What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Zombie_61]

...Isn't that the car chase where the Mustang loses five (count 'em!) hubcaps, or am I thinking of something else?...

You're probably thinking of the Dodge Charger in the same chase sequence, which seems to lose a hubcap almost every time they cut to it. The Mustang had alloy wheels, not hubcaps.

 

[MisterCairo]

Finally got around to watching Black Mass last night. Entertaining enough once I got past the makeup on Johnny Depp.

That's funny, we just watched that recently. Quite well done we thought...

 

[PeterGunnLives]

Do you deliberately avoid shows that don't fit within the 'vintage' period?

Nah, they're just not my priority. I can go on for weeks only watching older TV shows and movies, especially after I've binge-watched something new and there's no other contemporary stuff that interests me at the moment.

 

[Touchofevil]

That's funny, we just watched that recently. Quite well done we thought...

A nice supporting cast too.

 

[Touchofevil]

Eagles of Death Metal
Documentary about the band and the terrorist attack at the Bataclan in Paris in 2015.

 

[2jakes]

The Wizard of Oz. (1939)

I enjoyed it as a kid.
Recently watched it again and realized it's the ultimate chick flick.

Two women trying to kill each other over shoes.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Wizard of Oz. (1939)...
Recently watched it again and realized it's the ultimate chick flick.

Two women trying to kill each other over shoes.

That's really funny

 

[Levallois]

John Wick 2 - if you liked the first movie in 2014 or if you just like non-stop action with a certain style then this is a must see. There is a lot of violence - body count is higher but no dogs die (reference the first John Wick).

 

[Fading Fast]

"Sweet Smell of Success"

• First time I've seen it in +/- 20 years and I've just revised it up in my mind from a "very good movie" to a "great one."
  • There are no bad scenes, no boring moments
  • Lancaster and Curtis play excruciatingly horrible, immoral, despicable people but in completely different ways
    • They literally and figuratively whore-out the people that love them, that care for them like they are nothing more than chess pieces to be moved around on a board
  • The heroes of the movie - the young lovers and, maybe, Curtis' secretary - are so beaten down by their dystopian world that they are more like refugees from war, wandering around with no homes to go to, than heroes - they survive almost without hope

• It could be the quintessential "New York City of the '50s" movie
  • The location shots are time-travel heaven from the diner interiors to the iconic streetscapes
    • Some of that world still existed when I started coming to NYC in the '70s and this movie beautifully captures all of its details
    • I've been in two of the restaurants in the movie and seeing how they looked in the '50s is incredible
    • And it captured NYC right before the full-on decayed on the late '60s - '80s took hold: you can feel the seams tearing, the facade of civility breaking, but it hadn't fully snapped yet

• The dialogue is the New York street-argot speed talk of the time on steroids (no one can think and speak that quickly every second)
  • Regular conversation has pauses, miscues, rewinds, etc., not the machine-gun-fire dialogue here - but the over-the-top conversation fits the pedal-to-the-metal style of the movie perfectly
  • And every line is an incoming shell trying to do the most damage possible / collateral damage - in this case, people's lives and reputations - is not given a moments thought
  • Irony and cynicism is so expected that sincerity is simply mistaken as one or the other

• And step back from its New Yorkiness and from its roman a clef of Walter Winchell and you have a Greek tragedy
  • A brother creepily close to being incestuously in love with his much younger sister
  • The same brother uses his surrogate son (Curtis) to destroy his sister's fiancee so as to keep the sister for himself
  • That surrogate son loves and hates his surrogate father with fury equal to Oedipus
  • In the end, they are all wreckage as the God's of hubris mete out punishment for almost all

 

[2jakes]

"Sweet Smell of Success"

• First time I've seen it in +/- 20 years and I've just revised it up in my mind from a "very good movie" to a "great one."
  • There are no bad scenes, no boring moments
  • Lancaster and Curtis play excruciatingly horrible, immoral, despicable people but in completely different ways
    • They literally and figuratively whore-out the people that love them, that care for them like they are nothing more than chess pieces to be moved around on a board
  • The heroes of the movie - the young lovers and, maybe, Curtis' secretary - are so beaten down by their dystopian world that they are more like refugees from war, wandering around with no homes to go to, than heroes - they survive almost without hope

• It could be the quintessential "New York City of the '50s" movie
  • The location shots are time-travel heaven from the diner interiors to the iconic streetscapes
    • Some of that world still existed when I started coming to NYC in the '70s and this movie beautifully captures all of its details
    • I've been in two of the restaurants in the movie and seeing how they looked in the '50s is incredible
    • And it captured NYC right before the full-on decayed on the late '60s - '80s took hold: you can feel the seams tearing, the facade of civility breaking, but it hadn't fully snapped yet

