What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Edward Reed]

SPOILER ALERT....


RE Worf's comment above, it's certainly interesting that, for all the hype about violence, in Joker there are "only" six deaths. One, his mother - from illness....

well, technically Arthur finishes her off by suffocating her with a pillow before she could go on her own.

 

[Hat and Rehat]

Sorry I've been slacking lately... Had to have a tooth removed. Found out yesterday the gums infecticated... I'm on antibiotics with an occasional swish of brandy (I don't drink). Oooh... ahm dyin!

"The Irishman" - As many have said, a "decent" film but no masterpiece. Way too long and I'm not much for the idea of sympathetic killers for hire but hey... Scorcese can make what he wants, when he wants... he's earned it. I really didn't think it lived up to the hype.

"A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" - Unlike Lizzie I did NOT grow up watching Mr. Rogers. I was too busy consuming daily doses of mayhem with The Three Stooges and Warner Bros. cartoons. However my son and his mum watched it religiously. She was in tears.. It was a decent (man I'm using that phrase a LOT) film but it really didn't rock my world as I've no emotional connection to the man. I did tear up a couple of times. All my friends said "watch the documentary" which I will do soon.

"Knives Out" - Of the three films I've seen recently I enjoyed this one the most. I'm not a big mystery man but this one had me riveted. Man I love an old fashioned "who dunnit" where the sleuth is smart and the villains vile! I had a rollicking good time. Gotta love dem geezer matinees!

Worf

My wife and I watched The Irishman a couple of nights ago. It's too long, and rather pretentious in the scenes with Dinero's character's daughter, but the costuming and sets are impeccable. I enjoyed it just for the visuals, even if the story line was forced.

 

[Edward]

well, technically Arthur finishes her off by suffocating her with a pillow before she could go on her own.

Yes, forgot that - though it plays well into the themes of desperation casued by lack of systematic support, as well as an early indication that Arthur has the capacity to kill, even if with the best of motives.

It's going to be interesting how Joker is viewed on ten, twenty, thirty years' time, or longer - when it gets to the age of the films that inspired it.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Tatort: Duisburg-Ruhrort (1981) from VHS, recorded in 2000.

First Schimanski!

 

[Worf]

"The Bridge" - When I was flying online regularly (IL2 Sturmovik) many folks recommended this movie as it was one of the first German made films to cover their side of the war. I bought the DVD watched it once and sold it. I... being a "rivethead" at the time couldn't get over the tractors disguised as Sherman Tanks and other short cuts. Recently I found the flick on TCM's streaming site and watched it again... Man was I a boob. This film is great! 90 percent of it is set up with only the last 20 minutes or so being actual battle. It centers around 7 High School kids drafted during the last days of the war. In an effort to spare them they're assigned to the bridge outside their home town. When their commanding officer is killed over some trifle by the locals... the starry eyed youths are left defending the bridge against advancing American Troops while every other Nazi soldier is running in the opposite direction. They ignore the pleading of both locals, other soldiers AND their American foes and defend the bridge almost to the last boy.

See it while you can.

Worf

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: while enjoyable, and well-crafted, it seemed to us to lack the humor in earlier movies, and the Missus commented that the characters didn't really seem to interact with each other as in previous installments. There were several slowly tracking-in-to-close-ups of Rey's face that seemed overdone.
I've read somewhere that what we see up on the screen was not really what J.J. Abrams intended, due to production schedules and what not.
Was it fun? Yep. Would I watch it again? Sure. Would I own it? Probably not.

 

[Worf]

"Hereditary" - "Midsommer" - Puddin' and I watched these back to back over the last couple of evenings. Whoa! Perhaps we did it wrong as we watched "Midsommer" first then "Hereditary". We found the first entertaining and scary at times but livable. We really didn't connect with any of the characters save the semi-anonymous British couple and their plight. Nothing is as terrifying as being in a totally effed situation and being unable to get out of it no matter how much you scream or how fast you run. It was stunning to look at and ultimately satisfying but not exactly mind blowing. We both preferred the original "Wickerman" but felt it was a decent distraction.

Hereditary on the other hand was scary as all get out. Not with "jump scares" and other modern tropes but with subtle imagery and sound. I haven't screamed so much in years. I was ashamed to admit that I, a grown ass man, was reduced to a mumbling state of terror by just hearing a "cluck" in my rear speakers. Weird, creepy and disturbing to no end. I'm sure it's been reviewed here but man I just had to add my kudos to the list. The same man directed both and he really, REALLY needs some serious therapy!

Yikes...

Worf

 

[Bushman]

I tried giving the live action Aladdin a chance... it's awful, just awful. Jafar feels as menacing as the 10yo he sounds like, there's absolutely no lead up to the story, the pacing is all off, and Iago sounds like a squeaky door hinge. Literally the only thing interesting about it is Will Smith. Couldn't even bother finishing it.

