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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
The Maltese Falcon with @EstherWeis

Haven't seen it in years, and she had never seen it. I always forget how enjoyable that film is to watch.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Love that Bogie lets Mary Astor hang at the end, she very much deserved to.

Several great scenes where it's clear Bogie and Greenstreet play the game at a much higher level than Cairo and Cook.

Bogie's secretary, Iva, is the woman you marry - smart, cute and kind, all the right boxes are checked.
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
"The Glenn Miller Story" staring James Stewart, June Allyson and Harry Morgan
  • Let's call it what it is, a Hallmark production before there was Hallmark - everything is nice and sweet and all problems are easily solved
  • But it doesn't matter because the music - basically a series of pre-video videos of Miller and his band performing most of his hits - is that good, that enjoyable, that fun
  • That's it, watch it for the music
 
Messages
15,259
Location
Arlington, Virginia
Love that Bogie lets Mary Astor hang at the end, she very much deserved to.

Several great scenes where it's clear Bogie and Greenstreet play the game at a much higher level than Cairo and Cook.

Bogie's secretary, Iva, is the woman you marry - smart, cute and kind, all the right boxes are checked.
A very simple yet perfect review.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T377A using Tapatalk
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,759
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
We're running "Goodbye Christopher Robin," a veddy veddy British period drama dealing with Winnie-the-Pooh author A. A. Milne and his relationship with his son, the real-life Christopher Robin. A real tear-jerker in spite of itself, with the kid playing little CR looking for all the world like an escapee from a Jackie Coogan lookalike contest in 1922. Kelly Macdonald is excellent, as she is in alll the roles she's ever played, as the put-upon nanny.

The main thing that bugged me, other than being faced with the unpleasant reality that dear A. A. Milne, foundation of many childhood memories, was kind of a dink in real life, and that his wife was even worse, is the egregiously out-of-period presence on the soundtrack of a Boswell Sisters tune from 1935 and an Al Bowlly record from 1939. Most people wouldn't notice, but I live with this music every day, and one thing it does not ever say to me is "English Country House in 1927." Good tunes both, but the thirties aren't the twenties -- it's like playing a Beach Boys record in a movie set in 1954.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,759
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
"The Glenn Miller Story" staring James Stewart, June Allyson and Harry Morgan
  • Let's call it what it is, a Hallmark production before there was Hallmark - everything is nice and sweet and all problems are easily solved
  • But it doesn't matter because the music - basically a series of pre-video videos of Miller and his band performing most of his hits - is that good, that enjoyable, that fun
  • That's it, watch it for the music

I have indelible memories of this picture mainly because it was the last movie my uncle ever saw, just six hours before he dropped dead. The movie didn't do it to him, but it could have -- he was pre-diabetic.

I think its main sin was trying to put over the idea that Glenn Miller was in any way anything like an idealistic Jimmy Stewart type. He was in reality a rather ruthless, highly commercial man with his eye always on the main chance -- and Stewart is exactly not the man to play that kind of a character. I think Ronald Reagan could have done a very good job with it, though -- see his performance in "Kings Row" for evidence as to why.

Of course, the fact is none of these postwar bandleader biopics were ever intended to be anything more than a nostalgia wallow for thirty-five-year-old swing fans. Any story values were purely incidental. Although Steve Allen did kind of fit the part of Benny Goodman.
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
We're running "Goodbye Christopher Robin," a veddy veddy British period drama dealing with Winnie-the-Pooh author A. A. Milne and his relationship with his son, the real-life Christopher Robin. A real tear-jerker in spite of itself, with the kid playing little CR looking for all the world like an escapee from a Jackie Coogan lookalike contest in 1922. Kelly Macdonald is excellent, as she is in alll the roles she's ever played, as the put-upon nanny.

The main thing that bugged me, other than being faced with the unpleasant reality that dear A. A. Milne, foundation of many childhood memories, was kind of a dink in real life, and that his wife was even worse, is the egregiously out-of-period presence on the soundtrack of a Boswell Sisters tune from 1935 and an Al Bowlly record from 1939. Most people wouldn't notice, but I live with this music every day, and one thing it does not ever say to me is "English Country House in 1927." Good tunes both, but the thirties aren't the twenties -- it's like playing a Beach Boys record in a movie set in 1954.

The music-not-aligning-to-the-period thing was one of the reasons I didn't like the relatively recent version of "The Great Gatsby."
 

ChiTownScion

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,247
Location
The Great Pacific Northwest
We're running "Goodbye Christopher Robin," a veddy veddy British period drama dealing with Winnie-the-Pooh author A. A. Milne and his relationship with his son, the real-life Christopher Robin. .....

