What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[AmateisGal]

Field of Dreams. I haven't watched it in years; forgot how good it is.

 

[Worf]

"The Window" - A post war RKO thriller that, despite its modest budget, really drew me in. Family in the tenements of NY have a son with an... ahem "over active imagination". Out on the fire escape one hot summer eve he witnesses a murder by the couple in the apartment upstairs. The child, rightfully terrified tells everyone, parents, police etc... what he saw but of course, no one believes him.... except the 2 murderers upstairs. This one was shot on location as I doubt RKO had the budget to build an elevated subway line on their back lot. New York is at its grimey, filthy best in this one... I half expect to see Ralph Cramden drive by on a bus. The ending was a little flat but all in all a great "B" movie.

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

"The Window" - A post war RKO thriller that, despite its modest budget, really drew me in. Family in the tenements of NY have a son with an... ahem "over active imagination". Out on the fire escape one hot summer eve he witnesses a murder by the couple in the apartment upstairs. The child, rightfully terrified tells everyone, parents, police etc... what he saw but of course, no one believes him.... except the 2 murderers upstairs. This one was shot on location as I doubt RKO had the budget to build an elevated subway line on their back lot. New York is at its grimey, filthy best in this one... I half expect to see Ralph Cramden drive by on a bus. The ending was a little flat but all in all a great "B" movie.

Worf

It's a good one. Also, it shows a rougher time with little of the sensitivity toward raising kids that many practice now.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Dawson City: Frozen Time - a recent documentary partly about the Klondike Gold Rush and the history of the titular community... and also about a trove of hundreds of reels of silent films (re)discovered there in 1978.

Because Dawson City, which had three movie theaters at one point, was at the end of the line for film distributors (with films often taking three of four years to arrive there after they'd been shown everywhere else), they were told to destroy the well-traveled film prints rather than deal with the expense of shipping them back. (We have to remember that during the silent era there was no concept that the films would someday have re-release or historical value: they were considered of-the-moment ephemeral entertainment, period.)

Many reels were just thrown in to the Yukon River, but hundreds were buried in a former swimming pool that was built over in 1929 and then mostly forgotten. After rediscovery, nearly all of the nitrate film showed some damage and many were ruined. But there are at least partially perfect sequences in 500+, including lost newsreels and feature films that are only known now by their production/distribution records, since so much of the output of the silent era was thrown away or eventually lost to nitrate fires at film archives.

The bits of the lost films shown throughout are mesmerizing: tiny bits of drama with long-gone people, with wonderfully sharp images sharing the frame with prodigious damage, like some scrambled signal beamed in from aliens. Anyway, it's a fascinating doc if you're interested in the silent era and/or the history of Canada.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Dawson City: Frozen Time - a recent documentary partly about the Klondike Gold Rush and the history of the titular community... and also about a trove of hundreds of reels of silent films (re)discovered there in 1978.

Because Dawson City, which had three movie theaters at one point, was at the end of the line for film distributors (with films often taking three of four years to arrive there after they'd been shown everywhere else), they were told to destroy the well-traveled film prints rather than deal with the expense of shipping them back. (We have to remember that during the silent era there was no concept that the films would someday have re-release or historical value: they were considered of-the-moment ephemeral entertainment, period.)

Many reels were just thrown in to the Yukon River, but hundreds were buried in a former swimming pool that was built over in 1929 and then mostly forgotten. After rediscovery, nearly all of the nitrate film showed some damage and many were ruined. But there are at least partially perfect sequences in 500+, including lost newsreels and feature films that are only known now by their production/distribution records, since so much of the output of the silent era was thrown away or eventually lost to nitrate fires at film archives.

The bits of the lost films shown throughout are mesmerizing: tiny bits of drama with long-gone people, with wonderfully sharp images sharing the frame with prodigious damage, like some scrambled signal beamed in from aliens. Anyway, it's a fascinating doc if you're interested in the silent era and/or the history of Canada.

This was amazing and I wished I'd paid more attention to the beginning of it because I just had the tv on as background noise. Became sucked in by how interesting it was and how fascinating the clips were, as you said. Felt sick by them burning many prints in a bonfire and then dumping others in the river. SO MUCH loss. Couldn't believe hey would let their children burn bits of film they'd find sticking up out of the ice from the hockey rink in town that was the pool they'd later dig up to find the many left over prints.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's also worth seeing "Decasia," by the same director. Not a documentary, just random, unidentified clips of decomposing nitrate to a musical accompaniment. One of the most haunting things you'll ever see on a screen.