Hereditary on the other hand was scary as all get out. Not with "jump scares" and other modern tropes but with subtle imagery and sound. I haven't screamed so much in years. I was ashamed to admit that I, a grown ass man, was reduced to a mumbling state of terror by just hearing a "cluck" in my rear speakers. Weird, creepy and disturbing to no end. I'm sure it's been reviewed here but man I just had to add my kudos to the list. The same man directed both and he really, REALLY needs some serious therapy!

Yikes...

Worf

Have not seen Midsomer, but I saw Hereditary, and that one messed me up man. I"ve seen people say they didn't think it was that scary, but I dunno if they saw the same movie I did. The scene where the parents discovered the "mess" in the car and the subsequent headshot was revolting enough let alone the rest of the movie.

 

[Doctor Damage]

I'm too lazy to find my post about the Irishman but I had originally seen part of it while waiting in my barber's shop. He's a big movie buff and always has something playing. I haven't seen the whole thing yet, but what I had seen looked really bad visually, washed out and looking like it was fillmed on 1980s BBC video. Yesterday I was back to get my haircut and my barber was playing another movie, Ford vs Ferrari or whatever. It had the same appearance as the Irishman, which is impossible. So I guess my barber has his television on some weird setting that makes everything look cheap. That doesn't impact my other complaints, though, haha

 

[M Brown]

Troop Zero

enjoyed it!

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Gambling House (1950) with Victor Mature, Terry Moore, and William Bendix, dir. by Ted Tetzlaff. Gambler Mature gets tangled up in gangster violence with Bendix, and through some twists and turns gets a sit-down with the INS. Terry Moore, who in real life was about 21 years old but looks and sounds like a high school senior, works for a charity assisting displaced persons from Europe getting settled in the US. Mature and Moore cross paths while Bendix turns up the heat on Mature for... well, you'll have to check it out for yourself.
It's part noir and part patriotic message about America, and ends up sort of not being either.

 

[Fading Fast]

Personal Maid's Secret from 1935 with Margaret Lindsay, Warren Hull and Ruth Donnelly

• Some B-movies are good in their own B-movie way, as this one is a simple story, told in a straightforward manner where the joy is seeing things work out - think of it as anti-noir

• A young couple trying to "come up in the world" professionally (the husband is in insurance) and socially (in New York City) hire a maid who had worked for a "prominent" family who, effectively, guides them, by suggestion, to success

• Along the way, there are the usual fumbles and embarrassments including a brother of the couple pursuing a socialite who likes him, but is chasing a married man

• The other "big" issue (spoiler alert) is that the titular maid had an affair with a society boy years ago and now tries to surreptitiously help her daughter who doesn't know she exists (the daughter was raised as a "legitimate" niece of the society family)

• The two other fun things, (1) the time travel to upper-class '30s New York is all penthouses, country mansions, big cars and fancy clothes and, (2) Margaret Lindsay is simply stunningly beautiful - don't understand why she didn't have a bigger career / if Myrna Loy hadn't defined the role, Lindsay would have made a perfect wife to William Powell in the Thin Man series

Repeat Performance from 1947 with Joan Leslie, Louis Hayward and Tim Conway

• Interesting premise, reasonable story, uneven acting

• The premise: a woman murders her husband on New Year's Eve and gets to live the year over again trying desperately to change the outcome

• The story: a rising theater star kills her jealous, alcoholic and cheating husband in a fit of rage over his latest affair and, then, gets the do-over

• The acting: reasonable performance by Leslie as the ingenue murderess, elegant performance by George Sander's lessor-known brother Tim Conway and an almost buffoon-like performance by Hayward whose characterization of a drunk man looked like a parody of a drunk man

• As noted by the TCM host, the movie has a very "The Twilight Zone" feel

Some Like it Hot from 1959 with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Pat O'Brien and George Raft

• I like most of the elements of this movie when not part of this movie - the actors, Lemmon, Curtis, Monroe and O'Brien; the director Billy Wilder; extended train scenes; black and white cinematography; and an older George Raft still playing a gangster - but I didn't enjoy them here in what I know is a classic that I'm suppose to love

• Men in unconvincing drag does not work for me; it didn't work for me when I saw Tootsie as a kid and it still doesn't as I can't accept that anyone believes these obvious men are women (just like I don't accept thirty one year old Ginger Rogers playing a twelve year old girl in another Billy Wilder directed movie, The Majors and the Minor)

• And there's too much slapstick in this one even for a 1930s movie and this is a late 1950s effort when the slapstick shtick had really, truly worn thin

• I almost felt sorry for Marilyn as her role seemed written as a parody of her cliched public persona

• I get it, you're just suppose to "go with it" and enjoy the silly ride; heck, I like a lot of movies that way, but somehow, I can't get there with this one

My Reputation from 1946 with Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent and Lucile Watson