The main thing that bugged me, other than being faced with the unpleasant reality that dear A. A. Milne, foundation of many childhood memories, was kind of a dink in real life, and that his wife was even worse, is the egregiously out-of-period presence on the soundtrack of a Boswell Sisters tune from 1935 and an Al Bowlly record from 1939. Most people wouldn't notice, but I live with this music every day, and one thing it does not ever say to me is "English Country House in 1927." Good tunes both, but the thirties aren't the twenties -- it's like playing a Beach Boys record in a movie set in 1954.


In that vein.. we saw, "The Man Who Invented Christmas" last night, an entertaining exercise in speculation as to what went through the mind of Charles Dickens in 1843 while writing A Christmas Carol. There's a scene when he's touring America in 1842, on a stage while the orchestra is thumping out George M. Cohan's "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" (The Yankee Doodle Boy) .. which wasn't written by Cohan until 1904. Hell, Cohan himself wasn't coughed into the cradle until 1878, by which time Dickens had been dead eight years.


Fun fact: both movies feature scenes at London's Garrick Club, of which both Dickens and Milne were members.
 

Bushman

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,138
Location
Joliet
I finally got around to watching Wonder Woman. OH MY GOODNESS, I LOVED IT!!!! It had feels, it had thrills, it was smash and bash awesome! Easily one of my favorite superhero movies I've ever seen.
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
"Personal Shopper" 2016 with Kristen Stewart
  • Stewart's 27 year old twin brother passed away three months ago from a congenital heart condition that Stewart also has and Stewart, a medium and personal shopper (hey, even mediums have to earn a living), spends the movie trying to communicate with her brother while dealing with a demanding client whose complicated life involves Stewart's character in a criminal investigation
  • If it sounds confusing and disjointed it is and for no good reason - the movie starts and finished muddled and aloof
  • Stewart - who did an outstanding job in Woody Allen's "Cafe Society -" can act, but needs to get out of these angst-for-angst-sakes movies and broaden her range and experiences
  • The gratuitous nudity (she has a wonderful body - not anorexic nor gym-rat hard) and masturbating felt forced, not artistic nor necessary to the story
  • And a note to the director - people don't go to movies to spend long periods of time reading text messages between the characters
  • For Fedora Lounge members, the house at the center of the movie is FL awesome - early 1900s (or earlier) with woodwork everywhere, moldings, mullioned doors and windows, turn-of-the-last century tile floors and more - very cool, but even the house is not enough to save this movie
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,252
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
Stewart can definitely act, see Adventureland, Clouds of Sils Maria, Still Alice, etc. She became a star from those stupid vampire films, but she's a better performer than that. I'm looking forward to seeing this one.

Kong: Skull Island on HBO. Better than I expected. Good dumb fun, and - to paraphrase I review I read when it came out - "John C. Reilly shines in the most John C. Reilly role ever".
 

scotrace

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
14,392
Location
Small Town Ohio, USA
Valerian and the Planet of a Thousand or whatever the hell it is. Terrible, terrible waste of time. As my GF said, "visually beautiful. Oops, forgot to add a story."

Then a re-watch of Hugo. A wonderful movie in every way.
 

AmateisGal

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,126
Location
Nebraska
I finally got around to watching Wonder Woman. OH MY GOODNESS, I LOVED IT!!!! It had feels, it had thrills, it was smash and bash awesome! Easily one of my favorite superhero movies I've ever seen.

DC really hit it out of the park with Wonder Woman. I was very, very impressed with it. In the long run, though, Marvel continues to outdo DC on just about every level. I haven't heard good things about Justice League which isn't surprising. Still, I'll watch it for Jason Momoa and Henry Cavill.
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
The last half hour of "Breakfast at Tiffany," if the movie was a drug, it might be time for an intervention as I have watched it way too many times recently.

My one observation from the last half hour - the movie is so stylish / so pre-psychedelic '60s NYC classic the you can watch it with the sound off and still enjoy it just for its visual beauty.
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
I finally got around to watching Wonder Woman. OH MY GOODNESS, I LOVED IT!!!! It had feels, it had thrills, it was smash and bash awesome! Easily one of my favorite superhero movies I've ever seen.

Agreed, outstanding movie. Next to the first two Nolan Batmans - my favorite superhero movie as well.

My only quibble with it is that the villain was initially much more interesting when he used his wits and some seemingly limited speed-of-movement skills to compete with WW versus later in the movie when he became a stock villain monster.
 

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