What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[AmateisGal]

Currently watching The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) on TCM. It's a largely fictionalized account of American war correspondent Ernie Pyle's travels with an equally fictionalized group of U.S. infantrymen in Europe during World War II. Burgess Meredith stars as Pyle, accompanied by Robert Mitchum as "Lt. Walker". Perhaps a little better than most "follow these guys through World War II" movies, for me this one survives because of the performances--not particularly special, but entertaining.

Sadly, Pyle was killed in action two months before the movie premiered and never got to see even a rough print.

One of my favorite WW2 movies. I finally was able to find it on DVD without paying a fortune, so I now own it.

 

[AmateisGal]

Reunion In France (1942) with Joan Crawford and John Wayne. A favorite of mine.

Now watching the original Ocean's Eleven with Frank Sinatra!

THANK THE POWERS THAT BE THAT WE HAVE TCM!!!

 

[AmateisGal]

I will second that. It was Aquamanish in its badness. Should not be watched unless watched at gunpoint.

Oh god. As bad as Aquaman???? I hated that movie, and not even the fineness that is Jason Momoa could save it. It. Was. AWFUL.

So if it's that bad...I will wait until I can watch it for free. And even then, I might pass.

 

[Fading Fast]

Reunion In France (1942) with Joan Crawford and John Wayne. A favorite of mine.

Now watching the original Ocean's Eleven with Frank Sinatra!

THANK THE POWERS THAT BE THAT WE HAVE TCM!!!

I saw "Ocean's Eleven" (comments here: #27877) for the first time last year (on TCM, of course, ditto your comment on TCM) and really enjoyed it. It is so Rat-Pack cool.

 

[Fading Fast]

Watch 2015 "The Man from Uncle," which I've posted about before (here #21525), so will just say, I love this movie. Sure it's style over substance, but whatever, it's enjoyable from the first frame to the last.

 

[MisterCairo]

Watch 2015 "The Man from Uncle," which I've posted about before (here #21525), so will just say, I love this movie. Sure it's style over substance, but whatever, it's enjoyable from the first frame to the last.

"You don't understand. It ripped the back off my car..."

I saw this twice one day after the other on board ship deployed in 2015. My wife and I watched it, and kept saying we need to own it.

She bought me the blu-ray for Christmas!

 

[MisterCairo]

Oh god. As bad as Aquaman???? I hated that movie, and not even the fineness that is Jason Momoa could save it. It. Was. AWFUL.

So if it's that bad...I will wait until I can watch it for free. And even then, I might pass.

PASS even for free. It will ruin your memories of the first one. We have never seen a Bridget Jones sequel for that precise reason: the first was great, and we heard nothing but bad about the others.

 

[Worf]

Wonder Woman 1984
“Free” in our cable package so we figured we would give it a shot. It was a waste of my life. The acting was weak, the characters were boring/weak, the story was very weak, the CGI was weak, all adding up to a weak and very poorly made movie. One of the worst movies I have seen in a long time.

Thanks for saving me 2 hours of life I can't get back... I gather you felt the film was "weak"?

Worf

 

[Worf]

Agree on Streep. Generally found her performances to be mannered and very self-aware. I'm sure I thought she was good in a few films but I don't remember which ones. Haven't seen these two as I have no interest in movies about politics as a general principle.

I felt her portrayal in "Doubt" was excellent.. her scene with Viola Davis was gut wrenchingly powerful. Don't know if I could watch it again...

Worf

 

[Worf]

Currently watching The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) on TCM. It's a largely fictionalized account of American war correspondent Ernie Pyle's travels with an equally fictionalized group of U.S. infantrymen in Europe during World War II. Burgess Meredith stars as Pyle, accompanied by Robert Mitchum as "Lt. Walker". Perhaps a little better than most "follow these guys through World War II" movies, for me this one survives because of the performances--not particularly special, but entertaining.

Sadly, Pyle was killed in action two months before the movie premiered and never got to see even a rough print.

Well, you're right and you're wrong on this one. I've read some of Pyle's actual dispatches/columns from that time. I was stunned to find that many of the characters "Wingless" etc... were real. If they're fictional then he created them out of whole cloth with names, addresses, hometowns etc. Also many of the extras were REAL soldiers, some of whom were later, like Pyle, killed in the Pacific. As an ex-soldier I found this movie too true for words... the grime, the filth, the misery of the common footslogger permeates the entire film. Eisenhower no less called it the finest portrayal of the Grunts life ever put to film. That's good enough a testament for me.

Worf

 

[Harp]

We have never seen a Bridget Jones sequel for that precise reason...the first was great...

Those Bridget Jones original scenes where Renee Z sez "Tarts and Vicars," and dressed as a Playboy bunny,
spiked my blood pressure.

 

[Bushman]

Kicking off a Batman binge last night with "Batman Begins." There's things about this introductory tale I like, and things I don't. I like a lot of the story, don't get me wrong, but there's a lot of style choices I didn't care for.

