What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Frunobulax]

Went and saw "Meagan Leavey" yesterday. Good solid telling of a heartwarming story of 2 outcasts, a girl and her bomb sniffing dog. Neither was loved, nor respected until they come through the crucible of the Iraq War when it was at it's worst. Truth be told I've never seen (or probably don't remember) any of Kate Mara's other roles. But she's good in this though constantly upstaged by Rex her four legged co-star. Feel good story without veering completely into smaltz, I recommend it for more than just air-conditioning.

Worf

Mostly familiar with Mara from the first season of House of Cards. She seems an able enough actress, but didn't knock my socks off or anything.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Gentleman's Fate" - A pre-code early talky wherein a "Swell", told all his life that his parents were dead, finds out he's the younger brother of an Italian mob family making big bucks in bootlegging. Summoned by the family lawyer who raised him, John Gilbert finds out the hard truth of his real relations. He finds his father, holed up in a seedy hotel in Jersey, dying of a gunshot wound to the chest. Meanwhile his new found brother, played marvelously by broken nosed character actor Louis Wolheim (best known as Sargent Kat in "All Quiet on the Western Front) quickly gets Gilbert sent up the river to spare his father a death in jail. I started watching this and couldn't stop. Wolheim is a force of nature, his face, broken on the football fields of Cornell, is simply one of the most memorable in all of film.

Worf

Can't believe with all the pre-codes I've watched, I haven't seen this one - was it on TCM? I'll be keeping and eye out for it as it sounds outstanding.

 

[Fading Fast]

The HINDENBURG (1975) starring George C. Scott

Nazi Germany's prized airship is threatened with sabotage, so Col. Franz Ritter (George C. Scott) is charged with its safety. As the massive zeppelin lifts off for a journey to the United States, Ritter investigates the passengers, looking for a potential bomber.

View attachment 77179

I've seen it several times over the years and always want it to be better than it is. Seems to have all the ingredients for a great movie - a massive air ship with advanced but questionable technology, a small set of people "locked" into a closed world for a few days, nazi / pre-WWII intrigue, an incredible disaster - yet some how it was flat. It's maybe okay, but flat.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Preparing for our 35mm Film Festival this weekend by previewing an original 1954 IB Technicolor print of "A Star Is Born," the 154 minute edited general release version, straight from the Motion Picture Academy vault. It's acetate, so the projectors have to be adjusted to minimum tension, and -- well now, what's this? The Academy vault manager has mislabeled Reel 5 as Reel 6 and Reel 6 as Reel 5. Which is why the story stopped making sense at the fifth changeover. And that's why, when they ask "Do you really have to put in all these extra hours to 'test the films' the answer is 'Yes, I do.'"

 

[Fading Fast]

Preparing for our 35mm Film Festival this weekend by previewing an original 1954 IB Technicolor print of "A Star Is Born," the 154 minute edited general release version, straight from the Motion Picture Academy vault. It's acetate, so the projectors have to be adjusted to minimum tension, and -- well now, what's this? The Academy vault manager has mislabeled Reel 5 as Reel 6 and Reel 6 as Reel 5. Which is why the story stopped making sense at the fifth changeover. And that's why, when they ask "Do you really have to put in all these extra hours to 'test the films' the answer is 'Yes, I do.'"

Good for you. Any small amount of success I've had has come from always (always!) doing two things: working hard (putting in the time, doing the grunt stuff when necessary, checking stuff carefully, checking it again, not cutting corners, studying hard, preparing thoroughly and, then, preparing some more, etc.) and working smart (thinking the entire process through and approaching it the best way possible, looking for where problems might occur, identifying improvements - but checking and testing extensively before implementing any changes, etc.).

There are no short cuts that are sustainable as a long-term model. You can cut corners and occasionally get away with it in this or that instant, but if you do it with any regularity, it will catch up to you.

The only model for success I know is to work both hard and smart.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And never take for granted that the numbers on the leaders are accurate.

 

[MisterCairo]

Star Trek Beyond. Like the first two Abramsverse films, I hated it. But I must admit, this one somehow felt a little bit closer to "real" Trek to me. Still... it's undone by WAY too much bad-CGI action, one stupid plot contrivance and coincidence after another, another boring villain, terrible music, totally ignoring science and logic throughout, etc.

They lost me at the first scene of the first of the new films. "Alternate universe" or whatever nonsense it's called nowadays. Stick to the canon. Nothing was "improved".

