What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Stearmen]

Hey..I gotta idea..!! Both of you put up exact photos of yourselves...then so will I..!! Deal..??

That's me in my avatar. I think they got my best side, if I do say so myself!

 

[Fading Fast]

Surely I'll get more respect now...

My guess, you guys respect me more thinking I look like a pizza slice than if you saw a shot of boring old me.

As to "Key Largo," I just looked it up and the hotel that I have always loved for all its old quirky details - crazy room call box, transoms, wood shutters, etc. - was built on location at Warner Brothers. There's a bet I would have lost. They put some real thought and effort into those set details.

 

[2jakes]

My guess, you guys respect me more thinking I look like a pizza slice than if you saw a shot of boring old me.

Hey everybody !
Fading Fast is not kidding,
here’s a photo of us when we were kids.
Back then he had more dough on his cheeks,
but with time, he’s now...fading fast.

 

[2jakes]

Key Largo
The actor shaking hands with Bogart in a scene from
Key Largo became well known as the faithful companion
of the masked man in a television western series beginning
in the 50’s.

The opening of the show with the “William Tell” overture
was my favorite.

And he never ran out of bullets!

 

[2jakes]

Well OK then on the real avatars...
Actually..this is me ..so it's your loss, fellers...

Wow...HoosierDaddy, you’re way more beautiful than rue.

 

[Fading Fast]

2Jakes, great catch. Jay Silverheels plays one of the Osceola brothers in "Key Largo," but despite having seen the movie many times, I never made the connection.

It is interesting how, overall, progressive the sympathies of the movie are toward the native-to-Key-Largo Indians. For a 1948 movie, the tone is not only respectful toward the Indians, but references that it was their land, that what we - the United States - see as law breaking by the Osceola Brothers is more a cultural issue than a moral one.

There's more, but it shows you ideas that flourished in the '60s and later, were not invented / discovered out of thin air, but had been nurtured for decades or more.

Last thought, it was a clear purpose of the writers / directors to get those ideas out there as the main plot could have advanced without it. Bravo to them.

 

[Stand By]

"The Martian" starring Matt Damon.

One of those rare films where I can honestly say it's 2 hours and 20 minutes of my life I'd want back. It's utterly astonishing to me that it gets such positive reviews and won so many accolades and awards.
Awful beyond words.

 

[belfastboy]

"The Martian" starring Matt Damon.

One of those rare films where I can honestly say it's 2 hours and 20 minutes of my life I'd want back. It's utterly astonishing to me that it gets such positive reviews and won so many accolades and awards.
Awful beyond words.

What didn't you like about it? I was sceptical, as I usually am with "popular'movies but it was on Netflix so took the time risk. I thought it was a fun two hours......largely fluff but not a bad two hours of escape.

 

[belfastboy]

Watched Sidney Poitier in "Raisin in the Sun". Overall a pretty decent movie, better than I expected. Sidney was a bit over the top. His character way too broadly drawn but that was the style back then. Ruby Dee as the wife was the best. She was excellent.

 

[Fading Fast]

"The Martian" starring Matt Damon.

One of those rare films where I can honestly say it's 2 hours and 20 minutes of my life I'd want back. It's utterly astonishing to me that it gets such positive reviews and won so many accolades and awards.
Awful beyond words.

I have not seen "The Martian" because it reminded me of all the insane hype around "Gravity" a few years back.

Without the hype, without all the Hollywood and intelligentsia's huzzahs and hallelujahs - had I simply stumbled on "Gravity" on cable one day - I'd have enjoyed it and moved on, but instead it had been sold as a "big" event / a "smart" movie and, IMHO, since it was a small, throw-away, okay movie, I was disappointed and felt duped.

I have no idea why certain movies seem to capture so much attention from elite opinion makers, but they do and, most of the time, I find those movies to be okay at best and I'm left wondering what all those smart people see in it that I don't.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Trainwreck. I don't have much of an opinion of Amy Schumer, and comedies aren't really my thing. I thought this was surprisingly funny, and for what it is, it was better than most.

Brooklyn. If you're a sucker for PBS/BBC-vibe UK movie dramas post-WWII, ala Circle of Friends etc, this is worth watching. I nice way to spend a couple hours. Great acting by the lead.

 

[Worf]

Well OK then on the real avatars...
Actually..this is me ..so it's your loss, fellers...

To quote that great sage and philosopher Sir Ralph of Cramden....

Ah humina humina humina .... whoa......

Worf

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Wow...HoosierDaddy, you’re way more beautiful than rue.

Figured I'd probably rue the day that I posted this charming photo...

 

[2jakes]

Brooklyn. If you're a sucker for PBS/BBC-vibe UK movie dramas post-WWII, ala Circle of Friends etc, this is worth watching. A nice way to spend a couple hours. Great acting by the lead.

