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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?
- Thread starter Amy Jeanne
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greatestescaper
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What are your thoughts on Dracula Untold? I've not seen it and was thinking of adding it to our watchlist.Dracula Untold last night.
In the Heat of the Night, tonight until I remembered that the World Series was on.
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"The Big Sleep"
I just finished the book and wanted to see if I could finally follow the movie, which, over many decades and several viewings, I've never been able to do.
The book has a reasonably complicated plot but is easy enough to follow as you have time to absorb the names and connections. I was actually surprised that the book wasn't more jumbled as the movie always seemed like a ride in the dark with many obstacles to bounce off of.
Besides the inherent difficulty of translating all the twists and interconnections from the book to a two-hour movie, the movie is saddled with the, my guess, producer's or studio's demand to put a full-on love story into the movie that, other than some flirtation, is not there in the book. I love seeing Bogie and Bacall together as much as the next guy, but you don't repaint the Mona Lisa because red is the it color this year.
Hence, Chandler's well-crafted story is broken apart and put back together awkwardly so that Bogart and Bacall can find each other - a true shame as the story is much better, consistent and compelling as originally written. Additionally, as the book is driven, effectively, by a young, epileptic, drug-addicted, nymphomaniac heiress who dabbles in pornography and guns (yup, all those things) - much had to be tempered and alluded to for the movie. This takes the starch and motivation out of the story and leaves a bunch of characters running around doing a bunch of crazy things for not-obvious reasons.
What's left is a movie with a hard-to-follow story (I kept going back to the book in my head to keep the movie straight) that doesn't really knit together and is only saved by actors and atmosphere. Bacall is at the height of her beauty - she doesn't have straight posture, she is straight posture which she uses to showcase her model-perfect features. Bogie does his down-but-not-out thing well and impressive supporting performances by Martha Vickers and Elisha Cook Jr. keep you drawn in - as does the film-noir style that has, today, almost become cliched because it works so well in movies like this.
I loved the book and enjoyed, but was frustrated by, the movie. Bogie and Bacall got together in real life leaving no reason to force them together to twist this story out of shape. But to be fair, it was always going to be a challenge in the code era to keep true to the plot of a book driven by a (drum roll please) young, epileptic, drug-addicted, nymphomaniac heiress who dabbles in pornography and guns.
It's all fun, but I definitely recommend reading the book before watching the movie.
I just finished the book and wanted to see if I could finally follow the movie, which, over many decades and several viewings, I've never been able to do.
The book has a reasonably complicated plot but is easy enough to follow as you have time to absorb the names and connections. I was actually surprised that the book wasn't more jumbled as the movie always seemed like a ride in the dark with many obstacles to bounce off of.
Besides the inherent difficulty of translating all the twists and interconnections from the book to a two-hour movie, the movie is saddled with the, my guess, producer's or studio's demand to put a full-on love story into the movie that, other than some flirtation, is not there in the book. I love seeing Bogie and Bacall together as much as the next guy, but you don't repaint the Mona Lisa because red is the it color this year.
Hence, Chandler's well-crafted story is broken apart and put back together awkwardly so that Bogart and Bacall can find each other - a true shame as the story is much better, consistent and compelling as originally written. Additionally, as the book is driven, effectively, by a young, epileptic, drug-addicted, nymphomaniac heiress who dabbles in pornography and guns (yup, all those things) - much had to be tempered and alluded to for the movie. This takes the starch and motivation out of the story and leaves a bunch of characters running around doing a bunch of crazy things for not-obvious reasons.
What's left is a movie with a hard-to-follow story (I kept going back to the book in my head to keep the movie straight) that doesn't really knit together and is only saved by actors and atmosphere. Bacall is at the height of her beauty - she doesn't have straight posture, she is straight posture which she uses to showcase her model-perfect features. Bogie does his down-but-not-out thing well and impressive supporting performances by Martha Vickers and Elisha Cook Jr. keep you drawn in - as does the film-noir style that has, today, almost become cliched because it works so well in movies like this.
