What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Trenchfriend]

Broken Flowers on arte.

Fine satire about different american lifestyles.

 

[Zombie_61]

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). I like Queen's music but don't really know much about the members of the group or the lives they led with the possible exception of whatever was published about Freddie Mercury. As such, I thought the movie was filled with fine performances in what I suspect was another by-the-numbers biopic that managed to tick all of the right boxes.

A Star is Born (2018). I've seen the 1937 version starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March once, the 1954 version starring Judy Garland and James Mason once, the 1976 version starring Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson two or three times because my wife likes that one, and I've now seen the 2018 version starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Same story told again and again with minor differences, good performances, and worth seeing each at least once, but I've come to the conclusion that the story doesn't interest me because I couldn't care less about what happens to any of these characters.

 

[Fading Fast]

...A Star is Born (2018). I've seen the 1937 version starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March once, the 1954 version starring Judy Garland and James Mason once, the 1976 version starring Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson two or three times because my wife likes that one, and I've now seen the 2018 version starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Same story told again and again with minor differences, good performances, and worth seeing each at least once, but I've come to the conclusion that the story doesn't interest me because I couldn't care less about what happens to any of these characters.

Like you, I've seen all the versions of A Star is Born and, like you, I just don't care that much about the characters. I also agree, the acting in 2018's was well done (impressive performances), but maybe I'm just burned out on the stardom-addict-up-down-hate-love-myself thing. Even though it was good, I almost turned it off a few times.

There is an even earlier version, 1932's What Price Hollywood, which, in a way, is my favorite as it feels fresher, unpretentious and, at just shy of an hour and half, is plenty long (the extra 40+ minutes in 2018's were unnecessary).

 

[Fading Fast]

Ex-Lady from 1933 with Bette Davis and Gene Raymond

"Pre-code" movies existed for only about four years ('30-'34), but they include many styles, subjects and degrees of envelope pushing.

Ex-Lady is of the type that shows that women's roles, marriage in general and the business world, were nowhere near the all-male world - with roles and beliefs about women as tightly circumscribed - as post '34 movies would imply.

Bette Davis plays a successful business woman - an illustrator who understands how to market her talents to clients. She's no delicate genius untouched by commercial concerns - she's a professional who knows how to optimize her value in the marketplace.

And she's equally independent at home where she flatly refuses to marry her boyfriend (with whom, in perfect pre-code balance, we learn she is sleeping with but, as opposed to today, we don't have to watch them go at it in the obligatory sex scene) despite his repeated proposals. She not only says no, but says no because, she argues, she doesn't want to be tied down, give up her career or having fun and has no interest in starting a family.

With other than a tweak here or there, her full-throttled defense of personal freedom could be spoken by a character in a modern movie - it's stunning how many of today's oh-so-modern views were clearly part of the conversation in the '30s.

Another echo of today's movies is how Davis and her boyfriend agree not to marry, but then, struggle to find a balance that works for them. Do they see other people; do they get jealous; do they fight; do they make up - check, check, check and check - a common plot scenario in many modern movies and TV shows.

That's the incredible value of pre-codes - you see how many challenges are timeless and how the post-'34 movie world was, often, a fake construct to conform to a code, not reality.

Adding to the fun is a lithe, but well-endowed, Davis (it's pre-code, hence, women's underwear is optional and, if worn, is to be shown partially sliding off), early in her career, but still out-acting everyone else as the camera loves her youth, her enthusiasm and her still-developing, but incredible talent.

Since this is early Warner Brothers, this short movie (just over an hour) speeds through its plot as break-ups, recriminations, get-back-togethers, business failures and successes, along with fights with "old-fashioned" parents happen in rapid succession. And the time travel to (most probably) exaggerated Art Deco New York City is alone worth a look-see (as is the extended scene in a 1933 kitchen).

In case you haven't seen it, I'll Ieave the conclusion out except to say it ends like many modern movies addressing the same issues end. Ex-Lady could be "exhibit A" in any argument that pre-code movies have more in common with today's movies than those that followed the enforcement of the code in '34.

 

[rgpelletier]

“Judy” with Renee Zellweger.

 

[MisterCairo]

Hallowe'en Cavalcade of Horror continues apace, most recently John Carpenter's Halloween (no apostrophe, sadly). Girls saw it for the first time, with eyes closed and a fast forward through one scene. Kinda odd we let them watch the murders, but cut out the sex, but that's mainly from their own comfort zone...

 

[MisterCairo]

Forgot that last week we watched Sleepy Hollow, with Johnny Depp and a grown up from the perspective of having watched The Addams Family from 1991 earlier Christina Ricci. Really good fun, and to see Richard Griffiths, Ian McDiarmid, Jeffrey Jones, Miranda Richardson and Michael Gambon, along with a cameo from Christopher Lee, what more can you ask?

 

[MisterCairo]

Well, I got around to the sequel to Rob Zombie's classic House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects. Surprisingly not as gory as the first, and much improved in terms of technical film making. Zombie has often said he regards Corpses now negatively, in the sense he sees all the flaws, errors and areas for improvement, though he's glad of its cult status.

