What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[MisterCairo]

Captain America: Civil War for movie night with the girls and our nephew.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Horns, wherein Daniel Radcliffe grows horns, attracts snakes, and acquires devilish powers while investigating the death of his girlfriend (Juno Temple), who everyone believes he murdered, even though there's no definitive evidence and he's released by the police... but blamed by everyone. This is not a good film - it doesn't make ANY sense - but it's got an interesting cast and it held my interest just because of how crazy it is.

Apparently, the story's based on a novel by Stephen King's son... and it feels like a King knockoff: a small-town Washington state setting that could just as easily be Maine, vaguely Biblical allusions and aspects, a host of dark secrets revealed beneath the veneer of ordinary folks, righteous death and destruction unleashed, nobody is totally innocent, awful childhood-bonding events carry on into adult relationships...

Not good, and not quite so-bad-it's-a-must-watch. But almost.

 

[Stearmen]

A Mater Of Life And Death, also known as Stairway To Heaven (1946)

 

[Doctor Strange]

Another Powell & Pressburger masterpiece. And - something I only RARELY say - one of my all-time favorite films!

Passengers. A not-bad SF flick with Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Sheen, and some seriously gorgeous production design.

 

[Fading Fast]

A Mater Of Life And Death, also known as Stairway To Heaven (1946)

Gets even better with subsequent viewing where its feel / its vibe is better able to more slowly wash over you.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Star Trek: Into the Darkness"

• Was feeling meh about it for the first hour or so in a "been there, done this" way

• Picked up as Cumberbatch's (outstanding actor) version of Khan took off

• Still not a fan of the alternative reality behind the new movies, but it was interesting to see a new take on the Khan story

• Too much basic action movie / CGI / save-mankind cookie-cutter-ness for my taste

• Chris Pine studied Shatner and hasn't let that slip - he nails one after another of Shatner's mannerism

• If I let the weight of all I want and expect of "Star Trek" go and just take these new movies for what they are - they're okay

My one request for the next one is to tone down the battle scenes so they don't look like a video game a steroids - tactic and strategy are more interesting than seven million pyrotechnics seemingly exploding at once. This is an example where the limits of technology helped the old TV show be more thoughtful as they didn't have the capabilities or budget to make an extravaganza, so the battles where better paced and more chess-like not 4th of July fireworks gone wild.

 

[Zombie_61]

"Star Trek: Into the Darkness"

• Was feeling meh about it for the first hour or so in a "been there, done this" way

• Picked up as Cumberbatch's (outstanding actor) version of Khan took off

• Still not a fan of the alternative reality behind the new movies, but it was interesting to see a new take on the Khan story

• Too much basic action movie / CGI / save-mankind cookie-cutter-ness for my taste

• Chris Pine studied Shatner and hasn't let that slip - he nails one after another of Shatner's mannerism

• If I let the weight of all I want and expect of "Star Trek" go and just take these new movies for what they are - they're okay

My one request for the next one is to tone down the battle scenes so they don't look like a video game a steroids - tactic and strategy are more interesting than seven million pyrotechnics seemingly exploding at once. This is an example where the limits of technology helped the old TV show be more thoughtful as they didn't have the capabilities or budget to make an extravaganza, so the battles where better paced and more chess-like not 4th of July fireworks gone wild.

"Come, come, Mr. Scott. Young minds, fresh ideas. Be tolerant!" - Admiral James T. Kirk, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

 

[Worf]

A Mater Of Life And Death, also known as Stairway To Heaven (1946)

Love that movie... enjoyed the "trial" especially... Good catch!

