What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Formeruser012523]

Watched Avengers: Infinity War again. Saw some things I missed last time. It's going to be a LONG wait until Part 2!

Was really surprised by the dark tone on this one, but the balance of humor was well done. Also watched it twice, just to catch things I missed the first time. It was the worst. Yep, we have a LONG wait.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've always thought that was actually one of the better baseball-themed movies -- most latter-day efforts are so ponderous and REVERENT in the way they address The Game that a picture where baseball is taken not at all seriously is rather refreshing in contrast. One of the co-writers on "Take Me Out" was Harry Tugend, who had worked with Fred Allen in radio in the 1930s, and whose presence likely accounts for the tinge of vinegar in the comedy. The idea of the vaudeville-team ballplayers was actually drawn from the real life example of Nick Altrock and Al Schacht, who had been teammates on the Senators in the early 20th Century, and worked up a baseball-clown act that they pursued with considerable success for years after. (They also couldn't stand each other, and never spoke offstage or off the field.)

A couple more movies along similar lines are "It Happens Every Spring," which is a goofy comedy about Ray Milland inventing a chemical that repels wood which he then uses, naturally enough, to become a star major league pitcher, and "Rhubarb," in which the Incongruous Team Owner is not a woman but a cat. And of course "Damn Yankees," the definitive baseball musical, is still a lot of fun. I'll take this kind of lighthearted stuff any day over the sappy "Field of Dreams" type of picture.

 

[Fading Fast]

I've always thought that was actually one of the better baseball-themed movies -- most latter-day efforts are so ponderous and REVERENT in the way they address The Game that a picture where baseball is taken not at all seriously is rather refreshing in contrast. One of the co-writers on "Take Me Out" was Harry Tugend, who had worked with Fred Allen in radio in the 1930s, and whose presence likely accounts for the tinge of vinegar in the comedy. The idea of the vaudeville-team ballplayers was actually drawn from the real life example of Nick Altrock and Al Schacht, who had been teammates on the Senators in the early 20th Century, and worked up a baseball-clown act that they pursued with considerable success for years after. (They also couldn't stand each other, and never spoke offstage or off the field.)

A couple more movies along similar lines are "It Happens Every Spring," which is a goofy comedy about Ray Milland inventing a chemical that repels wood which he then uses, naturally enough, to become a star major league pitcher, and "Rhubarb," in which the Incongruous Team Owner is not a woman but a cat. And of course "Damn Yankees," the definitive baseball musical, is still a lot of fun. I'll take this kind of lighthearted stuff any day over the sappy "Field of Dreams" type of picture.

Of those '40s/'50s "fun" baseball movies, "Angels in the Outfield" is my favorite as the chemistry between Janet Leigh and Paul Douglas is outstanding (Douglas also has a pitch-perfect cameo in "Rhubarb").

Of the modern baseball ones, "The Natural" is my favorite with "Bull Durham" second. Neither is a truly great movie, but they both work in their own way. I appreciate some things in "Field of Dreams," but it is too slow, asks you to suspend too much belief (for too long) and never lives up to the implicit promise it makes to the audience early on that it will all be worth it.

I used to think that the great baseball movie has yet to be made, but maybe it can't be made because the game itself is the great story and nothing will be better than just watching a game.

 

[HanauMan]

After having read, amongst others, the book Berlin 1961, by Frederick Kempe, I was keen to watch the Spielberg / Tom Hanks film Bridge of Spies (2015).

In the film Tom Hanks plays a lawyer (James B. Donovan) defending a Soviet spy (Rudolf Abel). Later, when a spy plane flown by Francis Gary Powers is shot down over the Soviet Union, Hanks' character arranges a trade between the US and Russia of their respective agents. This takes place in Berlin. Hanks also arranges the release of a US student held by the East Germans.

The period details are very good in this film and the scenes where Abel is arrested by the FBI / CIA is well done, as are the scenes later taking place in Berlin. You really get a feel of the Cold War and of the people living in it. There are no real good or bad guys, just people working for their respective governments or self interests. The actor playing the Soviet spy (Mark Rylance) did a very good job and you felt some sympathy for him. Tom Hanks, as always, did a great acting job and Alan Alda was in the film too, though for the life of me I did not recognize him.


My favorite scene is where Hanks character has his overcoat 'stolen' by East German agents and he freezes in the cold Berlin winter, catching a cold as a result. I always wondered why so many folk in The Era wore overcoats all the time! Now I know, to keep warm! D'uh!

 

[HanauMan]

Can't beat The Bad News Bears (1976) starring Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal. Now, that is the kinda Baseball I understand.......!

 

[Zombie_61]

Watching Dune as we speak.

