What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Touchofevil]

The only Moore-era Bond movies I can watch these days are Live and Let Die and The Man With the Golden Gun, and the second mostly for Christopher Lee. I never found Moore believable in the scenes in which Bond had to be the "tough guy" because...well, let me put it this way--if I think I can take him in a fight, he's no James Bond. That being said, in all fairness to Mr. Moore I had the same problem with Pierce Brosnan.

My Mom could have taken Moore all the while making dinner at the same time. Dad made breakfast.

 

[MisterCairo]

Starting some Hallowe'en them things, so we saw Betelgeuse with the girls last night. Alec Baldwin is unrecognizable! Geena Davis is as lovely as ever, and my heart still pings for Winona Ryder...

 

[Bigger Don]

Frankenstein (1931) with Boris Karloff.

1. Lots of different hat styles. I would love to see the ward robe designers notes on those.
2. I forgot how great BK was in this movie. No words, but he certainly communicates with his face and body.

 

[Stearmen]

Since I was forced to watch, How To Train Your Dragon last year, I figured, I mine as well watch part II. Citizen Kane it ain't, but, not the worst movie I have ever watched by a long shot!

 

[Stearmen]

The world took a dump in the late sixties which putrified in to the seventies and there you go.

That pretty much describes the entire Bond franchise! After Thunderball, it has been a fast ride down hill with the car brake lines cut!

 

[Zombie_61]

Frankenstein (1931) with Boris Karloff.

1. Lots of different hat styles. I would love to see the ward robe designers notes on those.
2. I forgot how great BK was in this movie. No words, but he certainly communicates with his face and body.

Karloff's performance in Frankenstein, and to some degree in Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein, makes you realize Dr. Frankenstein's creation is the real victim. In my opinion he's the only actor to have ever played the role in a way that could make you feel sympathy for the "creature" (as Karloff referred to the character) even if it was only for a brief moment.

 

[Bigger Don]

Karloff's performance in Frankenstein, and to some degree in Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein, makes you realize Dr. Frankenstein's creation is the real victim. In my opinion he's the only actor to have ever played the role in a way that could make you feel sympathy for the "creature" (as Karloff referred to the character) even if it was only for a brief moment.

For me, any sympathy dies with the drowning of the little girl. While some claim it was accidental, watching the movie shows it was a deliberate, unprovoked action as might be expected of one who is a murderer...and that gets us back to the brain.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Child 44" is set in Russia in the mid '50s and follows the life of a former rising star of the military police as he is demoted because he wouldn't falsely accuse his wife of espionage and ends up, in his newly reduced status, tracking down a serial killer and antagonizing the state - once again - as (and this tells you so much about dictatorships) "there are no murderers in paradise."

Had a good modern film noir feel, the acting was strong, but the story had more than the usual number of plot holes - overall, worth the watch - think of it as a good cable movie.

It does remind you though how evil the USSR was and how dictatorships, because they can only justify their existence by maintaining a narrative of near perfection, become a paranoid police state driven by lies, coverups, corruption and, ultimate, murder and abject terror directed at its own people. The movie brings to life how real the fear was of a middle-of-the-night knock on the door in the USSR.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Leave Her To Heaven, a late-forties Technicolor melodrama with Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, etc. that I DVR'd from TCM. I didn't believe a second of it, but the cast and costumes/sets were sure good looking.

 

[Fading Fast]

Leave Her To Heaven, a late-forties Technicolor melodrama with Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, etc. that I DVR'd from TCM. I didn't believe a second of it, but the cast and costumes/sets were sure good looking.

Definitely a better looking movie than actual movie. I always want to like it more than I do. But visually beautiful with a good, rich, but not at all goofy or cartoonish, color.

 

[AmateisGal]

I pretty much don't watch the Moore ones anymore, but will watch that one (Britt Ekland looks ridiculously good) and "The Spy Who Loved Me" if they're on.

I *refuse* to watch any Bond movies with Roger Moore. It is a matter of principle.

I can't see him as Bond no matter how hard I try. He's a prep school dandy, IMO, and not Bond at all. That's just my opinion, though.

 

[AmateisGal]

I watched Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur earlier; now I'm watching Desperate Journey with Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan.

 

[Touchofevil]

"Child 44" is set in Russia in the mid '50s and follows the life of a former rising star of the military police as he is demoted because he wouldn't falsely accuse his wife of espionage and ends up, in his newly reduced status, tracking down a serial killer and antagonizing the state - once again - as (and this tells you so much about dictatorships) "there are no murderers in paradise."

Had a good modern film noir feel, the acting was strong, but the story had more than the usual number of plot holes - overall, worth the watch - think of it as a good cable movie.

