What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Trenchfriend]

What a perfect generational thing. I believe you are in your 30s? I have nephews in their 20s who have said the exact same thing to me about some movie franchises.

Cmon, you know, that I'm 37. I mentioned my age here, multiple times.

But I still don't get that Bruce Willis thing.

 

[Doctor Strange]

New documentary, The Real Charlie Chaplin, on Showtime:

This is a good doc if - unlike me! - you haven't already read and seen nearly everything about Chaplin's life and career. There are no new revelations to reveal at this point, but it does a good job of telling Charlie's fascinating story. Recommended.

 

[Fading Fast]

Cmon, you know, that I'm 37. I mentioned my age here, multiple times.

But I still don't get that Bruce Willis thing.

I truly wasn't being snarky, I thought you were in your 30s as I know you're much younger than I, but wasn't sure how much. I'm 57 and never made it past the first "Die Hard" movie, but clearly many love them.

What is really generation is guys like you or my nephews who know some cultural touchpoints through gaming and not the movies where the story started. Kinda like sixty or more years ago when some kids probably discovered superheroes like Batman or Superman through TV shows and not the comics.

 

[Zombie_61]

Funny point, that I never saw one of the Die Hard movies...

If you're interested at all, watch the first one. Only watch Die Hard 2 (1990) and Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) if you like the first one. Don't bother with the last two. Ever. Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) are just more of the same and completely unnecessary.

 

[Fading Fast]

Compulsion from 1959 with Dean Stockwell, Bradford Dillman, E.G. Marshall and Orson Welles


Compulsion is one of several movies based upon the famous Leopold and Loeb murder case when, in 1924, two young men from "good" socially prominent Chicago families kidnapped and killed a fourteen year old boy to prove their intellectual superiority (or something incredibly stupid like that).

The crime became a national sensation, especially when star attorney and famed death-penalty opponent Clarence Darrow agreed to defend the boys. His defense resulted in a life-in-prison sentence for both.

While Loeb was murdered in prison, "life in prison," as so often happens, turned out not to be for life for Leopold who was released after thirty-three years. "Life in prison" are just words on pieces of paper, or fairy tales, as a future generation, as we see time and again, can change the sentence.

Judging the movie solely on its own version of the story, Compulsion is engaging and poignantly disheartening from its first frame to its last. The boys, played by Dean Stockwell and Bradford Dillman, are arrogant from beginning to end with only Stockwell showing the occasional crack of remorse, but only somewhat and only occasionally.

Books have been written on these young men's psychological makeup, but what we see in Compulsion are two college-aged boys who knew, without a doubt, what they were doing was wrong. Yet they did it anyway as they firmly believed they should be above the law because of their "superior intellect."

Set against that arrant arrogance are the mere mortals, the newspaper men and the police, who methodically follow the clues to the boys and match wits with these self-anointed Nietzsche "Supermen."

It is one of the men of "average" intellect, district attorney (and outstanding actor) E. G. Marshall, who outwits the geniuses. Even then, though, the boys seem more confused than humbled when they realize they didn't pull off "the perfect crime" and that a mere "cop" had caught them.

The movie then shifts into trial mode with the community, out for blood, braying for a good double public hanging to avenge the death of the innocent young victim. Into this firestorm walks Compulsion's fictionalized version of Clarence Darrow, Orson Welles.

Welles proceeds to take the movie away from everyone else as you watch even this staunch death-penalty opponent struggle to reconcile his intellectual views with both the heinous nature of the crime and the thoroughly despicable young men he is tasked to defend.

Whatever side of the death-penalty debate you fall, Welles gives a stunning performance as a man who, clearly, hates that his principals require him to fight to spare the lives of these two detestable young men. He makes his case with bile as he seems to be arguing with his own conscience as much as with opposing counsel.

The verdict in Compulsion, the same as in the real-world Leopold and Loeb trial, was life in prison. No one in that courtroom, that city or, probably, the country was satisfied as there is no way a courtroom can provide a satisfactory answer to the senseless murder, a murder for sport, of a young boy.

While Alfred Hitchcock's take on Leopold and Loeb, 1948's Rope (comments here: #28217), seems to get more attention, Compulsion is the better movie. Compared to Rope, Compulsion not only hewed closer to the real-life story, it fleshed out the story's two big themes - the moral legitimacy of "the Superman" and the justice of the death penalty for a particularly heinous and premeditated murder - more thoughtfully than Hitch's effort did.


