That’s a relief. But of course I’m with you that you’re allowed to have your own subjective opinions.
(Unlike mine which are fully objective however, it’s just a fact that the number of Shyamalan movies that are better than Shawshank is in the double digits).
Good grief, who would even put themselves through a double-digit number of Shyamalan movies necessary to develop this take? I find it kind of humiliating that I’ve watched five.
a neet chud who is disillusioned with life as wagecattle wants to take a few years off from working so he can find himself and his place in the rapidly-transforming world around him. the year is 1938 and the chud is cary grant. it’s Holiday (1938). coincidentally at this feeling-like-retiring-at-thirty time in his life, he’s dating an heiress and they’re rushing into marriage. katherine hepburn is the heiress’ sister, also an heiress, and a professional yearner. she spends 100% of her time yearnmaxxing. this is a movie for 2026.
4 bags of popcorn
More people need to see that one. Hepburn was easily one of the best to ever do it.
Imagining a different world where this fool only made five or six impeccable movies. Maybe came out of retirement thirty years later for his Coppola opus.
The Great Escape (1963)
I’ve put this one off forever. I remember at some point in the 2000s I had a co-worker show up and lend me his DVD of it, and I think I just brought at home and let it collect dust for a while before giving it back to him. I have this weird thing where I feel like I hate war movies, yet I could easily sit here and give you a whole list of war movies that I unreservedly love. I’m not sure the hit rate is THAT low for them. Even after I come to love a number of them, my antipathy for the concept remains strong. I’m not even moralizing about them in most cases; I’m just aggressively uninterested. No matter any past successes, I’m presented with the prospect of viewing one, and I sigh heavily and go, “Ugh, a war movie?” And this one is just under three hours, which made it feel like an even heavier lift.
Of course, you can see where this is headed: I loved it. The cast is loaded, the various schemes being worked within the POW camp are compelling, and for a movie that appears to spoil its ending in the title, it’s surprisingly unpredictable.
It’s available kind of everywhere: Tubi, Prime, Kanopy, Hoopla. But I’m glad I finally got to it, and I’m certain I’ll want to run it back.
4/5
Throughout the movie, I knew this guy in the middle was a vaguely familiar face. Until just reading up more after this viewing, I did NOT put together that it was Donald Pleasence (Loomis from Halloween).
And then it was Megalopolis?
Should be said that The Great Escape, despite being based on a real WWII event, isn’t meaningfully a war movie. It’s much more like a heist movie where they happen to be trying to pull off the heist against Nazi Germany. Which, of course, is more immediately dangerous than trying to pull off a bank job.
The Shawshank Redemption clearly lifted some inspiration from certain parts of it.
I assume you mean the rocks/dirt part
Yes.
What a phenomenal cast, A+ movie.
I believe they hide something in a bible in the Great Escape as well, right?
Don’t remember that.
I don’t think so, or at least I don’t remember it after just watching it last night.
It’s such a powerhouse third hour too. I was liking it throughout, but I wasn’t expecting how hard it would go down the stretch.
Is there an UP favorite/best movie list?
Straight into my veins.
It might have worked if the writer-director and his star had been more willing to go out on a limb. The movie is being promoted as a black comedy, but it’s not very funny. There are times when it attempts to be a serious drama, but we’re not invested enough in the characters for that to work either. Other than the fact that his cutely named protagonist, Becket Redfellow, is killing people who don’t really deserve to die for any reason other than being obnoxious, we’re supposed to identify with him because he’s poor and his victims are rich. I mean, Powell is charming, but he’s not that charming.
Margaret Qualley, who’s becoming the MVP of many of her pictures, almost makes the film worthwhile. Seeming to enter every scene with her endlessly long legs, she plays Becket’s childhood friend, who comes back into his life and pops up periodically just to energize the proceedings. Portraying the sort of scheming femme fatale who would have made life miserable for any male lead in a film noir, she applies just the right amount of winking humor to the material while Powell, playing it totally straight, seems like a deer caught in the headlights.
The notion of Kind Hearts and Coronets as a Glen Powell vehicle in 2026 makes me wince so hard.
Not that I know of, but it would be fun to crowdsource something like this if someone had a good idea as to how.