It does remind you though how evil the USSR was and how dictatorships, because they can only justify their existence by maintaining a narrative of near perfection, become a paranoid police state driven by lies, coverups, corruption and, ultimate, murder and abject terror directed at its own people. The movie brings to life how real the fear was of a middle-of-the-night knock on the door in the USSR.

As usual, Tom Hardy shined brightly. Overall a good cast as well.

 

[Touchofevil]

I *refuse* to watch any Bond movies with Roger Moore. It is a matter of principle.

I can't see him as Bond no matter how hard I try. He's a prep school dandy, IMO, and not Bond at all. That's just my opinion, though.

I can agree with the dandy remark after watching him run and during any other action scene this weekend.

 

[AmateisGal]

Now watching Errol Flyinn in Edge of Darkness, about Norwegian townspeople that overcome the Nazis horde who took over their community! Great fun.

 

[Bigger Don]

Just finished The Ipcress File for about the 6th time. Typical cold war drama in that you'll get lost if you get distracted posting on line.

 

[Zombie_61]

For me, any sympathy dies with the drowning of the little girl. While some claim it was accidental, watching the movie shows it was a deliberate, unprovoked action as might be expected of one who is a murderer...and that gets us back to the brain.

I believe that really depends on whether you watch the original American version of the movie or the restored version, and how you interpret what you see.

For anyone who doesn't know, in the original version as filmed (now referred to as the "restored" version) there is a scene in which the "Monster" has escaped and is wandering through the wilderness, where he encounters "Little Maria" playing by the side of a lake. She sees him, approaches him unafraid, takes his hand, and leads him to the lakeside where she shows him the wildflowers growing nearby will float if you toss them into the lake. She hands him a couple of flowers, and he mimics her actions by tossing the flowers into the lake one by one, smiling when he sees they float just like hers. When he realizes he's run out of flowers, he picks up Little Maria and tosses her into the lake. When she disappears below the surface, the Monster steps into the lake and begins pawing at the water trying to find her. When he can't find her he walks out of the lake confused, then goes back into the woods still confused and visibly distraught.

Unfortunately, the censors objected to the violent end of Little Maria, so Universal edited the American version of the movie so that the scene ends with the Monster reaching for Little Maria, leaving the audience to assume he tossed her into the lake. In a subsequent scene Little Maria's father is seen carrying her wet and lifeless body through the center of the village, and it's very noticeable that her stockings have somehow been pulled down to some degree. This scene verifies that she drowned but, more importantly, without seeing what actually happened it implies the Monster molested her as well, which to me is far more offensive than the way the scene originally played out.

It's also important to remember that the Monster at this point has the mental development of an abused child. He is born/re-animated, almost immediately chained to a wall in a dark dungeon where he's abused by Dr. Frankenstein's hunchbacked assistant Fritz, and when he's finally taken out of the dungeon he's rejected by his "father" and, moments later, assaulted simply because he reacted in fear to the fire on Fritz' torch. He seems to understand when spoken to, but otherwise shows no signs that his brain has retained any of the memories from it's previous life. Yes, he kills Fritz and Dr. Waldman before he escapes the castle, but that was in response to their violence towards him. Little Maria is the first person he meets who responds to him with kindness instead of brutality, so his act of throwing her into the lake isn't malicious--it's an act of ignorance because he doesn't know better. This doesn't excuse him from being responsible for her death, but it does explain his actions. He didn't intend to kill Little Maria, he simply thought she would float like the flowers did.

As for his brain, the responsibility for that rests on Dr. Frankenstein. He sends his somewhat incompetent assistant Fritz to steal the brain from the University, and fails to notice (before putting it into the Monster's skull) that the brain Fritz returned with is clearly labeled "abnormal".

And, yes, perhaps I have put too much thought into this. But Frankenstein is my favorite "classic horror" movie and I long ago lost count of the number of times I've seen it, so I've had plenty of time to think these thoughts.

 

[1mach1]

X-Men: Apocalypse

 

[Fading Fast]

I *refuse* to watch any Bond movies with Roger Moore. It is a matter of principle.

I can't see him as Bond no matter how hard I try. He's a prep school dandy, IMO, and not Bond at all. That's just my opinion, though.

He was better in "The Saint" TV series because the Saint was supposed to - I think - be from the posh set. When you watch those, you see that Moore really didn't alter his character for Bond, he's plays both roles the same way.

 

[Fading Fast]

I can agree with the dandy remark after watching him run and during any other action scene this weekend.

By the last few Moore Bond movies, I expected him to bend over, rest on his knees and start panting anytime he ran hard for more than a city block.