Worf

 

[Doctor Strange]

"Star Trek: Into the Darkness"

• Was feeling meh about it for the first hour or so in a "been there, done this" way

• Picked up as Cumberbatch's (outstanding actor) version of Khan took off

• Still not a fan of the alternative reality behind the new movies, but it was interesting to see a new take on the Khan story

• Too much basic action movie / CGI / save-mankind cookie-cutter-ness for my taste

• Chris Pine studied Shatner and hasn't let that slip - he nails one after another of Shatner's mannerism

• If I let the weight of all I want and expect of "Star Trek" go and just take these new movies for what they are - they're okay

My one request for the next one is to tone down the battle scenes so they don't look like a video game a steroids - tactic and strategy are more interesting than seven million pyrotechnics seemingly exploding at once. This is an example where the limits of technology helped the old TV show be more thoughtful as they didn't have the capabilities or budget to make an extravaganza, so the battles where better paced and more chess-like not 4th of July fireworks gone wild.

The third film is no better, it's still a CGI-vomit action movie masquerading as a Star Trek film. The only sense it which it seems a bit more like Trek is that it takes place in deep space (not fighting a terrorist on Earth, which is awfully non-Trek) and the actors are a bit more comfortable in their characters. But it's still way too dumbed-down for a proper Trek film, with endless exhausting video game-ish action.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The Neon Demon. Beautifully photographed incoherent garbage. Repellent.

 

[Fading Fast]

The third film is no better, it's still a CGI-vomit action movie masquerading as a Star Trek film. The only sense it which it seems a bit more like Trek is that it takes place in deep space (not fighting a terrorist on Earth, which is awfully non-Trek) and the actors are a bit more comfortable in their characters. But it's still way too dumbed-down for a proper Trek film, with endless exhausting video game-ish action.

Just to show how not excited I am about the "reboot" of the series, I didn't even realize they made third one - and your review is not encouraging me to check it out. I thought "Into the Darkness" was the most recent one - I am not and will never be cool or up on all this stuff.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Before the Fall" 2017

• A high school girl relives, again and again, a pivotal day in her and her friends' lives
• More thoughtful than most teen movies - and the parents were not written as idiots as they usually are
• Can't say much without spoiling it, but while, like most teen movie, it focuses on cliques, it delves deeper and avoids stereotypes (mainly)
• Could have been twenty or so minutes shorter
• Wouldn't seek it out, but if it pops up free on a streaming service, there are worse ways to spend an hour and a half

 

[Doctor Strange]

Just to show how not excited I am about the "reboot" of the series, I didn't even realize they made third one - and your review is not encouraging me to check it out. I thought "Into the Darkness" was the most recent one - I am not and will never be cool or up on all this stuff.

As a lifelong Trekker back to 9/8/66, I keep up with what's going on. But I HATE the rebooted film series, which remove everything essential to Trek and leave a thin veneer of same-named characters in stupid action films. It's Trek for people who never liked Trek, don't respect science, think people get made captains for being in the right place/time rather than working their way up and earning it, and just want popcorn movies that pay lip service to the Trek franchise.

I'm sure Gene Roddenberry would be turning over in his grave... if his ashes hadn't been shot into space!

 

[Formeruser012523]

"Star Trek: Into the Darkness"

• Was feeling meh about it for the first hour or so in a "been there, done this" way

• Picked up as Cumberbatch's (outstanding actor) version of Khan took off

• Still not a fan of the alternative reality behind the new movies, but it was interesting to see a new take on the Khan story

• Too much basic action movie / CGI / save-mankind cookie-cutter-ness for my taste

• Chris Pine studied Shatner and hasn't let that slip - he nails one after another of Shatner's mannerism

• If I let the weight of all I want and expect of "Star Trek" go and just take these new movies for what they are - they're okay

My one request for the next one is to tone down the battle scenes so they don't look like a video game a steroids - tactic and strategy are more interesting than seven million pyrotechnics seemingly exploding at once. This is an example where the limits of technology helped the old TV show be more thoughtful as they didn't have the capabilities or budget to make an extravaganza, so the battles where better paced and more chess-like not 4th of July fireworks gone wild.

As a lifelong Trekker back to 9/8/66, I keep up with what's going on. But I HATE the rebooted film series, which remove everything essential to Trek and leave a thin veneer of same-named characters in stupid action films. It's Trek for people who never liked Trek, don't respect science, think people get made captains for being in the right place/time rather than working their way up and earning it, and just want popcorn movies that pay lip service to the Trek franchise.

