What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Zombie_61]

I Saw The Light, the recent Hank Williams biopic with Tom Hiddleston...

I finally took the time to watch this movie, and I have to agree it's another run-of-the-mill biopic. Good performances from the actors, but otherwise a collection of "highlights" and "lowlights" from Williams' life that follows the usual pattern--talented artist has personal problems, many of which are his own doing, and dies far too young. I can think of worse ways to spend two hours, but anyone who is already familiar with Williams probably won't learn anything new about him from this movie.

 

[Touchofevil]

Christmas Vacation. I love this film and I can use a quote from it year round in any situation.

I really like this movie as well. I feel like Clark every year as I decorate outside for Christmas. Oddly, it isn't on around here as much as it used to be.

 

[MisterCairo]

I really like this movie as well. I feel like Clark every year as I decorate outside for Christmas. Oddly, it isn't on around here as much as it used to be.

"It's a BEAUTY Clark!"

"Thanks Dad! You taught me everything I know about exterior illumination!"

 

[Stearmen]

I finally took the time to watch this movie, and I have to agree it's another run-of-the-mill biopic. Good performances from the actors, but otherwise a collection of "highlights" and "lowlights" from Williams' life that follows the usual pattern--talented artist has personal problems, many of which are his own doing, and dies far too young. I can think of worse ways to spend two hours, but anyone who is already familiar with Williams probably won't learn anything new about him from this movie.

One thing I realized a couple of years ago, The King Of Country, The King Of Rock & Roll and The King Of Pop, all died exactly alike. Taking drugs and pushing their bodies, so they could make a come back, pushed by their sycophants, who saw the gravy train drying up!

 

[Fading Fast]

"Ithaca," a WWII homefront movie focusing on a farm family's teenage middle son coming to terms with the growing responsibilities of maturity and the costs, hardships and horror of war for those still at home.

I wanted to like this movie. It is beautifully filmed as it captures the look and feel of the times in a stylized, wonderful way.

And that, is the movie overall - beautiful to look at with a sense of wonder and style, but unfortunately, it doesn't do the hard work of building up to its poignant moments; instead, it thinks if it shows someone leaving for war, or a child having his first fear, we will care deeply even if we haven't been drawn into the characters' lives and stories.

The continually missing ingredient is the background, the story before the "moment" that gets us vested in the people and events. You can almost feel the better book behind this movie (1943's Pulitzer Prize winning "The Human Comedy" by William Saroyan) as some of it filters through, but not enough to give you the perspective to appreciate the motivations and emotions of the characters.

Despite this, the actors give it their all and try to keep you engaged in what becomes almost a montage of important moments in their lives that don't add up because we aren't given enough information to really add it up. At least most of them perform admirably, but Meg Ryan, director and actor, floats in an out of her scenes, one assumes, emotionally lost owing to the death of her husband, but we don't really know. She seems to let her family of four children run itself as she exists in a semiconscious state dreaming about her dead husband and occasionally engaging with her preternaturally self-sufficient children.

This movie should have been handed to Robert Redford or Clint Eastwood as they both know that, for an audience to care about characters and drama, you need to know the background and story at least enough to become engaged with the narrative and understand the characters' motivations. Then, when the climactic moments hit - you care, you root, you feel the triumph or loss with the character. In this movie, I wanted to do that, but I was too busy trying to piece together why, all of a sudden, we were at another "powerful" life-defining moment that just popped up.

All that said, plenty of WWII Fedora Lounge eye candy in the sets, clothes, cars and architecture.

 

[1mach1]

Christmas Vacation. I love this film and I can use a quote from it year round in any situation.

Yes!!!!

 

[Bigger Don]

The Passion of Joan of Arc(1928). Highly recommended, especially if you're not a fan of silents because it will open your eyes to how powerful that art form could be.

 

[QuirkyQueen]

New in Town ( a lesser known Rene Zellwegger movie with Harry Connick junior) i love the humour and quirkiness of this movie....its brilliant

 

[Doctor Strange]

Ugetsu - interesting 1953 Japanese ghost story set in the 1600s, DVR'd from TCM.

 

[AmateisGal]

Remember the Night (1940) with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred McMurray. Such a heartwarming Christmas movie.

 

[Fading Fast]

"A Letter to Three Wives"
- Theme: You may not think you want your husband, but let another woman try and steal him and watch out
- The "other woman" is only referred to and heard in voiceovers, a neat trick
- I will never understand "frenemies -" why have negative people in your life when you don't have to?
- Great woody wagon
- Another good (now 100 years old) Kirk Douglas movie (he might have a deeper chin dimple than Cary Grant)
- There aren't lead male actors quite like Paul Douglas today - not classically handsome, but a man with a presence in the big, burly way

 

[Stearmen]

Moby Dick (1930) John Barrymore. Way different from the others, told from Captain Ahab's perspective instead of Ishmael's! The whale was laughable though.

 

[Zombie_61]

Rogue One (2016). The new "standalone" Star Wars movie. Some minor quibbles aside, as an addendum to the "episodic" movies I think this fits into the overall Star Wars story quite well.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Play Girl"
- A '31 pre-code / 60 minutes long
- Off-the-shelf plot: bright, pretty girl marries not-too-smart man who thinks too-much of himself (lots of these stories in pre-code land)
- The entire movie has one thing going for it: Loretta Young
---- She's young, waif pretty (can't afford underwear), smart and strong willed
---- She steals every scene as the camera can't stay away from her or her energy
- Stupid title, clearly done to sell tickets as it doesn't reflect the movie itself

 

[sebastian czentner]

Metroplis

 

[Brettafett]

Rogue One - Good, very good.

 

[Worf]

Not another re-hashed "Star Bores" movie I suppose? Not sure of the franchise but I've some faith in Zombie's tastes... I'll wait till the hub bum dies down and see the film in a couple weeks or so.

Worf

 

[Doctor Strange]

I'm skipping it. After 40 years, it's enough Star Wars for me. I'll see it when it hits cable... and likely be underwhelmed then.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

' The November Man' (2014) .........pretty good action/spy flick, better than most Bond/Bourne movies & Brosnan, although showing signs of wear'n'tear, was convincing enough as a gritty, ex(?)secret agent.....very entertaining with an unexpected twist at the end.

 

[Zombie_61]

"Play Girl"
- A '31 pre-code / 60 minutes long...

I watched the first half hour of this before I left yesterday, and liked what I saw. Unfortunately, I forgot to hit the "record" button.

Not another re-hashed "Star Bores" movie I suppose? Not sure of the franchise but I've some faith in Zombie's tastes... I'll wait till the hub bum dies down and see the film in a couple weeks or so.

Worf

I was one of those who liked The Force Awakens despite it's flaws, so take my opinion for what it's worth. But if you removed the sci-fi elements from Rogue One and made it a modern-day espionage/war story set on Earth, I believe it wouldn't have been too different. Not a perfect movie, but I'm a "no spoilers" kind of guy and I can't discuss the things I didn't like without revealing too much. I don't think it will receive nearly as much fan criticism as The Force Awakens did, but you know how movies and fans are--interested parties have to see it and decide for themselves. *shrug*