I loved the book and enjoyed, but was frustrated by, the movie. Bogie and Bacall got together in real life leaving no reason to force them together to twist this story out of shape. But to be fair, it was always going to be a challenge in the code era to keep true to the plot of a book driven by a (drum roll please) young, epileptic, drug-addicted, nymphomaniac heiress who dabbles in pornography and guns.
It's all fun, but I definitely recommend reading the book before watching the movie.
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MisterCairo
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Deadpool again. I'd no drive to see it in the theatre, yet having rented it, man is it funny...
Worf
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Perhaps the best non-superhero superhero movie ever made. Sexy, funny irreverent, no code of ethics in sight. And using the X-men as comic foils was genius.
Worf
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Plot? Meh. It's just fun to watch 'em all do their thing.
Worf
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"The Baby" - Flat-out the oddest film I've seen in a coon's age. The premise? Social worker tries to help an adult man that's been literally treated like a baby by his psychotic mother and sisters since birth. Don't know where TCM drug this thing up from! But like bad rot-gut I keep coming back to it time and again. After 10 minutes or so something happens that's so disgusting I have to turn it off. Should delete it but I HAVE to finish it!
Worf
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We were entertained. I have definitely seen worse. This was nice spin on the how and why Dracula became Dracula. We had seen it before and thought why not watch it on Halloween; it was a good choice.
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Julian Shellhammer
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Recently re-watched this at our movie night get together. I was the Chandler/Hammett fan who had to periodically pause the video and explain "That's not in the book, " or "In the book they actually-". They all love me so they put up with me. Regarding how convoluted the plot is, Faulkner and Brackett called Chandler to explain the murder of one of the characters. Chandler told them it was in the book and find it for themselves. He later called back and said he couldn't find it either. See if you can find the dvd with the two versions on it. The differences are pretty remarkable.
Julian Shellhammer
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The Magnificent Seven, inspired by listening to the Remake This Movie Right podcast. Youngest Shellhammer watched it with me; liked it but thought it dragged in places.
MisterCairo
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Finally finished, over the course of about five start and stop viewings, "Bone Tomahawk".
There are no words...
There are no words...
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South Sea Woman (1953). AWOL marine Gunnery Sergeant James O'Hearn (Burt Lancaster) is court-martialed for sinking a saloon, stealing a yacht and forging the President's signature on an I.O.U., and claiming to have thwarted a Japanese invasion of Guadalcanal, all of which could land him in the brig for 143 years if he doesn't get the death penalty.
The story is told in flashbacks as the characters testify at the court-martial, an action adventure comedy that ultimately comes up short on all three counts. Co-starring Virginia Mayo as the titular south sea woman Ginger Martin and Chuck Conners as Private Davey White, it also features Hayden Rorke (arguably best known for playing Dr. Bellows on I Dream of Jeannie), Leon Askin (whose "French" accent sounds almost exactly like his "German" accent as as General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes), Paul Burke, and a young Strother Martin in a thankless and completely unimportant cameo role early in his career.
The one thing that helps to sell the movie's premise is Burt Lancaster's performance. He seems unaccustomed to using words like "ain't", but his Sgt. O'Hearn is gung-ho/Semper Fi throughout the movie whether he's claiming to be a deserter, charming the local women, or fighting whichever enemy presents itself at any given moment, and it's his enthusiasm that carries the movie. It's not a great movie by any measure, but worth seeing if you're a fan of Lancaster's work and/or want some light entertainment for about an hour and 40 minutes.
The story is told in flashbacks as the characters testify at the court-martial, an action adventure comedy that ultimately comes up short on all three counts. Co-starring Virginia Mayo as the titular south sea woman Ginger Martin and Chuck Conners as Private Davey White, it also features Hayden Rorke (arguably best known for playing Dr. Bellows on I Dream of Jeannie), Leon Askin (whose "French" accent sounds almost exactly like his "German" accent as as General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes), Paul Burke, and a young Strother Martin in a thankless and completely unimportant cameo role early in his career.
