What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Wally_Hood]

Last night, The Hunger Games. The Missus wanted to see it, so I watched along. Did not like it one bit. Twelve to eighteen year-olds killing each other; shaky camera gimmicks; heavy-handed visuals, such as dressing the district 12 population in pale blues and whites to contrast with the riotous colors of the capitol and making the buildings look like a Depression-era wooden shanty town. But, the book and movie were all the rage for while, so we checked it out.

 

[Doctor Strange]

You know, I sort of admired its veiled commentary on how professional sports is the bread and circuses of the modern world, keeping the populace fixated on the competition so they will ignore bigger societal issues. And some of the production design was interesting, some of the acting was okay...

But apart from that, I didn't care for it. I didn't feel an emotional connection to any of the characters or events - not a single one. Whatever it was about this film (and the underlying books, I suppose) that so strongly captured the imagination of the public, I didn't see it. It just didn't move me at all.

But of course, I'm a tough room!

 

[Widebrim]

SPOILERS-- The Breaking Point (Warner Bros., 1948, directed by Michael Curtiz), with John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxton, Wallace Ford (he is in everything!), and Juano Hernandez. It is based on Hemingway's To Have and Have Not, the title of the famous 1944 film version with Bogart and Bacall, and which was partially adapted for Key Largo (1948), again with Bogart and Bacall. This is a film which has not been as available as other Garfield movies, but finally has re-surfaced. It is much closer to the novel, than the '44 version, although the latter is an excellent film, largely due to the two leads. In this version, Garfield plays a WWII Navy vet who only knows how to do one thing well, and that is be a skipper. He desperately loves his plain, but faithful wife, and adores his two small girls, but is frustrated with his inability to provide for them adequately chartering his boat to tourists. He sort of gets involved with "good-time girl" Neal, and additionally, through the machinations of crooked attorney Ford, with transporting some illegal Chinese immigrants (resulting in Garfield killing a middle man who pulls a gun on him), as well as some gangsters who rob a race track and need someone's boat to help them escape. Caught in a moral dilemma, Garfield's character attempts to redeem himself by overpowering the gangsters and receiving the reward money, but it doesn't quite end like he planned. (The scene where Garfield's shipmate, Juano Hernandez, in a very smooth performance, gets gunned down by a gangster, is sudden and vicious enough to jolt one's nerves.) The second-to-last scene with Garfield and Thaxton, as the latter tries to convince her husband that his shot-up arm needs to be amputated or he will die, is a high point in both of their careers. (A shame that Garfield would be pass away in less than two years after the film's release, the victim of blacklisting.) And in an unusual ending motif, the last we see is a slow tracking shot of Hernandez' little boy, waiting at the docks for the father who will never come back...8 out of 10*s.

 

[MisterCairo]

Argo. Good. I don't know if it was Best Picture good, but I enjoyed it.

It certainly wasn't good from an historical viewpoint, but it was entertaining.

Mr. C.

 

[MisterCairo]

Un Chien Andalou, the 15 minute 1929 silent surrealist film by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali.
Uhmm,..all I can say is you MUST see it!
Warning. Contains scenes and imagery which may be offensive, and/or confusing to certain viewers.:confused2:

Is that the one with an "eyeball" scene?

 

[Touchofevil]

L.A. Confidential

 

[Widebrim]

^^That does get intense, to say the least. Love the L.A. locales...

 

[Touchofevil]

^^That does get intense, to say the least. Love the L.A. locales...

Always enjoy it each time I view it. It has so many great characters, references, and visuals. I was very disappointed when it lost out to The Titanic for "Best Picture" at The Academy Awards.

 

[Widebrim]

Always enjoy it each time I view it. It has so many great characters, references, and visuals. I was very disappointed when it lost out to The Titanic for "Best Picture" at The Academy Awards.

What do you think, though, of the opinion of some which states that the film is not neo-Noir, because it so consciously tries to be one?

 

[Touchofevil]

What do you think, though, of the opinion of some which states that the film is not neo-Noir, because it so consciously tries to be one?

Whether or not it consciously tries should have no bearing on it being a Neo-noir film. If it contains the elements required then it is a Neo-noir flick.

 

[Widebrim]

The semi-legendary Blonde Ice (1948, Martin Mooney Prod.), with Leslie Brooks, Robert Paige, James Griffith, and Russ Vincent (who later was married to Brooks for 50 years). The script, sets, and camera set-ups are nothing special, but news reporter Brooks' amorality (she kills her husband, fiancee, and blackmailer with no visible remorse) makes her a very close second to the most vicious femme fatale of all, Jean Gillie of Decoy fame. (In addition, have also just seen Griffith in Breaking Point, and am amazed at how much he resembles and acts like Zachary Scott.) If you want to see how far a "bad" girl can go, you need to see this one. SPOILER: And the ending contains one of the best final lines on film, when one of her former lovers looks down at her still-warm corpse and utters, "She wasn't even a good newspaper woman..." Classic.

 

[C44Antelope]

Electric Horseman. Hadn't seen it in a while. Story couldn't seem possible in today's world with heat signature reading satellite technology. For the record, not a Jane fan. Wish the flick had a different lead actress, maybe Erin Gray, she would have been a departure.

 

[ButteMT61]

Midnight showing of Evil Dead, 2013. Exactly what you'd expect if you are a fan of the genre. Saw a trailer for a remake of Carrie too. I'm a sucker for horror, be it good or bad or in between.

 

[MarkJohn]

 

[Wally_Hood]

You know, I sort of admired its veiled commentary on how professional sports is the bread and circuses of the modern world, keeping the populace fixated on the competition so they will ignore bigger societal issues. And some of the production design was interesting, some of the acting was okay...

But apart from that, I didn't care for it. I didn't feel an emotional connection to any of the characters or events - not a single one. Whatever it was about this film (and the underlying books, I suppose) that so strongly captured the imagination of the public, I didn't see it. It just didn't move me at all.



But of course, I'm a tough room!

Well put; dittos from me, Doc

 

[jamespowers]

Midnight showing of Evil Dead, 2013. Exactly what you'd expect if you are a fan of the genre. Saw a trailer for a remake of Carrie too. I'm a sucker for horror, be it good or bad or in between.

So Bruce Campbell had a role in it?

 

[ButteMT61]

So Bruce Campbell had a role in it?

A very short one... Things to come.

 

[MisterCairo]

How To Train Your Dragon, movie night with our girls. Very good animated film, we'll likely buy it for our collection. I never knew the vikings spoke with Scottish accents...

 

[Touchofevil]

A Miss Marple flick, Murder She Said, on TCM.

 

[jamespowers]

A very short one... Things to come.

Darn!