 

[Worf]

It's a good one. Also, it shows a rougher time with little of the sensitivity toward raising kids that many practice now.

You ain't just a whistlin' there friend. Everybody and their brother wants to smack this kid around. The killers eventually do manage to knock him out cold. Child protective services surely didn't exist in this world.

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

"Parrish" 1961 with Troy Donahue, Karl Malden, Claudette Colbert and Dean Jagger

• Ever wonder what a cross between "A Summer Place" and "Giant" would look like - here's your chance

• Donahue should have been taking notes on how to act Every. Single. Minute. he wasn't on screen by watching Malden and Jagger (an underrated pro) do their thing (the usually strong Colbert seemed defeated by the hackneyed material in this one)

• And to be fair, the movie's okay, it's just that, by '61, the family patriarch and sole proprietor who ruthlessly destroys all his business competitors while, also, ruthlessly ruling (and destroying) his wife and children along the way had been done to death (and never better than by Burl Ives and Paul Newman in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof")

• He just didn't have the acting chops, but pre-'60s hippie stuff, nobody looked more "American Boy" ideal (or could wear the clothes of the ideal) better than Donahue

 

[AmateisGal]

Beirut with Jon Hamm. It was okay, but nothing spectacular.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Paddington 2"

I enjoyed P2 more than the first Paddington movie mainly because Huge Grant is more engaging and more-consistent-to-the-rest-of-the-movie's style and theme (with the use of the old-fashioned pop-up book as the crux of the story) than Nicole Kidman's high-tech villain was in the first Paddington. I also enjoyed the entire prison plot line and the character of the prison cook (you almost believe that Paddington's optimism and good nature changed his outlook on life) .

For Fedora Lounge members, the blending of styles - modern London, but with a very Victorian-through-the-'50s overlay - amps up the visual appeal as it is smartly done (the accuracy of the details in the Victorian prison are architecturally impressive). Yes, a little too-much CGI peeks through, but it's still very good.

Also, for a kids movie, they keep the modern political pieties and messaging reasonably under control. There are few gag moments and some gratuitous shoving of the ideology down your throat, but less than in many other movies. And the darn bear - and his love of marmalade sandwiches - is just freakin' cute.

 

[AmateisGal]

"Paddington 2"

I enjoyed P2 more than the first Paddington movie mainly because Huge Grant is more engaging and more-consistent-to-the-rest-of-the-movie's style and theme (with the use of the old-fashioned pop-up book as the crux of the story) than Nicole Kidman's high-tech villain was in the first Paddington. I also enjoyed the entire prison plot line and the character of the prison cook (you almost believe that Paddington's optimism and good nature changed his outlook on life) .

For Fedora Lounge members, the blending of styles - modern London, but with a very Victorian-through-the-'50s overlay - amps up the visual appeal as it is smartly done (the accuracy of the details in the Victorian prison are architecturally impressive). Yes, a little too-much CGI peeks through, but it's still very good.

Also, for a kids movie, they keep the modern political pieties and messaging reasonably under control. There are few gag moments and some gratuitous shoving of the ideology down your throat, but less than in many other movies. And the darn bear - and his love of marmalade sandwiches - is just freakin' cute.

I LOVED Paddington 2! Using the pop-up book was brilliant. I hope they make a third one. These movies are just plain fun and make you feel good after watching them. God knows in this current climate, we need movies like this.

 

[AmateisGal]

Watched 12 Strong last night, a movie based on the true story of a US Army special forces team who were the first Americans in Afghanistan after the 9-11 attacks. It was very good.

 

[Peacoat]

Watched 12 Strong last night, a movie based on the true story of a US Army special forces team who were the first Americans in Afghanistan after the 9-11 attacks. It was very good.

Agreed. My wife and I saw it when it first came out. With my background I had to see it.

I still maintain a relationship with the 5th Special Forces Group in Ft. Campbell. Get there several times a year for retirement ceremonies, firearms training and, sadly, memorial services. Yes, memorial services are still a real thing at Ft. Campbell.

So, I have met several of the guys who were portrayed in the movie. A nicer and more laid back group of guys you would ever hope to meet.

De Oppresso Liber

 

[AmateisGal]

Agreed. My wife and I saw it when it first came out. With my background I had to see it.

I still maintain a relationship with the 5th Special Forces Group in Ft. Campbell. Get there several times a year for retirement ceremonies, firearms training and, sadly, memorial services. Yes, memorial services are still a real thing at Ft. Campbell.

So, I have met several of the guys who were portrayed in the movie. A nicer and more laid back group of guys you would ever hope to meet.