The one thing that helps to sell the movie's premise is Burt Lancaster's performance. He seems unaccustomed to using words like "ain't", but his Sgt. O'Hearn is gung-ho/Semper Fi throughout the movie whether he's claiming to be a deserter, charming the local women, or fighting whichever enemy presents itself at any given moment, and it's his enthusiasm that carries the movie. It's not a great movie by any measure, but worth seeing if you're a fan of Lancaster's work and/or want some light entertainment for about an hour and 40 minutes.
Doctor Strange
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The recent adaptation of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury directed by (and co-starring) James Franco.
Not bad - better than the 1959 film version - considering that it tackles the textbook definition of an "unfilmable novel." The cast is good - Tim Blake Nelson is outstanding as the father of the ruined Compson family - though Franco's casting himself as "idiot son" Benjy unfortunately reminds one of Ben Stiller's character "going full retard" in Tropic Thunder to prove he's a serious actor. Some aspects of the story don't come through clearly... though that's true in the book too, with its revolutionary narrative time jumps and multiple stream-of-consciousness POVs.
I don't know that people who haven't read the book would have the patience for the film, since (like the book) the first third is told entirely in Benjy's mentally challenged mish-mosh of memories and perceptions. It's difficult to understand... but that's a big part of the story's genius.
Not bad - better than the 1959 film version - considering that it tackles the textbook definition of an "unfilmable novel." The cast is good - Tim Blake Nelson is outstanding as the father of the ruined Compson family - though Franco's casting himself as "idiot son" Benjy unfortunately reminds one of Ben Stiller's character "going full retard" in Tropic Thunder to prove he's a serious actor. Some aspects of the story don't come through clearly... though that's true in the book too, with its revolutionary narrative time jumps and multiple stream-of-consciousness POVs.
I don't know that people who haven't read the book would have the patience for the film, since (like the book) the first third is told entirely in Benjy's mentally challenged mish-mosh of memories and perceptions. It's difficult to understand... but that's a big part of the story's genius.
The secret Land (1948) Hard to believe, that this is one of the most controversial films ever made! It was about Operation High Jump, the exploration of Antarctica. But, conspiracy nuts have made it into a giant battle between the U.S. Navy, NAZI's and their alien allies, complete with UFOs. Funny thing, all these people miss the real scandal, it was a grand retirement present to Admiral Byrd!
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"The Petrified Forest"
Assuming this was a normal A-movie release in 1936, one can say they aren't making these movies anymore. Basically, it's a philosophical theory and social commentary ramble - and a darn fine one - with some, for the time, action-aventure shooting scenes thrown in.
A lot of "big" questions are brought up - America's capitalist system and the economy's depression era failings, individualism versus societal conformity, crime as immorality that undermines the state versus crime as an expression of individuality and freedom in a overbearing state, marriage for money and security versus marriage for love and a future with unknown promise, artists as the embodiment of special talents needing tender nurturing, money for future security or present pleasure and on and on it goes.
Ninety-five percent set in a small roadside diner and gas station in the desolate desert of 1936 Arizona, Bette Davis (never looking more youthful and innocent - none of her famous hardness can be seen, even at the edges) plays the artist-dreamer daughter of the diner's owner who feels trapped in her dead-end world. Leslie Howard plays a drifter - a down-and-out-and-dispirited failed English novelist - who fuels Davis' escapist dreams and sexual fantasies.
Most of the philosophical drama is driven by these two with Davis' father and the young football player who works there representing conventional thinking, her grandfather, the lost frontier and original spirit of can-do Americanism, and a wealthy couple representing class divide and the aforementioned questions of marriage. The drama is kicked forward when Bogart - playing a famous Dillinger-type criminal on-the-lam - and his gang take the diner patrons and workers hostages.