I'm sure Gene Roddenberry would be turning over in his grave... if his ashes hadn't been shot into space!

Star Trek: Beyond

Admittedly, I'm late to the game on this one, but I have to agree to disagree. I normally despise reboots. I grew up on Star Trek: The Next Generation, the subsequent films, TOS, those movies, DS9, Voyager, & that's about when I moved on. Saw that the reboot was on tv some years ago, didn't want to watch it, thought that it would be terrible ... So glad I was proven wrong. Everyone involved did their research. This has been introduced to a new generation & they'll go back & watch the originals & appreciate them more because of it. We may hate the CGI-fest in these type of movies now (I know I do), but that's what we have to expect these days. The kids love their video games, right?

 

[Benzadmiral]

As a lifelong Trekker back to 9/8/66, I keep up with what's going on. But I HATE the rebooted film series, which remove everything essential to Trek and leave a thin veneer of same-named characters in stupid action films. It's Trek for people who never liked Trek, don't respect science, think people get made captains for being in the right place/time rather than working their way up and earning it, and just want popcorn movies that pay lip service to the Trek franchise.

I'm sure Gene Roddenberry would be turning over in his grave... if his ashes hadn't been shot into space!

Yes. What the new film series is missing is that sense of "Let's see what's out there!" -- the feeling that the universe is not only stranger than we imagine (to quote the famous saying) but is stranger than we can imagine.

There are more awe-inspiring concepts and visuals in the ST: Animated premiere episode, "Beyond the Farthest Star," and better drama in its second episode, "Yesteryear," than there are in the new J.J. Abrams films.

Kirk (as Spock returns from the past on Vulcan, where he has saved his own 7-year-old self and witnessed the brave death of his pet sehlat): "I sent the others up to the ship. What happened?"
Spock: "One small thing was changed this time. A pet . . . died."
Kirk: "A pet? That wouldn't mean much in the course of Time."
Spock (at his most carefully expressionless): "It might . . . to some."

 

[Worf]

"Black Sheep" - This 2007 offering from New Zealand about monstrous mutated sheep (yeah I know) is pretty damn funny. Suspend disbelief and take some time to get used to the accent and you'll have a fun hour and a half. Yes there's your expected jokes about "animal husbandry" but you also get a lot of shots thrown at militant environmentalists and over zealous industrialists... Good fun all round.

Worf

 

[MisterCairo]

Took my girls and nephew to see Despicable Me: 3. Good fun, not as good as the first two, probably the weakest of the three, but fun.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We're showing "Beatriz at Dinner," with Salma Hayek and John Lithgow -- a picture I wanted very much to like, and which by all accounts I *ought* to like, in which a working-class Mexican woman ends up thru a series of circumstances having dinner with an egotistical billionaire obviously not based on any current political figure. But I found it hollow, because it was obviously written by somebody who doesn't actually know any working class people. Beatriz comes across the way a well-meaning but privileged Hollywood white guy imagines a Latina working-class woman should be, not the way she actually would be. Lithgow is good, but he's playing a cartoon character and knows it. And I still don't get the business with the goat.

It's not a *bad* movie, by any means, and it's worth the 83 minutes it takes to watch it. But I can't help wishing Clifford Odets could have risen from the grave to write it.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The latest film by Pedro Almodovar, Julieta. A well-made and effective melodrama (based on Alice Munro stories)... but minus the reversals, shocks, bold production design, and flamboyant characters that usually mark his best work. It's a worthwhile story, just don't expect the typical Almodovar craziness.

 

[Fading Fast]

View attachment 79135 (2004)
Sports/romance and a waste of 1H/40M.

It's a silly stupid movie, but I enjoyed it. I'm sure the fakeness of the tennis bothered someone with your deep knowledge of the game, but I liked the chemistry the two leads had and just enjoyed the movie for the fluffiness that it is.