What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Bushman]

The Sting, from 1973. I love this movie. Not only is it set in Chicago in 1936 (and starts off in Joliet - which is just west of where I live), but it has a number of rather nice hats in it, too.

 

[Touchofevil]

Big Eyes. Only me and Lady ToE in the theatre. It was as if we had our own private showing. No cell phones, no talking, no feet upon the seats, it was nice.

 

[Doctor Strange]

My kids and I plan to see Big Eyes tomorrow.

Last night my daughter and I watched Vamps. A cute comedy about two vampire party girls (Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter) in NYC, written and directed by Amy Heckerling. It's a modest film and not everything in it works, but it's surprisingly sweet and good natured. And it has a good supporting cast: Downton's Dan Stevens, Sigourney Weaver, Malcolm McDowell (as Vlad Tepes!), Wallace Shawn (as Dr. Van Helsing), Richard Lewis, etc.

 

[JC Motors]

Jersey Boys. It was excellent

 

[Wally_Hood]

When the in-laws were here, re-watched Iron Man 3 and Thor. Sister-in-law, who is not crazy about comics and film tie-ins, really liked the Branagh directed adaption.

As an aside, I am really looking forward to the Dr. Strange movie with Benedict Cumberbatch. The comic was one of my favorites, with the amazing Ditko art

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Into the Woods

 

[Bushman]

Ride Along. This was actually extremely funny.

 

[dh66]

'The Island of Lost Souls' 1932 - Charles Laughton OWNS this role. Even Brando pales in comparison.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Big Eyes. A surprisingly straightforward film for Tim Burton. Excellent performances, great 50s/60s period detail, and only one flaw: the Walter Keane character is so obviously a duplicitous, manipulative, egomaniacal jerk from his first appearance that it's hard to buy that Margaret would go along with his lies from the start, and continue for so long. Amy Adams labors to portray Margaret's lack of self-esteem and trapped-housewife submission sympathetically, but it doesn't play very believably to modern eyes... Despite the fact that the story's apparently true!

 

[Bushman]

The Maltese Falcon. A classic!

 

[Touchofevil]

The Maltese Falcon on TCM because I just haven't seen it enough times already.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Maltese Falcon on TCM because I just haven't seen it enough times already.

I would bet you've seen it at least three times on TCM in the last twelve months based on your postings. In the last year or so, I read both the original novel and a prequel novel written recently called "Spade and Archer." Have you read either?

 

[Touchofevil]

I would bet you've seen it at least three times on TCM in the last twelve months based on your postings. In the last year or so, I read both the original novel and a prequel novel written recently called "Spade and Archer." Have you read either?

I have watched it at least three times this past year. I read the Maltese Falcon about twenty years ago. I purchased the prequel, but have yet to read it. How would you say "Spade and Archer" compares to "The Maltese Falcon?"

 

[Fading Fast]

I have watched it at least three times this past year. I read the Maltese Falcon about twenty years ago. I purchased the prequel, but have yet to read it. How would you say "Spade and Archer" compares to "The Maltese Falcon?"

It's okay. I enjoy that style of writing once a year or so - and the prequel is in Hammett's style. Not great, but not a bomb. Kind of fun to see the characters develop. If you are not a purist - i.e., what Hammett wrote is scripture not to be expanded upon by anyone - then enjoy it for what it is: a respectful fun book, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Touchofevil]

It's okay. I enjoy that style of writing once a year or so - and the prequel is in Hammett's style. Not great, but not a bomb. Kind of fun to see the characters develop. If you are not a purist - i.e., what Hammett wrote is scripture not to be expanded upon by anyone - then enjoy it for what it is: a respectful fun book, nothing more, nothing less.

Thank you. I might be somewhat of a purist, but I will give it a reading.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
There's nothing like watching Indiana Jones on a bumpy flight home.

 

[Edward]

Last night I finally saw the Luhrman run at The Great Gatsby. I managed to miss it in the cinema, then waited months for the DVD to come down in price. My expectations were low, as I find Luhrman generally irritating; I was gutted when I heard he would direct. That said, either he's proof of the monkeys/typrewriter/Shakespeare maxim, or he had someone on set who reigned in his self-indulgence. Probably both. I know folks here at the time it was released picked some holes in the costume and things like some of the cars. None of that detracted from my enjoyment of it (I'm no expert in the twenties so I'm sure I missed some of the subtler things). Of all the attempts to bring this one to the big screen, I felt this is the best. The one major plot change I might question was the exclusion of Tom and Daisy's daughter; I felt that she was an important factor in the novel as she presented such as concrete challenge to Gatsby's insistence that the past can be erased, his belief that they could forget that the preceeding five years had never happened, and just pick up as if it were 1917 again. I particularly liked the framing device employed in this version. The casting was very good overall - highlights for me being the portrayal of Meyer Wolfsheim and Tom Buchanan, while Maguire as Carraway and Dicaprio as Gatsby himself had long been my conscious 'dream cast' choices for those parts.

Interestingly, I didn't find the hip hop bits that were in there intrusive - they were certainly much less prominent than was suggested. The one bit of the score with which I really find fault was the idea of taking an Amy Winehouse song - a song by such a strong artist and singer- and instead having it performed by someone far beneath her level of talent, but I was barely aware of it in the film at all, so I can't say it actually mattered in the event.

 

[EmergencyIan]

Force of Evil (1948)

The Dark Corner (1946)

Both are, apparently, considered film noir classics. I enjoyed The Dark Corner the most out of the two movies, though I found both to be good.

- Ian

 

[Fading Fast]

"Heroes for Sale" a 1933 Loretta Young pre-code that was pretty good. Set in the early '20s, she lives in a kind of rooming house where she meets a former WWI soldier with (what today we would call) post traumatic stress disorder. To impress her, he gets his life together and becomes a successful salesman in a laundry company.

That's the simple plot, but playing on in the background and, later, foreground are capitalism vs. socialism / labor vs. management issues that are clearly in favor of the socialism-labor viewpoint. This made it a more complex movie than a lot of the movies of the time period and clearly reflected views being discussed in the depression.

Well worth the just-over-an-hour runtime.

 

[1mach1]

The Interview