First off, you could easily stretch Batman's origin story and his Year One story into at least two installments, but that's the benefit of comics: you can take as many issues as you want to tell a story. In "Begins" we get a VERY heavily condensed combination of both. The seven years Bruce Wayne took to train in various martial art forms, and study the criminal justice system to become the world's greatest detective is instead turned into a few mentions and a training montage in this movie. I'd be interested if the upcoming Rob Pattinson Batman movie will reveal more of his training to non-comic literate movie audiences.

My main gripe with this movie is more in the style choices, and their lack of continuation in the sequels. Nolan's Gotham in "Batman Begins" was quintessentially Chicago: filthy, corrupt, crime ridden, poor, but ever proud. But there was an overabundance of sepia tones throughout the movie that I just didn't care for. The Gothic noir that marked the set's architecture was also very Gotham AND Chicago. Nolan's sets blend seamlessly in with the city because Chicago has such a Gothic noir look. But there was just so much sepia lighting. Bleh! I'm very glad they fixed that in the sequels, but it was very disappointing that the sequels did NOT continue the Gothic Noir look. Gotham in "The Dark Knight" and "Rises" seemed more Chicago and New York City respectively. It seemed to lose the Gothic look from "Begins" and start looking more like the cities they were filmed in. Even Wayne Tower went from the limestone clad Chicago Mercantile Exchange to a generic glass and steel skyscraper. In the sequels, Gotham lost its personality.

Even though I grew up in the 1990s with Burton's Batman, and that and the animated series defined the "look" of Batman for my generation much in the way Adam West defined my father's, I always felt more connected to the realistic approach of Nolan's Batman. The Burton films seemed just TOO stylized. It was heavily inspired by the look of the titular city in the silent film "Metropolis" with long, sweeping Gothic noir lines, but it felt overly exaggerated and simply unrealistic city planning. Nolan's "Batman Begins" seemed to set a perfect balance between the Gothic and the realistic. I could also never figure out the time period Burton's Batman was meant to be set in. The clothes and art deco is more 30s/40s inspired, but the cars are 1980s. At least with Nolan's Batman, you know where and when you are.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Kicking off a Batman binge last night with "Batman Begins." There's things about this introductory tale I like, and things I don't. I like a lot of the story, don't get me wrong, but there's a lot of style choices I didn't care for.

First off, you could easily stretch Batman's origin story and his Year One story into at least two installments, but that's the benefit of comics: you can take as many issues as you want to tell a story. In "Begins" we get a VERY heavily condensed combination of both. The seven years Bruce Wayne took to train in various martial art forms, and study the criminal justice system to become the world's greatest detective is instead turned into a few mentions and a training montage in this movie. I'd be interested if the upcoming Rob Pattinson Batman movie will reveal more of his training to non-comic literate movie audiences.

My main gripe with this movie is more in the style choices, and their lack of continuation in the sequels. Nolan's Gotham in "Batman Begins" was quintessentially Chicago: filthy, corrupt, crime ridden, poor, but ever proud. But there was an overabundance of sepia tones throughout the movie that I just didn't care for. The Gothic noir that marked the set's architecture was also very Gotham AND Chicago. Nolan's sets blend seamlessly in with the city because Chicago has such a Gothic noir look. But there was just so much sepia lighting. Bleh! I'm very glad they fixed that in the sequels, but it was very disappointing that the sequels did NOT continue the Gothic Noir look. Gotham in "The Dark Knight" and "Rises" seemed more Chicago and New York City respectively. It seemed to lose the Gothic look from "Begins" and start looking more like the cities they were filmed in. Even Wayne Tower went from the limestone clad Chicago Mercantile Exchange to a generic glass and steel skyscraper. In the sequels, Gotham lost its personality.

Even though I grew up in the 1990s with Burton's Batman, and that and the animated series defined the "look" of Batman for my generation much in the way Adam West defined my father's, I always felt more connected to the realistic approach of Nolan's Batman. The Burton films seemed just TOO stylized. It was heavily inspired by the look of the titular city in the silent film "Metropolis" with long, sweeping Gothic noir lines, but it felt overly exaggerated and simply unrealistic city planning. Nolan's "Batman Begins" seemed to set a perfect balance between the Gothic and the realistic. I could also never figure out the time period Burton's Batman was meant to be set in. The clothes and art deco is more 30s/40s inspired, but the cars are 1980s. At least with Nolan's Batman, you know where and when you are.

As superhero films go Nolan's is a masterpiece. But really Burton provided the style manual for Batman after borrowing the Dark Night Returns noir aesthetic. There has been nothing much new added since Burton. Stylistically all Nolan did was turn down Burton's kitsch factor. Thank God. These days, movie images of a brooding noir city leaching corruption at every corner, with a nascent-fascist vigilante dressed as an art deco bat just seems too corny for yet another outing. Can't we wait ten years?

