What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Bushman]

47 Meters Down - as far as modern shark movies go, this is on the higher rated end. It's very tense, with plenty of the realistic, high class CGI shark effects that one comes to expect after films like The Shallows. However, in comparison to The Shallows, 47 Meters Down just isn't as good. Oh, it has plenty of scares and tension, but in the end that's all it has. The story isnt as good, the sharks motives for attacking are non-existent, and the hallucinogenic climax takes a lot of points away from my opinion of it. Furthermore, while 47 Meters Down takes place in Mexico just like The Shallows, this movie doesn't use any of the nation's natural beauty go it's benefit. One of the things I loved about The Shallows is ths sweeping panoramas of the Guadilajara beaches and lagoon that made the movie a true terror in paradise.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The Wind, a silent classic with Lillian Gish that's been on my to-see list for decades. It actually lived up to its reputation.

 

[HanauMan]

Just watched Terminator Genisys, the fifth of that movie series. Yawn.....!

As with Star Wars, they should have stopped with the first Terminator film.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Wind, a silent classic with Lillian Gish that's been on my to-see list for decades. It actually lived up to its reputation.

That's an incredible picture. I saw it once, forty years ago, and I have never forgotten it. Gish was a transcendent actress.

 

[Doctor Strange]

She's just amazing in this, simply luminous.

And the film itself is a very sophisticated psychological piece for its day. Boy, director Victor Seastrom (Sjostrom) made some great silent movies (like the especially masochistic Lon Chaney film He Who Gets Slapped)... though he's also a hero of mine for his powerful lead performance thirty years later in Bergman's Wild Strawberries (1957).

 

[Fading Fast]

That's an incredible picture. I saw it once, forty years ago, and I have never forgotten it. Gish was a transcendent actress.

She's just amazing in this, simply luminous.

And the film itself is a very sophisticated psychological piece for its day. Boy, director Victor Seastrom (Sjostrom) made some great silent movies (like the especially masochistic Lon Chaney film He Who Gets Slapped)... though he's also a hero of mine for his powerful lead performance thirty years later in Bergman's Wild Strawberries (1957).

I'm silent film shy - overall, I can appreciate them, but rarely enjoy them. But with both of your endorsements, I'm going to keep my eye out for this one.

 

[Bushman]

I'm silent film shy - overall, I can appreciate them, but rarely enjoy them. But with both of your endorsements, I'm going to keep my eye out for this one.

Now, I'm the opposite. I rarely try them, but often enjoy them. I'm always afraid that I won't enjoy them, so there's few instances where I watch them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've been watching silents since I was about seven years old -- PBS did a series called "The Silent Years" hosted by Orson Welles, and I was transfixed by it. I didn't think of them as "old movies," they were just a different style of storytelling, and I think, at that age, that I enjoyed them more than I enjoyed "the regular kind." If you watch enough of them, the novelty disappears, and it just becomes a slightly different language that you can shift into whenever you want to.

No talkie actor was ever more exciting to me than Douglas Fairbanks, and no talkie actress has ever affected me more than Lillian Gish.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I watched that PBS series too, Lizzie.

At the time I already had friends who'd begun collecting Super 8 films - Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy shorts, Phantom of the Opera, The General - plus our local museum did a silent film series I attended, seeing other classics like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari for the first time. Soon I was also collecting those shorts, and a few features too - The Gold Rush, Girl Shy- myself. All these decades later, after college film courses and endless trips to revival theaters and collector's living rooms, I'm still seeing silent films that are new to me on TCM. Like The Wind, which I'd first read about in film history books back in the sixties!

When they're good, silent films have an unique dreamlike magic that's still very potent and can pack an emotional wallop. When they're not so good, they can get annoying pretty quickly. About the only good thing I can say about The Artist's Oscar win (which was mostly the usual Hollywood self-aggrandizement) was that it demonstrated to viewers who'd never seen silents before (or had forgotten) a bit of that special magic, and hopefully made some curious to watch more.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Silents are pretty much all emotion, written in bold strokes. If you're used to a hyperrealistic style of acting, they'll be hard going. I think it's an easier step back if you're already used to the stylized manner of 1930s/40s talkie acting than if you're coming to silents straight from the latest mumblecore opus.

The silents that are the hardest go for me are the early ones, the 1910s style of posed tableaux introduced by a title card describing everything that you're about to see. I think, unfortunately, that's the style of silent a lot of people think about when they hear "silent pictures" mentioned, maybe because that's the type of picture that used to get dragged up a lot for "Old Time Pictures" shows on TV or in pizza parlors in the 50s and 60s. Those types of films, and blurry Keystone shorts run at 30fps "to make them funnier" are a far far cry from something like "The Wind," which came right at the end of the silent era, and showed the art at its absolute peak of development and sophistication.

I think "The Big Parade" is the greatest war movie ever made, and I'd watch it any day of the week over the likes of "Private Ryan." The silence adds to the horror of the combat scenes rather than detracting from it, whereas with a sound war movie I'm always conscious that I'm watching actors in a reconstruction.

 

[AmateisGal]

Mildred Pierce. Gosh, her daughter is the epitome of spoiled brat. She got what she deserved in the end, though honestly, I was frustrated with Mildred because of her slavish devotion to her daughter.

 

[Fading Fast]

Mildred Pierce. Gosh, her daughter is the epitome of spoiled brat. She got what she deserved in the end, though honestly, I was frustrated with Mildred because of her slavish devotion to her daughter.