De Oppresso Liber

This is so cool!!! It's really a miracle that all 12 survived that mission.

 

[Fading Fast]

I LOVED Paddington 2! Using the pop-up book was brilliant. I hope they make a third one. These movies are just plain fun and make you feel good after watching them. God knows in this current climate, we need movies like this.

Somebody, it is not important who, had a marmalade sandwich the next morning for breakfast. Pshaw, some people are so impressionable.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Recent double feature on demand last night:

The Mummy - Universal's second botched attempt to set up their "Dark Universe" of interrelated films a la the Marvel Cinematic Universe based on the old Universal Monsters (following the botched Dracula Untold). Wow, this is a pretty terrible film, with an uber-familiar grade-Z comic book plot. It's only vaguely watchable because Tom Cruise is still an old school, charismatic movie star. Russell Crowe - as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! - gives an even worse performance here than his previous worst-role-in-a-fantasy-film in Winter's Tale, and his prologue narration sounds just like the purple prose one of my friends wrote for a Super 8 vampire flick we made in 1972! It's no surprise that the other planned Dark Universe films are on hold...

All the Money in the World - Ridley Scott's film about the kidnapping of the grandson of J.P. Getty in 1973. This is the one that originally starred Kevin Spacey as Getty that was recast after his scandal broke with Christopher Plummer playing Getty, who reshot the part in just nine days. It's not a bad film - Michelle Williams is very good as the kidnapped boy's mother, forced to come up with ransom without help from stingy billionaire Getty. But I couldn't help seeing the ghost of Spacey in Plummer's performance throughout. Plummer is, of course, an old pro and can play this kind of odd, cantankerous rich geezer in his sleep, and he's okay. But Spacey - who, let's just admit: his slightly creepy aspect has always been an important component of his performances - was no doubt better in the part. But it's an okay flick, and for a change it's nice to see Scott doing a serious drama instead of another bloated SF flick or period piece.

 

[Worf]

For some strange reason I didn't mind "The Mummy" all that much. It wasn't "the mother of all train wrecks" that I'd heard it was, not great but not that bad. Of course I was stuck in a hotel room attending a funeral so I might not have played close attention like I normally would. Or perhaps given my mood I just feeling charitable.

Worf

 

[Zombie_61]

...The Mummy - Universal's second botched attempt to set up their "Dark Universe" of interrelated films a la the Marvel Cinematic Universe based on the old Universal Monsters (following the botched Dracula Untold)...

"Second" botched attempt? Surely you're aware of this, but for anyone who isn't Universal has been attempting to reinvigorate their monster/horror legacy since Van Helsing in May of 2004. Encouraged by the reasonable success and popularity of The Mummy from 1999 starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, Van Helsing was supposed to be the "spearhead" movie that would launch their return to their classic horror/monster characters--Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man, the Phantom of the Opera, and so on. Even then it was fairly clear that no one involved knew how to do this, and when Van Helsing performed far below their expectations at U.S. box offices Universal almost immediately announced they would have to "rethink" their plans. 14 years later they're still trying, but at this point they seem to be even more clueless about how to do it.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yes, of course I'm aware. I saw all those films. But at the time, they weren't trying to emulate Marvel's success and nobody was talking about universes. It wasn't like another studio had succeeded at such a grandiose plan. Now Universal, like Warners/DC, is finding that getting a successful universe running isn't as easy as the MCU has made it look.

And don't forget The Wolfman from just a few years ago, another attempt to reboot the Universal Monsters. Like Dracula Untold, I believe Universal has contradicted themselves a couple of times about if it's part of the Dark Universe or not.

And Worf, I liked The Mummy enough to watch it all the way through. That's not always the case with today's action movies masquerading as genres I like. Anyway, as dumb as it was, it held my attention, though there was so much second-rate and second-hand stuff in it (like his dead friend doing the American Werewolf in London schtick), and the usual CGI overkill. And as I said before, I think that's a serious contender for the worst Russell Crowe performance ever.

 

[Zombie_61]

...And don't forget The Wolfman from just a few years ago, another attempt to reboot the Universal Monsters. Like Dracula Untold, I believe Universal has contradicted themselves a couple of times about if it's part of the Dark Universe or not...

I've seen The Wolfman (2010) three or four times and enjoy it for what it is, warts and all, but I still prefer The Wolf Man (1941). I can't say I've seen any of Universal's attempts since because they all looked terrible, and I probably won't see the latest Mummy movie purely because I dislike Tom Cruise.