it tonight. What a great movie. Have you seen it?

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by CineSicko

Me too. It arrived today, and I'll be watching it tonight. What a great movie. Have you seen it?

No it’s a blind buy but I’ve heard great things about it.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by mja345

If you haven't seen it, check out Larry Peerce's other thriller "Two-Minute Warning". It's a terrific film, one of the most underrated of the 70s, and Shout's BD features a great interview with Peerce.

Two-Minute Warning makes an excellent bedfellow with Frankenheimer's (much better) Black Sunday, one of the best thrillers of its decade and one sorely in need of a Blu-ray release.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by CineSicko

Me too. It arrived today, and I'll be watching it tonight. What a great movie. Have you seen it?

The Incident is one of the most disturbing films in my collection, but it’s disturbing in a dramatic escalation sense, as opposed to a visceral sense.

It’s a painful movie to watch, but the cast interactions that make it so merit my five-star rating. It really is a great film, and it’s a key example of how the best films are not necessarily ones that make us feel good.

[mja345]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Two-Minute Warning makes an excellent bedfellow with Frankenheimer's (much better) Black Sunday, one of the best thrillers of its decade and one sorely in need of a Blu-ray release.

"Black Sunday" is a very good film, but don't short "Two-Minute Warning". I watched it again recently and was stunned at how tense that film is. It's pretty brilliant, really awesome film IMO.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by mja345

"Black Sunday" is a very good film, but don't short "Two-Minute Warning". I watched it again recently and was stunned at how tense that film is. It's pretty brilliant, really awesome film IMO.

Two-Minute Warning is one of those cool little blind buys you make when the price is right...was a neat addition to my Shout collection. I dug how it presented itself as a typical "70s disaster film" when it really wasn't.

I'm not trying to knock it down in an attempt to prop up Frankie's film; I've just always genuinely felt that Black Sunday is a damn near action/political thriller masterpiece. But as I said above, the two would make for an ideal double-bill.

[Fat Phil]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Pulled the trigger on the Incident and Wild Bill. I know people gave me a lot of lukewarm feedback on the latter but after watching the trailer and taking into consideration the talent involved and the fact I'm a fan of westerns, I'm taking a chance on it while it's on sale.

Cool. Always best to see for yourself. Just because I was lukewarm doesn't mean you'll feel the same way. Hell, I hope you enjoy it . It's certainly not boring.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Two-Minute Warning is one of those cool little blind buys you make when the price is right...was a neat addition to my Shout collection. I dug how it presented itself as a typical "70s disaster film" when it really wasn't.

I'm not trying to knock it down in an attempt to prop up Frankie's film; I've just always genuinely felt that Black Sunday is a damn near action/political thriller masterpiece. But as I said above, the two would make for an ideal double-bill.

I agree with you here. Both great films with "terrorism at a football game" as its central selling point. Two-Minute Warning has more of the disaster movie feel, while Black Sunday is more like a spy movie in the vein of The Day of the Jackal.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

I agree with you here. Both great films with "terrorism at a football game" as its central selling point. Two-Minute Warning has more of the disaster movie feel, while Black Sunday is more like a spy movie in the vein of The Day of the Jackal.

Yeah, Two-Minute Warning may work a bit better with Rollercoaster.

I always found it interesting that Black Sunday came from a novel by Thomas Harris...it was his only non-Hannibal work. I still think Dern has never been better and Keller far exceeds her work in the prior year's Marathon Man. Shaw and Jordan are an awesome badass commando tandem.