This allows for some gunfights and an eventual climatic shootout, but its real purpose is that it allows the philosophical discussion to get richer by example with Bogart representing the alienated individual gone rogue. For an in-the-era-of-the-code movie, there is also some ahead-of-its-time acknowledgment of racial struggles with an outright dig at a black man being subservient to a white man - not your typical code movie and wonderful to see.
I love this movie as the issues are real, raw and treated with respect - no pat answers or easy stereotypes. It is a bit preachy, but since no side is given full support, it doesn't turn you off. The acting is top notch - but IMHO, it's Davis' film. As noted, hard to see this movie being made today as a major release.
Assuming this was a normal A-movie release in 1936, one can say they aren't making these movies anymore. Basically, it's a philosophical theory and social commentary ramble - and a darn fine one - with some, for the time, action-aventure shooting scenes thrown in.
A lot of "big" questions are brought up - America's capitalist system and the economy's depression era failings, individualism versus societal conformity, crime as immorality that undermines the state versus crime as an expression of individuality and freedom in a overbearing state, marriage for money and security versus marriage for love and a future with unknown promise, artists as the embodiment of special talents needing tender nurturing, money for future security or present pleasure and on and on it goes.
Ninety-five percent set in a small roadside diner and gas station in the desolate desert of 1936 Arizona, Bette Davis (never looking more youthful and innocent - none of her famous hardness can be seen, even at the edges) plays the artist-dreamer daughter of the diner's owner who feels trapped in her dead-end world. Leslie Howard plays a drifter - a down-and-out-and-dispirited failed English novelist - who fuels Davis' escapist dreams and sexual fantasies.
Most of the philosophical drama is driven by these two with Davis' father and the young football player who works there representing conventional thinking, her grandfather, the lost frontier and original spirit of can-do Americanism, and a wealthy couple representing class divide and the aforementioned questions of marriage. The drama is kicked forward when Bogart - playing a famous Dillinger-type criminal on-the-lam - and his gang take the diner patrons and workers hostages.
This allows for some gunfights and an eventual climatic shootout, but its real purpose is that it allows the philosophical discussion to get richer by example with Bogart representing the alienated individual gone rogue. For an in-the-era-of-the-code movie, there is also some ahead-of-its-time acknowledgment of racial struggles with an outright dig at a black man being subservient to a white man - not your typical code movie and wonderful to see.
I love this movie as the issues are real, raw and treated with respect - no pat answers or easy stereotypes. It is a bit preachy, but since no side is given full support, it doesn't turn you off. The acting is top notch - but IMHO, it's Davis' film. As noted, hard to see this movie being made today as a major release.
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Doctor Strange
I'll Lock Up
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It was a play by Robert E. Sherwood (*) on Broadway first - the mostly single setting kinda gives it away. My dad, who was then an aspiring theater geek in his teens, saw it and said it was transfixing, even better than the film. And of course, Duke Mantee was Bogart's star-making role.
(* Hence the serious philosophical aspect.)
(* Hence the serious philosophical aspect.)
MisterCairo
I'll Lock Up
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We watched Iron Man with the girls as we continue our Marvel universe exploration.
MisterCairo
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Forgot to mention, yesterday was a PD day for the girls' school, so I took them to see Trolls on its release date.
Singing, hugging trolls who get eaten by "Bergens" because in being so consumed they make the Bergens happy.
Kinda like me and bacon. Or scotch.
Singing, hugging trolls who get eaten by "Bergens" because in being so consumed they make the Bergens happy.
Kinda like me and bacon. Or scotch.
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It feels like a play, but that does it no harm - good material is good material. It is amazing that, basically, a philosophical discussion could be dressed up, just a bit, and released as a major motion picture. As noted, that ain't gonna happen today.
P.S. Nice connect to your dad - neat that he saw it.
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