Veda is beyond the pale insufferable (kudos to Ann Blyth for bringing her horribleness to life in a very believable manner).

My father - at some early point in Veda's life - would have shot her during one of her rants and, then, gone on about his day without skipping a beat.

In truth, I 100% believe he would have thrown her out of the house. The "meme" (blah) in my house growing up was I was to respect my parents and be grateful for what they did for me, period, full stop. There was none of this "you brought me into this world so you own me..." attitude. I would probably be dead if I had ever uttered those words to either of my parents and would definitely be dead if I had to my dad.

And to posture an air of superiority would have been beyond my ability to even conceive.

All that said - what an outstanding movie. There are almost no bad scenes or slow parts. The book by James M Cain is well worth the read - not better than the movie, but equally as good and with more details. Also, the recent HBO mini series is outstanding.

 

[AmateisGal]

Veda is beyond the pale insufferable (kudos to Ann Blyth for bringing her horribleness to life in a very believable manner).

My father - at some early point in Veda's life - would have shot her during one of her rants and, then, gone on about his day without skipping a beat.

In truth, I 100% believe he would have thrown her out of the house. The "meme" (blah) in my house growing up was I was to respect my parents and be grateful for what they did for me, period, full stop. There was none of this "you brought me into this world so you own me..." attitude. I would probably be dead if I had ever uttered those words to either of my parents and would definitely be dead if I had to my dad.

And to posture an air of superiority would have been beyond my ability to even conceive.

All that said - what an outstanding movie. There are almost no bad scenes or slow parts. The book by James M Cain is well worth the read - not better than the movie, but equally as good and with more details. Also, the recent HBO mini series is outstanding.

I think the only bland spot in the movie is the performance by the actor who played Mildred's first husband. I found it to be rather poor.

 

[Fading Fast]

I think the only bland spot in the movie is the performance by the actor who played Mildred's first husband. I found it to be rather poor.

Yes, he's a bit wooden, but also, the movie does't flush out his character as well as the book does. He gets a more robust treatment in the HBO version.

And how awesome is Eve Arden in it. She has real acting chops.

 

[scottyrocks]

Just watched Terminator Genisys, the fifth of that movie series. Yawn.....!

they should have stopped with the first Terminator film.

Actually, many people believed that the 2nd film was the first, as well as the best. It was that much more popular than the original, made 8 years earlier.

 

[Harp]

I think "The Big Parade" is the greatest war movie ever made, and I'd watch it any day of the week over the likes of "Private Ryan." .

As a combat veteran I found Ryan rather scripted; especially the commanding officer role given that his squad is sent to find a man,
the title namesake primary objective. His squad is obviously few in number, carrying basic ammo load and water. A few bandoleers consisting
of two hundred rounds or so and a quart or two of water, and rations. The enemy is to be avoided. Water is consumed, and once enemy
interior lines are penetrated water sources-enemy known and patronized/patrolled-become problematic. Ammo and men. And the dumb ass
captain decides to hit a fixed enemy position with a frontal, getting his medic killed and using up ammo; apparently forgetting his primary.
Once he finds Ryan, instead of quick remove he decides to commit to a fixed firefight. The means justify the ends and the ends the means,
and the film ends touchingly.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The thing that gets me most about "The Big Parade" is how well it captures the utter pointlessness of WWI -- you have these cocky young men who've been fed a diet of "nobility and glory" stories about war and have that all ripped away from them very quickly by the mud, the shells, the gas, the disease, and the death they find in the trenches. No glory, no nobility, no point. Yes, it has a grafted-on happy ending, but with the possible exception of the 1930 "All Quiet On The Western Front" there's no American movie that does a better job of tearing down the mythos of nationalism and war and exposing them for what they really are.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

I saw Woody Allen's "Wonder Wheel" in a little vintage theater a couple hours away because, by the time I heard about this limited-release film, none of the theaters in my immediate area were playing it anymore. It made for a nice day trip, and the theater had good popcorn and beers.

Anyway, while the narrative and conclusion could be considered frustrating and unsatisfying (like much of Woody Allen's work, I think)... I thoroughly enjoyed being absorbed in the atmosphere of 1950s Coney Island. I will definitely get this on blu-ray when it becomes available.

 

[Worf]

The thing that gets me most about "The Big Parade" is how well it captures the utter pointlessness of WWI -- you have these cocky young men who've been fed a diet of "nobility and glory" stories about war and have that all ripped away from them very quickly by the mud, the shells, the gas, the disease, and the death they find in the trenches. No glory, no nobility, no point. Yes, it has a grafted-on happy ending, but with the possible exception of the 1930 "All Quiet On The Western Front" there's no American movie that does a better job of tearing down the mythos of nationalism and war and exposing them for what they really are.

Being ex-Army I concur. The only people that talk longingly of war are those that have never tasted it, seen it or lived through it. The original version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a masterpiece only matched possibly by "Paths of Glory". Having read several books on WWI and it's cost in lives, treasure and Crowns, it's hard to believe the same crew were right back at it less than 20 years later. Amazing.

Worf

 

[steve u]

Over the holiday's my daughter(12 yrs old and half Japanese) was talking about Star Wars. So I dug out the Hidden Fortress by Kurosawa..Which led to The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Sanjuro. steve