Indeed.
Her ability to convey many emotions with just the way she expressed her face
was worth watching.
I was surprised to find out it was the same person in another film she made with Cate
Blanchett. Not a particularly favorite film, but nevertheless she was intriguing to watch.

Saoirse Ronan.

 

[2jakes]

Figured I'd probably rue the day that I posted this charming photo...

That’s funny.
I’m sure she would be flattered.
Haven’t seen her in a while though.

 

[Touchofevil]

Indeed.
Her ability to convey many emotions with just the way she expressed her face
was worth watching.
I was surprised to find out it was the same person in another film she made with Cate
Blanchett. Not a particularly favorite film, but nevertheless she was intriguing to watch.

Saoirse Ronan.

I really enjoyed Hanna. It had an interesting feel to it. And was a nice little story. Fun.

 

[Touchofevil]

"Let me hear you laugh!"
Robert Mitchum steals the show in El Dorado.
Seen it a million times, at least, and watching it again on the Sundance channel.

 

[Stearmen]

The opening of the show with the “William Tell” overture
was my favorite.

And he never ran out of bullets!

The only Lone Ranger trivia I know is, when the radio serial needed a song for the opening, they had one of the young workers look for a cheap song to use. He meant the challenge and then some. Seems, the William Tell Overture did not have a copy right at the time, so they got it for free! That is the main reason they used it, the fact that it is the perfect musical opening was just a bonus!

 

[Stand By]

What didn't you like about it? I was sceptical, as I usually am with "popular'movies but it was on Netflix so took the time risk. I thought it was a fun two hours......largely fluff but not a bad two hours of escape.

Re; The Martian. SPOILER ALERT REPLY

Oh BB, it felt to me as though the makers had realized that, with Gravity, they'd seen a film that went from the plausible to the totally unrealistic - but people had bought in to it enough and lapped it up and been entertained (as I myself was) and hadn't it done well for the studio? So they decided to up the ante it in all regards - thus taking the implausibility to ridiculous levels.
It started okay enough with that threatening storm and the sense of drama that unfolded, but really, seeing the storm in all its alien viciousness and how our hero was taken out, then surviving it? Then using duct tape to seal a spacesuit? Duct tape.
Matt Damon won a Golden Globe for best actor for this - and it was a completely flat, dead-pan performance he gave (perhaps it was how he was directed to play it?). Nothing seemed to daunt this guy (except in one scene only - and that was brief) and his resolve was unreal, given the situation. And he was a flat character.
But he grew crops as he's a botanist - okay, I bought that.
But then he needed power to drive his short-range vehicle to turn it into a long-range rover and he hooks up the dreaded plutonium power core to it. To paraphrase Dr. McCoy, "I'm a botanist. Not a nuclear scientist!". But he did it - and safely too. And with no pesky radiation leaks. He has power galore! Our hero can now explore vast areas of Mars and that's all that matters.
Then the air lock explodes on him and the main area depressurizes and freezes instantly (Didn't see it coming. It was very well done and the loss of the crop was real drama) - BUT he repairs the gaping wall in the base with polythene sheeting and the duct tape again. And he re-pressurizes it - and it holds! Really? Really. Sorry, but there's such a thing as suspension-of-belief to make any film work - and this was just so far beyond any sense of credulity. I laughed out loud. Well, it's laughable, isn't it?
NASA back on Earth: Terrible from beginning to end. Sean Bean was woefully miscast as the Brit among them - he looked confused most of the time (wondering how and why his agent got him the gig, probably) and the Chief was no leader and the team aren't much help and it was all so predictable - but then there's the rogue student who dreams up the rescue and makes his own clandestine computations by hacking the main computer at night. Good Lord. Who saw that coming?
And a sop to the Chinese Space Agency too - clearly done for selling film rights to China.
And searching for - and finding - that derelict lander on a far off region - er, needle in a haystack anyone? Oh! And lo, and behold, it works! He can communicate with NASA! Jolly good then.
And the rescue - Good God (my girlfriend had left to do laundry at this point - on a Saturday night. She couldn't take any more) - and there's an unused, fueled spaceship from another previous mission to be used to get him into orbit for pick-up. What? Er, why, er, how can one be there? Surely it would have been USED by the previous mission to get back to orbit to go back home? You mean the previous mission took two escape vehicles all the way to Mars but intended to use only one? No matter. It's there, that's all that matters. So he strips it right down - including the heat shield as it's too heavy for escape velocity (it drops with a heavy clang to show how heavy it is and the need for it to go) - and is replaced with - Ta!Daaa! Polythene and Duct Tape! (I'm laughing as I write this). Seriously. It's MacGuyver in space! But with no cleverness or electronic gadgetry. Just plastic sheets and duct tape.
Into the infinity of space out hero flies - and gets collected by a passing spaceship. It's Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect in The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy - except that was a comedy. They're selling this to us all as serious drama. They're thinking that the visual effects alone (inspired by Gravity) will carry this farce.
And home he comes. Ill from all that radiation? No, he's good. Gets a job at NASA. Smashing. The End.