A hat tip to @Doctor Strange for recommending this outstanding movie.

 

[Edward]

Watched four films this weekend. Netflix's Father Christmas is Back is a bit of brainless fluff. Almost nil plot to it, drastically underwritten, though there are a couple of nice turns in it. John Cleese and Kelsey Grammar squaring up to each other has its promise though could have been so much better. Liz Hurley giving it her best Joan Collins self-parody has more impact. The whole does rather feel a bit of a second-rate Nick Hornby; indeed, had they had the script gone over by whoever it was who turned Hornby's About A Boy into a screenplay, it could have had some real promise. One for watching with family with whom you'd rather not converse after Christmas dinner, and who are easily offended.

Scandal Sheet from 1952, starring Donna Reed, and with a supporting role for a young but instantly recognisable (cigar and all) Harry Morgan. It's the story of a reporter who discovers a crime the police aren't interested in accepting is a homicide; the actual murderer turns out to be the newspaper editor. Fine performances all round in a style very much of its time. Slow-paced, but always engaging. I enjoyed it very much.

Escape From Alcatraz - an absolute classic, Eastwood on top form, with a great supporting cast. Must have seen this one a dozen times, but it never gets old. I have an odd fondness for the aesthetic of US prison uniforms in this period (at least as portrayed on screen). Something very pleasing about the utilitarian workwear nature of them.

The Haunting of Alcatraz (2020). New, young guard at Alcatraz in the late 30s experiences supernatural disturbances after the unexplained death of a prisoner in D block. Poorly done: old hand guards, one unshaven and unkempt, one with a full beard and long, shaggy hair... the whole looks more costume party than period correct. They even have a female nurse among the five-strong cast (one of several female colleagues not seen on camera) - of course, no female staff were ever employed at Alcatraz. Overall poor, which is a shame as the various hauntings on The Rock could be a rich source of inspiration for something decent with a budget.

 

[Harp]

^Quite excellent reviews.

 

[Harp]

View attachment 387336
Compulsion from 1959 with Dean Stockwell, Bradford Dillman, E.G. Marshall and Orson Welles


Compulsion is one of several movies based upon the famous Leopold and Loeb murder case when, in 1924, two young men from "good" socially prominent Chicago families kidnapped and killed a fourteen year old boy to prove their intellectual superiority (or something incredibly stupid like that).

The crime became a national sensation, especially when star attorney and famed death-penalty opponent Clarence Darrow agreed to defend the boys. His defense resulted in a life-in-prison sentence for both.

While Loeb was murdered in prison, "life in prison," as so often happens, turned out not to be for life for Leopold who was released after thirty-three years. "Life in prison" are just words on pieces of paper, or fairy tales, as a future generation, as we see time and again, can change the sentence.

Judging the movie solely on its own version of the story, Compulsion is engaging and poignantly disheartening from its first frame to its last. The boys, played by Dean Stockwell and Bradford Dillman, are arrogant from beginning to end with only Stockwell showing the occasional crack of remorse, but only somewhat and only occasionally.

Books have been written on these young men's psychological makeup, but what we see in Compulsion are two college-aged boys who knew, without a doubt, what they were doing was wrong. Yet they did it anyway as they firmly believed they should be above the law because of their "superior intellect."

Set against that arrant arrogance are the mere mortals, the newspaper men and the police, who methodically follow the clues to the boys and match wits with these self-anointed Nietzsche "Supermen."

It is one of the men of "average" intellect, district attorney (and outstanding actor) E. G. Marshall, who outwits the geniuses. Even then, though, the boys seem more confused than humbled when they realize they didn't pull off "the perfect crime" and that a mere "cop" had caught them.

The movie then shifts into trial mode with the community, out for blood, braying for a good double public hanging to avenge the death of the innocent young victim. Into this firestorm walks Compulsion's fictionalized version of Clarence Darrow, Orson Welles.

Welles proceeds to take the movie away from everyone else as you watch even this staunch death-penalty opponent struggle to reconcile his intellectual views with both the heinous nature of the crime and the thoroughly despicable young men he is tasked to defend.

Whatever side of the death-penalty debate you fall, Welles gives a stunning performance as a man who, clearly, hates that his principals require him to fight to spare the lives of these two detestable young men. He makes his case with bile as he seems to be arguing with his own conscience as much as with opposing counsel.