I've never seen the movie--not my thing--but not long after it was released I had a conversation about it with a co-worker who was also a movie fan. His entire review consisted of the statement, "I've read all of the books the movie is based on, and I still couldn't figure out what was going on."

'Wondor Woman' (2017) ......Let's face it, super hero movies are pretty ridiculous at the best of times & this one was no exception. It's a shame that this film didn't stand on it's own two feet instead of 'borrowing' far too many scenes from other movies but even though the script, acting & special effects were nothing to write home about, Gal Gadot's charisma was sufficient to keep me watching. I'd certainly go back & see her again in this role & hopefully a W.W. 2 will be more ambitious & original.

I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. The template for these "superhero" movies has been established, so unless the studios are willing to break from tradition and support a visionary who truly knows how to tell a unique story they're all going to be "Lather, rinse, repeat" to some degree.

Also, I've read they're moving the timeframe for the sequel into the mid-1980s. If that holds true, we're going to lose the "period" charms the first movie had.

 

[Worf]

"The Meg" - Should've called "The Meh". Overly long predictable film that feels more like a ad for Shanghai or Hong Kong. Because they wanted it PG you get none of the real shocking sights or sound of the granddaddy of em all "Jaws". If you can stomach the tropes and put your taste AND mind on hold you might... might... have a good popcorn munching time. Personally I say rent it or wait.

Worf

 

[MikeKardec]

the granddaddy of em all "Jaws"

Jaws is one of the most cleanly composed, beautifully made films of all time. Since then Spielberg occasionally will do a sequence that has this sort of elegance (the nightclub, "that's Oscar Schindler!" sequence for example) but as far as I can remember he's never replicated it in a whole film. The use of interlocking master shots is just amazing, especially in the confines of a boat. It's just a classic lesson on how to shoot (as a director composing simple storytelling shots) and edit a fine film. A thing of beauty rarely replicated.

 

[Fading Fast]

"The Meg" - Should've called "The Meh". Overly long predictable film that feels more like a ad for Shanghai or Hong Kong. Because they wanted it PG you get none of the real shocking sights or sound of the granddaddy of em all "Jaws". If you can stomach the tropes and put your taste AND mind on hold you might... might... have a good popcorn munching time. Personally I say rent it or wait.

Worf

Jaws is one of the most cleanly composed, beautifully made films of all time. Since then Spielberg occasionally will do a sequence that has this sort of elegance (the nightclub, "that's Oscar Schindler!" sequence for example) but as far as I can remember he's never replicated it in a whole film. The use of interlocking master shots is just amazing, especially in the confines of a boat. It's just a classic lesson on how to shoot (as a director composing simple storytelling shots) and edit a fine film. A thing of beauty rarely replicated.

After "Jaws," I saw "Orca" and "Jaws II," understood that lightning wasn't striking the same spot twice and have never watched another shark movie (other than the painfully campy "Sharknado"), but have seen the original "Jaws" too many times to count.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a few movie genres where there's simply no need to ever do it again, because it was done so right the first time. "Shark movies" would be one of those genres.

 

[Bushman]

My Dad and I saw The Meg on Tuesday since I had the day off and we both enjoy creature features. I thought it was pretty much everything you can expect from a giant shark movie. Entertained us for 2 hours, which was all we really wanted from it. It's better than your typical sci-fi creature feature fair, but it's not what I'd consider highbrow entertainment. It's like an older Sci-Fi Channel Original, but with better production values and actors. Don't expect a lot from it and you'll be entertained. Just expect a lot of cliches, dad jokes, and a giant shark eating everything it can fit in its mouth and you'll have a good time.

 

[Fading Fast]

My Dad and I saw The Meg on Tuesday since I had the day off and we both enjoy creature features. ...

That's the best part of your post - treasure that. The movie didn't really matter. My dad and I were not particularly close, but when he was still alive, we did see several Bond movies together when they came out (he loved Bond). We had to work to find connect points and that was one of them.

 

[Alex Oviatt]

Just had a rewatch of To Catch a Thief. They don'y make them like that anymore!

 

[Fading Fast]

Just had a rewatch of To Catch a Thief. They don'y make them like that anymore!

Could there be a more beautiful scene than the chicken picnic one?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Previewed "Eighth Grade" today, without doubt the most squirmingly realistic depiction of what it's like to be an uncomfortable thirteen-year-old ever made. It's a movie worth seeing, but if you hated being 13, as pretty much every self-aware adult I've ever met seems to, it will bring up a lot of excruciating memories, no matter how long ago "eighth grade" was.

It's also a good movie for all the OMG KIDS TODAY WITH THE PHONES people to watch, because they'll see that the fears and the anxieties of Eighth Grade are precisely the same now as they were in the sweating throes of their own pimply early adolescence. Only the trappings have changed.