 

[MisterCairo]

Still trapped at Garrison Petawawa (seriously, look it up, 170 klicks due west of nowhere...). Watched The Woman in Black (Daniel Radcliffe) again. Good creepy fun, and great period attire...

 

[MisterCairo]

Day twelve of thirteen in the Valley. Watched Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows on the laptop last night. Jolly good fun.

 

[Worf]

Can't believe with all the pre-codes I've watched, I haven't seen this one - was it on TCM? I'll be keeping and eye out for it as it sounds outstanding.

TCM and only TCM...

Worf

 

[LizzieMaine]

Test-viewing the Academy's 35mm IB Tech print of "Cabaret," a picture I've never especially cared for in all its creepy forced decadence and itchy 70s-does-30s style. Besides, Harry Rose beats Joel Grey eight ways from Sonntag when it comes to a mincing stage MC.

But at least the reels are correctly numbered.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The HINDENBURG (1975) starring George C. Scott

Nazi Germany's prized airship is threatened with sabotage, so Col. Franz Ritter (George C. Scott) is charged with its safety. As the massive zeppelin lifts off for a journey to the United States, Ritter investigates the passengers, looking for a potential bomber.

View attachment 77179

Part of the movie filmed at the former MCAS Tustin, California, not too far from where I live. The blimp hangars was also used for such movies as Austin Powers.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Witness for the Prosecution (1957), directed by Billy Wilder, whose birthday it is today. I had watched it years and years ago, but still was surprised by the ending. Charles Laughton out-Laughtons himself here.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

...aaannnddd, Detour (1945) Tom Neal, Ann Savage, directed by Edgar Ulmer. Having watched this over the years, the question is, Are there any prints out there that are not blurry and fuzzy? Or was PRC so low-budget that this was the best they could offer? Still, for a picture that clocks in at about 67 minutes it delivers plenty of noir.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most of the PRC stuff that's circulating today comes from low-contrast 16mm prints made for television in the late '40s, when poverty row pictures were all you could get for Tee Vee. Surviving 35mm materials are few and far between.

 

[Stearmen]

The First Auto (1927) Age old story, older generation want's every thing to stay the same, younger ones want to change every thing. Still a nice movie, for nothing else but to see all the original horseless carriages, which were becoming rare even back then. Plus Barney Oldfield makes a cameo.

 

[Fading Fast]

Test-viewing the Academy's 35mm IB Tech print of "Cabaret," a picture I've never especially cared for in all its creepy forced decadence and itchy 70s-does-30s style. Besides, Harry Rose beats Joel Grey eight ways from Sonntag when it comes to a mincing stage MC.

But at least the reels are correctly numbered.

If my life goes according to plan, I will never see " Cabaret" again or anything Liza Minnelli is in.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Looks like I'm in the minority thinking Cabaret is a great film. Maybe 'cause I saw it theatrically back when it was new (at 17)... and in 1972 it was legitimately shocking and innovative in both form and content. Now, nobody takes special notice of bisexual protagonists, smash cuts from uptempo musical numbers to brutal Nazi violence, bizarrely stylized Fosse-esque choreography, or "divine decadence"... but it was seriously pushing the boundaries of what was expected of a "musical" then. (And I'm no fan of Liza generally, but I think she's okay in this role.)

Last night: Paterson, an odd little indie flick by Jim Jarmusch with Adam Driver as a bus driver in Paterson, NJ. Nothing much happens in it, it's just a week in the life of the character, who's also an aspiring poet, and the people in his circle. I liked it, and was excited to see that - despite being set in NJ - parts of it were shot in my old hometown, Yonkers.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The thing with Liza in "Cabaret" that bothers me most is the way in which the makeup they've got her in accentuates the chipmunk qualities of her face -- I don't know if that was a deliberate character choice or the makeup people just didn't like her, but I find it terribly distracting.

That Fosse-type "Yeah! Jazz hands!" kind of choreography was innovative enough at the time, but it actually feels more dated to me watching it today than the overstuffed kickline choruses you see in an early-talkie musical from 1929.

 

[Seb Lucas]

I think Cabaret remains a pretty good film and Bob Fosse was an astonishing talent. His editing and framing in his films is extraordinary - especially in All That Jazz and Star 80. He was really giving Scorsese a run for his money before he died. The exuberance and vitality of Fosse's work, even when dealing with self-destructive, pompous nihilists makes him a compelling story teller for me even after all these years.