What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[LocktownDog]

Monarch Of The Moon.
Filmed as a b&w serial. Campy and fun.

 

[Miss Golightly]

The Woman in the Window

 

[angeljenny]

I watched Calamity Jane on TCM this morning. Such a fun film! Love Howard Keel and he looks very dashing in his hat.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Extravagance (1930).

Every character in this movie was unlikeable. You love to hate them all.

I had to gasp when June Collyer yelled at her husband "NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS!" People didn't talk like that back then. lol

 

[davidraphael]

Synecdoche, New York. Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut.
Woody Allen meets David Lynch....

[video=youtube;XIizh6nYnTU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIizh6nYnTU[/video]

 

[AmateisGal]

Movie marathon at my house! Megamind on Friday night with the family, then daughter and I went to see Gnomeo and Juliet at the theatre. Loved both of them. Lots of fun.

Last night, I watched The Clock with Robert Walker and Judy Garland, then Von Ryan's Express with Frank Sinatra.

Now I just popped in They Were Expendable with John Wayne.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

Went last night with my two teenagers to the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, CA and saw The Story of Alexander Graham Bell with Alexander's Ragtime Band. Two weeks ago we saw Heaven Can Wait with Down Argentine Way there. Then before that, my daughter and I saw The Cat People with I Walked with a Zombie. Great fun seeing these all on the big screen!!

At my SO's house, we've been watching Big Country starring Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston, in bits and pieces over a few days.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

Mike1939, haven't been to the Castro yet. You ever get to the Stanford Theatre?

 

[LordBest]

Went to see A Kings Speech again, took my sister who seized the opportunity and dressed vintage in public for the first time.

Then watched 'From the Tropics to the Snow', a satire of the Australian tourism films, produced in 1962. Has some splendid footage of Melbourne before it was mutilated by modernist architects and property developers.

 

[Lily Powers]

Saw a Chinatown and L.A. Confidential double feature at the Castro Theater yesterday. I'd seen both these films many times, but never on the big screen. You really can't beat the movie palace experience, it was well worth braving the wet city streets.

There is indeed something amazing about seeing films on the big screen, the way they were meant to be viewed, and the Castro is a magnificent movie palace in which to enjoy that. I'm 75-miles south of the Castro and frequent the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, which is dedicated to classic films. It's well worth the drive over a windy Hwy 17 to see these movies in a theatre with an audience of like-minded fans.

 

[Lincsong]

The Stanford Theater is great. The only thing is trying to find a listing of their films online.

 

[Black Dahlia]

Something Wild (1986)
X
BD

 

[Edward]

Watched a couple of films this weekend... Firstly, there was the 2001 remake of Roger Corman's Teenage Caveman. Remake in the very loosest sense - doesn't seem to share more than a title. I fell asleep halfway through and missed the end, which bothered me (no matter how bad a film, unless it's just downright offensive, I prefer to see it to the end). It was no surprise to discover this was made for television, as it lacks any semblance of character development or decent plot. It makes Mad Max look like Citizen Kane. Heck, it makes the Mad Max sequels look like Citizen Kane. On further sniffing around, it turns out it was directed by Larry Kids Clark.... so hardly a surprise that it mostly seems to comprise late teens taking drugs and having sex. Somewhat reminiscent of a much less coy Skins. To be avoided.

Also watched Natural Born Killers, which I do enjoy. Probably not to the taste of many in these parts, however. I would love to have seen it had Tarrantino stayed on the project (the story is his, but he walked out in the end over Oliver Stone being too heavy handed with the moralising for QT's liking. It certainly is somewhat unsubtle when it comes to hammering home the point about how it is the news media which glamourises violence).

Yesterday, I chanced across two 1940s period set films. One, that glorious piece of early 80s WW2 kitsch, Escape to Victory. It is, essentially, the WW2 film Tarrantino would have made had he grown up ten years older, English and very middle class. A bunch of hilarious kitsch. I especially love the notion of Pele being able to escape 'in disguise', as the only black guy in Occupied France (or so it appears in the film!). All the fun of the Sixties WW2 classics without the truly awful haircuts, or the occasional xenophobia.

