What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Benzadmiral]

Mr. Holmes with Ian McKellen. Kind of disconcerting to see Sherlock Holmes as a 93-year-old man, but if anyone can pull it off, it's Ian McKellen.

A nice, quiet movie. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I'm curious about this. In one of the late David McDaniel's Man from U.N.C.L.E. novels, The Rainbow Affair (1967), he has Solo and Illya travel to Sussex to meet and consult with ca. 100-year-old "William Escott." Anybody with even a nodding acquaintance with the Holmes canon will recognize who Escott is, especially since his mind is as sharp as ever (though he tends to muse aloud without realizing it as he reaches his logical conclusions). When Solo asks him if he worked alone in law enforcement, he says yes, "except for a good and helpful friend."

So it would be neat to me to see how the filmmakers handle it.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I'm looking forward to seeing Mr. Holmes when it turns up on my cable system or Netflix. There's also a classic "Elseworlds" Batman story where Batman meets his idol, a very old but well preserved Sherlock Holmes, and they work a case together.

Last night's film was A Bigger Splash, where Tilda Swinton plays a rock star(!) vacationing in Italy when old boyfriend Ralph Fiennes and his daughter Dakota Johnson show up to cause trouble. It reminded me of (slightly) better films like Laurel Canyon and Stealing Beauty. Not recommended.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm looking forward to seeing Mr. Holmes when it turns up on my cable system or Netflix....

For me, Amaties Gal hit the nail on the head "nice, quiet movie." It's not great or dramatic and the story is only okay, but quality acting, good writing and a beautiful setting and period details made it a, well, "nice quiet movie."

...Last night's film was A Bigger Splash, where Tilda Swinton plays a rock star(!) vacationing in Italy when old boyfriend Ralph Fiennes and his daughter Dakota Johnson show up to cause trouble. It reminded me of (slightly) better films like Laurel Canyon and Stealing Beauty. Not recommended.

Holy Cow, "Stealing Beauty," hadn't thought about that movie in God knows how many years. Mediocre movie, but that was at the instant in time when Liv Tyler was suppose to be an up-and-coming movie star. She all but disappeared. Her best work might still be in her Dad's videos.

Continuing on the thread of '80s / '90s movies of not much repute, I watched "Say Anything" on HBO the other day (my life has its share of shallow, just-killing-time moments - or maybe that is my life) and was underwhelmed like the first time I saw it when it came out almost thirty years ago. The movie gets mentioned now and again as one of the better romantic movies of the period and maybe it is, but if so, the competition has to be weak.

It's fine as a toss-away teen love flick, but the "ne'er-do-well boy meets smart-achiever girl and 'reaches' her in an intimate and meaningful way" narrative is okay, but whatever - it still just feels like puppy love. And the backstory of the girl's dad ripping off his nursing home patients was creepy and left the movie neither light nor deep - just icky, IMHO.

John Cusack has, in the five or so movies I've seen him in, played some variation on that same role for the last three decades - not a bad way to make a living for a mediocre actor.

 

[AmateisGal]

Denial starring Rachel Weisz as Deborah Lipstadt who was sued for libel by Holocaust denier David Irving. Terrific movie. My daughter watched it with me, and it made her so angry to hear David Irving spouting his lies about the Holocaust. Weisz played Lipstadt to perfection and even had her Queens accent down perfectly. It still appalls me that David Irving still gets attention for his preposterous theories and lies, but I guess that is what free speech is all about: you're free to make a complete a$$ of yourself.

 

[Fading Fast]

Denial starring Rachel Weisz as Deborah Lipstadt who was sued for libel by Holocaust denier David Irving. Terrific movie. My daughter watched it with me, and it made her so angry to hear David Irving spouting his lies about the Holocaust. Weisz played Lipstadt to perfection and even had her Queens accent down perfectly. It still appalls me that David Irving still gets attention for his preposterous theories and lies, but I guess that is what free speech is all about: you're free to make a complete a$$ of yourself.

It's the police protecting the American Nazis marching in Skokie Il when I was a kid in the '70s. That was a great lesson for me when I was probably only a bit younger than your daughter is now. Free speech, true, genuinely free speech allows for hate speech (not a call for physical harm against others - that's different) but all the ugly racists, sexist, etc. thoughts, ideology and speech that are out there is protected under the umbrella of free speech.

Not only must a culture, a country, a society bear it, but to survive it must have enough members promulgating the opposite ideas and persuasively enough to win the arguments with the majority of the population. And the further tough thing - no victory is ever permanent; the ideology war against the "isms" must be fought and won again and again - generation after generation. What you did with your daughter has to repeat itself in homes across the country year in and year out. Freedom is a wonderful and precious idea that requires an incredible amount of constant and enduring vigilance.

