What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[V.C. Brunswick]

"Godzilla" - C-Minus - Loving the Japanese original (sans Raymond Burr) mere words cannot express my utter and complete disappointment in this latest iteration of the "King of the Monsters". The producers took two lamentable trends in current movies superheros and "man saves his family against all odds while the chite hits the fan for everyone else" and grafted them together to produce a wholly distasteful mish mash. They turn Godzilla into a superhero in a forced clumsy fashion while the "man saves family" backstory is as uninteresting as it is unnecessary. Basterds... they got me again!

Worf

I saw it in 3D with D-Box seating. The 3D glasses were rubbish. I could hardly see a thing with them because they were so scratched up from constant use that I had to take the glasses off half the time to watch the movie. As for the D-Box seats, I did get a good massage.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Planet Of the Dinosaurs from 1977.
The Rifftrax version of course, without them there is no way I could watch this film!

 

[Fading Fast]

Watched "Trouble Along the Way," with John Wayne, Charles Coburn and Donna Reed. Somewhat like a combination of a poor man's "Going My Way" and "Angles and the Outfield."

To summarize, John Wayne plays a divorced dad with an eight-ish year old daughter. He is a good father but a professional bookie. Donna Reed is the social worker who wants the child to go back with her mother (who is a gold digger who only wants the child back to hurt Wayne). And Coburn is the Father of a poor religious college that the Church is going to shut down if it can't close its deficit. Coburn offers Wayne the job of running the football program (Wayne had been a successful coach but was thrown out of college football for unexplained ethical lapses) in hopes of making the program profitable so that he can keep the school open.

You can all probably guess the rest (but I won't spoil it if you don't). The fun of this movie is seeing Wayne in a bit of a different role for him - which he does well - and Coburn in a role he wears like a shoe. Reed plays the social worker as two dimensional to the point that her transformation isn't believable. That said, for a fluffy old movie where religion is treated respectfully - it's a fun diversion.

 

[Miss Golightly]

The Wolf of Wall Street

 

[1mach1]

Her

 

[Black Dahlia]

Taps (1981)
x
BD

 

[Wally_Hood]

Saturday night, Monuments Men.

 

[Touchofevil]

The Young Lions on TCM?

 

[Worf]

The Young Lions on TCM?

A VERY uneven film if you ask me. I'm not sure which actor used more unecessary affectations... Clift or Brando. That fake German lipse Brando uses throughout was like chalk on a blackboard. And Clift's performance, particularly when first walking his love home was equally bizarre or do people normally tell almost total strangers that they love them a lot these days. Still its alright as WWII pics go.

Worf

 

[1mach1]

Monuments Men on tap for tonight.

 

[Kitty Kahlo]

A Brief Encounter It was a TV movie starring Sophia Loren and Richard Burton. It looked good on paper but I didn't really feel any chemistry between the two main characters. It's definitely something you would find on Lifetime today.

 

[Touchofevil]

A VERY uneven film if you ask me. I'm not sure which actor used more unecessary affectations... Clift or Brando. That fake German lipse Brando uses throughout was like chalk on a blackboard. And Clift's performance, particularly when first walking his love home was equally bizarre or do people normally tell almost total strangers that they love them a lot these days. Still its alright as WWII pics go.

Worf

"Alright" is what I would rate as well. Despite the big name cast there was nothing special about the movie. It may have been the directing, the writing, or the actors themselves, but I expected more and got less.

 

[Fading Fast]

A Brief Encounter It was a TV movie starring Sophia Loren and Richard Burton. It looked good on paper but I didn't really feel any chemistry between the two main characters. It's definitely something you would find on Lifetime today.

Kitty, if you can, try to find a copy of the original "Brief Encounter" (TCM plays it from time to time and it is available in DVD - not streaming - from Netflix) from 1945 staring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard and directed by David Lean - it is, IMHO, a quiet classic. Top actors, not stars, but actors bring understated emotion and simmering passion to this elegant and, at times, painful story. Lean directs it with a great balance where you understand the affair but also understand why it is wrong.

I will warn that, for me, it took a second and third watching to fully appreciate this movie as so much is said in glances and body English that I needed the extra viewings to fully appreciate it. I haven't seen the remake you saw, but can't image those two stars capturing the simple elegance of the original.

"Brief Encounter," along with "Separate Tables" are two of my favorite examples of how movies can be great and small at the same time - no special effects, no bombastic story telling, no over-acting - just true-to-life stories capturing timeless human emotions and dilemmas. Also, the black and white cinematography in both is beautiful - clean, clear, and perfect for the mood of the movies.

 

[Matt Crunk]

Last night I finally watched MUSCLE SHOALS, the documentary about the music recording business in the unlikely small southern town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama and it's far reaching and long lasting impact on popular music both in the US and abroad. Both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones covered Muscle Shoals-originated hits early in their careers. The Stones even later recorded there themselves.

This was of special interest to me because Muscle Shoals happens to be my home town. I know many of the players featured in the film and have even played music with some of them.

The film is now available on Netflix Streaming and Youtube (pay), and I'm sure other outlets as well. I highly recommend it. Here's a trailer:

[video=youtube_share;FNGtfpim0OM]http://youtu.be/FNGtfpim0OM[/video]

 

[DNO]

Pride of the Yankees, my favourite baseball movie.

 

[cw3pa]

"Soldier in the Rain" (1963) with Jackie Gleason, Steve McQueen and Tuesday Weld. A good story about two NCOs, they're relationship and how they deal with life in the pre-Vietnam army. It looked like a lot of the scenes were shot at Ft. Ord, Calif.

 

[Kitty Kahlo]

Wonderful! I actually found the original on Youtube out of all places. Thanks for the suggestion, I had no idea it was a remake.

 

[Zombie_61]

Godzilla (2014). I liked it a lot, but I didn't love it--too much time spent on the set-up, and not enough Godzilla.

 

[Fading Fast]

Wonderful! I actually found the original on Youtube out of all places. Thanks for the suggestion, I had no idea it was a remake.

And did you get a chance to watch it / what did you think of it?

 

[Wally_Hood]

It took about five days, but we watched the extended director's cut of Gods and Generals.