• Twisted and mangled inside the movie production code is a pretty good story about a widow (Stanwyck) with two young sons trying to balance her children's needs, the "expectations" of conservative Chicago-suburb "society" (and her somewhat hidebound mother - Watson) and her desire to love again when a Major (Brent) comes into her life

• In the movie, as Brent and Stanwyck fall in love, much nonsense happens to show that they are not sleeping together; but the story only really makes sense if they are (like real adults do and did in 1946 - married or not)

• It's also a lesson in why actors get paid a lot of money as Stanwyck and the-always-wonderful Lucile Watson carry this adulterated plot along - Stanwyck is a first-class actress with no first-class-actress fussing / she deserves to be remembered today more than she is

• A lot of searching and I still couldn't find a pic of the incredible woodie wagon that Stanwyck drives - the movie's worth a look-see for that alone

 

[MisterCairo]

At the theatre, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. We really enjoyed it, a good ending, but perhaps not the greatest of the final three (in fact, it's not).

On pay per view, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, if one considers getting half way through thinking "what the hell is all the hype about, this is literally AWFUL!" and turning it off, notwithstanding the $5.99 CAD fee we paid. Really - unfunny, not cool, characters completely unsympathetic, no Tarantino vibe, and a meaningless attack on Bruce Lee's reputation (his daughter was bang on).

Sincerely, can someone explain what is so great about this film?

On DVD, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. A fun film, stunning visuals, Dr. Maturin not portrayed fully as in the books, over emphasis on the botany, and completely missing the fact he is indeed a spy (one very brief hint "They have their spies in England and France... as do we"), but love it anyway.

 

[belfastboy]

"Hud" last night. I repeat I am not a great fan of classic movies...if a 1963 movie qualifies as such, but this one, as most Newman movies are, is a very good one. Melvyn Douglas, Newman are great and Patricia Neal is a treasure. I think a real gem and a game changer in terms of how the 'hero' is portrayed in American movies. Ritt, the director was a revolutionary in that sense.

 

[Edward]

but what I had seen looked really bad visually, washed out and looking like it was fillmed on 1980s BBC video.

That's interesting... I remember well into the eighties when you saw a clip of American television on the news (as distinct from American shows on television where it was presumably worth reformatting them properly), it was always beyond technicolour, like somebody had cranked the 'colour' setting knob to the max. It makes sense that the different format would go the other way for the UK stuff in the US.

For some reason I'm always tickled by 70s and earlier colour UK sitcoms where you can see a clear difference in the film stock between that used in studio-recorded scenes and outside shots.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The old NTSC television system used to be referred to by broadcast engineers as "Never The Same Color."

 

[MissNathalieVintage]

At the theatre, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. We really enjoyed it, a good ending, but perhaps not the greatest of the final three (in fact, it's not).

On pay per view, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, if one considers getting half way through thinking "what the hell is all the hype about, this is literally AWFUL!" and turning it off, notwithstanding the $5.99 CAD fee we paid. Really - unfunny, not cool, characters completely unsympathetic, no Tarantino vibe, and a meaningless attack on Bruce Lee's reputation (his daughter was bang on).

Sincerely, can someone explain what is so great about this film?

On DVD, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. A fun film, stunning visuals, Dr. Maturin not portrayed fully as in the books, over emphasis on the botany, and completely missing the fact he is indeed a spy (one very brief hint "They have their spies in England and France... as do we"), but love it anyway.

Good to know Once Upon a Time In Hollywood was not worth watching. I knew the moment I saw the movie poster this film was not worth my dime. And how dare they attack Bruce Lee's reputation.

 

[MissNathalieVintage]

Journey Back to Christmas
WWII has ended and Hanna is still grieving over her husband's disappearance. When the Christmas Comet appears for the first time in 70 years, Hanna is caught in a terrible storm and knocked unconscious. When she wakes up, she's in 2016. Stars Candace Cameron Bure, Oliver Hudson and Brooke Nevin.

I really enjoyed the 1940s setting, the 1940s cars, 1940s hair styles, 1940s clothing. It reminded me a little bit of the movie Back To The Future and Peggy Got Married, set in the 1940s. And the heart warming message too, made it worth watching, IMHO.

My favorite part is when she called Uggs bedroom slippers, and they do look like slippers,

You can watch a perview here: https://www.hallmarkmoviesandmyster...tmas/videos/preview-journey-back-to-christmas

I am so going to buy the DVD.

 

[Fading Fast]

Right now, on TCM, is 1945's "Caesar and Cleopatra," which I can't get into as, instead of seeing Cleopatra, I keep seeing Scarlett from "Gone With the Wind" in an obvious (and unrealistic) black wig.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Broadway Melody of 1936" on mute on TCM: Eleanor Powell could be Margaret Lindsay's less-pretty sister (Lindsay left, Powell right).