 

[AmateisGal]

It's the police protecting the American Nazis marching in Skokie Il when I was a kid in the '70s. That was a great lesson for me when I was probably only a bit younger than your daughter is now. Free speech, true, genuinely free speech allows for hate speech (not a call for physical harm against others - that's different) but all the ugly racists, sexist, etc. thoughts, ideology and speech that are out there is protected under the umbrella of free speech.

Not only must a culture, a country, a society bear it, but to survive it must have enough members promulgating the opposite ideas and persuasively enough to win the arguments with the majority of the population. And the further tough thing - no victory is ever permanent; the ideology war against the "isms" must be fought and won again and again - generation after generation. What you did with your daughter has to repeat itself in homes across the country year in and year out. Freedom is a wonderful and precious idea that requires an incredible amount of constant and enduring vigilance.

So very well said.

I read a recent article about David Irving where he said he's getting more followers now due to the Internet than he was before (of course, we only have his word to go by). I'm sadly not surprised by that. Yet I'd rather have a society based on freedom of speech with all its pros and cons than a society who wishes to squash it.

 

[AmateisGal]

Not long in from seeing Hidden Figures. A beautiful film, and an important story I'm shocked not to have heard of long ago. Stunning performances all around; in a world where the Oscars meant anything worthwhile, this would be getting the attention heaped on the wildly overrated LaLa Land.

I loved that film so much.

 

[Edward]

Denial starring Rachel Weisz as Deborah Lipstadt who was sued for libel by Holocaust denier David Irving. Terrific movie. My daughter watched it with me, and it made her so angry to hear David Irving spouting his lies about the Holocaust. Weisz played Lipstadt to perfection and even had her Queens accent down perfectly. It still appalls me that David Irving still gets attention for his preposterous theories and lies, but I guess that is what free speech is all about: you're free to make a complete a$$ of yourself.

Of course, he did time in Austria for promulgating his insidious views: as with much of mainland Europe, Austria bans holocaust denial, for obvious reasons.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Alien.

 

[Edward]

Alien.

I've always been amused by the notion that the true subject if Alien is the male fer of childbirth. Probably true! A schoolfriend of mine's mother saw this film while she was pregnant.....

RIP dear old John Hurt. I was thinknig of that film when I rewad his obituary - the irony that he died after experiencing unspecificed abdominal complaints....

 

[scotrace]

Elle. A woman who seems to like her rape experience and yanks the psychological strings of everyone around her is a seriously tough sell. Isabel Huppert is excellent, of course, but I didn't care for the film.

 

[AmateisGal]

Hacksaw Ridge. Remarkable film. Shows the brutality and horror of war, especially in the Pacific, but overshadowing that is the remarkable courage of Desmond Doss. After the army retreated from Hacksaw Ridge, he stayed and rescued 75 men. Unbelievable.

 

[MisterCairo]

Our eldest daughter, ten-year old Sinead, won her district's spelling bee on Thursday (she's off to the county event March 23rd), we rented Akeela and the Bee, which was enjoyable despite my initial reaction of "lor', really?"

 

[Fading Fast]

Our eldest daughter, ten-year old Sinead, won her district's spelling bee on Thursday (she's off to the county event March 23rd), we rented Akeela and the Bee, which was enjoyable despite my initial reaction of "lor', really?"

Kudos ot Sinead. Knowing I couldn't win a five-year-old's spelling bee only increases my awe. Without spell check and easy internet access to a dictionary, my posts would look like I typed them with my hands misaligned on the keyboard. Best of luck to her on 3/23.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Cabaret (1972)

 

[AmateisGal]

Currently watching Strangers On a Train on TCM. Robert Walker is so deightfully sinister, a dramatic departure from his character in The Clock.

 

[belfastboy]

Watched "One Chance" last night. The story of Paul Potts the first winner of the Britain has Talent show. A definite feel good story but stayed this side of treacle. It was fun and a breath of fresh air to watch something uplifting and with a happy ending without it straying into emotional manipulation. Just a fun two hours.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Manchester By The Sea"

A real movie with a real real story, real characters, real writing and real directing. My only complaint is that it was tough to spend two-plus hours watching an already broken man break a little more. Okay, one small additional complaint: A couple of times, the "artsy-ness" showed a bit too much as when the dialogue stopped and the camera panned the actors almost in slow motion.


"The Breakfast Club"

Don't judge me, it was on HBO and I had some downtime. The movie has held up pretty well. Sure, some of its '80s-ness showed and some dialogue was cringe worthy, but it also had moments where you felt that real high school kids from different cliques were talking to each other with their guard down - those moments made the movie. The "transition" moment of Ally Sheedy was trite and beneath the movie. The second group discussion on sex rang really true - not easy to do.

 

[scotrace]

Florence Foster Jenkins - No Oscar worthy performances here, and Ms. Streep might benefit from a couple of years back on the stage.

Get Out - Fantastic film.

 

[AmateisGal]

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Second time to see it and I enjoyed it more than the first. Really like the soundtrack, too.