The verdict in Compulsion, the same as in the real-world Leopold and Loeb trial, was life in prison. No one in that courtroom, that city or, probably, the country was satisfied as there is no way a courtroom can provide a satisfactory answer to the senseless murder, a murder for sport, of a young boy.

While Alfred Hitchcock's take on Leopold and Loeb, 1948's Rope (comments here: #28217), seems to get more attention, Compulsion is the better movie. Compared to Rope, Compulsion not only hewed closer to the real-life story, it fleshed out the story's two big themes - the moral legitimacy of "the Superman" and the justice of the death penalty for a particularly heinous and premeditated murder - more thoughtfully than Hitch's effort did.


A hat tip to @Doctor Strange for recommending this outstanding movie.

Justice takes many forms including a jackal seemingly burnished with time albeit constituent elements
mens rea requisite capital punishment become hideous laughter and a mockery made of judicial process.
Conversely, as seen recently in Montgomery aberrant behavior variable tipping equation toward leniency
while certainly not obviating guilt failed to evoke clemency and reduction; whereas as witnessed in
Woodward judgemente non obstente veredicto proclaims a perverse interference.
Justice blind and most mercurial.

Another fine review.

 

[belfastboy]

Watched "The Power of The Dog" Jane Campion's newest and has created a ton of buzz. Well count me in as unimpressed....more artifice than Art!

Performances were good but then I like Cumberbach's performances anyways.

What bugs me the most is reading the reviewers after watching. There is a theme that it is Campion's exploration of the effects of 'toxic masculinity'....and how Cumberbach's character exudes a hyper masculinity in each scene. So I am thinking......"Damn, they be watching a different movie than I". I am also asking why is it not an examination of the effects of a weak brother that is not willing to set healthy boundaries, weak women unable to cope,...OK I will stop here rather than give away a crucial part of the plot.

My last comment is that I viewed Cumberbach's character, rather than exuding a hypermasculinity in most scenes he portrayed a rather bitchy gay persona.......annoying rather than intimidating. I could not shake my thought that Mathew McConnaughey would have been a far better casting choice.

 

[EngProf]

Watched "The Power of The Dog" Jane Campion's newest and has created a ton of buzz. Well count me in as unimpressed....more artifice than Art!

Performances were good but then I like Cumberbach's performances anyways.

What bugs me the most is reading the reviewers after watching. There is a theme that it is Campion's exploration of the effects of 'toxic masculinity'....and how Cumberbach's character exudes a hyper masculinity in each scene. So I am thinking......"Damn, they be watching a different movie than I". I am also asking why is it not an examination of the effects of a weak brother that is not willing to set healthy boundaries, weak women unable to cope,...OK I will stop here rather than give away a crucial part of the plot.

My last comment is that I viewed Cumberbach's character, rather than exuding a hypermasculinity in most scenes he portrayed a rather bitchy gay persona.......annoying rather than intimidating. I could not shake my thought that Mathew McConnaughey would have been a far better casting choice.

Well put, and I agree with your comments.
I think that in Montana in the early 1900's the jerk brother would have sooner or later encountered someone (or more than one someone) who would have knocked him cold for some of the things he said and did.
"Hypermasculinity" and "toxic masculinity" are just modern buzzwords for being a jerk, and eventually jerks get their comeuppance, one way or another.
(In another movie - "A Christmas Story" - Ralphie eventually gets fed up with Scut Farkas' jerk nature and, against the odds, gives him the beating that he deserves. Back in the fifth grade I saw this exact thing happen in real life.)
The jerks/rats may not change their internal nature but they do learn to keep their mouths shut and their hands to themselves.
A general movie comment is that I didn't have any liking or affinity for any of the characters: People I didn't like, doing things that I didn't care about, and taking a looong time to do them.

 

[belfastboy]

Well put, and I agree with your comments.
I think that in Montana in the early 1900's the jerk brother would have sooner or later encountered someone (or more than one someone) who would have knocked him cold for some of the things he said and did.
"Hypermasculinity" and "toxic masculinity" are just modern buzzwords for being a jerk, and eventually jerks get their comeuppance, one way or another.
(In another movie - "A Christmas Story" - Ralphie eventually gets fed up with Scut Farkas' jerk nature and, against the odds, gives him the beating that he deserves. Back in the fifth grade I saw this exact thing happen in real life.)
The jerks/rats may not change their internal nature but they do learn to keep their mouths shut and their hands to themselves.
A general movie comment is that I didn't have any liking or affinity for any of the characters: People I didn't like, doing things that I didn't care about, and taking a looong time to do them.