 

[Zombie_61]

I almost forgot. The other night we watched the most recent movie in the Terminator franchise, Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). If this had been the third movie in the franchise it would have worked much better. But now that there have been four prior sequels and a television show, each of which had someone new at the helm screwing with the storyline and adding new elements, there's just too much to contend with and everything that was so crucial in the first two movies has been all but eliminated and replaced with newly crucial nonsense that has to be explained through expository dialogue and even more phony CG effects. Just in case anyone here is a fan and hasn't seen the movie yet, no spoilers. But if you've seen all of the other movies, this is pretty much just more of the same.

 

[AmateisGal]

Watch 2015 "The Man from Uncle," which I've posted about before (here #21525), so will just say, I love this movie. Sure it's style over substance, but whatever, it's enjoyable from the first frame to the last.

I LOVE this movie SO MUCH. And, I follow Armie Hammer on Instagram and it looks like they're in talks to make a second one!

 

[AmateisGal]

Well, you're right and you're wrong on this one. I've read some of Pyle's actual dispatches/columns from that time. I was stunned to find that many of the characters "Wingless" etc... were real. If they're fictional then he created them out of whole cloth with names, addresses, hometowns etc. Also many of the extras were REAL soldiers, some of whom were later, like Pyle, killed in the Pacific. As an ex-soldier I found this movie too true for words... the grime, the filth, the misery of the common footslogger permeates the entire film. Eisenhower no less called it the finest portrayal of the Grunts life ever put to film. That's good enough a testament for me.

Worf

An absolute gem of a film.

 

[Zombie_61]

Well, you're right and you're wrong on this one. I've read some of Pyle's actual dispatches/columns from that time. I was stunned to find that many of the characters "Wingless" etc... were real. If they're fictional then he created them out of whole cloth with names, addresses, hometowns etc. Also many of the extras were REAL soldiers, some of whom were later, like Pyle, killed in the Pacific. As an ex-soldier I found this movie too true for words... the grime, the filth, the misery of the common footslogger permeates the entire film. Eisenhower no less called it the finest portrayal of the Grunts life ever put to film. That's good enough a testament for me.

Worf

Thank you for setting the story straight, good Sir! I never served, so I was going on what I'd read about the movie. Happy to hear it's more authentic than I'd read, because I really enjoy it.

 

[Worf]

Thank you for setting the story straight, good Sir! I never served, so I was going on what I'd read about the movie. Happy to hear it's more authentic than I'd read, because I really enjoy it.

No problems this is a place where we converse and learn and laugh and rib each other. One last note... William Wellman, the director of this film, was asked to direct and refused at first. He'd flown in WWI and hated the infantry. Finally he was convinced to helm the film by meeting Pyle. Pyle died without ever seeing it. Wellman who's directed many a fine film said that it's filming was so life changing and traumatic that he NEVER watched it after completion... until the day he died.

Worf

 

[Worf]

"The Banana Splits Movie" - Errrr I was out of my "Saturday Morning Cartoon" phase when this Sid and Marty Croftt (?) "creation" graced the small screen. Supposedly a kiddie version of "The Monkees" (as if that show wasn't stupid enough) four guys in oversized animal suits performed bad pratfall humor between bad Hanna Barbara shorts. Silly and stupid yet harmless, you watched the adventures of Fleagle (dog), Bingo (ape), Drooper (lion) and Snork the elephant (who never spoke just honked) as they yucked it up around town. The show ran on NBC from '68 to '70 and in syndication from '71 to '82.

As many things from the '60's often do, the show developed a following, some of it obviously sick and twisted. Flash forward to 2019 and voila we get 'The Banana Splits Movie". In this alternate take, the show was never cancelled and was still being produced to this day. Unlike the original, the humans inside the suits were replaced by walking, talking animatronic robots. The robots creator, with an obvious Frankenstein complex, decides to do a software update right before finding out that heartless studio execs have axed the show. The last words to his creations are "The Show MUST Go On!!!". The film, harmless to this point, then takes a left turn in to "Slasher Town" as the Splits then proceed to... terminate with EXTREME prejudice, every adult they can get their homicidal mitts on. The kills are graphic and gory and no body parts are spared. The film is told through a young boys eyes whose mum scores him tickets to the show because he's the Splits biggest fan. The first time we see him he's dressed up in a Snork costume. I won't give anymore away as you might want to watch this if you've time and brain cells to kill.

If like me you remember the show you might find this a hoot. If you're new to it, check the show out on Youtube then watch the movie. One word of warning though, the Original Theme for the show... the "Tra La La Song" is one of the most insidious ear worms I've ever encountered... I'm still humming the damn thing. Don't say you weren't warned.

Worf

 

[Touchofevil]

Thanks for saving me 2 hours of life I can't get back... I gather you felt the film was "weak"?

Worf

Pretty much entirely so.