• The dialogue is the New York street-argot speed talk of the time on steroids (no one can think and speak that quickly every second)
  • Regular conversation has pauses, miscues, rewinds, etc., not the machine-gun-fire dialogue here - but the over-the-top conversation fits the petal-to-the-metal style of the movie perfectly
  • And every line is an incoming shell trying to do the most damage possible / collateral damage - in this case, people's lives and reputations - is not given a moments thought
  • Irony and cynicism is so expected that sincerity is simply mistaken as one or the other

• And step back from its New Yorkiness and from its roman a clef of Walter Winchell and you have a Greek tragedy
  • A brother creepily close to being incestuously in love with his much younger sister
  • The same brother uses his surrogate son (Curtis) to destroy his sister's fiancee so as to keep the sister for himself
  • That surrogate son loves and hates his surrogate father with fury equal to Oedipus
  • In the end, they are all wreckage as the God's of hubris mete out punishment for almost all

Thanks....no really.... I mean it....now I don't have to watch it.

 

[Fading Fast]

Thanks....no really.... I mean it....now I don't have to watch it.

I'm still chuckling over your "Wizard of Oz" line - you knocked it out of the park with that one.

I hope I didn't spoil the movie, "Sweet Smell of Success," for you - I tend not to put spoiler-alerts warnings in old movies as I assume people have seen them (I do note them for newer releases). That said, If I did, my sincere apologies. Also, I think you will still enjoy the movie as the plot is less important than the characters and atmosphere. In fact, I think it is better the second time you see it.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

I have the Criterion blu-ray of "Sweet Smell of Success." Now I'm going to have to rewatch it soon.

 

[Fading Fast]

I have the Criterion blu-ray of "Sweet Smell of Success." Now I'm going to have to rewatch it soon.

As you can tell, I was blown away by it and, like you, I've seen it before (but a long time ago). I'm excited to hear your thoughts after you re-watch it.

 

[Edward]

Was this released already??? I am so curious about it. Please give a review after you've seen it!

We saw it (T2: Trainspotting) last night; it's been out in the UK a week or two. As with most things, we usually wait about ten days til it's quieter. That, and we try to go to the cinema on a Monday or Wednesday, as those are half-price nights at our local indy.

This sequel is loosely based on Irvine Welsh's novel Porno, written as a sequel to Trainspotting and set twenty years later. (Whereas the original book is very much set in the early-mid eighties, made even clearer by the prequel, Skag Boys, and Porno is set ten years on from that). It also draws on Skagboys in some parts. The whole thing is just utterly beautiful, as oddly and perhaps inappropriately life-affirming as the original. It's very much a meditation on middle-age, men looking back at what they've done with their lives and worrying about what they've done. Also male friendships is a significant theme. It's an emotional film, but genuinely so - never manipulative or saccharine, or cloying. This is no Spielberg piece. The editing is beautiful, with some lovely use of clips from the first film. Edinburgh itself is a real star here, the film having been shot there (despite being set in Edinburgh, aside from the famous opening sequence, shot on Princess Street, Trainspotting was predominantly shot in Glasgow). The whole thing 'feels' real, and there's a wonderful sense of closure to the ending each character is given. Even Begbie has a sympathetic moment. As did the original, T2 uses music beautifully, both remixes/alternate versions of some of the key tracks in the original (most notably, Iggy Pop's Lust for Life - and that lovely moment in the middle of the film where it is referenced by a single opening beat), and other pieces in the spirit of the original. (A Blondie tune - Dreaming - turns up here, by Blondie themselves this time, as distinct from Sleeper's cover of Atomic in the original). There's even a beautiful updating of the Choose Life speech, inserted into the dialogue quite naturally, as biting and fresh as the original in its day.

I came out of the cinema thinking of the comment I made the other day re Stand By Me. When I watched Trainspotting in the cinema in 1996, I was myself just a year or two younger than the characters. They were my peers, and I responded to their energy. On this return to their world, I'm a middle-aged many myself, looking back on it all; just like Mark Renton himself - in the words of Sick Boy - I am "a tourist in [my] own youth." I'll be fascinated to hear what my undergraduates make of it; they're the age now that I was when I saw the original. I wodner if they'll ever be able to fully appreciate itg the way I do - or will this be their Stand by me experience - seeing it one way now, only to appreciate it on a whole new level in twenty years' time.

We're thinking of going to see it in the cinema again while it's still on. I'll be buying the BluRay, and I've already looked into the soundtrack (on vinyl, of course). Every bit as good as the original. If Oscars meant anything, this would walk away with them all next year.

You're probably thinking of the Dodge Charger in the same chase sequence, which seems to lose a hubcap almost every time they cut to it. The Mustang had alloy wheels, not hubcaps.