Another gory gem with surprising appearances, here EG Daily, Leslie Easterbrook (replacing Karen Black as Mama Firefly as Black wanted more money), that big guy from Big Bang Theory, the geologist, and Priscilla Barnes from Three's Company.

AND DANNY TREJO!!!!!

 

[Worf]

Re-watched "Zombieland"- I still thinks it's one helluva comedy. The rules of thumb are hilarious. Don't know if the sequel is any good but the original is a hoot.

"First rule of Zombieland -- Cardio Fatties get eaten first.

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

TCM's coming attractions for November.

Wonderful use of a period song:

How perfectly timed to the music is Chaplin's entrance?

And Bette Davis as Margo Channing in All About Eve:

So many people know me. I wish I did. I wish someone would tell me about me. ​

 

[Touchofevil]

The Sweet Smell of Success on TCM’s Noir Alley. An entertaining story, good acting and visually excellent. It is one of the many films on my List of Stop and Watch. A nice way to spend my Sunday morning along with a cup of coffee.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Today evening action-thriller:

"Der Stellvertreter" (2002) with Ulrich Tukur!

And:
-Ulrich Mühe
-Sebastian Koch (!)
-Michael Mendl (!)
-Pierre Franck (!)
-Günther Maria Halmer
-Friedrich von Thun
-Justus von Dohnányi (!)

Creme de la creme!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen.

 

[Touchofevil]

Chinatown on TCM as chosen by guest programmer, Edward Norton. Another Stop and Watch movie for me. I have viewed it many times and yet I am always entertained by it.

 

[Bushman]

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Still among the epitome of live action Batman cinema. Despite growing up in the 90s, I have no nostalgia for the Keaton flicks.

 

[Fading Fast]

Union Depot form 1932 with Douglas Fairbanks, Joan Blondell and Alan Hale

Some old movies work simply as movies - pure entertainment (The Wizard of Oz*) - while some both entertain and provide a window into the period / a feeling of time travel; Union Depot is good entertainment, but incredible time travel to 1932.

It's an early entry in the "watch the lives of a bunch of people intersect at a busy place" genre (like 1932's better-known The Grand Hotel) with its plot centering around a violin case of counterfeit money that is lost and found by accident at the depot, which then, changes lives and, generally, wreaks havoc.

The plot is solid if direct, with many parts of it being used again and again over the years, but the real value of this one is the window into 1932 Depression America.

And this is no MGM "isn't life grand even when it has some grit" effort, but a Warner Brothers "isn't life gritty when it has some grit" effort. The station is populated by grifters, hustlers, down-and-outers, immigrants (again, this is not MGM-scrubbed America) and other, mainly, bedraggled-looking souls.

Early on, one of the bedraggled, star Fairbanks - a seemingly good guy beaten down by unemployment and hunger and just out from a recent stay in prison for petty theft - is seen lifting a wallet from an unattended bag whose cash he uses to buy a big meal at the station.

Twice in Union Depot, we'll see copious amounts of food ordered and served - with the camera lovingly lingering on the food - which had to be attractive (but also frustrating) to a very hungry public. Today, at least in America and across income levels, we have an obesity problem; hence, these scenes may not have the same emotional connect that they must have had to, not only the very poor and hungry, but also, the many "just-getting-by" Americans in the '30s. And to emphasize the challenge, the price of the diner food is repeatedly referenced with the impression clearly being that it is out of the reach of many back then.

Talking about the price of food is one thing, but talking about the price of, well, the oldest profession in the world, is harsher. This emphasizes the plain desperation in the 1930s as prostitutes in the depot openly jockey for customers while bargaining over their fee. By '34, with the enforcement of the movie-production code, reality like this would be tucked away, but it's on display here.

Blondell, a chorus girl recovering from a broken ankle and in desperate need of funds to rejoin her traveling troop, is mistaken for a working girl by flush-with-stolen-cash Fairbanks who picks her up as she considers her "options." After some confusion, anger and recriminations, Fairbanks, a good guy at heart who understands struggle, tries to help Blondell catch up with her company.

Here, in this short sixty seven minute movie - where stuff is always happening (Warner Brothers gives you plenty of plot for your ticket price) - is when all hell breaks loose. The counterfeit money ends up to have been lost by its original owner (Hale) and, then, found by Fairbanks - who sees all of his life's struggles falling away (highlighted by an in-train-station shopping spree for Fairbanks and Blondell - more Depression Era super-fantasy fulfillment). The police then arrest him and Blondell. Racing to the climax brings further police investigations, a shootout, some action-adventure chases in a busy train yard and, finally, an Agatha Christie too-neat denouement.

But it doesn't really matter as this is a movie about the times, not the plot - and the times are troubled and breaking people. Sure, the ending provides some Christian redemption and hope and maybe that helped to hold people together back then, but the point had already been made. Union Depot is clunky in parts and in need of (and deserving) film restoration, but it is an enthusiastic romp enhanced by its window into the times.