The film is rated R because of realistic discussions of the kind of things eighth graders discuss, and the kind of parents who fear for their children's pristine virgin ears need to get over themselves. This is a very good movie for kids to see, if only to help them understand that they aren't alone in their suffering.

 

[HanauMan]

Hmmm, I guess that I'm not an adult with much self-awareness in that case because I had a blast as a thirteen year old and Junior High was a great time for me.

Still, I'll look out for this film.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Previewed "Eighth Grade" today, without doubt the most squirmingly realistic depiction of what it's like to be an uncomfortable thirteen-year-old ever made. It's a movie worth seeing, but if you hated being 13, as pretty much every self-aware adult I've ever met seems to, it will bring up a lot of excruciating memories, no matter how long ago "eighth grade" was.

It's also a good movie for all the OMG KIDS TODAY WITH THE PHONES people to watch, because they'll see that the fears and the anxieties of Eighth Grade are precisely the same now as they were in the sweating throes of their own pimply early adolescence. Only the trappings have changed.

The film is rated R because of realistic discussions of the kind of things eighth graders discuss, and the kind of parents who fear for their children's pristine virgin ears need to get over themselves. This is a very good movie for kids to see, if only to help them understand that they aren't alone in their suffering.

I'm helping to plan a 50 year reunion of our parochial school graduating class for next month: 50 years after the fact. Amazing how many of those awkward 13 year old dynamics have been lingering like ghosts in our heads when it comes to those we haven't seen in decades. Those we've re-established contact with, we can see the dynamics of career, parenthood, even grandparenthood unfold.. but for those in our heads who are still eighth graders there's attached apprehension.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Jaws is one of the most cleanly composed, beautifully made films of all time. Since then Spielberg occasionally will do a sequence that has this sort of elegance (the nightclub, "that's Oscar Schindler!" sequence for example) but as far as I can remember he's never replicated it in a whole film. The use of interlocking master shots is just amazing, especially in the confines of a boat. It's just a classic lesson on how to shoot (as a director composing simple storytelling shots) and edit a fine film. A thing of beauty rarely replicated.

Coudln't agree more, Mike. Beautifully put.

 

[Fading Fast]

"On Chesil Beach" 2017

They absolutely, positively know how to make movies - especially period movies - look beautiful today; however, making a really good movie is still challenging. This is a beautiful looking movie that has the core of a good story that just falls short by taking way too long getting to the conflict and then rushing the most interesting part - the fallout from the conflict.

There is no way to discuss this movie without giving a lot away - so I won't in detail - but the core of the story is a young couple who meet and marry in the early '60s. They immediately have a traumatic event (in a Tolstoy way of looking into families) and then spend the rest of their lives trying to put the pieces back together.

My bet is that the book is better (which is, of course, like betting on the favorite) as you can feel the interlocking stories, well-crafted characters and poignant moments behind this okay but just too-slow movie (the book is now in my Amazon cart). Overall, the acting is strong with a sufficient-but-not-great effort by Billy Howie in the male lead but an, as usual, spot-on performance from Saoirse Ronan who is clearly having a moment as she seems cast in almost every not-loud movie calling for a young, thoughtful actress with an engagingly imperfect beauty.


"Silk Stockings" 1957 with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse

The implicit studio-audience pact with Fred Astaire dance movies (like Elvis movies) is give us enough of what we want - Fred dancing with an equally or nearly equally talented partner - and we won't judge the rest of the movie - which is usually nonsensical fluff - too harshly. And in some, you even get lucky - especially with a few of the early Ginger Roger's ones and an improbable late-in-his-career pairing with Audrey Hepburn - where the movie, away from the dancing, is pretty good.

In this one, you have the core of good fluff - a remake of the '39 movie "Ninotchka" (cold, asexual female Russian official humanized by romantic man of the West amidst the "decadence" of Paris) - but somehow, in this musical remake, that story becomes too cartoony (Technicolor played its usual negative part) to even modestly hold your interest as you wait for either Astaire, Charisse or Astaire and Charisse to dance again.

Fortunately, neither one of them disappoint - although, a few of the songs are meh and Astaire is too old to play the romantic lead opposite Charisse. However, that all goes away when they dance with Charisse more than holding her own in addition to, for the era, showing us, well, a lot of Charisse. Also, kudos to the, apparently, happenstance that resulted in Tula Ellice Finklea becoming Cyd Charrise. Even in today's more broadminded times, Tula Ellice Finklea is not the best movie star name.

 

[3fingers]

Gratuitous pic of Cyd Charisse. No reason other than her name was mentioned.