What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

Malamud's book isn't nearly as good as the film, sartorial and baseball circa 1930s depiction, but supposedly based on a Chicago White Sox player who was shot inside a hotel
by a woman whom then leapt out a window. The man spent years away from baseball to return to the game in his thirties.

I really enjoy the movie - for its period feel and stylized approached - but the story was always its week point. The movie built up tension, drama and expectations - why had Redford's character quit the game for so long, what was his true relationship to the dead woman, what were all the machinations going on just behind the public veil about - that were never either resolved or at least explained to a point that you feel your emotional investment was worth it. As noted, I love the movie, but alway feel a bit cheated by the story itself.

 

[Harp]

I really enjoy the movie - for its period feel and stylized approached - but the story was always its week point. The movie built up tension, drama and expectations - why had Redford's character quit the game for so long, what was his true relationship to the dead woman, what were all the machinations going on just behind the public veil about -....

And they say Fitzgerald is difficult to translate for film... Malamud's baseball tale is a square peg but the film's focus for me was the game itself, especially the hand carved bat.
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I believe Redford's The Natural and The Great Gatsby are fairly decent "literary" films.

 

[Fading Fast]

And they say Fitzgerald is difficult to translate for film... Malamud's baseball tale is a square peg but the film's focus for me was the game itself, especially the hand carved bat.
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I believe Redford's The Natural and The Great Gatsby are fairly decent "literary" films.

Agreed on both. Redford's "TGG" felt true to the story and feel of the novel, the newer version felt forced and over the top to me.

And great note on the bat in "The Natural," it was wonderfully done.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

' Independence Day:Resurgence.'..............I liked the first I.D. but this is just crap. Bad acting, bad storyline ( badly using concepts from other sci-fi films), very bad CGI, uninteresting characters, it's just a hurried, pointless mess.

 

[Benzadmiral]

The Other Box, (1966) Not sure why I missed this one? It has Dialing For Dollars written all over it! Back in the 70s, I usually got off my construction job in time to watch, then off to night school, oh to have that kind of stamina again. Spoiler alert, I think this must have been the only time in history where the chase scene consisted of two horse drawn hearses!

I was going to pop up with "Based on a short story by Poe," but I see I had it wrong. The Oblong Box from 1969, with Vincent Price and Christopher Lee, is based on a Poe story. (I've read someplace that it's actually a kind of black comedy; not sure how well the comedy part worked.) Wrong Box was apparently suggested by a Robert Louis Stevenson novel.

 

[Benzadmiral]

^^^ I make fun of his formula movies because, well, they deserve to be made fun of - but I gladly admit, I watched a bunch of them back in their day and some were mildly entertaining. As to Cruise, he is far from a bad actor, but does have some, IMHO, over-acting issues. I did enjoy him in "The Last Samurai - and thought he held his over-acting in check. And he does have that X-factor that somehow makes someone a presence on the screen / a "star" (different from a great actor).

I haven't seen all of the 2004 film Collateral where he plays a hitman who takes over Jamie Foxx's cab to use it while making his murderous rounds (and that sounds like a comic sketch on SNL), but I thought Cruise was quite scary and effective. And he doesn't play "Tom Cruise -- Movie Star" in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, either. Originally I rented that to watch Nicole Kidman. But she's not on screen that much . . . and the story gripped me so much I forgot about her.

Still, I am very glad he dropped out of playing Napoleon Solo in the new Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Still, I am very glad he dropped out of playing Napoleon Solo in the new Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie.

Henry Cavill nailed it / he - like the entire movie - walked a perfect tightrope of tongue-in-cheek vs. seriousness while not becoming slapstick or silly.

 

[AmateisGal]

' Independence Day:Resurgence.'..............I liked the first I.D. but this is just crap. Bad acting, bad storyline ( badly using concepts from other sci-fi films), very bad CGI, uninteresting characters, it's just a hurried, pointless mess.

Heard it was bad from one of my good friends, so if I see this, it will be as a DVD rental where I only pay $1.50!

 

[Brettafett]

I just watched The Thousand Plane Raid for the first time, actually enjoyed it. Not unlike 12 O'cock High, but in colour. Fantastic A-2 jackets.

 

[AmateisGal]

Tommy Boy. Daughter and I needed something funny and this always fits the bill. Love this movie.

 

[Touchofevil]

Point Blank on TCM

 

[Worf]

Point Blank on TCM

Same here. I'd only seen bits and pieces over the years but finally got to see it beginning to end. Pretty ground breaking style wise and VERY 60's in motif. The ending surprised me. Left me wanting to see what Walker did afterwards.... That film could've used a sequel.

Worf

 

[Denton]

Point Blank is one of my favorite movies and Lee Marvin is one of my favorite actors. Sometimes he seems to be stone and sometimes he seems to be meat but he's definitely not an ordinary human being. I love the tension between his tough guy style and the joyful lyricism of the edits.

If you are looking for a sequel, Donald Westlake (writing as Richard Stark) wrote numerous Parker novels. Point Blank is based on The Hunter, although its interpretation of the main character is different enough that Westlake had them change the name to Walker. The book that continues the story of The Hunter is called The Outfit.

It would be interesting to see someone try to make a movie of The Hunter that was more in line with the author's conception. But it's hard to imagine someone making a better movie than Point Blank.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

...And he could sing ....

 

[AmateisGal]

The Truman Show. Painful and fascinating to watch - painful because you feel horrible for the main character; fascinating to see how he comes to terms with his reality.

 

[Stearmen]

...And he could sing ....

Well, it was a number one hit for three weeks in the UK!

 

[Fading Fast]

The Truman Show. Painful and fascinating to watch - painful because you feel horrible for the main character; fascinating to see how he comes to terms with his reality.

That and "The Majestic" (a wonderful movie with a vintage vibe) are two of the movies I point to when arguing that Jim Carrey can act, when he wants to (which isn't always, even when he is in a movie).

 

[Doctor Strange]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Man on the Moon are also on that Jim Carrey-actually-CAN-act list. Also his early TV movie Doing Time On Maple Drive, where he memorably played a closeted gay man.

 

[Fading Fast]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Man on the Moon are also on that Jim Carrey-actually-CAN-act list. Also his early TV movie Doing Time On Maple Drive, where he memorably played a closeted gay man.

Haven't seen any of those, but "Eternal..." has been on my want-to-watch list.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

"We Still Kill The Old Way' (2014).....Entertaining little flick about a band of elderly Ex-gangsters in London,taking revenge on a gang of louts after they killed the lead gangster's brother. Nothing new & full of clichés but it ticks along nicely with light hearted banter (even when the old codgers are torturing some youths ) & plenty of gratuitous violence......Just what the doctor ordered.