That's the one! It was a detail that always tickled me.

Nah, they're just not my priority. I can go on for weeks only watching older TV shows and movies, especially after I've binge-watched something new and there's no other contemporary stuff that interests me at the moment.

Fair enough! I've known a couple of folks over the years who purposely wouldn't watch or listen to anything after a certain year. I always found it odd to eschew something one enjoys just because it doesn't fit with the period from which one chooses one's wardrobe. Living in the early 21st century allows us the luxury to pick and choose the bits we like from the past. The access to older TV/ films now is fantastic - and you're right, there's a lot of great stuff out there to find.

John Wick 2 - if you liked the first movie in 2014 or if you just like non-stop action with a certain style then this is a must see. There is a lot of violence - body count is higher but no dogs die (reference the first John Wick).

I'd never heard of the first one - not sure if I missed it in the cinema or it went straight to video - until I was on a plane to Chnia a year or two ago, and it popped up on Air China's movie selection (they only overhaul it every three months or so and I tend to fly with them three or four times between May and June, so I tend to see pretty much every English-language film they offer...). I thought it was fantastic. Not a million miles away in tone and concept from Wanted, though I felt John Wick was a superior film.

 

[2jakes]

I'm still chuckling over your "Wizard of Oz" line - you knocked it out of the park with that one.

I had some reservations that I might get slapped by that adorable lady from Maine.

I hope I didn't spoil the movie, "Sweet Smell of Success," for you - I tend not to put spoiler-alerts warnings in old movies as I assume people have seen them (I do note them for newer releases). That said, If I did, my sincere apologies. Also, I think you will still enjoy the movie as the plot is less important than the characters and atmosphere. In fact, I think it is better the second time you see it.

Oh no...you didn't spoil it at all!
It takes a lot more than internet texting to get me upset.

I find it amusing how at times some folks get really fanatic about issues and everyone
has a strong point to make. And no one is ever convinced or agrees on the issues.
But that's what I find interesting.
I'm speaking of other forums....of course!

 

[Fading Fast]

I had some reservations that I might get slapped by that adorable lady from Maine.
...

My guess, she'll appreciate the humor because it's funny and not supposed to be taken seriously. But, heck, no one ever has to guess - she'll let us know.

I'll go one further. I'm only here because my grandmother was able to save our small family business that her husband left in debt when he died during the depression. She was a very successful and respected small business owner in her community. I grew up without any silly notions about what women are able to do in business and life.

Additionally, while I'm not a big shoe guy, I can geek out a little in the attire section of Fedora - so I don't think shoe / clothing fanatics are all women. But I still think your joke is funny because it does play to a trope with some truth behind it - many women are very passionate about their shoes - and it reduces a complex plot of a famous movie down to a one liner - that's good humor.

Only people whose sensitivity meter is set too high - who are looking to be offended - would take the joke any other way - it's silly, it's funny, that's it, laugh and move on. Well done 2jakes.

 

[Feraud]

Thanks for the review Edward. I'm bumping this to the top of our "To See" list..

 

[2jakes]

My guess, she'll appreciate the humor because it's funny and not supposed to be taken seriously. But, heck, no one ever has to guess - she'll let us know.

I'll go one further. I'm only here because my grandmother was able to save our small family business that her husband left in debt when he died during the depression. She was a very successful and respected small business owner in her community. I grew up without any silly notions about what women are able to do in business and life.

Additionally, while I'm not a big shoe guy, I can geek out a little in the attire section of Fedora - so I don't think shoe / clothing fanatics are all women. But I still think your joke is funny because it does play to a trope with some truth behind it - many women are very passionate about their shoes - and it reduces an complex plot of a famous movie down to a one liner - that's good humor.

Only people whose sensitivity meter is set too high - who are looking to be offended - would take the joke any other way - it's silly, it's funny, that's it, laugh and move on. Well done 2jakes.

With regards to women & passion for shoes.
If you have a chance, watch the movie
"Divorce Italian Style" (1962).
Where in essence, men recalled every
occasion that happened in their lives by
what shoes they were wearing at the time.

 

[Touchofevil]

Loving
Concerned with the U.S. Supreme Court civil rights case
Loving vs. Virginia (Virginia's prohibition of interracial marriage).
Really nice cast.
Good story.
We felt it was missing something, but not actually sure what.
Maybe more of the legal/court process.
Worth a watch.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

As you can tell, I was blown away by it and, like you, I've seen it before (but a long time ago). I'm excited to hear your thoughts after you re-watch it.

I just finished watching It, and I'm still "digesting" everything. Wow, it's pretty intense. Hunsecker is one nasty fellow. He definitely deserves it when his sister leaves. I'll post more thoughts later. I love seeing the dark side of the old days.