* Of course, there are plenty of period reveals in The Wizard of Oz, but it also works, more than most period movies, as pure, timeless entertainment

 

[Worf]

"Zombieland Double Tap" - Not the riotous hell ride of the first but not dull either. The left over protagonists go about having fun... they move into the White House etc... and all is fine till our fave nerd meets a blonde at the shopping mall. You expect and get many of the "dumb blonde" tropes and jokes but she takes it WAY beyond that. Woody Harrelson's reactions to her abject stupidity are priceless. Film also doesn't have much to good to say about Generation Z, hippies and anything NOT Elvis. Not as good as the first but still the funniest thing I've seen all year.

Worf...

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Alias Jesse James (1959) with Bob Hope, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey, and many more. A formulaic Hope movie, with his nebbish persona, wise cracks, sight gags, and physical humor. Nonetheless, we laughed out loud quite a bit. For those who have not seen it, hold on until the very end for the shoot out.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

' The Nightingale.' (2018)......Brutal revenge story set in colonial Tasmania. Not for the faint-hearted.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Yesterday:

 

[Edward]

Last night I watched The King, a Netflix Original film about how drunken carouser Prince Hal became Henry V and beat the French at Agincourt. It's a lot less pretty and noble than Bill S. presented things, which probably means it was much more historically correct.... Certainly, the Agincourt battle sequence is just an appalling scrum of murder, which is much more convincing than the fantasy knights and chivalry nonsense you see elsewhere. Perfectly diverting way to spend a couple of hours.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). I like Queen's music but don't really know much about the members of the group or the lives they led with the possible exception of whatever was published about Freddie Mercury. As such, I thought the movie was filled with fine performances in what I suspect was another by-the-numbers biopic that managed to tick all of the right boxes.

I believe it's pretty much spot on. It does over-simplify Mercury in one sense (he was genuiniely bisexual rather than as binary as 'gay'), and inevitably it plays a few things out of sequence to reality, but less so than many. It did get a level of criticism on release over here for sanitising his story, though I actually felt that by playing down the drugs asnd the wildness (they are certainly acknowledged, but most of the extremesa are hinted at rather than shown on screen) it gave the viewer more of a portrait on the man as a person rather than just the stereotypical 'sex, drugs and redemption' storyline which is standard for all rockstar biopics (except for the 'sex, drugs and death' alternative). I'm no big Queen fan, but I quite enjoyed it nonetheless.

AND DANNY TREJO!!!!!

Hugely underrated character actor. I think I first became aware of him with From Dusk Til Dawn; you always know things are gonig to be great when he turns up. Even his severed head on the back of a tortoise has massive screen-presence!

Re-watched "Zombieland"- I still thinks it's one helluva comedy. The rules of thumb are hilarious. Don't know if the sequel is any good but the original is a hoot.

"First rule of Zombieland -- Cardio Fatties get eaten first.

Worf

I held off from it for a long time because it kept being compared to Shaun of the Dead. Long experience tells me that whenever a marketing team resort to "If you like X, you'll like Y", almost inevitably if I love X, I will hate Y with a burning passion. I wouldn't put it in the same class as Shaun - I'm not even sure I found Zombieland actually funny, but I did greatly enjoy its satire on a genre I love, much motre so than anticipaTED. Bill Murray's cameo was an absolute joy, notg least because it's exactly how I would hope Bill Murray would react in a situation like that.

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Still among the epitome of live action Batman cinema. Despite growing up in the 90s, I have no nostalgia for the Keaton flicks.

The aesthetic of the Keaton films was much closer 'my' Batman, but I enjoyed the first Nolan film very much as an alternate take. Making Batman palatable again after what Joel Shumacher did to it was an even bigger challenge than rescuing the brand from Adam West's obscenity was for Burton. I liked Bale in the role a lot; he seemed to understand that the Bat was less a hero, more an outworking of an almost schitzophrenic reaction to severte childhood trauma; PTSD on crack.

TBH, though, much as Joker was always my favourite character in the Batman universe, I found Ledger's Joker wildly overrated. Not bad (again, far from the abysmyl Caesar Romeo, who didn't even respect the role enough to shave for it), but certainly not worthy of the adulation he posthumously received for it. The second Nolan film was also a good 20 minutes too long. In some ways, unorthodox as this opinion is, I preferred the third one over Dark Knight.

TRhe best Bat-related film I'#ve seen to date was Joker; I'd simply adore to see that world fleshed out with The Bat in it.

"Zombieland Double Tap" - Not the riotous hell ride of the first but not dull either. The left over protagonists go about having fun... they move into the White House etc... and all is fine till our fave nerd meets a blonde at the shopping mall. You expect and get many of the "dumb blonde" tropes and jokes but she takes it WAY beyond that. Woody Harrelson's reactions to her abject stupidity are priceless. Film also doesn't have much to good to say about Generation Z, hippies and anything NOT Elvis. Not as good as the first but still the funniest thing I've seen all year.

Worf...

I've always got tiem for knocking hippies and supporting Elvis!