Extravagance (1930).

Every character in this movie was unlikeable. You love to hate them all.

I had to gasp when June Collyer yelled at her husband "NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS!" People didn't talk like that back then. lol

Well, you have to remember that swears were only invented in 1963 - just like sexual intercourse and the Beatles.

I finally saw Inglorius Basterds on a library DVD.

I didn't hate it as much as I have all previous Tarantino films, but I'm not convinced that its comic-book recasting of WWII as deconstructed movie cliches serves much of a purpose. It did have a fascinating villain and a typically interesting Brad Pitt performance, though the whole Jewish-heroine-getting-revenge-for-her-family thing didn't work for me: Paul Verhoven's Black Book (another film I didn't much like) did that trope far better.

Not bad as a silly fantasy on WWII themes, but I'm sorry: I obviously still don't get Tarantino's alleged brilliance.

Different folks will have differing views on QT.... much like any director, I suppose. I'm not a fan of Spielberg, myself. This is a good one, though, to look into for Lounge folks who want to get a bit of a handle on at least hat it is QT does (whether you like it or not). His 'thing' has always been homage / pastiche of genre cinema, and with Inglorious Basterds he took on the WW2 exploitation genre. I enjoyed it very much, myself. I am, of course, already a fan of his work, but I think this is one of his best pieces. I especially enjoyed the ending - I adored that he had the front to portray events in a way that was such a radical departure from actual history. The ultimate send-up of a genre of cinema that has, perhaps, played faster and looser with the facts than most any other (except, perhaps, the Western).

 

[Berlin]

My bloody valentine.

 

[Mike1939]

Mike1939, haven't been to the Castro yet. You ever get to the Stanford Theatre?

I haven't made it to the Standford yet, but have been procrastinating about going for a couple years now. It's about time I made the scene.

 

[Mike1939]

The Stanford Theater is great. The only thing is trying to find a listing of their films online.

http://www.stanfordtheatre.org/stf/

 

[Lily Powers]

The Stanford Theater is great. The only thing is trying to find a listing of their films online.

Mike1939 posted a link to the Stanford so you can see their program schedule. You can also get on their mailing list to receive the program by mail. It's got a nice rundown of each film. The only downside is that my mailed program arrives about 10-days after the start of the program change, so I always check online to get the most recent programming. $7.00 for a double feature, medium popcorn and a small drink: $2.50. Can't beat it.

 

[Annichen]

The wizard of oz. For the first time!
The singing drives me loopy, sorry to say I really didn´t like it very much.

 

[Widebrim]

Recently saw Crossfire (1947) a Film Noir which was the first movie to deal with anti-Semitism. Very well photographed, with close to superb lighting. SPOILER FOLLOWS!--Robert Ryan was powerful in the role of the bigot ex-serviceman who kills a Jew while in a drunken stupor. It was also good to see Robert Young in a low-key role that was none-the-less very different from his Father Knows Best typecast. I think that the film would have been better, though, if Mitchum has played the part of the GI accused of the killing, especially if the role had been beefed up. As it was, while he had plenty of dialogue, his character really had nothing to do with the actual setting up and trapping of Ryan at the end. The opening scene, which actually shows the murder, was very well executed with low-angles camera shots, as well as shadows cast upon a wall. Director Dmytryk said in an interview that the low-lighting was the result of budget constraints. It was also clever not to show Ryan's face in the murder scene, so that as the film progresses, the audience is "allowed" to figure out who the culprit is, just before his identitiy is revealed about half-way through.

 

[Land-O-LakesGal]

I was a bit under the weather today I watched Bye Bye Birdie and The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer only because I was exploring the new amazon instant movie feature free if you have the prime membership.