Awful. And this from me, someone who loves old classic Dr. Who and b/w sci-fi movies like Quatermass, and The Black Hole, Moonraker and Silent Running and so many others. I'm an easy going guy who can enjoy most movies ... but this was an insult. I saw it on Netflix too - had I seen it at the cinema, I'd have left feeling angry and mugged by the studio.
No stars.

 

[belfastboy]

Re; The Martian. SPOILER ALERT REPLY

Oh BB, it felt to me as though the makers had realized that, with Gravity, they'd seen a film that went from the plausible to the totally unrealistic - but people had bought in to it enough and lapped it up and been entertained (as I myself was) and hadn't it done well for the studio? So they decided to up the ante it in all regards - thus taking the implausibility to ridiculous levels.
It started okay enough with that threatening storm and the sense of drama that unfolded, but really, seeing the storm in all its alien viciousness and how our hero was taken out, then surviving it? Then using duct tape to seal a spacesuit? Duct tape.
Matt Damon won a Golden Globe for best actor for this - and it was a completely flat, dead-pan performance he gave (perhaps it was how he was directed to play it?). Nothing seemed to daunt this guy (except in one scene only - and that was brief) and his resolve was unreal, given the situation. And he was a flat character.
But he grew crops as he's a botanist - okay, I bought that.
But then he needed power to drive his short-range vehicle to turn it into a long-range rover and he hooks up the dreaded plutonium power core to it. To paraphrase Dr. McCoy, "I'm a botanist. Not a nuclear scientist!". But he did it - and safely too. And with no pesky radiation leaks. He has power galore! Our hero can now explore vast areas of Mars and that's all that matters.
Then the air lock explodes on him and the main area depressurizes and freezes instantly (Didn't see it coming. It was very well done and the loss of the crop was real drama) - BUT he repairs the gaping wall in the base with polythene sheeting and the duct tape again. And he re-pressurizes it - and it holds! Really? Really. Sorry, but there's such a thing as suspension-of-belief to make any film work - and this was just so far beyond any sense of credulity. I laughed out loud. Well, it's laughable, isn't it?
NASA back on Earth: Terrible from beginning to end. Sean Bean was woefully miscast as the Brit among them - he looked confused most of the time (wondering how and why his agent got him the gig, probably) and the Chief was no leader and the team aren't much help and it was all so predictable - but then there's the rogue student who dreams up the rescue and makes his own clandestine computations by hacking the main computer at night. Good Lord. Who saw that coming?
And a sop to the Chinese Space Agency too - clearly done for selling film rights to China.
And searching for - and finding - that derelict lander on a far off region - er, needle in a haystack anyone? Oh! And lo, and behold, it works! He can communicate with NASA! Jolly good then.
And the rescue - Good God (my girlfriend had left to do laundry at this point - on a Saturday night. She couldn't take any more) - and there's an unused, fueled spaceship from another previous mission to be used to get him into orbit for pick-up. What? Er, why, er, how can one be there? Surely it would have been USED by the previous mission to get back to orbit to go back home? You mean the previous mission took two escape vehicles all the way to Mars but intended to use only one? No matter. It's there, that's all that matters. So he strips it right down - including the heat shield as it's too heavy for escape velocity (it drops with a heavy clang to show how heavy it is and the need for it to go) - and is replaced with - Ta!Daaa! Polythene and Duct Tape! (I'm laughing as I write this). Seriously. It's MacGuyver in space! But with no cleverness or electronic gadgetry. Just plastic sheets and duct tape.
Into the infinity of space out hero flies - and gets collected by a passing spaceship. It's Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect in The Hitch Hikers guide To The Galaxy - except that was a comedy. They're selling this to us all as serious drama. They're thinking that the visual effects alone (inspired by Gravity) will carry this farce.
And home he comes. Ill from all that radiation? No, he's good. Gets a job at NASA. Smashing. The End.

Awful. And this from me, someone who loves old classic Dr. Who and b/w sci-fi movies like Quatermass, and The Black Hole, Moonraker and Silent Running and so many others. I'm an easy going guy who can enjoy most movies ... but this was an insult. I saw it on Netflix too - had I seen it at the cinema, I'd have left feeling angry and mugged by the studio.
No stars.

Thank you for this reply. I am not a sci-fi guy at all having never read a novel of this genre in my life so I came to the movie with a hugh degree of tech/sci fi ignorance. Did you read the novel? I wonder how closely it followed the book? I agree Matt Damon did not deserve any manner of award. It was Matt Damon being Matt Damon.....genial and non threatening but it was not great acting. But then the part was non demanding. For my wife and I it was 2 hours of escapist fluff on a Saturday night and a bit of respite from death, destruction and sex....the usual movie fare. Thanks again for a great perspective well outside my realm.