Yes, my wife and I love movies. Our definition of a good/great movie is; were we drawn into the character's lives? Did we care about them or at least did we dislike them enough to see their comeuppance? Campion's movies are much more about mood than character...Art as artifice posing as story. Much like "Humans".....a great idea terribly executed.....a loooong movie about folks we cared little for...before, after or during the movie. I was thinking the Lead hand from the TV series Yellowstone....now there is a dude I would call hypermasculine. When he walked into a room I would be intimidated because if he were a jerk there would be nothing I could do about it or at least intimidated into not attempting for fear of the repercussions. Cumberbach's character I would have no problem slapping some sense into him if he crossed the line.

 

[MisterCairo]

Okay then, if Die Hard is a Christmas movie could I use a replica of this shirt in an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" contest?

YES!

And you should copyright that right now before I do, because that is GENIOUS!

 

[MisterCairo]

Cairo Cavalcade of Christmas continues with Home Alone.

Do we love this movie?

Does this answer that question -

Over 3,900 pieces. Not quite half finished.

 

[MisterCairo]

 

[MisterCairo]

Cmon, you know, that I'm 37. I mentioned my age here, multiple times.

But I still don't get that Bruce Willis thing.

Watch the first one, you will not need to watch any more, though I do like the second one as well.

Also a Christmas film...

 

[MisterCairo]

 

[Edward]

Watch the first one, youvwill nit need to watch any more, though I do like the second one as well.

Also a Christmas film...

I've encountered this debate before now. I tend to not consider it such because Christmas is wholly incidental to the plot. Interestingly, when I looked into it a while back, I recall reading it was originally released in cinemas in July. Not sure why / how that came about, but it does suggest it wasn't a Christmas film by intent originally, though it has of course since become one. Of course, it's all subjective: I instinctively associate The Great Escape with Boxing Day as it seemed, back in the eighties, to be on on Boxing Day every year. And every year we watched it, but it was years before I got the full story, as the side of the family that visited that day back then talked all over it, then demanded the channel was changed for Coronation Street.... and talked all over that too. I only finally saw it all unhindered in the 90s....

 

[MisterCairo]

Cairo Cavalcade of Christmas continues with Home Alone.

Do we love this movie?

Does this answer that question -

Over 3,900 pieces. Not quite half finished.


View attachment 387477

Should have mentioned, this is an earlier photo, much more has been done to the ground floor interior and the front walls, which are hinged to open up to view the interior.

 

[MisterCairo]

I've encountered this debate before now. I tend to not consider it such because Christmas is wholly incidental to the plot. Interestingly, when I looked into it a while back, I recall reading it was originally released in cinemas in July. Not sure why / how that came about, but it does suggest it wasn't a Christmas film by intent originally, though it has of course since become one. Of course, it's all subjective: I instinctively associate The Great Escape with Boxing Day as it seemed, back in the eighties, to be on on Boxing Day every year. And every year we watched it, but it was years before I got the full story, as the side of the family that visited that day back then talked all over it, then demanded the channel was changed for Coronation Street.... and talked all over that too. I only finally saw it all unhindered in the 90s....

You may, just may, be taking the whole is it or is it not a Christmas film, too seriously!

Both films were released in July, 1988 and 1990 respectively.

Whatever the intent, the audience decides, and given my 30th anniversary edition came wrapped, in a decorative tin, and with commemorative Christmas cards, I would say WE have made it a Christmas film, therefore it is one!

Guess I take this seriously too!


*** Plus season 3 of Brooklyn Nine-Nine has a Christmas episode, with Jake's dream come true - a real life Die Hard situation.

In a department store vice Nakatomi Tower, and Canadian criminals vice German ones...

 

[Harp]

^Wizard of Oz is the Thanksgiving film in my clan.
We catch the game; eat the Bird; and watch Wizard of Oz.

A Home Aloner I am most definitely not.
I will vociferously argue against Kevin & krew whenever heresey rears its ugly head.

A Christmas Carol either Sim or Scott dealer's choice is my preferred Christmas ticket.

Fading Fast did a movie review of Detour, a noir classic featuring luscious Ann Savage and it got
me thinking. Had Ms Savage been cast as the Wicked Witch in Oz she would have driven all the munchkin
boys crazy and Oz would be the greatest chicken choker kid flick ever, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
A helluva classic real choker.